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Cubs Place Jameson Taillon On 15-Day IL With Calf Strain

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The Cubs are placing starting pitcher Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list with a strained right calf. The team revealed the news to reporters (including Patrick Mooney of The Athletic) this morning and confirmed the transaction shortly thereafter. Jordan Wicks is coming up from the Triple-A Iowa Cubs to take Taillon’s spot on the active roster. However, manager Craig Counsell said that Chris Flexen, not Wicks, is the most likely candidate to temporarily join the rotation (per Bruce Levine of 670 The Score). Flexen has been working as a long reliever this season, but he made 30 starts for the White Sox just last year.

Taillon, 33, suffered the injury while running in a training session and is expected to miss more than a month (per Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun-Times). While he hasn’t been as effective for Chicago as he was last year, there is no doubt the Cubs will miss his reliable presence on the mound every five days. His 95 1/3 innings rank 20th among NL starting pitchers, while his 4.44 ERA (85 ERA+) and 4.24 xERA (32nd percentile) suggest he has been more than serviceable as an inning-eating back-end starter. He hasn’t looked his best recently, with a 10.66 ERA over 12 2/3 innings in his last three starts, so if there is any silver lining to this injury, it is that he will have some time to rest and reset. The Cubs will hope he returns looking more like the guy who pitched to a 3.48 ERA over his first 14 starts.

Wicks, the Cubs’ first-round pick in 2021, has never quite looked comfortable at the MLB level, with a career 5.23 ERA and 4.68 SIERA over 82 2/3 innings from 2023-25. With that said, he has looked sharp over his last handful of outings at Triple-A (16 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 20 K, 3 BB). The 25-year-old will presumably take over Flexen’s low-leverage long-relief gig. Flexen, meanwhile, shouldn’t have too much trouble transitioning back to the rotation. He started five games at Triple-A in April before he was called up to the big league club, pitching to a 3-0 record with a 1.16 ERA and 2.89 FIP. While he has not started in the majors since 2024, he tossed four scoreless innings of relief against the Astros last week, so stretching out shouldn’t be too difficult. Although Flexen was not very effective as a starter in either of the last two seasons, he has more than earned another opportunity with his excellent performance so far in 2025. In 29 innings spread out over 16 appearances, he has given up just two earned runs on 16 hits.

The Cubs have been without Javier Assad (oblique injury) all season, and Justin Steele required season-ending elbow surgery after just four starts. Shota Imanaga also missed significant time earlier this year, but the Cubs were grateful to see him back on the mound last week. Imanaga and the surprisingly dominant Matthew Boyd give Chicago a strong one-two punch atop the rotation, but the back end could be a weak spot until Taillon returns.

Nationals Place Trevor Williams On Injured List With Elbow Sprain

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves this morning, headlined by their placement of right-hander Trevor Williams on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow sprain. Right-hander Ryan Loutos was recalled to the MLB roster to replace Williams. In an additional move, Washington has activated catcher Keibert Ruiz from the 7-day concussion-related injured list and optioned catcher Drew Millas to Triple-A.

Williams, 33, has been part of the Nationals’ rotation all year but struggled badly with his results. The righty is sporting a 6.21 ERA across 17 starts and 82 2/3 innings this year. That’s the third-worst figure in baseball among pitchers with at least 80 innings of work this year. Brutal as the results have been, it’s perhaps worth noting that Williams has gotten quite unlucky according to the underlying metrics. His .347 BABIP allowed is nearly fifty points higher than his career mark, and a 61.6% strand rate suggests he’s been the victim of poor sequencing as well. Williams’s 4.08 FIP and 4.45 FIP paint him as a roughly average fifth starter based on his performance this year, despite the rough run prevention numbers.

In terms of strikeout and walk rate, Williams hasn’t been all that different than 2024. Last year saw him pitch to a dazzling 2.03 ERA in 66 2/3 innings, but his results then were much better than the metrics suggested they should have been. Taken together, Williams’s strong but abbreviated 2024 and his brutal first half this year paint a picture of a mid-to-back of the rotation arm: 30 starts, a 4.34 ERA, a 3.51 FIP, and a 4.23 SIERA. Perhaps there would’ve been a pitching-needy club or two who would have viewed Williams as a decent innings-eating arm to bet on for a low-cost flier this summer, but today’s injury news will throw a wrench into that possibility.

