Nationals Place Josiah Gray On Injured List With Flexor Strain
6:30pm: Gray told the Washington beat that the strain is muscular (relayed by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). Imaging revealed that his UCL is fully intact. Needless to say, it’s a significant plus that there doesn’t appear to be any kind of structural damage that would raise the possibility of surgery.
3:2opm: The Nationals announced that right-hander Josiah Gray has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right elbow/forearm flexor strain. The move is retroactive to April 6 and righty Joan Adon has been recalled in a corresponding move.
The Nats have not yet provided any kind of information relating to the severity of Gray’s injury or how long they expect him to be out of action, but it’s the latest in a string of elbow injuries to notable pitchers around the league. The season is less than two weeks old but has already seen pitchers like Shane Bieber and Eury Pérez be sent to the operating table for Tommy John surgery. Spencer Strider could follow them since he has sustained damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, though it’s not yet been determined whether he will have surgery or not. Framber Valdez was scratched from yesterday’s start and sent to meet with doctors after experiencing elbow soreness. Nick Pivetta was placed on the IL earlier today due to a flexor strain, though Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow characterized it as mild.
All of those injuries are on top of pitchers who were injured last year and are still recovering, a list that includes guys like Shohei Ohtani, Jacob deGrom, Sandy Alcántara, Robbie Ray, Shane McClanahan and many more. The ever-growing list has led to a dispute between MLB and the MLBPA, with the league blaming pitchers chasing high velocity and spin while the players point to the pitch clock.
Gray will now add another notable injury to that pile. He may not have as much big league success as some of those aforementioned pitchers, but he is nonetheless a notable name due to his former status as a top prospect and trade chip. Now 26, Gray was a top 100 prospect during his time with the Dodgers before coming to the Nationals as a key piece of the 2021 deadline deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles.
Gray has not yet truly lived up to that hype, with a 4.84 earned run average in 386 2/3 innings in his major league career. He had a 3.91 ERA last year but may have been lucky to have allowed so few runs to score. His 20.5% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate were each below league average, but his 80.4% strand rate was on the high side. His 4.93 FIP and 5.08 SIERA were each more than a run higher than his ERA, perhaps suggesting regression was coming. His first two outings in 2024 resulted in 13 earned runs scoring in 8 1/3 innings, though the injury may have also played a role in that.
Nonetheless, Gray has been an important building block for the Nats amid their ongoing rebuild. If he ends up needing to miss significant time, that could be a blow to Gray and the club in what was likely seen as a key development year. He came into 2024 with two years and 75 days of service time, meaning that he will qualify for arbitration for the first time going into 2025 and is slated for free agency after 2027. The Nats have a number of their best prospects nearing the majors and would ideally like to see Gray take a step forward to be a part of their next competitive window but an extended absence would obviously get in the way of that plan.
For now, he’ll be removed from the rotation for at least a couple of turns. For now, Adon will take Gray’s spot next to MacKenzie Gore, Patrick Corbin, Trevor Williams and Jake Irvin. Adon has 121 2/3 innings of major league experience with a 6.66 ERA.
Astros Place Framber Valdez On Injured List
The Astros have placed left-hander Framber Valdez on the 15-day injured list due to elbow soreness, retroactive to April 6, per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 (X links). They also optioned right-hander Blair Henley to Triple-A Sugar Land. In corresponding moves, they recalled left-hander Parker Mushinski and selected the contract of right-hander Wander Suero. Mushinski was just optioned on Friday and hasn’t yet spent the minimum of 15 days on optional assignment, but players are allowed to return early when someone else goes on the IL. To open a spot on the 40-man roster for Suero, right-hander Oliver Ortega was transferred to the 60-day injured list, per Alexander. Henley relayed the news of his option last night, with Chandler Rome of The Athletic among those to pass it on. Rome also noted that Suero was at the ballpark earlier today and also relayed that Mushinski was on his way to join the club.
It was reported yesterday that Valdez was scratched from his start due to elbow soreness and sent to Houston to visit with team doctors. Manager Joe Espada says the plan is for him to be shut down for a few days while his inflammation subsides, per Rome. Further updates will likely follow in the coming days as the club continues to monitor his progress.
