Tigers To Select Dylan Smith
The Tigers are calling up righty reliever Dylan Smith, as first reported by Tigers Torkmoil. He is not on the 40-man roster. Detroit already has an opening in that regard, so they’ll only need to make an active roster move involving a pitcher tomorrow.
It’s a nice birthday gift for Smith, who turned 25 yesterday. He’s in his fourth professional season. A third-round pick out of Alabama in 2021, Smith struggled early in his minor league career while working as a starter. That was partially due to injury, mostly forearm and shoulder issues. Detroit moved him to the bullpen this year as a result.
Smith has quickly found upper minors success while working in shorter stints. He posted a 1.80 ERA with a massive 37% strikeout rate through 20 innings at Double-A Erie. Smith climbed to Triple-A Toledo last week. He’s only pitched twice, firing 2 1/3 scoreless frames while punching out five of eight opponents. He’s averaging 94 MPH on his fastball in his Triple-A work.
Baseball America did not include Smith among Detroit’s top 30 prospects over the winter. Eric Longenhagen and James Fegan at FanGraphs placed him 35th in the system in their write-up during Spring Training. FanGraphs credited Smith with a plus slider and good life on his fastball.
Royals Release Hunter Renfroe
The Royals officially released Hunter Renfroe yesterday, according to the MLB.com transaction log. This was the expected outcome after Kansas City designated the veteran outfielder for assignment last week.
K.C.’s surprising two-year free agent investment in Renfroe did not work. The Royals guaranteed him $13.5MM on a deal that also included an opt-out clause after the first season. Renfroe was coming off a replacement-level .233/.297/.416 showing between the Angels and Reds in 2023. The Royals hoped for a rebound, but his production further tanked in Kansas City.
Renfroe hit .229/.297/.392 with 15 homers over 120 games last year. He made the easy decision not to opt out. The Royals gave him another shot as the Opening Day right fielder. Renfroe batted .182/.241/.242 without a single homer across 108 trips to the plate. His organizational tenure concludes with a .219/.286/.362 slash line over 532 plate appearances.
The Royals will pay Renfroe the remainder of his $7.5MM salary. There’s a decent chance he’ll need to accept a minor league deal if he wants to find another landing spot. If Renfroe logs major league action anywhere else this year, his new team will only pay the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum. That would come off the Royals’ obligations.
Kansas City has swapped out both their season-opening corner outfielders. Left fielder MJ Melendez remains on the 40-man roster but was optioned last month. He’s hitting .215 while striking out nearly 28% of the time in Triple-A. Renfroe is now out of the organization entirely. Drew Waters is starting in left field, while they brought up 27-year-old rookie John Rave to get an opportunity in right field. Top prospect Jac Caglianone looms in Triple-A and could be up within a few weeks, but the outfield figures to remain the front office’s top priority as the trade deadline approaches.
Diamondbacks To Select Jeff Brigham
The Diamondbacks are planning to select the contract of right-hander Jeff Brigham, per a report from John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports. Righty Kevin Ginkel will be optioned as the corresponding active roster move. Arizona technically has an open 40-man roster spot at present but is also going to sign Ildemaro Vargas, per an earlier report. They will therefore need to open one 40-man spot with the two planned additions.
Brigham, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in the offseason. Since then, he has been putting up some intriguing numbers for the Triple-A Reno Aces, who play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. In 20 2/3 innings, he has a 5.23 earned run average, which is obviously not a great figure. However, his 37.2% strikeout rate is very impressive. His 10.5% walk rate is high but not drastically so. He allowed five home runs in that span, a rate of 25% per fly ball, which could have played a part in juicing the ERA.
The Diamondbacks are seemingly taking a chance that the home run rate could normalize in the majors, which could allow him to be a serviceable arm. He already has 117 1/3 innings of big league experience, mostly with the Marlins but he also spent a bit of time with the Mets. Overall, he has a 4.76 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate.
He will take the spot of Ginkel, who is having a nightmare season after spending the previous three campaigns as a key cog in the Arizona bullpen. From 2022 to 2024, he tossed 164 2/3 innings for the Snakes with a 2.95 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. He earned 10 saves and 29 holds in that time frame. Here in 2025, he started the season on the 15-day IL due to some shoulder inflammation. He was reinstated at the end of April and has since allowed 14 earned runs in 10 innings, giving him an unsightly 12.60 ERA.
