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Oswaldo Cabrera Undergoes Surgery To Repair Fractured Ankle

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May 17: It is “probably unlikely” that Cabrera will play again in 2025, Boone told Greg Joyce and other reporters on Friday, though an official diagnosis won’t be known for 7-10 days.  Beyond the fracture, Cabrera’s ankle also had some related ligament damage, which Boone said made the surgery “a little more involved” than initially expected, “but all things considered, fairly successful, too.”

May 16: Cabrera announced on Instagram that he underwent ankle surgery yesterday. A timetable for his return still isn’t clear, but the 26-year-old offered some heartfelt perspective after having time to reflect:

“After such a sad night for me, having so many negative thoughts after twisting my ankle so brutally, in so much pain, I went to try to sleep so I wouldn’t give in to more bad thoughts,” he wrote. “When I woke up, one of the first things I did was grab my phone. I didn’t have hundreds, I had THOUSANDS of messages from my family, friends, fans, agents, coaches, teammates — I simply had messages from EVERYONE. I dropped the phone on the bed and with a big SMILE on my face, the first thing I could say was ’God, how blessed I am.’  … I want to THANK YOU ALL. Thank you for worrying about me, for every message, for keeping me in your prayers, for making me feel so supported. This is something that my family and I will never forget!”

May 13, 1:30pm: The Yankees announced that Cabrera has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle fracture. LeMahieu has been reinstated from the IL as the corresponding move.

7:40am: While the Yankees beat the Mariners 11-5 last night, the primary focus in the aftermath of last night’s game was not on the score but on the status of infielder Oswaldo Cabrera. As noted by Greg Joyce of the New York Post, Cabrera went down while attempting to score on a sac fly due to an ankle injury, and eventually had to be loaded onto a stretcher so an ambulance could take him off the field and transport him to a local hospital. Some sort of update on Cabrera’s status will likely be made available at some point today, although it seems all but certain he’s ticketed for an extended absence.

“I think everyone understands it was a pretty serious situation,” manager Aaron Boone said of the injury, as relayed by Joyce. “Just praying for our guy Cabby tonight and hoping for the best. Trust that he’s in good hands as he goes through the night. Obviously a great game in a lot of ways, but a lot of guys feeling for their teammate, who’s the best of them.”

With Cabrera presumably out for the foreseeable future, the Yankees will need to figure out how to address an infield mix that already had questionable depth with him in the mix. Anthony Volpe and Paul Goldschmidt are both everyday players at shortstop and first base respectively, but second and third base are both major question marks. Jazz Chisholm Jr. can play one position or the other on a regular basis but is currently on the shelf with a “high-grade” oblique strain that will keep him out of commission for at least another month. The Yankees are getting DJ LeMahieu back from the injured list tomorrow, as he was already expected to rejoin the club today even prior to Cabrera’s injury.

LeMahieu was previously expected to get regular playing time at second base for the time being, but it’s possible that Cabrera’s injury shifts that expectation. While he hit just .204/.269/.259 in his age-35 campaign last year, LeMahieu offers a lengthy track record as an average-or-better hitter in the majors and hit quite well during his rehab assignment at the minor league level. That’s likely enough to make him the Yankees’ top infielder after Volpe and Goldschmidt due to the slim pickings.

Jorbit Vivas is currently holding things down at second base but has hit just .158/.304/.211 in ten games at the position. Pablo Reyes and Oswald Peraza are both on the roster as well, but Reyes is hitting an even more lackluster .174/.240/.174. Peraza has slashed only a slightly more more respectable .204/.278/.388 in 54 plate appearances this year, and could be platooned with the lefty-swinging Vivas at whichever position LeMahieu doesn’t play.

Outside of the players currently in the active roster mix, the depth is lacking. Braden Shewmake offers a left-handed alternative to Vivas and is already on the 40-man roster, but he’s hitting just .197 with a 94 wRC+ at Triple-A this year. Andrew Velazquez and Max Burt are both in the organization as potential upper-level depth options, but Velazquez has never hit much in either the majors or minors while Burt has just 47 games at Triple-A under his belt as a 28-year-old. Perhaps the Yankees could look for an external addition to their infield, but any players available at this point in the calendar would likely be relatively low-impact options.

