Dodgers Activate Blake Snell
The Dodgers have activated Blake Snell from the 60-day injured list, the team announced this morning. The two-time Cy Young winner signed a five-year, $182MM contract with L.A. in the offseason but landed on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation after just two starts with his new team. As expected, he will start this afternoon against the Rays. Right-hander Paul Gervase, whom the Dodgers acquired as part of the three-team trade that sent Zack Littell to the Reds, has been optioned to the minor leagues. MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports that the Dodgers will make room for Snell on the 40-man roster by designating fellow left-hander Zach Penrod for assignment.
When healthy, Snell is one of the most fearsome pitchers in the game. While injuries limited him to just 20 starts last year in his lone season with the Giants, the southpaw produced a 3.12 ERA and 3.16 SIERA in 104 innings of work. The Dodgers will hope he enjoys similar success upon his return in 2025, though it’s worth keeping in mind that neither of the injuries that sidelined Snell in 2024 (nor the injuries that sidelined him in 2022 or 2021) were arm injuries. On the bright side, he was utterly dominant in his four rehab starts, striking out 24 minor league batters in 13 2/3 innings of work and touching 97 on the radar gun.
Perhaps no team has suffered as many pitching injuries as the Dodgers this season, but no team entered the season equipped with more pitching depth, either. With Snell back in the mix, L.A.’s rotation is finally starting to look like the supergroup fans imagined it could be in the offseason. The two-time ERA leader joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, and Emmet Sheehan in what will be a six-man rotation for the time being. Considering all six of those pitchers have dealt with injuries over the past 12 months, manager Dave Roberts’s decision to move to a six-man rotation is easy to understand.
The Dodgers are enjoying yet another strong season, but they have not been the unstoppable force many expected them to be. Injuries have been a big reason why. According to FanGraphs, they are the closest team to a lock to make the playoffs (99.4% playoff odds), but their division odds took a notable hit after on trade deadline day. San Diego made a huge splash, adding Mason Miller, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Nestor Cortes, Jorge Quintana, Freddy Fermin, and Will Wagner, while L.A. had a relatively quiet deadline, picking up Brock Stewart and Alex Call but parting with Dustin May. The Dodgers remain the clear frontrunners in the NL West and the favorites to win World Series, according to both the FanGraphs and PECOTA odds, but they are now relying on their many injured players to get healthy (and their many injury-prone players to stay healthy) more than ever.
The Dodgers acquired Penrod for cash consideration in June after the Red Sox designated him for assignment. The left-hander initially signed with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent in 2018, and went under the knife for Tommy John surgery the following year. He did not pitch in affiliated ball again until he signed a minor league pact with the Red Sox in August 2023.
Penrod made his MLB debut for Boston the following September, pitching four innings over seven games and giving up two runs (one earned). He struck out three and walked four. Unfortunately, a left elbow sprain kept him from competing for a spot in the Red Sox’s Opening Day bullpen this year, and not long after he returned from the IL, Boston cut him from the 40-man roster. Clearly, the Dodgers were intrigued enough to strike a trade and keep him on the 40-man for six weeks, but he failed to earn his way back to the majors. L.A. will now have to place Penrod on waivers, and perhaps the potential that attracted the Dodgers to his arm will convince another team to put in a claim in the coming days. He still has three option years remaining.
Cubs Designate Brooks Kriske For Assignment
The Cubs have designated right-hander Brooks Kriske for assignment to make room for recent trade acquisition Michael Soroka on the roster. This marks the second time the Cubs have DFA’d Kriske this year. The righty signed a minor league deal with Chicago over the offseason and was first selected onto the roster in May. He was DFA’d and outrighted back to Triple-A Iowa shortly thereafter, but earned another selection and promotion the weekend before the All-Star break. All in all, he has thrown six scoreless innings for the Cubs this year across four appearances, with four strikeouts and five walks.
Kriske, now 31, began his professional career in the Yankees organization and made his MLB debut for the club in 2020. In parts of two seasons with the Yankees and Orioles from 2020-21, he pitched 15 big league innings over 16 games, giving up 19 runs (18 runs) and seven long balls. Following the 2021 campaign, the Orioles granted him his release, and he inked a deal with NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars not long after.
