Pirates Outright Enmanuel Valdez
The Pirates sent utility infielder Enmanuel Valdez outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, per the MLB.com transaction log. He evidently cleared waivers after being designated for assignment when the Bucs called up Konnor Griffin last week.
Pittsburgh acquired Valdez from Boston over the 2024-25 offseason in a DFA trade that sent minor league pitcher Joe Vogatsky to the Sox. He spent a month as Pittsburgh’s primary first baseman while Spencer Horwitz was working back from wrist surgery. Valdez hit .209/.294/.363 across 31 games before sustaining a season-ending dislocation of his left shoulder, which required surgery.
Valdez is healthy but no longer had much of a path to playing time on the Pittsburgh infield. Horwitz has established himself as the primary first baseman. They acquired Brandon Lowe to play second and have Griffin up at shortstop. Third base is still a question mark, especially with Jared Triolo shelved by a knee injury, but Valdez had dropped below Nick Yorke and Nick Gonzales on the infield depth chart.
The 27-year-old Valdez owns a .230/.288/.392 batting line in a little less than 500 MLB plate appearances. He didn’t hit during Spring Training and is out to an 0-10 start with five punchouts through four Triple-A games. He doesn’t have the service time or previous career outright to elect free agency. Valdez will remain at Indianapolis, where he’d begun the season on optional assignment, and try to shake off the rust offensively. He’d qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if the Bucs don’t add him back to the 40-man roster.
Diamondbacks Re-Sign Joe Ross To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks re-signed righty Joe Ross to a minor league contract. He has been assigned to Triple-A Reno, where he’s back in action.
Ross had a brief stay on the open market after electing free agency earlier in the week. Arizona had designated him for assignment. It’s common for veterans in his position to decline an outright assignment but re-sign on a new minor league deal. Those can come with a higher minor league salary or opt-out/upward mobility opportunities that might not have been present had they accepted the outright.
The 32-year-old Ross broke camp in a long relief role after signing a minor league contract in February. He worked a perfect inning in his season debut but was knocked around over the next two appearances. Ross gave up six runs without getting through an inning against the Tigers on March 30. He surrendered three walks and a Mauricio Dubón homer in a blowout loss to Atlanta two days later.
Ross has plenty of starting experience but has worked as a multi-inning reliever for the past year-plus. He posted a 5.12 ERA across 51 innings out of the Philadelphia bullpen last season. Ross worked in relief of pitching prospect Mitch Bratt tonight in his first appearance with Reno. He gave up six hits and four runs, including a two-run homer to Trey Mancini, across 2 1/3 frames.
Gabriel Arias To Miss 4-8 Weeks With Moderate Hamstring Strain
The Guardians will be without shortstop Gabriel Arias for 4-8 weeks, the team announced. The infielder suffered a moderate strain of his left hamstring while legging out a double during Monday’s loss to the Royals.
Arias started 10 of Cleveland’s first 11 games at shortstop. He connected on a couple home runs but otherwise hasn’t contributed at the plate, batting .200 with 12 strikeouts in 32 plate appearances. That’s usual for Arias, who strikes out as much as any regular in MLB. He’s in the lineup for his above-average glove.
Brayan Rocchio slides over from second base to replace Arias as the regular shortstop. Rocchio has ample shortstop experience and should be a steady if unspectacular hand there. The bigger change comes at second base, where the Guardians called up prospect Juan Brito when placing Arias on the injured list yesterday.
The switch-hitting Brito has hit well throughout his minor league career and is out to a 4-8 start with a couple doubles as a big leaguer. There’ll be a defensive downgrade in the middle infield, though, as scouts have long been cool on Brito’s glove. He committed an error on a routine grounder in this afternoon’s win over Kansas City. Skipper Stephen Vogt could lean on Daniel Schneemann as a defensive upgrade late in games. Schneemann also projects as the backup shortstop if Rocchio needs a day off.
Arias will be sidelined into May and may be down into June. There’s a chance that top second base prospect Travis Bazzana, the first overall pick in 2024, is up by that point. Bazzana is out to a relatively slow start in Triple-A, though playing in cold weather in April is probably a factor. Aside from Chase DeLauter, Cleveland hasn’t hit much in the early going. They’re nevertheless out to an 8-5 start with series wins over the Dodgers, Cubs, and Kansas City behind excellent work from the starting rotation.
