Orioles Designate Sam Huff For Assignment
The Orioles announced Tuesday that catcher Sam Huff has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to catcher Adley Rutschman, who’s returning from a brief stay on the 10-day injured list due to a minor ankle injury.
Huff was just selected to the big league roster last week. He appeared in three games with Baltimore, going 2-for-9 with a double, an RBI and five strikeouts in nine plate appearances. With Rutschman back from the injured list, however, the O’s can turn catching duties back over to their Opening Day tandem of Rutschman and prospect Samuel Basallo.
Huff, 28, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in January. The former Rangers top prospect has now played in parts of six big league seasons and slashed a respectable .246/.299/.427 with a dozen homers in 281 trips to the batter’s box. That’s roughly league-average offense, by measure of wRC+, and more than 10% better than the standard catcher. However, Huff’s output has come in spite of a colossal 36.3% strikeout rate. He’s needed a .354 average on balls in play just to get to league-average with the bat. As such, he’s highly unlikely to sustain his current pace.
On the defensive side of things, Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work. He’s struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. The former seventh-round pick has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 527 innings behind the dish.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Huff or place him on outright waivers. (The latter seems likelier.) Waivers would be another 48-hour process, so the outcome of today’s DFA will be known within a week. If he clears waivers, Huff could be assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, where he hit .156/.250/.168 in 36 plate appearances before being summoned to the big leagues. However, since he’s previously been outrighted in the past, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.
Twins, Luis García Agree To Minor League Deal
The Twins and veteran right-handed reliever Luis García are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. He’ll report to their Triple-A club in St. Paul for the time being. García is repped by agents Larry Reynolds, Rosie Lopez-Herrera and Noah Herrera.
García, 39, opened the season with the same Mets team against whom the Twins will open a road series tonight. He signed a one-year, $1.75MM contract in the offseason but was cut loose after only six appearances. In that time, García was knocked around for six runs (five earned) on 11 hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts. The resulting 7.11 ERA wasn’t pretty, but García posted a hearty 3.42 earned run average just last year between the Dodgers, Nats and Angels. In 55 1/3 frames last season, García fanned 20.9% of his opponents, issued walks at an 11.2% clip and kept 49.7% of batted balls against him on the ground.
While last year’s results were generally solid, García’s early work with the Mets did raise some red flags. His average sinker velocity plummeted from 96.9 mph in 2025 to a flat 94 mph in 2026. His splitter and changeup experienced similar velocity drops. He still induced chases at a massive 46% rate and posted a strong swinging-strike rate, but the Mets were apparently disheartened enough by the nearly three mile-per-hour drop in his sinker to quickly move on.
The Twins can use all the help and experience they can get in the bullpen. Minnesota’s 2025 trade deadline sell-off centered around dismantling what had been one of the game’s best relief corps in order to bring in a host of prospects and controllable young big leaguers. The Twins then did little to address the ‘pen in the offseason, with their primary adds being Taylor Rogers (on a one-year, $2MM deal), Anthony Banda (in a small trade after he’d been designated for assignment by the Dodgers) and Eric Orze (in a trade with the Rays).
Predictably, the Twins have had one of the worst bullpens in baseball this year. Minnesota relievers rank 23rd in the game with a 5.07 earned run average, but there’s reason to think even that might be the product of some good fortune. The Twins’ bullpen has the fourth-worst strikeout rate in MLB. They’re tied for the third-slowest average fastball (93.4 mph) and have the third-worst swinging-strike rate (8.7%) of any relief corps in the game.
Adding a 39-year-old García to the mix isn’t going to fix that collection of issues, but given the righty’s 3.86 ERA from 2021-25, it’s not a stretch to think he could right the ship and help a bullpen that generally lacks experience. García’s velocity is down this year, but there’s little harm in taking a nearly free look at a veteran reliever who, in addition to that 3.86 ERA over the past five seasons, has punched out a solid 22.3% of his opponents against a sharp 7.8% walk rate and a huge 53% ground-ball rate.
Twins Promote Kendry Rojas, Activate Royce Lewis
April 21: The Twins formally announced that Rojas has been recalled for his MLB debut and that Funderburk has been placed on the paternity list. Minnesota also formalized its previously reported placement of righty Mick Abel on the 15-day IL due to elbow inflammation. To take his spot on the active roster, the Twins reinstated third baseman Royce Lewis from the injured list.
At least for now, Prielipp has not been added to the big league roster, so it seems he’ll remain on the taxi squad. Minnesota’s Wednesday starter is still listed as TBD, so perhaps that could go to Prielipp or to Rojas — depending on how tonight’s game plays out.
