White Sox Designate Travis Jankowski, Reinstate Mike Tauchman From 10-Day IL
The White Sox announced that outfielder Travis Jankowski was designated for assignment. The move was made to create a roster spot for Mike Tauchman, who has now been activated from the 10-day injured list.
Tauchman suffered a hamstring strain during Spring Training, which opened the door for Jankowski (who signed a minor league deal in March) to make the Opening Day roster as part of Chicago’s outfield mix. Jankowski has appeared in seven of the team’s eight games, playing right and center field while hitting .214/.267/.214 in the small sample size of 15 plate appearances.
This brief stint made it 11 straight seasons of MLB action for Jankowski, who has spent most of his career in a part-time or platoon capacity with seven different teams. Jankowski has been outrighted off a 40-man roster in the past, so if he clears DFA waivers in the next few days, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate.
It isn’t out of the question that Jankowski could be claimed off waivers, or that a team in need of outfield help could arrange a trade with the White Sox during the DFA period. Jankowski’s left-handed bat and his ability to play all three outfield positions makes him a useful depth piece, plus he is a well-known veteran presence who has made a lot of connections during his lengthy career.
As for Tauchman, he is now set to make his White Sox debut after signing a one-year, $1.95MM free agent deal with the team during the offseason. Tauchman is coming off a pair of solid seasons with the Cubs, and the Peoria native will now look to continue that steady play on the other side of Chicago. Since the Sox are firmly in rebuild mode, Tauchman is a prime candidate to be traded before the deadline, particularly if he replicates the 110 wRC+ he posted in 2023-24.
Royals Acquire Nick Gordon
1:27PM: The Orioles will receive cash considerations in return, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers reports.
12:28PM: The Royals have acquired Nick Gordon from the Orioles, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports. Baltimore’s end of the trade return isn’t yet known. Gordon signed a minor league deal with the O’s last winter, and he’ll now join the team that his father Tom pitched with from 1988-95.
Drafted fifth overall by the Twins in 2014, Gordon is a known commodity to the Royals from his 243 games with Minnesota across the 2021-23 seasons. It seemed like Gordon was breaking through when he hit .272/.316/.427 over 443 plate appearances for the Twins while playing all over the diamond in a super-sub role, but a fractured shin limited him to 34 MLB games in 2023. Minnesota then dealt Gordon to the Marlins in February 2024, and Gordon hit only .227/.258/.369 over 95 games and 275 PA with Miami, playing mostly as a left fielder.
This tenure in South Beach ended when the Marlins outrighted Gordon off their 40-man roster last August, and he spent the rest of the season in Triple-A. He elected minor league free agency in October and landed with Baltimore, though his chances of making the Opening Day roster always seemed rather slim, given the number of infield options the Orioles already had available.
Gordon will now get a fresh start in Kansas City, and perhaps be in a slightly better position for a big league call-up. The Royals have other MLB-experienced players as Harold Castro and Jordan Groshans at Triple-A, though the likes of Nick Loftin, Joey Wiemer, or Drew Waters (who have also seen time in the majors) are already on the 40-man roster. The fact that the Royals went out and got Gordon, however, indicates that the team wasn’t entirely satisfied with its roster depth, plus Gordon adds some more left-handed hitting to the mix.
Diamondbacks Place Ketel Marte On 10-Day IL, Promote Tim Tawa
4:54pm: Manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (as well as team pregame and postgame radio host Steve Zinsmeister) today that Marte is expected to miss “weeks instead of days” due to his ailing hamstring. A more specific timetable for Marte’s return to action won’t be available until he meets with team doctors back in Arizona.
12:07pm: As expected, the Diamondbacks officially placed Ketel Marte on the 10-day injured list, a day after the second baseman suffered a left hamstring strain while running the bases in Friday’s 6-4 win over the Nationals. Infielder Tim Tawa was called up from Triple-A Reno in the corresponding move.
Tawa will be making his Major League debut the first time he appears in a game. Garrett Hampson figures to get most of the playing time at second base in Marte’s absence, and Tawa will essentially take Hampson’s spot as a utilityman. Over his five minor league seasons, Tawa has played primarily as a second baseman and at all three outfield positions, while also logging some time at the other three infield spots.
An 11th-round pick for the Diamondbacks in the 2021 draft, Tawa took a step closer to the big leagues when Arizona added him to its 40-man roster last November in advance of the Rule 5 Draft. Beyond his defensive versatility, Tawa has also posted some increasingly strong numbers at the plate during his minor league career, including a .317/.388/.665 slash line and 13 homers over 183 plate appearances at Triple-A Reno.
The usual caveats apply about the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League environment, yet it is easy to see why the D’Backs wanted to retain a multi-position player with these kinds of numbers. While Tawa’s time on Arizona’s roster likely isn’t going to last beyond Marte’s IL stint, the 26-year-old infielder will get a prized opportunity to show what he can go at the MLB level.
