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Astros Place Justin Verlander On Injured List

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The Astros announced that they have placed right-hander Justin Verlander on the 15-day injured list due to neck discomfort, retroactive to June 16. Right-hander Nick Hernandez has been recalled from Triple-A as the corresponding move.

Verlander, 41, was supposed to start for the Astros on Saturday but was scratched due to the discomfort in his neck. The pitcher told Chandler Rome of The Athletic that the issue has been bothering him for weeks. “When I was out there, I felt like it wasn’t really bothering me, but when I go home and sit down and really think about it, I think it’s too much of a coincidence that my mechanics were really thrown off at the same time I was dealing with this,” Verlander said Saturday afternoon.

The hope seemed to be that Verlander would recover with a few days of extra rest. “If this was playoff time, I’d like to think I’d be out there,” Verlander said. “But that pattern where it’s every day getting a little bit better, I think with the off days, it’s best to let it fully resolve itself and I hope it does.”

Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to pass. Earlier today, Rome relayed on X that manager Joe Espada told Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790 that Verlander’s progress has been “slower than we expected.”

It seems that the decision has been made to let him rest up and get the issue taken care of. Verlander had a 3.26 earned run average on the year before his last two starts each resulted in four earned runs allowed over five innings, bumping him up to 3.95. Perhaps there’s good sense in giving him a quick breather to get healthy as opposed to continuing to send him out there when he’s not at his best.

Though it may end up just being a brief stint on the injured list, it’s still notable for the Astros, as rotation health has been the unfortunate top story of their poor season to this point. They have known since last year that they would be without Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. for most of this season, as they both underwent significant surgery last year. Since the season started, they have lost Cristian Javier and José Urquidy to Tommy John surgery.

Verlander has also been away from that group, as he started the season on the IL due to right shoulder inflammation. He was reinstated in the middle of April but is now back on the shelf again. That leaves the Astros with a rotation consisting of Framber Valdez, Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti. Valdez and Blanco have been good and Brown has recovered from a rough start, but Arrighetti is currently an ERA of 6.37.

The larger concern may be the lack of exciting options to step up and join that group while Verlander is out. J.P. France is on the 40-man roster but hasn’t pitched since late April due to a shoulder injury. Blair Henley is also on the 40-man but has uninspiring results in Triple-A this year and was lit up in his major league debut earlier this season. Eric Lauer is in the system on a minor league deal but has a 6.30 for Sugar Land at the moment.

Thanks in part to the ongoing rotation problems, the Astros are 33-39, their worst start in years. They are seven games out of a playoff spot and still have time to turn things around but Verlander’s absence will exacerbate a problem that has been going on all year.

Blue Jays Place Bo Bichette On Injured List, Recall Orelvis Martinez

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The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, with shortstop Bo Bichette placed on the 10-day injured list with a right calf strain, retroactive to June 15. Infielder Orelvis Martinez was recalled and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. They also made a bullpen swap, with left-hander Brandon Eisert optioned as right-hander Ryan Burr was recalled.

Bichette hasn’t played since Friday due to this calf issue. The Jays didn’t place him on the IL right away as they monitored the development of the injury, but it seems it didn’t heal up as hoped and the determination was made to place him on the shelf. Since the move is backdated, he could be back in as soon as a week’s time if he feels better. Manager John Schneider says that is indeed the hope, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet on X.

It’s been a rough season overall for Bichette, who is hitting just .237/.286/.342 on the year, a far cry from the .299/.340/.487 line he carried into the season. It’s possible that some of that is batted ball luck, as he had a .349 batting average on balls in play coming into the year but has a .271 BABIP in 2024, but he also has just four home runs this season and a 4.7% barrel rate that’s roughly half of the 9.2% rate he has for his entire career.

He may have been turning things around after a really rough start, as he slashed .280/.321/.410 in the month of May for a 108 wRC+. His numbers in June ticked down again, though it’s possible that the calf had started nagging at him before it actually took him out of the lineup. Regardless, he’ll have at least a week to rest up and take a breather.

