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Guardians Promote C.J. Kayfus

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Today: The Guardians made it official, selecting Kayfus’s contract from Triple-A. In additional roster moves, the Guardians activated right-hander (and recent waiver claim) Carlos Hernández and optioned outfielder Johnathan Rodríguez and left-hander Tim Herrin to Triple-A.

August 1: The Guardians are calling up first baseman/corner outfielder C.J. Kayfus, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Cleveland has an opening on the 40-man roster and only needs to make an active roster transaction.

Kayfus, 23, was Cleveland’s third-round pick in the 2023 draft. The Miami product has raked sine entering pro ball. He hit .291/.393/.511 between High-A and Double-A in his first full pro season. Kayfus hit .364 in 18 games to begin this year in Double-A. The Guards bumped him to Triple-A Columbus by the end of April. That hasn’t much slowed him down, as he’s hitting .283/.367/.526 across 289 plate appearances. Kayfus has popped 13 homers with 14 doubles and four triples.

There is some swing-and-miss concern. The lefty-batting Kayfus has punched out in a quarter of his trips to the dish with Columbus. He takes a decent number of walks but has posted higher than average whiff rates. That’s somewhat alarming for a player at bat-first positions. Kayfus has overcome that to post excellent numbers at every stop. That includes more than three months at the top minor league level.

The upper level success has made Kayfus one of the better prospects in the league. He places among the back half on updated Top 100 lists at Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. He ranks a little lower in the estimation of Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, who placed him ninth in the Cleveland system in late May. Kayfus is listed at 6’0″ and 192 pounds. He doesn’t have the usual size or plus raw power of most first basemen, but he has an extended track record of hitting dating back to his time as an amateur.

Kayfus has experience at both corner outfield positions. He’s a fringe-average runner who has enough athleticism to be a functional outfielder, though he’s viewed as an above-average defender at his natural position. Longenhagen writes that his well below-average arm strength should probably limit him to left field work when he is needed in the outfield.

Barring a Steven Kwan injury, the Guardians aren’t going to give Kayfus much left field playing time. Neither Nolan Jones nor Daniel Schneemann are performing well in right, so perhaps the Guardians will plug Kayfus into right field and live with the lack of arm strength. The other option would be to move on from Carlos Santana. The veteran first baseman is hitting .230/.321/.345 in 407 plate appearances. That includes a .195/.267/.284 showing since the beginning of June. Cleveland is paying Santana $12MM and strongly values him as a clubhouse presence, but it’s difficult to live with that kind of offense at first base.

A’s To Promote Luis Morales

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The Athletics are calling up pitching prospect Luis Morales prior to tomorrow’s game with the Diamondbacks, according to reporter Francys Romero.  Morales will be making his Major League debut whenever he makes his first appearance in a game.  No corresponding moves will need to be made, as the Athletics’ deadline trades have left space on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters.

Mason Miller was one of the players dealt, as the A’s sent Miller and JP Sears to the Padres as part of a blockbuster six-player swap.  The 22-year-old Morales may slide right into Miller’s old bullpen role, if perhaps not specifically as a closer, given how Morales has been operating as a multi-inning reliever over his last month of Triple-A action.  While Morales had operated almost exclusively as a starter before the role change, the decision was made to help manage Morales’ innings.  He has already set a high career high with 89 1/3 frames in 2025, and the A’s are interested in seeing how Morales can now fare against big league hitters.

MLB Pipeline ranks Morales as the 80th-best prospect in baseball, and he also sat 79th in Baseball America’s preseason top-100 ranking.  The A’s gave the Cuban-born Morales a hefty $3MM bonus as an international prospect in 2023, and he has been living up to expectations by making a pretty quick rise through the farm system.  The 2025 season has seen Morales pitch at the Double-A and Triple-A levels for the first time, and he has a 3.73 ERA, 9.6% walk rate, and 29.2% strikeout rate over his 89 1/3 combined innings at the two affiliates in Midland and Las Vegas.

Morales’ control has been average at best, but he brings heavy velocity with a fastball that sits in the 96-97mph range, and cracking the 100mph threshold seems a possibility with this temporary move to the bullpen.  His slider is another quality pitch and his changeup has promise, but is a little more inconsistent.

Pipeline’s scouting report notes that Morales cut back to just these three pitches, and while he could reincorporate his curveball or another pitch down the road, narrowing an arsenal is usually a sign that an organization could be ultimately viewing a pitcher as a reliever over the long term.  The A’s will surely give Morales a chance to stick as a starter before considering a permanent move to the pen, of course, and he might well get a couple of starts in the majors in an early audition for 2026.

