Joc Pederson Suffers Right Hand Fracture
The Rangers were dealt a major injury blow today when DH Joc Pederson was hit by a pitch in this evening’s loss to the White Sox. Pederson initially stayed in the game but was later lifted for a pinch-hitter. Manager Bruce Bochy revealed to reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News) that Pederson suffered a fracture in his right hand when he was struck by the pitch. Pederson told reporters, including McFarland, that he expects a recovery timeline of six weeks for the injury.
It’s a blow to a Rangers club that has already struggled to stay healthy this year. Pederson will now join Corey Seager and Evan Carter on the shelf from the club’s lineup, in addition to injuries suffered by reliever Chris Martin and starters Kumar Rocker, Jon Gray, and Cody Bradford. Those injuries have contributed to Texas’s struggles this year, as they’ve posted a lackluster 25-28 record that’s left them three games out of a Wild Card spot and five games out of the AL West. With Josh Smith covering for Seager at shortstop and Sam Haggerty holding down center field in place of Carter, the Rangers will likely be forced to get creative with replacing Pederson.
One option could be first baseman Blaine Crim, who failed to record a hit in a five-game cup of coffee earlier this year but sports a .301/.369/.558 slash line in Triple-A this year. Another could be outfielder Dustin Harris, who has a 104 wRC+ in 45 trips to the plate at the big league level and is the club’s only left-handed hitter already on the 40-man roster at Triple-A. Harris could be a particularly attractive option if the Rangers would like to continuing starting backup catcher Kyle Higashioka at DH against left-handed pitchers, a role which the club is already carrying third catcher Tucker Barnhart in order to accommodate on a more regular basis.
Turning back to Pederson, it must be acknowledged that for however much losing his offensive prowess from the lineup may sting on paper he hasn’t delivered much production in his first season with the organization. Signed to a two-year, $37MM guarantee over the winter, Pederson has hit a paltry .132/.266/.240 (51 wRC+) in 144 plate appearances to this point in the season. That’s hardly production a club will miss from their lineup, but it’s unfortunate timing nonetheless giving that Pederson had just begun to look more like his normal self at the plate: he’s hitting .220/.429/.444 with four extra-base hits and an eye-popping 26.5% walk rate over his last 16 games.
The Rangers can only hope that he’ll be able to pick back up right where he left off when he returns to action later this summer. A six week timetable would leave him poised to return in early July, shortly before the All-Star break. Rough as his start to the 2025 campaign was, it goes without saying that Pederson can be a dynamic addition to virtually any lineup when healthy; while he almost exclusively plays against right-handed pitching, the slugger slashed an excellent .262/.365/.485 with a wRC+ of 135 and 61 homers in 387 games over his last three seasons. That’s the 16th-best wRC+ among all hitters with at least 1000 plate appearances in that span, sandwiched between Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jose Ramirez on the leaderboard. If Pederson can offer that sort of production to the Rangers in the second half, it should be easy for fans to forget his first-half struggles and injury woes so long as Texas hasn’t already fallen out of the playoff conversation before he returns.
Red Sox Promote Marcelo Mayer; Alex Bregman To IL With “Significant” Quad Strain
4:27pm: The Red Sox have officially announced the selection of Mayer’s contract. Bregman was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right quad strain to create room for Mayer on the active roster, while Casas was placed on the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man roster spot. Cora told reporters (including Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic) this afternoon that Bregman’s injury is “significant” and compared it to a quad strain Bregman suffered in 2021 that ultimately caused him to miss around two months.
1:39pm: The Red Sox are promoting top infield prospect Marcelo Mayer, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive observed that Mayer was being congratulated by his teammates in the clubhouse at Triple-A Worcester. Her MassLive colleague Christopher Smith first reported that the former first-round pick is headed to Fenway Park.
The promotion comes as Alex Bregman navigates a right quad injury that seems likely to send him to the 10-day injured list. Bregman came out of yesterday’s blowout win over the Orioles in the fifth inning. He came up a bit gimpy after making an aggressive turn around the first base bag on a single off the Green Monster. He immediately exited in favor of Abraham Toro. The team is still awaiting MRI results from this morning. Manager Alex Cora told reporters (including WEEI’s Rob Bradford) that the star third baseman woke up with more soreness than he’d expected today.
