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Mets Select José Azócar

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The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder José Azócar. Fellow outfielder Jose Siri has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left tibia fracture. The club also optioned right-hander Justin Hagenman and recalled right-hander Max Kranick. The 40-man roster already had a couple of vacancies, so no corresponding move was required in that department.

It was reported late on Monday that Siri had a fracture and would be placed on the injured list but the Mets delayed the move until today. That was seemingly a conscious decision the club made in order to take advantage of a roster technicality. A pitcher optioned to the minors cannot be recalled for 15 days, unless they are replacing an injured player.

Yesterday, the Mets recalled Hagenman to work a spot start of sorts, optioning Kranick out to make room for him on the roster. The scheduled starter was Griffin Canning but he had come down with an illness and was pushed by a few days. Hagenman didn’t technically start, as Huascar Brazobán served as an opener, but Hagenman did eat 3 1/3 innings after that. By delaying Siri’s IL placement until today, the Mets were able to bring Kranick back just one day after optioning him, as he is technically taking the place of an injured player.

While that sequence of events helped them out on the pitching side, the position player group has been short-handed, with Siri taking up a bench spot while unable to play. Now they can finally get back to full strength with today’s moves.

Azócar, 29 in May, was claimed off waivers from the Padres in September and mostly kept on optional assignment. But he exhausted his final option year in 2024 and was therefore out of options going into 2025. He didn’t make the club’s Opening Day roster and was designated for assignment on Opening Day, but he passed through waivers unclaimed and stuck around as non-roster depth until today.

Broadly speaking, he’s been a speed-and-defense outfielder thus far. He stepped to the plate 397 times with the Padres over the 2022-24 seasons but hit .243/.287/.322 for a 74 wRC+. However, has stole 18 bases, though also got caught 9 times. In 1,011 outfield innings, he’s been credited with two Defensive Runs Saved and eight Outs Above Average.

The Mets have Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo in the outfield corners but center field has been a weak spot thus far. Siri hit .050/.208/.100 before fouling a ball off his leg and suffering his aforementioned fracture. Tyrone Taylor, who has been splitting the spot with Siri, has a .163/.200/.209 line on the year.

As mentioned, Azócar hasn’t hit much in his major league career, but the minor league numbers have generally been better. He has a .283/.333/.434 line and 93 wRC+ dating back to the start of 2021. That includes a .244/.367/.366 showing and 109 wRC+ so far this year. He could try to push Taylor for some playing time or just serve as a solid bench guy who can do some pinch-running and/or defensive replacement work. As mentioned, he is out of options, so he would have to be pushed off the 40-man if the Mets want him off the active roster when Siri gets back.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Twins Acquire Jonah Bride

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April 17: The Twins officially placed Wallner on the IL today, with Bride taking his spot on the active roster.

April 16: The Twins announced that they have acquired infielder Jonah Bride from the Marlins. Miami, who designated Bride for assignment yesterday, will receive cash considerations in return. Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to report the move prior to the official announcement. The Twins have had an open 40-man spot since righty Scott Blewett was designated for assignment a few days ago. It was reported earlier today that outfielder Matt Wallner is heading to the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain, which will open an active roster spot. Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune was among those to relay the Wallner news.

Bride, 29, has a pretty good track record of minor league performance. Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, he has stepped to the plate 1,166 times on the farm with a 17.1% walk rate, higher than his 16% strikeout rate. That helped him produce a combined .289/.421/.489 batting line and 137 wRC+ in that time.

That got him some brief major league opportunities with the Athletics in 2022 and 2023, but he didn’t hit will in those, slashing .192/.296/.232. He was acquired by the Marlins going into 2024 and seemed to show some promise. He got into 71 games for the Fish last year, hitting 11 home runs and walking at an 11% pace. That led to a .276/.357/.461 line and 123 wRC+.

But he got out to a rough start here in 2025, with a .100/.200/.100 line and 33.3% strikeout rate through 45 plate appearances. Now out of options, he got bumped off Miami’s 40-man roster this week when Jesús Sánchez returned from the injured list.

Though the Twins are going to put Wallner on the injured list, they need more help on the infield, particularly on the left side. In terms of outfielders, without Wallner, they have Byron Buxton, Harrison Bader, Trevor Larnach and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. on the active roster and prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez on optional assignment.

The infield mix is pretty banged up, however. Shortstop Carlos Correa was removed from yesterday’s game with some left wrist soreness. He told Nightengale that he’s been dealing with it since late last year. He’s out to a rough start this season, hitting .164/.227/.246 thus far.

