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Royals Sign Stephen Nogosek To Minor League Contract

By Anthony Franco | May 7, 2025 at 9:37pm CDT

The Royals added reliever Stephen Nogosek on a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Omaha. The move was announced by the affiliate.

Nogosek, 30, signs out of the Mexican League. He’d made 10 appearances for the Diablos Rojos. The surface numbers aren’t all that impressive. The righty gave up 10 runs (six earned) on 12 hits over nine innings. He struck out 13 while issuing only two walks, though, and the run prevention isn’t as dire in the league context. The average Mexican League hitter owns a .294/.371/.460 batting line, while the league’s earned run average sits at 5.75.

An Oregon product, Nogosek was drafted by the Red Sox and traded to the Mets as a prospect. He made 33 appearances for New York over parts of four seasons. He owns a 5.02 ERA across 57 1/3 big league innings. His 22% strikeout percentage and 8.9% walk rate were serviceable numbers for a middle reliever, but he allowed far too many home runs.

Nogosek had a brief stint in Triple-A with Washington last year. He was released in May after a disastrous 11-game showing. Nogosek gave up 18 runs while walking 18 hitters in only 15 2/3 frames. That required stints in Mexico and the independent Atlantic League to find his way back to affiliated ball.

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Kansas City Royals Transactions Stephen Nogosek

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Kris Bryant To Undergo Ablation Procedure On Back

By Anthony Franco | May 7, 2025 at 8:36pm CDT

Kris Bryant is headed for an ablation procedure on his lower back tomorrow, Rockies manager Bud Black tells reporters (including Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post). The skipper called it “a minimally invasive procedure” and expressed optimism that Bryant could resume baseball activities within a few days.

It’s nevertheless the latest frustration as Bryant tries to manage his persistent back pain. He has been out since April 14 with what the team called lumbar degenerative disc disease. It’s the ninth injured list placement of the former MVP’s three-plus seasons in Colorado. Six of them have been related to his back and/or side. Bryant also battled left foot issues early in his Rox tenure and fractured a finger in 2023.

Bryant owns a .244/.324/.370 slash line over 170 games in a Colorado uniform. The Rockies used him exclusively at designated hitter early this season to reduce his workload. He hit .154 with two extra-base hits (both doubles) in 11 games. This is the fourth season of his seven-year, $182MM free agent deal. Bryant unsurprisingly made clear last month that he’s not thinking about retirement.

Black provided a few other injury updates this evening (via Thomas Harding of MLB.com). Infielders Ezequiel Tovar and Thairo Estrada are ramping up baseball activities, while starter Austin Gomber has pushed his long toss regimen to 90 feet. It’s most relevant regarding Gomber, who has been out all season with shoulder inflammation. He opened the season on a rehab assignment but suffered a setback that necessitated a move to the 60-day IL last month. Gomber received a platelet-rich plasma injection and is back throwing, though he’s still a ways off another rehab stint.

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Colorado Rockies Austin Gomber Ezequiel Tovar Kris Bryant Thairo Estrada

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Orioles To Sign Naykel Cruz

By Steve Adams | May 7, 2025 at 7:44pm CDT

The Orioles have agreed to a deal with Cuban left-hander Naykel Cruz, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com. The contract is pending a physical. Cruz is expected to report to High-A or Double-A once the signing is official, Romero adds.

The 25-year-old Cruz held a showcase for big league teams back in November. He pitched in parts of four seasons in the Cuban National Series — Cuba’s top professional league — and was a member of Team Cuba in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (though he only pitched two-thirds of an inning in that tournament). The southpaw has also briefly appeared in the Mexican League, pitching in seven games back in the 2022 season.

During his four seasons in Cuba’s top league, Cruz posted a 4.18 ERA with shaky strikeout and walk rates of 19.1% and 15.4%, respectively. Prior to that offseason showcase, Romero wrote that Cruz had bumped his velocity from the 91-92 mph he averaged during his days pitching in the CNS to 94-95 mph.

Cruz’s age and previous experience in CNS make him eligible to sign as a professional rather than an amateur. That doesn’t mean he’s required to sign a major league deal, however. In all likelihood, he’s signing a minor league pact for a yet-unknown bonus.

