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Dodgers Promote Dalton Rushing, Designate Austin Barnes For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that they have selected catching prospect Dalton Rushing to their roster. Fellow catcher Austin Barnes has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported the Rushing promotion prior to the official announcement while Robert Murray of FanSided relayed the Barnes DFA.

Rushing, now 24, was selected by the Dodgers in the 2022 draft. It was technically a second-round pick, 40th overall, though that was the club’s top selection that year. It was moved back ten spots due to the Dodgers going over the third tier of the Competitive Balance Tax in 2021. The club gave him a signing bonus of just under $2MM, right around slot value.

Since then, Rushing has done nothing but mash at the plate. He has stepped to the dish 1,150 times in total, for various minor league clubs. He has been struck out at a reasonable 21.5% pace in that time, while drawing walks at an excellent 15.6% clip. He has 54 home runs and a .277/.412/.519 batting line, which translates to a 154 wRC+.

That production would be excellent from any position but especially for a catcher, a spot that generally comes with lower offensive expectations. He’s also considered a good defender behind the plate, only adding to his prospect stock. The combination makes Rushing a consensus top 50 prospect. Baseball America currently lists him at #31 with MLB Pipeline having him at #15. In the preseason, FanGraphs gave him the #8 spot, ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic both had him at #16.

Despite Rushing’s obvious talents, it was unclear how the Dodgers would fit him in. Will Smith has been the club’s regular catcher for years and is signed through 2033. Teams with two good catchers will sometimes use the designated hitter spot to distribute more at-bats but the Dodgers can’t do that. They have Shohei Ohtani in the DH spot every day and he’s also signed through 2033.

That led the Dodgers to have Rushing dabble at other positions. He has played a bit of first base and left field in the minors, though he’s still been behind the plate more often than he’s been in those spots.

With Barnes being the corresponding move, it seems Rushing will slot into the catching mix alongside Smith. Perhaps his ability to play other positions will help both backstops get into the lineup. Freddie Freeman has first base locked down, but there’s a path for Rushing to get some outfield playing time.

Both Teoscar Hernández and Tommy Edman are currently on the injured list. That leaves the club with an outfield alignment consisting of Andy Pages, Michael Conforto and James Outman, with utility guys Hyeseong Kim and Chris Taylor contributing on occasion as well. Pages is the only guy in that group currently hitting well, so perhaps Rushing will be able to take some playing time from the others.

It’s too late in the season for Rushing to earn a full year of service time, at least the traditional way. As a top prospect, he technically has a path to earning a full year of service by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be a challenge. No one is currently running away with the NL ROY race but Rushing is still weeks behind others who have been up all year. Even the best prospects will sometimes struggle when first promoted to the majors, so there’s no guarantee that Rushing can just storm through the rest of the season.

Regardless, it seems the club plans for Rushing to be up for good, since they are moving on from Barnes. If Rushing struggles and they want to send him back down, Hunter Feduccia is also on the 40-man roster. Assuming Rushing finishes 2025 shy of the one-year service line, he’ll be under club control through 2031, so he and Smith can theoretically be the catching duo for years to come.

As for Barnes, he has been serving as a glove-first backup catcher for over a decade now. He has appeared in 612 games for the Dodgers, dating back to his 2015 debut. He has a combined .223/.322/.338 line in that time, which translates to an 85 wRC+. That indicates he’s been about 15% worse than the league average hitter, but catchers are generally about 10% worse than league-wide par, so that’s not bad output for a backup catcher.

Since he also provided good work behind the plate in that time, he has been a fairly solid member of the roster, leading the Dodgers to sign him to a modest extension in 2022. They were satisfied enough with his performance to pick up a $2.5MM club option for the 2025 season.

However, his offense seems to have a hit new low this year. He is striking out at a 31.8% clip, easily the highest of his career, while his 2.3% walk rate is a personal worst by a notable amount. He currently has a .214/.233/.286 slash and 44 wRC+.

Given that Barnes is now 35 years old, the club may not have much hope of a turnaround. The combination of his struggles and Rushing’s ascendance has pushed Barnes off the roster. The Dodgers will now technically have a week of DFA limbo to work out what’s next. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would have to come together in the next five days.

There’s not likely to be much interest, based on his salary and recent performance. If he clears waivers, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping his entire salary coming to him. If he ends up on the open market, another club could sign him and pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Dodgers pay.

Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Bryan Terry and Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Major League Baseball Rules That Permanent Ineligibility Ends At Death

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Major League Baseball issued a statement on a landmark decision today. Commissioner Rob Manfred had decided that players on the permanently ineligible list will lose that status once they die. This means that players like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson are now off the permanently ineligible list, as well as 15 others.

“Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. today issued a policy decision regarding the status of individuals who have passed away while on the permanently ineligible list,” the league’s press release says. “This issue has never been formally addressed by Major League Baseball, but an application filed by the family of Pete Rose has made it incumbent upon the Office of the Commissioner to reach a policy decision on this unprecedented issue in the modern era as Mr. Rose is the first person banned after the tenure of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to die while still on the ineligible list. Commissioner Manfred has concluded that MLB’s policy shall be that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.

In a letter to Jeffrey M. Lenkov, the attorney for Mr. Rose, Commissioner Manfred wrote, ’In my view, a determination must be made regarding how the phrase ‘permanently ineligible’ should be interpreted in light of the purposes and policies behind Rule 21, which are to: (1) protect the game from individuals who pose a risk to the integrity of the sport by prohibiting the participation of such individuals; and (2) create a deterrent effect that reduces the likelihood of future violations by others. In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served. Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game. Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve. Therefore, I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list.’

Commissioner Manfred further wrote, ’While it is my preference not to disturb decisions made by prior Commissioners, Mr. Rose was not placed on the permanently ineligible list by Commissioner action but rather as the result of a 1989 settlement of potential litigation with the Commissioner’s Office. My decision today is consistent with Commissioner Giamatti’s expectations of that agreement.