He surely hasn’t been quite that bad, as his .444 batting average on balls in play and 41.7% strand rate are both far to the unfortunate side. His 28.8% strikeout rate and 44.8% ground ball rate are both actually slightly higher than last year. However, he hasn’t done himself favors with a 13.5% walk rate. Even accounting for some bad luck, ERA estimators like his 5.07 FIP suggest he hasn’t been super effective, though SIERA is far kinder with a 3.55 mark. His velocity is down a bit relative to last year but has been creeping up since he came off the IL.
The Snakes will give him a breather and try to get him back on track. Per Gambadoro, the Diamondbacks want him to work on his fastball command. How long that takes could potentially have impacts for Ginkel personally. He came into this year with four years and 33 days of service time. A full year in the big leagues would have got him to 5.033, but there’s now a chance he comes up short of the five-year mark if this turns into a lengthy optional assignment.
That would delay his path to free agency but it’s also possible he winds up as a non-tender candidate if he doesn’t get back on track. He’s making $2.425MM this year with the Snakes and would be due a raise via arbitration this winter, though the D’Backs would only be keen to do that if he has a strong second half.
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry, Imagn Images
Cubs Designate Brooks Kriske For Assignment
The Cubs announced that they have signed left-hander Génesis Cabrera, a move that had been previously reported. In a corresponding move, right-hander Brooks Kriske has been designated for assignment.
Kriske, 31, was only just added to the roster less than a week ago. He made one appearance, tossing two scoreless innings against the Reds on Saturday. Unfortunately, the club decided to take a chance on Cabrera, which got Kriske bumped off the roster. He’ll head into DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Cubs could potentially take five days to gauge trade interest.
The righty signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason. Before getting called up, he tossed 18 2/3 innings over 13 Triple-A appearances, allowing 3.38 earned runs per nine. His 10.3% walk rate was a bit high but he had a huge strikeout rate of 35.9%.
That’s generally been his style in the minors. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has thrown 135 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.91 ERA, 35.6% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. Despite those big strikeout numbers on the farm, he hasn’t been given a lot of major league opportunities. Adding in this year’s appearance, he now has 23 2/3 major league innings under his belt with a 10.27 ERA. That’s a small sample size and most of the earned runs were allowed back in 2020 and 2021. He spent 2022 and part of 2023 in Japan, where he had a 2.31 ERA in 35 innings.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Mariners Select Casey Lawrence, Designate Blake Hunt
The Mariners have again selected Casey Lawrence onto the MLB roster. They optioned rookie righty Blas Castaño to Triple-A Tacoma while designating catcher Blake Hunt for assignment in corresponding moves.
This is already the fifth time this season that the Mariners have selected Lawrence’s contract. Each of the previous four was followed by a DFA within five days. One of those DFAs resulted in a waiver claim by Toronto, but Lawrence has otherwise cleared waivers. In each case, he either accepted a minor league assignment or re-signed with Seattle after briefly electing free agency. Lawrence also quickly returned to the M’s after being dropped by Toronto.
The 37-year-old is clearly content with the arrangement. He’s able to collect at least a day or two of MLB pay for each stint on the roster. Lawrence has provided multiple innings as a low-leverage relief option for skipper Dan Wilson. He has turned in a 4.08 ERA with seven strikeouts and one walk across 17 2/3 frames over six appearances. Castaño tossed three innings in mop-up work last night, so he’ll be unavailable for a few days. That led the Mariners to swap him out for Lawrence.
Seattle acquired Hunt from Baltimore in January. The righty-hitting catcher has fanned 29 times in 96 Triple-A plate appearances this season, hitting .231/.271/.407 in 25 games. Hunt has bounced between Seattle’s and Baltimore’s 40-man rosters but has yet to get into a major league game. He’s drawn praise for his power upside but has struggled to reach base against upper level pitching. Hunt is a .232/.284/.413 hitter in just shy of 500 career Triple-A plate appearances. He’ll be traded or, more likely, placed on waivers in the next few days.
Guardians Claim Matt Krook From A’s
The Guardians have claimed reliever Matt Krook off waivers from the Athletics and optioned him to Triple-A Columbus, per Tim Stebbins of MLB.com. The southpaw had been designated for assignment by the A’s earlier this week. Cleveland transferred righty Ben Lively to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Lively recently required Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of the season.
Krook, 30, joined the A’s on an offseason minor league deal. The former fourth-rounder pitched well for their top affiliate in Las Vegas, turning in a 3.21 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 14 innings. Krook got grounders on more than 65% of the batted balls he allowed. He’s had a tantalizing combination of whiffs and ground-balls throughout his nine years in the minors. That’s been too often negated by well below-average command, as Krook has walked nearly 15% of his professional opponents.