By all accounts, Cruz isn’t an especially high-profile prospect, though that hardly means he can’t contribute at the big league level. Plenty of players who signed as international prospects and received middling bonuses have developed into major leaguers. Given his age, prior experience, the fact that he was eligible to sign as a professional and the fact that he could potentially go right to Double-A, Cruz is a bit more notable than many shot-in-the-dark international signings. It’s hardly likely that he pitches for the Orioles later this season, but it’s also not entirely out of the realm of possibility, especially given the state of Baltimore’s pitching staff at the moment.

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Baltimore Orioles Transactions Naykel Cruz

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Poll: When Should The White Sox Trade Luis Robert Jr.?

By Nick Deeds | May 7, 2025 at 6:42pm CDT

The White Sox entered the 2025 season having already moved one of their two most notable trade chips when Garrett Crochet was shipped to Boston in exchange for a four-prospect package led by catcher Kyle Teel. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. is their other asset of note, and he remains in the organization despite talking to multiple clubs about a trade. The Dodgers, Reds, and Giants are all known to have engaged with Chicago about Robert’s services, with L.A. outfielder James Outman and Cincinnati infield prospect Edwin Arroyo among the names known to have been discussed as part of a return package.

Evidently, the White Sox didn’t receive an offer they found compelling enough to move Robert for, seeing as he still remains with the South Siders. Chicago bet on Robert to have a strong enough first half to increase his value ahead of the trade deadline, but the first few weeks of the season made that decision look like a potential mistake. On April 16, Robert was slashing a brutal .143/.234/.214, striking out at a 27.3% clip and hitting for virtually no power. That slow start prompted MLBTR’s Anthony Franco to take a look at Robert in a piece for front office subscribers, in which he noted that Robert was actually walking more often than ever before in his career but that his swing-and-miss profile still needed to be carried by significantly more power than he had shown to that point in the season.

Robert has answered that call. He clobbered a home run in Boston just three days later, and since then he’s hit an impressive .241/.371/.483 with four homers, two doubles, and an even better 17.1% walk rate. The 27-year-old’s overall slash line remains below average (86 wRC+) on the year, but a season-long 13.2% barrel rate, 14.3% walk rate, and .331 xwOBA all demonstrate that things are clearly moving in the right direction for the White Sox and their mercurial star. That’s not to say everything is going well, however; Robert’s strikeout rate has crept back up above 30% (31.4%), his in-zone contact rate is down relative to the last two years, and he’s making the most soft contact (27.0%) of his career.

The question for the White Sox now becomes how quickly they should look to get a deal done. If Robert’s recent stretch of success proves to be sustainable, it would make plenty of sense for the club to wait until closer to the trade deadline to move him. At that point, his overall season numbers would likely be back above average and teams may be willing to give up more for him. On the other hand, if the organization does not view Robert’s recent power surge and improved patience at the plate as particularly sustainable or they’re concerned about his recent uptick in strikeouts, perhaps there’s an argument to deal him now while he’s performing at an impactful level. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that if Robert’s recent hot streak continues, the club hopes to move him by Memorial Day.

Moving a piece with as much star power as Robert before the calendar even flips to June would be a bold move, but certainly not an unheard of one. After all, it was just last year that the Marlins moved Luis Arraez to the Padres in early May. Few executives in the game are as aggressive as San Diego’s A.J. Preller, but that doesn’t mean a deal is impossible. Perhaps the Giants are intrigued enough by their hot start to be more willing to pay for Robert than they were in the offseason, or recent injuries suffered by Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez convince the Dodgers to swing a deal. The Reds have fallen below .500 after briefly fighting their way into a playoff spot last week in large part because of lackluster production from their outfield, which has an 88 wRC+ tied with Cleveland for the seventh-worst figure in the majors.

All three of those teams with past known interest in Robert have reasons to be more aggressive on him now than they were previously, and that ignores other teams that could have interest. The Rangers recently lost center fielder Leody Taveras on waivers and are looking for ways to snap the team out of an offensive funk, though they’d probably balk at taking on the remaining portion of his $15MM salary. The Mets have found plenty of early season success but can surely do better than Tyrone Taylor as an everyday center fielder. Atlanta and Kansas City are both trying to compete this year but have endured the two least-productive outfield mixes in the sport to this point in the year. If even one of those teams is willing to meet Chicago’s asking price, it’s fair to argue that risking injury or another cold streak isn’t worth the potential reward of a July bidding war. After all, the White Sox saw up close what can happen if you wait too long to trade a player last year, when they got only a token return for Eloy Jimenez, who eventually had his club option declined by the Orioles last winter and ended up in the Rays organization on a minor league deal.

