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Padres Acquire Martin Perez

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8:04PM: The Pirates will send around $1.3MM to the Padres in salary relief, Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports writes (X link).  The Bucs were willing to pay because they “coveted” landing Jimenez in return.

4:59PM: The Padres have landed left-hander Martin Perez in a trade with the Pirates, according to reporter Francys Romero (links to X).  Left-handed pitching prospect Ronaldys Jimenez will head to Pittsburgh in exchange.

There were some pre-deadline rumblings that the Bucs could deal from their relative pitching surplus, and Pittsburgh ended up moving Quinn Priester to the Red Sox and now Perez to San Diego, albeit for more projectionable players than players that could help the Pirates win immediately.  There is also a financial element to the Perez trade, as the Padres will receive some money from the Pirates to cover a portion of the roughly $2.5MM remaining of Perez’s $8MM salary for the season.

After signing that one-year, $8MM pact last offseason, there was always an expectation that the Pirates would look to flip Perez at the deadline in some fashion.  The veteran southpaw didn’t help his market by posting a 5.20 ERA in 83 innings, and he also spent a month on the injured list recovering from a groin strain.  Perez’s Statcast page has a troubling amount of blue ink, with a set of below-average metrics in every category except grounder rate.

The 33-year-old Perez does bring plenty of experience and an ability to eat innings, which is no small matter for a San Diego rotation that is currently relying heavily on a lot of younger arms behind ace Dylan Cease.  With Joe Musgrove still on the IL and Yu Darvish away from the team dealing with a family matter, the trio of Michael King, Randy Vasquez, and Matt Waldron have all been logging a lot of innings, leading the Padres to explore for some rotation help.  The bulk of San Diego’s deadline moves focused on the bullpen, so while bolstering the relief corps does aid the rotation in a more indirect fashion, the Perez trade brings on a veteran arm to cover some starts down the stretch.

The 18-year-old Jimenez was an international signing for the Padres in 2023, and he has started his pro career this year with three starts for the Padres’ Dominican Summer League squad, delivering a 1.50 ERA in six innings of work.  Jimenez is a lottery ticket-type of prospect for the Pirates to develop over the long term, which the club probably counts as a good result from its investment in Perez.

Dodgers Acquire Jack Flaherty

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The Dodgers and Tigers are in agreement on a trade sending right-hander Jack Flaherty to Los Angeles, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.  The Tigers will receive catcher/first baseman Thayron Liranzo and shortstop Trey Sweeney, according to Robert Murray of FanSided.  The Dodgers have now officially announced the trade.

After much speculation, the Dodgers add the best pitcher to be traded at the 2024 deadline.  Flaherty, 29 in October, sports a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts this year.  Among pitchers with at least 100 innings, his 32 K% ranks fifth in all of baseball.  He’s also trimmed his walk rate to a career-best 4.6%.

A first-round pick by the Cardinals out of high school a decade ago, Flaherty earned a fifth-place Rookie of the Year finish in 2018.  He followed that up by finishing fourth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2019, capped by a run of 16 starts in which he had a 0.93 ERA.

After stumbling in the shortened COVID season, Flaherty was limited to 78 1/3 innings in 2021 due to oblique and shoulder strains.  The shoulder issues persisted into 2022, a season in which Flaherty pitched just 36 innings.

Flaherty avoided the IL last year, but was ineffective for the Cardinals and was shipped to the Orioles in a deadline trade.  His struggles in Baltimore were enough that the club moved him to the bullpen before the end of the season.

Seeking to rebuild his value and re-enter free agency, Flaherty inked a one-year, $14MM deal with the Tigers last December.  He missed a few starts due to back pain, but otherwise Flaherty has been an ace for the Tigers.  At seven games out in the wild card, Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris opted for a pair of prospects from the Dodgers rather than a qualifying offer and draft pick compensation.

With Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the IL for a triceps injury, the Dodgers sought a front of the rotation arm to pair with Tyler Glasnow.  They may have it in Flaherty, and the club also saw Clayton Kershaw make his season debut last week.  Righty Gavin Stone, who opened the season as the Dodgers’ fifth starter, has been a mainstay all year.  Yamamoto may yet return, while Walker Buehler is currently on a rehab assignment for hip inflammation.  Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, and Emmet Sheehan are all out for the season, pushing rookies Justin Wrobleski and River Ryan into the Dodgers’ rotation.  Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman shipped veteran starter James Paxton to the Red Sox last week.

The Dodgers, who also added Kevin Kiermaier, Amed Rosario, Tommy Edman, and Michael Kopech in recent trades, sought an impact arm this month and were also linked to Garrett Crochet of the White Sox.  Crochet, who was not ultimately traded, would’ve fit better with the Dodgers’ hefty payroll, but his October availability was in question.  Flaherty has about $4.67MM left on his contract this year, on which the Dodgers will pay a 110% tax.

The Dodgers had three prospects on Baseball America’s recent top 100 list, and none of them were required to rent Flaherty from the Tigers for the remainder of the season.

Liranzo, 21, has split his time between catcher and first base for the High-A Great Lakes Loons this year.  He’s got a 106 wRC+ in 314 plate appearances this year after raking in A-ball last year.  Liranzo represented the Dodgers at the Futures Game earlier this month.  MLB.com assigned Liranzo a 50 grade, calling him “one of the best young catching prospects in baseball.”  Prior to the season, Baseball America also assigned a 50 grade to the switch-hitting Liranzo, saying he “projects to be an average defender overall” with above-average power and a below-average hit tool.

Sweeney, 24, was drafted 20th overall by the Yankees back in 2021 and was sent to the Dodgers last December in a deal for reliever Victor Gonzalez.  As Oklahoma City’s shortstop, Sweeney has an 87 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League this year.  MLB.com gave him a 45 grade, noting that he has “stayed at shortstop longer than most scouts expected.”  BA also put a 45 on Sweeney prior to the season, saying he “has the ceiling of a second-division shortstop.”

Projecting prospects is tricky business, which is why I defer to the experts.  But compared to the returns for Trevor Rogers and Yusei Kikuchi, the Tigers’ side of this trade feels underwhelming.  At any rate, the first-place Dodgers have significantly bolstered their rotation as they look to return to the World Series for the first time in four years.

The Tigers’ rotation now features little beyond Cy Young frontrunner Tarik Skubal, with Reese Olson on the IL with a shoulder injury.  The Tigers seemingly never got close to trading Skubal, though they did move veterans Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin, and Carson Kelly along with Flaherty in the last two days.

Cardinals Designate Giovanny Gallegos For Assignment

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TODAY: The Cardinals weren’t able to find a taker for Gallegos before the trade deadline passed, so he’ll hit the waiver wire.  Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that the Cards will release Gallegos and eat his remaining salary if nobody makes a claim.

JULY 28: The Cardinals announced that right-hander Giovanny Gallegos has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander Kyle Leahy was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move, and the Cards now have an open space on their 40-man roster.

The DFA underscores a disaster of a season for Gallegos, who has a 6.53 ERA over 21 appearances and 20 2/3 innings.  After emerging as a cornerstone of the St. Louis bullpen from 2019-22, some red flags appeared last season when Gallegos’ ERA shot up to 4.42 (in 55 innings) as his strikeout rate declined and batters suddenly started to make much more solid contact against his offerings.

Things got worse for Gallegos this season, as he has allowed six homers over his 20 2/3 frames and his strikeout rate (22.3%) and walk rate (10.6%) are both career worsts.  The sudden loss of control is particularly troubling, as even amidst Gallegos’ struggles in 2023, he still sat in the 92nd percentile of all pitchers in terms of walk rate.  Health could be an issue since Gallegos missed a month and a half due to a shoulder impingement, though he wasn’t pitching well either before or after his stint on the 15-day injured list.

