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Phillies Select Buddy Kennedy, Transfer Aaron Nola To 60-Day IL

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The Phillies announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Buddy Kennedy. Infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley as the corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Aaron Nola has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Kennedy, now 26, was acquired from the Tigers about a year ago. He exhausted his final option year in 2024 and was therefore out of options coming into 2025. He didn’t break camp with the club, which got him pushed onto the waiver wire. After he cleared waivers, the Phillies re-signed him to a new minor league deal. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports that Kennedy had recently triggered an upward mobility clause in that deal. The Phils didn’t want him to get away, so they have added him to the roster today.

Since signing that deal, Kennedy has been in good form at the Triple-A level. He has appeared in 61 games for the IronPigs, hitting eight home runs with an 11.6% walk rate and 15.3% strikeout rate. That’s led to a .283/.388/.447 line and 126 wRC+, indicating he’s been 26% better than league average at the plate overall.

Triple-A success isn’t new for him but he hasn’t yet translated it to the majors. He has received scattered big league time from the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Phils, with a .203/.295/.313 line and 72 wRC+ in 149 trips to the plate over the 2022-2024 campaigns.

He has experience at all four infield positions and left field, so he should replace Wilson as the club’s multi-positional bench piece. That may not lead to a lot of playing time for Kennedy. Wilson was reinstated from the injured list about two months ago but has received only 42 plate appearances since then, including just one since June 9th.

As for Nola, he landed on the IL in the middle of May due to a sprained right ankle, though that’s no longer the main concern. It was reported just over a week ago that he would be shut down for two weeks due to a stress reaction in his rib cage. He’s now ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be mid-July. Even if he’s declared healthy in a week, he will need to ramp up his throwing and probably make a few rehab starts, so he likely wasn’t going to be back before the All-Star break anyway.

Photo courtesy of Eric Hartline, Imagn Images

Marlins To Select Robinson Piña

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The Marlins are calling up right-hander Robinson Piña for his major league debut, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. The team has not announced the move yet. Piña’s contract will need to be selected to what is currently a full 40-man roster in Miami, so the Fish will need to make a corresponding move in that regard.

Piña, 26, will make his big league debut the first time he takes the mound. He spent the 2017-23 seasons in the Angels system before becoming a minor league free agent and signing with the Phillies ahead of the 2024 campaign. The Phils never added him to the 40-man roster, and Piña again became a minor league free agent this past offseason, signing with Miami in his second run through the open market. This time around, he’ll get that coveted first MLB opportunity.

Piña has certainly earned his call to the majors. He’s appeared in 13 games, 11 of them starts, and tallied 57 innings with a 3.47 ERA, a 22.2% strikeout rate, a 6.2% walk rate and a 46.9% ground-ball rate. Command was an issue for him early in his minor league career, but he’s now turned in consecutive minor league seasons with walk rates that clock in considerably south of average. This year’s 92.8 mph average sinker is up a mile per hour over last year’s levels, and Piña has been consistent all season; he hasn’t yielded more than three earned runs in any appearance and has held opponents to two or fewer runs in 10 of 13 outings overall.

Miami has Edward Cabrera lined up to start today, with Janson Junk, Eury Pérez and Sandy Alcantara listed as probables in their next three games thereafter. There’s no need for an immediate spot starter — barring an injury the team has not yet made public — but they could be looking to add some length with Junk having spent the season in a long relief role. The Marlins also have an off-day coming on Monday, so they could option Adam Mazur and skip the fifth starter’s spot next time through the rotation. Doing so would give them options for how best to use Piña, who’s fully stretched out and has topped 80 pitches in five of his past six appearances.

D-backs Place Gabriel Moreno On Injured List, Select Aramis Garcia

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The Diamondbacks announced Thursday that they’ve placed catcher Gabriel Moreno on the 10-day injured list due to a right hand contusion (retroactive to June 16) and selected the contract of fellow catcher Aramis Garcia from Triple-A Reno. Righty Christian Montes De Oca was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Garcia, who returns just nine days after being outrighted off the 40-man roster.

Moreno originally hurt his hand while trying to block a wild pitch earlier this month. He’s played just three games in 12 days since taking that errant pitch off his hand. Arizona was clearly hoping to avoid an IL stint, but things have reached a point where they’ll sit him down for the next week and get another catching option on the roster to complement Jose Herrera.

