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Giants Sign JT Brubaker To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have signed JT Brubaker to a minor league contract, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. He will report to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. The Yankees released the right-hander last week.

Brubaker, now 31, made 61 starts for the Pirates from 2020-22, more than any other pitcher on the team. Interestingly, his numbers in that span were quite similar to those of another Pirates righty, Mitch Keller. Brubaker gave Pittsburgh 315 2/3 innings with a 4.99 ERA, a 4.04 SIERA, and 3.0 FanGraphs WAR, while Keller tossed 281 1/3 frames with a 4.64 ERA, 4.67 SIERA, and 3.0 fWAR of his own. Brubaker beat out Keller for the Opening Day start in 2022, although Keller slightly outearned him (by less than $200,000) the following winter in their first year of arbitration eligibility.

Unfortunately for Brubaker, their paths notably diverged after that. While Keller made the All-Star team in 2023 and turned that strong performance into a five-year, $77 million extension in the offseason, Brubaker lost his 2023 campaign to Tommy John surgery. The Pirates traded him to the Yankees the following winter, and an oblique strain he suffered whilst rehabbing from his Tommy John kept him from coming off the IL in 2024. Then, he fractured three ribs this past spring, forcing him back to the injured list, where he stayed until June.

Finally, on June 21, Brubaker returned to the major leagues for the first time in almost three years. He did a good job limiting hits, and therefore runs, pitching to a solid 3.38 ERA, but he also gave up nine walks and one hit-by-pitch to just 10 strikeouts. His 4.67 xERA and 5.32 SIERA suggested his sub-4.00 ERA was too good to be true. Evidently, that’s what the Yankees thought, too, when they decided to release him and eat the money remaining on his contract for 2025.

The Giants will now give him a chance in their minor league system, and they’ll only have to pay him a prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time he might spend on the big league roster. While injuries have plagued him the last three seasons, he was a productive innings eater for three years before that. San Francisco could certainly use the pitching depth, so it would not be surprising to see him back in the majors before the 2025 season is up.

Cubs Release Jon Berti

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Today: The Cubs released Berti today, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. Presumably, the veteran infielder cleared waivers and, considering he has enough service time to reject an outright with forfeiting any salary, the club chose just to grant him his release instead. He is now a free agent.

August 12: The Cubs announced today that catcher Miguel Amaya and right-hander Javier Assad have both been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. In corresponding active roster moves, the Cubs have optioned right-hander Nate Pearson to Triple-A and designated infielder Jon Berti for assignment. The 40-man roster had one vacancy, with Berti’s DFA clearing another.

Berti, 35, signed with the Cubs in the offseason. He has long been a scrappy and versatile utility player in the bigs, playing almost every position on the diamond while stealing bases and often producing offense around league average.

The Cubs came into the year with some uncertainty at third base and they threw a few things at the wall there. They traded Isaac Paredes to the Astros as part of the Kyle Tucker deal, opening a path for prospect Matt Shaw to earn the job. Just in case Shaw didn’t hit the ground running, they had some backup plans. They acquired Vidal Bruján, took Gage Workman in the Rule 5 draft, in addition to signing Justin Turner and Berti.

Most of those moves didn’t work out well, including Berti. He has hit just .210/.262/.230 in his 107 plate appearances this year. He hung around the roster as Shaw and other guys struggled. Workman was jettisoned long ago. More recently, Shaw has started to click and the Cubs also added Willi Castro ahead of the deadline. That bumped out Bruján a couple of weeks back and now Berti loses his roster spot as well.

With the trade deadline having passed, the Cubs will have to put Berti on waivers. Given his struggles and his salary, he won’t be claimed. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. It’s possible the Cubs skip that formality and simply release him.

At that point, any club could sign Berti and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Cubs pay. It’s possible he garners interest at that point from a club looking to bolster its bench. Berti came into this year with 97 steals, a .259/.337/.366 line and 95 wRC+ while playing everywhere except catcher and first base.

Without Berti, the Cubs are going with a three-catcher setup. While Amaya has been on the IL, Carson Kelly has been the primary backstop, backed up by Reese McGuire. No one in that trio can be optioned to the minors, so the Cubs are keeping all three of them, at least for now.