Despite these significant struggles, Gallegos’ track record means that he’ll likely catch on with another team pretty quickly, if perhaps not via waiver claim.  A team that puts in a claim would assume the remainder of Gallegos’ salary — roughly $1.84MM in 2024 salary, plus a $500K buyout of his $6.5MM club option for the 2025 campaign.

Unless a trade is worked out during the DFA period and before Tuesday’s deadline, clubs might prefer to wait until Gallegos clears waivers and is then likely released by the Cardinals.  A new team would then owe Gallegos just the prorated portion of a MLB minimum salary, and St. Louis would be on the hook for the remaining money owed.  Since Gallegos has more than five years of MLB service time, he has the right to refuse an outright assignment from the Cardinals if he does clear waivers.

Led by star closer Ryan Helsley, the Cardinals have gotten solid results in general from their bullpen this season, with Gallegos uncharacteristically being the relief corps’ weak link.  St. Louis, like most contenders, was known to be exploring the market for some bullpen reinforcements heading into the deadline, and moving Gallegos (and freeing up a 40-man roster spot) would hint that some kind of plans are in mind for the Cards before July 30.

Red Sox Acquire Luis Garcia From Angels

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The Red Sox brought in their second high-leverage reliever of deadline season. Boston acquired hard-throwing righty Luis García from the Angels for four minor league players: first baseman Niko Kavadas, outfielder Matthew Lugo and pitchers Yeferson Vargas and Ryan Zeferjahn. The Sox had also acquired Lucas Sims from Cincinnati earlier in the day.

García, 37, was one of the better rental relievers available. He carries a 3.71 ERA through 43 2/3 innings. García is keeping the ball on the ground at a robust 51.2% clip while posting decent strikeout (22%) and walk (7.7%) numbers. That’s generally in line with his overall track record. García relies heavily on a power sinker to keep the ball down. His swing-and-miss rates are more solid than exceptional but it’s an effective profile overall.

Since the start of the 2021 season, García owns a 3.64 earned run average in 204 appearances between three teams. He has a 23.1% strikeout rate with a 7.5% walk percentage while getting grounders upwards of 54% of the time. It’s a different profile from Sims, who misses more bats but has less consistent strike-throwing ability.

The Halos signed García to a one-year, $4.25MM free agent deal over the winter. Los Angeles had completely overhauled its relief group via free agency last offseason. The García pickup was the only one that really worked as the front office envisioned. Boston assumes the roughly $1.39MM remaining on that contract through season’s end.

L.A.’s deft free agent pickup allowed them to net four minor leaguers. None of them are top prospects, but three of them could conceivably reach the majors late this year. Baseball America ranked Lugo 23rd in the Boston system. BA writes that the 23-year-old improved his plate discipline and has upped his offensive profile this season. The Puerto Rico native absolutely destroyed Double-A pitching at a .315/.405/.664 clip in the first half. He has a .250/.340/.452 line over 35 Triple-A games, where he’s striking out at a 27% rate. Lugo began his career as a shortstop prospect but seemingly projects to a corner outfield spot.

Kavadas, a Notre Dame product, has posted huge offensive numbers in Triple-A. He’s hitting .281/.424/.551 with 17 longballs through 335 trips to the dish. Kavadas doesn’t provide any kind of defensive value and he’s striking out a third of the time in the minors. It’s a difficult profile to pull off, but he has huge power and is on the doorstep of the majors.

Zeferjahn, 26, is a former third-rounder out of Kansas. The 6’5″ righty has a 3.52 ERA over 38 1/3 combined innings of relief between the top two minor league levels. He’s striking out 31.3% of opponents while issuing walks at an 11.8% clip. Vargas, a 19-year-old righty out of the Dominican Republic, is the one low minors development play of the group. He just reached Low-A after throwing 31 2/3 innings in the complex league.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported the Red Sox were acquiring García. Sam Blum of the Athletic reported the Angels’ return.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Orioles To Acquire Gregory Soto

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The Phillies traded reliever Gregory Soto to the Orioles, reports Jim Salisbury (on X). Pitching prospect Seth Johnson is going to Philadelphia, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (X link). Pitching prospect Moises Chace is also going to the Phils, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (on X).

