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Nationals Notes: Susana, Cavalli, Law

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Top pitching prospect Jarlin Susana has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 UCL sprain, and will be shut down from throwing for the next two weeks.  Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman) that the team will then evaluate Susana’s next steps at that time, but for now, Martinez described the injury as a “best-case scenario” given the initial concerns over Susana’s elbow.

The right-hander is far from out of the woods yet, as he’ll still be facing a significant absence even if he avoids surgery and doesn’t have any further arm discomfort.  As Zuckerman notes, if Susana’s recovery doesn’t take and ends up needing a surgery anyway, this early hopeful diagnosis could end up costing Susana some time and only delay his time on the sidelines.

Acquired as part of the blockbuster Juan Soto trade with the Padres in 2022, Susana was a consensus pick on preseason top-100 lists, topping out at 19th overall on Fangraphs’ ranking of the game’s best prospects.  Other evaluators like ESPN (53th), Baseball America (67th), and MLB Pipeline (79th) were a little less bullish, but the bottom line is that the fourth-year pro has plenty of potential.

Advancing to the Double-A level for the first time this season, Susana has a 4.15 ERA and a 31.1% strikeout rate in 26 innings in Harrisburg, though his walk rate has swelled to 16.4%.  Control problems have long been the biggest issue facing Susana, who is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the minors.  His plus-plus fastball sits at or above the 100mph threshold, and Susana also has an excellent slider as a secondary offering.  While Susana has a promising future as a starter, he might also project as a future closer given the one-two punch of his fastball/slider combo.

Speaking of injured Nationals pitchers, Cade Cavalli was officially activated off the 15-day injured list today and optioned to Triple-A.  Cavalli underwent a Tommy John surgery in March 2023 and ran into a setback in the form of dead arm syndrome during his rehab process last year.  Cavalli pitched 8 1/3 minor league innings over three appearances in the minors in 2024, and he has a 5.27 ERA over 13 2/3 innings (across three different minor league levels) this season during another rehab assignment.

Washington put Cavalli on the big league IL to begin the season, so as Zuckerman observes, officially ending that IL stint is at least a good sign that Cavalli’s health problems at behind him.  He can now continue to pitch in the minors outside of the limits of a rehab assignment, though it will still be a while before Cavalli builds up enough arm strength to make a return to the Nationals’ rotation a possibility.

Cavalli was the 22nd overall pick of the 2020 draft, and was also top-100 prospect before the TJ surgery interrupted his career.  The right-hander did get a cup of coffee in the majors, as Cavalli’s MLB resume consists of a single start (4 1/3 innings) in August 2022.

Derek Law also started the season on the 15-day IL due to forearm inflammation, and Zuckerman reports that Law is set to throw off a mound this week for the first time since Spring Training.  A right flexor strain put Law on the IL late in the 2024 season, and some continued discomfort from that injury lingered throughout the offseason, and kept Law from pitching throughout almost all of the Nationals’ spring camp.  Initially considered to be a relatively precautionary IL placement, Law’s forearm problem has now cost him a quarter of the season, and it seems like he’ll miss at least the rest of May since he’ll need plenty of time to ramp up.

Marcus Stroman Has Setback In Rehab From Knee Inflammation

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The Yankees have temporarily shut down Marcus Stroman after the right-hander reported continued knee soreness following a live batting practice session on Friday.  Manager Aaron Boone told the Associated Press and other media that Stroman felt some “discomfort” in his bothersome left knee, and despite “a lot of treatments on it and stuff, it just can’t kind of get over that final hump to really allow him to get to that next level on the mound.”

Monday will mark a full month since Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, and Boone suggested that the injury existed well before the IL placement, contributing to Stroman’s 11.57 ERA over his first three starts of the season.  Stroman received a cortisone shot to deal with the swelling and scans didn’t reveal any structural damage, yet the knee still isn’t showing much progress all these weeks later.  Given this latest development, Boone didn’t have a timeline in place for when Stroman might resume throwing, let alone when the right-hander might be back in New York’s rotation.

