Orioles Select Cade Povich
June 6: Baltimore has now formally selected Povich’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk, per a team announcement. Left-hander Nick Vespi was optioned to Norfolk in a corresponding 26-man roster move. The Orioles’ 40-man roster is now at capacity.
June 5: The Orioles are calling up pitching prospect Cade Povich to start tomorrow’s series finale with the Blue Jays, manager Brandon Hyde told the team’s beat (X link via Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner). Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reported this morning (on X) that Povich was meeting the team in Toronto, initially as a member of the taxi squad.
It’s the first call for the 6’3″ left-hander. Povich, a University of Nebraska product, was a third-round pick of the Twins in 2021. He was in High-A in the Minnesota organization when the O’s acquired him at the ’22 deadline. Baltimore sent closer Jorge López, then in the midst of an All-Star season, to the Twin Cities for Yennier Cano, Povich, and two other minor league pitchers.
The move was an unpopular one among the clubhouse and with a large portion of the fanbase considering the O’s were on the fringe of playoff contention. Yet it has become an unquestioned win for Baltimore, as Cano almost immediately blossomed into one of the best relievers in the game. Povich, now 24, is one of the more talented pitchers in their system.
Povich split last season between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk, logging 126 2/3 innings across 28 starts. A cumulative 5.04 earned run average isn’t particularly impressive, but Povich was one of the better strikeout pitchers in the minors. He fanned 171 hitters, behind only Drew Thorpe and Tobias Myers among all minor league pitchers. While that’s partially a reflection of Povich’s durability, his 31.1% strikeout rate was also well above average.
That has continued over 11 starts with Norfolk in 2024, this time leading to better run prevention. Povich has punched out 32.5% of batters faced en route to a 3.18 ERA in 56 2/3 innings. His 9.1% walk rate is a little higher than ideal for a starting pitcher, but it’s an encouraging overall showing just the same.
Povich isn’t the same caliber of prospect as Baltimore’s most touted position players (e.g. Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo). He’s generally viewed by evaluators as a potentially solid starting pitcher. Baseball America and The Athletic’s Keith Law each slotted him in the back half of the O’s top 10 prospects over the offseason.
Law praised Povich’s changeup and curveball, while BA lauds the arm-side run on his fastball. FanGraphs ranks him fifth in the system and as the sport’s #92 prospect overall, with praise for the deception in his delivery and his collection of offspeed pitches. Povich will need to continue improving his strike-throwing, but there’s broad agreement that he has the repertoire to be a big league starter.
He steps into a rotation that lost John Means and swingman Tyler Wells to elbow surgery last week. Baltimore is operating with a starting five of Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez. Righty Dean Kremer is shelved by a triceps strain but could return this month. It’s a strong top three, but the rotation depth is a relative question mark on a very good team that is off to a 39-21 start. The O’s will likely be linked to starting pitchers in trade rumors over the next two months.
Povich will look to make a good initial impression as the front office evaluates their back-end starters before the deadline. He is not on the 40-man roster, but the O’s already have an opening. They’re carrying the maximum 13 pitchers on the active roster, so they will need to send out another pitcher tomorrow.
Royals Sign Kevin Padlo To Minor League Deal
The Royals signed Kevin Padlo to a minor league contract. The deal was announced by Kansas City’s Double-A team in Northwest Arkansas, where the infielder will report in his new organization.
It’s a bit of a step down for Padlo, who had been in Triple-A after signing an offseason minor league deal with the Dodgers. Los Angeles released him last week following a middling .216/.340/.380 start to the season. The 27-year-old has had better Triple-A numbers in prior years. He went into 2024 with a career .251/.348/.461 line at the level.
Padlo has played in the majors for five different teams over parts of three seasons. His high in games played for any individual team is nine; he has appeared in 26 contests overall. He’s a .111/.158/.167 hitter in an exceedingly small sample of 57 MLB plate appearances. Padlo has shown a patient approach and decent raw power in the minors, though that’s always come with a fair number of strikeouts. He has fanned in 26.6% of his more than 1500 Triple-A plate appearances.
White Sox, Michael Chavis Agree To Minor League Deal
The White Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Michael Chavis, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN (X link). The CAA client opted out of a non-roster deal with the Mariners over the weekend.
