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Tigers Designate Three Players For Assignment

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The Tigers designated infielder Eddys Leonard and relievers Ricky Vanasco and Brendan White for assignment. Their spots on the 40-man roster will go to righties Chase Lee, Tyler Mattison and Tyler Owens. Detroit kept that trio out of next month’s Rule 5 draft.

Leonard has held a spot on Detroit’s 40-man roster since they acquired him in a minor trade with the Dodgers in August 2023. The 24-year-old infielder hit .253/.320/.435 between three minor league levels this year. He hasn’t appeared in the majors. Vanasco also landed in Detroit via a small trade with Los Angeles — this one coming this past July. He pitched two scoreless innings at the major league level and has four career appearances. White, who turned 26 yesterday, pitched to a 5.03 ERA across 40 2/3 innings as a rookie in 2023. He spent most of this season on the minor league injured list.

The three players joining the roster are all upper level bullpen arms. Lee, an Alabama product, came over from the Rangers at this year’s deadline in the Andrew Chafin trade. The 26-year-old righty turned in a 2.75 ERA across 36 innings between the two organizations. He punched out 30% of batters faced with a tidy 6.8% walk rate.

Mattison, a 6’4″ pitcher out of Bryant, posted excellent strikeout numbers this year. He fanned nearly 38% of hitters en route to a 2.41 ERA across 59 2/3 innings between High-A West Michigan and Double-A Erie. While the 25-year-old was a bit more advanced than most hitters he faced, he pitched well enough that another team could’ve tried to stash him in the middle innings.

Owens, 24 in January, has been traded twice since entering pro ball as a 13th-round pick in 2021. Originally an Atlanta draftee, he went to the Rangers last offseason for outfielder J.P. Martínez. Texas dealt him to Detroit as part of the Carson Kelly deadline deal. The 5’10” hurler put up a 2.96 ERA while striking out just over a quarter of opponents in Double-A this year.

Rangers Select Three Players To 40-Man Roster

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The Rangers have selected the contract of right-hander Emiliano Teodo ahead of today’s Rule 5 Draft protection deadline, as first reported by Ari Alexander of KPRC2. The Rangers also announced that they’ve selected the contracts of infielder Max Acosta and right-hander Winston Santos. Texas’s 40-man roster now stands at 39 following the club’s decision to return 2024 Rule 5 Draft pick Carson Coleman to the Yankees.

Teodo, 23, has spent the past fours years in the Rangers system after making his pro debut back in 2021. The righty began his career pitching exclusively in relief but moved into a rotation in 2022. Despite rather pedestrian numbers in the lower minors including a 4.52 ERA in 61 2/3 innings at High-A last year, Teodo impressed in the Arizona Fall League that autumn with eight scoreless relief appearances where he struck out an eye-popping 48.7% of opponents faced. That exciting performance earned the right-hander a job in the Rangers’ Double-A rotation this season, where he has continued to excel. In 86 1/3 innings of work in 2024 spread across 20 appearances (19 starts), Teodo dominated during his first taste of upper minors action to the tune of a 1.98 ERA and a 30.7% strikeout rate with the club’s Frisco affiliate and even started the 2024 Futures Games for the AL.

Despite those fantastic numbers, he’s nonetheless struggled with his control throughout his time in the minors, and that only worsened this year as his walk rate reached an unsustainable 14%. While that’s not a figure that would play in the majors even when paired with a strikeout rate north of 30%, it’s not hard to imagine Teodo’s impressive stuff translating to success at the highest level as soon as 2025 if he were to move back to relief. Given that potential for near-term success in the big leagues, it’s hardly a surprise that the Rangers opted to protect Teodo from the upcoming Rule 5 draft. Now that he’s on the 40-man roster, it’s possible he could find himself in the mix for a big league bullpen job at some point in 2025, though it’s also easy to imagine the Rangers deciding to try and iron out the righty’s control problems in hopes he may have a future in the rotation.

Acosta, meanwhile, is a 22-year-old who signed with the Rangers out of Venezuela and made his pro debut in 2021 as well. Primarily a shortstop, Acosta has also played plenty of second base throughout his time in the minors while posting solid but unspectacular offensive numbers. The infielder took a step forward with the bat at Double-A this year, however, slashing a respectable .288/.353/.425 in 104 games. Of particular note is Acosta’s dramatic reduction in strikeout rate, which dropped from 21.1% in 2023 to 13.4% this year. Acosta combines that improved contact ability with strong baserunning skills, as he’s swiped 96 bases over the past three years. That combination of speed and contact ability at a premium position may have been enough to earn Acosta consideration for the club’s 40-man roster already, but he sealed his case by catching fire during the Arizona Fall League this year with a .338/.413/.521 slash line in 80 trips to the plate.

