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Mets Designate Zach Pop For Assignment

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today. Outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. He takes the active roster spot of outfielder Starling Marte, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right knee bruise, retroactive to July 7th. Right-hander Tylor Megill was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Winker. The Mets also selected the contract of right-hander Alex Carrillo, a move which was reported earlier. Righty Zach Pop has been designated for assignment as a corresponding move there. The Mets also announced that they have signed right-hander Junior Fernández to a minor league deal.

Winker, now 31, had a solid bounceback season with the Mets in 2024. After a down year in 2023, he put up a .253/.360/.405 slash and 118 wRC+ with the Mets last year. That prompted the club to re-sign him via a one-year deal with a $7.5MM guarantee. This year, he got into 24 games and hit .239/.321/.418 before an oblique strain sent him to the IL. He missed a little over two months but can now return to the club’s corner outfield and designated hitter mix.

Subbing out of that mix is Marte. It’s not known how serious this current injury is but he also spent almost a month on the IL last year due to a right knee bone bruise. He is hitting .270/.353/.387 for a 116 wRC+ this year. The Mets have Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo and Tyrone Taylor in the outfield most nights. Marte has mostly been in the DH spot, but now Winker will take up that role. They hit from opposite sides of the plate, with Marte being a righty and Winker a lefty, so that may impact the club’s deployment when factoring in the opposing pitcher.

Megill landed on the 15-day injured list on June 15th due to a right elbow sprain. His 60-day count is retroactive to that initial IL placement, so he will be eligible for reinstatement in mid-August. He recently started throwing again but it seems the Mets don’t expect him to be able to return within the next month.

The club has been hit hard by the injury bug in recent weeks, with Megill just one of the victims. The situation has led to the Mets frequently cycling pitchers through the roster as they attempt to paper over the large number of absences. Pop was one pitcher who was run through the machine, getting added to the roster just three days ago. He pitched an inning and a third for the Mets on Sunday, allowing three earned runs on five hits without striking anyone out.

He now has 162 1/3 innings of major league work under his belt. He has occasionally shown glimpses of being an effective ground ball guy. 55% of the balls in play he’s allowed have been pounded into the ground and his 7.8% walk rate is also decent but he has only struck out 17.8% of batters faced. He has a 4.88 ERA overall, which isn’t terrible, but his best work is a few years old now. He has a 6.68 ERA dating back to the start of the 2023 season, in 68 2/3 innings.

He is now out of options, which has limited his ability to cling to a roster spot. But he’s cheap, as the Blue Jays are on the hook for the majority of his $900K salary since they released him earlier this year. Other clubs can sign him and only pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum for the time spent on the roster. He also got a brief stint with the Mariners before joining the Mets. He has the right to reject outright assignments and will likely end up back on the open market in the coming days.

Fernández, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason but was released a few days ago. He had logged 38 1/3 Triple-A innings in the Royals’ system with a 4.93 ERA, 30.3% strikeout rate and 50% ground ball rate but a concerning 14.9% walk rate.

His big league career has had a somewhat similar shape. He has 54 big league innings under his belt with the Cardinals and Pirates, with a 5.17 ERA, 18.7% strikeout rate, 13.9% walk rate and 49.4% ground ball rate. As mentioned, the Mets have been hit hard by injuries, so there’s little harm in adding some non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Mets Sign Zach Pop, Designate Tyler Zuber

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TODAY: The Mets officially announced Pop’s signing.  Right-hander Austin Warren was optioned to Triple-A in one corresponding move, and 40-man roster space was created when right-hander Tyler Zuber was designated for assignment.

Zuber has a 5.27 ERA in 54 2/3 innings of parts of four MLB seasons with the Royals, Rays, and Mets.  He came to New York from Tampa in a deadline deal a year ago and has mostly pitched in the Mets’ minor league system, as his big league tenure in Queens consists of a single appearance and two relief innings in the Mets’ 7-1 loss to the Phillies on June 22.

