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Royals Release Hunter Renfroe

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The Royals officially released Hunter Renfroe yesterday, according to the MLB.com transaction log. This was the expected outcome after Kansas City designated the veteran outfielder for assignment last week.

K.C.’s surprising two-year free agent investment in Renfroe did not work. The Royals guaranteed him $13.5MM on a deal that also included an opt-out clause after the first season. Renfroe was coming off a replacement-level .233/.297/.416 showing between the Angels and Reds in 2023. The Royals hoped for a rebound, but his production further tanked in Kansas City.

Renfroe hit .229/.297/.392 with 15 homers over 120 games last year. He made the easy decision not to opt out. The Royals gave him another shot as the Opening Day right fielder. Renfroe batted .182/.241/.242 without a single homer across 108 trips to the plate. His organizational tenure concludes with a .219/.286/.362 slash line over 532 plate appearances.

The Royals will pay Renfroe the remainder of his $7.5MM salary. There’s a decent chance he’ll need to accept a minor league deal if he wants to find another landing spot. If Renfroe logs major league action anywhere else this year, his new team will only pay the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum. That would come off the Royals’ obligations.

Kansas City has swapped out both their season-opening corner outfielders. Left fielder MJ Melendez remains on the 40-man roster but was optioned last month. He’s hitting .215 while striking out nearly 28% of the time in Triple-A. Renfroe is now out of the organization entirely. Drew Waters is starting in left field, while they brought up 27-year-old rookie John Rave to get an opportunity in right field. Top prospect Jac Caglianone looms in Triple-A and could be up within a few weeks, but the outfield figures to remain the front office’s top priority as the trade deadline approaches.

Diamondbacks To Select Jeff Brigham

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The Diamondbacks are planning to select the contract of right-hander Jeff Brigham, per a report from John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports. Righty Kevin Ginkel will be optioned as the corresponding active roster move. Arizona technically has an open 40-man roster spot at present but is also going to sign Ildemaro Vargas, per an earlier report. They will therefore need to open one 40-man spot with the two planned additions.

Brigham, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. Since then, he has been putting up some intriguing numbers for the Triple-A Reno Aces, who play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. In 20 2/3 innings, he has a 5.23 earned run average, which is obviously not a great figure. However, his 37.2% strikeout rate is very impressive. His 10.5% walk rate is high but not drastically so. He allowed five home runs in that span, a rate of 25% per fly ball, which could have played a part in juicing the ERA.

The Diamondbacks are seemingly taking a chance that the home run rate could normalize in the majors, which could allow him to be a serviceable arm. He already has 117 1/3 innings of big league experience, mostly with the Marlins but he also spent a bit of time with the Mets. Overall, he has a 4.76 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate.

He will take the spot of Ginkel, who is having a nightmare season after spending the previous three campaigns as a key cog in the Arizona bullpen. From 2022 to 2024, he tossed 164 2/3 innings for the Snakes with a 2.95 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. He earned 10 saves and 29 holds in that time frame. Here in 2025, he started the season on the 15-day IL due to some shoulder inflammation. He was reinstated at the end of April and has since allowed 14 earned runs in 10 innings, giving him an unsightly 12.60 ERA.

He surely hasn’t been quite that bad, as his .444 batting average on balls in play and 41.7% strand rate are both far to the unfortunate side. His 28.8% strikeout rate and 44.8% ground ball rate are both actually slightly higher than last year. However, he hasn’t done himself favors with a 13.5% walk rate. Even accounting for some bad luck, ERA estimators like his 5.07 FIP suggest he hasn’t been super effective, though SIERA is far kinder with a 3.55 mark. His velocity is down a bit relative to last year but has been creeping up since he came off the IL.

The Snakes will give him a breather and try to get him back on track. Per Gambadoro, the Diamondbacks want him to work on his fastball command. How long that takes could potentially have impacts for Ginkel personally. He came into this year with four years and 33 days of service time. A full year in the big leagues would have got him to 5.033, but there’s now a chance he comes up short of the five-year mark if this turns into a lengthy optional assignment.

That would delay his path to free agency but it’s also possible he winds up as a non-tender candidate if he doesn’t get back on track. He’s making $2.425MM this year with the Snakes and would be due a raise via arbitration this winter, though the D’Backs would only be keen to do that if he has a strong second half.

Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images

Cubs Designate Brooks Kriske For Assignment

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The Cubs announced that they have signed left-hander Génesis Cabrera, a move that had been previously reported. In a corresponding move, right-hander Brooks Kriske has been designated for assignment.

Kriske, 31, was only just added to the roster less than a week ago. He made one appearance, tossing two scoreless innings against the Reds on Saturday. Unfortunately, the club decided to take a chance on Cabrera, which got Kriske bumped off the roster. He’ll head into DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Cubs could potentially take five days to gauge trade interest.

The righty signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason. Before getting called up, he tossed 18 2/3 innings over 13 Triple-A appearances, allowing 3.38 earned runs per nine. His 10.3% walk rate was a bit high but he had a huge strikeout rate of 35.9%.

That’s generally been his style in the minors. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has thrown 135 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.91 ERA, 35.6% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. Despite those big strikeout numbers on the farm, he hasn’t been given a lot of major league opportunities. Adding in this year’s appearance, he now has 23 2/3 major league innings under his belt with a 10.27 ERA. That’s a small sample size and most of the earned runs were allowed back in 2020 and 2021. He spent 2022 and part of 2023 in Japan, where he had a 2.31 ERA in 35 innings.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Miguel Castro Suffers Season-Ending Knee Injury

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White Sox right-hander Miguel Castro is out for the season, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN. The righty suffered a knee injury yesterday when he slipped on the first base bag while covering on a ground-ball to the right side. It’s unclear if he’ll require surgery or if the injury will impact his availability for next year’s Spring Training.

Castro’s season comes to a close after six appearances. The Sox acquired the veteran reliever in a trade that sent international bonus pool space to the Astros two weeks ago. Chicago hoped that Castro would pitch well enough in middle relief to be flipped for a lottery ticket prospect at the deadline. The 30-year-old righty surrendered five runs on as many hits and walks with four strikeouts over six innings. He’d been much better for Houston’s Triple-A club to begin the season. He carried a 2.29 ERA with 20 strikeouts and five saves over 19 2/3 minor league innings.

Chicago will place Castro on the 60-day injured list when they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster. This will very likely end his brief stint in the organization. Castro has well over six years of MLB service and will hit free agency at the start of the offseason. He’ll almost certainly be limited to minor league offers.

AJ Smith-Shawver Placed On 15-Day IL With Elbow Strain

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Between games of today’s doubleheader against the Phillies, the Braves placed right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain. Righty Michael Petersen has been recalled to take his place on the active roster.

Smith-Shawver started the first game the twin bill today but departed in the third inning. There was some initial speculation he had sustained a foot injury since he had been hit by a comebacker in the game, but it’s now clear that it’s a more ominous elbow injury. Per Mark Bowman of MLB.com, the righty felt a pop in his elbow and is now going back to Atlanta for testing. Those tests will reveal more information but manager Brian Snitker says that “it doesn’t look good.”

More concrete information will surely be forthcoming after Smith-Shawver visits with the medical experts but it seems fair to wonder about the worst-case situation in this scenario. The specter of a notable surgery is always looming when a pitcher’s elbow is in the spotlight and the omens seem particularly gloomy in this case. Even if Smith-Shawver can avoid the scalpel, a notable absence of some kind could still be a possibility.

Prior to this injury, Smith-Shawver seemed to be putting a bit of a breakout together. He came into this season with just 29 2/3 innings of major league experience. Before today’s truncated outing, he had added 41 2/3 innings over eight starts this year. He has allowed 3.67 earned runs per nine in those with a 22.7% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate. He seemed to be in the process of establishing himself as a bonafide big league starter but that will be put on hold now, potentially for an extended amount of time.

For the club, they will have to figure out how to fill that rotation spot. Reynaldo López is out due to arthroscopic shoulder surgery and is still a few months away from a potential return. Four spots are currently held by Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach and Grant Holmes.

