Harris: Tigers Were Never Close To Trading Skubal
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.”
Mike Trout Done For The Year Due To Meniscus Tear
Angels outfielder Mike Trout has suffered another meniscus tear and is out for the year. General manager Perry Minasian informed reports today, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, who relayed the news on X.
Trout underwent surgery at the start of May to address a torn meniscus in his left knee. He was able to begin a rehab assignment by playing for the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees on July 23 but departed that game with left knee soreness. The Angels then announced that he would return to Southern California to be re-evaluated and it now appears that a torn left meniscus has been discovered yet again and he won’t be able to return in 2024.
“Since my initial surgery on May 3rd to repair my meniscus, my rehabilitation proved longer and more difficult than anticipated,” Trout said in a statement released on X. “After months of hard work, I was devastated yesterday when an MRI showed a tear in my meniscus that will require surgery again – ending my hopes of returning this season. Playing and competing is a huge part of my life. This is equally as heartbreaking and frustrating for me as it is for you, the fans. I understand that I may have disappointed many, but believe me, I will do everything I can to come back even stronger. I will continue to help my team and teammates from the dugout as we press forward into the second half of the season. Thank you for your support.”
It’s yet another brutal blow in a career that was once defined by such brilliance but has more recently been defined by injuries. From 2012 to 2020, Trout was the consensus best player in baseball. In that stretch, he hit 297 home runs and drew walks in 15.4% of his plate appearances. He slashed .306/.421/.587 for a wRC+ of 173 while stealing 197 bases and providing quality defense in center field. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 73 wins above replacement in that time frame, with Max Scherzer coming in a distant second with 50.4 fWAR. Buster Posey was second among position players with 47.1 fWAR.
But Trout has been significantly hampered by various ailments since that time. In 2021, a right calf strain limited him to just 36 games. In 2022, he got that up to 119 games but still missed a bit of time due to back problems. Last year, a left hamate fracture capped him at 82 games.
When he’s been able to take the field, he has still been able to produce at an elite level, and that was still true here in 2024. He began the season with 10 home runs and six steals in just 29 games. Despite a tiny .194 batting average on balls in play, he produced a line of .220/.325/.541 for a wRC+ of 137. But due to these ongoing knee problems, he won’t be able to add anything to those stats with the remainder of the schedule.
The news won’t have a huge impact on the Halos here in 2024. At 47-61, they are well back of the playoff race at this point. They recently made some sell-side moves ahead of the deadline, trading impending free agents Carlos Estévez and Luis García.
Fans of the club and baseball in general will be hoping that Trout comes back healthy and effective next year. Though many of his injuries have appeared to be fluky in nature, his continued absences naturally create some worry about the long-term picture for the club. Even when they had peak Trout on the same roster as Shohei Ohtani, they never managed to get into the playoffs or even finish a season with a winning record. Ohtani is now a Dodger while Trout is going to turn 33 years old next month and hasn’t played 120 games in a season since 2019.
The extension he signed in 2019 runs through 2030 and pays him $35.45MM annually at this point. Fans of other clubs often dream of getting Trout out of Anaheim via trade but his run of injuries will make other teams loath to take on all that money for his mid- and late-30s. He also has a full no-trade clause and has expressed a desire to stay and win with the Angels.
Blue Jays Claim Nick Raposo From Cardinals
The Blue Jays announced that they have claimed catcher Nick Raposo off waivers from the Cardinals and optioned him to Triple-A Buffalo. The backstop was designated for assignment earlier this week when the Cards completed their three-team trade with the Dodgers and White Sox. The Jays had multiple open roster spots from their own deadline dealings and their 40-man roster count is now at 37.
Raposo, 26, was selected to the Cardinal roster in June when both Iván Herrera and Willson Contreras were on the injured list, leaving Pedro Pagés atop the club’s depth chart. But Contreras was reinstated from the IL a couple of days later and Raposo was optioned before getting into a major league game.
