Lucas Sims Elects Free Agency, Re-Signs With White Sox
April 27: Sims cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He re-signed with the Sox on a new minor league deal, per Brooke Fletcher of Chicago Sports Network.
April 23: The White Sox shuffled up their bullpen Thursday, announcing that veteran righty Lucas Sims has been designated for assignment. Right-hander Tyler Davis has had his contract selected from Triple-A Charlotte and will join the big league relief corps.
Sims, 32 next month, pitched 10 innings for the South Siders prior to this morning’s DFA. He was tagged for seven runs (five earned) on nine hits, seven walks and a hit batter. He fanned 10 of his 46 opponents (21.7%), but his perennially spotty command also led to 17.4% of his opponents reaching base without even needing to put a ball in play.
The White Sox added Sims on a minor league deal over the winter. He had a nice spring, firing six shutout innings with three hits, three walks and eight strikeouts, but didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He began the season in Charlotte and tossed a scoreless frame before being selected to the majors when the Sox parted ways with Rule 5 pick Jedixson Páez.
A veteran of 10 partial major league seasons, Sims has more than six years of service time. He was a useful middle relief and eventual setup arm at his peak in Cincinnati, pitching to a combined 3.93 ERA in 183 1/3 innings from 2019-23. Sims punched out a hearty 31.9% of opponents in that time but was far too prone to free passes, issuing walks at a 12.2% clip.
Sims collected 39 holds and four saves in 2023-24, but a 2025 stint with the Nationals saw his shaky command erode to untenable levels. Sims walked more than 19% of his opponents (14 of 72) and plunked another seven batters before being cut loose in Washington. This year’s command was better than that low point, but Sims has walked or plunked more than 15% of the 1429 batters he’s face in the majors. It’s unlikely he’ll ever end up with even average command over a sample of any note.
The White Sox will have five days to trade Sims or place him on outright waivers. If they go the waiver route, that’d be an additional 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.
As for Davis, he’ll be making his major league debut the first time he takes the mound. The 27-year-old was never drafted, instead signing with the Sox out of the independent Pioneer League in 2024, when he played for the Oakland Ballers. He’s a Sam Houston State product who’s pitched 103 innings in pro ball since signing. In that time, Davis has logged a 3.41 earned run average with a 27.1% strikeout rate and 12.4% walk rate.
Davis has some experience as a first baseman as well, having worked as a two-way player in college. However, he’s focused solely on pitching in affiliated ball and will come to the ChiSox with a four-seamer that’s been sitting 96.4 mph in Triple-A, a splitter that’s averaged 86.2 mph and a slider at nearly the same velocity as that split.
White Sox Designate Rule 5 Pick Jedixson Páez For Assignment
The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-hander Jedixson Páez for assignment, clearing a spot on the roster for veteran reliever Lucas Sims, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Charlotte. Páez was a Rule 5 Draft selection out of the Red Sox organization.
Páez, 22, appeared in three games for the White Sox. He retired the only batter he faced in one of the three, but in each of the other two he was tagged for three earned runs in 1 1/3 innings with a home run allowed and multiple walks. Overall, Páez yielded six runs on four hits (two homers) and three walks without a strikeout in a total of three innings.
It’s not exactly a surprise to see Páez struggle. He’d never pitched above the High-A level when the White Sox scooped him up in December’s Rule 5 Draft, and he was knocked around for eight earned runs in 11 1/3 spring innings.
Chicago understandably was intrigued by Páez despite his lack of upper-level experience. He’s shown plus command in the minors, and he draws average or better grades for both his changeup and slider. Páez sits between 91-92 mph with both his sinker and his four-seamer, so the velocity is below average, but he’s posted terrific numbers up through High-A when healthy and would likely have spent considerable time at Double-A last year, were it not for a partial calf tear that sidelined him for around four months.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Páez will be placed on waivers and made available to the 28 clubs other than the White Sox and Red Sox. If another club claims him, he’ll have to go right onto the active roster. Páez’s Rule 5 restrictions would transfer over to that new club, and he would not be able to be optioned to the minors at any point.
