MLBTR Podcast: Colt Emerson Debuts, Blue Jays’ Rotation Issues, And What To Make Of The Mets And Astros
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Mariners calling up Colt Emerson (3:40)
- The Blue Jays losing José Berríos to surgery and trading Eric Lauer (10:50)
- The Dodgers losing Blake Snell to surgery (17:05)
- The Mets losing Francisco Alvarez to surgery and Clay Holmes to a fibula fracture (21:00)
- The Astros losing Jose Altuve to an oblique strain (31:35)
Plus, we answer your questions, including…
- Which teams have been the biggest positive surprises so far this season? (43:00)
- With the Dodgers having a lot of outfield prospects and trending towards a surplus, do they put together a trade or hold and develop them? (54:10)
Check out our past episodes!
- Patrick Bailey To Cleveland, The Struggling Astros, And Arizona’s Outfield Changes – listen here
- Skubal’s Injury, The Marlins’ Catchers, Eldridge Called Up, And Volpe Sent Down – listen here
- The Alex Cora Situation, Lucas Giolito Signs, And The Phillies Fire Rob Thomson – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
A’s Re-Sign Michael Stefanic To Minor League Deal
The Athletics re-signed infielder Michael Stefanic to a minor league contract. He’s back in the Triple-A lineup tonight as the designated hitter for the Aviators.
Stefanic elected free agency yesterday after being outrighted from the A’s roster one day earlier. He’d been designated for assignment on Saturday when they acquired Alika Williams from Pittsburgh. That ended Stefanic’s brief stint on the big league roster.
The A’s had called him up last Tuesday when they lost Jacob Wilson to the injured list. Stefanic played twice, once starting at second base and entering the other game as a pinch-hitter. He went 2-5 with a run scored. It marks five consecutive years with some MLB action for the 30-year-old infielder. He’s a lifetime .231/.315/.269 hitter at the major league level.
The righty-hitting Stefanic has been a fantastic Triple-A performer throughout his career. He owns a .326/.422/.447 batting line in more than 2000 plate appearances. Stefanic has elite strike zone judgment and pure contact skills, but he doesn’t hit for much power. He’s also more of a second/third baseman than a true shortstop, which limits his value off the bench for MLB clubs. That’s evidenced by the A’s going with Williams as a more valuable defender behind their middle infield pairing of Jeff McNeil and fill-in shortstop Darell Hernaiz.
Padres Release Jose Miranda
The Padres released corner infielder Jose Miranda from his minor league contract. The move was announced by San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate this afternoon.
Miranda signed with the Friars in mid-December. He had a big spring and legitimately seemed to be in consideration for an Opening Day roster spot. The Padres opted for Ty France in that role instead, assigning Miranda to Triple-A. France has certainly rewarded their faith, hitting .278 with four homers among nine extra-base knocks in 82 plate appearances.
The 27-year-old Miranda has had a rougher time in the minors. He’s batting .268/.308/.482 with five longballs in 120 trips. That superficially strong slash line is actually a fair bit worse than league average given the Pacific Coast League setting. That’s mostly due to the subpar on-base percentage, as Miranda has only worked four walks over 28 games. He’s among the bottom 15 PCL hitters (minimum 100 plate appearances) in reaching base.
A one-time top prospect with the Twins, Miranda hasn’t been able to build off a strong rookie showing in 2022. He hit .268/.325/.426 with 15 homers over his debut campaign. Miranda missed a good chunk of time the following year with a shoulder issue. He returned to hit .284/.322/.441 during the ’24 campaign but spent most of last season in Triple-A. Miranda had a dismal year in the minors, batting .195/.272/.296 and leading the Twins to drop him from the roster at season’s end.
Miranda should be able to find another minor league opportunity in the coming days. He has a solid contact/power combination that has been undermined by the aggressive approach and a lack of defensive value. Miranda isn’t a good defender at either corner spot and has seen most of his work at first base this year.
Pirates Getting Jared Triolo Work In Right Field
Pirates utilityman Jared Triolo is on the roster largely because of his defensive versatility and aptitude around the infield. He’s seen time at all four infield spots over the years and is generally regarded as a quality defender. The Bucs have recently began to expand that defensive portfolio even further. Triolo has logged time in right field in each of his past three games — two of them starts. He was out of the lineup tonight against the Cardinals.
