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Adbert Alzolay To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Cubs right-hander Adbert Alzolay will undergo Tommy John surgery, per manager Craig Counsell. Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times relayed the news on X. It was reported last week that the righty would be going under the knife but the specific nature of the procedure had not yet been determined. He’ll miss the remainder of this season and could miss all of 2025 as well.

It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for Alzolay and the Cubs. The righty seemed to unlock something last year after moving from a starting role to a full-time relief role. He tossed 64 innings over 58 appearances for the Cubs last year, allowing 2.67 earned runs per nine. He struck out 26.5% of batters faced, limited walks to a 5.1% clip and kept the ball on the ground 42.2% of the time. He even secured the closer’s job, nabbing 22 saves last year.

He did miss about two weeks in September with a right forearm strain, which now looks in hindsight like it was an omen of what was to come in 2024. He made 18 appearances to start this year but with less effectiveness. He only struck out 17.3% of batters faced and had an ERA of 4.67. The Cubs put him on the IL on May 13, announcing that he had a right forearm strain. The next day, they told reporters that imaging confirmed Alzolay had a right flexor strain, per Lee on X.

There was still some hope of him returning, as he started a rehab assignment in July. But he made just three appearances there before it was reported that he would require some type of surgery, which was a vague update until today’s developments.

Now that he’s slated for the worst-case scenario of Tommy John surgery, Alzolay’s entire 2025 season is in jeopardy. Pitchers usually require 14 months or more to come back from such a significant operation, a timeline that will make it possible he won’t see official game action until 2026. He’s currently 29 years old but will turn 31 in March of 2026.

He reached arbitration for the first time coming into this year and is making a salary of $2.11MM. Given how much time he has missed, the Cubs could retain him around that price for 2025 but likely wouldn’t get anything for that investment except the right to hold onto Alzolay’s rights for the 2026 campaign, the last before he’s slated for free agency. Teams and players in this situation will sometimes work out an extension to cover the rehab period and the pitcher’s planned return to the mound, so perhaps the Cubs will talk to Alzolay’s reps this winter about such an arrangement.

In the meantime, the club’s bullpen figures to be in flux, for this year and next. Héctor Neris is handling the closing duties this year but isn’t a guarantee to come back in 2025 as his one-year deal has a $9MM club option that converts to a player option if he makes 60 appearances this year. He’s currently at 42. Mark Leiter Jr. is leading the team in holds but he was traded to the Yankees prior to the deadline. Yency Almonte and Porter Hodge are tied for second in that category but Almonte is done for the year due to shoulder surgery. Tyson Miller and Drew Smyly are next on that list but Smyly is likely headed for the open market as his deal has a 2025 mutual option and those are almost never picked up by both sides.

Orioles To Sign J.D. Davis To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles are signing infielder J.D. Davis, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. It’s a minor league deal for Davis, per Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner on X. The veteran was released by the Yankees last week.

Davis 31, came into 2024 on a solid five-year run of being an above-average bat at the major league level. But this season has been an unusual one in a few different ways, which have largely been disappointing for him.

He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing in the winter, which he won, though it turned out to be a hollow victory. The arbiter sided with him and his reps, opting for their $6.9MM salary as opposed to the $6.5MM figure the team sought. However, under the collective bargaining agreement, arb salaries are only guaranteed if the sides avoid a hearing.

The Giants then took advantage of the weak free agent market, signing both Matt Chapman and Blake Snell after they lingered in free agency into the month of March. The Chapman deal nudged Davis off his perch as the club’s regular third baseman, so they released him. Since his salary wasn’t guaranteed, the Giants only had to pay him 30 days’ termination pay, roughly $1.1MM.

Davis then went out into the aforementioned tepid free agent market and had to settle for a $2.5MM guarantee from the Athletics, far less than what he was slated to earn in San Francisco. With Oakland, he missed a couple of weeks while on the injured list with a right adductor strain and didn’t get into much of a groove around that IL stint. He hit .236/304/.366 for a wRC+ of 96 and was designated for assignment in June.

