MLB Trade Rumors https://www.mlbtraderumors.com Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:15:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Giants Outright Will Brennan https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/giants-outright-will-brennan.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/giants-outright-will-brennan.html#respond Thu, 18 Jun 2026 14:15:40 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899953 The Giants announced that outfielder Will Brennan went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Sacramento. He was designated for assignment a week ago.

The 28-year-old Brennan reached three years of big league service with the Giants this season, which technically gives him the right to reject his assignment in favor of free agency. However, Brennan signed a split major league contract with San Francisco this offseason after being non-tendered in Cleveland. That deal pays him at a $900K rate in the majors and a $400K rate in the minors. Rejecting an outright would mean forfeiting those rates of pay, so Brennan will almost certainly accept the assignment and stick with the Giants as depth.

Brennan appeared in 11 games for rookie skipper Tony Vitello’s club this season. He picked up 23 plate appearances and tallied only two hits — both of them singles. Brennan didn’t draw a walk but also only punched out three times. He posted a huge 93.9% contact rate, but despite the frequency of contact, Brennan didn’t hit the ball hard. He also popped up to the infield three times in that tiny sample.

It may only have been 23 plate appearances, but those 23 turns at the plate are a microcosm of Brennan’s broader career. He’s played parts of four seasons in the majors with the Guardians and showed a similar penchant for high contact rates but low impact when he puts the ball in the play (with a susceptibility to infield flies). Brennan is a career .263/.301/.365 hitter in 889 big league plate appearances. He’s only struck out at a 12.7% clip but sports just a 4.7% walk rate. The 2019 eighth-rounder has averaged a well below-average 85.9 mph off the bat in the majors and has just a 31% hard-hit rate.

Brennan is a solid right field defender with plus-bat-to-ball skills, above-average speed and a pair of minor league options remaining. His low-power, contact-driven approach dates back to the minors, evidenced by a career .324/.368/.464 line and 12.6% strikeout rate in 744 Triple-A plate appearances. The Giants have Harrison Bader, Heliot Ramos and Jared Oliva on the major league injured and Grant McCray on the minor league injured list. Casey Schmitt, Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee are getting frequent run in the outfield right now, but Brennan might only be one injury away from getting another look on the big league roster. For now, he’ll play regularly with the RiverCats and wait for another opportunity.

]]> 0 The Opener: Bradish, Espino, Rodriguez https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/the-opener-bradish-espino-rodriguez.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/the-opener-bradish-espino-rodriguez.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 13:25:19 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899949 Athletics infielder Zack Gelof pushed his hitting streak to 21 games with a solo homer on Wednesday against the Pirates. Injuries and poor performance have limited his time in the majors recently, but Gelof is back to being a fixture in the A’s lineup.

1. Bradish punches out a dozen

Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish was knocked around for five earned runs over four innings against the Mariners last week. He got his revenge in a rematch on Wednesday, striking out a career-high 12 over 7 2/3 innings in a win over Seattle. Bradish has flashed strong swing-and-miss skills the past two seasons. He posted a 32.5% strikeout rate over eight starts in 2024 before needing UCL surgery. The righty came back for six outings last year and punched out opponents at a 37.3% clip. The strikeouts have been down in 2026, as Bradish came into Wednesday’s start with a 22.6% strikeout rate. More concerning might be the 12.1% walk rate, which went up after two free passes against the Mariners.

2. Espino makes his debut

Former top pitching prospect Daniel Espino finally got into a game on Wednesday after being called up last week. The right-hander fired a perfect sixth inning, striking out two. Espino only tossed 12 pitches in his clean frame, but they were impressive. He sat at 99.8 mph with the four-seamer. The Brewers swung at it four times, and all were whiffs. Espino’s three sliders averaged 91.6 mph. This appearance was clearly a low-leverage spot, with Cleveland trailing by three runs in the middle innings, but Espino might have the stuff to push for late-inning opportunities.

3. Rodriguez reaches career milestone

Diamondbacks left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez tossed seven innings of one-run ball in a win over the Angels last night. The veteran earned the 100th victory of his career. Rodriguez is having a resurgent season in his third year in Arizona. He’s posted a 2.45 ERA across 15 starts. The expected stats don’t buy the strong start, as Rodriguez has a 4.91 xERA and a 4.41 xFIP. His 4.78 SIERA looks a lot like the ERAs over 5.00 he’s put up the past two seasons. Rodriguez has been buoyed by a career-low .256 BABIP and a sub-10% HR/FB rate, but he’s also made a pitch tweak that could explain his improvement. The lefty has added an inch of induced vertical break and a bit more arm-side run to his four-seamer. The fastball has a +6 Run Value and has paired well with his changeup (+3 Run Value).

Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images

]]> 4 Beyond the Cap, Part 2: The Move Nobody Is Talking About https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/beyond-the-cap-part-2-the-move-nobody-is-talking-about.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/beyond-the-cap-part-2-the-move-nobody-is-talking-about.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:59:06 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899849

Zack Scott is a 4x World Series champion with the Red Sox and the former acting general manager of the Mets. Today he’s the founder of Four Rings, where he builds senior leaders in and out of sports their own AI system to make better calls on the high-stakes decisions they can’t take back. He’s also an associate partner at PBI Sports, representing more than 20 coaches and executives across MLB. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series with a unique proposal to the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations. You can read the first part here.

