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Red Sox Outright Ali Sánchez

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Catcher Ali Sánchez has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Worcester, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The Red Sox had designated him for assignment a couple of days ago when outfielder Wilyer Abreu was reinstated from the injured list.

Sánchez has been outrighted before in his career, which means he has the right to elect free agency. However, Cotillo says he is staying in the organization, which suggests he won’t exercise that right. Worcester’s season is over, so he doesn’t have to actually report to that club.

There’s some sense in that decision for Sánchez. At this late stage of the season, he wouldn’t have much appeal elsewhere. The Sox, however, acquired him just ahead of the September 1st postseason eligibility deadline. By staying in the system, he might be third on the club’s catching depth chart. Carlos Narváez and Connor Wong are the only two backstops on the 40-man roster. If one of those two suffers an injury in the next few weeks, Sánchez might get added back to the roster for the final days of the regular season or even for some postseason work.

The alternative choice doesn’t have much upside. He wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any other club. He’s not making a guaranteed salary, so there’s no financial component to the decision. If he’s not added back to the 40-man by season’s end, he could elect free agency at that point. The only real upside to electing free agency now would be getting a headstart on his offseason, so it’s understandable if he has decided to stay with the Sox and keep open the chance of playing some postseason games.

His major league track record is still fairly unimpressive. He has appeared in 50 games and stepped to the plate on just 133 occasions with a .183/.220/.233 line. But he’s considered a competent defender and his offense has been better in the minors. He made 943 plate appearances at the Triple-A level from 2022 through 2025 with a .272/.348/.418 line. That results in a 96 wRC+, indicating below average offense overall, though catchers usually come in about ten points below league-wide average.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

White Sox Select Corey Julks

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The White Sox announced today that outfielder Andrew Benintendi has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 21st, due to left Achilles tendinitis. Fellow outfielder Corey Julks has been selected to take his place on the active roster. The Sox had a couple of 40-man vacancies, so no further corresponding moves were necessary.

Benintendi’s injury brings another pedestrian season to a close for the former All-Star. The 31-year-old was excellent from June 1 onward in 2024 and looked to be on track for a full-fledged rebound earlier this season, but an uneven summer and multiple trips to the injured list will leave him with a .240/.307/.431 batting line that’s more or less league-average (102 wRC+).

We’re now three years into Benintendi’s five-year, $75MM free agent deal — remarkably, still the largest contract in franchise history for the White Sox — and he’s turned in a .245/.309/.391 batting line in 1613 plate appearances. Coupled with declining speed/baserunning value and defensive ratings that have tanked since signing with the South Siders, that output from the batter’s box has left Benintendi as a roughly replacement-level player since 2023 (-0.3 fWAR, 0.6 bWAR).

Earlier in the summer, the Sox were reportedly willing to pay down some of Benintendi’s contract if it meant facilitating a trade. No deal came together (obviously), and now that he’s further removed from that big finish to his ’24 season, it’s harder to take an optimistic stance on his 2026-27 outlook. He’s owed $31MM in the final two seasons of his contract, and the Sox would need to eat the vast majority of that or take on a different underwater contract to make a trade even remotely plausible in the offseason.

Julks, 29, was originally acquired from the Astros in May 2024 after he’d been designated for assignment in Houston. He’s seen minimal MLB time with the Sox since that swap and turned in a collective .221/.279/.320 batting line (71 wRC+) between the two seasons.

Chicago has already passed Julks through waivers unclaimed twice during the 2025 calendar year. He went 3-for-8 with a pair of doubles during his brief MLB look earlier this season but is a career .236/.290/.340 hitter in 520 major league plate appearances between the ’Stros and Pale Hose. That said, he’s had a solid showing in Triple-A Charlotte this year, hitting .300/.374/.477 with 15 homers and 18 stolen bases in 487 turns at the plate.

Given the late nature of Julks’ return to the 40-man roster and the multiple outrights already in 2025, there’s a decent chance it’ll be a short stay on the roster for Julks once again. If the Sox remove him from the roster following the season, he can become a minor league free agent, though his strong work in Charlotte this year might be enough to keep him around as a depth option.

Mets Outright Wander Suero

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Mets right-handed reliever Wander Suero has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. The club recently called him up to serve as bullpen depth, but he didn’t make it into a game before being designated for assignment on Saturday. He now has 48 hours to either accept the assignment or elect free agency.