His injury will allow Martinez to come up to the majors for the first time. Now 22 years old, he was a fairly high-profile international signing out of the Dominican Republic, securing a bonus of $3.51MM from the Jays in 2018. As he has climbed the minor league ladder, he has made good on that strong bonus by becoming a top 100 prospect, with his home run power standing out as his most exciting tool.

In 2021, he got into 98 games between Single-A and High-A, hitting 28 home runs in that time. He was promoted to Double-A in 2022 and there was a bit of concern with his early results there. He struck out at a 28.5% clip and slashed just .203/.286/.446 that year. But the Jays still didn’t want him exposed in that year’s Rule 5 draft and added him to their 40-man roster.

He returned to Double-A to start 2023 and the results were much better. He cut his strikeout rate to 20.5% and also drew walks at a huge 14% clip. He hit 17 home runs in 70 games and slashed .226/.339/.485 for a wRC+ of 122. He was promoted to Triple-A in July of last year and now has 118 games for the Bisons under his belt with 27 home runs. His 25.4% strikeout rate in that time is a bit high but he’s also drawn walks at a 9.7% clip.

There is some slight platoon concern, as Martinez has hit .321/.406/.661 against lefties this year but just .240/.324/.480 the rest of the time, but he’s also still quite young and has shown an ability to adjust when challenged.

Defense is also a bit of question mark for Martinez. He spent a lot of time at shortstop in previous seasons but hasn’t played there in 2024, mostly lining up at second base with a bit of time at third base also mixed in. Despite the flaws, Martinez has enough upside at the plate that he’s considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him #54 overall, FanGraphs #71 and MLB Pipeline #68. Coming into the season, Keith Law of The Athletic put him in the #57 spot, though Kiley McDaniel of ESPN didn’t have Martinez on his list.

Since Martinez hasn’t been playing shortstop this year, he won’t be a direct replacement for Bichette. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been holding down that spot with Bichette out of action in recent days and will likely continue in that role, with Ernie Clement and Addison Barger capable of chipping in as well.

Martinez will be in the mix for some playing time at second and third alongside Clement, Barger, Davis Schneider and Spencer Horwitz. The club has also experimented with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting some time at third and he could be in the mix there as well.

The Jays have been struggling to find offense this year and recently cut both Daniel Vogelbach and Cavan Biggio from the roster, calling up Horwitz and Barger in an attempt to find some extra runs. The recall of Martinez was more motivated by Bichette’s injury but could perhaps help in that regard as well, though it’s possible it’s just a brief stay on the roster if Bichette is indeed back quickly.

The Jays are currently sporting a record of 35-37, not completely buried in the standings but they’re five games back of a playoff spot at the moment. They are reportedly going to wait until after the All-Star break to decide on how they approach the July 30 deadline.

If the recent roster shakeup can help them climb in the standings, then perhaps they can avoid a summer selloff. If not, the rumors on players nearing free agency will grow louder. That’s particularly true of Guerrero and Bichette, who are each set to hit the open market after 2025. Though with Bichette struggling this year and now injured as well, the Jays may have concerns about selling low, compounded by the public relations hit of selling a player who has been such a key part of the franchise for years. That will make the coming weeks very interesting for the club and Bichette, with the trade deadline on July 30, six weeks from today.

Luis Perales To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Red Sox right-hander Luis Perales will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports on X. The young righty will therefore miss the remainder of this season and likely much of 2025 as well.

It’s an unfortunate blow for Perales, who impressed the Red Sox enough to get a 40-man roster spot in November. Though he had not yet reached the Double-A level, the Sox were concerned enough about losing him in the Rule 5 draft to select him in November.

Now 21, he was signed as an international amateur out of Venezuela in 2019. The pandemic canceled the minor leagues in 2020 and then injuries limited Perales to just two innings in 2021. He was able to make a bit of progress in 2022, tossing 35 2/3 innings between the Complex League and Single-A, with a combined earned run average of 1.77 that year.