April 19: The Twins will promote left-hander Kendry Rojas from Triple-A to the active roster prior to Tuesday’s game with the Mets, according to Declan Goff and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North. Rojas was already added to the 40-man roster last November in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune writes that the corresponding 26-man roster move is Kody Funderburk‘s placement on the paternity list.
In addition, left-hander Connor Prielipp will also be joining the Twins for the start of their series with the Mets, as per The Athletic’s Dan Hayes. It isn’t an official call-up yet, as Prielipp is only part of the taxi squad. Prielipp joined Rojas as two of the six 40-man additions Minnesota made back in November, so the Twins would just have to make another 26-man roster move if Prielipp is officially promoted.
Both Rojas and Prielipp will be making their Major League debuts whenever they appear in a game. In Rojas’ case, this might just be a cup of coffee while Funderburk is absent, though the Twins’ relief corps has struggled enough that adding a raw but talented young arm could help spark the pen. Funderburk, Taylor Rogers, and Anthony Banda are the bullpen’s current trio of left-handers, and Banda in particular has gotten off to a rough start in 2026.
Tuesday’s game in New York begins a stretch of 13 games in 13 days for the Twins, so it is possible Rojas or Prielipp might receive a spot start in order to help preserve the rotation. The club could look to use either southpaw as a traditional starter or as a long reliever, or perhaps Minnesota could deploy a piggyback with Rojas and Prielipp paired with another starter.
Rojas missed time due to a hamstring injury this year and has only pitched 7 1/3 total innings, though the 23-year-old has yet to allow a run in that small sample size. (Six innings were with Triple-A St. Paul, and 1 1/3 IP were with A-ball Fort Myers on a rehab assignment.) In those 7 1/3 frames, Rojas has posted seven strikeouts, but also four walks. Over 38 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level, Rojas has a 14.06% walk rate, along with a 20.31% strikeout rate and a 6.10 ERA.
How well Rojas can harness his control appears to the chief question facing the lefty’s future as a viable big league arm. Baseball America ranks Rojas as the eighth-best prospect in the Twins’ farm system and MLB Pipeline has him tenth, with both outlets noting that he projects as a back-end rotation arm if he remains a starting pitcher. As per BA, Rojas “has a balanced arsenal with all his pitches projecting as at least average,” though he doesn’t have a true plus pitch. His fastball might be his top offering, as the pitch usually sits around 95mph and Nightengale writes that Rojas hit the 99mph threshold during his time in St. Paul.
The Blue Jays landed Rojas as an international signing in 2020, and his time in Toronto’s farm system was hampered by lat, shoulder, and abdominal injuries. Prior to last summer’s trade deadline, the Jays shipped Rojas and outfielder Alan Roden to the Twins in perhaps the most surprising move of Minnesota’s deadline fire sale, as controllable reliever Louis Varland and Ty France went the other way. Varland immediately became a critical piece of Toronto’s pen, but Rojas and Roden fit the Twins’ trade model of obtaining players that were at or close to big league readiness.
Prielipp is a homegrown product, selected by the Twins in the second round of the 2022 draft. BA ranked him as the 96th-best prospect in baseball prior to the 2026 season and slotted him fourth on their list of Twins prospects, while Pipeline put Prielipp fifth. Both outlets give 60-grades to the southpaw’s changeup and slider, and Prielipp generates a ton of spin on the latter pitch. Prielipp also has a mid-90s fastball that can hit 98mph.
After reaching Triple-A ball for the first time last season, Prielipp had some struggles but has now looked sharper over 15 2/3 innings for St. Paul in 2026. Over 36 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball, Prielipp has a 3.93 ERA, a 30.13% strikeout rate, and a 13.46% walk rate, so control is also a concern on his end. Staying healthy has been Prielipp’s largest issue, as he underwent a Tommy John surgery in college at Alabama and then an internal brace surgery that sidelined him for big chunks of the 2023-24 seasons. Prielipp has thrown only 128 1/3 total innings of minor league ball.
The Opener: Mets, Counsell, MLBTR Chat
Here are a couple of items to monitor on Tuesday, plus a link to submit questions for a live chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
1. Mets’ losing streak
The last time the Mets won a game, the Artemis II crew was still in space. New York has dropped 11 straight after a sweep against the Cubs over the weekend. The club is back home tonight to face the Twins for a three-game set. Nolan McLean will get the ball with a chance to stop the skid. The Mets’ return to New York means we’re officially on Juan Soto watch. Manager Carlos Mendoza said the star outfielder would come back from his calf injury during the homestand.
