- Do you want to spend today at a cookout with your friends, family and neighbors? Or do you want to spend it talking to a Canadian about baseball on the internet?
- Use your freedom to decide on that and I'll be back at 2pm Central. Feel free to drop questions in the meantime.
- Hello.
- Do you hear the chimes of freedom where you are?
- There's construction going on outside my home, so I can barely hear myself think.
- Let's enjoy discussing baseball together.
Western skies
- Happy four days after Canada Day! The Braves are saying all the right things, but they’re going to more than tweak before the deadline, right? I’ve thought for some time they will use the All-Star stuff as a showcase/diversion before making any big moves. Then what?
Steve
- Do you think the Braves sell after the Schwellenbach news? Would Olson to the Red Sox for Casas plus some other pieces be possible?
notsohotlanta
- As the Braves continue their quest to prove they are pulseless ,when does the sale/trade begin? When does Snitker and the hitting staff exit?
Darragh McDonald
- Barring a red-hot streak in the coming weeks, I do think Atlanta needs to accept their fate and sell. I assume that, internally, they are aware things aren't going well.
- I understand why AA felt the need to project outward confidence. You don't want to tell your players you're waving the white flag.
- But making a run with no Sale, Schwellenbach, Lopez or AJSS is really hard to see.
- FanGraphs gives them just a 13.5% chance of making the playoffs as of this moment. Unless they crack off a 13-game winning streak or something, I think they will do some selling, at least of impending free agents.
- I don't think Olson will be available.
- As for Snitker and the staff, that I don't know. The World Series victory surely gives him a lot of rope but things have been trending down for a few years now.
-
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Rangers Designate Billy McKinney For Assignment
With Evan Carter returning from the bereavement list today, the Rangers have designated Billy McKinney for assignment. It was a quick stint in Arlington for the 30-year-old outfielder.
McKinney signed a minor league contract with the Rangers in May after he was released by the Mets. Following a strong month at Triple-A Round Rock, he got the call to the majors earlier this week when Carter was placed on the bereavement list. He went 1-for-7 with a walk and a run in two games. While he didn’t get much of a chance to prove himself for Texas, his .295/.433/.487 slash line and 137 wRC+ for Round Rock might be enough to convince a team in need of outfield depth or a lefty bench bat to take a chance on him via trade or a waiver claim.
A first-round pick in 2013, McKinney has never been able to live up to that billing. He has, however, carved out a legitimate major league career for himself. He has appeared in the majors each year since 2018, suiting up for the Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Mets, Dodgers, Athletics, Pirates, and Rangers. He also spent time in the Cubs’ minor league system early in his career. Over the past eight years, he has appeared at all three outfield spots as well as first base and DH, playing a total of 323 MLB games. He will look to increase that number once his DFA is resolved.
As for the Rangers, they are surely pleased to have Carter’s hot bat back in their lineup and his glove back in center field. The 22-year-old has an .816 OPS and a 133 wRC+ this season, and a .965 OPS and 173 wRC+ over the past month. He has also compiled 2 DRS and 3 OAA in center field and has yet to make an error all season. Even better, the Rangers are also hoping to have Wyatt Langford back from the injured list this weekend. Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News notes that Langford is eligible to return tomorrow and reports that the young outfielder is already back in the clubhouse ahead of today’s game.
Blue Jays Select Lazaro Estrada, Transfer Anthony Santander To 60-Day IL
2:53 PM: The Blue Jays have made it official and selected Estrada’s contract from Triple-A Buffalo. To free up room on the 26 and 40-man rosters, the team optioned left-hander Justin Bruihl to Triple-A and transferred outfielder/DH Anthony Santander from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Santander will now not be eligible to return until late July.
7:10 AM: The Blue Jays are set to select the contract of right-hander Lazaro Estrada today, according to a report from Yordano Carmona of Pelota Cubana USA. Toronto’s 40-man roster is full, so a corresponding move will be necessary to make room for Estrada on both the active and 40-man rosters. Should Estrada make an appearance while on the roster, it would be his big league debut.
Estrada, 26, was born in La Habana, Cuba and made his pro debut with the Blue Jays back in 2018. After losing a season of development to 2020’s cancelled minor league season, Estrada managed just 39 1/3 innings of work total between 2021 and ’22 due to injuries. That slowed his ascent up the minor league ladder considerably, and he only cracked the Double-A level just last year. Despite that slow-going path to the majors, however, Estrada posted a 3.29 ERA across three levels of the minors last year and has followed that up by more or less holding his own at the Triple-A level this year. He has a 4.75 ERA through 15 starts, but his 24.8% strikeout rate is quite strong for a starter while his 7.8% walk rate is roughly average.
It’s not entirely clear what role Estrada will play now that he’s headed to the majors. The Blue Jays have a full rotation for the first time in a while, with Max Scherzer back from the injured list and southpaw Eric Lauer having more than earned a spot in the starting five after posting a 2.60 ERA on the season, including a 3.32 ERA in four starts since moving to the rotation last month. That duo is joined by Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, and Jose Berrios. While each of those three is having somewhat middling seasons overall, none of them should be expected to move out of the rotation barring a trip to the injured list.
That makes the most likely outcome for Estrada a move to the bullpen. The right-hander could serve as a solid complement to Lauer, who for all his effectiveness has capped out around 85 pitches this year. That could make having a multi-inning righty able to piggyback off of Lauer an attractive option, and Estrada would also be able to more generally provide length to a bullpen that has been leaned on heavily in recent days.
