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A.J. Minter To Undergo Season-Ending Lat Surgery

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A.J. Minter has been lost for the season, as manager Carlos Mendoza tells reporters (including Mike Puma of The New York Post) that the southpaw will undergo surgery to repair a torn lat next Monday. The Mets revealed last week that surgery was under consideration. Minter understandably attempted to exhaust other options over the past few days, but he unfortunately won’t be able to avoid going under the knife.

Mendoza also provided an update on designated hitter Jesse Winker, who landed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain this evening. Winker was diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain — one of moderate severity — and will be down for six-to-eight weeks (via Abbey Mastracco of The New York Daily News).

It’s the second consecutive injury-shortened season for Minter. The veteran reliever underwent surgery to address a left hip issue last August, ending his final year as a member of the Braves. He reached free agency for the first time over the winter. New York signed him to a surprisingly strong two-year, $22MM contract that included an opt-out after the first season. They gambled that Minter would return to form as an above-average setup man after a healthy offseason.

The early returns were encouraging. Minter couldn’t have performed much better over his first 13 outings. He allowed only two runs on six hits and five walks through 11 innings. Minter fanned 15 and recorded seven holds without surrendering a lead. He was Mendoza’s most trusted option from the left side.

Minter has been an excellent reliever throughout his career. He combined for a 3.28 ERA while striking out more than 29% of opposing hitters over parts of eight seasons with Atlanta. Minter had topped 50 innings each season between 2021-23 before dealing with significant injuries over the past two years.

New York had relied on Minter and Danny Young as their only left-handers through the first month. Both pitchers are now done for the year, as Young required Tommy John surgery over the weekend. The Mets selected the hard-throwing but erratic Génesis Cabrera to give Mendoza at least one southpaw in the bullpen. Cabrera is miscast as the top lefty on a contender, making that an area the Mets are sure to monitor over the coming weeks.

Minter is making $11MM this season. He’ll surely exercise the matching player option and hope for a healthier second year in Queens. He’s already on the 60-day injured list, as New York transferred him over when they selected Cabrera’s contract last week.

Winker may eventually end up there as well, as he’s expected to miss close to two months after tweaking his oblique in yesterday’s loss to St. Louis. He suffered the injury on a throw in a rare outfield appearance. Winker has been the Mets designated hitter against right-handed pitching. That may now fall to Brett Baty, who was recalled in the corresponding move for his IL placement. Baty was optioned a few weeks ago when Jeff McNeil returned from the IL, limiting his path to playing time at second base. Baty had just a .204/.246/.352 line over 58 plate appearances before his demotion. He’d been ice cold to begin the season but had begun to swing the bat well just before McNeil’s activation.

Blue Jays Sign Spencer Turnbull

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Today: The Blue Jays officially announced Turnbull’s one-year major league contract on Monday and optioned the veteran pitcher to the Florida Complex League to allow him time to build up his arm. To make room for Turnbull and fellow free agent signing José Ureña on the 40-man roster, the Blue Jays transferred Max Scherzer and Erik Swanson to the 60-day injured list. This pushes back Scherzer’s and Swanson’s return timelines to late May at the earliest.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post provides the financials of the Turnbull deal. It’s technically a salary of $1,265,306 but prorated to an even $1MM due some of the season having already transpired. The righty can also unlock bonuses worth $500K based on innings pitched, $100K each at 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90. He will also get $125K for spending 60 days on the active roster, $250K for 80 and 100 days, and $375K for 120 days.

May 3: The Blue Jays and Spencer Turnbull have agreed to a major league contract, as reported by Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi. The right-hander went unsigned over the offseason after spending the 2024 campaign with the Phillies. His deal is pending a physical. Further details, including financial terms, have not yet been revealed.

