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Rays Place Brandon Lowe On Injured List

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The Rays announced today that infielder Brandon Lowe has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to left oblique tightness, retroactive to July 8th. Fellow infielder Curtis Mead was recalled as the corresponding move.

It’s possible that the move with Lowe is precautionary. The side issue has kept him out of the club’s past four games, which is why they were able to backdate this by the three-day maximum. With the All-Star break coming up, Lowe might only miss three more contests and could perhaps be back with the Rays by next weekend.

Nonetheless, it will be a situation to monitor for the rest of the month. Lowe is a strong performer but doesn’t have a great track record in terms of health. This is his eighth major league season but he has only once played in 110 games or more. He has avoided the IL so far this year, getting into 84 contests, but is now battling a tricky oblique issue.

He has been one of the better players for the Rays this year, with 19 home runs, a .272/.324/.487 slash line and 125 wRC+. He was selected to the All-Star team but will no longer be able to participate thanks to this injury.

The Rays are 50-44 and currently in possession of a Wild Card spot in the American League. In past years, they have often done a mix of buying and selling at the deadline. Even when in contention, they will sometimes trade a veteran player who is on the more expensive side and/or nearing free agency, while acquiring younger and cheaper players. MLBTR recently did a deep dive on the club’s potential deadline approach, examining the various paths the Rays could take.

Lowe is making $10.5MM this year, making him one of the more expensive players on the roster. His contract has an affordable $11.5M club option for next year with a $500K buyout. With the way the Rays operate, it’s possible they could look to move Lowe for younger players while simultaneously adding others for the stretch run.

That makes the Lowe injury all the more notable. On the one hand, it hurts the Rays in the short term, as they are going to be without one of their better players while in a tight playoff race. It’s also possible that the injury impacts whatever trade talks they will have in the coming weeks.

Ha-Seong Kim recently came off the IL and has taken over as the regular shortstop. That leaves Taylor Walls and José Caballero free to cover second for Lowe. Mead’s recall today gives them some extra depth in that department.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Mets Designate Rico Garcia For Assignment

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2:40pm: The Mets have now officially announced these moves and a few others. They also optioned right-hander Justin Hagenman and placed outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker on the 10-day IL due to back inflammation. Right-hander Austin Warren and infielder Jared Young were recalled to take those two spots.

10:21am: The Mets will designate right-hander Rico Garcia for assignment today in order to open a spot on the roster for the return of ace Kodai Senga, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Garcia is out of minor league options and couldn’t be sent back to Triple-A without being exposed to waivers.

Garcia signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter. The 31-year-old righty was selected to the major league roster eight days ago and has since pitched in two games, tossing 4 2/3 shutout frames with just one hit and no walks allowed. He’s punched out three hitters and shown career-best velocity on his four-seamer, averaging 96.1 mph and topping out at 98 mph. He’s using that four-seamer less than in prior seasons, in large part due to a newly incorporated slider/cutter he’s added to his typical four-seam/curveball/changeup repertoire.

That short run was Garcia’s first big league work since 2023, when he pitched 11 2/3 innings between the A’s and Nats but was tagged for a dozen runs. He’s spent the rest of the 2025 season in Triple-A Syracuse, pitching to a 4.45 ERA with a strong 27.4% strikeout rate but also an alarming 14.8% walk rate in 30 1/3 innings. Garcia has had plenty of success in Triple-A, regularly showing better-than-average ability to miss bats but also below-average command. He has a 6.47 ERA in 40 1/3 MLB frames split between the Rockies, Mets, A’s, Nats, Giants and Orioles.

The Mets have regularly cycled through journeymen relievers with the final couple spots in their bullpen. Garcia has pitched better than the others in his brief look but will still meet the same fate. He’ll be placed on waivers or traded within the next five days. He’s been outrighted in the past, so if he clears waivers he’ll be able to reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency.

