Waguespack, 32, began the season with the Brewers on a minor league deal. Milwaukee granted him his release in early May. After exploring his opportunities for a little over a week, they re-signed him to a new minor league deal.

He has been having a good year on the whole, though with some important notes. He has tossed 21 2/3 innings over 16 Triple-A appearances, allowing 1.66 earned runs per nine. He has received some help from a .238 batting average on balls in play and 73.2% strand rate. His 16.5% walk rate is very high but he has also punched out 36.3% of batters faced. He has 105 2/3 innings of big league experience with the Blue Jays and Rays, posting a 5.11 ERA in that time. He struck out 18.9% of batters faced and gave out walks at a 10.1% clip.

The Tigers have been working through a huge number of pitching injuries this year, with nine arms currently on the big league injured list. Tarik Skubal, Justin Verlander, Casey Mize and Kenley Jansen are all expected back soon, which could lead to some roster shuffling.

As they sort things out in the coming days and weeks, Waguespack can give them some extra depth without taking up a roster spot, unless his minor league deal had some sort of contract provision that will lead to the Tigers adding him to their 40-man. If that is the case, Waguespack is out of options and will need to be added to the active roster.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Tromp, 31, has seen scattered big league playing time over seven seasons. He has stepped to the plate 205 times in 79 games. That includes six games with Baltimore last year. On the whole, he has a .218/.225/.371 line in his career. He has generally received solid grades for his glovework but the light offense has kept him in a depth role. He has exhausted his options over the years, which has led to him bouncing on and off rosters, mostly as an injury replacement.

The Orioles currently have a bit of uncertainty in their catching mix. Adley Rutschman has a left hamstring issue while Samuel Basallo is dealing with a left wrist ailment. Sam Huff was added to the roster recently and has started the three most recent games, including tonight. Rutschman hasn’t appeared in a game since Sunday, when he served as the designated hitter. Basallo hasn’t started since Sunday, though he has made pinch-hit appearances in the past two games.

Tromp will give the O’s some non-roster depth while they navigate those injuries. If Rutschman or Basallo ultimately need a stint on the injured list, or both, Tromp could be added to the roster. If both manage to get healthy in the coming days, Huff is out of options and could end up designated for assignment. Huff was designated for assignment earlier this year and cleared waivers, which allowed the O’s to re-sign him to a new minor league deal after he elected free agency. But there is no guarantee that the same thing would happen again, so there’s sense in having Tromp around as a contingency for various scenarios.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Onto the questions...

Peter asks...

With Rafael Devers hitting again (and his defense at first base very good) how would you rate his value on the open market taking into account his remaining contract? What level of return would you expect the Giants might get for him and what teams do you think would be most interested in him? Would the Giants have to pay down any of his remaining contract?

Devers is indeed hitting better after an awful start to the season. Following a disastrous .207/.248/.289 slash and 31% strikeout rate through the end of April (129 plate appearances), he's rebounded with a .257/.321/.500 line over his 165 most recent trips to the plate. It's an encouraging turnaround, but there are some red flags worth mentioning.

First and foremost, that 31% strikeout rate that dogged Devers through his dreadful early slump hasn't abated. Over this stretch of 165 plate appearances, he's fanned at a 30.9% clip -- effectively the exact same rate. The biggest differences have been a modest bump in power (six homers in this stretch) and a huge spike in Devers' batting average on balls in play. His BABIP in that slump was a roughly league-average .288. During this turnaround, he's at .344.

That doesn't all come down to luck. Devers' exit velocity has jumped from an average of 89.8 mph during that cold snap to a huge 93.4 mph in his hot streak. His hard-hit rate has soared from a solid 41.5% to an elite 55.6%. Devers is making better contact, so it only stands to reason that more of his balls in play should be landing for hits.

