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Scott Alexander Elects Free Agency

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The Giants announced Friday that left-handed reliever Scott Alexander has cleared waivers and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A. He’ll be the corresponding 40-man and 26-man roster move for the previously reported promotion of fellow lefty Matt Gage to the Giants’ big league bullpen.

Alexander, 36, has pitched 17 2/3 innings between the Rockies and Giants this season and been hit hard, serving up a 6.11 ERA. He’s yielded a dozen runs on 23 hits — five of them homers — and nine walks with eight strikeouts. Alexander has also hit a batter. His Triple-A work hasn’t been any better, as he’s been tagged for six runs in 5 1/3 innings.

Rough as the 2025 season has been, it was just last year that Alexander turned in 38 2/3 frames of 2.56 ERA ball for the A’s. His 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate were both worse than average, but the well-traveled lefty’s 60% ground-ball rate was one of the top marks in the sport by any pitcher. Mass quantities of grounders are nothing new for Alexander, who has a career 66.4% ground-ball rate. Among pitchers with at least 300 innings since Alexander’s MLB debut in 2015, only the retired Zack Britton has a higher ground-ball rate.

Once again a free agent, Alexander can now explore opportunities with all 30 teams. He’s a nice depth option for any club looking to add some left-handed depth to its bullpen mix. In 327 career big league innings (349 total appearances), Alexander has a 3.36 ERA, 17.6% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 66.4% grounder rate, 0.69 HR/9, 13 saves and 65 holds.

Derek Law To Undergo Season-Ending Flexor Tendon Surgery

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Nationals right-hander Derek Law tells reporters, including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com and Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post, that he has a partial tear of his flexor tendon. He will undergo surgery which comes with a recovery time of nine to ten months.

Law, now 34, had a good season with the Nats in 2024. He tossed 90 innings over 75 appearances with a 2.60 earned run average. His 20.8% strikeout rate was a tad below average but his 6.6% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate were both strong numbers. A flexor strain put him on the IL on August 17th but he was reinstated two weeks later.

The Nats clearly didn’t think the flexor muscle was an issue going into 2025, as they tendered him a contract. He and the Nats avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $2.75MM salary for this year, the largest salary of the journeyman’s career. He began the campaign on the 15-day IL due to a flexor strain. He started a rehab assignment in June, though that lasted only four appearances. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in early July.

With the news of this surgery, it will go down as a lost season for Law. He has passed six years of service time and will become a free agent at season’s end. His market should be modest, given his age, track record and this procedure. Given the expected timeline, he will still be rehabbing when the 2026 campaign begins. He could perhaps hold a showcase for interested clubs once he is healthy but will likely be limited to minor league offers.

Law has pitched for the Giants, Blue Jays, Twins, Tigers, Reds and Nationals over his career. He has logged 346 innings with a 3.69 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks To Select Trevor Richards

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The Diamondbacks are selecting the contract of right-hander Trevor Richards from Triple-A Reno, reports John Gambadoro of 98.7 Arizona Sports. Alex Weiner of AZSports.com noted yesterday that Richards had a locker set up in the big league clubhouse during yesterday’s optional team workout at Chase Field. Catcher Adrian Del Castillo is also being recalled from Reno. Gambadoro adds that third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who had an injury scare when he was plunked on the hand in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, will be in tonight’s lineup for the D-backs.

Richards is now with his third organization of the season, having also spent time with the Royals and Cubs. He tossed three big league innings with Kansas City but was tagged for four runs in that small sample. That’s his only big league time this year. He’s spent the rest of the season between the Triple-A affiliates for those three clubs, pitching to a collective 5.12 ERA with a 22% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate.

The 32-year-old Richards has pitched in each of the past eight major league seasons, though he hasn’t had much success since 2021. He sports a 5.05 ERA in 205 innings dating back to Opening Day 2022. He’s set down 28.2% of his opponents on strikes in that time but has also issued walks to 12% of the hitters he’s faced and surrendered an average of 1.27 homers per nine innings pitched.

Arizona’s bullpen has been decimated by injury. A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez both underwent UCL surgeries last month. Jalen Beeks is out with a lower back issue, and Ryan Thompson hit the 15-day IL due to a shoulder injury a couple weeks back. Shelby Miller is on the 15-day IL due to a forearm strain.

Richards doesn’t have a strong recent track record, but he’s bee a serviceable middle reliever at various points in his career and at the very least can miss bats at a solid clip. His above-average changeup makes him a quality option against lefties — more so than versus righties — which probably holds extra appeal to the D-backs with both Puk and Beeks out of action. Andrew Saalfrank and 27-year-old rookie Kyle Backhus are the only lefties in manager  Torey Lovullo’s bullpen and the only healthy left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster at the moment, so adding a righty who has a nice track record against southpaws makes some sense.

