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A’s Outright Angel Perdomo

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The Athletics announced that Angel Perdomo cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. The southpaw has the right to elect free agency since this is his second career outright, though the team did not provide any indication that he plans to do so.

Perdomo was designated for assignment over the weekend. He’s out of minor league options, so the A’s needed to get him through waivers in order to send him to Triple-A. The A’s had grabbed him off waivers from the Angels, who’d DFA him before Opening Day. Perdomo struggled through four appearances, giving up four free passes (three walks and a hit batter) in 3 1/3 innings. He recorded two strikeouts and allowed a pair of runs.

This was Perdomo’s first major league work in a year and a half. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery in the second half of the 2023 season while a member of the Pirates. That led Pittsburgh to waive him at the end of the year. Perdomo landed with the Braves, who non-tendered him but brought him back on a major league contract to keep him on the injured list for all of 2024.

Atlanta gave Perdomo a look in Spring Training. He pitched eight times, running a pedestrian 6:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 8 1/3 innings. The Braves concluded that he wouldn’t break camp and traded him to the Angels. Perdomo pitched twice in Spring Training for the Halos before they decided not to carry him on the Opening Day roster either.

Before the elbow injury, Perdomo showed interesting ability to miss bats. He fanned more than 37% of opposing hitters with a 3.72 ERA over 29 innings for Pittsburgh two seasons ago. Perdomo has a career 34.2% strikeout rate at the major league level, though his effectiveness has been undercut by a 16% walk rate.

Rockies Place Kris Bryant On Injured List

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The Rockies announced that they have placed Kris Bryant on the 10-day injured list due to lumbar degenerative disc disease. Catcher Braxton Fulford had his contract selected to take Bryant’s place on the roster. Right-hander Jeff Criswell was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Fulford. Criswell had Tommy John surgery last month and will miss the entire season. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported the Bryant and Fulford moves prior to the official announcement.

Injuries have been the defining feature of Bryant’s time in Colorado. He is now in his fourth season as a member of the Rockies but hasn’t surpassed 80 games in any of those campaigns. His first season in the mountains, 2022, he hit well but only got into 42 contests. Since then, he has not only been frequently sidelined but also ineffective when in the lineup. He has a .222/.307/.335 batting line over the 2023-25 seasons and is out to a brutal .154/.195/.205 start so far in 2025.

His injury absences have been due to various ailments, including a heel bruise, finger fracture and rib contusion, but back problems have been an ongoing feature as well. In 2022, he spent over a month on the IL due to a lower back strain. A back strain also kept him out of action for almost two months at the end of the 2024 campaign.

Whether those various back problems are all interconnected or not is unknown. The club also hasn’t provided much information on this current diagnosis or what they expect in terms of prognosis. More information will surely emerge tonight or in the coming days.

Either way, it just further compounds the point that Bryant has been an awful investment for the club. Prior to coming to Colorado, he had done it all. He was a Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, All-Star and World Series champion. He had a .278/.376/.504 batting line through 2021. He hit free agency and landed a seven-year, $182MM deal with the Rockies.

Even at the time, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Rockies had just wrapped up their third straight losing season and near-term contention didn’t seem highly likely. Some were calling for a rebuild at that time, but they went in another direction by making this big investment. As mentioned, it hasn’t worked out, and the club hasn’t gotten any better. They lost 94 games in 2022 and got to triple digits in each of the past two seasons. They are the worst team in baseball so far this season with a 3-12 record.

Bryant had largely been serving as the designated hitter, so the club will have some options now in who they give those at-bats to. The fact that they have called up a catcher perhaps indicates that Hunter Goodman might move out from behind the plate more often. He has been splitting the catching duties with Jacob Stallings but now perhaps could take the DH slot or move to the outfield, where he has some experience.