Latest On Braves’ Deadline Approach

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The Braves have been in a downward spiral for much of the season. They’ve shown signs of life at various points, but those brief flashes were quickly stamped out by repeated injuries to star players. Atlanta lost Reynaldo Lopez to arthroscopic shoulder surgery in mid-April and was without both Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. to begin the season. That All-Star duo has since returned, but over the past month the Braves have lost Chris Sale (fractured ribs), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow) and AJ Smith-Shawver (Tommy John surgery). Setup man Joe Jimenez underwent knee surgery in the offseason and is likely to miss the entire year as well.

On top of that brutal slate of pitching injuries, the Braves have seen several key players take major steps back in performance. Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II have been two of baseball’s least-productive hitters. Closer Raisel Iglesias, fresh off a career-best year in 2024, is having a career-worst season in 2025 — although he’s recently rattled off 10 2/3 shutout innings with a 15-to-1 K/BB ratio, so perhaps he’s coming around. Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna are both hitting better than the league-average hitter but worse than their career norms. Jurickson Profar missed 80 games due to a PED suspension.

The result is a 40-52 team that sits 13.5 games out of the division lead and 10 games back in the Wild Card hunt. FanGraphs gives Atlanta a 3.7% chance of making the postseason, which feels charitable for a club that presently has three healthy starters (Strider, Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder). The Braves rushed prospect Didier Fuentes to the majors just three days after his 20th birthday and despite having just 26 1/3 innings above A-ball under his belt. Predictably, it has not gone well (13.85 ERA in four starts).

The stage is set for Atlanta to operate in an unfamiliar manner this deadline, playing the role of a seller. President of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos emphatically denounced the notion of even considering a trade of Sale last month, just prior to the left-hander’s injury. Anthopoulos called any speculation regarding a Sale trade “completely ridiculous” in an appearance on 680 The Fan in Atlanta.

“I never make definitive statements unless I’m going to stick to them,” he said at the time. “Once you make definitive statements and then you go back on them, you’re a liar and you’re done. [A trade of Sale] Will. Not. Happen. Bold, italicize it, caps.”

Even with the tumult that’s followed those statements — which predated not only Sale’s injury but also the Schwellenbach injury — the thinking doesn’t appear to have changed. Robert Murray of FanSided reports that the Braves have not discussed Sale in any trade talks and, furthermore, do not intend to listen on any player who’s controlled beyond the 2025 season.

[Related: Atlanta Braves Trade Deadline Outlook]

If that’s indeed the case, the Braves will be in for a quiet deadline. Atlanta only has three true free agents at season’s end: Iglesias, Ozuna and right-hander Rafael Montero. Any of the three could hold appeal on the market.

Iglesias, as noted, has had an uneven season but turned a corner of late. He’s sitting on a 4.67 ERA overall, but that’s a function of the 35-year-old’s 6.75 ERA through early June. Even as Iglesias struggled to those ugly results, however, he posted strong strikeout and walk rates. He was dogged by a .348 average on balls in play and a sky-high 21.9% homer-to-flyball rate along the way, but metrics like SIERA (3.34) still pegged him as a quality reliever and hinted at positive regression. Iglesias hasn’t markedly changed up his pitch selection, but he’s now missing far more bats in the zone and has recorded a colossal 20.7% swinging-strike rate over the course of his current hot streak.

That’s probably enough to drum up legitimate trade interest, especially when considering his track record. The right-hander has a 2.96 ERA and 233 saves in a career that spans more than a decade. From 2020-24, he posted an ERA of 2.74 or better each season, combining for a 2.44 mark with a 31.6% strikeout rate and 5.4% walk rate. This year’s $16MM salary is steep, but there will “only” be $5.333MM of that sum left come deadline day. (As of this writing, it’s $6.795MM.)

As for the 34-year-old Ozuna, he’s having a solid season at the plate but isn’t hitting anywhere near his 2023-24 levels. This year’s .236/.363/.385 slash is 14% better than league-average in the estimation of wRC+, a far cry from the 48% gap between Ozuna and the average MLB hitter in ’23-’24. Ozuna’s bat speed has dipped by 1.5 mph since 2023, per Statcast, dropping him from the 86th percentile of big league hitters to the 73rd. This year’s 42% ground-ball rate is his highest mark since 2019, while his 13.3% homer-to-flyball rate is his lowest since 2021.

