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MLBTR Podcast: Injured Trade Candidates, The Cristopher Sánchez Extension And Blue Jays’ Woes

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • “What would it take for the Rockies to consider trading some young assets like Ryan McMahon or Brendan Rodgers?” (23:55)
  • “The Astros are clearly out of it, so why isn’t Ryan Pressly a top target of teams with bad bullpens?” (30:35)
  • “Would the Marlins or Nationals trade with the Mets, Phillies or Braves, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Lane Thomas being good fits?” (39:25)
  • “Will T.J. McFarland of the Athletics be traded to the Cubs or another contender?” (47:45)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Marlins Select Valente Bellozo

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TODAY: The Marlins have selected Valente Bellozo from Triple-A Jacksonville, the team announced. In a corresponding move, left-hander Kent Emanuel has been designated for assignment. Emanuel will likely clear waivers and be sent outright to Jacksonville. He has already accepted multiple outright assignments to Triple-A this season.

JUNE 25: The Marlins will select the contract of right-hander Valente Bellozo before tomorrow’s game with the Royals, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link). He’ll take the ball opposite Brady Singer in the series finale. Miami will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

It’ll be the major league debut for Bellozo, a 24-year-old native of Mexico. He signed with the Astros as an amateur free agent back in 2017. Bellozo pitched through Double-A in the Houston farm system. The Astros dealt him to Miami for depth infielder Jacob Amaya in April. Bellozo has split his time with the Fish between the top two minor league levels.

The 5’10” hurler hasn’t had great numbers this season. Bellozo has allowed a 5.02 ERA in 52 innings between Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Jacksonville. He has decent strikeout and walk numbers, punching out more than a quarter of batters faced against a tidy 6.7% walk percentage. Home runs have been an issue since he was promoted to Triple-A, though. Bellozo has given up seven longballs in 20 2/3 frames with Jacksonville.

Bellozo has never gotten much prospect fanfare. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him a brief mention on his write-up of the Miami system earlier this month, crediting him with a solid changeup but few other weapons. The Fish have needed to dig into their rotation depth this season after being pummeled by injury.

They placed Jesús Luzardo and Braxton Garrett on the shelf last week. That duo joins Eury Pérez, Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Ryan Weathers and Sixto Sánchez on the injured list. Trevor Rogers has been the lone consistent presence. Bellozo will be the 14th starting pitcher they’ve used over the course of the year as they’ve cycled through depth arms.

Marlins Claim Austin Kitchen From Rockies

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The Marlins announced that they have claimed left-hander Austin Kitchen off waivers from the Rockies. Right-hander Sixto Sánchez has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com relayed the Kitchen claim on X prior to the official announcement, adding that the lefty will report to Triple-A Jacksonville.

Kitchen, 27, was just added to Colorado’s roster over the weekend as that club wanted a fresh arm. However, he was designated for assignment the very next day without getting into a game. Though he’s still looking to make his major league debut, the Marlins are intrigued enough to give him a roster spot.

The lefty hasn’t racked up a ton of strikeouts in his minor league career but has been able to keep the ball on the ground. He has a 3.95 earned run average in 225 2/3 innings on the farm overall, with a 19.4% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate. But he has kept at least 50% of balls in play on the ground at each stop along the minor league ladder.

Sánchez was placed on the 15-day injured list at the start of this month due to right shoulder inflammation. There haven’t been many updates since then, but that’s an ominous diagnosis since he has had multiple surgeries on that shoulder, which limited him to just one minor league inning pitched over the 2021 to 2023 period. Now that he’s been transferred to the 60-day IL, it seems the Marlins aren’t expecting him back by the end of July.

With that situation, the Fish essentially had a roster spot to burn and have used it to grab Kitchen. He’ll report to their Triple-A club and give them a bit of optionable bullpen depth. He has a full slate of options and essentially no service time, so he could stay on the 40-man roster for a long time if his performance justifies him hanging onto a spot.

Marlins Place Braxton Garrett On 15-Day Injured List With Forearm Flexor Strain

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The Marlins announced several roster moves this morning, headlined by the club placing left-hander Braxton Garrett on the 15-Day injured list with a left forearm flexor strain. The club also optioned right-hander Shaun Anderson to Triple-A. Taking Garrett and Anderson’s spots on the club’s active roster will be right-hander Kyle Tyler and left-hander Kent Emanuel, both of whom had their contracts selected. Left-hander Jesus Luzardo and right-hander Edward Cabrera were both transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear space for the duo on the 40-man roster.