The 34-year-old righty has only pitched 6 1/3 big-league innings in 2025, which came during a stint with the Braves. In those innings, Suero allowed eight earned runs and served up three home runs while striking out seven. He has pitched 199 2/3 innings in his career, the bulk of them coming in 2018-21 with the Nationals before moving to the Dodgers, Astros, Braves, and Mets. He has a 4.96 career ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, an 8.8% walk rate, and 1.17 homers allowed per nine innings.

Suero has fared much better at the Triple-A level this year, pitching 48 1/3 innings with a 1.29 ERA and only two home runs allowed. He has also struck out 32.5% of hitters while walking just 6.6%. Suero has been outrighted before, which means he has the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency. As a player with more than three years of service time who is no longer on the 40-man roster, he can become a minor-league free agent at the end of the season (unless he’s added back to the 40-man roster at some point before then).

Pirates Promote Hunter Barco

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Sept. 23: The Pirates have formally announced Barco’s promotion. His contract has been selected to the 40-man roster, and Simon has indeed been transferred to the 60-day IL to create space. That’ll officially end Simon’s season. Lefty Evan Sisk was optioned to clear an active roster spot for Barco.

Sept. 22: The Pirates are calling up pitching prospect Hunter Barco, reports Brent Martineau of CBS47/FOX30. The Bucs will need to make corresponding moves to open active and 40-man roster spots for the lefty. The 40-man move might be easy since infielder/outfielder Ronny Simon recently dislocated his left shoulder. If he’s not coming back in the final few days, he could be moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day.

Barco, now 24, was selected by the Pirates in the second round of the 2022 draft. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers on the farm, climbing the ranks of the minors while also climbing up prospect rankings.

Many in the industry considered him a potential first-round pick while he was pitching for Florida. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery before being drafted, which bumped him down the board and allowed the Bucs to get him in the second round.

He recovered from that procedure and was able to get back on the mound late in 2023, though he only logged 18 1/3 innings that year. He got a more proper professional season last year, throwing 66 innings over 18 appearances, split between High-A and Double-A. He allowed 3.27 earned runs per nine, struck out 31.2% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 8.3% clip and got grounders on 46.4% of balls in play.

This year, he has stretched out to 99 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. In that time, he has a 2.81 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 11.8% walk rate and 45.8% ground ball rate. The Triple-A season finished yesterday, so he wasn’t going to have a chance to add to that innings total if he stayed on the farm.

He was slated to be Rule 5 eligible this winter. The Bucs were surely going to add him to their 40-man roster to protect him, meaning he was going to be using up a 40-man roster spot this offseason regardless. By adding him now, they can put a few more innings on his arm here in 2025, get him accustomed to the big league environment and see how his stuff plays against major league opponents.

The Pirates have been stuck in a rebuild for a while now, but those prone to optimism could point to a few things. Shortstop prospect Konnor Griffin is now considered one of the top prospects in the sport, with some outlets considering him to be the very best. He is only 19 years old but has reached Double-A and could plausibly make a major league debut at some point in 2026. At the big league level, guys like Spencer Horwitz, Jared Triolo and Bryan Reynolds are having strong second halves, perhaps giving the position player group a bit of momentum towards better results next year.

But the most notable part of the Pirates’ roster is their collection of talented and controllable starting pitching options. Paul Skenes is one of the best pitchers alive right now and is controlled for another four seasons after this one. Mitch Keller is a solid mid-rotation guy who is signed through 2028. Johan Oviedo just returned from a long surgery layoff but he could be a viable back-end guy.

Then there’s a big cluster of young guys who are just bubbling to the big league level. Bubba Chandler, Mike Burrows, Braxton Ashcraft and Thomas Harrington have all made it to the majors but each one still has fewer than 100 big league innings, with varying degrees of big league success. Jared Jones had a nice debut last year, posting a 4.14 ERA in 121 2/3 innings, but he required UCL surgery in May of this year and will be out until mid-2026.

There are still lots of question marks in that group, given the limited experience of most of those guys, but it’s possible the front office thinks about using this collection of starting pitchers on the trade market. The Pirates have had great difficulty developing hitters. They also have one of the smallest payrolls in the league, which means solving the problem in free agency isn’t likely to happen either.

This summer, there were plenty of rumors surrounding the Pittsburgh rotation. Keller in particular seemed to get a lot of attention but ultimately wasn’t moved. The Bucs did flip Bailey Falter to the Royals, but that was a far less impactful deal than a potential deal of Keller or anyone else in this group.

