Guerra had spent the past two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He returned to the States this year, inking a minor league deal with Atlanta in January. The righty was tagged for five earned runs over 2 2/3 innings in Spring Training. Guerra scuffled to a 5.68 ERA across 16 appearances with Gwinnett. He had three more walks (20) than strikeouts (17).

The 30-year-old Guerra has spent parts of five big-league seasons with three teams. He most recently pitched with the Rays in 2023. The majority of Guerra’s innings in the majors have come with the Padres. He debuted with San Diego in 2019 and was an occasional member of the bullpen for four seasons.

Guerra has an ERA well above 6.00 as a big leaguer. Walks have typically been his biggest issue. He’s issued free passes at a massive 14.3% clip over 63 MLB innings. Guerra did put together a strong campaign with Hanshin in 2024. He fired 58 innings with a 1.55 ERA. The righty recorded 14 saves. More importantly, he trimmed his walk rate to 4.9%. Guerra only pitched in six games during his second season with Hanshin.

Photo courtesy of Jim Cowsert, Imagn Images

Martinez appeared in five games with the Angels. Most of his time with the club came on defense, as he totaled just three plate appearances. The 24-year-old did manage his first hit, drilling a single in his debut at-bat. Martinez went 0-for-2 in his lone start.

The Angels added Martinez on a minor league deal in November. He’d spent his entire pro career in the Yankees organization. New York signed him as an international free agent out of Venezuela in 2018. Martinez put together some strong offensive seasons at the lower rungs of the minors, but has struggled at the upper levels. He hit .212 in his first stop at Double-A last year. The backstop posted a 63 wRC+ in 23 games after moving to Triple-A.

Martinez has slashed .189/.308/.369 with Salt Lake this season. He’s popped six home runs in 130 plate appearances, but he’s also struck out at a 33.1% clip. Martinez will head back to the Bees after no team put in a claim during the waiver process. This is the first time he’s been outrighted, so he had to accept the minor league assignment.

Los Angeles has had a tough time finding consistent production behind the plate this season. The club ranks 23rd in OPS at the position heading into Saturday. Logan O’Hoppe has a 76 wRC+ through 46 games. He’s struggled mightily with the glove, posting -8 Defensive Runs Saved. Travis d’Arnaud had an identical 76 wRC+ through 40 plate appearances as O’Hoppe’s backup. He’s now on the 60-day IL with plantar fasciitis. Sebastian Rivero is backing up O’Hoppe now. He’s been solid as a defender (2 DRS), but he has a sub-.600 OPS.

Photo courtesy of Gerry Angus, Imagn Images

The 25-year-old Castellano joined the organization on a minor league deal in December. He put together a 2.72 ERA across 10 starts at Double-A to open the season. The Rockies bumped Castellano to Triple-A, where he fired six scoreless innings in his lone start in the hitter-friendly PCL. He’s now on the move again, getting the big-league call as Colorado looks to add a fresh arm to a battered bullpen.

Castellano showed a five-pitch mix in his lone start with Albuquerque. He led with a curveball/four-seamer tandem, followed by a slider, sinker, and changeup. Castellano sat in the mid-90s with the fastball and sinker. It’s a hard slider, averaging nearly 90 mph. Castellano has posted solid strikeout numbers at times in the minors, but walks have tended to be an issue. He has a 23.8% strikeout rate and an 11.5% walk rate in 59 innings this year.

Bellozo didn’t break camp with the team, but was up during the first full week of the season. He was hammered for nine earned runs in 10 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. The 26-year-old was sent back to Triple-A in mid-April. He hasn’t been much better with the Isotopes, posting an 8.83 ERA across 12 appearances.

It isn’t much of a surprise that Bellozo didn’t garner any attention on the waiver wire, considering his performance this season. He’ll stick in the Colorado organization as a depth option in the minors. Bellozo put together a pair of respectable seasons with the Marlins, including 13 starts with a 3.67 ERA as a rookie in 2024. There’s a decent chance he gets another shot at eating some innings with the Rockies later this year.

Criswell made his return from Tommy John surgery at the end of May. He tossed two scoreless innings with the big-league club. Criswell has provided solid results in his limited time in the majors, but he’s racked up 49 pitches over the past three days, so Colorado swapped him out. Criswell was one of four relievers pressed into service behind Sean Sullivan on Friday. Sullivan was lifted after three innings with an illness.

