Astros Finalize Opening Day Roster
The Astros finalized their Opening Day roster, most notably announcing that shortstop Jeremy Pena will avoid a season-opening trip to the injured list. Catcher César Salazar was designated for assignment, clearing a 40-man roster spot for Christian Vázquez, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Sugar Land. Houston also selected right-hander Christian Roa‘s contract and opened a 40-man spot by placing lefty Brandon Walter on the 60-day IL while he recovers from UCL surgery. Houston also optioned outfielder Zach Cole to Triple-A, while prospect Brice Matthews makes the cut.
Outfielder Zach Dezenzo will open the season on the 10-day IL due to a right elbow sprain. Righty Ronel Blanco (recovering from Tommy John surgery), left-hander Josh Hader (biceps tendinitis), righty Enyel De Los Santos (right knee strain), lefty Bennett Sousa (oblique strain), right-hander Nate Pearson (recovering from elbow surgery) and right-hander Hayden Wesneski (recovering from Tommy John surgery) are all opening the year on the 15-day IL. Blanco and Wesneski will be 60-day IL candidates whenever Houston next needs a 40-man roster spot.
Pena’s status was up in the air after he suffered a fracture on the tip of his finger while fielding a grounder during an exhibition contest earlier this spring. He resumed hitting earlier this week, however, and has been deemed healthy enough to break camp with the club.
Vázquez’s selection to the big league roster was already known, as was the fact that Salazar wouldn’t make the team. Today’s DFA doesn’t necessarily mean that the ‘Stros won’t be able to find a trade partner. He can still be swapped out to another club within the next five days if another team is willing to put him on its 40-man roster.
Salazar, 30, has 67 MLB plate appearances to his name and has batted .232/.318/.268. He spent the bulk of the 2025 season in Triple-A, where he hit .213/.353/.353. He’s regarded as a solid defender but not the same extent as the veteran Vázquez, so Houston — as they’ve done in the past with Martin Maldonado — will opt for a plus defender as their backup catcher even if it means rostering one of the lightest-hitting players in the game.
Roa, 26, made his MLB debut with Miami last season and tossed three shutout innings. He’s a former Reds and Marlins farmhand who had a dominant spring with Houston after signing a minor league deal in December. He tossed 9 2/3 innings of one-run ball during Grapefruit League play and punched out 36% of his opponents without issuing a walk. Between that and last year’s 2.83 ERA in 60 1/3 Triple-A frames, he could be a nice under-the-radar pickup for the Astros.
Cole looked to be in strong position to make the club entering camp, but Houston reacquired Joey Loperfido to give them another lefty option in the outfield. Cole slashed .200/.340/.400 in 50 spring plate appearances, and the alarming contact issues that plagued him last year weren’t any better in March. After going down on strikes in 35% of his minor league plate appearances and 38.5% of his big league plate appearances in 2025, Cole punched out in 20 of his 50 turns at the plate this spring (40%).
Cole has obvious power and speed but will need to make more contact if he’s to carve out a a lasting role. Add in a handful of lefty opponents for Houston early in the season, and the right-handed-hitting Matthews will get the nod to begin the year. Matthews is a former first-round pick who slashed .250/.400/.417 this spring. He struggled in a brief MLB debut last year but hit .260/.371/.458 in Triple-A. While Matthews was drafted as a shortstop, the Astros’ glut of infielders has pushed him into outfield duty.
Phillies Select Christian Cairo, Designate Garrett Stubbs For Assignment
The Phillies announced they’ve selected outfielder Justin Crawford and infielder Christian Cairo onto the 40-man roster. Crawford will break camp as the everyday center fielder. Cairo will not be on the Opening Day roster, as Philly optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. They opened a spot on the 40-man by designating catcher Garrett Stubbs for assignment.
Additionally, Philadelphia placed three pitchers on the 15-day injured list. Zack Wheeler (rehabbing thoracic outlet surgery), Orion Kerkering (right hamstring strain) and Max Lazar (left oblique strain) are beginning the season on the shelf. Those placements are retroactive to March 22.
