Andrew Knapp Granted Release From Rangers
The Rangers released Andrew Knapp from his minor league deal. Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today tweets that the veteran catcher triggered an opt-out clause in the contract.
Knapp, 32, had spent the entire season with Triple-A Round Rock. The switch-hitting backstop turned in a .292/.374/.444 slash line with a robust 11.8% walk rate against a 24.4% strikeout percentage. He connected on six homers, 13 doubles and one triple across 254 plate appearances. While Knapp no doubt benefitted from the hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League, it’s a solid showing for a depth catcher.
The Rangers have three catchers on their 40-man roster: Jonah Heim, Andrew Knizner and Sam Huff. Heim has underperformed this season but isn’t in any danger of losing his starting job after an excellent ’23 campaign. Texas will stick with Knziner, who signed for $1.825MM over the winter, as the backup. The former Cardinal has limped to a .147/.169/.206 slash over 30 games, but the Rangers evidently still prefer him to Knapp. Huff has spent almost all of the season on optional assignment to Triple-A, where he’s striking out at a 31.7% rate.
A former second-round pick of the Phillies, Knapp spent the 2017-21 seasons in Philadelphia. He bounced between a trio of teams in 2022 and hasn’t gotten to the majors over the last year and a half. The Cal product is a career .209/.310/.313 hitter across 325 big league games. He has appeared in parts of six seasons at the Triple-A level, turning in a .257/.337/.410 slash. Public defensive metrics have never been especially high on his receiving skills, but Knapp’s decent offensive track record in Triple-A should at least get him another minor league opportunity.
Cubs Sign Jake Hager To Minor League Deal
The Cubs signed infielder Jake Hager to a minor league contract over the weekend. Hager appeared in one game for their complex affiliate in Arizona. According to the transaction log at MLB.com, he’s now headed to Triple-A Iowa.
A right-handed hitter, Hager has 42 games of major league experience between the Mets and Diamondbacks. He hit .197/.307/.224 with 31 strikeouts in 89 plate appearances in limited action between 2021-22. Hager spent most of last season in Triple-A with Arizona. He had a down year, running a .245/.301/.415 slash in the Pacific Coast League, and was released in August.
Hager was the 32nd overall pick of the 2011 draft coming out of high school. He has appeared in parts of seven seasons at Triple-A across five organizations (not including Chicago). In just over 500 games there, he owns a .242/.301/.389 line. Hager has spent most of his time in the minors at shortstop, though he also has ample experience at both second and third base (with scattered appearances in the outfield).
Chicago lost some minor league infield depth when Nick Madrigal broke his hand a few weeks ago. They’re light on experienced Triple-A infielders, making Hager a straightforward fit as a depth option.
Matt Bowman Opts Out Of Deal With Mariners
Reliever Matt Bowman exercised an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mariners, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). Seattle granted him his release rather than call him to the MLB bullpen.
That sends Bowman back to free agency, a fairly common occurrence over the past few weeks. He decided to test the open market after successive designations by the Diamondbacks and Mariners. Bowman inked minor league deals with Seattle both times. He was called to the majors once during his first stint but didn’t get a call since signing his most recent contract a couple weeks ago. The 33-year-old sinkerballer has pitched six times with Triple-A Tacoma over the last two weeks, surrendering four runs through eight innings.
Bowman had fired six innings without allowing an earned run for the Twins’ top affiliate in April. He has surrendered five runs (four earned) with 18 strikeouts and three walks across 16 Triple-A frames on the season. He hasn’t matched that at the major league level, where he has given up nine runs with a 10:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 15 frames.
It has been a few years since Bowman held down a long-term stop in a major league bullpen. He’s putting together a second straight solid Triple-A campaign after turning in a 3.99 ERA with a 51.9% ground-ball rate in 49 appearances for the Yankees’ top affiliate a year ago. Bowman should quickly land another minor league contract now that he’s again on the free agent market.
Tony Kemp Opts Out Of Minor League Deal With Twins
Veteran infielder/outfielder Tony Kemp had a July 1 opt-out date in his minor league deal and exercised it. He has been released and is now a free agent. The news was reported on X by Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North.
