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Archives for September 2021

Giants Activate Wilmer Flores, Austin Slater

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The Giants have activated Wilmer Flores and Austin Slater from the injured list, and both players are in today’s starting lineup against the Cubs.  Right-hander John Brebbia and left-hander Caleb Baragar were optioned to Triple-A to create roster room.

Slater is back after spending a week on the concussion-related IL.  Back on September 4, the outfielder was concussed after crashing into the wall while trying to catch a Trea Turner home run.  Fortunately, Slater is back in pretty short order, and he’ll resume his part-time role on San Francisco’s depth chart.  Slater has hit .227/.313/.395 over 288 total plate appearances this season, with much of that damage coming against southpaws — Slater has a .263/.364/.480 slash line and eight home runs in 176 PA against left-handed pitching.

Flores also has a well-earned reputation as a lefty-masher, though he has a comparatively modest .273/.316/.438 slash line in 136 PA against southpaws this year.  Between that production and similar numbers against righties, Flores is batting .249/.319/.438 with 17 homers in 389 total PA in 2021.

After suffering a left hamstring strain on September 2, Flores is back after missing only the minimum 10 days, beating manager Gabe Kapler’s initial expectation that Flores would be out “a couple of weeks.”  Hamstring injuries have been a persistent issue for Flores for much of the year, and he also missed 10 days with a right hamstring strain in May.

Phillies Designate Enyel De Los Santos

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The Phillies announced that right-hander Enyel De Los Santos has been designated for assignment.  The move creates roster space for catcher Andrew Knapp’s activation off the COVID-related injury list, and catcher Rafael Marchan has also been optioned to Triple-A.

De Los Santos has been shuttled up and down between the Phillies’ roster and Triple-A Lehigh Valley multiple times this season, with the righty posting a 6.75 ERA and a strong 30.7% strikeout rate over 28 innings out of Philadelphia’s bullpen.  While his strikeout totals have increased by leaps and bounds this season at both the MLB and minor league levels, home runs have continued to plague De Los Santos in the big leagues.  Since the start of the 2019 season, De Los Santos has allowed 11 homers in only 39 innings pitched for the Phils.

This marks the second time in as many seasons that the Phillies have designated De Los Santos, and he was able to clear waivers last year before being outrighted off the 40-man roster.  De Los Santos is only 25 years old, so another team might be interested in taking a late-season flier to bring him into their organization, particularly with his improved strikeout numbers.  De Los Santos whiffed 66 of 184 batters faced in Triple-A and the majors this season, good for a very impressive 35.9% strikeout rate.

Orioles Select Eric Hanhold, Move Matt Harvey To 60-Day IL

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The Orioles announced that right-hander Eric Hanhold’s contract has been selected from Triple-A.  To create a 40-man roster spot, Matt Harvey has been moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL, which will officially end Harvey’s season.

Harvey went to the injured list earlier this week due to right knee inflammation, and the knee issue will cut short what has been an otherwise healthy season for the 32-year-old.  That is a very notable silver lining given how injuries have plagued Harvey and stalled what once looked to be a very promising career, though beyond just staying on the field, Harvey didn’t have a great 2021.

Signed to a minor league deal with the O’s in February, Harvey earned the contract’s guaranteed $1MM salary after he was added to the team’s active roster prior to Opening Day.  The righty has posted a 6.27 ERA/4.85 SIERA over 127 2/3 innings with Baltimore, with only a 16.3% strikeout rate that ranks in the seventh percentile of all qualified pitchers.  While Harvey has a .331 BABIP and 60.4% strand rate, he has also allowed a lot of hard contract, so there hasn’t been too much misfortune baked into Harvey’s numbers.

Harvey will likely have to settle for another minor league deal from the Orioles or another team this winter as he looks to continue his career.  With only a handful of games under his belt as a reliever at the MLB level, Harvey could potentially try to drum up interest by marketing himself as something other than a starter, perhaps opening himself up to long relief, swingman, or bulk pitcher roles to take advantage of his durability without being a full-fledged regular starting pitcher.

It was almost exactly two years ago to the day that Hanhold joined the Orioles organization, after Baltimore acquired him from the Mets via a waiver claim.  Hanhold’s MLB resume consists of 2 1/3 innings with the Mets in 2018, and he has a 4.69 ERA over 340 career minor league innings.  With only a modest 19.15% strikeout rate during his minor league career, Hanhold has relied on some strong grounder rates to retire batters.

