More to come.

Ward, 28, has been a huge power threat throughout his minor league career but hasn’t been given much chance to prove himself in the majors. That is perhaps because he is something of a late bloomer. An eighth-round pick from 2019, he didn’t make it to Triple-A until his age-25 season and his first go at that level wasn’t too impressive. He did hit 21 home runs in 2023 but his .234/.324/.424 line actually led to an 83 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

He took things up a notch from there, hitting 33 home runs for Oklahoma City in 2024 and 36 last year. Despite that big power output, he found it hard to get playing time with the Dodgers. They have Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter and Freddie Freeman at first base. Teoscar Hernández and Mookie Betts were in the outfield corners as of a few years ago. When Betts moved to the infield, Michael Conforto and then Kyle Tucker have replaced him.

This year, Ward’s numbers have slipped a bit and the Dodgers system is now overloaded with outfield prospects. Ward got 60 plate appearances in the majors and put up a decent .218/.283/.455 line but his .249/.349/.430 Triple-A line has been league average in the Pacific Coast League. When Ohtani recently hit the injured list, the Dodgers promoted prospect Josue De Paula straight from Double-A. He has been great through his first ten games. Prospect Mike Sirota was recently bumped from Double-A to Triple-A. Eduardo Quintero finished this year at the Double-A level.

Those guys are younger than Ward and have more of a chance of a long-term future with the Dodgers, which led to Ward losing his roster spot. His next opportunity will now come overseas. The Dragons are 59-2-77, fourth in the Central division. The top three teams make the playoffs and the Dragons are well back of the third-place Yokohama BayStars, who have a record of 67-3-66. Presumably, the Dragons are acquiring Ward with an eye towards the 2027 season.

For Ward, it gives him a chance to prove himself on a bigger stage and likely with a better paycheck than he would make with another season in Triple-A. He still has two option years remaining and may have been destined to spend a lot of time on the farm even if he were claimed off waivers by another MLB club. If he has success in Japan, he could try to come back to the majors at some point in the future or just parlay that success into staying in NPB with a bigger contract.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

It’s a bit of a surprising decision for the Bucs at this late part of the season. They just acquired Doval at the trade deadline, giving up prospects Omar Alfonzo and Luis Cruz to get Doval from the Yankees. The Bucs have since slid from contention but Doval was under club control for 2027.

It would appear that the Pirates weren’t planning to tender him a contract for next year. Even if they were planning to non-tender him in November, it’s a bit strange to cut him from the roster now. There are several other pitchers in the bullpen who have options and could have been easily sent down for the final days of the season. They then could have tried to trade Doval before the non-tender deadline. The interest would have been minimal, given his up-and-down results. But even if they found no takers, they could have non-tendered him, which would have meant walking away at no cost for 2027.

It would seem the one benefit to cutting him now is the potential for mild cost savings in 2026. Doval is making $6.1MM this year. There’s a bit less than $200K to be paid out. Since the trade deadline has passed, he will have to be placed on waivers, if he isn’t on the wire already. A claiming team wouldn’t be able to use Doval in the playoffs, since the September 1 eligibility line has passed. But perhaps a team could pick him up if they think he’s worth tendering a contract for 2027, with a small added bonus of him potentially impacting one or two games late in this season.

If Doval goes unclaimed, the Pirates won’t save that money. Doval has five-plus years of service time, giving him the right to reject outright assignments while keeping all his salary commitments intact. If he were to clear waivers in the coming days, the Pirates will still owe him the few remaining thousands of dollars.

Doval has huge stuff, with a cutter and a sinker that each average in the upper-90s. He also has a high-80s slider and a mid-90s changeup. That lively arsenal has led to periods of dominance but also control issues. He had a really strong run with the Giants earlier in his career, becoming their closer for a while. From 2021 to 2023, he tossed 162 1/3 innings with a 2.77 earned run average. His 9.6% walk rate was on the high side but just barely, while he struck out 30.2% of batters faced and induced grounders on 53.4% of balls in play.