The exact details surrounding Williams’s injury are not yet known, but any injury involving a pitcher’s elbow is concerning and will typically be treated with an abundance of caution to avoid further damage. Williams figures to be out for several weeks at the very least and could miss much longer than that. A clearer timeline for his return to action figures to be available with time, but Mark Zuckerman of MASN reports that Williams himself suggested that the injury is “comparable” to the flexor strain that cost him more than three months last year. A similar timeline for his recovery this time around would likely put an end to his 2025 campaign.

For the time being, Williams will be replaced on the roster by Loutos. The righty was plucked off waivers from the Dodgers earlier this year but has surrendered eight runs (six earned) in just 4 1/3 innings during his time in a Nationals uniform. He’ll help eat innings for now, but the club will need to replace Williams in the rotation eventually. Cade Cavalli and Shinnosuke Ogasawara are both on the 40-man roster and could be called upon, though Cavalli has struggled at Triple-A this year while Ogasawara is currently pitching at High-A as he works his way back from an injury.

As for Ruiz, the catcher was placed on the 10-day IL after being struck by a foul ball while in the dugout on June 24, but was later moved to the concussion-related IL after experiencing headaches. He figures to resume getting the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate going forward, with Riley Adams serving as his backup. The eight-year, $50MM extension the Nats signed Ruiz to prior to the 2023 season hasn’t worked out so far, and he’s hitting just .247/.278/.320 in 66 games this year. Even so, the former top prospect is still just 26 years old and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that his numbers could improve given how common it is for catchers to be relatively late bloomers at the big league level.

The Opener: Trade Candidates, Schmidt, Montgomery

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Happy Independence Day to those who celebrate! Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on headed into Fourth of July weekend:

1. MLBTR’s Top 40 Trade Candidates:

We’re less than a month away from the 2025 Trade Deadline, and the rumor mill has begun to heat up. That means it’s time for another addition of MLBTR’s Top Trade Candidates list. Last year, we covered the Top 50 Trade Candidates for the 2024 deadline. Nine of the top eleven names on our list wound up traded that summer, and a tenth (southpaw Garrett Crochet) was dealt over the winter. This year, we’ll be looking in-depth at this summer’s 40 biggest trade candidates, though with so many teams on the bubble of playoff relevance more than 100 plausible trade candidates are mentioned in some capacity. Our list will be published this afternoon, so be sure to check back later today!

2. Schmidt headed to the IL?

The Yankees suffered a tough loss to the Blue Jays yesterday that knocked them out of the AL East lead and things took a turn for the worse after it was revealed that right-hander Clarke Schmidt’s early exit from the game was due to an issue in his forearm. Schmidt is slated to undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the problem, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports this morning that both Scott Effross and Jayvien Sandridge are expected to be recalled by the Yankees today. The addition of Effross to the roster is hardly noteworthy given that the Yankees already optioned Clayton Beeter to the minors to open a spot in the bullpen, but Sandridge can only be recalled if he’s replacing an injured player. That would certainly seem to suggests that Schmidt, who has 3.32 ERA in 14 starts this year, is ticketed for the shelf. We’ll surely know more about his status later today, as well as the Yankees’ rotation plans without him in the fold.

3. Montgomery to debut:

It’s been a brutal few years for White Sox fans, as their once-vaunted core of the early 2020s fizzled out and was dismantled. That’s left the fans on the south side with little reason for optimism in recent years, but this season’s club has boasted encouraging performances from young players like Shane Smith and Kyle Teel. Another exciting youngster is set to debut this weekend, as Chicago is reportedly poised to promote longtime top prospect Colson Montgomery to the majors. The 23-year-old is hitting just .218/.298/.435 across 55 games at the Triple-A level this year, but was a consensus top-15 prospect in the sport as recently as last season and heated up considerably this past month. With Montgomery doing his best work of the season, the White Sox clearly feel that now is the time to get him a taste of the big leagues. His first assignment will come against the Rockies in Colorado this weekend, for whom Antonio Senzatela (6.69 ERA) will be on the mound tonight.

Padres Seeking Upgrades At Catcher

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The Padres are hoping to upgrade their offensive production behind the plate as the July 31 trade deadline approaches, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes. It’ll likely be a thin market for available catchers, which complicates their search.

