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Astros Designate Jordan Weems For Assignment

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The Astros have recalled right-hander Jason Alexander from Triple-A Sugar Land, reports Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle. Fellow righty Jordan Weems has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Weems was selected to the roster a little over a week ago. He got into two games for the Astros, logging three innings and allowing two earned runs on five hits. He didn’t issue a walk but he didn’t strike anyone out either. It seems the Astros weren’t impressed with that brief performance. Weems is out of options, so they had little choice but to designate him for assignment.

He now has a 5.28 earned run average in 158 2/3 innings over the past six big league seasons. His 23.2% strikeout rate is decent but has been declining. He was around 25% earlier in his career but that mark dropped to 17.9% last year. Prior to getting called up this year, he logged 29 Triple-A innings, split between the Braves’ and Astros’ affiliates. He had a 4.66 ERA with a 21.4% strikeout rate, 12.2% walk rate and 48.8% ground ball rate.

DFA limbo can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Astros could take five days to explore trade interest. If he were to pass through outright waivers unclaimed in the coming days, he will have the right to elect free agency.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images

Athletics Reinstate Zack Gelof, Release T.J. McFarland

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The Athletics announced today that infielder Zack Gelof has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. He’ll take the active roster spot of infielder Luis Urías, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a strained right hamstring, retroactive to July 3rd. The 40-man roster had a vacancy, so no corresponding move was required there. The A’s also announced that left-hander T.J. McFarland, who was designated for assignment last week, has been released.

Gelof has been on the IL all year up until now. He started the season on the shelf due to a hamate fracture. He was on a rehab assignment by late April but that was shut down after a few days due to a stress reaction in his ribs.

Now he can finally begin his season. He has shown some promise in his career so far but with some clear strikeout concerns. He debuted in 2023 with 14 home runs and 14 steals in just 69 games, but was punched out in 27.3% of his plate appearances. Last year, that strikeout rate jumped to 34.4% and he only hit 17 homers, despite getting into twice as many games. But his second base defense was solid and he stole another 25 bags, so he was still a useful player.

Ideally, continued reps will help him get that strikeout rate down to a more manageable level. The injuries have stood in the way of that path so far in 2025 but there’s still almost half the season to go. Urías has been the club’s regular second baseman lately, so Gelof can perhaps just slide into that spot and continue his development.

Urías is having a decent season and should be a midseason trade candidate. He’s an impending free agent making just $1.1MM this year. He is slashing .239/.320/.363 for a wRC+ of 91. The injury complicates things somewhat but it doesn’t appear to be serious. Manager Mark Kotsay didn’t think it was an IL stint as of Wednesday, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. Though the club has decided to shelve him, he may be back right after the break.

As for McFarland, once he was designated for assignment, it was likely he would end up on the open market. He is making $1.8MM this year and has a 6.89 earned run average. No club was going to have interest in taking that salary on. As a veteran with years of experience, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. The A’s have skipped that formality.

Now that he has been released, they are on the hook for that salary. Any other club can sign him and only pay him the prorated version of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. At that price point, clubs could be interested.

He has a 4.18 ERA in over a decade in the big leagues and his 2025 struggles may have been partially due to luck. His .393 batting average on balls in play and 66.2% strand rate are both to the unlucky side. His 9.5% strikeout rate was low even by his usual standards but his 61.3% ground ball rate was still strong. His 4.62 FIP and 3.83 SIERA suggest he might still be the same guy, despite this year’s ERA spike.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Rockies Reinstate Ryan Feltner From 60-Day IL, Outright Sam Hilliard

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The Rockies announced a pair of transactions today. They reinstated Ryan Feltner from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A, and they sent outfielder Sam Hilliard outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. The team already had an open spot for Feltner on the 40-man after designating Hilliard for assignment earlier in the week, so no corresponding move was necessary.