Photo courtesy of Chris Tilley, Imagn Images

Injuries have been an all-too-frequent occurrence during a frustrating career for Carter, who left a loss to the Red Sox on Friday with what was described as soreness. He will now hit the IL for the fifth time since he debuted in September 2023. The 23-year-old appeared in just 108 of a possible 324 regular-season games from 2024-25. Carter had been much healthier this year until this injury cropped up, as he played in 66 of the Rangers’ first 69 games. The severity of his latest malady is unclear, but oblique problems often lead to lengthy absences.

The lefty-swinging Carter looked like a future star when the Rangers promoted him to the majors. He slashed .306/.413/.645 over a 23-game, 75-plate appearance span to close out the regular season. Carter followed that up by hitting .300/.417/.500 in 72 trips to the plate during a playoff run that concluded with the Rangers’ World Series victory over the Diamondbacks.

Carter was riding plenty of momentum going into 2024, but lower back troubles held him to 45 games and kept him out from late May onward. He hit a meek .188/.272/.361 with five home runs in 162 plate appearances that year. Carter’s performance improved in 2025, in which he batted .247/.336/.392 with five HRs and 14 stolen bases, but quadriceps, back and wrist troubles limited him to 63 games and 220 PA.

While Carter has been the Rangers’ primary center fielder this year, his offense has backslid. He is going on the shelf with a .176/.292/.321 line, six homers and 10 steals in 229 trips to the plate. Carter’s .209 batting average on balls in play suggests he has been unlucky, but his xBA, xSLG and xwOBA all rank in the league’s bottom 19th percentile or worse. Lefties have been especially hard on Carter, who has gone a miserable 1 for 27 with a single, 11 strikeouts and three walks against them.

Michael Helman, the Rangers’ second option in center this year, will start there on Saturday against the Red Sox. He could get most of the work at the position while Carter is out. Corner outfielders Wyatt Langford and Brandon Nimmo also have experience in center, though the latter hasn’t seen much action there since 2023.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Skubal will get the ball on Saturday against the AL Central rival Guardians, whom he has held to a 2.33 ERA over a dozen starts since he debuted in 2020. It will be Skubal’s first MLB outing since he fired seven frames of two-run ball against the Braves on April 29. In his lone rehab start last Sunday with High-A West Michigan, Skubal tossed 54 pitches over five scoreless, two-hit innings. He struck out six and walked none.

Skubal underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow on May 6. At that point, the fear was Skubal would miss two to three months. Instead, opting for the relatively new NanoNeedle procedure – a less invasive surgery – led to a far quicker recovery for Skubal. He is just 38 days removed from going under the knife. Injured Dodgers lefty Blake Snell has also made good progress since he underwent the same surgery about a week and a half later than Skubal. It could be a game changer for pitchers if Skubal and Snell bounce back from it.

Skubal’s surgery temporarily derailed what has been yet another excellent season for the 29-year-old. He came out of the gates with 43 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball and recorded a 27.1 strikeout percentage against a microscopic 3.6 percent walk rate. The Tigers were off to a bit of a slow start with a healthy Skubal, as they owned a 15-16 record after his most recent start. The wheels came off for most of his time on the shelf.

The Tigers now sit a highly disappointing 29-41, but they have won seven of their last 10 to climb back into the playoff race in a weak league. While they are nine games back of the surprising White Sox in the Central, they face a more manageable 5 1/2-game deficit to earn a wild-card spot. As the Tigers know, even nine games may not be too much to overcome. They lost what looked like an insurmountable 15 1/2-game lead to the Guardians over the final couple months of the 2025 campaign.

There is still over a month and a half left until the Aug. 3 trade deadline, giving the Tigers enough time to emerge as buyers or at least avoid selling. If they fall out of the race, president of baseball operations Scott Harris will have to decide how to proceed with Skubal. The Scott Boras client is due to reach free agency in the offseason, and odds are Detroit will not be the highest bidder for his services. As someone who will be the most coveted trade chip in the game leading up to the deadline, Skubal could net the Tigers a nice package of prospects. Otherwise, if he departs in free agency after receiving and rejecting a qualifying offer, the Tigers will get one draft pick as compensation. That pick will come after the first round.

