Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Transactions

Dodgers Designate Yohan Ramírez For Assignment

By | at

The Dodgers announced that they have reinstated Clayton Kershaw from the 60-day injured list, a move that manager Dave Roberts announced last week. To open a 40-man roster spot for him, right-hander Yohan Ramírez has been designated for assignment.

Ramírez, 29, came to the Dodgers from the Mets two months ago in a cash deal. He has since tossed 29 1/3 innings for the Dodgers with a 5.52 earned run average. He probably deserved a bit better than the ERA would indicate, as his .337 batting average on balls in play and 63.3% strand rate are both on the unlucky side. His 20.1% strikeout rate is a bit below par but his 8.2% walk rate and 45.3% ground ball rate are close to average. His 4.47 FIP and 3.95 SIERA each point to him actually being a bit better than his ERA would suggest.

Since the righty is out of options, he has bounced around the league this year, as he also spent time with the Orioles and Mets. Between the three clubs, he has 43 2/3 innings with a 22.1% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate, 44.4% ground ball rate, 5.98 ERA, 4.17 FIP and 3.76 SIERA.

It’s now possible that he will end up on his fourth team of the year. The Dodgers will have a week to work out a trade or pass him through waivers, but the waiver process takes 48 hours. That means they have just five days to explore trade talks and the trade deadline is also just five days away at this point.

There figures to be plenty of roster turnover in the coming days thanks to the deadline, with plenty of relievers sure to change hands. It’s possible that some rebuilding clubs will wind up with holes in their bullpens soon and may be interested in grabbing Ramírez to help fill things in for the final few months of the season. Though he is out of options, he can be controlled via arbitration for three seasons beyond this one.

Marlins Claim Forrest Wall

By | at

The Marlins announced Thursday that they’ve claimed outfielder Forrest Wall off waivers from the division-rival Braves. Wall has been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. Miami already had an open 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding moves were necessary.

The 28-year-old Wall hit .241/.313/.241 in a small sample of 32 plate appearances with Atlanta this season. He’s seen big league time with the Braves in two straight seasons now but has been primarily a reserve player who’s been up due to his speed. He’s gone 8-for-12 in stolen base attempts but had greater success and more prolific base-stealing numbers in the minors.

Looking past that quick look with the Braves, most of Wall’s 2024 season has been spent in Triple-A Gwinnett. He’s slashed .279/.380/.411 with a 12.1% walk rate, 25.1% strikeout rate and a dozen steals in 51 games. Wall typically draws walks at a high clip in the upper minors and makes opponents pay with his wheels. He’s a career .268/.354/.387 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons, and he’s swiped 152 bases in 353 games there. He’s played all three outfield positions and also has more than 2100 professional innings at second base.

Wall still has two minor league option years remaining beyond the current season, so if the Fish want to keep him on the roster, he can be a piece of their outfield puzzle for a few years to come. Wall doesn’t have much power but clocks into the 93rd percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed, per Statcast. Miami’s long-term outfield picture is rather thin at the moment, so bringing in a versatile OBP- and speed-focused outfielder with options left makes some sense — particularly if they trade center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. or (less likely) one of Bryan De La Cruz or Jesus Sanchez in the coming days.

Dodgers To Sign Jordan Lyles To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Dodgers are signing right-hander Jordan Lyles to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. The veteran might need a bit of ramp-up time as he hasn’t pitched in official game action since April.

Lyles, 33, began the year with the Royals. He had signed a two-year, $17MM pact going into 2023 and pitched out of the Kansas City rotation in the first year of that deal. He took the ball 31 times for the Royals but finished the year with an unimpressive 6.28 earned run average.

Coming into 2024, he was nudged out of the rotation in Spring Training as Alec Marsh won the fifth starter’s job behind Cole Ragans, Brady Singer, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Lyles made five scoreless relief appearances to start this year but hasn’t pitched since. On April 22, he was placed on the temporarily inactive list to attend to a personal family matter and transferred to the restricted list the next day.

Whatever the personal matter was, it has apparently been resolved enough for Lyles to return to baseball. Just a few days ago, the Royals reinstated him from the restricted list but evidently didn’t plan on having him back on their roster, as they released him. That leaves them on the hook for what remains of his contract. If Lyles ends up being selected by the Dodgers, they would only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time spent on their roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Royals pay.

The Dodgers’ rotation has been through plenty of turmoil this season and it’s sensible enough for them to add a veteran innings-eater type like Lyles. Bobby Miller posted an 8.07 ERA and got himself optioned down to the minors. Walker Buehler struggled in his return from Tommy John surgery and is on the injured list with a hip injury. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a rotator cuff strain and is out until at least mid-August. Both Emmet Sheehan and Dustin May required season-ending surgeries.

