Rockies To Designate Ty Blach For Assignment
The Rockies are selecting reliever John Curtiss onto the MLB roster and designating left-hander Ty Blach for assignment, tweets Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Colorado will recall righty Jake Bird to take the bullpen spot vacated by the Nick Mears trade and bring up Tanner Gordon as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against San Francisco.
Blach, 33, has pitched in parts of seven MLB seasons and spent each of the past three years with the Rockies. He’s split time between the bullpen and the rotation in a swing role ever since the club selected him to the roster back in April but has struggled badly in the role with a 6.36 ERA and a 5.72 FIP in 63 2/3 innings of work. While Blach has walked just 5.4% of batters, he’s struck opponents out at a paltry 11.5% clip and has struggled badly to keep the ball in the park with nearly two homers allowed per nine innings this year. Those numbers are worse than even his prior difficult seasons with Colorado, where he posted a combined 5.66 ERA with a 4.99 FIP in 122 1/3 innings of work between the 2022 and ’23 campaigns.
While the lefty was once a solid swingman for the Giants early in his career, posting a 4.36 ERA and 4.14 FIP in 299 1/3 innings of work from his debut in 2016 to the end of the 2018 season, he’s struggled to keep a role in the big leagues since then with a cumulative 6.81 ERA in 51 appearances from 2019 onwards. Assuming the Rockies don’t work out a trade involving Blach prior to the upcoming deadline on Tuesday, they’ll attempt to pass him through waivers at some point in the next seven days. Should he go unclaimed, they’ll have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A, though he could reject that assignment in favor of free agency should he so choose.
Joining the 40-man roster in Blach’s place is Curtiss, who already appeared in a Rockies uniform for the first time earlier this year. The righty appeared in a game between Colorado and Philadelphia back in May but struggled badly in the appearance, allowing two runs on three hits while recording just one out. Prior to that earlier stint on Colorado’s 40-man roster, Curtiss was a journeyman reliever who had previously pitched for the Twins, Angels, Rays, Marlins, Brewers, and Mets across parts of six seasons in the majors. He’s mostly posted solid results in that time with a 3.81 ERA and 3.98 FIP in 106 1/3 innings of work entering the 2024 season.
Most of that success came in Florida, as he posted an excellent 1.80 ERA in 25 innings with the AL champion Rays during the shortened 2020 season before heading to Miami in 2021 and delivering a 2.48 ERA in 40 frames for the club that year. He’s struggled since leaving the south, however, with eight runs (six earned) allowed during a 4 1/3 inning stint with Milwaukee late in the 2021 campaign and a 4.58 ERA in 15 appearances for the Mets last year before his rough outing with the Rockies back in May. Going forward, Curtiss seems likely to be used in middle relief alongside Bird, Peter Lambert, and Justin Lawrence for the Rockies.
Brewers Acquire Nick Mears From Rockies
The Brewers acquired reliever Nick Mears from the Rockies. Colorado gets right-hander Bradley Blalock and minor league pitcher Yujanyer Herrera in return.
Mears is third among Colorado relievers with 45 1/3 innings. His 5.56 earned run average makes him an odd trade pickup at first glance, but Milwaukee is intrigued by his swing-and-miss ability. Mears has fanned more than 28% of batters faced and gotten whiffs on nearly 12% of his offerings. His fastball averages 96.7 MPH, while opponents have had very little success against his slider. While batters have teed off on his curveball, the fastball-slider combination makes him an interesting upside play.
If not for a .366 average on balls in play against him, Mears’ bottom line numbers would be a lot more impressive. ERA estimators like SIERA (3.37) and FIP (2.59) are a lot more bullish on his performance. While Mears has excellent stuff, his command is questionable. He has walked 10.3% of batters faced this season and an even 13% of opposing hitters in 95 career innings. Throwing strikes consistently is probably his biggest hurdle to assuming a high-leverage role.
Milwaukee placed late-inning southpaw Bryan Hudson on the 15-day injured list this afternoon. He’s dealing with an oblique strain that’ll keep him out for an unknown amount of time. Manager Pat Murphy told reporters that the team would have a clearer picture of Hudson’s timetable after he goes for imaging (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). The team expects him back this season, but that’s a hit to their relief group in the short term.
