Astros Outright Ryan Weiss

Astros right-hander Ryan Weiss cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Sugar Land, the team announced Wednesday. Houston designated him for assignment over the weekend when selecting Raynel Delgado‘s contract from Sugar Land. Now that he’s cleared waivers, Weiss will stick with the organization as non-roster depth.

Weiss, 29, made his big league debut with the Astros this season. The former D-backs farmhand parlayed a breakout 2024-25 performance in the Korea Baseball Organization into a one-year, $2.6MM deal with the ‘Stros. Weiss turned in a 3.73 ERA in 16 starts with the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles in 2024 and a 2.87 ERA across 178 2/3 innings last year, all the while showing strong strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates.

The signing hasn’t panned out as hoped. Weiss has appeared in nine games as an Astro, two of them starts, and posted a 7.62 ERA in 26 frames. He’s fanned a roughly average 22.9% of his opponents but also issued walks at an unacceptable 15.3% clip. More problematic is how homer-prone Weiss has proven against big league hitters; in his 26 frames, he’s faced 131 hitters and surrendered eight long balls. That’s an average of 2.77 round-trippers per nine innings. Put another way, he’s surrendered a homer to 6.1% of the batters he’s faced.

Weiss’ performance in Sugar Land hasn’t been better. He’s pitched 20 1/3 innings there and been tagged for an 8.41 earned run average. He hasn’t been quite so homer-prone or given out quite as many walks, but he’s fanned fewer hitters and struggled badly with men on base.

There’s still time for Weiss to turn things around, but Houston’s early return on that minimal investment isn’t anywhere close to what the team hoped. Weiss had already been pitching at the Triple-A level for more than a month, and he’ll now head back to the Space Cowboys and try to pitch his way back into Houston’s big league plans.

Astros Designate Ryan Weiss For Assignment, Select Raynel Delgado

The Astros have designated right-hander Ryan Weiss for assignment, as first reported by Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. His 40-man roster spot will go to infielder Raynel Delgado, whose promotion was first reported yesterday by Francys Romero. Weiss was not on Houston’s active roster, but the Astros already cleared a spot for Delgado on the 26-man by optioning Shay Whitcomb on Thursday.

Weiss, 29, pitched in the minor leagues for the Diamondbacks and Royals from 2018-23. Then, after brief stints in the independent Atlantic League and the Chinese Professional Baseball League, he joined the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles. His first season with the Eagles was solid (16 starts, 3.73 ERA), but his follow-up campaign was spectacular. The righty ranked third in the KBO with 178 2/3 innings, while his 2.87 ERA was nearly a run and a half better than the league average. Former major leaguers Cody Ponce and Drew Anderson had even stronger seasons with their KBO clubs – and thus signed bigger contracts in the offseason – but Weiss caught Houston’s eye. In December, the Astros signed him to a one-year, $2.6MM guarantee, with a club option for 2027.

On March 27, Weiss made his major league debut. In one inning of work, he gave up an earned run on two hits (including a home run) and a walk, though he struck out two. Over his next eight appearances, the pattern continued. Pitching in a bulk relief role, Weiss struck out more than a batter per inning, but long balls and free passes were a serious problem. By the time the Astros optioned him to Triple-A in early May, he had already given up eight home runs and 20 walks. The result was an 0-3 record and a 7.62 ERA. His 4.73 SIERA wasn’t as gruesome, but it was hard to ignore the fact that nearly 20% of the batters he faced came around to score, and almost half of the contact he allowed registered as hard-hit.

Unfortunately for Weiss, his struggles continued in the minors. In five starts for Triple-A Sugar Land, he pitched to an 8.41 ERA and a 6.61 FIP. Considering his poor performance and contract status, it’s not surprising the Astros DFA’d the right-hander. If another team thinks it can get more out of Weiss’s arm and puts in a claim, Houston would be off the hook for the rest of his salary. However, it’s more likely he passes through waivers and accepts an outright assignment to Sugar Land. He has previously been outrighted in his career, giving him the right to reject any future outright assignments, but due to his limited service time, rejecting an outright assignment would mean forfeiting the rest of the guaranteed money remaining on his contract.

