Trevor Richards Elects Free Agency
The Royals announced that right-hander Trevor Richards has become a free agent after clearing outright waivers. Kansas City designated Richards for assignment earlier this week, and since he has been previously outrighted in his career, Richards had the ability to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A in favor of re-entering the open market.
As a free agent this past winter, Richards signed a minor league contract with the Cubs that didn’t yield any MLB playing time, as Chicago released him in early May. The veteran righty caught on with the Royals on another minors deal a few days later, and a 1.69 ERA over 10 2/3 innings with Triple-A Omaha earned Richards a ticket back to the big leagues last weekend.
Unfortunately, Richards allowed four runs over his three innings and three total appearances as a Royal, resulting in an ugly 12.00 ERA. Most of the damage came on June 8, as Richards was charged with three runs when he couldn’t retire any of four White Sox batters faced. While a total sample size of 18 batters isn’t that much to go on, Richards allowed two walks and threw three wild pitches during his brief time in K.C.
Richards has enough MLB service time (six years and 70 days heading into the 2025 campaign) that he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. This makes his roster situation a little tricky going forward, and he’ll almost surely be limited to minor league offers in his latest trip to free agency. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Richards re-sign with the Royals on a new deal after he’s tested the market, or the 32-year-old might seek out another stop in what has been something of an itinerant career. Richards has a 4.54 ERA over 563 innings with six different clubs in his eight Major League seasons, beginning as a starter and then moving into long relief or swingman roles in recent years.
Astros To Select Cooper Hummel
The Astros will select the contract of outfielder/first baseman Cooper Hummel from Triple-A Sugar Land, according to KPRC 2’s Ari Alexander. Now in his second stint in the Astros organization, Hummel rejoined the club on a minor league deal last week.
Hummel’s first stint ended when the Astros designated him for assignment on Opening Day, and Hummel rejected an outright assignment and elected free agency after clearing waivers. This set off a bit of a transactional whirlwind for Hummel over the next two-plus months until he returned to Houston, as Hummel signed a minor league contract with the Yankees and two separate contracts with the Orioles. He triggered an out clause in his deal with New York when the Yankees didn’t include him on their active roster by late May, and Hummel twice elected free agency in lieu of outright assignments off of Baltimore’s 40-man roster. Hummel is out of minor league options, resulting in this flurry of roster shuffles.
Through it all, Hummel’s actual on-field play in 2025 consists of a single at-bat with the Orioles (as a late-game sub on May 30 in a 2-1 win over the White Sox) and 16 games with the Yankees’ and Astros’ Triple-A affiliates. Hummel has been hitting quite well in the minors, with a .273/.382/.473 slash line over 68 Triple-A plate appearances this season. This solid performance is actually a step down from his usual numbers, as Hummel has a career .284/.418/.480 slash in 1487 trips to the dish against Triple-A pitching.
As much as Hummel has been crushing it in the minors, however, he hasn’t received much of a look at the big league level. Hummel has hit .159/.254/.274 over 236 career PA in the majors, with 201 of those plate appearances coming in his 2022 rookie season with the Diamondbacks. He began his career as a part-time catcher in addition to being a backup outfielder, though he hasn’t suited up behind the plate since 2023. Hummel has also been limited to just corner outfield duty this season without any work at first base, and Christian Walker‘s presence at first in Houston probably means Hummel will stick to the outfield during his time with the Astros.
Houston will need to make room on both the 26-man and 40-man roster to accommodate Hummel — the club has an open 40-man spot at the moment, but reports from yesterday indicated that Luis Guillorme‘s contract is also being selected. Taylor Trammell and Pedro Leon have each yet to play this season but have remained on the 10-day injured list, so the Astros could simply shift either of them to the 60-day IL to create space for Hummel.
In terms of the 26-man roster moves, both Isaac Paredes (hamstring strain) and Jacob Melton (ankle sprain) could be candidates for the 10-day injured list. Manager Joe Espada told the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara and other reporters that both players are considered day-to-day for now, but Espada indicated that Melton had the more severe injury of the two. The Astros are also carrying three catchers on their active roster, so little-used backup Cesar Salazar could be optioned to Triple-A.
