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MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: Ohtani’s Torn UCL, Free Agent Power Rankings and Stephen Strasburg to Retire

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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 Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:

Plus, we answer your questions, including:

  • Would the Brewers be a good fit for Pete Alonso? (21:10)
  • What will the Cubs do at first base next year and could Alonso be a fit? (24:50)
  • Could Alonso fit on the Twins? (26:35)

Check out our past episodes!

  • The White Sox Fire Their Front Office, Injured Rays and Prospect Promotion Time – listen here
  • Pete Alonso’s Future, Yankees’ Rotation Troubles and Should the Trade Deadline Be Pushed Back? – listen here
  • The Streaking Mariners, the Struggling Angels and Injured Aces – listen here

Mets Reportedly Place Carlos Carrasco On Waivers

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The Mets have placed Carlos Carrasco on waivers, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The right-hander is one of several players to go on waivers today, as teams out of the postseason picture attempt to shed payroll. If another team claims Carrasco, they will be responsible for the prorated portion of his $14MM salary. He is set to become a free agent after the season.

Following a resurgent 2022 campaign, Carrasco has struggled in 2023. In 20 starts, he is averaging less than five innings per game, while pitching to a 6.80 ERA and 5.17 SIERA. The 36-year-old has run into particular trouble since the All-Star break, with a 10.24 ERA in his last eight starts. Given his rough performance, it seems unlikely that any team will be willing to take on his remaining salary, but it’s possible a contending club in need of rotation depth will take a chance on the veteran. He is only one year removed from a season in which he made 29 starts with a 3.97 ERA.

Revocable waivers no longer exist, so these are either outright or release waivers. If Carrasco goes unclaimed, there’s a chance he could become a free agent either way. As a 14-year MLB veteran, he has more than enough service time under his belt to reject an outright assignment without sacrificing any salary. Thus, this could mark the end of his time with the Mets. He has been with the organization for three seasons, having come over from Cleveland in 2021 as part of the trade that brought Francisco Lindor to New York. In 61 starts, he has pitched to a disappointing 5.21 ERA but a much more respectable 4.25 SIERA.

With a payroll far north of the highest competitive balance tax threshold, the Mets aren’t making this move with the luxury tax in mind. Still, given the tens of millions of dollars the team is paying to players no longer on the roster (including Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Robinson Cano), it’s understandable that Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler are looking for a little payroll relief.

New York has several arms available to take over for Carrasco in the rotation if need be, including right-handers José Butto and Denyi Reyes and left-hander Joey Lucchesi. All three are on the 40-man roster and have made at least two starts this season for the big league club. Lucchesi seems to be the most likely candidate; in six starts for the Mets, he has a 2.54 ERA in 28 innings pitched.

Latest On Edwin Diaz

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Injured Mets closer Edwin Diaz has been targeting a late-season return since tearing the patellar tendon in his knee during the World Baseball Classic, and even with the Mets squarely out of postseason contention, he’s still working toward that goal. Diaz told reporters yesterday that he just threw his first bullpen session and is still hoping to pitch before the end of the year (video link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Diaz’s hope is “to finish the year on a positive note,” and he later added that he was hitting 93 to 95 mph in Sunday’s bullpen session.

Onlookers may question the notion of bringing Diaz back at the short end of his recovery window of six to eight months, but both the pitcher and key members of the organization have previously spoken about the importance of Diaz getting back onto the mound to be sure he’s healthy and give him piece of mind through a hopefully normal offseason. Via Jerry Beach of the Associated Press, manager Buck Showalter said just yesterday that Diaz even being considered a possibility to return is a “good thing” and that the righty getting back on the mound would be “really exciting for everybody.” Showalter also emphasized that no decision will be made until Diaz is given medical clearance — which is still a aways off.

Diaz inked a five-year, $102MM contract to return to the Mets before free agency even opened in earnest last offseason — the largest contract ever given to a reliever. The first season of that pact has been wiped out entirely by his WBC knee injury. Given all that’s gone wrong in Queens this season, it’s unlikely that a healthy Diaz would’ve been enough to salvage the 2023 campaign, but losing him for the majority of the year was the first of many contributing factors to the downfall of a club featuring MLB’s largest-ever payroll.

