Why aren’t Roman Anthony and Jac Caglianone in the majors yet — and when will they get called up?
THE CALLS GET louder by the day. In Boston, where the Red Sox have stumbled to a 27-31 start, the caterwauling for the promotion of the best prospect in baseball, outfielder Roman Anthony, is pointed and shrill. In Kansas City, where Royals outfielders have combined for seven home runs in more than 600 plate appearances, the pleas for the arrival of the best power hitter in the minor leagues, Jac Caglianone, are about to enter their third month.
So, why isn’t Anthony patrolling the outfield at Fenway Park? And why isn’t Caglianone in the middle of a Royals lineup starving for offense? And if not now, when will they arrive?
While the answers are likely to be dissatisfactory to those awaiting push notifications announcing the game’s most eagerly anticipated promotions, the reasons reflect how executives approach the great unknowns inherent in baseball — and the rarity with which a rookie instantaneously changes the fortunes of a franchise.
The Red Sox are seeing the vagaries of trusting a rookie in real time. Along with Anthony, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and infielder/outfielder Kristian Campbell formed the greatest position-playing prospect trio in a decade coming into the 2025 season. Campbell broke camp with Boston and after the season’s first month looked the part of a star. Since then, he has gone 9-for-79 and posted the worst OPS of any hitter in Major League Baseball.
“It’s really difficult to predict that someone is going to be successful out of the gate,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told ESPN this week. “You’re making these long-term, probabilistic bets that guys who perform the way Kristian and Marcelo and Roman have tend to be productive big leaguers. But does that happen in Week 1, Month 1, Season 1? You don’t know. You try to round out their development as well as possible. It’s really important that communication between our major league staff and player-development group is seamless so we know exactly what their training, game-planning and routines look like so we can control as many of those variables as possible knowing what we can’t control.”
What Breslow and Royals general manager J.J. Picollo do control is the debuts of Anthony and Caglianone. And despite being the two most impressive hitters in the minor leagues this season, they’re still waiting.
EARLY IN SPRING training, a Royals official laid out a potential timeline for Caglianone’s ascent to the big leagues. Fortune had struck the previous July when the 6-foot-5, 250-pound, power-hitting, gas-throwing two-way player slipped to them with the sixth pick in the 2024 draft. Caglianone, the official said, would start at Double-A, ditch pitching and get most of his reps at first base — where he had played at the University of Florida — before transitioning to Triple-A and spending most of his time in right field to prepare for where he could be needed most in the majors.
The fear over Kansas City’s outfield depth was acute. The Royals made the 2024 postseason in spite of their outfield, and they returned a similar group this season with similar results so far: a combined .236/.285/.332 line. Caglianone himself has twice as many home runs as all the Royals’ outfielders put together. In a four-game stretch last week following his promotion to Triple-A, he hit five home runs, nearly as many as Kansas City’s outfield collective has hit all season.
With every towering drive, Caglianone has strengthened his case to get the call to Kansas City and rescue a Royals team with otherworldly pitching and the inverse offensively. And that only hardened Picollo’s stance that both Caglianone and the organization would benefit from the young slugger getting more seasoning in the minor leagues.
“The hardest part about this for us is we’re trying to do what’s best for the player,” Picollo said this week. “That’s ultimately what this is. You want the player to be as prepared as he can when he comes in the major leagues. It’s not fair to any player, whether it’s Jac Caglianone or whoever, when a team may be scuffling offensively to try to put it on him and hope he’s going to come save the day.”
Not only is Kansas City sticking to the plan it mapped out before the season, it’s doing so with a purpose. For all of his power — he hit a ground ball nearly 121 mph earlier this year and his 111.6-mph, 90th-percentile exit velocity would top current major league leaderboards — Caglianone’s propensity to swing at pitches outside the strike zone remains a flaw in his game.