Correa didn’t start this afternoon’s contest, with Willi Castro plugging in at short. However, Castro was removed with some tightness in his right oblique, per Hayes. Correa was subbed in defensively in the ninth but the Twins were not planning to let him hit if that spot in the order came around, per Matthew Leach of MLB.com. The Twins walked off the Mets in the tenth, so manager Rocco Baldelli didn’t have to figure out a plan for what to do once Correa’s spot in the order came up.

The Twins are already without Royce Lewis, who is on the IL with a strained hamstring. They optioned the struggling José Miranda to the minors recently and he got hurt almost immediately after in a strange accident. Per Nightengale, Miranda was shopping at Target and dropped a case of water. He caught it and suffered a left hand strain in the process, getting placed on the minor league seven-day IL. Austin Martin is also on the minor league IL, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com, getting put on the shelf with a right hamstring strain on April 11.

The Twins have Ty France and Edouard Julien at first and second but shortstop and third are more up in the air with Lewis, Correa, Castro, Martin and Miranda all banged up or out of commission. Bride has played all of the non-shortstop infield positions, so he will give them another guy capable of playing third. Perhaps Brooks Lee will then cover shortstop while Correa and Castro get some time off to heal up.

The Twins are off tomorrow, so they have a bit of time to assess how things go before the weekend, but Bride was available and fits nicely with their current predicament. As mentioned, he is out of options, but he has less than two years of service time. That means he can be affordably retained well into the future if he manages to hold onto a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of John Jones, Imagn Images

Braves Recall Alex Verdugo, Option Bryan De La Cruz

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The Braves announced that they have recalled outfielder Alex Verdugo from Triple-A Gwinnett. Fellow outfielder Bryan De La Cruz was optioned down to Gwinnett as the corresponding move.

Verdugo, 29 next month, is a veteran with at least five years of major league service time. That means he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. However, he agreed to accept an optional assignment due to his lingering free agency. He remained unsigned until the second half of March, eventually getting a $1.5MM deal from Atlanta. Since he had missed spring training, he agreed to head down to the farm for a while, effectively as a delayed spring training.

His inability to get a deal to his liking earlier in the offseason was surely due to his poor platform season. He had hit .282/.338/.430 from 2018 to 2023, production which translated to a 106 wRC+. That means he was only 6% above league average but that was still decent production, especially considering he’s a solid outfield defender. But with the Yankees in 2024, he hit just .233/.291/.356 for a wRC+ of 83. He was actually pretty decent through the end of May but hit just .219/.274/.315 from June onwards. He then added 56 postseason plate appearances with a .208/.309/.313 line.

That gave him little momentum going into the winter, which led to his aforementioned struggle to get a deal. For Atlanta, they were probably happy that he was out still out there, as their outfield wasn’t in great shape at the end of last year. Ronald Acuña Jr. tore his ACL and missed the second half, with an expected return at some point during 2025. The club took a shot on Jarred Kelenic last year, which didn’t work, as he hit .231/.286/.393. Michael Harris II saw his production drop for a second straight season after his Rookie of the Year performance in 2022.

The club made one big splash to upgrade the outfield this winter, signing Jurickson Profar to a three-year, $42MM deal. But just 11 days after they signed Verdugo, it was reported that Profar had been given an 80-game suspension for a positive PED test. Given the close proximity, it’s possible Atlanta knew of Profar’s test at the time of the Verdugo deal, but with the appeal process having not yet run its course.

Since the Verdugo deal, things have broadly gotten worse for the club. They are out to a 5-13 start, with their outfield being one of the key problems. Kelenic is hitting .146/.239/.244 thus far and Harris is at .179/.208/.299. Before getting optioned today, De La Cruz put up a line of .191/.240/.213.

It’s unclear what sort of production Verdugo can provide, but even something like his diminished 2024 offense would be miles ahead of what the club has received from its outfield so far. For what it’s worth, Verdugo hit .207/.303/.448 during his recent optional assignment.