JULY 3: The Mets and right-hander Zach Pop are in agreement on a major league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Whenever it is official, corresponding moves will be required to get him onto to the 40-man and active rosters.

Pop, 28, just spent a few weeks on the Mariners’ roster. He made four appearances, the first three of which were fairly normal. The fourth one, however, was a disaster. Put into a game against Minnesota with Seattle losing 2-0 in the sixth, Pop allowed seven earned runs in one inning, via two walks and six hits, including two home runs. That gave him an unsightly 13.50 earned run average for the year. He was then designated for assignment and elected free agency.

In his career, Pop has gotten many chances thanks to his intriguing velocity. He averages 96 miles per hour on his sinker, though that has led to more ground balls than strikeouts. In 161 career innings split between the Marlins, Blue Jays and Mariners, he has a 4.75 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 55.2% ground ball rate.

He exhausted his final option year with the Jays last season. The Jays still had some hope of utilizing him in 2025, as they tendered him a contract. He had qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player and the two sides avoided arb by agreeing to a $900K salary for this year.

He stuck on Toronto’s 40-man through the winter but experienced some elbow soreness during camp. The Jays designated him for assignment on Opening Day to open a 40-man spot. Since he was injured at the time, he couldn’t be put on outright waivers, so he was released. That left the Jays on the hook for the majority of that salary, allowing any other club to pay him the prorated version of the minor league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

That led to a minor league deal with the Mariners. During his brief stint on their major league roster, he passed three years of service time, which gave him the right to elect free agency yesterday even though it was his first career outright.

For the Mets, their pitching staff has been hit pretty hard in the past few weeks, so they need all the help they can get. They currently have 12 pitchers on the injured list. Their starting rotation has lost Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn in the past few weeks. They just placed Blackburn and reliever Dedniel Núñez on the IL today, after playing a doubleheader yesterday. Justin Hagenman and Rico Garcia were called up to give the club a couple of fresh arms.

David Peterson is starting tonight’s contest against the Brewers. Tim Britton of The Athletic relays that the club plans to have Hagenman, Frankie Montas and Brandon Waddell start the next three games against the Yankees. After that, the club will get a much-needed day off but it’s going to be a challenge for them to limp through the weekend.

Pop will give them a fresh arm at virtually no cost. As mentioned, he is out of options and would need to be removed from the 40-man if the club wants to remove him from the active roster. If he somehow manages to hold a spot until the end of the year, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Zach Pop Elects Free Agency

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Zach Pop cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, the Mariners announced. Seattle had designated the righty reliever for assignment over the weekend.

Pop, 28, had a brief run in Dan Wilson’s bullpen. He signed a minor league contract in mid-April and was selected onto the MLB roster on June 13. The Kentucky product made four appearances over the next two weeks. He gave up nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks through 5 1/3 innings. Pop recorded only three strikeouts among 30 batters faced with a well below-average 7% swinging strike percentage.

Before his brief run in Seattle, Pop spent a couple seasons as a middle reliever with the Blue Jays. He hasn’t missed many bats but recorded a gaudy 55% ground-ball rate across 48 1/3 innings last year. While hitters had a difficult time elevating the ball, they did a lot of damage when they were able to get it in the air. More than 20% of fly balls cleared the fences, leading to a 5.59 earned run average.

Pop owns a 4.75 ERA in parts of five big league campaigns. He’ll probably be limited to minor league offers but should intrigue teams as a depth option thanks to a sinker that averages around 96 MPH.

Mariners Designate Zach Pop, Select Juan Burgos

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The Mariners announced that right-hander Zach Pop has been designated for assignment.  Juan Burgos’ contract has been selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and Burgos will be making his Major League debut whenever he appears in his first game.

