Cubs Place Jameson Taillon On Injured List
The Cubs placed starter Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 8, with a left hamstring strain. Chicago brought up two relievers, Tyler Ferguson and Ethan Roberts, from Triple-A Iowa. Trent Thornton goes on the paternity list in the other pitching move. The Cubs also activated Matt Shaw from the 10-day injured list and optioned outfielder Kevin Alcántara back to Iowa.
Chicago also added lefty reliever Antoine Kelly to the 40-man roster, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Kelly was optioned to Triple-A. The Cubs acquired him in a cash trade with the Dodgers over the weekend. That suggests the Chicago native triggered an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with Los Angeles. Kelly has still yet to reach the Majors.
Taillon has a moderate hamstring strain, skipper Craig Counsell told reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of The Chicago Tribune). The Cubs expect him to miss more than a month and be sidelined beyond the All-Star Break. Taillon has had a middling first couple months, allowing a 5.19 earned run average through 67 2/3 innings.
The Cubs will turn to Colin Rea, Shota Imanaga and Edward Cabrera for this series at Coors Field. They haven’t listed any plans for their weekend set in San Francisco. Matthew Boyd went five innings and 80 pitches on a rehab start for Iowa on Saturday. He’s expected to make his return from meniscus surgery at some point this weekend. Boyd and Ben Brown should take the first two games of the Giants series in some order, which would put Rea back on regular rest for the finale.
Brown is the only Cubs starter who has gotten strong results this year. He only moved into the starting staff when Boyd went down in early May. Brown has responded with a 1.44 ERA and 29% strikeout rate over six starts. He has also continued throwing strikes while turning a lineup over multiple times. Cabrera, Imanaga and Rea have all been far too home run prone. No team’s rotation has given up more longballs than Chicago’s 32.
It’s too early for the Cubs to do much on the trade front. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer acknowledged last week that’ll likely be the focus when the deadline gets closer. They’re not likely to push Cabrera, Imanaga or Boyd out of the rotation anytime soon, but they could certainly move Rea back into a swing role. Jordan Wicks and Doug Nikhazy are the only depth starters on the 40-man roster; they’ve both gotten rocked in Triple-A.
Jack Kochanowicz To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz told members of the media, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, that he will be undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’ll be out of action until the second half of the 2027 season. He is already on the 15-day injured list and will be transferred to the 60-day IL as soon as the Angels need his roster spot.
It’s obviously a brutal blow for Kochanowicz and the Angels alike. The righty has logged 240 1/3 innings for the Halos over the past three seasons, allowing 5.88 earned runs per nine. His 13.4% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate aren’t great figures but he has induced grounders on 54.6% of the balls in play he has allowed. He now won’t be able to add to those totals for quite a while.
The only silver lining for Kochanowicz is that he will collect big league pay and service time for the rest of the year. He came into this season with his service clock at one year and 12 days, so he will be at 2.012 at the end of the campaign. The IL goes away in the offseason, so the Angels will have to decide whether or not to add him back to the roster for the winter.
While Kochanowicz’s number haven’t been amazing, the Angels aren’t in a great position to be losing more rotation depth. The Halos have been struggling to put together a serviceable rotation for years. The club’s starters have a collective 4.76 ERA this season, which is better than just three other clubs in the majors, a key reason why the club is in the basement of the American League with a 25-42 record. Yusei Kikuchi is sidelined with a shoulder issue and has an uncertain timeline. Now Kochanowicz won’t be a factor for the remainder of the year.
With Kochanowicz hitting the IL a few days ago due to elbow inflammation, the rotation is now down to José Soriano, Reid Detmers, Walbert Ureña and Grayson Rodriguez. Urena and Detmers are scheduled to go tonight and tomorrow. The club is then off on Thursday and may not need a fifth starter right away, but they will eventually need to fill that spot.