The 29-year-old Diaz’s fastball isn’t back up to full strength, of course, but it’s nonetheless encouraging that he’s throwing 93 to 95 mph in his first ’pen session. Diaz averaged 98.7 mph on his heater from 2020-22 — including 99.1 mph last year — and pitched to an electric 2.27 ERA with 70 saves during that time. His 2022 campaign was one of the best ever by a relief pitcher, as he worked to a pristine 1.31 ERA with 32 saves, a better-than-average 7.7% walk rate and a historic 50.2% strikeout rate that stands as the second-highest ever for a qualified reliever during a 162-game season (third-highest, if counting Devin Williams’ 53% mark during the shortened 2020 season).

Mets Sign Daniel Palka To Minor League Deal

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The Mets signed first baseman/corner outfielder Daniel Palka to a minor league contract yesterday, according to an announcement from their Triple-A club in Syracuse. He’ll join their top affiliate there.

Palka, 31, is familiar with the New York organization. He spent the 2022 campaign in Syracuse on a minor league pact, hitting .263/.344/.506 with 26 longballs over 109 games. The Mets never gave him a big league look. He returned to minor league free agency last offseason and caught on with the Red Sox on a non-roster pact.

Through 314 plate appearances with the Sox’s top affiliate in Worcester, Palka hit .233/.309/.410 with 12 home runs. Boston released him towards the end of July. A month later, the left-handed hitter makes his return to Syracuse. He’ll have a little over a month to try to play his way onto the big league roster.

Palka’s only MLB experience to date came with the 2018-19 White Sox. He appeared in 154 games over those two seasons, roughly one full campaign’s worth of work. He blasted 29 home runs and slugged .433, but he struck out in nearly 35% of his trips. His .218 average and .277 on-base percentage reflected his trouble consistently putting the ball in play.

That hasn’t been as big a problem at the Triple-A level. Palka’s strikeout rates there have hovered between 21-24%, roughly league average rates, over the past three seasons. Yet he didn’t hit for his typical level of power in Worcester, as his .410 slugging mark there is the lowest he’s posted in any of his seven Triple-A campaigns.

Dodgers Claim Tyson Miller, Move Tony Gonsolin To 60-Day IL

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The Dodgers announced that they have claimed right-hander Tyson Miller off waivers from the Mets.  To create roster space, Tony Gonsolin was moved to the 60-day injured list, officially ending Gonsolin’s season.

Gonsolin was placed on the 15-day IL on August 19 due to right forearm inflammation, and since manager Dave Roberts said at the time that Gonsolin probably wouldn’t pitch again in 2023, the shift to the 60-day IL isn’t a surprise by any means.  The exact nature of Gonsolin’s injury isn’t quite known, and Roberts today told the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett and other reporters that the right-hander had undergone an MRI.  Some type of surgical procedure is being considered, and if Gonsolin did get this surgery, it would impact when he might able to return to the mound in 2024.

The possibility of a longer-term injury is obviously an unfortunate setback for Gonsolin, who has already struggled through a difficult 2023 season that included a sprained ankle in Spring Training and some recurring elbow pain that led to his placement on the IL.  Gonsolin was an All-Star in 2022 but clearly wasn’t himself this year, finishing with a 4.98 ERA over 103 innings.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West despite a storm of pitching injuries this season, and the possibility of Gonsolin now missing at least some time next year creates another wrinkle in their 2024 plans.  Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw will be free agents, Lance Lynn could be a free agent if L.A. doesn’t exercise an $18MM club option on his services, and Dustin May will be out until midseason after undergoing flexor tendon surgery this past July.  That leaves Walker Buehler (who aims to be back from Tommy John surgery before this season is over) and a host of youngsters like Ryan Pepiot, Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan, and Michael Grove all in the mix for rotation jobs.  Los Angeles certainly isn’t going into a season with such an unproven set of pitchers, so adding some front-of-the-rotation experience will be a key part of the Dodgers’ winter business.

Miller is back with the Dodgers less than a month after he was claimed away by New York off waivers.  Los Angeles previously acquired Miller from the Brewers in July after Milwaukee designated the righty for assignment, so it has quite a whirlwind of organizational change for the 28-year-old in less than two months’ time.

Amidst all these moves, Miller has a 5.40 ERA over 13 1/3 combined innings with the Brewers, Dodgers, and Mets this season.  Now in his third MLB season, Miller previously appeared with the Cubs in 2020 and the Rangers in 2022, with his 2021 campaign split between the Cubs’ and Rangers’ Triple-A affiliates.  Miller has a 4.04 ERA over 594 2/3 career minor league innings, including a 4.11 ERA in 30 2/3 frames of Triple-A work this season.

