Yankees Designate Tyler Matzek For Assignment
The Yankees announced that left-hander Tyler Matzek has been designated for assignment. That opens an active roster spot for right-hander Jonathan Loáisiga, who has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. Their 40-man roster count drops from 39 to 38.
Matzek, 34, was selected to the big league roster a bit less than a month ago. He has since tossed 6 1/3 innings for the Yankees over seven appearances. He allowed three earned runs in that time, leading to a passable 4.26 ERA. However, he issued five walks in that span, a 14.3% rate.
That’s a fairly small sample but control has been a problem for Matzek in the past. He has an 11.7% walk rate in his big league career. His early-career stint with the Rockies was hampered by those control issues. He later revitalized his career in Atlanta but still worked around some fairly high walk totals. From 2020 to 2022, he posted a 2.92 with Atlanta despite walking 13.4% of batters faced. However, he also struck out 27.4% of opponents.
He wasn’t able to pitch much in the past two seasons. He required Tommy John surgery late in 2022, wiping out his 2023. Last year, further elbow troubles kept him on the shelf for much of it. He only got to pitch 10 innings in the big leagues.
The Yanks were able to get him on a minor league deal this winter and brought him up to the majors, but they appear to be quickly moving on. This will leave them a bit short on left-handed relief. Ryan Yarbrough has been working bulk innings, so Tim Hill as the only true southpaw reliever now that Matzek is gone.
DFA limbo can last as long as a week, though the waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning any trade possibilities would have to be explored in the next five days. Matzek’s recent track record isn’t much to go on but he at least has some past success. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.
As for Loáisiga, he’ll be looking to make a comeback from a lengthy injury absence. He had a really strong season in 2021, pitching 70 2/3 innings for the Yankees with a 2.17 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 60.9% ground ball rate. But in 2022, he battled some shoulder troubles and posted a 4.13 ERA. In 2023, he was limited to just 17 appearances by elbow issues and eventually underwent UCL surgery early in 2024.
Though he was going to start the 2025 season on the injured list, the Yankees believed in him enough to bring him back. They signed him to a major league deal with a $5MM guarantee and a club option for next year. He’ll be a bargain if he can get back to that 2021 form. The early results have been good, as he threw seven innings on his rehab assignment with nine strikeouts and no walks, allowing just one earned run.
Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images
Red Sox Select Nick Burdi
The Red Sox announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Nick Burdi. Fellow righty Cooper Criswell has been optioned as the corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, righty Kutter Crawford has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Burdi, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason. He has since been putting up some good numbers for Triple-A Worcester. Through 16 2/3 innings, he has only allowed one earned run, leading to a 0.54 ERA. He has struck out 38.5% of opponents while only giving out walks 7.7% of the time.
Throughout his career, the question has been more about health than talent. A former second-round pick of the Twins, he has twice had Tommy John surgery, once in 2017 and the second time in 2020. He also had a thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in between those two, in 2018.
He understandably didn’t pitch much from 2016 to 2022 but has been able to log some innings more recently. In 2023, he only pitched three big league frames but also got to 21 innings on the farm, with a 3.86 ERA and 35% strikeout rate. He also walked 15% of opponents that year, perhaps understandably rusty after so much missed time.
Last year, he pitched 9 2/3 major league innings for the Yankees with a 1.86 ERA as well as 17 Triple-A innings with a 2.65 ERA. At both levels, he had high strikeout totals but also a lot of walks. He missed time with a hip injury and was outrighted off the roster late in the season, which allowed the Red Sox to sign him.
It’s a small sample but Burdi’s start this year still features the same strikeout stuff but seemingly with better control. He’s averaging 96 miles per hour on his fastball while also throwing a slider and changeup. The Sox will add him as a fresh arm, at least for a few days. They only have a four-man rotation right now with Walker Buehler expected to be reinstated from the IL in the coming days, perhaps on Tuesday. Burdi has options, so it’s possible he’ll be sent down when Buehler is ready, depending on how things go between now and then. If he manages to stay healthy and post some big numbers in the majors, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration if still on the 40-man roster.
