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Nationals To Select Andres Chaparro

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The Nationals will select the contract of infielder Andres Chaparro from Triple-A prior to their next game on Tuesday in Baltimore, according to Andrew Golden of the Washington Post (X link).  Multiple international websites, including from Chaparro’s native Venezuela were first with the news earlier today that Chaparro was set to be promoted for his MLB debut (hat tip to the Talk Nats feed).  The Nationals have space on their 40-man roster, so they’ll just need to make a move on their 26-man roster to find room for Chaparro.

Acquired from the Diamondbacks for Dylan Floro on trade deadline day, Chaparro started his pro career as an international signing for the Yankees in 2015.  He spent his first six minor league seasons in New York’s farm system before joining the D’Backs last winter, and the deadline trade has now lined up the 25-year-old for his first taste of the big leagues.

Like most prospects, 2020 was a lost year for Chaparro after the pandemic canceled the entirety of the minor league season.  However, he returned to action in 2021 with a big step up in production, and he basically hasn’t stopped hitting on his four-year rise from A-ball to the Show.  Chaparro hit .247/.331/.444 with 25 homers over 601 plate appearances for the Yankees’ Triple-A squad in 2023, and he stepped up with a big .330/.406/.577 slash line and 23 long balls over 451 combined PA with the Diamondbacks’ and Nationals’ Triple-A affiliates this year.

Since the large majority of his Triple-A work in 2024 came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, it is fair to take Chaparro’s numbers with a grain of salt.  That said, he has kept up the production since the trade to Triple-A Rochester, perhaps forcing the Nationals’ hand into giving him a look.  Injuries on the active roster are likely also a factor, as Jose Tena (another deadline pickup in the Lane Thomas trade) left today’s game with a thumb problem, and All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams has missed the Nats’ last few games with back spasms.

Chaparro is considered a subpar defender at third base, and he has spent his entire pro career at both corner infield positions and a designated hitter.  Since he doesn’t have much of a defensive profile, Chaparro will need to continue hitting if he’s going to factor into any of Washington’s future plans, or get any significant MLB playing time over the rest of the season.

Several Veterans Who Could Be Available On Waivers This Month

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Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, it's harder for contending clubs to upgrade their respective rosters. There are still a few ways to do so, as MLBTR's Steve Adams recently laid out, but most of those methods involve adding guys not currently rostered who are naturally depth pieces at best.

To add a solid, usable big leaguer, the best remaining path is waivers. The old August waiver trade system ended in 2019, but many veteran players found themselves on waivers last August anyway, which started with the Angels.

The Halos fell out of contention in August and their priority shifted from winning to ducking under the competitive balance tax. Since trades were no longer possible, they put a whole bunch of guys on waivers and just hoped that other clubs would take them, the baseball equivalent of putting a "for free" box by the curb. Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Randal Grichuk, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone and Tyler Anderson were put on waivers and then other clubs followed suit, though to a less significant degree. The Yankees had no hope of avoiding the CBT but were slipping in the standings and had no use for an impending free agent like Harrison Bader. It was a similar situation with the Mets and Carlos Carrasco. The Tigers and White Sox weren't going to be CBT payors but made José Cisnero and Mike Clevinger available, simply hoping to cut costs.

Because the waiver priority order goes in reverse order of standings, the clubs best positioned to benefit were those just on the fringes of contention. The teams buried in the standings would have no motivation to grab such players and take on salary while the teams at the top of the standings would get last dibs in the waiver process. The Guardians claimed Giolito, López and Moore while the Reds grabbed Bader and Renfroe.

It doesn't seem like this trend will stop here in 2024. This year, Kevin Kiermaier, Ty France and Josh Bell have already been on waivers at some point. All three players cleared and were ultimately traded prior to the deadline, with some money changing hands in each of those deals. Others will surely follow them in the weeks to come, but clubs won't be able to work out trades involving cash considerations. The claiming club will have to take on all that's left of the contract from the waiving club.

Logically, these players will be available on waivers before the end of August. Players acquired after that time are not postseason eligible, which limits the attraction, though it could still happen. After the Guards fell from contention, they put Moore back on waivers just a few weeks after claiming him, and the Marlins nabbed him at that time. He made four scoreless appearances for Miami, helping them squeak into the playoffs, but wasn't eligible to join the club in the postseason.

