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Josh Palacios

White Sox Outright Joshua Palacios

By Darragh McDonald | June 17, 2025 at 4:58pm CDT

Outfielder Joshua Palacios has been sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the White Sox last week. He has the right to elect free agency but the tracker doesn’t indicate if he will do so.

Palacios, 29, burned his final option year in 2024. He therefore came into 2025 out of options with the Pirates. He didn’t make the Opening Day roster and eventually elected free agency after clearing outright waivers. He landed a minor league deal with the White Sox but was up in the big leagues again by April 10th.

He got into 51 games for the Sox and stepped to the plate 145 times but produced a tepid batting line of .203/.292/.305. That got him nudged off the roster and he unsurprisingly has cleared waivers yet again.

Palacios has generally performed well at the Triple-A level over the years, with a slash of .302/.389/.482 across 720 plate appearances. That has led to sporadic big league opportunities that he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. Having previously appeared for the Blue Jays, Nationals, Pirates and now the White Sox, he has received 578 major league plate appearances over five separate seasons with a .223/.287/.349 line and 75 wRC+.

As mentioned, Palacios can elect free agency but would surely be limited to minor league offers. If he stays with the White Sox, more outfield playing time should open up later in the year. Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor are all impending free agents, making them natural trade candidates on a bad White Sox club. Luis Robert Jr.’s deal has $20MM club options for 2026 and 2027 but those are unlikely to be picked up with the way he’s played over the past year and a half, so he’ll surely be flipped in the next six weeks for whatever the Sox can get. The team would also surely love to unload the final two and a half years of Andrew Benintendi’s contract, though it will be tough to find another club willing to absorb it.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Josh Palacios

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White Sox Claim Ryan Noda, Designate Joshua Palacios For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | June 13, 2025 at 4:55pm CDT

The White Sox announced that they have claimed first baseman Ryan Noda off waivers from the Red Sox and optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Boston had designated him for assignment a few days ago. Outfielder Joshua Palacios has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. Infielder Brooks Baldwin has been recalled to take the active roster spot of Palacios. There was also a swap on the pitching side, with left-hander Tyler Gilbert reinstated from the injured list and righty Owen White optioned as the corresponding move.

Noda, 29, has an extreme profile. He strikes out a lot but also draws plenty of walks and has some pop. He has done that all throughout his minor league career and then showed it at the big league level in 2023 after the A’s grabbed him from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft. He got into 128 games and stepped to the plate 495 times. He struck out in 34.3% of those plate appearances but also walked at a massive 15.6% clip and hit 16 home runs. That all added up to a .229/.364/.406 line and 122 wRC+.

Last year, he got out to a rough start and ended up getting optioned to the minors for most of the year. The A’s put him on waivers at the end of the season, with the Angels putting in a claim. He was designated for assignment about a month ago and got flipped to the Red Sox in a cash deal. Both the Angels and the Red Sox kept him on optional assignment.

His minor league numbers have continued along with Noda’s usual style. Dating back to the start of last year, he has 655 Triple-A plate appearances with 29 homers, a 20.2% walk rate and a 30.4% strikeout rate.

The White Sox came into this year with Andrew Vaughn as their primary first baseman. He struggled badly enough to get optioned to the minors a few weeks back. Earlier today, the Sox flipped him to the Brewers for Aaron Civale and cash. Tim Elko has been getting a lot of the playing time at first lately but is hitting .155/.222/.379. If that continues, perhaps the Sox will make a switch.

Palacios, 29, signed a minor league deal and then was added to the roster in April. He has 145 plate appearances so far this year with a .203/.292/.305 line. That now gives him a career .223/.287/.349 batting line and 75 wRC+.

Since he’s out of options, he can’t be easily sent down to the minors. He’ll now be in DFA limbo, which can last for at most a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Sox could take five days to try to line up a trade. He cleared waivers back in March and hasn’t done much to improve his stock since then, so the level of interest should be low. If he clears waivers, he will have the right to elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

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Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox Transactions Brooks Baldwin Josh Palacios Owen White Ryan Noda Tyler Gilbert

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White Sox Select Joshua Palacios, Omar Narvaez; Release Juan Carela

By Steve Adams | April 10, 2025 at 9:43am CDT

The White Sox announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contracts of outfielder Joshua Palacios and catcher Omar Narvaez. (The likelihood of the Narvaez move was first reported last night.) They’ve also placed catcher Korey Lee and outfielder Mike Tauchman on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained left ankle and a strained right hamstring, respectively.

