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Blue Jays Acquire Anthony Banda

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The Blue Jays have announced to reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, that they have acquired left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda from the Pirates for cash considerations. Banda had been designated for assignment earlier this week. Julian Merryweather was transferred to the 60-day IL in order to create space on the 40-man roster for Banda.

With Toronto missing several relievers on the injured list, Banda’s acquisition adds some bullpen depth, and Banda could possibly position himself for regular work even when everyone is healthy. Tim Mayza is the top left-hander in the Jays’ bullpen, with Taylor Saucedo and rookies Matt Gage and Andrew Vasquez getting some looks as the second southpaw in the relief corps (Saucedo and Vazquez are two of the pitchers on the IL).

It has been a tough and perhaps simply unlucky season for Banda, who has a 6.41 ERA over 19 2/3 innings with the Pirates in 2022. Banda’s SIERA is a much more respectable 3.47, as a whopping .463 BABIP indicates that despite his success at limiting hard contact, a lot of Banda’s balls in play are turning into hits. Banda also has an impressive 5.1% walk rate.

The 28-year-old is no stranger to the AL East, having pitched with the Rays from 2018-20. A noted prospect back during his time in the Diamondbacks’ farm system, Banda spent the bulk of his time in Tampa recovering from Tommy John surgery, and he has yet to truly establish himself in the majors. The southpaw’s 33 2/3 innings in 2021 marked his career high, as Banda had a 4.28 ERA with the Mets and Pirates.

Cardinals Designate Nick Wittgren For Assignment

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The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, with righty Jordan Hicks being activated from the 15-day injured list. Lefty Matthew Liberatore was also recalled to take a spot on the active roster. To create room for those two hurlers, the Cards optioned righty Jake Woodford and designated righty Nick Wittgren for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster now sits at 39, though T.J. McFarland and Genesis Cabrera are currently on the COVID IL and will need roster spots when they are eligible to return.

Wittgren, 31, spent the first three years of his career with the Marlins and the next three with Cleveland. In that time, he established himself as a solid if unspectacular bullpen piece. At the end of the 2021 season, he had 271 1/3 innings under his belt with a 3.75 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 39.9% ground ball rate. He had never posted an ERA above 5.00 until 2021, and even then, it was just 5.05. Cleveland could have controlled him for one more year via arbitration but decided to move on, after which he was scooped up by the Cards on a one-year deal for $1.2MM.

It’s been a difficult season to evaluate for Wittgren, with many of his stats differing from career norms. His strikeout rate has plummeted to 12.7%, barely half of his mark coming into the year. He’s allowed a .333 BABIP, well above his .292 career rate. However, his HR/FB is just 2.9%, well below the 12.4% rate of his career. All of that has resulted in a 5.90 ERA, though advanced metrics are divided as to whether that’s deserved or not. SIERA gives him a 4.73 with xFIP at 5.14, but xERA and FIP have him at 3.83 and 3.85, respectively. There’s some wide variance there, but all of those metrics feel he’s better than his ERA suggests. According to Statcast, Wittgren is in the 99th percentile in terms of barrel percentage and 78th percentile in terms of hard hit percentage. Any team that needs bullpen help and believes that Wittgren’s suppression of hard contract is sustainable could be interested in acquiring his services. The Cardinals will have a week to work out a trade or put him on waivers.

As for Hicks, he returns after just over a month on the IL due to a forearm strain. Though the Cardinals tinkered with adding him to the rotation earlier in the year, he seems ticketed for a return to the bullpen now. In his four rehab outings, he tossed five total innings, with all but one of those appearances being of the one-inning variety. Despite tantalizing stuff, Hicks has been limited by injuries in recent years. After throwing 77 2/3 innings in 2018, he’s thrown just 67 1/3 total frames in the four subsequent seasons.

Guardians Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The Guardians announced a batch of roster moves prior to today’s doubleheader. Left-hander Kirk McCarty has been recalled as the club’s “27th man” for the twin bill. The club also recalled infielder Gabriel Arias, with outfielder Oscar Gonzalez going on the 10-day injured list as a corresponding move. Furthermore, right-hander James Karinchak was reinstated from the 60-day IL and optioned to Triple-A, with fellow righty Tobias Myers being designated for assignment to open a spot for Karinchak on the 40-man roster.