Dodgers Promote Alex Freeland, Place Hyeseong Kim On 10-Day IL

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TODAY: The Dodgers officially selected Freeland’s contract, and placed Kim on the 10-day injured list in the corresponding move.  Kim is dealing with bursitis in his left shoulder, and manager Dave Roberts said over the weekend that Kim had been dealing with shoulder discomfort for about a week.

JULY 28: The Dodgers are calling up top infield prospect Alex Freeland, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. They already have an opening on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need a corresponding active roster move.

Freeland, 23, ranks third among Dodger farmhands at MLB Pipeline and sixth at Baseball America. A switch-hitter who mostly divides his time between shortstop and third base, Freeland has raised his stock since being selected in the third round of the 2022 draft. The University of Central Florida product has hit .253/.372/.416 across four minor league seasons. That’s almost an exact match for this year’s .253/.377/.421 showing over 453 plate appearances at Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Evaluators praise Freeland’s advanced strike zone discipline. He has walked at a massive 16.6% rate while very rarely expanding the zone in Triple-A. He takes a lot of strikes as well, leading to deep counts and slightly elevated strikeout rates despite relatively few whiffs. Freeland has shown solid bat speed. He hit 18 homers a year ago and has connected on 12 longballs and 26 doubles this season. His Triple-A exit velocities are strong as well.

Freeland is viewed as more of a solid athlete than a spectacular one. Many scouts believe he fits better at third base than shortstop as a result. Third base is obviously the much cleaner positional fit for his first MLB action. Since the Dodgers lost Max Muncy to the injured list on July 3, their third basemen have hit .203/.261/.359 in 70 plate appearances. Most of that falls on Tommy Edman, who has been mired in a three-month slump after an excellent April. Edman is capable of playing plus defense almost anywhere on the diamond, so he’ll remain a regular lineup presence. That could come more at second base, where Hyeseong Kim is hitting .204/.218/.222 this month.

Muncy is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow. That’ll put him in position to return to MLB action not long after the trade deadline. It’s unlikely the Dodgers would’ve called Freeland up if they anticipated sending him back down in a week or two. Even after Muncy reclaims the third base job, Freeland could stick as a multi-positional bench bat who plays three or four times a week. The Dodgers have gotten rookie catcher Dalton Rushing his first MLB action in that type of role.

Giants To Promote Carson Whisenhunt

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Giants pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt will make his Major League debut on Monday as San Francisco’s scheduled starter against the Pirates.  The move seemed to be in the cards since Whisenhunt was scratched from a planned Triple-A start on Saturday, and he arrived in the Oracle Park clubhouse today as a member of the Giants’ taxi squad.  The corresponding transaction(s) will be announced tomorrow to add the left-hander to both the active roster and the 40-man roster.

Manager Bob Melvin officially confirmed the call-up when speaking with reporters (including Justice delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News) after tonight’s 5-3 loss to the Mets.  “We’ve been waiting for this for a little bit now,” Melvin said.  “We thought maybe he’d be here last year, too.  He’s our top pitching prospect, I believe.  With what’s going on with the injury and [Hayden Birdsong] going down, there’s a need for it.”

Birdsong was optioned to the minors earlier this week, and Landen Roupp was placed on the 15-day injured list on Friday due to right elbow inflammation.  This dropped the Giants’ rotation down to just Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Justin Verlander, and the club had to deploy a bullpen game for tonight’s contest with New York.  The loss was the Giants’ ninth in their last 11 games, and the 54-52 team is now three games back of the Padres for the final NL wild card berth.

Starting pitching is a target area for the Giants as the deadline approaches, but getting some quality results from Whisenhunt at the beginning of his MLB career would be an enormous help for the club.  A second-round pick for San Francisco in the 2022 draft, Whisenhunt was garnering top-100 attention prior to a 2024 season that saw him post a 5.42 ERA over 104 2/3 innings at Triple-A Sacramento.  Whisenhunt hasn’t been a ton better this year, with a 4.42 ERA in 97 2/3 IP.  While the southpaw has reduced his ERA and walk rate, his strikeout rate has also dropped from 28.4% in 2024 to 21% this year.

Pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League could very well be a factor in Whisenhunt’s struggles, yet he’ll face additional challenges by moving up to face big league hitters.  Whisenhunt’s signature pitch is a 70-grade changeup that has drawn raves from evaluators, and his 92-94mph fastball is considered a plus pitch with enough sink to overcome somewhat average velocity.  That fastball is a little inconsistent, however, which is an issue since the lefty doesn’t have a reliable third pitch in his arsenal.  The development of Whisenhunt’s slider could be the determining factor whether or not he can stick as a starting pitcher or if a move to the bullpen could be in his MLB future.

As much as San Francisco’s lack of offense has been the team’s biggest obstacle, the lack of reliable rotation depth behind Webb and Ray is another issue for the playoff push.  Adding a veteran arm to support the big two starters would help at the deadline, and is perhaps a more readily fixable problem given how the Giants may not need to add bats as much as they need several of their slumping hitters to get rolling.  There’s plenty of opportunity here for Whisenhunt to carve out a niche for himself in the rotation and set himself up for a starting job heading into next season.

Tigers To Promote Troy Melton

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The Tigers are going to promote pitching prospect Troy Melton, reports Jason Beck of MLB.com. Melton will start for the club on Wednesday, making his major league debut. The club will need to open a spot for him on both the 40-man and active rosters.

Melton, now 24, was the Tigers’ fourth-round pick in 2022. Since then, he has climbed the minor league ladder, putting up strong numbers along the way. Overall, he has thrown 273 minor league innings over 66 games. 63 of those were officially starts, with the other three technically being long relief outings. In that time, he has allowed 3.63 earned runs per nine with a 28.1% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate.

That includes his 75 1/3 innings this year, split between Double-A and Triple-A. He has a combined 2.99 ERA on the season. His 6.4% walk rate is still good and he has nudged his strikeout rate up to 32.4%.

Coming into 2025, many evaluators put Melton in the middle of the Tigers’ top 30 lists but Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs was especially bullish. He gave Melton the #80 spot on his preseason top 100 list. Longenhagen notes that Melton sits in the upper 90s with his fastball with a slider and “splinker-style” changeup.

It’s unclear if Melton will be getting a rotation gig for a while or if this is just a spot start. The Tigers are three games into a stretch of playing 13 straight right after their pitchers where thrown off their normal routines by the All-Star break, so perhaps this is just to give everyone else a breather. Since this is his first major league call, he has a full slate of options and could be sent back down to the minors after his debut.

As of now, the Tigers have a rotation consisting of Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Reese Olson, Casey Mize and Keider Montero. The first four aren’t going anywhere but Montero’s not cemented in there. He’s been optioned to the minors and moved to the bullpen at times this year, so that could perhaps happen again if the Tigers want Melton to get more than just a spot start.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images.

Astros Promote Brice Matthews

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July 11: Per Chandler Rome of The Athletic, Meyers has been placed on the 10-day IL with a right calf strain. It’s unclear how much time he’s expected to miss but that opens an active roster spot for Matthews. Infielder/outfielder Zach Dezenzo has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot. Dezenzo landed on the 10-day IL on June 1st due to left hand inflammation. His 60-day count is retroactive to that initial IL placement, so he can be reinstated at the end of July.

July 10: The Astros are promoting infield prospect Brice Matthews, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The club is off today but he’ll join them tomorrow. The Astros will need to select him to the 40-man roster and open an active roster spot.

Matthews, 23, was the club’s first-round pick two summers ago. The Astros selected him with the 28th overall pick of the 2023 draft and signed him with a bonus of just under $2.5MM. The Nebraska product drew praise from scouts for his well-rounded toolset and patient approach. More pessimistic evaluators expressed concern about his elevated swing-and-miss rates while questioning whether he had the arm strength to stick on the left side of the infield.

The righty-hitting infielder has lived up to that profile this year. He’s in his first full season at Triple-A after making a 12-game cameo there last year. Matthews carries a .283/.400/.476 slash line through 325 plate appearances. He has connected on 10 home runs and stolen 25 bases in 31 attempts. He has walked at a massive 15.4% clip while striking out more than 30% of the time. His average exit velocity and hard contact rate are both above the MLB averages. Matthews has shown an above-average power/speed combination, a willingness to work deep counts, and below-average contact skills.

Drafted as a shortstop, Matthews has played more second base this year. That’s also not surprising given the questions about his arm strength. Matthews wouldn’t have a long-term path to playing time at shortstop on a team with Jeremy Peña regardless. Peña is currently on the shelf with a broken rib, pushing Mauricio Dubón more frequently to the left side of the infield. That has drawn Jose Altuve back in at second base, moving Taylor Trammell into the starting left field role.