With Valdez scratched, the Astros tagged in Henley as an emergency starter in yesterday’s game against the Rangers but he allowed five earned runs while recording just one out. The Astros managed to come back and win that game 10-5 but used four relievers, getting multiple innings from three of them. Today’s moves provide the club with a couple of fresh arms for their beleaguered bullpen.
Now that Valdez is officially on the IL, the Astros will have to find another starter to join their rotation alongside Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown, J.P. France and Ronel Blanco, though Justin Verlander has begun a rehab assignment and may not be too far away. If Verlander wants to make a second rehab starts as planned, perhaps long reliever Brandon Bielak can take the ball in a few days’ time for a spot start.
Suero, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason. He has 193 1/3 innings of major league experience, having pitched for the Nationals and Dodgers. He has a 4.75 earned run average in that time, striking out 25.4% of batters faced while walking 8.6%.
However, he’s a few years removed from his best results, as he had a 4.10 ERA with the Nats from 2018 to 2020 but then a 6.33 ERA in 2021. He was stuck in the minors in 2022 and then had a 7.88 ERA in eight innings for the Dodgers last year. But his recent Triple-A numbers have been better, as he had a 3.26 ERA in the Dodgers’ system last year and a 4.50 ERA through four appearances so far this year. Suero still has an option and also has less than four years of service time, meaning he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration if he holds onto a 40-man spot all year.
As for Ortega, it was reported last month that he would miss three to four months after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow, making this transfer an inevitable formality.
Mets Designate Julio Teheran For Assignment
The Mets have designated right-handed pitcher Julio Teheran for assignment, according to an announcement from the club. In a corresponding move, the team selected right-hander Dedniel Núñez from Triple-A Syracuse.
Teheran and the club just agreed to a one-year, $2.5MM deal last week, but Tim Healey of Newsday reports today that the contract was non-guaranteed and prorated with Teheran collecting $54K for his brief stint on the roster, though Healey also adds that Teheran’s prorated deal will continue to pay him while he’s in DFA limbo.
Teheran took the ball for the Mets last night against a tough Atlanta lineup and clearly struggled. It took him 68 pitches to get through 2 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs via six hits and two walks, striking out three in the process.
The Mets were put in a position to need an extra starting pitcher by some recent injuries. They knew long ago that David Peterson had hip surgery and wouldn’t be an option early in this season, but then Kodai Senga was diagnosed with a moderate posterior capsule strain in his throwing shoulder in late February. That left a spot open for a depth arm like Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi or Jose Buttó. Megill won that job but then suffered a right shoulder strain after just one start.
Neither Lucchesi nor Buttó could be recalled right away to replace Megill since they were optioned to start the season and an optional assignment comes with a 15-day minimum stay. An exception that rule is allowed for a double-header, which is why Buttó was allowed to be the club’s “27th man” and pitch on April 4, but he wasn’t allowed to stay after due to the 15-day rule. Teheran filled that rotation job for one outing but it seems Buttó will be coming up this weekend once he’s eligible, per Tim Healey of Newsday and Mike Puma of The New York Post.
The Mets will now have a week to trade Teheran or try to pass him through waivers. The latter scenario will largely be a moot point since Teheran is a veteran with well over five years of major league service time, meaning he can reject an outright assignment in favor of electing free agency.
Teheran had a bit of a bounceback year in 2023, tossing 71 2/3 innings over 11 starts and three relief appearances with a 4.40 earned run average. He only struck out 17.4% of batters faced but limited walks to a 4.5% clip. Those results aren’t super exciting but still were a bit of a return to form for him. He didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2022 and was only allowed to take the ball once in 2021 after he posted an ERA of 10.05 for the Angels in the shortened 2020 season.
Prior to that, he was a mainstay in the Atlanta rotation, making 222 starts from 2013 to 2019 with a 3.64 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. Last year’s performance with the Brewers wasn’t quite at that level but was a turnaround after three challenging years. Given the enormous amount of pitching injuries around the league right now, it’s possible that Teheran will garner interest from clubs in search of innings.