Soto, a 29-year-old lefty, has a 4.08 ERA, 26.7 K%, 12.1 BB%, and 50% groundball rate in 35 1/3 innings for the Phillies this year.  Manager Rob Thomson has moved Soto down the bullpen depth chart in recent months, well before the club added Carlos Estevez and Tanner Banks in recent trades.  Still, Soto averages 98.4 miles per hour on his fastball and is under team control next year as an arbitration eligible player.  He’s earning a decent salary of $5MM on the season.  Soto, who came up with the Tigers, joined the Phillies in a January 2023 trade.

With the Phillies’ CBT payroll sitting right around the second luxury tax threshold of $257MM, perhaps he was a luxury in a bullpen with Jeff Hoffman, , Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado, and Estevez.

Just four days ago, the Phillies shipped reliever Seranthony Dominguez to the Orioles for outfielder Austin Hays.  It’s been an interesting pair of swaps between first-place clubs, and with the Orioles turning to the Phillies to supplement their bullpen behind Craig Kimbrel and Yennier Cano.  The Orioles, who also added starters Zach Eflin and Trevor Rogers in deadline deals, don’t share the Phillies’ payroll concerns.

Johnson, a 25-year-old righty, sports a 2.63 ERA, 22.6 K%, 13.0 BB%, and 40.4% groundball rate in 18 Double-A starts.  Drafted 40th overall by the Rays in 2019, Johnson went to the Orioles at the trade deadline two years ago in a three-team deal involving Trey Mancini and Jose Siri.  MLB.com gave him a 45 grade, noting, “He maintains the ceiling of a mid-rotation starter, though his age and placement on the 40-man roster could push Johnson into a bullpen role in the short term.”  Prior to the season, Baseball America assigned Johnson a 50 grade and had a similar outlook.

Chace, 21, has mostly had 3-4 inning outings in High-A this year.  He’s missed a healthy amount of bats with a 34.2 K%, but allowed plenty of walks with a 13.5 BB%.  Chace’s pitching coach, Jordie Henry, said to Baseball America’s Jon Meoli, “Even when he does have those [command] hiccups, knowing that we already know his ceiling at this level is really, really exciting.”

Giants Acquire Mark Canha

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Mark Canha is headed back to the Bay Area. The Giants acquired the veteran outfielder from the Tigers for minor league reliever Eric Silva.

It’s surprising to see the Giants swing a late deal for an impending free agent. San Francisco had been positioned more as sellers in the few days leading up to the deadline. They subtracted a few players on guaranteed contracts (e.g. Jorge Soler, Luke Jackson, Alex Cobb) but resisted a more significant roster shakeup. The Giants held the likes of Blake Snell, Michael Conforto and LaMonte Wade Jr.

Their late pivot to Canha suggests they’re still holding onto some hope of erasing a four-game deficit in the NL Wild Card picture. While they weren’t super active buyers, they can rotate Canha through designated hitter in the hope that he can approximate Soler’s lost production. The 35-year-old isn’t having his best season, carrying a .231/.337/.350 slash over 377 plate appearances. He’s drawing walks at a strong 11.1% clip but only has seven homers. His 21% strikeout rate is around league average and up more than four percentage points from last season.

It’s Canha’s worst offensive season since he established himself as an above-average player six years ago. He has continued to hit while put in favorable platoon situations, though. Canha owns an impressive .286/.400/.457 slash versus lefty pitching. San Francisco’s corner outfield and first base mix is very left-handed. Each of Wade, Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski hit from that side of the plate. Canha can spell anyone from that trio against southpaws while potentially taking some situational work at designated hitter, where Marco Luciano is expected to get the majority of the playing time.