2. Counsell bristles at Ohtani Rule
With pitching injuries mounting in Chicago, Cubs manager Craig Counsell shared his take on the two-way player rule, which allows teams to carry a pitcher who doesn’t count against the team’s total. “I’ve never understood it,” Counsell told reporters, including Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. “It’s an offensive rule, essentially. It’s a rule to help offense, more than anything, if you ask me. And then there’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule. For one team.”
Players meet the two-way designation by pitching 20 innings and playing 20 games as the DH or in the field, with three plate appearances needed for those games to count. The requirements can be met in the current season or either of the two previous seasons. Teams are limited to 13 pitchers on the 26-man roster before September.
3. MLBTR chat today:
Our guy Steve Adams will be around at 1 pm CT today to discuss everything going on around the league in a live chat. If you have something to ask him, use this link to submit questions. Follow the chat using the same link, which will also provide a transcript of the conversation once it’s over in case you missed it.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
Edwin Díaz To Undergo Surgery For Loose Bodies In Elbow
The Dodgers announced that right-hander Edwin Díaz has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow loose bodies. A subsequent announcement said that he will have surgery to address the issue and is expected to return in the second half of the season. Reportedly, he’ll miss about three months, which will put him in line for a return sometime around the All-Star break. Left-hander Jake Eder has been recalled to take Díaz’s spot on the active roster.
The status of Díaz has been a bit of a mystery for a while now, as he has struggled for the Dodgers while pitching with diminished velocity. His fastball has averaged 95.7 miles per hour so far this year, a notable drop from his 97.2 mph average last year. His results were fine through five outings but his sixth, on April 10th, was rough. He entered a 7-4 game in the ninth and surrendered three runs, allowing the Rangers to tie it up.
The Dodgers were able to walk that game off in the bottom of the ninth but Díaz became a question mark. He didn’t pitch in official game action for over a week after that, even though the Dodgers had some save situations. He was finally back on the mound last night but the results were again poor. He entered in the bottom of the eighth at Coors Field, with the Dodgers down 6-4. He faced four batters, allowing three hits and a walk, then was removed without recording an out.
On the one hand, it’s nice to have a diagnosis that explains his struggles, but any elbow issue for a pitcher is going to be worrisome. Losing him for three months is going to be a blow. He has been one of the best closers in recent history and was just signed to a huge contract in the offseason. The Dodgers gave him a three-year, $69MM deal to scoop him away from the Mets.
The Dodgers have won the past two World Series but their 2025 title came despite a shaky bullpen. Manager Dave Roberts relied more and more on his starters as the postseason went along and the Dodgers just barely held on, as they almost lost to the Jays on a few occasions, going into extra innings in Game Seven.
The Díaz signing was supposed to patch over one of the club’s few weak spots as they look for a three-peat. Though Díaz isn’t quite as ridiculously dominant as he was a few years ago, he still had a great 2025 season, tossing 66 1/3 innings with a 1.63 earned run average 38% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 48.4% ground ball rate.
The Dodgers generally approach injuries with a long view. Their team is strong enough that they can feel quite good about their chances of making the postseason. They can have their players, particularly the pitchers, take their time to ensure they are healthy for the postseason. Given the three-month timeline, they can take that approach with Díaz. Ideally, he will be back in time to shake off some rust down the stretch and be in peak form for October.
Time will tell how that goes. If Díaz experiences any kind of setback or struggles to get in form once he is healthy, it could potentially impact how the Dodgers approach the trade deadline, which is on August 3rd this year.
For now, they will have to proceed without their big offseason bullpen investment. Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen could be candidates for picking up some save opportunities now. Scott is back in good form so far this year after a rough 2025. Vesia has picked up a few scattered saves over the years and has started 2026 with ten scoreless appearances. Treinen has past closing experience but isn’t out to a great start this year, with a 4.05 ERA thus far.
Alden González of ESPN reported that he would undergo surgery and be out about three months. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic first reported that some kind of procedure would take place. Jack Harris of the California Post first reported that the Dodgers would expect him to be back from that procedure during this season. Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Outright Luken Baker
The D-Backs sent first baseman Luken Baker outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Arizona had designated him for assignment when they welcomed Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back from the injured list on Saturday. This is Baker’s second career outright, meaning he has the right to elect free agency.
Baker was on the major league roster for a little less than two weeks. He was called up on April 7 as a bench bat once the Snakes lost Carlos Santana to an adductor strain. The D-Backs only gave him one start over his 11 days on the active roster. Baker went 1-5 while striking out three times over three games overall.