Verdugo, Kelenic and Harris are all lefties, so that’s likely to be the alignment against right-handed pitchers. Even after optioning De La Cruz, the club has a couple of righty-swinging outfielders in Stuart Fairchild and Eli White, giving manager Brian Snitker some ability to navigate around tough southpaws. Ideally, Verdugo can stabilize things somewhat as the club tries to get the season back on track. Acunña will perhaps start a rehab assignment soon and be back with the club in the coming weeks. That will cut into the playing time of someone, likely Kelenic or Verdugo, depending on what happens between now and then.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

White Sox Designate Omar Narvaez For Assignment

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The White Sox announced Thursday that they’ve designated veteran catcher Omar Narvaez for assignment. His spot on the 40-man and active rosters will go to top catching prospect Edgar Quero, whose previously reported promotion to the majors is now official; his contract has been formally selected. Chicago also reinstated outfielder Andrew Benintendi from the injured list and optioned fellow outfielder Greg Jones to Triple-A Charlotte in a corresponding move.

Narvaez returned to the White Sox — the team with which he made his major league debut — when he signed a minor league contract back in January. He was selected to the 40-man roster earlier this month when Korey Lee suffered an injury, but with the presence of top catching prospects Quero and Kyle Teel in Triple-A, the potential for the reunion to be short-lived was always present. The 33-year-old Narvaez wound up appearing in only four games, during which he went 2-for-7 with a pair of singles and a couple of walks.

Narvaez’s days as a regular behind the plate look to be in the past. He was a solid option behind the dish from 2017-21, batting a combined .266/.351/.403 in 1670 plate appearances. That was effectively league-average offense (101 wRC+), but catchers tend to be well below-average hitters. Relative to his position, Narvaez was a comfortably better-than-average hitter. Though he posted below-average defensive grades early in his career, his glovework — framing in particular — has improved considerably over the years.

Since a nice showing with the 2021 Brewers, however, Narvaez’s production has tanked. He struggled with Milwaukee in 2022, signed a two-year contract with the Mets the following offseason, and wasn’t able to right the ship. Overall, he’s posted a .201/.278/.286 line in his past 521 plate appearances (including his brief look with the ChiSox this year).

The White Sox can place Narvaez on waivers or trade him at any point in the next five days. Waivers themselves are another 48-hour process, meaning the max length of his stay in DFA limbo will be one week. While he’s struggled quite a bit in recent seasons, Narvaez could still hold appeal to clubs seeking catching depth in the wake of injuries. The Red Sox (who currently roster his cousin, fellow catcher Carlos Narvaez) are without Connor Wong for the foreseeable future due to a broken finger. The Tigers (Jake Rogers), Reds (Tyler Stephenson) and Marlins (Nick Fortes) have all seen their starting catchers go down with an oblique strain — quite recently in the case of Detroit and Miami.

The Sox won’t get a prospect back for Narvaez, but he could be flipped for cash or claimed off waivers. If he clears waivers, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

Quero will be the first of Chicago’s touted catching prospects to get a look in the big leagues. He’s out to a terrific start in Charlotte, having slashed .333/.444/.412 through his first 63 trips to the plate. That performance follows up last year’s stout .286/.366/.463 batting line in a combined 402 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A. The switch-hitting Quero isn’t considered a plus defender, but he has the chance to be a bat-first regular behind the plate. He and Teel have big enough offensive ceilings to envision a scenario where both are on the same roster and splitting time between catcher and designated hitter.

Benintendi’s stay on the injured list due to an adductor strain proved minimal. That’s good news for the Sox, as the former All-Star has gotten back on track in a major way dating back to the midpoint of last season. Benitendi caught fire last summer and closed out the year with a .251/.325/.473 slash over his final 317 trips to the plate. Coupled with an even stronger start to his 2025 season, he’s now hitting .255/.326/.475 with 18 homers, a 9.4% walk rate and a 19.1% strikeout rate over his past 350 plate appearances.

Benintendi’s contract once looked immovable, but if he continues to produce along these lines for another couple months, he could emerge as a viable summer trade candidate. He’s being paid $16.5MM in 2025 and is owed a total of $31MM in 2026-27 as part of his five-year, $75MM contract.

The Opener: Quero, Hancock, Pirates, Nationals

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As the 2025 season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Quero to make MLB debut:

The White Sox are poised to promote top catching prospect Edgar Quero to the majors for his big league debut. A corresponding 40-man roster move will be necessary to bring Quero up from the minors, so the club will have to either designate a player for assignment or transfer one of their players to the 60-day injured list, though they have no obvious candidates for the latter.