The Sox only had one open 40-man roster spot, so they’ve released right-hander Juan Carela to accommodate the addition of Palacios and Narvaez. Carela was acquired from the Yankees in the 2023 trade that sent Keynan Middleton to New York, and the Sox selected him to the 40-man roster just this past November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. However, Carela suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in spring training and required Tommy John surgery.

Since injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, the Sox will instead release Carela. It’s relatively common for teams and players in this exact situation to quickly strike up a new minor league contract, but the right-hander will technically have the option to talk to 29 other clubs, assuming he clears release waivers. The 23-year-old right-hander has yet to make his MLB debut, but the Sox added him to the 40-man roster on the heels of a 2024 season in which he logged 106 2/3 innings of 3.71 ERA ball with a 25.2% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate between High-A and Double-A.

Palacios, 29, has played in parts of four big league seasons between the Blue Jays, Nationals and Pirates. He saw semi-regular work in Pittsburgh during the 2023 season and showed a bit of pop but struggled to get on base. He entered spring training out of minor league options and didn’t make the cut on a Pirates club that had several outfield options ahead of him on the depth chart. The Pirates designated Palacios for assignment and outrighted him to Triple-A, but he rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, which was his right as a player who’d been outrighted once previously in his career.

Over the past two seasons in Pittsburgh, Palacios slashed .236/.291/.398 with a dozen homers in 342 plate appearances. His 19.9% strikeout rate is a few ticks below the league-average mark, and he was plagued by a .264 average on balls in play despite frequent hard contact, which could create some optimism for better performance. However, Palacios is also an extreme ground-ball hitter (51% as a Pirate) with good-not-great speed and a pull-heavy approach — all of which leaves him a bit susceptible to a lower BABIP.

Still, with both Tauchman and Andrew Benintendi on the injured list — Benintendi suffered an adductor strain earlier this week — Palacios ought to get a chance for significant playing time. If he can make the most of it, he can be controlled for four years beyond the current season. He’s a career .302/.389/.482 hitter in 720 Triple-A plate appearances, so there’s certainly a track record of performance in the upper minors upon which the White Sox can dream.

At this point, it’s not yet clear how long Lee or Tauchman will be sidelined. Lee suffered the injury while hurrying back to first base yesterday when Guardians catcher Austin Hedges threw behind him in a pickoff attempt (video link). Lee’s left ankle contorted significantly, and he was tagged out when he crumbled off the bag. He was in obvious pain as White Sox trainers helped him off the field. He’d gotten out to a fast start, going 5-for-15 with a pair of doubles and a pair of walks in 17 plate appearances (.333/.412/.467).

As for the veteran Tauchman, he missed the first week-plus of the season with a strain in that same right hamstring and only made his 2025 debut on April 6. The 34-year-old signed a one-year, $1.95MM deal in free agency and has appeared in only three games thus far, going 4-for-10 (all singles) with a pair of walks in a dozen trips to the plate (.400/.500/.400). Given that he’s now dealing with back-to-back strains in the same muscle, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Sox took a more cautious approach to his absence this time around. Timetables for both Lee and Tauchman will presumably become clearer after manager Will Venable meets with the media prior to today’s series finale in Cleveland.

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Josh Palacios Juan Carela Korey Lee Mike Tauchman Omar Narvaez

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White Sox To Sign Joshua Palacios To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | April 3, 2025 at 10:10am CDT

The White Sox are signing outfielder Joshua Palacios to a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Ballengee Group client elected free agency earlier this week after being outrighted by the Pirates.

Palacios, 29, has bounced around the majors in the past few years. He has suited up for the Blue Jays, Nationals and Pirates in the four most recent big league seasons. Broadly speaking, he has hit well in the minors without finding success in the majors.

He has been sent to the plate 433 times thus far in his big league career, with a .230/.286/.364 line in those. That translates to a wRC+ of 75, indicating he’s been 25% below league average overall. He also took 781 minor league plate appearances in that 2021-24 span with a .303/.387/.484 line and 131 wRC+.

The gap between his major and minor league numbers has led to him frequently being sent to the farm and back. He exhausted his final option year in 2024 and is now out of options, which got him squeezed off Pittsburgh’s 40-man.

If he puts together another good minor league showing with the White Sox, they should be able to give him some big league playing time later in the year. Their outfield mix currently consists of Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Travis Jankowski, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor. All of those players should be available in midseason trade talks, as they all have fairly narrow windows of control on a White Sox team that isn’t expecting to compete in the near term.