While Skubal’s long-term future will be determined at a later date, the Tigers can take solace in the fact that their rotation is getting healthier. Righty Casey Mize, who has been down since late May with groin tightness, will return Sunday. Franchise icon Justin Verlander, who made his lone start of the year way back on March 30, is making progress in his recovery from hip inflammation. Meanwhile, after missing almost two full months with elbow inflammation, righty Troy Melton debuted May 24 and has since notched a 2.81 ERA over a four-start, 25 2/3-inning span.

For now, Skubal and Mize will rejoin Melton, Keider Montero and big-money offseason signing Framber Valdez in the Tigers’ rotation. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch was prepared to deploy a six-man group, but that was before Flaherty exited a loss to the Guardians on Friday after just three innings. His injury “affects the tendon that wraps around the outside of the foot and ankle,” Evan Woodbery of MLive.com explains.

Like Skubal, Flaherty is on track to reach free agency during the offseason. However, barring a turnaround when Flaherty comes back (assuming he does), he will not reach the market with much momentum.

After exercising a $20MM player option to stay with the Tigers over the winter, Flaherty has pitched to a 5.35 ERA with a 25.5 strikeout percentage and an 11.1 percent walk rate across 15 starts and 65 2/3 frames this season. The 30-year-old has doled out free passes at the second-highest clip of his career and recorded a personal-worst 30.3 percent ground-ball rate. A higher-than-usual .337 batting average on balls in play and an abnormally low 63 percent strand rate have hurt Flaherty, whose FIP (4.10), SIERA (4.19), xFIP (4.52) and xERA (4.58) are all far lower than his ERA. Perhaps there will be positive regression if he returns.

9:05am: The Braves announced that right-hander Spencer Strider has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing elbow.  Right-hander Anthony Molina was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding 26-man roster move.

The placement comes a day after Strider was removed during the fourth inning of Friday’s 7-5 loss to the Mets.  Strider was charged with seven runs over his three innings (plus one batter) of work, and he was visited on the mound by a team trainer after walking MJ Melendez to begin the fourth inning.

During the game, the Braves said Strider’s departure was due to soreness in both his right elbow and shoulder.  Manager Walt Weiss told MLB.com’s Matthew Ritchie and other reporters post-game that Strider would undergo an MRI, and the fact that Strider has been immediately placed on the IL likely isn’t a good sign.

After an All-Star season in 2023, Strider’s emergence as a homegrown ace of the Braves rotation has been dimmed by multiple injuries.  An internal brace surgery sidelined him for almost all of the 2024 season and the first few weeks of the 2025 campaign, and then Strider quickly picked up a hamstring strain that led to another month on the shelf.  This season, Strider strained his oblique during Spring Training and didn’t make his 2026 debut until May 3.

Strider has a 5.31 ERA over eight starts and 39 innings in 2026.  While his 4.09 SIERA is considerably better than his ERA and Friday’s outing can probably be chalked up to injury, Strider hasn’t really looked like his old self.  Strider’s strikeout rate is an impressive 27.9% but he is walking a lot of batters (12.1BB%) and has allowed nine home runs over his small sample size of work.  The elite fastball velocity that Strider showed pre-UCL surgery hasn’t returned, as his four-seamer is averaging a modest 95.1mph this year.

Strider’s inconsistency has been one of the few down notes during an otherwise superb year for the Braves, who lead the majors with a 45-24 record.  Some early-season injuries thinned Atlanta’s rotation depth and that may be a question again now that Strider is again on the IL, yet the Braves are now in better position to fill a hole in the starting five.  JR Ritchie threw five shutout innings in relief of Strider last night and might simply be bumped up to rotation duty, or Reynaldo Lopez could again be stretched out to be a starting pitcher.

Hurston Waldrep was also activated from the 60-day IL yesterday and optioned to Triple-A, as Waldrep continues to build up arm strength after undergoing a February surgery to remove loose bodies from his throwing elbow.  Spencer Schwellenbach underwent a similar surgery at the same time but isn’t expected back until after the All-Star break.  AJ Smith-Shawver should be back around the same time assuming no setbacks in the righty’s recovery from a June 2025 Tommy John surgery.