How do MLBTR readers think the White Sox should proceed with Robert? Should they try and make a deal as soon as possible, or wait in hopes that an extended hot streak raises his value? Have your say in the poll below:

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Chicago White Sox MLBTR Originals MLBTR Polls Luis Robert

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Mets Sign Colin Poche To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | May 7, 2025 at 6:21pm CDT

The Mets announced today that they have signed left-hander Colin Poche to a minor league deal. He will report to Triple-A Syracuse and provide the club with some non-roster lefty depth for the bullpen.

Poche, 31, started the season with the Nationals on a minor league deal. He cracked the Opening Day roster but had an awful tenure as a Nat. He logged 8 2/3 innings over 13 appearances, allowing 11 earned runs, leading to an 11.42 ERA. He walked 12 opponents, a horrendous 26.1% rate in that small sample. The Nats signed Andrew Chafin him to replace Poche in the bullpen and designated the latter for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency.

Despite that rough showing, it’s understandable that the Mets would give him a shot to bounce back. For one thing, there’s no real harm on a minor league deal. On top of that, the club’s lefty relief situation has taken a few unfortunate turns recently. The club started the year with A.J. Minter and Danny Young as the southpaw contingent of the bullpen but both are now done for the year, Minter due to lat surgery and Young due to Tommy John surgery.

They recently added Génesis Cabrera to the roster, though he’s less than ideal to be a club’s top lefty reliever. He has shown some strikeout stuff at times but has been inconsistent in that regard, while control has been an ongoing issue, as shown in his 11.4% career walk rate.

The Mets will see if they can help Poche recover his previous form in Syracuse. With the Rays from 2022 to 2024, he tossed 156 2/3 innings with a 3.27 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. However, the punchouts declined over that stretch. He sent 26.1% of opponents back to the dugout in 2022 but that figure dropped to 24.8% and 21.6% in the two subsequent campaigns. That led the Rays to non-tender him heading into 2025 and Poche had to settle for a minor league deal, as mentioned.

Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images

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New York Mets Transactions Colin Poche

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Tigers Outright Manuel Margot, Release Kenta Maeda

By Anthony Franco | May 7, 2025 at 6:04pm CDT

The Tigers announced they’ve activated veteran outfielder Manuel Margot from the 10-day injured list and sent him outright to Triple-A Toledo. He evidently was placed on waivers earlier this week and already went unclaimed. Detroit also placed Kenta Maeda on unconditional release waivers after designating him for assignment last week. Once he clears waivers, he’ll be a free agent. Margot’s removal from the 40-man roster drops their count to 38.

Margot signed a split contract at the end of Spring Training. Parker Meadows, Matt Vierling and Wenceel Pérez were injured, leaving the Tigers scrambling for outfield depth. Margot started five games through the season’s first week and a half, but inflammation in his left knee sent him to the shelf on April 8.

Javier Báez kicked out to center field and has had an excellent start to the season, hitting .309/.350/.479 in 28 games. Zach McKinstry is rotating between third base and the corner outfield. He’s out to a .291/.375/.427 start over 32 contests. Kerry Carpenter is playing right field regularly, while Riley Greene is locked into left field. Báez and McKinstry probably won’t remain this productive, but the Tigers have little reason to take either out of the lineup while they’re playing well. While Detroit could’ve used Margot off the bench while optioning a younger hitter like Justyn-Henry Malloy or Jace Jung, they elected to stick with their current position player group.

Margot has well over the three years of service time to decline an outright assignment in favor of free agency. The Tigers didn’t provide any indication that he’d do that, however. His contract pays at a $200K rate for time spent in the minors (and a prorated $1.3MM for his time on the MLB roster or injured list). He’d join Akil Baddoo, Brewer Hicklen, Jahmai Jones and Ryan Kreidler among outfield depth in Toledo if he accepts the assignment.

Maeda’s release was the expected outcome. Teams have five days following a DFA to try to line up a trade, but that rarely happens with veterans on lofty salaries. The Tigers needed to find a trade partner by Tuesday or place Maeda on waivers. He would’ve been able to decline an outright assignment without forfeiting any salary, so the Tigers simply released him.