The Astros are facing another potential injured list stint, as center fielder Jake Meyers is being evaluated for a right calf problem. Matthews has two professional innings of outfield experience. It’s unlikely the Astros would throw him into outfield work. (They did push rookie Cam Smith from third base to right field, though he at least had a couple weeks to work out there during Spring Training.) Playing Matthews at second base could move Altuve back to left field and push Trammell to center if Meyers is out of action.

Matthews will remain under club control for at least six full seasons after this one. He won’t be eligible for arbitration for at least three years. There’s a decent chance he’ll be optioned back to the minors at some point, especially if Peña makes a quick return that moves Dubón back to the keystone. Houston fans will get their first look at one of the organization’s better hitting prospects, who will step into a club that has built a 6.5 game cushion in the AL West despite myriad injuries.

Braves To Select Didier Fuentes

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The Braves are going to promote right-handed pitching prospect Didier Fuentes, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com. The youngster will start tomorrow’s game against the Marlins. Corresponding moves will be required to add him to both the 40-man and active rosters.

It’s an extremely aggressive promotion, as Fuentes only just celebrated his 20th birthday two days ago. A fairly unheralded international signing out of Colombia, Fuentes has raised his stock as he has climbed the minor league ladder. Last year, he tossed 75 2/3 innings at the Single-A level with a 2.74 earned run average. He struck out 32.1% of batters faced while only giving out walks at a 6.9% pace.

That got him some prospect love ahead of 2025, with Baseball America giving him the #7 spot in Atlanta’s system coming into the year. They mentioned his mid-90s fastball and slider, while noting he was still working on a splitter to neutralize lefties.

Here in 2025, he has seemingly raised his stock even farther. He has gone from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, tossing a combined 39 1/3 innings. The 4.81 ERA might not jump off the page but he has a 28.9% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. He’s been hurt by a 58.4% strand rate, which is why his 2.81 FIP suggests he has deserved better this year.

Coming into the year, FanGraphs listed Fuentes as the #11 prospect in the Atlanta system but they now list him as third in the system and #82 in the entire league. Both FanGraphs and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN use Bryan Woo of the Mariners as a comp for Fuentes.

The Atlanta rotation has taken a few hits this year. AJ Smith-Shawver required Tommy John surgery and Reynaldo López has been sidelined by arthroscopic shoulder surgery. At the moment, the starting group consists of Chris Sale, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach, Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes. It’s possible that Fuentes will just be making a spot start. The club just began a stretch of playing 13 games in a row, so he can give all the other starters an extra day of rest in the midst of that, while getting his first taste of the majors.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Angels To Promote Christian Moore

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The Angels are calling up second base prospect Christian Moore, as first reported by @kat_wrld and confirmed by multiple outlets. The Halos optioned rookie outfielder Matthew Lugo during today’s off day, according to the MLB.com transaction log. They will need to make a 40-man roster move tomorrow.

This kind of aggressive promotion for top prospects is par for the course for the Angels. They skew extremely towards the college side in the draft and push their most talented minor leaguers as quickly as any organization. Each of the Halos’ past three first-round picks (Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Moore) were college hitters who were in the majors within the opening half of their first full professional season. Neto was drafted in 2022 and promoted the following April. Schanuel went from Florida Atlantic to the big leagues within two months during the ’23 season.

While Moore took the longest of the three, he’s now slated for his MLB debut around 11 months after being selected. A Tennessee product, he impressed amateur scouts by hitting .375 with 34 homers during his junior season with the Vols. Evaluators have had concerns about his defense, but he has a chance to provide rare power from an up-the-middle position.

The Halos almost immediately pushed Moore to Double-A, where he hit .322 with five homers in 23 games during his draft year. That established him as the top offensive player in a weak Halos farm system. He ranked among the sport’s top 100 talents over the winter at each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and ESPN.

Moore returned to Double-A to open this season. He got out to a rough start in a pitcher-friendly environment. The righty hitter only managed one homer while striking out at a 27.4% clip through 146 plate appearances. The Angels nevertheless moved him to Triple-A Salt Lake on May 13. Moore has thrived in the much more favorable Pacific Coast League, collecting four homers while hitting .350 in 20 games. He has posted consecutive multi-hit games with a home run in each of his two most recent outings.

