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Pirates Promote Hunter Barco

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Sept. 23: The Pirates have formally announced Barco’s promotion. His contract has been selected to the 40-man roster, and Simon has indeed been transferred to the 60-day IL to create space. That’ll officially end Simon’s season. Lefty Evan Sisk was optioned to clear an active roster spot for Barco.

Sept. 22: The Pirates are calling up pitching prospect Hunter Barco, reports Brent Martineau of CBS47/FOX30. The Bucs will need to make corresponding moves to open active and 40-man roster spots for the lefty. The 40-man move might be easy since infielder/outfielder Ronny Simon recently dislocated his left shoulder. If he’s not coming back in the final few days, he could be moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day.

Barco, now 24, was selected by the Pirates in the second round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers on the farm, climbing the ranks of the minors while also climbing up prospect rankings.

Many in the industry considered him a potential first-round pick while he was pitching for Florida. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery before being drafted, which bumped him down the board and allowed the Bucs to get him in the second round.

He recovered from that procedure and was able to get back on the mound late in 2023, though he only logged 18 1/3 innings that year. He got a more proper professional season last year, throwing 66 innings over 18 appearances, split between High-A and Double-A. He allowed 3.27 earned runs per nine, struck out 31.2% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 8.3% clip and got grounders on 46.4% of balls in play.

This year, he has stretched out to 99 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. In that time, he has a 2.81 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 11.8% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate. The Triple-A season finished yesterday, so he wasn’t going to have a chance to add to that innings total if he stayed on the farm.

He was slated to be Rule 5 eligible this winter. The Bucs were surely going to add him to their 40-man roster to protect him, meaning he was going to be using up a 40-man roster spot this offseason regardless. By adding him now, they can put a few more innings on his arm here in 2025, get him accustomed to the big league environment and see how his stuff plays against major league opponents.

The Pirates have been stuck in a rebuild for a while now, but those prone to optimism could point to a few things. Shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin is now considered one of the top prospects in the sport, with some outlets considering him to be the very best. He is only 19 years old but has reached Double-A and could plausibly make a major league debut at some point in 2026. At the big league level, guys like Spencer Horwitz, Jared Triolo and Bryan Reynolds are having strong second halves, perhaps giving the position player group a bit of momentum towards better results next year.

But the most notable part of the Pirates’ roster is their collection of talented and controllable starting pitching options. Paul Skenes is one of the best pitchers alive right now and is controlled for another four seasons after this one. Mitch Keller is a solid mid-rotation guy who is signed through 2028. Johan Oviedo just returned from a long surgery layoff but he could be a viable back-end guy.

Then there’s a big cluster of young guys who are just bubbling to the big league level. Bubba Chandler, Mike Burrows, Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington have all made it to the majors but each one still has fewer than 100 big league innings, with varying degrees of big league success. Jared Jones had a nice debut last year, posting a 4.14 ERA in 121 2/3 innings, but he required UCL surgery in May of this year and will be out until mid-2026.

There are still lots of question marks in that group, given the limited experience of most of those guys, but it’s possible the front office thinks about using this collection of starting pitchers on the trade market. The Pirates have had great difficulty developing hitters. They also have one of the smallest payrolls in the league, which means solving the problem in free agency isn’t likely to happen either.

This summer, there were plenty of rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh rotation. Keller in particular seemed to get a lot of attention but ultimately wasn’t moved. The Bucs did flip Bailey Falter to the Royals, but that was a far less impactful deal than a potential deal of Keller or anyone else in this group.

Going into the winter, it will be an interesting situation to watch. The Pirates could hold onto all of their pitchers and see how things play out in 2026. Not all of them will meet expectations and some of them will surely get hurt. There would be risk in subtracting an arm or two and reducing the overall depth, though it also might be the club’s best path to making a notable lineup boost. For now, they can get a look at Barco in the majors and see how it goes, but some big decisions will have to be made in the coming months.

