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Pablo Lopez To Miss Multiple Months With Teres Major Strain

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June 5: The Twins formally placed Lopez on the injured list and recalled Festa today, per a club announcement.

June 4: The Twins announced that Pablo López suffered a Grade 2 strain of the teres major in his throwing shoulder. He’s expected to miss eight to 12 weeks. He’ll be shut down from throwing entirely for at least a month before he goes for reevaluation.

López left last night’s start against the A’s after five innings. He reported shoulder discomfort while throwing his warm-up pitches in advance of the sixth. The Twins immediately acknowledged that an injured list stint was inevitable. They were awaiting the results of today’s imaging before making that move. It’s unfortunately significant enough that it’ll cost him the majority of the remaining schedule.

This is the same injury and degree of strain which rotation mate Joe Ryan sustained last August. Ryan went down early in the month and missed the remainder of the season. It didn’t carry into the offseason, and he has returned as strong as ever this year. That’s a source of long-term optimism for López, but it doesn’t change the significant hit to the rotation over the next few months.

It’s the righty’s second, and far more notable, IL stint this year. López had a minimal absence in April due to a hamstring strain. The injuries have interrupted a characteristically strong performance. He sports a 2.82 earned run average across 60 2/3 frames. It would have been his first career sub-3.00 showing if he maintained it all year. He has fanned nearly a quarter of opponents while allowing two or fewer runs in nine of his 11 appearances.

Minnesota has one of the top rotations in the league. They’re fifth in MLB with a 3.43 ERA while ranking eighth with a 23.2% strikeout rate. López, Ryan, Bailey Ober and Chris Paddack have all performed well. The final spot has been the only weak point. Simeon Woods Richardson was optioned out after allowing more than five earned runs per nine. Zebby Matthews replaced him in the rotation last month. He made his fourth start of the season tonight and carries a 5.21 ERA over 19 innings. He’s missing plenty of bats, though, so he’s a more exciting fifth starter than Woods Richardson has been.

David Festa will get the first crack at plugging López’s rotation spot. He was scratched from a start at Triple-A St. Paul this evening, as first noted by Declan Goff of SKOR North. Festa traveled to Sacramento to meet the big league team. Dan Hayes of The Athletic writes that he will likely go in tomorrow’s series finale to give the rest of the starters an extra day of rest.

The 25-year-old Festa ranked as one of the sport’s better pitching prospects when he was promoted last summer. He allowed a 4.90 ERA over his first 14 MLB appearances. He made a trio of starts early in the season while López was sidelined by the hamstring. Festa managed an impressive 15:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing only three runs through 13 innings. He has pitched well through six Triple-A starts, turning in a 2.83 mark with a near-31% strikeout rate. Hayes notes that he was sidelined for much of May by biceps inflammation, but he has looked sharp in two appearances since returning. He fired five scoreless frames with five strikeouts in his most recent start.

Festa is a high-upside injury replacement. Woods Richardson remains on optional assignment as a depth arm. The rotation depth is a silver lining, but it’s fair to wonder how this impacts the team’s deadline approach. López won’t be back at least into August and could be shelved into September. The Twins are in the thick of a congested AL Wild Card race and six games behind the Tigers in the division.

MLB To Propose Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge System For 2026

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The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.

MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.

The league reps have a majority of their own, so they’re able to pass any league initiatives over the objections of the players as long as there’s no dissension within their ranks. That happened with the 2023 changes that included the introduction of the pitch clock and limits on defensive shifts, which the Committee passed over unanimous “no” votes from the four players.

The MLBPA knew at the time of the 2022 CBA that the setup was essentially handing over complete control of on-field rules to the league. MLB had a formal unilateral right to implement rule changes under previous CBAs, but the union had the ability to block any change for one year before the league could override it. The Competition Committee has the authority to implement a rule change after 45 days, so any offseason measures go into effect the following season.

The players on the Committee may well be in support of the automatic zone regardless. (It’ll perhaps be more interesting, if ultimately irrelevant, to see how the lone umpire representative votes.) MLB initially had floated the concept of using a completely electronic strike zone, but it backed off that after receiving player feedback that it’d have too adverse an impact on catchers who make a living off their pitch framing acumen. They’ve tested the challenge system for years in the minors and introduced it to MLB Spring Training this year.

Human umpires will continue to make the vast majority of the ball-strike calls. Each team receives two challenges that would turn to the electronic zone to potentially overrule a call they feel is incorrect. Challenges must be called for in real time by either the hitter, catcher or pitcher. An overturned call does not result in a forfeited challenge. The limit on the number of incorrect challenges encourages players to challenge only if the call is either so egregious that they’re confident they’ll get it overturned or comes on pitches that might be particularly decisive to the outcome of the game.

Additionally, Manfred was noncommittal on when the league had interest in moving forward with a potential change to allow hitters to use bat tracking metrics to challenge check swing calls. The league began testing that with minor league players in the Arizona Fall League last season. It has not been used in any MLB exhibition games. MLB is unlikely to propose it without testing it in big league Spring Training, as they did with the ABS challenge. Manfred suggested that testing might not happen next year because of the more pressing strike zone change.

“We haven’t made a decision about the check-swing thing. … I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing ABS or not doing it before you’d get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right,” he told Drellich. “You think about them, they’re two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.”

Giants Designate LaMonte Wade Jr., Sign Dominic Smith

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The Giants are shaking up their struggling offense. The team announced Wednesday that first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and backup catcher Sam Huff have been designated for assignment. Veteran first baseman Dominic Smith, who recently opted out of a minor league deal with the Yankees, has been signed to a one-year, major league contract. San Francisco also selected the contracts of outfielder Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner from Triple-A and optioned infielder Christian Koss.

After a hot start to the season, the Giants have dropped 14 of their past 23 games. The offense has been the primary culprit, particularly over the past two weeks. Over the past 14 days, Giants hitters have posted a combined .209/.297/.306 batting line. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since May 16 and have been shut out or held to one run seven times in that span.

Wade’s struggles have been a major component of the team’s offensive drought, but unlike many of his teammates, the 31-year-old veteran has simply never gotten going in 2025. Wade was hitless in his first 18 trips to the plate this season and hasn’t pulled himself out of that funk. He’s batting .167/.275/.271 on the season and is currently in the midst of a 3-for-22 skid.

It’s been a swift and fairly shocking decline for Wade, who was a solidly above-average bat for San Francisco from 2021-24. He’s been the Giants’ primary first baseman in that stretch, and while he’s never been a huge power threat, he’s been an on-base machine. Wade was one of the best acquisitions of the Farhan Zaidi era in San Francisco, coming over from the Twins in a Feb. 2021 trade that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. The swap drew minimal attention at the time, but Wade went on to bat .248/.352/.415 in his first four years as a Giant.