Cairo signed an offseason minor league contract. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports that the deal included an upward mobility clause. That required them to add him to the 40-man roster or let him go if another team were willing to give him a roster spot. He still has a full slate of minor league options, so they don’t need to carry him on the MLB club to keep him.
The 24-year-old Cairo has yet to play in the majors. He’s a slick-fielding middle infielder with a light bat. Cairo hit just .237/.338/.331 with two homers over 416 Triple-A plate appearances in the Cleveland farm system last year. He batted .194 with 15 strikeouts over 41 trips to the dish this spring. He’ll open the season in the minors with Edmundo Sosa and Dylan Moore holding utility roles on the MLB bench.
Philadelphia telegraphed the Stubbs move when they began shopping him on the trade market this week. They’re going with Rafael Marchán as the backup catcher behind J.T. Realmuto. Stubbs is out of options and is pushed out of the mix. The Phillies have five days to trade him or place him on waivers. He’s on a split contract that makes it likely he’d accept a Triple-A assignment if no other team carries him on the big league roster.
Wheeler and Kerkering both pitched in minor league games toward the end of the spring. Lazar suffered a mild oblique strain while pitching for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic. All three pitchers should be back fairly early in the season.
Giants Select Caleb Kilian
The Giants announced their Opening Day roster moves today. Outfielder Jared Oliva and right-hander Caleb Kilian were selected to the 40-man. In corresponding moves, left-hander Reiver Sanmartin was placed on the 60-day injured list and outfielder Luis Matos has been designated for assignment. It had been reported yesterday that the Giants were likely to select Oliva and designate Matos. The Giants also announced that catcher Eric Haase has been released from his minor league deal and that Rule 5 catcher Daniel Susac has made the team.
Kilian, 29 in June, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He had an impressive camp, tossing 9 1/3 innings while only allowing one earned run. He racked up 11 strikeouts while only issuing two walks.
That strong performance will allow him to make the roster of his original organization. Kilian was drafted by the Giants in 2019 but was flipped to the Cubs as part of the Kris Bryant trade in 2021. He only got to make eight appearances for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024. He was injured for most of 2025 and only made 11 minor league appearances.
Now that he appears to be healthy and pitching well, he’ll make it back to the big leagues. He is out of options and will have to be kept on the active roster or else removed from the 40-man entirely. He has less than a year of service time, so he can be retained for the long term if this season goes especially well.
The San Francisco bullpen has opportunities available because they traded Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval last year and then lost Randy Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery. Their moves to replace those losses were mostly injury reclamation projects, such as Kilian himself.
Sanmartin’s transfer is not a surprise. A waiver claimee from November, it was reported a few weeks ago that he had suffered a significant hip flexor strain that was going to keep him out of action for at least three months.
Behind the plate, the Giants have Patrick Bailey but the backup job was up for grabs. In December’s Rule 5 draft, the Giants got Susac via a trade. The Twins technically selected him from the Athletics fourth overall in that draft but then immediately flipped him to the Giants for minor league catcher Miguel Caraballo.
The fact that the Giants actually gave up a player in order to jump the Rule 5 queue suggested they felt good about Susac’s chances of being an impact guy for them. He helped his own cause by putting up a .350/.386/.550 line in spring training. That was helped by an unsustainable .400 batting average on balls in play but it was enough to get him the job regardless.
As a Rule 5 guy, he can’t be optioned to the minors and will have to stay on the active roster all year long for the Giants to fully acquire his rights. If they want to cut him at any point this year, he could be traded or put on waivers. Any claiming team would take on the same Rule 5 restrictions. If he were to clear waivers, he would have to be offered back to the A’s.
