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Diamondbacks To Promote Jordan Lawlar

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The Diamondbacks are poised to recall top prospect Jordan Lawlar, according to a report from Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Lawlar is already on the club’s 40-man roster, so only an active roster move will be necessary to promote the former No. 6 overall pick.

The promotion is a long time coming for Lawlar, who actually made his big league debut back in 2023 with a 14-game cup of coffee in late September. He hit just .129/.206/.129 in that brief stint in the majors, though the Diamondbacks nonetheless had enough belief in their top prospect to carry him on their postseason roster that year as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He got only two plate appearances during that postseason run, although he did draw a walk and score a run against the Rangers in the World Series.

It seemed like a given that Lawlar would play a big role in the Diamondbacks’ 2024 plans after his debut in 2023, but things unfortunately didn’t quite work out that way as he was limited to just 23 games last year by thumb surgery and a hamstring strain. The youngster hit an astounding .367/.439/.592 in the brief period he was healthy enough to play at the Triple-A level last year, but there simply wasn’t enough time left in the calendar for Lawlar to get a promotion to the big leagues by the time he was back in game shape after those injuries.

Headed into 2025, Lawlar was once again held back from joining the big league roster. That’s in part due to the presence of clear everyday players at every position he plays (Ketel Marte at second base, Eugenio Suarez at third base, and Geraldo Perdomo at shortstop), but also an acknowledgment of Lawlar’s lost season in 2024 and the developmental hurdles associated with that.

After Lawlar lost nearly an entire year of reps, Arizona brass appeared to be concerned about the impact a part-time role in the majors would have on his development. Lawlar has forced the issue across 37 games at Triple-A so far, however, with a .336/.419/.579 slash line in 179 plate appearances. Lawlar’s knocking on the door has evidently become impossible to ignore, and the Diamondbacks will now need a find a way to work all four of those infielders, first baseman Josh Naylor, and DH Pavin Smith into the lineup on a regular basis.

Piecoro notes that manager Torey Lovullo said he believes that if Lawlar could get into four games per week while mixing and matching positions, then that would be enough playing time for him to stay fresh and avoid falling behind on his development.

Removing any of Suarez (117 wRC+), Marte, (154 wRC+), Smith (175 wRC+), Naylor (125 wRC+), or Perdomo (138 wRC+) from the lineup for even a day is a not insignificant hit to the Diamondbacks’ offense, though of course Lawlar’s own contributions as a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport for a fourth consecutive season could help to balance out those losses. Smith typically only plays against right-handed pitching, so Lawlar could slide into the DH slot against lefties fairly seamlessly. The other four are all everyday players, but theoretically each could sit just once a week with Smith covering first base when Naylor is sitting so Lawlar can DH and Lawlar filling in around the rest of the infield.

An arrangement along those lines would likely keep veteran players like Suarez and Marte fresher, allow each of the club’s regulars to stay in the lineup as much as possible, and get Lawlar plenty of exposure to big league pitching as he works to establish himself at the big league level. Speculatively speaking, if Lawlar takes to the majors well, the D-backs could look into moving someone like Suarez (a pending free agent after this season) at the trade deadline to open up a more regular role for the youngster while bolstering a bullpen that has lost both A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez to the injured list. Injuries can always open up other avenues to at-bats.

For now the 21-20 Diamondbacks need to dig themselves out of fourth place in the NL West and put themselves ahead of teams like the Cardinals and Phillies in the NL Wild Card race. They’ll hope that Lawlar, still just 22, can provide a spark. He’s hit at an above-average clip at every level of the minors while showing off effective defense all around the infield. He’s also an excellent baserunner, having swiped 39 bags in 2022 and 36 the following year. This season, he’s already gone 13-for-14 on the bases in just 37 games. Lawlar is the sort of dynamic, all-around player who can help virtually any team, even one that already boasts a top-seven offense in the majors like the Diamondbacks.

Rockies Fire Bud Black

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Forty games into his ninth season as the Rockies’ manager, Bud Black has been fired.  The Rox announced today that Black and longtime bench coach Mike Redmond have been dismissed in the wake of the team’s nightmarish start to the 2025 season.  Warren Schaeffer (previously the club’s third base coach) will serve as interim manager for the remainder of the season, and hitting coach and ex-manager Clint Hurdle will become the interim bench coach.