Per Bowman, Bryce Elder is likely to come up and take over for Smith-Shawver. Elder has a 4.50 ERA in eight starts for Atlanta this year. They could also kick that decision down the road a bit. They have Sale going in tonight’s game, followed by Holmes, Schwellenbach and Strider in their weekend series against the Red Sox. They are off on Monday and could therefore go back to Sale on regular rest on Tuesday. That would mean Elder wouldn’t be needed until next weekend, though they could also call him up early next week and push everyone back a day.

Assuming Elder holds a rotation spot for a while, the club’s top depth options will likely now be Hurston Waldrep, Nathan Wiles and Davis Daniel. All three of them are on the 40-man roster and pitching in Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

Mariners Select Casey Lawrence, Designate Blake Hunt

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The Mariners have again selected Casey Lawrence onto the MLB roster. They optioned rookie righty Blas Castaño to Triple-A Tacoma while designating catcher Blake Hunt for assignment in corresponding moves.

This is already the fifth time this season that the Mariners have selected Lawrence’s contract. Each of the previous four was followed by a DFA within five days. One of those DFAs resulted in a waiver claim by Toronto, but Lawrence has otherwise cleared waivers. In each case, he either accepted a minor league assignment or re-signed with Seattle after briefly electing free agency. Lawrence also quickly returned to the M’s after being dropped by Toronto.

The 37-year-old is clearly content with the arrangement. He’s able to collect at least a day or two of MLB pay for each stint on the roster. Lawrence has provided multiple innings as a low-leverage relief option for skipper Dan Wilson. He has turned in a 4.08 ERA with seven strikeouts and one walk across 17 2/3 frames over six appearances. Castaño tossed three innings in mop-up work last night, so he’ll be unavailable for a few days. That led the Mariners to swap him out for Lawrence.

Seattle acquired Hunt from Baltimore in January. The righty-hitting catcher has fanned 29 times in 96 Triple-A plate appearances this season, hitting .231/.271/.407 in 25 games. Hunt has bounced between Seattle’s and Baltimore’s 40-man rosters but has yet to get into a major league game. He’s drawn praise for his power upside but has struggled to reach base against upper level pitching. Hunt is a .232/.284/.413 hitter in just shy of 500 career Triple-A plate appearances. He’ll be traded or, more likely, placed on waivers in the next few days.

Guardians Claim Matt Krook From A’s

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The Guardians have claimed reliever Matt Krook off waivers from the Athletics and optioned him to Triple-A Columbus, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com. The southpaw had been designated for assignment by the A’s earlier this week. Cleveland transferred righty Ben Lively to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Lively recently required Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.

Krook, 30, joined the A’s on an offseason minor league deal. The former fourth-rounder pitched well for their top affiliate in Las Vegas, turning in a 3.21 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 14 innings. Krook got grounders on more than 65% of the batted balls he allowed. He’s had a tantalizing combination of whiffs and ground-balls throughout his nine years in the minors. That’s been too often negated by well below-average command, as Krook has walked nearly 15% of his professional opponents.

The A’s selected his contract a couple weeks ago. Krook got into three games, allowing two runs over 3 1/3 frames. The A’s dropped him from the 40-man roster earlier in the week when they acquired Sean Newcomb in a deal with Boston. They tried to sneak Krook back through waivers, but the Guardians jumped in to add the lefty relief depth.

Krook is in his final option year, so the Guardians can keep him in Columbus for the rest of the season if he sticks on the 40-man. He doesn’t throw hard, averaging around 90 MPH on his sinker, but that hasn’t stopped him from racking up plenty of minor league strikeouts. Tim Herrin and long man Kolby Allard are the southpaws in Stephen Vogt’s bullpen. Erik Sabrowski should be back at some point this summer, but he’s been out all year with elbow inflammation.

Poll: Should The Rangers Shake Up The Lineup?

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The Rangers have had a rough go of it so far in the month of May. They’ve gone just 11-15 on the month entering play today, including an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the White Sox last week, and three of those 11 wins came at the expense of a hapless Rockies club that has still not yet won its tenth game of the season. That’s left the team three games under .500, four games back in the AL Wild Card race, and 4.5 games back of the Mariners in the AL West. Those struggles have come in spite of a rotation so dominant that a fully healthy and effective Jacob deGrom is arguably the #3 starter this year by the results.