He really took a step forward last year, splitting his time between Single-A and High-A. He tossed 89 2/3 innings over 21 starts with a 3.91 ERA and 29.3% strikeout rate. His 12.7% walk rate was on the high side but perhaps understandable for a developing pitcher who had missed a lot of time.

Things had been moving along nicely here in 2024, as he made seven good High-A starts and got bumped to Double-A for two outings there. He had struck out 38.9% of batters faced on the year while dropping his walk rate to 8.3%, leading to a 2.94 ERA, though those will now go down as his final numbers for the year with the news of his surgery.

It’s always frustrating when a pitcher requires Tommy John surgery, with its recovery timeline of 14 to 18 months. But it’s especially tough in this instance as Perales has already missed so much time but was seemingly on a good track of late. He’ll now be unable to continue his development this year and won’t be able to do much in 2025 either.

Since he was added to the 40-man roster, he is in the first of his three option years and he will have one option year left by the end of 2025. However, teams are often granted a fourth option when a player missed significant time due to injury. The Sox could recall him and add him to the 60-day injured list if they want to use his roster spot on someone else, but doing so would mean giving Perales major league pay and service time.

Yankees To Select Anthony Misiewicz

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The Yankees are going to select the contract of left-hander Anthony Misiewicz, reports Joel Sherman of The New York Post on X. The club has a vacancy on its 40-man roster but is also planning to select catcher/first baseman Ben Rice and activate righty Gerrit Cole from the injured list tomorrow, so further moves are likely coming, both for the 40-man and active rosters.

Misiewicz, 29, pitched five innings for the Yankees last year as well and has totaled 114 2/3 big league frames between five clubs, dating back to his 2020 MLB debut. After pitching to a respectable 4.43 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate through his first 103 big league innings, however, he was roughed up for a 7.36 ERA in last year’s small sample of work.

The Yankees clearly saw plenty they liked in Misiewicz last year, even with those rocky big league results, as they brought him back on a minor league deal. He’s had a nice start to the season pitching in Triple-A, where he’s thrown 30 2/3 frames of 3.23 ERA ball while recording a hefty 29.4% strikeout rate against a 7.9% walk rate. He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a sharp 46.8% clip and yielded just two homers (0.59 HR/9).

Caleb Ferguson and Victor Gonzalez are the only two lefties in the Yankees’ bullpen at the moment. The former has struggled to an ERA north of 5.00, while the latter sports a 3.05 ERA but has walked more batters than he’s struck out. The Yankees are known to be on the lookout for bullpen help as next month’s trade deadline looms, with a lefty specifically among their reported targets.

For now, the journeyman Misiewicz will get a look to see if he can pitch his way into a more prominent role and lessen the urgency the front office feels in its search for competent left-handed bullpen arms. If Misiewicz is given an actual opportunity that he runs with — and not just designated tomorrow to make room for Cole — he’d be arbitration-eligible this offseason and controllable for three more years beyond the current season.

Diamondbacks Claim Gavin Hollowell From Rockies

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The Diamondbacks have claimed right-hander Gavin Hollowell off waivers from the Rockies, per announcements from both clubs. Arizona already had a 40-man vacancy after designating Logan Allen for assignment last week and have optioned Hollowell to Triple-A. There was no previous indication that Hollowell had lost his spot with the Rockies, so their 40-man count drops to 39.

Hollowell, 26, is a 2019 sixth-rounder who made his big league debut with the Rox in 2023. He’s pitched 40 2/3 innings in the majors across the past two seasons but been hit hard, yielding a 6.20 ERA with a below-average 21.5% strikeout rate and a hefty 11.8% walk rate. He’s also been quite homer-prone, serving up an average of 1.99 round-trippers for every nine innings pitched.

