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Dodgers Place Tanner Scott On Injured List

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July 23: Scott informed reporters (including MLB.com’s Sonja Chen) after last night’s game that his MRI results revealed only inflammation in his elbow and no structural damage. Scott indicated that he’ll be shut down for a few days before he begins a throwing program, but was confident that he would return to the big league mound this season.

July 22: The Dodgers announced that reliever Tanner Scott has gone on the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation. Los Angeles recalled Alexis Díaz to take his spot in the bullpen.

This was more or less guaranteed when Scott departed last night’s appearance with what manager Dave Roberts called a “sting” in his forearm. That’s a concerning note but Roberts sounded more optimistic today than he had last night. The skipper told reporters (including Alden González of ESPN) that Scott felt “much better” today. The Dodgers are still awaiting results of an MRI before they’re fully off the hook, but there’s reason to hope they avoided a worst-case situation.

Scott is in the first season of a four-year deal. It has been an underwhelming year for last winter’s top free agent reliever. Scott owns a 4.19 ERA through 45 2/3 innings. His 27.2% strikeout rate and career-low 6% walk percentage are both better than league average. The biggest culprit in his middling earned run average is a huge spike in hard contact — and correspondingly, in home runs. Scott has blown an MLB-high seven leads while recording 19 saves and eight holds.

The Dodgers were prioritizing a high-leverage reliever even before Scott’s injury. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tied L.A. to essentially all the top bullpen trade candidates over the weekend. Evan Phillips has already been lost for the season. Blake Treinen has been out since mid-April with a forearm injury. He’s expected back in the next few days. Michael Kopech will be out into late August at the earliest with a meniscus tear. Dodgers relievers rank 24th in the majors with a 4.35 earned run average.

Michael Kopech Undergoes Surgery On Torn Meniscus

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5:00pm: Kopech underwent surgery to address a torn meniscus in his right knee, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. The righty is expected to be able to return before the end of the season.

11:55am: The Dodgers announced today that right-hander Tyler Glasnow has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was reported a few days ago. Righty Alexis Díaz was optioned to the minors to open an active roster spot and righty Michael Kopech was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.

It’s a bit of a worrisome development for Kopech. He was only placed on the 15-day IL on July 1st, retroactive to June 28th, due to right knee inflammation. At that time, both the pitcher himself and manager Dave Roberts downplayed the severity. “I think we’re all hopeful it will be on the shorter end of it,” Roberts said last week, per Alden González of ESPN.

Either that comment wasn’t fully candid or something has changed since then, as this transfer now means that Kopech is ineligible to return until late August. The Dodgers haven’t yet provided any specific information about how long they expect Kopech to be out but the transfer provides at least a best-case scenario.

That’s an unfortunate development for both Kopech and the Dodgers. He also started the season on the IL due to a shoulder impingement and missed more than two months. He was healthy long enough to give the Dodgers seven shutout innings before going back on the IL again.

For the Dodgers, it’s yet another in a long line of injuries. They’ve been moving players on and off the IL all throughout the year, particularly on the pitching side. Even with Glasnow coming off the shelf today, they still have 11 arms on the IL. The bullpen is without Kopech, Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Michael Grove. Phillips and Grove had major surgeries and won’t be coming back this year.

If Kopech can return in August or September, then he could still be a part of the club’s bullpen down the stretch and into the postseason. Regardless, the Dodgers figure to add some arms prior to the deadline. All contending clubs look for bullpen additions at this time of year and the Dodgers should be even more motivated by their mounting injuries.

For Kopech personally, he’s an impending free agent. He could still return and go into the open market with some juice, but it’s been a less than ideal platform season so far. He previously struggled to establish himself as a starter with the White Sox, partially due to injuries, but a recent bullpen move seemed to be a good transition for him.

He tossed 43 2/3 innings out of Chicago’s bullpen last year. The 4.74 ERA wasn’t great, nor was the 12.6% walk rate, but he struck out 30.9% of batters faced. He reached another level after getting traded to the Dodgers, tossing 24 innings with a 1.13 ERA. His 33% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate were both slight improvements, though he also benefited from a .167 batting average on balls in play and 90.9% strand rate. Nonetheless, he played a key role in the playoffs, tossing nine innings with three earned runs allowed as the Dodgers went on to win it all.

