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Kyle Bradish Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Orioles general manager Mike Elias informed reporters that right-hander Kyle Bradish underwent Tommy John surgery with an internal brace today. He’ll be out for the rest of this year and part of 2025 as well. Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner was among those to relay the news on X. Additionally, left-hander Danny Coulombe had bone chips removed from his elbow, per Allentuck on X. The southpaw could return this year but is likely out until September.

The Bradish news is a brutal blow for the club’s rotation. He had a tremendous breakout season with the O’s last year, making 30 starts with a 2.83 earned run average. He struck out 25% of batters faced, limited walks to a 6.6% rate and got grounders at a 49.2% clip.

Things got scary here in 2024, as Bradish was diagnosed with a sprain of his UCL in mid-February. The club initially tried non-surgical interventions and seemed to have some success. Bradish was given a platelet-rich plasma injection and was showing “accelerated healing” by early March, per Bradish himself.

Things seemed to accelerate fairly normally from there. Bradish was able to start a rehab assignment by the second week of April and was reinstated from the injured list in early May. He made eight starts for the big league club with a 2.75 ERA. But he landed back on the injured list last week, again due to a sprain of his UCL, with surgery apparently unavoidable this time around.

In hindsight, it would be easy to dismiss the past four months as simply delaying the inevitable, but pitchers have suffered UCL injuries and avoided surgery before. Masahiro Tanaka was diagnosed with a partially torn UCL in 2014, for instance, but never got it repaired and went on to pitch between 150 and 200 innings in each of the five following seasons. Seth Lugo was also found to have a slight tear in 2017 but didn’t go under the knife. More recently, Triston McKenzie was diagnosed with a UCL sprain last summer but has made 14 starts for the Guardians this year.

Given the 14 to 18 months of recovery that are generally needed after Tommy John surgery, pitchers and teams usually prefer to exhaust non-surgical options before surrendering to the surgeon’s table. The O’s and Bradish believed they had a path open to them and tried to take it, but unfortunately couldn’t make it work in this instance.

This is now the third starting pitcher that the Orioles have lost to season-ending UCL surgery this year, as both Tyler Wells and John Means went down this road before Bradish. Despite those losses, the rotation has been a strength overall. Baltimore starter’s have a combined ERA of 3.03 this year, which trails only the Yankees and Phillies. But maintaining such a position without those three will be a challenge.

As of now, the O’s are left with Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Cole Irvin, Cade Povich and Albert Suárez in the rotation, but it seems fair to expect the O’s to pursue additions prior to the July 30 deadline. Povich has just two major league starts under his belt so far. Irvin has a 3.03 ERA on the year but is only striking out 17.9% of batters faced. His 4.16 SIERA this year and his career ERA of 4.24 perhaps suggest some regression is coming. Suárez has a 2.05 ERA but is a 34-year-old journeyman with a 19.7% strikeout rate and 81.9% strand rate.

Dean Kremer should be rejoining that group shortly, as he is on the injured list but currently on a rehab assignment. However, he’s more of a solid back-end guy, with an ERA of 4.35 in his career and a mark of 4.32 this year. In terms of depth options, Levi Stoudt was just claimed off waivers but has a 6.92 ERA in Triple-A this year. Bruce Zimmermann is on the 40-man but hasn’t pitched since mid-May. Jonathan Heasley is also on the roster but has been working as a swingman in the minors.

Last week, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the club would be waiting until closer to the deadline to decide on their starting pitching approach. With Bradish now out for the year, that will presumably increase their desire to pursue starting pitching in the months to come. In the meantime, Bradish will be transferred to the 60-day injured list whenever the O’s need his roster spot. He’ll spent the rest of the year on the shelf and will qualify for arbitration this offseason as a Super Two player.

The news on Coulombe isn’t as bad but is still significant. The lefty has a career ERA of 3.57 and that mark is just 2.68 since joining the O’s prior to the 2023 season. He has thrown 77 1/3 innings since coming to Baltimore, striking out 28.5% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 5% clip.

He landed on the IL a week ago due to left elbow inflammation and it now seems he’s going to miss several months, leaving the Orioles with Cionel Pérez, Keegan Akin and Nick Vespi as southpaws in their bullpen.

