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Marlins Claim Nick Nastrini

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The Marlins have claimed right-hander Nick Nastrini off waivers from the White Sox and optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville, reports Kevin Barral of Fish on First. Righty Max Meyer, who recently underwent season-ending hip surgery, was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot.

There wasn’t any previous indication that the White Sox had removed Nastrini from their 40-man roster, but it appears they quietly put him on waivers recently. Presumably, they hoped to pass him through unclaimed but the Marlins swooped in to grab him. Chicago’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

The young righty has not been putting up good numbers this year, which is perhaps why the Sox felt there was a chance no one would claim him. He has thrown 44 1/3 Triple-A innings on the year with a 7.51 earned run average. His 22.7% strikeout rate is fine but he has walked opponents at a massive 18.5% clip.

The Marlins bumped him from the rotation to the bullpen in May. That didn’t help matters much. In his most recent 17 innings, he has a 7.94 ERA and massive 23.2% walk rate, though with an intriguing 30.5% strikeout rate.

Despite this year’s rough results, the Marlins have grabbed him. They had a roster spot open and Nastrini has shown promise at times, though mostly in that high-strikeout, high-walk style. From 2022 to 2024, he threw 316 1/3 minor league innings with a 4.35 ERA, 29.6% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate. He also tossed 35 2/3 major league innings for the Sox last year, though with poor results. He had a 7.07 ERA, 14.9% strikeout rate and 20.9% walk rate.

He can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one additional season. The Marlins are one of the few clubs clearly not in contention at the moment, so they are an understandable landing spot for a project like Nastrini.

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Giants Exercise 2026 Option On Manager Bob Melvin

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The Giants have exercised their 2026 club option on manager Bob Melvin, per a team announcement. He’d previously been in the final guaranteed season of his contract.

“Having the chance to work alongside Bob every day, we’re really fortunate to have such an experienced leader and one of the most well-respected managers in baseball,” Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said in a statement within today’s press release announcing the move. “His leadership, preparation, and connection with our players have been invaluable, and we believe he’s the right person to continue to guide this team forward.”

Melvin, 63, is in his second season as the Giants’ skipper after a two-year stay in San Diego and a length 11-year run as the Athletics’ manager. He’d previously managed the D-backs and Mariners as well. Melvin’s first season in San Francisco resulted in a disappointing 80-82 showing that saw ownership move on from now-former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and replace him with Posey.

Posey wasn’t the one to originally hire Melvin — at least not directly, although Posey was a minority owner prior to overtaking baseball ops — but his work with three-time Manager of the Year (once with the D-backs, twice with the A’s) was enough to convince him that Melvin is the right person for the job.

Thus far in 2025, the Giants sit five games over .500, at 45-40. That leaves them a game and a half back in the Wild Card standings but a hefty eight games out of first place in the stacked National League West. San Francisco has struggled through a dry spell recently, as the offense has gone cold and resulted in the Giants dropping 11 of their past 15 games. Melvin’s club started the season 19-12 through the end of April but has gone 26-28 since, posting matching 13-14 records in both May and June.

Recent struggles notwithstanding, Melvin will get the chance to see things through in 2025 and return to manage the club in 2026, when Posey’s vision for the team has taken more hold. The Giants, under Posey, have signed Willy Adames and swung a stunning June blockbuster for Rafael Devers. Matt Chapman’s six-year extension came when Zaidi was still president, but Posey reportedly played a significant role in pushing that deal across the line after talks had slowed. With Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores up for free agency at season’s end, the 2026 season could see further changes to the core of position players at Oracle Park.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue leading this group,” Melvin said within today’s press release. “I believe in what we’re building here, and I appreciate the confidence that the Giants ownership group, Greg [Johnson], Buster, Larry [Baer], Zack [Minasian] and the rest of the Giants’ organization have shown in me and our staff. We have a lot of unfinished business this year, and I’m looking forward to the work ahead.”