After a month on the IL and still apparently weeks to go before returning, Stroman may already be out of time in terms of vesting his player option for the 2026 season.  Stroman’s two-year, $37MM deal from the 2023-24 offseason carried a vesting clause that would allow Stroman an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitched at least 140 innings in 2025.

Stroman tossed 154 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball last season, and his relative durability over his career made that 140-inning threshold seem like quite a reasonable possibility….that is, if he were still a starting pitcher.  The Yankees explored trading Stroman this past winter with an eye towards opening up payroll space, and because at the time, Stroman wasn’t projected as one of the team’s top five rotation candidates.  Stroman was quite blunt about his intent on remaining in the rotation, and as it turned out, Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery and Luis Gil’s long-term lat strain suddenly opened up two spots in the starting five.

Max Fried has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season and Carlos Rodon has been solid, but Will Warren, Clarke Schmidt (who also started the season on the IL), and Carlos Carrasco (who was outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier this week) have all struggled to varying degrees.  Swingman Ryan Yarbrough got the start today and pitched well in the Yankees’ 12-2 rout of the Athletics, and Yarbrough might be the top candidate to step in for Carrasco as the fifth starter.

Gil started his throwing progression a couple of weeks ago, and is expected to be out until June or July.  Assuming Stroman is also back before Gil, that will give the Yankees some time to evaluate their rotation prior to the July 31 trade deadline, though it would seem like the club will surely be in the market for at least one more arm or two.

Latest On Blake Snell

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Blake Snell is set to meet with Dodgers team doctors on Monday as the parties try to determine the next step in his recovery from left shoulder soreness.  Snell’s shoulder is still bothering him, to the point that plans to resume playing catch earlier this week were put on hold until Snell received a check-up from the medical staff.

Snell has been on the 15-day injured list since April 3, and tests haven’t revealed any structural damage within his throwing shoulder.  He did start throwing in mid-April and had one bullpen session, but continued discomfort in his shoulder scrapped plans for another pen session on April 23.  MLB.com’s Sonja Chen writes that Snell has received an injection in his shoulder since April 23, though the treatment didn’t appear to do much to solve the issue.

More will be known about Snell’s status once the check-up actually takes place tomorrow, though it can’t be considered a good sign that the two-time Cy Young Award winner has now gone close to three weeks without throwing, and what was initially thought to be a relatively minor shoulder issue has now cost Snell an increasingly big chunk of the 2025 season.

Injuries have long been a subplot of Snell’s career, yet when healthy, Snell has looked like one of the better pitchers in the sport over the last decade.  The Dodgers were encouraged enough by this upside to sign Snell to a five-year, $182MM free agent deal this past winter, even though a variety of injuries in the first half of the 2024 season limited him to 104 innings with the Giants last year.

Given this track record, nobody would be surprised if Snell again looks like an ace whenever he returns to the L.A. mound.  The fact that Snell hit the IL after just two starts in Dodger Blue is certainly ominous, however, and those concerns won’t dissipate unless Snell gets some good news in tomorrow’s check-up, or (more directly) when he is actually on a clear track to a return to action.

Tyler Glasnow is also set to meet with team doctors tomorrow, though this appears to be something of a final step before the right-hander gets the green light to start a formal rehab process.  Glasnow went on the 15-day IL on April 28 due to his own case of shoulder inflammation, and that placement was soon followed by news of a 10-14 day shutdown.  That shutdown period is now complete, as manager Dave Roberts told Chen and other reporters that Glasnow is pain-free and started playing catch this weekend.

Assuming tomorrow’s check-up goes well, it will still be a while before Glasnow is back off the IL, as he’ll need time (and probably at least one minor league rehab start) to fully rebuild his arm strength.  But especially given the uncertainty surrounding Snell, Glasnow’s return to at least light throwing is a good sign.