Caglianone dropped to the sixth pick last summer almost entirely on account of fear over his chase rate. Nearly everything else about his game screamed star, but in his final season at Florida, he offered at 41.6% of pitches out of the strike zone — a number exceeded by only five qualified big league players this season. For a man of his size and strength, Caglianone possessed uncommon bat-to-ball skills, but his swing decisions needed fixing.
The improvements he has made are tangible. By no means did Caglianone turn overnight into Juan Soto, who swings at the fewest pitches out of the zone in MLB. Caglianone’s chase rate is down to 34.2%, though, and that’s facing competition in the upper minor leagues whose talent and stuff dwarf the vast majority of SEC pitching.
“We just want him to face more advanced pitching in Triple-A, see how they game-plan for him, how he adapts and makes adjustments,” Picollo said. “Not just game-to-game but at-bat-to-at-bat. Is he learning how better, more skilled pitchers can execute a game plan? Is he learning from that and is he making those adjustments?”
For the most part, yes. Before his promotion to Triple-A, the Royals impressed upon the 22-year-old Caglianone the importance of swinging at the right pitches. Caglianone is so talented, so dexterous in his bat-to-ball skills and, above all, so capable of performing at elite levels in spite of them that there’s a compelling argument that he belongs in the big leagues regardless of his flaws. The counterargument — that not only is Caglianone chasing too much still, but his two-strike chase rate this year has jumped to 49.2%, the sort of thing major league pitchers will happily exploit — is one the Royals believe worth addressing before any promotion.
Picollo doesn’t know if that’s the proper call. He loves Caglianone, wants him in Kansas City sooner rather than later. Already Caglianone is taking to right field — “For having only done it for a couple weeks,” Picollo said, “it’s been pretty positive” — and the reasons for him not supplanting one of Kansas City’s outfielders dwindle by the day.
The Royals’ Triple-A team is in the midst of a two-week homestand, and if Caglianone continues his solid outfield play and further cuts into his chase rate, he could debut soon thereafter, according to a source familiar with Kansas City’s plans.
“I don’t want to put a timetable on it, but we want to see it for a little bit,” Picollo said. “I mean, this first week was great, but we certainly weren’t saying when he went to Double-A, ‘Have a good first week and bring him to Kansas City.'”
Royals fans were. And that’s to be expected. No other sport has the buildup to a debut quite like baseball. Even on an accelerated path like Caglianone’s, it’s an ever-present consideration. In the case of Anthony, it has been years in the making.
SOON AFTER THE Red Sox chose Roman Anthony out of Stoneman Douglas High with the 79th pick in the 2022 draft, members of the front office would tell one another in hushed tones: We stole him. A tweak to his swing unleashed the full extent of his power and with the elite swing decisions he had shown during his amateur career, Anthony quickly became an arrow-up prospect.
At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he cut the figure of a middle-of-the-order bat, and in his first full season, Anthony did more than look the part, jumping from Low-A to Double-A at 19. He kept hitting last year, finishing the season on a hot streak at Triple-A and picking right back up this year, hitting .320/.452/.529 with eight home runs and as many walks as strikeouts in 48 games.
The chorus pleading for Anthony to make the 45-mile drive from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Boston has likewise grown. Breslow hears it. Not just from fans but also from officials inside the organization who believe Anthony should be in the big leagues today.
“You try to make these decisions as unemotionally as possible, which is really, really difficult because the rest of the organization and I are incredibly invested in the success of this team,” Breslow said. “You try to build out the best process you can when emotions aren’t high so you can approach it as rationally as possible.”
The rational case for keeping Anthony in the minor leagues is twofold. The first involves similar markers to Kansas City’s for Caglianone. While Anthony doesn’t struggle with chase — his 17.6% rate would rank fifth in MLB, behind Soto, Gleyber Torres, Trent Grisham and Kyle Tucker — his propensity to hit the ball on the ground gives Boston pause. Plenty of good players have ground ball rates in the same neighborhood as Anthony’s 52% — among them: Elly De La Cruz, Jacob Wilson, Fernando Tatis Jr., James Wood, Gunnar Henderson, Soto — but combine that with a low number of balls pulled in the air and it suggests Anthony has even more to unlock.
