Royals Recall Eric Cerantola For MLB Debut
The Royals announced Wednesday that righty Eric Cerantola has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. Right-hander Stephen Kolek was optioned back to Omaha to make space on the active roster. Cerantola will be making his major league debut when he first takes the mound.
Kansas City drafted the now-26-year-old Cerantola in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. The former Mississippi State righty worked as a starter in the Royals system in 2021-22 before moving to the bullpen in 2023. The Royals selected Cerantola to the 40-man roster in Nov. 2024 in order to shield him from the Rule 5 Draft after a ’24 campaign in which he pitched 72 2/23 innings with a 2.97 ERA, a big 31.4% strikeout rate and a bloated 15.5% walk rate.
Cerantola didn’t make his debut last year, instead spending the season in Triple-A, where he pitched 49 innings with a 4.04 ERA, a 29.6% strikeout rate and an improved (but still too high) 11.3% walk rate. It’s not an overly compelling season from a statistical standpoint, but Cerantola averaged 95 mph on his heater and has garnered plus-plus (70 on the 20-80 scale) grades for his slider over at FanGraphs, where he ranked 28th among K.C. farmhands to begin the season.
Cerantola has gotten out to a terrific start in 2026. He’s pitched 12 2/3 innings of relief and held opposing hitters to just two runs (1.42 ERA) on 10 hits and six walks. He’s fanned exactly one third of the batters he’s faced (18 of 54) and logged a colossal 21.1% swinging-strike thanks largely to that double-plus breaking ball. Command has always been an issue for him and probably will continue to be against major league hitters, but Cerantola adds a nice bat-missing, power arm to a Royals bullpen that currently ranks 21st in strikeout rate and 24th in ERA.
This is the second of three minor league option years for Cerantola. He can be freely sent back to Omaha both this year and next. Given the shaky performance from the Royals’ bullpen overall, there’s plenty of opportunity to earn a long-term spot in the bullpen before Cerantola exhausts his final two option years. He’ll be controllable for at least six seasons beyond the current campaign.
Reds Select Tejay Antone
The Reds announced they have selected the contact of right-hander Tejay Antone and activated right-hander Pierce Johnson from the bereavement list. In corresponding active roster moves, they optioned right-hander Chase Petty and placed righty Emilio Pagán on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. To open a 40-man spot for Antone, left-hander Brandon Williamson has been transferred to the 60-day IL. C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reported on Antone’s promotion prior to the official announcement.
It’s a pretty incredible moment for Antone, considering all that he’s been through. For years, he’s been dealing with an incredibly unfortunate series of injuries and surgeries. He first underwent Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer in 2017 then required another one in August of 2021. He missed the 2022 season while rehabbing from that procedure. A number of setbacks prevented him from returning until late in 2023. He required yet another major elbow surgery early in 2024 after tearing a tendon off his bone and suffering a ligament tear.
The Reds outrighted Antone off the roster following that 2024 season. He was back on the mound in 2025, making a few minor league appearances in August and September. He re-signed with the Reds on a new minor league deal for 2026. He has logged 12 Triple-A appearances so far this year, allowing 2.25 earned runs per nine. He has struck out 15 of the 49 batters he has faced, a strong clip of 30.6%. His control hasn’t been perfect, perhaps not surprising for a guy who has missed so much time. His six walks lead to high rate of 12.2% and he has also hit a batter and thrown two wild pitches.
Due to all those injuries, Antone only threw 36 official innings over the four-year span from 2022 to 2025, majors and minors combined. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess what he can provide going forward, but his recent results have been encouraging and his previous track record was good. Over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he gave the Reds 69 innings with a 2.48 ERA, 32.3% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. Just making it back to the majors surely feels like a huge accomplishment for Antone but any success from here on out would be icing on the cake.