The Yankees then acquired him but didn’t give him much playing time. He was on the roster for over a month but battled an illness and only got into seven games, hitting .105/.227/.158 in those. He was designated for assignment just prior to the trade deadline but the Yanks couldn’t find a taker. Since he has more than five years of major league service time, he could have rejected an outright assignment while retaining the remainder of his salary. The Yankees skipped that formality by releasing him.

It’s undoubtedly been a rough year but it’s a sensible flier for the O’s to take, especially on a minor league deal. Davis had a robust slash of .268/.352/.443 from 2019 to 2023 for a wRC+ of 120, indicating he was 20% better than the league average hitter in that time period. Since the Yankees released him, they are paying what’s left of his contact. If the O’s select him to the roster at any point, they will only have to pay him the prorated major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Yankees pay.

Baltimore recently placed both Jorge Mateo and Jordan Westburg on the injured list, subtracting two pieces of their infield mix. Prospect Coby Mayo is up covering third base now but has six strikeouts and no hits through his first 12 plate appearances. Ramón Urías is there as well but he isn’t having a strong season, hitting .238/.310/.370 for a wRC+ of 96 with -3 Defensive Runs Saved and -6 Outs Above Average.

If Davis can get into good form and Mayo keeps struggling, the veteran could be a low cost fix to the problem for the O’s. Davis will presumably report to Triple-A Norfolk in the coming days and get some regular at-bats, something that he’s had difficulty finding this year.

Dodgers Place Brusdar Graterol On IL With Grade 1 Hamstring Strain

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6:57pm: As relayed by MLB.com’s Juan Toribio, Roberts corrected himself this evening about Graterol’s injury, noting that the right-hander had suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain. A Grade 1 hamstring strain is the most mild form of strain, while a Grade 3 strain constitutes a complete tear of the hamstring. This is, of course, excellent news for Dodgers fans and Roberts went on to suggest that the club “remains hopeful” that the righty can return at some point this season.

5:22pm: The Dodgers announced Graterol’s placement on the injured list this evening and activated Grove to take his roster spot as expected. The club also announced that shortstop Miguel Rojas was being activated from the injured list and optioned outfielder James Outman to make room for him on the active roster.

8:40am: Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol was removed from last night’s game in obvious pain and the club announced that he has a right hamstring strain. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game that the strain was the Grade 3 variety, the most severe type. Roberts stopped short of saying that Graterol is officially done for the year but it seems likely that will be the case. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and Alden González of ESPN were among those to report on the details.

It’s a brutal blow for Graterol personally, as he has already missed the majority of the season. He was sidelined in the spring due to hip tightness and inflammation in his throwing shoulder and began the season on the injured list due to the shoulder issue. The shoulder inflammation lingered long enough that he stayed on the IL until Monday. Last night was his first major league appearance of the year, which lasted eight pitches before he hurt himself. Now it seems likely that those eight pitches will be the totality of his major league work for the 2024 season.

For a frame of reference, the Royals put outfielder Kyle Isbel on the IL on May 5 of last year with a Grade 2 hamstring strain and estimated his recovery timeline to be about six weeks. He was reinstated on June 27, just over seven weeks later. Every injury is a unique situation but it seems fair to expect a longer timeline than that, given that Graterol’s strain is a higher grade. There’s just over six weeks left in the regular season now, so the circumstances seem to be pointing to Graterol being done for the year. Perhaps he can make a quick recovery and be a factor in October if the Dodgers make a long postseason run, but even in that scenario, he would have to convince the club that he’s healthy enough to be an upgrade over someone else already on the roster.

It’s a loss for the Dodger bullpen, as Graterol has been a mainstay of their relief corps prior to this year. He made 171 appearances for the club over the 2020 to 2023 seasons with a 2.69 earned run average. His 18.9% strikeout rate in that time was subpar but he limited walks to a 5.5% rate and got hitters to pound the ball into the ground at a massive 62.5% clip. He was able to earn enough of Roberts’ trust to rack up 11 saves and 38 holds.