Pop was signed to a minors contract in April, and he was selected to Seattle’s active roster just over two weeks ago.  The brief audition hasn’t gone well, as Pop has allowed three homers over just 5 1/3 innings pitched, resulting in a 13.50 ERA to show for his four appearances in a Mariners uniform.  Most of the damage came on Thursday, when Pop was charged with eight runs (seven earned) during a disastrous inning of work in the Twins’ 10-1 win over the Mariners.

That rough outing might close the book on Pop’s time in the Pacific Northwest.  He is out of minor league options, so the M’s had to designate him for assignment and expose the righty to waivers before attempting to move him to Triple-A and off the 40-man roster.

Another club could put in a claim, perhaps figuring that Pop was still a little rusty after dealing with some elbow inflammation near the end of his Spring Training stint with the Blue Jays.  That said, Pop has a 6.42 ERA in 67 1/3 MLB innings with Toronto and Seattle since the start of the 2023 season, as the excellent numbers the grounder specialist posted in 2022 fade further into memory. Opposing batters have gone yard 16 times on Pop in those 67 1/3 frames, translating to a 27.6% home run rate.

The 25-year-old Burgos was an international signing for the Mariners in 2019, and he has booked his ticket to the majors due to a sterling 0.62 ERA over 29 innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.  Much of that work has come at Double-A, as Burgos was only just promoted to Tacoma earlier this week, and he made all of one appearance with the Rainiers before getting the call to the majors.

A .129 BABIP has contributed heavily to Burgos’ tiny ERA, but his 27.8% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate have been impressive.  The latter stat is notable since Burgos had some big control problems early in his career, yet his walk rates have steadily improved over time.  Burgos relies heavily (44.4% of the time this season) on his cutter, and his slider has averaged 95.9mph in 2025.  Even if he is up primarily as a fresh arm for Seattle’s pen this weekend, Burgos should get to officially mint himself as a big leaguer and get a chance to show what he can do for the Mariners’ coaching staff.

Mariners Select Zach Pop

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The Mariners announced they’ve selected righty reliever Zach Pop onto the big league roster. Rookie starter Logan Evans was optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma to create an active roster spot. Seattle had two openings on the 40-man roster.

Pop will make his team debut whenever he gets into a game. He joined Seattle in mid-April on a minor league deal. That came after he was released by the Blue Jays. Pop was battling elbow inflammation at the time, but he got back on the mound by the middle of May. He made two rehab appearances in the complex league before reporting to Tacoma. Pop has made 11 appearances and tossed 9 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs (though only three were earned). He has fanned nine against five walks.

The 28-year-old Pop has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons. He threw 48 1/3 frames for the Jays last season, working to a 5.59 ERA with a well below-average 15.8% strikeout percentage. Pop doesn’t have huge swing-and-miss stuff, but he sits around 96 MPH with his sinker and has posted a gaudy 55% ground-ball rate in his career. He’ll add a grounder specialist to Dan Wilson’s middle relief corps for the time being. He’s out of minor league options, though, so the M’s would need to designate him for assignment to take him off the big league roster.

Seattle can operate with an extra reliever for this weekend’s series against the Guardians. Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Emerson Hancock are lined up to start those games. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times writes that Logan Gilbert is expected to return from the injured list during next week’s series against the Red Sox, at which point Seattle will go back to five starters and an eight-man bullpen. Gilbert has been down since late April with a flexor strain. He has made a trio of rehab starts with Tacoma, combining for 9 2/3 innings of three-run ball.

Mariners, Zach Pop Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Mariners and right-hander Zach Pop have agreed to a minor league contract, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. The Blue Jays designated Pop for assignment at the end of spring training when they needed a 40-man roster spot. The out-of-options righty was battling elbow inflammation at the time, and since injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, the Jays instead had to place him on release waivers. He became a free agent a couple weeks ago and will now join the fifth organization of his professional career.