Turnbull, 32, got off to a terrific start last season after signing a one-year, $2MM contract with Philadelphia. Through six April starts filling in for an injured Taijuan Walker, he pitched to a 1.67 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings of work. While no one would have expected Turnbull to maintain a sub-2.00 ERA, all of his underlying numbers were promising, including a 49.4% groundball rate, a 20.5% K-BB%, and a 3.37 SIERA. Nonetheless, in May, he moved into the bullpen, where he didn’t look quite as sharp. He gave up nine runs in 19 innings over his next 10 appearances. His strikeout and groundball rates declined, and his walk rate rose. His ERA jumped to 4.26, while his SIERA climbed to 3.80. Of course, those were still perfectly respectable numbers for a long reliever, and indeed, Turnbull pitched well enough to be reinstated in the starting rotation when Ranger Suárez suffered an injury. Unfortunately, his next stint as a starter would be short-lived. Turnbull exited early from his first start back in the Phillies’ rotation, never to return. He went on the injured list with a lat strain that ultimately ended his season.

All told, Turnbull finished the 2024 season with a 2.65 ERA and a 3.67 SIERA in 54 1/3 innings. That performance, along with his overall solid career numbers when healthy (4.28 ERA, 3.81 FIP in 67 career starts), was enough to earn him the final spot on MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents list this past offseason. Be that as it may, his checkered injury history, and therefore his limited MLB track record, were evidently enough to scare off teams from pursuing him. He was not credibly linked to any suitors this winter.

Yet, as pitcher injuries began to pile up almost immediately, teams that weren’t interested in Turnbull over the offseason may have changed their minds. The right-hander reportedly threw for teams in mid-March, according to Nicholson-Smith, but no deal materialized at that time. Several weeks later, he has finally landed a contract. While he may have to consent to an optional assignment so he can ramp up in the minor leagues, this is not a minor league pact. Barring another serious injury, he will pitch in the majors in 2025.

Just yesterday, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins told reporters (including Mitch Bannon of The Athletic) that the team had “a couple of things in the works” to shore up the team’s rotation depth “via free agency.” It’s easy to understand why Toronto was seeking outside help. Ever since Max Scherzer suffered a thumb injury during his first start of the season, the Blue Jays have struggled to fill the fifth spot in their rotation. Easton Lucas was surprisingly effective in his first two MLB starts before falling apart in his third and fourth. He has since been optioned back to Triple-A. Paxton Schultz seemed like a possible rotation option after his terrific big league debut; he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief with eight strikeouts. Yet, he wasn’t nearly as effective in his next relief outing. He, too, has since been sent down to Triple-A Buffalo.

Meanwhile, Yariel Rodríguez, who has moved into a bullpen role this season, gave up two runs in a mediocre inning of work in his first outing as an opener on Tuesday. Eric Lauer got the job done in his Blue Jays debut, tossing four innings to follow Rodríguez while giving up two earned runs on three hits. Still, considering that Lauer has not thrown more than 50 MLB innings in a season since 2022, it’s not hard to see why the Blue Jays wouldn’t want to rely on him too heavily. José Ureña, with whom the Blue Jays also agreed to a major league deal this morning, fills a similar niche to Turnbull as a veteran right-handed pitcher with experience both starting and relieving. Yet, he doesn’t offer nearly the same upside. Lastly, top prospect Jake Bloss has looked better in his last two starts, but his overall Triple-A numbers are poor (6.42 ERA and 5.53 FIP in 13 starts since joining the Blue Jays organization), and it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interest to rush him to the majors simply because Toronto is out of other options.

Thus, Turnbull will provide the Blue Jays some much-needed starting pitching depth. If and when Scherzer makes his return to the rotation, Turnbull could also slide into a long-man role in the bullpen. Once his deal is official, the Jays will presumably offer more details about his eventual role and how long it will be until he’s ready to take the mound in the majors.

Blue Jays Sign José Ureña

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Today: The Blue Jays officially announced Ureña’s one-year major league contract on Monday and optioned Josh Walker to Triple-A to open a space on the active roster. To make room for Ureña and fellow free agent signing Spencer Turnbull on the 40-man, the Blue Jays transferred Max Scherzer and Erik Swanson to the 60-day injured list. This pushes back Scherzer’s and Swanson’s return timelines to late May at the earliest.