The second is because, unlike in Kansas City, Boston’s lineup is packed with strong performers including an outfield seemingly with no spot for Anthony. Left fielder Jarren Duran last year put up the most Wins Above Replacement from a Red Sox player since Mookie Betts’ departure. Multiple teams’ internal defensive metrics suggest Ceddanne Rafaela is the best defensive center fielder in baseball. Right fielder Wilyer Abreu is hitting 30% better than league average. Boston’s best bat, Rafael Devers, is a full-time designated hitter.
Options do exist. The Red Sox could shift Rafaela to second base, slide Campbell to first and free up a spot for Anthony. They could sit shortstop Trevor Story — like Campbell, he’s in a monthlong swoon — and move Rafaela there. But these sorts of permutations remove an elite defensive center fielder from his best position, and that’s something other organizations wouldn’t even consider, even if Rafaela’s offense has been paltry.
“We have to be willing to react and pivot to all the variables in front of us,” Breslow said. “Things change. Guys get hurt. The lineup doesn’t look exactly the same as we thought it would on Opening Day. We try to balance all these things.”
Striking that balance isn’t easy. Anthony has been so good and is so polished for a player who just turned 21 that the Red Sox, mired in mediocrity and without slugging third baseman Alex Bregman for an extended period, are potentially wasting an opportunity for Anthony to help turn their season around.
That sort of thinking, Breslow said, looks past the prospect of lending too much credence to a handful of games and acting out of desperation to remedy ills that go well beyond what one player can do. So even as Anthony whacks home runs that leave the bat at 116 mph at Triple-A, Boston is sticking with its development plan, lest it promote Anthony and watch him spiral like the last No. 1 overall prospect to arrive in the American League East, Baltimore second baseman Jackson Holliday.
Following his ballyhooed debut, Holliday lasted 10 games in the big leagues before returning to Triple-A. He went 2-for-34 with 18 strikeouts and reminded that regardless of one’s minor league numbers, the relentlessness of the big leagues eats at even the most talented players. Even so, there will come a point at which Anthony’s advancement will be undeniable. It could be weeks. It could be days. He’s training to better attack in-zone fastballs, which he should punish more regularly. He’s spending more time in left field, in case Boston opts to use him there. He’s tapping into his power by focusing on elevating more.
These areas to improve are all nitpicks, a fact acknowledged by Breslow. Like Picollo with Caglianone, he has reverence for Anthony: the skills, the personality, the maturity. Breslow, who spent parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues, knows as well as anyone the challenges major league pitchers present and wants to ensure the organization handles Anthony with the utmost care, even if it’s sacrificing an unknown future for a grim present.
“We think,” Breslow said, “he’s going to be a heck of a big league player.”
IT’S SUPER 2 cutoff season. Around this time of year, first-year players arrive in the big leagues and become part of the so-called Super 2s, a group of players whose time on a major league roster is in the top 22% of their service class. Being a Super 2 comes with a privilege: an extra year of arbitration beyond the standard three, giving about a quarter of players a golden ticket to earn more than the major league minimum before their third full season.
Because Super 2 players can make millions more in the arbitration system than their peers who don’t qualify, some teams have held back their best prospects. But Picollo and Breslow insist service time has nothing to do with their decisions on Caglianone and Anthony, and considering both organizations have recently started the season with a highly touted prospect in the big leagues — Bobby Witt Jr. in 2022 and Campbell this year — neither organization is afraid to look past service-time considerations. By keeping Caglianone and Anthony down, both teams also gave up the opportunity to collect an extra draft pick as Kansas City did this year with Witt through the Prospect Promotion Incentive program, which awards teams for starting top prospects in the big leagues at the beginning of a season.