Another full season as a relief weapon would have positioned him for a nice market this winter. Now, however, it’s possible the ongoing health problems will tamp down his earning power. As mentioned, he seemingly still has time to get healthy and finish strong but his injury history list continues to run long. He missed the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery and has since spent time on the IL due to a strained left hamstring, left knee strain, right shoulder inflammation and right knee inflammation. He managed to avoid the IL last year while working as a reliever but now has been bit by the injury bug a few times here in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Dodgers To Recall Alexis Díaz For Team Debut

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The Dodgers are calling up right-hander Alexis Díaz, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The former Reds closer was acquired in a trade earlier this year but has been in the minors since that deal. He is on the 40-man roster, so the Dodgers will only need to make a corresponding active roster move to open a spot.

Díaz will get his first look in Dodger blue. L.A. acquired the 2023 All-Star from Cincinnati in late May. It was essentially a salary dump for the Reds. The Dodgers agreed to cover the nearly $3MM remaining on Díaz’s $4.5MM salary for this season. Between that and the associated 110% luxury tax figure, it was a sizable bet on a rebound. Díaz had given up eight runs with more walks than strikeouts through his first six MLB innings this year. He was pitching in Triple-A at the time of the trade.

The Dodgers opted for a complete reset, assigning Díaz to their Arizona complex for a couple weeks. They presumably felt they could iron out some kind of repertoire or mechanical issues before sending him back to a minor league affiliate. He has been at Triple-A Oklahoma City for the past two weeks. The results haven’t been any better, as he’s allowed five runs while issuing seven walks and hitting two more batters in only 4 2/3 innings.

Díaz has always had below-average command, but he showed big swing-and-miss ability over his first two MLB seasons. His velocity and strikeout rate each dipped last year, though he managed a respectable enough 3.99 ERA across 56 1/3 frames. Díaz combined for 65 saves between 2023-24 but won’t be in position for high-leverage work unless he begins missing bats again. He remains a project but will get a look in Dave Roberts’ middle innings group, likely bumping one of Will Klein or Julian Fernández back to Triple-A. Díaz is trending towards a non-tender but would be eligible for arbitration for another three seasons if he pitches well enough to hold his roster spot.

MLBTR Podcast: Jarren Duran Rumors, Caglianone And Young Promoted, And Pitching Injuries

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • If the Diamondbacks can’t climb in the standings, what does their deadline look like? (48:45)
  • As a thought experiment, if the Orioles were willing to listen on Gunnar Henderson, what teams would even have the pieces to pull off a trade? (54:10)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Reds Trade Alexis Díaz To Dodgers

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The Dodgers acquired reliever Alexis Díaz from the Reds for minor league right-hander Mike Villani on Thursday afternoon. Los Angeles transferred Evan Phillips to the 60-day injured list to create a spot on the 40-man roster. According to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times, Díaz will report to the Dodgers’ Arizona facilities to work with the club’s pitching team.

Diaz, 28, has seen his stock drop precipitously since finishing fifth in 2022 Rookie of the Year voting and making the All-Star team in 2023. He’s lost nearly three miles per hour off his once-96 mph fastball and seen his already problematic walk rate climb to untenable levels. He appeared in six games with Cincinnati this season, surrendered four homers, walked 15.6% of his opponents against just a 9.8% strikeout rate, and plunked two other batters — all en route to a catastrophic 12.00 ERA.

Things haven’t gone much better since he was sent down to Louisville. Diaz’s 4.61 ERA is a far sight better than his small-sample mark of 12.00 in the majors, but he’s walked 17.1% of his Triple-A opponents, hit two more batters and also unleashed a pair of wild pitches. His 93.1 mph average fastball is right in line with the career-worst 93.0 mark he flashed in this year’s six major league innings.

