Mets To Select Rico Garcia
The Mets are calling up reliever Rico Garcia, reports Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. They’ll formally select his contract tomorrow and already have an opening on the 40-man roster. They’ll need to make a corresponding active roster move involving a pitcher.
Garcia gets his first big league look in two seasons. The Hawaii native signed an offseason minor league contract and has been pitching at Triple-A Syracuse. He has had pedestrian numbers, turning in a 4.45 ERA across 30 1/3 innings. Garcia has recorded an above-average 27.4% strikeout rate but has walked almost 15% of batters faced. He has given up seven home runs, just over two per nine innings.
Most of Garcia’s struggles came in April, when he allowed an ERA above 7.00 with more walks than strikeouts. He has posted a sub-4.00 mark in consecutive months, including a 3.18 ERA with 15 strikeouts and three free passes over 11 1/3 frames in June. Garcia has handled two innings on a few occasions and can provide a fresh arm in long relief on the heels of Wednesday’s doubleheader. Southpaw Brandon Waddell tossed three innings during the first game of the twin bill and won’t be available for a few days. He’s a candidate to be optioned out to make room on the roster.
The 31-year-old Garcia is out of options, so the Mets would need to expose him to waivers to try to send him back to Syracuse. He carries a 7.32 ERA in 35 2/3 MLB frames over parts of four seasons.
D-Backs, Seth Brown Agree To Deal
The Diamondbacks are in agreement with corner outfielder/first baseman Seth Brown, MLBTR has learned. He’d been released by the A’s last week.
Brown, 33 this month, had spent a decade with the A’s organization. The former 19th-round pick emerged as a productive platoon bat early in his MLB career. He reached 20 home runs in consecutive seasons in 2021 and ’22, combining to hit .234/.304/.483 against right-handed pitching. His numbers have dipped over the two and a half seasons since then, though he staved off what once seemed a likely non-tender by hitting well in the second half last year.
The A’s tendered Brown an arbitration contract at $2.7MM. That didn’t work out, as he stumbled to a .185/.303/.262 showing in 76 trips to the plate. The A’s briefly outrighted him off the 40-man roster, but he quickly hit his way back to the big leagues by mashing seven homers in nine Triple-A contests. Brown suffered a minor elbow injury not long after the A’s reselected his contract, however.
Once he was ready to return from the injured list last week, the team decided not to put him back on the active roster. Brown had surpassed five years of service in the meantime, giving him the right to refuse an outright assignment without forfeiting his salary, so the A’s released him.
Arizona already has lefty-hitting first base/designated hitter options in Josh Naylor and Pavin Smith. They’re operating with an all righty-hitting bench. If Brown cracks the MLB roster at any point, the Snakes would only owe him the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum. He’d be eligible for arbitration next offseason if he finishes the season in the big leagues, albeit as a non-tender candidate.
Orioles Sign Jose Barrero To Minor League Deal
The Orioles announced this afternoon that they’ve added utilityman Jose Barrero on a minor league contract. Francys Romero reported the agreement before the club announcement. He’ll head to Triple-A Norfolk.
Barrero elected free agency last week after being waived by the Cardinals. The 27-year-old had been designated for assignment when St. Louis added Garrett Hampson on a waiver claim from Cincinnati. Barrero had spent almost two months on the Cardinals’ big league roster but rarely played. He appeared in 22 games, coming off the bench all but eight times, and hit .138 in 29 at-bats.
It marked the fifth season in which the righty-hitting Barrero logged some big league time. He was once a highly-regarded prospect in the Cincinnati system and played parts of four seasons with the Reds. A lack of plate discipline undercut the power and athleticism that had intrigued scouts. Barrero has punched out in 36% of his career plate appearances, leading to a .182/.238/.257 slash at the highest level.
Barrero had been out to a hot start in Triple-A before St. Louis called him up. He’d hit .299/.396/.517 with four homers in 23 games. It was a much better minor league showing than he’d managed a year ago, when he limped to a .188/.277/.345 mark with Texas’ top affiliate. Barrero is athletic enough to play any up-the-middle position and provides a versatile upper minors depth piece for the Orioles.
Zach Pop Elects Free Agency
Zach Pop cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, the Mariners announced. Seattle had designated the righty reliever for assignment over the weekend.
Pop, 28, had a brief run in Dan Wilson’s bullpen. He signed a minor league contract in mid-April and was selected onto the MLB roster on June 13. The Kentucky product made four appearances over the next two weeks. He gave up nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and a pair of walks through 5 1/3 innings. Pop recorded only three strikeouts among 30 batters faced with a well below-average 7% swinging strike percentage.
