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Archives for March 2022

Hunter Greene Makes Reds’ Rotation

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Top pitching prospect Hunter Greene has made the Reds’ Opening Day roster and will pitch out of the rotation to begin the season, manager David Bell announced to reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

Hunter Greene

Tyler Mahle will start on Opening Day and be followed by lefty Reiver Sanmartin, righty Vladimir Gutierrez and Greene. Cincinnati has an early off-day that’ll allow them to skip the fifth spot in the rotation the first time through, and Mahle has already been announced as the starter for their fifth game (which is also their home opener). The Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale adds that whoever is settled upon as the fifth member of the rotation will likely start the sixth game of the season.

Greene, 22, was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Initially selected as a two-way player, he’s since been shifted solely to the mound and has done little to drop his stock in the years since being drafted. Tommy John surgery wiped out Greene’s 2019 season, but he’s returned with the same triple-digit heater and wicked slider that made him such a coveted player as an amateur. He currently ranks among MLB’s 35 best prospects according to each of Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN and The Athletic (where Keith Law is most bullish on him, placing him No. 12 overall).

Greene split the 2021 season between the Reds’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, pitching to a combined 3.30 ERA with a 31.7% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate and a 43.8% ground-ball rate over the life of 106 1/3 innings. That marked a new career-high in innings pitched for Greene, which comes as little surprise given 2019’s surgery and the lack of a minor league season in 2020. The Reds may yet be cautious with Greene’s workload — both on a per-start basis and with regard to the season as a whole — but he’ll be given the opportunity to grow that innings total at the big league level.

The news on Greene comes just one day after the Pirates drew flak for optioning top infield prospect Oneil Cruz to the minors to begin the season. Situations like this were a focal point for the MLBPA during this offseason’s wave of collective bargaining, as players pushed the league to incentivize front offices to carry their best prospects to begin the season rather than hold them in the minors for a few weeks to secure an additional year of club control. Under the 2021-26 CBA, teams can be awarded draft picks if they carry top prospects to begin the season and those players go on to finish well in awards voting.

It’s eminently possible that Cincinnati might’ve included Greene in the Opening Day rotation even in the absence of those new stipulations, as the offseason trade of Sonny Gray and injuries to Luis Castillo and Mike Minor have thinned out the Reds’ options. Regardless, Greene’s forthcoming debut gives Reds fans plenty to be optimistic for after a frustrating offseason that was more focused on trimming payroll than improving the 2022 roster.

If Greene is in the big leagues for good, he’ll accrue a full year of service time in 2022 and be on track to reach free agency following the 2027 season, when he’d be just 28 years of age. As things stand, he’d be on track to reach arbitration following the 2024 season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Brewers Select Jose Urena To Major League Roster

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March 30: The Brewers have already selected Urena to the 40-man roster. McCalvy tweets that the initial structuring of the contract as a minor league pact was largely a mechanism to get Urena into camp and perform a closer evaluation of the right-hander. President of baseball operations David Stearns tells reporters that the club views Urena as more of a long reliever than a starter at present (video link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Jounal-Sentinel). He stopped short of declaring Urena a lock to make the Opening Day roster, but the right-hander is out of minor league options, so that seems likely, barring an unexpected health setback.

March 29: The Brewers announced this evening they’ve signed right-hander José Ureña to a minor league contract. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters he’ll receive an invite to big league Spring Training (via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com).

Ureña has seen a fair bit of rotation work in each of the past seven seasons. The native of the Dominican Republic spent the first six campaigns of his big league career with the Marlins. He never posted overwhelming strikeout totals, but he was consistently solid at keeping the ball on the ground and posted back-to-back sub-4.00 ERA seasons in 2017-18.

The lack of swing-and-miss has caught up to Ureña in recent years, however. He’s posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the last three seasons, two in Miami and last year with the Tigers. Ureña soaked up 100 2/3 innings for Detroit, but he managed just a 5.81 ERA with a 14.7% strikeout rate that’s about eight percentage points below the league average.

To his credit, Ureña did manage a career-best 52% grounder rate with the Tigers. He averaged just under 94 MPH on his sinker, and he’s held right-handed opponents to a modest .248/.320/.385 line over the course of his career. That could make Ureña a capable multi-inning relief option if Milwaukee considers deploying him in that role.

