Rays To Select Austin Slater
1:20pm: The Rays have officially announced Slater’s addition to the roster. Heasley was transferred to the 60-day IL as the corresponding 40-man move. To open an active roster spot, infielder Oliver Dunn has been optioned to Triple-A Durham.
9:55am: The Rays will select the contract of outfielder Austin Slater from Triple-A Durham, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Slater signed a minor league deal with Tampa Bay late last month but is now headed to the major league club as the Rays gear up for a slate of left-handed pitchers.
Tampa Bay will need to open a 40-man spot for Slater. Righty Jon Heasley, who was recently diagnosed with a stress reaction in his elbow and placed on the 15-day IL, seems like a potential 60-day IL candidate. Outfielder Jake Fraley underwent a hernia procedure last month that came with a recovery timetable of six to eight weeks and could be a candidate as well, if the team feels his recovery will skew toward the lengthier end of that window.
Slater, 33, has already played with two different teams this season and seven over the past three seasons combined. He’s been hitting well in Durham, going 8-for-23 with five doubles, a homer, five walks and six strikeouts in 28 trips to the plate (.348/.464/.696).
Slater has taken 49 major league plate appearances between the Marlins and Mets this season, and they haven’t gone well. He’s 8-for-43 with only one extra-base hit (a double) and three times as many strikeouts (15) as walks (five). Broadly speaking, his past three seasons in the majors have been a struggle — hence the frequent changes of address. He’s taken 421 plate appearances in the bigs since Opening Day 2024 and slashed just .212/.298/.304.
Even with that lackluster run, however, Slater is still a lifetime .263/.352/.420 hitter in 1067 plate appearances against left-handed pitching. The Rays will face Red Sox left-hander Connelly Early tonight and are slated to face fellow southpaw Payton Tolle tomorrow. The Angels’ rotation is in disarray, so it’s hard to gauge exactly who’ll be starting for them next weekend when the Rays visit Anaheim. They’ll miss lefty Reid Detmers, barring a shuffle of the current order, but the Halos currently have five lefties in the bullpen. That should lead to plenty of chances for Slater to contribute off the bench or perhaps in the starting lineup if the Angels opt for bullpen games with a lefty opener and/or bulk reliever (e.g. Mitch Farris, Sam Aldegheri).
Rays Place Jon Heasley On Injured List
June 2: Tampa Bay announced that Heasley has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right elbow, which he evidently suffered while on the big league roster. As a result, his outright was rescinded and he has been placed on the MLB 15-day injured list with an effective date of May 29. That will return him to the 40-man roster, which already had a vacancy after Andrew Wantz was designated for assignment over the weekend.
May 30: Right-hander Jon Heasley has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate. (Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported the move shortly before the team’s official announcement.) Heasley isn’t able to decline the outright assignment, so he’ll return to Durham and await his next selection to the active roster.
The Rays signed Heasley to a minor league deal in April and then selected him to their 26-man roster just three days ago. Heasley pitched the final four innings of the Rays’ 11-2 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday, allowing five runs on eight hits, including a pair of home runs. Tampa Bay then designated Heasley for assignment yesterday, and the right-hander made a quick trip through waivers.
Though Wednesday’s outing was far from memorable, it did mark Heasley’s first MLB game in almost exactly two years. Ironically, Heasley’s last appearance was with the Orioles back on May 23, 2024, and that unsuccessful stint saw him post a 16.88 ERA across four games and 5 1/3 innings of work.
A 13th-round pick for Kansas City in the 2018 draft, most of Heasley’s pro career has been spent in the Royals organization, apart from the 2024 season in Baltimore and his current stint in Tampa. Heasley has exhibited good control but only intermittent strikeout ability even in the minors, and his career ERA now stands at 6.04 over 143 frames with the Rays, Orioles, and Royals. Big league batters have taken Heasley yard a stunning 31 times in that relatively brief 143-inning sample size.
Rays Designate Jon Heasley For Assignment, Select Andrew Wantz
The Rays announced that they have reinstated infielder Ben Williamson from the 10-day injured list and selected the contract of right-hander Andrew Wantz. In corresponding moves, infielder Carson Williams has been optioned to Triple-A Durham and righty Jon Heasley has been designated for assignment.
Wantz, 30, has pitched in parts of four seasons with the Angels, totaling 118 1/3 frames at the MLB level. He’s logged a solid 3.88 ERA in that time and turned in a strong 25.7% strikeout rate. Wantz’s 9.8% walk rate is a bit high, and he’ll probably always be a bit homer-prone just due to his extreme fly-ball tendencies (career 29.5% ground-ball rate), but he’s pitched decently when healthy and in the majors.