“Our play so far this season, especially coming off the last two seasons, has been unacceptable.  Our fans deserve better, and we are capable of better,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said in an official press release.  “While we all share responsibility in how this season has played out, these changes are necessary.  We will use the remainder of 2025 to improve where we can on the field and to evaluate all areas of our operation so we can properly turn the page into the next chapter of Rockies Baseball.  I want to thank Bud Black and Mike Redmond for their contributions to the organization across their eight years here.  I appreciate their hard work and dedication and wish them nothing but the best going forward.”

In other coaching changes, assistant hitting coach Andy Gonzalez will take over as the new third base coach, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports.  Jordan Pacheco and Nic Wilson will become the Rockies’ new hitting coaches.

Colorado’s 9-3 victory over the Padres today improved the Rockies’ record to a miserable 7-33, putting the Rox on pace to challenge the all-time loss record set by the White Sox just a year ago.  Against this backdrop, it isn’t surprising to see some changes in the dugout, even for an organization that has long prized loyalty.  The Rockies made another prominent coaching change in mid-April, when Hurdle went from special assistant to the GM to his hitting coach role after Hensley Meulens was fired.

The 2025 campaign was Black’s 18th as a big league manager, with nine seasons apiece with the Padres (from 2007-15) and Rockies (2017-today).  Black has winning records in only four of those seasons, as his 1193-1403 career record is broken down as a 649-713 record in San Diego and a 544-690 mark in Colorado.  While the numbers aren’t in Black’s favor, his overall effectiveness as a manager is still somewhat hard to gauge.  The Padres were in a rebuilding phase for portions of Black’s tenure, and the Rockies’ issues are so myriad that it is hard to single out Black as a particular reason for the club’s extreme struggles.

Black’s arrival in Denver marked the Rockies’ last successful stretch, as the club reached the postseason as a wild card in his first two seasons as the skipper (and Black won NL Manager of the Year honors in 2017).  Since then, however, the Rox have reeled off six straight losing seasons, and the 2025 season already seems like the seventh in that increasingly dismal stretch of baseball.  Colorado is already coming off the two worst seasons in franchise history, after losing 103 games in 2023 and 101 games last year.

There was some speculation that Black could be let go following last season, yet the Rockies announced in October that the skipper had been signed to a one-year extension covering 2025.  Black’s contract situation was somewhat unique, as it was believed that Black was essentially a rolling year-to-year deal (as described by reporter Nick Groke), yet the fact that the Rockies waited until October to finalize Black’s return was perhaps a sign of some discontent.  Black’s previous two extensions had been announced in March 2022 and March 2023, giving the manager plenty of extra security and removing any lame-duck perception.

It may be that Monfort genuinely believed Black could still get things turned around, though things have gone so haywire so early that ownership had no choice but to make some kind of change.  Ironically, GM Bill Schmidt just gave Black a vote of confidence yesterday in an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, just hours before the Rockies perhaps hit rock bottom in a 21-0 loss to San Diego.

At the time, Schmidt said “I don’t think we are” at the point of requiring a managerial change.  “I think our guys are still playing hard, and that’s what I look at,” Schmidt explained.  “Guys are working hard every day, they come with energy, for the most part….Guys still believe in what we are doing and where we are headed.  We are all frustrated.”

Of course, player effort doesn’t overcome a marked lack of talent on the roster.  Colorado’s struggles have been exacerbated by lack of action from the front office, as the Rockies haven’t done much to either clearly upgrade the team, or to go in the other direction of blowing things up for a full rebuild.  Monfort has often been accused of being both too optimistic about his team’s potential and too insular in his hiring practices, which has left the Rockies seemingly lagging behind the rest of the league not just on the field, but also in terms of analytics, scouting, player development, and other front office practices.

Since Monfort’s statement painted 2025 as an evaluation year, it could be that the Rockies’ brutal start has finally inspired a broader change of direction at Coors Field.  What this might mean for Schmidt (a longtime staffer who became interim GM in 2021 and then the full-time GM after that season) remains to be seen, or if the Rox will perhaps explore a fire sale at the trade deadline.

Schaeffer has been a member of Colorado’s organization dating back to his playing days, as he was a 38th-round draft pick in 2007 and spent his entire six-year playing career in the Rockies’ farm system.  After retiring from the field, he turned to coaching and managed three different Rockies affiliates from 2015-22, and Schaeffer then became the big league third base coach prior to the 2023 season.

