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Nationals Have Interviewed Guardians’ AGM Matt Forman

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Guardians executive vice president and assistant general manager Matt Forman has interviewed for the Nationals’ GM vacancy, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. It’s not clear when the interview occurred or whether Forman has advanced beyond the initial stage.

Cubs GM Carter Hawkins reportedly interviewed for the position two weeks back. The Nats also reached out to Dodgers executive vice president Josh Byrnes and Diamondbacks AGM Amiel Sawdaye. Whether both executives formally interviewed is not known. Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post suggested last week that the Nats hoped to have a new front office leader in place by the end of the season.

Forman, a Northwestern product, entered professional baseball with Cleveland in 2013. Forman started as an amateur scouting intern and had worked his way to assistant general manager within four years. A former staffer at Baseball America, Forman received another promotion in January 2022 when the Guardians added the executive VP role to his title. That essentially places him third on Cleveland’s front office hierarchy behind baseball operations president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff. Sky Andrecheck, Eric Binder and James Harris also hold an AGM title with the Guards.

The Nationals fired former GM Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez in July. Mike DeBartolo has led the front office on an interim basis for the past two months and could also get consideration for the full-time position.

Blue Jays Release Orelvis Martinez

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The Blue Jays released former top infield prospect Orelvis Martinez, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent. The Jays had designated Martinez for assignment on Saturday when they needed a 40-man roster spot to activate Alek Manoah from the 60-day injured list in a procedural move.

Martinez was on optional assignment to Triple-A Buffalo and landed on the minor league injured list with an undisclosed injury last week. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers. Players on the 40-man roster can’t be traded after the deadline. Once the Jays designated Martinez for assignment, they had no choice but to release him.

Toronto could have placed Martinez on the MLB 60-day injured list rather than designating him for assignment in the first place. That also would have opened a 40-man roster spot but would have required paying him the prorated major league minimum salary for the final two weeks of the regular season. That the Jays preferred to release him rather than pay the roughly $70K to keep him on the IL is a testament to how far his stock has fallen. There’s a good chance they intended to run him through outright waivers at the beginning of the offseason.

The 23-year-old Martinez appeared in one major league game last season. He singled in three at-bats during his MLB debut. He had occupied a 40-man roster spot for the past three years and had otherwise been on optional assignment. He also missed 80 games last season following a failed performance-enhancing drug test. The PED ban was announced all of five days after Martinez received his first major league call in June 2024. He finished that year in Triple-A and has been in Buffalo for the entirety of this season.

Martinez has endured a nightmare season in the minors. He’s batting .176/.288/.348 while striking out at a 28.4% clip through 394 plate appearances. He has taken a lot of walks and connected on 13 home runs, but both his power production and contact rates have backed up relative to last season. Martinez had turned in a far stronger .267/.346/.523 line with 17 homers in 319 trips at the Triple-A level a year ago.

The Jays could look to bring Martinez back on a minor league contract. That is fairly common in situations where a team DFAs and subsequently releases an injured minor leaguer. Martinez will have the ability to look elsewhere in free agency, though, and it’s possible a change of scenery is ideal given the way his career has gone over the past year-plus. His youth and one-time projection as a potential power-hitting second/third baseman will surely intrigue plenty of teams if he’s relegated to a minor league deal going into 2026.

Giants Designate Brett Wisely For Assignment

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The Giants officially announced the previously reported promotion of top first base prospect Bryce Eldridge. San Francisco optioned outfielder Luis Matos to clear a spot on the big league roster. They designated utility infielder Brett Wisely for assignment to open the necessary 40-man roster spot.

Eldridge, who is still a month away from his 21st birthday, steps right into the fire in a pennant race. He’s batting fifth and serving as the designated hitter against Zac Gallen (relayed by Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News). The Giants are keeping Rafael Devers at first base tonight. San Francisco is half a game ahead of the Diamondbacks and trails the Mets by a game and a half for the National League’s last Wild Card spot.

Wisely has been on San Francisco’s 40-man roster for the past three seasons. Farhan Zaidi was running baseball operations when the Giants acquired him from the Rays early in the 2022-23 offseason. Wisely would have qualified for the Rule 5 draft, but San Francisco selected his contract to ensure they retained his rights. The former 15th-round pick has been up and down between Oracle Park and Triple-A for the last three seasons.