If Páez passes through waivers unclaimed, Chicago will have to offer him back to Boston for a nominal sum of $50K. Boston would not need to put Páez on its 40-man roster and could assign him directly to a minor league affiliate (likely Double-A Portland).
The 31-year-old Sims signed a minor league deal over the winter and had a nice spring, firing six shutout innings with three hits, three walks and eight strikeouts. He’s fired one scoreless inning so far in Charlotte.
A veteran of nine partial major league seasons, Sims comes to the South Siders with more than six years of service time. He was a useful middle relief and eventual setup arm at his peak in Cincinnati, pitching to a combined 3.93 ERA in 183 1/3 innings from 2019-23. Sims punched out a hearty 31.9% of opponents in that time but was far too prone to free passes, issuing walks at a 12.2% clip.
Sims collected 39 holds and four saves in 2023-24, but a 2025 stint with the Nationals saw his shaky command erode to untenable levels. Sims walked more than 19% of his opponents (14 of 72) and plunked another seven batters in his short time with the Nats before being cut loose last year.
White Sox Re-Sign Lucas Sims
The White Sox have re-signed right-hander Lucas Sims to a new minor league contract, according to 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine. Sims was released after exercising an opt-out clause in his previous minors deal with the Sox two days ago, but he has quickly rejoined the fold and will even pitch in tonight’s Spring Training game against the Mariners.
A veteran of nine MLB seasons, Sims didn’t see much big league action in 2025, as he was rocked to the tune of a 13.86 ERA over 12 1/3 innings out of the Nationals bullpen. Though Sims signed a one-year, $3MM free agent deal with Washington last winter, his struggles were so extreme that the Nats released him in May. Sims caught on with the Phillies on a minors deal but didn’t perform well at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, delivering a 5.56 ERA across 34 innings.
Control has always been an issue for Sims, but things reached a point of absurdity last year when he issued 43 walks (against 49 strikeouts) over his 46 1/3 total innings at the Major League and Triple-A levels, as well as eight wild pitches and 16 hit batters. Sims issued three free passes during his five innings of Cactus League work with the White Sox this spring, though he’d also recorded seven strikeouts in those five scoreless frames.
This lack of command has inevitably led to volatility in Sims’ results, but he has always been able to miss bats. At his best, Sims was able to overcome his control problems to deliver some quality results during his days with the Reds, including a 3.10 ERA across 61 innings. Sims appears to be ticketed for Triple-A Charlotte to see if he can finally harness his control at least enough to manage a return to the majors, and the White Sox could turn to Sims at some point if a need develops in their bullpen.
White Sox Release Four Players
2:27pm: Sims triggered an opt-out in his minor league contract and was granted his release, MLBTR has learned.
1:22pm: The White Sox have trimmed four more from their spring roster, per the team. Chicago announced that left-hander Ryan Borucki, first baseman/outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr., and right-handers Austin Voth and Lucas Sims have all been released. All four had signed minor league deals with spring invites. All are now free agents who can sign with any club.
Borucki, 32 later this month, has pitched in each of the past eight major league seasons. He sports a career 4.28 ERA with a below-average 19.7% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate that’s narrowly north of average, and a strong 48.3% ground-ball rate. He notched a middling 4.63 ERA in 35 innings between the Pirates and Blue Jays in 2025 but has been outstanding with the White Sox this spring, firing six shutout innings with an 8-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Wade, 32, has had a big spring himself. He’s taken 49 plate appearances and slashed .289/.429/.605 with three homers, two steals, nine walks and 10 strikeouts. He’s appeared in each of the past seven big league campaigns, mostly with the Giants, and is a lifetime .236/.341/.390 hitter in the majors. His most recent work was well shy of his career marks, however; in 282 plate appearances between San Francisco and Anaheim last year, he posted a dreadful .167/.271/.254 batting line (52 wRC+) with a career-worst 24% strikeout rate. Wade grades out below average at first base (his primary position) and in the outfield corners, and he’s never hit left-handed pitching. He could latch on with a club seeking a lefty-swinging corner bat — ideally one looking for help at first base.