The Brewers have arguably baseball’s best starting staff, so the bullpen figures to provide Ureña a cleaner path to the big league roster. Milwaukee is set to open the season with a top five of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser and Eric Lauer, and top prospect Aaron Ashby seems to be next in line for rotation innings.

Padres Trade James Norwood To Phillies

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander James Norwood from the Padres in exchange for minor league infielder Kervin Pichardo and cash, according to announcements from both teams. San Diego designated Norwood for assignment earlier this week.

Norwood, 28, tossed five scoreless innings of relief for the Friars last season and has 27 total innings of Major League work under his belt dating back to his 2018 debut with the Cubs. He’s logged a 3.67 ERA, albeit with a below-average 18.5% strikeout rate and a bloated 13.1% walk rate.

Norwood has a decent overall track record in Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 4.05 ERA in parts of three seasons. He whiffed 37.2% of his opponents in 44 2/3 Triple-A frames this past season, which surely held some appeal to the Phils. Norwood is out of minor league options, meaning he’ll need to either break camp with the Phils or be designated for assignment once again. Given that Philadelphia sent a minor leaguer to the Padres, as opposed to a simple cash transaction or waiver claim, it would seem Norwood has a decent shot of being included in Philadelphia’s Opening Day relief corps.

As for the 20-year-old Pichardo, he’s a Bronx native who joined the Phillies in June 2019 as an undrafted free agent. He spent most of his time at shortstop after signing in ’19 but played more third base in 2021. Pichardo logged just 35 total games across three levels last year and batted .247/.476/.466 with two homers, six doubles, two triples, two steals and a 32-to-28 K/BB ratio in 105 plate appearances.

Blue Jays To Sign Dexter Fowler

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The Blue Jays are expected to sign veteran center fielder Dexter Fowler to a minor league deal with an invite to the remainder of Major League Spring Training, tweets Keegan Matheson of MLB.com. Sportsnet’s Arash Madani first noted that Fowler, a client of Excel Sports Management, had a locker set up in the Jays’ clubhouse.

Fowler, who turned 36 last week, spent the 2021 season as a member of the Angels organization but played in only seven games. The Halos acquired the veteran switch-hitter from the Cardinals in a surprising February trade, but Fowler suffered a torn ACL in early April that required season-ending surgery. He went 5-for-20 in 21 plate appearances prior to the injury.

It’s been several years since Fowler has been at his best. Following an All-Star 2016 season with the Cubs, he signed a five-year, $82.5MM contract with the Cardinals to taake over as their primary center fielder. Fowler kicked that contract off with a strong 2017 season, hitting .264/.363/.488 with 18 homers, 22 doubles and nine triples but was limited to 118 games (wrist strain, bone spurs in his heel). His offense cratered the following season in a disappointing season that culminated with Fowler missing the final two months of play due to a broken foot. Fowler rebounded to an extent in 2019 when he posted a .238/.346/.409 batting line (103 wRC+) in 574 trips to the plate. He had another unspectacular season at the plate in 2020 before last year’s injury-ruined campaign.

All told, Fowler played in just 396 games and batted .234/.334/.406 through 1521 plate appearances over the life of that five-year contract — a signing the Cardinals surely regret. It’s a far cry from the .270/.370/.436 output that Fowler logged in his 2011-17 peak.

The Jays will hope that a healthier Fowler can play his way into a bench role and hit closer to that 2011-17 form than he did in 2018-21. Toronto’s outfield is quite full, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr., George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Raimel Tapia all locked into spots. Fowler has been better as a right-handed hitter than as a left-handed hitter throughout his career, but he still sports a respectable .251/.352/.416 slash when batting from the left side of the dish.

If he can prove his health and impress with the bat, Fowler would give the Jays some extra depth in their outfield mix, even if he has to start the season in Triple-A Buffalo. Gurriel, Hernandez and Springer have all had multiple stints on the IL over the past few seasons, so there’s little harm in stashing a veteran who can help to balance the lineup and serve as an option at all three outfield slots.

Phillies Trade Adam Haseley To White Sox

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The White Sox and Phillies are in agreement on a deal sending outfielder Adam Haseley from Philadelphia to Chicago, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Minor league right-hander McKinley Moore is headed to the Phillies in return, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Both teams have since announced the trade.