Be that as it may, however, Devers still isn't walking much. His contact rate on pitches within the strike zone, even during his recent surge, is 75% -- well shy of the league-average 85.9%. And while Devers has been good during this span, he hasn't been his peak self. By measure of wRC+, Devers has been about 27% better than average since early May. That's very good, but it's not close to his best output. Back in 2021-22, for instance, Devers crushed 65 homers in 297 games and did so with rate stats that placed him about 36% better than average: .287/.355/.530. His strikeout rate over those two years was 20.1%. His contact rate on balls in the zone was still below average but was five percentage points higher than during this recent revival.

All of that is to say, Devers has been performing like an above-average but flawed hitter since the beginning of May. That's a nice development after he looked lost to begin the season -- and after he dealt with a disk injury in his lower back last summer -- but does it restore any semblance of trade value? I don't believe so.

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It appears that the injury occurred on Saturday, as seen in this clip from MLB.com. Cruz was trying to score from first on a double when he was tagged on his hand. He hasn’t been in the starting lineup since then, though he did appear as a pinch runner on Sunday. He was in yesterday’s initial lineup but was scratched before game time with left hand discomfort. It appears that further testing found the fractures and he will be on the shelf about a month. The All-Star break is from July 13th to 16th, so perhaps Cruz will end up returning after that.

It’s a rough blow for the Pirates. Cruz is a flawed player since he strikes out a ton and he’s still a work in progress in the outfield, but all his tools are elite. He crushes the ball when he makes contact, in addition to having great speed and a strong throwing arm. He has 14 home runs this year, 21 stolen bases, a .264/.350/.472 line and a 128 wRC+. Even with his questionable defense, FanGraphs has credited him with 1.7 wins above replacement on the year.

The Bucs also lost Konnor Griffin to the IL a couple of weeks ago and Joey Bart landed on the shelf before that. Perhaps due to the injuries, the club has been in a bit of a slide, having lost four in a row. That has dropped them to 34-33 and just outside a playoff spot.

They will now have to try to climb out of that hole without Cruz. Jake Mangum has been covering center field for the past few days while Cruz has been hurt, so he seems likely to become the everyday guy there for the next month. He is a strong defender, so the Bucs should get a boost there, but the lineup should be worse. Mangum has a .293/.332/.359 line and 94 wRC+ in his career, even with a very high .345 batting average on balls in play.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images

10:31am: The Angels are set to select the contract of catcher Logan Porter, reports Ari Alexander of 7News. He signed a minor league deal with them five days ago after choosing free agency over an outright assignment with the Giants. Porter hasn’t even suited up for a game with the Halos’ Triple-A affiliate yet, but he’ll jump right to the big leagues after backup catcher Sebastian Rivero exited last night’s game due to an apparent hand injury.

Porter, 30, is joining his third big league team. He has brief experience in the majors with both the Royals and Giants, for whom he’s totaled a combined 47 plate appearances. Porter is just a .184/.326/.289 hitter in that time, but he’s a .244/.359/.389 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons. He’s light on power but has walked at a gaudy 14.4% clip in more than 1200 Triple-A plate appearances.

Porter also gives the Angels a defensively sound backup to starting catcher Logan O’Hoppe. He’s thrown out a roughly average 22% of runners who’ve attempted to steal on him in the minors (33% dating back to last season) and drawn quality framing grades with slightly below-average marks for his blocking abilities, per Baseball Prospectus.

The Angels have already utilized four different catchers in 2026. Porter will be the fifth, joining the quartet of O’Hoppe, Rivero, Travis d’Arnaud and Omar Martinez. He has a full slate of minor league options remaining, so the Angels don’t necessarily need to designate him for assignment when d’Arnaud and/or Rivero get healthy. The Halos will need to open 26-man and 40-man roster spots for Porter, but that should be pretty straightforward. His selection to the majors seems to point to an IL trip for Rivero, and righty Jack Kochanowicz can be shifted to the 60-day IL after undergoing Tommy John surgery this week.

This is the second time this year that Brash has landed on the IL because of his lat. Inflammation in that muscle put him out of action for roughly the first three weeks of May. He came back for a few weeks but has evidently strained the muscle this time. The M’s haven’t yet provided any updates about his expected absence but it seems fair to expect an even longer absence than when he was just dealing with inflammation.