At this late stage of the calendar, Barco won’t be able to exhaust rookie status before the winter arrives. That means the prospect promotion incentive could be on the table in 2026, depending on where he lands on prospect lists between now and then. A player is PPI eligible if he is on two of the three top 100 lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. He’s currently listed in the #82 spot at MLB Pipeline, though he’s not on BA’s list and wasn’t on the ESPN August update.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Ozzie Albies Suffers Hamate Fracture

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Sept. 23: Atlanta placed Albies on the 10-day injured list this morning, formally ending his season. Infielder Brett Wisely, recently claimed off waivers from the Giants, was recalled from Triple-A  Gwinnett to take his spot on the roster. The Braves also formally added fellow waiver claim Joel Payamps to their bullpen and optioned righty Nathan Wiles in his place.

Sept. 22: The Braves have been hit with yet another significant injury. Ozzie Albies was diagnosed with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand/wrist (relayed by Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The second baseman appeared to suffer the injury on a swinging strike in the third inning of tonight’s game. He took the next pitch before calling for a trainer and exiting.

Albies fractured the same wrist on a tag play last July. He was out of action for two months, only managing a late-season return before Atlanta’s brief playoff run. This will obviously cost him the final five games of a losing season. The far greater concern is that he has suffered similar significant injuries in consecutive years. It’ll presumably have some effect on at least the early stages of his offseason.

Hamate fractures typically cost position players around two months. If Albies requires a similar timeline, that would give him plenty of time to be ready for Spring Training. It’s not uncommon for a hitter’s power production to drop after a broken wrist, though, raising more questions about what Atlanta can expect from a player whose numbers have declined over the past two seasons.

Albies finishes the season with a career-worst .240/.306/.365 batting line. He picked up 16 homers and went 14-17 on stolen base attempts. Albies leads second basemen with 667 plate appearances. He had been very durable this season, but he wasn’t hitting the ball with much authority until the past few weeks. He hit .220/.290/.316 in the first half. Albies had a better showing down the stretch, batting .270/.328/.439 after the All-Star Break. He’ll look to avoid a similarly slow start as he comes back from another late-season injury.

The Braves hold successive $7MM club options on Albies for the next two years. The first of those comes with a $4MM buyout. That should still be a very easy call for the front office to exercise. The $3MM difference is on par with what utility/depth players like Kyle Farmer, Thairo Estrada, Josh Rojas and Kevin Newman commanded as free agents last offseason.

Albies’ injury adds to a handful of questions among the Atlanta infield. Ha-Seong Kim appears to be playing his way toward opting out of his $16MM contract. If he does, the Braves would need to find an upgrade over Nick Allen at shortstop. They’d presumably make an effort to bring Kim back on a multi-year deal in that scenario. Austin Riley will be coming back from core surgery. Nacho Alvarez Jr. hasn’t shown much consistency in his first real run as an everyday third baseman in Riley’s absence.

The Opener: Possible Clinches, Tigers, Guardians, MLBTR Chat

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Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on today:

1. Possible clinches in the AL:

The Yankees and Mariners are all but guaranteed a playoff spot, and today’s games could remove the “all but” qualifier from that phrase. If the Yankees beat the White Sox, they’ll clinch a playoff spot for themselves and also open the door for the Mariners to clinch a spot with a win over the Rockies later in the evening. Yankees right-hander Luis Gil (3.33 ERA in nine starts) will take on rookie righty Shane Smith (4.06 ERA) in today’s Yankees/White Sox game, scheduled to begin at 7:05pm local time. The Mariners host the Rockies in a game set for 6:40pm local time. Mariners righty Bryce Miller (5.56 ERA in 16 starts) and Rox rookie McCade Brown (9.17 ERA in five starts) are expected to take the mound.

