The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Garrett Acton. Righty Eric Orze was optioned to Triple-A to create room on the 28-man roster, and outfielder Jonny DeLuca was moved to the 60-day injured list to create space for Acton on the 40-man roster.
More to come…
Juan Brito’s injury-ravaged season has come to an early end, as the Guardians announced yesterday that the infield prospect would be undergoing surgery to fix his damaged left hamstring. The procedure has a recovery timeline of 8-12 weeks, so Brito should be ready for the start of Spring Training.
This marks the second major surgery of Brito’s 2025 campaign, as he missed close to two months recovering from thumb surgery. Returning to action with Triple-A Columbus near the end of June, he appeared in just eight more games with the Clippers before being sidelined again by a left hamstring strain. Brito had resumed baseball activities a few weeks ago, but seemingly with little progress, so the decision was made to fully address the injury with surgery.
Brito will conclude his season with just 31 games played — 24 in Triple-A ball, and seven on a rehab assignment with the Guardians’ rookie league affiliate. He still hit well (.256/.357/.463) over his 99 plate appearances in Columbus, yet that isn’t much consolation given that Brito posted similar numbers over a full Triple-A season in 2024, and looked set to make his big league debut this year.
There was even some chatter last spring about Brito potentially breaking camp with the Guardians and earning at least a platoon role at second base. Cleveland instead optioned him to Triple-A before Opening Day, and while Brito’s injuries perhaps made the team’s decision a moot point, the keystone has been a weak spot for the Guardians. The team’s second basemen (Daniel Schneemann, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martinez, Gabriel Arias, and Will Wilson) have combined for 0.6 bWAR, ranking the Guards 23rd of 30 teams in second base bWAR.
Going into 2026, the hope is that Brito (who turns 24 later this month) will be healthy and ready to rebound after his lost year. Acquired from the Rockies in the Nolan Jones trade three years ago, Brito has posted good offensive numbers during his rise up the ranks of Cleveland’s farm system. Evaluators aren’t sure if his glove necessarily plays anywhere, but even a bat-first type of infielder might help a Guardians team still struggling for consistent offense.
Brito has already exhausted his number of minor league option years, so for now, he’ll be officially out of options heading into 2026. Since the league can grant a fourth option year to players whose careers have been stalled by injury, however, it seems quite likely that Brito will get that bonus option given how little he played in 2025.
Turning to the top name in the Guards’ minor league system, Travis Bazzana may be facing another oblique issue. Bazzana was removed from Thursday’s Triple-A game due to left oblique soreness, and there hasn’t yet been an update on his status. This injury comes on the heels of a right oblique strain in May that ended up costing Bazzana a little over two months of the Double-A season.
The first overall pick of the 2024 draft has started his pro career in impressive fashion, already advancing to Triple-A ball and hitting .225/.420/.438 over his first 120 PA with Columbus. As much as some Cleveland fans were hoping Bazzana might provide the big league team with a boost during the playoff push, there probably wasn’t much chance the Guardians were going to call Bazzana up even before Thursday’s injury scare. That said, Bazzana’s quick rise through the minors has certainly put him on the radar for 2026, and he might now be the second base prospect under consideration for an Opening Day assignment.
Speaking of injury-marred seasons, Lane Thomas has played in only 39 games for the Guardians due to three different IL stints. The first IL trip was due to a bone bruise in his right wrist, and the latter two have been as a result of Thomas’ ongoing battle with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. The outfielder has been on the 10-day injured list since early July, and he played in three rehab games with Double-A Akron earlier in September before he was sidelined again with more foot soreness.
The next step might be surgery, as Thomas told The Athletic’s Zack Meisel and other reporters that he will speak with a foot specialist this coming week to decide on how to best treat the injury. Should Thomas go under the knife, he’d need a three-month recovery period. This timeline would leave him ready to go for the start of spring camp, yet a surgery would add another complication to what will already be a tricky ride through the free agent market for the 30-year-old.
It was less than two years ago that Thomas hit 28 homers as the everyday right fielder for the 2023 Nationals, but his production has dropped sharply since that career year. His bat particularly cooled off after he was dealt to the Guards at last year’s trade deadline, and his nightmare of a 2025 season has seen Thomas hit just .160/.246/.272 over 142 PA.
Teams will want to ensure Thomas is healthy before signing him to any sort of contract, so he’ll probably have to complete his rehab before his market gathers any kind of momentum. At best he’ll receive a one-year deal with a modest guaranteed salary, and it is certainly possible Thomas may have to settle for a minor league deal. Thomas told Meisel and company that he would welcome a return to Cleveland, and since the Guardians will be looking for outfield help anyway, the team might be open to bringing Thomas back on a low-cost deal.