Sam Aldegheri has been starting in the minors and pitching long relief outings in the majors, so he could be an option, though he has an ERA over 7.00 in the minors this year. George Klassen and Caden Dana are on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment, so one of them could be recalled. Klassen has an ERA near 6.00 in Triple-A on the year. Dana’s 4.31 ERA doesn’t look amazing but isn’t too bad in the context of the Pacific Coast League. His 12.2% walk rate is too high but he is striking out 26% of batters faced. Alek Manoah was outrighted off the roster last month and then jumped into the Triple-A rotation but hasn’t able to get through three innings in his recent outings.
Given the state of the depth, the Halos could look to external options. Considering their place in the standings, it wouldn’t make much sense to make a headline-grabbing trade, but they could perhaps look to the waiver wire or guys with other clubs who have opt-outs or upward mobility clauses.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Mariners Acquire Carson Fulmer
The Pirates have traded right-hander Carson Fulmer to the Mariners, reports Alex Stumpf. Fulmer was not on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster and won’t need a spot with Seattle, unless his minor league deal contained some kind of opt-out or upward mobility clause. It’s unclear what the Bucs are getting in return but it may be a cash deal.
Fulmer, 32, has appeared in nine major league seasons. He has thrown 256 2/3 innings, allowing 5.44 earned runs per nine. His 20% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate are both a bit worse than league average, while his 40.9% ground ball rate is right around par.
He finished last season with the Angels but was outrighted off the roster at the end of the campaign. He was able to elect free agency and later signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. He has been pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis this year, logging 34 frames over 16 appearances. His 6.35 ERA in that time certainly doesn’t look good, though it’s likely a bit misleading. His .330 batting average on balls in play and 63% strand rate are both to the unfortunate side. His 17.5% strikeout rate this year isn’t great but his 43.1% grounder rate is decent.
If the Mariners plan to add Fulmer to the 40-man roster, he is out of options and would therefore need to go on the active roster. If not, he’ll provide them with some extra depth capable of pitching multiple innings.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
Rockies Select Cole Carrigg
The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Cole Carrigg and recalled right-hander Jeff Criswell. In corresponding moves, they placed infielder/outfielder Tyler Freeman on the seven-day concussion injured list and designated Keegan Thompson for assignment.
Carrigg, now 24, was selected with the 65th overall pick in the 2023 draft. He is clearly a talented athlete, capable of doing all kinds of things. He is a switch hitter with speed. At San Diego State, he played every position on the diamond except for first base and right field.
After the Rockies drafted him, they initially had him split his time between catcher, shortstop and the outfield. He hasn’t been behind the plate since 2023, however. In 2025, he only played the outfield. Here in 2026, he has been splitting his time between shortstop and center field.
Offensively, Carrigg has a .283/.359/.474 line throughout his minor league career. He has been at the Triple-A level here in 2026, with 257 plate appearances on the year. His 15.2% strikeout rate is quite low and his 10.5% walk rate above average. He has six home runs, a .338 /.414/.529 line and 129 wRC+, though a .387 batting average on balls in play is helping him out a lot. He has 30 steals in 37 attempts.
Baseball America currently lists Carrigg as the #4 prospect in the Rockies’ system. MLB Pipeline has him at #6 and ESPN recently listed him in the #7 spot. Reports on him generally focus on his aggressiveness, noting that it can be both an asset and a liability for him. He got really swing-happy at Double-A last year and struck out at a 27% clip, though he seems to have reined that in this year. But getting too passive isn’t ideal either since his speed and explosiveness are a big part of his appeal.
The Rockies have Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop. He is having an awful season but Colorado is unlikely to make a change since he signed an extension through 2030. Even though he is struggling, they will presumably let him play to try to work it out.
The outfield is more open. Freeman joins Mickey Moniak, Brenton Doyle and Jordan Beck on the IL. In recent weeks, the Rockies have had an outfield mix of Freeman, Jake McCarthy, Troy Johnston and Sterlin Thompson. McCarthy has been the regular up the middle while Freeman has been taking most of the right field playing time. With Carrigg coming up, perhaps he will take over as the center fielder, with McCarthy sliding over to right.