’Commissioner Giamatti’s comments were completely reasonable given that, at the time, the Hall of Fame did not have a rule barring people on the permanently ineligible list from Hall of Fame consideration. In fact, Shoeless Joe Jackson was afforded the opportunity to be voted upon in 1936 and again in 1946.’

To establish clarity for the administration of the Major League Rules, the decision in this matter shall apply to individuals in the past or future who are posthumously on the permanently ineligible list. There are 17 deceased individuals disciplined since the founding of the Commissioner’s Office impacted by today’s announcement, including Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver and Lefty Williams; Joe Gedeon; Gene Paulette; Benny Kauff; Lee Magee; Phil Douglas; Cozy Dolan; Jimmy O’Connell; William Cox; and Pete Rose.”

Most baseball fans are well aware of the complexities of the Rose situation. He was one of the best players of all-time strictly in terms of on-field ability. He is the MLB all-time leader in hits with 4,256. He would have been a slam-dunk Hall-of-Famer but blocked his own path with his off-field behavior.

Rose was a player-manager with the Reds in 1984 and he continued serving as the skipper into the 1989 season, even though he stopped playing after 1986. During the 1989 campaign, an MLB investigation determined that Rose had bet on baseball, including bets on the Reds while he was managing. He only bet on the Reds to win and there’s no suggestion that he tried to fix games, but that was still a violation of MLB’s biggest rule.

Any player or coach who bets on a game involving his own team receives a lifetime ban, which Rose did indeed receive. In 1991, the Hall of Fame passed a rule that anyone with a lifetime ban would not be eligible to be inducted.

Rose passed away in September of 2024. Prior to that, he had long pushed for his reinstatement without success but has now been removed from the list posthumously. It was reported in the offseason that the league was considering a petition on Rose’s behalf from various people, including Rose’s daughter Fawn.

Now that he has been removed from the ineligible list, Rose can be considered for the Hall of Fame. Bob Nightengale of USA Today relays a statement from the Hall stating that the individuals involved in today’s ruling will be under consideration as part of the 2027 deliberations. The Era Committee process works in a three-year rotating cycle. In one year, they consider players from the Classic Baseball Era, which includes those whose major contributions were prior to 1980. Then there’s the Contemporary Baseball Era, which is for players whose contributions were mostly after 1980, and then a year for managers/executives/umpires from the same era.

2024 was a “Classic Baseball Era” year, with the Hall selecting Dick Allen and Dave Parker for induction. 2025 will see the Contemporary Era get consideration, with the managers/executives/umpires getting their turn in 2026, followed by a return to the Classic Baseball Era in 2027.

That doesn’t mean Rose is a lock to get in at that time. Hall of Fame voters are instructed to consider a player’s integrity and character alongside his contributions on the field. In addition to Rose’s gambling, he has also been accused of having sexual relationships with underage girls during his playing days. Those developments emerged about a decade ago and ended Rose’s broadcasting career. ESPN provided details on the legalities of those issues in 2017 and on Rose’s comments the situation in 2022.

Apart from Rose, Jackson is the most notable name here. Most baseball fans are familiar with the “Black Sox” scandal, where Jackson and several other members of the White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the 1919 World Series in exchange for payment from a gambling syndicate. Commissioner Landis eventually gave lifetime bans to Jackson, Cicotte, Felsh, Gandil, McMullin, Risberg, Weaver and Williams.

The decision has been a part of baseball lore for more than a century now, becoming the subject of several books as well as the films Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams. Jackson was one of the top players in baseball at his peak but wasn’t able to play beyond his age-30 season due to the ban. His defenders point out that his performance during the World Series doesn’t align with someone trying to lose, as he hit .375/.394/.563 over the eight games in the best-of-nine series.

As referenced in today’s statement, Jackson wasn’t formally excluded from voting but he got just two votes in both 1936 and 1946, when the memory of the scandal was still somewhat fresh. It’s possible that the passage of time has led to a change in attitude from the baseball world, but his candidacy will surely be hotly debated in the years to come.

Many of the other players are mere footnotes in this decision. A handful of them were banned for gambling infractions before they had the chance to rack up the accolades necessary for Hall of Fame consideration. Back in March, the Hall of Fame announced adjustments to the Era Committee voting process. In order to be elected, a candidate must receive 12 of 16 votes. Any candidate receiving fewer than five votes will not be eligible for the next cycle three years later. If a candidate gets four or fewer votes on two separate occasions, they will be considered permanently ineligible for future consideration.

Photo courtesy of Sam Greene, Imagn Images.

Rangers Place Corey Seager On Injured List

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The Rangers announced Tuesday that they’ve placed shortstop Corey Seager on the 10-day injured list. The move is retroactive to May 11. Seager is again dealing with a right hamstring strain — the same injury that sent him to the IL from April 23 to May 3. Catcher Kyle Higashioka has been reinstated from the 10-day IL in a corresponding move. He’d missed the previous 12 days with an intercostal strain.

It’s surely a frustrating situation for Seager and the Rangers. As mentioned, he only just returned from the IL barely a week ago, but it seems he wasn’t 100% healthy. He only played once in the past week and the club has now decided to put him back on the shelf.

Since the move is retroactive, he could potentially return in just over a week. Regardless, the Rangers will be without one of their better bats for a while. The club’s offense has scuffled enough this year to force various changes, including a coaching staff shake-up. Seager has not been a part of the problem when in the lineup. He has a .300/.346/.520 line and 143 wRC+ for the year. He’s one of just three players on the team with at least 100 plate appearances and a wRC+ above 113, with Wyatt Langford and Josh Smith being the others.