The Dodgers already have relievers Ryan Brasier, Connor Brogdon, Blake Treinen and Michael Grove on the injured list. Graterol will be joining that group though Grove is likely to be reinstated to take his roster spot, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times on X. The relief corps has a collective 3.61 ERA that places them fifth in the league, so they should be an effective group even without Graterol, but it’s still not ideal when a serviceable arm goes down like this.

Graterol reached Super Two status after the 2022 season and is therefore in his second of four arbitration seasons. He made $1.225MM last year and is making $2.7MM here in 2024. With this season being almost a total wash, he’ll likely be in line for a similar salary in 2025. He would also be eligible for arbitration going into 2026 and is slated for free agency after that season.

Orioles Place Grayson Rodriguez On Injured List

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August 7: The Orioles announced today that Rodriguez has been placed on the 15-day IL with right lat/teres discomfort, retroactive to August 4. Left-hander Keegan Akin was recalled in a corresponding move. Additionally, outfielder Heston Kjerstad was placed on the IL with a concussion, retroactive to August 1. He was optioned to the minors on that date but this IL placement presumably rescinds that option.

August 6: Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was scratched from his scheduled start against the Blue Jays due to what the club later announced as “right lat/teres discomfort.” As noted by Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun, Rodriguez began to warm up for his start this evening before appearing to say to pitching coach Drew French, “I don’t feel right.” Rodriguez left the field for the clubhouse after the conversation and was replaced by right-hander Albert Suarez as the game’s starter. Rodriguez is returning to Baltimore to receive further evaluations and have imaging done on his right lat, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Weyrich) following the club’s loss to the Blue Jays this evening.

Details regarding the severity of Rodriguez’s discomfort are minimal, so it’s unclear at this point if the right-hander will require a trip to the IL or when he could next be expected to take the mound. After all, the righty’s discomfort will surely bring to mind his stint on IL due to shoulder inflammation earlier this year that ultimately lasted nearly three weeks. Rodriguez also has a history of lat issues, having dealt with a lat strain as a prospect back in 2022 that ultimately cost him three and a half months.

Regardless of how long Rodriguez ends up missing, the news is a worrying development for the Orioles just one week after the trade deadline as they gear up for a run at their second consecutive AL East crown and another postseason run. Injuries in the starting rotation have been frequent in Baltimore this year. The club lost three starters (Kyle Bradish, John Means, and Tyler Wells) to UCL surgery back in June and has also previously saw right-hander Dean Kremer spend time on the shelf in addition to Rodriguez’s aforementioned shoulder issue early this year. Those injury woes led the Orioles to stock up on starting pitching depth ahead of last week’s trade deadline as they swung deals to bring right-hander Zach Eflin and lefty Trevor Rogers into the fold.

While those additions helped to shore up the club’s shaky back of the rotation, losing Rodriguez for a significant period would be a deeply worrisome outcome as the 24-year-old has emerged as the club’s clear #2 starter behind ace Corbin Burnes. Rodriguez has generally pitched quite well in the sophomore season of his career with a decent 3.86 ERA in 116 2/3 innings of work across 20 starts that’s matched with even better peripheral numbers. He’s struck out 26.5% of batters faced while walking just 7.3%. That’s left him with a strong 3.67 FIP and an even better 3.60 SIERA, the latter of which is good for top 25 among all qualified starters this year and slightly better than Burnes’s own 3.71 figure.