In part one, I argued that the salary cap the owners proposed is the wrong fight, and that three problems sit underneath it: a local-television gap, low-revenue teams that pocket their checks, and players who capture none of the value created when a franchise sells. The fixes there started with the owners’ own idea, pooling local television, and added a luxury tax that restrains the top without a hard ceiling. Here’s the rest of the deal, the half that breaks new ground.

On the floor itself, the two sides are closer than the headline numbers suggest. The owners’ $171.2MM counts benefits and bonus pools, so it works out to roughly $148MM in actual payroll, and the union didn’t counter with a hard floor at all. It would tax teams that spend under about $150MM, almost the same place. The number is nearly settled. The harder question is what counts toward it.

The floor has to be real, which means the money has to get spent. But a payroll-only floor carries a risk nobody is pricing. Free agency is the oldest corner of the talent pool, the largest concentration of financial downside in the sport. Teams pay free agents close to full value the day they sign, and by the back years of a long deal they’re paying for production that has faded. A large share of the league runs payrolls well under the line, so a payroll-only rule would push many of them from the $80MM range up toward it through free agency alone, where the downside grows faster than the upside and they have less room than big markets to trade or eat a mistake. So define the obligation broadly. Tie revenue-sharing and centralized-media money to major league payroll plus baseball operations infrastructure, defined tightly and league-audited so nothing gets hidden from the players. A club should be able to satisfy the floor by building one of the best development operations in the game instead of handing a 31-year-old the five-year deal nobody else would. That forces owners to invest in being good at baseball, which helps the smallest markets far more than forcing a number onto the payroll line.

Then pay the young players. The system underpays its best bargains for six years. Raise the minimum salary, expand the pre-arbitration bonus pool, and move arbitration up a year. It’s the union’s stated priority and it’s cheap next to the star market. It won’t fix the service-time games, and I won’t pretend it does. Teams hold down good-but-not-elite prospects and sign others to pre-debut extensions, and you can’t legislate that away when nobody can prove a player is big-league ready on a given day. But the case stands on its own. These are the most productive, most cost-effective players in the sport, and they’re paid the least. It does something bigger too. Every dollar committed to young players is a dollar that can’t go to free agency, the highest-downside spending in the game. Pushing payroll toward that talent and away from the oldest, most expensive end of the roster ties pay more to production than tenure, good for the clubs and good for the game.

Leveling the dollars also retires part of the draft. The league currently hands extra competitive-balance picks to its lowest-revenue clubs and ties compensation picks to free agents a team can’t afford to keep, with the signing club forfeiting picks in return. Both were built to prop up teams short on money. Once revenue sharing and a real floor put money in every market, that machinery is solving a problem the dollars already solved, so drop it: no competitive-balance picks, no qualifying-offer compensation, no pick forfeitures for spending. In its place, let teams trade any draft pick. Today only the competitive-balance picks can be moved, so open up the whole board. Compressing payrolls takes away one of the ways a club digs out of a hole, and it needs another, so a freely tradeable draft is where that starts. A team years away should be able to turn a pick into a player or a player into picks and build to its own window. Squeezing the spending closer together can’t mean burying the bottom of the league for a decade, so every club has to keep a road back.

Now the part that makes the whole thing hold together. Be clear about what each side is actually trading here:

  • The players concede a steeper luxury tax. It drags on the star market harder than the current structure does, and the union needs something new in hand before its members vote yes on it.
  • The owners concede the levy below. Dropping the hard cap doesn’t count, because players already play without one, so withdrawing the demand hands them nothing. The only way owners win a cap is by burning a season, and a lost season costs more than that one year, because attendance and local interest take years to climb back. Nobody gets paid at the table for pulling back a demand the other side was never going to grant.

So the owners’ payment has to be real, and it should come from where the real money is, the sale. The biggest return on a baseball team comes when it sells, and annual operating profit is small next to the gain on the franchise itself. Put a 10% levy on the net capital gain at any change of franchise control, with the base set as sale price minus the original purchase price and league-audited improvements. Trigger it on outright sales, partial sales above 5% of equity, recapitalizations that shift control, and any public offering. Close the workarounds with a five-year look-back on related-party transfers like RSN spinouts or real-estate carve-outs, and an independent league valuation any time the buyer is connected to the seller. The Padres’ reported $3.9 billion sale, against the group’s roughly $800 million basis from 2012, is a gain of about $3.1 billion, and a 10% levy comes to roughly $310 million from one transaction. Across the 5 to 10 control changes that happen each decade, the aggregate runs into the billions.