May 3: The Blue Jays have agreed to a major league contract with right-hander José Ureña, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. This signing comes on the heels of the news that Toronto has also agreed to terms with right-hander Spencer Turnbull.

Ureña, 33, signed a minor league contract with the Mets in February. While he failed to make the Opening Day roster out of camp, he made three starts at Triple-A Syracuse and earned a promotion when the Mets needed an extra arm in late April. However, he struggled badly in his one appearance, giving up five earned runs in three innings, and the Mets DFA’d him two days later. The Blue Jays, desperately in need of pitching depth, pounced quickly, signing the righty less than two days after he elected free agency. Unlike Turnbull, who has not pitched in a game since a lone minor league rehab appearance last September, Ureña should be ready to contribute to the major league team right away.

Now in his 11th big league season, Ureña has been one of the league’s more prolific swingmen throughout his career. Since his debut in 2015, he is one of just two pitchers with at least 150 starts and 75 relief appearances. With a career 4.80 ERA and 4.92 SIERA, he has never been much more than an innings eater, but an innings eater is certainly something the Blue Jays could use right now.

Toronto entered the 2025 season with a rotation of Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer, and Bowden Francis. Yariel Rodríguez, who started 21 games in his rookie season, moved to the bullpen. As a result, when Scherzer hit the IL with an injured thumb after his first start of the season, the Blue Jays were left with very little rotation depth. Easton Lucas crumbled after two strong starts. Similarly, long-man Paxton Schultz hit a wall in his second big league appearance after turning heads with a dominant debut. Eric Lauer was solid in his first appearance for the Jays, but he’s hardly a reliable long-term answer. Top prospect Jake Bloss, who struggled in three big league starts with Houston last season, has also struggled at Triple-A. Thus, general manager Ross Atkins made it clear on Friday that he was looking to add rotation depth in free agency. He quickly made good on his word this morning, signing both Ureña and Turnbull to major league deals. Turnbull has the much higher ceiling of the two, but Ureña is a more immediate solution. There is a good chance he will make at least a couple of starts, but he can also offer relief to a bullpen that has been cycling through arms all season.

Ross Stripling Retires

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Right-handed pitcher Ross Stripling announced his retirement this morning over social media. He signs off after nine big league seasons with the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Giants, and Athletics.

“After 13 seasons and full of tremendous pride and gratitude, it’s time to hang up the cleats. I never could have imagined the experiences and memories I’d be a part of. They exceeded every hope that my younger self could have dreamt for my baseball career,” Stripling wrote. “It never could have been possible without my family and friends. I also want to give a huge thank you to all my coaches and teammates over the years. I had so much love and support along the way, and I’m thankful to everyone that was a part of it in any form or fashion. All of you helped me be the best baseball player I could be. This has been an unbelievable honor, and I feel incredibly lucky to be so fulfilled and content with leaving the game behind. Now, l’m excited to be home and begin the next chapter of life with my amazing family.”

Stripling spent most of his professional career in the Dodgers organization. A fifth-round draft pick in 2012, he worked his way up the system over the next four years, overcoming early-career Tommy John surgery to make his MLB debut as a member of the Opening Day rotation in 2016. Over four and a half big league seasons as both a starter and reliever for the Dodgers, he pitched more than 400 innings with a 3.68 ERA. He was an All-Star in 2018 and pitched for L.A. in the playoffs in 2016, ’17, and ’19, including three appearances in the 2017 World Series. Unfortunately, he struggled in 2020 and was traded ahead of the deadline, but he still earned a World Series ring for his performance with the Dodgers over the first half of the season.