Should Rodriguez end up missing time, it seems likely that the club would turn to Suarez to take over his spot in the rotation on a more permanent basis. The 34-year-old journeyman last appeared in the majors back in 2017 before the Orioles brought him in on a minor league deal and added him to their roster, but he’s done well in a swing role since then, with a 3.75 ERA in 15 starts including his five scoreless innings of work filling in for Rodriguez this evening. Other options to replace Rodriguez in the rotation (or Suarez in a long relief role if he returns to starting) would be youngster Cade Povich, who has struggled to a 6.27 ERA in eight starts in the majors this year, and lefty Cole Irvin, who was recently outrighted off the 40-man roster. Top pitching prospect Chayce McDermott, who made his big league debut in a spot start earlier this year, may have been a possible candidate to help fill in for Rodriguez in the majors but the club announced earlier today that he’s been placed on the minor league IL with a stress reaction in his right scapula earlier today.

Luis Rengifo, Chase Silseth Undergo Season-Ending Surgeries

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Infielder/outfielder Luis Rengifo and right-hander Chase Silseth of the Angels are both done for the year, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register on X. Rengifo had season-ending wrist surgery while Silseth had season-ending elbow surgery. It’s unclear exactly what kind of surgery Silseth had but Fletcher says it was not Tommy John surgery. Both players are expected to be ready for Spring Training next year.

Rengifo was a popular name in trade rumors this summer due to his strong performance and narrowing window of club control on a struggling team. Since the start of 2022, Rengifo has hit .273/.323/.431 for a wRC+ of 110. He’s also stolen 36 bases and bounced around the diamond to all three outfield spots and the three infield positions to the left of first base. He’s making $4.4MM this year and is controllable via arbitration for 2025 before he’s slated for free agency.

The Angels are out of contention this year and made some sell-side moves prior to the trade deadline, but limited themselves to just moving impending free agent relievers Carlos Estévez and Luis García. Despite Rengifo’s name popping up from time to time, he wasn’t traded, but perhaps the wrist issue played a role there. He landed on the IL July 4 due to right wrist inflammation and was reinstated July 23, but landed right back on the IL on August 3. Maybe the uncertainty around the ailment tamped down the offers and led the Angels to hold on.

Regardless of what happened with the trade talks, the result now is that Rengifo is out for the year. That won’t have a huge impact on the Halos in the short term since they will mostly be playing out the string for the rest of the schedule. It will lower Rengifo’s ability to raise his 2025 salary compared to what would have been possible if he stayed healthy. His name is likely to be in some trade rumors again this winter but the Angels might hold onto him into the 2025 campaign so that he can demonstrate his health for prospective trade partners. He’ll be transferred to the 60-day IL as soon as the Angels have a need for his roster spot.

Silseth tossed 52 1/3 innings for the Halos last year with a 3.96 earned run average. That put him in line for a rotation job in 2024 but his season has been derailed multiple times. He made two big league starts to begin the year but then landed on the IL with right elbow inflammation. No ligament damage was found but Silseth was nonetheless transferred to the 60-day IL at the end of April. He began a rehab assignment at the end of May and was reinstated from the IL on June 25 and optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. He then made four more Triple-A appearances between late June and late July but now it seems he’ll require some of sort of surgical procedure to get over his ailment.

The righty came into this year with 153 days of service time. He crossed the one-year mark while on the injured list but is no longer adding to that total since being optioned in June. The Halos could call him up and add him to the 60-day injured list, which would start his service time clock again, but they won’t need a roster spot right away. Their 40-man roster count is currently at 39 and, as mentioned, they can move Rengifo to the 60-day IL to open up a spot at any point. The same is true of Mike Trout, who is also done for the year but has not yet been moved to the 60-day IL.

Since Silseth is expected back by the spring, he clearly hasn’t undergone a major ligament procedure and could be a part of the club’s rotation mix for 2025. As of right now, the group projects to include Tyler Anderson, Griffin Canning, José Soriano, Davis Daniel, Carson Fulmer, Reid Detmers, Kenny Rosenberg and Silseth.