I know how the levy lands the first time you hear it. Nothing like it exists in American sports, and it has been asked for. The NHL collected $2.7 billion in expansion fees over the last decade and told its union the subject was a nonstarter; the WNBA and NBA unions got the same answer. But the parts all exist. The NFL already charges a 10% fee on sales of Raiders ownership stakes through 2037, the same 10% proposed here, and it takes a share of private equity profits when funds sell their stakes, so the league side is fine taxing a franchise sale when the league collects. The Premier League skims 4% off every player transfer into the players’ pension, and FIFA sends 5% of every transfer fee to the clubs that developed the player. Baseball already funds its pre-1980 retiree stipends out of luxury-tax receipts. And outside sports it’s ordinary. When the private equity firm KKR sold CHI Overhead Doors for $3 billion in 2022, roughly 800 employees split about $360MM, the average hourly worker’s check landing near $175,000.

Split the proceeds three ways:

  • 40% into the players’ pension and health benefits funds, the existing vehicle built for multi-decade obligations.
  • 40% into a new active-roster distribution pool that pays out annually to every player on a 40-man roster, pro-rata by service days. On a Padres-scale transaction, that’s roughly $165,000 per active player in the year of the sale, almost exactly what each CHI Overhead Doors worker took home.
  • 20% into a legacy hardship fund for the pre-1980 retirees the union has been trying to make whole for two decades.

Current rosters get a visible check, the pension and the long horizon get strengthened, and the union closes a long-standing priority of its own at the same time.

Owners keep their operating flexibility and the ambition that drives valuations up. Players finally share in the upside they help create, in a structure that pays current members, future pensioners, and the league’s oldest debts at once. In a fight that’s otherwise a battle over a fixed pie, that’s new money. It’s also the cheapest check an owner could write, a slice of a future gain collected on the way out the door rather than a payroll cost every season. That payment, more than anything else in this deal, is what lets the union take a steeper tax to its members and win the vote.

Add it up and each side walks away with something real:

  • Owners get cost restraint at the top without a hard-cap war, the Dodgers’ exemption finally closed (which most of them quietly want anyway), their franchise values protected, and a full season played.

  • Players keep the line they’ll strike to protect, no hard cap, and gain a funded floor, a raise for their youngest members, and a piece of franchise appreciation that has never been available to them before.
  • Fans get every team obligated to try, one streaming product with no blackouts, a revenue base that’s genuinely compressed, and no games lost to a lockout.

None of this manufactures perfect parity, and it shouldn’t claim to. My own numbers say payroll explains only about a third of winning. The rest is good decisions and some luck. No deal can legislate either one, but leveling the money makes the decisions matter more, and that is the most any agreement can fairly promise. The cap fight was never really about competitive balance. Underneath it sits a simpler question: who shares in the value of a business where the biggest checks are written at the sale. The owners packaged a good idea and a bad one together and dared the players to swallow both. Unbundle them. Keep the shared television, the real floor, and the raise for the young players. Drop the hard cap and put a share of what everyone is building on the table instead. There’s a deal in that for owners, players, and fans alike.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

]]> 147 The Giants’ More Appealing Expensive Trade Candidate https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/the-giants-more-appealing-expensive-trade-candidate.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/the-giants-more-appealing-expensive-trade-candidate.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:58:40 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899828 Above only the Rockies in the National League, the Giants are seemingly beginning preparation to sell at the deadline. The early focus has been on impending free agents Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray — as well as the team’s openness to shedding the Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman contracts.

Those are all self-explanatory. Arraez is an obvious trade chip if they’re not going to sign him to an extension. They can pay down a portion of Ray’s $25MM salary to get a mid-tier prospect back for him. The other three contracts are above market value, especially the Adames and Devers deals. They’re not going to offload those entire contracts. Are they motivated enough that they’d pay down half the money to find a trade partner for Adames or Devers? Chapman’s deal isn’t as unfavorable but is also complicated by his full no-trade clause; he told Evan Weckek of The California Post last night that he hasn’t given the no-trade clause any thought because he hasn’t heard anything from president of baseball operations Buster Posey.

Adames, Devers and Chapman have three of San Francisco’s five significant long-term contracts. The team’s early messaging is that they’re not looking to move ace Logan Webb. There hasn’t been much speculation about Jung Hoo Lee, whom they could more easily replace than Webb but whose contract would be less onerous than those of their other three expensive hitters.

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]]> 35 MLBTR Podcast: The Giants Prepare To Sell, Milwaukee’s Extension Strategy, And The Busy AL Central https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/mlbtr-podcast-the-giants-prepare-to-sell-milwaukees-extension-strategy-and-the-busy-al-central.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/mlbtr-podcast-the-giants-prepare-to-sell-milwaukees-extension-strategy-and-the-busy-al-central.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:57:46 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899812 The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

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

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Check out our past episodes!

  • A Free Agent Power Rankings Update And The Yankees Without Aaron Judge – listen here
  • The CBA Standoff Begins – listen here
  • Gage Jump, Tigers Trade Speculation, And The Twins’ Roster Shuffle – 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 Robert Edwards, Imagn Images

]]> 27 Bryse Wilson Triggers Upward Mobility Clause https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/bryse-wilson-triggers-upward-mobility-clause.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/bryse-wilson-triggers-upward-mobility-clause.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:17:37 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899941 Right-hander Bryse Wilson has exercised an assignment clause in his minor league contract with the Phillies, report Charlotte Varnes and Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The Phils will need to make him available to other teams, and if any other club is willing to add him to the MLB roster, Philadelphia either needs to promote him themselves or let him depart.