Despite that, the club has managed to stay afloat in the American League playoff race, currently sporting a 21-21 record. They will now have to try to keep things rolling without one of their best players.

The last time Seager was on the IL, Smith took over as the regular shortstop, though Smith is himself banged up. He missed Monday’s game due to back soreness and is out again today, with Ezequiel Durán covering short for those two games. Sam Haggerty might be the next line of defense at the position while Smith is out.

Assuming Smith feels better in a day or two, he would jump back in there. As mentioned, he is one of the Rangers having a great year at the plate, currently sporting a .316/.395/.474 line and 149 wRC+. Durán, on the other hand, is hitting .130/.160/.174.

Higashioka’s reinstatement will give the Rangers three catchers. When Higashioka’s injury popped up a few weeks ago, Tucker Barnhart was selected to the roster to serve as Jonah Heim’s backup. Heim is catching tonight with Higashioka in the designated hitter spot. Joc Pederson is often the DH but he doesn’t start against lefties, so perhaps Higashioka will take the small side of a platoon with him at times. The Rangers are facing southpaw Kyle Freeland and the Rockies tonight.

Teams are sometimes reluctant to use a catcher in the DH spot, as an injury to the player behind the plate would then force them to move the DH to the catcher position. Moving a DH into any defensive spot means a team forfeits its DH and puts the pitcher into the lineup. Having a third catcher on hand gives the club a chance to avoid that scenario.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Jairaj, Imagn Images

Cubs Promote Moises Ballesteros

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May 13: The Cubs have formally selected Ballesteros’ contract, per a team announcement. Happ heads to the 10-day IL, as expected, while a 40-man roster spot was freed up by transferring righty Tyson Miller from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL. Miller has been out all season due to a hip impingement.

May 12: The Cubs intend to promote catching prospect Moisés Ballesteros for tomorrow’s game against the Marlins, reports Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. Ian Happ is headed to the 10-day injured list, Levine adds. Happ has missed the past three games with oblique discomfort. Ballesteros is not on the 40-man roster, so the Cubs will need to make another move in that regard.

Ballesteros, 21, is one of the top young offensive players in the minors. He’s a career .288/.371/.459 hitter over five professional seasons. His production has remained remarkably consistent as he has climbed the ladder. Ballesteros has posted an OPS above .800 at each stop. That includes a ..311/.368/.477 slash for Triple-A Iowa over the past two seasons.

The lefty-hitting Ballesteros has been on fire to begin this year. He’s out to a .368/.420/.522 start over his first 34 Triple-A contests. He has connected on four homers, seven doubles and one triple while limiting his strikeout rate to a minuscule 10.7% clip. Among hitters with 100+ plate appearances, he’s second in the International League in batting average and ranks among the top 11 hitters in both on-base percentage and slugging. He’s seventh in the league in OPS, and every other player in the top 10 is at least 24 years old.

Unsurprisingly, Ballesteros’ bat has always been his calling card on scouting reports. He was viewed as an advanced hitter when he signed for $1.5MM out of Venezuela during the 2021 amateur signing period. He climbed towards the top of an excellent Chicago farm system as he continued to prove himself against higher-level pitching.

Ballesteros ranked among the league’s Top 100 prospects on offseason lists from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, Keith Law of The Athletic and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had him outside his offseason Top 100 but ranked him sixth in the Cubs’ system in December. He is up to 37th overall on BA’s in-season update.

The reports are quite similar across the board. He’s praised for his well-rounded offensive ability but faces questions about his defensive fit. Ballesteros is listed at 5’8″ and has a heavyset build (though he’s reportedly slimmed down a bit in recent years). He’s drawn comparisons to Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk as a result. Kirk has developed into a solid defensive catcher but faced questions about his glove as a prospect. There are perhaps even greater concerns about Ballesteros’ receiving acumen and ability to control the running game. Opponents have gone 27-31 in stolen base attempts in his 191 1/3 innings as a catcher this season.

It’s unlikely that he’ll get much work behind the dish in the short term. Carson Kelly has obliterated opponents to a .303/.443/.671 slash over his first 25 games. Miguel Amaya has an impressive .286/.309/.506 line over 22 contests. They’ve been the National League’s most productive catching tandem. Ballesteros can occasionally spell Michael Busch at first base, but his clearest path to at-bats would come as a designated hitter. Seiya Suzuki has drawn into left field while Happ has been day-to-day. Suzuki should play left regularly for the extent of Happ’s IL stint.

Happ has been out to a typically productive start at the top of Craig Counsell’s batting order. He owns a .269/.364/.381 line through 187 plate appearances. His power numbers are a bit lighter than usual, but the on-base mark would be the best of his career. He’d been amidst an 0-14 skid leading up the injury but had collected hits in seven straight games before that. His IL stint can be backdated to May 10, meaning he’ll be eligible to return next week.

It remains to be seen if Ballesteros will stick with the big league club once Happ is healthy. He’s past the point where he can accrue a full year of service time through the traditional means, though he meets the prospect criteria to potentially earn a bonus service year via the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He’d get a full service year if he finishes top two in Rookie of the Year voting. The Cubs would not receive an extra draft choice in that instance because they didn’t promote him early enough in the season. If this is a permanent promotion, Ballesteros would be well-positioned to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player during the 2027-28 offseason even if he doesn’t earn the full service year.

Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.

Evan Longoria To Sign One-Day Contract, Retire As Member Of Rays

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Three-time All-Star and 2008 American League Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria will sign a one-day contract to officially retire as a member of his original organization, the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be honored in a ceremony before the Rays’ game on June 7.

Longoria sat out the 2024 season and said last summer that he was not pursuing a return to playing but was also not formally filing his retirement paperwork just yet. That left the door ever so slightly cracked for one final comeback bid, but Longoria will now formally call it a career after nearly 2000 big league games and more than 8200 major league plate appearances.

