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Orioles Promote Gunnar Henderson

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The Orioles have officially selected the contract of top prospect Gunnar Henderson.  In corresponding moves, infielder Tyler Nevin was optioned to Triple-A and right-hander Denyi Reyes was designated for assignment.

There had been widespread speculation that Henderson would receive his first MLB promotion when the rosters expanded on September 1, though in calling Henderson up to the big leagues today, the Orioles have now made the infielder eligible for inclusion on a postseason roster should Baltimore continue its surprising season with a playoff berth.

A second-round pick for Baltimore in the 2019 draft, Henderson played in only 29 Rookie League games that season and then naturally didn’t play at all in 2020 due to the canceled minor league campaign.  His first proper pro season saw Henderson play well enough to jump from A-ball to Double-A in 2021, and it put him on the top-100 prospect radar heading into the 2022 season.

Fast-forward to August, and the 21-year-old is now the top prospect in the sport in the eyes of Baseball America, with MLB Pipeline ranking Henderson second and Fangraphs ranking him fifth.  Over 503 combined plate appearances at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2022, Henderson has hit .297/.416/.531 with 19 homers, as well as 22 steals in 25 chances.

To go along with his power, speed, and hit tools, Henderson is also an accomplished fielder with a plus throwing arm.  Drafted as a shortstop, Henderson has looked good at the position, but he has also seen a lot of time as a third baseman this season and also played a handful of games at first and second base.  The Orioles have so many other promising young infielders (i.e. Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday) in the pipeline that the team is trying to be flexible in determining the ideal future position for any of these prospects, and Henderson’s usage might also hint at how the O’s will use him during the stretch run of the 2022 season.

The left-handed hitting Henderson could spell any of Ramon Urias, Jorge Mateo, or Ryan Mountcastle (all righty bats) at third, short, or first base, and Henderson could also take playing time away from Rougned Odor at second base.  Henderson certainly isn’t being called up to sit on the bench, and he could quickly become a fixture if he performs well in his first look at Major League pitching.

Of course, it isn’t a given that Henderson will have such a quick start, as countless top prospects have taken some time to get accustomed to the majors.  In Henderson’s case, his high strikeout rate in the minors is something of a red flag, though he has cut back on his swing-and-miss in 2022 in comparison to 2021.  He had also posted huge BABIP numbers in the minors, yet Henderson’s speed (and ability to beat out grounders) is certainly a factor in those BABIP totals beyond just batted-ball fortune.

These are heady times for the Orioles, who have emerged from years of rebuilding doldrums to post a 67-61 record and get into contention for a wild-card berth.  Adley Rutschman — an exception to that “top prospects usually need time to adjust” credo — has already become one of baseball’s best catchers, and other rookies like Felix Bautista, Dean Kremer, and Kyle Bradish have played outsized roles in the team’s success.  Kyle Stowers and Terrin Vavra are two more rookies who made their MLB debuts in 2022, and Henderson is just one of several other top prospects waiting to emerge from Baltimore’s loaded farm system.

As recently noted by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Henderson will also still retain his rookie status for 2023 if he receives less than 13o at-bats, and thus the Orioles can still benefit from the Prospect Promotion Initiative included in the new collective bargaining agreement.  This would put the O’s in line for a bonus draft pick if Henderson remains on the active roster for the entire 2023 season.

Reyes made his Major League debut this season, posting a 2.35 ERA in 7 2/3 innings over three appearances.  A starter for much of his seven-year pro career in the Red Sox and Orioles farm systems, Reyes hasn’t had much consistency at either the Double-A or Triple-A levels, and he has a 7.50 ERA over 42 innings with Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate this season.

Reyes has allowed 10 homers in those 42 frames, continuing a problem with the long ball that has now emerged over the last two seasons.  Surrendering more homers has erased gains Reyes has made with his strikeout rate, and he has shown excellent control throughout his entire career, with a tiny 1.4 BB/9 during his 584 1/3 minor league innings.

Royals Planning To Select Daniel Mengden

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The Royals have listed right-hander Daniel Mengden as the probable starter for tomorrow’s game against the White Sox (h/t to Anne Rogers of MLB.com). They’ll have to formally select his contract to add him to the roster, but they won’t need to make any corresponding moves to do so. Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 players with the calendar flipping to September, and Kansas City already has an opening on the 40-man roster.

Mengden will be up for the second time this season, although he’ll be making his first start of the campaign. Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, he was promoted to the majors in the middle of June. He worked out of manager Mike Matheny’s bullpen during his first stint, making four appearances and tossing 4 1/3 innings of two-run ball, striking out six without walking a batter. Despite that quality showing, the Royals nevertheless ran Mengden through waivers and outrighted him back to Triple-A Omaha.