The 33-year-old Voth has more than five years of MLB service but spent the 2025 season in Japan pitching for the Chiba Lotte Marines. He totaled 125 innings with a 3.96 ERA, sub-par strikeout numbers and strong command. In 360 1/3 MLB frames, the former Nats farmhand carries a 4.70 earned run average. Voth is a fly-ball pitcher with average strikeout and walk rates overall in his big league tenure. He only pitched two official innings for the Sox this spring, allowing a run with two strikeouts and no walks.
Sims, 31, looked like a potential late-inning weapon earlier in his career with the Reds, but injuries have continually set him back. He has more than six years of MLB service but only 318 1/3 innings pitched due to frequent IL trips. In that time, he’s posted a 4.86 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate. Sims tossed five shutout innings and fanned seven while walking three this spring. He spent 2025 with the Nationals and was torched for 19 runs in 12 1/3 innings due to staggering command troubles: 19 walks and seven hit batters. His command was better in camp with the South Siders, but he’ll head back to the market and look to latch on with another club seeking bullpen depth.
White Sox Sign Lucas Sims To Minor League Deal
The White Sox have signed right-hander Lucas Sims to a minor league contract, per James Fegan of Sox Machine. The TWC client presumably be in camp as a non-roster invitee when pitchers and catchers report next month.
Sims, 31, opened the 2025 season with the Nationals but was cut loose after just 19 appearances. The right-hander’s command evaporated entirely while pitching in D.C. He tossed 12 1/3 innings and was tagged for 18 runs in that time, thanks largely to a bloated 19.4% walk rate and a staggering seven hit batters. He also tossed three wild pitches. Sims went on to sign a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his command in Triple-A wasn’t any better; he issued walks at an 18.6% clip and plunked nine more batters in 34 innings.
Though 2025 was clearly a lost season, Sims had a decent track record prior. From 2020-24, he pitched 189 2/3 innings between the Reds and Red Sox, combining for a 3.89 ERA with a 29.4% strikeout rate. Command was an issue for Sims even during that more solid run (13% walk rate), but certainly not to the extent he showed between the Nats and Phillies last season.
Even as he struggled in 2025, Sims appears to have been healthy. He didn’t make a trip to the major league or minor league injured list, and he wound up tossing a combined 46 1/3 innings despite a two-week layoff between those two clubs. His 94.9 mph average four-seamer in the majors was right in line (slightly higher, actually) than the 94.4 mph he’d averaged across the past three seasons. He dipped to 93.8 mph in Triple-A, but that wasn’t a particularly notable drop from the prior season’s 94.2 mph average.
The White Sox recently signed veteran reliever Seranthony Dominguez to a two-year, $20MM contract. He’ll enter the season as the favorite for closing opportunities, barring another addition, while righties Jordan Leasure and Grant Taylor will give manager Will Venable a pair of setup options who each punched out more than 30% of their opponents in 2025 (34.4%, in Taylor’s case). Righty Mike Vasil and lefty Tyler Gilbert are likely ticketed for swing roles after pitching well in ’25. That’s especially true for Gilbert, who’s out of minor league options.
The rest of the bullpen spots are largely up for grabs. Chicago currently has two Rule 5 picks (Alexander Alberto and Jedixson Paez) on the 40-man roster. Other bullpen candidates include Brandon Eisert, Jairo Iriarte, Wikelman Gonzalez and out-of-options lefty Bryan Hudson. Sims joins lefty Ryan Borucki and righty Tyson Miller as one of the more experienced non-roster invitees in camp who’ll be vying for one of those final spots.
Players Entering Minor League Free Agency
Major League free agents became eligible to sign with other teams on Thursday, but the minor league free agent market has technically been open since season’s end. MLBTR has published several posts detailing players who had already elected to become minor free agents, but Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (multiple links) has the full account of all the minor league free agents that officially joined their big league counterparts on the open market on Thursday.