It’s not a strong big league track record, but Hollowell has punched out 32.8% of his opponents in the minors, including a 34% strikeout rate in 48 2/3 Double-A frames and a 26% strikeout rate in 27 1/3 Triple-A innings. Hollowell has averaged a fairly unremarkable 94 mph on his sinker and 93.4 mph on his four-seamer, but the velocity of both pitches plays up because of his enormous 6’7″ frame. He’s also shown solid command throughout his time in professional ball, walking only 8.2% of his opponents in the minors.

Hollowell is in the second of three option years, so Arizona will be able to freely shuttle him between Triple-A Reno and the majors both this season and next. Scouting reports at FanGraphs, Baseball America and MLB.com have tabbed Hollowell as a future reliever with solid command and the potential for an above-average four-seamer (with plus spin) and slider. The Snakes will hope that the change in scenery can not only bolster their own relief corps but also take a potential future contributor away from a division rival.

Guardians Option Kyle Manzardo

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The Guardians announced that third baseman José Ramírez has been reinstated from the paternity list with first baseman Kyle Manzardo optioned to Triple-A Columbus as the corresponding move.

Manzardo, 23, came into this season ranked as one of the top 100 prospects in the sport and the Guards promoted him to the big leagues in early May. Unfortunately, his first six weeks in the majors have not gone especially well. In 87 trips to the plate, he has yet to hit a home run while walking just 3.4% of the time and striking out at a 26.4% clip. His .207/.241/.329 batting line leads to a wRC+ of 61, indicating he’s been 39% worse than the league average hitter.

Those numbers are fairly uncharacteristic for Manzardo and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get back on track after a bit of a reset. Prospects don’t always follow a linear development path and it’s not the first time he’s needed to make an adjustment after some struggles.

A second-round pick of the Rays in 2021, he produced a monstrous batting line of .327/.426/.617 in 2022, splitting his time between High-A and Double-A. That included 22 home runs and a 14.9% walk rate while he was only punched out 16.4% of the time.

The Rays bumped him up to Triple-A last year, but he didn’t have much initial success at that level. In 73 games for the Durham Bulls, he hit 11 home runs and still walked at a strong 13.4% pace, but the overall line of .238/.342/.442 led a wRC+ of 95 in a fairly heightened offensive environment in the International League last year.

The Guardians decide to take a shot on him, sending Aaron Civale to the Rays in a one-for-one swap at last year’s deadline. After changing organizations, he finished the season on a strong note, hitting .256/.348/.590 in 21 Triple-A games after the deal. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and slashed .272/.340/.565 in 22 games there. He returned to Triple-A to start this year and hit nine home runs in 29 games while walking in 11.7% of his plate appearances, leading to a line of .303/.375/.642 before his promotion.

Unfortunately, the big league audition saw all his numbers move in the wrong direction, so he’ll have to head back to Columbus for now. Since he’s always had strong walk and strikeout rates, it would be quite surprising if he weren’t able to improve those numbers in the major leagues the next time he comes up.

From a service time perspective, Manzardo was already going to be coming up short of one year of service time since he missed more than a month off the top of the 2024 campaign. He would have been on track for early arbitration as a Super Two player after 2026 if he stayed up, but that will now be less likely, depending on how long it takes him to come back up.

For the Guardians, they are leading the American League Central and should be in firm buyer position at the upcoming deadline. Manzardo had largely been serving as the designated hitter, so manager Stephen Vogt will now have some ability to rotate various players through that spot. It could also give the Front Office some flexibility in perhaps adding a bat-first player to strengthen the lineup for the final months of the season, with guys like Brent Rooker, Eloy Jiménez, Taylor Ward, Miguel Andujar or old friend Josh Bell just some of the guys that could be available towards the end of July. In the shorter term, guys like José Abreu, Daniel Vogelbach, J.D. Davis and Garrett Cooper have recently lost their roster spots with other clubs and should be attainable.

GM: Royals Hope To Deepen Bullpen, Add Hitter Who Can Play Outfield And Infield

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The Royals have been one of baseball’s best turnaround stories in 2024, currently sitting nine games over .500 and in possession of the second Wild Card spot in the American League. At five games back of the division-leading Guardians and a half-game up on the third-place Twins, they’re in a tightly contested race for their division as well.

