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Reds Select Austin Wynns

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The Reds announced that they have selected catcher Austin Wynns to their roster. To open a spot on the 40-man, they transferred left-hander Brandon Williamson to the 60-day injured list. Williamson underwent Tommy John surgery in September and will likely miss the entire 2025 season.

Adding Wynns has seemed likely for a while now. The Reds previously only had two catchers on their 40-man roster in Tyler Stephenson and Jose Trevino. Stephenson got an MRI on his back a couple of weeks ago which revealed a low-grade oblique strain. That made it inevitable that the Reds would have to add another backstop to pair with Trevino to start the season.

Wynns, 34, was in this role with Cincinnati in 2024 as well. The club selected his contract three times last year, whenever they needed a fresh body. In the first two cases, he was designated for assignment and outrighted back to Louisville a few days later. In the third case, he himself landed on the IL due to a right teres major tear and finished the season there. At season’s end, he was outrighted off the roster again and elected free agency but returned on a fresh minor league pact.

His .230/.277/.332 career batting line isn’t strong but he’s a veteran backstop who has appeared in parts of six big league seasons now. He’s considered a competent defender and the Reds are clearly comfortable with him.

White Sox To Select Nick Maton, Travis Jankowski

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The White Sox have some more roster moves to come. Per Scott Merkin of MLB.com, infielder Brooks Baldwin, infielder Nick Maton and outfielder Travis Jankowski all made the team. Maton and Jankowski aren’t yet on the 40-man roster, so a couple of spots will have to be opened for them. Per James Fegan of Sox Machine, Tyler Gilbert will start the season on the injured list.

Maton, 28, signed a minor league deal with the club in December and has had a strong camp. He hit .289/.357/.632 in his 43 Cactus League plate appearances, which will get him a chance to return to the majors.

He’s been given some chances in the big leagues before, thanks to some strong work on the farm, but those auditions have generally been brief and unsuccessful. He has a line of .267/.375/.454 over the past three minor league seasons, production which translates to a wRC+ of 118. He’s also been put into 185 major league games over the past four seasons but with a tepid line of .205/.303/.357 in those.

The Sox have plenty of uncertainty on their roster and Maton can move all around. He has big league experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base, in addition to some outfield work. He’s also played first in the minors and could be an option there as well. The Sox figure to have Miguel Vargas and Andrew Vaughn at the corner infield spots but the middle infield is less certain. Baldwin, Lenyn Sosa and Jacob Amaya are options but each is fairly lacking in experience, so Maton can earn some playing time in there.

Maton is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors if he doesn’t click. But if he is finally able to carry some of his strong offense up to the majors, he can be controlled for another four seasons since his service clock is just a bit over the two-year line.

Jankowski, 34 in June, has a long track record as a glove-first outfielder. He’s been in 681 big league games over his decade-long career with a .236/.319/.305 batting line. But he has 102 steals and strong defensive grades. Mike Tauchman seems likely to start the season on the injured list due to a hamstring strain and Andrew Benintendi might be the regular designated hitter. That leaves the White Sox with an outfield mix of Luis Robert Jr., Michael A. Taylor, Austin Slater and Jankowski.

The moves could lead to more domino effects. The Sox already designated Oscar Colás for assignment earlier today. If they plan to select Mike Clevinger, they’ll need to open three more 40-man spots for him, Maton and Jankowski. Drew Thorpe will be able to open one of those by getting placed on the 60-day injured list, since he’ll miss the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but the Sox will have to find two more.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Marlins Designate Seth Martinez For Assignment

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The Marlins announced Wednesday that right-hander Seth Martinez has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to righty Tyler Phillips, whom Miami acquired from the Phillies in exchange for cash today.

It’s another DFA in a whirlwind season for Martinez, who spent the 2021-24 seasons with the Astros organization but has now changed hands four times this offseason alone — and potentially now a fifth. The D-backs claimed Martinez off waivers back in November, and he’s since bounced to Miami, Seattle and back to Miami via waiver claims. The Marlins will have five days to trade Martinez or place him on outright waivers. If placed on waivers, that’d be another 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.

