Athletics Fire Pitching Coach Scott Emerson
The Athletics announced that pitching coach Scott Emerson has been relieved of his duties. Bullpen coach Dan Hubbs will take over on an interim basis for the remainder of the campaign.
Emerson got his gig in June of 2017. He was the club’s bullpen coach prior to that but he got a new title when pitching coach Curt Young was dismissed. Emerson’s tenure has been mixed, though it’s fair to debate how much of the blame to put on him.
From 2018 to 2020, Athletics pitchers had a collective 3.88 earned run average, sixth-best in the majors. At that time, the A’s were playing in the pitcher-friendly Coliseum and were also broadly competitive, making the playoffs in all three of those seasons. They missed the postseason in 2021 and then went into a rebuild. From 2021 to 2024, the club’s ERA was 4.60, better than just four teams.
Last year, as part of the club’s planned moved to Las Vegas, they landed in West Sacramento. They are temporarily sharing Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants. The park plays hitter-friendly and is a stark difference to the Coliseum. Since the start of last year, the A’s have a 4.91 ERA, putting them ahead of just the Nationals and Rockies for that span.
Broadly speaking, the Athletics’ rebuild has shown more promise on the offensive side than on the pitching side. The environment might be playing a role but the lineup appears to be filled with solid regulars plus a few stars, whereas the pitching staff doesn’t look close to ready. The team has felt competitive at times but recently hit a bad skid. They have gone 3-17 in their past 20 games, including an active nine-game losing streak as of the All-Star Break. They are now 41-55, 6.5 games out of a playoff spot and likely to go into the deadline as sellers.
It seems the A’s have decided a change is necessary and have dismissed Emerson while giving his job to Hubbs. The latter worked in the college ranks from 2020 to 2019, holding various titles for the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California. He moved to affiliated ball in 2020, getting hired by the Tigers as director of pitching development and strategies. In 2023, the A’s hired him as pitching development coach. After the season, he was named bullpen coach.
Presumably, the A’s will conduct a search for a new bullpen coach after the season, although it’s possible Hubbs is tapped to stay on for the future if he impresses the club’s decision makers over the next few months.
Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
Bligh Madris Finalizing Deal With KBO’s SSG Landers
Outfielder Bligh Madris is nearing a deal with the SSG Landers of the Korea Baseball Organization, reports Francys Romero. He was granted his release from a minor league deal with the Cardinals over the weekend to pursue the KBO opportunity.
Madris, a left-handed batter, was having a big year with Triple-A Memphis. He slashed .277/.389/.519 with 14 homers. He walked in 15% of his plate appearances against a league average 22% strikeout rate. The 30-year-old is up to a .255/.350/.450 batting line in more than 2000 Triple-A plate appearances over parts of six seasons.
A ninth-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2017, Madris has played parts of three big league seasons between the Pirates, Astros and Tigers. He has only managed a .204/.273/.286 line in 72 MLB games and hasn’t reached the highest level since 2024. This will be his first stint overseas aside from playing winter ball in Australia, Mexico and Puerto Rico over the years.
KBO teams are limited to three foreign-born players from outside Asia on their active roster. The Landers have reshuffled their foreign player mix during the season, recently signing pitchers Thomas Hatch and Pedro Avila while waiving Mitch White and Anthony Veneziano. Outfielder Guillermo Heredia is reportedly dealing with a rotator cuff injury in his left shoulder, so it seems Madris will replace him in the short term.
Reds Reportedly Receiving Trade Interest In Spencer Steer
The Reds have gotten trade calls on utilityman Spencer Steer, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Cincinnati has fallen nine games under .500 after a strong start and are eight games back in the Wild Card picture.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Steer will be on the move. He’s under arbitration control for two seasons beyond this one, so there’s less urgency for the Reds to flip him than there’d be on impending free agents like Brady Singer, Tyler Stephenson or Nathaniel Lowe. The front office should be open to conversations on Steer, though, as he’s more of a solid role player than the kind of core piece whom teams completely pull off the market.