San Diego has leaned exclusively on Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado behind the plate this year and received virtually no production on the offensive side of things. That veteran duo has combined for a feeble .205/.268/.328 batting line in 296 plate appearances. The resulting 70 wRC+, which indicates they’ve been 30% worse than average at the plate, ranks 27th in the majors.

Unfortunately for the Friars, few of the clear sellers around the game have catching help for sale. The White Sox (Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero), Marlins (Agustin Ramirez) and Rockies (Hunter Goodman) all have young catchers enjoying good seasons — and all are controllable at least five years beyond the current campaign. Pittsburgh’s Joey Bart makes some sense on paper, but he hasn’t been able to replicate last year’s breakout. The A’s would make another good speculative fit, but Rosenthal reports that they have no intention of trading Shea Langeliers. He adds that even even with Drake Baldwin ascending in Atlanta, a Sean Murphy trade over the next four weeks isn’t likely.

There are some bubble teams who could eventually have catching depth to spare, but it’s not yet clear whether any of those teams will sell. The Reds only control Tyler Stephenson through the 2026 campaign, and fellow catcher Jose Trevino’s recent three-year extension (plus a club option) gives them a bit more stability long-term. Similarly, the Twins and Rangers only have Ryan Jeffers and Jonah Heim under club control through 2026, although the latter is having a particularly down season at the plate. If the Orioles wind up selling, old friend Gary Sanchez would be a logical trade chip, as an impending free agent whose bat is heating up in recent weeks.

On top of the likely lack of supply, the Padres will presumably have financial limitations. San Diego was known to be low on spending power late in the offseason, hence the creative structure of Nick Pivetta’s four-year deal and the bargain-bin additions at catcher (Diaz, Maldonado), in left field (Jason Heyward, Connor Joe, Gavin Sheets) and for the pitching staff (Kyle Hart). The Padres are well into luxury tax territory — an estimated $263MM worth of obligations, per RosterResource, puts them in the second tier of penalty — so any additions would come with an additional 30% tax on top of their remaining annual salary.

The Padres also have needs in the outfield corners — neither Joe nor Heyward is still with the club — and could use some additional rotation help with Michael King on the shelf and Yu Darvish yet to make his season debut. Juggling all those needs, with potentially limited financial flexibility and a farm system that has been thinned by years of aggressive win-now trades, could prove a tall order.

The fact that San Diego is both reported to covet catching help and using Diaz and Maldonado exclusively also speaks to the manner in which former top prospect Luis Campusano has fallen out of favor in the organization. The 26-year-old is hitting .315/.432/.613 in 224 Triple-A plate appearances but hasn’t gotten much of a look in the majors this year. He’s struggled on both sides of the ball in the past, hitting .241/.295/.374 in 589 major league plate appearances while posting sub-par defensive grades. Campusano feels like a change-of-scenery candidate who could be on the move between now and the end of the month.

Tayler Scott Elects Free Agency

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Reliever Tayler Scott elected free agency after being outrighted by the Diamondbacks, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Arizona had designated the righty for assignment over the weekend when they called up John Curtiss.

Scott has been DFA twice on the season. He began the year with the Astros and was dropped from the roster in mid-May. He elected free agency, signed a minor league deal with Arizona, and was selected onto their big league roster in June. Scott pitched six times for the Snakes, allowing nine runs in as many innings with seven strikeouts and four walks. He carries a 6.66 earned run average over 25 2/3 innings between Houston and Arizona on the season.

The 33-year-old Scott has pitched in parts of five MLB campaigns. He made 79 appearances with Houston but has otherwise yet to reach 10 games for any individual team. He has been a very popular depth target, however, as the Diamondbacks were the eighth club of his big league career. He’ll pursue his next opportunity now that he’s back on the open market.

Rays Outright Forrest Whitley

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The Rays announced that right-hander Forrest Whitley was outrighted to Triple-A Durham. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times first reported the move. Whitley, once the sport’s top pitching prospect, went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment over the weekend.

It was the second DFA of the season for the former first-round pick. The Astros had carried Whitley on their 40-man roster for years as he battled injuries and struggled to find the strike zone. They finally pulled the plug in mid-June, flipping him to the Rays after taking him off the 40-man roster. Whitley continued to struggle in his brief run in Kevin Cash’s bullpen. He surrendered 10 runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks in 4 2/3 innings.