The A’s selected his contract a couple weeks ago. Krook got into three games, allowing two runs over 3 1/3 frames. The A’s dropped him from the 40-man roster earlier in the week when they acquired Sean Newcomb in a deal with Boston. They tried to sneak Krook back through waivers, but the Guardians jumped in to add the lefty relief depth.
Krook is in his final option year, so the Guardians can keep him in Columbus for the rest of the season if he sticks on the 40-man. He doesn’t throw hard, averaging around 90 MPH on his sinker, but that hasn’t stopped him from racking up plenty of minor league strikeouts. Tim Herrin and long man Kolby Allard are the southpaws in Stephen Vogt’s bullpen. Erik Sabrowski should be back at some point this summer, but he’s been out all year with elbow inflammation.
Brewers Outright Joel Payamps
Right-hander Joel Payamps passed through outright waivers unclaimed and has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville after his recent DFA, the Brewers announced Thursday. Payamps has enough service time to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would require surrendering the rest of this year’s $2.995MM guarantee. As such, he’s overwhelmingly likely to accept the assignment and hope to pitch his way back to Milwaukee in short order.
Prior to the season, few would’ve predicted Payamps would be in a situation like this. The 31-year-old had a solid 2022 season and broke out as a quality, high-leverage reliever with the Brewers in 2023-24. Milwaukee acquired Payamps alongside William Contreras in the heist of a three-team trade sending Esteury Ruiz to the A’s and Sean Murphy to the Braves.
Contreras was the clear headliner there, but Payamps’ contributions in Milwaukee ought not to be overlooked. In his first two full seasons as a Brewer, he pitched 129 2/3 innings with a crisp 2.78 ERA, a 26.1% strikeout rate and a 6.7% walk rate. The right-hander picked up 48 holds and saved nine games along the way as well.
The 2025 season has been a struggle for Payamps. There’s no getting around that issue. He’s pitched 18 1/3 innings and been hammered for 17 runs (8.35 ERA) on 25 hits (three homers) and six walks against just 16 strikeouts. There’s been no velocity dip or radical change to his pitch selection, but Payamps is generating far fewer chases off the plate, far fewer whiffs and allowing a good bit more contact.
Any team could’ve claimed Payamps, who’s controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration, but doing so would’ve meant taking on the remaining $1.98MM in guaranteed money on his contract. Most clubs are pretty stingy about adding guaranteed money via waivers during the season, as they tend to only have a small amount of financial flexibility with regard to the trade deadline (relative to their typical slate of offseason resources, anyhow).
Were Payamps to reject his outright and be available on a minor league deal with a minimal base, he’d surely have a long line of interested teams vying for the right to take a flier on that track record. Instead, his salary pushed him through waivers. He’ll now head to Nashville and look to get back on track. Passing Payamps through waivers like this was the only way Milwaukee could send him to Nashville, since he’s out of minor league options. If he can start missing bats more in line with his past levels, he could return at any point this season.
Payamps is still under club control through 2026, at least. If he spends fewer than 82 more days on the big league roster but is selected back to the majors prior to season’s end, he’d fall shy of five years of service and see his path to free agency pushed back another year. That’s a moot point if he doesn’t pitch well enough to garner another big league look, though, and that’s where his focus will rest for the time being.
Diamondbacks To Option Jordan Lawlar, Sign Ildemaro Vargas
The Diamondbacks are optioning infielder Jordan Lawlar to Triple-A Reno, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix. Infielder Ildemaro Vargas will be taking Lawlar’s roster spot. Vargas triggered an opt-out from his minor league deal and was released earlier this week. Gambadoro adds that Vargas will be re-signed to a major league deal. Arizona has an open 40-man roster spot at the moment, though it will be full once Vargas is officially added.
Lawlar, 22, earned a promotion to the majors earlier this month. One of the top prospects in the league, he had a monster line of .336/.413/.579 in Triple-A and it was getting harder and harder for the club to justify keeping him in Reno. However, they didn’t really have a great way to get him into the big league lineup. His primary position is shortstop, though he’s also spent some time at second and third base.
The Diamondbacks have Geraldo Perdomo at short, Eugenio Suárez at third and Ketel Marte at second. Pavin Smith and Randal Grichuk usually platoon in the designated hitter spot. They’re all performing well this year, to varying degrees. Nonetheless, manager Torey Lovullo felt there was a path to get Lawlar into the lineup about four times per week while others rested.
