Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Archives for March 2022
LaMonte Wade Jr. Will Begin Season On Injured List
Giants manager Gabe Kapler announced to reporters Tuesday that outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. will open the 2022 season on the injured list (Twitter links via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic). Wade recently exited a Giants Cactus League game and underwent an MRI after experiencing discomfort in his left knee. The imaging revealed inflammation and a bone bruise, and doctors recommended 10 days of downtime before being reevaluated. That shutdown alone will take Wade beyond Opening Day, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll need additional rest or treatment at that point. Even if he’s cleared for baseball activity, he’d likely need at least a quick ramp-up period before jumping back into games.
It’s the second injury of note for the Giants in as many days. The team announced yesterday that third baseman Evan Longoria will undergo surgery to repair a damaged ligament in his throwing hand. He’ll need to have his finger immobilized for a minimum of 10 days following that operation, and with any surgery, there’s the potential for an absence of some note. The Giants didn’t provide an immediate timeline but will surely have updates once Longoria’s surgery has been completed.
With Wade now sidelined to begin the season, San Francisco will likely turn to an Opening Day outfield alignment featuring Joc Pederson in left field, Steven Duggar in center and Mike Yastrzemski in right. The Giants are deep in infield/outfield types, with Austin Slater, Darin Ruf and Mauricio Dubon all having experience both on the dirt and in the grass. Thairo Estrada and Jason Vosler, too, have a bit of outfield experience, though their play there has been more sparse than Slater, Ruf and Dubon. Outfielders Heliot Ramos and Jaylin Davis are both on the 40-man roster as well, though they’ve both been optioned to minor league camp already.
San Francisco will obviously hope for a fairly minimal absence for Wade, who proved to be their latest diamond-in-the-rough find this past season. Acquired in a minor trade with the Twins, the 28-year-old Wade eventually seized a semi-regular role at Oracle Park and slashed .253/.326/.482 with 18 home runs, 17 doubles and a trio of triples in 361 plate appearances. He was platooned heavily, logging just 42 plate appearances against southpaws and turning in a woeful .135/.200/.189 slash in that small sample. Wade is on track to be arbitration-eligible next winter and can be controlled through the 2025 season
Angels’ AJ Ramos Diagnosed With Torn Shoulder Capsule
Veteran right-hander AJ Ramos, who’s in camp with the Angels as a non-roster invitee, has been diagnosed with a torn capsule in his right shoulder and will likely be out for the entire 2022 season, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com).
It’s a disheartening setback for the clearly talented but oft-injured Ramos, who has managed just 27 innings total over the past four seasons — due primarily to troubles in that same shoulder. Ramos hit the injured list around Memorial Day 2018 while pitching for the Mets, and just three weeks later it was announced that he was headed for surgery to repair a torn labrum. The right-hander went more than two years between big league appearances while rehabbing that injury, and he’s only made it back to the mound for sparse looks with the Rockies (2020) and Angels (2021) in that time.
Now 35 years old, Ramos was an All-Star with the Marlins back in 2016 and, for a few years, was one of the more effective relievers in the National League. From 2013-16, he tallied 278 1/3 innings of 2.62 ERA ball while racking up 72 saves and punching out 27.4% of the opponents he faced. Walks were an issue even at that point (12.6%), but Ramos’ ability to miss bats and limit hard contact helped him to offset that penchant for free passes.
Back in 2020, Ramos told reporters: “[Earlier in my career], I was motivated to show everybody that I was good enough. Now, I’m motivated just to play — to have the max amount of fun doing it.”
There should be no doubt that Ramos, who has a 3.04 earned run average, 99 saves, 46 holds and a 27.2% strikeout rate in 373 1/3 career innings, is “good enough,” to use his own words. The question at this point is simply one of whether he’ll embark on yet another comeback attempt next year in what would be his age-36 season.
Dodgers Trade Matt Beaty To Padres
The Padres have acquired first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league right-hander/infielder River Ryan, per a team announcement. The Padres announced Ryan, a two-way player in college, as a pitcher in their press release. The Dodgers initially announced him as an infielder, but Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that they still plan to give Ryan opportunities on the mound.
To open space on the 40-man roster, San Diego placed left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who underwent forearm surgery last August, on the 60-day injured list. Beaty was designated for assignment by Los Angeles last week.