The 29 other teams technically have an opportunity to grab Maeda off waivers, but doing so would require assuming the remainder of his $10MM salary. That obviously isn’t happening. They’ll wait until he clears and becomes a free agent. If Maeda signs elsewhere, his new club would only be responsible for the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for whatever time he spends on the MLB roster. The Tigers will pay the remainder of the salary.

It closes the books on a disappointing year-plus tenure in the Motor City. Detroit signed Maeda to a two-year, $24MM free agent deal during the 2023-24 offseason. The former Cy Young runner-up had fanned 27% of opponents with a 4.23 ERA during his walk year with the Twins. While it looked like a solid rotation pickup, Maeda’s production tanked immediately in Detroit. He allowed a 6.09 ERA over 112 1/3 innings a year ago, losing his rotation spot in the process. Maeda opened this season in low-leverage relief and didn’t fare any better, giving up eight runs (seven earned) over eight innings. He allowed nine free baserunners — six walks and three hit batters — while recording eight strikeouts.

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Detroit Tigers Transactions Kenta Maeda Manuel Margot

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Blue Jays Designate Steward Berroa For Assignment, Select Braydon Fisher

By Darragh McDonald | May 7, 2025 at 5:35pm CDT

The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today. Right-hander Braydon Fisher has been selected to the roster and outfielder Jonatan Clase has been recalled from Triple-A Buffalo. To make room for those two on the active roster, outfielder Alan Roden and righty Dillon Tate have been optioned to Buffalo. To make room for Fisher on the 40-man, outfielder Steward Berroa has been designated for assignment.

Roden, 25, made the club’s Opening Day roster after a strong spring. He hit .407/.541/.704 in Cactus League action but hasn’t been able to carry that forward into the regular season, with a .178/.262/.260 line in his first 84 plate appearances in the show. His playing time has dried up recently, with just ten plate appearances over the past two weeks.

While Roden has been doing that, Clase has been putting up solid numbers in Triple-A. Clase hasn’t been hitting for power this year, with no homers or even a triple, but he has been walking at a 13.2% clip. That has helped him produce a .315/.419/.371 line and 129 wRC+ with the Bisons so far this year. He has also stolen 15 bases in 17 tries.

The Jays have an outfield mix consisting of Daulton Varsho, George Springer, Anthony Santander, Nathan Lukes, Addison Barger and Myles Straw, with Clase now stepping in to take Roden’s place. Time will tell how often Clase gets into the lineup over the guys in that group, but even if he doesn’t hit much, he can perhaps serve as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. Roden, meanwhile, can get more regular plate appearances in Buffalo.

Fisher, 24, cracks the majors for the first time. A fourth-round pick of the Dodgers in 2018, he came to the Jays in last summer’s trade which sent Cavan Biggio to the Dodgers. Fisher has generally been able to rack up strikeouts but also with control issues. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has thrown 130 minor league innings with a 3.67 earned run average and 31.5% strikeout rate but a 13.4% walk rate.

So far this year, the control seems a bit better, in a small sample. He has thrown 11 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.38 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. The Jays evidently feel he’s ready to take the mound against big league hitters.

Berroa, 26 next month, was added to the roster in June of last year. He got into 28 games for the Jays last year but hit just .189/.333/.216 in those, though he did steal six bases. He’s been on optional assignment this year but is hitting just .195/.267/.234 at Triple-A. That performance has nudged him into DFA limbo, where he will spend a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Jays could take as much as five days to explore trade interest.

Though his numbers this year aren’t good, he was in good form at the Triple-A level in 2024. Last year, he got into 79 games for the Bisons, hitting 10 home runs, stealing 34 bases and drawing walks at an 11.7% clip. He hit .281/.371/.454 for a 120 wRC+. He is still optionable for the rest of this season and one additional season, which could perhaps appeal to club’s looking for some extra outfield depth.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

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Toronto Blue Jays Transactions Alan Roden Braydon Fisher Dillon Tate Jonatan Clase Steward Berroa

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Dodgers Place Evan Phillips On IL With Forearm Discomfort

By Darragh McDonald | May 7, 2025 at 4:30pm CDT

The Dodgers announced today that right-hander Evan Phillips has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right forearm discomfort. Fellow righty Matt Sauer has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.