Wilson has spent the entire season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He was briefly granted his release in early June, presumably after exercising an opt-out, but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal. That’s common practice, as it allows a player to negotiate a higher salary and/or additional upward mobility opportunities that weren’t present in the first contract.

The 28-year-old Wilson has a 6.29 earned run average across 54 1/3 innings for the IronPigs this season. His 23.5% strikeout rate and 52% grounder percentage are better than the ERA would imply, as Wilson has been victimized by a .373 average on balls in play. His recent results have been better. The 6’2″ righty hasn’t allowed a run over his past 12 innings.

Wilson has a near-5.00 ERA over 461 MLB innings. He has logged most of his big league work in long relief while holding a Triple-A rotation spot all season. Philadelphia granted Wilson his release rather than add him to the MLB roster a couple weeks ago, but they’re now without a fifth starter after optioning Andrew Painter on Wednesday afternoon.

]]> 7 Padres Outright Ty Adcock, Release Marco Gonzales https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/padres-outright-ty-adcock-release-marco-gonzales.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/padres-outright-ty-adcock-release-marco-gonzales.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 03:38:58 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899938 The Padres announced they’ve outrighted reliever Ty Adcock after he was designated for assignment over the weekend. San Diego also released starter Marco Gonzales from his minor league contract yesterday, according to the MLB.com transaction log.

Adcock was pushed off the 40-man roster when San Diego needed to select another catcher, Blake Hunt, onto the MLB team. The Padres are without their top two catchers, Freddy Fermin and Luis Campusano, so they’ve needed 40-man spots for Rodolfo Durán and Hunt. Adcock, who signed a major league contract in December, did not appear in a big league game with San Diego.

The 29-year-old righty has pitched parts of three seasons at the big league level. Adcock has suited up with the Mariners and Mets, working to a 5.48 ERA across 23 innings. The Elon product spent the first two months of the season on the minor league injured list. He was only activated at Triple-A El Paso on June 3. Adcock walked three of five opponents and allowed two runs in his first appearance. He rebounded with perfect frames in his next two outings before being bumped from the roster.

Adcock has a prior outright and can elect free agency instead of remaining with the Chihuahuas. He’d likely be limited to minor league offers if he tests the market.

Gonzales signed an offseason minor league deal. He’d spent all of last year unsigned after undergoing flexor surgery at the close of the 2024 season. Gonzales started 12 of 13 Triple-A appearances and allowed nearly eight earned runs per nine across 47 1/3 innings. The 34-year-old southpaw had a modest 15.2% strikeout rate while sitting in his usual 90 mph range with his fastball.

]]> 2 MLB Moves To Swing-Based Format For Home Run Derby https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/mlb-moves-to-swing-based-format-for-home-run-derby.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/mlb-moves-to-swing-based-format-for-home-run-derby.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 01:55:02 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899933 Major League Baseball is abandoning the timer for the Home Run Derby, report Evan Drellich and Johnny Flores Jr. of The Athletic. They’ll move back to a swings format for the first time in more than a decade. MLB has not officially announced the news.

According to The Athletic, hitters will have 20 swings in the first round and 15 swings for the semifinal and final rounds. However, the round cannot end on a home run. If the contestant homers on his 20th swing of the first round, for instance, he’ll get to continue adding to his total until a swing results in a non-homer.

While not exactly a return to the original Derby setup, it’s the most significant change to the format since 2015. The scoring was initially determined by “outs,” any swing that didn’t result in a home run. MLB switched to a timer for the ’15 event, seemingly an effort to keep things moving. The old format allowed hitters to be extremely selective in deciding when to swing. The timer placed more of an emphasis on hitters swinging at every reasonable offering — which also put more scrutiny on the pitcher, who couldn’t afford to miss the heart of the plate too often.

Some hitters struggled with the timer, feeling the pressure to swing took too much of a physical toll. They did get one timeout but had to swing at almost everything as the clock ran down. The swing counter strikes more of a balance, giving them chances to take pitches but counting all swings except the final one against the tally even if they clear the fence.

There’ll still be eight players in this year’s Derby. The first round will simply advance whichever four hitters connect on the most longballs, with ties still broken by the longest homer. They’ll move to a matchup format for the semifinal and final, and ties in those rounds will be broken by a three-swing tiebreaker. MLB used a swing-off to break the tie in last year’s All-Star Game to great effect.

This year’s All-Star festivities will be held at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. The Derby broadcast will be carried by Netflix, the first time it’s not on ESPN since 1993. Drellich and Flores write that Netflix played a role in the changed format. Cal Raleigh is the defending champion after beating Junior Caminero at Truist Park last year. The winner is awarded $1MM. The runner-up receives $500K, while everyone else gets $150K. The player who hits the longest home run is paid $100K.