Nationals Place Andrew Chafin On 15-Day Injured List
The Nationals announced that left-hander Andrew Chafin has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain. Chafin’s placement is retroactive to June 11. Right-hander Ryan Loutos (who was claimed off waivers from the Dodgers earlier this week) was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move.
Signed to a one-year, $1MM Major League deal at the start of May, Chafin has a 3.18 ERA over 11 1/3 relief innings for Washington. The secondary metrics include a 25.9% strikeout rate that exactly matches Chafin’s career average, as well as a 57.1% groundball rate that harkens back to Chafin’s early-career model as more of a groundball specialist. Chafin has yet to allow a home run this season, which partially explains why he has kept his ERA in check despite a huge .414 BABIP and an uncharacteristically huge 20.4% walk rate (almost double his career 10.3BB%).
Chafin has traditionally kept pretty even numbers against both left-handed and right-handed batters, though his splits are rather pronounced this year — right-handed hitters have an .871 OPS over 26 plate appearances and lefty batters have only a .607 OPS in 28 PA. Chafin, Jose A. Ferrer, and Colin Poche (who is now in the Mets organization) are the only left-handers who have seen action in Washington’s bullpen this season, and Ferrer is now the last southpaw standing with Chafin sidelined.
The severity of the hamstring strain isn’t yet known, so for now there isn’t any reason to expect Chafin to be out of action for much more than the 15-day minimum. The 30-39 Nationals will need to really heat up in order to avoid being sellers at the trade deadline, and a veteran rental pitcher like Chafin would seem like a prime candidate to be moved if healthy.
White Sox, Brewers Swap Aaron Civale, Andrew Vaughn
The White Sox acquired right-hander Aaron Civale and cash considerations from Milwaukee for first baseman Andrew Vaughn. The Brewers optioned Vaughn to Triple-A Nashville, while Civale will step directly into Chicago’s rotation. The Brewers are reportedly sending cash to offset the difference in remaining salary between Civale’s $8MM sum and Vaughn’s $5.85MM figure.
It’s a quick turnaround after Civale requested a trade away from Milwaukee on Thursday. Civale’s trade request came on the heels of the club’s decision earlier this week to bump him from the rotation in order to call up top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski. Civale, a free agent after the 2025 campaign who struggled a bit last year but has pitched to a 3.32 ERA and 3.92 FIP in four starts since returning from the injured list last month, evidently wants to hold onto a rotation job to set himself up for success in free agency this winter as much as possible.
The 30-year-old’s wish was promptly granted, as he’s now headed for the White Sox. The South Siders have no real hope of competing for a playoff spot this year, but with a patchwork rotation that features multiple Rule 5 draftees it’s not hard to see Civale as a potentially substantial upgrade for their starting rotation. While a team headed for their second-consecutive 100-loss campaign acquiring a rental starting pitcher in the middle of the season is a rare occurrence, one can see the logic from Chicago’s perspective given that they’ll have the opportunity to flip Civale to a club with postseason aspirations closer to the trade deadline.
The logic is particularly sound for the White Sox given the player they’re giving up in return. Vaughn was the third-overall pick in the 2019 draft and a longtime top 100 prospect, but his major league career has been a disappointment so far. He entered the 2025 season with a career .253/.310/.415 (102 wRC+) slash line at the major league level and has had just one season where he had hit at a clip substantially better than league average. Things took a more pronounced nosedive this year, as he’s slashed just .189/.218/.314 (44 wRC+) across 48 games for the White Sox in 2025. It’s the lowest on-base percentage of any player with at least 120 plate appearances in the majors this year, and his -1.3 fWAR this season is dead last among all hitters who have stepped up to the plate in the majors this season. The Sox optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte a few weeks ago and he has hit .211/.328/.351 in 15 games for the Knights since then.
That’s not a player the White Sox could expect to get a substantial prospect return for this summer, and while Vaughn has one year of control remaining after this one he currently has the look of a clear non-tender candidate. That surely made the opportunity to roll the dice on flipping a veteran starting pitcher a very attractive option for Chicago.
