The Opener: Hoskins, Lowe, MLBTR Chat
As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Hoskins to undergo MRI:
Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins exited yesterday’s game against the Pirates in the second inning after tweaking his right hamstring. As noted by Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the slugger will undergo an MRI today to determine the severity of the issue. Even a brief absence for Hoskins would be a brutal blow for the Brewers, as the 31-year-old has been among their top power hitters since signing a two-year deal with the club this past offseason. In 38 games as a Brewer, Hoskins has slashed .233/.340/.474 with nine homers. Gary Sanchez and Jake Bauers could be among the club’s options to handle first base if Hoskins ends up requiring time off. Sanchez has of course been a catcher for the bulk of his career but has already made four appearances at first base this season.
2. Lowe to visit specialist:
Rays second baseman Brandon Lowe has been on the shelf for over a month now due to a grade 1 oblique strain. In recent days, he’s begun a rehab assignment at the Triple-A level with solid results to show for it, slashing .300/.462/1.000 in four games. However, manager Kevin Cash revealed yesterday that Lowe “felt something” in his oblique over the weekend and is expected to see a specialist today to determine next steps (X link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). Richie Palacios and Amed Rosario have split time at the keystone in recent weeks while Lowe is unavailable.
3. MLBTR Chat today:
The 2024 season is now in full swing, and trade season has begun to get underway as the likes of Luis Arraez, Robbie Grossman and Luis Guillorme have already changed clubs. If you have questions regarding your favorite club’s start to the campaign, or perhaps questions that look ahead to this summer’s trade deadline and the 2024-25 offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a live chat with readers today at 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to join in on the chat once it begins or read the transcript after it is completed.
Cubs To Acquire Tyson Miller
The Cubs are acquiring reliever Tyson Miller from the Mariners for minor league infielder Jake Slaughter, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). Seattle had designated Miller for assignment last week.
Miller returns to the organization that selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. The Cal Baptist product reached the majors for a very brief stint during the 2020 season. The Cubs lost him on waivers to the Rangers the following year. That kicked off a nomadic stretch of his career that has seen Miller suit up for five teams without reaching even 15 innings for any of them.
The right-hander played for three teams last year. He bounced via waivers between the Brewers, Mets and Dodgers. Miller combined for 15 1/3 innings of eight-run ball and cleared waivers in September. He hit minor league free agency and inked a non-roster deal with Seattle going into 2024. The M’s called him up two weeks into the regular season.
Miller had a productive month in the Pacific Northwest. He threw 11 2/3 frames over nine appearances, allowing four earned runs. Miller punched out 12 against one walk with a solid 12.6% swinging strike percentage. It was a little surprising that Seattle nevertheless took him off the roster, although he’d been in a low-leverage role in a solid bullpen.
The Cubs have a shakier relief corps than the Mariners do. Chicago’s bullpen entered play Monday ranked 24th in the majors with a 4.58 earned run average. Their 23.4% strikeout rate is fine, but they’ve issued walks at a huge 11% clip. Chicago also has five relievers on the injured list at present. Yency Almonte landed on the shelf over the weekend, while Adbert Alzolay just went down with a forearm strain this evening.
Miller is out of options, so he’ll step right into the major league bullpen. The Cubs need to create a 40-man roster spot to finalize his acquisition and will need to make an active roster move once he reports to the team.
In return for a middle reliever who had been squeezed off the depth chart, Seattle adds an upper minors infielder who is out to a strong start. Slaughter, 27, has a .297/.392/.486 slash line over 130 plate appearances for Chicago’s top affiliate in Iowa. He has connected on five homers, stolen 10 bases in 11 tries, and drawn walks at a strong 11.5% clip. His 24.6% strikeout rate is slightly higher than average but around three percentage points lower than last year’s 27.5% mark.
Slaughter was an 18th-round pick out of LSU back in 2018. He has never drawn much prospect fanfare and has gone unselected in the Rule 5 draft twice. His numbers this season are strong enough that he has a chance to reach the majors in a reserve capacity this year, though. He would qualify for minor league free agency at the start of next offseason if Seattle doesn’t add him to the 40-man roster before then.
