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Athletics Acquire Sean Newcomb

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The Athletics announced today that they have acquired left-hander Sean Newcomb from the Red Sox. The latter club, who designated the lefty for assignment a few days ago, receive cash considerations. The A’s also announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Drew Avans. First baseman Nick Kurtz has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left hip flexor. Left-hander Matt Krook and right-hander Ryan Cusick have been designated for assignment to open 40-man spots for Newcomb and Avans. In terms of the active roster, Avans takes the spot of Kurtz, while the club will need to open a spot for Newcomb once he reports to the team.

Newcomb, 32 next month, returns to the A’s. He spent parts of the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Oakland, though knee problems limited his workload. He only tossed 25 innings for the A’s over those two seasons, spending a lot of time on the IL due to issues in both knees. He was released in July of 2024 and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox coming into 2025.

This year has actually been going fairly well for the lefty. He made Boston’s Opening Day roster and went on to toss 41 innings in a swing role, posting a 3.95 ERA. His 21.6% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 42.9% ground ball rate this year have all been fairly close to league average.

Unfortunately, he got squeezed off the roster, perhaps due to circumstances beyond his control. The Sox and Orioles were rained out on Thursday. Then on Friday, started Brayan Bello only lasted four innings. The club had to use five relievers to get through the rest of that game, though one of them was position player Abraham Toro. For Saturday’s double-header, Hunter Dobbins started the first game and also only lasted four innings. Six relievers, including Newcomb, picked up the rest of the slack in a game that eventually went to ten innings. With the staff fairly taxed, Newcomb was designated for assignment, making room for a fresh arm for the second game of the doubleheader.

For the A’s, they’ve been on a rough slide lately, going 3-15 in their last 18 games. Most of their pitchers have very little experience and are still getting acclimated to the big leagues. Newcomb will give them an experienced lefty arm who could take on various roles, perhaps as a long reliever or spot starter.

On the position player side of things, it’s unclear how long Kurtz will be out of action. He had been serving as the club’s regular first baseman lately. Prior to his promotion, Tyler Soderstrom had that spot, but he moved to left field so that both could be in the lineup. Now that Kurtz is away, it’s possible Soderstrom could move back to first, or perhaps the A’s will keep him in left so he can continue getting accustomed to playing the outfield. Logan Davidson started at first yesterday.

Avans gets his first big league call just before his 29th birthday, which is next month. A 33rd-round pick of the Dodgers back in 2018, he first played at the Triple-A level in 2021. At the end of the 2024 season, he still hadn’t been selected to the 40-man roster and was able to elect minor league free agency, which led him to sign with the A’s.

His offensive production has generally been close to average, in the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. From 2021 to 2024, he stepped to the plate 2,004 times at the Triple-A level. He had a 13% walk rate, 23.8% strikeout rate, .270/.369/.404 line and 101 wRC+. This year, he has had better results, thanks to big drop in punchouts. He’s still walking at a 13.5% clip but has only struck out in 14% of his 222 plate appearances this year. That’s helped him produce a .328/.414/.444 line and 117 wRC+.

Avans is capable of playing all three outfield spots and is good for about 20 to 40 steals per year. That means he could be a serviceable depth outfielder even without elite offensive production, supporting Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler and Denzel Clarke.

To add Newcomb and Avans, the A’s are risking losing two depth arms. Krook, 30, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason. He was selected to the big league roster just over a week ago, making three appearances before getting optioned back down to the minors.

He now has 8 1/3 innings of major league experience, having also pitched for the 2023 Yankees and 2024 Orioles. He’s had interesting minor league numbers since moving to the bullpen. Previously a starter, he’s been working in relief for the past two-plus years. Since the start of 2023, he has thrown 91 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 2.85 ERA and 33.3% strikeout rate, though his 16.7% walk rate has been awfully high. For what it’s worth, he’s been getting better in that department. He had an 18.4% walk rate in the minors in 2023 but dropped that to 16.7% last year and 12.7% this year.

