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The Blue Jays released reliever Zach Pop after designating him for assignment last week, according to the MLB.comtransaction log. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent.

Pop lost his 40-man roster spot as part of the Opening Day shuffle. Sportsnet’s Arden Zwellingnoted in mid-March that Pop had come down with elbow inflammation during Spring Training and would have begun the regular season on the injured list. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so the DFA meant he’d be released unless the Jays found a trade partner.

The Canadian-born righty joined the Jays at the 2022 deadline in a trade with Miami. He turned in a 1.89 ERA in 17 appearances down the stretch. While he made a strong first impression, Pop has struggled over the last two years. He gave up 11 runs in 13 2/3 innings in 2023 and was tagged for a 5.59 ERA over a career-high 58 appearances last season. Pop got ground-balls at a strong 54.6% clip but only managed a 15.8% strikeout rate. When opponents were able to elevate the ball, they found success. He surrendered nine homers in 48 1/3 frames — a rate of 1.68 longballs per nine innings.

Pop had made seven Spring Training appearances before the elbow issue. He allowed five runs (four earned) across 6 2/3 innings despite eight strikeouts. He wasn’t expected to face a long-term absence, as imaging didn’t reveal any structural issues. He should find interest on a minor league deal once he’s healthy.

The Twins sent righty Randy Dobnak outright to Triple-A St. Paul after he went unclaimed on waivers,relays Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. As expected, Dobnak will accept the assignment and report to the minors.

Minnesota has shuttled Dobnak on and off the 40-man roster a few times over the past couple years. They can comfortably do so because of his contract. Dobnak signed a $9.25MM extension back in 2021. He’s playing on a $3MM salary and is guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a ’26 club option. Another team would need to assume that contract to claim him off waivers. As a player with less than five years of service time, Dobnak would need to forfeit the salary to decline the outright assignment in favor or free agency.

Neither situation is likely, so the Twins can continuously outright him off the roster when they want to send him to Triple-A. Dobnak has made one big league appearance this year. He worked 5 1/3 innings of mop-up relief, allowing only one run on two hits and a pair of walks. He pitched in five MLB games last season, his first big league work since 2021. Dobnak spent the rest of the season working out of the St. Paul rotation. He posted a 4.25 ERA with a solid 22.7% strikeout rate across 28 appearances. He’ll stick around as non-roster rotation or long relief depth.

Veteran reliever Héctor Neris elected free agency, according to the MLB.comtransaction log. He’d been designated for assignment by the Braves on Monday.

Neris broke camp with Atlanta after signing a minor league contract in early March. He didn’t have much of a leash, though, as they moved on after two appearances. Opposing hitters went 5-7 with a walk, a home run, and a strikeout. Neris had made all of three appearances during Spring Training, so it was a very brief Braves tenure.

The 35-year-old righty has topped 50 innings in each of the last five full seasons. He’d been a productive setup man with the Phillies and Astros for most of that stretch. Neris fired 68 1/3 frames of 1.71 ERA ball as recently as 2023, but he had a shaky ’24 season. He signed a $9MM deal with the Cubs and operated as Chicago’s closer for a good portion of the year.

Neris went 17-22 in save opportunities while walking more than 13% of batters faced. The Cubs released him in August. He returned to Houston to close the season, and while he threw a lot more strikes, he gave up four home runs in 16 appearances. Neris finished the year with a combined 4.10 ERA through 59 1/3 innings. He fanned a little less than a quarter of opponents against a 10.8% walk percentage. Between that and his slow start to 2025, he’ll likely be limited to minor league offers.

MLBTR is going deep into the bench for this week's mailbag. With Tim Dierkes and Steve Adams each on vacation, I'll step in to answer questions on the Braves' poor start, whether the Twins are a playoff-caliber team, this year's most improved rosters, Sutter Health Park, situational hitting, and much more!

