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Guardians Outright Anthony Gose

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The Guardians announced on Monday afternoon that reliever Anthony Gose accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Gose was only on the major league roster for three days. He allowed two runs while logging an inning and a third in his lone appearance. That was Gose’s first MLB work in two seasons. He tossed a personal-high 22 frames for Cleveland back in 2022, turning in a 4.71 earned run average with an excellent 30.4% strikeout percentage but a lofty 15.2% walk rate. Gose has posted similar rate stats with Columbus this season, fanning upwards of 34% of batters faced while issuing walks at a 14.3% clip.

A former outfielder with the Blue Jays and Tigers, Gose has focused exclusively on pitching for the past few seasons. He can run his fastball into the mid to upper 90s and clearly has significant bat-missing potential, though he has still yet to dial in his command consistently. Gose is out of options, so other teams passed on taking a flier. That’s to Cleveland’s benefit, as he’ll head back to Triple-A and remain on hand in case the Guards need additional lefty bullpen depth down the stretch. Gose will again have the ability to become a minor league free agent next offseason if Cleveland doesn’t call him back up before then.

Angels Release Zach Plesac

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The Angels are releasing right-hander Zach Plesac, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (X link). The veteran starter had been on optional assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake. The move drops the Halos’ 40-man roster count to 38. Los Angeles could also move Mike Trout and Luis Rengifo to the 60-day IL at any point since both players are done for the season.

Plesac signed a $1MM free agent deal with Los Angeles over the winter. They ran him through waivers early in the season before reselecting his contract in mid-June. Plesac only started three games at the major league level, surrendering 11 runs in 12 innings. He’d otherwise been pitching in Salt Lake, where he owns a 5.69 ERA across 18 appearances. Plesac showed good control in the minors but only fanned 15% of opposing hitters. He last pitched for the Bees on August 3, though the team did not place him on the injured list at any point.

Assuming he’s healthy, Plesac could look for a minor league opportunity elsewhere. He’ll likely clear release waivers and become a free agent. Plesac hasn’t gotten much of an MLB look in either of the past two years, combining for eight starts between the Guardians and Halos since the beginning of the ’23 campaign. He’s still attacking the strike zone in the minors and was a serviceable back-end starter for Cleveland from 2021-22. Plesac’s dominant showing in 2020 looks like a quirk of the shortened season and in-division schedule, but his 4.49 ERA across 50 outings over the next two years is viable #5 starter production.

Marlins Parting Ways With Assistant GMs Oz Ocampo, Dan Greenlee

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The Marlins informed assistant general managers Dan Greenlee and Oz Ocampo that their contracts will not be renewed in 2025, report Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. The front office changes go beyond the AGM ranks. ESPN’s Alden González reports that the Fish are overhauling a lot of their player development department and are parting ways with international scouting director Roman Ocumarez.

It’s common for new baseball operations leaders to replace a lot of their top personnel fairly early in their tenure. Miami hired president of baseball operations Peter Bendix last November. Shortly before Bendix’s hiring, former GM Kim Ng declined her end of a mutual option after owner Bruce Sherman informed her the team was planning to hire a baseball ops president (thereby dropping Ng to second in the front office hierarchy).

Greenlee and Ocampo predated Bendix in the Miami front office. The Fish hired Greenlee back in 2017 and promoted him to AGM at the end of the 2020 campaign, just before they tabbed Ng to run baseball operations. Ocampo was an Ng hire, joining the organization over the 2022-23 offseason after spending time with the Astros and Pirates in international scouting.

The Marlins operated with four assistant GMs this season. They don’t actually have a general manager following Ng’s departure. Brian Chattin has been a part of the organization for more than a quarter century and has held an AGM title for nine seasons. Bendix surprisingly tabbed former Giants manager Gabe Kapler as an assistant GM last December. Jackson and Mish report that Chattin is expected to remain with the organization.

Both The Miami Herald and ESPN write that Kapler is expected to continue serving as an assistant GM next season as well. That should end any speculation about Kapler potentially making the jump back to the manager’s office in Miami. The Fish are generally expected to part ways with second-year manager Skip Schumaker at season’s end. While Schumaker won the Senior Circuit’s Manager of the Year award in his first season, the Marlins agreed to void a 2025 club option on his contract last winter after the manager reportedly voiced his displeasure with the organization’s handling of Ng’s situation.