The Cardinals released Garrett Hampson, according to the utilityman’s MLB.com profile page. Hampson was designated for assignment earlier this week, and while he had the option of declining an outright assignment in favor of free agency, it appears the Cards just streamlined by the process with a release as soon as Hampson cleared waivers.
It is possible Hampson could sign elsewhere before the 2025 season ends, should a team want some versatile depth in the minors or on a big league bench. However, Hampson has rarely brought much with his bat during his eight Major League seasons, and his offense has sunk to a career-worst .143/.250/.169 over 91 plate appearances in 2025.
The nomadic nature of Hampton’s season didn’t help him get into any kind of groove at the dish. Beginning the season on a minor league contract with the Diamondbacks, he was released for the first time this year in May after appearing in 18 MLB games for Arizona. A stint in Cincinnati didn’t go any better, as the Reds designated Hampson for assignment after about a month, but St. Louis then claimed Hampson off waivers near the end of June.
The release officially ends Hampson’s Cards tenure at 35 games, and he has gotten into 62 contests as a whole this year spread over his three different teams. This marks the least amount of action Hampson has received during a regulation-length MLB season since his 2018 rookie year, when he debuted with 24 games with the Rockies. His ability to play all over the diamond should keep getting Hampson looks on minor league contracts, even if it may be hard for him to escape the proverbial “last man on the roster” status.
Prior to yesterday’s game, the Red Sox placed left-hander Brennan Bernardino on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 10) due to a left lat strain. Southpaw Chris Murphy was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and Murphy tossed a scoreless inning in Friday’s 4-1 Sox loss to the Yankees.
Bernardino hasn’t pitched since September 6, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) that the injury only arose this past Wednesday in the final game of Boston’s series with the Athletics. “Playing catch the last day in Sacramento, [he] felt something grab him below the shoulder, so he had an MRI yesterday,” Cora said.
The severity of the strain wasn’t specified, and it isn’t known if Bernardino will be able to make it back before the end of the regular season. Given the backdated placement, the earliest the lefty could be activated is September 25, which would make him available for Boston’s final four games of the schedule.
The larger question, of course, is whether Bernardino’s status could be in question for a first-round playoff roster, should the Red Sox clinch at least a wild card berth. While Bernardino hasn’t pitched many high-leverage innings this year, the Sox naturally want as many healthy arms as possible when deciding their optimal October roster.
Bernardino has a strong 3.14 ERA over 51 2/3 frames for the Sox in 2025, but a 4.50 SIERA indicates some red flags behind that excellent bottom-line result. Between his .252 BABIP and his ability to induce soft contact, Bernardino’s ability to keep the ball on the ground (49.7% grounder rate) has again been his biggest strength. However, Bernardino’s 19.2% strikeout rate is well below average, and his 11.6% walk rate is only in the sixth percentile of all pitchers. The left-hander has battled control problems in the past, yet his strikeout rate has been steadily declining over his three full Major League seasons.
TODAY: Alvarado’s forearm strain will end his season, manager Rob Thomson told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber and other media. The injury is “mild” overall, Thomson said, and surgery isn’t a consideration.
SEPTEMBER 12: The Phillies announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Walker Buehler and placed left-hander Jose Alvarado on the 15-injured list, moves which were previously reported. Alvarado’s injury wasn’t specified in that earlier reporting but the Phils announced it as a left forearm strain, retroactive to September 11th. The severity is still unclear. To open a 40-man spot for Buehler, righty Matt Manning has been designated for assignment.
Manning, 27, has never thrown a pitch for the Phillies at the big league level. He was designated for assignment by the Tigers on the day of this summer’s trade deadline and quickly flipped to the Phils, with minor league outfielder Josueth Quinonez heading the other way. Manning didn’t pitch for a month after being acquired. It’s unclear if that was due to an injury or if his new team was having him work on some kind of mechanical adjustment.
He recently returned to the mound in the minors. He made two starts for Double-A Reading in the past two weeks, logging five innings combined with six earned runs allowed. He struck out eight and allowed just three hits but gave out seven walks, hit one batter and also threw two wild pitches.