Since then, the control has declined, which has led to worse overall results and a few jersey swaps. Since the start of 2024, he has logged 183 innings with a 4.23 ERA. His 55.3% ground ball rate in that time is still a very strong figure but his strikeout rate has dropped to 26%, still above average but not by as much as his earlier numbers. His walk rate, meanwhile, has been 13% in that time. The Giants traded him to the Yankees last year, acquiring prospects Jesús Rodríguez, Trystan Vrieling, Parks Harber, and Carlos De La Rosa, and the Yanks then flipped him to Pittsburgh this year.

The control has been especially problematic of late. Doval had a 10.1% walk rate in 2026 at the time of the trade. Since then, he has walked 15.9% of batters faced. It’s entirely possible that the Pirates initially planned to keep Doval for 2027 but his recent results have pushed them to rethink that.

As mentioned, he is making $6.1MM this year. He would be due a raise in arbitration for 2027 but it seems the Pirates didn’t want to bring him back for a deal in the $7-10MM range. If one of the 29 other clubs considers him worth a deal like that, they could claim him right now. If not, he’ll end up a free agent and will be an interesting candidate for a bounceback flier.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Lorenzen had a brief stint in Toronto, making six appearances in low-leverage relief after signing in late August. He allowed at least one run in five of those outings, twice taking the loss in the process. Lorenzen surrendered five runs across two innings against the Tigers on September 15, his final appearance of the season. Toronto designated him for assignment a few days later.

The 34-year-old righty didn’t have much more success earlier in the season with Colorado. Lorenzen’s $8MM free agent contract with the Rockies didn’t pan out. He allowed more than seven earned runs per nine across 115 2/3 innings and was released in the middle of August. The Rockies remained on the hook for his salary — minus the prorated $780K league minimum that he made from Toronto for his near-month on their roster.

Lorenzen finishes the year with a 7.21 ERA over 127 1/3 innings between the two clubs. It’s nearly a full run higher than that of any other pitcher who reached 100 frames this season. (Former teammate Kyle Freeland has the second-highest ERA at 6.38.) There’s a decent chance he’ll need to take a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite this offseason.

San Francisco also needed a spot on the 40-man roster for Davidson. They opened that by designating lefty reliever Philip Abner for assignment. Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News first reported that Davidson was likely to be added to the roster today.

Davidson, 24, would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft in the upcoming offseason. The Giants will add him a few weeks ahead of schedule to give him a chance to face big league pitching before the winter. The Rule 5 draft might be canceled by the lockout, as it was in the 2021-22 offseason, but that’s not guaranteed. Unless there’s some sort of preemptive cancellation, teams will have to make their 40-man decisions in November like usual.

It’s a pretty remarkable journey for Davidson, as he was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2023. It’s rare for such players to become legitimate prospects or make it to the big leagues but Davidson has beaten the odds. His numbers in the minors are strong in all areas. He hits home runs, steals bases, draws walks and doesn’t strike out too much. He is capable of playing all three outfield spots and some evaluators consider him capable of sticking in center field.

He started this year in Double-A but was promoted to Triple-A in July. Between those two levels, he has made 549 trips to the plate. He has drawn a walk in 9.7% of those while striking out 21.5% of the time. He has 29 home runs and a .290/.361/.527 line. That leads to a 129 wRC+, indicating he has been 29% better than average offensively.

The whole package is obviously enticing. Baseball America lists Davidson as the #80 prospect in the league, though most other major outlets don’t have him as a Top 100 guy at the moment. A few months ago, FanGraphs ranked him 10th in the Giants’ system, voicing concerns about holes in his swing and the likelihood of him getting pushed to a corner at some point.

The center field job in San Francisco is currently open. The club signed Harrison Bader to a two-year deal in the offseason, hoping he would solidify that spot. That plan has not worked out. Bader struggled through 30 games this year around trips to the injured list. While on the IL in July, he reportedly got into a scooter accident which may have done long-term damage to his foot. The club is clearly not thrilled by that incident, as they said they would be suspending payment to Bader.

The Giants are playing out the string on a lost season. As mentioned, Davidson was going to need a 40-man spot anyway, so they might as well call him up now and work him into the mix. Drew Gilbert, Jonah Cox and Grant McCray have all been getting some center field playing time in recent weeks. McCray has really poor offensive numbers this season. Cox is hitting well but is getting help from a .464 batting average on balls in play and is working around a 38.2% strikeout rate. Gilbert has good defensive grades and his offense is just barely below league average.

