Walsh, 30, once looked like a mainstay of the lineup for the Angels. He hit nine home runs in the shortened 2020 season and then added another 29 the year after. His .280/.338/.531 batting line in that time translated to a wRC+ of 130, indicating he was 30% better than the league average hitter. He wasn’t considered a strong defender but the bat was clearly enticing.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been anywhere near that level since, with injuries holding him back. He hit .215/.269/.374 in 2022, with that season ultimately ended by thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. He returned in 2023 but battled neurological issues, including insomnia and headaches, something he discussed with Sam Blum of The Athletic in May. He hit just .125/.216/.279 in 39 major league games last year, getting passed through waivers twice. The second such instance was in October and he elected free agency afterwards.

For the Rangers, they have Nathaniel Lowe at first base but don’t have a strict designated hitter. If Walsh were able to get over his recent health issues and return to that strong form he showed a few years ago, he would be a candidate to take over the bulk of the DH at-bats, while also providing depth for a possible Lowe injury. If he were to get back in form and earn himself a roster spot, he could be retained for future seasons via arbitration, though he is out of options.

Duffy, 33, is a veteran utility guy. He spent 2023 with the Royals and hit .251/.306/.325 in his 209 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 72. That offense is obviously subpar, but he provided the club with defensive versatility. He spent some time at all four infield positions and even tossed two innings of mop-up duty on the mound. He’s also played a bit of left field in previous seasons.

The Rangers have Lowe at first, with the rest of the infield set to be filled out by Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Josh Jung. They also have infielders like Ezequiel Durán, Jonathan Ornelas, Josh H. Smith and Justin Foscue on the roster, but Duffy will add a bit of veteran non-roster depth.

Taylor, 28, pitched in 92 major league games for the Astros over the 2020 to 2022 seasons. He allowed just 3.06 earned runs per nine frames over 79 1/3 innings combined, but a bit of luck may have been involved. His 19.1% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate were both a few ticks worse than average, while his .249 batting average on balls in play and 79.3% strand rate were both on the fortunate side. His 4.65 FIP and 4.94 SIERA each suggest he may have deserved worse results than the ERA might indicate.

In 2023, he began the year on the injured list due to a left elbow strain. He was activated a couple of weeks later and optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land. He made 35 appearances for the Space Cowboys with a 5.15 ERA, 14.9% strikeout rate and 13.1% walk rate. He was released in August.

The Rangers lost lefties Aroldis Chapman and Will Smith to free agency and then non-tendered Brett Martin. Their southpaw relief contingent now consists of Brock Burke, Jake Latz and Antoine Kelly. They could also have Cody Bradford back there if he’s not working out of the rotation. Taylor will give them some non-roster depth with a bit of major league experience under his belt. If he is able to earn his way back to the majors, he does have one option year remaining.

Taylor made 92 appearances for Houston between 2020-22. The southpaw was generally successful at keeping runs off the board, working to a 3.06 ERA through 79 1/3 innings. Neither his 19.1% strikeout rate nor 12.6% walk percentage were particularly impressive, though, and Taylor had increasingly been pushed to low-leverage work.

He’d spent all of 2023 on optional assignment to Sugar Land. The 27-year-old carried a 5.15 ERA over 36 2/3 frames there, walking over 13% of batters faced against a modest 14.9% strikeout rate. He lost his roster spot earlier this week when Houston snagged Jake Cousins off waivers from Milwaukee.

Perez was the roster casualty from the Justin Verlander trade. The 23-year-old has one major league appearance, which came as a pinch-hitter last season. A former second-round pick, the righty-hitting Perez has a below-average .255/.328/.399 slash over 357 Triple-A plate appearances this year. Prospect evaluators have credited the 6’1″ corner infielder with promising raw power but swing-and-miss concerns. He’s gone down on strikes at a lofty 27.2% clip this season.

Cousins, 29, was first added to Milwaukee’s roster in June of 2021. He made 30 appearances for them the rest of the way, allowing 2.70 earned runs per nine innings. He struck out 35.2% of batters faced and kept 47.4% of balls in play on the ground, but also issued walks at a 15.2% clip. In 2022, he missed most of the year with a right elbow effusion, or a build up of fluid in the area. He was only able to make 12 appearances with the big league club.