Santos, 22, signed with the Rangers out of the Dominican Republic and made his pro debut in 2021 alongside Acosta and Teodo. The righty turned in a brutal season at Triple-A last year, surrendering a 6.29 ERA in 98 2/3 innings of work. He managed to turn things around in his second taste of action at the level, however, as he posted a 2.80 ERA and a 30.5% strikeout rate in 12 starts (64 1/3 innings). That performance earned him the bump up to Double-A, where his struggles from the previous year resurfaced in his first taste of the new level. In ten starts, Santos posted a 4.89 ERA while maintaining an impressive 29.5% strikeout rate against a 7.2% walk rate. Santos’s struggles at Double-A came primarily from issues with the long ball, as he surrendered eight homers in just 46 frames. Despite those struggles, Santos’s high strikeout rates seemingly convinced the Rangers to play it safe and roster him rather than run the risk of losing him in next month’s Rule 5 draft.

Twins Select Marco Raya, Travis Adams

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The Twins have selected the contract of right-handers Marco Raya and Travis Adams. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN first reported Raya’s selection (on X). Minnesota’s 40-man roster count is up to 37.

Raya, one of the Twins’ top pitching prospects and coming off a solid 2024 showing, was an obvious add. The 2020 fourth-rounder spent most of the season pitching in Double-A as a 21-year-old and holding his own against much more advanced competition. He moved up to Triple-A for one start late in the season and fired five shutout frames. Overall, the 6’1″, 175-pound righty tossed 97 2/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate.

Raya finished the season ranked sixth or better among Twins prospects at each of Baseball America, MLB.com and FanGraphs. He’s undersized relative to other right-handed starters but sits 96 mph with his four-seamer. Scouting reports on the right-hander praise the plus to elite spin rates on that four-seamer and his mid-80s slider, both of which are bat-missing offerings. He’ll also mix in a changeup, curveball and cutter, rounding out a deep arsenal to help him keep opponents off balance regardless of handedness. Raya isn’t likely to be a candidate for the Opening Day roster, but he’ll be in the mix if the Twins are looking for rotation help next summer.

Adams, 25, was a sixth-round pick out of Sacramento State. The 6’1″ hurler has worked out of the rotation in the minors. Adams started 22 of 26 appearances between the top two minor league levels this year. He turned in a cumulative 3.90 earned run average over 127 innings. Adams struck out a league average 22.6% of batters faced against a sub-7% walk rate. He’ll serve as rotation depth for Minnesota and could debut next season.

Royals Select Three Players To 40-Man Roster

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The Royals have selected left-hander Noah Cameron, right-hander Luinder Avila, and right-hander Eric Cerantola to their 40-man roster ahead of this evening’s Rule 5 Draft protection deadline, per a team announcement. No corresponding moves were necessary, and the club’s 40-man roster now stands at 37 players.

Cameron, 25, was a seventh-round pick by the Royals in 2021. A starter at every level of the minors so far, the southpaw struggled badly in his first taste of Double-A action last year but made significant strides this year. After seeing Cameron pitch to a solid 3.63 ERA in 16 starts at that level, the Royals promoted him to Triple-A where he really took off over nine starts down the stretch. In 54 1/3 Triple-A innings, Cameron posted a 2.32 ERA while striking out 29% of opponents and walking just 5.1%. That late-season breakout at the highest level of the minors surely made it an easy decision to roster the lefty ahead of today’s protection deadline.

Avila, 23, signed with the Royals out of Venezuela and made his pro debut back in 2018. The righty moved to stateside ball in 2021 as a starting pitcher and has generally stayed in that role throughout his time in the minors. This year, Avila made 19 starts for the club’s Double-A affiliate in Northwest Arkansas, pitching to a solid 3.81 ERA in 82 2/3 innings of work with a 22.9% strikeout rate. That earned Avila a promotion to Triple-A, though he was shelled for five runs in 4 1/3 innings of work in his lone start at the level this year. Even so, the Royals evidently decided he was close enough to the majors to warrant protection from the Rule 5 Draft next month.

