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Phillies To Activate Ranger Suarez On Sunday

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Ranger Suárez has made four rehab starts since beginning a minor league assignment three weeks ago. That includes 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball for Triple-A Lehigh Valley over the weekend. After building to 78 pitches, he’ll make his return to the majors this weekend. Manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer) that Suárez will be activated to start against Arizona on Sunday.

That may push Philadelphia to a six-man rotation. Thomson acknowledged yesterday that the Phils were considering moving to a six-man staff rather than bumping anyone to the bullpen (link via Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia). Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, Cristopher Sánchez and Taijuan Walker have combined for every Phils start this season.

Walker was the one who would have been ticketed for the bullpen had Suárez been healthy. He’d be the candidate to move back to relief, but he has pitched fairly well through his first five starts. Walker owns a 2.78 ERA across 22 2/3 innings. His 20% strikeout rate and 10% walk percentage are each a little worse than average, but he has allowed two or fewer runs in all but one of his outings. Walker has found a little extra velocity relative to last season. He’s averaging 92 MPH on both his four-seam and sinker after sitting around 91 a year ago.

Luzardo, Wheeler and Sánchez have all been excellent. Nola has struggled while operating with diminished velocity, but his rotation spot clearly isn’t any jeopardy. The Phils have already confirmed that Suárez will return to the rotation, while Sánchez’s recent forearm soreness seemingly amounted to nothing. The question is essentially whether the Phils feel Walker will be more valuable in a long relief role or taking the ball every sixth day.

Walker will make at least one more start. He’s tabbed as the probable pitcher tomorrow against Brad Lord in their series finale against Washington. Wheeler and Sánchez have gone over the past two days. The Phils will run with Luzardo, Nola and Suárez against the D-Backs. They’re off on Monday before a stretch of nine game days.

While the rotation has been a strength, Philadelphia’s relief group has struggled. Their bullpen entered play Wednesday with a 5.25 ERA that was better only the Nationals’ 7.47 mark. No bullpen has blown more leads than Philadelphia’s eight. José Alvarado, Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks (to a lesser extent) are the only Phils relievers who have pitched well. Righties Orion Kerkering and Jordan Romano, both of whom have worked in high-leverage spots, have each had particularly poor starts. Walker is unlikely to be an impact relief weapon, but he’d give Thomson another option in the middle to late innings if they move him back to the bullpen after tomorrow.

Mariners Sign Bryan Shaw To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners signed veteran right-handed reliever Bryan Shaw to a minor league deal yesterday. The team never formally announced it, but Shaw’s signing appears on their transaction log at MLB.com and the righty pitched in last night’s game for Triple-A Tacoma.

Shaw’s return to the Mariners organization — he also pitched for Seattle in 2020 — didn’t go particularly well. He retired only one of the five batters he faced, allowing a hit and three walks (one intentional) to the others. The 37-year-old right-hander had previously yielded five earned runs in 1 2/3 innings for the Reds’ top affiliate in Louisville before being cut loose.

Shaw pitched only four big league innings last year, his fewest single-season total since making his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks in 2011. It’s been several years since his peak as an iron man in Cleveland’s bullpen, but the well-traveled Shaw was an effective middle reliever as recently as 2023 with the White Sox. He tossed 45 2/3 innings that year and recorded a respectable 4.14 ERA with a 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.

From 2013-17, Shaw tied lefty Tony Watson for the MLB lead among relievers at 358 2/3 innings. Shaw’s 378 total appearances during that time were by far the most in MLB. He wasn’t just a rubber arm, either; in those 358 2/3 innings, Shaw logged a 3.11 ERA and ranked third among all relievers with 110 holds (in addition to nine rogue saves). He’s had more shaky seasons than good ones in the time since that peak run. It seems fair to presume that Shaw’s nearly unrivaled workload took some toll on his arm, but it’s worth noting that he still has only one appearance on the MLB injured list in his entire career: a three-week stint due to a calf strain with the Rockies in 2018.

Tyler Glasnow To Be Shut Down 10 to 14 Days

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The Dodgers placed right-hander Tyler Glasnow on the 15-day injured list due to shoulder inflammation this week. It seems he’ll be out longer than that. Manager Dave Roberts tells Sonja Chen of MLB.com that Glasnow will be shut down from throwing for 10 to 14 days and will be re-evaluated from there.