Yankees Release Luis Gonzalez
The Yankees recently released outfielder Luis González from his minor league deal, according to an announcement (on X) from their Triple-A team. He returns to free agency and will likely look for another minor league opportunity elsewhere.
González signed with New York in December. The 28-year-old struggled over 10 games in Spring Training and opened the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. González appeared in 22 games for the RailRiders, tallying 91 plate appearances. His .282/.374/.397 slash line was solid, although he didn’t connect on any home runs. Hitting .400 on balls in play also compensated for an elevated 26.4% strikeout rate.
Even a more resounding Triple-A performance probably wouldn’t have gotten González a look in the Bronx. Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo have the starting outfield spots secured. Trent Grisham hasn’t contributed much off the bench, but he’s a good defensive center fielder. González, on the other hand, has limited experience in center and is better suited for a corner spot. New York could welcome Jasson Domínguez back within a couple weeks, as he’ll start a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow.
González has played in parts of three MLB seasons. He saw sporadic action with the White Sox and Giants between 2020-21. The lefty hitter was a solid contributor for San Francisco in 2022, batting .254/.323/.360 through 350 trips to the dish. He hasn’t played in the majors since then, largely because of a back injury that required surgery in Spring Training last year. González was shelved for the first four months of the season. San Francisco ran him through outright waivers not long after he returned and released him entirely last September.
Twins Sign Caleb Baragar To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed left-hander Caleb Baragar to a minor league contract. The move was announced by Minnesota’s Triple-A team in St. Paul.
Baragar makes his return to affiliated ball. The 30-year-old had spent this year in the independent Atlantic League as a member of the Lancaster Stormers. Baragar tossed 16 innings over three starts, allowing seven runs (four earned) with an impressive 18:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Twins evaluators were sufficiently intrigued to give him a non-roster look.
An Indiana product, Baragar pitched in the majors for the Giants between 2020-21. Working out of the bullpen, he turned in a 2.78 ERA across 45 1/3 innings. Pedestrian strikeout and walk rates nevertheless led San Francisco to designate him for assignment in Spring Training 2022. Baragar was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks but was outrighted off Arizona’s roster a couple weeks later. He has struggled at the Triple-A level in the last two years and hasn’t gotten to the majors since his DFA.
Baragar surrendered a 5.51 ERA in 47 1/3 frames with Arizona’s Triple-A team two seasons ago. Things weren’t any better last year after he signed a minor league deal with the Guardians. Baragar was rocked for 6.54 earned runs per nine in 23 appearances. He managed a solid 27.9% strikeout percentage but issued far too many walks, handing out free passes at an 18.4% clip. Cleveland released him in early August.
He’ll try to get back to the majors with the Guards’ competitors in the AL Central. While Baragar had been starting in the Atlantic League, he has pitched in relief for the past four years while in affiliated ball. Minnesota has Caleb Thielbar, Kody Funderburk and Steven Okert as southpaws in the MLB bullpen. They’re light on experienced options beyond that trio in the high minors.
Orioles Could Pursue Closing Help At Deadline
The Orioles lead the American League with a 26-13 record, putting them half a game above the Yankees at the top of the AL East. Baltimore again looks like one of the best teams in the league and is trending towards buying at the deadline.
One area that could be a priority this summer: fortifying the back of the bullpen. Baltimore lost star closer Félix Bautista to Tommy John surgery last fall. They signed Craig Kimbrel — their only major league free agent pickup of the winter — to a $13MM deal to solidify the ninth inning. That hasn’t worked out quite the way the front office envisioned. Kimbrel has run into recent struggles that put his status as closer into question.
Baltimore used Kimbrel in the seventh inning in last Friday’s win over the Diamondbacks. Manager Brandon Hyde was noncommittal after that game about whether that signified a permanent role change for the nine-time All-Star. The O’s haven’t had a save situation since then, though they used Yennier Cano in the top of the ninth in a tied game (a situation in which a team typically calls on its closer) on Saturday. Kimbrel threw a scoreless 11th inning in that contest and got the win when the Orioles walked off in the bottom half.
