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Archives for June 2019

A’s Place Blake Treinen On Injured List

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7:25pm: Treinen’s dealing with a mild rotator cuff strain, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com.

6:29pm: The Athletics have placed closer Blake Treinen on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The strain’s muscular, not structural, Slusser adds.

While Treinen’s injury may not be severe, it’s the second sizable blow to the playoff-contending A’s pitching staff in as many days. They lost ace Frankie Montas to an 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use Friday.

The injury has bothered Treinen for a while, Slusser tweets, which may somewhat explain the 30-year-old’s decline in 2019. Treinen was close to untouchable last year, as evidenced by a nearly nonexistent 0.78 ERA in 80 1/3 innings, but has registered a 4.08 ERA in 35 1/3 frames this season. Treinen’s 4.11 FIP suggests his bloated ERA hasn’t been the product of bad luck. His 9.17 K/9 and 5.35 BB/9 also represent marked drop-offs from his otherworldly production in 2018.

It’s unclear who will take over for Treinen as Oakland’s closer during his absence. Treinen has totaled all 16 of the A’s saves this season, after all. Lou Trivino, Yusmeiro Petit, Ryan Buchter, Liam Hendriks and Joakim Soria rank 1-5 in their bullpen in holds. Soria has amassed 220 saves in the majors, which makes him a logical pick to serve as the A’s game-ending solution on paper, but the 35-year-old has had difficulty preventing runs this season.

Wandy Peralta Switches Agencies

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Reds left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta has hired The MAS+ Agency to represent him, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

The 27-year-old Peralta debuted in 2016 with the Reds, who signed him as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2010. The hard-throwing Peralta showed promise in 2017, his first extensive look in the majors, but he has fallen off since then. Peralta now owns a 4.89 ERA/4.64 FIP with 7.26 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 50.5 percent groundball rate in 140 innings. He hasn’t been able to completely stifle same-handed batters, who have hit .254/.349/.386 against him since he debuted in the bigs.

While Peralta’s numbers aren’t anything to write home about, his agency switch is relevant because he’s on track to reach arbitration for the first time during the upcoming offseason. Peralta’s also on schedule to hit free agency after the 2022 campaign.

MLBTR will note Peralta’s agency change in our Agency Database. If you see any notable errors or omissions, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Diamondbacks Acquire Ben Lively

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The Diamondbacks have acquired right-hander Ben Lively from the Royals for cash considerations, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic was among those to report. Lively will go to Triple-A Reno.

The Royals designated Lively for assignment Thursday after a rough major league showing this year in which he allowed three earned runs on three hits in a single inning of work. The 27-year-old worked to a 4.07 ERA/5.56 FIP with 8.79 K/9 and 4.07 BB/9 in 42 innings with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate this season before the club let him go.

Lively’s likely best known for his tenure with the Phillies, who acquired him from the Reds for outfielder Marlon Byrd in December 2014. Overall, he has pitched to a 4.80 ERA/5.03 FIP with 6.0 K/9 and 2.93 BB/9 in 120 major league innings. He has logged a more impressive 3.12 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 308 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level.

Twins To Sign Cody Allen

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The Twins are expected to sign free-agent reliever Cody Allen to a minor league deal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Allen became available when the Angels released him this past Tuesday.

Allen will now reunite with Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, who was in the Indians’ front office for a large portion of Allen’s Tribe tenure. Now 30, Allen pitched to a sterling 2.98 ERA/3.17 FIP with 11.52 K/9 and 3.53 BB/9 in 440 2/3 innings as a member of the Indians from 2012-18. He also converted on 149 of 172 save opportunities in that span, though a down 2018 helped convince the Indians to move on from Allen last offseason.

Allen inked an $8.5MM guarantee with the Angels over the winter, but his decline continued with Anaheim. After Allen put up a disastrous 6.26 ERA/8.34 FIP with 11.35 K/9, 7.83 BB/9 and a 19.7 percent groundball rate in 23 innings with the Angels, they released him. There was great interest in Allen thereafter, but the Twins won the bidding for his services.