As recently as last season, Wade slashed .260/.380/.381 with a massive 15.5% walk rate. He’s been heavily platooned in his career, taking just 12% of his plate appearances against lefties and slashing .193/.288/.250 in that time, but Wade has been consistently productive against righties until 2025.

Wade’s 2025 struggles seem to stem from a loss of bat speed and, accordingly, pronounced troubles against velocity. He punished four-seamers from ’21-’24 but is hitting just .164 with a .262 slugging percentage against them in 2025. Statcast measured Wade’s bat speed at 73.8 mph in 2023 and 72.4 mph in 2024; he’s down to 69.7 mph in 2025, which places him in the 18th percentile of big league hitters.

Wade is still drawing walks at an outstanding 12.4% clip, and his 18.1% chase rate on pitches off the plate is the sixth-lowest among the 220 MLB hitters with at least 150 plate appearances this season. It’s clear that he has excellent pitch recognition and is still making good swing decisions — he’s just not doing any damage when he does make those correct choices.

In Wade’s defense, his .211 average on balls in play is more than 70 points shy of league-average. That can’t be entirely explained by bad luck, however, as he’s currently sporting a career-high 47.3% fly-ball rate. Fly-balls that stay in the yard are easier to convert into outs than grounders and especially line-drives, so even there’s unquestionably been some bad luck at play, Wade’s current batted-ball profile shouldn’t portend a rebound all the way back to his career .279 BABIP. That’s especially true given that he’s already hit more harmless infield pop-ups (six) through 169 plate appearances than he did in all of 2024 (four) in 401 trips to the plate.

Wade is being paid $5MM and is a free agent at season’s end. There’s still about $3.12MM of that sum that’s yet to be paid out. That figure could make it hard to find a trade partner, though the Giants could pay down a portion of the salary if another team has some interest.

The remaining money on Wade’s contract might be steep enough to allow him to pass through waivers if the Giants go that route, as any team that claimed him would take on that full $3.12MM (or a bit less, depending on the date he’s actually placed on waivers). If Wade were to clear, he has enough service time to reject a minor league assignment and retain the rest of that guaranteed money. In that scenario, any club that signs him would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum. That’d be subtracted from what the Giants owe him, but San Francisco would still be on the hook for the rest of his salary.

For at least the time being, Wade will be replaced by Smith. The former first-round pick is a veteran of eight big league seasons but has seen his offense drop after a huge 2019-20 showing wherein he batted .299/.366/.571 in 396 plate appearances with the Mets. Smith has begun to slip into journeyman status; the Giants are his seventh organization since 2022.

However, even though Smith has bounced around the league, he’s managed to deliver passable, if unspectacular offense in each of the past two seasons. Over 893 plate appearances between the Nationals, Red Sox and Reds, he’s slashed a combined .247/.321/.370. That’s about 8% worse than average, by measure of wRC+, but is still miles better than what Wade has produced so far in 2025. Smith was hitting decently with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton, slashing .255/.333/.448 with eight homers in 189 turns at the plate.

In all likelihood, Smith will be a placeholder at first base. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A yesterday and shouldn’t be too far from getting a look in the majors. The 2023 first-rounder is still only 20 years old, but you wouldn’t know it when taking a look at the .280/.350/.512 line (147 wRC+) he produced against older, more experienced competition in Double-A this year. Eldridge is widely regarded as one of baseball’s 25 best prospects, and once he gets a call to the majors, he’ll get everyday at-bats at first base. Smith could hang around in a bench role if he’s hitting well enough, but Eldridge is considered San Francisco’s first baseman of the future and shouldn’t be long for the minors.

Huff, 27, has appeared in 20 games this year and only tallied one multi-hit effort. In 58 plate appearances, he’s turned in a .208/.259/.340 batting line with a huge 43.1% strikeout rate. The former Rangers top prospect has struggled to make contact throughout his limited run in the majors over the years. Huff entered 2025 with a career 33.6% strikeout rate in 214 plate appearances at the MLB level.

Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the Giants’ starter behind the plate and is among the sport’s best defenders at any position, but he’s struggling with the bat as well (.191/.254/.276). Bailey is so good defensively that the Giants aren’t going to make any changes there, but with their catcher batting an MLB-worst .191/.253/.291, they’ll shuffle things up on the reserve side and hope for a bit more offense from Knizner.

Knizner, 30, isn’t a great hitter himself. He’s a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in 887 major league plate appearances. That said, his career 23% strikeout rate is markedly lower than that of Huff. Knizner isn’t as well regarded from a pitch-framing standpoint, but Statcast gives him much better grades than Huff when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt.

Knizner has also had a massive showing in Triple-A this year, batting a combined .378/.512/.520 with more walks than strikeouts in 129 plate appearances between the top affiliates for the Nationals and the Giants. No one would realistically expect him to maintain even 75% of that pace in the majors, but given Huff’s struggles and the broader-reaching difficulties incurred by the Giants’ lineup as a whole, it’s not a surprise that Knizner’s eye-popping numbers earned him a bump to the big leagues.

Rounding out today’s influx of new bats in the Giants clubhouse is Johnson, whom they signed out of the Mexican League earlier this season. As was the case with Jerar Encarnacion in 2024, Johnson posted video game numbers in Mexico (.429/.512/.943) and caught the eye of Giants scouts. He’s been quite good since signing back on May 2, hitting .272/.312/.534 with six homers and five steals in 109 plate appearances. He’s seen brief MLB time with the Guardians and Orioles but has only 95 big league plate appearances to his credit. Johnson has a solid Triple-A track record, having slashed .257/.323/.452 in parts of six seasons.

Reds Sign Wade Miley, Place Hunter Greene On Injured List

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9:35am: Miley’s deal pays him a prorated $2.5MM salary in the majors and comes with an additional $1.5MM available via incentives, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports.

8:57am: The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Wade Miley to a one-year, major league contract. The O’Connell Sports client recently opted out of a minor league deal with Cincinnati and briefly became a free agent, but he’s back in the fold and on the major league roster. To make room on the active roster, the Reds placed top starter Hunter Greene on the 15-day IL due to a groin strain. Top prospect Rhett Lowder, who’s been on the injured list all season due to a forearm strain, moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Miley, 38, will return to the majors after a 14-month absence. The veteran southpaw made two starts for the Brewers last year but suffered a torn UCL during the second of those two outings. He openly contemplated retirement but wound up opting to undergo Tommy John surgery and give it one more go in the majors. He inked a minor league deal to return for a second stint with Cincinnati, where he pitched from 2020-21.

