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Pirates Sign Génesis Cabrera, Designate Hunter Stratton For Assignment

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The Pirates announced that they have signed left-hander Génesis Cabrera to a major league contract. In corresponding moves, they have optioned right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks and designated righty Hunter Stratton for assignment.

Cabrera, 28, has some major league success on his track record but has been inconsistent. Since he can’t be optioned to the minors, he has bounced around the league this year. He started the year with the Mets on a minor league deal. That club called him up and put him into six games before designating him for assignment. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and then signed with the Cubs. He made nine appearances for Chicago before the process repeated, with the southpaw again getting designated for assignment and electing free agency in recent days.

Between those two clubs, he has a 6.35 earned run average in 17 innings on the year. His 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate are both close to average but the home run has been a problem. He’s already allowed five, halfway to his personal high, a rate of 19.2% per fly ball.

Ultimately, it’s a small sample of work. As mentioned, he had good seasons in the past. In 2021, he tossed 70 innings for the Cardinals with a 3.73 ERA. His 12.2% walk rate was high but he struck out 26% of batters faced. In the years to come, his walk rate would stay a bit on the high side but the punchouts would oscillate. He only struck out 16.5% of batters faced in 2022, got that back up to 24.3% in 2023, but it dipped again to 18.5% last year.

The Pirates have lost two lefty relievers to the injured list, with Ryan Borucki and Tim Mayza both currently on the shelf. Cabrera can slot in alongside Caleb Ferguson and give the Bucs a second southpaw in the relief corps.

Stratton, 28, started the year with the Bucs on a minor league deal but cracked the Opening Day roster. He has since been shuttled to Triple-A and back a few times. He’s only been put into three big league games, allowing seven earned runs in 2 2/3 innings for an unsightly 23.63 ERA.

His Triple-A work has been far better, with a 3.65 ERA in 24 2/3 innings this year. He struck out 23.8% of batters faced at that level, walked 7.9% and generated grounders on 50% of balls in play. That’s more in line with his previous big league work. With the Bucs over 2023 and 2024, he tossed 49 2/3 innings with a 3.26 ERA, 21% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate and 41% ground ball rate.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Pirates could take as long as five days to talk explore trade talks. He has a full slate of options and his numbers have generally been good, so he could appeal to a club looking for extra relief depth. He has less than three years of service time and has not been previously outrighted in his career, so he would not have the right to elect free agency if he passes through outright waivers unclaimed in the next week.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Wander Franco Found Guilty Of Sexual Abuse

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Wander Franco has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic, according to reporting from Juan Arturo Recio and Jeff Passan of ESPN. He has received a two-year suspended sentence and will have to serve the sentence if he doesn’t meet certain conditions. The primary condition is that he does not approach minors with sexual intentions.

In August of 2023, investigators in the D.R. began looking into accusations that the Rays shortstop had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl while he was 21. The age of consent in that country is 18. In July of 2024, Franco was formally charged with sexual abuse and sexual exploitation against a minor, as well as human trafficking. In September of last year, it was reported that the case would proceed to trial.

Major League Baseball placed Franco on administrative leave in August last year when the accusations first emerged, standard procedure for players who are being investigated under the joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He was reinstated for the offseason in a procedural move but placed back on administrative leave when the 2024 campaign began. He was moved to the restricted list in July of 2024, at which point he was no longer receiving big league pay or service time.

Throughout the proceedings, accusations had also emerged against the girl’s mother, that she received payments from Franco worth thousands of dollars to remain silent about her daughter’s abuse. Per Recio and Passan, she has been found guilty of trafficking her daughter and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Major League Baseball released a statement on the verdict today, relayed by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “Major League Baseball is proud to have a collectively bargained Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy that reflects our commitment to these issues. We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time.” Per that policy, the league can impose discipline even in the absence of legal charges.

Back in 2021, Franco and the Rays signed an 11-year, $182MM extension which was set to run through 2032. In the wake of his conviction, it’s unclear if he’ll be able to get the work visa necessary for him to return to the United States.

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images.

Mets Notes: Vientos, Manaea, Outfield

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Mets third baseman Mark Vientos, out more than three weeks due to a hamstring strain, tells the team’s beat that he expects to be activated from the injured list tomorrow (via Will Sammon of The Athletic). The Mets will need to make a decision as to how they’ll create active roster space for Vientos. Fellow young infielders Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio are both struggling at the moment, as is outfielder/designated hitter Jared Young.