Brewers Acquire Rob Zastryzny From Yankees

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Left-hander Rob Zastryzny has been traded from the Yankees to the Brewers, according to announcements from both clubs. Andrew Wagner of Freeman Sports was among those to notice earlier that Zastryzny was in the Brewer clubhouse. The Yanks, who signed the southpaw to a minor league deal, receive cash considerations in return. The Brewers have selected the lefty to their roster and optioned righty Elvis Peguero as the corresponding move. Milwaukee already had an open 40-man spot via Vinny Capra being designated for assignment recently.

As mentioned, Zastryzny signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the winter. He has been at the Triple-A level so far this year with mediocre surface-level results but better numbers under the hood. Through 12 innings, he has a 23.5% strikeout rate, 50% ground ball rate and no walks. Though he has a 4.50 earned run average, thanks to a .378 batting average on balls in play and 60.6% strand rate.

The Brewers are already familiar with Zastryzny, as he pitched for them last year. He signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee ahead of the 2024 campaign and was called up in the summer. However, he only got to make nine appearances before some left elbow tendinitis put him on the injured list in late July. He stayed on the IL through the end of the year and was put on waivers in November, with the Cubs claiming him. He later cleared waivers in February and elected free agency, which led to his deal with the Yankees.

Zastryzny has pitched in six separate MLB seasons but has just 67 innings under his belt. In that time, he has a 4.30 ERA, 18.2% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate and 44.8% ground ball rate. His minor league numbers have generally been better. From 2021 to the present, he has thrown 143 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.57 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.

He finished last year hurt but appears to be healthy now. Perhaps he had some sort of opt-out or upward mobility clause in his contract, with the Brewers more willing to give him a roster spot than the Yankees.

Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images

Yankees Designate Tyler Matzek For Assignment

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The Yankees announced that left-hander Tyler Matzek has been designated for assignment. That opens an active roster spot for right-hander Jonathan Loáisiga, who has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. Their 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.

Matzek, 34, was selected to the big league roster a bit less than a month ago. He has since tossed 6 1/3 innings for the Yankees over seven appearances. He allowed three earned runs in that time, leading to a passable 4.26 ERA. However, he issued five walks in that span, a 14.3% rate.

That’s a fairly small sample but control has been a problem for Matzek in the past. He has an 11.7% walk rate in his big league career. His early-career stint with the Rockies was hampered by those control issues. He later revitalized his career in Atlanta but still worked around some fairly high walk totals. From 2020 to 2022, he posted a 2.92 with Atlanta despite walking 13.4% of batters faced. However, he also struck out 27.4% of opponents.

He wasn’t able to pitch much in the past two seasons. He required Tommy John surgery late in 2022, wiping out his 2023. Last year, further elbow troubles kept him on the shelf for much of it. He only got to pitch 10 innings in the big leagues.

The Yanks were able to get him on a minor league deal this winter and brought him up to the majors, but they appear to be quickly moving on. This will leave them a bit short on left-handed relief. Ryan Yarbrough has been working bulk innings, so Tim Hill as the only true southpaw reliever now that Matzek is gone.

DFA limbo can last as long as a week, though the waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning any trade possibilities would have to be explored in the next five days. Matzek’s recent track record isn’t much to go on but he at least has some past success. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

As for Loáisiga, he’ll be looking to make a comeback from a lengthy injury absence. He had a really strong season in 2021, pitching 70 2/3 innings for the Yankees with a 2.17 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 60.9% ground ball rate. But in 2022, he battled some shoulder troubles and posted a 4.13 ERA. In 2023, he was limited to just 17 appearances by elbow issues and eventually underwent UCL surgery early in 2024.

Though he was going to start the 2025 season on the injured list, the Yankees believed in him enough to bring him back. They signed him to a major league deal with a $5MM guarantee and a club option for next year. He’ll be a bargain if he can get back to that 2021 form. The early results have been good, as he threw seven innings on his rehab assignment with nine strikeouts and no walks, allowing just one earned run.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Matt Carpenter Announces Retirement

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Veteran infielder Matt Carpenter announced his retirement on Sports Spectrum’s Get In The Game podcast (h/t to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) this morning. He hangs up his spikes after 14 years in the majors.

“I wanted to take this opportunity on this podcast, here with you, and officially announce my retirement from baseball. I was very fortunate enough to play for some great organizations, and had quite a thrill being able to don the St. Louis Cardinals logo for many years, a brief stint with the New York Yankees, and also the San Diego Padres.” Carpenter told former MLB pitcher Scott Linebrink. Carpenter went on to thank his family, before adding that he’s “excited for what’s next.”