While Ross went 25th overall to the Padres in the 2011 draft, he has spent the majority of his career in Washington. He debuted in 2015 and went on to combine for 3.52 ERA over 181 2/3 innings, 35 appearances and 32 starts in his first two seasons. Thanks in part to injury problems, the two-time Tommy John patient’s effectiveness has dropped off since 2017. Also a former Brewer, Phillie and Diamondback, Ross has pitched to a 4.37 ERA in 572 major league frames.

Ross was out of the league from 2022-23 and has since worked almost exclusively in relief. The 33-year-old cracked the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day roster this season, but they designated him for assignment after he coughed up eight earned runs on seven hits and four walks in a three-appearance, 3 2/3-inning span. After the D-backs released Ross in late May, he quickly joined the Rangers on a minor league pact. Ross has since made seven relief appearances with Round Rock and registered a quality 2.92 ERA in 12 1/3 innings, though he has managed just eight strikeouts against five walks.

The Diamondbacks cut Ross when he was just one day shy of reaching eight years of big league service time. He will hit that mark in his return Saturday. Meanwhile, Otañez will go into DFA limbo for up to a week. The Rangers claimed him off waivers from the Athletics last November, but the hard-throwing 28-year-old has not gotten to the majors this season. Texas booted him from its 40-man roster after he logged a 6.15 ERA with high strikeout and walk rates of 30.8 and 20.8 percent, respectively, in 26 1/3 innings with Round Rock. In 39 1/3 frames with the A’s from 2024-25, Otañez notched a 4.81 ERA with a 34.1 percent strikeout rate and a 14.1 percent walk rate. 

The 31-year-old Andujar tweaked his hamstring in a loss to the Mets last Sunday. While he avoided an IL stint for several days, he wound up totaling just two plate appearances this week before landing on the shelf. The injury adds to a tough start for Andujar, who has not come close to matching the .318/.352/.470 line (125 wRC+) he posted in 470 plate appearances between the Athletics and Reds in 2025. A career-high .348 batting average on balls in play helped fuel the right-handed Andujar, who did most of his damage against lefties. He torched them for a .389/.409/.578 line and a 171 wRC+.

The Padres brought Andujar in on a one-year, $4.5MM guarantee in free agency, and he came out of the gates quickly this season. Andujar recorded a sizzling .925 OPS in April, but his numbers have nosedived in the past several weeks. With his BABIP down to .285, he has slashed a modest .254/.288/.418 (96 wRC+) with five home runs in 198 trips to the plate. Surprisingly, Andujar has had more success against righties (104 wRC+) than lefties (76).

Aside from a handful of appearances in the corner infield, Andujar has spent almost all of his time at DH this season. Will Wagner will make his fourth straight start there Saturday against the Orioles.

Solak, also 31, combined for 985 plate appearances with the Rangers, Braves and Pirates from 2019-25, though he has totaled just 15 since 2023. Overall, the righty has batted .250/.325/.369 with 21 homers and a 91 wRC+ at the game’s highest level. While Solak has gotten extensive defensive work at second base and both corner outfield spots, he has typically earned negative marks. After joining the Padres on a minor league deal in the offseason, he opened the year with a .340/.419/.522 line, nine homers and five steals in 237 trips to the plate with El Paso. Even in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, his production has been 31 percent better than average.

Solak is not in the Padres’ lineup on Saturday. They will instead go with Samad Taylor and Jase Bowen in the outfield corners.

Grisham suffered the injury sliding into second base in a loss to the Blue Jays on Friday, forcing him to leave early. The Yankees brought in Max Schuemann to play right field and shifted Spencer Jones to center to replace Grisham. They are now down two starting outfielders, having lost superstar right fielder Aaron Judge to a stress fracture in his rib earlier this month. Judge will not be back until at least August, while the length of Grisham’s absence will depend on the severity of his strain.

After Grisham unexpectedly erupted for 34 home runs during a 3.2-fWAR showing in 2025, the Yankees issued him a $22.05MM qualifying offer as he prepared to hit free agency. The 29-year-old accepted it, and though he got off to a slow start this season (.610 OPS through April), he has reemerged as a key part of the Yankees’ offense over the past several weeks. While Grisham isn’t hitting for as much power this year, he has slashed his strikeout rate from 23.6 percent to 15.9 over 264 plate appearances. Thanks in part to a strong 14.4 percent walk rate, Grisham is batting .232/.341/.406 with eight homers. He has also chipped in six stolen bases. His offensive performance has been 12 percent better than average, according to wRC+, and a .360 xwOBA that easily outdoes his .334 wOBA suggests he has deserved even better results.