There are more than two months for Kimbrel to pitch his way back into the ninth inning before the deadline. Still, the situation is flexible enough that the Orioles could consider alternatives if the veteran’s performance remains uneven. To that end, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote over the weekend the O’s will monitor the status of established closers like Jordan Romano, Ryan Helsley and Ryan Pressly.
All three players are theoretical deadline trade possibilities, although they’re each on teams that entered the season expecting to contend. The Blue Jays are four games under .500 and sit last in the AL East. The Cardinals are at the bottom of the NL Central with a 16-24 record. At 15-25, the Astros have an even worse mark, though they’re at least ahead of the Angels in their division.
None of those clubs are going to start moving veteran players anytime soon. Houston GM Dana Brown recently shot down the possibility of selling in any capacity, although it seems likely the team would reconsider that approach if they remain well below .500 in July. All three are veteran-laden teams that surely won’t pivot to selling unless it’s clear they don’t have a path back to competing this year, though.
Romano, 31, has operated as Toronto’s closer for the last three seasons. He’s a two-time All-Star who has saved 36 games in consecutive years. Romano hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs per nine in any of the past three seasons. He opened this year on the injured list with elbow inflammation. He was reinstated in mid-April and has worked at his typical velocity (96.5 MPH fastball, 86.4 MPH slider). Romano is playing on a $7.75MM salary and is under arbitration control for one more season.
Helsley is also arbitration controlled through 2025. He’s making $3.8MM this year for the Cardinals. The 29-year-old has been one of the game’s most effective relievers on a rate basis going back to 2022. Helsley owns a 1.65 ERA with a massive 36.5% strikeout rate in 120 1/3 innings over the past two-plus seasons. The power righty pairs a fastball that averages more than 99 MPH with an upper-80s slider. After missing a good chunk of the 2023 campaign to a forearm strain, Helsley has been healthy this season. He has allowed just three earned runs with 21 strikeouts and two walks over 19 innings.
Things have been more rocky for Pressly, who has surrendered 11 runs (nine earned) in his first 14 1/3 frames. The 35-year-old righty has managed 22 strikeouts with six free passes, though, and he’s keeping the ball on the ground more than half the time an opponent makes contact. Those secondary marks and Pressly’s career track record should lead to plenty of interest if the Astros get to a point where they’d seriously consider moving him at the deadline. Pressly has worked in a setup capacity to Josh Hader this year; he saved more than 30 games in each of the last two seasons.
From a financial perspective, Pressly would be a costlier add than either Romano or Helsley. He’s playing on a $14MM salary and has a matching option for 2025 that would vest if he appears in 50 games this season. He’s at 16 appearances already and looks well on track to triggering that option barring a notable injury.
Reds Place TJ Friedl On Injured List With Thumb Fracture
Reds center fielder TJ Friedl sustained a broken left thumb and has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Cincinnati recalled outfielder Jacob Hurtubise from Triple-A Louisville to take the open roster spot.
It’s a tough blow for Friedl, who only returned from the IL last week. The 28-year-old missed the season’s first six weeks after breaking his wrist during Spring Training. He played six games and tallied 24 plate appearances before being hit by a Kyle Harrison pitch leading off yesterday’s game against the Giants. Friedl came out of the game, with Will Benson sliding from right to center field in his place. Jake Fraley came off the bench to man right field.
Friedl was one of the Reds best players in 2023. He frequently occupied one of the top two spots in the batting order and turned in a .279/.352/.467 line across 556 plate appearances. Friedl connected on 18 home runs and stole 27 bases while playing solid center field defense. It was borderline All-Star production overall, making him a key contributor to a Cincinnati team that came up just shy of the postseason.
They’ll now be without Friedl for another undetermined period of time. Benson and Stuart Fairchild took the majority of the center field reps early in the season. Neither player has provided much offensively. That has contributed to a lack of production throughout the lineup. Cincinnati ranks 28th in on-base percentage and 26th in slugging despite playing in one of the sport’s most hitter-friendly home parks.
Hurtubise, 26, joins the outfield mix for the first time. A West Point graduate, he signed with the Reds as an undrafted free agent in 2020. Despite lacking much prospect fanfare, he played his way onto the 40-man roster last winter thanks to huge on-base numbers in the minors. While Hurtubise has almost no power, he’s a .295 hitter with a .434 OBP in parts of four minor league seasons. He has stolen 102 bases and has nearly as many walks as strikeouts in his professional career.