At 50-26, Minnesota boasts the American League’s leading record. However, there’s room for improvement in its bullpen. The Twins’ relief corps ranks 12th in the majors in FIP and K/BB ratio, and 16th in ERA. Perhaps Allen will be able to help the unit’s cause down the stretch.

Marlins Outright Rosell Herrera, Peter O’Brien

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The Marlins announced that they’ve outrighted outfielder Rosell Herrera and infielder/outfielder Peter O’Brien to Triple-A New Orleans. Having been outrighted in the past, O’Brien could reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but he’ll stay in the organization, Wells Dusenberry of the Sun Sentinel suggests.

The Marlins designated Herrera for assignment this past Wednesday to make room for the acquisition of outfielder Cesar Puello. A former Royal and Red, the 26-year-old Herrera had chances to prove himself with the Marlins before they cut him. Herrera batted just .200/.288/.314 in 119 plate appearances in the majors this season, though, leading the Marlins to ax him from their roster.

O’Brien, whom the Marlins acquired from the Dodgers in June 2018, hasn’t been able to consistently put his big power to use in the majors. While the 28-year-old journeyman’s a .257/.316/.507 hitter in 1,358 Triple-A plate appearances, he has only slashed .209/.275/.434 in 200 major league attempts. O’Brien batted .167/.255/.262 in 47 PA this year before Miami designated him.

Orioles Select Matt Wotherspoon

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The Orioles have selected the contract of righty Matt Wotherspoon from Triple-A Norfolk, the club reported. It’ll be the second O’s stint this season for the 27-year-old, who was outrighted off the 40-man after clearing waivers in April.

The former Yankee farmhand has exhibited consistent bat-missing ability after converting full-time to the bullpen before the 2016 season. In 40 1/3 IP for Norfolk this season, the righty set down nearly ten and a half men per nine with a solid 2.90 BB/9. Wotherspoon’s grounder rates do hover at the low end of the spectrum, though, and it’ll be a challenge to keep ball in yard in Baltimore’s hitter-friendly home park.

The move is the latest in the desperate quest for anything approaching reliability in the Baltimore ’pen. Among regulars, only Paul Fry and Shawn Armstrong have accrued 0.2 fWAR or more on the season, with over a half-dozen names having cost the club an estimated two full wins in ’19.

Tigers Select Jose Cisnero, Designate Carlos Torres

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Per a team release, the Tigers have selected the contract of righty Jose Cisnero from Triple-A Toledo and designated right-hander Carlos Torres for assignment.

Cisnero, 30, has 33 games of big-league experience with the 2013-14 Astros, for whom he worked to a 4.94 ERA with estimators to match. Cisnero spent much of the 2016-18 seasons in the Mexican and Independent leagues, where he ostensibly found a strikeout touch that had eluded him in seasons past. The hefty 6’3 righty’s set down nearly 11 per nine in the International League this season, though his longstanding command issues continue to linger.

Torres, 36 and an 11-year MLB vet, made just six appearances for the Tigers this season. He struck out eight while walking just one, but allowed hard contact over 42% of the time and struggled to keep the ball in the yard. In over 500 IP with six MLB organizations, Torres boasts a respectable 4.09 ERA with a very solid 44.1% grounder rate.

Rays Select Mike Brosseau

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The Rays have selected INF Mike Brosseau from Triple-A Durham among a flurry of roster moves, the team announced. INF/OF Daniel Robertson was placed on the 10-Day IL with a left knee sprain, and durable reliever Austin Pruitt was sent down to make room for lefty Adam Kolarek. Catcher Anthony Bemboom was transferred to the 60-day IL to make room for Brosseau.