While first-time MLB managers are rarely stepping into an ideal situation, the 40-year-old Schaeffer faces a tall order in trying to salvage anything from the 2025 Rockies’ season.  At this point, perhaps just avoiding a record number of losses would count as a minor triumph, even if another 100-loss season seems inevitable.

Schaeffer will have an experienced voice to help him in Hurdle, who managed the Rockies from 2002-09 and led the franchise to its only World Series appearance in 2007.  Hurdle also managed the Pirates from 2011-19 before retiring, and then returning to baseball in his special assistant role during the 2021-22 offseason.

Redmond and Black were hired in the same offseason, so Redmond had been Black’s chief lieutenant throughout the manager’s entire tenure in Denver.  A former 13-year veteran of the big leagues, Redmond is perhaps best known for his own former managerial stint with the Marlins over the 2013-15 seasons.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy – Imagn Images

Nationals Notes: Susana, Cavalli, Law

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Top pitching prospect Jarlin Susana has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 UCL sprain, and will be shut down from throwing for the next two weeks.  Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman) that the team will then evaluate Susana’s next steps at that time, but for now, Martinez described the injury as a “best-case scenario” given the initial concerns over Susana’s elbow.

The right-hander is far from out of the woods yet, as he’ll still be facing a significant absence even if he avoids surgery and doesn’t have any further arm discomfort.  As Zuckerman notes, if Susana’s recovery doesn’t take and ends up needing a surgery anyway, this early hopeful diagnosis could end up costing Susana some time and only delay his time on the sidelines.

Acquired as part of the blockbuster Juan Soto trade with the Padres in 2022, Susana was a consensus pick on preseason top-100 lists, topping out at 19th overall on Fangraphs’ ranking of the game’s best prospects.  Other evaluators like ESPN (53th), Baseball America (67th), and MLB Pipeline (79th) were a little less bullish, but the bottom line is that the fourth-year pro has plenty of potential.

Advancing to the Double-A level for the first time this season, Susana has a 4.15 ERA and a 31.1% strikeout rate in 26 innings in Harrisburg, though his walk rate has swelled to 16.4%.  Control problems have long been the biggest issue facing Susana, who is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the minors.  His plus-plus fastball sits at or above the 100mph threshold, and Susana also has an excellent slider as a secondary offering.  While Susana has a promising future as a starter, he might also project as a future closer given the one-two punch of his fastball/slider combo.

Speaking of injured Nationals pitchers, Cade Cavalli was officially activated off the 15-day injured list today and optioned to Triple-A.  Cavalli underwent a Tommy John surgery in March 2023 and ran into a setback in the form of dead arm syndrome during his rehab process last year.  Cavalli pitched 8 1/3 minor league innings over three appearances in the minors in 2024, and he has a 5.27 ERA over 13 2/3 innings (across three different minor league levels) this season during another rehab assignment.

Washington put Cavalli on the big league IL to begin the season, so as Zuckerman observes, officially ending that IL stint is at least a good sign that Cavalli’s health problems at behind him.  He can now continue to pitch in the minors outside of the limits of a rehab assignment, though it will still be a while before Cavalli builds up enough arm strength to make a return to the Nationals’ rotation a possibility.

Cavalli was the 22nd overall pick of the 2020 draft, and was also top-100 prospect before the TJ surgery interrupted his career.  The right-hander did get a cup of coffee in the majors, as Cavalli’s MLB resume consists of a single start (4 1/3 innings) in August 2022.

Derek Law also started the season on the 15-day IL due to forearm inflammation, and Zuckerman reports that Law is set to throw off a mound this week for the first time since Spring Training.  A right flexor strain put Law on the IL late in the 2024 season, and some continued discomfort from that injury lingered throughout the offseason, and kept Law from pitching throughout almost all of the Nationals’ spring camp.  Initially considered to be a relatively precautionary IL placement, Law’s forearm problem has now cost him a quarter of the season, and it seems like he’ll miss at least the rest of May since he’ll need plenty of time to ramp up.