Kemp, 32, spent the previous four seasons with the Athletics but has been a nomad this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds in February but didn’t make that club’s Opening Day roster, allowing him to opt out and land on the major league roster of the Orioles. But he struggles in just five games with the O’s before being cut loose, which led to his minor league deal with the Twins.
In 46 games with Triple-A St. Paul, Kemp has stepped to the plate 187 times and has been in decent form. He has drawn walks 9.6% of the time while limiting strikeouts to a 12.8% clip. He currently sports a line of .279/.358/.436, which translates to a wRC+ of 106. He’s been especially locked in lately, having hit .346/.388/.539 in 20 games in the month of June. He had another opt-out a month ago but skipped that one before going on his recent hot streak.
Kemp has mostly played second base and left field in his career, but there’s not a ton of room for the Twins to fit him in. Willi Castro has been getting most of the playing time at the keystone and is having a great year. Trevor Larnach is playing well in left while Austin Martin has solid numbers backing up both spots. They also have Kyle Farmer around as a glove-first infielder the bench while Edouard Julien and Yunior Severino are infielders on optional assignment with Matt Wallner alongside them for corner outfield depth. Shortstop prospect Brooks Lee is also crushing the ball in Triple-A but may end up moved to second or third base in deference to Carlos Correa. Meanwhile, Royce Lewis and Jose Miranda have been sharing third base and the designated hitter slot lately, both hitting well.
With that crowded position player mix, Kemp couldn’t get a roster spot but will try elsewhere. He’ll be able to pitch himself to the 30 clubs with his strong run of play this year as well as his track record. He slashed .252/.341/.361 with the A’s from 2020 to 2022, production that translates to a 105 wRC+. He also stole 22 bases while moving between the infield and outfield as needed. Unfortunately, his line dipped to .209/.303/.304 in 2023, which has left him scrambling to find a regular gig this year.
He’ll head out to the open market to see what kind of opportunities await him. Even if he can’t immediately secure a major league gig, he could perhaps find minor league offers from clubs with better paths to playing time than he had with the Twins. Furthermore, roster shakeup around the league is inevitable in the weeks to come with the trade deadline coming up on July 30.
Reds Outright Peyton Burdick
The Reds have sent outfielder Peyton Burdick outright to Triple-A Louisville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Burdick, now 27, showed some big promise early on in his professional career but has been struck out more and more as he has climbed the minor league ladder and reached the majors. As recently as this offseason, he was still generating plenty of interest around the league. The Marlins designated him for assignment in February, which led to Burdick bouncing to the Orioles, White Sox, O’s again and then the Reds via waiver claims or cash trades.
Despite that interest, Burdick’s season has been a big disappointment thus far. In 240 Triple-A plate appearances across two different systems, he walked at a solid 12.9% clip but was also punched out a blink-inducing 42.5% of the time. He currently sports a batting line of .188/.308/.386 for the year and no club was willing to give him a 40-man roster spot despite the fact that he’s still optionable.
Players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright can reject another such assignment and elect free agency, but Burdick doesn’t qualify in either column. He’ll stick with the Reds in a non-roster capacity and try to get things back on track. Over the 2019 and 2021 minor league seasons, Burdick slashed .257/.382/.490 for a wRC+ of 147. His 27.1% strikeout rate was high but he walked 14.1% of the time and hit 34 home runs in his 804 plate appearances. If he can dredge up a performance like that in the future, he could earn his roster spot back with the Reds.
Giants Outright Trenton Brooks, Raymond Burgos
The Giants passed first baseman Trenton Brooks and lefty Raymond Burgos through waivers unclaimed, Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Both were designated for assignment over the weekend, and both have now been assigned outright to Triple-A Sacramento.
Brooks, acquired last August in the trade sending Sean Newcomb across the bay to Oakland, made his MLB debut as a 28-year-old rookie this season. He went 3-for-25 (all singles), punched out six times and drew four walks.
