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Orioles Select Luis Vázquez

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The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Luis Vázquez. He’ll take the active roster spot of infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left elbow inflammation, retroactive to June 7th. The 40-man roster count climbs from 38 to 39. The O’s added that right-hander Matt Bowman, who was recently designated for assignment, has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

Vazquez, 25, was acquired from the Cubs in a minor trade back in January. The infielder was a 14th-round pick by Chicago back in 2017 but made it to the majors for the first time just last year with an 11-game stint on the North Side. Vazquez split time between shortstop, third base, and second base during his brief call-up and looked competent at all three of those positions defensively, but hit just .083 with six strikeouts in 14 plate appearances during that brief call-up to the majors. Other than that, he spent the entire year at Triple-A Iowa, where he hit a solid but unspectacular .263/.347/.432 in 64 games, which in terms of wRC+ sat right around league average with a figure of 98.

During the offseason, the Cubs committed to a complete overhaul of their third base and bench mixes. Aside from promoting top prospect Matt Shaw, they brought in Jon Berti, Vidal Brujan, and Justin Turner to round out the bench mix while parting ways with not only starting third baseman Isaac Paredes but also longtime bench pieces like Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, and David Bote. Vazquez found himself let go as part of that purge and was designated for assignment to make room for the addition of Berti to the 40-man roster, which ultimately facilitated his trade to the Orioles organization. The infielder didn’t last long on the Orioles’ own 40-man roster and was outrighted to the minors just a week after the club acquired him. He received some consideration for an Opening Day roster spot but ultimately began the season at Triple-A Norfolk, where he’s slashed .280/.345/.447 with a 114 wRC+ in 37 games this year.

Vazquez is now set to take over for Mateo on the Orioles’ bench. Mateo’s dealing with discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, so while MLB.com notes that Mateo underwent an MRI that revealed no structural damage it’s hardly a surprise that Baltimore has decided to be cautious with their utility man. Mateo is presently in the midst of his worst season as an Oriole with a 44 wRC+ and a 35.4% strikeout rate, so it’s possible that the time off could give him some time to reset as well. The soon to be 30-year-old remains a useful bench piece despite his paltry offense this year thanks to his elite baserunning (14 steals in 15 attempts this year as a part-time player) and his versatility to handle virtually every spot on the diamond as needed. Vazquez, Ramon Urias, and Dylan Carlson will all be tasked with helping to pick up the slack while Mateo is on the shelf.

As for Bowman, the right-hander made his debut back in 2016 and spent a few years as a solid middle reliever for the Reds and Cardinals before falling off the map for a few years due to injuries. He resurfaced in 2023 and has bounced between the Yankees, Twins, Diamondbacks, Mariners, and Orioles over the past three years while putting together a 4.79 ERA and 4.91 FIP in 56 1/3 innings. He’ll now head to Triple-A to serve as non-roster relief depth for Baltimore going forward.

Rangers To Sign Craig Kimbrel To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are signing right-hander Craig Kimbrel to a minor league deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The righty elected free agency yesterday after Atlanta passed him through waivers unclaimed.

Kimbrel, 37, signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in the middle of March. He reported to Triple-A Gwinnett and logged 18 innings with an earned run average of 2.00. His 12.9% walk rate was a bit high but he also struck out 32.9% of batters faced. Atlanta called him up a few days ago but designated him for assignment after just one appearance. He tossed one scoreless inning against the Giants, allowing one hit and surrendering one walk while striking out one opponent.

As a veteran with years of big league experience, Kimbrel has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. He did exactly that and has quickly secured this minor league deal with the Rangers.

Kimbrel’s track record is well known. He has been one of the most dominant relievers in the sport at times and is currently fifth on the all-time saves list. The bigger question is whether he can still be an effective big leaguer, as his recent track record is shaky. He had an ERA north of 5.00 in both 2019 and 2020. He got that down to more reasonable levels for the 2021-23 seasons but struggled again last year. He had a 2.80 ERA in the first half with the Orioles but was lit up for a 10.59 ERA in the second half, getting released before the season ended.