Quero, 22, is a consensus top-100 prospect who’s gotten off to a hot start at Triple-A, with a .333/.444/.412 slash line in 63 plate appearances. That solid bat is the main attraction when it comes to Quero, as he’s regarded as a below-average defender behind the plate and a lackluster baserunner. Even so, the switch-hitter’s knack for contact, impressive plate discipline, and power potential make him an intriguing prospect even if Kyle Teel is the more well-regarded of Chicago’s two touted catching prospects. (Teel, conversely, is out to a rough start in Charlotte, slashing .196/.328/.393 with a 31.3% strikeout rate.) Quero’s first game will come against the Athletics in Chicago, and is scheduled for 1:10pm local time.

2. Hancock returning to majors:

Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock has one MLB start under his belt this year, and it could hardly have gone worse. When he faced the Tigers on March 31, Hancock was shelled for seven hits (including a home run) and a walk in an outing that saw him record just two outs. He ultimately surrendered six runs and walked away with an ugly 81.00 ERA and 27.01 FIP before being optioned to the minors. With George Kirby still on the injured list and Seattle in need of a fifth starter, Hancock gets an opportunity for redemption today against the Reds in Cincinnati. The former No. 6 overall pick has been as a serviceable depth starter for the Mariners in the past, with a career 4.71 ERA in 15 starts entering this season. He also has a solid Triple-A track record — a 3.46 ERA in 19 starts/104 innings pitched. Will he be able to turn things around this afternoon?

3. Tensions high in Nationals, Pirates finale:

It’s been a rough series between the Pirates and Nationals. On Tuesday, a fastball got away from right-hander Mitch Keller and struck shortstop Paul DeJong in the face, breaking his nose and sending him to the injured list. That was followed by a wild outing from Nationals reliever Jorge Lopez, who hit Bryan Reynolds before another pitch got away from him and ran up-and-in on veteran Andrew McCutchen, who was forced to dive to the ground to avoid being plunked. That incited a benches-clearing incident that ultimately ended with Lopez being ejected (video link).

As noted by Jessica Camerato of MLB.com, Lopez apologized for the situation after the game and McCutchen’s own postgame comments suggested that he does not believe the pitch from Lopez was intentional. Still, benches-clearing incidents typically leave both teams on high-alert for potential issues for the remainder of the series. It also remains to be seen whether Lopez will be further disciplined by the league beyond his ejection.

MLB Mailbag: Arenado, Rangers, Red Sox, Angels, Giants

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Today's mailbag gets into Nolan Arenado's future with the Cardinals, offensive struggles for the Rangers and Red Sox, hot starts for the Angels and Giants, and much more.

Sam asks:

Arenado is off to a pretty good start with his surface level stats but his batted ball profile is still pretty bad. Barring an injury to a third baseman on a contender, is he going to be playing for the Cardinals for the next 3 years?

Arenado, 34 today, has an excellent 136 wRC+ through 74 plate appearances.  His Statcast numbers have always been middling since he was traded to St. Louis four years ago.  As you know, the Cardinals tried to move Arenado during the offseason, both to save money and open up playing time for younger players.  Arenado wasn't willing to say yes when asked to approve a trade to the Astros in December, and no deal materialized with the four other teams on the third baseman's list.

In February, Katie Woo of The Athletic reported that the Cardinals "had conversations with at least nine organizations" about Arenado during the offseason.  Woo said the other four teams on Arenado's list besides the Astros were the Dodgers, Red Sox, Padres, and Yankees.  The rigidity of Arenado's list is confusing.  He said, "I don’t see myself changing that list ever. I have a family now. … To be willing to pick up my family and move them, it has to be something that’s worth it."  Arenado is clearly not bound entirely by geography, having chosen teams on both the East and West coast.  But let's look at some playoff odds from when the season opened:

  • Astros: 53.5%
  • Dodgers: 97.6%
  • Red Sox: 56.2%
  • Padres: 35.1%
  • Yankees: 62.3%
  • Cardinals: 23.2%
  • Tigers: 46.6%
  • Royals: 41.8%
  • Angels: 10.5%

Is it fair to say that for Arenado to leave the comfort of St. Louis he needs what he considers a strong chance at winning the World Series, but he might accept a lesser chance for a team near where he grew up, such as the Padres?  What makes this tricky is that Arenado seems to have developed his own playoff odds.  Playoff odds are not reliable in the best case, and Arenado is probably worse at this than FanGraphs.

