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Archives for September 2020

Rays Place Austin Meadows On 10-Day IL

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The Rays announced that they’ve placed outfielder Austin Meadows on the 10-day injured list with a Grade 2 left oblique strain. The club selected left-hander Sean Gilmartin and moved fellow southpaw Cody Reed to the 45-day IL in corresponding moves.

We may have seen the last of Meadows in 2020 because of this injury, as oblique strains have been known to keep players out for several weeks. If so, it will end a disappointing campaign for Meadows, who earned an All-Star berth a year ago but hasn’t been able to continue his momentum in 2020.

Meadows began this season on the COVID-19 injured list and has batted .205/.296/.371 with four home runs and 50 strikeouts in 152 plate appearances since he debuted Aug. 4. Meadows has primarily played left field, but the deep and talented Rays have at least a few other – including Yoshi Tsutsugo, Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot – capable of lining up in the corner outfield.

As for Gilmartin and Reed, the former has yo-yoed between the Rays’ roster and their alternate site on multiple occasions this season. Gilmartin has thrown 4 1/3 innings of four-run ball thus far in 2020. Reed, whom the Rays acquired from the Reds on Aug. 28, tossed 2 2/3 scoreless frames for Tampa Bay before it placed him on the 10-day IL on Sept. 10 with a left pinky issue.

Twins Reinstate Mitch Garver

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The Twins announced that they’ve reinstated catcher Mitch Garver from the 10-day injured list and optioned utility player Willians Astudillo. La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune first reported on Garver’s return.

The Twins have gone without Garver since he went on the IL on Aug. 20 with a right intercostal strain. Before that, Garver only managed a .154/.262/.212 line with one home run in 61 plate appearances. That production represents a stunning drop-off for a player who seemingly broke through a season ago by slashing .273/.365/.630 with 31 homers and 3.9 fWAR in just 359 trips to the plate. Garver led all major leaguers with 350-plus PA then in isolated power (.357), but that number has plummeted to .058 this year.

At 31-21, the Twins are in position for a second straight playoff berth, but it doesn’t appear another AL Central title is in the cards, as they’re three games behind the White Sox. Regardless, if Garver’s able to round back into last year’s form upon his return, it would certainly increase the Twins’ World Series chances. Garver, rookie Ryan Jeffers and Alex Avila could comprise a strong trio at catcher.

Mike Yastrzemski Suffers Mild Calf Strain

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SEPT. 18: Yastrzemski has a mild calf strain and is now day-to-day, Crowley tweets. He’s not going on the IL.

SEPT. 17, 7:29pm: Yastrzemski will undergo an MRI on Friday, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tweets.

4:29pm: Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski left the team’s game against the Mariners on Thursday for what was then an undisclosed reason. It turns out he’s dealing with a tight right calf, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to report.

There’s no word on the severity of Yastrzemski’s injury. However, calf troubles have been known to lead to IL stints (the Yankees’ Aaron Judge is among those capable of attesting to that), which would be a difficult late-season development for the Giants. They surprisingly entered play Thursday with a 24-24 record and a playoff spot in the National League, and their success has come thanks in no small part to Yastrzemski. The 30-year-old has been one of the NL’s most valuable players thus far, having slashed .285/.391/.553 with nine home runs and 2.3 fWAR in 209 plate appearances.

As a tremendous offensive player who can line up all over the outfielder, Yastrzemski has been the Giants’ MVP, so there wouldn’t be a realistic way to replace him if he does need to go on the IL. They subbed in Luis Basabe on Thursday, but he has just two MLB plate appearances to his name.

Dakota Hudson Unlikely To Pitch Again In 2020

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2:55pm: Hudson has been placed on the 10-day injured list, per the Cardinals. Righty Nabil Crismatt is up from the alternate site to take his spot on the active roster.

1:20pm: President of baseball operations John Mozeliak now tells reporters that Hudson’s injury is believed to be a flexor tendon issue, and he’s unlikely to pitch again in 2020 (Twitter link via Mark Saxon of The Athletic). The team is still awaiting an official diagnosis following the MRI.

Sept. 18, 8:00am: Cardinals manager Mike Shildt described his overall level of concern regarding Hudson’s injury as “fairly low,” per Richard Justice of MLB.com. Shildt termed the issue as a “minor” forearm strain. The club will know more after imaging, but both Shildt and Hudson himself were optimistic about his outlook postgame. Hudson added that he “felt good all the way up to that second inning” before experiencing some tightness and speaking up about the issue.