Before his brief run in Seattle, Pop spent a couple seasons as a middle reliever with the Blue Jays. He hasn’t missed many bats but recorded a gaudy 55% ground-ball rate across 48 1/3 innings last year. While hitters had a difficult time elevating the ball, they did a lot of damage when they were able to get it in the air. More than 20% of fly balls cleared the fences, leading to a 5.59 earned run average.
Pop owns a 4.75 ERA in parts of five big league campaigns. He’ll probably be limited to minor league offers but should intrigue teams as a depth option thanks to a sinker that averages around 96 MPH.
Diamondbacks Designate Kyle Nelson For Assignment
The Diamondbacks announced that left-hander Kyle Nelson has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding 40-man move for the signing of righty Jake Woodford, a move that was previously reported.
Nelson, now 28, has been with the Diamondbacks for years. He was claimed off waivers from the Guardians in the 2021-22 offseason. He showed some potential at times but required surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome in April of 2024 and his numbers since that procedure have been rough.
He missed the remainder of the 2024 campaign after going under the knife. Here in 2025, he has been on optional assignment, having tossed 17 Triple-A innings. He has allowed 16 earned runs in that time, leading to an 8.47 ERA. That’s a small sample of work but he also only has 12 strikeouts, a rate of 14.6% of batters faced. He has averaged just 89.9 miles per hour on his fastball.
There’s a big gap between that performance and what he was able to do a few years ago. In 2023, he logged 56 major league innings for the Snakes with a 4.18 ERA. He struck out 28% of batters faced while averaging 92 mph on his fastball.
Overcoming a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis is notoriously difficult. Pitchers like Matt Harvey and Chris Archer declined significantly later in their careers while Stephen Strasburg essentially had his career ended by the condition. On the other hand, Diamondbacks like Merrill Kelly and Ryan Thompson have each managed to engineer solid post-TOS seasons.
Nelson will now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Snakes could take five days to explore trade talks. Based on his injury absence and recent results, there may not be much interest.
If Nelson clears outright waivers, he will have the right to elect free agency but will probably decide to stay. Players with at least three years of big league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment, but those with less than five years have to forfeit their remaining salary in order to exercise that right. Nelson is in that three- to five-year window. He and the club avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a salary of $825K this year, a bit north of the $760K major league minimum.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto, Imagn Images
Astros Select Zack Short
The Astros today have selected the contract of infielder Zack Short. He takes the active roster spot of fellow infielder Luis Guillorme, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain. Outfielder/designated hitter Yordan Alvarez has been transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Short. Chandler Rome of The Athletic was among those to relay the moves.
Short, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason. He didn’t make the club out of camp and has been playing for Triple-A Sugar Land this year. He has stepped to the plate 320 times for the Space Cowboys with a strong 17.5% walk rate and 12 home runs. He’s been held back by a .239 batting average on balls in play, however, leading to a .211/.356/.402 line and 103 wRC+.
In the past few weeks, the Astros have lost infielders Jeremy Peña, Brendan Rodgers and Zach Dezenzo to the injured list. That got Guillorme called up to the majors to serve a depth infielder role. Now that Guillorme is following those others to the IL, Short will get a return to the big leagues.
Short has appeared in 221 major league games in his career, mostly with the Tigers. He bounced around to the three infield positions to the left of first base and also had some brief time in the outfield, but hit just .167/.269/.287. He has hit better on the farm, with a .222/.360/.388 line and 105 wRC+ since the minors were cancelled in 2020.
As for Alvarez, his move is simply procedural and doesn’t change anything about his timeline. He was placed on the 10-day IL on May 3rd due to right hand inflammation. His 60-day count is retroactive to that date, so it’s already been 60 days. In other words, he’s eligible for reinstatement at any point. It’s unclear when he will realistically be able to return, however. It was eventually discovered that he has a fracture in his ring finger. It was reported yesterday that he’s still experiencing soreness and will be seeing a specialist to determine his next steps.
Photo courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Images
Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On IL With Elbow Fracture
The Braves announced today that right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow fracture. Left-hander Austin Cox has been recalled to take his roster spot. The club also reinstated righty Daysbel Hernández from the IL and optioned right-hander Kevin Herget. They also officially announced that outfielder Jurickson Profar has been reinstated from the restricted list with outfielder Alex Verdugo designated for assignment, a swap that was previously reported.
Mark Bowman of MLB.com relays that Schwellenbach felt sore after his last game against the Phillies and a small fracture was discovered. He’ll be shut down for four weeks and could be back with the big league club in September.
It’s obviously bad news all around. For Schwellenbach personally, he was on the way to having an excellent first full season in the big leagues. He debuted with 21 starts last year and posted a 3.35 earned run average in 123 2/3 innings. That secured him a rotation spot for 2025 and he has been even better this year, with a 3.09 ERA in 17 starts. Put together, he has a 3.23 ERA, 25.2% strikeout rate, 4.4% walk rate and 44.1% ground ball rate in 234 1/3 innings.