Boston did not place Bregman on the IL before the first game of today’s doubleheader. There’s a good chance that’ll come between games tonight. They’ll also need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Mayer, but that can easily be achieved by transferring Triston Casas to the 60-day injured list.
Cora has already shot down the idea that Rafael Devers could see any third base time in Bregman’s absence. He’ll remain a full-time designated hitter. That means the 22-year-old Mayer should be in the lineup on a near everyday basis at third base. He obviously can’t be expected to replace the production they’re losing with Bregman’s absence. The two-time All-Star takes a .299/.385/.553 batting line to his likely stint on the injured list.
Mayer has very little experience at the hot corner. He started one game there in Double-A in each of the 2023 and ’24 seasons. He’s added four appearances in Triple-A this year. Mayer has taken the vast majority of his professional reps as a shortstop. He’d moved more frequently to second base over the past few days. That wasn’t because of any question about whether he can hold up at shortstop. It was instead in preparation for what seemed to be his best path to an MLB debut — playing second base with Kristian Campbell preparing to slide to first base after the Casas injury.
While there may be some growing pains given Mayer’s lack of experience at the hot corner, it’s common for shortstops to move to other infield positions. He has the plus arm for the position and is generally regarded as a sure-handed infielder. At 6’3″, Mayer is on the bigger side for a shortstop. His range, while adequate, has never been the strongest point of his defensive profile. That’s less of a concern at third base.
Mayer certainly brings a higher offensive ceiling than the utility options (Toro and David Hamilton) who may otherwise have replaced Bregman. The fourth overall pick in 2021, Mayer has been a feature on top prospect lists throughout his professional career. The left-handed hitter has moved a little more slowly than anticipated, largely because of injuries to his left shoulder and right wrist that affected him in 2022-23. Scouts have remained enamored with his power, polished strike zone discipline and overall natural athleticism.
That has been on display over the past two minor league seasons. Mayer hit .307/.370/.480 in Double-A a year ago. He’s out to a solid .271/.347/.471 slash with nine homers in 43 games during his first Triple-A action. He’s drawing walks at a strong 10.4% clip compared to a 19.7% strikeout rate that matches last year’s mark for the lowest of his career.
While the Bregman injury is the immediate impetus for Mayer’s promotion, there should be opportunity to stick past Bregman’s return if he performs well. The Sox may feel comfortable using Campbell at first base by that point, potentially opening second base. Mayer could also eventually supplant Trevor Story as the starting shortstop. Story began the season with a power barrage but has done almost nothing offensively for the better part of six weeks. He’s hitting .159 with one home run and 38 strikeouts in 122 plate appearances since his two-homer game on April 18.
Mayer will not reach a full year of service time unless he triggers the Prospect Promotion Inventive by finishing in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. The Sox would not receive an extra draft choice under the PPI because they did not carry Mayer on the big league roster for at least 172 days. He would be on track to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player during the 2027-28 offseason if he’s in big leagues for good, though future optional assignments could certainly change that timeline.
Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.
Royals Designate Hunter Renfroe For Assignment
The Royals announced Friday that they’ve designated veteran outfielder Hunter Renfroe for assignment. Infielder Nick Loftin has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move. Renfroe is being paid $7.5MM in the second season of a two-year, $13MM contract and will very likely be released in the coming days.
Kansas City gave out a pair of surprising two-year deals with player opt-outs in the 2023-24 offseason: one to Renfroe and another to veteran reliever Chris Stratton. Both struggled in year one of the contract and picked up said player option. Both players have been cut loose within days of each other, less than one-third of the way through the second season of those pacts.
The 33-year-old Renfroe had a big performance in June and July last season but struggled immensely outside those two months. From August onward, he batted only .211/.244/.333, finishing out the season with a sub-par .229/.297/.392 slash in 424 plate appearances. Renfroe understandably wasn’t keen on taking that batting line back to the open market, particularly not ahead of his age-33 campaign.