Royals general manager J.J. Picollo joined Jayson Stark and Doug Glanville on The Windup podcast yesterday to discuss an aggressive offseason that saw Kansas City sign nine free agents for more than $100MM in total guarantees before signing franchise shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year, $288.7MM extension. Royals fans, in particular, will want to listen to the excellent, roughly 45-minute interview in full to hear about the work to establish a new identity for the team, some inner-workings on that Witt extension and plenty of anecdotes stemming from Picollo’s lengthy career in the industry.

But Stark noted late in the conversation that given the Royals’ performance and the timing of the chat, he’d be remiss not to inquire about the Royals’ deadline needs. Picollo, naturally, didn’t tip his hand in too much detail but did speak about his desire to deepen the bullpen and add a bat that’s capable of playing both the outfield and the infield in an effort to lengthen the lineup.

“Some of our relief corps is starting to pitch to the capabilities and abilities we’ve seen in the past,” Picollo said of his relief corps. “That’s going to be helpful, which will help put pieces of the puzzle together, but getting deeper in our bullpen to come alongside of those guys, I think, would be great. Whether or not it’s a closer — that’s going to be very difficult for anybody — there’s only going to be so many of them, and the competition will be steep. But if we can get deeper and be more reliable in our bullpen, that would be great. I’ve talked in the past about strikeouts. We’re more of a matchup bullpen without necessarily the big power. Now, we do have a couple guys we think might fit the bill internally but haven’t done it quite yet.”

The Royals indeed lack the type of power arms that proliferate the late innings of modern MLB games. The Kansas City bullpen’s 93.6 mph average fastball (per Statcast) is tied for fourth-slowest in MLB. The only entrenched Royals relievers who’ve averaged 95 mph or better on their heater this season are James McArthur and Angel Zerpa. Righties Carlos Hernandez, Dan Altavilla and Will Klein have each averaged 96.7 mph or better, but none has thrown even six innings with the big league club.

McArthur, Klein and Hernandez are likely among the names to which Picollo alluded when suggesting that the organization has power arms in house that could eventually fit that bill but haven’t done so at a consistent level. Hernandez had a big first half in 2023 and averages nearly 99 mph on his blazing heater, but has struggled with subpar command and troubles keeping the ball in the park. McArthur had a dominant finish in 2023 and a big first month in 2024, but he’s sitting on a 7.20 ERA in 15 frames since the calendar flipped to May. Klein is one of the organization’s top bullpen prospects but has walked nearly 16% of his opponents in Triple-A Omaha this year.

Kansas City has gotten particularly shaky results from its two free-agent additions to the bullpen. Left-hander Will Smith and righty Chris Stratton both have pitched to ERAs north of 5.00. Stratton’s 29 1/3 innings are tops in the Royals’ bullpen, but he’s walking a career-worst 15.2% of his opponents and sitting at 92.2 mph with his heater — his lowest mark since moving from a starting role to a bullpen gig back in 2018. Smith’s 91.4 mph fastball velocity is also a career-low, as is this year’s 17.4% strikeout rate.

It’s feasible that the Royals could look to upgrade over either of those veteran additions to the pitching staff. However, Stratton signed two-year, $8MM deal with a surprising player option standing as the second season of that contract. That could afford him a longer leash, as the Royals know they’re on the hook for $4MM to him next season unless he can turn things around and put himself in position to turn down that second-year option. Smith is on a one-year, $5MM deal but has pitched better of late, with just two earned runs allowed over his past 14 2/3 innings.

With regard to the offense, it seems the Royals are open-minded as to where a new bat could slot into the defensive alignment. Picollo mentioned at multiple points throughout the interview that the Royals need more production from the outfield — as we recently detailed at length for MLBTR Front Office subscribers — but targeting a pure outfielder isn’t necessarily set in stone.

