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Astros To Promote Shay Whitcomb

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The Astros are planning to select Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 Houston. He has played all over the diamond for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys this season, seeing the bulk of his time at second base, third base, and shortstop. However, his best path to playing time with the Astros will be as a first baseman and occasional corner outfielder and DH. The team will need to make a corresponding move to free up space for Whitcomb on the 40-man roster.

Whitcomb, now 25, joined the Astros organization as the final pick in the shortened 2020 draft. Exclusively a shortstop during his time at UC San Diego, he has also played plenty of second and third base at every level in the minors. In 2024, he began seeing more playing time at first base and the outfield corners, presumably because second base (Jose Altuve), third base (Alex Bregman), and shortstop (Jeremy Peña) are all currently blocked at the big league level. While Whitcomb’s glove might be more valuable at second, third, or short, he has performed well enough at Triple-A this year (25 HR, 26 SB, 122 wRC+) that it’s worth seeing if he can team up with Jon Singleton to make a productive first base platoon. Singleton has played 77 games at first base for the Astros this year, and while he has a 113 wRC+ against right-handed pitching, he is all but unplayable against southpaws (32 wRC+ in 71 PA). The righty-batting Whitcomb has relatively neutral platoon splits at Sugar Land this year, with an .890 OPS against righties and a .979 OPS against lefties.

Earlier this month, Astros GM Dana Brown suggested the team would call up either Zach Dezenzo or Whitcomb to help out at first base. Just two days later, Denzenzo made his MLB debut. While Dezenzo, 24, is a more highly regarded prospect than Whitcomb, the former has had a rough go of it so far with Houston, going just 5-for-25 with a .591 OPS and 64 wRC+. Yet, although Whitcomb’s promotion comes on the heels of Dezenzo’s struggles, manager Joe Espada could still find playing time for both, considering how badly the Astros could use a productive right-handed bat at first and in the outfield.

KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Lewin Diaz

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The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced this week that they’ve signed first baseman Lewin Díaz (relayed on X by Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). The CAA Sports client receives a $50K salary with up to $20K in incentives for the stretch run. The Lions also paid a $100K release fee to the Diablos Rojos del Mexico, the Mexican League team with which Díaz had been playing. Samsung waived outfielder Ruben Cardenas in a corresponding move.

Díaz, 27, was an MLBTR staple during the 2022-23 offseason. He changed teams via waivers or minor trade four times that winter. The Orioles eventually succeeded in sneaking him through waivers and kept him in Triple-A for all of last season. Díaz had a decent year in the minors, hitting .268/.362/.442, but never got an MLB look from Baltimore. He qualified for minor league free agency over the winter and signed a non-roster deal with the Nationals.

Washington released Díaz at the end of camp. He didn’t land another affiliated deal, instead making the move to Mexico. The left-handed hitter has mashed at a .376/.452/.647 clip with 19 homers across 75 games in that very hitter-friendly league.

Díaz was a fairly well-regarded prospect with the Twins early in his pro career. Minnesota dealt him to the Marlins as part of a deal for reliever Sergio Romo in 2019. Díaz didn’t hit major league pitching over parts of three seasons in Miami, running a .181/.227/.340 slash in 112 games. He has been an above-average Triple-A batter, posting a .258/.341/.479 mark in nearly 1200 plate appearances at the level.

Tigers To Promote Jace Jung

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The Tigers are calling up top infield prospect Jace Jung from Triple-A Toledo, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. The 12th overall pick of the 2022 draft will make his major league debut tomorrow evening against the Yankees.

Jung joins what’ll be a suddenly younger Detroit infield. The Tigers are also bringing up deadline acquisition Trey Sweeney, a 2021 first-round pick whom they acquired in the Jack Flaherty deal. That duo will join rookie second baseman Colt Keith as the Tigers evaluate young players who could be key pieces of next year’s team. Keith has had an up-and-down debut campaign at the keystone, as he’s had very poor months of April, June, and August around huge performances in May and July.

Once Detroit moved Keith from third to second base, they slid Jung to the hot corner. He has started 68 games there this season against 17 starts at second base, which had been his primary position at Texas Tech and for his first two years in pro ball. Detroit has used Gio Urshela as their primary third baseman. His bat has started to come around following a rough first half, but the Tigers seem to be turning their attention toward next season. Despite an ongoing four-game win streak, they’re 7.5 back of the American League’s last playoff spot.