Susac getting the job squeezes out Haase, who had signed a minor league deal in January. He had a huge spring, slashing .286/.375/.536, but also struck out in 14 of his 32 plate appearances. That’s fairly reflective of his big league career, as he has 48 home runs in 1,224 plate appearances but has been punched out at a 30.7% clip. He’ll head out to the open market to see what opportunities are available this week as all clubs shuffle their rosters.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Rangers Designate Dairon Blanco For Assignment
The Rangers announced that outfielder Dairon Blanco has been designated for assignment. That opens up a 40-man roster spot for Andrew McCutchen, whose contract has been selected. It had been previously reported that McCutchen would make the team.
Blanco, 33 in April, was just claimed off waivers from the Royals a few weeks ago. He made appearances for Kansas City in each of the past four seasons, essentially as a speedy depth outfielder. In 285 plate appearances, he produced a .257/.312/.416 batting line. His 99 wRC+ indicates he was just a hair below league average. He got solid grades for his glovework and stole 59 bases in 73 attempts.
The Rangers were intrigued enough to put in a claim but Blanco was ultimately squeezed off the roster. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Rangers could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. He still has options, so perhaps he could appeal to a club looking for a bit more outfield depth and speed.
Blanco has a previous career outright. That means that, if he passes through waivers in the coming days, he would have the right to reject another outright assignment in favor of electing free agency.
Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images
Twins Designate Alex Jackson For Assignment
The Twins announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Cody Laweryson and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating catcher Alex Jackson for assignment. They’d been shopping the out-of-options Jackson in recent days but didn’t find a taker. They can continue to explore trades for five days before they’ll have to place him on waivers. Minnesota also placed righties Travis Adams and David Festa on the 15-day IL due to a triceps strain and shoulder impingement, respectively.
Jackson, 30, came over from the Orioles in a November trade sending minor league infielder Payton Eeles to Baltimore. At the time, the Twins’ ownership situation was somewhat in flux, leaving the front office uncertain as to what sort of budget they’d have throughout the winter. Jackson was acquired and signed to a $1.35MM deal, avoiding arbitration and giving the Twins a glove-first backup catcher with some power but immense strikeout and OBP concerns.
The Twins eventually introduced a trio of new minority stakeholders and shuffled up the ownership hierarchy, with Tom Pohlad stepping in as the new control person in place of his younger brother, Joe. That shift came with the apparent green light for some modest investments in free agency, which led to Minnesota signing Victor Caratini on a two-year deal. Caratini became the new backup to starting catcher Ryan Jeffers, leaving Jackson with no path to a 26-man roster spot. Since he can’t be optioned, he’s been designated for assignment and will spend up to a week in limbo waiting to learn his next steps.
Jackson was once a top-10 draft pick and ballyhooed top prospect, but he’s never found his stride in the majors. He’s taken 440 plate appearances dating back to his 2019 MLB debut but mustered only a .153/.239/.288 slash. He’s slugged 11 homers but fallen victim to a strikeout in a disastrous 40.7% of his plate appearances. Jackson draws good marks for his pitch framing and throwing, but his anemic offensive profile makes him better suited to be a third or fourth catcher on any team’s depth chart.
It’s possible he’ll stick with Minnesota in just that role. Jackson’s lack of production, lack of minor league options and $1.35MM salary create a good chance that he’ll pass through waivers unclaimed. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to the minors but not enough service to do so while retaining his guaranteed salary. As such, if he clears, he’ll surely accept an assignment to Triple-A and open the season over in St. Paul.
Laweryson, 27, made his big league debut with the Twins last season. He held opponents to a run on four hits and no walks with seven punchouts — a nice follow-up to the 2.86 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate he logged across 44 Triple-A innings. The Twins tried to pass him through waivers in the offseason, only for the Angels to claim him.
The Halos designated Laweryson for assignment in February and released him, at which point he returned to the Twins on a minor league pact. He’s allowed one run on five hits and a walk with six strikeouts in 6 2/3 spring innings.
Cubs, Pete Crow-Armstrong Agree To Extension
The Cubs and star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong are in agreement on a six-year extension covering the 2027-33 seasons. It’s a $115MM guarantee for the CAA client, who can earn another $18MM via escalators. Crow-Armstrong had been under club control through 2030, so the deal — which doesn’t include any option years — buys out two free agent seasons.
