Giants Designate Eric Haase For Assignment
The Giants announced that catcher Daniel Susac has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Fellow catcher Eric Haase has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.
Haase has spent the last three months on the big league roster. The Giants selected his contract when Susac landed on the injured list for the first time in mid-April. Haase was then backing up Patrick Bailey. By the time Susac returned, Bailey had been traded to Cleveland. Susac again landed on the IL in late June, leading the Giants to select Drew Cavanaugh onto the MLB roster.
The Giants recalled another rookie, Jesús Rodríguez, a couple weeks ago. They’ll carry three first-year catchers with Susac’s return. The 33-year-old Haase is pushed off the roster after playing in 29 games. He tallied 84 plate appearances and hit .162/.235/.365 with four home runs. Haase struck out in a third of his trips.
That’s standard production for Haase, a veteran of parts of nine MLB seasons. He has above-average power with a lot of whiffs, leading to a career .224/.276/.394 slash line. Haase has a good arm but isn’t a polished receiving catcher. The Giants will likely place him on waivers within the next five days.
Giants Place Daniel Susac On IL, Select Eric Haase
The Giants announced that catcher Daniel Susac has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 20th, due to right elbow neuritis. He’ll miss about two to three weeks, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Catcher Eric Haase has been selected to take his place on the active roster. To open a 40-man spot for Haase, right-hander José Buttó has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Susac was picked up in the Rule 5 draft, via an intermediary. The Twins took him from the Athletics and then flipped him to the Giants for minor leaguer Miguel Caraballo. The Giants had Patrick Bailey lined up as their catcher but Susac and Haase battled for the backup job.
In the end, Susac won the job and has been on a tear. He has a .478/.500/.652 line through his first 24 big league plate appearances. He wasn’t going to hit like that forever, especially with a .550 batting average on balls in play, but the Giants really needed that. Most of the rest of the lineup has been struggling, including Bailey. He is considered by many to be the best defensive catcher in the game but has never been much of a threat from the batter’s box. He has a .226/.283/.331 line in his career and is at .151/.211/.151 this year.
Susac’s strong showing and the general underperformance of the lineup, including Bailey, were seemingly leading to more playing time for Susac. That will be on pause for the next few weeks. Though Susac was due for some regression, it’s still not ideal for him to hit the IL when the club is struggling to score runs.
Haase will jump onto the roster and see if he can make up some of the slack. When Susac won the Opening Day job, Haase was granted his release but then quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal. He has appeared in nine Triple-A games this year with a .250/.300/.472 line.
His best attribute is his power. He had a 22-homer season with the Tigers back in 2021 and has 48 home runs in 1,224 career plate appearances. However, his offense is otherwise poor. His 30.7% career strikeout rate is quite high and he’s been above 40% since the start of 2024. His 6.2% career walk rate is also subpar. Despite the long balls, his career .228/.278/.396 line translates to an 85 wRC+, indicating he’s been 15% worse than the league average hitter.
That’s not necessarily disastrous for a catcher since backstops are usually about 10% below the rest of the league. For a backup catcher, the threshold of respectability is even lower. Unfortunately, Haase isn’t considered a strong defender. He has a minus-12 grade from Defensive Runs Saved in his career behind the plate. Statcast has considered him around par in terms of throwing but below average with blocking and framing.
Haase is out of options and could get squeezed back off the roster when Susac comes back. For now, he’ll try to support Bailey as the Giants try to find some momentum. They’re currently 9-13, with the Mets the only club with fewer runs scored so far. The Giants are hosting the 16-6 Dodgers for a three-game set beginning tonight.
Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke, Imagn Images
Giants Re-Sign Eric Haase To Minor League Deal
The Giants have apparently re-signed catcher Eric Haase to a minor league contract. The Warner Sports Management client is in the lineup tonight for Triple-A Sacramento. Haase had been released from his previous minor league deal at the end of Spring Training.