Davidson won’t exhaust his rookie eligibility in the next few days. That means he could be eligible for the Prospect Promotion Incentive next year, in theory. However, in order to be PPI eligible, a player needs to be on two out of the three Top 100 lists between Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Currently, Davidson is only on the BA list, so he would need to crack one of the other two by Opening Day next year to put PPI on the table.

Mayer will also get his first opportunity to impress the organization. The former top prospect was on the injured list when San Francisco acquired him in a surprise deadline deal that sent lefty reliever Erik Miller to Boston. The Chula Vista native was down with a stress reaction in his left forearm at the time. He hoped to return in August but was further delayed by a bone bruise in his right foot.

The fourth overall pick in 2021, Mayer is a career .223/.278/.346 hitter across 364 MLB plate appearances. Boston’s front office seemed to sour on him quickly, but he’s still just 23 and brings plenty of pedigree back to the west coast. The Giants aren’t going to make any long-term decisions based on his play over the final six games, but he’ll go into Spring Training with a chance to compete for the second base job.

While one player comes off the injured list, another two regulars land on the shelf. This incredibly brings the Giants to 10 position players among 23 total players on the MLB injured list. They’ll all need to come off the IL at the beginning of the offseason, meaning almost a third of the players on their 40-man roster/60-day injured list will hit waivers in early November.

As delos Santos observers, Lee’s injury means that no one from San Francisco’s Opening Day lineup is still on their active roster. Patrick Bailey, Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos were traded. Lee, Casey Schmitt, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Harrison Bader, Rafael Devers and Logan Webb are all injured.

Abner was claimed off waivers from Arizona last month. The soft-tossing southpaw has given up seven runs on as many hits (including four homers) across 4 2/3 frames in a Giants uniform. He carries a 6.75 ERA across 22 2/3 career innings. A former 6th-rounder out of the University of Florida, Abner will go back on waivers this week.

Mantiply, 35, has spent the entire season with the Jays organization. He originally signed a minor league deal with Toronto last summer and, after becoming a minor league free agent at season’s end, returned to the Blue Jays on a second minor league pact. Toronto added him to the 40-man roster back on April 5.

Despite being selected to the majors early in the season, Mantiply has pitched only 27 innings with the big league club. He spent months on the injured list after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in late May.

When Mantiply has been healthy this season, he’s generally been effective. The soft-tossing journeyman has logged a 3.33 ERA in his 27 frames, fanning 19.8% of his opponents against a terrific 4.5% walk rate. He’s allowed runs in three straight appearances, however, and has yielded a total of six runs in 9 1/3 innings since the calendar flipped to September. He’d have been controlled through 2027 via arbitration had he made it to the offseason on Toronto’s roster, but today’s DFA suggests they’d likely have outrighted or non-tendered him in the offseason anyhow.

Mantiply is sitting just 88.5 mph on his sinker this season, but that’s nothing new; the crafty southpaw hasn’t averaged even 90 mph on his fastball since the 2022 season. Though he’s never had premium velocity — his career-high average on his sinker is 91.4 mph — Mantiply has racked up more than five years of major league service and notched a 4.41 ERA in 243 major league innings. Opponents have never had an easy time squaring him up, and he’s regularly posted strong walk and ground-ball rates, which have helped mitigate a strikeout rate that’s typically well below the league average.

Toronto’s only path to the postseason is via a Wild Card berth. They’re three games back of the final spot, with six games left to play. It’s still possible that a late winning streak will dovetail with a catastrophic losing streak for the Guardians and/or White Sox, catapulting the Jays into the October fray, but the chances of that are minuscule. FanGraphs pegs their playoff odds at just 3.8%, while PECOTA is only narrowly more bullish at 4.6%.

It’s the third DFA of the season for Jackson. He’s cleared waivers on both prior occasions and accepted outright assignments to the minor leagues. That’s to be expected, as he’s earning a $1.35MM salary with Minnesota this season and would forfeit the remainder of that salary if he rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

The 30-year-old Jackson is a former No. 6 overall draft pick and top prospect who has never settled in as a big league regular but has accrued nearly four years of service in journeyman fashion. He’s played for six big league teams across seven partial seasons at the MLB level, hitting .175/.254/.305 with a massive 39.6% strikeout rate along the way.