Marcus Stroman Has Setback In Rehab From Knee Inflammation

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The Yankees have temporarily shut down Marcus Stroman after the right-hander reported continued knee soreness following a live batting practice session on Friday.  Manager Aaron Boone told the Associated Press and other media that Stroman felt some “discomfort” in his bothersome left knee, and despite “a lot of treatments on it and stuff, it just can’t kind of get over that final hump to really allow him to get to that next level on the mound.”

Monday will mark a full month since Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, and Boone suggested that the injury existed well before the IL placement, contributing to Stroman’s 11.57 ERA over his first three starts of the season.  Stroman received a cortisone shot to deal with the swelling and scans didn’t reveal any structural damage, yet the knee still isn’t showing much progress all these weeks later.  Given this latest development, Boone didn’t have a timeline in place for when Stroman might resume throwing, let alone when the right-hander might be back in New York’s rotation.

After a month on the IL and still apparently weeks to go before returning, Stroman may already be out of time in terms of vesting his player option for the 2026 season.  Stroman’s two-year, $37MM deal from the 2023-24 offseason carried a vesting clause that would allow Stroman an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitched at least 140 innings in 2025.

Stroman tossed 154 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball last season, and his relative durability over his career made that 140-inning threshold seem like quite a reasonable possibility….that is, if he were still a starting pitcher.  The Yankees explored trading Stroman this past winter with an eye towards opening up payroll space, and because at the time, Stroman wasn’t projected as one of the team’s top five rotation candidates.  Stroman was quite blunt about his intent on remaining in the rotation, and as it turned out, Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery and Luis Gil’s long-term lat strain suddenly opened up two spots in the starting five.

Max Fried has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season and Carlos Rodon has been solid, but Will Warren, Clarke Schmidt (who also started the season on the IL), and Carlos Carrasco (who was outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier this week) have all struggled to varying degrees.  Swingman Ryan Yarbrough got the start today and pitched well in the Yankees’ 12-2 rout of the Athletics, and Yarbrough might be the top candidate to step in for Carrasco as the fifth starter.

Gil started his throwing progression a couple of weeks ago, and is expected to be out until June or July.  Assuming Stroman is also back before Gil, that will give the Yankees some time to evaluate their rotation prior to the July 31 trade deadline, though it would seem like the club will surely be in the market for at least one more arm or two.

Latest On Blake Snell

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Blake Snell is set to meet with Dodgers team doctors on Monday as the parties try to determine the next step in his recovery from left shoulder soreness.  Snell’s shoulder is still bothering him, to the point that plans to resume playing catch earlier this week were put on hold until Snell received a check-up from the medical staff.

Snell has been on the 15-day injured list since April 3, and tests haven’t revealed any structural damage within his throwing shoulder.  He did start throwing in mid-April and had one bullpen session, but continued discomfort in his shoulder scrapped plans for another pen session on April 23.  MLB.com’s Sonja Chen writes that Snell has received an injection in his shoulder since April 23, though the treatment didn’t appear to do much to solve the issue.

More will be known about Snell’s status once the check-up actually takes place tomorrow, though it can’t be considered a good sign that the two-time Cy Young Award winner has now gone close to three weeks without throwing, and what was initially thought to be a relatively minor shoulder issue has now cost Snell an increasingly big chunk of the 2025 season.

Injuries have long been a subplot of Snell’s career, yet when healthy, Snell has looked like one of the better pitchers in the sport over the last decade.  The Dodgers were encouraged enough by this upside to sign Snell to a five-year, $182MM free agent deal this past winter, even though a variety of injuries in the first half of the 2024 season limited him to 104 innings with the Giants last year.

Given this track record, nobody would be surprised if Snell again looks like an ace whenever he returns to the L.A. mound.  The fact that Snell hit the IL after just two starts in Dodger Blue is certainly ominous, however, and those concerns won’t dissipate unless Snell gets some good news in tomorrow’s check-up, or (more directly) when he is actually on a clear track to a return to action.

Tyler Glasnow is also set to meet with team doctors tomorrow, though this appears to be something of a final step before the right-hander gets the green light to start a formal rehab process.  Glasnow went on the 15-day IL on April 28 due to his own case of shoulder inflammation, and that placement was soon followed by news of a 10-14 day shutdown.  That shutdown period is now complete, as manager Dave Roberts told Chen and other reporters that Glasnow is pain-free and started playing catch this weekend.

