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White Sox Place Austin Slater On 10-Day IL Due To Right Meniscus Tear

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The White Sox announced that outfielder Austin Slater has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a meniscus tear in his right knee.  The IL placement is retroactive to April 11.  Outfielder Greg Jones was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

With Andrew Benintendi (groin strain) and Mike Tauchman (hamstring strain) already on the IL, Chicago’s outfield has now been further reduced by Slater’s injury, which looks to be significantly longer term in nature depending on the severity of the tear.  The best-case scenario could see Slater back on the field in a few weeks’ time, while he might be shelved for a couple of months if surgery is required.  Manager Will Venable told SoxMachine’s JamesFegan and other reporters that the team doesn’t have a timeline yet for Slater.

This is actually the second injury Slater has suffered during his brief tenure with the White Sox, after an oblique issue cost him a couple of weeks during Spring Training.  Slater signed a one-year contract worth $1.75MM in guaranteed money back in November, as the Sox aimed to use the right-handed hitting Slater in a platoon capacity in one or both of the corner outfield positions.  Now, all of Chicago’s planned corner outfield candidates are on the IL, leaving Michael A. Taylor, Brooks Baldwin, Joshua Palacios, and now Jones as the makeshift group flanking center fielder Luis Robert Jr.

Slater posted solid to very good numbers as a part-timer with San Francisco from 2020-23, but his production cratered badly last year, as he slashed just .209/.321/.266 over 212 combined plate appearances with the Giants, Reds, and Orioles.  He has actually logged more big league innings as a center fielder than he has in left or right field, though defensive metrics indicate that Slater is much better suited to corner outfield work.

Nationals Place CJ Abrams On 10-Day Injured List

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The Nationals announced that shortstop CJ Abrams has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right hip flexor strain.  Infielder Nasim Nunez was called up from Triple-A to take Abrams’ spot on the active roster.

Abrams’ injury has been bothering him for the better part of a week, as he didn’t play on Monday or Tuesday before returning to action on Wednesday.  The Nationals didn’t play on Thursday, but that extra day of rest didn’t help Abrams, as he made an early exit during the fourth inning of Friday’s game with the Marlins.  Manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including MLB.com’s Santos Perez) that Abrams had hip discomfort while trying to steal a base in the top of the third, and then again when fielding a grounder in the bottom half of the inning.

Given the lingering nature of the injury, it isn’t surprising that the Nats decided to shut Abrams down entirely for at least 10 days to let him fully shake the hip issue.  Paul DeJong will likely shift over from third base to take over most of the starting duties at shortstop, with Amed Rosario and Jose Tena probably handling things at third.  Nunez also has a lot of shortstop experience in the minor leagues, and the former Rule 5 Draft pick figures to get some playing time in his second MLB season.

Not that there’s ever a great time to visit the IL, but the placement cuts short Abrams’ heavy-hitting start to the 2025 campaign.  Abrams has already hit four homers and delivered a .585 slugging percentage in his first 46 trips to the plate, even if his batting average (.244) and OBP (.289) are far more modest.

Abrams also had a big first half in 2024, earning the shortstop a spot on the NL All-Star team.  Just when it looked like Abrams was having a proper breakout year, however, his production tailed off in the second half, and he was optioned to Triple-A for the last week of the season as a disciplinary response to an off-the-field issue.  Washington president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo made a point of confirming his team’s commitment and belief in Abrams during the Nats’ end-of-season press conference, and the matter might end up being a footnote if Abrams continues as a cornerstone piece for a Nationals team that is emerging from the end of a rebuild.

Athletics Designate Angel Perdomo For Assignment

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The Athletics announced that left-hander Angel Perdomo has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander J.T. Ginn was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move, and Ginn will get the start today against the Mets in West Sacramento.

Perdomo has only been in West Sacramento for two weeks, after the A’s claimed him off waivers from the Angels following another DFA.  This brief stint saw Perdomo make four relief appearances for the Athletics, posting a 5.40 ERA across 3 1/3 innings of work.  Perdomo pitched in yesterday’s game (albeit with only nine pitches in one-third of an inning), so he was the odd man out given the Athletics’ need to open up a roster spot for Ginn today.

Perdomo is out of minor league options, so the A’s had to designate him and expose him to the waiver wire before sending him to Triple-A.  If he does clear waivers, Perdomo has the ability to reject an outright assignment and become a free agent, since he has been previously outrighted off a 40-man roster during his career.