To find the culprit of the Rangers’ struggles, one need look no further than the starting lineup. The club’s hitters have posted a collective .219/.281/.354 slash line this year with a wRC+ of 80 that’s better than only that of the Pirates and Rockies. Texas has the lowest on-base percentage in the majors and the fewest runs scored in the AL. Going position-by-position, they have been in the bottom half of the league in wRC+ at almost every position in the majors with below-average production everywhere except third base and left field. Those positions are salvaged by standout performances from Josh Jung and Wyatt Langford, but the rest of the lineup is faltering.

That’s not to say there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, however. Josh Smith remains an above average hitter overall on the year, and perhaps he can shake his current cold stretch (.233/.295/.337 in May) once he’s relieved of the defensive rigors of serving as the club’s everyday shortstop. Smith took that role up in the absence of Corey Seager, who has been his typical excellent self when healthy but has appeared in just 27 games this season due to injuries. Seager’s recent return and the likely impending return of Evan Carter from the injured list leaves the Rangers with some decisions to make about their lineup, as discussed recently by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Seager’s return yesterday (albeit as a DH) pushed Sam Haggerty out of the lineup, but that leaves no room for Carter unless the club is willing to pull the plug on outfielder Alejandro Osuna despite him having looked good in his first cup of coffee as a big leaguer. Once Carter returns, Grant suggests that it could mean a shift in playing time for second baseman Marcus Semien and/or right fielder Adolis Garcia. Both veterans were key pieces of the club’s 2023 World Series championship but struggled through below-average (99 wRC+ for Semien, 92 for Garcia) seasons last year. 2025 has been far worse for both hitters, with Semien slashing just .173/.260/.224 (42 wRC+) on the year while Garcia has posted a lackluster .208/.256/.371 (74 wRC+) line.

The pair’s expected numbers are better than their current production, leaving the door cracked open to optimism for a rebound, but even those numbers would be good for merely average offensive production. As things stand, neither of those performances are acceptable for a big league regular. With the first two months of the season in the books and other hitters starting to get healthy, the leash for both veterans may be shortening. It’s hard to imagine the Rangers cutting either player (particularly with three years and $72MM left on Semien’s deal after 2025), but some sort of change appears to be necessary.

On paper, using lefty hitters on the club like Smith and Osuna as platoon partners for the righty-swinging Semien and Garcia could make some sense. A look under the hood reveals that may not be as helpful as it might seem, however; Garcia is actually roughly average (99 wRC+) against right-handed pitching this year but has gone just 7-for-48 with one walk and one double against southpaws. Semien, meanwhile, is hitting lefties better than righties but is striking out at a 30.8% clip against southpaws with a 51 wRC+. Whatever advantage he has against opposite-handed pitching is more of a commentary on his struggles against fellow righties than a sign of actual success.

If neither player makes sense as a candidate for a platoon role, then perhaps the Rangers’ best option would simply be to decrease the playing time of both hitters slightly. A reduction in playing time could be tough to stomach for the veterans, particularly in the case of an iron man like Semien who last played less than 159 games in a full season back in 2017, but it seems clear that something needs to change for the Rangers moving forward. The club could also consider benching either one for the time being to offer a physical breather and mental reset, but Semien’s solid defense at second base would be missed and, as previously mentioned, Garcia has performed decently enough at least against right-handed pitching.

How would MLBTR readers handle the situation? Would you fully bench one of the two struggling veterans, continue sticking with them as regulars in the lineup, or try to work out a timeshare between all of the Rangers’ bats? Have your say in the poll below:

Brewers Outright Joel Payamps

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Right-hander Joel Payamps passed through outright waivers unclaimed and has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville after his recent DFA, the Brewers announced Thursday. Payamps has enough service time to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require surrendering the rest of this year’s $2.995MM guarantee. As such, he’s overwhelmingly likely to accept the assignment and hope to pitch his way back to Milwaukee in short order.

Prior to the season, few would’ve predicted Payamps would be in a situation like this. The 31-year-old had a solid 2022 season and broke out as a quality, high-leverage reliever with the Brewers in 2023-24. Milwaukee acquired Payamps alongside William Contreras in the heist of a three-team trade sending Esteury Ruiz to the A’s and Sean Murphy to the Braves.

