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Blue Jays Claim Emmanuel Ramírez, Designate José Cuas

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The Blue Jays have claimed right-hander Emmanuel Ramírez off waivers from the Marlins, per announcements from both clubs. The Fish had designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Jays announced that Ramírez has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo and that fellow righty José Cuas has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Ramírez, 30, made his big league debut with the Marlins this season but pitched to a rough 6.97 ERA in 20 2/3 innings out of the Miami bullpen. He’s been considerably better with their Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville, recording a 3.76 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 40 2/3 frames. He posted similar numbers in a 2023 season split between the Yankees’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates.

Ramírez has averaged 93.9 mph on his four-seamer and paired that with a splitter and lesser-used slider to round out a three-pitch repertoire. He has a full slate of minor league options remaining, despite his age, so he could be a flexible depth arm for the Jays next season if they opt to keep him on the 40-man roster. For now, he’ll get an audition in the final three-plus weeks of regular-season play.

Cuas, also 30, was a waiver claim out of the Cubs organization earlier in the summer. He wound up pitching only three MLB innings with the Jays and allowing three runs. The rest of his time in the organization came in Triple-A Buffalo, where he was roughed up for a dozen runs in 15 2/3 innings of work.

From 2022-23, Cuas was a solid, if command-challenged reliever who notched a 3.84 ERA in 103 innings between the Royals and Cubs. Kansas City traded him to Chicago in a ’23 deadline swap that sent designated hitter/outfielder Nelson Velázquez back to the Royals. Cuas posted good results down the stretch with the Cubs despite a high walk rate, but the glut of free passes caught up to him this season. He’s walked at least 12% of his opponents in all three of his big league seasons and also plunked an alarming 3.2% of the batters he’s faced. In 17 1/3 innings this year, Cuas has a 7.71 ERA.

Cuas will now head to waivers, where all 29 other clubs will have the chance to claim him. He has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season and has demonstrated an ability to miss bats in bunches in spite of pedestrian velocity, thanks largely to a sweeper that generates huge whiff rates.

Daniel Castano Announces Retirement

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Left-handed pitcher Daniel Castano announced his retirement via a post on his personal Instagram account. “After 25 Baseball seasons, 9 years pro, 3 in college, 4 in HS, and 10 years of little league, I’m finally hanging up the cleats and for my more important career in life,” the post reads. “To be a loving Husband, father, friend, churchman and employee.” He goes on to thank the many people who helped him on his journey and mentions he will be pivoting to a role with Entrusted Contracting.

As Castano himself mentioned, his baseball journey had many stops. He pitched at Lake Travis High School in Austin, Texas, which then led him to Baylor University. He pitched three seasons for the Bears before the Cardinals selected him in the 19th round of the 2016 draft.

Just over a year later, Castano was flipped to the Marlins. Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcántara, Magneuris Sierra and Castano were sent to Miami in the December 2017 trade that sent Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis. Castano made it to the big leagues with the Fish in 2020, the first of four straight major league campaigns in which he appeared. He logged 88 2/3 frames over those four seasons, allowing 4.47 earned runs per nine. His 12.4% strikeout rate wasn’t especially strong but he limited walks to a 7.9% clip and kept 45.2% of balls in play on the ground.

The Marlins shuffled Castano on and off their roster in 2023 but he wasn’t holding a 40-man spot at the end of the season and became a free agent. In December, he landed a deal with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization. He made 19 starts for the Dinos this year, posting a 4.35 ERA in 111 2/3 innings. At the end of July, the Dinos signed Eric Jokisch and bumped off Castano, as a KBO team can only have two non-Korean pitchers on its roster.

Now it seems Castano has decided it’s time to move on from baseball and move towards, as he puts it, his “more important career in life.” We at MLBTR salute him on carving out a big league career and we wish him the best for the upcoming chapters of his life.

Marlins Claim Anthony Veneziano, Designate Three Players For Assignment

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The Marlins announced a huge batch of transactions today, including the previously reported claim of right-hander Lake Bachar. They also claimed left-hander Anthony Veneziano off waivers from the Royals. They also reinstated left-hander Josh Simpson from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville. To open 40-man roster spots for those three, they designated catcher Alí Sánchez, left-hander Kent Emanuel and right-hander Emmanuel Ramírez for assignment. Sánchez and Ramírez were on the active roster, so those two spots will be taken by infielder Xavier Edwards, who has been reinstated from the 10-day IL, and right-hander Anthony Maldonado, who has been recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville.