The health component is a notable one for Wantz. He’s only in the Rays organization by virtue of a two-year minor league contract he signed ahead of the 2025 season. The Rays knew Wantz would miss nearly all of 2025 upon signing him. Wantz spent most of the 2024 campaign on the injured list with the Halos and eventually underwent surgery. The Angels removed him from the 40-man roster following the ’24 campaign, rather than carry an injured player on the 40-man roster all winter, and the Rays scooped him up a few months later.
Wantz wound up pitching 13 minor league rehab innings late last year. He’s healthy now and has appeared in 18 Triple-A games with the Rays. The 6’4″, 235-pound righty has been dinged for a 7.04 ERA in 23 innings, with most of the damage coming over his five most recent outings (11 runs allowed in seven frames). However, Wantz has been dogged by a massive .403 average on balls in play. His 20.7% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate are both worse than the major league average, but not by much, and his 4.02 FIP suggests that better days should be on the horizon.
Wantz is out of minor league options. He won’t be able to be sent back to Durham unless he clears waivers first, and even then, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, given that he’s previously been outrighted in the past. It’s possible this will just be a brief one-off look in the majors, but Tampa Bay has invested more than a year of effort into rehabbing the righty, so they’d presumably like to take a look at him for more than just an appearance or two.
Meanwhile, Heasley’s stint with the Rays’ big league club will be just such a one-off look, it seems. Tampa Bay signed him to a minor league deal last month. He made one big league appearance this week after his contract was selected from Durham, wherein he surrendered five runs in four innings of work.
The 29-year-old Heasley has now pitched in parts of five seasons between the Royals, O’s and Rays. He’s totaled 143 innings with a 6.04 ERA, a perilously low 14.3% strikeout rate and a solid 8.7% walk rate. The former 13th-round pick out of Oklahoma State had strong numbers in the minors up through Double-A but has been hit hard in Triple-A and the majors. He’s out of big league options, so any team that picks him up would need to plug him right onto the major league roster. Between that fact and his struggles between Triple-A and MLB, he’ll likely clear waivers. The Rays have five days to look for a trade partner or waive him. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so Heasley’s DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.
Rays Select Jon Heasley
The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jon Heasley. Fellow righty Trevor Martin has been optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, infielder Gavin Lux has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Heasley, 29, appeared in four big league seasons from 2021 to 2024. With the Royals and Orioles, he tossed 139 innings in a swing role, allowing 5.89 earned runs per nine. His 8.9% walk rate was around average but he only struck out 14.4% of batters faced. He averaged around 93 miles per hour with his four-seamer while also throwing a sinker, curveball, changeup and a slider/sweeper.
He started the season with the Royals on a minor league deal. He was released at the end of camp and then signed a minor league deal with the Rays in April. Since then, he has been working as a swingman for Triple-A Durham. He has made seven appearances, only four of which were technically starts, but he went between three and 5 2/3 innings in each. In total, he has logged 27 2/3 innings on the year with a 3.90 ERA. His 15.7% strikeout rate is low but he has only walked 5.2% of opponents and induced grounders on 46.6% of balls in play.
Griffin Jax was hit by a comebacker in yesterday’s game and was removed after two innings, forcing the bullpen to absorb the rest. Martin logged three frames, throwing 52 pitches in the process. He was likely going to be unavailable for a few days, so he’s been swapped out for a fresh arm.
Steven Matz is starting tonight. He just returned from an IL stint due to elbow inflammation, without going on a rehab assignment. He tossed four innings in his first game back, which was a week ago. If Matz doesn’t have length today and the Rays want to spare their other relievers, perhaps Heasley can be called upon for some bulky work. The club is off tomorrow, so they should have a chance to reset. If they want to bump Heasley off the roster in the future, he is out of options.
As for Lux, his transfer was a formality. He had been on the 10-day IL since the start of the season due to various ailments. It was initially for a right shoulder impingement but then he later tweaked his left ankle and suffered a left shoulder shoulder injury. He was pulled off his rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago. His 60-day count is retroactive to the start of the season, so he will be eligible for reinstatement whenever he’s game ready, though it’s unclear when that will be.
Photo courtesy of Tommy Gilligan, Imagn Images
Royals Sign Jonathan Heasley To Minor League Deal
The Royals signed right-hander Jonathan Heasley to a minor league contract. The 28-year-old has not pitched in a game since being released by the White Sox at the end of March.
Heasley returns to his original organization. K.C. selected him in the 13th round of the 2018 draft. The Oklahoma State product debuted three years later and pitched with the Royals between 2021-23. He combined for a 5.45 ERA in 36 appearances. Heasley started 21 games in 2022 and moved mostly to the bullpen a year later. Kansas City traded him to Baltimore during the 2023-24 offseason.
