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Tigers Designate Charlie Morton For Assignment

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The Tigers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Charlie Morton for assignment. Right-hander Tanner Rainey had his contract selected to replace Morton on the 40-man and active rosters.

This surely isn’t the ending that either Morton or the Tigers were hoping for when Detroit acquired from the Orioles on the day of the trade deadline. Even then, however, Morton was in the midst of an up-and-down season. His first five starts with Baltimore saw him get torched to a 10.89 ERA as he walked 13.9% of his opponents. That led him to be demoted to the bullpen before the end of April, and he spent roughly a month in a multi-inning relief role before injuries in the rotation created an opening for the righty to start again.

Once Morton was returned to the rotation on May 26, the rest of his time in Baltimore saw him pitch to the mid-to-back of the rotation results the Orioles were hoping for when they acquired him with a 3.88 ERA and 4.17 FIP across 11 starts and 60 1/3 innings of work. In that time, he struck out 22.7% of his opponents and walked 8.9%. Those numbers were serviceable enough that the Tigers decided to bet on Morton’s recent performance and history of mid-rotation success, including his 3.87 ERA in four years with Atlanta.

It’s a bet that did not pay off. While Morton threw six innings of one-run ball during his first start as a Tiger and pitched to a perfectly solid 3.63 ERA with a 3.77 FIP across his first four outings (despite a clunker against the Angels in his first start at Comerica Park), the wheels came off with a five-run outing against the Athletics in West Sacramento at the end of August. Things only got worse in September, as he pitched to a 12.75 ERA across four starts with more walks (13) than strikeouts (11) while averaging just three innings per start. Morton’s struggles reached a crescendo on Friday, when he surrendered six runs on five hits and two walks while striking out two in 1 1/3 innings of work against his former teammates with the Braves.

The Tigers will now put Morton through waivers. It’s likely at this late stage in the calendar that he will go unclaimed, and if that comes to pass Morton has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and head into free agency early. All told, the veteran will walk away from the 2025 season with a 5.89 ERA and 4.98 FIP across 140 2/3 innings of work. That includes a 7.09 ERA and 5.20 FIP in his nine starts in a Tigers uniform. That tough performance makes Detroit’s decision to cut ties with Morton somewhat unsurprising, and even after Friday’s game Morton and manager A.J. Hinch both told reporters (including Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press) they didn’t know if Morton would pitch again for Detroit.

Perhaps if the Tigers were in a more stable position in the playoff picture then it would be easier for them to give Morton another opportunity to get right. The Guardians’ recent surge toward the top of the standings has put a lot of pressure on Detroit ahead of the final week of the season, however. Cleveland currently sits just one game back of the Tigers in the AL Central after winning ten games in a row while the Tigers have lost five straight. Detroit’s playoff odds according to Fangraphs are down to just 85.1% entering play today after sitting at approximately 100% as recently as September 6. That increased pressure is forcing more aggressive moves than other teams that have already clinched a playoff spot are making at this point in the calendar.

As for Rainey, the right-hander pitched for the Pirates earlier this year but struggled to a 10.57 ERA in 11 appearances before being designated for assignment. He eventually caught on with the Tigers on a minor league deal and has posted a 2.66 ERA in 19 appearances for Triple-A Toledo. That success in the minors isn’t likely to outweigh his career 5.44 ERA in 209 big league appearances, but perhaps Rainey will look good enough in a couple of appearances in the majors that it could help him either hold onto a 40-man roster spot with Detroit this offseason or find a contract elsewhere.

Mets Designate Chris Devenski For Assignment

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The Mets announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Chris Devenski for assignment. Devenski’s spot on the active roster will go to left-hander Sean Manaea, who has been activated from the paternity list.

Devenski, 35 in November, signed a minor league deal with the Mets last offseason and has served in an up-and-down role for the club this year. He’s made 13 appearances for the Mets in total this season and was already DFA’d by New York once before in late July, though he signed a major league deal with the club just a few days later and has remained in the organization ever since. All together, he’s posted a 2.16 ERA with a 3.51 FIP in 16 2/3 innings of work while striking out 21.5% of his opponents against a 7.7% walk rate.

