Phillies Claim Grant Holman
The Phillies announced that they have claimed right-hander Grant Holman off waivers from the Tigers and optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Detroit designated him for assignment a few days ago. The Phils had a couple of 40-man vacancies and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Holman, 26 this month, has been riding the waiver wire quite a bit in recent months. He pitched for the Athletics in 2024 and 2025 but that club designated him for assignment in February. He was claimed by the Diamondbacks and has since gone to the Dodgers, Tigers and now Phillies on subsequent claims. He’s been kept on optional assignment this year, having not pitched in the big leagues since last season.
The major league track record isn’t particularly impressive. Holman tossed 38 2/3 innings for the A’s in the two previous seasons, allowing 4.66 earned runs per nine. His 18.8% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate have been subpar. His 43.9% ground ball rate has been above average by a couple of ticks.
His minor league numbers have been stronger. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has thrown 62 innings on the farm with an ERA of 0.87. That is at least a bit misleading, as his .218 batting average on balls in play and 88.3% strand rate in that sample have been very fortunate. His 10.6% walk rate is on the high side but he paired that with a 28.1% strikeout rate and solid ground ball numbers as well. He’s mostly a fastball-splitter guy, throwing those two pitches roughly 85% of the time, with his slider taking up the rest of his usage.
For the Phils, as mentioned, they had a couple of free roster spots. They designated Dylan Moore for assignment a few days ago and traded Trevor Richards to the White Sox. Since Holman still has options, they’ve used one of those two open spots to grab him and stash him in the minors as some extra bullpen depth. If he sticks on the roster, he could be called upon whenever they need a fresh arm in the big league level.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
A’s Designate Austin Wynns For Assignment
1:30pm: The Athletics have now formally announced these moves.
12:58pm: The A’s will designate catcher Austin Wynns for assignment today when Shea Langeliers returns from the paternity list, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. Langeliers and the recently reacquired Jonah Heim will split catching duties for the time being.
Wynns has been with the Athletics since last June, when they picked him up in a cash swap following a DFA by the Reds. The 35-year-old has appeared in 36 games with the A’s and taken 110 plate appearances while slashing .167/.204/.304. It’s a far cry from the outlier .400/.442/.700 line he delivered in 43 plate appearances with Cincinnati, though Wynns was never going to sustain the .520 average on balls in play that propped up his Reds output.
In parts of eight major league seasons between the Orioles, Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Reds and A’s, Wynns has come to the plate 826 times and recorded a .231/.276/.347 batting line with 19 home runs. The journeyman backup doesn’t have particularly strong framing grades in his career, but Statcast considers his blocking skills average and he’s nabbed an excellent 30.2% of runners who’ve attempted to steal on him in his career.
Wynns’ poor performance at the plate will send him to the waiver wire in all likelihood, though it’s possible another club swings a cash swap to plug him in as a short-term backup. Wynns has more than five years of big league service time, so even if he clears waivers, he can reject an outright assignment, elect free agency and retain the remainder of this year’s $1.1MM guarantee. Even when Wynns has cleared waivers in the past, he’s found another big league opportunity fairly quickly. Clubs clearly value his experience, his defensive chops and his work with pitchers — hence his five-plus years of major league service between six clubs despite perennially subpar offensive output.
Matthew Boyd To Miss About Six Weeks Following Meniscus Surgery
May 7: Boyd has now undergone his surgery, and Counsell told the team’s beat that it proved to be a relatively minor meniscus repair (via Marquee’s Taylor McGregor). They’re hopeful the left-hander can return in around six weeks.
May 6: Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd is going to undergo surgery to address an injury to the meniscus in his left knee. His current timetable is unknown. Manager Craig Counsell provided the update to reporters, including Jesse Rogers of ESPN. After Counsell spoke, the Cubs officially placed him on the 15-day injured list. Right-hander Trent Thornton was selected to take Boyd’s spot on the roster. Left-hander Charlie Barnes was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Thornton. Jordan Bastian of MLB.com reported that Thornton would be coming up prior to the official announcement.
The Boyd injury comes out of nowhere. He started for the Cubs on Sunday and tossed six innings of two-run ball against the Diamondbacks. Apparently, Boyd first noticed the injury while getting up and down to play with his kids, per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. That led to an MRI, which showed an issue with his meniscus. His timeline won’t be known until after the procedure takes place, per Mooney, but it will be longer than a minimum stint on the IL.
For however long Boyd is ultimately out, it will be a blow to the Cubs. They have already lost Cade Horton to Tommy John surgery, so he’s done for the year. Justin Steele is trying to come back from his own elbow surgery but a flexor strain recently pushed his timeline and he’s probably out beyond the All-Star break now.
