Yankees Claim Taylor Trammell, Designate Kevin Smith
The Yankees announced that they have claimed outfielder Taylor Trammell off waivers from the Dodgers, the latter club having designated him for assignment earlier this week. To open a roster spot for Trammell, the Yankees designated infielder Kevin Smith for assignment.
Trammell, 26, was only with the Dodgers for a couple of weeks. They claimed him off waivers from the Mariners in early April and he only got six hitless plate appearances, striking out three times, before getting bumped off the roster and put right back on waivers.
The Yankees are likely interested based on Trammell’s past status as one of the top prospects in the game. Selected 35th overall by the Reds in 2016, he was on Baseball America’s top 100 lists in three straight years starting in 2018.
But his results started to dip as he began to be passed around the league a bit. He was flipped to the Padres in the 2019 deal that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds and Yasiel Puig to Cleveland, then was traded again, going to the Mariners in the 2020 deal that also sent Ty France and Andrés Muñoz to Seattle.
The Mariners gave him sporadic playing time in the majors over the past few years but he didn’t live up to his previous prospect hype. He currently has a line of .165/.266/.361 in 357 plate appearances, having struck out in 37.3% of those. His 10.9% walk rate is strong but the overall output has obviously not been good. He is now out of options, which is why the Mariners and Dodgers have each had to designate him for assignment in recent weeks.
Reasons for optimism can be found on Trammell’s Triple-A performance. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has 812 plate appearances at the top minor league level. He struck out in 24% of those but also drew walks at a 14% rate and hit 38 home runs. That’s to be taken with a grain of salt since those homers were all in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but his .274/.381/.506 batting line nonetheless translated to a 116 wRC+, indicating he was 16% above league average. He also stole 33 bases in 40 tries in that time.
The Yanks will give Trammell a roster spot to see if he can finally have his long-awaited breakout in pinstripes. While that’s a sensible decision in a vacuum, it seems less than ideal in terms of roster construction.
The Yankees already have a pretty loaded group in terms of outfielders, with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo getting the regular playing time. Giancarlo Stanton is in the designated hitter slot most days while Trent Grisham is on hand as a glove-first backup.
Smith was added to the roster on the weekend with the club’s infield injuries mounting. Oswald Peraza and DJ LeMahieu both started the season on the injured list, which prompted the Yanks to trade for Jon Berti. But then Berti himself landed on the IL a few days ago, which is what led the club to select Smith’s contract.
Swapping in Trammell for Smith will seemingly give the club a surplus of outfielders but leave them a bit shorthanded on the dirt. Oswaldo Cabrera has taken over as the regular third baseman amid all those injuries, taking a spot next to Anthony Volpe, Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo. The Yankees have Jahmai Jones on hand as a depth infielder but he’s been given just one plate appearance so far this year and only has major league experience at second base and in left field.
LeMahieu is starting a rehab assignment this week but a bench of catcher Jose Trevino, Jones, Grisham and Trammell will leave the club a bit thin on the infield until LeMahieu is ready to rejoin the big league club. Someone will have to lose their roster spot when LeMahieu gets back and time will tell who that is. If Trammell hangs onto his spot, he can be retained well into the future. He has less than two years of service time, meaning he has four years of club control beyond the current campaign.
As for Smith, the Yankees will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He got into one game as a pinch runner during his time on the roster but didn’t get sent to the plate. He has hit .173/.215/.301 in his 333 career plate appearances at the major league level.
He seemed to have a Triple-A breakout in 2021 when he hit .285/.370/.561 for the top minor league affiliate of the Blue Jays. But since then, his Triple-A performance has been an average-ish .280/.340/.497, which translates to a 101 wRC+. He also struck out in 29.9% of his plate appearances in that time. Like Trammell, he’s out of options but comes with years of potential club control. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Yankees as depth but without occupying a roster spot.
Brewers Outright Kevin Herget
Right-hander Kevin Herget has cleared waivers and been outrighted by the Brewers to Triple-A Nashville, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Brewers had designated the righty for assignment on the weekend.