Williamson hit the 15-day IL at the end of April due to shoulder fatigue. His current status is unclear but it’s not a good sign that he’s been quickly moved to the 60-day IL. He also spent some time on the IL due to a shoulder strain in 2024.
Pagán clearly injured himself in yesterday’s game, grabbing at his hamstring and needing to be carted off the field. He tells reporters today, including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer, that he’ll miss about four to eight weeks. He added that he’s actually pleasantly surprised because he figured his season was over, given the amount of pain he was in. Guys like Tony Santillan and Graham Ashcraft will probably have to step up to help with save situations while Pagán is sidelined.
Petty was just recalled but that was apparently for a spot start. Nick Lodolo is listed as Friday’s starter, so it seems he’ll come off the IL to rejoin the rotation alongside Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer, Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns.
Photo courtesy of Frank Bowen IV, Imagn Images
Twins Designate Christian Roa For Assignment
The Twins have designated righty Christian Roa for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to newly acquired right-hander Yoendrys Gómez, whose acquisition has now been formally announced by Minnesota.
Roa was only claimed off waivers from the Astros a couple weeks back. He hasn’t appeared in a game for the big league club. The 27-year-old tossed 2 1/3 innings with Triple-A St. Paul and allowed a pair of runs on two hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He’s pitched a total of 11 2/3 major league innings between the Marlins and Astros, allowing five runs (3.86 ERA) with more walks than strikeouts.
The 6’4″, former Texas A&M standout was the No. 48 overall pick by the Reds back in 2020. He’s drawn praise for a plus slider and average or better fastball and changeup over the years, but he’s regularly received 30 and 40 grades (on the 20-80 scale) for his command along the way. Roa has pitched to a 4.56 ERA in parts of four Triple-A seasons, fanning 25.5% of his opponents there but also issuing walks at a dismal 14% clip.
The Twins will have five days to trade Roa, place him on outright waivers or release him. Waivers would be a 48-hour process, so his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week’s time.
Marlins To Select Robby Snelling
The Marlins are calling up pitching prospect Robby Snelling. He’ll be selected to the roster and will start Friday against the Nationals. They have an open 40-man spot after designating Chris Paddack for assignment earlier this week, so they will only need to open an active roster spot for him. Manager Clayton McCullough announced the news to reporters, including Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extra Base.
The Snelling promotion has been expected since not long after Paddack’s DFA. He and fellow lefty Braxton Garrett were possibilities to take the ball Friday in place of Paddack, but Garrett tossed 80 pitches in a start for Triple-A Jacksonville last night, strongly hinting that Friday would be Snelling’s big league debut. The team has now made that official.
Selected by the Padres with the No. 39 overall pick back in 2022, Snelling made his way to the Marlins organization as part of the return in the deadline trade sending relievers Tanner Scott and Bryan Hoeing to San Diego. His stock was down a bit at the time of the swap, but he’s rebounded nicely with the Marlins organization — so much so that Baseball America ranked him 26th on this morning’s refresh of their top-100 prospect rankings.
The 22-year-old Snelling has been excellent this year in six Triple-A starts, recording a 1.86 ERA and a mammoth 40% strikeout rate — albeit against a concerning 13.6% walk rate. He’s kept 57% of batted balls against him on the ground. Snelling was also lights out in 11 Triple-A starts last year (1.27 ERA — 2.51 overall ERA between Double-A and Triple-A). At this point, he seems more than ready for a look in the majors, even with the sub-par command.
Snelling, listed at 6’3″ and 210 pounds, works primarily off a four-seam fastball that averages just over 94 mph and a curveball that sits 82-83 mph. He mixes in an occasional changeup and slider, but the four-seamer/curveball combo has accounted for more than 80% of his pitches in 2026. Snelling’s four-seamer and curveball both drew plus grades (60) on BA’s scouting report, while his lesser-used changeup and slider still garner above-average (55) ratings on the 20-80 scale. He’ll need to rein in his command, but it’s not hard to see why the Marlins are eager to take a look at a 22-year-old southpaw with four above-average pitches and a sub-2.00 ERA in 18 career Triple-A starts.