For however long he’s out, it’s an unfortunate blow for the Seattle bullpen. He has been a key setup arm for them throughout his career, with a 3.06 earned run average in 185 1/3 innings. That includes an ERA of 0.54 ERA in 16 2/3 innings around his injuries this year. He wasn’t going to maintain that kind of run prevention all year but his longer track record shows what he is capable of.

Seattle is working with a short bullpen since they are running a six-man rotation right now, leaving them with just seven relievers while most other clubs have eight. The one upside of Brash’s injury is that it allows the M’s to bring up a fresh arm at a time when the relief group is fairly taxed. Andrés Muñoz, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier have all pitched in two of the past three days.

Zulueta, 28, has never pitched for the Mariners in the big leagues. He was acquired from the Reds in January and has been on optional assignment this year. He has thrown 20 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 5.75 ERA. That has come in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but Zulueta hasn’t helped himself by walking 16.3% of batters faced. His 21.4% strikeout rate isn’t awful and his 56.9% ground ball rate is quite good but that poor control is hard to work around in any setting.

That has generally been the issue with Zulueta throughout his career. He has big stuff, with his fastballs both averaging in the upper 90s, but he hasn’t been able to harness it. He now has 203 1/3 Triple-A innings under his belt with a 3.94 ERA and 26.9% strikeout rate but a big 14.3% walk rate. He has only walked 10.9% of batters faced in the majors but in a much smaller sample of 23 2/3 innings.

He is now in DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mariners could take as long as five days to explore trade interest, but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that. He can still be optioned for the remainder of this year, so perhaps some club with an open roster spot will be intrigued enough to stash him and hope he reins things in a bit more.

He has never been outrighted in his career and has less than three years of service time, meaning he does not have the right to reject an outright assignment. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed in the coming days, the Mariners could keep him as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images

Seabold, 30, began the year with the Jays on a minor league deal. They had planned to have him serve as multi-inning depth piece until his velocity ticked up a bit in camp, which caused them to try him in more of a traditional relief role.

They couldn’t find a spot for him on the Opening Day roster, so he triggered an opt-out and signed with the Tigers. He posted a 3.45 earned run average for Detroit, spending about two months on the roster before getting squeezed into DFA limbo. At that time, the Jays had suffered a number of injuries and had room for Seabold, so they sent minor league pitcher Juanmi Vasquez to the Tigers in a DFA trade.

Seabold has made five appearances for the Jays in the past two weeks, allowing three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. That gives him an 8.10 ERA in that tiny sample of work. Looking at his season as a whole, he has a 4.26 ERA in 19 innings. His 17.2% strikeout rate is subpar but his 8% walk rate and 42.9% ground ball rate are decent figures.

Ultimately, that’s not enough for him to keep his roster spot. The Jays have been getting healthier of late, with Tommy Nance, Dylan Cease and now Scherzer coming off the IL this week. Seabold is out of options, so he has been pushed into DFA limbo yet again. That can last as long as a week, though the waiver process takes 48 hours. The Jays could take five days to see if Seabold has any trade value but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that.

If Seabold were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright. However, since he has fewer than five years of big league service time, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary commitments in exercising that right. His deal with the Tigers in March was a split deal which came with an $800K salary in the majors. The minor league salary on that deal was not publicly reported. Perhaps it’s healthy enough that he would not want to walk away from it and would accept an outright assignment.

The returns of both Cease and Scherzer give the Jays the healthiest rotation they’ve had in months. Their starting group has really been decimated by injuries this year. José Berríos, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis are done for the year. Cease, Scherzer and Trey Yesavage all spent time on the IL for lesser injuries. Shane Bieber and Lazaro Estrada are currently on the IL. Jake Bloss is on the minor league IL, still working his way back from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Despite all the injuries, the Jays gave up on Eric Lauer earlier in the year, trading him to the Dodgers.