Those are perfectly solid numbers, and his 3.35 ERA and 20.8% strikeout rate across 35 appearances with Triple-A Syracuse this year is largely consistent with that. Despite the minimal playing time at the big league level, 2025 represents something of a return to form for Devenski. A 25th-rounder drafted by the White Sox all the way back in 2011, Devenski made his big league debut in Houston during the 2016 season and was a big part of the Astros bullpen in the early days of their dynasty. In 305 1/3 innings from 2016 to 2019, Devenski posted a 3.21 ERA with a 3.49 FIP and even picked up an All-Star appearance during the 2017 campaign.

Unfortunately, he’s been unable to find his footing since struggling in a small role with the Astros during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Since the start of 2020, Devenski has bounced between six organizations at the big league level. Prior to joining the Mets this year, he had pitched to a 6.46 ERA with a 5.30 FIP in 82 appearances over the past half decade, including a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of work for the Rays last year. If some club views Devenski’s strong performance in a minor role with the Mets this year as evidence he’s put his years of struggles since leaving Houston behind him, then it wouldn’t be a shock to see Devenski garner some interest on the free agent market this winter.

As for Manaea, the Mets recently moved him to the bullpen for the remainder of the season amid his struggles to find success in the rotation this year. That move has paid off so far, as the lefty threw five innings of one-run ball in long relief against the Padres last week. Now that Manaea is back from the paternity list, he’ll likely have another opportunity or two to pitch this week as the Mets fight to hold onto their spot in the playoffs amid strong pushes from Cincinnati and Arizona to get back into the conversation.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington Discusses Future, Offseason Plans

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It’s been another tough season for the Pirates, and things went poorly enough early in the year that manager Derek Shelton was fired just six weeks into the regular season. While the club showed at least some signs of life in the aftermath of Shelton’s firing, with a 52-51 record under interim manager Don Kelly through September 4, they’ve gone on to lose 12 of their last 14 games and now look sure to end the season on a sour note. With a 66-89 record entering play today, Pittsburgh is more than 20 games underwater for the year and has already locked up a worse record than the club posted in back-to-back 86-loss seasons during the 2023 and ’24 campaigns.

A step backwards in Paul Skenes’s first full season in the major leagues could not possibly have been something Pittsburgh was expecting, and none of the team’s woes can be attributed to their ace given his 2.02 ERA and status as the heavy favorite for the NL Cy Young award. The problem lies elsewhere in the organization, and yesterday GM Ben Cherington was asked by reporters about his job status and plans for the future. Cherington (as relayed by Kevin Gorman of TribLive) told reporters that he “hasn’t heard anything to the contrary” from ownership when asked if he expects to return for 2026.

“I don’t know if any of us in this room ever have full assurance of anything, but I want to help the Pirates win more games,” Cherington told reporters. “That’s it. I don’t do the job because of the job. I do the job because I want to be a part of making this thing work. Winning more games and being able to leave PNC Park at night feeling better and everybody feeling better. That’s why I do it. I still want to do it. I badly want to do it.”

Cherington went on to discuss the status of Kelly headed into the offseason, and made clear that he’s holding off on evaluating the interim manager’s performance until the season comes to a close. He went on to say that he expected Kelly would do “a really good job” in the role from the moment he took over back in May, and that his performance “is one that’s not surprising” to him. While Cherington’s review of Kelly’s work was largely positive, he also noted that not having a manager locked in for 2026 at this point creates “an opportunity to really have a culture that feels different” next season. If Pittsburgh brass think a significant change in culture is necessary to get the team back on track, it could be argued that Kelly isn’t the right person to change that culture after spending six seasons in the organization between his time as bench coach and interim manager.

Despite uncertainty in the dugout and the team’s poor performance this year, Cherington added that he expects the team to contend next season. At the same time, he acknowledged that “you can’t just hope it’s going to happen” and that “some really important work” needs to be done to improve the club around Skenes. The most obvious place improvement will be needed is on offense, as Spencer Horwitz and his 107 wRC+ represent the only above-average offensive contribution the club got from any of its hitters this year. Perhaps the team can expect better performances from Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds next year given their track records, but the rest of the lineup has posted uninspiring numbers with little reason for optimism going forward.