Mets Designate Adam Kolarek, Abraham Almonte For Assignment

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The Mets announced four roster moves today, including the news that outfielder Abraham Almonte and reliever Adam Kolarek have been designated for assignment.  The transactions create roster space for Mark Vientos and Jeff Brigham, as Vientos was activated from the 10-day injured list and Brigham was called up from Triple-A Syracuse.

Almonte and Kolarek are no strangers to the DFA process, as this is the second time that each player has been designated this season — Kolarek by the Dodgers in June, and Almonte by the Mets just two weeks ago.  In both cases, the players cleared waivers and were outrighted off the 40-man roster, and both chose to accept the outright assignment rather than test free agency.  Should either of the duo clear waivers this time around, either Almonte or Kolarek could again opt for free agency or decide to head to Syracuse.

Kolarek has only been with the Mets for less than a month, after the Dodgers traded the southpaw and right-hander Phil Bickford to New York in what was essentially a roster-clearing move for Los Angeles at the deadline.  The Mets selected Kolarek’s contract last week and he has made four appearances without allowing a run.  In fact, Kolarek has a perfect 0.00 ERA for the 2023 season to date, though only over six total innings with L.A. and New York.

Almonte signed a minor league deal with the Mets during the offseason and made his 2023 debut earlier this month.  The veteran outfielder has one hit over 16 plate appearances, playing as a late-game defensive sub and pinch-hitter.  The Mets brought Almonte up for depth purposes, as their outfield ranks have been thinned by trades and injuries.

AL East Notes: Yankees, Kjerstad, Swanson

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The Yankees are among the teams interested in star NPB pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as noted by Newsday’s Erik Boland. Boland added that the club’s director of pro scouting Matt Daley is currently in Japan and another top scout visited to watch Yamamoto pitch earlier in the year. Jon Heyman of the New York Post also notes the Yankees interest, listing them among ten teams that scouted Yamamoto’s most recent start. That list of teams includes the club’s crosstown rival Mets as well as their division rival Red Sox.

Yamamoto, who claimed the #3 spot on MLBTR’s newest edition of the 2023-24 Free Agent Power Rankings, sports a sensational 1.34 ERA in 127 innings of work with the Orix Buffaloes this year, his age-24 season. That level of excellence extends all the way back to 2021; in 514 2/3 innings of work the past three seasons, Yamamoto’s ERA is 1.50 while he’s struck out 27.2% of batters he’s faced, walking just 5.2%. That level of dominance even eclipses that of former Yankee Masahiro Tanaka, who made two All Star appearances and posted a 3.33 ERA in ten postseason starts for the club after signing a seven-year, $155MM deal with New York prior to the 2014 season.

It’s no wonder the Yankees would have interest in Yamamoto; while they’ve gotten another excellent season out of ace Gerrit Cole, the club’s other starters have largely disappointed. Lefties Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes, nominally the club’s #2 and #3 starters, have been limited to just 7 and 12 starts respectively this season thanks to injuries and struggled badly. A Yamamoto signing would certainly give the Yankees a quality arm to pair with Cole at the top of their rotation while simultaneously helping to alleviate pressure not only on Rodon and Cortes, but also on youngsters like Clarke Schmidt, Jhony Brito, and Randy Vasquez entering 2024.

More from around the AL East…

  • Orioles outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad is on the club’s radar for a possible call-up option when rosters expand on September 1, as GM Mike Elias told reporters (including BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Rich Dubroff). The 2nd overall pick in the 2020 draft, Kjerstad didn’t make his MiLB debut until last June thanks to a myocarditis diagnosis but has done nothing but hit since then. In 473 trips to the plate this season between the Double-A and Triple-A levels, the 24-year-old outfielder has slashed a sensational .308/.378/.542 with a strikeout rate just below 18%. If called up for the stretch run, Kjerstad would join an outfield that typically sports Austin Hays in left, Cedric Mullins in center, and Anthony Santander in right.
  • Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson exited today’s game against the Guardians with right mid-back discomfort, as noted by The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. The severity of Swanson’s injury isn’t yet known, but even a short absence for the right-hander, who sports a 3.10 ERA and a 29.4% strikeout rate in 58 innings of work this season, would be a substantial blow to Toronto’s bullpen. Of course, the club would still have right-handers Jordan Romano (2.60 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate) and Jordan Hicks (3.83 ERA, 30.3% strikeout rate) available for the late innings even if Swanson required a trip to the injured list.

