Yankees Outright Colby White
The Yankees announced that right-hander Colby White has been sent outright to Double-A Somerset. That indicates the righty cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
White, 25, was claimed off waivers from the Rays two weeks ago. By keeping him on their roster for that short amount of time and then passing him through waivers, the Yankees will get to keep him as non-roster depth. This is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, meaning he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency.
The righty was a sixth-round pick of the Rays in 2019 but hasn’t been able to pitch much in the early parts of his professional career. After a brief stint in Low-A in 2019, the minor leagues were cancelled by the pandemic in 2020. The year after, White went through four levels, finishing at Triple-A. He had a 1.44 earned run average in 62 1/3 innings, striking out a massive 45% of batters faced while giving out walks just 6.5% of the time.
Tommy John surgery early in 2022 wiped out that entire season, but the Rays nonetheless added him to their roster at the end of that year. After the numbers he put up in 2021, they understandably feared that he might get poached in the Rule 5 draft.
He returned to the mound last year but control, or the lack thereof, has become a mounting concern. He tossed 22 innings last year with a 1.64 ERA, striking out 27.6% of batters faced but also giving out walks 19.5% of the time. The free passes have finally caught up to him here in 2024, as he has walked a massive 23.1% of batters faced. That’s led to 17 earned runs allowed in 8 1/3 innings for an ERA of 18.36.
Now White will try to get over those control problems and get back on track. If he can get anywhere close to the kind of form he showed prior to his surgery, he could be a useful piece down the road for the Yanks.
Mariners Claim Eduardo Salazar, Designate Sammy Peralta
The Mariners announced that they have claimed right-hander Eduardo Salazar off waivers from the Dodgers and assigned to Triple-A Tacoma. The Dodgers designated him for assignment earlier this week. In a corresponding move, left-hander Sammy Peralta has been designated for assignment.
Salazar, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason and he was added to their roster in mid-April. He only made one appearance for the big league club, tossing two scoreless innings, spending most of his time this year on optional assignment.
He made seven starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City this year, tossing 33 2/3 innings with a 5.61 earned run average. He only struck out 13.7% of batters faced but limited walks to a 7.8% clip and got grounders on 58.6% of balls in play. With a .389 batting average on balls in play, it’s possible that luck played a role in how many runs he allowed to cross the plate.
Keeping the ball on the ground has been a feature of his game in the past as well. He made his major league debut with the Reds last year and had a 51.1% grounder rate in 12 1/3 innings, while also getting opponents to pound the ball into the dirt at a similar rate in the minors.
Salazar has worked both as a starter and a reliever in his career and could perhaps provide the Mariners with depth in both departments. He can be optioned for the rest of this year and for one more season as well. He also has just a handful of service days, meaning the Mariners can hang onto him for the foreseeable future as long as he continues to justify his roster spot.
Peralta, 26, was claimed off waivers from the White Sox in early April. He has made 12 appearances for Triple-A Tacoma but allowed 13 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings. His 20% strikeout rate, 13.3% walk rate and 36.8% ground ball rate are all subpar.
That poor performance has led to him being bumped off Seattle’s roster and they will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Perhaps some club will be interested based on his previous work. He made his major league debut last year with the White Sox and had a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings. His 5.09 ERA in Triple-A last year wasn’t especially impressive but he did strike out 23.1% of batters faced while walking just 6.4%.
Mets Claim Ty Adcock From Tigers
The Mets announced that right-hander Ty Adcock has been claimed off waivers from the Tigers and been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. The righty had been designated for assignment by Detroit on the weekend. The Mets had a couple of open spots on their 40-man roster after Joey Wendle and Yohan Ramírez were both designated for assignment last week. This move will bring their count up to 39.
Adcock, 27, has been bouncing around the league this year. He started the season with the Mariners but was designated for assignment in early April and claimed by the Tigers, making this his second waiver claim and third organization of the year already.
Around those transactions, he has thrown 8 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level but with an 8.64 earned run average. He has struck out 25% of batters faced but some runs have been helped across the plate by a 13.6% walk rate, a .375 batting average on balls in play and a couple of home runs.