Snell and Glasnow are two of a whopping 13 pitchers on the Dodgers’ seemingly ever-crowded injured list, and Shohei Ohtani could technically be considered the 14th given how Ohtani hasn’t pitched since undergoing a UCL-related surgery in September 2023.  However, a major name is set to be activated next weekend, as Clayton Kershaw threw what is expected to be his final minor league rehab outing today.

Kershaw tossed 57 pitches over four innings with Triple-A Oklahoma City in today’s start, which was the fourth outing of his rehab stint.  Kershaw underwent surgeries on his left plantar plate and a torn left meniscus last November, and began the season on the 60-day injured list as part of that recovery process.  Because the Dodgers’ season began earlier than usual due to their series in Tokyo with the Cubs, May 17 represents the first day that Kershaw is eligible to be activated off the 60-day IL.  Whether Kershaw is activated on the exact day or the next, the future Hall-of-Famer will make his 2025 debut during next weekend’s series against the Angels.

Once Kershaw is back, Los Angeles will be back up to a five-man rotation that also includes Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Tony Gonsolin, and Dustin May.  Since Yamamoto and Sasaki are on once-a-week pitching schedules to emulate their usage in Japan, the Dodgers should still deploy an unofficial six-man staff to make up for those extra starts, with the likes of Landon Knack, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski, or others stepping into spot duty.

Cubs Sign Tommy Romero To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have signed right-hander Tommy Romero to a minor league deal, according to the transactions tracker on Romero’s MLB.com player page.

Romero, 27, was a 15th-round pick by the Mariners back in 2017. He was traded to the Rays shortly thereafter as part of the Alex Colome deal back in 2018 and spent years in the Rays organization before finally making his big league debut in 2022. Unfortunately for Romero, that debut did not go especially well as he was torched to the tune of a 7.71 ERA in 4 2/3 innings for Tampa. He was designated for assignment not long after, and while he was plucked off waivers by the Nationals he fared even more poorly in D.C. with eight runs (six earned) allowed in just 3 2/3 frames. The Nationals kept him on the 40-man roster through the remainder of the 2022 season but non-tendered him that November.

That wasn’t the end of Romero’s time with the organization, however, as they re-signed him to a minor league deal just a few short months later. He pitched as a swingman for the Nationals at the Triple-A level in 2023, but did so with lackluster results as he posted a 5.44 ERA with an untenable 15.2% walk rate. Romero caught on with the Giants last year and pitched much more effectively there, however. In 72 2/3 innings for the club’s Sacramento affiliate, Romero posted a 3.14 ERA with a 22.1% strikeout rate against a 12.4% walk rate. Those numbers are solid enough on paper but become all the more impressive when you consider Romero was pitching in the Pacific Coast League’s inflated offensive environment. That season added to an overall strong body of work for Romero at the minor league level; he has a career 3.08 ERA in the minors, and 2023 was his only season where he posted a figure higher than 3.24 at any level.

Despite that generally strong track record and a solid platform season, Romero did not return to affiliated ball for the start of the 2025 campaign. Instead, he headed for the Mexican League and pitched for the Guerreros de Oaxaca, though he was lit up for a 7.27 ERA across two starts with them. After that brief sojourn to the south, Romero is back in affiliated ball with the Cubs and could theoretically be part of the club’s starting depth going forward. Expecting a minor league journeyman to replace the production of injured front-end arms Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga would be foolish, but the club has also lost depth options like Javier Assad and Brandon Birdsell to the injured list this year who Romero could more plausibly fill in for. What’s more, top prospect Cade Horton and veteran starter Chris Flexen were both recently promoted to the major leagues, creating vacancies in the club’s Triple-A rotation.

Perhaps one of those vacancies will be filled by Romero, who could certainly pitch his way into an opportunity with Chicago if enough injuries crop up. Currently, the club’s rotation options on the big league roster are Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Ben Brown, Colin Rea, Horton, and Flexen. It’s a group that features a number of veteran arms with lengthy injury histories, as well as two young pitchers who figure to have their innings managed after missing most of last season. That creates plenty of room for depth arms to get play at the big league level for the Cubs, although options like Jordan Wicks and Connor Noland will likely land ahead of Romero on the club’s depth chart.