Cusick, 25, still hasn’t made his major league debut. Atlanta selected him with the 24th overall pick in 2021 but flipped him to the A’s as part of the Matt Olson deal in March of 2022. The A’s added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2024 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

He hasn’t been able to do much with his minor league opportunities. He had logged 178 1/3 innings on the farm from 2023 to the present with an ERA of 5.00. His 21.3% strikeout rate is close to par but he has walked 15.1% of batters faced. He’s been working exclusively in relief this year with awful returns so far. He has a 6.75 ERA, 16.4% strikeout rate and 19.4% walk rate through 14 2/3 innings.

Both Krook and Cusick now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the A’s could take as long as five days to discuss trades with other clubs. Cusick is clearly a project at this point but comes with past prospect pedigree, while Krook’s minor league numbers have been somewhat intriguing of late. Both players can still be optioned and could therefore be stashed in the minors by any acquiring club.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Daniel Bard Drawing Interest Following Recent Showcase

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Veteran right-hander Daniel Bard recently threw in front of scouts for around ten teams, reports Rob Bradford of WEEI. He’s drawing interest from a variety of clubs, including some West Division contenders in each league.

Bard, who’ll turn 40 next month, missed the 2024 season after undergoing a pair of surgeries: one to repair the meniscus in his left knee and a second, more serious procedure to repair the flexor tendon in his right elbow. He told Bradford back in January that he was hoping to begin throwing off a mound in late February with an eye toward signing in late April. It seems that timetable wound up being a bit optimistic, but Bard’s recent showcase and interest from contending clubs seems to signify that he’s back to full strength.

As recently as 2022, Bard was one of the sport’s top relievers. He enjoyed a brilliant comeback effort with the Rockies that season and entered the trade deadline as one of the most widely anticipated trade candidates the market had to offer. The Rockies, ever marching to the beat of their own drum, felt differently and signed a then-37-year-old Bard to a two-year extension worth $19MM.

Bard dominated down the stretch for the Rox post-extension, finishing out the year with 34 saves (on a 68-win team), a 1.79 ERA and a 28.2% strikeout rate. He struggled in 2023, logging just 49 1/3 innings with a diminished 4.56 ERA, a 20.3% strikeout rate and a jarring 21.1% walk rate. His fastball, which averaged 97.9 mph in 2022, sat at 94.4 mph in 2023. Last year’s injury-lost season officially closed the book on that two-year, $19MM contract.

A comeback at age 40 might be something of a long shot, but that was also true when Bard returned from a six-year absence at age 35 in 2020. When the right-hander has been healthy, he’s generally been effective. In four seasons since returning to the majors, he’s pitched to a 3.83 ERA with a 25.1% strikeout rate and 13.5% walk rate (3.58 ERA, 26.9 K% and 10.8 BB% if we exclude that 2023 season when he did not seem to be pitching at full strength).

At this point of the MLB season, there aren’t many trade opportunities available to contending clubs looking to strengthen their roster — nor are there many free agent possibilities of note. Bard joins fellow elder statesman David Robertson — who’s about two and a half months older — as an exception to that line of thinking. Given that he’s looking to reestablish himself after a lost 2024 season while Robertson is seeking a notable salary on the heels of a terrific 2024 campaign, Bard stands as the clearly more affordable option of the two.

Whether Bard ultimately signs a minor league contract or a big league deal with a low base salary, two things will likely be true: the contract will be laden with incentives that boost his earning potential if he remains healthy, and he’ll likely need a tune-up in the minors before jumping directly into a major league bullpen. It’s hard to imagine him being a real option before mid-to-late June, but that still makes him a more immediate option than the majority of the arms who’ll change hands on the summer trade market.

Angels, Oscar Colas Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels and outfielder Oscar Colas are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first reported by Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. He’s expected to head to the Halos’ Double-A affiliate once he passes his physical, per the report.