The club hasn’t provided any details about Phillips but it’s a concerning announcement. It’s always somewhat worrisome when a pitcher’s elbow/forearm are the cause of an IL stint and it only exacerbates what has already been a challenging year for the righty. Phillips was left off the Dodgers’ World Series roster last year. An MRI revealed nerve irritation in his shoulder and he was also dealing with tightness in his lat, triceps and biceps, as well as arm fatigue.

Coming into 2025, he revealed that he has been diagnosed with a small tear of a tendon in his rotator cuff during the playoffs. The issue still wasn’t fully resolved by Opening Day 2025, with Phillips starting the season on the 15-day IL. The club listed his ailment as a right rotator cuff strain. He was reinstated from the IL in mid-April. He has since pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings but is now back on the shelf again.

Time will tell how serious this current issue is. For the time being, the Dodger bullpen is once again deprived of a potential weapon. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips tossed 179 innings for the Dodgers with a 2.21 earned run average, 29.6% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 42.6% ground ball rate. He served as the club’s primary closer for stretches in there, earning 24 saves in 2023 and 18 last year.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

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Los Angeles Dodgers Evan Phillips Matt Sauer

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White Sox Place Andrew Benintendi On IL, Select Nick Maton

By Darragh McDonald | May 7, 2025 at 4:10pm CDT

The White Sox announced that outfielder Andrew Benintendi has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 5th, due to a left calf strain. Infielder Nick Maton has been selected to take his place on the active roster. The 40-man already had a vacancy since right-hander Penn Murfee was outrighted earlier this week.

Benintendi was removed from Sunday’s game with tightness in that calf and didn’t play in the club’s past two games, which is why this IL stint was able to be backdated. If it’s a minor issue, he could return to the club in just over a week.

The Sox don’t have any hopes of competing this year, currently sporting a 10-26 record, worst in the American League. Still, it’s less than ideal for Benintendi to be hurt again, as the club would surely love to trade him prior to the deadline.

That will be tough to do on account of his contract. He is making $16.5MM this year and again in 2026, followed by a $14.5MM salary in 2027. He hasn’t performed especially well with the White Sox overall, so other clubs won’t be too excited to take that on.

He went into the 2024-25 offseason with a bit of positive momentum. His 2024 season started rough, as he had a line of .195/.230/.284 when he landed on the IL in June with an Achilles injury. But he hit .251/.326/.470 for a 124 wRC+ after being reinstated.

The White Sox would have loved for him to roll that performance forward into 2025 but the injury bug has had other plans. Benintendi suffered a hand fracture on a hit-by-pitch in the spring. He was able to get healthy by Opening Day but then hit the IL due to an adductor strain in early April. He was reinstated fairly quickly but is now back on the shelf again. Around those injuries, he has hit .224/.298/.400 on the year, with five home runs getting that line up to league average.

For the time being, Maton will get some more at-bats with the Sox. He spent about a month with the club earlier this year but was outrighted off the roster after hitting .173/.295/.327. That brought his career batting line to .202/.302/.354 over 575 plate appearances. He has hit far better in the minors without being able to translate it to the show. From 2022 to 2024, he slashed .267/.375/.454 in the minors for a 121 wRC+. He has played all four infield positions as well as the outfield corners in his career, so he can bounce around the diamond for the Sox.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Andrew Benintendi Nick Maton

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Red Sox Notes: First Base, Devers, Yoshida

By Steve Adams | May 7, 2025 at 2:49pm CDT

The Red Sox lost first baseman Triston Casas to a season-ending knee injury earlier this week and quickly selected Abraham Toro’s contract to the big league roster. The switch-hitting Toro and righty-swinging Romy Gonzalez appear set to share time at the position for the time being, although the Casas injury immediately prompted speculation about a potential move to first base for Rafael Devers. Manager Alex Cora told the Red Sox beat last night that there’s been no discussion of a role change for the third baseman-turned-DH (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic).

“We got these two guys (Gonzalez and Toro) here, Toro starting today,” Cora said prior to last night’s loss. “Romy has done an amazing job in the starts over there so we’ll keep going that way.”

Cora followed up today in an appearance on WEEI radio, repeating that Devers is a DH for the time being but taking a slightly softer stance on the possibility of an eventual position change (link via WEEI’s Tom Carroll).