Any hopes of a rebound have faded, however, as the veteran slugger has declined even further at the plate this season. In 108 turns at the plate, Renfroe is hitting just .182/.241/.242 (32 wRC+, or 68% worse than league-average offense). He’s yet to hit a home run this season.
Given the magnitude of those struggles, there’s no way Renfroe will be claimed on waivers. Finding a trade partner should be nearly impossible as well. The overwhelming likelihood is that he, as was the case with Stratton, will be released on the heels of his DFA. At that point, the Royals would be on the hook for the remainder of his $7.5MM salary. A new team would owe Renfroe only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster.
Renfroe was a buy-low candidate even in the 2023-24 offseason (hence the surprise surrounding a two-year deal with a player opt-out). He’d slashed .233/.297/.416 between the Angels and Reds a year prior. He hasn’t had an above-average season at the plate since a 29-homer campaign with the 2022 Brewers, and once-strong defensive grades have declined considerably over the past few seasons. Renfroe did smack 60 homers and hit .257/.315/.496 in just under 1100 plate appearances between Boston and Milwaukee in 2021-22, so someone will probably take a flier on a minor league contract, but he’s a project at this stage of his career.
Braves Expected To Activate Ronald Acuna On Friday
Ronald Acuña Jr. is seemingly one day away from his return to Truist Park. The Braves scratched Acuña from what would have been his sixth rehab appearance with Triple-A Gwinnett. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reports that Acuña is en route to meet the team in Atlanta. Francys Romero adds that the Braves intend to activate him from the injured list before tomorrow’s series opener against the Padres.
It’s three days shy of the one-year anniversary of Acuña’s season-ending ACL tear. On May 26, 2024, he tore the ligament in his left knee while bluffing a stolen base attempt. It was the second time in his seven-year career that a season had been cut short by a devastating knee injury. Acuña tore the ACL in his right knee in July 2021, sidelining him for their World Series run.
Acuña made a quicker return from his first ACL tear. He was reinstated before the end of April 2022. He showed some signs of rust throughout that year, hitting .266/.351/.413 the rest of the way. That was well below his 2018-21 production. He followed with a career-best season to win the 2023 NL MVP award. He’d been out to a slower start last season, batting .250/.351/.365 across 49 games.
The Braves took things more slowly with Acuña’s second ACL rehab. He didn’t log any game action in Spring Training and has spent the first two months of the season on the IL. Atlanta sent him to their complex to begin a rehab assignment 10 days ago. He played one game there before reporting to Gwinnett, where he collected five hits and took seven walks in five games. The Braves have evidently seen enough to plug him back into Brian Snitker’s lineup, presumably in his customary leadoff spot.
Alex Verdugo has been hitting atop the order while playing every day in left field. He’s struggling offensively for a second consecutive year. Verdugo has hit .257/.314/.330 without a home run in 118 plate appearances. That’s on par with his .233/.291/.356 batting line in last season’s disappointing run with the Yankees.
Acuña has been a full-time right fielder over the past half-decade. He’ll slot back into that position, where Eli White has played his way into regular playing time. He could slide to left field and cut into Verdugo’s reps. White hit .311/.367/.600 with eight extra-base hits in April. His bat has cooled this month (.269/.310/.358 with no home runs), but that’s still a bit better than what Verdugo has provided.
White hits right-handed but has been better without the platoon advantage throughout his career. The lefty-hitting Verdugo is much better against righty pitching, as expected. Jurickson Profar will be back from his PED suspension in July. He’ll presumably return to everyday left field work, though he’d be ineligible for postseason play if the Braves qualify.
Atlanta has clawed back to .500 following their 0-7 start to the season. They’re three games back of the NL’s final Wild Card spot, which is currently held by the team they’ll welcome tomorrow. San Diego swept the Braves over a four-game set to open the year, but they’re taking a six-game losing streak into this weekend’s series.
The Braves technically only need to create an active roster spot for Acuña’s return from the 10-day IL, but they’re quite likely to designate someone for assignment tomorrow. Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II are the only hitters on the active roster who have minor league options. Luke Williams, Stuart Fairchild and Orlando Arcia are all out of options and have seen little to no playing time off the bench in recent weeks.