Martinez is a soft-tossing righty with a decent, if unspectacular track record as a multi-inning reliever. Over the past three seasons, he’s worked to a combined 3.68 ERA in 134 1/3 innings. The path to that cumulative earned run average was a bit uneven, as Martinez logged a 2.08 mark in 2022 but a 5.23 and a 3.29 in the two subsequent seasons. Collectively, Martinez has posted a 20.8% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 39.8% grounder rate while averaging 90-91 mph on his sinker and four-seamer during that time.

On top of the solid big league work, Martinez carries a 2.66 ERA in 105 frames across parts of four Triple-A seasons. He’s fanned more than 31% of his opponents in Triple-A over the years. That strong minor league track record, coupled with his recent major league work, could earn him a look from another team. However, Martinez is also out of minor league options, so any team claiming him or acquiring him via trade would need to plug him directly into its big league bullpen.

Padres Outright Brett Sullivan

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Catcher Brett Sullivan went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated for assignment on Sunday, the Padres announced. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A El Paso to begin the season, meaning he’ll stick with the organization as a depth option but won’t occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Sullivan has neither the requisite service time nor the prior outright needed to reject today’s assignment in favor of free agency.

Sullivan, 31, has appeared in 40 games and taken 103 plate appearances with San Diego over the past two seasons. He’s a .206/.243/.299 hitter with a pair of homers, a 22.3% strikeout rate and a 4.9% walk rate in that time. He’s delivered solid offense in Triple-A, however, hitting .287/.367/.497 with 24 homers, 47 doubles and nearly as many walks (11.1%) as strikeouts (11.9%) over the course of 732 plate appearances there.

Defensively, Sullivan has received shaky grades for both his framing and throwing. He’s shown some defensive versatility though, logging 723 career innings in left field, 694 at third base and 35 at first base in the minors (all in addition to 4547 innings behind the plate).

Now that Sullivan has cleared waivers, he’ll be in El Paso alongside the recently optioned Luis Campusano. They’ll be first up in the event of injuries or changes to the big league catching tandem of Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado.

Marlins Acquire Tyler Phillips

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1:42pm: The Phillies announced that Phillips was traded to the Marlins for cash.

11:31am: The Marlins are set to acquire righty Tyler Phillips from the division-rival Phillies, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. Philadelphia designated Phillips for assignment on Sunday. It’s not clear if Miami has agreed to a small trade or is simply claiming the right-hander off waivers, but he’ll join the Marlins’ big league roster either way, as he’s out of minor league options.

Phillips, 27, made his MLB debut with the Phillies last year, appearing in eight games (seven starts) and logging a 6.87 ERA in 36 2/3 innings. He averaged 93.7 mph on his sinker, fanned 17.5% of his opponents, issued walks at a minuscule 4.4% clip and kept a solid 42.3% of his batted balls on the ground. He’s whiffed 14 of the 50 hitters he’s faced this spring (28%) and notched a massive 63% ground-ball rate, but he’s also been tagged for nine runs and walked seven batters in 10 2/3 innings.

Though Phillips had a tough first look in the majors and a shaky 5.08 ERA in Triple-A, he’ll come to the Marlins having logged 122 2/3 minor league innings in 2023 and 155 1/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues last year. For a Marlins club that has seen a large swath of injuries this spring, he’ll add some needed rotation depth and a potential long man in the bullpen.

Miami lost Braxton Garrett to UCL surgery early in camp. Ryan Weathers went down with a forearm strain just last week. Edward Cabrera struggled in camp while pitching through a series of blisters on his right hand. Ballyhooed prospect Eury Perez is still on the mend from last April’s Tommy John surgery.

At present, the Marlins project to open with a rotation including Sandy Alcantara, Cal Quantrill, Max Meyer, Connor Gillispie and Valente Bellozo. The first three are locked into place, but neither Gillispie nor Bellozo has a long big league track record or Meyer’s prospect status. Phillips provides length in the ’pen and a possible alternative in the event that the Fish opt to send Gillispie or Bellozo to Triple-A Jacksonville for further minor league work.

Reds To DFA Fairchild, Place Hays On IL; Steer Will Not Go On IL

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The Reds have a few notable moves on tap ahead of Opening Day, as reported by Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Despite previous reports that infielder/outfielder Spencer Steer will start the season on the injured list due to a right shoulder injury, he actually will make the Opening Day roster but will be the designated hitter only. However, outfielder Austin Hays will go on the 10-day injured list due to a calf injury. Additionally, outfielder Stuart Fairchild will be designated for assignment tomorrow.