Canha is a San Jose native who played collegiately at Berkeley. He spent the bulk of his career across the Bay Area with the A’s, where he played for current Giants skipper Bob Melvin. That surely played a role in the Giants taking a flier on him as a rebound target. They’re assuming roughly $3.77MM remaining on his $11.5MM salary. San Francisco is in the first luxury tax bracket and taxed at a 20% rate on that money. Their overall acquisition cost comes out to roughly $4.5MM. Canha will return to free agency at year’s end.

San Francisco also parts way with Silva, whom they drafted in the fourth round in 2021. He began his career as a starting pitching prospect but has worked exclusively in relief this year. The 21-year-old righty has spent the season at Double-A Richmond, working to a 4.35 earned run average through 41 1/3 frames. He’s striking out upwards of 29% of batters faced against a 10.3% walk rate.

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was in the San Francisco front office back in 2021. He’s surely familiar with Silva, whom Baseball America ranked as the #25 prospect in the San Francisco farm system. He’ll be eligible for the Rule 5 draft during the 2025-26 offseason.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the Giants were acquiring Canha. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel was first to report Silva was headed to Detroit.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Acquire Dylan Carlson

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Dylan Carlson is on his way to the Rays, as MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (X links) report that Tampa has acquired the former Cardinals top prospect for right-hander Shawn Armstrong.  The Angels, Guardians, and Nationals were all linked to Carlson’s market leading up to the deadline, but it was Tampa who sealed the deal for the 25-year-old outfielder. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reports that St. Louis included around $98K in the deal.

Trade speculation has swirled around Carlson for years, even when he was on the way up the ladder as one of the top minor leaguers in the St. Louis farm system.  Both before and after Carlson made his MLB debut in 2020, there were whispers that the crowded nature of the Cards’ outfield picture might inspire the team to move Carlson to address another need, and it is perhaps now easy to second-guess the Cardinals’ decision to retain a player they once saw as a building block.

Carlson seemingly lived up to that early hype with a third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2021, but injuries curtailed both his production and his playing time in 2022-23.  A left hamstring strain and a thumb sprain hampered him in 2022, and ankle problems (and an eventual ankle surgery) limited Carlson to 76 games in 2023.  Playing in 204 of 324 games over the 2022-23 seasons, Carlson hit .230/316/.364 over 743 plate appearances.

The struggles continued into this year, as Carlson has a .198/.275/.240 slash line in 138 PA while in a clear part-time capacity.  Still just 25 years old, Carlson will now get a change of scenery with this trade to the Rays and a chance at a fresh start to his Major League career.

The Rays’ flurry of deadline moves has left plenty of opening around the roster, including the left field spot recently occupied by Randy Arozarena.  Carlson’s center field defense has been declining along with his offense, but the metrics indicate that he is an average to solid defender in the corner outfield spots.  Between that outfield versatility and his switch-hitting, Carlson somewhat fits the Rays’ preferred model of players who can shuffled around to different places on the diamond, though he’ll naturally need to show more at the plate in order to win regular playing time.  Carlson is still under arbitration control through the 2026 season, so Tampa Bay has time to evaluate Carlson and decide whether or not he has something to offer as a big leaguer.

Armstrong has a 4.18 ERA over 327 1/3 career innings with Cleveland, Miami, Seattle, Baltimore, and two separate stints with Tampa Bay during his 10 Major League seasons.  The righty is a free agent after the season and is therefore a rental pickup for the Cardinals, who will use Armstrong as some extra depth in their bullpen.

A big .370 BABIP has impacted Armstrong’s performance in 2024, as his 5.40 ERA is considerably higher than his 3.86 SIERA.  It hasn’t all been plain bad luck, however, as Armstrong’s walk and hard-contact rates are all below average, and his 23.4% strikeout rate is decent but inspiring.  Left-handed batters have a .982 OPS against Armstrong this season, while he has continued to pitch well against same-sided hitters, limiting righty-swingers to a .690 OPS.

Dodgers Acquire Kevin Kiermaier

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The Dodgers acquired Kevin Kiermaier and cash considerations from the Blue Jays for lefty reliever Ryan Yarbrough. Toronto is reportedly paying down $1.66MM of Kiermaier’s remaining salary.