The lefty-hitting Wisely hasn’t produced much against big league pitching. He owns a .217/.263/.324 line with seven home runs across 457 plate appearances. He hit very well in Triple-A between 2023-24, but his minor league numbers this year have also been underwhelming. Wisely carries a .253/.332/.387 line with seven longballs and 12 steals in 80 games at Triple-A Sacramento this season. He has only appeared in 22 MLB contests as a result, hitting .208 with one homer in 54 trips to the plate.

While this hasn’t been a good season, Wisely has some positive attributes that could get interest on the waiver wire. He grades as a solid defender at second base and has experience at every position aside from catcher. He’s never going to hit for much power, but he has shown solid on-base skills in the minors. He owns a .274/.371/.433 line in nearly 200 career Triple-A games across four seasons.

San Francisco will place Wisely on outright waivers within the next few days. He’s in his last minor league option year. Another team may put in a claim and stash him in Triple-A for the rest of the season. He’ll be out of options next year. If he sticks on a 40-man roster into Spring Training, he’d need to break camp and remain in the majors or again be designated for assignment.

Phillies Outright Matt Manning

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The Phillies announced that Matt Manning has been outrighted to Double-A Reading. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Saturday as the corresponding move for Walker Buehler’s promotion.

It’s the first career outright assignment for Manning, the ninth overall pick in 2016. The Tigers draftee was part of a touted contingent of pitching prospects that also included Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize. Manning hasn’t had anywhere near the same level of success as Mize, much less approached Skubal’s ace form. The lanky right-hander started 50 games for Detroit between 2021-24. He pitched to a 4.43 earned run average with a well below-average 16.4% strikeout rate across 254 innings.

Manning has not spent any time in the majors this season. Detroit optioned him fairly early in Spring Training. They’d used him mostly out of the bullpen in Triple-A, but that didn’t spur much success. He was carrying a 6.04 ERA over 31 appearances when the Tigers designated him for assignment at the trade deadline. They flipped him to Philly for a low minors outfielder (Josueth Quinonez). The Phils sent Manning back to Double-A, where he walked seven batters and allowed six runs in five innings over a pair of starts.

The 27-year-old Manning will finish the season in the Phils organization. He’ll become a minor league free agent at the end of the season unless Philadelphia adds him back to the 40-man roster within the next few weeks. He should be able to find a minor league contract somewhere over the winter.

Diamondbacks Designate Anthony DeSclafani For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced that veteran righty Anthony DeSclafani has been designated for assignment. His spot in the bullpen goes to hard-throwing righty Juan Morillo, who has been recalled from Triple-A Reno. Arizona’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

DeSclafani was pitching in Triple-A with the Yankees when Arizona signed him to a big league contract in the middle of June. He initially worked out of long relief and was promoted to the rotation when the Snakes traded Merrill Kelly at the deadline. That lasted only three starts, as DeSclafani suffered a thumb injury in the middle of August and was sent to the injured list. He missed a month and has been pushed back to the bullpen since returning. Nabil Crismatt has stepped into the fifth starter job.

The 35-year-old DeSclafani has pitched twice since coming back from injury. He has given up five home runs (six runs overall) in 5 2/3 frames over those two outings. He carries a 5.12 ERA across 38 2/3 innings on the season overall. While his strikeout and walk numbers are serviceable, the recent home run barrage led the Snakes to make a change. DeSclafani will very likely be released this week.

Morillo also represents a fresher arm for Torey Lovullo’s bullpen. He hasn’t pitched since Thursday. DeSclafani tossed 2 2/3 frames and threw 59 pitches yesterday. He would not have been available for at least the first two games of what is probably a must-win series if Arizona is to snag a surprise playoff berth. The D-Backs host the Giants for a three-game set. They’re half a game behind San Francisco and two games back of the reeling Mets for the National League’s last Wild Card spot.

Blue Jays Designate Ryan Borucki For Assignment

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4:43pm: Manager John Schneider says Borucki informed the Jays he hopes to stay in the organization for the rest of the season (relayed by Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet). There’s a good chance he clears waivers as an impending free agent, and it seems he intends to accept an outright assignment and report to Triple-A Buffalo if that proves to be the case.