Grisham drew excellent defensive grades earlier in his career, but that has not been the case recently. Defensive Runs Saved (minus-4), Outs Above Average (minus-3) and Fielding Run Value (minus-2) have all assigned him negative marks this year. Nevertheless, it is a significant blow to lose an everyday center fielder who brings quality offense to the table. Jones and left fielder Cody Bellinger are logical candidates to see time in center, where they have garnered plenty of experience. Most of Jones’ work has come in the minors, though he has also started in center twice during his brief 15-game career in the majors. But the strikeout-prone Jones is fanning at an awful 41.9% clip, meaning there will likely be an offensive drop-off from Grisham.

Domínguez will give the Yankees another corner outfield option as he returns from missing over a month with a low-grade AC sprain in his left shoulder. The former top prospect, 23, suffered the injury crashing into the wall in left in a home win over the Rangers on May 7. Domínguez began the season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but the Yankees called him up in late April. Before heading to the IL, he hit just .200/.250/.367 (70 wRC+) with one homer over a small sample of 32 plate appearances. He played in 123 games in 2025 and batted a more appealing .257/.331/.388 (103 wRC+) with 10 homers and 23 steals in 429 trips to the plate.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

The severity of the strain isn’t yet known, and the lighter variety of such flexor injuries would see Crow return to action in under a month.  Beyond that best-case scenario, it isn’t out of the question that Crow’s 2026 season could be in jeopardy, especially given his past history of arm troubles.  A Tommy John surgery cost Crow almost all of the 2023-24 seasons, and he was limited to 50 minor league innings in 2025 due to hip problems and another flexor strain.

It seemed like Crow had put his injury woes behind him when the righty made his MLB debut earlier this season.  Crow has been called up to the majors three times in his rookie year — twice to make spot starts, and his last three appearances have consisted of two starts and a two-inning relief outing.  This appearance out of the pen last Tuesday marked Crow’s last game before his flexor strain surfaced.

Crow has a 5.30 ERA and a tiny 11.8% strikeout rate to show for his 18 2/3 innings in the big leagues.  On the plus side, his walk rate is a solid 7.1%, and his ERA was somewhat inflated by a particularly rough outing (six ER over 2 1/3 innings) against the Giants on June 4.  While Crow’s time in the majors is a small sample size, the lack of punchouts is unusual considering the righty’s much more respectable 25.39K% over 299 1/3 career minor league frames in the Angels and Brewers farm systems.

Milwaukee has soared to a 42-25 record despite a number of pitching injuries, and Crow’s absence removes another rotation candidate from the mix.  Brandon Woodruff (shoulder inflammation) has started a minor league rehab assignment and is expected to be back sometime in June, while Logan Henderson (back strain) is still a few weeks away.  Quinn Priester‘s status remains up in the air, as the right-hander again had his rehab assignment put on hold as Priester continues to struggle in his recover from thoracic outlet syndrome.

Jacob Misiorowski‘s brilliance has helped carry the shorthanded Brewers rotation, and Kyle Harrison has also looked great in his first season in Milwaukee.  Brandon Sproat has at least contributed 60 innings but with a 5.70 ERA, and Robert Gasser has a 6.38 ERA over 18 1/3 frames as a starter this season.  Shane Drohan is slated to make his fourth start of the season today, and the rookie southpaw has looked pretty good in delivering a 3.11 ERA, 24% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate in his first 37 2/3 innings in the big leagues (with 10 bullpen appearances along with his three starts).

The situation should improve itself once Woodruff and Henderson are back, and it could be that Crow’s flexor strain isn’t too serious.  The Brewers have a knack for finding and developing rotation help from within, but if depth is still an issue in a month’s time, Milwaukee could consider adding a veteran innings-eater at the trade deadline.

Wilson had spent the last two months on Baltimore’s MLB roster. He got some work at third base, mostly against left-handed pitching. Wilson tallied 46 plate appearances, hitting .231/.348/.333 with one home run. He worked six walks against 11 strikeouts. It was a decent enough showing for a bench player, but Baltimore needed to carry a third catcher with Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo nursing minor injuries.