Due to all those issues, the Jays have effectively been running a three-man rotation while Cease and Scherzer have been out, with Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Patrick Corbin being the three. The Jays have been patching things together around those three, with bullpen games featuring guys like Spencer Miles, Chad Dallas and Simeon Woods Richardson in bulk roles.

Ideally, things stay healthy from here with Cease, Scherzer, Gausman, Yesavage and Corbin in the rotation. Dallas has been optioned to the minors and can be in the Triple-A rotation while Miles and Woods Richardson are still in the big league bullpen. Bieber, Bloss and Estrada are on rehab assignments right now and could be factors in the future. On the position player side, catcher Alejandro Kirk is also rehabbing and could be back with the big league club soon.

The defending American League champions probably hoped to be better than 33-35 at this point in the season but probably don’t feel too bad about how they weathered all those injuries. The weak performance across the A.L. means they are tied for a Wild Card spot with the Rangers, despite their losing record. With the injury situation leveling off, perhaps they can post better results going forward.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Not so long ago, Fitzgerald seemed to be on the verge of a breakout. With the Giants in 2024, he hit 15 home runs in 341 plate appearances and slashed .280/.334/.497 for a wRC+ of 132. Since he has the ability to play any spot on the infield or in the outfield, that was tremendously valuable. There were some yellow flags, since his .380 batting average on balls in play was helping him out a lot and he worked around a 31.7% strikeout rate, but it seemed like he could be a solid utility guy even if the offense backed up a bit.

Last year, even those who were expecting some regression were probably surprised by how far he fell. He finished the year with a .217/.278/.327 line and 72 wRC+, struggling enough to spend most of the second half on optional assignment in the minors. He also didn’t perform in Triple-A, slashing .246/.321/.379 for an 84 wRC+.

The Giants held him on the roster through the offseason but designated him for assignment in late March, just after the 2026 season began. He was traded to the Blue Jays for cash, with that club keeping him in the minors as depth. He hit .150/.150/.200 in a small sample of six Triple-A games before the Jays designated him for assignment and flipped him to the Dodgers in another cash deal.

With the Dodgers, he seemed to bounce back a bit, hitting .293/.400/.598 in 24 games for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, as mentioned, his progress was interrupted by injury. It’s not publicly known what injury Fitzgerald is dealing with but it has nudged him off the roster regardless. The Dodgers have Tommy Edman on a rehab assignment at the moment and he is currently on the 60-day IL, so perhaps this helps them to clear a spot for Edman’s return.

Regardless of the reason, Fitzgerald is sure to find a landing spot somewhere. Though he wasn’t good in the majors last year, his 2024 showing, his versatility and his recent form since joining the Dodgers are all intriguing. The nature of his injury will determine whether he can help any club in the short term or if he would be more of a long-term play at this point.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

It’s already the second time this year that Acuña’s left hamstring has sent him to the IL. He spent a little over two weeks there from early- to mid-May. He has been back for a few weeks but the injury has flared up again and sent him to the IL once more.

Around the injuries, Acuña has been performing well but not up to his own standards, currently sporting a .251/.373/.421 line. That translates to a 125 wRC+, indicating Acuña has been 25% better than league average on the year, but he has a career wRC+ of 142 and was at 161 last year.

It doesn’t appear the injury is serious but Atlanta can afford to be cautious. They have the best record in baseball at 45-22. They have a nine-game lead over the Phillies in the National League East. Given their strong short-term position, they should be thinking about the long term and making sure Acuña is healthy for October.

They will still have Mike Yastrzemski and Michael Harris II in two spots. With Acuña on the shelf, Mauricio Dubón and Eli White will probably step in for more outfield work. If Dubón is spending more time on the grass, that could open up more shortstop playing time for Jorge Mateo or Ha-Seong Kim.

Tellez, 31, will probably just be serving as a bench bat. He has only been a first baseman throughout his career and won’t help in the outfield. Matt Olson is the club’s first baseman and hasn’t taken a day off in years. Dominic Smith is the regular in the designated hitter spot. He has a strong .292/.331/.458 line and 118 wRC+ on the year.

