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Tigers Place Austin Meadows, Victor Reyes On 10-Day IL

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May 16: The Tigers have formally placed Meadows (vertigo) and Reyes (right quad strain) on the 10-day injured list. Righty Alex Faedo and outfielder Daz Cameron have been recalled from Toledo in their place.

May 15: Austin Meadows and Victor Reyes both made early exits from the Tigers’ 5-1 win over the Orioles today, and postgame, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jason Beck) that the two outfielders would be placed on the 10-day injured list.

Meadows missed three games last week due to a sinus infection, and he hadn’t played in Detroit’s previous two games due to what he described as dizziness or vertigo-like symptoms.  Attempting to play today, Meadows managed only one inning before having to depart, with Hinch saying that Meadows felt nauseous and lightheaded in addition to continued dizziness.  The skipper said that Meadows will meet with a doctor Monday in Florida when the Tigers travel to visit the Rays.

Reyes was only just activated from the IL earlier today after missing three weeks with a left quad strain.  Unfortunately for Reyes, he suffered a strain of his right quad while running the bases after a double in his first at-bat.  Reyes had to be immediately replaced by a pinch-runner.

The Tigers were going to call up Alex Faedo to start Monday’s game against Tampa Bay, so Faedo will take the roster place of one of the injured outfielders.  It would seem like a position player would be the other callup in order to help bolster the bench, and this could provide an opening for the recently-demoted Akil Baddoo to return to the majors.  However, Baddoo hasn’t hit much during his week in Triple-A, so the Tigers might want to give him more time to really get on track before calling him back up the Show.

Derek Hill and Willi Castro can fill in for Meadows and Reyes in the outfield, but losing more position players won’t help a Detroit team that has been collectively ice-cold the plate.  Meadows is one of the only Tigers with above-average production to date, with a .270/.365/.350 slash line over his first 115 plate appearances.

White Sox Select Johnny Cueto

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Johnny Cueto from Triple-A Charlotte. Cueto, who signed a minor league deal with the Sox last month, will start tonight’s game against the Royals. Infielder Danny Mendick was optioned to Charlotte in a corresponding move. Chicago’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Cueto had a May 15 opt-out clause in his contract, so he could’ve become a free agent had the Sox not selected him to the big league roster. Whether Cueto formally triggered that clause yesterday isn’t clear — teams typically have 48 hours to add a player to the roster once an opt-out of that nature is exercised — but with Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn currently on the IL, there was a natural opening for him anyhow. Cueto will earn a prorated $4.2MM salary now that he’s been selected to the Majors.

Through four starts in Triple-A Charlotte, the 36-year-old Cueto posted a tepid 5.17 earned run average, but the remainder of his numbers were far more encouraging. The former Cy Young runner-up fanned 27% of his opponents against a very strong 6.3% walk rate — complementing those solid K/BB numbers with a hefty 57.1% ground-ball rate. It’s a small sample against lesser competition, of course, but Cueto was a generally solid arm with the Giants last season as well. In 114 2/3 innings with San Francisco, he notched a 4.08 ERA with a 20% strikeout rate and a 6.1% walk rate.

While Cueto still appeared to be a viable back-of-the-rotation option, his market was slow to come together this winter. Several teams expressed interest following the lockout — the Twins and Tigers reportedly among them. However, once Opening Day was within arm’s reach, the possibility of a Major League deal ultimately evaporated, as interested parties knew that Cueto wouldn’t be game-ready come Opening Day after looking for a suitable offer throughout the duration of Spring Training.

Cueto will still be able to earn approximately $3.32MM under the prorated terms of his White Sox deal, and he’ll be in the Majors with just 39 days of the trimmed off the calendar. Depending on how he fares early on, it’s possible there’ll be a long-term opportunity for him. Both Dallas Keuchel and Vince Velasquez have struggled to ERAs north of 5.50 through their first six starts, while righty Jimmy Lambert had his own struggles through a pair of spot starts thus far. Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and, once healthy, Giolito and Lynn all seem like locks for long-term rotation spots, health-permitting — but the fifth spot in the rotation is a bit less certain. Keuchel’s weighty contract may well keep him in that spot for now, but if he continues pitching at his current pace and Cueto is able to replicate last year’s solid form, it’d be hard for the Sox not to make a switch.

