With the trade deadline behind us, here’s a look at a handful of smaller 40-man transactions from throughout the day that weren’t previously covered:
- The Twins selected the contract of right-hander Randy Dobnak and designated Josh Staumont for assignment. Dobnak, 29, signed a five-year extension with Minnesota prior to the 2021 season following a strong start to his career where he posted a 3.12 ERA (142 ERA+) with a 3.56 FIP in 75 innings of work across 19 appearances (15 starts). Unfortunately, things haven’t gone well since he inked that deal as he struggled to a 7.64 ERA in 14 appearances in 2021 and hasn’t appeared in the majors since. He was outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster in September of 2022 but has put up a decent 3.61 ERA in 99 2/3 innings of work at Triple-A this year. Staumont, meanwhile, signed a big league deal with the club over the winter and has posted decent numbers with a 3.70 ERA and 3.53 FIP this year but has struggled badly in recent weeks with 11 runs (10 earned) surrendered in his last 5 1/3 innings of work.
- The Athletics selected the contract of right-hander Gerardo Reyes. The 31-year-old made his big league debut with the Padres back in 2019 but struggled to a 7.62 ERA in 26 innings of work. More recently, he’s pitched for the Angels in each of the past two seasons with a 6.94 ERA in ten appearances. Despite those lackluster numbers, he’s struck out a solid 27% of batters faced during his big league career and has a solid 3.82 ERA in 33 innings of work at the Triple-A level this year. He’ll step into the Oakland bullpen after the club dealt Lucas Erceg to Kansas City earlier today.
- The Blue Jays selected the contract of infielder Luis De Los Santos today in order to replace Isiah Kiner-Falefa on the active roster following his trade to Pittsburgh. The 26-year-old initially signed with the club out of the Dominican Republic back in 2015. He’s bounced between the Double- and Triple-A levels in recent years with a career .217/.342/.375 slash line at the highest level of the minors, although this year he’s managed to flash a bit more offense with a solid .243/.393/.400 line and 16.7% walk rate in 28 games. The youngster has experience at all four infield spots and figures to step into the club’s bench mix.
- The Red Sox designated right-hander Trey Wingenter for assignment today. Wingenter was acquired by Boston earlier this month in a trade with the Tigers after he triggered an assignment clause in his contract, prompting the club to add him to their 40-man roster. Wingenter made just two appearances for the Red Sox and struggled badly in each of them, allowing a combined seven runs on five hits and two walks while striking out three in 2 1/3 innings of work. Prior to that rough tenure in Boston, Wingenter had a career 5.28 ERA and 3.82 FIP in 90 games with the Padres and Tigers. His career 31.9% strikeout rate stands out from his otherwise lackluster results and could garner him some interest from bullpen-needy clubs on the waiver wire.
- The White Sox selected the contract of left-hander Fraser Ellard today. Ellard, 26, was an 8th-round pick by the club back in 2021 and climbed the minor league ladder to reach the Triple-A level this year. In 40 2/3 innings of work this season, Ellard owns a 3.76 ERA with an eye-popping 33.5% strikeout rate against an elevated 11.6% walk rate. That big-time strikeout stuff should get Ellard plenty of opportunities in a Chicago bullpen that has been brutally bad this year with a collective 4.79 ERA, including a league-worst 6.22 ERA in the month of July. He’ll step into the lefty spot in the bullpen vacated by Tanner Banks earlier today, joining fellow southpaws Jared Shuster and Sammy Peralta.
LarryBiitnersGhost
What Grifol did tonight to Fraser Ellard should be a felony. Cannon pitched a brilliant 7 innings of 1-hit ball vs KC and was still dominating in the 7th. Grifol doesn’t send him back out in the 8th leading 2-1 (he was at 94 pitches on a muggy night…no real beef with that call) instead he hands the ball to a 26yo making his MLB debut after being called up earlier in the day. I know the Sox bullpen sucks, but my Hamburger in Christ why would you put a guy making his major league debut in such a high leverage situation? Of course he was wild and over throwing and then got hit hard. Grifol pulled him after a third of an inning after giving up the lead, and the guy walked off the field with his head down, defeated. Welcome to the Show kid! I get it was a clean inning opportunity, but maybe let him find his goddamn locker before feeding him to the wolves.