Steer’s bat has picked up in the final few games leading into the All-Star Break. That followed an ugly June and has pulled his offense back up to league average overall. The Oregon product is hitting .247/.328/.421 with 14 home runs across 358 plate appearances. He’s on his way to a fourth straight 20-homer campaign with an average strikeout and walk profile. His park-adjusted numbers are right at league average for a third straight season.
A right-handed batter, Steer has been far more productive against lefty pitching this season. He has tattooed southpaws at a .333/.436/.603 clip with more walks than strikeouts in 95 plate appearances. He’s batting .218/.289/.361 in 263 trips to the dish against righties. Steer doesn’t have quite such an extreme divide over his career, though he unsurprisingly has been better (.835 OPS compared to .721) when holding the platoon advantage.
Steer has some positional versatility, though it’s mostly at the corners. He was a Gold Glove finalist at first base last season and has graded well there in just over 250 innings this year. The defensive metrics are cooler on his work in the corner outfield. Steer has some experience at second and third base but has never really been an everyday player at either position.
The Reds are paying Steer a $4MM salary, around $1.16MM of which will be owed after the August 3 deadline. He’s likely to earn a boost into the $6-7MM range for next season and could approach an eight figure salary for what would be his final arbitration year. The escalating salaries would make him a potential non-tender candidate — if not as soon as next winter, likely during the 2027-28 offseason.
Nightengale doesn’t specifically link any teams to Steer. The Phillies, Mariners, Guardians, Braves, Marlins and Padres are among the speculative possibilities to add a righty-hitting outfielder. The Diamondbacks could use Steer in the outfield or plug him into an everyday first base role.
Luis Arraez Hopeful Of Staying At Second Base If Traded
Luis Arraez is among the likeliest players to be traded before the August 3 deadline. He’s an impending free agent on a bad Giants team who is playing well enough to be one of the top position players available.
Arraez said last week that he’d be willing to discuss a new deal to remain in San Francisco. However, there’s no indication the team has shown the same desire. The front office seems likelier to flip him to a contender for prospects. Arraez, who has dramatically outperformed most expectations in a move back to second base, made clear he’s not interested in playing other positions with a new team.
“This is a business, so whatever team wants to give me the opportunity to help, it’s going to be at second base,” Arraez told reporters in advance of his fourth All-Star Game (links via Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com). “I don’t like to go back to first base; I prepared my mind, I prepared my body to only play second base. One hundred percent, I’m staying at second.”
That’ll probably be the case, though it’s worth noting that Arraez doesn’t actually have much say in the matter. His one-year deal with the Giants didn’t contain any no-trade protection. Arraez signed with San Francisco largely because they offered him the second base job. That doesn’t mean they’d take a lesser return to facilitate a trade specifically to a team with a need at the position.
All that said, Arraez has shown enough defensively that an acquiring team probably feels he’s most valuable there regardless. He has only been charged with four errors in nearly 800 innings across 89 appearances. Defensive Runs Saved feels his range has been a little worse than average, but Statcast’s Outs Above Average grades him among the best in the league. Only JJ Wetherholt has a higher OAA figure than Arraez’s +10 mark at the position.
It’s a surprise turnaround for a player who’d never graded highly at the position early in his career. The Padres had mostly made him a full-time first baseman between 2024-25. It’s rare for players to move back up the defensive spectrum in their late 20s, but the Giants correctly surmised that Arraez could pull that off (with some amount of credit to highly-respected infield coach Ron Washington).
Arraez is also having his best year at the plate since 2023. He’s hitting .330/.369/.460 with four homers, 21 doubles and seven triples. No other qualified batter has a lower strikeout rate than his 4% mark. Arraez trails only Miami’s Otto Lopez, coincidentally the player who initially replaced him at second base after the Marlins traded him in 2024, in his bid for a fourth batting title.
Few contenders have as clear a second base need as the Rays, who have gotten a .234/.328/.325 slash line out of the position. Bob Nightengale of USA Today unsurprisingly reported over the weekend that Tampa Bay has shown some interest in Arraez (along with Arizona’s Ketel Marte, who seems much less likely to move). While the Rays should finally get Gavin Lux back not long after the All-Star Break, Arraez is the better player and Lux can fit as a versatile left-handed bat off the bench.