Fulford, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Rockies in 2021. Back in January, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him an honorable mention on his list of the top prospects in the system, noting that he has poor defense and contact hitting but good power. In his 1,219 minor league plate appearances, he has hit .265/.375/.455 with 40 home runs. He struck out at a 25.1% clip last year and is at 27.3% so far this year. Given his bat-first tendencies, perhaps Goodman will stay in the catching mix while Fulford takes some DH time.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

Orioles Claim Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Scott Blewett off waivers from the Twins, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. In a corresponding move, Baltimore designated left-hander Luis Gonzalez for assignment. Blewett is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to be plugged right into manager Brandon Hyde’s bullpen.

Blewett, 29, pitched 4 2/3 innings with the Twins before being designated for assignment. He held opponents to a run on four hits and no walks (but one hit batter) with five strikeouts. He also pitched 20 1/3 innings with Minnesota last year, logging a 1.77 ERA but with shakier strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 9.2%, respectively, both of which are worse than league average.

Those two brief stints in Minnesota were the most recent big league work for Blewett since a similarly short look with the Royals in 2020-21. In all, he’s pitched 33 innings in the majors and has a tidy 2.18 ERA to show for it, albeit with a 22% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate. Even while keeping runs off the board, Blewett has been hit fairly hard; the right-hander has surrendered an average exit velocity of 92.6 mph in the majors and seen nearly half (47.9%) of his opponents’ batted balls travel at 95 mph or more.

Blewett pitched well for the Twins’ Triple-A club in 2024, logging a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 innings. That’s the most success he’s had in the upper minors, however. The big 6’6″ righty has pitched in parts of five Triple-A seasons between the Royals, White Sox and Twins systems but been roughed up for a 6.93 ERA in 219 1/3 innings there. In addition to those stints, Blewett had a half-season run with the Braves’ Double-A club in 2023 and also pitched for the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League that year, recording a 3.95 ERA in 41 innings overseas.

Gonzalez, 33, hasn’t pitched in a Triple-A game since April 8. The Orioles placed him on the minor league injured list on April 11 but did not publicly disclose the exact nature of his ailment. It’s not currently clear how long he’ll be sidelined. However, injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, meaning Gonzalez is all but certain to end up being placed on release waivers. The O’s can renegotiate a minor league deal with him at that point if they wish, but he’ll have the chance to talk to the league’s other 29 clubs in that scenario.

Baltimore selected Gonzalez to the 40-man roster last November rather than risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s a true journeyman — a former Phillies signee who has also spent time in the Giants’ system in addition to pitching in Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and even Italy’s top league. Gonzalez spent the 2024 season with the O’s after signing a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason. He pitched 60 innings out of the bullpen in Triple-A Norfolk, working to a pedestrian 4.50 earned run average but showing a far more interesting 28.9% strikeout rate against a similarly intriguing 4.9% walk rate.

Gonzalez can be placed on release waivers or traded at any point in the next five days.

Angels Outright Jack Dashwood

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The Angels announced Monday that left-hander Jack Dashwood went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Salt Lake and will remain in the organization as a depth arm.

Dashwood, 27, pitched just 10 innings in Double-A last year due to injury but followed with another 10 terrific innings in the Arizona Fall League. He posted a gargantuan 33-to-3 K/BB ratio in that time and held opponents to just seven runs. The 6’6″ southpaw turned enough heads in the organization that the Angels opted to add him to the 40-man roster in November, protecting him from December’s Rule 5 Draft.

The 2025 season has gotten out to a nightmarish start for Dashwood, though. The 6’6″ lefty has been torched for 12 runs across four appearances in Triple-A, totaling just two innings overall. Dashwood pitched a spotless inning with two strikeouts to start his season, and he’s since been tagged for five, four and three runs in subsequent appearances, yielding a homer in each. He’s faced 20 hitters so far this year and allowed 11 hits and three walks.

Now that he’s cleared waivers, Dashwood will head back to Salt Lake and try to iron out the early kinks. The Halos already have three lefties in the big league bullpen — Brock Burke, Reid Detmers and Rule 5 pick Garrett McDaniels — but Dashwood could still put himself back on the map if he can regain his Double-A/Arizona Fall League form in the coming months.