All that is now on pause, as he’ll be on the shelf for a while. The four-week shutdown period will take him into August. If he’s healthy at that point, he could ramp back up and make a few more starts in September, though a setback could prevent him from returning again this year.
For the team, it’s yet another kick when they’re already down. Atlanta has struggled to get into a good groove this year and has produced disappointing results so far. They have a record of 38-46, which puts them seven games back of a playoff spot and with six teams to leapfrog. That’s partially due to underperformance from some guys on the roster but they also lost Profar to a PED suspension and have seen their rotation get weakened by injuries.
The first domino to fall was Reynaldo López, as he made just one start before requiring arthroscopic shoulder surgery. He’s been on the IL since then and still isn’t near a return. About a month ago, AJ Smith-Shawver required Tommy John surgery, putting him out of commission until well into next year. A couple of weeks back, Chris Sale suffered a rib cage fracture. His timeline is unclear but he has been transferred to the 60-day IL, meaning he can’t return until mid-August at the earliest. Now Schwellenbach is the latest blow.
Prior to the Sale injury, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos tried to strike an optimistic tone and said the club would not be selling, though he did leave the door open a crack by saying they could reevaluate late in July. That reevaluation seems more likely with today’s news. The club still needs to climb in the standings to give the club justification to buy, but that will be hard to do with no López, Sale, Smith-Shawver or Schwellenbach.
For now, the club will proceed with a rotation consisting of Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Didier Fuentes. To take Schwellenbach’s spot, they could recall someone like Hurston Waldrep, Nathan Wiles or Davis Daniel. Non-roster guys like José Suarez, Ian Anderson and Zach Thompson are all on the minor league injured list.
Going forward, the club presumably has less confidence in its ability to contend with the recent injuries to Sale and Schwellenbach, so the prospect of doing some deadline selling with an eye towards returning to contention in 2026 has surely increased. The deadline is on July 31st this year, so there are still about four weeks to see some more results roll in and have conversations with other clubs.
Photos courtesy of Brett Davis and Orlando Ramirez, Imagn Images
Orioles Designate Matt Bowman For Assignment, Select Corbin Martin
The Orioles announced today that they have recalled right-hander Yennier Cano and selected the contract of right-hander Corbin Martin. In corresponding moves, they have designated right-hander Matt Bowman for assignment and placed left-hander Keegan Akin on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 1st, due to left shoulder inflammation.
Martin, 29, was a top-100 prospect with the Astros and D-backs several years ago. He was one of four players who went from Houston to Arizona in the 2019 Zack Greinke trade, but while he saw MLB time with both the ‘Stros and Snakes, he’s never really found his footing. Martin, who was on the mend from Tommy John surgery when he was included in that trade, has pitched 57 2/3 innings in the majors and recorded only a 6.71 ERA. He’s fanned 19% of his opponents against a 13.6% walk rate and been far too susceptible to home runs, yielding an average of 2.50 big flies per nine frames.
The Orioles claimed Martin off waivers from the Brewers last June. (Milwaukee had claimed him from Arizona a couple months earlier.) He was eventually removed from the 40-man roster but now returns after pitching 32 1/3 innings with a 5.29 ERA in Triple-A Norfolk this year. He’s set down 23% of his opponents on strikes against a 10.4% walk rate. It’s not a great set of season-long numbers, but Martin has been doing his best work of late. Dating back to May 30, he’s pitched a dozen innings and held opponents to just one run on three hits and four walks with 11 punchouts. If he gets into a game, it’ll be his first time on a major league mound since 2022.
Bowman, 34, has now been designated for assignment by the Orioles three times since Opening Day. He’s accepted a pair of outright assignments to Norfolk previously. The right-hander has appeared in 19 games for Baltimore this season but pitched to a middling 5.79 earned run average. In 23 1/3 innings, he’s fanned only 15.7% of his opponents. Bowman’s 5.6% walk rate is excellent, but he’s also plunked a pair of batters and served up four home runs (1.54 HR/9).
In parts of seven big league seasons, Bowman has pitched for seven different teams — including four in 2024 alone. He’s compiled 239 1/3 innings in the majors and recorded a collective 4.32 ERA, 18.7% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate. The O’s will trade him or place him on outright waivers within the next five days. If his prior DFAs this year are any indication, there’s a good chance Bowman will clear waivers and agree to head back to Norfolk while he awaits another call to Camden Yards.
