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Archives for May 2018

Mariners Designate Erik Goeddel, Select Christian Bergman

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The Mariners have designated righty Erik Goeddel, per a club announcement. That’ll create roster space for the M’s to select the contract of fellow right-hander Christian Bergman.

It’s a tough result for Goeddel, 29, who had allowed just one earned run on four hits in his 5 1/3 MLB innings this year while recording seven strikeouts and a pair of walks. He threw nine scoreless frames at Triple-A to open the year after joining the M’s late in camp.

As for the 30-year-old Bergman, he’ll look to carry over his successes thus far at Triple-A into the majors. He has generally struggled in prior attempts at the bigs, but is carrying a healthy 3.40 ERA with a 41:12 K/BB ratio through 45 frames on at Tacoma.

Cardinals Place Luke Gregerson On DL; Carlos Martinez Headed For MRI

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The Cardinals have placed righty Luke Gregerson on the 10-day DL with a right shoulder impingement, the team announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by John Brebbia.

Meanwhile, starter Carlos Martinez — who has been on the shelf since May 10th — is headed for an MRI to further assess the injury, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Martinez won’t return when he’s eligible to be activated, then, but we likely won’t learn more about his anticipated timeline until his imaging is read.

It’s not clear just how concerning the shoulder condition is. That broad description has resulted in brief DL stints or much more significant problems, so it’s hard to make much of it without more information. Notably, though, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza adds on Twitter that Gregerson has also dealt with some elbow soreness, adding to the universe of concerns.

The 34-year-old Gregerson has had some stumbles to start his tenure in St. Louis. Since returning from a hamstring injury, he has thrown only 8 1/3 innings in a dozen appearances, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits (two for home runs) and three walks. He has recorded a typically useful tally of eight strikeouts and 14 groundballs, however, and despite a bit of velocity loss is still maintaining a strong 16.7% swinging-strike rate.

All told, then, it still seems there’s reason for optimism regarding Gregerson’s ability to contribute this year — so long as he’s able to get back to full health. The Cards owe him $11MM over a two-year term, including a buyout on an option for 2020. While there’s still quite a lot of pitching talent at and near the MLB level for the St. Louis organization, the team is stretched a bit with Gregerson joining Martinez and Adam Wainwright on ice. Fortunately, high-octane youngster Alex Reyes is not only nearing a return from Tommy John surgery, but has opened eyes with his early rehab showing.

Astros Option Jake Marisnick

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10:52am: Outfielder Tony Kemp will get the call to replace Marisnick, per Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (via Twitter).

7:30am: The Astros announced after last night’s game that center fielder Jake Marisnick has been optioned back to Triple-A. It’s not yet clear who’ll take his spot on the active roster.

It seems the hope in Houston is that Marisnick can get back on track with some time spent at Fresno. As MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports, skipper A.J. Hinch said after the game that the speedy outfielder will receive “a run of at-bats he’s not going to get [in the majors] over the next ten days or however long he’s down there.”

The current campaign has certainly been frustrating to this point for the 27-year-old Marisnick, who had posted a breakout 2017 effort. Of course, his excellent output last year — including a .243/.319/.496 slash with 16 home runs and nine steals — came with a worrisome 34.7% strikeout rate.

Thus far in 2018, the swings and misses have ruled the day. Marisnick is striking out at an alarming 47.1% clip and has drawn just a single walk in 87 plate appearances. His power output is way down as well, though it’s the .151 OBP that is most concerning.

While the ’Stros certainly value Marisnick’s quality baserunning and fielding, they understandably feel he needs some time to figure things out at the plate. He is earning $1.9MM this year and remains eligible for two more seasons of arbitration.

Jason Castro To Miss Remainder Of Season

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Twins catcher Jason Castro received unwelcome news upon completion of his previously scheduled knee surgery. He ended up requiring a full repair of his meniscus, which is expected to keep him out for the remainder of the season, as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger was among those to report on Twitter.

The Minnesota organization was already preparing to weather an absence from Castro, but the belief was that he’d only miss about four to six weeks. Instead, the Twins may be on the hunt for a full-time replacement. For the time being, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweets, the team expects to continue to rely upon Mitch Garver and Bobby Wilson.

