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Angels Sign Chad Wallach To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Rangers on a minor league deal but was released a few days ago.

Wallach, 33, is a known commodity for the Halos. He got into 77 games for them over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also spent last year at Triple-A Salt Lake on a minor league deal but didn’t get called up.

He pivoted over to the Rangers at the start of this year and got into 28 games for Triple-A Round Rock. He struck out 27.2% of the time but also walked at a strong 11.4% clip and hit four home runs. That added up to a .245/.333/.408 line and 89 wRC+.

Wallach faced a steep path to playing time in Texas, where Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are the primary catching duo. Even when Higashioka went on the injured list earlier this year, it was Tucker Barnhart who got the call to cover for him. Higashioka subsequently returned from the IL and Barnhart was bumped off the roster but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal.

The Angels have Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud at the big league level. For much of the season, they had Chuckie Robinson at Salt Lake on an optional assignment, but he was lost to the Dodgers via waivers a couple of weeks ago. Though Wallach is not on the roster, he essentially replaces Robinson as the top option to get called up if either O’Hoppe or d’Arnaud suffers an injury.

Including his time with the Angels, Wallach has also suited up for the Reds and Marlins. He has 155 big league games under his belt over seven separate seasons. He has a .198/.263/.328 batting line but solid defensive grades.

Image courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Giants Select Logan Porter, Designate Osleivis Basabe For Assignment

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The Giants have selected catcher Logan Porter to their roster. Fellow backstop Patrick Bailey goes on the 10-day injured list with a neck strain, retroactive to June 8. Infielder Osleivis Basabe has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to relay the moves.

It doesn’t appear as though Bailey is facing a lengthy absence. He was initially in Tuesday’s lineup but was scratched due to neck spasms. Not even half an hour before this news dropped, Bailey wasn’t sure if he would actually be going on the IL or not, per Slusser. Manager Bob Melvin also said they were hoping to have Bailey in the lineup by tomorrow, per Slusser. Instead, it seems the club has decided to give Bailey some time to rest up. Since the move has been backdated by three days, he could be back in a week.

Bailey is one of the best defensive catchers in the game but has struggled badly at the plate this season. In 180 plate appearances, he has a .185/.246/.272 batting line and 46 wRC+. The Giants will surely miss his glovework but it’s possible the lineup will get a boost.

Suddenly, the club’s catching corps looks totally different from earlier in the year. Bailey was sharing the position with Sam Huff for most of the season but the Giants swapped in Andrew Knizner for Huff a week ago. Huff was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento but the club has opted to select Porter instead of bringing Huff back.

Porter, 29, has just 38 major league plate appearances. He hit .194/.324/.323 in those trips to the plate, which came with the 2023 Royals. He has put up good offensive numbers at the Triple-A level but has been inconsistent. He slashed .301/.452/.451 for a 148 wRC+ in 2022 but that dropped to a .232/.339/.377 line and 80 wRC+ in 2023. Last year, he bounced back with a .267/.370/.453 showing and 113 wRC+ but he’s down to a .237/.350/.319 line and 89 wRC+ this year.

He may not get much playing time. Knizner has 296 big league games under his belt and doesn’t have great offensive numbers, with a .208/.277/.314 line. However, he was hitting .378/.512/.520 in the minors this year before getting called up. Between that and his experience, he might get a bit more trust to handle things for Bailey’s absence. The fact that Knizner has had a one-week headstart in working with the Giants’ pitching staff should only help. Porter has a full slate of options and can easily be sent back down to Sacramento when Bailey returns.

Basabe, 24, was acquired from the Rays in an offseason cash deal. He has played 53 Triple-A games this year with a tepid .242/.287/.352 line and 69 wRC+. He was once a notable prospect thanks to some big numbers in the lower levels. However, his bat has cratered since reaching the top rung of the minor league ladder. In 213 Triple-A games, he has a .269/.319/.381 line, as well as a .218/.277/.310 showing in his 94 major league plate appearances.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants could take five days to explore trade possibilities. Basabe can be optioned for the rest of this year but will be out of options in 2026. If the Giants pass him through outright waivers, he could stick with the club as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Athletics Outright Carlos Durán

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The Athletics announced today that right-hander Carlos Durán, who was designated for assignment a few days ago, has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’ll stick with the club as non-roster depth.