Since this is Carrigg’s first major league call, he has a full slate of options and could be sent back down to the minors as those injured guys come off the IL, though Thompson also has options and is hitting .222/.327/.267 on the year. The roster might also get a shake-up at the deadline, since the Rockies are 24-42 and clearly trending towards being sellers this summer. McCarthy is in his arbitration years and would be a trade candidate, even though he’s under club control through 2028. Ditto for Freeman. Moniak is only under club control through 2027 and is even more likely to be available.
There are a few different ways things can go in the coming weeks and months, depending on health, performance and transactions. Ideally, Carrigg can hit the ground running and stay up in the majors. Regardless of how things play out in the short term, the Rockies will hope he can become a building block on their roster for the long term.
Thompson, 31, was claimed off waivers from the Reds in the offseason. The Rockies then outrighted him off the roster just before Opening Day. He could have elected free agency but had agreed to a $1.3MM salary with Cincinnati before the Rockies claimed him. Heading to the open market would have meant walking away from that money, so he reported to Triple-A Albuquerque.
He was added back to the roster about three weeks ago and has been working a long relief role for the Rockies. He has thrown 12 innings over five appearances, allowing 11 earned runs in that time. There’s surely a bit of bad luck in that small sample, as his 3.5% walk rate was quite good and his 19.3% strikeout rate just a few ticks south of par. His .419 batting average on balls in play and 51% strand rate helped push some extra runs across, which is why his 2.86 FIP and 3.71 SIERA were more optimistic.
Ultimately, it’s a small sliver of his larger track record. He came into the year with a 3.64 ERA in 227 1/3 career innings. His 23% strikeout rate and 41% ground ball rate in that time were solid but he gave walks to 11.3% of batters faced. He just cleared waivers a few months ago and could perhaps do so again. If that comes to pass, he would likely accept another outright assignment, as there’s still about $765K to be paid out on his deal.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Cardinals Option Victor Scott II
June 9th: The Cards have made it official, announcing that Church has been reinstated and Scott optioned.
June 8th: The Cardinals are optioning center fielder Victor Scott II to Triple-A Memphis today, as first reported by KMOV’s Tamar Sher. Fellow outfielder Nathan Church will return from the 10-day IL today and take Scott’s roster spot, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat. Church will presumably see the bulk of action in center field.
It’s the first time that Scott, 25, has been optioned since the 2024 season. He spent all of 2025 in the majors and has been a regular player in 2026 despite nonexistent offensive output. He’s hitting .194/.276/.258 (57 wRC+) through 184 turns at the plate thus far. Scott only has six extra-base hits (two homers, four doubles).
Scott has swiped nine bases but been caught four times; that’s already as many times as he was caught stealing in all of ’25, when he swiped a total of 34 bags. His 29.7 ft/sec sprint speed is still elite, sitting in the 98th percentile of big leaguers, but it’s down half a foot from last year’s 30.2 ft/sec, which tied him for tops in the game. Scott’s 8.7% walk rate is almost average, and his 23.9% strikeout rate isn’t egregious, but he has the sixth-worst hard-hit rate among the 235 players to tally at least 150 plate appearances this season.
Defensively, Scott still grades out quite well, though not to the same extent as in 2025. Last year, he was credited with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 16 Outs Above Average in 1087 innings. This year, through 471 innings in center, OAA has credited Scott as a positive but not elite defender (3), while DRS has dinged him at -2.
If Scott stays in the minors for at least 20 days, this will burn the second of his three minor league option years. It’s unlikely to impact his potential free-agent and arbitration timelines, as he’s already less than three weeks from reaching two years of MLB service time. If Scott spends the rest of the season in Triple-A, he wouldn’t reach two years of service, thus giving St. Louis an extra season of club control, but it feels likely that he’ll be back at some point, whether because he hits his way onto the roster or because the Cardinals incur an injury in the big league outfield mix.