Mears slots in alongside Joel Payamps, Trevor Megill, Elvis Peguero and Hoby Milner in the relief corps. The Brewers could welcome star closer Devin Williams back in a few weeks — he’s on a rehab stint with Triple-A Nashville — and should have a fairly strong setup corps. The 27-year-old Mears will qualify for arbitration for the first time next winter and comes with three additional seasons of club control.
Colorado initially grabbed Mears off waivers from the Rangers during the 2022-23 offseason. That proved to be a nice pickup for GM Bill Schmidt and his front office. They’ve cashed him in for a pair of pitchers who could factor into the rotation or long relief roles in the future. Blalock, 23, has a decent chance to pitch at Coors Field this year. He’s already on the 40-man roster and made a brief big league debut last month, tossing a scoreless inning against San Diego.
The 6’2″ righty has otherwise worked out of the rotation for Milwaukee’s Double-A team in Biloxi. He carries a 4.08 ERA in 75 innings spanning 16 starts. His 20.2% strikeout rate is below average, but his 8.5% walk percentage is solid. The Brew Crew acquired Blalock from the Red Sox for Luis Urías last summer. He’s in his first of three option years and could be a back-end starter.
Herrera, a 6’3″ right-hander, ranked 28th among Milwaukee prospects at Baseball America. The outlet credits him with a mid-90s fastball and an above-average slider. A subpar changeup could point to a bullpen future. The 20-year-old Venezuela native has started nine of 16 outings between the two A-ball levels this season. He owns a 2.91 ERA with an above-average 27.2% strikeout percentage and an 8.1% walk rate. He’d be eligible for the Rule 5 draft next offseason if not added to the 40-man roster. There’s a good chance the Rox select his contract next offseason.
Colorado prioritized starting pitching in their trades last summer. They could do the same this year if they move players like Cal Quantrill, Jalen Beeks, Austin Gomber, Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the terms of the trade. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
A’s Reluctant To Trade Brent Rooker
Brent Rooker has been one of the best hitters in the league over the past two seasons. He hit 30 home runs in an All-Star campaign a year ago. He has been even better this year despite being left out of the Midsummer Classic, clubbing 25 homers with a .288/.365/.583 slash across 378 plate appearances.
If he’s available, Rooker would be arguably the best offensive player on the market. It’s not clear that another team will be able to pry him from Oakland. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote yesterday that the A’s were leaning towards holding their breakout slugger. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman hears similarly, tweeting this morning that the A’s are informing other teams they’re reluctant to part with Rooker or center fielder JJ Bleday.
As MLBTR explored in more detail in a post for Front Office subscribers this week, whether to trade Rooker is the biggest decision the A’s are facing. There’s a case for moving him. The A’s are at least another season away from postseason contention. This summer’s market looks like it’ll be light on impact bats. Rooker didn’t break through as a regular until after his 28th birthday. He turns 30 in November and is probably amidst the best season of his career.
At the same time, the A’s aren’t facing contractual pressure to make a deal. Rooker is playing for marginally more than the league minimum salary. He’ll qualify for arbitration next offseason and is under team control through 2027. His power-oriented skillset is the kind that pays well over time in arbitration, but his first-year salary will be eminently affordable. The A’s don’t have a single guaranteed contract on their 2025 payroll ledger. Even with ownership imposing huge limitations, they’ll be able to accommodate a salary in the $4-6MM range for Rooker without issue.
Bleday, 26, always seemed like more of a long shot trade candidate. Oakland acquired the lefty-hitting outfielder from the Marlins going into 2023 in a one-for-one swap for A.J. Puk. That deal looked skewed in Miami’s favor during the first season but has been more balanced this year. Bleday, a former sixth overall pick out of Vanderbilt, has stepped up as the A’s primary center fielder. He’s hitting .233/.314/.430 with 12 homers across 422 plate appearances.
The A’s control Bleday for four seasons beyond this one. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2026 campaign. He now looks like a potential regular (or at least a strong side platoon bat) whom the A’s have no urgency to move.