Jackson obviously hasn’t provided much with the bat — though he does sport a .256/.312/.444 batting line (112 wRC+) in 173 plate appearances between the Twins and Orioles across the past two seasons. That solid-looking output belies a 35.3% strikeout rate and has been buoyed by a .376 average on balls in play that he’s not going to sustain over a larger sample. He’s a quality defender behind the plate, particularly when it comes to controlling the run game.

Minnesota’s handling/usage of Jackson has been peculiar. The team designated him for assignment ten days after the trade deadline but immediately re-selected him to the majors a few days later when he passed through waivers unclaimed. As longtime Twins scribe Aaron Gleeman points out, the Twins carried Jackson on the roster for 44 games dating back to Aug. 1 but gave him only five plate appearances in that time. He was their third catcher behind Ryan Jeffers and Victor Caratini and a backup option at first base but was generally kept around as an insurance policy while manager Derek Shelton operated with an effective 25-man roster.

In all likelihood, Jackson will once again clear waivers and accept an outright assignment. He has about $50K remaining on his guaranteed salary that he’s not going to forfeit to elect free agency a week before season’s end. If another club is looking for some affordable, glove-first catching depth, they could place a claim on Jackson — but he’d be owed a modest raise on this year’s $1.35MM salary in arbitration this winter, making him a clear non-tender candidate.

If Jackson goes unclaimed on waivers and accepts his assignment to St. Paul, he can become a minor league free agent at season’s end — as is true of all players with three-plus years of major league service who are removed from a 40-man roster and not added back to the roster prior to the offseason.

A second-round pick out of LSU back in 2020, Henry signed a $2MM bonus out of the draft and previously ranked among the Nationals’ top prospects. He’s yet to solidify himself in the majors, in large part because injuries have regularly set him back. Chief among those health troubles was a 2022 surgery to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome, but Henry has also missed time due to elbow pain, a strained rotator cuff in his right shoulder and a back strain. The Nats didn’t provide an injury designation at the time of his most recent IL placement with Triple-A Rochester.

The 6’4″, 200-pound Henry has pitched 66 1/3 big league innings, all coming in 2025-26. He’s logged a 5.02 earned run average in that time while posting a 21.5% strikeout rate that’s just shy of average and an unsightly 12.5% walk rate. He tossed 22 minor league innings this year and was torched for an ERA north of 6.00 despite a tidy 21-to-2 K/BB ratio.

Henry works primarily off a four-seamer and slider combo, though he’ll mix in an occasional sinker and cutter, too. The go-to four-seamer has averaged 93.8 mph this year, while he’s sat 82.2 mph on the slider. With all of his injuries (plus the canceled 2020 minor league season), Henry has pitched only 218 2/3 professional innings despite being drafted more than six years ago. Interest in the right-hander this winter will depend on his health outlook, but Henry is still 27 years old with a minor league option year remaining. He should command interest on a minor league deal — perhaps even back with the Nationals themselves. It’s fairly common for players in similar situations to simply re-sign with their previous organization.

Herz, 25, made a big impression with the 2024 Nats, who’d previously acquired him in a trade sending Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs. The 2019 eighth-rounder started 19 games and posted a 4.16 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 36.4% ground-ball rate in 88 2/3 innings as a rookie. Metrics like SIERA (3.77) and FIP (3.71) were more bullish on his work than his earned run average.

Herz’s rehab this season stopped and started a couple times, so he’s made 10 starts in the minors — albeit pitching only 25 2/3 innings overall. He’s notched a 3.16 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate in that time. Herz was roughed up for six runs in 2 1/3 innings against the Mets’ Triple-A club on Sept. 1 but otherwise never allowed more than one earned run in any of this year’s rehab outings.

Whether out of the rotation or the bullpen, Herz figures to get a few innings in with the Nats over the season’s final week. He’ll be in the mix for next year’s rotation — a group headlined by recently extended breakout starter Cade Cavalli. Others in the rotation mix include deadline pickup Connelly Early, rookies Jackson Kent and Andrew Alvarez, and veteran Jake Irvin. Lefty Mitchell Parker underwent an internal brace procedure in late July and will be sidelined well into next summer. The rotation figures to be an area of focus for the Nats again this winter, and some of the positive developments from this year’s group could spur second-year president of baseball ops Paul Toboni to be a bit more aggressive than last time around, when the Nats gave out cheap one-year deals to innings eaters Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell as well as NPB returnee Foster Griffin.