Beaty, 28, was a somewhat surprising DFA by the Dodgers, as he was fresh off a .270/.363/.402 showing in 234 plate appearances last season. While Beaty didn’t show substantial power (seven homers, four doubles, one triple, .132 ISO), he walked at a league-average clip, was plunked 10 times (thus driving up his OBP a bit) and made contact at an above-average rate. Beaty fanned in 18.8% of his plate appearances last year and has a career mark of 16.4% — well south of last year’s 22.6% league average (excluding pitchers).
The Padres have been on the hunt for outfield upgrades for much of the offseason but have also reportedly been hamstrung a bit by payroll concerns — a driving factor behind their reported efforts to trade Eric Hosmer and/or Wil Myers. It’s been a generally quiet winter for the Friars, who’ve added a bit to their bullpen (Robert Suarez, Luis Garcia) and signed Nick Martinez to a four-year deal that is laden with opt-out opportunities. Offensively, the lone addition of note thus far has been Luke Voit, whom the Padres acquired from the Yankees last week.
Beaty will give San Diego an option in left field, where utilityman Jurickson Profar had been among the leading candidates for playing time. Beaty can also spell Hosmer at first base or mix in at designated hitter if Voit is unavailable. In addition to his work at first and in the outfield corners, he’s spent a bit of time at third base, but defensive metrics aren’t especially bullish on him at any of the positions he’s played thus far in a small sample of innings. He also has a minor league option remaining, so the Padres don’t necessarily need to commit to keeping him on the big league roster all season.
Ryan, 23, was an 11th-round pick out UNC Pembroke just last season. Though he pitched to a 2.32 ERA with a 29.7% strikeout rate and a 7.8% walk rate in 93 innings of bullpen work during his NCAA career, the Friars didn’t actually put him on the mound during last year’s pro debut. He spent a dozen games with the Padres’ Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League and batted .308/.349/.436 with a homer, two doubles and four stolen bases in 43 plate appearances.
A’s Notes: Honeywell, Guerra, Kaprielian
A’s right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. has an olecranon stress reaction in his throwing elbow, the team informed reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle). He is being shut down indefinitely as the club determines next steps.
It’s the latest in a brutal series of injuries for the 26-year-old, whom Oakland acquired from the Rays over the winter. A former fourth-round pick, Honeywell dominated at the lower levels of the Tampa Bay system and quickly emerged as one of the sport’s most promising pitching prospects. Baseball America slotted him among their Top 100 overall farmhands heading into the 2016 campaign, the first of five straight years in which he’d hold a place on that list.
That Honeywell was a top prospect for half a decade spoke both to his talent and to the injuries that kept him from exhausting his rookie eligibility. He didn’t throw a single pitch in an affiliated game from 2018-20, undergoing a staggering four elbow surgeries in that time. He required Tommy John surgery in February 2018; during his rehab, he fractured his elbow the following June. Honeywell then underwent an ulnar nerve decompression procedure in May 2020 before requiring an arthroscopic procedure at the end of that season.
Honeywell returned to make 31 appearances with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham last season, and he saw action in his first three big league outings. His strikeout rate was way down, though, and the Rays moved him to the A’s for cash to clear a roster spot in advance of Rule 5 protection day. When Honeywell will next take the ball isn’t clear, but it’s a virtual lock he’ll begin the year on the injured list and it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s in for another lengthy absence.
In another bit of ominous injury news for the A’s, reliever Deolis Guerra paused his throwing program after feeling some tightness in his forearm (Kawahara link). Forearm tightness is a fairly common precursor to UCL injuries, although it won’t be known whether he’s dealing with a notable structural issue until he goes for further testing tomorrow. Guerra, 33 next month, threw a career-high 65 2/3 innings over 53 appearances last year. He posted a 4.11 ERA with decent strikeout and walk rates (23% and 7.4%, respectively).
In a positive development, righty James Kaprielian responded well to a weekend bullpen session (via Kawahara). He has been dealing with irritation in the AC joint in his throwing shoulder this spring. With a little more than a week until Opening Day, Kaprielian still seems likely to begin the season on the IL, but the former first-rounder should have a key role on the starting staff whenever he’s ready to go. He made 24 appearances (including 21 starts) in 2021, pitching to a 4.07 ERA with a 24.2% strikeout percentage.
Guardians, Jose Ramirez Have Reportedly Had Informal Extension Discussions
Since the end of the lockout, the Guardians have had “on and off” discussions with the representatives for star third baseman José Ramírez, reports Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Hoynes characterizes the talks as exchanging ideas about players who could be considered comparable to Ramírez as opposed to floating actual frameworks for a deal.
