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Diamondbacks Designate Garrett Hampson, José Castillo For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced that they have recalled infielder Jordan Lawlar, a move that was previously reported. They also reinstated right-hander Kendall Graveman from the injured list. To open roster spots for those two, lefty José Castillo and infielder Garrett Hampson were both designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Hampson, 30, inked a minor league deal in free agency and broke camp with the D-backs after hitting .283/.393/.348 in 56 trips to the plate this spring. He hasn’t been able to carry that production over to the regular season. He’s appeared in only 18 games and taken just 41 turns at the plate, batting .167/.359/.167 in that span. He’s been a pest for opposing pitchers in the sense that he’s taken 10 walks, but Hampson is also 5-for-30 (all singles) and has bottom-of-the-scale contact metrics when he’s put the ball in play.

Arizona is Hampson’s fourth team in four seasons. He spent the first five seasons of his career with the Rockies but since his final season there has had one-year stints with the Marlins, Royals and now D-backs. He hasn’t hit much in any of those spots, combining for a .237/.308/.323 slash in 750 plate appearances dating back to 2022. However, Hamspon is a plus runner (84th percentile sprint speed, per Statcast) who can be deployed virtually anywhere on the diamond. Even though he’s been seldom used with the D-backs, he’s still seen time at five positions: second base, shortstop, third base, left field and center field.

Castillo, 29, has spent the better part of the past half decade in injury rehab. Since a strong MLB debut with the 2018 Padres, the southpaw has been on the injured list due to a torn ligament in his pitching hand, a torn lat and Tommy John surgery. Just making it back to the majors in the wake of so many rapid-fire injuries is a feat, but Castillo’s brief time with the Snakes didn’t go well. He pitched 6 1/3 innings out of Torey Lovullo’s bullpen — already his most in a big league season since ’18 — and was pounded for eight runs on 10 hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

As a rookie, Castillo fired 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA ball for the Friars, fanning a gaudy 34.7% of his opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. He was terrific in a small 5 1/3-inning sample in Triple-A Reno this year, allowing only a run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts and a 58% grounder rate. That performance could lead to some interest from other teams, although Castillo’s once-95-mph heater has understandably dipped to an average of 93.3 mph in the wake of all those injuries.

Both Castillo and Hampson can spend a maximum of one week in DFA limbo. The D-backs can look to trade them during that time or simply place them on outright waivers. Since waivers take 48 hours to process, the team has up to five days to orchestrate trades of either player, should there be a market. In the event that they’re placed on waivers and go unclaimed, both players have enough major league service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Guardians Option Brayan Rocchio

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The Guardians announced that outfielder Will Brennan has been recalled from Triple-A Columbus. Infielder Brayan Rocchio has been sent the other way, optioned to Columbus as the corresponding move.

Rocchio, 24, heads to the minors for the first time since the 2023 season. He spent the entire 2024 campaign in the big leagues as Cleveland’s primary shortstop. He appeared in 143 games and stepped to the plate 442 times. His offense wasn’t great, as he hit just .206/.298/.316 for a 79 wRC+, indicating he was 21% below league average on the whole. He did steal 10 bases, but was also caught six times. His glovework was well regarded, as he racked up 11 Defensive Runs Saved and six Outs Above Average.

Put all together, FanGraphs considered him to be worth 1.1 wins above replacement on the season, with Baseball Reference a bit more generous at 1.9. That’s obviously not outstanding production but fine value for a guy making modest pay since he’s in his pre-arbitration years.

It was enough for him to open the 2025 season back in that role, but his performance has tanked and he has gradually ceded playing time to others. Through 102 plate appearances this year, Rocchio is hitting .165/.235/.198. His .208 batting average on balls in play is quite low but he’s also not hitting the ball with much authority. His average exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate are no higher than the 11th percentile of qualified hitters, per Statcast. His 4.9% walk rate is less than half of last year’s 10% clip. The defensive metrics have also soured on him, with OAA having him at league par and DRS at -3.

In recent days and weeks, Gabriel Arias has been taking more of the shortstop time. He has a .264/.319/.416 line and 110 wRC+ on the year, with solid defense to boot. Presumably, he will take over as the regular shortstop now that Rocchio has been optioned. Arias and Daniel Schneemann had previously been sharing second base, so perhaps Schneeman will get more playing time at the keystone as he’s hitting .273/.356/.532 for a 154 wRC+ this year. Ángel Martínez and Will Wilson are on hand to step in to the middle infield, if needed, though Martínez is currently the club’s regular center fielder.