The Red Sox have vaulted back to within a half game of a playoff spot behind a nine-game winning streak to close the first half. They’re suddenly positioned as likely deadline buyers and could certainly use middle infield help. The AL West-leading Rangers are playing Nicky Lopez at second base, and Arraez has connections to Texas manager Skip Schumaker from their Miami days. A return to San Diego could also make some sense if the Padres buy, as Jake Cronenworth hasn’t produced around an extended injured list for concussion-like symptoms.
Padres Sign Dustin Harris To Minor League Deal
The Padres signed outfielder Dustin Harris to a minor league contract late last week. Although the team never officially announced the move, the lefty batter reported to Triple-A El Paso and made his organizational debut there yesterday.
Harris opted out of a minor league deal with the White Sox at the beginning of July. He’d spent the previous couple months at Triple-A Charlotte after signing a minor league deal in May. It was his second stint in the Chicago organization. Harris signed an offseason non-roster contract with the Sox and was called up in early April. They lost him on waivers to the Astros but brought him back when Houston dropped him a few weeks later.
The 27-year-old has had a strong year in Triple-A, batting .306/.392/.481 with six homers across 187 plate appearances. Harris has an impressive .280/.370/.428 showing in nearly 1500 trips to the dish over four seasons at the top minor league level. He has only gotten sporadic looks against MLB pitching, hitting .225 with a couple home runs in 38 games. Harris had spent the first couple seasons with the Rangers before logging a combined 17 games between Chicago and Houston this year.
San Diego lost starting left fielder Ramón Laureano to what is likely a season-ending hip surgery. Samad Taylor has filled in well over the past month but recently went down with an oblique strain. Gavin Sheets was in the primary left field role for the final few games before the All-Star Break. The Padres don’t have any depth outfielders on optional assignment to El Paso, while Jase Bowen is the only true backup outfielder on the big league club. That makes this a good landing spot for Harris, who joins Nick Solak and Bryce Johnson among the non-roster depth options.
White Sox, Roch Cholowsky Agree To Record Draft Bonus
July 13: Cholowsky will sign for a record $10.35MM bonus, reports Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline.
July 11: The White Sox have taken UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the first overall pick of the 2026 draft. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis reported the news about 20 minutes before the pick was officially announced, and The Athletic’s Keith Law wrote earlier today that the Sox seemed to be leaning towards Cholowsky.
This is the third time the White Sox have ever held the first overall pick, following their selections of Harold Baines in 1977 and Danny Goodwin in 1971. Cholowsky is also the second UCLA product to go first overall, following Gerrit Cole to the Pirates in the 2011 draft.
Cholowsky has been considered the favorite to go 1-1 for quite some time, though there was some late speculation that the White Sox could pivot to another top prospect like high school shortstop Grady Emerson (who the Rays took second overall) or Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey (who went third to the Twins). The Sox ended up making the chalk pick, though USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that Cholowsky has agreed to sign for less than the $11,350,600 slot price attached to the first overall selection. These savings could free up more money within Chicago’s $20,489,500 draft pool, and allow the White Sox to pursue some players who are seeking above-slot money to forego college commitments.
Despite finishing the 2024 season with a modern-record 121 losses, Chicago selected only tenth overall in 2025 — the rules prohibit all teams from getting a lottery pick in three straight seasons, plus the White Sox and other teams don’t receive revenue-sharing funds cannot receive a lottery pick in consecutive seasons. These same rules kept the 119-loss Rockies out of last December’s process, leaving the White Sox (who lost 102 in 2025) with the best odds of winning the draft lottery, at 27.73%.
The ping pong balls fell in the Southsiders’ favor, so the White Sox can now add Cholowsky to the core of young talent they’ve already accumulated via draft picks, international signings, and trades. What was expected to be a lengthy rebuild has surprisingly already started to show results, as Chicago sits atop the AL Central with a 48-45 record. Cholowsky already has three years of college ball under his belt and may not need too much time in the minors, so when he does arrive (perhaps as early as 2027), he could be joining a White Sox club that may be a full-fledged contender.