Durán, 23, has spent most of his professional career in the Dodgers’ system. He was traded to the A’s in early April for outfielder Esteury Ruiz. The A’s added Durán to their 40-man roster at the end of April.

Since then, he’s been shuttled to Triple-A and back a few times. He’s only been able to make one major league appearance, which didn’t go especially well. On May 22nd, he was sent into the game against the Angels with the A’s down 7-5 in the ninth. He got the first batter to pop out but then allowed two walks, a single and then a bases-loaded walk. Hogan Harris then came into the game and allowed two more baserunners to score. That left Durán charged with three earned runs in a third of an inning, so he currently sports an unfortunate 81.00 earned run average in his career.

He has occasionally shown some promise in the minors but that hasn’t been the case here in 2025. He has logged 31 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 7.18 ERA. That’s been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but he hasn’t helped his cause with a 17.1% walk rate.

Since this is Durán’s first outright and he doesn’t have three years of big league service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency. The A’s will therefore hang onto him and try to get him back on track. He was able to put up some good numbers as recently as last year, when he had a 3.71 ERA and 29.4% strikeout rate in 53 1/3 innings. His 12.9% walk rate was definitely high but also miles better than this year’s control.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Royals Place Cole Ragans On IL With Rotator Cuff Strain

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The Royals announced a series of roster moves today. Right-hander Lucas Erceg has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list and righty Jonathan Bowlan has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha. In corresponding moves, right-hander Trevor Richards has been designated for assignment while lefty Cole Ragans has been placed on the 15-day IL due to a left rotator cuff strain, retroactive to June 8th.

The Royals have not yet announced how long they expect Ragans to be out of action but it’s obviously a concern whenever a pitcher’s throwing shoulder is injured. It’s also the second IL stint for Ragans in as many months. A left groin strain sent him to the shelf in mid-May. He just came off the IL recently and started on Thursday. His velocity was down a bit and his results weren’t great but that wasn’t necessarily alarming since it was his first start in three weeks due to the groin injury.

Now it’s possible there’s a more serious issue at play, which could be awful news for the Royals. Ragans had a tremendous breakout last year, posting a 3.14 earned run average over 186 1/3 innings. His ERA has jumped to 5.18 this year, though all signs point to that being bad luck. His 36.4% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate are both improvements over last year’s 29.3% and 8.8% figures. This year’s .382 batting average on balls in play and 62.1% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side, which is why his 2.40 FIP and 2.46 SIERA suggest he’s actually been pitching better than last year.

For the Royals, they started strong but have been in a bit of a skid lately. From May 10th to the present, they have gone 10-17, dropping them out of playoff position. Pulling out of that skid will be a little more difficult without Ragans in the mix.

What will be working in the club’s favor is that they should still have a strong rotation even without Ragans. The club has a collective 3.32 ERA from their starters this year, one of the top five marks in the majors. Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and Michael Lorenzen are a fine quartet. Rookie Noah Cameron was recently called up while Ragans and Lugo were both on the IL. He has decent numbers through six starts, although he was just torched by the Yankees in his most recent outing. Kyle Wright is also on a rehab assignment and could rejoin the club shortly. Veteran Rich Hill is also in the system on a minor league deal, though he could opt-out of that deal in a few days.

One thing that will also help the Royals is that their bullpen gets Erceg back. He was dealing with a lower back strain in late May and landed on the IL because of it. He has a 1.96 ERA on the year while working as the primary setup guy to closer Carlos Estévez and can continue building on that performance after a brief rest period.

Richards, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Royals last month and was only added to the roster a few days ago. He tossed three innings over three appearances but allowed four earned runs while recording just two strikeouts. He issued two walks and three wild pitches.

As a veteran with years of experience, Richards can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely. He’ll likely end up on waivers in the coming days and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him clear.