Assad’s return seemingly shuffles the rotation a bit. Assad is listed as tonight’s probable starter. Ben Brown was previously in that spot, so it seems he will slide back into a long relief role. Assad posted a 3.73 earned run average over 29 starts for the Cubs last year. He hasn’t been able to build on that here in 2025, as he suffered an oblique strain during spring training and then re-aggravated that strain during the season. He’ll be making his season debut north of the border tonight as the Cubs are in Toronto to face the Blue Jays.

Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images

Red Sox Outright Nick Burdi

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Today: The Red Sox have sent Burdi outright to Triple-A Worcester, according to his MLB.com transaction tracker. Burdi can choose to reject the outright assignment and elect free agency instead, but it is not yet clear if he plans to do so.

August 11, 6:58PM: Burdi’s DFA and Moran’s selection were officially announced.  The Red Sox also added recently-claimed catcher Ali Sanchez to the active roster, and optioned infielder David Hamilton and left-hander Chris Murphy to Triple-A.

August 11, 11:20AM: The Red Sox have designated right-hander Nick Burdi for assignment, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. In a corresponding move, Boston is set to select the contract of left-handed reliever Jovani Moran from Triple-A Worcester, Cotillo adds.

Burdi himself indirectly indicated on social media that a move had been made, tweeting: “Thank you Red Sox for letting me put on a big league uniform again. Will see what the next chapter brings!”

The 32-year-old Burdi pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings for the Sox earlier this season before heading to the injured list due to a foot injury that ultimately moved him to the 60-day IL. He was reinstated earlier this month but optioned to Worcester rather than added back to the active roster. Burdi has been excellent in Triple-A, logging a 1.88 ERA, 32.7% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate in 24 innings.

Despite that success both in limited MLB action and in the upper minors, he’ll now head to waivers within the next five days. That’s the only course of action for Boston now that the trade deadline has passed. Every other club will have the chance to claim Burdi, with waiver priority based on the reverse order of MLB-wide standings.

A former second-round pick (No. 46 overall by the Twins in 2014), Burdi was a standout closer at Louisville whose triple-digit heat made him a potential impact reliever in the majors. Injuries have repeatedly derailed his career, however. He’s had a pair of Tommy John surgeries and also undergone thoracic outlet surgery.

Burdi has made brief appearances in parts of six major league seasons but has only 30 1/3 MLB frames under his belt, during which he’s posted a 5.34 ERA. With so many injuries under his belt — plus the lost minor league season in 2020 — Burdi has only pitched 207 1/3 professional innings (majors/minors combined) since being drafted back in ’14. His fastball, which used to average better than 98 mph, is sitting 95.7 mph in Triple-A this season.

Burdi’s spot on the roster will go to another former Twin. Moran, 28, was acquired from Minnesota in the December swap that sent catcher/infielder Mickey Gasper to the Twin Cities. He missed the first two-plus months of the season while finishing off the rehab from Tommy John surgery but has pitched well since returning to the mound in June. Moran has pitched 18 1/3 Triple-A innings and delivered a solid 3.44 earned run average. More encouraging is a massive 35.1% strikeout rate against a tiny 4.1% walk rate.

Moran was excellent for the 2022 Twins, turning in a 2.21 ERA with a 32.9% strikeout rate in 40 2/3 innings — albeit with an ugly 11% walk rate. His numbers tanked in 2023, however, as Moran posted an ERA north of 5.00 and walked nearly 15% of his opponents in a nearly identical sample of innings before undergoing Tommy John surgery after the season.

At his best, Moran has regularly missed bats at high levels but also issued walks too frequently. He’s primarily a two-pitch reliever who sits 93-94 mph with his four-seamer and couples it with a changeup he throws nearly as often as the heater. If the Sox can get Moran back on track, he’d be controllable for another five seasons, though there’s a ways to go before that’s any sort of real consideration. He has one minor league option year remaining, and that option hasn’t been used so far in 2025, as Moran hasn’t been on the 40-man roster yet. If he’s sent back down for 20 or more days at any point from here on, he’d be out of options next season.