Ozuna is also just swinging far, far less than in recent seasons. He offered at nearly 48% of the pitches he saw in 2023-24 but has swung at just 39.4% of the pitches he’s seen so far in 2025. That’s led to a major jump in walk rate, with the slugger sitting on a career-high 16.4% mark, but that selectivity has resulted in a dip in power output — both on a rate basis and in terms of totality.

While Iglesias has been rebuilding trade value as the summer wears on, Ozuna has been doing the opposite. He’s mired in one of the worst slumps of his career, hitting just .161/.254/.250 over his past 143 plate appearances dating back to early June. He’s still walked at a 10.5% clip along the way and has a roughly average strikeout rate (22.4%), but he’s hitting even more grounders in that stretch and has seen his quality of contact decline. Ozuna is making the same $16MM as Iglesias this season.

The only other pure rental on Atlanta’s roster is the 34-year-old Montero. The Braves surprisingly bailed the Astros out of nearly $3MM of Montero’s ill-fated three-year, $34.5MM contract when they acquired him early this season. He’s pitched decently, logging a 3.86 ERA in 28 innings but walking 12.8% of the batters he’s faced since being traded. He’s had better command recently, issuing just four walks to his past 74 hitters faced, however. With Houston on the hook for the majority of this year’s $11.5MM salary, Montero could hold appeal to teams looking for affordable bullpen help but unwilling to sacrifice top-end prospects to acquire it.

Other clubs will surely try to test the Braves’ resolve when it comes to dealing players controlled beyond the current season. Catcher Sean Murphy has been oft-speculated as a possible trade candidate thanks to the emergence of rookie catcher Drake Baldwin, though Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic recently reported that any such trade is likelier to occur in the offseason. Murphy is signed through 2028 and will be paid $15MM in each of the next three seasons.

Atlanta also has a pair of quality relievers with limited club control remaining in lefty Aaron Bummer (signed for next year at $9.5MM) and righty Pierce Johnson ($7MM club option for 2026). Both are having very strong seasons and will draw interest. Relievers are notoriously volatile, which could tempt Atlanta if another club presents a compelling offer. David O’Brien of The Athletic wrote this morning that the Braves could listen on Johnson, who has a 2.76 ERA, a 27.9% strikeout rate, a 7% walk rate and a 39% grounder rate in 32 2/3 innings. He’s picked up six holds and a save on the season.

There are perhaps larger-scale decisions coming down the pipe with regard to Albies — a former All-Star and Silver Slugger winner who’s batting just .221/.292/.320 in 391 plate appearances. His incredibly affordable club options for the 2026-27 seasons — $7MM apiece — make him a compelling rebound/change-of-scenery candidate.

It’d be tough for the Braves to decline his 2026 option, as it comes with a hearty $4MM buyout, rendering Albies a net $3MM decision. Even if the Braves hope to move on, it’s easy to imagine another club being interested in buying low at that price on what would be Albies’ age-29 and age-30 seasons. MLBTR readers were recently split nearly evenly in a poll on Albies’ future, with 54% saying the Braves should hold and hope for a rebound while 46% indicated that they should trade him, either now or in the offseason.

Poll: Who Should The Nationals Pick First Overall?

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The 2025 draft is just a few days away, and the Nationals hit the jackpot over the winter when they won the draft lottery and were selected to pick first overall despite entering the lottery with just a 10.2% chance of nabbing the top pick. Since then, a disappointing season has led to the dismissal of longtime GM Mike Rizzo, meaning that interim GM Mike DeBartolo will be piloting the organization when it makes this weekend’s crucial pick. With hundreds of players set to be drafted to begin their pro careers in the coming days, who should the Nats stake their future on? A look at some of the top options:

Ethan Holliday

Holliday is an 18-year-old shortstop out of Stillwater HS in Oklahoma. Holliday has long garnered plenty of attention thanks to his family; he’s the son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday and the brother of 2022 first overall pick Jackson Holliday. Will the younger Holliday brother follow in the footsteps of his sibling and be selected first overall? There’s certainly a strong argument for it. Holliday is considered the top prospect in the draft by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America.