Assuming some of those players do indeed get traded in the coming months, the White Sox have a bunch of guys who could pick up some of the playing time. Greg Jones is on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment. Guys like Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks, Oscar Colás and Zach DeLoach have been bumped from the 40-man but are still in the system as non-roster depth. Palacios will join that latter group of guys and will try to earn his way back to the majors.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Josh Palacios

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Joshua Palacios Elects Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | March 31, 2025 at 11:23pm CDT

Outfielder Joshua Palacios elected minor league free agency after being outrighted by the Pirates, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Pittsburgh had designated him for assignment during the final week of Spring Training. Palacios cleared outright waivers for the second time in his career, which gave him the right to choose free agency instead of accepting a minor league assignment.

Palacios landed with the Bucs in the Triple-A phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. He made a career-high 91 appearances the following season, hitting .239/.279/.413 with 10 homers. Palacios held his 40-man roster spot throughout last season, though he spent a decent chunk of the year on optional assignment to Triple-A. He hit well in the upper minors, posting a .291/.372/.489 line with five homers over 208 plate appearances. Palacios got into 23 big league contests and hit .224 with a pair of longballs.

Originally a fourth-round pick of the Blue Jays, Palacios debuted with Toronto in 2021. He logged limited action with the Jays and Nationals before landing with the Pirates. The lefty-swinging outfielder is a career .230/.286/.364 hitter across 433 plate appearances. He has a much more impressive .303/.388/.485 slash in more than 700 trips to the plate in Triple-A.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Josh Palacios

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Pirates Outright Joshua Palacios, Peter Strzelecki

By Nick Deeds | March 29, 2025 at 7:20pm CDT

The Pirates announced this afternoon that outfielder Joshua Palacios and right-hander Peter Strzelecki have both cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis. Palacios has been outrighted previously in his career and could reject the assignment in favor of free agency if he so chooses, but Strzelecki has neither the previous outright nor requisite service time necessary to reject the assignment and will remain in the organization as non-roster depth going forward.

Palacios, 29, was selected by the Blue Jays in the fourth-round of the 2016 draft and made his big league debut with Toronto in 2021. He hit just .200/.293/.200 across 13 games for the Jays before being plucked off waivers by the Nationals in 2022, for whom he appeared in 29 games while hitting a similarly lackluster .213/.245/.255 in 49 plate appearances before being outrighted off the 40-man roster. He came to the Pirates the following offseason by way of the Rule 5 draft’s minor league phase.

In Pittsburgh, Palacios got a more significant big league opportunity than he did in either Toronto or D.C. as he appeared in 91 games for the Pirates throughout the 2023 season. Unfortunately, the lefty failed to make the most of the opportunity as he hit just .239/.273/.413 in that time, though his 21 extra-base hits (including ten homers) in just 264 trips to the plate hinted at intriguing power potential and he showed the ability to play decent defense at all three outfield spots. Unfortunately, Palacios did not get another opportunity of significance with the Pirates last year. While he did appear in the majors, he was limited to just 23 games and 78 trips to the plate where he slashed a middling .224/.333/.343 while failing to demonstrate the power potential that made him an interesting piece the year prior.

While the Pirates opted to retain Palacios on their 40-man roster throughout the winter, they ultimately cut him just prior to Opening Day when the club opted to roster Jack Suwinski as a left-handed reserve outfielder instead. Now that he’s cleared waivers, he’ll have the opportunity to either stick in the organization as non-roster depth at Triple-A, where he slashed a solid .291/.372/.489 across 51 games at Triple-A, or head out to the open market in hopes of finding a better path to big league playing time elsewhere.

As for Strzelecki, the right-hander signed with the Brewers as an undrafted free agent back in 2018 and worked his way up to the big leagues during the 2022 season. His rookie campaign was quite impressive as he pitched to a 2.83 ERA (143 ERA+) with a 2.94 FIP and a 27% strikeout rate in 35 innings of work. Unfortunately for Strzelecki, his follow-up season in 2023 was less impressive as he posted a 4.38 ERA in 37 innings split between the Brewers and Diamondbacks.