The first season and a half of Stripling’s Blue Jays tenure weren’t anything to write home about, but his 2022 campaign in Toronto was arguably the best of his career. Across 32 games (24 starts), he set career-highs in wins (10) and FanGraphs WAR (3.0) and career-lows in ERA (3.01) and walk rate (3.7%). He would then turn that performance into a two-year $25 million guarantee from the Giants in free agency.

The two years on that contract would prove to be the final seasons of Stripling’s playing career. He pitched poorly for San Francisco in 2023, and much like what happened the last time he struggled so badly, he was eventually shipped out of town. The Giants sent him to the A’s during the 2023-24 offseason, and he had a similarly rough season in Oakland. All told, he pitched to a 5.68 ERA in 44 games (25 starts) over his two years in the Bay Area. While his big league track record helped him land a minor league deal with the Royals this past winter, he was granted his release after failing to make their Opening Day roster.

Stripling finishes his MLB career with a 4.17 ERA in 846 1/3 innings of work. He collected 40 wins, 11 holds, and four saves, while racking up 741 strikeouts. MLBTR congratulates Stripling on a successful major league tenure and wishes him all the best in whatever comes next.

Rangers Place Leody Taveras On Outright Waivers

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The Rangers have placed outfielder Leody Taveras on outright waivers, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports.  Taveras can continue playing for Texas until he is claimed, which differentiates the “outright waiver” process from a more standard designation for assignment.  If a claim happens, Taveras’ new team will assume the rest of his 2025 salary, which is roughly $3.8MM remaining of a $4.75MM total.

Taveras entered the season with three years and 124 days of official Major League service time, which plays an important role in his waiver status.  Because Taveras has more than three years of service time, should he clear waivers, he can turn down an outright assignment to Triple-A and become a free agent.  However, because he has less than five years of MLB service time, becoming a free agent means that Taveras would forego his $3.8MM in remaining salary.

It leaves the outfielder with an interesting decision to make should the situation arise, though another team could make it a moot point by simply claiming Taveras off waivers.  Public defensive metrics have been somewhat mixed on Taveras’ performance as a center fielder, though the Outs Above Average metric has been solidly in his corner over his six MLB seasons.  Moving him into a corner outfield spot (or having Taveras as a fourth outfielder rather than strictly as a center fielder) would only help make him more of a clear-cut defensive plus.

Taveras has been a below-average hitter over the course of his career, and he has particularly struggled this year by hitting .241/.259/.342 over 82 plate appearances.  Taveras has an 84 wRC+ over 1825 career PA in the majors, with a high point of a 100 wRC+ (from a .266/.312/.421 slash line in 554 PA) during the Rangers’ World Series championship season in 2023.  The switch-hitter has performed a bit better as a lefty batter than as a righty batter during his career, but even his .241/.291/.387 slash line from the left side of the plate is pretty modest.

Taveras is a Super Two player who has two remaining years of arbitration eligibility, so a new team would also be gaining control over his services through the 2027 season in the event of a claim.  There wasn’t much suggestion that the Rangers could non-tender Taveras last winter even in the wake of an uninspiring 2024 season, though there was some trade speculation surrounding Taveras last January.  Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Rangers again tried to deal Taveras as recently as last week, but found no takers willing to both move players and absorb all of Taveras’ contract.

A waiver claim would allow the Rangers to cleanly part ways with Taveras while moving a bit of extra money off the books.  Remaining under the $241MM luxury tax threshold is one of the Rangers’ chief goals for the season, and with an estimated (as per RosterResource) $237.1MM tax number at the moment, Texas only has a bit of space to spare.  Moving Taveras would give the Rangers more breathing room to stay under the tax line while still possibility having some flexibility to add at the deadline.

Kevin Pillar, Dustin Harris, or utilityman Josh Smith could share center field duties if Taveras is indeed on his way out of Texas.  For Smith in particular, more time in center field would give the Rangers a way of keeping Smith’s hot bat in what has been an otherwise pretty dismal lineup.  Former top prospect Evan Carter could be a candidate to be called up from Triple-A, but Carter is hitting only .221/.333/.416 over 90 PA at Round Rock so far in 2025.