It is somewhat surprising news that Feltner has been optioned, considering he has made Colorado’s Opening Day rotation in each of the past three years and has not pitched in the minors for any reason other than a rehab assignment since July 2022. In fact, he was the team’s most effective starting pitcher just last season (4.49 ERA, 4.31 SIERA in 30 starts), and he looked much the same over his first six starts in 2025, pitching to a 4.75 ERA and 4.49 SIERA through the end of April. However, this seems to be less of a demotion and more of a continued rehab assignment for Feltner. He has been on the IL since May due to back spasms, and he did not look particularly sharp in any of his three rehab outings with the Isotopes.

With the way that rookie Chase Dollander has struggled this season, especially as of late, Feltner won’t be blocked if he proves he’s ready to return to the majors. At the same time, the 20-67 Rockies have little incentive to rush him back before then. Hopefully for Felter, a few more outings at Triple-A are all he needs to rein in his control and get back to being the pitcher he was before his injury.

As for Hilliard, he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but not without sacrificing the remainder of his guaranteed salary for 2025. Thus, it seems likely he will accept the assignment, just as he did the last time the Rockies DFA’d and outrighted him this season. Presumably, he will return to Albuquerque and continue to serve as speedy, lefty-batting outfield depth for the organization.

Rangers Designate Billy McKinney For Assignment

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With Evan Carter returning from the bereavement list today, the Rangers have designated Billy McKinney for assignment. It was a quick stint in Arlington for the 30-year-old outfielder.

McKinney signed a minor league contract with the Rangers in May after he was released by the Mets. Following a strong month at Triple-A Round Rock, he got the call to the majors earlier this week when Carter was placed on the bereavement list. He went 1-for-7 with a walk and a run in two games. While he didn’t get much of a chance to prove himself for Texas, his .295/.433/.487 slash line and 137 wRC+ for Round Rock might be enough to convince a team in need of outfield depth or a lefty bench bat to take a chance on him via trade or a waiver claim.

A first-round pick in 2013, McKinney has never been able to live up to that billing. He has, however, carved out a legitimate major league career for himself. He has appeared in the majors each year since 2018, suiting up for the Yankees, Blue Jays, Brewers, Mets, Dodgers, Athletics, Pirates, and Rangers. He also spent time in the Cubs’ minor league system early in his career. Over the past eight years, he has appeared at all three outfield spots as well as first base and DH, playing a total of 323 MLB games. He will look to increase that number once his DFA is resolved.

As for the Rangers, they are surely pleased to have Carter’s hot bat back in their lineup and his glove back in center field. The 22-year-old has an .816 OPS and a 133 wRC+ this season, and a .965 OPS and 173 wRC+ over the past month. He has also compiled 2 DRS and 3 OAA in center field and has yet to make an error all season. Even better, the Rangers are also hoping to have Wyatt Langford back from the injured list this weekend. Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News notes that Langford is eligible to return tomorrow and reports that the young outfielder is already back in the clubhouse ahead of today’s game.

Blue Jays Select Lazaro Estrada, Transfer Anthony Santander To 60-Day IL

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2:53 PM: The Blue Jays have made it official and selected Estrada’s contract from Triple-A Buffalo. To free up room on the 26 and 40-man rosters, the team optioned left-hander Justin Bruihl to Triple-A and transferred outfielder/DH Anthony Santander from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Santander will now not be eligible to return until late July.

7:10 AM: The Blue Jays are set to select the contract of right-hander Lazaro Estrada today, according to a report from Yordano Carmona of Pelota Cubana USA. Toronto’s 40-man roster is full, so a corresponding move will be necessary to make room for Estrada on both the active and 40-man rosters. Should Estrada make an appearance while on the roster, it would be his big league debut.

