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Joshua Palacios Elects Free Agency

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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.

Pirates Acquire Alexander Canario

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6:37pm: Pittsburgh announced the trade and transferred Jones to the 60-day IL. He’s early into a six-week shutdown after experiencing elbow soreness in Spring Training, so he won’t be ready for MLB game action until the latter half of June at the earliest.

5:42pm: The Mets are trading outfielder Alexander Canario to the Pirates for cash, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. New York had designated him for assignment as part of their Opening Day roster shuffle. Pittsburgh will need to make a 40-man roster move once the trade is finalized; Jared Jones stands out as a speculative candidate for a transfer to the 60-day injured list.

Canario was arguably the most interesting of the various players sent into DFA limbo amidst teams’ season-opening roster maneuvering. The 24-year-old outfielder has plus raw power and a generally strong minor league track record. He has bounced from the Cubs to the Mets and now to Pittsburgh because of concerns about his strikeout rates and his lack of roster flexibility.

Since Canario is out of options, teams need to keep him on the major league roster or expose him to waivers. That facilitated his move to the Mets in the first place, as the Cubs designated him for assignment and traded him to New York for cash in February. It wasn’t a great landing spot. The Mets already had Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo, Jose Siri, Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte essentially locked onto the MLB roster. Canario provided injury insurance during camp, and a potential fifth outfielder if the Mets lined up a late-offseason Marte trade.

Neither happened, and the Mets DFA Canario and another out-of-options outfielder, José Azocar, on Thursday. (Azocar cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A over the weekend.) The righty-hitting Canario had an impressive spring. He hit .306 and connected on three homers in 17 games, but he also punched out in 15 of his 43 plate appearances. It’s the same three true outcomes profile that he has displayed throughout his minor league career. Canario drilled 18 homers with a robust 11.3% walk rate in only 64 Triple-A games in the Cubs’ system last offseason, but his 30.4% strikeout rate meant the Cubs weren’t willing to carry him on the MLB roster.

Canario owns a .252/.345/.521 line in parts of three Triple-A campaigns. He’s best suited in right field but can handle center in a pinch. Oneil Cruz is locked into everyday center field work. Bryan Reynolds moved to right field this year, while free agent signee Tommy Pham is playing left. Canario could take a few at-bats from Pham but profiles mostly as a bench bat for the time being.

Braves Place Reynaldo López On IL Due To Shoulder Inflammation

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The Braves announced that right-hander Reynaldo López was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to March 29, due to right shoulder inflammation. Fellow righty Bryce Elder has been recalled as the corresponding move. Per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Elder will take Wednesday’s start in place of López.

There hasn’t yet been any word from the team on exactly how serious they expect this to be, but it’s concerning on a few fronts. First of all, López also spent time on the IL last year due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Atlanta signed López ahead of 2024 and moved him back to the rotation after many years working in relief. On a rate basis, the results couldn’t have gone much better, as he had a 1.99 earned run average on the year.

But he went on the IL a couple of times, once due to a forearm issue and then a second time due to shoulder inflammation. His tally of 135 2/3 innings was his largest in years but still shy of a full starter’s workload. Now after just one start in the 2025 season, he’s back on the IL with more shoulder trouble.

There was an argument for Atlanta adding to their rotation this winter but they opted not to, perhaps due to financial constraints. Regardless of the reasoning, they opened the season with a strong front three of Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and López. Spencer Strider would eventually rejoin them but was slated for a season-opening IL stint as he’s still recovering from last year’s UCL surgery.

Two spots were available behind the Sale/López/Schwellenbach trio. Grant Holmes and Ian Anderson seemed like the top candidates for those jobs but AJ Smith-Shawver surged by Anderson during the spring, with Anderson flipped to the Angels last week. With López now out of the picture, they are down to Sale and Schwellenbach at the front, with Smith-Shawver, Holmes and Elder filling in behind them.

Perhaps it won’t be a long-term issue. Strider has been building up on a rehab assignment and could be back in the majors shortly. It’s also possible that this injury is fairly minor for López and he’ll be back soon as well.

Regardless, it’s another gut punch for the Atlanta fans, who are already having about the worst opening week possible. The club got swept by the Padres and are currently in the basement of the NL East with a record of 0-4. As if that weren’t enough, it was revealed today that top offseason acquisition Jurickson Profar has received an 80-game PED suspension. That will put him out of commission for a while and make him ineligible to appear in this year’s playoffs, if Atlanta qualifies.

