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Archives for May 2022

Reds Select Ross Detwiler, Designate Robert Dugger

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Ross Detwiler. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, righty Robert Dugger has been designated for assignment.

Detwiler, 36, has appeared in 13 MLB seasons dating back to 2007. Last year, he pitched for both the Marlins and the Padres, logging 52 1/3 frames with a 4.64 ERA. Working with a changed pitch mix, Detwiller completely altered his profile last year. Swapping out sinkers for four-seam fastballs, he sacrificed grounders but gained strikeouts. After getting worm burners above 50% for three years in a row from 2018-2020, it dropped to 39.9 in 2021. His strikeout rate, which had been around 15% for most of his career, jumped to 27.1% last year.

Signed by the Reds to a minor league deal in April, the southpaw has thrown seven innings for the Triple-A Louisville Bats. That’s obviously a tiny sample size, but he has a 3.86 ERA with a 40% ground ball rate, 21.9% strikeout rate and 15.6% walk rate. With Justin Wilson on the IL and Phillip Diehl designated for assignment last week, the club has been without a lefty in the bullpen until they added Detwiler today.

As for Dugger, this is his third time being designated for assignment in the past couple of weeks. He was selected by the Rays at the beginning of May and given 5 1/3 innings of mop-up duty just before the roster size was set to shrink from 28 to 26. After that outing, he was put on waivers and claimed by the Reds. Cincy gave him three more innings of mop-up work, designated him again, outrighted him to Triple-A and then selected his contract two days later. This time, he’s sent back out into DFA limbo without the mop-up duty, as he still just has the two appearances on the year.

Orioles Claim Beau Sulser, Designate Paul Fry

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The Orioles announced that they have claimed Beau Sulser off waivers from the Pirates and optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk. Lefty Paul Fry has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Sulser had his contract selected three weeks ago and made his MLB debut in late April. He pitched 9 2/3 innings out of Pittsburgh’s bullpen over four outings. His 3.72 ERA and 21.7% strikeout rate were acceptable, but he also had a concerning walk rate of 13%. The Pirates designated him for assignment a couple of days ago when they claimed Tyler Beede off waivers.

As for Fry, his designation is at least somewhat surprising, given that he was garnering trade interest at the deadline less than a year ago. Despite a penchant for walks, Fry’s ability to rack up strikeouts and ground balls seemed to give him appeal to other clubs around the league. For his career, he’s thrown 176 1/3 innings over this season and the previous four. His 4.80 ERA isn’t terribly enticing, but he has struck out 24.6% of batters he’s faced as well as inducing grounders at a 56.4% clip. His 12.2% walk rate has put a damper on his overall results, though.

This year, through 12 innings, the pattern is largely intact. His 6.00 ERA comes with a 22.2% strikeout rate, 65.6% ground ball rate and 13% walk rate. However, he’s been undone by a 25% HR/FB ratio. That’s a small sample, but it comes at a time when power is down across the league.

Given the interest he’s garnered in the past, it seems likely that he’ll latch on somewhere. He qualified for arbitration for the first time and is making a salary of $850K this year, just a hair above the $700K league minimum. He came into the season with three years and 75 days of service time and still has a pair of option years, meaning he could certainly be of interest to teams lacking in lefty bullpen depth.

Blue Jays Activate Hyun Jin Ryu, Danny Jansen

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The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, with lefty Hyun Jin Ryu and catcher Danny Jansen being activated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, catcher Tyler Heineman and righty Trent Thornton have been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Ryu was only able to make two starts this year before elbow inflammation landed him on the IL. Both of them were poor outings, with Ryu allowing at least five earned runs in each. The Jays are surely hoping that Ryu can bounce back so that those results can be chalked up to the injury. In 169 innings last year, Ryu had a 4.37 ERA, with a diminished 20.4% strikeout rate but strong walk rate of 5.3%. His return to the rotation should bump Ross Stripling back into a long relief role in the bullpen, a role that Thornton had been filling in the interim.

Jansen’s season got off to a great start before an oblique injury put him on the shelf. In a tiny sample of three games, Jansen hit a couple of home runs and was slashing .571/.625/1.571 to start the season. Last year, he hit .223/.299/.473, wRC+ of 105 in 70 games. With Heineman’s option and Jansen’s activation, the club is still rolling with a three-catcher setup, as Jansen joins Alejandro Kirk and Zack Collins on the roster.