Estrada, 26, was born in La Habana, Cuba and made his pro debut with the Blue Jays back in 2018. After losing a season of development to 2020’s cancelled minor league season, Estrada managed just 39 1/3 innings of work total between 2021 and ’22 due to injuries. That slowed his ascent up the minor league ladder considerably, and he only cracked the Double-A level just last year. Despite that slow-going path to the majors, however, Estrada posted a 3.29 ERA across three levels of the minors last year and has followed that up by more or less holding his own at the Triple-A level this year. He has a 4.75 ERA through 15 starts, but his 24.8% strikeout rate is quite strong for a starter while his 7.8% walk rate is roughly average.

It’s not entirely clear what role Estrada will play now that he’s headed to the majors. The Blue Jays have a full rotation for the first time in a while, with Max Scherzer back from the injured list and southpaw Eric Lauer having more than earned a spot in the starting five after posting a 2.60 ERA on the season, including a 3.32 ERA in four starts since moving to the rotation last month. That duo is joined by Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, and Jose Berrios. While each of those three is having somewhat middling seasons overall, none of them should be expected to move out of the rotation  barring a trip to the injured list.

That makes the most likely outcome for Estrada a move to the bullpen. The right-hander could serve as a solid complement to Lauer, who for all his effectiveness has capped out around 85 pitches this year. That could make having a multi-inning righty able to piggyback off of Lauer an attractive option, and Estrada would also be able to more generally provide length to a bullpen that has been leaned on heavily in recent days.

Yankees Place Clarke Schmidt On 15-Day IL With Forearm Tightness

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The Yankees have placed starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tightness. In additional pitching transactions, the team optioned Clayton Beeter to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre yesterday and recalled Scott Effross and Jayvien Sandridge this morning.

Schmidt, 29, exited early on Thursday after giving up three runs in three innings against the Blue Jays and later revealed that he has been nursing some tightness in his forearm for a month (per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). He is going for imaging today (per Greg Joyce of the New York Post), which is worrisome enough, but the fact that the team placed him on the IL before his MRI is further cause for concern. Joyce suggests that it is not yet clear if the Yankees will be able to offer an update on Schmidt by the end of the day today.

The right-hander sat out the first three weeks of the season with rotator cuff tendonitis. Upon his return, however, he picked up right where he left off in 2024 (another injury-shortened but nonetheless successful campaign). Through 16 starts this year, Schmidt has pitched to a 3.32 ERA and 4.23 SIERA. Add that to his 16 starts from last year, and you get a 3.07 ERA and 3.97 SIERA through 30 starts and 164 innings. In other words, it’s not hard to see why he’s so important to the middle of the Yankees’ rotation and why losing him to the IL again would be a significant loss for the club.

New York’s rotation was already stretched thin with Gerrit Cole out for the year, Luis Gil out since spring training with a lat strain, and Ryan Yarbrough recently hitting the IL with a strained oblique. Max Fried and Carlos Rodón make for as good of a top two as you’ll find on any AL club, but Will Warren has been wildly inconsistent in his rookie season, and Marcus Stroman only just returned from a long IL stint of his own. The only other healthy starter on the 40-man roster is 29-year-old Allan Winans, who has excelled at Triple-A but has a career 7.38 ERA over 10 MLB games. JT Brubaker can also start, but he has been pitching out of the bullpen this year and has not started in the majors since 2022. According to Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, the team considers pitching prospect Cam Schlittler a potential option for the rotation in the second half, but it’s unclear if they would call him up sooner. He has been excellent in the minors this season, but this is only his third professional campaign, and he only has five starts at Triple-A under his belt. So, if Schmidt misses significant time – and even if he doesn’t – the Yankees could seek some outside help for the rotation as they look to regain first place in the AL East.

Cubs Place Jameson Taillon On 15-Day IL With Calf Strain

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The Cubs are placing starting pitcher Jameson Taillon on the 15-day injured list with a strained right calf. The team revealed the news to reporters (including Patrick Mooney of The Athletic) this morning and confirmed the transaction shortly thereafter. Jordan Wicks is coming up from the Triple-A Iowa Cubs to take Taillon’s spot on the active roster. However, manager Craig Counsell said that Chris Flexen, not Wicks, is the most likely candidate to temporarily join the rotation (per Bruce Levine of 670 The Score). Flexen has been working as a long reliever this season, but he made 30 starts for the White Sox just last year.