It’s not surprising to hear the Cleveland front office has gotten in touch with Ramírez’s reps. The three-time All-Star is controllable for two more seasons, but it stands to reason the Guardians would want some idea about the kind of money it’d take to keep him around for the long haul. Ramírez is, after all, one of the game’s best players. The switch-hitting third baseman broke out as a superstar in 2017, and he’s been among the most valuable players in the sport over the past half-decade.
Going back to the beginning of the 2017 campaign, only Mike Trout and Mookie Betts edge out Ramírez among position players by FanGraphs’ measure of Wins Above Replacement. Ramírez owns a .280/.365/.547 line in that time, offensive production that checks in checks in 39 percentage points above average by measure of wRC+. That’s the 15th-highest mark among qualifiers, and Ramírez pairs that offensive damage with excellent marks for both his baserunning and defense at the hot corner.
Cleveland signed Ramírez to an incredibly team-friendly deal just before he took his game to new heights. In March 2017, they inked him to a $26MM guarantee that extended their window of team control by three seasons. He’ll play this season on an $11MM salary and is controllable in 2023 via a $13MM club option that’s a lock to be exercised barring catastrophic injury.
That extension delayed Ramírez’s path to the open market, and he’s not slated to hit free agency (assuming next year’s option is picked up) until the advance of his age-31 campaign. Accordingly, he won’t command a decade-long commitment in the Corey Seager mold, but teams have still paid a fair amount for slightly older star position players in recent offseasons. George Springer landed a six-year, $150MM deal from the Blue Jays heading into his age-31 season last winter; Marcus Semien picked up $175MM over seven years from the Rangers this offseason at the same age.
If he keeps playing at his current form over the next couple years, Ramírez would quite likely beat those deals in free agency. His camp could justifiably argue he’s a better player than either Springer or Semien, and the overall market could be more robust as teams move further away from the lost revenues in 2020. Draft pick compensation for free agents, which applied to both Springer and Semien, could also be pulled from the collective bargaining agreement depending on the status of an international draft.
The Guardians wouldn’t pay an open market price for Ramírez two years in advance, but it’d still register as a surprise if they went to the level it’d take to keep him in Cleveland long-term. The franchise has never gone above $60MM in guarantees on any individual player. A Ramírez extension would probably cost more than double that amount. Cleveland has had a bottom five player payroll in each of the past two years, and they’re currently slated to head into 2022 with around a $56MM mark, in the calculation of Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.
Owner Paul Dolan would probably have to greenlight more spending in the future to keep Ramírez around. The post-2023 payroll slate is wide open, but it’s tough to imagine the Guardians allocating 40-50% of their annual payroll to a single player. Hoynes writes that the front office is conferring with Dolan about the long-term spending plans and that no further negotiations with Ramírez have presently been scheduled. It stands to reason the front office will reengage with their star player once they have a better understanding about the kind of resources that’ll be at their disposal.
With their two years of club control, the Guardians don’t have to hammer out a deal with Ramírez in the coming weeks or months. So long as no extension is in place, however, chatter figures to mount about his future. That’s particularly true if the Guardians struggle early in the season.
Ramírez’s name was floated briefly in trade rumors this winter, with the Blue Jays among the teams to inquire about his availability, but it never seemed likely Cleveland would ship him out over the offseason. A rough first half for the team would probably result in increased speculation about a Ramírez trade as the deadline gets closer. Cleveland would surely prefer to avoid that situation — either by keeping him for the long haul or playing well enough in the season’s first couple months there’s no question about their direction come July.
Evan Longoria To Undergo Finger Surgery
The Giants announced this evening that third baseman Evan Longoria will undergo surgery to repair a ligament in his right index finger (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). His timetable is unclear, but the team noted that his finger is expected to be immobilized for at least ten days.
More will be known about how long the Giants will be without Longoria in the next few days, but he’s at least slated to open the year on the injured list. Opening Day is eight days away, meaning his finger is likely to remain immobilized by the time games get underway. He’ll assuredly need some time between then and his return to MLB action to partake in some baseball activities and perhaps embark on a minor league rehab assignment.
It’ll be the fifth consecutive season with an injured list stint for Longoria, who hasn’t reached 600 plate appearances in a year since 2017. He missed a couple months last year due to a shoulder issue, but the three-time All-Star enjoyed something of an offensive resurgence when he was healthy. Last season’s .261/.351/.482 line was his best showing on a rate basis since 2016, although he only appeared in half of San Francisco’s games.
