Diamondbacks Designate Aramis Garcia For Assignment
The Diamondbacks have designated catcher Aramis Garcia for assignment, per a team announcement. As expected, infielder/outfielder Jordan Lawlar will come off the 60-day injured list and rejoin the club.
More to come…
Phillies Place Adolis García On 60-Day IL
The Phillies announced that they have placed outfielder Adolis García on the 60-day injured list with a torn right lat. They recalled outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to take his roster spot. Outfielder Derek Hill, whom the Phillies acquired from the White Sox on Thursday, has reported to the club. Meanwhile, outfielder Steward Berroa will go on the paternity list.
More to come…
Astros Designate Ryan Weiss For Assignment
The Astros have designated right-hander Ryan Weiss for assignment, according to Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle.
More to come…
Blue Jays Activate Alejandro Kirk, Designate Tyler Heineman
To highlight a series of roster moves on Friday, the Blue Jays activated catcher Alejandro Kirk from the 60-day injured list and placed outfielder Dalton Varsho on the 10-day IL with left wrist inflammation, Hazel Mae of Sportsnet reports. The team also designated catcher Tyler Heineman for assignment and recalled outfielder Davis Schneider from Triple-A Buffalo. Right-handed reliever Yariel Rodriguez, who was designated for assignment on June 8, has cleared waivers.
The Blue Jays have gone almost the whole season without Kirk, who underwent surgery on a broken left thumb in early April. The two-time All-Star has played just five games this year, but the silver lining is that the Blue Jays saw Brandon Valenzuela emerge as a capable big leaguer in his absence.
Acquired from the Padres for infielder Will Wagner at last year’s trade deadline, Valenzuela has slashed .252/.333/.457 (121 wRC+) with seven home runs and 1.5 fWAR over 46 games and 145 plate appearances since he debuted April 4. The 25-year-old rookie has also drawn mostly excellent marks as a defender. While Valenzuela has thrown out a below-average 20.5 percent of base stealers, he has made up for it in other ways. He ranks in the 100th percentile in framing, according to Statcast, and has been credited with 5 DRS and 7 FRV.
More to come…
Guardians Recall Daniel Espino For MLB Debut
2:01pm: The Guardians have officially announced the move. To make room for Espino, they optioned righty reliever Codi Heuer to Triple-A.
7:34am: The Guardians are expected to recall right-hander Daniel Espino for his MLB debut, reports Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Espino is already on the 40-man roster, so only a 26-man move will be needed.
It’s been a long journey to the big leagues for Espino. The 25-year-old has missed almost all of the past three seasons due to injuries. After not pitching at all in 2023 and 2024, Espino made it back on the mound for one Triple-A appearance last year.
Espino was among the top prospects in Cleveland’s organization after getting selected in the first round of the 2019 draft. MLB Pipeline ranked him at No. 5 in the system heading into the 2020 campaign. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had Espino at seventh that year. The righty, along with Triston McKenzie and James Karinchak, was among the most promising arms in the organization at the time.
With the 2020 minor league season scrapped, Espino didn’t get a full year of pro ball until 2021. He was excellent in 20 starts split between Single-A and High-A. Espino recorded a massive 40.5% strikeout rate with a sub-4.00 ERA across 91 2/3 frames. He made the jump to Double-A and continued to punch out minor leaguers at a ridiculous clip. Espino posted a 51.5% strikeout rate in four starts with Akron.
The injury issues began for Espino in 2022. His campaign was cut short by knee and shoulder concerns. Despite tossing just 18 1/3 innings, Espino entered the 2023 season as the consensus top prospect in the Guardians’ system. He was heralded as one of the best young arms yet to debut in the majors. As he ramped up for the 2023 season, Espino felt renewed shoulder discomfort. The injury ultimately required surgery. Additional procedures on his right arm would cost Espino all of 2024 and most of 2025.
Espino has moved to a bullpen role this season. He’s made 22 appearances at Triple-A, all but one of which have come as a reliever. Espino has posted 18 2/3 innings of a 5.30 ERA with Columbus. He’s maintained strong strikeout numbers, whiffing Triple-A opponents at a 33.3% clip.
The Guardians opened the year with Rule 5 pick Peyton Pallette in a long-relief role. He’s since been returned to the White Sox. Espino hasn’t had an appearance longer than an inning with the Clippers, so he’s unlikely to fill that role. Cleveland’s high-leverage group is rock solid with Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Shawn Armstrong handling the later innings. Espino has the strikeout skills to join the mix, but he’ll likely begin in lower-leverage spots.