The Cubs started the year with Horton, Boyd, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in five spots. Boyd missed time earlier due to a bicep strain. Due to that ailment and Horton’s surgery, Colin Rea moved from the bullpen to the rotation and Javier Assad was called up from the minors. When Boyd returned from the bicep issue, Assad was bumped to the bullpen.
Boyd’s spot in the rotation is due up on Friday. Perhaps Assad will get another rotation gig but he’s not currently stretched out. His last start was April 19th, when he went 5 2/3. He then pitched one inning on April 23rd and 2 1/3 on April 25th, followed by a big gap. He tossed an inning and a third last night, his first game action in ten days.
Doug Nikhazy is on optional assignment and could be another option but he lasted only 2 2/3 innings in each of his two most recent Triple-A starts. Guys like Ty Blach, Connor Noland, Paul Campbell and Will Sanders have been starting in Triple-A but aren’t on the 40-man and no one in that trio has an ERA below 6.00.
For now, Thornton gives them an extra arm in the bullpen. The Cubs signed him to a minor league deal in the offseason. He has made four Triple-A appearances, logging 5 2/3 innings with a 3.18 earned run average, 20% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.
He is coming off a pretty decent three-year run in the big leagues. From 2023 to 2025, mostly with the Mariners, he tossed 146 innings with a 3.58 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 40.1% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, he tore his left Achilles last summer, ended his season prematurely. That led Seattle to non-tender him, which allowed the Cubs to scoop him up on a minor league pact.
Ideally, he’ll get back on track and be a useful piece of the Chicago bullpen. If it doesn’t work out, Thornton has at least five years of big league service time, meaning he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent.
Barnes, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason and was added to the roster about two weeks into the season. He made one big league appearance, tossing three innings of relief on April 13th, allowing three earned runs. In Triple-A this year, he has tossed 21 2/3 innings with a 3.74 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate.
He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Cubs could take five days to field trade interest, though they could also put him on waivers sooner than that. He spent 2022 to 2025 pitching in South Korea, posting a 3.58 ERA for the Lotte Giants. Since he still has options, perhaps that will entice some clubs in need of pitching depth, but the Cubs are one such club and they’re bumping him off the roster.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Marlins Announce Several Roster Moves
The Marlins announced a quartet of roster moves this morning. Infielder Graham Pauley and lefty Dax Fulton were optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. Right-hander Stephen Jones‘ contract was selected from Double-A, and outfielder Heriberto Hernandez has been recalled as well. Miami had an opening for Jones on the 40-man roster after this week’s DFA of veteran righty Chris Paddack. However, with top prospect Robby Snelling confirmed to be Friday’s starter and needing a 40-man spot, the Fish will now need to make a 40-man roster move between today’s game and tomorrow’s game in order to get Snelling onto the roster.
It’s the first time in nearly a year that Pauley has been sent to the minors. He’s taken the majority of Miami’s reps at third base this season but has struggled immensely, batting just .173/.225/.293 in 81 turns at the plate. Pauley didn’t offer much with the bat last year, either, but his .224/.311/.366 slash (184 plate appearances) was miles better than what he’s posted so far in 2026. Pauley is actually chasing fewer pitches off the plate and making contact on a higher percentage of his swings, but because he’s swinging less often in general and thus taking more called strikes, his walk and strikeout rate have both trended in the wrong direction.
A brief reset for the 25-year-old Pauley could do him some good. He turned in a strong .263/.342/.511 batting line (127 wRC+) in 37 games with the Marlins’ Jacksonville affiliate in 2025, walking at a quality 9% clip against a tiny 11.6% strikeout rate. Given that Pauley plays an above-average third base, Miami would surely take even average offense out of his bat.
With Pauley looking to get back on track in Jacksonville, the Fish will likely turn third base over to utilityman Javier Sanoja, although fellow infielders Leo Jimenez and Christopher Morel could potentially mix in as well. Morel was signed to be the primary first baseman and is a poor defender at third base, but he does have experience there. Connor Norby — who also has experience at third base — has been the primary option at first base, but the Marlins could at least consider sliding him back across the diamond on occasion. Broadly speaking, manager Clayton McCullough will have plenty of scenarios to consider, though none of them stands out as ideal.
Jones, 28, will make his big league debut the first time he gets into a game. He’s a former Rockies draftee who spent the 2025 season in the Padres system and signed a minor league deal with the Marlins over the winter. Jones has opened the 2026 season with 16 2/3 innings and a 3.24 ERA. He’s surrendered six earned runs on 10 hits and a problematic 13 walks, tacking on 19 punchouts in the process. Jones’ 25.7% strikeout rate isn’t supported by his well below-average 8.5% swinging-strike rate, however, and his colossal 17.6% walk rate presents an obvious red flag. He’ll get an opportunity to show he can hack it in the majors, but he’ll need to both improve his ability to miss bats and, more importantly, scale back on those walks if he’s to have any staying power.