Cubs Release Caleb Kilian

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The Cubs have released right-hander Caleb Kilian, according to the transactions log on his MLB.com profile page. The righty was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week and presumably passed through waivers unclaimed in the days since his DFA. The Cubs could have outrighted the right-hander to the minor leagues, but evidently did not choose to do so. He’ll now be eligible to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs without the club needing to carry him on their 40-man roster.

Kilian, 28 in June, got his start in pro ball as an eighth-round pick by the Giants back in 2019. He made just seven appearances in the minors that year, with 16 scoreless innings between rookie ball and Low-A. That impressive start to Kilian’s pro career was put on hold due to 2020’s canceled minor league season, and when he got off to a hot start with the Giants between the High-A and Double-A levels in 2020, Kilian found himself swapped to the Cubs alongside outfielder Alexander Canario at the 2021 trade deadline in the deal that made Kris Bryant a Giant.

That trade kicked off Kilian’s Cubs career, and he made four starts for the club’s Double-A affiliate down the stretch to finish the year with a 2.42 ERA and a 29.2% strikeout rate in 100 1/3 innings across two levels of the minors. Those were solid numbers for the year and put Kilian on the radar for a big league call-up at some point in 2022. He started the year at Triple-A but got his chance with the Cubs in June of that year. His first outing in the majors was a solid run, as he allowed three runs across five innings of work while striking out six and walking two. Things came apart from there, however, and Kilian struggled to a 14.21 ERA with ten walks in just 6 1/3 innings of work against three strikeouts.

That pair of disastrous outings ended Kilian’s first foray into the majors, and his newfound control struggles seemingly followed him back to the minors. After posting a 2.06 ERA with a 9.1% walk rate and a 24.8% strikeout rate in nine Triple-A starts prior to his call-up, Kilian struggled to a 5.37 ERA with a 14.6% walk rate the rest of the way after being optioned back down to the minor leagues. He managed to rein in his wildness in 2023, but that came at the expense of punchouts; Kilian struggled to a 4.56 ERA in 25 Triple-A outings that year despite walking just 7% of his opponents thanks to a lackluster 18.6% strikeout rate.

Last season, Kilian appeared to be in the conversation for a big league job with the Cubs during Spring Training before being sidelined by a teres major strain for several months. When healthy enough to pitch again, Kilian posted a 3.22 ERA in 44 2/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level. That was a marked improvement, but his 20.3% strikeout rate was still lackluster. He continued to struggle at the big league level in brief call-ups to the majors as well, with a 4.22 ERA and 5.98 FIP in 10 2/3 innings of work that brought his career ERA in the majors down to 9.22.

Coming into 2025, Kilian had an odd Spring Training where he struck out 32.3% of his opponents in six innings of work, but also surrendered 12 hits and wound up with a 7.50 ERA. His first start at the Triple-A level was nothing short of disastrous this year, as he surrendered six runs over 2 1/3 innings of work. That wound up being his only outing with the Cubs this year before they decided to pull the plug and designate him for assignment. Now that he’s cleared waivers and been granted his release, the right-hander will have the opportunity to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs and try to get his career back on track, though it’s also possible he could look to reinvent himself in independent ball or overseas as well.

Rockies Promote Adael Amador, Place Tyler Freeman On 10-Day IL

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The Rockies announced that infielder Tyler Freeman has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 10) due to a left oblique strain.  Infield prospect Adael Amador has been called up from Triple-A to take Freeman’s spot on the active roster, as Amador hinted via a message on his Instagram page yesterday.

Freeman suffered his injury while taking warm-up swings in the cage prior to Saturday’s game, so he was a late scratch from the lineup.  The only question now is the severity of Freeman’s strain, as even a mild oblique problem will likely mean that the infielder will miss 2-3 weeks of action.  The injury adds to what has been a rough start to Freeman’s season and tenure in Colorado, as he has just one hit over his first 16 trips to the plate in a Rockies uniform.

