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Robert Gasser To Undergo UCL Surgery

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June 21: Milwaukee indeed reinstated Junis from the 60-day IL this evening. The Brewers optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. Their 40-man roster is at capacity.

June 20: Brewers rookie left-hander Robert Gasser will undergo surgery to fix the UCL in his throwing elbow, he told reporters this evening (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). It won’t be clear until the operation whether he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction or a modified ligament repair. Even in the better scenario of a slightly less significant procedure like the internal brace surgery, Gasser said he expects to miss at least a full calendar year.

The 25-year-old southpaw made his major league debut last month. Gasser found immediate success, working 28 innings of 2.57 ERA ball through his first five starts. The University of Houston product only walked one of the 114 hitters he faced. While he certainly wouldn’t have maintained that level of control, Gasser has been a solid strike-thrower whom most scouts expect to stick in the rotation. Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Milwaukee system and slotted him among the sport’s top 100 minor league talents entering the season.

Gasser’s initial MLB success might have increased his stock a little bit, even though his 14% strikeout percentage was well below the swing-and-miss rates he’d shown in the minor leagues. He’d certainly performed well enough to continue taking the ball every fifth day in a patchwork Milwaukee rotation. Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea have been the constants. Peralta is the unquestioned staff ace, while Rea has stepped up with a 3.29 ERA over 76 2/3 innings despite a modest 16.7% strikeout rate.

Milwaukee has otherwise cycled through a number of starters as they’ve navigated various injuries. They have lost an entire rotation to extended absences. Wade Miley underwent Tommy John surgery after two starts. Jakob Junis has pitched once all season. DL Hall has been sidelined since April. Joe Ross went down in May with a lower back strain; he suffered a setback a couple weeks ago. Gasser is now also out for the season. That’s not even counting Brandon Woodruff, whom the Brewers knew would miss all of 2024 after he underwent shoulder surgery last October.

Bryse Wilson and Tobias Myers have stepped into the third and fourth rotation spots. While they’ve each managed decent run prevention numbers, neither pitcher is without question marks. Wilson opened the season as a reliever and has an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile as a starter. Myers is a former minor league signee on the sixth organization of his professional career. His 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk percentage are fine, but he’s had to work around an elevated home run rate.

The fifth rotation spot has recently fallen to Carlos Rodriguez, a rookie who has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two starts. Junis is nearing a return from the 60-day injured list — MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that he could be reinstated as soon as tomorrow — but he isn’t expected to immediately step back into a rotation spot. Junis has only made two abbreviated rehab appearances for Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have suggested he’s likely to work out of the bullpen initially as they try to expedite his return to the major league staff.

In that context, it’s remarkable that the Brewers have managed a 44-30 record and pulled out to a fairly comfortable 7.5 game lead in the NL Central. They’ll almost certainly bring in at least one starting pitcher before the July 30 trade deadline. There’s a reasonable argument for GM Matt Arnold and his staff to land multiple rotation pickups. Losing Gasser should only add to the urgency to address what was the team’s biggest question mark well before their last couple months of terrible injury news.

Gasser is on the MLB injured list and will collect service time and be paid at the league minimum rate for whatever time he spends on the IL. Milwaukee can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises. (They already have a vacancy for Junis’ reinstatement after designating Elieser Hernández for assignment last night.) Gasser will not get to a full service year and remains controllable for six seasons beyond this one.

Kyle Bradish Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Orioles general manager Mike Elias informed reporters that right-hander Kyle Bradish underwent Tommy John surgery with an internal brace today. He’ll be out for the rest of this year and part of 2025 as well. Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner was among those to relay the news on X. Additionally, left-hander Danny Coulombe had bone chips removed from his elbow, per Allentuck on X. The southpaw could return this year but is likely out until September.

The Bradish news is a brutal blow for the club’s rotation. He had a tremendous breakout season with the O’s last year, making 30 starts with a 2.83 earned run average. He struck out 25% of batters faced, limited walks to a 6.6% rate and got grounders at a 49.2% clip.

Things got scary here in 2024, as Bradish was diagnosed with a sprain of his UCL in mid-February. The club initially tried non-surgical interventions and seemed to have some success. Bradish was given a platelet-rich plasma injection and was showing “accelerated healing” by early March, per Bradish himself.

Things seemed to accelerate fairly normally from there. Bradish was able to start a rehab assignment by the second week of April and was reinstated from the injured list in early May. He made eight starts for the big league club with a 2.75 ERA. But he landed back on the injured list last week, again due to a sprain of his UCL, with surgery apparently unavoidable this time around.