This year, any club could have given him a big league shot. It was reported that his minor league deal with Atlanta had a “rolling opt-out” that essentially allowed any club to offer him a major league role at any time. If any had done so, Atlanta would have needed to decide whether to call him up themselves. As far as we know, no club took advantage of that contract provision. Atlanta did call him up but for literally one day.

That has left him to settle for another minor league deal. He will presumably report to Triple-A Round Rock shortly and will get some work for that club as he tries to get another chance in the majors.

For the Rangers, they have been looking for cheap bullpen solutions for a long time. In the offseason, they clearly wanted to upgrade the group but also wanted to avoid the competitive balance tax. They signed Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Luke Jackson, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong and Luis Curvelo to major league deals, none of them worth more than $5.5MM. They also acquired Robert Garcia, who has not yet qualified for arbitration, in the deal that sent Nathaniel Lowe to the Nationals.

They are currently running a four-man rotation with Nathan Eovaldi on the injured list and Kumar Rocker recently optioned to the minors. They can have Tyler Mahle, Jack Leiter, Patrick Corbin and Jacob deGrom start the next four games but might need to do something creative by Saturday. Perhaps they will do a bullpen game or call up a minor leaguer for a spot start. Perhaps a fresh arm will be needed in the next week and Kimbrel could be that guy.

Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images

Akil Baddoo Accepts Outright Assignment With Tigers

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The Tigers announced to reporters, including Chris McCosky of Detroit News, that outfielder Akil Baddoo is staying in the organization. He was designated for assignment last week but has now cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Toledo.

Baddoo was also outrighted off Detroit’s roster in December. That was his first career outright assignment and he had less than three years of service time at that point, meaning he did not have the right to elect free agency. He was added back to the roster about a month ago but has now been outrighted a second time. He had the right to elect free agency this time but has decided to stay in the Tigers’ system as non-roster depth.

Back in 2021, Baddoo looked like a Rule 5 steal. That was his first year with Detroit after getting plucked from the Twins. He got into 124 games, hit 13 home runs and stole 18 bases. He slashed .259/.330/.436 for a 108 wRC+.

It seemed like maybe the Tigers had grabbed an everyday outfielder but his production has tailed off since then, leaving him now as a depth option. Since the start of the 2022 season, he has stepped to the plate 682 times in the majors with a .201/.288/.323 line and 74 wRC+.

Still, the Tigers are probably happy to have him around. He has continued putting up good numbers in the minors, with a .250/.351/.433 line and 111 wRC+ for that 2022-25 stretch. Matt Vierling has been on the injured list for much of this year and it’s nice to have options available if another injury pops up.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images.

Dodgers Recall Matt Sauer, DFA José Ureña

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3:50pm: It’s now official, with the Dodgers announcing they have recalled Sauer and designated Ureña for assignment.

8:03am: Speaking to reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) after last night’s extra-innings victory over the Padres, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team is planning to recall right-hander Matt Sauer from Triple-A. Sauer is already with the team in San Diego as a member of the taxi squad, but the Dodgers will need to formally add him to the roster before he can pitch this evening. To do so, they will designate veteran righty José Ureña for assignment (per Ardaya).

Drafted by the Yankees in 2017, Sauer made his MLB debut last season with the Royals, who had selected him in the Rule 5 draft. However, Kansas City DFA’d him after he gave up 14 runs in his first 14 games, and he returned to finish out the season in New York’s farm system. The righty elected free agency this past offseason and signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers in December. This will already be Sauer’s fifth stint with the Dodgers this year. He made the travel roster for the Tokyo Series (although he did not appear in a game) and has since been optioned and recalled several times. All told, he has thrown 20 2/3 innings over seven appearances, allowing nine runs (seven earned) on 16 hits. The 26-year-old has only struck out 13 batters (16.7% K%), but his low walk rate (3.8%) and high groundball rate (49.2%) have helped him keep runners off the bases and runs off the board. As has been the case each previous time he was recalled, Sauer isn’t likely to stick around on L.A.’s 26-man roster for long. That said, a player can only be optioned five times in a season, so the next time the Dodgers option him will be the last.

Due to the Dodgers limited rotation depth – Tony Gonsolin recently joined fellow starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt and Gavin Stone on the IL – Sauer is likely to pitch multiple innings as part of a bullpen game today. However, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register suggests he will probably come in after an opener rather than start the game.

