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Ron Washington Recovering From Quadruple Bypass, Hopes To Manage Angels In 2026

By Anthony Franco | August 25, 2025 at 6:44pm CDT

In late June, the Angels announced that manager Ron Washington would remain on medical leave for the rest of the season. The team respected his privacy and didn’t provide any more specifics at the time. The 73-year-old skipper updated the media on his health this afternoon.

Washington revealed to the Halos beat that he underwent quadruple bypass surgery to remove blockages from his heart valves roughly two months ago (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com and Sam Blum of The Athletic). The situation came together quickly, as Washington revealed he first sought medical attention after noticing swelling around his ankles while the Angels were playing in the Bronx from June 16-19. Washington said the scary situation has spurred him to quit smoking and improve his diet and sleeping habits.

The baseball lifer said he expects to be fully cleared medically in December. He was unequivocal about his desire to return to managing in 2026. Washington said it’s his goal “to finish what we started” with the Angels (relayed by Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register). It stands to reason the Angels will welcome him back, but the team has not said anything his contract. Washington signed a two-year deal when he was hired going into the 2024 season. The club holds an option on his services for 2026.

Bench coach Ray Montgomery will remain the interim manager for the rest of this year. The Angels have dropped a season-high eight games below .500 entering tonight’s series in Texas. MLBTR sends our continued well wishes to Wash as he completes his recovery.

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Los Angeles Angels Ron Washington

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Boone: Yankees Still Consider Volpe Starting Shortstop

By Anthony Franco | August 25, 2025 at 6:09pm CDT

Anthony Volpe is out of the lineup as the Yankees open their series against the Nationals. It’s the second straight game in which José Caballero gets the start at shortstop. New York is giving the scuffling Volpe what amounts to a two-day mental reset. However, manager Aaron Boone made clear this evening that the Yankees aren’t moving the third-year infielder to the bench.

“I view Anthony as our shortstop,” Boone told reporters (including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic). The skipper confirmed that Volpe would be back in the lineup tomorrow and continue playing regularly from that point. He added that the Yanks consider Caballero their “10th man” and will keep bouncing him around the diamond in a utility role (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).

Volpe is hitting .208/.274/.400 across 509 plate appearances. He had a productive April but carries a .198/.255/.382 batting line in 96 games since the beginning of May. Volpe has never hit for a high average or reached base at a strong clip. He’s tied with Dansby Swanson for eighth among shortstops with 18 home runs, but he hasn’t been a productive overall hitter. The struggles have magnified over the past six weeks, as he’s batting .171 with a .203 on-base percentage going back to July 1. Among 253 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances in that stretch, only Miami’s Dane Myers has a lower batting average. No one has a worse on-base mark.

The offensive drought is magnified by his uncharacteristic issues on the other side of the ball. Volpe won a Gold Glove as a rookie in 2023; he was a finalist for that honor last year. He trailed only Swanson and Ezequiel Tovar in combined Defensive Runs Saved among shortstops over those two seasons. Statcast’s Outs Above Average had him tied for seventh. Even with the OBP deficiencies, Volpe’s power and plus defense made him a valuable all-around player. The Yankees presumably felt he was on a similar trajectory as Swanson, an eventual everyday shortstop on a World Series team who received a $177MM free agent contract.

Volpe’s defensive grades have tanked this year as well. DRS has him right around average. Statcast has him five runs below par, tying him for fourth worst at the position. Volpe has committed 17 errors, matching his career high with another month to play. Only Elly De La Cruz (19) has been charged with more this season.

Caballero, acquired from the Rays at the deadline, has gotten out to a fantastic start to his Yankee tenure. He’s hitting .286 with more walks than strikeouts in 15 games. Caballero has stolen six bases in seven tries and is up to an MLB-high 40 steals between Tampa Bay and New York. He led the American League with 44 steals last year, though he was also caught a league leading 16 times. Caballero is a plus runner and versatile defender but is unlikely to remain an above-average hitter over a large sample. He owns a .227/.313/.337 batting line in more than 1000 career plate appearances.

There’s no argument that Caballero hasn’t been the more productive player of late. Still, the 24-year-old Volpe entered the season as New York’s expected franchise shortstop. Caballero is soon to turn 29 and is established as a high-end utility player. The Yankees can still find playing time for him on most days. He’s a right-handed complement to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ryan McMahon at second and third base, respectively. They’re tolerating Giancarlo Stanton in right field for as long as Aaron Judge is unable to throw at game speed, but they’ll frequently kick Caballero into the outfield later in games for defensive purposes.

