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MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Mark P

  • After just one Weekend Chat session in all of July, consider this a bonus entry as a follow-up to yesterday’s chat.

Jason

  • Are the brewers for real???

Mark P

  • They’ve been “for real” for the better part of the decade.  Whether this is the Brewers team that breaks through to make some serious noise in October remains to be seen, but is is remarkable how this team keeps reinventing itself and remaining competitive.

Guest

  • While many teams went shopping for a dress to the party at the high end stores, the Royals found some gems at thrift store pricing.

Mark P

  • I also liked a lot of KC’s moves. It might be too little too late, but they addressed some needs in a pretty low-cost manner.

John

  • Is resigning Cedric Mullins a real possibility for the Orioles?

Mark P

  • If I’m the Orioles at this point, I go with the youth movement.  No more timeshares, no more splitting at-bats with veterans….let the kids play and see what they can do with everyday at-bats.
  • If you are adding a veteran, aim higher than Mullins for a real difference-maker in the regular lineup

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Luke Jackson Elects Free Agency

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Aug. 10: Jackson cleared waivers and has chosen to become a free agent rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A Toledo, as per Jackson’s MLB.com profile page.  Because Jackson has previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to opt for free agency.

Aug. 8: The Tigers have recalled right-hander Codi Heuer from Triple-A Toledo, with fellow righty Luke Jackson designated for assignment. The moves haven’t been officially announced but Craig McCosky of Detroit News was among the reporters to relay them.

The Tigers picked up Jackson a couple of weeks ago after he had been released by the Rangers. He had been having a rough season in Texas but has a good track record, so the Tigers scooped him up, hoping for a bounceback.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get it. He tossed 4 2/3 innings for Detroit, allowing four earned runs via three hits and five walks while striking out four. Combined with his results with the Rangers, he has a 4.54 earned run average in 39 2/3 innings this year. His 52.5% ground ball rate is good but his 16.1% strikeout rate and 13.8% walk rate are both noticeably worse than league average.

Despite the rough numbers, he might get another shot somewhere. The Rangers are still on the hook for the remainder his $1.5MM salary. That means another club could sign Jackson and would only have to pay him the prorated version of the $760K league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Rangers pay.

From 2018 to 2024, Jackson tossed 289 2/3 innings in the majors with a 3.91 ERA. His 10.2% walk rate in that time was a bit high but he punched out 27.1% of batters faced and got opponents to hit the ball into the ground on 54.3% of balls in play.

The punchouts haven’t been there this year, which is why he’s now twice been designated for assignment. But with the trade deadline now passed, it’s harder for clubs to find useful pitching upgrades. Since Jackson has a good track record and would essentially be free, some team might take a shot on him soon.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Hunter Greene Slated To Return To Reds’ Rotation On Wednesday

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After over two months on the injured list, Hunter Greene’s return date to the Reds has now been set.  Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Pat Brennan) that Greene is penciled in as the starter for Wednesday’s game against the Phillies.

Greene emerged as the Reds’ ace with an All-Star season in 2024, and he picked up where he left off by posting a 2.72 ERA, 30.8% strikeout rate, and 5.9% walk rate over his first 11 starts and 59 2/3 innings of the 2025 campaign.  A right groin strain sent Greene to the IL for a 15-day minimum stint in May and he returned in seemingly good form, but another right groin strain has kept the right-hander sidelined since his last start on June 3.

It seemed like Greene was nearing a return in early July before he experienced some more groin soreness, which set things back and delayed the start of his minor league rehab assignment until after the All-Star break.  Greene has pitched four times during his ramp-up work in the minors, and the third of his three Triple-A appearances came on Friday, when he threw 79 pitches over 5 1/3 innings with Triple-A Louisville.  Francona said that Greene is “probably not there yet” in terms of being able to toss 100 pitches in a game, but the fact that he maintained his velocity on Friday was the final sign the Reds needed to explore activating him from the IL.

