A’s Acquire Alika Williams, Designate Michael Stefanic
The A’s announced that infielder Alika Williams was acquired in a trade with the Pirates in exchange for minor league righty Kyle Robinson. Infielder Michael Stefanic was designated for assignment to clear space for Williams on the Athletics’ 26-man and 40-man rosters, as the team officially selected Williams’ contract to the active roster.
Selected 37th overall by the Rays in the 2020 draft, Williams came to Pittsburgh in the June 2023 trade that brought Robert Stephenson to Tampa. Williams made his MLB debut in a Pirates uniform later that year, and went onto hit .202/.257/.271 over 208 plate appearances for the Buccos over the 2023-24 seasons. Pittsburgh designated Williams for assignment during the 2024-25 offseason and then outrighted him to Triple-A, where Williams hit an uninspiring .268/.329/.393 over 391 PA for Indianapolis during the 2025 campaign.
This year, Williams has hit .317/.385/.467 over 135 Triple-A plate appearances, representing one of the best offensive stretches of his pro career. Despite this hot bat, the Pirates apparently didn’t want to select Williams’ contract back to the 26-man roster just to be a bench guy, as Konnor Griffin and Brandon Lowe are the starting middle infielders, and Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo are being used at third base.
There’s more of an opportunity for Williams in Sacramento, as both Jacob Wilson and Max Muncy are on the Athletics’ 10-day injured list. Williams could see time at shortstop when Darell Hernaiz isn’t at the position, and some second base at-bats could become available in Jeff McNeil‘s place when a left-hander is on the mound.
Stefanic signed a minor league deal with the A’s last winter, and his contract was selected in the wake of Wilson’s IL placement earlier this week. After all of two games in an Athletics uniform, Stefanic’s tenure with the club may already be over, if he is claimed away on waivers or if he elects free agency over an outright assignment if he clears waivers. Because Stefanic has been outrighted in the past, he now has the ability to reject any future outrights in favor of free agency, though he could opt to stay with the A’s if he feels he’ll get more big league opportunities down the road.
Though Stefanic has hit only .231/.315/.269 over 294 career PA with the Angels, Blue Jays, and Athletics, he had some posted some big numbers at Triple-A in the past. Like Williams, Stefanic also has a wealth of experience at shortstop, second base, and third base, plus Stefanic has a handful of games as a first baseman and at both corner outfield positions.
Robinson is a 22-year-old righty who was an 11th-round pick for the A’s in the 2024 draft. The Texas Tech product pitched at both the high-A and Double-A levels last season, but returned to high-A Lansing this year to post a 3.62 ERA, 16.7% strikeout rate, and 11.4% walk rate across 27 1/3 innings. Robinson has started 27 of his 34 games as a professional, but he’ll need both miss more bats or improve his control to remain as any kind of a viable starter candidate.
Red Sox Place Trevor Story On 10-Day Injured List
The Red Sox are placing Trevor Story on the 10-day injured list prior to tonight’s game with the Braves, MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith reports. Infielder Nick Sogard will be called up to replace Story on the active roster, as Tommy Cassell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette first reported earlier today.
As noted by Smith and Chris Cotillo, Story has been dealing with a groin problem for a few weeks, dating back to Boston’s April 24-26 series with the Orioles. Story was given a few off-days in the interim to see if some added rest could fix the problem, but the decision has been made to give the veteran at least 10 days to fully recover.
It’s probably a wise move given Story’s long injury history, and because this IL stint might serve as an unofficial reset to what has been a rough season for the 33-year-old. Story is hitting only .206/.244/.303 over his first 176 plate appearances, translating to a brutal 47 wRC+. Between the lack of offense and subpar metrics (-1 Defensive Runs Saved, -2 Outs Above Average) regarding his work at shortstop, Story has been playing at below replacement level, with -0.4 fWAR to show for his 41 games.
Story had a .585 OPS over his first 232 PA in 2025 and then an .827 OPS in his final 422 PA, so it is certainly possible he can again rebound from another slow start. The Red Sox certainly hope Story can more to offer since he is only in the fifth guaranteed year of a six-year, $140MM free agent deal that has yet to deliver much in the way of results.