Going into the winter, it will be an interesting situation to watch. The Pirates could hold onto all of their pitchers and see how things play out in 2026. Not all of them will meet expectations and some of them will surely get hurt. There would be risk in subtracting an arm or two and reducing the overall depth, though it also might be the club’s best path to making a notable lineup boost. For now, they can get a look at Barco in the majors and see how it goes, but some big decisions will have to be made in the coming months.

At this late stage of the calendar, Barco won’t be able to exhaust rookie status before the winter arrives. That means the prospect promotion incentive could be on the table in 2026, depending on where he lands on prospect lists between now and then. A player is PPI eligible if he is on two of the three top 100 lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. He’s currently listed in the #82 spot at MLB Pipeline, though he’s not on BA’s list and wasn’t on the ESPN August update.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Braves Sign Charlie Morton

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The Braves have reunited with old friend Charlie Morton. They signed him to a major league deal today. He had been designated for assignment by the Tigers but evidently cleared waivers and became a free agent. Atlanta optioned right-hander Jhancarlos Lara and designated righty Carson Ragsdale for assignment as corresponding moves. Manager Brian Snitker previously shared the news with Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and David O’Brien of The Athletic. Bowman suggests it’s possible the club has brought Morton aboard to retire as a Brave. It’s undetermined whether he will pitch for the club in the remainder of the season.

Morton, 41, hasn’t said that he is retiring but it wouldn’t be a shock if that was his plan. He has flirted with the possibility for years now. “It could be this year, next year, but I’m not going to keep playing for a long time,” he said way back in April of 2018. “I can promise you that. I’m not going to keep playing four, five, six, seven more years.”

Of course, that was over seven years ago now. Since then, Morton has seemingly made a conscious choice to not overly commit to anything. He has repeatedly signed a series of short-term deals, apparently content to keep playing as long as he stayed effective.

After a so-so 2024 season in which he posted a 4.19 earned run average, he decided to give it another go in 2025. He signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Orioles. “I remember walking off the field and just this like sinking feeling in my stomach — it just didn’t feel right,” Morton said shortly after signing with the O’s. “I’m sure a lot of guys toward the end of their careers, they think about retiring, shutting it down, and you really want to walk off the field the last time and feel good about it. And a lot of guys don’t get that opportunity. I just didn’t feel good about it. I felt like I could have done better. I felt like I still had the tools to be a good pitcher in the big leagues.”

Unfortunately, this season has been even more challenging than the last one. He posted a 10.89 ERA through five starts and got moved to the bullpen before the end of April. He posted some decent results working in relief and got his rotation spot back, then performed pretty well in the summer. He had a 3.88 ERA in 11 starts from late May to the trade deadline, which gave him enough value for the Orioles to trade him and some cash to the Tigers for minor league lefty Micah Ashman.

His first four starts with Detroit were fine, as he put up a 3.63 ERA in those, but things took a disastrous turn from there. He didn’t go more than four innings in any of his final four outings as a Tiger. He seemed to completely lose the zone, walking 19.7% of batters faced in those four games with a 12.75 ERA in that span. In his final outing as a Tiger, he didn’t make it out of the second inning and was booed off the field by a frustrated fan base as the club’s recent skid has become disastrous. The Tigers, desperately trying to avoid a situation where they miss the playoffs, cut him loose.

Atlanta doesn’t have any use for Morton in a competitive sense. Their season was a lost cause long ago and they are officially eliminated from making the playoffs this year. Bringing Morton aboard is a sentimental choice, one that allows him to finish the season with a club that he had a lot of success with.

Morton was originally drafted by Atlanta back in 2002 and debuted for them in 2008. From there, he bounced around, spending many years with the Pirates, Astros and Rays. He returned to Atlanta in 2021 and stayed there through 2024. In those four recent seasons with Atlanta, he made at least 30 starts in each one. Overall, he gave the club 686 1/3 innings with a 3.87 ERA.

As mentioned, it’s unclear if Morton is actually retiring or if he will take the mound in the final week of the season. But it seems possible that he is planning on heading towards the sunset. If that’s the case and he wants to climb the hill one last time, perhaps he can engineer a better final act than his most recent appearance as a Tiger.

Ragsdale, 27, was just claimed off waivers from the Orioles a few days ago. He was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett and made one appearance for the Stripers. Since the trade deadline has long passed, he’ll be back on waivers in the coming days.