With the Orioles, Heasley made four MLB appearances and pitched 10 times in Triple-A. He was released in July after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury while in the minors. Heasley was able to get back on the mound for three appearances with the White Sox during Spring Training. Chicago initially assigned him to their Arizona complex but released him a few days into the regular season.
Heasley owns a 5.89 ERA in 139 big league innings. He has also struggled at the Triple-A level (5.47 ERA across 164 2/3 frames) but is a familiar face for the Royals and can provide long relief depth once he’s ready to report to Triple-A Omaha.
White Sox Sign Jonathan Heasley To Minor League Deal
The White Sox announced that they have signed right-hander Jonathan Heasley to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training. The righty is represented by Icon Sports Management.
Heasley, 28 this month, has some limited big league experience stretched over multiple seasons. He has appeared in each of the past four major league campaigns, throwing a combined 139 innings, allowing 5.89 earned runs per nine. His 14.4% strikeout rate is well south of league average, though his 8.9% walk rate is near par.
Most of that came with the Royals from 2021 to 2023. Last winter, he was acquired by the Orioles and started the 2024 season with that club. The O’s mostly kept him on optional assignment, only giving him four big league appearances on the year. He was designated for assignment and then released in July.
That’s not a terribly impressive body of work, but it’s a fairly small sample and the White Sox are likely focused more on his minor league numbers. In 2021, he tossed 105 1/3 innings over 22 Double-A appearances, 21 of those being starts. He had a 3.33 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Over the past three years, he has thrown 164 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, with his ERA at 5.47 in that time. His 22.4% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in that stretch were still respectable, but he allowed 30 home runs, pushing more runs across the plate.
Heasley has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career, so he should be able to provide the Sox with depth in both areas. Their bullpen had a collective ERA of 4.73 last year, which was 28th in the league. The rotation was a bit better, with a 4.62 ERA that ranked 25th, though they traded Erick Fedde at last year’s deadline and Garrett Crochet last month.
The Sox do have a number of intriguing young arms, as one would expect from a rebuilding team, but adding in other arms is a sensible offseason goal. They have signed guys like Martín Pérez and Bryse Wilson, as well as having acquired Cam Booser and Wikelman Gonzalez via trade and Penn Murfee via waivers. Heasley now comes aboard as non-roster depth. If he eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but has barely a year of service time.
Orioles Release Jonathan Heasley
July 25: The Orioles announced that Heasley has been released. Per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com on X, Heasley hasn’t pitched lately due to right shoulder inflammation. Since injured players can’t be put on outright waivers, the O’s have gone the release route instead.
July 24: The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of pitching prospect Chayce McDermott, a move that was reported last night. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Bryan Baker and designated right-hander Jonathan Heasley for assignment.
Heasley, 27, was acquired from the Royals in an offseason trade. He has spent most of this season on optional assignment, making just four appearances at the big league level. He allowed ten earned runs in 5 1/3 major league innings, giving him an unsightly 16.88 earned run average. But that’s a tiny sample size and a very wonky one at that, as he allowed a .421 batting average on balls in play and stranded just 26.8% of baserunners, both of which are far to the unlucky side.
His Triple-A work has been far better this year, as he has 30 2/3 innings at that level with a 2.64 ERA, 21.8% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate. and 40.9% ground ball rate. Though that’s a decent performance, his time on the O’s roster may have been nearing an end regardless. He’s in his final option season and will therefore be out of options next year.
That would make it harder for the O’s to keep him around in the long term. Though his major league struggles earlier this year were brief, they added to a fairly unimpressive track record in the bigs. He now has a 5.89 ERA in 139 major league innings dating back to his 2021 debut.
Baltimore will now have a week to trade Heasley or pass him through waivers, though the waiver process itself takes 48 hours, leaving five days to explore any possible trade interest. He had a bit of prospect pedigree a few years ago, with Baseball America ranking him #13 in the Royals’ system going into 2022. That was on the heels of Heasley tossing 105 1/3 Double-A innings in 2021 with a 3.33 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate.
But he then posted a 6.11 ERA at the Triple-A level over 2022 and 2023 and got squeezed off Kansas City’s roster. He’s been better at the higher levels of the minors this year but still hasn’t found success in the majors. If any club acquires him, they would have the rest of this year to send him to the minors. He also has plenty of potential club control with his service time count just over the one-year mark.
Orioles Place Dean Kremer On Injured List
The Orioles announced that they have recalled right-hander Dillon Tate and left-hander Nick Vespi. In corresponding moves, right-hander Jonathan Heasley has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk while righty Dean Kremer has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right triceps strain. Kremer’s IL move is retroactive to May 21.
The Orioles have not yet provided any information about the severity of Kremer’s injury, but it will provide the Orioles with a challenge nonetheless. Just a week ago, the club began a stretch of playing 42 games in 44 days and was planning to go to a six-man rotation to keep their starters fresh. However, John Means landed on the injured list yesterday due to a forearm strain and now Kremer is on the shelf as well.