The backstop went unselected in the shortened five-round draft in 2020 and then signed with the Cards as an undrafted free agent. He was plugged onto their Double-A team and hit well at that level, but then struggled after getting bumped to Triple-A. He currently holds a batting line of .268/.348/.424 at Double-A but a line of .206/.276/.355 at Triple-A.
Raposo has never been a highly-touted prospect but the Jays could use the catching depth. They traded Danny Jansen to the Red Sox prior to the deadline and are now left with Alejandro Kirk and Brian Serven as the only catchers on their 40-man roster. Raposo gives them another option at Triple-A to be called upon when necessary. He has a full slate of options and almost no service time, so he could be part of their catching depth for a long time if he continues to hang onto a roster spot.
Tigers Select Brenan Hanifee, Sean Guenther
The Tigers announced they have selected the contracts of right-hander Brenan Hanifee and left-hander Sean Guenther. They also reinstated shortstop Javier Báez from the medical emergency/bereavement list. They will take the open roster spots of Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha and Andrew Chafin, who were all traded away on deadline day. Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group relayed the news about Hanifee on X prior to the official announcement. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News relayed Guenther’s selected earlier on X.
Hanifee, 26, got a brief look in the majors last year. The Tigers selected his contract in September and he tossed five innings over three appearances, allowing three earned runs. He was non-tendered at the end of the season but then re-signed with the club on a minor league deal.
This year, he has tossed 47 innings over 34 Triple-A appearances. He has allowed 5.17 earned runs per nine innings but he has likely deserved much better. His 26% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball this year are all strong marks. If it weren’t for a .315 batting average on balls in play and 61.6% strand rate, which are both on the unlucky side, fewer runs would have crossed the plate. His 3.86 FIP is more than a run better than his ERA and perhaps a better reflection of his performance this year.
With the trades of Flaherty and Chafin, as well as recent injuries to Reese Olson, Casey Mize and Matt Manning, the Tigers could have some rope for Hanifee, especially since he’s been averaging more than an inning per appearance in Triple-A this year. He still has a full slate of options and just a few days of service time, so he could stick around on their roster for a while if the Tigers so choose.
Guenther, 28, made 14 appearances for the Marlins in 2021 with a 9.30 ERA. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April of 2022 and spent that entire season on the injured list before being claimed off waivers by the Tigers in November. He was outrighted off the roster shortly thereafter and has been with the Tigers in a non-roster capacity for almost two years now.
He has thrown 95 minor league innings in that time with a 3.69 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate. He had a 47.1% ground ball rate at Triple-A last year and has a 55.5% rate at that level this year. Like Hanifee, he has a full slate of options but his service time clock is over the one-year mark, due to spending all of 2022 on the IL.
Orioles Designate Cristian Pache For Assignment, Option Heston Kjerstad
The Orioles announced a batch of roster moves today, activating three trade acquisitions. Outfielders Eloy Jiménez and Austin Slater as well as left-hander Trevor Rogers have now been added to the roster and the club also recalled infielder Liván Soto. One spot was opened by placing infielder Jordan Westburg on the 10-day injured list with a right hand fracture, a development that was reported yesterday. To open three more spots, they optioned left-hander Keegan Akin and outfielder Heston Kjerstad and designated outfielder Cristian Pache for assignment. Vinny Nittoli, who was designated for assignment last week, elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment.
The Orioles engineered a surprising outfield shuffle in the week leading up to the deadline. It started with a notable subtraction, as Austin Hays was sent to the Phillies, bringing back reliever Seranthony Domínguez as well as Pache. The Baltimore roster is loaded with position player talent and the outfield still looked strong without Hays, consisting of Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser, Anthony Santander and Kjerstad. Since Pache is more of a glove-first guy, he was likely ticketed for a bench role.