He was competing with Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac and prospect Jesús Rodríguez for the backup job behind Patrick Bailey. The 33-year-old Haase hit .286 with a couple home runs while striking out 14 times in 32 plate appearances this spring. San Francisco stuck with Susac in the backup role. They optioned Rodríguez while granting Haase his release.
After a few days on the open market, Haase returns to the club. He’ll work alongside Rodríguez and Logan Porter as part of the Triple-A catching group. Haase has easily the most MLB experience of any catcher in the organization aside from Bailey. He has just over four years of service time and has taken more than 1200 plate appearances in a little under 400 games.
Haase is a lifetime .228/.278/.396 hitter at the big league level. He has plus power from the right side that comes with a lot of swing and miss. Haase has always been a bat-first option who probably profiles best in the third catcher role he’ll play now that he’s back with San Francisco.
Giants Select Caleb Kilian
The Giants announced their Opening Day roster moves today. Outfielder Jared Oliva and right-hander Caleb Kilian were selected to the 40-man. In corresponding moves, left-hander Reiver Sanmartin was placed on the 60-day injured list and outfielder Luis Matos has been designated for assignment. It had been reported yesterday that the Giants were likely to select Oliva and designate Matos. The Giants also announced that catcher Eric Haase has been released from his minor league deal and that Rule 5 catcher Daniel Susac has made the team.
Kilian, 29 in June, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He had an impressive camp, tossing 9 1/3 innings while only allowing one earned run. He racked up 11 strikeouts while only issuing two walks.
That strong performance will allow him to make the roster of his original organization. Kilian was drafted by the Giants in 2019 but was flipped to the Cubs as part of the Kris Bryant trade in 2021. He only got to make eight appearances for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024. He was injured for most of 2025 and only made 11 minor league appearances.
Now that he appears to be healthy and pitching well, he’ll make it back to the big leagues. He is out of options and will have to be kept on the active roster or else removed from the 40-man entirely. He has less than a year of service time, so he can be retained for the long term if this season goes especially well.
The San Francisco bullpen has opportunities available because they traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year and then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. Their moves to replace those losses were mostly injury reclamation projects, such as Kilian himself.
Sanmartin’s transfer is not a surprise. A waiver claimee from November, it was reported a few weeks ago that he had suffered a significant hip flexor strain that was going to keep him out of action for at least three months.
Behind the plate, the Giants have Patrick Bailey but the backup job was up for grabs. In December’s Rule 5 draft, the Giants got Susac via a trade. The Twins technically selected him from the Athletics fourth overall in that draft but then immediately flipped him to the Giants for minor league catcher Miguel Caraballo.
The fact that the Giants actually gave up a player in order to jump the Rule 5 queue suggested they felt good about Susac’s chances of being an impact guy for them. He helped his own cause by putting up a .350/.386/.550 line in spring training. That was helped by an unsustainable .400 batting average on balls in play but it was enough to get him the job regardless.
As a Rule 5 guy, he can’t be optioned to the minors and will have to stay on the active roster all year long for the Giants to fully acquire his rights. If they want to cut him at any point this year, he could be traded or put on waivers. Any claiming team would take on the same Rule 5 restrictions. If he were to clear waivers, he would have to be offered back to the A’s.
Susac getting the job squeezes out Haase, who had signed a minor league deal in January. He had a huge spring, slashing .286/.375/.536, but also struck out in 14 of his 32 plate appearances. That’s fairly reflective of his big league career, as he has 48 home runs in 1,224 plate appearances but has been punched out at a 30.7% clip. He’ll head out to the open market to see what opportunities are available this week as all clubs shuffle their rosters.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Giants, Eric Haase Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants are in agreement with catcher Eric Haase on a minor league contract, reports Jon Morosi of The MLB Network. The Warner Sports Management client would lock in a $1.6MM base salary if he breaks camp and can opt out at the end of Spring Training if he’s not on the MLB roster.
Haase finished last season in Triple-A with the Brewers. He spent the first half of the season on the big league roster as William Contreras’ backup. Milwaukee acquired Danny Jansen in a deadline trade and pushed Haase to Triple-A. He cleared waivers and appeared in 19 minor league contests. He elected free agency at the end of the year.