It’s a different outlook compared to just two days ago. When Glasnow landed on the IL on Monday, Roberts downplayed the severity. He said that Glasnow was merely dealing with “overall body soreness” but didn’t have anything structurally wrong with his shoulder.

A shutdown period of 10 to 14 days means that Glasnow will be gone longer than that. Even if he’s cleared to resume throwing at that time, he would have to ramp back up and perhaps make a few rehab starts in the minor leagues.

Glasnow has a reputation for strong work on a rate basis but he’s never logged bulk innings. He got to 134 frames last year, a personal high despite it being his ninth major league season. Elbow problems, including 2021 Tommy John surgery, have often been the culprit. He’s also had some back and oblique issues over the years, with this shoulder inflammation the latest problem.

It seems the Dodgers will have to assume that they won’t have Glasnow for at least a few weeks, perhaps longer, depending on how he responds in the next 10 to 14 days. They started the season with Glasnow in the rotation alongside Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Dustin May.

The group has thinned since then. Snell hit the IL after just two starts, due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. The Dodgers also thought that was a relatively minor issue, though Snell was eventually shut down due to ongoing soreness. Glasnow is now in a somewhat similar boat, with an uncertain path back from a shutdown period.

Tony Gonsolin started the season on the IL due to a back injury but was reinstated today. He gives the club a fourth starter alongside May, Yamamoto and Sasaki. The Dodgers are off tomorrow, which will give the staff a bit of a breather, but they play ten straight after that.

Ben Casparius and Yoendrys Gómez are both currently in the bullpen and capable of working multiple innings. Justin Wrobleski, Bobby Miller, Landon Knack and Matt Sauer are currently on optional assignment but have been up with the big league club at times to help out and could do so again.

Clayton Kershaw is on a rehab assignment but is also on the 60-day IL, meaning he can’t rejoin the club for a few more weeks. Shohei Ohtani is theoretically going to return to the mound at some point this year, though it’s unclear how the Dodgers plan to have him ramp up while also serving as the designated hitter, or when that will be. He underwent UCL surgery late in 2023 and didn’t pitch last year. He also required arthroscopic shoulder surgery on his non-throwing arm just after the club’s World Series victory in the fall.

It’s possible the club will be getting Glasnow, Snell, Kershaw and Ohtani back into the mix in the coming weeks or months but there’s not much clarity in there and the team will have to patch things together until then, likely with some spot starts or bullpen games, or perhaps one of their depth guys will get a longer rotation audition. The Dodgers are also keeping Yamamoto and Sasaki on the weekly pitching schedule preferred in Japan, which will increase the likelihood of creative solutions.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Rangers Select Tucker Barnhart, Designate Dane Dunning For Assignment

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6:12pm: Texas officially announced the Barnhart selection and Dunning’s DFA. They did not place Higashioka on the injured list tonight.

4:45pm: The Rangers are going to select catcher Tucker Barnhart to their roster, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. That will give them some help behind the plate as Kyle Higashioka battles hamstring tightness. Right-hander Dane Dunning will be designated for assignment as the corresponding move. This will give the active roster a 14/12 split in terms of position players and pitchers, at least for now.

Higashioka played last night but it appears he hurt his hamstring in the process. Per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com and Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, an injured list stint is possible but the MRI results are still pending. Whether he goes on the IL or not, it seems he might be unavailable for a day or two, so the club has brought up another backstop to support Jonah Heim.

Barnhart, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in the offseason. He has been playing for Triple-A Round Rock thus far, hitting .246/.354/.391 in 20 games for that club. He appeared in each big league season from 2014 to 2024, so this will be his 12th straight campaign if he gets into a game.

Broadly speaking, he’s been a glove-first catcher. He has a career .241/.318/.351 batting line, production which translates to a wRC+ of 78. He has tapered off a bit in recent years, with a .208/.286/.255 line and 58 wRC+ since the start of 2022, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal.

Defensively, his framing marks have been subpar for his entire career, but better recently. With both Baseball Prospectus and Statcast, his early-career framing was considered poor, but closer to average over the past six years. His blocking and throwing have been more consistently strong. He’ll step in as Heim’s backup until Higashioka is ready to return to action.