Abner asks:

Even when the biggest concern with the NY Mets has always been their starting rotation, so far the starters have looked pretty good in general and the bullpen has performed almost perfectly. With the problems that have experienced the Atlanta Braves in the opening week (Reynaldo López injury,Jurickson Profar suspended,Ronald Acuña out at least until May,Spencer Strider is out for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season) do you think that we are about to see a battle between Mets and Phillies the rest of the way?

I had the Phillies and Mets a little ahead of the Braves to begin the season. The past week certainly hasn't increased Atlanta's odds of winning the division. It's way too early to start digging their grave, though. Last year's Astros dropped five of their first six games and seven of nine. They bottomed out at 12 games below .500 in the second week of May; they ended up winning the AL West by 3.5 games. Most teams that dig themselves that big a hole will not make the playoffs, of course, but they also usually don't have as much talent as the Braves do.

Atlanta has started the season against arguably the two best teams in the National League. They're without their best player, one of the league's best pitchers, and their starting catcher. Even if you don't expect much out of Sean Murphy at this point, getting Acuña and Strider back within the next few weeks is massive. They've got 96% of the season remaining to put this behind them.

Losing Profar and López obviously hurts, largely because they're stressing areas where the roster already looked weak. The Jarred Kelenic left field experiment didn't work out in year one.Alex Verdugo could push Kelenic into a fourth outfield role once Acuña comes back, but he was unsigned deep into Spring Training for a reason. The rotation depth behind the top four or five is spotty. Strider,Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and some combination of AJ Smith-Shawver, Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and prospectHurston Waldrepis probably workable. If they lose any of their top three to injury before López is able to return, it's teetering.

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Max Scherzer received a cortisone shot to treat the inflammation in his right thumb, the future Hall of Famer told reporters (including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet). The Jays will have a better idea of when he could return after they see how he responds.

Scherzer’s thumb has bothered him back to last summer, when it was linked to some kind of nerve problem in his hand. The injury resurfaced this spring. Scherzer opened the season on the active roster but departed his first start in a Jays’ uniform after three innings and 45 pitches because of lat discomfort. The three-time Cy Young winner said postgame that the thumb was the cause of his other issues. “My arm is making adjustments because of that. That’s a recipe for disaster,” hetold reporters on Saturday.

The Jays placed Scherzer on the injured list the next day. It’s a frustrating situation for the righty. Scherzer acknowledged on Tuesday that he has had conversations with doctors about the potential for surgery, but he said they’re “not even close to that” scenario right now (via Hazel Mae). He added that he’s hopeful he can begin playing catch again as soon as Friday.

Toronto has an opening in their rotation around Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis. It initially seemed thatYariel Rodríguez would step into the starting five after beginning the season in the bullpen. Rodríguez has continued working in a leverage role since Scherzer’s injury. He fired a scoreless inning to earn a hold on Sunday. He came on tonight in relief of Berríos and tossed another inning (allowing one run) to pick up his second hold.

The Jays list left-hander Easton Lucas as their probable starter for tomorrow’s series finale against the Nationals. They’ll push Gausman to Friday, giving him six days rest early in the season. They’re off on Thursday but will begin a stretch of 13 consecutive game days between April 4-16. They’ll probably want a fifth starter by the middle of next week.

Tomorrow’s start will be the first in the big leagues for the 28-year-old Lucas. He has 18 1/3 career innings across 14 relief appearances between the A’s, Tigers and Jays. Lucas worked out of the bullpen for all but four of his 38 Triple-A outings last year. He combined for an impressive 2.75 earned run average with a 26.2% strikeout rate over 68 2/3 innings. Lucas worked mostly 1-2 inning stints, but he made a five-inning start during his final Triple-A appearance. He topped out at 2 2/3 frames in a game in Spring Training, so they’ll likely lean heavily on the bullpen behind him tomorrow. Rodríguez,Jake Bloss and non-roster veteran Eric Lauer are alternatives if the Jays want to turn to a more traditional fifth starter next week.

The Diamondbacks and Padres are in discussions with MLB about playing a regular season series in Mexico City next year,report Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The league has yet to make that event official.