Cerantola, 24, was selected by Kansas City in the fifth-round of the 2021 draft. The right-hander has mostly acted as a multi-inning reliever throughout his time in the minors and posted big strikeout numbers in Double-A this year, punching out 31.7% of opponents faced. Unfortunately, that was accompanied by an untenable 16.2% walk rate. The right-hander’s 2.78 ERA in 58 1/3 innings at the level earned him a midseason promotion to Triple-A, but those underlying issues remained following the promotion. In 14 1/3 frames at the minors’ highest level, Cerantola walked 12.5% of opponents but made up for it with a 31.3% strikeout rate while posting a 3.77 ERA for the Royals’ Omaha affiliate. As an upper-minors relief prospect with impressive stuff, it’s hardly a surprise the Royals decided to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft rather than risk a team attempting to stash him in their bullpen next year.

Yankees Select Caleb Durbin, Jesus Rodriguez

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The Yankees announced that they have selected infielder Caleb Durbin and catcher/infielder/outfielder Jesus Rodriguez to their 40-man roster, protecting both players from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Additionally, the Yanks announced that right-hander Carson Coleman has been returned to them by the Rangers. Coleman had been selected in last year’s Rule 5 draft but spent all of 2024 on the injured list.

Durbin, 25 in February, was drafted by Atlanta but came to the Yankees in the December 2022 trade that sent Lucas Luetge the other way. Since then, he has taken 697 plate appearances across multiple levels, drawing walks at an 11.3% rate while only striking out 8.3% of the time. He has slashed .287/.391/.440 for a wRC+ of 127 while stealing 67 bases in 79 tries. He has done so while playing the three infield positions to the left of first base while also spending a bit of time in the outfield.

Last week, manager Aaron Boone spoke glowingly of Durbin, saying he expected him to play a big role on next year’s team. With Gleyber Torres becoming a free agent, the club has a vacancy at second base. Perhaps Jazz Chisholm Jr. could move over there but he could also stay at the hot corner. Time will tell if Durbin can carve out a regular role or perhaps be in a utility gig or be in the minors as depth. Either way, given that he has opened some eyes, it’s not surprising that he’s getting a roster spot today.

Rodriguez, 22, is likely further from contributing to the big league club. He hasn’t yet reached Triple-A and only has 23 games at the Double-A level. Still, it’s understandable that the Yanks wanted to protect him, given his strong offensive numbers. In 1,168 minor league plate appearances, he has struck out just 14.3% of the time and walked at a strong 11.6% clip. His combined batting line of .311/.397/.477 leads to a 143 wRC+.

He will likely still need some more time in the minors but should eventually factor in at the big league level. He has spent some time behind the plate but also in left field and the three non-shortstop infield positions.

As for Coleman, the Rangers took him in the 2023 Rule 5 draft even though he had undergone Tommy John surgery a few months earlier. The Rangers put him on the 60-day injured list early in the year but were likely hoping to activate him at some point. Unfortunately, he was never able to come off the injured list during the 2024 campaign.

They could have kept him on the roster but the Rule 5 restrictions would have carried over into next year. He also would require a 40-man roster spot throughout the winter, as there is no injured list again until spring training. Instead, the Rangers decided to move on and sent him back to the Yankees, who do not need to add him to their 40-man roster today.

Orioles Select Kade Strowd, Brandon Young

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The Orioles announced that they have selected right-handers Kade Strowd and Brandon Young to their 40-man roster, protecting them being available in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The 40-man roster now has 39 players on it.

Strowd, 27, was a 12th-round pick of the Orioles in 2019. He has posted some intriguing numbers in the minors in terms of strikeouts and grounders, but also with a notable amount of walks. Over the past two years, he has thrown 106 2/3 innings with a 5.32 earned run average. His 12.3% walk rate in that time is certainly high but he’s also struck out 28.4% of batters faced while getting grounders on more than half of the balls in play he’s allowed.

Young, 26, signed with the O’s as an undrafted free agent in 2020. He missed decent chunks of both 2022 and 2023 due to elbow surgery but seemed to get back on track this year. He tossed 111 innings over 27 appearances between Double-A and Triple-A with a combined 3.57 ERA. He struck out 28.5% of batters faced while giving out walks just 8% of the time.

Both players have reached Triple-A and will give the O’s some immediate depth in 2025, Strowd in the bullpen and Young in the rotation. The starting staff just lost Corbin Burnes to free agency while Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are going to start the season on the injured list after undergoing surgeries this year. The club will presumably be making some moves to alter their staff in the coming months, but they didn’t want these two to be plucked away by another club in the Rule 5, so they get roster spots today.

Angels Designate Jordyn Adams, Eric Wagaman For Assignment

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The Angels made a couple changes to their 40-man roster on Tuesday. Los Angeles designated outfielder Jordyn Adams and infielder Eric Wagaman for assignment. That opens a pair of 40-man roster spots for infielder Matthew Lugo and left-hander Jack Dashwood, both of whom are now ineligible for next month’s Rule 5 Draft.