]]> 30 Phillies Have Explored Trades For Back-End Starter https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/phillies-have-explored-trades-for-back-end-starter.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/phillies-have-explored-trades-for-back-end-starter.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 01:14:28 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899927 The Phillies have made some early inquiries on the trade front for a back-of-the-rotation starter or swingman, report Charlotte Varnes and Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The back half of Philadelphia’s rotation has been an issue all season, culminating in today’s move to demote rookie righty Andrew Painter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

The top half of Philadelphia’s rotation is excellent. Cristopher Sánchez has an argument as the best pitcher in the National League. Zack Wheeler has made a remarkable return from thoracic outlet surgery, posting a 2.01 ERA while averaging more than six innings over his first 10 starts. Jesús Luzardo has rebounded after getting blown up a few times in April.

Aaron Nola is locked into the fourth rotation spot by default, but he’s carrying an ERA around 6.00 for a second consecutive year. Nola has also become too homer-prone in the back half of his career. The final rotation spot now seems wide open. Alan Rangel and Jean Cabrera are their only other healthy starters on the 40-man roster.

Rangel has six games of MLB experience, all out of the bullpen. He has a 3.74 ERA with solid strikeout and walk marks across 65 Triple-A frames this year, but he has only completed five innings in one of his last five minor league starts. Cabrera has an ERA north of 9.00 in Double-A and Triple-A. Minor league signees Tucker Davidson and Bryse Wilson have underwhelming numbers in Lehigh Valley.

It’s understandable the Phils would want to gauge the market and see if any viable back-end starters shake loose. Actually making a move is easier said than done this far ahead of the deadline. The Rockies are the only team more than 10 games out of a playoff spot.

Colorado would surely listen on any starter, but their entire rotation has gotten hit hard. Old friend Michael Lorenzen has an ERA above 7.00. Tomoyuki Sugano had an alright ERA early in the year but ugly underlying marks. Ryan Feltner has pitched well in three of his last four outings and is the most desirable trade target in the Rox’s rotation. He’s arbitration-eligible for two more seasons after this one and would probably require the Phillies to part with a mid-tier prospect.

Antonio Senzatela has found a new gear working out of the Rox’s bullpen. An acquiring team could try to lengthen him back out midseason, but that’d be a gradual process over a few weeks. Senzatela might also wind up being Colorado’s top deadline trade chip, so they could prefer to hold him until late July to try to drum up more interest from teams seeking bullpen help.

The Angels, Royals, Giants, Tigers and Red Sox are all double digit games under .500 and trending toward selling. Those teams don’t have much expendable back-end starting pitching. There’s no shortage of bigger name trade candidates (e.g. Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Sonny Gray, Reid Detmers, José Soriano, Robbie Ray), yet they’re not likely to be seriously available until close to the deadline if at all.

Drew Anderson, who began his MLB career in Philadelphia almost a decade ago, is having a nice year in long relief for Detroit. They could trade him but have a $10MM club option if they’d prefer to keep him around for 2027.

Philadelphia isn’t going to want much to do with Adrian Houser’s two-year, $22MM contract. Tyler Mahle is a rental on a $10MM salary and could be available already, but he has an ERA above 6.00 due to an elevated home run rate. Mahle is also on the injured list with a left hamstring strain; he made a rehab start yesterday and should be back on the MLB roster in a week or two. The Nationals have a couple former starters (Brad Lord, Mitchell Parker) pitching in long relief. Impending free agent David Peterson has had a miserable year with the Mets and is a clear change-of-scenery candidate.

The likeliest outcome is that the Phillies monitor the DFA market for the next month until trade season really gets underway and puts more mid-rotation names on the market. Randy Dobnak and Connor Seabold are among depth arms who have changed teams this week.

The current state of Triple-A pitching is bleak. Miami has kept lefty Braxton Garrett in the minors for the majority of the season. Cardinals non-roster lefty Bruce Zimmermann has pitched pretty well in Triple-A for a second straight year without much of a path to a rotation spot in St. Louis. Carlos Carrasco has managed decent results while bouncing on and off the Braves’ roster all year. The Phillies (or any other team) could break that cycle by placing a claim the next time Atlanta designates him for assignment, but they’ve already passed on multiple chances to do so.

]]> 40 Twins Notes: Culpepper, Clemens, Rotation https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/twins-notes-culpepper-clemens-rotation.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/twins-notes-culpepper-clemens-rotation.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:23:44 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899866 The composition of the Twins’ infield has shifted over the first few months of the season. Brooks Lee, who opened the year at shortstop, has settled in at third base. He moved to the hot corner when Royce Lewis was optioned amid ongoing struggles. Lewis is back and raking — .324/.381/.622 in 42 plate appearances since being recalled from Triple-A — but doing so at a new position. The former No. 1 overall pick is playing primarily first base with a couple starts at second base also under his belt.

Shortstop has been a revolving door since the Lee/Lewis shuffle, but any thoughts of a promotion for 2024 first-rounder Kaelen Culpepper to take the reins at shortstop should be put on hold. The Twins placed the hot-hitting Culpepper on the minor league injured list this week due to a left hip strain. It’s not entirely clear yet how long he’ll be sidelined.

