Can The Rays Keep This Up?
The regular season has crossed the 25% mark and there's an unexpected team at the top of the American League. The 28-13 Rays have the AL's best record and second-best mark in MLB behind the Braves. The Rays have a history of outperforming expectations, but some of the magic had seemed to wear off with sub-.500 finishes in each of the last two seasons.
Tampa Bay had a slightly busier free agent period than they typically do. They added Nick Martinez and Steven Matz, the latter on a two-year contract. They brought in Cedric Mullins on a reclamation deal. At the same time, they were closer to the "seller" end of their two biggest trades of the winter. They dealt Shane Baz to the Orioles for four prospects and a draft pick. They sent Brandon Lowe, Mason Montgomery and Jake Mangum to the Pirates for two more prospects. Gavin Lux was their most established trade pickup of the offseason, and he has been a complete non-factor due to various injures.
So how have the Rays gotten out to one of the best starts in franchise history? Are they resurrecting a small ball offensive approach in the modern game, and what should be the deadline focus for a team that'll enter the summer more clearly looking to add MLB talent than they have over the past couple seasons?
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Matt Mervis Signs In Mexican League
First baseman Matt Mervis has signed with the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna of the Mexican League. The club announced the deal on Monday. Mervis went 0-4 with three strikeouts in his team debut last night.
The 28-year-old appeared at the MLB level each season from 2023-25. A former undrafted free agent signee by the Cubs, Mervis put himself on the prospect radar by slugging 36 homers between three minor league levels in 2022. The Duke product made his big league debut one year later, striking out 32 times in his first 99 plate appearances.
Mervis hasn’t been able to get the elevated swing-and-miss numbers in check. He fanned at a 30% clip in Triple-A in 2024, only appearing in nine MLB contests. The Cubs traded him to Miami going into the ’25 season. Mervis was the Marlins Opening Day first baseman last year. He had a power barrage in the middle of April, slugging six homers through April 16. It remained an all-or-nothing approach, however, and Mervis slumped to a .175/.254/.383 batting line by the time the Marlins waived him at the end of May.
Subsequent minor league contracts with the Diamondbacks and Nationals haven’t gotten him back to the highest level. Mervis was in big league camp with Washington this year. He played one game for their Triple-A club in Rochester before being released. He’ll hope to put things together in a hitter-friendly league in Mexico and play his way back to affiliated ball on a minor league contract.
Twins To Recall Zebby Matthews
The Twins will recall Zebby Matthews from Triple-A St. Paul to start tomorrow afternoon’s series finale against the Marlins. Manager Derek Shelton announced the decision after tonight’s 9-5 loss to the Fish (relayed by Aaron Gleeman).
It’ll be the first MLB appearance of the season for Matthews. The former top prospect was optioned to begin the year after failing to win a rotation spot out of camp. Matthews has started seven times in Triple-A, allowing a 4.72 ERA through 34 1/3 innings. He has had a decent strikeout and walk profile but has allowed multiple home runs in three of those outings.
That’s been the general profile during Matthews’ big league time as well. He fanned a quarter of opponents against a solid 6.6% walk rate in 25 MLB starts between 2024-25. His earned run average nevertheless sits just under 6.00. That’s partially due to a .359 average on balls in play, but the home run has been his biggest undoing. Matthews has allowed 1.77 longballs per nine innings, permitting a lot of those baserunners to score.
Minnesota lost Pablo López to elbow surgery early in camp. They’ve been without David Festa all season due to a shoulder impingement. Matthews nevertheless opened the season as the seventh arm on their rotation depth chart. Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Simeon Woods Richardson have held rotation roles all season. Taj Bradley and Mick Abel rounded out the season-opening five.
Abel landed on the injured list with elbow inflammation in the middle of April. Minnesota called up highly-regarded lefty Connor Prielipp to take that spot. Bradley went on the shelf over the weekend with pectoral inflammation, so the Twins will now tab Matthews to step into the rotation.