The microscopic budget handed down by ownership is a perennial challenge in Pittsburgh, but Cherington and the Pirates’ front office do have an exciting farm system and a deep pitching staff from which they could try to swing trades that would upgrade the offense. Top prospect Konnor Griffin isn’t going anywhere, of course, but with Skenes, Jared Jones, Mitch Keller, Johan Oviedo, Mike Burrows, Bubba Chandler, Hunter Barco, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, and Carmen Mlodzinski all likely to be in the mix for starts next year there should be plenty of room to move an arm or three for help on offense. Indeed, that’s how they were able to acquire Horwitz, as they traded Luis Ortiz to the Guardians to acquire their first baseman last offseason shortly after he joined Cleveland in the Andres Gimenez trade. If they can follow a similar road map more aggressively this winter, they should be able to leverage their bevy of young pitching talent in order to augment the offense without breaking the bank.

Will Smith Suffering From Hairline Fracture In Hand

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) today that catcher Will Smith had undergone additional scans following his placement on the injured list last week, and that testing revealed a hairline fracture in Smith’s injured hand. The news makes it “doubtful,” in Roberts’s words, that he’ll play again during the regular season this year. More concerning is that whether or not Smith will be available for the start of the playoffs remains “up in the air.” 

Smith, who made his third All-Star game earlier this year, enjoyed a career season with the Dodgers this year as he hit .296/404/.497 with a 152 wRC+ in 110 games. He swatted 17 homers and paired a decent 20.4% strikeout rate with an elite 14.7% walk rate to emerge as one of the league’s top on-base threats, and between his impressive offense and solid defense behind the plate put together 4.1 fWAR in just 436 trips to the plate.

Arguably the best right-handed hitter in the Dodgers’ lineup this year thanks to Mookie Betts’s tough first half this year, losing Smith for any part of the postseason would be a crushing blow for the Dodgers. Since his first full 162-game season in 2021, Smith has averaged 126 games played a year and is a fixture of the L.A. lineup with more innings caught over the past five years than anyone other than J.T. Realmuto. Smith’s combination of durability and excellence allowed the Dodgers to not worry much about the quality of their catching depth this year, so much so that they even designated longtime backup Austin Barnes for assignment back in May to make room on the roster for unproven youngster Dalton Rushing.

Rushing has not taken to the big leagues in his part-time role, and has slashed just .184/.246/.288 with a wRC+ of 49 and a 39.1% strikeout rate across 47 games in the majors. Rushing’s combination of lackluster offense and unimpressive defense behind the plate have seemingly left the Dodgers without much confidence in his ability to handle the jump from little-used backup to potential playoff starter, and as a result of that Roberts indicated today that Ben Rortvedt instead be tasked with serving as the Dodgers’ primary catcher while Smith is out of commission.

Just five days shy from his 28th birthday, Rortvedt turned in a respectable enough season with the Rays last year but this year has hit just .165/.250/.196 in 39 games between L.A. and Tampa. It’s a performance that offers virtually no reason for optimism about his ability to contribute offensively, but Rortvedt is a very well-regarded game caller who gets solid marks from advanced metrics for his glove behind the plate. That solid defense should help create a higher floor than Rushing could provide for a Dodgers team that will need to rely on a bullpen that has looked shaky in recent weeks to preserve any leads passed to them by an elite starting rotation. With that said, it would of course be preferable if Smith’s bat could take some pressure off Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to carry the offense headed into the playoffs.

Brewers Considering Relief Role For Jacob Misiorowski

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The Brewers are considering the possibility of using Jacob Misiorowski out of the bullpen over the final week of the season as they determine what role to use him in during the playoffs, manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) last night.

Misiorowski, 23, made waves when he debuted back in June by posting massive strikeout totals in the first few starts of his career and landed a somewhat controversial All-Star nod just five starts into his MLB career. At that time, he had a 2.81 ERA and a 33.7% career strikeout rate. He turned in another pair of strong (albeit abbreviated) starts to round out the month of July and bring his ERA down to 2.70 while his strikeout rate crept up to an incredible 36.4%. Unfortunately, he would miss the first two weeks of August due to a tibia contusion after he was hit by a comebacker on the mound.