Tyler Glasnow also had a brief stint on the IL but was reinstated yesterday. Clayton Kershaw has missed the entire campaign so far after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery, but he will be making his season debut today. While the return of those two was most welcome, it led to a roster crunch that resulted in James Paxton getting designated for assignment. Behind Glasnow and Kershaw, the Dodgers have rookies River Ryan, Gavin Stone and Justin Wrobleski filling out their rotation.

They will most likely find some kind of external addition to that group prior to next week’s trade deadline, but there’s no harm in having a veteran like Lyles getting loose in their system somewhere. He’s been pretty reliable in his career, as he hasn’t been on the 60-day IL since 2015. As recently as 2022, he was able to be a solid back-end rotation guy, as he made 32 starts for the Orioles that year with a 4.42 ERA. Once he gets back in game shape, he’ll give the Dodgers a bit of non-roster depth.

Braves Designate Zack Short For Assignment

By | at

The Braves announced this morning that they’ve designated infielder Zack Short for assignment. His roster spot will go to third baseman Austin Riley, who’s been reinstated from the paternity list. Atlanta also recalled right-hander Daysbel Hernandez from Triple-A Gwinnett. They had an open active roster spot after optioning southpaw Zach Logue to Gwinnett last night.

Short, 29, has appeared in 30 games with the Braves this season. He’s taken 69 plate appearances and struggled to a .148/.313/.204 batting line. Short has shown good plate discipline in that small sample (17.4% walk rate), as has been the case throughout his big league career (12.3% walk rate in 538 plate appearances). Even with that keen eye, however, Short carries a lifetime .167/.269/.287 in the majors. He’s a versatile defender who can play all over the infield, though defensive metrics suggest he’s best suited at second base. In parts of four Triple-A seasons, he’s a .224/.357/.400 hitter.

Atlanta will trade Short or attempt to pass him through outright waivers within the next five days. Waivers would be an additional 48-hour process. If he were to go unclaimed, Short would stick in the Braves organization as a depth option because he does not have a prior outright assignment or sufficient major league service time to reject an outright in favor of free agency. Short is out of minor league options, so any team that acquires him will have to place him directly on the MLB roster.

Reds Re-Sign Edwin Rios To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Reds brought back infielder Edwin Ríos on a minor league contract. He was assigned to Triple-A Louisville, where he’s in tonight’s starting lineup. Ríos had elected free agency on Monday after being designated for assignment.

He’ll again provide a non-roster bat from the left side. Ríos inked a minor league deal over the winter and has spent the bulk of the year in Louisville. He owns a .243/.340/.486 batting line with 11 homers and a robust 11.8% walk rate over 50 contests for the Bats, but he also struck nearly 29% of the time. The Reds gave him a brief look while Jake Fraley was unavailable. Ríos appeared in five games and went 1-9 with a walk.

A career .202/.290/.455 hitter over parts of six MLB seasons, Ríos is mostly limited to the corner infield. He has big power — 21 homers in 335 MLB plate appearances — that comes with an alarming whiff rate. The 30-year-old has fanned in more than a third of his trips to the plate at the major league level.

Giants Reinstate Robbie Ray, Option Luis Matos

By | at

Robbie Ray is officially back from the injured list. San Francisco reinstated the southpaw from the 60-day IL to take the ball tonight against the Dodgers. The Giants also added recent waiver claim Derek Hill to their active roster. San Francisco optioned Luis Matos and Randy Rodriguez to Triple-A Sacramento in corresponding moves. To open a spot on the 40-man roster for Ray, the Giants moved Keaton Winn to the 60-day IL.

Ray makes his team debut after being acquired from the Mariners over the winter. Seattle and San Francisco lined up on an out of nowhere swap of veterans on big contracts. The Giants shipped Anthony DeSclafani and Mitch Haniger to Seattle to take a flier on Ray, who was about halfway through his rehab from last May’s Tommy John procedure. The M’s flipped DeSclafani to the Twins, with whom he suffered a Spring Training injury and underwent season-ending surgery. Haniger has underperformed for a second straight year.

The Giants hope their end of the deal yields better results. Ray is more than 14 months removed from his most recent MLB pitch. He’s one of the higher-upside pitchers in baseball when healthy. He won the American League Cy Young award when he turned in a 2.84 ERA with an MLB-best 248 strikeouts for the Blue Jays in 2021. That led the Mariners to sign him to a five-year free agent pact. Ray posted good but not elite numbers in year one, working to a 3.71 earned run average through 189 innings. He made all of one start last season before suffering the injury that sent him under the knife.