As for Crawford, this doesn’t change anything with him. The 60-day count is retroactive to his initial placement on the 15-day IL. He landed there to start the campaign due to right patellar tendinopathy. He will be eligible for reinstatement in late May, but that doesn’t seem likely anyhow. He has been throwing lately but hasn’t yet begun a rehab assignment. Even if cleared to start that assignment soon, he would surely need a few weeks to ramp up as a sort of delayed spring training.
Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images
Cubs Sign Kenta Maeda To Minor League Deal
The Cubs are signing veteran righty Kenta Maeda to a minor league contract, as first reported by Japanese news outlet Daily Sports. Cubs skipper Craig Counsell confirmed the signing to the team’s beat today (link via Vinnie Duber for the Chicago Sun-Times). Maeda, a Boras Corporation client, was released by the Tigers last week.
“He has had success,” Counsell said of Maeda today. “He’s struggled. … It’s a player you’ve got to have constant conversations with and see where we can make some adjustments and see where he’s at.”
Maeda, 37, has a lengthy big league track record of success. He signed with the Dodgers via the MLB/NPB posting system ahead of the 2016 season and spent the next four years with Los Angeles, pitching to a sharp 3.87 ERA in 589 innings between the Dodgers’ rotation and bullpen.
In the 2019-20 offseason, the Twins sent righty Brusdar Graterol and outfielder Luke Raley to the Dodgers in exchange for Maeda and catching prospect Jair Camargo. Maeda was sensational for Minnesota in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, firing 66 2/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball with a 32.3% strikeout rate and 4.3% walk rate. His got out to a sluggish start in 2021, however, and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. That procedure knocked out his entire 2022 campaign.
Maeda returned to the Twins for the 2023 season — the final year of his original eight-year pact with the Dodgers. It was an uneven year, with Maeda stumbling early and hitting the injured list again after serving up 10 runs to the Yankees in late April. He returned a triceps injury in June and looked very much like the 2020 version of himself; in his final 88 2/3 innings that year, Maeda pitched to a 3.36 ERA with a 29% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate.
Entering the 2023-24 offseason, Maeda appeared a strong candidate for a multi-year deal. The Tigers signed him to a two-year, $24MM contract that seemed eminently reasonable given his strong finish to the ’23 season and his broader track record of success. Instead, it proved to be a misstep.
Maeda ate 112 1/3 innings for the Tigers in 2024 but struggled considerably as a starter. Detroit moved him to the bullpen in early July, and Maeda quietly turned his season around, at least to an extent. He made a dozen appearances as a long reliever over the next couple months, pitching to a 3.86 ERA with a 23.8% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate in 42 innings.
It was a nice run of quality contributions from a right-hander who is plenty familiar with that sort of long relief/swingman role. The Tigers gave him one final start in late September, and Maeda was tagged for five runs in 4 2/3 innings. Overall, Maeda finished the 2024 season with a grisly 6.09 earned run average.
Spring training 2025 brought reason for some cautious optimism. Maeda’s 4.91 ERA in 14 2/3 innings wasn’t much to look at, but he posted a gargantuan 39.7% strikeout rate against a microscopic 1.7% walk rate. That, coupled with some health troubles elsewhere in the rotation, earned Maeda another chance to carve out a role on Detroit’s staff.
It didn’t go well.
Maeda was deployed as a multi-inning reliever and yielded runs in four of his seven appearances. By the time the Tigers designated him for assignment, he was sitting on a 7.88 ERA with a career-low 18.6% strikeout rate and a career-worst 14% walk rate. He’s never been a hard thrower, but this year’s 90.2 mph average fastball is a career-low.
The Cubs’ rotation at the moment is quite banged up. Justin Steele is out for the year after undergoing UCL surgery. Shota Imanaga is on the 15-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. Javier Assad opened the year on the IL with an oblique strain, began a rehab assignment late last month, and was pulled back after experiencing renewed discomfort. Subsequent imaging revealed a Grade 2 oblique strain. He’s on the 60-day IL and won’t return anytime soon. The Cubs’ rotation currently includes Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Colin Rea, Ben Brown and top prospect Cade Horton.