Contreras was the clear headliner there, but Payamps’ contributions in Milwaukee ought not to be overlooked. In his first two full seasons as a Brewer, he pitched 129 2/3 innings with a crisp 2.78 ERA, a 26.1% strikeout rate and a 6.7% walk rate. The right-hander picked up 48 holds and saved nine games along the way as well.

The 2025 season has been a struggle for Payamps. There’s no getting around that issue. He’s pitched 18 1/3 innings and been hammered for 17 runs (8.35 ERA) on 25 hits (three homers) and six walks against just 16 strikeouts. There’s been no velocity dip or radical change to his pitch selection, but Payamps is generating far fewer chases off the plate, far fewer whiffs and allowing a good bit more contact.

Any team could’ve claimed Payamps, who’s controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration, but doing so would’ve meant taking on the remaining $1.98MM in guaranteed money on his contract. Most clubs are pretty stingy about adding guaranteed money via waivers during the season, as they tend to only have a small amount of financial flexibility with regard to the trade deadline (relative to their typical slate of offseason resources, anyhow).

Were Payamps to reject his outright and be available on a minor league deal with a minimal base, he’d surely have a long line of interested teams vying for the right to take a flier on that track record. Instead, his salary pushed him through waivers. He’ll now head to Nashville and look to get back on track. Passing Payamps through waivers like this was the only way Milwaukee could send him to Nashville, since he’s out of minor league options. If he can start missing bats more in line with his past levels, he could return at any point this season.

Payamps is still under club control through 2026, at least. If he spends fewer than 82 more days on the big league roster but is selected back to the majors prior to season’s end, he’d fall shy of five years of service and see his path to free agency pushed back another year. That’s a moot point if he doesn’t pitch well enough to garner another big league look, though, and that’s where his focus will rest for the time being.

Diamondbacks To Option Jordan Lawlar, Sign Ildemaro Vargas

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The Diamondbacks are optioning infielder Jordan Lawlar to Triple-A Reno, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix. Infielder Ildemaro Vargas will be taking Lawlar’s roster spot. Vargas triggered an opt-out from his minor league deal and was released earlier this week. Gambadoro adds that Vargas will be re-signed to a major league deal. Arizona has an open 40-man roster spot at the moment, though it will be full once Vargas is officially added.

Lawlar, 22, earned a promotion to the majors earlier this month. One of the top prospects in the league, he had a monster line of .336/.413/.579 in Triple-A and it was getting harder and harder for the club to justify keeping him in Reno. However, they didn’t really have a great way to get him into the big league lineup. His primary position is shortstop, though he’s also spent some time at second and third base.

The Diamondbacks have Geraldo Perdomo at short, Eugenio Suárez at third and Ketel Marte at second. Pavin Smith and Randal Grichuk usually platoon in the designated hitter spot. They’re all performing well this year, to varying degrees. Nonetheless, manager Torey Lovullo felt there was a path to get Lawlar into the lineup about four times per week while others rested.

That hasn’t really come to pass. Lawlar was called up on May 12th and has subsequently appeared in eight games. Only six of those were starts. He entered one other game as a pinch hitter and another as a pinch runner. He hasn’t performed well in that sporadic playing time. In 22 plate appearances, he has three walks but nine strikeouts and no hits. Optioning him down therefore makes sense, as there’s not much use in having him scuffle in a part-time role. It’s far better for his long-term outlook to play regularly as he continues his development.

An injury to one of the current infielders would likely result in him making a quick return to the majors. His long-term path to playing time looks stronger since Suárez and Grichuk are impending free agents. With the Diamondbacks five games out of a playoff spot, it’s possible they end up traded this summer, which could get Lawlar another look in the big leagues. First baseman Josh Naylor is also an impending free agent, which could allow Smith to take over that spot in the near future.

For now, Vargas is a more logical bench infielder. A 33-year-old veteran, he has 422 big league games under his belt, having bounced around the field to every position except catcher and center field. He also hits from both sides of the plate. His .246/.289/.354 career batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 75, which is below average production in a vacuum but generally around what a club would expect from a versatile bench piece. He started this year with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal but, as mentioned, opted out a few days ago. Before triggering that opt-out, he hit .261/.330/.397 over 49 games for Reno.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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