Buddy Kennedy Elects Free Agency
Infielder Buddy Kennedy elected free agency after being outrighted by the Dodgers, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been designated for assignment earlier in the week when Kiké Hernández returned from injury.
Los Angeles claimed Kennedy off waivers from Toronto two weeks ago. That coincided with an IL placement for Max Muncy. He joined Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim and Hernández on the shelf. Kennedy provided an extra infielder alongside Miguel Rojas and rookie Alex Freeland between second and third base. He went 1-17 over seven games.
A former fifth-round pick of the Diamondbacks, Kennedy has played sporadically in parts of four big league seasons. He’s a .178/.271/.274 hitter in 181 career plate appearances. The 26-year-old has split time in Triple-A this year between the Philadelphia and Toronto systems. He has turned in a solid .268/.372/.408 showing in 77 combined games.
Kennedy will look for a minor league deal elsewhere. He’d need to be in another organization by September 1 to be eligible for a postseason roster. He’d be a long shot to get a playoff roster spot either way, of course, but it stands to reason a signing team would prefer that flexibility if they’re adding him as upper minors infield depth.
Corey Seager To Undergo Appendectomy, Not Ruled Out For Season
Rangers shortstop Corey Seager has appendicitis and will undergo an appendectomy. President of baseball operations Chris Young relayed the news to reporters, including Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News, saying that Seager will be “out a period of time” but hasn’t been ruled out for the entire year. Per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, infielder Dylan Moore will be added to the roster with outfielder Evan Carter moved to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.
Though Seager isn’t completely ruled out for the season, it’s obviously a rough blow. Seager is the best player on the team. Despite missing some time due to hamstring strains and only playing in 102 games, he has produced four wins above replacement, in the eyes of FanGraphs. He has 21 home runs, a 13% walk rate, 19.6% strikeout rate, .271/.373/.487 batting line, 137 wRC+ and excellent grades for his shortstop defense.
No club ever wants to lose its best player to an injury but the Rangers are in an especially precarious spot. They have been hovering around .500 for most of the year, currently sporting a 68-67 record. That puts them 4.5 games back of a playoff spot with a month left to go.
They’re not totally knocked out but they’ve taken a few big punches lately. In the past month-plus, they have lost Seager, Carter, Marcus Semien, Nathan Eovaldi, Jake Burger, Sam Haggerty, Chris Martin, Jon Gray and Cole Winn to the injured list. Carter recently suffered a wrist fracture and this transfer means he’s ineligible to return before mid-October. Semien’s foot injury is going to cost him four to six weeks. Eovaldi’s rotator cuff strain is likely season-ending.
The club still has a chance to make a late charge for a postseason spot but doing so without so many key contributors will be tough. There’s also a ticking clock right now due to some granular MLB rules. The Rangers tried to avoid the competitive balance tax this year but reportedly went just over the line when making upgrades to the roster ahead of the trade deadline. They could sneak back under the tax line if a few players are claimed off waivers. However, a player would only be postseason eligible with a new club if claimed prior to September 1st. Since waivers are a 48-hour process, the Rangers would have to put guys on the wire in the next 24 hours or so, or else they would suddenly have significantly less appeal to other teams.
Merrill Kelly, Tyler Mahle, Danny Coulombe, Hoby Milner, Phil Maton, Shawn Armstrong and Patrick Corbin are all impending free agents. They therefore have no value for the Rangers beyond this year. If the club decides to punt on 2025, they could place some or all of them on waivers. It’s unlikely all of them would get claimed but Kelly definitely would and a few others probably would as well. Adolis García can be retained for 2026 but is a non-tender candidate and could make sense for the wire as well.
Time will tell if Seager’s injury pushes them to make that bold decision. For now, Josh Smith will likely step in for Seager at shortstop, per Wilson. That will leave playing time at second, which will be taken by some combination of Ezequiel Durán, Cody Freeman and Moore.
Moore and the Rangers just signed a minor league deal a few days ago after he had been released by the Mariners. He’s having an awful season, which prompted that release. He has a .193/.263/.359 batting line and 35.7% strikeout rate.