Dodgers Place Brock Stewart On IL With Shoulder Inflammation.

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August 13: Roberts told reporters (including Harris) that tests did not find any structural damage in Stewart’s shoulder. Instead, the skipper described the injury as simply “wear and tear.” Stewart has received an injection and will be shut down for at least the next week. However, Roberts is hopeful the veteran will be back not long after, optimistically suggesting he could return in a few weeks’ time.

August 12: The Dodgers are placing reliever Brock Stewart on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). He will be replaced on the active roster with Edgardo Henriquez (per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Ardaya reported earlier today that Henriquez had joined the team in Anaheim.

Roberts said Stewart first felt the soreness in his shoulder four days ago (per Harris), which would mean before his outing against the Blue Jays on Saturday. Nevertheless, the skipper suggested the team caught the injury quickly (per ESPN’s Alden González). While the Dodgers have decided that Stewart’s injury necessitates a stint on the IL, the severity of the strain – and therefore his timeline to return – is not yet clear. He will go for further testing tomorrow.

Stewart, now 33, began his career with the Dodgers. They selected him in the 2014 draft, and he struggled his way through parts of four seasons with the big league club from 2016-19. In 36 games (11 starts), the right-hander produced a 5.46 ERA and a 4.93 SIERA. His strikeout rate was low, his walk rate was high, and he gave up 17 home runs in 84 innings pitched, resulting in a 5.70 FIP that was even higher than his ERA. His FanGraphs WAR and Win Probability Added were negative all four years.

After a brief stint with the Blue Jays to close out the 2019 campaign, Stewart did not pitch in the majors for the next three seasons. He spent time in the Cubs and Dodgers organizations in 2020 and ’21, but he did not appear in a game at even the minor league level, due to the cancelled minor league season in 2020 and Tommy John surgery in 2021.

Stewart signed a minor league deal with the Twins in 2022, and the following year, he finally enjoyed his breakout season. Then 31, he pitched 27 2/3 innings in 2023, giving up just two earned runs. Walks continued to be somewhat of an issue, but he struck out 39 of the 109 hitters he faced and gave up only 19 hits (.196 BAA). Unfortunately, elbow troubles popped up again halfway through the year, and he spent most of the final three months of the season on the IL. The year after that, it was shoulder injuries (and eventually surgery) that limited him to just 15 2/3 innings. He posted a bloated 5.17 ERA in that small sample, but his stuff still looked good, and his SIERA was a much more impressive 3.47.

His 2025 season started with yet another injury, but at least it was a hamstring strain rather than an arm issue. It proved to be mild, and Stewart was back on the mound in mid-April. From then on through the trade deadline, he was enjoying the most prolific season of his career. He set a new career high in appearances before the All-Star break, and he was one out shy of surpassing his previous career high in innings when the Twins flipped him to the Dodgers for James Outman on deadline day. While he didn’t look quite as sharp for L.A., perhaps related to his injury, he still entered today ranked among the league’s top 50 relievers (min. 35 IP) in ERA (2.63) and SIERA (3.22). His 27.7% strikeout rate was slightly down from where it was in 2023 and ’24, but his groundball rate was up (37.1%), and, more importantly, his walk rate was all the way down to 8.2%. In other words, the Dodgers will certainly miss his veteran presence on their already injury-plagued pitching staff. He joins fellow relievers Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech, Michael Grove, and Brusdar Graterol on the IL.

It is perhaps surprising that the Dodgers chose to make a pitcher with such a checkered injury history their primary deadline pickup for the bullpen. Then again, as evidenced by the sheer number of their pitchers who have hit the IL, the Dodgers clearly don’t shy away from injury-prone arms. What’s more, the Dodgers took time to review Stewart’s medicals before finalizing the trade (per Austin Green of The Athletic). That’s standard practice, but Green’s report seems to imply that this was at least a slightly more thorough review than usual.