With all that being said, it’s not as though the deal doesn’t make sense for the Brewers. Civale no longer fit in an increasingly deep Brewers rotation mix, and his roster spot is likely better used on other arms more suited for bullpen duty than a veteran starter with zero career relief appearances. What’s more, Vaughn’s underlying numbers paint the picture of a player whose actual performance isn’t all that different from his previous seasons as a league average hitter. While he’s walking at a career-low 3.6% clip, he was never an especially patient hitter. His 22.3% strikeout rate is only a tick higher than last year, and his 13.3% barrel rate this season is actually the best of his career and four points better than last season. Vaughn’s ghastly .217 BABIP should improve with time, and with incumbent first baseman Rhys Hoskins likely ticketed for free agency this winter getting Vaughn on board as a much cheaper possible replacement makes sense.
In the shorter term, Vaughn will serve as minor league depth. The Brewers reportedly view him as a full-time first baseman/DH even though he has experience in the outfield.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that Milwaukee was trading Civale to the White Sox. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that Vaughn was headed back to the Brewers. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reported the cash exchange.
Astros To Select Luis Guillorme
The Astros will select infielder Luis Guillorme onto the MLB roster tomorrow, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Houston has an open 40-man roster spot after designating Forrest Whitley for assignment and trading him to Tampa Bay. They’ll need to make an active roster move.
Guillorme has spent the entire season at Triple-A Sugar Land on a minor league contract. The lefty-hitting infielder owns a .245/.376/.310 line across 242 plate appearances. He has walked in 17% of his trips against a 19% strikeout rate, but he only has a pair of home runs. That’s in line with Guillorme’s track record. He’s a patient hitter with good contact skills and bottom-of-the-scale power.
A career .251/.336/.322 hitter over parts of seven MLB seasons, Guillorme is valued most highly for his defense. He has ample experience at each of the three infield spots to the left of first base. He hasn’t played much shortstop this year in the minors, though he won’t be needed there in the majors either because of Jeremy Peña. Guillorme can push Brendan Rodgers for playing time at the keystone while offering short-term insurance as Isaac Paredes navigates an injury.
Paredes left last night’s game with left hamstring discomfort. He didn’t play tonight; Mauricio Dubón drew into the lineup at the hot corner. Manager Joe Espada told the Houston beat that Paredes has been diagnosed with a strain but it’s seemingly mild, as he added that the team believes the infielder will avoid the injured list (relayed by Brian McTaggart of MLB.com).
The corresponding active roster move may be an IL stint for rookie outfielder Jacob Melton. The 24-year-old sprained his right ankle during tonight’s game, Espada said. Houston will have Jose Altuve, Jake Meyers and Cam Smith as their starting outfield but may need to use Dubón more often as a fourth outfielder with Melton out.
Mariners Select Zach Pop
The Mariners announced they’ve selected righty reliever Zach Pop onto the big league roster. Rookie starter Logan Evans was optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma to create an active roster spot. Seattle had two openings on the 40-man roster.
Pop will make his team debut whenever he gets into a game. He joined Seattle in mid-April on a minor league deal. That came after he was released by the Blue Jays. Pop was battling elbow inflammation at the time, but he got back on the mound by the middle of May. He made two rehab appearances in the complex league before reporting to Tacoma. Pop has made 11 appearances and tossed 9 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs (though only three were earned). He has fanned nine against five walks.
The 28-year-old Pop has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons. He threw 48 1/3 frames for the Jays last season, working to a 5.59 ERA with a well below-average 15.8% strikeout percentage. Pop doesn’t have huge swing-and-miss stuff, but he sits around 96 MPH with his sinker and has posted a gaudy 55% ground-ball rate in his career. He’ll add a grounder specialist to Dan Wilson’s middle relief corps for the time being. He’s out of minor league options, though, so the M’s would need to designate him for assignment to take him off the big league roster.
Seattle can operate with an extra reliever for this weekend’s series against the Guardians. Luis Castillo, George Kirby and Emerson Hancock are lined up to start those games. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times writes that Logan Gilbert is expected to return from the injured list during next week’s series against the Red Sox, at which point Seattle will go back to five starters and an eight-man bullpen. Gilbert has been down since late April with a flexor strain. He has made a trio of rehab starts with Tacoma, combining for 9 2/3 innings of three-run ball.