Cubs Designate Corbin Martin For Assignment
The Cubs announced Thursday that righty Corbin Martin has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow right-handed reliever Gavin Hollowell, who has been recalled from Triple-A Iowa.
Martin signed a minor league deal with Chicago back in January. His contract was selected to the major league roster in mid-April, and he’s appeared in seven games with sub-par results. The 2017 second-rounder (Astros) started out nicely, with four shutout innings, but he’s allowed runs in three consecutive appearances and only completed one inning in that time. Over those three outings, Martin has faced 11 batters and yielded four hits (two of them homers) and four walks en route to six earned runs.
Now 30 years old, Martin was a highly regarded prospect, going from Houston to Arizona as part of the 2019 Zack Greinke blockbuster. Injuries have consistently hampered him, however. He’s pitched in parts of five major league seasons between Houston, Arizona, Baltimore and now Chicago, totaling 80 2/3 innings with a 6.81 earned run average. Since being drafted, he’s undergone Tommy John surgery and surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his lat. The first procedure wiped out his entire 2020 season and a good portion of the 2021 campaign. The second cost him all of the 2023 season.
The Cubs will have five days to trade Martin, place him on outright waivers or release him. Outright waivers are a 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within the next week.
Royals Notes: Ragans, Rotation, Estévez
The Royals got a bit of injury scare yesterday with Cole Ragans departing his start. He’ll continue to be evaluated but the Royals appear to be hopeful that the move was precautionary and that Ragans won’t need to go on the injured list.
Ragans threw 58 pitches over three innings before departing last night. After the game, he told Anne Rogers of MLB.com that he felt soreness and tightness in the bottom of his triceps and elbow. That sounds a bit ominous, especially for a guy with two prior Tommy John surgeries, but Ragans feels this is different. “I’ve been through the elbow stuff,” he said. “I know it’s not what I’ve been through before.” Manager Matt Quatraro told broadcaster Joel Goldberg that he was being cautious with the removal and that he’s hopeful Ragans can make his next start.
The southpaw isn’t out to his best start, with a 4.84 earned run average and 15.2% walk rate so far this year. Regardless, the Royals don’t want to lose him, knowing what he’s capable of. In 2024, he finished fourth in American League Cy Young voting after posting a 3.14 ERA over 32 starts.
If Ragans does ultimately end up on the IL, the Royals are in a decent spot to cover for him, with Stephen Kolek currently on the outside of the rotation looking in. Kolek started the year on the IL himself due to an oblique strain. He came off the IL a couple of days ago and made a spot start when Noah Cameron was experiencing some back tightness. Kolek had a strong start, getting the win against the Guardians after throwing six innings of three-run ball. But since Cameron is expected to make his next start, Kolek was optioned to Triple-A.
A pitcher who is optioned normally has to wait 15 days before being recalled but an exception is made when someone is placed on the IL. If Ragans or Cameron were put on the shelf, Kolek could be promptly recalled.
Kolek has a 4.03 career ERA and just posted a 2.76 ERA on his rehab assignment before that spot start. He would be in the rotation for a lot of teams but is currently blocked by Ragans, Cameron, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Kris Bubic. Other depth options on the roster including Mason Black and Mitch Spence but the Royals recently lost Ryan Bergert and Ben Kudrna to season-ending surgeries.
There’s also a notable injury situation to watch relating to the Kansas City bullpen. Reliever Carlos Estévez exited a rehab game yesterday due to shoulder discomfort. That’s a bit of a worrisome development since that’s a new injury. He landed on the IL a little over a month ago due to a left foot contusion suffered when he was hit by a comebacker.
Even before getting hit by that comebacker, his velocity was down and his early-season results were poor. His fastball averaged around 97 miles per hour for most of his career. He was closer to 96 last year. He was below 90 mph in spring training and posted a 7.20 ERA. In his lone regular season outing, he was at 91 mph and allowed six earned runs in a third of an inning.
Perhaps this shoulder discomfort provides an explanation for the diminished stuff but time will tell what sort of remedy will be required. With Estévez out, Lucas Erceg has been the closer. He has racked up ten saves but not in smooth fashion, having walked 17.7% of batters faced. Among pitchers with at least 15 innings pitched this year, only Connor Phillips of the Reds has a higher walk rate than that. Ideally, Estévez would come back and bump Erceg back to a setup role but it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Yankees Select Brendan Beck
The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Brendan Beck from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Right-hander Yerry de los Santos was optioned to Triple-A following last night’s game. New York already had a trio of 40-man roster vacancies. Their roster is now at 38.