Mariners Activate George Kirby For Season Debut
The Mariners announced Thursday that right-hander George Kirby has been reinstated from the injured list. He’ll make his 2025 debut today against the Astros. Righty Troy Taylor was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma last night to open a spot on the roster for Kirby’s return.
The first-place Mariners have surged to a 28-20 record this season despite not getting a single pitch from arguably their best starter. The 27-year-old Kirby has been out all season after the Mariners opted for a cautious approach when Kirby was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation during spring training.
A first-round pick back in 2019 (No. 20 overall), Kirby quickly became one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects and was soon regarded as one of the top prospects in the entire sport. He breezed through the minors and could very well have debuted even sooner were it not for the canceled 2020 minor league season.
Kirby broke through to the majors in 2022 and hasn’t looked back. He pitched 130 innings over the life of 26 starts in his rookie season and turned in a 3.39 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate. Few pitchers can sustain a walk rate that low, but Kirby has actually improved upon that mark in subsequent seasons. He was touted as having the best command of perhaps any top pitching prospect in the sport prior to his debut, and he now has a legitimate claim to the best command of any pitcher in Major League Baseball.
Since his 2022 debut, no starting pitcher has a lower walk rate than Kirby’s 3.1% mark. Only one qualified reliever in that time has a better walk rate (Chris Martin, at 2.8%). You’d have to drop the threshold to a minimum of 20 innings pitched (total) since 2022 to find a second pitcher with a lower walk rate than Kirby.
Kirby’s pinpoint command is all the more deadly when one considers that he’s not the archetypal soft-tossing, finesse pitcher typically associated with this type of precision. He’s averaged 95.8 mph on his four-seamer in his career and sat 96.1 mph with the pitch from 2023-24.
Kirby was an All-Star in 2023 and finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting that season. He’s started 89 big league games for the Mariners since his debut and touts a 3.43 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate and 43.4% ground-ball rate to go along with that pristine walk rate. Those strikeout and grounder rates are only a bit better than average, but a pitcher who averages less than a walk per start doesn’t need to pile up strikeouts or ground-balls at league-leading rates to be among the most effective pitchers in the sport.
The Mariners are getting Kirby back at an ideal time. Rotation-mates Logan Gilbert (flexor strain) and Bryce Miller (elbow inflammation) are both on the 15-day injured list at the moment. Seattle is also set to square off against the second-place Astros for a four-game series. Houston has been a league-average team against right-handed pitching this season, and the ‘Stros are currently without their top left-handed bat: designated hitter Yordan Alvarez (though he has uncharacteristically struggled versus righties this season). The only left-handed hitters on Houston’s roster are switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini and backup catcher Cesar Salazar. Kirby held right-handed hitters to an awful .234/.257/.360 slash in 2024.
Jean Segura Retires
Longtime MLB infielder Jean Segura has retired, according to a social media post from his representatives at CAA. Segura last appeared in the majors in 2023 and spent time in Triple-A with the Orioles last season.
Segura had an accomplished 12-year big league run. The Dominican Republic native signed as an amateur with the Angels in 2007. He was one of the sport’s top prospects when he debuted with the Halos in July 2012. Segura played one game, then was traded to Milwaukee less than a week later as the centerpiece of the prospect package for Zack Greinke.
The Brewers immediately installed Segura as their starting shortstop. He held that role for the next three and a half seasons. His first full season was his best in Milwaukee, as he hit .294 to earn an All-Star selection. His production plummeted between 2014-15. The Brewers moved on before the ’16 season, moving him to the Diamondbacks in a deal for starter Chase Anderson and minor league second baseman Isan Díaz.
Segura only spent one season in the desert, but it was the best year of his career. He led the National League with 203 hits while posting a .319/.368/.499 line over 694 plate appearances. He set personal highs in all three slash stats. He tallied a career-high 41 doubles and hit 20 home runs for the only time. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each credited him with over six wins above replacement.