The 25-year-old Baty shook off a terrible start to the season, finding his swing in mid-April and slashing .296/.352/.580 over his next 89 plate appearances. That production came in a fairly limited role — those 89 turns at the plate came over a span of about six weeks — but it was encouraging from the former top prospect. He’s since fallen back into a swoon, hitting just .179/.233/.299 this month (albeit with five hits in his past three games).

Mauricio, 24, has popped three homers in 62 plate appearances but slashed only .224/.274/.414 overall. He’s fanned at a 30.6% clip and has just eight hits in his past 41 plate appearances (including a home run last night). That marks his first MLB action since 2023. He missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL during winter ball in the 2023-24 offseason.

Young, 29, is a journeyman in his first season with the Mets organization. The former Cubs and Cardinals farmhand posted huge numbers in the Korea Baseball Organization last year and has produced well in Triple-A Syracuse, but he’s hitting just .171/.227/.415 in 44 big league plate appearances. Like Mauricio, he’s swatted three homers in minimal playing time but generally struggled outside that flash of power.

Both Baty and Mauricio are in the last of their option years. Mauricio was already optioned once this season but spent fewer than 20 days in the minors and thus technically has not yet burned that final option year. Young has still has an option remaining beyond the current season.

A healthy Vientos could go a long way toward rejuvenating some of the Mets’ floundering offense — at least if he can get back to his 2024 form. The former second-round pick broke out with a .266/.322/.516 slash and 27 homers in just 111 games last year, but he’s hitting only .230/.298/.380 in 2025 — despite lowering his strikeout rate from 29.7% to 23.6%.

The Mets are also eagerly awaiting the return of left-hander Sean Manaea. The rotation suffered a pair of losses in the past two weeks, with both Kodai Senga (hamstring) and Tylor Megill (elbow) hitting the injured list. Frankie Montas returned and pitched well in his season debut this week, which helps to patch over some of that lost depth, but Manaea was arguably the Mets’ best starter down the stretch last season and is ticketed for a key role in the rotation.

Manaea has been out with an oblique strain. He was gearing up for a return and progressing through a rehab assignment when, earlier this week, imaging revealed a loose body in his elbow. President of baseball operations David Stearns downplayed concerns that it’s a serious issue. Manaea received an injection and was shut down for a couple days. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports that Manaea is playing catch today — his first throwing since that injection — and remains on track to return at some point next week.

Setbacks or new injuries for any of Senga, Megill, Montas or Manaea could guide the Mets’ approach at the trade deadline, but for now it seems the expectation is that there are no catastrophic injuries among them. Megill is about 10 days into what’s expected to be an absence of four to five weeks, at least, but that’s the longest-reaching outlook.

A greater need at the deadline could rest in the outfield. Mets outfielders are among the most productive group in the majors overall, but a disproportionate amount of that production has come from scorching-hot Juan Soto and continued steady production from Brandon Nimmo in left field. Mets center fielders are batting just .240/.302/.364 as a group this season, and the resulting 88 wRC+ checks in 18th in the majors. Even that modest batting line is a bit misleading, as it includes productive small-sample output from both Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. Tyrone Taylor has received the lion’s share of center field reps in 2025 but batted just .227/.284/.333 when patrolling the position. Jose Siri, José Azocar and Luisangel Acuña have combined for 31 plate appearances in center field and hit poorly as well.

McNeil is doing fine work at the plate and even robbed Marcell Ozuna of a home run in center the other day, but he had all of 16 major league innings of experience at the position entering the season. The Mets are currently choosing between McNeil’s hot bat and Taylor’s steady glove in center on any given day, but an acquisition could change that.

SNY’s Andy Martino writes that he expects the Mets to be in the market for a center fielder over the next five weeks, speculating on the possibility of Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins and Boston’s Jarren Duran. There’s no indication the Mets have reached out to inquire on either AL East outfielder, to be clear, nor have either the Orioles or Red Sox signaled that they’re planning to operate as deadline sellers. Still, given the struggles of most of the Mets’ center fielders, it’s a natural area of focus, and those would be two logical targets among a broader base of possible trade candidates.