Assuming tomorrow’s check-up goes well, it will still be a while before Glasnow is back off the IL, as he’ll need time (and probably at least one minor league rehab start) to fully rebuild his arm strength.  But especially given the uncertainty surrounding Snell, Glasnow’s return to at least light throwing is a good sign.

Snell and Glasnow are two of a whopping 13 pitchers on the Dodgers’ seemingly ever-crowded injured list, and Shohei Ohtani could technically be considered the 14th given how Ohtani hasn’t pitched since undergoing a UCL-related surgery in September 2023.  However, a major name is set to be activated next weekend, as Clayton Kershaw threw what is expected to be his final minor league rehab outing today.

Kershaw tossed 57 pitches over four innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City in today’s start, which was the fourth outing of his rehab stint.  Kershaw underwent surgeries on his left plantar plate and a torn left meniscus last November, and began the season on the 60-day injured list as part of that recovery process.  Because the Dodgers’ season began earlier than usual due to their series in Tokyo with the Cubs, May 17 represents the first day that Kershaw is eligible to be activated off the 60-day IL.  Whether Kershaw is activated on the exact day or the next, the future Hall-of-Famer will make his 2025 debut during next weekend’s series against the Angels.

Once Kershaw is back, Los Angeles will be back up to a five-man rotation that also includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin, and Dustin May.  Since Yamamoto and Sasaki are on once-a-week pitching schedules to emulate their usage in Japan, the Dodgers should still deploy an unofficial six-man staff to make up for those extra starts, with the likes of Landon Knack, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski, or others stepping into spot duty.

Cubs Sign Tommy Romero To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have signed right-hander Tommy Romero to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Romero’s MLB.com player page.

Romero, 27, was a 15th-round pick by the Mariners back in 2017. He was traded to the Rays shortly thereafter as part of the Alex Colome deal back in 2018 and spent years in the Rays organization before finally making his big league debut in 2022. Unfortunately for Romero, that debut did not go especially well as he was torched to the tune of a 7.71 ERA in 4 2/3 innings for Tampa. He was designated for assignment not long after, and while he was plucked off waivers by the Nationals he fared even more poorly in D.C. with eight runs (six earned) allowed in just 3 2/3 frames. The Nationals kept him on the 40-man roster through the remainder of the 2022 season but non-tendered him that November.

That wasn’t the end of Romero’s time with the organization, however, as they re-signed him to a minor league deal just a few short months later. He pitched as a swingman for the Nationals at the Triple-A level in 2023, but did so with lackluster results as he posted a 5.44 ERA with an untenable 15.2% walk rate. Romero caught on with the Giants last year and pitched much more effectively there, however. In 72 2/3 innings for the club’s Sacramento affiliate, Romero posted a 3.14 ERA with a 22.1% strikeout rate against a 12.4% walk rate. Those numbers are solid enough on paper but become all the more impressive when you consider Romero was pitching in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment. That season added to an overall strong body of work for Romero at the minor league level; he has a career 3.08 ERA in the minors, and 2023 was his only season where he posted a figure higher than 3.24 at any level.

Despite that generally strong track record and a solid platform season, Romero did not return to affiliated ball for the start of the 2025 campaign. Instead, he headed for the Mexican League and pitched for the Guerreros de Oaxaca, though he was lit up for a 7.27 ERA across two starts with them. After that brief sojourn to the south, Romero is back in affiliated ball with the Cubs and could theoretically be part of the club’s starting depth going forward. Expecting a minor league journeyman to replace the production of injured front-end arms Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga would be foolish, but the club has also lost depth options like Javier Assad and Brandon Birdsell to the injured list this year who Romero could more plausibly fill in for. What’s more, top prospect Cade Horton and veteran starter Chris Flexen were both recently promoted to the major leagues, creating vacancies in the club’s Triple-A rotation.

Perhaps one of those vacancies will be filled by Romero, who could certainly pitch his way into an opportunity with Chicago if enough injuries crop up. Currently, the club’s rotation options on the big league roster are Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Ben Brown, Colin Rea, Horton, and Flexen. It’s a group that features a number of veteran arms with lengthy injury histories, as well as two young pitchers who figure to have their innings managed after missing most of last season. That creates plenty of room for depth arms to get play at the big league level for the Cubs, although options like Jordan Wicks and Connor Noland will likely land ahead of Romero on the club’s depth chart.