Núñez, 28 in June, has not yet appeared in a major league game but he does have one year of major league service time. That’s because the Giants selected him from the Mets in the 2020 Rule 5 draft but he required Tommy John surgery before the 2021 season started and he eventually spent all of that year on the injured list, with the Giants returning him to the Mets after that year.
He split 2023 between Double-A and Triple-A with a 5.53 ERA in 57 innings, striking out 26.8% of batters faced but also walking 12.3%. He has thrown 3 1/3 scoreless innings at Triple-A so far this year, with five strikeouts and just one walk. Back in February, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs mentioned Núñez as a pitcher who could debut for the Mets this year thanks to his high 90s heat, but also expressed concerns about the lack of control.
Twins Acquire Michael Tonkin From Mets
The Twins announced that they have acquired right-hander Michael Tonkin from the Mets, after the latter club designated him for assignment last week. Outfielder Max Kepler has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee contusion, opening an active roster spot for Tonkin. Right-hander Zack Weiss was transferred to the 60-day IL due to his right shoulder strain, opening a spot on the 40-man.
Tonkin, 34, returns to the organization that originally drafted him in the 30th round back in 2008. He’s pitched in the D-backs, Brewers, Braves and Mets organizations since originally leaving the Twins, in addition to stints in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the Mexican League and the independent Atlantic League.
Though he pitched just four innings with the Mets, Tonkin spent the entirety of the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, working to a 4.28 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 80 innings of relief. That marked his first MLB experience since 2017. Overall, Tonkin has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons. He carries a career 4.38 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that closely mirror his 2023 levels in Atlanta.
Tonkin originally signed a split one-year deal with the Mets, which calls for just a $1MM base salary. The Twins will owe him the prorated portion of that sum for any time spent on the big league roster, though he’ll have a different rate of pay in the minors if Minnesota designates him for assignment, passes him through waivers and outrights him to Triple-A St. Paul. He’s out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent down unless going through that waiver process first.
The Twins have several relievers on the injured list, most notably including Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar and Justin Topa. None of those injuries are expected to require long-term absences, but Tonkin will add a veteran arm to a group that’s been tested more early on than the front office would’ve hoped. If he can get on track and carve out a role in the Twins’ bullpen, he’s technically controllable through the 2026 season via arbitration.
Kepler fouled a ball into his leg recently, creating the contusion that’s currently hobbling him. The 31-year-old is out to a poor start at the plate, having gone just 1-for-20 with a walk and six strikeouts. Kepler had a prolonged slump during the 2023 season as well, struggling badly in May and for most of June before catching fire late that month. He closed out the season hitting .297/.368/.545 with 17 home runs in his final 326 plate appearances. That torrid run erased any doubt that might’ve been rising regarding his $10MM club option for the 2024 season.
With Kepler on the shelf, the Twins can go with fellow lefty swingers Matt Wallner and Alex Kirilloff in the outfield corners — presumably with Wallner in right field. Right-handed-hitting Manuel Margot will work into the mix against lefty starters, and the Twins could also mix in utility players Willi Castro and Austin Martin.
Brewers Select Kevin Herget, Option Aaron Ashby
The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Kevin Herget, with left-hander Aaron Ashby optioned in a corresponding move. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Devin Williams was transferred to the 60-day injured list. It was reported a few weeks ago that Williams has stress fractures in his back and will be out of action for about three months.
Herget, 33, has logged big league time in each of the past two seasons, spending the 2022 campaign in the Rays organization and the 2023 season with the Reds. He’s posted a 5.74 ERA in 31 1/3 MLB frames, with a 12.6% strikeout rate that’s only a bit more than half the league average but an outstanding 4.4% walk rate. Herget delivered pedestrian numbers in 47 1/3 Triple-A innings with the Reds’ top affiliate last season but was excellent in Triple-A with the 2022 Rays when he racked up 97 1/3 frames with a 2.95 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate and pristine 3.9% walk rate.
Though Herget doesn’t throw hard (92.6 mph average fastball) or miss many bats, his command is sharp. He’s only walked 6% of the hitters he’s faced in pro ball, including just 6.3% in parts of seven Triple-A seasons. He’s walked only one of his 17 opponents (5.8%) in 4 1/3 shutout innings to start the Triple-A season with the Brewers’ affiliate in Nashville. Herget also has a pair of minor league options remaining, so if the Brewers decide this will be a short stint in the big league bullpen, he can be sent back to Nashville without first needing to clear waivers.