Acquired in a late spring trade with the Guardians for Nolan Jones, Freeman was viewed as a versatile utility option that could help the Rox all over the field.  Six of his seven games have come at the second base position, ostensibly in a timeshare with Kyle Farmer though Farmer has been getting a lot more playing time due to his hot bat.  Farmer is also a multi-position player, so the Rockies could move him to one of their multiple struggling spots on the diamond in order to free up second base for Amador, as the Rox surely want to give him plenty of playing time in his second stint in the majors.

Amador had only a .394 OPS over 36 plate appearances and 10 games with Colorado last season, as his brief debut in the Show was cut short by a month-long IL trip due to an oblique issue of his own.  The Rockies optioned Amador back to Double-A Hartford after his IL activation, and the infielder finished his first full season of Double-A ball with a .230/.343/.376 slash line, 14 homers, and 35 stolen bases (in 46 attempts).

The 2024 promotion was seen as a surprise, given how Amador had never played in Triple-A and he hadn’t even amassed much success (or playing time) at Double-A before the Rockies debuted him in the big leagues.  Starting the 2025 campaign at Triple-A Albuquerque, Amador is at least hitting well with a .275/.408/.450 slash line and two home runs, though he still has only 49 PA on his resume at the top minor league level.

Amador received top-100 prospect attention prior to both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, though among the major pundits, Baseball Prospectus (at #79) was the only outlet that still had Amador in their 2025 rankings following his lackluster 2024 campaign.  Amador is just two days removed from his 22nd birthday, so it is far too early to write off his potential as a future second-base staple in Denver.

Mariners Select Ben Williamson

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The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of third baseman Ben Williamson.  In corresponding moves, outfielder Dominic Canzone was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma, and Ryan Bliss was moved to the 60-day injured list to create space on the 40-man roster.

Since multiple injuries up and down the roster have left the Mariners in need of infield reinforcements, the door was opened for Williamson to earn the first call-up of his three-year career as a professional.  Williamson only made his Triple-A debut this season and has hit a modest .281/.317/.333 in 60 plate appearances in Tacoma, but the M’s can’t afford to be too picky given their lack of depth at the big league level.

Williamson was a second-round pick for the Mariners in the 2023 draft, and he has a total career slash line of .281/.366/.389 over 645 PA, with four home runs and 22 steals (in 29 attempts).  MLB Pipeline ranks him 13th on their list of Seattle prospects and Baseball America has him 14th, with BA’s scouting report describing Williamson as “a pest at the plate” due to his high contact rates and on-base skills.  While Williamson makes a lot of contact, he has lacked in hard contact and in overall power, as evidenced by his uninspiring slugging percentages even at the minor league level.

This may not be the ideal profile for a Mariners team in sore need of consistent hitting, but Williamson does offer immediate defensive help at third base.  He is regarded as an excellent fielder who can also chip in at second or shortstop, but the hot corner seems like his natural spot since regular third baseman Jorge Polanco has been limited to DH duty.  Williamson is a right-handed hitter that could pair with the lefty-swinging Miles Mastrobuoni in a platoon situation until Polanco is healthy enough to return to the field.

Since the Mariners are reportedly scanning the trade market for other infielders, Williamson might just be in line for a cup of coffee in the majors if Seattle can land some more experienced help elsewhere.  Beyond Polanco’s ongoing knee and side discomfort, Luke Raley has now moved from first base to the outfield in the wake of Victor Robles’ shoulder fracture, and Bliss will miss the next 4-5 months after undergoing surgery to fix a torn left biceps.  It was just a matter of time before the Mariners moved Bliss from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to free up a 40-man roster spot.