Orioles Activate Zach Eflin

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The Orioles have activated right-hander Zach Eflin from the injured list ahead of his start against the Angels this afternoon, per a team announcement. Right-hander Colin Selby was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Eflin on the active roster. In an additional move, southpaw Trevor Rogers was activated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A.

Eflin, 31, went on the shelf just over a month ago with what was described at the time as a “low-grade” lat strain. The right-hander has been a revelation for the Orioles ever since he was acquried from the Rays ahead of last year’s trade deadline. He pitched to a 2.60 ERA in nine starts down the stretch last year, and his first three starts of 2025 saw him post a 3.00 ERA despite an unusually small 11.8% strikeout rate. The Orioles were 5-6 after Eflin’s last start with the club, but since losing him from the front of their rotation the wheels have come off. The club has posted a brutal 9-18 record since then, however, and much of those struggles have been attributable to lackluster performances in the rotation.

Since the day Eflin went on the shelf, Baltimore has the worst rotation in baseball by FIP (6.10), and the third-worst by ERA (5.97). Tomoyuki Sugano has pitched quite well with a 2.72 ERA despite his 4.61 FIP and 14.2% strikeout rate, but that doesn’t appear to be particularly sustainable and the rest of the rotation has ERAs north of 5.00 across the board. Perhaps adding Eflin to the rotation ahead of Sugano can help stabilize things, particularly if he rediscovers the bat-missing abilities he flashed when he struck out 21.0% of opponents down the stretch last year. Even so, more reinforcements appear to be necessary if the Orioles are going to have a serious chance of getting back into the playoff picture.

One other potential rotation option was also activated from the IL today alongside Eflin: Rogers. Acquired from the Marlins in exchange for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby at last year’s trade deadline, Rogers struggled badly in four starts for the Orioles before being optioned to Triple-A late last year. He could have been in the mix for a rotation job this spring had he not suffered a kneecap subluxation in January that slowed his start of the season. He’s been ramping back up ever since, and is finally healthy enough to be activated from the shelf. With that being said, he’s currently set to act as Triple-A depth for the club rather than come up and pitch in the majors immediately. Perhaps that’s a sensible decision, seeing as he’s struggled to a 7.50 ERA across four rehab starts this year.

Making room for Eflin on the active roster is Selby, who made his big league debut with the Pirates back in 2023. He struggled to a 9.00 ERA in 24 innings of work, and since then has bounced between the Royals and Orioles organizations with just 10 2/3 frames in the majors total over the past two years. Most recently, he’s logged 3 2/3 innings of 4.91 ERA ball for Baltimore this year. He’ll head to Triple-A as a potential depth option for the birds going forward.

Jose Altuve Exits Due To Hamstring Tightness

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May 11: Altuve is not in the Astros’ lineup today, but manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) this morning that the veteran came in today feeling better and that he could be back in the lineup in a day or two.

May 10: Astros veteran Jose Altuve began today’s game against the Reds at second base, but was pinch hit for by Brendan Rodgers in the third inning. Houston later announced that he had departed the game with what they termed “tightness” in his right hamstring.

Further information about Altuve’s status will likely be available after the game, including whether the issue is severe enough that the 35-year-old will require a trip to the injured list. Altuve has gone on the shelf due to hamstring problems twice in his career, once in 2019 and once in 2022, though both of those instances were due to strains of his left hamstring. That he doesn’t have a substantial history of hamstring issues on his right side provides some reason for optimism, but it should still be expected that the Astros will at least send Altuve for an MRI to determine the severity of the issue. Even mild hamstring strains can take a few weeks to recover, so it would hardly be a surprise if the club ended up deciding to place Altuve on the 10-day injured list.