This list details only players who have played in the Major Leagues, and whose minor league free agency hasn’t already been covered on MLBTR in the last month.
Athletics: Aaron Brooks, Carlos Duran, CD Pelham, Bryan Lavastida, Nick Martini, Alejo Lopez
Braves: Ian Anderson, Davis Daniel, Enoli Paredes, Amos Willingham, Brian Moran, Jonathan Ornelas, Chandler Seagle, Matthew Batten, Conner Capel
Orioles: Jakson Reetz, Livan Soto, Thaddeus Ward
Red Sox: John Brebbia, Isaiah Campbell, Mark Kolozsvary, Chadwick Tromp, Seby Zavala, Trayce Thompson
Cubs: Yency Almonte, Zach Pop, Caleb Kilian, Austin Gomber, Forrest Wall, Billy Hamilton, Joe Ross, Tommy Romero, Antonio Santos, Tom Cosgrove, Dixon Machado, Nicky Lopez, Carlos Perez
White Sox: Elvis Peguero, Kyle Tyler, Vinny Capra, Chris Rodriguez, Caleb Freeman, Joe Perez, Owen White, Andre Lipcius
Reds: Tejay Antone, Alan Busenitz, Buck Farmer, Josh Staumont, P.J. Higgins, Eric Yang, Levi Jordan, Edwin Rios, Davis Wendzel, Evan Kravetz, Adam Plutko, Charlie Barnes, Alex Young
Guardians: Riley Pint, Tyler Naquin, Parker Mushinski
Rockies: Xzavion Curry, Sean Bouchard, Owen Miller, Karl Kauffmann,
Tigers: Kevin Newman, Brian Serven, Jordan Balazovic, Nick Margevicius, Blair Calvo
Astros: Jon Singleton, Joe Hudson, Kenedy Corona, Greg Jones, Matt Bowman, Luis Contreras, Tyler Ivey, John Rooney
Royals: John Gant, Spencer Turnbull, Bobby Dalbec, Diego Castillo, Geoff Hartlieb, Jordan Groshans, Nick Pratto, Isan Diaz, Stephen Nogosek, Nick Robertson, Joey Krehbiel, Noah Murdock, Ryan Hendrix
Angels: Shaun Anderson, Brandon Drury, Yolmer Sanchez, Ben Gamel, Evan White, Cavan Biggio, Logan Davidson, Travis Blankenhorn, Oscar Colas, Kelvin Caceres, Dakota Hudson, Chad Stevens, Angel Felipe, Jordan Holloway, Victor Gonzalez
Dodgers: Michael Grove, Luken Baker, Giovanny Gallegos, Kyle Funkhouser, Chris Okey, CJ Alexander, Zach Penrod
Marlins: Jack Winkler, Lane Ramsey
Brewers: Luis Urias, Oliver Dunn, Julian Merryweather, Daz Cameron, Drew Avans, Josh Maciejewski, Jared Oliva
Twins: Jose Miranda, Anthony Misiewicz, Jonah Bride, Thomas Hatch, Daniel Duarte, Connor Gillispie
Mets: Joey Meneses, Jose Azocar, Joe La Sorsa, Gilberto Celestino, Ty Adcock, Bryce Montes de Oca, Yacksel Rios, Oliver Ortega, Luis De Los Santos
Yankees: Kenta Maeda, Jeimer Candelario, Rob Brantly, Andrew Velazquez, Jose Rojas, Joel Kuhnel, Wilking Rodriguez
Phillies: Matt Manning, Adonis Medina, Lucas Sims, Jacob Waguespack, Phil Bickford, Rodolfo Castro, Oscar Mercado, Brewer Hicklen, Christian Arroyo, Payton Henry
Pirates: Brett Sullivan, Nick Solak, Nelson Velazquez, Beau Burrows, Ryder Ryan
Cardinals: Zach Plesac, Anthony Veneziano, Tyler Matzek, Zack Weiss, Drew Rom, Aaron Wilkerson
Padres: Eguy Rosario, Tim Locastro, Reiss Knehr, Nate Mondou
Giants: Sean Hjelle, Miguel Diaz, Max Stassi, Sam Huff, Cole Waites, Drew Ellis, Ethan Small
Mariners: Michael Fulmer, Casey Lawrence, Collin Snider, Jesse Hahn, Nick Anderson, Josh Fleming, Austin Shenton, Jacob Nottingham, Beau Taylor, Cade Marlowe, Jack Lopez, Michael Mariot, Hagen Danner
Rays: Cooper Hummel, Jonathan Hernandez, Jamie Westbrook, Tres Barrera
Rangers: Omar Narvaez, Cal Quantrill, Ty Blach, Alan Trejo, Joe Barlow, Cory Abbott, Michael Plassmeyer, Alex De Goti
Blue Jays: Eloy Jimenez, Buddy Kennedy, Joe Mantiply, Elieser Hernandez, Rene Pinto, Adam Kloffenstein
Nationals: Francisco Mejia, Juan Yepez, Joan Adon, CJ Stubbs, Parker Dunshee, Erick Mejia, Adrian Sampson, Delino DeShields