Fantastic as Segura’s season was, his greatest impact on the Arizona organization came the following winter. They packaged him alongside Mitch Haniger to Seattle for Ketel Marte and Taijuan Walker. Marte is on track to spend over a decade with the Snakes and has become one of the best players in franchise history.
The Mariners signed Segura to a five-year, $70MM extension midway through his first season in the Pacific Northwest. He would only spend one year of that contract in Seattle, though he remained an above-average regular during his time there. He hit .300 or better in both years and slashed .302/.345/.421 in nearly 1200 plate appearances overall. He was on the move again during the 2018-19 offseason. The M’s dealt him to Philadelphia in a deal that netted J.P. Crawford.
The move worked out well for both clubs. Crawford has developed into Seattle’s long-term answer at shortstop. Segura was a solid regular over four seasons with the Phils — first at shortstop, then for three seasons at second base. He hit .281/.337/.418 in 427 games in a Philadelphia uniform. It was his second-longest run with one team, trailing his early-career stint in Milwaukee. It also afforded him the only playoff experience of his career. Segura was a regular throughout the Phils’ pennant run in 2022, though he hit .214 in 17 postseason games.
Philadelphia bought out Segura’s $17MM club option for the 2023 season. That sent him to the free agent market for the first time. He signed a two-year, $17MM contract with the Marlins to move to third base. The deal did not pan out, as he hit .219/.277/.279 across 85 games for the Fish. They traded him to the Guardians in a salary swap for Josh Bell at the ’23 deadline. Cleveland immediately released him, and Segura’s final game as a Marlin turned out to be his last in the big leagues.
While his last season didn’t go well, Segura can look back on a very good major league career. He finishes with a .281/.327/.401 batting line in more than 1400 games. He topped 1500 hits, connected on 110 home runs, and stole 211 bases. Segura drove in 513 runs and scored 737 times. He hit .300 on three occasions, made a pair of All-Star Games, and received down-ballot MVP votes for his year in Arizona. Baseball Reference calculates his lifetime earnings close to $106MM. He was a part of five notable trades, two of which remain consequential today. MLBTR congratulates Segura on his run and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.
Image courtesy of John Geliebter, Imagn Images.
Report: “No Chance” Paul Skenes Will Be Traded This Year
Amid the Pirates’ awful start to the season and decision to fire manager Derek Shelton, there’s been some speculation on the possibility of the Bucs blowing things up and again refocusing on building up the farm system. Specifically, many fans have begun to wonder about the possibility of the Pirates dangling the final four and a half seasons of control over reigning NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young finalist Paul Skenes. Unsurprisingly, there’s no real chances of that happening in 2025. Jon Heyman of the New York Post spoke to an unnamed Pirates executive who flatly told him, “No way, no chance, no how,” when the possibility of a Skenes trade was broached.
Any and all talk of a possible Skenes swap has been little more than wishful thinking from fans of other clubs. Much of the rumbling stems from ESPN’s Jeff Passan recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show (video link). Passan never suggested a trade was likely or even plausible but opined that there’s at least “an argument to be made” that it’d be the right call, given the team’s immediate fall from postseason contention, their inability to score runs, and the unlikelihood of owner Bob Nutting spending to either surround Skenes with competitive players or to extend the team’s ace. Passan rightly pointed out that there will be teams asking about Skenes at this year’s trade deadline. Interest from other clubs is a given, but a trade has never seemed like a real possibility.
Skenes, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, made his MLB debut less than one year after being selected and immediately cemented his place among baseball’s top arms. He started the All-Star Game for the NL last season, secured 23 of 30 first-place votes in NL Rookie of the Year balloting, and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. Since debuting last year on May 11, Skenes leads the majors with a 2.12 ERA. He ranks 14th in innings pitched (195 2/3), fourth in strikeout rate (30.6%), fourth in differential between his strikeout and walk rates (24.3%), third in FIP (2.54) and fourth in SIERA (2.89).
Skenes is already an ace in virtually every sense of the word. The Pirates were presumably hoping that by holding off his call to the majors until mid-May, they could strike the balance between having Skenes help improve on their 2023 win total (76) and keep him out of the big leagues long enough to prevent a Rookie of the Year win and that would grant him a full year of service regardless of his promotion date. Neither worked out. Skenes got that full year of service by virtue of his Rookie of the Year win, and the Pirates finished the 2024 season with the same 76-86 record they produced in 2023.