Dubón, White, Mateo and Kim are all right-handed hitters and Tellez is a lefty, so perhaps he will be called upon to pinch-hit for those guys in some key spots against tough righty arms. Tellez doesn’t have a strong walk rate against righties in his career but has done most of his damage with the platoon advantage, leading to a .236/.299/.452 career line against righties. He signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in the offseason and has been hitting well in Triple-A this year, with a .259/.367/.483 line, including a 308/.406/.608 slash against righties.

Lara, 23, was added to Atlanta’s roster in September of last year but never got into a game. He was optioned a few days later and has been on optional assignment for all of this season as well. He has elite stuff, with his fastballs averaging in the upper-90s, but atrocious control. He has walked 17.5% of batters faced in his minor league career, which is about double a normal rate. That includes an ugly 33.3% walk rate in 15 Double-A appearances this year, helping him produce an 8.22 earned run average.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so Atlanta could take as long as five days to explore trade interest. If Lara garners any interest, it would be as a project, since the results certainly aren’t there right now. But since he has natural talents and still has options, perhaps some club with roster space will look to stash him. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed, he would stick in Atlanta’s system without using up a roster spot.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel, Imagn Images

Brennan, 28, was a free agent this offseason after being non-tendered by the Guardians. The Giants scooped him up by signing him to a major league deal, a split contract that paid him $900K in the majors and $400K in the minors. He is still optionable and the Giants have made use of that, as he has already been optioned four times this year.

He has performed well in the minors but not the majors, which continues a trend for him. He has been sent to the plate 23 times at the big league level this year, with just two hits, both singles. Dating back to his time with Cleveland, he now has a .263/.301/.365 line in 889 major league plate appearances. That leads to an 86 wRC+, indicating he has been 14% below league average offensively.

He has taken 117 plate appearances at the Triple-A level this year and produced a .364/.393/.467 line and 126 wRC+. That’s propped up by an unsustainable .396 batting average on balls in play but is nonetheless a much more encouraging performance than what he has done in the big leagues. He now has 745 Triple-A plate appearances dating back to 2022 with a .324/.368/.464 line and 122 wRC+, though that is bolstered by a high .355 BABIP.

Brennan has some wheels and could have some appeal as a speed-and-defense depth outfielder, though the bat is more of a question mark. Even when he puts up good marks in the minors, he does so with a low walk rate and generally relies on batted-ball luck.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants can take as long as five days to see if there’s any trade interest. Since he is still optionable, perhaps he would hold some appeal to a team looking for extra outfield depth.

If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency but probably wouldn’t exercise that right. Players with at least three years of service have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of the open market but have to forfeit their salary commitments unless they have at least five years of service. Brennan is just a bit over that three-year line and would have to walk away from the remaining money on his deal if he elected free agency.

Sanmartin, 30, was claimed off waivers from the Reds in November. He suffered a hip flexor strain in March that was expected to cost him about three months, a timeline that has proven to be pretty accurate. He logged 84 1/3 innings with the Reds from 2021 to 2025, allowing 5.66 earned runs per nine. His 19.2% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate in that span were subpar but he induced grounders on 53.6% of balls in play. He’ll be making his debut as a Giant as soon as he gets into a game.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

2026 was already shaping up to be an unfortunate season for Rojas. Back in March, he received an 80-game suspension after testing positive for the performance-enhancing substance Boldenone. That was going to wipe out the first half of his regular season and, like all players suspended for PEDs, render him ineligible for the postseason.

After receiving that suspension, his best-case scenario would have been for him to have a strong second half, but now that’s off the table as well and he will miss the entire 2026 campaign. He is currently on the restricted list. Once his suspension is up, the Phillies can put him on the 60-day injured list, or perhaps cut him from the roster by designating him for assignment or releasing him.

