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Royals Place Lucas Erceg On IL With Shoulder Impingement

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The Royals announced today that right-hander Steven Cruz has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. He will take the roster spot of fellow righty Lucas Erceg, who has been placed on the 15-day IL due to right shoulder impingement syndrome.

There aren’t a lot of details around Erceg’s injury just yet. He recorded the win in Wednesday’s game, pitching the eighth inning against the Mariners. He entered a 3-3 game and allowed a run, but then the Royals scored four in the eighth. Closer Carlos Estévez allowed another run in the ninth but the Royals hung on to win 7-5. Presumably, Erceg felt some shoulder pain after the game or at some point yesterday and got checked out.

The impingement will end his regular season, which hurts the Royals’ already-slim chances at making the postseason. They hung around the playoff race for most of the summer and acted as deadline buyers, extending Seth Lugo while acquiring rentals Mike Yastrzemski, Adam Frazier and Randal Grichuk. They also added controllable pieces Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek in the Freddy Fermin trade.

But they have fallen back in the standings since then, with pitching injuries playing a notable role. Berget, Lugo, Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Kris Bubic, Bailey Falter and Alec Marsh have all been on the IL in the second half, with many of them still there. Those injury absences have naturally hampered the club’s performance in recent weeks.

The Royals are now seven games back of the Red Sox, with the Guardians and Rangers in between, with most teams having just nine games left to play. Their odds of a miracle run are now pretty close to zero and losing Erceg doesn’t help any.

His strikeout rate has backed up this year but his grounder rate is up and he’s still been effective on the whole. Last year, he tossed 61 2/3 innings with a 3.36 earned run average, 28.5% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 46.5% ground ball rate. This year, the punchouts dropped to just a 19.3% clip but he got grounders on 52.8% of balls in play as he produced a 2.64 ERA.

He is still under club control for another four seasons after this one. He has a decent chance at qualifying for arbitration as a Super Two player. Assuming he can get healthy and have a normal offseason, he should playing a key role in the Kansas City bullpen again next year.

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images

Fantasy Baseball: Streaming for Championships (Starters)

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Hello, friends.

How have we already arrived here? We have fewer than 10 regular-season games left, and that means those still in the running for a fantasy championship have scant few opportunities left to change their fortunes.

We've handled the hitters and relievers; now it's time for the final leg of your streaming tripod to stand on its own. Whether you're looking for a specific category or just need overall goodness, knowing who to choose can be walking a knife-edge.

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White Sox Place Martin Perez On IL Due To Shoulder Strain

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The White Sox have placed veteran lefty Martin Perez on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder strain, the team announced. The injury ends Perez’s season. Left-handed reliever Cam Booser is up from Triple-A Charlotte to take his spot on the roster.

Perez, 34, exited his last start early and clearly knew something was amiss. He delivered a pitch to Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday and quickly called for time before motioning for assistance from the training staff (video link). He looked directly at his shoulder, shook his head in frustration while handing the ball to manager Will Venable, and immediately departed with trainer James Kruk.

It’s been a frustrating year for the well-traveled Perez. He signed a one-year, $5MM deal with Chicago over the winter and has pitched quite well when healthy — but that’s an unusually notable caveat with Perez in 2025. The typically durable southpaw suffered a flexor strain during his fourth start of the season and was out for nearly four months. He returned in mid-August only to incur this shoulder injury in just his seventh start back on the bump.

Perez’s 2025 season will draw to a close with a solid 3.54 ERA — but in a relatively small sample of just 56 innings. It’s the fewest innings Perez has pitched in a season since 2014, when he underwent Tommy John surgery. He’s pitched in at least 26 games every full season since 2019 and also made a full slate of 12 starts in the shortened 2020 campaign. He’s been bumped to the bullpen amid a rough patch a couple of times — both with the ’21 Red Sox and the ’23 Rangers — but outside of a three-week absence due to a 2024 groin strain and a quick placement on the Covid list in 2021, this year’s pair of IL placements are Perez’s first since 2018.

The White Sox haven’t specified how long Perez will be sidelined, but ending the season with a shoulder strain after missing four months due to a flexor strain isn’t how any pitcher wants to head back into free agency. There’s a $10MM mutual option on Perez’s contract, but even if he were healthy, it’s been more than a decade since both sides of a mutual option were exercised in MLB. The Sox will pay Perez a $1.5MM buyout and he’ll become a free agent in November. The type of contract he signs will hinge heavily on the severity of his shoulder strain, which to this point remains an unknown.