Delgado, 26, will be making his MLB debut the first time he gets in a game. The Guardians drafted the versatile infielder in 2018, and he played in their system until he elected minor league free agency at the end of the 2024 campaign. He has since signed minor league contracts with the Brewers and Rays. It was Tampa Bay that traded him to Houston for cash considerations earlier this week. Delgado’s offensive numbers at Triple-A don’t jump off the page – he’s hitting .250 with a 77 wRC+ in 253 PA this season – but he steals bases, and he can play anywhere on the infield, including shortstop.

2026-27 Club Options: AL West

In recent weeks, MLBTR has looked forward to next winter’s option classes. We’ll move now to the AL West, where the Athletics have the two most notable decisions.

Previous: AL East, AL Central

Athletics

The A’s landed McNeil in what amounted to a salary dump trade for the Mets. The A’s needed a second baseman and pivoted to the former batting champion shortly after Ha-Seong Kim declined a four-year free agent offer. They picked up $10MM of McNeil’s $15.75MM salary for this season, with the Mets agreeing to cover the $2MM buyout on a matching club option if the A’s don’t bring him back in 2027.

It’ll probably be a one-year stop in Sacramento for the two-time All-Star. McNeil has a league average .276/.343/.362 batting line across 144 plate appearances. He’s following his usual high-contact approach but only has one home run and nine extra-base hits overall. He’s a league average hitter who plays decent but unexceptional defense at second base. McNeil is still a solid player, but he’s not going to command a near-$16MM salary for his age-35 season.

This one could be a trickier decision for GM David Forst and his front office. The A’s acquired Springs from Tampa Bay over the 2024-25 offseason, assuming the remaining two years and $21MM on his contract in the process. Springs was excellent when healthy with Tampa Bay but had barely pitched between 2023-24 on account of April ’23 Tommy John surgery.

The veteran southpaw has avoided the injured list over his year-plus in Sacramento. He hasn’t been as good as he was back in 2022 with the Rays. Springs has settled in as a mid-rotation arm, a control artist with league average strikeout stuff. He can miss bats with his secondary pitches, especially his changeup, but it’s a hittable fastball. He attacks the top of the strike zone with a 90-91 mph heater, an approach that gets a decent number of weak fly balls but also makes him susceptible to home runs.

That’s especially true at the hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park. Springs has a 4.93 ERA over 20 home starts compared to a 3.36 mark in 21 road appearances with the A’s. He’s certainly not their only pitcher to have a tougher time in Sacramento. The end result is a low-4.00s ERA that makes him a #4 caliber starter.

That has value, especially for an A’s team that could be at a disadvantage in pursuing free agent arms. If Springs stays healthy enough to make 30 starts with league average numbers, the A’s would probably bring him back on what amounts to a $14.25MM decision. They have some younger starters on the way (or in the case of J.T. Ginn, already performing at the big league level) but don’t have many proven innings sources behind Springs and Luis Severino.

Houston Astros

  • Ryan Weiss, RHP: $5MM club option ($500K buyout)

Houston signed Weiss to a $2.6MM free agent deal over the winter. The 29-year-old righty hadn’t pitched in MLB but was coming off an excellent season and a half with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. Weiss had turned in a 2.87 ERA over 30 starts while ranking fourth among KBO pitchers with 207 strikeouts last year.

The Astros brought him in to compete for a spot at the back of a wide open rotation. Weiss instead landed in long relief and has struggled to throw strikes, walking 15% of opponents en route to a near-8.00 ERA through his first 26 MLB innings. He has fanned 23% of batters faced and is averaging 95 mph on his fastball, but the walks and early home run issues led the Astros to option him to Triple-A last week. He worked 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts in his first start for Sugar Land.

The $5MM option is affordable enough that Weiss could still get the front office’s attention if he dials in the command. This addition hasn’t started the way the Astros had hoped, though, and it’s likelier he’ll be bought out.

