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Archives for July 2020

Mets Select Brian Dozier, Designate Hunter Strickland For Assignment

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The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, placing Eduardo Nunez on the 10-day injured list with a left knee contusion and selecting the contract of veteran second baseman Brian Dozier in his place. In order to open a spot on the roster for Dozier, New York designated right-hander Hunter Strickland for assignment. Lefty Daniel Zamora is up from the team’s alternate training site to take Strickland’s spot on the 30-man roster.

Dozier, 33, inked a minor league deal with the Mets midway through Summer Camp after being let go by the Padres. He’s already in tonight’s lineup and will give the club some thump against lefty starter Martin Perez. Dozier, a former All-Star with the Twins, is a lifetime .270/.354/.500 hitter against southpaws. For a brief stretch from 2014-17, he was among the league’s best second basemen, hitting a combined .254/.338/.476 with 127 home runs in that four-year stretch. That included a monstrous 42-homer effort in 2016, which he followed up with a 34-dinger season in 2017.

A knee injury hobbled Dozier for much of the 2018 season, which surely contributed to a dismal .215/.305/.391 showing. He bounced back a bit with the World Series-winning Nationals in 2019, slashing .238/.340/.430 in 482 plate appearances. However, Dozier’s role shrunk late in the regular season and in the postseason. This winter, with an abundance of supply and considerably less demand on the second base market, Dozier settled for a minor league deal — but he’s quickly worked his way back to the bigs.

As for Strickland, he’ll depart after surrendering four runs (three earned) on six hits in just 2 1/3 frames as a Met. The 31-year-old posted terrific numbers with the Giants from 2014-17 before slipping a bit in 2018 and completely cratering in 2019. Strickland still has a 3.24 ERA in 252 2/3 Major League innings, but his recent track record is concerning, and he’s had some issues off the mound. The righty broke his hand when he punched a door after blowing a save back in 2018, and he’s previously incited a benches-clearing brawl by throwing at Bryce Harper (widely believed to be in response to Harper homering off him twice in the postseason three years prior).

Mike Foltynewicz Clears Waivers, Sent Outright To Braves’ Alternate Training Site

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The Braves announced Thursday that right-hander Mike Foltynewicz was sent outright to the team’s alternate training site after going unclaimed on waivers. He’ll continue to work out there in hopes of returning to form.

While some might be surprised to see a pitcher with Foltynewicz’s track record clear waivers, it’s notable that he’s earning $6.425MM in 2020 — about $2.38MM after factoring for prorated salaries. Any team that claimed him would’ve been on the hook for the entirety of that sum. At a time when some clubs still haven’t even committed to paying their minor leaguers a $400 weekly stipend through August, that additional $2.38MM in salary is surely viewed as a more sizable commitment by many owners than one would think upon first glance.

Had Foltynewicz simply gotten out to a rough start to the year, perhaps a club would’ve been willing to gamble on him. However, the right-hander also came out averaging just over 90 mph on a fastball that as recently as 2018 averaged 96.4 mph. That’s a glaring red flag — one that likely contributed to all 29 other clubs shying away from the 2018 All-Star. Manager Brian Snitker said after the game that the team wasn’t sure what prompted the velocity dip, though he acknowledged what was obvious to anyone who saw the right-hander pitch that night — Foltynewicz looks noticeably thinner than at any point in his career.

Whatever the reasons for Foltynewicz’s drop in velocity, the immediate results were ugly, to say the least. In his lone start this season, the right-hander was tagged for six runs on four hits and four walks with three strikeouts in just 3 1/3 frames. Three of the four hits he surrendered were long balls.

Even the 2019 season was a rough one for Foltnewicz, who missed time with a bone spur and at one point was even optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. The righty looked to have found himself late in the season, as he closed out the year with a 1.73 ERA and a 36-to-10 K/BB ratio in his final seven starts — a span of 41 2/3 innings. That he managed to salvage his season in that capacity is likely what led the Braves to tender a contract to Foltynewicz, who had carried a 6.37 ERA into late June before being optioned.

It’s clear to anyone who’s followed the game in recent years that Foltynewicz is a highly talented arm with a notable ceiling. He rattled off 183 innings of 2.85 ERA ball in 2018, averaging 9.9 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 and hurling a pair of shutouts along the way. That terrific season landed him eighth in NL Cy Young Award voting. That looked to be the breakout moment for Foltynewicz, but the former first-round pick and top prospect has yet to replicate that year’s production.

The timing of Foltynewicz’s DFA likely wasn’t a coincidence. The right-hander entered the season with four years, 134 days of MLB service time, meaning he needed just 38 days of service to reach five total years. Prorated to match the shortened 2020 season, Foltynewicz needed only 14 days on the MLB roster to reach five years of service. And once a player reaches five years of big league service time, he’s able to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency without forfeiting the remainder of his salary. Had the Braves given Foltynewicz even two more starts, he could’ve taken free agency after an outright assignment and gone to another club. Now, the organization will at least have the chance to see if he can right the ship and contribute later in the season.