The Guardians haven’t yet announced an injury designation for Gonzalez, but he was reportedly dealing with some abdominal tightness recently. This IL placement will put a pause on his nice breakout campaign, as the rookie has hit .285/.315/.431 through his first 32 big league games. Despite a 3.8% walk rate that’s less than half the league average, he’s hit enough to produce a 112 wRC+, indicating he’s been 12% better than the league average hitter overall. With him out of action, Richie Palacios could potentially be line for more regular playing time next to Steven Kwan and Myles Straw in the Cleveland outfield. Manager Terry Francona tells Mandy Bell of MLB.com that an MRI on Gonzalez revealed some swelling near his ribs that will shut him down for about a week.

Myers, 23, was first added to the club’s 40-man roster in November as part of a huge shuffle. At the deadline to add players prior to the Rule 5 draft, which ended up not happening, the Guardians designated seven players for assignment in order to add ten prospects to the squad. In addition to all of that, they acquired Myers from the Rays and added him to the roster as well. Originally drafted by the Orioles, he was traded to the Rays for Tim Beckham in 2017. Since then, he climbed the ladder in Tampa’s system, pitching in Double-A and Triple-A in 2021. He made 22 starts last year with a 3.90 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. That surely enticed Cleveland to bring him aboard as rotation depth, though he hasn’t been able to maintain those results this year. In 14 Triple-A starts, he has an ERA of 6.00, along with a 14.1% strikeout rate and 11.6% walk rate. Based on those diminished results, he has lost his roster spot and has now entered DFA limbo. The club will have one week to trade him or place him on waivers. Despite his poor season thus far, teams may be willing to take a chance on him on the hope he can rebound into his previous form.

As for Karinchak, 26, he seemed to emerge as an elite bullpen weapon in the shortened 2020 season. He threw 27 innings that year with a 2.67 ERA and an absurd 48.6% strikeout rate, though a concerning 14.7% walk rate as well. In 2021, he came back down to earth with a 4.07 ERA over 55 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate fell to 33.2%, still very good, but was also still issuing free passes at a 13.6% rate. He has yet to pitch in the majors this year as he began the season on the IL due to a teres major strain. He’s been rehabbing for the past month, throwing 11 Triple-A innings with a 5.73 ERA. He’s still getting Ks 32.1% of the time but also giving a free trip to first base to 20.8% of batters faced. There’s surely some rust to deal with after a long injury layoff, which he will try to shake off by staying in Columbus.

Outrights: Eickhoff, Evans

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A couple of updates on players recently designated for assignment…

  • Right-handed pitcher Jerad Eickhoff was outrighted by the Pirates earlier this week. As a player who had previously been outrighted in his career, he had the right to reject that outright assignment and elect free agency. However, Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relayed last night that Eickhoff was with Triple-A Indianapolis, indicated he’s accepted. He started last night’s game for Indy, throwing five innings with two earned runs, seven strikeouts and one walk. He now has a 4.73 ERA at Triple-A on the year, but struggled mightily in his lone MLB appearance, allowing ten earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. He’ll stick around as depth for the club, who could potentially trade some arms between now and the August 2 deadline.
  • The Rangers announced that right-hander Demarcus Evans cleared outright waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Round Rock. Evans does not have three years of MLB service time and hasn’t previously been outrighted in his career, meaning he will head to Round Rock and try to earn his way back onto a roster spot. In 26 1/3 MLB innings this year, he has a 5.13 ERA with a strong 27.5% strikeout rate but worrisome 13.3% walk rate. In Triple-A, the control problems are even more pronounced, though in a small sample of just 12 innings. His ERA at Round Rock this year is 7.50, along with a 29.8% strikeout rate and 24.6% walk rate.

Yankees Exploring Market For Outfield Upgrades

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The Yankees have been baseball’s best team by a wide margin — their .727 winning percentage trounces the Astros’ second-ranked .640 mark — but they’ll naturally still be on the hunt for improvements as the Aug. 2 trade deadline draws nearer. To that end, general manager Brian Cashman and his staff have already begun to survey the outfield market, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

It’s wholly unsurprising that the Yanks would be in the market for outfielders, given the way both Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks have floundered so far in 2022. The 28-year-old Gallo, though he’s in the prime of his career, is limping through a career-worst .165/.276/.330 season and has fanned in a staggering 39.2% of his plate appearances this season. Hicks, 32, looked to be turning a corner when he opened the month of June with a .321/.410/.434 showing through 61 plate appearances across 16 games. However, he’s fallen into a 2-for-24 slump since that time and is hitting just .218/.338/.284 on the season overall. He’s still signed three more years beyond the current season, while Gallo is a free agent this coming winter, so the leash on Hicks figures to be longer.