A slugger who stands at a projectable 6’4”, Holliday receives rave reviews for both his batting eye and ability to generate easy power to all fields but does suffer from some swing-and-miss concerns at the plate. While he’s listed as a shortstop, few expect him to remain there long-term given his size and room to grow physically. More optimistic scouts see him as a player who could remain a plus defender at shortstop, while others see a future in the outfield or at first base. Holliday is generally viewed as the consensus top offensive talent in the draft, but his timeline to the majors might not be the best fit for a Nationals team that already has a big-league ready core of James Wood, CJ Abrams, and MacKenzie Gore earning service time in the majors.

Seth Hernandez

A 19-year-old right-hander from Corona HS in California, Hernandez is in many ways a pitching mirror of Holliday. The hurler lacks Holliday’s familial connections to the majors, but has drawn rave reviews from scouts for years and is viewed as a player with all the tools to be a prototypical ace. Hernandez has a four-pitch mix led by a mid-90s fastball that can touch triple-digits and a changeup that’s already universally viewed as a plus offering, alongside a curveball and slider that are both viewed as potentially above average pitches. Aside from Hernandez’s strong stuff, he also sports impressive control for his age and is viewed as having a strong makeup. Ranked as the #2 prospect in the draft by Baseball America and #3 by MLB Pipeline, Hernandez’s ace upside is more than enough to justify the Nationals considering him for the top pick even though he could have a long road to the majors as a prep pitcher.

Kade Anderson

The consensus top college player available in this draft, Anderson is a 21-year-old left-hander pitching for LSU. Anderson’s fastball typically sits in the low-to-mid 90s and maxes out at 97 mph, but the main draw of his arsenal is his trio of secondary offerings. Both his curveball and slider are viewed as above-average pitches, and while his changeup garners more mixed reviews, some scouts view it as the most impressive secondary in his arsenal and all agree it at least has the potential to be an average offering that helps keep right-handed hitters honest. Anderson also features above-average control and is viewed as a high-floor arm likely to be a starter in the big leagues long-term.

The fact that he’s already had Tommy John surgery is a potential red flag, although some teams may not be especially bothered by that in a sport where elbow surgery is increasingly becoming the expectation for pitchers. The #2 prospect in the draft according to MLB Pipeline and #4 according to Baseball America, Anderson is viewed as having the same ace-level upside as Hernandez but could be much quicker to the majors. That could be attractive to the Nationals, especially if they end up opting to go under-slot with their first pick to take bigger swings later in the draft.

Other Options

While the aforementioned trio of prospects figure to get the most attention this weekend, they aren’t the only players the Nationals could feasibly consider selecting first overall. Eli Willits is a prep shortstop who would be the youngest first-overall pick in history if selected, but Baseball America views him as the #3 talent in the entire draft and his well-rounded profile could make him an attractive under-slot option for the Nats. Jamie Arnold is a lefty hurler at Florida State who offers a more impressive fastball than Anderson, though he has just three pitches and hasn’t needed to use his changeup much as an amateur. Aiva Arquette is a shortstop at Oregon State and is viewed as the consensus top college bat in the draft, but is seen as having far less upside than someone like Holliday or even Willits despite confidence in his ability to stick at shortstop.

Who do MLBTR readers think the Nationals should take with the top pick in this year’s draft? Have your say in the poll below:

Zach Pop Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Zach Pop has elected free agency after being sent outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after the Mets designated him for assignment earlier this week.

Pop, 28, has upper-90s velocity but is more of a ground ball guy than a strikeout machine. He now has 162 1/3 innings under his belt with a 4.88 earned run average. His 17.8% strikeout rate is a bit below average but he has limited walks to a 7.8% clip while getting balls in play pounded into the ground at a 55% clip.

He has been having a nomadic season thanks to his contract status. The Blue Jays tendered him a contract in the offseason, avoiding arbitration by agreeing to a $900K salary. But he experienced some elbow soreness during spring training. The Jays wanted to open some 40-man spots for their Opening Day roster and bumped Pop off. Since he was injured, he couldn’t be outrighted and had to be released.

That left the Jays on the hook for that $900K and allowed other clubs to sign Pop for cheap. He could be rostered and paid the major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Jays pay. The Mariners and Mets have given him brief looks this year, with Pop making four appearances for Seattle and one for New York. But since he’s out of options, he has quickly been dispatched by both of those clubs. He’ll now head to the open market to see what his next opportunity is.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Dodgers Claim Nick Nastrini, Designate Noah Davis For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that they have claimed right-hander Nick Nastrini off waivers from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment earlier this week. Righty Noah Davis has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Nastrini, now 25, returns to his original organization. The Dodgers drafted him in the fourth round in 2021. After a few years in the minors, he was flipped to the White Sox as part of the 2023 deadline deal which brought Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly to Los Angeles.

Since that deal, it’s been a challenging time for Nastrini. He made his major league debut last year but posted a 7.07 earned run average in 35 2/3 innings. He also logged 85 innings at the Triple-A level with a 5.29 ERA. Here in 2025, he had a 7.51 ERA through 44 1/3 Triple-A innings when the Sox tried to run him through waivers. The Marlins swooped in with a claim but then bumped him off the roster after just one Triple-A outing.

The Dodgers have taken the chance to reacquire their former prospect. Prior to being traded away, he had tossed 204 1/3 minor league innings with a 3.83 ERA. He struck out 33% of batters faced but also gave out walks at an 11.4% pace. Previously, the Dodgers were developing him as a starter. The White Sox moved him to the bullpen as he struggled this year. Time will tell whether the Dodgers still view him as a viable rotation candidate or if they want to have him continue in a relief role. He can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one additional season.

Davis, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in the offseason. He was traded to the Dodgers just before Opening Day, presumably because he had some kind of upward mobility clause in that deal. Since then, he has been shuttled between Triple-A and the majors. He has allowed 13 earned runs in his six big league innings. The Triple-A work has been much better, with a 3.94 ERA in 32 innings, despite pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has struck out 27.5% of batters faced at that level with a 10.9% walk rate and 48.1% ground ball rate.

He has now been bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Dodgers could take as long as five days to explore trade talks. Davis has been previously outrighted in his career and would therefore have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers this time. If a club does acquire him, he can be optioned for the rest of this year but will be out of options in 2026.

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Braves Claim Joey Wentz, Designate Kevin Herget

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The Braves have claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from the Twins, per a team announcement. Righty Kevin Herget was designated for assignment in a corresponding roster move.

It’s a full-circle moment for Wentz, whom the Braves originally drafted with the No. 40 overall pick back in 2016. The left-hander ranked among Atlanta’s top prospects for several years but was traded to the Tigers alongside infielder/outfielder Travis Demeritte in the 2019 trade that brought righty Shane Greene to the Braves.

Wentz made his major league debut with the Tigers in 2022 and had a nice start to his big league career (3.03 ERA in seven starts) before stumbling in subsequent seasons. Detroit gave Wentz a full audition in the rotation in 2023, but he was shelled for a 6.90 ERA in 105 2/3 frames. Those struggles prompted a move to the bullpen, but relief work hasn’t necessarily treated him much better. In 101 2/3 innings across the past two seasons, Wentz has a 5.42 ERA. That’s come in stints with Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.

Now 27 years old, Wentz had a particularly rough run in Minneapolis. He pitched eight innings as a Twin but was rocked for 14 runs on 17 hits (three homers) and nine walks with only six strikeouts. Minnesota designated him for assignment last week.

Wentz is out of minor league options, so he’ll go right onto the Braves’ big league roster. He’s now in line to make his debut with the team that originally drafted him nearly a decade ago, albeit in a highly circuitous manner. He’s fairly stretched out — Wentz tossed 48 pitches in a June 28 appearance, for instance — so he should be ready for multi-inning work as a long reliever or opener for an injury-riddled Braves staff that could lean heavily on bullpen games with four starters on the injured list.

Herget, 34, has pitched three major league innings in 2025 — two with the Mets and one with Atlanta. He’s spent most of the year in Triple-A, logging a 3.26 ERA in 30 1/3 innings split nearly evenly between the two organizations. He’s set 21.6% of his opponents down on strikes and issued walks at an 8% clip.