Isaac Paredes’ arbitration deal includes a $13.35MM club option for 2027. He’d be eligible for arbitration for a final time even if Houston declines the option.

Los Angeles Angels

Stephenson’s three-year, $33MM contract has been almost a complete wash. The Angels bet on the righty’s monster second half of the 2023 season, adding what they hoped to be a late-inning weapon. Injuries have unfortunately wiped out essentially all of the last three years.

The former first-round pick blew out during Spring Training ’24 and underwent Tommy John surgery that April. He was unable to make his team debut until May 2025. Stephenson immediately went back down with biceps inflammation and was out into August. He came into Spring Training healthy but suffered yet another elbow ligament injury and underwent season-ending surgery last month.

Stephenson’s contract contained a stipulation that the Angels would get a $2.5MM club option for 2027 if he suffered a serious elbow injury. That’s in play now, but it seems likely the Halos will move on after he was only able to pitch 12 times in a three-year span.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners have one of the easiest calls for a team to exercise on Muñoz. Seattle signed him to what became a bargain extension as he completed his rehab from early-career Tommy John surgery. The hard-throwing righty has gone on to consecutive All-Star appearances as one of the best closers in the game from 2024-25.

Muñoz has unexpectedly struggled through his first six weeks of the ’26 season. He has blown a couple save opportunities and allowed 11 runs (10 earned) across 17 innings. The strikeout and walk profile is as strong as ever, though, and only three pitchers with at least 10 frames — Mason Miller, Kyle Hurt and Dylan Lee — have a better swinging strike rate than Muñoz does. He should be just fine, and the M’s will have a $10MM option for 2028. The ’27 option has an $8MM base value that’ll climb to $9MM if he finishes 45 games this year.

Seattle signed Robles to a two-year, $9.75MM extension in August 2024. He’d only been on the roster for around two and a half months, as the Nationals had released the outfielder that June. Robles went on an absolute tear in his first few months with Seattle, hitting .328/.393/.467 while stealing 30 bags across 77 games.

The extension window has not gone as hoped. Robles injured his left shoulder making an exceptional catch at the wall in April 2025. He suffered a fracture and dislocation that wound up costing him four months (extended slightly by a seven-game suspension when he threw his bat at a Triple pitcher after a hit by pitch while on a rehab assignment).

Robles suffered another injury within the first two weeks of this season. A right pectoral strain has kept him on the IL for the past month. Robles is with Triple-A Tacoma on a rehab stint and should be back within the next week, but he’ll probably be in a fourth outfield role now that Luke Raley has broken out of a late-April funk. This is trending towards a buyout.

Bryce Miller’s arbitration deal contains a $6.075MM club option with a $15K buyout. He’d remain eligible for arbitration even if Seattle declines the option.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers have built in a few mutual options, which essentially never get picked up by both parties. They just delay the payment of a portion of the guarantee in the form of an option buyout. Higashioka will collect a $1MM buyout to conclude his two-year, $13.5MM free agent contract signed over the 2024-25 offseason.

The veteran catcher played pretty well in the first year of the deal but is out to a .203/.271/.266 start in 20 games this season. The Rangers signed Danny Jansen to a similar two-year contract last offseason and will probably look for a cheaper catching partner for him in 2027. They should decline their end.

  • Jakob Junis, RHP: $5MM mutual option ($1.25MM buyout)

Texas built their bullpen with a bunch of cheap one-year free agent pickups for a second straight offseason. It’s working well again, thanks in no small part to Junis. The 33-year-old has allowed just four runs through his first 19 innings, collecting five holds and three saves without giving up a lead.

The market rarely seems to buy into Junis’ slider-heavy approach. He sits in the 91-92 mph range on his fastball and has one of the lowest swinging strike rates (6.4%) in MLB. Junis nevertheless has made a career of outperforming modest expectations. He has topped 60 innings in four straight seasons and carries a 3.13 ERA over 238 2/3 innings going back to the start of 2023.