Because Skenes secured that full year of service, he’ll be controllable for “only” six seasons. He’s under Pirates control through the 2029 campaign. Had he missed out on the full year, that would’ve been pushed back to 2030.
If he stays healthy and continues on his current trajectory, Skenes figures to shatter records in arbitration. He’d reach arb eligibility in the 2026-27 offseason and go through the process three times before reaching free agency in the 2029-30 offseason. Barring an injury or unexpected decline, he’ll have a case for a mammoth contract in free agency — perhaps the largest signed by a pitcher. He’ll hit the open market heading into only his age-28 season.
Extending Skenes right now would already require the largest contract in Pirates history by a wide margin. Pittsburgh has never given out a contract larger than Bryan Reynolds‘ seven-year, $100MM extension. Skenes would more than double that on an extension and could even triple that commitment. It’s virtually unfathomable to think Nutting would ever pay that much for a single player. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, the Pirates have only spent a combined $357MM in extensions dating back to 2016. They’ve spent even less in free agency; their combined free agent spending dating back to the 2011-12 offseason totals $302MM (Contract Tracker link).
Given the Pirates’ penurious spending habits, an eventual trade of Skenes feels like an inevitability — just not in the near term. Moving their ace while he’s still earning scarcely more than the league minimum simply doesn’t feel rooted in reality. One could argue that Skenes’ trade value will never be higher, and there’s some inherent truth that as he incrementally inches toward free agency, the diminishing amount of club control will impact his value. However, trading Skenes at any point when he has multiple years of control remaining would net the Pirates a monumental return — perhaps on par with or even exceeding the Nationals’ outrageous return for Juan Soto. The gap between the trade value of four years of Skenes and two years of Skenes is not as large as the gap between two years of Skenes and one year of Skenes.
As Skenes’ price tag climbs in arbitration, a trade will become more plausible. For the time being, even with the 2025 season all but lost, the Bucs understandably plan to hang onto their ace. He’s surely a draw for ticket sales and merchandise, and if the Pirates have any designs on a more competitive roster in 2026, it’s surely built around a pitching staff that can be anchored by Skenes, Mitch Keller, top prospect Bubba Chandler and a collection of talented, controllable arms that also includes Mike Burrows, Thomas Harrington, Braxton Ashcraft, Hunter Barco, Bailey Falter and Johan Oviedo.
Pirates’ Jared Jones, Enmanuel Valdez Undergo Season-Ending Surgeries
2:00pm: The Pirates announced that Jones has undergone a repair of his UCL with a projected return to full competition in 10 to 12 months.
11:00am: Infielder Enmanuel Valdez also underwent season-ending shoulder surgery this week, Tomczyk tells the Pirates beat (via the Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley). Valdez hit the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left (non-throwing) shoulder on May 10. He was moved to the 60-day IL a few days later with minimal updates on his outlook. He’s now expected to be sidelined for roughly six months.
10:52am: Pirates right-hander Jared Jones will undergo season-ending surgery to address his ailing right elbow, senior director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk announced to the Pirates beat this morning (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
Jones has been out all season with an elbow injury. Evaluations back in spring training did not lead to a recommendation of surgery, but Jones recently met with Dr. Keith Meister — an orthopedic surgeon who’s performed dozens of Tommy John procedures for MLB players — after his return to throwing in late April seemingly did not go well.
It’s not yet clear what type of surgery will be performed, but since Jones has been dealing with a UCL sprain, Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure are both presumably on the table. Jones is going under the knife today, so more information on the nature of the surgery and his timetable for a return should be available within the next few days.
Jones, 23, entered the 2024 season ranked as a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport and broke camp in the Pirates’ rotation. He wound up pitching 121 1/3 innings and more than holding his own, logging a 4.14 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate — both a good bit better than league-average.