Photo courtesy of Samantha Madar of the Columbus Dispatch via Imagn Images
Padres Designate Bryce Johnson For Assignment
The Padres have designated outfielder Bryce Johnson for assignment, per a team announcement. Xander Bogaerts is being reinstated from the paternity list. The team’s 40-man roster stands at 39 with the move.
This may conclude Johnson’s second stint with San Diego, which first signed the former Giant to a minor league contract ahead of the 2024 season. He got into 47 games that year and hit just .206/.286/.238 (57 wRC+) with no home runs in 73 trips to the plate. Johnson opened 2025 in the Pirates organization, but the Padres brought him back in a mid-April trade for catcher Brett Sullivan. The move worked out better than expected for the Padres, as the switch-hitting Johnson easily posted career-best numbers. Across 55 games and 84 trips to the plate, he slashed .342/.383/.434. Although he only hit one homer, Johnson managed a 135 wRC+.
More to come.
Rockies To Promote Sean Sullivan For MLB Debut
The Rockies are set to promote pitching prospect Sean Sullivan, according to Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. Sullivan will start tonight against the Athletics and make his major league debut in the process. The lefty is not on Colorado’s 40-man roster, which is currently full. Thus, a corresponding move will be needed in order to select Sullivan’s contract.
Sullivan, 23, was the Rockies’ second-round draft pick in the 2023 draft. He currently ranks as the organization’s No. 11 prospect, according to MLB.com. Sullivan fared well in 20 starts between Single-A and Double-A last year, posting a 2.94 ERA in 104 innings with a 24.9% strikeout rate. He’s been less fortunate in 2026, with a 5.60 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A.
The 6’4″ Sullivan is a bit of an oddity in terms of his raw stuff. He throws a four-seamer 41.0% of the time, but the pitch only averages 89.0 MPH. Sullivan mixes in an upper-70s slider 29.9% of the time, plus a changeup and cutter at 14-15% each. The changeup is Sullivan’s best pitch, while scouting reports rate his fastball and slider as slightly below-average. Despite the low velocity, Sullivan generally thrives by leveraging pinpoint control and a deceptive, low three-quarters arm slot (video courtesy of MLB.com). He walked just 6.0% of hitters in the minors last year and has walked 7.7% of hitters at Triple-A in 2026.
Sullivan will now have a chance to prove himself in the big leagues as a control and deception guy. Tonight’s game is at Las Vegas Ballpark, the hitter-friendly home of the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate. If he sticks around for multiple starts, Sullivan could then try his luck at high altitude, with the Rockies hosting the Red Sox at Coors Field from June 22-24.
Rockies starters have performed poorly in 2026, as is seemingly the case every year. The rotation’s 5.94 ERA is dead last in the Majors and 26% worse than average even accounting for the games at Coors. No Rockies starter has thrown enough innings to qualify, with Tomoyuki Sugano just barely missing the cut at 68 1/3 innings. Sugano’s 4.08 ERA is palatable but well shy of his 7.39 xERA, which shows he’s been extremely lucky. Michael Lorenzen and Kyle Freeland are the only others to throw at least 50 innings. Both have ERAs over 7.50.
Given those underwhelming performances and injuries to other starts, there’s little harm in calling up Sullivan. Chase Dollander, one of the team’s more promising arms, has been out with a right elbow sprain for over a month and is not expected to return soon. Tanner Gordon made two starts at the end of May before landing on the 15-day injured list with a right hip impingement retroactive to June 2nd. He’s expected to throw a bullpen soon. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool currently has the club at a four-man rotation of Lorenzen, Ryan Feltner, Freeland, and Sugano, so Sullivan can serve as the fifth starter until Gordon returns.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
D-Backs Expected To Activate Jordan Lawlar
The Diamondbacks will activate Jordan Lawlar from the 60-day injured list for Friday’s series opener in Cincinnati, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports and 98.7 FM. The Snakes will need to make corresponding active and 40-man roster moves tomorrow.
Lawlar returns from a two and a half month absence. He broke his right wrist when he was by a pitch from then-Atlanta righty Osvaldo Bido on April 3. Arizona almost immediately moved him to the 60-day IL. It was particularly brutal timing, as the injury occurred both on the same night that Lawlar hit his first MLB home run and when the D-Backs were already down 12-1.
The injury also interrupted Lawlar’s transition to the outfield. He’d made five starts in left field and one in center, his first regular season outfield work. The D-Backs have used him exclusively in the outfield during a brief minor league rehab assignment, confirming they’ll stick with that arrangement for the former top shortstop prospect.