But in the final moments of the deadline, the O’s also acquired Jiménez from the White Sox and Slater from the Reds. Since Slater is generally considered to be a solid defender and hits lefties very well, perhaps they figured he was an upgrade on Pache for a bench outfielder role.
That would be an understandable position to take, as Pache has struggled to make an impact from the batter’s box. He was once considered one of the top 10 prospects in all of baseball during his time in Atlanta’s system since it was believed he had the ability to be an all-around contributor. While the speed and defense have been as advertised, his hitting has been abysmal. He has hit .181/.244/.274 in his first 546 major league plate appearances. He exhausted his final option season in 2022, a year in which he hit .248/.298/.389 for a 68 wRC+ at the Triple-A level.
But he has continued to find work due to his glove. In just over 1,300 innings in the outfield, he has racked up 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 16 Outs Above Average. Oakland acquired him from Atlanta as part of the Matt Olson trade but was flipped to the Phillies at the start of last year, with the Phils mostly keeping him on the bench since he is out of options and can’t be sent down to the minors without being exposed to waivers. The O’s seemed to have some interest in a similar role for him but perhaps decided to move on when Slater became available.
With the deadline now passed, the O’s won’t have the ability to trade Pache elsewhere. He will be freely available to all 29 clubs at some point in the coming days as Baltimore will have no choice but to put him on waivers. Perhaps another team will take a flier on him based on his past prospect pedigree and the solid floor provided by his glovework. Many clubs have roster openings in the wake of the deadline and could perhaps find room for him. As mentioned, he is out of options but is still in the pre-arbitration phase of his career. If he lands a roster spot somewhere, he can be retained via arbitration for three seasons after this one.
Kjerstad getting sent down is somewhat surprising in that he’s been performing well, but it’s also not surprising since it’s not the first time. This is actually going to be his third optional assignment of the year, as he was sent down just prior to Opening Day, recalled in late April and optioned again in the middle of May before being recalled again in late June. In 81 major league plate appearances, he has struck out 29.6% of the time but also drawn walks at an 11.1% rate and hit .261/.370/.420 for a wRC+ of 125.
Despite that strong performance, the club’s stockpile of talented position players has bumped him down to Norfolk yet again. It’s perhaps a bit perplexing to see him nudged out for guys like Jiménez and Slater, but the deadline was essentially the last chance to meaningfully add talent. The O’s took that chance even though it meant bumping a guy like Kjerstad into a depth role for the time being, and those new additions are likely looking at part-time roles anyway.
Slater has a .274/.364/.433 batting line and 122 wRC+ against lefties compared to a .226/.316/.334 line and 84 wRC+ against righties. Jiménez is having a rough season overall but is hitting .304/.360/.370 against southpaws this year for a wRC+ of 109. The two of them will likely be in short-side platoon roles, Jiménez helping to shield Ryan O’Hearn from lefties while Slater protects Mullins. O’Hearn has hit .259/.286/.296 for a 67 wRC+ this year with the platoon disadvantage while Mullins is at .141/.164/.211 for a wRC+ of 3.
Rather than have Kjerstad collecting dust on the bench, the O’s will have him get some regular work for the Tides again, at least until an injury changes the calculus down the line. Even if he doesn’t carve out a role with the big league club this year, he should have a better path in 2025 as Santander is slated for free agency. Jiménez has a $16.5MM club option but the O’s will probably go for the $3MM club option instead.
Giants To Select Jerar Encarnacion
The Giants are planning to add outfielder/first baseman Jerar Encarnacion to the active roster prior to tomorrow’s series opener against the Reds, reports Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. Encarnacion is currently traveling with the team to Cincinnati, he adds. The Giants will need to formally select Encarnacion’s contract to the 40-man roster, but with multiple vacancies at the moment, they’ll only need a corresponding 26-man move to activate him.