Longoria, 39, was the No. 3 overall pick by the Rays out of Long Beach State back in 2006. He was in the majors less than two years later, getting his first call to the majors on April 12, 2008. He signed a six-year, $17.5MM extension just six games into his major league career. At the time, bets of that magnitude on such young and unproven players were nowhere near as commonplace as they are in today’s game.

That extension, which contained a trio of club options, was the largest deal ever guaranteed to a player with such little MLB experience at the time it was signed. Longoria wasted little time in proving it money well spent. He hit .272/.343/.531 with 27 homers, 31 doubles and a pair of triples as a rookie, making the American All-Star team just a few months into his MLB career.

From 2008-13, Longoria was on the short list of best players in MLB. Only Miguel Cabrera, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez generated more wins above replacement than Longoria’s 34.8 in that span, per FanGraphs. His 12th-inninng walk-off home run (video link) in the final game of the 2011 regular season wound up propelling Tampa Bay to the postseason that year, and Longoria’s celebratory trot with both arms above his head as he rounded first base is a timeless memory for Tampa Bay fans — one that the team commemorated with a statue outside of Tropicana Field.

Longoria proved such a bargain and such a critical piece to the Rays’ success that in November 2012, they extended him for a second time — this time on the first nine-figure contract in franchise history. Tampa Bay exercised all three of Longoria’s club options in one fell swoop and tacked on another six years and $100MM in new money (bringing the total guarantee to $136MM over nine seasons).

Longoria didn’t quite keep up his early career form, but in five subsequent seasons with the Rays (2013-17) after signing that second contract, he still slashed .265/.325/.457 (113 wRC+) while maintaining his brand of standout defense at the hot corner. FanGraphs (19.8 WAR) and Baseball-Reference (22 WAR) suggested he was still one of the game’s top 25 or so position players even if he wasn’t quite at the very top of the sport anymore.

With Longoria set to secure 10-and-5 rights early in the 2018 season — ten years of service, including five straight with the same team — the Rays made the decision to look for a trade in the 2017-18 offseason. Players with 10-and-5 rights gain full no-trade protection, and Longoria’s remaining five years and $81MM were more palatable to larger-market clubs than the cost-conscious Rays. In December 2017, the Rays lined up on a swap sending Longoria to San Francisco in exchange for outfielder Denard Span, infielder Christian Arroyo, lefty Matt Krook and righty Stephen Woods. At the time of the swap, Arroyo was a few years removed from being a first-round pick out of high school and was considered to be a top-100 prospect on some rankings.

Longoria’s first season as a Giant was a disappointment — the least-productive of what would end up being 16 seasons in the majors. He bounced back to league-average offense with solid defense in 2019, but at that point his days of star-level output were behind him. Longoria had a down showing in 2020 and posted big rate stats in a more limited, part-time role in 2021-22. He signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks in 2023 and had a nice first half of the season before fading down the stretch.

That 2023 season with Arizona, during which Longoria played in the second World Series of his career, will now officially prove to be his last. He’ll walk away from the game with a career .264/.333/.471 batting line, 342 home runs (tied with Ron Santo for 108th all-time), 431 doubles (145th all-time), 26 triples, 58 stolen bases, 1017 runs scored and 1159 runs batted in (185th all-time).

Longoria made three All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, won a Silver Slugger and landed MVP votes in six of his 16 MLB seasons. FanGraphs pegged him at 55.2 wins above replacement, while Baseball-Reference was even more bullish, crediting him with 58.9 (133rd all-time among position players). Between his pair of extensions and that final one-year deal with the D-backs, he earned more than $148MM in a 16-year career that will garner some legitimate consideration among the electorate when his name is on the Hall of Fame ballot five years from now.

Diamondbacks To Promote Jordan Lawlar

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The Diamondbacks are poised to recall top prospect Jordan Lawlar, according to a report from Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Lawlar is already on the club’s 40-man roster, so only an active roster move will be necessary to promote the former No. 6 overall pick.

The promotion is a long time coming for Lawlar, who actually made his big league debut back in 2023 with a 14-game cup of coffee in late September. He hit just .129/.206/.129 in that brief stint in the majors, though the Diamondbacks nonetheless had enough belief in their top prospect to carry him on their postseason roster that year as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He got only two plate appearances during that postseason run, although he did draw a walk and score a run against the Rangers in the World Series.

It seemed like a given that Lawlar would play a big role in the Diamondbacks’ 2024 plans after his debut in 2023, but things unfortunately didn’t quite work out that way as he was limited to just 23 games last year by thumb surgery and a hamstring strain. The youngster hit an astounding .367/.439/.592 in the brief period he was healthy enough to play at the Triple-A level last year, but there simply wasn’t enough time left in the calendar for Lawlar to get a promotion to the big leagues by the time he was back in game shape after those injuries.

Headed into 2025, Lawlar was once again held back from joining the big league roster. That’s in part due to the presence of clear everyday players at every position he plays (Ketel Marte at second base, Eugenio Suarez at third base, and Geraldo Perdomo at shortstop), but also an acknowledgment of Lawlar’s lost season in 2024 and the developmental hurdles associated with that.

After Lawlar lost nearly an entire year of reps, Arizona brass appeared to be concerned about the impact a part-time role in the majors would have on his development. Lawlar has forced the issue across 37 games at Triple-A so far, however, with a .336/.419/.579 slash line in 179 plate appearances. Lawlar’s knocking on the door has evidently become impossible to ignore, and the Diamondbacks will now need a find a way to work all four of those infielders, first baseman Josh Naylor, and DH Pavin Smith into the lineup on a regular basis.

Piecoro notes that manager Torey Lovullo said he believes that if Lawlar could get into four games per week while mixing and matching positions, then that would be enough playing time for him to stay fresh and avoid falling behind on his development.