Mets Designate Tyson Miller For Assignment

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The Mets announced to reporters, including Tim Britton of The Athletic, that right-hander Tyson Miller has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to righty Sean Reid-Foley, whose selection was reported earlier today. Righty Reed Garrett was optioned to open a spot for Reid-Foley on the active roster.

Miller, 28, has donned quite a few jerseys in the past year. He finished the 2022 season with the Rangers but went to the Brewers via a waiver claim in November. He was then traded to the Dodgers in July before coming to the Mets earlier this month via a waiver claim. In between all of that, he’s managed to throw 13 1/3 major league innings for three different teams this year with a 5.40 earned run average.

He’s spent more time in the minors, with all of those clubs having used him as optional pitching depth this year. In 30 combined innings for the Triple-A teams of the Brewers, Dodgers and Mets, he has a 3.30 ERA, 26.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate.

Miller is in his final option year and will therefore be out of options in the 2024 season. Perhaps he wasn’t in the long-term plans in Queens and has been nudged out of the picture. The Mets are out of contention and will likely be using the rest of their schedule to evaluate players for jobs on next year’s club, which apparently won’t include Miller.

With the trade deadline long gone, the Mets will have no choice but to put Miller on waivers in the coming days. He has a very limited major league track record of just 15 appearances but has clearly intrigued teams around the league with his minor league results, based on how often he’s been shuffled around. Although he’ll be out of options next year, he could be kept in the minors as depth for the rest of this season. He has a previous career outright and would be eligible to reject another such assignment and elect free agency in the event he were to clear waivers.

Mets To Select Sean Reid-Foley

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Right-hander Sean Reid-Foley is on his way to join the Mets from Triple-A Syracuse, as first reported by Mike Mayer of Metsmerized. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so New York will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster to formally select his contract.

The 27-year-old Reid-Foley is 15 months removed from last year’s Tommy John surgery and has pitched 22 innings of 4.09 ERA ball across three minor league levels as he’s worked back into game shape. That includes a less palatable 4.96 ERA in 16 1/3 Triple-A frames, though the former top prospect has a 3.95 ERA and 42.5% strikeout rate over his past 14 Triple-A appearances (23 strikeouts, 54 batters faced).

Reid-Foley has pitched in parts of five big league seasons, all of them coming with either the Blue Jays or the Mets. In 102 1/3 innings at the MLB level, the former second-round pick (2017) has posted a 4.66 ERA with a solid 23.6% strikeout rate but a bloated 13.7% walk rate. He’s split his time relatively evenly between the bullpen and the rotation, carrying very similar marks in ERA, strikeout rate, walk rate, ground-ball rate and home run rate, regardless of role. Like most pitchers, he’s thrown harder out of the bullpen; last year’s career-high 96 mph average on his fastball in relief was 2.4 mph north of the 93.6 mph he averaged in 2017-18 when working primarily as a starter.

The Mets’ bullpen has been a revolving door since the trade deadline. While veterans Adam Ottavino, Brooks Raley, Drew Smith and Trevor Gott have been constants, but they’ve used a stunning 17 relievers since the trade deadline. The Mets have cycled through journeymen such as Jimmy Yacabonis, Dennis Santana, Tyson Miller, Vinny Nittoli and Adam Kolarek (among others) while trying to patch things together on a thinned out pitching staff. Reid-Foley will become the latest entrant into that relief corps carousel. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll have to either stick in the bullpen or else quickly be designated for assignment to make way for the next arm.

The Mets haven’t had a starter complete five innings since Kodai Senga tossed seven frames on Saturday. Their bullpen has covered 11 2/3 innings in the past three games alone, so it’s not exactly a surprise to see them bringing in a fresh arm.

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: The White Sox Fire Their Front Office, Injured Rays and Prospect Promotion Time

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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:

  • With the Reds calling up Noelvi Marte, how do they fit in playing time for all their rookie position players? After keeping Nick Senzel at the deadline, what kind of return could they get for trading him during the offseason? (18:40)
  • Will the Mets pursue any notable free agent pitchers this off season? (24:05)
  • Of the teams that have exceeded the base luxury tax threshold this season, which ones do you see as most likely to dip back below it during this coming offseason? (26:15)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Pete Alonso’s Future, Yankees’ Rotation Troubles and Should the Trade Deadline Be Pushed Back? – listen here
  • The Streaking Mariners, the Struggling Angels and Injured Aces – listen here
  • Trade deadline recap – listen here
Show all

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