Elder comes up to take López’s rotation spot for the time being, though he may only take the ball once or twice before Strider is activated. Elder turned in a 3.81 ERA over 31 starts a couple seasons ago. His production nosedived last year, as he allowed 6.52 earned runs per nine over 49 2/3 innings. Elder gets a lot of ground-balls, but he doesn’t have overpowering stuff and gave up a lot of hard contact last season. The Texas product was rocked in his only start with Triple-A Gwinnett this year. He gave up five runs on three hits and uncharacteristic four walks across 2 2/3 innings.

Rockies Outright Sam Hilliard

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The Rockies announced that outfielder Sam Hilliard has passed through waivers unclaimed and been sent outrighted to Triple-A Albuquerque. He has the right to elect free agency but it’s unclear if he will.

Players with at least three years of major league service time can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. However, only players with at least five years of service can do so while retaining the salary they are still owed on their contracts. Hilliard and the Rockies avoided arbitration back in the fall, agreeing to a $1MM salary this year. Presumably, Hilliard won’t want to leave that on the table and will therefore report to Albuquerque.

If that comes to pass, Hilliard will provide the Rockies with a bit of extra outfield depth without taking up a roster spot. They currently project to have Brenton Doyle, Jordan Beck, Nick Martini, Mickey Moniak and Sean Bouchard rotating through the outfield spots. There’s not a ton of experience there, with no one in that group having reached four years of big league service time.

If any of them struggle or get hurt, the Rockies could bring Hilliard back up for some more playing time. He has shown some power and speed in the big leagues but with strikeout concerns as well. In 875 career plate appearances, he has 42 homers and has swiped 24 bags but has been struck out at a big 34.1% clip. His .219/.296/.438 batting line translates to an 84 wRC+.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Yankees Re-Sign Dominic Smith To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees announced that they have re-signed first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith to a minor league deal. He had been in camp with the Yanks on a previous minor league deal but opted out when he didn’t make the Opening Day roster.

Smith, 30, had a pretty solid showing in camp. He got 38 plate appearances with the Yankees and slashed .297/.289/.568. However, his recent MLB track record is more middling and there wasn’t a great path to playing time for him.

Despite some outfield experience, he’s mostly a first base/designated hitter option at this point, having not played the outfield in the majors since 2021. Even when he did play on the grass, he wasn’t great at it. The Yanks have Paul Goldschmidt at first base. They could have put Smith at DH but opted for Ben Rice instead. Their bench spots went to guys with more defensive versatility like Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes.

When Smith didn’t get an Opening Day job, he opted out and presumably assessed his options for a few days, but is now back with the Yanks as non-roster depth. He has some theoretical upside as a former first-round pick and top prospect. He also hit .299/.366/.571 in the majors over 2019 and 2020, production which translates to a 150 wRC+.

But as mentioned, he hasn’t been quite as good since. He had a combined line of .241/.311/.360 over the 2021 through 2024 seasons, with those numbers translating to an 87 wRC+. Given that he doesn’t provide much with the glove or on the bases, that lack of offense has turned him into a journeyman, suiting up for the Mets, Nationals, Red Sox and Reds in recent years.

The old saying goes that there’s no such thing as a bad minor league deal. The Yanks can install Smith into their system and see if a need arises. Their lineup is already without DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton, who are both on the injured list. If any further health issues crop up, they will have the ability to call up an experienced big leaguer for some at-bats.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Dyer, Imagn Images

Braves Acquire Stuart Fairchild

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The Reds have traded outfielder Stuart Fairchild to the Braves for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The Reds had designated Fairchild for assignment last week. Atlanta transferred right-hander Joe Jiménez, who is recovering from knee surgery and might miss the entire season, to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding move.

Fairchild, 29, is a speed-and-defense outfielder. He has appeared in 249 big league games over the past four big league seasons. In that time, he has a .224/.308/.389 batting line in 615 plate appearances. That production translates to a wRC+ of 88, indicating he’s been 12% below average at the plate overall.

He has also swiped 23 bags in 29 tries, getting double-digit steals in each of the past two seasons. He has 1,389 1/3 innings in the outfield, spending time at all three positions. In that time, he’s been credited with ten Defensive Runs Saved and nine Outs Above Average.

But he is out of options, meaning he needs to hold an active roster spot in order to stick on a 40-man roster. The Reds squeezed him off but Atlanta will find a spot for him. By moving Jiménez to the 60-day, they have made room for Fairchild on the 40-man but will have to make a corresponding active roster move whenever Fairchild reports to the team.