Colas is the latest in a line of former top prospects to try to rebuild their careers with the Halos. The Angels have regularly given looks to once-vaunted talents who didn’t reach their potential through several auditions with their original organizations. Recent examples include Carter Kieboom, Willie Calhoun, Keston Hiura, Miguel Sano and Carson Fulmer, just to name a few.

The 26-year-old Colas was a notable international pickup by the White Sox during the 2021-22 signing period. He’d posted intriguing power numbers both in the Cuban National Series and in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Initial thought that he could be a two-way player based on some dabbling on the mound in Japan proved vastly overstated, but throughout Colas’ early run in the ChiSox organization, he was still lauded as a top-100 prospect in the sport.

During the 2022 season, his first after signing with the Sox, Colas ripped through minor league pitching, slashing .314/.371/.524 with 23 homers across three levels. Strong as those rate stats were, his production came with some red flags. Colas spent the bulk of the season playing against younger and less experienced competition, and he rarely walked. His strikeout rates also climbed rapidly as he moved from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A.

Colas made his big league debut the following year, in 2023, and looked overmatched against MLB opposition. He tallied 263 plate appearances over the life of 75 games and turned in an anemic .216/.257/.314 batting line with a hefty 27.6% strikeout rate against a tiny 4.6% walk rate. His overly aggressive approach was clearly exploited; Colas had the 13th-highest chase rate on pitches off the plate among the 328 batters who tallied at least 250 plate appearances in 2023. His contact rate ranked 289th among that same set of 328 hitters.

Colas still managed to hit Triple-A pitching well that season, but even his production in the upper minors dipped the following season. He .246/.332/.400 at the Triple-A level in 2024. Even as the White Sox fielded a historically bad team that season, he received only 38 major league plate appearances and hit just .273/.368/.273 in that time. He split 2025 between the White Sox’ Double-A and Triple-A squads, batting a combined .163/.245/.255 in 110 turns at the plate before being released.

At this point, Colas is a pure project, but there’s little harm for an Angels team with a paper-thin farm system speculating on a once-notable outfield prospect. Only two of the Angels’ top 20 prospects at MLB.com are outfielders. Nelson Rada is currently hitting well in Double-A but is only 19 years old. Matthew Lugo is on the big league roster but showing a similarly untenable approach to that of the recently optioned Kyren Paris — chasing pitches and striking out at alarming rates. Colas will have to hit his way into being an option whatsoever, but he’ll give them some depth at a thin position.

Ildemaro Vargas Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With D-backs

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Veteran utilityman Ildemaro Vargas triggered an opt-out in his minor league deal with the Diamondbacks and has been granted his release, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Arizona could have added him to the 40-man roster to retain him but have instead granted Vargas his release. He’s now a free agent.

The 33-year-old Vargas has appeared in parts of eight major league seasons and carries a lifetime .246/.289/.354 batting line in 1192 plate appearances split between the D-backs, Twins, Cubs, Pirates and Nationals. Arizona gave Vargas his major league debut back in 2017, and saw big league action with the Snakes in each subsequent season up through 2021. His return to the organization won’t culminate in a big league appearance this time around (barring a re-signing and some injuries that create a need at Chase Field).

Vargas has continued to showcase terrific bat-to-ball skills in Triple-A this year, fanning in only 9.5% of his 221 plate appearances. In 49 games with Reno, he’s batting .261/.330/.397 (78 wRC+) with five home runs, eight doubles, a pair of triples, four steals (in five tries) and an 8.6% walk rate. The versatile defender has seen time at second base, shortstop and third base this year — his three primary positions throughout his professional career. Vargas also has limited experience at first base and at all three outfield slots.

The switch-hitting Vargas has typically been better from the right side of the dish, but he’s had better luck swinging left-handed in 2025. He’s slashing .270/.329/.421 with 13 of his 15 extra-base hits while facing right-handed pitching in 2025; as a right-handed batter, he’s logged only a .234/.333/.319 output (albeit in a small sample of 54 plate appearances).

