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White Sox Designate Jared Shuster For Assignment

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The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve reinstated lefty Martin Perez from the 60-day injured list. Triple-A lefty Jared Shuster was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Reliever Cam Booser was optioned to Triple-A to open a spot on the active roster.

Perez has been out since April 18 due to a flexor strain. He pitched quite well through his first four starts (3.15 ERA in 20 innings) but wasn’t healthy enough to develop into a potential trade deadline chip, as the rebuilding White Sox probably hoped when signing him to a one-year, $5MM contract over the winter.

Perez pitched a combined 6 2/3 innings over a pair of minor league rehab starts and will now at least get the opportunity to eat some innings for the Sox down the stretch — all while looking to showcase his health for interested clubs in the offseason. Perez’s deal contains a mutual option, but it’s been more than a decade since both ends of a mutual option was exercised by team and player alike. He’s all but certain to become a free agent again in November.

Shuster, 27, was a first-round pick of the Braves back in 2020 (No. 25 overall). He came to the South Side by way of the 2023 Aaron Bummer swap — a deal that netted the Sox five players but was more of a volume play wherein Chicago picked up several former top prospects in hopes of turning a couple of them around. It hasn’t panned out. Braden Shewmake, Michael Soroka and Nicky Lopez have all since been cut loose. With Shuster now designated for assignment and perhaps on his way out the door, 25-year-old righty Riley Gowens is the most promising remnant of that return. He’s posted a 4.05 ERA through 100 innings in his second go-around at the Double-A level and is not ranked among the system’s 30 best prospects.

In his two seasons with the ChiSox, Shuster has made 51 appearances — all but six of them out of the bullpen — and pitched a combined 89 innings with a 4.96 earned run average. He’s fanned only 16.9% of his opponents and turned in a 9.4% walk rate. Both, particularly the strikeout rate, are worse than league average.

Shuster has been up and down this season. Between his frequent shuttling from Chicago to Charlotte (where the Sox’ Triple-A club plays) and a 15-day IL stint due to blisters on his pitching hand, he’s pitched just 22 1/3 innings in Triple-A and 15 1/3 frames in the majors. His minor league work this year has also been lackluster, evidenced by a 6.04 ERA. Shuster’s 19.8% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate in Charlotte are at least moderately more encouraging than his MLB rate stats, but he’s also averaged two homers per nine innings pitched in Triple-A this year.

Shuster will be out of minor league options next year, so he was always a long shot to stick on the roster into next year’s camp. With the trade deadline behind us, he’ll be placed on waivers within the next five days. Shuster hasn’t been outrighted in the past and doesn’t have three years of MLB service, so if he goes unclaimed he’ll stick with the White Sox via an outright assignment to Charlotte.

Mets To Promote Nolan McLean

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The Mets will call up top pitching prospect Nolan McLean to make his MLB debut this Saturday, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. He’ll step into the rotation spot vacated by Frankie Montas’ move to the bullpen. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported earlier this morning that righty Paul Blackburn was also headed to the bullpen when he’s ready to be reinstated from the injured list, setting the stage for either McLean or fellow prospect Brandon Sproat to make his debut.

As we noted yesterday when the Mets moved Montas to the ’pen, the Saturday start aligns far better with McLean’s turn in the Triple-A rotation than with that of Sproat. McLean has also simply outpitched Sproat this season, though both well-regarded prospects have excelled recently.

The timing of the move likely isn’t a coincidence. Saturday marks the first day on the calendar where there’s not enough time remaining for players to accrue enough service to exhaust their rookie eligibility. By waiting until Saturday to promote McLean, the Mets have ensured that he’ll still qualify as a rookie next season and therefore still be able to earn the Mets potential future draft picks via the league’s Prospect Promotion Incentive (PPI) program. In all likelihood, McLean is just one of several top prospects around the league who’ll be promoted after Aug. 15.

McLean, 24, was the Mets’ third-round pick in 2023. He’s rated as one of the system’s more promising young arms since that selection, but his stock has exploded in 2025 as he’s ripped through Double-A and Triple-A lineups. McLean has pitched a combined 113 2/3 innings between those two levels and compiled a tidy 2.45 ERA while punching out 27.2% of his opponents. His 10.7% walk rate is still too high, but his huge 54.7% ground-ball rate can help to erase a few of those free passes by way of the double-play ball.