If two of Vientos, Baty, Mauricio and Acuña were hitting well enough to justify regular playing time, perhaps living with McNeil playing out of position in center would be more palatable. As it is, with that quartet scuffling — Acuña has already been optioned to Syracuse — there’s an argument to be made that the Mets ought to shift McNeil back to the more familiar position and explore some center field possibilities as the deadline draws nearer. There’s still plenty of time for that group of young infielders to get right at the plate, and their performance over the next month will be telling, as it’ll likely have a direct impact on the team’s goals.

Alex Bregman Open To Extension Talks With Red Sox

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Alex Bregman has an upcoming opt-out in his contract but he is willing to talk with the Red Sox about sticking around longer. “I always tell the team — and Alex directs me to tell them — we’re always open to any conversation,” Bregman’s agent Scott Boras said to Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. “Any player who plays well somewhere, it’s something that’s important for the team and important for the player. It’s an additive.” Boras also mentioned that Bregman and his family have been happy with their time being in Boston so far.

It’s not especially surprising that Bregman and Boras would be open to a long-term offer. While Boras clients have a reputation for being averse to extensions, that’s normally for early-career players who don’t want to give up future earning power by delaying their path to free agency. In Bregman’s case, he already reached free agency after last season. He didn’t quite get the long-term deal he was looking for, so he pivoted to a short-term pact. He and the Sox signed a three-year deal with a $120MM guaranteed, though with notable deferrals that knocked the net present value closer to $90MM, with opt-out chances after each season.

The goal in signing a contract of that nature is to bank some high earnings on an annual basis while still maintaining the ability to get a larger guarantee down the line. The Bregman situation has a lot of parallels with that of Matt Chapman, another Boras client. Chapman also found the offers lacking in his first foray to free agency, settling for a three-year, $54MM deal with the Giants. His first season in San Francisco was going well enough that they didn’t want him to return to free agency, so they signed him to a six-year, $151MM deal in September of last year.

Bregman would presumably be happy with a similar sequence of events playing out for him and he has mostly done his part so far. By all accounts, he has been a positive force in taking on a clubhouse leader role on a roster with plenty of young players. He has also hit .299 /.385/.553 for a 158 wRC+ this season, his best offensive showing in years. He’s been out of action for about a month due to a quad strain but should be back in the not-too-distant future. Manager Álex Cora recently said Bregman would likely stay on the IL through the All-Star break, per Healey.

Given his contributions on and off the field, the Sox are naturally happy with Bregman as well. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently discussed the matter with The Greg Hill Show on WEEI. Breslow declined to get into specifics on the contract negotiations but heaped praise on Bregman and expressed an openness to having future talks. “What I’m very comfortable saying is Alex has been everything we could have asked for both on the field,” Breslow said, “but also in the clubhouse from a leadership standpoint. Not just in the way he’s helped younger players and our staff but in the ways that he’s helped me and many of us in the front office. And so right now while we’re focused on doing everything we can to get him back on the field as quickly as possible, when the right time comes to have those conversations, very, very confident that we will.”

When Bregman first signed, it was fair to wonder if it was going to be a short-term arrangement. The Sox had Rafael Devers at third, signed for years to come. Bregman could have played second base for a year, opted out and signed elsewhere.

Much has changed since then, of course. The Sox moved Devers to a designated hitter role and put Bregman at his natural third base position. That appeared to sour the relationship between Devers and the club, which eventually led to him getting flipped to the Giants earlier this month.

That trade blew a big hole in the Boston lineup but it also freed up a lot of spending capacity, with Devers still owed about $250MM at the time of the swap. The Sox also took on Jordan Hicks and the roughly $30MM remaining in his deal but they nonetheless opened up a lot of money that was previously tied to Devers.

In the wake of that swap, the baseball world immediately began speculating if the Sox pivot to locking up Bregman with that money. That seems to be a distinct possibility, though the two sides will have to agree on a price point.

In the winter, Bregman apparently got long-term offers of $156MM from the Astros and around $170MM from the Tigers, though the latter would have come with some amount of deferred money. Bregman was reportedly looking for something around $200MM but couldn’t quite get there, which is why he accepted the short-term deal with the Sox.

Getting offers in that range again may be enough to get it done. If Bregman were offered something around $160MM on a new deal, he and Boras could argue that he hit the $200MM target, when factoring in this year’s $40MM salary. That doesn’t account for the deferrals lowering the net present value of that salary, but that’s generally the point of deferrals, to mask the true value of a contract.