Sept. 17: Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson left the team’s game against the Pirates early on Thursday with elbow tightness. He’ll undergo an MRI on Friday, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Hudson departed after throwing just two innings in another defeat for the Cardinals, who are 22-24 and fighting for a wild-card spot. Hudson has been an asset for the team, evidenced by his 2.77 ERA over 39 innings. It’s the third straight year in which he has defied fielding-independent numbers to post much better run prevention figures, evidenced by the 3.20 ERA and 4.72 FIP he has recorded over 239 innings since debuting in 2018. Hudson’s strikeout and walk rates (7.0 K/9 against 4.41 BB/9) haven’t been good, but he has offset those to some degree with a 57.4 groundball percentage.

At the very least, the Cardinals appear to have a legitimate MLB starter in Hudson, so the hope is that his elbow issue won’t stop him from pitching the rest of this year or cause him to miss time in 2021. The Cardinals may need all the rotation help they can get then with Hudson, Jack Flaherty and Kwang Hyun Kim seemingly the only members of their staff who appear to be locks for next year’s rotation. They could also get Miles Mikolas back from surgery on a right flexor tendon, though, while it remains to be seen whether Adam Wainwright will continue his career in 2021.

White Sox Promote Garrett Crochet

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In an eye-opening promotion, the White Sox have selected the contract of left-hander Garrett Crochet, general manager Rick Hahn announced to reporters today (Twitter link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Chicago drafted the 21-year-old lefty out of Tennessee with the 11th overall pick of the 2020 draft. Righty Evan Marshall is going on the 10-day injured list with shoulder inflammation, which opens an active roster spot. Right-hander Ian Hamilton was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Garrett Crochet (via Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics)

It’s obviously of the utmost rarity for a prospect to skip the minor leagues entirely, which Crochet will be doing in the absence of a conventional minor league season. The last player to do so was Mike Leake, although Brandon Finnegan followed a similar arc when he was called by the Royals in September 2014 with just 27 minor league innings under his belt (also a mere three months after being drafted). Of course, the White Sox themselves have done this with a high-profile college lefty as well, rocketing Chris Sale to the big leagues in the same year that he was selected 13th overall (2010).

Crochet might not have the video game-esque numbers that many would expect to see from a top-ranked collegiate pitcher, but he was nevertheless regarded as one of the best prospects in the 2020 draft. Between his sophomore and shortened junior NCAA seasons, Crochet worked to a 3.82 ERA with an 87-to-22 K/BB ratio in 68 1/3 innings. Baseball America was most bullish on Crochet heading into the draft, ranking him as the No. 15 prospect in the class. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (16th), the team at MLB.com (18th), Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs (22nd) and Keith Law of The Athletic (39th) all had Crochet in their top 40 prospects as well.

There was some risk associated with Crochet after he missed the first three weeks of the 2020 season with what McDaniel tabbed as an issue with a muscle in his shoulder. He returned to make one appearance, punching out six hitters in 3 1/3 frames in what proved to be his only outing prior to the NCAA shutdown. Law calls him one of the best arms in the draft and labeled him a likely first-rounder, attributing the relatively bearish ranking to uncertainty surrounding his early absence. BA notes that there are concerns among some clubs about Crochet’s lack of track record as a starter — he started only 13 games in college while making 23 additional relief appearances — but virtually any scouting report on the 6’6″, 218-pound southpaw will say that he had some of the best pure stuff in the draft.

That arsenal, headlined by a fastball that runs up to 99 mph and a 70-grade slider, will be on full display at the game’s top level in the final week-plus of the season. It’s an aggressive move for a White Sox club that is clearly (forgive the cliche) all-in on pushing for a World Series in its first full, post-rebuild campaign.

The Sox have already clinched a postseason berth, and the Dodgers are the only team in baseball with a better record than their current mark of 33-17. They’ve ridden otherworldly performances from MVP candidates Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu to the top of the AL Central. With a formidable one-two punch of Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel in the rotation, followed by promising young arms like Dane Dunning and Dylan Cease, they look like legitimate contenders for a deep postseason run as well.

Crochet figures to head to the bullpen, where he’ll give skipper Rick Renteria a power arm to mix into the late innings alongside Alex Colome, Matt Foster, Codi Heuer and, if he’s able to return by season’s end, fellow lefty Aaron Bummer. Crochet is no lock to make the postseason bullpen — he’ll need to earn his way into that role — but he makes an already loaded White Sox roster look all the more intriguing in the countdown to the team’s first postseason appearance since way back in 2008.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Ferguson/University of Tennessee Athletics.

Phillies, Brewers Complete David Phelps Trade; Brewers Release Jake Faria

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The Phillies have sent right-handrs Juan Geraldo, Brandon Ramey and Israel Puello to the Brewers as the three players to be named later in last month’s David Phelps trade, per announcements from both teams. Milwaukee also added that right-hander Jake Faria has been released.

