Astros Select Jordan Weems
The Astros announced to reporters, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic, that right-hander Jordan Weems has been selected to the roster. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow righty Shawn Dubin, who has landed on the 15-day injured list due to a right forearm strain. Outfielder Pedro León has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.
Dubin has thrown 20 1/3 innings for the Astros this year with a 1.33 earned run average. That’s a fairly misleading number, however, as he won’t be able to maintain a 99.1% strand rate forever. His 22.2% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are closer to average, hence his 3.76 FIP and 3.73 SIERA being closer to par as well. Per Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle, Dubin hopes the strain is minor and believes he can avoid surgery. He had an MRI yesterday which will presumably determine if his feelings are accurate or not.
For now, Weems will take his roster spot. The 32-year-old signed a minor league deal with Houston earlier this month. He has since tossed 11 1/3 innings over nine Triple-A appearances with a 3.97 ERA. His 19.6% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate in that time were both subpar figures but his 54.3% ground ball rate was quite strong.
That’s obviously a small sample of work to judge. Weems has a larger track record of major league pitching, mostly with the Nationals. He had a decent two-year run for Washington over 2022 and 2023, logging 94 1/3 innings over those two seasons with a 4.29 ERA. His 10.1% walk rate was a tad high but he also struck out 25.4% of batters faced.
Since then, his results have backed up. His ERA spiked to 6.70 last year, with his strikeout and walk rate each worsening to 17.9% and 12.2% respectively. He was outrighted off the roster during the season and became a free agent. He signed a minor league deal with Atlanta but was released after posting a 5.09 ERA in 17 2/3 Triple-A innings.
Weems will give the Astros a fresh arm with some major league experience on his track record. He is out of options, so he’ll effectively have to be designated for assignment if the club wants to remove him from the active roster at any point.
As for León, he started the season on the 15-day IL due to a left MCL sprain. He’s already been on the shelf more than 60 days, so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time. He doesn’t appear close to a return, however. He started a rehab assignment in late May but was pulled off that after just five games.
Photo courtesy of Mike Lang, Imagn Images
Cubs Option Ben Brown
The Cubs announced Tuesday that they’ve optioned righty Ben Brown to Triple-A Iowa. Reliever Porter Hodge was reinstated from the injured list in a corresponding move. Brown’s demotion opens a spot in the rotation for lefty Shota Imanaga, who is set to return to start Thursday’s game for Chicago.
It’s been an up-and-down season for the 25-year-old Brown, who has at times looked the part of a potential long-term member of the Cubs’ rotation. More often than not — and especially recently — he’s struggled to work deep into games, however. Brown is sitting on a 6.13 ERA at this point, a number that’s been inflated over the past five weeks. In Brown’s past seven starts, he’s had individual outings wherein he’s yielded six runs (twice) and eight runs (twice). It’s derailed a decent start to the season for the promising young righty and has at least for now cost him his spot on the big league roster.
Imanaga’s return will bolster what’s been a reeling Cubs staff. They’ve made no secret about their plans to upgrade the rotation via the trade market. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer publicly said as much just two weeks ago. Even beyond that comment, a need for help was readily apparent. Chicago has lost ace Justin Steele for the season due to elbow surgery. Young righty Javier Assad has yet to pitch this season due to multiple oblique injuries. Colin Rea was excellent upon first moving into the rotation but has struggled over the past month, just as Brown has. Imanaga was sidelined nearly two months with a hamstring injury.
The Cubs’ need for pitching is no secret, but they’re one of just several clubs looking for immediate rotation help — and doing so at a time when there are few clubs around the league willing to engage in genuine trade conversations. Be that as it may, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score said in a radio appearance on 670’s Mully & Haugh this week (audio link) that the Cubs are being extremely aggressive and working on multiple fronts. Levine suggested a deal could come together well ahead of next month’s trade deadline and possibly even within the next week to ten days.
Levine downplayed the possibility of the Cubs acquiring former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, who’s slowly turning his season around after an awful start to the year in his return from Tommy John surgery. (Alcantara has a 2.74 ERA and 19-to-5 K/BB ratio in 23 innings across his past four starts.) Rather, he suggests that the Cubs have been looking at some less-obvious trade candidates around the league.