Still, the optics of keeping both in minor league systems they’ve come close to conquering while their major league offenses struggle only inflames their fan bases. The public’s view of Caglianone and Anthony is not in the moments where they’re vulnerable or still learning but rather social media clips of balls traveling unthinkable distances at silly speeds that leave teammates breathlessly recounting their exploits.
“The whole dugout feels something different when he connects,” said Royals outfielder John Rave, who spent time with Caglianone at Triple-A. “Obviously he’s a physical specimen, but, yeah, he had a couple balls this past week where you kind of put your head down and laugh. You’re like, this is a little bit ridiculous. They might have to start moving the fences back on some of these fields.”
The fences at Kauffman Stadium are plenty deep. And that’s where Caglianone is headed next. He’ll almost certainly be with the Royals when they face the Red Sox at Fenway on Aug. 4. And if everything goes according to plan, Anthony will be in the middle of the Red Sox’s starting lineup, too.
The next generation of baseball is on deck, just waiting for its time. What’s right, what’s wrong, when that is — no one really knows. But that doesn’t stop people from blaming the Royals and Red Sox anyway. Caglianone and Anthony are an inevitability, here sooner rather than later, ready to reward those anxiously awaiting their arrival.
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Kiley McDaniel
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Kiley McDaniel
ESPN MLB Insider
- ESPN MLB Insider
- Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency.
- Has worked for three MLB teams.
Co-author of Author of ‘Future Value’
The July 31 MLB trade deadline is just days away, so it’s time for a deadline week update to our top 50 trade candidates ranking.
Major League Baseball’s trade market is ever evolving, and to keep you updated, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan have put together a list of potential trade candidates based on players’ performance — and that of the teams that could be involved in potential deals.
This is the most up-to-date accounting of where MLB’s trade market stands. While some of the players on the list are unlikely to be dealt, they’re at least being discussed in potential deals. Others might be making the list for the first time this week as their team’s fortunes have changed.
Note: Players ranked by value for their new team if traded, not likelihood of being dealt.
Chance of trade: 90%
Suarez is in a contract year and playing like one of the best players in baseball. Only Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge have more home runs than his 33. Despite turning 34 years old before the trade deadline, Suarez is sitting near career highs in isolated power and wRC+ (which measures overall performance). His fielding metrics have declined in recent years, but he’s still an acceptable defender at third base. Even if the Diamondbacks don’t offload all their free agents to be, Suarez could move because they’ve got Jordan Lawlar raking in Triple-A and primed to take over at third.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies
Chance of trade: 10%
Ryan is one of the best pitchers in baseball, with a mix of stuff and pitchability, and teams in search of long-term fits dream of the possibility the Twins will actually move him. That is unlikely, but this is deadline season, so there is always the chance a team surveys the market, finds nothing to its liking and overpays. The Twins don’t necessarily want to move Ryan; they are more in listening mode on nearly everyone that occupies a roster spot — and with Ryan not a free agent until after the 2027 season, teams are trying, with little success thus far, to pry him away.
Best fits: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 10%
While the general sense is that Gore won’t go anywhere, the Nationals are, at the very least, listening — and that warrants a spot atop the list regardless of the minimal likelihood interim general manager Mike DeBartolo deals him. The prospect of Gore moving is tempting enough to want to engage: 144 strikeouts in 117⅔ innings with enough control that he’s walking a career-low 3.4 per nine innings. Even if stuff-plus models aren’t crazy for Gore, he gets elite swing-and-miss and is the sort of pitcher that could tempt teams to overpay.
Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, Baltimore, Houston, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 25%
Another late entry to the proceedings, Cease is throwing as hard as he did in his prime and is here more as a function of the Padres not having payroll flexibility or a deep minor league system than some sort of desire to deal him. As an impending free agent, he wouldn’t bring back nearly the haul of Ryan or Gore. And there are genuine questions about whether the holes the Padres would try to fill by moving Cease would only be exacerbated on the starting-pitching side were he to go. Regardless, they’re at the very least listening, and with Cincinnati and San Francisco breathing down their necks for the final NL wild-card slot, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller could try to get creative in upgrading his roster.
Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 10%
An All-Star the last two years and Gold Glove winner in all three of his previous big league seasons, Kwan is a do-everything left fielder with elite bat-to-ball skills and two years of club control after 2025. Cleveland doesn’t want to deal him, but with a dearth of available bats, the Guardians at very least will listen to see if teams are willing to blow them away with offers.
Best fits: Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, Toronto, San Diego, Los Angeles Dodgers
Chance of trade: 25%
Duran had a huge breakout season in 2024, posting the seventh-best fWAR in the majors at 6.8. He overperformed his underlying metrics, though — i.e. had some lucky outcomes — and those metrics have regressed a bit this year as has his luck. Duran’s projected to finish the season with around 3.0 WAR, which is more in line with how the league sees him. With Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, the Red Sox have the outfield depth to consider moving Duran for controllable, top-end pitching.
Best fits: San Diego, Atlanta, Cleveland, Kansas City, San Francisco, Philadelphia
7. Jhoan Duran, RP, Minnesota Twins
Chance of trade: 30%
Duran is one of the best relievers in the sport, thanks to his nasty stuff, headlined by a fastball that averages 100.4 mph and a splinker that sits 97.6 mph. He has two more years of team control after this season, so he’d demand a big trade package.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
Chance of trade: 20%
Clase was nearly unhittable last season, but his numbers have regressed this year. He has issued more walks and gotten fewer ground balls while allowing more damage on his cutter that averages 99 mph — in part due to more center-cut locations. Under contract for less than $30 million through 2028, he would bring a big return to Cleveland.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
9. Cade Smith, RP, Cleveland Guardians
Chance of trade: 20%
Smith has been the best reliever in baseball by WAR since the beginning of the 2024 season, and with more than 13 strikeouts per nine innings this year, he is the solution to many teams’ late-inning woes. With four more years of control, he’s also going to be prohibitively expensive for most teams, making a deal difficult to come by.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
10. Griffin Jax, RP, Minnesota Twins
Chance of trade: 30%
Despite a 3.92 ERA that says otherwise, Jax has been one of the top relievers in baseball this season — the best by xFIP and toward the top in other similar metrics. Over the last two seasons, he’s second in the sport behind Cade Smith in reliever WAR. Only Fernando Cruz and Mason Miller have a better strikeout rate than Jax’s 14.37 per nine, and his sweeper-heavy arsenal induces as much swing-and-miss as anyone.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
11. Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Chance of trade: 70%
Kelly doesn’t have big raw stuff, posting the second-lowest average fastball velocity (92.1 mph) among pitchers with 125 innings pitched this season. His changeup is his best pitch by a wide margin, and he gets by with location and offspeed stuff. He was a stalwart in the Diamondbacks’ run to the 2023 World Series, striking out 28 in 24 innings with a 2.25 ERA.
Best fits: Toronto, Boston, Houston, Chicago Cubs
Chance of trade: 65%
Not only is Keller in the midst of a career-best season with a 3.53 ERA, he’s under contract for another three years at a very reasonable $55.7 million. The Pirates need bats, and moving Keller is the likeliest way to fill that void. Teams could be scared off slightly by the quality of contact against him — his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate have spiked while his strikeouts are down — but in an environment with little pitching, Keller is nevertheless desirable.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, Toronto, Houston
Chance of trade: 30%
All the potential the Marlins have seen in the 27-year-old right-hander is finally coming into focus this season. While Cabrera’s 97 mph fastball gets hitters’ attention, it’s his curveball and slider that are doing most of the work. And with a changeup that in years past has been his best pitch, the cost to acquire Cabrera will be high because of his full arsenal and three more years of club control.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, New York Mets, Toronto, Houston, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees
Chance of trade: 50%
Alcantara was arguably the best pitcher in baseball in 2022, winning the NL Cy Young unanimously. He was more solid than spectacular in 2023 and missed 2024 with Tommy John surgery. He has been tinkering this season to try to get his pitch mix and locations right in hopes of regaining his former glory. His 6.66 ERA is frightening, and with the Marlins still valuing him as a top starter, they could hold onto him until the winter, when teams like the Orioles would be more inclined to acquire him and the final two years of his contract.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego, Baltimore
15. Zac Gallen, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Chance of trade: 70%
Gallen was excellent for the last three seasons but now, in a contract year, is posting career-worst numbers in almost every category. His stuff looks pretty similar, but he’s allowing much more damage when hitters make contact. That said, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is back to normal in his last six starts, at 35-to-6, despite a 6.55 ERA in that span.
