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Yankees Claim Rico Garcia

By Darragh McDonald | July 14, 2025 at 12:35pm CDT

The Yankees have claimed right-hander Rico Garcia off waivers from the Mets, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets designated Garcia for assignment last week. The Yankees had an open 40-man spot. Garcia is out of options, so they will need to open an active roster spot for him.

Garcia, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason. He then tossed 30 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 4.45 earned run average. He struck out 27.4% of batters faced but also gave out walks at a 14.8% clip.

The Mets lost a number of pitchers to the injured list in recent weeks and called Garcia up to the big leagues at the start of July. He got into two games and gave them 4 2/3 scoreless innings. He averaged over 96 miles per hour on his fastball while also throwing a slider, curveball and changeup. The Mets bumped him off the roster when Kodai Senga was reinstated from the IL.

The Yankee bullpen has recently taken a number of hits. Mark Leiter Jr., Fernando Cruz and Yerry De los Santos all hit the IL in the past few weeks. Jake Cousins has been on the IL all year but recently required Tommy John surgery.

Garcia was a freely-available arm who has posted some intriguing strikeout numbers this year, so the Yanks have grabbed him off the wire. Since he’s out of options, his grip on a roster spot may be tenuous. The Yanks, like all contenders, will surely be looking to make bullpen additions before the deadline.

The righty has also pitched for the Rockies, Giants, Orioles, Athletics and Nationals, but always in fairly limited stints. He has appeared in five major league seasons but has just 40 1/3 innings under his belt, posting a 6.47 ERA in that time. From 2022 to the present, he has 165 minor league innings with a 3.33 ERA, 31.7% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Blue Jays, Joe Mantiply Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2025 at 11:58am CDT

The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Joe Mantiply, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Toronto also recently inked utilityman Buddy Kennedy to a minor league pact after he was released by the Phillies. He’s already made his debut with their Triple-A affiliate.

Mantiply was released by the Diamondbacks in early June after struggling considerably early in the year. The 34-year-old has a nice track record and was an important piece of Arizona’s bullpen from 2021-24, tossing 198 1/3 frames with a 3.63 earned run average, 22% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 51.9% ground-ball rate. He picked up three saves and 50 holds over that four-year run.

That track record feels like a distant memory after Mantiply was rocked for a 15.83 ERA in 9 2/3 big league innings this season. He’s never been a hard-thrower, but Mantiply’s 88.2 mph average fastball in 2025 was well shy of its 91.3 mph peak or even last year’s 89.5 mph average. Mantiply has struggled both in the majors and in Triple-A this season; he was tagged for a 5.56 ERA in 11/3 innings with the Diamondbacks’ Reno affiliate.

The Jays already have a pair of lefties in the big league bullpen: Justin Bruihl and breakout setup man Brendon Little. A third southpaw, Mason Fluharty, was just optioned to Triple-A Buffalo late in the season’s first half. Bruihl is a minor league signee who was just selected to the big league roster a few weeks ago. Fluharty was excellent up into early June but was rocked for a dozen runs in a span of 7 1/3 innings before being optioned back to Buffalo.

Mantiply will add some left-handed depth beyond that trio. He’ll join Amir Garrett — also with the Jays’ Triple-A club — as a veteran lefty reliever with some track record hoping to earn a look in Toronto.

Kennedy has appeared in parts of four major league seasons between the D-backs, Tigers and Phillies, but he’s only tallied 157 plate appearances in that time. He’s a .193/.287/.296 hitter at the big league level but touts a nice .279/.388/.432 slash in just over 1600 Triple-A plate appearances. Kennedy has already taken eight plate appearances in Buffalo, going 0-for-7 with a walk. He’s primarily played second base and third base in pro ball but does have more than 400 innings at first base and 93 innings of left field work under his belt.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast

By Darragh McDonald | July 14, 2025 at 11:29am CDT

On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

The 2025 season is chugging along, and the trade deadline is just over two weeks away. If you have a question about the campaign, a look ahead to the deadline or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

D-backs Have Listened To Offers On Outfield Depth

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2025 at 10:35am CDT

The Diamondbacks remain on the fringes of the NL postseason picture, sitting five and a half games out in the Wild Card chase. General manager Mike Hazen has said he hopes the team performs well enough to position itself as a late buyer, but the GM has also at least been listening to offers on some of his outfielders, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. That does not include star Corbin Carroll, unsurprisingly, but Heyman suggests names like Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk have likely been discussed.