Miley’s 2025 season has been spent rehabbing from that UCL surgery. He’s had a rough stretch in the minors, though a disproportionate amount of the damage done against him came in his first game, when he yielded six runs in just 2 1/3 innings with the Reds’ High-A club. Some early rust is understandable, and while Miley hasn’t exactly dominated since that time, he’s pitched more effectively as he shakes off the rust. He’s lasted five innings in two of his past three starts, allowing two runs in one and keeping his opponents scoreless in the other. That pair of solid outings was encouraging, but they also bookended an ugly May 25 outing in which he allowed four runs and didn’t escape the first inning.

Overall, Miley has an 8.84 ERA on his rehab stint, but he’s been more good than bad recently. Clearly, the Reds felt his stuff looked good enough to place him onto the major league roster. They could’ve gone with top prospect Chase Petty or journeyman Aaron Wilkerson — both of whom are pitching well in Triple-A this season. Petty is already on the 40-man roster and has made a brief MLB debut already. Instead, Reds brass was encouraged enough by the work Miley has put in that they feel he merits a look in the majors.

Time will tell if Miley can still pitch effectively in the big leagues. He didn’t get much of a chance to do so in 2024 prior to that elbow injury, but from 2021-23, Miley logged a tidy 3.26 ERA across 320 1/3 innings between a trio of NL Central rivals: the Reds, Cubs and Brewers.

Getting back to that level is a tough ask for a 38-year-old coming off Tommy John surgery, but Cincinnati doesn’t need Miley to pitch like an ace. The Reds have received outstanding work from each of Greene (2.72 ERA in 59 2/3 innings), Andrew Abbott (1.51 ERA in 47 2/3 innings), Nick Lodolo (3.10 ERA in 69 2/3 innings) and Nick Martinez (3.89 ERA in 69 1/3 innings). If Miley can simply hold down the fort during Greene’s absence and pitch like a competent back-of-the-rotation arm, the Reds’ rotation would still be among the best in the sport.

Turning to the 25-year-old Greene, this will be his second IL stint of the season due to a groin injury. He missed two weeks in mid-May due to a similar injury. Greene was lifted from his most recent start due to recurring tightness, and he’ll now sit back down for at least another two weeks. He’s been among the best pitchers in the National League dating back to last year — combined 210 innings, 2.74 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate — making his recovery a particularly notable one for the Reds. He’s in the third season of a six-year, $53MM contract extension signed in April 2023.

As for Lowder, his move to the 60-day IL is largely procedural. He’s already spent more than 60 days on the injured list, and the shift from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL does not reset his eligibility for a return. The 2023 No. 7 overall pick went out on a rehab stint from the forearm injury that’s plagued him in mid-May and looked to be trending toward a return before he suffered an oblique strain during one of his rehab starts. The Reds have since shut him back down from throwing. It’s notable that Lowder’s arm appears to be healthy again, but he’ll need to let that oblique strain mend for at least another couple weeks before starting from scratch on a new minor league rehab stint.

Padres Interested In Jarren Duran

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The Padres are looking to upgrade in left field and Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports that Jarren Duran of the Red Sox is on their list of trade targets. They have been interested in Duran before, as they were connected to him in rumors ahead of the 2024 season.

Given the prior interest, it’s not especially surprising that the Friars still have their eyes on him. They weren’t able to pry him loose ahead of last year but wound up with a cheap solution for their left field opening, as they looked to replace Juan Soto without having much to spend. They signed Jurickson Profar for just $1MM and got a career year out of him, though obviously that now looks suspect in the wake of his recent PED suspension.

Going into 2025, the Friars once again had financial limitations and tried to grab more lightning in a bottle. They brought in a number of players on small deals and minor league pacts, adding them to their incumbent options. So far, they have tried eight different players in left: Jason Heyward, Oscar González, Brandon Lockridge, Gavin Sheets, Tirso Ornelas, Tyler Wade, Jose Iglesias and Connor Joe.

No one in that group has been a solution so far. González is now playing in Japan. Heyward hit .176/.223/.271 before landing on the injured list with an oblique strain. Ornelas has hit .071/.188/.071 in the majors and is on optional assignment. Joe was traded to the Reds. Wade, Iglesias and Lockridge are mostly glove-first multi-positional guys. Sheets is having a good year at the plate but is not a good defender in left. He also departed yesterday’s game after colliding with the left field wall while trying to catch a home run ball.

Duran, on the other hand, is a great left fielder. Last year, he hit 21 home runs and slashed .285/.342/.492 for a 129 wRC+. He stole 34 bases and got strong marks for his glovework, splitting his time almost equally between center and left. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 6.7 wins above replacement on the year.

Here in 2025, his offense is down. He has just four home runs so far. His walk rate has also fallen from last year’s 7.3% to this year’s 5.7% mark. That gives him a .264/.312/.406 line and 97 wRC+. His Statcast numbers are a mixed bag. His hard hit rate and exit velocity are up relative to last year but he’s barreling the ball less. His home run to fly ball rate has almost been cut in half, going from 11.7% last year to 6% this year.

Whether he can get back to last year’s offense is hard to say but he does have 13 steals. His glovework isn’t getting the glowing marks it did last year but those numbers can get a bit wonky in small samples.

Regardless of this year’s slide, Duran would be a nice upgrade over anything the Padres currently have in house. There’s also the financial element to consider, as the Friars have clearly been operating with limited funds for years now. Duran just qualified for arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player in the most recent offseason.

He and the Red Sox didn’t agree to terms ahead of the filing deadline but eventually avoided arbitration. He is making a $3.75MM salary this year with a $100K buyout on an $8MM club option for 2026. That option can climb as high as $12MM via escalators. Even if that option is turned down, Duran can still be retained via arbitration for 2026, and through the 2028 season as well.

The combination of his skills, control and affordable salary makes the interest from the Padres very easy to understand. However, those attributes also give him plenty of appeal to the Red Sox and it’s unclear if they have any interest in moving him while he could still be a key part of their club for years to come.

It is possible to imagine a scenario where they consider it. The Sox currently have a crowded outfield mix, with Duran usually slotting in next to center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela and right fielder Wilyer Abreu, while Rob Refsnyder is on hand as a bench outfielder. Masataka Yoshida would be in the mix if he were healthy. Rafael Devers has the designated hitter spot taken almost every day. The situation is such that Roman Anthony, considered by many to be the top prospect in baseball, can’t get a call-up even as he is destroying Triple-A pitching.

The Sox are also having a bit of a disappointing season on the whole, currently sporting a record of 29-32. They are only 3.5 games out of a playoff spot but would have to leapfrog many teams to get into postseason position. Their injured list currently features Yoshida, Alex Bregman, Triston Casas and a number of pitchers.

Over the coming weeks, it’s possible that they slide further back in the crowded American League playoff race. In that scenario, perhaps they decide that they want to make Duran available. Trading him would open left field for Anthony while presumably bringing back some valuable pieces in the trade as well.