The names in the trade were already known, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reported their inclusion not long after the completion of the trade. Still, it’s of some note that the swap is now official, without any of the involved pieces altered in the time that passed between agreement and completion.

None of the three pitchers going to the Brewers have pitched above Rookie ball. Geraldo and Puello, both 19, spent the 2019 season with Philadelphia’s affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. Ramey, who turned 20 on the day of the trade deadline, was with the Phillies’ Gulf Coast League club last year.

Because we’re looking at Rookie-level summer leagues, the sample of each pitcher’s body of work is rather small. Still, all three posted intriguing numbers last year. Geraldo logged a 3.96 ERA, mostly as a reliever, but added a more impressive 33-to-7 K/BB ratio in just 25 innings. Ramey logged 22 2/3 frames and posted a very similar 30-to-6 K/BB ratio with a 2.78 ERA. Puello racked up 65 2/3 innings as a starter and turned in a pristine 1.92 ERA with an 83-to-19 K/BB ratio.

None of the three were ranked within the Phillies’ 30 best prospects, and they’re all years from making an impact at the MLB level. Brewers president of baseball ops David Stearns has had luck with this type of low-level, quantity-forward approach in the past, though, most notably when he plucked a then-19-year-old Freddy Peralta away from the Mariners as one of three low level prospects acquired in exchange for Adam Lind.

As for the 27-year-old Faria, his release ends a disappointing tenure with the club. Acquired last year in the trade that sent Jesus Aguilar to the Rays, Faria joined the Brewers as a buy-low candidate but never got much of a look. He was tagged for 11 runs in just 8 2/3 frames last year after the trade, and Milwaukee outrighted him off the 40-man roster back in January. Although Faria was in the team’s player pool, he wasn’t ever summoned to the Majors in 2020.

Back in 2017, Faria looked like the latest somewhat out-of-the-blue arm to pop up with the Rays and carve out a spot in the bigs. He tossed 86 2/3 innings for Tampa Bay that season, working to a quality 3.43 ERA and a 4.12 FIP with averages of 8.7 strikeouts, 3.2 walks and 1.1 homers per nine innings. He’s never managed to replicate that output, however, and over the 2018-19 seasons he logged a combined 5.70 ERA and 5.45 FIP in a near-identical sample of 83 2/3 innings.

Phelps, like most other relievers in Philadelphia this year, hasn’t paid dividends since the trade. He’s appeared in seven games and surrendered runs in five of them, resulting in a dismal 11.37 ERA through 6 1/3 innings. Phelps has whiffed nine hitters in that time, but those results are still miles away from the excellent work he posted with the Brewers to begin the season and from his generally steady career track record.

Rangers’ Ricky Vanasco To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Rangers pitching prospect Ricky Vanasco will undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow next week, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan tweets. The timing of the surgery will likely wipe out all of Vanasco’s 2021 season.

It’s a tough blow to what was already regarded as a rather thin farm system. Vanasco, 22 next month, ranked as the Rangers’ No. 13 prospect at Baseball America, also placing 18th at MLB.com and 24th at FanGraphs. BA’s report on the hard-throwing young righty noted that he sits mid-90s with a heater that has touched 99 mph, in addition to displaying good feel for spinning his curveball. FanGraphs noted some trepidation about his “extremely violent” delivery but called him a potential high-leverage reliever.

Vanasco was a 15th-round pick in 2017 but turned heads last year when he pitched to a combined 1.81 ERA with a 75-to-25 K/BB ratio in 49 2/3 innings (11 total appearances — all starts). He’d likely have ascended to Double-A in 2020 under circumstances, but spent the season working out at the alternate training site in the absence of a minor league campaign. As such, Vanasco wasn’t completely deprived of developmental work in 2020, but it’s nevertheless still a notable setback in the promising young righty’s path to big league readiness that he’ll go two years without pitching in a truly competitive setting.

Jeff Mathis Hopes To Continue Playing In 2021

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Veteran catcher Jeff Mathis hopes to play in what would be a 17th Major League season next year, tweets T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. The 37-year-old Mathis is wrapping up a two-year deal with the Rangers right now, and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram explored the reasons that Texas might look into bringing Mathis back despite his lack of production at the plate.

Mathis hasn’t hit a lick in Texas, nor was he really expected to. The Rangers signed him to a two-year, $6.25MM deal on the heels of a .207/.274/.297 showing at the plate in two seasons with the Diamondbacks. He’s gone on to put together an even less-palatable .160/.215/.244 output in 297 plate appearances as a Ranger. Mathis was signed entirely for his glove and the experience that he can bestow upon younger catchers and pitchers alike.