Sept. 17: The Brewers have designated left-hander Rob Zastryzny for assignment, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Zastryzny was on the injured list and on a rehab assignment. Since he’s out of options, it seems the Brewers decided to bump him off the roster rather than add him back into the bullpen.

Zastryzny, 34, hasn’t pitched in the majors this season due to a trapezius strain. He’s spent the season on the 60-day injured list. From 2024-25, he tossed 29 2/3 innings with a 2.12 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate as a member of the Milwaukee bullpen, however. Those rate stats are both a bit worse than average, but not egregiously so.

This year has been a challenge. Zastryzny started four different rehab stints that were halted prior to this most recent one. He’s never had a big fastball, sitting 92 mph during last year’s excellent showing, but he’s averaged just 90.2 mph in Triple-A this year while trying to work back from this nagging shoulder/upper back injury. He has a 3.27 ERA in 11 minor league innings overall, but the stop-and-start nature of his rehab, coupled with the pronounced drop in velocity, are ominous factors for a Brewers club that’s currently sporting the best record in baseball and working to secure a first-round bye in the postseason.

Zastryzny is a 2013 draftee (second round, Cubs) who has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons. Last year’s 22 frames in the majors were a career-high mark, however. Zastryzny has only 89 big league innings under his belt. They’ve been solid overall, as evidenced by a 3.84 ERA, but he’s had a hard time sticking due to injuries, sub-par rate stats and pedestrian velocity. Zastryzny has pitched in parts of 10 Triple-A campaigns and has a less-impressive 4.69 ERA through 437 1/3 innings there.

It’s possible another club that’s intrigued by Zastryzny’s 2024-25 run with Milwaukee could place a speculative claim, but he’d need to go right onto a major league roster due to that lack of options. He’s controllable for three additional years via arbitration, but it’d be tough to commit to an arb salary on a journeyman reliever who’ll turn 35 next spring and has spent the entire season to date nursing an injury that’s left his velocity two miles per hour shy of its most recent levels. If Zastryzny clears waivers, he’ll be able to elect free agency and get a jump start on the offseason, where there will likely be plenty of interest in signing him to a non-roster deal with an invite to spring training.

Sabato’s promotion will mark his major league debut. The former University of North Carolina standout was Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2020 but hasn’t yet received a call to the majors and hasn’t been selected by another club in the Rule 5 Draft. The righty-swinging slugger cruised through Class-A and High-A in the years after his draft selection but has seen his offensive output wane since. Sabato struggled at Double-A in 2023 and again in 2024 when he repeated the level. He finally posted some good numbers against Double-A opposition in 2025 but then struggled upon being bumped to Triple-A.

It’s been another story this year. Sabato has spent the entire season with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate across the Mississippi River in St. Paul. He’s tallied 470 plate appearances and turned in a stout .273/.349/.528 batting line with 25 home runs, 29 doubles, a triple, five steals (in five attempts), an 8.7% walk rate and a 25.3% strikeout rate. He’s averaged just shy of 90 mph off the bat since reaching Triple-A in 2025 and has an overall 43.3% hard-hit rate at the top minor league level.

Former top pick Royce Lewis held down first base in Minnesota for much of the summer. He’d been optioned early in the year after an awful start to the season, and the Twins shifted Brooks Lee to third base — Lewis’ typical position — on a permanent basis at that time. Lewis decimated Triple-A pitching and returned in short order, and his Triple-A hot streak carried over to the majors for much of the summer. He hit .268/.322/.458 in just over 300 plate appearances from early June through early September, but Lewis has been playing through a shoulder issue for a few weeks now and has mustered only a .151/.179/.189 slash through his past 56 trips to the plate.