Removing any of Suarez (117 wRC+), Marte, (154 wRC+), Smith (175 wRC+), Naylor (125 wRC+), or Perdomo (138 wRC+) from the lineup for even a day is a not insignificant hit to the Diamondbacks’ offense, though of course Lawlar’s own contributions as a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport for a fourth consecutive season could help to balance out those losses. Smith typically only plays against right-handed pitching, so Lawlar could slide into the DH slot against lefties fairly seamlessly. The other four are all everyday players, but theoretically each could sit just once a week with Smith covering first base when Naylor is sitting so Lawlar can DH and Lawlar filling in around the rest of the infield.

An arrangement along those lines would likely keep veteran players like Suarez and Marte fresher, allow each of the club’s regulars to stay in the lineup as much as possible, and get Lawlar plenty of exposure to big league pitching as he works to establish himself at the big league level. Speculatively speaking, if Lawlar takes to the majors well, the D-backs could look into moving someone like Suarez (a pending free agent after this season) at the trade deadline to open up a more regular role for the youngster while bolstering a bullpen that has lost both A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez to the injured list. Injuries can always open up other avenues to at-bats.

For now the 21-20 Diamondbacks need to dig themselves out of fourth place in the NL West and put themselves ahead of teams like the Cardinals and Phillies in the NL Wild Card race. They’ll hope that Lawlar, still just 22, can provide a spark. He’s hit at an above-average clip at every level of the minors while showing off effective defense all around the infield. He’s also an excellent baserunner, having swiped 39 bags in 2022 and 36 the following year. This season, he’s already gone 13-for-14 on the bases in just 37 games. Lawlar is the sort of dynamic, all-around player who can help virtually any team, even one that already boasts a top-seven offense in the majors like the Diamondbacks.

Rockies Fire Bud Black

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Forty games into his ninth season as the Rockies’ manager, Bud Black has been fired.  The Rox announced today that Black and longtime bench coach Mike Redmond have been dismissed in the wake of the team’s nightmarish start to the 2025 season.  Warren Schaeffer (previously the club’s third base coach) will serve as interim manager for the remainder of the season, and hitting coach and ex-manager Clint Hurdle will become the interim bench coach.

“Our play so far this season, especially coming off the last two seasons, has been unacceptable.  Our fans deserve better, and we are capable of better,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said in an official press release.  “While we all share responsibility in how this season has played out, these changes are necessary.  We will use the remainder of 2025 to improve where we can on the field and to evaluate all areas of our operation so we can properly turn the page into the next chapter of Rockies Baseball.  I want to thank Bud Black and Mike Redmond for their contributions to the organization across their eight years here.  I appreciate their hard work and dedication and wish them nothing but the best going forward.”

In other coaching changes, assistant hitting coach Andy Gonzalez will take over as the new third base coach, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports.  Jordan Pacheco and Nic Wilson will become the Rockies’ new hitting coaches.

Colorado’s 9-3 victory over the Padres today improved the Rockies’ record to a miserable 7-33, putting the Rox on pace to challenge the all-time loss record set by the White Sox just a year ago.  Against this backdrop, it isn’t surprising to see some changes in the dugout, even for an organization that has long prized loyalty.  The Rockies made another prominent coaching change in mid-April, when Hurdle went from special assistant to the GM to his hitting coach role after Hensley Meulens was fired.

The 2025 campaign was Black’s 18th as a big league manager, with nine seasons apiece with the Padres (from 2007-15) and Rockies (2017-today).  Black has winning records in only four of those seasons, as his 1193-1403 career record is broken down as a 649-713 record in San Diego and a 544-690 mark in Colorado.  While the numbers aren’t in Black’s favor, his overall effectiveness as a manager is still somewhat hard to gauge.  The Padres were in a rebuilding phase for portions of Black’s tenure, and the Rockies’ issues are so myriad that it is hard to single out Black as a particular reason for the club’s extreme struggles.

Black’s arrival in Denver marked the Rockies’ last successful stretch, as the club reached the postseason as a wild card in his first two seasons as the skipper (and Black won NL Manager of the Year honors in 2017).  Since then, however, the Rox have reeled off six straight losing seasons, and the 2025 season already seems like the seventh in that increasingly dismal stretch of baseball.  Colorado is already coming off the two worst seasons in franchise history, after losing 103 games in 2023 and 101 games last year.

There was some speculation that Black could be let go following last season, yet the Rockies announced in October that the skipper had been signed to a one-year extension covering 2025.  Black’s contract situation was somewhat unique, as it was believed that Black was essentially a rolling year-to-year deal (as described by reporter Nick Groke), yet the fact that the Rockies waited until October to finalize Black’s return was perhaps a sign of some discontent.  Black’s previous two extensions had been announced in March 2022 and March 2023, giving the manager plenty of extra security and removing any lame-duck perception.

It may be that Monfort genuinely believed Black could still get things turned around, though things have gone so haywire so early that ownership had no choice but to make some kind of change.  Ironically, GM Bill Schmidt just gave Black a vote of confidence yesterday in an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, just hours before the Rockies perhaps hit rock bottom in a 21-0 loss to San Diego.

At the time, Schmidt said “I don’t think we are” at the point of requiring a managerial change.  “I think our guys are still playing hard, and that’s what I look at,” Schmidt explained.  “Guys are working hard every day, they come with energy, for the most part….Guys still believe in what we are doing and where we are headed.  We are all frustrated.”

Of course, player effort doesn’t overcome a marked lack of talent on the roster.  Colorado’s struggles have been exacerbated by lack of action from the front office, as the Rockies haven’t done much to either clearly upgrade the team, or to go in the other direction of blowing things up for a full rebuild.  Monfort has often been accused of being both too optimistic about his team’s potential and too insular in his hiring practices, which has left the Rockies seemingly lagging behind the rest of the league not just on the field, but also in terms of analytics, scouting, player development, and other front office practices.

