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Mets Select Travis Jankowski, Option Luisangel Acuña

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported signing of left-hander Richard Lovelady. The Mets announced his name as “Dicky Lovelady” and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has indeed requested that name change. The Mets also selected the contract of outfielder Travis Jankowski. To make room for those two, the club optioned right-hander Tyler Zuber and infielder Luisangel Acuña to Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets had one 40-man vacancy but opened another by transferring outfielder Jose Siri to the 60-day injured list.

It’s the second time in as many days that the Mets have shaken up their roster by optioning a young player who has previously been getting regular playing time. Catcher Francisco Alvarez was sent to Syracuse yesterday and now Acuña is following him upstate. Acuña held his own earlier this year with a .288/.342/.356 line and 102 wRC+ through the end of April. However, his production has tailed off badly since then, with a .194/.244/.208 line and 31 wRC+ since the calendar flipped to May.

Those struggles have cut into his playing time, with Acuña getting just five starts in the past month. Rather than languishing on the bench, the Mets have decided to send him to the farm, presumably hoping that regular starts down there are better than sitting on the bench in the majors. For parts of this season, Acuña has been the only viable backup to shortstop Francisco Lindor but Ronny Mauricio is now healthy and capable of filling in there, making it more plausible for Acuña to depart the major league roster.

His roster spot will go to Jankowski. The 34-year-old veteran signed a minor league deal with the Mets a couple of weeks ago. He has spent over a decade in the majors as a speed and defense specialist. His playing time has been sporadic over the years thanks to his inconsistent offense, but he’s capable of strong glovework and double-digit steals if he in the lineup regularly.

On the whole, he has a .236/.318/.305 batting line and 76 wRC+. That has occasionally spiked to around league average but has also been well below at times. Between the White Sox and Rays, he has hit .244/.286/.289 for a 64 wRC+ this year. Since signing that minor league deal with the Mets, he has hit .200/.263/.286 in Triple-A. He will likely be serving as a pinch runner and defensive replacement off the club’s bench.

As for Siri, he’s already been on the IL for more than 60 days due to a left tibia fracture. He was originally given a timeline of eight to ten weeks but hasn’t healed as quickly as hoped. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time.

Photo courtesy of Scott Taetsch, Imagn Images

Twins Claim Connor Gillispie

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The Twins have claimed right-hander Connor Gillispie off waivers from the Marlins, reports Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He’s been optioned to Triple-A St. Paul. Miami had designated Gillispie for assignment last week.

Gillispie, 27, was an offseason waiver claim by the Marlins (from the Braves, who’d signed him to a big league deal) back in January. He parlayed a strong spring showing into a spot in Miami’s rotation to open the season. He made six starts, the first three of which went fairly well (3.86 ERA in 14 innings), before being pummeled for 19 runs over his next dozen innings. The Marlins optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville at that point, and he hasn’t pitched in the majors since, leaving Gillispie with a bleak 8.65 ERA in 26 MLB frames this season.

Things have gone better in the minors. Gillispie has pitched 33 2/3 innings with a 4.28 ERA. His 15.7% strikeout rate is a well shy of league average average, however, and his 11.4% walk rate is quite high. The right-hander’s average 90.9 mph average fastball this year is down from the 91.5 mph he posted last year with the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate.

That 2024 season in Cleveland’s system was solid. Gillispie pitched 113 1/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, a 25% strikeout rate and a 10.1% walk rate. That led to a brief big league debut with the Guardians, wherein Gillispie tossed eight innings of relief and held opponents to two runs with an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio.

Gillispie is in the second of three minor league option years. He’ll give the Twins some depth either at the back end of the rotation or as a long reliever for a reeling pitching staff. The Twins were among the league leaders in most pitching categories for the better part of six weeks before injuries to Pablo Lopez and Zebby Matthews thinned their rotation.

The Twins have since endured a series of short starts, even from some of their more established arms, that has led to a heavily worked bullpen and prompted them to lean heavily on waiver claim Joey Wentz and utilityman Jonah Bride for mop-up work in several blowout games. Minnesota has dropped nine of its past ten games, falling below .500 and sliding considerably down the playoff standings in the American League.