Phillies Sign Lucas Sims To Minor League Deal
6:21pm: Philadelphia also added righty Wil Crowe on a minor league contract and assigned him to Double-A Reading, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. A former Nationals draftee, Crowe owns a 5.30 ERA over parts of four MLB seasons. He spent last year in Korea with the Kia Tigers, putting up a 3.57 mark with 43 strikeouts across 40 1/3 innings.
6:02pm: The Phillies have signed right-hander Lucas Sims to a minor league deal, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Gelb adds that Sims will initially report to the Phillies’ pitching lab in Florida. He’ll presumably head to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after that, though it’s unclear how long he’ll be in the lab.
Sims, 31, started the season with the Nationals. He had signed a one-year, $3MM deal with Washington, though it quickly turned sour. He made 18 appearances but logged only 12 1/3 innings, allowing 19 earned runs. He issued 14 walks, a massive 19.4% of batters faced, which doesn’t even tell the whole story. He also hit seven batters in that time and threw three wild pitches. The Nats released him earlier this month.
Presumably, that’s why the Phils will start Sims with a trip to the lab, to try to find out what’s wrong with him. If they can get him back on track, he could be a nice buy-low pickup. From 2019 to 2023, Sims did a lot of good work for the Reds. He tossed 183 1/3 innings over that time. His 12.2% walk rate was certainly high but he offset that somewhat by striking out 31.9% of batters faced.
He’s been in a tough stretch more recently. In 2024, he was largely his old self for a while, posting a 3.57 ERA through 43 appearances with the Reds. But he was traded to the Red Sox at the deadline and immediately floundered. He logged 14 innings for Boston around an IL stint for a lat strain, with a 6.43 ERA. He had a 14.8% strikeout rate and 16.4% walk rate for the Sox. That was a small sample size of work with an injury in the middle, but his struggles carried forward into 2025.
If the Phils can get him back to his 2019-2023 form, he’ll be a low-cost addition to their bullpen. Since the Nats released him, they are on the hook for the rest of his salary for this year. If the Phils call Sims up at any point, they would only have to pay him the prorated version of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Nats pay.
The Phils are a third-time payor of the competitive balance tax and are above the top tier, meaning they face a 110% tax rate on anything they add to the payroll. They also have concerns in their bullpen. Philly relievers have a collective 4.48 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of the league. One of their most effective relievers this year has been José Alvarado, but he just got hit with an 80-game PED suspension.
The club will surely be looking for various ways to bolster the bullpen in the coming months, including with trades as the July 31st deadline approaches. Not many teams are selling this early, so it makes sense to take a flier on a guy like Sims to see what happens.
Photo courtesy of James A. Pittman, Imagn Images
Nationals Release Lucas Sims
The Nationals announced that they’ve placed veteran reliever Lucas Sims on release waivers. They’ll make a corresponding bullpen move tomorrow. They now have a vacancy on the 40-man roster.