Oakland general manager David Forst said earlier this week that the team wasn’t looking to deal all their players of note. “We may do some things, but anyone who expects we’re going to continue to just move guys for prospects will probably be disappointed because there’s guys here we think are part of the team beyond this year,” Forst told Martín Gallegos of MLB.com on Monday (X link). Fost didn’t specify names but was surely referring to players like Rooker, Bleday and closer Mason Miller — who went on the injured list this week and is very unlikely to move. While those comments could include some amount of gamesmanship — it wouldn’t serve the front office well to exaggerate their urgency to subtract — it seems they’re projecting a similar message in conversations with teams.
If the A’s hold Rooker and Bleday, they’d likely be in for a quiet deadline. Setup man Lucas Erceg should draw interest. They could move rental lefty relievers Scott Alexander and T.J. McFarland for minimal returns. Miguel Andujar is hitting reasonably well and may be on the radar for teams looking for a right-handed bench bat, while back-end starters Ross Stripling and Paul Blackburn just returned from the injured list and could get a few calls.
Phillies Notes: Hays, Marsh, Green, Arozarena
The Phillies and Orioles completed an intriguing trade Friday that saw Baltimore land Seranthony Dominguez and Cristian Pache in exchange for Austin Hays, which represented something of a lengthy pursuit for Phils president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The executive told reporters (including The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber) that “I’ve actually tried to acquire him the last two trading deadlines, and [the Orioles] were asking for much more than we wanted to give.”
The O’s finally budged, perhaps due to both Dominguez addressing Baltimore’s bullpen needs, and Hays’ increasingly expendable nature within a crowded Orioles outfield. An ice-cold start to the season and then a four-week IL stint due to a calf strain led to Hays’ playing time being reduced, though he has hit quite well in a more limited capacity over the last two-plus months. Even with the first six weeks of the season essentially being a wash, Hays has gotten his offensive production back above league average, delivering a 102 wRC+ from a .255/.316/.395 slash line over 175 plate appearances.
It isn’t too far removed from the 108 wRC+ Hays posted over 1677 PA with Baltimore from 2021-23, and his recent hot streak indicates that Hays could certainly still match or surpass that number over the rest of the 2024 campaign. Hays’ numbers against right-handed pitching are far below his career norms, so if those stats in particular pick up, Hays will certainly put himself in line for more of a regular role in the Phillies’ lineup.
“We don’t think he’s just in a position where he has to be platooned by any means,” Dombrowski said about Hays, who for now seemingly will join with the left-handed hitting Brandon Marsh as part of a timeshare in left field. Marsh could also be moved to center field to split time with the righty-swinging Johan Rojas should Hays force his way into everyday duty in left field. As Lauber notes, Marsh’s own splits have cut into his playing time — Marsh has been crushing righties but struggling badly against lefties this season, thus necessitating the Phillies’ need for a right-handed bat for the outfield picture.
Addressing that need cost the Phils an experienced reliever in Dominguez, which was no small matter for a Philadelphia team that was already known to be looking for bullpen help prior to the trade. “We just felt that for us to get a right-handed hitter we had to give up something,” Dombrowski said, and the club will now target “somebody who can pitch innings late in a game that are important innings for us, like our other guys do.”
Carlos Estevez, Tanner Scott, Kyle Finnegan, and Michael Kopech are some of the more prominent relievers linked to Philadelphia’s trade pursuits in recent weeks, and Blue Jays right-hander Chad Green is also “one of the Phillies’ top targets,” in the words of MLB Network’s Jon Morosi (X link). Green is generally considered to be available given how the struggling Jays will be selling to some extent at the deadline, though Toronto is reportedly focusing on selling pending free agents, whereas Green is under contract through the 2025 season.
As per the unusual multi-option terms of the deal Green signed in January 2023, he ended up earning $21MM over the 2024-25 seasons, once the Blue Jays exercised the two-year version of their club option last fall. This translates to $10.5MM in 2025 and roughly $3.5MM left in salary this season. This is no small matter to a Phillies team that is on pace to exceed the luxury tax threshold for the third straight season, and would ideally like to avoid the third penalty tier of $277MM. RosterResource has the Phils at roughly a $262.3MM tax number right now, and crossing the $277MM line would give the Phillies a 95% tax on any overages, plus their first pick in the 2025 draft would be dropped back by 10 spots.