Wilmer Flores Done For The Year Due To Knee Injury

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Giants infielder Wilmer Flores landed on the 10-day injured list a couple of weeks back due to right knee tendonitis but he won’t be able to return this year. The club announced yesterday that the veteran would undergo a Tenex procedure, with Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic among those to relay the news on X. Today, manager Bob Melvin announced that Flores won’t be able to come back in what’s left of the season, per Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle on X. He’ll be transferred to the 60-day IL as soon as the Giants have a need for his roster spot.

Flores, who turns 33 today, has had a big drop-off at the plate this year and Melvin believes the knee issue is a big factor there, per Baggarly on X. He hit 23 home runs and slashed .284/.355/.509 in 2023 for a wRC+ of 136. But this year, his line dropped way down to .206/.277/.318, leading to a wRC+ of just 71. The right knee tendonitis put him on the IL twice this year, as he first landed on the shelf June 28 and was reinstated July 9, though he landed back there a couple of weeks later.

In September of 2022, the Giants and Flores agreed to a contract extension that would pay him $6.5MM in each of the two following seasons with a player/club option for 2025. The way the options works is that Flores first has to decide whether or not to trigger a $3.5MM option. If he declines, the club then decides whether or not to trigger an $8.5MM option.

That deal looked like a steal for the club throughout 2023 when Flores was having arguably the best offensive performance of his career, but it’s obviously taken a turn here in 2024. Based on his poor performance and injury, it seems fair to expect that Flores will be triggering that player option and coming back for 2025. The Giants will then have to hope that Melvin’s assessment of the situation is correct and that improved knee health will lead to better results next year.

Flores had mostly been playing first base over the past couple of years, with a bit of time at third base as well and a tiny sliver of playing time at second. Matt Chapman as the hot corner well covered for now and LaMonte Wade Jr. is having a great year at first, though he almost never gets sent up to the plate against lefties. Mark Canha taking the small side of the platoon with Wade since being acquired prior to the deadline.

How the infield looks next year will depend on various factors. As mentioned, Flores can trigger a player option and come back next year. Chapman has the ability to opt out of his deal and return to the open market, which seems likely at the moment since he’s having a great season, but it’s fair to wonder how much time the Giants would want Flores to spend at third on the heels of these knee problems. Canha is an impending free agent and won’t be in the mix next year, which perhaps leaves an opening for Flores to both platoon with Wade at first and take some time as the designated hitter, with the DH spot more open now that Jorge Soler has been traded to Atlanta.

Lance McCullers Jr. No Longer Expected To Pitch In 2024

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Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) this morning that it’s “pretty safe to say” that right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. will not pitch in the majors this year. McCullers last pitched in the majors during Game 3 of the 2022 World Sereis and has been sidelined the past two seasons due to a muscle strain in his right arm and a subsequent surgery to repair his right flexor tendon last summer.

Rehab from that surgery was expected to leave him out of action for the first half of the 2024 season, though that timeline was further delayed when the club paused his throwing program last month due to lingering arm soreness following his bullpen sessions. Club brass subsequently indicated the right-hander may be able to contribute out of the bullpen for the September stretch run this year despite the setback, though even at the time it was noted that McCullers was seeking a second opinion regarding the setback.

The right-hander seemingly has not resumed a throwing program since being shut down early last month, and with so much time off would surely need to restart his throwing program from scratch in order to get ready for MLB games. That seems like a tall order with less than two months remaining in the regular season, and it’s ultimately not yet clear if McCullers is being shut down due to a significant setback or if he has simply run out of time to work his way back to a return in the majors this year. Regardless of the specifics behind McCullers’s situation, the right-hander will now look toward a return in 2025 on the heels of back-to-back lost seasons.

It’s an especially frustrating situation given the 30-year-old’s considerable talent when healthy enough to take the mound. The right-hander owns a career 3.48 ERA in 718 2/3 innings of work since he first made his big league debut back in 2015, and his peripheral numbers look even better. His career 3.35 FIP is nothing short of excellent, and he’s struck out at least 24.7% of batters faced in every season of his career including a 26.9% rate since the start of the 2016 season. He’s also a decorated postseason hurler for the club, with a 3.47 postseason ERA in 72 2/3 innings of work across 12 playoff series. That talent earned McCullers a five-year, $85MM extension prior to the start of the 2021 season, but more than half of that extension has now come and gone with the right-hander having thrown just 47 2/3 innings total in the regular season since it began in 2022.