Melvin currently holds a 1642-1547 record (.515) in 22 seasons as a major league manager across the five aforementioned teams. He’s eight wins behind Mike Scioscia for 20th-most in MLB history and just 84 behind Buck Showalter for 19th.

Poll: What Will The Twins Do At The Deadline?

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The Twins ended the 2024 season with a bitterly disappointing slump in September that pushed them out of the playoff picture at the very end of the year. Budget constraints forced them to follow that up with a generally very quiet offseason, however, and they entered 2025 with mostly the same team as last year aside from a few small additions like Danny Coulombe and Harrison Bader. Given that lackluster offseason, perhaps it’s not a shock that the Twins are currently 40-44, four games out of the final AL Wild Card spot and 12.5 games back of the Tigers in the AL Central.

Minnesota would have to leapfrog five clubs in the standings just to secure a Wild Card berth. On the other hand, they have a 25.6% chance at making it to the postseason, according to Fangraphs, with a roster that looks quite intimidating on paper. Injuries to Pablo Lopez and Zebby Matthews are certainly frustrating, but even without those pieces, the Twins have a solid-looking roster. The offense is centered around a pair of stars in Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa who are complemented by the likes of Willi Castro, Bader, and Ryan Jeffers. The rotation features a legitimate front-of-the-rotation arm in Joe Ryan, and the bullpen is anchored by an excellent dynamic duo of Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax.

Unfortunately, the cracks in the roster quickly begin to show up when you look at the roster’s performance this year. While Buxton has been as much of a star as advertised, Correa has been a below-average hitter this year with a 93 wRC+ after a brutal start to the season. He’s hit more like himself in recent weeks, but continues to show a concerning lack of power. Matt Wallner was unable to sustain a hot start, Brooks Lee hasn’t been the hitter Minnesota was hoping for, and a handful of expected contributors are languishing in Triple-A due to poor performance. The rotation has nothing concrete behind Ryan, with even Bailey Ober posting an ERA north of 5.00 on the year. And despite possessing the second-best bullpen in baseball by FIP, the unit’s 4.32 ERA is well below average.

That leaves the Twins as one of the many teams stuck between buying and selling as July kicks off. It’s not too difficult to imagine a return to form from Correa and better results from a bullpen with excellent underlying numbers being enough to pull Minnesota back above .500, or at least stop them from falling out of the race completely until Lopez and Matthews eventually return. All of that reason is sound enough, and it’s surely played into comments from president of baseball operations Derek Falvey last week that indicated selling is not something the team is “focusing on” at this point.

For a team that could be just a starting pitcher or two away from a second-half surge, buying and hoping to get into the dance understandably holds some appeal. Correa and Buxton aren’t getting any younger, after all, and key pieces like Lopez, Duran, and Ryan are all slated to reach free agency following the 2027 season. With only three pennant races to go until the Twins will need to make some major changes, a sell-off this summer could leave the team with little reason for optimism headed into the final years of their stars’ prime seasons.

On the other hand, the Twins already suffered one painful collapse last year and have limited resources due to financial constraints placed by ownership. A sale of the team could be in the works, and it could be argued that, between the number of potential contenders jockeying for a seat at the table in the AL and the very limited supply of clear sellers this summer, the Twins would be better off selling some of their pieces and regrouping for the future, when they figure to have more certainty on an ownership level.

Young pieces like Lee, Wallner, Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, all have years to go before free agency. The arrivals of players like Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins should help the lineup make up for the eventual declines of Correa and Buxton. It’s certainly possible to make an argument that the Twins are set up relatively well for the future, and a few savvy sell-side moves could keep their theoretical window of contention open for much longer. Adding another top prospect or two to the mix alongside Jenkins and Rodriguez could keep the team relevant for years to come.

Of course, another possibility would be to split the difference and do a bit of both. Perhaps rental players like Castro and Coulombe are dangled and replaced internally, while the team uses some of its controllable depth to acquire a starter or two. That sort of balanced approach could make plenty of sense, as could the approach teams like the Cubs and Pirates took to the deadline last year where they added controllable, longer-term assets like Isaac Paredes and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to simultaneously improve the current club while also building for the future.