The Jays could potentially eat more of Green’s salary if the Phillies were to offer a better prospect return, so there are ways for the Phils to work around the payroll issue (while leaving room for other deadline upgrades) if they decide Green is their guy on the trade market. The veteran righty has a 1.74 ERA over 31 innings for Toronto this season, though his 3.82 SIERA is perhaps a more accurate reflection of Green’s performance. Green has benefited greatly from a 100% strand rate and a .187 BABIP, and his 23.1% strikeout rate is a little below average, while his 7.7% walk rate is pretty respectable.
In other trade roads not taken, Lauber and Gelb both wrote that the Phillies talked with the Rays about Randy Arozarena before the outfielder was dealt to the Mariners on Thursday. Gelb noted that Tampa Bay wanted “a top prospect” in exchange for Arozarena, but the Phils weren’t willing to part with the unknown player.
Landing Arozarena would’ve certainly counted as more of a blockbuster move to address Philadelphia’s need for a right-handed hitting outfielder. While Dombrowski has made a habit of trading prospects for established stars during his storied front office career, it could be that the PBO didn’t want to move whatever particular minor leaguer the Rays wanted, or Dombrowski was wary in general about depleting from the Phillies’ somewhat limited farm system.
Giants Designate Mike Baumann For Assignment
The Giants announced they’ve designated reliever Mike Baumann for assignment. The move opens an active roster spot for Spencer Bivens, who has been recalled from Triple-A. San Francisco also appointed Hayden Birdsong as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader with the Rockies.
San Francisco just acquired Baumann in a cash deal with Seattle last week. He made one appearance in black and orange, allowing two runs while recording two outs in yesterday’s blowout win over Colorado. He’s out of options, so the Giants had to take him off the 40-man roster if they wanted to remove him from the active roster.
This is the third time this season that Baumann has been designated for assignment. The former Orioles’ third-round draftee has bounced from Baltimore to Seattle to San Francisco. He has struggled in all three stops and owns a 4.84 ERA over 35 1/3 innings. Baumann was a solid piece of Baltimore’s middle relief corps a year ago. The Jacksonville product worked to a 3.76 ERA with an average 22.3% strikeout percentage while logging 64 2/3 innings. This season hasn’t gone to plan, but he hasn’t lost any velocity off a fastball that sits north of 96 MPH.
The Giants can trade Baumann before next Tuesday’s deadline or place him on waivers within the next five days. He hasn’t made it through DFA limbo unclaimed to this point.
Diamondbacks Designate Thyago Vieira For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced they’ve designated Thyago Vieira for assignment. The move opens a spot in the bullpen for newly-acquired southpaw A.J. Puk, who has reported to the team. The transaction drops Arizona’s 40-man roster tally to 39.
Vieira has spent the past two months in the desert. The Snakes claimed him off waivers from the Orioles at the beginning of June. He made 11 appearances, allowing six runs (five earned) across 15 2/3 innings. Vieira struck out 14 and handed out nine free passes. Arizona is his third team of the season. He also had stints in Milwaukee and Baltimore and carries a 5.21 earned run average through 38 innings on the year.
The Brazilian-born righty is one of the harder throws in the game, averaging north of 97 MPH on his fastball. That hasn’t translated to huge whiff rates, though, and he has never harnessed his power stuff. Vieira has walked nearly 15% of opposing hitters this season and has a 13.1% walk percentage over parts of five big league campaigns.
Arizona is likely to place Vieira on waivers in the next few days. The 31-year-old has exhausted his minor league options, meaning another team would need to keep him in the big league ‘pen if they claim him. Vieira does not have the previous career outright nor the three years of service time necessary to decline an outright assignment, so the Snakes could keep him in the organization if he goes unclaimed on waivers.
Cubs Designate Jesus Tinoco For Assignment
The Cubs have designated right-hander Jesus Tinoco for assignment. The move opens up a roster spot for Nate Pearson, whose acquisition from the Blue Jays has now been officially announced by both teams.
Tinoco was only acquired in a trade with the Royals on July 16, and then selected to the active roster a few days later. His Chicago tenure has consisted of four scoreless innings spread over two appearances, which represented a nice bounce-back from his much rougher 2024 work with the Rangers — an 8.10 ERA in 10 innings and nine appearances. Texas designated Tinoco for assignment last month and, after opting for free agency, signed a minor league contract with the Royals before being flipped to Wrigleyville.
