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Rays Place Zach Eflin On Injured List

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The Rays announced a few transactions before this evening’s game against the Red Sox. Zach Eflin landed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to yesterday, with lower back inflammation. Brandon Lowe is back from the 10-day IL to take the vacated roster spot. Tampa Bay also optioned reliever Manuel Rodríguez to Triple-A Durham to open a bullpen spot for Richard Lovelady, who has joined the team after being acquired from the Cubs on Saturday.

Eflin has turned in solid results in 10 turns through the rotation. The right-hander is averaging just under six innings per start and has worked to a 4.12 earned run average. While his 17.9% strikeout rate is on track to be his lowest since 2017, he has compensated by essentially never handing out free passes. Eflin has only walked four batters all season, a 1.6% rate that is the lowest among all pitchers with 50+ innings.

The 30-year-old has been one of Tampa Bay’s more valuable pitchers this year, although his performance is a step down from last year’s work. Eflin had a brilliant first season in St. Petersburg, turning in 177 2/3 innings of 3.50 ERA ball to earn a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young balloting. He did lose a couple weeks early in the ’23 campaign to lower back tightness, though.

Eflin told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (X link) that this year’s back issue feels similar to last season’s minor injury. Eflin suggested he could be back in around two weeks, while manager Kevin Cash indicated it was likely to be a 2-4 week absence. Tampa Bay has off days on Thursday and next Monday, so they could function with a four-man starting staff of Aaron Civale, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell and Tyler Alexander into next week.

Lowe returns after a nearly six-week absence due to an oblique strain. The second baseman is in the cleanup spot against Tanner Houck tonight. Since Lowe landed on the IL, the Rays have rotated Curtis Mead, Amed Rosario and Richie Palacios through the keystone. Mead struggled enough that he has since been optioned to Triple-A. Palacios and Rosario have each hit well in their first seasons in Tampa Bay. They’re each capable of playing multiple positions and should still see fairly regular playing time around the diamond.

In other injury news, the Rays sent Jeffrey Springs to the Florida Complex League on a rehab assignment. The left-hander threw one inning this afternoon in his first game action since he underwent Tommy John surgery last April. Pitchers are typically allotted 30 days on a rehab stint, but returnees from Tommy John are usually allowed more than a month to build back into game shape. Springs could be ready for MLB action by the second half of June.

Mariners’ Sam Haggerty Suffers Torn Achilles

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Mariners utilityman Sam Haggerty suffered a torn Achilles tendon while trying to run down a deep fly-ball with the team’s Triple-A affiliate over the weekend, general manager Justin Hollander announced to reporters Monday (X link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). The injury will cost him the remainder of the 2024 season.

Haggerty opened the season on the injured list, was optioned to Triple-A in mid-April, recalled in late April, and then optioned back to Tacoma just last week after a cold spell at the plate. Playing center field for Tacoma, he was tracking a hard-hit fly ball that dropped just beyond his reach. Haggerty, running hard toward the gap, climbed/ran up the outfield wall to slow himself down and crumbled to the warning track upon landing (video link via MiLB Mariners on X). He was in clear agony while being checked on by teammates and the training staff.

The 29-year-old Haggerty has played in just eight big league games this season and went 1-for-15 in that time, but he’s been an oft-used bench/utility player for manager Scott Servais when healthy in recent years. A shoulder injury, a groin strain and a concussion have limited his time on the field even before this gruesome Achilles tear, but Haggerty hit .255/.342/.382 in 135 games from 2022-23, appearing at all three outfield spots and every infield position other than shortstop.

In parts of six big league seasons, Haggerty is a .232/.312/.351 hitter with nine homers and 33 steals (in 36 attempts) through 477 plate appearances. His right-handed bat has been overmatched by fellow righties (.209/.278/.272), but he’s pounded left-handed opponents at a .263/.355/.452 pace in his big league career.

That the injury occurred in the minor leagues is particularly unfortunate for Haggerty, as he’ll be placed on the minor league injured list rather than the MLB injured list for the time being. If the Mariners want to free up a 40-man roster spot at any point, they can recall Haggerty to the majors and place him on the 60-day IL, where he’d accrue big league service time. Haggerty entered the year with 3.044 years of service and agreed to a $900K salary to avoid arbitration this offseason. He’s under club control through the 2026 season and would be arb-eligible again this winter. Coming off a season-ending injury after only 16 plate appearances, he’d very likely command that exact same salary again for the 2025 campaign.