Royals Fire Hitting Coach Terry Bradshaw

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The Royals announced a handful of changes to the coaching staff Monday, most notably firing hitting coach Terry Bradshaw. Senior director of player development and hitting performance Alec Zumwalt will now oversee the team’s hitters and serve as a uniformed member of the team’s big league coaching staff. Special assignment hitting coach Mike Tosar is also joining the big league coaching staff. Assistant hitting coach Keoni DeRenne will remain on the staff and keep the same title.

It’s been a brutal season for the Kansas City lineup as a whole. Hitting just .224/.289/.336 as a collective unit, Royals hitters rank among the game’s bottom-five teams in runs scored, homers, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and wRC+. Kansas City hitters do have the game’s lowest strikeout rate (19.2%), but that hasn’t translated into offensive production and the club’s 7.8% walk rate is the fourth-lowest mark in Major League Baseball.

“Baseball is constantly shifting and we have to continue to self-evaluate to make sure we’re giving our players everything they need to be successful at the highest levels of baseball,” said Royals general manager JJ Picollo in a statement announcing the move. “Our results so far haven’t matched what we’re capable of, and w all share accountability in that. We look forward to Alec, Keoni and Mike helping us provide the best possible processes for our players.”

Certainly, as Picollo alluded to, the blame for the team’s offensive struggles is not Bradshaw’s alone. The Royals ranked 24th in the Majors in runs scored last year and 25th in wRC+, yet the team did nothing to address the lineup over the winter. Rather, the hope was that top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. — and, eventually, Nick Pratto and MJ Melendez — would inject some life into what had been a fairly punchless lineup. Kansas City was also hopeful of getting Adalberto Mondesi healthy and of getting bounceback efforts from Hunter Dozier and Carlos Santana.

Witt’s bat has begun to come alive after a slow start, and Dozier indeed is in the midst of what looks like a pronounced rebound at the plate. Mondesi, however, is out for the year following an ACL tear. Santana has been even less productive in 2022 than he was in 2021. Pratto and Melendez, meanwhile, were sent to Triple-A to begin the season. Melendez has since made his MLB debut but has scuffled through 27 plate appearances. Pratto was hitting .253/.320/.483 in Triple-A before falling into his current stretch of 20 hitless plate appearances.

Zumwalt, though his work in the organization’s minor league system, already has a strong rapport with several of the Royals’ up-and-coming hitters. He’s been with the Royals for nine seasons, originally coming aboard as a scout before moving into an advance scouting role for five years. Zumwalt was the team’s director of baseball operations and player development from 2018-19. He’d been in the first season of his current role, which will now shift once again. It marks the continued overhaul of a hitting infrastructure that has had Zumwalt as a key figure, as chronicled by The Athletic’s Alec Lewis last summer.

NL West Notes: Melancon, Dodgers, Bryant

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Diamondbacks closer Mark Melancon took his fifth loss Saturday — a remarkable stat given that he entered the year with 30 losses in 13 prior seasons — and manager Torey Lovullo answered somewhat vaguely when asked whether the four-time All-Star would remain in the closer’s role (link via Jose M. Romero of the Arizona Republic). “We’re going to still have some more discussions about his availability,” Lovullo said while also accepting responsibility for some of Melancon’s struggles, which have come amid a heavy workload. Melancon spent a week on the Covid list from April 29 through May 6 and then made six appearances in a span of nine days following his activation. He yielded 10 runs in 3 2/3 innings during that time.

Signed by the D-backs to a two-year, $14MM contract over the winter, Melancon has surrendered 14 runs (11 earned) on 20 hits and five walks with just four strikeouts in 11 2/3 frames thus far. His fastball, which averaged 92.2 mph in 2021, is now sitting at just 90.8 mph. Melancon’s swinging-strike and chase rates are actually better than last season’s marks, though, and he’s been plagued by a sky-high .396 average on balls in play. If the Diamondbacks do go in another direction, veteran Ian Kennedy has ample experience and is second on the team with five holds, having been Lovullo’s primary eighth-inning option thus far.