Though the 25-year-old Brosseau didn’t crack the club’s top 54 prospects per FanGraphs, the 5’10 righty has done little but mash in his four years on the Rays farm thus far. In 283 plate appearances for Durham this season, Brosseau’d slashed .313/.406/.579 with an outstanding 11.7% BB/17.7%K plate-discipline profile.

He’ll look to work his way into the weak-side infield platoon mix for Tampa, as each of Brandon Lowe, Joey Wendle, Willy Adames, Christian Arroyo and Ji-Man Choi have been manhandled by lefties so far this season.

Brewers Move Jimmy Nelson To Bullpen

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Today, 1:00 pm: Nelson will indeed move to the bullpen, per mlb.com’s Adam McCalvy. The team has not yet announced a replacement.

Friday, 8:00 pm: Brewers right-hander Jimmy Nelson is back in action for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery in 2017, but it hasn’t been a storybook return to this point. The team’s now discussing whether to keep Nelson in its starting rotation, according to manager Craig Counsell (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

Nelson came back June 5 and has since endured a difficult three starts, all of which lasted between three and five innings and ended in defeat for the Brewers. The 30-year-old has thus far yielded 13 earned runs on 16 hits and 10 walks (against 13 strikeouts) in 12 frames during his major league comeback. Adding to the bad news, Nelson’s velocity is down across the board since 2017. He has lost around 3 mph on his four-seam fastball, slider and curve.

An emotional Nelson called his early season performance “frustrating, upsetting and disappointing” when speaking with Haudricourt and other reporters, though he’s still confident he’ll return to form. Nelson blossomed into a front-end starter two years ago, when he turned in 175 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA/3.05 FIP ball with 10.21 K/9, 2.46 BB/9 and a 50.3 percent groundball rate. It’s far too soon to say that version of Nelson won’t reappear eventually. However, given that Milwaukee’s pushing for a playoff spot, it may not be in position to keep running Nelson out there.

The problem for the Brewers is that they might not have an obvious solution to replace Nelson. Brandon Woodruff, Zach Davies, Gio Gonzalez and Chase Anderson have been useful members of their rotation, though Gonzalez has been on the injured list for three weeks and may not return until July. Meanwhile, Jhoulys Chacin, Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes and Adrian Houser have each posted unattractive numbers as starters this year. Chacin’s the lone member of the group who remains in the Brewers’ rotation. The rest are in their bullpen.

With the Brewers not getting enough from their starting staff, the reigning NL Central champions have stumbled of late. Although they’ve lost six of seven, the Brewers are 40-35, in wild-card position and only a game behind the Cubs in their division. Still, barring an in-house fix, Milwaukee may have to address its rotation before the July 31 trade deadline in order to clinch another playoff spot.

Pirates Place Gregory Polanco On 10-Day IL

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The Pirates have placed outfielder Gregory Polanco on the 10-Day IL with left shoulder inflammation, the team announced. Outfielder Jason Martin has been recalled in his place. It’s the same shoulder on which Polanco underwent major surgery in the offseason, resulting in a month-long absence at the season’s outset. The move is retroactive to Wednesday, however, so it may just be a minor setback for the 29-year-old.

The lefty has struggled in his first 42 games for the team this season, slashing just .242/.301/.425 (89 wRC+) with an easily-career-high 29.3% strikeout rate. Polanco’s (left) throwing arm has graded out as subpar for the first time in his six-year big-league career thus far, so it’s certainly possible the shoulder is still giving him issue.

Martin, 23, was acquired from Houston as part of the Gerrit Cole deal, but has not been good after a midseason promotion to Triple-A in 2018. He boasts identical 65 wRC+ marks at Indianapolis both this season and last, and a 17-game cameo with Pittsburgh earlier in ’19 did not go well, as the rare lefty hitter/righty thrower slashed just .229/.289/.286 in limited action.

Rookie Bryan Reynolds has been a godsend for a beleaguered Pirate outfield thus far, but the team’ll need plenty of help elsewhere if it’s to overcome the six-under-.500 hole in which it currently sits.

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