While Mengden hasn’t started an MLB game in two seasons, he does have a fair bit of rotation experience. He worked primarily as a starter during his early-career run with the A’s, opening 48 of his 60 appearances with Oakland between 2016-20. Mengden’s pitch-to-contact approach led to some decent results in a spacious Oakland ballpark early in his tenure, but he ran into more trouble from 2019 onward as his walk tallies escalated.

Mengden has worked primarily from the rotation with the Storm Chasers. He’s started 17 of 21 outings, working to a 4.55 ERA across 91 innings. The Texas A&M product has struck out 19.5% of opponents against a heightened 12.8% walk percentage in the minors this season.

Mets To Select Deven Marrero

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The Mets are planning to select infielder Deven Marrero onto the major league roster, reports Andy Martino of SNY (Twitter link). New York also plans to recall reliever Adonis Medina from Triple-A Syracuse, Martino adds. That duo will fill the extra two active roster spots with the September expansion from 26 to 28 players. New York will need to make a 40-man roster transaction to accommodate Marrero.

It’ll be the second MLB stint of the season for Marrero. The veteran infielder signed a minor league deal with New York in July and was briefly added to the big league roster a couple weeks ago. He appeared in three games, tallying four plate appearances, before being designated for assignment. After clearing outright waivers, Marrero accepted an assignment back to Triple-A. He’s headed back to the big leagues just a few days later.

Marrero has never been a great hitter, and he carries a .192/.247/.280 line through 371 MLB plate appearances spread over parts of seven seasons. The 32-year-old has posted just a .217/.309/.325 mark with three homers in 36 games with Syracuse this year, bringing his career line at the Triple-A level to .229/.291/.333.

The appeal lies in Marrero’s defensive versatility. He’s best suited for action at third base but capable of manning anywhere on the infield. The former first-rounder has rated as a plus defender at the hot corner throughout his career in the eyes of public metrics, so he’ll offer a glove-first option for manager Buck Showalter. The Mets infield depth has thinned out in recent weeks, with Luis Guillorme and rookie Brett Baty hitting the injured list. Baty is headed for surgery tomorrow to repair a ligament tear in his thumb; he could miss the rest of the 2022 season.

Lee Thomas Passes Away

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The Phillies announced this afternoon that former major league player and general manager Lee Thomas has passed away. He was 87 years old.

A St. Louis native, Thomas began his professional career shortly after graduating high school in 1954. He spent seven years climbing through the Yankees farm system and got his first cup of coffee on New York’s 1961 team that wound up winning the World Series. Thomas wasn’t with the club by that point, as the Yankees traded the left-handed hitter to the expansion Angels a few weeks into the ’61 season. Thomas played in 130 games as a rookie, putting up an impressive .284/.353/.491 line. He tied for third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting, and his impressive showing earned him a regular spot between the Halos corner outfield and first base for the next few seasons.

Thomas posted arguably the best year of his career in 1962, blasting 26 homers and plating 104 runs with a .290/.355/.467 slash line. He played in 160 games, earned a spot in the All-Star Game and finished 11th in AL MVP balloting. Thomas’ production dipped the following season, however, and he settled in as a journeyman by the 1964 campaign. He played for five teams — Angels, Red Sox, Braves, Astros and Cubs — through the end of his playing days in 1968. Over parts of eight seasons, Thomas compiled a .255/.327/.397 line with 106 round-trippers and 428 RBI.

An eight-year playing career that featured an All-Star appearance and some early-career award support would’ve been impressive enough on its own, but Thomas’ influence on the game extended well beyond his on-field days. He transitioned into coaching in the minors and eventually moved into front office work with the Cardinals. He was part of the St. Louis front office during their 1982 championship season, and he got an opportunity to run his own baseball operations department when he was hired by the Phillies as vice president of player personnel in June 1988.

Thomas would lead the Phils baseball ops for almost a decade. His front office put together a roster that won 97 games and advanced to the World Series in 1993, eventually dropping the six-game set in Toronto capped off by Joe Carter’s championship-winning home run. Thomas remained Philadelphia GM until he was replaced by Ed Wade in 1997. He’d go on to spend time with the Red Sox, Astros, Brewers and Orioles this century, holding a special assistant position in Baltimore as recently as 2018. All told, Thomas’ career in the industry spanned parts of seven decades.

MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends and former colleagues throughout the game.

Ross Detwiler Elects Free Agency

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Reliever Ross Detwiler has gone unclaimed on outright waivers and elected minor league free agency, the Reds announced this evening. Cincinnati had designated him for assignment this week.

Detwiler signed a minor league deal with the Reds in April. Not long thereafter, he made the big league roster. The southpaw pitched in 30 games, tossing 26 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. Detwiler managed only a 4.44 ERA over that stretch, although he posted roughly league average strikeout and walk numbers. He fanned 23% of opponents against an 8.2% walk percentage, but the 14-year MLB veteran served up five home runs (1.71 HR/9).