Dunning, 30, was only added to the roster on Monday. The Rangers are in a patch of playing 13 straight games, leading to heavy use of the pitching staff. Caleb Boushley tossed two innings on Sunday, so the Rangers swapped Dunning in to take over as the club’s long man. Dunning entered last night’s game with the Rangers up 12-0 after six innings, relieving starter Jacob deGrom. Dunning absorbed the final three frames as they went on to win 15-2. He allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo and will likely be placed on waivers. Back in March, he was passed through outright waivers unclaimed, which allowed the club to keep him as non-roster depth and bring him back this week.

He and the club avoided arbitration in November, agreeing to a salary of $2.66MM this year. No club was willing to claim him and take on that salary just over a month ago, not too surprising since he had a 5.31 earned run average last year. He posted a 5.40 ERA in five starts for Round Rock before being called up this week. Since he has more than three but less than five years of service time, he will have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers again. However, doing so would mean forfeiting what’s left of that money, so he would likely accept as he did last month.

Most clubs operate with the 13-pitcher maximum at all times but the Rangers should be okay at 12 for a short spell. Since Dunning was the only reliever to pitch last night, the rest of the bullpen got a night off. Perhaps another pitcher will be added if Higashioka goes on the IL. Or if he avoids the IL, Barnhart might be bumped off the roster for a fresh arm.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Mets Select Chris Devenski, Place Danny Young On IL With Elbow Sprain

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The Mets announced today that they have selected right-hander Chris Devenski from Triple-A Syracuse. He takes the active roster spot of left-hander Danny Young, who has been placed on the 15-day IL with a left elbow sprain, retroactive to April 27th. Left-hander Brooks Raley has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Devenski.

The moves suddenly leaves the Mets with no lefties in the bullpen. Young and A.J. Minter are the only lefty relievers to have pitched for the Mets this season. Minter landed on the 15-day IL due to a lat strain a few days ago and there’s a chance he’ll require season-ending surgery. It’s unclear how long Young is going to be out of action but an injury to a pitcher’s throwing elbow is always somewhat concerning.

Raley was just officially signed yesterday. He is recovering from last May’s Tommy John surgery. The fact that the Mets have immediately placed him on the 60-day injured list suggests that they don’t expect him to be with the big league club in the next two months. Brandon Waddell was added to the roster today to serve as a bulk guy behind opener Huascar Brazobán tonight and may return to Triple-A after.

Some of their righties have reverse splits and may be deployed as pseudo lefty specialists. For instance, lefties have a career .165/.304/.239 line against José Buttó, while righties have hit .237/.314/.385 against him.

Devenski, 34, fits into that category as well. Righties have hit .247/.305/.429 against him in his career but he’s held lefties to a .211/.268/.385 slash. He’s a few years removed from his best results, however. He logged 189 innings for the Astros over 2016 and 2017 with a 2.38 earned run average, 28.2% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. Since then, he has a 5.42 ERA in 211 innings for various teams. He had a 6.75 ERA with the Rays last year, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Mets coming into 2025.

He’s out to a good start this year, in a sense, as he has a 1.93 ERA through 9 1/3 Triple-A innings. However, a look under the hood reveals some less impressive numbers. His 20% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate thus far are both subpar numbers. He’s been helped by a .136 batting average on balls in play and 100% strand rate. He has kept the ball on the ground at a 65.2% clip but that’s never been a strength of his over a large sample.

Regardless, Devenski will come up and give the Mets a fresh bullpen arm for the time being. Tonight is their sixth of 13 straight games, leading to heavy usage of the pitching staff. That’s part of the reason why Waddell is coming up to make a spot start and Devenski will try to help the club get through as well.

Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images

Poll: Can Ben Rice Keep This Up?

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Yesterday, Yankees slugger Ben Rice enjoyed a three-hit game that saw him slug two homers. It was a great game, but that’s become almost commonplace for the 26-year-old through the season’s first month. After making his big league debut at first base while filling in for Anthony Rizzo last summer, Rice entered Spring Training this year in the mix for a bench spot as a pinch-hitter and backup catcher behind Austin Wells. An injury to Giancarlo Stanton created an opportunity for regular playing time, however, and Rice was chosen to take those regular reps.