Perhaps the two sides will start talking again as Bregman’s potential opt-out looms. If the Sox want Bregman locked up for the long term, they might want to get it done while he’s under contract, like the Giants did with Chapman. The Sox could always re-sign him in the offseason but then they would face competition from other clubs. In the meantime, Bregman will focus on getting healthy for a second half push.

Marcelo Mayer has largely been covering third base in Bregman’s absence but he has also started dabbling at second base, as Nate Eaton has played third, with Kristian Campbell having been recently optioned to the minors. Campbell has been playing some first base on the farm and could be a candidate to slide over there if Bregman is the long-term third baseman, though Triston Casas will be back from his injury next year. The DH spot is now open with the Devers trade though the Sox also have a crowded bunch of outfielders spilling into that spot.

Photo courtesy of Eric Canha, Imagn Images

Mariners Place Rowdy Tellez On Release Waivers

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June 26: The Mariners announced Thursday that Tellez is on unconditional release waivers. Assuming he clears, he’ll be free to sign with any team for the prorated league minimum.

June 20: The Mariners have designated first baseman Rowdy Tellez for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to outfielder/first baseman Luke Raley, who’s been activated from the injured list after missing seven weeks with an oblique strain.

Tellez, 30, is in his eighth big league season and has popped 11 home runs while serving as Seattle’s primary first baseman. Early in the year, he was expected to see more time at designated hitter for skipper Dan Wilson, but the injury to Raley and ongoing injury issues for infielder Jorge Polanco (who was accordingly relegated to DH work) pushed Tellez into the field on a regular basis.

After a disastrous start to his season, Tellez righted the ship in mid-April and has been a serviceable but flawed source of power in the heart of the Mariners’ order. He reached base just once in his first 23 plate appearances but has since swatted 11 homers and slugged .484. That power comes with a low average and bottom-of-the-barrel OBP, however. Tellez rarely walks, is easy to position against defensively due to his extreme-pull approach, and is measured by Statcast as the slowest player in baseball (eliminating virtually any chance of him reaching via infield hit).

Dating back to April 11, Tellez has taken 162 turns at the plate and is hitting .229/.265/.484. He’s been shielded almost entirely from left-handed pitching, receiving just 14 plate appearances and reaching base only twice (one single, one hit-by-pitch). He’s hitting .219/.257/.463 against right-handed pitching this year.

With Raley nearing a return, it seemed likely that either Tellez or fellow veteran first base option Donovan Solano could be pushed off the roster. Since both Tellez and Raley hit left-handed, the Mariners opted to move on from the veteran who can keep a platoon intact. Solano has helped his cause by hitting better over the past month, albeit in an excessively limited role. He’s batted .333/.394/.467 since May 20 but done so in only 33 plate appearances (26 of them against lefties).

For the time being, Solano and Raley will presumably platoon at first base. That’s not an ideal setup, as Raley is more comfortable in the outfield than at first and Solano has struggled this season overall. The Mariners will, at the very least, likely explore the trade market for righty-swinging options at first base in the weeks ahead. Dominic Canzone has provided slightly better-than-average offense in right field since being called up earlier this month (.233/.303/.400 in 33 plate appearances), but if he struggles like he has in two prior MLB seasons, the Mariners could move Raley to right field. That would set them up to either give prospect Tyler Locklear a run at first base or explore the trade market for a full-time upgrade either at first base or in right field.

The Mariners will have five days to trade Tellez or place him on waivers. He originally signed a minor league contract with Seattle but locked in a $1.5MM salary when he made the roster after a big spring performance. He’s still owed about $806K of that sum, as of this writing.

Any team that claims Tellez off waivers would assume the entirety of that remaining salary. If the M’s find an interested trade partner, they could include some cash to offset the salary in exchange for what would still likely be a nominal prospect return. Since waivers are a 48-hour process, we’ll know the outcome of Tellez’s DFA within a maximum of one week’s time. In the event that he clears waivers, Tellez has enough service time to elect free agency and retain the remaining money on this year’s salary.