Regardless, the Dodgers’ surprisingly quiet trade deadline now looks even more disappointing in hindsight. Yet, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman claims he doesn’t regret his approach. “We don’t live like that,” he told reporters, including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “There’s deals that we thought made sense for us we pursued hard. It’s not like we had the potential to do a deal where we were like, ‘No’ and now we wish we would have.”

Angels Outright Scott Kingery

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The Angels announced that infielder Scott Kingery has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when righty Shaun Anderson was selected to the roster.

Kingery has the right to reject this assignment but likely won’t. Players with at least three years of major league service time have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency. However, they need five years of service to do so while keep their remaining salary commitments intact. Kingery is in that three-to-five window. He and the Angels avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a $770K salary. There’s a little under $200K still to be paid out, so he would have to walk away from that money to hit the open market.

Once a notable prospect with the Phillies, he signed a $24MM extension with them back in 2018. At the time, that was a record for a player who had not yet made his major league debut. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to give the Phils the return they were expecting. He hit just .229/.280/.387 in 1,127 plate appearances for the Phillies. He was often passed through waivers as that extension ran its course, with no other club wanting to take it on.

That deal was done when the Angels brought him aboard and gave him a 40-man spot to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. They agreed to the aforementioned arbitration salary and then passed him through waivers prior to Opening Day. Due to the aforementioned conditions, Kingery accepted an outright assignment in March, sticking around as a non-roster depth player who could slot in at multiple defensive positions.

He was added back to the 40-man in May but has largely been on optional assignment. He got into 14 games for the Halos and took 27 plate appearances. He produced a .160/.222/.200 batting line in those and now has a .228/.279/.382 line for his career. In Triple-A this year, he has a .256/.317/.424 line. In the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, that translates to a 78 wRC+, indicating he’s been about 22% below league average.

Assuming he accepts this assignment and rejoins the Bees, he’ll look to play his way back to the majors. If not added back to the 40-man by season’s end, he’ll be able to elect minor league free agency, as is the case for all players with at least three years of service who are removed from a 40-man during a season.

Photo courtesy of David Richard, Imagn Images

Orioles Outright Houston Roth

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Houston Roth has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. He had been designated for assignment earlier this week when the O’s claimed Daniel Johnson and selected right-hander José Espada.

Roth, 27, was selected to Baltimore’s roster on July 29th. As part of their deadline selloff, the O’s had already sent out Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez at that time. Andrew Kittredge was also traded a couple of days later.

That allowed Roth to stick on the big league roster for a few days but he was optioned back to the minors before getting into a game. A week after being optioned, he was bumped off the 40-man and no club grabbed him off waivers. This is his first outright and he has less than three years of service time, so he doesn’t have the right to reject the assignment.

In his minor league career, he has often been able to get strikeouts but has also given out walks at a notable pace. This year, he has thrown 39 innings between Double-A and Triple-A with 2.08 earned run average, 26.1% strikeout rate and 11.8% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images

Astros Place Josh Hader On Injured List Due To Shoulder Strain

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August 13: Espada provided a vague yet ominous update today. Hader is seeking a second opinion on his shoulder and will be on the IL beyond the minimal stint. “This is going to take a little bit longer than the two weeks,” he said, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.

August 12, 11:59 pm: Espada says he won’t name a new closer in Hader’s place, suggesting he will instead take a mix-and-match approach to filling the late innings (per Kawahara).

4:14 pm: Espada tells the Astros beat that Hader will receive additional testing (link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). The team has not yet ascertained the severity of the strain and thus do not have a firm timeline on his potential return.

3:15 pm: The Astros announced that closer Josh Hader has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left shoulder strain. An immediate timetable for his return was not revealed. Houston recalled lefty Colton Gordon from Triple-A in a corresponding roster move. The Astros also reinstated righty Shawn Dubin from the injured list and opened a roster spot by designating veteran reliever Hector Neris for assignment.

Remarkably, this is the first time Hader has ever been placed on the major league injured list (excepting a brief 2021 placement on the Covid-related IL). He’s not only been one of the sport’s most dominant relievers but also its most durable reliever. Dating back to Hader’s midseason debut in 2017, only Raisel Iglesias (who spent the entire ’17 season in the majors) has more innings pitched. (Somewhat ironically, Neris ranks third among all relievers in innings pitched during that time.) From 2018-25, only two innings separate Iglesias (466 2/3) and Hader (464 2/3) for the MLB lead.