3:33pm: The Blue Jays announced Monday that left-handed reliever Ryan Borucki has been designated for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to top prospect Trey Yesavage, whose previously reported promotion is now official.

Yesavage will make his major league debut tonight in Tampa Bay. He’ll start opposite hard-throwing Rays righty Joe Boyle. Yesavage, last year’s first-round pick out of East Carolina, made a quick ascent through the minors. He didn’t pitch at all in his draft year and began this season in Low-A. He pitched his way through each full season minor league level and now gets a couple weeks to make a case for inclusion on Toronto’s playoff rosters.

That decision probably ends Borucki’s second stint with the Blue Jays. Toronto signed him to a minor league contract late last month after he was released by the Pirates. The Jays selected his contract a little over a week later. Borucki managed 4 1/3 scoreless frames across four appearances, though he walked four of the 19 hitters he faced. The southpaw tossed 30 2/3 innings for the Bucs earlier in the season, working to a 5.28 earned run average. He had middling strikeout and walk numbers but got ground-balls at a 55% clip.

The Jays are familiar with Borucki, whom they drafted out of high school more than a decade ago. That came under a previous front office, but he spent his first four and a half MLB seasons with Toronto under the current regime. They evidently weren’t planning to carry him as a situational grounder specialist in the postseason. They’ll place him back on waivers within the next few days, and he could get a head start on the offseason by electing free agency if he goes unclaimed. Borucki would be a free agent this offseason either way, and he would not be playoff eligible if another team were to claim him.

Angels Designate Chad Wallach For Assignment

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The Angels announced a few roster moves during tonight’s off day. Logan O’Hoppe is back from the seven-day concussion list, leaving the club to designate catcher Chad Wallach for assignment. Los Angeles also announced that infielders Scott Kingery and Niko Kavadas cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A. MLBTR covered the Kavadas outright this morning.

O’Hoppe went down a week ago when he was struck on the head by a Jacob Wilson backswing. The Halos called up Sebastian Rivero to back up Travis d’Arnaud, who stepped into the starting catching role. A few days later, d’Arnaud landed on the injured list with his own concussion symptoms. The Angels were forced to call up Wallach, the #4 backstop on the organizational depth chart. Rivero started all three games behind the dish in the weekend series in Seattle.

Wallach made one appearance as a defensive replacement. He caught the final two innings on Friday after Jo Adell pinch hit for Rivero in the top of the seventh. That was the 33-year-old’s first major league action since 2023. Wallach spent all of last year with the Halos’ Triple-A team in Salt Lake. He divided this season between the top affiliates of the Rangers and Angels, hitting .251/.321/.439 across 251 plate appearances.

The Angels will place Wallach on waivers this week. There’s a good chance he goes unclaimed and accepts a minor league assignment to spend the final two weeks of the regular season in Salt Lake. He’ll qualify for minor league free agency at year’s end if he’s not on a 40-man roster.

Kingery was designated for assignment on Saturday when the Angels called up Denzer Guzman. The former Phillies second baseman has cleared waivers three times this season. He hit .148 in 19 games during his first big league action in three years. He’ll also be a minor league free agent at year’s end unless the Angels call him back up before then.

Orioles Claim Jose Castillo, Designate Carson Ragsdale

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed left-handed reliever Jose Castillo off waivers from the Mariners. Righty Carson Ragsdale was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Baltimore also placed righty Albert Suarez on the 15-day IL due to right elbow discomfort and recalled fellow righties Chayce McDermott and Yaramil Hiraldo from Triple-A Norfolk.

Castillo, 29, joins his fourth team of the 2025 season. He’s suited up for not only the Mariners but also the Mets and D-backs. The well-traveled southpaw has pitched 24 2/3 innings and turned in a 4.38 ERA with a 19.5% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. He’s tallied three holds in five situations, but lefties (.390/.469/.561) and righties (.300/.377/.455) have both hit well against Castillo in limited appearances.

This marks Castillo’s first generally healthy season since his rookie year in 2018, when he pitched 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA ball for the Padres. Injuries decimated the lefty’s career; he pitched only 1 2/3 big league innings combined from 2019-24 and didn’t top 37 2/3 innings at the minor league level in any season along the way. Castillo can still be controlled another two seasons beyond the current year, if he sticks on the Orioles’ 40-man roster.