Sensible as that decision may be, it would be difficult for the Astros to replace Altuve. The nine-time All-Star hasn’t looked like himself at the plate this year, hitting just .259/.304/.374 with a below average 93 wRC+ and what would be the highest strikeout rate of his career in a 162-game season, but Houston’s depth from which to replace Altuve is the lineup is minimal at best. Rodgers and Mauricio Dubon would surely be the club’s choices to handle duties at the keystone, but both have hit even less than Altuve to this point in the calendar. Second base is no longer Altuve’s primary position, however, after he moved to left field during Spring Training.

With Yordan Alvarez already on the injured list at present, the club’s outfield and DH mix would be paper thin if Altuve were to be removed from the mix. Jake Meyers is playing every day in center field, but the outfield corners would be patrolled by some combination of Cam Smith (95 wRC+), Chas McCormick (90 wRC+), and Zach Dezenzo. Dezenzo has mostly looked good (117 wRC+) in 20 games with the Astros this year, though his 29.5% strikeout rate is high enough to raise alarm bells. Perhaps Yainer Diaz can help fill in at DH until Alvarez returns from the shelf with Victor Caratini joining the lineup behind the plate, but that does little to solve the lackluster production from the outfield corners.

Even with Altuve in the mix, the Astros’ production in left field this year is the third weakest in all of baseball. Removing Altuve from the mix would only serve to weaken that production, and the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster is Kenedy Corona, who sports a lackluster 67 wRC+ at the Triple-A level this year. Barring an external addition or the surprise promotion of a prospect like Jacob Melton, an injury for Altuve would likely mean even rougher production in the outfield for an Astros club that has already fallen to third place in the AL West with a pedestrian 19-18 record.

Rockies Select Ryan Rolison, Transfer Kris Bryant To 60-Day IL

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The Rockies announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Ryan Rolison. Kris Bryant was transferred to the 60-day to make room for Rolison on the 40-man roster after he recently underwent an ablation procedure on his back. Colorado also announced that righty Anthony Molina has been recalled from Triple-A, while righties Bradley Blalock and Juan Mejia were optioned to Triple-A to make room for Rolison and Molina on the active roster.

Rolison, 27, was the Rockies’ first-round pick back in 2018 but has yet to make his major league debut. The southpaw’s career has been thrown off track by plenty of missed time. He missed the entire 2020 season due to the cancelled minor league season, missed multiple months in 2021 due to an appendectomy, and lost his entire 2022 campaign due to shoulder injuries. He returned in 2023 but once again battled shoulder problems, leaving him to make just four starts that season. Since then, he’s mostly pitched out of the bullpen for the Rockies, with a 4.67 ERA in 34 appearances at the Triple-A level over the past two years. That includes a solid 3.72 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate this year, however. With Rolison now finally in a groove after years of injury-marred campaigns, it seems the Rockies are going to take the opportunity to get their former first-round talent into a big league game for the first time in his career.

Moving off the 40-man roster to make room for Rolison is Bryant. It’s hardly a surprise to see the 33-year-old transferred to the 60-day IL given the seriousness of the procedure he underwent this past week to try and alleviate the chronic back pain stemming from his chronic lumbar degenerative disc disease. Ablation destroys the nerves in an area causing pain in an effort to eliminate pain signals from that area. As Bryant told reporters (including Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball Media) yesterday, he won’t resume baseball activities for a “couple weeks” before beginning to ramp up as is feasible in terms of pain tolerance. That leaves him with no concrete timetable for his return, but he did make clear he hopes to return to the field during the 2025 season.

Regardless of when Bryant ultimately ends up returning, 2025 already appears to be the latest in a string of seasons where the former MVP has been derailed by injuries. The veteran was among the game’s perennial All-Stars as recently as 2021 and carried a .278/.376/.504 career slash line into the 2022 season. After signing a seven-year deal with the Rockies during the 2021-22 offseason, however, Bryant has appeared in just 170 games total while slashing a well below-average .244/.324/.370. With Bryant having returned -1.6 bWAR/-1.8 fWAR at the halfway mark in his contract, it’s hard to imagine the deal being anything other than a bust for the Rockies once all is said and done.