Church, also 25, has struggled at the plate in his own right, but not to the same extent. He’s taken 156 plate appearances and turned in a .247/.282/.390 slash (88 wRC+) with five homers, six doubles, a 3.8% walk rate and a 21.2% strikeout rate. He’s also making hard contact at lower-than-average levels, but not quite at the same bottom-of-the-scale levels as Scott. Church also has the more productive Triple-A track record; he slashed .335/.400/.521 in 242 plate appearances there last year. Scott’s only Triple-A work came back in 2024, when he hit .210/.294/.303 (58 wRC+) in 362 trips to the plate.
The rest of the Cardinals’ outfield mix seems largely set. Lars Nootbaar is back after missing the first couple months of the season and should see regular action in left, plus occasional time in center. Jordan Walker, in the midst of a full-fledged breakout, is entrenched in right field. (Nootbaar could play right field if the Cards give Walker a day off or a DH breather.) Nelson Velazquez, Jose Fermin and Bryan Torres can all mix in occasionally. Fermin and Torres have minimal opportunities in an infield with Alec Burleson, JJ Wetherholt, Masyn Winn and Nolan Gorman getting regular work (though Gorman isn’t hitting enough to justify regular at-bats for the remainder of the season).
MLBTR Estimates 2026-27 Qualifying Offer At $23.1MM
The 2026-27 qualifying offer will come in around $23.1MM, per the calculations of MLB Trade Rumors contributor Ethan Hullihen. The official number likely won’t be released by MLB until October.
As a refresher on the system, a team can extend a one-year qualifying offer to an impending free agent if he played the entirety of the just-finished season on one team and has never previously received a QO in his career. Teams have until five days after the World Series to decide whether or not to issue a QO to an eligible player. The players then usually have ten days to asses the market before deciding whether or not to accept, though the most recent offseason gave the players 12 days.
If the player rejects the QO and signs elsewhere, his previous team is entitled to compensation in the form of an extra draft pick. The value of that pick varies, depending on whether the team is a luxury tax payor or a recipient of revenue sharing. Conversely, the signing team is subject to draft and international bonus pool penalties, which are also dependant on tax payor/revenue sharing status. If a player rejects a QO but ultimately re-signs with his previous team, no penalties or compensation picks are applied. These links have details on the penalties and compensation in 2025.
The value of the QO is determined by averaging the salaries of the 125 top-paid players in the league. The value generally increases over time as player salaries continue rising with inflation. Here are the QO values in past seasons:
- 2012-13: $13.3MM
- 2013-14: $14.4MM (8.3% increase from the year prior)
- 2014-15: $15.3MM (6.3%)
- 2015-16: $15.8MM (3.3%)
- 2016-17: $17.2MM (8.9%)
- 2017-18: $17.4MM (1.2%)
- 2018-19: $17.9MM (2.9%)
- 2019-20: $17.8MM (-0.6%)
- 2020-21: $18.9MM (6.2%)
- 2021-22: $18.4MM (-2.6%)
- 2022-23: $19.65MM (6.8%)
- 2023-24: $20.325MM (3.4%)
- 2024-25: $21.05MM (4.6%)
- 2025-26: $22.025MM (4.6%)
- 2026-27: $23.1MM (4.9%)
If MLBTR’s estimate proves to be fairly accurate, then this would be the fifth straight year of the QO rising by roughly $1MM. The percentage jump would be the greatest in the past four years. The only bigger percentage jumps in the past ten years were in seasons following slight drops.
For most players who receive a QO, it’s a formality to turn it down and then sign for a much larger guarantee on a multi-year deal. Last year was a notable exception as 13 players received a QO and four accepted: Gleyber Torres with the Tigers, Shota Imanaga with the Cubs, Trent Grisham with the Yankees and Brandon Woodruff with the Brewers. That’s an acceptance rate of over 30%. Of the 144 players to receive a QO in previous years, only 13 accepted, a rate of barely 9%.