The 25-year-old Moreno is enjoying another solid all-around year. The former top prospect’s .270/.324/.414 batting line isn’t elite but is firmly above league average (106 wRC+). That’s big production from any catcher, a position that is regularly manned by below-average hitters, but it’s especially nice for a player with Moreno’s elite defensive grades. He draws plus marks for his framing, blocking and throwing alike. Since 2023, he ranks as the game’s third-best defender behind the plate, by measure of the Defensive Runs Saved metric, and the seventh-best in MLB according to Statcast. Because Moreno’s IL stint is backdated three days (the maximum allowed under MLB rules), he’ll be eligible to return a week from now.

As for Garcia, he’s a 32-year-old journeyman who was briefly up with the Snakes in the wake of the original injury to Moreno. He only appeared in one game, however, and didn’t take a plate appearance before being designated for assignment and passed through waivers. He’s played in parts of six big league seasons and carries a career .211/.248/.325 line in 327 trips to the plate during that time. He currently sports a .250/.399/.524 line in 38 Triple-A games and is a career .235/.306/.430 hitter in parts of seven seasons at that level.

Presumably, Garcia will see a bit more game action this time around. Herrera, who’ll serve as the primary catcher with Moreno down, has played eight games in 12 days since Moreno was originally banged up. It’s a heavy workload for any catcher but particularly a glove-first backup who’s hitting .171/.284/.244. Herrera is up to 101 plate appearances this year — already just 23 shy of his career-high in the majors, where he’s a lifetime .199/.279/.256 hitter.

The 60-day IL move for Montes De Oca was an inevitability. The 25-year-old righty landed on the injured list earlier this month due to elbow inflammation, but the D-backs announced five days ago that he was headed for surgery to repair a stress fracture in his lower back. That surgery was likely to take him out for most or all of the remaining season anyhow — a miserable turn of events for a young hurler who’d tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball in his MLB debut just days prior to landing on the injured list.

Yankees Select Jayvien Sandridge

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The Yankees announced today that they have selected the contract of left-hander Jayvien Sandridge. He’ll take the active roster spot of right-hander Yerry De los Santos, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow discomfort. To open a 40-man spot, infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

De los Santos has given the Yankees 20 innings this year while only allowing 1.80 earned runs per nine. That level of performance is surely not sustainable with a 14% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate. He’s managed to keep runs off the board by having a huge 88.2% strand rate and no home runs allowed on the season.

The Yankees haven’t provided any information about how long they expect him to be out, though an elbow injury is naturally always a concern for a pitcher. More information is likely to be forthcoming in the near future.

For now, his IL placement opens a path for Sandridge to get to the big leagues for the first time. The 26-year-old southpaw has spent time in the minors with the Orioles, Reds and Padres without getting called to the majors. He reached minor league free agency at the end of last year and signed a minors deal with the Yankees.

Sandridge started the season on the injured list but was able to get back on the mound by the middle of May. He made a few rehab appearances at lower levels before moving up to Triple-A. Combined, he has thrown 12 innings this year with four earned runs allowed. He has walked six opponents but also struck out 20, for respective rates of 11.8% and 39.2%.

That’s generally been Sandridge’s recipe throughout his minor league career. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 173 2/3 innings for various minor clubs with a 3.94 ERA. His 18.2% walk rate in that time was massive but he also struck out 33.7% of batters faced.

As of July of last year, FanGraphs considered Sandridge to be one of the top 20 prospects in the Padres’ system. That report noted that his fastball was sitting in the upper 90s but that controlling his slider is his biggest issue, throwing out Jake Diekman as a potential ceiling comp since Diekman carved out a nice career despite consistently high walk rates.

The Yankees came into today with the only lefty in the bullpen being Tim Hill, a veteran soft-tossing ground ball guy. Sandridge will give them a second southpaw with a different profile. Since this is his first big league call, he has a full slate of options and can be cheaply controlled for years to come, though he’ll obviously have to perform well enough to hold his 40-man roster spot.

As for Cabrera, his transfer to the 60-day IL is not a surprise. He suffered a grisly ankle injury in the middle of May and underwent surgery. He’s technically able to be reinstated 60 days from that initial IL placement, so mid-July, but he’s expected to miss most or all of the remainder of the season.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Gerson Garabito

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The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced the signing of right-hander Gerson Garabito (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). Texas released Garabito last week, which Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reported at the time was to facilitate his signing in the KBO. The Lions recently released righty Denyi Reyes, who suffered a stress reaction in his right foot (link via Yonhap’s Jeeho Yoo).

Garabito, 29, worked in low-leverage relief for Texas over the past two seasons. He combined for a 5.77 earned run average through 34 1/3 innings. The 6’0″ righty was also hit hard this year at Triple-A Round Rock. Garabito allowed an 8.53 ERA while averaging just over three innings across 10 starts. There’s very little in this season’s production to find encouraging, but he managed a 3.42 ERA across 55 1/3 Triple-A frames a year ago.