Andruw Monasterio, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, or Sogard (who is getting his first taste of MLB action this season) could all see some time at shortstop in Story’s absence. The Red Sox could also possibly move Marcelo Mayer from second base over to his original shortstop position, though Mayer has yet to play anywhere but the keystone this season.
Cardinals Designate Jared Shuster For Assignment
The Cardinals announced that left-hander Jared Shuster has been designated for assignment. The move opens up roster space for right-hander Matt Pushard, who is back from the 15-day injured list after recovering from patellar tendinitis in his right knee.
It was a little over a month ago that Shuster was first DFA’ed by the Cards, and the southpaw was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. Shuster chose to accept that assignment rather than opt for free agency, so he’ll face that decision again if he again clears waivers this time around.
Because Shuster is out of minor league options, he’ll have to be designated for assignment whenever the Cardinals or another team wants to send him down to Triple-A or create space on a 26-man roster. Given this state of perpetual roster limbo, Shuster might prefer to somewhat reduce the tumult by just staying with St. Louis, so he’d at least have the familiarity of remaining in the same organization. That said, if Shuster feels his big league opportunities will be limited with the Cards, he could choose to test the market this time around.
It also isn’t out of the question that Shuster is claimed off waivers, given how teams are perpetually in need of left-handed pitching depth. The Athletics claimed Shuster away from the White Sox last August, when Shuster was DFA’ed for the first time in his career. Shuster has a 2.35 ERA over the small sample of 7 2/3 innings for St. Louis this season, plus an 8.38 ERA over 9 2/3 frames for Triple-A Memphis — ironically, his peripheral numbers in the Show are unimpressive while his metrics in Triple-A have been pretty solid, though both represent small sample sizes.
Selected 25th overall by Atlanta in the 2020 draft, Shuster has only a 5.12 ERA, 15% strikeout rate, and 10.1% walk rate to show for 149 1/3 MLB innings with the Braves, White Sox, and Cardinals. Shuster’s brief time in the Athletics’ organization ended without any big league action, and he signed with St. Louis on a minor league deal during the offseason.
Orioles Sign Tommy Pham To Minor League Contract
The Orioles have signed veteran outfielder Tommy Pham to a minor league deal, according to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez (multiple links). The contract contains an opt-out clause for Pham in early June if he hasn’t already been added to Baltimore’s active roster. Pham is represented by Republik Sports.
If Pham’s contract is selected and he appears in a game for the O’s, he would become the 24th player (and ninth position player) to suit up for 11 different MLB teams over the course of his career. Historical noteworthiness aside, Pham’s first priority is just to get his 2026 season on track, as he went hitless over 14 plate appearances and nine games for the Mets earlier this season.
Pham went almost the entire offseason without being signed, as he didn’t land his previous minors deal with the Mets until March 26. After working out at extended Spring Training and then playing in four A-ball games, New York selected Pham’s contract on April 12, but his lack of production led to a DFA in late April. Pham then chose to become a free agent after clearing waivers, rather than accepting an outright assignment to the Mets’ Triple-A club.
While reading too much into his 14 PA this season is unfair, Pham has hit only .240/.321/.382 over 2730 PA since Opening Day 2020, which translates to a 96 wRC+. His only full seasons of above-average offense in that stretch were 2021 (103 wRC+) and 2023 (109 wRC+), and his splits against left-handed pitching are nothing special.
The frequent changes of uniform could be one reason for this inconsistent performance, and Pham has had a habit of streaky play over his entire career. The 2025 season saw Pham actually stay with one team for the entire season, and he hit .245/.330/.370 over 449 PA for the Pirates.
What Pham still has in the tank at age 38 remains to be seen, but there’s no risk for the Orioles in taking a flier on a minor league signing. Making New York’s roster guaranteed a $2.25MM salary for Pham in 2026, so the O’s would owe him only the prorated portion of the roughly $1.65MM remaining for any time Pham spends on Baltimore’s 26-man roster (with the Mets on the hook for the rest).