Since returning from the injured list, Misiorowski has begun to look somewhat over-matched at times. A five-run blowup against the Reds in Cincinnati where the right-hander recorded just four outs marked an inauspicious return from the shelf, and he left the month of August having posted a 9.58 ERA in three starts. That was easy enough to dismiss as a fluke given the continued excellence of his peripherals, highlighted by a game against the Diamondbacks where Misiorowski struck out ten of his opponents in just five innings of work while walking only one.

The right-hander’s September struggles have been harder to dismiss, however. The run prevention hasn’t been as significantly troubling, as he’s surrendered just a 4.50 ERA. Unlike his disastrous August, however, the peripheral numbers suggests Misiorowski’s poor results this month have been entirely earned. His strikeout rate has plummeted to just 22.6% over four September starts, and with three of his eight career home runs allowed in just those last four starts he’s starting to have problems with the long ball as well.

All told, Misiorowski has a 6.23 ERA and 4.11 FIP across seven starts since returning from the injured list. Those are, put simply, not the numbers of a playoff caliber starter. The Brewers aren’t an organization that’s afraid to buck conventional wisdom, so perhaps those poor results don’t necessarily rule him out for getting the ball in a playoff game. With that being said, it’s hard to argue with Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta as the club’s top two starters. Quinn Priester has more than earned a spot in the playoff rotation as well at this point, and in situations where a fourth starter is needed it would be understandable if the Brewers preferred to go with someone like rookie righty Chad Patrick or (if he returns from the injured list in time) veteran southpaw Jose Quintana for that final rotation spot.

If the Brewers are seriously considering leaving Misiorowski out of their playoff rotation, then it stands to reason that getting him some experience coming out of the bullpen over the final week of the regular season would be a good idea. It could allow Misiorowski to get used to pitching for just one or two innings at a time, allow him to worry less about trying to sustain his elite stuff over multiple innings, and allow the club to get a preview of how effective he could be if allowed to let loose in a relief role. For an organization that has previously relied on elite bullpen talents like Josh Hader and Devin Williams in big playoff moments, adding another arm with sky-high upside to the relief corps ahead of October can’t hurt as the Brewers look to win their first playoff series since 2017.

Mets Select Richard Lovelady, DFA Wander Suero

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The Mets announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Wander Suero for assignment. Left-hander Richard Lovelady was selected to replace Suero on the 40-man and active rosters and pitched in the club’s loss to the Nationals earlier today.

Suero, 33, departs the Mets’ roster just two days after being selected to the roster. It’s the second time this season New York has cut Suero from the roster without him making an appearance for the club. A veteran of seven MLB seasons, the right-hander made his big league debut with the Nationals during the 2018 season and enjoyed a solid three-year run as a middle reliever for the club where he pitched to a 4.10 ERA (108 ERA+) with intriguing peripherals. That included a 3.20 FIP and a 26.1% strikeout rate across his 142 2/3 innings of work from 2018 to 2020. Suero was also part of the organization for their World Series championship in 2019, and the righty not only made the postseason roster but also enjoyed three scoreless outings during the World Series against the Astros.

Things took a turn for the worse during the 2021 season, however, as Suero turned in a disastrous 6.33 ERA with a FIP of 5.80 in 45 appearances. He struck out 23.2% of his opponents while walking 7.9%, perfectly serviceable numbers for a middle reliever, but his home run rate spiked considerably as he allowed 11 long balls in just 42 2/3 innings of work. To make matters worse, his strand rate of 59.7% was among the worst in the majors and suggested some terrible luck in terms of sequencing, leaving him with even worse results than his already shaky peripherals suggest he had earned.

After leaving D.C. behind, Suero has become something of a journeyman. He pitched in the Angels organization on a minor league deal in 2022, but did not make it to the majors as he struggled in Triple-A’s hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He posted better results at the level with the Dodgers and Astros over the next two years that earned him brief call-ups to the majors, but a 7.88 ERA in eight innings of work was all he had to show for those brief cameos in the big leagues. Suero entered 2025 as a member of the Braves and made five appearances for the club, but was designated for assignment after posting an 11.57 ERA and plucked off waivers by the Mets. He’s been riding the carousel between the majors and Triple-A Syracuse ever since, and now the Mets will once again attempt to pass him through waivers.