Ureña signed with the Dodgers last week, shortly after the Blue Jays DFA’d him. As Ardaya notes, the Dodgers will only be on the hook for a prorated portion of the league minimum salary for the few days he spent on their active roster. In that time, Ureña made two appearances for L.A., giving up one run on four hits over three innings. Altogether, he has pitched 18 1/3 innings this season for the Mets, Blue Jays, and Dodgers, with a 5.40 ERA and 5.09 SIERA to show for it. Considering his long MLB track record and versatility – he can pitch into the fifth inning as a starter or touch 98 mph out of the bullpen – he shouldn’t have trouble latching on somewhere else. The journeyman might not be seeing the same success he enjoyed with the Rangers in 2024 (3.80 ERA in 109 IP), but there’s a reason three contending clubs have put him on their roster this season.

Chris Stratton Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Chris Stratton has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The Dodgers had sent him outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, indicating he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago. However, he has exercised his right to head to the open market.

Stratton, 34, has been on and off the Dodgers’ roster in recent weeks. He was released by the Royals a couple of weeks ago. That left Kansas City on the hook for what’s left of the two-year, $8MM deal he signed ahead of the 2024 campaign. Any other team can sign him and only pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Royals pay.

The Dodgers have done so twice in recent weeks. The first time resulted in Stratton making two appearances before being designated for assignment. He went unclaimed on waivers, elected free agency and then re-signed with them. In the second stint, he made just one appearance before getting the DFA treatment again. As a player with at least five years of service time, he can reject an outright assignment and keep his salary commitments in place.

The Dodgers currently have 14 pitchers on the injured list and they have been trying various methods to keep the staff fresh. They are also a third-time competitive balance tax payor and are above the top line this year, meaning they face a 110% tax on any new spending. Stratton has therefore been a nice fit for them as a veteran arm who has been both cheap and available.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him reunite with the Dodgers yet again but he is now free to discuss opportunities with all clubs. Los Angeles just got Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates off the IL, perhaps lessening their need to sign Stratton a third time.

Stratton hasn’t been in great form lately. Since signing that aforementioned deal with the Royals, he has a 6.13 earned run average in 79 1/3 innings. His 18.3% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate in that time are both subpar figures, though he’s been getting grounders at a healthy 46% clip.

But he does have years of previous experience as an effective big league reliever. From 2020 to 2023, he logged 255 1/3 innings with a 3.91 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 41.9% ground ball rate. Since there’s no real cost in picking him up, he should land a new deal in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images

Aaron Nola To Be Shut Down For Two Weeks With Stress Reaction In Rib Cage

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Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola is already on the injured list but won’t be returning soon. Per Matt Gelb of The Athletic, a recent MRI revealed a stress reaction in his right rib cage. He won’t throw for the next two weeks.

Nola landed on the 15-day IL almost a month ago due to a sprained right ankle. It’s unclear how or when he suffered this rib injury but it’s a notable setback for him. Even if he’s healthy two weeks from now, it will have been about six weeks since his most recent game action. At that point, he’ll have to ramp back up into game shape. As noted by Gelb, it’s now possible that Nola won’t return until after the All-Star break.

Prior to hitting the IL, Nola wasn’t having his best season, with a 6.16 earned run average in nine starts. However, that may not have been entirely his fault. His 23.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate were fairly close to his previous levels, while his .348 batting average on balls in play and 68.7% strand rate were both to the unlucky side. ERA estimators like his 5.00 FIP and especially his 3.63 SIERA felt he deserved far better.

He now won’t get a chance to improve his numbers for a while. As he has been out of action, the Phils have endured their toughest stretch of the season. They have lost nine of their past eleven contests, dropping them to four games back of the Mets in the National League East.

On paper, the Philadelphia rotation is strong even without Nola in it. They still have Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Mick Abel. However, Wheeler recently spent some time on the paternity list and Luzardo’s past two starts have been awful. Abel’s big league numbers are good so far but he literally has two starts under his belt.

