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Mariners Release Josh Smith, Matt Hague; Assign Jayson Werth To Triple-A

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The Mariners have made a few transactions at their top affiliate, per Tacoma Rainiers announcer Mike Curto (via Twitter). Righty Josh Smith and infielder Matt Hague have both been released from the Triple-A roster, which now features outfielder Jayson Werth and just-acquired lefty Roenis Elias.

Seattle had inked both Smith and Hague to minors deals, but evidently felt the roster spots were better utilized on other assets. One of those is Werth, a 15-year MLB veteran who will be playing in his age-39 season. He has been working out at extended Spring Training but could now push toward the MLB roster if he shows well at Tacoma.

Smith, 30, compiled a 14:2 K/BB ratio in his 10 1/3 innings early this season, though he also allowed seven earned runs on 17 hits. In parts of three seasons in the majors, he carries a 5.30 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 127 1/3 innings. The 32-year-old Hague, meanwhile, is a right-handed hitter who primarily has lined up at first base as a professional. He was slashing an eyebrow-raising .226/.419/.264 through 74 plate appearances, with an unusual mix of only two extra base hits but 19 walks against just nine strikeouts.

Follow @pfrumors (ProFootballRumors.com) For The Latest NFL Draft News

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It’s NFL Draft week! This year’s draft is full of intrigue and you’ll want to stay tuned to Pro Football Rumors for every update whether you’re a casual or hardcore NFL fan.

The draft is hours away and we still don’t know who the No. 1 overall pick will be. Many believe the Browns will take either USC quarterback Sam Darnold or Wyoming QB Josh Allen with the top choice, but the latest word indicates that Oklahoma signal caller Baker Mayfield is in consideration. The Browns could throw everyone an even bigger curve by taking Penn State running back Saquon Barkley at No. 1, which would truly throw the rest of the draft board in flux. The Browns have also made it known that they are willing to trade the first pick, so we could see a blockbuster deal involving a team desperate to find their future solution under center.

The uncertainty doesn’t stop there. The Giants, at No. 2, are reportedly enamored with Barkley and are divided on this year’s top QB prospects, so it’s unclear if they will follow through on their expected plan to draft Eli Manning’s successor. The Jets, meanwhile, are grappling with whether to select Mayfield or UCLA QB Josh Rosen, assuming both players fall to them. With so many questions regarding the top three picks, the possibilities are endless for how the remainder of the first round will shake out.

Over the next 48 hours, there will be a myriad of rumors regarding the NFL Draft and Pro Football Rumors will help you separate the wheat from the chaff. To stay plugged in with up-to-the-minute updates, follow Pro Football Rumors on Twitter: @pfrumors.

Rockies To Sign Brett Oberholtzer

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The Rockies have inked a minors deal with lefty Brett Oberholtzer, Mike Ashmore of the Courier News and Home News Tribune reports. He had been slated to pitch for the indy ball Somerset Patriots.

Oberholtzer is a 28-year-old who was originally selected by the Braves in the eighth round of the 2008 draft. He was dealt to the Astros in the 2011 Michael Bourn swap and later sent on to the Phillies in 2015’s Ken Giles trade. In addition to appearing in the majors with the ’Stros and Phils, Oberholtzer has appeared briefly with the Angels.

All told, Oberholtzer carries a 4.36 ERA with 6.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 across 324 frames at the game’s highest level. He did not crack the bigs last year, but did make 24 starts for the Blue Jays’ top affiliate, pitching to a 4.12 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.

Orioles Claim Jace Peterson

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The Orioles have claimed infielder Jace Peterson off waivers from the Yankees, per a club announcement. A 40-man roster spot was opened by moving righty Gabriel Ynoa to the 60-day DL.

Peterson, who’s nearing his 28th birthday, has played very little this year while bouncing on and off of the Yankees’ roster. In need of an additional utility infield option, the O’s took advantage of Peterson’s waiver wire availability to nab him.

In parts of five seasons in the majors, Peterson is a .234/.319/.331 hitter with 15 home runs and 22 steals. That won’t generate much excitement for a player who is primarily a second baseman. But the former Padres and Braves prospect is capable of playing all over the field; he even lined up briefly in short and center in recent campaigns.

Nationals To Place Shawn Kelley On 10-Day DL

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The Nationals are lining up a series of roster moves as they continue to deal with a barrage of early-season maladies. Most notably, righty Shawn Kelley is heading to the DL after departing last night’s game with an injury, Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reports on Twitter.

It seems Kelley is dealing again with a bout of ulnar nerve irritation, MLB.com’s Jamal Collier of MLB.com tweets. Just how long he’ll be down isn’t clear, but he’ll at least need to allow the problem to subside and could ultimately require some rehab outings.

Kelley has shown some signs of a revival in his first six innings on the season, recording nine strikeouts without issuing a single walk. But he has also continued to surrender home runs at an unacceptable level, with three leaving the yard thus far in 2018 after he coughed up a dozen in 26 frames last year.

Outfielder Rafael Bautista and infielder Adrian Sanchez will head onto the active roster, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted. Both are already on the 40-man after debuting last season. Infielder Matt Reynolds will be optioned out to make way, as Collier suggested on Twitter and Castillo confirms in a tweet.

Perhaps the Nats will hope that the young call-ups can provide some energy, but neither holds out much promise of boosting a lagging offense. Bautista has rarely posted quality numbers with the bat in the minors and is hitting .304/.342/.362 through 75 plate appearances in 2018. Sanchez has an even lighter track record but is off to a .286/.349/.411 start to the current season at Syracuse.

