Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Transactions

Dan Straily, Tyler Zuber Sign With Long Island Ducks

By | at

Former big league right-handers Dan Straily and Tyler Zuber have signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, per a team announcement.

Straily, 35, has spent the past four seasons pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization, though he did briefly return stateside for Triple-A run with the 2022 D-backs. The former A’s, Marlins, Reds, Cubs, Orioles and Astros righty has pitched 503 innings for the KBO’s Lotte Giants, working to a 3.29 ERA with a 23.4% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. Lotte released him midway through the 2023 season, however, as he scuffled to a more pedestrian 4.37 ERA in his first 16 starts.

Prior to his largely successful KBO run, Straily enjoyed a good bit of success in an eight-year span in the big leagues. While the righty wasn’t especially consistent, he had stretches where he looked like a solid innings-eating workhorse, including a 2016-17 run between Cincinnati and Miami wherein he tossed 373 innings of 4.01 ERA ball with a 21.3% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate. On the whole, Straily owns a 4.56 ERA in 803 1/3 innings split between the aforementioned six teams. He’s also pitched in the upper minors with the D-backs and Phillies.

Straily’s most recent MLB work came back in 2019, so he’s quite a ways removed from major league action at this point. Still, given the slate of pitching injuries that permeate Major League Baseball early every season, a nice run with the Ducks could be a springboard back into affiliated ball.

As for the 28-year-old Zuber, he was in spring training with the Guardians this year after signing a minor league deal but didn’t make the club after being torched for 10 runs on 10 hits and eight walks in just 5 1/3 innings. Zuber previously pitched for the Royals in 2020-21, debuting during the pandemic-shortened season with 22 innings of 4.09 ERA ball. He posted a gaudy 30.3% strikeout rate that year but coupled it with an alarming 20.2% walk rate. Overall, he’s pitched 49 1/3 big league frames with a 5.29 ERA, 24.8% strikeout rate and 16.7% walk rate.

Command was never an issue for Zuber in the low minors. When looking at his minor league career as a whole, his 3.20 earned run average, 31.3% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate are all impressive. However, Zuber began to battle pronounced control struggles during that 2020 debut, and his penchant for walks carried over into subsequent seasons. Perhaps not coincidentally, he was plagued by shoulder troubles in 2021-22 — missing the entire 2022 season as a result. Zuber spent the 2023 season with Arizona’s Triple-A club and showed a somewhat improved 11.1% walk rate but also a diminished 20% strikeout rate in 20 2/3 innings.

As with Straily — and any big league veterans who sign with indie ball clubs — it’s possible that a good showing in Long Island will serve as a catalyst for renewed interest from affiliated clubs.

Rangers, Johnny Cueto Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Rangers have reached an agreement with veteran starter Johnny Cueto, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). It’s a minor league deal, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. Cueto is represented by Primo Sports Group.

Cueto finds a landing spot after lingering in free agency for the entire winter. It was a marked change from the previous offseason, when he found a solid $8.5MM deal from the Marlins. At that point, the right-hander was coming off a 3.35 ERA showing over 25 appearances for the White Sox. His time in Miami wasn’t nearly as productive, as he missed a good portion of the season to injury and was largely ineffective when he was able to take the mound.

The 38-year-old injured his biceps during his first start of the season. He went on the injured list and essentially missed the first half. Cueto returned around the All-Star Break but would subsequently miss another few weeks due to a viral infection. Around the IL stints, he started 10 of 13 appearances. In 52 1/3 frames, Cueto was charged with a career-worst 6.02 ERA. He surrendered 17 home runs, an average of nearly three per nine innings.

Miami paid a $2.5MM buyout in lieu of a $10.5MM option for the 2024 season. Cueto wasn’t substantively linked to any teams over the offseason, yet MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported in February that he continued to work out in hopes of prolonging his career. It took a few weeks into the regular season, but he’ll get that chance as a depth option for a Texas rotation dealing with a number of injuries.