Ideally, that group can help the team right the ship in the coming weeks. If not, the Phils have some potential in-house pivots. Prospect Andrew Painter is now healthy and putting up decent numbers in Triple-A, though he may have workload concerns after missing all of the previous two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Taijuan Walker is currently in the bullpen and could return to the rotation, though getting stretched out midseason can be a challenge.

The trade deadline is on July 31st, which may coincide with Nola’s return to the big league club. Given the starting options the Phils already have on hand, trading for more help is probably not the top of their to-do list, but it’s always possible that more injuries pop up or that Nola experiences another setback of some kind.

Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

Mets Sign Travis Jankowski To Minor League Deal

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The Mets signed veteran outfielder — and former Met — Travis Jankowski to a minor league deal, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The Excel Sports client will head to Triple-A Syracuse for the time being.

Jankowski was placed on waivers by the Rays earlier this month. He went unclaimed and elected free agency, as is his right as a player with more than more than three years of service (more than eight, in Jankowski’s case). His time with Tampa Bay, during which he batted .244/.286/.289 in 49 plate appearances, gives him at least some level of big league action in 11 consecutive seasons.

Though he crossed eight years of MLB service during that Rays stint, Jankowski has never been a regular in the majors. He played a career-high 131 games with the 2016 Padres but did so in a limited, part-time role (383 plate appearances). He’s never topped the 387 plate appearances he logged with the 2018 Padres and has a total of 805 plate appearances over the past seven MLB seasons.

Jankowski is a career .236/.318/.305 hitter. He has negligible power and a league-average strikeout rate but draws plenty of walks, runs well and can play solid defense at all three outfield positions. He’s a nice fourth or fifth outfielder who’ll head to Triple-A and see if an opportunity opens up with the Mets’ big league squad, where Brandon Nimmo, Tyrone Taylor and Juan Soto are currently the main outfield options.

Both Jared Young and Starling Marte can technically play in the outfield, but they have four combined appearances on the grass this season. Outfielders Jose Siri and Jesse Winker are currently on the injured list (although the latter has primarily been a designated hitter). Jeff McNeil is effectively the Mets’ fourth outfielder at the moment. He’s logged 96 innings in the outfield, including 49 in center.

Jankowski was with the Mets back in 2022 but went just 9-for-44, with all nine of those hits being singles. That came out to a .167/.286/.167 batting line, but he could find himself with the opportunity to make a more lasting impression this time around, should the Mets incur an outfield injury or opt to move McNeil back to second base on a full-time basis.

Poll: Can Drew Rasmussen Keep Pitching Like An Ace?

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Drew Rasmussen has pitched into the fifth inning in every start he’s made in 2025. That might not seem so impressive, but Rasmussen is one of just 28 pitchers to have recorded an out in the fifth in 13 or more starts this year. That’s fewer than one per team. Not to mention, he’s coming off internal brace surgery, the third major elbow procedure of his career. Few major leaguers have ever returned from a third such surgery, let alone returned and thrived as the kind of arm a team can count on for five innings every five days.

Even better for Rasmussen and the Rays, his innings stand out for their quality as much as their quantity. In 12 of his 13 starts, he has thrown at least five frames whilst allowing no more than seven baserunners and four runs. No other pitcher – not Paul Skenes, not Jacob deGrom, not Zack Wheeler – has made as many starts that fit that description. All told, the 29-year-old has a 2.22 ERA, the eighth-lowest among qualified AL starters, right in between preseason Cy Young favorites Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet. His 0.90 WHIP ranks third, just behind Skubal’s and just ahead of deGrom’s. Underlying those strong results are a 5.3% walk rate, a 50.8% groundball rate, and a 4.8% barrel rate, all of which rank him among the AL’s best. None of his ERA estimators (3.43 SIERA, 3.16 xERA, 3.23 FIP, and 3.31 xFIP) is quite as strong as his low-2.00s ERA, but they’re all still excellent numbers, and only four qualified AL starters have him beat in all four metrics: Skubal, Crochet, Kris Bubic, and Hunter Brown. Those are four of the most exciting young hurlers in the league.