He has had some good results at times in his career but struggled late last year, which is why he had to settle for minor league deals this year. In Triple-A with the Cubs and Royals, he has a 4.19 ERA this year, giving out walks at a 13.3% clip with three wild pitches. After being traded from the Jays to the Twins at last year’s deadline, he walked 11 batters, an 18.6% clip. He also hit another couple of opponents and threw seven wild pitches. He was passed through waivers late in the year and hasn’t gotten on a better track here in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images

Twins Claim Joey Wentz

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The Twins announced that they have claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from the Pirates. The latter club designated him for assignment a few days ago. Wentz is out of options, so the Twins will need to make a corresponding active roster move when he reports to the team. To open a 40-man spot for Wentz, the Twins have transferred righty Pablo López to the 60-day injured list. It was reported last week that López is expected to miss eight to twelve weeks due to a teres major strain.

Wentz, 27, is in his fourth major league season. He was primarily a starting pitcher in 2022 and 2023 but didn’t quite establish himself as a bonafide big league rotation member. At the end of the 2023 season, he had a 5.99 earned run average and had exhausted his final option season.

That pushed him to the bullpen, a role in which he has shown some potential. He tossed 55 1/3 innings out of Detroit’s bullpen last year. The 5.37 ERA wasn’t great, nor was his 10.6% walk rate, but his 23.6% strikeout rate and 42% ground ball rate were pretty close to average. That got him bumped off the roster at the end of August last year.

The Pirates put in a claim and got some encouraging results from Wentz to end the season. He posted a 1.50 ERA in 12 frames after that claim. His walk rate ticked up to 12% but he also struck out 26% of batters faced.

He stuck on Pittsburgh’s roster through the winter and into 2025 with some mixed results so far. His 9.6% walk rate is still a bit high but an improvement for him. He’s also tamped down his home runs, with only 6.5% of fly balls leaving the yard compared to 11.3% last year. His 41.8% ground ball rate is still close to league par but his strikeout rate has dipped to 19.1%.

That got him bumped off Pittsburgh’s roster but the Twins will take a shot on him. Minnesota currently has Danny Coulombe as its only lefty reliever on the active roster, with Kody Funderburk on optional assignment. Wentz will give manager Rocco Baldelli a second southpaw in the relief corps alongside Coulombe, at least for the time being. Given his out-of-options status, Wentz will likely have a tenuous hold on a roster spot unless he takes a step forward.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

James McCann’s Braves Deal Contains Rolling Opt-Out Clause

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Catcher James McCann signed a minor league deal with Atlanta and has spent most of the year playing for Triple-A Gwinnett. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the deal contains a rolling opt-out clause. Similar to Craig Kimbrel’s earlier deal with Atlanta, this means that any club can offer McCann a big league job at any time. If one does, Atlanta would have decide to call him up or let the other club have him.

“The big thing is that rolling opt-out,” McCann said to Rosenthal. “That was part of our agreement with the Braves, knowing their situation and knowing the potential of being blocked to the big leagues there. They respected the 10 years that I’ve accrued in service time and gave me the opportunity to opt out, similar to (Craig) Kimbrel.”

As McCann alluded to, he doesn’t have a great path to playing time in Atlanta. They have Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin sharing the catching duties at the big league level this year. Murphy is having a nice bounceback season, all things considered. He was injured a lot in 2024 and struggled when in the lineup. This year, his 30.6% strikeout rate is a concern but he has nine home runs and a 10.2% walk rate. His .222/.325/.459 line translates to a 118 wRC+, with solid defense to boot. He’s also under contract for three more years after this one, guaranteed $15MM annually.

Baldwin is just a rookie but is having a great season. His 7.3% walk rate is a bit low but he has seven home runs and is only striking out at a 15.3% clip. His .291/.343/.488 line translates to a 132 wRC+. His defensive grades are also solid. The club also has Jason Delay on the 40-man roster as a depth guy with options remaining.

That makes the opt-out clause a sensible one for McCann, who has been doing his best to earn another major league opportunity. He has stepped to the plate 138 times for Gwinnett this year with a .281/.319/.484 line and 110 wRC+. He’s getting a bit of help from a .333 batting average on balls in play but has launched six homers already this year.

McCann has been an effective big leaguer at times but has struggled in more recent seasons. He hit .276/.334/.474 for a 114 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020. He also got some competent grades for his glovework in that time, allowing him to tally 3.4 wins above replacement in 149 games, per the calculations of FanGraphs.