Rays Acquire Josh Roberson To Complete Louis Head Trade

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The Rays announced to members of the media, including team broadcaster Neil Solondz, that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Josh Roberson as the player to be named later in the trade that sent Louis Head to the Marlins.

Roberson, 26, was selected by the Marlins in the 12th round of the 2017 draft, despite having had Tommy John surgery before the draft. As he’s climbed up the minor league ladder, he’s racked up huge strikeout numbers but also a fair share of walks. Last year, across four different levels of the minors, he threw 45 innings with a 6.40 ERA, 31.2% strikeout rate and 13.2% walk rate. So far this year, between A-ball and Double-A, he’s thrown 6 2/3 innings with a 6.75 ERA, ten Ks but also eight walks and a couple of wild pitches. A year ago, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Roberson the 33rd-best prospect in the Miami system, highlighting his “very nasty” breaking ball. (FanGraphs hasn’t yet released their Marlins prospect list for this year.) The Rays will try to sprinkle some of their magic dust on him in order to try to improve that control and turn him into another weapon for their pitching staff.

As for Head, he’s had good results for the Marlins so far this year, despite concerning peripherals. In a small sample of ten innings on the year, his ERA is a tidy 1.80. Last year’s 23.9% strikeout rate has dropped to 16.3% this year, with his walk rate jumping from 6.7% to 11.6%. He has been getting more worm burners, though, with his ground ball rate jumping from 31.1% to 40%.

Pirates To Hire Jason Kendall

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Jason Kendall is rejoining the Pirates, as the club is going to be hiring him to a player developmental role, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. As noted by Biertempfel, the move isn’t technically official yet, with Kendall’s job still not having a title. Semantics aside, the duties will seemingly revolve around working with the club’s minor leaguers. “Put it this way, you’ll see me around,” Kendall says. He later elaborated: “I told the Pirates whatever they want me to do, I’ll do it. I’ll go down and watch minor-league teams and certain players. Catching is what I know, but I also can talk to the kids as someone who’s been there, done that.”

Of course, this is a homecoming for Kendall, 47, as he was drafted by the Pirates in the first round of the 1992 draft and spent the first nine years of his career with the black and yellow. “It just feels like I’m back home,” Kendall said. “This is the team that drafted me. This is the city that watched me grow up through good times and bad times.”

After retiring in 2012, Kendall worked as a special assistant coach with the Royals from 2012 to 2018. In late 2019, he expressed his interest in taking over the vacant manager position in Pittsburgh after the firing of Clint Hurdle. However, that job eventually went to Derek Shelton, who is now in his third season as the Bucs’ skipper.

The Pirates have performed quite poorly since Shelton took over, though that’s no fault of his. The club has been clearly in rebuild mode for quite some time. With the team focused on the future instead of the present, player development will be extremely important for the organization, especially given their low-spending habits. Up until the recent extension of Ke’Bryan Hayes, the club’s largest contract was the $60MM extension given to Kendall himself way back in the year 2000. That means that the work of the team’s player development staff, which now includes Kendall, will be a key factor in the trajectory of the club in the years to come.

Injured List Placements: Naylor, Wendle, Mountcastle

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Catching up on some recent injury news…

  • The Guardians made a handful of roster moves on Friday, with Josh Naylor going onto the COVID-related injury list, per Mandy Bell of MLB.com. Headed in the other direction was Yu Chang, who landed on the COVID IL a month ago. The club also recalled Richie Palacios and optioned Kirk McCarty. On Wednesday, the Guardians had their game against the White Sox postponed after multiple positive tests among their coaching staff. The next day, seven staff members were placed in COVID protocol in relation to this outbreak. It seems that this has extended to Naylor, though it’s unclear if he has been shelved due to a positive test, showing symptoms or contact tracing. The first baseman/outfielder has been excellent so far this year, hitting .347/.377/.611 for a wRC+ of 191 through 20 games. With Naylor absent last night, the club slid Owen Miller from second to first and used Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario up the middle.
  • The Marlins placed Joey Wendle on the 10-day injured list yesterday with a right hamstring strain, retroactive to May 12, per their transactions tracker at MLB.com. In a corresponding move, Brian Anderson was activated off the COVID IL. The 40-man roster had a couple of vacancies and is now at 39, though Jon Berti and Richard Bleier remain on the COVID list and will need roster spots when they return. Losing Wendle is certainly a hit for the Marlins, as he has started this season hot. Through 25 games, he’s hitting .304/.368/.456, 140 wRC+. He’s also added four steals and good defense to accumulate 1.2 wins above replacement already, according to FanGraphs. However, it’s possible that the return of Anderson can make it close to a wash, as he was hitting .262/.385/.385 before landing on the IL, producing a wRC+ of 131.
  • The Orioles announced yesterday that first baseman Ryan Mountcastle was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left wrist forearm strain, retroactive to May 11. Jorge Lopez returned from the bereavement list in a corresponding move. Mountcastle’s production is down a few ticks relative to last year, but still above league average. In 2021, he hit .255/.309/.487 for a wRC+ of 111. This year, he’s moved to .268/.299/.402, wRC+ of 104. He seems to be taking a more contact-oriented approach, at least in this small sample of 28 games. His swing percentage is up on pitches inside and outside the zone, but his contact rates have also gone up in both cases. As a result, his walk and strikeout rates are both down relative to previous years. That’s led to a drop in slugging, though that’s also been a trend across the league so far this year. With Mountcastle out, Trey Mancini and Tyler Nevin will likely cover first base for him.