It’s been an unusual rise to the majors for the 26-year-old Encarnacion. He briefly made his big league debut with the 2022 Marlins after spending four years ranked near the back half of their organizational top 30 prospects but hit just .182/.210/.338 in 83 plate appearances. Miami passed him through waivers unclaimed last summer, and Encarnacion became a minor league free agent at season’s end. He found minimal interest from MLB clubs and wound up signing with los Guerreros de Oaxaca in the Mexican League.
Encarnacion decimated Mexican League pitching, hitting .366/.439/.989 with an outrageous 19 home runs in just 107 trips to the plate. Even in an extreme hitter-friendly setting, that output caught the attention of big league clubs. The Giants scooped him up on a minor league deal and sent him to Triple-A Sacramento, where he’s turned in a .352/.438/.616 slash with 10 homers in 146 plate appearances. As with the Mexican League, the Triple-A Pacific Coast League is immensely hitter-friendly, but Encarnacion’s production still sits 59% better than league-average there, by measure of wRC+.
Although he’s primarily been a corner outfielder in his career, the hulking 6’4″, 250-pound Encarnacion does have more than 600 innings of experience at first base. That includes five games in the past week for the Giants. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that the Giants have been getting him some fresh reps there in advance of an expected call to the majors.
Encarnacion will add a right-handed bat with clear plus power to the Giants’ first base and corner outfield mix. San Francisco presently has Wilmer Flores on the injured list (and struggling to produce even when healthy), while fellow righty-swinging corner bat David Villar is hitting .257/.270/.457 with a 35% strikeout rate. That’s a sample of only 37 plate appearances, but Villar also hit just .142/.236/.315 in 140 MLB plate appearances last season.
Encarnacion himself has had considerable strikeout issues in the past, so he’s hardly a sure thing to hit in the majors this time around. He fanned in a staggering 38.8% of his Triple-A plate appearances with the Marlins just last season, though he also walked enough (15.1%) and hit for enough power (26 homers, .224 ISO) to salvage a .228/.347/.452 batting line in Jacksonville. He’s cut his strikeout rate to 24% with the River Cats this season and is still drawing walks in 12.3% of his trips to the plate. Those encouraging trends, coupled with the gargantuan production he’s displayed in Mexico and Sacramento, make Encarnacion a more interesting post-deadline call-up than a garden variety change-of-scenery prospect.
Orioles Sign First-Rounder Vance Honeycutt
The Orioles announced Thursday morning that they’ve signed first-round pick Vance Honeycutt. The UNC outfielder, selected with the No. 22 overall pick, was the last remaining unsigned first-round pick after ECU righty Trey Yesavage — the No. 20 overall selection — agreed to terms with the Blue Jays less than an hour ago. Honeycutt will take home a $4MM bonus, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com, which sits a bit north of his $3.802MM slot value.
Honeycutt, 21, played three seasons for the Tar Heels and batted a combined .293/.412/.638 during his NCAA career — including a massive .318/.410/.714 batting line and 28 home runs during his junior season. Those 28 round-trippers tied him with No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana for seventh in all of Division-I baseball.
The 6’3″, 205-pound Honeycutt has clear raw power, and in spite of his gaudy batting line it’s his defensive acumen for which he draws the most praise. He’s a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year who scouts believe can stick in center field while showing plus range and a plus arm. Eye-catching as his 28 homers and hefty slash stats were throughout his career, Honeycutt has regularly punched out at a high rate, including during his junior season when he went down on strikes in 27.5% of his plate appearances. He still drew walks at a strong 11.9% clip, but the frequent punchouts have created a relatively wide range of opinions.
Baseball America, for instance, ranked him as the draft’s No. 13 prospect. Other outlets weren’t all so bullish. MLB.com listed him 22nd. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him 25th. Keith Law of The Athletic tabbed him as the No. 41 prospect, and FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked him 42nd. That still makes him one of the consensus top position players in the draft and a clear Day 1 talent, but Honeycutt’s shaky contact skills create a broad range of offensive outcomes, even as his power, speed and defensive aptitude give him a reasonable floor. Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo perhaps put it best in their scouting writeup for MLB.com: “How much Honeycutt hits will determine if he becomes Drew Stubbs or better than that.”