Adam Haseley | Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

Haseley, 25, was the eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft but has yet to establish himself as a fixture in the Philadelphia outfield. The left-handed hitter is a career .272/.331/.398 hitter against right-handed pitching and has drawn mostly solid defensive marks at all three outfield positions (10 Defensive Runs Saved, 3.3 Ultimate Zone Rating, -1 Outs Above Average). He’ll give the Sox a nice glove and a lefty bat to pair with right-handed-hitting outfielders Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Adam Engel and Andrew Vaughn.

The bulk of Haseley’s experience in the big leagues came in 2019, when he logged a career-high 67 games and 242 plate appearances. He’s played in just 49 games and tallied 113 plate appearances across the past two seasons while battling wrist and groin strains. Haseley also stepped away from baseball entirely for a month last April, citing personal reasons. He went just 4-for-21 in limited big league time and batted .233/.313/.325 in the minors last season.

Haseley has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he’s not necessarily a lock to make Chicago’s Opening Day roster. However, with Vaughn nursing a hip injury that’ll shut him down for one to two weeks, the outfield picture might be a bit more open at the moment than it appeared just a few days ago. Haseley has just a year and 132 days of Major League service time, so he’s under club control with the White Sox through at least the 2026 season — provided he plays well enough to stick on the roster that long, of course.

Although Haseley wasn’t slated to start in the outfield for the Phillies, he looked to have a clear path to at least a part-time role — particularly with Odubel Herrera currently battling an oblique injury that’s expected to prevent him from being ready for Opening Day. Haseley and right-handed-hitting Matt Vierling appeared ticketed for a center field platoon, with Bryce Harper locked into right field and Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos slated to split time between left field and DH (probably with the former seeing more time in the field than the latter). With Haseley now out of the picture, former No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak looks like the frontrunner to split time with Vierling early on — barring further player movement in the Philadelphia outfield mix.

Moore, 23, was the Sox’ 14th-round pick in 2019 out of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Listed at 6’6″ and 225 pounds, McKinley is a big, power-armed righty with an upper-90s heater and a slider that, per Baseball America, will look like a plus offering at times. Moore has fanned a huge 31.7% of his opponents in pro ball and also boasts a strong 51% grounder rate, but he’s walked far too many opponents (13.4%). He split the 2021 season between two Class-A affiliates, pitching to a 4.20 ERA through 40 2/3 innings.

Braves Notes: Rotation, Jackson, Freeman

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During last year’s World Series run, the Braves found themselves mixing and matching at the back of the rotation behind Max Fried, Charlie Morton and Ian Anderson. Atlanta hasn’t done much to solidify that group this winter, leaving themselves to again count on a handful of less-proven arms at the back end.

Manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) over the weekend that righties Kyle Wright and Huascar Ynoa look like the favorites for the fourth and fifth spots. Ynoa always seemed to have a leg up after posting a 4.05 ERA/3.62 SIERA in 18 appearances last season. Wright, on the other hand, made just two regular season starts in the majors. The 26-year-0ld had a nice showing at Triple-A Gwinnett, where he worked 137 frames of 3.02 ERA ball. A former top five pick and highly-regarded prospect, Wright hasn’t yet had a ton of MLB success, but his minor league production and the quality of his arsenal still offer reason for Atlanta brass to believe in him as a long-term option.

The Braves are scheduled to play every day from their April 7 opener through April 20. With that heavy workload to start the year, Toscano writes the club could lean on a six-man starting staff early on. If that bears out, rookie Spencer Strider — who climbed four minor league levels last season to reach the majors in September — could assume the final spot, Toscano writes, with lefties Tucker Davidson and Kyle Muller also in that mix.

All those pitchers outside the Braves top three starters have minor league option years remaining, so any of that group could be sent back to Gwinnett throughout the season. They could also spill over into a multi-inning role out of the bullpen. Atlanta has one of the league’s strongest relief units on paper, but a key member has yet to pitch this spring.

Luke Jackson has been dealing with some forearm tightness, the team told reporters (including David O’Brien of the Athletic). The 30-year-old has been throwing on the side, so the Braves clearly aren’t concerned he’s facing a significant absence, but it’s not known whether he’ll have time to get into regular season game shape by next week. Jackson has been in the Atlanta bullpen for the past five years, but he had a particularly successful showing in 2021, pitching to a 1.98 ERA/3.75 SIERA in 63 2/3 frames.