He’s certainly making the most of the opportunity, having done nothing but rake since the season began. In 106 plate appearances this year, Rice has slashed an incredible .278/.387/.611 (184 wRC+). Rice has clobbered eight homers already, leaving him tied for the ninth-most long balls in the majors and just two behind Eugenio Suarez and Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Sandwiched between those two and Rice with nine homers is Aaron Judge, for whom Rice’s emergence has created the sort of protection in the lineup that Juan Soto offered him last season. If comparing the 26-year-old’s early season production to Soto’s 2024 campaign sounds hyperbolic, it isn’t; Rice’s aforementioned 184 wRC+ currently makes him the fourth-best qualified hitter in baseball and second only to Judge in the AL. Soto’s 180 wRC+ last year made him the third-best qualified hitter in baseball and second only to Judge in the AL.

The question for Rice, however, is how sustainable this hot start will prove to be. The Yankees would surely love for Rice to emerge as star-level bat both for this season and the long-term, when he could take over for Paul Goldschmidt as the club’s regular first baseman. This isn’t the first time Rice has come out of the gates with a hot start, however, as his cup of coffee last year started with a 24-game, 92-PA stretch where he hit an impressive .228/.315/.494 with six homers. That start proved to be unsustainable for him, as he hit a paltry .110/.209/.192 the rest of the way to finish as a well below-average hitter overall across his 50 games in the majors.

In that 24-game stretch of success last year, Rice struck out at a 22.8% clip, walked 12.0% of the time, and posted an incredible 20.0% barrel rate. Those are all solid peripherals, though his 38.3% hard-hit rate was somewhat concerning and helped to explain his lackluster .222 BABIP. That’s especially true when combined with his 50% fly ball rate over that stretch; while elevating the ball often helps with homers, leading to the aforementioned massive barrel rate, softly-hit fly balls are the worst type of contact a hitter can make. That weak contact in the air led to very few balls dropping in for hits, and once the home runs stopped coming his overall production cratered.

How does Rice’s start to 2025 measure up to last year’s hot start? The signs are mixed in that regard. His strikeout rate (24.5%) has actually gotten worse, and his walk rate (12.3%) is mostly stagnant. The real story here can be found in his batted ball data. Rice’s 21.9% barrel rate is phenomenal, but not a massive change from the 20.0% figure he put up during last year’s hot streak. However, Rice is making loud contact much more consistently so far this year. His hard-hit rate has jumped up to a phenomenal 62.5%, good for second in all of baseball this year behind Oneil Cruz’s 62.7% and slightly ahead of Shohei Ohtani’s 62.3%.

Hitting the ball hard that consistently is obviously a good thing, but the hard contact has come at the cost of Rice elevating the ball much less than he was last year. His 15.6% line drive rate is down five points from last year and his 35.9% fly ball rate is down eight points; consequently, that’s led to a 13-point spike in his ground ball rate, which now sits at 48.4%. That huge grounder rate may seem like it would limit Rice’s power, and that’s true to a least some extent. Even so, plenty of hitters have emerged as legitimate power threats over the years despite hitting the ball on the ground a lot as long as they hit the ball hard enough to send it out when they do elevate. Gunnar Henderson, Ketel Marte, and Teoscar Hernandez are among the players who posted big seasons last year despite ground ball rates in a similar range as Rice. What’s more, advanced metrics generally seem to buy that Rice has earned his production so far. His .428 wOBA this year is virtually identical to his .425 xwOBA.

How much do MLBTR readers believe in Rice’s offensive explosion to open the season? Have the Yankees found another star slugger to pair with Judge in the middle of their lineup, or will this hot start prove to be a flash in the pan like last year? Have your say in the poll below:

Orioles Move Charlie Morton To Bullpen

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The Orioles used veteran starter Charlie Morton out of the bullpen last night when Kyle Gibson’s first start of the year was shorter than hoped, and it seems that’ll be the continued plan for Morton — at least in the short term. Manager Brandon Hyde announced today that Morton will pitch in relief for the time being (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). The O’s haven’t closed the door on the 41-year-old returning to a starting role, but they’re hoping a change in role can help get him back on track.