Seranthony Dominguez Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Phillies righty Seranthony Dominguez has undergone Tommy John surgery, the club announced. He had long battled with elbow issues.

With the news, the reliever will all but assuredly miss most of the 2021 season. It’s certainly possible he could make it back late in the year, depending upon how aggressive a timeline he pursues, but it’d be hard to count on.

The news makes it quite possible that the Phils will non-tender Dominguez when the time comes. He stands to reach arbitration eligibility as a Super Two after the campaign. It won’t cost all that much to keep Dominguez, but it’ll be tough to tie up the roster spot throughout the offseason. Then again, the 25-year-old did throw 58 innings of 2.95 ERA ball in his debut season of 2018.

In other news, lefty Cristopher Sanchez will join the Phillies’ 60-man player pool. The 23-year-old is already on the 40-man roster, so he can now be called upon in the majors at any point if there’s a need. Sanchez has just one appearance under his belt over the High-A level. Last season, he worked to a 2.26 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 75 2/3 total minor-league frames.

Marlins To Sign Pat Venditte

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The Marlins have added switch-pitcher Pat Venditte on a minor-league deal, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports on Twitter. He had been with the organization during Spring Training.

Venditte, 35, has long been one of the game’s quirkiest players due to his ability to work off the mound with either arm, depending upon the handedness of the hitter. It’s more than a gimmick. He has done enough to warrant MLB stints with five teams over parts of four seasons.

While Venditte’s unique path to the majors is worthy of celebration, he has had a hard time carving out a permanent role. All told, he owns a 5.03 ERA in 68 innings at the game’s highest level. For the Marlins, who are dealing with a coronavirus outbreak that has covered half of the active roster, the key consideration is to pick up another experienced player who is capable of holding his own in the majors.

Rays’ Colin Poche Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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JULY 30: Poche has indeed undergone Tommy John surgery, the Rays announced.

JULY 21: Rays lefty Colin Poche has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow and will miss the 2020 season, the team announced. Tommy John surgery has been recommended for the 26-year-old Poche, who has been placed on the 45-day injured list. Tampa Bay selected veteran catcher Kevan Smith to the big league roster in a corresponding move.

The loss of Poche is a tough blow for the Tampa Bay bullpen. While last season’s 4.70 ERA doesn’t exactly stand out as an impressive mark. Poche’s secondary numbers were all considerably better. The southpaw averaged 12.5 strikeouts and 3.3 walks per nine innings pitched with a 4.08 FIP in 51 2/3 frames.

In spite of that unsightly ERA, Poche overwhelmed both left- and right-handed hitters, yielding just a .167/.276/.348 slash to lefties and a .190/.277/.388 line to righties. A 67.6 percent strand rate that was vastly worse than his career mark in the minors, and Statcast pegged Poche in the 91st percentile or better in terms of swinging-strike rate and his opponents’ expected batting average, slugging percentage and weight on-base average. A breakout season for the talented lefty seemed eminently possible, but he could now be sidelined into late 2021 — if not all the way into the 2022 season.

Poche will get a year of service time in 2020 as he rehabs on the 45-day IL, and he’ll need to be placed on the 60-day IL to open the 2021 season as well. If he is indeed out until 2022, he may be arbitration-eligible as a Super Two player by the time he’s able to return to the mound, although with 114 days under his belt at the moment, he’d be a very borderline case for Super Two status.

As for the 32-year-old Smith, he’ll likely make the club’s roster as a backup catcher. Smith has seen time in each of the past four seasons — 2016-18 with the White Sox and 2019 with the Angels — hitting a combined .272/.318/.381 along the way. That’s pretty solid production from behind the plate, but Smith also owns a woeful 14 percent caught stealing rate and has posted sub-par framing numbers as well.

One Phillies Coach, One Clubhouse Staffer Test Positive For COVID-19

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The Phillies announced today that one member of the coaching staff and one home clubhouse staff member have tested positive for COVID-19. No players registered positive tests. The club has cancelled its scheduled workouts indefinitely.

While it’s obviously possible that these infections occurred elsewhere, it is impossible to ignore the possibility that they came about during the series last weekend with a Marlins club that is now riddled with coronavirus infections. It had been hoped that the virus had been contained to the Miami organization.

The plan had been for the Phillies to resume play on Saturday. Whether that is now in jeopardy isn’t known. The organization has already dealt with some infections earlier this year, but managed to avoid further spread within the club.

This is worrisome news on several levels. First and foremost, it’s concerning to see two more individuals in the game carrying this disease. Hopefully they’ll both make a swift and full recovery.

Beyond that, it’s obviously concerning to see that spread (presumably) occurred between the teams. Fortunately, the Phillies have not had further contact with other organizations since the series against the Marlins. But it seems quite possible that other members of the Phillies organization could still be harboring infections that haven’t yet triggered positive tests. It’s also hypothetically possible that transmission could’ve occurred from the coach and staff member to others, though one would hope the team has exercised stringent caution over the past few days.

Royals To Promote Kris Bubic

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The Royals will promote lefty Kris Bubic to make his MLB debut, manager Mike Matheny tells reporters including Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (via Twitter). He’ll take the ball on Friday.

