Rays Designate Alex Jackson For Assignment
The Rays announced Thursday morning that they’ve designated catcher Alex Jackson for assignment and selected the contract of left-hander Mason Montgomery from Triple-A Durham. Tampa Bay also optioned lefty Tyler Alexander to Durham and recalled infielder Austin Shenton.
Tampa Bay has stuck with the 28-year-old Jackson all season, giving him 158 turns at the plate as the team’s backup catcher despite a .122/.201/.237 batting line and sky-high 34.2% strikeout rate. Jackson has played strong defense, but that lack of productivity in the batter’s box has now reached its tipping point, as Tampa Bay seems poised to turn his role over to recently promoted Logan Driscoll, who’s enjoyed a strong year in Durham and will now pair with defensive standout Ben Rortvedt to comprise the Rays’ catching corps.
Jackson was taken by the Mariners with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2014 draft and for years ranked as a top prospect thanks to huge raw power and one of the most impressive high school performances in recent memory. He was in play as a possible No. 1 overall pick during his draft season and viewed as a potential middle-of-the-order hitter. The M’s were bullish enough on his bat and athleticism to move him to right field immediately in pro ball, in hopes of fast-tracking his path to the big leagues.
Instead, Jackson’s hit tool never came around to match his power. He’s bounced around the league in a series of small-scale trades and minor league contracts but never cemented himself as a consistent big leaguer. In parts of five MLB seasons, Jackson has taken 340 plate appearances and batted .132/.224/.232 with a staggering 41.8% strikeout rate.
As he’s moved back behind the plate and continued to hone his defensive skills in the minors, Jackson has become a quality defender at catcher. However, his persistent strikeout troubles extend even to the Triple-A level (29.3%). He’ll now head to waivers and be made available to the other 29 clubs. If he clears, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency, as is the case with all players who’ve been previously outrighted in their career.
Montgomery, 24, was the Rays’ sixth-round pick in 2021 and ranked as one of the system’s top arms for the past few seasons. He’s had a dismal year in the Triple-A rotation and is currently sitting on a 6.26 ERA in spite of a sharp 26.1% strikeout rate and an only slightly higher-than-average 8.9% walk rate. Home runs have been Montgomery’s downfall, as he’s yielded an average of 1.95 long balls per nine innings pitched.
That said, there’s reason to perhaps look at Montgomery in a more favorable light. Beyond the intriguing K-BB profile, Montgomery moved to the bullpen on a full-time basis in early August and has been borderline untouchable since. He’s fired 9 2/3 shutout innings since moving to short relief, yielding just five hits and five walks while punching out a mammoth 20 of the 38 hitters he’s faced in his new role. He’ll give the Rays a fresh arm for now but also has the potential to develop into a long-term relief weapon for manager Kevin Cash.
Giants Extend Matt Chapman
The Giants made a major splash overnight, announcing that they’ve extended the contract of third baseman Matt Chapman. The deal guarantees Chapman $151MM over six years and runs from 2025 to 2030, with a $25MM annual salary and a $1MM signing bonus paid out in 2025. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Chapman’s deal contains a no-trade clause.
Chapman, 31, signed with the Giants on a three-year deal worth $54MM with opt outs after each season over the offseason when his market didn’t develop to expected levels last winter. In the months since then, it’s become apparent that the first of those opt-out opportunities would be exercised as the infielder has largely quelled his doubters with his best season in half a decade. His first season in a Giants uniform has seen him post a strong .247/.343/.445 slash line, good for a 118 wRC+, in 136 games. In addition to a strong season at the plate, he’s also put together his most impressive defensive season in years with +7 OAA and +13 DRS, his best showing in either metric since 2021.
With Chapman poised to return to free agency in search of a bigger contract elsewhere, the Giants have now made sure that he’ll remain with the club for the foreseeable future. The third baseman’s deal figures to keep him in San Francisco through the end of his age-37 season, and matches the six-year, $150MM prediction we at MLBTR made regarding Chapman’s contract ahead of the 2023-24 offseason almost exactly. The contract is representative of the potential upside that players who take opt-out laden deals can find if their initial foray into free agency doesn’t go according to plan; Chapman now figures to ultimately walk away from his time with the Giants having pocketed $169MM over seven years, though of course this outcome required not only a healthy season from the 31-year-old but his best season overall since 2019.
