Rangers Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment
The Rangers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment. In a corresponding move, right-hander Gerson Garabito had his contract selected from the minors. Garabito is scheduled to start today’s game against the Twins, which would be his major league debut.
Anderson was selected to the club’s roster earlier this month after signing on a minor league deal back in April. A third-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Anderson made his big league debut with San Francisco in 2019 and pitched to mediocre results in a swing role, with a 5.44 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 96 innings of work across 28 appearances (16 starts). Major league innings have been hard to come by for the righty since then, as he made just 35 big league appearances across five organizations between 2020 and 2022. The results left something to be desired, as well; he pitched to a 6.85 ERA with a 5.57 FIP in that time.
The righty’s struggles at the big league level led him to try his luck overseas during the 2023 campaign, and he signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s KIA Tigers. Anderson pitched as a starter with the club and found some success overseas, with a 3.76 ERA in his 14 appearances. He returned to stateside ball late in the campaign on a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his improved results in Korea did not carry over as he surrendered 28 runs (including 11 homers) in 11 starts for the club’s Triple-A affiliate down the stretch.
That didn’t stop the Rangers from signing Anderson to a minor league deal back in April, however, and he was selected to the roster earlier this month. Anderson ultimately made just two appearances in a Rangers uniform before being DFA’d. In 3 1/3 innings of work, he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three in a performance that was good for a 5.40 ERA and 2.23 FIP. The Rangers will now have seven days to trade Anderson or attempt to pass him through waivers. As a player who has already been outrighted previously in his career, Anderson would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency should he clear waivers.
Replacing Anderson on the club’s roster is Garabito, a 28-year-old righty who made his pro debut with the Royals back in 2013. Garabito worked his way through the minor leagues across seven seasons in the Royals system before electing minor league free agency and joining the Giants, for whom he pitched to a 4.71 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level during 2021 season. Garabito subsequently left affiliated ball to pitch in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic over the next three seasons, racking up a 2.86 ERA in 69 1/3 innings of work during that time.
Garabito returned to stateside ball when he landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal prior to the 2024 season and has impressed in seven appearances split between the Double- and Triple-A levels with a 2.05 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work with an enticing 30.8% strikeout rate. The Rangers evidently have seen enough for Garabito to offer him his first shot at big league action, which figures to come against Minnesota later today amid a slew of injuries to the Rangers rotation that have left key pieces such as Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray sidelined.
Reds Sign Brandon Leibrandt To Minor League Deal
The Reds have signed left-hander Brandon Leibrandt to a minor league deal, according to the transaction tracker on Leibrandt’s MLB.com player page.
Leibrandt, 31, was a sixth-round pick by the Phillies in the 2014 draft who made his way through the minor leagues with the club to reach Triple-A during the 2018 season, setting him up for a potential big league debut in 2019. Unfortunately, those plans were scuttled when the southpaw missed the entire campaign due to injury, prompting the Phillies to release him prior to the 2020 season. Leibrandt was picked up by the Marlins in July 2020 and made his big league debut the following month.
Leibrandt would go on to pitch nine innings for the Marlins during the shortened 2020 campaign across five appearances. His results were solid enough as he allowed just two runs in that time, but his peripherals told a different story. Leibrandt walked a whopping 19.4% of batters faced during his brief stint in the big leagues while striking out just 8.3%, leaving him with a lackluster 4.86 FIP during his time in the big leagues. He has not appeared in the major since.
The southpaw was outrighted off the club’s roster following the 2020 campaign but remained in the organization during the 2021 season, pitching at the Double- and Triple-A levels to a combined 5.68 ERA in 21 appearances, including 18 starts. Leibrandt remained in affiliated ball for the 2022 season on a minor league pact with the Cubs before heading to the independent Atlantic League to pitch for the High Point Rockers, with whom he’s remained since. In 80 innings with the Rockers, Leibrandt has impressed with a 2.70 ERA and a 23.8% strikeout rate, while walking just 8% of batters faced.
That performance has clearly intrigued the Reds, who are now bringing Leibrandt into the organizational fold as upper-level pitching depth. The club is fairly deep in upper-level pitching options on the rotation side of things with the likes of Connor Phillips and Lyon Richardson available for spot starts as needed, although it’s possible Leibrandt could offer the Reds a multi-inning arm from the left side out of the bullpen if his strong results in the Atlantic League can translate to affiliated ball.