Kriske briefly returned to affiliated ball in 2023, signing a minor league contract with the Royals in the offseason and eventually appearing in four games with Kansas City before he was optioned and later released to return to Japan. This time, he joined the Seibu Lions, with whom he finished out the 2023 campaign. He then returned stateside in 2024, although he failed to pitch in the majors, spending the year with the Reds’ and Orioles’ Triple-A affiliates.
Thus, Kriske’s 2025 season has been a success story, despite his limited big league playing time and multiple DFAs. He made it back to an MLB mound for the first time since 2023, and dating back to that last appearance for the Royals in June 2023, he has now made five consecutive scoreless appearances at the big league level. Never before had he made more than two. Kriske also pitched to a 3.13 ERA and 2.98 FIP in 31 2/3 innings for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, striking out an incredible 39.4% of hitters. Even more impressive is his 7.6% walk rate, considering his career-long struggles with control. Perhaps that will convince a team to claim him off waivers. If not, he will have the right to reject an outright assignment and return to free agency.
Yankees Release Marcus Stroman
The Yankees announced Friday that they’ve released veteran right-hander Marcus Stroman. New York also formally added deadline acquisitions Camilo Doval, David Bednar, Jake Bird and Jose Caballero to the active roster.
Stroman, 34, is midway through the second season of a two-year, $37MM contract. By releasing him, the Yankees are committing to eating the remaining $5.61MM in what’s now dead money. They’ll remain on the hook for that sum, minus the prorated league minimum for any time Stroman spends on the major league roster or injured list with another team.
A knee injury sidelined Stroman for nearly two months, from mid-April to mid-June. He pitched poorly prior to landing on the shelf (12 runs in 9 1/3 innings) but has been better since returning, tossing 29 2/3 frames with a 4.55 ERA. Stroman’s 14.8% strikeout in that time is perilously low, but he’s shown good command (7% walk rate) and kept 48% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground.
Stroman’s contract contained a vesting provision for an $18MM player option for the 2026 season, but that option was contingent upon him pitching 140 innings during the 2025 season. He’s only at 39 innings on the year due to that lengthy injury absence, so even if the Yankees had held onto him, there was no way he’d have unlocked the option.
The Yankees recently gave prospect Cam Schlittler his major league debut and are seemingly more comfortable moving forward with the flamethrowing young righty in the rotation than the veteran Stroman. Manager Aaron Boone‘s staff will now include Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Will Warren and Schlittler. Reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil is on a minor league rehab assignment after missing the entire season to date with a lat strain. He’s made four minor league starts, so he’s presumably on the cusp of rejoining the staff in the near future.
Though he’s clearly not the quality mid-rotation arm he was from 2014-23, when he pitched more than 1300 innings of 3.65 ERA ball between the Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs, Stroman started 29 games and logged a 4.31 ERA for the Yankees as recently as 2024. There aren’t many options for clubs in need of pitching depth to add it post-deadline, so Stroman ought to latch on with a new organization before too long.
Padres Designate Tyler Wade For Assignment
The Padres designated infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade for assignment and optioned reliever Ron Marinaccio before tonight’s game. San Diego had already designated Martín Maldonado and Trenton Brooks for assignment last night. Wade was the final roster casualty to accommodate newcomers Freddy Fermin, Ramón Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn.
This is the second DFA of the season for Wade. He didn’t make the team out of Spring Training and was outrighted off the roster. Wade accepted a minor league assignment and was called back up a couple weeks into the season. He tallied 127 plate appearances over 60 games, hitting .206/.309/.252 without a home run. It’s very similar to last year’s .217/.285/.239 showing. Wade runs well and is a versatile defender but provides virtually nothing at the plate.
San Diego will place Wade back on waivers in the next couple days. There’s a decent chance he’ll clear, at which point he’d again have the right to elect free agency. He bypassed that last time around but may feel his path back to a roster spot with the Padres is more cluttered.
Getting Laureano and O’Hearn pushed Sheets into a backup role. Jose Iglesias remains ahead of Wade as the utility infielder. Today’s decision essentially came down to Wade or switch-hitting fourth outfielder Bryce Johnson, who is also out of options. The Padres stuck with Johnson, who is hitting .333 in 30 games.
Cubs Release Ryan Pressly
August 1: As expected, Pressly has been released, per the MLB.com transaction log.
July 31: The Cubs have designated right-hander Ryan Pressly for assignment, according to The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney. The move opens up roster space for newly-acquired reliever Taylor Rogers.