Herget, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in the offseason. He had his contract selected April 9 and was bounced off the roster five days later without making an appearance. Prior to joining the big league club, he made four scoreless appearances in Triple-A, striking out five batters while only issuing one walk. He also had two scoreless appearances in Spring Training.
Though he didn’t get into a big league game with the Brewers, he has 31 1/3 innings of major league experience with the Rays and Reds. He has a 5.74 earned run average in that time, striking out just 12.6% of batters faced but limiting walks to a tiny rate of 4.4%. His work in the minors has naturally been more intriguing. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has tossed 230 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.86 ERA, 24.1% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate.
Herget has been outrighted before in his career, which gives him the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. It’s not yet clear whether he’s chosen to report to Nashville or head back out to the open market.
Rangers Promote Jack Leiter
April 18: Texas officially selected Leiter’s contract on Thursday morning. The Rangers optioned Grant Anderson to Triple-A in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster, they transferred lefty reliever Brock Burke to the 60-day injured list. Burke broke his non-throwing hand last week and will now be out of action until at least the middle of June.
April 16: The Rangers announced this morning that top pitching prospect Jack Leiter will have his contract selected to the major league roster and make his big league debut Thursday against the Tigers. Texas has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to accommodate the right-hander, whom they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.
It’s an early birthday present for Leiter, who’ll turn 24 just three days after making his long-awaited debut. The second-generation talent is the son of two-time World Series champion and two-time All-Star Al Leiter, the nephew of 11-year MLB veteran Mark Leiter, and the cousin of current Cubs setup man Mark Leiter Jr.
The fourth Leiter to reach the majors, Jack hasn’t had the most straightforward path to the show despite his considerable draft and prospect pedigree. He annihilated hitters in college ball at Vanderbilt, fanning 41% of his opponents in two seasons prior to being drafted, but struggled with command following an aggressive assignment to Double-A right out of the gate.
Leiter walked more than 13% of his opponents and posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of his first two seasons at the Double-A level but has been an absolute monster in his first three Triple-A appearances this season. In 14 1/3 innings, he’s punched out 25 of his 57 opponents (43.9%), walked only three (5.3%) and surrendered just 11 hits. Four of those, unfortunately, have left the yard and saddled Leiter with a 3.77 ERA that’s far less impressive than his overpowering K-BB profile would otherwise suggest, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by the strikeout and walk trends. That’s especially true given that Leiter also pitched 12 2/3 innings for Texas this spring and posted a much-improved 9.6% walk rate in that short time as well.
Texas’ rotation has been hammered by injuries. Jacob deGrom, signed to a five-year contract in the 2022-23 offseason, opened the year on the 60-day injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. Max Scherzer, acquired at least year’s trade deadline, required offseason back surgery to repair a herniated disc. Twenty-six-year old southpaw Cody Bradford was a godsend through three starts to begin the season (1.40 ERA) … until he suffered a lower back strain of his own and was subsequently placed on the 15-day IL.
Leiter will step onto a starting staff that’s in flux. Veteran righty Michael Lorenzen, who inked a one-year deal late in spring training, made his Rangers debut yesterday with five shutout frames over his former Tigers teammates (albeit with five walks against four strikeouts). Veteran lefty Andrew Heaney would’ve been on tap for Thursday’s start, but he’s yet to last five innings in any of his three starts while pitching to a 6.75 ERA. It seems Leiter will overtake that spot, at least for the time being.
That all points to a rotation that’ll include Lorenzen, Leiter, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray and Wednesday’s starter Dane Dunning — at least for the time being. It’s not clear how long a leash Leiter will be given if he struggles out of the gate, though one would imagine the Rangers are planning to give him multiple starts following his initial call to the big leagues. Manager Bruce Bochy and/or general manager Chris Young will presumably expand on the team’s plans for their young righty in the days to come.