Poll: AL Cy Young Race Check-In

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While days off and postponements leave clubs around the league without a uniform number of games played, one of the games in this week’s slate will represent the halfway point in the season for every team across MLB. Earlier this week, we checked in on the MVP race in both the American League and the National League as players around the game gear up for the second half. Those races are dominated by position players, so today we’ll turn our attention more firmly towards the league’s pitchers. Who are the frontrunners for the Cy Young Award in both leagues? We’ll be taking a look at some of the top candidates this week, starting with the American League today:

Tarik Skubal

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner tops the list of contenders again this year. Somehow, Skubal has been even more dominant than he was last year. Through 16 starts and 102 innings, he has improved his ERA (2.29), FIP (2.11), strikeout rate (32.1%), walk rate (3.3%), SIERA (2.46), and xERA (2.61) relative to his full season numbers last year. He’s even pitching slightly deeper into games so far this year, averaging 6.37 innings per start as compared to last year’s 6.19.

For a hurler who won the pitching Triple Crown in the AL last year to improve upon that performance the very next year is remarkable, and Skubal figures to remain the favorite to win the award for a second consecutive season if he can maintain this level of production going forward. There’s plenty of competition in the AL, however, so even a minor slip up down the stretch could give the edge to another candidate.

Garrett Crochet

Crochet has been nearly as dominant as Skubal in many respects. After breaking out with the White Sox last year and getting traded to the Red Sox over the offseason, he’s turned in a 2.06 ERA and 2.53 FIP across 17 starts. Crochet leads the majors with 109 1/3 innings pitched, and while his 31.3% strikeout rate is just behind that of Skubal, he’s still struck out more batters (135) than any pitcher in baseball this year. While Crochet and Skubal appear to be more or less equals on paper, with Crochet having a lower ERA and an extra start under his belt while Skubal has stronger peripheral numbers, there are some other factors working against Boston’s ace.

Crochet is more or less untested in the second half after throwing just 40 2/3 innings after July 6 last year. After that date, the lefty never recorded an out in the fifth inning or later and topped out at just 77 pitches in an outing. Even with that less strenuous workload, his numbers suffered as he posted a 4.87 ERA down the stretch. Chicago’s decision to handle Crochet gently down the stretch last year was an understandable one given his injury history, but it creates some uncertainty about how he’ll handle the first true full-season starter’s workload of his career. Additionally, Crochet has a 7-4 record on a team that might wind up selling at the trade deadline this year. While the Cy Young is an individual award, some voters consider a pitcher’s record and their team’s success, which could benefit other candidates with more dominant records on clear playoff teams.

Max Fried

Signed to the largest deal for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history this past offseason, Fried has stepped up as the Yankees’ new ace while Gerrit Cole rehabs from Tommy John surgery. Fried has a sterling 1.92 ERA in 17 starts (108 innings), though he’s done so without the gaudy strikeout numbers of other top Cy Young contenders. His 24.5% strikeout rate is above-average but not otherworldly, but he makes up for that by walking just 4.9% of his opponents and generating grounders at a 53.1% rate.

Even with a career-high 6.5% barrel rate allowed this year, Fried remains one of the sport’s best hurlers when it comes to pitching to contact. His 2.74 FIP and 3.17 SIERA are both elite as well, and more traditional voters will love his 10-2 record, which is good for the most pitcher wins in baseball this year and the best winning percentage in the AL.

Hunter Brown

Brown is in the midst of an exciting breakout season with the Astros at just 26 years old. His 1.88 ERA is the lowest figure in all of baseball among qualified starters, and while he has just 91 innings of work under his belt so far, he’s still averaging more than six innings per start. Brown’s heroics have helped push the Astros back to the front of the pack in the AL West after a tough start to the year.

There are some reasons to doubt Brown’s ability to sustain quite this level of dominance. He’s benefited from a .244 BABIP and an 88.4% strand rate. That good fortune on batted balls and sequencing is very likely to regress toward the mean eventually, though his 2.84 FIP and 2.96 SIERA are still excellent thanks largely to a 31.6% strikeout rate, an 8.1% walk rate and a strong 46.8% ground-ball rate.

Kris Bubic

Bubic has picked up the slack for injured ace Cole Ragans in the Kansas City rotation and has put together an elite season that rivals any of his competition on this list. He’s posted an excellent 2.18 ERA, fanned 26% of his opponents and kept his walk rate down at a sharp 7.3%. Bubic has had some good fortune when it comes to home runs, however; only 4.8% of the fly-balls he’s allowed have cleared the fence, as compared to the 15.1% homer-to-fly-ball rate he carried into the season. It’s doubtful he can continue quite that level of home run suppression, but he has the makings of a front-line arm even if a few more of those flies start leaving the yard.