At this point, the details on Hays aren’t clear. He was in the lineup for the club on Sunday, stepping to the plate three times. It hasn’t been publicly reported how he sustained his injury or how severe it is. Opening Day IL stints can be backdated by three days, so it’s possible he could rejoin the club as soon as one week into the season if it’s minor.

As for Steer, his right shoulder has been bothering him going back to last year. Here in camp, he’s been able to swing a bat without pain but the shoulder bugs him when he throws. Manager Terry Francona told members of the media a few days ago that Steer would start the season on the IL but it seems the club has changed that plan recently.

It’s understandable that they don’t want to lose his bat. He hit .271/.356/.464 for a 117 wRC+ in 2023. His line dropped to .225/.319/.402 last year but that seems to have been at least partially bad luck, with his batting average on balls in play dropping from .318 to .260 in those respective seasons. Having him in the DH spot will give the club a bit less flexibility but ideally some extra thump.

As for Fairchild, he has largely been serving as a glove-first depth outfielder for the Reds lately. He exhausted his final option year in 2023 but then managed to stick on the roster last year as the club suffered through a number of injuries.

His glovework has been strong but he has a career batting line of .224/.308/.389, which translates to an 88 wRC+. In camp this year, his numbers were far worse, as he slashed .132/.233/.184 in 45 plate appearances. That performance seems to have sealed his fate. The Reds could have kept Fairchild and optioned guys like Jacob Hurtubise and Blake Dunn to the minors, but will open the season with those two and bump Fairchild off the roster.

Once he’s officially DFA’d, he’ll have at most a week to find out his fate, whether that’s a trade or some destiny on the waiver wire. Despite the poor offense, he does have ten Defensive Runs Saved and nine Outs Above Average in his 1,389 1/3 innings. He’s also stolen 23 bases over the past two years. Perhaps some other club will be interested in grabbing him as a fourth outfielder. If that comes to pass, he can be controlled for four seasons since his service time is between two and three years at the moment.

Without Steer, Hays or Fairchild, the outfield might be in flux to start the season. TJ Friedl and Jake Fraley should be regulars in two spots. Gavin Lux might play a decent amount of left field with Matt McLain at second and Jeimer Candelario at third. Candelario can also play first but it seems as though Christian Encarnacion-Strand will be the regular there. Dunn and Hurtubise could also factor into the mix alongside Lux.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

White Sox Designate Oscar Colas For Assignment, Claim Greg Jones From Rockies

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The White Sox have designated outfielder Oscar Colas for assignment and claimed infielder/outfielder Greg Jones off waivers from the Rockies, per a team announcement. Chicago optioned Jones and righty Justin Anderson to Triple-A Charlotte. The Sox also reassigned infielders Bobby Dalbec, Tristan Gray and Chase Meidroth to minor league camp alongside righties James Karinchak and Steven Wilson.

Now 26 years old, Colas came to the White Sox with considerable fanfare. The Cuban-born slugger was touted as one of the more intriguing prospects on the 2020-21 and 2021-22 international amateur markets. He bizarrely (and frankly, unfairly) drew comparisons to Shohei Ohtani, of all players, for his plus raw power and because he’d dabbled in pitching during his time in Cuba and a brief foray into Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Outlandish as that comparison was, it did set some unrealistic expectations among fans who were dreaming on Colas as a potential superstar.

Even before the White Sox signed him, Colas had signaled that he no longer intended to pitch and that he’d focus his efforts on his work as a position player. He formally signed with Chicago in Jan. 2022 for a reported $2.7MM bonus. Colas went on to tear through minor league pitching that season, slashing .314/.371/.524 with 23 homers across three levels. Strong as those rate stats were, his production came with some red flags. Colas spent the bulk of the season playing against younger and less experienced competition, and he rarely walked. His strikeout rates also climbed rapidly as he moved from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A.

The Sox gave Colas his big league debut in 2023, and he quickly looked overmatched. In 75 games and 263 plate appearances, he hit just .216/.257/.314 with a tiny 4.6% walk rate and a bloated 27.6% strikeout rate. Of the 328 big league hitters with at least 250 plate appearances in 2023, Colas chased balls off the plate at the 13th-highest rate, per Statcast, despite also turning in a well below-average contact rate on such swings. Only 39 of those 328 hitters had a lower overall contact rate than Colas.