Going into this offseason, most of the top free agents will be QO candidates, though there are some exceptions. Michael King already received a QO from the Padres last offseason. If he opts out of his contract and returns to free agency, he would not be eligible for another. The same would apply to players like Bo Bichette or Corbin Burnes, though neither player currently looks likely to opt out of his current deal. Guys like Grisham, Imanaga, Torres, Woodruff, Kevin Gausman, Sonny Gray and Nick Martinez have also received QOs earlier in their careers. If any notable free agent gets traded this summer, then they would become ineligible to receive a QO at season’s end since they would not be spending the entire campaign with just one team.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good afternoon! I’ll get going at the top of the hour, but feel free to start sending in questions now.
Cards Fan
- Gorman a change of scenery candidate?
Steve Adams
- I don’t think they’ll get a ton for him, but at a certain point, I don’t know why they wouldn’t move on. He’s trending toward a non-tender, and he’s had a pretty substantial leash both in ’26 and more broadly over the past several seasons. Does feel like a change-of-scenery guy, whether this summer or in an early-November trade or just as a free agent with a new team after he’s non-tendered.
Dave
- Who says no: Josue De Paula straight-up for CJ Abrams?
Steve Adams
- One prospect — and De Paula is a good one! — isn’t going to pull two-plus years of Abrams.
Yankeespitching
- Do you think Jac Caglione would be worth keeping or dropping. I was hoping for a break out year but so far it hasn’t worked out
Steve Adams
- Always depends on league context, but if you’re in a standard 10- or 12-team mixed league, yeah, I don’t see a need to hang onto him. If it’s a deep mixed league or an AL-only format, might be another story
Guest
- If the Astros are 4+ GB at the deadline, what are the odds they trade Yordan Alvarez?
White Sox Promote Braden Montgomery
12:15pm: The White Sox have formally announced the selection of Montgomery’s contract. Veteran outfielder Austin Hays moves from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. Chicago also recalled lefty Joe Rock from Triple-A Charlotte and optioned Nishida and righty David Sandlin to Charlotte in a sequence of additional moves.
11:17am: The White Sox are calling up top outfield prospect Braden Montgomery, as first reported by Matt Snyder of CBS Sports. Chicago will have to open space on the 26-man and 40-man roster to accommodate Montgomery, who currently ranks 33rd on Baseball America’s top-100 prospect rankings.
Selected No. 12 overall out of Texas A&M by the Red Sox in 2024, Montgomery landed with the White Sox as the co-headliner (alongside catcher Kyle Teel) of the blockbuster trade sending Garrett Crochet to Boston. The 23-year-old Montgomery opened the 2026 season in Double-A and has since been promoted to Triple-A, tormenting opposing pitchers at both levels. He’s appeared in 56 games this season, taken 258 plate appearances between those two levels, and turned in a stout .314/.422/.548 batting line (152 wRC+) with 10 homers, 13 doubles, three triples, five steals (albeit in 11 attempts), a huge 15.1% walk rate and a 24.8% strikeout rate.
Montgomery has been particularly productive at the dish as of late. After falling into a mini-slump that saw him go hitless for 16 plate appearances, he’s turned things around with a .474/.580/.711 batting line over his past 10 games. In that time, the switch-hitter has popped a pair of homers and three doubles while drawing 10 walks against seven strikeouts. The dip in strikeouts is notable, as the main knock on Montgomery for many scouts is a penchant for swinging and missing that leads to bearish grades on his hit tool; Baseball America pegged his hit tool at a 40 (on the 20-80 scale) heading into the season, while FanGraphs gave him a present-day 30 with a chance to get to a 40.
Even if Montgomery strikes out more than the Sox would prefer, he garners praise for elite bad speed, plus-plus raw power and a prodigious arm in right field. That latter element is to be expected for a former two-way star who ran his heater up to 96 mph as an amateur. Montgomery has focused solely on hitting and playing the outfield in pro ball, but the fact that he was a touted amateur pitcher as well only underscores his natural athleticism.
