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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.

Rangers Option Jake Burger

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May 2: The moves have now been officially announced by the Rangers. As reported, Crim has been selected and Ornelas recalled, with Ahmed designated for assignment and Burger optioned.

May 1: The Rangers are demoting Jake Burger to Triple-A, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. First baseman Blaine Crim will be promoted to the majors in his place, according to Rosenthal. Burger has one minor league option remaining, so the Rangers will not need to pass him through waivers in order to send him to Triple-A. Crim is not yet on the 40-man roster and will need to have his contract selected. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that the swap from Burger to Crim will be paired with the club designating shortstop Nick Ahmed for assignment to open up a 40-man roster spot for Crim. That will create a new vacancy on the roster’s bench, which Grant suggests could go to utility infielder Jonathan Ornelas.

According to Rosenthal, Burger’s demotion to the minor leagues could be a fairly short one. He reports that the Rangers’ plan is to allow Burger an opportunity to “reset” in the minor leagues before bringing him back up to the majors in the near future. At the very least, the 29-year-old will report to Round Rock for the next ten days before he can be considered for a return to the majors. That’s the minimum stay for a player optioned to the minor leagues before they can be promoted back to MLB.

Even a short stay in the minors demonstrates how difficult Burger’s start to his Rangers career has been. Acquired from the Marlins back in December in exchange for infield prospects Maximo Acosta and Echedry Vargas as well as pitching prospect Brayan Mendoza, Burger was brought in to replace Nathaniel Lowe at first base on the heels of a year-and-a-half stint with the Marlins where he slashed .265/.315/.472 with a 112 wRC+ across 190 games. Last year’s production was less impressive, however, as he posted a 106 wRC+ overall. While he slugged 29 homers in 137 games, he struck out in 25.9% of his plate appearances and got on base at a lackluster .301 clip. Still, it was an above-average profile overall and the power intrigued the Rangers enough to invest in the slugger, who will remain under team control for three more seasons after this one.

Burger is only 29 games into his career with the Rangers, but the early returns on that investment have not exactly impressed. In 105 plate appearances this year, Burger has hit just .186/.229/.330 with a well below-average wRC+ of just 55. He’s struck out at a worrisome 30.5% clip, walked in just 2.9% of his plate appearances, and has so far failed to generate the trademark power that has become his carrying tool over the years. That all came together to leave Burger with the fifth-worst season among qualified first basemen this year by wRC+ and the sixth-worst by fWAR. Perhaps a more successful team would be more willing to display patience with a newly-acquired player, but the Rangers are currently 16-16 and have fallen to fourth place in the AL West behind the Mariners, Astros, and Athletics.

Those woes can largely be attributed to a lackluster offense. There have been some major bright spots; Wyatt Langford is looking like a potential superstar, Jonah Heim, Josh Jung, and Josh Smith have all been impressive, and Corey Seager looks like his typical star-level self when healthy. Unfortunately, Seager is currently on the injured list and other key pieces of the offense expected to help carry the load in his absence like Marcus Semien, Joc Pederson, and Burger have been disappointing in the early going. Given the veteran statuses of Semien and Pederson, Burger was the only one of that struggling trio who could be optioned to the minors and therefore by far the easiest to remove from the lineup for a temporary reset.

That makes Burger’s demotion in some ways about circumstances as much as it’s about performance. After all, while Burger’s plate discipline numbers early in the season have been worrying as he’s made worse swing decisions while whiffing inside the strike zone more often as compared to last year, underlying metrics actually paint quite a rosy picture about his expected power production. The slugger’s 13.4% barrel rate is higher than last year, and the same can be said for a 49.3% hard-hit rate that actually matches his breakout 2023 season with the Marlins and White Sox. Combine Burger’s expected slugging percentage of .411 (more than 80 points higher than his actual production) and his artificially low .234 BABIP, and it’s easy to see how Burger could turn things around in relatively short order.

He’ll need to fight his way back up to the majors in order to do that, however. In the meantime, the Rangers will turn to well-regarded prospect Blaine Crim to handle first base. Crim is nearly 28 years old, making him older for a prospect, and he was drafted by the Rangers all the way back in 2019 during the 19th round of that year’s draft. Despite that age and lack of pedigree, Crim is now in his third consecutive season with impressive results at the Triple-A level, where he has a career .286/.373/.486 slash line across 308 games. Crim’s been even more impressive so far this year, with a .313/.365/.565 slash line across 126 plate appearances. If he can come up to the majors and prove he can hit at the highest level, it would hardly be a surprise to see Crim remain in the mix even after Burger returns to action. After all, Pederson typically sits against left-handed pitching, and a right-handed bat like Crim could offer the Rangers a solid platoon partner for their struggling slugger going forward.