Royals Designate Matt Sauer For Assignment

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The Royals have designated right-hander Matt Sauer for assignment and selected the contract of left-handed reliever Sam Long from Triple-A Omaha, per a team announcement. Sauer was selected out of the Yankees organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft. The Royals will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers, and if he goes unclaimed he must be offered back to the Yankees for $50K. If he lands with a new team, his Rule 5 restrictions will roll over to that new club.

A second-round pick by the Yankees back in 2017, the now-25-year-old Sauer made his big league debut when he first took the mound for Kansas City this season. He held opponents to just two runs through his first 9 1/3 MLB innings but did so with an ugly ratio of just four strikeouts to eight walks. The lack of command and a put-away pitch proved problematic in the weeks since. Dating back to April 29, Sauer has been torched for a dozen runs in seven innings.

Overall, Sauer pitched 16 1/3 innings for the Royals and yielded a 7.71 ERA. He fanned only 10.7% of his opponents against an ugly 13.1% walk rate in that time. Were the Royals at or near the bottom of the division, perhaps they’d have been more patient, but at 29-19 on the year and standing in second place, Kansas City clearly felt that they couldn’t continue the experiment if it meant getting such minimal production out of a bullpen spot.

Long, 28, has spent the past three seasons in the majors with the Giants (2021-22) and A’s (2023). He’ s pitched 128 innings for the two Bay Area clubs, logging a 4.92 ERA with an 18.5% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 40.5% grounder rate. The southpaw averages 93.8 mph on his heater and couples that four-seamer with a curveball as his primary breaking pitch. Long used a changeup quite a bit during his Giants days but swapped that out for a slider with Oakland last season.

Though he doesn’t have a great track record in the majors, Long has been nails with the Royals’ Omaha affiliate this season. In 20 2/3 innings, he’s pitched to a tiny 1.31 ERA with an impressive 27.4% strikeout rate against a 6% walk rate. He hasn’t given up run since April 25, rattling off 8 1/3 shutout innings with nine punchouts and just one walk during that hot streak.

Long opened the season on a similarly impressive run of nine straight scoreless frames with a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio. Add in 8 2/3 innings of one-run ball with a 48.4% strikeout rate and 3.2% walk rate in spring training (15-to-1 K/BB), and it’s become increasingly difficult for the Royals to overlook his contributions to date.

Brewers Designate Thyago Vieira For Assignment, Promote Bradley Blalock

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The Brewers announced Monday that right-hander Thyago Vieira has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Bradley Blalock, who’s been called up from Double-A Biloxi for what will be his MLB debut. Milwaukee also optioned outfielder Chris Roller to Triple-A Nashville and reinstated fellow outfielder Joey Wiemer from the injured list.

Vieira, 30, is one of the game’s hardest-throwing pitchers, averaging 98 mph on his heater this season and frequently touching triple digits. However, he’s been scored upon in nine of his 16 appearances this season, resulting in a 5.64 ERA over 22 1/3 innings. While Vieira has fanned a solid 23.6% of his opponents, he’s also walked 12.3% of the batters he’s faced. Even more troublesome has been his penchant for loud contact. Opponents have belted six homers off him already this year — an average of 2.42 round-trippers per nine frames.

One of just five Brazilian-born players in big league history, Vieira had a nice run with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball from 2020-22. He’s been with the Brewers since returning stateside and had brief looks with the Mariners (one inning in 2017) and White Sox (24 2/3 innings from 2018-19) prior to that. Overall, the flamethrowing righty has pitched 51 MLB frames and surrendered a 6.18 ERA with a 21.2% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate. The Brewers will have a week to trade him, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

Blalock, 23, was a 32nd-round pick by the Red Sox in 2019 who was traded from Boston to Milwaukee in last year’s Luis Urias swap. The right-hander has elevated his status considerably since that humble draft selection, never more so than in 2024, when he’s opened the season with seven starts of 2.27 ERA ball at the Double-A level. That marks Blalock’s first action above A-ball. He’s fanned a below-average 20.6% of his opponents this year but posted an excellent 5% walk rate and roughly average 43.1% ground-ball rate.

Entering the 2024 season, Blalock ranked 13th among Milwaukee farmhands at FanGraphs, 17th at MLB.com and 22nd at Baseball America. The righty draws praise for his above-average command, a fastball that sits 92-96 mph and a smattering of average or nearly average secondary offerings (slider, split-change, curveball). FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen likens his upside to that of a Jose Urquidy type of back-end starter who could shift to a long-relief role on a playoff roster.