It’s entirely possible that Bendix would have put his stamp on the front office regardless of how the team performed in 2024. The way the team played immediately solidified that they were headed for an organizational overhaul. Bendix oversaw a quiet first offseason from a player personnel perspective. The Fish never seemed strong believers that they’d repeat last year’s surprising playoff berth.

An 0-9 start tanked their season from the beginning and the Marlins pulled the trigger on a Luis Arraez trade just six weeks into the season. They followed up with trades of Jazz Chisholm Jr., Bryan De La Cruz, Josh Bell, Trevor Rogers and most players of note from their bullpen (e.g. Tanner Scott, A.J. Puk, Huascar Brazoban). Were it not for a brutal stretch of injury luck in the rotation, they’d probably have dealt Jesús Luzardo and potentially Braxton Garrett or Ryan Weathers as well.

It’s yet another full rebuild in Miami, one that’ll certainly continue into next offseason and quite likely the ’25 trade deadline. There are likely to be more changes throughout the roster, coaching staff and potentially in the front office as they try to turn the page on one of the worst seasons in franchise history.

Pirates Place Marco Gonzales On 60-Day IL With Forearm Strain

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9:43pm: Pittsburgh now announced that they selected Ryan’s contract before tonight’s game. They placed Gonzales directly on the 60-day injured list to create the necessary 40-man roster spot. While he’d technically be eligible to return at the end of a long playoff run, it’s clear that Gonzales won’t be back this season.

8:21pm: The Pirates will place Marco Gonzales on the injured list due to a forearm strain, manager Derek Shelton told the Pittsburgh beat (X link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The Bucs haven’t officially announced that nor a corresponding roster move, but Alex Stumpf of MLB.com tweeted this evening that reliever Ryder Ryan joined the team in San Diego. Ryan is not on the 40-man roster, so the Pirates would need to make another move to bring him up if they place Gonzales on the 15-day IL.

It’s the second time this season that Gonzales has been shelved by a forearm strain. He avoided surgery the first time around but nevertheless was out of action between mid-April and just before the All-Star Break. The southpaw has returned to make four starts. Gonzales only completed five innings in one of those appearances. He surrendered four runs across 2 1/3 frames in his final start of July before allowing five runs over 4 2/3 innings against the Padres last week.

Gonzales has made just seven starts for the Bucs on the whole. He owns a 4.54 ERA with a well below-average 15.2% strikeout percentage and a solid 7.3% walk rate in 33 2/3 innings. That’s fairly typical production for the soft-tossing control artist. Gonzales ate plenty of innings at the back of a rotation at his best in Seattle. He unfortunately has not been able to do that over the last two seasons. A forearm strain also deprived him of the final four months of the 2023 campaign.

The Bucs traded Martín Pérez and Quinn Priester at the deadline. They weren’t selling, but moving Priester allowed them to bring back an upper minors hitting prospect (Nick Yorke) while Pérez was arguably superfluous while Gonzales was healthy. The pair of trades coupled with another Gonzales injury is stretching their starting pitching depth. Pittsburgh has plugged Jake Woodford and Luis Ortiz into the rotation.

Ortiz had a brilliant three-start run in the middle of July but has been hit hard in his most recent trio of appearances. Woodford signed a minor league contract in June after being cut loose by the White Sox. At the MLB level, he has given up 17 runs in as many innings this year. Jared Jones isn’t too far out from returning from a lat strain, but the rotation depth is diminishing at a time when the team is reeling.

Pittsburgh has hung in the playoff mix for most of the season. They’re taking a seven-game losing streak into tonight’s series opener in San Diego. They’re still only five games back of the Braves in the National League Wild Card race, but they’ve dropped five games below .500 and need to jump six teams to get into playoff position. It’s very much an uphill battle.

Gonzales is in the final season of the $30MM extension that he signed with the Mariners back in 2020. The Bucs hold a $15MM option for next year, though that’ll be an easy call for the front office to decline. Pittsburgh is reportedly only on the hook for $3MM of his $12MM salary this year, as the Mariners and Braves each paid down part of the contract among the series of offseason trades that landed him in the Steel City. Even if Gonzales again avoids surgery and is able to make it back for the stretch run, he’ll hit free agency with durability questions going into his age-33 season.

Ryan lost his roster spot on deadline day when the Bucs called up Woodford. He cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A. The 29-year-old righty made his debut with Seattle last season. He has pitched in 13 games for Pittsburgh, allowing 11 runs (10 earned) across 17 frames. Ryan has tossed 28 1/3 innings with Indianapolis, allowing a 4.45 ERA with a modest 16% strikeout percentage but a strong 50% grounder rate.