With Longoria out of action to open the season, the Giants figure to mix and match at the hot corner. Wilmer Flores will probably see a good bit of action there, while San Francisco has a pair of out-of-options utilitymen in Thairo Estrada and Mauricio Dubón vying for bench roles. All three of those players hit right-handed, as does the recently-acquired Luke Williams. The Giants have lefty-hitting corner infielder Jason Vosler on the 40-man roster as well, but the 28-year-old has a limited MLB track record and a pair of minor league option years remaining.
Twins Sign Chris Archer
The Twins are adding to the rotation via free agency, announcing agreement with Chris Archer on a one-year deal. The VC Sports Group client reportedly receives a $3.5MM guarantee, consisting of a $2.75MM base salary and a $750K buyout on a $10MM mutual option for the 2023 season. Archer’s 2022 salary can max out at $9.5MM based on starts and/or games with at least three innings pitched, presumably to give him credit for “relief” outings following an opener. To create 40-man roster space, Minnesota sent left-hander Lewis Thorpe outright to Triple-A St. Paul.
Archer has barely pitched over the past couple seasons due to injury. He missed all of the shortened 2020 campaign after undergoing surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. Bought out by the Pirates after that season, he signed a one-year deal with the Rays but was limited to 19 1/3 innings during his second stint in Tampa Bay. The righty hit the injured list after just two appearances on account of forearm tightness. While it was initially hoped that’d be a brief stint, it kept him out of action until late August. He made four appearances late in the year upon returning, but issues with his left hip sent him back to the IL for a season-ending stay.
The lack of recent volume has been a new issue for Archer, who was a durable and highly productive arm early in his career. He exceeded 115 innings every year between 2013-19, including three consecutive 200-inning seasons with the Rays from 2015-17. Archer earned All-Star selections in two of those campaigns and picked up a fifth-place finish in AL Cy Young Award voting during a 2015 season in which he posted a 3.23 ERA and a 3.08 SIERA.
Archer was a top-of-the-rotation arm during his best days in Tampa, combining for a 3.66 ERA with a strong 26.7% strikeout rate between 2014-17. The Rays flipped him to the Pirates in advance of the 2018 trade deadline, a now-infamous deal that saw Pittsburgh part with Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to pick up three and a half years of club control over Archer. Unfortunately for the Bucs, that deal looked regrettable almost from the get-go. Archer’s production went backwards early in his Pittsburgh tenure, and the team didn’t get a single inning from him during the affordable 2020-21 club options that had made him such an appealing target at the time of the trade.
It has been three years since Archer was a productive rotation member. He’s now 33 years old, and the mid-90s velocity he sported during his best days didn’t reappear in his brief return from TOS last year. Archer averaged only 92 MPH on his four-seam fastball after sitting in the 94-96 MPH range throughout his entire career previously.
The low-base, incentive-laden structure of the deal reflects both Archer’s decent upside and his three consecutive down seasons. If he stays healthy and cements himself in the rotation, he’ll have a chance to earn comparable salaries as back-end starters like Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney were guaranteed this winter. If he again struggles with injury, the club’s financial investment will be more minimal.
Archer figures to open the year at the back half of the Minnesota rotation. The Twins have made some major shakeups on the position player side, shipping out Mitch Garver and Josh Donaldson and bringing in Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela via trade before shockingly landing the market’s top free agent, Carlos Correa. That reaffirmed the Twins were all-in on rebounding from last season’s 73-89 finish.
The rotation has arguably been the team’s biggest weakness all winter, though. Minnesota landed Sonny Gray in a deal with the Reds and picked up Dylan Bundy on a reclamation free agent deal not all that dissimilar from today’s pact with Archer. After trading José Berríos last summer and losing Kenta Maeda to Tommy John surgery, they came into the offseason arguably needing three new arms to join Bailey Ober and rookie Joe Ryan in the season-opening starting staff.
Archer becomes the third such outside addition, although neither he nor Bundy is anything near a sure bet to provide reliable production. Pitching alternatives have gotten limited this late in the offseason, however, particularly with the Reds taking Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle off the trade block. A’s starters Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas looked like prime trade candidates, but the most recent reports suggest Oakland could carry both into the season. The free agent market had mostly thinned out as well, with Archer and Johnny Cueto representing the best remaining options.