By staying in San Francisco long-term, Chapman ensures that he will spend the majority of his playing career in the Bay Area. The longtime Athletic was selected 25th overall by Oakland in the 2014 draft and made his debut with the club back in 2017. He’d ultimately spend the first five seasons of his career in an A’s uniform, earning three Gold Glove awards, finishing in the top 10 of AL MVP voting twice, and making his first and so far only career All-Star game during that time. When the A’s began a total rebuild following the 2021 season, however, he was shipped to Toronto just before the 2022 campaign began and spend two years in Toronto. Now that Chapman is on a long-term deal with the Bay Area’s other MLB team, one of the stars of the Athletics’ final playoff team in Oakland will outlast the team itself in the community as the club stands poised to relocate following the 2024 campaign.
As for the Giants, the deal represents the second largest financial outlay in the club’s history and is dwarfed only by Buster Posey‘s $166.5MM guarantee in his early-career extension with the team. By keeping Chapman in the fold, San Francisco locks up a potential cornerstone after failing in multiple well-documented pursuits of star players in recent years, ranging from Bryce Harper and Giancarlo Stanton to more recent pursuits of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. While Chapman doesn’t have the star power of any of those players, he’s a reliable defender and source of power at third base who offers a solid floor of 3 WAR on an annual basis, with upside much higher than that when he’s at his best.
Of course, it’s worth noting that Chapman’s reliability could decline on both sides of the ball as he enters his mid 30’s, a particularly notable caveat given the fact that he’ll play next season at 32 years old. At the same time, the deal makes Chapman the latest long-term piece put into place by a Giants club that has seemed somewhat listless in recent years as they search for an identity and struggle to contend in the era following the departures of Posey, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford. Alongside Chapman, the club has Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison locked into the rotation, Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos in the outfield, and Patrick Bailey behind the plate through at least the end of the 2028 campaign. That’s a core of talent that could compete for a playoff spot in the coming years if properly supplemented, which is a clear step in the right direction for a franchise that appears to be trending towards its third consecutive sub-.500 finish this year.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mariners Sign Jesse Hahn To Minor League Contract
The Mariners inked Jesse Hahn to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma. Rainiers’ broadcaster Mike Curto tweeted the transaction.
Hahn, 35, is working to get back to the majors for the first time in three years. He was out of affiliated ball between 2022-23 after suffering a shoulder injury. Hahn returned to Triple-A on a minor league deal with the Dodgers. He tossed 41 2/3 innings of 4.54 ERA ball before being released last week. Hahn fanned a solid 24.2% of opponents while racking up grounders at a massive 58% clip, but his results were undercut by very poor control. The righty walked upwards of 18% of batters faced.
The extended layoff presumably hasn’t done Hahn any favors from a strike-throwing perspective. Yet he also battled his command during scattered MLB looks with the Royals between 2019-21. He issued 18 walks across 25 1/3 innings with Kansas City, turning in a 4.62 ERA in the process. Hahn has also pitched for the Padres and A’s and carries a 4.22 ERA over parts of seven major league seasons.
Rangers Place Corey Seager On Injured List
6:31pm: Texas officially announced Seager’s IL placement and brought Fabian up. Jon Gray moved from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list in a procedural move to clear the necessary 40-man roster spot for Fabian. A foot injury ended Gray’s season yesterday.
3:40pm: The Rangers are placing shortstop Corey Seager on the 10-day injured list due to hip discomfort. Manager Chris Young informed members of the club’s beat today, including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News (X links). Young said it’s too early to tell if Seager is done for the year or if he will require surgery. Outfielder Sandro Fabian will be selected to take Seager’s place on the roster and the club will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for Fabian.
There’s not much information about Seager’s injury or how severe it is, but it makes sense for the club to be cautious at this point. At 66-73, the Rangers are 8.5 games back of a playoff spot, making them effectively done for the year. That gives the club little incentive to push Seager through any injury, even if it’s minor. Perhaps he can get into a few more contests before the season is out but it’s also possible that the club just decides to shut him down at some point.
The Rangers will need to cover the shortstop position until Seager returns or possibly for the remainder of the schedule. Josh Smith, Jonathan Ornelas and Ezequiel Durán have each received starts there in the past week as the club has already been backing off Seager’s playing time.