So who could be available this time around? The most likely players are those making a notable salary on a club that could fall back in the playoff race, particularly one with CBT concerns. But an underwater contract won't be terribly appealing, so the player should still have some utility that makes it at least vaguely justifiable for the claiming club to take on some money. Many of these will require the team to really perform poorly in the next few weeks, making them long-shot possibilities, but let's take a look at some of the most interesting guys who could plausibly fit the bill.

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MLBTR Podcast: Trade Deadline Recap

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

  • Were the prospect prices high in this year’s trades? Is this a new normal due to the expanded playoffs creating a seller’s market? (2:15)
  • The three-team trade involving the Dodgers, White Sox, Cardinals, Erick Fedde, Miguel Vargas and others (15:40)
  • The Rays and Cubs, the buy-sell tightrope and the trade involving Isaac Paredes and Christopher Morel (29:30)
  • The Astros acquire Yusei Kikuchi from the Blue Jays for a three-player package and the connection to the the Dodgers acquiring Jack Flaherty from the Tigers but the Yankees reportedly being scared off by his medicals (48:00)
  • The Guardians acquire Alex Cobb from the Giants and acquire Lane Thomas from the Nationals (58:35)
  • The Orioles acquire Trevor Rogers from the Marlins and acquire Zach Eflin from the Rays (1:09:10)
  • Will teams have to be more aggressive in the offseason going forward if the expanded playoffs will make less good players available at the deadline? (1:20:35)
  • The Rockies and Angels held onto a lot of trade candidates (1:23:35)
  • The Marlins leaned in hard to seller status (1:31:40)
  • The Padres built a super bullpen (1:44:50)
  • The Braves acquire Jorge Soler from the Giants (1:47:40)
  • The Royals acquire Lucas Erceg from the Athletics (1:54:40)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Trade Deadline Preview – listen here
  • Top Trade Candidates, Hunter Harvey To KC And The Current State Of The Rays And Mets – listen here
  • Brewers’ Pitching Needs, Marlins Rumors And The Nats Prepare To Sell – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Diamondbacks To Acquire Dylan Floro

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The D-backs and Nationals agreed to a last-minute trade sending right-handed reliever Dylan Floro to Arizona, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. Arizona is sending corner infielder Andres Chaparro back to the Nats, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

Floro, 33, is on a one-year, $2.25MM contract and will be a free agent at season’s end. He’s pitched to a pristine 2.06 earned run average this season, albeit with a rather pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate and tepid 90.3 mph average fastball. That said, Floro has walked only 6.4% of his opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a strong 47.6% clip. He’s not going to continue to see this level of fortune on his fly-balls — only 2.2% of them have become homers, compared to the 7% mark he carried into the season — but it’s been a nice rebound effort for a veteran reliever who struggled to keep his ERA under 5.00 last year between the Marlins and Twins.

Since cementing himself as a viable big league reliever in 2018, Floro touts a 3.11 ERA in 361 1/3 innings. He’s had a below-average strikeout rate nearly every season along the way, but never egregiously so, and has offset that with strong command. Floro also regularly avoids loud contact, evidenced by a career 87.4 mph average exit velocity, 3.7% barrel rate and 38.4% hard-hit rate.

Floro adds an affordable middle-relief arm to a D-backs bullpen that already picked up one of the most impactful relievers moved at this year’s deadline: lefty A.J. Puk. That pair of newcomers will join late-inning arms Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel to help bridge the gap between an injury-marred rotation — currently missing both Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez — and closer Paul Sewald.

Chaparro, 25, is a longtime Yankees farmhand who became a minor league free agent this past offseason and signed a minors contract with the D-backs. He’s had a big first year in an overwhelmingly hitter-friendly Triple-A Reno setting, batting .332/.403/.563 with 19 homers — good for a 137 wRC+. Listed at 5’11” and 200 pounds, Chaparro has well below-average speed and grades out poorly as a defender, but he’s posted above-average offensive numbers throughout his minor league tenure. He could eventually emerge as a right-handed corner bench bat/DH option for a rebuilding Nationals club.

Cards, Nats Have Discussed Dylan Carlson, Dylan Floro

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1:11pm: The Cards and Nats have indeed had ongoing talks on a swap of the two Dylans and could complete a deal this afternoon, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It’s not yet clear if other players are involved.

11:17am: The Cardinals crossed a pair of big items off their wishlist yesterday when they acquired right-hander Erick Fedde and outfielder Tommy Pham from the White Sox, but they’re still hoping to add to the bullpen, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The Cardinals are openly shopping outfielder Dylan Carlson in a related pursuit, and MLB.com’s John Denton tweets that Nationals right-hander Dylan Floro is a name to watch if St. Louis indeed moves on from Carlson. The Nats are known to have some interest in Carlson.