The Brewers don’t need a starter in the coming days, but Blalock will be on hand to give them some length in the event of a short start from righty Joe Ross today. It’s also possible he could slot into an injury-plagued staff within the next few days. Ross is slated to pitch today, with rookie Robert Gasser on the mound tomorrow and Freddy Peralta to follow Wednesday. Milwaukee is off Thursday and then set to go Bryse Wilson, Colin Rea and Ross again for their upcoming weekend slate in Boston, where Blalock could potentially face the organization that drafted him.

With Brandon Woodruff, Wade Miley, Jakob Junis and DL Hall all on the injured list at the moment, the Brewers have been patching things together in the starting staff. Even if he’s not stepping into the rotation right now, it’s possible Blalock could eventually be called upon to start some games later in the summer.

Astros, Eric Lauer Agree To Minor League Deal

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2:22pm: Lauer will be paid at a prorated $1.5MM base salary if he’s selected to the MLB roster, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. His deal also contains opt-out dates on July 1 and August 1 if he’s not on the big league roster prior to those points.

2:04pm: The Astros and Lauer are in agreement on a minor league contract, per Rome. The CAA client is headed to Triple-A Sugar Land for now, but given the state of the back of Houston’s rotation, he could emerge as an option before long if he looks sharp to begin his time in the organization.

1:40pm: The Astros are showing interest in free agent left-hander Eric Lauer, reports Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. The former Brewers and Padres southpaw opted out of a minor league contract with the Pirates last week. As Rome further points out, Houston GM Dana Brown worked in the Blue Jays’ scouting department when they drafted Lauer out of high school in 2013. Lauer wound up choosing to go to college, which paid off handsomely; the Jays tabbed him in the 17th round of the ’13 draft, but three years later the Padres selected him with the No. 25 overall pick.

The 28-year-old Lauer (29 in June) debuted with the Padres in 2018 and spent the next two seasons on San Diego’s staff before being traded to Milwaukee alongside infielder Luis Urias in exchange for righty Zach Davies and outfielder Trent Grisham.

After three rather nondescript seasons in the majors from 2018-20, Lauer added a slider to his arsenal in early 2021 and looked to be breaking out as a high-end rotation option. He posted a 3.19 ERA and fanned 24% of his opponents in 118 2/3 innings that season (including a 2.41 ERA following the addition of that new breaking pitch). He continued his success into 2022 and wound up combining for 277 1/3 innings of 3.47 ERA ball with a 23.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate across those two seasons.

Shoulder and elbow injuries for Lauer popped up in 2022-23, and his health looked like a particular hindrance last season. Lauer’s average fastball plummeted from 93.3 mph in 2022 to 91.2 mph last season. In 46 2/3 innings, he was rocked for a 6.56 ERA with a diminished 20.4% strikeout rate against an elevated 10.4% walk rate. The Brewers optioned the southpaw to Triple-A in an effort to get him back on track, but Lauer was roughed up for a 5.15 ERA with their Nashville affiliate as well.

Lauer opened the 2024 season with the Pirates’ Triple-A club after signing a minor league deal late in the offseason. He pitched well for the bulk of hiss time there, although his ERA spiked from 3.95 to 5.52 after his final appearance, when he was tagged for six runs in just two innings of work. The left-hander’s 29.1% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate, however, looked far more like the 2021-22 version of Lauer than the 2023 version — an encouraging sign for the Astros or any other interested parties. It’s also worth noting that Lauer has 4.111 years of MLB service, meaning if he lands in Houston and is eventually added to the roster, he’d be controllable through 2025 via arbitration.

Houston could certainly use some rotation depth, so a pursuit of Lauer makes sense. Strong starting pitching has been a hallmark of the Astros in recent years, but the Houston rotation currently ranks 21st in the majors with 239 1/3 innings pitched and 26th with a 4.96 ERA. Astros starters have similarly uninspiring marks in FIP (4.61, ranking 28th), strikeout rate (21%, ranking 21st) and walk rate (11%, the second-highest in MLB).

Those struggles come in spite of a breakout performance from right-hander Ronel Blanco, who threw first no-hitter of the 2024 season earlier this year. The Astros have Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy on the injured list at the moment, and they’ve also seen Justin Verlander, Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez all spend time on the shelf.

Former top prospect Hunter Brown and fellow sophomore righty J.P. France have both had brutal starts to the season, and in-house reinforcements like Spencer Arrighetti and Blair Henley have both been hit hard. At the moment, the ’Stros have a full complement of Verlander, Valdez, Javier and Blanco healthy in the first four spots of the rotation. That’s a boon in and of itself, but the club still has to keep trying to get at least one of Brown, France or Arrighetti on track — or else find a more palatable option from outside the organization. If a deal comes together, Lauer could eventually factor into the group before long, considering each of Brown, France, Arrighetti and Henley has an ERA of at least 7.16 on the season.