2. Series Preview: Tigers @ Guardians

Arguably the most high-stakes series remaining on the 2025 calendar starts today when the slumping Tigers head to Cleveland for a three-game set against the surging Guardians. Detroit has lost six games in a row, and while the Guardians saw their win streak snapped at ten games on Sunday, they’ve still won 16 of their past 19 games. That remarkable stretch leaves Cleveland just one game back of the Tigers in the AL Central. Detroit will hope to jump out to a quick series lead tonight with AL Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal (2.23 ERA) on the mound opposite Guardians righty Gavin Williams (3.06 ERA). Tomorrow, Jack Flaherty (4.60 ERA) will take on Tanner Bibee (4.34 ERA). The series wraps Thursday with Guardians rookie Parker Messick (2.08 ERA in six starts) set to go for Cleveland, while Detroit’s starter remains TBD.

3. MLBTR chat today:

We’re just a week away from the postseason, and with plenty of teams still fighting for a playoff spot it’s sure to be an exciting last few days. Whether you’re invested in this final stretch of the season or already are turning your attention towards the upcoming offseason free agent and trade markets, MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat at 1pm CT later today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

Braves Sign Charlie Morton

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The Braves have reunited with old friend Charlie Morton. They signed him to a major league deal today. He had been designated for assignment by the Tigers but evidently cleared waivers and became a free agent. Atlanta optioned right-hander Jhancarlos Lara and designated righty Carson Ragsdale for assignment as corresponding moves. Manager Brian Snitker previously shared the news with Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and David O’Brien of The Athletic. Bowman suggests it’s possible the club has brought Morton aboard to retire as a Brave. It’s undetermined whether he will pitch for the club in the remainder of the season.

Morton, 41, hasn’t said that he is retiring but it wouldn’t be a shock if that was his plan. He has flirted with the possibility for years now. “It could be this year, next year, but I’m not going to keep playing for a long time,” he said way back in April of 2018. “I can promise you that. I’m not going to keep playing four, five, six, seven more years.”

Of course, that was over seven years ago now. Since then, Morton has seemingly made a conscious choice to not overly commit to anything. He has repeatedly signed a series of short-term deals, apparently content to keep playing as long as he stayed effective.

After a so-so 2024 season in which he posted a 4.19 earned run average, he decided to give it another go in 2025. He signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Orioles. “I remember walking off the field and just this like sinking feeling in my stomach — it just didn’t feel right,” Morton said shortly after signing with the O’s. “I’m sure a lot of guys toward the end of their careers, they think about retiring, shutting it down, and you really want to walk off the field the last time and feel good about it. And a lot of guys don’t get that opportunity. I just didn’t feel good about it. I felt like I could have done better. I felt like I still had the tools to be a good pitcher in the big leagues.”

Unfortunately, this season has been even more challenging than the last one. He posted a 10.89 ERA through five starts and got moved to the bullpen before the end of April. He posted some decent results working in relief and got his rotation spot back, then performed pretty well in the summer. He had a 3.88 ERA in 11 starts from late May to the trade deadline, which gave him enough value for the Orioles to trade him and some cash to the Tigers for minor league lefty Micah Ashman.

His first four starts with Detroit were fine, as he put up a 3.63 ERA in those, but things took a disastrous turn from there. He didn’t go more than four innings in any of his final four outings as a Tiger. He seemed to completely lose the zone, walking 19.7% of batters faced in those four games with a 12.75 ERA in that span. In his final outing as a Tiger, he didn’t make it out of the second inning and was booed off the field by a frustrated fan base as the club’s recent skid has become disastrous. The Tigers, desperately trying to avoid a situation where they miss the playoffs, cut him loose.

Atlanta doesn’t have any use for Morton in a competitive sense. Their season was a lost cause long ago and they are officially eliminated from making the playoffs this year. Bringing Morton aboard is a sentimental choice, one that allows him to finish the season with a club that he had a lot of success with.

Morton was originally drafted by Atlanta back in 2002 and debuted for them in 2008. From there, he bounced around, spending many years with the Pirates, Astros and Rays. He returned to Atlanta in 2021 and stayed there through 2024. In those four recent seasons with Atlanta, he made at least 30 starts in each one. Overall, he gave the club 686 1/3 innings with a 3.87 ERA.