Blue Jays, First-Rounder Trey Yesavage Agree To Deal
The Blue Jays are in agreement with first-round pick Trey Yesavage on a $4.1775MM bonus, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. The East Carolina righty was one of just two unsigned first-rounders left on the board with the deadline to sign 2024 draftees looming at 5pm ET today. His bonus checks in slightly north of the No. 20 selection’s $4.07MM slot value.
Yesavage, who turned 21 earlier this week, went from a reliever with 4.50 ERA and pronounced command troubles as a freshman at ECU to obliterating opposing lineups in his sophomore and junior seasons. He pitched 93 innings this past season, logging a minuscule 2.03 ERA with a 40.4% strikeout rate against an 8.9% walk rate. Listed at 6’4″ and 225 pounds, he sports a prototypical starter’s frame and was considered one of the top pitching prospects in this year’s draft class.
Each of MLB.com (No. 11), Baseball America (No. 11), The Athletic (No. 13), ESPN (No. 14) and FanGraphs (No. 19) ranked Yesavage among the top 20 talents in this summer’s draft. He draws praise for a fastball that sits comfortably in the 93-95mph range and tops out at 98mph when he needs it. Yesavage’s secondary offerings are headlined by a splitter and a slider, the former giving him a clear weapon against lefties and the latter giving him a second breaking pitch to show righties.
Yesavage underwent a frightening medical scare late in the season when he was hospitalized with a partially collapsed lung. (ECU coach Cliff Godwin posted a video detailing the situation at the time.) The Athletic’s Melissa Lockard spoke with Yesavage after the draft and wrote that the lung issue was “most likely caused by an accident during a dry needling session.” right-hander remarkably was cleared to return to the mound just a couple weeks later and made his final start of the season opposite eventual No. 2 overall pick Chase Burns and Wake Forest.
The Opener: Diamond Sports, Draft Signing Deadline, Santos, Rengifo
As the calendar flips to August, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Diamond Sports Group/Comcast deal goes into effect:
As noted by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez earlier this week, Diamond Sports Group reached a carriage deal with Comcast that is set to go into effect today. The deal applies to each of Diamond’s regional sports networks, meaning that Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Twins games will be available on the Xfinity Ultimate TV package starting today. Comcast stopped carrying Diamond networks back in May amid negotiations between the sides. Going forward, Diamond networks will be carried as part of a more expensive subscription tier. Per Gonzalez, existing Xfinity customers who upgrade their package by August 30 will receive the upgrade free of charge for three months, meaning baseball fans can watch their team’s games for no extra charge though the end of the season.
2. Deadline to sign 2024 draftees:
The deadline to sign players selected in this year’s draft looms today at 5pm ET. The overwhelming majority of 2024 draftees have already signed with their new clubs, but there’s still a handful of names who’ve yet to put pen to paper. A pair of first-rounders remain unsigned at this moment: East Carolina righty Trey Yesavage, whom the Blue Jays selected at No. 20 overall, and North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt, whom the Orioles selected two picks later.
Jim Callis of MLB.com runs through the remaining players from the top 10 rounds who’ve not yet signed, noting that prep lefty Tyler Bell (taken by the Rays 66th overall), prep shortstop Chris Levonas (No. 67 to the Brewers), Texas A&M lefty Ryan Prager (No. 81, Angels) and Houston righty Jaxon Jelkin (No. 263, Mets) have all yet to sign and are not expected to do so. Callis’ piece also looks at the tough signs in rounds 11-20 who could be pursued late deals with the money that likely will not be spent on those picks in the top 10 rounds.