A few years ago, the notion of trading Carlson for a middle-relief rental would’ve been unfathomable (though it’s of course possible that a theoretical Dylan-for-Dylan swap would also include additional minor league players to balance out the scales). Carlson isn’t all that far removed from ranking among the game’s top 10 to 20 overall prospects. The former first-rounder’s bat has wilted since a solid 2021 showing.

Dating back to 2022, Carlson has batted just .225/.310/.345 in 881 big league plate appearances. That’s come in scattered playing time — in part due to injuries — so the Nats could well view him as a buy-low option with two-plus seasons of club control remaining who could benefit from a change of scenery. (The last controllable outfielder they pried from the Cardinals in exchange for a rental pitcher — Lane Thomas for Jon Lester — worked out nicely, after all.)

Floro, 33, is on a one-year, $2.25MM contract and will be a free agent at season’s end. He’s pitched to a pristine 2.06 earned run average this season, albeit with a rather pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate and tepid 90.3 mph average fastball. That said, Floro has walked only 6.4% of his opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a strong 47.6% clip. He’s not going to continue to see this level of fortune on his fly-balls — only 2.2% of them have become homers, compared to the 7% mark he carried into the season — but it’s been a nice rebound effort for a veteran reliever who struggled to keep his ERA under 5.00 last year between the Marlins and Twins.

Since cementing himself as a viable big league reliever in 2018, Floro touts a 3.11 ERA in 361 1/3 innings. He’s had a below-average strikeout rate nearly every season along the way, but never egregiously so, and has offset that with habitually strong command. Floro also regularly avoids loud contact, evidenced by a career 87.4 mph average exit velocity, 3.7% barrel rate and 38.4% hard-hit rate.

Floro is surely just one of many bullpen arms the Cardinals have looked into in the final hours leading to today’s 5pm CT trade deadline. Concurrently, they’re looking for trade partners for Carlson and the already-designated-for-assignment Giovanny Gallegos. The Cards may not have another blockbuster along the lines of yesterday’s three-team swap in them, but they could still have multiple trades in store today.

Yankees Interested In Luis Rengifo, Kyle Finnegan, Lucas Erceg

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11:53am: Jorge Castillo of ESPN reports that the Yanks are more focused on pitching and acquiring Díaz is unlikely, which could perhaps apply to Rengifo as well.

11:49am: The trade deadline is just a few hours away now but teams are still scouring the market for upgrades. Per Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X, the Yankees have infielders Yandy Díaz and Luis Rengifo on their radar, as well as relievers Tanner Scott, Pete Fairbanks, Kyle Finnegan and Lucas Erceg. He adds that they could also look to add a starting pitching but might not meet the asking prices.

Some of those guys have already been connected to the Yankees in rumors. The connections with Rengifo, Finnegan and Erceg are new but also in line with their previously-reported pursuits. Even after adding Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the roster, they have seemingly still been looking for more infield help, which Rengifo could certainly help with.

The 27-year-old is in his third straight above-average offensive season. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, he’s hit .272/.323/.433 for a wRC+ of 110. He’s also stolen 35 bases in that time while bouncing to all three outfield spots and three infield positions to the left of first base. He’s not considered a strong defender at any one position but the ability to move all around is certainly attractive.

The Yanks are still trying to figure out their best alignment at the moment. Chisholm’s first game as a Yankee was in center field, where he has been spending most of his time in recent years. But then the Yanks moved him to third base last night, a position he had never played before. Now that Giancarlo Stanton is back and in the designated hitter slot, Aaron Judge moved to center field, flanked by Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo. Acquiring another infielder could result in Chisholm moving to second and bumping out Gleyber Torres, or perhaps Verdugo will get nudged out of the outfield mix.

Rengifo is making a modest $4.4MM this year, with roughly $1.5MM left to be paid out. That’s likely attractive to the Yankees as they are slated to be a third-time payor of the competitive balance tax and well above the top tier, meaning they will pay a 110% tax on anything they add to the ledger. He can also be retained via arbitration for 2025 and could perhaps slide into next year’s second base job with Torres slated for free agency after the current season. Verdugo is also an impending free agent, so perhaps Chisholm could be in the outfield with Rengifo on the infield. There’s also the looming Soto free agency to consider, though the Yanks are expected to be aggressive in trying to re-sign him. Rengifo has also been connected to clubs such as the Red Sox, Dodgers and Royals in recent weeks.