Montgomery is the latest promising young hitter to join an increasingly exciting White Sox core. The Sox have already called up Sam Antonacci and former first-rounder Jacob Gonzalez this season. They’re getting a full-fledged breakout from former top prospect Miguel Vargas. Former first-rounder Colson Montgomery has cemented himself as a potent source of power and claimed the long-term shortstop role. Chase Meidroth (also acquired alongside Montgomery and Teel) is light on power but has hit for average and gotten on base while staking a claim as the organization’s long-term second baseman. And, of course, the White Sox struck gold when they signed NPB slugger Munetaka Murakami to a two-year contract after the market failed to produce the type of long-term pact most envisioned for the 26-year-old. The aforementioned Teel has been out all season due to a knee injury but hit .273/.375/.411 in 78 games as a rookie last year.
For all that young potential, Chicago’s outfield is still pretty open. Antonacci has been a nice tablesetter in left field. Tristan Peters has hit well in center, but he’s a 26-year-old rookie whose production is buoyed by a .385 average on balls in play that he won’t sustain over a larger period. None of Derek Hill, Luisangel Acuna, Everson Pereira, Tanner Murray, Rikuu Nishida or veteran Andrew Benintendi has been a standout thus far; Pereira has hit reasonably well in 71 plate appearances but has a 30% strikeout rate and is out with a pectoral injury. Montgomery should have a path to regular at-bats in either center field or right field moving forward.
Based on the timing of Montgomery’s promotion, he’s not going to receive a full season of big league service unless he hits the ground running and finishes top-two in AL Rookie of the Year voting with a massive four-month finish to the season. Barring that unlikely event, the Sox will have six years of club control over him beyond the current season. He’s probably going to fall just a few days shy of Super Two eligibility, meaning he’ll be eligible for arbitration the standard three times rather than four, though that assumes he’s in the majors to stay. Whether that proves to be the case will hinge on how well he adjusts to big league opponents.
Who Might The Rockies Put On The Trade Market?
The playoff picture in both leagues is tight enough that few teams are locked into selling. The Rockies are one of the exceptions. They’re again the worst team in MLB, sitting 18 games under .500 while being outscored by 99 runs. It’s not quite as bleak as last year, when they were arguably the worst team of all time, but they’re likely on the path to a fourth straight 100-plus loss campaign.
That theoretically opens the door for the Rox to get a jump on the trade market. Colorado and the Angels might be the only teams that can’t cling to any hope about a 2026 turnaround. If almost every team remains reluctant to deal from the MLB roster two months out from the deadline, that could create an opportunity for the couple clearly non-competitive teams to move earlier.
It doesn’t seem that’s Colorado’s approach, however. President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta told Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post over the weekend that the team’s trade talks thus far have been preliminary. “We haven’t canvassed the league or anything like that, but we are starting to have some conversations if there is a potential match,” DePodesta said.
Colorado’s baseball operations leader wouldn’t speak in absolutes when asked if anyone on the roster was untouchable, though he implied there are a few core players they’re unlikely to trade. “There would be certain guys that would be really, really hard for us to move. I think that’s probably true of any team,” he told Saunders. “There are guys that we feel are hopefully foundational players for us going forward.”
He followed up by noting that the front office needed to be “opportunistic” if teams called about certain players while saying “there are a lot of guys that we’re not actively shopping.” DePodesta didn’t specifically highlight anyone in that group, though it seems safe to assume they’re not going to trade currently injured starter Chase Dollander.
Power-hitting catcher Hunter Goodman is under club control through 2029 and would be one of their better trade chips. The Rockies have shied away from trading players with that kind of remaining club control at the last handful of deadlines. Those came under previous front offices but the same Monfort ownership group.