Brian Anderson, who opted out of a contract with Seattle at the same time, found an immediate MLB opportunity with the Braves. Chavis will need to play his way back to the majors, though a rebuilding Sox team could afford him that chance. Chicago hasn’t gotten much out of Andrew Vaughn, Nicky Lopez or Lenyn Sosa throughout the infield. Chavis wouldn’t be an option to step in at shortstop if the Sox trade Paul DeJong, but he can play any of the other infield positions.
Chavis will try to build off a solid start to his year in Triple-A. Over 46 games with the M’s top affiliate in Tacoma, he hit 290/.366/.485 with seven homers. That’s slightly better than average production in the Pacific Coast League. Chavis now touts an impressive .276/.347/.528 batting line over 521 career plate appearances at the top minor league level.
As one would expect, he hasn’t managed the same caliber of performance against big league pitching. A former first-round pick of the Red Sox, Chavis has taken nearly 1200 MLB plate appearances between Boston, Pittsburgh and Washington. He’s a career .238/.283/.401 hitter. While he has hit 43 homers with roughly average power numbers, a modest 5.4% walk rate and a strikeout percentage pushing 32% have kept his on-base percentage down. He appeared in 48 games for the Nats last year as a sparsely-used depth infielder.
Astros To Select Nick Hernandez
The Astros announced they have selected right-hander Nick Hernandez to their roster, with left-hander Parker Mushinski optioned in a corresponding move. Righty José Urquidy, who is slated for season-ending surgery, was be transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Chandler Rome of The Athletic relayed the moves on X prior to the official announcement (link one and two).
Hernandez, 29, was just acquired from the Padres last night in a cash deal. He had signed a minor league deal with the Friars in January and has been pitching well this year. He tossed 23 2/3 innings for Triple-A El Paso with a 1.90 earned run average, despite the hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League. He may have benefitted from an 84.5% strand rate and 4% home run to flyball ratio, but he also struck out 34% of batters faced.
The Astros were intrigued enough to send some cash to San Diego and bring Hernandez back to his original organization. The Astros drafted Hernandez back in 2016 but he reached minor league free agency after the 2022 season, eventually pivoting to the Padres.
He’ll now have a chance to improve his small-sample major league stats. He tossed three innings for the Friars last year but allowed four earned runs, leaving him currently sitting on a career ERA of 12.00. He was outrighted off the roster before re-signing on a minor league deal coming into this year.
The Astros essentially had a free roster spot to use with Urquidy set to miss the rest of the year. The same is true of Cristian Javier, as he’s slated to undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow. He’ll eventually be transferred to the 60-day IL as well, giving Houston another roster spot to work with, which could lead to another small deal or waiver claim in the near future.
Mets Release Omar Narvaez, Jorge Lopez
The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve released veteran catcher Omar Narvaez and right-hander Jorge Lopez. Both were designated for assignment last week, and both are now free agents. New York also selected the contract of catcher Joe Hudson from Triple-A Syracuse, moving righty Shintaro Fujinami to the 60-day injured list to open a roster spot. Hudson is a candidate to serve as an extra player for the Mets’ London Series against the Phillies, where each team will be granted a 27th player.
The 32-year-old Narvaez is playing out the second season of a two-year, $15MM contract he signed in the 2022-23 offseason. He had the right to opt out of said contract following the 2023 season, but after a .211/.283/.297 showing in his first year with the club, he unsurprisingly passed on that opportunity. He’s struggled even more in 2024, hitting just .154/.191/.185 in 69 trips to the plate.
Though his run with the Mets was dismal, Narvaez was a quality regular for several years leading up to that deal. From 2018-22, he slashed .254/.337/.397 between the White Sox, Mariners and Brewers — even landing an All-Star nod with the ’21 Brewers. Milwaukee also worked with Narvaez to dramatically improve his glovework — specifically his framing skills — improving upon the below-average grades he drew during his time with Seattle and Chicago.
Any team in need of some catching help could take a flier on Narvaez and would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Mets still owe him, but they’re on the hook for the bulk of his $8MM salary regardless. The Marlins and Cubs have had the game’s worst production behind the plate this season, and while Narvaez himself has had an extremely rough go of it, his track record might be appealing to them or another club with suspect backstops.