Of the four outfielders, Grichuk is the most obvious trade candidate. He’s playing the 2025 season on a one-year, $5MM contract. He’ll unlock a $250K bonus when he reaches his 200th plate appearance — he’s currently at 174 — and another $250K if he reaches 275 plate appearances.

Grichuk’s contract is structured such that Grichuk is owed a $2MM salary and a $3MM buyout on a $5MM mutual option for next year. That makes him a bit more expensive for the rest of the season than a standard one-year, $5MM contract would imply; he’d have about $634K in salary remaining at the time of the trade deadline but also that $3MM buyout and some potential incentive pay. Of course, the D-backs could make a trade more appealing by including cash to offset some of that backloaded 2025 salary.

The 2025 season hasn’t been Grichuk’s best, but he’s still hitting for power. The 33-year-old is batting .242/.282/.466 with seven homers, 13 doubles and a triple in his 174 trips to the plate. His 5.7% walk rate is right in line with his career mark. His 21.6% strikeout rate is down from his career level of about 25% but noticeably higher than the personal-best 16.5% clip he turned in last year in a more productive season with the Snakes.

Gurriel, 31, is a tougher sell from a trade standpoint. He’s being paid $14MM this season and is guaranteed $13MM in 2026 plus at least a $5MM buyout on a $14MM club option for the 2027 season. His .251/.299/.421 batting line (98 wRC+) already represents a down year, and any team to acquire him would know Gurriel will either opt into the remaining $18MM he’s guaranteed beyond the current season or go on a second-half tear and opt out. It’s not an appealing structure, and the Diamondbacks would probably need to eat a significant portion of the remaining money he’s owed to facilitate a trade.

Thomas and McCarthy are both controllable lefty-swinging outfielders, but neither is having a good season at the plate. Thomas, once touted as one of the top outfield prospects in baseball, has yet to hit in parts of four major league seasons. He’s an above-average runner and strong defensive center fielder, but this year’s .245/.295/.366 batting line (84 wRC+) is actually the best of the 25-year-old’s young career. He’s a lifetime .230/.276/.360 hitter in just under 1200 big league plate appearances.

McCarthy, on the other hand, has had plenty of big league success at the plate — just not in 2025. He hit .283/.342/.427 in 99 games back in 2022 (116 wRC+) and slashed .285/.349/.400 (110 wRC+) as recently as last season. He had a down year in 2023, however, and the 27-year-old has struggled to a career-worst .144/.228/.244 line (33 wRC+) in 102 trips to the plate this season.

That’s a relatively small sample, of course, and McCarthy has had some demonstrably poor luck. He’s hitting just .151 on balls in play — less than half the .328 career mark he carried into the season and some 130 points lower than the league average. McCarthy isn’t hitting the ball hard at all (83.9 mph average exit velocity, 23.7% hard-hit rate), but he also had poor batted-ball metrics even in his more productive 2022 and 2024 seasons. His 15.7% strikeout rate remains excellent, and McCarthy has walked at a solid 8.8% rate.

The D-backs optioned McCarthy to Triple-A after a rough three-week start and only recalled him back in late June. He batted .314/.401/.440 in 237 plate appearances with the Diamondbacks’ top affiliate in Reno and has put together an improved (albeit still diminished) .222/.300/.400 slash in his past 51 major league plate appearances.

Both Thomas and McCarthy are controllable for an additional three seasons. Both are eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason. The Diamondbacks burned McCarthy’s final option year when they sent him down to Triple-A back in April. He’ll be out of minor league options next year. Thomas also entered 2025 with one option year remaining, but his is still intact, as he hasn’t been sent down at any point this season.

Vinny Nittoli To Opt Out Of Brewers Deal

By Steve Adams | July 14, 2025 at 9:55am CDT

Reliever Vinny Nittoli plans to trigger the opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Brewers, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. The actual opt-out date is tomorrow and will give the Brewers 24 hours to add Nittoli to the big league roster, MLBTR has learned. If the Brewers choose not to select Nittoli to the roster, he’ll become a free agent.

The 34-year-old Nittoli pitched in the majors each season from 2021-24 but has totaled just 18 2/3 MLB frames in that time. He’s pitched to a sharp 2.41 ERA across those four seasons, which have been split between the Mariners, Phillies, Mets, A’s and Orioles. Nittoli has fanned 17.3% of his major league opponents against a 6.7% walk rate.