The Twins have other options at first base — Kody Clemens, Victor Caratini, Josh Bell, namely — but will take the final few games of the season to reward Sabato for a strong performance in Triple-A and take a quick look at how he fares versus big league pitching. Whether he actually sticks on the 40-man roster throughout the winter is another question, but the Twins will have a full slate of three minor league option years over Sabato now and have plenty of other candidates to remove from the 40-man roster (plus some veterans who’ll naturally be subtracted by reaching free agency) if they want to keep Sabato in their plans for the 2027 season.

Herz will return to a big league mound for the first time in almost exactly two years, as his last outing came on September 25, 2024.  That five-inning performance (in a 3-0 Nats loss to the Royals) was the 19th and final start of a solid rookie season that saw Herz post a 4.16 ERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, and 9.4% walk rate across his first 88 2/3 innings against MLB hitters.

These numbers seemed to line Herz up as a potential building block for the rebuilding Nationals, but the southpaw’s career was put on hold when he sprained his UCL during Spring Training 2025.  The result was a Tommy John surgery that cost Herz the entire 2025 season, and another setback emerged when Herz suffered a flexor strain three starts into a minor league rehab assignment this year.  Finally returning to action for good at the start of August, Herz has a 4.00 ERA in 18 innings over seven more rehab games.

Herz’s last outing for Triple-A Rochester saw him toss 65 pitches over 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball.  The Nationals will probably limit Herz’s workload to roughly that same pitch count on Monday, and if all goes well, he might be able to make another start (or maybe a bullpen outing) before the 2026 season wraps.

Though Herz has gained almost two full years of MLB service time due to his elongated stint on the 60-day IL, he’ll still finish 2026 shy of the service time required to gain Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility.  (MLBTR contributor Ethan Hullihen currently projects this year’s Super Two cutoff point as two years and 134 days of service time.)

This contractual detail is probably small potatoes for Herz compared to the relief of finally ending his lengthy injury absence.  He is the second Washington pitcher this week to return from a Tommy John surgery and then a flexor strain, as Friday marked Josiah Gray’s first MLB game since April 2024.

The peace of mind gained from these late-season returns will help Herz and Gray enter the offseason with the goal of making the rotation in Spring Training.  The newly extended Cade Cavalli will sit atop the D.C. rotation in 2027, with Connelly Early and Andrew Alvarez looking likely to slot into starting roles.  The Nationals figure to add at least one veteran arm to the mix, and whether that veteran is more of a one-year stopgap or a pricier signing will hinge on whether or not the club thinks it is ready to take a step forward into contention after a better-than-expected record in 2026.

Quantrill started yesterday against the Blue Jays but was removed after just 1 1/3 innings. He has averaged 93.8 mph on his four-seamer this year, but he averaged just 91.7 mph last night, throwing his last fastball for 87.8 mph. After a managerial visit, Quantrill was removed from the game for lefty Jordan Montgomery, who recorded the next 11 outs.

The Rangers currently hold a one-game edge on the Astros for control of the AL West. Assuming they hold on and the Rays and Guardians finish as the Junior Circuit’s top two division winners, the Rangers will face the AL’s No. 6 seed (currently the White Sox) in the Wild Card Series starting September 29th. The lat strain will keep Quantrill out of action in that series, but he could return at some point in the Division Series if the Rangers advance that far.

For now, the club will have to make do without Quantrill, who has been surprisingly effective this year after struggling for the previous three. After delivering 32 starts with a 3.38 ERA for the Guardians in 2022, Quantrill struggled to a 5.39 ERA from 2023-25, which he split with Cleveland and three other teams. His 15.7% strikeout rate in that span was typical for him, but the righty was now struggling with the long ball. Quantrill surrendered 45 home runs in 266 innings from 2024-25 (1.52 HR/9), despite sitting at 1.01 HR/9 in 2022 and 0.99 HR/9 in 2023.

This year, Quantrill has gotten the long ball under control, and the Rangers could not be happier. In 110 innings split between the rotation and bullpen, the righty has a nice 2.86 ERA, a pristine 5.6% walk rate, and has allowed only 13 home runs (1.06 HR/9). Opponents are only batting .239 in balls in play off Quantrill, which certainly works in his favor, but the Rangers will take the bottom-line performance regardless. He’s started in all of his last seven appearances and covered six innings or more in all of them except yesterday. He and Jacob deGrom have been the club’s best starters since the middle of August, while MacKenzie Gore has struggled and Kumar Rocker has averaged less than five innings in his last six starts.