The Marlins themselves have other, less-heralded trade candidates than Alcantara (e.g. Edward Cabrera). The Mets appeared to have some arms available before injuries to Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill thinned their depth. Clubs like the Orioles, Twins and D-backs could ultimately end up with starters on the market, but none of them seem ready to move in a sell direction with five-plus weeks before the deadline. The Rays can never be discounted as a possible trade partner at any juncture, and they’re again rich in pitching (at a time when Joe Boyle and Ian Seymour are thriving in Triple-A). Zack Littell is almost certain to be available as a rental, but an aggressive team could try to make a more substantial offer for someone like Drew Rasmussen.
Those are all speculative possibilities, of course. The Cubs have kept their rotation search generally close to the vest. With Brown and Rea struggling recently and Matthew Boyd a bit banged up — he exited his most recent start after a rough landing on his shoulder when spearing a J.P. Crawford comeback liner (video link) — the need has become more noticeable. Boyd is on track to start tomorrow’s game for the Cubs, and the team called the issue “minor,” but it’ll still be worth tracking how he gets through tomorrow’s outing.
As for Brown, he’ll head back to Triple-A and look to get back on track. Injuries to any pitching staff are an inevitability, so even if the Cubs wind up adding a starter sooner than later, as Levine suggests, additional opportunities for Brown to start games could present themselves as the summer wears on. This is his second of three option years for the right-hander, so even if he stays down longer than 20 days and formally burns a minor league option, he’ll retain one more option year and remain a flexible piece for the Cubs moving forward. If Brown spends more than two weeks in Triple-A, it’d push his path to free agency back by a year.
Cardinals Claim Garrett Hampson, Designate Jose Barrero For Assignment
The Cardinals announced that they have claimed infielder/outfielder Garrett Hampson off waivers from the Reds. Infielder/outfielder Jose Barrero has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
Hampson, 30, joins his third team of the season and the sixth of his career. The increasingly well-traveled utilityman has taken 60 plate appearances between the D-backs and Reds but mustered only a .167/.310/.188 batting line in that time.
It’s not an impressive batting line, but Hampson has typically been known more for his speed and defensive versatility than his production in the batter’s box. Statcast pegs him in the 85th percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed, and Hampson has extensive experience at second base, shortstop and across all three outfield positions (mostly center). He’s also logged 121 big league innings at third base. In parts of eight major league seasons, Hampson is a .238/.301/.357 hitter.
It’s not the most exciting profile, but Hampson is faster and more versatile than Barrero, who has also struggled considerably at the plate in limited time with St. Louis. The former Reds top prospect has appeared in 22 games but tallied only 31 plate appearances, batting just .138/.194/.276. Barrero has played in parts of five major league seasons and batted .182/.238/.257 in 478 turns at the plate between the Reds and Cardinals.
Because he’s out of minor league options, Barrero couldn’t simply be sent down to Triple-A. He’d first need to clear waivers — which may be his ultimate destination now that he’s been designated for assignment. The Cards will have five days to find a trade partner before they have to put Barrero on waivers (a 48-hour process) in order to have his DFA resolved within the one-week maximum. He can, of course, be placed on waivers at any point between now and day five, if the team sees fit.
Barrero has had a big season in Triple-A this year, hitting .299/.396/.517 in 101 plate appearances. He’s a career .247/.324/.475 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons. Barrero has played primarily shortstop in his career but has logged more outfield time in recent years as Cincinnati and St. Louis both looked to expand his versatility.
Braves Sign John Brebbia To Minor League Deal
The Braves have signed right-hander John Brebbia to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett and will give Atlanta some veteran non-roster depth.
Brebbia, 35, was just released by the Tigers last week. Detroit had signed him in the offseason to a one-year deal with a $2.75MM guarantee. Around an injured list stint for a triceps strain, he gave them 18 2/3 innings with a 7.71 earned run average. There was some bad luck in there, with his .339 batting average on balls in play and 56.6% strand rate both to the unfortunate side, but he also had a subpar 11.8% walk rate and middling 21.5% strikeout rate.
That performance prompted Detroit to move on but Atlanta has snatched him up, as they did almost a year ago. Brebbia was released by the White Sox in August of last year, after posting a 6.29 ERA for that club, and wound up on Atlanta’s roster for most of September. He had a solid enough 2.70 ERA, though in a small sample of 6 2/3 innings. He hit free agency after that and signed his aforementioned deal with the Tigers.