Mariners Designate Cody Bolton For Assignment
The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment. Bolton’s 40-man roster spot will go to right-hander Jesse Hahn, whose contract has been selected from the minors. Left-hander Tayler Saucedo was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Hahn’s addition to the active roster.
Bolton, 27 in June, was a sixth-round pick by the Pirates back in 2017 and made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2023. That first stint in the majors did not go especially well, as the righty posted a lackluster 6.33 ERA (72 ERA+) with a 20.6% strikeout rate against a hefty 14% walk rate in 21 1/3 innings of work. While he pitched better at Triple-A Indianapolis, with a 3.86 ERA and a more reasonable 9.2% walk rate, that still wasn’t to convince the club to keep Bolton on their 40-man roster throughout the winter; in early November, the club traded Bolton to the Mariners in a cash deal.
Bolton’s time in Seattle went better than his time in Pittsburgh, but still left something to be desired. The right-hander pitched impressively for the Mariners at Triple-A Tacoma, with a 3.07 ERA in 29 1/3 innings of work that’s made all the more impressive by the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. Strong as that work was, however, the righty still posted a below-average 4.34 ERA (85 ERA+) with a 20.5% strikeout rate and a 10.8% walk rate that were largely reminiscent of his time with the Pirates. While Bolton stuck with the Mariners on the 40-man roster throughout this past offseason, a rough start to the 2025 campaign at Triple-A where he’s surrendered three runs in two innings of work was evidently enough for Seattle to pull the plug. The club will now have one week to either trade Bolton or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers successfully, the Mariners can outright him to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option going forward.
The departure of Bolton makes room for Hahn, whose debut with the Mariners will be his first MLB appearance since 2021. A sixth-rounder drafted by the Rays back in 2010, the 35-year-old hurler made his debut with the Padres back in 2014 and enjoyed an impressive rookie campaign where he posted a 3.07 ERA in 73 1/3 innings spread between 12 starts and a pair of relief appearances. His 10.5% walk rate was a bit elevated, but he largely made up for it with a strong 22.9% strikeout rate to post solid results in line with those expected of a #4 starter.
Hahn was included by the Padres in an offseason trade with the A’s that sent catcher Derek Norris to San Diego, and his first year in Oakland saw the righty continue to fill the role of a potential mid-rotation arm with a 3.35 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 16 starts. Unfortunately, much of Hahn’s 2015 season was wiped out by a flexor tendon injury, and when he came back to the mound in 2016 he no longer looked like the same pitcher. The righty posted a lackluster 5.59 ERA in 116 innings of work for the A’s over the next two seasons before being traded once again, this time to the Royals in a trade that brought back reliever Ryan Buchter.
Hahn did not appear in the majors for the Royals until 2019 due to a UCL injury that eventually required surgery, and when he came back late in the 2019 season it was as a reliever. The right-hander ultimately made just 29 appearances for the Royals over parts of three seasons, with a 4.62 ERA (105 ERA+) and a 4.81 FIP in 25 1/3 innings of work. Hahn hit the injured list due to shoulder issues back in 2021 and didn’t pitch again professionally at any level until 2024, when he latched on with the Dodgers on a minor league deal. He’s thrown 51 1/3 solid innings for the Dodgers and Mariners at Triple-A since then, and now appears poised to make his comeback to the majors. He was released from his minor league deal with Seattle just a couple of weeks ago ahead of Opening Day, but evidently re-signed with the club on a fresh minor league deal since then.
Making room for Hahn on the active roster is Saucedo, who served as a solid middle relief option for Seattle in each of the past two seasons with a 3.54 ERA and 3.79 FIP in 86 1/3 innings of work across 105 outings. Things have not gone well for the southpaw so far this year, however, with four runs allowed and more walks than strikeouts in his first three appearances. He’ll head to Tacoma to serve as optionable depth for the Mariners for the time being as he awaits his next big league opportunity.
Richard Lovelady Elects Free Agency
TODAY: Lovelady has opted to reject the outright assignment and become a free agent, according to his MLB.com profile page.
APRIL 4: The Blue Jays have sent left-hander Richard Lovelady outright to Triple-A Buffalo, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago.
Lovelady, 29, has the right to elect free agency but it’s unclear if he will do so. Players with at least three years of major league service time, such as Lovelady, have that right. However, a player needs at least five years of service in order to both elect free agency and retain whatever money is still owed to him on his contract. Lovelady is just barely over the three-year line, meaning he’d have to walk away from his current contract if he heads to the open market.
It’s unclear what sort of financial decision he’s weighing. He signed a minor league deal with the Jays in the winter and was added to the 40-man prior to Opening Day. His major league salary on that deal hasn’t been publicly reported.