Cubs Sign Jackson Tetreault To Minor League Deal
The Cubs have signed right-hander Jackson Tetreault to a minor league deal, as noted by Talk Nats on X earlier today. Talk Nats adds that Tetreault had interest from multiple teams, including “advanced talks” with the Blue Jays, before ultimately settling in Chicago.
Tetreault, 28 in June, was a seventh-round pick by the Nationals back in 2017 and worked his way through the club’s minor league system to make his big league debut back in 2022. In four starts with the club that year, Tetreault struggled to a 5.14 ERA and 6.16 FIP in 21 innings of work before suffering a stress fracture in his shoulder that sidelined him for the remainder of the 2022 season. Tetreault was outrighted off the Nationals’ roster that November but remained with the organization for the 2023 season as he rehabbed the injury, ultimately making two appearances at the High-A level, though he struggled badly in the appearances with ten runs (eight earned) allowed over 5 2/3 combined innings as he allowed two walks and fourteen hits including three home runs against four strikeouts.
Those appearances in May of last year were Tetreault’s most recent professional outings, as he was placed on the injured list in June and has not pitched since. He elected free agency back in November but didn’t land a deal anywhere until today, when he signed with the Cubs on a minor league pact. Prior to his injury, Tetreault had the look of an intriguing potential back-end starter with the Nationals, pitching to a 4.34 ERA in 28 starts at the Double-A level and a 4.04 ERA in 14 appearances at Triple-A.
Given his extended layoff in recent years, it’s not clear how healthy Tetreault is or what role he may take up now that he’s signed with Chicago, although the club could surely benefit from upper-level pitching depth with key pieces of the club’s bullpen such as Julian Merryweather, Adbert Alzolay, and Yency Almonte all on the injured list in addition to rookie starter Jordan Wicks. Tetreault figures to act as that sort of non-roster, upper level depth alongside fellow minor league signings such as Julio Teheran, Edwin Escobar, and Carl Edwards Jr.
Yankees Select Kevin Smith
The Yankees announced this afternoon that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Kevin Smith. Smith will take the roster spot of Jon Berti, who the club placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left calf strain. Making room for Smith on the 40-man roster is DJ LeMahieu, who was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Smith, 27, was a 4th-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2017 and made his big league debut with the club in 2021, though he hit just .094/.194/.188 in 36 plate appearances with Toronto that season. Smith is perhaps most notable for being part of the four-player package the Blue Jays sent to Oakland in exchange for then-A’s third baseman Matt Chapman prior to the 2022 season. Smith would go on to appear in 96 games for the A’s over the 2022 and ’23 campaigns but again struggled to hit at the big league level as he posted a paltry .183/.218/.314 slash line in 297 trips to the plate as a member of the Athletics.
That meager offensive performance was enough to convince the A’s to non-tender Smith back in November, though he eventually joined the Yankees on a minor league deal back in January. This is actually Smith’s second stint with the big league club this year, as he was already called up once earlier this year the first time the club placed Berti on the shelf back in mid-April. Unfortunately for Smith, he ultimately made just one appearance in a Yankees uniform during that stint with the club and failed to record even one plate appearance before being designated for assignment and outrighted to Triple-A.
It’s possible this stint in the majors could be a similarly brief one as well. After all, the Yankees also announced earlier this afternoon that LeMahieu’s rehab assignment has been transferred to Triple-A and MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes that manager Aaron Boone expects LeMahieu to rejoin the club at some point during their three-game set against the Angels that begins on May 28. LeMahieu’s initial IL placement was retroactive to March 25, meaning that today’s transfer to the 60-day IL is a purely procedural move that has no bearing on when the Yankees can activate him.
LeMahieu’s return from the shelf will be a huge relief for the Yankees, as they’ve struggled to get much production from much of their infield mix this year. Anthony Volpe has been excellent at shortstop this season while veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo has held his own with a roughly league average slash line, but Gleyber Torres has struggled badly at the plate while acting as the club’s regular second baseman with a .221/.298/.318 slash line in 219 trip to the plate so far this year. It can be argued that Torres’s overall track record an above-average bat should earn him the opportunity to bust out of his slump, but the same can’t be said for Oswaldo Cabrera, who got off to a blazing start at the hot corner this year but has struggled badly over the past month with a .208/.253/.260 slash line in his last 25 games.