Veneziano was just designated for assignment on September 1, which happened to be his 27th birthday. He has a minimal big league track record, having tossed 2 1/3 innings with the Royals last year and another two innings this year.

The Marlins are likely interested in his pre-2024 track record, as it hasn’t been the lefty’s best season. He has tossed 90 innings at the Triple-A level this year with a 4.80 earned run average, 19.3% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate. But in 2023, he had a 3.55 ERA in his 132 minor league innings, striking out 23% of batters faced while limiting walks to an 8.7% clip.

Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Royals’ system coming into 2024. The results haven’t been as impressive this year but it’s understandable that the Marlins would still have hope of getting him back on track. He will still have two option years remaining after the current campaign, so they can get a close-up look at him in the minors and see if there’s a path towards better results in the long term.

Sánchez, 27, was added to the club’s roster in June and got into 31 games for the Fish. Unfortunately, he hit just .167/.211/.190 in his 96 plate appearances. He has generally performed well at the Triple-A level but without bringing it up to the majors. He has hit .276/.348/.409 at Triple-A from 2021 to the present, leading to a 97 wRC+ in a sample of just under 1,000 plate appearances. But he has a career line of .175/.221/.216 in the majors and is out of options.

Emanuel, 32, has been on and off the Marlins’ roster all year. He signed a minor league deal with the club in the winter and this is now the fifth time he’s been designated for assignment. Each time has seen him clear waivers, get outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville and later have his contract selected again. Given that pattern, it wouldn’t be a shock to see it all play out once more. Around those transactions, he has a 6.62 ERA in 17 2/3 major league innings and a 6.15 ERA in 45 1/3 Triple-A innings.

Ramírez, 30, was first selected to the club’s roster back in April and has appeared in 15 big league games, the first of his career. He has a 6.97 ERA in those, though his peripherals are closer to average. He has a 22.8% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 40% ground ball rate on the year. His 54% strand rate is on the unlucky side, which is why his 4.63 FIP and 3.85 SIERA are far apart from his ERA. He also has a 3.76 ERA in 40 2/3 Triple-A innings this year.

All three of Sánchez, Emanuel and Ramírez will have to be placed on waivers in the coming days since the trade deadline has passed. Since it’s now September, they won’t be postseason eligible with any club that puts in a claim.

Marlins Outright Jonathan Bermúdez

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The Marlins have sent left-hander Jonathan Bermúdez outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment on the weekend. He has the right to elect free agency but it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.

Bermúdez, 28, was with the Marlins on a minor league deal when his contract was selected just over a week ago. He was able to make his major league debut a week ago, entering Tuesday’s game in the second inning after Roddery Muñoz was lit up for six earned runs in just an inning and a third. Bermúdez was able to toss 3 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and no walks, registering three strikeouts in the process. The Fish were down 6-0 to the Rockies after the second but managed to come back to win 9-8 via a five-run ninth.

The Marlins needed five pitchers to pull off that victory, so they optioned Bermúdez and Muñoz the next day to bring in some fresh arms. A few days later, infielder Vidal Bruján was headed for the injured list so the club selected José Devers to replace him, which sent Bermúdez into DFA limbo.

Though he just made his major league debut, Bermúdez had been on a 40-man roster before. He was drafted by the Astros and that club added him to their roster in November of 2021 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was designated for assignment in August of 2022 and went to the Giants via waivers, though he was outrighted about a week later.

Due to that previous outright, he has the right to elect free agency today if he so wishes. He posted decent minor league numbers through 2021, which is why he got that roster spot from the Astros, but the results haven’t been too strong lately. He has a 5.49 ERA in 273 2/3 minor league innings from 2022 to the present. That includes a 3.48 ERA this year, though that consists of a 2.53 ERA at Double-A and a 6.46 ERA at Triple-A.

Marlins Claim Lake Bachar

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The Marlins have claimed right-hander Lake Bachar from the Padres, per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union Tribune on X. The Friars had designated him for assignment on the weekend. The Fish will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man roster spot for this claim.