This year’s terrific run has not only vaulted McLean toward the top of the Mets’ in-house prospect lists — it’s made him a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport. He sits 37th among all big league prospects at MLB.com, 40th at Baseball America and 53rd at FanGraphs on each outlet’s post-deadline reranking of the sport’s top young talents.

The 6’2″, 215-pound McLean is an Oklahoma State product whose athleticism draws plenty of praise. He was a two-sport star in high school, playing both baseball and football, and he was a two-way player at OSU, where he was a third baseman and outfielder in addition to his work on the mound. He’s since dialed in only on pitching and experienced an uptick in velocity, now sitting 95 mph with a four-seamer that can climb to 98 mph when he needs to reach back for a bit extra. MLB.com’s report on McLean calls his sweeper a “monster” of a pitch with “elite” spin rate. He’s sitting 85.5 mph with that pitch and also mixing in a sinker, cutter and seldom-used changeup.

Because McLean will retain rookie eligibility going into next year, he could earn the Mets a draft pick down the line. If McLean were to win National League Rookie of the Year or finish top-three in NL MVP voting next season, the Mets would gain that pick. Even if McLean doesn’t hit either of those goals, the fact that he’ll be a top-100 prospect who accrued a full year of service as a rookie opens a three-year window for him to net the Mets a compensatory pick based on award voting. If McLean were to land any top-three finish in Cy Young or MVP voting before reaching arbitration, the Mets would still gain a pick. Players can only net their team one pick under the league’s PPI program, but the timing of his promotion means McLean could do so at any point from 2026-28.

Setting aside the PPI aspect of the promotion, McLean’s promotion comes at a time when he cannot accrue a year of service this season. He’ll be controllable for at least six full years beyond the current campaign — potentially more than that, depending on whether he’s optioned at any point in the future. The earliest he could become a free agent would be after the 2031 season, and the earliest McLean could qualify for arbitration would be following the 2028 season.

Diamondbacks Sign Matt Mervis To Minor League Deal

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Matt Mervis has found a new home after he was released by the Marlins earlier this month. The first baseman signed a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks today, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. He will report to the Triple-A Reno Aces. A lefty power bat, Mervis will slot in as a nice replacement for Seth Brown, who opted out of his minor league deal with the D-backs over the weekend.

The Cubs signed Mervis as an undrafted free agent in 2020. He got off to a slow start in 2021 but started mashing his way through the minors in 2022. He continued swinging a hot bat at Triple-A in 2023, earning his first MLB call-up that May. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t figure out big league pitching, a theme that continued in 2024 and again this year after the Cubs flipped him to the Marlins for Vidal Bruján. All told, in 261 plate appearances from 2023-25, he has hit .165 with a .560 OPS and a 53 wRC+. His 10 home runs are nothing to sniff at, but he has struggled to do damage when he hasn’t hit the ball out of the park, and he’s struck out more than one-third of the time.

There’s no denying how disappointing those MLB numbers are. Yet, perhaps the right organization can teach Mervis how to limit his strikeouts and tap into the prodigious power he has flashed in the minor leagues. In just over 1,800 minor league plate appearances, he’s hit 95 doubles and 95 home runs, good for a .517 slugging percentage and .250 isolated power. The Cubs and Marlins couldn’t help him reach his ceiling, but now the Diamondbacks will give it a shot.

Royals To Sign Nick Robertson To Minor League Deal

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The Royals have agreed to a minor league contract with Nick Robertson, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The right-hander had spent most of the season in the Astros organization, but he was released today, according to the transaction log on his MLB.com player page.

Robertson, who recently turned 27, appeared in the majors for the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Blue Jays from 2023-24, pitching a total of 35 2/3 innings over 27 games. He struck out 40 while issuing just nine unintentional walks, but a high opponents’ batting average and six home runs led to a 5.30 ERA.

The Blue Jays held on to Robertson over the 2024-25 offseason but designated him for assignment on Opening Day. They then traded him to the Astros, and while he never earned a promotion to Houston, he stuck on the 40-man roster for the first four months of the year. Eventually, however, Robertson was DFA’d in the days leading up to the trade deadline, but he passed through waivers unclaimed, and the Astros sent him outright back to Triple-A Sugar Land.