“Offensively, you always want to add a bat somewhere — lengthen your lineup,” the GM explained. “…We have three or four guys that are in the lineup every day, and we mix and match a lot, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be an outfielder, but somebody who could play outfield and infield would be ideal. Just another bat that we could lengthen our lineup out and get a little more production in the back half of our lineup.”

No team in Major League Baseball has received less production from its outfield in 2024 than the Royals, whose collective has turned in a .210/.271/.345 batting line. The resulting 72 wRC+ (indicating they’ve been 28% worse than league-average at the plate) is the lowest in the game. Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Isbel and MJ Melendez lead the Royals in outfield appearances, but of the 262 MLB hitters with at least 150 plate appearances this season, that trio ranks 218th (Renfroe), 238th (Isbel) and 250th (Melendez) in terms of wRC+.

The Kansas City infield has been far more productive, led by the aforementioned Witt, their recently extended superstar shortstop. Witt is a bona fide MVP candidate, while second baseman Michael Massey was quietly strong (.294/.306/.529) in 110 plate appearances before landing on the IL with a back injury late last month. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino has been slightly better than average, and while third baseman Maikel Garcia hasn’t hit much (.247/.299/.365), he’s played plus defense and provided outstanding value on the basepaths (17-for-17 in steals).

One common theme among the Royals’ top hitters is handedness. Pasquantino is the only healthy left-handed bat who’s provided even close to league-average offense. Melendez, Isbel, Adam Frazier and switch-hitting Drew Waters (who was optioned to Omaha as I wrote this) have all floundered at the plate. Massey, who just went on a minor league rehab assignment this week, will add another interesting left-handed bat when he returns. Even then, Kansas City will still have a predominantly right-handed lineup. Picollo didn’t specify, but adding a left-handed bat — or at least a switch-hitter who provides more from the left side of the dish — would seem particularly prudent.

However things shake out, Picollo’s comments clearly underscored a strong desire to continue the active offseason mindset into this year’s deadline. He noted that the fans in Kansas City deserve to see that level of aggression but said the motivation is about more than that.

“I also think about the players who committed to coming to Kansas City and bought into a vision that we had, which included winning and potentially getting to the playoffs,” said Picollo. “So you do feel a need to help supplement what we already have and the motivation that ownership had this offseason in signing those players.”

Blue Jays, James Kaprielian Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent righty James Kaprielian, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Once one of the top pitching prospects in the Yankees organization, Kaprielian was traded from New York to Oakland in the 2017 deadline deal that shipped Sonny Gray to the Bronx. The former No. 16 overall draft pick spent the next six and a half years in the A’s organization, making his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season. He’d appear in four straight seasons with the A’s but do so intermittently while battling a slate of shoulder injuries that necessitated a pair of surgeries.

For Kaprielian, injuries have been all too common. The former UCLA standout required Tommy John surgery early in the 2017 season and wound up missing the entire 2018 campaign as well. During his time with the A’s, he underwent surgery in Dec. 2022 to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder and again to repair damage to his right shoulder’s labrum in Aug. 2023. Kaprielian missed time in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons due to shoulder troubles.

In 2021, Kaprielian offered a glimpse of what he could provide in a healthy season. He appeared in 24 games for Oakland (21 of them starts) and pitched to a 4.07 earned run average over the life of 119 1/3 innings. He fanned a strong 24.5% of his opponents against a similarly encouraging 8.2% walk rate. Home runs were an issue for the 6’3″, 225-pound righty (1.43 HR/9), but he offered an intriguing strikeout-to-walk profile, sat 93.3 mph with his heater and recorded a promising 10.9% swinging-strike rate.

The 2022 season was a bit of a step back in terms of results but a step forward in terms of both workload and velocity. Kaprielian tossed 134 innings — his career-high in a big league season — and turned in a 4.23 ERA while seeing his average fastball tick up to 94 mph. His 17% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate both represented steps in the wrong direction, but Kaprielian also trimmed that HR/9 mark to 1.07. Overall, he looked like a solid fourth starter from 2021-22 with the A’s: 253 1/3 innings, 4.16 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate, 36.5% grounder rate, 1.24 HR/9.