The right-hander was designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks just before Opening Day 2024 and was eventually traded to the Guardians, for whom he pitched sparingly in the majors but posted a solid 2.31 ERA and 3.77 FIP in 11 2/3 innings of work. He was DFA’d just before the non-tender deadline over the offseason and found himself shipped to Pittsburgh, but ultimately was DFA’d for a third time prior to Opening Day. This time, he finally cleared waivers and now will look to get back to the big leagues with the club at Triple-A.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Josh Palacios Peter Strzelecki

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Pirates Designate Joshua Palacios, Option Henry Davis

By Nick Deeds | March 22, 2025 at 8:50pm CDT

The Pirates have announced a number of roster moves, which were first reported by Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. The club has selected the contract of right-hander Hunter Stratton, and in a corresponding move designated outfielder Joshua Palacios for assignment. The club has also optioned catcher Henry Davis, infielder Nick Yorke, and outfielder Billy Cook to Triple-A.

Stratton, 28, was non-tendered by the Pirates back in November but signed a minor league deal with the club not long afterwards. Now, he’s set to suit up for his third season in Pittsburgh after posting solid numbers with the club out of the bullpen last year. In 49 2/3 innings of work during his MLB career, Stratton has posted a 3.26 ERA with a 3.61 FIP, striking out 21% of his opponents while walking just 4.9%. That impressive command seems to have been enough to earn the right-hander a spot in the big league bullpen to open the 2025 season, though the righty does have options remaining so he could at least theoretically be squeezed off the roster and sent to Triple-A in favor of another arm.

Making room for Stratton on the 40-man is Palacios, a fourth-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2016. He made his debut with Toronto in 2021 but made it into just 13 games with the club before being claimed off waivers by the Nationals the following year. He appeared in 29 games for D.C. but was eventually outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster only to be plucked out of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft by the Pirates later that year. Making his Pirates debut in 2023, Palacios got his first significant big league opportunity but was unable to do much with it, hitting a lackluster .239/.279/.413 in 91 games for the Pirates where he split time between all three outfield spots.

Palacios ended up appearing in just 23 games for Pittsburgh last year, and though they carried him on their 40-man roster throughout the offseason he appears to have been squeezed off the club’s roster by Jack Suwinski. The Pirates will now have one week to either trade Palacios or place him on waivers, where he can be claimed by any club. As a career .230/.286/.364 (75 wRC+) hitter with no options remaining, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Palacios pass through waivers successfully. If he does so, he’ll have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment and test free agency.

As for the options, Davis is the most notable name. Things haven’t gone well for the 25-year-old since he was selected first overall in the 2021 draft, as to this point in his big league career he’s hit just .191/.283/.307 in 99 big league games while struggling defensively both in the outfield and behind the plate. For the time being the Pirates appear committed to Davis’s development as a catcher, and he’ll now continue to wait for an opportunity at Triple-A as the club relies on a tandem of Joey Bart and Endy Rodriguez at the dish to open the 2025 campaign.

Looking beyond Davis, Nick Yorke has remained in camp as a possible alternative to Nick Gonzales at second base, though Gonzales has always appeared to be the favorite for the job after the former seventh-overall pick’s solid .270/.311/.398 showing in 94 games for the Pirates last year. Cook, meanwhile was in the competition to fill in for Spencer Horwitz at first base while Horwitz rehabs wrist surgery he underwent last month, though that job now appears likely to go to non-roster invitee DJ Stewart after the 31-year-old slashed a solid .270/.357/.486 in 17 games this spring.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Billy Cook Henry Davis Hunter Stratton Josh Palacios Nick Yorke

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Pirates Release Rowdy Tellez, Michael A. Taylor

By Darragh McDonald | September 25, 2024 at 6:44pm CDT

September 25: Pittsburgh released Taylor and Tellez, according to the MLB.com transaction log. That’s a formality with both players headed to free agency at season’s end regardless.

September 24: The Pirates announced that they have designated first baseman Rowdy Tellez and outfielder Michael A. Taylor for assignment. Those two active roster spots will go to infielder Liover Peguero and outfielder Joshua Palacios, who have both been recalled from Triple-A Indianapoli. Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported about Tellez on X shortly before the official announcement. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Both Tellez and Taylor were signed to modest one-year deals in the winter as the Bucs tried to supplement their roster. Tellez got a $3.2MM guarantee while Taylor got $4MM. Unfortunately, neither signing worked out well for the Bucs, as both players have struggled this year. With just a handful of games left in the season and the club well out of contention, the Pirates have bumped them off and will presumably give more playing time to younger guys who could perhaps factor into next year’s club.

Tellez, 29, was non-tendered by the Brewers after a poor 2023 season. He hit 13 home runs and slashed .215/.291/.376 for a 78 wRC+. But since he had hit 35 home runs in 2022 with a .219/.306/.461 line and 110 wRC+, it wasn’t totally crazy for the Bucs to expect a bounceback.