Pop, 28, was a seventh-round pick by the Dodgers back in 2017. Los Angeles traded him and four others to the Orioles in the 2018 Manny Machado blockbuster, and he’s since pitched with the Marlins and Blue Jays organizations. The 6’4″ righty has logged big league time in each of the past four seasons, working to a combined 4.45 ERA with a sub-par 18.4% strikeout rate, a solid 7.9% walk rate and an excellent 55% ground-ball rate.

The 2024 season was a struggle for Pop, who pitched to a grisly 5.59 ERA over the course of 48 1/3 innings. With his sinker being hit harder than usual in 2023-24, Pop began to incorporate a cutter a couple months into the season. The pitch showed some promise, generating plenty of pop-ups and whiffs when chased off the plate, but Pop also misfired with it too often and served up three of his nine homers on the new offering — despite only throwing it at a 12.3% clip.

If the Mariners can help Pop refine that cutter or perhaps implement a new third offering, he could yet emerge as a reliable bullpen arm. He sits 96 mph with his sinker, which is plenty in terms of velocity, and his slider has long graded as a quality offering. The pitch misses bats, and opponents have slugged only .328 against it when making contact. Add in his lofty ground-ball numbers and it’s easy enough to see why the Mariners feel they may be able to coax another level out of him, even if the results over the past couple seasons have been rough.

Blue Jays Release Zach Pop

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The Blue Jays released reliever Zach Pop after designating him for assignment last week, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent.

Pop lost his 40-man roster spot as part of the Opening Day shuffle. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling noted in mid-March that Pop had come down with elbow inflammation during Spring Training and would have begun the regular season on the injured list. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so the DFA meant he’d be released unless the Jays found a trade partner.

The Canadian-born righty joined the Jays at the 2022 deadline in a trade with Miami. He turned in a 1.89 ERA in 17 appearances down the stretch. While he made a strong first impression, Pop has struggled over the last two years. He gave up 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings in 2023 and was tagged for a 5.59 ERA over a career-high 58 appearances last season. Pop got ground-balls at a strong 54.6% clip but only managed a 15.8% strikeout rate. When opponents were able to elevate the ball, they found success. He surrendered nine homers in 48 1/3 frames — a rate of 1.68 longballs per nine innings.

Pop had made seven Spring Training appearances before the elbow issue. He allowed five runs (four earned) across 6 2/3 innings despite eight strikeouts. He wasn’t expected to face a long-term absence, as imaging didn’t reveal any structural issues. He should find interest on a minor league deal once he’s healthy.

Blue Jays DFA Zach Pop, Tommy Nance, Nick Robertson

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The Blue Jays revealed their Opening Day roster this morning and, in the process, announced that they have designated three right-handed pitchers for assignment: Zach Pop, Tommy Nance, and Nick Robertson. The three DFAs make room for right-hander Jacob Barnes and outfielders Alan Roden and Myles Straw on the 40-man roster. The Blue Jays had already confirmed their intention to select Barnes, Roden, and Straw, and today, they made the decision official. In addition, the Blue Jays formally placed right-handers Erik Swanson and Ryan Burr on the 15-day IL and center fielder Daulton Varsho on the 10-day IL. The team had already announced that Swanson, Burr, and Varsho would miss the beginning of the season.

Pop, 28, has pitched for the Marlins and Blue Jays throughout his four-year MLB career. In that time, he has a 4.45 ERA and 3.94 SIERA across 155 2/3 innings of work. He was electric after Toronto acquired him at the 2022 trade deadline, pitching to a 1.89 ERA in 17 appearances down the stretch. However, he has struggled at the big league level in each of the past two seasons, pitching to a 5.81 ERA in 73 total appearances. His 4.31 SIERA is better but still not especially promising. The righty is a groundball pitcher who does not miss many bats. His home run rate over the past two years (1.89 HR/9) is far too high for a pitcher who also issues his fair share of walks. To make matters worse, Pop was set to begin the season on Toronto’s injured list with elbow discomfort that arose this spring.