However, that’s a lot of speculation. And even if becomes more realistic, the Padres surely wouldn’t be the only club with interest. As noted by Lin, the Friars have traded away a lot of prospects in recent years. Even with their clear interest, they may not have the prospect capital to get a deal done. Their system is headlined by two highly-ranked prospects in Ethan Salas and Leo De Vries but reporting has generally indicated the Padres want to hold onto those two as their future catcher and shortstop respectively.

Even if the Padres are willing to further subtract from their system, they might also have to think about their rotation, as Lin points out. Michael King and Yu Darvish are on the injured list right now, which further subtracts from a group that was already top-heavy to begin the year.

There are plenty of variables involved here and there’s still lots of time until the trade deadline, but it’s a situation to monitor for now with more rumors surely to follow. This year’s trade deadline is on July 31st.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Royals Promote Jac Caglianone

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June 2: The Royals formally announced that Caglianone’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Omaha. Their 40-man roster is now full. Outfielder Dairon Blanco was optioned to Omaha to clear a space on the active roster. Kansas City is off today, so Caglianone’s debut will come tomorrow in St. Louis against Cardinals righty Andre Pallante.

June 1: One of baseball’s top hitting prospects is headed to the majors, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Royals are calling up Jac Caglianone.  The Royals have an off-day on Monday, which lines Caglianone up for his big league debut on Tuesday when the Royals start a series in St. Louis against the Cardinals.  There are only 39 players on Kansas City’s 40-man roster, so the club can select Caglianone’s contract on Tuesday and then make just one corresponding transaction to create space on the active roster.

It was less than a year ago that Caglianone was still awaiting his draft call, as the University of Florida product was selected just in the 2024 draft when Kansas City took him sixth overall.  Caglianone joins Cam Smith and Nick Kurtz as 2024 first-rounders that have already made their way to the Show, and Caglianone has (as you might expect) forced the issue by obliterating minor league pitching.  While he had only a .690 OPS in 126 plate appearances at high-A ball in 2024, Caglianone has a combined .323/.391/.600 slash line in 225 combined PA at the Double-A and Triple-A levels this year.

Caglianone just played in his 12th Triple-A game today, so as dominant as the 22-year-old slugger has been, a case can be made that the Royals are being hasty in bringing him up to the majors this early in his pro career.  That said, as MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted just a few days ago, K.C. might’ve felt a bit of added motivation due to how little the team has gotten from its lineup, particularly in the outfield.

Today’s 1-0 loss to the Tigers marked the Royals’ sixth shutout loss of the season.  Kansas City is tied with the Pirates for the second-lowest run total (194) in baseball, ahead of only the woeful Rockies.  With the Royals ranking at or near the bottom of the league in several other major offensive categories, something had to give, especially since the team’s strong rotation was almost single-handedly keeping K.C. in the AL Central race.

The seeds for Caglianone’s quick promotion were planted when he made his first appearance as an outfielder with Double-A NW Arkansas back in late April.  Both a star first baseman and pitcher during his college days, Caglianone gave up on pitching to solely focus on hitting as a professional, and he has received a regular dose (though not an exclusive position change) of right field work over the last five weeks of minor league action.

With Vinnie Pasquantino playing first base in K.C. and several players getting cycled through the DH spot, putting Caglianone into right field is a logical way on paper for the Royals to both get a star prospect to the majors, and to help solve their longstanding need for outfield help.  Even as the Royals reached the playoffs in 2024, their entire outfield was a major weak link, and Kansas City’s attempts to upgrade the position over the offseason just didn’t really pan out.  Caglianone’s promotion is the latest step in a shake-up that has already seen MJ Melendez optioned to Triple-A in April, and Hunter Renfroe released earlier this week.

The left-handed hitting Caglianone figures to split time between right field, first base, and probably DH on occasion.  Drew Waters and Kyle Isbel will continue to platoon in center field, while Mark Canha, Michael Massey, and Jonathan India will likely share left field duties, with Massey/India also playing at second base and Canha likely getting some time in right field spelling Caglianone against some southpaws.  Broadly speaking, manager Matt Quatraro could be creative with his lineup given how Bobby Witt Jr. and Maikel Garcia are the only regulars with above-average production, and even Witt’s 121 wRC+ is a sizeable step back from his MVP runner-up season in 2024.

It makes for a pressurized situation for Caglianone in his first taste of MLB action, as K.C. fans have, if anything, felt Caglianone was overdue for a promotion.  Royals GM J.J. Picollo spoke of the situation to Passan earlier this week, saying “The hardest part about this for us is we’re trying to do what’s best for the player.  That’s ultimately what this is.  You want the player to be as prepared as he can when he comes in the major leagues.  It’s not fair to any player, whether it’s Jac Caglianone or whoever, when a team may be scuffling offensively, to try to put it on him and hope he’s going to come save the day.”

Caglianone’s minor league numbers indicate that he is ready for a step up in competition.  MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 22nd-best prospect in baseball prior to the season, ESPN had him 29th, and The Athletic’s Keith Law (60th) and Baseball America (63rd) also had the slugger deeper in their rankings.  The pundits agree that Caglianone is a gifted hitter with huge power and exit-velocity numbers, but the only question is whether or not there’s too much swing-and-miss in his game to handle big league pitching.  Caglianone has done well in posting respectable strikeout rates in the minors this year though his chase rate is still ungainly.

Due to his inclusion in the top-100 lists, Caglianone qualifies as a Prospect Promotion Incentive player.  This means that if he finishes in the top two in AL Rookie of the Year voting, he’d earn a full year of service time despite not being called up until June.  The timing of Caglianone’s call-up means that if he stays in the majors for the remainder of 2025, he’d be on pace to earn Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility down the road.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea — Imagn Images

Mariners Promote Cole Young, Activate Bryce Miller

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TODAY: The M’s officially announced Young’s selection and Miller’s reinstatement from the IL. Right-hander Casey Legumina and infielder Leo Rivas were optioned to Triple-A in corresponding 26-man roster moves, and righty Will Klein was designated for assignment to open up space for Young on the 40-man roster.

Klein made his MLB debut in 2024 and posted an 11.05 ERA over 7 1/3 combined innings with the Royals and Athletics.  Sent to the A’s as part of the deadline deal that brought Lucas Erceg to Kansas City, Klein was then flipped to Seattle in another trade this past January.

MAY 30: The Mariners will promote top infield prospect Cole Young this weekend, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. He is not yet on the 40-man roster, so the team will need to make a move in that regard. They’ll also need to create active roster space for Young and starting pitcher Bryce Miller, who’ll be reinstated from the 15-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Twins.

A Pittsburgh-area native, Young signed with Seattle out of high school in 2022. He received a $3.3MM bonus as the 21st overall pick. Scouting reports praised a potential plus hit tool and ability to play somewhere up the middle. While Young doesn’t have huge power projection in a 5’11” frame, he was viewed as a very polished player for his age.