Since Monfort’s statement painted 2025 as an evaluation year, it could be that the Rockies’ brutal start has finally inspired a broader change of direction at Coors Field.  What this might mean for Schmidt (a longtime staffer who became interim GM in 2021 and then the full-time GM after that season) remains to be seen, or if the Rox will perhaps explore a fire sale at the trade deadline.

Schaeffer has been a member of Colorado’s organization dating back to his playing days, as he was a 38th-round draft pick in 2007 and spent his entire six-year playing career in the Rockies’ farm system.  After retiring from the field, he turned to coaching and managed three different Rockies affiliates from 2015-22, and Schaeffer then became the big league third base coach prior to the 2023 season.

While first-time MLB managers are rarely stepping into an ideal situation, the 40-year-old Schaeffer faces a tall order in trying to salvage anything from the 2025 Rockies’ season.  At this point, perhaps just avoiding a record number of losses would count as a minor triumph, even if another 100-loss season seems inevitable.

Schaeffer will have an experienced voice to help him in Hurdle, who managed the Rockies from 2002-09 and led the franchise to its only World Series appearance in 2007.  Hurdle also managed the Pirates from 2011-19 before retiring, and then returning to baseball in his special assistant role during the 2021-22 offseason.

Redmond and Black were hired in the same offseason, so Redmond had been Black’s chief lieutenant throughout the manager’s entire tenure in Denver.  A former 13-year veteran of the big leagues, Redmond is perhaps best known for his own former managerial stint with the Marlins over the 2013-15 seasons.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy – Imagn Images

Cubs Promote Cade Horton

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May 10: The Cubs have officially selected Horton’s contract, according to a team announcement. Left-hander Tom Cosgrove was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Horton on the active roster, while right-hander Eli Morgan was transferred to the 60-day injured list due to an inflamed ulnar nerve in his right elbow.

May 8: The Cubs are promoting pitching prospect Cade Horton, per reporting from Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Tommy Birch of The Des Moines Register first reported this afternoon that Horton was traveling to New York in advance of this weekend’s series against the Mets. The young righty is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster, so they will need to open a spot for him.

Chicago’s rotation has taken a few notable hits recently. They came into the season with Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga as a one-two punch atop the rotation. Unfortunately, Steele required UCL surgery last month, putting him out of action for the rest of the year. Imanaga suffered a hamstring strain a few days ago. He is surely facing a far shorter absence than Steele but has been placed on the 15-day IL, meaning he’ll miss at least a few turns through the rotation.

Those are the two most obvious losses, but the clubs has also been without Javier Assad all year. He started the season on the 15-day injured list due to an oblique strain. He started a rehab assignment last month but re-aggravated the same muscle, suffering a Grade 2 strain.

Those injuries have created an opening for Horton to make it to the majors for the first time. The Cubs have “TBD” listed as their starter for Saturday’s game at Citi Field, which will seemingly be when Horton takes the ball. It seemed the decision on Imanaga’s rotation spot came down to promoting Horton or stretching out veteran swingman Chris Flexen.

Horton is the higher-upside play. Chicago selected him out of Oklahoma with the seventh overall pick in 2022. The 6’1″ righty has been the organization’s top pitching prospect over the past few seasons. His arsenal is headlined by a mid-90s fastball and a slider that grades as a plus pitch. Horton’s fastball velocity had dipped slightly to the 94 MPH range last year but has rebounded to sit at 95.8 MPH on average with Triple-A Iowa this season.

The 23-year-old has been out to an excellent start in Triple-A. Horton carries a 1.24 ERA while striking out nearly 31% of batters faced through 29 innings. He’s issuing walks at a lofty 12% clip, but the high-octane stuff will get him an opportunity to step into Imanaga’s rotation spot. If Imanaga makes it back within a few weeks, it might be a brief call-up, but the Cubs could theoretically push Ben Brown or Colin Rea to the bullpen if Horton forces their hand with a strong showing over his first few starts.

It’s too late for Horton to reach a full year of service time the traditional way. He meets the necessary prospect criteria to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive, however. That means he could earn a full service year if he finishes in the top two in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. The Cubs would not receive a bonus draft choice if that happens because they didn’t promote Horton early enough to spend 172 days in the majors.

Rafael Devers Unwilling To Play First Base

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Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers spoke to members of the media today, including Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. Devers said that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently asked him about playing first base in the wake of the Triston Casas injury. Devers said that he is unwilling to take up the position, adding that the club told him to put away his glove when they moved him from third base to designated hitter this winter. He feels that the team has now gone back on its word. He also responded “Sí, claro” when asked if he was upset by the request.

“I know I’m a ballplayer,” Devers said, via translator, relayed by Speier, “but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there. In break training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH. So right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.” Devers added this about Breslow,  per Speier, “I’m not certain what (issue) he has with me. He played ball, and I would like to think that he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy.” Speier relayed more from Devers: “Here in the clubhouse, thankfully, the relationship that I have with my teammates is great. I don’t understand some of the decisions that the GM makes. Next thing you know, someone in the outfield gets hurt and they want me to play in the outfield.” As for the first base spot, Devers seems to think an external addition is the answer, per Christopher Smith of MassLive: “Now I think they should do their job essentially and hit the market and look for another player (to play first base). I’m not sure why they want me to be in between the way they have me now.”

Perhaps he will alter that stance in time but he seems to be taking a strong stand for now. Per Smith, Devers doesn’t think there’s a chance he’ll change his mind. “I don’t think so. They told me I’m a little hard-headed. They already asked me to change once and this time I don’t think I can be as flexible.”