Bubic has tossed 91 innings in 15 starts, averaging just a hair over six frames per outing. It’s worth wondering how he’ll hold up as the season wears on. Bubic underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and pitched just 66 combined innings between the big leagues and minors. His 91 frames are already his most in a season since he pitched 142 2/3 innings in 2022.

Jacob deGrom

This is the healthiest deGrom has been in a half decade, but you wouldn’t notice virtually any layoff based on the results. The multi-time Cy Young winner has posted a 2.08 ERA and 3.02 FIP across 95 1/3 innings in his age-37 season. He’s set down 25.9% of his opponents on strikes and only walked 5.5% of the batters he’s faced. deGrom had some short starts early, but he’s averaging nearly 6 1/3 innings per outing with a 1.67 ERA dating back to April 18.

As with Bubic, there are workload questions. This is already the most innings deGrom has pitched in a season since 2019. He’s only 33 1/3 innings away from matching his combined total from 2022-24 (majors and minors included).

Other Options

The field of potential AL Cy Young candidates this year is a very deep one. Framber Valdez remains one of the sport’s top ground ball pitchers with a 59.5% grounder rate to go alongside his 2.88 ERA and 3.04 FIP in 16 starts. Joe Ryan has a 2.86 ERA, including a 2.38 mark over the past two months. Drew Rasmussen boasts a 2.45 ERA, but his 84 1/3 innings place him more than 30 frames behind the league leaders. They’re all pitching well enough that a big second half could get them in the conversation. Nathan Eovaldi has an absurd 1.56 ERA on the season, but he’s missed the past month with triceps inflammation. Relievers Andrés Muñoz (18 saves, 1.21 ERA), Aroldis Chapman (14 saves, 1.36 ERA) and Josh Hader (21 saves, 1.73 ERA) have all been brilliant, but it’s hard enough for relievers to get consideration in a normal season — let alone one where the top group of starters has performed this well.

Who do you think will ultimately come out on top in AL Cy Young voting? Will Skubal reign supreme once again, or could another challenger step up to claim the trophy? Have your say in the poll below:

Cubs Designate Michael Fulmer For Assignment

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The Cubs have designated right-hander Michael Fulmer for assignment, per a team announcement. That move will clear space on the active roster for the reinstatement of lefty Shota Imanaga, who’ll return from the injured list to start today’s game.

Fulmer only joined the big league club last week. He’d been pitching well with Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate in Iowa, working to a 2.96 ERA with a 32% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate in 24 1/3 innings. His two appearances with the Cubs were strong. He totaled three innings and held opponents scoreless on just two hits and no walks with one strikeout.

This is the second DFA of the season for Fulmer, the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year winner with the Tigers. He opened the season as a member of the Red Sox, having signed a two-year minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason as he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery. He made just one big league appearance with the Sox, allowing three runs in 2 2/3 innings, before being designated there as well.

Now 32 years old, Fulmer broke into the majors with 26 starts and 159 innings of 3.06 ERA ball for the ’16 Tigers, claiming Rookie of the Year honors in the process. He was a key member of Detroit’s rotation for the next couple seasons before injuries intervened. In addition to Tommy John surgery, Fulmer has also undergone an ulnar nerve transposition procedure in his right arm as well as surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his knee. Detroit moved him to the ’pen early in 2021, and he went on to pitch quite well as a closer and setup man between the Tigers, Twins and Cubs over the next two-plus seasons.

While he’s not the high-end starting pitcher he was early in his career or even the hard-throwing, high-leverage reliever he was from 2021-23, Fulmer has generally looked solid in his first full season back from that UCL replacement. He’s pitched 36 innings of 3.00 ERA ball in Triple-A, averaging 92.7 mph on his heater there — he sat 94.3 mph in his two major league outings with Chicago — and pitched well in his latest MLB look.

The Cubs will have up to five days to explore trades before Fulmer must be placed on waivers to ensure that his DFA is resolved within the one-week maximum. (Waivers take 48 hours to process.) He can be waived at any time prior, of course. If Fulmer passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment to a minor league affiliate with the Cubs and instead explore opportunities with the league’s 29 other teams.

Tigers Designate Matt Gage For Assignment

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The Tigers have designated left-handed reliever Matt Gage for assignment, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. His spot on the roster goes to lefty Dietrich Enns, whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Toledo (a move that was first reported earlier in the week).