Some more notes from the division…

  • Dodgers lefties Clayton Kershaw and Andrew Heaney could both be ready for bullpen sessions this week, manager Dave Roberts said at yesterday’s media session (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya). Kershaw felt some minor soreness while playing catch but could be cleared for a ’pen session by Wednesday. There’s no specific day set for a Heaney bullpen, but he’s also been playing catch. Kershaw has a 1.80 ERA through five starts and 30 innings this season but recently landed on the shelf owing to a hip issue that was treated with an epidural. Heaney has been out since mid-April due to shoulder trouble but opened plenty of eyes early in his Dodgers tenure. In 10 1/3 innings, Heaney allowed only an unearned run on four hits and three walks with a whopping 16 strikeouts. Brandishing a new-look slider in place of his former curveball and having all but scrapped his changeup, Heaney posted a mammoth 20.5% swinging-strike rate and 36.5% opponents’ chase rate prior to landing on the IL. He inked a one-year, $8.5MM deal with the Dodgers at the beginning of the offseason. Kershaw signed a one-year, $17MM deal to return not long after the lockout lifted.
  • Kris Bryant is joining the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate for a pair of minor league rehab games this week, tweets Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette. If all goes well, he could be back in the lineup for the Rox by the weekend. Out since April 26 due to a back injury that the team hoped would require a minimum IL stay, Bryant will instead wind up missing three-plus weeks of action, at least. As Nick Groke of The Athletic writes, Bryant received a cortisone shot last week after an initial period of rest didn’t fully remedy his ailment. Bryant’s return could push the struggling Sam Hilliard to Triple-A, particularly with the out-of-options Yonathan Daza hitting well at the moment and thus giving the team a productive fourth outfield option. Utilityman Garrett Hampson is also capable of playing all three outfield spots, though he’s been primarily used as an infielder in 2022.

Xander Bogaerts Open To In-Season Extension Talks

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Negotiations on a new contract extension between Xander Bogaerts and the Red Sox didn’t result in a deal prior to Opening Day, and at the time, Bogaerts implied that the opener was an unofficial deadline.  “I’ve got a season coming up in front of me and I don’t want to put any of our teammates in that type of distraction,” Bogaerts said. “They don’t deserve it.  We had time to get something done. It didn’t work out.”

Now, Bogaerts has left the door slightly open for more talks during the season, telling The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham that “I don’t know how this would work. But if they talk to [agent Scott Boras] behind closed doors and it’s something that’s fair, he can come to me.  We’ll see how that goes.”

Most players set Opening Day as the endpoint for any contract negotiations, echoing Bogaerts’ point that once games begin, the focus is solely on baseball.  (Even in Bogaerts’ proposed scenario, he would himself seemingly have no role in active talks.)  Most extensions that are announced during the season tend to be announced perhaps within the first few weeks, indicating that the two sides had things mostly finalized aside from a few small details.

That said, it isn’t uncommon for extensions to be struck during the season.  2021 alone saw multiple deals finalized well into the year, including extensions involving the Red Sox (their two-year pact with Matt Barnes) and another Boras Corporation client (Jonathan Schoop, who inked a new deal to stay with the Tigers).  However, all of those extensions were for significantly shorter terms and for less money than what Bogaerts is undoubtedly looking for in a new contract.

Bogaerts is already under contract via a prior six-year, $120MM extension signed in April 2019.  The shortstop can opt out of that deal after the season, leaving behind the $60MM he is guaranteed between 2023-25 plus a $20MM vesting option for 2026.  There is little doubt that Bogaerts will indeed opt out and hit the open market, as entering his age-30 season, the three-time All-Star could triple the $60MM he’d be leaving on the table in Boston given how this past offseason raised the bar for shortstop contracts.

With the larger shortstop market in mind, perhaps the key point in Bogaerts’ quote is “something that’s fair.”  Reports have suggested that the Red Sox made a curiously low offer to Bogaerts’ camp, with the team proposing to extend the term by just one guaranteed year — Bogaerts would earn around $30MM for the 2026 season, and still be paid $20MM for each of the next three seasons.  Boston’s proposal apparently didn’t get a response from Bogaerts and his reps, and one friend of Bogaerts described the offer as “a slap in the face.”

It could be that the Red Sox were simply starting low as a negotiating tactic, and as Abraham notes, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom have said that the Sox want to retain both Bogaerts and Rafael Devers (who is a free agent after the 2023 season).  That said, the Red Sox also signed Trevor Story to a big six-year, $140MM free agent deal, and the team has one of the game’s top shortstop prospects in Marcelo Mayer.  Between Story, Mayer, and the lowball offer, it would seem like the Sox are already preparing themselves for life beyond Bogaerts, unless he happened to take that below-market extension.

While Boras has a reputation for pushing his clients towards free agency, several high-profile Boras Corporation clients have indeed signed extensions over the years — even Bogaerts himself re-upped with the Sox entering his final year under team control.  Of those deals, however, Stephen Strasburg’s 2016 extension with the Nationals is the only big-money, multi-year pact signed in-season, and Strasburg and the Nats were much closer in talks than Bogaerts and the Sox seem to be at this point.