He hasn’t matched the defensive and framing numbers he put forth in his D-backs run this time around, but Mathis is still generally regarded as a defensive savant and, as Wilson writes, is the preferred receiver for right-handers Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. Wilson adds that Jose Trevino — the likely starter in 2021 with Sam Huff expected to open in Double-A or Triple-A — “loves” Mathis and has learned quite a bit under his tutelage. Manager Chris Woodward called Mathis’ knowledge and mentorship “invaluable.”

The question for the Rangers, of course, is whether they’ll aim a bit higher in looking for catching help this winter. The free-agent market will have defensively sound alternatives who can offer more at the plate than Mathis. Granted, J.T. Realmuto probably isn’t heading to Arlington, but the Rangers could look at quality defenders like Jason Castro or Mike Zunino who offer more ability with the bat.

That said, the Rangers are already leaning toward a youth movement and taking a longer-term focus. That mentality comes with a payroll reduction and lowered expectations in the win column. It’s tougher to entice free agents to sign with a team when the president of baseball operations is on the record having recently called 2022 and beyond “probably the more likely window for us” while plainly acknowledging that the team’s payroll will decrease. Mathis, on the other hand, has already expressed a willingness to discuss a return in a similarly limited role for the 2021 season, Sullivan notes.

There’s no guarantee that Mathis will be back with the Rangers or any other club next season. He hasn’t hit better than .200 in a season since 2017, and his perennially high strikeout rate has spiked to a career-worst 35.8 percent with the Rangers. The lack of offensive value is glaring, even if clubs still love the glove and the intangibles he can bring to a young team. But Mathis sounds like a man who plans to be a baseball lifer one way or another, telling Wilson, “Baseball’s all I know” and expressing interest in one day becoming a coach.

If offers as a player don’t materialize this winter, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Rangers or any number of other clubs express interest in bringing Mathis aboard in a coaching or player development capacity. He’s played with the Angels, Blue Jays, Marlins, D-backs and Rangers across nearly two decades in the big leagues, making countless connections along the way that are now scattered throughout an even wider slate of organizations.

Ubaldo Jimenez Retires

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Former major league right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez is calling it a career at the age of 36, Bob Nightengale of USA Today relays.

Jimenez began his big league tenure with the Rockies in 2006 and, despite calling the hitter-friendly Coors Field his home, eventually became one of the league’s top hurlers. At his best, Jimenez pitched to a 2.88 ERA across 221 2/3 innings in 2010, a year in which he threw a no-hitter. That was the second straight 200-inning season and the lone All-Star campaign for Jimenez, whom the Rockies traded to the Indians in July 2011.

The Jimenez acquisition didn’t work out as planned for the Indians, with whom he tossed 424 2/3 innings of 4.45 ERA ball through 2013. Jimenez still scored a four-year, $50MM guarantee from the Orioles during the ensuing offseason, but that deal didn’t give the O’s the value they wanted when they signed him. While Jimenez did eat up 594 1/3 frames with Baltimore, he only managed a 5.22 ERA as a member of the team.

The Orioles will end up as the last major league team for Jimenez, who hasn’t pitched in the bigs since he took the hill for them on Sept. 22, 2017. Jimenez has since tried to keep his MLB career going, including via a non-guaranteed deal with the Rockies this past offseason, but he’ll now hang it up as the owner of a 4.34 ERA with 8.28 K/9, 4.08 BB/9 and a 47.1 percent groundball rate in 1,870 innings and 329 appearances (315 starts). MLBTR congratulates Jimenez on a very respectable career and wishes him well in retirement.

Rangers’ Luis Garcia Becomes Free Agent

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The Rangers have granted right-hander Luis Garcia free agency, per a team announcement. The club previously designated Garcia for assignment on Tuesday, but the reliever subsequently cleared waivers.

Garcia will head back to the open market eight months after signing a minor league contract with the Rangers in January. The 33-year-old wound up throwing 8 1/3 innings with Texas this season and surrendering nine runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and nine walks, though he did strike out 11 hitters along the way.

This will count as the third straight subpar season for Garcia, who has also spent time with the Phillies and Angels, but he has mostly posted respectable numbers in the majors. Since he debuted with Philadelphia in 2013, Garcia has logged a 4.26 ERA/4.32 FIP with 8.31 K/9, 4.77 BB/9 and a 55.1 percent groundball rate. Garcia has also averaged 96.2 mph on his fastball during his time in the bigs.

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