Jose Urena Elects Free Agency
Veteran righty José Ureña elected free agency, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He evidently went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Dodgers on Tuesday.
Ureña made two appearances after signing with L.A. on June 3. He tossed three innings of one-run ball, recording two strikeouts with one walk. Ureña has now suited up for three MLB teams this season. He has also logged time with the Mets and Blue Jays, managing 18 1/3 innings over a combined nine appearances. Ureña has punched out 10 against five walks while recording a 5.40 earned run average in that time.
The 33-year-old righty will again look for an opportunity to pitch in a swing capacity. While he has bounced around this year, Ureña held a spot on the Texas pitching staff throughout the ’24 season. He posted a 3.80 ERA while getting ground-balls at a 50% clip in 109 innings for the Rangers. Ureña has never had good strikeout and walk numbers, but his sinker averages 96-97 MPH and he’s capable of covering multiple innings.
White Sox Claim Ryan Noda, Designate Joshua Palacios For Assignment
The White Sox announced that they have claimed first baseman Ryan Noda off waivers from the Red Sox and optioned him to Triple-A Charlotte. Boston had designated him for assignment a few days ago. Outfielder Joshua Palacios has been designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. Infielder Brooks Baldwin has been recalled to take the active roster spot of Palacios. There was also a swap on the pitching side, with left-hander Tyler Gilbert reinstated from the injured list and righty Owen White optioned as the corresponding move.
Noda, 29, has an extreme profile. He strikes out a lot but also draws plenty of walks and has some pop. He has done that all throughout his minor league career and then showed it at the big league level in 2023 after the A’s grabbed him from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft. He got into 128 games and stepped to the plate 495 times. He struck out in 34.3% of those plate appearances but also walked at a massive 15.6% clip and hit 16 home runs. That all added up to a .229/.364/.406 line and 122 wRC+.
Last year, he got out to a rough start and ended up getting optioned to the minors for most of the year. The A’s put him on waivers at the end of the season, with the Angels putting in a claim. He was designated for assignment about a month ago and got flipped to the Red Sox in a cash deal. Both the Angels and the Red Sox kept him on optional assignment.
His minor league numbers have continued along with Noda’s usual style. Dating back to the start of last year, he has 655 Triple-A plate appearances with 29 homers, a 20.2% walk rate and a 30.4% strikeout rate.
The White Sox came into this year with Andrew Vaughn as their primary first baseman. He struggled badly enough to get optioned to the minors a few weeks back. Earlier today, the Sox flipped him to the Brewers for Aaron Civale and cash. Tim Elko has been getting a lot of the playing time at first lately but is hitting .155/.222/.379. If that continues, perhaps the Sox will make a switch.
Palacios, 29, signed a minor league deal and then was added to the roster in April. He has 145 plate appearances so far this year with a .203/.292/.305 line. That now gives him a career .223/.287/.349 batting line and 75 wRC+.
Since he’s out of options, he can’t be easily sent down to the minors. He’ll now be in DFA limbo, which can last for at most a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Sox could take five days to try to line up a trade. He cleared waivers back in March and hasn’t done much to improve his stock since then, so the level of interest should be low. If he clears waivers, he will have the right to elect free agency.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Michael Tonkin Accepts Outright Assignment With Twins
Right-hander Michael Tonkin has cleared outright waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul. He was on the 60-day injured list and pitching on a rehab assignment but it seems the Twins decided not to reinstate him to the roster. He had the right to reject the assignment and elect free agency but has decided to forgo that right. Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to relay the information.
Tonkin, 35, has been posting good numbers over the past few years but is out of options. That’s led to plenty of bouncing around the league. He signed with the Mets going into 2024 but ended up going to the Twins, back to the Mets, the Yankees and Twins again throughout the season via waiver claims or small trades. He and the Twins avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1MM salary for the 2025 campaign.
Unfortunately, he’s been on the shelf for all of this year so far. He was diagnosed with a right rotator cuff strain in March and started the season on the 15-day IL. He was on a rehab assignment from mid-April to mid-May but was pulled off that rehab due to biceps tendinitis. He was transferred to the 60-day IL shortly thereafter. He restarted the rehab assignment about a week ago.