It should be noted that Chicago’s farm system already includes a pretty deep crop of infield prospects, plus Colson Montgomery (a first-rounder himself in 2021) has established himself as a solid regular over parts of two big league seasons. Teams virtually always draft the best player available rather than focusing on a specific positional need, plus shortstops can and usually are moved around the diamond since they’re athletic enough to handle multiple positions. The Sox can take their time in sifting through their minor league options, but with Montgomery in the majors and Cholowsky on the horizon, it could make the White Sox slightly more open to trading a lesser infield prospect for some win-now help…perhaps as early as the August 3 trade deadline.
Baseball America, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, and The Athletic’s Keith Law all ranked Cholowsky as the top prospect of the 2026 draft class, with MLB Pipeline placing him second (behind Emerson) and Fangraphs placing him third (behind Lackey and Emerson). The pundits all agree that Cholowsky has the glovework to easily stick and thrive at shortstop, with his strong throwing arm drawing particular praise amongst his defensive tools. At the plate, Cholowsky makes strong contact and a lot of it, and 20-homer production may be his floor depending on how well his raw power translates and develops against big league pitching.
Rangers Release Jonah Bride
The Rangers have granted infielder Jonah Bride his release, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. He’s now a free agent and is eligible to sign with any club.
Bride, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in November. He has spent this year with Triple-A Round Rock, putting up good numbers. He stepped to the plate 357 times over 80 games with the Express. His 18.2% strikeout rate and 16% walk rate were both much better than average. He has a .271/.389/.418 line. Even in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, that production is 12% better than league average, by measure of wRC+. Defensively, he split his time between first base, third base and left field.
Given that solid performance, it’s a bit surprising to see the Rangers release him and sacrifice depth, especially with Corey Seager, Cody Freeman and Michael Helman all on the injured list. Perhaps Bride had some sort of opt-out in his deal or recently received an offer from a team in another country.
He doesn’t have a lot of major league success on his track record, with a .221/.311/.313 line and in 690 plate appearances. But he has at least 250 innings at the three non-shortstop infield positions with respectable defensive metrics at each one. He has also hit .287/.418/.475 at the Triple-A level over the years. He’s a solid depth piece and should get interest from various clubs if he’s sticking in affiliated ball. The Rangers might even want to re-sign him. Though as mentioned, it’s also possible he’ll receive tempting offers to join other leagues.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
Poll: Who Will Win The 2026 Home Run Derby?
The 2026 Home Run Derby takes place tonight at 7pm Central as part of the 2026 All-Star festivities in Philadelphia. The field of eight consists of…
- Jac Caglianone, Royals
- Junior Caminero, Rays
- Willson Contreras, Red Sox
- Bryce Harper, Phillies
- Munetaka Murakami, White Sox
- Ben Rice, Yankees
- Kyle Schwarber, Phillies
- Jordan Walker, Cardinals
This year’s format will be notably different than in recent years, as laid out by MLB.com. The timer format has been replaced by a swing-based system. The opposite switch occurred in 2015. Participants will have 20 swings in the first round, then 15 in the following rounds. If a player homers on his final swing, he can keep going until a swing doesn’t result in a home run.
The first round will be an open field, with the top four home run totals moving on. Then the semifinals and finals will feature head-to-head matchups. Seeding for the semifinals will be determined based on the first round. Seed one will face seed four and seed two will face seed three. A tie in the first round will be broken by longest home run distance. In the final two rounds, a tie will be broken by a three-swing swing-off, repeating until the tie is broken.
Schwarber and Harper are representing the hometown Phillies. Both have lengthy track records as big power bats in the majors. Schwarber has 372 homers compared to Harper’s 383. This will be the third derby for each of them, Schwarber’s second with Philadelphia and Harper’s first. In 2018, Schwarber and Harper faced off in the finals, while Schwarber was a Cub and Harper a National. Harper emerged victorious that year, taking the final round 19-18.