Leiter’s 2022-23 struggles were enough to drop him off prospect rankings, meaning he’s ineligible for MLB’s prospect promotion incentives. He won’t accrue a full year of service time, given the lack of sufficient time remaining on the calendar, nor can he net the Rangers a draft pick based on his Rookie of the Year voting. As it stands, he’ll be controllable through the 2030 season and is set up on pace to reach Super Two status, granting him four trips through the arbitration process rather than the standard three. The first of those arb-eligible offseasons would come in the winter of 2026-27, though future optional assignments could yet impact both his free agent timeline and arbitration status.
Blue Jays Trade Jimmy Robbins To Rangers
The Rangers acquired minor league left-hander Jimmy Robbins from the Blue Jays, according to an announcement from Texas’ top affiliate in Round Rock. He was not on the Toronto 40-man roster and therefore won’t occupy a spot with Texas. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, the Jays received cash in return.
Robbins, a 6’3″ southpaw, has yet to reach the majors. The Jays selected him out of a Florida junior college in the 20th round of the 2019 draft. Robbins has never ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America. Eric Longenhangen and Tess Taruskin of FanGraphs rated him as an honorable mention on their write-up of the Toronto farm system in 2023, praising his slider and calling him a potential situational lefty out of the bullpen.
The 26-year-old has worked mostly as a starting pitcher in his career, but control issues figure to push him to relief. He started 18 of 22 appearances in Double-A last year, where he walked almost 14% of batters faced. That resulted in a lackluster 4.67 ERA over 86 2/3 innings. Robbins has gotten brief looks as a non-roster invitee to big league Spring Training in each of the last two years, allowing two runs in 5 1/3 frames spanning four relief outings. He has pitched twice out of the bullpen in Triple-A this season, tossing 2 1/3 innings of two-run ball.
Texas will keep Robbins in Triple-A, where he could see action as a starter or multi-inning reliever. The Rangers are calling Jack Leiter up from the Round Rock rotation for his MLB debut tomorrow. Meanwhile, their lefty relief depth took a hit when Brock Burke suffered a self-inflicted hand fracture over the weekend.
Angels Sign Bryan Shaw, Elliot Soto To Minor League Deals
The Angels have signed right-hander Bryan Shaw and shortstop Elliot Soto to minor league deals, per each player’s transaction tracker at MLB.com. Both have been assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register relays that Shaw will make a prorated salary of $1.1MM if he makes the major league club.
Shaw, 36, is a veteran with 796 major league appearances to this point in his career. That puts him in the top 60 on the all-time list among pitchers and third among active hurlers, behind only Kenley Jansen and David Robertson. He has a 3.96 earned run average in that time over 764 1/3 innings.
He spent last year with the White Sox, logging 45 2/3 frames with a 4.14. He struck out 21.1% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.9% rate. He returned to the Sox on a minor league deal this offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He struggled in his first five appearances this year, allowing four earned runs in four innings while issuing four walks. The Sox designated him for assignment last week and he elected free agency after clearing waivers.
The Angels have a few relievers on the injured list, including Guillo Zuñiga and José Quijada, but the most notable is Robert Stephenson. Signed to a three-year, $33MM deal in the offseason, he started the season on the injured list due to some shoulder soreness and is now being evaluated for some elbow soreness which occurred during his rehab. Shaw will give the club a bit of veteran non-roster depth while trying to work his way back to the big leagues.
The Halos used six relievers in last night’s 13-inning loss to the Rays, leaving their bullpen fairly taxed. They have other relievers on their 40-man roster they could recall, such as Ben Joyce or Jimmy Herget, but no one in their current bullpen mixed can be optioned down. Since someone currently on the active roster will have to be placed on the injured list or designated for assignment to get a fresh arm in the mix, Shaw might have just as good a chance as someone already on the 40-man.
Soto, 34, has three games of major league experience, which came with the Angels back in 2020. He hit .333/.429/.500 in his seven big league plate appearances but is generally considered to be a glove-first player. Since the start of 2021, he’s hit .224/.310/.318 in the minors, which includes a line of .213/.282/.299 for the Twins’ Triple-A club last year.