The 33-year-old Haase has played parts of eight seasons in the big leagues. He had a two-year run as a #1 option with his hometown Tigers from 2021-22. Haase has otherwise mostly been a backup and combined for 60 appearances with the Brewers over the last two seasons. He has some right-handed power but has plenty of swing and miss. Haase has fanned at a 31% clip while hitting .228/.278/.396 in just under 400 big league contests. He’s regarded as a fringe defender behind the dish. Haase has a plus arm but hasn’t graded highly as a receiver, either framing or blocking balls in the dirt.
Two-time Gold Glove winner Patrick Bailey will get the majority of playing time behind the dish. The Giants were lacking in experience behind the defensive stalwart. Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac and prospect Jesus Rodriguez, neither of whom has played in MLB, are the other catchers on the 40-man roster. Logan Porter was their only non-roster catcher with any big league experience. He’s an organizational depth type who has played in 16 career games.
Rodriguez, whom the Giants acquired from the Yankees in the Camilo Doval deadline deal, is coming off a .307/.393/.403 showing in the upper minors. The Giants had him travel with the MLB team as a member of the taxi squad in the final week of the ’25 season. They’ll give serious consideration to allowing him to make the team. He has two options remaining and could be sent back to the minors. The Giants don’t have that luxury with Susac, who needs to stick on the MLB roster or be offered back to the A’s. The former first-round pick is coming off a .275/.349/.483 showing in an extremely hitter-friendly setting in Triple-A.
Nine Players Elect Free Agency
Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents. Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.
To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back. These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.
We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion. Unless otherwise credited, these free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.
Catchers
- Eric Haase (Brewers)
- Chad Wallach (Angels)
Outfielders
- Akil Baddoo (Tigers)
- Dominic Fletcher (White Sox) (per Scott Merkin of MLB.com)
- Corey Julks (White Sox) (per Merkin)
Pitchers
- Carl Edwards Jr. (Rangers)
- Trevor Richards (Diamondbacks)
- Keegan Thompson (Cubs)
- Randy Wynne (Reds)
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images
Brewers Designate Bryan Hudson, Elvis Peguero For Assignment
The Brewers designated relievers Bryan Hudson and Elvis Peguero for assignment. They also outrighted catcher Eric Haase, who was designated for assignment earlier in the week following the Danny Jansen trade, off the 40-man roster. He’ll have the option to elect free agency but will presumably accept his assignment, as Haase does not have enough service time to reject an assignment and retain the rest of his $1.35MM guaranteed salary.
Hudson, 28, was one of Milwaukee’s top relievers a year ago but has struggled through a down season in the majors and in Triple-A. He’s pitched 10 1/3 big league innings but logged a 4.35 ERA while walking 22.2% of his opponents. He’s limped to a 6.84 ERA in 25 Triple-A frames. Hudson’s velocity is down more than a mile per hour in 2025, and he’s sitting 90.1 mph with his fastball. His 18.3% opponents’ chase rate on balls off the plate is well south of average, and he’s allowing too much contact on balls both within the zone and off the plate.
It’s a far cry from one year ago. Hudson was a revelation after coming over in a DFA trade with the Dodgers. He tossed 62 1/3 innings with a 1.73 ERA, 26.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. He obviously hasn’t been able to sustain that, but the recent track record might pique the interest of another club. This is Hudson’s final option year. He’d have to stick on the big league roster in 2026 or else be designated for assignment.
Peguero, 28, has spent two-plus seasons in Milwaukee. He was a regular in the bullpen from 2023-24, pitching a combined 112 2/3 innings with a 3.20 ERA. That solid run prevention came in spite of a sub-par 21.1% strikeout rate and bloated 11.1% walk rate, however. That poor command has caught up with Peguero in 2025, particularly since his velocity has also dropped.