Nittoli has spent the 2025 season with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville, pitching to a 3.86 ERA with an impressive 28.9% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate. The journeyman right-hander doesn’t throw hard, sitting just 88-90 mph with his go-to cutter, but he’s induced chases on pitches off the plate at a strong 35.1% clip and recorded an excellent 14.3% swinging-strike rate during his time in Nashville this season.

The Brewers already have a strong bullpen. Milwaukee relievers rank 18th in the majors with a 4.00 ERA, but that includes some early struggles by Joel Payamps, swingman Tyler Alexander and righty Elvin Rodriguez — none of whom are on the 40-man roster at this point. Each of Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, Jared Koenig, Nick Mears, Grant Anderson and DL Hall has an ERA of 3.69 or better. Five of those seven are under 3.00 (including a 1.66 mark for Ashby). The Brewers’ bullpen has a flat 3.00 ERA over the past calendar month — second-lowest in MLB.

Given the strength of that group, there’s no urgent need to add Nittoli, who’s out of minor league options and would need to stick in the big league bullpen if he’s selected. If the Brewers don’t want to lose the depth, they could select Nittoli to the 40-man roster and option Tobias Myers back to Nashville. (Myers was just recalled a few days before the All-Star break and didn’t get into a game.) The rest of the ’pen is largely set, however, so the Brewers may wind up letting Nittoli explore opportunities elsewhere despite his solid results in Nashville.

The Opener: Home Run Derby, Draft Day 2, Rodriguez

By Nick Deeds | July 14, 2025 at 8:48am CDT

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

1. 2025 Home Run Derby:

All-Star week is officially underway, and with it comes the return of an All-Star week staple: the Home Run Derby. Eight sluggers will battle it out for the $1MM prize, and this year’s participants are Byron Buxton of the Twins, Junior Caminero of the Rays, Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees, Oneil Cruz of the Pirates, Matt Olson of the Braves, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners, Brent Rooker of the Athletics, and James Wood of the Nationals. The event is scheduled to begin at 8pm ET this evening, and will air on ESPN. Of this crop of contestants, only Olson has participated previously; he was eliminated in the first round back in 2021 while representing the A’s. It’s hard to view anyone other than catcher Cal Raleigh as the favorite headed into today’s event given his MLB-leading 38 homers this year. If he can take home the trophy, he’ll be the first catcher to do so in the event’s history and the first Mariners representative to win the Derby since Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

2. MLB Draft Day 2:

Yesterday, MLB held the first three rounds of the 2025 draft. Eli Willits was drafted first overall by the Nationals, while consensus top talent Ethan Holliday went fourth overall to the Rockies. The full results of the first round can be found here. Now, the attention of teams will turn towards the later rounds of the draft. Rounds 4 through 20 are scheduled to take place today as teams around the league wrap up the draft, with Round 4 slated to begin at 11:30am ET this morning. A handful of top talents fall outside of the first few rounds every year, and that’s once again the case this season. A look at MLB Pipeline’s Draft Tracker reveals three top-50 talents in the draft have not yet been chosen: Oregon outfielder Mason Neville, Lincoln-Way East HS southpaw Jack Bauer, and Memorial HS right-hander Matthew Fisher.

3. Rodriguez to see doctor about ailing elbow:

Rays right-hander Manuel Rodriguez was pulled off his rehab assignment on Friday after experiencing some soreness in his elbow in conjunction with unusually low velocity. Rodriguez, who saw an alarming drop to just 91.2 mph during his latest outing after averaging 96.9 mph throughout the year, will be further evaluated today. The 28-year-old was a key piece of the Rays’ bullpen this year prior to his injury, with a 2.08 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 31 appearances. The Rays acquired Bryan Baker from the Orioles last week in hopes of bolstering their relief corps, though his team debut did not go well (three runs in one inning). A notable absence for Rodriguez could spur Tampa Bay’s front office to further address the bullpen.

Nationals Select Eli Willits With First Pick Of 2025 Amateur Draft

By Mark Polishuk | July 13, 2025 at 11:47pm CDT

The Nationals have taken high school shortstop Eli Willits as the first overall selection of the 2025 draft. The 17-year-old Willits (a product of Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Oklahoma) is the youngest first overall pick in draft history. Washington had the first pick for the third time in franchise history, and Willits will have a tough act to follow since the Nats’ previous two 1-1 selections were Stephen Strasburg in 2009, and Bryce Harper in 2010.