How do MLBTR readers think the Twins should approach this deadline? Should they trust the team they’ve constructed to make up for last year’s collapse and add? Should they take advantage of a potential seller’s market and see what they can get for some of their best pieces? Or should they take the middle road and do a bit of both? Have your say in the poll below:

Brewers Select Anthony Seigler, Designate Daz Cameron For Assignment

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The Brewers announced today that they have selected the contract of infielder/catcher Anthony Seigler. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com reported that move earlier this week. Outfielder Daz Cameron has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Now 26 years old, Seigler was the Yankees’ first-round selection, No. 23 overall, back in 2018. He became a minor league free agent following the 2024 season and in November signed a minor league pact with the Brewers. He’s spent the season so far in Triple-A Nashville, where he’s turned in a strong .277/.416/.465 batting line with seven home runs, 11 doubles, four triples and 20 stolen bases in 23 attempts. Seigler has walked in a colossal 18.4% of his plate appearances against a 19.1% strikeout rate.

Seigler has split his time between second base (203 innings), catcher (201 innings) and third base (94 innings) during his time in Nashville. He’s unlikely to see much time at second base with Brice Turang enjoying a strong season there, and the left side of the infield has improved of late with Joey Ortiz and Caleb Durbin both enjoying productive months in June. Still, Seigler could be an upgrade over Andruw Monasterio on the bench. Monasterio has bounced between the four infield positions but is hitting just .192/.323/.269 this year.

His ability to crouch behind the plate could also be of value to the Brewers. It was reported a couple of months ago that William Contreras has been playing through a finger fracture. His performance on the year is around league average but has been declining. He had a .217/.337/.313 line and 87 wRC+ in the month of June, a far cry from his previous production. Perhaps having Seigler around will allow the Brewers to give Contreras some time off his feet. Eric Haase is also on the roster and is having a decent year at the plate, in a sense. His overall production is around league average but it’s been in a tiny sample of 54 plate appearances and with a big 40.7% strikeout rate.

Seigler’s call to the majors will be his first. He played in parts of six minor league seasons with the Yankees organization and is now midway through his seventh pro season. He has a full slate of options and can be controlled until he reaches six years of big league service time. That means he could be a depth piece for the Brewers for quite a long time, if his performance justifies his continued presence on the roster.

Cameron, 28, was added to Milwaukee’s roster just over two months ago. He has since been serving in a bench outfield role but with a tepid line of .195/.214/.293. He was once a notable prospect and has often performed well in the minors but never in the majors. He now has a .200/.258/.326 line in 472 big league plate appearances dating back to his 2020 debut.

He’s now out of options, so the Brewers have bumped him off the 40-man today. Given his performance, he’s likely to pass through waivers unclaimed. He has previously been outrighted in his career, which gives him the right to reject further outright assignments in favor of electing free agency.

Photo courtesy of Dave Kallmann, Imagn Images

Reds Select Sam Benschoter

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The Reds announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Sam Benschoter from Triple-A Louisville. Cincinnati also recalled southpaw Sam Moll from Louisville. Left-hander Joe La Sorsa and righty Connor Phillips were optioned to Triple-A in their place. The Reds already had an open 40-man roster spot after releasing Jeimer Candelario. Their 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Benschoter, 27, was an undrafted free agent out of Michigan State back in 2021. He’s spent the past four seasons climbing Cincinnati’s minor league ranks, reaching Triple-A late last season. That first run at the top minor league level didn’t go well, but the 6’3″, 215-pound righty has had a better showing in 2025. Benschoter has pitched 51 innings — 17 relief appearances, four starts — and logged a 4.06 ERA with a 21.6% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 51% ground-ball rate.

Benschoter relies heavily on a four-seamer that’s averaged 93.4 mph in 2025, combining that pitch with a sinker, slider, cutter and seldom-used curveball to round out his arsenal. He worked primarily out of the rotation in the lower minors but moved into more of a hybrid role in 2024. He’s progressively moved more and more toward a multi-inning relief role in 2025. Even in his four “starts” this season, Benschoter has pitched a combined 12 1/3 innings. He’s most commonly been used in relief for two to four innings at a time.