Tommy John surgery kept Perdomo off the mound entirely in 2024, and his return to action hasn’t seen an answer to the control problems that have plagued the southpaw for much of his limited MLB career.  Perdomo has a 16% career walk rate across his 52 career big league innings with the Brewers, Pirates, and Athletics, and a 5.54 career ERA reflects the lack of control.  Perdomo has only two strikeouts in 19 batters faced this year, but owns a whopping 34.2% strikeout rate over his time in the majors.

This ability to miss bats has gotten Perdomo attention from multiple teams.  The Braves took a flier on Perdomo with a split contract in the wake of his 2023 TJ procedure, but after getting a look at him in action this spring, Atlanta dealt Perdomo to the Angels late in camp.  The lefty’s time in the Angels’ camp was also limited to just a few days before he was designated and claimed away by the A’s.  It could be that another team in need of southpaw depth could be willing to make a claim and take a shot at fixing Perdomo’s control, since even an average amount of walks combined with his strikeout power could make him an interesting bullpen weapon.

Cardinals Place Masyn Winn On 10-Day IL, Activate Nolan Gorman

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The Cardinals announced that shortstop Masyn Winn was placed on the 10-day injured list due to back spasms.  Winn will be replaced by fellow infielder Nolan Gorman, whose own 10-day IL stint (due to a hamstring strain) has now ended with Gorman’s activation to the big league roster.

Winn lasted just an inning into yesterday’s game before his bad back required his removal from the lineup.  Winn also fought through some back problems last season, and told reporters (including MLB.com’s John Denton) yesterday that his current issue “was similar” but “last year was actually a little bit worse.”  Winn felt he might miss a couple of games but wouldn’t need an IL trip, yet the Cardinals have apparently decided to take the cautious route in giving the shortstop 10 days to fully recover.

A second-round pick for St. Louis in the 2020 draft, Winn went from highly-touted prospect to everyday shortstop when he hit .267/.314/.416 with 15 homers over 637 plate appearances in 2024.  With both this above-average hitting and strong glovework in the view of some defensive metrics, Winn earned himself an everyday role in the Cardinals’ lineup, though he was off to a slow start at the plate this year.

Thomas Saggese now looks to play shortstop while Winn is out, though super-utilityman Brendan Donovan will also receive his first taste of shortstop playing time since 2023 as the Cardinals figure out how to juggle their roster.  Having Donovan at shortstop would open up second base for Gorman, since third base will only be a possibility if Nolan Arenado is given a rest day.  Gorman appeared in two games before hitting the IL, but he’ll now make it back after just a minimal 10-day absence.

Rays Place Kevin Kelly On 15-Day Injured List

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Prior to Friday’s 6-3 win over the Braves, the Rays placed right-hander Kevin Kelly on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 10) with a left gluteal strain.  Righty Cole Sulser was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move.

Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud and other reporters that Kelly woke up feeling sore on Thursday, following the reliever’s scoreless inning of work against the Angels the previous night.  There was some initial uncertainty over whether Kelly might’ve been dealing with a nerve issue or not, but Cash said “it’s an actual glute strain.  So, pretty unique in that fact.  We’ll see if it shrunk down in a couple days and get a ball back in his hands and see where he’s at.”

As Cash noted, a timeline isn’t yet in place for when Kelly might return, but the Rays will be without one of their more underrated relievers for at least the next two weeks.  The Rockies selected Kelly out of the Guardians’ organization in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft, and after Tampa acquired Kelly in a trade that same draft day, the right-hander has become the latest in a long line of pitchers to blossom with the Rays.

Kelly posted a 2.88 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, and a superb 4.3% walk rate over 137 2/3 relief innings for Tampa Bay in 2023-24.  That walk rate ranks among the best in the game over the last two seasons, and Kelly augmented that excellent control with very good soft-contact numbers.  His grounder rate also jumped from a very good 47.7% in 2023 to an elite 56.8% mark in 2024.  Kelly isn’t a hard thrower, but he rarely uses a traditional four-seamer, as he relies heavily on a devastating slider and an above-average sweeper to retire batters.

If that production wasn’t enough, Kelly is also a workhorse, often working multiple innings.  He has yet to go beyond one inning of work in any of his five outings this season, and his numbers are a bit more on the modest side in the small sample size of those five innings — a 3.60 ERA and an equal number of walks and strikeouts (two apiece).  All of the damage came on a two-run homer Kelly allowed to the Rockies’ Mickey Moniak on March 30, which marked only the tenth home run Kelly has surrendered in his MLB career.