He has been better than that in the past. He came into the year with a career .206/.316/.384 line and 102 wRC+, despite striking out in 29.8% of his plate appearances. He had 104 stolen bases and had played every position except catcher.
Though he hasn’t been good this year, he’s essentially free for the Rangers. Since the Mariners released him, they remain on the hook for the majority of his salary. The Rangers only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time he spends on their roster. That amount will be subtracted from what the Mariners pay.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Jairaj, Imagn Images
Guardians Release Carlos Santana
The Guardians have released first baseman Carlos Santana, per a team announcement. He’d been placed on outright waivers earlier in the week and clearly went unclaimed. Infielder Daniel Schneemann has been reinstated from the paternity list and will take Santana’s spot on the active roster. Santana is now a free agent and can sign with any team for the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the season. So long as he signs prior to Sept. 1, he would be postseason-eligible with a new team.
Santana’s third stint in Cleveland will conclude with a lackluster .225/.316/.333 batting line and 11 home runs in 455 plate appearances. The 39-year-old remains an elite defender at first base, but his bat has wilted from both sides of the plate. The veteran switch-hitter is slashing just .220/.311/.325 against right-handed pitching and .235/.328/.353 versus lefties. That said, Santana was a thunderous force against left-handed pitching as recently as last season, when he raked at a .286/.356/.578 pace in 163 chances from the right-handed batter’s box.
Through the trade deadline, Santana’s bat was at least within arm’s reach of league average, but virtually all of his production this year came in a torrid month of May. He’s been below average at the plate in every other month and has cratered in August, hitting .186/.271/.233 through 48 plate appearances.
His recent poor play, coupled with the presence of young Kyle Manzardo and the recent promotion of top prospect C.J. Kayfus, left Santana without a clear role on a Guardians club that has fallen out of postseason contention. Cleveland will take the final month of the season to get regular reps for the 25-year-old Manzardo and the 23-year-old Kayfus. They’d surely hoped that another club would claim Santana and take on the remainder of his $12MM salary, but that was always a long shot. The Guards will remain on the hook for what’s left of that sum (minus the prorated minimum for any time he spends on another club’s major league roster).
Red Sox Reinstate Justin Slaten From 60-Day IL
The Red Sox made a series of roster moves Thursday morning, most notably reinstating right-handed reliever Justin Slaten from the 60-day IL. That move brings Boston’s 40-man roster to capacity. They’d previously had a vacancy after outrighting infielder Abraham Toro. The Red Sox also activated outfielder Rob Refsnyder from the 10-day injured list. To open active roster spots for Slaten and Refsnyder, they optioned southpaw Jovani Moran to Triple-A Worcester and placed first baseman Nathaniel Lowe on the paternity list (where he can spend up to three days).
Slaten, 27, is in his second season with the Red Sox after coming to Boston via the Rule 5 Draft in 2023. He was outstanding as a rookie in 2024, tossing 55 1/3 innings with a 2.93 ERA, a 25.9% strikeout rate, a tiny 4% walk rate and a strong 50% ground-ball rate. He’s had good results in 2025 as well, logging a 3.47 ERA in 23 1/3 frames, albeit with lesser rate stats. He’s been on the injured list since late May due to shoulder inflammation.
Slaten’s strikeout rate dipped to 17.8%, perhaps in part due to a significant drop in his slider usage. He threw nearly 25% sliders in ’24 but is down to 8% in ’25, instead favoring his curveball far more heavily (8.4% in ’24, 21.6% in ’25). Slaten’s walk rate has nearly doubled, up to 7.8%, but that’s still comfortably better than average. Sustaining a 4% walk rate was always going to be tough — it would be for any pitcher — particularly considering Slaten’s 8.5% walk rate in his final minor league season.
Even with some modest steps back this year, Slaten is a big arm who’ll provide a notable boost to Alex Cora‘s bullpen. He’s been effective since day one in the majors, quickly pitching his way into a high-leverage role last year, and actually saw a bump in velocity prior to his IL placement, with his average four-seamer rising from 96.4 mph last year to 97 mph in 2025. He’ll join Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson and Greg Weissert as one of the primary setup options to closer Aroldis Chapman, who is enjoying perhaps the most dominant season of his 16-year major league career.