Here in 2023, Cousins was frequently optioned to Triple-A and recalled for the first few months of the season. He made nine appearances with the big league club, posting a 4.82 ERA. He’s also made 13 Triple-A appearances with a 7.30 ERA, though a .533 batting average in balls in play and 58.3% strand rate are clearly inflating that number in the small sample.

The Brewers evidently tried to quietly sneak Cousins through waivers to open a roster spot, though the Astros swooped in to stop that from happening. He’s struck out 31.4% of major league hitters he’s faced in his career but has also walked 16.2% of them. They will surely try to help him better harness his stuff as he provides them with some bullpen depth. He has a pair of option years remaining, one of which he’s burning here in 2023, but can be sent to the minors for one more season in the future.

In order to take a shot on Cousins, the Astros are risking losing Taylor, who originally came to Houston in the 2019 trade that sent Jake Marisnick to the Mets. Taylor spent most of 2020 to 2022 with the big league club in Houston, making 92 appearances with a 3.06 ERA, 19.1% strikeout rate, 12.6% walk rate and 44.3% ground ball rate. Here in 2023, he began the season on the injured list due to a left elbow strain. He was activated in mid-April and immediately optioned to Triple-A. He’s made 35 appearances at that level with a 5.15 ERA. His 43.7% ground ball rate there has been solid but his 14.9% strikeout rate and 13.1% walk rate are both well worse than average.

The Astros will now have a week to trade Taylor or pass him through waivers, though the timeline on the trade option is much tighter with tomorrow’s deadline. Left-handed relief tends to always be in demand and Taylor still has an option year beyond this one, though time will tell if his poor results this year dampen the interest from rival clubs.

The 38-year-old Gurriel told Young that “leaving my teammates behind after seven years is something that truly affects you” but added that he’s looking forward to starting a new chapter with a new club. The Astros, of course, signed Jose Abreu to a three-year contract early in the offseason, apparently deciding that it was simply time to move on from Gurriel after a down year in 2022.

More on the ’Stros…

• Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., who’ll open the season on the injured list due to a forearm strain, says he’s been cleared to resume lifting weights and throwing a baseball (link via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). McCullers started a throwing program on Saturday and is playing catch every other day. He’ll sit down with the training staff at some point over the next week and map out a more concrete plan to ramp up for a return, assuming the light throwing and lifting he’s doing right now continue to proceed without issue. A forearm strain also limited McCullers to just eight regular-season starts in 2021, and he missed the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery. When healthy, he has of course been a highly productive pitcher, evidenced by a 3.39 ERA over his past 393 1/3 MLB frames, dating back to 2018. McCullers is entering the second season of a five-year, $85MM contract extension that was signed two years ago (nearly to the day). Top prospect Hunter Brown is expected to open the season in Houston’s rotation in his place.
• Manager Dusty Baker said this week that southpaw Parker Mushinski is “probably not” going to be ready in time for Opening Day, Young writes in a separate piece. The 27-year-old has been out with back spasms and has yet to pitch in a spring game. He allowed three runs in 7 1/3 frames during last year’s MLB debut after pitching to a 2.66 ERA in 40 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. Fellow lefty Blake Taylor has also been sidelined due to elbow troubles, and while he’s on a throwing program, he’s not even a lock to get into a spring game. That pair of injuries could create an opportunity for February waiver claim Matt Gage to open the season in the Houston bullpen. The Astros don’t have another lefty on the roster, though Austin Davis is in camp as a non-roster invitee after agreeing to a minor league deal over the winter. Gage has thrown five shutout innings with a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio this spring. Davis has tossed five innings of one-run ball but walked six along the way.

Díaz missed a bit less than a month with a left groin issue. That interrupted what has been a solid season for the utilityman, who carries a .252/.303/.417 line over 274 trips. Díaz has connected on ten homers and only struck out in 16.8% of his plate appearances, displaying a solid blend of contact skills and power off the bench. He’s been a roughly league average hitter for most of his four years in Houston while offering some cover all around the infield and in the corner outfield.

His return adds to the club’s infield depth and perhaps made it easier to take Jones off the roster. Jones has played all four corner spots (primarily the infield) in the minor leagues. The former 19th-round pick has appeared at the big league level in each of the past three seasons, although he’s only taken a single plate appearance this year. Over 131 career plate appearances, he carries a .234/.260/.395 line with a trio of longballs.