Matt Carpenter | Jeff Curry-USA TODAY SportsA veteran of 14 MLB seasons, Carpenter was open to continuing his career in 2025 as recently as this past September. That was following a season with the Cardinals where he battled injuries and struck out at a 32.5% clip but still produced a roughly average 95 wRC+ across 157 plate appearances in a part-time role. That sort of production was still enough to make Carpenter a solid bench piece, though with the Cardinals’ attempted pivot towards providing young players more opportunities this year, a reunion between the 39-year-old and his longtime club evidently wasn’t in the cards.

As Carpenter mentioned, he was wearing Cardinal red for most of his career. The Cards selected him in the 13th round of the 2009 draft. He made it to the big leagues in 2011, the year of the club’s most recent World Series win, but he was a footnote in that season. He was selected to the roster in June and optioned back to the minors after a seven-game cup of coffee.

His major league career began in earnest in 2012. As a 26-year-old rookie that year, Carpenter took to hitting in the majors almost right away. He hit an impressive .294/.365/.463 in 114 games while splitting time between first base, second base, third base, and both outfield corners. That show of versatility was enough to earn Carpenter a sixth-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting despite the fact that he had yet to generate the type of power he would later in his career, clubbing just six homers in 340 trips to the plate. He also hit .286/.412/.571 in playoff games, though the Cards were felled by the Giants in the NLCS.

He took a step forward in 2013 and had arguably his best season. He almost doubled his power output, getting to 11 home runs. He walked at a 10% clip and only struck out 13.7% of the time. That led to a .318/.392/.481 slash and 146 wRC+. He was selected to the All-Star team for the first time. FanGraphs credits him with 7.2 wins above replacement for that season, his personal best by a good margin. He finished fourth in National League Most Valuable Player voting. Carpenter didn’t perform especially well in the postseason that year, hitting .217/.263/.290, but the Cards made it as far as the World Series, losing to the Red Sox in six games.

The Cards then locked him up on an extension which would pay him $52MM over the 2014 to 2019 seasons and keep him in St. Louis into his mid-3os. Over the rest of the decade, his production shifted slightly, with a bit more power but a bit less on-base ability. The aggregate was roughly similar though, making him a very useful player as he bounced around the infield. From 2015 to 2018, he hit between 21 and 36 home runs in each season, totalling 108 long balls in that four-year stretch. He slashed a combined .260/.376/.497 for that span, leading to a 135 wRC+.

In April of 2019, as Carpenter was entering the final guaranteed year of his deal, he and the Cards agreed to another extension. This one would pay him $39MM over the 2020 and 2021 seasons. However, that ultimately proved to be a misstep for the club, as Carpenter’s production declined over those next few years. His wRC+ finished at 96 in 2019, then 85 in the shortened 2020 campaign, before going all the way down to 68 in 2021.

The Cards could have retained Carpenter for 2022 via an $18.5MM club option, but with his declining results, the $2MM buyout was the easy call. That sent him to free agency for the first time in his career, ahead of his age-36 season.

Though many had written him off at that point, Carpenter was able to engineer a brief but brilliant renaissance. Thanks to some help from Joey Votto, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Carpenter worked to revamp his swing. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers and clubbed six home runs in 21 games for their Triple-A club. Despite the strong results, the Rangers weren’t willing to give him a spot, so they released him.

The Yankees gave Carpenter a major league deal, which paid off immediately. He amazingly hit 15 home runs in just 47 games for the Yanks, while also walking at a 12.3% pace. Unfortunately, that amazing run was cut short when Carpenter fouled a ball off his foot in August. He suffered a fracture and missed the rest of the regular season. He was activated for the playoffs but struck out in nine of his 12 plate appearances. His regular season line for that year finished at a ridiculous .305/.412/.727, translating to a 216 wRC+.

Though it was cut short by injury, the Padres bought into Carpenter’s return to form. They signed him to a two-year, $12MM deal going into 2023, but that bet didn’t pay off. Carpenter slashed .176/.322/.319 for the Friars that year. He was traded to Atlanta ahead of the 2024 season in what was clearly a salary dump deal, as Atlanta released him shortly thereafter. He returned to the Cardinals and, as mentioned, had a serviceable season as a role player. That will now go down as his final big league season.