The Mets are clearly willing to overlook that ERA and are focusing more on the bigger picture. Adcock was drafted in 2019 but had his debut delayed by the minor leagues being canceled in 2020 and then Tommy John surgery in April of 2021. He made it back to the mound briefly in 2022 but last year was a sort of breakout for him.
Adcock tossed 20 2/3 innings on the farm in 2023 with a 1.74 ERA, 29.3% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate. He also had a 3.45 ERA in 15 2/3 big league innings, averaging 96.6 miles per hour on his fastball in the process.
The Mets had a couple of open roster spots, as mentioned, and Adcock has a couple of option years remaining. Despite his shaky results this year, there’s little harm in sending him to Triple-A and seeing if he can get back into his 2023 form going forward.
Cardinals Outright Alfonso Rivas
May 23: Rivas cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Memphis, the Cardinals announced. He’ll remain with the organization.
May 20: The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve designated first baseman/outfielder Alfonso Rivas for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Ryan Loutos, whose previously reported selection to the MLB roster has now been confirmed by the club. Righty Chris Roycroft was optioned to Triple-A Memphis to open space for Loutos on the active roster.
Rivas was claimed off waivers out of the Angels organization back in January. The 27-year-old has continued to show his typical keen eye at the plate in Memphis this season, walking at a hearty 12.8% rate, but he hasn’t hit for his usual average or power. Overall, he’s batting just .246/.364/.323 in 158 plate appearances with the Redbirds.
The well-traveled Rivas played sparingly in the majors each year from 2021-23, spending time with the Cubs, Pirates and Padres. He’s a .243/.324/.349 hitter in 459 big league plate appearances to this point in his career.
Tepid as his output in Memphis has been, Rivas entered the season with a lifetime .313/.424/.492 batting line in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He’s walked in nearly 15% of his plate appearances across five campaigns at the Triple-A level, and while he’s more of a gap hitter than true slugger — 48 doubles to just 15 homers in nearly 800 Triple-A plate appearances — he’s nevertheless been quite productive there outside this season.
Rivas has primarily been a first baseman in the minors but has a few hundred innings of corner outfield experience as a professional. He’s in the final of three minor league option seasons and is still two seasons shy of even reaching arbitration eligibility. A club looking for a left-handed bat with strong on-base skills could potentially take a look. Rivas has been designated for assignment three prior times in his career but has never made it through waivers, so MLB clubs are clearly intrigued by his bat — even if he hasn’t yet been all that productive in the majors.
The Cardinals will have a week to trade Rivas or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If they can succeed in getting him through waivers, they can keep him in the organization without needing to dedicate a 40-man roster spot to him. Rivas has neither the MLB service time nor the prior outright assignment required to reject an outright to the minors after going unclaimed on waivers.
A’s Designate Jordan Diaz For Assignment
The A’s announced a series of roster moves Thursday, placing outfielder Esteury Ruiz on the 10-day injured list with a left wrist strain, selecting the contract of Daz Cameron from Triple-A Las Vegas and designating infielder Jordan Diaz for assignment to open 40-man space for Cameron.
Diaz, 23, was an international signing out of Colombia and eventually jumped onto Baseball America‘s list of top 30 prospects in the Oakland system in 2019, the first of five straight years he was featured on that list. He was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November of 2021, keeping him out of the Rule 5 draft. That roster spot came to Diaz after he hit 13 home runs in 90 High-A games that year, slashing .288/.337/.483 overall.
Unfortunately, the results since then haven’t been quite as impressive. He’s hit ten home runs in his 344 major league plate appearances but walked just 5.5% of the time, leading to a line of .227/.276/.358. That production translates to a wRC+ of 79, indicating he’s been 21% worse than league average.
His minor league production was still strong in the past two years but has fallen off a cliff here in 2024. He hit .321/.363/.513 on the farm over 2022 and 2023 but his line is just .204/.288/.327 so far this year. His 9.9% walk rate in 2024 is actually an improvement for him but he has just two home runs in 111 trips to the plate and the batting average is clearly not ideal.