That has been borne out in his systematic progression through the minors. He reached base at a .399 clip between two A-ball levels in his first full professional season. Young spent all of last season in Double-A, batting .271/.369/.390 as a 20-year-old in a tough league for hitters. The M’s bumped him to the more favorable Pacific Coast League this season. Young has taken to it well, running a .278/.391/.463 slash with more walks than strikeouts in his first look at Triple-A pitching.

The lefty-hitting Young actually began his Triple-A career mired in a slump. He hit .200 without a home run over 25 games in April. He’s been on an absolute tear since the calendar flipped. Young has raked at a .370/.466/.680 clip over 118 plate appearances in May. He has connected on five home runs, 10 doubles and three triples among a total of 37 hits. He has added another 15 walks while striking out all of eight times.

Young couldn’t have done more this month to force his way to the big leagues. He has divided his time evenly between shortstop and second base this season. Baseball America wrote over the offseason that he’s likely better suited for second base because of average arm strength. That figures to be his long-term home in Seattle. They’re committed to J.P. Crawford at shortstop. The path to playing time at the keystone is much more open. Ryan Bliss will miss most of the season recovering from biceps surgery. Miles Mastrobuoni and Dylan Moore have split the second base work over the past few weeks.

Moore is having a strong year, though his bat has tailed off following a huge April. He’s a right-handed hitter with a long track record of producing against lefty pitching. Moore figures to take some starts at second base against southpaws, but he’s versatile enough that it doesn’t need to be a strict platoon. Moore can spell Leody Taveras in right field or play regularly at third base over rookie Ben Williamson, who is hitting .246/.278/.297 through his first 38 games. Mastrobuoni, acquired in an offseason DFA trade with the Cubs, carries a .221/.306/.284 line through 111 plate appearances. He’ll be bumped to a utility role if not optioned to Triple-A.

Young was a consensus Top 100 prospect over the offseason. He meets the criteria for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. If he plays well enough to finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year balloting, he could earn a full year of service time. A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson seems as if he’ll run away with the award, but the runner-up spot is still there for the taking. That would not earn the Mariners any kind of draft compensation, which only applies if the team carries a top prospect in the big leagues for at least 172 days.

If he doesn’t earn the top-two Rookie of the Year finish, Young will fall short of a full service year and remain under club control for at least six seasons beyond this one. He’d be well-positioned to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player during the 2027-28 offseason if he’s in the big leagues for good.

2025-26 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings: May Edition

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We’re just over one-third of the way through the 2025 regular season, and it’s been about six weeks since MLBTR’s initial ranking of the upcoming members of the 2025-26 MLB free agent class. It’s a good time for a refresh, although many of the same names will populate the list (albeit in a different order). There are two new entrants, however, and the bottom of the list has shuffled around particularly.

As a reminder, our power rankings at MLB Trade Rumors are not a straight ranking of the best free agents in the upcoming class. There are plenty of older veterans who can make significant impact on short-term deals. However, our rankings are based on total earning power, which means older vets like Paul Goldschmidt are rarely going to crack the top 10, regardless of how strong their performance is. Their age will simply limit them to a shorter-term pact that caps their earning power and leaves them with smaller guarantees than less-productive (but still quality) contributors who can more plausibly push for a long-term deal.

As we’ve seen with recent mega-deals for Juan Soto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., age is king when it comes to unlocking the richest deals MLB has to offer. The best way a player can position himself for a monster contract is to get to free agency at as young an age as possible — and, of course, do so while turning in excellent results at the plate or on the mound.

One notable and somewhat enigmatic name that’s dropped off our list entirely, for now, is NPB slugger Munetaka Murakami. The 25-year-old corner infielder has played in only one game so far in 2025 due to an oblique strain. Reports dating all the way back to Dec. 2022 indicated that Murakami would be posted following the 2025 season. At the time, he was fresh off a 56-homer MVP campaign, wherein he hit .318/.458/.710 as a 22-year-old. The sky is the limit for that blend of power production and youth. Murakami’s numbers slipped in 2023-24, however. He still popped a combined 64 homers but did so with mounting strikeout rates and increasing struggles against higher-end velocity. Now with an injury that’s sidelined him effectively all season and minimal clarity as to a potential return date — or even whether he still plans to pursue MLB opportunities this winter — he’s been dropped to our honorable mention section. If Murakami returns in June and bashes 20 to 30 homers with strong rate stats over the final few months of the NPB season, he’ll jump right back onto this list — probably onto the top half. For now, he’s something of an unknown, and we’re choosing to focus on more known commodities with a surefire path to the open market.

Onto the updated rankings!

1. Kyle Tucker, OF, Cubs

Stats since last edition: .268/.365/.479, seven home runs, 12 steals, 13.8 BB%, 12 K%

No change here. Tucker fell into a brief slump in mid-May where he tallied just six hits in 11 games, but broke out of that funk with consecutive three-hit games that included a home run. The 28-year-old Tucker is batting .281/.388/.525 with a dozen homers and 15 stolen bases at the one-third mark of the Cubs’ season. He’s on pace for about 35 homers and 45 steals — all while walking more than he’s struck out (15.1% versus 12%) — and is also on pace to top the century mark in both runs and RBIs.

The only possible dings on Tucker’s season so far is that defensive metrics like DRS and OAA both feel he’s been a bit below average. You could point out that he’s not playing at quite as torrid a pace last year in terms of his rate stats, but if we’re resorting to “he’s only 51% better than average rather than 80% better like last year,” that’s officially grasping at straws territory. Tucker is a bona fide superstar who won’t turn 29 until January. He’ll have a qualifying offer hanging over him, but interested parties won’t care about sacrificing a draft pick and international funds if Tucker holds this pace and finishes the season around his current seven- to eight-WAR pace. Nothing Tucker has done this season should dissuade fans from thinking his next contract will at least start with a 4, and it very well could top the half-billion threshold.

2. Dylan Cease, RHP, Padres

Stats since last edition: 44 1/3 innings, 3.45 ERA, 29.8 K%, 7.7 BB%

Cease is still lugging a 4.58 ERA in late May, but that’s due almost entirely to an April 8 bludgeoning at the hands of the A’s. He hasn’t given up more than three runs in any of his other starts, and his production since that regrettable outing is exactly the type you’d expect from a pitcher of this caliber. The 29-year-old righty has done his best work of late, holding opponents to nine runs with a 33-to-5 K/BB ratio over his past four starts (at Yankee Stadium, home versus the Angels, at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, at Atlanta’s Truist Park). He’s pitched into the seventh inning in three of those four starts. Metrics like FIP (3.24) and SIERA (3.20) feel that Cease’s ERA should be at least a full run lower.