Jung, the younger brother of Rangers third baseman Josh Jung, adds a high-upside offensive talent. He ranks fourth among Detroit prospects and 75th overall on Baseball America’s most recent ranking of the farm system. BA credits the left-handed hitter with plus power and a patient approach. While there’s some concern about his pure hit tool, the walks and power give him a chance to hit in the middle third of a lineup.

The 23-year-old is having a nice season in Toledo. He’s hitting .257/.377/.454 with 14 homers, 23 doubles and a triple through 415 plate appearances. Jung is drawing walks at a massive 16.1% clip while striking out at a roughly average 22.4% rate. While he has fallen into a bit of a slump of late, Jung has hit very well with the platoon advantage over the course of the season. He’s hitting .272/.402/.510 in 321 plate appearances against righty pitching.

Jung has predictably had a tougher time with left-handed arms. Detroit has a few righty-hitting infielders who could take some starts against southpaws, but Jung figures to play regularly over the season’s final six weeks. Urshela is on a one-year free agent deal and always felt like a bridge until Jung was ready to take over at third base. The Tigers should give him near everyday reps to gauge whether they can pencil him in as their starter going into 2025.

Jung will not come close to a full year of service or the time necessary to reach early arbitration as a Super Two player. He’s under team control for at least six seasons beyond this one and won’t get to arbitration for three years. A future optional assignment to Triple-A could push that timeline back.

The timing of Jung’s promotion, likely not coincidentally, comes just after the cutoff for him to preserve his rookie eligibility going into next season. From tomorrow, there’ll be 45 days remaining on the regular season calendar. A position player remains a rookie so long as they’ve spent 45 days or fewer on an MLB active roster and have not topped 130 at-bats. So long as the Tigers keep him below the at-bat threshold, Jung would be eligible for Rookie of the Year consideration going into next season.

That’s a relevant factor thanks to the Prospect Promotion Incentive introduced in the most recent round of collective bargaining. A team can earn a bonus draft pick if they carry a rookie top prospect (one who made the offseason Top 100 on at least two of the lists at Baseball America, ESPN, and MLB Pipeline) for a full service year. If that player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in MVP balloting during his pre-arbitration seasons, the team would get an extra pick after the first round of the following draft.

Jung could be in consideration for the prospect criteria, as evidenced by his placement on BA’s current Top 100. There’s no guarantee he’ll make two of the three lists next winter — and it’s certainly not a lock that he’ll win Rookie of the Year — but the Tigers would at least keep the possibility open if they plan for Jung to break camp in 2025. The Cardinals timed their promotion of top shortstop prospect Masyn Winn right at this time last season, for instance.

Sweeney isn’t the same caliber of prospect, but Detroit could give him a look at shortstop in place of the struggling Javier Báez. They’ll need to add both players to the active and 40-man rosters. They don’t have any obvious candidates to land on the 60-day injured list, so they might need to designate multiple players for assignment tomorrow.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Mets Sign Eddie Rosario To Minor League Deal

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The Mets signed outfielder Eddie Rosario to a minor league contract, the team’s Triple-A club with Syracuse announced this evening. Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated first reported the agreement on Tuesday (X link). The veteran outfielder elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Braves over the weekend.

Rosario is now on his third NL East club of the season. He began the year on a minor league deal with the Nationals. Rosario broke camp with Washington, securing a $2MM base salary in the process, and went on to play 67 games. He hit just .183/.226/.329, sandwiching a solid performance in May with almost no production in April or June. The Nats cut Rosario loose when they promoted top prospect James Wood at the start of July.

Atlanta then circled back to their old left fielder. The Braves inked Rosario to a minor league pact and almost immediately called him up. It never seemed likely that Atlanta would get the kind of hot streak that helped propel them to a World Series title three years ago. They were presumably hoping for something close to last year’s league average .255/.305/.450 showing. Rosario’s return to Truist Park did not reinvigorate his bat. He hit .154/.181/.282 through 84 trips to the plate before being released.

This has been a career-worst showing for the 10-year MLB veteran. Rosario carries a .175/.215/.316 slash in 319 plate appearances between the two teams. No hitter with 300+ PAs has a lower on-base mark. Only Mitch Garver (.167) has a lower average, while Rosario is seventh from the bottom in slugging. That makes it difficult for a team to continue affording him big league opportunities, but there’s no downside for New York in taking a minor league flier. Rosario has been a very streaky hitter throughout his career, so the Mets can give him some time with Syracuse to see if he can find his form.

