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Guardians To Acquire Alex Cobb

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The Guardians and Giants are in the process of finalizing a trade that will send veteran right-hander Alex Cobb from San Francisco to Cleveland, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports that there’s an agreement in place, with Cleveland sending minor league lefty Jacob Bresnahan and a player to be named later to San Francisco in the swap.

Cobb has yet to pitch this season after opening the year on the injured list while rehabbing from offseason hip surgery. He was expected back sooner in 2024, but multiple setbacks — including a shoulder issue and blister troubles — slowed his recovery. He’s on the cusp of being reinstated from the injured list at this point, however, and could pitch within the next week. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the Guardians’ plan for Cobb is to make one final rehab start before his reinstatement. He last pitched on the 26th and should be on turn to throw again tomorrow.

The 36-year-old righty is in the final season of what was originally a two-year, $20MM deal but became a three-year, $28MM contract after the Giants chose to exercise a $10MM club option rather than pay a $2MM buyout. He’s still owed $3.333MM of this year’s salary between now and season’s end.

Though Cobb has yet to pitch in 2024, he’s been a rock-solid rotation arm for the Angels and Giants over the past three seasons, pitching to a combined 3.79 ERA with a 22.8% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate in 394 1/3 innings. He’s started 74 games in that time, averaging about 5 1/3 frames per outing.

The Guardians, who’ve lost Shane Bieber for the season and had to option Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen due to notable struggles, have been relying on a patchwork staff including veteran Carlos Carrasco and journeyman Ben Lively. Lively has exceeded expectations, but Carrasco has struggled to a 5.68 ERA in 95 innings (19 starts). The Guards recently called on rookie southpaw Joey Cantillo for his MLB debut as well. The only steady presences in the rotation at the moment are righties Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams (who opened the season with a monthslong IL stint) and Lively.

In return for Cobb, the Giants will add Cleveland’s 13th-round pick from the 2023 draft (Bresnahan) and a PTBNL. The 19-year-old Bresnahan was an over-slot add for Cleveland in the 13th, signing for a $375K bonus ($225K of which counted against the Guardians’ pool). That’s the equivalent of a signing bonus near the tail end of the fifth round in the draft.

Baseball America ranked Bresnahan as the No. 491 prospect in last year’s draft. He’s not considered to be among the Guardians’ top prospects but has had a nice start in the low minors after getting hit hard in last summer’s pro debut. He’s pitched 50 innings between Cleveland’s Rookie-level ACL and Class-A affiliates, logging a 2.70 ERA with a 32.5% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate. BA’s scouting report on Bresnahan from the draft notes an upper-80s/low-90s heater (which could add velocity as he continues to mature) and a changeup that has the potential to be an above-average pitch.

With Cobb now out of the fold in San Francisco, the Giants will likely go with young Hayden Birdsong to follow Logan Webb, Blake Snell, Robbie Ray and Kyle Harrison. The Giants surely wanted to get Birdsong a look after he’s impressed in six big league starts (2.97 ERA, 30 1/3 innings, 30.2 K%, 11.9 BB%) and shown well in the upper minors as well. With Cobb out of the mix, that’s now easier to accomplish.

That said, the Giants could easily have gone to a six-man rotation. They’ve been anything but adherent to the conventional five-man rotation under the watch of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, after all. The Cobb trade was very likely as much about the modest return and an opportunity for Birdsong as it was shedding the remainder of Cobb’s contract once a taker presented itself. The Giants shed the remainder of Jorge Soler’s contract in last night’s deal with the Braves, and adding Cobb to the pile trims more than $30MM off the books in total — all while dropping the Giants down a tier in terms of luxury-tax penalization.

The Giants will be hard-pressed to actually duck beneath the $237MM threshold, barring a trade of a major contract like Snell or Ray, but the Cobb trade alone will spare them a bit shy of $4MM when factoring in his remaining salary and their 20% tax on his contract’s AAV.

Yankees Acquire Mark Leiter Jr.

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The Yankees announced that they have acquired right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. from the Cubs. In return, the Cubs will receive infielder Ben Cowles and right-hander Jack Neely. The Yankees had two open 40-man spots and jump to 39, while the Cubs drop down to 38.