In hindsight, it would be easy to dismiss the past four months as simply delaying the inevitable, but pitchers have suffered UCL injuries and avoided surgery before. Masahiro Tanaka was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL in 2014, for instance, but never got it repaired and went on to pitch between 150 and 200 innings in each of the five following seasons. Seth Lugo was also found to have a slight tear in 2017 but didn’t go under the knife. More recently, Triston McKenzie was diagnosed with a UCL sprain last summer but has made 14 starts for the Guardians this year.

Given the 14 to 18 months of recovery that are generally needed after Tommy John surgery, pitchers and teams usually prefer to exhaust non-surgical options before surrendering to the surgeon’s table. The O’s and Bradish believed they had a path open to them and tried to take it, but unfortunately couldn’t make it work in this instance.

This is now the third starting pitcher that the Orioles have lost to season-ending UCL surgery this year, as both Tyler Wells and John Means went down this road before Bradish. Despite those losses, the rotation has been a strength overall. Baltimore starter’s have a combined ERA of 3.03 this year, which trails only the Yankees and Phillies. But maintaining such a position without those three will be a challenge.

As of now, the O’s are left with Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Cole Irvin, Cade Povich and Albert Suárez in the rotation, but it seems fair to expect the O’s to pursue additions prior to the July 30 deadline. Povich has just two major league starts under his belt so far. Irvin has a 3.03 ERA on the year but is only striking out 17.9% of batters faced. His 4.16 SIERA this year and his career ERA of 4.24 perhaps suggest some regression is coming. Suárez has a 2.05 ERA but is a 34-year-old journeyman with a 19.7% strikeout rate and 81.9% strand rate.

Dean Kremer should be rejoining that group shortly, as he is on the injured list but currently on a rehab assignment. However, he’s more of a solid back-end guy, with an ERA of 4.35 in his career and a mark of 4.32 this year. In terms of depth options, Levi Stoudt was just claimed off waivers but has a 6.92 ERA in Triple-A this year. Bruce Zimmermann is on the 40-man but hasn’t pitched since mid-May. Jonathan Heasley is also on the roster but has been working as a swingman in the minors.

Last week, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the club would be waiting until closer to the deadline to decide on their starting pitching approach. With Bradish now out for the year, that will presumably increase their desire to pursue starting pitching in the months to come. In the meantime, Bradish will be transferred to the 60-day injured list whenever the O’s need his roster spot. He’ll spent the rest of the year on the shelf and will qualify for arbitration this offseason as a Super Two player.

The news on Coulombe isn’t as bad but is still significant. The lefty has a career ERA of 3.57 and that mark is just 2.68 since joining the O’s prior to the 2023 season. He has thrown 77 1/3 innings since coming to Baltimore, striking out 28.5% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 5% clip.

He landed on the IL a week ago due to left elbow inflammation and it now seems he’s going to miss several months, leaving the Orioles with Cionel Pérez, Keegan Akin and Nick Vespi as southpaws in their bullpen.

Like Bradish, Coulombe will be a candidate to be moved to the 60-day IL whenever the O’s need a roster spot for someone else. The two sides avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a one-year deal with a club option in January. That option has a $4MM base salary and escalators that start at 50 appearances. He’s made 29 appearances so far this year but won’t be able to get that number up to 50 if he’s out until September. He will cross six years of service by the end of the season and be a free agent if the O’s decline that option.

Cubs Sign Tomas Nido, Designate Yan Gomes For Assignment

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10:20am: The Cubs have made the moves official.

9:55am: The Cubs are making a change behind the plate, signing veteran catcher Tomas Nido to a big league contract and designating Yan Gomes for assignment, as first reported by Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami. Nido, an ACES client, was released by the Mets on Monday after being designated for assignment last week. The Mets are on the hook for the majority of this year’s $2.1MM salary. The Cubs will only owe Nido the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

The 30-year-old Nido inked a two-year, $3.7MM contract prior to the 2023 season, buying out his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster last season following a dismal .125/.153/.125 start through 61 plate appearances but chose to accept a Triple-A assignment due to the fact that electing free agency would’ve required him to forfeit the remainder of the guaranteed money on his contract.

Nido was selected back to the big leagues this season when Francisco Alvarez hit the injured list with a thumb injury that required surgery. During his most recent stint with the Mets, Nido surpassed five years of MLB service time, which allowed him to reject his latest outright assignment in favor of free agency while still retaining the remainder of his salary. He batted .229/.261/.361 through 90 plate appearances with the Mets this season.

That level of production is par for the course for Nido, a career .214/.251/.313 hitter in 895 trips to the plate at the big league level. Offense has never been the focal point of Nido’s game, however. He’s an high-end defensive backstop who draws plus grades for his framing and pitch-blocking, coupling those skills with a career 21% caught-stealing rate that’s right in line with this year’s league average.