It’s a tiny sample, but it was enough to convince the ever-aggressive Halos front office to bring him up. There’s a relatively low bar to clear to upgrade the second base position. Chris Taylor went on the injured list on Tuesday with a broken left hand. Luis Rengifo has mostly been filling in at third base for the injured Yoán Moncada. The Halos have given Scott Kingery three of the past four starts at second base. He has had a monster season in Salt Lake but has played seven MLB games since the start of the 2022 campaign.

The Angels have hung around .500 through the season’s first few months. They’ve been outscored by 50 runs, but they’re coming off a sweep of the A’s that pulled them back into second place in the AL West. They’ll hope for Moore to provide an offensive spark. He joins Jac Caglianone, Nick Kurtz and Cam Smith as members of last year’s first round to reach the big leagues. He’s the second member of the Halos’ 2024 class to get there. Second-rounder Ryan Johnson broke camp in the bullpen before being optioned to High-A last month.

Moore meets the eligibility for the Prospect Promotion Incentive. He’d earn a full year of service time if he manages a long shot top two finish in Rookie of the Year balloting. (The Angels would not receive a pick in that scenario.) Moore would otherwise remain under club control for at least a full six seasons after this one. That timeline could be delayed if he requires any more time in the minors after his first look at MLB pitching.

Image courtesy of Imagn Images.

Brewers Promote Jacob Misiorowski

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June 12: The Brewers announced today that they’ve formally selected Misiorowski’s contract. He’ll start tonight’s game. Righty Easton McGee was optioned to Triple-A in his place, while Woodruff was indeed moved to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot.

June 10: The Brewers are calling up pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty will start Thursday’s game against the Cardinals. Milwaukee will need to make room for him on the active and 40-man rosters. The latter should be as easy as Brandon Woodruff being transferred to the 60-day injured list since he’s already been out longer than that.

Misiorowski, 23, is one of the top prospects in baseball. The Brewers selected him with a second-round pick in the 2022 draft and signed him with a $2.35MM bonus, more than double the $1.1MM slot value for that pick.

Since then, he has been climbing the ladder with very exciting results. His fastball sits in the high-90s and can get into triple digits. He also has a curveball, slider and a lesser-used changeup. Those pitches have helped him strike out a lot of opponents though control is clearly still a work in progress.

He got a brief professional debut in 2022, making just two Single-A appearances. In 2023, he logged 71 1/3 innings while climbing as high as Double-A. He posted a 3.41 earned run average while punching out 35% of hitters, but he also gave out free passes at a high rate of 13.4%. Last year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, logging 97 1/3 innings. The Brewers moved him to a relief role late in the year as a way of monitoring his workload. He had a 3.33 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 14.4% walk rate.

The numbers have been similar this year. He has logged 63 1/3 Triple-A innings thus far with a 2.13 ERA and 31.6% strikeout rate. His 12.3% walk rate is an improvement for him but still about four ticks above typical major league average, which is 8% for starters this year.

Misiorowski still has some things to work on, particularly the control and the workload, but the arsenal is clearly exciting. Baseball America currently lists him as the #21 prospect in the league. FanGraphs has him at #27. ESPN’s most recent update put him at #30. Baseball Prospectus had him at #65 in the offseason. MLB Pipeline currently has him further down at #68, with a bit more concern that the control issues will eventually push him to the bullpen. Keith of Law of The Athletic had similar concerns when giving Misiorowski the #87 slot coming into the year.

Time will tell if Misiorowski is destined for the bullpen or can stick in the rotation but it’s understandable that the Brewers will keep trying the starting path until they get some clarity. There’s simply far more value in an excellent starting pitcher compared to an excellent reliever. Even if it doesn’t work out, the bullpen path will still be available as a fallback. Even Law, the most bearish of those prospect evaluators, believes Misiorowski has a future as an elite closer.

For now, the Brewers will see if Misiorowski can evolve into a big league starter. The rotation has been constantly shifting for Milwaukee this year, mostly due to injuries. Woodruff was expected to start the season on the injured list, recovering from last year’s shoulder surgery, but his rehab has also hit a few snags. He battled some ankle tendinitis and also suffered an elbow contusion from a comebacker and is still likely a few weeks away. Robert Gasser had Tommy John surgery last summer and is another guy the club knew would be on the IL to start this year.