Bachar, 29, has not yet made his major league debut but got a roster spot from the Padres based on his intriguing minor league work in recent years. He had to endure a lengthy absence, as the pandemic wiped out the minors in 2020 and then Bachar missed 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

He showed a bit of rust in 2022, posting a 6.15 earned run average at the Double-A level. Per an article from Sanders at Baseball America, a splitter camp run by Hideo Nomo in the spring of 2023 helped Bachar find a new gear. The righty went on to throw 60 1/3 innings at the Double-A level that year with a much-improved 2.69 ERA. He struck out 27.5% of batters faced and gave out walks at a 10% clip.

He qualified for minor league free agency after 2023 and re-signed with the Padres on a minor league deal. That deal contained an opt-out at the start of August, so the Padres added him to their 40-man at that time to prevent him from getting away, but they kept him on optional assignment. He was briefly recalled about a week ago but didn’t get into a game and was optioned right back down.

Bachar was squeezed off the 40-man roster when the Padres bolstered their roster for September with catcher Elias Díaz and outfielder Brandon Lockridge. That’s despite him having another strong season in the minors. He has thrown 71 2/3 innings over 46 appearances at the Triple-A level with a 3.89 ERA in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. He has a 27.4% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate.

Though he got nudged off the roster by the Padres, the Marlins are intrigued enough by his results to grab him. Bachar has almost zero service time and will still have two option years after this one, so he could be a long-term piece for them if he can hang onto his 40-man roster spot.

Marlins Select Jose Devers

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The Marlins announced this evening that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Jose Devers. Devers will take the roster spot of Vidal Brujan, who has been placed on the 10-day Injured List due to a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder. To make room for Devers on the 40-man roster, Miami designated left-hander Jonathan Bermudez for assignment.

Devers, 24, is now in his second stint with the Marlins at the big league level. He made his big league debut with the club back in 2021 but hit just .244/.304/.317 in 21 games in his lone cup of coffee at the big league level. Devers remained on the club’s 40-man roster the following year but was designated for assignment during the 2022-23 offseason. Devers was outrighted to the minors and remained with the club on a minor league deal this past offseason. He hasn’t hit much at the Triple-A level this year, with a .239/.304/.362 slash line in 54 games at the level that’s very reminiscent of his limited exposure in the majors a few years ago.

That said, Devers still appears to be a decent depth option capable of playing all over the infield, and that’s exactly what the Marlins need following the loss of Brujan to the injured list. Once a top prospect with the Rays, Brujan has been a vital piece of Miami’s bench mix this year despite a lackluster .224/.307/.322 slash line in 275 trips to the plate thanks in large part to his versatility. Brujan has appeared at second base, third base, shortstop, and all three outfield positions for the Marlins this year.

While Devers has little outfield experience, he actually seems most likely to take over as the club’s regular shortstop for the time being as Brujan has recently been filling in for the injured Xavier Edwards at shortstop. Given the state of the Marlins’ banged up infield, it seems likely that the club will rely on a combination of Devers and Otto Lopez at shortstop for the time being, with Lopez splitting time between shortstop and the keystone and David Hensley also filling in at second base on occasion. This opportunity for semi-regular playing time at the big league level down the stretch should allow Devers to either make his case to remain on the 40-man roster throughout the offseason in Miami, or else prove himself capable enough of holding down a bench job in the majors that another club might be willing to take a shot on him headed into Spring Training next year.

As for Bermudez, the southpaw made his big league debut with the Marlins just last week. He allowed two runs on six hits, including a home run, and no walks while striking out three in 3 2/3 innings of work in his lone big league appearance with the club. Prior to his debut, Bermudez was in the midst of a mixed season in the upper minors. The 28-year-old dominated to the tune of a 2.53 ERA in 14 starts at the Double-A level but earlier this year but struggled badly upon his promotion to Triple-A with a lackluster 6.46 ERA. The Marlins figure to put Bermudez on waivers sometime in the next week, and if the lefty goes unclaimed he’ll have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses.

Orioles Claim Forrest Wall, Designate Dillon Tate For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have claimed outfielder Forrest Wall off waivers and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk. He had been designated for assignment by the Marlins earlier this week. To open a 40-man roster spot for him, right-hander Dillon Tate has been designated for assignment.

Wall, 28, fits the classic speed-and-defense mold that contending clubs tend to acquire this time of season. He gives the Orioles a bench option down the stretch in September and perhaps into the postseason, if they’re willing to dedicate a roster spot to what’s effectively a pinch-running specialist and potential late-game defensive replacement.