Gallo’s struggles have pushed him into a decreased role of late, as Giancarlo Stanton has seen his time in the outfield tick upward. Stanton has already logged 242 innings in the outfield (all but seven coming in right) — the second-highest total in any of his four seasons wearing pinstripes. Stanton played in 139 games in 2021 but still logged just 199 innings in the outfield. Hicks, meanwhile, has shifted to left field in deference to MVP candidate (and free-agent-to-be) Aaron Judge, whose 337 frames in center this year have already exceeded his combined career total from six prior seasons.

There’s no indication yet as to which direction the Yankees are specifically leaning, and the outfield market figures to feature a broad range of available players. Speculatively speaking, a left-handed bat would be sensible — particularly one capable of playing center field. Anthony Rizzo is the only current regular who bats left-handed in the Yanks’ lineup. Hicks is a switch-hitter but better from the right side of the plate throughout his career, and the only other lefty bats on the big league roster are the struggling Gallo, switch-hitting utilityman Marwin Gonzalez and veteran infielder Matt Carpenter.

Kansas City’s Andrew Benintendi is among the likeliest outfielders to be traded, given his upcoming free agency, his strong .305/.370/.393 batting line and the Royals’ fifth-place standing in the AL Central. Other outfielders likely to be available include Oakland’s Ramon Laureano, Baltimore’s Anthony Santander and Trey Mancini, Cincinnati’s Tyler Naquin and Tommy Pham, Detroit’s Robbie Grossman, Pittsburgh’s Ben Gamel, Arizona’s David Peralta and Chicago’s Ian Happ.

We’ll surely see ample rumblings on Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds and Orioles outfielders Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays, but all three of those players can be controlled three more years beyond the current season. That’s also true of the aforementioned Laureano, but the A’s are only just beginning to dismantle their roster and as such could be a bit more amenable to parting with some more years of control than the Pirates or O’s, both of whom have been rebuilding for several years already.

The Yankees are already well over the new $230MM luxury tax threshold, currently checking in at about $246MM worth of luxury obligations, in the estimation of Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez. They’re paying a 20% tax on every dollar spent over that line (approximately $3.2MM as things currently stand) and would pay that same 20% on every dollar up to $250MM. Any spending thereafter would be taxed at a 32% rate, up to $270MM.

Jack Flaherty Shut Down From Throwing For 2-3 Weeks

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The Cardinals placed Jack Flaherty on the 15-day injured list this week, as the right-hander is again battling shoulder issues. The club hasn’t provided any sort of estimated timeline on Flaherty’s return, but manager Oli Marmol said this afternoon that the star hurler wouldn’t throw for the next two-to-three weeks (via John Denton of MLB.com). President of baseball operations John Mozeliak indicated there was no structural damage but Flaherty continues to feel discomfort tied to a strain in the area.

Arguably the Cardinals best pitcher when at his best, Flaherty has been plagued by health concerns over the past couple seasons. He missed a good portion of the 2021 campaign after suffering an oblique strain. Upon returning, Flaherty injured his shoulder and lost a month late in the season — a development that required he return as a reliever at the end of the year.

While club and player were surely both hopeful he’d put those issues behind him, Flaherty began this season on the injured list after being diagnosed with shoulder bursitis in Spring Training. That delayed his 2022 debut until mid-June. Reinstated two weeks ago, the 26-year-old made three starts before additional discomfort arose.

Mozeliak said earlier this week the club believed Flaherty would return at some point this season, a sentiment echoed by the pitcher himself. A shutdown of multiple weeks reinforces that he’s looking at another extended absence, however, as he won’t pick up a ball until around the All-Star Break in a best-case scenario. Even if he doesn’t incur any setbacks, the club is sure to exercise caution building up his throwing program from there given his recent injury history.

Orioles Notes: Mancini, Santander, Lopez

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As has been the case the past few summers, the Orioles enter deadline season among the game’s likeliest sellers. Baltimore has been amidst a full rebuild, and they’re again all but certain to finish at the bottom of the American League East. The O’s have shown signs of progress, graduating top prospect Adley Rutschman to the big leagues and going 14-12 last month, but they’re still set to field offers on a number of players.