Rockies Place Kris Bryant On Injured List

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The Rockies made a few moves before tonight’s series opener in Arizona. Most notably, Kris Bryant is headed back to the injured list. Colorado placed the former MVP on the 10-day IL, retroactive to August 11, with a back strain. Colorado recalled rookie outfielder Jordan Beck in his place. The Rox also brought up righty Bradley Blalock, whom they acquired from Milwaukee in the Nick Mears trade, while optioning southpaw Josh Rogers to Triple-A Albuquerque.

Bryant goes on the injured list for the eighth time in his Colorado tenure. It’s his third such stint of the season. Bryant lost a month last year to a different back strain. He dealt with another core issue this summer, as an internal oblique strain kept him out between June 3 and July 23. Bryant hit .277/.352/.340 over 13 games before landing back on the shelf.

Since signing with Colorado on a seven-year free agent deal, Bryant has hit .250/.332/.382 across 671 plate appearances. He has appeared in 159 of the Rox’s 443 games (just under 36%) since signing. That’s not the only reason that Colorado is headed for a fourth consecutive last place finish, yet it’s hard to envision a much worse start to the biggest free agent investment in franchise history.

Colorado has alternated Bryant and Charlie Blackmon between right field and designated hitter over the last few weeks. Blackmon is at DH with Jake Cave and Sam Hilliard splitting the corner outfield work tonight. The 23-year-old Beck — a former top 40 draft pick out of Tennessee — rejoins the group and should probably get regular playing time down the stretch. Beck hasn’t hit over his first 23 major league games, but he’s raking at a .319/.402/.558 clip over 39 contests in Albuquerque. That’s excellent production even in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.

As for Blalock, he’s in position to make his team debut. He has made two starts with Double-A Hartford since the trade. Blalock made his big league debut with Milwaukee in June. He has otherwise spent the season in Double-A, turning in a 4.36 ERA over 18 starts. He could work as rotation depth or in a long relief capacity for whatever time he’s on the MLB roster.

Padres Reinstate Joe Musgrove, Designate Carl Edwards

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As expected, the Padres reinstated Joe Musgrove from the 60-day injured list to start tonight’s game against the Pirates. San Diego designated reliever Carl Edwards Jr. for assignment to open space on both the active and 40-man rosters.

Musgrove has been sidelined since the end of May on account of elbow inflammation. This was his second elbow-related IL stint of the season. He hasn’t looked like himself around the injuries, struggling to a 5.66 ERA over 10 starts. His 92.4 MPH fastball speed was a bit below last season’s 93.1 MPH average. Opponents teed off on both his four-seam and cutter. Musgrove allowed nearly two home runs per nine innings and saw his strikeout rate fall to 20.6% — his lowest clip in six seasons.

After a few months away, Musgrove will try to recapture his 2021-23 form. The San Diego-area native combined for a 3.05 ERA across 459 2/3 innings over his first three seasons with his hometown club. While Musgrove’s 2023 campaign was cut short by a shoulder issue, he looked like a #2 or high-end #3 starter over the preceding two and a half seasons. He steps back into the Friars rotation as they look to at least hang onto a Wild Card spot. They currently occupy the second NL Wild Card spot and are four games clear of the #6 seed Braves. San Diego is tied with the Diamondbacks for second place in the NL West. They’re 3.5 games behind the Dodgers in the division.

Musgrove’s return nudges Randy Vásquez out of the rotation. San Diego already optioned Vásquez last week with the knowledge that their All-Star righty would get the ball tonight. Musgrove slots behind Dylan Cease and Michael King and in front of Matt Waldron and Martín Pérez in the starting five. The Padres have been without Yu Darvish for five weeks as he attends to a family matter. Dennis Lin of the Athletic reported this afternoon that Darvish set up a live batting practice session at a local high school over the weekend. It’s still not clear whether he’ll be able to return this season, but the veteran righty is keeping his arm in shape in case he can get back.

Edwards was just selected onto the MLB roster late last week. He pitched once and failed to retire any of three batters faced. The 32-year-old righty has otherwise spent this season in Triple-A. Splitting his time between the Cubs and Padres organizations, he owns a 3.30 ERA across 46 1/3 frames in the minors. His 22.2% strikeout rate and lofty 14.3% walk percentage aren’t great, though, so he hasn’t gotten much of an MLB opportunity this year.