Orioles Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Scott Blewett from the 60-day injured list and, rather than adding him back to the roster, designated him for assignment. Baltimore also recalled righty José Espada from Triple-A Norfolk and placed right-hander Chayce McDermott on the bereavement list. The O’s added that infielder Emmanuel Rivera, who was designated for assignment earlier this week, cleared outright waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk.

Blewett, 29, was acquired at the start of June. He had been pitching for Atlanta but that club designated him for assignment when they called up Craig Kimbrel and then flipped Blewett to Baltimore for cash.

After that deal, Blewett gave the O’s 16 1/3 innings over 11 appearances, allowing 5.51 earned runs per nine. Right elbow discomfort then put him on the 15-day injured list in the middle of July. He was transferred to the 60-day IL a few weeks ago when the O’s needed 40-man spots to claim Shawn Dubin and reinstate Kyle Bradish from the 60-day IL.

Blewett started a rehab assignment in early September but didn’t look sharp. In 6 1/3 Triple-A innings, he allowed six earned runs via 13 hits and one walk while striking out just three opponents. It seems the O’s didn’t have much interest in putting him back on the roster. Since he is out of options, he has been sent into DFA limbo.

With the trade deadline having passed a long time ago, the Orioles will have to place Blewett on waivers. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency, since he has a previous career outright.

It’s theoretically possible he garners interest based on his previous results. Last year, he gave the Twins 20 1/3 innings with a 1.77 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 41.4% ground ball rate. Here in 2025, he got out to a good start. Through 24 innings to start the year, he had a 2.25 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 58.5% grounder rate. However, he allowed five earned runs in his final game with Atlanta, prompting them to move on. The O’s had interest in him at that time but the pairing didn’t work out. If Blewett is claimed, he is out of options but can be controlled for five seasons beyond this one and would be cheap since he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration.

As for Rivera, he and the O’s avoided arbitration in the offseason by agreeing to a $1MM salary. His service clock is between three and five years. That means he has the right to reject outright assignments but would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in order to exercise that right.

Since he is out of options, he has followed a pattern of roster moves this year. The O’s have frequently bumped him off the roster and onto the waiver wire. Each time, he has gone unclaimed and then accepted an outright assignment. Each time, he has been selected back to the roster at a later date, only to repeat the cycle. This is his fourth outright of 2025.

Around the transactions, he has appeared in 43 big league games. In his 127 plate appearance, he has produced a tepid .250/.291/.283 batting line, which has presumably kept him from getting claimed by other clubs. He’s only owed about $50K of his $1MM at this late point in the season but he might as well report to Norfolk for a few more days to collect that. He can then elect free agency at season’s end if not added back to the roster.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Astros To Activate Isaac Paredes

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The Astros expect to reinstate infielder Isaac Paredes from the injured list prior to tonight’s pivotal series opener against the Mariners, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The 26-year-old slugger has been out since July 19 due to a significant hamstring strain. He’s on the 60-day injured list, so the ’Stros will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster to make Paredes’ return official.

Paredes, 26, came to Houston as part of the offseason Kyle Tucker blockbuster with the Cubs. His pull-heavy, flyball approach has proven a perfect match with Houston’s Daikin Park. Through his first 94 games and 409 plate appearances as an Astro, the righty-swinging Paredes has slashed .259/.359/.470 with 19 homers. However, while Paredes has performed better at home, it’d be unfair to use his strong season to suggest he’s simply a product of the short left-field porch in Houston. Ten of those 19 round-trippers have come at home, where he’s slashed .253/.360/.483, but Paredes has been nearly as good on the road, hitting .266/.359/.457.

There’s some risk in the accelerated return to the lineup. General manager Dana Brown earlier this week said there was only an “outside chance” that Paredes could return this weekend. He’s taken live batting practice but hasn’t played in a single minor league rehab game. However, Yordan Alvarez recently suffered a significant ankle sprain that’s kept him out of the lineup since Sept. 15 and seems to have relegated him to a bench/pinch-hitting role for the time being. Houston hasn’t placed Alvarez on the injured list, but manager Joe Espada said earlier this week that he’ll be “out for a while” after an MRI revealed the sprain.