Since he’s been bumped off the 40-man roster after the trade deadline, he’ll be on the waiver wire in the coming days. If he garners any interest, it would be based on his past pedigree. The Tigers took him with the ninth overall pick in the 2016 draft. He was ranked as one of the top prospects in the league for several years after that but hasn’t been able to deliver on that potential. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 254 innings for Detroit with a 4.43 ERA. His 7.8% walk rate was good but he only struck out 16.4% of batters faced.
The Tigers kept him in the minors this year. He tossed 50 2/3 innings on the farm with a 6.04 ERA. He struck out 22.4% of opponents but also gave out walks at a 15.9% clip. The Phils tried to buy low on him but that doesn’t seem to have worked out.
Manning is in his final option year and will therefore be out of options starting next year. That will make it harder for him to keep a roster spot going forward. Given his past status as a top prospect, perhaps some club grabs him off the wire now. If some team does take a flier on him and manages to keep him on the roster, Manning can be controlled for four seasons after this one.
Photo courtesy of Mike Watters, Imagn Images
TODAY: The Sox announced that Altavilla has cleared waivers and been released.
SEPTEMBER 10: The White Sox announced today that right-hander Sean Burke has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Dan Altavilla has been designated for assignment.
It’s a bit of a rude belated birthday present for Altavilla, who just turned 33 on Monday. He signed a minor league deal with the Sox in the offseason. He opted out of that deal, re-signed and then opted out again, but was eventually put on the major league roster at the end of May.
His numbers on the season look good until you check under the hood. He has thrown 29 innings with a 2.48 earned run average. However, his 17.5% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate are both subpar figures. His 51.3% ground ball rate is pretty good but he has largely benefitted from a .197 batting average on balls in play and 89.5% strand rate. His 5.45 FIP and 4.78 SIERA suggest that good luck has kept his ERA down about two to three runs relative to where it should be.
For the Sox, they have little reason to wait for regression to kick in. As mentioned, Altavilla is now 33 years old. He can technically be retained for 2026 via arbitration but the Sox weren’t planning on doing that. For a rebuilding club playing out the string on another losing season, it makes more sense to give innings to younger guys who are hopefully developing into future contributors. Since Altavilla is out of options, he’s been bumped off the 40-man entirely.
With the trade deadline having passed, he’ll have to be placed on waivers. He won’t have too much appeal, given his underlying numbers. He also won’t be postseason eligible for any claiming club, since it’s now beyond the September 1st deadline. Though it is possible some team which has recently suffered a number of injuries needs a healthy and available arm for the short term.
If Altavilla clears waivers, he will have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. There won’t be a lot of opportunities at this stage of the calendar, so perhaps he would decide to report to Triple-A Charlotte, or he could just go into offseason mode a few weeks early.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images
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 Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto to discuss…
Plus, Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors joins the show to discuss…
And we answer your questions, including…
Check out our past episodes!
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
FRIDAY: Winn will be placed on the IL Saturday and is out for the season, according to manager Oli Marmol (as reported by Katie Woo of The Athletic). Thomas Saggese played shortstop tonight as the Cardinals fell to the Brewers at American Family Field; he’s started each of the last three games there.
WEDNESDAY: Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn has a torn meniscus in his right knee. He will require arthroscopic surgery at some point but is going to attempt to play through the ailment for the rest of the year. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Katie Woo of The Athletic relayed the details of the situation. Goold says that Winn has actually been playing with the tear for months.
On the surface, it seems like an odd decision. But the way it’s framed, Winn has been assured that he’s unlikely make the issue any worse by continue to run out there, so there’s no risk of exacerbating the issue. Once he goes under the knife, the recovery period will be short enough that his 2026 season won’t be impacted. Even if he delays the procedure through the end of the season, he can still be healthy by spring training.
Since there’s nothing much to be gained by having the surgery now and no apparent harm in delaying things, he’ll try to help the Cards as they hover on the fringes of the playoff race. They are currently 72-74, which puts them 4.5 games back of the floundering Mets, who currently hold the final National League Wild Card spot.
“I feel like I owe it to these guys to finish the year strong,” Winn said. “I definitely don’t want to cash it in this early. We technically still have a shot (at the playoffs). I want to go out there and compete for that. But I want to do it for my pitchers, really. I know these guys want me out there at shortstop. I want to be there. So I’m going to have time in the offseason to recover. I feel like I can play this one out.”
Though he can tolerate the pain somewhat, he may still need some days off. “One of those days that it doesn’t feel as good as others,” manager Oli Marmol said of Winn not playing on Tuesday. “So, no reason to push through it. We’ve agreed to if it’s not feeling good enough to go then we would give him the day. And he’s amazing at communicating that.”