There’s only a $3.75MM difference between the option value and the buyout price. That’s similar to his respective $4.5MM and $2.75MM salaries of the past two seasons. There’s an argument that both sides should be happy with their end of the mutual option, but history suggests at least one will opt for the buyout. Junis’ camp might hold out hope he’ll follow the Phil Maton path and find a two-year deal, or the Rangers could cut him loose despite a seemingly reasonable salary — as they did with Jacob Webb in arbitration last winter.

Texas will have an easy call to decline their end of Pederson’s mutual option. That’ll conclude his two-year, $37.5MM free agent signing. Pederson has rebounded slightly from a dismal first season in Texas but is still hitting at a below-average level this year. He has a .190/.296/.331 line over 424 plate appearances as a Ranger.

Astros Designate Dustin Harris For Assignment

The Astros announced a series of roster moves prior to tonight’s game. On the position player side, they reinstated infielder Nick Allen from the 10-day injured list and recalled infielder/outfielder Zach Dezenzo from Triple-A. In corresponding moves, they placed Yainer Diaz on the 10-day IL with a left oblique strain and designated outfielder Dustin Harris for assignment. The Diaz move was reported yesterday. On the pitching side, they recalled right-hander Jason Alexander and optioned fellow righty Ryan Weiss.

Harris, 26, was claimed off waivers a little more than two weeks ago. At the time, the Astros needed some help in the outfield. Dezenzo and Jake Meyers were both on the IL already. Joey Loperfido was also banged up and landed on the IL the next day. Zach Cole was on the IL in the minors.

Since being claimed, Harris has stolen four bases and been solid in the field but produced a tepid .226/.286/.290  line at the plate. That’s a small sample size of 11 games but it roughly matches his general profile. Harris is considered a speed-and-defense guy who isn’t likely to provide much with the bat. He has a .225/.307/.371 line in his big league career. His Triple-A line of .276/.366/.417 looks pretty solid but most of his time at that level has been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, so the line actually translates to a 101 wRC+, barely league average.

Both Cole and Dezenzo have now gotten healthy, which has squeezed Harris off the roster. Harris spent most of the past few years with the Rangers but exhausted his final option season in 2025. Texas outrighted him off the roster at the end of last season. He elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the White Sox. He got a brief stint on Chicago’s roster before being put on waivers and claimed by Houston.

He now heads back into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so Houston could take five days to explore trade interest, though they could also put him on the wire sooner than that. If he clears waivers, he has the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright.

The Weiss option is also a notable development, since he was an interesting part of their offseason. The Astros needed rotation depth but had budgetary concerns. Weiss got a major league deal with a $2.6MM guarantee. He came into this year with no big league experience but had just finished a good season in South Korea. He made 30 starts for the Hanwha Eagles last year with a 2.87 earned run average, 28.6% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate.

If Weiss were able to put up similar numbers in North America, he could have been a sneaky bargain, but that has not panned out thus far. He has logged 26 innings in a swing role this season with a 7.62 ERA. His 22.9% strikeout rate is around average but he has walked 15.3% of batters faced, almost double league average. He’ll look to get back on track in Triple-A and could get another look with the Astros later in the year if he succeeds.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Sabau, Imagn Images

Astros Sign Ryan Weiss To Major League Deal

December 11th: Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Weiss’s club option for 2027 is worth $5M with a $500K buyout.

December 9th: The Astros have now officially announced their signing of Weiss. The opened two roster spots last week by outrighting Taylor Trammell and Logan VanWey. Their 40-man count is now at 39.

December 2nd: The Astros have reportedly agreed to a major league deal with right-hander Ryan Weiss, who has been pitching in Korea lately. Weiss is guaranteed $2.6MM and there’s a club option for 2027. The Sports One Athlete Management client could potentially earn $10MM over the course of the pact. The Astros have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make this official.

It’s a bit of an early birthday present for Weiss, who turns 29 next Wednesday. A fourth-round draft pick of the Diamondbacks back in 2018, he showed enough promise as a minor leaguer that the Snakes added him to their 40-man in November of 2021 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He had just tossed 78 1/3 minor league innings in that 2021 season with a 4.60 earned run average and 9.5% walk rate but his 27% strikeout rate was quite good.