A veteran of parts of five MLB seasons, Tinoco has a 4.35 ERA in 80 2/3 career innings with Chicago, Texas, Miami, and Colorado. He also spent the 2023 season in Japan, posting a 2.83 ERA in 35 innings with the Seibu Lions before turning to North America to sign a minor league deal with the Rangers. Tinoco is no stranger to the DFA wire, and since he has been outrighted before in his career, he can choose to become a free agent (as he did earlier this season) rather than accept an outright assignment to the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, provided that he clears waivers.
Astros Interested In Flaherty, Kikuchi
The Astros are one of the teams most aggressively seeking starting pitching. They’ve already been tied to Jameson Taillon, Erick Fedde, and (before he was traded to Baltimore instead) Zach Eflin. Reporting yesterday also linked Houston to the top two rental starting pitchers on the market.
Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweeted last night that the Astros and Tigers have talked about righty Jack Flaherty. The Athletic’s Chandler Rome writes that Houston has interest in both Flaherty and Toronto southpaw Yusei Kikuchi. Flaherty and Kikuchi are each expected to move before next Tuesday’s deadline. The left-hander told reporters after last night’s start — almost certainly his last in a Jays uniform — that Toronto GM Ross Atkins has already informed him that he’s likely to be traded (link via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). The Tigers haven’t made quite as strong a declaration on Flaherty, but they’re three games under .500 and 6.5 games back of the American League’s last Wild Card spot.
Flaherty is having the better season of the two. The 28-year-old has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year. He owns a 2.95 earned run average across 18 starts. He’s averaging nearly six innings per appearance and missing bats at an elite rate. Flaherty has punched out a personal-best 32% of opposing hitters. His walk rate is below 5% for the first time in his career. Among pitchers with 100+ innings, only Garrett Crochet has a bigger gap between his strikeout and walk percentages. Flaherty is fifth among that group in strikeout rate, 14th in ERA and seventh in swinging strike percentage (14.1%).
Kikuchi also has plus strikeout and walk numbers, though he’s not missing quite as many bats as Flaherty has. Kikuchi is 24th in swinging strike rate and ranks 18th with a 26.2% strikeout percentage. He has fired 115 2/3 innings across 22 starts. His 4.75 ERA isn’t all that impressive, yet that mark is inflated by a very high .340 average on balls in play and a modest 70.6% strand rate. Kikuchi’s BABIP and left on base numbers were closer to league average last season, when he worked to a 3.86 ERA over 32 starts.
Astros general manager Dana Brown discussed his rotation pursuit with reporters on Friday afternoon (link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). Brown said the team would be happy with a “a third starter or a fourth starter” who could slot behind Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown and perhaps a healthy Justin Verlander in the rotation. (Ronel Blanco has also had an excellent season, but he’s in uncharted territory in terms of MLB workload.) Brown said it’d be “real difficult” to land someone who slots into the top two spots in the rotation, pointing to the lack of supply in high-end arms this summer.
One can debate whether Flaherty qualifies as a #1/#2 arm. He has certainly pitched at that level this year, but he’s one season removed from running a 4.99 ERA with middling strikeout and walk numbers. Kikuchi fits more clearly into the #3/4 starter bucket which Brown described, as home run issues have kept him from ever reaching a consistent top-of-the-rotation level.
While that could point to Kikuchi being the more likely target, the Astros seem engaged on a number of fronts. Houston has one of the weaker farm systems in the majors, but the limited control window on Flaherty and Kikuchi will cap the return to some extent. Brown noted that while he’d ideally land a pitcher who is controllable beyond this season, the Astros aren’t averse to acquiring a rental. He added that there’s no one in the minor league pipeline he’d consider categorically untouchable, though he indicated he preferred to avoid dealing directly off the MLB roster.