In addition to Woodruff and Gasser, several other pitchers have missed some time. Nestor Cortes is still on the shelf, having suffered a flexor strain back in April. Tobias Myers missed time due to an oblique strain. Aaron Civale had a hamstring strain, Jose Quintana a shoulder impingement and DL Hall a lat strain.

Around all those transactions, the club has been trying to find various solutions. Quintana was a spring signing. The Brewers traded for Quinn Priester a week into April. Several minor leaguers have been called up. As the club has been spinning those plates, 12 different pitchers have started for the team already this year. Some of those have been openers, but it’s clearly been a bit of a whirlwind.

As of this moment, the rotation consists of Freddy Peralta, Civale, Priester, Quintana and Chad Patrick, with Hall doing some starting but also some long relief work. It’s not totally clear what the club plans to shift with Misiorowski’s promotion. It could simply be a spot start. Perhaps they will go with a six-man rotation for a while. Priester and Patrick both have options and could be sent down, though Patrick’s numbers this year have been far better than Priester’s.

The Brewers are still in the playoff race. Their 35-32 record currently has them just three games back of the final National League Wild Card spot. Regardless of how they perform over the next few weeks, it’s possible to imagine them trading some starting pitching this summer. Woodruff, Quintana, Civale and Cortes are all impending free agents, which would make them logical trade chips. A bolder move would be Peralta, who can be controlled through 2026 via an $8MM club option.

Sending one or more of them out of town would theoretically downgrade this year’s rotation but the Brewers could perhaps provide replacements from within the system while bolstering another part of the roster or simply adding some prospect talent. Hall could be given a more proper rotation gig. Gasser could get back in the mix later in the year. Myers, Logan Henderson and other arms are in Triple-A and could be recalled.

The Brewers don’t have a lot of spending capacity, so this kind of tough balancing act is normal for them. Recent years have seen them trade away guys like Josh Hader and Corbin Burnes while still trying to field a competitive team. Those trades usually see them targeting a mix of MLB-ready talent and prospects or draft picks. Given the number of rotation options they have in the mix now, another move of that nature may be in the cards this summer.

That will be a situation for the next few weeks. For now, one of the most electric arms in the minor leagues is coming up to the show. As a consensus top prospect, Misiorowski is eligible for the prospect promotion incentives. The Brewers can’t earn an extra draft pick based on his performance in awards voting this year because they didn’t call him up early enough. Misiorowski can earn himself a full year of service time if he finishes in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be a long shot. The race is still fairly wide open but Misiorowski is getting called up late and is already near his personal high in innings pitched in a season, so it’s possible the club eases off his workload at some point later in the year.

Photo courtesy of Dave Kallmann, Imagn Images

Red Sox Promote Roman Anthony

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It’s finally Roman Anthony time. The Red Sox announced that the top prospect in baseball has been selected to the roster. Fellow outfielder Wilyer Abreu has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain. First baseman/outfielder Ryan Noda has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot.

Anthony, now 21, has been at or near the top of prospect lists for a while now. The Sox grabbed him with the 79th overall pick in 2022, a compensation pick they received after Eduardo Rodríguez rejected a qualifying offer and signed with the Tigers.

After a brief professional debut in that 2022 season, he took off in 2023. He climbed from Single-A to High-A to Double-A, putting up a combined .272/.403/.466 line and 140 wRC+. That made him a consensus top 25 prospect in the sport coming into 2024. He raised his stock even higher last year, slashing .291/.396/.498 for a 147 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A.

In addition to that work at the plate, Anthony tallied double-digit stolen base totals in both 2023 and 2024. He is also considered a strong outfield defender. By the end of 2024, he was already the #1 prospect in the league for some outlets. Some publications bumped him to #2 once Roki Sasaki was signed by the Dodgers, though others kept Anthony in the top spot.

Between Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, and Kyle Teel, the Sox had four tremendous prospects generating excitement this past offseason. The four were often mentioned in trade rumors and Teel was eventually flipped to the White Sox as part of the Garrett Crochet deal, though the other three remained and still provided a lot of optimism about the future.

Coming into 2025, with that hype and already having 35 big league games under his belt, a quick promotion for Anthony seemed possible. However, his time in Triple-A has dragged on, despite murmuring from all corners of the baseball world.

Initially, some of that was justified. He was dealing with some shoulder soreness in April and spent some time where he was only serving as the designated hitter and not playing the field. But that quickly passed and he kept putting up huge numbers at the plate. The question then became one of playing time in Boston. The Sox have spent most of this year with a crowded outfield mix consisting of Abreu, Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela, with Rob Refsnyder and Campbell also factoring in.