Taylor Ward and Tyler O’Neill are the Orioles’ primary corner outfielders, and like Pham, both are right-handed hitters. This means that Pham’s paths to his usual positions are pretty much blocked, though O’Neill is struggling badly at the plate, and Pham could be a depth option for the O’s in a broader sense given their other injury woes.
Ryan Mountcastle is on the 60-day IL and Jordan Westburg is gone for the season, leaving Baltimore short two right-handed bats. In the outfield, Dylan Beavers and Heston Kjerstad (both left-handed hitters) are on the IL though Kjerstad is making progress on a minor league rehab assignment. The O’s would prefer to keep Samuel Basallo as the regular designated hitter whenever he isn’t spelling Adley Rutschman behind the plate, but since Basallo is a lefty hitter, Pham might be viewed as a possible fill-in DH if the Orioles are facing a left-handed opponent.
Dodgers To Place Blake Snell On Injured List
TODAY: Snell is expected to undergo surgery, sources tell Maddie Lee. One source estimates that Snell might be able to return by late July or early August, though this projection is still very fluid.
MAY 15: The Dodgers are placing left-hander Blake Snell back on the injured list, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Lefty Charlie Barnes is being recalled in a corresponding move, according to Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times. Snell, whose placement is backdated to May 12th, reportedly has “loose bodies” in his throwing elbow.
Snell was only just activated from the injured list on May 9th, so this unfortunately makes for a quick return. He had missed the first month of the season with left shoulder fatigue. Snell then made two rehab starts at Single-A and one final start at Triple-A, in which he lasted four innings. The Dodgers somewhat surprisingly activated Snell despite previously wanting him to be stretched out to five innings in his rehab stint. In the end, Snell only made one start in the Majors before landing back on the injured list, and it didn’t go particularly well, with Snell allowing five runs (four earned) in three innings on the 9th against the Braves.
According to manager Dave Roberts, Snell felt something “in the back of” his left elbow during a game of catch yesterday (link via Ardaya). That led to the discovery of the loose bodies. Ardaya adds that there is no set plan right now as to whether Snell will require surgery. Notably, Snell underwent arthroscopic surgery in July 2019 to remove loose bodies from the same elbow, and he ended up missing six weeks. While this new injury isn’t a re-aggravation of Snell’s shoulder troubles, the mention of loose bodies in his elbow is equally troubling. A precise timeline will hopefully be known in the next few days, but the expectation is that Snell will return before the end of the season, according to Alden González of MLB.com and others.
The loss of Snell is a big hit to the Dodgers’ rotation. Tyler Glasnow went on the injured list a week ago with lower back spasms. The team had been using a six-man rotation to protect the health of their starters, particularly Shohei Ohtani, who is aiming for a full season as both a pitcher and a hitter for the first time since 2023. With Glasnow and Snell both out of the picture, the rotation is a five-man group consisting of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, and Roki Sasaki. Sasaki has a 5.88 ERA through 33 2/3 innings and is the clear weak spot in the rotation. He might have been demoted if Snell simply took Glasnow’s spot, but with both injured, Sasaki’s spot appears safe for now.
The Dodgers have a few options to replace Snell, but they each come with risks. River Ryan was just activated at Triple-A after missing a month with a hamstring injury. He is only “a slim possibility” to eventually join the big league rotation, according to Roberts (via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Left-hander Jackson Ferris is the club’s No. 8 prospect according to MLB.com. He’s only made six starts at Triple-A with a 7.43 ERA, so he’d be over-exposed in the Majors. Among non-prospects, Barnes might be the fallback option. FanGraphs has him as the long man in the Dodgers’ bullpen for now, but Barnes has been a starter for nearly all of his career in MLB and the Korea Baseball Organization. He could take a few turns through the rotation as a temporary stopgap, which would preserve the Dodgers’ six-man rotation.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
Mets Outright Andy Ibáñez
TODAY: The Mets have sent Ibáñez outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates that Ibáñez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment and accepted the outright rather than forgo his guaranteed salary.
