Royals Activate Seth Lugo, Place Lucas Erceg On 15-Day IL
Seth Lugo made his return to the Royals’ rotation yesterday, and the right-hander showed some rust in allowing four runs over 3 1/3 innings in Kansas City’s 7-5 loss to Detroit. A sprained middle finger sent Lugo to the 15-day injured list on May 14, and in the corresponding roster move for Lugo’s activation, the Royals placed Lucas Erceg on the 15-day IL due to a lower back strain.
Erceg’s placement is retroactive to May 27, and the reliever hasn’t pitched since May 24. As Erceg explained to MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters, he was first sidelined by an illness, and then “tweaked” his back while lifting weights this past Tuesday.
“It’s nothing too crazy, but the plan is to give it time to heal,” Erceg said. “Obviously, don’t want to mess with back issues because they linger more than others, I would say. We’re just going to make sure I get back to feeling healthy before I get back out there….We’re just going to take it day by day and get stronger, get better.”
Erceg believes he’ll miss just the minimum 15 days, though the K.C. bullpen won’t be helped by the loss of a key set-up arm. Erceg has a 1.96 ERA over 23 innings this season, with an elite 3.6% walk rate and a career-best 53.3% grounder rate. A .207 BABIP has nicely aided that increase in ground balls, though Erceg’s strikeout rate has dropped to 21.4% — considerably down from the 27.8K% he posted over his first two Major League seasons.
While these advanced metrics are some cause for concern, the bottom line is that Erceg has been a reliable set-up man in front of closer Carlos Estevez. Erceg’s 13 holds are tied for fourth in the majors, while Estevez’s 15 saves also rank fourth in the league. Daniel Lynch IV has also posted strong bottom-line numbers (2.00 ERA over 27 innings) against some shakier peripherals, and Steven Cruz and John Schreiber have contributed quality innings out of the Kansas City pen. Manager Matt Quatraro indicated that the Royals aren’t planning to have an assigned set-up man in Erceg’s absence, as numerous pitchers could be used on a situational basis.
Cubs Release Julian Merryweather
The Cubs released reliever Julian Merryweather, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been designated for assignment last week when they selected Brooks Kriske (who is himself now in DFA limbo).
Merryweather, 33, lost his roster spot after a rough start to the season. The righty gave up 13 runs (12 earned) through his first 18 2/3 innings. He fanned 15 while issuing 11 walks and surrendering a couple home runs. Merryweather had struggled last season as well, allowing a 6.60 ERA across 15 innings. He lost a good portion of the year to a rib fracture in his back and also battled late-season knee tendinitis.
Since the start of the 2024 season, Merryweather has allowed 6.15 earned runs per nine in 36 appearances. That’s well off the pace he showed two years ago, when he posted a 3.38 ERA across a career-high 72 innings. Merryweather collected 17 holds and a pair of saves as one of Chicago’s best relievers that year. His stuff hasn’t been as crisp over the past couple seasons. He has lost two ticks of velocity on both his four-seam fastball and slider since his 2023 peak.
That’s probably in part due to injury. Last year’s rib issue was the latest in a long line of health questions. Merryweather underwent Tommy John surgery as a minor leaguer in 2018. He debuted for the Blue Jays in 2020 but missed a good chunk of the following season due to a significant oblique strain. A 2022 abdominal strain again led to a notable absence, leading Toronto to waive him at the end of that year.
Merryweather is playing on a $1.25MM arbitration salary. Assuming he clears release waivers, the Cubs will remain on the hook for that money. He’ll be free to pursue other opportunities and would only cost his new team the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time he spends on the big league roster.
Angels Release Tim Anderson
The Angels announced that infielder Tim Anderson has been released. He had been designated for assignment two days ago. He’ll be a free agent once he clears release waivers, unless he has already.
This was the expected outcome when Anderson was designated for assignment earlier this week. He was unlikely to be claimed based on his performance this year and in other recent seasons. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, so the Angels have skipped over that formality.