That marked the fourth straight season with some MLB action for the former second-round draftee. It’s his first MLB work outside of St. Louis. The former Cardinals draftee had spent his career in that organization until he was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers last August. Baker didn’t appear in an MLB game with Los Angeles, who outrighted him off the 40-man roster within a week of claiming him. He joined Arizona on an offseason minor league deal.
The righty hitter owns a .206/.314/.333 batting line across 194 plate appearances at the big league level. Baker mashed a combined 65 home runs in Triple-A between 2023-24. His minor league production backed up last year, as he slashed a league average .223/.335/.441 through 95 games across the two systems.
Baker is out of minor league options, so the D-Backs needed to run him through waivers to take him off the MLB roster. It’d make sense for him to remain in the organization given their lack of established first basemen. Santana is joined by Pavin Smith and Tyler Locklear on the injured list. Utilityman Ildemaro Vargas and rookie infielder Jose Fernandez are splitting the first base work.
Edwin Uceta Diagnosed With Subscapularis Strain
Rays reliever Edwin Uceta has been diagnosed with a subscapularis strain in his throwing shoulder, manager Kevin Cash told reporters on Monday afternoon (link via Adam Berry of MLB.com). The righty will be shut down completely for another 2-3 weeks.
Uceta was already down with a shoulder impingement. This is a different injury that arose during his rehab assignment. Uceta had made four minor league appearances and would likely have been activated this week if not for the new injury.
There’s now a decent chance he’ll end up on the 60-day injured list once the team needs a 40-man roster spot. The Rays could backdate any IL transfer to Opening Day even though it’s a different injury. Uceta won’t resume throwing until the first half of May at this point, so it’s difficult to imagine he’ll be ready for MLB action by the beginning of June.
It’s a tough hit to the Tampa Bay bullpen. Uceta has been one of their better relievers over the past two seasons and was slated for a high-leverage role. He turned in a 1.51 ERA across 41 2/3 innings two years ago. Last season’s 3.79 mark wasn’t as impressive, but he struck out almost a third of opposing hitters while tying Garrett Cleavinger for the team lead with 21 holds.
Cleavinger has also been down for the past three weeks with calf tightness. He’s on a rehab assignment and should be back within the next couple days. Tampa Bay placed Mason Englert on the 15-day IL this afternoon. They’ll be without Manuel Rodríguez for the majority of the season and are without middle reliever Steven Wilson for a couple months.
It’s not a coincidence that the relief corps has been a weakness for the first couple weeks of the season. Kevin Kelly, Griffin Jax, Bryan Baker and Hunter Bigge have taken on most of the significant innings. Bigge has the best ERA but with ugly strikeout and walk marks. Jax has similarly bleak underlying numbers and has not gotten good results. Baker has been around average, while Kelly has pitched well outside of one six-run drubbing at the hands of the Twins.
The Rays entered play Monday with a 5.38 bullpen ERA that ranks 26th in MLB. They’re 25th in strikeout/walk rate differential with the league’s third-highest home run rate.
Astros Outright J.P. France
The Astros announced that right-hander J.P. France has been outrighted to Triple-A Sugar Land. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. France has the right to elect free agency but the club announcement didn’t say whether or not he would do so.
A player has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he has at least three years of service time or a previous career outright. Houston outrighted France in February, an assignment he had to accept since it was his first. A number of injuries led them to select him back to the roster earlier this month. Now that this is his second outright, he could look for opportunities elsewhere.
If he did head for the open market, he would likely be limited to minor league offers. Every club just passed on the chance to give him a 40-man spot, even though he is still optionable and could have been stashed in the minors. Perhaps he will simply stay with the only organization he has ever known, but he can roam if he wants to.
France’s best season was back in 2023, when he debuted and tossed 136 1/3 innings, allowing 3.83 earned runs per nine. There were some asterisks there, as his 17.4% strikeout rate was subpar and his 76.7% strand rate was high, which is why ERA estimators like his 4.66 FIP and 4.96 SIERA were a bit more bearish.
He hasn’t been able to pitch much in the majors since then. Shoulder problems nagged at him in 2024 and ultimately required surgery. He made seven big league appearances over those two seasons, with a 6.75 ERA. As mentioned, he cleared waivers coming into this season and was briefly back on the roster.
If he sticks around, the Astros may need him again in the near future. Their injured list features starters Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai, Cody Bolton, Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Brandon Walter. Their big league rotation currently features Mike Burrows, Spencer Arrighetti, Ryan Weiss, Peter Lambert and Lance McCullers Jr., with Colton Gordon also on the roster and capable of eating some innings. Apart from Burrows and McCullers, those guys only just entered the mix recently due to the injuries, so they probably don’t have firm grips on their current roles.