He has mostly played shortstop in his career but has also spent time at third base, second base and the outfield, so he can provide the Halos with depth at multiple spots. The club’s regular infielders are all out to slow starts, with each of Zach Neto, Anthony Rendon, Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo and Nolan Schanuel provided subpar offense to this point in the season. Depth infielder Michael Stefanic is on the injured list while youngster Kyren Paris is on optional assignment in Double-A.
Soto will provide them with some non-roster depth who has been around a while, despite his limited major league track record. If he cracks the roster at any point, he has a full slate of options and just a few days of service time.
Red Sox Place Garrett Whitlock On Injured List Due To Oblique Strain
The Red Sox announced to reporters, including Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, that right-hander Garrett Whitlock has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left oblique strain. Left-hander Joe Jacques has been recalled to take his spot on the roster for now.
Whitlock, 28 in June, exited last night’s game with some tightness in the oblique. Per manager Álex Cora, as relayed by McCaffrey in the tweet above, Whitlock fought the club to stay on the active roster but the Sox made the decision for him, not wanting him to make the injury worse.
That perhaps suggests that the issue is minor and that Whitlock will be back in a couple of weeks, but it’s a tough blow for the Red Sox nonetheless. He was off to a strong start to the season, having posted an earned run average of 1.96 through his first four starts, though he wasn’t going to maintain a .265 batting average on balls in play nor an 87.4% strand rate.
Still, the Sox are facing a number of challenges in the rotation. Lucas Giolito and Chris Murphy are out for the year due to elbow surgeries while Nick Pivetta is currently on the shelf with a flexor strain. With Whitlock now out of action as well, the rotation is down to Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Cooper Criswell. They will need to find someone else to replace Whitlock but Cora didn’t tip his hand to McCaffrey about who that would be.
Veteran Chase Anderson is with the big league club and could be an option since his first two appearances were three innings each, though his last outing was just one inning and the previous appearance was just two. Naoyuki Uwasawa is on the 40-man roster but has a 6.30 ERA through his first two Triple-A starts. Wikelman Gonzalez is on the 40-man but he’s in Double-A and didn’t make it out of the first innings in his most recent start at that level.
Jacques tossed 26 2/3 innings for the Sox last year with a 5.06 ERA. He’ll give the Sox another lefty in their bullpen for the time being but perhaps find himself optioned back out in the coming days when the club decides on the move to replace Whitlock in the rotation.
Cubs Announce Several Roster Moves
The Cubs announced a series of roster moves to add some fresh arms to the bullpen after their recent pair of extra-inning games taxed the relief corps. Right-handers Hayden Wesneski and Colten Brewer are up from Triple-A Iowa — the latter of whom had his contract selected to the 40-man roster. Chicago optioned righty Daniel Palencia and lefty Luke Little to open a pair of spots on the active roster. Right-hander Julian Merryweather, already shelved with a stress fracture in his ribcage, was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Brewer on the 40-man roster. He’s been on the IL since April 6, meaning he’ll now be out until at least June 6.
The Cubs will be the fourth big league club for Brewer, 31. The right-hander tossed 8 1/3 innings with the Yankees in 2023 and has previously spent time with the Padres and Red Sox. He’s logged a combined 99 1/3 innings across parts of five MLB campaigns, pitching to a 4.98 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate, 13.1% walk rate and 51.3% grounder rate. Brewer also spent time with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last year, hurling 11 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and six walks (one intentional) with 14 strikeouts.
Brewer signed with Chicago on a minor league pact over the winter and had a strong spring training (seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, no walks). He’s posted quite similar numbers in Des Moines so far: 7 2/3 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts. The 6’4″ righty is no stranger pitching to working in a long-relief role and could give the Cubs multiple innings if needed.