Rojas had a strong debut with the Phils in 2023. He was already known to have speed and defensive abilities, but he then put up a .302/.342/.430 line in his first 164 plate appearances. That wasn’t entirely sustainable, as he had a .410 batting average on balls in play, but it was a welcome development for the Phillies nonetheless. Thanks to that offense, his 14 steals and strong glovework, he was credited by FanGraphs with 1.4 wins above replacement in just 59 games.

His production tailed off from there. He could still swipe some bags and run the ball down on the grass but he hit just .237/.279/.312 over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. That seemingly caused the Phils move on from the idea of Rojas being an everyday player. They acquired Harrison Bader at the 2025 deadline. He became a free agent after the season but they essentially handed the 2026 center field job to Justin Crawford in the most recent offseason.

With Crawford, Adolis García and Brandon Marsh set to be the regular outfield in 2026, Rojas was lined up to either be in a fourth outfielder role or sent to the minors. Between the suspension and this surgery, he will instead be a total non-factor for the year. If he holds onto his roster spot through the winter and gets healthy, he could be back in consideration for those kinds of depth roles next year. Garcia is an impending free agent but the Phils will presumably look to address that spot before the 2027 season begins.

For now, the Phils have Edmundo Sosa and Steward Berroa as their bench outfielders, backing up the trio of Marsh, Crawford and Garcia. Marsh is the only one of those three having a good season, so it’s possible they look to shake things up at the deadline.

Photo courtesy of Kelley L Cox, Imagn Images

Delgado, 26, has yet to reach the big leagues. A Havana native who moved to Florida as a child, he was a sixth-rounder by Cleveland in 2018. Delgado played in their system until 2024, topping out at Triple-A Columbus. He qualified for minor league free agency after that season when the Guardians elected not to add him to the 40-man roster.

The lefty-hitting Delgado spent 2025 in Triple-A on a minor league deal with Milwaukee. He hit .281/.363/.378 and didn’t get a major league look. Tampa Bay added him on a non-roster invitation early last offseason. Delgado has struggled offensively with their top affiliate in Durham, hitting .250/.320/.362 with three home runs in 253 plate appearances.

Delgado has posted league average strikeout and walk rates at the Triple-A level for the past couple seasons. He has middling power but can steal a few bases and move around the infield. Delgado is more of a second/third base type than a true shortstop, but he has more than 500 minor league innings at all three positions. The Astros have lost depth infielders Braden Shewmake and Nick Allen to the injured list over the last couple weeks.

It has been a similar story to the past few iterations of Guards baseball. They have one of the better bullpens in the American League, moving seamlessly to Cade Smith in the ninth inning while getting surprisingly strong work from reclamation pickup Colin Holderman. They could use another lefty, but the back end is generally a strength.

They’re the only team that has used the same five-man rotation all season, mostly successfully. Parker Messick and Gavin Williams have made for an excellent combination at the top. Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo have been less consistent but reasonably effective overall.

The other side of the ball remains the big question. The offense isn’t as bad as last season, when they somehow won the division despite scoring the fewest runs in the American League. They’re certainly better positioned in the middle infield with Travis Bazzana at second base and Brayan Rocchio amidst a breakout season at shortstop.

It’s still one of the weaker overall lineups in the league, however. They’re 10th in the AL in scoring, 12th in home runs, and last in batting average and slugging. They’ve worked enough walks to get to middle of the pack in on-base percentage. By measure of wRC+, only the Red Sox and Royals have had less productive offenses among AL teams. They’re 22nd by that measure overall and 21st in MLB in runs scored.

There should be a clear target area for the front office as they approach deadline season: the outfield. Cleveland is clearly content to punt offense from the catcher position. First base hasn’t been great overall, but Kyle Manzardo and Rhys Hoskins have each gotten going since the beginning of May. The outfield, on the other hand, has been rough after a reasonably encouraging start to the season.