It’s been a strange few months in terms of the relationship between Devers and the Red Sox. Throughout the winter, the club was connected to third basemen Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado, despite Devers seemingly having that spot locked down. Devers has never been a strong defender, so there was some on-paper logic to the consideration of moving him elsewhere, but there was the question about Devers himself and how he would feel about being displaced. The two sides had agreed to a nine-figure extension in January of 2023, a contract which runs through 2033, so the long-term relationship would obviously be a real consideration.

Breman remained unsigned into the middle of February. The Sox scooped him up at that time on a three-year, $120MM deal, though one with notable deferrals and opt-outs after each season. The club didn’t immediately come out and declare their intentions in terms of defensive alignment and Devers was adamant that he would stick at third base. He said that he had been promised by the club that he could stay at the hot corner for the long term. Manager Álex Cora dismissed that promise because “That was under Chaim,” referring to former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. The Sox fired Bloom towards the end of the 2023 season and eventually replaced him with Breslow.

It soon became clear that the Sox wanted Bregman, the superior defender, to take over at third. Devers would be the club’s full-time designated hitter, not even playing the field occasionally. “Raffy is going to DH,” Cora said in March. “We had a conversation, we talked about it. He’s DHing. He’s the DH of the Boston Red Sox. One thing is we don’t want him to overthink it. Don’t get caught up in the whole thing. He’ll be OK.”

Though Devers was clearly not happy with being moved off his position, reportedly even thinking about asking for a trade at one point, he did strike a more amicable tone eventually. In the middle of March, with the start of the season just about two weeks away, he said: “I’m good to do whatever they want me to do,” he said. “I’m here to help. I’ve already spoken with them about that, and they know where I stand. I’m just ready to play.”

That all seemed to be working fine enough for the first few weeks of the season, until Casas suffered his aforementioned injury. A ruptured left patellar tendon last week led to knee surgery for Casas and he is going to miss the remainder of the 2025 campaign.

That quickly led to speculation about Devers being a good fit to replace Casas. In the initial aftermath of the injury, the Sox used guys like Romy González and Abraham Toro to cover the position. Those two have generally been light-hitting utility guys in their careers, less than ideal solutions for a bat-first position like first base.

Moving Devers into the spot would seemingly make things easier for the Sox. While learning a new position midseason would certainly be a challenge, first base is generally considered to be lower than third base on the defensive spectrum, with many subpar third basemen having become adequate first basemen over the years. Doing so would also free up the DH spot, opening up more at-bats for players other players. Outfield prospect Roman Anthony and infield prospect Marcelo Mayer are both somewhat blocked from regular playing time at the moment. It’s also tough to find a spot for Masataka Yoshida, currently on the injured list, as he’s also an outfielder. A poor defender, he was the club’s primary designated hitter last year.

Cora has publicly said a few times recently that he hasn’t asked Devers about the switch, but it appears the Red Sox privately considered the plan and Breslow initiated the conversation, which Devers didn’t take kindly to.

From his perspective, it’s understandably been a jarring half year. As of a few months ago, he thought he was Boston’s third baseman and seemingly felt secure in that role. Now he’s been shaken from that security and has been asked to adapt.

Still, his response has been bizarre and hasn’t always reflected well on him. It’s pretty rare for a player to refuse to do something his team asks of him. In fact, there have been dozens of players over the years who have switched positions in order to help their team. Learning first base might not be Devers’ ideal outcome but there’s little harm in exploring the possibility by taking some grounders and feeling it out, especially if the team thinks it can help them win some more games in the long run. Though Devers maintains the clubhouse rapport is good, it’s fair to wonder if any of his teammates are upset about this hardline stance, since it’s doesn’t appear to be a team-first decision.

Additionally, when discontent develops between a team and a player, efforts are usually made to keep it private. It’s especially uncommon for a player to criticize his team’s front office leader, especially for making a fairly understandable inquiry.

It’s inevitable more developments are forthcoming with this story. For now, it appears Devers will stay in the DH spot. If the Sox are unhappy with his refusal, there’s not too much they can do about it. Whatever drama has been happening off the field doesn’t seem to be impacting him at the plate. He has a .246/.370/.430 batting line and 123 wRC+ this year, even though he went hitless in his first five games of the season. They surely don’t want to subtract that bat from the lineup.

For the record, Devers does not have no-trade protection in his contract, so they technically could just run him out of town if they really wanted to. But there’s no indication that is a consideration or even a remote possibility. Even if they did come to a point of wanting him gone, shipping out a contract that still runs for eight-plus years and has far more than $200MM left on it is hard to move at any point. That would be especially true in the middle of a season, when clubs have mostly spent their budgets. Also, other clubs are surely aware of the public drama and would try to use it as leverage in any talks if Breslow called them up.

Unless more developments arise, it seems Devers will stick in the DH spot. The Sox will try to cover first base with guys like González and Toro, at least for now, though it’s possible they could pursue first basemen in the coming weeks and months.

As for the relationship between Devers and the Sox, this surely isn’t the last we’ll hear about it. As mentioned, Bregman can opt out of his contract after this season and seems to be trending towards doing so, since he’s having a great year. There may eventually be questions about whether Devers would be an option to retake that spot in 2026 or if the club would want to keep him as a DH for the rest of his contract, while someone like Mayer or Trevor Story or Kristian Campbell takes over at third. That means more twists and turns are fairly inevitable, in a saga that has already had plenty.

Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images.

Pirates Fire Manager Derek Shelton

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The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve fired manager Derek Shelton, who’d been in his position for the past five-plus seasons. Bench coach Don Kelly has been elevated to the managerial position.

“Derek worked incredibly hard and sacrificed a lot over five-plus years. His family became a big part of the Pirates family, and we will miss that,” general manager Ben Cherington said in a statement within today’s press release. “He’s an incredibly smart, curious, and driven baseball leader. I believe he was the right person for the job when he was hired. I also believe that a change is now necessary. I wish Derek and his family all the best in their next chapter.”