MLB and the Players Association agreed to the establishment of the “World Tour” series to promote international play in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. The CBA provides for a possible Mexico City event in May 2026. It also includes the possibility for a London series in June and one in San Juan in September, but MLB has not proceeded with every World Tour series contemplated in the bargaining agreement. The CBA permitted 2025 events in Mexico City, Paris and San Juan — none of which will happen for economic reasons.

Arizona and San Diego were scheduled for a two-game series in Mexico City on April 18-19, 2020. Thosegames were canceled for obvious reasons. MLB played its first regular season games in the city three years later. The Padres and Giants met for two games on April 29-30, 2023. The Rockies and Astros played there on April 27-28 last season.

There will not be any regular season contests in Mexico this year, though the Red Sox played a pair of Spring Training games against a Mexican League team in Monterrey. The only regular season action outside the U.S. and Canada this season was the season-opening Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs.

Infielder Buddy Kennedy is sticking with the Phillies after being designated for assignment last week. The Phils announced that he went unclaimed on waivers. Kennedy elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment but promptly re-signed with Philadelphia on a minor league contract. He’ll head to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Kennedy landed in Philadelphia last June in a DFA trade with the Tigers. He appeared eight times in the big leagues, going 2-11 with a couple walks. Kennedy played very well with the IronPigs, hitting .294/.400/.500 with 10 homers and nearly as many walks as strikeouts across 67 games. He held his 40-man roster spot all winter but entered a crucial Spring Training. Kennedy is out of options, so he needed to break camp or go on waivers.

The 26-year-old’s spring numbers weren’t good. Kennedy hit .150 over 22 exhibition games. He connected on three homers with a solid 10:12 walk-to-strikeout ratio, but he only managed six hits in 40 at-bats. The Phils opted forEdmundo Sosa and Kody Clemens, each of whom was also out of options, as their backup infielders.

No other team was willing to carry Kennedy on the major league roster. This is his second career outright, which gave him the ability to elect free agency. He chose that path but only to rework his deal with the Phils. It’s relatively common for players to do that, as it’s possible the new contract contains a different minor league salary or opt-out chances that he would not have gotten had he simply accepted the outright assignment. The former fifth-round pick returns to Triple-A, where he has a .281/.392/.435 slash in 300 career games.

The Braves are sending Reynaldo López for an arthroscopic procedure on his injured shoulder, manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including Mark Bowman of MLB.com). The team won’t have a timetable for López’s return until after the surgery, as that will reveal whether there’s any structural damage. Snitker said the Braves are hopeful that the All-Star righty will return at some point this season.

While it’s not quite the worst-case scenario, it’s clearly concerning. Initial imaging on López’s shoulder has only revealed inflammation. Even in an ideal situation where the scope confirms that diagnosis, it’s going to be a long-term absence. Any kind of midseason procedure on a pitcher’s throwing shoulder is going to cost him a good chunk of the year.

Atlanta signed López to a three-year, $30MM free agent deal during the 2023-24 offseason. While he had worked in relief for the preceding three seasons, the Braves stretched him back out as a starter. When he’s been healthy, the results could hardly have been better. López managed a 1.99 earned run average across 26 appearances spanning 135 2/3 innings. He andPaul Skenes were the only pitchers to reach 100 innings while posting a sub-2.00 ERA. López deservedly earned an All-Star nod and placed 11th in NL Cy Young balloting.

López’s arm health unfortunately became a story in the second half. Forearm inflammation knocked him out for a couple weeks after the trade deadline. He returned relatively quickly from that issue but went back on the injured list in mid-September. The second placement was the result of shoulder inflammation. It was again a relatively brief IL stay, but it proved a precursor to this year’s shoulder discomfort.

The 31-year-old made his 2025 season debut in Atlanta’s second game of the season. He worked five innings of three-run ball in Friday’s loss to San Diego. López only recorded one strikeout and all of three swinging strikes. His velocity was fine — his 95.6 MPH average fastball speed was the same as it had been last season — but it was a tough outing. The Braves placed him on the 15-day injured list yesterday.