Triolo had never started a major league game in the outfield prior to this past weekend. He made seven starts in center at the Double-A level in 2022 and logged six innings in right field (two in the majors, four in Triple-A) from 2024-25. That represented the entirety of his professional in-game experience in the outfield until Monday’s start on the grass, though Triolo says he’s been working with coaches Tony Beasley and Tarrik Brock on the side (link via Danny Demilio of Pittsburgh Baseball Now).
It’s always of some note when a player can expand his defensive versatility, and there’s reason to think Triolo can provide solid glovework in the outfield. Statcast places him in the 84th percentile of big leaguers in terms of sprint speed, so he certainly has the ability to cover ground. His average velocity on his throws across the diamond from the hot corner is below average but not egregiously so.
For the Bucs, if Triolo proves capable of playing the outfield on even an occasional basis, there’d be plenty of roster advantages. Many clubs use the DH spot to rotate players and maximize matchups, but Pittsburgh signed Marcell Ozuna to DH on an everyday basis, so it’s all the more important that their bench players have multiple positions in their skill set. Ozuna has struggled badly this year, but even if the Pirates move on and go with a more rotational approach, Triolo playing a decent corner would give them more flexibility with regard to how they round out their bench and even who they could target as the trade deadline approaches.
In the more immediate sense, Triolo’s outfield experiment gives skipper Don Kelly additional options to consider when navigating what’s expected to be a roughly monthlong absence for slugger Ryan O’Hearn, who’s spent the bulk of his time in right field this year. Prospect Jhostynxon Garcia is likely to get plenty of chances out there in O’Hearn’s absence, but Triolo makes a nice righty-swinging complement to Jake Mangum among the team’s reserve options; he hit .275/.339/.459 in 122 plate appearances against lefties last season.
It’d behoove Triolo to increase his overall productivity at the plate, however. He’s received sparse playing time in 2026 and slashed just .259/.310/.296 in 59 plate appearances. In parts of four seasons with the Pirates, he’s stepped into the batter’s box 1090 times and delivered a tepid .238/.320/.344 line (86 wRC+). But if there’s not much more in the tank, adding outfield to his skill set also benefits him as he approaches arbitration this winter and potentially exhausts his remaining option years. Triolo hasn’t been sent down in 2026 but has just one minor league option year remaining. If he’s sent down for 20 days at any point this season, he’ll need to stick on the roster in subsequent seasons or else be designated for assignment.
Peter Strzelecki Elects Free Agency
The Brewers announced this evening that reliever Peter Strzelecki cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, relays Todd Rosiak of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. They designated him for assignment over the weekend.
Strzelecki had a one-day stint on the active roster. Milwaukee selected his contract on Saturday and dropped him a day later. Strzelecki didn’t pitch in the one game for which he was active. He’s out of minor league options, so the Brewers couldn’t send him back to Triple-A without putting him on waivers. That gave Strzelecki the right to explore other opportunities, as this is the second outright assignment of his career.
It could be a formality that sees the 31-year-old re-sign in the next day or two. That’s common in situations like these. Strzelecki began his career as an undrafted free agent signee by the Brewers back in 2018. He made 66 MLB appearances with the Crew from 2022-23, turning in a 3.69 ERA across 70 2/3 innings. Milwaukee traded him to Arizona at the ’23 deadline.
After bouncing around for various teams in the upper minors, Strzelecki returned to the Brewers on an offseason minor league contract. He has allowed 10 runs (nine earned) through 19 2/3 innings with Triple-A Nashville. Strzelecki has fanned 20 opponents against four walks. He’s attacking the zone but not getting many whiffs on a per-pitch basis.
J.P. Crawford Getting Work At Third Base
Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford has been getting work at the hot corner and was taking grounders there prior to today’s game. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com was among those to report that the idea was actually brought up by Crawford, who approached manager Dan Wilson about the possibility this weekend. Crawford’s agent subsequently ran it by general manager Justin Hollander. All parties seem to be on board with seeing what it might look like.