That hasn’t really come to pass. Lawlar was called up on May 12th and has subsequently appeared in eight games. Only six of those were starts. He entered one other game as a pinch hitter and another as a pinch runner. He hasn’t performed well in that sporadic playing time. In 22 plate appearances, he has three walks but nine strikeouts and no hits. Optioning him down therefore makes sense, as there’s not much use in having him scuffle in a part-time role. It’s far better for his long-term outlook to play regularly as he continues his development.
An injury to one of the current infielders would likely result in him making a quick return to the majors. His long-term path to playing time looks stronger since Suárez and Grichuk are impending free agents. With the Diamondbacks five games out of a playoff spot, it’s possible they end up traded this summer, which could get Lawlar another look in the big leagues. First baseman Josh Naylor is also an impending free agent, which could allow Smith to take over that spot in the near future.
For now, Vargas is a more logical bench infielder. A 33-year-old veteran, he has 422 big league games under his belt, having bounced around the field to every position except catcher and center field. He also hits from both sides of the plate. His .246/.289/.354 career batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 75, which is below average production in a vacuum but generally around what a club would expect from a versatile bench piece. He started this year with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal but, as mentioned, opted out a few days ago. Before triggering that opt-out, he hit .261/.330/.397 over 49 games for Reno.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Angels Re-Sign Shaun Anderson To Minor League Deal
Right-hander Shaun Anderson cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Angels, briefly elected free agency and quickly re-signed with the Halos on a new minor league pact, per the transaction logs at MiLB.com.
The 30-year-old Anderson pitched 10 innings for the Halos prior to his DFA and was tagged for seven runs on 14 hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts. He averaged a pedestrian 92.1 mph on his four-seamer but still notched a hearty 12.2% swinging-strike rate thanks in part to a changeup he’s incorporated into his mix at a career-high rate of usage (23.3%). Anderson entered the season with 152 MLB innings under his belt and had thrown just seven percent changeups in his career (11.5% in 2024). It’s a small sample of innings, but he was also using his changeup more frequently (albeit not to this extent) in Triple-A as well.
Anderson has seen action in parts of six major league seasons and suited up for eight different teams along the way. He’s been hit hard, yielding a 6.11 ERA with a 16.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in 162 MLB frames overall, but teams have continued to give him looks based on a solid Triple-A track record and some appealing traits in his pitches. He’s shown good aptitude for generating spin on both his four-seamer and slider throughout his career, and the 6’6″ righty gets excellent extension on his pitches, which can help his lackluster velocity play up.
Anderson was working as a starter in Salt Lake prior to being called up by the Angels. He’d tossed 37 1/3 innings across seven starts and logged a 5.06 ERA, a 17.6% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate in that time. He worked as a multi-inning reliever with the Angels and saw his pitch count climb as high as 51 in one of his appearances with the Angels, on May 11. He’ll now remain with the Halos and again serve as a versatile depth arm who could come to the majors and help in a variety of roles.
Rangers Sign Alan Trejo, Billy McKinney To Minor League Deals
The Rangers signed Alan Trejo and Billy McKinney to minor league contracts. Both moves were initially reflected on the MiLB.com transaction log, and they’ve each already appeared for Triple-A Round Rock.
It’s the second Texas stint of the season for Trejo. The glove-first utility player signed with the Rangers over the offseason. He spent a month in Round Rock before the Rockies expressed interest in calling him up. Texas dealt him to Colorado for cash considerations to facilitate the promotion. Trejo spent a few weeks on the Rox’s MLB roster while they navigated injuries to Ezequiel Tovar and Tyler Freeman. He appeared in 13 games and hit .175 with a pair of doubles.
A former 16th-round draft choice, Trejo has appeared in parts of five MLB seasons. All of that time has come in Colorado. He’s a lifetime .224/.269/.325 hitter against big league pitching. Trejo has spent time in the Dodgers system plus his brief early-season stint in Round Rock but hasn’t gotten to the majors with any team besides the Rockies. He’s hitting .211/.247/.352 in 19 Triple-A games this year. He won’t provide much at the plate but can competently cover any infield position.
McKinney, 30, was released from a minor league deal with the Mets last week. He’s a left-handed hitting first baseman/corner outfielder who has played at the big league level with seven different clubs. McKinney carries a .209/.284/.386 batting line in a little under 1000 MLB plate appearances. He’d been out to a rough start for the Mets’ top farm team, hitting .184/.285/.307 with 34 strikeouts over 33 games. McKinney has a much more solid .266/.354/.487 slash in parts of eight Triple-A seasons. He’ll try to find that form in the Pacific Coast League.