A protracted absence for Merryweather stings for the Cubs. The 32-year-old joined the organization as a waiver claim out of Toronto in January 2023 and quickly became one of their most important relievers. Since Opening Day ’23, Merryweather touts a 3.29 ERA (3.46 FIP, 3.41 SIERA) with a huge 32.1% strikeout rate. His 11.7% walk rate could rather obviously stand to improve, but Merryweather has done a nice job keeping the ball in the yard and frequently overpowering opponents with a heater that’s averaged 98.1 mph as a Cub. Among the 244 big league pitchers to toss at least 70 innings since Opening Day 2023, Merryweather’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate ranks 11th, placing him right between Mariners setup stud Matt Brash and reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Rockies Place Kris Bryant On Injured List Due To Back Strain
The Rockies announced that they have recalled outfielder Sean Bouchard from Triple-A Albuquerque. He will take the roster spot of first baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a low back strain, retroactive to April 14.
Bryant, 32, crashed into the wall at Rogers Centre this weekend while catching a ball off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.(video clip via MLB.com). He was later removed from that game and hasn’t been back in the lineup since. The fact that he wasn’t immediately placed on the IL perhaps suggests he could return after a brief absence, though further updates will perhaps provide more information. Since the move was backdated by three days, Bryant could theoretically be back with the club in a week.
Going into the 2022 season, the Rockies and Bryant agreed to a seven-year, $182MM contract. The deal has not provided the results the club had hoped for to this point, which is putting it mildly. Bryant hit well in 2022 but only played 42 games due to back problems and left foot plantar fasciitis. Last year, a left heel bruise and a fractured left index finger led to IL stints. Bryant still got into 80 games but his production dipped, and he was also out to a slow start here in 2024.
Overall, Bryant has appeared in 135 games since joining Colorado, taking 571 plate appearances. He has hit .249/.329/.391 for a wRC+ of 86. That’s well shy of the .278/.376/.504 line he put up through the 2021 season, production which translated to a 134 wRC+. There’s still plenty of time for Bryant to turn things around but each trip to the IL will only compound the frustration among the Colorado fans as the largest free agent signing in franchise history continues to go for nought.
Bryant had been playing both first base and right field prior to his injury. Elehuris Montero has seemingly taken over at the regular at first, with the outfield spots filled by Brenton Doyle, Nolan Jones and Michael Toglia. Veteran Charlie Blackmon has mostly been in the designated hitter slot but has played some right field on occasion.
Jake Cave is on the roster as a reserve outfielder but he will now be joined by Bouchard, who turns 28 next month. Bouchard has a stout line of .304/.429/.563 in his major league career, though in a small sample of 140 plate appearances. He seemed to have a chance to earn a regular role to start the 2024 season but hit just .205/.308/.341 in the spring. However, he has mashed since reporting to Triple-A, putting up a line of .315/.431/.611 so far this year.
Mets Claim Michael Tonkin, Designate Tyler Jay
The Mets have claimed righty Michael Tonkin off waivers from the Twins, per a team announcement. Left-hander Tyler Jay was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
It’s in many ways a reversal of some recent bullpen-related transactions in Queens. New York designated Tonkin for assignment on April 5, traded him to the Twins for cash, and less than a week later selected the contract of Jay (a former Twins top prospect himself). Minnesota designated Tonkin for assignment a second time after he made just one appearance.
Both Tonkin and Jay were original Twins draftees — Tonkin in the 30th round in 2008 and Jay with the No. 6 overall pick in 2015. The 34-year-old Tonkin has allowed 10 runs in six innings between the Mets and Twins this year, though only four of them have been earned. He’s whiffed eight of 33 opponents and walked three, although he’s also plunked three batters in his tiny sample of innings.
Tonkin spent the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, logging a 4.28 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 80 innings. That set a new career-high MLB workload for the journeyman right-hander, who owns a career 4.42 ERA (4.55 FIP, 3.70 SIERA) with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.7% grounder rate in 232 1/3 big league innings between Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Tonkin has also pitched in the D-backs and Brewers systems in addition to stints with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.