Since Snelling opened the season in the minors and wasn’t called up until early May, he won’t qualify to net the Marlins an additional draft pick under MLB’s prospect promotion incentive (PPI) program. Enough time has elapsed this season that the only way for him to accrue a full year of major league service time would be to finish first or second in National League Rookie of the Year balloting. Snelling certainly has the pedigree to do so, but young standouts like Nolan McLean, JJ Wetherholt and Sal Stewart all have a considerable head start on him in that race.
Barring a top-two Rookie of the Year finish, Snelling will remain under club control for at least six years beyond the 2026 campaign. If he sticks in the majors for good from this point forth, he’ll be a surefire Super Two player, thereby making him eligible for arbitration four times (beginning after the 2028 season) rather than the standard three.
With Paddack on his way out the door, there’s a long-term spot in the Miami rotation open. This figures to be more than just a simple spot start. Snelling should have a clear runway to prove he can be a building block in the rotation. Triple-A teammate Thomas White, who ranked 11th on the aforementioned Baseball America top-100 update, should get the chance to join him at some point down the road this year.
Miami only has Sandy Alcantara signed through the 2027 season, but the allure of a rotation including Alcantara, Snelling, White, Eury Pérez and Max Meyer — with Garrett and Janson Junk also in the mix — is readily apparent. Even if the Fish finally trade Alcantara this summer, the starting staff has several high-upside young pieces who could form the nucleus of a contending staff … if the Marlins can find a way to put together a decent offense. Only twice in the past two decades have the Marlins put together an offense that was better than league-average, by measure of wRC+. The 2007 and 2017 Marlins both logged collective wRC+ marks of 101, indicating they were 1% better than average. They’re exactly average (100) so far in 2026.
MLB Mailbag: Gunnar Henderson, Skubal, Padres
This week's mailbag gets into potential Gunnar Henderson trade timing, the potential of Marlins lefty Braxton Garrett, possible All-Star Game starting pitchers, whether the Tigers might trade injured ace Tarik Skubal, who the Padres might add at the trade deadline, and more.
Drew asks:
Let's play a game, part 1: predict the odds on a Gunnar trade this year, offseason, 2027 pre trade deadline, or not at all. Part 2: What's his actual value in terms of prospect capital given his downturn in performance?
Henderson, 25 in June, is under team control through 2028. This is his first arbitration year, and he's earning $8.5MM. As a Boras client, Henderson isn't seen as a likely extension candidate for the Orioles.
As of Wednesday morning, the 16-20 Orioles have pretty much abandoned their hopes of winning the AL East, but are only one game back for a wild card spot. According to FanGraphs, they have a 31.4% chance of reaching the playoffs this year.
After a 1 for 5 effort against the Marlins on Tuesday, Henderson's wRC+ stands at just 95 through 163 plate appearances. He's shown good power with nine home runs, but is striking out nearly 31% of the time and thus has a .208/.270/.443 line. Henderson's expected batting average is .225, so he's mostly earned his ugly early-season line. In a full season, Henderson has yet to post a wRC+ below last year's 120, and he soared as high as 154 in 2024.
Has Henderson previously posted a .713 OPS over 35 games? Yes - he was notably worse from August 19th through September 27th last year, when he hit .248/.333/.308 (83 wRC+). He also had an early 2023 run of that length with a .684 OPS (.192/.328/.356 for a 94 wRC+). What's happened so far is well within the range of normal variation for Henderson. After that streak ended in '23, he posted a 130 wRC+ the rest of the way.
Henderson has spent ample time at both third base and shortstop in his career, though he's been at short exclusively since his monster '24 season. He's demonstrated roughly average defensive abilities at the position.
The Orioles could reasonably fall out of the playoff race prior to the August 3rd trade deadline. They could trade Henderson for three pennant races, moving on from his final 2 1/3 years of control.