That got him a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets but he couldn’t maintain that level of production over the course of that contract. Traded to the Orioles halfway through, he hit .224/.279/.352 over the four seasons of that pact, leading to a 77 wRC+.

After that performance, he had to settle for a minor league deal. He has been performing well so far this year but it seems no club has been compelled to give him a major league job yet. He’ll have to keep plugging away and hope that some club finds a use for him at some point. It’s theoretically possible that could come in Atlanta. With the club falling back in the standing and Baldwin performing well, they might try to trade Murphy this summer. Or an injury could arise for one of those two, though that’s also possible of all the other catchers in the majors.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

Poll: Which Team Has Been Hit The Hardest By Injuries This Year?

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Injuries are an inevitable part of baseball. According to the RosterResource Injury Report, there are currently 229 players on major league injured lists. That’s just under one-third as many as there are on active rosters. It works out to about seven or eight injured players per team. Some injuries are predictable or preventable, while others are the result of pure bad luck. In any case, no team can avoid using the IL entirely, but the most successful clubs are those that can minimize injuries, like last year’s surprisingly successful Tigers and Royals, or find ways to overcome them, like last year’s World Series champion Dodgers. As the 2025 season inches closer to its halfway mark, does one team stand out as the most affected by injuries this year?

The most obvious answer is the Dodgers, who currently have 14 players (all pitchers) on their major league injured list, the most of any team. Since the beginning of the season, the Dodgers have placed 22 players on the IL, which is the highest total in the National League and the second-highest in the majors, behind only the White Sox (23). All of those players have combined to miss 960 games in 2025, according to the Baseball Prospectus Injured List Ledger. That is far and away the highest total in the sport. The Mets rank second with 695 cumulative games missed. The 265-game gap between the Dodgers and Mets is roughly the same size as the gap between the second-ranked Mets and 20th-ranked Mariners (441 games missed). If that’s not enough to illustrate just how many players the Dodgers have lost to the IL, consider this: They have already lost more player games to injury through 68 games in 2025 than a handful of teams lost throughout all of 2024.

What’s more, it’s not like we’re just talking about injuries to depth arms or bench bats. Two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell has been out with shoulder inflammation since his second start of the season. All-Star starter Tyler Glasnow hasn’t pitched since the end of April. He, too, is nursing a shoulder injury, as is rookie phenom Roki Sasaki. Several key bullpen pieces are out as well, including Blake Treinen (forearm tightness) and Evan Phillips (Tommy John surgery). And of course, none of the IL stats I cited above include Shohei Ohtani, who has not been able to pitch so far this year.

Yet, in terms of total value taken away by injuries since the start of the 2025 campaign, Baseball Prospectus estimates the Dodgers have only lost the third-most projected WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player). WARP is only one way to measure value, and projected WARP is just that: a projection. Still, it’s worth considering that just because the Dodgers have lost the most games to the IL, they haven’t necessarily lost the most value.

The two teams that are ever-so-slightly ahead of the Dodgers in projected WARP lost to injury are a pair of AL East rivals: the Yankees and Orioles. The Yankees are without ace Gerrit Cole, who underwent Tommy John surgery in March. Luis Gil, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year winner, has also been out all year as he nurses a lat strain. On the position player side, elbow injuries have kept designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton off the field all year, though he recently started a rehab assignment. More Yankees who have missed time at some point include Jazz Chisholm Jr., Clarke Schmidt, Fernando Cruz, DJ LeMahieu, and Marcus Stroman, while closer Luke Weaver recently landed on the IL with a hamstring strain.

As for the Orioles, they have been without Grayson Rodriguez all year. He first went on the IL with elbow inflammation before suffering a lat strain that set him back further. Albert Suárez has been out since his first appearance of the season with shoulder inflammation, while Zach Eflin also missed significant time early in the year. In terms of position players, the Orioles are currently without Tyler O’Neill, Ryan Mountcastle, Gary Sánchez, and Jorge Mateo. Others who have missed time this season include Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg, Cedric Mullins, and Gunnar Henderson.