As for Ahmed, the 35-year-old is now in his 12th season in the majors and has appeared in just four games for the Rangers this year. He’s yet to record a hit in eight trips to the plate this year but does have a walk and a run scored to go with three strikeouts. Assuming he does get designated for assignment to make room for Crim, the Rangers will have one week to either attempt to pass Ahmed through waivers or work out a trade sending him elsewhere. Should Ahmed clear waivers, he would then have the opportunity to either accept an outright assignment to the minor leagues or elect free agency instead.

Tigers Designate Kenta Maeda For Assignment

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The Tigers announced that they have designated right-hander Kenta Maeda for assignment. Right-hander Tyler Owens has been recalled to take his place on the active roster. Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported Maeda’s DFA prior to the official announcement.

Maeda landed with Detroit going into the 2024 season. The two sides agreed to a two-year, $24MM deal in November of 2023. In hindsight, that’s obviously a move the Tigers wish they could undo, though there was decent logic to it at the time.

The veteran didn’t go into free agency with a ton of juice. He had a 4.66 earned run average with the Twins in 2021, then missed the 2022 recovering from UCL surgery. He returned to the mound in 2023 and tossed 104 1/3 innings but with a middling 4.23 ERA.

Under the hood, there was a bit more reason for optimism. His 2023 season started awfully but he finished strong. He landed on the IL in late April due to a right triceps strain, sitting on an ERA of 9.00 at that time. In his last start before hitting the IL, he had allowed ten runs in three innings. Given the subsequent IL stint, it was fair to conclude that he wasn’t right. He came off the IL in June and then tossed 88 1/3 innings the rest of the way with a 3.36 ERA, 29% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate.

It appeared to have a chance at being a sneaky value play for the Tigers. That did not come to pass at all. Maeda posted a 7.26 ERA through his first 16 starts last year. His strikeout rate had dropped to a paltry 17.1%. The Tigers moved him to the bullpen at that point and he did improve from there. He tossed 46 2/3 innings in a long relief role the rest of the way with a 4.44 ERA and a 23.8% strikeout rate.

Over the winter, president of baseball operations Scott Harris said that Maeda would have a chance to earn a rotation spot in 2025. However, the club eventually bumped him to a long relief role yet again, going with a rotation of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Casey Mize and Jackson Jobe to start the season.

Though Maeda did well out of the ’pen last year, he hasn’t carried that over into this year. He has a 7.88 ERA through eight innings. Some of that is due to a low 60.2% strand rate but his strikeout rate has also fallen to 18.6% and he has walked 14% of batters faced. Manager A.J. Hinch has clearly been reluctant to use him, with Maeda only making six appearances in the month of April. He twice went over a week without getting into a game.

Teams generally don’t like to give up on players when they’ve already committed significant sums of money to them, but the writing was on the wall with Maeda. He will likely end up on the open market in the coming days. The Tigers could try to trade him but they would surely have to eat basically all of his remaining contract in order to interest any other club. He is making $10MM this year, with roughly $8MM still to be paid out. No team will want to take that on, meaning Maeda would clear outright waivers. As a veteran with at least five years of service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping all of that money. The Tigers may skip the formalities and release him.

Assuming he does end up a free agent, any club could sign him at that point and would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Tigers owe. It’s conceivable that some clubs might have interest in that scenario, since there would be no financial risk. With several teams dealing with mounting injuries, one of them might give it a shot.

Owens, 24, gets to the majors for the first time. Drafted by Atlanta, he was traded to the Rangers for J.P. Martínez in January of 2024, then to the Tigers in the deadline deal that sent Carson Kelly to Texas. The Tigers added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

He worked both as a starter and a reliever earlier in his career but worked exclusively out of the bullpen last year with good results. He tossed 51 2/3 Double-A innings with a 2.96 ERA, 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has been with Triple-A Toledo to start this year but the numbers haven’t been as good. He has a 4.50 ERA, 16.7% strikeout rate and 13.6% walk rate through 14 innings.