Castro, 30, is playing on $8MM salaries both this year and next. He was not producing much at the plate to open the season, with a .143/.257/.238 slash over 74 plate appearances, but the organization surely intended to exercise patience with a player who had produced at a solid rate in the first season of his three-year free-agent pact.

It remains to be seen just how aggressively the Twins will ultimately pursue an upgrade behind the dish. There are several plausible rental players that could be made available, but at this stage it’s unlikely that they’ll be moved. Odds are, the Minnesota brass will use the next two months to evaluate the internal and external possibilities, and to assess the team’s overall situation, before deciding upon a trade deadline strategy.

Mets Place Yoenis Cespedes On 10-Day DL

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The Mets have placed outfielder Yoenis Cespedes on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Phillip Evans.

It’s not surprising to hear that Cespedes is going to be shut down for a bit, as he has been dealing with a hip strain that has lingered for the past ten days or so. The team had resisted a DL placement but finally decided to bite the bullet and shut Cespedes down. The placement is backdated to May 14th.

The 32-year-old Cespedes remains a key cog in the New York lineup. He’s off to a .255/.316/.474 slash through 152 plate appearances, which isn’t quite up to the standard he has set over the past three years but remains substantially above-average output.

While it always hurts to lose such a productive member of the lineup, the Mets will obviously want to ensure that this doesn’t balloon into another worrying lower-body injury for Cespedes. Plus, both Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares have hit well in limited action; providing some extra action for them probably isn’t the worst outcome.

Indians Re-Sign Matt Belisle

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The Indians have announced that righty Matt Belisle is re-joining the organization on a minor-league deal. He’ll begin his tenure at Triple-A.

It seems that Belisle was not able to find a better opportunity with another club. He opened the year on Cleveland’s active roster after winning a job in camp, but was designated for assignment two weeks ago and thereafter elected free agency.

Bullpen depth has been an ongoing problem for the Indians, so it’s not surprising to see this move. The club also had an opening at Triple-A after promoting Neil Ramirez to the MLB roster.

Belisle, who’s closing in on his 38th birthday, had a solid 2017 campaign — in particular, he finished on an excellent run — but was not overly impressive out of the gates this year. In his 10 1/3 innings, he allowed six earned runs on nine hits and a walk. Belisle compiled just four strikeouts in that span, though he did maintain a swinging-strike rate of 9.8% that falls in line with his prior levels.

Blake Swihart’s Agent Asks Red Sox For Trade

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Blake Swihart’s agent, The Legacy Agency’s Brodie Scoffield, tells Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston that he has asked the Red Sox to trade the little-used player to another organization.

It has been an awkward arrangement from the start of the season, as the out-of-options Swihart has seen just 24 innings in the field (mostly in left) while picking up 32 plate appearances off of the bench. A catcher by trade, he’s obviously not a part of the team’s plans behind the dish, as he has caught only a single inning despite the marked offensive struggles of Sandy Leon and Christian Vazquez.

In all likelihood, the trade request won’t have any meaningful impact on Swihart’s future. But it’s also likely to be fulfilled on the team’s own volition. After all, the Sox are engaged in what promises to be a season-long battle for supremacy in the AL East. It feels as if something has to give at some point, given that Swihart is effectively being treated as something like a Rule 5 pick.

Frankly, it’s a curious situation all around. Surely, some other teams would be glad to give a shot to the 26-year-old Swihart, a former first-round pick and top-100 prospect. But it’s also tough to imagine he’ll be valued too highly in a trade. Swihart produced good, but hardly overwhelming, offensive numbers on the way up the ladder. Since his first MLB action in 2015, he hasn’t hit much at any level and still hasn’t settled in anywhere defensively while dealing with injuries and inconsistent opportunities. The fact that Swihart cannot be optioned will make it tough for a team that wishes to try him out behind the plate, since he’d have to be thrown right into the fire at the MLB level despite minimal time under the mask this season.