Leiter, now 33, has been great for the Cubs over the past few years after a late-bloomer trajectory. The son of Mark Leiter and nephew of Al Leiter, the younger Mark made it to the big leagues by 2017 but didn’t impress in his first tastes of the show. By the end of 2018, he had a 5.53 earned run average in 114 big league innings. He then required Tommy John surgery early in 2019 and was on the shelf for an extended period of time. He signed a minor league deal with the Tigers in 2021 but didn’t get a call to the show.

A minor league deal with the Cubs going into 2022 turned into the opportunity he needed. He was selected to the big league roster by mid-April that year and eventually tossed 65 2/3 innings for the Cubs with a 3.99 ERA. He struck out 25.9% of batters faced while giving out walks at an 8.9% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a 48.9% rate.

Despite that generally strong work, he was nudged off the club’s roster in January of 2023. He had exhausted his final option year and so the Cubs designated him for assignment, with all 29 clubs passing on the chance to grab him off waivers. He elected free agency but re-signed with the Cubs on a minor league deal prior to the next season.

He was added back to the roster for Opening Day and has been a key part of the Chicago bullpen since then. Going back to the start of 2023, he has a 3.75 ERA in 100 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate is up to 30.9% in that time while he still has decent walk and ground ball rates of 8.8% and 47.1% respectively.

This year’s 4.21 ERA doesn’t look pretty but that’s mostly due to a tiny strand rate of 55%, well below the 71.9% league average. Since he’s striking out 34.9% of batters faced and also getting grounders at a 50.6% clip, his 2.11 FIP and 2.42 SIERA suggest he’s been about two runs better than his ERA would have you believe.

The Cubs have been balancing present and future needs at this deadline. Just over a week ago, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said that the club would be prioritizing “2025 and beyond” in their transactions. That didn’t necessarily point to a deadline selloff, as the club then went out and acquired Isaac Paredes from the Rays and Nate Pearson from the Blue Jays, with both of those players having multiple years of control.

But there were also some rumors that they might make some pitching available and there’s a logic to Leiter being moved out. Due to his unusual trajectory, Leiter still has a couple of years of club control remaining after this one. But given his age, the Cubs probably didn’t consider him a core piece of their future-focused agenda and made him available.

Those circumstances are likely also why the win-now Yankees wanted to get him. He only just qualified for arbitration for the first time coming into this season and is making $1.5MM, not much above this year’s $740K league minimum. The Yankees are slated to pay the competitive balance tax for a third straight year and finish well above the top tier. That means they face a 110% tax rate for any new spending, so Leiter’s minimal salary fits in nicely for them, and they can keep him around for two more years beyond this one.

While Leiter is cheap in terms of dollars, the Yankees have paid the price of two prospects to get him. Neely, 24, was an 11th-round pick in the 2021 draft. He’s been exclusively a reliever in his professional career, racking up significant strikeout totals. In 160 1/3 minor league innings overall, he has a 2.75 ERA, 38.8% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate. That includes 41 2/3 innings this year between Double-A and Triple-A with a 2.81 ERA, 36% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. Baseball America currently lists him as the #20 prospect in the Yankees’ system.

Cowles, 24, was a 10th-round pick in 2021 and has played in 88 Double-A games this year. His .294/.376/.472 batting line leads to a strong 141 wRC+, indicating he’s been 41% better than league average. His .340 batting average on balls in play is high but he’s also got strong walk and strikeout rates of 10.3% and 17.7%, respectively. He also has 14 steals and has lined up at the three infield spots to the left of first base.

Both Neely and Cowles are Rule 5 eligible this winter, so the Yankees would have been facing a decision about whether or not to add them to their 40-man roster. Instead, they have cashed them in for an immediate bullpen upgrade, meaning those decisions will now transfer to Chicago.

Rob Zamparelli first reported on X that Leiter was headed to the Yankees. Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN relayed the full trade on X.

Orioles To Acquire Trevor Rogers

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The Orioles are acquiring southpaw starting pitcher Trevor Rogers from the Marlins, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.  The Marlins will receive second baseman/outfielder Connor Norby in the deal, reports Robert Murray of FanSided.  Miami also gets outfielder Kyle Stowers, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.

