On the heels of a day littered with surprising transactions, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Waiver Wire Madness:
Yesterday saw multiple teams put quality players on waivers in somewhat surprising moves. The White Sox placed right-hander Mike Clevinger on waivers, while the Yankees and Tigers did the same with center fielder Harrison Bader and right-hander Jose Cisnero, respectively. The Angels shook things up the most by waiving right-hander Lucas Giolito, outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk, and relievers Matt Moore, Reynaldo Lopez, and Dominic Leone.
Teams will get the opportunity to pluck each of these players off waivers for nothing but the remaining money on their contracts in reverse order of the standings. Teams out of contention who get some of the first cracks at the players in question, like the A’s and Royals, are unlikely to add salary to their books for pure rentals when they have no hope of a playoff run. That leaves contenders lower on the waiver priority order like the Marlins, Reds, Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Giants and Twins most likely to add these players, though it’s possible a team like the Padres lower in the standings with a willingness to add salary could look to add some of these players in hopes of making a miracle run in the season’s final month.
If anyone from this the group goes unclaimed, their former team does not have to outright them to a minor league affiliate; the player can simply be retained on the Major League roster and continue playing out the season. The club could also choose to outright any of those players to a minor league affiliate, at which point they’d be able to reject the assignment in favor of free agency and retain their full salary (as is the right of all players with five-plus years of Major League service). Any player who does so and signs with a new team prior to 11:59pm ET on Aug. 31 would be eligible for his new club’s postseason roster.
2. Braves starter to make MLB debut:
The Braves are planning to hand the ball to right-hander Darius Vines for tonight’s start against the Rockies in Colorado. Vines, 25, will make his major league debut upon taking the mound this evening. A seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft, Vines put up solid numbers in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons but battled shoulder inflammation earlier this year. In the minors this season, Vines owns a 2.70 ERA across nine starts (43 1/3 innings) including a 2.86 ERA in five starts (28 1/3 innings) at the Triple-A level. Vines is already on the active roster, so no corresponding moves related to Vines will be necessary prior to today’s game.
3. Milestones approach for Harper, McCutchen:
There’s a race to reach the 300 home run milestone in Pennsylvania, as both Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper and Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen sit at 299 for their careers. 157 players in major league history have hit 300 home runs in their career, and both players will tie Hall of Famer Chuck Klein, who played for both the Phillies and Pirates as well as the Cubs during the 1930s, on the career home run leaderboard upon slugging No. 300. McCutchen is batting .249/.368/.389 with 12 home runs in the 15th season of his big league career, while Harper is slashing .309/.402/.497 with 14 homers during his 12th major league season.
Vines is a good name as Atlanta seems to grow pitchers out of their minor leagues like crazy.
I wouldn’t say that….its been a struggle figuring out the 4 and 5 spot in the rotation all year.
Oh yeah. The rest of the league really pities your huge problems of not being able to find a #5 starter.
Not really. You have very little effect on my well being.
I don’t think he was asking for your pity, he was just stating the facts that Atlanta has had trouble filling the back end of the rotation with homegrown prospects.
LOL! Nothing like a statement like that to give you some perspective. I’m surprised you got a bad reaction from, presumably a Braves fan, concerning that statement. I took it in a positive way
Like Ian Anderson, Michael Soroka, or Kyle Wright? Bryce Elder wasn’t even on the opening day roster. Strider & Max Fried (never pitched above A ball when traded from San Diego) are products of their minor league system.
@salary
I definitely wasn’t saying the braves haven’t been blessed with their development of pitchers . They have of course and this season has been fantastic. I just didn’t think homer deserved that kind of a response considering he was just speaking the truth and not complaining.
When you’ve lost Ynoa, Anderson, Wright, Soroka (who just isn’t the same guy now), and anyone else I’m forgetting you’d be hard pressed to find many teams that could fill out the rotation from within, after still calling up Elder this year and Strider the year before. The guys they have used would probably never have seen much action this year if the starters were healthy.
@Smacky. Fried was in the Braves system for over two years before he threw his first pitch in anger at the major league level. Strider was first drafted by Cleveland but didn’t sign and was drafted by the Braves who he did sign with. Additionally, who do the Padres have pitching that they developed into aces? I don’t know why I would pick the Padres as why Fried is successful.
@Arcia. I feel you. Hiflew was being a bit disingenuous. I absolutely agree that any normal fan of any team would want to talk about whatever weaknesses the team has. Even the no. 5 spot on the rotation. I agree that he didn’t deserve that reaction.