His minor league track record is still quite small, consisting of just one appearance for the O’s this year wherein he allowed eight earned runs in three innings. His minor league work also hasn’t been great this year, with a 5.22 ERA in 89 2/3 innings, but he was better a year ago. In 2024, he logged 120 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.18 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate.

He doesn’t have three years of big league service time nor a previous career outright. That means he does not have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency. He also doesn’t have seven years of minor league experience, meaning he shouldn’t be eligible for minor league free agency at season’s end either.

Photos courtesy of Jim Rassol, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

Red Sox Re-Sign Hobie Harris To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox are in agreement with reliever Hobie Harris on a minor league contract for 2026, reports Ari Alexander. The Gaeta Sports Management client will be in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.

Harris will return to Boston for a second consecutive season. The 32-year-old righty spent this season in the Sox organization. Harris signed a minor league deal with the Mets last November. The Red Sox selected him in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft less than a month later. Harris missed a couple weeks early on with shoulder inflammation. He has been healthy since June and turned in 39 innings of 4.15 ERA ball at Triple-A Worcester. He fanned a quarter of his opponents but allowed walks and home runs at higher than average rates.

A former Yankees draftee, Harris pitched in the big leagues with the Nationals two seasons ago. He made 16 appearances and allowed 12 runs (11 earned) across 19 1/3 innings. The Pittsburgh product only recorded nine strikeouts in his big league stint but has fanned a reasonable 24% of opponents over parts of five Triple-A seasons. Harris uses a three-pitch mix led by his mid-80s splitter. His four-seam fastball sits around 95 MPH and he throws an upper-80s cutter as his breaking pitch.

Orioles Outright Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced this afternoon that reliever Scott Blewett accepted an outright assignment to the team’s Florida complex. The righty went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week. Baltimore also activated Adley Rutschman from the injured list. Infielder Luis Vázquez was optioned to the complex in a corresponding move.

Baltimore acquired Blewett in a cash trade with Atlanta in June. He went down with an elbow injury a few weeks later and has spent the past two months on the 60-day injured list. The O’s decided not to put him back on the MLB roster once he returned to health last week. Blewett is out of options, so the Orioles needed to send him through waivers at that point.

The 29-year-old Blewett has been outrighted a few times in his career. He had the right to elect free agency but evidently preferred to spend the season’s final week at the O’s complex. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season anyhow. Blewett has tossed a career-high 44 1/3 innings between three teams this season. He carries a 5.48 earned run average with an 18% strikeout rate. He’ll probably be looking at minor league offers this winter.

Marlins Designate Derek Hill For Assignment

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The Marlins announced a big series of roster moves today. Right-hander Edward Cabrera has been reinstated from the 15-day day injured list and outfielder Griffin Conine from the 60-day IL. To open active roster spots, right-hander Adam Mazur and outfielder Joey Wiemer have each been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. To open a 40-man spot for Conine, outfielder Derek Hill has been returned from his rehab assignment, reinstated from the 10-day injured list and designated for assignment.

Hill, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Giants in August of last year. Since that claim, he has generally continued to have roughly the same level of production before he came to Miami. Though he can make some nice catches and steal a few bases, he has generally been a guy with subpar offense, thanks to poor strikeout and walk numbers.

He has made a few trips to the injured list this year, two due to a left wrist sprain, another due to a left middle finger sprain, and most recently a right hamstring strain. Around those IL trips, he has appeared in 53 games for the Marlins. In his 141 trips to the plate, just 6.4% of those have resulted in him taking a walk while 32.6% of them ended in strike three. His .213/.275/.331 batting line translates to a 68 wRC+.

Though he has seven stolen bases on the year and strong defensive grades, the bat was dragging him down. He is out of options and can’t be easily sent to the minors. He has crossed three years of big league service time this year, meaning he was going to qualify for arbitration this winter. It seems the Marlins weren’t planning to tender him a contract, so they have cut him early in order to open a roster spot for their other moves today.

Since the trade deadline has passed, he will be on waivers in the coming days. There wouldn’t be much short-term appeal for other clubs, since the season is almost over and he wouldn’t be postseason eligible for any claiming team. He can be controlled for three seasons after this one, but a club would only grab him if they thought he was worth an arbitration raise for 2026. If he clears waivers, he will have the right to elect free agency.