As Drellich explains, it seems that a decision point could soon be approaching, as Dustin Pedroia’s pending return from the disabled list will make it all but impossible to continue carrying Swihart. It could be that the Sox are simply waiting until the last possible moment to make a decision. After all, an injury could arise that would enhance Swihart’s utility to the Boston organization (or to a potential trade partner). Presumably, the Boston front office already knows which rivals have serious interest and what sort of return — a useful MLB reliever? some far-off young talent? — might be achievable, if any. In the meantime, there’s little for Swihart to do but sit back and wait.

Mariners To Select Contract Of Christian Bergman

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The Mariners will select the contract of righty Christian Bergman to make tomorrow’s start, reports Shannon Drayer of MyNorthwest.com (via Twitter). Seattle has a pair of open spots on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding 25-man move to activate the 30-year-old for tomorrow’s 2018 debut.

Bergman is in his second season with the Mariners organization, having re-signed a minor league deal with Seattle this past offseason. He posted an even 5.00 ERA in 54 innings with the Mariners in 2014, averaging 5.5 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and 2.0 HR/9 with a 37.7 percent ground-ball rate in 13 appearances (eight starts). He’ll make his 2018 debut in a spot start following this weekend’s doubleheader and yesterday’s makeup game against the Twins in Minneapolis.

[Related: Seattle Mariners depth chart]

While Bergman’s numbers last season were rather pedestrian, he’s off to a fine start in 2018, having notched a 3.40 ERA with a 41-to-12 K/BB ratio (8.2 K/9, 2.4 BB/9) in 45 innings for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma. He’s been the team’s most effective starter in Triple-A by a wide margin, which, while not exactly a ringing endorsement for Seattle’s upper-level depth, makes clear why he’s getting the first look among the team’s current options in Tacoma. He does have a minor league option remaining as well, meaning the M’s can shuttle him back to Tacoma following the spot start without needing to expose him to waivers.

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Darvish, Moncada, Pollock, Turner

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ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(May 15th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • BALTIMORE ORIOLES | Depth Chart
    • Possible role change: RP Miguel Castro was set to start Wednesday’s game, though with a rainout Tuesday, it’s not clear if he’ll get a start later in the week or remain in the bullpen.
    • Outrighted: INF/OF Renato Nunez

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

AL West Notes: Athletics, Heaney, Moore

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Trevor Cahill is set to return from the disabled list tomorrow after missing one start, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Athletics will have him displace Kendall Graveman in the rotation, she adds in a separate column. Graveman pitched reasonably well in his one start after a demotion to Triple-A, but the A’s still would like him to continue to round back into form in Nashville following a surprisingly ugly start to the season. As Slusser notes, Oakland could’ve dropped Brett Anderson from the rotation, but doing so would mean designating the lefty for assignment.

Graveman was optioned out to make room on the roster for the return of Stephen Piscotty — who homered in his first at-bat back with the team tonight — from the bereavement list. The Athletics will need to make another roster move to accommodate Cahill’s activation tomorrow, which could mean optioning Jake Smolinski to Nashville as well, per Slusser.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Angels lefty Andrew Heaney dominated the division-rival Astros last night, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes, in what the pitcher calls “probably the best game I pitched in my career.” Heaney now carries a 3.93 ERA over 34 1/3 innings through six starts. But fielding-independent pitching numbers suggest he has been even better; he’s carrying an appealing combination of 10.2 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. As Fletcher notes, the results have been particularly promising over the last four outings, reflecting a decision by Heaney to abandon an experiment with pitching on the third-base side of the rubber. All said, his performance to date has been enormously encouraging, though the big question remains whether he can stay healthy.
  • Despite a terrible start to the season, left-hander Matt Moore will remain in the Rangers’ rotation for now, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. The former Rays/Giants southpaw will lug a 7.82 ERA into Saturday’s start against the White Sox, having averaged 6.6 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9 with 1.42 HR/9 and a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate. Moore has no doubt had some poor fortune, with a .388 BABIP and 62.3 percent strand rate, but even fielding-independent metrics peg him well north of 5.00. Sullivan does note that Moore’s spot, however, is in some jeopardy. Manager Jeff Banister stressed that Moore has “got to show some progress” before adding that he’s not considering a switch in the rotation just yet. Right-hander Jesse Chavez has showed well in a long relief role, though Banister suggested that the organization is happy with Chavez in his current role at present.

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