Orioles Activate Zach Eflin

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The Orioles have activated right-hander Zach Eflin from the injured list ahead of his start against the Angels this afternoon, per a team announcement. Right-hander Colin Selby was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Eflin on the active roster. In an additional move, southpaw Trevor Rogers was activated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A.

Eflin, 31, went on the shelf just over a month ago with what was described at the time as a “low-grade” lat strain. The right-hander has been a revelation for the Orioles ever since he was acquried from the Rays ahead of last year’s trade deadline. He pitched to a 2.60 ERA in nine starts down the stretch last year, and his first three starts of 2025 saw him post a 3.00 ERA despite an unusually small 11.8% strikeout rate. The Orioles were 5-6 after Eflin’s last start with the club, but since losing him from the front of their rotation the wheels have come off. The club has posted a brutal 9-18 record since then, however, and much of those struggles have been attributable to lackluster performances in the rotation.

Since the day Eflin went on the shelf, Baltimore has the worst rotation in baseball by FIP (6.10), and the third-worst by ERA (5.97). Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched quite well with a 2.72 ERA despite his 4.61 FIP and 14.2% strikeout rate, but that doesn’t appear to be particularly sustainable and the rest of the rotation has ERAs north of 5.00 across the board. Perhaps adding Eflin to the rotation ahead of Sugano can help stabilize things, particularly if he rediscovers the bat-missing abilities he flashed when he struck out 21.0% of opponents down the stretch last year. Even so, more reinforcements appear to be necessary if the Orioles are going to have a serious chance of getting back into the playoff picture.

One other potential rotation option was also activated from the IL today alongside Eflin: Rogers. Acquired from the Marlins in exchange for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby at last year’s trade deadline, Rogers struggled badly in four starts for the Orioles before being optioned to Triple-A late last year. He could have been in the mix for a rotation job this spring had he not suffered a kneecap subluxation in January that slowed his start of the season. He’s been ramping back up ever since, and is finally healthy enough to be activated from the shelf. With that being said, he’s currently set to act as Triple-A depth for the club rather than come up and pitch in the majors immediately. Perhaps that’s a sensible decision, seeing as he’s struggled to a 7.50 ERA across four rehab starts this year.

Making room for Eflin on the active roster is Selby, who made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2023. He struggled to a 9.00 ERA in 24 innings of work, and since then has bounced between the Royals and Orioles organizations with just 10 2/3 frames in the majors total over the past two years. Most recently, he’s logged 3 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball for Baltimore this year. He’ll head to Triple-A as a potential depth option for the birds going forward.

Jose Altuve Exits Due To Hamstring Tightness

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May 11: Altuve is not in the Astros’ lineup today, but manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) this morning that the veteran came in today feeling better and that he could be back in the lineup in a day or two.

May 10: Astros veteran Jose Altuve began today’s game against the Reds at second base, but was pinch hit for by Brendan Rodgers in the third inning. Houston later announced that he had departed the game with what they termed “tightness” in his right hamstring.

Further information about Altuve’s status will likely be available after the game, including whether the issue is severe enough that the 35-year-old will require a trip to the injured list. Altuve has gone on the shelf due to hamstring problems twice in his career, once in 2019 and once in 2022, though both of those instances were due to strains of his left hamstring. That he doesn’t have a substantial history of hamstring issues on his right side provides some reason for optimism, but it should still be expected that the Astros will at least send Altuve for an MRI to determine the severity of the issue. Even mild hamstring strains can take a few weeks to recover, so it would hardly be a surprise if the club ended up deciding to place Altuve on the 10-day injured list.

Sensible as that decision may be, it would be difficult for the Astros to replace Altuve. The nine-time All-Star hasn’t looked like himself at the plate this year, hitting just .259/.304/.374 with a below average 93 wRC+ and what would be the highest strikeout rate of his career in a 162-game season, but Houston’s depth from which to replace Altuve is the lineup is minimal at best. Rodgers and Mauricio Dubon would surely be the club’s choices to handle duties at the keystone, but both have hit even less than Altuve to this point in the calendar. Second base is no longer Altuve’s primary position, however, after he moved to left field during Spring Training.

