2:05 pm: The Astros have now announced both claims. In corresponding moves, they transferred right-handers Luis Garcia Jr. and Penn Murfee to the 60-day injured list. Both pitchers underwent elbow surgery last summer and won’t be available for a few more months, at least.
12:27 pm: The Astros are set to make a pair of waiver claims. Neither has been formally announced by the club just yet, but Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Houston is claiming right-hander Miguel Diaz off waivers from the Tigers, who’d designated him for assignment last week. Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 in Houston further reports that the ’Stros are claiming catcher/outfielder Cooper Hummel, who was designated for assignment by the Giants last week.
Diaz, 29, has pitched in parts of six big league seasons — four with the Padres and two with the Tigers. He tossed 14 innings out of the Detroit ’pen in 2023, allowing just one run on eight hits and five walks with 16 strikeouts. It was a brief but dominant showing that surely enhanced his standing within the organization and gave him a chance to break camp with the 2024 club. However, Diaz struggled this spring, surrendering five runs on ten hits and five walks in 8 1/3 innings.
Originally selected by the Padres (by way of a trade with the Twins) out of the Brewers organization in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft, Diaz’s big league career began in rocky fashion. That was understandable, given that San Diego carried a then-22-year-old Diaz on the roster all season after plucking him directly out of A-ball. He pitched just 66 2/3 innings in his first three seasons, logging a lowly 6.62 ERA. The Friars non-tendered him in 2019 to remove him from the 40-man roster but quickly re-signed him.
In 2021, Diaz returned to the majors with 42 effective innings out of the San Diego ’pen. Over the past three seasons, he carries a 2.87 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 41.9% ground-ball rate in 59 2/3 innings. Diaz is out of minor league options, so he’ll head directly to the Houston bullpen as he cannot be sent to the minors without first passing through waivers. If he can demonstrate some staying power in manager Joe Espada’s bullpen, he can be controlled through the 2027 season via arbitration.
Hummel, 29, has bounced from the Mariners, to the Mets, to the Giants and now the Astros since the end of the 2023 season. He appeared in 10 MLB games last year and came to the plate 26 times with Seattle. He also received a brief look with the D-backs in 2022, and he’s posted an overall .166/.264/.286 line in 227 career plate appearances.
Ugly as that small-sample slash line may be, Hummel turned in a .262/.409/.435 batting line in Triple-A last year and drew walks at a massive 18% clip. His ability to play both catcher and corner outfield gives him a relatively uncommon brand of versatility. Hummel has logged more than 1800 innings in left field, 1054 frames behind the plate, 508 innings at first base and another 296 innings in right field. Add in that he has a minor league option remaining, and he’s an interesting depth piece even if he hasn’t yet produced at the big league level.
Double snag!
Hopefully Cooper Hummel doesn’t get DFA again. He was DFA by the Mets in the offseason, more recently the Giants. Hopefully he will find a home in Houston.
Miguel Diaz is a great pickup for the Astros. Was hoping the Tigers snuck him through waivers since we hadn’t heard anything since he was undeservedly DFA’d over a week ago.
He pitched okay for them but he didn’t do enough in Spring training to beat out Wentz or Faedo. Would have been nice to keep him as insurance though. The Tigers bullpen has looked pretty wicked so far this year. 5-0!
Kinda surprising to see Houston grabbing players off the waiver wire for their ML roster this early in the season. That’s a sign of not having the depth they used to have. Maybe, if they aren’t in the hunt this year, they will be kind enough to send Bregman the Tigers way at the deadline. Pretty sure Detroit could spare a Pitcher.
More stupidity from STYMEEDONE! Par for the course for a brainless twit! The Astros claimed a pretty darned good reliever off waivers, who was never going to make it through. Too bad STYMEEDONE doesn’t do his homework before he comments. If he did, maybe the dolt would make sense once in a while but since the Tigers hired Harris, STYMEEDONE’s cheese fell completely off his cracker. Cleanup on aisle cuckoo!
Hey can’t we lay off the name-calling geez. I think you can formulate a lucid response without the ad-hominems, but who knows.
The problem is STYMEEDONE can’t make a lucid comment anymore. When (if) he does, I’ll stop.
He deserved to be DFA’d because Reese Olson & Casey Mize made the team! He’s a starter & Tigers had to demote Manning to AAA so Diaz was the odd man out.
Although he did open a few games for the Tigers last season, Diaz has been primarily used as a reliever and was never in the mix for the starting rotation. He was competing against Faedo, Wentz and Brieske for a bullpen spot.
I really wish Cooper Hummel would be able to stick with a team long enough to get his own fan giveaway, which would of course be an adorable ceramic figurine.
The Astros are really digging deep for those waiver claims! Can’t wait to see how they spin this into another ‘genius’ move.
For better or worse, they’re clearly resolved to patchwork middle relief until multiple injured starters return mid season.
No kidding. They’ve already rolled out Scott, Mushinski, and Martinez for not-insignificant points of games. Maybe they feel like if even one of those guys becomes a solid piece, they got cheap innings with surplus value, so the experiment was worth it
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Not great additions. With the one out of options and cannot go down who loses with Astros Singleton perhaps. Bielak perhaps both of them are out of options. If Diaz goes to bullpen now. But after way bullpen has been. Montero needs to be dumped.
Guessing the Hummel thing is the same as the reasoning for Singleton: if he draws walks at *this* high of a clip, surely something will develop from that? Right?
Come on, Adams. “Ugly as that small-sample slash line may be” ISN’T proper English. You can’t just leave “as” out to start the sentence. Grammar isn’t optional.
Also, there shouldn’t be a comma before “at least.” Learn how to write, you hack.