He’ll now be free to sign with any club, though he’ll surely be limited to minor league offers. Anderson just produced a tepid .205/.258/.241 line over 90 plate appearances with the Angels. That continued a yearslong slump for him. Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, he has stepped to the plate 855 times with a .232/.269/.270 line. That leads to a 49 wRC+, indicating he’s been 51% worse than league average at the plate.
Based on that performance, he’s unlikely to get a major league opportunity in the immediate future. There’s no harm in a minor league deal, however, and Anderson has previous major league success. From 2019 to 2022, he slashed .318/.347/.473 for a 123 wRC+ with the White Sox. He also stole 53 bases while playing solid shortstop defense.
But early in 2023, he landed on the injured list due to a left knee sprain and hasn’t been the same since. The White Sox declined a $14MM club option for 2024, going for the $1MM buyout instead. Anderson landed a $5MM deal with the Marlins going into last year but was released in July. He signed a minor league deal with the Halos for this year and cracked the Opening Day roster but wasn’t able to produce. His 32nd birthday is next month. He’ll now see what kind of opportunities await him on the open market.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images
Rockies, Nick Anderson Agree To Minor League Deal
Reliever Nick Anderson has a minor league deal with the Rockies, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. Anderson, a client of Gaeta Sports Management, had been on a minor league contract with the Cardinals. He triggered an opt-out and quickly found another landing spot.
Anderson had been pitching for the Cards’ top farm team in Memphis. He made 17 appearances, allowing a 6.20 ERA over 20 1/3 innings. His respective strikeout (21.5%) and walk (8.6%) rates weren’t terrible, but he gave up a fair amount of hard contact and had a tough time stranding runners. St. Louis unsurprisingly decided not to call him up when he triggered the out clause.
The 34-year-old Anderson appeared in the majors with the Royals in the first half of last season. He tossed 35 2/3 frames of 4.04 ERA ball with a modest 19% strikeout rate. Anderson subsequently spent time in Triple-A with the Dodgers and Orioles but didn’t get a major league opportunity with either club.
Anderson has been a journeyman middle relief type since his brilliant 2019-20 run between Miami and Tampa Bay. He provided the Braves 35 1/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball a couple seasons back and still sits in the 94-95 MPH range with his fastball. Colorado’s bullpen has managed a serviceable 4.29 ERA overall, but they’re last in MLB with an 18.9% strikeout rate.
Diamondbacks Designate Joe Mantiply For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced a series of roster moves today, most of which were previously reported. They have selected right-hander Jeff Brigham and signed infielder Ildemaro Vargas. To open active roster spots for those two, infielder Jordan Lawlar and right-hander Kevin Ginkel have been optioned to Triple-A Reno. The club had one open 40-man roster spot but opened a second by designating left-hander Joe Mantiply for assignment.
Mantiply, 34, has fallen on hards time here in 2025 after a strong performance in previous seasons. From 2021 to 2024, he logged 198 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks, allowing 3.63 earned runs per nine. His 22% strikeout rate in that time was around average but he only walked 6% of batters faced and kept 51.9% of balls in play on the ground. He racked up three saves and 50 holds in that span.
But this year, he allowed 13 earned runs in his first 7 1/3 innings. He was optioned down to Reno in mid-April while sporting an ERA of 15.95. He was recalled briefly a couple of weeks ago and allowed four more earned runs in 2 1/3 innings before getting optioned down again. He currently has an ugly 15.83 ERA on the year, though in a small sample of 9 2/3 innings.
There’s surely some bad luck in there, with his .512 batting average on balls in play and 56.5% strand rate both far to the unfortunate side of things. However, his strikeout rate has also dropped to 13.8% this year and he’s only been getting grounders at a 43.2% clip.
Those struggles have apparently been enough for him to lose his 40-man spot. He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Snakes could spend up to five days exploring trade interest.