Nance, now 34, made his MLB debut with the Cubs at age 30 in 2021. He has had somewhat of an up-and-down career to this point. His rookie season was rough, but he looked like a capable low-leverage reliever over 43 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2022. Then, injuries kept him out for much of 2023. He signed a minor league deal with the Padres last offseason and failed to make his way back to the majors in San Diego. Yet, after a late-summer trade to Toronto, he looked perfectly serviceable once again, pitching to a 4.09 ERA and 3.96 SIERA in 22 innings of lower-leverage work. He leads with a curveball and a sinker, a good approach for inducing groundballs, but hasn’t been able to consistently induce outs and strand baserunners at the highest level.

Robertson, 26, has already pitched for four different teams over his two MLB seasons, suiting up for the Dodgers and Red Sox in 2023 and the Cardinals and Blue Jays in 2024. He also pitched in the Angels’ system in between his stints with St. Louis and Toronto. The right-hander has a 5.30 ERA but a 3.52 SIERA in 35 2/3 career MLB frames. He has shown the ability to pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen as needed, but his performance has been poor at both the major and minor league levels since he left the Dodgers organization as part of the Enrique Hernández deadline trade in 2023. At times in the minors, Robertson has shown sharp strikeout stuff, but he has struggled in recent years to consistently rack up strikeouts and limit walks. He has one option year remaining, which could make him a bit more appealing to a club in need of bullpen help.

The Blue Jays will enter 2025 with something of a new-look bullpen, led by free agent acquisition and 2024 All-Star Jeff Hoffman. Other new pieces include Yimi García, who is back after a brief stint with the Mariners; Nick Sandlin, whom the Blue Jays acquired as part of the Andrés Giménez trade; and Richard Lovelady, who, like Barnes, signed a minor league deal with the club this offseason. Toronto selected his contract last week.

Blue Jays To Select Jacob Barnes, Alan Roden, Myles Straw

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The Blue Jays have all but officially set their Opening Day roster, as manager John Schneider told reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi and MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson) that right-hander Jacob Barnes, and outfielders Alan Roden, Myles Straw, and Nathan Lukes will all break camp with the team.  The first three of those names aren’t on Toronto’s 40-man roster, so some 40-man space will have to be carved out so the Jays can officially select their contracts.

Barnes and Richard Lovelady (whose minor league contract was selected earlier this week) will fill two bullpen spots left open by injuries, as right-handers Erik Swanson, Zach Pop, and Ryan Burr will all start the season on the injured list.  Swanson’s recovery from a median nerve entrapment in his throwing arm might not take too much longer, as Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling writes that Swanson has started some baseball-related activities and should start throwing off a mound in another 1-2 weeks.  Pop is dealing with discomfort in his throwing elbow and Burr has shoulder fatigue, and it remains unclear if either of these injuries might require a 60-day IL stint, which would open up room on the 40-man.

Barnes is an Article XX(b) free agent, so yesterday was the first of three opt-out dates that Barnes had baked into his minor league contract.  The Blue Jays will avoid that issue entirely by placing Barnes on the Opening Day roster, putting the righty on the verge of appearing in his 10th Major League season.  The veteran will now lock in a $1.4MM salary for the 2025 campaign.

Barnes has pitched for nine different teams during his journeyman career, including a brief stint with the Jays back in 2021.  Last year with the Nationals, Barnes posted a 4.36 ERA, 19.9% strikeout rate, and 7.2% walk rate over 66 innings.

Since Daulton Varsho is starting the season on the injured list, some level of outfield depth was required to handle center field while Varsho is on the shelf.  The Blue Jays’ lack of a set DH also created extra room for more players to find their way into the lineup, so the outfield trio of Lukes, Straw, and Roden will all be heading north after competing for what seemed to be perhaps just one bench spot heading into camp.