Needless to say, getting Greene back in the rotation is a huge help for Cincinnati’s playoff hopes.  The Reds’ 14-8 win over the Pirates today moved the club 1.5 games back of the final NL wild card slot, which is held by a Mets team mired in a seven-game losing streak.  While New York’s collapse has opened the door for the Reds, Cincinnati has a tough week ahead, with upcoming series against two red-hot division winners in the Phillies and the Brewers.

Chase Burns had been scheduled to start on Wednesday, but Francona said the Reds have “a lot of things to work through” in determining how the rotation will be altered now that Greene is back.  Either Burns or Nick Martinez will be moved to bullpen duty, and both pitchers could ultimately end up as relievers once Nick Lodolo also returns from a blister problem that sent him to the 15-day IL last week.  This would give the Reds a projected rotation of Greene, Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer, and deadline pickup Zack Littell once everyone is healthy, and using the excess starting depth to bolster the pen is a nice luxury for the team.

Rays Haven’t Yet Discussed Extension With Junior Caminero

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Junior Caminero’s first full Major League season has been a success, as the former star prospect has hit .258/.297/.523 with 32 home runs over his first 472 plate appearances.  The low walk rate, Caminero’s tendency to chase pitches off the plate, and subpar defensive metrics at third base indicate that he hasn’t gotten everything figured out just yet, but there’s clearly a lot to like about a player who just turned 22 last month.

Despite this early success, the Rays haven’t yet broached the subject of a contract extension with Caminero’s camp, agent Rafa Nieves tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Early-career extensions have been a chief element of the Rays’ team-building strategy over the years, but in Caminero’s case, Nieves feels “the fact that at this point they haven’t knocked on his door, the only reason is that their hands are tied….The [Rays] are not in position to make that commitment with all the question marks surrounding their financial future.  That’s why I think they haven’t made an attempt.  And, honestly, by the time they’re out of those question marks, it might be too late.”

The three major “question marks” cited by Nieves begin with the most obvious issue of the Rays’ temporary stay at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.  Tropicana Field is undergoing repairs with the idea that the Rays’ old ballpark will once again be ready for game action by Opening Day 2026, though since the repair work only officially began in July, it may still be a while before that planned timeline is confirmed.  The club is also expected to be returning to its former stadium under new ownership, as the Rays’ sale to the group led by Patrick Zalupski is on pace to be finalized at some point in September.

Turning to the baseball payroll itself, making a major commitment to Caminero may not be feasible until Wander Franco’s situation has been sorted.  Franco was found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic in June, and received a two-year suspended sentence.  With the court case complete, Major League Baseball is expected to weigh in at some point about what type of discipline Franco will face under the MLB/MLBPA joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy.  Tampa Bay signed Franco to the largest contract in franchise history (an 11-year, $182MM extension) in November 2021, and $164MM remains on that deal covering the 2026-32 seasons.

Any one of these factors — let alone all three — would be a logical reason for the Rays to hold off on exploring a long-term deal with Caminero.  There is also the fact that the club doesn’t have any real immediate need to negotiate a deal so soon, since Caminero isn’t arbitration-eligible until 2028 and isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2030 season.

As Nieves noted, however, the team’s ideal window to lock up Caminero may have already passed.  Extending him in 2023 (when he made his MLB debut) or during the 2024 season would’ve allowed Tampa Bay to negotiate more of a team-friendly price, before Caminero had done much to prove himself in the majors.  Now that Caminero has already enjoyed some success at the big league level, his asking price has naturally gone up.

Nieves suggests an extension would cost the Rays “probably $150-200MM,” pointing to recent comps of other prominent young stars who signed contracts before amassing one full year of Major League service time.  Obviously an agent is always going to aim high when discussing a client’s earning potential, and the Rays could counter by arguing that Caminero wasn’t quite as much of a sure thing coming up the minor league ranks as those other highly-touted players.  Tampa Bay acquired Caminero from the Guardians for Tobias Myers in November 2021, in a trade that flew under everyone’s radar until Caminero continued his Dominican Summer League dominance into the Rays’ farm system in 2022.

