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Archives for August 2018

Jesse Hahn Undergoes UCL Surgery

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Royals righty Jesse Hahn underwent surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, as Rustin Dodd of The Athletic was among those to report on Twitter. Hahn is expected to require approximately six months of rehabilitation, indicating that he may or may not be ready to return for the start of camp next spring.

Fortunately, Hahn did not require the famed Tommy John surgery that is often necessary to fix UCL damage. Instead, he will become the latest pitcher to undergo a “primary repair” procedure. The alternative approach comes with the promise of a much shorter rehab timeline, though it is also not nearly as established as the standby TJS.

About a year and a half ago, Seth Maness became the first known MLB hurler to be treated with the primary repair approach. He ended up signing with the Royals for his comeback attempt, so the team has some direct experience in this area. Unfortunately, Maness has not been able to regain his prior form to this point, though he did make it back to the majors briefly in 2017.

Hahn, 29, landed with the K.C. organization in an early-2018 swap in which the Athletics acquired lefty Ryan Buchter and took on more than half of Brandon Moss’s $7.25MM salary. While Hahn opened his MLB career with 170 innings of 3.23 ERA pitching, he was coming off of consecutive rough seasons at the time of the move.

Though the hope surely was that he would contribute to the MLB staff this year, and perhaps even regain some of his prior form, Hahn has only thrown six minor-league innings this season. That’s particularly disappointing given that he entered camp feeling healthy. Hahn was knocked around in two Cactus League innings before experiencing elbow issues and going on the 60-day disabled list in early March.

Yankees Outright Chris Rabago

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The Yankees announced that they’ve outrighted catcher Chris Rabago off the 40-man roster. Rabago, who was claimed off waivers out of the Rockies organization just two days ago, will remain in Double-A Trenton for now. It seems that the Yankees claimed him solely with the intent to immediately try to pass Rabago through waivers themselves — a move that’ll now pay some dividends, as they can retain his rights without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

Rabago was a 13th-round selection by the Rockies back in 2014 and found himself added to the 40-man roster last November on the heels of a .272/.350/.393 batting line in 358 plate appearances in Class-A Advanced. This season has proven more of a challenge, as he’s managed just a .213/.292/.361 slash through 229 plate appearances with Colorado’s Double-A affiliate. (Rabago has yet to even suit up for the Yankees’ Trenton club.) He’s delivered sub-par framing marks in 2018, per Baseball-Prospectus, but does have a 34 percent caught-stealing rate. Rabago wasn’t considered to be among the Rockies’ top prospects and won’t feature prominently on the Yankees’ rankings, either, though he’ll add some depth to the upper levels of their system.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/23/18

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Mariners announced Friday that left-hander Ross Detwiler and infielder Zach Vincej, each of whom was designated for assignment earlier this week, have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. Detwiler was selected to the big league roster when Mike Leake had to be scratched due to injury. He gave the Mariners six innings of three-run ball against the Astros on short notice in what ultimately wound up to be a losing effort. The veteran southpaws has spent the summer with Seattle’s top affiliate in Tacoma and could emerge as an option with expanded rosters in September, if Seattle wants to add some additional lefties to its bullpen. As for Vincej, he’ll remain in the organization and hope to receive another look as well. He went 2-for-4 in his lone MLB appearance earlier this season and is a career .268/.336/.359 batting line in the minors while playing shortstop, second base and third base.

Reds Pull Matt Harvey Off Revocable Waivers

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1:14pm: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that Reds owner Bob Castellini “loves” Harvey, which could’ve played a role in the decision to retain him. Heyman agrees, tweeting that Castellini ultimately did not want to trade the right-hander, which could indicate that the Reds will push to re-sign him this winter.

12:20pm: Even more definitively, Reds GM Nick Krall tells C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic that Harvey will remain with the team (Twitter link).

12:15pm: Bob Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Harvey will not be traded to the Brewers before the deadline expires (Twitter link). He’ll start today’s game in a Reds uniform and, presumably, remain with the Reds through season’s end.

7:23am: The Brewers are the team that placed the winning claim on Reds right-hander Matt Harvey on Wednesday, reports Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). They’ve yet to agree to a trade with the Reds, it seems, though there’s still time to do so before waivers on Harvey expire this afternoon at 1:30pm ET. Harvey recently landed 12th on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the Top 20 August trade candidates in baseball.