Best fits: Toronto, San Diego, Houston, Chicago Cubs
16. Ryan O’Hearn, 1B, Baltimore Orioles
Chance of trade: 85%
O’Hearn is having an out-of-nowhere career year, with an OPS+ of 132 (and he’s been unlucky with ball-in-play luck, to boot) along with being on pace for a career high in homers. He doesn’t face lefty pitchers much at all and his splits suggest that he shouldn’t.
Best fits: Houston, Boston, San Francisco, Texas
17. David Bednar, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates
Chance of trade: 70%
In a market replete with relief options, the 30-year-old Bednar brings high-end performance without quite the price tag of his peers. His swing-and-miss stuff has been elite since his return from Triple-A, and he has more than salvaged his trade value: Over his last 23 outings, Bednar has struck out 29, walked five and posted a 0.00 ERA.
Best fits: Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Seattle
Chance of trade: 80%
Helsley had the fourth-best WAR among relievers last season and is in a contract year, but he has been notably worse this season. His stuff and locations are pretty similar, but the main difference is his fastball is getting hit hard — with one byproduct being his spiking home run rate.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Toronto, Detroit, New York Mets, Seattle
Chance of trade: 20%
Fairbanks raised his slot a bit this year, and now his 97.3-mph fastball has more cutting action while his slurvy slider has more depth with both pitches playing a notch better than they did last season. He’s got a club option for 2026 that, with escalators, should wind up around the $10 million range. Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes and bullpen injuries have cut into the likelihood Fairbanks moves.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, Texas
20. Shane Bieber, SP, Cleveland Guardians
Chance of trade: 50%
A late entrant into the trade market, Bieber still hasn’t thrown a big league pitch this season and is coming back from Tommy John surgery. With his fastball up to 94 mph and his slider looking like its old sharp self, though, he’s generating plenty of interest and could be one of the bigger names moved at the deadline.
Best fits: San Diego, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, Toronto
Chance of trade: 60%
Ward comes with an additional year of team control after this season and he’s having a strong 2025 campaign, just one homer away from last year’s career high total of 25 — and in 52 fewer games.
Best fits: Cincinnati, San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco
Chance of trade: 50%
Robert has been extremely unlucky with ball-in-play results this season, but that has begun to turn around recently. He remains a strong defender and baserunner, with a career-high 24 steals already. But the slashline is unsightly, and his trade value has cratered over the last two seasons. He’s got a pair of $20 million-a-year club options that the acquiring team will be hesitant to exercise absent a turnaround. Finding a match with a team willing to pay more for Robert’s upside than his productivity could be challenging.
Best fits: San Diego, Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, San Francisco
23. Nolan Arenado, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals
Chance of trade: 20%
Arenado’s strikeout rate is around his career best and he’s still an above-average defender, but his power and patience are both trending down to around the worst of his career. He’s still a solid starter but no longer a star, and the team taking him on a deal would still have to pay him like one. Potentially complicating any deal: a full no-trade clause.
Best fits: Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle
Chance of trade: 70%
Ozuna is a stone-cold DH, playing two games in the field in 2023 as his last regular-season experience defensively. He’s also in a contract year, but his power numbers are down a notch from his standout .302 average and 39-homer performance last season. His on-base percentage remains among the highest of potential trade candidates. If anyone is moving from Atlanta, he’s the likeliest candidate, with free agency beckoning.