Padres Option Dinelson Lamet, Finalize Deal With Robinson Cano

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The Padres announced they’ve optioned right-hander Dinelson Lamet to Triple-A El Paso. The move clears an active roster spot for Robinson Canó, whose previously-reported major league contract has been made official. San Diego already had an opening on the 40-man roster.

It’s a disappointing and somewhat surprising development for Lamet, who’s only two years removed from a fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young award balloting. He made 12 starts and threw 69 innings of 2.09 ERA ball that season, punching out an excellent 34.5% of batters faced along the way. That seemed to cement him as a key piece of the organization’s long-term rotation, but he dealt with arm issues during the postseason that set him off track.

Lamet wound up not appearing in a playoff game that year, and he had a pair of injured list stints due to forearm inflammation last season. The second of those stints cost him more than two months between July and September, and he didn’t have time to return to the rotation once healthy. Lamet worked in relief for the 2021 campaign’s final month, and he’s begun this season in that role as well.

The 2022 campaign has been a disaster, as Lamet has been tagged for ten runs in 8 1/3 innings across ten appearances. He has struck out ten batters and induced swinging strikes at an excellent 16% clip, but he’s also issued seven walks and coughed up a pair of home runs. As he’s struggled, Lamet has fallen towards the bottom of the bullpen depth chart and been consigned primarily to lower-leverage work. He’ll now lose his roster spot altogether and head back to the minors for the first time since he was called up in May 2017 (aside from injury rehab assignments).

If the Friars had lost faith in Lamet for the moment, however, optioning him now is a sensible decision. Players with five-plus years of big league service cannot be optioned without their consent, and the 29-year-old is very near that threshold. Lamet entered the season with four years and 130 days of service, and he’s accrued roughly 36 more days this year. Players reach a full service year at 172 days, meaning he’s about six days shy of the five-year mark. Had the Padres kept Lamet around another week or so, they would no longer have been able to make a unilateral decision to send him down.

It’s possible Lamet’s tenure in the organization could be nearing its end regardless, as the Friars have reportedly discussed him in trade talks in recent weeks. Lamet is making just shy of $5MM this season, and San Diego’s luxury tax number is underneath the base $230MM threshold by the narrowest of margins. Whether anyone would pick up the entirety of Lamet’s salary after his difficult start to the season isn’t clear, but perhaps another team would take a buy-low flier to grab an obviously talented pitcher controllable through 2023 if the Pads are desperate to move him for payroll reasons.

Red Sox Notes: Trade Deadline, Bloom, Song, Hyers

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In an early look ahead to this year’s trade deadline, Joel Sherman of the New York Post identifies the 12-20 Red Sox as potential sellers. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom rebukes any notion that the team is preparing to punt on the season however, telling Sherman “We are not thinking that way [selling] at all […] The hole we are in is real, but it doesn’t reflect the talent on this club. We know it will take a lot to climb out, but we believe this group can do it.”

Accordingly, Sherman acknowledges how much baseball is left to be played this season and opposes a total teardown for a club that just last year made the playoffs. He does also cite Boston’s frequent record fluctuation this past decade (the team has finished first and last in the AL East four times apiece), however, as reason to brace for a disappointing final win tally. With a number of teams already ahead of them in the Wild Card hunt, to say nothing of their incredibly tough division, the Red Sox figure to have a harder time than most presumptive contenders in reaching the playoffs this year. Thanks to a handful of impending All-Star free agents and a wide open payroll next offseason though, there’s perhaps no team more qualified to reload at the trade deadline before trying for better results in 2023.