Even Nido’s lackluster 2024 output at the plate or his similarly uninspiring career batting line would be an upgrade over what the 36-year-old Gomes has mustered this season. Gomes was near league-average at the plate just last season (.267/.315/.408, 10 homers, 95 wRC+) but has cratered with a career-worst .157/.179/.242 batting line in 96 plate appearances this season. Gomes fanned in just 18% of his plate appearances with the 2022-23 Cubs and entered 2024 with a career 23.1% mark in the majors, but he’s whiffed a massive 36 times this season (37.5%).

Like Nido, Gomes has a strong defensive reputation, but the numbers don’t bear that out this year. He’s thwarted just three of the 24 runners who’ve attempted to steal against him (12.5%) — well shy of his excellent 32% career mark. The Brazilian-born backstop’s once-premium framing numbers are below-average for a second straight season, meanwhile, and Statcast also pegs him below-average at blocking pitches in the dirt in 2024.

As is the case with Nido, Gomes is playing out the final season of a guaranteed contract. Chicago signed him to a two-year, $13MM pact in the 2021-22 offseason. Gomes’ performance last year made it a straightforward call for the team to exercise a $6MM club option (a net $5MM decision, given the option’s $1MM buyout). Even Gomes’ detractors couldn’t have reasonably predicted a decline of this magnitude, however. Gomes’ struggles are a major reason that Chicago backstops have been the third-worst in all of baseball at the plate, leading only the White Sox and Marlins in that regard.

The Cubs will still be on the hook for the remainder of Gomes’ $6MM salary once he inevitably becomes a free agent. (No team is going to trade for or claim what’s left on the contract). Once he’s released, Gomes will be free to sign with any club. A new team would only owe him the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Cubs owe him through season’s end.

Willie Mays Passes Away

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Willie Mays passed away peacefully on Tuesday afternoon, the Giants announced. One of the greatest players of all-time and a legend in the sports world, Mays was 93.

“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement alluding to Thursday’s game between the Giants and Cardinals at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, the home of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise.

From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime. … Thursday’s game at historic Rickwood Field was designed to be a celebration of Willie Mays and his peers. With sadness in our hearts, it will now also serve as a national remembrance of an American who will forever remain on the short list of the most impactful individuals our great game has ever known.”

A native of Westfield, Alabama, Mays started his professional career in 1948. He appeared in 13 games for a Black Barons team that was on its way to that year’s Negro World Series. Once Mays finished high school the following year, he received interest from American League and National League clubs. He signed with the Giants (still playing in New York at the time) on a $4,000 bonus. Mays spent the 1950 season in the minors before making his team debut the following year.

Mays immediately hit the ground running. He hit .274 with 20 home runs and dazzling center field defense to win the National League Rookie of the Year. The Giants would win the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s famous “Shot Heard ’Round The World” against the Dodgers. While they dropped that year’s Fall Classic to the Yankees, it wasn’t long before they returned to the World Series. Mays missed most of 1952 and the entire ’53 season after being drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Upon his return to the playing field in 1954, he established himself as one of the best players the game has ever seen.

At 23 years old in his first full major league season, Mays hit .345 with an MLB-best .667 slugging percentage en route to the NL MVP award. The Giants won 97 games to head back to the World Series. In Game 1, Mays made perhaps the most iconic defensive play in major league history. His over-the-shoulder basket catch a few feet in front of the center field wall at the Polo Grounds — a play that would live on in history as “The Catch” —  likely saved two runs in what was then a tied game in the eighth inning. The Giants would go to win in 10 innings and sweep the Indians to win the fifth championship in franchise history.

The rosters around Mays dipped after that season. They wouldn’t return to the Fall Classic until 1962 despite their center fielder’s all-around dominance. Mays hit 51 home runs in 1955, the first of three times he would lead the majors in that regard. He paced the National League in stolen bases in four straight seasons from 1956-59 while leading the league in OPS three times during that decade. Mays was established as arguably the best player in the majors by the time the franchise moved to San Francisco in advance of the 1958 season.

The Say Hey Kid earned an All-Star nod during his first MVP season in 1954. His combination of otherworldly talent and incredible durability — he’d play in at least 140 games in each subsequent year until 1968 — sent him back to the Midsummer Classic in 19 straight seasons. Mays was selected as an All-Star 24 times and in 20 separate seasons (there were multiple All-Star teams for a few years in the early 60s). Only Henry Aaron reached the All-Star Game more frequently in his career.

MLB introduced the Gold Glove Award in 1957, four seasons into Mays’ career with the Giants. He’d earn the honors in the award’s first 12 seasons. That ties him with Roberto Clemente for the most among outfielders in league history despite the honors not coming into existence until Mays’ age-26 season.