Though the past two seasons have been challenging, Brebbia has a lengthy track record of being an effective big league reliever. From 2017 to 2023, he logged 299 2/3 innings for the Cardinals and Giants with a 3.42 ERA, 25.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. He earned two saves and 47 holds in that time. Even with his ERA spike last year, he still had strong strikeout and walk rates of 27.7% and 7.9%.
Atlanta’s bullpen has been middling this year. The relief corps as a whole has a 3.70 ERA, which puts them 14th in the majors. Joe Jiménez and Daysbel Hernández are each currently on the injured list. There’s no real risk on a minor league deal so signing Brebbia is a sensible addition.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
Corbin Carroll Placed On IL With Wrist Fracture
June 24: The Diamondbacks officially placed Carroll on the IL, retroactive to June 21st, and recalled McCarthy today.
June 23: Corbin Carroll has been diagnosed with a “chip fracture” in his left wrist, manager Torey Lovullo told D-Backs’ postgame host Todd Walsh (h/t to Jody Jackson). It’s unclear how long he’ll be out of action or whether there’s any consideration of surgery. Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic had reported shortly before Lovullo’s announcement that the D-Backs would place Carroll on the injured list tomorrow. According to Piecoro, Jake McCarthy will be recalled from Triple-A Reno to take his spot on the roster.
It’s the latest hit to an Arizona team that has been battered by injuries. In this month alone, they’ve lost Corbin Burnes and top relievers A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez to season-ending elbow surgeries. Starting catcher Gabriel Moreno went down with a broken index finger last week. They’ll now be without one of their top two hitters for what seems likely to be at least a few weeks.
Carroll was injured during last Wednesday’s loss to the Blue Jays. Toronto reliever Justin Bruihl hit him on the left wrist with a 91 MPH sinker. The D-Backs lifted him for a defensive replacement in the following half-inning. Carroll hasn’t played since and wasn’t recovering as well as hoped. The Snakes sent him for an MRI that revealed the bone break. It’s unfortunately similar to the situation that played out with Moreno, who initially continued to play after a first round of x-rays didn’t catch the hairline fracture in his finger.
The 24-year-old Carroll has had a fantastic season, hitting .255/.341/.573 with 20 homers in 72 games. He got out to a blistering start, cooled a bit in May, and had rebounded to reel off nine extra-base hits in 13 games this month. Carroll has been a fixture in the top two spots in Lovullo’s batting order all season. They’ve bumped Geraldo Perdomo to the leadoff spot, at least against right-handed pitching, in his absence. Randal Grichuk has drawn into the lineup as the right fielder.
Grichuk is a solid role player but obviously isn’t going to come close to replacing Carroll’s production. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the Diamondbacks still have a strong nucleus. A lineup including Ketel Marte, Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Perdomo should remain capable of scoring runs. They need an elite offense to compensate for the struggles of the injury-riddled pitching staff, though, and that’s much more difficult without Carroll at the top.
Arizona bludgeoned the White Sox for a 10-0 victory tonight. That brought them to 40-38 on the season. They’re in fourth place in the NL West but are just 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. Few teams have more at stake over the next five weeks as they hope to remain in position to add at the deadline.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Steve Adams
- Good morning! I’ll get going at 1pm, but feel free to send in questions sooner than that if you like.
- Greetings!
- Let’s get underway
Oz
- I don’t see any chance that the Braves can overtake 5 clubs currently ahead of them in the standings to qualify for the postseason, especially in view of the injury to Chris Sale. If they decide to be sellers at the trade deadline, who are their most marketable assets?
Steve Adams
- Marcell Ozuna, Aaron Bummer, Pierce Johnson. Raisel Iglesias if he gets right between now and July 31. President Alex Anthopoulos sure doesn’t sound like someone who’s keen on a mass sell-off, so even trading Johnson and Bummer with their affordable options might be deemed a bridge too far, but reliever performance is volatile and teams overpay for bullpen help every deadline.
Nolan Arenado
- Will Yanks, Astros, LAD, or Mets be interested in pursuing me this trade deadline? My defense is still superb, and while I had a down May, my April and June have OPS+’s of over 110
Steve Adams
- Astros won’t go over the CBT. Yankees, Mets and Dodgers would pay a 110% tax on Arenado’s continued offensive decline. He’s just not worth his current contract — especially not for a top luxury offender — and he has the full no-trade to boot.