Top prospect Chase Burns lasted only one-third of an inning in yesterday’s drubbing at the hands of the Red Sox, forcing the Cincinnati bullpen to cover the rest of the game. The Reds turned to Brent Suter and the now-optioned La Sorsa and Phillips for two-plus innings apiece. All three men threw at least 31 pitches. That understandably prompted some moves to freshen up the relief corps. If today’s game gets out of hand one way or another, Benschoter would seemingly be an option for a long relief stint. He last pitched a week ago and should be able to cover several innings if need be.

Michael Fulmer Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Michael Fulmer has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment last week but exercised his right to reject that assignment and head to the open market.

Fulmer, 32, is back on the mound this year after spending 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He has gotten brief major league stints with both the Red Sox and Cubs, with one appearance for Boston and two for Chicago. Combined, he has thrown 5 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out three.

Around those big league appearances, he has been putting up good numbers in the minors. Between those two organizations, he has thrown 36 Triple-A innings with a flat earned run average of 3.00. He has walked 11.5% of batters faced at that level, which is a high number, but also punched out 33.8% of opponents.

In addition to this year’s strong minor league numbers, he has major league success on his track record. He had some good years as a starter with the Tigers almost a decade ago but some injuries eventually pushed him to the bullpen. From 2021 to 2023, he logged 190 1/3 big league innings with a 3.55 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. He earned 19 saves and 45 holds in that span.

His minor league numbers this year have largely been in line with that previous run, so he should garner interest elsewhere. The fact that he cleared waivers suggests that he will probably be limited to minor league deals.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

MLBTR Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Good morning! We’ll get going at 1pm CT, but feel free to send in questions ahead of time, as always.
  • Good afternoon!

Grover

  • if anyone does pick up candelario who will it be

Steve Adams

  • Brewers, Astros, Mariners could all take a more or less free look while they wait for more appealing options to become available on the trade market.

Dinelson Lament

  • Assuming he stays healthy and reaches free agency, what type of contract might Skubal command in the 2026-2027 off season?

Steve Adams

  • Something north of $400MM

Ben

  • Will Eugenio Suarez cost a top 100 prospect, considering no top 100 prospects were traded at last year’s deadline, including for multi-year controllable players, while Geno is a rental?

Steve Adams

  • “Top 100” prospect are subjective. There are several different lists, and the gap between the No. 100 prospect and the No. 130 prospect is pretty negligible. The Tigers probably had Thayron Liranzo as a top-100 guy when they got him as the Flaherty headliner last year. He was generally considered a 50 FV prospect, which is where all back-of-the-top-100 guys are. Within a few weeks, he was on most top-100 lists.Top-100 rankings are far more volatile than a lot of people give them credit for, and they kind of inherently misrepresent that there’s a larger gap between 100 and 150 than there really is. (Or between, say, 60 and 100, for that matter).At any rate, I don’t think Suarez will command a 50 FV type of prospect, but a 45 type headlining the deal wouldn’t surprise me.

Utah Fan

  • Who gets traded by the TWINS at the deadline, if their recent decline continues?

Steve Adams

  • Willi Castro, Chris Paddack, Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe all make sense. Someone might grab Ty France as a cheap RH bat off the bench.

Read more

Nicky Lopez Opts Out Of Diamondbacks Deal

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Veteran infielder Nicky Lopez triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the D-backs, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Teams typically have 48 hours to decide whether to add a player to the 40-man roster or grant him his release when the player triggers an out clause, but Murray adds that Lopez will hit the open market, so it seems Arizona has already made up its mind.

The 30-year-old Lopez hit just .267/.303/.317 through 109 turns at the plate in a supercharged offensive environment with Arizona’s Triple-A Reno affiliate. He continued showing strong contact skills, fanning in only 8.3% of his plate appearances, but Lopez showed no real power and walked at only a 4.6% clip. He went 1-for-24 in 19 games between the Cubs and Angels earlier this year while receiving sparse playing time as a glove-first option off the bench.