The Twins move forward with Archer, who’ll presumably step into a season-opening starting five with Gray, Bundy, Ryan and Ober. Minnesota also has a trio of highly-regarded pitching prospects — Josh Winder, Jhoan Duran and Jordan Balazovic — who could factor into the mix as well. Aaron Gleeman of the Athletic wrote last week that Winder looked to be the first line of rotation reinforcements for the Twins, with Duran likelier to break into the bigs as a reliever. Given the recent injury histories of Bundy and Archer and the uncertainty of young arms like Ober and Ryan, it stands to reason Winder will get a look at some point early in the year.
Thorpe was a decently-regarded pitching prospect himself, but he hasn’t found a ton of big league success. The southpaw has tossed 59 1/3 innings in 24 outings as a swingman over the past three seasons, posting a 5.76 ERA. He was out of minor league option years, and the Twins have chosen to bump him from the 40-man roster rather than carry him on the big league club all year. Having already cleared outright waivers, the Australia native will remain in the organization without occupying a spot on the 40-man.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Twins and Archer had agreed to a $3.5MM deal that could max out at $9.5MM based on starts and/or three-inning appearances. Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com reported the $10MM mutual option, which Passan reported contained a $750K buyout.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Diamondbacks Extend Ketel Marte
MARCH 28: Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reports the full breakdown (on Twitter): Marte receives a $3MM signing bonus, followed by successive salaries of $11MM, $13MM, $16MM, $16MM and $14MM through 2027. The 2028 option is valued at $13MM and contains a $3MM buyout. If Marte finishes in the top three in MVP voting in any season, the following year’s salary would escalate by $3MM. A fourth through seventh place finish in MVP voting would increase the following season’s base by $2MM. The deal also contains other incentives based on plate appearances.
MARCH 27: The Diamondbacks and Ketel Marte are in agreement on a five-year, $76MM extension, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. (Twitter links) Reports emerged yesterday that Marte and the club were discussing an extension, and it appears there is now a deal in place, pending a physical. Marte was already under club control through 2024, via a $8.4MM salary this year, followed by club options valued at $11MM in 2023 and $13MM in 2024. Per Rosenthal, those options are now guaranteed, but with different salary figures. The extension will run through the 2027 campaign, with Marte earning an additional $51MM. There is also a club option for 2028, per Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic, with escalators based on performance and health that could increase the value of the contract. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports that the extension guarantees Marte another $52MM, with his signing bonus and buyout bumping that to $56MM.
After a dismal 2021 season that saw just about everything go wrong and the club finish with a record of 52-110, speculation turned to Marte and whether the D-Backs would cash him in for a huge prospect haul. However, the club insisted they had no interest in tearing down their roster for rebuilding purposes, intending instead to continue trying to build a winning team around their current core. This extension solidifies that course of action, keeping Marte around through his age-33 season, with the option of potentially adding yet another yet after that.
After making his MLB debut in 2015 at the age of 21 and spending a couple of seasons in Seattle, Marte was acquired by Arizona alongside Taijuan Walker, in exchange for Mitch Haniger, Jean Segura and Zac Curtis. This was one of the first moves in the tenure of Mike Hazen, who had just been named the club’s general manager the month prior. Marte’s first season in the desert was a lackluster one, as he hit just .260/.345/.395, wRC+ of 89. Still, Hazen doubled down on his faith in Marte by signing him to a five-year, $24MM extension four years ago. That faith was quickly rewarded, as Marte had a much better campaign in 2018, hitting 14 home runs and slashing .260/.332/.437, wRC+ of 104. The next year, he was able to take his game to incredible new heights, launching 32 homers, stealing 10 bases and hitting .329/.389/.592. That amounted to a wRC+ of 149 and 7.0 fWAR, with Marte coming fourth in NL MVP voting.
Although his performance dipped in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he proved that to be a fluke with a 2021 that was much more like his previous season. He missed time with hamstring issues and only got into 90 games, but hit 14 home runs and slashed .318/.377/.532 for a wRC+ of 139 and 2.9 fWAR.
With Marte now firmly entrenched at the keystone for the foreseeable future, the club can focus on building a competitive roster around him. That won’t be an easy task, considering the situation in the division. Last year, the Dodgers and Giants each won over 100 games and should continue being strong teams going forward. The Padres underperformed last year but are still loaded with talent and could perform better this time around. The Rockies have had a rough go recently but have shown a willingness to spend in order to try and keep pace, as evidenced by the recent signing of Kris Bryant.