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MLBTR Podcast: Free Agent Power Rankings

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss MLBTR’s first edition of the 2025-26 Free Agent Power Rankings, including these focal points…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images

Luis Robert’s Slow Start

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April tends to be relatively quiet on the transaction front. The early part of the month saw a handful of extensions as talks that had begun in Spring Training carried into the regular season. There probably won't be much more significant hot stove activity for the next couple months. That's largely because all but three teams -- the White Sox, Marlins and Rockies -- went into the season with some measure of hope about competing. The trio of clearly noncompetitive clubs had already moved most of their realistic trade candidates who'd bring back prospect talent.

Luis Robert Jr. is an exception. The White Sox held onto their former All-Star center fielder over the offseason. Robert was coming off the worst season of his career. He lost nearly two months early in the season with a hip flexor strain and was unproductive when healthy. He hit .224/.278/.379 with 14 homers in 100 games. Robert looked nothing like the player who'd finished 12th in AL MVP balloting one year earlier.

It made for a difficult evaluation. Robert has shown star upside -- not only in the aforementioned 2023 campaign but in an injury-shortened '21 season when he hit .338/.378/.567 over 68 games. Last year's White Sox were en route to the worst season in the modern era. Maybe Robert's .216/.253/.302 showing in the second half reflected some amount of mental fatigue. At 27 years old, he should remain in his prime.

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Injury Notes: Gil, DeJong, Gray

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Luis Gil has not thrown since being diagnosed with a lat strain during the first week of March. The Yankees righty was shut down for at least six weeks at the time of the injury. While Gil has hit the six-week mark, he’s still not ready to begin throwing. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com) that Gil will remain shut down for at least another 10 days. Recent imaging hasn’t revealed sufficient healing for last year’s Rookie of the Year winner to resume throwing.

Gil will remain more than a month away from returning to MLB action even after he begins throwing. He’ll need a full ramp-up period after missing all of Spring Training, progressing through multiple sessions before he’s ready for a minor league rehab assignment. The Yankees welcomed Clarke Schmidt back from his own season-opening injured list stint on Wednesday, but they’re still down three starting pitchers. Gerrit Cole will miss the entire season, while Marcus Stroman went on the IL with knee inflammation over the weekend.

A couple other injury updates around the game:

  • The Nationals placed Paul DeJong on the 10-day injured list before Wednesday’s loss in Pittsburgh. The veteran infielder suffered a broken nose during Tuesday’s contest. Mitch Keller lost control of a 93 MPH fastball that ran up and hit DeJong in the face. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com relays that DeJong spent the night in a Pittsburgh-area hospital for observation and was released on Wednesday. Signed to a $1MM free agent deal, DeJong opened the year as Washington’s third baseman. He’d spent time at shortstop with CJ Abrams shelved by a hip flexor strain. Amed Rosario and Nasim Nuñez are handling the left side of the infield with both players out. DeJong has opened the season with a .204/.246/.278 showing in 57 plate appearances.
  • Rangers righty Jon Gray broke his right wrist when he was hit by a comebacker late in Spring Training. The veteran starter tells Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports that his injury has healed as hoped over the past month. Gray is hoping to begin throwing a couple weeks from now. He’s not expected to be ready for MLB game action until at least July. Gray owns a 4.16 earned run average in just under 400 innings over three seasons with Texas. He’s in the final season of his four-year free agent deal.

Austin Slater Undergoes Meniscus Surgery

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White Sox outfielder Austin Slater underwent surgery to address a meniscus tear in his right knee yesterday, the team informed reporters (including Scott Merkin of MLB.com). He’ll be sidelined for 4-6 weeks.

Slater went on the injured list over the weekend. The right-handed hitter has appeared in eight games this season. He’s started 5-20 with a home run and a couple doubles. The Sox have given him 10 plate appearances against right-handed and left-handed opponents alike. He’s mostly been a short-side platoon bat throughout his career. Slater is a .270/.362/.431 hitter against southpaws. He has fanned in 33% of plate appearances against righty pitching, putting up a .230/.316/.334 slash.

The White Sox made a handful of modest one-year free agent pickups over the offseason. Slater was the first of those additions. He signed for a $1.75MM guarantee with another $500K in performance bonuses. The incentives range from 50 to 100 games and 100 to 300 plate appearances, so he could unlock most or all of those bonuses as long as his rehab process goes as expected.

Slater is one of three outfielders on Chicago’s injured list. They’re also without Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman for the moment. Michael A. Taylor is playing every day in left field. Lefty-swinging Joshua Palacios and switch-hitter Brooks Baldwin have been operating as a right field platoon.

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