Much has been mad about the Brewers perceived need for rotation help, though in truth, all five members of their current rotation have generally outperformed Harvey even since his trade to the Reds. Jhoulys Chacin, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley all have ERAs of 4.02 or better, and of that bunch, only Anderson lags behind Harvey’s 4.50 FIP.

[Related: Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]

Having said that, there’s certainly plenty of reason to maintain interest in Harvey all the same; Miley has been injured for much of the season and has totaled just 45 1/3 innings after a pair of dismal seasons in the American League in 2016-17. Peralta, meanwhile, is a rookie who has already thrown a combined 130 1/3 innings between the Majors and minors after totaling 120 frames in 2017. Anderson is among the game’s most homer-prone starters. Guerra has had a solid season but pitched at sub-replacement level in 2017. Adding Harvey to the staff, especially considering the improvements he’s made since being traded from New York to Cincinnati, has plenty of merit even if it can be argued that it shouldn’t be an imperative.

Harvey has unquestionably improved since changing uniforms a first time this season, working to a solid 4.28 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 1.39 HR/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 90 1/3 innings. Much of the damage against him came in one eight-run meltdown against the Pirates back on July 22, but the majority of Harvey’s starts with the Reds have at the very least been competitive efforts outside of that showing. He’s still averaging just 5 1/3 innings per start, but Harvey’s velocity has steadily increased with Cincinnati. He’s also seen a modest improvement in his swinging-strike rate (currently 8.9 percent) and seen substantial jump in his chase rate on out-of-zone pitches while also throwing first-pitch strikes at a considerably higher clip (up to 63.3 percent).

There’s little denying that Harvey would at the very least deepen the current pitching staff by adding another serviceable arm to the mix, and that depth is especially important with rosters set to expand in September. Even incremental upgrades for the Brewers should be viewed as important, given that they’re currently 3.5 games back of the National League Central-leading Cubs and a half-game behind the Cardinals in the division as well. Milwaukee is more favorably positioned in the Wild Card hunt — currently tied with Colorado for the second spot and a half-game back of the Cardinals, who hold the top spot.

For the Reds, there’s been no indication that they’d simply let Harvey go via waivers. His $5.6MM salary has about $1.13MM remaining to be paid out, so the financial implications aren’t exactly overwhelming. But if the Brewers are willing to offer even a modest prospect in return, the Reds should be happy to add to their continually improving farm system in exchange for a pitcher who is otherwise set to hit free agency after the season.

Reds To Pull Billy Hamilton Off Revocable Waivers

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Following up on his statement that Matt Harvey will remain in Cincinnati, Reds general manager Nick Krall added that he expects Billy Hamilton to remain with the team as well (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Hamilton, like Harvey, had been claimed on revocable waivers and could’ve been traded to the claiming team — the identity of which remains unreported.

Unlike Harvey, however, Hamilton is controllable beyond the 2018 season. He’s eligible for arbitration one last time this winter and figures to receive a raise on his current $4.6MM salary. Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams suggested earlier this summer that his team wasn’t all that interested in moving pieces controlled beyond the current season, and the decision to retain Hamilton meshes with that line of thinking.

Hamilton, 27, would’ve been an ideal pickup for a contender seeking a defense/baserunning upgrade in advance of the upcoming Sept. 1 roster expansion. It’s not uncommon for contending clubs to carry pinch-running/base-stealing/defensive specialists through the month of September and into the month of October (e.g. Terrance Gore and the Royals in 2014-15), and no one in baseball has more steals than Hamilton’s 206 dating back to 2015. Hamilton has also posted sterling defensive marks in that time, including 37 Defensive Runs Saved and a 33.1 Ultimate Zone Rating.

Rather than joining a new team for the stretch run, it seems that Hamilton will instead remain with the Reds into the 2019 season (barring an appealing trade offer this winter). While he’s never developed any real semblance of on-base skills, Hamilton has nonetheless delivered consistent value on the basepaths and in the field which have helped to overcome his deficiencies at the plate. He’s a career .246/.299/.332 hitter through 2624 plate appearances, and his 2018 results (.239/.304/.321) are more or less in line with those career marks.