The Rangers opened the year with each of Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle on the injured list. Left-hander Cody Bradford, who started the season as the #5 starter, recently went on the shelf with a lower back strain. Bradford’s injury isn’t thought to be especially serious. Scherzer could be back within a couple weeks, as he’s set to start a minor league rehab stint tomorrow.

Still, there’s sense for the Rangers in adding another upper minors rotation depth. Texas is currently operating with a starting five of Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen and Andrew Heaney. The latter has gotten out to a very rough start, pitching to a 6.35 ERA in 17 innings. Texas called on Jack Leiter for a spot start last week, but the former #2 pick was hit hard by the Tigers and subsequently optioned back to Triple-A.

Cueto has 16 years of big league experience. Four of those came when current Texas skipper Bruce Bochy managed him with the Giants between 2016-19. The righty was also teammates with Rangers GM Chris Young as part of the 2015 World Series team in Kansas City. Those connections surely didn’t hurt his chances of getting another opportunity with Texas. While Cueto doesn’t miss many bats at this stage of his career, he still has above-average control and the ability to work multiple innings as a starter or long reliever.

Cubs Place Kyle Hendricks, Drew Smyly On Injured List

By | at

The Cubs announced a series of roster moves, with Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic among those to relay the full slate. Right-hander Kyle Hendricks and left-hander Drew Smyly have each been placed on the 15-day injured list, Hendricks due to a lower back issue and Smyly due to a hip impingement. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski and left-hander Luke Little were recalled in corresponding moves. The club also designated Garrett Cooper for assignment and recalled Matt Mervis, as swap that was reported on earlier.

Hendricks, 34, has been out to an awful start this year. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently took a look at the righty’s struggles, before Hendricks made his most recent start. As of right now, Hendricks has logged 21 innings this year over five starts. He has allowed 28 earned runs in that time, leading to an eye-popping earned run average of 12.00.

He’s never been a huge strikeout guy but his 15.1% rate this year is lower than any season since his 2014 debut. It’s possible there’s some bad luck at play, with Hendricks having allowed a .392 batting average on balls in play. He’s also stranding only 50.3% of runners while a third of his fly balls have gone over the fence. His 7.75 FIP and 4.44 SIERA each suggest that he has deserved better, though to very different degrees. That’s due to FIP counting home runs as the pitcher’s fault whereas SIERA gives more weight to batted ball data as opposed to actual results.

Hendricks is likely due for at least some normalization of his extreme results to this point in the season, but there will have to be a waiting period of at least a few weeks before the details of that correction are revealed. Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, Hendricks felt his back bothering him before his start on Sunday and continued to feel it during the outing. The severity of the issue isn’t clear but he’ll have to miss at least a couple of weeks.

The Cubs will now have to figure out who joins the rotation alongside Shota Imanaga, Jordan Wicks, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad. Tonight marks the start of a stretch where they play 16 games in a row before their next off-day. Smyly has plenty of starting experience and could have been a candidate for such a job, but he’s now on the IL himself.

Wesneski has been working in a swing role for the club in recent years and could perhaps make a few starts. Ben Brown has been pitching multi-inning stints this year and would be another option. Veteran Julio Teheran was signed to a minor league deal last week and gives them a non-roster option. Due to Cooper being designated for assignment, there’s now an opening on the 40-man roster.

Report: Cubs To Designate Garrett Cooper For Assignment

By | at

The Cubs are going to designate first baseman Garrett Cooper for assignment, per Robert Murray of FanSided. It appears he will be the corresponding move for Matt Mervis, as Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register reports that Mervis is being called up.

The transaction comes as a surprise, since Cooper has generally been playing well. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in the offseason and made the Opening Day roster. Since then, he’s hit .270/.341/.432 for a wRC+ of 118.