It’s an abrupt end to what proved to be a brief stint in Washington. Sims was on the mound for the Nats roughly an hour ago. He had a nightmare outing in a blowout loss to the Cardinals. Sims entered in the eighth inning with the Nationals trailing 6-0. He hit a batter (his MLB-leading seventh HBP of the season), walked four more, and gave up a hit in a three-run inning. He recorded two outs before being lifted for Andrew Chafin.
Sims joined the Nats a one-year, $3MM free agent deal early in Spring Training. He made 18 appearances but proved far too prone to blow-up outings. He allowed multiple runs in six appearances, including each of his last two. His Washington tenure concludes with 19 runs allowed across 12 1/3 innings. He issued 14 walks while recording 13 strikeouts.
It continues an incredibly challenging stretch for Sims, who was a high-leverage bullpen pickup for the Red Sox as recently as last summer. He carried a 3.57 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate over 35 1/3 innings with the Reds leading up to the trade deadline. Boston acquired him for A-ball pitcher Ovis Portes. Sims’ production tanked immediately with the Sox. He allowed 10 runs on as many walks while picking up nine strikeouts in 14 innings. A minor lat strain cost him a couple weeks in September.
Sims will remain on waivers for the next two days. Another team would need to assume his remaining salary to claim him. No one is going to do that. He’ll clear and become a free agent. The Nats will pay the remainder of his salary aside from the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time he spends in the majors with another club. The control issues will probably limit him to minor league offers.
Nationals Sign Lucas Sims
2:05pm: The deal is for $3MM, per Andrew Golden of The Washington Post.
10:03am: The Nationals made a late addition to their bullpen Wednesday, announcing the signing of right-hander Lucas Sims to a one-year contract. Righty Mason Thompson, who had Tommy John surgery last March, was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Sims is represented by TWC Sports.
Sims, 31 in May, has spent most of his career with the Reds but was traded to the Red Sox at last year’s deadline. That deal didn’t work out especially well for Boston, as they gave up prospect Ovis Portes in exchange, while Sims then posted a 6.43 earned run average over 15 appearances around a three-week absence for a lat strain.
The Nats are surely looking beyond that unfortunate finish to his 2024 campaign. From 2019 to 2021, Sims tossed 115 2/3 innings for Cincinnati with a 4.05 ERA. He had a huge 35.2% strikeout rate over those seasons, though he undercut that somewhat with his 10.1% walk rate and some long balls.
He had a 50.6% fly ball rate in that stretch, with league average usually falling in the 35-40% range. For a guy who played his home games in homer-friendly Great American Ball Park, that wasn’t ideal and perhaps masked his true talents. He had a 3.69 FIP and 3.15 SIERA in that time. However, he strangely had a 3.75 ERA at home in those seasons but a 4.34 mark on the road.
Since then, his results have been a bit less impressive. His 2022 was largely wiped out by back issues, which culminated in surgery to repair a herniated disc. He only made six appearances that year. He returned to have a healthy 2023, tossing 61 innings with a 3.10 ERA, but his strikeout rate dropped to 27.9%. That was still above average but a notable drop from his previous work. His walk rate also ticked way up to 15.1%. A tiny .212 batting average on balls in play seemed to help him that year, which is why he had a 4.37 FIP and 4.58 SIERA.
He then posted a 3.57 ERA with the Reds last year, though with his strikeout rate falling again to 26%. His walk rate improved to 13%, a drop from the prior year but still a few ticks above average. As mentioned, he was then dealt to the Red Sox and finished the year on a down note.
Sims is a risky bet given that inconsistency but it will presumably be a fairly modest investment on the heels of his 2024 season. If he can engineer a bounceback this year, it would turn into a nice buy-low move for the Nats.