Ultimately, all three of the Dodgers, Yankees, and Orioles are neck and neck in value lost to injury, according to Baseball Prospectus. However, I have to wonder if anyone can truly argue the Yankees and Dodgers have been “hit hard” by injuries this year. They’re each in first place in their respective divisions and rank among the top five MLB teams in winning percentage and run differential. According to both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus, they have the highest playoff and World Series odds in their respective leagues. Despite all the players they are missing (or have missed at some point), they are thriving. I would make a similar argument about the Mets. They have also lost their fair share of players to injury, including Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, and A.J. Minter. Nonetheless, the Mets have the best record in the National League, and no team in baseball has given up fewer runs.

The Orioles, on the other hand, have severely underperformed expectations. They sit in last place in the AL East, and their 26-39 record has them looking like potential sellers at the deadline. While their bats have been disappointing, pitching has been their downfall so far. Perhaps they wouldn’t be so far out of contention with a healthy Rodriguez leading their rotation.

To that point, the Baseball Prospectus Injured List Ledger also shows the percentage of a team’s projected WARP lost to injury. By this metric, neither the Yankees nor the Dodgers (and especially the Dodgers) rank as highly. Think of it this way: They’ve both lost a lot of good players to the IL, but those losses haven’t hurt them as badly as they might have hurt other teams, because the Yankees and Dodgers have such talented rosters. As you might expect, the Orioles still rank highly; they’re second in MLB in percentage of projected WARP lost to injury. However, by this metric, a new top contender emerges: the Brewers.

Pitching injuries plagued the Brewers last year, and they have continued to be a problem in 2025. When the Brewers signed Brandon Woodruff to a two-year contract during the 2023-24 offseason, knowing he would likely miss the entire 2024 season recovering from shoulder surgery, they were surely hoping he’d pitch significant innings in 2025. So far, that hasn’t been the case. He was hoping to finally make his 2025 debut this week before a right elbow contusion foiled his plans. In addition to Woodruff, Brewers starting pitchers who have hit the IL at some point this year include Nestor Cortes, Aaron Civale, Jose Quintana, Tobias Myers, and DL Hall. Milwaukee is also missing a pair of outfielders, Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins. Finally, star catcher William Contreras has been playing through a fractured finger. He hasn’t missed any time, but his injury almost surely explains his uncharacteristically pedestrian performance at the plate.

The Brewers are also in a very different position than either the Yankees and Dodgers, who seem all but guaranteed to make the playoffs, or the Orioles, who have played so poorly that they might still be under .500 even if everyone on their roster were healthy. Milwaukee is 36-32, 5.5 games back in the NL Central and 2.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race. All the injuries they have suffered could ultimately make the difference between the Brewers making the playoffs for the seventh time in the past eight years or hitting the links come October.

The Marlins and Rockies are two more teams that rank highly in percentage of projected WARP lost to injury, but even more so than the Yankees and Dodgers, their records are reason enough to disqualify them from this conversation. The same is true of the White Sox, who have placed more players on the IL during 2025 than any other team. Perhaps injuries have cost the Marlins, Rockies, and White Sox several wins each, but even with those extra wins, all three clubs would still be in the basement.

A couple more teams it is worth considering are those that might not have lost a lot of value to injury yet, but who surely will as the season goes on. For instance, the Diamondbacks recently lost ace Corbin Burnes for the season to a torn UCL. Stud reliever Justin Martinez is also on the IL with a sprained UCL that could require season-ending surgery. The Red Sox, too, have lost a few key players recently, most notably Alex Bregman, who could miss multiple months recovering from a significant quad strain.

So, with so much to consider, which team do MLBTR readers think has been hit the hardest by injuries this year? Have your say in the poll below:

Brewers Move Aaron Civale To Bullpen

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The Brewers plan to move right-hander Aaron Civale from the rotation to the bullpen now that top prospect Jacob Misiorowski has been promoted for his major league debut, manager Pat Murphy tells the team’s beat (link via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com).

It’s a tough shift for Civale, a pending free agent who’s been pitching well since returning from a seven-week stay on the injured list due to a hamstring strain. The 29-year-old righty — 30 tomorrow — has tossed 19 innings with a 3.32 ERA and 17-to-6 K/BB ratio since being reinstated on May 22. The results have been solid, though it bears mentioning that Civale hasn’t exactly been efficient. He’s yet to pitch more than 5 1/3 innings in a start and was lifted from his most recent appearance after 80 pitches in 4 2/3 frames.