Orioles Designate Roansy Contreras For Assignment
The Orioles announced Thursday morning that right-hander Roansy Contreras has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster goes to righty Shawn Dubin, who has now been added to the roster after being claimed off waivers out of the Astros organization.
It’ll be a one-and-done stop on the big league roster for Contreras, a former top prospect with the Yankees and Pirates who landed in Baltimore by way of the waiver wire this past offseason. He’s pitched well in Triple-A this season and gave the O’s 4 1/3 innings of scoreless long relief yesterday in his team debut. That lengthy appearance obviously renders him unavailable for the next few days, however, and Contreras is out of minor league options and thus couldn’t be sent down without first passing through waivers.
Some fans will bristle at the notion of a pitcher being called up, pitching as well as Contreras did, and then being removed from the 40-man roster. This type of transaction is common among today’s baseball operations departments, however, and Contreras’ camp likely knew it’d be a one-off appearance due to his lack of minor league options. The O’s could have subtracted Dietrich Enns instead, as he’s also out of options and unavailable for a few days after tossing 34 pitches yesterday, but Enns has pitched well overall in nine total outings with strong rate stats.
Designating Contreras leaves the Orioles with a mostly full slate of relief options, and based on his minimal MLB track record, there’s a good chance he’ll clear waivers and could thus stick around as a depth option despite the DFA. Contreras, after all, was on waivers five times this past offseason before the Orioles succeeded in passing him through at the end of spring training.
In 239 big league innings, Contreras has a 4.63 earned run average. He’s fanned 19.6% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate. He was effective in Triple-A Norfolk this year, tossing 91 2/3 innings of 3.73 ERA ball with a sub-par 17.8% strikeout rate but a solid 8.4% walk rate. That generally aligns with his career numbers in Triple-A (3.83 ERA in parts of four seasons). The O’s can hope to pass Contreras through waivers within the next couple of days, though he’ll be available to the other 29 teams and would have the right to reject an outright assignment even if he does clear.
Royals Sign Geoff Hartlieb To Minor League Deal
The Royals signed reliever Geoff Hartlieb to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Omaha. The move was announced by the Triple-A affiliate this evening.
Hartlieb was granted his release from a non-roster deal with the Tigers last week. He’s now on his third organization of the season. Hartlieb has made very brief appearances with the Yankees and Detroit. Opponents blasted him for eight runs in 3 1/3 MLB frames. The 31-year-old righty has had a much better season in Triple-A. He carries a 3.57 ERA with a near-28% strikeout rate in 45 1/3 innings at the top minor league level.
A former Pittsburgh draftee, Hartlieb has made 68 big league appearances. He has allowed nearly eight earned runs per nine over 82 2/3 career innings. He has a reasonable 4.18 ERA in parts of six Triple-A campaigns. Hartlieb leans most heavily on his mid 80s slider and has a 94-95 MPH fastball.
Hartlieb will head to Omaha as non-roster relief depth. He’ll try to pitch his way into a middle relief spot before the end of the year. He would return to minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason if the Royals don’t call him up.
Nationals To Select CJ Stubbs
The Nationals are going to select catcher CJ Stubbs to the roster, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He will take the active roster spot of fellow backstop Drew Millas, who suffered a finger fracture earlier today. The Nationals already have two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move will be required in that department.
Stubbs, 28, gets the call to the big leagues for the first time. The younger brother of Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs, CJ spent most of his career in the Astros’ minor league system. He was released in May of 2024 and then landed a minor league deal with the Nationals.
He has been a decent hitter in the minors at times but isn’t having a great season. From 2022 to 2024, he had a combined .202/.323/.404 slash line and 98 wRC+. But this year, between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a .148/.279/.240 line and 57 wRC+. His 11.6% walk rate is good but he’s also been striking out 37.3% of the time. Baseball Prospectus gives him strong grades for his framing on the farm.