Rays Place Chris Archer On Injured List, Designate Shawn Armstrong, Activate Nick Anderson And Brett Phillips

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The Rays have made a flurry of roster moves, as first reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links).  Right-hander Chris Archer has been placed on the 10-day injured list with discomfort in his left hip, while fellow right Shawn Armstrong has been designated for assignment.  To fill the two open roster spots, Tampa Bay has activated right-hander Nick Anderson from the 60-day injured list and outfielder Brett Phillips from the 10-day IL.

Archer was solid over four innings in yesterday’s 7-2 victory over the Tigers, allowing one run on a walk and two hits during his brief start.  However, Archer’s hip issue forced him out of the game early, marking the second time in less than a month that the injury led to an early exit from a start.

Injures have been a constant for Archer in recent years, and yesterday’s start was only Archer’s sixth game of the season.  After missing all of 2020 recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, he spent over four months of the 2021 campaign on the IL due to forearm tightness.

While this latest trip to the IL might be just be a way to rest Archer and allow him to fully get over a nagging injury, it also has to call into question Archer’s availability for Tampa Bay’s playoff roster.  Over the small sample size of 19 1/3 innings, Archer has a 4.66 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate — not eye-popping numbers by any means, though perhaps productive enough for a Rays team that seems poised to use a bullpen-heavy approach with their postseason pitching staff.  Tampa will need as many quality arms as possible to keep everyone fresh for what the club hopes will be a more successful trip to the World Series.

That same logic applies to Anderson, who is finally set to make his 2021 debut after suffering a partial tear of his right elbow ligament near the end of Spring Training.  It is a testament to the Rays’ incredible bullpen depth that their relief corps has remained among the game’s best even despite the absence of arguably their best reliever from 2019-20.  A trade deadline pickup from the Marlins in July 2019, Anderson has been all but untouchable over 37 2/3 regular-season innings with Tampa, as he has posted a 1.43 ERA, a tiny 3.68% walk rate, and an absurd 49.26% strikeout rate.

The Rays leaned hard on Anderson during their postseason run last October, and it seems the increased usage took its toll on the right-hander.  Anderson pitched in 10 of Tampa Bay’s 20 playoff games, and allowed runs in eight of his appearances.  Most infamously, Anderson was the pitcher called in to replace a seemingly-cruising Blake Snell in Game 6 of last year’s World Series — Anderson immediately surrendered the Rays’ lead within two batters, putting the Dodgers ahead for good in the Series-clinching game.

Armstrong was a trade deadline pickup from the Orioles, and the veteran righty posted a 4.50 ERA over his 16 innings in a Rays uniform.  Despite some solid peripheral numbers, Armstrong was again hurt by the home run ball, as he has already allowed five homers in his brief time with Tampa Bay.  Armstrong has surrendered 10 homers in his 36 combined innings with Baltimore and Tampa this season, a jarring spike for a pitcher who gave up just 17 home runs over his 131 previous career frames as a big league pitcher.

Since Armstrong is out of minor league options, the Rays had to put him through DFA waivers in order to remove him from their roster.  Armstrong has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, since he was already outrighted off the Orioles’ roster earlier this week.  It is also possible another team simply claims Armstrong off waivers, in order to add another relief arm down the stretch.

Dodgers Shut Down Danny Duffy After Injury Setback

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Left-hander Danny Duffy suffered a setback while throwing a bullpen session on Friday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Los Angeles Times’ Mike DiGiovanna (Twitter links) and other reporters.  The setback is related to Duffy’s left elbow, which is a particularly ominous sign considering that a flexor strain has kept Duffy from pitching since July 16.

As a result, the Dodgers have shut Duffy down from throwing.  According to Roberts, “it doesn’t look great” that Duffy will pitch again in 2021: “Outside of any type of miracle, for him to impact us this year, it’s going to be tough.”

Despite Duffy’s injury, the Dodgers still acquired the southpaw from the Royals in a trade on July 29.  The thought at the time was that Duffy would be able to pitch by mid-to-late August, though Duffy’s move to the 60-day injured list on August 9 pushed that timetable back to September 18 (based on Duffy’s initial IL placement when he was still a Royal).

This is Duffy’s second IL trip due to a flexor strain this season, with his first absence lasting close to five weeks.  It was already looking like Duffy might be used as a multi-inning reliever rather than as a starter for Los Angeles, given the lack of time remaining to get Duffy’s arm strength fully ramped up for starting work.  Even if Duffy get healthy enough to resume throwing and the Dodgers did extend their season with a lengthy run into the postseason, it would seem far-fetched that L.A. would devote a postseason roster spot to a pitcher coming off such a long absence.