He is now in his final option year, so there was a sort of ticking clock in the background for him this year. Since he’s gotten out to such a poor start, the A’s have nudged him off the roster now in order to open up a spot. They will have a week to try to trade Diaz or pass him through waivers. Perhaps a rival club looking for infield depth will be interested based on his previous seasons. Diaz can play the three non-shortstop infield positions and has even received very brief looks at catcher and left field. He can be kept on optional assignment for the rest of the year and has less than a year of service time at the moment.
Bumping Diaz off the 40-man opens a spot for Cameron, who will replace Ruiz in the club’s outfield rotation. The 27-year-old Cameron signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason and been playing very well in Triple-A this year. He has drawn a walk in 16.4% of his 165 plate appearances and also hit six home runs, leading to a .307/.424/.577 batting line. Even in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that’s still 46% better than league average. He’s also stolen eight bases in ten tries.
Cameron has impressed in the minors before but has struggled in his attempts to carry that kind of production over to the majors. He received 244 plate appearances with the Tigers over the 2020-22 period but hit just .201/.266/.330 in that time, striking out at a 31.6% clip.
He exhausted his option years in that time and has been in the minors since then, with the Orioles last year and with the A’s so far this year. If things click for him in the majors this time, he can be kept around by the A’s since he has less than two years of service time. For now, he’ll join the club’s outfield mix alongside JJ Bleday, Brent Rooker, Seth Brown and Tyler Nevin.
Rangers Place Jon Gray On 15-Day Injured List
The Rangers are placing right-hander Jon Gray on the injured list due to a groin strain, manager Bruce Bochy announced this morning (X link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). The team is terming it a “mild” strain, but it’ll nevertheless be enough to sit Gray down for at least the next 15 days. In a corresponding move, Texas will select the contract of right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock. Left-hander Cody Bradford is being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to accommodate Tinoco’s addition. Bradford has already missed six weeks with a back strain and stress fracture in his ribs.
Gray joins an an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the injured list in Texas. The Rangers are also without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi and the aforementioned Bradford at the moment. That’ll leave Texas with a rotation including Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Ureña and a yet-to-be-determined fifth option. (Tinoco is a reliever and won’t step onto the starting staff.) The top depth options on the 40-man roster include Jack Leiter and Owen White. While Leiter has thrived pitching in Triple-A, both of those once-vaunted prospects has struggled in the big leagues this season.
Subtracting Gray from the roster would be a notable blow even without that litany of other injuries. The former No. 3 overall draft pick is out to perhaps the best start of his career, pitching to a tiny 2.21 ERA through his first 57 frames of the season. Gray’s 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate are all at or slightly better than the league average. His ERA is being helped out by a microscopic 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate that’s helped him average just 0.32 homers per nine frames this season. But even metrics that normalize home run rate (e.g. his 3.68 SIERA) suggest Gray has still been a decidedly above-average hurler thanks to that strong blend of whiffs, grounders and walks (or lack thereof).
Tinoco, 29, will return for a second stint with the Rangers. He pitched in the Texas organization in 2022, famously giving up Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd home run late in the season. That’s a down note in what was otherwise a strong year. In 20 2/3 frames with the Rangers he logged a 2.18 ERA — albeit with lackluster strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 11.9%, respectively.
Tinoco spent the 2023 season with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and handled himself well for the most part, but he returned stateside on a minor league pact with the Rangers over the winter. He’s gotten out to a decent start in Round Rock, pitching to a 3.80 earned run average and fanning just over 30% of his opponents in 21 1/3 innings. Overall, Tinoco has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons and compiled 66 2/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 13.9% walk rate and 44% grounder rate. Command has clearly been an issue for him throughout his professional career, and that’s been the case again in 2024, evidenced by an 11.2% walk rate in Round Rock.
Mariners Acquire Mike Baumann
May 23: Baumann reported to the Mariners’ roster today. The team announced that right-hander Cody Bolton has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma to open a spot on the 26-man roster.