All told, Carpenter got into 1,511 games and stepped to the plate 5,773 times. He had 1,257 hits, including 179 home runs. He scored 813 runs and drove in 659. He walked in 13.4% of his plate appearances, helping him slash .259/.366/.449 for a 125 wRC+. He produced 31.5 fWAR and 28.7bWAR, making three All-Star teams along the way. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings at just over the $100MM mark.

We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Carpenter on his fine career and wish him the best with whatever comes next.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images

Yankees Sign Anthony DeSclafani To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees signed veteran righty Anthony DeSclafani to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The RailRiders announced the news to Conor Foley of The Yes Network.

DeSclafani’s debut appearance with Scranton will be his first game action in almost two years. He suffered a flexor strain while pitching for the Giants in July 2023. DeSclafani missed the entire second half but attempted to rehab without surgery. He was traded twice over the following offseason, largely as a salary offset. The Giants shipped him to Seattle alongside Mitch Haniger for Robbie Ray. The Mariners flipped him to the Twins as part of the Jorge Polanco return less than a month later.

The Mariners paid down $8MM of DeSclafani’s $12MM salary. The Twins hoped he’d provide affordable back-of-the-rotation output. That wasn’t to be, as he suffered a setback that was later diagnosed as an elbow strain. He underwent flexor tendon surgery at the end of March and spent the entire season on the injured list. DeSclafani qualified for free agency at the end of the year and never threw a pitch with the Twins.

Nearly 14 months since that procedure, he’s evidently healthy enough to get back on the mound. The 35-year-old owns a roughly league average 4.20 earned run average in parts of nine major league seasons. His production has been quite volatile. He’s turned in a pair of seasons with an ERA south of 3.30, but he has also allowed at least 4.88 earned runs per nine on five separate occasions. DeScalafani had arguably the best year of his career in 2021, when he turned in a 3.17 mark with a solid 22.5% strikeout rate over 31 starts for San Francisco.

The Giants re-signed him to a three-year, $36MM free agent deal during the ensuing offseason. That didn’t work out. He allowed a 5.16 ERA while throwing just 118 2/3 innings over the course of that contract. His strikeout rate dropped into the 18-19% range during that time, though he continued his career-long track record of very rarely issuing walks. There’s not much downside for the Yanks in seeing how his stuff plays after surgery. Jake Woodford, Brandon Leibrandt and the recently outrighted Carlos Carrasco are their most experienced depth starters at Triple-A.

Yankees Notes: LeMahieu, Infield, Gil

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The Yankees plan to activate DJ LeMahieu from the injured list before tomorrow’s game against the Mariners, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Brendan Kuty of The Athletic). LeMahieu is already en route to Seattle but will not be active for tonight’s series opener. They’ll ease him back in, as he’ll be off the bench on Tuesday and draw into the starting lineup on Wednesday.

LeMahieu will make his season debut after a six-week IL stay. The veteran infielder strained his left calf fairly early in Spring Training. The Yankees announced it as of borderline Grade 1 or 2 severity. It ended his camp after one game and two at-bats. The Yanks sent him out on a minor league rehab assignment on April 22. Position players can spend up to 20 days on a rehab stint before the team either needs to activate them or pull them off the stint for at least another five days. The rehab window closed today.

While there’s not much to be gleaned from a player’s stats during a rehab stint, the Yankees are presumably encouraged by LeMahieu’s form. He batted .444 with a home run and nearly as many walks (three) as strikeouts (four) over nine games. He divided that time between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

LeMahieu projected as the Yankees starting third baseman entering camp. New York seemingly made little effort to upgrade at the hot corner even though he’s coming off a .204/.269/.259 showing in his age-35 season. He also missed time with foot and hip injuries. Boone suggested last week that LeMahieu could see more time at second base while Jazz Chisholm Jr. is on the shelf (relayed by Chris Kirschner of The Athletic).

The Yanks have been relying upon Oswaldo Cabrera and Jorbit Vivas at third and second, respectively. The switch-hitting Cabrera owns a .243/.319/.311 slash through 117 plate appearances. Vivas is hitting .158 through his first nine MLB games. Their other second/third base candidates are out-of-options bench players Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes. LeMahieu will play regularly.