It’s the second straight season with an ERA well above 4.00 for Detwiler, but he’s only a year removed from punching out an impressive 27.1% of hitters with the Marlins and Padres in 2021. He’s typically been an effective left-handed specialist in the majors, although southpaws have hit at a solid .275/.339/.373 clip through 56 plate appearances this season.

The 36-year-old now heads back to the open market and can look to catch on elsewhere for the stretch run. Detwiler would have to sign somewhere else within the next two hours to be eligible for another team’s postseason roster, but a club could look into adding him as a depth arm for the final month of the regular season alone. Detwiler was released by Miami last September, but he signed a big league deal with the Padres for the final couple weeks of that season. San Diego didn’t wind up making the postseason regardless, but Detwiler’s addition was strictly about trying to stockpile bullpen depth to get the Friars into the playoffs.

Orioles Outright Travis Lakins Sr.

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The Orioles announced this afternoon that right-hander Travis Lakins Sr. has gone unclaimed on waivers. He’s been sent to Triple-A Norfolk, but he’ll have the right to refuse that assignment in favor of minor league free agency as a player who has previously been outrighted in his career.

Lakins, 28, has appeared in parts of four big league campaigns. He debuted with the Red Sox in 2019 and has spent the past three seasons as a multi-inning reliever in Baltimore. Lakins owns a 5.20 ERA across 64 frames with the O’s, striking out 19.7% of batters faced while walking 12.5% of opponents. That includes 10 1/3 frames of 11-run ball earlier this season. Lakins was selected onto the big league roster in mid-April and made six appearances before hitting the injured list during the second week of May with inflammation in his throwing elbow.

Baltimore eventually transferred Lakins to the 60-day IL, and he’s spent the past three and half months on the shelf. He recently began a rehab assignment and is apparently healthy enough for reinstatement, but the O’s no longer wanted to devote him a 40-man roster spot. Rather than put him back on the roster, they sent him through waivers.

A former sixth-round draft pick, Lakins owns a 4.13 ERA over parts of four seasons in Triple-A. He’ll now decide whether to head back to Norfolk or set out to the open market in search of a new opportunity. If he accepts the outright assignment, Lakins would reach free agency at the end of the season if he’s not first added back to the 40-man roster.

Rays, Ryan Burr Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rays recently agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Ryan Burr, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. The right-hander has confirmed the agreement on his Instagram page. He’s headed to the team’s Florida complex for now but will presumably be sent to Triple-A Durham after he builds into game shape.

Burr hasn’t pitched since being released by the White Sox in mid-June. He’s made eight relief appearances for the South Siders this year, allowing seven runs (six earned) through nine innings. Optioned to the minor leagues in late May, Burr quickly wound up on the injured list with an undisclosed health concern. Chicago released him a few weeks later. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so the only options for Chicago to take him off the 40-man roster were to place him on the MLB injured list or release him.

A former Diamondbacks draftee, Burr never reached the majors with Arizona. He’s suited up in parts of four MLB seasons with the ChiSox, however, including a career-high 36 2/3 frames last year. Burr posted a 2.45 ERA in 2021 but only struck out 21.9% of batters faced while walking a very high 13.9% of opponents. Those strikeout and walk numbers are generally in line with his career marks.

That said, Burr has shown some reasons to believe he could be a solid middle reliever if healthy. He works in the mid-90s with his fastball, averaging 94.5 MPH during his big league time this season. He’s also generated grounders on over half the batted balls he’s surrendered in his career, and he owns a 3.16 ERA over parts of three years in Triple-A.

Now that he’s in the Tampa Bay organization, Burr could theoretically be a postseason option if he impresses the club over the next five weeks. Players in an organization by September 1 but not on a team’s 40-man roster can be added to the playoff roster to replace a player on the injured list via petition to the commissioner’s office. Of course, his initial priority will be getting back to full strength and pitching his way back to the majors.

Blue Jays Acquire Edward Duran From Marlins

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The Blue Jays announced they’ve acquired minor league catcher Edward Duran from the Marlins. He’s the player to be named later in the deadline day swap that sent relievers Anthony Bass and Zach Pop to Toronto in exchange for infield prospect Jordan Groshans.

Duran was eligible to be traded even after the August 2 deadline, as he’s never occupied a spot on a 40-man roster. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored this month, players who have spent the entire season in the minor leagues and haven’t been added to an MLB 40-man or injured list at any point this year are still eligible to be traded.

An 18-year-old catcher, Duran signed with Miami as an amateur free agent from Venezuela before the 2021 season. The right-handed hitter has spent the past two seasons in the Dominican Summer League. He’s never appeared on an organizational prospect ranking at FanGraphs or Baseball America.