Those numbers are skewed a bit by a rough finish to the season. Jones was sporting a much stronger 3.56 earned run average through 91 innings with comparable rate stats. A lat strain suffered in early July cost Jones six weeks of his rookie season. When he returned in late August, he limped to a 5.87 ERA over his final six starts.
Even with that slow finish, the stage seemed set for Jones to team with Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller to form the nucleus of an outstanding rotation for years to come. That trio, with top prospect Bubba Chandler looming in Triple-A, gives the Bucs an enviable core of high-end pitching around which to build. That’s still the case, but Jones’ inclusion in the group will be delayed into at least early 2026 and perhaps all the way into the latter stages of next season, depending on what type of surgery he ultimately requires.
Pittsburgh isn’t short on promising young arms even beyond the names listed thus far. Righties Thomas Harrington and Braxton Ashcraft are both highly regarded. Twenty-five-year-old Mike Burrows was just recalled after a strong start in Triple-A this season and will start tomorrow’s game in place of righty Carmen Mlodzinski, who’s been optioned back to the minors after a rough stretch to begin the season. Generally speaking, the Bucs are deep in young, high-upside arms but lack that same type of talent on the position-player side of things. Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart are the only above-average hitters on the Pirates’ big league roster this season, and the bulk of the bats on whom they’ve staked their hopes on throughout this rebuild have not developed as hoped.
As for Valdez, he came to the Pirates in a December swap with the Red Sox. Boston had designated him for assignment and flipped him to Pittsburgh in exchange for minor league righty Joe Vogatsky. Valdez started the season decently, hitting .227/.329/.424 (108 wRC+) in April while holding a part-time role. He spent time at first base, second base and (very briefly) in right field along the way. The 26-year-old tallied just four hits in his next 26 trips to the plate before landing on the injured list, however. His season will end with a .209/.294/.363 line (82 wRC+) in 102 plate appearances.
Both Jones and Valdez will spend the remainder of the season on the 60-day injured list, accruing major league service time and pay along the way. Both players entered the season with one-plus years of big league service and will cross the two-year threshold while rehabbing from surgeries. They’ll both be under team control for an additional four seasons, although as an offseason DFA pickup, Valdez’s standing with the team is obviously more tenuous than that of Jones — a former second-round pick and top prospect who’s viewed as a foundational piece of the team’s future.
Valdez will have a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, but it’s possible he’ll be removed from the 40-man roster at season’s end to give the Bucs some more roster flexibility heading into the winter.
Hayden Wesneski To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Astros right-hander Hayden Wesneski is set to undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) this afternoon. Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle relays that the Astros expect him back at some point during the 2026 campaign. A more specific timetable for his return won’t be known until after the procedure, which is expected to be performed in Dallas by Dr. Keith Meister later this week. In any case, he’ll miss the remainder of the 2025 season and presumably at least the first half of 2026 as well.
The news brings an abrupt end to Wesneski’s first season in Houston. The 27-year-old was acquired from the Cubs alongside All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes and top prospect Cam Smith in the deal that shipped longtime Astros star Kyle Tucker to Chicago back in December. Initially drafted by the Yankees in the sixth-round of the 2019 draft, Wesneski was traded to the Cubs in exchange for right-handed reliever Scott Effross at the 2022 trade deadline and went on to spend parts of three seasons as a swing man on the north side. Wesneski pitched 190 innings total across 22 starts and 46 relief outings for the Cubs from 2022 to 2024, and in that time he posted fairly pedestrian numbers with a 3.93 ERA (106 ERA+) and a 4.74 FIP. His 23.0% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate were both solid, but his production was generally held back by a penchant for allowing homers.
Among pitchers with at least 180 innings of work over that three-year span, Wesneski’s home run rate was ninth-highest. That’s certainly not ideal, and that proclivity towards the long ball held Wesneski back from reaching what many evaluators viewed as a mid-rotation ceiling during his time with the Cubs. The Astros saw something they liked, however, as they not only traded for him as part of the Tucker deal but also gave him a spot in their Opening Day rotation. The righty was serviceable but unspectacular, with a 4.50 ERA and 4.79 FIP across six starts that both clocked in just a bit worse than league average. Home run issues persisted for Wesneski, but a reduced 4.6% walk rate was enough for some of his advanced metrics to improve, such as a 3.68 SIERA that clocked in well below his career mark.