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New York Yankees Anthony Volpe Jose Caballero

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Dodgers Designate Buddy Kennedy For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | August 25, 2025 at 5:57pm CDT

The Dodgers designated infielder Buddy Kennedy for assignment. That makes room on the roster for Kiké Hernández, who is back from the 10-day injured list. Kennedy is out of options, so the Dodgers need to expose him to waivers to take him off the big league roster. The team’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Los Angeles claimed Kennedy off waivers from Toronto ten days ago. That coincided with an IL placement for Max Muncy. He joined Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Hernández on the shelf. Kennedy provided an extra infielder alongside Miguel Rojas and rookie Alex Freeland between second and third base. He went 1-17 over seven games.

A former fifth-round pick of the Diamondbacks, Kennedy has played sporadically in parts of four big league seasons. He’s a .178/.271/.274 hitter in 181 career plate appearances. The 26-year-old has split time in Triple-A this year between the Philadelphia and Toronto systems. He has turned in a solid .268/.372/.408 showing in 77 combined games.

The Dodgers will place Kennedy on outright waivers this week. He has cleared waivers a few times in his career and has the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Transactions Buddy Kennedy Enrique Hernandez

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José Ureña Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | August 25, 2025 at 5:13pm CDT

Right-hander José Ureña has cleared waivers and elected free agency, reports Dan Hayes of The Athletic. The righty had been designated for assignment by the Twins a few days ago when they recalled Mick Abel.

Ureña, 33, is a well-known commodity at this point in his career. He throws hard but doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts. He will keep the ball both in the strike zone and on the ground at a decent clip. The results won’t be astounding but he can take the ball and eat some innings. He hasn’t had a stint on the injured list longer than a couple of weeks since 2021.

A team usually grabs him when they need a fresh arm, either because they are facing a few injuries or a tough part of the schedule, but it’s rare for him to stick with one club for long. As a veteran with years of experience, he has the right to reject outright assignments and elect free agency, a right he is clearly willing to exercise. From the start of 2022 to the present, he has leaned into journeyman mode, pitching for the Brewers, Rockies, White Sox, Rangers, Mets, Blue Jays, Dodgers and Twins. Those last four clubs were all this year.

From 2019 to the present, he has logged 495 1/3 innings with a 5.09 earned run average. His 14.9% strikeout rate in that span is well below average but his 9.1% walk rate is right around par. His ground ball rate is down to 31.7% here in 2025 but he usually has that figure around 50%.

Teams won’t be super excited by Ureña but he should land somewhere. The fact that he cleared waivers likely suggests he’ll be limited to minor league offers. Teams always want depth, especially in this age of frequent pitching injuries. With the trade deadline having passed, it’s harder to find external additions.

Photo courtesy of Matt Krohn, Imagn Images

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Minnesota Twins Transactions Jose Urena

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Athletics Designate Luis Urías For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | August 25, 2025 at 4:35pm CDT

The Athletics announced today that second baseman Zack Gelof has been recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas. Fellow infielder Luis Urías has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Urías, 28, signed with the A’s in the offseason. The one-year deal guaranteed him $1.1MM, with some bonuses based on plate appearances also in the deal. There was a time where it looked like that deal was going to work out quite well for the A’s. Urías hit .245/.345/.490 through the end of April, with that line translating to a 127 wRC+. In May, his production dropped a bit but was still passable. He still had a decent .244/.333/.407 line and 105 wRC+ by the start of June.

Unfortunately, things have soured from there. Since the end of May, Urías has a .217/.298/.276 line and 63 wRC+ in 171 plate appearances. With Urías an impending free agent and the A’s out of contention, he was a logical trade candidate. However, that dip in performance presumably tanked his trade value, as the A’s didn’t end up flipping him anywhere. A stint on the injured list in July for a right hamstring strain presumably didn’t help.

As Urías has been slumping, Gelof has been getting back on track in Triple-A. His 2025 season was initially thrown off course by injuries. He started the season on the IL due to hamate surgery. While trying to work his way back from that, he suffered a stress reaction in his ribs. He was reinstated from the IL in July but then hit .080/.143/.080 in eight games, at which point the A’s optioned him down to Vegas.

Since getting optioned, he has stepped to the plate 155 times for the Aviators. He has hit 11 home runs and drawn a walk in 11.6% of his plate appearances. His 27.7% strikeout rate is still high but something of an improvement for him. He has a 32.3% strikeout rate in his big league career. Even in Triple-A from 2022 to 2024, his 28.1% strikeout rate was a bit higher than what he’s done lately.