Though he can play all over the diamond, Vargas is best deployed as a second baseman or third baseman at this stage of his career. A team looking for some depth at those positions and perhaps more of an emergency option at short or in the outfield could take a look at the journeyman as he explores the market for new opportunities.

The Opener: O’Hoppe, Rays, MLBTR Chat

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Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye out for throughout the day:

1. O’Hoppe being monitored:

The Angels’ loss to the Yankees yesterday ended on a worrying note when catcher Logan O’Hoppe was struck on the helmet with a backswing and departed the game shortly thereafter. As noted by Sam Blum of The Athletic, manager Ron Washington told reporters that O’Hoppe’s removal from the game was precautionary, but that he’s being evaluated further nonetheless. It’s unclear if O’Hoppe is in MLB’s concussion protocol, but if the club has any concerns they’ll surely place him on the 7-day concussion-related injured list.

O’Hoppe, 25, has posted a stout .267/.299/.533 batting line (131 wRC+) this year and is already just six homers shy of his career-high 20. The Angels have just recently rattled off a long enough winning streak to put them back on the periphery of the AL Wild Card conversation, making any potential absence for their slugging backstop all the more concerning.

2. Rays going streaking:

Speaking of winning streaks, it wasn’t long ago that the Rays found themselves near the bottom of the AL standings after going 7-10 throughout the first few weeks of May. They took the final two games of their series against the Astros before sweeping the Blue Jays over the weekend, however, and yesterday they won the first game of their series against the Twins. That six-game win streak was enough to get the club back over .500 for the first time since April 4.

The Rays are still a game back of the final AL Wild Card spot, but the encouraging stretch of play has to be a relief for fans in Tampa after last year’s disappointing 80-82 finish. With righty Taj Bradley (4.61 ERA) set to take the mound opposite Minnesota righty Joe Ryan (2.68 ERA) this afternoon, will the Rays be able to keep the good times rolling?

3. MLBTR chat today:

All of the league’s teams have now completed around one-third of their schedule, but there’s still plenty of baseball left to go and more than two months remaining until the trade deadline on July 31. Whether you’re looking ahead to the deadline or still trying to sort between the contenders and pretenders, MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

Angels Sign Chris Taylor, Option Kyren Paris

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4:19PM: The Angels officially announced Taylor’s signing, and Paris’ demotion to Triple-A.

4:00PM: The Angels are going to sign utility player Chris Taylor, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Halos haven’t officially announced anything but Rosenthal says Taylor will be playing center field tonight when the club squares off against the Yankees, so it seems he’s jumping right onto the roster and into the lineup. The Angels have an open 40-man spot after right-hander Shaun Anderson was recently designated for assignment. Per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, outfielder Kyren Paris will be optioned as the corresponding active roster move.

Taylor, 34, spent many years as a useful player for the Dodgers. He bounced all over the diamond, stole bases and was above average at the plate as well. The Dodgers valued those contributions enough to re-sign Taylor ahead of the 2022 season, a four-year, $60MM deal. Unfortunately, Taylor’s production has dropped in recent years, which has cut into his playing time. He has been unable to climb out of his hole while stuck in a part-time gig, so the Dodgers released him just over a week ago.

The Dodgers are still on the hook for what’s left of Taylor’s $13MM salary this year, as well as the $4MM buyout on Taylor’s $12MM 2026 club option. That makes this a buy-low move for the Angels. They will only have to pay Taylor the prorated league minimum for any time he spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Dodgers pay.

The Halos are presumably hoping that getting Taylor some regular playing time will help him get back on track. From 2017 to 2021, he hit .265/.343/.461 for a 116 wRC+, stealing 50 bases over that span while playing every position except for first base and the battery. But since then, he has a .222/.307/.369 line and 90 wRC+. Last year, he dropped to a .202/.298/.300 line and 74 wRC+. He has fallen even farther so far in 2025, with a .200/.200/.257 line and 23 wRC+.