The Nationals currently have three catchers on their 40-man roster. Keibert Ruiz has been on the concussion injured list for over a month and doesn’t appear close to a return. That left Millas and Riley Adams as the two active catchers. With Millas getting injured today, Adams was the only healthy backstop on the roster. Stubbs will step in, presumably in a backup role, and will make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Diamondbacks Designate Tristin English For Assignment, Select Taylor Rashi
The Diamondbacks announced that they have selected right-hander Taylor Rashi to the roster. In a corresponding active roster move, fellow righty Juan Morillo has been optioned to Triple-A Reno. To open a 40-man spot, infielder Tristin English has been designated for assignment.
Rashi, 29, gets called up to the big leagues for the first time in his career. He was originally a Giants draftee but the Snakes grabbed him in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft. His first couple of seasons after switching organizations weren’t amazing. He spent most of 2023 on the injured list and only pitched 14 1/3 innings. Last year, he was healthy enough to throw 51 2/3 innings but with a 4.70 earned run average.
Here in 2025, the results have been intriguing. He has thrown 67 1/3 innings over 40 appearances for Triple-A Reno with a 3.48 ERA. Considering the Aces play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that’s a nice number. His 10.3% walk rate this year is a bit high but his 24.7% strikeout rate and 49.4% ground ball rate are both a bit above average.
The Diamondbacks are focused on the future. They fell back in the standings and acted as sellers at the deadline. They can use the remainder of the season to see if Rashi can get outs in the big leagues and decide how much to plan on his contributions in 2026.
English, 28, was selected to the roster in July when Pavin Smith landed on the injured list. Since then, he’s been optioned to Reno and been recalled a few times. He’s only been put into seven big league games and produced a .091/.130/.136 line in his 23 plate appearances.
He has produced a much better .321/.367/.524 line in Triple-A this year, though that is undercut somewhat by a .348 batting average on balls in play and 5.8% walk rate. In the Pacific Coast League, that kind of production translates to a 110 wRC+, or 10% above average.
Evidently, the Diamondbacks didn’t feel he would be a meaningful part of their future, so he’s been bumped off the roster. With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll be placed on waivers. He still has a full slate of options and no service time. If there is a club out there intrigued by his minor league production, he could potentially be a cheap depth piece for the long term. Defensively, he’s capable of playing all four corner spots. If he clears waivers, he would stick with the Diamondbacks as a non-roster depth piece.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images
Brewers Place Trevor Megill On IL Due To Flexor Strain, Sign Erick Fedde
3:45pm: Lefty Aaron Ashby will serve as the opener tonight with Fedde likely to follow in a bulk role, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Quinn Priester was previously schedule to start tonight. McCalvy adds that Priester has a “wrist thing” which doesn’t require an IL stint but the Brewers are bumping his next start to Saturday.
2:45pm: The Brewers announced that they have signed right-hander Erick Fedde, who was released by Atlanta earlier this week. He will take the active roster spot of righty Trevor Megill, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right flexor strain, retroactive to August 25th. Righty Logan Henderson has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Fedde.
Megill himself provided an update on his status to reporters, including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He downplayed the severity and characterized the move as “taking a step back and getting right for the postseason.”
That’s a fairly positive outlook on the situation, all things considered. Regardless, it’s a notable development this late in the season. The Brewers are the best team in baseball and Megill is their closer. He notched 21 saves last year and has added another 30 this season. He has thrown 46 innings this year with a 2.54 earned run average, 30.7% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
The Brewers have a strong bullpen on the whole and that should still be the case without Megill. Abner Uribe has a 1.71 ERA this year and could step into the ninth inning role. Still, no club wants to lose its closer, especially this close to the postseason. Teams generally lean harder on their relievers in the playoffs, where the off-days allow the top arms to pitch in almost every game.
For now, his roster spot goes to Fedde. Perhaps that is to give the club a fresh arm capable of covering multiple innings out of the bullpen. Thanks to a doubleheader last week, the Brewers are in a stretch of playing 19 games in 18 days. After on off-day on September 2nd, they play another eight straight. Put together, that makes for 27 games in 27 days.
Fedde hasn’t been having a good year. Between St. Louis and Atlanta, he has thrown 125 innings with a 5.76 ERA, 13.6% strikeout rate and 10.8% walk rate. That led the Cards to designate him for assignment in July. Atlanta picked him up in a cash deal but then released him a month later.