May 22: The Orioles and Mariners announced a trade late Wednesday evening. Seattle acquired reliever Mike Baumann and catcher Michael Pérez in exchange for younger catcher Blake Hunt, whom the O’s have optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore had designated Baumann for assignment over the weekend. Hunt and Baumann will each occupy spots on their new teams’ 40-man rosters. Pérez was on a minor league contract and will not assume a 40-man spot. Seattle’s roster is at capacity, while the O’s count is up to 39.
Baumann changes teams for the first time in his career. Baltimore drafted the right-hander in the third round back in 2017. A starting pitcher for most of his minor league tenure, he kicked to the bullpen in 2022. Baumann has turned in solid results over the past couple seasons. He tossed a career-high 64 2/3 innings of 3.76 ERA ball last season and has allowed 3.44 earned runs per nine through 17 appearances this year.
While Baumann’s run prevention marks have been good, his strikeout and walk profile is middling. He had a league average 22.3% strikeout percentage with a lofty 12.1% walk rate in 2023. His strikeout rate is down to 19.5% over 18 1/3 innings this season, while his 11% walk percentage remains higher than average. Baumann’s 9.9% swinging strike rate is a couple points below the league mark for relievers.
That certainly contributed to Baltimore’s decision to DFA him, but the more immediate driver was a lack of roster flexibility. Baumann is out of options, so the O’s couldn’t send him to the minors. He was one of six Baltimore relievers who can’t be optioned, and two who can be sent down (Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin) have been far too valuable to take out of the MLB bullpen.
Seattle has four out-of-options relievers of their own, but they can send down one of Eduard Bazardo or Cody Bolton to plug Baumann into the bullpen. Despite lacking huge swing-and-miss tallies, he should deepen their middle relief group. The Jacksonville product has induced ground-balls at a solid 46.4% clip. He averages north of 96 MPH on his fastball and mixes in a knuckle-curve and slider with regularity. Baumann has between one and two years of major league service. He’s controllable for four seasons beyond the current campaign and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2025-26 offseason.
The Mariners liked Baumann enough to part with Hunt, who is a more intriguing player than teams typically land for someone they’d designated for assignment. A former second-round pick of the Padres, he went to the Rays as part of the Blake Snell blockbuster. Hunt topped out at Triple-A in the Tampa Bay farm system. Despite a .256/.331/.484 showing in 2023, the Rays decided not to add him to their 40-man roster last fall. Rather than watch him depart for nothing in minor league free agency, Tampa Bay flipped him to Seattle for recent draftee Tatem Levins.
Seattle added Hunt to the 40-man to keep him in the organization. The 25-year-old has spent the season in Triple-A Tacoma, where he’s out to an excellent .293/.372/.533 start in 86 plate appearances. Hunt has already connected on four homers while striking out in only 11.6% of his trips to the plate. He slots in behind Adley Rutschman and James McCann on the organizational depth chart. There’s a chance Hunt makes his MLB debut at some point this year. Even if he spends the rest of the season in Norfolk, he could compete for next year’s backup catching job if the Orioles let McCann depart in free agency.
Pérez is a 31-year-old journeyman who signed a minor league deal with Baltimore over the offseason. He’s hitting .221/.294/.325 over 21 games in Norfolk. Pérez has appeared in parts of six MLB campaigns and owns a .179/.248/.306 slash at the highest level. Including him in the deal allows Seattle to send an experienced, glove-first veteran to Tacoma after Hunt’s departure. He’s behind Cal Raleigh and Seby Zavala on the organizational depth chart.
Brad Keller Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Brad Keller has elected free agency after going unclaimed on outright waivers, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. The White Sox had designated him for assignment on Sunday.
Keller signed a minor league pact with Chicago about halfway into Spring Training. He made three starts for their Triple-A team before being called up in late April. He started two of five appearances at the major league level, pitching to a 4.86 ERA through 16 2/3 innings. Three of Keller’s first four outings were solid, but he gave up four homers in as many innings against the Yankees on Saturday. The Sox decided to go in a different direction, eventually recalling rookie right-hander Nick Nastrini to take the rotation spot.