Optioning Ashby is the latest discouraging development in what’s been a frustrating couple of years for the former top prospect. The now-25-year-old lefty debuted late in the 2021 season and impressed down the stretch, fanning nearly 30% of his opponents in 31 2/3 innings. Ashby split the 2022 season between the Brewers’ rotation and bullpen, pitching quite well through the season’s first few months — so much so that Milwaukee signed him to a five-year, $20.5MM contract extension.
That hasn’t gone nearly as well as hoped. Ashby posted a decent 4.23 ERA with a 4.31 FIP and much more promising 3.44 SIERA in his final 38 1/3 innings that season. He fanned 26.1% of his opponents, issued walks at a 9.1% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 57.4% rate in ’22 following the extension.
Shoulder troubles popped up in 2023, however, eventually requiring arthroscopic surgery. Ashby wound up pitching just seven innings all season — all of which came in the minors. He returned this season but was rocked for 11 runs (nine earned) on 14 hits and five walks with seven punchouts in just 8 1/3 spring innings. His regular season began with a the left-hander yielding eight runs (four earned) on six hits and a pair of walks in 3 2/3 innings. Ashby averaged 96.5 mph on his sinker in 2021 and 95.8 mph in 2022; he’s sitting at just 93.8 mph to begin the current season.
The Brewers are surely still hopeful that Ashby can rebound to an extent. Whether he factors into the rotation or eventually settles in as a bullpen piece, the former fourth-round pick has shown clear ability to miss bats and generate grounders at a premium level. Command has long been an issue, and Ashby probably won’t ever excel in that regard, but he could still play a prominent role on the team if he can get back to the 27.1% strikeout rate, 12.6% swinging-strike rate and 34.1% opponents’ chase rate he displayed in 2021-22.
Under the terms of that previously mentioned contract extension, Ashby is being paid $1.25MM in 2024. He’s owed salaries of $3.25MM, $5.5MM and $7.5MM from 2025-27, and Milwaukee has club options on what would’ve been his first two free agent seasons: $9MM in 2028 (with a $1MM buyout) and $13MM in 2029.
Dodgers Outright Dinelson Lamet
April 9: Lamet cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He has more than enough service time (nearly six years) to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, if he chooses.
April 6: The Dodgers announced that right-hander Dinelson Lamet has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a roster space for fellow righty Gus Varland, who has been called up from Triple-A.
Lamet’s minor league deal was selected to the active roster on April 1, and he has posted a 2.08 ERA over three appearances and 4 1/3 innings of work. While a small sample size, Lamet’s 16.7% strikeout rate was uninspiring, and he allowed a solo homer to Michael Busch during 1 1/3 frames in yesterday’s 9-7 Dodgers loss to the Cubs. If Lamet is the proverbial 26th man on the roster, Los Angeles seems willing to risk losing him on outright waivers in order to add a fresh arm in Varland, though it is certainly possible Lamet clears waivers and remains in the organization.
This cup of coffee with the Dodgers represents one of Lamet’s better stretches of pitching in the last four years, as he has a 6.63 ERA over 111 1/3 innings with four different big league clubs since the start of the 2021 campaign. Once a promising starter in the Padres’ rotation in 2019-20, Lamet has been set back by injuries and a consistent lack of control when facing MLB batters.
Angels Sign Angel Felipe To Minor League Deal
The Angels recently signed reliever Angel Felipe to a minor league deal (h/t to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy). While the contract details aren’t clear, it seems fair to presume that was a two-year pact. Felipe underwent Tommy John surgery last month and will miss the entire 2024 season.
Felipe entered Spring Training holding a 40-man roster spot with the A’s. The 26-year-old righty had made his major league debut with Oakland a year ago. A waiver claim out of the San Diego organization, Felipe tossed 15 innings of seven-run ball for the A’s in the second half.
While he held his job over the winter, the surgery marked an end to his A’s tenure. Oakland designated Felipe for assignment shortly after announcing he’d go under the knife. They released him after the DFA, as injured players cannot go on outright waivers.