In the short term, Cash said the Rays view Sulser as a candidate to take over from Kelly in that multi-inning capacity.  Tampa acquired Sulser from the Mets in a cash transaction last July, and Sulser tossed 11 2/3 scoreless innings for the Rays over the rest of the season.  Sulser had an excellent season out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2021, but has since posted a 4.69 ERA over 55 2/3 innings with four different Major League teams.

Twins Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Twins announced that right-hander Scott Blewett has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for left-hander Kody Funderburk, who was called up from Triple-A.

Blewett’s minor league deal was selected to Minnesota’s roster earlier this week, and the righty made a good accounting for himself by allowing one run over 4 2/3 relief innings, while striking out five of 19 batters faced and allowing no walks in his two appearances.  Today’s transaction simply seems to be about getting a fresh arm into the Twins pen, since Blewett tossed 36 pitches over 2 1/3 innings in yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the Tigers.

Blewett now has a 1.80 ERA over 25 big league innings for Minnesota over the last two seasons, though the strong bottom-line results haven’t earned him any kind of roster stability.  The Twins twice outrighted him off the 40-man roster in 2024, with Blewett both times clearing waivers and electing free agency, only to resign with the club on a new minors contract.  Assuming Blewett clears waivers again, the same scenario could play out this time around, though a team in need of some swingman help could consider putting in a claim.

The return to the big leagues and then to DFA limbo has made for quite the birthday week for Blewett, who turned 29 on Thursday.  Blewett is out of minor league options, so the Twins had no choice but to pursue the DFA/outright route in order to try and send him to Triple-A.  Blewett has worked only as a reliever over his 33 career MLB innings, but he has a lot of experience as a starter in the minors and during a brief stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2023.

Angels Place Ben Joyce On 15-Day Injured List

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The Angels placed right-hander Ben Joyce on the 15-day injured list Friday, prior to the club’s 14-3 loss to the Astros.  Joyce is dealing with inflammation in his throwing shoulder, and the IL placement is retroactive to April 9.  Righty Michael Darrell-Hicks was called up from Triple-A to take Joyce’s spot on the active roster.

Shoulder inflammation brought Joyce’s 2024 season to a premature end, as the reliever didn’t pitch after September 3.  Joyce posted a 2.08 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 58.9% grounder rate, and 9.9% walk rate over 34 2/3 innings in between his June call-up and that September 3 date, establishing himself as a force out of the Angels’ bullpen.  While Joyce had the high grounder rate and modest strikeout total of a pitch-to-contact type of hurler, he is best known for being one of the baseball’s hardest throwers, as Joyce averaged an absurd 102.1mph on his fastball last season.

Joyce has such extreme velocity that it registered as unusual when his fastball was humming at “only” 99.3mph during his last outing, but something seemed amiss when he allowed three runs on four hits over just a third of an inning on Tuesday against the Rays.  Joyce told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters that his shoulder was feeling fine during the game, and that he only started feeling sore while playing catch on Wednesday.

There isn’t yet any timeline for when the reliever might be able to return to action, though Joyce indicated that the IL placement was somewhat precautionary in nature.  He said initially, he “just kind of thought it was normal soreness, and ended up getting reevaluated and just a little more inflamed than we wanted it to be.  So [we’re] just trying to get ahead of it.”

The three-run meltdown against Tampa boosted Joyce’s ERA to 6.23 over 4 1/3 total innings this season, though he hadn’t allowed any earned runs in his four prior appearances.  The Angels have been using Joyce as a high-leverage fireman in front of closer Kenley Jansen, and so Joyce’s absence will essentially mean that everyone else in the Los Angeles bullpen might have to take a step up the depth chart.  Ryan Zeferjahn might be the favorite for the role out of default, as Zeferjahn is one of the few pitchers that has gotten off to a decent start within a tough couple of weeks for the Halos relief corps.

A Tough Call In Next Winter’s Rotation Class

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MLBTR will release our first Power Rankings of the upcoming free agent class in the next few days. Ordering starting pitchers is often the most challenging part of that process. Next winter's class has a few of those tricky calls -- perhaps none closer than Zac Gallen versus Michael King.

Gallen certainly has the longer track record as an above-average starting pitcher. The righty has started all 146 of his major league appearances. He has been consistently effective, working to a 4.30 ERA or better in all six years (not including this year's 5.28 mark over three starts). Gallen has only once allowed four earned runs per nine in a season. He has punched out at least a quarter of opposing hitters in each year. The result is a 3.33 earned run average with a near-27% strikeout rate in more than 800 career innings.