Triston Casas Likely To Miss Entire 2025 Season Due To Knee Surgery

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The Red Sox announced this morning that they have placed first baseman Triston Casas on the 10-day injured list with a ruptured left patellar tendon. He suffered the injury during last night’s game. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow says that Casas will have surgery and they don’t expect him back this year, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

To replace Casas on the active roster, the team has selected Abraham Toro’s contract from Triple-A Worcester. Boston had an open spot on the 40-man, so no further corresponding transaction was necessary. In an additional roster move, the Red Sox reinstated Brennan Bernardino from the bereavement list and optioned Luis Guerrero to Triple-A.

The Casas news is awful but unsurprising. He suffered an obvious injury last night when he hit the first base bag awkwardly while trying to beat out a grounder. He was down on the ground in clear pain for a long time and eventually was taken off the field on a stretcher. It seemed likely that he would miss an extended period of time and that is now confirmed. He hasn’t yet been moved to the 60-day IL but that will happen whenever the Sox need a 40-man spot.

The Sox will have to figure out what to do about replacing Casas at first base. Breslow says that all options are on the table and he didn’t rule out Rafael Devers taking over, though outfield prospect Roman Anthony or infield prospect Marcelo Mayer are unlikely to be moved to first.

Devers is currently the full-time designated hitter after getting bumped off third base by Alex Bregman. Moving him into first base and opening the DH spot would help the club with some roster crunches elsewhere.

Anthony and Mayer are two of the best prospects in baseball, but both are currently in Triple-A and somewhat blocked on the big league roster. The Sox currently have an outfield mix consisting of Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Rob Refsnyder. The infield has Bregman, Trevor Story and Kristian Campbell at third base, shortstop and second base respectively. Outfielder/designated hitter Masataka Yoshida could get into the mix as well, though he has been battling ongoing shoulder problems and his return timeline is unclear.

With Devers in the DH spot, it’s a bit of a crowded picture. If he were to take over at first base, that would open things up and allow various players to rotate through the DH spot. Devers has no professional experience at first but plenty of subpar third basemen have made the move across the diamond over the years. While Breslow seemed to leave the door open to the idea, manager Alex Cora downplayed the possibility. “From my end, right now, no…. he’s my DH,” Cora said, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe.

For now, it seems like utility infielder Romy González will be the first attempt. Cora tells Speier that this is an opportunity for González “to go out and perform.” He is the only Boston player apart from Casas to have played first base this year. He’s having a decent season so far, with a .279/.340/.419 batting line and 113 wRC+. However, that comes with no home runs and a .364 batting average on balls in play. In his 502 career plate appearances, he has a .246/.277/.390 line and 81 wRC+.

That career production would be less than ideal production from first base, which is generally a bat-first position, but the Sox will give it a try for now. Perhaps they will explore some external options in the coming weeks, looking to make a trade or grab another player off waivers. Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe says that Breslow is indeed looking at the trade market.

González had previously been in a multi-positional role, having also played some second and third base this year. In his career, he has played shortstop and the outfield as well. With him set to become the club’s regular first baseman for now, Toro has been added to add some defensive versatility to the bench.

Toro, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason. He has been performing well in Triple-A so far this year, with a .310/.403/.480 line, though a .392 BABIP is doing him some favors. In his big league career, he has played the three non-shortstop infield positions and the outfield corners. He has always hit well in Triple-A but has a .220/.285/.353 line and 82 wRC+ in 1,298 big league plate appearances.

Photo courtesy of Eric Canha, Imagn Images

Orioles Recall Coby Mayo

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3:27pm: The Orioles have officially announced Mayo’s promotion. As noted by Kubatko, Urias was in fact placed on the 10-day injured list with what the Orioles have termed a “mild” hamstring strain. Manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Kubatko) that the club expects Urias’s trip to the IL to be a short one, and then he’ll resume a running progression after resting for a couple of days.

