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Marlins, Pirates Have Had “Exploratory” Talks On Jazz Chisholm

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Jazz Chisholm Jr. is one of the more interesting position players who is likely to move by the end of the month. The Yankees, Royals and Mariners have all been linked to Miami’s center fielder/second baseman. The Pirates have also been loosely floated as a potential Chisholm fit.

Craig Mish of the Miami Herald and SportsGrid appeared on 93.7 The Fan this afternoon (YouTube link, beginning around 9:27). Mish said that Pittsburgh and Miami have indeed discussed Chisholm, though he characterized those talks as “exploratory” in nature. According to Mish, a few teams other than Pittsburgh have expressed more serious interest to this point. While there’s clearly nothing imminent, Chisholm is on Pittsburgh’s radar to some extent as the Bucs look to add offense.

Chisholm’s defensive flexibility makes him a viable target for a lot of teams. He has primarily played center field going back to the start of the 2023 season. Miami gave him a start at second base last weekend for the first time since 2022. Chisholm was back in center field for tonight’s series opener against the Mets.

The 26-year-old can fit on teams looking for help at either position. The Pirates haven’t gotten much production out of either center field or second base. Pittsburgh center fielders entered play tonight with a dismal .206/.267/.297 slash line that bests only the Cardinals’ offensive output. Michael A. Taylor remains an elite defender but he’s having the worst offensive season of his career, hitting .203/.258/.279 in 73 games.

Pittsburgh hasn’t been a whole lot better at second base. They’ve gotten a .253/.315/.349 performance out of the position. Nick Gonzales got out to an excellent start to the season upon being recalled in May. The former seventh overall pick has slumped to a .240/.269/.349 line in 156 plate appearances since the start of June. Gonzales hit a walk-off single tonight to complete an 8-7 comeback win over the Phillies, but he wasn’t performing well going into the All-Star Break.

Tonight’s victory pushed the Pirates above .500 at 49-48. They’re half a game back of the Mets and Diamondbacks, who are tied for the National League’s last Wild Card spot. Pittsburgh is in position to add at the deadline for the first time in years, although it’s unclear how willing GM Ben Cherington would be to subtract from the top of their farm system. As Darragh McDonald explored in a piece for Front Office subscribers on Wednesday, the Bucs have ample rotation depth. Miami isn’t going to look for immediate starting pitching in a Chisholm deal — Mish suggests the Marlins could target prospects who are two to three years from the big leagues — but the Bucs’ depth could free them to deal a pitching prospect or two for offense. Chisholm is hitting .251/.322/.407 and is under arbitration control through 2026.

Latest On Mason Miller’s Trade Market

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There’s no bigger target on the relief market than A’s breakout closer Mason Miller. The All-Star righty begins the second half with a 2.27 earned run average through 39 2/3 innings. He has punched out 70 of 150 opponents (an absurd 46.7% rate) while locking down 15 of 17 save chances. Miller might be the most dominant relief force in the league at the moment.

Oakland general manager David Forst will receive no shortage of trade calls over the next week and a half. Jon Heyman of the New York Post wrote last night that the Orioles are among the teams with interest in Miller. Heyman adds that Baltimore also remains connected to old friend Tanner Scott, to whom they’ve been linked for the better part of two months. The O’s are generally expected to land a high-leverage reliever who can either supplant Craig Kimbrel as closer or bridge the gap to the ninth inning.

The Marlins will almost certainly deal Scott, an impending free agent, by July 30. It’d be significantly harder to pry Miller from the A’s. He’s under club control for five seasons after this one. Even a rebuilding team is under no pressure to move him. Robert Murray of FanSided wrote this evening that executives outside of Oakland remain skeptical that the A’s will deal Miller. They’ll have an exorbitant asking price, at the very least.

Miller’s injury history is the main argument for the A’s to move him this summer. The 25-year-old missed most of the 2022 season battling shoulder problems. He lost the bulk of the ’23 campaign to a UCL sprain in his elbow. Miller throws as hard as anyone in baseball and has had a pair of extended arm-related absences within the last three years. There’s clearly some level of risk that he suffers another injury. The A’s are unlikely to be competitive before the 2026 season at the earliest, so Miller could make more of an immediate impact on a team with nearer playoff aspirations.

Yet as appealing as Miller already is as an elite closer, there’s a chance he improves his value even more in the next year or two. Miller was a starting pitcher in the minors and for his first few weeks in the big leagues. Oakland moved him to the bullpen this year as a means of keeping his innings in check. Forst said at the time of the bullpen transfer that the A’s might stretch Miller back out as a starter in 2025. It’d be tempting to keep him in the bullpen now that the team has seen how dominant he is in that role, but no one has ruled out a return to starting. Miller told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last week that he’s not closing off the possibility of moving back to the rotation in ’25 or beyond.