May 12: The Mets announced Tuesday that infielder Andy Ibáñez has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to top prospect A.J. Ewing, whose previously reported selection to the major league roster is now official.
New York claimed the 33-year-old Ibáñez off waivers from the A’s late last month. He appeared in only three games as a Met, going 0-for-6 with a pair of sacrifice flies in eight trips to the plate. Between brief stints with the Athletics and Mets, Ibáñez has taken 26 plate appearances this season and gone 2-for-23 with a walk, three strikeouts and that pair of sac flies.
It’s an obviously poor start to the season, though Ibáñez has a longer track record in the big leagues, specifically against left-handed pitching. He’s a career .250/.301/.383 hitter in 1246 plate appearances as a big leaguer but has solid .272/.316/.437 slash (108 wRC+) in 572 career plate appearances versus southpaws. During his time in Detroit, Ibáñez was a go-to option for skipper A.J. Hinch. From 2023-24, Hinch plugged Ibáñez into 272 plate appearances versus left-handers and was rewarded with a .278/.331/.480 batting line.
Ibáñez’s production against lefties dipped to about league average last year, however, prompting Detroit to non-tender him. He signed with the Dodgers in free agency, but L.A. was clearly hoping to ink him on a reasonable one-year deal then pass him through waivers to stash as depth in the upper minors. The A’s threw a wrench into that gambit by claiming him in February, just two weeks after he signed with the Dodgers in the first place.
On the defensive side of things, Ibáñez is both versatile and effective. He’s drawn above-average grades for his work at second base, third base and first base in his big league career. He’s also made brief cameos at shortstop (eight innings) and in the outfield corners (171 innings). No team is going to install him as a semi-regular option at shortstop, but he can handle the position in a pinch and can bounce just about anywhere else on the diamond. Ibáñez isn’t a burner on the basepaths, but his sprint speed sits in the 55th percentile of big leaguers, per Statcast, so he could be a late pinch-running option for a plodding slugger if need be.
Ibáñez is earning $1.2MM this season. Any team that claims him or acquires him in a trade would be on the hook for the remaining $897K of that sum (though the Mets could include some cash in a deal in the seemingly unlikely event that another club is willing to offer up a lower-tier prospect). Ibáñez is out of minor league options, so he’d need to go right onto a new club’s major league roster. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean forfeiting the rest of his guaranteed salary. As such, he’d likely accept an assignment to Triple-A and stay on hand as a depth option for the Mets.
Padres Place Matt Waldron On 15-Day Injured List, Recall Alek Jacob
The Padres are placing right-hander Matt Waldron on the 15-day injured list, per a team announcement. Righty Alek Jacob is being recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Some kind of move involving Waldron has seemed likely for a while now. The Padres have been doing a bit of musical chairs in their rotation this year, working around various injuries. Waldron himself began the season on the injured list while recovering from a hemorrhoid procedure. By the time he was ready to come off the IL in mid-April, the Friars had lost Nick Pivetta to the IL, where he joined Joe Musgrove and Griffin Canning.
Shortly after Pivetta’s injury, the Padres signed Lucas Giolito. He agreed to be optioned to the minors for a few tune-up starts. At that time, the San Diego rotation consisted of Waldron, Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez. Canning came off the IL in early May, but then Márquez went on the shelf at the same time.
It was reported earlier this week that Giolito would be coming up to the big leagues this weekend, meaning someone would have to give way. Waldron seemed like the logical guy to bump out, since he posted a 9.28 earned run average through his first five appearances this year. The fact that he pitched two mop-up innings out of the bullpen yesterday only further signaled that he had been bumped out of the rotation.
Waldron’s placement on the injured list spares him from being designated for assignment for the moment. That said, Waldron himself acknowledged his performance and out-of-options status earlier this week. “Safe to say my ERA and my numbers aren’t too attractive right now,” he said a few days ago. “And I have no options, so I mean, yeah, that’s where I’ll leave it. I’m smart enough (to know).” The Friars kept him in the rotation for about a month, but as mentioned, Waldron pitched a couple of relief innings yesterday. With Giolito set to be activated soon, it’s entirely possible that Waldron’s IL placement has only stalled the inevitable, and he might still be off the roster in some form when he returns from the IL.