With Quantrill out of commission, the Rangers’ rotation for the Wild Card Series will likely go deGrom, Gore, then one of Rocker or Cody Bradford. Quantrill has performed better than the latter two and would probably be the No. 2 or 3 guy if he were healthy. Gore experienced back spasms in his most recent start, though manager Skip Schumaker described him as day-to-day rather than needing an IL stint, as relayed by Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. Alternatively, the Rangers have Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi working as relievers right now, so they could mix in a bullpen game.

Santos, 24, has not pitched in the Majors since his big league debut on July 1st, when he surrendered two earned runs in two innings of relief. He has struggled mightily with Round Rock since then. In 41 innings there, Santos has allowed more than six earned runs per nine while striking out a decent 24.3% of opponents, but walking them at a high 9.7% clip. He’ll factor into the relief mix in the season’s final week.

Photo courtesy of Kevin Jairaj, Imagn Images

The move may spell the end of Friedl’s once-promising tenure with the Reds. He signed with Cincy back in 2016 as an undrafted free agent and worked his way to the Majors by 2021 for a cameo of 36 plate appearances. In the following season, Friedl batted a roughly average .240/.314/.436 across 72 games, showing decent power while limiting strikeouts to an excellent 15.5%. As an outfielder, his defensive grades were middling, though it still appeared the Reds had a promising young player on their hands.

Friedl made good on that with a strong performance in 2023. In 556 plate appearances, he batted .279/.352/.467 with 18 home runs, 27 stolen bases, and a 117 wRC+ that made him the Reds’ second-best qualified hitter behind Spencer Steer. Friedl also improved defensively and earned +6 Outs Above Average for his outfield work, while Statcast ranked him in the 85th percentile by Fielding Run Value. All told, Friedl’s contributions were worth 4.1 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs.

There were warning signs underneath Friedl’s performance at the dish. While his .308 average on balls in play wasn’t outrageously high for a player with his speed, he ranked in the 11th percentile or lower for average exit velocity, hard-hit percentage, and expected slugging, all of which hinted at a decline in power in his future.

That began in 2024. Friedl did hit 13 homers in 85 games, but his slugging percentage fell from .467 to .380 as his hard-hit metrics remained near the bottom of the league. Injuries may have played a role in that. Friedl made three separate trips to the injured list for a right wrist fracture, left thumb fracture, and right hamstring strain, the latter of which cost him just over a month. Working around those injuries, Friedl posted a 93 wRC+, indicating he was 7% worse than the average hitter.

Friedl’s power continued to decline in 2025. He had a .117 isolated slugging in 685 plate appearances, well below his .189 ISO from 2023. At the same time, he bounced back to post a 112 wRC+ thanks to an uptick in walks and better luck on batted balls. He wasn’t as strong of a defender, but FanGraphs still pegged him for 3.1 WAR.

The bottom fell out for Friedl in 2026. Unlike 2024, he has been healthy all season but simply not very productive. He carried a .179/.259/.256 slash line and a 44 wRC+ through June 3rd, at which point he was optioned to Louisville for the first time since 2022. He returned on June 28th and has since taken 94 plate appearances, but the resulting wRC+ of 40 showed little improvement from his results early in the season. Cincinnati optioned Friedl back to Louisville yesterday and is now cutting him from the 40-man roster entirely.

Friedl entered this year with over three years of service time. He is earning $3.8MM in his first arbitration year, as noted in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker. With that service time, Friedl can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but that would mean forfeiting what’s left of his guaranteed money. He figures to clear outright waivers, as he did back in August when the Reds attempted to offload his salary. When that happens, he’ll stick out the rest of the year with Louisville. The Reds figure to non-tender Friedl after the season, though they could consider re-signing him to a cheaper deal.

Turning to Burns, the breakout ace ends his season with a 2.86 ERA over 154 1/3 innings along with an excellent 29.4% strikeout rate. Pairing that with good control and average batted ball luck, Burns was also viewed favorably by ERA estimators like xERA (3.24) and SIERA (3.46). Altogether, he’s been worth 4.3 fWAR and ranks as the Reds’ most valuable starter despite technically not having enough innings to qualify.