Minnesota has gotten strong work out of four of their rotation spots. Ryan, Ober, Bradley and the combination of Abel and Prielipp have all pitched well. Woods Richardson, who was a reasonable back-of-the-rotation arm over the last two seasons, is mired in a nightmare stretch. He opened the year with 11 2/3 innings of three-run ball over his first two starts. He hasn’t gotten beyond five innings in any of his last seven times out, allowing at least three runs in each. Miami put up eight runs (six earned) in three innings against him tonight, pushing his ERA to 7.71 over 42 frames.
Woods Richardson is out of options. The Twins could consider a bullpen move if they feel he needs a reset, but the various rotation injuries are testing their depth. Aside from Matthews, John Klein is the only other pitcher on the 40-man roster working out of the St. Paul rotation. Rookies Kendry Rojas and Andrew Morris have worked multiple innings out of the bullpen and could step into the rotation if they wanted to make a move with Woods Richardson. They’re three days into a stretch of nine straight game days.
Orioles Place Dylan Beavers On Injured List
The Orioles placed outfielder Dylan Beavers on the 10-day IL before today’s game against the Yankees with an oblique strain. In a corresponding move, the Orioles recalled catcher Maverick Handley from Double-A Chesapeake. The concern for Beavers’ oblique strain is low, with manager Craig Albernaz calling it a low-grade strain (via Jake Rill of MLB.com).
The left-handed Beavers was looking to build off a strong 2025 showcase. His .227/.375/.400 line in 137 plate appearances was good for a 125 wRC+ (100 is average), indicating he was 25% better than the average major league batter. His 2026 follow-up has not shown quite as much promise, with a .243/.331/.369 line in 119 PAs, which equates to roughly league-average performance. He’s cut the strikeout rate by nearly 3%, but dropped the walk rate by over 7%. Of course, Beavers won’t turn 25 until early August, so there’s not much long-term divination from the small sample sizes of an up-and-coming major leaguer.
In his stead, Handley will get his second taste of MLB action. The then-27-year-old was far below replacement in 47 PAs last year with Baltimore, but to his credit, has performed well in an even tinier sample size this season, primarily at Triple-A Norfolk (.333/.458/.444 for a 139 wRC+). Zooming out to the greater roster picture, Baltimore is suffering from a rash of injuries. Beavers joins Ryan Mountcastle, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, and Heston Kjerstad on the IL (alongside eight pitchers). The bench is entirely right-handed, except for outfielders Leody Taveras/Colton Cowser, the latter of whom is struggling mightily to the tune of a .171/.264/.197 line (38 wRC+) in 88 PAs this season.
Taveras has already been elevated to the near-everyday centerfielder, given the aforementioned struggles of Cowser (to Taveras’ credit, his .258/.363/.392 line has made it an easy decision). In Beavers’ absence, Tyler O’Neill could pick up the lion’s share of starts in right field. Despite a tepid start to 2026 with a .183/.310/.250 (70 wRC+) line, O’Neill has drawn three straight starts in right field for the O’s.
Dodgers Hire Jason Heyward As Special Assistant
Jason Heyward will be rejoining the Dodgers as a special assistant in the front office, as first reported by Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that Heyward also spoke with the White Sox and Cubs about a position before accepting the L.A. job.
Heyward, long renowned for his clubhouse presence, did not have to wait long for a new role after hanging up the spikes. Signed out of Henry County High School by the “hometown” Braves in 2007, Heyward rocketed up prospect lists before settling as the near-unanimous top prospect in all of baseball before the 2010 season. The 20-year-old Heyward caught fire almost immediately, and rode an above-average left-handed bat, a superlative glove, and tremendous speed to MLB stardom. Given his then-young age (26) and all-rounder performance, Heyward was poised for a handsome reward in free agency after five years with Atlanta and one with St. Louis.
The Cubs signed Heyward to an eight-year, $184MM deal following the 2015 season. Unfortunately, Heyward’s bat regressed almost instantly: outside of 2019-2020, the offense was average at best (and often significantly worse). He remained a strong defender and Heyward famously had a rousing clubhouse speech that’s been credited with helping to end the Cubs’ 108-year championship drought. Following two sub-standard offensive seasons in 2021-2022, the Cubs had decided they’d seen enough and elected to release him in the final year of his deal.