For all of Colas’ big league struggles in 2023, he at least turned in a .272/.345/.465 line in Triple-A Charlotte. That was league-average production by measure of wRC+ — a testament to the hitter-friendly nature of the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues. Colas showed solid discipline in the minors, walking at a 9.2% clip against a roughly average 22.3% strikeout rate.

The 2024 season brought considerable regression. Colas hit only .246/.332/.400 in Triple-A. His 11% walk rate was an improvement, and his 23.1% strikeout rate effectively matched the prior season, but Colas’ power deteriorated. He also became increasingly prone to hitting grounders and harmless infield flies; nearly one-quarter of his fly balls in Triple-A last year registered as infield flies. That’s more than double the 10.3% MLB average. Despite the Sox fielding a historically bad team, they scarcely gave Colas a look; he logged only 38 plate appearances and hit .273/.368/.273 while fanning 10 times (26.3%). Spring training hasn’t done Colas any favors. He received only 18 official plate appearances and went 4-for-16 with seven strikeouts.

The White Sox will now trade Colas or place him on waivers within the next five days. Outright waivers are a 48-hour process, which could drag his stay in DFA limbo out to a maximum of one week. Though he was a touted prospect not long ago, Colas’ struggles and limited skill set might allow Chicago to keep him. Today’s front offices typically aren’t enamored of power-focused corner bats with questionable on-base skills and sub-par defensive acumen.

In Jones, the Sox will pick up one of the sport’s fastest players. The 27-year-old has only six MLB plate appearances to his credit — he went 1-for-6 with a homer for Colorado last year — but drew 80 grades for his speed as a prospect. Jones went 46-for-49 in stolen bases at the Triple-A level last year despite being limited to just 89 games by injury. He hit .267/.344/.453 with the Rockies’ top affiliate (99 wRC+).

Jones is in the last of his three minor league option years. The former Rays first-rounder has split the bulk of his pro career between shortstop and center field. He’ll give the South Siders some depth at both spots and would presumably be an option in the outfield corners or at second base and third base as well. The Rockies gave him 64 games in center, 16 at shortstop, eight at second base and four in right field last year.

Colorado picked Jones up in a March 2024 trade sending left-handed pitching prospect Joe Rock to the Rays. The Rockies are left without anything to show for that swap now, whereas Rock has blossomed into a nearly MLB-ready rotation prospect for Tampa Bay. Rock profiles as more of a back-end starter or multi-inning reliever than a top-of-the-rotation talent, but the swap has clearly worked out in the Rays’ favor to this point.

Nationals To Select Brad Lord

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The Nationals are going to promote right-hander Brad Lord to their Opening Day roster, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The righty is not yet on the 40-man, so a corresponding move will be required. That could be an easy call since DJ Herz has been recommended for Tommy John surgery. It’s not fully confirmed that Herz will go under the knife but he will likely miss a decent chunk of time even if he avoids the surgeon’s table.

Lord, 25, isn’t a typical prospect. As Passan mentions in his report and as detailed by Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post last month, Lord has had to grind. While some top draft picks get multi-million-dollar signing bonuses, Lord was an 18th-round selection in 2022 and signed for $125K. He spent this past winter working at a Home Depot in Bradenton, lifting bags of mulch and Christmas trees, around his offseason training.

That makes it all the more impressive that he’s been able to improve his stock in recent years. In 2023, he tossed 104 2/3 innings at the Single-A and High-A levels, working both as a starter and reliever. He posted a 4.04 earned run average, 18.5% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and huge 61.6% ground ball rate.

Last year, he climbed from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, logging 129 2/3 innings across a combined 29 starts at those three levels with a 2.43 ERA. His grounder rate dropped to 42% but he upped his punchouts to a 25.3% clip. Baseball America ranked him the #29 prospect in the system going into 2025.

Here in camp, his 6.08 ERA doesn’t look so nice, but that’s in a tiny sample of 13 1/3 innings. He was very unfortunate in that time, with an unlucky .348 batting average on balls in play and 50% strand rate. He only struck out 13.8% of batters but got the grounders back up to 55.6%.