If $150MM is the floor for what Nieves is looking for in a Caminero extension, the clock could already be unofficially ticking on the third baseman’s time in Tampa.  Naturally it remains to be seen how Zalupski could approach spending or how the team’s finances could be changed under new ownership, but for now, the Rays might opt to take advantage of Caminero as a pre-arbitration bargain and then consider trades once arbitration starts boosting his salaries.

Rangers, Omar Narváez Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Omar Narváez. The team revealed the news to reporters, including Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, this afternoon. Narváez will report to Triple-A Round Rock.

A veteran of 10 MLB seasons, Narváez has suited up behind the dish for the White Sox, Mariners, Brewers, and Mets. He returned to the White Sox on a minor league deal this offseason and eventually, albeit briefly, made his way back to the big league club. He caught four games for the South Siders in April, going 2-for-7 at the plate with two walks and three RBI.

After the White Sox released him in May, Narváez signed a minor league deal with the Astros in early June. He had previously signed a minor league contract with Houston last summer after being released by the Mets. However, as was the case in 2024, Narváez never made it to the majors with the Astros. They released him last weekend.

There was a time when Narváez was considered a good offensive catcher, but he became such a liability with the bat last season that the Mets released him partway through the second season of a two-year, $15MM deal. What’s more, while he blossomed into a strong defensive catcher during his time with the Brewers, he was previously a bat-first backstop. He had negative grades according to Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Fielding Run Value (FRV), and Deserved Runs Prevented (DRP) in each of the first four seasons of his career. Many of his defensive metrics fell back into the negatives during his time with the Mets. So, it’s unclear if the 33-year-old Narváez still has much to offer a big league team on either side of the ball. That being said, he comes with plenty of game-calling experience, if nothing else, and he was hitting well at Triple-A Sugar Land (110 wRC+) before his Astros release. A team like the Rangers, that has next to no catching depth behind Kyle Higashioka and Jonah Heim, could certainly do much worse.

Rockies Sign Xzavion Curry To Minor League Deal

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The Rockies have signed right-hander Xzavion Curry to a minor league contract, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. He had been pitching in the Mexican League since the Marlins released him earlier this year.

Curry, 27, began his career in the Guardians organization and made his MLB debut with Cleveland in 2022. Over the next three seasons, he appeared in 50 games (15 starts) for the club, tossing 129 innings with a 4.53 ERA and 5.19 SIERA. He didn’t miss many bats (15.2% strikeout rate) or prevent dangerous contact (29.4% groundball rate, 44.7% hard-hit rate), but he threw enough strikes to get through innings and limit damage to a serviceable degree. Nonetheless, the Guardians designated him for assignment last August, and the Marlins put in a claim.

The righty didn’t last long in Miami, pitching 18 innings last season and three earlier this year. All told, he has a 4.38 ERA but a 5.12 SIERA in 150 MLB innings. Unfortunately for Curry, he also has a 7.19 ERA in 76 1/3 innings at Triple-A over the last two years. He’s given up 39 walks and 23 home runs while striking out only 58, resulting in a 7.56 FIP. Thus, it wasn’t necessarily surprising when the Marlins released him less than a year after they claimed him off waivers.

In seven appearances with the Tigres de Quintana Roo over the past few weeks, Curry had more success, putting up a 3.44 ERA in 34 innings. For context, the average ERA in the Mexican League this season is 5.82. While the sample was small, his strong showing down south was enough to convince the Rockies to give him a call. He will now report to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, where he will serve as right-handed depth for MLB’s worst bullpen according to both SIERA and FanGraphs WAR.

Cardinals Claim Jorge Alcalá

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Today: The Cardinals have formally added Alcalá to their active roster ahead of this evening’s game against the Cubs. In a corresponding move, Gordon Graceffo was optioned to Triple-A.

August 7: The Cardinals announce that they have claimed right-hander Jorge Alcalá off waivers from the Red Sox. Boston designated him for assignment earlier this week. The Cards had several 40-man roster openings from their deadline dealings. Alcalá is out of options, so the Cards will need to make a corresponding active roster move once he reports to the team.

Alcalá, 30, has a decent overall track record but is having a rough season. From 2019 to 2024, he pitched 163 1/3 innings for the Twins with a 3.64 earned run average. He struck out 25.4% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.3% clip. He earned one save and 28 holds in that time.

But as mentioned, this year has been a struggle. He posted some poor numbers earlier in the year and got flipped to the Red Sox in June. Between Minnesota and Boston, he has thrown 40 2/3 innings with a 6.64 ERA. His 24.2% strikeout rate is still a good number but he has given out free passes to 12.1% of opponents.

For the Cards, they’re only 5.5 games out of a playoff spot but clearly have their sights set on next season. They had planned for 2025 to be a reset year from the beginning. Even though they hung around the playoff race, they sold off impending free agents ahead of the deadline. That included three relievers, with Ryan Helsley traded to the Mets, Phil Maton to the Rangers and Steven Matz to the Red Sox.

Those trades left them with some openings on the roster. This is their second waiver claim since those deals. They grabbed Anthony Veneziano from the Marlins a few days ago and now have added Alcalá into the mix.

Alcalá is making $1.5MM this year and can be retained for 2026 via arbitration. His poor results this year will prevent him from earning a big raise. The Cards can get a close-up look at him for a few weeks and decide if they want to tender him a contract.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Seth Brown Opts Out Of D-backs Deal

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The Diamondbacks have released outfielder and first baseman Seth Brown, according to the transaction log on his MLB.com player page. Brown, who had signed a minor league contract with the team in July after being released by the Athletics, triggered an opt-out in that contract and was granted his release, per MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

Brown, 33, played the first decade of his professional career in the A’s organization. They drafted him in 2015 and promoted him for his MLB debut four years later. He spent time with the big league club in each of the next seven seasons. The lefty batter established himself as a solid platoon slugger in 2021, hitting 19 home runs with a .498 slugging percentage in 281 PA against right-handed pitching. After trading away several key pieces over the subsequent offseason (including All-Star first baseman Matt Olson), the Athletics had more playing time for Brown in 2022. Splitting his time between first base and the outfield, he played almost every day, which meant facing left-handers more often. Southpaws continued to neutralize his bat, but he hit well enough against righties that it hardly mattered. He finished his first full season with 25 home runs and a 115 wRC+ in 150 games.

Unfortunately for Brown, his power numbers dipped in 2023 and ’24. It’s not that he was an awful hitter – he still hit 14 home runs each year – but as a player whose only asset is power against right-handed pitching, he needed to crush righties to continue earning regular playing time. He wasn’t able to do that, ultimately posting a .676 OPS, a 91 wRC+, and -0.7 FanGraphs WAR in 236 games over those two years.

Brown made the Athletics’ Opening Day roster again in 2025, but he started the year off hitting even worse than he had in the two years prior. With better options to play first base, DH, and the outfield, as well as several young and exciting lefty bats, the A’s no longer had a job for the struggling Brown. They designated him for assignment in May. He accepted an outright assignment and stuck around in the organization, tearing the cover off the ball in Triple-A. The A’s then selected his contract again just two weeks later. However, he injured his elbow another week after that, and the team never brought him back from the IL. He passed through waivers unclaimed once again at the end of June, and this time, with just enough service time to retain all of the salary remaining on his $2.7MM contract, he elected free agency.

The Diamondbacks gave Brown a minor league deal in early July. After hitting reasonably well for the Triple-A Reno Aces, he triggered an upward mobility clause in his contract on August 1, forcing the D-backs to notify the other 29 teams that he was available for any that wanted to add him to their 40-man roster. Evidently, no other club expressed interest, as Brown continued to play for Reno through yesterday’s game against the Tacoma Rainiers.

It’s now been several years since Brown was a productive big league bat. However, perhaps his success from 2021-22 – and his 1.113 OPS and 159 wRC+ in 35 Triple-A games this year – will entice another organization looking for lefty depth to give him a shot on a minor league deal.