Beck will be with the club for today’s afternoon tilt against the Rangers and could make his big league debut. Veteran righty Paul Blackburn is slated to start for the Yanks after Ryan Weathers was scratched due to illness. Beck, a starter with the Yankees’ top affiliate, could be a long relief option behind Blackburn, whose longest outing of the season has been three innings. Weathers will slot back into the rotation next week, manager Aaron Boone told reporters last night (link via ESPN’s Jorge Castillo). Weathers himself told the team’s beat that he got sick shortly after his last start and wound up losing nine pounds in under 48 hours (via SNY’s Chelsea Janes), so he’ll understandably be pushed back a few days as he regains strength.
The 27-year-old Beck — the younger brother of Giants righty Tristan Beck — was the Yankees’ second-round pick out of Stanford back in 2021. He’s a soft-tossing righty with plus command whose pro career has been marred by injuries. Beck required Tommy John surgery not long after being drafted and then missed all of the 2024 campaign due to another elbow surgery.
Beck returned from that second elbow procedure in 2025 and delivered a terrific season between Double-A and Triple-A, combining for 131 1/3 innings with a 3.36 ERA, a 23.6% strikeout rate and a 6.9% walk rate. He’s had an uneven start to his 2026 season, serving up a 5.11 ERA in 37 frames, but nearly all the damage against him thus far came in a pair of nightmare outings that saw him yield seven and eight runs. He’s held opponents to two or fewer earned runs in four of seven starts this year and is coming off a strong seven-inning outing against the Blue Jays’ top affiliate, where he held his opponents to a pair of runs on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
The Beck brothers, whose mother was born in England and whose grandfather was born in Wales, pitched for Great Britain’s team in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Brendan tossed four shutout innings with four strikeouts. This is his first career selection to the 40-man roster, so 2026 will be the first of three minor league option years for him. The Yankees can control Beck for at least six years beyond the current campaign.
The Opener: Cubs, Rays, Reynolds
Reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes flirted with history again on Wednesday. The big righty was perfect through 4 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks, until he couldn’t make the play on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. roller up the third base line. Nolan Arenado followed with a clean single, then Skenes retired the next 10 hitters.
1. Cubs walk it off again
A Michael Busch bases-loaded walk pushed across the winning run for the Cubs in the 10th inning last night. It was their third straight walk-off victory in an important NL Central battle against the Reds. Chicago has won seven in a row. Cincinnati is now last in the division after dropping the first three games of the series. The Reds’ 20-17 record would pace the AL Central, but it’s not enough to get out of the basement on the NL side. With a win on Thursday ahead of a nine-game road trip, the Cubs can go more than a month without losing at Wrigley Field.
2. Rays getting national spotlight
Tampa Bay shut out the Blue Jays on Wednesday behind a strong outing from Shane McClanahan. Ian Seymour slammed the door for his first career save. The Rays have now held opponents to three runs or less in 13 consecutive games, a new franchise record (per MLB). The streak will be on the line against the Red Sox on Thursday evening, with the nation watching. The matchup will be broadcast on ESPN, marking the Rays’ first regular-season game on the network since 2021 (h/t Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). “It’s kind of like the ‘first time, long time’ caller on a talk radio station,” broadcaster Karl Ravech said. “It’s the first time, long time for the Rays on a national game for us.”
3. Reynolds joins elite company
Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds singled in the third inning of Wednesday’s matchup against Arizona, giving him 1,000 hits in his career. The 31-year-old is now the fifth Pittsburgh player to record 1,000 hits, 200 doubles, and 140 home runs (h/t Jason Mackey of MLB.com). Pirates legends Roberto Clemente, Andrew McCutchen, Dave Parker, and Willie Stargell round out the group. Reynolds has been a remarkably steady presence in the Pittsburgh lineup since becoming a full-time player in 2021. He’s reached 145 games and 600 plate appearances in five straight years. Before a lackluster 2025, Reynolds had been at least 10% better than league average at the plate during that stretch.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Carlos Correa To Undergo Season-Ending Ankle Surgery
The hits keep coming for the Astros. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reports that third baseman/shortstop Carlos Correa will require season-ending surgery to repair a left ankle injury. Correa was scratched from last night’s game and subsequently reported to have suffered a potentially major ankle injury. He was in the clubhouse today on crutches.