Other clubs might be willing to look past this year’s struggles but MLB teams are generally loath to take on money via midseason pickups, even relatively small amounts. Joel Payamps, like Mantiply, is a pitcher with some recent success but having a bad year. He recently passed through waivers, with no club willing to take on what remains of his $2.995MM salary.
Mantiply is making $1.7MM this year, barely half of what Payamps is making. He is also left-handed and can be optioned to the minors, whereas Payamps is a righty and out of options. On the other hand, Mantiply is three years older. The next few days will tell if Mantiply can find a club willing to take him on.
If he goes unclaimed, he will likely stick with the D’Backs as non-roster depth. Players with at least 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 in order to exercise that right. Mantiply is shy of the five-year mark and would therefore probably accept an outright assignment, in order to keep that salary coming to him.
Photo courtesy of John Hefti, Imagn Images
Padres Promote Bradgley Rodriguez
5:15pm: The Padres announced that they have officially selected Rodriguez to the roster. Lefty Kyle Hart was optioned to Triple-A El Paso as the corresponding move.
10:15am: The Padres are calling up bullpen prospect Bradgley Rodriguez, reports Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so they’ll need to formally select his contract. San Diego currently has three vacancies on their 40-man roster, however, so only a corresponding active roster move will be needed.
The 21-year-old Rodriguez will jump straight from Double-A to the big leagues. He’s appeared in 18 games this season and totaled 22 1/3 innings with a 3.22 ERA, a massive 34.8% strikeout rate and just a 5.6% walk rate. That walk rate, in particular, represents a massive step forward for a pitcher who issued a free pass to 12.2% of his opponents last year.
Both Baseball America and MLB.com ranked Rodriguez 14th among Padres prospects entering the season. His heater sits in the upper 90s and climbs as high as 101 mph, and he keeps lefties off balance with a plus changeup in the upper 80s/low 90s that both outlets tout as his best pitch. Rodriguez also works a slider into his arsenal, but it’s a third pitch that he rarely throws to lefties, per BA’s scouting report.
Rodriguez adds a high-octane arm to a bullpen that already ranks ninth in the majors with a 3.39 ERA and seventh with a combined 24.2% strikeout rate. The promising young righty will make his MLB debut the first time he’s called into a game by skipper Mike Shildt, though given his pedigree, he’ll have a chance to make a lasting impression and carve out a long-term role. Rodriguez has been sidelined by elbow injuries in the past during his minor league tenure, but he was dominant in 61 1/3 frames last year and has been excellent so far in 2025. The Friars control him for six full seasons (at least) beyond the current campaign.
Tigers Place Jackson Jobe On IL With Flexor Strain
The Tigers announced that they have placed right-hander Jackson Jobe on the 15-day injured list due to a grade 1 flexor strain in his right elbow. Righty Dylan Smith was selected to take his place on the roster, a move that was previously reported. Righty Alex Cobb was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Smith.
The news on Jobe doesn’t completely come out of nowhere. After Wednesday’s game, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press noted that Jobe’s velocity was down a bit. Jobe wasn’t in the clubhouse to talk to reporters after the game and the Tigers even closed the clubhouse while reporters were waiting to speak to him within an hour of the game ending, which Petzold noted was a violation of MLB club and media regulations. The club hasn’t provided a timeline for how much time they expect Jobe to miss, though it’s always at least somewhat concerning when a pitcher’s throwing elbow is injured.
Either way, this IL stint interrupts his first extended look in the big leagues. A former third overall pick and one of the top prospects in baseball, he hasn’t quite hit his stride in the majors yet. He made a brief debut late last year and earned a rotation job here in 2025. He has made ten starts this year with a 4.22 earned run average, 17.9% strikeout rate, 12.4% walk rate and 43.2% ground ball rate.
Those aren’t exactly dominant numbers but Jobe is still quite young. He won’t even celebrate his 23rd birthday until July. The fact that he’s in the majors at all at this age is a testament to his talent. There’s still lots of time for him to fully break out and the injury perhaps provides an explanation for why he hasn’t quite been firing on all cylinders yet.