It’s a disappointing outcome for both the team and for Morton personally. The 18-year big league veteran signed with the O’s on a one-year, $15MM contract over the winter. Morton was one of several one-year acquisitions for the Orioles’ rotation, joining Tomoyuki Sugano and Gibson in that regard. Baltimore’s baseball operations staff hoped that the infusion of aging veterans, paired with steps forward from young pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez and Cade Povich, would help them overcome the loss of ace Corbin Burnes, who signed with the D-backs in free agency.

Virtually nothing has gone right for the Orioles’ staff in 2025, however. Morton is hardly alone in terms of struggles, but his have been the most glaring. He’s appeared in seven games — five starts, one bulk appearance following an opener, and last night’s mop-up work — and been tattooed for a 9.45 ERA in 26 2/3 frames. His 15.2% walk rate is a career-worst, while his 18.8% strikeout rate is his lowest since 2015. Morton’s typically strong ground-ball rate has evaporated; he’s sitting on a career-low 36.7% mark and has averaged a career-worst 2.03 homers per nine innings pitched. He’s also displayed career-worst marks in average exit velocity (91.6 mph), opponents’ barrel rate (11.1%) and hard-hit rate (48.9%).

The rest of Baltimore’s rotation hasn’t been quite as bad, but it’s still been a mess overall. Dean Kremer has been torched for a 7.04 ERA while working with career-worst strikeout and swinging-strike rates. Povich was terrific his last time out but still has an ERA of 5.04. Sugano boasts a sharp 3.00 ERA, but it’s hard to see that continuing when he has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate among all qualified big league pitchers.

Injuries have hit Baltimore’s staff hard. Zach Eflin has been out since mid-April due to a lat strain. Rodriguez initially hit the IL with elbow inflammation but has since been diagnosed with a lat strain of his own; he was recently moved over to the 60-day injured list. Trevor Rogers, Albert Suarez, Chayce McDermott, Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells have all yet to pitch this season. Rogers dislocated his kneecap in January. McDermott suffered a lat strain in February. Suarez’s shoulder flared up in March. He’s now on the 60-day IL, too. Bradish and Wells had UCL surgeries performed just days apart last June.

There’s little recourse for the Orioles at the moment. Rookie Brandon Young made his MLB debut earlier this month but has struggled in both of his outings (6.23 ERA, eight walks in 8 2/3 innings). Gibson made his season debut last night and was promptly shelled for nine runs in 3 2/3 frames. Triple-A starters Kyle Brnovich, Cameron Weston and Thaddeus Ward have posted results that range from underwhelming to ugly.

Right now, the hope will be that Povich can build on his last solid outing in tonight’s series finale versus the Yankees. Baltimore has announced that Kremer, Sugano and Gibson will start this weekend, in that order, against a Royals club that has struggled to score runs in 2025. Baltimore is off again next Monday. That gives them the short-term luxury of skipping the fifth spot this next time through the rotation, but the O’s only have one off-day from May 6-28, so that’s a short-term reprieve.

Reds Promote Chase Petty, Tyler Callihan

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April 30: The Reds announced earlier today that Callihan has been recalled. As a corresponding move, Candelario was placed on the 10-day injured list with a lumbar spine strain, retroactive to April 28th. Petty was officially selected to the 40-man between games and will be the 27th man for the twin bill.

April 29: A pair of Reds prospects will receive their first major league calls. C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reports that right-hander Chase Petty will be tabbed to start the second game of tomorrow’s doubleheader against the Cardinals. He’ll go opposite Steven Matz in his major league debut. Meanwhile, Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 reports that infielder Tyler Callihan is also coming up.

Cincinnati will not need an active roster spot for Petty, who can serve as the allotted 27th man in the doubleheader, but they will need to formally select him onto the 40-man roster. They already have an opening after waiving Randy Wynne last week. Callihan is on the 40-man, but they’ll need to make an active roster move to accommodate his promotion.

Petty, 22, was Minnesota’s first-round pick in the 2021 draft. He didn’t spend a whole lot of time in the Twins’ farm system. Minnesota shipped him to the Reds the following spring in a one-for-one trade that netted Sonny Gray. It worked out well for both clubs. Gray had a fantastic two-season run in the Twin Cities, while Petty has become one of the better pitching prospects in baseball.