After an up-and-down first year with Houston in 2024, Hader has been back to his typically dominant self in 2025. He’s totaled 52 2/3 innings and worked to a 2.05 earned run average while piling up 28 saves and punching out an outstanding 36.9% of his opponents against a quality 7.6% walk rate. Hader’s sinker is averaging 95.5 mph, down about a half-mile from last season, and he’s throwing his slider more than ever before — at a 41.4% clip. His colossal 21.1% swinging-strike rate is tied with Mason Miller for tops among all big league pitchers — starters and relievers alike — with at least 10 innings pitched this season.

Hader is in the second season of a five-year, $95MM contract he signed as a free agent in the 2023-24 offseason. It’s the second-largest contract ever for a reliever, both in terms of total guarantee and average annual value, trailing only Edwin Diaz (in both regards). That contract pays him an evenly distributed $19MM annually from 2024-28.

As for the 36-year-old Neris, he’s pitched for the Astros, Angels and Braves this year but struggled with all three. The right-hander has pitched a combined 26 2/3 innings with just a 6.75 ERA to show for it. Much of the damage against him came early in the season with Atlanta, but Neris posted a 5.14 with the Angels and is at 5.40 in 11 2/3 frames during what’s been his third stint as a member of the Houston bullpen.

While Neris has never exactly been a flamethrower, this year’s 92.4 mph average four-seamer is a career-low, falling shy of last year’s career-low 93 mph average. The 92.6 mph he’s averaging on his sinker is also a career-low. Neris is generating fewer whiffs, chases and grounders than ever before on his go-to splitter as well.

Since the trade deadline has passed, the Astros’ only course of action with Neris will be to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. They’re effectively the same thing for a player in Neris’ situation at this point, as he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency anyhow and is quite likely to do so. If another club can get the veteran righty back on track, he’d be postseason-eligible with that new team so long as he was signed prior to Sept. 1.

With Hader on the shelf and Neris off the roster, the Houston bullpen will now look to righty Bryan Abreu as its anchor. He’s the immediate favorite to pick up saves in Hader’s place. Lefties Bryan King, Bennett Sousa and Steven Okert all have a 3.10 ERA or better on the season and figure to collect the majority of setup opportunities while Hader is out.

Since the Astros don’t have another shutdown righty beyond Abreu, it’s at least possible that Abreu could see work in the eighth inning if the Astros’ opponent has a run of tough righties, which would thus leave the ninth inning for one of that trio of lefties. That said, both King and Okert have been terrific against both righties and lefties. That gives manager Joe Espada plenty of options late in the game, but the loss of Hader is nonetheless a crucial blow as Houston tries to fend off a surging Mariners club that has rattled off seven straight wins to pull within one game of the AL West lead.

Diamondbacks Release Jeff Brigham

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The Diamondbacks have released right-hander Jeff Brigham, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks on Monday, so this doesn’t impact the club’s 40-man roster count.

Brigham, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. He was selected to the big league roster at the end of May but only made four appearances for the big league club before being optioned back down to Triple-A Reno. After rejoining the Aces, he bounced on and off the minor league injured list. He was on the shelf from June 17th to July 25th, then landed back on the IL July 29th.

At the time of his DFA this week, he was still on the IL. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers. Since the trade deadline has passed, that left release waivers as the only option for the Diamondbacks.

It’s unclear what Brigham’s current health status is. He now has a 4.85 earned run average in 120 2/3 career big league innings. He has struck out 23.8% of batters faced while giving out walks to 10.7% of opponents.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Nationals To Activate Dylan Crews Tomorrow

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The Nationals are planning to reinstate outfielder Dylan Crews from the 60-day injured list tomorrow, reports Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan. He’ll serve as the designated hitter today in what will be his final Triple-A rehab game before rejoining the big league club. Washington has multiple 40-man roster vacancies, so the Nats will only need to clear a spot on the active roster. Crews has been out since late May due to a significant oblique strain.