He’s had a few shorter outings this season — none more so than that A’s hiccup — but Cease has taken the ball 11 times and continued to pitch like the sport’s most durable starter. He’s never been on the major league injured list and leads MLB in games started dating back to 2020. Assuming he continues to distance himself from that A’s meltdown, this would be Cease’s third sub-4.00 ERA in four seasons, including a Cy Young runner-up effort back in 2022. His 96.8 mph average fastball is as strong as ever. This year’s gaudy 15.7% swinging-strike rate would actually be a career-high, as would his 33.8% opponents’ chase rate. Cease won’t turn 30 until December. He’s a lock to reject a qualifying offer, and he’ll have a real chance at surpassing $200MM in free agency based on his age, power repertoire, swing-and-miss ability and unrivaled durability.

3. Alex Bregman, 3B, Red Sox

Stats since last update: .305/.407/.602, nine homers, 11 doubles, 17.3 K%, 12 BB%

Bregman was on one of the hottest streaks of his career prior to a recent quadriceps strain that will sideline him for more than a month — possibly close to two. It’s awful timing given just how excellent Bregman was prior to the injury, but the strength of that performance still puts a substantial payday on the table in a way it may not have been just this past offseason.

Bregman had to shake off the stink of an early slump last year — one of the worst six-week stretches of his career. When he finally did so, he did it in a way that still raised some red flags. Namely, Bregman’s walk rate even during his good stretch over the final four months of the 2024 campaign was about half what it’d been in prior seasons. There were genuine questions about his approach at the plate, and he carried a career-worst (in a full season) .315 on-base percentage into free agency.

This year’s walk rate is just shy of 10%, and as noted already, it was up to 12% during his recent run of excellence. Bregman has never hit the ball as hard as he has in 2025. He’s averaging 92 mph off the bat — up from his previous career-high of 89.4 mph — and sporting a 48.1% hard-hit rate that’s a career-best by more than eight percentage points.

If Bregman returns from his quad injury and struggles, it will unquestionably impact his earning power. If he returns and looks like the hitter he’s been through his first 226 plate appearances, he might have a case to top the precedent-setting contracts secured by Freddie Freeman (six years, $162MM) and Matt Chapman (six years, $151MM) ahead of their age-32 campaigns (the same age Bregman will be in free agency). He won’t have a qualifying offer this time around, and this type of offensive performance, coupled with Bregman’s glove and the type of clubhouse demeanor and leadership teams covet, could push him past $175MM and might even have $200MM in play.

Injury notwithstanding, there might not be a player in baseball who’s helped his free agent case as much as Bregman with his blistering start.

4. Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros

Stats since last update: 51 innings, 3.71 ERA, 20.8 K%, 7.7 BB%, 57.2 GB%

Valdez’s stats since the publish of our initial rankings are skewed by one awful start the night those rankings were released. He was torched for seven runs in St. Louis but has rebounded tremendously, as one would expect for a top-tier starter. Anyone looks better when you sweep their worst performance under the rug, but Valdez has a 2.68 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate and 59% ground-ball rate across his past 47 innings.

Valdez might not come to mind right away when MLB fans try to rattle off the league’s best pitchers, but he’s a hard-throwing, durable lefty who misses bats and limits walks at strong rates and is perhaps the sport’s premier ground-ball pitcher (at least in regard to starting pitchers). Virtually no one in MLB can be relied upon for as many innings per start as Valdez, who’s completed six or more frames in eight of his 11 outings. He’s ninth in the majors in innings pitched despite six of the eight names ahead of him having an extra start under their belts. In an era where pitchers increasingly depart the game after five frames, Valdez has averaged 6 1/3 innings per start since 2021 — and done so with a pristine 3.11 ERA, roughly average strikeout and walk rates, and the second-highest ground-ball rate of any starter in baseball (61.9% to Andre Pallante’s 62%).

The only thing holding Valdez back is his age. He’ll turn 32 in November. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, there have only been four starting pitchers in the past 15 years to land a free-agent contract of five years or more beginning in their age-32 campaign (or later): Cliff Lee (five years, $125MM in 2010), Zack Greinke (six years, $206.5MM in 2015), Jacob deGrom (five years, $185MM in 2022) and Blake Snell (five years, $182MM just this past offseason).

If Valdez were a year younger, we might realistically be talking about a six-year contract. Most teams will probably be pushing for him on a high-AAV four-year deal instead, but Valdez is (somewhat quietly) so good that he’ll have a real chance to follow Snell as a recent exception to that rule about long-term deals for 32-year-old pitchers.

5. Bo Bichette, SS, Blue Jays

Stats since last update: .261/.310/.427, five homers, four steals, 16.7 K%, 6.5 BB%

On the last set of rankings, we noted that while Bichette’s general batting line was fairly pedestrian, he was back to making loud contact and putting the ball in play with great frequency. All of the ingredients for an uptick in power seemed to be in place, and if Bichette can hit like he did from 2019-23, most will overlook a down year at the plate during a 2024 season in which he was clearly hobbled by injury. Twenty-eight-year-old shortstops with plus hit tools, above-average power and above-average speed don’t come around all that often on the open market.

Since that writing, the power has indeed begun to manifest. Bichette has homered five times in his past 168 plate appearances and cracked another 11 doubles. He’s still not producing at an elite rate, but he’s averaging 91.3 mph off the bat with a 49.7% hard-hit rate. Those are very strong numbers that fall right in line with his 2019-23 batted-ball metrics. Bichette is hitting more line drives, fewer grounders and has popped up at a much lower rate. He’s still “only” about 8% better than average at the plate, but Statcast credits him with an “expected” batting average of .310, nearly 40 points higher than his current mark, and an “expected” slugging percentage of .495 — almost 90 points north of his current level.

In reality, Bichette is probably going to either position himself for a huge contract in free agency or follow the path taken by Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman and others over the years: sign an opt-out-laden, short-term deal that can get him back to market as soon as possible. At least for the time being, all of the arrows on his batted-ball profile are pointing up. If he can put together a big summer, then as recently laid out by MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald, there’s no reason to think he can’t push for a contract somewhere in the Dansby Swanson ($177MM) to Carlos Correa ($200MM) range.

6. Michael King, RHP, Padres

Stats since last update: 33 1/3 innings, 2.70 ERA, 29.9 K%, 6.7 BB%

King seemingly bolsters his case every time he takes the mound. He’s currently unable to do so, sitting on the 15-day IL due to inflammation in his right shoulder, but there’s no indication it’s a serious injury. The Padres called it a pinched nerve, which has an uncertain timeline, but said there’s nothing wrong structurally (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). If he returns in short order and keeps up his prior pace, he’s going to cash in handsomely.