JoeBrady
A lot of managers like to throw prospects in as soon as possible, just so they are waiting around. But you also need to be flexible and play it as it comes. Ideally you bring the kid in in the 5th of a 5-2 game, and no one even notices.
But to put him in such a big spotlight in his first game is not something I agree with.
Oldguy58
The White Sox organization is clueless from ownership all the way down to the manager. How could Grifol do that with good conscience throwing the kid into a situation like that. I’m sure it’s hard to stay locked in mentally in their situation but they have totally checked out. They are an embarrassment to baseball
Fever Pitch Guy
Old – It must be a “Sox” thing, because Cora did the exact same thing against the Mariners a few months ago.
Bottom of the 10th, tie game, 2 on, and Slaten is brought in to make his MLB debut with JRod at the plate. You can guess how that ended.
baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA202403300.shtm…
nrd1138
Two words sum up this org under Reinsdorf’s ownership: No accountability.
Its what makes apathetic and pathetic players on this roster. If the coaches and manager are not held to a standard, why should the players not just show up and collect their checks and phone it in?
What was done to Ellard was stupid, and shows how clueless Grifol is. Ever since he admitted last season that through 3/4 of it he did not know the clubhouse was leaderless, and that only came out after the dirty laundry aired out by former players about the clown show in Chicago, he has shown time and time again how inept he is.
Ill give Getz a bit of a break for now, as Im guessing that even if he wanted to rid himself of Grifol ‘the (cheapskate) Chairman’ would not want to have to pay him for not being manager, ergo he stays, and sets a HORRIBLE example for any youngster coming up for this org. .
CTS4
Why is atkins still the GM in Toronto ?? And, Why is shapiro still here ??
79 year old Espino starting today ….
Enough is enough of the 2 Cleveland Clowns !!
BadCo
As far as the RedSox are concerned, dumpster diving for talent seems to be getting worse by the day. You pick up the throw aways and like they do everywhere else, blow up. I hope Breslow is paying attention and it’s really surprising with himself being a reliever, that he wastes time on these bozos.
JoeBrady
Meh. The four guys they got were decidedly not ‘throw-aways’.
KyleT
Every team does this, the waiver wire is full of teams making claims of fringe players. Sometimes, you find decent players like Cooper Criswell or just stopgap players like Dom Smith. I dont know why people in Boston live in a vacuum in regards to what everyones doing in the league.
avenger65
Some teams can take a reclamation project and turn them into viable major leaguers. Tampa Bay is one. The Dodgers surprisingly signed Biggio and he’s already become a decent hitter. LA’s hitting coach also rescued JD Martinez’ career.
realsox
Who is the Dodgers’ hitting coach?
wvsteve
Congratulations Randy D
MonkeySpanker
Fear the ‘Stache!
User 4245925809
Wingenter had an assignment clause all right. A designated for in front of it and showed -0- in the 3 games remember him pitching for Boston, getting hammered in them all with his replacement last night (yohan Ramirez) being more of the same, dfa discard type.
Why not just call on a wild type like Luis Guerero, who can be wild, throws upper 90’s also, yet is half dozen yrs younger than either and was developed by Boston instead of cycling threw other team’s discards? not doing that was how they lost Ryan Fernandez last year to the cardinals via Rule5 and both are very much alike.
CTS4
Yesterday atkins addressed the fan base. He stated the team has played unaceptable baseball. The job I have done is unaceptable , and I must do better…!! Then He actually apologized…
All he and shapiro did was same thing they did in Cleveland and try to sell it all wrapped up to the fan base….
WE also heard that same BS from shapiro at the end of last season ” Ross can do Better !!
Ross, You haven’t done better!!! Your time is up and shapiro’s too !!
MLBTR needs to hire editors
“Meanwhile” has to START the sentence; it can’t come in the middle between commas.