Like Bradish, Coulombe will be a candidate to be moved to the 60-day IL whenever the O’s need a roster spot for someone else. The two sides avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a one-year deal with a club option in January. That option has a $4MM base salary and escalators that start at 50 appearances. He’s made 29 appearances so far this year but won’t be able to get that number up to 50 if he’s out until September. He will cross six years of service by the end of the season and be a free agent if the O’s decline that option.

Rangers’ Jose Corniell To Undergo UCL Surgery

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Rangers pitching prospect Jose Corniell is out for the season. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that the 20-year-old righty will undergo surgery to repair the UCL in his throwing elbow. It’s unclear if he’ll require a full Tommy John reconstruction or the modified internal brace procedure.

In either case, it’ll cost him all of 2024 and shelve him well into next season. Corniell has spent the entire season on the minor league injured list while attempting to rehab the issue without surgery. That unfortunately proved unsuccessful. It’s a tough follow-up to a season that put Corniell more firmly on prospect radars. The Dominican-born hurler — whom Texas initially acquired from the Mariners in 2020 for Rafael Montero — turned in a 2.92 earned run average in A-ball a season ago. He punched out nearly 30% of opponents against a 7.8% walk rate over 101 2/3 innings.

The Rangers added Corniell to their 40-man roster last winter. Texas was concerned that another team (likely a rebuilding club) could grab him in the Rule 5 draft and try to stash him in the bullpen even though he’d yet to pitch above High-A. Corniell will continue to count against the 40-man while he’s on the minor league injured list.

If they’re willing to pay him at the the prorated $740K MLB minimum rate, Texas could place Corniell on the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. He’d need to be reinstated over the offseason, though the Rangers could elect to non-tender him with an eye towards bringing him back on a minor league deal instead.

Marlins Acquire Ali Sanchez From Cubs

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The Cubs traded minor league catcher Ali Sánchez to the Marlins, tweets Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, Miami sent cash in return.

Sánchez was not on Chicago’s 40-man roster. He won’t immediately take a spot on Miami’s. He’ll head to Triple-A Jacksonville for the time being, joining his third organization of the season in the process. The Venezuela native signed a somewhat surprising big league contract with the Pirates last offseason. Pittsburgh outrighted him off the 40-man roster at the end of Spring Training, sending him back to free agency. Sánchez inked a non-roster deal with the Cubs a week into the season and had been playing for Triple-A Iowa.

He appeared in 41 games, hitting .240/.338/.388 in 148 trips to the plate. That’s a step down from the .311/.375/.492 batting line he’d posted with Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in 2023. Reno, where the D-Backs’ top farm team plays, is one of the sport’s most favorable hitting environments. Sánchez, a typically light hitter, connected on 11 homers in 67 games there. He hit three longballs with Iowa.

While he doesn’t bring much power to the table, Sánchez has decent contact skills. He has drawn walks in 12.2% of his plate appearances on the season against an 18.9% strikeout rate. He’s generally regarded as a capable defender, though he only cut down six of 46 attempted basestealers with Iowa.

The Cubs have gotten almost nothing out of their catching duo of Miguel Amaya and Yan Gomes. They nevertheless opted against bringing Sánchez up. Chicago signed Tomás Nido to a major league contract while designating Gomes for assignment this morning.

Miami is one of the only teams whose catchers have been less productive than the Amaya/Gomes pairing. Marlins catchers — almost exclusively Christian Bethancourt and Nick Fortes — have hit an MLB-worst .155/.192/.237 over 232 plate appearances. Miami isn’t going to expend much to upgrade the position in a lost season. Sánchez could play his way into an MLB look with a productive showing in Jacksonville. Bethancourt, Fortes and Jhonny Pereda are the catchers on the 40-man roster.

MLB Mailbag: Astros, Cubs, Mariners, Cardinals, Nats, Chisholm

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I’m pinch-hitting for MLBTR owner Tim Dierkes for this week’s edition of the MLBTR Mailbag. This week, we'll look at Houston's dreadful first base situation, the Cubs' recent struggles, the Mariners' recent surge, the Cardinals' needs, the Nationals' deadline outlook, Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s trade value, and more!

Reynold asks:

There are a number of first basemen on the discard pile. If you were [Astros GM] Dana Brown, do you pick any of those suspects over Jon Singleton? J.D. Davis, Garrett Cooper, etc?

Singleton is a pretty remarkable comeback story, and for him to even make it to the majors at all after such a lengthy hiatus -- let alone find himself in a regular role -- is commendable. Sentimentality doesn't win games, however, and Singleton is a 32-year-old subpar defender whose .219/.319/.331 batting line is below average and nowhere near strong enough to offset his lack of value with the glove. I'm as surprised as most Astros fans that the team is still trotting him out there.