Lopez’s time with the Mets ended in controversial fashion. The right-hander, showing ample frustration after a poor outing, angrily lobbed his glove into the stands as he walked off the field. After the game, when asked about his actions, the Puerto Rican-born righty said he did not regret his actions and offered a candid assessment. Lopez, speaking his second language without an interpreter by his side, has stressed that he intended to state that he had been “the worst —-ing teammate” in MLB (presumably due to that outburst). But it was difficult in the moment to discern whether he’d said “worst teammate” or called the Mets the “worst team,” and when asked to clarify, he suggested both (again, without an interpreter/translator at his side).
The situation was further muddied by Lopez telling the media that he hadn’t spoken to Mets management about the issue, when he in fact had discussed it with manager Carlos Mendoza. The Mets wound up designating Lopez for assignment. In the hours after the incident, it came to light that he’s also been dealing with significant personal distress. His young son is on a transplant list and awaiting a donor. Add in that Lopez has previously spent time on the injured list due to anxiety issues, and it becomes clear that there’s far more at play than simply losing his temper and some mistaken words.
As with Narvaez, any club can now sign Lopez and owe him only the prorated minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The manner in which his Mets tenure drew to a close will likely impact his market, but while not excusing his actions, it’s also easy to look at the situation from personal/human standpoint and understand why things may have unraveled for the 31-year-old righty.
Lopez pitched fairly well with the Mets, logging 26 1/3 innings of 3.76 ERA ball. A sub-par 17.1% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate both lead fielding-independent metrics to take a more bearish view of his work, however (4.65 FIP, 4.46 SIERA). Lopez had a breakout 2022 showing with the Orioles and Twins but followed that up with a sub-par 2023 campaign spent mostly in Minnesota.
After a brilliant start to the season in which he was unscored upon into May, Lopez hit a rough patch and wound up taking some time away from the Twins due to his anxiety. He expressed gratitude to the team for allowing him to focus on his mental health upon his return to the club. Unfortunately, his results following the break were still sub-par, and the Twins wound up flipping him to the Marlins in a deadline deal sending Dylan Floro back to Minnesota.
Taken in totality, the last three seasons from Lopez have yielded solid, if inconsistent results. He’s pitched 156 1/3 innings and logged a 4.03 ERA with a 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 51.2% grounder rate. Lopez’s strikeouts and ground-ball tendencies have trended downward since 2022, however, as has the velocity on his power sinker — which at at 97.8 mph in ’22 but averaged 95.4 mph with the Mets this season. Whatever comes next for the right-hander, the hope beyond the baseball field is that his son finds the donor he needs and that Lopez continues to prioritize his mental health.
Turning to the journeyman Hudson, this will be the 33-year-old’s first time on a big league roster since the 2020 season. He’s appeared in 18 big league games and taken 33 plate appearances, going 5-for-30 with a double, two walks, six strikeouts and a sacrifice in that time. The former sixth-round pick has been with nine organizations in his professional career, including brief MLB stints with the Mariners, Angels and Cardinals. In 19 games with the Syracuse Mets this season, he’s hitting .222/.364/.444 with three home runs and three doubles.
Dinelson Lamet Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Dinelson Lamet, who’d been pitching with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City, has elected free agency, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Presumably, the minor league deal he inked with the Dodgers back in February contained an early June opt-out date that he chose to exercise.
Lamet, 31, briefly had his contract selected to the big league roster earlier this season. He pitched just 4 1/3 innings before being designated for assignment, clearing waivers, and accepting an outright assignment back to OKC. The former Padres hurler allowed just one earned run in that brief MLB stint. He’s spent the rest of the season in the rotation down in Triple-A, where he’s logged a 4.82 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 12.9% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate in 37 1/3 innings. Lamet’s bottom-line results have improved of late (3.81 ERA over his past six starts), but his command remains problematic (13.6% walk rate in that stretch).
Early in his career, Lamet looked the part of a potential rising star in San Diego. He debuted in his age-24 campaign back in 2017 and notched a hefty 28.7% strikeout rate while holding his own with a 4.57 ERA over 21 starts. His 2018 season, however, was lost to Tommy John surgery.
Upon returning in 2019, Lamet lowered that ERA to 4.07 while upping his strikeout rate to 33.5% and cutting his walk rate to 9.6%. By the time the 2020 season rolled around, the 6’3″ flamethrower looked to be putting it all together. Lamet made a “full” slate of 12 starts during the pandemic-shortened season and posted a brilliant 2.09 ERA with a career-best 34.8% strikeout rate against a better-than-average 7.5% walk rate. He finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting.