Best fits: San Diego, Seattle, Texas, Detroit, San Francisco
Chance of trade: 50%
Garcia averaged 30 homers in 2021-24, but he’s fallen off since his 2023 career year. It’s worth noting that per xwOBA, he’s been the 13th-most unlucky hitter in the big leagues this year. He also has another year of team control, so some teams could see a buy-low opportunity.
Best fits: Philadelphia, Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, San Francisco
26. Reid Detmers, RP, Los Angeles Angels
Chance of trade: 15%
The No. 10 pick from the 2020 draft transitioned to relief this season and has found similar success to other highly-drafted college lefties, including A.J. Puk, Andrew Miller and Drew Pomeranz. He comes with three more years of control after this season and his velo is up 1.7 mph in the new role, so this might be where he fits long term — and he could fetch a hefty return. Some teams still see Detmers as a starter.
Best fits: New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Toronto
Chance of trade: 90%
Following a dreadful start to the season, Morton found his curveball and has righted himself. Between his stuff and playoff experience, he has leapt up teams’ boards as a true target and almost certainly will move before the deadline.
Best fits: New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto
28. Adrian Houser, SP, Chicago White Sox
Chance of trade: 90%
Houser’s resurgence is a success story for the White Sox. He opted out of a minor league deal with Texas to sign with the White Sox in mid-May and has limited home runs to post a 2.10 ERA in nearly 70 innings. He’ll eat innings for sure, but some scouts see his stuff as good enough to warrant a spot in a postseason rotation.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto
Chance of trade: 80%
Mullins is a 30-year-old center fielder in a contract year who contributes in a number of ways, though he’s hitting only .217 and his defensive metrics have regressed to be below average in center. His walk rate and power numbers are up this season, making him a solid contributor on a contender.
Best fits: Philadelphia, Houston, New York Mets
30. Willi Castro, UT, Minnesota Twins
Castro has played six of the eight field positions this year and has been a solid, versatile utility type since a breakout season in 2023. He doesn’t offer eye-popping numbers or tools, but is around average at most things while playing all over the field on an everyday basis.
Nos. 31-57
31. Seth Halvorsen, RP, Colorado Rockies
32. Zack Littell, SP, Tampa Bay Rays
33. Jeffrey Springs, SP, Athletics
34. Jesus Sanchez, RF, Miami Marlins
35. Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates
36. Dennis Santana, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates
37. JP Sears, SP, Athletics
38. Michael Soroka, SP, Washington Nationals
39. Tyler Anderson, SP, Los Angeles Angels
40. Kyle Finnegan, RP, Washington Nationals
41. Luis Severino, SP, Athletics
42. Zach Eflin, SP, Baltimore Orioles
43. Pierce Johnson, RP, Atlanta Braves
44. Phil Maton, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
45. Steven Matz, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
46. Harrison Bader, CF, Minnesota Twins
47. Jake Bird, RP, Colorado Rockies
48. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates
49. Yoan Moncada, 3B, Los Angeles Angels
50. Andrew Heaney, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
51. Chris Paddack, SP, Minnesota Twins
52. Raisel Iglesias, RP, Atlanta Braves
53. Tomoyuki Sugano, SP, Baltimore Orioles
54. Ramon Urias, 3B, Baltimore Orioles
55. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, UT, Pittsburgh Pirates
56. Luis Urias, 2B, Athletics
57. Shelby Miller, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks
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Bradford Doolittle
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.
After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.
“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.
For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.
When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.
“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”
After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.
“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.
Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.
“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”
After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.
Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.
Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.
“Not bad,” he said.
Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.
After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.
“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”
Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.
“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”
Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.
Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.
“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”
Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.
Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.
“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”
In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.
Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.
“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”
Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.
“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”
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Alden Gonzalez
The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.
As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.
Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.
But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.
Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.
This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.
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