Zach Eflin Undergoes UCL Surgery
The Orioles announced that Zach Eflin underwent UCL reconstruction (Tommy John) surgery today. He’ll miss the rest of the season and probably at least the first half of 2027.
Things had seemingly been trending in this direction. Eflin, who turns 32 today, left his season debut citing elbow discomfort. The team announced last week that he was going for a second opinion, implying the initial prognosis wasn’t good. The reexamination evidently confirmed the ligament damage that required surgical repair.
It’s another injury-wrecked season for Eflin, a mid-rotation caliber starter who has an unfortunately checkered health history. He battled chronic knee issues early in his career with Philadelphia. Eflin stayed mostly healthy between 2023-24 despite intermittent back discomfort, combining for a 3.54 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate over 343 innings between the Rays and Orioles.
The more significant injuries have resurfaced over the past two seasons. Eflin sustained a lat strain early in 2025. That shelved him for a month. He quickly returned to the injured list with lower back discomfort. After a brief reinstatement, he underwent season-ending lumbar surgery. Eflin made an encouraging return from that procedure and entered this season with no restrictions, but he could only complete 3 2/3 frames before his elbow gave out.
Baltimore re-signed Eflin to a one-year, $10MM free agent contract last offseason. That’ll go down as an unfortunately lost investment. Eflin, whom the O’s have already moved to the 60-day injured list, will return to the open market at season’s end. He’ll likely look for a two-year deal to cover his rehab season. That might need to be a minor league contract given his age and recent durability record.
Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz and Chris Bassitt remain Baltimore’s top four starters. They recalled lefty Cade Povich as a potential fifth starter on Sunday. He was needed in relief of Bassitt, who was shelled and only made it through two innings against the Pirates. Povich tossed 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball in relief. Brandon Young made a spot start on Monday and was optioned back to Triple-A postgame.
The O’s are off tomorrow and list Baz, Bassitt and Povich as the probable starters for their weekend series against the Giants. Rogers and Bradish, who started the final two games of this week’s series against the White Sox, would line up early next week against the Diamondbacks. It seems they’ll give Povich first look as Eflin’s replacement in the rotation. Young and Dean Kremer are on optional assignment with Triple-A Norfolk.
Free Agent Power Rankings: Players #11-15
Last week, MLBTR took our first look at the top 10 players (based on predicted earning power) in the 2026-27 free agent class. There's always a lot of volatility this early in players' walk years. That's especially true of next year's group, which has a clear headliner in Tarik Skubal but is otherwise light in high-end talent.
MLBTR's free agent rankings are an attempt at consensus between Steve Adams, Darragh McDonald, Tim Dierkes and myself. There's usually overlap within the top handful of spots, but our individual lists typically start to differ within the back half of the top 10. The second and third tiers of free agents become more muddled and personal preferences come more into play. Skubal was a consensus pick at #1, and we each had Freddy Peralta and Bo Bichette in some order at #2 and #3. It diverged from there.
For example, Steve Adams had Trevor Rogers as his #4 free agent, while I had Rogers outside my personal top 10. (The Baltimore lefty ended up at #5 in the consensus ranking.) There's not much separation between players at the back of the top 10 and the best of the honorable mentions. With that in mind, let's take a look at five players who landed just outside the top 10. Most of these players had some support from at least one MLBTR writer for making the list, and any of them could plausibly jump into future iterations based on their performance over the next few months.
Kevin Gausman, SP, Blue Jays
If we were ranking players by the projected annual value of their next contract, Gausman would probably have landed in the top five. The two-time All-Star should do very well on a per year basis. It's nevertheless difficult to see him getting to a nine-figure deal when he'll turn 36 next January. There hasn't been a four-year deal for a 36-year-old free agent pitcher in almost 20 years.
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Astros Notes: Brown, Hader, Bullpen
The Astros provided an update on injured ace Hunter Brown on Tuesday, noting that the righty has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 shoulder strain. The club said he’ll be shut down from throwing for a few weeks.
Manager Joe Espada provided a little more specificity in his pregame media session with the Houston beat (link via Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle). The skipper said Brown would be reevaluated in two weeks. Espada and GM Dana Brown stressed that there’s nothing structurally amiss and that the issue is muscular.
That’s a relief, but it’s still trending towards more than a monthlong absence. Even if Brown is able to resume throwing two weeks from now, he’ll need to recover from a few bullpen and live batting practice sessions. A multi-week shutdown is going to require one or two minor league rehab starts as well.