Regardless of whether he makes it to the big leagues in Queens, Rosario will be a free agent next offseason. It’s a depth pickup for the stretch run for a team that is just a game out of the playoff race. The Mets have Brandon Nimmo, Harrison Bader and Jesse Winker as their primary outfield. J.D. Martinez is locked in at designated hitter, while Tyrone Taylor is working as the fourth outfielder. Lefty-hitting Ben Gamel is on the roster as a fifth outfielder/bench bat, while DJ Stewart is on optional assignment to Syracuse. Barring injury, Rosario would presumably need to outplay both Gamel and Stewart to get an opportunity at Citi Field.

Rosario would be eligible for postseason play with New York. A player can participate in the playoffs so long as they’re in that organization by September 1. It is not necessary for the Mets to call Rosario up before that date to get him on the postseason roster; the league routinely allows teams to call players up as injury substitutes if they were playing on a non-roster contract by the start of September. Rosario would really need to catch fire to make that a consideration even if the Mets snag a Wild Card spot.

Tigers To Promote Trey Sweeney

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The Tigers are calling up shortstop prospect Trey Sweeney, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN on X. He just recently came to the organization from the Dodgers in the deadline trade that sent Jack Flaherty to Los Angeles. Sweeney is not currently on the 40-man roster, so the Tigers will need to make a corresponding move to add him.

Sweeney, 24, was a first-round pick of the Yankees, getting selected 20th overall in 2021. He made a brief professional debut after that draft selection and then got a lengthier run the following year. In 2022, he got into 111 games between High-A and Double-A, hitting 16 home runs in that time. He was struck out in 23.2% of his plate appearances but drew walks at a strong 13% clip. His .240/.349/.413 batting line translated to a 111 wRC+, indicating he was 11% better than league average.

Going into 2023, Baseball America ranked him the #15 prospect in the Yankees’ system. Their report at that time noted that he didn’t have a standout tool but that he was generally solid across the board. On the 20-80 scouting scale, they gave him either a 45 or a 50 in the five categories of hit, power, speed, fielding and arm.

Sweeney would have been challenged to carve out a role as a regular shortstop in the Bronx with Anthony Volpe seemingly set at that spot, which is perhaps why the Yankees were willing to make him available. Back in December, Sweeney was traded to the Dodgers for left-hander Victor González and minor league infielder Jorbit Vivas.

Moving to the Dodgers didn’t go especially well for Sweeney. He got into 96 Triple-A games this year, hitting 13 home runs but also striking out at a 26.8% clip. In the hitter-friendly environs of the Pacific Coast League, his .254/.334/.427 batting line translated to an 87 wRC+.

As mentioned, the Dodgers flipped Sweeney to the Tigers in the Flaherty deal, alongside Thayron Liranzo. Some evaluators considered the return for Flaherty on the lighter side, especially compared with what the Blue Jays received from the Astros for Yusei Kikuchi. Flaherty and Kikuchi were the top two rental starters available at last month’s deadline but Flaherty was considered the greater prize on account of his higher ceiling and stronger 2024 campaign.

After the deadline, reports emerged that the Yankees walked away from a Flaherty trade due to concerns about his medical. In the eyes of some, that explained the disconnect with those trades but Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris didn’t share that framing. “I completely reject the premise,” Harris said when asked about the Tigers getting less for Flaherty than the Jays got for Kikuchi, per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic on X. “These players we got are really good. We had opportunities to make different deals with different teams. This is the deal we chose for a reason.”

Grading the trades is something that can be endlessly debated for now and won’t truly be settled for years. But since being traded a second time, Sweeney has been red hot. He has played 11 games at Triple-A Toledo since the deal and has hit .381/.447/.667. He won’t maintain a .500 batting average on balls in play forever but he has hit a couple of home runs, stolen four bases and drawn walks at a 10.6% clip.

The Tigers are 7.5 games back of a playoff spot and focused more on the future than 2024, which is why they traded Flaherty as well as Andrew Chafin, Carson Kelly and Mark Canha. Shortstop has been a big hole for them in recent years thanks to the massive struggles of Javier Báez. Going into 2022, the club signed him to a six-year, $140MM deal but he has hit .221/.263/.346 since then for a wRC+ of 69. Among qualified hitters in that stretch, only Nicky Lopez and Myles Straw have a lower wRC+.