- He’s not even an upgrade in L.A. over Muncy (raking since late April) or Paredes (great all year). Suppose you could play Paredes at 2B, but again, owner Jim Crane doesn’t want to cross the CBT line
Artie moreno
- Will we see Kyren Paris again this year. What does he need to do
Steve Adams
-
- Paris had a crazy start to the season but had terrible contact rates even when he was hot. It never felt sustainable. His contact rate since being sent to AAA is better than it was in the majors with the Angels but also worse than it was in AAA last year. I just don’t think he has the hit tool to be a big league regular, even though the power/speed combo is obviously tantalizing
Mets Reinstate Frankie Montas, Transfer Jesse Winker To 60-Day IL
The Mets announced that right-hander Frankie Montas has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Chris Devenski was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse as the corresponding active roster move. He has enough service time where he can’t be optioned without his consent, so he has presumably agreed to be sent down. To open a 40-man spot for Montas, outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker has been transferred to the 60-day IL.
Montas, 32, will be making his debut as a Met when he starts tonight’s game. At the moment, it’s difficult to guess what sort of quality of performance he’ll be able to provide. He was diagnosed with a lat strain back in mid-February. He started a rehab assignment in late May but hasn’t looked sharp, allowing 25 earned runs in 18 2/3 innings over six minor league starts.
Teams generally care more about health than results on a rehab assignment but a 12.05 earned run average is going to cause some concern. It would be one thing if Montas started rough and had been getting sharper but that hasn’t been the case. He surrendered five earned runs in five innings in his most recent outing, with just two strikeouts. The prior outing had seen him allow eight earned runs without getting out of the second inning.
Even before this year, there were question marks with Montas. He had missed almost all of 2023 due to shoulder surgery. Back on the mound in 2024, his 4.84 ERA wasn’t strong. The Mets seemed to be banking on his late-season strikeout surge. He had struck out just 19% of batters faced with the Reds but then 28.7% of opponents following a trade to the Brewers. He then headed into free agency and secured a two-year, $34MM deal from the Mets, with equal salaries of $17MM and an opt-out halfway through.
That was a notable investment in a pitcher who hadn’t been at his best in a few years. The Mets are also paying a 110% tax on spending beyond the top competitive balance tax threshold this year, making it an even more significant expenditure which they have yet to receive any return on.
Despite that cash outlay, the righty’s recent struggles on his rehab assignment almost pushed him to the bullpen. However, the club’s rotation picture changed quickly in recent weeks. Not too long ago, it seemed the club had so much rotation depth that a Paul Blackburn trade was reportedly considered. But then both Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill hit the injured list in the span of a few days, opening rotation space for both Blackburn and Montas alongside David Peterson, Clay Holmes and Griffin Canning.
If everyone is healthy, another squeeze could be just over the horizon. Sean Manaea is also on the IL and just a bit behind Montas in his rehab process. He recently made his fourth rehab appearance, getting to 62 pitches over 5 1/3 innings. Montas is getting a rotation spot for now due to the club’s need and the fact that his 30-day rehab window was closing but there will be pressure on him to perform in order to keep that spot.
As for Winker, he landed on the IL on May 5th due to a right oblique strain. His 60-day count is retroactive to that initial IL placement, so he’ll be eligible for reinstatement in early July. He was initially given a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks but the Mets recently said that he is still multiple weeks away from starting a rehab assignment.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
A’s Release Dylan Floro
The A’s have released veteran right-handed reliever Dylan Floro, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’d been pitching with the Athletics’ Triple-A club in Las Vegas but is now back on the open market.
Floro, 34, has an ugly-looking 7.04 ERA in 15 1/3 innings with the top A’s affiliate, but that number is skewed by one nightmare outing where the Dodgers’ Triple-A club pummeled him for five runs without recording an out. That outing accounts for 42% of his runs allowed in 16 appearances. Floro’s 17.1% strikeout rate in Triple-A is clearly well below-average, but he’s still showing good command (7.1% walk rate).