Outfielder Jacob Melton is the only Houston player who made Baseball America’s most recent Top 100 prospect update. The Tigers could justifiably ask for him in a Flaherty deal. Detroit has the ability to make Flaherty a qualifying offer if they don’t trade him this summer. Assuming he signs for more than $50MM next winter, the Tigers would get a compensatory pick after the 2025 first round. They’d need to value any trade package more heavily than they do the pick (plus whatever small chance they have of making a playoff push this year). Jake Bloss, who is currently working out of the big league rotation, is the #2 player on BA’s most recent update of the Astros’ system. He’s followed by 2023 first-round pick Brice Matthews and another current big leaguer, outfielder Joey Loperfido.
Flaherty is playing this season on a $14MM salary, while Kikuchi is making $10MM in the final season of a backloaded three-year deal. The former is due around $4.82M for the stretch run; the latter is still owed around $3.44MM. Any salary the Astros take on would count against their luxury tax ledger, which already sits at a franchise-high $256MM (calculated by RosterResource).
The Astros will be taxed at a 32% rate for salary they absorb when their payroll is between $257MM and $277MM. Brown broadly indicated the team was open to adding salary, saying that owner Jim Crane “understands that it’s important for us to get a starter … so I don’t think payroll is going to hold us back.”
Phillies Place Ranger Suarez On 15-Day Injured List
The Phillies announced that left-hander Ranger Suarez has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to lower back soreness. The placement is retroactive to July 24. Left-hander Kolby Allard has been called up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to take Suarez’s spot on the active roster.
Suarez’s back has been bothering him for some time, as he passed on playing in his first All-Star Game in order to rest up over the break and hopefully return to form. This plan didn’t come to fruition, as Suarez allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk over 5 1/3 innings in his first start after the break, a 7-2 Phillies loss to the Twins on July 22. Losing Suarez for a minimum of 15 days anyway now makes it easy to criticize the Phils’ plan in hindsight, yet with nine days in between starts, it is understandable why Suarez and the team thought he’d have enough time to put this back issue behind him.
Philadelphia’s nine-game lead in the NL East gives the team some flexibility with injuries, of course, and this IL stint now gives Suarez plenty of time to fully get healthy for the stretch run and into October. With a 7.71 ERA in his last four starts and 21 innings, Suarez has seemingly been trying to pitch through discomfort for some time, though some regression was perhaps inevitable given his red-hot start to the 2024 season.
Even with his recent struggles, Suarez still has a 2.87 ERA across 119 1/3 innings, as well as barrel, walk, and hard-hit ball rates that rank among the league’s best. After delivering solid numbers as a member of the Phillies’ rotation in 2022-23, Suarez’s emergence into a borderline ace has only added to the team’s enviable pitching depth. Suarez, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Cristopher Sanchez have all been good to great, and Spencer Turnbull and Tyler Phillips have also been good in some spot duty.
With Suarez, Turnbull, and Taijuan Walker all on the IL at the moment, Allard might get the next opportunity at filling a hole in the rotation. Allard signed a split contract with the Phillies during the offseason, but the six-year MLB veteran hasn’t distinguished himself with a 5.60 ERA over 72 1/3 minor league innings.
Walker is slated to throw a live batting practice today as he works his way back from blister problems, but he won’t be an option for the rotation until August, and after he has banked a minor league rehab start or two. This might put him roughly on the same timeline as Suarez assuming the back problem isn’t overly serious, so the Phillies could try to make do with Allard or Michael Mercado until reinforcements arrive. It is possible the team might seek out some rotation depth at the trade deadline, but that might be more likely to come in the form of a swingman type that could easily transition to the bullpen once the regular starters are healthy.
Cubs Acquire Nate Pearson
The Cubs have acquired right-hander Nate Pearson in a trade with the Blue Jays, according to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and Jeff Passan (X link). Toronto will receive minor league outfielder Yohendrick Pinango and minor league infielder Josh Rivera in return. The Jays also placed closer Jordan Romano on the 60-day injured list.
Pearson was selected 28th overall in the 2017 draft, just one pick after the Cubs took left-hander Brendon Little (who currently pitches for the Jays). A broken arm and an oblique injury limited him to just 1 2/3 innings in 2018, but he re-emerged with a vengeance in 2019, rocketing up the minor league ladder to Triple-A Buffalo by season’s end and establishing himself as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects. MLB Pipeline and Baseball America both ranked him within the overall top 10 of their preseason prospect rankings in advance of the 2020 season, and that year saw Pearson make his MLB debut in the form of five appearances for the Jays during the pandemic-shortened campaign.