For now, the Tigers will have to fill his rotation spot. Chris McCosky of Detroit News suggests that Sawyer Gipson-Long is a likely candidate to take over for Jobe. Gipson-Long underwent internal brace surgery in April of last year. He is now healthy enough to have made five rehab starts, getting to 5 1/3 innings in his most recent outing. Prior to going under the knife, he made four starts for the Tigers in 2023 with a 2.70 ERA. He is on the 60-day IL so the Tigers would need to open a 40-man spot if he is to be reinstated in the coming days.
As for Cobb, this move doesn’t impact his timeline. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial placement on the 15-day IL. Since he’s already been on the shelf more than 60 days, he’s eligible to be reinstated at any time. Dan Hasty, broadcaster for the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps, relays that Cobb is expected to start a rehab assignment with that club tonight. Cobb will surely need a few weeks of ramp-up after missing so much time. He’s been out all year due to right hip inflammation.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images.
Tigers Claim Ryan Cusick
The Tigers have claimed right-hander Ryan Cusick off waivers from the Athletics, according to announcements from both clubs. He has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. The righty was designated for assignment by the A’s earlier this week. The Tigers had an open 40-man spot but are reportedly planning to select righty Dylan Smith, so they will now need to make a corresponding move for him, though Alex Cobb could easily be transferred to the 60-day injured list since he’s already been out of action longer than 60 days.
Cusick, 25, is a former first-round pick but his recent results haven’t lined up to that billing. Atlanta grabbed him with the 24th overall pick in 2021 and gave him a $2.7MM signing bonus. Just a few months later, he was flipped to the A’s as part of the Matt Olson deal in March of 2022.
The A’s kept him in a starting role at first but he missed time due to injury and struggled to successfully develop his changeup as a third pitch. Over 2022 and 2023, he tossed 143 innings, mostly at the Double-A level, with a 5.60 earned run average. He was still starting in the first half of 2024 but the A’s moved him to the bullpen midway through, with encouraging results. He posted a 1.73 ERA in his final 26 innings. His 11.8% walk rate was on the high side but he struck out 28.2% of batters faced.
The A’s gave him a 40-man spot in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft but his results have backed up here in 2025. He posted a 6.75 ERA through 14 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. He was playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but didn’t do himself any favors with a 16.4% strikeout rate and 19.4% walk rate, though he did get grounders on 57.5% of balls in play.
Cusick may still be a work in progress but he has a full slate of options and the Tigers had a 40-man roster spot. They can send him to Toledo to see if they can help him get back on track after a rough start to his season.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Rockies Designate Nick Martini For Assignment
The Rockies announced Friday that outfielder Nick Martini has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow outfielder Sam Hilliard, who’s back for another stint with the Rockies and has had his contract selected from Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado also reinstated infielder Thairo Estrada from the 60-day injured list and optioned infielder Adael Amador to Albuquerque.
Martini, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rox over the winter and broke camp with the club after a big spring performance. He’s received 111 plate appearances in the first two months and been shielded almost entirely from left-handed pitching (just five plate appearances) but has only mustered a .225/.288/.294 line at the plate. It’s a second straight season of struggles, as Martini logged a tepid .212/.272/.370 in 163 plate appearances with the 2024 Reds.
As recently as 2023, Martini posted a .264/.329/.583 slash in an admittedly small sample of of 79 plate appearances with Cincinnati. From 2018-23, he received sparse big league playing time — despite an excellent Triple-A track record — and hit .268/.362/.412 with an 11.2% walk rate in 412 plate appearances. Martini has always walked at a huge clip and has been an on-base machine in the upper minors; he’s played in parts of eight Triple-A seasons and is a .294/.399/.454 hitter there.