Were Diaz’s struggles confined to just the 2025 season, it’d be easier to view him through a more optimistic lens. That’s not the case. While last year’s 3.99 ERA looks serviceable on the surface, that number belies many of the same worrying trends that have plagued Diaz in 2025. Last year’s average 93.9 mph fastball marked a drop of nearly two miles per hour from Diaz’s rookie rate. His 22.7% strikeout rate and 11% swinging-strike rate were both miles worse than his rates in 2022-23. Diaz’s contact rate jumped from about 67% in 2022-23 to 76.3% last year (and a dismal 87.1% in 2025). All of those worrying trends made Diaz stand out as a viable non-tender candidate, but the Reds kept him around and agreed to a $4.5MM contract to avoid an arbitration hearing. They’re surely regretting that decision at this stage.

Suffice it to say, while Diaz has plenty of name value — both as a former All-Star and as the younger brother of Mets closer Edwin Diaz — he’s a pure project at this point. The Dodgers made no mention of cash considerations in their swap, so it seems they’ll take on the entirety of Diaz’s remaining salary. As of this writing, that’s a total of $2.95MM in salary. Los Angeles will pay a 110% luxury tax on that figure, tacking another $3.25MM onto the bill and bringing the total financial outlay to $6.2MM.

That’s a steep price to pay — before even getting into any prospects changing hands — but if L.A. can successfully get Diaz back on track, he’ll be under club control for three additional seasons via arbitration. Entering the year, that was scheduled to be another two seasons, but his demotion to Triple-A has already cost him enough service time to push that timeframe back by a year. The Dodgers passed on a similar buy-low opportunity with Brewers righty Joel Payamps, who was designated for assignment and passed through waivers, presumably on account of Payamps’ lack of minor league options. Diaz entered 2025 with a full slate of minor league options and will have two remaining beyond the current season.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Dodgers keep Diaz on the 40-man roster. There’d be some risk in running him through waivers, but most clubs would probably balk at the idea of taking on nearly $3MM in guaranteed money for a reclamation project who’s struggled this much both in the majors and in Triple-A. If the Dodgers were to pass Diaz through waivers, they could assign him outright to Triple-A and free the 40-man spot back up, knowing that Diaz would never reject the assignment in favor of free agency (because doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of this year’s guaranteed money).

As for the 22-year-old Villani, he’s a long-term play for the Reds. The Dodgers selected him out of Long Beach State in the 13th round of last year’s draft. Baseball America ranked him 453rd on their top-500 list of draft prospects last year, praising a fastball that runs up to 98 mph but questioning his lack of spin and feel for secondary pitches. Villani commands that heater well, per BA, but he’s barely gotten a chance to show it in pro ball, as injuries have limited him to just two innings with the Dodgers’ Rookie-level affiliate.

Villani is effectively a lottery ticket relief prospect who’s probably two or three years away from even emerging as a realistic option for the Reds — all of which speaks to the extent to which Diaz’s stock has tumbled since he stopped missing bats and lost two to three miles per hour on his fastball.

Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the Dodgers were nearing a trade for Diaz. Robert Murray of FanSided reported that Villani was going back to Cincinnati.

Reds Option Alexis Diaz

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The Reds have optioned former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz to Triple-A Louisville, per a team announcement. Fellow right-hander Luis Mey is being recalled from Louisville in his place. Mey will be making his MLB debut the first time he takes the mound.

It’s been a brutal season for Diaz, who already lost the closer’s role in Cincinnati. The 28-year-old righty opened the year on the 15-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. He returned a couple weeks ago but has been pitching with a career-low 93 mph average fastball velocity. He currently has more walks (five) and home runs allowed (four) than strikeouts (three). The result is a ghastly 12.00 ERA, which was inflated heavily by yesterday’s five-run meltdown against the Cardinals.

Diaz’s decline hasn’t been completely out of the blue. He was an excellent high-leverage arm in his first two seasons from 2022-23, finishing fifth in ’22 NL Rookie of the Year voting and making the ’23 All-Star team at the midpoint of a 37-save season. His 2024 campaign, however, was rife with red flags.

Last year’s 3.99 ERA wasn’t necessarily a harbinger for significant decline in and of itself, but Diaz’s average heater dropped from 95.2 mph in 2022-23 to 93.9 mph in 2024. His strikeout rate, which had topped 30% in each of his first two seasons, fell to a pedestrian 22.7%. His swinging-strike rate checked in at just 11% last year after sitting at a gaudy 15.6% over the two prior seasons. Diaz has never had good command, walking more than 12% of his opponents even at his peak, which makes the precipitous decline in his ability to miss bats all the more problematic.