Orioles president of baseball operations and GM Mike Elias is a pragmatic type, but I expect him to re-load (to a degree) for 2027 and try to win again with Henderson. Henderson projects to be worth 5 WAR this year and is making a fraction of his market value. There's just no good reason to cash him in this summer. I'll put the summer 2026 trade odds at 1%.
As we entertain this hypothetical, it's worth asking who would take over for the Orioles at shortstop. Jeremiah Jackson, getting most of the second base share at present, is one candidate. He was seen as having the athleticism for the position back in his prospect days, before he was traded to the Mets and then later released. Jackson Holliday has five more years of team control remaining and could be a long-term option, though he's been slow to return this year from a broken hamate bone. Jordan Westburg is on the 60-day IL with a partial UCL tear, so he's a major question mark right now. Neither Holliday nor Westburg has played shortstop regularly since 2023.
MLB.com suggests prospect Wehiwa Aloy could stick at shortstop, but he's currently at High-A. Former big leaguer Jose Barrero has been handling shortstop for the Triple-A Norfolk Tides and could be a 2026 stopgap.
Is Holliday the best long-term internal bet to take over at shortstop? He was seen as a plus defensive shortstop coming up, but as a second baseman last year he struggled mightily going to his right and did not demonstrate a strong arm. Holliday has five years of control remaining, but he also has one decent MLB season under his belt and has yet to get going in 2026.
I'm trying to talk myself into the Orioles trading Henderson during the 2026-27 offseason, and I find it to be a major stretch. They just don't have a ready replacement, so trading Henderson would be a huge concession for '27. The Orioles are committed to Pete Alonso and Shane Baz through 2030, the resurgent Adley Rutschman is under control through '27, Westburg through '29, and Holliday through '30. While I don't love that MLB core, pivoting to a reset this winter by trading their best player would be a gut-punch to fans. Throw in a lockout that will likely eat up three-plus months of the offseason, significantly shortening the window to make a franchise-altering trade, and it feels even less likely.
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Mets, Cionel Pérez Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mets and left-handed reliever Cionel Pérez are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. The Octagon client will presumably head to Triple-A Syracuse once the deal is official.
Pérez opened the season in the division-rival Nationals’ bullpen. He signed a minor league deal in free agency but won a roster spot with seven shutout spring innings. He allowed only two hits and a walk during Grapefruit League play and punched out seven batters along the way.
The good vibes for Pérez didn’t last long. He tossed a scoreless frame in his Nats debut but then surrendered runs in each of his next three appearances. He struggled on and off for the next month before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers and rejecting an outright assignment in favor of free agency earlier this week. Pérez wrapped up his five-week Nationals stint with a 6.19 ERA and more walks (11) than strikeouts (nine) through 16 frames. It’s the second straight ugly year for Pérez, who had a nice 2022-24 run in Baltimore but was tagged for 20 runs in 21 2/3 innings as an Oriole last year.
Pérez, 30, originally signed with the Astros in 2017 after defecting from his native Cuba. He scuffled through some rocky seasons in Houston and Cincinnati before breaking out with the 2022 Orioles. From 2022-24 in Baltimore, Pérez notched a 3.12 ERA with a 20.2% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. He picked up 57 holds and six saves during that solid run.
Pérez has never had great command, but he kept his walk rate at a manageable level during that Orioles peak. The walks and hit batters have begun to pile back up over the past few seasons. He’s given out a base on balls to 13.5% of his opponents dating back to 2024 and has plunked another seven hitters and tossed nine wild pitches in the process. On the plus side, he did add a bit of life back to his heater during his short time in Washington, bumping his average fastball back north of 96 mph (96.2); he averaged 96.6 mph from 2021-25 before dipping to 95.5 mph last year.