With only the minimum salary obligation due, the Dodgers elected to extend Heyward a 2023 Spring Training invite. He rewarded their faith with a .269/.340/.473 line in 377 regular-season plate appearances, good for a 119 wRC+ (100 is average) that harkened back to his best seasons. Unfortunately, Heyward wasn’t able to recapture the magic in a 2024 reunion with the Dodgers. He would finish out a below-average, yet respectable season between LA and Houston before logging a forgettable 95 PAs with San Diego in 2025 during the last stop of his playing career.
His retirement announcement toward the end of March officially closed the book on one of the greatest defensive careers in modern baseball history. For now, Heyward will look to transition to a supporting role for the next wave of major-league talent. The Dodgers also hired Clayton Kershaw in a special assistant position around Opening Day.
Angels Notes: Pomeranz, Johnson, Peraza, Grissom
The Angels placed left-hander Drew Pomeranz on the 15-day injured list today due to left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Ryan Johnson was reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move.
The Halos haven’t provided many details about the injury to Pomeranz, but it’s notable in light of his history. Ongoing issues with his throwing arm, including multiple surgeries, lead to Pomeranz not pitching in the majors from 2022 to 2024. He had a bounceback season in 2025, posting a 2.17 earned run average over 49 2/3 innings with the Cubs.
That prompted the Halos to sign Pomeranz to a one-year, $4MM deal for the 2026 season. That gambit hasn’t worked out so far, as the 37-year-old has a 7.20 ERA through 15 innings. His 16.7% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate are both significantly worse than last year, when he struck out 28.1% of opponents and only walked 7.4%.
For now, Johnson will apparently take his spot in the bullpen. The Halos have handled Johnson very strangely thus far in his career. He was drafted in the summer of 2024, 74th overall, but didn’t pitch in the minors that year. He then cracked the club’s big league roster to open the 2025 season, despite not having any professional experience. He pitched poorly out of the bullpen for a few weeks before being optioned all the way down to High-A. He finished the year pitching well at that level as a starter.
Here in 2026, he made the big league rotation out of camp but then hit the IL due to a virus after just one start. He recently began a rehab assignment, tossing 3 1/3 innings on May 3rd, followed by five innings on May 8th.
It appears that Johnson is now available out of the big league bullpen. “I see him as a guy that can do both,” manager Kurt Suzuki said to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. “I think if we need him as a starter, we can keep him as a starter. If we need him in the bullpen, he can do that. I think the luxury of having RJ is he can do everything.”
From the outside, it appears to be a bizarrely unconventional approach, something that has cropped up with other pitchers to lesser degrees. Alek Manoah began the season on the IL due to a finger issue. He made one official rehab appearances of 4 1/3 innings at the beginning of May. He was quickly added to the big league roster. His first appearance for the Halos was a single-inning relief outing. The next time out, he tossed five innings of long relief. Grayson Rodriguez, who began the season on the IL due to shoulder inflammation, has made two rehab appearances recently. The first was five innings and the second 4 2/3. He may be quickly reinstated at the big league level for his next appearance.
Those all feel like fairly hasty rehab assignments and activations. If a club were breaking convention and had a strong reputation for being on the cutting edge of analytics, that would be intriguing. The Angels have the opposite reputation, so it feels like they’re just winging things. Considering Manoah and Rodriguez both have extensive injury histories, that doesn’t seem like a prudent approach. The Halos haven’t been good for a while and currently have the worst record in baseball at 16-28, so perhaps they are trying to do anything they can to stop the bleeding.
Yusei Kikuchi is currently on the injured list and will be shut down for a few more weeks. José Soriano is firmly entrenched at the front of the rotation. Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz and Walbert Ureña should have spots behind Soriano for now. Perhaps some combination of Manoah, Rodriguez and Johnson will cover the final spot.
Turning to the position player group, a separate column from Fletcher notes that Vaughn Grissom has been getting some work in left field, with Oswald Peraza to soon join him. Both infielders are hitting well while outfielder Josh Lowe has been struggling. Lowe has a .160/.211/.283 line on the season so far. Some of that is due to a .188 batting average on balls in play but his 5.2% walk rate and 29.6% strikeout rate are also below league average and his own career stats.