Reyes’ tenure in Korea comes to a disappointing end. The 28-year-old pitched fairly well for the Lions in 2024, working to a 3.81 ERA across 26 starts. That was up slightly over 10 starts this year before he suffered the foot injury. He’s a free agent and might look for a minor league opportunity to return to affiliated ball. Reyes made 12 MLB appearances with the Orioles and Mets between 2022-23.

Pirates Outright Brett Sullivan

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June 18: Sullivan cleared waivers and was outrighted back to Indianapolis, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s not clear if he’ll elect free agency or accept the assignment.

June 16: The Pirates announced that right-hander Dauri Moreta has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis. To open a 40-man roster spot, catcher Brett Sullivan has been designated for assignment. Sullivan was on the active roster, so the Bucs now have an open spot there. That perhaps suggests that catcher Joey Bart will be reinstated from the IL. The club is off today so that may not be official until tomorrow.

Pittsburgh called Sullivan up last week to add depth behind the plate after losing Endy Rodríguez to injury. Bart has been out since late May, so the Bucs needed a backup catcher behind Henry Davis. Sullivan picked up three starts behind the dish. He went 1-6 with a walk and three strikeouts. It marked his third straight season logging limited MLB action. Sullivan appeared in 40 games with the Padres as a depth catcher in 2023-24. He’s a .204/.250/.291 hitter through 112 plate appearances at the highest level.

This is the second DFA of the season for the 31-year-old Sullivan. San Diego outrighted him off the 40-man roster during Spring Training. They traded him to the Bucs for outfielder Bryce Johnson a couple weeks later in a swap of non-roster players. Sullivan has spent the majority of the year in Triple-A, where he’s hitting .218/.254/.318 in 30 games. He’ll be traded or placed on waivers this week. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, he could elect free agency in lieu of an outright assignment back to Indianapolis.

Moreta last appeared in the majors in 2023. The 29-year-old reliever has been on the injured list since undergoing UCL surgery in Spring Training 2024. He’s been on a rehab assignment since late April. Pitchers typically can spend 30 days on a rehab stint but that is sometimes extended for those coming back from elbow surgery. Moreta is evidently healthy but struggled to command the ball on his rehab stint, walking nearly 17% of batters faced. The Pirates will keep him in Triple-A for now as he tries to find more consistency.

Jose Azocar Elects Free Agency

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Outfielder José Azocar elected free agency after being outrighted by the Braves, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Atlanta designated him for assignment on Monday when Stuart Fairchild returned from the injured list.

Azocar spent a few weeks as the last player off Brian Snitker’s bench. He only played twice, entering as a late-game substitute both times. It’s a similar role that the 29-year-old played for the Mets early in the season. Azocar is a plus runner who can handle all three outfield positions. It’s a light bat, though, and his playing time has dropped in each of the past four seasons. He’s also out of options, so teams cannot send him to Triple-A without running him through waivers — at which point he can refuse the assignment in favor of free agency.

Over parts of four seasons, Azocar is a career .244/.290/.319 hitter over 418 plate appearances. He’s hit a pair of homers while stealing 19 bases in 28 attempts. Most of his playing time came with the Padres between 2022-24. He landed with the Mets on a late-season waiver claim last year but has now cleared waivers on three occasions this season. He’s likely looking at minor league offers, where he owns a career .286/.322/.434 Triple-A batting line.

Nationals Outright Juan Yepez

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The Nationals announced that first baseman Juan Yepez has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Rochester. He was removed from the 40-man roster earlier this week when the Nats designated him for assignment.

Yepez has less than three years of major league service time and this is his first career outright. That means he does not have the right to elect free agency. He will therefore play for the Red Wings and look to earn his way back to the big leagues.

He has some decent big league work on his track record, including a stint with the Nats last year. He signed a minor league deal with Washington going into 2024 and got called up in July. He eventually hit .283/.335/.429 for a 113 wRC+ in 249 plate appearances. When combined with his previous work with the Cardinals, he has a .258/.307/.423 line and 103 wRC+ in 588 plate appearances.

But this year has been a challenge. The Nats acquired Nathaniel Lowe and signed Josh Bell in the offseason, pushing Yepez down to Triple-A, where has hit .199/.273/.301 for a wRC+ of 56. That performance got him bumped off the roster and through the waiver wire.