McCullers is far from the only Astros hurler done for the year, as he’ll now join Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier in looking toward the 2025 for their returns to the mound after both Urquidy and Javier underwent Tommy John surgery back in June. Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia are also on the injured list, but both of them are expected to pitch in the majors again this year. Verlander, in fact, felt good following a 37 pitch bullpen session earlier today and (according to Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle) told reporters that he expects to return to the majors after just two rehab starts amid a neck strain that’s kept him out of the rotation since mid-June.

Ryan Pressly Reaches Vesting Option Threshold

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Astros reliever Ryan Pressly tossed a scoreless inning to earn a hold in tonight’s 3-2 victory over the Rays. As Chandler Rome of the Athletic points out (on X), that was the veteran righty’s 45th appearance of the season. Combined with 65 appearances last year, Pressly has reached 110 games since the start of 2023.

That’s the necessary threshold to vest the $14MM team option on his contract for 2025. Marc Berman of USA Today wrote in February that the option also requires that Pressly not finish this season on the injured list. (It’s not uncommon for a vesting provision to require the player to pass an end-of-year physical.) Assuming he’s healthy at year’s end, he’s officially under contract for the ’25 campaign at $14MM. It’s a traditional vesting option, so Pressly does not have the ability to decline it in favor of free agency.

Pressly, who turns 36 in January, will be going into his seventh full season with the Astros. Houston acquired him from the Twins at the 2019 deadline in what turned out to be a fantastic pickup. Pressly carries a 2.77 earned run average in 327 regular season appearances. He has been even better in October, firing 44 2/3 innings of 2.22 ERA ball in his playoff career.

While relief pitchers can be volatile, Pressly has been an annual source of stability. He hasn’t had an ERA higher than 3.58 in any of his seasons with Houston. Pressly has reached at least 50 appearances in the previous four full schedules of his Astros tenure. He’s well on his way to doing so again. He spent the 2020-23 seasons operating as Houston’s closer and was consistently among the top relievers in the game.

The Astros signed Josh Hader to a five-year, $95MM free agent deal late last offseason. That pushed Pressly into a setup role for the ’24 campaign. That wasn’t an indictment of his performance so much as an opportunity for Houston to build a three-headed monster of Hader, Pressly and Bryan Abreu at the back of the bullpen. That trio struggled to a 5.40 ERA in April, a big reason the team got off to a slow start. They’ve been dominant for the better part of three months since then, combining for a 2.56 ERA over 102 innings. The team has correspondingly turned its fortunes around, erasing a 10-game deficit on the Mariners to hold a marginal lead in the AL West race with two months to play.

Including tonight’s performance, Pressly carries a 3.38 ERA across 42 2/3 innings. He has 19 holds and a pair of saves against six blown leads. Those generally solid results are in spite of an elevated .344 average on balls in play. Pressly is striking out a quarter of opponents with a solid 46.7% grounder rate and a tidy 7% walk percentage. While it’s a slight step down from his 2019-23 production, Pressly continues to turn in above-average performance late in games.

The Astros and Pressly’s representatives at the Ballengee Group have hammered out a pair of extensions over the years. In Spring Training 2019, they inked a two-year, $17.5MM pact with a ’22 vesting option. Pressly hit that mark, locked in his 2022 salary, then agreed to another two-year deal early in the season. That one guaranteed him $30MM — matching $14MM salaries for 2023-24 and at least a $2MM buyout on the ’25 vesting option. He’s now set to max the deal out at $42MM over three seasons by securing the $12MM difference between next year’s option price and the buyout figure.