As mentioned, it’s unclear if Morton is actually retiring or if he will take the mound in the final week of the season. But it seems possible that he is planning on heading towards the sunset. If that’s the case and he wants to climb the hill one last time, perhaps he can engineer a better final act than his most recent appearance as a Tiger.

Ragsdale, 27, was just claimed off waivers from the Orioles a few days ago. He was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett and made one appearance for the Stripers. Since the trade deadline has long passed, he’ll be back on waivers in the coming days.

His minor league track record is still quite small, consisting of just one appearance for the O’s this year wherein he allowed eight earned runs in three innings. His minor league work also hasn’t been great this year, with a 5.22 ERA in 89 2/3 innings, but he was better a year ago. In 2024, he logged 120 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.18 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate.

He doesn’t have three years of big league service time nor a previous career outright. That means he does not have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency. He also doesn’t have seven years of minor league experience, meaning he shouldn’t be eligible for minor league free agency at season’s end either.

Photos courtesy of Jim Rassol, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Red Sox Re-Sign Hobie Harris To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox are in agreement with reliever Hobie Harris on a minor league contract for 2026, reports Ari Alexander. The Gaeta Sports Management client will be in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.

Harris will return to Boston for a second consecutive season. The 32-year-old righty spent this season in the Sox organization. Harris signed a minor league deal with the Mets last November. The Red Sox selected him in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft less than a month later. Harris missed a couple weeks early on with shoulder inflammation. He has been healthy since June and turned in 39 innings of 4.15 ERA ball at Triple-A Worcester. He fanned a quarter of his opponents but allowed walks and home runs at higher than average rates.

A former Yankees draftee, Harris pitched in the big leagues with the Nationals two seasons ago. He made 16 appearances and allowed 12 runs (11 earned) across 19 1/3 innings. The Pittsburgh product only recorded nine strikeouts in his big league stint but has fanned a reasonable 24% of opponents over parts of five Triple-A seasons. Harris uses a three-pitch mix led by his mid-80s splitter. His four-seam fastball sits around 95 MPH and he throws an upper-80s cutter as his breaking pitch.

Orioles Outright Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced this afternoon that reliever Scott Blewett accepted an outright assignment to the team’s Florida complex. The righty went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week. Baltimore also activated Adley Rutschman from the injured list. Infielder Luis Vázquez was optioned to the complex in a corresponding move.

Baltimore acquired Blewett in a cash trade with Atlanta in June. He went down with an elbow injury a few weeks later and has spent the past two months on the 60-day injured list. The O’s decided not to put him back on the MLB roster once he returned to health last week. Blewett is out of options, so the Orioles needed to send him through waivers at that point.

The 29-year-old Blewett has been outrighted a few times in his career. He had the right to elect free agency but evidently preferred to spend the season’s final week at the O’s complex. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season anyhow. Blewett has tossed a career-high 44 1/3 innings between three teams this season. He carries a 5.48 earned run average with an 18% strikeout rate. He’ll probably be looking at minor league offers this winter.

Reds Notes: Hays, De La Cruz, Lowder

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The Reds completed a four-game sweep of the Cubs over the weekend. They’ve won five straight and pulled into a tie with the reeling Mets for the National League’s last playoff spot. Cincinnati went 4-2 against New York, meaning they have the tiebreaker. They also hold the tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks, who find themselves one game back.

Cincinnati now controls their own destiny. They’re off tonight before hosting the Pirates for three games. They finish the year with a weekend set in Milwaukee. That’s a tough series on paper, but the Brewers could have already secured home field advantage through the postseason depending on the result of their ongoing series against the Padres.

As they enter that critical stretch, the Reds are facing a potential absence from their left fielder. Austin Hays made an early exit from Saturday’s game with back spasms. He sat out yesterday’s series finale. Manager Terry Francona said on Saturday the team is hopeful that Hays will be ready for the start of the Pittsburgh series tomorrow (via the MLB.com injury tracker). The off day gives him a little extra rest.