As for Jacob, he returns to the Majors as an extra arm in the Padres’ bullpen until Giolito is activated. Jacob, 28, has a 3.91 ERA in 53 big league innings from 2023-26. He threw 33 1/3 innings in the Majors last year, and the resulting 5.13 ERA and 15.0% strikeout rate were unimpressive. Jacob hasn’t had much success at Triple-A either. He’s thrown 98 2/3 innings at that level since the start of 2024 with a 5.20 ERA. Jacob has just over one year of service time and one option remaining, so he can be optioned when Giolito debuts in the next couple of days.
Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images
Orioles Acquire Eduarniel Núñez, Designate Christian Roa
The Orioles acquired right-hander Eduarniel Núñez from the A’s in exchange for cash, the clubs announced Friday. He’d previously been designated for assignment and has now been optioned to Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. To open space on the 40-man roster, the O’s designated another right-handed reliever, Christian Roa, for assignment.
The 26-year-old Núñez was one of four players the A’s received from the Padres in exchange for Mason Miller and JP Sears. Shortstop Leo De Vries headlined the return, with rotation prospects Braden Nett and Henry Baez standing as enticing secondary pieces. Núñez was the “fourth” prospect in the deal but also the most major league-ready of the bunch. He’d already made a very brief MLB debut with San Diego and jumped right onto the Athletics’ roster following the trade.
Last summer, Núñez pitched eight innings with the Athletics and was tagged for eight runs on nine hits, seven walks and a pair of hit batters. He did fan nine batters, but when accounting for all the walks and the pair of batters he plunked, those nine punchouts only represented 23% of the opponents he faced — just barely north of the league average.
Lackluster debut notwithstanding, the A’s surely had some hope that Núñez could turn things around in 2026. That hasn’t happened. Núñez has a respectable 4.61 ERA through 13 2/3 innings (2 1/3 in Double-A, 11 1/3 in Triple-A), but he’s walked 11 of his 67 opponents (16.4%) and plunked another two batters (3%). Since coming to the A’s organization last summer, Núñez has faced 155 batters between the majors and minors. A whopping 19.3% of them have reached base without putting a ball in play, whether by walk or hit-by-pitch. He’s also tossed six wild pitches in a total of 33 1/3 innings.
Beyond that poor command, Núñez has experienced an alarming velocity drop this season. His four-seamer averaged 98.1 mph last year but is at an even 95 mph so far in 2026. Last year’s slider sat 88.5 mph. This year, it’s at 87 mph. Perhaps the Orioles have some mechanical tweaks in mind to get him back on track, but it’s not an encouraging trend. Núñez doesn’t have a full year of service under his belt and is in the second of three minor league option years, however, so the O’s have some time to get him trending in the right direction if they’re willing to keep him on the 40-man roster.
Roa, 27, was with the Marlins last year and signed with the Astros as a minor league free agent after being outrighted by Miami. He was briefly called to Houston’s big league roster but was quickly designated for assignment and claimed by the Twins. Minnesota optioned Roa to Triple-A and wound up designating him for assignment themselves not long after. The Orioles claimed him earlier this week, but it’ll be another potentially abbreviated stay in a new organization for Roa.
The No. 48 overall pick out of Texas A&M back in 2020, Roa is a hard-throwing righty who’s yet to break through and establish himself in the majors. He’s drawn praise for a plus slider and average or better fastball and changeup over the years, but he’s regularly received 30 and 40 grades (on the 20-80 scale) for his command along the way. Roa has pitched to a 4.56 ERA in parts of four Triple-A seasons, fanning 25.5% of his opponents there but also issuing walks at a dismal 14% clip.
This is already his third DFA of the season. The Orioles will either trade Roa, place him on outright waivers or release him in the days ahead. His DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.
Rays Designate Aaron Brooks For Assignment
The Rays have designated right-hander Aaron Brooks for assignment and recalled fellow righty Trevor Martin from Triple-A Durham in a corresponding move, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Their 40-man roster is now at 39 players.