Even so, with three seasons and $81MM left on the contract after 2025, the Rockies are surely hoping that Bryant can eventually get healthy enough to be a legitimate contributor before his contract comes to a close. While the sort of production that earned him the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2015 and the MVP award the following season is unlikely to be in the cards at this point, it’s not impossible to imagine Bryant being able to get back to being an above-average hitter; after all, he did manage to hit a solid .306/.376/.475 in 42 games with the Rockies back in 2022.

As for the club’s other roster moves, Molina joins the big league roster for the first time this year after pitching to a 6.79 ERA in 35 relief outings for the Rockies last year. Mejia made his MLB debut earlier this year and sports a 4.70 ERA across six appearances, while Blalock is in his second MLB season but has struggled to a 12.94 ERA in 16 innings of work for Colorado this year.

Giants Notes: Hicks, Encarnacion, First Base

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Giants right-hander Jordan Hicks made his eighth start of the season on Friday, posting six innings of three-run ball against the Twins. He struck out six while issuing zero walks in the quality effort, but even after that outing his season ERA sits at a lackluster 5.82. The right-hander’s difficult start to the season has led to questions about whether or not he’ll continue to get starts in the San Francisco rotation, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle notes that manager Bob Melvin stood by the 28-year-old in his comments after Friday’s game.

While Melvin acknowledged that the possibility of a return to the bullpen is “always potentially there” due the hard-throwing righty’s years of success in a relief role with the Cardinals, he added that the Giants are “not talking about that at this point.” The presence of Hicks in the rotation alongside veterans Logan Webb, Justin Verlander, and Robbie Ray leaves just one spot in the club’s starting mix for a young arm. That spot is currently being occupied by Landen Roupp, who has a lackluster 4.89 ERA in seven starts this year but strong peripherals, including a 3.95 FIP.

The inclusion of Roupp and Hicks in the rotation leaves right-hander Hayden Birdsong and southpaw Kyle Harrison both limited to bullpen roles for the time being. Both have taken to their new jobs quite well, with Birdsong posting a 1.47 ERA in 18 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen this season while Harrison has five strikeouts in three hitless innings since being called up to the majors last week. Both hurlers clearly have the arsenals necessary to start, but it’s unclear when an opportunity for either player will arise barring injuries within the current starting five.

Moving on to the lineup, the club has been without slugger Jerar Encarnacion all season after suffering a fracture in his hand just before Opening Day and undergoing surgery shortly thereafter. Encarnacion slashed .248/.277/.425 in 35 games for the Giants last year and a strong camp with San Francisco earned him the opportunity to serve as their everyday DH this year before his injury changed things. Since then, veteran Wilmer Flores has taken over as the club’s primary DH and has bounced back from a lackluster 2024 season to hit a solid .245/.295/.410 in 149 trips to the plate so far this year.

Slusser writes that the Giants like the idea of keeping Flores in that primary DH role in order to keep the 33-year-old healthier throughout the season. That might seem as though it leaves Encarnacion, primarily an outfielder and DH, without a spot in the lineup as he gears up for a rehab assignment, but Slusser notes that Melvin told reporters Encarnacion will be seeing time at first base during his rehab assignment. LaMonte Wade Jr. has hit a paltry .150./246/.252 in 123 plate appearances as the club’s primary first baseman this year, and Encarnacion could potentially take over the position for the time being, or at least provide a possible offensive upgrade over David Villar as a platoon partner for Wade. Whoever gets reps at first base will be feeling pressure from the minor leagues given the presence of consensus top-25 prospect Bryce Eldridge in the minors, but the 20-year-old has just 15 games at the Double-A level this year and is unlikely to be considered for a promotion to the majors until later in the year if he’s even on the radar to debut this year at all.

Mets Among Teams To Show Recent Interest In Luis Robert Jr.