As for Lovelady, the lefty opened the year with the Blue Jays but made just two appearances for the club where he surrendered four runs in 1 2/3 innings of work before being designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and signed a minor league deal with the Twins, but after not getting called up to the big league roster he opted out of that deal to sign with the Mets on a major league deal. He’s been designated for assignment and selected back onto the roster several times throughout the year, and had allowed six runs in 8 2/3 innings across six appearances for New York entering today. Lovelady enjoyed one of his best outings as a Met against the Nationals today, as he struck out two while recording 1 1/3 scoreless frames. He’ll remain in the Mets bullpen for the time being and be a left-handed option alongside Brooks Raley and Gregory Soto.

Angels Place Robert Stephenson On 15-Day Injured List With Elbow Inflammation

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The Angels announced that right-hander Robert Stephenson was placed on the 15-day injured list today due to inflammation in his right elbow. With just over a week left in the regular season, that IL placement ends Stephenson’s 2025 season. Right-hander Sam Bachman was recalled from Triple-A to take Stephenson’s spot on the roster.

Stephenson, 32, signed a three-year pact with the Angels in free agency prior to the 2024 season. It has not gone especially well to this point. While Stephenson has a lifetime 2.70 ERA in an Angels uniform, that comes in a sample size of just ten innings after he missed the entire 2024 campaign and the first two months of 2025 while rehabbing elbow surgery. He made his debut with the Halos on May 28, but made it into just two games before a biceps injury shut him down once again.

That injury cost him nearly three months, but he returned to the mound in late August and finally managed to make regular high leverage appearances for the Angels over the past few weeks. He’ll finish the year with solid enough numbers across that small sample of just 12 outings: that aforementioned 2.70 ERA is paired with a 3.65 FIP, a 23.8% strikeout rate, and a walk rate of 7.1%. Those numbers certainly aren’t bad, but they aren’t the sort of dominant production that the Angels were surely hoping for when they guaranteed Stephenson $33MM two years ago. At that time, Stephenson was coming off an otherworldly run in Tampa where he had pitched to a 2.35 ERA in 38 1/3 innings while striking out an eye-popping 42.8% of his opponents.

While Stephenson’s elbow surgery last year unlocked a $2.5MM club option for the 2027 season that leaves this contract still potentially salvageable overall, Stephenson will need to stay healthy and pitch at least as well as he did this year for the next couple of seasons for the Angels to get a meaningful return on their investment. That might make today’s diagnosis of elbow inflammation sound scary, but Stephenson told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register today that he’s “not as concerned” about this injury as he was about last year’s ailment that caused him to go under the knife. He added that he has yet to undergo imaging, and that he’ll know more then, but for the time-being he doesn’t think the issue is “too serious.”

Of course, there’s reason for concern any time an elbow injury comes up, particularly for a player with Stephenson’s injury history. The good news is that the right-hander will have a full offseason to recover, so even a moderate injury could still see him on the Angels’ Opening Day roster next year. How feasible that will end up being won’t be clear until the Halos get more testing done on the righty’s elbow, but in the meantime they’ll give Bachman a turn on the pitching staff over the season’s final few games. The righty has a 4.96 ERA in 19 appearances this year but a 3.52 FIP suggests he might have some better results than that in his future.

Twins Place Pablo Lopez On 15-Day Injured List

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The Twins placed right-hander Pablo Lopez on the 15-day injured list today due to a right forearm strain. Right-hander Mick Abel was recalled to replace Lopez on the active roster. With just over a week left in the 2025 campaign and Minnesota completely out of the playoff picture, the move to the injured list ends Lopez’s season.

Lopez, 29, finishes the year having been limited to just 14 starts by injuries. After a short stint on the shelf due to a hamstring strain in April, Lopez went on to miss three months over the summer due to a shoulder strain before this forearm strain brought his season to a close. When healthy enough to take the field, Lopez was effective as ever with a 2.74 ERA and 3.20 FIP across his 75 2/3 innings of work. His strikeout rate of 23.4% was a little bit lower than recent years but still only a tick below his career norms, and a 6.4% walk rate is a near perfect match for his career 6.3% rate.