The Astros are sticking with their plan to move to a six-man rotation after tomorrow’s off day. They’ll play on 13 straight days beginning this weekend. The six-man staff will keep Tatsuya Imai on a weekly schedule and allow them to keep an eye on workloads for their back-end arms.
Imai joins Mike Burrows, Cristian Javier and Lance McCullers Jr. in the top four of Espada’s rotation. Cody Bolton made a spot start on Monday against the Rockies, stepping into Brown’s schedule when the latter was placed on the injured list over the weekend. Bolton could get continued run out of the rotation. Spencer Arrighetti is working out of the Triple-A rotation. Ryan Weiss, AJ Blubaugh, and Kai-Wei Teng are all pitching in relief but have starting backgrounds.
Espada provided a few more encouraging updates on rehabbing pitchers this evening (relayed by Chandler Rome of The Athletic). The most notable is that closer Josh Hader, out all season with biceps tendinitis, is expected to face hitters for the first time next week. Depth starter Nate Pearson will throw a two-inning simulated game this weekend.
Houston’s bullpen has been shaky in Hader’s absence. Fill-in closer Bryan Abreu has allowed at least one run in each of his first four appearances. Abreu has only successfully locked down one of his three save opportunities this year. That came with a three-run lead and still required him to rebound from a Roman Anthony home run. Abreu took the loss in his most recent outing, giving up a walk-off three-run homer to Brent Rooker in the tenth inning on Sunday.
Bryan King and Steven Okert give the Astros a pair of quality left-handers. Abreu has a track record as a high-end setup man. Even if he gets on track, he’s a better fit earlier in games as a leverage arm given the Astros’ lack of established righty relievers. Blubaugh has been pushed up the bullpen hierarchy early in his big league career as a result.
Marlins Release Daniel Johnson
The Marlins released outfielder Daniel Johnson, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been at Triple-A Jacksonville on a minor league deal.
Johnson had only appeared in five minor league games. He started very slowly, striking out seven times with one hit through his first 16 trips to the plate. The lefty hitter had taken 23 plate appearances during big league Spring Training. He batted .222 with one home run.
The 30-year-old Johnson has played parts of four big league seasons. He got into a career-high 31 games last year, dividing that time between the Giants and Orioles. The New Mexico State product is a .196/.243/.322 hitter across 152 MLB plate appearances. Johnson owns a .255/.321/.448 line over parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level, including this year’s brief look.
Joey Lucchesi Elects Free Agency
Left-hander Joey Lucchesi elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to an announcement from the Angels. He was designated for assignment over the weekend.
Lucchesi was pushed off the roster after Sunday’s scheduled starter, Ryan Johnson, was scratched with a viral infection. The Halos tabbed prospect George Klassen for a spot start. They needed active and 40-man roster space to bring him up, leaving Lucchesi as a tough luck roster casualty.
The 32-year-old southpaw had a very brief stint with the club. He signed a major league contract at the end of Spring Training and made three appearances. Lucchesi allowed five of six hitters to reach in his season debut. He followed up with a pair of scoreless outings but walked at least one batter in all of his appearances. He wound up issuing five free passes (four walks and a hit batter) across 2 1/3 innings.
Lucchesi spent last season with the Giants. He opened the year in Triple-A but was called up in the middle of June. He remained on the active roster for the final three and a half months, turning in a 3.76 ERA over 38 1/3 innings. Lucchesi got grounders at a 53% clip but had a modest 18.8% strikeout rate that led the Giants to drop him from the 40-man roster at season’s end. He returned on a minor league contract for Spring Training and was granted his release when the Giants picked up Ryan Borucki late in camp.
Alejandro Kirk To Undergo Thumb Surgery
April 7th: Manager John Schneider tells Keegan Matheson of MLB.com that Kirk had a screw placed in his thumb and is looking at a six-week recovery timeline.
April 6th: Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk will undergo surgery on his broken left thumb, manager John Schneider told reporters (including Rob Longley of The Toronto Sun). Schneider said the return timetable is dependent on whether doctors will need to insert a pin in Kirk’s thumb, which won’t be known until the operation is underway.