Rogers marks the Orioles’ second recent rotation addition, after they acquired Zach Eflin from the Rays four days ago.  Rogers, 27 in November, owns a 4.53 ERA, 18.0 K%, 9.7 BB%, and 46.9% groundball rate in 105 1/3 innings this year.  Rogers has a 3.17 ERA over his last nine starts, but with no apparent improvement in his skills.

Rogers was at his best three years ago, when he made the All-Star team and finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting by posting a 2.64 ERA in 133 innings.  He averaged 94.6 miles per hour on his fastball that year, and looked like one of the game’s best young starters.  The lefty had a strong pedigree, as well, having been drafted 13th overall out of high school in 2017.

Things took a turn in 2022, as Rogers’ strikeout rate plummeted and he missed a month with lower back spasms.  That season also ended a bit early due to a lat strain.  2023 was worse, as Rogers’ season ended in April after four starts due to a left biceps strain and a partial tear in his right lat.

Rogers then entered the arbitration system, and is earning $1.53MM this year.  He remains under team control through 2026.  Rogers has avoided the IL thus far this year, but it’ll be up to Orioles pitching coach Drew French and the rest of the staff to attempt to help him regain his 2021 form.  Rogers’ average fastball velocity is down to 92.2 miles per hour this year, a notable 2.4 mile per hour drop from his one stellar season.

Having lost Kyle Bradish, John Means, and Tyler Wells to Tommy John surgery, the first-place Orioles have a rotation of Corbin Burnes, Grayson Rodriguez, Eflin, Dean Kremer, and Rogers.  Burnes and Means are eligible for free agency after the season, leaving Rodriguez, Kremer, and new additions Eflin and Rogers for 2025.

The Orioles had been connected to Garrett Crochet and Blake Snell, and could theoretically add one of them in the next three-plus hours, but are likely done with their rotation at this point.  Aside from Eflin and Rogers, Orioles executive vice president and GM Mike Elias also bolstered his bullpen by acquiring Seranthony Dominguez last week.

Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix did quite well in adding a pair of Major League-ready position players for two-plus years of Rogers.

Norby, 24, ranked 93rd on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects heading into the 2023 season.  Prior to this season, BA gave Norby a 50 grade, calling him a “bat-first second baseman” who can also handle left field.  The former 2021 second-rounder has spent most of the season repeating Triple-A, and has shown quite well with a 134 wRC+ in 80 games.  He’s gotten a few brief looks with the Orioles due to Jorge Mateo’s injuries, but has only played in nine big league games so far.  Norby is under the Marlins’ control through 2030 and will likely receive regular playing time at second base for the rest of the season.

Stowers, 26, was drafted by the Orioles in the second round out of Stanford in 2019.  Known for his big raw power from the left side, Stowers has been unable to secure regular playing time on the stacked Orioles since his 2022 debut.  Stowers, who is best-suited for right field, will get that chance with the Marlins.  Like Norby, Stowers has spent most of the season at Triple-A, posting a decent 115 wRC+.

If the Marlins did indeed come up with a pair of controllable regulars for a back-end starter in Rogers, it’ll be quite the win as Bendix makes his mark on the team.

At the time of this writing, Bendix still has three-plus hours remaining to further remake the Marlins, likely by dismantling his bullpen and possibly trading outfielder Bryan De La Cruz.  The team’s 2024 rotation is particularly bare with the departure of Rogers, leaving Edward Cabrera, Max Meyer, and Kyle Tyler.  Jesus Luzardo is working his way back from a lumbar stress reaction, Ryan Weathers is recovering from an index finger strain, and Braxton Garrett is on the IL for a forearm strain.  Next year, the team will get Sandy Alcantara and eventually Eury Perez back from Tommy John surgery.

Cards, Nats Have Discussed Dylan Carlson, Dylan Floro

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1:11pm: The Cards and Nats have indeed had ongoing talks on a swap of the two Dylans and could complete a deal this afternoon, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It’s not yet clear if other players are involved.

11:17am: The Cardinals crossed a pair of big items off their wishlist yesterday when they acquired right-hander Erick Fedde and outfielder Tommy Pham from the White Sox, but they’re still hoping to add to the bullpen, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The Cardinals are openly shopping outfielder Dylan Carlson in a related pursuit, and MLB.com’s John Denton tweets that Nationals right-hander Dylan Floro is a name to watch if St. Louis indeed moves on from Carlson. The Nats are known to have some interest in Carlson.