That debut hardly turned many heads, but Brooks has clobbered Triple-A pitching this season and walked more often than he’s struck out in the process. Through 177 plate appearances, he’s hitting .308/.426/.462 with a 17.5% walk rate against a 15.3% strikeout rate. He’s homered four times and swiped six bases. This is Brooks’ fourth season of action at the Triple-A level, and he’s a career .277/.377/.471 hitter in 1365 trips to the plate there. That solid track record wasn’t enough to convince another club to claim him, so he’ll remain with the River Cats and give the Giants a depth option in the event that they need a left-handed bat or some help at first base and/or in the outfield corners.
Burgos, 25, also made his big league debut with the Giants recently. It lasted just one inning, and Burgos yielded a run on three hits and a walk with one punchout in that brief debut showing. The former Cleveland farmhand signed a minor league deal with San Francisco two offseasons ago and did so again earlier this year after very briefly pitching in Mexico. While he had lackluster results in Triple-A last year, Burgos has been excellent in Sacramento this time around. In 22 innings, Burgos boasts a 1.64 earned run average with a 27.4% strikeout rate against a comically low 2.4% walk rate.
As with Brooks, Burgos will remain in the organization as a depth option in Sacramento. Taylor Rogers and Erik Miller are the only healthy left-handers on the Giants’ 40-man roster at the moment, so Burgos could quickly find himself back in the mix for a big league role if anything happens to either southpaw.
Rays Release Chris Devenski
The Rays have released right-hander Chris Devenski after designating him for assignment last week, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s now a free agent.
Any team can now sign Devenski to a big league or minor league deal. A new club would only be responsible for the prorated league minimum for any time he spends on the big league roster/injured list. That number would be subtracted from what the Rays owe, but Tampa Bay is on the hook for the bulk of the remainder of his $1.1MM salary.
Devenski, 33, joined the Rays late in the 2023 season after being cut loose by the Angels and tossed 8 2/3 sharp innings down the stretch, holding opponents to a pair of runs on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts. He added another two shutout innings (one hit allowed) during the postseason. The Rays re-signed him to a big league deal over the winter, but Devenski hasn’t replicated that small-sample success this time around.
In 2024, Devenski pitched 26 2/3 innings in 19 appearances out of the bullpen, yielding a gloomy 6.75 ERA with a below-average 19.7% strikeout rate against a weighty 11.5% walk rate. He’s also been immensely homer-prone, surrendering nine long balls in his brief stint — an average of 3.04 homers per nine innings pitched.
Early in his career, Devenski was a powerhouse reliever for the Astros, pitching to a 2.38 ERA in 189 innings of relief from 2016-17 and striking out 28.2% of opponents versus a 6.4% walk rate. His results have taken a notable step back since that time, in part due to injuries. Most notably, Devenski underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, limiting him to 7 1/3 innings that season and just 33 2/3 innings the following season.
Devenski’s bread and butter has long been a plus changeup that helps him neutralize left-handed opponents. It’s given him reverse splits throughout his career, and that’s carried into the 2024 season. He’s held lefties to a .211/.262/.439 slash in 61 plate appearances this season. In an identical number of plate appearances, however, righties have torched him with a .314/.426/.745 batting line.
Nationals Promote James Wood, Designate Eddie Rosario For Assignment
The Nationals have made top prospect James Wood‘s previously reported promotion to the major leagues official, formally announcing the selection of his contract from Triple-A Rochester. In a corresponding move, veteran outfielder Eddie Rosario has been designated for assignment.
Wood’s promotion to the majors was reported last Friday, and MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald broke down the vaunted outfielder’s impending ascension to the majors at the time. The 21-year-old had laid waste to upper-minors pitching this season, delivering an outrageous .353/.463/.595 slash with 10 homers, 16 doubles and nearly as many walks (40) as strikeouts (42). Wood has drawn a free pass in a massive 17.3% of his trips to the plate and chipped in a 10-for-11 showing in stolen base attempts as well.
A second-round pick of the Padres back in 2021, Wood has elevated his status to the point that he’s widely regarded as the top yet-to-debut prospect in the sport. Baseball America and MLB.com both rank him as the game’s No. 3 prospect, but the players ahead of him between those two lists (Paul Skenes, Jackson Holliday, Junior Caminero) have all reached the majors at least briefly. Based on the timing of his promotion, Wood will now be under team control through at least the 2030 season and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2027-28 offseason.