Among the likeliest to be dealt are first baseman/designated hitter Trey Mancini and corner outfielder Anthony Santander. Mancini is set to hit free agency at the end of this season, and as of Spring Training, the club had not engaged his representatives in talks about a potential long-term deal. Barring an out-of-the-blue extension coming together over the next few weeks, the O’s figure to flip Mancini to a contender for this season’s final couple months. (Mancini’s agreement with the O’s to avoid arbitration this spring included a $10MM mutual option for 2023. Given the caliber of season he’s having, he seems unlikely to trigger his end of the pact and forego a possibility at a multi-year free agent deal).

The Mets are among the teams that has checked in on Mancini, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. New York skipper Buck Showalter is plenty familiar with the Notre Dame product, having managed in Baltimore through 2018. That encompassed Mancini’s first two full seasons as a big leaguer, so Showalter had an up-close look at his clubhouse fit and work habits.

Mancini is amidst one of the better seasons of his career. Through 295 plate appearances entering play Friday, the 30-year-old is hitting .280/.356/.421. Mancini has only hit seven home runs, but his 20% strikeout rate is a career-low. While his power output has dipped, particularly relative to his 35-homer 2019 breakout campaign, his hard contact rate is still well above-average.

Pete Alonso is having a great season at first base for the Mets, but the club figures to look into external possibilities at designated hitter. New York has gotten a .230/.311/.383 showing from the DH position, exactly league average production by measure of wRC+. Between Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis, the Mets entered the season with a seeming surplus of bat-first players who could serve as the team’s DH. Smith has instead struggled for a second straight season, hitting .194/.283/.265 in 113 MLB plate appearances and spending some time in Triple-A. Davis has a .243/.333/.345 line over 171 trips to the dish, hitting only two homers in 51 games. Like Mancini, Davis has far better batted ball metrics than his power results would suggest though.

The Mets are one of plenty of teams that either already has or will check in with O’s general manager Mike Elias regarding Mancini. Santander also figures to attract some amount of interest, and Heyman writes in a separate piece that Baltimore is willing to make him available. After a down 2021, he’s hit 14 home runs through this season’s first half. The switch-hitting outfielder owns a .235/.329/.424 line in just under 300 trips to the plate.

For the first time in his career, Santander has an on-base percentage above the league average, a testament to an approach overhaul that has allowed him to work more free passes. After swinging at more than half the pitches he’d seen in every season of his career through 2021, Santander has cut his swing rate to just over 46% this year. With that more patient approach has come a 10.5% walk rate that’s more than double the 5.1% clip he’d posted in his career through last season.

While the O’s are under time pressure to extend or trade Mancini, the club could elect to hold onto Santander if they don’t receive offers to their liking. The 27-year-old entered this season with three-plus years of big league service. He’s controllable through the end of 2024 via arbitration and making a modest $3.2MM this season. As for Baltimore’s other controllable outfielders, Heyman unsurprisingly writes the team would “have to be blown away” to move either Cedric Mullins or Austin Hays. Baltimore can keep each of Mullins and Hays through 2025.

Aside from Mancini and Santander, Baltimore’s next-most likely trade candidate may well be breakout closer Jorge López. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored yesterday, López has transformed from struggling starter to lights-out reliever. Through 37 innings, the right-hander has a microscopic 0.73 ERA. He’s struck out 27.1% of opponents and generated ground-balls at a massive 64% clip, a combination that is sure to lead to plenty of calls from teams looking to add a late-game weapon.

As part of a reader mailbag, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes that Baltimore would listen to offers on López, at least as a matter of due diligence. Controllable through 2024 and playing this season on a $1.5MM salary, the 29-year-old could affordably stick around for the next few seasons. It’d no doubt take a significant haul for Elias and his staff to pull the trigger on a deal, but other clubs will try to pry López away before the August 2 deadline.

Lucas Sims To Undergo Season-Ending Back Surgery

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Reds reliever Lucas Sims will undergo surgery next week to repair a herniated disc in his back, he tells Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He’ll miss the rest of the 2022 season. The 28-year-old expressed confidence he’ll have a relatively normal offseason and be ready for Spring Training next year.