In the end, Tellez had an up-and-down season in 2024 that reflected his inconsistent results in prior years. His Pittsburgh tenure started terribly, as he hit .177/.239/.223 through the end of May. He then got scorching hot for three months, hitting .310/.346/.533 from June to August. But he’s gone cold again lately with a .116/.255/.209 performance in September.

Put together, Tellez has a .243/.299/.392 line and 89 wRC+ on the year. He isn’t considered a strong defender and isn’t a burner on the basepaths, so he doesn’t really offer much value if he’s not producing with the bat. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference consider him to have been below replacement level this year. The Bucs will likely spread the first base playing time around to a few different guys for their remaining games but the position should be a target area for them to upgrade this winter.

It’s also possible there’s a financial motivation for moving on from Tellez. Per Ethan Hullihen on X, Tellez would have unlocked a $200K bonus by getting to 425 plate appearances and is currently at 421.

Taylor has always been an excellent defender in center field but with inconsistent offensive results. Last year was perhaps his best showing at the plate, as he hit 21 homers for the Twins, but he still struck out 33.5% of the time. His offense cratered this year, as he struck out 35% of the time and slashed .193/.253/.290 for a wRC+ of 50. Among players with at least 300 plate appearances this year, only Brandon Drury and Eddie Rosario have a lower wRC+ mark. Oneil Cruz, who struggled defensively at shortstop, has been moved to center field lately.

The Bucs will put both players on waivers in the coming days but they are sure to go unclaimed. They won’t be postseason eligible with any claiming team and their recent performance won’t give them any appeal for the remaining games of the regular season. Each player has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so they will likely be going into offseason mode a few days ahead of schedule.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Josh Palacios Liover Peguero Michael A. Taylor Rowdy Tellez

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NL Central Notes: Happ, Pirates, Liberatore

By Nick Deeds | March 2, 2024 at 8:53pm CDT

Cubs left fielder Ian Happ won’t be appearing in games for the time being after he suffered a mild hamstring strain during a game earlier this week, club manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). Counsell added that the club remains “optimistic” that Happ will be ready for Opening Day, though he added that the 29-year-old will need to get additional reps in before Spring Training comes to a close in order to be ready for the start of the season.

The ninth-overall pick in the 2015 draft, Happ is entering the first year of the three-year, $61MM extension he inked with the Cubs early last season. The switch-hitter has settled in to become one of the club’s most reliable regulars in recent seasons, slashing a solid .259/.351/.435 (119 wRC+) across the past two seasons while earning his first career All Star appearance during the 2022 season and back-to-back Gold Glove awards in left field. In 2023, Happ posted a career-best 22.1% strikeout rate while walking at an impressive 14.3% clip. That strong plate discipline has left Happ as a key piece of the club’s core entering the 2023 season alongside the likes of Seiya Suzuki, Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson, and Nico Hoerner.

Losing Happ for any amount of time entering the regular season would surely be a blow to the Cubs, though Chicago has plenty of other options for its outfield mix available should their longest-tenured hitter start the season on the shelf. With top outfield prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong expected to begin the season at the Triple-A level, the likes of Mike Tauchman and Alexander Canario figure to be the most likely options for a reserve outfield spot with the big league club to open the season currently on the 40-man roster. Veteran left fielder David Peralta is also in camp with the club after signing on a minor league deal last month, with slugging prospect Owen Caissie also among the club’s non-roster invitees.

More from around the NL Central…

  • Pirates outfielders Andrew McCutchen and Joshua Palacios have yet to appear this spring after being slowed by injuries entering camp, though manager Derek Shelton recently told reporters (including those at MLB.com) that each figures to see the field at some point in the next week. McCutchen, 37, has been working on defensive drills and taking swings this spring while rehabbing the partially torn achilles that ended his 2023 campaign in early September. The veteran figures to enter the 2024 season penciled in as the club’s regular DH, though he did make occasional appearances in right field last season. Palacios, meanwhile, figures to battle with the likes of Edward Olivares and Connor Joe for playing time in the outfield alongside regulars Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski. The 28-year-old slashed .239/.279/.413 in 91 games with Pittsburgh last year but has been slowed this spring by a lower leg injury.
  • Cardinals southpaw Matthew Liberatore spoke to reporters (including Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) recently about his goals for the coming season, and while he indicated that he still hopes to have a future with the club as a starting pitcher at some point, right now his priority is contributing in the majors regardless of his role. Liberatore struggled to a 5.88 ERA in 11 starts for the Cardinals last year but was dominant out of the bullpen, posting a 2.84 ERA in 12 2/3 innings of work with a 24.5% strikeout rate. The club’s starting five appears set with Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn all poised to take spots in the rotation, though Liberatore has stretched out as a starter alongside the likes of Zack Thompson with Worthy noting that manager Oli Marmol hasn’t ruled out the possibility of opening the season with a six-man rotation.
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Chicago Cubs Notes Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals Andrew McCutchen Ian Happ Josh Palacios Matthew Liberatore