If the Giants get even the ’22 version of Ray, that’d be a major boost to their rotation. He joins last year’s Cy Young winner Blake Snell as high-risk, high-reward lefties. Logan Webb is one of the game’s best starters, while Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks round out the group. Harrison has a 3.86 ERA over 17 starts in his first full MLB season. Hicks started the season very well but has seemingly shown signs of fatigue lately in his first extended look out of the rotation.

Winn was also part of the rotation early in the season. The ground-ball specialist took the ball 12 times but struggled to a 7.16 ERA across 55 1/3 frames. He has been out for about a month with elbow inflammation. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported earlier this week that Winn is still feeling soreness and has been shut down from throwing (X link). He’s eligible to return at the end of August, but it now seems in doubt if he’ll make it back this season.

On the position player side, Hill steps into the outfield at Matos’ expense. They’re each righty hitters with the ability to play all three positions. Matos has struggled to a .217/.238/.333 slash over 40 games. He’s also had some defensive lapses that’ll lead the Giants to send him back to Triple-A. Matos is only 22 and rates as one of the better prospects in the system. He owns a .295/.358/.536 slash over 76 career Triple-A games.

Dodgers, Nick Ahmed Agree To Major League Deal

By | at

The Dodgers are signing shortstop Nick Ahmed to a big league deal and placing Miguel Rojas on the injured list, tweets Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. David Vassegh of 570 Sports first noted (on X) that Ahmed was with the team. The veteran infielder is an Excel Sports Management client.

Ahmed continues his tour of the National League West. The longtime Diamondback signed a minor league deal with the Giants over the winter. He made the Opening Day roster and appeared in 52 games with San Francisco. Ahmed struggled to a .232/.278/.303 batting line over 172 trips to the plate and was released two weeks ago. He lingered on the open market before landing an immediate big league opportunity because of the Dodgers’ injury situation in the middle infield. Ahmed will only make the prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary for whatever time he spends on the L.A. roster. The Giants are still on the hook for the rest of his salary.

Los Angeles has been without Mookie Betts for more than five weeks. Betts was amidst another MVP-caliber season in his first year as an everyday shortstop before he broke his hand on a hit-by-pitch. That pushed Rojas from a glove-first utility role back into regular work at shortstop. He hasn’t provided much offensively, hitting .241/.282/.329 across 86 trips to the plate since the Betts injury. The Dodgers were mostly hoping he’d keep things afloat on defense, and Rojas has indeed posted above-average marks with the glove.

The Dodgers will rely on Ahmed to play a similar role. Rojas went down over the weekend with forearm tightness and hasn’t played since Sunday. Los Angeles was using Enrique Hernández as their fill-in shortstop, but he’s better suited for work at second or third base and around the outfield. While the Dodgers won’t expect much at the plate from Ahmed, he’s a two-time Gold Glove winner who remains a solid or better defensive shortstop.

Ahmed figures to play everyday until Rojas or Betts comes back. He starts tonight against his old Giants teammates and will take on Robbie Ray in the lefty’s season debut, tweets Juan Toribio of MLB.com. The Dodgers could theoretically look for middle infield help before next Tuesday’s deadline, although that hasn’t seemed to be a priority thus far. Betts is expected back sometime next month and should take shortstop back over headed into the postseason. The Dodgers seem more concerned with landing impact talent who could aid them in October rather than expending prospect capital for lower-ceiling players to bridge the gap in the regular season.

The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster, but they’re reportedly going to designate right-hander Ricky Vanasco for assignment. That was expected to be the corresponding move for Clayton Kershaw returning from the 60-day injured list tomorrow. The Dodgers could DFA Vanasco today and clear space for Kershaw tomorrow. Righty Kyle Hurt is undergoing Tommy John surgery and could be transferred to the 60-day injured list if the Dodgers don’t want to expose anyone to waivers.

Braves Select Zach Logue

By | at

Between games of today’s doubleheader, the Braves announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Zach Logue. Righty Allan Winans was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move while outfielder Michael Harris II was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Atlanta also announced righty Daysbel Hernández as their 27th man for the doubleheader, though the second contest of that twin bill was postponed after these roster moves were announced.

Logue, 28, signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in the offseason and has been working in a swing role in the minors this year. He has tossed 76 2/3 innings on the farm over 19 appearances, 11 of those being starts. He has allowed 2.93 earned runs per nine innings with a 23.5% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate.

