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Archives for August 2020

Rays Outright Kevan Smith

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The Rays have outrighted catcher Kevan Smith, the team announced. He cleared waivers after recently being designated for assignment.

With the move, the Tampa Bay organization will retain Smith on its 60-man player pool. Bringing him back up would require a 40-man move, however.

Smith received only a pair of plate appearances before he was dropped. The 32-year-old has seen at least some time on a big league roster in each of the past five seasons. In 710 total trips to the plate at the game’s highest level, he owns a .273/.320/.382 batting line.

Rangers Add Ricky Vanasco & Cole Winn To 60-Man Pool

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The Rangers announced today that Ricky Vanasco and Cole Winn have each been added to the club’s 60-man player pool. Both are right-handed hurlers; neither has a 40-man roster spot.

It’s unlikely that either of these two young pitchers will have a real shot at earning a 2020 call-up. The move is probably intended to get them some work in the absence of a minor-league season.

Winn is a well-known prospect already, having landed with the Rangers with the 15th overall pick in the 2018 draft. The 20-year-old ran into some struggles at the Class A level in 2019, pitching to a 4.46 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 5.1 BB/9, and a 46.5% groundball rate in 68 2/3 innings. But those numbers reflected a rough early showing as well as a much more promising run in his final dozen starts of the year.

Vanasco, a former 15th-round pick, has drawn more attention for his work in the Texas organization than his promise upon entry. He showed intriguing arm strength and strikeout ability in low-A and Class A play last year, running up better than 13 strikeouts per nine while allowing less than two earned per nine at both levels.

Asdrubal Cabrera Changes Representation

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Nationals infielder Asdrubal Cabrera has changed representation and hired Gene Mato of Mato Sports Management, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. MLBTR has made note of the switch in our Agency Database.

The well-traveled Cabrera joined the Nationals last August after the Rangers released him. Texas signed Cabrera to a one-year, $3.4MM contract before 2019, but it cut ties with him after he managed a subpar .235/.318/.393 line across 368 plate appearances in its uniform. The switch-hitting Cabrera then came alive as a member of the Nationals, slashing .323/.404/.565 in 146 PA. Cabrera’s down-the-stretch production helped the Nationals to the playoffs, and though he struggled in the postseason, the club still won its first-ever World Series championship.

After Washington took home the title, Cabrera returned to free agency and sat on the open market for a couple months. However, the Nationals ultimately re-signed the 34-year-old to a $2.5MM pact for this season. The move has paid off for the Nationals, as Cabrera is off to a .326/.380/.674 start with three home runs over 50 trips to the plate.

Joe Kelly Suspension Reduced On Appeal

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Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has succeeded in appealing his eight-game suspension. The ban will now span five contests. Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports first reported the news on Twitter, with Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com confirming that report (via Twitter).

Kelly was suspended after a well-publicized bench-clearing incident during a game with the Astros. He was deemed to have thrown in the area of the head of Houston third baseman Alex Bregman. The suspension also reflected Kelly’s taunting thereafter.

More recently, Kelly hit the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder. He’ll still need to serve out his suspension once he’s ready for activation, though it seems possible the Dodgers will be able to manage the timing to blunt the impact of the ban.

Giants Designate Andrew Triggs

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The Giants have designated righty Andrew Triggs for assignment. That’ll create 40-man space for Trevor Cahill, whose contract was selected.

Triggs only made one appearance this year, coughing up three earned runs while recording only a single out. He’s still looking to reestablish himself in the majors after his career was interrupted by surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome.

From 2016-18, Triggs provided the Athletics with 163 innings of 4.53 ERA pitching, though ERA estimators have pointed to greater promise. Triggs owns a career 4.17 FIP, 4.11 xFIP, and 4.09 SIERA.

Latest On Justin Verlander

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The Astros are badly in need of several missing stars. Perhaps no absence is more notable than that of staff ace Justin Verlander.

Last we checked in, Verlander was not progressing as rapidly from a forearm strain as he had hoped. But it seems now that he’s nearing readiness for an attempt at a return.

Verlander is “making excellent progress,” per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. If all goes as planned, he could be throwing within a week. It’s anyone’s guess how things will progress from that point, but it’d be possible to imagine a late-2020 resumption of play.

Both Verlander and the ’Stros are surely thinking about more than 2020 alone. He’s under contract for 2021 as well, at a guaranteed $33MM salary.

Yordan Alvarez “Very Close” To Return; Roberto Osuna Will Attempt Rehab

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Astros manager Dusty Baker said today that outfielder/DH Yordan Alvarez is “very close” to returning to action, as Mark Berman of FOX 26 was among those to cover (Twitter links). The skipper also revealed that closer Roberto Osuna will attempt to rehab and return later this season.

A precise timeline isn’t yet known for Alvarez, but it sounds as if the young slugger’s activation is imminent. He was cleared to resume training on July 24th after an unexplained but presumptively coronavirus-related absence. Adding Alvarez back into the lineup would be a big boost for the scuffling Houston squad.

As for Osuna, it’s quite a bit less clear where things are headed. His worrisome elbow situation has left a hole at the back of the Astros bullpen. He’s going to rest and rehab for a stretch, with eyes on a possible late-2020 comeback.

That’s far from a guarantee that Osuna will be able to avoid Tommy John surgery, let alone contribute again this season. But it’s a better outlook than had been indicated a week ago, when it seemed a surgical procedure was the likeliest outcome.

In other updates, the Astros have a trio of hurlers that are still moving in the right direction. Chris Devenski, Brad Peacock, and Jose Urquidy are all gearing up in bullpen sessions, though it remains unknown just when they’ll be ready for MLB action.