Since Duffy’s contract is up after the season, it is quite possible his Los Angeles tenure will end without an official pitch thrown in Dodger Blue.  Duffy had control over his trade deadline destiny due to his 10-and-5 rights, and the Southern California native chose to accept a deal to return close to home and chase another World Series ring.  The Dodgers only gave up a player to be named later in exchange for Duffy (the Royals kicked in money to cover the approximate $5.4MM remaining in the lefty’s 2021 salary), so the trade ultimately goes down as something of a missed opportunity, rather than a true misfire on the Dodgers’ part.

These elbow injuries will also very likely have an impact on Duffy’s free agent market, particularly if he has to eventually undergo some kind of procedure to correct his elbow issues.  Between the injuries, Duffy had a 2.51 ERA over 61 innings with the Royals this season, though his advanced metrics weren’t impressive.

NL Notes: Brewers, Tellez, Naquin, Smith

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Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader combined on Major League Baseball’s record-setting ninth official no-hitter of the season, as the Brewers recorded a 3-0 victory over the Indians.  Burnes struck out 14 Cleveland batters over eight dominant innings, though since Burnes amassed 115 pitches, Hader was brought in to finish things off with a perfect ninth inning.  It was the second no-hitter in Brewers franchise history, since Juan Nieves’ gem on April 15, 1987.

Baseball’s “Year Of The No-Hitter” hasn’t been kind to the Indians, who have now set a record by being no-hit three times in a single season.  Zach Plesac has been the Tribe’s starting pitcher for all three of those games, and Plesac matches Jim Perry as the only hurler in baseball history to be on the mound opposite three no-hitters in his career (let alone in a single season).

The latest from around the senior circuit…

  • It wasn’t a perfect night for the Brewers, as first baseman Rowdy Tellez left the game prior to the bottom of the second inning due to a knee injury.  Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that Tellez has been bothered by the nagging injury for some time, and he will undergo an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the problem.  Acquired in a trade with the Blue Jays in early July, Tellez hit .265/.325/.464 with seven home runs over his first 166 plate appearances in a Milwaukee uniform.  Tellez has become the Brew Crew’s top first base option, though if he has to miss time on the injured list, the team can turn to a combination of Daniel Vogelbach, Eduardo Escobar, and Jace Peterson at first base.
  • A sixth-inning collision between Reds teammates Tyler Naquin and Jose Barrero resulted in Naquin leaving the game with bruised ribs.  Naquin and Barrero were both in pursuit of a short fly ball from the Cardinals’ Dylan Carlson, but the ball eluded the duo in painful fashion, resulting in an RBI double for Carlson.  In positive news, Reds manager David Bell told reporters (including C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic) that there weren’t any concerns that either Naquin or Barrero suffered a concussion.  The Reds don’t play on Monday, so it seems likely that Naquin will get two full days off to recuperate, and it remains to be seen if the injured list will ultimately be required.
  • Caleb Smith lost the appeal of his 10-game suspension, and began serving that suspension today.  The Diamondbacks southpaw was hit with the 10-game ban after umpires discovered a foreign substance on his glove during an August 18 game.  Smith strongly protested his ejection from the game and subsequent suspension, though his appeal didn’t result in a change of the league’s initial decision.  Smith has a 5.04 ERA/4.68 SIERA over 105 innings this season, moving between Arizona’s rotation and bullpen amidst a lot of control problems.

Giants Outright Jake Jewell

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The Giants announced that right-hander Jake Jewell has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.  Jewell’s presence on the waiver wire wasn’t publicly known, though this marks the third time Jewell has been on waivers this season, and the first time the 28-year-old hasn’t changed teams.

Jewell came to the Giants via a waiver claim from the Dodgers earlier this week, and Los Angeles also claimed Jewell when the Cubs designated him for assignment in late August.  The righty has yet to see any big league action for either of the two NL West powers, as his 2021 statline remains 10 innings pitched (with a 9.90 ERA) for Chicago.

This also marks the second time the Giants have themselves outrighted Jewell off their 40-man roster.  San Francisco previously claimed Jewell off waivers from the Angels back in January 2020 and then outrighted him later that month.  Jewell ended up not seeing any action at all in 2020 thanks to the canceled minor league season, as the Giants never called him up to their MLB roster.