Grissom is currently sporting a .264/.353/.431 line while Peraza has a .279/.344/.477 slash. The Angels have Zach Neto at shortstop most days, with Yoán Moncada at third and Nolan Schanuel at first. That leaves Grissom and Peraza battling for playing time at second base, in addition to occasionally spelling the other infielders. Neither player has any professional outfield experience, apart from some brief winter ball action for Grissom. If one or both of them can take to left field, it could provide Suzuki some extra flexibility in setting his ideal lineup.
Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images
Marlins Place Robby Snelling On IL With UCL Sprain
The Marlins announced that left-hander Robby Snelling has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. Right-hander Pete Fairbanks has been reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move. Snelling had been scheduled to start Thursday’s game. Lefty Braxton Garrett will be recalled to start for the Fish on Thursday.
It’s brutal timing for Snelling and the Marlins. The lefty is one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He started the season in the minors but the club recently decided to shake up their rotation. Just over a week ago, Chris Paddack was designated for assignment. Snelling then came up to take Paddack’s rotation spot. Snelling made his major league debut on Friday, allowing three earned runs over five innings.
Prior to today, there wasn’t any indication that anything was wrong. Manager Clayton McCullough spoke with reporters, including Marlins broadcaster Kyle Sielaff, and said Snelling experienced some discomfort after throwing a between-starts bullpen session. The skipper confirmed that Garrett, who was scratched from his minor league start, would be called up to take the mound in the majors on Thursday.
McCullough didn’t have any more information about Snelling’s status, apart from the fact that the southpaw would be undergoing more testing. UCL sprains are often precursors to major surgeries, such as Tommy John. That’s not always the case, as some pitchers are able to return without surgery, though even those cases involve months of rehab.
It’s obviously very poor timing. Both Snelling and the Marlins hoped his promotion would be the start of a blossoming major league career. Instead, he’s facing a significant injury and potentially a lengthy absence, though time will tell on the specifics. For Snelling personally, the one silver lining is that this injury occurred after his promotion. That means he’ll collect major league pay and service time while he’s on the IL. That would not have been the case if he were injured while still in the minors.
If Snelling does end up requiring surgery, it could be a bitter development for the club. A lengthy surgery rehab could wipe out most of his 2026 and part of his 2027 as well, which would be a decent chunk of the club’s window of control over the lefty. That could also potentially impact the club’s trade plans this summer or in the coming offseason. The club’s knack for developing pitchers has allowed them to continually trade starters for bats and then replace the arms internally. Subtracting Snelling from their rotation depth chart could make that less likely.
For the short term, they will turn to Garrett. It’s unclear if this will be a spot start or if Garrett will stick around, as Marlins could also turn to another prospect in Thomas White. At least for tomorrow, it will be Garrett.
Garrett already has some major league experience under his belt, though it’s been a while. His best season was 2023, when he tossed 159 2/3 innings with a 3.66 earned run average, 23.7% strikeout rate, 4.4% walk rate and 49.1% ground ball rate. Shoulder and forearm injuries limited him to just seven starts in 2024, then UCL surgery wiped out his 2025 campaign entirely.
He has been healthy here in 2026 but the Marlins have been cautious with him. They optioned Garrett to Triple-A Jacksonville at the end of spring training, opting to start the season with Janson Junk in the final rotation spot behind Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Max Meyer and Paddack.
The Fish have given Garrett a lighter workload, giving him at least six days of rest between each start. He has pitched well with the kid gloves on, tossing 31 1/3 innings over his six outings this year with a 2.30 ERA. His 12.3% walk rate is high but some rust isn’t too surprising after almost two whole missed seasons. He has struck out 26.2% of batters faced while inducing grounders on 53% of balls in play.
The Marlins are one game into a stretch of playing 16 days in a row. If the plan is to keep Garrett in the majors, he’ll need to pitch on a more traditional five-man rotation, unless they try to get creative. They could go for a six-man rotation, deploy some bullpen games or have some other guys make spot starts.
If this isn’t just a one-and-done for Garrett, it will be notable for him from a career perspective. He came into 2026 with his service time count at three years and 168 days, which is just four days shy of the four-year mark. If he had spent all of 2026 on optional assignment, his path to free agency would have been delayed, but even a very brief stint in the majors will keep him on track for free agency after 2028.