The 6’7″ righty still has a power arsenal led by a 96 MPH fastball. Yet he has given up 18 earned runs in 15 1/3 major league innings over the past two seasons. His 8% swinging strike rate is well below-average. Whitley managed a 1.89 ERA across 33 1/3 Triple-A frames as recently as last season, but he’s out of minor league options. A claiming team would have needed to carry him on the MLB roster.

Whitley had never been outrighted and doesn’t have three years of MLB service time. He must accept the assignment and report to Durham. The Rays’ player development staff will have a few months to try to get him on track. He would qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if Tampa Bay doesn’t select him back onto the MLB roster before then.

Giants Select Sergio Alcantara

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The Giants selected infielder Sergio Alcántara onto the roster for tonight’s series finale in Arizona. Outfielder Daniel Johnson was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento, while catcher Logan Porter was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Alcántara, 29 next week, is a switch-hitting middle infielder. If he gets into a game, it’d be his first big league appearance in three years. He has tallied just over 500 MLB plate appearances between four teams. He’s a .209/.281/.343 career hitter. His overall Triple-A track record is a bit better, though that hasn’t been the case this year. Alcántara has yet to hit his first home run of the season and is batting .206/.319/.252 across 256 trips to the plate with Sacramento.

It’s likely this is a brief call for Alcántara. Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Tyler Fitzgerald has experienced minor back soreness, leading the Giants to look for short-term insurance on the infield. Fitzgerald is in tonight’s starting lineup against Arizona righty Brandon Pfaadt, but it appears they want Alcántara on hand in case Fitzgerald needs to come out of the game. Alcántara is out of options, so the Giants would need to run him through waivers once they decide to take him off the big league roster.

The sequence squeezes Porter off the 40-man roster. The 29-year-old catcher had made five appearances in mid-June, going 1-7 with a walk. He backed up Andrew Knizner for a week while Patrick Bailey was injured and was optioned back out once Bailey returned. Porter has hit .222/.354/.310 in 48 Triple-A games this year. He’s likely to land on the waiver wire in the next few days and could elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Max Muncy Expects To Miss Around Six Weeks With Bone Bruise

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The Dodgers placed Max Muncy on the 10-day injured list this evening, an inevitability after he was helped off the field following an ugly left knee injury yesterday. He has been diagnosed with a bone bruise and tells Sonja Chen of MLB.com that he expects to be out for roughly six weeks. Imaging did not reveal any structural damage.

All things considered, this is probably a positive development. Muncy’s knee appeared to snap back awkwardly when he was injured in a collision with White Sox outfielder Michael A. Taylor. Taylor was attempting to steal third base and unintentionally dove directly into Muncy’s knee as the infielder stretched to apply the tag. Muncy was in a lot of pain and gingerly walked off the field with assistance from trainers. It raised initial fears about potential season-ending ligament damage.

Those proved unfounded, though the bone bruise will keep him on the shelf into the middle or end of August. Muncy has been on a tear for the past couple months. After hitting .194 over the season’s first month, he has raked at a .282/.410/.546 clip with 12 home runs since the beginning of May. That shut down any speculation that the Dodgers would trade for a third baseman. A season-ending injury might have changed that calculus, but it’s unlikely they’d alter their deadline plans when they expect Muncy back for the stretch run.

Miguel Rojas gets the first start at third base tonight, drawing into the nine hole against Sox righty Aaron Civale. Manager Dave Roberts told media (including David Vassegh of 570 AM) that Tommy Edman will begin taking third base drills. Rojas, Edman and Enrique Hernández will rotate through the hot corner, allowing the Dodgers to use Hyeseong Kim more frequently at second base. They also claimed CJ Alexander off waivers from the Yankees to add corner infield depth at Triple-A.

Mets To Sign Zach Pop To Major League Contract

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The Mets and right-hander Zach Pop are in agreement on a major league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Whenever it is official, corresponding moves will be required to get him onto to the 40-man and active rosters.

Pop, 28, just spent a few weeks on the Mariners’ roster. He made four appearances, the first three of which were fairly normal. The fourth one, however, was a disaster. Put into a game against Minnesota with Seattle losing 2-0 in the sixth, Pop allowed seven earned runs in one inning, via two walks and six hits, including two home runs. That gave him an unsightly 13.50 earned run average for the year. He was then designated for assignment and elected free agency.