Garrett’s placement on the injured list isn’t necessarily a surprise, as the club had already scratched him from today’s start due to elbow soreness yesterday. With that being said, the diagnosis of a forearm flexor strain is a concerning one that suggests Garrett could be in for a lengthy absence, though details about his exact timeline are not yet available. For Marlins fans, it surely brings to mind September of last year, when the Marlins provided the same diagnosis for right-hander Sandy Alcantara before the ace ultimately required Tommy John surgery.

Fortunately, not all forearm strains require such drastic treatment. Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray suffered a similarly-termed strain back in April that ultimately proved to be purely muscular without damage to the UCL. Gray is currently on a rehab assignment and could factor into the Nationals’ pitching plans prior to the All Star break, roughly three months after the initial injury. A similar timeline could see Cabrera return sometime in September, prior to the end of the 2024 campaign.

Regardless of when Cabrera winds up being able to return to the club, however, the Marlins figure to be in a bit of a pickle as they look to piece together their rotation mix. Miami currently has seven starters on the injured list, leaving them with lefty Trevor Rogers, righty Roddery Munoz, and righty Yonny Chirinos as their only three established starting pitchers. That trio will be joined by Tyler, who is slated to start today’s game against the Mariners. A 20th-round pick by the Angels in the 2018 draft, the righty has made eight multi-inning relief appearances in the big leagues since he first made his MLB debut back in 2021, though he’s never started a game at the big league level.

He’s pitched fairly well in his limited opportunities in the majors with a 2.45 ERA and 4.36 FIP in 18 1/3 innings of work. That includes a single appearance with the Marlins earlier this year where he allowed one run in two frames where he allowed one hit and no walks with one strikeout. It’s unclear if Tyler will continue to pitch as part of the club’s rotation after today or if this is a spot start for the 27-year-old. Also joining Tyler on the active roster is the lefty Emanuel, who has been shuttling between the 40-man roster and the minor leagues all throughout the 2024 campaign for the Marlins. In 8 1/3 innings of work for the club this year across four appearances, Emanuel has struggled to a 7.56 ERA with an 8.19 FIP. Nonetheless, the southpaw will provide the club with a multi-inning option out of the bullpen who could piggyback with the right-handed Tyler if necessary this afternoon.

As for Luzardo and Cabrerea, the 60-day IL placements come as a mild surprise for both players. In Luzardo’s case, the lefty was placed on the IL just yesterday with a lumbar stress reaction, and manager Skip Schumaker suggested that injury typically has a 4-6 week timeline. Now that Luzardo is out for at least the next two months, it’s safe to say the Marlins believe he’ll be out for longer than that general timeline. He’ll first be eligible to return from the shelf in late August. Cabrera’s placement also somewhat surprising given the fact that he’s already built up to the 50-pitch range on a rehab assignment, though given the fact that the righty would be eligible to be activated from the shelf in just two weeks it could be a purely procedural transaction.

Braxton Garrett Scratched From Sunday Start Due To Elbow Discomfort

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Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett has been scratched from his scheduled start against the Mariners tomorrow due to discomfort in his left elbow, as noted by MLB.com’s Christina DeNicola earlier today. DeNicola adds that Garrett is set to undergo further evaluation on his elbow.

It’s not currently clear how severe Garret’s ailment, which he reportedly felt following his bullpen session on Friday, will wind up being. That being said, elbow issues are always anxiety-inducing for fans and players alike given the fact that serious elbow injuries often require season-ending surgery, as has been the case for a number of star pitchers of late, ranging from Spencer Strider of the Braves to Kyle Bradish of the Orioles to Garrett’s teammates Eury Perez and Sandy Alcantara. Of course, it’s important to remember that elbow issues can also be relatively minor, as was the case for Astros lefty Framber Valdez when he was placed on the IL with elbow soreness back in April and ended up requiring only a minimum stay.

Regardless of if Garrett misses an extended period or is down for just one start, it’s the latest difficult injury news for a Miami franchise wracked with pitching injuries. The club already has six starting pitchers on the injured list after placing left-hander (and potential top trade candidate) Jesus Luzardo on the injured list due to a lumbar stress reaction earlier today. Luzardo joined right-handers Perez, Alcantara Edward Cabrera, and Sixto Sanchez as well as fellow southpaw Ryan Weathers on the IL. That massive group of injured starters has left the Marlins scrambling to fill out a rotation that on paper should have been the deepest part of the club’s roster entering the season.