Despite that strong surface-level production, there are also some concerning elements under the hood. Cooper has struck out at a 31.7% clip so far this year, a few ticks above his career rate, which was already a bit above average. He also has an unsustainable .391 batting average on balls in play, well above the .290 league average.

Beyond Cooper’s performance, it seems that Mervis may have just forced the club into making a move. He had huge amounts of helium in 2022, despite landing with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent. The pandemic led to the 2020 draft being shortened to just five rounds and Mervis wasn’t selected, leading to him signing with the Cubs afterwards.

Despite being somewhat overlooked at that time, he shot onto everyone’s radar in 2022, going from High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .309/.379/.605 that year. That led to his first taste of the majors last season, though he hit just .167/.242/.289 in his first 99 big league plate appearances. He still hit well in Triple-A last year and is off to a strong start here in 2024. He has five home runs in 82 plate appearances this year and is drawing walks at a 14.6% clip, leading to a line of .288/.402/.606 and a 151 wRC+.

Perhaps the club couldn’t ignore that performance any longer, but handedness may have also played a role. The Cubs as a team are hitting .284/.361/.506 against lefties for a 140 wRC+, second only to the Guardians. But against righties, their collective batting line is .236/.317/.381, which leads to a 97 wRC+ that’s 17th in the league.

Cooper hits from the right side and has been better against lefties in his career, but only modestly. He’s hit .285/.337/.475 against southpaws and .263/.337/.420 otherwise, leading to respective wRC+ counts of 119 and 108. Swapping in Mervis could perhaps give them a bump against right-handed pitchers since he hits from the left side.

The Cubs could have perhaps bumped someone else off the roster in favor of Mervis, such as Patrick Wisdom or Nick Madrigal, but those two offer a bit more defensively. Cooper is only really viable at first base, since his brief time in the outfield corners has yielded poor results. Madrigal and Wisdom can each play third while the latter has some outfield ability as well.

There will now be a week for the Cubs to line up a trade for Cooper or pass him through waivers. It seems fair to expect that there will be interest, based both on his performance so far this year and his track record. He hit .274/.350/.444 for the Marlins from 2019 to 2022, leading to a wRC+ of 117 in that stretch. He struggled to stay healthy in that time and then slumped last year, but he seems to be in good form so far this season.

The Red Sox are going to be without their primary first baseman for a while, as Triston Casas has been diagnosed with a fractured rib. The Astros are getting dismal production from José Abreu thus far. The same goes for the White Sox and Andrew Vaughn, the Twins and Carlos Santana and others. Given all of those different situations, the Cubs will likely be fielding calls about Cooper in the coming days.

D-backs Claim Joe Jacques From Red Sox, Acquire Sergio Alcantara From Pirates

By | at

The Diamondbacks announced a pair of acquisitions Tuesday: left-hander Joe Jacques was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox, while infielder Sergio Alcantara was acquired from the Pirates in exchange for cash. Both players are headed to Triple-A Reno. Jacques is on the 40-man roster, but Alcantara — who’d signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh — is not. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Jacques, 29, appeared in just one game for the Red Sox this season, allowing a run in 1 2/3 innings. He yielded three hits but didn’t issue a walk and also picked up a pair of strikeouts. Dating back to last season’s MLB debut, he’s pitched to a 5.08 earned run average in 28 1/3 innings with a 16.8% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and massive 64.8% ground-ball rate.

Although the sidearming lefty’s track record in the big leagues is minimal, Jacques has pitched in parts of four Triple-A seasons and worked to a 3.93 ERA in 128 1/3 innings. Boston originally acquired the former 10th-rounder from the Pirates in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He was designated for assignment Friday when the Sox selected the contract of fellow left-hander Cam Booser from Triple-A Worcester.