As a high schooler, Petty received plenty of attention for a fastball that ran into the triple digits. He’s not throwing quite as hard in pro ball, but he’s still averaging 95-96 MPH on his four-seam and sinker. Prospect evaluators credit him with a plus slider that serves as his best secondary offering. He rounds out a four-pitch mix with a cutter and changeup that’ll hopefully allow him to handle left-handed hitters multiple times through a lineup.

Baseball America ranked Petty third among Cincinnati prospects and among the back 10 of their overall Top 100 over the offseason. He landed among the sport’s Top 50 prospects at FanGraphs, while ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel had him in the back half of his Top 100. Keith Law of The Athletic had him outside his overall 100 but slotted him among the 10 best minor league talents in the Cincinnati system.

Petty spent most of last season in Double-A, where he turned in a 4.39 earned run average across 127 innings. He earned a late-season promotion to Triple-A Louisville, where he’s spent the first month of the ’25 campaign. Petty has pitched well through five starts. He carries a 3.52 ERA with a plus 27% strikeout rate. That includes six scoreless frames with seven strikeouts in his most recent outing last Wednesday.

Tomorrow’s appearance may simply be a spot start. Players promoted as the 27th man in a doubleheader are usually sent back to the minors the following day. Still, it’s unlikely to be the only time Petty gets the call this season. He’ll remain on the 40-man roster even if he’s returned to Louisville postgame. The Reds wouldn’t have made that move unless they anticipated Petty factoring in as rotation depth throughout the season.

The Reds added Callihan to the 40-man roster last November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. The left-handed hitting infielder has been on optional assignment to Louisville all season. He has raced out to a strong start to the season, batting .303/.410/.528 with four homers and six stolen bases in 24 games. Callihan has walked 16 times in 106 plate appearances, though he’s also punched out on 29 occasions.

Cincinnati’s third-round pick in 2019, Callihan has battled injuries (including a 2021 Tommy John surgery) during his pro career. He’s generally regarded as a bat-first infielder. Inconsistent minor league production had dropped him to 21st among Reds prospects on BA’s offseason list, but the Reds liked him enough to ensure they didn’t lose him in the Rule 5 draft. The hot start at Louisville earns him an opportunity to contribute to an infield facing some injury questions.

They’ve been without Christian Encarnacion-Strand for a couple weeks, while Jeimer Candelario is day-to-day with lower back soreness. Candelario went for an MRI today, according to the MLB.com injury tracker. A trip to the 10-day IL doesn’t seem out of the question. Callihan is primarily a second baseman and has experience at both corner infield spots (and in left field). Candelario had already ceded the starting third base job to Noelvi Marte, but Callihan could replace him as a bench bat.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Zach Thompson Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Zach Thompson has rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A Gwinnett in favor of free agency, per David O’Brien of The Athletic. Thompson was designated for assignment earlier this week and clearly went unclaimed on waivers. As a player who’s previously been outrighted in the past, has has the right to turn down all future outright assignments in favor of a trip back to the open market.

Thompson, 31, appeared in two big league games and fired 3 2/3 scoreless innings with the Braves. He yielded three earned runs on seven hits and three walks with a pair of strikeouts during 4 1/3 innings with Triple-A Gwinnett. That limited action so far in 2025 marks Thompson’s first time on a mound since 2023. He missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing surgery to repair a tear in his right flexor tendon.

Prior to his run with the Braves organization, Thompson has seen big league time with both the Marlins and Pirates. He made his MLB debut with the 2021 Marlins, pitching 75 innings of 3.24 ERA ball with a 21% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate and a 43.4% ground-ball rate. That proved enough for the Pirates to acquire him as one of three players in their return for trading catcher Jacob Stallings to Miami.

Thompson’s time with the Pirates didn’t pan out. Pittsburgh surely hoped to be adding a controllable back-end starter who could be plugged right into the rotation after trading Stallings away. Thompson did indeed step right onto the starting staff, but he was roughed up for a 5.18 ERA in 121 2/3 innings. The majority of that time was spent in the rotation (22 starts), but Thompson struggled just as much in seven bullpen appearances later in the year. The Bucs designated him for assignment that offseason and traded him to Toronto. Thompson spent the entire year in the minors before requiring that flexor surgery in October.