Winn is having a strong season in terms of his shortstop defense. He has been credited with four Defensive Runs Saved and a huge tally of 22 Outs Above Average. The former figure puts him in the top ten of shortstops this year, while the latter figure is the best in the majors regardless of position.
The offense has been a bit less impressive. He has hit .253/.310/.363 for a 91 wRC+ this year, a drop from last year’s .267/.314/.416 line and 104 wRC+. It’s possible the knee issue has been holding him back at the plate. He was hitting .276/.352/.435 for a 123 wRC+ through the end of May but has a .240/.287/.324 line and 73 wRC+ since the start of June.
Winn is still under club control for four more seasons after this one. He won’t qualify for arbitration until after the 2026 season. Perhaps a healthier knee will help him take a step forward at the plate next year, but he’s still a valuable player now thanks to his excellent glovework.
When Winn is not playing, Thomas Saggese has taken some time at short and will likely continue to do so. Some extra infield help is on the way, as Goold and Woo note that Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado are each nearing returns from the injured list.
One thing that is not under consideration is a promotion of shortstop prospect JJ Wetherholt. He has good numbers in his first 38 Triple-A games but Woo notes that he has missed the five most recent contests due to soreness from a non-baseball ailment. Even though he’s returning to action this week, the Cards will seemingly keep him on the farm. He won’t be Rule 5 eligible until December of 2027, so delaying his promotion means that the Cards won’t need to have him on the 40-man this winter.
He has dabbled at second base and third base in the minors. Given Winn’s elite defense, perhaps Wetherholt will be moved to one of those positions going forward. The Cards have Arenado signed through 2027 and he’s still a good defender but his offense has been subpar this year. Moving his contract may be tough, especially with his no-trade clause, so perhaps he will be at the hot corner again next year. Second base is a bit more open. Guys like Saggese, Donovan and Nolan Gorman are in the mix there but they can play other positions.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images
The Angels announced a series of moves prior to their game at T-Mobile Park this evening. The club has designated infielder Niko Kavadas for assignment and transferred reliever Reid Detmers to the 60-day IL, allowing them to select the contracts of catcher Chad Wallach and reliever Connor Brogdon. Additionally, veteran backstop Travis d’Arnaud is headed to the 7-day concussion IL, while southpaw reliever Andrew Chafin was placed on the 15-day IL retroactive to yesterday for triceps inflammation.
Kavadas, 27 next month, was drafted by the Red Sox in the 11th round out of Notre Dame back in 2021. He was draft-eligible in 2020, but that one only went five rounds. As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe put it when Kavadas signed with Boston the following year, “The Red Sox considered his power potential too great to ignore.”
Prior to the 2023 season, Kavadas cracked Baseball America’s top 30 prospects for the Red Sox, with a 45/high risk grade. He was described as “unabashed about his desire to hit a homer every time he bats,” but BA noted he didn’t have much of a hit tool or a defensive home. He reached Triple-A that year and conquered it in ’24 with 17 home runs and a 153 wRC+ in 335 plate appearances prior to being traded, but he also whiffed a third of a time.
At least year’s trade deadline, Kavadas was part of a four-player package of minor leaguers sent to the Halos by Boston for veteran reliever Luis Garcia. The Angels selected Kavadas’ contract a few weeks later, giving the righty slugger some run as a DH/first baseman against right-handed pitching.
Kavadas wasn’t able to do much with his limited opportunity in late ’24, and failed to make the Angels out of Spring Training. This year, he had a brief May call-up that lasted all of one pinch-hit plate appearance. He got another brief bump to the bigs in early August and didn’t get any playing time at all. Kavadas made it up once again on August 12th, failing to get into a game until the 20th. He only managed seven starts before the Angels demoted him again on September 4th.
Now, the Angels have seven days to trade Kavadas or place him on outright or unconditional release waivers. Though the trade path isn’t currently an option since the deadline has passed. He spent most of this year in Triple-A, slumping to a 101 wRC+ with a strikeout rate near 31%.
Detmers, who has been throwing 96 out of the bullpen this year with a 30.1% strikeout rate, hit the 15-day IL yesterday with elbow inflammation. He was out for the season regardless, according to the Orange County Register’s Jeff Fletcher, who notes that the Angels “still don’t have any news to report on the results of Detmers’ MRI.” Yesterday, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com wrote that the Angels “remain optimistic it isn’t a major injury.” Detmers’ comments indicated the same.