Garrett Crochet has dramatically elevated his trade value with three months of ace production. There’s no guarantee Miller would take to a rotation move the way that Crochet has, of course, but it’s not hard to see the potential for him to be an impact starter. If he ran with a rotation opportunity next season, he’d further elevate his stock both within the organization and on the trade market.

Mariners Designate Mike Baumann For Assignment

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The Mariners announced they’ve designated right-hander Mike Baumann for assignment. The move opens a spot in the bullpen for southpaw Gabe Speier, who is back from the 15-day injured list. Baumman is out of options, so Seattle couldn’t send him down without taking him off the 40-man roster.

Seattle acquired Baumann from the Orioles for Triple-A catcher Blake Hunt a couple months ago. The O’s had designated him for assignment despite a decent 3.44 earned run average at the time, projecting his middling strikeout and walk profile to lead to regression. That has been the case in Seattle, as Baumann allowed 11 runs across 16 1/3 innings. He punched out 16 against eight walks while surrendering four home runs. Between the two teams, the former third-round pick now carries a 4.41 ERA over 34 2/3 innings. His 20.8% strikeout percentage, 11% walk rate and 1.56 homers per nine are all on the wrong side of league average.

Baumann was a solid piece of Baltimore’s middle relief corps a year ago. The Jacksonville product worked to a 3.76 ERA with an average 22.3% strikeout percentage while logging 64 2/3 innings. This season hasn’t gone to plan, but he hasn’t lost any velocity off a fastball that sits north of 96 MPH.

Seattle has five days to try to trade Baumann. If they don’t find a taker, they’ll place him on waivers. Any claiming team would need to install him directly into the big league bullpen. Baumann has never cleared outright waivers and has less than three years of MLB service, so he wouldn’t have the ability to decline an outright assignment if he goes unclaimed.

MLB Mailbag: Reds, Red Sox, Skubal, Alonso, Prospects, Dodgers, Cubs, Diaz

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I'm stepping in for MLBTR founder and owner Tim Dierkes on this week's MLB Mailbag. It's a deadline-heavy edition this week, with questions on the Reds' outlook, Frankie Montas, Jonathan India, the Red Sox, Tarik Skubal, Pete Alonso's future, the 2024 draft, the concept of non-contending clubs using the deadline to buy pieces for the 2025 season, the Dodgers' growing list of needs, the Cubs' uncertain status, and more! Let's get into it.

Matthew H. asks:

No Reds in the Top 50 trade candidates? Was there any consideration to the front office tendency to stand pat in July or was that just the way the names fell?

We'll definitely do at least one more update to our top trade candidates list -- possibly two. The Reds could factor more prominently onto a future version, but as of right now, they're only three games out of the Wild Card hunt in the National League. They're in a key group of borderline contenders -- along with teams like the Cubs, Pirates, Giants and Rangers -- whose deadline fate hinges on how the first few games of the second half shake out. A nine-game road trip to play the Nats, Braves and Rays (in that order) is going to be a major factor.

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Angels Sign First-Round Pick Christian Moore

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The Angels have signed first-round pick Christian Moore with a signing bonus of $4,997,500, per Carlos Collazo of Baseball America on X. The fact that the bonus is $2,500 shy of $5MM probably isn’t a coincidence. As explained by Jim Callis of MLB.com on X, players get a bonus of that amount when the signing is executed. The slot value for that pick is just over $6.5MM, so this comes in well under slot.

Moore, 21, has spent the past three years putting up huge numbers at Tennessee. He hit 61 home runs in 186 games over those three campaigns and slashed a combined .338/.447/.698. That includes 34 home runs in 2024 alone, with a monster line of .375/.451/.797 this year.

His power is considered better than his hitting ability, but he made some positive strides in that department lately. He struck out at a 24.3% clip last year but dropped that all the way to 14.5% this year. Defensively, he has played all three outfield spots and the three infield positions to the left of first base, but he’s spent the majority of his time at second base.

Despite the concerning elements of his game, the power is strong enough for him to have been placed highly on pre-draft rankings, though not as high as where he was ultimately selected. Keith Law of The Athletic had him in the #37 slot, FanGraphs at #23, MLB Pipeline at #13, while both Baseball America and ESPN had him at #12. Law expressed skepticism that Moore’s power would hold up with a wooden bat and also suggested his limited defensive abilities would eventually push him to left field. BA expressed optimism that his improved contact would play well with his natural power.

Though Moore was taken eighth overall, his bonus actually falls between the slot value of the 14th and 15th pick, which aligns more closely to his pre-draft rankings. By signing Moore to an underslot deal, the Halos will have some money to work with in signing players taken in later rounds.