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Cardinals To Recall Adam Kloffenstein For MLB Debut

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The Cardinals will recall righty Adam Kloffenstein before tomorrow evening’s game with the Giants at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, as first reported by Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 (on X). It’ll be the 23-year-old’s major league debut. Kloffenstein is already on the 40-man roster. He would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft last winter, so St. Louis selected his contract in November.

Kloffenstein was a second-round pick of the Blue Jays out of a Texas high school back in 2018. He was pitching in Double-A last summer when the Jays packaged him alongside Sem Robberse in the deal to plug Jordan Hicks into the back of the bullpen. St. Louis prioritized upper minors pitching in their deadline swaps of Hicks, Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery.

The Cards immediately pushed Kloffenstein to Triple-A Memphis. He finished last season with nine outings there, tossing 39 frames of 3.00 ERA ball. He has worked out of the Memphis rotation this year with similar results. Kloffenstein carries a 3.97 ERA over 77 innings. His 21.9% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk percentage are pedestrian, though he’s getting ground-balls at a solid 48% clip.

Andre Pallante gets the start tomorrow with Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray closing out the weekend series. (The teams are off on Friday to travel from Birmingham to St. Louis for the final two games of the set.) That suggests Kloffenstein could get a look from the bullpen for his first MLB work. He has started all but two of the appearances in his minor league career. Baseball America ranked him 28th in the St. Louis system over the winter, writing that he profiles as a depth starter or grounder-oriented long reliever.

Dodgers Place Walker Buehler On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced the placement of Walker Buehler on the 15-day injured list. He’s dealing with inflammation in his right hip. That’s the corresponding move for the reinstatement of Bobby Miller from his own 15-day IL stint. Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Miller would make his return tonight against the Rockies.

Buehler’s IL placement isn’t unexpected. Both Roberts and the veteran righty told reporters last night that it was under consideration. Buehler hasn’t looked like himself in his return from the second Tommy John surgery of his career. He has taken the ball eight times since being activated on May 6. Buehler has been tagged for a 5.84 ERA across 37 innings with alarming underlying indicators. Opponents have already connected on 10 home runs (2.43 per nine) while his strikeout rate has dropped to a personal-low 18.5% clip.

On a per-pitch basis, Buehler has gotten swinging strikes only 7.2% of the time. He had landed somewhere in the 10-12% range in every prior season of his career. Buehler hasn’t had any issues throwing strikes, but his overall performance has been that of a control-oriented #5 starter as opposed to a borderline ace.

It wouldn’t have been fair to expect Buehler to immediately pick back up as a top-flight starter nearly two years since his most recent MLB pitch. He and the Dodgers certainly wouldn’t have anticipated him struggling to this extent, though, so the IL placement will serve as a reset. Buehler’s velocity has come back after the elbow procedure, offering reason for optimism he can sort things out. His four-seam fastball has averaged 95.5 MPH while his 91.5 MPH cutter and 79 MPH knuckle-curve are in line with their respective 2022 figures.

That will leave the Dodgers shorthanded in the rotation. As recently as late last week, Roberts indicated that L.A. was going to move to a six-man unit with Miller’s return. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Buehler since gone down, leaving Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and James Paxton alongside Miller.

Roberts said tonight that L.A. will make a move on Friday to fill the starting spot (X link via Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Righty Landon Knack last pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday, so he’d be on regular rest for a Friday start. Knack pitched well in four MLB starts earlier in the year and has a 3.54 ERA over 48 1/3 frames with OKC. He’s the straightforward choice to draw back into the starting five.

Brewers Designate Elieser Hernández For Assignment

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The Brewers announced a few roster moves before tonight’s game in Anaheim. Milwaukee recalled rookie infielder Tyler Black and right-hander Bradley Blalock. They optioned infielder Oliver Dunn to Triple-A Nashville and designated righty Elieser Hernández to open spots on the active roster. The Hernández DFA drops the 40-man roster tally to 39.

It’s the first major league call for Blalock, whom Milwaukee added to the 40-man last offseason. Blalock was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school five years ago. Milwaukee acquired his at last summer’s trade deadline in the deal sending struggling infielder Luis Urías to Boston. Blalock finished the season in High-A, yet the Brewers were still concerned another team would pluck him away in the Rule 5 draft.