Nationals Place Orlando Ribalta On 15-Day IL, Promote Cole Henry

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The Nationals are calling up right-handed pitching prospect Cole Henry, according to Joe Will of 247Sports.  Henry will take the roster spot of fellow righty Orlando Ribalta, as the Nats announced that Ribalta has been placed (retroactive to April 10) on the 15-day injured list due to a right biceps strain.

After posting a 13.50 ERA over his first 3 1/3 MLB innings in 2024, Ribalta has a 5.87 ERA in 7 2/3 frames out of Washington’s bullpen this year.  Most of the damage came in his first outing of 2025, when the Phillies tagged Ribalta for four runs over two innings of work.  He last pitched on Tuesday, when Ribalta allowed a run over three innings and 58 pitches in a relief outing against the Dodgers.

More will be revealed about the severity of Ribalta’s biceps strain once manager Davey Martinez meets with reporters later today, but even in the best-case scenario, it would seem like the righty will be out for more than the 15-day minimum.  With Ribalta now sidelined, the Nationals have turned to the 25-year-old Henry as a fresh arm for the bullpen, and given Henry his first look at the MLB level.

A second-round pick for the Nats in the 2020 draft, Henry has logged only 130 1/3 innings over five pro seasons due to a variety of injuries.  Most recently, a lat strain limited him to 16 1/3 total innings with high-A Wilmington and Double-A Harrisburg in 2024.  While Henry has started 34 of his 44 games in the minors, he transitioned into relief work this past spring, with an eye towards joining the Nationals bullpen as a long man.

Henry only threw two innings over two Triple-A appearances before his call-up, allowing a hit and three walks over those two scoreless frames.  While not the biggest sample size in the world, the Nats will now see if Henry can eat some innings and translate his strong strikeout numbers (30.34% strikeout rate in the minors) to success in the Show.

Red Sox Place Richard Fitts On 15-Day IL, Select Michael Fulmer

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The Red Sox are placing right-hander Richard Fitts on the 15-day injured list, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports, and Michael Fulmer’s contract has been selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move.  The club has now officially announced the move, and designated Fitts’ injury as a right pectoral strain.  The Sox have an open spot on the 40-man roster, so no further transaction is needed to bring Fulmer to the active roster.

It seemed inevitable that an IL stint was coming for Fitts given how he abruptly left yesterday’s game in clear discomfort after throwing a pitch in the sixth inning.  The Red Sox initially described his injury as “right shoulder pain,” so the fact that the issue has now been identified as a pec strain could be viewed as relatively good news.  Still, Fitts could be facing an absence of well beyond 15 days depending on the severity of the strain, and no recovery timeline has yet been announced.

Fitts is now the sixth starting pitcher on Boston’s injured list.  Chris Murphy (Tommy John surgery) and Patrick Sandoval (internal brace surgery) are out until at least midseason, and there hasn’t been much news on Kutter Crawford (patellar tendinopathy) since he began the season the 15-day IL.  Brayan Bello (shoulder strain) and Lucas Giolito (hamstring strain) have both thrown multiple Triple-A rehab outings and appear closest to returning, but both will get at least one more start in Worcester before a decision is made about their activation.  The Red Sox aren’t going to rush either back just in lieu of Fitts’ injury, as since the club has an off-day on Thursday, they don’t need a fifth starter until April 22 at the earliest.

The timing could allow Bello or Giolito to fit rather smoothly into Fitts’ place, though that doesn’t change the fact that the Red Sox pitching staff has been hit pretty hard by the injury bug in the early going.  All of the rotation absences opened the door for Fitts to join the starting five in the first place, as he won the job with an impressive Spring Training and then delivered a 3.18 ERA over his first three starts and 17 innings.

Between this season’s work and the 1.74 ERA Fitts posted in his first 20 2/3 big league innings in 2024, Fitts now has a 2.39 ERA over 37 2/3 frames at the MLB level.  His strikeout rate stands at only 14.2% and his 5.04 SIERA is far less flattering, but Fitts has good chase rates despite the lack of strikeouts and his 7.7% walk rate is solid.