Lawlar has still only managed 128 career plate appearances at the big league level. He spent most of the 2024 season on the minor league injured list after undergoing right thumb surgery. Last year, it was a Grade 1 hamstring strain in Triple-A that cost him almost two months between June and August.
Arizona’s outfield has been carried almost entirely by an MVP-caliber start from Corbin Carroll. Left and center field, question marks coming into the season, haven’t been good. They moved on from Alek Thomas last month, turning center field over to rookie Ryan Waldschmidt. The former supplemental first-rounder has hit .267 over his first 31 MLB games, but he has struck out 38 times in 114 plate appearances. Waldschmidt has fallen into a .214/.250/.286 slump with a team-high 17 punchouts over the last two weeks.
Tommy Troy, another rookie, has gotten the recent run in left field. Troy has shown solid plate discipline but without much impact, hitting .240/.345/.340 across his first 58 plate appearances. The D-Backs could get Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back from a hamstring strain within the next few weeks. He also struggled after making a quicker than expected return from ACL surgery. They just added Max Kepler for the MLB minimum, and his performance-enhancing drug suspension will be lifted in a couple weeks. Kepler isn’t eligible for postseason play, so even if he hits well, the D-Backs will need other outfielders to step up.
Assuming they expect James McCann back within the next month, Arizona doesn’t have any clear candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list. Out of options fourth outfielder Jorge Barrosa has hit .172/.241/.313 this season. If they want to keep him on the bench, they could designate someone else for assignment and option any of Waldschmidt, Troy or Adrian Del Castillo to Triple-A.
NPB’s Yokohama BayStars Sign Jerar Encarnacion
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan confirmed the signings of right-hander Osvaldo Bido and outfielder Jerar Encarnacion on Friday. MLBTR covered the Bido signing in the middle of May. Rumors out of Japan at the same time linked Encarnacion to the club, but neither deal became final until today.
Encarnacion, a client of A & F Sports Agency, opened the season with the Giants. He’s out of minor league options, so San Francisco was initially reluctant to cut him loose. He worked mostly as a bench bat but picked up a handful of starts in the corner outfield or at first base. He started the season slowly, hitting .176 without a home run across 35 plate appearances.
The 28-year-old has played parts of four big league seasons, the last three of which came with San Francisco. He’s a .211/.237/.362 hitter with 10 home runs in just under 300 trips to the plate. The meager on-base percentage hints at his very aggressive plate approach, but Encarnacion has big raw power. He hit 26 homers in Triple-A with the Marlins a few seasons ago and obliterated minor league pitching at a .352/.438/.616 clip in 2024 to earn an MLB look from the Giants.
It’s the kind of profile that tends to play better in NPB or the KBO, where the average pitcher quality is lower than in MLB. Encarnacion will surely do better financially with the BayStars than he would have had he bounced around on minor league contracts after San Francisco designated him for assignment last month.
Tommy Pham To Opt Out Of Orioles Deal
Veteran outfielder Tommy Pham will exercise an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Orioles tomorrow, reports Josh Tolentino of The Baltimore Sun. He’ll return to free agency if the Orioles don’t add him to the MLB roster.
Pham signed with the O’s midway through May. He took a few days to build up before reporting to Triple-A Norfolk. Pham struggled in 14 games for the Tides, batting .196/.281/.375 with 20 strikeouts in 64 plate appearances. He picked things up from a power perspective recently, connecting on three homers in his final eight games.
The 38-year-old Pham had a brief big league stint with the Mets earlier in the year. He went 0-13 with a walk and seven strikeouts while starting four of nine appearances. Pham spent the entire ’25 season in the Majors with the Pirates. He took 449 trips to the dish and had a slightly below-average .245/.330/.370 slash line. He connected on 10 homers, 17 doubles and one triple with a solid strikeout and walk profile.
Baltimore has a starting outfield of Taylor Ward, Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. The latter was signed as a fourth or fifth outfielder but has put together a decent season, batting .258/.345/.365 in 209 plate appearances. He has handily outplayed Tyler O’Neill, who has hit .155 with one home run since returning from a concussion in mid-April. O’Neill has started to lose playing time as a result, dropping into a part-time corner outfield/designated hitter role.
The O’s have been without Dylan Beavers for the past month due to a low-grade right oblique strain. He’d likely push Taveras back into a fourth outfield role once he’s healthy. The O’s could make room on the bench for Pham by optioning Jeremiah Jackson, but they could see that as a redundant fit with O’Neill already on the roster. If they grant him his release, he’ll search for another team looking for right-handed outfield depth.