Mets Moving Robert Gsellman Into Rotation

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The Mets are set to give Robert Gsellman the start for tonight’s game, but it’s more than just an “opener” assignment for the righty, it seems. Manager Luis Rojas said in an appearance on WFAN 660 AM today that Gsellman will be stretched out to work as a starter moving forward (Twitter links via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). The plan is for him to pitch in the rotation for the remainder of the year.

The Mets were bullish on their rotation depth after signing Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha over the winter, but the lack of options beyond their top six starters has become a glaring deficiency in 2020. Noah Syndergaard will miss the entire season due to Tommy John surgery, while Marcus Stroman just opted out of the 2020 season earlier this week, citing health-and-safety uncertainties while playing amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Wacha, meanwhile, is on the injured list with another bout of shoulder troubles.

Despite the fact that Jacob deGrom is dominating (as usual) and former first-round pick David Peterson has impressed in his first three MLB outings, Mets starters have the sixth-worst earned run average (5.18) in all of baseball. Some of that is due to a porous defense that ranks near the bottom of the league in both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating — Mets’ starters have a much-better 4.14 FIP — but the team simply hasn’t gotten much help from Porcello, Wacha or Steven Matz to date.

The 27-year-old Gsellman is no stranger to starting games. He came up through the system as a starter and made 29 starts for the Mets across his first two big league seasons. He’s been better as a reliever — 4.60 ERA, 4.31 FIP in the rotation vs. 4.25 ERA, 3.97 FIP out of the ’pen — but the Mets are thin on alternatives at this point. Right-hander Walker Lockett could’ve been an alternative, but it seems he’ll continue in a long relief role for now. It’s possible that Lockett will piggyback off Gsellman’s starts early in the transition. Gsellman will be limited to about 45 pitches tonight, per DiComo.

Over at their alternate training site in Brooklyn, the Mets have right-handers Erasmo Ramirez, Corey Oswalt, Ariel Jurado and Yefry Ramirez as options with big league experience. Of that bunch, only Oswalt and Jurado are on the 40-man roster.

In parts of five big league seasons, Gsellman has tallied 309 innings of 4.43 ERA ball (4.14 FIP) with averages of 7.5 strikeouts, 3.2 walks and 0.96 home runs per nine innings pitched. He’s been clobbered when facing opponents a third time in a game (.329/.393/.537), so the Mets could look to limit him to two trips through the order more often than not even when he’s sufficiently stretched out.

Pirates To Activate Keone Kela

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Pirates closer Keone Kela will be active for the team’s upcoming series against the Reds, manager Derek Shelton announced to reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Will Graves of the Associated Press). It’ll be the season debut for Kela, who has yet to pitch since missing Summer Camp due to a positive Covid-19 test.

Kela, 27, confirmed in a late-July interview with Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he’d tested positive. Despite being asymptomatic, he wasn’t able to meet the requirement of consecutive negative tests, though, which dragged his absence out into a weeks-long ordeal. He was eventually cleared to report to the team in early August and has been building up since that time.

It’ll be a quick ramp-up for Kela, but he’s surely champing at the bit to return. The hard-throwing righty is a free agent for the first time this winter, so he undoubtedly wants as large a window as possible to impress potential suitors — particularly after a minor elbow issue limited him to 29 2/3 frames last year. There’s ample incentive for the Pirates to get him back on the hill, too. Kela represents one of their most obvious trade chips as the team eyes the future and embarks on what looks to be a rebuilding effort. Starling Marte was already traded over the winter.

Kela has pitched in parts of five Major League seasons. He’s had some injury troubles and at times drawn negative headlines for off-field issues — last year’s altercation with a member of the coaching staff led to a team-issued suspension — but Kela is an undeniably talented late-inning reliever. In 214 2/3 big league innings, he’s pitched to a 3.23 ERA with 11.0 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.92 HR/9 and a 41.3 percent ground-ball rate. He’s been particularly strong over the past three seasons, logging a combined 2.84 ERA and 3.20 FIP in 120 1/3 innings of relief between Texas and Pittsburgh. Shelton has previously confirmed that Kela will serve as Pittsburgh’s closer upon his return.

Rays Place Andrew Kittredge On 45-Day IL, Select Aaron Slegers

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The Rays have placed right-hander Andrew Kittredge on the 45-day injured list with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament, per a club announcement. They’ve selected the contract of righty Aaron Slegers to replace him on the roster.

It’s another blow to a Tampa Bay bullpen that has already lost southpaw Colin Poche to Tommy John surgery. There’s no definitive word yet that Kittredge will face the same fate, but a sprain, by nature, indicates stretching/tearing of the ligament tissue. At the very least, it’s a season-ending injury for the 30-year-old right-hander.

Kittredge had started the season well, holding opponents to a pair of runs on eight hits and two walks in eight innings of relief. Dating back to Opening Day 2019, Kittredge has given the Rays 57 2/3 frames of 3.90 ERA ball with an even better 3.48 FIP. That said, there were some red flags in 2020. After averaging better than 10 strikeouts per nine frames last year, Kittredge managed just three whiffs in his eight innings. His average heater had dropped from 95 mph to 94 mph, and Kittredge’s seven percent swinging-strike rate was less than half last year’s mark of 15.9 percent.

The 27-year-old Slegers has pitched 32 big league innings between the Twins and Rays, working to a combined 5.63 ERA with a sub-par 15-to-8 K/BB ratio from 2017-19. But the towering 6’10” righty had some strong Triple-A seasons with Minnesota and has a generally strong minor league track record. His history as a starting pitcher should allow him to fill a multi-inning bullpen role for the Rays.

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