For Rocchio, instead of sitting on the big league bench, he can get some regular playing time with Columbus as he tries to get out of his recent funk. Getting his offense back to a more acceptable level could put him in position to return to the majors when an opportunity arises. He is still young and it’s certainly possible that there are better days ahead for him.

How long he spends on this optional assignment could impact his financial position in the future. He came into 2025 with one year and 37 days of service time. That put him on track to qualify for arbitration after 2026 and free agency after 2029, though those timelines will no longer be possible if he ends up spending several months down on the farm. He also has just one option season left, so he’ll be out of options next year if he spends at least 20 days in the minors this season.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

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Evan Longoria To Sign One-Day Contract, Retire As Member Of Rays

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Three-time All-Star and 2008 American League Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria will sign a one-day contract to officially retire as a member of his original organization, the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’ll be honored in a ceremony before the Rays’ game on June 7.

Longoria sat out the 2024 season and said last summer that he was not pursuing a return to playing but was also not formally filing his retirement paperwork just yet. That left the door ever so slightly cracked for one final comeback bid, but Longoria will now formally call it a career after nearly 2000 big league games and more than 8200 major league plate appearances.

Longoria, 39, was the No. 3 overall pick by the Rays out of Long Beach State back in 2006. He was in the majors less than two years later, getting his first call to the majors on April 12, 2008. He signed a six-year, $17.5MM extension just six games into his major league career. At the time, bets of that magnitude on such young and unproven players were nowhere near as commonplace as they are in today’s game.

That extension, which contained a trio of club options, was the largest deal ever guaranteed to a player with such little MLB experience at the time it was signed. Longoria wasted little time in proving it money well spent. He hit .272/.343/.531 with 27 homers, 31 doubles and a pair of triples as a rookie, making the American All-Star team just a few months into his MLB career.

From 2008-13, Longoria was on the short list of best players in MLB. Only Miguel Cabrera, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez generated more wins above replacement than Longoria’s 34.8 in that span, per FanGraphs. His 12th-inninng walk-off home run (video link) in the final game of the 2011 regular season wound up propelling Tampa Bay to the postseason that year, and Longoria’s celebratory trot with both arms above his head as he rounded first base is a timeless memory for Tampa Bay fans — one that the team commemorated with a statue outside of Tropicana Field.

Longoria proved such a bargain and such a critical piece to the Rays’ success that in November 2012, they extended him for a second time — this time on the first nine-figure contract in franchise history. Tampa Bay exercised all three of Longoria’s club options in one fell swoop and tacked on another six years and $100MM in new money (bringing the total guarantee to $136MM over nine seasons).

Longoria didn’t quite keep up his early career form, but in five subsequent seasons with the Rays (2013-17) after signing that second contract, he still slashed .265/.325/.457 (113 wRC+) while maintaining his brand of standout defense at the hot corner. FanGraphs (19.8 WAR) and Baseball-Reference (22 WAR) suggested he was still one of the game’s top 25 or so position players even if he wasn’t quite at the very top of the sport anymore.

With Longoria set to secure 10-and-5 rights early in the 2018 season — ten years of service, including five straight with the same team — the Rays made the decision to look for a trade in the 2017-18 offseason. Players with 10-and-5 rights gain full no-trade protection, and Longoria’s remaining five years and $81MM were more palatable to larger-market clubs than the cost-conscious Rays. In December 2017, the Rays lined up on a swap sending Longoria to San Francisco in exchange for outfielder Denard Span, infielder Christian Arroyo, lefty Matt Krook and righty Stephen Woods. At the time of the swap, Arroyo was a few years removed from being a first-round pick out of high school and was considered to be a top-100 prospect on some rankings.

Longoria’s first season as a Giant was a disappointment — the least-productive of what would end up being 16 seasons in the majors. He bounced back to league-average offense with solid defense in 2019, but at that point his days of star-level output were behind him. Longoria had a down showing in 2020 and posted big rate stats in a more limited, part-time role in 2021-22. He signed a one-year deal with the Diamondbacks in 2023 and had a nice first half of the season before fading down the stretch.