Caminero is just 23 years old but he’s the only other guy in this year’s field with previous derby experience. He participated last year and made it to the finals, but Cal Raleigh beat him 18-15. He has 73 regular season home runs since the start of last year, trailing only Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani.
The other five participants are first-timers. Contreras has 192 home runs in his 11 big league seasons. Murakami is in his first season in MLB since leaving Japan. A hamstring strain limited him to 60 games before the Break but he still managed to launch 20 home runs. Caglianone had an underwhelming rookie season in 2025 but has launched 15 homers this year. Rice broke out with 26 homers last year and has already added another 29 this year. Walker has 22 this year in his breakout season.
According to Daniel Chavkin of The Sporting News, $2.5MM in prize money will be given out. The winner gets $1MM and the runner-up $500K. The other participants each get $150K and there’s a $100K bonus for the longest home run. Half of the players involved today (Caglianone, Caminero, Rice, Walker) haven’t yet qualified for arbitration are are making salaries around the $780K league minimum, so they have a chance to make more than their annual salary in one night’s work.
Who do you think will emerge victorious? Have your say in the poll below…
Who will win the 2026 Home Run Derby?
Photo courtesy of Sam Greene, Imagn Images
Cardinals, JJ Wetherholt Sign Extension
July 13: More specifics of the contract have now been reported by Ronald Blum of the Associated Press. Wetherholt gets a $2MM signing bonus on November 15. He will make a $2.5MM salary next season, followed by $4MM, $7.5MM, $12.5MM, $17MM, $20MM, $22MM and $25MM in subsequent seasons. Wetherholt can also unlock $20 in bonuses, starting with $5MM in 2032 and then $7.5MM in each of the next two seasons. Beginning with 2031, if he wins an MVP award, he adds $5MM to his salary in each subsequent season. Finishing second through fifth in the voting would add $2.5MM. Finishing sixth through tenth would add $500K only in the immediately following season. He would get $250K in the following season for an All-Star selection. There’s a $2MM assignment bonus if he’s traded.
July 10: The Cardinals have locked up their rookie infielder. The team announced today that they have signed JJ Wetherholt to an eight-year extension that runs through 2034. That means it buys out what would have been his first three free agent years. It is reportedly worth $112.5MM with no option seasons.
It’s one of the largest guarantees in franchise history, trailing only the $130MM Paul Goldschmidt extension in 2019 and the $120MM Matt Holliday free agent deal from 2010. In terms of recent contract extensions around the league for players under one year of service time, this comes in a bit underneath Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin and Roman Anthony. McGonigle got $150MM, Griffin $140MM (over nine years) and Anthony $130MM.
Wetherholt, now 23, has clearly been a key part of the club’s future for a while now. He was the seventh overall pick in the 2024 draft. He then surged through the minors over the remainder of that year and 2025. He became one of the top ten prospects in baseball heading into this year.
Throughout the most recent offseason, it seemed the Cardinals planned on having him break camp with the club in 2026. As part of their pivot to a youth movement/rebuild, they traded away a few veteran players, including infielders Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan. That left the second base job open for Wetherholt and he took it. He performed well in the spring and the Cards broke camp with him.
Since then, he has done everything he can to cement himself as a viable big leaguer. He has stepped to the plate 395 times. His 15.4% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate are both better than league average. He has hit 13 home runs. He has a .267/.362/.411 batting line and 118 wRC+, indicating he has been 18% better than the league average hitter. He has stolen nine bases without getting caught. He has been credited with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 16 Outs Above Average at second base. Both of those figures are tops in the majors among second basemen.
Put it all together and FanGraphs has already credited him with 3.6 wins above replacement on the year, with still almost half the season remaining for him to build on that. He’s the favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year award.
As the Cards pivot to a new generation, Wetherholt is clearly a huge part of it. The Cards have cemented that with this deal. It’s easily the most significant contract of the Chaim Bloom era so far. He just got the job at the start of the most recent offseason and, as mentioned, spent most of the winter trading guys away. The biggest free agent signing was a $12.5MM deal for Dustin May. This is the first extension Bloom has signed since taking the job.