Trevor Rogers, Roddery Munoz, Yonny Chirinos, and Shaun Anderson currently occupy rotation spots alongside Garrett, and it’s possible that top prospect Max Meyer could replace Garrett in the rotation in the long-term if needed. DeNicola notes that Meyer last started in Triple-A on Thursday, however, meaning he would not be lined up to pitch  tomorrow even if the club did want to call him up for a spot start in Garrett’s stead. DeNicola floats the possibility that the club could turn to multi-inning reliever George Soriano, who pitched three innings at the Triple-A level on Tuesday, to open a bullpen game tomorrow. Soriano is already on the 40-man roster, and an alternative spot starting option such as Kent Emanuel or Devin Smeltzer would require the Marlins to make space on the 40-man.

While the Marlins are widely acknowledged to be one of the game’s few clear sellers this summer after already shipping Luis Arraez to the Padres earlier this year, an injury of significance for Garrett would surely all but guarantee that he remains with the Marlins for the remainder of the 2024 season. After all, the July 30 trade deadline is just over a month away at this point, and even a minimum stint on the IL for Garrett would sideline him for long enough to allow him just three more starts prior to the trade deadline.

For a pitcher who was already shelved with a shoulder impingement earlier this year and has struggled to a 5.35 ERA in the seven starts he’s been healthy enough to make this year, that timeline makes it difficult to imagine Garrett convincing an interested club of his health and effectiveness enough for them to be comfortable dealing for the lefty prior to the deadline. Fortunately for the Marlins, there’s no real urgency to move Garrett given that the southpaw is under team control through the end of the 2028 season. That gives the lefty plenty of time to return to the form he flashed over 48 appearances between 2022 and 2023, when he pitched to a 3.63 ERA with a 3.64 FIP with a 23.8% strikeout rate.

Marlins Outright Kent Emanuel

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TODAY: The Marlins have outrighted Emanuel to Triple-A after he cleared waivers, as per Emanuel’s MLB.com profile page.  There isn’t yet any word as to whether or not Emanuel has accepted the assignment.

JUNE 19: The Marlins announced Wednesday morning that left-hander Kent Emanuel has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Yonny Chirinos, whose previously announced promotion to the big league roster is now official. Chirinos will start today’s game for the Fish.

Emanuel, 32, was selected to the Marlins’ big league roster for a second time this season over the weekend. He tossed 2 1/3 shutout innings across two appearances during this most recent stint. The former Astros, Phillies and Pirates farmhand made two more appearances with Miami back in April and was hit hard. Overall, he’s surrendered seven earned runs in 8 1/3 major league innings this season. That’s a far cry from the 2.55 ERA he notched in a 17 2/3-inning big league debut with the 2021 Astros (the team that originally selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft).

Things haven’t gone much better for Emanuel in Triple-A Jacksonville. He’s made nine appearances, four of them starts, and totaled 30 innings of 6.60 ERA ball. The 6’4″ UNC product has fanned 19% of his opponents against a tidy 5.8% walk rate in that time. It’s the sixth season in which Emanuel has logged time at the Triple-A level. Overall, he owns a 5.18 ERA, a 20% strikeout rate and a 6.1% walk rate in 391 frames there.

Within the next week, Emanuel will either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released. He’s been outrighted in the past, so if he goes unclaimed on waivers he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Marlins Place Jesus Luzardo On 15-Day Injured List

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12:59PM: The move has been officially announced, with Luzardo’s placement retroactive to June 19.  The left-hander’s injury has been termed as a lumbar stress reaction, and Schumaker floated a recovery timeline of 4-6 weeks to De Nicola and other reporters.  Though Schumaker was speaking in more general terms about recoveries from similar injuries rather than what can be expected for Luzardo himself, it nevertheless remains unclear if Luzardo will be able to pitch again before the trade deadline.

10:42AM: The Marlins have placed left-hander Jesus Luzardo on the 15-day injured list due to a back injury.  The team already announced yesterday that Luzardo was being scratched from his planned start today, and Shaun Anderson is being recalled from Triple-A to take the hill against the Mariners.