Obviously, that type of production didn’t play out in 2025. The Rockies will either trade Martini or place him on waivers within the next week. Assuming he clears, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Hilliard returns for what’ll be his sixth season with the Rockies. He was a 15th-round pick by Colorado back in 2015 and suited up with the Rox from 2019-22 before bouncing to the Orioles and Braves via waivers. He appeared in 40 games with the 2023 Braves, then returned to the Rockies via waivers in February 2024. He’s since been removed from the 40-man roster but chose to stick with the Rockies and accepted an outright assignment.
Hilliard is having a nice season in Triple-A. The 31-year-old is batting .288/.372/.538 — about 15% better than league average in that hitter-friendly setting, by measure of wRC+ — and has swatted six home runs along the way. He’s striking out too often (26.1%), as is typical for him, but he’s also drawn walks at a hearty 12.2% clip.
The 31-year-old Hilliard is heading back for what’ll be his seventh partial season in the big leagues. He’s long shown an intriguing blend of power and speed, but his inability to consistently make contact has left him with a .219/.296/.438 batting line in 875 major league plate appearances. Hillard has struck out in a massive 34.1% of those trips to the plate.
Estrada, 29, will make his team debut when he first takes the field. Colorado signed him to a one-year, $4MM contract over the offseason, but he’s missed the entire year so far after suffering a broken wrist when he was hit by a pitch in spring training.
A longtime division rival, Estrada had a mostly productive run in four years with the Giants. From 2021-23, he hit a combined .266/.320/.416 with strong glovework around the infield. He was San Francisco’s primary second baseman for much of his time there and enjoyed consecutive seasons with 14 home runs and 20-plus steals in 2022-23.
Estrada’s production tanked in 2024, however. He hit .217/.247/.343 in 381 plate appearances while battling a pair of sprains in his left wrist (the opposite wrist from the one he fractured this spring). The Rox signed him hoping for a rebound, which could still play out, but Estrada has now missed time in three straight seasons due to hand/wrist injuries, making it fair to wonder what type of toll that may ultimately take on his offensive output.
Diamondbacks, Sean Reid-Foley Agree To Minor League Deal
The D-backs have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Sean Reid-Foley, per the club’s transaction log. The Wasserman client, who was released by the Mets last week, will head to Triple-A Reno for the time being.
Reid-Foley has spent four-plus seasons in the Mets organization, originally landing there as part of the return in 2021’s Steven Matz trade with the Blue Jays. He’s shown huge swing-and-miss ability but also persistent command troubles — all amid ongoing injury problems. Most notably, he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022, which wiped out more than a calendar year. Reid-Foley also had multiple stints on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement in 2024. He didn’t pitch after Aug. 13 last season.
Now 29 years old, Reid-Foley has shown obvious promise in the majors but also plenty of red flags. From 2023-24, he tossed 29 1/3 big league innings with a 2.15 ERA, a 33.1% strikeout rate and a 13.3% swinging-strike rate. He also walked more than 16% of his opponents in that time, however. Overall, he’s pitched 131 2/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate and 14.2% walk rate in the majors.
The Mets passed Reid-Foley through waivers during spring training but held onto him as a depth arm. He’s spent the season with their Triple-A club in Syracuse, again missing plenty of bats but battling poor location. He tossed 14 innings and was tagged for 13 runs on 20 hits and 14 walks. Even while stumbling to the resulting 8.36 ERA, Reid-Foley punched out 31.6% of his opponents with a mighty 14.8% swinging-strike rate, but he also walked 18.4% of the batters he faced and let three wild pitches sail. On top of those struggles, Reid-Foley has seen his fastball velocity drop; he averaged 93.8 mph in Syracuse — down from last year’s 94.9 mph and down even further from the 96.1 mph he averaged in his 2023 return from surgery.
While he’s a project, Reid-Foley offers the type of swing-and-miss capabilities that don’t come around all that frequently. If he can get back on track and earn a big league look — a major “if,” given how his season has played out — the D-backs would be able to control him via arbitration for two additional years.