As mentioned, it’s possible the Marlins consider involving White in some way. Snelling perhaps got the call first because he’s a bit older and has more Triple-A experience, and because White had been slowed by an oblique strain in spring training, but prospect evaluators rank White ahead of Snelling in terms of his potential future impact. White has recovered from that oblique issue and has been in the Triple-A rotation of late. It’s unclear if he’ll be called up in the immediate future but Snelling’s injury surely increases the odds of him getting the call at some point this year.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Max Fried Departs Game With Elbow Soreness
3:20pm: Fried spoke with reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, after the game. He said he thinks it’ll be a short-term issue and that he is hoping to make his next start.
2:00pm: The Yankees removed starter Max Fried from today’s game after just three innings. It was later announced that he was lifted due to left elbow posterior soreness. He will undergo imaging tomorrow. Chris Kirschner of The Athletic was among those to relay the news.
At this point, it’s too early to know if this is simply a precautionary move or if this will ultimately prove to be a serious issue. Fried does have some elbow issues on his track record, as most pitchers do these days. He had Tommy John surgery way back in 2014, when he was a minor leaguer. In 2023, a forearm strain caused him to miss about three months of the season. In 2024, he had a much briefer IL stint related to his arm, as forearm neuritis put him on the shelf for about two weeks.
It was after that 2024 season that he became a free agent and signed with the Yankees on a huge eight-year, $218MM deal, the largest guarantee ever given to a left-handed pitcher. The deal has been working out great so far. In 2025, the Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery but Fried stepped up as the ace. The southpaw made 32 starts last year with a 2.86 earned run average. He finished fourth in Cy Young voting behind Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Hunter Brown.
Here in 2026, the Yanks are still waiting for Cole to return. They also began the campaign without Carlos Rodón, who underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow last fall. The Yanks have started the year strong with a 27-16 record. Coming into today, their 3.07 rotation ERA was just a hair behind Atlanta’s 3.06 for best in the majors. Fried has certainly done his part, with a 2.91 ERA coming into today’s game.
The rotation has done so well that the Yankees seemed to be trending towards some tough decisions. Rodón came off the IL a few days ago. Making room for Rodón was fairly easy since Luis Gil had struggled enough to get optioned down to Triple-A. But Cole is also trending towards a return. Between Fried, Rodón, Cam Schlittler, Ryan Weathers and Will Warren, the Yanks had a full rotation.
Rodón hasn’t really had a chance to put up any numbers yet this year but has a strong track record. The other four have all been throwing the ball well, with no one in the group having an ERA above 3.42. Weathers, Warren and Schlittler have options but it would be tough to tell one of them to head down to the farm when they’re pitching so well. Going to the bullpen would arguably be more palatable but still a bit awkward. If Fried ends up needing some time on the IL, the decision would become quite easy, as Cole could just step into Fried’s spot.
That probably wouldn’t happen right away. Cole made his most recent rehab appearance on May 10th and got to five innings pitched but the Yankees have said they expect him to make one or two more rehab appearances after that. Perhaps Fried hitting the IL would make them expedite the process but they probably don’t want to rush anything with a pitcher as important as Cole.
If Fried needs an IL stint and if Cole stays on his rehab for a bit longer, the Yanks will have to figure out a short-term rotation plan. They are off tomorrow but then play 13 days in a row after that. Recalling Gil won’t be an option because he was just shut down in the minors with some shoulder inflammation and won’t throw for three weeks. Elmer Rodríguez and Brendan Beck are on the 40-man and could be recalled. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough have starting experience and each pitched multiple innings of relief after Fried departed today, so they could perhaps be part of some kind of patchwork solution.
For the Yanks, the greater concern will be the long term. In an ideal world, they would probably have Cole, Fried, Rodón and Schlittler lined up as an excellent rotation for a playoff series. Hopefully, Fried’s issue proves minor and he can come back in time to make that a reality. Any alternative outcome would be a blow to the club’s season.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
Reds Designate P.J. Higgins For Assignment
The Reds have designated catcher P.J. Higgins for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to veteran righty Chris Paddack, whose previously reported agreement with Cincinnati has now been officially announced. Right-hander Rhett Lowder has been placed on the 15-day injured list to open an active roster spot. Manager Terry Francona said a couple days ago that Lowder would be IL-bound due to shoulder troubles. The team’s formal designation at this time is a vague “right shoulder pain.”