He struggled in the minors in 2022 and was placed on waivers, with the Royals placing a claim. Kansas City then passed him through waivers unclaimed in October of 2022. The Royals then released him in May of 2023. At that point, Weiss had tossed 76 1/3 innings on the farm, dating back to the start of 2022. In that time, he allowed 6.96 earned runs per nine.

That release kicked off a nomadic period for Weiss. He then landed with the High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League. After a few months there, with a 4.61 ERA, he signed with the Fubon Guardians of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. He had a decent 2.32 ERA there, though in just 31 innings. He started 2024 back with the Rockers, posting a 4.61 ERA over nine starts.

In June of 2024, he signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. It was with that club that he seemed to unlock a new gear. In 2024, he gave the Eagles 16 starts with a 3.73 ERA, 25.5% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 48.2% ground ball rate. He returned to the Eagles in 2025 and took the ball 30 more times. He logged 178 2/3 innings with a 2.87 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate.

Weiss then pitched in relief for the Eagles in the playoffs but the Astros plan to utilize him as a starter. Houston has plenty of uncertainty in their rotation mix. They just lost Framber Valdez to free agency. Luis Garcia required another Tommy John surgery late in 2025 and has been jettisoned from the roster. Hayden Wesneski, Ronel Blanco and Brandon Walter also had TJS in 2025 and are slated to begin next year on the injured list.

That left the Astros going into 2026 with Hunter Brown and a heap of question marks behind him. Cristian Javier will be in the mix but he had a 4.62 ERA in 2025 after returning from his own lengthy surgery layoff. Lance McCullers Jr. has had all kind of injury troubles and put up a 6.51 ERA this year. Spencer Arrighetti was good in 2024 but spent most of 2025 on the IL and only made seven starts. Jason Alexander had some passable results this year but he’s a journeyman depth guy who’s about to turn 33. J.P. France spent most of 2025 recovering from shoulder surgery. Colton Gordon and AJ Blubaugh are on the 40-man but lacking in experience.

Upgrading the rotation for 2026 makes plenty of sense but it appears the club doesn’t have a ton of spending capacity. Reportedly, owner Jim Crane would prefer to avoid the competitive balance tax in 2026. RosterResource projects them for a $218MM CBT number next year. That’s more than $20MM below next year’s $244MM base threshold but the club also has other needs to address this winter. Trading someone like Christian Walker or Jake Meyers might free up some extra space but it’s somewhat tight for now.

So far, their rotation additions have been of the low-cost wild card variety. They took a flier on former top prospect Nate Pearson, signing him to a $1.35MM guarantee. Now they’ve added Weiss into the mix as well. Perhaps there’s a more surefire rotation upgrade over the horizon. For now, the Astros are making a modest bet that Weiss transfer some of his strong KBO results to the MLB level. For his part, Weiss gets a nice paycheck despite still having no major league experience.

Reporter Daniel Kim first reported that the two sides were close to a deal. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reported that an agreement was in place for a major league pact and that Weiss will be a starter. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported the guarantee, the presence of a ’27 option and the possibility for the deal to go beyond $10MM. Chandler Rome of The Athletic specified that the option is a club option.

Diamondbacks Claim Tyler Zuber From Royals

The Royals announced that right-hander Tyler Zuber has been claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks. Zuber has been on the 60-day injured list all season and won’t require a 40-man roster spot for the time being. Additionally, the Royals also announced that right-hander Ryan Weiss has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Omaha.

Zuber, 28 in June, missed the entirety of the 2022 due to a shoulder impingement, though he was recently able to resume throwing. He appeared in the majors in 2020 and 2021, though without much success. In 49 1/3 career innings, he has a 5.29 ERA, with a strong 24.8% strikeout rate but a ghastly 16.7% walk rate.