Crow-Arsmtrong will collect a $5MM signing bonus. He’ll make a pre-arbitration salary this year before his salary jumps to $10MM annually between 2027-29. He’ll make $20MM in 2030 and $30MM per season in 2031-32. There’s a $1MM assignment bonus any time he’s traded throughout the contract, while his salaries in the final two seasons can climb depending on his placements in MVP voting between 2027-30.
Chicago tried to get a deal done with Crow-Armstrong during last year’s Spring Training. He was coming off a modest .237/.286/.384 season as a rookie, but the Cubs clearly felt he had another gear offensively. There has never been any doubt regarding his elite center field defense.
The sides couldn’t reach an agreement last spring. Crow-Armstrong’s asking price has certainly jumped 12 months later. He took a huge step forward from a power perspective, connecting on 31 home runs with 72 extra-base hits. He stole 35 bases, making him one of seven players to go 30-30 last year. He also led all outfielders with 24 Outs Above Average, while tying for second among center fielders (behind Ceddanne Rafaela) with 15 Defensive Runs Saved.
For a good portion of the season, Crow-Armstrong looked to be on track for a top three MVP finish. He was on an offensive tear for four months, hitting 27 homers with a .272/.309/.559 slash line through the end of July. His bat went ice cold to close the season, as he stumbled to a .188/.237/.295 mark over his final 200 trips to the plate.
The tough finish “dropped” Crow-Armstrong to ninth in NL MVP balloting. He deservedly earned his first All-Star selection and Gold Glove. He finished the season as a slightly above-average hitter, posting a .247/.287/.481 line across 647 plate appearances. Crow-Armstrong had a tough postseason (batting .185 without an extra-base hit in eight games) but was much better this spring while playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Crow-Armstrong’s late-season slump highlights the remaining concerns about his offensive consistency. He’s one of the most aggressive hitters in the league, swinging at nearly 60% of the pitches he has seen in his career. No other player who took 500 plate appearances last year swung more often.
Only Yainer Diaz and Michael Harris II more frequently chased pitches outside the strike zone. As a result, Crow-Armstrong has walked in fewer than 5% of his career plate appearances. He has gone down on strikes at a slightly elevated 24% rate. The approach leaves him with a low floor from an OBP perspective that’ll probably continue leading to a streaky offensive game.
At the same time, Crow-Armstrong clearly has a ceiling that few players in the league can match. The glove isn’t going to slump. He’s an elite runner and athlete with a fantastic arm and an excellent first step. The defense alone would give him a high floor even if he had minimal offensive upside. Crow-Armstrong can carry a lineup when he’s going well, as he showed for the first two-thirds of last season. He has above-average bat speed and plus power, particularly against right-handed pitching.
The lefty hitter posted a .271/.315/.523 mark with 24 homers when holding the platoon advantage. He struggled against southpaws, batting .188/.217/.376 with seven longballs in 188 plate appearances. The defense is so good that the Cubs won’t use him as a platoon player, but they’re surely hoping to see more competitive at-bats against lefties.
It’s possible that’ll come with experience. Crow-Armstrong is entering his age-24 season. It’s unlikely he’s ever going to become a patient hitter, but it’s fair to project him some improvements to his selectivity as he gets into his mid 20s. If he plateaus at 10-15 percent better than average offensively, he’d remain one of the better all-around players in the National League. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each valued him around 5-6 wins above replacement a year ago. Crow-Armstrong’s all-out playing style has also made him a favorite of the fanbase and arguably the face of the franchise.
Crow-Armstrong is two days shy of having two full years of service time. He would have qualified for early arbitration as a Super Two player next offseason. He was five years away from reaching free agency, when he would have hit the market at age 29.
Jackson Merrill’s nine-year, $135MM extension with the Padres last spring is the top guarantee for a player with between one and two years of MLB service. Merrill and Crow-Armstrong have similar profiles as star center fielders with power but some on-base concerns. Crow-Armstrong is the superior defender, though Merrill is a very good outfielder in his own right. The latter probably has a slightly higher offensive floor because he makes more contact.