Selected 35th overall by the Rockies in 2014, Wall has played in a pair of big league seasons, suiting up for the Braves last year and for Atlanta and Miami this season. He has only 50 MLB plate appearances under his belt, with a .311/.380/.432 slash to show for it. That’s strong production, of course, but it bears mentioning that Wall is only a .269/.355/.380 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons; he’s not likely to sustain that small-sample big league production over a lengthier period.

Be that as it may, the Orioles won’t be counting on him to do so. Baltimore has a stout lineup as is, but Wall offers 93rd percentile sprint speed. That’ll be his carrying trait for the Orioles for however long they carry him on the roster down the stretch. We’ve seen plenty of clubs successfully employ this tactic with expanded September rosters and into the postseason in the past — the 2015 Royals and Terrance Gore come to mind. Baltimore, for all its offensive prowess, lacks this type of premium speed at the moment. Jorge Mateo is even faster than Wall, but he’s on the 60-day IL due to a subluxation in his shoulder. Cedric Mullins leads the club with 23 steals but isn’t nearly as fast as Wall.

Baltimore’s claim of Wall will bring to an end a lengthy Orioles tenure for Tate. The 30-year-old righty and former No. 4 overall draft pick came to the O’s back in 2018 as the former front office regime kicked off the rebuild that led to the development of the Orioles’ current impressive core. For several seasons, Tate was a staple in the Baltimore ’pen, but injuries have set him back.

From 2020-22, Tate pitched 158 innings with a 3.65 ERA, 19.1% strikeout rate, 6.8% walk rate and huge 57.9% grounder rate. He looked to have solidified himself as a quality late-inning piece for manager Brandon Hyde, but a flexor strain wiped out Tate’s entire 2023 season. Since returning, he’s shown diminished velocity with lesser strikeout and grounder rates: 15.5% and 50.9%, respectively. He’s been tagged for a 4.59 ERA in 33 1/3 innings this season, although Tate sports a 2.16 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate and 40.4% grounder rate in 16 2/3 Triple-A innings as well.

With the trade deadline behind us, the Orioles will have no choice but to place Tate on waivers. Given his track record, modest $1.5MM salary and additional club control, it’s possible Tate will be picked up by another club. The new team would only owe Tate the prorated portion of that salary — just $250K through season’s end. A new club could also retain him for another two seasons via arbitration. While Tate entered the season with 4.048 years of MLB service, he won’t spend enough time on the big league roster this season to cross five years. As such, he’ll be controllable through the 2026 campaign if another team wishes to claim him.

In the event that Tate goes unclaimed, he’d have enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. However, since he doesn’t yet have five years of service, doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $1.5MM salary. As such, he’s likely to accept a minor league assignment if he’s not claimed. In that scenario, Tate would be eligible to become a free agent at season’s end unless he’s added back to the 40-man roster prior to that point.

Athletics Claim Tristan Gray

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The Athletics announced that they have claimed infielder Tristan Gray off waivers from the Marlins and assigned him to Triple-A Las Vegas. Miami had designated him for assignment in recent days. The A’s had an open 40-man spot after designating infielder Abraham Toro for assignment earlier today.

Gray, 28, got a bit of prospect attention earlier due to some interesting offensive numbers in the lower levels of the minors. However, he has struggled to bring that up to higher levels. From 2017 to 2019, he got into 293 minor league games from Low-A to Double-A. He hit a combined .239/.319/.428 in those for a 116 wRC+.

The pandemic wiped out the minors in 2020 and Gray has been playing Triple-A ball since then, getting into 431 contests. He’s hit 88 home runs in that time but also been struck out at a 30.2% clip while walking 8% of the time. All that leads to a .236/.305/.470 batting line and 95 wRC+. He also has 12 major league plate appearances between the Rays last year and the Marlins this year, hitting .167/.167/.417 in those.

Gray has played all four infield positions throughout his career and has continued to do so here in 2024. He can provide the A’s with depth all over the diamond, perhaps for a long time. He has a full slate of options for now. He is burning one here in 2024 but will still have two left beyond this season. He also has just a few days of service time, meaning he’s nowhere close to qualifying for arbitration or free agency.

Twins Outright Steven Okert

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Twins left-hander Steven Okert went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A St. Paul, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Minnesota designated him for assignment over the weekend. Okert has four-plus seasons of big league service, giving him more than the three years needed to reject the assignment in favor of free agency but fewer than the five years required to do so while still retaining the remainder of his salary. He’d need to forfeit the remainder of this season’s $1.0625MM salary (about $188K) to become a free agent, so it’s quite likely he’ll accept the assignment and head to St. Paul.