That Lopez has looked more or less the same in terms of production despite all of those injuries should be reassuring for the Twins as they enter an uncertain offseason following a massive sell-off that seemingly plunged them into what could be a protracted rebuild. With two years and $43.5MM left on Lopez’s contract, he would surely be an attractive trade chip to market over the offseason if the Twins want to further focus on loading up with young talent for the future. If he had pitched poorly when on the mound this year, getting much value for Lopez might not on the table for this winter, and they’d have to either sell low on him or hold him into the 2026 season.

Of course, it’s still entirely possible they hold onto Lopez for the time being. It’s not impossible to imagine some teams balking at paying a premium for Lopez’s services with so many injury woes on his resume this season, and today’s news of a forearm strain won’t help those concerns. If teams are wary of Lopez’s health, perhaps Minnesota will decide to hold onto him and hope for better health in 2026. With that being said, the strain appears to be rather mild. Dan Hayes of The Athletic relays that there is “no concern” regarding Lopez’s elbow or UCL, and that the strain is mild enough that he would’ve likely avoided the IL entirely had the Twins still been in the race for the postseason. That description of the injury sounds minor enough that it likely shouldn’t change a team’s evaluation of Lopez significantly, which is good news for the Twins if they hope to make the right-hander available this offseason.

Of course, if the Twins decide to pivot away from what looks like it could be the start of a rebuild and instead try to augment the club with an eye towards contention in 2026, Lopez will be a key piece of that team alongside other core pieces like Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan. While that trio is some of the only certainty that Twins have at this point, they have very little money on the books after dumping Carlos Correa’s contract to Houston and could have some considerable upside if young players like Luke Keaschall and Brooks Lee manage to step into larger roles next year.

Blue Jays Place Chris Bassitt On 15-Day Injured List

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The Blue Jays are placing veteran right-hander Chris Bassitt on the 15-day injured list due to low back inflammation, per a team announcement. The move is retroactive to September 19. Left-hander Mason Fluharty was recalled to the roster to take Bassitt’s place. The right-hander will be eligible to be activated from the shelf on October 3, meaning that a minimum stint would allow him to pitch Game 1 of the ALDS. Toronto is on the verge of clinching a spot in the postseason and is an overwhelming favorite to secure a bye through the Wild Card series, though he would be unavailable for that series on the off chance the Blue Jays fail to secure one of the top two seeds in the American League this year.

Bassitt, 36, has turned in a solid season in 2025 that’s generally consistent with his years of work as a solid mid-to-back of the rotation starter. While the right-hander made his big league debut in 2014 and made occasional appearances with the White Sox and A’s over the first few years of his career, it wasn’t until his age-30 season in 2019 when he broke out as a regular starter with the Athletics. In seven years since then, Bassitt has pitched to a 3.60 ERA (116 ERA+) with a 3.94 FIP across 1087 1/3 innings of work with the A’s, Mets, and Blue Jays. In that time, he’s made an All-Star appearance and finished in the top 10 of Cy Young award voting on three separate occasions.

As he’s entered his mid thirties, Bassitt’s effectiveness has dwindled somewhat. After posting an ERA+ of 130 from 2018-2021, that figure has dropped to a less impressive 110 since his age-33 season back in 2022. He’s made up for that dip in production by offering impressive durability, however. In each of the past four seasons, Bassitt has made at least 30 starts and thrown at least 170 innings. His 723 innings of work over the past four years trails only Logan Webb, Framber Valdez, and teammate Kevin Gausman in all of baseball.

With such an impeccable track record of durability in recent years, it goes without saying that Bassitt heading to the shelf is somewhat unusual. Fortunately, this particularly IL stint should have little negative impact on the Jays so long as he manages to return healthy and effective after a minimum stay on the shelf. As previously mentioned, the Blue Jays are all but guaranteed not only a playoff spot, but a bye through the Wild Card round of the playoffs at this point in the calendar.