Diaz hasn’t altered his pitch selection over the course of his career — he’s still a pure four-seam/slider reliever — but the shape, velocity and quality of his pitches have all gone the wrong direction. Beyond the drop in fastball velocity, his slider has actually gained a bit less than a mile per hour. What was once a nearly 9 mph gap between his heater and his slider is down to 5.7 mph at the moment. He’s also seen that slider lose a significant amount of its horizontal break; back in 2022, Statcast measured both the vertical and horizontal break of Diaz’s slider to be well above average. They’re both more than two inches worse than average now, and the whiff rate on the pitch has plummeted from 45% in ’22 to just 13% so far in ’25.

The Reds could’ve non-tendered Diaz over the winter, but they kept him around and agreed to a $4.5MM salary for the current season. Depending on the length of this optional assignment, the demotion could push the right-hander’s path to free agency back by a year. He entered the season with exactly three years of MLB service, and if he spends more than two weeks in Louisville, he won’t accrue a full year this season. That’d push his free agency back from the 2027-28 offseason to the 2028-29 offseason.

Of course, that’ll only come into play if Diaz is able to restore some of his prior form. If he continues to struggle anywhere close to this level, he’ll be a non-tender candidate in November or perhaps even a DFA candidate between now and season’s end. For the time being, he’ll look to get back on track in Triple-A.

Turning to the 23-year-old Mey, he’ll add a flamethrowing arm to Terry Francona’s bullpen — but one whose command troubles aren’t all that dissimilar from those of Diaz. Mey is averaging a colossal 99.1 mph on his power sinker this year, but he’s walked at least 15.6% of his opponents in each of his four years of full-season ball in the minors. He doled free passes at a grisly 17.6% clip in 55 innings between High-A and Double-A last year, and he’s walked 16.7% of his opponents in nine Triple-A frames in 2025.

The glut of walks hasn’t necessarily been offset by prominent strikeout rates. Mey has been average or better in that regard throughout his career but has never really climbed into plus range. His strikeout rate has hovered between 23% and 28% from year to year, settling at a collective 25.9% rate dating back to 2021. Similarly, his sinker has produced strong but not quite elite ground-ball rates as he’s climbed the minor league ladder. He clocked in at 52% there in 2024 and has a 54.2% grounder rate so far in 2025.

The sheer power of Mey’s sinker, coupled with a slider that’s drawn anywhere from above-average to plus grades on scouting reports, gives Mey the foundation of a potentially dominant reliever. He’ll need to substantially improve upon his command in order to reach that ceiling, but he’s an intriguing arm for the Reds to take a look at in place of their newly demoted closer. Mey will presumably slot into low-leverage situations to start out his big league career.

Reds Not Immediately Reinstalling Alexis Diaz As Closer

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Alexis Díaz is back in the Cincinnati bullpen, as the Reds reinstated him from the 15-day injured list this afternoon. (They also welcomed back Matt McLain and Austin Hays from the IL.) However, Díaz will not immediately return to his traditional closer role.

Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com) that Díaz won’t step right back into the ninth inning. The Reds relied upon Emilio Pagán in save situations while Díaz was shelved by a hamstring strain. Pagán has four of the team’s five saves, while Tony Santillan picked up the other. Santillan has been Francona’s top setup man. Scott Barlow and Ian Gibaut have gotten a handful of leverage appearances as well.

Pagán has had a solid first three weeks. He has worked 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out five against one walk. He’s 4-4 in save chances and picked up a hold on Opening Day. Pagán is in the second season of a two-year, $16MM free agent deal. The first season didn’t work out as the Reds had hoped. The righty allowed a 4.50 earned run average over 38 innings. His strikeout and walk numbers were very good, but Pagán’s longstanding issue keeping the ball in the park continued. He also lost a few weeks to triceps tightness and spent two months on the IL with a lat strain.

Díaz has been Cincinnati’s closer for most of his three-year MLB career. He earned his first save chances late in his rookie year, a deserved nod after his 1.84 ERA with 83 punchouts across 63 2/3 innings. Díaz earned an All-Star appearance and saved 37 games during his second season. He walked a tightrope for most of last year, however.