Boone also provided an update on Luis Gil (via Greg Joyce of The New York Post). Last year’s AL Rookie of the Year remains two to three weeks away from working off a mound. Gil began a throwing program at the end of April but has worked solely on flat ground. Gil sustained a high-grade lat strain a couple weeks into Spring Training. He wasn’t able to pitch in an exhibition game. He’s going to need multiple bullpen sessions and an extended rehab assignment. It seems Gil might not get onto a mound until the end of May, making it tough to envision a return to Yankee Stadium before the calendar flips to July.

Marcus Stroman Has Setback In Rehab From Knee Inflammation

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The Yankees have temporarily shut down Marcus Stroman after the right-hander reported continued knee soreness following a live batting practice session on Friday.  Manager Aaron Boone told the Associated Press and other media that Stroman felt some “discomfort” in his bothersome left knee, and despite “a lot of treatments on it and stuff, it just can’t kind of get over that final hump to really allow him to get to that next level on the mound.”

Monday will mark a full month since Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, and Boone suggested that the injury existed well before the IL placement, contributing to Stroman’s 11.57 ERA over his first three starts of the season.  Stroman received a cortisone shot to deal with the swelling and scans didn’t reveal any structural damage, yet the knee still isn’t showing much progress all these weeks later.  Given this latest development, Boone didn’t have a timeline in place for when Stroman might resume throwing, let alone when the right-hander might be back in New York’s rotation.

After a month on the IL and still apparently weeks to go before returning, Stroman may already be out of time in terms of vesting his player option for the 2026 season.  Stroman’s two-year, $37MM deal from the 2023-24 offseason carried a vesting clause that would allow Stroman an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitched at least 140 innings in 2025.

Stroman tossed 154 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball last season, and his relative durability over his career made that 140-inning threshold seem like quite a reasonable possibility….that is, if he were still a starting pitcher.  The Yankees explored trading Stroman this past winter with an eye towards opening up payroll space, and because at the time, Stroman wasn’t projected as one of the team’s top five rotation candidates.  Stroman was quite blunt about his intent on remaining in the rotation, and as it turned out, Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery and Luis Gil’s long-term lat strain suddenly opened up two spots in the starting five.

Max Fried has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season and Carlos Rodon has been solid, but Will Warren, Clarke Schmidt (who also started the season on the IL), and Carlos Carrasco (who was outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier this week) have all struggled to varying degrees.  Swingman Ryan Yarbrough got the start today and pitched well in the Yankees’ 12-2 rout of the Athletics, and Yarbrough might be the top candidate to step in for Carrasco as the fifth starter.

Gil started his throwing progression a couple of weeks ago, and is expected to be out until June or July.  Assuming Stroman is also back before Gil, that will give the Yankees some time to evaluate their rotation prior to the July 31 trade deadline, though it would seem like the club will surely be in the market for at least one more arm or two.

Clay Holmes Discusses Free Agency

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One of the more interesting free agents on the market last winter was right-hander Clay Holmes, who entered the offseason having fashioned a very accomplished career as a reliever since being traded from the Pirates to the Yankees. Across his four seasons in the Bronx, the righty pitched to a 2.69 ERA with a 2.74 FIP as a late-inning reliever.

That’s the sort of track record that would normally lead a player to sign a lucrative deal to remain in a high-leverage role, as was the case for players like Jeff Hoffman and Tanner Scott this offseason. Holmes chose a different path, however, and wound up signing with the Mets on a three-year, $38MM deal to become a member of their starting rotation. Holmes, 32, spoke to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale about his free agency as part of an interview MLBTR readers are encouraged to read in full and revealed that he had no intention of signing as a starter entering the winter.

“I definitely went into the offseason not expecting to be a starter,” Holmes told Nightengale. “I mean, it wasn’t like the World Series ended and I went out seeking to be a starter. It was nothing I thought about.”

Holmes went on to say that he only began to consider the idea of converting into a rotation role when his agent approached him to let him know that multiple teams had called to gauge his interest in the idea. While multiple teams reached out to Holmes about starting, Nightengale relays that the Mets were the most convincing in their pitch to use him out of the rotation and that Holmes left his conversations with Mets officials knowing the team had a “real belief” in his ability to be a quality starter.