With just over six weeks left to go in the season, the Tigers will give Sweeney a chance to face major league pitching and see if he can maybe provide them with a solution at shortstop. If he succeeds, it would make for an interesting offseason. The Báez deal still has three more seasons on it after this one and he won’t have any trade value with his poor performance at the plate.

However, it’s worth pointing out that even the top prospects often struggle in their first exposure to the major leagues, so there’s a decent chance that won’t be an immediate concern. It’s entirely possible that Sweeney gets a bit of acclimation to major league life but may still find himself ticketed for more Triple-A time in the future. Sweeney has also played a bit of third base while Báez has previously bounced around the diamond in his career.

Time will tell how things play out at the shortstop position in Detroit. But for now, it’s an exciting moment for Sweeney, who will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Rockies Outright Josh Rogers

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The Rockies have sent left-hander Josh Rogers outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. MLBTR has confirmed the move, which was reflected on the lefty’s transaction tracker at MLB.com. There was no previous public indication that Rogers was removed from the club’s 40-man roster, so their count drops to 39.

It’s the second outright of the year for Rogers. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he has twice been selected to the roster but without pitching a ton at the big league level. He was first added at the end of May but he landed on the injured list in the middle of June with a left shoulder rotator cuff strain. He came off the IL a month later but was quickly optioned, designated for assignment and outrighted to Albuquerque.

Since he had previous career outrights, Rogers had the right to elect free agency but chose to accept his assignment. That allowed him to be selected back to the club’s roster on Sunday and he tossed an inning and two thirds for Colorado that day. After that outing, he was optioned to Albuquerque and it appears the club quietly put him on waivers as well, passing him through unclaimed in recent days. He still has the right to elect free agency but may accept as he did earlier in the year.

Around those transactions, Rogers has thrown 11 innings for the Rockies this year, allowing eight earned runs for a 6.55 ERA. Combined with his previous work with the Orioles and Nationals, he has a 5.55 ERA in 99 career innings. His 8.9% walk rate is around league average but his 10.9% strikeout rate is far below par. He’s also thrown 57 2/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 6.71 ERA, 14.4% strikeout rate and 4.5% walk rate.

Orioles, Matt Bowman Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles have agreed to a minor league pact with right-handed reliever Matt Bowman, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The ZS Sports client recently opted out of a minor league deal with the Twins. Bowman’s deal in Baltimore pays him a prorated $1MM base salary and contains an upward mobility clause next week (Aug. 22) and a straight opt-out clause on Aug. 28.

Baltimore will be Bowman’s fourth organization of the season. He’s pitched in both the majors and minors for each of the Twins, D-backs and Mariners as well in 2024. His big league work includes a 5.40 ERA in a small sample of 15 innings, but he’s posted an excellent 2.05 ERA with a 28.9% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate in 30 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. Originally a 13th-round pick out of Princeton by the 2012 Mets, Bowman has pitched 200 1/3 MLB frames across parts of six seasons. He owns a career 4.22 ERA, 18.8% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 55.6% grounder rate in the majors.

Bowman’s Orioles deal continues a dizzying string of transactions involving the journeyman righty this season. He originally signed a minor league deal with the Twins but was designated for assignment not long after being selected to the MLB roster and traded to the D-backs for cash. Upon being designated for assignment in Arizona, he cleared waivers and elected free agency, going on to ink a minor league deal with the Mariners. He was back in the majors shortly thereafter but designated for assignment a third time. Bowman elected free agency, re-signed with Seattle, triggered an opt-out a few weeks later, then re-signed with Minnesota on a new minor league deal — only to opt out of that minor league contract earlier this week.

The clauses in Bowman’s contract could lead to further movement in the two weeks ahead. Next week’s upward mobility clause would require the Orioles to gauge whether any of the other 29 clubs around the league is willing to put Bowman on the 40-man roster. If so, the O’s would need to either add him to their own 40-man roster or facilitate a move sending Bowman to the organization that’s willing to do so. His Aug. 28 out date would again give the O’s 48 hours to add Bowman to the roster and, if they choose not to, give Bowman a brief window to sign with a new team before Aug. 31 — the deadline for players to be eligible for their organization’s postseason roster.

Red Sox Outright Jamie Westbrook

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Red Sox infielder Jamie Westbrook passed through waivers unclaimed after being designated for assignment earlier this week and has now been assigned outright to Triple-A Worcester, reports Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe. He’ll stick with the organization but is no longer on the 40-man roster.