San Diego will put Edwards on waivers in the next couple days. He has more than enough service time to decline a minor league assignment if he goes unclaimed, though he’d likely be limited to minor league offers if he elects free agency.

Brewers Option DL Hall

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The Brewers optioned left-hander DL Hall to Triple-A Nashville this evening. The move creates an active roster spot for southpaw Bryan Hudson, who returns from the 15-day injured list.

Hall went to Milwaukee alongside Joey Ortiz as the secondary piece in the Corbin Burnes deal with Baltimore. The southpaw entered the season in the rotation but only made it through four starts. He sprained his left knee in April and wound up missing over three months. The Brewers just reinstated him from the 60-day IL yesterday. Hall got the start against the Reds, allowing three runs across 4 2/3 frames with nine strikeouts but a trio of walks.

That pushes Hall’s season earned run average to 7.29, albeit in a modest 21-inning sample. He’s striking out a slightly below-average 20.8% of opponents compared to a lofty 12.3% walk rate. Hall has never had great command, but he’s shown huge bat-missing potential throughout his minor league career. That was also the case in his limited big league work with Baltimore but has yet to materialize in Milwaukee. Hall is only getting swinging strikes on 8.6% of his offerings this season. His velocity was well down early in the year, though his fastball sat at a more customary 94.6 MPH yesterday.

Regardless, the Brewers will go without Hall for at least the next couple weeks. Barring injury to another player, he cannot be recalled for at least 15 days. Milwaukee still has a five-man rotation comprising Freddy Peralta, Tobias Myers, Colin Rea and trade acquisitions Frankie Montas and Aaron Civale.

Hudson’s return gives skipper Pat Murphy an eight-man bullpen again. The 27-year-old missed just a few weeks because of an oblique strain. Acquired from the Dodgers in a seemingly minor offseason trade, Hudson has authored a breakout 2024 season. He has fired 50 2/3 frames of 1.60 ERA ball behind a strong 28.4% strikeout rate. The former third-round draftee had a few rocky appearances preceding his IL stint last month but had been utterly dominant for most of the season’s first half. If he returns to that form, he’ll be a key high-leverage piece in a strong Milwaukee relief group.

Blue Jays Select Will Wagner

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The Blue Jays announced they have selected infielder Will Wagner to their roster, his first time cracking a big league roster. Infielder Luis De Los Santos was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo in the corresponding move. @LoperBloss reported the Wagner move on X yesterday. After yesterday’s game, Julia Kreuz of MLB.com relayed on X that De Los Santos had been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. “They want to see some new players in the organization,” De Los Santos said. “But it’s OK. I’ll keep working, doing my part and I’m hoping to come back soon.” The Blue Jays had a vacancy on their 40-man roster but it is now full.

Wagner, 26, is the son of long-time closer Billy Wagner. The elder Wagner had spent much of his career with the Astros and it was that organization that drafted the younger Wagner, using an 18th-round selection on him in 2021. Houston flipped Wagner, outfielder Joey Loperfido and right-hander Jake Bloss to the Blue Jays in the recent trade that sent left Yusei Kikuchi the other way.

In his professional career, Wagner has continually put up solid numbers at the plate, though in a hit-over-power fashion. He has 1,273 minor plate appearances across multiple levels with just 25 home runs in that time. But he has only been punched out in 17.1% of those trips to the plate while drawing walks at a strong 13.9% clip. Despite the limited pop, his .297/.402/.441 combined batting line translates to a 125 wRC+, indicating he’s been 25% better than league average overall.

That includes strong work at the Triple-A level. He was promoted to the top minor league plateau in September of last year and has since slashed .337/.445/.465 for a 136 wRC+ in 383 plate appearances. There are only six home runs in there but he has walked more than he has been struck out by a hefty margin, drawing a free pass in 15.9% of his appearances compared to a 10.2% strikeout rate.

That quality plate discipline was enough for the Jays to target him in trade talks with the Astros and they will now promote him to the majors after giving him a seven-game close-up look at Triple-A Buffalo. Baseball America ranked him the #17 prospect in the Astros’ system coming into the year, complementing his hit tool but noting that he’s not a strong defender. He’s currently listed 25th in the Jays’ system at BA. In June, FanGraphs put him 26th in the Astros’ system and currently lists him 30th in Toronto’s organization.

The Jays are out of contention and using the remainder of the season to assess some current players and make decisions about how to tackle their offseason. The club plans to return to contention in 2025 and is currently giving playing time to young guys like Loperfido, Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jiménez, Addison Barger and now Wagner, seeing which positions are the most or least in need of addressing during the winter.

