• The Brewers signed right-hander Jesus Castillo to a minor-league deal that includes and invite to Major League camp, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The 24-year-old Venezuelan signed with the Diamondbacks as an international amateur in 2012 and has since spent time in the minors with the Cubs and Angels organizations. Last year, Castillo reached the Double-A level and enjoyed arguably his best season as a professional, splitting time between the bullpen and the starting rotation. in 99 2/3 innings of work with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate in Mobile, Castillo posted a 2.71 ERA while striking out 80 batters. While his strikeout and walk numbers are nothing special, Castillo has done well throughout his minor league career to suppress the long ball: in eight seasons across several levels of the minors, he’s conceded just 0.6 homers per nine innings pitched.
• The Giants signed former Cubs farmhand Trey McNutt, tweets Matt Daniels, the Giants’ Coordinator of Pitching Sciences. McNutt, 30, signed with the Cubs in 2009 after being drafted in the 32nd round out of Shelton State Community College. He spent some time in the Padres system before two years in the Independent League (2017, 2018). He posted good strikeout rates while throwing 65 innings of 5.12 ERA baseball for the A’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2019. Daniels tracked McNutt at least through his independent league days, and the Giants’ pitching coordinator seems to believe in the righty’s ability to continue to improve, despite being quite a few years older than most farmhands. Still, after the success of Nick Anderson in Miami and Tampa Bay (whose career tracked a similar path), McNutt’s chances of making his major league debut are far from dead, and a year from now, he could very well be the Merrill Kelly to Anderson’s Miles Mikolas.

Mar. 27: The Angels announced their previously reported waiver claim of outfielder Brian Goodwin, adding that they’ve designated right-hander Jesus Castillo for assignment in order to open space on the 40-man roster.

Castillo originally came to the Angels in the 2016 trade that sent righty Joe Smith to the Cubs,. The 23-year-old spent the 2018 season with the Angels’ Double-A affiliate, pitching to a 4.94 ERA with 5.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.6 HR/9 and a 45.4 percent ground-ball rate. That represented a significant step back from a 2017 season in which Castillo recorded a 3.32 ERA with a 118-to-26 K/BB ratio in 124 2/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. The Halos will now have a week to trade Castillo or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.