Robertson has a 4.25 ERA but a 5.12 FIP in 36 Triple-A innings this year. Control has been an issue, as his 16.6% walk rate is the highest mark he’s posted at any level in any single season of his career. Yet, the Royals must have seen something they liked; perhaps it’s his 47.8% groundball rate, which has helped him limit his opponents to just three home runs in 157 trips to the plate. Indeed, Robertson has always done quite a good job of limiting home runs at Triple-A. In 127 innings dating back to 2022, he has only given up 12 long balls, a rate of one every 46.25 batters faced. While he hasn’t earned much MLB playing time, several organizations have been intrigued by his profile over the past two years. The Dodgers included him in their trade for Enrique Hernández at the 2023 deadline, and the Red Sox flipped him to the Cardinals the following winter as part of the return for Tyler O’Neill. The Angels, Blue Jays, and Astros have since acquired him, and now the Royals are the latest club interested in seeing what he has to offer.

Rays Place Taylor Walls On 10-Day IL With Groin Strain

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The Rays have placed shortstop Taylor Walls on the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain, the team announced. In a corresponding move, outfielder Tristan Peters was recalled from Triple-A.

Walls has been Tampa Bay’s primary shortstop this year, with 77 starts and 94 appearances at the position. It was particularly noteworthy that he still got his fair share of starts at shortstop when both he and Ha-Seong Kim were healthy. Kim signed a two-year, $29MM deal with the Rays over the offseason (a sizeable deal by their standards) with the expectation that he would become the starting shortstop. While injuries have limited Kim to just 18 games this year, the fact that Walls has shared the position with Kim lately shows how highly the Rays must think of Walls’ defense. Indeed, Walls was scheduled to start at shortstop on Saturday before he was scratched from the lineup. Kim has since started at shortstop in each of the team’s last three games.

Manager Kevin Cash explained that Walls still felt “closer to 75% rather than 100%” before today’s matchup with the Athletics, so the team decided he needed “a couple days to let [his groin injury] continue to calm down” (per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).

Tampa Bay will be just fine in the middle infield in Walls’s absence. Kim can play shortstop full-time (with Tristan Gray around as a backup), and All-Star Brandon Lowe can return to playing second base on a daily basis. Lowe had recently started a handful of games at first base and DH to make room for Kim at second base when Walls was starting at short. The problem is that with Lowe at second base and Yandy Díaz at first, the Rays are left without a good option to DH. All-Star Jonathan Aranda is on the IL with a broken wrist (hence Díaz’s return to first base). He remains hopeful he’ll return this season (per MLB.com’s Joey Johnston), but it’s far from a guarantee. For as long as Aranda is out of the equation, the Rays are at their best with Walls and Kim sharing middle infield duties while Lowe and Díaz cover first base and DH. They have not yet offered a timeline for Walls’s return, but they will hope his groin strain proves to be minor.

Entering play today, the Rays are 5.5 games back of the last AL Wild Card spot. They’re a talented team, with a +43 run differential that is far more impressive than their sub-.500 record. However, they’re running out of time to make a comeback. Both FanGraphs and PECOTA have their postseason odds below 5%. With Aranda out indefinitely and Shane McLanahan officially done for the season, they can’t afford for much else to go wrong.

Angels Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment

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The Angels announced that they have recalled infielder Niko Kavadas and right-hander Víctor Mederos from Triple-A Salt Lake. In corresponding moves, they have placed outfielder Gustavo Campero on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain and designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment.

Anderson was just selected to the roster yesterday. On Sunday, starter Jack Kochanowicz had lasted just three innings. Carson Fulmer came in from the bullpen to mop up five innings of long relief. With Fulmer likely unavailable for a few days, the Halos optioned out Kochanowicz and selected Anderson to give them a fresh arm.

In last night’s game against the Dodgers, the Angels had a 7-0 lead through seven. Starter José Soriano had put up six zeroes and then Luis García put up one more. They tried to spare their high-leverage arms by putting Anderson in to pitch the eighth. Unfortunately, he only recorded two outs, allowing four earned runs along the way. That included a solo home run to Shohei Ohtani and a three-run shot to Max Muncy.

That performance has led to Anderson getting bumped off the roster approximately 24 hours after being added. He is out of options, so the Angels had to remove him from the 40-man entirely. With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll be on waivers shortly. He cleared waivers a couple of months back and could do so again. If that comes to pass, he’ll have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. He has 163 1/3 big league innings under his belt with a 6.39 earned run average.