Gage, 32, signed a minor league deal over the winter and was selected to the big league roster a couple weeks ago. He’s tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings out of A.J. Hinch’s bullpen, albeit with a sub-par 3-to-2 K/BB ratio (12% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate). It’s the third season in which Gage has seen major league time. Despite having enjoyed success in small samples during all three seasons — Gage has a career 1.42 ERA — he’s only gotten 25 1/3 innings in the big leagues.

Detroit is Gage’s third major league team in three seasons. He’s also suited up for the Blue Jays and Astros. The lefty has fanned 22.5% of his opponents against a 10.8% walk rate. He’s never been an especially hard thrower, but this year’s 91.9 mph average fastball is down noticeably from the 94 mph he averaged with the Astros in 2023. Be that as it may, Gage pitched well with the Tigers and was excellent in Triple-A Toledo prior to his promotion as well: 32 1/3 innings, 1.67 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate. That’s Gage’s seventh season logging time in Triple-A. He has a career 4.64 earned run average at the top minor league level. He’s logged a 4.64 ERA in 316 1/3 innings there and recorded a 20.9% strikeout rate with an 8.1% walk rate.

Gage is out of minor league options, so the Tigers didn’t have the ability to simply send him to the minors without first exposing him to waivers. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he can be traded or placed on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so we’ll know within the next week what Gage’s next step is. Because Gage has been outrighted in the past, he’ll have the option to elect free agency and explore opportunities with other teams if he passes through waivers unclaimed once again.

The Opener: Kershaw, Tigers, Imanaga

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:

1. Kershaw on the cusp of 3,000 strikeouts:

Three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw is a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. He’s now seven starts into his 2025 campaign, and in that time he’s pitched to a 3.31 ERA in 32 2/3 innings of work despite a strikeout rate of just 17.6%. That low strikeout rate has become the norm for the 37-year-old in recent years, but it hasn’t stopped him from challenging for one of the most coveted milestones for a starting pitcher. The southpaw currently sits at 2,992 strikeouts for his career, meaning that he’s just eight away from becoming the 20th pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000. With a vintage performance against the Rockies at Coors Field later today, he’d have the opportunity to add that milestone to his legacy. Kershaw and Rockies southpaw Austin Gomber (8.38 ERA in two starts) are scheduled to take the mound at 1:10pm local time this afternoon. Kershaw hasn’t topped seven strikeouts in a start this season, but the Rockies’ 27.5% team strikeout rate against lefties is the second-highest mark in MLB.

2. Tigers 40-man move incoming:

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Tigers would be adding southpaw Dietrich Enns to the roster ahead of today’s game. The 34-year-old last appeared in the majors in 2021, when he posted a 2.82 ERA in 22 1/3 frames for the Rays. He has a 2.89 ERA in 14 Triple-A starts for the Toledo Mud Hens this year after signing a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason, and now he’ll get the opportunity to face the A’s and southpaw Jeffrey Springs (4.24 ERA) at 1:10pm local time in Detroit. Before that can happen, the Tigers will need to make a corresponding move to create 40-man roster space. That could come by way of an injured player heading to the 60-day injured list or Detroit brass working out a trade, but since Detroit doesn’t have an obvious 60-day IL candidate, the most likely outcome is a player being designated for assignment.

3. Imanaga to return:

It’s been almost two months since southpaw Shota Imanaga went down with a hamstring strain, and while the Cubs have managed to go 26-19 without his help in the rotation, the cracks have begun to show in recent weeks. While Matthew Boyd has pitched like a front-of-the-rotation arm in his first healthy season in half a decade and Cade Horton has done admirable work in his rookie campaign so far, the rest of the rotation has scuffled.

Ben Brown was recently optioned after getting torched to a 7.65 ERA across his last seven starts. Colin Rea has a 5.92 ERA in nine starts since Imanaga went down. Even typically steady veteran Jameson Taillon has a 5.86 ERA in June after back-to-back blow up starts. Imanaga, who had a 2.82 ERA in eight starts this year before going on the injured list, will look to help stop the bleeding in the rotation and turn the Cubs’ rotation around. His first opportunity to do so will come against the Cardinals and right-hander Andre Pallante (4.48 ERA) later today in a game scheduled for 1:15pm local time.

Read The Transcript Of Nicklaus Gaut’s Fantasy Baseball Chat

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