Merrill was a year younger than Crow-Armstrong is now. He was not on track to qualify as a Super Two player, but he was trending towards hitting free agency by age 27. Merrill probably left some money on the table, though his deal is the most obvious comparison point for talks between the Cubs and Crow-Armstrong’s camp. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the Cubs’ 2025 offer was for $66MM.
Chicago’s long-term outfield is wide open. Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are on track to hit free agency next offseason. Nico Hoerner, Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd and Jameson Taillon are also slated to hit the market, and the Cubs surely aren’t bringing everybody back. They traded Owen Caissie to the Marlins as a centerpiece of the Edward Cabrera return. Prospect Kevin Alcántara has power but concerning strikeout rates. Crow-Armstrong would have been in center field either way, but there could be a fair amount of turnover around him in the Wrigley outfield a year from now.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the agreement and the six-year, $115MM guarantee. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the $18MM in escalators. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the escalator specifics and salary breakdown.
Image courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images.
Angels Announce 11 Roster Moves
The Angels announced nearly a dozen roster moves as they prepare their Opening Day lineup. The team confirmed the signing of lefty reliever Joey Lucchesi to a one-year free agent deal. They also selected veteran infielders Adam Frazier and Jeimer Candelario onto the big league roster.
Vaughn Grissom lands on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left wrist. Pitchers Ben Joyce (shoulder inflammation), Alek Manoah (middle finger contusion), Kirby Yates (left knee inflammation), and Grayson Rodriguez (shoulder inflammation) all land on the 15-day injured list. Those five placements are retroactive to March 22.
The Angels needed to open three spots on the 40-man roster for Lucchesi, Frazier and Candelario. Two of those are procedural moves, as Anthony Rendon and Robert Stephenson have been placed on the 60-day injured list. The one roster casualty of the whole series of transactions is left-handed reliever Jayvien Sandridge, who was designated for assignment.
Most of these transactions had either been announced or strongly telegraphed by prior moves. Frazier and Candelario were each expected to break camp after offseason minor league contracts. The former is ticketed for the majority of the playing time at second base. Frazier’s left-handed bat and plus contact skills make him a rarity in a heavily right-handed lineup. He hit .281 with a .452 on-base percentage this spring but has been a below-average hitter in four consecutive seasons. Frazier ran a .267/.319/.365 slash in 459 plate appearances between the Pirates and Royals a year ago.
Candelario, 32, returns to the majors after finishing last season in Triple-A in the Yankees system. The switch-hitter turned in a meager .207/.265/.394 line while battling various injuries over a season and a half with the Reds. He popped four homers this spring but struck out 17 times in 56 plate appearances.
Primarily a corner infielder, Candelario has also gotten acclimated to second base in camp. He’ll work as a backup infielder alongside the out-of-options Oswald Peraza behind Frazier and third baseman Yoán Moncada. The Angels will only pay him the $780K league minimum while he’s on the roster. The Reds are still covering the rest of his $13MM salary after releasing him last June.
Of the injured list assignments, only the Yates move comes as a surprise. The 39-year-old righty signed a $5MM free agent deal over the winter. That was the biggest investment the Halos made in a quiet offseason. Yates was one of a handful of reclamation fliers who’ll slot into the bullpen. He had been expected to share closing work with Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz. That’ll be on hold for at least the first 12 days of the regular season. Yates pitched four times this spring, allowing one earned run over four innings.
Joyce is still building back from last May’s shoulder procedure. He’s throwing but didn’t get into any games this spring. He’s not ready for MLB game action but should be back relatively early in the year. It’s an encouraging sign for his health that the Angels opted to designate someone for assignment rather than place Joyce on the 60-day IL.
Grissom is out of minor league options. His injury buys the Halos a little bit of time to determine whether they want to keep him on the roster or designate him for assignment. Rodriguez and Manoah entered camp as the projected fourth and fifth starters. Their continued injury issues will draw Jack Kochanowicz and Ryan Johnson into the final two rotation spots instead.