Mederos is starting for the Halos tonight. As mentioned, Kochanowicz was optioned out. Also, Tyler Anderson has back stiffness, per Sam Blum of The Athletic. It’s unclear if this is just a spot start or if Mederos will having a rotation role for a while. Mederos will be pitching on just three days rest, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Interim manager Ray Montgomery says he thinks Mederos can still take on a fairly normal workload since he only tossed 52 pitches last time out.

The 24-year-old Mederos has a limited major league track record but is having a decent season in Triple-A. He has tossed 87 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.39 ERA, 18.6% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 40.2% ground ball rate.

Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images

Twins Sign Génesis Cabrera To Minor League Deal

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The Twins announced that they have signed left-hander Génesis Cabrera to a minor league deal, per Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune. The southpaw will report to Triple-A St. Paul.

Cabrera, 28, has had an up-and-down career. He has good velocity, hitting mid-90s with both of his fastballs, as well as throwing a cutter and a curveball. He previously threw a changeup but seems to have swapped that out for a splitter this year.

Broadly speaking, he has not had great control. He has been able to get some strikeouts, but has been inconsistent in that regard. Overall, he has 303 2/3 innings in the big leagues with a 4.06 earned run average. His 10.9% walk rate is a couple of ticks above par. His 22.1% strikeout rate is close to average but, as mentioned, has oscillated. He struck out a third of opponents in the shortened 2020 season but that dropped to 26% and then to 16.5% in the next two seasons. He got that back up to 24.3% in 2023 but has been below 19% since then.

He has been in journeyman mode this year, likely a result of both his inconsistent results and the fact that he has at least five years of service time, meaning he can no longer be optioned to the minors without his consent. He has had brief stints with the Mets, Cubs and Pirates this year, tossing between 7 and 11 innings with each. Put together, he has a 5.79 ERA and 18.8% strikeout rate in 28 frames. His 6.6% walk rate has been a nice improvement relative to his previous work.

The Twins traded away all their best relievers prior to the deadline. Jhoan Durán, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Brock Stewart and Danny Coulombe were all sent packing in the 24 hours prior to the deadline. Since then, the club has called up various pitchers from the minors, in addition to claiming Thomas Hatch and Brooks Kriske off waivers.

Cabrera will give them another experienced arm without taking up a roster spot. The fact that he’s left-handed makes sense. Currently, Kody Funderburk is the only healthy southpaw on the 40-man roster. There’s not enough time left in the year for Cabrera to get to six years of service time. If he happens to be holding a roster spot at season’s end, he can be retained for 2026 via arbitration.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images

Blue Jays To Designate Buddy Kennedy For Assignment

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The Blue Jays are activating infielder Andrés Giménez from the 10-day injured list, reports Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet. In a corresponding move, infielder Buddy Kennedy will be designated for assignment.

Kennedy was selected to Toronto’s roster a week ago. It seemed likely to be a short stay. He was hitting just .207/.309/.259 for Triple-A Buffalo at the time he was called up. His selection was less about his performance and more about the specific roster needs.

The Jays went with a temporary three-catcher setup. Ali Sánchez was selected to the roster when Alejandro Kirk landed on the concussion injured list. When Kirk was ready to return, Tyler Heineman was also banged up after taking a foul ball to the mask. They decided to keep all three for a few days, just to be safe, which meant bench infielder Leo Jiménez had to be optioned out as the corresponding move for Kirk’s activation.

A few days later, the Jays were comfortable enough with the health of Kirk and Heineman to bring back another bench infielder. Jiménez had not yet been optioned for the 10-day minimum, so he couldn’t be recalled. Giménez was still not ready to come off the IL but was beginning a rehab assignment. Kennedy got the roster spot while Giménez got into game shape. The Jays sent Kennedy to the plate 6 times and he got a hit and a walk, but he’s now been squeezed out.

Since Kennedy is out of options, he had to be removed from the 40-man. With the trade deadline having passed, the Jays will have to put him on waivers. He was passed through waivers unclaimed just over a month ago, after being designated for assignment by the Phillies, and could do so again.

He now has a .193/.288/.300 line in 163 big league appearances. His Triple-A work is better, with a .284/.395/.443 line and 118 wRC+ dating back to the start of 2023. However, his out-of-options status makes it hard for him to hold a roster spot for very long. If he clears waivers again, he’ll have to right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright.