While Díaz successfully locked down 28 of 32 save chances, he did so with a career-worst 3.99 ERA. His strikeout rate — which had sat north of 30% in each of his first two seasons — plummeted to a pedestrian 22.7% mark. Díaz has never had good command, making the drop in whiffs all the more concerning.

His stuff has also backed up. The righty averaged 93.9 MPH on his fastball last season. That’s down nearly two ticks from his 95.7 MPH mark as a rookie and a 94.5 MPH average in 2023. Between those somewhat alarming numbers and the season-opening IL stint, it’s sensible for the Reds to stick with Pagán and Santillan as their top late-game arms while having Díaz work in somewhat lower-leverage spots in the early going.

NL Central Notes: Horwitz, Triolo, Moll, Díaz

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Infielder Spencer Horwitz was one of the key offseason pickups of the Pirates but they haven’t gotten anything out of him yet. He underwent wrist surgery in February, a procedure which came with a return timeline of six to eight weeks.

Tomorrow, it will be nine weeks since that timeline was provided and Horwitz is still on the injured list. He also hasn’t started a rehab assignment. There is at least some positive momentum, however, as Horwitz took batting practice at PNC Park today with his teammates. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relayed some video of Horwitz taking his hacks.

That’s somewhat encouraging but Horwitz is probably still not close to joining the big league club. He missed all of spring training and will surely need a few weeks of game action once he does start a rehab assignment. He has a .264/.355/.428 career batting line, which would be a tremendous boost to the Pittsburgh lineup. The team is hitting .184/.273/.290 as a whole so far this year, leading to a league-worst 61 wRC+.

Horwitz was supposed to be the club’s regular first baseman but most of the playing time at that spot has gone to catcher Endy Rodríguez, who is hitting .178/.260/.244. Whenever Horwitz can come off the IL, that should allow Rodriguez to move his focus back to catching, where his defense is considered strong.

Some more notes from around the division…

  • Sticking with the Pirates, infielder Jared Triolo is going to start a rehab assignment, per Gorman. He was serving a utility role until he landed on the IL with a lower back injury last week. Once he’s healthy, he can resume bouncing around to multiple positions, though he may not help much on offense. He has hit just .236/.319/.333 in his big league career, which includes a rough .059/.111/.059 showing in six games to start the 2025 season. Tsung-Che Cheng was brought up when Triolo hit the IL but he still hasn’t reached based in his first seven plate appearances. Enmanuel Valdéz is also doing some utility work but is hitting .148/.207/.296 on the season.
  • Turning to the Reds, they put left-hander Sam Moll on the 15-day injured list with a left shoulder impingement today, even though they’re not playing. The move was backdated by three days, the maximum allowed, to April 11. That perhaps suggests they don’t expect a lengthy absence, as they are making the move today so that he can return one day earlier than if they had waited until tomorrow. No corresponding move was announced but Mark Sheldon of MLB.com suggests it will likely be right-hander Alexis Díaz being reinstated from the IL. Díaz started the season on the IL with a left hamstring strain. He recently started a rehab assignment and already has five minor league appearances in the books. Díaz has served as the Reds’ closer for much of the past three years but his strikeout rate has been declining, from 32.5% in 2022 to 30.1% in 2023 and just 22.7% last year. Emilio Pagán has four saves so far this year and could be bumped into a setup role if Díaz is given the closing duties again.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

MLB Announces 2023 All-Star Rosters

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The starters for the 2023 All-Star Game were already announced earlier this week, and today the league revealed the reserve selections and the pitching staffs for the National League and American League teams.  Fan balloting determined the game’s starters, while the reserves and pitchers were picked by a combination of the player ballot and selections from the league office.

This won’t be the final list of players involved, as some more substitutions will be announced later for players who are injured or who have opted not to participate.  Every team must have at least one player represented at the Midsummer Classic, and the starting pitchers for the game will be announced on July 10.

Of note, Shohei Ohtani will be in the game as both a DH and as a pitcher for the third consecutive season.  The Braves led all teams with eight All-Stars, while the Rangers weren’t far behind with six players chosen.  This year’s All-Star Game takes place in Seattle on July 11.

National League

American League

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

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The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

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