The club’s struggles to get offensive production from their infield mix are compounded by the loss of Berti, who was ice cold in six games with the club prior to being placed on the injured list in April but has heated up considerably in the month of May with a .306/.359/.389 slash line in 11 games. That production in conjunction with Berti’s experience all over the diamond except for first base and behind the plate made Berti a strong bench contributor to the Yankees’ scuffling infield, but now they’ll be without him for the foreseeable future. The Yankees have not yet announced a timeline for Berti’s return, although the utility man was seemingly unable to put weight on his leg while exiting last night’s game in the ninth inning, as noted by MLB.com.
Orioles Acquire Thyago Vieira
The Orioles and Brewers have announced a three-player trade that will see the O’s land right-handers Thyago Vieira and Aneuris Rodriguez. Milwaukee will receive minor league righty Garrett Stallings in return.
Vieira is the only member of the trio with any Major League experience, as the Sao Paulo native has a 6.18 ERA over 51 career innings in the Show. He appeared in parts of the 2017-19 seasons with the Mariners and White Sox before spending the next three seasons in Japan, and then returning to North American baseball via a minors deal with the Brewers in the 2022-23 offseason.
After making two appearances with Milwaukee’s big league roster last year, injuries opened up more opportunity for Vieira this season, though he didn’t exactly capitalize. The right-hander posted a 5.64 ERA over 22 1/3 innings for the Crew, allowing six home runs and walking 12.3% of batters. Despite a big fastball with regular high-90s velocity, Vieira has yet to translate that heat into high-level strikeout volume, as he whiffed a decent but unspectacular 23.6% of batters faced this season.
Between that velocity and solid numbers in NPB and with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2023, it isn’t hard to see why the Orioles might have an interest in seeing if Vieira might still be a late bloomer at age 31. A classic case of a hard thrower with control issues, Vieira’s potential is obvious if the O’s can figure out a way for the righty to harness his stuff. The Brewers have had a lot of success in helping unheralded pitchers unlock their ability in recent years, though the team opted to move on by designating Vieira for assignment earlier this week.
Rodriguez is more of a longer-term lottery ticket of a prospect, as the righty is still a few weeks away from his 20th birthday. His pro experience has been limited to two seasons in the Dominican Summer League and some rookie ball action this year, with a cumulative 3.67 ERA over 83 1/3 total innings.
Stallings was a fifth-round pick for the Angels in the 2019 draft, and he came to Baltimore’s organization as part of the return in the December 2020 trade that sent Jose Iglesias to Los Angeles. Stallings has a 5.41 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate, and 6.48% walk rate over 379 1/3 career minor league innings. That includes a 5.52 ERA in 101 innings of Triple-A work, as he has pitched as both as a starter and a reliever at Baltimore’s top affiliate in each of the last two seasons.
Mets Acquire Pablo Reyes From Red Sox
The Mets have acquired utilityman Pablo Reyes from the Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations, as announced via the MLB.com transactions wire. Reyes was designated for assignment at the end of April but cleared waivers and was outrighted to Boston’s Triple-A affiliate.
This marks the second time that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has acquired Reyes, as Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in January 2021 when Stearns was still in charge of Milwaukee’s front office. Reyes played in 58 MLB games for the Brew Crew during the 2021-22 seasons before landing in Boston, with a brief stopover with the A’s sandwiched in between.
Reyes has hit .249/.309/.349 over 572 Major League plate appearances, suiting up in six of the last seven MLB seasons (an 80-game PED suspension kept Reyes off the field entirely in 2020). A career-high 185 of those plate appearances came just last season, as Reyes got into 64 games with the Sox as part of the team’s revolving door at both middle infield positions. Reyes hit .287/.339/.377 in those 185 PA, translating to a 93 wRC+ since Reyes’ lack of power undermined his solid batting average and on-base numbers.
Defensive versatility has been Reyes’ calling card moreso than his bat, as he has gotten at least a bit of action at every position on the diamond except catcher over the course of his Major League career. However, he has exclusively played as an infielder (and occasional mop-up pitcher in blowouts) since the start of the 2022 season. The Mets traded Zack Short to the Red Sox a few weeks ago and just released Joey Wendle earlier this week, so Reyes fills New York’s need for utility infield help. Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil are locked into everyday duty in the middle infield roles while Brett Baty has seen most of the third base work despite struggling at the plate, and Mark Vientos has been hitting well in a bid to stick in the majors and cut into Baty’s playing time.
Since Reyes is out of minor league options, the Mets will have to keep him on the active roster unless they first designate him for assignment before trying to send him to Triple-A. In the event that Reyes clears waivers and is then outrighted off the 40-man, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept that assignment, since he has been previously outrighted in his career.