In 2024, Peguero sat just under 97 mph with his fastball. He’s averaged a flat 95 mph in 2025 (95.4 mph in Triple-A). Peguero has only tossed 7 1/3 MLB frames this year, during which he’s been tagged for six runs (four earned) on eight hits and four walks, as well as one hit batter. He’s fanned five. Peguero’s 3.55 ERA in 25 1/3 Triple-A innings is solid, but he’s walked nearly 13% of his opponents in Nashville, plunked two more and thrown four wild pitches. He’s also in his final option season.
Both Hudson and Peguero will be placed on waivers within the next five days. With the deadline passed, there’s no opportunity to trade them. Both players will be made available to the game’s other 29 teams, with priority determined in reverse order of the MLB-wide standings.
Brewers Designate Eric Haase For Assignment
The Brewers announced that they’ve designated catcher Eric Haase for assignment. That clears active and 40-man roster space for newly-acquired backup catcher Danny Jansen.
Haase’s position on the roster was clearly tenuous once the Brewers lined up the Jansen trade. The righty-hitting Haase has backed up William Contreras all season. He hasn’t gotten much playing time. Contreras leads MLB in starts behind the dish, leaving Haase in the lineup on just 19 occasions. He’s batting .229/.289/.357 with a pair of home runs in 77 trips to the plate.
It’s not easy to get into any kind of offensive rhythm with such infrequent playing time. Haase has power but has always had a lot of swing-and-miss in his game. That’s a common profile for a backup catcher, but the 32-year-old isn’t the plus defender that teams tend to prefer from their #2 backstop. While Jansen’s recent defensive grades haven’t been great either, he had a stronger reputation with the glove earlier in his career than Haase has ever had.
Haase is out of options, so a DFA was the only way to take him off the big league roster. Milwaukee has a couple days to try to find a trade partner. They’d need to place him on waivers if there’s no trade by Thursday evening’s deadline. Haase is playing on a $1.35MM arbitration salary. He has enough service time to refuse an outright assignment but would forfeit what remains of that salary to do that, so he’d likely accept an assignment to Triple-A if Milwaukee manages to sneak him through the waiver wire.
Latest On Brewers’ Deadline Decisions
The Brewers have vaulted to the top of the National League standings. They won 11 in a row earlier this month to give themselves very strong odds of at least securing a Wild Card berth. They’re a half-game up on the Cubs in the NL Central and slightly ahead of the Dodgers, Phillies and Mets in the race for first-round byes.
For as well as they’ve played of late, there hasn’t been much clarity on what they’re prioritizing at the deadline. That’s largely because they’re deep across the board, making it more difficult to identify specific areas to upgrade. Their bullpen runs seven or eight deep. The rotation is strong enough that they kicked Tobias Myers to Triple-A and/or long relief and traded Aaron Civale to the White Sox. Assuming Sal Frelick returns in short order from a hamstring strain, they’re well set around the outfield. Rookie Caleb Durbin has solidified third base, and they’re even getting strong fill-in work from Andrew Vaughn across the diamond while Rhys Hoskins is on the shelf.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote earlier this week that Milwaukee’s strength could allow them to have a fairly quiet deadline. Passan noted that they’re not actively seeking an upgrade at shortstop over Joey Ortiz, who is hitting just .217/.273/.316 over 342 plate appearances. That’s not especially surprising in a market devoid of everyday shortstops. The 27-year-old Ortiz didn’t hit at all for the first two months of the season, but he owns a .269/.310/.418 slash going back to the beginning of June.
While they don’t need to add an everyday player, Milwaukee could stand to upgrade the bench. Utility infielders Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler aren’t providing anything offensively. Backup catcher Eric Haase rarely plays, but he’s hitting .224/.278/.358 and has never been a well-regarded defender. FanSided’s Robert Murray suggested this afternoon that Milwaukee could look to upgrade at that spot — though William Contreras shoulders as heavy a workload as any starting catcher in MLB. Miami’s Nick Fortes, Tampa Bay’s Danny Jansen and Cleveland’s Austin Hedges are among the catchers who could be available.