Maeda is hardly a guarantee to bolster the staff, whether as a starter or long reliever, but there’s little harm in the Cubs taking what amounts to a free look at the seasoned right-hander. The Tigers are on the hook for Maeda’s $10MM salary this year, minus the prorated portion of the $780K MLB minimum for any time he spends on another team’s big league roster. For now, it seems likely that Maeda will head to Triple-A and look to get back on track. He could be an option if Chicago needs a spot start or some length in the bullpen within the next few weeks.
White Sox Acquire Miguel Castro From Astros
May 16: The White Sox announced the trade. However, rather than the cash considerations indicated by Brown, the Sox announced that they’re sending international bonus pool space back to Houston in the swap. Pool space must be traded in $250K increments unless a team is emptying out a bonus pool that has under $250K remaining (in which case the entire remainder is sent).
Given the Sox’ position and long-term outlook, it seems likely that they’re sending at most $250K or perhaps that they had less than that amount remaining. Notably, no actual cash changes hands when pool space is traded. The Astros are simply acquiring the right to spend an additional block of cash on international amateur free agents.
May 15: The White Sox are acquiring right-hander Miguel Castro from the Astros, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Astros general manager Dana Brown tells Chandler Rome of The Athletic that Houston receives cash considerations in return.
Castro, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason. He has since pitched 19 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 2.29 earned run average. His 10.1% walk rate is a tad high but he’s striking out 25.3% of opponents while getting grounders on 44% of balls in play.
Despite those solid numbers, it seems the Astros weren’t planning to call him up, so they’ve traded him instead. Per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2, Castro’s deal had an upcoming opt-out date on June 3rd.
The White Sox are rebuilding and don’t have a strong relief group. Collectively, their bullpen has a 4.42 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of major league teams. Given that they are 14-30 and at the bottom of the American League standings, they presumably plan to install Castro into the bullpen and see if he can pitch his way into being a midseason trade candidate. Assuming they plan to call him up before his opt-out, they will need to open a 40-man spot for him.
Castro has occasionally been a useful pitcher in the big leagues, though with declining results in recent seasons. His ground ball rate has been fairly consistently near 50% and his walk rate has usually been a bit higher than average. The strikeouts have been high at times but there’s been a clear downward trend. He peaked at 33% in 2020 but that figure dropped to 25.4% in 2021, 23.7% in 2022 and 22.4% in 2023.
Last year, he started with the Diamondbacks but landed on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation in the middle of April. He stayed there for about three months, getting reinstated in July but was released in early August. Around the IL stint, he tossed 13 2/3 innings with a 5.93 ERA and 12.5% strikeout rate in that small sample. Based on his minor league numbers this year, it’s possible he has put the shoulder problems behind him and is back in good form.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
White Sox Release Brandon Drury
The White Sox released Brandon Drury from his minor league deal, according to the MiLB.com transaction tracker. He has been on the injured list since May 8.
Drury hasn’t played a game for Triple-A Charlotte since April 26. Their manager, Sergio Santos, told Jeff Cohen of Future Sox last week that Drury had injured his wrist on a hit-by-pitch. At the time, Santos said that Drury was able to field without issue but experienced soreness when he was taking swings. He’d only been able to appear in 10 games before the injury. The veteran infielder hit .179/.319/.282 with one home run across 47 trips to the plate.
The Sox signed Drury to a minor league contract shortly before the opening of Spring Training. He looked well on his way to breaking camp when he raked at a .410 clip through 13 exhibition contests. That was scuttled when he broke his left thumb in the final few days of Spring Training. Chicago granted him his release but brought him back on a new minor league deal in mid-April once he’d returned to health.
There aren’t many specifics on his latest injury, but it stands to reason that Drury will find renewed minor league interest whenever he’s healthy. He won a Silver Slugger in 2022 and remained an above-average hitter as recently as ’23, when he hit .262/.306/.497 with 30 doubles and 26 homers for the Angels. The wheels fell off last season. His bat cratered to a .169/.242/.228 showing across 360 plate appearances, limiting him to minor league offers.