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Pirates Designate Travis Swaggerty For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | July 17, 2023 at 6:00pm CDT

The Pirates announced several roster moves today, selecting the contract of right-hander Quinn Priester and recalling prospects Endy Rodríguez and Liover Peguero, moves which were reported on over the weekend. In corresponding moves, they optioned catcher Jason Delay, right-hander Cody Bolton and outfielder Josh Palacios. In order to open a 40-man roster spot for Priester, outfielder Travis Swaggerty was designated for assignment.

Swaggerty, 25, was the club’s first round draft pick in 2018, getting selected with the 10th overall pick. He was considered one of their top prospects during his time in the minors but encountered some obstacles on his path to the majors. He suffered a dislocated shoulder in 2021 that required surgery, limiting him to 12 games that year. When combined with the minor leagues being cancelled by the pandemic in 2020, he essentially missed two whole years of normal development.

Those setbacks aside, the club still didn’t want to risk losing him in the 2021 Rule 5 draft and gave him a 40-man roster spot that November. He was able to make his major league debut last year but took just nine trips to the plate in five games. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, hitting .254/.348/.399 at that level for a wRC+ of 102.

Here in 2023, Swaggerty has spent the entire year in the minors but has only been able to play 22 games. A report from Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from last month detailed how Swaggerty has been battling vertigo and migraines while his wife Peyton has been dealing with a rare and painful blood disease caused by a bite from a rabid raccoon. Swaggerty has made frequent trips to the IL in the minors this year, having played in just one game in the past six weeks.

The Bucs have fully embraced their youth movement this year, calling up Priester, Rodríguez and Peguero today, in addition to recent promotions of players like Henry Davis, Jared Triolo and Nick Gonzales. The unfortunate side effect of those aggressive promotions is that they will bump Swaggerty off the roster.

They will now have one week to trade the young outfielder or pass him through waivers. It will be interesting to see how much interest he will receive from other clubs around the league. On the one hand, he’s a former first-round pick and was a notable prospect not too long ago. But he’s faced so many difficulties and hasn’t seemed to be in peak form in quite a while. He does have two option years, one of which he’s burning here in 2023. If some club thinks they can help him figure out the migraine issues and get him back on track, he can still be sent to the minors for another season.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Transactions Cody Bolton Endy Rodriguez Jason Delay Josh Palacios Liover Peguero Quinn Priester Travis Swaggerty

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    Reds Release Jeimer Candelario

    Dave Parker Passes Away

    Griffin Canning Diagnosed With Ruptured Achilles

    Pirates Reportedly Have Very Few Untouchable Players At Trade Deadline

    Griffin Canning Believed To Have Suffered Achilles Injury

    Mariners Looking For Corner Infield Bats; Ownership Willing To Bump Payroll

    Wander Franco Found Guilty Of Sexual Abuse

    Mariners Place Rowdy Tellez On Release Waivers

    Max Meyer To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery

    Whit Merrifield Announces Retirement

    White Sox Sign Noah Syndergaard To Minor League Deal

    Corbin Carroll Placed On IL With Wrist Fracture

    Hoops Rumors Has The Latest On NBA Draft, Free Agency

    Mets Option Francisco Alvarez

    Reds To Promote Chase Burns For MLB Debut

    Recent

    Trey Mancini Opts Out Of D-Backs Deal

    Padres To Select Eduarniel Nunez

    Brewers’ Connor Thomas To Undergo Elbow Surgery

    Yordan Alvarez Shut Down Due To Setback With Hand Injury

    Jorge Mateo To Miss 8 To 12 Weeks With Hamstring Strain

    Reds To Sign Buck Farmer To Minor League Deal

    Pirates Trade Hunter Stratton To Braves

    Rockies Designate Sam Hilliard For Assignment, Select Austin Nola

    Orioles Select Jacob Stallings, Designate Emmanuel Rivera For Assignment

    Rangers Select Billy McKinney, Transfer Tyler Mahle To 60-Day IL

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