Braves Claim Connor Seabold Off Waivers From Rays

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The Braves have claimed right-hander Connor Seabold off waivers from the Rays, as announced by the Rays this afternoon. He was designated for assignment on Friday. David O’Brien of The Athletic notes that Seabold has been optioned to Triple-A, while right-hander Domingo González has been designated for assignment to open a space on the 40-man roster.

Seabold, 29, pitched for the Red Sox from 2021-22, the Rockies in 2023, and the Rays in 2025. Initially drafted by the Phillies in 2017, he was traded to Boston in August 2020. After starting a total of six games for the Red Sox and giving up 26 runs (25 earned) on 38 hits in 21 1/3 innings, he was DFA’d and traded to the Rockies. He filled a swingman role for Colorado in 2023, tossing 87 1/3 frames with a 7.52 ERA and 5.03 SIERA.

The Rockies released Seabold the following winter, and he signed a one-year pact with the KBO’s Samsung Lions. A successful year overseas (3.43 ERA and 158 strikeouts in 28 starts) earned him a minor league contract with the Rays this past February. However, he only made it into three games across two short stints with the big league club before he was DFA’d. While he pitched just fine in those three appearances (6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 K), the problem was his performance at Triple-A Durham. In 16 games (10 starts), he allowed 44 runs, including 14 homers, with a concerning 57:26 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Nevertheless, the Braves must see something they like in Seabold. He will provide depth at Triple-A Gwinnett for now, and perhaps he’ll eventually contribute to a pitching staff that has been ravaged by injuries this year.

As for González, 25, the Braves will now risk losing the right-hander on waivers before he ever had the chance to pitch for their big league team. Originally a prospect in the Pirates organization, he went to the Braves in the minor league portion of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. Two years later, the Braves added him to their 40-man to prevent him from qualifying for minor league free agency. Yet, he hasn’t been as effective at Triple-A this year as he was last year, never impressing the front office enough to earn a call-up to the big league club. If González passes through waivers unclaimed, the Braves can outright him back to Gwinnett, but he’ll be eligible for minor league free agency again at the end of the season.

Tigers Place Matt Vierling On 10-Day IL With Oblique Strain

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The Tigers announced today that they have placed Matt Vierling on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain. Trey Sweeney was recalled to take his place on the active roster. Manager A.J. Hinch told reporters, including Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, that the strain is “mild.” Yet, with just seven weeks left in the regular season, it’s not out of the question that Vierling could be done for the year. Hinch, however, remains optimistic, saying, “We have not eliminated the chance for him to come back.”

Vierling played a big part in Detroit’s surprising success last year but hasn’t been able to contribute much in 2025. He missed the first two months of the season with a rotator cuff strain in his throwing arm and only made it back for four games in late May before inflammation in the same shoulder shelved him for another month. When healthy, he has struggled to impact the baseball. His hard-hit rate is roughly in line with his career average, and his barrel rate is a career high, but his power numbers have never been worse. He has just three doubles and one home run in 31 games, good for a .307 slugging percentage. His .068 isolated power is the worst on the team (min. 100 PA).

Hinch told reporters yesterday, including Christian Romo of the Detroit Free Press, that Vierling had been nursing “intermittent soreness” in his oblique throughout August. Evidently, the issue eventually proved serious enough for the outfielder to hit the IL.

For now, the Tigers can move Javier Báez back to center field in Vierling’s place. Wenceel Pérez is another option to play the position; he suffered a right foot contusion on Saturday, but tests came back negative. He expects to be available today off the bench (per Evan Woodberry of MLive.com). As for Sweeney, he can cover at shortstop when Báez is playing the outfield. At some point further down the line, however, Detroit will hope to have Parker Meadows back as the everyday center fielder. He has been out with a quad strain since late July. While he doesn’t yet have a timeline to return, Hinch told Chris McCosky of The Detroit News that Meadows is “doing better and better” in his rehab. The skipper said the Tigers are trying to move him along “as fast as [they] can” without causing a setback.

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