Mets Release Joey Wendle

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The Mets have released veteran infielder Joey Wendle, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. He was designated for assignment last week.

The 34-year-old Wendle signed a one-year, $2MM deal with the Mets in free agency. President of baseball operations David Stearns was hoping to bring aboard a low-cost bench piece who could provide quality defense at multiple spots and bounce back with the bat after a rough showing with the Marlins in 2022-23. That didn’t prove to be the case. Wendle, after batting a combined .238/.274/.335 in his two seasons in Miami, gave the Mets a .222/.243/.250 slash (45 wRC+) in sparse playing time. The team only gave him 37 plate appearances over the course of 18 games.

At his best with the Rays, Wendle offered outstanding defensive versatility and a slightly better than league-average bat. From 2018-21, he slashed .274/.330/.414 (105 wRC+) while bouncing between second base, third base, shortstop and the outfield corners. He graded well at all of those positions, though his marks at second base were particularly strong.

Now that he’s once again a free agent, Wendle will be able to sign with any club. He’ll only be owed the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the active roster with a new team. The Mets will remain on the hook for the rest of this year’s $2MM salary, although any money he earns with another club will be subtracted from what the Mets owe him through season’s end. With three straight seasons of below-average offense, Wendle might have to settle for a minor league pact, but his versatility and broader track record should lead to some interest on that sort of contract.

Yankees Designate Colby White For Assignment

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The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Colby White for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to lefty Clayton Andrews, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yankees placed righty Ian Hamilton on the Covid-related injured list in a corresponding move.

White, 25, was claimed off waivers out of the Rays organization back on May 9. He appeared in a pair of games for the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate but only recorded two outs. He faced six hitters, surrendered a pair of hits (including a homer) and a pair of walks with one strikeout. He yielded two earned runs in that very brief tenure in the organization.

The Rays selected White with their sixth-round pick back in 2019 and watched him develop into one of the system’s more promising arms. His 2021 campaign featured 62 1/3 innings of utter dominance across four levels; White posted a 1.44 ERA and struck out a ridiculous 45% of his opponents against a sharp 6.4% walk rate. Tommy John surgery wiped out his entire 2022 season and much of his 2023 campaign, however. He returned with 22 innings of 1.64 ERA ball last season in the minors but also a bloated 19.5% walk rate that pointed to surefire regression. He’s walked 23.1% of his opponents between the Rays and Yankees organization this season.

The 27-year-old Andrews came to the Yankees in a minor February trade with the Brewers. He was designated for assignment earlier this season and cleared outright waivers but remained in the organization. He’ll now be called up for what would be his team debut if he gets into a game.

A former 17th-round pick by Milwaukee, Andrews made his MLB debut with the Brew Crew last year, appearing in four games but yielding 10 runs in just 3 1/3 innings of work. Rough as that first look was, the southpaw also turned in a 2.53 ERA in 57 Triple-A frames, punching out 31.1% of his opponents. Command is an issue, evidenced by last year’s 13% walk rate, but Andrews has shown the ability to miss bats at a high level.

In 15 innings with Scranton so far this season, Andrews has been tagged for 11 runs — a 6.60 ERA. A massive 18.5% walk rate has played a role in those struggles, but he’s still whiffed 27.7% of the batters he’s faced and kept the ball on the ground at a big 54.5% clip.

Hamilton will hopefully only face a short-term absence. The 28-year-old righty has emerged as a key bullpen member for Aaron Boone over the past two seasons. While his 2024 campaign hasn’t been as strong as his 2023 season, he’s still given the Yanks 22 2/3 innings of 3.18 ERA ball. His 18.8% strikeout rate is down more than 10 percentage points from last year’s 29.9% mark, however, and his 8.9% walk rate is ever so slightly higher than the 8.5% league average. Hamilton still boasts a huge 14.4% swinging-strike rate and similarly impressive 35.7% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate, both of which could portend a boost in strikeouts once he’s able to return to the active roster.

Mets Trade Yohan Ramirez To Dodgers

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The Mets traded right-hander Yohan Ramirez to the Dodgers in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. New York designated Ramirez for assignment five days ago. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll go directly into L.A.’s big league bullpen. The Dodgers have not yet announced the corresponding transactions that’ll be necessary to add Ramirez to the roster. They’ll need to open both a 40-man spot and a 26-man spot.

Ramirez, 29, has split the 2024 season between the Mets and Orioles thus far, pitching a combined 14 1/3 innings with 11 runs allowed (6.91 ERA) on 14 hits and six walks. Those struggles notwithstanding, he’s set down 26.2% of his opponents on strikes against a 9.2% walk rate that’s less than a percentage point north of the 8.5% league average. He’s also averaged 95.3 mph on his four-seamer and 94.8 mph on his sinker while inducing grounders at a roughly average clip (42.1%).