These deals have become all the rage in MLB lately. As shown in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, there were 16 extensions for guys with under a year of service time from 2006 to 2021. This is the 17th in the past five years. Teams have become very comfortable betting on their top prospects, even with limited big league experience or sometimes none at all. In the case of the Cards and Wetherholt, the club let him get about half a season under his belt before crossing the finish line on a deal. Regardless, he should be a staple of the club well into the next decade.
For Wetherholt personally, he is opting for greater certainty over trying to maximize future earnings. He was on track to reach free agency ahead of his age-29 season. If he continued to put up huge numbers between now and then, he could have been in line for a bigger contract at that time. This deal will push his path to free agency by three years, so he is now slated to hit the open market ahead of his age-32 season. He could still be in line for a nice deal after this extension but position players generally have less earning power in their early-3os compared to their late-20s.
The trade-off, of course, is that he is locking in a massive payday now and cutting off the potential downsides. There are no guarantees in this game and it’s entirely possible that his production falls off or some notable injuries derail his career. With this deal, he will have life-changing money in the bank regardless of how he performs in the next few seasons.
The Cardinals will be hoping this is just the beginning of a great era of the franchise. Despite their ostensible rebuild, they are playing very well this year. They are 48-44 and just three games out of a playoff spot. Young and controllable players like Wetherholt, Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson have been part of that success. Prospects like Rainiel Rodriguez, Liam Doyle, Jurrangelo Cijntje and others are on the way. The Cards are betting that there’s a bright future ahead with Wetherholt at the center of it.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the two sides had agreed to a long-term deal. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported the guarantee and eight-year length, as well as the max figure. Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, William Purnell, Imagn Images
Astros Place Mike Burrows On Injured List
The Astros optioned right-hander Mike Burrows last week. Today, the club announced that the optional assignment has been nullified. Instead, Burrows has been placed on the major league 15-day injured list due to right elbow neuritis. The IL placement is effective July 7.
These types of reversals occur when it is discovered that the player suffered an injury while serving in the big leagues. Burrows didn’t make a minor league appearance in the days after being sent down. Presumably, he felt some soreness shortly after getting sent to the minors, got tested and his ailment was discovered.
It’s unclear how long Burrows is expected to be sidelined but the Astros will have a bit less pitching depth for the time being. For now, the Astros have Hunter Brown, Peter Lambert, Tatsuya Imai, Spencer Arrighetti and Cristian Javier in their rotation. Kai-Wei Teng hit the IL a couple of weeks ago. Like Burrows, Teng was initially optioned before that was rescinded for him to be placed on the major league IL.
Teng and Burrows had clearly fallen down the depth chart, which is why they were both sent to the minors before each hit the IL instead. Still, it’s not ideal for a club to lose a couple of rotation depth arms when they’re in a playoff race.
At the moment, Colton Gordon might be the first guy to get a call when a starter is needed, since he is on the 40-man roster. Jason Alexander is also on the 40-man but has been on the minor league IL for almost a month. Ryan Weiss and Ethan Pecko are some non-roster options. Ronel Blanco, Hayden Wesneski and Lance McCullers Jr. are all on rehab assignments, so they could be in line to come off the IL in the near future.
The Burrows news is potentially notable in the long term. He has only one option season remaining. When the Astros sent him down last week, he would have burned that final option once he spent 20 days on optional assignment. That would have put him in position to be out of options in 2027. That could have been awkward for the Astros, as they may have felt backed into a situation where they had to squeeze Burrows off the roster just a year after making him a prominent trade pick-up.
That situation is less likely to come up now. It’s still possible that Burrows could come off the IL and get optioned later in the year but perhaps he will stay on the IL for a while and keep that option for 2027. If his injury lingers to the beginning of September, perhaps he could stick in the bullpen as a long man when rosters expand for that month.
Holding that option would help the Astros keep him as depth next year and give him a chance to get back on track. He’s only 26 years old and still has time to develop into something better than what he has shown this year. The small downside for the Astros is that Burrows is currently collecting minor league pay and service time, so he’s slightly more expensive in the short term than if he were still on optional assignment.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images