There wasn’t a clear consensus among draft pundits this year, so several potential names were floated for the Nationals in the top spot. Another unexpected wrinkle emerged just a week ago when the Nats fired longtime president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo (as well as manager Dave Martinez), and assistant GM Mike DeBartolo was suddenly in charge of the front office after being elevated to the interim general manager position. DeBartolo told MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman and other reporters that Willits was “the guy we wanted all along,” so it doesn’t appear that the sudden management change impacted the Nationals’ plans.

It is certainly possible that the pick was made with an eye towards the Nats’ overall draft pool, as Willits could be more apt to sign for less than the $11,075,900 slot price for the first overall selection. A below-slot deal for Willits would free up space within Washington’s overall bonus pool ($16,597,800) for the Nationals to spread that money around on other selections, perhaps to entice some future picks later in the draft to sign rather than pursue college ball.

While Willits was a slight surprise at 1-1, the shortstop (the son of former Angels outfielder Reggie Willits) was still a highly-regarded prospect. Baseball America and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel each rated Willits as the third-best member of this year’s draft class, Fangraphs and MLB Pipeline each ranked him fifth, and The Athletic’s Keith Law had Willits eighth in his rankings.

Evaluators feel Willits has a pretty high floor as a solid all-around talent, with his excellent speed standing out as perhaps his top tool. Willits is viewed as having the defensive potential to stick at shortstop, and he has a plus throwing arm and good range for the position. A switch-hitter, Willits is already a strong contact hitter with a good approach at the plate. Perhaps the largest question is how much power Willits will be able to generate against Major League pitching, but McDaniel and BA believe he can reach the 15-homer range.

Willits doesn’t have the hype or superstar ceiling of Strasburg or Harper, yet the 17-year-old now fills a similar role as one of the faces of a new era of Nationals baseball. The Nats haven’t had a winning season since capturing the 2019 World Series, and the firings of Rizzo and Martinez indicate how ownership isn’t pleased with the state of what has become a fairly lengthy rebuild. Washington had the sixth-worst record (71-91) in baseball in 2024 but held the fourth-best odds heading into last December’s draft lottery, as the White Sox and A’s were both ineligible to draft within the top six.

2025 MLB Draft, First Round Results

By Mark Polishuk | July 13, 2025 at 11:45pm CDT

This year’s amateur draft is officially underway, and we’ll be updating this post throughout the night with every first-round selection. More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.

Here are the first-round selections….

Washington Nationals: Eli Willits, SS, Fort Cobb-Broxton (OK)
Los Angeles Angels: Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC Santa Barbara
Seattle Mariners: Kade Anderson, LHP, LSU
Colorado Rockies: Ethan Holliday, SS, Stillwater High School (OK)
St. Louis Cardinals: Liam Doyle, LHP, Tennessee
Pittsburgh Pirates: Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona High School (CA)
Miami Marlins: Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon State
Toronto Blue Jays: JoJo Parker, SS, Purvis High School (MS)
Cincinnati Reds: Steele Hall, SS, Hewitt-Trussville High School (AL)
Chicago White Sox: Billy Carlson, SS, Corona High School (CA)
Athletics: Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State
Texas Rangers: Gavin Fien, SS/3B, Great Oak High School (CA)
San Francisco Giants: Gavin Kilen, SS/2B, Tennessee
Tampa Bay Rays: Daniel Pierce, SS, Mill Creek High School (GA)
Boston Red Sox: Kyson Witherspoon, RHP, Oklahoma
Minnesota Twins: Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
Chicago Cubs: Ethan Conrad, OF, Wake Forest
Arizona Diamondbacks: Kayson Cunningham, SS, Johnson High School (TX)
Baltimore Orioles: Ike Irish, C, Auburn
Milwaukee Brewers: Andrew Fischer, 1B/3B, Tennessee
Houston Astros: Xavier Neyens, SS/3B, Mount Vernon High School (WA)
Atlanta Braves: Tate Southisene, SS, Basic High School (NV)
Kansas City Royals: Sean Gamble, OF/2B, IMG Academy (FL)
Detroit Tigers: Jordan Yost, SS, Sickles High School (FL)
San Diego Padres: Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP, Sunset High School (OR)
Philadelphia Phillies: Gage Wood, RHP, Arkansas
Cleveland Guardians: Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M

The first round officially consists of only 27 picks since the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers all had their first-round selections dropped back by 10 slots. The three teams surpassed the third luxury tax tier in 2024, and thus their punishment included a 10-slot drop in their opening draft choice.