Some observers expected Washington to have an aggressive winter, but that hasn’t really come to pass. The rebuilding club has graduated a number of young players to the majors in recent years but that hasn’t pushed them to slam on the gas pedal. They have made a few additions but mostly of the short-term variety. Nathaniel Lowe was acquired to play first base and can be controlled through 2026, though he could also be traded or non-tendered depending on how things go this year. The Nats also signed Trevor Williams and Shinnosuke Ogasawara to relatively modest two-year deals and gave one-year pacts to Michael Soroka, Josh Bell, Amed Rosario, Jorge López and Paul DeJong.
In the bullpen, López and Derek Law figure to be the veteran anchors. Apart from that, it’s fairly wide open. Colin Poche is in camp as a non-roster invitee and could give them a bit more experience. Guys like Jose A. Ferrer, Eduardo Salazar, Zach Brzykcy, Evan Reifert and Orlando Ribalta are on the 40-man but no one in that group has more than 66 innings of big league experience. If the Nats and Sims get a deal done, he can join Law, López and Poche as the experienced arms in the group.
If the Nats aren’t in contention at the deadline, all of those veteran arms would be logical trade candidates. Both Law and López are slated for free agency at season’s end. Assuming Sims is only talking about a one-year deal, that would be true of him as well. Poche’s service time count is at five years and 114 days, meaning he’s just 58 shy of the six years needed for automatic free agency. If he’s on the roster before the deadline, then he would be on pace for free agency at season’s end as well.
MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo first reported that the Nats and Sims were closing in on a deal. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reported that Sims had arrived at Nats camp and was signing a major league contract.
Red Sox Designate Brad Keller; Place Lucas Sims, Luis García On Injured List
4:50pm: The Sox have also placed right-hander Luis García on the injured list, with righty Josh Winckowski recalled in a corresponding move. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was among those to relay that swap on X.
3:42pm: The Red Sox have designated right-hander Brad Keller for assignment and placed righty Lucas Sims on the 15-day injured list due to a right lat strain, per a team announcement. Keller’s DFA paves the way for lefty Rich Hill to be selected from Triple-A Worcester — a move that was originally reported earlier this morning. Right-hander Greg Weissert is up from Worcester to take Sims’ spot in the bullpen.
Keller, 29, has been up and down with the Red Sox several times this season. The longtime Royals hurler originally inked a minor league deal with the White Sox over the winter but latched on with Boston after being quickly cut loose in Chicago. Keller was summoned to the majors for a third stint with the Red Sox earlier this week and allowed three runs in four innings of long relief during yesterday’s doubleheader. He’s posted a 5.84 ERA with the Red Sox and an overall 5.44 mark in 41 1/3 innings between Chicago and Boston this year.
It’s been a rough decline for Keller, who from 2018-20 was a regular in the Kansas City rotation. He pitched 360 1/3 innings of 3.50 ERA ball for the Royals and looked to be settling in as a solid mid-rotation arm. His production dwindled in 2021-22, however, and in 2023 he walked 45 batters in 45 1/3 innings of work. That alarming deterioration of his command led to an IL trip, and imaging/testing eventually revealed symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Keller underwent surgery last summer, and while he’s pitched well in Triple-A recently, he’s yet to rediscover his form at the big league level.
The Red Sox will place Keller on release waivers or outright waivers shortly. He’s already cleared a couple of times this season and figures to do so again. Once he clears, he can become a free agent and sign with any team, although last time he was in that spot, he simply re-signed with the Red Sox on a new minor league pact. A similar series of events this time around would come as little surprise.
Sims, 30, was a trade deadline pickup for the Sox but has been torched for nine runs in 10 innings since coming over from the Reds. That’s a far cry from the 3.57 mark he notched in 35 1/3 innings prior to the swap, which sent minor leaguer Ovis Portes to Cincinnati. Whether his rocky performance was due to injury or a change in pitch selection — Boston significantly scaled back the usage of his four-seamer in favor of a cutter — isn’t clear. Most lat strains require an absence of some note, however, and if Sims is out for any substantial period of time, that could spell the end of his time in Boston entirely. He’s slated to become a free agent at season’s end.