Adams, 25, is perhaps the most well-known of the group. He was the 17th overall pick in the 2018 draft. The Halos bet on his speed and power potential, but the bat hasn’t progressed as hoped. Adams has a middling .252/.333/.377 batting line over six minor league seasons. That includes a .261/.333/.386 showing across 549 Triple-A plate appearances this year. That’s well below-average production in the Pacific Coast League. Adams has appeared in 28 big league games over the last two seasons, hitting .176 with a near-36% strikeout rate in sporadic playing time.

Wagaman had a nice season in the upper minors. Selected out of the Yankees organization in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft, he hit .274/.339/.469 between Double-A and Triple-A. That earned Wagaman, an Orange County native, a cup of coffee with the Halos. He hit a pair of homers with a .250/.270/.403 slash in 18 games. As a 27-year-old rookie who has never had much prospect fanfare, he had an uphill battle to holding his 40-man roster spot all winter.

Lugo, 23, is a former second-round pick of the Red Sox. He went unselected in last year’s Rule 5 before a breakout showing in the minors. The Puerto Rico native hit .287/.376/.578 with 17 homers in 79 games between the top two minor league levels. He’s one of four players the Angels acquired in the deadline deal sending veteran reliever Luis García to the Sox. Two others, Niko Kavadas and Ryan Zeferjahn, already made their MLB debuts late last season. Lugo could join them in Anaheim next year.

Dashwood, who turned 27 this week, was a 12th-round pick out of UC Santa Barbara in 2019. The 6’6″ southpaw spent most of this season on the minor league injured list. He ran a 15:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 10 innings at the Double-A level and punched out 17 batters in 10 frames during the Arizona Fall League. The Halos were concerned that another team would skip him past Triple-A and jump him to the majors, so they’ll give him a roster spot. He’ll probably open next year in the Triple-A bullpen.

Red Sox To Select Hunter Dobbins, Jhostynxon Garcia

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The Red Sox are adding a pair of players to their 40-man roster ahead of tonight’s Rule 5 protection deadline. Right-hander Hunter Dobbins is having his contract selected, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier adds that Boston will also select outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia. Those are the only two players the Sox are adding, per Speier. They’ll need to open a pair of 40-man spots in order to make them official.

Boston selected Dobbins, now 25, with their eighth-round pick in 2021. He started 21 Double-A games and another four in Triple-A this past season, logging a combined 3.08 ERA with a 22.9% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. Dobbins was the organization’s minor league starting pitcher of the season and ended the year ranked 26th among the team’s farmhands, per Baseball America. He’s 93-94 mph with his heater on average and pairs the pitch with a slider, splitter and curveball.

The 21-year-old Garcia (first name pronounced yos-TIN-son) split this past season between Low-A, High-A and Double-A. He laid waste to pitchers at the former levels (.258/.365/.517, five homers in 104 plate appearances in Low-A; .311/.371/.627, 16 homers in 229 plate appearances in High-A) before posting more modest results at the most advanced of his three stops (.263/.320/.386, two homes in 126 plate appearances).

Garcia is a power-over-hit prospect who’s played center field but seems likelier to settle into a corner. He walked in just 7.2% of his plate appearances this season against a 21.7% strikeout rate. That marks an improvement over the 30.4% strikeout rate he logged in 2022 and the 25.5% mark he posted in 2023, but the increased contact has come at the expense of his formerly plus walk rates.

Reds Select Tyler Callihan, Luis Mey

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The Reds announced that they have selected infielder/outfielder Tyler Callihan and right-hander Luis Mey to their 40-man roster, protecting both players from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 draft. The 40-man roster count climbs to 39.

Callihan, 25 in June, was a third-round pick of the Reds in 2019. Due to the pandemic and Tommy John surgery in 2021, he didn’t play much in the years following his draft. He is coming off a season in which he posted some pretty strong numbers. He got into 73 games this year, 69 of those in Double-A and four in Triple-A. In that time, he slashed .276/.359/.429 for a wRC+ of 133.

Given his small amount of experience at the top minor league level, he will probably head back to that level next year. He has experience at the three non-shortstop infield positions and left field as well, so he can give the club some depth at a variety of spots around the diamond.

Mey, 23, has great stuff but hasn’t really been able to harness it yet. Over the past four years, he has thrown 123 2/3 innings with a 4.66 earned run average. He struck out 26.1% of batters faced in that time and got plenty of ground balls but also walked 17.5% of batters faced.