The A’s are 10.5 games back of a playoff spot, so they are in a spot where it makes sense to prioritize the future over the present. Urías was a few weeks away from returning to free agency, so he doesn’t do anything for them down the line. Gelof, on the other hand, could still be a part of the club’s future. He has just over two years of big league service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration. He can be retained for four more years after this one. He will also still has two more option years after 2025, so future optional assignments could even extend the club’s window of control.

For now, it makes sense to give the second base job to Gelof. He has shown some good pop in his time, with 31 home runs in 875 big league plate appearances. He’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts but regular playing time could help with that. The A’s can give him the final few weeks of the season to see how he handles it. His performance in that stretch could determine if they look for external additions in the offseason or plan on Gelof being their second baseman in 2026.

Since the trade deadline has passed, Urías will be available on waivers in the coming days. There’s still about $200K left on his deal and he hasn’t been playing well lately, so it’s unlikely any club would claim him. If he if passed through waivers unclaimed, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. The A’s might skip that formality and simply release him.

Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Luis Urias Zack Gelof

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Mets Place Reed Garrett On IL Due To Elbow Inflammation

By Darragh McDonald | August 25, 2025 at 2:45pm CDT

The Mets announced today that right-hander Reed Garrett has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, retroactive to August 23rd. They have selected left-hander José Castillo to take Garrett’s place on the active roster. Righty Frankie Montas has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.

Garrett, 32, has been a key part of the Mets bullpen for about two years now. He broke out with a strong performance in 2024, tossing 57 1/3 innings with a 3.77 earned run average. His 12.1% walk rate was high but he struck out 33.6% of batters faced and got grounders on 44.3% of balls in play. He moved up the club’s pecking order, earning four saves and 14 holds.

He has largely kept that kind of performance going here in 2025. He has thrown another 52 1/3 innings with a 3.61 ERA, 28.3% strikeout rate, 11% walk rate and 39.1% ground ball rate. He has added another three saves and 20 more holds.

To this point, the Mets haven’t provided any details about his injury or how long they expect him to be out of action, but it’s a concerning development regardless. It’s always somewhat worrisome when a pitcher’s throwing elbow isn’t 100%. For the Mets, they have been hit hard by the injury bug this year, with a number of relievers requiring season-ending surgeries in the first half. The club bolstered the group ahead of the deadline by acquiring Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto.

Despite adding those reinforcements, the club has been struggling this summer. They have gone 7-14 in the month of August and are barely clinging to a playoff spot. They are holding the third and final Wild Card slot in the National League but are just 1.5 games ahead of the Reds.

Part of that is due to Garrett himself. He had a 2.87 ERA in the first half but that has been up to 5.52 so far in the second half. A lot of that seems to be luck. He had a 25.5% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate in the first half, with those figures improving to 36.2% and 6.9% respectively in the second half. However, his strand rate went from a fairly average 74.2% to 51% while his home run to fly ball rate went from 5.9% to 27.3%. Though his ERA almost doubled in the second half, his FIP had a far more modest jump from 3.22 to 3.73 while his SIERA actually made a significant improvement, going from 3.92 to 2.16.

Even if the recent struggles aren’t entirely due to misfortunate, the Mets surely don’t want to be losing more pitchers to the injured list, especially after the deadline when it’s harder to find external solutions. For Garrett personally, it’s also less than ideal as he’s just about to qualify for arbitration for the first time.

For now, the Mets will add Castillo to the roster. He started the season with the Diamondbacks but was designated for assignment in May. The Mets sent some cash to Arizona to bring him aboard. Since then, he has bounced on and off the roster. They have twice designated him for assignment and sent him through waivers. Each time, he has accepted an assignment to Triple-A Syracuse and later been added back to the roster.

Overall, he has thrown 18 2/3 innings in the big leagues this year with a 5.30 ERA. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate have been close to average. His 53.3% ground ball rate is quite good but perhaps a lot of those grounders have found holes, as his .421 batting average on balls in play is quite high. His 3.76 SIERA suggests he has deserved far better than the ERA would indicate. He has also thrown 16 Triple-A innings this year with a 1.69 ERA, 35.9% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 50% ground ball rate. He is out of options, which has contributed to his many roster moves this year, so it’s possible his grip on a spot will again be tenuous this time around.