The Mets rank eighth in the majors in bullpen ERA, but not because of the free agent additions they brought into the fold. Both Devin Williams and Luke Weaver have struggled in the fist several weeks of the season (albeit while posting more encouraging rate stats than their ERAs would suggest). Tobias Myers, Huascar Brazoban, Brooks Raley and David Peterson — who’s moved into the ‘pen at least temporarily after struggling in the rotation — all have earned run averages south of 2.50. Craig Kimbrel, who signed a minor league deal, has allowed three runs in 7 1/3 innings while setting down 30% of his opponents on strikes.
Raley, Peterson and former starter Sean Manaea currently give Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza three options from the left side, though Manaea hasn’t pitched well. The Mets are also hoping to have A.J. Minter back soon. He’s nearing the end of a minor league rehab window and has held opponents to one earned run in 7 2/3 innings as he makes his way back from last May’s hip surgery. There’s no dire need for left-handed relief help in the Mets organization, but there’s also no harm in taking a low-cost look at a 30-year-old with a 96 mph heater who was a quality setup option for the Orioles not long ago.
Twins To Acquire Yoendrys Gómez
The Twins are going to acquire right-hander Yoendrys Gómez from the Rays, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. It’s unclear what Tampa, who designated Gómez for assignment a few days ago, will receive in return. The Twins have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this official. He will also need an active roster spot whenever he reports to the team.
Gómez, 26, wa once a notable prospect with the Yankees but he hasn’t been able to click in the majors yet. He exhausted his final option season in 2024, which has pushed him into fringe roster territory. He pitched for the Yankees, Dodgers and White Sox last year. He was traded to the Rays in November and began this season with them.
On the whole, Gómez has thrown 93 1/3 big league innings spread over the past four seasons. He has has allowed 5.11 earned runs per nine. His 20.2% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate and 32.7% ground ball rate are all subpar. There’s more potential to be seen in his minor league numbers. In 130 Triple-A innings, he has a 3.12 ERA and 28.9% strikeout rate. His 11% walk rate is still too high but the punchouts are enticing.
He has mostly worked as a starter in the minors but has largely been kept in a long relief role in the majors. The Twins will probably put him in that role as well. Simeon Woods Richardson is scheduled to start Thursday’s game. He has a 6.49 ERA on the year and has only gone longer than five innings in one of his seven starts. Connor Prielipp is scheduled to make just his fourth career big league start on Friday. On Saturday, Joe Ryan is scheduled to pitch despite departing his last start due to elbow soreness after just two batters.
There’s a decent chance of needing a long man at some point in that stretch, which is perhaps part of the appeal in adding Gómez. Due to his out-of-options status, he’ll need to be removed from the 40-man if the Twins want to bump him off the active roster at any point in the future.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Athletics Select Brooks Kriske
The Athletics announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Brooks Kriske. Fellow righty Tyler Ferguson was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas in a corresponding active roster move. A 40-man move will be necessary to open a spot for Kriske. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported earlier that Kriske would be called up.
Kriske, 32, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason. He has been with Triple-A Las Vegas so far this year. He has faced 67 batters and struck out 25 of them, a huge 37.3% rate. He has also given out 11 walks, a 16.4% pace, and thrown two wild pitches. He has a 2.25 earned run average in 16 innings.
The lack of command has been a consistent feature in his career. He has 39 2/3 major league innings under his belt with a 9.53 ERA, with a 16.8% walk rate playing a role in that. In 167 2/3 Triple-A innings, he has a huge 36% strikeout rate and a nice 3.70 ERA but a 12.4% walk rate. He spent 2022 and 2023 in Japan, where he had a 2.31 ERA and 26.9% strikeout rate but also walked 15.1% of batters faced.