Cleveland outfielders were hitting .251/.321/.413 through the end of April. They were 12th in OPS and tied for 11th in homers. Since the calendar turned to May, they’ve combined for a .215/.291/.310 line across 465 plate appearances. Their .601 OPS over the last six weeks is dead last in the Majors. They’ve hit just eight home runs, above only the White Sox, Rays, and Royals. Only Houston outfielders have fared worse by the park-adjusted metrics.

Essentially the entire outfield has gone cold. Chase DeLauter started his career with a bang, homering four times in his first three regular season MLB games. He added another homer amidst a three-hit game on April 3. He’s gone deep just twice since then and has a .252/.315/.333 line since the beginning of May. It’s common for players even as talented as DeLauter to have some ruts during their rookie seasons. He’s not in danger of losing playing time, but his slump exposes the depth concerns elsewhere.

Steven Kwan was supposed to be the stabilizer. He’s an elite defensive left fielder whom the Guardians felt could play a capable center field on a semi-regular basis. Kwan has impressed defensively, but his bat has tanked. He’s hitting .213/.323/.262 with just one home run through 264 trips to the plate. No other qualifier has made less hard contact.

Kwan’s game has always been about plate discipline rather than hard contact. He rarely expands the strike zone and probably has the best pure contact skills of anyone not named Luis Arraez. That’s still intact — even Arraez has a slightly higher swing-and-miss rate this year — but Kwan can’t be a productive hitter without some kind of extra-base impact. He’d topped 10 home runs in both 2024 and ’25 and hit at least 25 doubles in three of his first four seasons. This year, he’s on pace for 19 doubles and two homers. Stephen Vogt dropped him from the leadoff spot in favor of Bazzana in mid-May; Kwan has hit seventh for the past couple weeks.

It’d be less concerning if this were only a bad two-month stretch. Kwan’s numbers trended down during the second half of the ’25 season as well. He’s a .233/.311/.310 hitter in nearly 700 trips to the plate over the last calendar year.

Kwan has come up in trade rumors for the last few seasons. It’d be less straightforward to move him now than it would’ve been last summer, when they were deadline sellers before going on an improbable run to seize the division from Detroit. At the same time, Kwan is the team’s second-highest paid player on a $7.725MM salary.

That’ll probably jump into eight figures for his final arbitration season. He’s on pace to be worth roughly one win above replacement despite the defensive contributions. Would a team that runs one of the lowest payrolls in the sport be willing to tender him a $10MM contract if he hits like this all season? If they feel he’s trending toward a non-tender, they could entertain trade scenarios this summer while looking to acquire a corner outfielder who has more offensive punch.

That’s complicated by their lack of recent production from center and right field. Hot starts from Angel Martínez and Daniel Schneemann were among the reasons for Cleveland’s early success. Schneemann’s fantastic April always felt unsustainable, and he has hit .160/.233/.181 since the beginning of May. Schneemann has gotten some run as a regular center fielder but should be in a utility role.

Martínez has bigger physical tools and can certainly flash significant upside. He’s less than a month removed from winning AL Player of the Week after popping four homers in five games. Martínez also has an extremely aggressive approach and almost never walks, lowering the floor from an on-base perspective.

He’s among the bottom 10 qualified hitters this year with a .275 OBP. In 19 games since the Player of the Week award, he’s hitting .178 with a .200 on-base mark — though he matched last year’s career high by connecting on his 11th home run of the season this afternoon.

Schneemann and Martínez are each capable big leaguers, but they should be role players rather than locked into the everyday lineup on a contender. Cleveland has Kahlil Watson, George Valera, CJ Kayfus and Petey Halpin on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment in Triple-A.

Watson and Valera have hit pretty well against minor league pitching, as has non-roster corner bat Nolan Jones. Neither Valera nor Watson has an MLB track record. Jones hasn’t hit big league pitching since 2023. Gabriel Arias could get some outfield work when he returns from a hamstring strain, but his strikeout issues are well established.