As for Montas, his transfer to the 60-day IL is not a surprise. It was reported a few days ago that he has a “pretty significant” injury to the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. It’s unclear how his 2026 will be impacted but he won’t return in 2025, so this move was inevitable.

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images

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New York Mets Transactions Frankie Montas Jose Castillo Reed Garrett

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Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

By Steve Adams | August 25, 2025 at 1:55pm CDT

Steve Adams

  • Good afternoon! I'll get going at 2pm CT, but feel free to ask a question ahead of time if you like.
  • Hello! Let's get underway

small mouth bass

  • For 2026, could the Jays opt for slick middle infield - Gimenez + Clement - and go hard after Bregman to play 3rd (with Barger going to RF)?

Steve Adams

  • I don't see any reason the Jays wouldn't be on Bregman this offseason. He's a good fit for the roster, they have plenty of cash coming off the books, they'll be firmly in win-now mode, the cost won't be beyond their comfort level, etc.That said, I don't think that means you need to resign yourself to Gimenez/Clement up the middle. Second basemen generally aren't paid that richly in free agency. Gleyber Torres is probably going to be the top earner among this year's group, but I don't think he's going to get nine figures or anything. They could look for a bounceback from Luis Rengifo or look into trading for Brandon Lowe or Ozzie Albies. There are lots of paths to consider.

Unqualified Reds GM

  • Nick Lodolo for Jarren Duran. What/who else needs to be tossed in for this to happen?

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Front Office Originals MLBTR Chats

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Orioles To Activate Kyle Bradish

By Steve Adams | August 25, 2025 at 1:25pm CDT

The Orioles will reinstate right-hander Kyle Bradish from the 60-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game, per a club announcement. It’ll be the 28-year-old righty’s first time taking a big league mound since undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. Baltimore has a full 40-man roster but could open up a space by transferring righty Brandon Young to the 60-day injured list, if it’s been determined that his current hamstring strain won’t allow him to make it back to the mound this year. The O’s have also claimed several players off waivers since the trade deadline and could DFA anyone from that group again if there’s still hope that Young can return for a brief look in September.

Selected by the Angels in the fourth round of the 2018 draft, Bradish came to the O’s by way of the Dylan Bundy trade — one of the first deals made by general manager Mike Elias upon taking control of the team’s baseball operations. He debuted with 23 starts of 4.90 ERA for the 2022 Orioles but was a surprise breakout star in 2023. That season, Bradish made 30 starts and logged a terrific 2.83 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate, 49.2% ground-ball rate and 0.75 HR/9 — all considerably better than the league average rates.

Bradish has thrown only 39 1/3 big league innings since that time, however. He opened the 2024 season on the injured list due to a UCL sprain and was recommended for a rest-and-rehab approach rather than immediate surgery. For awhile, it looked as though he’d made the right call. Bradish was activated for his 2024 debut on May 2 and remained in the rotation until mid-June. He started eight games and posted a 2.75 ERA with quality rate stats before returning to the injured list due to renewed elbow discomfort. This time around, Bradish underwent surgery just five days after making his final start of the ’24 season.

When he’s activated, Bradish will have missed more than 14 months due to his Tommy John/internal brace procedure. He’s tossed 22 innings of minor league rehab work so far and seen mixed results along the way. He tossed five shutout innings with nine punchouts in his Aug. 14 outing against the Marlins’ top affiliate but was roughed up for three runs in 4 2/3 innings versus the White Sox’ top club last time out. Overall, Bradish has a 4.91 ERA in his rehab stint.

The Orioles have played better since early in the summer, but the colossal hole in which they dug themselves with an awful April/May performance ultimately proved insurmountable. They’re still 10 games under .500 (60-70) and sit last place in the American League East.

While they may not have much to play for in terms of postseason aspirations, there’s still plenty of benefit to getting Bradish back on the big league mound and seeing how he looks. Doing so will give the organization a better sense of how much he can be expected to contribute next year, and it’ll give Bradish the opportunity to end a largely lost season on a high note while building confidence for 2026. Plus, the more innings he throws this year, the less stark the uptick in workload will be next season.

Bradish is being paid $2.35MM this season in his first year of arbitration eligibility as a Super Two player. He’ll be due a small raise for the 2026 campaign and is under club control for three additional years, through 2028. A healthy Bradish would go a long way toward stabilizing the 2026 rotation, where Dean Kremer and the resurgent Trevor Rogers are the only real locks. Bradish joins Young, former top prospect Cade Povich and fellow UCL rehabber Tyler Wells as candidates for next year’s staff, but the O’s will once again enter the offseason in need of bolstering the starting rotation.