While the Braves rotation looks much the same as it did last season, their position player shakeup was one of the stories of the offseason. Atlanta acquired Matt Olson and let Freddie Freeman walk in free agency. General manager Alex Anthopoulos and the front office were no doubt aware that decision would be a divisive one among the fanbase, and Freeman himself suggested in the immediate aftermath he was taken aback by the Olson trade. At his introductory press conference with the Dodgers, Freeman suggested Braves brass wasn’t as communicative as he’d expected they’d be throughout his stint on the open market. He also seemed to dismiss Anthopoulos’ assertion the Olson trade was the most difficult move of his executive career.

Chatting with the Journal-Constitution’s Gabriel Burns over the weekend, Freeman walked back those comments and took a brighter tone. The five-time All-Star said he chatted with the Braves baseball ops head last week and apologized for the comments he’d made at his introductory presser. “It helped to hear his side of things,” Freeman told Burns. “I won’t divulge what we talked about. But you can imagine what we talked about in three hours. It was good for us to now be good again. Now, when we see each other, we can just hug. I asked him to come to LA (for the series in April). I don’t think he was going to come to the LA series when they came out. I said, ‘Please, I want to see you and give you a hug because we did so many good things together.’”

Regardless of whether the fences are mended, the Braves and Dodgers figure to have plenty of memorable clashes over the coming seasons. The pair met in last year’s NL Championship Series, and they again look to be two of the top teams in the Senior Circuit. FanGraphs’ projections indeed forecast Los Angeles and Atlanta as the NL’s top two clubs heading into the year.

White Sox, Mark Payton Agree To Minor League Deal

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The White Sox recently agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder Mark Payton, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. He made his first Spring Training appearance with the Sox yesterday.

A Chicago-area native, Payton was selected by the Yankees out of the University of Texas in the 2014 draft. He spent five years in the New York organization before landing with the A’s in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. After a very strong Triple-A campaign with Oakland in 2019, the Reds selected Payton in the big league phase of the Rule 5 draft the following winter. He didn’t stick with the MLB club and was returned to Oakland, but the A’s traded him back to Cincinnati for cash not long after.

Payton eventually got a big league call from the Reds late in the 2020 season. He played in eight games and logged action in 24 contests last year before being designated for assignment in July. Cincinnati traded him to the Mets, and he spent the rest of the season with New York’s Triple-A affiliate. Despite putting up an impressive .305/.385/.477 line with Syracuse, Payton was never recalled to the majors and non-tendered after the season.

The 30-year-old only has 44 big league plate appearances under his belt. He’s a career .297/.371/.505 hitter in more than 1300 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s only played the corner outfield in the majors but has a fair bit of experience at all three outfield spots in the minors. Payton adds some left-handed hitting depth to the high levels in the Chicago system.

Reds Acquire Connor Phillips From Mariners To Complete Winker Trade

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The Reds announced they’ve acquired pitching prospect Connor Phillips from the Mariners. He’s the player to be named later in this month’s deal that sent Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suárez to Seattle.

Cincinnati maintained at the time of the deal they’d add a notable prospect as the player to be named later, and they indeed pick up one of the better arms in the Seattle system. Baseball America ranked Phillips 12th among M’s farmhands this winter, writing that the right-hander owns a 94-96 MPH fastball and a plus slider. BA suggests that Phillips’ below-average changeup and inconsistent control figure to make him a reliever in the long run, but he worked as a starting pitcher during his first full professional season.

Phillips, whom the Mariners selected 64th overall out of a Texas junior college in 2020, made 16 starts with Low-A Modesto last year. The 20-year-old tossed 72 innings of 4.75 ERA ball, striking out an excellent 32.3% of opposing hitters but issuing walks at an alarming 13.7% rate. He was bumped up to High-A Everett for his final start of the year, allowing three runs in four innings.

Phillips becomes the latest power arm added to the Cincinnati system as part of their recent sell-off. The Reds also picked up Brandon Williamson in the Winker trade and landed 2021 first-rounder Chase Petty from the Twins in the Sonny Gray deal.

Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times reported Phillips’ inclusion in the deal shortly before the official announcement.

Mets Claim Yoan Lopez Off Waivers From Marlins

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The Mets have claimed reliever Yoan López off waivers from the Marlins, according to announcements from both teams. To clear space on the 40-man roster, New York placed left-hander Joey Lucchesi on the 60-day injured list.