Mays would have had a strong Hall of Fame case based on his glove alone. He’s also among the best hitters of all time. He hit .296 or better in each season from 1954-65. He never hit fewer than 29 homers in that stretch. Mays ranked in the top 10 in MVP voting in all but one year between 1954-66, finishing among the top five on nine occasions. He won the MVP as a 34-year-old in 1965 behind a .317/.398/.645 batting line with an MLB-leading 52 home runs. He was the runner-up to Maury Wills during the Giants’ pennant-winning ’62 campaign. Mays didn’t have a great offensive showing in the World Series, though, and San Francisco came up a run short in a seven-game series loss to the Yankees.

Between 1954-66, a stretch that represented one of the greatest peaks in MLB history, Mays compiled a .315/.390/.601 slash line with 518 homers as the game’s preeminent outfield defender. While his production in his late-30s wasn’t quite at that exceptional standard, Mays remained an elite hitter past his 40th birthday. He led the NL in walks and on-base percentage at age 40 in 1971, the final season in which he’d top 100 games.

Mays’ time with the Giants came to a close in May 1972 when San Francisco traded him to the Mets. He finished his career as a role player with New York, returning to the World Series in his final season. Mays retired after the ’73 campaign and moved into coaching with the Mets. He’d later work in an advisory role with the Giants, a franchise with which he’s so synonymous that Oracle Park’s official address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza.

That concluded a playing career that spanned parts of 23 seasons in the major leagues (including his abbreviated stint with the Black Barons). Mays played in more than 3000 MLB games, the ninth-most in history. He’s on virtually every leaderboard. Mays was 13th all-time with 3293 hits. He’s 12th in runs batted in (1909) and seventh in runs scored. Mays is one of nine players to reach the 600-homer mark and sits in sixth place on the all-time leaderboard with 660 longballs. At the time he retired, only Aaron and Babe Ruth had more.

Mays was an obvious call for Hall of Fame induction when he was first eligible in 1979. The exemplar of a five-tool player, he’s on the short list in debates about the greatest all-around players in baseball history. Among position players, Mays is only narrowly behind Barry Bonds and Ruth in Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Replacement metric with an estimated 156 career WAR. No single statistic will ever definitively answer the question of the “best player of all-time.” Fans can debate where Mays precisely stacks up against Bonds, Ruth, Aaron, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, etc. It’s impossible to have that conversation without mentioning him.

Of course, Mays’ reverence in baseball circles goes well behind the stat sheet. He’s an icon, a fan favorite of many on both coasts during his heyday. Mays was one of the first Black players to emerge as a superstar once MLB teams began to integrate in the late 1940s and the early part of the 50s. His influence transcended baseball into broader American culture.

Mays and Yogi Berra were among the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. MLBTR joins others throughout the sports world in sending condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and the countless fans whose lives he impacted through nearly eight decades as a face of baseball.

Blue Jays Place Bo Bichette On Injured List, Recall Orelvis Martinez

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The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, with shortstop Bo Bichette placed on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, retroactive to June 15. Infielder Orelvis Martinez was recalled and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. They also made a bullpen swap, with left-hander Brandon Eisert optioned as right-hander Ryan Burr was recalled.

Bichette hasn’t played since Friday due to this calf issue. The Jays didn’t place him on the IL right away as they monitored the development of the injury, but it seems it didn’t heal up as hoped and the determination was made to place him on the shelf. Since the move is backdated, he could be back in as soon as a week’s time if he feels better. Manager John Schneider says that is indeed the hope, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet on X.

It’s been a rough season overall for Bichette, who is hitting just .237/.286/.342 on the year, a far cry from the .299/.340/.487 line he carried into the season. It’s possible that some of that is batted ball luck, as he had a .349 batting average on balls in play coming into the year but has a .271 BABIP in 2024, but he also has just four home runs this season and a 4.7% barrel rate that’s roughly half of the 9.2% rate he has for his entire career.

He may have been turning things around after a really rough start, as he slashed .280/.321/.410 in the month of May for a 108 wRC+. His numbers in June ticked down again, though it’s possible that the calf had started nagging at him before it actually took him out of the lineup. Regardless, he’ll have at least a week to rest up and take a breather.

His injury will allow Martinez to come up to the majors for the first time. Now 22 years old, he was a fairly high-profile international signing out of the Dominican Republic, securing a bonus of $3.51MM from the Jays in 2018. As he has climbed the minor league ladder, he has made good on that strong bonus by becoming a top 100 prospect, with his home run power standing out as his most exciting tool.

In 2021, he got into 98 games between Single-A and High-A, hitting 28 home runs in that time. He was promoted to Double-A in 2022 and there was a bit of concern with his early results there. He struck out at a 28.5% clip and slashed just .203/.286/.446 that year. But the Jays still didn’t want him exposed in that year’s Rule 5 draft and added him to their 40-man roster.