The A’s will be latest club to try to take a chance on the stuff. His four-seamer averages about 93 miles per hour but isn’t his primary pitch. He throws his splitter about half the time, with the four-seamer and the cutter roughly splitting the remaining half. The combo clearly allows Kriske to miss bats but also the zone. If it doesn’t work out for the A’s and they want to bump him off the roster later, Kriske is out of options.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Marlins Recall Dax Fulton For MLB Debut
1:45pm: The Marlins have now officially announced that they have recalled Fulton and optioned Kempner.
11:32am: The Marlins are set to recall left-hander Dax Fulton from Triple-A Jacksonville, Isaac Azout of Fish on First reports. Righty William Kempner, who made his own big league debut last night, will be optioned to Jacksonville in his place. Fulton has been a starter for the vast majority of his professional career but will make his debut in the Miami bullpen, Azout adds. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that left-hander Robby Snelling is still on track to make his big league debut Friday in place of recently DFA’ed veteran Chris Paddack.
Kempner tossed only eight pitches in last night’s debut, so it’s not a matter of him being unavailable. Perhaps the Marlins simply wanted another lefty in the ‘pen after Andrew Nardi tossed 22 pitches yesterday, or perhaps they preferred to add some more length after using five relievers Tuesday. Whatever the rationale, Fulton will head to Miami for his first call to the majors. He’s made five starts and two relief appearances this season in Jacksonville but been hit hard: 20 innings, 17 earned runs, 23 hits, 11 walks, three hit batters and 24 strikeouts.
It’s been a shaky start to his year, clearly, but Fulton is a former second-round pick and well-regarded prospect whose path to the majors has been set back by injuries. Most notably, he underwent an internal brace procedure on his left UCL in June 2023. (Fulton also had Tommy John surgery as an amateur.) That 2023 surgery wiped out his entire ’24 campaign. Fulton returned in 2025 with 103 2/3 innings, posting an unsightly 5.38 ERA with more encouraging underlying marks (3.55 FIP, 23.8% strikeout rate, 47.3% grounder rate).
Fulton is a towering 6’7″ southpaw who’s listed at 245 pounds. He’s sitting 93.6 mph on his heater and can ramp the pitch up to 96-97 at times. The big lefty’s other go-to offerings are a low-80s curveball and an upper-80s changeup, though he’ll occasionally sprinkle in a sinker.
Whether the move to a relief role has any permanence remains to be seen. The Marlins have a good bit of rotation depth even after Paddack’s DFA and offseason trades of Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers. The current staff includes Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer and Janson Junk. Snelling, who sits 26th on Baseball America’s just-released update of their top-100 prospects, seems ticketed for a debut Friday.
Fellow lefty Thomas White, ranked even higher at No. 11 overall, will likely debut at some point this season. The Fish also have talented lefty Braxton Garrett in Triple-A — he started last night and is thus not a candidate to return to the big league rotation Friday — alongside swingmen Ryan Gusto and Bradley Blalock. Jacob Miller and Karson Milbrandt, the team’s second- and third-round picks in 2022, are both in their second stints at the Double-A level (with the latter throwing very well at present).
That stock of arms could make the bullpen Fulton’s clearest path to carving out a lasting spot on the big league roster, but he’ll likely need to get back to his pre-surgery form with another stint in Triple-A regardless. If he’s up to provide some length in the bullpen for the next couple days, he’ll be a candidate to be sent back down to Triple-A on Friday — assuming Snelling is indeed promoted for his debut that day.
Blue Jays Notes: Berríos, Scherzer, Bieber, Barger
Blue Jays right-hander José Berríos has been trying to get healthy for a long time now but appears to have hit another setback. Mitch Bannon of The Athletic was among those to relay that the righty went for an MRI Tuesday night. His most recent rehab outing featured decreased velocity followed by increased pain for the veteran.
Berríos hasn’t really been healthy since late last year, due to varying maladies that may or may not be connected. Right elbow inflammation put him on the injured list with just a few days remaining in the 2025 season.