Some more news out of Boston…

  • Pitching prospect Noah Song was selected by the Red Sox in the fourth round of the 2019 draft but has since seen his baseball career be put on hold due to Navy commitments. As Alex Speier of The Boston Globe details, however, Song has now completed flight school and applied for a service waiver that may allow him to resume his professional baseball career. At the time of his draft selection scouts viewed the right-hander as a first-round talent with mid-rotation upside, albeit one with obvious signing roadblocks, so his return could be quite the boon for a farm system on the rise. It remains to be seen how a multi-year layoff from baseball might impact Song’s athletic abilities or if additional naval obligations will keep his service waiver from being approved, but the Sox for their part seem prepared and supportive of either outcome.
  • In an interview with Christopher Smith of MassLive, former Boston hitting coach Tim Hyers discussed his rationale for leaving the franchise this offseason to take an identical role with the Rangers. Familial considerations, challenge-seeking, and a desire to let current Red Sox hitting coach Peter Fatse rise to the occasion all informed his ultimate departure. Hyers of course has been one of the sport’s more productive hitting coaches in terms of results, as high-octane offense was the calling card of Red Sox teams dating back to his first year under manager Alex Cora in 2018. Hyers’ coaching presence, and lack thereof, seems to be felt by his old and new club so far this season, as the Rangers have improved relatively as a run-scoring unit while the Red Sox currently find themselves as a bottom-three team in MLB in that regard. If there’s one silver lining here in the early-going for Sox fans, it’s that Hyers was approached by the Yankees after leaving his post with Boston but politely rebuffed the club.

Andrew Benintendi Defeats Royals In Arbitration

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Outfielder Andrew Benintendi has won his arbitration hearing against the Royals, according to Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. Benintendi will rake in a 2022 salary of $8.5MM, a good bit greater than the team’s submitted arbitration figure of $7.3MM.

While either arbitration figure represents a life-changing amount of money, Benintendi and his camp had a strong platform campaign that certainly helped tip the scales in their favor. Through 134 contests last season the left-handed hitter posted a trade-validating .276/.324/.442 (105 OPS+) slash line with 17 home runs and Gold Glove-winning defense. Last year’s performance didn’t quite reach the heights many expected of Benintendi based on his early days in Boston, but it reversed a number of worrying trends that were displayed during a dismal 14-game stint in 2020.

With this 2022 salary locked in, Benintendi’s camp can now turn their attention to securing his next big payday at the end of the season, when he’s slated to reach free agency for the first time. Following the initial trade that brought Benintendi to Kansas City, it seemed as if the team might try and secure the rights to their newest acquisition on a team-friendly extension. Instead, the 27-year-old now looks primed to be a trade candidate more than anything owing to the team’s lagging record and his high-contact .314/.368/.381 (123 OPS+) start to the season.

Turning to the Royals’ side of the hearing, Worthy interestingly notes that this is the first time since president of baseball operations Dayton Moore was hired in 2006 that the club has lost in arbitration. Infielder Nicky Lopez, who is in his first arbitration year, is the only remaining Royal awaiting an arbitration hearing.

George Springer Leaves Game With Ankle Injury

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Blue Jays outfielder George Springer left tonight’s game in the third inning with a left ankle sprain, according to the team. The injury occurred on a wall-crashing attempt at a fly ball in the bottom of the second inning. After some delay Springer, encouragingly, was able to remain in the field and take his at-bat in the third inning before being replaced with Raimel Tapia.

That Springer was able to play after the initial injury likely rules out a serious injury for the star center fielder, but further examination by the team will ultimately decide how quickly he can proceed from here. Regardless of how much time Springer is set to miss, it’s no doubt a troubling development for Toronto. The 32-year-old has been electric since signing a six-year $150MM deal in before the 2021 season, putting up a .264/.352/.555 (141 OPS+) line last year and following it up with a similarly robust .283/.344/.531 (159 OPS+) slash line this season.

Unfortunately, Springer’s 2021 season was limited to just 78 games thanks to a myriad of injuries to his quad, knee, and oblique. Toronto wound up missing the playoffs by a single game last year amid trying conditions, and now they’ll look to avoid that same fate this year while encountering some early injury adversity. Since a hot stretch to open the year, the Blue Jays have seen some of the shine come off and currently sit at 17-15, six and a half games out of first in the AL East.

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