If Hays is unable to go, Cincinnati could kick Will Benson to left field and plug Noelvi Marte in right. Pittsburgh is set to run a trio of right-handed starting pitchers — Johan Oviedo, Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft — against Cincinnati. Hays hits in the middle of the lineup regardless of handedness, but he does most of his damage against left-handers.

A bigger factor for Cincinnati is getting their franchise player on track. The Reds have made their push back into the playoff picture despite a disappointing stretch from Elly De La Cruz. The switch-hitting shortstop has hit .212/.271/.315 in almost 200 trips to the plate since the beginning of August. He homered off Porter Hodge on Friday, his first longball in more than six weeks. The slump got to a point where Francona felt he needed to drop De La Cruz in the batting order. He has hit sixth or seventh over the past week after operating as the team’s #3 hitter for the entire season.

De La Cruz still has decent numbers overall. He’s up to 20 homers with a .263/.336/.436 batting line across 673 plate appearances. He’s tied for sixth in MLB with 36 stolen bases. Yet he clearly hasn’t played to his potential over the past few weeks. C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic observed over the weekend that De La Cruz has played through a pair of leg injuries (quad and hamstring) while starting all but one of the team’s 156 games. He certainly won’t come out of the lineup at this stage of the season, but it’s possible he’s battling fatigue.

On the pitching side, rookie right-hander Rhett Lowder seems likely to miss the entire season. The 2023 seventh overall pick has been on the injured list all year because of forearm and oblique injuries. Lowder made a two-inning rehab appearance at Triple-A Louisville on September 13. MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes that he was scratched from his second scheduled rehab outing after feeling that his shoulder didn’t recover as hoped from the first.

Lowder has already undergone imaging that came back clean, but it’s yet another setback that makes it difficult to imagine him returning even if the Reds make a deep playoff run. The Triple-A season is over, so Lowder won’t get any more game action. The Wake Forest product impressed late last season, working to a 1.17 ERA through his first six MLB starts.

Masyn Winn To Undergo Knee Surgery This Week, Expected To Be Ready For Spring Training

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Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn is scheduled for his arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday, the club informed reporters (including John Denton of MLB.com and Derrick Goold of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Winn had played through a meniscus tear in the second half before being shut down a couple weeks ago. The relatively minor procedure is not expected to impact his availability for Spring Training.

Winn is wrapping up his second full major league season. His offense regressed this year, as he hit .253/.310/.363 across 537 plate appearances. Winn had a slightly above-average .267/.314/.415 slash with 15 homers and 32 doubles a season ago. The injury probably played a role in that. Winn ran a .198/.265/.281 line over his final 132 trips to the plate. The 23-year-old played through the pain while the Cardinals held out some hope for a long shot playoff berth. St. Louis eventually opted to shut him down and turn his attention to 2026.

To his credit, Winn didn’t allow the injury or his late-season offensive struggles to impact his performance in the field. He recorded 22 Outs Above Average, per Statcast. That’s second among shortstops behind Bobby Witt Jr. Defensive Runs Saved (+3) wasn’t quite that bullish, yet Winn lived up to his reputation as one of the game’s most sure handed infielders. He was only charged with three errors in more than 1100 innings at the infield’s most demanding position.

Thomas Saggese is finishing the season at shortstop. Winn will be the unquestioned starter next spring, assuming there aren’t any setbacks in his rehab process. While the Cards could entertain trade offers on a few veterans over the offseason, it’d be a shock if they seriously considered moving Winn. He’s still a year away from arbitration and under club control for four seasons.

Poll: Jack Flaherty’s Player Option

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Entering the 2024-25 offseason, Jack Flaherty was viewed by many as one of the most attractive starting pitchers on the market. He was coming off a brilliant season (3.17 ERA in 28 starts with the Tigers and Dodgers) and had just won a World Series ring, but the things that truly made Flaherty look like an attractive signing relative to the rest of the crowd were ancillary factors. He wasn’t attached to draft pick compensation via the Qualifying Offer, he was younger than most free agent starters as he hit the market ahead of his age-29 season, and he wasn’t projected for the sort of megadeal that top arms with longer track records like Max Fried and Corbin Burnes were expected to get.