The 31-year-old Wilson is out of options, so the O’s needed to send him through waivers. It stands to reason they’d like to bring him back on a minor league contract, though he’ll have the opportunity to explore other opportunities. Basallo and Rutschman have both returned to the lineup over the last two games, so the O’s theoretically could reverse the weekend transaction and sign Wilson to a big league deal.

Before this season, Wilson’s MLB experience came exclusively in Philadelphia. He played three years for the Phillies as an up-and-down platoon bat, hitting .242/.328/.428 across 245 trips to the plate. Wilson was mostly a corner outfielder with the Phils despite Baltimore using him most frequently on the dirt.

Pop signed a big league deal with the Phillies over the winter. He broke camp and made seven appearances over the first couple weeks, allowing three runs through 7 1/3 innings. Pop sustained a right calf strain on April 13 and spent the next few weeks on the injured list. Philadelphia decided not to put him back on the MLB roster once he was healthy, and because he’s out of minor league options, they needed to designate him for assignment.

After clearing waivers, Pop elected free agency last week. He now returns to Miami, where he began his MLB career as a Rule 5 pick in 2021. Pop pitched parts of two seasons with the Fish, posting an earned run average just under 4.00 across 74 2/3 innings. They traded him to the Blue Jays at the 2022 deadline.

Pop has since spent time with the Mariners and Mets in addition to his brief run in Philly. He has a lifetime 4.83 ERA over 169 2/3 frames. Pop gets a lot of ground-balls but doesn’t miss many bats, as he leads with a 96.2 mph sinker.

Waldrep has been out all season after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow at the beginning of Spring Training. The 2023 first-round pick had entered camp as a lock for the rotation after turning in a 2.88 earned run average through 56 1/3 innings. Waldrep’s injury was one of a number of Spring Training hits for the Atlanta pitching staff. Spencer Schwellenbach has yet to return from his own elbow procedure. Spencer Strider began the year on the injured list, while Joey Wentz tore his ACL.

The Braves have more than weathered those injuries. Chris Sale, as expected, has been fantastic. Bryce Elder has had an excellent season to stabilize the middle of the rotation. Strider returned in early May. Grant Holmes and Martín Pérez have gotten decent results despite middling strikeout and walk marks.

Atlanta has a reasonably stable five-man group for the time being. They’ve already bumped Reynaldo López to the bullpen. Rookie righties JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes are also in relief for the time being, the former after being recalled on Wednesday.

Waldrep figures to crack that group within the next few weeks. He just began a rehab assignment at the Florida complex before moving to Double-A Columbus yesterday. He went 3 2/3 innings and tossed 53 pitches. Waldrep was only two weeks into what could have been a 30-day rehab assignment. It’s not clear why the Braves elected instead to activate him to the 40-man roster just to have him continuing building up with Gwinnett.

The righty was being paid an MLB salary and accruing service time while on the 60-day injured list, even on the rehab stint. That’ll no longer be the case while he’s in Gwinnett. The salary savings for the team are marginal, however, and there’s no particular reason for service time to be a factor. Waldrep had 103 days of MLB service entering the season. He has already topped the 69 days he needed to surpass the one-year threshold.

Whatever the rationale, Waldrep will probably be back up before long. He clearly has a higher upside than Holmes or Pérez if he’s at full strength. Waldrep will burn his third minor league option year if he spends at least 20 days in Gwinnett, but the Braves would likely be granted a fourth option next offseason because of his limited professional experience.

The procedural move pushed Handley off the roster. Atlanta claimed him off waivers a few weeks back after losing Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin to injury. They immediately optioned him to Triple-A as a third catcher behind Sandy León and Chadwick Tromp. The Braves subsequently swapped in Austin Wynns for Tromp.

They’re still light on catching depth for the next few days, but Baldwin is set to begin a rehab assignment tomorrow. Handley wasn’t providing any short-term insurance regardless, as he landed on the Triple-A injured list last week. If he clears release waivers, he’ll be a free agent. The 28-year-old has otherwise spent his entire career in the Baltimore organization, appearing in 17 MLB games over the past two seasons.