That 2023 season with Arizona, during which Longoria played in the second World Series of his career, will now officially prove to be his last. He’ll walk away from the game with a career .264/.333/.471 batting line, 342 home runs (tied with Ron Santo for 108th all-time), 431 doubles (145th all-time), 26 triples, 58 stolen bases, 1017 runs scored and 1159 runs batted in (185th all-time).

Longoria made three All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, won a Silver Slugger and landed MVP votes in six of his 16 MLB seasons. FanGraphs pegged him at 55.2 wins above replacement, while Baseball-Reference was even more bullish, crediting him with 58.9 (133rd all-time among position players). Between his pair of extensions and that final one-year deal with the D-backs, he earned more than $148MM in a 16-year career that will garner some legitimate consideration among the electorate when his name is on the Hall of Fame ballot five years from now.

White Sox Designate Gage Workman For Assignment

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The White Sox announced that infielder Gage Workman has been returned from his rehab assignment, reinstated from the 10-day injured list and designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Workman started the season with the Cubs as a Rule 5 pick, selected from the Tigers. He managed to stick with the Cubs for about the first month of the regular season before being designated for assignment.

The White Sox acquired him for cash considerations, with the Rule 5 parameters transferring to Workman’s new club. He got into three games with the Sox before landing on the IL with a right hip flexor strain. He’s now healthy, but the Sox evidently didn’t want to add him back to their active roster. Per the Rule 5 restrictions, he can’t be optioned to the minors, so they have gone the DFA route instead.

The 25-year-old Workman shined for the Cubs in spring training, hitting .364/.420/.705 in 50 plate appearances. A contending Cubs team never found a way to get him any real playing time, however. He went 2-for-14 with a walk in his 15 plate appearances before being designated for assignment. He received even less playing time with the Sox, tallying all of two plate appearances.

Workman is viewed as a plus defender at third base with plenty of raw power and too much swing-and-miss in his offensive profile. He spent the 2024 season with the Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, where he batted .280/.366/.476 with 18 homers, 30 steals, an 11.7% walk rate and a bloated 27.5% strikeout rate in his third season of action at that level. He’s yet to appear in a Triple-A game.

The ChiSox could try to trade Workman in the coming days or simply put him on outright waivers. Any acquiring club would still be bound by the same Rule 5 limits. If he were to pass through unclaimed, he would be offered back to the Tigers. If that happens, Detroit could put Workman back in their system without having to put him on the 40-man roster. DFA limbo can last a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would have to come together in the next five days.

Dodgers Notes: Phillips, Edman, Hernández

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The Dodgers put right-hander Evan Phillips on the 15-day injured list last week due to forearm discomfort. Manager Dave Roberts initially downplayed the issue but the prognosis changed in the following days, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

“Our expectation is on that 16th day, he’ll be back active,” Roberts previously said. Phillips himself also relayed his belief that he would be back after a minimum absence but that will not be the case. An MRI discovered inflammation in his elbow and he’s going to be shut down from throwing for “a couple weeks,” in Roberts’ words. Even if everything goes smoothly and he feels better after that shutdown, he will then have to ramp back up again.

It’s been a challenging on-and-off period for Phillips going back to last year. Late in 2024, he was dealing with irritation in his shoulder and arm fatigue, as well as tightness in his lat, triceps and biceps. He was left off the club’s World Series roster. He was diagnosed with a small tear of a tendon in his rotator cuff during the playoffs, though that information didn’t come out until early in 2025. He started the current season on the IL due to that strain and was eventually reinstated but only pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Dodgers before this latest issue put him back on the shelf.

Phillips is one of 13 pitchers on the Dodgers’ IL at the moment. That’s not entirely unexpected as several of them underwent major surgeries last year and the team has a broad willingness to bet on talented but injury-prone pitchers. The team is doing fine in spite of that, as their 27-14 record is the best in the majors. Perhaps that allows them to be cautious with Phillips, as opposed to pushing him through an injury before he’s ready.

Whenever he’s healthy again, he will add another weapon to the pitching staff. Dating back to the start of the 2022 season, he has thrown 184 2/3 innings for the Dodgers with a 2.14 earned run average, 29.6% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate.

Plunkett also relays updates on infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman and outfielder Teoscar Hernández, who are both on the 10-day IL. Edman landed there a couple of weeks ago due to ankle inflammation while Hernández suffered an adductor strain last week. The Dodgers are bringing minor league pitchers to the park for some live batting practice this week, with both Edman and Hernández set to take part.