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10:15am: Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that there is “nothing hot” between the Mets and White Sox regarding Robert as things stand, though he goes to acknowledge that the Mets have “checked in” on him previously and that center field could be an area the club has interest in upgrading.

9:15am: White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. has long appeared to be the club’s most obvious trade chip for the 2025 season, and a report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last weekend suggested that Chicago may be motivated to move Robert before the end of May if he were to continue playing well throughout the month. Robert has gone just 4-for-19 at the plate with one walk and five strikeouts since that piece was published, but today Nightengale reports that teams have begun to show interest in Robert with the Mets among the clubs to have checked in.

The 27-year-old could certainly make plenty of sense in Queens. Robert’s offense has left much to be desired over the past two years, as he’s slashed just .215/.282/366 with a lackluster 82 wRC+ across 137 games since the start of the 2024 season. That’s essentially a full season’s worth of games where Robert has struck out at a 32.6% clip and hit just 19 homers, though he has walked at a solid 8.3% clip and stolen 38 bases in that time while serving as a capable defensive option in center field.

While Robert’s recent production isn’t exactly exciting, it’s impossible to deny his talent. Staying healthy has always been a question for Robert, but he offered star-level production when on the field from 2021 to 2023 with a .287/.331/.511 (129 wRC+) slash line and 10.6 fWAR in just 311 games. That’s a four- to five-win player over a full season, and while his recent downturn in production makes expected a five-win campaign like his 2023 season somewhat unrealistic, it’s worth noting that Robert’s been hurt badly this year by a .244 BABIP that falls well below the career norm for a player who’s never posted a figure below .300 before in a season. A look at Robert’s solid .326 xwOBA would suggest that his underlying performance this year is more or less in line with the production he put forward in 2022, when he slashed .284/.319/.426 with a wRC+ of 111 in 98 games.

That sort of production would be extremely valuable for a Mets club that already lost its starting center fielder in Jose Siri for the first half of the season due to a fractured tibia. That’s left Tyrone Taylor to handle center field duties in Queens, and while he’s been serviceable with a .249/.295/317 (90 wRC+) slash line, he’s not exactly been an impact player for the Mets and lacks the superstar upside Robert offers. Center field is one of very few holes in New York’s lineup; the club is only ranked below average by both fWAR and wRC+ at three positions so far this year: second base, left field, and center field. Brandon Nimmo is entrenched in left and has wound up above-average at the plate in each of the last eight seasons, while second base is covered by a combination of Luisangel Acuna, Brett Baty, and Jeff McNeil. None of those names have firmly grabbed hold of the everyday job at the keystone to this point, but that depth of options makes an external addition seem unlikely.

That leaves center as the obvious place for an upgrade, and the pickings at the position figure to be slim this summer outside of Robert. Perhaps Cedric Mullins could be available if the Orioles can’t dig themselves out of their current hole in the standings. The Twins could deal either Willi Castro or former Met Harrison Bader if the club’s current seven-game winning streak proves to be simply a flash in the pan. Robert stands out from that pack, however, as an option controlled beyond the 2025 season (via a pair of $20MM club options for 2026 and ’27) and by offering higher upside than any of them.

Of course, any deal would be contingent on the sides being able to agree on an asking price. Nightengale writes that the White Sox are “eyeing” right-hander Blade Tidwell as part of the of a possible return package, though it’s unclear if the Mets would have any interesting in parting ways with the 23-year-old. Tidwell made his big league debut last week, and while it didn’t go well (six earned runs in 3 2/3 innings), he remains a valuable part of the starting pitching depth chart for a Mets club that has dealt with a number of early-season pitching injuries already. It would be understandable if the Mets were hesitant to include a big league ready arm like Tidwell in the return for Robert, especially if the deal were to happen early in the season before the trade market heats up in earnest. Speculatively speaking, the club could be more open to dealing a player like Tidwell later in the year, when they may have either received reinforcements from the injured list or swung separate trades with other clubs to acquire more starting pitching.

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