He might be in for a short stint, as Beau Brieske is on a rehab assignment and eligible to come off the injured list in Saturday. Regardless, he’s up in the majors today and has a chance to make his debut.

Photos courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Reds Option Alexis Diaz

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The Reds have optioned former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz to Triple-A Louisville, per a team announcement. Fellow right-hander Luis Mey is being recalled from Louisville in his place. Mey will be making his MLB debut the first time he takes the mound.

It’s been a brutal season for Diaz, who already lost the closer’s role in Cincinnati. The 28-year-old righty opened the year on the 15-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. He returned a couple weeks ago but has been pitching with a career-low 93 mph average fastball velocity. He currently has more walks (five) and home runs allowed (four) than strikeouts (three). The result is a ghastly 12.00 ERA, which was inflated heavily by yesterday’s five-run meltdown against the Cardinals.

Diaz’s decline hasn’t been completely out of the blue. He was an excellent high-leverage arm in his first two seasons from 2022-23, finishing fifth in ’22 NL Rookie of the Year voting and making the ’23 All-Star team at the midpoint of a 37-save season. His 2024 campaign, however, was rife with red flags.

Last year’s 3.99 ERA wasn’t necessarily a harbinger for significant decline in and of itself, but Diaz’s average heater dropped from 95.2 mph in 2022-23 to 93.9 mph in 2024. His strikeout rate, which had topped 30% in each of his first two seasons, fell to a pedestrian 22.7%. His swinging-strike rate checked in at just 11% last year after sitting at a gaudy 15.6% over the two prior seasons. Diaz has never had good command, walking more than 12% of his opponents even at his peak, which makes the precipitous decline in his ability to miss bats all the more problematic.

Diaz hasn’t altered his pitch selection over the course of his career — he’s still a pure four-seam/slider reliever — but the shape, velocity and quality of his pitches have all gone the wrong direction. Beyond the drop in fastball velocity, his slider has actually gained a bit less than a mile per hour. What was once a nearly 9 mph gap between his heater and his slider is down to 5.7 mph at the moment. He’s also seen that slider lose a significant amount of its horizontal break; back in 2022, Statcast measured both the vertical and horizontal break of Diaz’s slider to be well above average. They’re both more than two inches worse than average now, and the whiff rate on the pitch has plummeted from 45% in ’22 to just 13% so far in ’25.

The Reds could’ve non-tendered Diaz over the winter, but they kept him around and agreed to a $4.5MM salary for the current season. Depending on the length of this optional assignment, the demotion could push the right-hander’s path to free agency back by a year. He entered the season with exactly three years of MLB service, and if he spends more than two weeks in Louisville, he won’t accrue a full year this season. That’d push his free agency back from the 2027-28 offseason to the 2028-29 offseason.

Of course, that’ll only come into play if Diaz is able to restore some of his prior form. If he continues to struggle anywhere close to this level, he’ll be a non-tender candidate in November or perhaps even a DFA candidate between now and season’s end. For the time being, he’ll look to get back on track in Triple-A.

Turning to the 23-year-old Mey, he’ll add a flamethrowing arm to Terry Francona’s bullpen — but one whose command troubles aren’t all that dissimilar from those of Diaz. Mey is averaging a colossal 99.1 mph on his power sinker this year, but he’s walked at least 15.6% of his opponents in each of his four years of full-season ball in the minors. He doled free passes at a grisly 17.6% clip in 55 innings between High-A and Double-A last year, and he’s walked 16.7% of his opponents in nine Triple-A frames in 2025.

The glut of walks hasn’t necessarily been offset by prominent strikeout rates. Mey has been average or better in that regard throughout his career but has never really climbed into plus range. His strikeout rate has hovered between 23% and 28% from year to year, settling at a collective 25.9% rate dating back to 2021. Similarly, his sinker has produced strong but not quite elite ground-ball rates as he’s climbed the minor league ladder. He clocked in at 52% there in 2024 and has a 54.2% grounder rate so far in 2025.

The sheer power of Mey’s sinker, coupled with a slider that’s drawn anywhere from above-average to plus grades on scouting reports, gives Mey the foundation of a potentially dominant reliever. He’ll need to substantially improve upon his command in order to reach that ceiling, but he’s an intriguing arm for the Reds to take a look at in place of their newly demoted closer. Mey will presumably slot into low-leverage situations to start out his big league career.