Rasmussen has often flown under the radar, but his ace-like performance this year is hardly coming out of nowhere. Since he arrived in Tampa Bay as part of the Willy Adames trade in 2021, he has pitched to a 2.62 ERA in 347 1/3 innings. He has also compiled 8.2 FanGraphs WAR and 8.8 Baseball Reference WAR in that time. That works out to roughly four wins above replacement per 162 innings, an All-Star-caliber clip. Just as impressive is his consistency. In parts of five seasons with the Rays, he has never had an ERA higher than 2.84. Of course, injuries have severely limited his playing time – he threw 59 innings for Tampa Bay in 2021, 146 in 2022, 44 2/3 in 2023, 28 2/3 in 2024, and he’s thrown 69 so far in 2025 – but his steady excellence is remarkable all the same. Before and after each stint on the IL, Rasmussen has remained dominant. We’re also talking about a guy with the underlying metrics and phenomenal stuff to back up his great results. Since he joined the Rays, only three pitchers have thrown more innings than Rasmussen with a lower SIERA, xERA, FIP, and xFIP: Skubal, Chris Sale, and Spencer Strider. Meanwhile, the comprehensive pitch models at FanGraphs, PitchingBot and Pitching+, both suggest his arsenal has been well above average in every season of his Rays tenure.

So, on the one hand, we’re looking at a pitcher who has excelled at every turn over the past five years. On the other hand, that same pitcher has never thrown more than 146 innings in a season. His second-highest single-season innings total at the MLB level is 76. Both of those campaigns came before his third major elbow surgery. In other words, all of Rasmussen’s stats come from a relatively small sample. Furthermore, we have no way to know for sure that he is capable of pitching a full, qualified season without tiring down the stretch. Most important of all, he’s an injury risk, and he will carry that label for perhaps the rest of his career. So, even in a best-case scenario in which Rasmussen continues to shine and shows no sign of slowing down, the Rays will have to manage his workload carefully. At some point, Kevin Cash might stop him from pitching into the fifth inning every start. It’s not out of the question that Rasmussen could eventually move to the bullpen if the Rays are particularly worried about his innings.

Rasmussen has pitched like an ace so far in 2025. Indeed, on a per-inning basis, he’s been one of the most effective arms in the game since he landed with the Rays in 2021. Yet, it’s far from a guarantee he can keep this up over the next several months. So, what do MLBTR readers think? Has Rasmussen done enough to prove he’s one of the game’s premier starting pitchers? Or will his injury history and lack of experience catch up with him as the season wears on? Have your say in today’s poll:

Will Drew Rasmussen keep pitching like an ace?
Yes, he is a top-tier starting pitcher. 57.16% (870 votes)
No, he will eventually regress and/or miss time. 42.84% (652 votes)
Total Votes: 1,522

Nationals Claim Ryan Loutos

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The Nationals announced that they have claimed right-hander Ryan Loutos off waivers from the Dodgers and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester. The Dodgers designated the righty for assignment last week. The Nats had a roster vacancy after recently releasing righty Jorge López but their 40-man is now full.

Loutos, 26, joins his third club of the year. He started the season with the Cardinals but was designated for assignment at the end of April. The Dodgers then acquired him in a cash deal but gave him the DFA treatment again a few days ago, which led to this waiver claim.

His major league track record is still fairly limited. He logged 2 1/3 innings for the Cards last year and added another three innings for the Dodgers this year. He has allowed five earned runs while striking out two, walking two and hitting one batter.

The Nats are presumably more interested in his minor league track record, which provides a far larger sample of work to look at. He has logged 231 innings on the farm from 2021 to the present with a 4.68 ERA. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has a 3.14 ERA in 71 2/3 innings, with a 24.3% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate. He has also generated grounders on close to half the balls in play he’s allowed.