Wood now joins top Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore and shortstop CJ Abrams as potential core pieces acquired by the Nationals in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego two summers ago. The Nats still have minor league outfielder Robert Hassell III and minor league lefty Jarlin Susana working their way through the system as well. Neither is viewed as having the type of ceiling Wood, Abrams and Gore have already shown, but Hassell is still just 22 and reached Double-A this year, while the 20-year-old Susana is in his second season at Low-A. Both players could yet reach the big leagues in the next few years.
Turning to the 32-year-old Rosario, he’s long been seen as a potential casualty of Wood’s big league promotion. The former Twins, Braves and Guardians outfielder signed a minor league deal with a $2MM base salary during spring training and made the team’s Opening Day roster despite a poor showing in nine spring contests. Rosario had an awful first month of the season (.088/.137/.162 through the end of April), followed by a blistering May (.253/.319/.530) before falling into another major swoon (.191/.200/.250 in June).
Overall, Rosario’s time with the Nats will draw to a close with a .183/.226/.329 batting line. That’s 46% worse than league-average production, by measure of wRC+ (54). Rosario’s 5.5% walk rate was his lowest since 2019, while his 23% strikeout rate is roughly in line with the 2022-23 rates he showed in Atlanta (but a far cry from the 16.1% mark he turned in from 2017-21).
The Braves acquired Rosario in a 2021 salary-dump deal with Cleveland and immediately saw him go on a magical run down the stretch, slashing .271/.330/.573 with seven homers in 106 plate appearances. He went on to deliver a legendary 14-for-25 performance with three home runs during the National League Championship Series, taking home NLCS MVP honors in the process, before slumping in the World Series.
Rosario’s late surge with Atlanta prompted the team to re-sign him on a two-year, $18MM contract that proved regrettable. He hit .212/.259/.328 in his first season of that contract, and while Rosario bounced back with 21 homers in 2023, his overall batting line was effectively league average (100 wRC+) while his defense continued to receive lackluster grades. Rosario was a productive everyday outfielder with the Twins from 2017-20 but in four seasons since that time he’s turned in a .236/.283/.403 batting line with poor defense and mounting strikeout rates.
The Nats will have five days to trade Rosario, release him or place him on outright waivers, though a veteran with Rosario’s service time would surely just reject an outright assignment to Triple-A anyhow. It’s unlikely that any team would claim even the modest remainder on Rosario’s contract. The likeliest outcome is a release, at which point Rosario will be free to sign with any team. A new club could owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Nats still owe him, but Washington will be on the hook for the majority of his contract at this point.
Diamondbacks To Designate Tucker Barnhart For Assignment
The Diamondbacks are designating catcher Tucker Barnhart for assignment, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Piecoro indicates that the move will clear space on the club’s roster for Gabriel Moreno to be activated from the injured list prior to the club’s next game against the Dodgers on Tuesday.
Barnhart, 33, made Arizona’s Opening Day roster as the primary backup to Moreno over Jose Herrera. The veteran has struggled mightily this year, however, slashing just .165/.283/.190 in 94 trips to the plate with the Snakes this season. That line includes a surprisingly strong 13.8% walk rate, but those decent on-base skills are outweighed by his massive 33% strikeout rate and complete lack of power (as evidenced by an ISO of just .025). When Moreno went on the IL with a sprained thumb, Herrera was called up to the big leagues to join Barnhart in the catching tandem, and evidently the club has decided that they’d prefer to leave the 27-year-old in the backup role once Moreno returns from the injured list on Tuesday.
The veteran backstop has struggled to be productive at the plate throughout the majority of his career, as evidenced by a career 78 wRC+ and a 68 wRC+ over the past five seasons. Barnhart has generally made up for that lack of offensive production with a strong glove behind the plate, even winning two Gold Glove awards during his tenure with the Reds. That aspect of his game has dried up in recent years, however. After regressing defensively during his time with the Cubs last year, Barnhart was below average by all three of Statcast’s defensive metrics for catchers: Blocks Above Average, CS Above Average, and Framing. Given that reality, it’s easy to see why Arizona would turn to Herrera, who is similarly limited on offense but appears to be a superior defender as compared to Barnhart at this stage of his career.