Many fans were dreaming on the idea of bringing Flaherty in as an arm with ace-level potential who could fit their team’s budget, but those hopes and projections did not account for just how concerned rival clubs would be about Flaherty’s health status. The Yankees pulled out of a trade that would’ve allowed them to acquire the righty from the Tigers at last year’s deadline due to concerns about his medical records. Perhaps those concerns seeped into Flaherty’s free agent market, as a winter that was generally favorable to starting pitchers saw the right-hander forced to settle for a short-term deal rather than land the nine-figure deal many expected him to get entering the winter.

After returning to the Tigers on a two-year, $35MM guarantee once his market dried up, Flaherty turned in a somewhat middling performance this year. While he started out strong with similar numbers to last year through his first six starts, the right-hander went on to struggle badly in both May and June, and entered the month of July with a 4.80 ERA and a 4.59 FIP. Those numbers painted Flaherty as barely a league average starter. When he escalated his player option for the 2026 season from $10MM up to $20MM, it seemed like maybe he would simply exercise that option and hope for better luck next season on a healthy salary.

His performance in the second half has complicated things somewhat. In 14 starts since the beginning of July, Flaherty has a 4.35 ERA that remains pedestrian at best. A closer look at his numbers in the second half reveals a lot of reason for optimism, however. With a .344 BABIP allowed and a strand rate of just 69.5%, it’s clear that the right-hander has had some real misfortune when it comes to batted ball and sequencing luck, both things that are generally out of a pitcher’s control. In terms of the things Flaherty does have the most control over, he’s actually excelled. He’s struck out 26.5% of his opponents, good for 13th among qualified starters in that time frame, with a 7.8% walk rate. His 18.8% K-BB rate is in the top 20.

When looking at ERA estimators under those same parameters, Flaherty’s 3.67 SIERA ranks 18th and only five starters have outperformed his 3.04 FIP: Paul Skenes, Trevor Rogers, Cristopher Sanchez, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and George Kirby. Impressive as that company is, the fact that Flaherty has remained healthy this year may be even more important given those previous questions about his medicals. He’s made 30 starts this year for the first time since 2019, and just the second time of his career. His next start against the Guardians on Wednesday will most likely see him surpass last year’s innings pitched total as well.

Flaherty’s excellent second half peripherals and encouraging health this year might make opting out seem like an obvious choice for the right-hander, but the inescapable reality of his situation is that his actual run prevention this year simply hasn’t been very good. The right-hander sports a 4.60 ERA headed into what’s likely to be his final start of the regular season, and that figure ranks just 40th among 51 qualified starters in the big leagues this year. Landing the sort of nine-figure deal Flaherty was hoping to get last offseason off the back of a platform season like that doesn’t seem terribly realistic.

Even with a top-dollar free agent deal likely out of reach, though, there’s still a real argument for exercising the opt out. After all, Flaherty seems all but certain to beat that $20MM guarantee if he opts out. It was just last offseason that Walker Buehler landed a guarantee in excess of $20MM on the heels of a 2024 season where he pitched to a 5.38 ERA across 16 starts coming off Tommy John surgery, while pitchers like Alex Cobb and Charlie Morton who offered very little certainty were able to secure $15MM salaries on one-year deals. If this year’s market ends up being anything like last season, Flaherty should have little trouble beating his option price tag in terms of total guarantee with a strong chance to beat that salary outright.