Orioles Select Chadwick Tromp

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The Orioles announced today that they have selected the contract of catcher Chadwick Tromp. Fellow catcher Maverick Handley has been placed on the seven-day concussion injured list. Infielder Ryan Mountcastle has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot.

Handley’s injury occurred during a scary incident in yesterday’s game against the Yankees, as seen in this video from MLB.com. With Jazz Chisholm Jr. on second base in the second inning, DJ LeMahieu hit a single to left field. With Chisholm trying to score, Colton Cowser came up throwing to the plate but his throw was up the third base line. Handley ran to field the ball and collided with Chisholm, dropping the ball and getting knocked to the ground. Gary Sánchez came into the game to replace him.

Handley had just been recalled to the majors the day prior, with Adley Rutschman landing on the IL due to a left oblique strain. It’s unclear how long the O’s expect Handley to be out of action but it seems like the club will have to go at least a week with both Rutschman and Handley on the shelf.

That has led to Tromp retaking a spot on the roster to share the catching duties with Sánchez. Tromp also spent a few days on the roster at the end of May. At that time, Sánchez was on the IL due to wrist inflammation and Rutschman had a concussion scare of his own. Rutschman was able to return to catching a few days later, which got Tromp bumped off the roster, though he returned to the O’s on a fresh minor league deal.

Tromp has generally been a solid defender behind the plate, with decent offense in the minors but not so much in the majors. From the start of 2022 to the present, he has a .255/.336/.422 line and 100 wRC+ at the Triple-A level. His time in the majors has led to a .219/.229/.375 line and 56 wRC+, though in 166 plate appearances scattered over six different seasons. He is out of options, which led Atlanta to cut him earlier this year. That led Tromp to the O’s, though he’s only been able to get brief roster time in emergencies.

As for Mountcastle, he landed on the 10-day IL at the end of May due to a right hamstring strain. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that he would miss eight to twelve weeks. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement, so he can be reinstated at the end of July, though he’s going to be on the shelf past then.

Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images

Mets To Sign Richard Lovelady

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The Mets and free-agent lefty Richard Lovelady are in agreement on a big league contract, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. He opted out of a minor league deal with the Twins last week.

Lovelady has pitched in parts of six different major league seasons, working 101 innings between the Royals, A’s, Cubs, Rays and Blue Jays. He’s posted an ugly 5.26 earned run average in that time despite generally solid rate stats. He’s punched out 21.2% of his opponents, issued walks at an 8.7% clip and kept 50.2% of batted balls against him on the ground.

The 29-year-old hasn’t been plagued by home runs (1.07 HR/9) or an outlandish average on balls in play (.301). However, Lovelady has struggled a fair bit to prevent the runners he does yield from crossing home plate; Lovelady’s 65% strand rate is about seven percentage points worse than average and goes a long way toward explaining the gap between his 5.26 ERA and fielding-independent metrics like FIP (4.32) and SIERA (4.05).

With the Twins, Lovelady was in the midst of a strong run in Triple-A. He’d pitched 20 2/3 innings for their St. Paul affiliate, logging a pristine 1.31 ERA with a 26.5% strikeout rate, an 8.4% walk rate and a 60.4% grounder rate. He’s not a hard-thrower, sitting just 91.7 mph with his average heater, but Lovelady sports a career 2.67 ERA, 27% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in parts of seven Triple-A seasons.

These types of additions often result in short stays with the big league club, but if Lovelady gets out to a nice start and solidifies a place in the Mets’ relief corps, he can be retained via arbitration this winter and controlled for an additional three seasons. The Mets have lost southpaws A.J. Minter and Danny Young to season-ending surgeries. At the moment, DFA pickup José Castillo is the lone southpaw in their bullpen. Lovelady will join him and hope for an extended opportunity not dissimilar to the one that Young parlayed into a more solid spot in Carlos Mendoza’s bullpen. However, Lovelady is out of minor league options, which could work against him in that regard.

Mets Option Francisco Alvarez

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The Mets announced today that they’ve optioned catcher Francisco Alvarez to Triple-A. Catcher Hayden Senger was called up to take Alvarez’s spot on the active roster.

Alvarez, 23, is in the midst of his fourth MLB season. He played just five games in the majors in 2022, however, and entered the 2023 campaign a consensus top-10 prospect in the entire sport. He hit a respectable .209/.284/.437 (97 wRC+) with 25 home runs in 123 games during that rookie campaign while grading out as one of the sport’s best defensive catchers. It was a strong enough showing to make Alvarez a lock to serve as the Mets’ regular catcher in 2024, but was sidelined by a hand injury that ultimately required him to undergo surgery on his thumb and miss nearly two months. Alvarez was able to hit a respectable .237/.307/.403 (102 wRC+) last year, roughly league average production despite a sharp decline in power output.

While Alvarez’s overall offensive line was on par with expectations in 2024, there were still reasons for concern. His once-elite defense was just average in 2024 as his blocking ability went from average to the second percentile among qualifying catchers per Statcast. His pitch framing numbers also slipped slightly, though they still remained elite. In addition to the step back defensively, Alvarez’s power outage last year led underlying metrics to judge his performance at the plate more harshly last year; his xwOBA dropped from .305 in 2023 to just .289 in 2024 despite his wOBA remaining steady at .310 across both seasons.

2025 started out on a familiarly tough note for Alvarez, as he missed the start of the season due to surgery on his left hand—this time to repair a fractured hamate bone. Since making his season debut on April 25, Alvarez has hit just .236/.319/.333 with a wRC+ of 91. That’s not terrible for the standards of the catcher position, but it’s still a far cry from the roughly league average production he had posted for his career entering this year. He’s also hitting for even less power than last year, with just three home runs and three doubles in 35 games. An 8.2% barrel rate suggests that might be due to some lackluster batted ball luck, but further steps backward defensively aren’t as easy to dismiss.

Alvarez has remained below average as a blocker behind the plate after last year’s rough showing, and he’s now become one of the worst framing catchers in the league after that was his strong suit in his career prior to this season. While he’s stayed somewhat valuable by throwing out opposing base runners at an elite rate, Alvarez has fallen off to the point of becoming an average to below average catcher overall based on his numbers this year. Between his offense trending downward and his uncharacteristically lackluster defense behind the plate, the Mets clearly felt it was time to send him to the minors for a reset.

It’s a sign of urgency for a club that recently lost seven consecutive games before snapping that losing streak with a win over the Phillies last night. The Mets are in a statistical tie with Philadelphia for the NL East title at the moment, which puts a premium on wins as they look to rebuild their lead in the division and put the club’s front office in position to buy more aggressively at the trade deadline this summer. While the best version of the Mets involves Alvarez in the lineup on a regular basis, though Luis Torrens has shown himself to be deserving of a regular role in the short-term with strong defensive grades and an 89 wRC+ that’s not too far off of Alvarez’s own figure this year.

In the short term, it seems Senger will be tasked with backing up Torrens. The 28-year-old made his MLB debut earlier this year and has hit .179/.207/.214 (18 wRC+) in 29 plate appearances across 13 games in the majors. Longer term, there’s little question that Alvarez will return to the majors with the club and rejoin Torrens as part of the club’s catching tandem. The Athletic’s Will Sammon reports that the Mets are satisfied with their catching tandem at this point and that they aren’t expected to enter trade season in the market for catching help.

Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day Injured List

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7:45PM: Dobbins didn’t receive an MRI, as he downplayed the seriousness of the elbow strain when speaking with reporters (including the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey).  “Just some tightness that we’ve been grinding through for a little bit.  It hasn’t been bouncing back how we would like, so [we’re] just trying to give it a couple for weeks,” Dobbins said, noting that his elbow soreness increased in his last start and didn’t get better in the subsequent days.  Regardless, Dobbins said he expects to resume throwing bullpen sessions in “a couple of days.”

3:34PM: The Red Sox announced that right-hander Hunter Dobbins has been placed on the club’s 15-day injured list due to right elbow strain.  Righty Richard Fitts was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

The placement is retroactive to June 21, a day after Dobbins allowed four earned runs on five walks and four hits over a four-inning start against the Giants.  It is fair to guess that Dobbins’ elbow issue impacted his performance, as he was throwing with less velocity than usual and his control was uncharacteristically off — the rookie had issued just 11 walks over his previous 55 1/3 innings and 11 games prior to Friday’s struggles.