That leaves Baltimore with a rotation of Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez. The latter two were also on the IL earlier this year, though each was reinstated this month. Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez were each in the rotation earlier this year but had been bumped to the bullpen. With the injury bug biting this week, both of them may have to return to starting roles.
That plan will come with a couple of challenges. Irvin threw 56 pitches in a relief outing on Wednesday and may not be available for a couple more days. Suárez was stretched out earlier this year but it’s been about two weeks since he pitched more than an inning.
Even if the O’s can find a way to smoothly transition Irvin and Suárez back to the rotation, that still leaves them with just five starters when they had planned on having six. Perhaps they consider that acceptable, but with Bradish and Rodriguez having already missed time this year, getting them a bit of extra rest during this tough part of the schedule could still be a priority.
Bruce Zimmermann is on the 40-man roster but has been on the minor league IL for almost two weeks now due to a hamstring strain. Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott, two of the club’s top pitching prospects, are pitching well in Triple-A but neither is on the 40-man roster.
Whatever the Orioles are planning, more information may be forthcoming this weekend. Burnes is taking the ball tonight but Kremer was scheduled for Saturday. Both Bradish and Rodriguez pitched too recently to take the ball on normal rest by tomorrow.
Orioles Place Cionel Perez On 15-Day IL Due To Oblique Strain
The Orioles have placed southpaw Cionel Perez on the 15-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. Right-hander Jonathan Heasley was called up from Triple-A to take Perez’s spot in the bullpen.
Perez faced only two batters during an appearance in yesterday’s 13-4 Orioles win over the Angels. The lefty allowed a triple and a single before being removed with that was initially described as back discomfort, though the designation of an oblique strain creates more uncertainty about when Perez might be able to return. Unless Perez has a very mild strain, oblique issues usually sideline players for at least 3-4 weeks, and often longer if the strains are of the Grade 2 category or higher.
Danny Coulombe and Keegan Akin are the other left-handed options in Baltimore’s pen, so the O’s should be able to manage the balance until Perez is able to return. Coulombe is ticketed for more higher-leverage work in general, leaving Akin as the current top choice for perhaps more specialized work against left-handed batters. Nick Vespi and Matt Krook are both on the 40-man roster and could be recalled if the Orioles feel more southpaw depth is required.
After posting a 6.04 ERA over his first 50 2/3 innings in the majors, Perez unexpected broke out after joining the O’s in 2022. The lefty delivered a 1.40 ERA over 57 2/3 frames that season, even if his 3.48 SIERA was perhaps a better reflection of his overall performance. Some regression hit in the form of a 3.54 ERA in 53 1/3 innings for Perez in 2023, and both his strikeout and walk rates were rather unimpressive.
Perez is a grounder specialist (54.7% career groundball rate) who has held left-handed batters to a .207/.305/.304 slash line during his time in the majors. Perez has seemingly erased the home run problems that plagued him earlier in his career, as he has allowed just four homers over 111 innings with the Orioles. He avoided arbitration with the club this winter by agreeing to a $1.2MM salary for 2024, and the O’s also hold a $2.2MM club option on his services for 2025.
Orioles Acquire Jonathan Heasley From Royals
The Orioles have acquired right-hander Jonathan Heasley from the Royals in exchange for minor league right-hander Cesar Espinal, per announcements from both clubs. This appears to be the corresponding move for right-hander Michael Wacha, whose deal with the Royals was officially announced by that club earlier today. Jeff Passan of ESPN relayed the deal prior to the official announcements. Baltimore’s 40-man count is now at 38.
Heasley, 27 in January, was a 13th-round pick of the Royals in 2018 but seemed to increase his stock with a strong 2021 campaign. That year, he tossed 105 1/3 innings in Double-A with a 3.33 earned run average, striking out 27.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at just a 7.9% clip. He was added to the Kansas City roster in mid-September and went into 2022 with a bit of helium. FanGraphs and Baseball America each ranked him the club’s #13 prospect for 2022.
He hasn’t found much success since then, however, serving as a frequently-optioned depth arm. In his 133 2/3 major league innings to this point, he has a 5.45 ERA and 14.5% strikeout rate. In 134 Triple-A innings over the past two years, he has a 6.11 ERA, though his 22.6% strikeout rate at that level is more encouraging. He still has an option so the O’s can continue to develop him without having to give Heasley a spot on the active roster. He has worked both as a starter and reliever in recent years, though it’s unclear if the O’s have a particular role in mind for him.
Espinal, 18, is not a prospect of note as of right now. He has 53 2/3 innings of minor league experience thus far, pitching in the Dominican Summer League in the past two years. He has a 4.02 ERA in that time, along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate.