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White Sox Outright Corey Julks

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Outfielder Corey Julks has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte, reports Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The White Sox designated him for assignment earlier this week. Since this is his second career outright, he has the right to reject the assignment and elect free agency, though Merkin didn’t indicate he would do so.

Julks, 29, has put up plenty of intriguing numbers in the minors. That has led to a few limited looks in the big leagues, but he hasn’t been able to do much with those. He has a .236/.290/.340 line in 520 career plate appearances, which translates to a wRC+ of 76, indicating he’s been 24% worse than the league average hitter.

The minor league track record is greater in both quality and quantity. Dating back to the cancelled 2020 season, he has stepped to the plate 1,630 times on the farm with a .278/.361/.486 batting line and 120 wRC+. He’s also stolen 63 bases and lined up at all three outfield spots.

That minor league track record wasn’t enough for any club to give him a 40-man spot. He still has an option remaining and could have been stashed in the minors but all clubs passed on that chance. As mentioned, since he has been outrighted before, he could decide to head to the open market now. If he passes on that opportunity, he’ll qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Shaun Anderson Elects Free Agency

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The Angels announced that right-hander Shaun Anderson has cleared waivers and elected free agency. The Halos designated him for assignment earlier this week. He has the right to reject the outright assignment because he has a previous career outright.

Anderson, 30, has gone down this road before. The Angels signed him to a minor league deal in the winter. He was selected to the roster in May. He lasted about two weeks before getting bumped off the roster. Since he is out of options, he was designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but then re-signed with the Angels on a new minor league deal. The same sequence of events played out the next month, with Anderson on the roster for a few days in June.

The same script was followed this week, though at a quicker pace. Anderson was added to the roster on Monday. The Halos were leading the Dodgers 7-0 after seven innings. They put in Anderson to try to save their top bullpen arms, but it didn’t work out. Home runs by Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy led to four runs going on the board, with Anderson only recording two outs.

The next day, he was designated for assignment for the third time this year. Like in the previous two instances, he has cleared waivers and exercised his right to test the open market. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he returns to the Angels on a new deal, as he has before. He has thrown 163 1/3 major league innings with a 6.39 earned run average. His minor league work has been better overall but he hasn’t been putting up great numbers this year. Pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, he has a 6.44 ERA in 81 innings in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Phillies Re-Sign Óscar Mercado To Minor League Deal

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Outfielder Óscar Mercado is back with the Phillies. He opted out of a minor league deal with the Phils just over a week ago but his transactions tracker at MLB.com indicates he has re-signed with the club on a new minor league deal.

Mercado signed the deal he recently opted out of back in February. Before opting out, he got into 92 Triple-A games and stepped to the plate 378 times. His 14.6% walk rate was better than his 13.8% strikeout rate. That led to a .252/.373/.385 batting line and 107 wRC+. He also stole 35 bases while playing all three outfield spots.

That performance was solid but not enough to get called up to Philadelphia. The club has had an outfield rotation of Nick Castellanos, Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler for most of the year, with others chipping in on occasion. They added Harrison Bader into the mix at the deadline and also have prospect Justin Crawford knocking on the door.

The path to a big league job isn’t great. Mercado took a few days to look around for other offers but has decided to return to the Phillies. He’ll provide them with some non-roster depth but it could take a few injuries for his services to be required in the majors.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Latest On Broadcast Package Carried By ESPN

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Back in February, Major League Baseball and ESPN opted out of the final three years of their contract together. That deal is still in place through 2025, with ESPN carrying this year’s rights to Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby and the Wild Card round of the playoffs, but the rights for those events are up for grabs for the 2026-28 seasons. In May, it was reported that NBC had made an offer on that package.

Now it appears that the package may be split up and sold in separate parts, per Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. Nothing is finalized yet but Marchand reports that the league is in negotiations with several different broadcasters about the pieces that ESPN is currently carrying. He says that NBC/Peacock and Apple TV+ are the frontrunners for Sunday Night Baseball and the playoff games, while Netflix seems likely to get the Derby. ESPN, meanwhile, could stay in the baseball broadcast business by picking up some weekday games. Marchand adds that ESPN has interest in MLB.TV but doesn’t indicate if that interest is reciprocal. John Ourand of Puck also reports that Netflix is hoping to acquire the Japanese rights for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

Breaking up broadcast rights into pieces is nothing new for the league. They have had deals with many broadcasters over the years and currently have deals in place with ESPN, Fox, ABC, TBS, Apple and Roku. Peacock/NBC had the rights to the early Sunday game not too long ago, before Roku took over that slot.

MLB was set to receive about $550MM annually from the ESPN deal. ESPN was looking to renegotiate, pointing out that Apple is only playing $85MM for its Friday night rights while Roku is only forking over $10MM annually. The ESPN package has more appeal. Like Apple and Roku, they get one game per week, but there’s only one game on Sunday nights while Apple/Roku have competition from the other contests. The Derby and the playoff games obviously make the package more valuable. Still, ESPN didn’t feel the price gap was appropriate. Per the May reporting linked above, ESPN was willing to pay about $200MM per year but not more.

MLB evidently felt it could beat that $200MM and perhaps may do so by splitting up the package into pieces. Time will tell if they can succeed. As mentioned, these deals are still being negotiated and Marchand doesn’t provide any specifics about the numbers being discussed.

One thing that has been consistent in stories about broadcast deals is that MLB doesn’t want to sign anything beyond 2028. Multiple reports have indicated that the league’s various broadcast deals expire after the 2028 season. As various clubs saw their regional deals collapse with Diamond Sports Group, now known as Main Street Sports, some re-signed but always on short-term deals. It seems the league hopes to be able to market a very large package, or packages, of broadcast components to various companies for the 2029 season and beyond. Marchand reports that the current negotiations are consistent with that approach, with nothing beyond 2028 being discussed.

There are many moving parts and it’s a notable situation to monitor going forward. Broadcast revenue is naturally a huge part of the game’s economic landscape and there could be many twists and turns in the coming years. The baseball world is expecting a lockout in the 2026-27 offseason, once the current collective bargaining agreement expires. Many believe that commissioner Rob Manfred and the owners would like to push the MLB Players Association to get a salary cap. A staredown between the league and the union could lead to cancelled games in 2027.

Manfred and the owners would have to balance their desire for that cap against their leverage in these deals. MLB has seen an uptick in popularity lately, including increased viewership ratings, often attributed to pace-of-play rule changes such as the pitch clock. Having that momentum would help the league in negotiations with broadcasters but a lengthy work stoppage and missed games would almost certainly hurt baseball’s popularity and cut into the league’s leverage in broadcast negotiations.

Angels Notes: Anderson, Mederos, Campero, Stephenson

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Angels left-hander Tyler Anderson has had a shaky season, and the 35-year-old southpaw tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he’s been playing through a back injury throughout the year. Anderson’s most recent start was pushed from Tuesday back to Saturday in order to afford him some extra rest. Anderson described the discomfort as “on and off” but generally something he’s been able to pitch through. However, he acknowledged that it “flared up probably the worst it had been” this season after his most recent outing.

Anderson was tagged for four runs in four innings against the Rays in said start. That marked his sixth time in the veteran southpaw’s past ten trips to the mound that he yielded at least four runs. His ERA over that span is an unsightly 5.50 and has ballooned his season-long mark from 3.99 to its current 4.63.

This is the final season of Anderson’s three-year, $40MM deal with the Halos. At the time, it was the first multi-year deal for a free agent starting pitcher that owner Arte Moreno had authorized in a decade (though the Angels have since signed Yusei Kikuchi to a three-year deal as well). It’s not a promising note on which to end his season, though Anderson will hope that the extra rest can help him get back on track for a strong finish.

Anderson is far from the only struggling member of the Angels’ rotation. Righty Jack Kochanowicz has been optioned twice within the past month, understandably so after turning in a grisly 6.19 ERA with a 14.5% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate in 107 2/3 innings spread across 22 starts.

The struggles from the 24-year-old Kochanowicz have prompted a rotation change with some permanence. Another 24-year-old righty, Victor Mederos, appears set to serve as the Halos’ fifth starter for the time being, per Fletcher. The right-hander changed his arm slot and pitch mix this year, most notably swapping out his four-seamer for a sinker, and he’s found strong results in the upper minors thus far.

While Mederos has allowed five runs in eight big league innings, he’s sporting a 3.41 ERA in the hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He’s not missing tons of bats (19% strikeout rate) but is sporting roughly average walk and ground-ball rates. Opponents have struggled to make hard contact against the righty, and he’ll get some opportunities to show he can stick on the big league staff down the stretch.