The extra year of control means that the Angels don’t have to move on from Rengifo but there would be logic in doing so as they haven’t been meaningfully competitive for quite some time. Now that Shohei Ohtani is gone and Mike Trout is having annual trouble staying on the field, the odds of them turning things around between now and the end of 2025 seem long.

Bullpen adds are generally on the radar of all contending teams and the Yanks are surely exploring all options there. Finnegan has been the Nationals’ closer for quite some time but is nearing the end of his window of club control, with one year remaining after this one. The Nats have already traded Hunter Harvey and Lane Thomas, two players that were also controllable through 2025, and Finnegan seems likely to move today as well.

He has a career 3.52 earned run average in 272 appearances. He has struck out 23.9% of batters faced, given out walks at a 9.4% rate and kept the ball on the ground at a 46.8% clip. That includes racking up 28 saves this year with a 3.48 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 40.5% ground ball rate. He’s making $5.1MM this year.

Erceg can still be retained by the Athletics for five seasons beyond this one, but he’s a late bloomer who is now 29 years old despite his limited experience, which could tempt them to sell high. He has a 3.68 ERA this year, 26.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 50.5% ground ball rate. The fact that he’s pre-arbitration and therefore making a modest salary is surely appealing to the Yankees but the cost might be high. Even rental relievers are netting big returns at this year’s deadline so getting Erceg might take an uncomfortable haul.

Nationals To Select Travis Blankenhorn

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The Nationals are calling up Travis Blankenhorn, reports Andrew Golden of the Washington Post (X link). They’ll need to select his contract but have a pair of openings on the 40-man roster after the Jesse Winker and Lane Thomas trades.

Blankenhorn, 28 next week, appeared in 10 games for the Nats last season. It was his fourth straight year reaching the majors, albeit without ever topping last season’s 37 plate appearances. Washington ran him through outright waivers at year’s end. The former third-round pick returned to the organization on a minor league deal in January.

The lefty-swinging Blankenhorn has spent the entire season with Triple-A Rochester. He’s hitting at a slightly above-average level, running a .246/.328/.518 line with 24 homers across 401 plate appearances. Blankenhorn also popped 23 homers in 108 Triple-A contests a year ago, so he clearly has decent power potential.

That has generally come with a fair amount of strikeouts and a fringy defensive profile. Blankenhorn has split his time between the corner outfield spots, first base and designated hitter. Considering the Nats just subtracted two of their corner outfielders, he could get his most extended look at MLB pitching over the season’s final couple months.

11 Long Shot Trade Candidates

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We're less than 24 hours from the deadline. There has been a flurry of activity dating back to Thursday night, taking a few of the top names (e.g Randy Arozarena, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Carlos Estévez, Isaac Paredes) off the board. We've devoted ample attention to the likes of Garrett Crochet, Jack Flaherty and Yusei Kikuchi.

Every deadline features some late surprises. Talks don't always get over the line, but we're likely to hear about discussions on marquee names who are less clear trade candidates than are the good players with limited contractual control on bad teams. None of the following players are likely to be traded. They've probably each got less than a 20% chance of changing uniforms. There's an argument for teams to listen on these players, though they're of varying ability and trade value.

Tarik Skubal

Skubal might be the best pitcher in baseball. If the Tigers trade him, it'd be the biggest transaction of the summer. He's probably the frontrunner for the American League Cy Young award behind a 2.35 earned run average with a 30% strikeout rate over 130 innings. Detroit is three games below .500 and 5.5 out in the Wild Card race. Last night's Carson Kelly trade shows they're willing to move rentals. Needless to say, a Skubal trade would be in another stratosphere of significance.

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Guardians Acquire Lane Thomas

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The Guardians have landed outfielder Lane Thomas in a trade with the Nationals, both teams announced. A trio of prospects — left-hander Alex Clemmey and infielders Jose Tena and Rafael Ramirez — are going back to Washington.

It was almost exactly three years ago that Thomas was part of another prominent deadline trade, coming to Washington from the Cardinals in exchange for Jon Lester.  The move to the Nats and more consistent playing time unlocked something in Thomas, who performed brilliantly over the remainder of the 2021 season and then settled into a regular role in the Nationals’ outfield over the last three years.  This season, Thomas has hit .253/.331/.407 with eight homers and 28 steals (out of 40 attempts) over 341 plate appearances, despite missing about a month of action with a sprained MCL.