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Baltimore Orioles Transactions Kyle Bradish

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White Sox Release Josh Rojas

By Steve Adams | August 25, 2025 at 12:43pm CDT

The White Sox released veteran infielder Josh Rojas following last week’s DFA, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. If and when Rojas clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent who can sign with any team. A new club would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time on its big league roster. The ChiSox will remain on the hook for the rest of the 31-year-old’s $3.5MM salary.

Signed to a one-year deal this past offseason, Rojas has had some past success in Arizona and Seattle but was hoping for a rebound at the plate after a pair of down seasons. He’s a steady defender at both second base and third base who hit .266/.345/.401 with the Diamondbacks in 2021-22 but was more of a glove-first, multi-position infielder with the M’s in 2023-24.

Rojas’ hopeful return to form with the South Siders never materialized. He missed two months with a fractured big toe and hasn’t shown his typical range or mobility in the field upon returning. He’s also struggled at the plate. Rojas took 211 turns at the plate with the Sox and slashed just .180/.252/.259. His average sprint speed, as measured by Statcast, fell from an already slightly below-average 27 ft/sec in 2024 to 26.2 ft/sec in 2025, landing him in the 21st percentile of big league position players.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see any player see reduced speed, mobility and/or offensive production in the wake of a notable fracture in his foot. Unfortunately for Rojas, he’s suffered all three, and it’s now been three seasons since he last turned in a better-than-average offensive performance.

Recent struggles notwithstanding, Rojas is an experienced infielder who can handle multiple positions and, as recently as last year, was worth about two wins above replacement per both FanGraphs (1.9) and Baseball-Reference (2.2). A contending club isn’t going to look at him as a late-season savior, but playoff hopefuls in need of some infield depth could certainly take a minor league flier once he’s officially a free agent.

Rojas is technically controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration, but it’d take a pretty glaring turnaround — in short order — for a team to sign him, add him to the big league roster and then tender him a contract for the ’26 campaign. It’s far likelier, however, that Rojas will be a free agent this offseason and find a minor league deal with an eye toward better health and production next year.

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Josh Rojas

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Pirates Notes: Chandler, Infield, Rodriguez

By Steve Adams | August 25, 2025 at 11:13am CDT

After months of anticipation, top pitching prospect Bubba Chandler’s debut didn’t disappoint — though it probably looked quite different than most fans had anticipated. Chandler tossed four shutout frames in relief of fellow well-regarded pitching prospect Braxton Ashcraft, earning a save in his first MLB appearance. Despite debuting in the ’pen, Chandler will be considered for rotation looks down the stretch, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters this weekend (video link via Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

“He could still make starts,” Cherington said of Chandler. “But pitching in the major leagues is important. We wanted him to get that experience, get that feedback, and start it early enough where there was enough innings where it was a real experience that could inform his offseason going into 2026.”

Cherington went on to note that starts won’t be guaranteed and that manager Don Kelly “will guide” the decision on Chandler’s role from appearance to appearance. There’s no scheduled start on the immediate horizon for Chandler, who’ll turn 23 in a few weeks. Pittsburgh has Johan Oviedo, Mitch Keller, Ashcraft, Mike Burrows and Paul Skenes lined up, respectively, for its next five games. Logically, it seems fair to expect that Chandler could again follow Ashcraft in a piggyback role Wednesday, as the two are on the same schedule.

However he’s deployed, Chandler should reach a new career-high in innings pitched. He tossed 119 2/3 frames last year and is up to 104 innings this season with a bit more than a month remaining on the regular-season calendar. He’ll very clearly be in the mix for a rotation spot in 2026, so even narrowly edging his season-long workload past that 2024 mark would be beneficial as he eyes a first full year of rotation work in the majors.

Chandler’s MLB readiness isn’t the only long-term question the Pirates are focused on in the season’s final few months. In a full column highlighting some of Cherington’s comments — readers are encouraged to check it out for greater context on this and several more Pirates issues — Beazley writes that Pittsburgh’s GM feels infielder Jared Triolo has begun to prove his ability to handle shortstop on at least a part-time basis in the majors.