Given that ill-timed Alvarez injury, it seems the Astros are rolling the dice on another of their best bats being healthy enough to contribute in a series that could determine the outcome of the AL West. The Astros and Mariners are tied with identical 84-69 records heading into this three-game set in Houston. The deadline reacquisition of Carlos Correa — paired with that Alvarez injury — seems to suggest that Paredes will be a DH option for the time being. Scorching-hot Jeremy Pena will hold things down at shortstop, while Correa will handle a hot corner that had previously been manned by Paredes.

While Paredes does have some limited experience at second base, it’s hard to imagine Houston throwing him into a position he hasn’t played all season at a time when his hamstring likely isn’t 100% healthy. And with Christian Walker entrenched at first base, there aren’t many other options for Paredes beyond designated hitter. That’s probably for the best anyhow, given his murky health status. Paredes and the Astros will square off against a formidable trio of Seattle righties this weekend, taking on Bryan Woo, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert (in that order).

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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Darragh McDonald

  • Hello, everyone. Anthony is off today, so I'm doing the Friday chat this week. Sorry to the Francoists out there.
  • We'll be getting started a bit earlier than usual since I'm covering the afternoon news. Apologies to the West Coasters if that's annoying.
  • Anyway, feel free to drop questions and I'll be back at 11 Central to answer them.
  • Okay, happy Friday, everyone.
  • If you're at work, I hope you're doing a good job pretending like you're doing something.
  • Let's talk baseball.

Joe Baseball

  • Will Zach Eflin will get a multi year contract if he doesn’t get a QO from Baltimore, or have to take a one year prove it deal? He should be fully recovered by January and he had back surgery, and his arm isn’t a problem. Thoughts?

Darragh McDonald

  • I would guess one-year prove-it deal. He's been fairly injury-prone in his career and is coming off a pretty rough year.

Michael

  • Do you think a trade between the Pirates and Mets for Mitch Keller is possible? Mets seem to have a glut of young infielders they could spare between Acuna, Baty, Mauricio, Acuna, etc that would be an immediate upgrade over what the Pirates have been trotting out there

Darragh McDonald

  • I suppose there's a chance. Stearns kept adding more starters last offseason even when it seemed like they had plenty.
  • Going into 2026, they've got McLean, Tong, Sproat, Holmes, Peterson, Senga, Megill, Manaea, Scott, and others.
  • Doesn't seem like they need much more but I could have said the same thing last year when they kept adding Montas, Canning, etc.
  • I wouldn't be surprised if Keller is available but I probably wouldn't pick the Mets as the most likely landing spot.

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Braves Select Jhancarlos Lara, Designate Jonathan Ornelas

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The Braves announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Jhancarlos Lara from Triple-A Gwinnett and designated infielder Jonathan Ornelas for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Right-hander Dane Dunning was optioned to Gwinnett to clear a spot on the active roster.

Lara, 22, has posted ugly minor league numbers this year but continues to intrigue scouts due to the quality of his raw stuff. He’s sitting 98.5 mph with his four-seamer in Triple-A and couples the pitch with a slider/cutter that ranges from the upper-80s to low-90s and generates plenty of whiffs. As is so often the case with power arms of this nature, command is an ongoing struggle for the 6’3″, 195-pound Lara.

In 68 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A this season, Lara has yielded a gruesome 7.73 earned run average. He’s actually been better at the higher of those two levels, working to a moderately better 6.53 ERA. Lara fanned over one-third of his opponents in Gwinnett but has issued walks at a brutal 19.8% clip at each of this year’s minor league stops.

Despite the poor command, Lara still sits 20th among Braves prospects at Baseball America, 21st at MLB.com and 25th at FanGraphs. Atlanta would’ve had to add him to the 40-man roster this offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft anyhow, so he’ll get an early promotion to the majors and get his first taste of big league opposition. Lara is, obviously, still very much a work in progress, but now that he’s on the 40-man roster, the Braves have at least three years to coax even passable command out of him. He’ll head into the 2026 season with a full slate of three minor league option years available to the major league club.

The 25-year-old Ornelas came to the Braves in a cash swap with the Rangers back in May. He’d been designated for assignment in Texas as well. The righty-swinging utilityman went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles in his only two games with Atlanta. He’s spent the rest of his time since that May trade down in Gwinnett, where he’s slashed .193/.279/.325 in 333 trips to the plate.

Ornelas is just 11-for-53 in a tiny sample of 58 big league plate appearances, leading to an overall .208/.263/.245 batting line in the majors. He posted decent numbers in the lower minors but has struggled each year since being bumped to Triple-A. However, he’s a plus runner who can play quality defense at shortstop, third base and second base — and he’s gotten some reps in center field over the past few seasons as well.

Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Ornelas will head to outright waivers or be released. He’s in his final minor league option year, which will hurt his chances of being picked up by another club, as he’d need to break camp on the big league roster next spring or else be designated for assignment once again.

The Opener: Kershaw, AL West, Alonso

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Here are three things to keep an eye on around baseball this weekend…

1. Kershaw’s Dodger Stadium farewell:

Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is officially calling it a career after the 2025 season, and Friday evening marks what will be the final home start of his storied career. In somewhat fitting fashion, it’ll come against the Dodgers’ archrivals from San Francisco — and not only that, but against another former Cy Young winner. The Giants will send left-hander Robbie Ray to the mound opposite Kershaw as the two teams clash in a series that carries major playoff implications. Kershaw and the Dodgers hold a three-game lead on the Padres for the NL West lead, while Ray and the Giants are clinging to the faint hope of closing a three-game deficit (and leapfrogging two other teams)  in the NL Wild Card chase with nine games left to play.

Of course, Kershaw could and very likely will take the ball at home for the Dodgers at some point during the postseason, but tonight’s game currently stands as the final scheduled appearance for the three-time Cy Young winner, five-time NL ERA leader, 11-time All-Star and 2014 NL MVP. Fans will surely greet him with a hero’s welcome and send him off with overwhelming adulation befitting of a genuine franchise icon.

2. Aces clash in a battle for the AL West:

The American League West is the most tightly contested division in baseball. Yesterday’s Mariners win bumped them to 84-69 on the season — the same mark held by the Astros. The M’s now travel to Houston for a three-game series that could very well determine the winner of the division, and it kicks off with a must-see matchup between each club’s best starter of the 2025 season. Seattle sends righty Bryan Woo (3.02 ERA, 26.8 K%, 4.9 BB%, 181 2/3 innings pitched) to the mound against Houston righty Hunter Brown (2.27 ERA, 28.2 K%, 7.8 BB%, 174 1/3 innings pitched). Brown was practically invincible at home in the season’s first three months, but he’s yielded four or more runs in three of his past seven starts at Daikin Park. Woo has been much better at home (2.44 ERA) than on the road (3.58 ERA) — but he also hasn’t surrendered more than three runs in a start since before the trade deadline.

The series will continue with another pair of high-profile starters Saturday, when Mariners righty George Kirby tangles with Astros lefty Framber Valdez. Sunday’s finale will pit Mariners righty Logan Gilbert against journeyman right-hander Jason Alexander, whose stunning 2.76 ERA in 11 starts for the Astros has been a season-saving godsend in the wake of injuries to Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti and Hayden Wesneski.

3. A red-hot … Polar Bear?

There’s something mildly amusing about one of the hottest hitters in baseball being nicknamed after an arctic animal, but the Mets’ recent opponents probably haven’t been laughing much. Pete Alonso is doing his best to singlehandedly stave off the Mets’ late-season collapse, homering in four consecutive games — three of which were Mets victories. It’s not just the past four games where the Polar Bear has been on a tear, however. Over his past 98 trips to the plate, Alonso is slashing a ridiculous .333/.367/.656 with eight home runs and five doubles. It’s a Herculean finish to a resurgent season for a player who’s been the National League’s most prodigious slugger dating back to his 2019 debut.

Alonso’s mammoth finish only further ensures that he’ll opt out of his two-year contract at season’s end. He’ll return to the open market on the heels of a much better season than his 2024 campaign — and do so without the encumbrance of a qualifying offer, as players can only receive one QO in their career. Alonso and the Mets currently hold a two-game lead over the Reds and D-backs (three games over the Giants) in the NL Wild Card race. They’ll host a home series against the last-place Nationals before heading to Chicago and Miami to close out the year with three game sets versus the Cubs and Marlins.

Clayton Kershaw To Retire After 2025 Season

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Left-hander Clayton Kershaw is going to retire as a player after the current campaign, per an announcement from the Dodgers. His final regular season start at Dodger Stadium will be on Friday.

“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” said Mark Walter, owner and chairman of the Dodgers, in a club press release. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

In the next few weeks, Kershaw will be wrapping up a surefire Hall-of-Fame career. He will have spent the entirety of that span with one club, an increasingly rare phenomenon in today’s game. The Dodgers selected him with the seventh overall pick back in 2006 and he’s never been a part of any other franchise.