Diamondbacks Trade Jose Castillo To Mets
The Mets acquired lefty reliever José Castillo from the Diamondbacks for cash, the teams announced. New York designated righty Kevin Herget for assignment to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Arizona had designated Castillo for assignment on Monday.
Castillo has technically appeared in five MLB seasons, though all but eight of his appearances came with the Padres during his 2018 rookie season. He turned in a 3.29 ERA over 38 1/3 innings that year but was subsequently set back by injury.
The 29-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in November. It marked his second consecutive season in the Arizona organization. He had spent all of last year with their Triple-A team in Reno, though he lost the first half of that season to injury. The Diamondbacks assigned him back to Reno to begin this season. He struck out seven while tossing 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball and was called up at the beginning of May.
The 6’6″ southpaw only spent a couple weeks in Torey Lovullo’s bullpen. He didn’t pitch well, allowing eight runs on 10 hits (including a trio of home runs) over 6 1/3 frames. Arizona bumped him out of the bullpen when Kendall Graveman returned from injury. Castillo is out of options, so they needed to designate him for assignment to take him off the MLB roster.
That out-of-options status means the Mets are prepared to give Castillo at least some time in their big league bullpen. They’ve been forced to scour the lefty relief market after losing Danny Young and A.J. Minter to season-ending injuries. They called up Génesis Cabrera from Triple-A Syracuse. He’s the only southpaw in Carlos Mendoza’s relief corps. Cabrera has managed five innings of one-run ball over four outings, but he had walked nearly 15% of opposing hitters in Triple-A before the promotion.
The Mets will need to remove someone from the major league bullpen once Castillo reports to the team. Dedniel Núñez is the obvious candidate, since he still has a couple options remaining. Cabrera is out of options, so the Mets would need to designate him for assignment if they wanted to use Castillo as their only left-hander.
Herget relinquishes his spot on the 40-man roster. The Mets claimed the 34-year-old off waivers from Milwaukee early last offseason. He only spent one day on the MLB roster, allowing two runs on three hits in one inning. He has otherwise been working out of the bullpen at Syracuse. Herget has only allowed five runs over 15 2/3 innings, but that came with a pedestrian 13:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He had a much stronger 32.4% strikeout rate over 38 appearances with Milwaukee’s top farm team a year ago.
The Mets will likely place Herget on waivers within the next few days. He has been outrighted twice in his career and would have the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.
Rangers Release Adrian Houser
Righty Adrian Houser was granted his release from his minor league contract with the Rangers, the team announced. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports reports that Texas hopes to bring him back (presumably on a fresh minor league deal), but he’ll have the opportunity to explore other offers.
Houser signed with the Rangers during the offseason. He has worked out of the rotation at Triple-A Round Rock, tallying 39 1/3 innings across nine appearances. While his 5.03 earned run average is pedestrian, that’s not all that uncommon in the Pacific Coast League. Houser has stronger peripherals. He’s striking out a decent 22.8% of opponents while running an excellent 57.3% grounder rate.
Ground balls are Houser’s speciality. He has gotten grounders at a near-52% clip over parts of eight seasons in the majors. That was up in the 58-59% range during his best seasons with Milwaukee but has been down to a more normal 46-48% mark over the past few years. That caught up to him last year, as he allowed 5.84 earned runs per nine across 69 1/3 frames with the Mets. Houser had begun the season in New York’s rotation but was kicked to the bullpen after seven starts.
His results in relief were much better. Houser carried an ERA north of 8.00 as a starting pitcher but turned in a 3.28 mark across 35 2/3 relief innings. Texas seemingly preferred him as rotation depth, though it stands to reason he could find interest from other clubs as both a starter and reliever.