Fulmer could also be utilized in the starting mix, as he has started two of his three games with Worcester this season.  Whatever the role, Fulmer is surely happy just to finally be back in the majors, following a a UCL revision procedure that sidelined him for the entire 2024 season.  The Red Sox signed Fulmer to a two-year minor league deal in October 2023, with the understanding that Fulmer would spend 2024 rehabbing and then be ready to go for this year.

Fulmer began his big league career as a starter with the Tigers in 2016, and enjoyed immediate success as the AL Rookie of the Year.  An All-Star season in 2017 further seemed to cement his place as a big part of Detroit’s future, though his production took a step back in 2018, and he missed all of 2019 recovering from Tommy John surgery.  Fulmer struggled in his return to the Tigers rotation in 2020 but then transitioned to relief pitching, and seemed to find a second wind to his career.  Over 190 1/3 innings from 2021-23, Fulmer worked as a reliever for 172 of his 177 games with the Tigers, Twins, and Cubs, and delivered a 3.55 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate.

A return to rotation work in the context of Fulmer’s past struggles and his long injury layoff may seem unusual, but Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said the team was viewing Fulmer as a possible candidate for at least bulk innings (if not a full starting job) even before signing him to that minor league deal.  It will be interesting to see how Fulmer is deployed now that he is part of the 26-man roster, and whether or not manager Alex Cora could get creative with Fulmer in a variety of roles to best maximize his potential.

Yankees Place Marcus Stroman On 15-Day IL, Select Allan Winans

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TODAY: Stroman’s MRI revealed swelling but no structural damage, Boone told the New York Post’s Greg Joyce and other reporters.  Stroman received a cortisone shot to help deal with the inflammation.

APRIL 12: The Yankees announced that right-hander Marcus Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation.  Right-hander Allan Winans is taking Stroman’s spot on the active roster, after Winans’ contract was selected from Triple-A.

It has been a brutal start to the season for Stroman, who has an 11.57 ERA over three starts and 9 1/3 innings.  The lowest point came in the Yankees’ 9-1 loss to the Giants yesterday, as Stroman was charged with five earned runs over an abbreviated start that lasted only two-thirds of an inning.  Following the game, New York manager Aaron Boone said Stroman was dealing with some knee soreness and had undergone x-rays.

Since the issue is being described just as inflammation, it appears as though Stroman has avoided any type of structural damage, even if an IL stint is still necessary.  If the injury ends up being relatively minor and Stroman misses around the 15-day minimum, the absence could essentially act as an unofficial reset to his difficult year.

Missing any time at all could heavily impact Stroman’s contractual future, as he has a vesting option in his contract for the 2026 season.  Stroman is in the final guaranteed season of his two-year, $37MM deal with the Yankees, but he’ll lock in an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitches at least 140 innings this year.  Stroman logged 154 2/3 innings in 2024, while posting a 4.31 ERA, 49.2% grounder rate, 8.9% walk rate, and a 16.7% strikeout rate that was well below his career norm.

Between this so-so production and up to two years of salary commitments on the way, the Yankees made Stroman available on the trade market last winter, but no takers were found.  New York also seemingly had a rotation surplus that made Stroman expendable, but the Yankees’ pitching depth was quickly reduced when Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery), Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt, and JT Brubaker were all lost to the IL.  Schmidt is expected back this coming week, but his return just as Stroman hits the injured list only adds to the Yankees’ difficulties in finding enough healthy arms to cover the rotation workload.

Winans was claimed off waivers from the Braves in January, and was then designated for assignment and outrighted off New York’s 40-man roster in February.  Winans has started all eight of his career MLB games (all with Atlanta in 2023-24) but seems much likelier to take on a long relief role in the Yankees’ bullpen.  Over 40 big league innings, Winans has an ungainly 7.20 ERA, but his minor league numbers are far more impressive.  The righty has a 3.20 ERA in 258 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, perhaps hinting at some late breakout potential as he enters his age-29 season.

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