King is still relatively new to starting. This is only his second full season in a rotation, but he’s been borderline elite ever since moving into the role. He’s averaging 5 2/3 innings per start this season — same as in 2024 — and currently boasts a 2.95 ERA with a 28.4% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate. Both are slight improvements over his strikeout and walk rates from 2024, and both (the strikeout rate in particular) are better than the league average.

Since the Yankees put King into the rotation late in 2023, he’s started 49 games with a 2.70 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate — a near-mirror image of what he’s done in this season’s 10 starts. It’s not the most conventional path to top-of-the-rotation status, but King increasingly looks the part of a genuine Game 1 or Game 2 playoff starter. He’s not necessarily flashy, averaging 93.7 mph on his heater and sporting good-but-not-elite rate stats. It doesn’t matter, though. The end results are excellent and appear sustainable.

King turned 30 last weekend. That makes the 2026 season technically his age-31 campaign, though the age gap between him and Zac Gallen is only a matter of about three months. It’s a bit misleading to call next season King’s age-31 season and Gallen’s age-30 season; they’re both right on the cusp of the arbitrary July 1 cutoff that’s generally accepted for that designation.

Because King started his big league career in the bullpen, his camp can argue that he has lesser mileage on his arm than most of the other pitchers on this list — while rivaling virtually any of them in quality. If he keeps this pace up, he’s a slam dunk to reject a qualifying offer, and a five-year deal seems like the floor. Six years and an annual value in the $25MM vicinity would very likely be on the table.

7. Cody Bellinger, 1B/OF, Yankees

Stats since last update: .279/.356/.507, seven homers, nine doubles, 14.4 K%, 11.3 BB%

Here we go again. The near perennial conundrum that is Bellinger’s free agent status is again being thrust into the spotlight. Bellinger has shaken off a terrible start to his season and looks well on his way to a better season at the plate than the good-not-great performance he turned in last year in his final season as a Cub.

At present, Bellinger’s .258/.329/.457 slash checks in 20% better than average, according to the wRC+ metric (which weights for a hitter-friendly home setting in the Bronx). The recent hot streak, however, suggests that his season batting line will end up a good bit north of that rate still.

Bellinger will have several things going for him in this bite at the free-agent apple that he didn’t in the past. He was a non-tender coming off two terrible years in the 2022-23 offseason, when he signed a one-year deal with the Cubs. He turned in a brilliant 2023 season, but his market that winter was clouded by skepticism regarding his performance in 2021-22 and a pretty lackluster batted-ball profile that pointed to regression. He also had a qualifying offer with which to contend. After returning to the Cubs on a three-year, $80MM deal with a pair of opt-outs, he had a decent but not great year at the plate in 2024. He chose to forgo an opt-out last winter, recognizing that he could pocket $32.5MM more on his current deal and opt out again if he hit well in 2025.

He’s not just hitting well this year, he’s eliminating the red flags that plagued him previously. The ugly 87.9 mph average exit velocity and 31.4% hard-hit rate he showed in ’23 have been replaced by marks of 90 mph and 40.5%. Below-average walk rates in 2023-24 have been swapped out for a hearty 10.3% mark this year. Is he selling out for power and improved batted-ball contact at the expense of contact? Nope. His 17.8% strikeout rate is up from the 15.6% mark he posted in 2022-23, but his swinging-strike rate is actually down to a career-low 8.8%. As noted already, his strikeout rate since the last MLBTR Power Rankings is just over 14%.

Bellinger won’t have a qualifying offer. It’s crazy to think he’s still only 29, since we’ve been talking about him as a free agent for three years now. His return to free agency will come ahead of his age-30 season, and all the arrows are pointing up. A nine-figure deal will be in play if this keeps up, and it’s easy to imagine Bellinger and Scott Boras taking aim at George Springer’s $150MM guarantee or Brandon Nimmo’s $162MM guarantee.

8. Ranger Suarez, LHP, Phillies

Stats since last update: 30 1/3 innings, 2.97 ERA, 24.6 K%, 7.9 BB%, 47.6 GB%

Suarez missed the first five weeks of the season with a back injury — a concerning start to his platform season even before considering that this is now his second straight year missing a month or more due to back troubles. In 2023, he was limited to just 22 starts by a hamstring strain and an elbow strain.

That’s a whole lot of ominous injury history, but Suarez’s performance when he’s on the mound rarely disappoints. That’s eminently true in 2025, when he’s roared out of the gates with a sub-3.00 ERA and better-than-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. His average fastball, which dipped to a career-low 91.8 mph last year, is back up to 92.3 mph. It’s not quite to the 93.4 mph he averaged in 2023, but it’s still a positive trend.

Whenever Suarez is healthy, he’s a good bet to average about 5 2/3 innings per start while turning in strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates that are comfortably better than average. He’s rarely posted elite marks in any of those categories (save, perhaps, for 2022’s grounder rate of 55.4%), but Suarez consistently performs like a No. 2-3 starter. He’s a legitimate option for a postseason rotation and has been deployed as such by the Phils dating back to 2022. Oh, and his results in those playoff starts? Suarez has 37 2/3 postseason frames in his career, all coming as a starter with the Phillies, and he’s logged an immaculate 1.43 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate.

Suarez might not be the first name that springs to mind when thinking about $100MM starters, but he won’t turn 30 until August and should have a chance to land in the $110-115MM range achieved by Robbie Ray and Kevin Gausman a few years back. If he keeps up his current pace, he could even top the AAV on those five-year deals by a few million.

9. Pete Alonso, 1B, Mets

Stats since last update: .279/.376/.500, seven homers, 11 doubles, 24.3 K%, 11.6 BB%

Alonso opened the 2025 season on one of the most epic slugging binges of any hitter in recent memory. His April stats look like something out of Rookie mode from MLB: The Show. The Polar Bear slashed .343/.474/.657 through the end of April (214 wRC+) — and he did it with a near 17% walk rate and a strikeout rate shy of 15%.

That carried into the first few days of May, but Alonso has cooled considerably over his past 20 games, hitting .192/.244/.321. Worse yet, that incredible K-BB profile has gone up in flames. He’s punched out in 33.7% of his plate appearances during this slump against just a 5.8% walk rate. Alonso has two multi-hit games in this stretch compared to seven hitless performances. His 93.1 mph average exit velocity and 49% hard-hit rate are still great, but they’re nowhere near the 95.3 mph and 59.4% marks he carried through May 5.

Alonso’s early heroics still carry some weight, and if he can break out of these May doldrums and continue onward near his composite .290/.391/.541 batting line, he’s going to be compensated very nicely in free agency. His ultimate payday hinges on whether he’s closer to April’s Dr. Jekyll or May’s Mr. Hyde, but Alonso won’t have a qualifying offer hanging over him in free agency this time around and could top $100MM with another four months of mostly productive slugging.