Somewhat similar to the Phillips situation, Edman’s injury was initially framed as very mild but has lingered longer than expected. Even though he’s going to take some swings, he is still having trouble running and Roberts estimates that Edman is only about 80% recovered.

With those two out, more playing time has gone to guys like Hyeseong Kim and James Outman. Kim has no walks and no extra-base hits, leading to a flat line of .318/.318/.318 so far, while Outman has a dreadful .067/.176/.267 slash. That latter line is in just 17 plate appearances but Outman struggled last year as well, hitting .147/.256/.265. Before their IL placements, Edman was hitting .252/.295/.523 while Hernández was at .315/.333/.600, so getting them back on the roster would give a boost to an already-strong Dodger team.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Eddie Rosario Elects Free Agency

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May 12: Rosario went unclaimed on waivers and rejected an outright assignment in lieu of free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com.

May 9: The Braves announced Friday that they’ve designated outfielder Eddie Rosario for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to infielder Luke Williams, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Gwinnett.

Rosario’s latest Braves stint will last under two weeks. He signed a big league deal back on April 28 after being cut loose by the Dodgers. Atlanta gave him only four plate appearances across three games this time around. The 33-year-old veteran went hitless in that minuscule sample. He’s 1-for-8 with a single between his limited stints with the Dodgers and Braves in 2025.

Of course, Rosario is no stranger to Atlanta. The Braves acquired him from the Guardians in a salary-dump deal at the 2021 trade deadline, and Rosario caught absolute fire down the stretch, helping to fuel an improbable World Series victory for an Atlanta club that was under .500 at the trade deadline. He re-signed on a two-year deal and also returned for a short stint in 2024. He’s spent the better part of the past five years in a Braves uniform but carries a tepid .235/.283/.413 batting line in that time — with most of his damage coming during that sizzling 2021 run.

Rosario was a solid regular with the Twins for the majority of his early career, but his best full-season production since leaving in 2021 have been league-average performances in 2021 and 2023. He’s struggled immensely outside those two seasons and carries an overall .231/.277/.394 slash in his past 1525 major league plate appearances (81 wRC+). The Braves will have a week to resolve Rosario’s DFA, though the likely outcome is that he’ll either be released or reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

As for Williams, he’s also returning for a third go-around with Atlanta. He appeared with the Braves in each of the past two seasons but turned in a .164/.233/.218 showing in 61 plate appearances. He’s struggled even more than that in Gwinnett this season, hitting only .132/.205/.145 in 83 trips to the plate. He’ll add a right-handed bat with experience at all four infield positions and all three outfield positions to manager Brian Snitker’s bench.

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

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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. 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.

Pirates Sign Beau Burrows To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Beau Burrows, who opened the season pitching with los Tecos de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League, has signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. Beisbol Puro first reported the signing, which Burrows himself has also announced on social media this morning.

Burrows, 28, was selected by the Tigers with the No. 22 overall pick out of Weatherford High School in Texas back in the 2015 draft. He ranked among the Tigers’ top prospects for several years following that draft and garnered some top-100 fanfare at MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus in the 2017-18 offseason after logging 135 frames of 3.20 ERA ball between High-A and Double-A. The 6’2″ righty punched out 24.9% of his opponents that season and limited walks at a solid 8% clip.

A second year at the Double-A level in 2018 yielded lesser results (4.10 ERA in 134 innings), but Burrows reached 26 starts and topped 130 innings for a second straight season. He seemed like a good bet to make his big league debut in 2019 — at least until the injury bug bit. Burrows missed more than two months at the beginning of that ’19 season due to biceps tendinitis and inflammation in his right shoulder. He returned in June and was back on the shelf two months later after straining an oblique muscle, which cost him another month. He pitched only 74 innings across three levels — including his Triple-A debut — and worked to a 4.84 ERA.

Burrows felt very much like a pitcher who could use a mulligan at Triple-A in a hopefully healthier 2020 season. Of course, the pandemic wiped out the entire minor league season that year, depriving him of that opportunity. Burrows pitched at the Tigers’ alternate site and wound up making his MLB debut with five relief appearances (four runs in 6 2/3 innings). He was trounced for 17 runs in just 11 big league innings the following season and struggled to an ERA north of 5.00 in Triple-A between the Tigers and the Twins (who claimed him off waivers following a midseason DFA).