Westbrook signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox back in December and made his big league debut as a 29-year-old rookie earlier this season. The former D-backs draftee, who’s also spent time with the Yankees and Brewers organizations, got into 21 games and tallied 48 plate appearances. He managed just a .150/.234/.350 slash in that time, however.

Prior to his call to the majors, Westbrook was quite productive in Triple-A — as has been the case throughout his pro career. He hit .291/.381/.475 in 291 plate appearances for the WooSox (23% better than average, per wRC+), bringing his lifetime batting line in parts of six Triple-A seasons to a healthy .284/.377/.462 in more than 1700 plate appearances. He’ll now head back to Worcester and look for another shot down the stretch. If he doesn’t get one and isn’t added back to the 40-man roster before the end of the season, Westbrook will once again be able to become a minor league free agent.

Chasen Shreve Elects Free Agency

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Left-hander Chasen Shreve, who was recently designated for assignment by the Rockies, rejected an outright assignment and elected free agency, per the MLB.com transactions log. He’s back on the open market.

Shreve, 34, only pitched one inning with the Rockies. He retired all three hitters he faced on a trio of grounders. It was just one inning, but that frame now gives Shreve a stretch of 11 consecutive seasons pitching in the big leagues in some capacity. Though he hasn’t gotten much of a look in the majors this year, Shreve has been pitching well in Triple-A. He’s spent time in the Yankees’ and Rangers’ systems as well, totaling 34 1/3 innings with a 2.62 earned run average, 26.7% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 41.5% ground-ball rate.

Of course, Shreve has a lengthy big league track record and has been effective more often than not in the majors. He’s tallied 357 MLB frames dating back to 2014 and pitched to a career 3.96 ERA that’s supported by a 3.87 SIERA. Shreve’s career strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (25.2%, 10.8% and 41.9%, respectively) more or less closely mirror the marks he’s demonstrated in Triple-A this season. He pitched just two innings with the 2019 Cardinals and had a tough 26-inning run with the 2022 Mets (6.49 ERA) but has otherwise been a serviceable middle-innings arm who can capably be relied upon to hold opponents to around four runs for every nine innings pitched.

Shreve is hardly an elite arm, but he’s an experienced lefty who’s pitched in a variety of roles and could help a contending club down the stretch. Any team that signs him would be able to carry him on the postseason roster so long as he’s in the organization prior to Sept. 1. The Mets, Cubs and Mariners are among the teams who currently have only one southpaw in their big league bullpen, although Shreve could certainly latch on with an organization that has more left-handed bullpen depth than that.

Carl Edwards Jr. Elects Free Agency

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Veteran right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. rejected an outright assignment from the Padres following his recent DFA and instead elected free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He can now sign with any club.

Edwards returned to the Padres on a minor league deal earlier this summer — his second career stint with the organization. The 32-year-old (33 next month) made only one appearance with San Diego this time around, however, and allowed all three runners he faced to reach base (two walks, one hit). He wound up being lifted from the game and bailed out when teammate Yuki Matsui induced a grounder to escape the bases-loaded jam created by Edwards.

Though his lone MLB look wasn’t sharp, Edwards has had a decent year in Triple-A. He’s split the season between the top affiliates for the Cubs and Padres, pitching to a 3.30 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate but a grisly 14.3% walk rate. He’s worked both out of the bullpen and, more recently, out of the Padres’ Triple-A rotation, so he’s stretched out for multiple innings.

Prior to this season, the well-traveled Edwards spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Nationals and pitched well out of manager Davey Martinez’s bullpen. In 93 2/3 innings, he tallied a 3.07 ERA — albeit with shaky rate stats (20% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate). A stress fracture in Edwards’ right shoulder ended his 2023 campaign prematurely and limited him to a minor league deal this past offseason. That deal came with the Cubs, but Edwards triggered a June opt-out in that contract after he hadn’t been added to the big league roster and signed a minor league deal with the Padres.

Once a top prospect in the Rangers’ system who went from Texas to the Cubs as part of a prospect package for starter Matt Garza, Edwards has now pitched in parts of 10 big league seasons. He’s logged a total of 280 innings spread across six clubs, with the bulk of his work coming for the Cubs and Nats. Edwards carries a 3.54 ERA with a hearty 28.1% strikeout rate and bloated 12.7% walk rate in the majors.

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