Sandridge came over from the Yankees in a cash trade in January. The 27-year-old southpaw pitched twice before being optioned early in camp. He allowed five runs over two innings. Sandridge gave up two runs while recording two outs in his lone major league appearance, which came as a Yankee last July. In Triple-A, he posted a 4.55 ERA with huge strikeout stuff (33.1%) but too many walks (12%). The Angels have five days to trade him or try to run him through waivers.
Cubs Select Dylan Carlson
9:23pm: Chicago has selected Carlson’s contract and placed Austin on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot, according to the MLB.com transaction log.
12:45pm: The Cubs are going to select outfielder Dylan Carlson to their roster before Opening Day, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. Carlson will unlock the $2MM salary on his deal by getting the call. Bastian adds that infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery is travelling with the team and will likely get a spot as well, though the club is still monitoring external possibilities for the final spot on their bench. The Cubs also plan to select outfielder Michael Conforto, meaning they will need to open at least two 40-man spots and potentially a third. Outfielder Kevin Alcántara has been optioned and will start the season at Triple-A Iowa.
A few spring injuries have opened up some playing time for the Cubs. They began camp projected for three bench spots to go to Tyler Austin, Miguel Amaya and Matt Shaw, with an opening for an outfielder. Austin required knee surgery and is going to be on the injured list for months. Seiya Suzuki has a knee sprain and will also start the season on the IL. Those injuries have opened enough space for Conforto, Carlson and perhaps even Kingery to crack the roster.
Carlson, 27, was once one of the top prospects in the league for the Cardinals. A few years ago, he seemed to be cementing himself as a key piece of the St. Louis outfield but his results have tapered off in recent seasons. He has a combined .210/.294/.314 batting line since the start of 2023. His once-strong defensive grades have also slipped recently. He bounced to the Rays and Orioles, with Baltimore cutting him loose at the end of last year.
After those struggles, he had to settle for a minor league deal with the Cubs coming into 2026. He has had a good camp, putting up a .304/.429/.413 line. That got a lot of help from a .433 batting average on balls in play and he also posted a concerning 26.8% strikeout rate, but on the positive side, he drew a walk in 14.3% of his plate appearances.
Carlson is a switch hitter and may be used in a short-side platoon role. He has a .274/.347/.410 line against lefties in his career, compared to a .217/.298/.356 performance against righties. Conforto is a lefty bat with better career numbers against righties. Between the two, perhaps they can form a decent cover for Suzuki’s absence. When Suzuki is back, they both may lose playing time, but Carlson could still spell lefties like Michael Busch, Moisés Ballesteros and Pete Crow-Armstrong on occasion.
Kingery, 32 in April, was also in camp on a minor league deal. He has never hit much in the majors, with a career .227/.278/.382 line. He didn’t show much better during spring action, slashing .208/.345/.333. But he provides a lot of defensive versatility. He has experience at every position on the diamond except first base and catcher. He is also optionable and could be sent down the minors once Suzuki is healthy.
It should be known in about 24 hours if he gets a spot or not. Though only two teams are playing tomorrow, all teams have to submit their Opening Day rosters. There tends to be a lot of roster shuffling ahead of Opening Day as players opt out of contracts and others get squeezed off roster spots. Perhaps the Cubs will find someone they like better than Kingery to plug in. They don’t strictly need his versatility since Shaw is expected to play a multi-positional role off the bench, so perhaps they can find someone with a bit more offensive punch.
Alcántara is one of the club’s top prospects but there are concerns about his hit tool. He has been punched out in almost 30% of his plate appearances. Just now in camp, he struck out at a 32.6% pace. With the Suzuki injury, the Cubs could have given him some run in the big leagues but sending him for some more seasoning in Triple-A is also defensible.