Whether he’ll be able to push his actual production into a range closer to those peripheral numbers has become a question for another time, however. The right-hander was placed on the injured list with elbow discomfort nine days ago, and initial testing on his elbow did not provide much clarity about what issues Wesneski was facing until a follow-up appointment with Meister confirmed that the righty would need to go under the knife. While the Astros have said that Wesneski is expected back next year, Rome notes that the hurler is eligible for arbitration for the first time in his career this offseason and suggests that could make him a potential non-tender candidate this winter if he’s not expected to contribute much in 2026, as was the case with former Astro Jose Urquidy this past winter.
In the meantime, the Astros will left to rely on a rotation mix that just got a little less deep for 2025. Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, and Lance McCullers Jr. are currently joined by rookie Colton Gordon in the rotation, with Ryan Gusto in the bullpen as a swing option. Spencer Arrighetti, Luis Garcia, and Cristian Javier are all expected back at some point this season from the injured list to provide additional reinforcements, but the timeline for all three remains murky.
Dodgers Release Chris Taylor
The Dodgers announced that outfielder Chris Taylor has been released, in order to open up roster space for Tommy Edman‘s activation from the 10-day injured list. Edman returns after missing a little more than two weeks due to ankle inflammation, but the bigger headline is the end of Taylor’s nine-year run in Dodger Blue.
The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya initially reported that Taylor had been designated for assignment, and Ardaya and several other members of the Dodgers beat noted that Taylor didn’t have a locker in the team’s clubhouse today, but the transaction was a straight release, rather than what might’ve been a token stay for Taylor in DFA limbo. Since obviously no team was going to claim Taylor off waivers and take on the remainder of his salary, the Dodgers instead chose to just cut ties more promptly.
Taylor came to the Dodgers back in June 2016, as the return in an under-the-radar trade that sent Zach Lee to the Mariners. Taylor was a useful utility infield piece for L.A. over the remainder of that season, but the full breakout didn’t come until the next season, when Taylor suddenly hit .288/.354/.496 with 21 homers over 568 regular-season plate appearances, and then won NLCS MVP honors to help the Dodgers reach the World Series. He went onto deliver solidly above-average numbers through the 2021 season, and then re-signed with the team on a four-year, $60MM free agent deal that also includes a $12MM club option (and $4MM buyout) for 2026.
Things weren’t the same after that big long-term deal was inked. Taylor hit .265/.343/.461 over 2382 PA from 2017-21, but that production plummeted to a .222/.307/.369 slash line over 1119 PA since Opening Day 2022. A decrease in playing time naturally followed, and by this season, Taylor had become a sparingly used bench piece on the star-studded Los Angeles roster, appearing in 28 games but with only 35 trips to the plate.
While his struggles over the last few seasons have marred the end of his Dodgers tenure, Taylor (who turns 35 in August) has unquestionably been a big figure in the team’s success over the last decade. Taylor became something of a poster child for the Dodgers’ ability for getting great results out of previously unheralded players, and his ability to play all over the diamond made him a valuable utility option. Taylor has made at least 174 MLB appearances as a shortstop, second baseman, left fielder, and center fielder, plus he has also logged plenty of time in right field and at third base. His NLCS MVP award and two World Series rings were the highlights of a postseason career that saw Taylor bat .247/.351/.441 over 266 playoff plate appearances.
There is some irony that Taylor’s release came at the same time as Edman’s return from the IL, as Edman has essentially taken over Taylor’s old role as a multi-position threat. With Enrique Hernandez, Miguel Rojas, and the newly-signed Hyeseong Kim now all getting more playing time or taking up room on the bench, the Dodgers decided it was time to move on from Taylor entirely.
Los Angeles owes Taylor the remainder of his $13MM salary for 2025 (roughly $9.55MM still to go), as well as the $4MM buyout of his 2026 option. If another team signs Taylor, that club will owe him only the prorated MLB minimum salary for any time he spends on their active roster. That sum will be subtracted from the remainder of the money the Dodgers owe to Taylor.