Taillon, 33, suffered the injury while running in a training session and is expected to miss more than a month (per Vinnie Duber of the Chicago Sun-Times). While he hasn’t been as effective for Chicago as he was last year, there is no doubt the Cubs will miss his reliable presence on the mound every five days. His 95 1/3 innings rank 20th among NL starting pitchers, while his 4.44 ERA (85 ERA+) and 4.24 xERA (32nd percentile) suggest he has been more than serviceable as an inning-eating back-end starter. He hasn’t looked his best recently, with a 10.66 ERA over 12 2/3 innings in his last three starts, so if there is any silver lining to this injury, it is that he will have some time to rest and reset. The Cubs will hope he returns looking more like the guy who pitched to a 3.48 ERA over his first 14 starts.

Wicks, the Cubs’ first-round pick in 2021, has never quite looked comfortable at the MLB level, with a career 5.23 ERA and 4.68 SIERA over 82 2/3 innings from 2023-25. With that said, he has looked sharp over his last handful of outings at Triple-A (16 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 20 K, 3 BB). The 25-year-old will presumably take over Flexen’s low-leverage long-relief gig. Flexen, meanwhile, shouldn’t have too much trouble transitioning back to the rotation. He started five games at Triple-A in April before he was called up to the big league club, pitching to a 3-0 record with a 1.16 ERA and 2.89 FIP. While he has not started in the majors since 2024, he tossed four scoreless innings of relief against the Astros last week, so stretching out shouldn’t be too difficult. Although Flexen was not very effective as a starter in either of the last two seasons, he has more than earned another opportunity with his excellent performance so far in 2025. In 29 innings spread out over 16 appearances, he has given up just two earned runs on 16 hits.

The Cubs have been without Javier Assad (oblique injury) all season, and Justin Steele required season-ending elbow surgery after just four starts. Shota Imanaga also missed significant time earlier this year, but the Cubs were grateful to see him back on the mound last week. Imanaga and the surprisingly dominant Matthew Boyd give Chicago a strong one-two punch atop the rotation, but the back end could be a weak spot until Taillon returns.

Nationals Place Trevor Williams On Injured List With Elbow Sprain

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves this morning, headlined by their placement of right-hander Trevor Williams on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow sprain. Right-hander Ryan Loutos was recalled to the MLB roster to replace Williams. In an additional move, Washington has activated catcher Keibert Ruiz from the 7-day concussion-related injured list and optioned catcher Drew Millas to Triple-A.

Williams, 33, has been part of the Nationals’ rotation all year but struggled badly with his results. The righty is sporting a 6.21 ERA across 17 starts and 82 2/3 innings this year. That’s the third-worst figure in baseball among pitchers with at least 80 innings of work this year. Brutal as the results have been, it’s perhaps worth noting that Williams has gotten quite unlucky according to the underlying metrics. His .347 BABIP allowed is nearly fifty points higher than his career mark, and a 61.6% strand rate suggests he’s been the victim of poor sequencing as well. Williams’s 4.08 FIP and 4.45 FIP paint him as a roughly average fifth starter based on his performance this year, despite the rough run prevention numbers.

In terms of strikeout and walk rate, Williams hasn’t been all that different than 2024. Last year saw him pitch to a dazzling 2.03 ERA in 66 2/3 innings, but his results then were much better than the metrics suggested they should have been. Taken together, Williams’s strong but abbreviated 2024 and his brutal first half this year paint a picture of a mid-to-back of the rotation arm: 30 starts, a 4.34 ERA, a 3.51 FIP, and a 4.23 SIERA. Perhaps there would’ve been a pitching-needy club or two who would have viewed Williams as a decent innings-eating arm to bet on for a low-cost flier this summer, but today’s injury news will throw a wrench into that possibility.