The team limited Burns to three innings in each of his last three starts. This IL placement will give him a respite from the groin injury as well as a head start on the offseason, as the Reds are out of the playoffs and don’t need Burns for one more start right now. Hunter Greene underwent Tommy John surgery last month and will miss all of 2027, so Burns will once again serve as the team’s ace. The 23-year-old is under contract through 2033, thanks to a $105MM extension he signed back in July.

Spiers underwent elbow surgery last year and has not appeared in the Majors in 2026, instead spending most of the year on the minor league 60-day IL. He has a 5.69 ERA and a middling 19.3% strikeout rate in 117 big league frames from 2023-25, all with the Reds. He did not earn service time while on the minor league IL, so he’ll end this season with just under two years of service.

Fraley was non-tendered by the Rays at the end of last year. He rejoined the club on a one-year, $3MM deal to serve as a platoon option against righties. He hasn’t been able to serve in that role due to injury. Fraley suffered a hernia back in May and ultimately required surgery, which should have set him up for a six to eight-week absence. However, he experienced setbacks while on his rehab assignment in July and ultimately did not return until September 15th. He appeared in three games after that and went hitless in six at-bats.

Owing to that four-month absence, Fraley has only been healthy enough to take 97 plate appearances, of which 87 have come against righties. He is batting .216/.289/.364 with an 83 wRC+ overall, including an 82 wRC+ against righties. It’s hard to draw conclusions from such a small sample, but it was nonetheless a stark drop-off from Fraley’s performance in 2025. In 217 plate appearances last year, Fraley had a perfectly average 100 wRC+ (101 wRC+ against righties) along with a 22.6% strikeout rate and 11.5% walk rate. The strikeouts have climbed to 29.9% in this year’s limited action.

Evidently, the Rays saw little reason to continue carrying Fraley on the roster. He is a limited defender in right field, so between that and his struggles on offense, he wasn’t going to be on the postseason roster anyway. Jonny DeLuca and Ryan Vilade are the other backup outfielders at the moment. DeLuca has accrued +7 Defensive Runs Saved and +12 Outs Above Average while splitting time between center field and right this year. Meanwhile, Vilade has a 120 wRC+ in 254 plate appearances. Both DeLuca (95 wRC+ against righties) and Vilade (99 wRC+) have hit righties better than Fraley, even without the latter’s platoon advantage.

Fraley now heads to DFA limbo. He entered this season with over five years of service time, so he has the right to reject an outright assignment while retaining his guaranteed salary. With that, the Rays figure to put him directly on release waivers. Once he clears and becomes a free agent, Fraley could sign with a new team for the prorated league minimum, but it’s much more likely that he waits it out until the offseason.

Williamson came to the Rays in a three-team trade this past offseason. He has taken 270 plate appearances with an 82 wRC+ and a slash line of .247/.309/.332, though he’s chipped in eight stolen bases. Defensive grades have been mixed on his infield work. Williamson has been worth +5 DRS between second, third, and shortstop, while OAA has him at -4 across those three spots. He was a second-round pick by the Mariners in 2023 and will finish this year above one year of service time.

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images

The 32-year-old Strzelecki joined the Cardinals on a minor league contract in late July and quickly returned to the majors for the first time since 2024. Over eight appearances and 14 innings, he pitched to a 5.79 ERA with below-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball percentages of 13.1, 9.8 and 38.6, respectively. Most of the damage came during a four-run meltdown over a third of an inning against the Orioles on Aug. 25. Strzelecki went on the 15-day injured list with extensor inflammation in his right forearm two days later. The Cardinals reinstated Strzelecki from the IL and then designated him for assignment on Wednesday.

St. Louis was the third organization of 2026 for Strzelecki, who also pitched in the minors for the Yankees and Brewers this year. Despite impressive strikeout and walk rates (28.7% K, 4.7% BB), he has only managed a 4.54 ERA in 34 2/3 Triple-A frames.

Since debuting in the majors in 2022, Strzelecki has combined for a 3.78 ERA with a 22.4% strikeout rate and a 8.6% walk rate in 97 2/3 innings with the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Guardians and Cardinals. He is likely to settle for another minor league deal in the coming months.