Both Bell and Lowe will be trade candidates in the coming weeks, with the Nats lined up as clear sellers. Bell is an impending free agent. Lowe can be retained for 2026 via arbitration but is trending towards a non-tender at this point. He’s already making $10.3MM and is having a subpar season at the plate. Perhaps those two will be moved and more playing time will be opened up at first base and as the designated hitter, though Yepez would have to perform better in order to take advantage of that.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

Richard Lovelady Opts Out Of Twins Deal

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Left-hander Richard Lovelady has opted out of his minor league deal with the Twins, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The southpaw is now a free agent and available to sign with any club in the league.

Lovelady, 29, started the season with the Blue Jays but was designated for assignment after just two appearances. He cleared waivers, elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Since then, he has been putting up good numbers for Triple-A Saint Paul. He has thrown 20 2/3 innings for the Saints with a 1.31 earned run average. His 8.4% walk rate is right around average while his 26.5% strikeout rate and 60.4% ground ball rate are both strong numbers.

Despite that performance, the Twins have decided not to call him up. They have Danny Coulombe and Joey Wentz as their lefty relievers at the moment. Neither of those two can be optioned to the minors and Lovelady himself is out of options, so perhaps they didn’t want to have three lefties with no roster flexibility.

Unsurprisingly, Lovelady has decided to canvass the league for other opportunities. With several clubs around baseball battling numerous injuries and the trade deadline still over a month away, he should find some interest.

In addition to that strong Triple-A work of late, he has some major league success on his track record. He missed 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery but posted solid numbers around that. He logged a combined 44 innings in the 2021 and 2023 seasons with a 4.09 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 51.8% ground ball rate.

His 2024 was mixed. He had a 7.94 ERA through 5 2/3 innings with the Cubs when he was traded to the Rays. With Tampa, he had a 3.77 ERA in 28 2/3 innings but with a diminished 16.8% strikeout rate. The Rays non-tendered him at the end of the year. He landed a minor league deal with the Jays coming into this year and made the Opening Day roster but held onto that spot for just a few days.

Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images

Dodgers Reinstate Emmet Sheehan

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June 18: Sheehan has now been officially reinstated. The 40-man roster had a vacancy but is now full. Sauer was optioned as the corresponding active roster move.

June 14: The Dodgers are planning to activate right-hander Emmet Sheehan from the 60-day injured list this week, according to a report from The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya. He’ll join the big league rotation upon being activated, though Ardaya notes that the Dodgers won’t decide exactly when to activate him until after Sheehan throws his next bullpen session. Sheehan will require a 40-man roster spot once activated, so a corresponding 40-man move will be required if the Dodgers’ roster is full at that point.

Regardless of the exact timing of Sheehan’s return, getting him back figures to be a huge boost for a Dodgers rotation that recently had to move right-hander Ben Casparius onto a starter’s schedule after months of excellent numbers in relief due to a lack of viable alternatives. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May, and Clayton Kershaw are the only other healthy regular starters L.A. has rostered at the moment, with depth options like Justin Wrobleski, Bobby Miller, and Landon Knack having more or less disqualified themselves with their significant struggles when called upon for spot starts. Sheehan is a more proven commodity than those options, with 11 big league starts to his name after debuting with the Dodgers last year.

While Sheehan seems a bit safer to give the ball to than the club’s other depth options, that shouldn’t be taken to mean this is a riskless move. After all, Sheehan has a career 5.23 ERA out of the rotation in the majors and has not pitched in the big leagues since 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He looked better than that in his most recent outings, however, with a 3.68 ERA and 4.35 FIP across 22 frames in September. Sheehan seemed likely to be firmly in the Dodgers’ rotation mix for last year despite his uneven performance, but he went under the knife almost exactly 13 months ago to the day and hasn’t pitched at the big league level since.

The right-hander has made four rehab starts this year, with a 3.97 ERA in 11 1/3 innings of work during that time. That overall line doesn’t do Sheehan’s performance in those four outings justice; he’s struck out 44.7% of his opponents while rehabbing and limited opposing batters to just one walk. That’s come against minor league hitters, of course, and the jump from minor league opponents to the big leagues is larger than ever these days. Even so, it’s an undeniably encouraging sign that he’s been able to punch out that many hitters even as he’s rebuilding to a starter’s workload.

Once activated, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the Dodgers ease Sheehan into the starting rotation. He’s only built up to 63 pitches so far, which could make him a prime candidate to either be used alongside an opener or perhaps piggyback with another pitcher like Wrobleski or Matt Sauer. In any case, adding another arm to a fraught Dodgers rotation that seems unlikely to get further reinforcements before Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching sometime next month has to be a significant relief for the entire pitching staff.

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