Braves Designate Miguel Socolovich, Promote Max Fried

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The Braves have designated righty Miguel Socolovich for assignment, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by southpaw Max Fried.

Socolovich came up for a pair of appearances, allowing three earned runs in three innings. The 31-year-old carries a 4.41 ERA in his 85 2/3 career frames at the MLB level.

Fried, meanwhile, likely features more prominently in the team’s long-term plans. The former top prospect cracked the majors last year and gave the Braves 26 innings of 3.81 ERA pitching. But he had only just ascended to the upper minors in 2017 and opened the current season back at Triple-A.

Thus far in the current campaign, Fried has allowed only three earned in 15 2/3 innings over his three starts, with 16 strikeouts and seven walks. The free passes continue to be a bit of a concern, as he has steadily given up more than four per nine innings since joining the professional ranks.

It’s unclear at this point whether Fried will get a chance to join the Atlanta rotation, but it seems likely he’ll open in a long relief role. Notably, since he’s already on the 40-man, the move leaves the Braves with an opening that could be filled in the near future by the just-signed Jose Bautista.

Phillies To Sign Trevor Plouffe

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TODAY: Plouffe could earn at a $1.5MM annual rate in the majors on the contract, which also includes some opt-out chances, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter).

YESTERDAY: The Phillies have struck a minor-league deal with veteran third baseman Trevor Plouffe, according to Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). (H/t to Eric English, who first tweeted the connection.)

Details are sparse beyond the fact that it is a minors arrangement. Plouffe spent the spring in camp with the Rangers but ultimately asked for his release after failing to crack the MLB roster.

The 31-year-old Plouffe returned to the open market in search of an opportunity to earn his way back to the majors. He has at times been a solid regular at the hot corner, and carries a .242/.304/.410 slash with more than a hundred long balls in over three thousand MLB plate appearances in eight seasons. Now, though, Plouffe is coming off of a brutal 2017 season in which he hit just .2198/.272/.318 over 313 trips to the plate.

It seems likely that Plouffe will mostly be viewed as a depth piece for the Phils. The club already has Maikel Franco lined up at third base and does not appear to have a clear use for a corner infield reserve on the major-league roster as things stand.

Cardinals Notes: Wainwright, Mikolas, Martinez

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The Cardinals are off to a solid start to the year, though the NL Central is shaping up to be quite the battleground in 2018. Maintaining health throughout the season could end up being a major factor in deciding the division race. The long view is what motivated Cards righty Adam Wainwright to go on the DL at this point, as MLB.com’s Joe Trezza reports. His elbow has flared up a bit, though the 36-year-old suggested he’s confident that he’ll be able to return in relatively short order. The hope is that some rest and minor mechanical tweaks will allow Wainwright to take most of his scheduled starts in the final season of his contract. Of course, even if the veteran hurler is down longer than expected, the team has plenty of options, as Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explores.

Here’s more from St. Louis:

  • Another key hurler for the Cardinals, recent signee Miles Mikolas, has thrown well upon his return to the majors. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch documents some of the ways in which Mikolas has thrived. In particular, he has been one of the most efficient starters in all of baseball, due in no small part to the fact that he has issued just a pair of walks in 26 innings. Goold traces this element of Mikolas’s game back to his successful stint in Japan, during which he gained mental and physical control of his pitching. It’s early, to be sure, but the two-year, $15.5MM pact Mikolas signed over the winter has looked like a bargain.
  • Cardinals fans will also want to check out two other recent pieces from the Post-Dispatch on the team’s pitching staff. Jose de Jesus Ortiz offers a look at staff ace Carlos Martinez, who says he believes he is pitching better than ever. That the 26-year-old has found another gear is certainly a scary thought for the rest of the league. And Goold examines the intriguing case of Bud Norris, who is now closing out games and sporting a career-high 15.3% swinging-strike rate. It’s a worthwhile read that goes well beyond the field of play.
  • On the position-player side, the Cards appear to have unearthed another hidden gem in first baseman Jose Martinez. The late-blooming 29-year-old has done nothing but hit in the majors and is off to a .329/.409/.526 start to the current campaign. Trezza penned an interesting look at Martinez’s unlikely path to the majors. The St. Louis scouting department and front office aptly identified and targeted the burly slugger, eventually snagging him from the cross-state rival Royals. Of course, the results have outstripped even the most optimistic expectations. “We were confident he could be a good right-handed hitter off the bench,” says Cardinals GM Mike Girsch. “That’s what we thought we were getting. Since then, he’s been raking.” While he’s currently performing like a mid-prime star, Martinez won’t even reach arbitration eligibility until 2020.

Reds Release Barrett Astin

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The Reds announced that they have released right-hander Barrett Astin. He had been outrighted off of the 40-man roster last fall.

The 26-year-old Astin is a former third-round pick who landed in Cincinnati as the player to be named later in the 2014 swap that sent Jonathan Broxton to the Brewers. Astin cracked the majors last year, but issued seven walks while recording only two strikeouts in his eight innings of action.

Though he had a promising season at Double-A in 2016, Astin has largely struggled at the highest level of the minors. He carries a 5.91 ERA in 56 1/3 total innings for Triple-A Louisville and has surrendered over a dozen base hits per regulation game along with 7.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9.

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