It’s a tough blow for Culpepper and the Twins alike. The 23-year-old, currently ranked as the game’s No. 32 overall prospect at Baseball America, had been on an absolute tear in Triple-A St. Paul at the time of his injury. The Kansas State product started the season in a bit of a slump but was hitting .298/.407/.576 with nearly as many walks (13.7%) as strikeouts (14.8%) over his 151 most recent plate appearances. Along the way, he popped 11 homers and went 10-for-12 in stolen base attempts.

The Twins’ recent DFA of journeyman Orlando Arcia leaves shortstop duties to Tristan Gray and Ryan Kreidler for the time being. The latter has dramatically outperformed the former and is a better defensive option at short, but he’s been used in the outfield more than at shortstop. At this point, both players feel like placeholders for Culpepper, who ought to get a legitimate audition at shortstop over the final few months of the season, depending on how long he’s shelved.

One byproduct of Lewis’ move to first base has been less time there for Kody Clemens. Minnesota picked Clemens up for cash early last season after the Phillies designated him for assignment, and he’s become a regular in the year-plus since that time. Dating back to the trade, the son of seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens has given the Twins 617 plate appearances with 30 homers and a .230/.297/.461 batting line (107 wRC+).

As Dan Hayes of The Athletic writes, Clemens’ power production and defensive versatility have endeared him to the organization and the clubhouse. He’s played first base, second base and all three outfield spots this season, and Clemens has 176 career innings at third base, too (albeit none in Minnesota).

“Regardless of where you put him, he seems to really produce,” skipper Derek Shelton tells Hayes. “Grinder, baseball player, say what you want about him. Regardless of where he goes on the field, in big moments, nothing gets too big for him.”

The Twins control Clemens for three more years beyond the current campaign. He’s earning just over $800K this season and will be arbitration-eligible this coming offseason. At the very least, his .255/.328/.521 line against right-handers should have him in the lineup more often than not, even if Clemens lacks one set position.

Turning to the other side of the roster, Minnesota’s rotation is on the verge of getting much healthier. Left-hander Kendry Rojas went out on a minor league rehab assignment this morning. He’s been out since late May due to elbow inflammation and triceps discomfort but is headed to St. Paul to get built back up. Acquired in last summer’s Louis Varland trade, Rojas posted a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 minor league innings and a 1.26 ERA in his first 14 1/3 MLB frames before landing on the shelf.

Assuming all goes well on the rehab front, Rojas should return to a spot in the team’s rotation. The Twins had just started the process of moving Rojas into the starting five after using him in long relief through his first few outings. With Rojas, Pablo López, Bailey Ober, David Festa and Mick Abel all on the injured list concurrently, Minnesota called up righty Mike Paredes to join their beleaguered staff. Paredes has held his own but isn’t as well regarded as Rojas, whom Minnesota will surely want to evaluate in a starter’s role.

Speaking of Abel, he could return to the rotation even sooner than Rojas. Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star Tribune writes that Abel topped out at 97 mph in a five-inning rehab start yesterday. The team is waiting to see how the 24-year-old righty bounces back today and tomorrow before determining his next step, but a return to the big leagues this weekend is possible.

Abel, acquired from the Phillies in the trade sending Jhoan Duran to Philadelphia, broke camp as the Twins’ fifth starter following a dominant spring showing (22 innings, 2.05 ERA, 32.9 K%, 4.9 BB%). After a couple rough outings to start his season, he rattled off 13 shutout frames with 16 strikeouts against three walks in his next two appearances before a bout of elbow inflammation sent him to the injured list. He’s been on the IL for just over two months now but is on the cusp of a return.

If Abel and Rojas are both ready for looks in the near future, they’ll have some decisions to make. Optioning out Paredes seems logical, and the other decision could come down to former top-100 prospect Zebby Matthews and current top-100 prospect Connor Prielipp. Both have looked sharp at times but have middling ERAs thanks to a handful of rough performances. Prielipp, in particular, has struggled of late (7.66 ERA in five starts dating back to May 22).

]]> 9 Angels Acquire Tyler Heineman https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/angels-acquire-tyler-heineman.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/angels-acquire-tyler-heineman.html#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:15:59 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899904 The Angels announced the acquisition of catcher Tyler Heineman from the Blue Jays. Toronto, who had designated him for assignment over the weekend, receive cash considerations.

The Halos opened a spot on the 40-man roster when they designated Trey Mancini for assignment this afternoon. They therefore didn’t need to announce a corresponding move tonight, but they will need to open an active roster spot once Heineman joins the club for their weekend series in West Sacramento.

Heineman will probably bump Logan Porter back to Triple-A. The Halos have operated with a Logan O’Hoppe/Porter tandem for the past week. They’ve needed to go well into the catching depth chart with Travis d’Arnaud out due to plantar fasciitis and Sebastián Rivero undergoing hamate surgery. O’Hoppe’s bat has picked up this month after a very slow start, while Porter has a full slate of minor league options and can go back to Triple-A.