Crews, 23, was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft, going one pick after college teammate Paul Skenes. The LSU product debuted late last year and broke camp with the Nats in 2025, but he’s yet to produce at the levels expected for a former top pick who ranked as one of the sport’s best prospects prior to graduating to the majors. Crews has tallied 305 big league plate appearances and posted only a .206/.275/.354 slash in that time.

A disastrous start to his 2025 season has perhaps disproportionately skewed both his 2025 results and his career line to date. Crews was hitless through his first 19 plate appearances this year and struggled considerably for a couple weeks even after getting off the schneid. Through April 14, Crews took 49 turns at the plate and hit .106/.143/.106 with a 36.7% strikeout rate.

Things began trending up from there. Crews went on an eight-game hitting streak, followed that with a series of multi-hit performances and began turning his season around. He homered in his final two games prior to landing on the injured list. The overall production still wasn’t elite, but from April 15 through his May 21 IL placement, Crews hit .234/.315/.459 (116 wRC+) with seven home runs and a greatly reduced 24.2% strikeout rate in 124 plate appearances. Along the way, he averaged 90.9 mph off the bat and posted a strong 44.4% hard-hit rate.

It’s been a similar story on his minor league rehab stint. Crews was hitless in his first three Triple-A games but has shaken off the rust with a .294/.333/.500 slash over his past nine games with Rochester (36 plate appearances). He’ll get one final tune-up today before returning to the Nats tomorrow. That’ll give Crews a bit more than six weeks to hopefully build on the momentum he appeared to be gaining from mid-April through late May.

Even with the slow start to his big league career, Crews is still seen as a key piece of the Nationals’ future. He’s controllable for five more years beyond the current season and won’t even turn 24 until February. If he can continue his upward trajectory in the final few weeks of the season, there’ll be some optimism about the long-term outlook in the outfield. James Wood is an emerging star who’ll likely top 30 homers in his first full major league season. Crews can handle center but profiles better in right, leaving center field up for grabs among a group including defensive standout Jacob Young, former top picks Robert Hassell III and Daylen Lile, and deadline pickup Christian Franklin (who came over from the Cubs in the Michael Soroka trade).

Astros Select Jordan Weems

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The Astros announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever Jordan Weems from Triple-A Sugar Land. Left-hander Colton Gordon was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move. Houston had an open 40-man spot.

It’s Weems’ second Astros stint of the season. He was up briefly from late June into early July, tossing three innings and allowing a pair of runs on five hits and no walks without a strikeout. Weems had opened the season in the Braves organization after signing a minor league deal but opted out of that contract and landed with Houston instead. He’s pitched well for their Triple-A club, logging 17 2/3 innings with a 3.06 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate.

Weems, 32, has now pitched in parts of six major league seasons. He’s previously suited up for the A’s, D-backs and Nationals. Add in his brief stint with the ’Stros earlier in the summer, and the 6’4″ righty has totaled 158 2/3 big league frames with a 5.28 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 37% ground-ball rate. He’s not far removed from posting a 3.62 ERA in a career-high 54 2/3 innings with the 2023 Nats, though that production came in spite of an ugly 12.1% walk rate and 1.48 HR/9. Some regression seemed inevitable, and Weems indeed struggled mightily with the ’24 Nats.

The call to the majors for Weems comes just one day after Houston placed star closer Josh Hader on the injured list with a shoulder strain. It’s still not clear how long Hader will be sidelined. Obviously, Weems isn’t going to be viewed as any kind of replacement. The Astros will mix and match in the ninth inning, giving save opportunities to righty Bryan Abreu and lefties Bryan King, Bennett Sousa and Steven Okert. Weems adds some depth to backfill the bullpen, though it’s also possible that he’s just being called up as a fresh arm and is in for another short stint on the roster. Houston was shellacked 14-1 at the hands of the Red Sox yesterday and used three relievers before turning things over to outfielder Chas McCormick to pitch the final two frames of mop-up work.

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