A team in need of some rotation depth or long relief help may take a look at Thompson in the near future now that he’s once again a free agent. He pitched decently with the Jays’ Triple-A squad in 2023 (105 innings, 4.61 ERA), has had some degree of success in the majors, and most importantly now appears healthy after missing all of the 2024 season. Thompson also has a full slate of three minor league option years, which may not immediately come into play if he signs a minor league deal but would be a benefit to his next club if he pitches his way into 40-man consideration.

Cubs Select Chris Flexen

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2:46pm: The Cubs have announced the move. Flexen’s contract has been selected from Iowa, and Assad was indeed transferred to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Lefty Tom Cosgrove was optioned to Iowa to clear a spot for Flexen on the active 26-man roster.

9:04am: The Cubs are selecting the contract of veteran righty Chris Flexen from Triple-A Iowa, reports ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. He’s been excellent through his first five starts in Des Moines and would’ve been able to opt out of his minor league contract tomorrow if not added to the 40-man roster. Chicago has a full 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will be necessary.

Flexen, 30, has turned in a pristine 1.16 ERA with a much-improved 22.3% strikeout rate against an 8.5% walk rate in 23 1/3 innings of Triple-A work. He hasn’t made any notable changes to his repertoire, and his velocity is right in line with previous levels (91.3 mph average four-seamer), but Rogers notes that Flexen did make a change to his arm slot that the team believes has contributed to his early success.

Flexen has followed an unusual career arc, originally debuting as a 22-year-old with the Mets in 2017 and struggling through parts of three seasons before heading overseas. Flexen reinvented himself with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears, parlaying one strong year there in 2020 into a two-year free agent deal with the Mariners. Upon coming back to North America, he quickly became a pivotal member of Seattle’s rotation, posting a 3.66 ERA in 317 2/3 innings from 2021-22.

After his 2023 option was picked up, his production cratered and Flexen found himself designated for assignment. He struggled down the stretch after being scooped up by the Rockies, and then pitched the 2024 season on a one-year deal with the White Sox, for whom he worked as an innings-eating fifth starter (4.95 ERA, 160 innings, 30 starts).

Based on how his 2023-24 seasons played out, it wasn’t a big surprise that the free agent market produced only a minor league deal for Flexen. His terrific early performance amid some tangible changes to his delivery, however, has fast tracked him back to the big leagues.

The Cubs will be without ace Justin Steele for the remainder of the season due to elbow surgery, but even with Steele out of the picture, the rotation has generally been solid. Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd have all delivered strong results (albeit in spite of some more concerning underlying numbers for Imanaga in particular). Veteran swingman Colin Rea has stepped into Steele’s rotation spot and been brilliant in three turns (13 1/3 innings, 1.35 ERA, 17-to-3 K/BB ratio).

The Chicago rotation isn’t without flaws, though. Twenty-five-year-old Ben Brown has been inconsistent. He’s shown a promising ability to miss bats but has yet to top five innings in an outing and has scarcely kept his ERA in the rotation under 6.00. All three of Imanaga, Boyd and Taillon have strikeout rates around 19% — about three percentage points shy of the league average. Imanaga and Boyd have roughly average walk rates. Neither seems likely to sustain a sub-3.00 ERA without improvements in one or both areas.

Regardless, the Cubs don’t necessarily have a glaring rotation need. Brown seems likely to get a bit more leash. There are no injuries of any note among the existing quintet. Imanaga exited his most recent start due to some cramping in his legs, but Rogers adds in a second report that Flexen’s promotion is not related to that early exit.

For now, it seems Flexen will just provide some length, perhaps in a similar swingman role to the one previously held by Rea. If Imanaga’s legs ultimately require an IL stint and/or if Brown’s struggles continue, perhaps there’ll be a more notable change to the pitching staff’s composition.

It’s not yet clear how the Cubs will make room on the 40-man roster, though one straightforward option would be to transfer righty Javier Assad from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL. Assad has been out all season due to an oblique strain, and while he was progressing through a rehab stint last week, he exited his most recent rehab appearance due to renewed discomfort in his side. That was eight days ago, the Cubs have since announced that he’s been diagnosed with a Grade 2 oblique strain. He’s not going to be ready to return at any point in the near future, making a 60-day transfer the clearest path to open a roster spot without sacrificing any depth.

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