The 28-year-old Keller has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons. All of that time has been spent in the AL Central. The Royals plucked him out of the Arizona farm system as a Rule 5 pick back in 2017. Keller turned out to be one of the better Rule 5 selections in recent history. He posted a 3.08 ERA as a rookie and turned in 28 starts of 4.19 ERA ball during his second season. His results have fallen off following a strong showing in the abbreviated 2020 season.
Keller allowed more than five earned runs per nine in both 2021 and ’22. He was carrying a 4.57 mark with 14 more walks than strikeouts through 45 1/3 innings last year when he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. Kansas City let him walk in free agency last winter.
Teams seeking rotation depth could offer Keller a minor league deal. While his recent production hasn’t been great, he’s still adept at keeping the ball on the ground. He racked up grounders at a 56.1% clip during his brief run with the Sox. He has only had one season where opponents got the ball in the air more than half the time they put it in play against him.
Angels Re-Sign Amir Garrett To Minor League Contract
Amir Garrett is returning to the Angels on a minor league deal, tweets Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The veteran reliever will head back to Triple-A Salt Lake, the place where he opened the 2024 season.
Garrett first signed with the Halos after being released by the Giants in Spring Training. He threw 7 1/3 innings in Salt Lake, striking out 10 while issuing four walks. Opponents only managed three hits and two runs over those eight appearances. The Angels called Garrett to the big leagues at the end of April. He had a tougher go in six MLB outings, surrendering three runs on four hits and five walks through 5 1/3 frames. After Garrett gave up a tie-breaking home run to Alec Burleson in a loss to the Cardinals last week, the Angels designated him for assignment.
The 32-year-old cleared waivers and declined an outright assignment in favor of free agency. It didn’t take long for him to circle back on a new deal with the Angels. That’s not uncommon for veterans who go unclaimed on outright waivers. Reliever Jackson Stephens re-signed with the Braves this afternoon days after electing free agency, for example.
Garrett has high-octane stuff and has missed plenty of bats throughout his seven-plus seasons in the majors. Sky-high walk rates tend to be the tradeoff, though, as he has handed out free passes to more than 15% of opponents in each season since 2021. Garrett will again team with Adam Kolarek as experienced non-roster lefties in Triple-A. Matt Moore and José Suarez are the two southpaws currently in Ron Washington’s bullpen. Kenny Rosenberg has pitched in a swing capacity over the last couple seasons. He’s on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment to Salt Lake, where he has been working out of the rotation.
Mariners Select Jhonathan Díaz
The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Jhonathan Díaz from Triple-A Tacoma, then optioned him to Tacoma. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times relays on X that the lefty had an opt-out in his minor league deal, which is why he got added to the 40-man but not the active roster. They had an open 40-man spot and thus didn’t need to make a corresponding move.
Díaz, 27, signed a minor league deal with the M’s in January. He has since made nine appearances for Tacoma, eight starts, logging 51 innings with a 3.18 earned run average. He has struck out 26.2% of batters faced while giving out walks just 4.3% of the time. He has also kept 56.3% of balls in play on the ground. The fact that all that took place in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League makes it all the more impressive.
The lefty also has 35 1/3 innings of major league experience, which came with the Angels from 2021 to 2023. He had a 4.48 ERA in that time, though with his strikeout and walk rates matching at an unimpressive 14.4% level. He tossed 210 1/3 minor league innings over that same period of time with a 4.45 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate.
The Mariners are clearly intrigued by the recent form Díaz has shown and didn’t want him to get away. He still has options and they had an open spot on the 40-man, they were able to simply add him there and keep him in Tacoma, preventing him from returning to the open market.
The M’s have a strong rotation right now composed of Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller. On optional assignment, they have Emerson Hancock and Levi Stoudt as depth options, with Díaz now joining them as guys who could be recalled for a spot start or as an injury replacement.