Huascar Ynoa Signs With Mexican League’s Leones De Yucatán
The Mexican League’s Leones De Yucatán announced that they have signed right-hander Huascar Ynoa. He had signed a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins in the offseason but he was released last month, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
Ynoa, turning 27 this month, didn’t have a good tenure with the Twins. He made five Triple-A appearance but allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. He issued seven walks and hit a batter while only recording one strikeout. That poor performance seemingly led to his release. Now that he’s signing in Mexico, it seems he didn’t get much interest from the other affiliated clubs.
However, he is still relatively young and put up some good numbers a few years ago. With Atlanta in 2021, he tossed 91 innings with a 4.05 earned run average. His 26.9% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate were all better than average.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build off that solid season in subsequent years. In 2022, he had two bad starts to begin the year and spent most of the season in Triple-A, putting up a 5.68 ERA at Gwinnett. He required Tommy John surgery in September of that year, which wiped out his entire 2023. Last year, he missed more time due to a stress reaction in his elbow. He logged only 29 2/3 innings in the minors with a 6.37 ERA. He was non-tendered by Atlanta, which led to his minor league deal with the Twins.
After missing most of the 2023-24 seasons, it’s perhaps not shocking that Ynoa showed some rust to start this year. Ideally, the Leones can give him some time to get back into a groove and rediscover his previous form. If that comes to pass, he would likely have MLB clubs calling him up again.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
White Sox Claim Vinny Capra
The White Sox announced that they have claimed infielder/outfielder Vinny Capra off waivers from the Brewers. He had been designated for assignment by Milwaukee last week. The Sox opened a 40-man spot recently by designating Gage Workman for assignment, so no corresponding move will be necessary there. Capra is out of options, so the Sox will need to open active roster space once he reports to the club.
Capra, 28, has been a good minor league performer in his career but hasn’t really had a chance to carve out a major league career. He has appeared in each of the four most recent major league seasons but has only been sent up to the plate 96 times over those campaigns. He has produced a dismal .105/.170/.163 line in those.
But on the farm, he received 1,287 plate appearances from 2021 to 2024. He drew walks in 11.4% of those while limiting strikeouts to an 18.6% clip. He had a combined .287/.376/.431 line and 118 wRC+ over those seasons. He also stole 25 bases while bouncing around the diamond. He has played every position except first base, though that includes just one inning as a catcher and just a third of an inning on the mound.
The Brewers apparently thought there was a chance of Capra being a useful big league player. They claimed him off waivers from the Pirates in 2023. Coming into 2025, he had exhausted his option years but earned an Opening Day roster spot by hitting .292/.358/.729 in spring training. However, he didn’t carry it over into the regular season, which nudged him off the roster and onto the waiver wire.
The Chicago roster is a bit of a motley crew right now. After losing 121 games last year, they are giving playing time to guys like Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn, with the club hoping those guys can build trade value in the coming months. Meanwhile, guys like Miguel Vargas and Chase Meidroth are attempting to establish themselves as bonafide major leaguers and form part of the next core. Capra will jump in there and can bounce around to multiple spots. If he can get some plate appearances and produce some offense like he has in the minors, he’ll be a nice pickup for the Sox.
Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images
Giants, Drew Ellis Agree To Minor League Contract
The Giants are signing corner infielder Drew Ellis to a minor league deal. The move was announced by the Atlantic League’s Lexington Legends, where he had opened the season.
Ellis, 29, is a former second-round pick of the Diamondbacks. The Louisville product spent parts of two seasons with Arizona, batting .134 with 33 strikeouts in 97 plate appearances. He made a one-game cameo with the Mariners in 2022 and appeared in 12 contests for the Phillies the following year. That remains his most recent big league experience. Ellis spent some time in Triple-A with the Angels last season, posting a .243/.373/.414 line with almost as many walks as strikeouts in 134 plate appearances.
The right-handed hitter only spent two weeks with Lexington. He mashed over his 13 games, connecting on five home runs while batting .373 with nine walks and 11 strikeouts in 60 plate appearances. It was enough to get Ellis back into affiliated ball. He’s a career .247/.365/.490 hitter over parts of four Triple-A seasons.