That’s obviously not great offensive output, but Jones has a solid track record in the minors. The 6’7″ righty has hit .279/.377/.487 in parts of four seasons at Triple-A. That includes a useful .263/.370/.456 mark across 322 plate appearances with Sugar Land this season, with the Gonzaga product demonstrating a decent combination of plate discipline and power. Those numbers are also a bit deflated by some struggles early on while Jones was making his return from a back injury that landed him on the IL to start the season. He’s been hitting very well for the Space Cowboys going back to the start of August.

Nevertheless, the Astros will have to place him on waivers in the next few days. The 28-year-old is in his final minor league option year, so any team that claims him could stash him in Triple-A for the rest of this season but would have to carry him on next year’s Opening Day roster or again make him available to other teams.

As for Taylor, he’s been out since early June with left elbow discomfort. The southpaw has spent the past month on a rehab assignment, using up the allotted 30-day window for injured pitchers to build back into game shape. Houston will keep him in the minors on optional assignment but had to bring him back off the 60-day IL now that he’s healthy. The 27-year-old worked to a solid 3.94 ERA through 16 innings before the injury, but a 12% strikeout rate paired with a 13.3% walk percentage was rather alarming.

The return of Lorenzen won’t be terribly significant for the Angels, since they are 13 1/2 games out of a playoff spot and won’t be in competition during the final weeks of the season. However, it will be an important stretch for Lorenzen personally as he will be heading back into free agency in a few months.

During his time with the Reds, he was frequently deployed as a reliever. But when he reached free agency, he went looking for an opportunity to return to starting, which he found with the Angels. Signed to a one-year, $6.75MM deal, Lorenzen’s return to the rotation went well for a few months. He had a 3.45 ERA through mid-June, having made ten starts. Unfortunately, he allowed 16 earned runs over his next three, ballooning his ERA 4.94. At this point, one could argue that Lorenzen proved himself a capable starter that was just waylaid by an injury, while a pessimist could say he proved he’s better suited to shorter stints out of the bullpen. Teams on the lookout for pitching this winter will keep an eye on how he fares in the coming weeks, with Lorenzen surely hoping to tip the scales with a strong finish to the campaign.

Some other notes from around the Junior Circuit…

• Astros lefty Blake Taylor is being pulled off his rehab assignment, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. General manager James Click says that Taylor is dealing with “posterior elbow discomfort.” Taylor’s been on the IL since June due to elbow discomfort. Click tried to downplay the update, but the fact that the rehab is being paused is noteworthy. With just over six weeks remaining in the season, there’s not much time left to restart a rehab and get back to the team. The club has been shorthanded in terms of left-handed relief all year, with Taylor’s 16 innings leading the team. Deadline acquisition Will Smith is currently the only southpaw in the bullpen. However, it seems the team can probably do just fine regardless, as lefties have hit just .217/.299/.299 against Houston’s bullpen overall this year.
• White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal left Saturday’s game with an obvious injury, having to be helped off the field. With only about six weeks left on the schedule, some folks were understandably worried that his season might have ended right then and there. Thankfully, it’s been nothing but good news since. Yesterday, the club announced that further testing revealed no serious damage and that Grandal could return to action in 10-14 days. Today, Grandal is walking around the clubhouse as if the injury never occurred, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Manager Tony La Russa says that Grandal is getting treatment but also swinging in the cage already. The backstop is having a down year, particularly in the power department. He only has three homers on the season, after hitting more than 20 in each of the previous five full seasons. But he still walks in 12.4% of his plate appearances and could be a difference maker if he can quickly return to health and rediscover his power stroke.

Lee is a former supplemental first-rounder, having been taken 32nd overall in the 2019 draft. A Cal-Berkeley product, he hadn’t been seen by many public prospect evaluators as a first-round talent at the time. Houston’s decision to nab him early looks strong in retrospect, as Lee has played his way to the majors a little less than three years later.

The righty-hitting backstop has also raised his stock in the eyes of most evaluators. Each of Baseball America and FanGraphs placed him among the game’s top 100 overall prospects heading into the season. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN and Keith Law of the Athletic each placed him just outside their top 100 and ranked him among the three best farmhands in the Houston system.