Arizona currently has three lefties in the big league bullpen: Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson and Logan Allen. Neither Mantiply nor Nelson has pitched especially well in 2024, and while Allen’s lone appearance yielded solid results, the former Guardians, Rockies and Orioles left-hander has a spotty track record in the big leagues, to put it mildly. Jacques will add a depth option who’s had success in Triple-A and who can potentially pile up grounders in Chase Field, which has been quite homer-happy for right-handed hitters in the early stages of the 2024 season. Jacques is in the second of his three option years and thus gives the D-backs some flexibility in the ’pen.

As for Alcantara, he’s no stranger to the Diamondbacks organization. The now-27-year-old infielder spent the bulk of the 2022 season there, appearing in 71 big league games and batting .241/.283/.406 in 186 trips to the plate. He’s a career .209/.281/.343 batter in 502 MLB plate appearances who’s drawn strong defensive grades at shortstop, per both Defensive Runs Saved (4) and Outs Above Average (7). Those strong marks have come in a sample of just 530 plate appearances.

The Diamondbacks recently lost starting shortstop Geraldo Perdomo to a torn meniscus. Top prospect Jordan Lawlar suffered a torn ligament in his thumb late in spring training — an injury that’s expected to shelve him for several months. With that pair of injuries, have been using hot-hitting rookie Blaze Alexander and glove-first veteran Kevin Newman as the primary options at short. Alcantara will give them some depth at the Triple-A level, where he’s a career .268/.386/.397 hitter in 548 trips to the plate.

Alcantara is out of minor league options, so if the Diamondbacks end up selecting him to the 40-man roster, he’ll have to either stick in the majors or else be passed through waivers. Upon clearing, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Nationals Select Jacob Barnes, Designate Jake Alu

By | at

The Nationals announced today that they have select the contract of right-hander Jacob Barnes. He will take the active roster spot of left-hander Robert Garcia, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to influenza, retroactive to April 21. To open a 40-man spot for Barnes, infielder/outfielder Jake Alu has been designated for assignment. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com noted that Barnes was in the clubhouse prior to the official announcement.

It would appear that an influenza virus is spreading around the Nats’ clubhouse. Catcher Keibert Ruiz came down with the illness and also landed on the IL, last appearing in a game back on April 8. Over the weekend, he told Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post that he was feeling better but had lost 18 to 20 pounds because of his illness. Garcia last appeared on Saturday and it seems he is unwell, so the club will let him rest up for the next little while.

To take his spot in the bullpen, they have tapped a veteran journeyman in Barnes. They 34-year-old has appeared in the past eight major league seasons and will make in nine in a row once the Nats send him out to the mound. He has suited up for the Brewers, Royals, Angels, Mets, Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees and Cardinals in that time, and will now add the Nationals to that list.

He has a 4.76 earned run average over his 265 appearances, but with much better numbers earlier in his career. He tossed 147 1/3 innings with the Brewers from 2016 to 2018 with a 3.54 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate. Since then, he has a 6.32 ERA while punching out just 20.8% of hitters, corresponding with the nomadic phase of his career.

He finished last season with the Cardinals but they outrighted him off the roster in October, allowing him to elect free agency. He signed a minor league deal with the Nats and has been in good form of late, having tossed eight scoreless innings for their Triple-A club, striking out ten opponents while giving out just two walks. He’s out of options so the club won’t be able to send him back down to the minors at a future date. Even if they were to pass him through waivers, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

To add that veteran arm to their pen, the Nats are risking losing Alu. A 24th-round pick in 2019, Alu overcame that modest draft selection to get onto Washington’s 40-man roster in November of 2022, as the club hoped to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He had hit .299/.365/.506 in the minors that year for a wRC+ of 131.

Since Alu already offered a bit of speed and some defensive versatility, the Nats were hoping that the improved offense was a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, he’s hit just .226/.282/.289 in the majors thus far and just .277/.341/.397 in the minors since the start of 2023, the latter line translating to a wRC+ of 88.

The Nats will now have a week to trade Alu or pass him through waivers. The lack of offense will tamp down the interest somewhat but he still has a couple of options and has played all four infield positions, as well as left field.