Orioles Move Charlie Morton To Bullpen

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The Orioles used veteran starter Charlie Morton out of the bullpen last night when Kyle Gibson’s first start of the year was shorter than hoped, and it seems that’ll be the continued plan for Morton — at least in the short term. Manager Brandon Hyde announced today that Morton will pitch in relief for the time being (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). The O’s haven’t closed the door on the 41-year-old returning to a starting role, but they’re hoping a change in role can help get him back on track.

It’s a disappointing outcome for both the team and for Morton personally. The 18-year big league veteran signed with the O’s on a one-year, $15MM contract over the winter. Morton was one of several one-year acquisitions for the Orioles’ rotation, joining Tomoyuki Sugano and Gibson in that regard. Baltimore’s baseball operations staff hoped that the infusion of aging veterans, paired with steps forward from young pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez and Cade Povich, would help them overcome the loss of ace Corbin Burnes, who signed with the D-backs in free agency.

Virtually nothing has gone right for the Orioles’ staff in 2025, however. Morton is hardly alone in terms of struggles, but his have been the most glaring. He’s appeared in seven games — five starts, one bulk appearance following an opener, and last night’s mop-up work — and been tattooed for a 9.45 ERA in 26 2/3 frames. His 15.2% walk rate is a career-worst, while his 18.8% strikeout rate is his lowest since 2015. Morton’s typically strong ground-ball rate has evaporated; he’s sitting on a career-low 36.7% mark and has averaged a career-worst 2.03 homers per nine innings pitched. He’s also displayed career-worst marks in average exit velocity (91.6 mph), opponents’ barrel rate (11.1%) and hard-hit rate (48.9%).

The rest of Baltimore’s rotation hasn’t been quite as bad, but it’s still been a mess overall. Dean Kremer has been torched for a 7.04 ERA while working with career-worst strikeout and swinging-strike rates. Povich was terrific his last time out but still has an ERA of 5.04. Sugano boasts a sharp 3.00 ERA, but it’s hard to see that continuing when he has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate among all qualified big league pitchers.

Injuries have hit Baltimore’s staff hard. Zach Eflin has been out since mid-April due to a lat strain. Rodriguez initially hit the IL with elbow inflammation but has since been diagnosed with a lat strain of his own; he was recently moved over to the 60-day injured list. Trevor Rogers, Albert Suarez, Chayce McDermott, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells have all yet to pitch this season. Rogers dislocated his kneecap in January. McDermott suffered a lat strain in February. Suarez’s shoulder flared up in March. He’s now on the 60-day IL, too. Bradish and Wells had UCL surgeries performed just days apart last June.

There’s little recourse for the Orioles at the moment. Rookie Brandon Young made his MLB debut earlier this month but has struggled in both of his outings (6.23 ERA, eight walks in 8 2/3 innings). Gibson made his season debut last night and was promptly shelled for nine runs in 3 2/3 frames. Triple-A starters Kyle Brnovich, Cameron Weston and Thaddeus Ward have posted results that range from underwhelming to ugly.

Right now, the hope will be that Povich can build on his last solid outing in tonight’s series finale versus the Yankees. Baltimore has announced that Kremer, Sugano and Gibson will start this weekend, in that order, against a Royals club that has struggled to score runs in 2025. Baltimore is off again next Monday. That gives them the short-term luxury of skipping the fifth spot this next time through the rotation, but the O’s only have one off-day from May 6-28, so that’s a short-term reprieve.

Astros To Activate Lance McCullers Jr. This Weekend

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The Astros are planning to reinstate right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. from the injured list this weekend, the team announced to reporters Wednesday (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). He’ll take the ball Sunday to start against the White Sox.

Sunday will mark McCullers’ first appearance on a major league mound since the 2022 postseason. Even in 2022, McCullers was limited to 47 2/3 regular-season innings because of a forearm injury. He made his 2022 debut in August, pitched down the stretch and added another 15 postseason innings. His forearm again flared up in spring training 2023, and McCullers eventually underwent surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right arm and to remove bone spurs from his elbow.

That procedure ended McCullers’ 2023 season before it began, but the general expectation was that he’d return at some point in 2024. That never came to pass. McCullers worked through a throwing program last summer but never made it to the mound for a rehab start. The Astros revealed in August that McCullers was being shut back down due to persisting pain in his surgically repaired right arm. His absence extended into the 2025 season, but after making four rehab starts — including nine straight scoreless Triple-A frames — McCullers is now set to finally return to the majors.