He returned to Double-A to start 2023 and the results were much better. He cut his strikeout rate to 20.5% and also drew walks at a huge 14% clip. He hit 17 home runs in 70 games and slashed .226/.339/.485 for a wRC+ of 122. He was promoted to Triple-A in July of last year and now has 118 games for the Bisons under his belt with 27 home runs. His 25.4% strikeout rate in that time is a bit high but he’s also drawn walks at a 9.7% clip.

There is some slight platoon concern, as Martinez has hit .321/.406/.661 against lefties this year but just .240/.324/.480 the rest of the time, but he’s also still quite young and has shown an ability to adjust when challenged.

Defense is also a bit of question mark for Martinez. He spent a lot of time at shortstop in previous seasons but hasn’t played there in 2024, mostly lining up at second base with a bit of time at third base also mixed in. Despite the flaws, Martinez has enough upside at the plate that he’s considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him #54 overall, FanGraphs #71 and MLB Pipeline #68. Coming into the season, Keith Law of The Athletic put him in the #57 spot, though Kiley McDaniel of ESPN didn’t have Martinez on his list.

Since Martinez hasn’t been playing shortstop this year, he won’t be a direct replacement for Bichette. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been holding down that spot with Bichette out of action in recent days and will likely continue in that role, with Ernie Clement and Addison Barger capable of chipping in as well.

Martinez will be in the mix for some playing time at second and third alongside Clement, Barger, Davis Schneider and Spencer Horwitz. The club has also experimented with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting some time at third and he could be in the mix there as well.

The Jays have been struggling to find offense this year and recently cut both Daniel Vogelbach and Cavan Biggio from the roster, calling up Horwitz and Barger in an attempt to find some extra runs. The recall of Martinez was more motivated by Bichette’s injury but could perhaps help in that regard as well, though it’s possible it’s just a brief stay on the roster if Bichette is indeed back quickly.

The Jays are currently sporting a record of 35-37, not completely buried in the standings but they’re five games back of a playoff spot at the moment. They are reportedly going to wait until after the All-Star break to decide on how they approach the July 30 deadline.

If the recent roster shakeup can help them climb in the standings, then perhaps they can avoid a summer selloff. If not, the rumors on players nearing free agency will grow louder. That’s particularly true of Guerrero and Bichette, who are each set to hit the open market after 2025. Though with Bichette struggling this year and now injured as well, the Jays may have concerns about selling low, compounded by the public relations hit of selling a player who has been such a key part of the franchise for years. That will make the coming weeks very interesting for the club and Bichette, with the trade deadline on July 30, six weeks from today.

A’s To Designate J.D. Davis For Assignment

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The A’s are designating corner infielder J.D. Davis for assignment, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos reports (on X) that the A’s are recalling outfielder Lawrence Butler from Triple-A Las Vegas in what is presumably the corresponding move. Oakland hasn’t announced the transactions, which will likely be made official tomorrow with the A’s off tonight.

It’ll end a brief stint in Oakland for Davis, who landed with the A’s in somewhat controversial fashion. He and the Giants went to an arbitration hearing over the offseason. Davis won that hearing and was set for a $6.9MM salary. Arbitration salaries aren’t fully guaranteed until Opening Day unless the team and player agree to terms before the hearing, though. The Giants signed Matt Chapman a couple weeks into Spring Training. Rather than push Davis to the bench, the Giants released him to get out from under most of the money.

San Francisco paid him 30 days termination pay, around $1.1MM, and sent him to the open market. Davis’ extremely late entry into free agency didn’t do him any favors. He signed with the A’s on a $2.5MM deal that contained an additional $1MM in incentives.

His run in green and gold didn’t go especially well. Davis lost a couple weeks to an adductor strain and appeared in 39 games. He hit .236/.304/.366 with four homers in 135 trips to the plate. That’s essentially league average production in a pitcher-friendly home park and a down overall run environment. Yet Davis needs to be an above-average hitter to provide much overall value. He’s a limited baserunner and defender who has spent the majority of his time at first base this season.

Davis has tallied 97 innings at the hot corner and logged 148 frames at first base. His defensive grades haven’t been great at either spot. While this year’s workload is an exceedingly small sample, that’s in line with Davis’ overall track record as a middling defensive third baseman.

Nevertheless, the Fullerton product has been a solid regular for most of his career. He was an above-average hitter each season from 2019-22, running a cumulative .276/.363/.457 slash in more than 1200 plate appearances between the Mets and Giants. Over that stretch, Davis walked at a strong 10.5% clip and showed above-average power to offset a 27.3% strikeout rate. He had a league average .248/.325/.413 line with 18 homers in a career-high 144 games in his final season with the Giants.