Lamet opened the 2021 season on the injured list due to inflammation in his right forearm — a worrying development for a pitcher just three years removed from UCL surgery. He was activated in late April and eased into the season with a series of two- and three-inning “starts” and long relief appearances. San Diego pushed his workload more in the summer months, as Lamet made several five-inning starts before landing back on the injured list with further forearm troubles. When he returned in September, he was a full-time reliever — and that’s been his primary role since.
Lamet posted a 4.08 ERA in 315 2/3 innings over parts of five years with the Padres, striking out nearly 31% of his opponents along the way. He was struggling through what looked like a lost 2022 season when traded to the Brewers as a financial component of the ’22 Josh Hader blockbuster, however. Milwaukee immediately designated him for assignment, at which point the Rockies scooped him up on waivers. Lamet had a decent finish in Colorado, which helped him to avoid a non-tender, but he posted an 11.71 ERA in 27 2/3 innings between the Rox and Red Sox in 2023.
All told, Lamet has pitched to an 8.25 ERA in 64 1/3 big league innings dating back to Opening Day 2022. It’s an unsightly track record, but he’s turned in decent results as a starter with the Dodgers’ top minor league affiliate and can now market himself as an option to a team needing immediate rotation depth or any club seeking bullpen help.
Angels Release Hunter Dozier
Infielder/outfielder Hunter Dozier has been released by the Angels, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had signed a minor league deal with them in January but will now return to the open market in search of his next opportunity.
It’s understandable why the Halos took a shot on Dozier. He’s still being paid by the Royals as part of the extension he signed with that club many years ago, so it was essentially a free look at a guy who was once a capable big league hitter.
Unfortunately, they didn’t see much to like in that free look. Dozier took 214 plate appearances for the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, while lining up at all four corner spots, but struck out in 29.9% of them. He did hit seven home runs but only walked at a 5.6% clip. His .222/.268/.394 batting line is unimpressive in a vacuum and even moreso in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, as it translates to a 56 wRC+.
That’s a significant drop from where he was a few years ago. With the Royals in 2019, Dozier hit 26 home runs and walked at a 9.4% rate. That is now known as the “juiced ball” season when home run tallies were up all across the league, but his .279/.348/.522 slash line was still considered 23% better than league average in that environment. In the shortened 2020 season, his power seemingly corrected a bit with six homers in 44 games, but he also increased his walk rate to 14.5% after being at 9.4% the year prior.
The Royals seemingly felt that Dozier was in the process of a breakout and they decided to invest in him. Going into 2021, which was his age-28 season, Dozier and the Royals signed an extension which guaranteed him $25MM over four years. It also contained a $10MM club option for 2025 with a $1MM buyout.
But his production cratered from essentially the moment the ink was dry on that contract. He hit .226/.289/.391 over 2021 and 2022 while striking out 26.7% of the time and walking at just a 7.4% rate, with that combined production leading to an 84 wRC+. Last year was even worse, as his strikeout rate jumped to 31.9% and he produced a line of .183/.253/.305 in 91 plate appearances before getting released at the end of May.
Dozier hasn’t been in good form for a while but the Royals are still paying him for the rest of the year, so perhaps another club will follow the Angels’ lead and give him a minor league deal, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
Joel Kuhnel Elects Free Agency
The Blue Jays sent right-hander Joel Kuhnel outright to Triple-A Buffalo but he elected free agency instead, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week. As a player with a previous career outright, he has the right to elect free agency instead of accepting another outright assignment and has exercised that right.
Kuhnel, 29, was only with the Blue Jays a short time and didn’t join the major league club. The righty was designated for assignment by the Astros at the end of April and then flipped to the Jays in early May for cash. The Jays kept Kuhnel on optional assignment for a few weeks, adding to their bullpen depth, before they acquired Ryan Burr and nudged Kuhnel off his roster spot. Kuhnel tossed 8 2/3 innings for Buffalo with a 1.04 earned run average during his brief time in the organization.
He will be able to market himself as a power arm, though one that generally gets more grounders than strikeouts. He has 85 2/3 innings of big league experience with a 6.30 ERA, with his fastball velocity averaging in the mid-90s. His 19% strikeout rate in that time is a few points below average but he has kept 52.2% of balls in play on the ground while also limiting walks to a 6.3% rate. Since the start of 2021, he’s also thrown 82 minor league innings with a 4.28 ERA, 15.7% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate while getting opponents to pound the ball into the ground about half the time.