Even still, Civale’s first appearance in relief with the Brewers will be the first relief outing of his entire professional career. Since being selected by Cleveland in the third round of the 2016 draft, he’s pitched in 86 minor league games and 122 major league contests. Every single one of them has been a start. Between that history as a starter, Civale’s broader track record of big league success and his run of solid results since returning from the injured list, the move surely comes as a surprise to the righty. Murphy conceded that Civale was “not happy” when informed of the decision.

Milwaukee bought low on Civale just under 11 months ago, sending minor league infielder Gregory Barrios to the Rays in an early July swap to acquire him. At the time of the trade, Civale had limped to an ERA north of 5.00, but he righted the ship with the Brewers and pitched to a 3.53 ERA in 14 starts with Milwaukee over the season’s final three months. Between that solid finish to his ’24 season and his first five starts in ’25, Civale touts a 3.84 earned run average with a 20.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate in 96 innings as a Brewer.

Civale has averaged only five innings per start, but Milwaukee tends to have quicker hooks on its starting pitchers than most organizations. Only the Marlins have allowed a pitcher to face hitters a third time less often than the Brewers in 2025 — and by a margin of only two batters (243 for Milwaukee to 241 for Miami). Dating back to last year, Milwaukee pitchers have the fourth-fewest instances of facing a batter for a third time within a game. Civale’s career splits the second and third trip through the order are virtually identical: opponents facing him a second time in a game have a .257/.307/.451 slash compared to .255/.310/.451 a third time. (In the Brewers’ and Rays’ defense, those splits were more pronounced in 2024.)

All of that is to say, some frustration from Civale is understandable. Starting games is all he’s known since being drafted, and he’s now being asked to change roles less than three months from free agency at a time when he’s not pitching poorly. However, as I noted when recently looking at Milwaukee’s sudden and surprising glut of starting pitching, some tough decisions were bound to be made.

This certainly falls under that category. The team surely does not take lightly the fact that a move to the bullpen could have real ramifications on Civale’s earning power on the open market, but the alternatives would have been burning Quinn Priester’s final option year (at a time when he’s also pitching well) or optioning Chad Patrick — one of the NL Rookie of the Year frontrunners. Milwaukee could also have kept Misiorowski in Triple-A, but he’s pitched a 2.13 ERA there this season, including a 1.81 mark with a 33.5% strikeout rate over his past nine starts. Command is an issue — he’s walked 10.8% of opponents in that stretch, including nine in his past seven innings — but Misiorowski’s results and ability to miss bats generally seem worthy of a big league look.

Any mention of a veteran player being unhappy with a role change is going to prompt speculation about a trade — particularly when he’s affordable and playing on an expiring contract. Milwaukee would likely have gotten interest in Civale (and teammates Jose Quintana and Freddy Peralta) for those reasons anyhow, however, and there’s no indication that Civale has asked or will ask for a trade — frustration notwithstanding. Given the frequency of pitching injuries and the unconventional manner in which the Brewers tend to deploy their pitching staff, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Civale found himself back in the rotation before long.

Today’s news and his manager’s willingness to concede some frustration on the player’s behalf do perhaps nominally increase the likelihood of an eventual trade. That said, one need only look at the Brewers’ deadline dealings over the years and the current state of their pitching staff to realize that a Civale trade was already a distinct possibility regardless.

Blue Jays Select Will Robertson, Place Nathan Lukes On Injured List

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June 11: The Jays will place Lukes on the 7-day concussion list as the corresponding move to bring Robertson to the majors, manager John Schneider announced today (via MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson).

June 10: The Blue Jays are promoting outfielder Will Robertson to the majors, according to a report from Trevor Hahn of News Tribune Sports. Toronto has space on their 40-man roster, so the only corresponding move needed to bring Robertson into the fold will be one to clear room on the active roster.