He has yet to reach Triple-A and has just 19 Double-A appearances. Given that and his lack of control, he seems to be a bit of a long-term project for the Reds. If they can develop him in the coming years, he could factor into their big league bullpen down the line.

Mets Acquire Jose Siri

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The Mets and Rays announced a one-for-one trade sending outfielder Jose Siri to New York for reliever Eric Orze. Both players were on their teams’ 40-man roster, so the trade doesn’t have any impact on tonight’s Rule 5 protection deadline.

Siri, 29, spent two and a half seasons in Tampa Bay. The Rays acquired him from the Astros in a three-team trade at the 2022 deadline. Siri has been Kevin Cash’s primary center fielder going back to the start of the ’23 season. He connected on 25 home runs in only 364 plate appearances that year. While the power was enough to make Siri a productive player, he hit .222 with a .267 on-base percentage.

Those already poor marks fell even further in 2024. Siri hit .187/.255/.366 in a career-high 448 plate appearances. He popped another 18 homers but ranked last in OBP among the 207 hitters with at least 400 trips to the plate. Only Mitch Garver had a lower batting average. Since the start of the ’23 season, Siri owns a .203/.260/.424 batting line.

An extreme free swinger, Siri has issues making contact against pitches both within and outside the zone. He went down on strikes at a massive 37.9% rate this year and has fanned in nearly 36% of his career plate appearances. Siri strikes out far too often to be a consistently effective hitter, but he has 20+ homer potential at the bottom of a lineup.

More importantly, Siri has elite athleticism that makes him one of the best defensive players in baseball. He’s a top-of-the-scale runner with elite arm strength. Siri has posted excellent numbers for his glovework in center field. Defensive Runs Saved credited him as 12 runs above average in a little over 1000 innings this past season. Statcast was even more bullish, rating him 15 runs above par. By measure of Statcast’s Outs Above Average, Siri was tied for second with Cardinals rookie Michael Siani among outfielders in defensive value. Only Washington’s Jacob Young narrowly surpassed him. Brenton Doyle and Daulton Varsho are the only outfielders with more Outs Above Average since the start of 2023.

Siri probably slots behind Tyrone Taylor on New York’s center field depth chart. Both players are right-handed hitters, so they don’t make for a natural platoon. Taylor has much better contact skills than Siri brings to the table. He’s coming off a solid .248/.299/.401 showing in his first year as a Met.

There are clear parallels between Siri and Harrison Bader, to whom the Mets gave 437 plate appearances this year. They’re each fantastic defensive outfielders with some power but subpar on-base skills. Bader is again a free agent after playing on a $10.5MM deal. Siri is much more affordable. He’s in his first of three arbitration seasons and is projected for a $2.3MM salary (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz). If the Mets again find themselves in the top tier of luxury tax penalization, they’ll pay roughly $2.53MM in taxes on top of that salary. They control him through the 2027 campaign.

While Siri remained affordable, the Rays were evidently prepared to move on because of his lackluster offense. Their only other player who got an extended look in center field this year was Jonny DeLuca. Acquired from the Dodgers in the Tyler Glasnow trade, DeLuca hit just .217/.278/.331 in his first extended MLB look. He’s nearly as fast as Siri and could be a plus defensive center fielder in his own right, but he doesn’t bring much offensive juice.

While Dylan Carlson once looked like a potential everyday center fielder in St. Louis, his bat has never developed as hoped. Josh Lowe is probably better suited in a corner, though he could theoretically move back to center if the Rays add another bat or want to play Christopher Morel and Richie Palacios in the corner outfield on a regular basis.

As they look to sort out center field, the Rays add to their bullpen depth. Orze, 27, was a fifth-round pick in the shortened 2020 draft. His only big league experience consists of two games for the Mets in July. He was blown up in that limited look, surrendering four runs in 1 2/3 innings.

The 6’4″ righty had a solid year at Triple-A Syracuse. He tossed 61 2/3 innings of 2.92 ERA ball, striking out nearly a third of opponents behind an excellent 15.4% swinging strike rate. Orze walked more than 12% of batters faced and has struggled with his command throughout his pro career. That could relegate him to a middle relief role. Orze uses his changeup as his primary pitch and sits in the 93-94 MPH range with his fastball. He barely has any major league service and can be optioned for another two seasons, so he’ll likely bounce between Tampa Bay and Triple-A Durham on multiple occasions over the next couple years.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com first reported the terms of the trade. Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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