As for Jay, his major league debut came far, far later than most would’ve expected when he was taken sixth overall as a high-profile college arm out of the University of Illinois. A former top-100 prospect, he’s been slowed by shoulder and neck troubles throughout his career and notably underwent thoracic outlet surgery back in 2017, costing him a year of his career. Jay never tossed more than 83 2/3 innings in any of his seasons with the Twins before being cut loose during the canceled 2020 minor league season. He didn’t pitch at all in 2021 and spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League.
His work with the Slammers earned him a look in the Mets’ system late last year. He re-signed on a minor league deal over the winter, tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames in Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and allowed one run on five hits and a walk in his first four MLB frames with the Mets. Jay only struck out one of the 18 batters he faced but also recorded an outstanding 66.7% ground-ball rate. New York will have a week to trade Jay, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Brewers Select Tobias Myers, Designate Vladimir Gutierrez For Assignment
The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Tobias Myers. In corresponding moves, they optioned left-hander Jared Koenig to Triple-A Nashville and designated right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez for assignment.
Myers, 25, will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, though he took quite a circuitous route to get here. Drafted by the Orioles way back in 2016, he was traded to the Rays the following year as the O’s acquired Tim Beckham. Ahead of the 2021 Rule 5 deadline, he was flipped to Cleveland in exchange for Junior Caminero and then added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster. Myers was designated for assignment in July of 2022, getting traded to the Giants for cash. He was later claimed off waivers by the White Sox, though that club outrighted him off their roster towards the end of the 2022 season. He reached minor league free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Brewers prior to 2023.
Along that winding road, he saw his prospect stock rise and fall. Baseball America considered him the Rays’ #15 prospect going into 2018, which was on the heels of a strong 2017 performance wherein Myers tossed 56 minors league innings with a 3.54 earned run average, 31.9% strikeout rate and 4.4% walk rate. Were in not for a very unlucky 52.1% strand rate, his performance would have been even better, which is why his FIP was a tiny 1.81.
But his strikeout-to-walk ratios were less impressive in the two following two seasons. He had a combed 3.05 ERA over 2018 and 2019 but with a subpar 18.7% strikeout rate and average-ish 8.1% walk rate. The minors were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 but Myers bounced back somewhat in 2021. He tossed 117 2/3 innings over 25 outings, 22 starts, with a 3.90 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. It was then that he was traded to the Guards for Caminero and BA ranked him the #23 prospect in Cleveland’s system.
But in 2022, as he bounced to the Guardians, Giants and White Sox, he tossed 76 innings on the farm with a ghastly 7.82 ERA, striking out just 14.2% of opponents while giving them free passes at a 13.5% clip.
With the Brewers last year, he improved in terms of strikeouts and walks but the long ball was an issue. He threw 140 2/3 frames with a 29.3% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate, but the 30 home runs allowed led to a 4.93 ERA. So far this year, he’s made three Triple-A starts with a 1.84 ERA in that small sample.
Given the inconsistency, it’s hard to know what to expect from Myers at this point, but the Brewers have largely been getting decent results out of him in the past year-plus. Since he’s stretched out, he can give the club a bit of length. He has a couple of options and can provide the club with some roster flexibility well into the future if he continues to hang onto his 40-man spot.
Gutierrez, 28, was claimed off waivers by the Brewers less than two weeks ago. He was optioned to Triple-A and made two appearances on the farm before getting bumped off the 40-man roster today. Milwaukee will have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers.
He was once a highly-touted prospect himself but has a 5.47 ERA through 154 2/3 major league innings thus far, mostly with the Reds. He missed most of 2023 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and was outrighted by the Reds at season’s end. He signed a minor league deal with the Marlins this winter and was selected to the roster but was designated for assignment after one appearance, which led him to the Brewers via the aforementioned waiver claim.
He could perhaps garner interest from other clubs, either due to his previous prospect pedigree or the various injuries piling up around the league or both. The fact that Gutierrez still has a couple of options means he won’t even need an active roster spot.