That could perhaps be Bryan De La Cruz getting optioned down to Triple-A. The club currently has Jurickson Profar, Michael Harris II and Jarred Kelenic getting the regular outfield playing time. De La Cruz and Eli White are on the bench but White is out of options, whereas De La Cruz is still optionable.

However the alignment shakes out for now, it’s likely to be temporary. Alex Verdugo was signed just over a week ago. He has agreed to be optioned to start the year so that he can effectively do a delayed spring training. Ronald Acuña Jr. is on the injured list, still recovering from last year’s ACL tear, but could be back with the club at some point in May.

As Verdugo and Acuña eventually join the active roster, guys like Fairchild, De La Cruz, White and perhaps even Kelenic could be squeezed out of playing time or bumped down the depth chart. For now, Fairchild gives Atlanta a nice fourth outfielder with a good glove and some speed. As mentioned, he is out of options but has less than three years of service time. That means he theoretically can be retained beyond this season if he carves at a comfortable role for himself. He’s also a righty bat with a .248/.346/.409 line and 107 wRC+ against lefties in his career, so perhaps he can carve out a platoon role with the lefty-swinging Kelenic.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Angels Acquire Jake Eder, Designate Michael Petersen For Assignment

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Left-hander Jake Eder has been traded from the White Sox to the Angels for cash considerations, per announcements from both clubs. The Halos have optioned Eder to Triple-A Salt Lake. The Sox had designated him for assignment last week. To open a 40-man spot, the Angels designated right-hander Michael Petersen for assignment.

Eder, 26, was a notable prospect a few years ago but his stock is down. The Marlins took him in the fourth-round of the 2020 draft. In 2021, he made 15 Double-A starts with a 1.77 earned run average. He struck out 34.5% of opponents, gave out walks at a 9.4% rate and also got ground balls on 50.3% of balls in play.

That got him onto the prospect radar but Tommy John surgery late in 2021 put that on pause. He missed the entire 2022 season while recovering and his results since getting back on the mound haven’t been inspiring. He has thrown 165 2/3 minor league innings since that surgery, getting flipped to the White Sox for Jake Burger at the 2023 deadline. In that time, he has a 6.52 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 12.3% walk rate.

The southpaw still has two option seasons left and could have been stashed in Triple-A. But even the White Sox, one of the few rebuilding clubs in the league, seemingly didn’t have much faith in him getting the train back on the tracks.

The Angels, a club seemingly always in need of more pitching depth, will give him a roster spot for now to see if he can get over his recent struggles. They currently have a rotation mix of Yusei Kikuchi, José Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz, Tyler Anderson and Kyle Hendricks, with Reid Detmers in a long relief role. Eder will join guys like Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri and Chase Silseth as optionable rotation arms looking to battle for starts later in the year.

To add Eder into that mix, the Angels are potentially losing Petersen, whom they claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays last month. The right-hander is 30 years old, turning 31 in May. He made his major league debut last year, tossing 19 2/3 innings for the Dodgers and Marlins with a 5.95 ERA. Since that season ended, he bounced to the Jays and Angels via waiver claims but has now lost his roster spot again.

The big league numbers are such a small sample size that it’s hard to glean much from. But in the minors last year, he tossed 33 innings with a 1.64 ERA, 35.2% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. He still has a couple of options and could perhaps attract attention from clubs looking for some extra bullpen depth. The Angels will have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next, but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so any potential trade talks would need to come together in the next five days.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

White Sox Outright Dominic Fletcher

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Outfielder Dominic Fletcher was not claimed off waivers following last week’s DFA and has now been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox announced Monday. He’ll remain with the organization as a depth option.

Now 27 years old, Fletcher came to the ChiSox last winter in a trade that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to the D-backs. At the time of the swap, he was coming off a .291/.399/.500 showing in Triple-A and had slashed .301/.350/.441 in his first 102 big league plate appearances. Impressive as those performances were, the Snakes had an outfield contingent made up of Corbin Carroll, Jake McCarthy, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Alek Thomas. They’d also had talks with free agent Randal Grichuk, whom they signed just a few days after trading Fletcher. There wasn’t much space in the Arizona outfield.