Brooks, 36, signed with the Rays earlier this month after beginning the season in the Mexican League. His contract was selected to the major league roster last weekend, and he made his team debut Wednesday evening. It didn’t go well. The journeyman righty recorded only one out and was tagged for three earned runs on a pair of walks and a homer. That could end up representing the entirety of his time with the Rays; he’ll now be traded, placed on outright waivers or released within the next week. Brooks has been outrighted in the past and thus has the right to reject a minor league assignment if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
This now becomes the seventh season in which Brooks has logged at least one big league appearance. He has just under three total years of major league service time, during which he’s compiled 207 innings with a 6.48 ERA, a 15.2% strikeout rate and a 7% walk rate.
Though he hasn’t had much success in the majors, Brooks has pitched in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons and piled up more than 800 innings there. A 4.80 ERA doesn’t stand out, but he’s spent most of his Triple-A career pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and has had some successful seasons there. Brooks also spent two years pitching with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, for whom he logged a 2.79 ERA in 229 1/3 innings from 2020-21.
Angels, Austin Wynns Agree To Minor League Deal
The Angels and free agent catcher Austin Wynns are in agreement on a minor league deal, MLBTR has learned. The Klutch Sports client opened the season with the division-rival A’s but was designated for assignment a week ago. The A’s asked to assign him to Triple-A Las Vegas, but as a player with five-plus years of service, Wynns had the right to refuse, which he did. The A’s then placed him on release waivers, and he subsequently became a free agent.
Wynns spent nearly one calendar year with the A’s after they acquired him in a cash swap with the Reds last June. He’d taken 63 plate appearances with Cincinnati and turned in a mammoth .390/.429/.661 slash (three homers, seven doubles), but that sort of production was never going to be sustainable; Wynns had a modest track record prior to that outburst, and while the short uptick in power was impressive, his overall batting line was also buoyed by a sky-high .513 average on balls in play.
Now 35 years old, Wynns wound up taking 110 plate appearances with the A’s and slashing .167/.204/.304 in that time. The well-traveled backstop’s career marks are somewhere between the extremes of those Cincinnati highs and West Sacramento lows. He’s suited up for the Reds, A’s, Orioles, Giants, Dodgers and Rockies, compiling a lifetime .231/.276/.347 slash line in 826 big league plate appearances (293 games).
Wynns doesn’t draw premium framing grades, but Statcast thinks he’s solid when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt. More impressively, Wynns has shut down 30.2% of attempted base thieves in the majors — right in line with his career 31% mark in the minors. He’s quite strong when it comes to controlling the run game, and clubs clearly value his experience, defensive acumen and work with pitchers, as evidenced by his five-plus years of service despite sub-par work in the batter’s box.
Because Wynns has five-plus years of service, he was able to elect free agency and still retain the remainder of this year’s $1.1MM salary. The A’s are on the hook for the vast majority of that sum. The Angels will owe Wynns only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That would be subtracted from what the A’s have left to pay out.
The Angels’ catching depth has taken a major hit in recent weeks. Logan O’Hoppe suffered a broken wrist in late April. That injury pushed Travis d’Arnaud into the starter’s role, but he went on the injured list last week due to plantar fasciitis.
That pair of injuries left the Halos with Sebastián Rivero and rookie Omar Martínez as the catching tandem at present. Both signed minor league deals over the winter. Rivero entered the season with only 162 days of big league service. He’s a .169/.220/.202 hitter in 134 big league plate appearances and a .248/.296/.369 hitter in 785 Triple-A plate appearances spread across six seasons.
Martinez, 25, had never played in the majors before being called up earlier this week. He’s 1-for-3 in his fledgling MLB career. The Venezuelan-born backstop posted decent numbers in the lower minors with the Yankees but slashed .208/.297/.358 with a 34.4% strikeout rate in 259 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A dating back to last season. Given that tandem’s minimal track record, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Wynns found himself catching games at Angel Stadium in the near future.