Across the board, those outlets suggested Lee could develop into a capable #1 catcher at his peak. His carrying tool is an arm that garners grades between plus and plus-plus (a 60 or 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale), and he’s generally regarded as a solid or better overall defender. Lee’s bat is more of a question, as he’s struggled against upper level pitching after mashing in the low minors.

The 2022 season has been particularly challenging, as Lee carries only a .226/.285/.419 line with ten home runs through 270 plate appearances at Triple-A Sugar Land. He’s flashed some power, with a .194 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) that’s north of the league average, but he’s only walked in 6.7% of his plate appearances against an elevated 27% strikeout rate.

Given those struggles against upper minors pitching, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Lee eventually optioned back to Sugar Land. The Astros have long placed a premium on defense behind the plate, though, as evidenced by their commitment to the light-hitting Martín Maldonado in recent years. Maldonado will remain the primary option, while Lee will take Castro’s spot as his backup while the latter is out. Houston would’ve had to add Lee to the 40-man roster at the end of this season anyhow to keep him from being taken in next winter’s Rule 5 draft.

Taylor, meanwhile, has been out since June 4 with discomfort in his throwing elbow. There’s no clear timetable for his return, and he’ll now be ineligible to pitch in the majors until the first week of August. Injuries to Taylor and Parker Mushinski have left manager Dusty Baker to handle an all right-handed bullpen at times, and it stands to reason the front office will look into acquiring a southpaw over the next few weeks.

Urquidy hit the IL on May 16 due to right shoulder discomfort, though that potentially ominous-sounding diagnosis wasn’t considered too serious.  The right-hander will indeed return in pretty short order, and he’ll look to continue what has thus far been a solid 2021 season.  Urquidy has a 3.22 ERA and a very strong 5.1% walk rate over 44 2/3 innings, though advanced metrics (such as a 4.58 SIERA) haven’t been as impressed with his work.  Urquidy has both a low strikeout rate (18.6%) and grounder rate (28.5%), and he has been relying on a lot of soft contact and some batted-ball luck (.242 BABIP) to retire batters.

Taylor has been out of action since suffering a right ankle sprain on April 17, and he has been on a Triple-A rehab assignment since last week.  Taylor made his MLB debut last season, and he has a 3.12 ERA, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 12.3% walk rate over 26 total innings in the big leagues.  With Kent Emanuel still on the IL, Brooks Raley has been the only other left-hander in Houston’s bullpen, so Taylor’s return will add some depth in that area.

The lineup will continue to be shorthanded, however, as manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome) that neither Yuli Gurriel or Yordan Alvarez are available for today’s game, though both are “close” to returning.  Alvarez appears to be the nearest of the two, though Baker said he “nixed” the idea of Alvarez in the lineup in order to give the young slugger another day of recovery.

This will make it five games missed for Alvarez due to a wrist problem, while Gurriel is now on track to miss his third game due to inflammation in his left middle finger.  Baker did say Gurriel would return at some point during Houston’s four-game series with the Red Sox that begins today.

“It’s a situation where they’re not hurt badly enough where you can put them on ten days and lose them, so you’d rather wait two or three days extra and not lose them for ten,” Baker said.

The Astros still scored 15 runs in the two games without Gurriel and Alvarez in the lineup, though naturally the team would like to have two of its best hitters back as soon as possible.  Both players have hit seven home runs this season, with Gurriel hitting .309/.380/.511 in 205 PA and Alvarez hitting .310/.343/.525 over 169 PA.

Baker also told McTaggart and company that he is hopeful Lance McCullers Jr. can be back in the rotation by the “middle of June.”  McCullers was placed on the 10-day IL on May 26 due to right shoulder soreness but, like Urquidy, the issue as thought to be pretty minor.  McCullers is playing catch in the outfield today, Baker said.  Over 51 2/3 innings this season, McCullers has a 2.96 ERA/4.02 SIERA, despite allowing a lot of hard contact.