Kershaw was up in the majors by 2008 and he had a solid enough debut season. He tossed 107 2/3 innings for the Dodgers that year, allowing 4.26 earned runs per nine. He took a big step forward the following year, with a 2.79 ERA in 171 frames. There was another step forward in terms of workload in 2010, as he got up to 204 1/3 innings, with a 2.91 ERA.

From there, he kicked off the strongest stretch of his career and one of the best of any pitcher in the modern era. From 2011 to 2015, he tossed at least 227 innings in four of those five campaigns. The lone exception was 2014, where a shoulder strain limited him to 198 1/3 innings. For that five-year span, he tossed 1,128 innings with a 2.11 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 47.4% ground ball rate. FanGraphs credited with 37.1 wins above replacement for that span, more than seven wins per season. That was easily the most in the majors for that stretch. Félix Hernández was second with 26.2 fWAR.

From there, injuries limited Kershaw’s production in terms of quantity, but the quality was still there. He never again hit 180 innings in a season, with back problems being a recurring theme, but still kept his ERA in the 2.00 to 3.00 range most of the time. Though it was a step down from his peak, he tossed 140-180 frames in each season from 2016 to 2019, never finishing with an ERA higher than 3.03. He made ten starts with a 2.16 ERA in the shortened 2020 season.

Kershaw’s run as one of the best pitchers alive, often the very best, coincided with a golden age for the franchise. It’s hard to believe now, as the Dodgers have been so consistently good lately, but they were spinning their wheels for a while in the earlier parts of this millenium. They didn’t make the playoff in the 1997 to 2003 seasons, mostly hovering around .500. Things improved a bit from there but still weren’t amazing. They made the playoffs in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009, but then missed in three straight years from 2010 to 2012.

But they made the playoffs in 2013 and have continued to do so in every season since then. Assuming they eventually clinch a spot here in 2025, it will be 13 seasons in a row. There was a lot of playoff heartbreak in there but the Dodgers did win it all in 2020 and again in 2024.

More recently, Kershaw’s injury absences have become more pronounced as he has pushed into his late-30s. He was limited to 120-130 innings in the 2021 to 2023 campaigns, though still with good results on a rate basis. He only made seven starts last year, initially held back by offseason shoulder surgery before later having his season finished by dual surgeries on his toe and knee to repair a ruptured plantar plate and a torn meniscus.

He’s been able to get back to health here in 2025 and go out on a decent note. His strikeout rate is way down to 17% but he has managed to post a 3.53 ERA in 102 innings. As mentioned, he’ll be making another start tomorrow and could perhaps take the ball once more as the Dodgers finish the season with a six-game road trip.

Kershaw became a free agent a few times and occasionally seemed to flirt with the idea of signing with his hometown Rangers, but he always ended up back with the Dodgers. His first significant payday was back in 2014, when he and the Dodgers agreed to a seven-year, $215MM extension. That’s still the largest guarantee given to a pitcher on an extension. Only six free agent deals for pitchers (Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Max Fried, David Price) have surpassed that guarantee.

That deal allowed Kershaw to opt out after 2018, which he did, but he and the Dodgers agreed to a new pact. A three-year, $91MM deal covering the 2019 to 2021 seasons kept him in Los Angeles and was the first time a pitcher hit the $30MM mark in terms of average annual value. His subsequent deals were more modest one- or two-year pacts as he seemed to go year-to-year with deciding whether or not he wanted to keep going.

Kershaw’s career numbers aren’t final yet because he still has at least one more game to go. As of today, he has 2,844 2/3 innings under this belt with a 2.54 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 46.7% ground ball rate. He has tallied 222 wins and 96 losses, 25 complete games, 15 shutouts and 3,039 total punchouts. FanGraphs credits him with 78.7 WAR with Baseball Reference at 80.4. He also tossed 194 1/3 postseasons innings, though with a 4.49 ERA.

He made 11 All-Star teams and won three Cy Young awards. He was the National League Most Valuable Player in 2014, a rare feat for a pitcher. He also tossed a no-hitter that year. He won the World Series in 2020 and 2024, though he was on the injured list during the second of those titles. MLBTR salutes Kershaw on an excellent career and wishes him the best for his post-playing days.