“It’s a day I’ve been waiting for a long time,” McCullers replied when asked what Sunday’s return means to him (video link via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). “I almost feel like I’m making my debut in some aspects. It’s been a really long road for me. I thank my teammates, the coaching staff, the Astros organization for standing by me and supporting me.”

Injuries have been a persistent theme throughout the now-31-year-old McCullers’ career, but there’s never been any doubt of his abilities when he’s been healthy enough to pitch. The former No. 41 overall draft pick was a top prospect before making his debut in 2015 and has posted a sub-4.00 ERA in six of his seven major league seasons. Overall, McCullers touts a career 3.48 earned run average, 26.5% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate in 718 2/3 regular season frames. His work in 72 2/3 postseason innings is nearly identical: 3.47 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate.

It’s impossible to know what to expect from McCullers on the heels of such a lengthy absence. If he can recapture even 80% of his prior form, he’d be a boon to an Astros staff that has five other rotation options on the injured list (Luis Garcia, J.P. France, Cristian Javier, Spencer Arrighetti, Shawn Dubin). Hunter Brown has been one of MLB’s best pitchers this year, and fellow starters Framber Valdez and Hayden Wesneski have pitched well. Ryan Gusto has impressed in a small sample of 19 innings since being thrust into the rotation following Arighetti’s injury. Last year’s rotation savior, Ronel Blanco, has stumbled out of the gate with a 5.08 ERA.

On the whole, Astros starters rank seven in the majors with a 3.50 earned run average, but Blanco has struggled and the depth beyond the current quintet is a bit suspect. A healthy McCullers would be a pivotal development.

Houston signed McCullers to a five-year, $85MM extension back in March 2021 — a rare (but hardly unheard of) extension for a Boras Corporation client on the cusp of free agency. He was excellent in ’21, but those previously mentioned 63 innings (regular season and postseason combined) in 2022 are the only innings he’s pitched throughout the duration of that extension. He’s being paid $17MM this year and next in the final two seasons of that contract.

A.J. Minter Could Require Season-Ending Surgery

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The Mets placed lefty A.J. Minter on the 15-day injured list due to a left lat strain this weekend, but he’ll be out far longer than 15 days. Manager Carlos Mendoza tells the Mets beat that Minter’s injury is “pretty significant” and could require surgery (video link via SNY). A final decision on surgery hasn’t been made yet, as Minter is receiving a wave of additional opinions. However, if the lefty does go under the knife, Mendoza acknowledged that the procedure would end his 2025 campaign.

It’s a brutal development for Minter, who spent the offseason rehabbing hip surgery and has been outstanding in his first 11 innings as a Met. The longtime Braves lefty has allowed only two runs on six hits and five walks with 14 strikeouts so far in 2025. That’s good for a huge 31.8% strikeout rate, albeit against a bloated 11.4% walk rate. Minter has kept a strong 48% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground and turned in an above-average 12.4% swinging-strike rate.

Minter is one of four Mets relievers with a sub-3.00 ERA on the season (and three with a sub-2.00 mark). The Mets have seen closer Edwin Diaz struggle with command issues even as he’s gone 7-for-7 in save opportunities. Righty Ryne Stanek has also struggled with his command. The group of Reed Garrett, Jose Butto and Huascar Brazoban has been sharp thus far, but on the whole the Mets are lacking in established veterans to set up for Diaz.

More generally, the Mets are also light on lefties with Minter’s season now in jeopardy. Danny Young is the only currently healthy left-handed reliever in Mendoza’s bullpen (or on the 40-man roster). Brooks Raley just signed a one-year deal, but he’s still on the mend from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Genesis Cabrera is in Triple-A but is not on the 40-man roster and has not pitched well to begin the season.

Minter’s injury also comes with notable contractual ramifications for the Mets. A healthy version of Minter would surely have turned down the player option he faces at season’s end. He signed a two-year, $22MM deal over the winter even while recovering from hip surgery. If he’d been healthy and pitched anywhere close to his current level, he’d have been a lock to opt back into free agency.