Loutos can also be optioned to the minors for the rest of this year and one additional season. The Nats had an open roster spot, so Loutos is essentially a free flier on a young arm with some intriguing numbers. He’ll head to Rochester for now but should be up in the big leagues whenever Washington needs a fresh bullpen arm.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Orioles Designate Emmanuel Rivera For Assignment, Option Heston Kjerstad

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The Orioles announced a number of roster moves today. Outfielder Cedric Mullins and infielder Jordan Westburg have both been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. In corresponding moves, the club has optioned outfielder Heston Kjerstad and designated infielder Emmanuel Rivera for assignment. The O’s also announced that outfielder Jordyn Adams, who was designated for assignment last week, has been sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk. The 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Kjerstad, 26, was the No. 2 overall pick back in 2020, though that selection represented a bit of draft-day creativity; he was generally viewed as a mid-first-round talent but signed with the O’s on an underslot deal at No. 2 overall, leaving Baltimore some extra money to pursue over-slot bonuses with others further down the line — the aforementioned Westburg and top prospect Coby Mayo among them.

The Orioles have given Kjerstad looks in each of the past three seasons now, but the 2025 campaign is the first where he’s been given a real run at anything close to regular playing time. It didn’t go well. Despite being largely shielded from left-handed pitching, the lefty-swinging Kjerstad hit just .192/.240/.327 with four homers, a 3.6% walk rate and a 26.9% strikeout rate in 167 turns at the plate. He’s improved his overall contact rate relative to 2023-24, but he’s chasing off the plate at borderline egregious levels (38.4% chase rate) and still swinging through pitches too often.

Kjerstad finds himself at something of a crossroads with the Orioles. He’ll still have one more minor league option remaining beyond the current season, but he’s now struggled to establish himself in three separate seasons. Colton Cowser is locked into one outfield spot long-term. Tyler O’Neill has an opt-out clause in his three-year contract that he does not presently appear likely to take (although a big finish to the season can always change that). Mullins is a free agent at season’s end, as is Ryan O’Hearn, which could open some outfield/designated hitter playing time. However, the O’s have prospects like Enrique Bradfield Jr., Jud Fabian, Vance Honeycutt and Dylan Beavers rising through the system — any of whom could also factor into those competitions for playing time.

It’s arguable that Kjerstad hasn’t really gotten a fair audition. He’s totaled 314 MLB plate appearances across three seasons and always been either platooned or had the specter of someone returning from the IL to take his spot and push him back to Triple-A Norfolk.

Other clubs might have given him a more traditional everyday opportunity, but the Orioles tend to prioritize matchups more than most and have frequently brought in veteran outfielders who’ve cut into Kjerstad’s potential playing time (e.g. O’Neill, Ramon Laureano, Dylan Carlson, Eloy Jimenez, Austin Slater). They make no secret about their endeavors to stockpile as much depth as possible, which positions them well for injuries but also results in scattershot opportunities for young players like Kjerstad, Mayo and since-traded prospects like Kyle Stowers, Connor Norby and Joey Ortiz.

For now, Kjerstad will head to Norfolk and look to get his swing back on track. However, he has little left to prove against Triple-A pitching. Kjerstad has played 132 games there, taken 591 plate appearances, and mashed at a .299/.382/.541 clip.

As for Rivera, he originally came to the O’s as one of those previously mentioned depth grabs. Baltimore claimed him off waivers last August, enjoyed a productive run of 27 games down the stretch, and tendered him a $1MM contract over the winter. Rivera never seemed likely to replicate the .364 average on balls in play or 22.2% homer-to-fly-ball ratio he logged with the O’s in 2024, however, and his offense has plummeted back down to his career norms in 2025. He’s taken 76 plate appearances and batted .232/.303/.275 — not far off his lifetime .243/.306/.363 slash in the majors.

The 28-year-old Rivera’s hard-contact numbers completely eroded this season. He’s a surehanded defender at the hot corner and has also played some first base in the majors. However, he’s out of minor league options, so the O’s couldn’t simply send him down. He’ll first need to clear waivers. Given his lack of track record and options, he could well pass through unclaimed, though he’s affordable enough that a team seeking short-term help at the hot corner could look to him as a stopgap between now and the trade deadline.

MLB rules stipulate that a player can be in DFA limbo for a maximum of one week, and waivers are a 48-hour process, so Rivera will be traded or placed on waivers within the next five days. If he clears, he’ll presumably accept a minor league assignment, as he did when the O’s passed him through waivers earlier this spring. Rejecting in favor of free agency would mean forfeiting the remainder of his $1MM guarantee, as Rivera does not have the five years of service needed to reject an outright assignment and retain his guaranteed salary.

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