On the injury front, the Angels will be without outfielder Gustavo Campero for a significant period — perhaps the rest of the season. The 27-year-old was carted off the field with a lower-half injury earlier this week. He’s avoided a catastrophic injury, thankfully, but has still been diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reports. The team hasn’t formally ruled Campero out for the rest of the year, but there’s a chance he won’t be able to make it back to the field.

In brighter Angels injury news, right-hander Robert Stephenson is setting out on a minor league rehab assignment today. Stephenson tells Erica Weston of FanDuel Sports West that he’ll make appearances with the Angels’ Triple-A club today and again on Sunday.

Stephenson, 32, signed a three-year, $33MM deal with the Angels in the 2023-24 offseason but missed the entire ’24 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. He briefly returned earlier this summer but pitched only one inning before heading back to the injured list — this time due to inflammation in his right biceps. He’s since been moved back to the 60-day IL but now finally appears to be nearing a return.

Stephenson’s rise from journeyman DFA candidate to high-leverage standout in 2023 was rapid. He was designated for assignment by the Rockies late in 2022, claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh and, in 2023, was flipped from the Pirates to the Rays in a minor June swap for minor league infielder Alika Williams.

While Stephenson had long proven capable of missing bats at a high level, he never put it all together until that trade to Tampa Bay. In 38 1/3 innings with the Rays, he posted a 2.35 ERA while punching out a colossal 42.9% of his opponents against just a 5.7% walk rate. Stephenson was averaging 96.8 mph on his four-seamer, and his gargantuan 24.8% swinging-strike rate (28.9% with the Rays) was the highest single-season mark by any pitcher (min. 40 innings) since Brad Lidge’s 25.1% mark back in 2004.

The first two years of that sizable free agent contract will go down as a wash, by and large, but if Stephenson can finish the year on a high note, it’d give the Angels a bit more optimism regarding their bullpen heading into the 2026 campaign.

Braves Release Jackson Stephens To Sign With CPBL Team, Sign Anderson Pilar To Minor League Deal

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1:00pm: MLBTR has learned that Stephens was released to sign with a team in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League.

12:49pm: Right-hander Jackson Stephens has been released by the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. On the flip side, the Braves have signed right-hander Anderson Pilar to a minor league deal and he’s been assigned to Gwinnett.

Stephens, 31, signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in the offseason. He’s actually been putting up good numbers in the minors in a swing role. He has logged 49 Triple-A frames this year over four starts and 18 relief appearances. He has a 2.57 earned run average, 22.2% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 41.5% ground ball rate.

Atlanta has needed plenty of arms at the big league level this year, which each of Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Grant Holmes, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver and Joe Jiménez missing significant time. Despite the need for innings, they haven’t given Stephens the call. With his decent numbers, it’s possible he opted out his minor league pact.

Whether he triggered some kind of opt-out or this is a straight release, the result is the same. He’ll head out to the open market and assess his opportunities. He has 132 1/3 innings of major league experience with a 4.15 ERA, 19.4% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 40.4% ground ball rate.

As for Pilar, it’s not a surprise that Atlanta has scooped him up. They took him from the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft back in December. He came into camp with the club but couldn’t make the most of the opportunity. He tossed 5 2/3 spring innings, allowing nine earned runs on ten hits and six walks while striking out ten.

Atlanta returned him to the Marlins prior to Opening Day. He’s having a decent but not spectacular season. He tossed 44 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.26 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate. His .311 batting average on balls in play and 62.3% strand rate are a bit to the unfortunate side. His 3.11 FIP is more than a full run better than his ERA. The Marlins released him earlier this week and Atlanta has quickly pounced on him. This time, they aren’t bound by the Rule 5 restrictions and don’t even need to give Pilar a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Brusdar Graterol Unlikely To Return In 2025

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Flamethrowing Dodgers setup man Brusdar Graterol underwent shoulder surgery back in November and hoped to be able to pitch in the season’s second half, but manager Dave Roberts indicated to the Dodger beat yesterday that the big right-hander’s chances of making it back to a big league mound in 2025 are slim (link via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times). Graterol is with the team’s staff at their spring complex in Arizona but has not yet resumed throwing a ball, with just over six weeks of the season left.