Acquired from the Marlins in a straight-up swap for utilityman Nick Gordon — who was also recently designated for assignment and outrighted — Okert had a decent first half but has seen his results tumble since the All-Star break. The 6’2″ southpaw pitched to a 3.86 ERA with a 22.1% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate prior to the Midsummer Classic but has been torched for a 9.82 earned run average with a 15.8% strikeout rate and 13.2% walk rate in 7 1/3 second-half frames. Overall, he’s sitting on a 5.09 ERA for the season.

Okert, 33, has been working in medium-leverage situations for much of the season but has struggled the most in his most pressure-filled spots. He’s been credited with seven holds and one save but also six blown saves. Only three relievers in baseball this season (min. 30 innings) have a lower mark in terms in Win Probability Added than Okert’s -1.84.

While Okert certainly hasn’t had his best performance in his first season with the Twins organization, he has a solid track record dating back to his Marlins days. From 2020-23, he tossed 153 1/3 innings for Miami and notched a tidy 3.40 ERA. His 10.2% walk rate in that time generally matches this year’s 10% mark, but from ’20-’23 Okert punched out 28.9% of his opponents. This year, that mark has plummeted to 20.6%. Okert’s slider remains deadly, with opponents hitting just .141/.236/.295 in the 89 plate appearances he’s wrapped up with that offering. However, they’ve absolutely teed off on his four-seamer (which has lost nearly a mile per hour in 2024), batting an eye-popping .424/.486/.636 against the pitch.

Okert will try to get back on track across the river in St. Paul, though he’ll have only a month or so to pitch his way back into consideration for the team’s likely postseason roster. If Okert isn’t added back to the 40-man roster prior to the offseason, he’ll have the right to become a free agent, as is the case with all outrighted players who have more than three years of big league service time.

Marlins Designate Forrest Wall, Tristan Gray For Assignment

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The Marlins announced today that outfielder Griffin Conine has been selected to the roster, a move that was reported yesterday. The club also added right-hander Mike Baumann, recently claimed off waivers, to the active roster. To open spots for those two, they club optioned right-hander Brett de Geus and placed infielder Xavier Edwards on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 24, with mild back extensor soreness. Outfielder Forrest Wall has been designated for assignment to open up a 40-man spot. The club didn’t announce a corresponding 40-man move when Baumann was claimed but it appears to be Tristan Gray, as his transactions tracker at MLB.com lists him as designated for assignment.

Wall, 28, was claimed off waivers from Atlanta a month ago. He’s mostly been kept on optional assignment in that time, only taking three plate appearances with the Marlins. Combined with his brief time with Atlanta, he has a strong line of .311/.380/.422 but in a small sample of 50 trips to the plate at the major league level.

He’s had a much larger sample of playing time in the minors, but with less impressive numbers. From 2021 to the present, he’s appeared in 352 minor league contests with a .269/.355/.383 line and a 94 wRC+.

But beyond the bat, he can provide value with his legs. In that aforementioned 352-game stretch of minor league games, he has swiped 155 bags while being caught 29 times. His brief major league career has also involved nine steals in 13 tries.

That’s clearly an enticing quality but the tepid offense hasn’t been enough for him to earn much playing time and he’s now been squeezed off a roster again. With the trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, the Marlins will have to place him on waivers in the coming days. If any club is looking for some wheels for their bench or in a depth role, Wall still has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time. He doesn’t have a previous career outright nor three years of service time, so he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Gray, 28, was signed by the Marlins to a minor league deal in the offseason and was selected to the roster in May. He has only received seven plate appearances in the majors this year, spending most of his time on optional assignment in Triple-A. He’s hit 17 home runs in 100 games at that level but the offensive environment is strong in the International League this year and his .245/.318/.459 line only translates to a wRC+ of 97.

That increases the sample size of Gray being a bit below average at Triple-A. From 2021 to the present, he has 431 games at that level with a .236/.305/.470 batting line and 95 wRC+. He does bring defensive versatility to the table, having played all four infield positions, but the lack of offense has limited him to 12 major league plate appearances to this point in his career.

Like Wall, Gray will be on waivers in the coming days. He also has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, so he could provide a claiming club with many years of club control. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he could elect free agency by virtue of having a previous career outright.

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