Hamilton is a known favorite of Reds owner Bob Castellini, who has said in the past that he hopes Hamilton will spend his entire career in Cincinnati (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick). Castellini’s affinity for Harvey reportedly served as a factor in the team’s decision not to trade him, and it seems possible that the same is true with regard to Hamilton.

Rays Pulled Sergio Romo Off Revocable Waivers

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Aug. 24: Heyman tweets that the Rays did indeed pull Romo off waivers after “multiple” American League clubs placed a claim on the right-hander.

Aug. 23: Veteran reliever Sergio Romo is “not going anywhere,” a source tells Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). It seems “likely,” Heyman adds, that Romo was pulled back from revocable waivers after being claimed.

Romo, 35, featured prominently on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the top August trade candidates. He’ll be a free agent again at season’s end, so there isn’t much reason for the out-of-contention Rays to hang onto him.

On the other hand, Romo is only owed about half a million dollars for the rest of the season. And he has played a notable role for an organization that has built some momentum with its unusual approach to building out a pitching staff. It certainly seems possible the Rays will seek to bring him back over the offseason to come; perhaps that consideration also weighed in the decision.

In 56 1/3 innings this year, Romo carries a strong 3.36 ERA with peripherals to match. He has generated 10.1 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 and still draws swings and misses on over 13% of his pitches. Romo has held opposing hitters to a .294 wOBA, with Statcast suggesting he has been even a bit better than that (.286 xwOBA).

While it seems he’ll remain in Tampa Bay to finish out the year, Romo ought to be a fairly popular target in free agency over the winter to come. The veteran is on pace to finish out his 11th-straight MLB campaign with a sub-4.00 ERA and recorded 18 saves this year, which may still hold some sway for certain teams. Whether he can secure a multi-year commitment remains to be seen, but he ought at least to have a strong possibility of beating the salaries he has settled for in each of the past two years ($3MM and $2.5MM, respectively).

Cubs Health Updates: Darvish, Chatwood, Morrow, Duensing

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The Cubs remain in good position in the NL Central, in no small part due to the recent heroics of recently acquired pitcher Cole Hamels. The veteran just wrapped up a complete-game performance tonight and has allowed less than one earned run per nine innings in his first five starts in a Cubs uniform. Of course, he would likely not have ended up in Chicago were it not for the difficulties experienced by a few of the team’s recently signed, high-priced starters.

  • Yu Darvish, Hamels’s former rotation mate in Texas, has already been declared out for the rest of the 2018 season. He addressed that fact with reporters today, with MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat among those on hand. The veteran righty says he felt all along “there was something else other than the tightness” he was experiencing in his pitching arm, so much so that the diagnosis of a stress reaction came as something of a relief. Darvish indicated that he’s not even thinking about the season to come so much as he is trying to care for his ailing arm. Still, he expressed confidence that he’ll bounce back and be “stronger going forward.” That’ll obviously be the hope of the Cubs organization, which still has $101MM invested in Darvish after the present season.
  • The club also announced today that righty Tyler Chatwood is headed to the DL with hip soreness, as Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune covers. He’ll be replaced on the roster by Dillon Maples, for the time being, with Alec Mills set to come up to start tomorrow. Chatwood has been plagued by walks all year long, racking up 93 to go with his 85 strikeouts over 101 2/3 innings. That’s simply not a manageable rate of free passes, as his 5.22 ERA reflects. Details of the new malady remain scant, but it certainly seems there are good reasons for the club to find cause to give Chatwood a breather regardless.
  • Another major recent open-market signee, Brandon Morrow, has performed as hoped when he has been available. But the closer has been sidelined for over a month with a balky elbow and still lacks a clear timeline. He went in for a checkup today, says Muskat. That examination evidently did not reveal anything of particular note, though it was not arranged due to any fear of a setback. It seems the hope remains that Morrow will return at some point in the final month of the regular season.
  • In other Chicago reliever news, Brian Duensing — yet another hurler who signed with the Cubs in free agency last winter — is headed for a rehab assignment. The 35-year-old southpaw, who carries an ugly 7.34 ERA on the year, has been on the shelf for the past several weeks with a shoulder ailment.