Detmers will receive a raise on this year’s $1.825MM salary for 2026 due to his second trip through the arbitration process. He’s under team control through 2028.
Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe hit the 7-day IL as a victim of a Jacob Wilson backswing earlier this week, and now d’Arnaud joins him after being struck by a Julio Rodriguez swing yesterday. Those two swings have moved Sebastian Rivero and now Wallach into the Angels’ Major League catching slots. O’Hoppe should be back Tuesday, according to Fletcher.
Wallach was a fifth round pick by the Marlins out of Cal State Fullerton back in 2013. He hasn’t quite matched his dad Tim’s career, as the longtime Expo and Dodger smacked 260 home runs , made five All-Star teams, and snagged three Gold Gloves at the hot corner.
Remember when the Marlins were doing things like giving Giancarlo Stanton a record extension, locking up Christian Yelich, and adding Dee Gordon via trade? In that same active winter, they shipped Wallach to the Reds along with Anthony DeSclafani for Mat Latos. Latos was only 27 at the time, and most observers were unaware he was nearing the end of his career as a useful Major Leaguer. Wallach was still a 45 grade/high risk catching prospect at the time of the trade.
Wallach failed to establish himself with the Reds, allowing Marlins GM Michael Hill to simply swipe him back off waivers three years later. Wallach caught 72 games for the 2018-21 Marlins before being claimed off waivers by the Dodgers. He never appeared with the club, as the Angels grabbed him a week later. Wallach played in a career-high 65 games in 2023 as a 31-year-old. He joined the Rangers on a minor league deal in January this year but found his way back home to the Angels organization in June. If the 33-year-old gets into a game for the Angels, it’ll be his first time in the Show in nearly two years.
With the veteran lefty Chafin out with triceps inflammation, Brogdon joins the Angels’ bullpen. The 30-year-old righty signed a minor league deal with the Angels in January, saw his contract selected in May, elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment in August, re-signed with the club, and now has returned to the 40-man and active rosters.
Brodgon is hardly the best big league pitcher to ever come out of Idaho’s Lewis-Clark State College – that honor clearly goes to Keith Foulke – but he put himself in the top ten with some credible work out of the Phillies’ bullpen a few years ago. Though Brogdon has struggled in his 37 1/3 scattered relief innings for the Angels this year, he did at least restore two miles per hour on his fastball to reach 95.5 miles per hour. That’s still a bit shy of his Phillies’ heyday, but it’s a start.
Hello, friends.
Hopefully, September continues to treat you well as we keep cruising in our fantasy stretch run. We're looking to help you out with all of your streaming needs for a championship run, as categorical specificity may start driving your decisions even more. Translation? You gotta do what you gotta do to squeak out any extra points you can in different categories.
With that in mind, we're going to continue looking at late-season options if you're hunting specific gains. Last week, we went over some hitting options, so naturally, it's time for some arm loving, starting with everyone's favorite fantasy Rubik's Cube to crack -- the bullpen!
First, a couple of notes. We're going to look at players who are currently rostered <40% on Yahoo and will look heavily at numbers from the last 30 days, noting numbers, as well as usage. We'll look more specifically at saves, strikeouts, and holds, but for there is plenty of information included for those mostly looking to amp up their ratios.
Okay, no more preamble. Let's...bullpen!
We won't bother burying the lede -- there are only a few weeks left, and scrounging a handful of Saves might be the difference in whether you end 2025 as a champion or just a second-place jobber without a belt. The landscape for finding Saves on the wire is as bleak as you might expect around this time of year, but when you need 'em, you need 'em. So pinch your noses, everyone, it's time to seduce the foulest fantasy mistress of them all...
*insert dramatic "dun-dun du-uuuun"*
September Saves!
Shawn Armstrong, TEX (Yahoo: 21%)
Phil Maton might have gotten Texas's last opportunity, but it's Armstrong who has five saves in the last 30 days (two in the last five games). He seems to still be the lead dog among their strong trio of options, along with Robert Garcia and Maton, even if the latter got a chance after Armstrong had picked up the previous two.
However, I would still exercise caution, as danger lurks below his peripheries. As in, a regressional reckoning might still be on his September horizon.
Armstrong's numbers over the last month have been pristine, posting a 1.42 ERA and 0.71 WHIP, but a .152 BABIP and 93% LOB% don't tend to be sustainable over long stretches. Add that to a strikeout rate that has ticked down to a 20% K%, after running a 26% K% previously, and you're left feeling less comfortable.
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information
scroll to top