All three of those guys can play the outfield as well, so the club will add to their options on the grass by adding Fabian. The 26-year-old gets added to a major league roster for the first time. He was once a notable prospect in the Giants’ system, as that club gave him a $500K bonus when signing him out of the Dominican Republic in 2014.
He posted some good results at the lower levels of the minors and Baseball America ranked him #8 in the Giants’ system going into 2017. However, he struggled in subsequent seasons and fell off the prospect radar. By the end of 2021, he had topped out at Double-A and qualified for minor league free agency.
He has signed minor league deals with the Rangers in three straight years now and has generally been performing around league average at the Triple-A level. That includes 116 games for Round Rock this year with 17 home runs and a .270/.343/.462 batting line. In the strong offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, that line translates to a 99 wRC+. He can play all three outfield spots and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Cubs To Place Justin Steele On Injured List
5:30pm: Right-hander Jack Neely will be recalled as the corresponding move for Steele, per Montemurro on X.
4:35pm: The Cubs announced to reporters that left-hander Justin Steele will be placed on the 15-day injured list. His issue is left elbow flexor tendinitis, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times on X. The corresponding move has not been revealed yet.
Steele was supposed to start Monday’s game but was scratched due to some elbow soreness. The Cubs took a couple of days to evaluate things and have now seemingly decided that Steele will need some down time.
Manager Craig Counsell tells Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune (X link) that it’s possible Steele could be back after a minimum stint, depending on how things develop in the next ten days. “If we can get him back to normal he’s gonna pitch,” Counsell says. Presumably, Steele’s IL placement will be backdated by three days, the maximum allowed. That means he could technically be back in 12 days if everything goes well.
Whether that’s a realistic expectation or not will be revealed in time. Either way, it’s a blow for the Cubs in the short term. The club is still clinging to contention here in September, currently sitting 4.5 games back of a playoff spot. The lefty has 477 1/3 innings under his belt at this point with a 3.24 earned run average. That includes 128 innings this year with a 3.09 ERA, 24.9% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 48.4% ground ball rate.
Losing that kind of performer will hurt a club with little room for error. Jordan Wicks was just reinstated from the injured list a few days ago, so the club can still have a five-man rotation without Steele, with Wicks slotting in next to Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga, Javier Assad and Kyle Hendricks. It’s been a rough year for Hendricks, who currently sports a 6.60 ERA overall and was been bumped to the bullpen earlier in the season. Perhaps the return of Wicks would have sent him to a relief role again but that might not be possible now that Steele has been subtracted from the equation.
Athletics Claim CJ Alexander
The Athletics announced that they have claimed infielder CJ Alexander off waivers from the Royals and assigned him to Triple-A Las Vegas. Alexander was listed as released on the MLB.com transactions logs but it appears he was still on waivers. Outfielder Esteury Ruiz has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot.
Alexander, 28, was drafted by Atlanta back in 2018 but was one of three players who came to the Royals in the July 2022 trade that sent a Competitive Balance draft pick the other way. The Royals selected him to their roster this summer and he has a small sample of major league experience. He has been sent to the plate eight times with three strikeouts and one hit, a single.
The A’s are surely more interested in his larger sample of work in the minors. That includes 350 Triple-A plate appearances this year with 16 home runs and a line of .303/.352/.554. That production leads to a 130 wRC+, indicating that Alexander was 30% above league average even in the heightened offensive environment in the International League this year.
That production is likely propped up a bit by a .355 batting average on balls in play that will be hard for him to maintain. But even with a bit of regression, his bat could perhaps still be an asset and he also provides some defensive versatility as he is capable of playing all four corner positions. He will still have two option years remaining after 2024, so the A’s don’t need to add him to the active roster any time soon. He also has just a few days of major league service time, meaning he has plenty of cheap club control remaining.
The club effectively had a free roster spot due to the status of Ruiz. He landed on the 10-day IL back in May due to a strained left wrist, so he’s already been out well beyond 60 days already. He is eligible to be reinstated at any point, but that won’t be happening. He began a rehab assignment in July but was shut down due to continued soreness in the wrist. Manager Mark Kotsay said last week that Ruiz won’t be able to return this year, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com on X.