The left-handed hitter adds a contact and speed element to David Bell’s bench. Hurtubise has experience at all three outfield positions, though Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote last month that he’s best served in left field.
Cubs Place Adbert Alzolay On Injured List With Forearm Strain
The Cubs announced today that right-hander Adbert Alzolay has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm strain. Fellow righty José Cuas was recalled from Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move.
It’s not yet clear how much time Alzolay is expected to miss, though there seems to be some level of worry. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune relays word from manager Craig Counsell on X, with the skipper saying the righty became sore during yesterday’s game in Pittsburgh and is getting imaging today. Per Counsell’s framing, since Alzolay is getting testing and has been immediately placed on the IL before the team even has the results, it indicates a level of concern.
The full results of the testing will provide more details on the severity and the timing, but there’s always some uneasiness when a pitcher’s throwing arm is involved. This also isn’t Alzolay’s first IL stint of this nature, as he missed about two weeks in September last year, also due to a right forearm strain.
He’s also experienced a drop off in results. He broke out as the Cubs’ closer last year, something MLBTR covered in August. He finished the year with a 2.67 earned run average in 64 innings. He struck out 26.5% of batters faced while giving out walks just 5.1% of the time and getting grounders on 42.2% of balls in play. He racked up 22 saves in the process.
Here in 2024, he has a 4.67 ERA through 18 appearances. His walk rate is up to 8% and his strikeout rate is way down to 17.3%. The velocity is down a bit on all five of his pitches, per Statcast. He was bumped out of the closer’s role a few weeks back, with Counsell saying that “we’ve got to get Adbert some confidence.”
Time will tell whether this is just a blip or a significant setback, but it should be a challenge for the Cubs either way. Their injured list already featured six pitchers before today, with Caleb Kilian, Jordan Wicks, Yency Almonte, Julian Merryweather, Daniel Palencia and Drew Smyly now joined by Alzolay. The club’s relief core has a combined ERA of 4.58 for the year, which places them 24th in the league. As the injuries continue piling up, it will be harder for the club to improve upon that mark.
For now, Héctor Neris has taken over the closer’s role, with six saves already. He has an even ERA of 3.00 on the year despite walking more batters than he has struck out. He has an 18.6% strikeout rate and 20% walk rate. A 52.4% ground ball rate has helped him strand 86.5% of runners and keep his ERA down, but his 5.27 FIP and 5.75 SIERA suggest he may be on shaky ground. Mark Leiter Jr. has an excellent 0.53 ERA on the year with strong peripherals. He can’t keep stranding 84.2% of baserunners but his 2.14 FIP and 3.24 SIERA are still strong. Pitchers like Colten Brewer and Richard Lovelady may also have to factor into the setup mix until other arms get healthy.
Cardinals Notes: Matz, Liberatore, Marmol
The Cardinals have been without Steven Matz all month, as the veteran lefty has been on the shelf due to a lower back strain. He’d been slated to throw a bullpen session today, but that’s now been scrapped due to ongoing discomfort, tweets Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Instead, Matz will receive an injection and be shut down from throwing for “at least” the next week — possibly longer, depending on how he responds to the latest treatment.
Matz, 33 at the end of the month, is in the third season of a four-year, $44MM contract signed in free agency. The former Mets and Blue Jays hurler rebounded from a dreadful first season of that agreement in 2022 to give the Cards 105 innings of 3.86 ERA ball last season. He did so with diminished strikeout and walk rates relative to his ’22 levels but also with a resurgent 44.8% grounder rate that helped in mitigating some of the home run troubles he’d experienced in his first year with St. Louis.
The 2024 season has seen Matz make six starts and struggle to a low tally of 27 1/3 innings as well as a grim 6.18 ERA. Matz’s 13.4% strikeout rate would easily be a career-low and stands as the eighth-lowest mark among any of the 182 MLB pitchers to toss at least 20 innings this season. His 8.7% walk rate is average, but this year’s 33.7% ground-ball rate is the lowest of his career other than a 30-inning sample from the shortened 2020 season.