The 2025 draft is split up over two nights. Rounds 4-20 will take place tomorrow, while the draft’s first 105 picks will come off the board tonight. Those 105 picks consist of the first three proper rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, and two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents), and the Royals getting the 28th overall pick due to the Prospect Promotion Incentive. The evening’s 105th and final selection will be a compensatory pick to the Angels for not agreeing to a deal with 81st overall pick Ryan Prager.

Padres Interested In Korey Lee

By Mark Polishuk | July 13, 2025 at 11:39pm CDT

The Padres are known to be looking for help behind the plate, and their search for catching has extended to the Windy City. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports that the Padres have interest in White Sox catcher Korey Lee, who has spent much of the 2025 season either on the big league injured list or at Triple-A Charlotte.

It wasn’t long ago that Lee seemed like a potential building block for the Sox, as he opened the 2024 season as Chicago’s regular catcher and hit .309/.341/.494 in his first 85 plate appearances. Unfortunately for Lee, his bat then went ice cold for the remainder of the year. He finished with a .210/.244/.347 slash line in 394 PA, and his 64 wRC+ was the third-lowest of any 2024 player who received at least 300 trips to the plate. Lee’s 2025 campaign then got off a rough start when he suffered a left ankle sprain in early April, which resulted in over six weeks on the IL.

Lee’s last big league appearance this season came on June 5, and he has since been playing in Charlotte. With highly-regarded prospects Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero now taking over as Chicago’s catching tandem, Lee simply looks like the odd man out. Blake Sabol was just acquired today in a trade from the Red Sox, which could push Lee even further down the depth chart or hint that Lee could soon be on his way elsewhere.

The Astros took Lee with the 32nd pick of the 2019 draft, and his 12-game rookie season in 2022 netted him a World Series ring right at the start of his Major League career. Lee was dealt from Houston to Chicago at the 2023 trade deadline in the swap that brought Kendall Graveman to the Astros, and Lee has thus far hit .192/.231/.315 over 521 career plate appearances in the big leagues.

It isn’t much of a track record, though Lee has hit pretty well during his time at Triple-A, including a .262/.342/.438 slash line in 146 PA with Charlotte in 2025. Lee was very good at throwing out baserunners in 2024, but Statcast hasn’t loved his defensive work overall, with generally negative grades for Lee’s framing and blocking (albeit in a small sample size of MLB action). If Lee doesn’t look like a difference-maker on paper for the Padres, he is just shy of his 27th birthday, and might be able to yet unlock his past draft potential with another change of scenery.

As it relates to San Diego, Lee still could represent an upgrade on a catching situation that has nowhere to go but up. Padres catchers have combined for -0.9 bWAR in 2025, easily the lowest of any team’s catching corps. Veterans Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado have a cumulative slash line of .190/.250/.296 in 342 plate appearances, and Maldonado’s once-acclaimed glovework has also fallen off, as per public metrics.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Alcantara, Cabrera, Fried, Gil, Garcia, Rodriguez

By Mark Polishuk | July 13, 2025 at 10:59pm CDT

A ten-game winning streak has launched the Red Sox back into the playoff race, and all but confirmed that the club will be looking to buy before the trade deadline. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has stated that the Sox are looking at pitching options, and MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam opines that the Red Sox would likely prefer controllable pitchers in particular, so this new hurler could help support the club’s talent core for more than just the remainder of 2025. However, as of two days ago, McAdam noted that Boston hadn’t yet spoken with the Marlins about two controllable potential trade candidates — Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera.

While there’s still plenty of time before the July 31 deadline for the Sox to inquire about either pitcher, the lack of interest to date might indicate that Breslow simply might have other pitchers on his target list. Alcantara’s past Cy Young Award-winning form makes him perhaps the summer’s likeliest trade candidate, yet the right-hander has struggled badly in his return from Tommy John surgery. Cabrera is arbitration-controlled through 2028 so the rebuilding Marlins might not see a reason to move him just yet, and certainly not for anything less than a massive trade return. Health is also a concern with Cabrera, as he left Friday’s start early due to elbow discomfort but might be able to avoid the injured list after a precautionary MRI came back clean.

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