Ruiz will stay on the 60-day injured list for the remainder of the season, collecting major league pay and service time. There’s no IL from five days after the World Series until the start of Spring Training, so Ruiz will need to retake a roster spot in the offseason.
Royals Outright Austin Nola, Release CJ Alexander
September 4: Nola has been outrighted to Triple-A Omaha and Alexander released, per the transactions tracker of each player at MLB.com.
August 31: The Royals announced that catcher Austin Nola and infielder CJ Alexander have been designated for assignment. The moves open up roster space for Tommy Pham and Robbie Grossman, who are now officially part of the K.C. roster after being respectively claimed off waivers from the Cardinals and Rangers.
Nola signed a split contract with the Royals during Spring Training, but the veteran of five MLB seasons has yet to officially bank any big league playing time during the 2024 campaign. The Royals briefly called Nola up in June but he was sent back to Omaha without appearing in any games, and Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin have stayed healthy and handled every single inning behind the plate for Kansas City this season. Injuries also cost Nola all of April, and he hasn’t provided much offense with only a .156/.248/.296 slash line over 163 plate appearances in Omaha.
This made Nola expendable, and now Brian O’Keefe and Rodolfo Duran are the remaining catching depth options at Triple-A. The Royals might conceivably try to shore up the catching ranks with another veteran, or Nola might simply remain with the team if he clears waivers. Nola has been outrighted before, so he can opt for free agency if he clears waivers and Kansas City tries to outright him off the 40-man roster.
Alexander has neither a past outright assignment on his ledger, nor the minimum five years of MLB service time to reject an outright, so he might just be optioned back to Omaha if no other teams make a claim. Alexander just made his Major League debut this season, appearing in four games for the Royals and knocking one single in eight trips to the plate during his brief stint in the Show.
A 20th-round pick for the Braves in the 2018 draft, Alexander was acquired by the Royals as part of the Drew Waters trade in July 2022. His minor league numbers generally consisted of solid power but low averages and OBPs prior to 2024, when he has put it all together to hit .303/.352/.554 with 16 homers over 350 Triple-A plate appearances. In the field, Alexander has played mostly third base during his minor league career, with some time at first base and in both corner outfield slots.
Since Alexander just turned 28, he isn’t exactly an up-and-coming type of prospect, but could be another waiver claim candidate if a team is looking for some infield depth. He also has two minor league option years remaining, making him a flexible roster piece going forward.
Reds Outright Dominic Smith
September 4: Smith has been outrighted to Triple-A Louisville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has the right to elect free agency though it’s not yet clear if he has chosen to do so.
September 2: The Reds announced that they have recalled outfielder Blake Dunn from Triple-A Louisville. In a corresponding move, first baseman Dominic Smith has been designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Smith, 29, was with the Reds for just over a week. He signed with them on August 22 and has since taken 29 plate appearances over nine games, hitting just .192/.276/.269 in that time. That’s obviously not great production but it’s also not a meaningful sample size to draw conclusions from.
The fact that Smith is now being bumped from the roster might say more about the team than about him. The Reds were 5.5 games back of a playoff spot when Smith was signed but they have since fallen to 9.5 games back. With their playoff hopes now essentially dashed, there’s little use for an impending free agent like Smith, especially one with no real defensive versatility. They can instead use their remaining games to give playing time to players trying to earn roles on next year’s club, such as Dunn.
Smith has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so he will likely be a free agent in the coming days, either by a release or by him exercising his right to opt for the open market. Prior to his disappointing stint in Cincinnati, he had a better run in Boston. In 84 games for the Red Sox, he hit .237/.317/.390 for a wRC+ of 96, indicating he was 4% below league average.
He could perhaps try to latch on somewhere else for the remainder of the season, though he won’t be postseason eligible with a new club as it’s now after the September 1 cut-off date. Clubs out of contention like the Reds would probably prefer to give playing time to controllable players. Smith had a strong run in 2019-20, hitting .299/.366/.571 over those two seasons, but it’s been a rough ride side since then. In over 1,500 trips to the plate from 2021 to the present, he’s hit .241/.311/.360 for a wRC+ of 86.