As for Del Castillo, it’s not yet clear what sort of corresponding move there is with regard to the catching corps. He’d be an upgrade offensively over Jose Herrera, who has been sharing catching duties with veteran James McCann while Gabriel Moreno’s broken finger heals. Neither Herrera nor McCann can be optioned — Herrera because he’s out of minor league options and McCann because players with five-plus year of MLB service cannot be sent down without their consent. McCann has more than 10 years of major league service time.

The 25-year-old Del Castillo made his MLB debut last year and hit .313/.368/.525 with four homers in 87 plate appearances. He’s slashing .288/.386/.559 in 70 plate appearances but has spent the bulk of the season on the minor league injured list. Herrera (.197/.302/.268) has struggled greatly at the plate but is a better defensive option. McCann has just 31 plate appearances since signing in the wake of that Moreno injury but has gone 9-for-24 with a pair of homers and a pair of doubles (.375/.516/.708).

Mets Reinstate Brooks Raley, Designate Richard Lovelady For Assignment

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The Mets announced that left-hander Brooks Raley has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Fellow lefty Richard Lovelady has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Raley, 37, has been a solid lefty reliever for a few years now. He was working as a starter in Korea from 2015 to 2019 but returned to affiliated ball after that. He spent time with the Reds, Astros and Rays before coming to the Mets for the 2023 season.

His first season as a Met was a good one. He pitched 54 2/3 innings with a 2.80 earned run average. His 10.6% walk rate was a bit high but he punched out 25.8% of opponents and got grounders at a 43% clip. That was impressive enough that the Mets picked up his $6.5MM club option for 2024. Unfortunately, he made just eight appearances last year. He landed on the injured list due to elbow inflammation and eventually required Tommy John surgery.

He remained unsigned throughout this offseason but re-signed with the Mets in late April, a one-year deal with a $1.85MM guarantee. That comes in the form of a $1.5MM salary this year followed by a $300K buyout on a $4.75MM club option for 2026. There are also bonuses in the deal, including a $250K roster bonus that he unlocked by being added to the active roster today.

The Mets came into the year with A.J. Minter and Danny Young as their lefty relief contingent. Shortly after the Raley deal was agreed to, both Minter and Young hit the IL. Minter required season-ending lat surgery while Young required Tommy John surgery.

As Raley has been rehabbing, the Mets have cycled through a number of stopgap lefties, including Lovelady, Génesis Cabrera, José Castillo and Colin Poche. Ideally, Raley can get back to his pre-surgery form and give the club a reliable southpaw out of the ’pen. For what it’s worth, he just threw nine scoreless innings in the minors during his rehab assignment, with a 36.1% strikeout rate, 2.8% walk rate and 52.6% ground ball rate. Regardless of how he performs over the next few weeks, the Mets will likely look to add another lefty or two prior to the deadline.

Lovelady, 30, is out of options and has been been on the fringes of a few rosters this year. He started with the Blue Jays but made just two appearances for them before getting designated for assignment. He elected free agency and landed a minor league deal with the Twins, though he opted out of that in mid-June.

Since then, he has twice signed with the Mets. After the first signing, he made one appearance before being designated for assignment and electing free agency. He re-signed a few days later and the second stint lasted a bit longer, allowing him to make five appearances.

On the whole, he has a 10.80 ERA this year, though it’s a small sample of 8 1/3 innings and most of the damage came in his second outing of the season. During his stint with the Twins, he tossed 20 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.31 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 60.4% ground ball rate. Based on his recent track record, it’s possible he will again clear waivers and elect free agency in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images

Orioles Sign First-Round Pick Ike Irish

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The Orioles announced that they have signed their first-round pick from this year’s draft Ike Irish. Jim Callis of MLB.com reports that the signing bonus was just over $4.4MM, right around slot value for the 19th overall pick.

Irish spent the past three years with Auburn. He was primarily a catcher in his earlier years with the Tigers but spent more time in right field this year. That was due to a fractured scapula he suffered when he was hit by a pitch, but there were already questions about his ability to stick at the position even before that happened.

There appear to be less questions about the bat. He slashed .350/.435/.625 across his three seasons at Auburn, with a .364/.469/.710 line this year. He also has some experience with a wood bat, having played in the Cape Cod League in 2023 and 2024 with a combined .307/.414/.396 line.

Keith Law of The Athletic ranked Irish fifth in the class. MLB Pipeline and ESPN both had him at #11 and Baseball America at #13. All outlets praise his left-handed swing, which can produce hard contact to all fields, though his future power potential is a bit less certain.

As mentioned, it’s a question whether or not Irish should be behind the plate or if he should be moved to right field or perhaps first base. For what it’s worth, the Orioles announced him as a catcher, so it seems the door is still open for him to be a backstop.