Taking Barnhart’s place on the roster will be Moreno, who last suited up for the Dbacks on June 21 and has been nursing a thumb sprain since then. The 24-year-old youngster is in his second season with Arizona after coming over alongside Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the Daulton Varsho trade during the 2022-23 offseason. Moreno has performed solidly behind the plate in 172 games with the Diamondbacks, slashing .265/.330/.385 with a roughly league average 97 wRC+ and strong grades for his defense at catcher.
Once Barnhart’s DFA becomes official, the Diamondbacks will have seven days to either work out a trade involving the veteran or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, Arizona could attempt to outright him to the minor leagues as a non-roster depth option, but the 11-year MLB veteran has more than enough service time to reject such an assignment and test free agency.
Brewers To Activate Garrett Mitchell On Monday
The Brewers are set to welcome outfielder Garrett Mitchell back from the injured list tomorrow, as manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy) this afternoon. The Brewers are optioning infielder Tyler Black to the minor leagues to make room for Mitchell on the active roster, although they’ll still need to clear a 40-man roster spot to accommodate his activation from the 60-day IL prior to tomorrow’s game against the Rockies in Colorado.
Mitchell, 25, has been sidelined for the entire 2024 campaign to this point, suffered a fractured finger on his left hand just before Opening Day back in March and has been sidelined ever since. The youngster was Milwaukee’s 1st-round selection in the 2020 draft and made his big league debut back in 2022 with a late-season call-up where he slashed an excellent .311/.373/.459 with a wRC+ of 136 in 28 games. He figured to enter the 2023 season with a strong grip on a starting role in Milwaukee but was sidelined for the majority of the season by shoulder surgery, which limited him to just 73 trips to the plate last year.
Frustrating as those setbacks have been for both the Brewers and Mitchell, the youngster finally appears poised to begin impact the club’s lineup on a more regular basis. The former top-100 prospect has performed excellently in 11 games at the Triple-A level while rehabbing this year, slashing an exceptional .310/.408/.643 in that time. While he can hardly be expected to carry that sort of slash line over to the majors, he could nonetheless provide a shot in the arm for a Brewers club that has slumped offensively in June. As a group, Milwaukee hitters have slashed just .245/.322/.347 with a 92 wRC+ over the last 30 days, just 22nd in the majors and fourth from the bottom in the National League. Thoe struggles have primarily been due to the absence of power from the lineup, as the club’s collective ISO of just .102 is dead last in the big leagues this month, lagging nearly 15 points behind the 29th-place Marlins.
It seems likely that Mitchell will get at least semi-regular at-bats upon his return to the lineup, although adding him to the club’s deep outfield mix will surely require some creativity on the part of Murphy. Franchise face Christian Yelich is sure to continue getting everyday playing time in left field and at DH, and it’s hard to imagine the Brewers cutting into top prospect Jackson Chourio‘s playing time now that he’s finally hitting his stride in the majors with a .318/.361/.546 slash line in the month of June. With both outfield corners accounted for, Mitchell’s return likely comes at the expense of some combination of Blake Perkins, Sal Frelick, and Jake Bauers.
Perkins and Frelick have been splitting time in center field this year, though both players have been a touch below average at the plate this year with Perkins struggling particularly badly against southpaws. When not taking Perkins’ place in center field, Frelick has played an outfield corner while Yelich moves to DH, kicking slugger Rhys Hoskins back to his native position of first base and Bauers, who has posted a decent 106 wRC+ in a platoon role, to the bench. The return of Mitchell as another lefty bat in the lineup could lead Frelick to spend occasional time on the infield after working to make himself playable on the dirt this spring while potentially also ticketing Yelich for more frequent DH appearances.
Heading out to Triple-A in order to make room for Mitchell is Black, who was a consensus top-100 prospect entering this season. The corner infielder has appeared in just 11 games for the Brewers this year but didn’t do much with the limited opportunity, slashing just .242/.324/.303 in 37 trips to the plate while splitting time between first base and DH. The 23-year-old figures to return to the minors, where he’s slashed an excellent .275/.375/.483 at the highest level in 53 games this year, to wait for his next opportunity in the majors.