Pressly joins Jose Altuve ($30MM), Hader ($19MM), Lance McCullers Jr. ($17MM), Yordan Alvarez ($15MM), Cristian Javier ($10MM) and Victor Caratini ($6MM) on next year’s books. They’re still on the hook for big salaries for José Abreu ($19.5MM) and Rafael Montero ($11.5MM) to close those respective ill-fated three-year free agent pacts. That’s $128MM in guaranteed commitments.

Framber Valdez and Kyle Tucker are both going to surpass $15MM salaries in their final arbitration seasons, while Bryan Abreu, Mauricio Dubón, Jeremy Peña, Luis Garcia and Jake Meyers are among their other arbitration-eligible players. Houston has a lot of commitments before deciding whether to re-sign Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander and deadline pickup Yusei Kikuchi. There’ll be a lot on GM Dana Brown’s plate next winter, but owner Jim Crane showed a wiliness to push into the second tier of luxury tax penalization this year in pursuit of an eighth straight trip to the ALCS and beyond.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles Promote Coby Mayo

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Aug. 2: The O’s formally announced Mayo’s promotion. Infielder Livan Soto was optioned to Norfolk to open a spot on the active roster. Baltimore’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Aug. 1: Top prospect Coby Mayo is joining the Orioles, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (X link). The 22-year-old will be making his MLB debut. Mayo is not yet on the 40-man roster but the O’s have an opening, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding active roster transaction.

Baltimore took Mayo out of high school in the fourth round of the truncated 2020 draft. He signed for an above slot $1.75MM bonus and has ripped through minor league pitching at every level. The 6’5″, 230-pound corner infielder had pushed his way towards the top of a loaded O’s system by the start of the 2022 campaign. He had good but not elite numbers as a 20-year-old between High-A and Double-A that season.

A monster showing in the upper minors last year vaulted Mayo to the top of the overall league prospect rankings. He hit .307/.424/.603 with 17 homers in 78 games for Double-A Bowie. The O’s bumped him to Triple-A Norfolk late last season. Mayo responded with an excellent .267/.393/.512 slash across 62 contests.

Mayo entered the year as a top 30 minor league talent in the eyes of most evaluators. He has done all he can to reinforce that acclaim with another excellent year in Norfolk. Mayo has popped 20 homers over 335 plate appearances. He’s hitting .294/.370/.581 with a strong 10.1% walk rate. While his 24.5% strikeout percentage is a bit higher than average, it’s not a major concern for one of the best power-hitting prospects in the league.

The righty-hitting Mayo is tied for fourth in the International League in home runs. Among 83 hitters with 300+ plate appearances, he leads the league in slugging percentage. Mayo is 10th among that group in average and 25th in on-base percentage despite being one of the league’s youngest hitters.

Mayo ranks as the sport’s #12 prospect at Baseball America and FanGraphs. Keith Law of the Athletic ranked Mayo 18th on his recent update of the sport’s top 60 prospects. All three outlets have him as either the #2 or #3 player in the Baltimore system. He’s behind Jackson Holliday and alongside catcher Samuel Basallo at the top of an organization that is still loaded with high-end young talent.

BA and FanGraphs each credit Mayo with 70-grade power (plus-plus) on the 20-80 scouting scale. FanGraphs writes that Mayo could be susceptible to strikeouts early in his MLB career, but evaluators generally feel he shouldn’t have any problem getting to his impact power while drawing plenty of walks.

Mayo’s defense is more of a question. He has played exclusively on the corner infield in his minor league career. The vast majority of that experience has come at third base. Most scouting reports peg him as a fringe-average defender there despite excellent arm strength. FanGraphs’ report suggests Mayo may be best suited moving off the position to right field, but the O’s have not given him any outfield work in the minors.

He’ll break into the majors as a third baseman. Baltimore lost Jordan Westburg to a broken hand yesterday. The O’s have yet to provide a clear timeline on the All-Star’s return, yet he’s certainly in for a lengthy absence. Baltimore played Ramón Urías at the hot corner today. With Urías hitting a league average .244/.318/.381 in 195 plate appearances, they’ll turn to Mayo in the hope that the youngster provides above-average offense right out of the gate.