Herget has pitched in parts of four major league seasons and totaled 45 2/3 innings. He’s logged a 4.53 ERA in that time but fanned just 13.9% of the batters he’s faced. Herget has a strong 5.7% walk rate in that time. He’s sat 92.4 mph with his four-seamer in the majors, combining that offering with a cutter that sits 85.8 mph and a changeup that sits 83 mph. Herget has pitched 505 2/3 innings across parts of eight Triple-A seasons and recorded a 4.00 ERA. He’s in his final minor league option year. Atlanta will trade him or place him on waivers within the next five days.

Trade Deadline Outlook: Los Angeles Angels

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The Angels have hung around the Wild Card mix, exceeding most expectations. Their -57 run differential is fourth-worst in the American League, but they're within two games of .500 and only three games out of a playoff spot. While this still doesn't look like a good team, they may have played well enough to convince the front office to add in hopes of snapping the game's longest active postseason drought.

Record: 45-48 (3.4% playoff odds, per FanGraphs)

Other series entries: Rockies, Giants, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, White Sox, Nationals, Cubs, Rays, Dodgers, Braves, Yankees

Buy Mode

Potential needs: Infielder, mid-rotation starter, high-leverage relief, left-handed bat

The Angels are not going to add a full-time designated hitter, where they have Mike Trout playing every day. Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel have shortstop and first base secured, respectively. They're probably not going to add a catcher, though they could give more frequent playing time to Travis d'Arnaud in place of the struggling Logan O'Hoppe.

Beyond that, there are a lot of different ways to deepen the position player mix. The outfield is superficially set. Taylor Ward, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler are playing every day from left to right. Ward leads the team with 21 home runs, while Adell has been on a tear lately and is the team's most productive hitter overall. Soler is having a poor season, though, and there's an arguable redundancy to the Angels' current outfield.

All three players hit right-handed (as does Trout, who will be eased back into outfield work following the All-Star break, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). Each of Ward, Adell and Soler are power bats with questionable on-base skills. Adell is a below-average defensive center fielder. He's playing there out of necessity and fits better in a corner. Maybe that's not something that can be addressed this summer, but they'd ideally have a better defender in center and find room for Adell in left or right field.

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Michael Chavis Signs With NPB’s Chunichi Dragons

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Infielder Michael Chavis is heading overseas. The CAA client has signed with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per an announcement from Chunichi. He had been with the Dodgers on a minor league deal but was released to pursue this new opportunity.

Chavis, now 29, was once a notable prospect in the Red Sox’ system. Boston grabbed him with the 26th overall pick in the 2014 draft and he hit well as he climbed the minor league ladder. Baseball America ranked him the #85 prospect in the league in 2018.

The following year, he had an enticing debut, as he hit 18 home runs in just 95 games for the Sox. However, that power production came with a worrisome 33.2% strikeout rate, and that concern ultimately proved to be lingering. As the strikeout woes continued, he bounced around the league, also appearing for the Pirates and Nationals. Overall, he stepped to the plate 1,186 times in 357 games from 2020 to 2023. He hit 42 homers but was punched out at a 31.9% clip.

In 2024 and 2025, he’s been stuck in Triple-A, having signed minor league deals with the Mariners, White Sox and Dodgers. He has slashed .270/.339/.483 over that time with a lower 22.3% strikeout rate but without any of those clubs giving him a shot in the majors.

By heading overseas, Chavis will presumably be getting a bit of a pay bump relative to whatever he was making in the minors. If he can perform well for the Dragons, he could perhaps parlay that into a return to North America or another deal in Japan or other foreign league.

Photo courtesy of Nathan J. Fish, Imagn Images

Which Other Draft Picks Are Eligible To Be Traded Before Sunday?

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The Rays made an “early” strike in deadline season yesterday, shipping off their Competitive Balance Round A selection (No. 37 overall) in Sunday’s draft to acquire righty Bryan Baker from the division-rival Orioles. Baker, 30, has had his two worst outings of the season in his final Orioles appearance and last night’s Rays debut — which came just hours after he was “shocked” to learn he was traded and boarded a last-minute flight to meet his new team in Boston — but carried a 2.58 ERA and 33.3% strikeout rate through July 5. He comes to the Rays with three additional seasons of club control, as well.