Multiple injuries in Boston’s rotation opened the door for Dobbins to make his MLB debut this season, and (Friday’s start notwithstanding) he has made a solid showing for himself in his first taste of the majors.  Dobbins has a 4.10 ERA over 59 1/3 frames, with an above-average 47.1% grounder rate and 6.5% walk rate, though he doesn’t miss many bats with a modest 17.3% strikeout rate.

An eighth-round pick for the Red Sox in the 2021 draft, Dobbins would likely have been selected earlier had his junior year at Texas Tech not been wiped out by a Tommy John surgery.  That past procedure adds a bit of extra weight to another elbow-related injury for Dobbins, though the severity of the strain isn’t yet known.

Fitts has made five starts for the Sox this year and will at least the short-term replacement for Dobbins in the rotation.  Tanner Houck is on a Triple-A rehab assignment but is expected to make at least two more minor league appearances before returning from the injured list, so Fitts will have to hold down the fort until Houck is ready.  That might also roughly line up with a potential return date for Dobbins, though one would imagine that even a minor elbow sprain would keep him out beyond the minimum 15 days just for precautionary reasons.

Astros Sign Jon Singleton To Minors Contract

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The Astros have reunited with first baseman Jon Singleton on a minor league contract, The Athletic’s Chandler Rome reports.  Singleton had been a free agent since the Mets released him from a previous minors deal earlier this week.

This marks the third separate stint for Singleton with the Astros.  Initially obtained in a trade with the Phillies back in July 2011, Singleton rose to prominence as a highly-touted prospect in Houston’s farm system, and even signed a five-year extension worth $10MM in guaranteed money before he had even made his MLB debut.  However, Singleton didn’t live up to those big expectations, and hit .171/.290/.331 over 420 plate appearances in 2014-15 before disappearing off the big league map for the better part of a decade.  He didn’t play at all from 2018-20 as he served a 100-game suspension and battled substance abuse problems, and then played in the Mexican League in 2021 and then back in affiliated ball in the Brewers’ farm system in 2022.

Returning to the Show with Milwaukee in 2023, Singleton was released partway through that season and returned to Houston for the next two years.  Singleton ended up receiving quite a bit of playing time at first base in the wake of Jose Abreu’s struggles and eventual release partway through the 2024 campaign, and Singleton hit a respectable .234/.321/.386 with 13 homers over 405 PA in 2024.  This offensive production translated to a decent 105 wRC+, but Singleton was still a -0.1 fWAR player overall due to a lack of glovework or baserunning.

Christian Walker’s signing seemingly locked down the Astros’ first base position for the next three years, and Houston released Singleton at the end of Spring Training prior to Singleton landing with the Mets about a week later.  Despite an upward mobility clause Singleton triggered in his minors deal in May, New York never called up him to the big leagues, and the Mets eventually decided to part ways entirely with the infielder.

Though Walker hasn’t hit up to expectations, there isn’t much chance Singleton will be stepping back into regular duty at first base.  With seven position players currently on the injured list, the Astros are thin on experienced roster depth, so Singleton provides a familiar face and some experience at Triple-A Sugar Land.  Singleton is also a left-handed hitter, which could get him a relatively quick call to the Show to help out an Astros lineup that is very heavy in right-handed bats.

Diamondbacks Sign James McCann

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The Diamondbacks have signed James McCann to a Major League contract, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.  McCann’s MLB.com profile page indicated earlier today (hat tip to the Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka) that the catcher had been released from his minor league deal with the Braves in order to facilitate the move to Arizona.  McCann is represented by the Ballengee Group.

As Rosenthal reported earlier this month, McCann’s Atlanta contract contained a rolling opt-out clause that would trigger if another team offered the catcher a guaranteed deal.  The Braves could then either keep McCann by selecting his contract to their active roster, or release him to his next opportunity.  Since Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin are both receiving regular playing time as Atlanta’s catching combo and both Sandy Leon and Jason Delay are providing further depth at Triple-A, it didn’t seem like McCann was going to get much of a shot in Atlanta, despite a .297/.331/.493 slash line in 160 plate appearances in Gwinnett.