Milwaukee optioned the 6’2″ righty to Double-A Biloxi to start this year. Working from the rotation, he has pitched to a 4.24 ERA through 51 innings. Blalock’s 18.9% strikeout rate is modest, though he has only walked 7.8% of batters faced. The Georgia native has shown advanced control in his minor league career. Baseball America ranked him as the #22 prospect in the Milwaukee organization heading into the season, while he checked in 15th in the system on Keith Law’s list at The Athletic. Both outlets suggest he has a chance to stick in the rotation behind a low-mid 90s fastball and decent secondary offerings.

For the time being, Blalock could step into the long relief role which Hernández had filled. Milwaukee has enough rotation questions to potentially give the 23-year-old a starting look at some point. The recently promoted Carlos Rodríguez has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two big league starts.

Hernández spent less than two weeks in Milwaukee. The Brewers signed him to a major league contract on June 8, two days after he elected free agency upon being outrighted by the Dodgers. The Venezuelan-born righty pitched four times, tossing six innings of two-run ball with a pair of strikeouts and walks apiece. Hernández had made five appearances with Los Angeles and owns a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 big league frames this year. The former Marlins starter will probably end up on waivers in the next few days and could return to free agency if he again goes unclaimed.

Black, one of the game’s better offensive prospects, steps back into the MLB infield mix. The Brewers called up the Wright State product for the first time in late April. Black only got into seven games before being optioned back to Nashville. He has turned in strong numbers there, hitting .275/.374/.483 with nine homers in 243 plate appearances.

Yankees Transfer Anthony Rizzo To 60-Day Injured List

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The Yankees announced that right-hander Gerrit Cole has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was reported earlier this week. To open a roster spot for him, first baseman Anthony Rizzo has been transferred onto the 60-day IL.

Rizzo was injured earlier this week when attempting to run out a ground ball. First baseman Dominic Smith fielded the grounder and flipped to pitcher Brennan Bernardino as he covered first base. Rizzo and Bernardino bumped into each other, which resulted in Rizzo falling to the ground and landing awkwardly. Video link of the play from MLB.com.

It was later reported that Rizzo was diagnosed with a fractured radial neck in his right arm. The club announced that Rizzo could be back in about eight weeks, as relayed by Brendan Kuty of The Athletic on X. That eight-week timeline and the 60-day stint on the injured list are roughly equivalent, so it’s not surprising that the Yankees decided to make this transfer.

Rizzo will now be ineligible to be reinstated until the middle of August, which will be interesting timing. The trade deadline is on July 30 this year, so the Yankees will have to make some decisions about what moves to make to address their lineup while Rizzo is still away from the club. A decent chunk of their hitters are performing well but Rizzo was struggling prior to his injury.

In his absence, DJ LeMahieu and Ben Rice seem likely to share the first base duties, but LeMahieu is also having a poor season and Rice just made his major league debut yesterday. Players like Oswaldo Cabrera and Gleyber Torres have also been struggling, leaving the club with a fairly weak infield group around shortstop Anthony Volpe.

The Yankees have the best record in the majors at 51-24, so they can use the next few weeks to assess these players and decide on their deadline plan. Rizzo himself came to the Yankees in a 2021 deadline deal while Luke Voit was on the injured list.

Rizzo and the Yankees reunited on a free agent deal going into 2022, a two-year deal with an opt-out. He triggered that opt-out but re-signed with the Yanks again going into 2023, this time on a two-year, $40MM deal. Rizzo made $17MM last year and is doing so again this year, with a $6MM buyout on a $17MM club option for 2025, making it a net $11MM decision.

Prior to landing on the injured list, Rizzo was hitting just .223/.289/.341 for the year and won’t have much time to improve those numbers with this injury. His rehab progress and the performance of Rice will be interesting situations to watch in the months to come, as the club will have some decisions to make at the deadline and at the end of the season as well.

Yu Chang Likely Joining CPBL’s Fubon Guardians

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Infielder Yu Chang announced on his social media that he is planning to enter the 2024 draft for the Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan, relayed by CPBL Stats on X. Per a report from Kayleigh Madjar at the Taipei Times, the Fubon Guardians have the top pick in the draft, which is scheduled for Friday next week. It seems the Guardians plan to select Chang as the club released a statement saying that they have been in contact with Chang for some time, adding that the “look forward to [Chang] wearing a Fubon Guardians jersey in the second half of the season.” Per CPBL Stats on X, the Guardians will likely offer Chang a contract of 3.5 years worth between $2.34MM and $2.67MM USD. The Guardians are also expected to give the Rays $100K to buy Chang out of his minor league deal with that club.