Even in the unlikely scenario where they are forced to play in the Wild Card series, Gausman would surely take the ball for Game 1 with Shane Bieber as the heavy favorite to start Game 2. While it’s possible Bassitt’s number would’ve come up in a hypothetical Game 3, the Jays will still be able to turn to any of Jose Berrios, Trey Yesavage, Max Scherzer, and Eric Lauer for that game as needed, particularly given the fact that they can rest assured that Bassitt will be in line to take the ball for Game 1 of the ALDS barring any setbacks that force him to stay on the shelf beyond the minimum stint.

Berrios was moved to the bullpen earlier this week, and Lauer has been pitching in relief of late as well. Scherzer has been effective in most of his starts for the Jays, but a seven-run blow-up outing where he recorded just two outs his last time out raises some concerns. Yesavage is unproven with just one big league appearance under his belt, but has pedigree has a top prospect and looked dominant in his MLB debut earlier this week. None of those options seem as reliable as Bassitt, and if his stay on the shelf extends beyond a minimum stay that would be a real blow to the Jays’ depth ahead of the playoffs. Manager John Schneider told reporters (including Shi Davidi of Sportsnet) today that they’re waiting on further testing to determine an exact course of action with Bassit, but that it will “hopefully” be a “fairly quick” turnaround for the righty.

In the meantime, Bassitt will be replaced on the active roster by Fluharty. The rookie left-hander has made 51 appearances with the Blue Jays this year and has pitched to a 4.94 ERA with a 4.35 FIP across 47 1/3 innings of work. Fluharty is unlikely to get many high leverage opportunities given his shaky numbers, but once the Blue Jays officially clinch his presence on the roster could provide Toronto with another fresh arm so they can lean less heavily on their top relievers ahead of the postseason.

Bryan Woo Suffering From “Minor” Pectoral Inflammation

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September 20: Woo’s MRI revealed “minor” inflammation in his pectoral muscle, manager Dan Wilson told reporters (including Adam Jude of The Seattle Times) today. Wilson added that the team won’t know for another 24-48 hours whether or not Woo will require a trip to the injured list due to the issue.

September 19: Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo made an early exit from tonight’s start, as Woo left the mound after a few warm-up pitches prior to the start of his sixth inning of work.  Following the game, M’s manager Dan Wilson told the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish that Woo was dealing with “a little pec tightness” and would undergo an MRI on Saturday to explore the extent of the injury.

Wilson said that Woo initially told him about the discomfort after the previous inning, so the warm-up pitches were just a precautionary way of testing things before the decision was made to pull Woo from the game.  Catching any possible injury early left Wilson hopeful that Woo has avoided something more serious, though more will be known once the tests are complete.

Woo hadn’t shown any indication anything was wrong, as he was masterful in limiting the Astros to just one hit and one walk over five shutout innings.  The bullpen kept up the good work in finishing off Seattle’s 4-0 shutout win, which put the Mariners a game ahead of Houston in the AL West standings.  The M’s also moved into position for a first-round bye, by dint of winning their season series with the AL Central-leading Tigers.  With the playoff push in full swing and the Seattle fans dreaming of October success, losing Woo to the injured list would be a huge setback for the streaking Mariners.

The usually dominant M’s rotation took an overall step backwards this season, but Woo has been a stabilizing force in what has been the best of his three big league seasons.  Even before tonight’s gem, Woo had a 3.02 ERA and 26.8% strikeout rate over 181 2/3 innings.  A .238 BABIP has certainly added to Woo’s success and helped counter his hard-contact issues, but Woo has helped his own cause with an elite 4.9% walk rate that sits among the league’s best.

Amidst all of the impressive stats, the 186 2/3 innings Woo has now logged may be the most noteworthy, given the injury concerns that plagued the early stages of his career.  He was recovering from a Tommy John surgery in his college days when the Mariners made him a sixth-round selection in the 2021 draft, and Woo missed time due to arm injuries in both 2022 and 2023, though he was able to make his MLB debut in the latter season.  Elbow inflammation delayed his 2024 debut until May 10, and between that IL stint and a hamstring strain, Woo was limited to 121 1/3 big league frames last year.

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