Ideally, he’ll find some improvement in his bat to ball skills this year. He is slated to be out of options next year. The Cubs are slated to have Suzuki, Carlson, Conforto and Ian Happ all reach free agency after this season, leaving them with just Crow-Armstrong in their 2027 outfield. It would be great if Alcántara could step up and fill one of those openings but he’ll likely need to make more contact for that to be viable.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Orioles To Designate Bryan Ramos For Assignment
The Orioles are designating corner infielder Bryan Ramos for assignment, reports Francys Romero. He’s out of minor league options, so he needed to win an MLB job or be removed from the 40-man roster.
Ramos had an uphill path to a job. He had already been taken off the roster three times over the offseason. The O’s acquired him from the White Sox in January. Baltimore tried to get him through waivers a week later. The Cardinals placed a claim but designated him themselves less than two weeks after that. The Orioles brought him back on a waiver claim.
The 24-year-old Ramos put his best foot forward this spring. He hit .316 with a home run and three doubles in 42 trips to the plate. However, Ramos has slashed just .198/.244/.333 over 120 regular season plate appearances at the big league level. He’s coming off a rough season in Triple-A, batting .216/.309/.396 with 16 homers across 105 games with the White Sox’s top affiliate.
Baltimore will officially designate Ramos for assignment tomorrow morning when they announce their Opening Day roster. They’ll have five days after that to trade him or place him back on waivers. Blaze Alexander and Coby Mayo will draw into the starting lineup at second and third base, respectively, due to the Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg injuries. Ryan Mountcastle, Tyler O’Neill and Leody Taveras are locked into bench spots. Jeremiah Jackson or non-roster outfielder Weston Wilson are options for the final bench role.
Giants Likely To Designate Luis Matos For Assignment
The Giants are planning to designate outfielder Luis Matos for assignment, reports Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle. She adds that minor league signee Jared Oliva is expected to break camp in a bench role, so he’ll take Matos’ spot on the active and 40-man rosters.
Matos is out of minor league options. Formerly one of the organization’s top position player prospects, he was one of the most intriguing players fighting to hold his 40-man spot this spring. The Giants gave him a look long in camp, as he led the team with 23 games and 55 plate appearances.
After a quick start, Matos’ bat cooled in the middle of March. He finished the spring with a .260/.327/.440 line with two home runs. Matos only struck out three times but also took just one walk, as his on-base percentage was propped up by getting plunked by four pitches.
That aggressiveness has undercut Matos’ production in meaningful games. He’s a .231/.281/.369 hitter over parts of three MLB seasons. Matos has taken just under 600 plate appearances, the rough equivalent to one full season of playing time. He has hit 15 homers with strong contact rates but has worked walks at a modest 6.1% clip.
The Giants can wait until tomorrow morning to officially designate Matos for assignment. They’ll then have five days to try to trade him. If nothing comes together, they’d need to place him on waivers. There’s a decent chance he’ll be claimed, as he’s a 24-year-old former notable prospect who owns a .287/.345/.505 line over three Triple-A seasons. If another team acquires him via trade or waivers, they’d need to carry him on the big league roster.
Matos’ exclusion means the Giants will probably carry Jerar Encarnacion. He’s also an out-of-options outfielder who fits best in a corner or at designated hitter. He can get regular playing time at DH with Bryce Eldridge opening the season in the minors. San Francisco optioned depth outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert to Triple-A Sacramento this evening.
Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac is expected to win the backup catcher job. Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss seem ticketed for utility infield roles. That’ll very likely leave Oliva as a fifth outfielder and backup center fielder behind Harrison Bader. Assuming he’s officially selected onto the roster tomorrow, it’ll be his first MLB work in five years.
Oliva played in 26 big league games with the Pirates between 2020-21. He has bounced around the upper minors for the past few seasons without returning to the big league level. Oliva had a league average .252/.335/.413 batting line with 57 stolen bases in Triple-A with the Milwaukee organization last year. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco over the winter and seized a job with his continued aggressiveness on the bases.
The righty-hitting outfielder stole 14 bags in 15 attempts. His .375 average over 20 games is unlikely to be a precursor to much of an impact at the plate, but the Giants are opting for more speed and defense in the final bench spot than Matos would have provided.