At the time they signed him, the A’s planned on Davis playing regularly at third base and hitting well enough to be a midseason trade candidate. He has been nudged to a bench role in recent weeks. Abraham Toro jumped Davis for the starting third base job with an excellent showing in May. Toro hasn’t hit at all in June, yet the A’s have stuck with him at the top of the lineup. He is under arbitration control through 2026. Tyler Soderstrom, one of the top offensive talents in the organization, is playing regularly at first base. Soderstrom came up as a bat-first catching prospect but seems like a better long-term fit at first thanks to the presence of Shea Langeliers.

The A’s will have five days from the time of Davis’ official DFA to explore trade possibilities. (Players can spend up to a week in DFA limbo, but teams need to start the 48-hour waiver process within five days if they can’t line up a trade.) Any return would be modest, but it’s not out of the question the A’s find someone willing to take on part or all of the approximate $1.38MM still remaining on his contract. If there are no takers, Davis will become a free agent in a week’s time — either via release or rejecting an outright assignment to the minors.

There are a few teams that could look to add a corner bat. The Yankees lost Anthony Rizzo for upwards of a month to a forearm fracture. The Red Sox haven’t gotten much out of Dominic Smith at first base, although they could just wait things out with Triston Casas potentially a few weeks from returning. The Astros released José Abreu last week and are relying on a Jon Singleton/Mauricio Dubón platoon at first base. The Nationals and Pirates haven’t gotten much from the position, while the Reds might be without righty-swinging first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand for the rest of the season.

Roberts: Dodgers Expect Betts To Miss 6-8 Weeks

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The Dodgers placed Mookie Betts on the 10-day injured list this afternoon, a formality after he suffered a fractured left hand yesterday. Miguel Vargas is back up from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take his spot on the active roster.

That alone didn’t provide much of an update, but skipper Dave Roberts outlined a loose timetable when speaking with the L.A. beat tonight. Roberts said the Dodgers anticipate being without Betts for 6-8 weeks (X link via Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Miguel Rojas will draw into the lineup as the primary shortstop in the interim.

Betts was hit by a 98 MPH fastball from Dan Altavilla in yesterday’s win over Kansas City. The Dodgers revealed after the game that he’d sustained a fracture. It halts what could have been an MVP season. Betts is hitting .304/.405/.488 with 10 longballs through 331 trips to the plate. He has walked 14.5% of the time against a 10% strikeout rate.

On top of the customarily elite offense, Betts has logged 531 1/3 innings at shortstop (plus 97 frames at second base). Public metrics are mixed on his shortstop glovework — Defensive Runs Saved has rated him four runs better than par, while Statcast has him three runs below average — but the fact that Betts was able take over the position on short notice at the end of spring is itself a huge boost.

Rojas is at least a steady replacement. He remains a high-end defender at age 35. Rojas has turned in good offensive results in a utility capacity this year, hitting .278/.328/.444 with a trio of homers in 42 games. He’s not likely to continue hitting at that level in an everyday role, as he ran a .246/.299/.348 line between 2021-23.

The 6-8 week timeline means Betts probably won’t be back before the July 30 trade deadline. Roberts and GM Brandon Gomes told reporters that L.A. is open to reinstalling Betts at shortstop once he’s healthy (Harris link). With an eight-game cushion in the NL West, the Dodgers probably don’t need to change their deadline approach to the shortstop position. Yet middle infield help looked like a potential target before Betts went down. The Dodgers haven’t gotten much out of second base, where Gavin Lux is hitting .212/.262/.280 across 202 plate appearances.

There probably won’t be many significant shortstops on the market. The White Sox will almost certainly trade Paul DeJong for a modest return, but he’s not a clear upgrade on Rojas. Miami’s Tim Anderson hasn’t hit for a second consecutive season. The top impending free agents, Willy Adames and Ha-Seong Kim, are on contenders and unlikely to move. Second base offers a couple more possibilities. The Angels could deal bat-first utility options Luis Rengifo and Brandon Drury, while the A’s would probably entertain offers on Abraham Toro.

Anthony Rizzo Diagnosed With Arm Fracture

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Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo has been diagnosed with a fractured radial neck in his right arm, report Ken Rosenthal, Brendan Kuty and Chris Kirschner of the Athletic. The Athletic writes that Rizzo will not require surgery but is likely to miss around 4-6 weeks. Though the Yankees haven’t announced the diagnosis, they’ll certainly place the first baseman on the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series opener against the Orioles.

Rizzo was injured in last night’s loss to the Red Sox. The veteran hit a slow grounder to Boston first baseman Dominic Smith. Smith flipped to pitcher Brennan Bernardino, who was covering the bag, but Rizzo collided with Bernardino when Smith’s throw was behind him. Rizzo landed awkwardly on his right hand and had to come out of the game.

Oswaldo Cabrera came off the bench to play third base with DJ LeMahieu kicking across the diamond. That’ll likely be the corner infield tandem for the next couple weeks. It’s not a great pairing for a team trying to hold off the Orioles in what should be an extremely competitive division race.