The returns of Cabrera and Conine are also potentially notable here, as the Marlins are clinging to a tiny hope of a miracle run to finish the season. They are four games back of the Reds and Mets with six games left to play. Both players were performing well earlier this year, so perhaps they can give Miami a boost for an incredible sprint to the finish line.

Cabrera’s return is also notable for the upcoming offseason. He has had something of a breakout here in 2025, as his results have kicked up a notch. He has always been able to get strikeouts and ground balls, but his stock has been held back by poor control and some injury concerns.

He has softened both of those worries a bit here in 2025. He came into this year with a 13.3% walk rate but has managed to limit the free passes to a 7.7% clip this season. He has also stayed healthy enough to log 128 2/3 innings. He had never before hit the century mark, so that’s easily a career high.

An elbow sprain did put him out of action at the start of this month, but he has managed to return three weeks later. If he can stay healthy and effective in the final week, that could give him and the Marlins some peace of mind about him going into 2026.

The Fish will are theoretical candidates to trade a starting pitcher this winter. Rumors surrounding Cabrera and Sandy Alcantara were common this summer but the Marlins held both beyond the trade deadline. Going into next season, their rotation mix includes those two as well as Eury Pérez, Ryan Weathers, Janson Junk, Braxton Garrett, Max Meyer, Ryan Gusto, Mazur, Dax Fulton and Freddy Tarnok, with prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling currently lurking in Triple-A.  It’s possible to imagine the Marlins revisiting the possibility of trading Alcantara or Cabrera this winter, which could give Cabrera’s return today a bit of extra intrigue.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Hui, Imagn Images

Braves Claim Joel Payamps, Designate Connor Seabold For Assignment

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The Braves have claimed right-hander Joel Payamps off waivers from the Brewers, according to announcements from both clubs. Milwaukee had designated him for assignment a few days ago. In a corresponding move, Atlanta has designated fellow righty Connor Seabold for assignment.

Payamps, now 31, had a strong run with the Brewers in the previous two seasons but has been struggling a bit more this year. He tossed 129 2/3 innings for Milwaukee over the 2023 and 2024 campaigns, allowing just 2.78 earned runs per nine. His 26.1% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 42.6% ground ball rate were all better than league average. He gave the Brewers nine saves and 48 holds over those two years.

But as mentioned, 2025 hasn’t been as smooth. His first 18 1/3 innings this year resulted in an ugly 8.35 ERA. Some of that was surely luck, as his .373 batting average on balls in play and 52.2% strand rate were both to the unfortunate side. But he also saw his strikeout rate drop to just 19% and his grounder rate to 29%. His 4.51 FIP and 4.40 SIERA weren’t nearly as bad as his ERA but  still pointed to him being worse than previous seasons.

Payamps is out of options, so the Brewers designated him for assignment in late May. Given his previous success, he could have been grabbed by any club, but he passed through waivers unclaimed. Perhaps his $2.995MM salary this year played a role, as most of that was still to be paid out at the time.

Players with at least three years of service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, those with less than five years of service have to forfeit their remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right. Payamps is in that three-to-five window and therefore reported to Nashville.

He actually got back on track with the Sounds, tossing 26 2/3 innings. The 4.73 ERA wasn’t good but he got his strikeouts back up to a 27.3% clip and his grounders to a 38.9% rate. The ERA was seemingly spiked by a tiny 47.8% strand rate, which is why he had a 2.90 FIP for that Triple-A run.

The Brewers called him back up in early September, selecting him to the roster when Shelby Miller landed on the injured list. Since then, he has had decent numbers in a small sample, pitching 5 1/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate, though a high walk rate of 12.5%. Though the recent trends were somewhat encouraging, he was designated for assignment again recently when the Brewers called up Bruce Zimmermann.

With just a week left in the season, the vast majority of Payamps’ salary has now been paid out. That makes it relatively inexpensive for Atlanta to claim him today. They can now get a close-up look at him and decide if they want to tender him a contract for 2026. Since his big league results this year have been lacking, he shouldn’t be able to push his salary up much beyond the $3MM range he was in this year. His service time is still shy of five years, so he could also be controlled for 2027 via arbitration if Atlanta tenders him a contract for next year and things go well.

Atlanta is playing out the string on a season that has been a lost cause for a long time. The club has therefore been making moves focused on improving the 2026 club. They acquired Tyler Kinley from the Rockies at the deadline. They have also claimed players making notable salaries like Jake Fraley and Ha-Seong Kim off waivers, with Payamps now added to the list.