Diamondbacks Release Jace Peterson

By | at

The D-Backs have released Jace Peterson, according to the infielder’s transaction log at MLB.com. That was expected after Arizona designated him for assignment last week.

That ends Peterson’s tenure with the Snakes, which began last summer. The D-Backs sent minor league righty Chad Patrick to the A’s to take a flier on the versatile infielder. Peterson was sitting on a middling .221/.313/.324 slash line at the time of the trade, but he’d been a more productive player for the Brewers over the preceding two seasons. Between 2021-22, the left-handed hitter posted a .243/.332/.376 slash in over 600 plate appearances.

Moving to the desert didn’t spark the turnaround for which Arizona was hoping. Peterson’s bat faded further down the stretch, as he hit .183/.276/.258 in 41 games. He got off to an even slower start this year. Peterson collected one hit and three walks over his first 26 plate appearances before Arizona took him off the roster.

The 33-year-old (34 next month) is free to explore other opportunities. He’s still due what remains of this season’s $5MM salary. The A’s agreed to pay $2MM of that sum as part of last summer’s trade, while Arizona is on the hook for the other $3MM. Any team that signs Peterson would only owe him the prorated portion of the $740K minimum for whatever time he spends in the big leagues this year. Nevertheless, his offensive downturn could require that he take a minor league deal and look to play his way back to the majors.

Orioles Designate Peyton Burdick For Assignment

By | at

The Orioles announced a few roster moves before this evening’s game against the Angels. Baltimore placed outfielder Austin Hays on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Sunday, due to a left calf strain. They selected catcher David Bañuelos onto the MLB roster in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster for Bañuelos, the O’s designated outfielder Peyton Burdick for assignment.

Bañuelos finds his way to the majors for the second time. Baltimore called him up for one day last week when a roster spot opened with Tyler Wells heading to the injured list. The seven-year minor league veteran came off the bench to make his big league debut. Baltimore designated him for assignment and outrighted him off the roster a day later.

It’s possible we’ll see a similar course of events this week. Bañuelos’ previous call was spurred largely by his availability, as he has been traveling with the team as a member of the taxi squad. He’ll offer extra catching depth behind Adley Rutschman and James McCann in the short term, collecting a prorated MLB minimum salary in the process.

Hays has had a tough start to the year, picking up only five hits and four walks in his first 45 plate appearances. Colton Cowser has quickly hit his way into the lineup alongside Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander. Hays, a 2023 All-Star, has only started 11 of Baltimore’s first 21 games. He’ll now be out of action at least into the middle of next week. Skipper Brandon Hyde told reporters the team expects Hays will be back not long after the minimal 10 days (X link via Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com).

That outfield depth has helped keep Burdick off the MLB roster entirely since the O’s claimed him on waivers last month. The right-handed hitter has spent the year on optional assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. Burdick has gotten out to a tough start there, hitting .182/.333/.455 in 16 games. He has hit four homers and taken plenty of walks, yet he’s also gone down on strikes 28 times.

It’s still an open question whether Burdick can make consistent enough contact to establish himself at the MLB level. Prospect evaluators have credited him with plus raw power, which he’s translated into 43 homers in just over 1000 Triple-A plate appearances. That has come with huge swing-and-miss rates. Burdick has punched out in nearly a third of his trips to the dish in Triple-A. He fanned more than 38% of the time in 46 big league contests with the Marlins between 2022-23.

Burdick has gone from Miami to the O’s to the White Sox and back to Baltimore within the past couple months. The Orioles will need to trade or waive him again within the next week. He’s in his second of three option years, so another team could keep him in Triple-A without exposing him to waivers if they were to give him a spot on the 40-man roster.

Reds Place Frankie Montas On Injured List

By | at

The Reds announced today that right-hander Frankie Montas has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm contusion, with fellow righty Casey Legumina recalled to take his place on the active roster.