LeMahieu lost a good chunk of the season himself. He fractured his right foot in Spring Training and wasn’t able to make his season debut until May 28. The two-time batting champ hasn’t gotten into a groove. He’s hitting .188 with no extra-base hits through his first 15 games. While LeMahieu certainly won’t continue to perform that poorly, he has only been a slightly above-average hitter over the last three seasons. Between 2021-23, he hit .258/.345/.375 in nearly 1800 trips to the plate.

That’s not the level of power production typically associated with the first base position. Of course, Rizzo hadn’t provided much of an offensive impact this year either. His .223/.289/.341 batting line over 291 plate appearances would easily be his worst pace since his abbreviated rookie season more than a decade ago. LeMahieu should be able to top that production, though the Yankees will now need to turn back to Cabrera for a significant role.

The switch-hitting Cabrera had a great first couple weeks before falling into a major slump. He’s hitting .237/.275/.350 in 56 games overall. LeMahieu’s return had pushed him to a utility role, but he’ll step back into the starting lineup for the time being. The Yanks don’t have much in the way of experienced first base depth in the minors, but former 12th-round pick T.J. Rumfield is hitting .303/.358/.454 in 47 Triple-A contests. Jon Heyman of the New York Post notes (on X) that catcher/first baseman Ben Rice — owner of a .275/.393/.532 slash in 60 games between the top two minor league levels — may soon hit his way to the majors.

Infield help could be a summer priority for GM Brian Cashman and his front office. Rizzo’s reported timeline leaves open the possibility of a return before the July 30 deadline, but he won’t have much time to demonstrate he has turned a corner offensively. The combination of LeMahieu, Cabrera and the currently injured Jon Berti haven’t provided much at third base, while Gleyber Torres is amidst a rough year at the keystone. There aren’t a ton of obvious trade candidates on the infield, particularly if the Rockies hold Ryan McMahon. More opportunities could open up if teams drop out of the playoff picture over the next month and a half.

Yankees To Reinstate Gerrit Cole On Wednesday

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The Yankees are getting their ace back. Right-hander Gerrit Cole is going to be reinstated from the injured list on Wednesday, per manager Aaron Boone, relayed by Talkin’ Yanks on X.

The Yanks and their fans got a big scare back in the spring when Cole was shut down with his throwing elbow having difficulty recovering between starts and throwing sessions. That naturally led to concerns that he would require some sort of surgery and miss the entire season on the heels of winning the American League Cy Young in 2023.

Thankfully, those worst-case scenarios have not come to pass. Cole was recommended for non-surgical rehab and has been slowly working his way through that process over the past few months. He was able to begin a rehab assignment at the start of this month, making three starts in the minor leagues over the past few weeks. His most recent outing was in Triple-A on Friday, during which he tossed 70 pitches over 4 1/3 shutout innings with ten strikeouts.

Despite not having Cole all year, the Yanks have been dominating. Their rotation has a 2.90 earned run average, the best in the majors. In Cole’s absence, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil have all engineered fantastic bounceback seasons after they each were injured and/or struggling in 2023. Cortes had the highest ERA of those four at 3.59. Clarke Schmidt was also a big part of the rotation success until recently. He has a 2.52 ERA on the year but has been on the IL for about three weeks with a lat strain. Cody Poteet has stepped up to make four good starts in Schmidt’s absence but is now likely to get optioned or sent to the bullpen with Cole’s return.

Cole is one of the best pitchers in the league and, as mentioned, won the Cy last year. He took the ball 33 times in 2023 and tossed 209 innings with a 2.63 ERA, 27% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. Even if he has a bit of post-injury rust and can’t quite get back to that elite peak, he will still strengthen and lengthen a team that has the best record in the league.

The Yankees are 50-24 and have the best winning percentage in the majors, though they are in a tough divisional battle. The Orioles are tied with the Phillies for the second-best record in baseball behind the Yanks, meaning there’s a small gap of 1.5 games between the top two teams in the American League East.

Getting Cole back could also impact how the Yankees assemble their rotation going forward. Gil pitched less than 30 innings over 2022 and 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and may need to face workload limitations at some point, perhaps when Schmidt is back in the picture.

The other long-term factor is Cole’s contract. He will have four years and $144MM left on his deal at the end of this season when he can decide to trigger an opt-out. If he does so, the club can void that opt-out by triggering a $36MM club option for 2029. Before this injury, the industry expectation was that he would trigger his opt-out and the Yanks would void it by triggering the option, though those decision are now at least somewhat up in the air due to his absence. His performance in the coming months will gradually shed more light on the likely outcome of that scenario.