@salary I have no idea what this information is relevant for.
I was arguing that Fried and Strider are indeed a product of the Braves system. If I misunderstood your point, I apologize. Please feel free to correct me.
@salary that’s what I was saying. It was pretty clear. Strider getting drafted by Cleveland and going to college instead doesn’t have anything to do with anything. Again, you just threw out a bunch of unmoored info
Strider & Max Fried (never pitched above A ball “when traded from San Diego) are products of their minor league system.”
Man, when someone is throwing out an olive branch, you act like a little punk. When you read that sentence it clearly implied you thought Strider came from San Diego. So maybe you can lighten up a little when you see that maybe you weren’t as clear as you intended.
@salary Everyone else knew what I was saying as there’s an assumed level of knowledge here on this topic. If you want to go be pissy about grammar then good on you! Sounds like a fun way to go about life.
They’ve had 6 starting pitchers on the DL for extended absences. Ace. #3. And 4 #5’s. #1 is back. #3 probably will be back. The depth has taken a huge hit.
Point being, they still have the best record in the league, so their problems are not nearly as big as the other 29 teams. So maybe enjoy being at the top instead of focusing on how it could be a little better.
A true fan of a given team will always focus on how it “could be a little better”.
Kim Ng better FEAST on the waiver wire. The Marlins have NO EXCUSE to not get Harrison Bader.
Unless Preller comes in and grabs a lot of people. Rosters expand in September.
Be kind of poetic since Marlins released Cody Ross who the Giants grabbed before Padres could back in the day. Be a little funny if Preller started snatching up any waiver claims. Might as well truth be told. Whats there to hurt?
Drew Carlton, Reiss Knehr, Brett Sullivan, Matt Carpenter, Ben Gamel, Drew Pomeranz could all be shown the door to clear 40 man spots
I’d grab Moore, Cisneros, Bader, Lopez, and Giolito.
@faith I don’t think any team could go that nuts unless everyone else passed. I believe after a successful claim, you go to the bottom of the claim order. Unless they changed that at some point, but I don’t know why they would’ve.
Though there’s probably a couple of people who might slip all the way through the cracks. But odds are there’s a couple on there who even the first place teams would try to claim.
@Brews: that’s how it is in fantasy ball, but I think in MLB they keep their priority spot.
No, the priority stays the same until teams leapfrog one another in the standings.
If Preller wanted to claim every player of note on the list and hope for a star-studded September postseason run for the ages, he is free to do so.
You only get 1 and then fall to last before you can select again.
Not how it works. It’s not fantasy baseball.
Faith—this isn’t the good old days—-the rosters expand by TWO—if you grab five you have to launch three from your 26 man roster.
According to FanGraphs the Padres have a 1.9% chance to make the playoffs. The should pick up absolutely NOBODY and give those two roster spots to kids.
Mike: That is, if everybody uses fangraphs to make up their minds for them. I thought the Dbacks were out of it when they lost ten in a row. I’m sure fangraphs dumped them to, maybe 1%. Then they straightened things out and have a good shot at a WC. Numbers like those put up by sites like fangraphs and gambling sites mean absolutely nothing.
September rosters can only expand by 2.
With as rough as they’ve been playing lately, I’d say the marlins excuse to not go nuts is a good look at the Angels. Essentially their whole trade deadline pickups as well as a couple offseason pickups are on the wire to save some money. It wouldn’t hurt for the Marlins to make a pickup, but likely they should just choose who they think would benefit the team the most.
Proposed MLB Gimmick: Fans vote between the Trade Deadline and the Month of August on one (1) player for their team to place on Waivers on August 29th. The leading vote getter gets dumped (or the next leading vote getter if the player has already been dumped or sent down, etc.)
*vote between the Deadline and noon on August 29th. May everyone enjoy their morning coffee before typing anything
The cards could use clevenger and Lopez for next year
Good news is they are all pending FAs
stats: If they can sign those two beyond this season, They would have a quality starter in Clevinger. Lopez can also start but he’s been used as a closer. As a closer he lets it all out, throwing 100 mph.
So, Nats and Phils fans can pretend to be Braves fans and get Acuna put on waivers???
This would end up with everyone’s best player on waivers b/c other team’s fans would vote for them. Would be something to see Aaron Judge and Ronald Acuña show up on irrevocable waivers.