More injury updates from the American League…

• The Astros have been hit hard by injuries this season, but two notable reinforcements could be on the way back.  Jose Altuve took some swings in the batting cage yesterday and left-hander Blake Taylor could begin throwing as early as today, manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome).  Altuve was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right knee sprain on September 5, while Taylor hit the IL two days later with soreness in his throwing elbow.  Should both continue to recover with no setbacks, the players could be activated from the injured list for the Astros’ upcoming series against the Rangers, with Altuve eligible for activation tomorrow (a Houston off-day) and Taylor on Wednesday.
• Rays right-hander Oliver Drake is set to be activated off the 10-day injured list on Tuesday, manager Kevin Cash told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and other media.  Drake has missed over a month of action due to right biceps tendinitis, and has tossed only 5 1/3 innings in 2020.  Drake was a standout performer out of Tampa’s bullpen in 2019, with a 3.21 ERA, 3.68 K/BB rate, and 11.3 K/9 over 56 innings.  The Rays are slowly starting to get some of their many injured hurlers back, though Drake is one of eight pitchers currently on the IL, several of whom are out with season-ending injuries.
• After this look at the AL’s injury picture, check out this pack of National League injury notes from earlier today on MLBTR.

Houston has gone without Bregman since he suffered a strained right hamstring on Aug. 19, temporarily depriving the club of one of baseball’s greatest talents. Bregman’s production has dipped a bit compared to the previous couple seasons, but his output has still been outstanding this season. The 26-year-old slashed .272/.374/.500 (139 wRC+) with four home runs in 107 plate appearances before hitting the IL. The Astros have since turned to Abraham Toro, Jack Mayfield and Aledmys Diaz at the hot corner, but those three have registered terrible numbers this season. Plus, having dropped four straight to fall to 21-19, the Astros as a whole have slumped of late, so they’ll be all the more pleased to welcome Bregman back.

Meantime, the news isn’t nearly as positive for Houston’s pitching staff, which lost left-hander Blake Taylor and righty Chris Devenski to the IL with elbow problems on Monday, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets. The Astros will use righties Chase De Jong and Humberto Castellanos to take their open roster spots.

The rookie Taylor, 25, has been a bright spot for an Astros relief corps that has dealt with injuries to the likes of Roberto Osuna and Brad Peacock, among others. In his first 17 major league frames, Taylor has posted a 2.12 ERA/4.09 FIP with 7.94 K/9 and a 51.1 percent groundball rate, though he has walked 5.82 batters per nine. Devenski, formerly a key cog for Houston’s bullpen, has been battling elbow issues throughout the season. He made two appearances in July, missed all of August and then totaled another two appearances this month (on Sept. 5 and 6), in which he combined for 1 2/3 innings of three-run ball, before going back to the IL.

Taylor, 24, has been a member of the Mets organization for more than a decade. The 2013 second-round pick of the Pirates joined New York in the teams’ 2014 swap centering on Ike Davis. Taylor was a somewhat highly touted prospect during his draft class, of course, though he hasn’t climbed above the Triple-A level yet. He did dominate in Double-A ball this year, though, as the left-hander posted a 1.85 ERA/2.61 FIP with 10.38 K/9, 2.77 BB/9 and a 50.5 percent groundball rate in 39 innings.

It hasn’t been long since Gonsalves, 25, was a top 100 prospect, and now the southpaw’s days with the Twins are over after a lengthy run as a member of the organization. Gonsalves had been with Minnesota since it grabbed him in the fourth round of the 2013 draft. However, control problems have haunted Gonsalves in recent years, especially during his only taste of the majors in 2018, and he barely pitched at all this season. Elbow and forearm problems limited Gonsalves to a total of 13 innings among three different minor league levels in 2019, but the Mets will nonetheless take a chance on the once-promising hurler.

At the time of the trade, it was reported that the PTBNL would be more significant than the other piece the Mets received in minor league righty Zack Thornton.  The soon-to-be 19-year-old probably comes with more upside than the 26-year-old Thornton, but this may not be the impact prospect that some Mets fans had in mind.  In seven starts and one relief appearance in rookie ball last season, Taylor pitched to a 2.57 ERA with 5.6 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9.

Taylor was ranked as the 40th-best prospect of the 2013 draft class by ESPN’s Keith Law (Insider subscription needed) and was also ranked 55th by Baseball America and ranked 61st by MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo.

The Mets announced (via Twitter) that Taylor will report to the rookie-level Gulf Coast Mets.