That will get him back to the big leagues, perhaps to provide some length out of the bullpen. Yesterday’s game against the Reds was postponed by the weather, which led to today’s planned doubleheader. Since Atlanta also played a twin bill on Saturday against the Cardinals, it was shaping up to be quite a week, though today’s second contest has now been banged as well.

Whenever Logue gets into a game, he’ll be adding to a track record that includes 68 innings with the Athletics and Tigers. He has a 6.88 ERA in that fairly small sample of work. His minor league work has been better at times and he was once a notable prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, going to the A’s in the Matt Chapman trade.

Logue had a 3.67 ERA on the farm in 2021, striking out 28.2% of batters faced while giving out walks at just a 5.3% clip over 125 innings. It was after that season that he was flipped to Oakland but then he posted a 6.79 ERA in the majors and a mark of 8.12 in Triple-A. He went to the Tigers on waivers and continued struggling in 2023, with a 7.36 ERA in the bigs and 6.58 ERA in Triple-A.

But after two rough years, he seems to be back in good form here in 2024. He can cover some innings out of the bullpen and still has an option that Atlanta could use to send him back down to the minors. He has less than a year of service time and could be retained for future seasons if he continues hanging onto his 40-man spot.

As for Harris, he’s been on the injured list since the middle of June due to a Grade 2 hamstring strain. He’ll now be ineligible to be reinstated until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be the middle of August. He still has yet to begin a rehab assignment and would likely need some time to get back in game shape even if he were cleared to play in the near future.

Dodgers To Designate Ricky Vanasco For Assignment

By | at

The Dodgers are going to designate right-hander Ricky Vanasco for assignment, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic on X. That move will open a 40-man roster spot for left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who will be coming off the 60-day injured list this week.

Vanasco, 25, has spent most of the season on optional assignment. He has only thrown two innings at the major league level this year, which were the first two innings of his big league career. He has tossed 23 1/3 innings over 24 Triple-A appearances, allowing 3.47 earned runs per nine. His 24.3% strikeout rate is strong but he has also given out free passes at a huge 18.9% rate. If it weren’t for a 78.5% strand rate, more runs would have crossed the plate, which is why his 5.51 FIP is more than two runs higher than his ERA.

Those control issues undoubtedly contributed to nudging him off the Dodgers’ roster and the club will now have a week to either trade him or pass him through waivers. Once a notable prospect in the Rangers’ system, health issues held him back in recent years. He underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2020 and missed the entire 2021 season. Despite missing that entire campaign, the Rangers evidently were worried some other club would take him in that year’s Rule 5 draft, so they gave him a 40-man spot.

He showed some rust in his first year back from the surgery layoff, posting a 4.68 ERA in 92 1/3 minor league innings. His 28.9% strikeout rate was strong but he gave out free passes to 12.7% of batters faced. He then required knee surgery in March of last year and missed the start of that season. The Rangers designated him for assignment in May and he was flipped to the Dodgers a few days later.

His stint with his new club went very well, even though he was outrighted off the 40-man roster, as he tossed 30 innings at various levels with a 1.20 ERA and 35% strikeout rate. Perhaps most importantly, he dropped his walk rate down to 8.1%. The Dodgers re-signed him to a major league deal in November but, as mentioned, his control issues have come back this year.

Perhaps some club will be intrigued based on his former prospect status and his ability to strike out minor league hitters. He is in his final option season and can be sent down to the farm for the remainder of this year, though he will be out of options next year.

KBO’s Doosan Bears Sign Jared Young

By | at

The Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed utilityman Jared Young (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). The Old Dominion product had been playing in Triple-A with the Cardinals.

Young was a 15th round pick by the Cubs back in 2017. He reached the majors late in the 2022 season and appeared in 22 games over the next two years. The left-handed hitter ran a .210/.290/.435 line with a pair of home runs across 69 trips to the plate. Chicago placed Young on waivers at the start of last offseason. St. Louis nabbed him from their rival and successfully passed him through waivers during Spring Training.

Assigned to their top farm team in Memphis, Young was hitting .285/.411/.506. He connected on 11 homers and walked at a strong 14.3% clip against an 18.5% strikeout rate. The Cards never called him up, but his excellent work in the upper minors gets him a look in the KBO. That surely comes with a nice pay bump compared to his Triple-A salary.

KBO teams are only permitted to roster three foreign-born players. As a corresponding move for signing Young, they waived outfielder Henry Ramos. The 32-year-old signed with the Bears over the winter. He was hitting .306/.360/.482 in 80 games. That’s strong production, but Yoo notes (on X) that the Bears’ coaching staff has taken issue with Ramos’ defense and baserunning. A veteran of 12 minor league seasons, Ramos has logged brief MLB time with the Diamondbacks and Reds.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top