Thomas’ emergence in Washington was soon followed by more trade speculation, as it wasn’t clear whether or not the Nationals would view this newfound breakout player as a building block, or as a trade asset to aid in their rebuild.  Today’s move answers that question, as the Nats have dealt Thomas (who turns 29 next month) in the second of his three arbitration-eligible seasons.  Thomas is earning $5.45MM this season and will be in for a raise next year before hitting the free agency market in the 2025-26 offseason.

This extra year of control added to Thomas’ trade value, and ironically, the Guards themselves have traditionally looked to deal such increasingly-pricey players as they approach the end of their team control.  With Cleveland in first place in the AL Central, the Guardians have instead looked to bolster their roster in major fashion, as Thomas can step right in as the team’s new regular right fielder.  The left-handed hitting Will Brennan should still get a decent chunk of at-bats since Thomas has been much better against southpaws than against right-handed pitchers this season, but Thomas brings a needed right-handed bat to a Cleveland lineup perhaps a bit overloaded with lefty-swingers and switch-hitters.

The Guardians are opting for extra hitting over defense here, as Thomas’ public defensive metrics (-9 Defensive Runs Saved, -8.1 UZR/150, -7 Outs Above Average) have been very lacking.  Cleveland has traditionally prioritized glovework in the outfield, yet while the lineup’s production has been better in 2024 than in recent seasons, Guards hitters have provided roughly average numbers league-wide.  It seems quite possible the Guardians might still address their bigger need for rotation help before tomorrow’s deadline, but the Thomas trade is a key first step towards upgrading the roster for the stretch run.

From Washington’s perspective, the three-player package is a nice return for a season and two months’ worth of Thomas’ services.  The Nationals have added one MLB-ready player in Tena who has already gotten some time in the Show, and two longer-term assets, including a noteworthy pitching prospect in Clemmey.

Cleveland’s second-round pick in the 2023 draft, Clemmey is just 11 days removed from his 19th birthday, and he has a 4.67 ERA over 69 1/3 innings at A-level Lynchburg this season.  Clemmey has struck out batters at an impressive 32.6% rate, but his 15.8% walk rate is evidence of some control issues early in his pro career.

Baseball America ranked Clemmey seventh among Guardians prospects and MLB Pipeline had him eighth on their list, with both outlets wowed by his high-90s fastball.  The fastball earned a 70 grade from both scouting reports and his curveball received a 60, giving him some impressive upside for rotation work if he can develop at least one more quality offering.  While projections might be a bit difficult for such a young pitcher, Clemmey already looks like he could be a quality reliever, though obviously the Nationals will fully explore his potential as a starter.

Ramirez was ranked 20th in BA’s list of Guardians prospects and 22nd by MLB Pipeline.  He is the son of former Braves/Astros infielder Rafael Ramirez Sr., and while the elder Ramirez spent most of his 13 Major League seasons at shortstop, the 19-year-old Ramirez might eventually end up as a third baseman or second baseman, as per the scouting reports.  Ramirez is in his third year of pro ball and hasn’t hit much in A-ball this season after posting much bigger numbers in rookie ball in 2023.

Tena made his big league debut in the form of 18 games and 34 PA for Cleveland last season, and he has appeared in three games for the Guards in 2024.  An international signing in 2017, Tena has spent his whole career in Cleveland’s farm system, and he has an eye-popping .308/.365/.522 slash line and 22 homers in 494 career PA at the Triple-A level.

Despite these big numbers, the 23-year-old Tena always seemed to be a bit of an odd man out amidst the Guards’ infield picture, especially with Jose Ramirez and Andres Gimenez locking down two positions.  Tena’s big strikeout numbers probably didn’t play well within a Cleveland organization that prizes contact hitting, but he’ll now get another opportunity in the District.  The Nationals have an infield cornerstone of their own in CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. has done well to re-establish himself as a regular second baseman, though Tena could potentially look to make an impact at third base or in a utility role.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (X link) was the first to report that Cleveland acquired Thomas, and FanSided’s Robert Murray (via X) reported that Clemmey was part of the trade package.  ESPN’s Jeff Passan specified that the Nationals would be receiving three players in return for Thomas, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale was the first to report on the inclusion of Tena and Ramirez.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Angels, Nationals Interested In Dylan Carlson

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The Cardinals are exploring trades of outfielder Dylan Carlson and right-hander Giovanny Gallegos, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The club is set to add Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham in a trade that will subtract Tommy Edman, leaving them needing to open some active roster spots. Gallegos was already removed from the roster as he was designated for assignment yesterday. Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reports that the Dodgers are interested in Gallegos while John Denton of MLB.com relays on X that the Guardians, Angels and Nationals are interested in Carlson, though the Guardians just acquired Lane Thomas from the Nationals, which presumably lowers their interest in Carlson.