24-year-old shortstop Ezequiel Tovar was supposed to be a foundational piece of the rebuild. He’s signed for $51.5MM between 2027-30 and is hitting .209/.259/.323 on the season. Tovar is a gifted defender but hasn’t shown any signs of improving an overaggressive approach in the batter’s box. Even if the Rockies could find a team willing to take the rest of the contract — which seems unlikely given how poorly he’s hit over the past couple seasons — the return would be so diminished that they probably won’t move him.
Which players on the Colorado roster are they likely to shop over the coming weeks?
Reliever Antonio Senzatela is the most obvious candidate. The righty has gone from struggling starter and fringe roster player to quality late-game arm. Senzatela carries a 1.98 earned run average across 36 1/3 innings on the season. His 21.4% strikeout percentage is still a bit below average but easily a personal best. Senzatela’s average fastball has jumped two ticks to 97.3 mph, and he’s getting strong results on a low-90s cutter which he added late last season.
Senzatela is playing on a $12MM salary, around $7MM of which is still owed. That’ll drop to roughly $3.5MM by the August 3 deadline. There’s a $14MM club option for the 2027 season that still seems a little too expensive. Teams will probably view Senzatela as a rental, and while he’ll likely be the third or fourth best arm in a contending bullpen, he should net the Rockies a couple mid-level prospects.
There aren’t many other obvious trade candidates in the bullpen. There’d certainly be teams interested in taking a flier on Seth Halvorsen, who is controllable for five seasons and has a triple digit fastball, but those traits are similarly appealing to Colorado. Jimmy Herget and Brennan Bernardino aren’t going to net more than an organizational depth type.
Colorado made a handful of one-year free agent rotation additions as potential deadline candidates. None of Jose Quintana, Michael Lorenzen or Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched well enough to get much interest from a contender.
Quintana suffered an elbow sprain that’ll likely take him out through the deadline. Lorenzen has an earned run average above 8.00. Sugano’s 3.92 ERA is solid on the surface, especially given the Coors Field effect, but it comes with one of the league’s worst strikeout rates (13.6%) and continued home run concerns. Statcast has Sugano with a 7.52 expected ERA based on the lack of whiffs and amount of hard contact he allows.
Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy are each in their arbitration window and could get some interest as complementary outfielders. Moniak, currently out with right ankle tendinitis, has raked at Coors Field over the past season and a half. He doesn’t hit lefties or provide much defensively but could be a strong side corner outfield platoon target. He’s playing on a $4MM salary and could jump into the $7-8MM range next season, assuming he’s tendered a contract for his final arbitration season.
McCarthy is making just $1.525MM and controllable for two years after this one. He can play center field but is probably best suited in left. McCarthy has alternated solid and awful offensive seasons but is back on the upswing, batting .282/.324/.453 in 188 plate appearances. The center field trade market is thin enough that a team like the Rays, Astros or Guardians could view him as a viable regular.
Brewers Re-Sign Jake Woodford To Minor League Deal
The Brewers are re-signing righty Jake Woodford on a minor league contract, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. He’ll head to Triple-A Nashville after going unclaimed on waivers and electing free agency yesterday. Woodford, an Excel Sports Management client, can opt out and retest free agency on July 1 or August 4 if the Brewers don’t add him back to the big league roster.
The 29-year-old had previously spent the season in Pat Murphy’s relief group. Woodford is a low-leverage arm who logged 23 1/3 innings across 16 appearances. He allowed just under seven earned runs per nine innings with a bel0w-average 17.9% strikeout rate. Woodford has never missed bats but is willing to attack the strike zone and can cover multiple innings.
It’s the seventh straight season in which Woodford has picked up a decent amount of big league work. His rate metrics have been well below-average for the past few seasons, but he’s been a durable depth arm. Woodford has a 5.25 earned run average in a little under 300 big league innings. He owns a 4.07 mark across parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. Woodford has been a starter for most of his minor league career and could work from the rotation in Nashville.