When teams are faced with a losing season like this, they usually find ways to save some money, but Atlanta has taken the opposite approach. Back in February, chairman Terry McGuirk said the club had “dry powder” to make deadline additions. Instead, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has used that powder to make that aforementioned moves. Kinley is making a $3MM salary this year, Fraley $3.125MM and Kim $13MM. As mentioned, Payamps is making $2.995MM.

Atlanta only took on a portion of those salaries, given that each player was acquired later in the year. But in each case, the hope was seemingly that the investment would allow them to bring in a current player who could help in 2026. In most of those cases, they didn’t really commit themselves to anything for next year. Kinley has a $5MM club option for next year but also a $750K buyout. Fraley and Payamps are both arbitration eligible, meaning Atlanta will still have a chance to non-tender them this offseason if they so choose. With Kim, they have less flexibility, as he has a $16MM player option for next year. They were seemingly happy to pay that out but he has been playing well lately and seems to be trending towards a return to free agency.

Seabold was also a waiver claimee this year but a more conventional one as he is still in his pre-arbitration years and isn’t making a notable salary. Since being claimed from the Rays in August, he has mostly been on optional assignment, only making four big league appearance for Atlanta.

Between those two clubs, he has thrown 69 2/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 6.07 ERA, 20.7% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 36% ground ball rate. His major league career now consists of 119 innings spread across four different clubs and four different seasons. In that time, he has a 7.79 ERA, 17% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 33% ground ball rate.

Since the trade deadline has passed, he’ll be on waivers in the coming days. He doesn’t have a previous career outright nor three years of service time. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed, he would not have the right to reject an outright assignment. However, he has appeared in at least seven different minor league seasons, meaning he would qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end if he’s still not on the 40-man at that time.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Brewers Place Brandon Woodruff On 15-Day Injured List

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The Brewers announced today that they’ve placed right-hander Brandon Woodruff on the 15-day injured list with a right lat strain. Woodruff’s IL placement is retroactive to September 18. Left-hander Robert Gasser was recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move and is slated to start today’s game for Milwaukee.

Woodruff’s retroactive placement on the shelf means that he’ll be eligible to return in time for the start of the NLDS on October 4. Of course, that would require Woodruff to be shelved for only a minimum stint on the IL, which is far from guaranteed. According to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Woodruff is suffering from a “moderate” lat strain in the words of manager Pat Murphy, and it is too early to tell how Woodruff’s playoff availability may be impacted by the injury.  MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports that Woodruff is seeing a doctor in St. Louis today in order to get his injury assessed after the strain occurred during the righty’s bullpen session on Saturday.

At the very least, the news brings Woodruff’s regular season to an abrupt end. Woodruff will end the regular season with 12 starts under his belt, and a 3.20 ERA/3.18 FIP in 64 2/3 innings of work with a sensational 32.3% strikeout rate. Woodruff made just 11 starts in 2023 due to shoulder issues and ultimately went under the knife in October of that year. That caused him to miss the entire 2024 season, and an ankle injury during his rehab this season delayed his return to the big league mound until early July. He immediately slotted back into the top of Milwaukee’s rotation upon his return, and helped to sustain the hot streak that thrust the Brewers to the best record in all of baseball.

The timing of this latest ailment is surely frustrating for both the Brewers and Woodruff himself, given its proximity to the playoffs. Woodruff acknowledged as much himself in comments made to reporters (including McCalvy) this morning. Woodruff noted that he “wasn’t surprised” by the injury and noted he’s been managing his shoulder for some time, adding that a setback could have occurred in June or July and that it’s just “crappy timing” that this happened to come up right before the postseason.

With Woodruff sidelined, the Brewers’ potential postseason rotation is in flux. Freddy Peralta and Quinn Priester appear to be locks to start playoff games, but there’s little certainty outside of that. Woodruff would obviously get starts if and when he returns, and Jose Quintana could find himself in the conversation as well depending on his own recovery from injury. While those two are shelved, however, they’ll likely be forced to choose between struggling rookie Jacob Misiorowski and fellow rookie right-hander Chad Patrick to round out the rotation. Perhaps Gasser can put himself into the discussion with a strong outing today, but the southpaw has not yet pitched in the majors this year after undergoing elbow surgery last year and has just 38 innings of work in the minors under his belt this season.

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