With Matz now sidelined even longer than expected, a window will further open for fellow southpaw Matthew Liberatore. Manager Oli Marmol told the Cardinals beat that plugging Liberatore into Matz’s rotation spot for now “gives us the best chance to win” (X link via Jones), so it seems he’ll remain the preferred option to start in Matz’s absence. Liberatore, acquired from the Rays in the trade sending Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay, hasn’t topped 50 pitches in an outing this year and thus figures to be limited when he takes the ball today in a road matchup with the Angels. His longest outing of the season has been 3 2/3 innings, but if he can work efficiently, it’s feasible he could get through four or five innings before the Cards go to the bullpen.
Speaking of Marmol, he’s come under quite a bit of fire as the Cardinals have followed up 2023’s surprising last-place finish with an ugly start that once again has them residing in the NL Central’s cellar. Fans have voiced plenty of criticism for the third-year skipper, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak — who surprisingly fired former manager Mike Shildt and installed Marmol as the new skipper — seemed to choose his words carefully when asked by KMOX’s Tom Ackerman how he currently views his manager (X link with audio).
“These are times that are difficult,” said Mozeliak. “I still think he understands the job. I think he knows how to manage. I think he’s trying to put the right combination of players in, but at some level you’ve got to have some performance. I understand fans are not happy with myself. They’re not happy with Oli. I don’t think anything I say here today is going to change that, so I think we have to just keep trying to go back and try to get this to work. And look, we understand if it doesn’t, then people are going to be held accountable — and ultimately that starts with me.”
Marmol was entering the final season of his original three-year deal to manage the Cardinals this year, but the front office extended him through the 2026 season back in mid-March. That contract seemed a clear vote of confidence at the time, but less than two months later, Mozeliak is publicly noting that his skipper has “got to have some level of performance” and speaking about accountability both on the field level and in the front office.
The 16-24 Cardinals are eight games back of the division-leading Brewers and have the fourth-worst run differential in MLB (-51), leading only the Rockies, Marlins and White Sox. Cardinals hitters rank 28th in the majors in batting average (.220), 27th in on-base percentage (.298) and 29th in slugging percentage (.341). Their 136 runs are the second-fewest in MLB, and St. Louis is tied with the White Sox for the game’s fewest home runs (29).
The revamped rotation hasn’t been much better. Cardinals starters are 24th in the big leagues with a combined 4.49 ERA and rank 22nd with a 20.5% strikeout rate. The bullpen, led by closer Ryan Helsley and setup men JoJo Romero, Ryan Fernandez and Andrew Kittredge, has been better, but it’s a top-heavy group. The struggles of those in the final few spots of the ‘pen have Cardinals relievers sitting at a flat 4.00 ERA on the season, ranking 15th in the big leagues.
Athletics Place Paul Blackburn On Injured List
The Athletics announced that right-hander Paul Blackburn has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 11, with a stress reaction of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot. Left-hander Easton Lucas was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas in a corresponding move.
It’s unclear when Blackburn suffered his injury, but it his results have gradually worsened as the season has gone along. He first three starts of the season were scoreless but he allowed 21 earned runs over his five most recent outings. Against the Mariners on Friday, he went four-plus innings with seven earned run allowed.
In the short term, the news is obviously a setback for the A’s. When healthy, he has been one of the pillars of their organization in recent years. As other pitchers have come and gone and many have floundered, he posted a 4.35 ERA in 2022 and 2023. This year, his hot start and subsequent struggles have led to a 4.11 ERA.
Of course, the “when healthy” qualifier is an important one for Blackburn. He was limited to 21 starts in 2022 and 20 last year, missing time due to issues with the middle finger of his pitching hand. The 111 1/3 innings he threw in 2021 are still his career high at the big league level. Now he’s in for yet another injury absence, though it’s not known how long the A’s expect that to be.