Taylor’s versatility essentially makes him a more experienced version of Paris, who has seen time as a second baseman, shortstop, center fielder, and left fielder over his three MLB seasons. Paris appeared in 36 games with the Angels over the previous two seasons, but he got a much longer look this year, getting into 43 games while mostly toggling between second base and center field.

It seemed like Paris was cementing his place as a lineup regular when he got off to a hot start, but his bat has drastically cooled off after the season’s first two weeks. Over 140 PA, Paris has struck out a whopping 59 times, and his slash line is down to .190/.266/.381 with six home runs. Some time in the minors might help Paris stabilize things at the plate, and it should be noted that Paris has only 37 career games at the Triple-A level (all in 2024). The Angels continued their habit of aggressive prospect promotions by calling Paris up for his MLB debut in 2023 before Paris had even appeared to Triple-A.

AL East Notes: Kim, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox, Dalbec

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Ha-Seong Kim began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham today, marking both his first official on-field appearance with the Rays organization and the first minor league game of his four-plus years in North American baseball, as Kim never saw any time in the minors when he was a member of the Padres from 2021-24.  Kim underwent shoulder surgery last October, which chilled his free agent market and allowed Tampa to swoop in for a two-year, $29MM guarantee that allows the infielder to opt out after the 2025 campaign.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Kim and four other injured Rays players (Jonny DeLuca, Jake Mangum, Travis Jankowski, Kevin Kelly) are all scheduled to be activated from the IL over the next few weeks, which might make for a bit of a roster crunch as the Rays figure out how to make room for everyone.  Some holes will be created when some current players are optioned to the minors, though Topkin figures the Rays will at least check out the trade market to see if any of their surplus players could potentially draw interest from other teams.

More from around the AL East…

  • The Orioles are also missing several notable players on the IL, and interim manager Tony Mansolino provided reporters (including the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich) with the news that Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser both started rehab assignments today with Triple-A Norfolk.  Westburg hasn’t played since April 26 due to a left hamstring strain, and then a setback two weeks ago that arose just as Westburg was about to start a previous rehab assignment.  Cowser has already logged three rehab games with high-A Aberdeen, as the outfielder makes his way back from a fractured thumb that occurred in Baltimore’s fourth game of the season.  Given an initial recovery timeline of 6-8 weeks, Cowser has already been sidelined beyond the high end of that timeline, but the shift to Triple-A indicates that his return to the Orioles’ lineup might not be too far away.  Gary Sanchez (wrist inflammation) and Ramon Laureano (sprained ankle) are further away, but Sanchez took batting practice today and Laureano has progressed to hitting in the batting cage.
  • Though the Red Sox have been in need of first base help since Triston Casas was lost for the season, the club wasn’t interested in a reunion with former prospect Bobby Dalbec, according to MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam.  When the White Sox designated Dalbec for assignment at the start of May, Chicago contacted the BoSox as part of their efforts to gauge any trade interest in the infielder, but Boston declined to make a move.  Dalbec instead elected free agency after clearing waivers and being outrighted off Chicago’s 40-man roster, and signed a minor league deal with the Brewers.  Formerly a top-100 prospect during his days in the Red Sox farm system, Dalbec showed some flashes of that potential at the MLB level with Boston in 2020-21, but his production tailed off afterwards.

Blue Jays Notes: Garcia, Swanson, Burr, Sandlin, Gimenez, Manoah

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Yimi Garcia was placed on the Blue Jays’ 15-day injured list on Saturday, as the reliever is dealing with a right shoulder impingement.  Manager John Schneider provided some updates on several injured players to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling) today, including the news that Garcia received a cortisone shot in his ailing shoulder and will therefore be shut down from throwing for a few days while the shot takes effect.  A more definitive recovery timeline won’t be in place until Garcia starts throwing, Schneider said.