As mentioned, Tonkin is out of options, meaning the Twins would have had to plug him onto the active roster in order to reinstate him from the IL. They went the waiver route instead. Players with more than three years of major league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, players with less than five years of service have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.
Tonkin came into this year with his service clock at four years and 74 days, putting him 98 days shy of the five-year mark. By my count, 78 days have elapsed in the 2025 season so far, putting Tonkin 20 days shy of that line. That means he would have to walk away from what remains to be paid out of his salary in order to head to free agency, making it fairly unsurprising that he has accepted.
That means the Twins get to hang onto an experienced pitcher without him taking up a roster spot. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Tonkin tossed 159 1/3 innings for various clubs with a 3.95 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. He’ll keep pitching for the Saints and try to stay ready for his next major league call. If he’s not added back to the roster by season’s end, he would be able to elect free agency, like all players with three-plus years of service who have been outrighted during the season.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Mariners Outright Leody Taveras
The Mariners announced that outfielder Leody Taveras has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He had been bumped off the 40-man roster when the Mariners designated him for assignment earlier this week.
Taveras has the right to elect free agency but will likely forgo that right. Players with at least three years of service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and head to the open market. However, if they have less than five years of service, they have to forfeit any remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right. Taveras is between three and five years of service and is making $4.75MM this year, so it seems fair to presume he’ll report to Tacoma in order to keep the remainder that money coming to him.
That money has been an undercurrent to all things related to Taveras in the past year or so. He had a down season in 2024 and was arguably a non-tender candidate coming into 2025. With the Rangers attempting to stay under the competitive balance tax, they could have cut Taveras and given center field to Evan Carter.
The Rangers did tender Taveras a contract but there were trade rumors surrounding him in January. Though the club had a tight budget, it’s possible that concerns around Carter’s back surgery may have motivated them to stick with Taveras. But his production fell even further from his 2024 levels while Carter was getting into game shape. They decided to move on and put Taveras on waivers.
The Mariners made a somewhat surprising claim, given their own financial constraints. Reports throughout the winter suggested they only had about $15MM to spend on upgrading their roster for the 2025 season. They signed Jorge Polanco and Donovan Solano to one-year deals worth a combined $11.25MM, leaving them with a bit of wiggle room for in-season moves.
At the time they claimed Taveras, he still had about $3.7MM of his salary to be paid out, a notable sum for a fringe roster player. Perhaps not coincidentally, that money and the Polanco/Solano contracts add up to almost exactly $15MM.
Presumably, the M’s felt they could get the 2022-23 version of Taveras. In those seasons, he had slashed .264/.311/.400 for a 97 wRC+ while stealing 25 bases and providing strong outfield defense. They also had lost Víctor Robles and Luke Raley to the injured list, perhaps motivating them to take a gamble.
As mentioned, Taveras had seen his production drop lately. He put up a line of .229/.289/.352 last year, leading to an 82 wRC+. This year, his line was at .241/.259/.342 when Texas bumped him off the roster. While the M’s hoped for a bounceback, he actually got worse after coming to Seattle, with a .174/.198/.272 line in 28 games. They decided to pull the plug and it seems no other club was willing to take on the roughly $2.7MM of his salary still to be paid out.
It’s a less than ideal use of resources for the Mariners, especially given how little they had to work with. That is something which could impact their moves in the rest of the season. Unless ownership greenlit some extra spending, this move used up a few million bucks that could have been used to acquire a more surefire upgrade at the deadline.
There’s still some time to flip the narrative. Perhaps Taveras can get back on track with Tacoma and earn his way back onto the roster. However, that may get tougher in time. Raley is now on a rehab assignment and should be back on the roster in the next few weeks. Robles is further away but could rejoin the club later in the year. Presumably, adding another outfielder or two at the deadline will be a possibility.
If Taveras doesn’t get called back up to the majors, he will be able to elect minor league free agency at season’s end. That’s the case for all players with at least three years of big league service time who are outrighted during the course of a season.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images