Reds Outright Bubba Thompson
TODAY: Thompson has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Double-A Chattanooga, the Reds announced.
MAY 23: The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated outfielder Bubba Thompson for assignment in order to create 40-man roster space for righty Brett Kennedy, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Louisville. Kennedy will take the 26-man roster spot of reliever Emilio Pagan, who’s being placed on the 15-day injured list due to tightness in his right triceps.
Thompson appeared in 17 games for the Reds but received only 18 plate appearances. He’s among the fastest players in MLB — if not the fastest — but has long had struggles at the plate, thus relegating him to a defensive replacement and pinch-running role. He went 2-for-18 with a double and five steals in his small handful of plate appearances but also punched out a glaring 11 times (61.1%).
A first-round pick by the Rangers in 2017, Thompson was a multi-sport star and legitimate football prospect as well prior to his selection and the signing of a $2.1MM bonus out of the draft. He’s now seen time in parts of three MLB seasons but is just a .232/.273/.295 hitter (58 wRC+) with a huge 32% strikeout rate and just a 4.2% walk rate. Thompson’s speed is off the charts, and he showed a bit of pop with 16 minor league big flies in 2021 and another 14 homers in 2022.
However, Thompson has still struggled to refine his approach at the plate even in the upper minors. He’d been playing with Cincinnati’s Double-A affiliate at the time of his DFA and, in 37 trips to the plate, carried a .200/.243/.314 slash. Thompson does have a .284/.347/.440 output in 145 Triple-A games, but that comes out to around league-average when adjusting for the electric run-scoring environment in the Pacific Coast League.
This is Thompson’s fifth DFA since last August. He’s yet to make it through waivers. The Royals claimed him off waivers from Texas but subsequently lost him to the Reds in October. When Cincinnati designated Thompson for assignment in late December, the Yankees put in a claim — only to DFA him again just weeks later. The Twins claimed Thompson but, like the Yankees, designated him for assignment after only a couple weeks, at which point the Reds claimed him a second time. He’s been with Cincinnati since that point but will now be traded or placed on waivers yet again within the next five days.
Kennedy, 29, has pitched in parts of two big league seasons: 2018 with the Padres and 2023 with the Reds. He’ll now get a second stint in Cincinnati and hope for better results than he turned in last year, when he was tagged for 13 runs in 18 innings. Kennedy has spent the 2024 season in the Louisville rotation but been roughed up for a 6.86 ERA in 40 2/3 frames (eight starts). His 18.9% strikeout is below-average by around five percentage points, but his excellent 4.7% walk rate is nearly half the league-average rate.
Kennedy will add some length to the bullpen in place of Pagan, who inked a surprising two-year, $16MM deal with the Reds this offseason — one that allows him the opportunity to opt out at season’s end. It was a surprise fit, given Cincinnati’s homer-happy stadium and Pagan’s longstanding penchant for big home run totals but also big strikeout rates. True to form, Pagan has already served up four taters in 19 1/3 innings of work (1.86 HR/9) but also punched out a substantial 30.5% of his opponents. He’s sitting on a 4.19 ERA to begin his Reds tenure, but his season will now be paused for at least the next couple weeks as he lets that ailing triceps mend.
Athletics Place Ross Stripling On 15-Day IL, Designate Brandon Bielak
The A’s announced that right-hander Ross Stripling has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained right elbow. Right-hander Brandon Bielak has also been designated for assignment, opening up a 40-man roster spot for Jack O’Loughlin, whose promotion was reported earlier today. In addition to selecting O’Loughlin’s contract from Triple-A, the Athletics also called up righty Tyler Ferguson from Triple-A to take the other 26-man roster spot.
Stripling allowed six runs over 3 2/3 innings in yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the Astros. Even if it is fair to assume that the elbow strain impacted Stripling’s performance in some fashion, it was another in a string of tough outings for the veteran, as he has a 5.82 ERA across 55 2/3 innings and 11 starts for Oakland. His SIERA is a somewhat more palatable 4.66 and Stripling hasn’t enjoyed any batted-ball (.359 BABIP) or strand rate (56.4%) luck, plus his .328 xwOBA is well below his .364 wOBA. The righty’s 4.8% walk rate has been excellent and he has done a very good job of limiting hard contact, though his 13.9% strikeout rate ranks in only the seventh percentile among all pitchers.