The A’s already have Ken Waldichuk, Freddy Tarnok and Luis Medina on the 60-day IL, with Joe Boyle on the 15-day IL. Blackburn is now joining them and perhaps Alex Wood as well. Manager Mark Kotsay told Martín Gallegos of MLB.com (X link) that Wood has been pitching through a shoulder injury that seemed to get worse yesterday. “Alex has been grinding,” Kotsay said. “He hasn’t felt great. He gave us everything he had.” Kotsay seemed to suggest that an IL stint could be coming by saying last night: “We’ll have more news tomorrow.”
If Wood follows Blackburn to the IL, the rotation would be left with JP Sears, Ross Stripling and Joey Estes. Sears and Stripling have been effective enough. Sears has a 4.20 ERA on the year and Stripling is at 5.14, though with a .356 batting average on balls in play and 57.9% strand rate. Stripling’s 3.71 FIP and 4.50 SIERA suggest he could be better going forward with a bit more help from the baseball gods. Estes was just recalled and his one start was decent, allowing one earned run in five innings, though he had a 6.04 ERA in Triple-A before getting called up.
The club will need to figure out how to fill a rotation spot, perhaps two. Mitch Spence has been throwing multi-inning stints out of the bullpen and has a 3.65 ERA, so he could perhaps be an option. Hogan Harris or Osvaldo Bido were recently up to make spot starts and could perhaps do so again. Brady Basso and Royber Salinas are on the 40-man roster, though neither player has yet reached the majors and each has made just one Triple-A start.
In the longer term, it’s possible the injury could impact Blackburn as a midseason trade candidate. He is making $3.45MM this year and is slated for one more arbitration season before he will become a free agent after 2025. Though the A’s are performing a bit better than expected this year at 19-23, they are still most likely going to be in seller position at the upcoming deadline.
Blackburn’s results have been more passable than outstanding, but all teams need pitching at the deadline and non-rental starters tend to be the most attractive assets in the summer market. The righty therefore is one of the most straightforward trade candidates this year, given his status and that of the team he plays for. The extent of his injury will therefore be of interest not just to the A’s but to many other clubs around the league as the summer pitching market develops.
Orioles Designate Ryan McKenna For Assignment
The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve designated outfielder Ryan McKenna for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to veteran Austin Hays, who has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list after missing about three weeks with a strained calf. It’s the second bit of outfield shuffling by the O’s today. Baltimore previously optioned Heston Kjerstad to Triple-A Norfolk in favor of Kyle Stowers.
McKenna, 27, was only selected back to the 40-man roster for a second stint with the Orioles on April 26. He appeared in nine games and went 3-for-8 at the plate, popping a pair of home runs in his brief look with the club. Despite that productive cup of coffee, he won’t stick around on the big league roster. McKenna is out of minor league options, so the O’s had little choice but to designate him for assignment once things reached a point where they needed to open his roster spot back up. In all likelihood, McKenna knew it’d be a short stay on the active roster.
A fourth-round selection by the O’s in the 2015 draft, McKenna has now appeared in parts of four seasons with the MLB club. Despite the big showing in this year’s tiny sample, he struggled extensively from 2021-23, hitting just .222/.299/.318 in 508 plate appearances across that three-year span. He owns a productive .261/.359/.561 output in 274 Triple-A plate appearances but also a .234/.327/.357 slash in a much larger sample of 817 Double-A plate appearances.
Baltimore is stacked with outfield talent — and with position players in general — leaving little room for McKenna to wrest everyday at-bats from the team’s other outfield options. Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, Anthony Santander and the now-reinstated Hays are all in the mix for at-bats, as is the aforementioned Stowers, who’s joining the club for his 2024 debut after smacking 11 Triple-A homers in his first 165 plate appearances there this season. Mullins has been in a deep slump of late, and Hays struggled a good bit before landing on the injured list himself. However, both veterans have lengthy track records of production that date back several years. Neither was going to be displaced because of a brief hot streak from McKenna.
The Orioles have a week to trade McKenna or else place him on outright waivers or release waivers. He went unclaimed on outright waivers at the end of March, and in doing so gained the right to reject any additional outright assignments for the remainder of his career. As such, if he clears waivers, he’ll have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency. Given the glut of outfield talent on the Baltimore roster, it’s possible he’d prefer to latch on with another organization that has far less depth and thus a better opportunity for him to get an earnest look at the big league level.