10. Kyle Schwarber, DH/OF, Phillies

Stats since last update: .250/.390/.549, 13 homers, 17.5% BB%, 23.7% K%

While many of the other hitters in the class have struggled and/or battled injury, Schwarber has remained an impact power presence in the middle of Philadelphia’s lineup. He’s tied for second in the majors with 19 home runs and owns a massive .252/.394/.569 slash line across 249 plate appearances. He’s trending towards a career season, leveling up from an already excellent first three years with the Phils.

Schwarber carries a .224/.349/.496 slash over the course of his four-year, $79MM free agent deal. He’s one of three players (joining Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani) with at least 150 homers since the start of the 2022 season. Schwarber may not provide much value outside the batter’s box, but he’s on the shortlist of the sport’s best sluggers right now.

If this list were based solely on the player’s platform year performance, Schwarber would be in the top five. He’s off that pace in a list based on earning power. As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald covered in much greater detail last week, the market generally doesn’t look kindly on designated hitters or position players approaching their mid-30s. Schwarber will be entering his age-33 season — a time at which hitters almost never get to five years or $25MM annually. He’ll probably buck the latter trend, with a four-year deal around $25MM per season giving him the best chance to reach nine figures. A higher AAV over three years that results in an $80-90MM guarantee isn’t out of the question.

The Phillies will make an effort to keep him around. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported in April that Schwarber had rejected an offseason extension proposal. Talks didn’t progress at the time. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of The New York Post this week that the Phils “would love to keep him as part of the organization for the long term, no doubt.” At the very least, they’ll make him a qualifying offer to ensure they get draft compensation if he walks.

Honorable Mentions (listed alphabetically): Shane Bieber, Zach Eflin, Jack Flaherty, Zac Gallen, Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham, Ryan Helsley, Rhys Hoskins, Tyler Mahle, Munetaka Murakami, Cedric Mullins, Josh Naylor, Ryan O’Hearn, Robert Suarez, Gleyber Torres, Luke Weaver

Evan Phillips To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips will undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). He’ll miss the remainder of this season and most or all of 2026 as well.

It’s a crushing blow to the Dodger bullpen and for Phillips personally. Claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay in 2021, the 6’2″ righty broke out as one of the best relievers in the game upon landing in Los Angeles. He fired 63 innings of 1.14 ERA ball during his first full season as a Dodger. Phillips followed up with a 2.05 mark while recording 24 saves after emerging as the team’s closer. He saved another 18 games last year before moving into a setup role after they acquired Michael Kopech at the deadline.

Phillips had avoided any arm injuries over that stretch. His only two injured list stints were related to his quad and hamstring, respectively. That changed last fall. Phillips pitched through arm fatigue during the early stages of the team’s playoff run. It became significant enough that the club had to scratch him for the World Series. Phillips revealed over the offseason that the issue was primarily with his shoulder, as he was eventually diagnosed with a slightly torn rotator cuff tendon. He avoided surgery but took things slowly during his ramp-up and began the season on the injured list.

The 30-year-old righty made it back to the mound in the middle of April. Phillips looked great through seven appearances, reeling off 5 2/3 scoreless frames with six strikeouts. The return proved short-lived, as the Dodgers placed him back on the IL three weeks later with forearm discomfort. They transferred him to the 60-day injured list yesterday as the corresponding move in the Alexis Díaz trade. That guaranteed he wouldn’t be back for a while. The team presumably knew at the time that he was destined for surgery.

Phillips is one of a staggering 14 Dodger pitchers on the injured list. All but three are on the 60-day version. Kopech, Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates are all potential high-leverage arms who are sidelined. Kopech should be back soon, while Yates and Treinen are amidst throwing programs. Tanner Scott is the team’s top healthy reliever. Alex Vesia, Ben Casparius and Jack Dreyer have mostly held up in middle relief roles. Lou Trivino, who signed a minor league deal earlier this month, was quickly called up and immediately thrown into high-leverage situations.

There’s a chance this ends Phillips’ tenure in Los Angeles. He’s playing on a $6.1MM salary. He’d be eligible for arbitration a final time next offseason. That’d come with a similar salary to this season’s if they tender him a contract. A non-tender seems likely given the possibility that he’ll miss all of next year. The Dodgers are more willing than any other team to gamble on talented pitchers with health concerns. Even if they non-tender Phillips, they could subsequently try to work out a backloaded two-year deal in the hope of getting him back healthy for the entire ’27 season.

AJ Smith-Shawver Diagnosed With Torn UCL

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Braves right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. It is still being determined whether the righty will undergo Tommy John surgery or an internal brace procedure. In either case, he should miss the remainder of this season and part of the 2026 campaign as well.

The news is devastating but not surprising. Smith-Shawver started the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against the Phillies. He was removed in the third inning and it was quickly reported that he felt a pop in his throwing elbow. He was placed on the 15-day IL before the second game of that twin bill with an elbow strain. “It doesn’t look good,” was manager Brian Snitker’s assessment of the situation. He was transferred to the 60-day IL earlier today, only enhancing the sense that bad news was coming.

All the warning signs have now proven to be accurate. Smith-Shawver will go under the knife and the only thing left to determine is if he’ll require a full Tommy John procedure or the internal brace variant. The latter generally comes with a slightly lesser return timeline, but even that reduced time frame is generally around a year or so. He will therefore spend the rest of the year on the 60-day IL and will perhaps start the 2026 season there as well.

He will collect big league pay and service time while on the IL but that’s a small consolation. He was in the middle of establishing himself as a true big league starter. He had logged 44 1/3 innings over nine starts this year with a 3.86 earned run average. His 10.9% walk rate was on the high side but his 21.9% strikeout rate was slightly above par for a starter. He’ll now have to wait until 2026 to build off that showing.

For the team, they are now down two starters. Reynaldo López had arthroscopic shoulder surgery earlier in the year and seems unlikely to return until late in the season, even in a best-case scenario.

Bryce Elder will be recalled to start on Sunday, per Bowman. Elder seemingly cemented himself in the big leagues in 2023 when he posted a 3.81 ERA over 31 starts. However, his results backed up last year, which bumped him down the chart to being a frequently-optioned depth piece. He was only able to make ten big league starts last year with a 6.52 ERA. He has continued to be shuttled to Gwinnett and back here in 2025. He has a 4.50 ERA in eight big league starts as well as an 8.76 ERA in three Triple-A starts.

If Elder falters, he still has options and the club has other arms available. Hurston Waldrep, Nathan Wiles and Davis Daniel are all on the 40-man roster and pitching in the Triple-A rotation. Ian Anderson and José Suarez are not on the 40-man roster but both have major league experience and are pitching in the Triple-A rotation as well.

Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

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