Robertson, 27, was Toronto’s fourth-round pick back in 2019. After getting a taste of pro ball in Low-A during his draft year, Robertson’s career was delayed slightly by the canceled minor league season in 2020 and when he returned in 2021 he struggled somewhat across 56 games at the High-A level with a wRC+ of just 94 as he hit .235/.310/.385. He once again put up relatively middling numbers the following year, this time slashing .215/.291/.401 (89 wRC+) across 90 games in his first taste of the Double-A level. Overall, Robertson’s approach came with a hefty dose of strikeouts and somewhat limited power that made it difficult for him to put up even average results early in his professional career.

Things began to change during a repeat of the Double-A level in 2023, however. That year, Robertson hit .245/.323/.488 with a wRC+ of 118. He pushed his walk rate up to 9.7%, the best it had been since his draft year, cut his strikeout rate by two points, and slugged 19 homers in 103 games. That sort of strong performance is to be expected of a 25-year-old making his second trip through Double-A, but it was still enough to get him promoted to Triple-A Buffalo for the first time in his career. While Robertson’s increased walk rate and power remained from the year prior, his strikeout rate jumped to 31.3% in 2024 as he struggled against Triple-A pitching an ultimately slashed just .226/.319/.429 with a wRC+ of 95.

Robertson’s 2024 performance may have seemed to indicate he didn’t have much of path to the big leagues, but he’s changed that narrative with a brilliant season in 2025 so far. In 51 games for the club’s Buffalo affiliate, Robertson has crushed the ball to the tune of a .288/.410/.582 slash line. He has 12 home runs in just 188 plate appearances, he’s walking a whopping 17.0% of the time, and he’s striking out less than he has since 2019 with a 23.9% clip. Taken together, it leaves him with a 159 wRC+ that’s good for fourth in the International League this year. Robertson isn’t considered much of a prospect, as he isn’t even ranked on MLB.com’s Top 30 Blue Jays prospects list. Regardless of a player’s prospect status, however, Robertson’s numbers are the type that will get you attention from the big league club.

That’s especially true for a Blue Jays club that is running a bit thin on outfield depth after losing both Anthony Santander and Daulton Varsho to the injured list. Alan Roden, Myles Straw, Jonatan Clase, Addison Barger, and Nathan Lukes have been mixing and matching in the outfield for the Jays in recent weeks alongside veteran right fielder George Springer, and Ben Nicholson Smith of Sportsnet was among those to relay this afternoon that Lukes had been scratched from today’s lineup due to neck discomfort. Perhaps Robertson’s call-up is a sign that Lukes’ neck issue is serious enough to require a stint on the injured list, though it’s also possible Robertson’s phenomenal play to this point in the year has simply forced the issue in the eyes of Blue Jays brass.

Giants, Scott Alexander Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran left-handed reliever Scott Alexander, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The Apex Baseball client will head to Triple-A for the time being.

Alexander, 36 next month, signed a one-year deal with the Rockies over the winter. That pact, which paid him a guaranteed $2MM, didn’t work out for either party. In 16 1/3 innings as a Rockie, Alexander was shredded for a 6.06 earned run average. He allowed 11 runs on 20 hits — four of them homers — and seven walks. He’s never been a big strikeout arm, but Alexander punched out only six of 72 opponents (8.3%) against a 9.7% walk rate. Colorado designated him for assignment on May 23 and released him a few days later.

Ugly as that short run in Denver was, Alexander has a nice track record in the majors overall. He carries a career 3.34 ERA, 17.5% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in 325 2/3 innings — all accompanied by a gargantuan 66.6% ground-ball rate. As recently as last season, the southpaw tossed 38 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball for the A’s.

Giants fans should be plenty familiar with Alexander, who pitched in San Francisco in 2022-23. He tallied 65 2/3 innings with a 3.70 ERA, a 15.1% strikeout rate, a 4.4% walk rate and a 63.8% grounder rate in his two seasons calling Oracle Park home.

At present, Erik Miller is the only left-hander in manager Bob Melvin’s bullpen. The only other southpaws on the 40-man roster at all are starters Robbie Ray and Kyle Harrison, both of whom are currently in the Giants’ excellent rotation. Alexander will join Joey Lucchesi as an experienced non-roster lefty in the Giants’ bullpen with their Triple-A club in Sacramento.

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