It’s been a discouraging couple years for the 26-year-old Graterol, whom the Dodgers acquired in a 2020 trade that sent righty Kenta Maeda to the Twins. Graterol was one of Minnesota’s top young arms at the time, but the Twins felt comfortable dealing him due to the remaining four years on Maeda’s contract and perhaps in part due to concerns about shoulder troubles with Graterol.

Early on, it looked like a win-win for both parties. Maeda was the AL Cy Young runner-up in the shortened 2020 season. Graterol immediately seized an important role in manager Dave Roberts’ bullpen. Injuries to both pitchers would significantly cut their workload with their new clubs, however.

From 2020-23, Graterol pitched 173 2/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball for the Dodgers. He’s never missed bats the way one might expect from a pitcher who sits 99 mph with his sinker and regularly ramps it up into triple-digit territory, but the big righty is also one of the sport’s premier ground-ball pitchers. During that 2020-23 peak, he fanned just 18.9% of his opponents but also turned in a terrific 5.5% walk rate and an elite 62.5% ground-ball rate.

Strong as the results were in that time, Graterol was also on the injured list five different times for elbow or shoulder troubles with the Dodgers before finally undergoing surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder. He pitched just 7 1/3 innings last year and seemingly won’t get back on the mound in 2025.

Graterol is being paid $2.8MM this season and is under club control via arbitration for one more year. Arb-eligible players who miss an entire season due to injury typically agree to sign for the same amount the following year, assuming they’re tendered a contract. Given Graterol’s strong results when healthy and minimal cost to the deep-pocketed Dodgers, they’ll likely retain him and hope for a healthy year in 2026 (assuming there haven’t been any notable setbacks in his rehab).

It’s not all bad news with regard to the Dodger bullpen, however. Roberts told reporters last night that righty Michael Kopech will begin a minor league rehab assignment today (link via The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya). Kopech opened the 2025 season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement that ultimately sent him to the 60-day IL. He returned in June and came roaring out of the gates with seven shutout frames, but something was clearly off in his final appearance, as he walked three of the four batters he faced before being lifted and placed on the injured list to inflammation in his knee.

Kopech initially downplayed the severity, but once the inflammation subsided, imaging revealed a torn meniscus. He underwent surgery and was quickly transferred back to the 60-day IL. He’s been on the injured list since July 1, so Kopech isn’t eligible to be activated until the very end of the month. It’s encouraging that he’s already setting out on a rehab stint, as he’ll have a runway of more than two weeks to build up before he’s first eligible to return.

Rafael Ortega Opts Out Of Mets Deal

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Veteran outfielder Rafael Ortega triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mets and was granted his release, MLBTR has learned. He’s a free agent who can sign with any club.

The 34-year-old Ortega signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason, kicking off his second stint with the team. He also spent the 2023 campaign with the Mets, hitting .219/.341/.272 in 136 big league plate appearances and .230/.379/.398 in 140 Triple-A plate appearances.

Ortega has picked up more than three years of major league service time and played in parts of eight big league seasons. He’s a career .245/.322/.349 hitter in 1301 plate appearances as a big leaguer, highlighted by a 2021-22 run with the Cubs that saw him slash .265/.344/.408 (110 wRC+) in semi-regular action (701 plate appearances over 221 games).

Ortega has spent the majority of the current season on the injured list due to a significant hamstring strain. He went on a low-level rehab stint in late July and was activated on the Triple-A roster earlier this month. He started only four of the nine games for the Mets’ Triple-A Syracuse club since his reinstatement, however, and received 18 total plate appearances in that time. Top outfield prospect Carson Benge’s recent promotion to Syracuse would surely further reduce Ortega’s playing opportunities, so he’ll return to the open market in search of a new landing spot.

In parts of 10 seasons at the Triple-A level, Ortega is a .286/.370/.446 hitter. He’s a left-handed bat who can handle all three outfield positions. He’ll be an option for any club looking for some experienced outfield depth.

Braves Designate Carlos Carrasco For Assignment

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The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Carlos Carrasco for assignment. Right-handed reliever Hunter Stratton has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to take Carrasco’s spot on the roster.

Atlanta picked up Carrasco in a cash swap with the Yankees prior to the trade deadline. The Braves were simply in need of arms to log innings with so many members of their rotation on the injured list, and Carrasco had been pitching well with New York’s Triple-A club in Scranton. Carrasco’s tenure with the Braves kicked off decently, as he tossed a quality start in a no-decision against the Reds on deadline day.