1:00pm: The Orioles are bringing infield prospect Coby Mayo back up to the majors. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reported that Mayo was on his way to join the team. Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun confirmed that Mayo would indeed be recalled to the active roster.

Mayo, 23, is one of the best prospects in baseball but he has struggled to find playing time in a crowded Baltimore infield. He made his major league debut last year but was optioned back to the minors multiple times and only got 46 plate appearances over 17 games.

He came into camp this year with a shot at earning an Opening Day job but was optioned to the minors in mid-March. Mayo is only really a viable option at the corners. Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn have been sharing first base and the designated hitter spot.

Shortstop Gunnar Henderson started the season on the IL but the club decided to go with a rotation of Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías to cover the three infield spots to the left of first base. Henderson was off the IL after missing just seven games. That left Westburg and Urías sharing third while Holliday and Mateo shared second.

Though Mayo expressed some frustration with getting optioned, he has continued mashing in the minors. He already has six home runs and has been drawing walks at a 12.6% pace. He has a .252/.346/.523 line and 130 wRC+ for the year. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has 1,147 minor league plate appearances with a .287/.390/.570 line and 149 wRC+.

Though he has been doing everything in his power to push for a promotion, the O’s seemed content to wait. Yesterday, general manager Mike Elias spoke on the situation, per Jake Rill of MLB.com. “He’s going to be a big part of this team,” Elias said, though he added that Mayo needed the “right opportunity” or the “right pathway”.

It seems that injuries have finally created that pathway. Westburg landed on the 10-day injured list earlier this week due to a left hamstring strain. Urías was scratched from last night’s game due to right hamstring tightness, leaving Emmanuel Rivera to play third base. With Mayo’s reported recall, perhaps Urías will land on the injured list. Presumably, Mayo will take over at the regular third baseman, with Rivera serving a bench role.

Perhaps that means this will only be a brief promotion. Mayo only hit .098/.196/.098 in his debut last year. If he struggles again this time, he could end up optioned back to Norfolk when Westburg and Urías get healthy, though it’s also possible that he hits enough to stick around. Mountcastle is having an awful year, so perhaps there’s a scenario where his playing time goes to Mayo even with Westburg and Urías on the roster.

Time will tell how that plays out, which will impact Mayo’s future contractual status. He came into this year with 43 days of major league service time, putting him 129 shy of the one-year mark. There are still 148 days remaining in the regular season, meaning Mayo can get over the one-year line if he’s up the rest of the way. That would put him on track to qualify for arbitration after 2027 and free agency after 2030. However, getting optioned back down to the minors later in the year could prevent him from getting over the one-year line and could push those timelines.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Dodgers Recall Hyeseong Kim

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3:00pm: The Dodgers have now made it official. Kim has been recalled with Edman placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to April 30, due to right ankle inflammation.

11:25am: The Dodgers are recalling infielder Hyeseong Kim, reports Dodgers Daily. Kim will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He is already on the 40-man roster but a corresponding move will be needed to get him onto the active roster.

Kim, 26, was a notable free agent this winter. He had hit .304/.364/.403 over eight season in the KBO while bouncing around to multiple positions, mostly the middle infield. There wasn’t a ton of power there, but he seemed like an intriguing contact-based utility guy.

The Dodgers somewhat surprisingly won the bidding with a three-year, $12.5MM deal. At the time of the signing, they already had a middle infield group consisting of Mookie Betts, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas, which made it a somewhat curious fit. However, Lux was quickly traded to the Reds, which widened Kim’s path to playing time.

But Kim was optioned to the minors on March 11th, a few days before the Dodgers were travelling to Japan for the Tokyo Series. The middle infield playing time has largely gone to Betts and Edman, with Rojas and Enrique Hernández chipping in occasionally.

Kim has been getting regular playing time at Triple-A, having stepped to the plate 131 times over 28 games. His 7.6% walk rate and 24.4% strikeout rate are both a bit worse than par but he has five home runs, leading to a .252/.328/.470 line and 105 wRC+. He has also stolen 13 bases without getting caught while splitting his time between second base, shortstop and center field.