Carlson, 25, has been getting squeezed out of playing time this year as guys like Michael Siani, Brendan Donovan, Lars Nootbaar and Alec Burleson have been out on the grass more than he has. The crunch will be even tighter whenever Pham officially reports to the club. As mentioned, the club will have to open a couple of roster spots, so perhaps a trade of Carlson will come together between now and tomorrow’s deadline.

“Right now, he’s still one of our outfielders, but clearly we’re gonna have a roster crunch at some point,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said of Carlson today, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat on X. “So we’ll use the next 24 hours to see what happens, but he’s still a part of our organization right now and we’ll see where that goes.”

Sending out Carlson now would definitely be a sell-low move for the Cards. Not too long ago, he was the club’s first-round pick and one of their top prospects. He also seemed to be establishing himself as a solid regular in the major leagues when he first arrived. In 2021, he got into 149 games and hit 18 home runs while drawing walks at a 9.2% rate. He also received close to league average grades for his outfield glovework and was considered to be worth 2.4 wins above replacement on the year, per the calculations of FanGraphs.

That was only his age-22 season, so it seemed fair to expect better results going forward, but the opposite has happened. In 2022, Carlson went on the injured list a couple of times, first due to a left hamstring strain and then a left thumb sprain. He got into 128 games with his production slipping a bit, finishing that year with a line of .236/.316/.380 and a 99 wRC+.

Last year, left ankle issues sent him to the IL multiple times, limiting him to just 76 games and ultimately requiring surgery. He hit .219/.318/.333 on the year for a wRC+ of 84, another dip in his production but perhaps one connected to his health.

Coming into 2024, he seemed to have a chance to engineer a rebound. Both Edman and Nootbaar were slated to start the season on the IL, which should have opened up plenty of playing time for Carlson. Unfortunately, just at the end of Spring Training, Carlson and Jordan Walker collided while trying to make a catch in the outfield. Carlson was diagnosed with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder and also had to start the season on the IL.

He was back by early May but, as mentioned, hasn’t been able to earn much playing time this year. When in the lineup, he hasn’t done much to earn a longer leash, having hit .198/.275/.240 here in 2024.

Perhaps some clubs will be eyeing Carlson as a change-of-scenery candidate. He’s been trending downwards for three straight years now but mostly due to injuries. It’s feasible that with some health luck and regular playing time somewhere, he could return to the form he showed a few years back. He is making a modest $2.35MM salary this year and has two more years of control left. He’ll be due raises in arbitration but won’t be able to push his salary up much based on his recent results and injury absences. Carlson also has options and doesn’t necessarily need to be traded, though the Cardinals may prefer to just cash him in for something now as he may no longer be in their future plans.

The Nationals have moved on from a few veteran outfielders already this year. Eddie Rosario and Víctor Robles were released and Jesse Winker was traded to the Mets. As mentioned, Thomas was just flipped to the Guardians. Perhaps they could slot Carlson in there next to James Wood and Jacob Young.

The Angels would be in a somewhat similar position. They are giving outfield playing time to guys who could be traded like Taylor Ward and Kevin Pillar. If they pull the trigger on a deal for either of those guys, they could grab Carlson in a buy-low move and give him some run for the rest of this year or perhaps next year.

Gallegos would also be a sell-low move, but the Cards don’t have much choice there. He’s an impending free agent and they already sent him off the roster and into DFA limbo. He was one of the better relievers in the league not so long ago, tossing 228 1/3 innings over the 2019-22 seasons with a 2.84 ERA. He struck out 32% of batters faced in that time and only gave out walks at a 6.6% rate, earning 33 saves and 56 holds in the process.

But his ERA jumped to 4.42 last year as his strikeout rate fell to 25.8%. Here in 2024, his punchouts have fallen to a rate of 22.3% as his ERA has climbed to 6.53. That got him nudged off the roster but the Dodgers have a solid reputation of getting good results from pitchers and perhaps see a way to get Gallegos back on track. He is making $5.5MM this year, with roughly $1.8MM still to be paid out. The Dodgers are slated to be third-time payors of the competitive balance tax and well over the top tier, meaning they face a 110% tax rate on anything they add to their payroll at this point.

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