With Bogaerts this close to the open market, it would seem like the Red Sox would have to (if anything) overpay to prevent him from opting out.  The other factor involved is Boston’s mediocre start to the 2022 season, as with only a 13-21 record thus far, there has already been whispers that Bogaerts could be a deadline trade chip rather than a future cornerstone.  If the Red Sox continue to struggle and lean towards becoming deadline sellers, it could be that the Sox might take the approach of revisiting extension talks with Bogaerts around the All-Star break, and if a deal can’t be struck, the team would then focus on trading him.

NL Central Notes: Greene, Reds, Stephenson, Pirates, Newman, Frazier, Cubs

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The Pirates’ 1-0 win over the Reds today will go down perhaps the most unusual game of the 2022 season, as Pittsburgh won without a single hit.  Reds starter Hunter Greene tossed 7 1/3 innings of hitless ball, but was pulled after 118 pitches and after issuing consecutive walks during the eighth inning.  Reliever Art Warren entered the game and issued another walk, then Ke’Bryan Hayes drove in the game’s only run via a fielder’s choice.  The Reds lineup, meanwhile, was held to only four hits, with Bucs starter Jose Quintana doing much of the work in shutting Cincinnati out over seven innings.

Since the Bucs didn’t need to bat in the bottom of the ninth, the official threshold of nine hitless innings wasn’t met, so Greene and Warren won’t be credited with a no-hitter.  This oddity marks just the sixth time since 1901 that a team has won despite going hitless, and ironically, the Reds were on the other side of the equation in the first such instance.  Back on April 23, 1964, the Reds collected a 1-0 win over the Houston Colt .45s even though Houston’s Ken Johnson held Cincinnati hitless over nine full innings of work — a pair of ninth-inning errors led to the Reds’ only run.

More from around the NL Central…

  • Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson cleared concussion protocol after being hit in the mask with a foul ball during Saturday’s game.  Stephenson didn’t play today but isn’t expected to miss much time, even though the team will be cautious given that Stephenson already missed two weeks with a concussion earlier this season.  Manager David Bell told reporters (including The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith) that the Reds are working with Stephenson on finding new types of masks and padded helmets, and the club is committed to keeping Stephenson behind the plate.  Joey Votto already has first base spoken for anyway, plus Stephenson’s bat is more valuable from the catcher position than at first base.  However, with three concussions already in his career, Stephenson and the Reds can only hope that a position switch doesn’t eventually become a necessity for health reasons.
  • The Pirates hope Kevin Newman can start a minor league rehab assignment this week, Pirates GM Ben Cherington said during his weekly radio show (hat tip to Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).  Newman hit the 10-day injured list with a left groin strain on April 27, so the timing of a rehab assignment coincides with the rough 3-5 week timeline initially given for Newman’s recovery.  The veteran shortstop was off to a decent start before hitting the IL, batting .250/.308/.375 (96 wRC+, 98 OPS+) over his first 52 plate appearances.  Rookie Diego Castillo has seen most of the shortstop duties while Newman has been sidelined, but Pittsburgh fans continue to wait for star shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to get an extended call-up to the majors.
  • In some Cubs-related injury news, Alec Mills will toss a live batting practice session on Tuesday.  (Meghan Montemurro of The Chicago Tribune was among those to report the news.)  Mills has yet to pitch this season due to a lower back strain, and he made one minor league rehab outing before being set back by quad tightness.  David Bote (shoulder surgery) and Clint Frazier (appendectomy) are both expected to start their own rehab assignments within a few days.  Frazier told Montemurro that he believes he’ll need five games to ramp up, which would put him on target to rejoin the Cubs when they begin a series with the Reds on May 23.

Alex Reyes Shut Down Due To Shoulder Soreness

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Cardinals right-hander Alex Reyes has yet to pitch this season due to shoulder problems, and it now looks like Reyes could be missing significantly more time.  Manager Oli Marmol told reporters (including Jeff Jones of The Belleville News-Democrat) that Reyes was shut down after he experienced some continued soreness in his right shoulder after a throwing session this week.

Reyes had already undergone an MRI, and perhaps ominously, is now looking for a second opinion before deciding on his next course of action.  Marmol described the news as “very” discouraging, and noted that Reyes has “been through a lot…you hope he can make it back.”

Considered one of baseball’s very best prospects during his time in the St. Louis farm system, Reyes’ career has been a series of stops and starts due to injuries.  A Tommy John surgery in 2017 cost Reyes the most time on the injured list, but his shoulder has also been a consistent source of concern for the last few years.