His promotion might not be entirely about his own Triple-A performance. Edman has missed the club’s last two games due to right ankle discomfort. He has not yet been placed on the injured list but perhaps Kim’s promotion indicates that the Dodgers will make that move today. Edman hasn’t played since Tuesday, so an IL stint could be backdated by three days, the maximum allowed. That means he could return in a week if he heals up in that time.

If that’s the case, the Dodgers would have Kim, Rojas and Hernandez as options to cover the second base spot. It’s unclear how the playing time would be distributed in that scenario but Kim should have a chance to make his major league debut at some point this week.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Triston Casas Suffers “Significant Knee Injury”

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Triston Casas suffered a “significant knee injury” during tonight’s win over Minnesota, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive). According to Ian Browne of MLB.com, Casas remains at a local hospital after being taken off the field on a stretcher.

The injury occurred in the second inning. Casas hit a check-swing chopper up the first base line. When Joe Ryan bobbled the ball, Casas lunged to the first base bag in an attempt to beat the throw. He hit the base awkwardly and stumbled over the foot of Minnesota first baseman Ty France. Casas immediately favored his left knee and was down for several minutes before being stretchered off. Romy Gonzalez finished the game at first base.

It’s devastating news for Casas, who is facing a second lengthy absence in as many seasons. He was shelved between late April and the middle of August last year by a lingering rib injury. He hit .241/.337/.462 with 13 homers in 63 games when healthy. Casas has struggled early this season, posting a .182/.277/.303 slash with a trio of homers across 112 trips to the dish. The Red Sox will presumably provide more specifics on the injury and treatment plan in the coming days.

Gonzalez has started seven games at first base this season. He’s the only player other than Casas to log any action there. Gonzalez is a multi-positional infielder who has spent the bulk of his career at second base. He’s hitting reasonably well this season but entered play tonight with a career .245/.277/.388 batting line over 499 plate appearances. It’s unlikely that the Sox would want to rely on him as an everyday first baseman for an extended stretch.

The Sox don’t have an obvious solution in the minors. Nathan Hickey is the primary first baseman at Triple-A Worcester. He’s hitting .262/.300/.429 through his first 22 games of the season. Infielder Abraham Toro is having a much better year for the WooSox, hitting .323/.417/.500 across 115 plate appearances. He has made five starts at first base this year and has 90 career major league innings at the position. He’s likelier to receive a call-up than is Hickey, but he’s more of a second baseman/third baseman with a somewhat similar profile to Gonzalez.

One speculative possibility would be to turn to Rafael Devers, who hasn’t played a single defensive inning all season. Devers has never played a professional inning at first base. He’s obviously familiar with the infield, but Cora made clear at the beginning of the season that the Sox viewed him as a full-time designated hitter for the time being. It seems they want Devers focused exclusively on maintaining an offensive rhythm as the DH rather than getting occasional defensive work after being pushed off third base by the Alex Bregman signing.

That may need to change at some point. Keeping Devers as a full-time DH would essentially block any path to playing time for Masataka Yoshida whenever he’s able to return from a shoulder injury. Yoshida could theoretically play some left field, but that’d require pushing Jarren Duran to center and would only be an option until top outfield prospect Roman Anthony comes up from Triple-A. There’d be more flexibility if the Red Sox were comfortable using Devers at first base.

Angels Place Mike Trout On 10-Day Injured List

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May 2: The Angels formally announced that Trout has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to May 1. First baseman Niko Kavadas has been recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake in a corresponding move.

May 1: The Angels are placing veteran star Mike Trout on the injured list, Ron Washington told reporters (including Sam Blum of The Athletic) after tonight’s game against the Tigers. Trout is dealing with a bone bruise on his left knee, though Washington emphasized that the injury is not considered “too serious” and that there’s been no structural damage to the 33-year-old’s knee. As noted by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, Trout suffered multiple meniscus tears in different parts of his left knee last year that required two separate surgical procedures. That’s the knee which he’s currently suffering from a bone bruise on.