12:57pm: The Rockies are set to promote pitching prospect Sean Sullivan, according to Kevin Henry of the Denver Gazette. Sullivan will start tonight against the Athletics and make his major league debut in the process. The lefty is not on Colorado’s 40-man roster, which is currently full. Thus, a corresponding move will be needed in order to select Sullivan’s contract.

Sullivan, 23, was the Rockies’ second-round draft pick in the 2023 draft. He currently ranks as the organization’s No. 11 prospect, according to MLB.com. Sullivan fared well in 20 starts between Single-A and Double-A last year, posting a 2.94 ERA in 104 innings with a 24.9% strikeout rate. He’s been less fortunate in 2026, with a 5.60 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A.

The 6’4″ Sullivan is a bit of an oddity in terms of his raw stuff. He throws a four-seamer 41.0% of the time, but the pitch only averages 89.0 MPH. Sullivan mixes in an upper-70s slider 29.9% of the time, plus a changeup and cutter at 14-15% each. The changeup is Sullivan’s best pitch, while scouting reports rate his fastball and slider as slightly below-average. Despite the low velocity, Sullivan generally thrives by leveraging pinpoint control and a deceptive, low three-quarters arm slot (video courtesy of MLB.com). He walked just 6.0% of hitters in the minors last year and has walked 7.7% of hitters at Triple-A in 2026.

Sullivan will now have a chance to prove himself in the big leagues as a control and deception guy. Tonight’s game is at Las Vegas Ballpark, the hitter-friendly home of the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate. If he sticks around for multiple starts, Sullivan could then try his luck at high altitude, with the Rockies hosting the Red Sox at Coors Field from June 22-24.

Rockies starters have performed poorly in 2026, as is seemingly the case every year. The rotation’s 5.94 ERA is dead last in the Majors and 26% worse than average even accounting for the games at Coors. No Rockies starter has thrown enough innings to qualify, with Tomoyuki Sugano just barely missing the cut at 68 1/3 innings. Sugano’s 4.08 ERA is palatable but well shy of his 7.39 xERA, which shows he’s been extremely lucky. Michael Lorenzen and Kyle Freeland are the only others to throw at least 50 innings. Both have ERAs over 7.50.

Given those underwhelming performances and injuries to other starts, there’s little harm in calling up Sullivan. Chase Dollander, one of the team’s more promising arms, has been out with a right elbow sprain for over a month and is not expected to return soon. Tanner Gordon made two starts at the end of May before landing on the 15-day injured list with a right hip impingement retroactive to June 2nd. He’s expected to throw a bullpen soon. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool currently has the club at a four-man rotation of Lorenzen, Ryan Feltner, Freeland, and Sugano, so Sullivan can serve as the fifth starter until Gordon returns.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

JUNE 11: Veteran outfielder Tommy Pham will exercise an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Orioles tomorrow, reports Josh Tolentino of The Baltimore Sun. He’ll return to free agency if the Orioles don’t add him to the MLB roster.

Pham signed with the O’s midway through May. He took a few days to build up before reporting to Triple-A Norfolk. Pham struggled in 14 games for the Tides, batting .196/.281/.375 with 20 strikeouts in 64 plate appearances. He picked things up from a power perspective recently, connecting on three homers in his final eight games.

The 38-year-old Pham had a brief big league stint with the Mets earlier in the year. He went 0-13 with a walk and seven strikeouts while starting four of nine appearances. Pham spent the entire ’25 season in the Majors with the Pirates. He took 449 trips to the dish and had a slightly below-average .245/.330/.370 slash line. He connected on 10 homers, 17 doubles and one triple with a solid strikeout and walk profile.

Baltimore has a starting outfield of Taylor Ward, Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. The latter was signed as a fourth or fifth outfielder but has put together a decent season, batting .258/.345/.365 in 209 plate appearances. He has handily outplayed Tyler O’Neill, who has hit .155 with one home run since returning from a concussion in mid-April. O’Neill has started to lose playing time as a result, dropping into a part-time corner outfield/designated hitter role.

The O’s have been without Dylan Beavers for the past month due to a low-grade right oblique strain. He’d likely push Taveras back into a fourth outfield role once he’s healthy. The O’s could make room on the bench for Pham by optioning Jeremiah Jackson, but they could see that as a redundant fit with O’Neill already on the roster. If they grant him his release, he’ll search for another team looking for right-handed outfield depth.