That’s no guarantee for any prospect, as Holliday’s struggles after his first big league call demonstrated early in the season. Yet there’s nothing more for Mayo to prove in the minors, as he now owns a .283/.380/.552 slash with 36 doubles and 32 homers in 602 career Triple-A plate appearances (the equivalent of one full season). Mayo would probably have gotten a look by now if he were in most other organizations. The O’s have such an impressive collection of infielders that they could afford to wait for him to comprehensively dominate minor league pitching.

Baltimore fans can dream on a future infield comprising Mayo, Holliday, Gunnar Henderson and Westburg from right to left. For now, Mayo will stick at the hot corner with Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn continuing to share first base and designated hitter. Urías should kick into a utility role which could bump recent trade pickup Livan Soto to Norfolk.

Barring a herculean start to his MLB career that earns him a top two finish in Rookie of the Year balloting, Mayo will not get a full service year this season. The O’s control him through at least the 2030 campaign; he won’t reach arbitration until the 2027-28 offseason. If Baltimore options him back to the minors at any point, that could delay his path to arbitration and free agency.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Harris: Tigers Were Never Close To Trading Skubal

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Throughout the month of July, Tarik Skubal’s name frequently surfaced in reports of teams eyeing rotation upgrades. He was widely considered to be a long-shot trade candidate, at best — we listed him 50th on our Top 50 trade candidate list, noting his unrivaled ability to impact a new club but also the Tigers’ unwillingness to move him — but it seemed as though teams might still try to blow the Tigers out of the water as the deadline drew nearer.

Perhaps other clubs indeed hoped to be able to do so, but Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris made clear in his post-deadline comments that Skubal was never on the cusp of moving. At a press conference to discuss the trades of Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly, Harris was asked how close he came to trading Skubal, the presumptive Cy Young front-runner in the American League.

“Not close,” Harris said without hesitation (video link via WXYZ Detroit sports director Brad Galli). “There were a lot of rumors that floated out there. There are a lot of ’unconfirmed reports’ that are just totally inaccurate. We never came close to trading Skubal.”

Harris declined to comment on whether there was ever any temptation or an offer that made him consider the possibility. However, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports that the Dodgers, who naturally had strong interest in Skubal, came away with the impression that the left-hander wasn’t available “in any scenario,” writing that one source indicated Detroit “wouldn’t talk about Skubal at all.”

On the one hand, it’s easy to shrug comments and reports along these lines off as irrelevant. What’s done is done, and Skubal is a Tiger. Nothing will change that for the time being. On the other hand, it also offers a potential glimpse into the offseason and the future. Had the Tigers been legitimately entertaining Skubal offers but simply not found an offer to their liking, he’d stand as a logical offseason trade candidate. But with Detroit’s ostensible refusal to even engage in discussions on him, it becomes all the more difficult to envision a scenario where Skubal is genuinely available this winter. If the Tigers wouldn’t even discuss him in July, when the return would theoretically be even higher, there’s little reason to think they’d give strong consideration to trading him a few months from now.

Asked whether the decision to hang onto Skubal, who’s only controlled for two additional seasons, was an indicator that Detroit would be aggressive in its offseason free agent and trade pursuits, Harris sidestepped and said his focus for now is the final two months of the season.

“It’s July right now,” said Harris. “We’ve got a lot of work to do this year. … We have a lot of young players in the big leagues who need to get a whole lot better. I think you guys are seeing some flashes of it. I think when you see some of these players, what they looked like in April and now what they look like in July, it’s a good example of what we can be as an organization. But we can’t just start looking into the winter right now. We have a lot of work to do in August and September to make sure the players on this and the players that are going to impact this team in the second half are coming up and getting better. That’s where our focus is right now.”

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