Triolo, 27, has spent the bulk of his big league career between second base and third base, but the Bucs have given him 15 games at short since being recalled to the majors following the trade deadline. While Cherington stressed that this doesn’t mean Triolo will open next year at shortstop, the Bucs also wanted to gauge how much of an option he is there. Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect in all of MLB according to both Baseball America and MLB.com, is seen as the long-term answer but is only 20 years old and was only recently promoted to Double-A, where he’s played just six games thus far.

Cherington suggested earlier in the month that the Bucs will pursue infield help in the offseason and doubled down on that thought in his latest media session. A short-term addition at shortstop would be sensible. Any work Triolo is doing now would certainly strengthen his candidacy for a bench role, however, and it’s worth noting that he’s doing more than instilling Pirates brass with some confidence in his glovework. Dating back to his Aug. 1 recall, Triolo is slashing .324/.418/.500 (158 wRC+) in 80 plate appearances.

A lot of that production is due to a bloated .400 average on balls in play that he won’t sustain, but Triolo is also chasing off the plate less, walking more often, and more frequently making contact on balls within the strike zone. It’s a small sample, but there are some positive strides being shown, and if Triolo can keep that up for another month to close out the season, it’d bode well for his chances of having a steady role in 2026. He’s still hitting just .213/.308/.343 overall, but he’s a strong defender at second and third with good speed. The pieces for a solid utility option are there, if the bat can rise to even slightly below-average levels.

The catching role, of course, has been a question in Pittsburgh for years now. Several attempts to bring in high-end young players to claim the spot long-term have yet to pan out. Endy Rodriguez’s recent elbow surgery — his second elbow surgery since Oct. 2023 — further calls into question his candidacy for eventually claiming that role. Cherginton said after his recent surgery, however, that the organization still views Rodriguez as a catcher (link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com).

Cherington called the 25-year-old Rodriguez (26 next May) “a catcher who we believe can be good at the position defensively and hit left-handed” and touted the value of having both left- and right-handed-hitting options behind the dish. Rodriguez’s long-term defensive outlook is something the Bucs will again visit in the offseason as he continues to mend, the GM conceded, but the idea of Rodriguez as a catcher isn’t one that the Pirates “want to give up on easily,” per Cherington.

Rodriguez hasn’t hit at all in limited big league looks yet, slashing just .210/.276/.311 in 261 plate appearances dating back to his 2023 MLB debut. Rodriguez missed nearly all of the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery but had a monster 2022 season in the minors and hit decently in 2023’s Triple-A run before being called to the big leagues. He’s expected to be ready for next spring trainings but isn’t a lock to make next year’s roster.

Both Rodriguez and Triolo have one minor league option remaining after the current season, so next year’s camp won’t be a firm make-or-break for either player, but with both in their mid-20s and down to one option year, they’ll need to establish some staying power at some point within the next calendar year.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Bubba Chandler Endy Rodriguez Jared Triolo Konnor Griffin

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    Anthony Volpe Playing Through Partial Labrum Tear

    Orioles Promoted Mike Elias Prior To 2025 Season

    Anthony Rizzo Retires

    Cubs Place Kyle Tucker On Injured List

    Blue Jays Place Bo Bichette On Injured List

    Phillies Place Trea Turner, Alec Bohm On Injured List

    Sean Murphy To Undergo Hip Surgery

    Trea Turner To Undergo MRI Due To Hamstring Strain

    Davey Johnson Passes Away

    Mets Option Kodai Senga

    NPB’s Kazuma Okamoto, Tatsuya Imai Expected To Be Posted For MLB Teams

    Shelby Miller Likely Headed For Tommy John Surgery

    Red Sox To Place Roman Anthony On Injured List

    Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Diagnosed With Torn ACL

    Braves Claim Ha-Seong Kim From Rays

    Jason Adam Likely Headed For Season-Ending Quad Surgery

    Mariners Promote Harry Ford, Release Donovan Solano

    Phillies Sign Walker Buehler To Minors Contract

    Red Sox Extend Aroldis Chapman

    Administrative Leave For Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz Extended “Until Further Notice”

    Recent

    Anthony Volpe Playing Through Partial Labrum Tear

    Mets Outright Wander Suero

    Angels Outright Chad Stevens

    Craig Breslow, Red Sox Plan To Hire GM This Offseason

    Blue Jays Designate Orelvis Martinez For Assignment

    Dodgers Release Matt Sauer

    Lourdes Gurriel Jr. To Miss 9-10 Months Following ACL Surgery

    Justin Garza Elects Free Agency

    Marlins Designate Seth Martinez For Assignment

    Orioles Promoted Mike Elias Prior To 2025 Season

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