Since pitching 101 2/3 innings in the minors in 2019, Pearson has barely topped that total in terms of big league experience, with 115 2/3 frames on his resume in the Show. Pearson has posted a 5.21 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate, and 11.6% walk rate in the majors, with a 15.1% homer rate contributing to that unimpressive ERA.
All but five of Pearson’s 93 big league appearances have come as a reliever, as Toronto shifted Pearson to the bullpen in an effort to keep him healthy after a number of injury setbacks. From 2020-22, Pearson had to deal with such varied issues as a flexor strain, a lat strain, mono, groin problems, and a hernia surgery, which limited his time on the mound and prevented him from any MLB action whatsoever in 2022.
Pearson has been healthy over the last two years, but his performance has been inconsistent as best, dashing the Blue Jays’ hopes that Pearson could at least become a high-leverage relief weapon. He is one of the league’s harder throwers with a fastball that averages 97.6mph, but batters have teed off that heater to the tune of a .342 average this season. Pearson’s slider has been a much more effective offering, but opposing hitters have learned to lay off the slider and chase the fastball, to great success.
Pearson recently expressed an interest in returning to a starting role, which would’ve seemingly been something the Jays would’ve been open to given their rotation and the organization’s overall uncertain future direction in the midst of an underwhelming season. Today’s trade, however, closes the door on Pearson’s Blue Jays tenure entirely, and it perhaps hints at a change in Toronto’s plans for the trade deadline. The Jays had reportedly been only planning to move rental or shorter-term players, while keeping a lot of their core in place for another run at contention in 2025.
Since Pearson is only in his first year of arbitration eligibility and is controlled through the 2026 campaign, the deal could signal the Jays’ willingness to expand their list of trade candidates, perhaps if the club is considering that some level of a rebuild is in order. Then again, it could be that the Blue Jays were open to moving Pearson simply because they no longer consider him any kind of core piece — a letdown for the franchise, given that Pearson seemed like a future cornerstone not long ago.
The Cubs are struggling through a disappointing year of their own, with a 49-56 record in comparison to Toronto’s 47-56 mark. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said earlier this week that the club is already looking ahead to 2025 in terms of potential deadline pickups, and to that end Pearson represents an interesting change-of-scenery candidate. The righty turns 28 next month, so there’s still lots of time for a second act to his career as either a reliever or starter. Between Pearson’s prospect pedigree and two years of remaining arb control, there’s some major buy-low upside for the Cubs if the right-hander is able to find his form in Wrigleyville. Peter Gammons (via X) reports that the Red Sox were also interested in Pearson, though it stands to reason that the Jays might’ve preferred to move the righty outside the AL East.
Baseball America ranks Pinango 17th among Cubs prospects, while MLB Pipeline has him 29th. The outfielder was an international signing in 2018 and he has spent the majority of his career in high-A ball, only reaching Double-A for the first time this season and hitting .223/.316/.345 with four homers in 225 PA for Double-A Tennessee. BA’s scouting report notes that the 22-year-old’s attempts to focus on adding power in 2022-23 led to diminished numbers overall, but he has shown a better approach in 2024 and posted improved hard-contact numbers and a better chase rate. Defensively, Pinango is an average defender probably best suited to left field or even first base over the long term, and the latter position would naturally put more pressure on him to deliver more at the plate.
Rivera is 23rd on Pipeline’s list but wasn’t included in Baseball America’s Cubs top 30, perhaps owing to his .169/.277/.260 slash line over 253 PA at Double-A Tennessee this season. Like Pinango, Rivera is also playing Double-A ball for the first time, and it has been a pretty quick progression since Rivera was only drafted last year, in the third round. The University of Florida product has played mostly shortstop as a pro with some second base and third base time, and Pipeline projects him as “an offensive-minded utilityman” given his raw skills at the plate and his ability to competently play multiple positions, even if he isn’t a standout in the field.
Rogers and Passan (X link) were the first to report that Pearson was heading to Chicago. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reported (via X) Pinango’s inclusion in the deal, while Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi and Arden Zwelling (X link) reported Rivera’s inclusion.