King has spent the majority of his big league career working out of the bullpen. The Yankees kept him in long relief for most of his first four seasons. It wasn't until the waning weeks of the 2023 season that they gave him a rotation spot, largely because of injuries elsewhere on the pitching staff. King shined in nine starts, was the centerpiece of San Diego's return for Juan Soto, and had a fantastic first full season as a starter.

Over 173 2/3 frames, he turned in a 2.95 ERA while striking out 27.7% of opposing hitters. He showed no signs of slowing down as he pushed well beyond his previous career-high workload. King managed a 2.15 ERA across 62 2/3 innings after the All-Star Break. He finished seventh in NL Cy Young balloting.

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Brandon Woodruff To Begin Rehab Stint; Aaron Civale Suffers Setback

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The Brewers provided mixed injury news on their rotation. Brandon Woodruff will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Nashville tomorrow, according to an announcement from the Sounds. In less encouraging news, the team informed reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy) that Aaron Civale is headed for further evaluation after a setback in his recovery from a left hamstring strain.

It’ll be Woodruff’s first regular season game action since September 2023. The two-time All-Star underwent surgery to fix a capsule tear in his shoulder during the ’23 postseason. Milwaukee declined to tender him an arbitration contract before bringing him back on a backloaded two-year deal. Woodruff made $2.5MM while rehabbing last season and is playing on a $5MM salary this year. He’ll collect a $10MM buyout on a $20MM mutual option and return to the open market next offseason.

The Brewers knew at the time that Woodruff would not be able to pitch in 2024. They took things slowly this spring, announcing before camp opened that he’d begin the season on the injured list. Woodruff only tossed one MLB inning during exhibition play. He has continued throwing and will take on a decent workload in his first appearance. Curt Hogg of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel relays that Woodruff will work around 65 pitches and/or four innings tomorrow. He’ll presumably need a few turns through the Triple-A rotation before the Brewers are comfortable reinstalling him into the MLB staff.

Milwaukee has needed to stitch the rotation together behind Freddy Peralta. They acquired Quinn Priester from the Red Sox and recalled Spring Training signee Jose Quintana for his team debut tonight. Rookie Chad Patrick has been pressed into rotation work. He has managed 11 innings of three-run ball across his first three big league appearances, albeit with an unexciting 10:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. It’s a similar story for swingman Tyler Alexander, who has surrendered four runs with 12 punchouts and seven walks over 12 2/3 frames.

Woodruff brings far greater upside than anyone else in the rotation aside from perhaps Peralta. He owns a 3.10 ERA with a near-29% strikeout rate across 680 1/3 career innings. It remains to be seen whether he can regain that effectiveness after a major shoulder procedure and 18-month layoff.

Civale opened the season in the rotation, but he landed on the IL after his first start. Nestor Cortes subsequently suffered a flexor strain that sent him to the injured list. Woodruff, Tobias Myers (who is on a rehab stint), DL Hall, Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser had all begun the season on the shelf. While details on the setback are sparse, it doesn’t seem Civale is on the verge of a return. He is playing on an $8MM salary and will reach free agency next offseason.

Cubs Sending Justin Steele For Second Opinion On Elbow Tendinitis

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The Cubs are sending Justin Steele for a second opinion on his elbow, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Alden González of ESPN and Maddie Lee of The Chicago Sun-Times). The southpaw landed on the 15-day injured list on Wednesday with elbow tendinitis, a surprising move that came two days after Steele fired seven shutout innings against Texas.

Steele told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers on Wednesday that he expected it to be a minimal 15-day stint. The Cubs sent him for an MRI on Thursday. Counsell did not specify the results of that imaging. To this point, there’s no indication it’s any more serious than the initial tendinitis diagnosis. It’s nevertheless of some concern any time a pitcher goes for multiple evaluations on an elbow problem.

Elbow tendinitis also sent Steele to the injured list for a couple weeks last September. Counsell indicated the recurring nature of the injury contributed to the decision to go for multiple opinions. “We want to make sure we know why it has happened again so Justin’s got all the information and then we can go from there,” the manager said.

Monday’s start was easily Steele’s best of the season. He’d allowed at least three runs in each of his first three appearances. Steele punched out eight against three hits and two walks against the Rangers. However, his fastball averaged a season-low 90.2 MPH in that start after sitting in the 91-92 range during his first three appearances. It clearly didn’t sap his effectiveness, but it was seemingly a sign that he wasn’t operating at full strength.

Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Ben Brown are operating as Chicago’s rotation. They haven’t named a probable starter for what would have been Steele’s spot agains the Dodgers on Sunday. A scheduled off day yesterday could allow them to turn back to Brown on standard rest and delay the need for a fifth starter into next week’s series in San Diego.

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