While the Brewers obviously aren’t deadline sellers, there’s at least one veteran player whom they could trade away in the coming days. Joel Sherman of The New York Post pointed out this morning that the Brewers may prefer to deal Nestor Cortes rather than find a spot for him in the rotation. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic suggested similarly tonight.
Cortes has been on the injured list since early April with a flexor strain. He has been on a rehab assignment since July 2 and built up to 5 2/3 innings in yesterday’s start for Triple-A Nashville. Pitchers can spend a maximum of 30 days on a rehab stint. Milwaukee needs to activate Cortes by the beginning of August.
They don’t have a clear rotation spot available. Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Misiorowski and Quinn Priester are locked into the top four spots. Cortes could displace Jose Quintana, but it’s not clear that’d be an upgrade after a nearly four-month absence. Using a six-man rotation would require dropping to a seven-man bullpen. Milwaukee could shop Quintana as well, but Curt Hogg of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that might be difficult to sell to the clubhouse.
While Cortes is a respected veteran in his own right, it’d probably be easier to explain trading him when he’s been limited to two MLB starts this year. Quintana has taken the ball 14 times. Cortes is playing on a $7.6MM salary in his final season of arbitration. He’ll be owed nearly $2.5MM for the stretch run. Quintana is making a $2MM salary and on the verge of unlocking $125K incentives for every other start up to 24 appearances — up to $625K in total. He’s also owed a deferred $2MM buyout on a 2026 mutual option.
William Contreras Playing Through Fractured Finger
Brewers catcher William Contreras has seen his power output decline this season, and MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports that he’s been playing through a fracture in the middle finger on his catching hand “for some time.” Contreras underwent x-rays last night that confirmed the presence of that fracture but did not reveal additional damage or injury. He’ll begin wearing a splint while catching to help mitigate some of the effects of the fracture but is expected to remain on the roster and continue catching.
Contreras, 27, is still getting on base at a hefty .358 clip, due in no small part to a massive 15.5% walk rate. He’s hitting .242/.348/.331 overall, however, which is a notable departure from the .283/.363/.472 output he produced from 2022-24. Contreras has just five extra-base hits this season — a pair of doubles and three homers — all of which came prior to April 14. He’s slugging .257 over his past 84 trips to the plate.
Even with Contreras scuffling a bit and minimal production from the left side of the infield, the Brewers remain a respectable offense. Milwaukee ranks tenth in the majors with 174 runs scored. Whether they can continue at that pace is a fair question to posit, however. Brewers hitters rank 18th in MLB with a combined .239 average, 14th with a .317 on-base percentage and just 25th with a .360 slugging percentage. By measure of wRC+ (91), their offense ranks 24th in the majors and has been nine percent worse than average.
While it seems there’s no immediate plan to sit Contreras down for any stretch of time, one would imagine that could change if his offense continues to lag. Eric Haase is Milwaukee’s backup and has hit .276/.314/.506 in a small sample of 93 plate appearances with the Brew Crew dating back to last season. That huge production has been propped up by a .400 average on balls in play and occurred despite a titanic 38.7% strikeout rate, however, making him a clear candidate for regression.
At the moment, the Brewers’ catchers in Triple-A Nashville include veteran Jorge Alfaro, former Yankees first-rounder Anthony Seigler and 2019 fourth-rounder Nick Kahle. Alfaro is hitting .213/.259/.417 in 28 games. Seigler, a catcher and second baseman, sports a .244/.416/.419 line in 113 plate appearances but is just getting back into catching after spending all of 2024 at second base in the Yankees’ system. (He signed with the Brewers as a minor league free agent in November.) Kahle was only activated for his season debut on April 22 and is hitless in his first 13 plate appearances.
Notably absent from that group is top catching prospect Jeferson Quero. The 22-year-old is widely considered to be among the sport’s top 100 prospects, but he missed nearly all of the 2024 season due to shoulder surgery and has yet to play in 2025 after suffering a hamstring injury late in spring training.