The 34-year-old Heineman has spent the past year and a half in Toronto. He had a career-best .289/.361/.416 showing over 64 games last year. Heineman has been a light-hitting depth catcher for the majority of his career and owns a .154 average with one homer in 87 plate appearances this season. He got some run while Alejandro Kirk was out with a broken thumb. Brandon Valenzuela outplayed him and remained on Toronto’s MLB roster as the backup when Kirk returned.

Heineman is out of minor league options and had to get through waivers for the Jays to send him to Triple-A. The Angels jumped the waiver line with the trade, taking on the remainder of his $1.2375MM arbitration salary in the process. Heineman is an excellent receiving catcher with a good arm, so he’ll improve the team defense behind the dish. He’ll remain eligible for arbitration for another two seasons if he holds his MLB job.

]]> 17 Phillies Option Andrew Painter https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/phillies-option-andrew-painter.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/phillies-option-andrew-painter.html#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:55:13 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899896 The Phillies optioned scuffling starter Andrew Painter to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after today’s game. They’ll recall an extra reliever tomorrow to take his spot on the active roster.

Painter was rocked for six runs on as many hits while completing just two innings in today’s blowout loss at the hands of the Marlins. The rookie righty has given up at least a run per inning in four consecutive starts. He’s up to an ugly 7.06 earned run average for the season, and he’s now tied for the third-most earned runs allowed in MLB (51). Only four pitchers, two of whom pitch at Coors Field, have allowed more runs overall. The Phillies are 2-12 in Painter’s appearances, all of which have either been starts or bulk outings behind an opener.

There’s not much in the underlying marks to suggest any kind of impending rebound. Painter hasn’t missed many bats and has been susceptible to the longball. Miami got him for a couple homers today, pushing him to 1.94 per nine innings on the season.

It’s obviously not the start to Painter’s MLB career that he or the team had in mind. A first-round selection out of high school in 2021, Painter was widely viewed as the top pitching prospect in the game by the end of his first full minor league season. He might’ve reached the Majors by the ’23 campaign if not for an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. Painter would miss two full minor league seasons and wasn’t as sharp when he returned.

The 6’7″ righty spent most of last year in Triple-A. He made 22 starts and posted a 5.40 ERA. The strikeout and walk profile was solid, but he struggled to keep the ball in the park even against Triple-A hitters. Painter’s fastball, in particular, has been an issue since the injury.

He still has above-average velocity, sitting at roughly 97 mph, but it doesn’t have the same backspinning life at the top of the strike zone. Big league hitters have pummeled it, batting almost .400 while making contact on 90% of their swings. Even with solid secondary stuff, it’s tough to have sustained success without the ability to attack hitters in the zone with the fastball.

Despite the middling Triple-A numbers, the Phillies essentially locked Painter in as their fifth starter at the beginning of the season. They didn’t make much of an effort to re-sign Ranger Suarez. They knew Zack Wheeler would open the season on the injured list, leaving rotation spots for both Painter and Taijuan Walker. The latter’s performance was bad enough that the Phillies released him before the end of April, opening the rotation spot for Wheeler’s return.

The top half of Philadelphia’s rotation is excellent. Cristopher Sánchez has an argument as the best pitcher in the National League. Wheeler has made a remarkable return from thoracic outlet surgery, posting a 2.01 ERA while averaging more than six innings over his first 10 starts. Jesús Luzardo has rebounded after getting blown up a few times in April.

Aaron Nola is locked into the fourth rotation spot by default, but he’s carrying an ERA around 6.00 for a second consecutive year. Nola has also become too homer-prone in the back half of his career. The final rotation spot now seems wide open. Alan Rangel is their only other healthy starter on the 40-man roster. He has six games of MLB experience, all out of the bullpen. Rangel has a 3.74 ERA with solid strikeout and walk marks across 65 Triple-A frames this year, but he has only completed five innings in one of his last five minor league starts.

Tucker Davidson and Bryse Wilson are non-roster players with an ERA north of 6.00 at Lehigh Valley. Chuck King and Drake Fellows don’t have any big league experience. The Phillies have an off day on Friday but will then play 13 straight games, so they’ll need a fifth starter by the middle of next week.

]]> 56 Royals Acquire Randy Dobnak https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/royals-to-acquire-randy-dobnak.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/royals-to-acquire-randy-dobnak.html#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:52:54 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899894 6:52pm: Kansas City officially acquired Dobnak for cash considerations and optioned him to Triple-A. They transferred Cole Ragans from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Ragans has been out since early May with an elbow issue and suffered a setback over the weekend.

5:50pm: The Royals are acquiring right-hander Randy Dobnak from the Mariners, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Dobnak triggered an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with the M’s a few days ago. Kansas City will need to open a 40-man roster spot but have several players who could be transferred to the 60-day injured list. Though Dobnak is getting a 40-man spot, he has options and Passan says Dobnak will be sent to Triple-A Omaha initially.

Dobnak, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason. It was recently reported that there was a June 15th upward mobility clause in that deal. The way such clauses usually work is that the player is offered up to the 29 other teams in the league. If any one of them wants to give him a roster spot, the signing team has to trade him or give him a roster spot themselves.