He started this year healthy, or so it seemed, as he was pitching in spring training games early on. In mid-March, he was going to join the Puerto Rico team in the World Baseball Classic and underwent a physical which found some elbow inflammation, apparently in a different spot than last year’s inflammation. It was an unusual situation because he wasn’t feeling any discomfort. Stranger still, he was then diagnosed with a stress fracture in his elbow.
Despite the ominous diagnosis and starting the season on the IL, he began a rehab assignment a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t been going well. He has allowed 17 earned runs in 14 1/3 innings. As mentioned, his velo has been down, with Bannon noting a drop of about 3 mph from his first rehab start to his most recent. And with Berríos experiencing more pain than expected, the signs are generally worrying. The Jays are off tomorrow and Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet notes that the Jays will likely have more information to share by Friday.
It doesn’t appear as though Max Scherzer is close to a return either. He hit the IL a little over a week ago due to both tendinitis in his right forearm and inflammation in his left ankle. He had been pitching through the tendinitis for a while but said the addition of the ankle issue was too much to juggle at once. Today, he expressed some frustration with the path forward.
“It’s confusing as heck because I have a clean MRI,” Scherzer said to Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. “That’s what has everyone pulling their hair out. The MRI is saying, ‘hey you should be good,’ and I’m like ‘No, the check engine light is on.'” Given that puzzling situation, it’s hard to say what the path forward is.
As for Shane Bieber, who has been on the IL all year due to forearm fatigue, there are some positive signs. Per Bannon, he did a “2-up” bullpen today, which effectively means he threw the equivalent of two innings with a break in between to simulate a game environment. He’ll do another bullpen like that next week and then could progress to live hitters. Presumably, he would be in line for a rehab assignment after that.
The Jays have been trying to get their rotation to a better state of health all year. They started the season with Berríos, Bieber and Trey Yesavage on the IL, leaving them with a rotation of Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Eric Lauer, Cody Ponce and Scherzer. Ponce suffered a season-ending knee injury in his first start, prompting the Jays to quickly sign Patrick Corbin. Yesavage came off the IL at the end of April, which was supposed to push Lauer to the bullpen, but then Scherzer hit the IL instead.
Lauer has been struggling this year, with a 6.03 ERA so far. Corbin has been doing better, entering today with a 3.65 ERA, but it’s fair to wonder how much longer he can keep it up. He’s approaching his 37th birthday and has had an ERA above 5.00 in most of his recent seasons. Ideally, the Jays would get some of their veterans healthy to push Lauer and/or Corbin out of the rotation but that may not be imminent.
There’s a bit more positivity coming on the position player side, since Addison Barger seems close to a return. He has already begun a rehab assignment and the plan is for him to rejoin the big league club on Friday, per Bannon. He struggled through the first eight games before a left ankle sprain put him on the IL. He hit 21 home runs for the Jays last year and slashed .243/.301/.454, so they will obviously hope to get him back in good form.
Barger played a lot of third base last year but Kazuma Okamoto‘s signing means he’ll be mostly in the outfield going forward. With Barger, Nathan Lukes and Anthony Santander on the shelf, the Jays have had an outfield mix including Daulton Varsho, Myles Straw, Jesús Sánchez, Yohendrick Pinango and Davis Schneider.
The Jays will have to make room for Barger somehow, which could lead to an interesting decision. They have been playing a lot of matchups with this group, as Varsho, Pinango and Sánchez are lefties while Schneider and Straw are righties. Schneider isn’t hitting well and has options but sending him down for Barger wouldn’t be ideal in the sense that it would tilt the group to four lefties with Straw as the only righty.
Pinango is hitting better than Sánchez but the latter is more experienced and out of options, whereas Pinango’s recent surge has come in just a handful of games and with a .500 BABIP he won’t sustain. Sending down Pinango might be the easiest decision in a sense but it also may be hard to option a hot hand while the club isn’t scoring tons of runs.
Photo courtesy of Brian Fluharty, Imagn Images