While the fact that Trout’s ailment isn’t considered serious by Angels brass is at least somewhat encouraging, it’s hard to expect fans to take much solace in that given Trout’s lengthy injury history. Trout played just 29 games last year due to those aforementioned meniscus surgeries, and missed all but 36 games of the 2021 season due to a calf strain. He played in just 82 games in 2023 due to a hamate fracture, and the closest thing to a healthy season Trout has put together in this decade was his 2022 campaign where he played 119 games. Even that year, however, he was still sidelined for significant time due to back issues.

It’s a run of various injuries that now spans half a decade, and that lack of time on the field has knocked Trout off his pedestal as the game’s consensus top talent after holding that position virtually unchallenged for a decade. The 11-time All-Star and 3-time AL MVP’s numbers speak for themselves, as he’s a career .297/.408/.579 hitter with 387 homers, 214 stolen bases, 85.8 bWAR and 85.7 fWAR over the course of his 15-year major league career. This year, the Angels made the decision to move Trout off of his native center field and into right field in order to hopefully help him stay fresher and avoid injuries. Despite that change, Trout’s first trip to the injured list of the year comes with just 29 games under his belt, the exact same number he finished the 2024 season with.

In previous years, Trout has maintained superstar-level production even in seasons abbreviated by injury. While he was on the field for just 266 of Anaheim’s 648 games from 2021 to 2024, he did slash an incredible .276/.376/.575 (160 wRC+) and accumulate 12 fWAR across those 266 games. That’s not been the case this year, however. In 121 trips to the plate, Trout has actually been slightly below league average with a 96 wRC+. While he’s clobbered nine homers and walked at a healthy (if diminished) 9.9% clip, Trout’s elevated 29.8% strikeout rate and shockingly low .159 BABIP have left him hitting just .187 with a .264 on-base percentage. If he were to play a full season, Trout surely wouldn’t maintain that unbelievably low BABIP and would enjoy enough positive regression to be an above-average overall hitter, but the elevated strikeouts and decreased walks are a legitimate cause for concern about his ability to remain a superstar even if he were to stay on the field for a full campaign.

Of course, all of that will remain largely speculative until Trout gets back on the field for a significant period of time. While the club terming the issue a bone bruise seems to suggest that he’ll be able to come back relatively quickly, it’s a diagnosis that comes with a lot of variability in terms of timetable. On the more optimistic side of things, Cody Bellinger missed about a month when he suffered a bone bruise with the Cubs back in 2023. More concerning are the cases of Anthony Rendon in 2023 and Kyle Tucker last season.

Rendon fouled a ball off his left leg on July 4 two years ago and missed the remainder of the season with what the Angels termed a bone bruise despite the fact that Rendon himself told reporters he had actually been diagnosed with a fractured tibia. A similar situation played out elsewhere in the AL West between Tucker and the Astros last year, where Tucker missed just over three months due to what Houston initially termed a bone bruise but was later revealed to be a small shin fracture. It should be noted that smaller fractures like the ones Rendon and Tucker faced are no different from bone bruises in terms of the treatment prescribed, making the distinction immaterial in some ways.

Even so, that some players can come back from bone bruises after just a month while others could miss half a season or more due to a similar issue highlights the uncertainty that now faces Trout and the Angels. While it seems unrealistic to expect a firm timetable for Trout’s return given both that uncertainty and the veteran’s lengthy injury history, it’s fair to expect a significant absence at this point. Ryan Noda, Scott Kingery, and prospect Matthew Lugo are among the possible options who could be called upon to join Jo Adell and Taylor Ward in the Angels’ outfield mix while Trout is on the shelf, and switch-hitter Gustavo Campero could see more playing time after serving as the club’s fourth outfielder prior to Trout’s injury.

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