Lukes has appeared in 51 games for the Jays over the last two seasons, and Straw is looking to revive his career after being outrighted off the Guardians’ roster.  Acquired in a controversial salary dump of a trade seemingly tied to the Blue Jays’ unsuccessful pursuit of Roki Sasaki, Toronto took on $11MM of the remaining salary owed to Straw through the 2026 season, as per the terms of the five-year, $25MM extension he signed with Cleveland in 2022.  While that money didn’t guarantee Straw a roster spot, his strong defense makes him a worthy fill-in for Varsho’s elite center field glove, so it seems like Straw and Lukes could form a platoon until Varsho is healthy.

Roden will also see some time in center field, with Schneider telling Matheson and company that Roden will be deployed in the other two outfield slots and at DH to give him a good dose of regular playing time.  Anthony Santander or George Springer could be subsequently given DH days when Roden is in the field, in order to keep the two veterans fresh.

A third-round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2022 draft, Roden will be making his Major League whenever he appears in his first game.  The outfielder hit .314/.406/.510 with nine homers over 286 plate appearances with Triple-A Buffalo last season, in the latest step of what has been something of a two-year tear through minor league pitching.  Roden then posted huge numbers in Spring Training, putting himself squarely in the picture for a roster spot.

MLB Pipeline ranks Roden as the fifth-best prospect in Toronto’s farm system, citing him as a possible leadoff hitter for the Jays as early as this season due to his advanced on-base and baserunning skills.  Roden also has some power, and has increased his exit velocity over the last two minor league seasons.  Roden is a left-handed hitter, which also helps his case to earn playing time in a Jays lineup that tilts to the right side.

Blue Jays Place Yariel Rodríguez On Injured List

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The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Yariel Rodríguez has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to thoracic spine inflammation. Right-hander Zach Pop has been recalled as the corresponding move.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported earlier today that Rodríguez was dealing with some back soreness, which cropped up during his start for the Jays last night. He was delayed by back spasms during the spring and Francys Romero reports that the issue is similar, adding that the righty is heading to the club’s Dunedin facilities for now.

He got over those back spasms quickly but was optioned to the minors to start the year, not having had a chance to get fully stretched out yet. He made two starts at Triple-A, throwing 6 1/3 innings, before getting called up to the majors. He has been solid in four starts at the big league level so far, with a 4.11 earned run average in 15 1/3 innings.

It’s unclear how long the Jays expect him to be out of action but it will open up yet another hole in their rotation depth. They still have a strong front four in Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi but the options behind that group have been thinned. Mitch White and Wes Parsons were each squeezed off the roster and flipped to other teams. Alek Manoah and Bowden Francis are on the injured list, with Rodríguez now joining them. Prospect Ricky Tiedemann isn’t on the 40-man but he’s also hurt. A recent MRI showed no structural damage but he’s still about a week away from throwing again.

The Jays will need to figure out a fifth starter, though maybe not right away, thanks to where they are in the schedule. They have an off-day on Thursday this week, followed by two more on Monday and Thursday next week. They play six in a row from May 10 to 15 but then have another off-day on May 16. That gives them a bit of time to assess their options.

Manoah, who landed on the IL due to right shoulder inflammation, is currently on a rehab assignment but has been in poor form, with 18 earned runs allowed in 13 2/3 innings. He is starting for Triple-A Buffalo tonight and perhaps his performance will help the club make a decision about next steps. If either Francis or Rodríguez are able to return in the next two weeks or so, that could be another option, though it’s unclear if the health of either will allow for that. Paolo Espino is on the 40-man roster though he’s a 37-year-old journeyman and the Jays probably don’t want to rely on him for much more than a spot start.

For now, Pop will give the Jays another bullpen arm while they figure out their rotation plans. He has a 3.94 ERA in his big league career but struggled last year with a 6.59 ERA over 15 appearances. He’s been getting good results in Triple-A so far this year with a 1.86 ERA through 9 2/3 innings.

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