Bass has had a solid first month in Toronto, allowing only two runs in 12 1/3 innings. He’s struck out 12 while walking four. Pop has made seven MLB appearances and two in Triple-A since the trade, only allowing two runs in 6 2/3 big league frames despite striking out just one batter. Groshans, meanwhile, has raked with the Marlins top affiliate in Jacksonville. He’s hitting .342/.420/.487 with two homers in 88 plate appearances and will need to be added to Miami’s 40-man roster this offseason.

Tony La Russa Taking Leave Of Absence To Attend To Health Issue

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White Sox manager Tony La Russa will be away from the team for an indefinite amount of time to attend to an unspecified medical concern, the club announced this afternoon. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports he’s undergoing testing on his heart. The veteran skipper missed last night’s game on the advice of doctors. He underwent testing this morning, and the team stated he’ll now return to his Arizona home to meet with his personal physicians.

Bench coach Miguel Cairo served as acting manager last night against the Royals. The former MLB infielder will continue in that capacity for the duration of La Russa’s absence. Cairo informed the media that he’d been in consultation with La Russa about in-game strategy (link via The Athletic). The White Sox have 33 regular season games remaining, including tonight’s contest. Losers of five straight, Chicago enters play Wednesday with a 63-66 record that has them six games behind the Guardians in the AL Central.

La Russa, 77, is in his second season at the helm in Chicago. Hired over the 2020-21 offseason, he’s reportedly under contract through 2023. MLBTR sends our best wishes to La Russa and wishes him a speedy recovery.

Tigers To Select Ryan Kreidler, Recall Spencer Torkelson

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The Tigers are planning to select infield prospect Ryan Kreidler onto the major league roster tomorrow, relays Chris McCosky of the Detroit News (Twitter link). First baseman Spencer Torkelson will also be recalled from Triple-A Toledo, seemingly filling the two vacant active roster spots associated with the September expansion from 26 to 28 players. Detroit technically needs to create a 40-man roster vacancy for Kreidler, but they can do so by transferring Austin Meadows to the 60-day injured list without affecting his eligibility timeline.

Kreidler is one of the better prospects in the Detroit organization. A fourth-round pick from UCLA in 2019, the 6’4″ infielder spent his draft year in short season ball. After the canceled 2020 minor league campaign, he was bumped to Double-A Erie in 2021. Kreidler performed well over 88 games there before mashing following a late-season bump to Triple-A Toledo. He entered 2022 among the top 11 farmhands in the system according to each of Baseball America, FanGraphs and Keith Law of the Athletic.

After the impressive late-season run in the upper minors, Kreidler looked like a candidate to factor into the MLB mix early this year. He broke his right hand in April, though, an injury that cost him six weeks of action. By the time he was healthy again in early June, the Tigers had fallen well out of the potential playoff mix, and they elected to give Kreidler a longer run in Toledo. He’s played in 55 games there this year, hitting .218/.359/.421 with a robust 14.7% walk rate but a worrisome 29% strikeout percentage.

During their midseason re-rank of the Detroit system, BA slotted Kreidler eighth. The outlet raises concerns about his propensity for whiffs but praises his defense all around the infield and solid power upside. The 24-year-old has played primarily shortstop in the minors, although he seems likelier to factor in at second or third base down the stretch with Javier Báez entrenched at short. Jeimer Candelario has underwhelmed at the hot corner all season, while the Tigers have turned to utilityman Willi Castro at the keystone with Jonathan Schoop on the injured list.

Kreidler would’ve needed to occupy a 40-man roster spot this offseason if the Tigers didn’t want to make him available in the Rule 5 draft. They’ll take advantage of the expanded active rosters to get a look at him a few weeks earlier than necessary. With the club’s attention squarely turned to 2023 at this point, there’s an opportunity for Kreidler to try to get off on a strong foot as he looks to carve out a spot next season.

Torkelson is already on the 40-man roster, of course. He broke camp as the team’s primary first baseman. The former first overall pick and consensus top prospect had hit very well in the minor leagues, and the club justifiably felt he could carry that over against MLB pitching. That hasn’t happened yet, as Torkelson owns a .197/.282/.295 line with only five home runs through 298 plate appearances.

After three months of struggles, the Tigers optioned the 23-year-old back to Toledo in mid-July. He’s hit .228/.347/.394 with five longballs in 34 games since then. That’s obviously far better than his first crack against major league arms, but it’s still well shy of the .238/.350/.531 mark he posted there late last season — particularly from a power perspective.

Torkelson is still a key piece of the future in Detroit, even if his initial MLB look was underwhelming. Manager A.J. Hinch seems likely to pencil him back in as the everyday first baseman for the final five weeks, with Torkelson trying to establish himself as the favorite for that job coming out of camp next year. He spent enough time on his optional stint that he won’t accrue a full year of MLB service this season, so Torkelson will be under club control through at least 2028.

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