Cano was only optioned to Norfolk last week, but he can return in under the 10-day minimum stint for an optional assignment because he’s replacing the injured Akin. The 30-year-old Akin has been an important part of the Orioles’ bullpen this season, pitching 38 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with a 23.3% strikeout rate and an uncharacteristically high 11% walk rate. Entering the season, Akin had just a 7.4% walk rate in more than 300 MLB frames.
Akin has cut back on the free passes lately — none in his past 4 2/3 innings — but Akin was roughed up for three runs (two earned) in an inning of work his last time out. There was no velocity drop or major signal that the left-hander’s shoulder was giving him trouble, but today’s IL placement means he’ll sit through at least the All-Star break as he mends.
Yankees Designate Geoff Hartlieb For Assignment
The Yankees announced that right-hander Clayton Beeter has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Fellow righty Geoff Hartlieb has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
The 31-year-old Hartlieb only joined the Yankees yesterday. He pitched one inning, was tagged for three runs in that lone appearance, and will now give way to a fresh arm. It’s not how Hartlieb envisioned his call-up in the Bronx going, particularly not after such a strong performance in Triple-A. He pitched 35 innings for the Yankees’ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate and logged a 3.34 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. That success came with some tweaks to his pitch usage, as the Yankees have had Hartlieb throw his slider at the highest rate of his career so far in 2025.
Hartlieb won’t get the chance to rebound from that rough outing — at least not with the Yankees’ big league club. He’ll be traded or placed on waivers within the next five days. He’s been outrighted in the past, so if he goes unclaimed, he could reject an outright assignment to the minors and instead choose free agency.
The Yankees were Hartlieb’s fifth big league club. He’s also pitched with the Pirates, Mets, Rockies and Marlins. The right-hander has logged only 80 1/3 innings in the majors and been tagged for an unsightly 7.62 ERA. Hartlieb carries a much more presentable 4.17 ERA in 261 Triple-A innings.
Twins Place Bailey Ober On IL With Hip Impingement
The Twins have placed right-hander Bailey Ober on the 15-day injured list with a left hip impingement. Left-hander Kody Funderburk has been recalled to take his active roster spot for now, though Ober was scheduled to start Friday’s game, so the club will need to figure out their rotation plans in the coming days. The club also announced that infielder Jonah Bride, who was designated for assignment last week, has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Saint Paul. Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reported the moves prior to the official announcement.
The towering 6’9″ Ober has been a constant in the Twins’ rotation dating back to 2021. He’s been a steady mid-rotation presence along the way, logging 471 1/3 innings with a 3.76 ERA (3.75 SIERA) from 2021-24. The 2025 season looked like more of the same. Ober was trounced for eight runs in his first start of the season but quickly righted the ship. By the end of May, he was sitting on a tidy 3.48 ERA despite that brutal first outing of the year.
The wheels came off completely last month, however. Ober started five games and yielded between four and seven runs in all of them. Opponents connected on an astonishing 14 home runs last month alone — more than half the amount he yielded all season in 2023 (22 homers) or in 2024 (27 homers). The long ball has always been somewhat of an issue for Ober, which isn’t a shock as a right-hander with sub-par fastball velocity, but last month’s sudden spike was alarming nonetheless.
Ober becomes the Twins’ third starter to hit the injured list in the past five weeks, joining ace Pablo López and top prospect Zebby Matthews. They’d already optioned Simeon Woods Richardson, who struggled after opening the season in the fifth spot, but he’s returned amid the recent injuries.
With Ober sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined period, the Twins will go with Joe Ryan, Chris Paddack, recent top prospect David Festa and Woods Richardson in the rotation. Prospects Travis Adams or Andrew Morris could get a look in the rotation moving forward, and Minnesota also claimed righty Connor Gillispie off waivers from the Marlins last week, providing a bit of additional depth.
It’s also possible the Twins will look outside the organization for more depth, as they already did late last month when signing José Ureña to a minor league deal. President of baseball operations Derek Falvey already acknowledged that he’d had some trade talks about adding more pitching in the wake of the Lopez and Matthews injuries, and further health woes could spur more urgency as the reeling Twins look to stay relevant in the AL playoff picture.
Bride, 29, came to the Twins in exchange for cash earlier this season after the Marlins had designated him for assignment. He posted a strong .276/.357/.461 slash and popped 11 homers in 71 games for Miami as recently as 2024, but he went 4-for-40 with a 33.3% strikeout rate in Miami to begin the season and batted only .208/.275/.236 in 80 plate appearances with Minnesota. Bride is a career .221/.311/.313 hitter in parts of four major league seasons but hasn’t had any success at the plate outside last year’s showing. Because Bride has fewer than three years of MLB service and has never been outrighted in the past, he can’t reject in favor of free agency. He’ll head to St. Paul and stick with the organization as a depth piece.