With Yordan Alvarez already on the injured list at present, the club’s outfield and DH mix would be paper thin if Altuve were to be removed from the mix. Jake Meyers is playing every day in center field, but the outfield corners would be patrolled by some combination of Cam Smith (95 wRC+), Chas McCormick (90 wRC+), and Zach Dezenzo. Dezenzo has mostly looked good (117 wRC+) in 20 games with the Astros this year, though his 29.5% strikeout rate is high enough to raise alarm bells. Perhaps Yainer Diaz can help fill in at DH until Alvarez returns from the shelf with Victor Caratini joining the lineup behind the plate, but that does little to solve the lackluster production from the outfield corners.

Even with Altuve in the mix, the Astros’ production in left field this year is the third weakest in all of baseball. Removing Altuve from the mix would only serve to weaken that production, and the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster is Kenedy Corona, who sports a lackluster 67 wRC+ at the Triple-A level this year. Barring an external addition or the surprise promotion of a prospect like Jacob Melton, an injury for Altuve would likely mean even rougher production in the outfield for an Astros club that has already fallen to third place in the AL West with a pedestrian 19-18 record.

Rockies Select Ryan Rolison, Transfer Kris Bryant To 60-Day IL

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The Rockies announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Ryan Rolison. Kris Bryant was transferred to the 60-day to make room for Rolison on the 40-man roster after he recently underwent an ablation procedure on his back. Colorado also announced that righty Anthony Molina has been recalled from Triple-A, while righties Bradley Blalock and Juan Mejia were optioned to Triple-A to make room for Rolison and Molina on the active roster.

Rolison, 27, was the Rockies’ first-round pick back in 2018 but has yet to make his major league debut. The southpaw’s career has been thrown off track by plenty of missed time. He missed the entire 2020 season due to the cancelled minor league season, missed multiple months in 2021 due to an appendectomy, and lost his entire 2022 campaign due to shoulder injuries. He returned in 2023 but once again battled shoulder problems, leaving him to make just four starts that season. Since then, he’s mostly pitched out of the bullpen for the Rockies, with a 4.67 ERA in 34 appearances at the Triple-A level over the past two years. That includes a solid 3.72 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate this year, however. With Rolison now finally in a groove after years of injury-marred campaigns, it seems the Rockies are going to take the opportunity to get their former first-round talent into a big league game for the first time in his career.

Moving off the 40-man roster to make room for Rolison is Bryant. It’s hardly a surprise to see the 33-year-old transferred to the 60-day IL given the seriousness of the procedure he underwent this past week to try and alleviate the chronic back pain stemming from his chronic lumbar degenerative disc disease. Ablation destroys the nerves in an area causing pain in an effort to eliminate pain signals from that area. As Bryant told reporters (including Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball Media) yesterday, he won’t resume baseball activities for a “couple weeks” before beginning to ramp up as is feasible in terms of pain tolerance. That leaves him with no concrete timetable for his return, but he did make clear he hopes to return to the field during the 2025 season.

Regardless of when Bryant ultimately ends up returning, 2025 already appears to be the latest in a string of seasons where the former MVP has been derailed by injuries. The veteran was among the game’s perennial All-Stars as recently as 2021 and carried a .278/.376/.504 career slash line into the 2022 season. After signing a seven-year deal with the Rockies during the 2021-22 offseason, however, Bryant has appeared in just 170 games total while slashing a well below-average .244/.324/.370. With Bryant having returned -1.6 bWAR/-1.8 fWAR at the halfway mark in his contract, it’s hard to imagine the deal being anything other than a bust for the Rockies once all is said and done.

Even so, with three seasons and $81MM left on the contract after 2025, the Rockies are surely hoping that Bryant can eventually get healthy enough to be a legitimate contributor before his contract comes to a close. While the sort of production that earned him the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2015 and the MVP award the following season is unlikely to be in the cards at this point, it’s not impossible to imagine Bryant being able to get back to being an above-average hitter; after all, he did manage to hit a solid .306/.376/.475 in 42 games with the Rockies back in 2022.

As for the club’s other roster moves, Molina joins the big league roster for the first time this year after pitching to a 6.79 ERA in 35 relief outings for the Rockies last year. Mejia made his MLB debut earlier this year and sports a 4.70 ERA across six appearances, while Blalock is in his second MLB season but has struggled to a 12.94 ERA in 16 innings of work for Colorado this year.

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