The Orioles have Adley Rutschman behind the plate, though he’s only controlled through the 2027 season. Samuel Basallo is at Triple-A and is considered one of the top prospects in the league, though there’s a chance he ends up at first base in the long run.

Photo courtesy of Mickey Welsh, Imagn Images

Giants To Select Matt Gage

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The Giants are selecting the contract of left-handed reliever Matt Gage, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. They’ll need to open spots on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters to make his promotion official.

Gage, 32, signed a minor league deal with San Francisco early this month after he elected free agency following an outright by the Tigers. He’s tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings with the Giants’ Triple-A club — a nice follow-up to the 5 2/3 shutout innings he delivered for Detroit’s big league club this season. Gage has pitched in parts of three MLB campaigns but has only 25 1/3 innings under his belt despite a tidy 1.42 earned run average in that time. He’s fanned 22.5% of his opponents against a 10.8% walk rate.

With Erik Miller on the injured list due to an elbow sprain, the Giants have veterans Joey Lucchesi and Scott Alexander as lefty options in skipper Bob Melvin’s bullpen. Lucchesi has pitched well, holding opponents to three runs in 10 innings. Alexander has pitched just 1 1/3 innings through two appearances and allowed one run. The Giants just added him to the roster shortly before the break.

Gage is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to either stick in the big league bullpen or else be designated for assignment and placed back on waivers. The Giants have a clear need for some left-handed bullpen help, so he should have an opportunity, though president of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian could also look to the trade market in the next two weeks to bring in a more established left-handed bullpen presence.

Guardians’ Luis Ortiz Placed On Leave Due To “Ongoing League Investigation”

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July 18: The league and the the MLBPA have jointly agreed to extend Ortiz’s leave through Aug. 31. The investigation is still ongoing.

July 3, 11:00am: Zack Meisel and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that the investigation pertains to gambling.

9:35am: Guardians right-hander Luis Ortiz has been placed on non-disciplinary paid  leave through the All-Star break due to an “ongoing league investigation,” according to announcements from both the team and the league. The leave was jointly agreed upon by the league and the Players Association. The Guardians’ statement noted that they are not permitted to comment further at this time. Neither the league nor the team provided specific details on the nature of the investigation.

Ortiz, 26, is in his first season with Cleveland after coming over from the Pirates in exchange for first baseman Spencer Horwitz. He stepped right into the Guardians’ rotation and has started 16 games, tossing 88 2/3 innings with a 4.36 ERA, a 25.1% strikeout rate and an 11% walk rate.

Ortiz had been slated to start tonight’s game for Cleveland, but left-hander Joey Cantillo will make that start instead. He’ll join a rotation also including Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Logan Allen and Slade Cecconi. The Guardians lost righty Ben Lively to Tommy John surgery earlier this season, while longtime ace Shane Bieber’s return from last year’s Tommy John procedure was slowed by a minor setback. Bieber recently resumed throwing.

Angels To Sign No. 2 Overall Pick Tyler Bremner

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The Angels have agreed to terms on a $7,689,525 bonus with No. 2 overall draft pick Tyler Bremner, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. That’s more than $2.5MM under the slot value of that second overall pick. They’ve reallocated that chunk of savings to sign over-slot deals with third-round pick Johnny Slawinski, fifth-round pick CJ Gray and 13th-round pick Xavier Mitchell, per Collazo. Slawinski signed for a $2.4975MM bonus — nearly $1.5MM over slot. Gray’s $1.2475MM bonus clocks in $728K over slot. Mitchell’s $872,500 bonus is akin to third-round money.

Bremner, 21, was a surprise pick at No. 2. The UC Santa Barbara product was widely considered a first-round talent but projected to go later down the board. The Halos tend to lean toward polished, quick-to-the-majors college players with their top picks, however, and Bremner largely fits that bill. Plus, the savings on this pick allowed them to make sizable commitments to high school picks like Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell.

Bremner’s junior season in college ball was sharp. He pitched to a 3.49 ERA, fanned 35.6% of his opponents and walked only 6.1% of the batters he faced. FanGraphs ranked him seventh in this year’s draft class, while Bremner ranked 11th at Baseball America, 16th per The Athletic’s Keith Law and 18th both at MLB.com and at ESPN. He draws praise for a mid-90s heater with good sink and a plus changeup that’s effective against both righties and lefties. The general consensus is that he needs work on his slider or perhaps the incorporation of another new pitch, but he’s viewed as a fairly likely mid-rotation arm with the upside to develop into more than that, depending on the development of a third pitch.

Each of Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell ranked within the top 118 prospects on Baseball America’s Top 500 list and within the top 178 talents at MLB.com’s top 200. All three are prep pitchers with considerable ceilings — Slawinski and Mitchell from the left side. Slawinski had been committed to Texas A&M, while Gray was committed to NC State and Mitchell to Texas.