If he reports to Buffalo, he’ll give the Jays some non-roster depth. His brief time on their major league roster didn’t go well, as he allowed four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. But his career track record is better than that. Overall, he has 101 innings in the majors with a 21.2% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate. Both of those numbers are close to league averages but his 50.2% ground ball rate is a few ticks better than par.
This has all resulted in a 5.26 earned run average but perhaps with some bad luck in there. His .301 batting average on balls in play and 65% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side of normal. That’s perhaps why his 4.32 FIP and 4.04 SIERA look far nicer than his ERA.
The Jays currently have Brendon Little and Mason Fluharty as the lefties in their bullpen. Josh Walker is on the 40-man but on optional assignment. As the season rolls along, injuries will pop up or the bullpen will get taxed during busy parts of the schedule. If Lovelady accepts his assignment and he performs well in Buffalo, the Jays could call him back up at some point. If he decides to head to free agency, he will likely be limited to minor league offers from other clubs.
Yankees, Cooper Hummel Agree To Minor League Contract
The Yankees reached agreement with corner outfielder/first baseman/catcher Cooper Hummel on a minor league deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. He had elected free agency yesterday after being outrighted off Houston’s 40-man roster. The Gaeta Sports Management client would be paid at an $820K rate for time spent in the big leagues, Passan adds. He’ll start his tenure at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Hummel is out of minor league options, so he needed to break camp with the Astros or be designated for assignment. The switch-hitter put a strong foot forward in Spring Training, hitting .316 with seven walks and nine strikeouts across 46 plate appearances. The Astros nevertheless opted not to carry him on their bench, tabbing former Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers as their final position player. They officially designated Hummel for assignment on Opening Day and placed him on waivers this week.
The 30-year-old spent one full season in the Houston organization. The Astros had claimed him off waivers from the Giants last spring. They outrighted him a couple weeks later but reselected his contract in June when they released José Abreu. Hummel spent most of the season in Triple-A, exhausting his final option year in the process. He went 0-8 with a pair of strikeouts in his big league work. He had a solid year in Triple-A, hitting .277/.419/.454 with a massive 17.9% walk rate through 442 plate appearances.
A former Milwaukee draftee, Hummel went to the Diamondbacks at the 2021 trade deadline as part of the return for Eduardo Escobar. He made a career-high 66 appearances for the Snakes the following season, putting up a .176/.274/.307 slash over 201 plate appearances. Arizona swapped him to the Mariners for former Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis during the 2022-23 offseason. He bounced to the Mets and Giants before the move to Houston.
Hummel’s patient approach has resulted in an impressive .285/.419/.480 line across four Triple-A seasons. He has only made 16 big league appearances since the end of the ’22 season. Hummel has a decent amount of catching experience in the minors, but he divided his Triple-A time between the outfield and first base last year. He could potentially catch on occasion while joining Dominic Smith as non-roster first base depth.
Braves Re-Sign Jesse Chavez To Minor League Deal
The Braves have re-signed right-hander Jesse Chavez to a fresh minor league deal, as reflected in his transaction tracker at MLB.com. The Apex Baseball client has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett.
The news is not surprising in the least. Chavez is a 41-year-old veteran who has bounced around to various teams in the league, but in recent years, he always seems to wind up back in Atlanta. Going into the 2021 season, he signed a minor league deal with the Angels. When he didn’t make that club’s Opening Day roster, he was released and signed with Atlanta. Going into 2022, he signed with the Cubs but was traded to Atlanta before the end of April. He was flipped to the Angels in early August as part of the Raisel Iglesias trade but was released and back in Atlanta before September. He re-signed with Atlanta for 2023. Going into 2024, he signed a minors deal with the White Sox but didn’t make the Opening Day roster and was with Atlanta before the end of March. The same thing happened this spring, only with the Rangers instead of the White Sox.
Chavez was added to Atlanta’s roster earlier this week and tossed two mop-up innings in Monday’s game. With the pitching staff fairly taxed and Chavez likely unavailable for a day or two, they designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but is now back with the club on a new deal.
Despite his age, he has managed to stay very effective in recent years. Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, he has thrown 203 major league innings with a 2.93 earned run average, 24.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.4% ground ball rate.
He got squeezed off Atlanta’s roster but is now back to provide them with some non-roster depth. Given recent patterns, he should be back in the big leagues as soon as the bullpen is gassed again and they need a fresh arm.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Mariners Designate Hagen Danner For Assignment
The Mariners announced that right-hander Hagen Danner has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man spot for Luis F. Castillo. It was reported yesterday that Castillo would be coming up to start today’s game, making for an odd bit of trivia as the other Luis Castillo started the prior game for the M’s. An active roster spot was already opened by optioning left-hander Jhonathan Díaz yesterday.
Danner, 26, hasn’t been with the Mariners for long. He was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays in January. He then tossed 3 1/3 innings in the Cactus League, allowing five earned runs. He was then sent to Triple-A Tacoma and started his season with 2 2/3 scoreless innings there.