He seems likely to start the season working a long relief role for the Nats. They project to have a rotation of MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and Michael Soroka. By having Lord serve the longman role, it will allow the club to keep other potential starters like Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Jackson Rutledge stretched out in Triple-A.

Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images

Tigers, Ben Gamel Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have agreed to terms on a minor league contract with free agent outfielder Ben Gamel, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Gamel, a Wasserman client, was released by the Astros earlier in the week. His new deal with the Tigers will have the same $1.2MM base as the non-guaranteed big league deal from which he was released in Houston.

Gamel, 32, has appeared in each of the past nine big league seasons. He’s a career .252/.334/.382 hitter in 2320 trips to the plate in the majors. Gamel, who’s suited up for the Yankees, Mariners, Brewers, Guardians, Pirates, Padres, Mets and Astros over his near-decade in the big leagues, was a semi-regular from 2017-22 but has just 114 big league plate appearances over the past two seasons. He’s an OBP-oriented corner bat who’s best suited for left field.

Detroit has seen its outfield mix hobbled considerably by injuries to begin the season. Parker Meadows is dealing with a nerve issue and is still shut down for another four weeks at the very least. He’ll need to build back up to game readiness after his shutdown period. He’s already on the 60-day injured list and won’t return until June at the earliest.

Right fielder/third baseman Matt Vierling is opening the season on the injured list due to a strained rotator cuff. Utilityman Wenceel Perez who’d been ticketed for regular work in the outfield after Meadows and Vierling were injured, will instead miss at least the first month of the season due to a back injury.

Following that slate of injuries, the Tigers signed veteran Manuel Margot to a big league deal. He was granted his release by the Brewers over the weekend after spending camp with them as a non-roster invitee. Margot, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter are now poised to log the bulk of the time in the outfield. Utility options like Zach McKinstry, Ryan Kreidler and Andy Ibanez could all see time in the outfield as well, and Detroit has even gotten Spencer Torkelson some reps in right field. Gamel will join prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy as one of the top depth options in the minors, though Malloy is already on the 40-man roster and could have a leg up as a result.

Astros To Select Brendan Rodgers

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March 26: Rodgers’ contract contains a $2MM base salary plus another $300K of incentives tied to plate appearances, Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 reports. Rodgers would receive $50K bonuses for reaching each of 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 and 450 plate appearances.

March 25: The Astros will select Brendan Rodgers onto the major league roster, manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle). The former Rockies second baseman breaks camp after signing a minor league deal last month.

Rodgers didn’t exactly force his way into the picture with a huge Spring Training. He hit .233 without a home run over 44 plate appearances. Still, it was surprising that he needed to settle for a minor league deal in the first place. Rodgers is a former third overall pick who spent four seasons as Colorado’s primary second baseman. He has never lived up to the top prospect billing, but he’s been a better than replacement level performer.

The 28-year-old hit .267/.314/.407 with 13 homers across 539 plate appearances last season. Like many Colorado hitters, he had extreme home/road splits. Rodgers hit .328/.396/.502 at Coors Field and .214/.247/.323 away from Denver. The thin air in Colorado can flatten pitchers’ breaking stuff, which causes trouble for a lot of Rockies hitters as they try to adjust to sharper stuff when on the road. The Astros will hope for some positive regression in Rodgers’ road production to compensate for the expected drop-off in his numbers at home.

Rodgers won a Gold Glove at second base in 2022. Public metrics have painted that as an outlier season; he has graded as a middling defender by Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast in every other year. Rodgers hasn’t played anywhere other than the keystone since 2021. That’ll limit his versatility as a bench piece.

Houston will use Jose Altuve primarily in left field. While Mauricio Dubón is technically the starting second baseman, he’s capable of playing essentially anywhere. Rodgers could draw into the lineup at second on days when Espada wants to move Dubón around to rest someone else. As a player with more than five years of service, Rodgers cannot be sent to the minors without his consent.

The Astros have two openings on their 40-man roster at the moment. They’ll add Rodgers, Cam Smith, Rafael Montero and Steven Okert by Opening Day. They’ve already informed the out-of-options Cooper Hummel that he won’t make the team. He’ll be designated for assignment or waived. They can easily open the final spot by transferring an injured pitcher (e.g. J.P. France, Cristian Javier) to the 60-day injured list.

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