The next two outings for Carrasco, however, were brutal. The 38-year-old righty was tagged for six runs in 5 2/3 innings versus the Marlins on Aug. 7 and was torched for another six runs in only two innings against his former Mets club just yesterday. Overall, he’s pitched 13 2/3 innings with Atlanta and recorded a 9.88 ERA: 15 runs on 22 hits (three homers) and seven walks with only nine strikeouts.

Carrasco made 29 solid starts for the 2022 Mets (3.97 ERA, 152 innings) but has now struggled greatly in three consecutive major league seasons. He’s pitched 239 1/3 MLB frames dating back to 2023 but logged only a 6.36 earned run average as his velocity, strikeout rate, walk rate and home run rate have all trended in the wrong direction. The Braves are likely to place Carrasco on release waivers within the next couple days, and he’d become a free agent upon clearing.

With Carrasco dropped from the staff, Atlanta will give starts to Spencer Strider, Erick Fedde, Bryce Elder, Joey Wentz and Hurston Waldrep. Reigning NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale is on the mend from the ribcage fracture that’s sidelined him for nearly two months and pitched two innings Tuesday in the first of what’ll be multiple minor league rehab starts.

The Opener: Goldschmidt, Muncy, Cubs

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Here are three things to keep an eye on around MLB today…

1. Goldschmidt injury watch:

Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt was unavailable for yesterday’s game after suffering a knee injury in Tuesday’s rout of the Twins. The team announced yesterday that Goldschmidt has a low-grade sprain with some inflammation. Goldschmidt told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com that he’s hoping for a “short-term” absence and thinks there’s a chance he could avoid the injured list entirely. The Yankees are off today, though it’s hardly uncommon for clubs to provide medical updates even on off-days. Goldschmidt, who’ll turn 38 next month, has cooled considerably since a blistering start to the season. He’s still hitting .276/.331/.422 overall (108 wRC+), but nearly all of his production came in April and May. Since June 1, he’s hitting just .207/.259/.340 (63 wRC+) in 203 trips to the plate.

2. Muncy being evaluated for potential injury:

Max Muncy was scratched from yesterday’s game after feeling discomfort in his right side, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. He’ll be further evaluated today. Muncy’s season has been the opposite of Goldschmidt. The 34-year-old slugger got out to a brutal start but caught fire in late April and has been in vintage form ever since. Muncy drew the ire of Dodgers fans when he opened the season with a woeful .167/.283/.231 performance through his first 25 games (92 plate appearances). Since then? Things look a little different. Muncy has turned in a mammoth .294/.427/.592 batting line with 17 home runs and more walks (18.8%) than strikeouts (15.7%) in his past 255 plate appearances. He’s averaging 91.6 mph off the bat in that time and sporting an enormous 53.3% hard-hit rate. By measure of wRC+, he’s been 80% better than average at the plate since late April.

Obviously, an absence of any note would sting terribly for Los Angeles, particularly in light of the team’s recent slide in the standings. The Dodgers have dropped four games in a row and are just 12-21 over their past 33 games. Making matters worse for L.A. is that the red-hot Padres have won five straight games, leapfrogging the Dodgers for sole possession of first place in the National League West.

3. Top Cubs prospect set for debut in home country:

Cubs fans should get their first look at top outfield prospect Owen Caissie today, as he’s reportedly set to be recalled from Triple-A as catcher Miguel Amaya heads to the injured list. As if his first call to the majors isn’t sweet enough, the Canadian-born Caissie will get the opportunity to make his debut in his home country, as the Cubs wrap up a road series against the Jays in Toronto.

Caissie’s name has kicked up in trade rumors both in the offseason and at the recent trade deadline, but the Cubs held onto him — and all of their other most highly regarded prospects — amid a surprisingly quiet deadline. Caissie, a 2020 second-round pick, has slashed .289/.389/.566 (143 wRC+) with 22 homers, 26 doubles and two triples in 404 plate appearances during his second run through the Triple-A level. While his production has improved in his second stint at the level, Caissie’s problematic strikeout rate remains largely unchanged. He fanned in 28.4% of his plate appearances in 127 Triple-A games last year and is at 28.2% through 93 games in 2025.

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