How Moore fits into the club’s future will depend on his ultimate defensive home. Players like Luis Rengifo and Brandon Drury have seen most of the playing time at second base in recent years but Drury is an impending free agent while Rengifo is a trade candidate with one arbitration season remaining.

Nationals Sign First-Round Pick Seaver King

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The Nationals announced that they have signed Seaver King, who they selected with the 10th overall pick in this year’s draft. Jim Callis of MLB.com relays on X that the signing bonus is $5.15MM, a bit below the $5.95MM slot value for his pick.

King, 21, got into 60 games for Wake Forest this year, lining up at the three infield positions to the left of first base as well as center field. He hit 16 home runs in that time and slashed .308/.377/.577. He also stole 11 bases in 12 tries.

Based on his ability to contribute in multiple ways, he was one of the top ranked players coming into the draft. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and Keith Law of The Athletic ranked him 17th. ESPN put him slightly higher at 16th while FanGraphs was the most bullish by putting him 11th.

The outlets generally commend him for doing damage and putting up impressive exit velocities, though with some concern for his lack of discipline and propensity for chasing bad pitches, which leads to some weaker contact and few walks. Defensively, he’s considered a bit raw at his multiple positions but is expected to be carried by his athleticism in the short term and become more polished in time. FanGraphs sees a ceiling of an everyday shortstop but admits a multi-positional role is probably more likely.

The Nationals are at an interesting time in their rebuild, as they flirted with contention this year but have recently pivoted to selling, with Hunter Harvey flipped to the Royals. But they are starting to form a nucleus of controllable players at the big league level, with CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, James Wood and others up at the big league level.

Still down in the minors are notable prospects such as Dylan Crews, Brady House and more. King will join Crews and House in the minors, with his future defensive home and his role with the big league club still to be determined.

Yankees Sign Thomas Pannone To Minor League Deal

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Left-hander Thomas Pannone has signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and has been assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Cubs on a minor league deal but was released earlier this week.

Pannone, 30, was working out of the rotation for Triple-A Iowa prior to his release and was putting up decent numbers, so it’s possible that he triggered some kind of opt-opt. After signing a minor league deal with the Cubs in the winter, he logged 90 2/3 innings over 19 starts with a 4.37 earned run average, 22% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 42% ground ball rate. The run-scoring environment in the International League has been pretty strong this year, with pitchers in the IL having a combined 4.90 ERA. Pannone’s 4.37 mark is 12th out of 29 qualified pitchers in that league.

The Yanks have a strong rotation at the major league level right now but their depth has taken a few hits. Though Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman and Luis Gil have the five big league spots, guys like Clarke Schmidt, JT Brubaker, Cody Poteet and Clayton Beeter are all injured. Schmidt went on the injured list in late May due to a lat strain and still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Poteet landed on the IL about a month ago due to a right triceps strain and he hasn’t started a rehab assignment yet either. Brubaker was rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery but was recently shut down with an oblique strain. Beeter has some kind of shoulder issue and might be done for the season, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post on X.

Since Pannone has been in decent form this year, the Yanks will bring him aboard to replace some of that missing depth. He has 118 2/3 innings of major league experience with the Blue Jays and Brewers with a 5.46 ERA in that time. He also spent parts of 2022 and 2023 in Korea, tossing 165 innings for the KBO’s Kia Tigers with a 3.49 ERA. If Pannone is added to New York’s roster at any point, he is out of options.

Dodgers Reinstate Joe Kelly, Outright Jose Hernandez

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July 19: The Dodgers announced today that Joe Kelly has been reinstated from the injured list to take the 40-man spot of Hernandez. Michael Petersen was optioned to make an active roster spot for Kelly. Their 40-man is now full again so they will have to open another spot when Ryan is officially promoted.

July 18: The Dodgers passed lefty Jose Hernandez through outright waivers and assigned him to their Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Hernandez had already been pitching in the ACL, building up after a layoff between the time L.A. acquired him from Pittsburgh and he began pitching with an affiliate. The move opens up a spot on the 40-man roster, which is presumably earmarked for top pitching prospect River Ryan, who’s slated to make his big league debut this weekend.

Hernandez, 26, was a Dodgers signee out of the Dominican Republic back in 2016. He spent seven years in the system before being selected by the Pirates in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. Pittsburgh carried Hernandez in their bullpen all season in 2023, letting him work 50 2/3 low-leverage innings while pitching to a 4.97 ERA with a 27.8% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate.

By rostering him all season, the Pirates gained the right to option Hernandez in subsequent seasons. However, the lefty pitched just 5 1/3 innings over seven MLB appearances this season and was hit hard with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, yielding a dozen runs in 15 1/3 innings while working with diminished velocity. The Bucs designated him for assignment in June and wound up trading him back to the Dodgers in exchange for cash.