If Minter undergoes season-ending surgery, he’d almost certainly decide to forgo that out opportunity in his contract. Even if he avoids surgery, it seems like he’ll be facing a monthslong absence, which significantly increases the chances of him exercising his $11MM player option. RosterResource already projects the Mets for $206MM of tax obligations in 2026, and that’s before factoring in player options (Minter, Frankie Montas, Pete Alonso), club options (Raley, Drew Smith) or arbitration raises (Francisco Alvarez, David Peterson and Tylor Megill, to name a few).

Braves Sign Eddie Rosario, Option Jarred Kelenic

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The Braves announced Monday that they’ve signed veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario to a major league contract and optioned fellow outfielder Jarred Kelenic to Triple-A Gwinnett. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Atlanta designated righty Zach Thompson for assignment.

Kelenic’s demotion comes amid a calamitously poor start for the 25-year-old former top prospect. He’s opened the season with a .167/.231/.300 batting line and a massive 23 strikeouts in his first 65 plate appearances (35.4%). Those struggles come despite Kelenic being shielded almost entirely from left-handed pitching. The Braves have let him face a southpaw just six times in 2025. He’s hitless in those six plate appearances and has gone down on strikes in four of them.

Atlanta took on a series of underwater contracts through a convoluted sequence of trades in the 2023-24 offseason, effectively eating all of that dead money in order to purchase Kelenic from the Mariners. Seattle unloaded the remainder of its commitments to first baseman Evan White and left-hander Marco Gonzales in the original trade. Atlanta flipped Gonzales to the Pirates for a bit of cash and shipped White to Anaheim while taking back the unwanted contracts of David Fletcher and Max Stassi (the latter of whom was sold off to the White Sox). Atlanta took on more than $20MM in that sequence, and that’s before factoring in the luxury tax penalties required to do so.

It was an expensive gambit, and thus far, it simply hasn’t paid off. Kelenic had a below-average offensive output in 2024 and has clearly taken a further step back in 2025. Since coming to Atlanta, he’s turned in a .222/.279/.381 line with a 30.4% strikeout rate. The Braves, sitting last place in the NL East after a surprisingly poor start, cannot afford the luxury of a more patient approach with Kelenic. They’ve also seen Alex Verdugo and Eli White handily outperform Kelenic on the young season. That pairing will join Michael Harris II, Stuart Fairchild and the newly signed Rosario in the outfield mix while Kelenic hopes to benefit from a reset in Triple-A.

The 33-year-old Rosario will head to Atlanta’s big league roster for a fifth straight season. The Braves originally acquired him from the Guardians in a salary-dump deal at the 2021 trade deadline and watched the longtime Twins outfielder catch fire down the stretch. Rosario played a major role in the Braves’ 2021 World Series run, and they rewarded him with a two-year, $18MM deal to return to Atlanta that offseason. It didn’t pay dividends. Rosario had a brutal 2022 season and was league average at the plate in 2023. He signed with the Nationals as a free agent and wound up back in Atlanta after Washington cut him loose.

The Braves will be Rosario’s second big league stop this year. He very briefly played with the Dodgers, going hitless in four plate appearances before being designated for assignment. Rosario hasn’t had a full above-average season at the plate since 2020, his final year in Minnesota. In 1521 plate appearances for four teams since that time, he’s slashed .232/.278/.396 (82 wRC+). He could conceivably platoon with the righty-swinging White in one corner spot while the Braves await Ronald Acuña Jr.’s return from the injured list.

As for the 31-year-old Thompson, he’ll now be traded or placed on waivers within the next five days. Waivers would be a 48-hour process, if the Braves choose to go that route. Within a week’s time, Thompson will know the outcome of his DFA.

He’s appeared in two big league games with the Braves in 2025 and tossed 3 2/3 shutout innings. In 4 1/3 Triple-A frames, Thompson has allowed six runs (three earned) on seven hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts. That’s his first action on a mound since 2023. The righty missed all of the 2024 campaign after undergoing surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon.

Thompson has seen major league time in two other seasons. From 2021-22, he pitched 196 2/3 innings, working primarily as a starter, between the Marlins and Pirates. He was sharp in his 2021 MLB debut with Miami but struggled after being traded to Pittsburgh in the Jacob Stallings deal that offseason. On the whole, Thompson carries a 4.36 ERA in the majors. He’s fanned 18.3% of his opponents against an 8.6% walk rate. Thompson doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 91.2 mph with his four-seamer, but he has a full slate of minor league options remaining and could make some sense for a team seeking affordable depth at the fifth spot in its rotation.

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