Pressly has well over 11 years of MLB service time, so he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. In all likelihood, the DFA will end with the Cubs just releasing the veteran reliever, as he still has roughly $4.5MM in salary owed to him over the remainder of the season. The Astros are covering $5.5MM of Pressly’s $14MM total 2025 salary, but the bottom line is that any interested new team can sign Pressly to a contract after he is released, and then just owe him a prorated Major League minimum salary while the Cubs or Astros cover the rest of the $4.5MM.
When Chicago acquired Pressly from Houston in January, the thinking was that Pressly would be the favorite for save situations in the Cubs bullpen. Unfortunately, Pressly’s run as closer was run short by mid-May, with Daniel Palencia eventually emerging as the top choice in ninth-inning situations.
Pressly’s 15.4% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2014, as the K% continued its sharp decline from the righty’s 35.7% career best in 2022. His 9.3% walk rate was also Pressly’s worst since the 2015 season, and he was near the bottom of the league in hard-contact rate. The result was a 4.35 ERA over 41 1/3 innings, and while that ERA was inflated by some rough numbers after the All-Star break, the advanced metrics indicated that Pressly’s bottom-line numbers were due for regression.
As a 13-year veteran and two-time former All-Star, Pressly’s resume will get him plenty of looks once he presumably clears waivers and is released. A return to Houston wouldn’t be out of the question, with the idea that a return to his old stomping grounds could spark a bounce-back. Any number of other contenders might be willing to take a virtually no-cost flier on Pressly now that the deadline has passed and a few clubs are still in need of bullpen help.
Diamondbacks Select Kyle Nelson, Connor Kaiser
The Diamondbacks announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of lefty Kyle Nelson and shortstop Connor Kaiser from Triple-A Reno. Arizona also reinstated veteran reliever Jalen Beeks from the injured list. First baseman Tyler Locklear, acquired in the Eugenio Suárez trade, was added to the major league roster. Lefty Brandyn Garcia (acquired in the Josh Naylor deal) and infielder Tristin English were optioned to Reno.
Nelson, 29, was a key member of Arizona’s bullpen in 2022, tossing 37 innings with a 2.19 ERA in his first year after coming over from Cleveland. His numbers dipped in 2023-24, however, and Nelson was removed from the 40-man roster in early July by way of a DFA. He passed through waivers unclaimed. In 22 2/3 innings for Reno this year, he’s been roughed up for a 6.35 ERA thanks to a whopping seven home runs allowed. Most of those struggles came earlier in the year, however. He’s rattled off 6 1/3 shutout innings over his past eight appearances.
Kaiser, 28, provides a glove-first infielder off the bench. He’ll work in a utility capacity as Blaze Alexander, who had been the depth infielder, will get everyday third base run with Suárez out the door. A Vanderbilt product, Kaiser is hitless in four career major league plate appearances. Those came over three games with the Rockies two seasons ago. He’s batting .236/.346/.423 in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting this year.
White Sox Select Corey Julks
The White Sox announced a few moves before tonight’s series opener with the Angels. They selected outfielder Corey Julks onto the roster and activated Shane Smith from the 15-day injured list. Chicago optioned outfielder Will Robertson to Triple-A Charlotte. They already had an opening on the active roster for a pitcher after trading Adrian Houser to Tampa Bay yesterday. Smith will take the ball tonight.
Robertson had just been recalled on Wednesday after the Sox traded Austin Slater to the Yankees. That subtracted a right-handed bat from their outfield. They’ll reset that balance by bringing up the righty-hitting Julks in place of Robertson, a lefty bat. Julks is a 29-year-old who made 93 appearances with the Astros as a rookie two seasons ago. Chicago acquired him last May in a minor trade. He made 66 appearances and hit .214/.275/.306 with three home runs.
That unsurprisingly was not enough for Julks to hold his roster spot all winter. He went unclaimed on waivers and remained with the organization in a non-roster capacity. Julks hit his way back to the big leagues with an impressive .295/.373/.470 slash line in Charlotte. He has connected on 10 home runs and stolen 13 bags while taking walks at a solid 10.3% clip. Julks can’t really play center field, but he can take some at-bats against lefty pitching form the left-handed hitting corner outfield duo of Andrew Benintendi and Mike Tauchman.