In his career, Pop has gotten many chances thanks to his intriguing velocity. He averages 96 miles per hour on his sinker, though that has led to more ground balls than strikeouts. In 161 career innings split between the Marlins, Blue Jays and Mariners, he has a 4.75 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 55.2% ground ball rate.

He exhausted his final option year with the Jays last season. The Jays still had some hope of utilizing him in 2025, as they tendered him a contract. He had qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and the two sides avoided arb by agreeing to a $900K salary for this year.

He stuck on Toronto’s 40-man through the winter but experienced some elbow soreness during camp. The Jays designated him for assignment on Opening Day to open a 40-man spot. Since he was injured at the time, he couldn’t be put on outright waivers, so he was released. That left the Jays on the hook for the majority of that salary, allowing any other club to pay him the prorated version of the minor league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

That led to a minor league deal with the Mariners. During his brief stint on their major league roster, he passed three years of service time, which gave him the right to elect free agency yesterday even though it was his first career outright.

For the Mets, their pitching staff has been hit pretty hard in the past few weeks, so they need all the help they can get. They currently have 12 pitchers on the injured list. Their starting rotation has lost Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn in the past few weeks. They just placed Blackburn and reliever Dedniel Núñez on the IL today, after playing a doubleheader yesterday. Justin Hagenman and Rico Garcia were called up to give the club a couple of fresh arms.

David Peterson is starting tonight’s contest against the Brewers. Tim Britton of The Athletic relays that the club plans to have Hagenman, Frankie Montas and Brandon Waddell start the next three games against the Yankees. After that, the club will get a much-needed day off but it’s going to be a challenge for them to limp through the weekend.

Pop will give them a fresh arm at virtually no cost. As mentioned, he is out of options and would need to be removed from the 40-man if the club wants to remove him from the active roster. If he somehow manages to hold a spot until the end of the year, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Dodgers Claim CJ Alexander, Designate Steward Berroa For Assignment

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The Dodgers have claimed infielder CJ Alexander off waivers from the Yankees, according to an announcement from the latter club. The Yanks designated him for assignment earlier this week. To open a 40-man spot for Alexander, the Dodgers have designated outfielder Steward Berroa for assignment, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.

Alexander, 28, has limited big league experience. Between the Royals and Athletics, he has appeared in 10 big league games and stepped to the plate 25 times with a .160/.160/.160 line, produced with four singles and no walks.

His minor league track record is naturally greater in both quantity and quality. Last year, he slashed .302/.361/.559 in 411 Triple-A plate appearances, split between the Royals’ and Athletics’ systems. That production translated to a wRC+ of 130.

This year, his offense has dipped a bit. He started the year with Triple-A Las Vegas and hit .252/.348/.509 in 42 games, but that actually led to a wRC+ of 98 in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. The A’s put him on waivers at the beginning of June and the Yankees claimed him. In 13 games for the RailRiders, he had a .196/.302/.196 line, which pushed him to the waiver wire yet again.

The Dodgers presumably feel there’s a path to getting him back closer to his 2024 form, or perhaps just somewhere in between last year’s production and this year’s. He has a bit of defensive versatility, capable of playing the four corner spots.

Third baseman Max Muncy appeared to injure himself last night and may end up on the injured list. That could push Hyeseong Kim into a more regular role. The Dodgers came into today with four position players on optional assignment: catcher Hunter Feduccia and outfielders Esteury Ruiz, James Outman and Berroa. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported earlier today that Ruiz would be joining the team, presumably to take Muncy’s roster spot. Grabbing Alexander gives the Dodgers an optionable infielder who could be called upon if their infield group takes another hit.

Berroa, 26, was acquired from the Blue Jays in a cash deal in May. He has since put up a huge .330/.424/.433 slash line in 27 Triple-A games, though aided by a .403 batting average on balls in play in that sample, stealing 11 bases along the way.

Dating back to the start of 2023, he has a combined .268/.367/.401 line and 110 wRC+ in 955 minor league plate appearances. He has also stolen 101 bases in that time while playing all three outfield spots. He made his major league debut with the Jays last year, hitting .189/.333/.216 in 45 plate appearances.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Dodgers could take as long as five days to explore trade talks. The last time Berroa was in DFA limbo, the Dodgers gave up some cash to skip the waiver line. He has been in good form since then, so it seems like he has a decent chance of getting scooped up in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of Neville E. Guard, Imagn Images

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