Kaprielian, however, never seemed to bounce back from that surgery to tend to his AC joint in the 2022-23 offseason. He was shelled for 45 runs in 61 innings (6.34 ERA) that season. His fastball dropped to a 92.5 mph average. He walked a career-worst 11.1% of hitters. The A’s passed him through outright waivers in October, and he qualified for minor league free agency following the season.

Now nearly 11 months removed from last August’s shoulder surgery, Kaprielian will head to the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate and provide some needed rotation depth. The Jays recently lost Alek Manoah to season-ending UCL surgery, and their rotation depth was already thin in the first place. They’re lacking an established option behind the quartet of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi, with rookie Yariel Rodriguez likely to step into the fray once he’s cleared to return from a back injury (likely later this week). Twenty-eight-year-old Bowden Francis has been hit hard in eight appearances (three starts). Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann has spent most of the season on the injured list and only just went on a Rookie-level rehab assignment.

If Kaprielian can prove healthy and look anything like his 2021-22 form, he’ll emerge as a legitimate option for the Jays in the season’s second half. And given that he entered the season with just 2.167 years of big league service time, there’s potential for him to be controlled for three more years beyond the current season. Obviously there’s a long way to go before that’s even an option worth pondering, but the generally thin nature of Toronto’s rotation depth makes it a more distinct possibility than if he’d signed with a more pitching-rich organization.

The Opener: Contreras, Mariners, Guardians, MLBTR Chat

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As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Contreras begins rehab assignment:

Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras was off to an otherworldly start this year, slashing .280/.398/.551 (170 wRC+) in 31 games before he was struck in the arm by a swing of the bat from Mets DH J.D. Martinez. The incident left him with a fractured arm that was initially expected to cost him at least ten weeks, but the 32-year-old actually appears to be ahead of schedule. He resumed baseball activities earlier this month, just four weeks after his initial injury, and today (as noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Memphis with three at-bats out of the DH slot. When the veteran returns, he’ll be entering into a playoff race for the first time in his St. Louis tenure as the Cardinals have surged to second place in the NL Central with a 36-35 record in his absence after possessing a record of just 15-21 at the time of his injury.

2. Series Preview: Mariners @ Guardians

Neither the Mariners nor the Guardians were popular picks to win their divisions heading into the season, but both have substantial leads in mid-June. Seattle has surged ahead of both the Rangers and Astros to grab a commanding nine game lead in the AL West, while the Guardians’ 44-25 record is not only good for the AL Central lead but also the fifth-best record in baseball this year. They’re up five games over the second-place Royals and 5.5 games over the third-place Twins. Now, the two surprise contenders are set to meet in Cleveland for a three-game set in what could be a preview of a playoff matchup.

The series opens at 6:40pm local time this evening with a pair of right-handed youngsters on the mound when 25-year-old Bryce Miller (3.48 ERA) faces off against 26-year-old Triston McKenzie (4.10 ERA). The youthful pitching matchups will continue tomorrow when 24-year-old Bryan Woo (1.07 ERA through six starts) takes on 25-year-old Tanner Bibee (3.94 ERA), and the series will wrap up on Thursday with veteran Luis Castillo (3.32 ERA) taking on 25-year-old lefty Logan Allen (5.30 ERA). The Guardians will be looking to cool off the Mariners in this series, as Seattle has won seven of their last eight games, while Cleveland has gone just 4-4 over that same timeframe, including dropping three of their last four contests.

3. MLBTR Chat Today:

The injury bug has struck a number of clubs recently, with Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Kyle Bradish, Michael Harris II, and Anthony Rizzo all facing extended absences. If you have any questions about how those players’ absences will be handled by their clubs, or perhaps questions that look ahead to the July 30 trade deadline or the upcoming offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a live chat with readers today at 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to join in on the chat once it begins or read the transcript after it is completed.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

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