{"id":617618,"date":"2026-04-19T18:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:35:13","slug":"royals-recall-mason-black-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/617618\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Recall Mason Black – MLB Trade Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right-hander Mason Black<\/a> is set for his Royals debut on Sunday. He\u2019ll be joined by catcher Elias Diaz<\/a>, who had his contract selected<\/a> by the club. Right-hander Mitch Spence<\/a> and infielder Tyler Tolbert<\/a> were optioned to make room for Black and Diaz, the team announced. Right-hander James McArthur<\/a> was moved to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot for Diaz.<\/p>\n

Kansas City acquired Black from the Giants for right-hander Logan Martin<\/a> in November. Black had some fanfare when he first came up with San Francisco in 2024, but he failed to provide consistent results. The righty finished his Giants tenure with a 6.47 ERA in 10 games over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old Black was almost exclusively used as a starter in San Francisco, but he\u2019s moved to a relief role with Kansas City. He has a 3.86 ERA over seven appearances at Triple-A this year. Black locked down the first two saves of his professional career with Omaha. Despite the full-time move to the bullpen, Black has just a 12.5% strikeout rate so far. Often, those numbers improve when starters make the change to relief work, as their stuff usually plays up in shorter outings.<\/p>\n

Spence joined the organization in February following a trade from the Athletics. He didn\u2019t break camp with the team, but came up in early April when right-hander Luinder Avila<\/a> was sent down. Spence was tagged for six earned runs across four innings in mop-up duty against the Yankees on Saturday. He\u2019ll head back to Triple-A after just the one\u00a0big-league appearance.<\/p>\n

Tolbert made the team out of camp, beating out Drew Waters<\/a> for a roster spot. Michael Massey<\/a>\u2018s calf strain in MLB Spring Training helped Tolbert and Nick Loftin<\/a> earn roster spots. Loftin was sent down when Massey returned. Now, it\u2019s Tolbert\u2019s turn. He appeared in eight games with the Royals, with the majority of his work coming as a pinch runner or defensive replacement. Tolbert managed a hit in five plate appearances.<\/p>\n

McArthur missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing elbow surgery. He opened the 2026 campaign on the 15-day IL due to elbow inflammation. His return timeline is uncertain. The righty was a key member of Kansas City\u2019s late-inning group when he last pitched, recording 18 saves in 2024.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Scott Sewell, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-hander Mason Black is set for his Royals debut on Sunday. He\u2019ll be joined by catcher Elias Diaz,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,279878,299515,253534,299516,591,85,299517],"class_list":["post-617618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-elias-diaz","tag-james-mcarthur","tag-mason-black","tag-mitch-spence","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-tyler-tolbert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}