A move to a rebuilding White Sox club with ample opportunity for playing time looked like a positive for Fletcher, but he struggled in his new environs. The Sox gave Fletcher 241 turns at the plate, but he mustered only a .206/.252/.256 batting line. His subsequent .121/.211/.212 batting line in 38 plate appearances this spring didn’t inspire any further confidence, and the Sox brought free agents Mike Tauchman, Austin Slater and Michael A. Taylor to join Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr. in the team’s outfield mix.

Now off the team’s 40-man roster, Fletcher will head to Charlotte and hope to play his way into another opportunity. Even with all of last year’s struggles, his .263/.333/.389 line in 106 Triple-A plate appearances was respectable, if a bit below average in a hitter-friendly setting. Fletcher is a career .293/.376/.462 hitter in 889 Triple-A plate appearances, so he does have a track record to suggest he could earn another look.

White Sox Re-Sign Dan Altavilla To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox re-signed right-hander Dan Altavilla over the weekend, as reflected in his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty pitched an inning and two thirds for Triple-A Charlotte yesterday.

Altavilla, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the winter. He tossed 9 2/3 innings for them during the spring, allowing three earned while striking out 11 opponents, issuing four walks and hitting two batters. He didn’t break camp with the club and opted out of that deal but has now circled back to the Sox on a fresh contract.

The righty has some capable big league work on his track record, though it’s been a few years since he complied the bulk of it. From 2016 through 2020, he tossed 114 2/3 innings for the Mariners and Padres. He had an ERA of exactly 4.00 in that time, with a strong 26% strikeout rate but also a high walk rate of 12.3%.

But he has thrown only five big league innings since then. Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2021 wiped out most of that year and the subsequent season. In 2023, he was with the Red Sox on a minor league deal but his results weren’t strong and he didn’t get a call-up. He made it back to the show with the Royals last year but landed on the injured list with a right oblique strain after just five appearances. When he was healthy, he was bumped off the roster as opposed to being reinstated.

The Sox have a pretty inexperienced bullpen. Mike Clevinger is the only reliever on the active roster with more than five years of service time. He has spent most of his career as a starter and is only now making the move to full-time relief. Swingman Bryse Wilson is the only other guy with at least four years of service while only Penn Murfee is also over the one-year line.

It’s understandable why a rebuilding club like the Sox would want to try out young arms to see what happens but some of them will surely struggle or simply get hurt. In short, there should be opportunities available for Altavilla throughout the year if he can stay healthy and somewhat effective.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Royals Select Tyler Tolbert

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The Royals announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Tyler Tolbert from Triple-A Omaha. They had an open 40-man spot already and only needed to clear an active roster spot, which they did by placing outfielder Dairon Blanco on the 10-day IL due to right Achilles tendinopathy.

Tolbert, 27, will make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game. The former 13th-round pick has never hit much in the minors but nevertheless leads all of Minor League Baseball with 215 steals dating back to the 2021 season. That’s partially due to the fact that some others who might’ve challenged him for that lead instead made their way to the big leagues sooner and have stuck there, but it’s nonetheless an impressive mark, particularly considering that he’s only been caught 15 times — a staggering success rate of 93.5%

Despite is impressive wheels, however, Tolbert’s bat is quite suspect. He turned 27 in January but has just 99 plate appearances above the Double-A level. He’s hit .153/.258/.177 in that small sample and carries a .269/.337/.391 output in 1036 Double-A plate appearances. Overall, Tolbert is a .245/.333/.359 hitter in pro ball.

On the defensive side of the coin, Tolbert has spent the majority of his career up the middle. Shortstop has been his primary spot on the diamond, but he has nearly 1800 innings in the outfield (1338 in center) and 528 frames as a second baseman under his belt. He’ll be a bench player for manager Matt Quatraro, offering a high-end pinch runner late in games or a defensive replacement in the outfield. He doesn’t draw particularly strong grades for his up-the-middle glovework, but he’d be an upgrade over defensively challenged left fielder MJ Melendez.

Tolbert will seemingly take the role of a speedy bench player, which has been Blanco’s primary job in recent years. Since the start of 2022, Blanco has appeared in 165 games for Kansas City but has only been sent to the plate 278 times. He has a roughly league average line of .258/.314/.417 but has stolen 58 bases in 70 attempts. His sprint speed was ranked in the 97th percentile last year and in the 100th in 2023.

It was noted back in February that Blanco was dealing with soreness in his Achilles. He eventually made the Opening Day roster but it seems the issue has lingered enough that the club will put him on the shelf for a while.

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