Photos courtesy of Wendell Cruz, Neville E. Guard, Imagn Images

A’s Notes: Estes, Lopez, Harris, Newcomb

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A’s right-hander Joey Estes has undergone surgery to address a herniated disc in his lower back, according to the MLB.com injury tracker. That obviously ends his season a month after he landed on the 15-day injured list. Estes had just been recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas a few days before suffering the injury. He tossed four scoreless innings out of the bullpen against the Mariners on August 24.

That’ll go down as Estes’ only MLB appearance since April. The 23-year-old opened the season in Mark Kotsay’s rotation. Estes was tagged for six runs in each of his first two starts and immediately lost his active roster spot. The A’s optioned him and he spent the majority of the season in Vegas. Estes took the ball 17 times in the Pacific Coast League. He surrendered 5.51 earned runs per nine across 80 innings in that difficult setting.

A 16th-round pick by the Braves in 2019, Estes signed for an overslot $500K out of high school. Atlanta traded him to the A’s as arguably the fourth piece of the Matt Olson return shortly after the ’22 lockout. Shea Langeliers is the only player from that group who has panned out. Cristian Pache and Ryan Cusick have been cut loose.

Estes has occupied a 40-man roster spot since being called up at the tail end of 2023. He took the ball 25 times and logged 127 2/3 innings last year, but he posted an ERA above 5.00 with a modest 17% strikeout rate. Estes still has one minor league option year remaining. He’s not a lock to hold his 40-man spot throughout the winter. If he does, the A’s could send him back to Las Vegas as rotation depth.

Jacob Lopez has a much better chance of securing an Opening Day rotation spot. The 27-year-old southpaw has had a solid first season in Sacramento. The A’s acquired Lopez as part of the offseason deal that sent hard-throwing righty Joe Boyle to Tampa Bay. Lopez has fanned 28.3% of batters faced through 92 2/3 innings. While his 4.08 earned run average doesn’t jump off the page, he carried a 3.28 mark into his most recent start on August 24. Lopez was blasted for nine runs in two innings that day and landed on the injured list with a flexor strain thereafter. It’s fair to conclude he wasn’t pitching at anything close to full strength.

Unlike Estes, Lopez may be able to get back on the mound before the end of the season. The injury tracker notes that the rookie lefty threw a bullpen session yesterday while traveling with the team to Boston. The A’s are keeping open the possibility that Lopez makes an appearance during their final series against the Royals next weekend. That’d probably be a relief outing or very abbreviated start but would allow Lopez to enter the offseason with some positive momentum rather than finishing the year with a season-ending forearm injury.

The A’s are playing out their fourth consecutive losing season (barring a 9-0 finish to get to .500). Yet for the second straight year, they’ve had an encouraging second half. The A’s have had a winning record in each of the past three months. They’re 31-24 with a +66 run differential since the All-Star Break. Most of the credit goes to a talented offensive core. That’s not the entire explanation, as the A’s have quietly gotten excellent work out of a patchwork bullpen despite trading Mason Miller.

Since the deadline, the A’s have an MLB-best 2.81 earned run average from their relief group. They’re middle of the pack in strikeouts, walk rate, and whiffs. They’ve certainly benefited from an MLB-low .247 average on balls in play, but it’s still impressive production from an inexperienced group. Only Sean Newcomb, a journeyman brought in from Boston in a late May DFA trade, has even two years of service time among A’s relievers.

As MLB.com’s Theo DeRosa wrote this week, the A’s have found that success without many set roles. They haven’t had a designated closer since the Miller trade. Hogan Harris has picked up his first four career saves to lead the team over that stretch. He’s one of five relievers — Newcomb, Michael Kelly, Tyler Ferguson and Osvaldo Bido being the others — to record at least one save. (Bido’s was of the three-inning variety in a blowout victory.)

Harris, a pure reliever this season for the first time in his career, has become Kotsay’s most trusted leverage arm. He carries a 3.30 ERA with a solid 23.3% strikeout rate across 60 innings. Harris’ command comes and goes, but he looks like a solid bullpen piece whom the A’s have under club control for another five seasons.

Meanwhile, Newcomb has turned back the clock with his best season since at least 2019. The former first-round pick owns a 1.75 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents over 51 1/3 innings since the A’s reacquired him. His 7% walk rate is the best of his career, and he has been lights out (0.96 ERA in 28 frames) in the second half. Newcomb will be a free agent and has certainly pitched his way to a major league deal after settling for a non-roster contract with the Red Sox last winter.

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