“It’s been ten years working away from home, I miss home very much,” Chang said on his social media. “Therefore I’ve decided to enter the 2024 CPBL draft. I really appreciate that the Rays organization has been very understanding and supportive of my decision. I’m currently in Florida playing rehab games, will be 100% healthy and get back to the game soon!”

Chang, now 28, was born in Taiwan and signed with Cleveland as an international free agent in 2013. On his way up the minor league ladder, he was generally considered one of that club’s top prospects. Baseball America had him on the Cleveland top 30 for seven straight years starting in 2015.

Broadly speaking, he hit well in the upper levels of the minors but was never able to do much at the major league level. His Triple-A production was usually solid, as he hit .264/.339/.436 at that level over multiple seasons. He was also a good defender around the infield. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average considered him an above-average fielder at all four spots on the dirt.

But multiple call-ups with Cleveland saw him struggle at the plate and get sent back down. He exhausted his final option year in 2021, which kicked off a nomadic period of his career. He was designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians in May of 2022 but got plenty of interest from other clubs, hoping that he could bring some of that Triple-A production up to the majors and combine it with his strong glovework. He would go to the Pirates, Rays and Red Sox on cash deals or waiver claims throughout the 2022 season, failing to stick with any of them.

Boston non-tendered him after that season and then re-signed him for 2023. He played for Chinese Taipei in that year’s World Baseball Classic, putting up a huge line of .438/.500/.938. But he suffered a hamate fracture early in the MLB season which sent him to the injured list for a few months. His offensive struggles continued when he returned and he was designated for assignment in August. Over the five big league seasons from 2019 to 2023, he hit .204/.265/.359 in his 650 major league plate appearances.

Chang signed a minor league deal with the Rays coming into 2024 but hasn’t been able to play much this year. An oblique strain suffered in late February came with a six to eight week recovery timeline. Per his MLB.com transactions tracker, he was activated off the minor league injured list on April 26 but was sent back there on May 22. He had appeared in just 14 games in the interim.

If all goes as reported, it’s possible Chang’s time in North American ball is over. If he signs a deal that covers the remainder of this season and three more, he will be 32 years old by the time that pact runs out.

White Sox Release Tim Hill

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The White Sox have released left-hander Tim Hill, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. They will remain on the hook for what’s left of his $1.8MM salary. Any other club could now sign him and would only have to pay the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay.

Hill, 34, was signed in the offseason to a one-year deal. The White Sox kicked off a rebuild in 2023 and had traded away many established players, including relievers like Joe Kelly, Reynaldo López, Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton. When the offseason began, they continued the job by sending Aaron Bummer and Gregory Santos out of town.

The hope was that Hill could serve as a solid veteran presence in a relief corps with a lot of uncertainty and perhaps turn himself into a trade candidate prior to the deadline. Unfortunately, he allowed 5.87 earned runs per nine innings over his 27 appearances for the Sox and got designated for assignment last week. Since he has over five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping all of his salary intact. Those circumstances made it fairly inevitable that he would find himself back in free agency.

Now that he’s on the open market and can be signed for cheap, teams may be willing to overlook his ERA and find encouraging signs in his other numbers. He has always been a ground ball guy, with a 60.5% rate in that department for his career. He has actually been even better than ever at keeping the ball on the dirt this year with a 65.6% grounder rate, well beyond the 42.6% league average for 2024. His 11% strikeout rate is incredibly low, but he only punched out 12.6% in 2022, a season in which he managed to have a 3.56 ERA with the Padres.

Hill may not be as exciting as a fire-breathing closer but he’s a solid veteran with 347 major league appearances and a 4.30 ERA in those. The results this year haven’t been great so far but he had a .436 batting average on balls in play while pitching for the club with arguably the worst defense in the majors. The Sox have a collective -20 Outs Above Average this year, slightly ahead of the Pirates and Marlins, while their -52 is easily the worst in baseball with the Rays second-last at -31. His 3.46 FIP and 3.90 SIERA paint a much more flattering picture than his ERA.

Since Hill can be signed for cheap and so many clubs around the league are battling pitching injuries, perhaps one of them will take a chance on him finding better results in a different environment.

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