Wagner has played all three non-shortstop infield positions this year, though the Jays mostly have had him at second base since the trade. The Astros gave him a lot of playing time at first, but that might have been a reflection of that club’s struggles at that position, whereas Jose Altuve has the keystone locked up.

The Jays have been giving Horwitz a lot of time at second this year but could perhaps have him and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. split first base and designated hitter now that Justin Turner has been traded and is no longer in the DH spot. Or perhaps Wagner will see significant time as the DH since his glovework isn’t highly regarded. Guerrero has also been playing a bit of third base this year and could move over to that side of the diamond, with Jiménez and Ernie Clement also in the mix for some infield playing time. Barger and Davis Schneider can also play some infield, though the Jays have George Springer, Daulton Varsho and Loperfido getting regular playing time out there.

There are plenty of moving parts but there’s lots of versatility in the group, so manager John Schneider will probably spend the rest of the year rotating guys around and spreading out the opportunities so that the club can assess each of the players at the plate and in the field.

Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast

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On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve been able to take questions, as we were in the thick of the trade deadline for a while. Now that we are firmly in the post-deadline part of the calendar, it’s time to open things up again. If you have a question about something that happened at the deadline, a look ahead to the offseason or anything else baseball related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Guardians To Activate Matthew Boyd

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The Guardians will reinstate left-hander Matthew Boyd from the 15-day injured list prior to tomorrow’s game, reports Mandy Bell of MLB.com. He’ll make his team debut when he starts for the Guards on Tuesday evening against the Cubs. Cleveland will only need to make a corresponding active roster transaction involving a pitcher, as Boyd is already on the 40-man roster.

Cleveland signed Boyd to a big league deal earlier this summer. He’s spent the season to date rehabbing from Tommy John surgery performed last June and is now ready to step back onto a big league mound. The longtime Tigers southpaw has been sensational during his minor league rehab stint. In 21 2/3 innings across three levels — Rookie ball, Double-A, Triple-A — he’s pitched to a 0.83 ERA with a mammoth 35.1% strikeout rate against a minuscule 2.6% walk rate. We’re looking at small samples against far, far less experienced competition, but Boyd certainly hasn’t shown much in the way of signs of rust.

Boyd’s appearance tomorrow will be his first major league outing since June 26 of last year. The elbow procedure ended what had been a return stint in Detroit. Boyd looked the part of a mid-rotation starter at times during his first run with the Tigers. The first stint also unfortunately concluded with an arm surgery, as Boyd required a flexor repair in September 2021. He was limited to 10 relief outings late in the ’22 campaign as a member of the Mariners. Boyd returned to the Motor City the ensuing winter, signing a $10MM free agent pact.

Even before the Tommy John surgery, Boyd didn’t get the results he wanted last season. He was tagged for a 5.45 ERA across 15 starts. An abnormally low 62% strand rate was the biggest culprit. Boyd had solid strikeout (24.1%) and walk (8.3%) numbers and induced swinging strikes on an excellent 14% of his pitches. He had a hard time keeping the ball in the yard, though, especially against right-handed opponents. That has been an issue throughout Boyd’s career. It’s perhaps the biggest reason he only has one full season with a sub-4.00 ERA despite a consistently strong strikeout and walk profile.

The Guardians signed Boyd in late June, one year to the day after Detroit announced he was headed for Tommy John surgery. The 33-year-old started a minor league rehab stint just after the All-Star Break. He built up to six innings and 63 pitches during his start with Triple-A Columbus last Wednesday. He’ll presumably be on a pitch count for his first couple appearances, but Cleveland will happily take whatever contribution they can get.

Cleveland took the final two games of their four-game weekend set with Minnesota, earning a split in the process. That pushed their division lead back to 3.5 games on the Twins and four up on the Royals. That’s despite their patchwork rotation. Tanner Bibee and, more surprisingly, Ben Lively have been their most reliable starters this season. Gavin Williams has made eight starts since returning from an extended IL stay to open the year. The Guardians welcomed deadline acquisition Alex Cobb back from injury for his team and season debut on Friday. Boyd can step into the rotation spot opened when Carlos Carrasco landed on the shelf that same day. Bibee, Williams and Cobb would probably line up as the top three in Cleveland’s ideal playoff rotation, but Boyd has a chance to push Cobb or Lively for a start in the middle of a series come October.

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