Even if the results have been spotting, Stripling has been able to take the ball every fifth day, which is the kind of stability the A’s were hoping to receive when they acquired him in an offseason trade with the Giants. It was widely expected that the Athletics would also be shopping Stripling in advance of the trade deadline, yet this injury now casts doubt on that scenario, and potentially Stripling’s availability for the remainder of the season. More will be known about the severity of the elbow sprain soon, though it is worth noting that Stripling underwent a Tommy John surgery back in 2014 when he was pitching in the Dodgers’ farm system.
The more immediate impact of Stripling’s injury is that Oakland is now down yet another starting pitcher. Paul Blackburn (stress reaction in his right foot), Alex Wood (rotator cuff tendonitis), and Joe Boyle (lower back strain) are already all on the 15-day IL, meaning that of the five A’s pitchers who have made the most starts in 2024, JP Sears is the only fit hurler of the group. O’Loughlin has been a regular starter at Triple-A Las Vegas and will join Sears, Mitch Spence, Joey Estes, and Aaron Brooks in the makeshift rotation. The Athletics have off-days on each of the next two Mondays to allow for some flexibility in figuring out the pitching staff, and in perhaps buying time until at least one of their injured starters is healthy.
Given the short-handed rotation, it seems surprising that the A’s are parting ways with Bielak just nine days after acquiring the righty in a trade with the Astros. Bielak has a 3.18 ERA over 5 2/3 relief innings since coming to the Athletics, and while he has worked exclusively as a reliever over 13 total appearances for Oakland and Houston this season, he started 13 of his 15 games with the Astros in 2023.
Bielak’s Statcast numbers have been troubling in each of the last two seasons, so he might be fortunate to have even the 4.11 ERA he has posted over 103 innings since Opening Day 2023. Still, for a team that is so thin on starting pitching at the moment, designating a swingman with MLB experience puts even more pressure on the Athletics’ internal arms to pick up the slack. The A’s weren’t able to simply move Bielak to Triple-A since he is out of minor league options, and it is possible another team might again look to work out a trade or just claim Bielak in his latest trip to DFA limbo.
Rays Place Josh Lowe On 10-Day Injured List
The Rays announced that outfielder Josh Lowe has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain, with a retroactive placement date of May 23. In the corresponding move, right-hander Chris Devenski has been activated from the 15-day IL after missing almost exactly a month due to tendinitis in his right knee.
Lowe made an early exit from Wednesday’s game because of what was described at the time as a right side strain, though a follow-up MRI didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, it isn’t surprising that the Rays will be cautious and send Lowe to the IL given that he already missed over a month of the season with another oblique strain. Between that first oblique strain and hip inflammation, Lowe missed most of Spring Training and didn’t make his season debut until May 6.
In between his two trips to the IL, Lowe hit .240/.296/.440 with two homers over 54 plate appearances. This translated to a respectable 108 wRC+, though it was still well below the 131 wRC+ Lowe delivered while hitting .292/.335/.500 with 20 homers and 32 stolen bases over 501 PA in 2023. Tampa Bay was hoping Lowe would again be a big contributor to the lineup, and his absence for much of the season has been a factor in the Rays’ overall underwhelming offensive performance.
Lowe had been receiving regular center-field duty against right-handed pitching, but the combination of Jose Siri and Jonny DeLuca (both right-handed batters) should again handle the bulk of center field work while Lowe is away. Randy Arozarena made a few appearances in center field earlier this week and might again factor into the mix depending on how the Rays shuffle their outfield at-bats. Harold Ramirez‘s playing time diminished when Lowe and Jonathan Aranda returned from the IL, but with Lowe again sidelined, Ramirez might again get some work on the grass if Arozarena is shifted into center field on at least a part-time basis.
Devenski has allowed five homers in only 14 innings pitched this season, resulting in a 7.71 ERA for the veteran reliever. Keeping the ball in the park has long been a challenge for Devenski throughout his career, though he showed some improvement in this regard after he first signed with the Rays last August, while posting a 2.08 ERA in nine appearances and 8 2/3 innings with the team. This was enough for Tampa to re-sign Devenski to a one-year, $1.1MM free agent deal this past winter, but the club hasn’t yet gotten much return on even that modest contract.
White Sox Notes: Robert, Trades, Ramos, Leone
Luis Robert Jr. began a minor league rehab assignment this week with two games in the Arizona Complex League, and the outfielder will soon be headed to Triple-A Charlotte, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol told MLB.com and other media. “He’ll have that Minor League day off on Monday, get a workout in and then he’ll start playing his Charlotte games on Tuesday,” Grifol said. “We’ll see after that. I think probably by the middle of next week or something like that, he’ll be cleared with his leg, and then it becomes [at-bats] and timing and stuff like that.”