Kiermaier, 34, is in the midst of a thoroughly disappointing season, batting .195 with a .546 OPS. While his defense in the outfield has been stellar as always (10 OAA, 9 DRS), it has not been enough to make up for his career-worst offensive numbers. He has been worth just 0.2 Wins Above Replacement according to FanGraphs. The four-time Gold Glove winner went unclaimed on waivers earlier this month, with no team willing to claim him and take the remaining portion of his $10.5MM salary off of the Blue Jays’ books. Now, however, just over two weeks later, the Jays found a club willing to take Kiermaier off their hands, and they got a left-handed long-man for the bullpen in return.

The Dodgers have not gotten much production from the center field position this year, ranking 27th in OPS and wRC+ and dead last in FanGraphs WAR. James Outman has struggled to replicate his success from his excellent rookie season in 2023, while top prospect Andy Pages has underwhelmed at the plate (.675 OPS, 92 wRC+) and in the field (-8 DRS, -1 OAA). Kiermaier won’t help the offense, but he will be a terrific defensive replacement off the bench. What’s more, if there is any team that can put up with his bat in the starting lineup on occasion, it’s the Dodgers, who lead the NL in OPS and wRC+ despite mediocre production from center field all season.

Kiermaier has already announced his intention to retire following the 2024 campaign. Joining the powerhouse Dodgers will give him one more chance to compete for a World Series championship, an accomplishment that has eluded him throughout his 12-year career with the Rays and Blue Jays. Kiermaier went 7-for-19 with a 1.137 OPS in the 2020 World Series, but despite his efforts, the Rays fell to the Dodgers in six games.

As for the Blue Jays, they have elite defender Daulton Varsho to slide into center field, and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that lefty batting outfielder/first baseman Joey Loperfido, acquired from the Astros in the Yusei Kikuchi deal, will take Kiermaier’s spot on the active roster. Presumably, Loperfido will take over from Varsho in left field, at least in games with a right-handed starting pitcher. Meanwhile, Yarbrough should slot in as a reinforcement for a Blue Jays bullpen that has lost several contributors in recent days, including Yimi García, Trevor Richards, and Nate Pearson. Toronto may be out of contention this year, but the team still needs live arms to get through the season.

Yarbrough, 32, was designated for assignment by the Dodgers on Monday. While his 3.74 ERA this season is respectable, he has the lowest strikeout rate (13.9%) and the highest walk rate (8.9%) of his career. His 4.98 SIERA would also be a career-worst. That said, his ability to pitch multiple innings and his recent work as a starter (he started nine games in 2023, nine in 2022, and 21 in 2021) will make him an asset for a last-place Blue Jays team that is simply looking to get through the rest of the season without further embarrassment. Like Kiermaier, Yarbrough will be a free agent at the end of the year.

Robert Murray of FanSided reported the Dodgers and Jays were swapping Kiermaier and Yarbrough. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported the cash considerations.

Orioles Acquire Eloy Jimenez

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The Orioles and White Sox pulled off a trade sending outfielder/designated hitter Eloy Jimenez and cash from Chicago to Baltimore for minor league reliever Trey McGough. Chicago is reportedly kicking in $4MM to cover almost all of the approximate $4.26MM remaining on his contract. The Sox would also pay down $1.5MM of the $3MM buyout on Jimenez’s 2025 club option, which the O’s are virtually certain to decline.

Jimenez, 27, was one of the highest-profile international signings in recent memory and one of the top-ranked prospects in all of baseball prior to his big league debut. He signed a then-record six-year, $43MM deal before ever playing a big league game. He’s earning $13MM this season in the final guaranteed season of that contract, which also contains club options valued at $16.5MM and $18.5MM for the next two seasons. The O’s should pay the $3MM buyout on his 2025 option, making Jimenez a free agent.