López continues to bounce around the league — and more specifically, the NL East — via waivers. Designated for assignment by the Braves early in the offseason, he was claimed by the Phillies just before the lockout. Since the work stoppage, he’s gone from Philadelphia to Miami and now to Queens on the waiver wire.

Despite having been a member of four NL East teams within the past six months, the only big league club for which López has ever suited up is the Diamondbacks. A high-profile signee by Arizona out of Cuba, he was one of the better pitching prospects in the D-Backs system for the next couple years. López reached the big leagues briefly in 2018 and found a bit of success early in his career. He pitched to a 3.41 ERA over 60 2/3 innings during his second MLB campaign, but an underwhelming 17.1% strikeout rate indicated he might have trouble continuing to keep runs off the board.

That proved to be the case, as he’s posted a 6.19 mark in 32 innings over the past two years. His 19.6% strikeout percentage and 10.1% walk rate in that time are both worse than average. That said, the 29-year-old has actually had some success missing bats on a pitch-by-pitch basis. He’s generated swinging strikes on nearly 13% of his offerings in each of the past two years, about a point above the 11.7% league average for bullpen arms. López has also averaged north of 95 MPH on his fastball and has posted slightly better than average ground-ball marks.

Traded from Arizona to Atlanta in May, López spent the majority of last season with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett. He had much better results there than he’s had in the big leagues, posting a 3.03 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate in 32 appearances. Between his Triple-A performance and pair of remaining minor league option years, López has clearly piqued the interest of a handful of teams. None have yet been willing to devote him a permanent spot on the 40-man roster, but the Mets can stash him at Triple-A Syracuse as a depth option for the next couple years were they to keep him on the 40-man.

Lucchesi’s 60-day IL placement was an inevitability whenever New York needed a roster spot. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery last June and will miss most or all of the upcoming season recovering.

Pirates Option Oneil Cruz

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The Pirates announced this afternoon they’ve optioned top shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to Triple-A Indianapolis. The 23-year-old will not break camp with the big league club.

Pittsburgh selected Cruz to the MLB roster during the final weekend of last season. That came on the heels of a fantastic .292/.346/.536 line in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting. The Bucs rewarded the big left-handed hitter with a two-game big league cameo to close out the year, during which time he picked up his first MLB home run.

Despite that brief look, it comes as little surprise the Bucs weren’t planning to carry him in the majors out of the gate this year. He only has six career games at the Triple-A level, and one could argue he’d benefit from a more extended run there before getting a look long at big league pitching. Cruz has performed very well in parts of two seasons at Double-A but has just 38 career plate appearances above that level.

Pittsburgh figures to point to that lack of Triple-A experience as their motivation behind sending Cruz back down, but it’s impossible to ignore the potential service time implications of the decision. Both FanGraphs and Baseball America slotted Cruz as the most talented prospect in the Pittsburgh farm system this winter, with each outlet placing him among the top 15 farmhands in the game. Between his massive raw power and exit velocities, athleticism, and arm strength, both publications suggested he has the potential to be a superstar.

If Cruz reaches that upside, getting a seventh year of club control would be incredibly valuable for the Pirates. Despite the aforementioned two days of MLB service he picked up at the end of last season, he would fall short of an automatic full year of service in 2022 if he stays in the minors for around two and a half weeks.

Service time manipulation was a talking point of the Players Association during the last round of collective bargaining negotiations. The new CBA didn’t overhaul the system, although it did introduce the opportunity for a handful of players to earn “bonus service” each year. The top two finishers in each league’s Rookie of the Year voting are now annually awarded a full year of service regardless of their call-up date.

Even if the Bucs keep him down past the threshold for accruing a full year of service based on the number of days Cruz spends in the majors, he could play his way into the full year by performing as one of the top rookies in the National League whenever he does get called up. Of course, one could argue that possibility incentivizes a rebuilding Pirates team to keep Cruz in the minors even longer. The fewer number of games he plays in the big leagues, the lower his chances are of earning that service year by putting up a Rookie of the Year-caliber season.

How long Cruz spends in the minors remains to be seen, but he clearly won’t get the Opening Day nod at shortstop. Kevin Newman has taken that spot in each of the past two seasons, and it seems likely he’ll get the call there for a third straight year. The 28-year-old Newman is a plus defender but one of the game’s lightest-hitting everyday players; he’s coming off a .226/.265/.309 showing in 554 plate appearances.

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