There are red flags beyond the one poor outing. Floro’s 88.2 mph average fastball velocity is down from last year’s 89.4 mph mark and down considerably from the 92.4 mph he averaged in 2022-23. He’s also made a career out of inducing weak contact but has yielded a blazing 94.7 mph average exit velocity and surrendered a 60.4% hard-hit rate. Those are both alarming trends for the well-traveled righty.
Concerning as those numbers are, Floro has a nice track record in the majors, with a 3.49 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate, 50.6% grounder rate, 32 saves and 53 holds in parts of nine MLB seasons. He posted a 3.80 ERA with a 17.2% strikeout rate and 6.1% walk rate in a combined 68 2/3 big league frames between the Nationals and D-backs last year, although his 2024 campaign was a tale of two seasons; Floro posted a 2.06 ERA in 52 1/3 innings with the Nats before being clobbered for a 9.37 ERA in 16 1/3 innings with Arizona.
The Opener: Burns, Simpson, MLBTR Chat
Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on throughout the day:
1. Chase Burns to make MLB debut:
It’s a big day for fans of the Reds, as top pitching prospect and second overall pick in last year’s draft Chase Burns is set to make his major league debut today. He’ll take the mound at Great American Ball Park against Yankees southpaw Carlos Rodon (3.10 ERA) in a game scheduled for 7:10pm local time. Burns has been sensational through 13 starts across three levels of the minors this year, combining for a 1.77 ERA and 36.8% strikeout rate in 66 innings. Even when zeroing in on just his two starts at Triple-A, Burns has been quite impressive with a 2.19 ERA and 30.4% strikeout rate in 12 1/3 innings of work. His rapid ascent through the minors and dominance at every level has made it clear he’s ready for the challenge of the big leagues, though the Yankees are a tough first assignment given that they lead the AL in runs scored and wRC+.
2. Simpson to return:
One of the sport’s fastest players is headed back to the majors. As noted by Adam Berry of MLB.com, the Rays are poised to recall Chandler Simpson from the minors today to take over center field duties from the recently-optioned Kameron Misner. Simpson stole a whopping 19 bases in just 35 games (22 attempts) and batted .285/.315/.317 (85 wRC+) during his first stint in the majors earlier this year. In conjunction with some lackluster defense in center field, that lack of power and paltry 4.5% walk rate resulted in Simpson returning to the minors at the beginning of June. Since then, he’s hit a robust .366/.416/.465 at the Triple-A level. He’ll get another opportunity as the Rays face the Royals at Kauffman Stadium tonight, where he’ll be tested by southpaw Kris Bubic (2.12 ERA).
3. MLBTR Chat today:
With just over a month to go until the July 31 trade deadline, chatter about trade season has already begun in earnest. While it will be difficult for another in-season blockbuster to top the Devers deal from earlier this month, a handful of smaller deals have started to come together around the league as well. Whether you’re looking ahead to the deadline or still trying to sort between the contenders and pretenders, MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat scheduled for 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Trade Deadline Outlook: Philadelphia Phillies
MLBTR's team-by-team look at the upcoming deadline continues with the Phillies. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has never been afraid to take swings, and this year figures to be no exception as they battle the Mets for control of the NL East.
Record: 47-31 (90.7% playoff probability, per FanGraphs)
Buy Mode
Potential needs: Late-inning relief, corner outfield, center field, second base
Philadelphia has fewer holes than most teams do. They're the rare club that probably feels good about their rotation depth. They've stacked much of the everyday lineup with star players, most of whom are performing up to expectations. The top priority is a familiar one for the fanbase and front office: stabilizing the back of the bullpen.
Jordan Romano, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm are their top in-house options at the back end. Strahm is consistently effective but not a prototypical power arm. Romano's first season in Philly has been up-and-down. Kerkering has high-octane stuff and has gotten excellent results since the start of May, but he's always at risk of losing the strike zone. Rookies Mick Abel and Andrew Painter are starting pitching prospects but might make a greater impact this year in the late innings. Still, that's a lot of onus to put on young pitchers.
Unlock Subscriber-Exclusive Articles Like This One With a Trade Rumors Front Office Subscription
- Access weekly subscriber-only articles by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, and Anthony Franco.
- Join exclusive weekly live chats with Anthony.
- Remove ads and support our writers.
- Access GM-caliber tools like our MLB Contract Tracker