Atlanta recalled Bryce Elder to go opposite Blake Snell in Wednesday’s series finale against the Dodgers. Chris Sale will take the ball tonight against Dustin May as the Braves try to break a five-game losing streak.Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver andGrant Holmes occupy the other rotation spots for the moment. Spencer Strider is on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Gwinnett and could be back in the majors by the middle of next week. That’d likely push one of Elder or Smith-Shawver back to Triple-A. Strider’s return should be a huge lift, but the López injury is testing Atlanta’s already questionable depth beyond their top four starters.

The Braves reworked López’s contract at the beginning of the offseason. The pitcher agreed to trim this year’s salary from $11MM to $8MM in exchange for the club preemptively triggering an $8MM option for 2027.

The Braves and Angels announced a trade sending relieverMichael Petersen to Atlanta for cash considerations. The Halos had designated the righty for assignment yesterday when they acquired Jake Eder from the White Sox. Atlanta optioned Petersen to Triple-A Gwinnett. They already had an opening on the 40-man roster after placing Jurickson Profar on the restricted list following his PED suspension.

Petersen, 30, has kicked around the league over the past few months. He made his big league debut with the Dodgers last summer. Petersen pitched 11 times with L.A. before they lost him on waivers to Miami. He made five appearances with the Marlins before the end of the season. Miami waived him at the beginning of the offseason. Petersen went to the Blue Jays and then the Angels on offseason waiver acquisitions.

The Halos had optioned him to Triple-A to begin the year. Petersen pitched once for their affiliate, allowing two runs in 1 1/3 innings. He had good numbers at that level a season ago. Petersen fanned more than 35% of opponents while working to a 1.64 ERA across 33 innings for the Dodgers’ top affiliate. That didn’t translate into much MLB success, as he gave up 14 runs over his first 19 2/3 big league frames. He recorded 14 strikeouts while issuing 11 walks.

Atlanta had a free roster spot after the Profar suspension. Petersen is in his second of three option years, so the Braves can keep him in Triple-A for a while if he holds his 40-man spot. This is the fifth trade the Braves and Angels have made since the start of the offseason and their third deal of the past two weeks. Atlanta traded Angel Perdomo to the Angels in mid-March, and the teams lined up on the Ian Anderson/José Suarez swap a few days later.

The Padres announced that Tyler Wade was outrighted to Triple-A El Paso after going unclaimed on waivers. As a player with five years of major league service, Wade could have declined the minor league assignment while retaining his $900K salary. It seems he’s comfortable enough with the organization to report to Triple-A instead of pursuing other opportunities.

San Diego designated Wade andEguy Rosario, both of whom are out of minor league options, for assignment on Opening Day. Teams have seven days to resolve DFA limbo. Waivers take 48 hours, so teams have five days after a DFA to line up a trade. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller said the team was trying tofind a trade partner on Rosario, but he’d presumably end up on waivers tomorrow if they don’t make a trade this evening. Wade hit waivers more quickly, as he was less likely to get an MLB roster spot from another team.

The lefty-hitting Wade held a spot on San Diego’s big league roster for all of 2024. He appeared in 90 games, hitting .217/.285/.239 without a home run through 156 plate appearances. It’s an incredibly light bat, but Wade is a plus runner who can play anywhere aside from catcher. The Padres guaranteed him $900K on a deal with a $1MM club option to buy out his final arbitration season. That gave him a decent chance to win another bench job entering Spring Training, but he was jumped on the depth chart in camp.

Wade had a poor spring, hitting .209 with one homer in 19 games. San Diego brought in Jose Iglesias on a minor league contract with a $3MM base salary that made him a strong candidate to win the backup shortstop job. Iglesias, Yuli Gurriel and Gavin Sheets all made the roster as minor league signees. Brandon Lockridge had a great Spring Training to take the fourth outfield role. Lockridge runs very well himself, so he can replace Wade as Mike Shildt’s top pinch-running option.

The lack of flexibility on the bench obstructs Wade’s path back to the big leagues. He’s versatile enough to serve as injury insurance or an alternative if Iglesias isn’t performing well.