Cubs To Sign Spencer Turnbull

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The Cubs are in agreement on a deal with right-hander Spencer Turnbull, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He was released by the Blue Jays late last month. It’s not yet clear whether the Boras Corporation client is headed to the Cubs on a big league contract or a minor league deal. Either way, he’ll provide some depth to a rotation that has seen several injuries this season.

The 32-year-old Turnbull enjoyed a strong showing with the 2024 Phillies, pitching to a 2.65 ERA in 54 1/3 innings but missing ample time on the injured list. He lingered in free agency throughout the entire offseason and only signed with Toronto in early May, well after the season was underway, for a prorated $1.27MM salary. The Jays ultimately received only three appearances for that modest investment. Turnbull struggled in the minors while ramping up and couldn’t get on track in his limited MLB work either, yielding five runs on 12 hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 6 1/3 big league frames.

Turnbull’s velocity never got up to its typical levels, though that’s perhaps not a huge surprise for a late signee who went through an accelerated buildup. The right-hander sat 89.7 mph with his four-seamer in the minors and was up to 90.9 mph in the majors — both noticeably south of the 92 mph he averaged in Philadelphia last year and the 92.9 mph at which he sat with the Tigers in 2023.

Although this year’s performance doesn’t stand out, Turnbull has been a generally productive pitcher when healthy enough to take the mound. He posted a 4.61 ERA and 3.99 FIP in his first full season at the majors with Detroit back in 2019, tossing 148 1/3 frames. From 2020-24, Turnbull improved to a 3.84 ERA with a 22% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate –albeit in a sample of just 192 innings over that five-year period.

Injuries have regularly interrupted Turnbull’s path to establishing himself as a credible big league starter. He missed the entire 2022 season due to Tommy John surgery and has also had notable Il stints in his career for lat, back, shoulder, forearm and neck injuries. Turnbull has worked primarily as a starter in the majors — 68 starts, 13 relief outings — but still has only 363 innings under his belt due to that deluge of health troubles.

The Cubs aren’t going to blindly count on Turnbull to hold down a rotation spot from this point forth, but he’ll give them another option to evaluate at a time when Justin Steele is done for the season and when Javier Assad (oblique) and Jameson Taillon (calf) are on the injured list. Assad has yet to pitch this season. Chicago also recently optioned young righty Ben Brown to Triple-A amid some notable struggles.

At the moment, the Cubs’ rotation includes Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton and Colin Rea. Swingman Chris Flexen made a spot start last Friday but has otherwise been used in long relief, where he’s been excellent. The Cubs are widely expected to add at least one starter — if not two — between now and the July 31 trade deadline. The signing of Turnbull doesn’t change that likelihood but does add some further depth in the event of additional injuries to the current staff.

Trade Deadline Outlook: Cleveland Guardians

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A ten-game losing streak in late June and early July seemed to close the door on Guardians' chances, but the club then won six of its last seven games to regain some momentum heading into the All-Star break.  Cleveland doesn't play a single opponent with a winning record between now and July 31, so it certainly seems possible that the Guards can bank some more wins and put themselves more firmly back into the Wild Card race.  The Tigers' big lead in the AL Central likely makes that Cleveland's only path to the postseason, and 4.5 games and five other teams stand between the Guardians and the Mariners for the final AL card berth.

The Guardians are one of the more on-the-fence teams in baseball at the moment, and yet regardless of what happens between now and the July 31 deadline, the most probable scenario is that Cleveland will dip a toe in both the buying and selling directions.  If the club is still treading water by the deadline, some additions could still be made, even if they're perhaps more aimed towards reloading for 2026 than a significant push to contend this year.

Record: 46-49 (10.6% playoff probability, per FanGraphs)

For other entrants in this series, see this post.

Sell Mode + Potential Trade Chips

Impending free agents: Carlos Santana, Jakob Junis, Austin Hedges, Lane Thomas, Shane Bieber ($16MM player option for 2026, $4MM buyout), Paul Sewald ($10MM mutual option for 2026, $1MM buyout), John Means ($6MM club option for 2026)

Santana could be dealt whether or not the Guardians are contending, as the team would probably love to get the remainder of the veteran first baseman's $12MM salary off the books.  Young Kyle Manzardo has played well enough that Cleveland might entrust him with everyday first base duties, and clearing the 1B/DH situation would also free up more at-bats for David Fry, who is a DH-only player in his first season back from offseason elbow surgery.

The catch here is that Fry hasn't been hitting at all since being activated from the 60-day injured list, and Santana's modest 98 wRC+ still makes him one of the more productive hitters in a weak lineup.  Cleveland could look to play it both ways by dealing Santana, and then picking up a less-expensive, first base-capable player (probably a right-handed bat) to act as a complement to Manzardo.  Prospect C.J. Kayfus is a left-handed hitter but he could also be called up to help out at first base, as Kayfus has been shredding both Double-A and Triple-A pitching this year.

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