Montas was struck by a comebacker off the bat of Taylor Ward in yesterday’s game, departing after recording just two outs. Amazingly, the bullpen covered 8 1/3 shutout innings and the Reds pulled off a 3-0 victory over the Angels. X-rays on Montas’s arm came back negative but he said yesterday that he would probably have to miss at least one start due to the soreness and swelling.

It seems the concern is still on the mild side, though the club will give him a couple of weeks to rest his arm. Per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, manager David Bell says the expectation is that Montas will just miss two starts, with Nick Martinez taking the ball on Thursday to fill the rotation spot.

The Reds signed Montas to a one-year, $16MM deal in the offseason, hoping for a bounceback campaign. He had struggled with shoulder problems in the second half of 2022 and then missed almost the entire 2023 season after undergoing surgery to address that shoulder.

But prior to those shoulder issues, he was quite good. In 2021, he tossed 187 innings for the A’s with a 3.37 earned run average. He struck out 26.6% of batters faced while walking just 7.3%, and he also got grounders on 42.8% of balls in play. The following year, he had a 3.18 ERA with similar peripherals before getting flipped to the Yankees. The shoulder problems had already popped up before that deal but got worse after it, leading to the surgery and lengthy absence.

The Reds have not yet seen the bounceback they were hoping for. Montas has a 4.19 ERA through his five starts but might be lucky to even be at that level. He has punched out just 16.7% of opponents thus far while giving out free passes at an 11.9% clip. Were it not for a .263 batting average on balls in play, he might have allowed even more runs, which is why his 5.33 FIP and 5.12 SIERA are about a run higher than his ERA.

We’re still talking about a small sample size of 19 1/3 innings but it’s also perhaps worth nothing that his stuff hasn’t come all the way back to pre-surgery levels. He averaged 96.4 miles per hour on his fastball in 2021 but is only at 94 mph so far this year, with his other pitches all down a few ticks as well. Perhaps Montas will find that missing velocity later in the year but he’ll now have to sit on the shelf for a few weeks.

In the meantime, the rotation will consist of Martinez, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft and Andrew Abbott. Martinez opened the season in the rotation and made two starts but got bumped to a long relief role when Lodolo came off the injured list. He spent his time with the Padres moving between starting and relieving, so this is something he has experience with and likely why the Reds signed him in the first place.

White Sox Designate Zach Remillard For Assignment

By | at

3:35pm: The Sox have now made it official, selecting Mendick and designating Remillard for assignment. They also reinstated John Brebbia from the injured list and optioned right-hander Nick Nastrini and infielder Lenyn Sosa to Triple-A Charlotte. Nastrini’s option means they will need another starter later this week.

11:15am: The White Sox will designate infielder Zach Remillard for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow utilityman Danny Mendick, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Van Schouwen first reported last night that Mendick’s contract would be selected prior to today’s game.

It’s the second DFA of the calendar year for Remillard, whom the White Sox designated back in January but selected back to the 40-man roster nine days ago. Now 30 years old, Remillard has spent his entire career in the White Sox organization after the team selected him in the tenth round of the 2016 draft.

Remillard has seen big league time in each of the past two seasons, albeit in fleeting fashion. He tallied 160 plate appearances last year and another five this season. Overall, he’s a .250/.292/.316 hitter in that limited sample. Remillard posted a nice .280/.373/.400 slash in 491 plate appearances during his 2022 run in Triple-A Charlotte, but those numbers dipped in 2023 and he’s out to a dismal .120/.224/.160 start through his first 58 Triple-A appearances so far in 2024.

While Remillard has primarily played third base in his professional career (2356 innings), he’s also logged time at shortstop (1646 innings), at second base (961 innings), at first base (696 innings), in left field (333 innings), in right field (133 innings) and in center field (76 innings).

The White Sox will have a week to trade Remillard, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Because he was outrighted after clearing waivers back in January, he’d have the right to reject a second outright assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed a second time.

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