Shelton, 54, was hired by the Pirates in the 2019-20 offseason, replacing longtime skipper Clint Hurdle. He’d served as the bench coach in Minnesota prior to his hiring and has also had a long run as a big league hitting coach, spending 2005-09 in Cleveland and 2010-16 in Tampa Bay. The Jays hired Shelton as a quality control coach for the 2017 season, after which he spent two years in Minnesota.

Shelton was the first major hire under Cherington, though he’d been under consideration for the managerial vacancy in Pittsburgh even before the Pirates fired former GM Neal Huntington (a curiously timed move, given that he’d been leading the early stages of said managerial search). In parts of six seasons under Shelton, the Bucs have posted a 306-440 record, topping out at 76 wins in a given season (a mark they reached twice). Pittsburgh is out to a 12-26 start on the season, effectively tanking any faint trace of playoff hopes they had coming into the season. Owner Bob Nutting referenced that grim start to the season in his own statement.

“Derek is a good man who did a lot for the Pirates and Pittsburgh, but it was time for a change,” said Nutting. “The first quarter of the season has been frustrating and painful for all of us. We have to do better. I know that. Ben knows that. Our coaches know that. Our players know that. There is a lot of baseball left to be played. We need to act with a sense of urgency and take the steps necessary to fix this now to get back on track as a team and organization.”

There’s no denying the Pirates’ poor performance under Shelton, but it’s also hard to pin that performance on a skipper who was never handed much to work with. Nutting’s mention of acting with “urgency” feels borderline farcical at a time when, for the second straight year, the Pirates have baseball’s top pitching prospect obliterating Triple-A lineups as the back end of the major league staff flounders.

Last year, it was Paul Skenes, who didn’t make his MLB debut until May 6 and promptly took baseball by storm. Skenes started the All-Star Game, won NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in Cy Young voting. This year, Bubba Chandler is sitting on a 2.25 ERA and 38.3% strikeout rate in seven Triple-A starts. The Pirates’ fourth and fifth starters, Bailey Falter and Carmen Mlodzinski, have ERAs of 5.06 and 6.16, respectively. Jared Jones, their second- or third-best starter, has been on the injured list all season. It’s impossible not to wonder if Nutting feels burned by Skenes earning a full year of service by virtue of that Rookie of the Year win and is thus waiting even longer to pull the trigger on Chandler’s promotion.

Beyond the contradictory nature of those “urgency” comments and the Pirates’ actions with Chandler, Nutting has flatly refused to invest in the team via free agency. The Pirates have never signed a free agent to a larger contract than the three-year, $39MM deal signed by Francisco Liriano more than a decade ago.

As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, they haven’t signed a single free agent to a multi-year deal since their nearly decade-old signing of righty Ivan Nova on a three-year, $26MM contract. Not only that, the Pirates have only once topped $8MM on a one-year free agent deal in that same span — Aroldis Chapman’s $10.5MM contract in the 2023-24 offseason. Using that same data from our Contract Tracker, the Pirates have spent a total of $173.65MM on free agents since their last playoff appearance a decade ago.

Certainly, free agency isn’t a cure-all that’s bound to fix everything that ails an organization. Major free agent signings can often be a setback, in fact. But completely eschewing even the middle tiers of the open market and steadfastly avoiding any kind of mid-range spending to complement the roster does not put the baseball operations or dugout staffs in position to succeed.

That’s not to say Shelton and the front office are without fault, but the margin for error for those key decisionmakers is rendered razor-thin when ownership is content to average the $69.4MM payroll (excluding the shortened 2020 season) that’s been trotted out in the five 162-game seasons under Shelton. Pittsburgh was 55-52 at last year’s trade deadline. Shelton and his staff clearly bear some responsibility for the team’s post-deadline struggles. However, critics would be remiss not to point out that ownership’s tight budget, which led Cherington & Co. to pursue cost-effective deadline acquisitions like Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa (while subtracting Martin Perez), didn’t put give them the best chance to capitalize on their strong play through the first two-thirds of the season.

The Pirates’ player development — or the lack thereof — over the past several seasons also surely factors into the decisions. Skenes has been a roaring success. Jones looked the part of a potential high-end starter prior to his injury. Mitch Keller, Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz are all quality big leaguers — the latter standing as a potential star. However, the majority of the organization’s top prospects over the years, particularly the hitters, simply haven’t panned out. Injuries have impacted some of them, most notably including Ke’Bryan Hayes and Endy Rodriguez. But prospects like Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero and Henry Davis have all struggled upon reaching the majors. Other young hitters (e.g. Jack Suwinski) looked to be on the cusp of breaking out before taking significant steps back in their second and third looks at big league pitching.

With Shelton being shown the door, Kelly will now be tasked with the unenviable goal of trying to right this ship. The former big league utilityman retired after the 2016 season and took a role in the Tigers’ player development department for the 2017 season. He then spent a year in Detroit’s scouting ranks before being hired by the Astros as their first base coach. Shelton tabbed Kelly as his bench coach just weeks after being hired, and Kelly has been his right-hand man for the pair’s nearly six years in Pittsburgh.

There’s no “interim” tag in today’s press release from the Pirates. Cherington told the Pirates beat today that Kelly’s appointment is “permanent for 2025” (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). He could end up being considered for 2026 and beyond, but for the time being, the team is only committing to the remainder of the current season. That seems to set the stage for a broad-reaching managerial search this winter.

“Donnie is as respected as any person in our clubhouse and throughout our organization,” Nutting said of Kelly in today’s press release. “He is a Pirate. He bleeds black and gold. No one is more committed, and no one loves this team or city more than Donnie. He is the right person to manage our team and help get us back on track.”

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