Luzardo has been trying to pitch through his back problem “for a couple of weeks,” manager Skip Schumaker told MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters, and the team even considered scratching him from his previous start against the Nationals last Sunday.  As De Nicola notes, Luzardo’s velocity was down during that outing, though Luzardo still managed five innings of two-run ball against Washington.

“You don’t want to overdo another side of the body or another part of the body because you’re trying not to hurt whatever is being hurt or is hurting,” Schumaker said.  “You definitely don’t want to push through something, especially the back, because it could lead to other things.  So we’ll see what the results say and what the doctors say, but it’s definitely not something that you push through.”

This is Luzardo’s second IL trip this season, as he also missed just under three weeks dealing with tightness in his throwing elbow.  Luzardo has a lengthy and well-documented injury history that also includes a Tommy John surgery, but the 2023 season showed a glimpse of what the southpaw could do when he was finally healthy.  Over 32 starts and 178 2/3 innings for Miami last year, Luzardo posted a 3.58 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate to help lead the Marlins to a wild card berth.

The numbers have fallen off in 2024, with health undoubtedly some sort of factor in Luzardo’s 5.00 ERA over 66 2/3 frames.  While his 4.20 SIERA is a little more respectable, Luzardo’s strikeout rate has sharply dropped to 21.2%, and his fastball velocity has gone from 96.7mph in 2023 to 95.1mph this year.  As per Statcast, Luzardo’s four-seamer was one of the more effective pitches in baseball last season, but is now a below-average offering.

Anderson has already made one spot start for the Marlins since he was acquired in a trade with the Rangers last month, and now might get more opportunities as Miami continues to deal with an injury-plagued rotation.  Since the last-place Marlins have long since thrown in the towel on contending this season, much of the focus on Miami has been around on what the team might do at the trade deadline, with Luzardo’s name often mentioned a prime candidate to be moved.

Even considering his shaky 2024 production, Luzardo has been viewed as possibly the Marlins’ best trade chip due to his age (26) and the two-plus years of arbitration control that runs through the 2026 campaign.  However, this latest injury creates new doubt that Luzardo will even be back on the mound by the July 30 deadline, given how back problems can tend to linger.  There’s no urgency for the Marlins to move Luzardo this summer when other trades could be explored this winter or really at any time during Luzardo’s remaining tenure with the organization, but naturally another injury-marred season will lower his trade value.

Marlins Designate Christian Bethancourt For Assignment

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June 21: The Marlins have now made it official, announcing they have selected Sánchez and designated Bethancourt for assignment.

June 20: The Marlins are designating catcher Christian Bethancourt for assignment, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com (X link). De Nicola adds that the recently-acquired Ali Sánchez is likely to be selected onto the MLB roster in his place.

Miami acquired Bethancourt from the Guardians in a cash transaction over the offseason. It was one of the first moves of note for new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, who had been the general manager in Tampa Bay during Bethancourt’s two-year run with the Rays. The move didn’t go as the front office hoped.

Bethancourt appeared in 38 games for the Fish and hit .159/.198/.268 over 88 plate appearances. He struck out 22 times while drawing three walks and collecting 13 hits. Miami has gotten even less offense out of starting catcher Nick Fortes, who owns a .159/.194/.225 line over 145 trips. Between that duo and a handful of reps from Jhonny Pereda, Miami has gotten an MLB-worst .155/.192/.237 slash out of its catchers.

That’s not tenable production even for a noncompetitive team. Fortes is younger than Bethancourt and still has minor league options remaining, so the Marlins will move on from the more experienced backstop as their first change behind the plate.

There’s a decent chance Miami will end up keeping Bethancourt in the organization at Triple-A Jacksonville. The Panamanian catcher is playing on a $2.05MM arbitration salary, a little over half of which remains to be paid. That’ll diminish any trade interest and could get Bethancourt through waivers unclaimed. As a player with between three and five years of major league service, he would need to forfeit what remains of that salary to elect free agency. If he clears waivers, he’d likely accept an outright assignment to Jacksonville. Even if he sticks in the organization for the time being, he’d be a straightforward non-tender candidate at the end of the season.