Crawford’s openness to sliding off shortstop comes in conjunction with top prospect Colt Emerson reaching the majors. Seattle inked the 20-year-old to a record-setting eight-year, $95MM contract before he took a single plate appearance in the majors. Emerson made his big league debut earlier this week and promptly deposited a ball over the right field fence, making his first big league hit a three-run big fly. The 2023 first-rounder (No. 22 overall) is currently the third-ranked prospect in the entire game, per Baseball America.
Emerson has played both third base and shortstop in his first three big league games, but he’s spent the overwhelming majority of his career at shortstop (2074 innings, compared to 175 at third base). The Mariners surely envision him as their shortstop of the future — particularly with Crawford set to become a free agent at season’s end.
From Crawford’s vantage point, the experiment makes good sense. It’s a team-first approach in the short term, allowing Emerson to perhaps claim the spot the Mariners hope him to occupy well into the 2030s, but it also expands his own defensive versatility ahead of his first trip to the open market. Crawford’s defensive grades have declined in recent years, particularly over the past season-plus. If he can grade out more effectively at the hot corner, that’ll only make him more appealing while Emerson acclimates to the majors at his natural position.
Third base isn’t entirely new for Crawford, but it’s been quite some time since he logged any game action there. He has 174 innings at the position in his career, all coming in 2017-18 with the Phillies — the team that originally drafted him. He has another 78 minor league innings at the position.
While there’s some current opportunity to test things out, a more permanent move to third base might not be a possibility for Crawford just yet. The Mariners placed Brendan Donovan on the 10-day IL due to a groin strain this week. He’ll be shut down entirely for two to three weeks before resuming baseball activity. It doesn’t seem he’s ticketed for an especially long-term absence.
A healthy Donovan could slot right back in at third base, but he’s also comfortable playing second base and the outfield corners. Cole Young has been fine at second base but hasn’t exactly seized the position with a dominant performance. Outfield/DH options like Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley have quality season-long numbers but have begun to cool after blistering starts to the 2026 campaign. Time will tell how all of them are faring in a few weeks, but there are certainly scenarios where Donovan factors in at a position other than third base — the only position he’s played so far in 2026.
Crawford, 31, is in the final season of a five-year, $51MM contract. He missed time early on due to a shoulder injury and has been slowed recently by a triceps issue that doesn’t seem like it’ll send him to the injured list. He was originally slated to play shortstop and lead off for Seattle, but the Mariners scratched him a couple hours before first pitch. He’s turned in a tepid .210 batting average but has ridden a career-best 16.5% walk rate to a big .358 on-base percentage.
This year’s uncommonly low average is due primarily to a .220 average on balls in play that’s about 70 points shy of league average and Crawford’s own career .293 mark. He’s actually striking out less than ever (and less often than he walks), at a 15.9% rate. Crawford’s batted-ball metrics and bat speed are right in line with his typical levels. Statcast credits him for an expected .256 batting average and .418 slugging percentage, suggesting better days at the plate might not be all that far off.
Astros To Select Alimber Santa
The Astros are selecting reliever Alimber Santa onto the MLB roster, reports Héctor Gómez. Houston opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating righty Cody Bolton for assignment on Monday. They’ll only need to create an active roster spot by optioning a pitcher before Friday’s series opener at Wrigley Field.
It’s the first MLB call for the 23-year-old Santa. The 5’10” righty signed with Houston for $75K as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic in 2020. He struggled early in his minor league career but earned a nomination to last year’s Futures Game with an impressive season. Santa turned in a 2.31 earned run average while striking out 28% of opponents across 70 innings between the top two minor league levels.
Baseball America ranked Santa the #28 prospect in the Houston system over the winter. Their offseason scouting report credited him with a five-pitch arsenal, but this season’s Triple-A pitch tracking data indicates he has only used a mid-80s slider and a 94-95 mph four-seam fastball. Santa’s slider has been his best pitch throughout his time in the minors. He’s using it almost two-thirds of the time with strong results.
This year, Santa has fanned 32% of opponents while allowing only five runs (three earned) over 19 Triple-A innings. His 9.2% walk rate is close to league average, an improvement after he walked 13% of batters faced a year ago. He has plunked three batters and has a career 14.3% walk percentage over six minor league seasons.