Garcia hasn’t allowed an earned run in 19 of his 21 appearances in 2025, as all of his damage allowed (seven ER) came over back-to-back disastrous outings against the Guardians and Angels on May 3 and 6, respectively.  He has a 3.15 ERA and an excellent 28.9% strikeout rate over 20 total innings this season, but his 12% walk rate is far beyond his career norms, and his 23.8% chase rate is well below the league average.

Even with those minor red flags, Garcia was Toronto’s top set-up option behind closer Jeff Hoffman, so losing Garcia for at least 15 days is another tough break for a Blue Jays bullpen that has been missing some key arms for all or most of the 2025 campaign.  Erik Swanson has yet to pitch at all this year, due to median nerve entrapment in his right arm that surfaced during Spring Training and then some forearm soreness that interrupted the start of his minor league rehab assignment.

Fortunately, Swanson now looks ready to go, as Schneider said the reliever will get a rehab outing with Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday.  Swanson was another pitcher ticketed for a set-up role this season, and he excelled in the position in 2023 and in the second half of the 2024 season, albeit only after an injury-marred first half.

The news isn’t as good for right-hander Ryan Burr, who went in for a check-up with team doctors following his Triple-A rehab appearance on Sunday.  Burr is another pitcher still waiting for his 2025 debut since he was dealing with shoulder inflammation in the spring, and Burr’s shoulder was still feeling some discomfort in the wake of Sunday’s outing.  More will be known soon if Burr’s soreness was anything serious, or if his rehab may be put on hold.

Nick Sandlin got his Blue Jays tenure off to a nice start when he posted a 2.25 ERA in his first eight innings with the team, before a right lat strain sent him to the 15-day IL back on April 20.  With now over a month spent on the sidelines, Sandlin is on the road to recovery, as he threw a bullpen session today at the Jays’ training complex in Florida.

Turning to position players, Andres Gimenez is also down in Florida, and Schneider said Gimenez is aiming to be part of a rehab game on Wednesday.  Acquired along with Sandlin in a big offseason trade with the Guardians, Gimenez drastically cooled off after a hot start, and was hitting only .195/.273/.305 over 143 plate appearances before a right quad strain sent him to the 10-day IL earlier this month.  Gimenez had been the Jays’ starting second baseman, and Ernie Clement has since moved to the keystone in Gimenez’s absence, bringing Addison Barger into the picture as the regular third baseman.

Alek Manoah also provided reporters with an update on his status during the Blue Jays’ recent visit to Tampa to play the Rays, as Manoah has been rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery at the Jays’ Dunedin complex.  Speaking with MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other media, Manoah is aiming to be back with the Jays in August, which would mark roughly a 14-month absence since he underwent his TJ procedure in June 2024.

As with any recovery from a UCL surgery, of course, this timeline is still pretty fluid.  Manoah is still in the bullpen session phase of his throwing progression (with twice-weekly bullpens of more than 40 pitches), so he has a ways to go before turning to his own minor league rehab work and fully building his arm up for a starter’s workload.

Once the burgeoning ace of Toronto’s rotation, Manoah’s career has been going sideways for the better part of three years.  Manoah followed up his excellent 2022 season with a miserable 2023 campaign that saw him lose his command of the strike zone and his spot on the Jays’ big league roster entirely.  He seemed to be somewhat back on track when he posted a 3.70 ERA over five starts and 24 1/3 innings in 2024 before the Tommy John procedure put Manoah on the IL.

It is anyone’s guess as to how Manoah may look once he makes his return to the active roster, yet even the 2024 version would be welcomed by a Jays team in need of rotation depth.  Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, and Chris Bassitt remain the top three anchors of the pitching staff, but Bowden Francis has struggled, and Max Scherzer’s own injury problems have led to a revolving door of mostly ineffective options in the fifth starter’s role.

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