The righty triggered the clause after a pretty decent showing for Triple-A Tacoma. He logged 70 innings over 13 starts, allowing 4.24 earned runs per nine. Considering that the Rainiers play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that’s not too bad. His 12.8% strikeout rate was barely half of typical big league average but his 7.9% walk rate was good and his 59.9% ground ball rate was very strong.

The Mariners are perhaps the team with the least need for more rotation depth. They are already six deep at the major league level and struggling to juggle Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Bryce Miller, Emerson Hancock and Luis Castillo. They also have prospects Ryan Sloan and Kade Anderson dealing in the minors.

The Royals, meanwhile, have recently seen their starting group take a few notable hits. Each of Cole Ragans, Kris Bubic and Seth Lugo have landed on the IL in the past six weeks. That has left them with a patchwork rotation consisting of Michael Wacha, Luinder Avila, Noah Cameron and Stephen Kolek in four spots. Mitch Spence made a spot start this week but was immediately optioned back to the minors afterwards. Depth arms like Ben Kudrna and Ryan Bergert required season-ending surgeries earlier this year.

In short, they can use any fresh arms they can find, so Dobnak is a sensible pickup for them. If he gets called up at some point, he can add to his major league track record, which currently consists of 140 2/3 innings over multiple seasons with the Twins with a 4.86 ERA, 13.9% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 56.8% ground ball rate.

Photo courtesy of Frank Bowen IV, Imagn Images.

]]> 8 Braves Designate Hunter Stratton For Assignment https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/braves-designate-hunter-stratton-for-assignment.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/braves-designate-hunter-stratton-for-assignment.html#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:35:16 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899891 The Braves have designated right-hander Hunter Stratton for assignment and transferred righty Spencer Strider to the 60-day injured list, according to the club’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. Those moves open two 40-man spots to select righty Carlos Carrasco and catcher Jair Camargo, moves which were reported earlier today.

Stratton, 29, was acquired from the Pirates last summer after Pittsburgh designated him for assignment. Atlanta sent minor league outfielder Titus Dumitru and cash the other way and have been using Stratton as an up-and-down reliever since then.

He has tossed 17 1/3 big league innings since that trade with a 2.08 earned run average. That’s obviously a nice number but there’s some luck in there. He has benefited from a .261 batting average on balls in play and 87.9% strand rate. Though his 22.5% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate in that span are decent, his 4.00 FIP and 3.73 SIERA suggest he has been more serviceable than dominant. In the minors this year, he has thrown 24 2/3 innings with a 4.38 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate and 47.1% ground ball rate, with a bloated 14.2% walk rate.

He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so Atlanta could spend as long as five days exploring trade possibilities. It seems likely that Stratton will garner interest somewhere. He still has options, which is always appealing for clubs. He also has intriguing stuff, averaging about 96 miles per hour with his four-seamer and sinker. He has also thrown a cutter and a slider this year. He also had some decent results with the Bucs earlier in his career and now has a 3.75 ERA in 69 2/3 big league innings.

As for Strider, he landed on the 15-day IL a few days ago due to elbow inflammation. The club subsequently announced that he would be shut down for four weeks before undergoing a follow-up MRI. If that imaging is clean, he can begin ramping back up.

Even if everything goes to plan, the ramp-up period will probably take as long as the shutdown period, so he is probably looking at an absence of a couple of months even in a best-case scenario. That means this transaction shouldn’t really alter expectations about his return but it does concretely rule him out until the middle of August.

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images

]]> 6 Austin Wynns Elects Free Agency https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/austin-wynns-elects-free-agency-2.html https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/austin-wynns-elects-free-agency-2.html#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:07:38 +0000 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/?p=899837 Catcher Austin Wynns has elected free agency, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He was outrighted by Atlanta earlier this week. Since he has at least five years of big league service, he has the right to reject outright assignments in favor of free agency without forfeiting any salary.

Wynns, 35, is a veteran depth catcher. He has appeared in 299 big league games scattered across eight seasons, never topping 66 contests in any individual campaign. He doesn’t provide much from the batter’s box, currently sitting on a career line of .228/.273/.342. That translates to a 66 wRC+, indicating he has been 34% below league average at the plate.

He has a stronger reputation in regards to his work behind the plate. Publicly available metrics generally give him solid grades for his blocking and his work with the running game. His framing numbers aren’t as strong but mostly due to some poor results earlier in his career. He’s been closer to league average when looking at the past three to five seasons.

Wynns finished last season with the Athletics. They tendered him an arbitration contract, agreeing to a $1.1MM salary for 2026. He got out to a slow start to the season and was designated for assignment and then released in early May. That led to a minor league deal with the Angels, though that club traded him to Atlanta for cash. He spent a little over a week on the roster with Atlanta until Drake Baldwin came off the injured list, which squeezed Wynns onto the waiver wire. He currently has a .075/.125/.075 line in 57 plate appearances this year.

Now that he’s a free agent again, Wynns will look for his next opportunity. Catching depth is always in demand, so he should get calls, though he may have to settle for a minor league deal. If any club gives him a spot, he can be paid the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster. That will be subtracted from what the A’s pay, as they are currently on the hook for the remainder of his salary.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

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