Bubic, who’ll soon turn 23, was selected with the 40th overall pick of the 2018 draft. He followed Brady Singer in that draft and will now join him in vaulting quickly to the majors.

At the time, the Royals made clear they hoped their slate of incoming college arms would move swiftly through the system and help launch a rapid return to contention. The first prong has come to pass. Now we’ll see what kind of near-term and long-term output the team will get from its promising hurlers.

Bubic, a Stanford product, cracked the Baseball Prospectus top-100 prospect list entering the 2020 season. He earned that placement with an excellent showing at the High-A level in his first full season as a profession, racking up 101 2/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball with 9.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 over 17 starts.

Impressive though that was, Bubic still hasn’t been exposed even to upper-minors bats. The Royals obviously saw enough from him in camp to make the bold move to bring him up. Though he won’t spend enough time on the active roster to accrue a full year of service, even if he stays up for all of 2020, Bubic now profiles as a potential Super Two player.

Additional Marlins Player Tests Positive For COVID-19

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Another Marlins player has tested positive for COVID-19 infection, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). His identity is not known at this time.

It’s not altogether surprising to see additional positive tests arising, given the incubation period of the disease and multiple potential chains of transmission. In this case, Rosenthal says, contract tracing efforts had already identified the particular player as likely to have been exposed.

That doesn’t change the gravity of the situation. With this test, Rosenthal says, we’re now up to 17 players from the 30-man active roster and/or 3-man taxi squad that are carrying the virus.

There are many implications of this outcome. For one thing, it seems clear that the Marlins’ anti-transmission measures were insufficient. The team’s protocols — and/or individuals’ commitments to following them — not only failed to prevent an initial infection, but also did not tamp down the spread within the organization.

At a minimum, the Marlins will now have yet another roster spot that it needs to fill with a plausible MLB player. The team has been removed from play for the time being; whether and when it will resume remains to be seen and could yet depend upon whether further players end up registering positive tests.

MLB, MLBPA Agreed To New Sign-Stealing Rules

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It seems that Major League Baseball would prefer to avoid a repeat of the Astros’ sign-stealing debacle, a scandal that only worsened when individual players escaped punishment due to a lack of a punitive framework and an exchange of immunity for information.

There’s a new structure for dealing with such matters, should they arise in the future, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription link). MLB and the MLB Players Association have agreed to a series of rules that are designed to foreclose the round of controversy we’ve seen recently from the Astros and other teams.

The key here is that the commissioner’s office now has authority to impose suspensions — without pay and service time — against players and personnel. Punishment can be assessed upon a violation of the broad prohibition of utilizing “Electronic Devices or Visual Enhancement Devices during the game to identify, communicate or relay the opposing club’s signs or pitch information.”

There are some added protections for players. They’ll get union representation while the league investigates. Much as in the context of the domestic violence policy, the league will start fresh in terms of precedent for suspension lengths (at least for players). It’ll all be subject to appeal and final determination  by a neutral arbitrator.

The league is also stepping up its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. The video review rooms will be isolated and communications strictly limited; ultimately, cameras will watch over the proceedings. Trained security professionals from a third-party vendor will watch the door to the doors even to the clubhouse; notably, they’ll be given authority to document and even confront any players or personnel that violate rules such as the ban on in-game cellphone access.

For the time being, players will not be able to watch any kind of live or video feed during a game that features an angle of action that would reveal signs. That will ultimately change, but the league needs time to sort out a system for blotting out signs in the feeds its players will be allowed to access.

It’s all a game of whack-a-mole to some extent, but there’s a key backstop now — a clear threat of suspension — that was lacking previously. The new system is a reflection of the inadequacy of the old one. It would be an improvement if it could ferret out and adequately punish cheaters, but the league hopes for more. If this slate of initiatives really works, the likelihood of being exposed and fear of significant punishment will prevent would-be rule-breakers from even trying.

Predict The NL West Division Winner

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With final roster decisions in the books and the 2020 season underway, it’s time to make some predictions. We’re polling the MLBTR readership on each of the game’s six divisions — though plenty more teams will crack the postseason under the rather inclusive new playoff qualification system. We’ve already surveyed the AL East, AL Central, AL West, NL Central, and NL East landscapes, so it’s time to wrap things up with the National League West.

The Dodgers have owned this division for some time now and are perhaps more laden with star-level talent than ever with Mookie Betts on board. Then again, they may be more vulnerable than ever in a short-season format. There’s a nice assembly of talent on the Diamondbacks roster, which includes an elite young player in Ketel Marte and a sturdy slate of veterans now highlighted by intra-division transferee Madison Bumgarner. Then again, you could argue that the Padres have the greatest capacity to surprise with their own budding legend in Fernando Tatis Jr., still-youthful star Manny Machado, and a potential-laden rotation. The Rockies have an excellent core unit in their own right and perhaps have more upside than is generally recognized. And while the Giants don’t really appear primed to compete, they managed to do so last year and still have a lot of players with lofty established performance ceilings at the game’s highest level — even if it has been a few years.

Which team do you think is going to take the division title? (Poll link for app users.)

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