Santa will come to town hoping to boost a bullpen that has been one of the worst in the Majors. They carried an MLB-high 5.78 ERA into play Wednesday, though that’ll drop slightly after AJ Blubaugh and Nate Pearson combined for two scoreless innings today. Houston relievers have allowed the most home runs (35) while ranking in the bottom third of the league in strikeout rate.
Angels Outright Alek Manoah
The Angels announced that right-hander Alek Manoah has been outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. There wasn’t any announcement about him being designated for assignment but it appears the Halos quietly put him on waivers and he cleared. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Manoah has the right to elect free agency but isn’t likely to do so. A player with at least three years of big league service has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of the open market but needs five years of service to exercise that right while keeping his salary commitments in place. Manoah’s service count is over four years but less than five. The Angels signed him to a deal worth $1.95MM this offseason. With roughly $1.35MM left to be paid out, it’s fair to expect Manoah will accept his assignment and won’t be walking away from that money.
For the Angels, signing Manoah was a bet on a bounceback. He was a borderline ace earlier in his career. With the Blue Jays in 2022, he posted a 2.24 ERA over 31 starts and finished third in Cy Young voting. But he hasn’t been anywhere close to that level since. He posted a 5.87 ERA in 2023. Shoulder and elbow issues held him back after that and he ultimately required Tommy John surgery. He made five big league starts in 2024 and none in 2025.
He was put on waivers late last year and was claimed by Atlanta, but that club non-tendered him. That sent him to free agency and allowed the Angels to scoop him up, but that hasn’t panned out thus far. He started the season on the IL due to a middle finger contusion. He came off the IL earlier this month and has made three relief appearances. The first two were scoreless but he was torched by the Dodgers in the third, allowing eight earned runs in an inning and a third. He was optioned to the minors a few days ago and is now off the 40-man.
It’s unclear if the Angels want to keep Manoah stretched out or use him out of the bullpen. He made just one rehab appearance before coming off the IL, tossing 4 1/3 innings. Once activated, he started with a single-inning appearance, then tossed five frames in the second outing. That was followed by the aforementioned drubbing from the Dodgers in an inning and a third.
With Yusei Kikuchi on the IL, the rotation currently consists of José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, Walbert Ureña and Grayson Rodriguez. They have George Klassen, Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri on the 40-man but currently on optional assignment. If Manoah is used as a starter in Triple-A, he can try to pitch his way into that group.
Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images
Gunnar Hoglund Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery
The Athletics announced that right-hander Gunnar Hoglund underwent left hip surgery yesterday, specifically a hip labral repair and cartilage debridement to address femoroacetabular impingement. He will miss the entire 2026 season. He is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the remainder of the campaign.
It’s a brutal development for Hoglund, as this will be his second straight season ended by surgery on that hip. In 2025, he was on the mound through the month of May. He hit the IL in early June due to a left hip impingement and went under the knife a couple of weeks later.
Ideally, he would have been healthy again in 2026 but that hasn’t come to pass. He missed all of spring training due to a knee issue and a back issue. He started the season on the IL with a lumbar spine strain. Now yet another hip surgery will wipe out his whole season.
Injuries were already a part of Hoglund’s story even before these multiple hip surgeries. While still in college, he required Tommy John surgery in May of 2021. A couple of months later, the Jays selected him 19th overall in that summer’s draft. While still rehabbing in March of 2022, Hoglund was traded to the A’s as part of the deal sending Matt Chapman to Toronto.
Hoglund was able to make a very brief professional debut late in 2022, tossing eight innings on the farm. He got up to 61 minor league innings in 2023 but with poor results, posting a 6.05 earned run average. He showed some progress in 2024, posting a 3.44 ERA in 130 2/3 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A.
He was added to the 40-man roster in November of 2024, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He began 2025 back at Triple-A and made six strong starts, which led to a call-up to the majors. He put six big league starts under his belt before hitting the IL last year. Ideally, he would have been developing as a pitcher and continuing to build his workload capacity as he moved further from his Tommy John. Instead, he lost most of 2025 and now all of 2026, leaving him as a big question mark going into 2027.
For the A’s, without Hoglund, they have primarily relied on a rotation consisting of Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Aaron Civale, J.T. Ginn and Jacob Lopez. That group has mostly been putting up good numbers, except for Lopez, who has a 6.14 ERA. Depth options on the 40-man include Luis Morales, Joey Estes, Mason Barnett and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang.