The Diamondbacks have many talented players under their control for multiple seasons, such as Daulton Varsho, Carson Kelly, Josh Rojas and Zac Gallen. They also have a well-regarded farm system, with prospects Geraldo Perdomo and Alek Thomas likely working their way into the mix soon, followed by Corbin Carroll and Jordan Lawlar down the road.
Payroll wise, there’s no reason the D-backs can’t be aggressive in the remaining years of this extension, as it is now the only money on the books beyond 2024. Even for the current campaign, their Opening Day payroll is only slated to come in around $93MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource, with only $51MM committed for next year. Considering that they’ve gotten their payroll as high as $132MM in recent years, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, there should be plenty of room for aggressive moves in the years to come.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Luis Castillo, Mike Minor To Begin Season On Injured List
4:55pm: Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that Castillo and Minor will indeed both start the year on the IL.
9:44am: Reds right-hander Luis Castillo is “expected” to begin the season on the injured list after being slowed by some shoulder soreness early in camp, writes MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. Meanwhile, manager David Bell told reporters yesterday that Castillo is “quite a bit ahead” of newly acquired left-hander Mike Minor, who is battling shoulder troubles of his own. Bell said the team is set to meet with some of its ailing players today to establish a more concrete rehab plan for each.
News of Castillo’s barking shoulder first surfaced earlier in camp, and it’s worth emphasizing that the team believes he’s healthy now. However, Castillo has been behind schedule in an already truncated Spring Training and has yet to pitch in a Cactus League game. Opening Day is less than two weeks away at this point, and it seems the 29-year-old righty simply won’t have time to sufficiently build up to readiness for the early portion of the season. Placing Castillo on the injured list would set him up to miss multiple turns through the rotation, but he could still be back in the fold for the Reds by mid-to-late April.
The likelihood of a Castillo trade had already plummeted in recent weeks, with general manager Nick Krall publicly stating he didn’t expect to trade Castillo or right-hander Tyler Mahle (who has since been named the team’s Opening Day starter). Now, with some shoulder issues on top of the Reds’ public disinclination toward trading him, it seems all but certain that Castillo remain a Red for at least the early portion of the season. Should the team struggle, of course, his name will be featured prominently in summer trade rumblings once again.
As for Minor, it’s not yet clear just how much time he’ll be expected to miss. Bell suggested that Minor is dealing with soreness that the team does not believe to be overly concerning, but added that the veteran lefty’s shoulder is going to “take some more time.”
Acquired in a surprising swap that sent reliever Amir Garrett to the Royals and saw the Reds take on about $7MM in salary — the first time this winter that Cincinnati had added, rather than subtracted, from the payroll — Minor joined his new club in hopes of rebounding from a rough 2020-21 showing.
The 34-year-old Minor has posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the past two seasons, working to a combined 5.18 ERA in 215 1/3 innings between the Rangers, A’s and Royals in that time. Minor still notched solid strikeout and walk rates during that time, but home runs have become increasingly problematic for him. Considering he’ll move from the spacious Kauffman Stadium to the homer-happy Great American Ball Park, that’s not an encouraging trend, but the Reds clearly have some confidence they’ll be able to help curtail the issue.
With Castillo and Minor both sidelined for some time to begin the year, the Reds’ Opening Day rotation is going to feature quite a few untested arms. Mahle will take the ball on Opening Day and likely be followed by 26-year-old Vladimir Gutierrez, who held his own with a 4.74 ERA in 114 innings/22 starts as a rookie last season. Options already on the 40-man would include Tony Santillan, Reiver Sanmartin and Riley O’Brien. The Reds have several non-roster veterans and journeymen in camp, including Zack Godley, Ben Lively, Brandon Bailey and Connor Overton. Prospects like Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Brandon Williamson and Graham Ashcraft could all get a look, too. Right-hander Justin Dunn, acquired in the Jesse Winker trade, is expected to miss “months” with a shoulder injury that Reds knew about at the time of the trade.
Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote over the weekend that Greene, in particular, appears to have a shot at breaking camp in the Reds’ rotation, though no final decisions have been made just yet. Greene showed well in his first start of the spring though and has already drawn praise from Bell, who noted that the former No. 2 pick has “settled in” and impressed the club while “pitching with confidence” thus far.