A few years ago, the notion of trading Carlson for a middle-relief rental would’ve been unfathomable (though it’s of course possible that a theoretical Dylan-for-Dylan swap would also include additional minor league players to balance out the scales). Carlson isn’t all that far removed from ranking among the game’s top 10 to 20 overall prospects. The former first-rounder’s bat has wilted since a solid 2021 showing.

Dating back to 2022, Carlson has batted just .225/.310/.345 in 881 big league plate appearances. That’s come in scattered playing time — in part due to injuries — so the Nats could well view him as a buy-low option with two-plus seasons of club control remaining who could benefit from a change of scenery. (The last controllable outfielder they pried from the Cardinals in exchange for a rental pitcher — Lane Thomas for Jon Lester — worked out nicely, after all.)

Floro, 33, is on a one-year, $2.25MM contract and will be a free agent at season’s end. He’s pitched to a pristine 2.06 earned run average this season, albeit with a rather pedestrian 19.6% strikeout rate and tepid 90.3 mph average fastball. That said, Floro has walked only 6.4% of his opponents and kept the ball on the ground at a strong 47.6% clip. He’s not going to continue to see this level of fortune on his fly-balls — only 2.2% of them have become homers, compared to the 7% mark he carried into the season — but it’s been a nice rebound effort for a veteran reliever who struggled to keep his ERA under 5.00 last year between the Marlins and Twins.

Since cementing himself as a viable big league reliever in 2018, Floro touts a 3.11 ERA in 361 1/3 innings. He’s had a below-average strikeout rate nearly every season along the way, but never egregiously so, and has offset that with habitually strong command. Floro also regularly avoids loud contact, evidenced by a career 87.4 mph average exit velocity, 3.7% barrel rate and 38.4% hard-hit rate.

Floro is surely just one of many bullpen arms the Cardinals have looked into in the final hours leading to today’s 5pm CT trade deadline. Concurrently, they’re looking for trade partners for Carlson and the already-designated-for-assignment Giovanny Gallegos. The Cards may not have another blockbuster along the lines of yesterday’s three-team swap in them, but they could still have multiple trades in store today.

Red Sox Acquire Lucas Sims

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The Red Sox announced the acquisition of reliever Lucas Sims from the Reds. Pitching prospect Ovis Portes is going back to Cincinnati. Boston designated left-hander Brandon Walter for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.

Sims spent parts of seven seasons in Cincinnati. A former first-round pick by the Braves, the Georgia native struggled in Atlanta before going to the Reds at the 2018 deadline in the Adam Duvall trade. Cincinnati quickly moved Sims to the bullpen, where he’s been a bit volatile but flashed high-leverage upside.

After a strong showing during the abbreviated 2020 schedule, Sims showed huge swing-and-miss potential in ’21. He lost most of the next season to injuries that culminated in season-ending back surgery. Sims rebounded to turn in 61 innings of 3.10 ERA ball a year ago. He carries a 3.57 mark through 35 1/3 frames this season.

Sims has fanned an above-average 26% of batters faced. His 11.3% swinging strike percentage is solid but down a few points from last year’s excellent 14.3% clip. The 30-year-old righty has been a bit homer-prone this year — strangely much more so on the road than at Cincinnati’s hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park — and has always had wobbly control. He’s walking 13% of batters faced this season after handing out free passes at a 15.1% clip a year ago.

That command leads to some inconsistency, but he’s posted generally strong results while working in the middle to late innings for skipper David Bell. Sims owns a 3.27 mark with a 27.2% strikeout rate against a 14.3% walk percentage in 110 appearances over the last two years. Opponents have hit .190/.325/.343 over that stretch. Sims has a bit of closing experience but won’t be needed in the ninth inning in Boston. He adds a right-handed setup option in front of Kenley Jansen while Chris Martin and Rule 5 pickup Justin Slaten are on the injured list.

Sims is playing on a $2.85MM salary in his final season of arbitration. He’ll hit free agency for the first time next winter. Boston is taking on roughly $935K for the stretch run. RosterResource calculates Boston’s CBT number around $222MM, giving chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his group ample flexibility for more moves this afternoon while staying under the $237MM tax line.