In the three years since that time, Burrows has pitched between the Dodgers, Phillies and Braves organizations but never returned to the majors. His work in a tiny sample during Mexican League play this season hasn’t exactly stood out; he’s tossed 5 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and allowed six earned runs on seven hits and nine walks.

Rough as those numbers appear, Beisbol Puro notes that Burrows’ velocity and curveball have caught the attention of major league scouts. He’s typically sat around 93 mph in recent Triple-A stints but has bumped that a couple ticks in 2025 and has seen his heater climb as high as 97 mph. This would only be Burrows’ second full season as a pure reliever, and if those velo readings are accurate, it’s a jump over his 2024 stint in the Phillies’ system, when he averaged 93.3 mph even following a move to short relief.

For the Pirates, there’s little harm in betting on ostensibly improved stuff from a former first-round pick who’ll still pitch nearly the entire 2025 season at 28 years of age. (Burrows turns 29 in mid-September.) He’ll presumably head to Triple-A Indianapolis, and if he can rein in his command while maintaining the improved stuff, Burrows could pitch his way into consideration for a big league look later this summer. Pittsburgh relievers rank 20th in the majors with a 4.24 ERA this season, but that includes a combined 20 2/3 innings of excellent work from Justin Lawrence and Tim Mayza, both of whom were recently moved to the 60-day injured list.

The Opener: Seager, Snell, Cardinals

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It’s already a newsworthy morning, with one of MLB’s top prospects reportedly headed to the majors. Here are three more things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Seager to be re-evaluated:

Late last month, the Rangers lost star shortstop Corey Seager to the injured list due to a strained right hamstring. The club’s star came back after just a minimum stint on the shelf. Unfortunately, it appears he didn’t come back at full strength. He served as the club’s DH on the day of his activation from the IL and since then has played just four games in eight days. Evidently, Seager is still feeling the effects of his hamstring injury, and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that Seager will be “re-evaluated” today after missing yesterday’s game due to his hamstring tightening up while playing Saturday. Josh Smith has been filling in as the club’s shortstop on days Seager is unable to play and figures to continue doing so if Seager required another stint on the injured list.

2. Snell visiting with team doctors:

Blake Snell has made just two starts in his first season as a Dodger so far due to persistent soreness in his left shoulder. The southpaw was expected to return to action late April but instead wound up getting shut down from throwing entirely. In the nearly three weeks since, he has yet to resume throwing. Today, Snell is expected to meet with team doctors to determine next steps regarding his injury amid continued soreness in his shoulder.

The Dodgers have struggled to patch together their rotation without Snell (as well as Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, and others). Despite their impressive pitching depth, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dustin May have been the only consistent performers on the staff. Roki Sasaki is the only other Dodgers pitcher with even 20 innings as a starter, and though his future outlook remains bright, he’s struggled early on in his initial jump to Major League Baseball. Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin and Landon Knack round out a patchwork rotation at the moment.

3. Surging Cardinals go for 2025’s longest win streak:

The Cardinals opened the offseason by talking about a need to step back and focus on player development. An offseason of inactivity followed. Reliever Phil Maton was the team’s only free-agent addition, and the Cards spent most of the winter trying unsuccessfully to trade future Hall of Famer Nolan Arenado. The 2025 season was billed as a year of transition, creating opportunities for young players and scaling back the payroll.

All of that may end up playing out, but if the front office was eyeing a rebuild/retool, the players on the field seem to have other ideas. The Cardinals have rattled off eight straight victories, boosting their record to 22-19 and tying them with the Twins for the longest active streak in the majors right now. Minnesota is off today, but the Cardinals and Phillies square off this evening in Philadelphia at 6:45pm local time. The Cards will send red-hot lefty Matthew Liberatore (1.88 ERA, 27-to-6 K/BB ratio in 28 2/3 innings over his past five starts) to the mound against another impressive southpaw, Cristopher Sanchez, who’s been nearly just as good in that same span (2.39 ERA, 28-to-11 K/BB in 26 1/3 frames over his past five turns).

The current eight-game win streaks in St. Louis and Minnesota tie those two teams with the Dodgers for the longest streak of the 2025 campaign. If the Cards can rattle off a ninth straight victory tonight, they’ll improbably stake a claim to the top winning streak of 2025 in a season where they didn’t even appear fully intent on contending.

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