In the early stages of his career, Jimenez largely delivered on the hype, hitting .276/.327/.504 with 71 homers in his first 316 games. That includes a down year in 2021, but the Cuban-born slugger was well above-average in 2019, 2020 and 2022 — including a monster .295/.358/.500 slash with 16 homers in only 84 games in ’22.

Injuries have derailed Jimenez’s career, however. He’s been on the injured list for multiple hamstring strains — including a tear that sent him to the 60-day IL — an adductor strain, an appendectomy procedure, an ulnar nerve injury and a high ankle sprain. His once-potent bat has produced only a .240/.297/.345 output in 2024. Jimenez’s 18.9% strikeout rate is actually a career-low, however, and he’s averaging 92.4 mph off the bat with a huge 50.8% hard-hit rate. The O’s will hope that a change of scenery and those underlying metrics can bring about improvement of some degree, if not a return to peak form.

If that type of turnaround is to come to fruition, Jimenez will need a radical overhaul in his swing, however. He’s posted an astonishing 59.6% ground-ball rate this season — far and away the highest in baseball among active players. (Tim Anderson, released by the Marlins this year, technically leads him at 62.4% but isn’t with a team.) For a player that ranks in the sixth percentile of MLB players in terms of average sprint speed, pounding the ball into the ground that often is never going to yield much benefit — regardless of how hard the ball is put into play.

The Orioles, having moved Austin Hays in last week’s trade bringing reliever Seranthony Dominguez over from the Phillies, were reportedly on the hunt for a right-handed bat. Jimenez will fill that role to some extent, and it’s worth noting that he’s posted a strong .304/.360/.370 batting line against lefties in 2024. Again, however, he’s simply been far too prone to grounders whether facing lefties (59%) or righties (59.7%).

McGough, a 26-year-old lefty, came to the Orioles from the Pirates via the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He recently moved to the bullpen after recovering from Tommy John surgery and owns a sparkling 1.99 ERA in 54 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s fanned 25.5% of his opponents and walked 9.7% of them. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen recently listed him 37th among O’s prospects, calling him a potential low-leverage reliever whose best pitch is an above-average slider.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Orioles were finalizing a deal for Jimenez. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the White Sox were receiving McGough. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported the cash breakdown.

Mets Acquire Huascar Brazoban From Marlins

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The Mets acquired reliever Huascar Brazoban from the division-rival Marlins. Infield prospect Wilfredo Lara went back to Miami.

Brazoban wasn’t the subject of much trade speculation until today. He emerged as a late target for teams seeking relief help amidst a quietly strong season. Brazoban has tossed 30 2/3 innings through 20 appearances. He’s allowing only 2.93 earned runs per nine while striking out 27.2% of batters faced. Brazoban is getting grounders half the time opponents do make contact while limiting his walk rate to a solid 8.8% clip.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Brazoban has pitched in Miami for the past three seasons. He spent a decade in pro ball before getting his first major league look. Brazoban pitched in the Colorado system and spent some time in independent ball. It wasn’t until 2022 that he got a big league opportunity, shortly before his 33rd birthday.

Since he got such a late start to his MLB career, Brazoban is in an odd spot. He’s under team control for another four seasons beyond this one and won’t even qualify for arbitration for two seasons. The Marlins were under no financial pressure to move him, but he’s also very unlikely to be pitching at this level the next time Miami makes an effort to compete. The Fish fielded offers on a number of their relievers and ultimately cashed Brazoban in for a future asset.

Lara, 20, is a right-handed hitting infielder out of the Dominican Republic. He’s hitting .244/.349/.343 across 332 plate appearances in High-A this season. He’s drawing walks at a robust 12% clip while striking out 22.6% of the time. He’s a low-level developmental flier for the Fish.

The Mets designated catcher Logan Porter  to open a spot on their 40-man roster for Brazoban. New York signed him to a split contract a couple weeks ago. They’ve kept him in Triple-A on optional assignment. Porter’s major league experience comprises 11 games with the Royals last season.

Christina De Nicola of MLB.com first reported the Mets were acquiring Brazoban. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported Miami was getting Lara in return.

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