Miguel Ullola and Jason Alexander are also on the 40-man roster. Brandon Bielak and Miguel Yajure have recently been added via minor league deals. If France accepts his outright assignment, he would join Bielak and Yajure in the non-roster depth category.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
6 Potential Breakout Arms To Watch In 2026
The early stages of any major league season are rife with unexpected performances -- be they unexpectedly good or unexpectedly bad -- that leave many fans and onlookers wondering whether an April change in production is the beginning of a trend or simply some small-sample noise that'll even out over a larger slate of plate appearances or innings pitched. Sifting through what's real and what's likelier to be smoke and mirrors is both one of the most exciting and also most frustrating elements of the season's first couple months.
This, as with most everything in baseball, is an inexact science. Teams spend millions to build out data and analytics departments that can develop predictive models in an effort to more accurately quantify these things. Sites like FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, PitcherList, Baseball America and countless others offer heaps of publicly available data that allow those of us on the outside looking in to throw our own hats into the ring as we attempt to decipher whose ostensible breakouts are going to hold up ... and who'll come back down to Earth.
MLBTR's Darragh McDonald took a look last week at Jose Soriano's in-progress breakout in Anaheim -- a huge development for the Halos that could have a broad range of implications. Readers are encouraged to check that out in full, but here are six more arms (plus a couple "honorable mentions," of sorts) whose 2026 strides have piqued my interest. Obviously, this isn't a comprehensive list of every possible breakout arm in the sport, but the arrows here are pointing up. (Players are listed alphabetically, not ranked.)
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Mariners Place Brendan Donovan On IL, Select Will Wilson
8:33pm: Emerson is battling wrist soreness in Triple-A, manager Dan Wilson told reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times). There’s no indication the team is concerned about the issue, but that played a role in their decision not to promote him yet. The M’s also don’t anticipate Donovan missing much time, so it made more sense to tab Will Wilson if they’re only looking for a short-term utility stopgap.
4:25pm: The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Will Wilson. He will take the active roster spot of infielder/outfielder Brendan Donovan, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left groin muscle strain, retroactive to April 18th. To open a 40-man spot, infielder/outfielder Miles Mastrobuoni has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Donovan was removed from Friday’s game due to a left hip issue. He didn’t play on Saturday or Sunday. He had previously dealt with a right groin issue earlier in the season. Per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, Donovan believed it was possible that his earlier groin discomfort may have been related to the sports hernia surgery he underwent back in October.
That surgery didn’t prevent Donovan from being one of the hottest trade chips of the winter. Several clubs were interested and Seattle eventually landed him in a three-team trade that saw them send out infielder Ben Williamson, prospects Jurrangelo Cijntje and Tai Peete, as well as a competitive balance round B pick.
Donovan was a particularly good fit for the Mariners roster because of his defensive versatility. Coming into this year, it wasn’t clear what would happen at second or third base, with Cole Young and Colt Emerson possible solutions at those positions. Young has taken over at second and has been playing well so far. Emerson, despite signing a long contract extension, has been in the minors. That has left Donovan to cover third and he has a strong .304/.437/.518 line when he has been able to take the field.
It’s not clear how long the Mariners expect Donovan to be out but they’ll have to proceed without him for more than a week, at least. They could have called up Emerson but have decided not to, at least for now. He is playing well for Tacoma but is still only 20 years old and only has 24 games at Triple-A under his belt, so it seems they have decided to keep him there.
Leo Rivas has picked up the past two starts at third base with Donovan out. He has a rough .143/.295/.184 line on the year but a better .217/.348/.278 slash for his career. A switch-hitter, he has been far better against righties, with a .221/.372/.305 line in that split compared to a .210/.304/.235 line versus lefties.
Wilson, 27, is a right-handed bat but hasn’t had strong splits throughout his career. In much of his minor league career, he’s actually been better against righties, so he’s not an ideal platoon bat for Rivas. He might just be more of a general depth infielder off the bench. He has plenty of minor league experience at the three infield positions to the left of first base, and some limited outfield experience as well.
His major league track record is still fairly small. He got into 31 games with the Guardians last year and slashed .192/.267/.244. His upper level minor league work hasn’t been much better, though his Triple-A line of .250/.333/.430 since the start of 2025 isn’t bad. He has options and could be sent back down to Tacoma once Donovan and/or Patrick Wisdom come off the IL.
As for Mastrobuoni, he started the season on the 10-day IL with a right calf strain. He began a minor league rehab assignment on April 8th and played as recently as the 18th. His current status is unclear but he must have suffered some sort of setback, since he’s now ineligible for reinstatement until late May.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images