3. Gregory Santos to undergo MRI:
Just six appearances into his Mariners career, right-hander Gregory Santos exited yesterday’s game against the Red Sox due to injury. Manager Scott Servais told reporters (including Daniel Kramer of MLB.com) following the game that Santos was dealing with a biceps injury and will undergo an MRI today following the club’s return to Seattle. Acquired from the White Sox in a trade this offseason, Santos’ debut with his new club was delayed until last month due to a lat strain. He finally returned to the mound in early July but hasn’t looked quite like himself, posting a 6.75 ERA in 5 1/3 innings of work while striking out just 20.8% of batters faced. Now, it appears he may be at risk of returning to the IL. The acquisition of Yimi Garcia had already pushed Santos out of the role of primary set-up man for closer Andres Munoz, but his absence could afford arms like Collin Snider and Tayler Saucedo additional late-inning opportunities.
4. Luis Rengifo dealing with “flare-up” in wrist:
Angels infielder Luis Rengifo spent three weeks last month on the IL due to inflammation in his right wrist, and Anaheim manager Ron Washington told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) yesterday that the injury hasn’t entirely gone away as Rengifo suffered a “flare-up” of the same injury. The club plans to re-evaluate Rengifo today before deciding on next steps, but an absence would be the latest in a long and frustrating line of injury news for the Halos. Rengifo has only been back in action for eight games. Since then, Mike Trout‘s short-lived rehab assignment has been halted amid a setback in his return from meniscus surgery, and Anthony Rendon returned to the injured list due to back inflammation. If Rengifo also misses additional time, the Angels will likely use Luis Guillorme and Michael Stefanic at the hot corner alongside Brandon Drury at second base, and Zach Neto at shortstop.
Jordan Westburg Suffers Fractured Hand
Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg suffered a fractured right hand when he was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning today, O’s skipper Brandon Hyde announced following the game (X link via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun). There’s no immediate timetable for his return. Hyde said he hopes Westburg will be able to return before the end of the regular season, but that’s not a certainty for now.
The loss of Westburg, 25, is a gut-punch for the Orioles. The former No. 30 overall pick (2020) has produced a .269/.317/.497 batting line this season with 18 homers, 25 doubles, five triples, six steals and quality glovework as Baltimore’s primary third baseman. Westburg has hit from the moment the season began and hasn’t at any point gone into a lengthy slump. He’ll head to the 10-day injured list tomorrow, though the O’s could move him to the 60-day IL if they need a roster spot and if they expect the injury to sideline him for the remainder of the regular season.
Fortunately for the O’s, they’re exceptionally deep in infield talent — even after yesterday’s trade of Connor Norby to the Marlins (in return for lefty Trevor Rogers). Baltimore called top prospect Jackson Holliday back to the majors today — he hit a grand slam for his first big league homer — and fellow top prospect Coby Mayo and his powerful bat are looming in Triple-A Norfolk. Holliday could see time at either third base or second base, though the latter feels more likely. If the O’s don’t want to turn to Mayo just yet, utilityman Ramon Urias at least provides surehanded defense at the hot corner and a roughly league-average bat to slot into the bottom of the order.
That said, all eyes figure to turn to Mayo until the O’s decide on their course of action. The 22-year-old slugger was selected just 73 picks after Westburg back in 2020 and has clobbered Triple-A pitching so far in 2024. Mayo touts a .293/.366/.578 batting line with 20 homers and doubles alike, in addition to a pair of triples. His walk rate has dipped from 15.7% in 267 Triple-A plate appearances last year to 9.7% in 331 plate appearances this season, but that’s still a strong mark, particularly when coupled with what many scouting reports feel is 70-grade raw power.
Alternatives down in Norfolk include the just-optioned Terrin Vavra and just-acquired Livan Soto, both of whom have experience at third base. Neither would be expected to come anywhere close to Westburg’s production, but both could hold down a utility role if the Orioles want Mayo to continue developing. If it is indeed time for Mayo to make his big league debut, Baltimore will need to make a move to get him on the 40-man roster.