The 33-year-old Higgins appeared in six games with the Reds and took 12 plate appearances, going 2-for-10 with a pair of singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly in that time. He’s now played sparingly in parts of three big league seasons. In a total of 89 games and 266 plate appearances, the former 12th-rounder out of Old Dominion is a .209/.289/.342 hitter with six home runs, a 9.4% walk rate and a 26.3% strikeout rate.
Higgins obviously hasn’t hit much in his limited major league experience, but he’s been a solid hitter in parts of seven Triple-A seasons: .274/.349/.414. He’s thwarted a strong 29% of stolen base attempts against him in the minors. Baseball Prospectus credits him as a plus framer with slightly above-average blocking skills at the Triple-A level. The Reds will have five days to trade Higgins or place him on outright waivers. That’d be a 48-hour process. His DFA window will last a maximum of one week. Higgins has been outrighted in the past, so if he passes through waivers, he’d be able to elect free agency.
As for Lowder, while the IL placement was known to be coming, the formal announcement provides little in the way of clarity. Presumably, Francona will provide more information when he meets with the Reds beat later today. Lowder, the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, missed the 2025 season due to a flexor strain. He pitched well through his first six starts (3.18 ERA) but has been blown up for 11 runs over 4 1/3 innings in his past two outings.
Reds Sign Chris Paddack
1:29pm: The Reds announced that they have signed Paddack to a big league deal and that he will start Saturday’s game. Lowder’s IL placement was the corresponding active roster move. Catcher P.J. Higgins was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. You can read more about Higgins here.
11:57am: The Reds and veteran righty Chris Paddack are in agreement on a contract, reports Charlie Goldsmith of FOX 19. The Boras Corporation client was released by the Marlins earlier this week after being designated for assignment.
Paddack, 30, signed a one-year, $4MM contract with Miami over the winter but had a short leash after an ugly start to his season. He made just seven appearances (six starts) and was tagged for a 7.63 ERA in 30 2/3 frames. Paddack struggled to work deep into games, completing five frames only once. He struck out a below-average 18.5% of his opponents but notched a characteristically sharp 6.8% walk rate.
Paddack was once a well-regarded prospect who had an outstanding rookie campaign in 2019. He pitched 140 2/3 innings of 3.33 ERA ball for the 2019 Padres — a performance that would make him a Rookie of the Year finalist, if not winner, in just about any other season. He was up against Pete Alonso‘s 53 homers, Michael Soroka‘s 174 2/3 innings of 2.68 ERA ball, and the debut campaigns of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Bryan Reynolds, however, so he wasn’t even on the Rookie of the Year radar despite that stellar debut.
That debut now feels like a distant memory, as Paddack has been set back by injuries at multiple points and has never recaptured his 2019 form. Paddack missed time with a UCL sprain in 2021 and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022. His 2024 season was shortened by a forearm strain. All in all, he’s pitched 471 2/3 innings since that rookie showing and logged a 5.23 ERA. Paddack has good command but hasn’t missed many bats since his rookie season and is far too homer-prone (a daunting trait for any pitcher calling Great American Ball Park his home).
Cincinnati’s rotation is quite banged up at the moment, however. Hunter Greene underwent elbow surgery back in March and is out until midseason. Brandon Williamson was recently placed on the 60-day injured list due to shoulder troubles. Rhett Lowder was just placed on the 15-day IL yesterday due to a shoulder issue of his own. There’s no indication yet that Brady Singer will require an IL stint, but the right-hander took a comebacker off his right foot in yesterday’s game. He stayed in the contest but struggled thereafter, allowing three runs over the next inning-plus before being lifted in the fourth.
The Reds’ in-house depth options have been struggling down in Triple-A. Chase Petty, Jose Franco and Julian Aguiar have all been hit hard, to varying levels. Paddack will add another option for the back of the rotation and do so in affordable fashion. Cincinnati will only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The Marlins are on the hook for the remainder of this year’s $4MM salary.