Correa himself told reporters in Houston that he suffered a torn tendon in his left ankle (video link via McTaggart). The requisite surgery to repair the injury will sideline him for the next six to eight months. (Notably, that’s not the ankle that caused enough medical concern to scuttle a pair of major free agent deals a few offseasons back.) As Correa explains, it was a freak incident:
“I was hitting in the cage — normal day, feeling great. I went through my whole routine, took a swing, and felt a pop. It just completely snapped on me, and then I fell to the ground, couldn’t put weight on it. Just a normal swing, but I felt a loud pop. I heard it. I felt it. I knew right away something was wrong.”
With Correa’s season over, the Astros will entrust shortstop to Nick Allen and Braden Shewmake for the time being. Both are light-hitting defensive specialists, though Shewmake took Shohei Ohtani deep for a go-ahead home run last night. Star shortstop Jeremy Peña is on the mend from a hamstring strain and will reclaim everyday shortstop work once healthy. Peña’s return would have pushed Correa back to third base, but the hot corner will now be manned by Isaac Paredes moving forward, with a resurgent Christian Walker at first base, Jose Altuve at second base and Yordan Alvarez at designated hitter.
Correa is the latest in a dizzying line of major Astros injuries. He joins not only Peña but Hunter Brown (shoulder strain), Josh Hader (biceps tendinitis), Yainer Diaz (oblique strain), Jake Meyers (oblique strain), Tatsuya Imai (arm fatigue), Cristian Javier (shoulder strain), Joey Loperfido (quad strain) and Taylor Trammell (groin strain) as Astros to suffer new injuries this season. The ‘Stros are also still without pitchers Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter, all three of whom underwent UCL surgery during the 2025 season.
Suffice it to say, the 2026 season hasn’t gone according to plan. Houston’s 15-22 record is the fifth-worst in Major League Baseball. Long-term absences for key players like Correa, Brown, Hader and Peña have conspired to dig an early hole from which they’ll be hard-pressed to climb out. The pitching, in particular, has been egregiously bad. Houston not only ranks last in the majors with a team-wide 5.65 ERA — they’re 64 points north of the 29th-ranked D-backs, who sit at a collective 5.01. The bullpen’s 6.20 ERA is the highest in MLB by nearly a full run over the 29th-ranked Angels (5.35). The rotation’s 5.13 ERA ranks 29th, narrowly leading Arizona (5.20).
The 2026 trade deadline is still just under three months away, but the mountain of injuries and a dismal pitching performance thus far makes it hard to envision the ‘Stros recovering — even with Alvarez and Walker combining to create one of the more formidable lineup duos in the game. The Astros will face some tough decisions at this year’s deadline, due not only to the current state of affairs but also an increasingly concerning long-term outlook that doesn’t create much optimism.
[Related: The Astros’ Ominous Long-Term Outlook]
As for Correa, he’s still signed for another two seasons beyond the current year. He’ll earn $30.5MM in 2027 and $30MM in 2028, though the Twins are paying $10MM per year (2026-28) as part of the trade that sent Correa and more than $70MM of his remaining contract back to Houston. His six-year, $200MM deal also contains a quartet of vesting club options valued at $25MM, $20MM, $15MM and $10MM, spanning the 2029-32 seasons. Those options can vest based on the total plate appearances Correa logs in the immediately preceding season.
Cubs Re-Sign Vince Velasquez To Minor League Deal, Outright Yacksel Ríos
The Cubs re-signed righty Vince Velasquez to a minor league contract, per the MiLB.com transaction log. The tracker also indicates that reliever Yacksel Ríos cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment on Sunday.
Velasquez elected free agency last week following his own DFA. The 33-year-old had signed an offseason minor league deal with Chicago. He started three of four appearances with Iowa, allowing eight runs (seven earned) through 17 innings. He struck out 19 opponents while issuing nine walks and hitting a batter.
The Cubs brought Velasquez up for a long relief spot. He pitched 2 1/3 scoreless frames in a blowout loss to the Dodgers. That was his first MLB appearance in three years. Velasquez threw 31 pitches and wasn’t going to be available the next day, so the Cubs designated him for assignment to bring up a fresh arm (Ríos, coincidentally).
Ríos spent a week on Chicago’s active roster. He only got into one game, retiring all five batters faced with a pair of strikeouts against L.A. on April 26. That was also his first MLB outing since 2023. Ríos averaged 98.5 mph with his heater in that lone appearance. He’d posted more middling numbers with Iowa before he got called up, allowing six earned runs with an 8:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 10 2/3 frames.
The 32-year-old righty has a previous career outright on his résumé, meaning he can elect free agency. There’s a decent chance he’d follow the Velasquez path and return to the Cubs on a minor league deal even if he opts to test the market.