The exact details surrounding Williams’s injury are not yet known, but any injury involving a pitcher’s elbow is concerning and will typically be treated with an abundance of caution to avoid further damage. Williams figures to be out for several weeks at the very least and could miss much longer than that. A clearer timeline for his return to action figures to be available with time, but Mark Zuckerman of MASN reports that Williams himself suggested that the injury is “comparable” to the flexor strain that cost him more than three months last year. A similar timeline for his recovery this time around would likely put an end to his 2025 campaign.

For the time being, Williams will be replaced on the roster by Loutos. The righty was plucked off waivers from the Dodgers earlier this year but has surrendered eight runs (six earned) in just 4 1/3 innings during his time in a Nationals uniform. He’ll help eat innings for now, but the club will need to replace Williams in the rotation eventually. Cade Cavalli and Shinnosuke Ogasawara are both on the 40-man roster and could be called upon, though Cavalli has struggled at Triple-A this year while Ogasawara is currently pitching at High-A as he works his way back from an injury.

As for Ruiz, the catcher was placed on the 10-day IL after being struck by a foul ball while in the dugout on June 24, but was later moved to the concussion-related IL after experiencing headaches. He figures to resume getting the lion’s share of playing time behind the plate going forward, with Riley Adams serving as his backup. The eight-year, $50MM extension the Nats signed Ruiz to prior to the 2023 season hasn’t worked out so far, and he’s hitting just .247/.278/.320 in 66 games this year. Even so, the former top prospect is still just 26 years old and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that his numbers could improve given how common it is for catchers to be relatively late bloomers at the big league level.

Tayler Scott Elects Free Agency

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Reliever Tayler Scott elected free agency after being outrighted by the Diamondbacks, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Arizona had designated the righty for assignment over the weekend when they called up John Curtiss.

Scott has been DFA twice on the season. He began the year with the Astros and was dropped from the roster in mid-May. He elected free agency, signed a minor league deal with Arizona, and was selected onto their big league roster in June. Scott pitched six times for the Snakes, allowing nine runs in as many innings with seven strikeouts and four walks. He carries a 6.66 earned run average over 25 2/3 innings between Houston and Arizona on the season.

The 33-year-old Scott has pitched in parts of five MLB campaigns. He made 79 appearances with Houston but has otherwise yet to reach 10 games for any individual team. He has been a very popular depth target, however, as the Diamondbacks were the eighth club of his big league career. He’ll pursue his next opportunity now that he’s back on the open market.

Rays Outright Forrest Whitley

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The Rays announced that right-hander Forrest Whitley was outrighted to Triple-A Durham. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times first reported the move. Whitley, once the sport’s top pitching prospect, went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment over the weekend.

It was the second DFA of the season for the former first-round pick. The Astros had carried Whitley on their 40-man roster for years as he battled injuries and struggled to find the strike zone. They finally pulled the plug in mid-June, flipping him to the Rays after taking him off the 40-man roster. Whitley continued to struggle in his brief run in Kevin Cash’s bullpen. He surrendered 10 runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks in 4 2/3 innings.

The 6’7″ righty still has a power arsenal led by a 96 MPH fastball. Yet he has given up 18 earned runs in 15 1/3 major league innings over the past two seasons. His 8% swinging strike rate is well below-average. Whitley managed a 1.89 ERA across 33 1/3 Triple-A frames as recently as last season, but he’s out of minor league options. A claiming team would have needed to carry him on the MLB roster.

Whitley had never been outrighted and doesn’t have three years of MLB service time. He must accept the assignment and report to Durham. The Rays’ player development staff will have a few months to try to get him on track. He would qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if Tampa Bay doesn’t select him back onto the MLB roster before then.

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