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Chapman, Duffy, Encarnacion, Holliday, Strasburg

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ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(August 22nd-August 23rd)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

White Sox Reinstate Welington Castillo From Restricted List, Place Him On 10-Day DL

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White Sox catcher Welington Castillo has formally concluded his 80-game PED suspension, but he won’t be going straight from the restricted list onto the active roster. The Chicago organization announced today that the veteran will instead move onto the 10-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation.

Castillo, 31, got off to a strong start at the plate this year after inking a two-year, $15MM contract early last winter. He was producing at a .267/.309/.466 clip with six home runs in 123 plate appearances when news broke of his positive test for erythopoieton, a substance prohibited under the MLB-MLBPA Joint Drug Agreement.

Though he had played in five rehab games prior to the conclusion of his suspension, Castillo is evidently not ready to return to the majors. It’s not clear at this point how long he’ll be down, but any minute chance of a late-August trade can assuredly be ruled out.

In his absence, the White Sox have relied upon Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith behind the plate. The former has been quite impressive with the bat, improving upon his solid numbers entering the year with an under-the-radar breakout season. He’s hitting at a .280/.374/.435 clip with an impressive 41:30 K/BB ratio in 240 plate appearances.

Presumably, Castillo will share time with Narvaez when this DL stint is over. But it stands to reason that the organization will want to get a long look at the younger, more controllable player. It’s certainly possible that Castillo will end up as trade fodder at some point, but it’s also worth bearing in mind that the South Siders could see the ensuing offseason as an opportune time to make some roster improvements in hopes of challenging in a division that has easily been the worst in baseball in 2018. Hanging onto Castillo, rather than trying to move him after a messy campaign, may well be the most sensible approach.

Brewers Option Corey Knebel, Zach Davies

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The Brewers have optioned righties Corey Knebel and Zach Davies, per the MLB.com transactions page. (H/t MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy & Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Twitter links.) Davies had been on a rehab assignment following an extended absence.

This move is notable enough for what it says about two of the team’s most important pitchers heading into the season. But it’s also an intriguing development with the revocable waiver trade deadline drawing near.

[RELATED: Brewers Depth Chart]

Knebel was expected to anchor the Milwaukee pen, but carries a 5.08 ERA through 39 innings on the season. He has generated 12.7 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 along with a 50.0% groundball rate, but has also been touched for home runs on 28.0% of the flyballs put in play against him. Knebel is sitting just under 97 mph with his average fastball, but has lost some of swinging-strike gains from 2017, with his 13.9% rate falling to 11.6% this year. His struggles have deepened of late, as he has coughed up eight earned runs in his past 6 1/3 innings.

As for Davies, who turned in solid campaigns from the rotation in each of the past two years, the 2018 season has been a rough one thus far. He only managed a 5.23 ERA through eight starts before hitting the shelf with shoulder troubles. Davies has actually taken more starts in the minors this year than in the majors, owing to a halting rehab course.

While Knebel will head to Triple-A to work out the kinks, Davies was formally assigned to the organization’s nearby Class A affiliate. The reason for the latter’s placement isn’t entirely clear, but it could be that the club thinks it may need to bring him back onto the MLB roster on short notice or that he’ll be getting some added rest time without re-starting another rehab stint. Or, perhaps this is just a holding spot for the time being while the next steps are hammered out.

Both pitchers will need to remain on optional assignment for at least ten days unless an active roster spot opens due to a DL placement. It’s at least worth noting that, to this point of the season, MLB players have only accrued 147 days of service. Knebel, a Super Two this year, will cross into the 3+ service class regardless of whether he returns to the MLB roster. Davies, though, entered the campaign with 2.020 service years on his ticker and is therefore still a few days shy of reaching arbitration eligibility in the coming offseason. He would still likely qualify as a Super Two, but that’d mean pushing back his eventual free agency by one season. Whether or not that’s a factor isn’t at all clear; it certainly could be that the organization plans to bring Davies back when rosters expand, if not sooner.

For the time being, there’s no known replacement for Knebel on the active roster. Milwaukee is off today. As Rosiak notes, he could be replaced by Joakim Soria, if he’s activated from the DL tomorrow. But the open roster spot could also be filled from the outside. Several starting pitchers are rumored to be on waivers or to have cleared waivers. It’s certainly possible — but by no means certain — that the Brewers are contemplating the acquisition of an outside arm.

[RELATED: Top 20 August Trade Candidates]

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