Ragsdale, 27, is a longtime Giants farmhand who made his way to the O’s via waivers earlier this summer. He made his big league debut with Baltimore, tossing three innings but serving up eight runs on nine hits and a walk with two strikeouts. The 2020 fourth-rounder had solid numbers throughout much of his minor league tenure but has stumbled to a 4.87 earned run average with just a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 12% walk rate.

Ragsdale notched a 2.93 ERA in High-A and a 3.49 mark in Double-A, but he’s barely kept his ERA under 5.00 in parts of two Triple-A seasons. He’s sitting 92.6 mph on his four-seamer this year, complementing the pitch with a high-70s curveball and a splitter — the former of which has previously drawn plus grades in scouting reports. Ragsdale has two minor league option years remaining beyond the current season, which could heighten his appeal to clubs in need of pitching depth.

As for the 35-year-old Suarez, this elbow issue will end his season. He’s missed most of the 2025 campaign due to a separate shoulder injury. Suarez pitched well in 11 2/3 big league innings between injuries, logging a 2.31 ERA with a 10-to-2 K/BB ratio. The journeyman righty was a godsend for the O’s in 2024, going from a minor league signee to a key member of the staff who tossed 133 2/3 innings with a 3.70 ERA.

Suarez pitched in the majors with the Giants from 2016-17 and then spent the 2019-23 seasons starring in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (2019-21) and the Korea Baseball Organization (2022-23). The O’s can control him for three more seasons via arbitration, but it’s not clear how severe his current elbow ailment is or how much time it might cause him to miss.

Seth Martinez Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Seth Martinez went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Miami assigned him outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, but Martinez has rejected that assignment in favor of free agency — as is his right as a player who’s previously been outrighted in his career.

The 31-year-old Martinez pitched just 6 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2025, during which he allowed four runs on four hits and three walks with four punchouts. He’s now pitched in parts of five big league seasons, with all but this year’s Marlins cup of coffee coming in an Astros uniform. The Arizona State product has logged 144 innings in the majors and delivered a flat 4.00 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate, a 9.3% walk rate, a 38.6% ground-ball rate and 1.06 homers per nine innings pitched.

Martinez has never been a hard thrower, but this year’s 90.1 mph average four-seamer and 88.8 mph average sinker both represent career-low marks. Those obviously came in small samples, but Statcast shows that his velocity in the upper minors was virtually identical.

In 43 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this season, Martinez worked to a solid 3.71 earned run average. He fanned 28.9% of his opponents despite that lackluster velocity, and his 9.6% walk rate mirrored what he’s posted in big major league career. In parts of five Triple-A seasons, Martinez touts a 2.97 ERA through 148 2/3 frames. We’re close enough to the end of the season that he may just remain a free agent until the offseason is underway. Regardless, he’ll likely land a minor league deal on the open market.

Trade Rumors Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Steve Adams

  • Good afternoon! Sorry for the shorter-than-usual notice and slightly moved-up chat time. My kids are home from daycare today so kind of playing this by ear and hoping to be able to get through a full hour while they're napping, ha. Fingers crossed!
  • As always, feel free to submit questions in advance, but we'll get going around 1:30pm CT.
  • Hello! Let's get underway

Dave

  • Duran to LAD for Sheehan, B Miller and Copen to Red Sox Who says no? Thanks

Steve Adams

  • Assuming that's Jarren -- I think Sheehan is a fine starting point, but Miller's value is about as low as it's ever been, and Copen is a middle-of-the-road prospect with subpar command. I don't think that package moves the needle for Boston when you're talking about three years of Jarren Duran.

Keeping Tabs on Our Rivals

  • What is the benefit of a club option for a player?

Steve Adams

  • There really isn't one, just like there's no value to a team when it's conceding to a player option or opt-out clause. Sometimes you agree to a term or provision that you don't necessarily love just to push the other side up/down to a certain point and to get the deal across the finish line.

Ben Cherrington

  • Do I hold onto Cruz? If I do where do I play him. If I trade him can I get much for him? So much potential, so little actual production

 

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