Sims has been dogged by back issues virtually all year. He opened the season on the injured list and missed the first two weeks. The right-hander was reinstated in late April and made six appearances, but he was tagged for seven runs in 6 2/3 innings. Cincinnati placed Sims on the IL again in mid-May, and he was transferred to the 60-day version  last month. He’ll remain on the IL all year but will have to be reinstated to the 40-man roster at the start of the offseason.

It’s a virtually lost season for Sims, who’d shown flashes of emerging as a high-leverage arm in the preceding two years. A former first-round pick of the Braves, he struggled to throw strikes as a starter but looked to have a found a home in the bullpen by 2020. During the abbreviated season, Sims posted a 2.45 ERA across 25 2/3 innings. He punched out a third of batters faced, and manager David Bell increasingly used him in key situations the following year.

Sims even spent some time as the Cincinnati closer in 2021, collecting seven saves. He watched his ERA spike to 4.40 through 47 innings, but that belied excellent secondary numbers. Sims was one of the game’s top strikeout arms, fanning nearly 40% of opponents while generating swinging strikes on almost 15% of his offerings.

The Reds and Sims failed to come to an agreement on an arbitration salary over the winter, and the sides went to an in-season hearing. The team emerged victorious, with the arbitrator setting Sims’ salary at the club’s proposed $1.2MM mark. (Sims’ camp had been seeking $1.6MM). With virtually nothing to show in terms of 2022 performance, he’d command an identical or marginally higher salary if tendered a contract for 2023. Sims will collect his salary and a full year of MLB service while rehabbing, pushing him past the four-year service threshold. He’s controllable through 2024.

Giants Place Anthony DeSclafani On 15-Day Injured List

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The Giants placed starter Anthony DeSclafani on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 28, due to right ankle inflammation. Infielder Jason Vosler has been recalled to take his active roster spot.

It’s the second time DeScalafani has hit the IL because of right ankle inflammation. His first stint cost him two months, as the righty was out from mid-April until two weeks ago. Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area) the team has “real concern” about the setback. The skipper ominously added that “everything is on the table” as far as treatment options go, leaving open the possibility DeScalfani could require surgery.

It has been a frustrating season for the 32-year-old righty, who has been limited to just five starts. After allowing two runs in each of his first two appearances, he was tagged for five runs during his final start in April. He’s seemed limited even upon returning from his initial IL stint, first allowing five runs in three innings against the Braves and serving up seven through 2 2/3 frames to the Reds on Sunday.

That’s a far cry from DeSclafani’s very productive debut season in the Bay Area. Signed to a one-year deal over the 2020-21 offseason on the heels of a rough final year with Cincinnati, he bounced back in black and orange. DeSclafani threw 167 2/3 frames of 3.17 ERA ball, missing bats at a league average rate while showing excellent control. That earned him a three-year, $36MM deal to return last winter, but the ankle issues have prevented him from settling in thus far in 2022.

San Francisco has an established top four in the rotation of Carlos Rodón, Logan Webb, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood. During DeSclafani’s first IL stint, Jakob Junis stepped into the fifth spot with a strong couple months. Junis has been on the IL himself for the past few weeks. He threw a bullpen session today, Pavlovic tweets, but it remains to be seen how quickly he can return to the MLB staff. The Giants don’t have a single off day between now and the July 18 start of the All-Star Break.

Khris Davis Signs With Atlantic League’s Kentucky Wild Health Genomes

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A former MLB home run champ is headed to independent ball. Designated hitter/left fielder Khris Davis has signed with the Kentucky Wild Health Genomes of the Atlantic League, according to a team announcement.

Davis will use the independent ball opportunity as a hopeful springboard back to the affiliated ranks. The 34-year-old spent a bit of time in the Mexican League earlier in the year but struggled over 12 games with the Diablos Rojos. After a couple months away, Davis has an opportunity to rebuild his stock in the Atlantic League.

Over a nine-year MLB career, Davis has hit 221 home runs and carries a .242/.314/.491 slash line. He topped 40 home runs each season from 2016-18, including a league-best 48 longballs with the A’s in 2018. Davis was one of the game’s middle-of-the-order sluggers through that year, but he owns a .216/.291/.376 slash going back to the start of the 2019 campaign.

That includes a .206/.272/.363 mark through 114 plate appearances last season. Davis opened the year with the Rangers but was released in June. Two months later, he signed a minor league deal with the A’s and returned to Oakland as a September call-up. He hit free agency at the end of the year after appearing in 20 games in green and gold.

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