After tossing only 72 2/3 innings from 2016-20, the Cardinals opted to make Reyes a full-time reliever in 2021, and the result was both a healthy and impressive season.  The righty posted a 2.48 ERA and a 30% strikeout rate over 72 1/3 frames as the Cards’ primary closer for much of the year, though Reyes was hampered by walks and home runs.  This included the homer that ended the Cardinals’ season, as Reyes allowed Chris Taylor’s walkoff home run in last year’s NL wild card game.

Reyes received a stem cell injection in March, and after being moved to the 60-day injured list, wasn’t eligible to pitch until after June 8.  It now seems unlikely that he’ll make that target date, and there would seem to be plenty of doubt that Reyes will be able to pitch at all in 2022.

Reyes turns 28 in August, and is earning $2.85MM this season in the second of three arbitration-eligible years.  Should Reyes miss most or all of the 2022 campaign, he would receive only a minuscule raise or his salary would just remain at $2.85MM, which wouldn’t represent a huge financial outlay for St. Louis.  A non-tender can’t be ruled out until we know more about Reyes’ injury status, but given how well Reyes has pitched when healthy, the Cardinals would probably lean towards retaining him to see if he can avoid the IL in 2023.

Willy Adames Leaves Game Due To Right Ankle Sprain

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Brewers shortstop Willy Adames had to leave today’s game due to what the team described as a right ankle sprain.  The injury was suffered in the first inning, as Adames’ right foot was caught while he was sliding home to score on a Luis Urias sacrifice fly.  Adames was in obvious discomfort but still took the field to play shortstop in the bottom of the first, before being substituted out before the bottom of the second frame.

The fact that Adames was at least able to briefly keep playing is a positive sign that the injury might not be too severe, but the Brewers said he will be re-evaluated once the club returns home tomorrow from its current road trip.

Adames has been pretty streaky over the first weeks of the season, but the shortstop has shown plenty of pop in hitting .208/.304/.462 with nine home runs over his first 148 plate appearances.  Adames entered Sunday’s action tied for the NL lead in homers, and has basically not stopped hitting ever since the Brewers acquired him from the Rays almost exactly a year ago to the day.

Losing Adames to the injured list would take a bite out of Milwaukee’s lineup, though the Brewers have hit well as a whole this year, powered by Rowdy Tellez, Hunter Renfroe (one of the other players tied for the NL homer lead), Omar Narvaez, and the resurgent Christian Yelich.  Urias has also hit well since returning from the IL, and would likely move from third base to shortstop if Adames did have to miss time.  Mike Brosseau and Jace Peterson could platoon at third base, with Brosseau also representing another backup option at the shortstop position.

Cardinals Activate Adam Wainwright, Drew VerHagen

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TODAY: The Cardinals announced Wainwright’s activation, and righty Jake Woodford was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space.

MAY 14: The Cardinals announced that right-hander Drew VerHagen has been reinstated from the injured list, with lefty Packy Naughton being optioned in a corresponding move.

VerHagen was surprisingly the first player signed after the lockout ended in March, with the Cards inking him to a two-year deal with a $5.5MM guarantee. He had spent the previous two seasons in Japan and fared well enough to return to the big leagues. Unfortunately, after throwing just 4 2/3 innings over three appearances, he landed on the injured list due to a right hip impingement. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat adds that VerHagen had his return delayed by a bout with COVID. VerHagen is capable of either starting or relieving and started in his two rehab appearances but threw only 1 2/3 innings and 2 innings in them, respectively.

Manager Oliver Marmol announced today that Adam Wainwright will come off the COVID IL and start Sunday’s game, as relayed by John Denton of MLB.com,  but his last start was May 4. Since he didn’t go on a rehab assignment, it’s possible he won’t have as much length as usual due to that layoff, making a multi-inning option like VerHagen a valuable safety net. The club has a vacancy on its 40-man roster and won’t need to make a corresponding move for Waino, though he will need a slot on the active roster.

As for Naughton, this is already his second time being optioned in recent weeks. As part of the new CBA that was implemented in March, players with options can no longer be sent to the minors with total abandon. Each player can only be optioned five times per season, whereas there was no limit at all under the prior CBA. Due to the shortened Spring Training caused by the lockout, MLB and the MLBPA agreed that options prior to May 2 wouldn’t count against this limit, helping teams navigate the unusual ramp up period. The southpaw came up to make a spot start to cover for Wainwright’s absence and can now only be recalled and optioned three more times on the year.

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