Lopez is a defensive-minded utility infielder who can handle either middle infield spot or third base. He’s made a few brief cameos in left field as well but has just 17 major league innings at the position. Back in 2021, he posted an out-of-nowhere .300/.365/.378 batting line with 22 steals (in 23 tries) and plus-plus defense at shortstop. Baseball-Reference valued that season at 4.4 wins above replacement, and FanGraphs credited him with an even gaudier 5.5 WAR. Since that time, Lopez has proven 2021’s offensive output to be an outlier; he’s slashed only .229/.300/.283 in 1215 subsequent plate appearances.

Matt Gage Elects Free Agency

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Tigers left-hander Matt Gage went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA, per Evan Woodbery of MLive.com. Rather than accept an assignment to Triple-A Toledo, Gage has opted to elect free agency, Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds, which is Gage’s right as a player who’s been outrighted previously in his career.

The 32-year-old Gage tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings with Detroit, though he did so while only fanning 12% of his opponents in that small sample. Still, he limited walks at an 8% clip and continued what’s generally been an effective run in limited MLB chances. Gage has now seen action in parts of three major league seasons and turned in a 1.42 ERA with a 22.5% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 45.3% ground-ball rate. He’s also done a nice job avoiding hard contact, yielding a tepid 86.8 mph average exit velocity and feeble 31.3% hard-hit rate across those three partial seasons.

Gage signed a minor league deal with the Tigers over the winter. They’re his third big league team in three seasons, having previously suited up for the Astros and Blue Jays. This year’s 91.9 mph average four-seamer is a career-low, but he’s posted quality numbers both in the big leagues and in Triple-A Toledo: 32 1/3 innings, 1.67 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate.

Any team in need of some left-handed bullpen depth could take a look at Gage. The Mets have cycled through several left-handed relievers in recent weeks, and there are several clubs around the league operating with only one lefty in their relief corps at the moment — the Yankees, Nationals and Mariners among them.

Tigers To Place Kerry Carpenter On Injured List

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The Tigers are placing designated hitter/outfielder Kerry Carpenter on the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring injury, manager A.J. Hinch told host Jim Duquette in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this morning. Infielder Trey Sweeney will be recalled from Triple-A Toledo to take Carpenter’s spot on the roster.

Carpenter is fifth on the Tigers in plate appearances but third with 16 home runs, trailing Riley Greene (19) and Spencer Torkelson (17) despite having 68 fewer plate appearances than Greene and 53 fewer than Torkelson. The 27-year-old slugger is hitting .257/.285/.494 overall but had just been heating up at the plate, breaking out of a lengthy slump with three homers in his past four games started. Carpenter, however, exited Sunday’s win over the Twins after grabbing at his hamstring while legging out a triple.

It’s the first IL stint of the season for Carpenter but his fourth in the past four seasons. He’s twice gone on the injured list lumbar injuries in his back, ultimately landing on the 60-day IL due to that issue in 2024. Carpenter also missed about six weeks of the 2023 season due to a sprain in his right shoulder.

When healthy, Carpenter has quietly been one of Detroit’s top sources of power. He’s played 314 games since debuting in 2022 and slugged 60 round-trippers in 1148 trips to the plate. He popped 18 homers in just 296 plate appearances last year and is close to matching that pace in 2025. Carpenter’s power prompted teammate Beau Brieske to give him the tongue-in-cheek nickname “Kerry Bonds” back during their minor league days, and it’s carried over into the big leagues despite Carpenter’s reluctance to accept the moniker in full.

With Carpenter on the shelf, Matt Vierling and Javier Baez will likely be in line for additional plate appearances in the short-term. It’s not immediately clear how long Carpenter will be sidelined, though Hinch suggested that the team is taking a conservative approach with this IL stint, which would imply that it’s not a major injury.

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