The 2024 season is Ramirez’s fifth straight in the big leagues, though his status as an up-and-down arm in Seattle before he began to bounce around the league in journeyman fashion resulted in him only accruing two-plus years of big league service before he exhausted his slate of options. In 138 1/3 innings at the big league level, Ramirez has a 4.29 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 12.2% walk rate and 44.6% grounder rate. The strikeout and ground-ball numbers are both a tick above average, but command has been an obvious issue for the right-hander throughout his time in the majors. This year’s 9.2% walk rate would be a career-low in a full season.

The Dodgers currently have six starters on the roster, including yesterday’s spot starter, Landon Knack. Speculatively speaking, he could be sent back to Triple-A Oklahoma City to open a spot on the active roster, but they’ll still need to open a 40-man spot. Los Angeles has already been without right-hander Bobby Miller for nearly six weeks; he’s throwing bullpen sessions, but if they anticipate his absence stretching beyond June 10, they could transfer him to the 60-day injured list to accommodate Ramirez. If not, they’d likely need to designate someone for assignment.

The relief corps in L.A. is quite banged up at the moment, with each of Brusdar Graterol, Evan Phillips, Joe Kelly and Ryan Brasier on the injured list. They’ve patched things over with multiple acquisitions cut from the same cloth as this Ramirez pickup. Minor league signee Elieser Hernandez was recently selected to the MLB roster, and the Dodgers acquired lefty Anthony Banda for cash just days ago and added him to the big league ’pen as well. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is no stranger to regularly shuffling the deck with the final few spots in his bullpen, so further turnover and short-term, stopgap acquisitions shouldn’t come as a surprise — at least while more established relievers like Phillips and Graterol continue to mend.

Submit Your Question For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast!

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On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

We’re now more than a quarter of the way through the 2024 season, with the trade deadline just over two months away. If you have a question about the ongoing 2024 season, a future transaction, a look ahead to the offseason, or anything else baseball related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com or send them our way on X: @mlbtraderumors.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

White Sox Designate Brad Keller For Assignment

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May 20: The team has now formally announced both moves. Keller’s weeklong DFA window will begin today.

May 19: The White Sox are designating right-hander Brad Keller for assignment, James Fegan of Sox Machine reports (links to X).  Dominic Leone is being activated from the 15-day injured list to take Keller’s spot on the active roster.

After three increasingly rough seasons with the Royals, Keller caught on with Chicago on a minor league deal over the offseason and that contract was selected to the big league roster at the end of April.  Keller’s five games in a Sox uniform have consisted of two starts and three relief appearances, and his most recent outing saw him allow five earned runs to the Yankees over four innings of work in yesterday’s 6-1 Chicago loss.

That boosted Keller’s ERA to 4.86 over 16 2/3 total frames, with an underwhelming 17.7% strikeout rate and an okay 7.9% walk rate.  Keller’s 56.1% grounder rate is impressive but he has also benefited from a .231 BABIP and been hit hard when he hasn’t been able to keep the ball on the ground.  Over his small sample size of work, Keller has allowed five home runs, including four from the Yankees yesterday.

To be fair, Keller had a 2.84 ERA in his 12 2/3 innings before facing New York, and he is hardly the first pitcher to have problems with the dangerous Yankees lineup.  While this move might seem like something of a quick trigger from the White Sox, it could be that the team is looking to open a rotation spot for Jared Shuster, who has looked very sharp in multi-inning relief outings this season.  Since the Sox are obviously looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, they could simply see more value in letting Shuster pitch more meaningful innings now, and parting ways with a veteran like Keller who isn’t in their long-term plans.

It should be noted that Keller’s 2023 season was cut short by thoracic outlet syndrome, and he underwent TOS surgery last October.  While the procedure has led to diminished results for many pitchers in their returns to the mound, Keller’s work to date has been somewhat promising, and his numbers could improve once he gets more fully comfortable in the aftermath of such a notable surgery.

This means that Keller could certainly draw some attention on the waiver wire from any team looking for a quick influx of innings in the rotation or the bullpen.  The White Sox could work out a trade or might let Keller go on waivers entirely without any return.  If he clears waivers, Keller has enough MLB service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

Leone will return after just the minimum 15 days after dealing with some back tightness.  The veteran right-hander has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 14 2/3 innings out of Chicago’s bullpen this season, and has already allowed 11 walks and four home runs.

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