That, in conjunction with the ability to continue living in New York surrounded by familiar faces like Mets manager (and former Yankees bench coach) Carlos Mendoza, was enough to sell Holmes on the decision to head to Queens as a starting pitcher. That’s despite the fact that multiple teams, including the incumbent Yankees, were interested in the right-hander only as a reliever. Nightengale notes that the Yankees “lightly engaged” with Holmes about the possibility of a reunion this winter but that those conversations were strictly about the righty pitching in a bullpen role. He also goes on to report that Holmes received more lucrative offers from teams who were interested in him as a closer, with multiple offers guaranteeing him more than $40MM.

While leaving a higher guarantee on the table is always a risk, if his relief offers were in the $40MM range it’s not hard to see why he decided to bet on himself. Holmes’s $38MM pact with the Mets allows him to opt out after the 2026 season, and if he were to re-enter free agency with two successful years as a mid-rotation or better starter under his belt he’d surely find much more lucrative offers in free agency. Nick Martinez accepted the Qualifying Offer this past winter and will receive more than half of that for just the 2025 season after proving himself as a quality starter during his time with the Reds, and Seth Lugo is another recent rotation convert who signed a three-year, $45MM deal with the Royals and appears likely to decline his 2026 player option and land an even more lucrative deal this winter barring a sudden change in fortune.

When Holmes signed with the Mets, the Yankees went on to pivot towards Devin Williams to upgrade their bullpen, trading Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin in order to acquiring the well-regarded closer. Williams’ tenure in the Bronx has gotten off to a difficult start so far, as he’s posted an ugly 9.24 ERA in 15 appearances for the Yankees. The same cannot be said about Holmes’s first few starts in Queens. Across eight starts as a Met, Holmes has pitched to a sterling 2.74 ERA with a solid 24.7% strikeout rate and an excellent 53.0% ground ball rate. That’s the eighth-highest ground ball rate among qualified starters in the sport this year, and his 2.62 FIP ranks seventh among that same group.

Of course, all of that strong production has come in just eight starts. Eight starts into his own conversion to the rotation last year, Giants right-hander Jordan Hicks boasted a 2.30 ERA and 3.17 FIP across 43 innings. He posted a 5.27 ERA and 5.15 FIP the rest of the way last year, however, and currently has a 5.82 ERA through his own first eight starts of 2025. The move from relief work to starting can be a difficult adjustment for players just in terms of innings, and it will be impossible to judge Holmes’s success entirely until he has a full season under his belt and he proves his stuff can hold up over 140+ innings of work. For now, however, it’s hard to imagine the partnership between the Mets and Holmes having gone better for either side as the righty appears likely to be in the conversation for his second consecutive All-Star appearance while the Mets have cruised to a 25-14 record as they lead the NL East.

Yankees Outright Carlos Carrasco

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The Yankees announced that Carlos Carrasco went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The veteran righty has more than enough service time to decline the assignment in favor of free agency, though the team did not provide any indication that he’ll do that. He’d been designated for assignment on Tuesday.

Carrasco, 38, signed a minor league deal a couple weeks before the opening of Spring Training. He posted a 1.69 ERA over 16 innings in March. Between the strong camp and injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil, Carrasco opened the season in Aaron Boone’s rotation. He couldn’t carry the spring success into the regular season. Carrasco surrendered nearly six earned runs per nine across 32 innings. His 17.6% strikeout rate was a few percentage points below league average, while he gave up seven home runs (1.97 per nine).

That’s more or less a match for Carrasco’s 2023-24 production. He held rotation spots with the Mets and Guardians, respectively, for the bulk of those two years. He hasn’t missed bats and has struggled to keep the ball in the park. Carrasco allowed a combined 6.18 ERA in 41 starts over that stretch. His 1.75 HR/9 rate over the past three seasons is the highest among active pitchers who have logged at least 200 innings.

Carrasco has been an upper mid-rotation starter for the majority of his career. He’s now a depth arm as his velocity has declined into his late 30s. He’s still a solid strike-thrower and a highly-respected veteran, so the Yankees would presumably be happy to keep him in the organization at Scranton. Brandon Leibrandt and Jake Woodford are the most experienced non-roster depth starters with the RailRiders.

Looking Ahead To Club Options: AL East

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MLBTR wraps our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the AL East. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.

Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West, NL Central, AL Central, NL East

Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore signed Kittredge to a one-year, $10MM free agent deal over the winter. He’s making $9MM this season and has a matching club option or a $1MM buyout for 2026. Kittredge was supposed to be a key setup man in front of Félix Bautista, but he suffered a left knee injury early in camp and required a debridement surgery. He began a rehab stint at High-A Aberdeen on Sunday. While there’s plenty of time for Kittredge to turn things around, it hasn’t been the start to his O’s tenure that he envisioned.

Laureano, who was non-tendered by the Braves, signed a $4MM contract with Baltimore in February. That came with a $6.5MM team option without a buyout, giving the Orioles an extra season of club control. Injuries to Tyler O’Neill and Colton Cowser have pressed him into everyday work, mostly in left field. He hasn’t provided much through his first 24 games. Laureano is hitting .185 with a .237 on-base percentage through 59 plate appearances. He has hit a trio of home runs but struck out 18 times while drawing only four walks. Laureano has generally been a below-average hitter since being suspended following a positive PED test in 2021. He’ll need much better production over the next few months for the Orioles to exercise the option.

Boston Red Sox

Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05MM free agent deal to match the price of the qualifying offer — which the Dodgers had declined to issue when he hit the market. It’s a relatively expensive pillow contract. Buehler was coming off a dismal regular season, in which he’d posted a 5.38 ERA with a career-worst 18.6% strikeout rate over 16 starts. He finished his Dodger tenure on a high note, though, closing out the World Series while pitching to a 3.60 earned run average in 15 playoff innings.

An ace-caliber pitcher early in his career, Buehler hasn’t looked the same since undergoing the second Tommy John surgery of his career in August 2022. His stint in Boston has gotten out to a shaky start. While his 4.28 ERA through 33 2/3 innings is serviceable, he’s striking out just 20.7% of opponents while averaging a personal-low 93.5 MPH on his fastball. Shoulder inflammation sent him to the injured list last week. The mutual option was always an accounting measure designed to push the $3MM buyout to the end of the year rather than disbursing it throughout the season as salary. The team seems likelier to decline its end than the pitcher does.

Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5MM deal during the 2023-24 offseason. He negotiated an opt-out clause after the first season and hoped to retest the market after one strong year. Instead, Giolito’s elbow gave out during Spring Training and he required UCL surgery that cost him the entire season. The veteran righty made the easy decision to stick around for year two.

By exercising his player option, Giolito unlocked a 2026 option for the team. It’s valued at $14MM and comes with a $1.5MM buyout. If Giolito pitches 140 innings this year, it’d convert to a $19MM mutual option (still with the $1.5MM buyout). That’d give him a chance to test free agency if he wants. Giolito has an uphill battle to 140 frames. A hamstring strain cost him the first month of the season. He finally made his team debut last week, working six innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts in a no-decision against Toronto. The Rangers tagged him for six runs on 10 hits in just 3 2/3 frames tonight.

The Red Sox added Hendriks on a two-year, $10MM deal over the 2023-24 offseason. They knew they wouldn’t get much in year one, as Hendriks had undergone Tommy John surgery the prior August. He attempted to make a late-season return last year but was shut down after a minor flare-up of elbow discomfort. Elbow inflammation shelved him for a couple weeks to begin this season, though he made his team debut in mid-April.

Hendriks allowed two runs on three hits in one inning during his first appearance. He has rattled off five straight scoreless outings since then, albeit with four walks in five frames. His 95 MPH average fastball is solid but below the 97-98 range at which he sat during his elite seasons with the White Sox.

Note: Jarren Duran’s arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with an $8MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Sox decline the option.

New York Yankees

  • Tim Hill, LHP ($3MM club option, $350K buyout)

Hill finished last season with the Yankees after being released by the White Sox in June. He’d allowed nearly six earned runs per nine with Chicago but managed a tidy 2.05 ERA over 44 frames for New York. He’s out to a similarly productive start to the ’25 season. Hill has surrendered five runs through 17 1/3 innings (2.60 ERA).

While the soft-tossing lefty has managed just 11 strikeouts, his game has always been built around ground-balls. He’s getting grounders at a massive 81.6% clip thus far. Only nine of the 40 batted balls he’s allowed have been hit into the air. It’s easily the highest grounder rate in the majors. The Yankees value this skillset as much as any team, and the $2.65MM option decision is a drop in the bucket for them.