Although the Guardians aren’t typically aggressive deadline buyers, they could move one or two of their toolsy but unestablished minor league outfielders for someone with a higher floor. There aren’t many defined sellers yet, though the Rockies have a couple outfielders (Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy) who should be available. Moniak is currently sidelined by ankle tendinitis but expected back before the deadline. Lars Nootbaar, Taylor Ward, Trevor Larnach, Casey Schmitt and Jacob Young are some of the other players who could hit the trade market. Adding someone to raise the offensive floor should be the priority next month.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

• The June update to MLBTR’s 2026-27 Free Agent Power Rankings (1:45)
• Brandon Lowe’s free agency (7:10)
• Casey Mize (13:55)
• Luis Arraez (18:30)
• Adrián Morejón (30:25)
• Ian Happ versus Kevin Gausman for the final spot (39:20)
• The Yankees losing Aaron Judge to the injured list for several weeks (52:10)

Check out our past episodes!

• The CBA Standoff Begins – listen here
• Gage Jump, Tigers Trade Speculation, And The Twins’ Roster Shuffle – listen here
• Colt Emerson Debuts, Blue Jays’ Rotation Issues, And What To Make Of The Mets And Astros – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

Readers should be plenty familiar with the cycle at this point. Carrasco, 39, can’t be optioned and thus must be designated for assignment any time the Braves want to send him down to the minors. At this stage of his career, the former Cleveland ace is amenable to functioning as an effective 41st man on Atlanta’s 40-man roster. The team regularly selects his contract to the majors, designates him for assignment, passes him through waivers and re-signs him on a new minor league deal once he elects free agency. He’s then summoned the next time Atlanta’s bullpen needs some length.

The cycle will very likely repeat itself again several more times this season. Atlanta has now designated Carrasco for assignment five times dating back to last August. He’s re-signed a new minor league deal after each prior DFA and also signed a minor league contract with the Braves as a free agent over the winter. The setup clearly works for both parties.

Carrasco has pitched well overall with the Braves this year, though he’s been tagged for runs in each of his past two appearances. He’s still held opponents to a total of three runs on 10 hits and a walk with four strikeouts in nine big league innings. His work in Gwinnett has been even sharper. In 30 frames with the Stripers, he has the exact same 3.00 ERA but a much stronger 21% strikeout rate against a tidy 5.6% walk rate.

The 30-year-old Karinchak, a former Cleveland teammate of Carrasco, will be returning to the majors for the first time since 2023. Karinchak looked like a potential bullpen monster for the Guardians at one point, pitching to a 2.51 ERA with a preposterous 46.6% strikeout rate through his first 32 1/3 MLB frames from 2019-20. Injuries and poor command have since derailed him. He still posted a 3.24 ERA in 133 1/3 innings from 2021-23, but Karinchak did so while walking more than 14% of his opponents and with a lesser (albeit still excellent) 33.9% strikeout rate.

Karinchak spent nearly the entire 2024 season on the minor league injured list due to a shoulder issue, pitching only 6 2/3 innings that year. A fastball that averaged 97 mph during his MLB debut was sitting at 92.1 mph during that injury-ruined season. Cleveland outrighted him off the 40-man roster that offseason, and he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox. He pitched 29 1/3 innings with a 2.45 ERA for the South Siders’ Triple-A club in Charlotte, but Karinchak also walked nearly 17% of his opponents there and sat 92.7 mph on his heater. He was released in June and didn’t latch on with another club until the Braves signed him this past December.

Thus far in 2026, Karinchak has pitched 25 2/3 innings with a 2.45 ERA that matches his mark from Charlotte last season. He’s toned his walks down, relatively speaking, issuing a free pass to exactly 10% of his opponents. He’s punched out a gaudy 38% of the batters he’s faced. His fastball velocity still isn’t nearly back to its peak levels, but this year’s 93.8 mph average is up noticeably from his 2024-25 levels.

Karinchak still has a minor league option remaining, and if he can carve out a role in the Atlanta bullpen, he’d be controllable through the 2027 season via arbitration. That’ll depend on whether he can continue to show improved command/velocity and whether he can stave off further injuries.