While the Tigers could extend him the Qualifying Offer in the event that he decides to opt out if they were so inclined, that would still be the case next year as well. What’s more, simply accepting the QO would actually constitute a small raise for Flaherty relative to his option salary, as it’s projected to land around $22MM this offseason. If Detroit opted not to extend the QO to him, on the other hand, he’d once again be an attractive, high-potential arm unencumbered by draft pick compensation. In a free agent market where virtually every starter comes with real question marks, it’s not hard to imagine a team overlooking Flaherty’s lackluster results this year to make a healthy multi-year offer, or at least offer him a more lucrative pillow contract than the one he’d be opting out of.

How do MLBTR readers think Flaherty should approach his option decision this November? Should he stick with the Tigers in hopes that he puts it all together in 2026 with a truly ace-caliber season, or should he test the open market and look for the safety of a larger immediate guarantee? Have your say in the poll below:

Marlins Designate Derek Hill For Assignment

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The Marlins announced a big series of roster moves today. Right-hander Edward Cabrera has been reinstated from the 15-day day injured list and outfielder Griffin Conine from the 60-day IL. To open active roster spots, right-hander Adam Mazur and outfielder Joey Wiemer have each been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. To open a 40-man spot for Conine, outfielder Derek Hill has been returned from his rehab assignment, reinstated from the 10-day injured list and designated for assignment.

Hill, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Giants in August of last year. Since that claim, he has generally continued to have roughly the same level of production before he came to Miami. Though he can make some nice catches and steal a few bases, he has generally been a guy with subpar offense, thanks to poor strikeout and walk numbers.

He has made a few trips to the injured list this year, two due to a left wrist sprain, another due to a left middle finger sprain, and most recently a right hamstring strain. Around those IL trips, he has appeared in 53 games for the Marlins. In his 141 trips to the plate, just 6.4% of those have resulted in him taking a walk while 32.6% of them ended in strike three. His .213/.275/.331 batting line translates to a 68 wRC+.

Though he has seven stolen bases on the year and strong defensive grades, the bat was dragging him down. He is out of options and can’t be easily sent to the minors. He has crossed three years of big league service time this year, meaning he was going to qualify for arbitration this winter. It seems the Marlins weren’t planning to tender him a contract, so they have cut him early in order to open a roster spot for their other moves today.

Since the trade deadline has passed, he will be on waivers in the coming days. There wouldn’t be much short-term appeal for other clubs, since the season is almost over and he wouldn’t be postseason eligible for any claiming team. He can be controlled for three seasons after this one, but a club would only grab him if they thought he was worth an arbitration raise for 2026. If he clears waivers, he will have the right to elect free agency.

The returns of Cabrera and Conine are also potentially notable here, as the Marlins are clinging to a tiny hope of a miracle run to finish the season. They are four games back of the Reds and Mets with six games left to play. Both players were performing well earlier this year, so perhaps they can give Miami a boost for an incredible sprint to the finish line.

Cabrera’s return is also notable for the upcoming offseason. He has had something of a breakout here in 2025, as his results have kicked up a notch. He has always been able to get strikeouts and ground balls, but his stock has been held back by poor control and some injury concerns.

He has softened both of those worries a bit here in 2025. He came into this year with a 13.3% walk rate but has managed to limit the free passes to a 7.7% clip this season. He has also stayed healthy enough to log 128 2/3 innings. He had never before hit the century mark, so that’s easily a career high.

An elbow sprain did put him out of action at the start of this month, but he has managed to return three weeks later. If he can stay healthy and effective in the final week, that could give him and the Marlins some peace of mind about him going into 2026.

The Fish will are theoretical candidates to trade a starting pitcher this winter. Rumors surrounding Cabrera and Sandy Alcantara were common this summer but the Marlins held both beyond the trade deadline. Going into next season, their rotation mix includes those two as well as Eury Pérez, Ryan Weathers, Janson Junk, Braxton Garrett, Max Meyer, Ryan Gusto, Mazur, Dax Fulton and Freddy Tarnok, with prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling currently lurking in Triple-A.  It’s possible to imagine the Marlins revisiting the possibility of trading Alcantara or Cabrera this winter, which could give Cabrera’s return today a bit of extra intrigue.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

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