Following the trade, O’s general manager Mike Elias acknowledged that Thursday’s trade was “earlier than my comfort level” but that the timing of the draft and strength of the return pushed him to make a deal sooner than he’d have preferred (link via Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). It’s feasible that other general managers/president of baseball operations feel similar pressure if presented with opportunities to add an extra pick over the next two-plus days.

As a refresher, Competitive Balance picks are the only picks in the annual amateur draft that are eligible to be traded. They can only be traded one time, meaning the pick the Orioles received for Baker — and the picks the Dodgers, Guardians and Red Sox received in trades of Gavin Lux, Josh Naylor and Quinn Priester, respectively — are now locked in place for those clubs. There are still a handful of selections that could be traded, however.

Here’s a rundown of the picks in Competitive Balance Rounds A and B. MLBTR has confirmed via industry sources that the picks held by the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets in Round A are ineligible to be traded, as they’re technically first-round picks that were dropped down into Competitive Balance Round A as penalty for exceeding the luxury tax by more than $40MM. Similarly, the picks held by the Rays and Brewers in Round B are ineligible to be traded due to the fact that they are compensation for failing to sign last year’s picks in Competitive Balance Round B. Picks that are eligible to be traded are in bold; those ineligible to be moved are in strikethrough font. The deadline to trade any of these eligible picks is 4pm ET on Sunday — two hours prior to the start of this year’s amateur draft.

Round A

  • No. 33 overall: Red Sox (acquired from Brewers in exchange for RHP Quinn Priester)
  • No. 34: Tigers
  • No. 35: Mariners
  • No. 36: Twins
  • No. 37: Orioles (acquired from Rays in exchange for RHP Bryan Baker)
  • No. 38: Mets
  • No. 39: Yankees
  • No. 40: Dodgers
  • No. 41: Dodgers (acquired from Reds in exchange for INF/OF Gavin Lux)
  • No. 42: Rays (acquired from A’s in exchange for LHPs Jeffrey Springs, Jacob Lopez)
  • No. 43: Marlins

Round B

  • No. 66 overall: Guardians
  • No. 67: Rays (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)
  • No. 68: Brewers (compensation for unsigned pick in 2024)
  • No. 69: Orioles
  • No. 70: Guardians (acquired from D-backs in exchange for 1B Josh Naylor)
  • No. 71: Royals
  • No. 72: Cardinals
  • No. 73: Pirates
  • No. 74: Rockies

The Tigers are the only clear buyer with a pick that can be traded, and it’s a prominent one. The Mariners and Cardinals are only one game out of a Wild Card spot in their respective leagues. Seattle is expected to act as a buyer and has been on the hunt for corner infield bats and late-inning bullpen help. The Royals (3.5 games), Twins (4) and Guardians (5) are all within five games of a Wild Card spot.

Fans would largely welcome the advent of additional selections becoming eligible to be traded, but that’s not in the cards for now. MLBPA executive director Bruce Meyer joined Foul Territory earlier this week and told hosts Scott Braun, Erik Kratz and A.J. Pierzynski that the union is in favor of trading draft picks and has unsuccessfully raised the issue in past waves of collective bargaining (video link, draft pick talk coming around the one hour, 12-minute mark).

“This union has consistently been in favor of teams being able to trade draft picks,” said Meyer. “It would help competition. We think it would help small-market teams that have those valuable draft picks. They should have the flexibility to trade them if it’s in the best interest of the team. I think many teams would agree, but the league for whatever reason has, to date, been against allowing clubs the ability to trade Rule 4 [amateur] draft picks. We proposed it last time. It was rejected. I don’t want to commit to much for the next round of bargaining, but I feel pretty confident we’ll propose that again, because we think it’s actually beneficial to competitive balance.”

It should be noted that virtually any proposal in collective bargaining comes with some give and take. Meyer’s comments only portray one side of the discussion, and it’s not clear whether anything else was attached to that proposal. Regardless, it’s notable that the union’s lead negotiator has signaled a desire to again broach the subject of draft pick trades when the two sides return to the table to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.

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