The A’s are 24-24, which is good enough for them to have the lead in the American League West at the moment. If they continue to hang in the playoff race this summer, the pitching staff would certainly be an area to add before this summer’s trade deadline. The club has a collective 4.38 ERA on the season, which is better than just six clubs in the majors. Since Hoglund won’t be able to come back this year, that should only add to the club’s desire to add arms in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian, Imagn Images
Bo Bichette’s Slow Start
Mets infielder Bo Bichette had zero extra-base hits in May entering this week. He popped a home run and a double on Monday against the Nationals, then followed it up with a two-homer game on Tuesday. Bichette came into the series against Washington with just two long balls this season. He’s more than doubled that mark in two games, while also pushing his OPS above .600 for the first time since May 1.
The move to Queens hasn’t gone as planned for Bichette after the Mets inked him to a hefty three-year, $126MM deal. The veteran had the ninth-lowest wRC+ among qualified hitters before Monday’s big night. He’s slashed .224/.277/.332 through 48 games. Those numbers looked eerily similar to Bichette’s 2024 campaign (.225/.277/.322), a year ruined by multiple injuries. The 28-year-old got back on track in 2025, a well-timed rebound ahead of his first crack at free agency. He’s slipped back into concerning habits this year.
Bichette’s approach has never been geared toward power. He makes hard contact, but sprays the ball to all fields and prioritizes line drives over fly balls. Even when Bichette was regularly reaching 20 home runs, he was doing it with a ground ball rate near 50% and a pulled air rate in the low teens. It’s an elite batting average profile, and league-leading hit collection is the main reason Bichette has been worth at least 3.5 wins (per Baseball Reference) in four of the previous five seasons.
The batted ball distribution this season is concerning, even for Bichette. His groundball rate is up to a career-high 51.2%. He’s pulling the ball in the air just 6.9% of the time, nearly half of his career norm (12%). Bichette is hitting line drives on just 23.1% of batted balls, which is below league average. Even in his difficult 2024 season, he hit line drives at a more than 30% clip.
Bichette has also taken a step back in terms of contact quality. He’s posted a 43.8% hard-hit rate, a 5% decline from 2025. He’s barreling the ball at a 5.6% rate, more than 3% below his career average. The only year Bichette has had a barrel rate below league average was 2024, when he stumbled to a 4.5% mark. Bichette still ranks in the 64th percentile for hard-hit rate. He’s in the 80th percentile for xBA at .280. For his profile to work, though, he’ll likely need to be closer to the league leaders in those categories. Bichette was in the 98th percentile with a .298 xBA in 2025. He finished second in the AL batting title race, behind only Aaron Judge.
The expectations of a significant contract, plus joining a new team, can weigh on a player. There’s also the New York factor. But if Bichette is pressing, the plate discipline doesn’t show it. He’s striking out just 16.3% of the time. His chase rate (38.1%) is up a bit from last season, but it’s more or less in line with his career mark of 36.8%. Bichette’s 7.3% swinging-strike rate is a career low. He’s making contact on pitches outside of the zone more than ever, which could explain some of the decline in contact quality. He might be better off swinging and missing a bit more often.
The most surprising aspect of Bichette’s stat line is the defense. The Mets signed him to play third base after he graded out as one of the worst shortstops in the league during his final year in Toronto. Injuries to Francisco Lindor and Ronny Mauricio forced Bichette back to shortstop, and he’s played fine there. He’s been neutral in terms of both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average at the position. Bichette’s recorded -1 DRS and +1 OAA at third base. Unremarkable numbers with the glove are a huge improvement for Bichette, and likely part of the reason he’s performed at replacement level (-0.1 bRef WAR) despite the poor offensive contributions.
Like most hitters, Bichette has had tough months at the plate, even during strong seasons. He had a .687 OPS in June last year. His groundball rate jumped over 52% during that stretch. Bichette then turned around and hit .357 with 12 doubles and 18 RBI in July. There’s plenty of time for him to get back on track at the plate. And getting passable defense at multiple spots is a big win for the Mets, even if it’s not worth $42MM a year.
Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images