In parts of eight minor league campaigns, Felipe owns a 4.65 ERA. He allowed 5.46 earned runs per nine innings in 30 appearances between San Diego’s and Oakland’s Triple-A affiliates last season. The 6’5″ hurler missed a decent number of bats, fanning a third of opposing hitters. He also walked nearly 14% of batters faced, continuing a trend of career-long issues finding the strike zone.
Royals Sign Zach Davies To Minor League Deal
The Royals announced this evening that they’ve signed starter Zach Davies to a minor league pact. The Boras Corporation client has been assigned to Triple-A Omaha.
Davies adds a veteran rotation option to the upper levels of the K.C. system. He was in Nationals camp this spring but didn’t make the MLB roster and was cut loose just before Opening Day. The 31-year-old righty had struggled in exhibition play, allowing 14 runs in as many innings across four starts.
That came on the heels of a rough 2023 campaign. Davies was tagged for seven earned runs per nine through 18 starts with the Diamondbacks a year ago. He missed some time with a back injury and was released in the days leading up to Arizona’s postseason run. Davies had turned in more serviceable back-of-the-rotation production in the preceding season. He managed a 4.09 ERA despite middling strikeout and walk numbers over 134 1/3 frames with the Snakes in 2022.
Davies doesn’t throw hard and has never missed many bats. He nevertheless posted solid results early in his career on the strength of above-average control and a lot of ground-ball contact. Davies has started exactly 200 games at the major league level and owns a 4.36 ERA in a little more than 1000 innings. He has allowed 5.43 earned runs per nine over the past three seasons, though, in part because his formerly strong walk rates have ticked upwards.
Kansas City’s rotation has been excellent in the first couple weeks. Only the Red Sox had a lower rotation ERA entering play today, as K.C. starters have worked to a microscopic 1.60 mark in their first 10 starts. Cole Ragans, Brady Singer, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Alec Marsh have each taken the ball two times.
The Royals kicked veteran righty Jordan Lyles into multi-inning relief and have Daniel Lynch and Jonathan Bowlan as rotation depth in Omaha. Minor league signee Luis Cessa had initially been assigned to Triple-A but was recently moved to the development list after walking five of his first 23 opponents.
Rangers Select Davis Wendzel
The Rangers announced they’ve selected infielder Davis Wendzel onto the major league roster. Rookie infielder Justin Foscue has been placed on the 10-day injured list as a result of a left oblique strain. To clear space on the 40-man roster, Texas transferred third baseman Josh Jung from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.
Wendzel, 26, is headed to the big leagues for the first time. Texas took the right-handed hitter 41st overall in the 2019 draft. The Baylor product hasn’t moved through the ranks as quickly as the team likely envisioned on draft day, but he’s now headed to Globe Life Field after parts of five seasons in the minors.
Within his first two-plus seasons in pro ball, Wendzel had reached the Triple-A level. He has played there since 2022. Wendzel struggled in his first look at Triple-A pitching, hitting .207/.287/.398 during the ’22 campaign. He improved in his second season, connecting on 30 homers with a roughly average .236/.361/.477 overall line. Wendzel went unselected in the Rule 5 draft but he’s been off to a blistering start this year. Over his first nine contests, he’s hitting .314/.419/.657 with a trio of homers and four walks and strikeouts apiece in 43 trips to the plate.
That excellent first week surely played a role in Wendzel’s first promotion, but his call is also motivated in part by injuries to players above him on the third base depth chart. Jung broke his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch a few days into the season. He underwent surgery and will miss 8-10 weeks, making his move to the 60-day IL a formality. Jung’s injury spurred Foscue’s first MLB call, but the Mississippi State product lands on the shelf himself after just two plate appearances. The Rangers didn’t provide a timetable for his return. Depending on their severity, oblique strains sometimes lead to absences in excess of a month.
Since Jung went down, the Rangers have relied on Josh Smith as their primary third baseman. That’ll likely continue, with righty-hitting Ezequiel Duran on hand as a complement to Smith’s left-handed bat. Wendzel adds another righty bat to that mix and has the ability to back up the middle infield duo of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.