Cincinnati is five games out in the Wild Card race. They’re seemingly positioned as soft deadline sellers and have moved impending free agents Frankie Montas and Sims in the past 24 hours (albeit for upper level talent in Montas’ case). The Reds have a strong relief group overall and could feel they’re not taking too much of a hit to their slim playoff chances by parting with Sims and giving a few more meaningful innings to someone like Tony Santillan.

The Reds grab a developmental low minors pitching prospect in the process. Portes, 19, is a 6’4″ righty who signed with the Sox out of Antigua and Barbuda in 2022. He has turned to be a nice find for Boston’s international scouting department. Baseball America ranked him as the #29 prospect in the Boston system, writing that he sits in the mid-90s and can run his fastball up to 99 MPH. He needs to continue developing his secondary stuff and control but there’s intriguing velocity and physical upside. Portes has reached Low-A this season, where he has a 3.43 ERA over 21 innings. He’s striking out more than a quarter of opponents but struggling to throw strikes.

Walter has been on the minor league injured list all season. Injured players cannot go on outright waivers, so the Sox are likely to release him this week. The 27-year-old southpaw made his big league debut last season and tossed 23 innings of 6.26 ERA ball over nine long relief outings.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Red Sox were acquiring Sims. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo suggested Portes might be in the return, which Joel Sherman of the New York Post confirmed.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Pirates Acquire Josh Walker From Mets

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The Pirates announced the acquisition of left-hander Josh Walker from the Mets for rookie ball pitcher Nicolas Carreno. The Mets designated the lefty for assignment last week. The Bucs had an open 40-man spot and didn’t need to make a corresponding move.

Walker, 29, spent just over a year on the Mets’ 40-man roster. He was selected in May of 2023 and spent most of the time until his DFA on optional assignment. To this point, he has 22 1/3 major league innings on his ledger, having allowed 6.45 earned runs per nine. He has a 22.3% strikeout rate, 11.7% walk rate and 36.8% ground ball rate so far.

As if often the case, the minor league work has been more impressive. Between last year and this year, he has a 2.33 ERA in 58 innings at the Triple-A level. His 13.8% walk rate there is certainly high but he’s also punched out 32.1% of batters faced.

The lefty can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one additional season, so the Bucs are bolstering their left-handed relief depth. They currently have Aroldis Chapman and Jalen Beeks as their southpaws in the big league bullpen but both are impending free agents. As is Ryan Borucki, who is on the injured list. Walker has less than a year of service time and could be a long-term piece if he hangs onto his roster spot.

The 18-year-old Carreno has started eight games in the Dominican Summer League this season. He’s a 5’10” left-hander out of Venezuela.

Robert Murray of FanSided reported the trade terms before the announcement.

Padres Have Discussed Multiple Marlins Relievers

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The Padres paid a hefty prospect price to add Jason Adam to their late-innings mix over the weekend. San Diego is open to bringing in more relief help. Dennis Lin of the Athletic reports that the Padres have discussed Miami right-handers Anthony Bender and Huascar Brazoban among that search. Lin’s colleague Ken Rosenthal wrote this morning that the Fish are fielding offers on essentially all their relievers. Closer Tanner Scott is the most obvious name, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Miami part with anyone from their bullpen.

Bender and Brazoban would be affordable targets for a San Diego team that doesn’t want to surpass the luxury tax threshold. Brazoban is still two years away from reaching arbitration. Bender qualified for early arbitration last winter as a Super Two player. After missing the 2023 season to Tommy John surgery, though, he’s barely making more than the league minimum in his first trip through that process.

The asking price would probably be higher on the 29-year-old Bender, who has a 3.83 ERA over 40 innings of work. He’s striking out 24.4% of batters faced against a 7% walk rate while getting grounders at a 49.1% clip. Brazoban has been even more effective, turning in a 2.93 earned run average with a 27.2% strikeout rate across 30 2/3 frames. He’ll turn 35 in October, though, so a rebuilding Miami team shouldn’t have many qualms about giving him up for young talent.

MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell tweets that the Padres are hoping to come out of deadline season with another acquisition for both the rotation and the relief group. Lin writes that San Diego is among the teams that have shown interest in Miami starter Trevor Rogers. Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald tweeted this afternoon that Miami’s talks on Rogers with multiple teams were picking up and the Marlins were likely to trade him somewhere soon. That at least opens the speculative possibility of some kind of package deal involving one of Miami’s relievers, though there’s not any indication that San Diego’s talks with Miami have gotten that far-reaching.

Derek Shelton Expects Pirates To Keep Aroldis Chapman

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Pirates manager Derek Shelton made his weekly radio appearance on 93.7 FM the Fan in Pittsburgh this morning. The Bucs skipper said he “expects” the team will hang onto Aroldis Chapman beyond this evening’s trade deadline (relayed on X by The Fan’s Andrew Fillipponi).

Chapman is playing on a $10.5MM contract. Shelton has called upon him 45 times, usually in high-leverage spots. The hard-throwing lefty carries a 3.63 ERA over 39 2/3 innings. He’s running his typical blend of huge strikeout totals (35.2%) and massive walk rates (19.3%). Chapman isn’t sitting above 100 MPH the way he did at his peak, but his 97.6 MPH average fastball velocity still makes him one of the hardest throwing southpaws in the sport.

The Bucs go into deadline day with a 54-52 record that has them within two games of the National League’s last Wild Card spot. They’re more likely to add MLB talent than subtract, but there’s also been some talk that Pittsburgh could contemplate dealing from its big league pitching staff to acquire offensive help. They made a variation of that move with yesterday’s swap of Quinn Priester for second base prospect Nick Yorke, even if Yorke won’t immediately step onto the MLB roster.

Pittsburgh has looked to bolster their lefty relief depth behind Chapman. They acquired Jalen Beeks from the Rockies last night and are bringing in Josh Walker in a DFA trade with the Mets. Walker still has options and can be stashed at Triple-A Indianapolis.

Yankees Interested In Luis Rengifo, Kyle Finnegan, Lucas Erceg

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11:53am: Jorge Castillo of ESPN reports that the Yanks are more focused on pitching and acquiring Díaz is unlikely, which could perhaps apply to Rengifo as well.

11:49am: The trade deadline is just a few hours away now but teams are still scouring the market for upgrades. Per Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X, the Yankees have infielders Yandy Díaz and Luis Rengifo on their radar, as well as relievers Tanner Scott, Pete Fairbanks, Kyle Finnegan and Lucas Erceg. He adds that they could also look to add a starting pitching but might not meet the asking prices.

Some of those guys have already been connected to the Yankees in rumors. The connections with Rengifo, Finnegan and Erceg are new but also in line with their previously-reported pursuits. Even after adding Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the roster, they have seemingly still been looking for more infield help, which Rengifo could certainly help with.

The 27-year-old is in his third straight above-average offensive season. Since the start of the 2022 campaign, he’s hit .272/.323/.433 for a wRC+ of 110. He’s also stolen 35 bases in that time while bouncing to all three outfield spots and three infield positions to the left of first base. He’s not considered a strong defender at any one position but the ability to move all around is certainly attractive.

The Yanks are still trying to figure out their best alignment at the moment. Chisholm’s first game as a Yankee was in center field, where he has been spending most of his time in recent years. But then the Yanks moved him to third base last night, a position he had never played before. Now that Giancarlo Stanton is back and in the designated hitter slot, Aaron Judge moved to center field, flanked by Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo. Acquiring another infielder could result in Chisholm moving to second and bumping out Gleyber Torres, or perhaps Verdugo will get nudged out of the outfield mix.

Rengifo is making a modest $4.4MM this year, with roughly $1.5MM left to be paid out. That’s likely attractive to the Yankees as they are slated to be a third-time payor of the competitive balance tax and well above the top tier, meaning they will pay a 110% tax on anything they add to the ledger. He can also be retained via arbitration for 2025 and could perhaps slide into next year’s second base job with Torres slated for free agency after the current season. Verdugo is also an impending free agent, so perhaps Chisholm could be in the outfield with Rengifo on the infield. There’s also the looming Soto free agency to consider, though the Yanks are expected to be aggressive in trying to re-sign him. Rengifo has also been connected to clubs such as the Red Sox, Dodgers and Royals in recent weeks.