Rockies Select Dugan Darnell
The Rockies announced they’ve selected right-hander Dugan Darnell and recalled lefty Carson Palmquist. They’ll take the roster spots opened by the Tyler Kinley and Jake Bird trades. Colorado’s 40-man roster count sits at 39.
Darnell, 28, is up for the first time. He’s a former undrafted free agent who owns a 3.74 ERA over five seasons in the Colorado system. Darnell has spent the entire season with Triple-A Albuquerque. He’s having a good year, allowing 3.19 earned runs per nine through 53 2/3 innings. He has punched out 28.8% of opposing hitters against a league average 8.7% walk rate. Darnell has a three-pitch mix with a 94 MPH fastball and uses a mid-80s splitter as his best secondary pitch.
Colorado first promoted Palmquist in May. The former third-round pick started his first seven MLB appearances but was tagged for a 7.63 earned run average. General manager Bill Schmidt tells Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post that the Rox are permanently moving Palmquist to the bullpen. The southpaw has only averaged 90 MPH on his fastball as a starter. His velocity could tick up in shorter stints, though he’s unlikely to ever be a flamethrower. Palmquist has missed a lot of bats in the minors but has a career 11.1% walk rate over four professional seasons. It seems the Rox don’t feel he has the command to stick in a rotation and would rather see how his stuff plays in relief.
Astros Announce Several Roster Moves
The Astros announced a lengthy slate of post-deadline moves Friday. Houston reinstated shortstop Jeremy Pena from the injured list and designated infielder Zack Short for assignment. The Astros also activated newly reacquired Carlos Correa and fellow trade acquisitions Jesus Sanchez and Ramon Urias, adding all three to the active roster.
In corresponding roster moves, Infield prospect Brice Matthews and outfield prospect Jacob Melton were optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land. The ‘Stros also recalled righty Nick Hernandez to take the roster spot of righty Ryan Gusto, who was traded to the Marlins in the Sanchez deal. Finally, right-hander Nick Robertson was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He’d been designated for assignment earlier in the week.
Pena wound up missing more than a month due to a fracture in his ribcage. He was in the midst of a breakout, MVP-caliber season prior to landing on the injured list. The 27-year-old has slashed .322/.378/.489 (143 wRC+) with 11 homers, 18 doubles, a triple and 15 steals in 350 plate appearances. He was also playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop, generating plus marks from Defensive Runs Saved (7) and Outs Above Average (4). He’ll return to his customary shortstop, while the newly reacquired Correa will slide over to third base in deference to the young shortstop who he mentored during the pair’s prior overlap in the Astros organization.
As for Short, he’ll be placed on waivers within the next five days now that the trade deadline has passed. He’s appeared in 22 games and taken 56 plate appearances with just a .220/.291/.380 output to show in that small sample. The 30-year-old Short has appeared in parts of five big league seasons and is a .172/.271/.296 hitter in 594 trips to the plate as a major leaguer. He’s a solid defender at multiple infield positions but is out of minor league options, so he’ll either clear waivers or have to stick on the major league roster of another club that claims him.
Marlins Designate Anthony Veneziano For Assignment
The Marlins have designated left-hander Anthony Veneziano for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to outfield prospect Jakob Marsee, whose previously reported promotion to the majors has now been officially announced. Miami also optioned righty Ryan Gusto, acquired from the Astros in yesterday’s Jesus Sanchez trade, to Triple-A Jacksonville.
The 27-year-old Veneziano was a waiver claim out of the Royals system last year. He’s pitched a combined 36 2/3 major league innings between those two clubs and logged a solid 3.93 ERA. Veneziano has struck out 20.6% of his major league opponents and yielded a roughly average 8.8% walk rate. He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a respectable 41.4% clip and averaged 94.4 mph on his four-seamer (albeit just 94.1 mph this year, compared to 94.8 mph in 2024).
It’s a decent track record for the former 10th-rounder, although Veneziano has had a much rougher go in Triple-A Jacksonville this season. While he’s only tossed 12 1/3 innings there, he’s been tagged for eight runs (5.84 ERA) on 12 hits and an unsightly nine walks in that time.
Veneziano is in the second of three minor league option years and has had some success at the big league level. Given the limited means of adding depth following the trade deadline, he could latch on with another club via waivers. Miami will place him on waivers within the next five days, and those waivers will take an additional 48 hours whenever the Fish choose to begin the process.