His overall track record as a pitcher isn’t terribly long. The Jays drafted him as a catcher and tried him at that spot for a few years, but his bat didn’t pan out and they moved him to the mound. He has since put up some decent numbers on a rate basis but with occasional injury absences. Due to those health issues, he still hasn’t thrown 40 innings in any one season.
He has one third of an inning in the majors, which was back in 2023, and then 116 2/3 minor league innings from 2021 to the present. In that minor league work, he has a 2.93 earned run average, 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate.
The M’s will now have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade interest would have to be gauged in the next five days. Danner still has an option, so he could be stashed in the minors by any club willing to give him a 40-man spot. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, the Mariners could hold onto him as some non-roster depth.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Nationals Place Michael Soroka On Injured List Due To Biceps Strain
The Nationals announced that right-hander Michael Soroka has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 1st, due to a right arm biceps strain. Fellow righty Jackson Rutledge has been recalled in a corresponding active roster move.
At this point, it’s unclear how serious Soroka’s injury is. He tossed five innings against the Blue Jays on Monday but departed with an apparent injury. After the game, manager Dave Martinez told reporters that Soroka had bicep cramps and framed the move as precautionary. Andrew Golden of The Washington Post was among those to relay the update.
Golden relays today that Soroka threw on the field before Wednesday’s game and the club wanted to see how he felt after that session before making a decision. It seems they have decided to put him on the shelf for at least another 12 days, since they backdated the IL move by three, the maximum allowed.
Whether this proves to be a notable injury or not, health issues have been a big part of the Soroka narrative. Back in 2019, he posted a 2.68 earned run average over 29 starts for Atlanta, finishing second to Pete Alonso in National League Rookie of the Year voting. But staying healthy has been a big challenge since then. Most significantly, he tore his right Achilles on two separate occasions. He wasn’t able to pitch much over the 2020 to 2023 seasons, missing 2021 and 2022 entirely.
He was flipped to the White Sox ahead of 2024 and had mixed results in Chicago. He started in the rotation but had a 6.39 ERA through nine starts and got moved to the bullpen. His first few relief appearances weren’t great but he finished strong. He logged 24 1/3 innings over his last 11 appearances with a 1.48 ERA, 42.7% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. However, he was on the IL for about two months, with a shoulder strain putting him out of action from mid-July to mid-September.
He hit free agency with a bit of positive momentum, generating interest both as a starter and a reliever. He landed with the Nats on a one-year, $9MM deal with the plan being to give him another shot at a starting gig.
That plan is now on pause at least for a little while. Presumably, the Nats will put him back in the rotation if he only missed a short amount of time. They aren’t expecting to be competitive this year and likely have an eye on trading Soroka in July. He would have more value as a successful starter than as a reliever. Though given his injury history, there may come a point where they decide it’s better to keep him in short stints if they think he will have a better shot at staying healthy that way.
In the meantime, a rotation opportunity will be open for someone else, alongside MacKenzie Gore, Trevor Williams, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker. They were off yesterday and start a six-game homestand tonight before another off-day on Thursday. After that, they have a ten-game road trip. Rutledge has starting experience but began this season working out of the bullpen in Triple-A. DJ Herz, Cade Cavalli and Josiah Gray are all on the injured list. Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Andry Lara are on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment. Each has already made a Triple-A start and could be recalled in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Sousa, Imagn Images
Jesse Chavez Elects Free Agency
The Braves announced that reliever Jesse Chavez elected free agency after being designated for assignment on Tuesday. He cleared outright waivers and retested the market rather than accept the assignment to Triple-A.
This was the expected outcome, though there’s a decent chance Atlanta will look to bring the 41-year-old righty back on a new minor league contract. He signed his most recent minor league deal with the Braves on March 23, two days after he was released by the Rangers. Atlanta called him up on Monday but squeezed him off the roster after one game. Chavez tossed 41 pitches to get through two innings of mop-up work. He would not have been available for at least a day or two, so Atlanta swapped him out for Zach Thompson to add some length to the bullpen.
Over the past four years, the Braves signed Chavez to four separate contracts, claimed him off waivers once, and traded for him once. He has provided Atlanta 186 2/3 innings of 2.56 ERA ball while striking out a quarter of batters faced between those various stints. Chavez hasn’t had anywhere near that level of success anywhere else. He has also spent time in the Angels, Cubs, White Sox and Rangers organizations (at least during Spring Training) in recent years, but he has continually circled back to the Braves.
It would not be a surprise if that continued. It’s common for players to decline an outright assignment before re-signing with that team. (Phillies infielder Buddy Kennedy took that approach on Tuesday.) That allows the player to renegotiate opt-out or upward mobility provisions that may not have been in the previous deal.