However, Gabriel Moreno’s recent finger fracture suddenly left the D’Backs with a need for experienced catching help.  Moreno is expected to be on the injured list for “weeks, not days” in the words of manager Torey Lovullo, leaving Jose Herrera, Aramis Garcia and Triple-A depth options Adrian Del Castillo and Rene Pinto as the makeshift catching corps.  This group combined has far less MLB experience than McCann’s 11 seasons and 917 games in the Show, and the 35-year-old McCann will now slide right into at least a part-time role in the Diamondbacks lineup.

McCann’s big league career was highlighted by two big seasons with the White Sox in 2019-20, which included an All-Star selection in 2019.  His overall career slash line is a modest .241/.293/.380 over 3307 plate appearances, as McCann has only shown brief flashes of the offensive form he showed in Chicago.  McCann spent the last two seasons as Adley Rutschman’s backup with the Orioles, helping out as a veteran mentor for the up-and-coming star and with the Baltimore pitching staff.  The advanced metrics haven’t thought much of McCann’s blocking and framing work, though he is well-regarded for his ability to work with pitchers.

The signing is a fairly low-risk move for a D’Backs team that is hanging in with a 39-38 record, despite a swath of injuries and under-performance from the Arizona pitchers.  The Diamondbacks’ impressive offense is helping keep the team afloat, and McCann’s veteran presence might help coax some slightly more respectable results out of an increasingly makeshift rotation and bullpen.

NPB’s Rakuten Eagles Sign Luke Voit

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The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball have signed Luke Voit to a contract for the remainder of the 2025 season.  News of the signing first emerged a couple of weeks ago, and Voit just this weekend arrived in Japan once terms were finalized.

Voit is best known for his torrid stretch of hitting with the Yankees from 2018-2020.  Acquired at the 2018 trade deadline in a deal with the Cardinals, Voit immediately caught fire once donning the pinstripes, and quickly became a lineup fixture as a first baseman and DH.  Voit’s huge run was highlighted by a 22-homer season in 2020, which led the major leagues during the pandemic-shortened campaign.

Injuries limited Voit to just 68 games in 2021, however, and the Yankees parted ways with Voit by dealing him to the Padres during the spring of 2022.  Since that deal, Voit hit only .225/.305/.386 with 22 homers over 642 plate appearances with San Diego, Washington, and Milwaukee over the 2022-23 season, and he hasn’t appeared in the majors since his brief stint with the Brewers in 2023.

Voit signed a pair of minor league contracts with the Mets that didn’t result in any time in the big leagues, and his pro experience in 2024-25 has consisted of 122 games with two different Mexican League clubs.  Since the 34-year-old Voit has been crushing Mexican League pitching, he might have something to offer the Golden Eagles as a veteran bat.  The Eagles are last in NPB in home runs, with only 25 long balls over 66 games this season.

Athletics Select Jack Perkins

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The A’s selected Jack Perkins’ contract from Triple-A Las Vegas today, putting the right-hander potentially in line to make his MLB debut today as a reliever during the Athletics’ game with the Guardians.  In corresponding moves, right-hander Anthony Maldonado was optioned to Triple-A, and right-hander Gunnar Hoglund was moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.  (Hoglund’s move to the 60-day IL was expected at some point, as he recently underwent a season-ending hip surgery.)

The 25-year-old Perkins was a fifth-round pick for the Athletics in the 2022 draft, and his numbers have steadily improved as he has climbed the minor league ladder.  Reaching Triple-A for the first time this year, Perkins has a 2.86 ERA, 11.3% walk rate, and an eye-opening 38.4% strikeout rate across 44 innings and nine starts for Las Vegas in 2025.  Most recently, Perkins has a tiny 0.55 ERA and 29 strikeouts in his last 16 1/3 frames, and this hot streak was enough to punch Perkins’ first ticket to the Show.

While he’ll begin as a reliever for now, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the A’s give Perkins a look or two in the rotation, as he has worked primarily as a starter over his four pro seasons.  Control has been a persistent issue for Perkins in the minors, as his fastball (which sits in the 94-97mph range) and slider are the only pitches in Perkins’ arsenal that he has consistently thrown for strikes.

These two plus pitches might mean that Perkins could end up in the bullpen over the long run, though better results with his cutter or curveball would help Perkins’ overall repertoire and increase his chances of sticking as a rotation arm in the big leagues.  Baseball America ranked Perkins as the fourth-best prospect in the Athletics’ farm system, while MLB Pipeline ranked him ninth.

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