The Dodgers can now keep Hernandez in their system as a depth option without dedicating a 40-man roster spot to him. He’s had a tough 2024 season, but last year’s K-BB profile in the majors was interesting; those strikeout and walk rates were near-identical matches for his marks in his most recent full minor league season with the Dodgers back in 2022, when he posted respective 27.8% and 10% strikeout and walk rates in 59 2/3 innings between High-A and Double-A. Hernandez yielded just a 3.32 ERA that season and induced grounders at a solid 43.8% clip. This year’s velocity dip is concerning, but there’s still reason to think he could eventually emerge as a viable bullpen option somewhere down the road.

White Sox Outright Danny Mendick

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July 19: Mendick cleared waivers and is headed to Triple-A Charlotte, with Fegan among those to relay the news on X.

July 17: The White Sox announced that they have signed infielder Nick Senzel, a move that was reported last night. To make room for Senzel, they designated infielder Danny Mendick for assignment. They also optioned infielder Lenyn Sosa, leaving a roster spot open. James Fegan of Sox Machine suggests on X that Yoán Moncada could take that spot, though that’s not confirmed as of now.

Mendick, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Sox and was added to the club’s roster in late April. He has appeared in 47 games for the Sox, stepping to the plate 141 times. Unfortunately, he has hit just .197/.243/.318 this year. He has struck out in 24.8% of his plate appearances while walking at a 4.3% clip, with both of those being subpar.

This is his sixth straight major league season, with most of his offensive output being fairly uninspiring. He had a nice flash of brilliance in 2022, slashing .289/.343/.443, but that season was cut short when he suffered a torn ACL after 31 games. Overall, he has a .232/.286/.346 batting line and 76 wRC+ in 656 career plate appearances.

He has now been nudged of Chicago’s roster and they will have some time to try to work out the next steps, whether that’s a trade or trying to pass Mendick. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so any possibility of a trade will have to be explored in the next five days. Though with Mendick’s performance this year, interest is likely to be muted anyhow.

He can at least provide clubs with defensive versatility. He has played second and third base this year and also has some work at shortstop and in the outfield on his track record. He hasn’t been much of a base-stealer in his career but has swiped six bags without being caught this season. Mendick has an option and can therefore be kept in the minors if any club gives him a 40-man roster spot. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will have the right to elect free agency, both because he has a previous career outright and because he has more than three years of service time.

Rockies Agree To Terms With No. 3 Overall Pick Charlie Condon

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The Rockies and outfielder Charlie Condon, the third overall pick from the 2024 draft, have agreed to a $9.25MM signing bonus. That matches Chase Burns, who signed with the Reds earlier this week, for the largest signing bonus in MLB history and slightly above the $9.07MM slot value for the #3 pick. Both Condon and Burns are represented by Vayner Sports. Jeff Passan relayed the details of the agreement on X.

Condon, now 21, is coming off an absurd two-year run with Georgia. He hit 25 home runs in 56 games for them last year and slashed .386/.484/.800. Here in 2024, he took things to another level with 37 homers in 60 games and a batting line of .433/.556/1.009.

In addition to the power, Condon’s bat-to-ball abilities are also considered strong. He struck out 86 times over his two seasons with Georgia, a rate of 15.4%. He also drew 90 walks in that time, a rate of 16.1%.

He’s not considered a standout defender but has some versatility, having played the infield corners and all three outfield slots this year. His ultimate defensive home seems up in the air, with some suggesting he’s likelier to end up as a corner outfielder while other suggests third base is most likely.

But the bat is the real standout tool and that’s why he was considered one of the top players available in this year’s draft. Baseball America, ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic all had him in the top spot. MLB Pipeline had him second behind Travis Bazzana, who was selected first overall by the Guardians. The report from FanGraphs is slightly more bearish, putting Condon fourth and expressing some worry that his uppercut swing will leave him vulnerable at the top of the zone, especially once he climbs to higher levels and eventually the majors.

While Condon’s power potential is exciting in a vacuum, the idea of him playing his home games at Coors Field is even more enticing. The Rockies have Ryan McMahon at third base, with his contract running through 2027. In the outfielder, Brenton Doyle seems to be emerging as a core piece in center, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored.

For Condon’s other possible positions, things get murky. Kris Bryant is under contract through 2028 but has hardly been able to stay on the field since coming to Colorado, even though the Rockies moved him to first base to try to lighten the wear and tear on him. Charlie Blackmon is 38 years old and on a one-year deal. Nolan Jones seemed to breakout last year but has stalled here in 2024.

The picture will undoubtedly change in time but the Rockies will surely be hoping for Condon to be a part of their roster in the future. His defense might require a bit of experimentation but perhaps his bat can vault him towards the majors quickly.

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