In any case, it’ll be more than a minimal 10-day injured list stint. The manager loosely floated a potential 3-4 week or 4-6 week recovery range depending on the procedure. It seems safe to rule Kirk out into May. The two-time All-Star was injured on Friday when he was struck by a foul tip.
A glove hand injury could obviously be problematic for a catcher. The Jays have used George Springer as a full-time designated hitter this year. Even if Kirk’s bat proves ahead of his glove in the recovery process, the Jays probably won’t activate him until he’s ready for regular work behind the plate.
Tyler Heineman and rookie Brandon Valenzuela are handling the catching duties until Kirk returns. Heineman did a nice job in the backup role a year ago, hitting .289/.361/.416 with strong receiving grades over 64 games. He entered tonight’s game with a 4-10 start to the season offensively, but he had a few ill-timed miscues in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s injury.
Heineman had a throwing error to allow the tying run to score with two outs in the tenth inning of an eventual loss to the White Sox on Friday. He had a baserunning gaffe and another throwing error that cost two runs in a 6-3 loss on Saturday. The Jays turned to Valenzuela for his MLB debut in the series finale, usual practice for a Sunday matinee. Heineman is back behind the plate tonight for the start of a World Series rematch against the Dodgers.
A’s Option Luis Morales
April 7th: The A’s officially announced today that they have selected Kuhnel and optioned Morales, while Hoglund was transferred to the 60-day IL. That means Hoglund won’t be eligible for reinstatement until late May.
April 6th: The Athletics optioned rookie righty Luis Morales to Triple-A Las Vegas this evening, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The A’s are off tonight and haven’t officially announced the transaction.
Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reports that reliever Joel Kuhnel will be selected onto the big league roster tomorrow as the corresponding move. That will require a spot on the 40-man roster. That’s at capacity and Gunnar Hoglund (lumbar spine strain) is their only player on the injured list. They’ll either transfer Hoglund to the 60-day IL or designate someone for assignment before their series opener in the Bronx.
Morales broke camp in the starting five. The Cuban-born hurler made a solid first impression last season, working to a 3.14 earned run average through 48 2/3 innings. He has had a brutal time the first two turns through the rotation this year. Morales allowed five runs in both appearances without completing five innings either time. His start against the Astros on Saturday was particularly poor, as he walked six batters and allowed eight hits without recording a strikeout.
The 23-year-old will spend at least a couple weeks in Triple-A in an attempt to get on track. Morales had also struggled to find the strike zone this spring, when he issued 14 walks across 19 frames. He was one of the A’s top pitching prospects throughout his time in the minors. Morales sits in the 96-97 mph range and has a power four-pitch mix that the A’s hope will lead to a future as a mid-rotation starter.
The A’s will need to call up a starter this weekend unless they plan to move J.T. Ginn from long relief back to the rotation. They’ve already announced it’ll be Aaron Civale, Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs for their three-game set against the Yankees. Tonight’s off day means they could theoretically bring Jacob Lopez back on regular rest on Friday for their series opener against the Mets. However, they’d need a fifth starter by Saturday at the latest and are kicking off a run of 16 straight game days.
They’ll probably prefer to give Lopez the extra day and bring up someone else to step into what would’ve been Morales’ turn on Friday. Mason Barnett, Joey Estes and prospect Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang are on the 40-man roster and working out of the rotation in Vegas. Zhuang is scheduled to start tomorrow and probably not under consideration for an MLB call.
Jack Perkins, who started four MLB games late last season, is also on the 40-man and has worked 2-3 inning stints out of the bullpen in the minors. Top prospect Gage Jump is not yet on the roster but opened the season in the Triple-A rotation. He has been inefficient in his first two starts but has managed a combined six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches yesterday and would be on regular rest if the A’s wanted to bring him up on Friday.
They’ll carry a ninth reliever in the interim. Kuhnel, 31, gets back to the big leagues for the first time since 2024. The 6’5″ righty worked 11 2/3 innings of two-run ball with 10 strikeouts as a non-roster invitee this spring. He carried that into the minor leagues, striking out six of 10 batters faced over three hitless innings with Las Vegas.
Kuhnel adds a power arm to Mark Kotsay’s middle relief group. He’s primarily a sinker-slider pitcher whose fastball checks in around 96 mph on average. Kuhnel owns a 5.86 ERA with a middling 19% strikeout rate and stronger 52% grounder percentage over 93 2/3 career innings. He’s out of options and needs to stick on the MLB roster or be designated for assignment.