Originally drafted by the Angels back in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, Jewell had a 6.99 ERA over 28 1/3 frames for the Angels in 2018-19.  The righty has a 4.78 ERA over 542 career innings in the minors, but a 3.88 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate over 97 1/3 Triple-A innings.  Jewell’s strikeout rate has been on the rise since becoming a full-time reliever during the 2018 season.

AL West Notes: Chapman, Fiers, Greinke, Cobb, Rodriguez

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X-rays were negative on Matt Chapman’s left foot/shin area after the Athletics third baseman fouled a ball off himself during today’s 8-6 loss to the Rangers.  Chapman’s last plate appearance took place in the third inning, though he returned to the field in the next inning before being removed from the game prior to the top of the fifth.  A’s manager Bob Melvin told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara and other reporters that Chapman likely won’t play on Sunday out of precaution.

Since the A’s don’t play on Monday, Chapman would get a full two days of recovery time, with an eye towards returning when the Athletics begin a road series with the Royals on Tuesday.  It has been an inconsistent season overall for Chapman, though he has been one of Oakland’s hotter players in the second half, batting .223/.338/.538 with 13 home runs in his 154 plate appearances entering today’s game.

More from the AL West…

  • Mike Fiers has missed almost the entire season due to injury, though the veteran righty might yet be able to return to the Athletics before the 2021 campaign is out.  Fiers threw 25 pitches during a live batting practice session on Friday, and Bob Melvin told reporters (including MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos) that Fiers is set for a Triple-A rehab outing this week.  A right elbow sprain has sidelined Fiers since May 6, so he would almost surely be returning as a reliever if he does get back to Oakland’s active roster, since there doesn’t seem to be enough time for Fiers to ramp up for a starting pitcher’s workload.  Between that elbow sprain and an early-season hip issue, Fiers has tossed only 9 1/3 innings in 2021, with a 7.71 ERA.
  • After being placed on the Astros’ COVID-related injury list on August 31, Zack Greinke is scheduled to return and start on Tuesday when the Astros face the Rangers.  Greinke, his wife, and his two sons all tested positive for the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated, the right-hander told reporters (including The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome), and all are now recovered.  Greinke has a 3.66 ERA/4.55 SIERA over 159 2/3 innings this season, as one of the league’s best walk rates (5.0%) has helped Greinke succeed despite a 17% strikeout rate, his lowest K% since the 2005 season.
  • Alex Cobb threw three simulated innings yesterday, and Angels manager Joe Maddon told Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register (Twitter links) that Cobb could potentially be activated off the 10-day IL for a start this week.  Cobb has been out of action since July 30 due to right wrist inflammation.  Despite this missed time and an earlier injured-list stint due to blister problems, Cobb has been one of the Angels’ better starters this year, with a 3.82 ERA/3.65 SIERA, 53.8% grounder rate, and a career-best 25.7% strikeout rate over 77 2/3 innings.
  • Also from Maddon, he announced that right-hander Chris Rodriguez has been shut down for the remainder of the season.  Rodriguez has been on the minor league IL due to a lat strain for almost a month, and he also spent a month on the Angels’ injured list due to shoulder inflammation earlier this season.  Injuries have plagued Rodriguez for much of his pro career, though he did make his MLB debut this year, and posted a respectable 3.64 ERA over 29 2/3 innings (starting two of 15 games).

Dodgers Outright Neftali Feliz

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TODAY: Feliz cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A, according to Oklahoma City Dodgers communications director Alex Freeman (Twitter link).

SEPT. 9: The Dodgers have designated right-hander Neftali Feliz for assignment and reinstated fellow righty Tony Gonsolin from the 10-day injured list, per a team announcement. They’ve also optioned Mitch White to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Andre Jackson.

Feliz, 33, appeared in three games with the Dodgers and tossed three shutout innings, yielding just one hit without a walk and with one strikeout. His initial stay with the Dodgers will prove to be short, however, as is often the case with depth options the Dodgers summon from Triple-A. He’ll be placed on outright waivers or released in the next couple of days, though it stands to reason that the Dodgers would hope to retain him and at least attempt the outright route.

It’s been a dominant season for Feliz in the minors, as the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year has turned in a combined 2.13 ERA with a 40.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.2 percent walk rate in 38 innings between the top affiliates for the Dodgers and the Phillies. Feliz was hit hard in a pair of appearances with the Phillies and quickly cut loose, at which point he latched on with the Dodgers. It’s possible that another club could claim Feliz, based on those dominant minor league numbers, but he’s a free agent at season’s end and would be ineligible for a new club’s postseason roster. Both of those factors should help the Dodgers’ chances of passing him through waivers.

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