Dodgers Place Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Michael Grove On 15-Day Injured List

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5:49PM: Further tests revealed Yamamoto has a strained rotator cuff, manager Dave Roberts told DiGiovanna and other reporters today.  No timeline was given, as Roberts indicated that the injury is “not season ending, but it’s going to be some time.”

2:15PM: The Dodgers announced this afternoon that they’ve placed right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the 15-day injured list with triceps tightness. The club also placed right-hander Michael Grove on the 15-day injured list due to lat tightness. In corresponding moves, the club has recalled right-hander J.P. Feyereisen and selected the contract of right-hander Michael Petersen. To make room for Petersen on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred right-hander Joe Kelly to the 60-day injured list.

That Yamamoto is headed for the injured list is hardly a surprise, as manager David Roberts indicated last night that a trip to the IL was likely for the righty after he exited his start last night after just two innings. Yamamoto’s departure from the rotation won’t require the Dodgers to turn to a spot starter, as right-hander Bobby Miller was already slated to return from the injured list and retake a spot in the starting rotation on Wednesday. That will allow him to seamlessly slide into the starting five alongside Tyler Glasnow, James Paxton, Walker Buehler, and Gavin Stone while Yamamoto is on the shelf.

What remains unclear, however, is just how long Yamamoto will be out. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times indicated earlier this afternoon that the Dodgers plan to send Yamamoto for further testing beyond what had already been scheduled for him in the aftermath of his start last night, and it’s possible the specifics of the right-hander’s injury as well as his timetable for return will remain uncertain until the results come back from those tests. Of course, an absence of any length for Yamamoto is a frustrating turn of events for the Dodgers. The club’s $325MM man has been more or less exactly as advertised this year, with a 2.41 ERA and a 28.5% strikeout rate across his past 12 starts.

As for Grove, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register reports that his injury is expected to be a relatively short-term one. The right-hander has served in multi-inning relief for the Dodgers throughout the year to this point and has struggled in terms of results with a 5.06 ERA in 37 1/3 innings of work, although it’s worth noting that the righty sports a strong 28.7% strikeout rate and a 3.14 FIP that suggests some of his struggles could be due to a deflated 62.5% strand rate. Interestngly, Grove struggled badly at the very start of the year with an 11.74 ERA across his first four outings, and has again begun to struggle lately with a 9.00 ERA in his last three appearances. In 21 appearances between April 10 and June 7, however, the right-hander was dominant with a 2.45 ERA, and incredible 37.1% strikeout rate, and a 2.75 FIP in 25 2/3 innings of work. If a trip to the IL allows Grove to rediscover that form going forward, it would surely provide the Dodgers bullpen with a massive boost headed as the calendar flips to July.

Joining the roster in the duo’s place are Feyreisen and Petersen. Feyreisen rejoins the club after missing the entire 2023 season due to injury and struggling somewhat in his first games back this year, with a 6.00 ERA and 4.81 FIP in nine appearances. Those struggles have continued at the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a 7.47 ERA in 15 2/3 frames thanks in part to a deflated 16.7% strikeout rate and four home runs allowed in that time. There is some room for optimism regarding the 31-year-old, however; the righty looked excellent in his seven appearances with the Dodgers at the big league level during the month of May prior to his demotion, where he struck out 26.9% of batters faced in 7 1/3 scoreless frames. If Feyreisen can return to the form he showed in the majors last month, he could be an asset for the club alongside fellow middle relief arms Yohan Ramirez and Anthony Banda.

As for Petersen, the 30-year-old is in his first year as a member of the Dodgers organization and will make his MLB debut when he first gets into a game. The right-hander was selected in the late rounds of the 2012, ’13, and ’14 drafts before finally signing with the Brewers after being selected in the 17th round of the 2015 draft. He spent five years in the lower levels of the minors with Milwaukee before joining the Rockies prior to the 2020 campaign, although he didn’t pitch during the 2021 campaign and made just one appearance in 2022.

Petersen had his first full season since 2019 last year and pitched quite well between the Double- and Triple-A levels, with a combined 3.46 ERA in 41 2/3 innings of work with a 26.3% strikeout rate. That performance was enough to get Petersen a minor league deal with the Dodgers this past winter, and he continued to show solid results at the highest level of the minors during his time with the club at the Triple-A level. This year’s results were even better than the last, as he posted a sterling 1.61 ERA while striking out a whopping 36.9% of batters faced. Those exciting results were enough to get Petersen his first look at the big league level, where he’ll join Feyreisen in the middle of the L.A. bullpen.

As for Kelly, the move to the 60-day IL appears to be more or less procedural for the right-hander. He’s been on the injured list with a shoulder strain since the beginning of May and has not yet begun a rehab assignment, suggesting that the 36-year-old was already likely to spend at least the next couple of weeks on the shelf. He’ll now be eligible to be activated for the first time on July 5.

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