Angels Designate Zach Plesac, Liván Soto For Assignment
The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, placing right-handers Chase Silseth and Guillo Zuñiga on the 15-day injured list, Silseth due to right elbow inflammation and Zuñiga a right pectoral strain. Taking their spots on the active roster will be taken by right-handers Carson Fulmer and Hunter Strickland, with each having their contract selected. To make room on the 40-man roster, the club has designated infielder Liván Soto and right-hander Zach Plesac for assignment.
It’s not yet clear how severe the injuries to Silseth and Zuñiga are, though the club clearly feels that each hurler needs an IL stint. In the case of Silseth, he recently underwent an MRI but is still awaiting the results, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. While the club awaits to find out the severity of that ailment, José Soriano will step into the rotation and start on Wednesday, per Fletcher.
Soriano was a starter as a prospect but required Tommy John surgery in February of 2020 and then again in June of 2021. Obviously, he hardly pitched from 2020 through 2022, but he returned to the mound in a relief role last year. He tossed 23 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 4.24 earned run average and posted a 3.64 ERA in 42 major league innings. His 12.4% walk rate in the majors was very much on the high side but he also punched out 30.3% of batters faced and kept 51% of balls in play on the ground.
The Halos stretched him out this spring but he got squeezed out of a rotation spot with each of Reid Detmers, Patrick Sandoval, Tyler Anderson, Griffin Canning and Silseth staying healthy through the end of camp. Soriano has been working a long relief role of late, with a pair of three-inning appearances thus far. Now that Silseth is on the shelf for a little while, it seems he’ll get stretched out again.
Soriano’s move means that the bullpen is losing two members, between him and Zuñiga, so the Halos will add Fulmer and Strickland to fill those spots. The 30-year-old Fulmer was with the Angels last year but was non-tendered at season’s end, eventually returning on a minor league deal. He has made one minor league appearance already this year, tossing three innings, meaning he could perhaps provide the bullpen with some length.
He was only able to toss 10 major league innings last year, with a 2.70 ERA in that time, but his larger body of major league work has thus far resulted in a 6.14 ERA over 140 2/3 innings. His 19% strikeout rate, 13.2% walk rate and 40.7% ground ball rate are all a few ticks worse than league average.
Strickland, 35, has a 3.41 ERA over his 408 major league appearances dating back to 2014. However, it’s been a while since he’s been in impressive form. He was limited to just 11 Triple-A innings last year with an 11.45 ERA before being released by the Reds in May and sitting out the rest of the year. In 2022, he was able to make 66 appearances for the Reds in the big leagues but with a 4.91 ERA. But in 2021, he was able to finish with a 2.91 ERA over 57 appearances.
To add those two arms to the roster, the Angels have removed Plesac and Soto. The 29-year-old Plesac once looked like a rotation building block in Cleveland, as he posted a 3.32 ERA over 29 starts in 2019 and 2020. But his ERA jumped in the next two seasons, as he posted a combined 4.49 ERA over 2021 and 2022. His first five starts of the 2023 campaign led to a disastrous 7.59 ERA and he was outrighted off Cleveland’s roster, becoming a free agent at season’s end.
The Angels gave him a roster spot via a one-year major league deal with a $1MM base but he’s quickly been bounced off the roster. He had a lackluster 5.68 ERA in his three spring appearances and has a 4.66 ERA with a 17.5% walk rate after two Triple-A starts this year. The Angels will now have a week to trade Plesac or put him on waivers. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency as a player with more than three years of service time. However, he lacks the five years of service time necessary to both reject the outright assignment and retain his salary, so he might decide to stay and keep his $1MM in that scenario.
As for Soto, 24 in June, he has an excellent career batting line of .375/.414/.531 but in a tiny sample of just 71 plate appearances. In 1,505 minor league plate appearances since the start of 2021, he’s hit a combined line of .246/.340/.355 for a wRC+ of just 86. Despite that fairly tepid offense, Soto can steal some bases and is capable of providing solid defense at the three infield spots to the left of first base.
The Angels put Soto on waivers in February and he was claimed by the Orioles, though the Halos claimed him back a couple of weeks later. The Halos will now have a week to figure out how to proceed this time, whether that’s a trade or putting Soto on waivers again.