He still has one option year remaining and has yet to reach arbitration eligibility, but the Royals are evidently doing some roster cleanup at the moment. Most teams have roster crunches upcoming since there’s no injured list between the World Series and Spring Training. That means players on the 60-day IL, who don’t count against a club’s 40-man count, will soon be returning to their respective rosters. In anticipation of that, the Royals have cut Zuber, Weiss and Luke Weaver from their roster, with Weaver having been lost to the Mariners on a separate waiver claim.

For the D-Backs, they don’t need a roster spot for Zuber just yet but will soon. They are likely looking past his major league results and focusing on his work in the minors thus far. Last year, Zuber threw 28 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.83 ERA while striking out 37.1% of batters faced. The control problems were still there, however, as Zuber walked 13.8% of those who stepped to the plate. If he can hang onto his 40-man roster spot through the winter, he could serve as optionable depth for Arizona in 2023 while they try to iron out that command.

As for Weiss, 26 in December, he’s yet to make his MLB debut. He was drafted by the Diamondbacks and was added to their 40-man roster in November of last year, eventually going to the Royals on a midseason waiver claim. Between the two organizations, he registered a 6.93 ERA over 62 1/3 innings in 2022. This is his first career outright and he doesn’t have the three years of MLB service time or seven years of minor league experience necessary to have the right to reject it. He’ll stick with the Royals as depth but without occupying a 40-man roster spot.

Royals Claim Ryan Weiss, Designate Matt Peacock For Assignment

The Royals have claimed right-hander Ryan Weiss off waivers from the D-backs and optioned him to Triple-A Omaha, per a club announcement. Right-hander Matt Peacock was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Meanwhile, fellow righty Wyatt Mills, whom the Royals acquired from the Mariners in this week’s Carlos Santana trade, has been recalled from Omaha to take Peacock’s spot on the big league roster. He’ll be making his team debut when he gets into a game.

Weiss, 24, was Arizona’s fourth-round pick back in 2018 and ranked 18th among D-backs farmhands a year later in 2019. At the time, BA praised his prototypical starter’s frame, athleticism, delivery and a repertoire fronted by three above-average pitches. However, Weiss has posted lackluster results in Double-A and pitched poorly in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting since that time, and the Snakes have moved him to a bullpen role this season. In 26 2/3 frames on the year, he’s logged an unsightly 5.74 ERA (which includes eight runs in 9 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level).

The 28-year-old Peacock has split the 2022 season between these same two teams — D-backs and Royals — pitching to a combined 5.40 ERA in 10 innings. He made his big league debut with Arizona last season but struggled to the tune of a 4.90 ERA over the life of 86 1/3 innings. Peacock owns a career 3.02 ERA in Double-A but has just 18 rocky Triple-A innings and 96 1/3 similarly tough MLB frames under his belt so far. The Royals will have a week to trade him, pass him through outright waivers or release him.

Diamondbacks Designate Ryan Weiss For Assignment

The Diamondbacks announced a few roster moves prior to today’s game. As was previously reported, lefty Dallas Keuchel was selected to the roster to start today’s game. To create room on the active roster, right-hander Sean Poppen was optioned following yesterday’s game. To create space on the 40-man roster, righty Ryan Weiss was designated for assignment.

A fourth round selection in the 2018 draft, Weiss was primarily a starter in his first few years as a pro. Based on a solid showing at some stops in the lower levels of the minors, he was ranked the #18 prospect in the system by Baseball America in 2019. As Weiss has climbed the ladder, however, he’s been gradually transitioned into bullpen duty. Last year, between Double-A and Triple-A, he threw 78 1/3 innings with a 4.60 ERA, 27% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate.

That was enough for Weiss to get added to the club’s 40-man roster in November, ahead of the Rule 5 draft that ended up getting quashed by the lockout. This year, however, things have gone south for Weiss, as he’s put up a 5.74 ERA in 26 2/3 innings, again split between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s improved his walk rate to 6.7% but also seen his strikeout rate dip to 20.8%.

Based on those mediocre results this season, it’s easy to see why the Diamondbacks felt they had to move on. However, he may still have appeal to other clubs based on the fact that he’s still just 25 years old and has all three of his option years remaining.