Photo courtesy of Kiyoshi Mio, Imagn Images

White Sox Designate Corey Julks For Assignment, Select Yoendrys Gómez

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The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder/outfielder Miguel Vargas has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and right-hander Yoendrys Gómez has been selected to the roster. In corresponding moves, the club optioned right-hander Elvis Peguero to Triple-A Charlotte and designated outfielder Corey Julks for assignment.

The Sox selected Julks to their roster at the start of the month. They had traded Austin Slater to the Yankees ahead of the deadline, opening some outfield playing time. It seems they never really had Julks in their plans. They have given him just eight plate appearances this month. He could hardly have done much more with that small sample of playing time, as he produced a .375/.375/.625 line. Now that he’s quickly being bumped off the roster, it seems the Sox were only viewing him as a temporary stopgap.

He now heads into DFA limbo. With the trade deadline having passed, the Sox will have to put him on waivers. Despite that aforementioned hot run, his major league results have not been great on the whole. He now has a .236/.290/.340 line and 76 wRC+ in 520 big league plate appearances.

His minor league track record is better. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has 1,258 Triple-A plate appearances with a .275/.364/.485 line and 119 wRC+. That includes a .295/.373/.470 line and 117 wRC+ this year. He’s also usually good for double-digits steals in most years, with 13 Triple-A steals so far in 2025.

He has one option year remaining and hasn’t yet burned it here in 2025. It’s therefore possible for a club to put in a claim, keep Julks in the majors for most of what remains of 2025, thereby keeping that option year intact for 2026. It’s also possible for a club to claim him and stash him in the minors for the stretch run, even if that would burn his final option. However, Julks was also passed through waivers in the offseason, so it’s possible that happens again. If he clears this time, it would be his second career outright, meaning he would have the right to elect free agency.

As for Gómez, it’s possible he’s getting a more meaningful audition, as he’s listed as tonight’s starter for the White Sox. The club recently optioned Jonathan Cannon, opening a rotation spot. The Sox did a bullpen game yesterday, with Tyler Alexander covering the bulk role by throwing 4 1/3 innings. Perhaps Gómez will get a few turns to show his bonafides.

Coming into 2025, he had posted intriguing minor league numbers as a starter in the Yankees’ system. But he hadn’t yet done much in the majors and was out of options. That left him stuck in a long relief role to begin the year and eventually got him pushed off the roster. He went to the Dodgers and then the White Sox via the waiver wire. The Sox eventually pushed him through unclaimed towards the end of May.

While no player wants to lose his spot in the big leagues, getting outrighted to Triple-A at least gave Gómez a chance to get stretched back out as a starter and the results have been good. Since clearing waivers, he has tossed 46 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.12 earned run average, 32% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate.

The Sox are playing out the string on another losing season, so they should be able to give Gómez a little audition the rest of the way. If he’s able to post decent results and hold a roster spot into next year, he can be controlled for six full seasons after this one.

Photo courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski, Imagn Images

Mariners Claim Domingo González

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander Domingo González off waivers from the Braves and assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma. Atlanta designated him for earlier this week when they claimed righty Connor Seabold. Seattle’s 40-man roster had a vacancy but is now full.

González, 25, has no major league experience yet. Originally an international signing of the Pirates, Atlanta nabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. A couple of years later, after the 2024 campaign, Atlanta added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency.

He had done some starting while in the Pirates’ system but has been almost exclusively a reliever since joining the Braves. His only two starts since switching organizations were two-inning stints as an opener. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he logged 106 1/3 innings with a 3.55 earned run average. His 11.9% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 34.3% of opponents.

Given that performance, it’s understandable that Atlanta didn’t want him to get away and gave him a roster spot. But his results have backed up a bit this year. He has thrown 42 Triple-A innings with a 4.29 ERA, 21.4% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. Those numbers seemingly prevented him from getting a big league call-up and also nudged him off the 40-man and onto the waiver wire.

For the Mariners, they had a free roster spot and have used it to scoop up González. Since he is in his first of three option years, the M’s could potentially be patient in trying to get him back on track. He has no major league service time yet, so he’ll be cheaply controllable for years to come if he can develop into a serviceable big league arm, though he’ll first have to show enough promise to hang onto a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

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