Sánchez, assuming he’s indeed the corresponding call-up, will get to the big leagues for the first time since 2021. The 27-year-old only has seven games of MLB experience. He has played parts of five seasons in Triple-A, where he’s a .270/.344/.400 hitter in more than 1000 plate appearances. Sánchez was hitting .240/.338/.388 for the Cubs’ top affiliate when Miami acquired him for cash considerations last night.

A Venezuela native, Sánchez is a contact-oriented offensive player who has gotten decent reviews from scouts for his receiving skills. He cut down 34.3% of attempted basestealers in Triple-A last season. That dropped sharply to a 13% rate over 268 1/3 innings there this year. Sánchez is out of options, so the Marlins would need to put him on waivers to take him off the MLB roster once they select his contract.

Marlins Release Burch Smith

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The Marlins have released right-hander Burch Smith, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment a week ago. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.

Smith, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rays in the offseason. He didn’t crack that club’s Opening Day roster but had an upward mobility clause in his contract. Such a clause meant that the Rays had to send him to another team if any of them wanted to give Smith a roster spot. The Marlins wanted him and so the Rays traded him for cash considerations.

The righty went to make 25 appearances with the Fish with a 4.25 earned run average and subpar strikeout rate of 17%. However, his 6.7% walk rate and 47% ground ball rate were both a few ticks better than average. A .376 batting average on balls in play may have pushed some extra runs across the plate, which is why his 3.04 FIP and 4.00 SIERA were both more pleasant than his ERA. The Marlins are one of the worst defensive clubs this year, as their -24 Outs Above Average is dead last and their -19 Defensive Runs Saved is better than just three clubs.

Perhaps Smith would have fared better in different circumstances but he got nudged off the roster regardless, likely not helped by allowing five earned runs in his final three appearances before getting designated for assignment a week ago.

Smith came into this season with his service time count at four years and 92 days, putting him 80 shy of the five-year mark. He hit that line on June 15, the day after he was designated for assignment, as players still collect service time while in DFA limbo. By getting over that mark, he earned the right to reject an outright assignment while retaining all of his $1MM salary. Unless some club wanted to grab him off waivers, he was bound for the open market, which prompted the Marlins to release him.

Now that he’s freely available, he could attract interest from clubs looking to make a low-cost buy. The Marlins remain on the hook for what remains of that salary, while another club could sign him and only have to pay him the prorated version of the league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Fish pay.

Perhaps one of the other teams will feel Smith could find a bit more success with some better batted ball luck or by pitching in front of a better defense. If so, he could be grabbed for a minimal cost and no real commitment.

Marlins Acquire Ali Sanchez From Cubs

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The Cubs traded minor league catcher Ali Sánchez to the Marlins, tweets Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, Miami sent cash in return.

Sánchez was not on Chicago’s 40-man roster. He won’t immediately take a spot on Miami’s. He’ll head to Triple-A Jacksonville for the time being, joining his third organization of the season in the process. The Venezuela native signed a somewhat surprising big league contract with the Pirates last offseason. Pittsburgh outrighted him off the 40-man roster at the end of Spring Training, sending him back to free agency. Sánchez inked a non-roster deal with the Cubs a week into the season and had been playing for Triple-A Iowa.

He appeared in 41 games, hitting .240/.338/.388 in 148 trips to the plate. That’s a step down from the .311/.375/.492 batting line he’d posted with Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in 2023. Reno, where the D-Backs’ top farm team plays, is one of the sport’s most favorable hitting environments. Sánchez, a typically light hitter, connected on 11 homers in 67 games there. He hit three longballs with Iowa.

While he doesn’t bring much power to the table, Sánchez has decent contact skills. He has drawn walks in 12.2% of his plate appearances on the season against an 18.9% strikeout rate. He’s generally regarded as a capable defender, though he only cut down six of 46 attempted basestealers with Iowa.

The Cubs have gotten almost nothing out of their catching duo of Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes. They nevertheless opted against bringing Sánchez up. Chicago signed Tomás Nido to a major league contract while designating Gomes for assignment this morning.

Miami is one of the only teams whose catchers have been less productive than the Amaya/Gomes pairing. Marlins catchers — almost exclusively Christian Bethancourt and Nick Fortes — have hit an MLB-worst .155/.192/.237 over 232 plate appearances. Miami isn’t going to expend much to upgrade the position in a lost season. Sánchez could play his way into an MLB look with a productive showing in Jacksonville. Bethancourt, Fortes and Jhonny Pereda are the catchers on the 40-man roster.

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