While there’s still some fluidity within this timeline, it does seem like Robert is perhaps a week or so away from returning to Chicago’s lineup. Robert suffered a Grade 2 hip flexor strain in the first week of April, and given his past history of hip injuries, there was an initial concern that Robert could be facing an extended layoff — another flexor strain cost Robert almost three months of the 2021 season. However, this latest injury ended up being less serious, and Robert appears to be on pace with the six-week recovery timeline that GM Chris Getz floated in mid-April.
Injuries have been a dominant theme of Robert’s MLB career, though the outfielder’s star potential has been evident whenever he has been able to take the field. Robert hit .264/.315/.542 with 38 homers and 20 steals over a career-high 595 plate appearances and 145 games last season, finally staying healthy long enough to deliver a top-quality season. Between his offensive production and solid defense, Robert generated 4.9 fWAR in 2023, a number topped by only 16 position players in all of baseball.
Assuming that Robert returns soon and continues this good form, more trade rumors will inevitably surface as the deadline approaches. As per the terms of the contract extension he signed with the Sox prior to his MLB debut, Robert is owed roughly $8.6MM for the remainder of this season, $15MM in 2025, and then the White Sox have club options on his services for both 2026 and 2027 (each worth $20MM with a $2MM buyout).
The rebuilding Sox have no bigger trade chip than Robert, though Getz didn’t sound too motivated to move Robert when asked about his availability last offseason. In comments to Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times and other reporters yesterday, Getz again signaled that the White Sox are generally open for business on everyone, but “some players on the team that I think make a little more sense than others” to be dealt by the deadline.
“We’re open on players on our club just because we know we’ve got to make strides to get back to being a competitive team here in the AL Central,” Getz said. “We’ve got our pro scouts monitoring other clubs’ prospects closely….The minor leagues are the strongest avenue to improve your Major League club. We are excited about what we are building at the minor league level, and we are going to look for opportunities to add to our group. We look forward to July and the opportunity to insert more talent into our group.”
Getz will surely be looking for a premium return in any Robert trade, which could impact the outfielder’s chances of being moved at the deadline or perhaps in the offseason. If questions about Robert’s health persist among potential suitors, Getz could hang onto Robert in the hopes that two more healthy and productive months throughout the remainder of the 2024 campaign would help clear any doubts about his readiness. Waiting until the winter could also open up Robert’s trade market to more teams, even though his added years of contractual control means that his deadline market wouldn’t necessarily be limited just to this season’s contenders.
Even if the White Sox don’t pull the trigger on swapping Robert, there are plenty of other players up and down the roster that might traded by the July 30 deadline in a variety of big and little deals. A veteran rental reliever like Dominic Leone could be a natural candidate to be moved in a low-level transaction, yet Leone’s trade value is pretty minimal right now after another trip to the injured list.
Chicago placed Leone on the 15-day IL yesterday (with a retroactive placement date of May 21) due to inflammation in his throwing elbow. That placement came almost immediately after another 15-day IL stint due to back tightness, and Leone made just one in-game appearance in between those two stops on the injured list. Grifol expressed hope that Leone would again be able to return after just the minimum 15 days, as “everything came back clean and clear” on Leone’s elbow after testing.
Beyond just the injury problems, Leone also has a 7.04 ERA over 15 1/3 innings. His career-long troubles with the home run ball have again surfaced, as the right-hander has allowed four homers over his 15 1/3 frames, as well as an ungainly 15.7% walk rate. It thus far hasn’t been remotely the bounce-back Leone was hoping for after he joined the White Sox on a minor league deal this past winter, coming off a 4.67 ERA in 54 combined innings with the Mets, Angels, and Mariners in 2023.
The White Sox called up righty Justin Anderson from Triple-A as the corresponding move for Leone yesterday, and brought another familiar face back to the active roster today when third baseman Bryan Ramos was reinstated from the 10-day IL. Outfielder Zach DeLoach was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space for Ramos, who will miss just a minimum amount of time after being sidelined with a left quad strain.
Before the injury, Ramos hit .281/.294/.344 over the first 34 plate appearances of his big league career. Ramos was receiving everyday work at third base and should resume that role upon his return, as the White Sox seem eager to explore his potential as a possible third baseman of the future. The Sox promoted Ramos to the big league straight from Double-A, and Ramos hadn’t received any Triple-A playing time until two games with Charlotte during his just-completed minor league rehab assignment.