The extra year of control means that the Angels don’t have to move on from Rengifo but there would be logic in doing so as they haven’t been meaningfully competitive for quite some time. Now that Shohei Ohtani is gone and Mike Trout is having annual trouble staying on the field, the odds of them turning things around between now and the end of 2025 seem long.

Bullpen adds are generally on the radar of all contending teams and the Yanks are surely exploring all options there. Finnegan has been the Nationals’ closer for quite some time but is nearing the end of his window of club control, with one year remaining after this one. The Nats have already traded Hunter Harvey and Lane Thomas, two players that were also controllable through 2025, and Finnegan seems likely to move today as well.

He has a career 3.52 earned run average in 272 appearances. He has struck out 23.9% of batters faced, given out walks at a 9.4% rate and kept the ball on the ground at a 46.8% clip. That includes racking up 28 saves this year with a 3.48 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 40.5% ground ball rate. He’s making $5.1MM this year.

Erceg can still be retained by the Athletics for five seasons beyond this one, but he’s a late bloomer who is now 29 years old despite his limited experience, which could tempt them to sell high. He has a 3.68 ERA this year, 26.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 50.5% ground ball rate. The fact that he’s pre-arbitration and therefore making a modest salary is surely appealing to the Yankees but the cost might be high. Even rental relievers are netting big returns at this year’s deadline so getting Erceg might take an uncomfortable haul.

Marlins “Closing In” On Trevor Rogers Trade; Multiple Teams Still Involved In Bidding

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11:42am: The Marlins are “closing in” on a trade of Rogers, Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reports. At this point, there are still multiple teams bidding for his services, but it seems the Fish are close to selecting an offer and then turning their focus to the wide array of relievers they could move today.

10:10am: The market for Marlins left-hander Trevor Rogers has picked up some steam this morning, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports. He’s among a slew of Marlins who could potentially be moved before this evening’s trade deadline. SNY’s Andy Martino adds that the Mets are one team that’s been talking to Miami about a deal for the 26-year-old Rogers.

Rogers, the 2021 National League Rookie of the Year runner-up, has had a healthy 2024 season after missing the majority of the 2023 campaign with a biceps strain and considerable time in 2022 due to both back spasms and a lat strain. He hasn’t been the same pitcher after navigating those health troubles, pitching to a 4.53 earned run average with diminished velocity (92.2 mph average fastball), strikeout (18%) and walk (9.7%) rates in 105 1/3 innings this season.

That said, Rogers was legitimately excellent as a rookie. The former No. 13 overall pick (2017) burst onto the scene with 133 innings of 2.66 ERA ball, a 28.5% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate. His fastball was averaging a much more encouraging 94.6 mph at the time, but Rogers has some track record, some pedigree as a former top pick and, perhaps most importantly, plenty of affordable club control remaining.

The silver lining to those injuries (for the Marlins anyway) is that they limited Rogers’ time on the field and thus weighed down his price tag in arbitration. He’s earning just $1.525MM this season and is under club control for an additional two years. If a club feels they can coax another level out of Rogers — even if it’s not all the way back to his 2021 form — he’s a highly appealing option. Even if another club is simply looking at him as a controllable and affordable back-of-the-rotation arm with a full slate of three option years remaining, however, there’s some value in that as well.

The Mets are a fit for just such a depth option in the rotation. Veterans Luis Severino, Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea lead a staff that also includes homegrown arms Tylor Megill and David Peterson. It’s not long ago that there was some thought to the Mets actually trading away a veteran arm like Quintana even as they looked to remain in contention, but the outlook has changed dramatically in Queens with likely season-ending injuries to both Kodai Senga (high-grade calf strain) and top prospect Christian Scott (UCL sprain).

Rogers isn’t necessarily a concrete upgrade over Megill and Peterson at the back of Carlos Mendoza’s staff, although it’s always fair to wonder how a change of scenery might impact a talented but struggling arm like Rogers. But even if Rogers is indeed viewed as a pure depth play for the Mets, there’s good reason to land that type of arm. With Scott and Senga now on the shelf and with veteran Adrian Houser’s recent DFA, the Mets don’t have any other rotation options on the 40-man roster. Southpaw Joey Lucchesi and righty Max Kranick are depth candidates in Triple-A after they both cleared waivers earlier this season, but that’s not sufficient for a team targeting a postseason berth.

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