“We asked him to do something in spring training that, as you guys know, he didn’t agree with in the beginning,” said Cora. “And then little by little, he has embraced it because he knows the quality of the player that we have at third base and where we’re at as a team. … I’m not saying we’ll never have that conversation [about moving to first base], but I think for now, where we’re at, I like Raffy as a DH.”

Within that WEEI appearance, Cora again praised the season that Gonzalez has put together thus far. There’s no denying that the 28-year-old has excelled in the early stages of the 2025 season. He’s hitting .327/.382/.449 in 55 trips to the plate, although that small-sample production is buoyed by a .421 average on balls in play. Gonzalez is averaging 94.1 mph off the bat and has seen 58% of his batted balls depart at 95 mph or more.

It’s a strong profile, but one that is preceded by minimal track record. Gonzalez is in his fifth major league season and entered 2025 as a .242/.271/.387 hitter. He’s always hit lefties well (.281/.329/.465), but right-handers have long been a problem. That hasn’t been the case this year, and Cora’s comments seem to suggest he’ll at least get some runway to prove he’s made some real gains.

Toro, also 28, has a similar track record to that of Gonzalez. He’s a career .220/.285/.352 hitter who’s now seeing action in his seventh MLB campaign. He’s bounced around the league more (Astros, Mariners, Brewers, A’s) and has a strong Triple-A track record but limited success in the majors. Cora noted that Toro “put [together] some good at-bats” in his Red Sox debut yesterday, when he went 1-for-4 with a single.

The combination of Gonzalez and Toro, whether in a traditional platoon or a more selective timeshare, doesn’t feel like a feasible long-term option, but it’s understandable to hear a team’s manager voice confidence in the options he presently has on the roster. That said, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow took a more open-minded stance to the team’s first base void, telling NESN’s Tom Caron prior to the game that the Sox “need to be willing to put all idea and options on the table” and “uncover every rock” to make the team as competitive as possible (hat tip to the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham).

The case for moving Devers to first base is one that we discussed on this morning’s MLBTR podcast episode. MLBTR owner Tim Dierkes also touched on it in today’s mailbag. That switch would open DH at-bats for the return of Masataka Yoshida, or it could help facilitate a big league promotion for Roman Anthony, who is widely ranked as the game’s No. 1 overall prospect. Anthony could join Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu in cycling through the outfield and DH spots. He’s hitting .294/.410/.495 with five homers as a 20-year-old in Triple-A. Dating back to last year, Anthony has slashed .321/.440/.508 in 298 Triple-A plate appearances — all before even turning 21.

The 31-year-old Yoshida, meanwhile, has been out all season while recovering from October surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder. Yoshida spoke with the Red Sox beat yesterday and said through an interpreter that hitting is “no problem” but that he’s still feeling discomfort when throwing (video link via NESN). He received a cortisone injection three days ago and will be shut down from throwing for at least another couple days while that takes effect. The Red Sox have no plans to activate Yoshida until he is able to play in the outfield, per Abraham.

Devers’ move from third base to DH was a major storyline in spring training and led to plenty of hand-wringing early in the season when he went through one of the worst stretches of his career at the plate. That panic looks silly in retrospect, as Devers struggled for all of one week and has hit .292/.404/.508 since the calendar flipped to April. His lack of experience at first base is an obvious consideration in any scenario, but the current tandem of Gonzalez and Toro have relatively limited experience there themselves: 319 innings for Gonzalez and 353 for Toro.

There’s no perfect solution. The Red Sox will likely be getting sub-par defense at first base whichever route they take. Playing Devers there could free up DH at-bats for Yoshida or open a clearer path to get Anthony to the majors. For the time being, they’re sticking with Devers at designated hitter and seeing what they have in Toro and Gonzalez.

Run production has been an issue over the past week as the Red Sox have dropped five of six games, and even looking at the past month (i.e. excluding Devers’ early slump) they’ve been a league-average offense on a rate basis and sit 15th in the majors in runs scored. If Boston’s rotation continues to struggle as it has over the past two weeks (24th in MLB with a 4.76 ERA), or if Gonzalez and Toro play closer to their career levels in the weeks ahead, one would imagine the Sox will more seriously consider changes to get more offensive firepower into the lineup.

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Boston Red Sox Notes Abraham Toro Masataka Yoshida Rafael Devers Roman Anthony Romy Gonzalez Triston Casas

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    Rafael Devers Unwilling To Play First Base

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    Recent

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