Loáisiga is still working back from last April’s elbow surgery. The righty has generally been a productive reliever when healthy, but he’s only once managed even 50 MLB innings in a season. He’s on a rehab stint with Low-A Tampa and will need another few weeks before he’s built into MLB game shape. Loáisiga is making $5MM this season. The option has a matching base value and could climb by another $500K if the Yankees exercise it. He’d earn $100K each at reaching 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70 innings in 2026.

Tampa Bay Rays

Fairbanks is in the final guaranteed season of the three-year, $12MM extension that he signed before the 2023 campaign. That includes a $1MM buyout on a club option that comes with a $7MM base value. That’s a bargain for a quality high-leverage reliever, but the deal includes various escalators that could push the option price above $12MM.

The option value would climb by $500K if he gets to 125 combined appearances between 2023-25 and another $1MM apiece at 135, 150 and 165 combined outings. Fairbanks made it into 95 games over the first two seasons. He’d trigger the first $500K escalator at just 30 appearances this year and would max it out if he makes it into 70 games. He can boost the option price by another $2MM based on this year’s games finished total: $500K apiece at 25, 30, 35 and 40.

Fairbanks has never reached 50 appearances in a season because of various injuries, but he’s already at 14 games through this season’s first six weeks. Fairbanks has finished 11 of those contests while working as Kevin Cash’s primary closer. He has recorded 13 strikeouts against six walks while allowing three runs over 13 1/3 innings. The option price should remain solid value, though the escalators might eventually push it to an area where Tampa Bay would rather explore deadline or offseason trades rather than having a reliever projecting as one of the highest-paid players on the roster.

Jansen seemed to be pulling away from the rest of a weak free agent catching class early last season. His production tanked from June onwards, leaving him to sign an $8.5MM pillow contract with Tampa Bay. He’s making an $8MM salary and will collect a $500K buyout on a $12MM mutual option at year’s end. Last summer’s offensive drought has carried into 2025. Jansen has only one home run with a .147/.301/.221 batting line through 83 plate appearances. He remains a very patient hitter, but the Rays would have an easy decision to decline their end of the option if he doesn’t find the double-digit home run power he showed during his best seasons in Toronto.

Lowe has had a rare extended run with a Tampa Bay team that is almost always willing to trade any player. He’s in his eighth big league season and in year seven of the extension he signed in Spring Training 2019. Lowe collected $24MM for what would have been his standard six seasons of team control. The Rays exercised a $10.5MM option for this year and can retain him once more at an $11.5MM price. It’s an $11MM decision after accounting for the $500K buyout.

While injuries have been a recurring issue, Lowe has been one of the better offensive middle infielders in the sport when healthy. His 39-homer season in 2021 is an outlier, but he has tallied 21 longballs in each of the past two seasons. He’s out to a much slower start this year, batting .203/.258/.305 with four homers across 128 plate appearances. The batted ball metrics are still solid, but his career-worst 20.1% swinging strike rate is the fifth-highest among hitters with at least 50 PAs.

This one can still go a few different ways. If Lowe hits like this all season, he’d be bought out. If he finds something like his 2023-24 form (.238/.319/.458), then $11MM is reasonable. It’d keep him as one of Tampa Bay’s highest-paid players, though, so there’s a decent chance he’ll be traded at some point this year. The 16-18 Rays look like fringe Wild Card contenders for a second consecutive year. They could again try to walk the line between buying and selling come deadline season.

The Rays signed Waguespack to a restructured deal early last offseason. He’s making $1.3MM this season and has a $1.5MM club option for next year. That’d escalate to $2MM if he reaches 20 “points” this season. Waguespack would receive one point for each MLB relief appearance and two points per big league start. He has spent the ’25 season to date on optional assignment to Triple-A Durham.

Working as a pure reliever for the Bulls, Waguespack has reeled off 14 innings of two-run ball. He has fanned 15 hitters against three walks while getting ground-balls at a lofty 60% clip. It hasn’t earned him a major league call yet, but he should be up before too much longer if he keeps performing at that level. Waguespack spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Orix Buffaloes in Japan. He made four MLB appearances with Tampa Bay last year but lost a good portion of the season to a rotator cuff injury.

Note: Taylor Walls’ arbitration deal contains a ’26 club option with a $2.45MM base salary. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the Rays decline the option.

Toronto Blue Jays

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