For the Brewers, he’s cheap and doesn’t require a commitment. The Cards are on the hook for the remainder of his salary, as they ate it in the deal which sent him to Atlanta. Milwaukee only has to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster.
There’s also theoretically a bit of upside, as Fedde was far better last year. He tossed 177 1/3 innings between the White Sox and Cardinals with a 3.30 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. The Brewers have a good reputation for getting the best out of pitchers and could perhaps get him back on track, though it’s also possible he does some mop up work and then gets quickly cut from the roster.
As for Henderson, he hit the 15-day IL in early August due to his own flexor strain. This move suggests the club doesn’t expect him back before early October. Perhaps he will be healthy for the playoffs but he probably didn’t have a shot at cracking the postseason roster. He’s had good results this year but has mostly been squeezed to the minors due to the other talented pitchers on the staff.
Photo courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images
Orioles Designate Vimael Machin, Transfer Brandon Young To 60-Day IL
The Orioles announced a series of roster moves Wednesday, designating infielder Vimael Machin for assignment and transferring right-hander Brandon Young to the 60-day injured list (thereby ending his season). Their 40-man roster spots will go to infielder Emmanuel Rivera and right-hander Roansy Contreras — the latter of whom was already known to be on his way to the majors. Their contracts have been formally selected from Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore also optioned right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo to Norfolk.
Machin, 31, played his first four big league games since 2022 earlier this month after the O’s summoned him from Norfolk. He went just 1-for-12 but made the most of that lone knock, depositing it over the right field wall for the second home run of his brief MLB career. He’s now played in parts of four seasons — the other three all coming with the A’s — and posted a .204/.286/.264 batting line in 373 trips to the plate.
Though he’s never fared well in the big leagues, Machin is a lifetime .289/.371/.449 hitter in just under 1400 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He’s a lefty hitter with a good eye at the plate, experience at all four infield positions and a pair of minor league options remaining, so it’s at least feasible that another club plucks him off waivers as a depth option. If not, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment from the Orioles upon clearing waivers, should he prefer to explore other opportunities.
Young, 27, made his big league debut with the O’s earlier this season. He’s made a dozen starts despite rocky results — a testament to the depleted status of the Baltimore rotation this year. An undrafted free agent in the shortened (five-round) 2020 draft, Young has pitched 57 2/3 innings in 2025. He’s been tagged for an ugly 6.24 ERA despite passable rate stats (18.4% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate). The long ball has been his primary undoing, as he’s served up 12 homers in his relatively small sample of work (1.87 HR/9).
A hamstring strain sent Young to the 15-day IL last week. At the time, interim manager Tony Mansolino acknowledged that the right-hander would miss more than the minimum, but it wasn’t clear until today’s move to the 60-day IL that Young’s season is formally over; there simply aren’t enough days left on the calendar for him to fulfill that 60-day minimum.
Young can be controlled for six more seasons and has two minor league option years remaining beyond the current campaign. He’ll likely stick around as a depth option for a rotation that figures to be a focal point of the Orioles’ forthcoming offseason dealings.
Rivera, 29, came to the O’s late last season and went on a tear in 27 games down the stretch. He played well enough to be tendered a contract and sign for $1MM in spite of lack of track record. His 2025 season hasn’t gone as hoped. In the same number of games as last year, Rivera has slashed .229/.299/.271. The O’s passed him through waivers earlier in the summer, and he’s hit fairly well in Norfolk, slashing .297/.362/.356 in 246 turns at the plate.
Contreras, 25, is a former top prospect who looked like a potential long-term piece in the Pirates’ rotation following a strong 2022 big league debut. He’s struggled in every subsequent campaign, however, logging a 5.47 ERA over his past 136 2/3 big league frames. He landed with the Orioles via waivers late in the offseason, and Baltimore was able to pass him through waivers themselves, removing him from the 40-man roster. He’s now been added back after tossing 91 2/3 innings of 3.73 ERA ball for the Tides. Mansolino indicated yesterday that Contreras would either start today’s game or pitch several innings of bulk relief.