The fact that Kuhnel cleared waivers suggests that no club was willing to give him a 40-man spot, but he should be able to land a minor league deal somewhere. If he eventually gets a roster spot again, he is in his final option year and will therefore have a bit of roster flexibility for the remainder of 2024. He will now head out to the open market and see what opportunities are available to him.
Marlins Outright Woo-Suk Go
The Marlins announced yesterday that right-hander Woo-Suk Go went unclaimed on outright waivers following last week’s DFA. He’s been assigned back to Triple-A Jacksonville, where he’ll continue to pitch but will no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.
The 25-year-old Go was a star closer for the Korea Baseball Organization’s LG Twins who came to North American ball this past offseason via the posting system. Signed to a two-year, $4.5MM contract by the Padres, Go was expected to open the year in San Diego’s bullpen and perhaps even work his way into a late-inning role. Upon arrival to spring training, however, Go’s typically upper 90s fastball reportedly checked in more in the 92-94 mph range. The Padres optioned him to Double-A to begin the year and wound up including him in the surprising early-season trade that sent Luis Arraez from Miami to San Diego.
Go’s inclusion in the swap always looked to be more of a cost-cutting measure for the Padres than a perk for the Fish. By including Go in the deal and getting the Marlins to pay down all but the prorated league minimum on Arraez’s deal, the Friars actually wound up cutting payroll and reducing their luxury-tax bill in the trade. The fact that Miami quickly designated Go for assignment and passed him through outright waivers only further supports the notion that he was effectively a financial component of that swap.
To Go’s credit, he’s pitched pretty well in the upper minors to begin the season. In 21 1/3 frames, he’s worked to a 3.80 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate, a 6.7% walk rate and a sharp 49.2% ground-ball rate. It should be noted that the majority of Go’s strikeouts came during his Double-A stint with the Padres, however. He’s fanned only three of the 36 batters he’s faced with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville (8.3%).
There’s still plenty of time for Go to pitch his way into the Marlins’ bullpen picture — particularly if he can regain some of his velocity or find a way to miss more bats with lesser life on his heater. Go won’t turn 26 until August, so youth is on his side, and his track record in South Korea is excellent. Over a five-year period with LG Twins from 2019-23, Go piled up 139 saves while recording a 2.39 ERA with a 30.2% strikeout rate, a 10% walk rate and a ground-ball rate north of 60%.
Mariners, Matt Bowman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners are in agreement with reliever Matt Bowman on a minor league contract, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). The ZS Sports client would be paid at a $1MM base rate if he cracks the MLB roster and has multiple unspecified opt-out chances, Heyman adds.
Bowman elected free agency after being waived by the Diamondbacks last week. The 33-year-old has already spent time in the majors with both the Twins and D-Backs this season. He made nine appearances between the two clubs, logging 14 1/3 innings of eight-run ball. He fanned 10 hitters against six walks while running a higher than average 47.7% ground-ball rate.
A sinkerballer, Bowman has made his living keeping the ball on the ground. He has a huge 55.7% grounder percentage in just shy of 200 career MLB innings. The vast majority of that work came with the Cardinals and Reds between 2016-19. Injuries essentially robbed him of the 2020-22 seasons. Bowman underwent Tommy John surgery late in the ’20 campaign and didn’t return to full health until last season. He spent most of last year in Triple-A with the Yankees, turning in a 3.99 ERA with a decent 22.6% strikeout rate and a 51.9% grounder percentage over 58 2/3 innings. New York briefly called him to the majors last fall but cut him loose at season’s end.
Bowman opened the 2024 season in Triple-A after signing a minor league deal with Minnesota. He threw six scoreless frames with seven strikeouts to earn his call-up. He’ll head back to that level as he tries to secure a spot in the Seattle relief corps.
The M’s don’t have a ton of bullpen flexibility. Five of their relievers are out of options. Andrés Muñoz certainly isn’t going anywhere. Tayler Saucedo is the team’s top left-hander while Gabe Speier is on the shelf. That essentially leaves just one spot (currently held by Collin Snider) for the Mariners to rotate relief arms without exposing anyone to waivers. Bowman himself is out of options, so the Mariners couldn’t freely send him back down if they call him up at any point.