That didn’t leave a clean path for Anthony to get playing time, especially with Rafael Devers taking up the designated hitter spot on an everyday basis. Still, many were calling for the Sox to simply call him up and figure it out.

Those calls grew louder when the Sox lost both of their corner infielders. First, Triston Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury. That led to much speculation about Devers getting plugged in at first in order to open at-bats for Anthony, or perhaps Anthony taking first base himself. Understandably, the Sox didn’t want to mess with Anthony’s development as an outfielder, so they never gave much consideration to that. Devers was unwilling to try his hand at first base. Then third baseman Alex Bregman went on the IL with a quad injury that could keep him out for a couple of months, but the Sox never seemed to really consider the possibility of asking Devers about going back there.

As all that was going on, Anthony continued to put up massive numbers for Worcester. As of today, he has a .288/.423/.491 line and 146 wRC+. He has ten home runs and three steals in 58 games. His 19.2% walk rate is almost as high as his 21.1% strikeout rate. Now, finally, it seems like this Abreu injury will open the door for him to get to the big leagues.

As the season drags along, the playing time puzzle might return. That will depend on Abreu’s injury and how long it will take him to get back. At some point, maybe Masataka Yoshida will finally get healthy and re-enter the equation.

It’s possible things will work out organically. Other injuries may arise before those guys heal up. Anthony might struggle, as even the best prospects can sometimes need a bit of time to get their feet wet in the big leagues. Campbell also followed a hot April with a rough May. If he doesn’t get back on track, perhaps he could get optioned to the minors with Rafaela moving to the infield. But on the other hand, Rafaela is the best defensive center fielder of the bunch. Duran and Anthony can play up the middle but each is considered a better fit for a corner. There’s also the shortstop question, as Trevor Story has been heating up of late but is having a bad season overall. Mayer is up to cover for Bregman at third but hasn’t quite fully clicked in the big leagues yet.

There will also be long-term things to be sorted out. The crowded outfield situation has led to trade rumors surrounding Duran. Bregman could opt out after this season and it’s unclear if the Sox would be willing to return Devers to that spot. Casas is expected back by next year’s spring training but he has also been in trade rumors. Devers isn’t willing to play there now but perhaps he would be more amenable with an offseason to prepare. Campbell has dabbled with some first base drills but hasn’t officially played there yet.

In time, there should be more clarity on the club’s long-term plans. For now, Sox fans can get excited about Anthony’s emergence and hope that it helps turn around a middling season. The Sox are currently 32-35, fourth in the American League East and four games back of a Wild Card spot. Even if they can’t engineer a comeback this year, players like Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Rafael, Duran, Abreu and others can be affordably controlled for years to come, giving the club an exciting core to build around.

As a consensus top prospect, Anthony is eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. Since the Sox didn’t promote him early enough to get a full service year the traditional way, they won’t be able to earn an extra draft pick based on awards voting this year. Anthony can technically earn himself a full year of service time by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be tough to do. Players like Jacob Wilson, Shane Smith and even Anthony’s teammate Carlos Narváez have a big headstart on him. Even if he performs well, it would be hard to catch up to those guys with more than a third of the season already in the books.

If Anthony manages to pull that off, he would hasten his path to free agency by a year. Otherwise, he would be on pace to hit the open market after 2031 at the earliest, though future optional assignments could also impact that timeline.

Noda, 29, was just acquired from the Angels a few weeks ago in a cash deal. He’s a three true outcomes guy, with lots of homers and walks but also strikeouts. In 606 big league plate appearances, he has a 34.2% strikeout rate, 15% walk rate and 17 homers. That adds up to a .212/.344/.369 line and 107 wRC+. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has 574 minor league plate appearances with 25 home runs, a 16% walk rate and 28.2% strikeout rate. That leads to a .259/.395/.474 line and 125 wRC+.

The Sox grabbed him for extra first base depth with the Casas injury but now risk losing him. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so Boston could take five days to explore trade interest. He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one additional season. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Sox as non-roster depth.

Christopher Smith of MassLive first reported that Anthony was being promoted. A few minutes earlier, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported that a promotion was possible. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first noted that Abreu was going on the IL, though Alex Speier of The Boston Globe had previously suggested that an IL stint for Abreu was likely.

Photos courtesy of Ashley Green, Imagn Images

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