White Sox Recall Colson Montgomery For MLB Debut, DFA Vinny Capra
Today: The White Sox have officially announced Montgomery’s promotion. To open a space on the active roster, the team designated infielder Vinny Capra for assignment. They had claimed Capra off waivers from the Brewers in May. He hit .190 with a .443 OPS over 23 games in Chicago, while splitting his time between second base, third base, and shortstop. The White Sox now have five days to trade Capra. If they cannot find a taker, they must place him on outright or release waivers.
In an additional transaction, the White Sox reinstated left-handed pitcher Fraser Ellard from the 60-day IL and optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Because Montgomery was already on the 40-man and Ellard will essentially take Capra’s spot, Chicago’s 40-man roster remains at 38 players.
July 3: The White Sox will promote Colson Montgomery for this weekend’s series against the Rockies, reports Kris Norton of WITZ Radio in Indiana. Montgomery is already on the 40-man roster, so the Sox only need to make an active roster move.
It’s the first MLB call for the 23-year-old, who’ll likely make his MLB debut tomorrow against Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela. Chicago’s first-round pick in 2021, the lefty-hitting shortstop was one of the sport’s top prospects not too long ago. Montgomery placed among Baseball America’s top 50 minor league talents entering each of the past three seasons. BA ranked him as the best prospect in the Sox’s system each year from 2022-24.
Montgomery is listed at 6’3″ and 230 pounds, giving him big raw power potential for a middle infielder. A very patient plate approach led to strong on-base marks against low minors pitching, but he has had a tougher time against more polished arms. Montgomery spent all of last year at Triple-A Charlotte, where he hit .214/.329/.381 in 130 games. He connected on 18 home runs with a strong 12% walk rate but struck out in nearly 29% of his trips to the plate.
Chicago needed to add Montgomery to the 40-man roster last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He’d surely have been selected despite the middling Triple-A numbers, so that was an easy call for the front office. They optioned him back to Charlotte to begin the season, and he’s had similar concerns in his second crack at the level. He has struck out a third of the time while batting .218/.298/.435 in 55 games.
While the season numbers don’t exactly demand a promotion, they’re weighed down by an atrocious April. Montgomery had a serviceable May and was very productive in June, batting .281 with six homers and 11 extra-base knocks in 16 games. The plate discipline concerns persist — he struck out 22 times while drawing only five walks in 71 plate appearances last month — but he’d shown enough from a power perspective for the team to give him a look.
The Indiana native has played four games at third base this year but has otherwise been a full-time shortstop in his minor league career. It’s unlikely the Sox would call him up if they weren’t prepared to give him everyday playing time at his natural position. Rookie Chase Meidroth has gotten the playing time there. Meidroth, acquired from the Red Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade, is hitting .260 with a solid .347 on-base percentage. He hasn’t shown any kind of power, but the disciplined approach is probably enough to stay in the lineup.
Meidroth’s defensive grades are serviceable, but most scouting reports project him as a second baseman. The Sox could slide him to the keystone and move Lenyn Sosa to third base to push Josh Rojas out of the mix. Sosa is a known commodity as a utility type as well, so the focus should be on getting Montgomery and Meidroth into the lineup on a daily basis.
Yankees Place Clarke Schmidt On 15-Day IL With Forearm Tightness
The Yankees have placed starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tightness. In additional pitching transactions, the team optioned Clayton Beeter to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre yesterday and recalled Scott Effross and Jayvien Sandridge this morning.
Schmidt, 29, exited early on Thursday after giving up three runs in three innings against the Blue Jays and later revealed that he has been nursing some tightness in his forearm for a month (per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). He is going for imaging today (per Greg Joyce of the New York Post), which is worrisome enough, but the fact that the team placed him on the IL before his MRI is further cause for concern. Joyce suggests that it is not yet clear if the Yankees will be able to offer an update on Schmidt by the end of the day today.
The right-hander sat out the first three weeks of the season with rotator cuff tendonitis. Upon his return, however, he picked up right where he left off in 2024 (another injury-shortened but nonetheless successful campaign). Through 16 starts this year, Schmidt has pitched to a 3.32 ERA and 4.23 SIERA. Add that to his 16 starts from last year, and you get a 3.07 ERA and 3.97 SIERA through 30 starts and 164 innings. In other words, it’s not hard to see why he’s so important to the middle of the Yankees’ rotation and why losing him to the IL again would be a significant loss for the club.
New York’s rotation was already stretched thin with Gerrit Cole out for the year, Luis Gil out since spring training with a lat strain, and Ryan Yarbrough recently hitting the IL with a strained oblique. Max Fried and Carlos Rodón make for as good of a top two as you’ll find on any AL club, but Will Warren has been wildly inconsistent in his rookie season, and Marcus Stroman only just returned from a long IL stint of his own. The only other healthy starter on the 40-man roster is 29-year-old Allan Winans, who has excelled at Triple-A but has a career 7.38 ERA over 10 MLB games. JT Brubaker can also start, but he has been pitching out of the bullpen this year and has not started in the majors since 2022. According to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, the team considers pitching prospect Cam Schlittler a potential option for the rotation in the second half, but it’s unclear if they would call him up sooner. He has been excellent in the minors this season, but this is only his third professional campaign, and he only has five starts at Triple-A under his belt. So, if Schmidt misses significant time – and even if he doesn’t – the Yankees could seek some outside help for the rotation as they look to regain first place in the AL East.
Cubs Place Jameson Taillon On 15-Day IL With Calf Strain
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
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
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
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
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.