Reds Outright David Buchanan
The Reds have sent right-hander David Buchanan outright to Triple-A Louisville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Buchanan, 35, was seemingly an emergency option for the Reds. Their rotation had been without Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson for much of the season due to injury. In August, each of Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott and Christian Roa went on the injured list.
They sent cash to the Phillies to get Buchanan at the end of last month. He was eligible to be traded after the deadline since, at the time, he hadn’t been on a 40-man roster in 2024. He had signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in the offseason and had a 4.82 earned run average in 102 2/3 Triple-A innings before the deal.
Shortly after acquiring him, the Reds added him to their roster in order to provide a multi-inning option to their staff. The club deployed a bullpen game on August 31, with Buchanan tossing 3 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks while striking out one Brewer. Williamson was reinstated from the 60-day injured list the next day, with Buchanan designated for assignment to open up spots on both the active and 40-man rosters.
That one outing was Buchanan’s first in the majors since 2015, when he was with the Phillies. He was pitching in Japan from 2017 to 2019 and then in Korea from 2020 through 2023, before returning to North America this year. He now has a 4.97 ERA in 195 2/3 MLB innings, with almost a decade in between his time with the Phillies and his time with the Reds.
This is his first career outright and he has less than three years of major league service time. Though the Reds got Williamson back, the pitching staff is still fairly snakebitten. Buchanan can provide them with some non-roster depth for the next few weeks and could perhaps be summoned back to the majors if they need reinforcements again.
Phillies Designate Michael Rucker For Assignment
The Phillies announced Wednesday that right-hander Michael Rucker has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to fellow righty Nick Nelson, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Philadelphia also optioned righty Tyler Phillips to Lehigh Valley to open a spot on the active roster for Nelson.
Rucker, 30, was acquired in a cash deal with the Cubs back in February after he’d been designated for assignment in Chicago. He never got into a game with the Phillies in the majors, instead spending most of the season on the 60-day injured list owing to an arterial vasospasm in his right hand. The Phils reinstated and optioned him prior to the trade deadline. He’s pitched 26 minor league innings this season and been tagged for a 6.58 ERA, with the bulk of the damage coming in Triple-A.
Grim as Rucker’s run-prevention has been, his 26.7% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are both fine marks (particularly the former). He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a strong 45.2% clip. Rucker, however, has been plagued by an astronomical .479 average on balls in play during his time with the IronPigs.
As recently as 2022, Rucker was a solid member of the Cubs’ bullpen. He pitched a career-high 54 2/3 innings and logged a 3.95 ERA with a 21.8% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate in that time. His followup effort in 2023 resulted in a more troubling 4.91 ERA in 40 2/3 frames, but his strikeout and walk numbers remained generally serviceable and his grounder rate spiked to a strong 51.4%. Overall, Rucker carries a 4.96 ERA in 123 1/3 innings as a major leaguer.
Rucker will now head to waivers, where another club could have interest in his solid Triple-A track record. If not, he’ll be outrighted off the 40-man roster and stick with the Phillies as a depth piece. Rucker lacks the three years of service or prior outright assignment to elect free agency.
The 26-year-old Phillips has had one of the strangest debut campaigns in recent memory. The unheralded righty dominated through his first four big league outings, culminating a shutout of the AL Central-leading Guardians on July 27. He didn’t last two innings in his next start, yielding eight runs to a light-hitting Mariners offense, and has yet to recover. His struggles reached a tipping point when he allowed six runs in the first inning versus the Blue Jays in yesterday’s start. Overalll, since his shutout, Phillips has yielded 23 runs in just 11 2/3 innings. His ERA has skyrocketed from 1.80 to 6.87.
Taking Phillips’ spot on the roster will be Nelson, who’s spent the past three seasons with the Phils. He only pitched in 3 1/3 innings this season and has struggled to produce in Triple-A, where he’s logged a 6.30 ERA on the season. It could be a quick stay on the 40-man roster in Nelson’s return, but he’s stretched out for multiple innings and could give the Phillies four or even five innings of work on the heels of yesterday’s marathon game for the bullpen, if needed. Nelson tossed four innings in a Triple-A appearance as recently as Aug. 24. And, while he’s struggled on the season overall, Nelson has been throwing better of late; he’s yielded only one run in his past 9 1/3 innings pitched in Triple-A.