With the waiver situation and being so close to September, could a lower team sit on their turn and block a contender from adding a player? Is there a clock on them?
They could, but I’m not sure there’s a point. I believe all these guys are impending free agents, so they’d be incurring their salaries with no real way of helping themselves.
The only possible benefit I could see for a second division team picking any of these guys up is to give them a head start on signing them long-term.
bhambrave: Teams fighting for a PO spot don’t have to think beyond this year. They need players now, then either discard them or sign them after this season.
@bhambrave I’d think that if the player is pissed at being prevented from having a chance to get on a playoff team, for the purpose you suggest, that would be the opposite of a getting a head start on signing him.
Why would a player who got put on waivers be stoked a cellar dweller picked him up and blocked his opportunity to play meaningful baseball? That definitely wouldn’t make me want to sign with the team who grabbed me on the waiver wire and ended my hopes of playing in the postseason.
Based on what I’ve read, teams either submit claims or don’t. The claim is then awarded to the highest priority team that submitted a claim. There are no turns, so no use for a clock.
Shout out to Carlos Santana who sits at 296 dingers. He should get to 300, as well.
According to BR he’s earned over $115 mill and is only in his mid 30s
Meanwhile the great guitarist is 76 , and according to Forbes has a net worth of $120 mill.
Interesting
Sports, bro.
Cause music and sports have nothing to do with each other? Jackie Robinson considered the integrated Benny Goodman Quartet at Carnegie Hall to help with his entry into the major leagues. But I digress.
Fire all the stadium organists. Stop with the walk up music. No more national anthem. Absolutely no music allowed in sports.
As you were.
whyhayzee: Wait, wait, wait! Don’t digress. How did the great clarinet Benny Goodman help Jackie get into bb? Because his band was integrated?
@Hayzee; Had to look that one up to see what you meant. Fun little educational I had right there. Thanks.
Too bad MLBTR left him out. They did the same thing earlier this year when naming players who reached 2,000 hits. They left out Elvis Andrus with the excuse that they were only listing those with more popular names, paraphrasing. So if you’re on the Yankees but don”t, somehow, have a household name, you’re still going to get listed.
It appears by the Angels moves, that even they have given up on re-signing Ohtani. It could just be that they are cheap. It could be they are attempting to be nice to allow these players to catch on with contending teams. More likely, they are trying to drop below a salary total so the compensation pick for Ohtani is after the 3rd round instead of the 4th. That’s not something you worry about if you plan on signing him.
It’s none of that. Angels are just the worst ran large market team in baseball. Over the past decease u could say a slew of small market teams are the worst based on bad trades and contracts, but there’s no argument when it comes to large market. It’s just the angels. The Mets are no where near as terrible as the angels.
Go ahead and fire everyone. It won’t matter. It’s the people doing the hiring are the problem.
Why would that change whatever plans they have for Ohtani? Those guys are all on expiring contracts and would be free agents when the WS ends.
The Ohtani situation is still very unclear. I think the only one who knows where he’s going is Ohtani. Will Moreno try to re-sign him? Will he go to his first choice Dodgers? Will the Giants try again after last year’s FA disaster? Can’t wait to find out.
Let the official MLBTR Anthony Volpe 2K hits countdown ticker commence!
You assume a lot that his first choice is the Dodgers, considering he never signed with them to begin with and went to the same town.
Another take might be that if they can save a couple million on these players they will have more to spend on Ohtani.
If the Reds don’t add any starting pitching, it is malpractice by management.
That being said, I’ll be shocked if the kid GM actually does anything.
Here I’m hoping he’ll make a move or two…
The Reds should grab Giolito if they have the chance. Can’t see the Reds or any team taking on all that money on Mike Clevinger’s contract for just a handful of starts. What other starting pitching is available?
Love to see an analysis of the value of some of these players expressed in dollars and talent. Several of these players have real value but did not switch teams at deadline–either they weren’t offered at the deadline or priced too high. An acquiring team could have taken the player and some portion of his contract, combined with prospect value. The selling team could have paid down the contract for more prospect value. Now, it’s just take the player and his contract. There’s got to be some players who will be a good fit, and some teams who don’t mind the spend. But this underscores a problem baseball has with its CBA and related practices….encouraging tanking and salary-shedding, which makes some formerly competitive teams AAAA just at the moment other teams are trying to make the playoffs.
Mikenmn: Which teams, exactly, are tanking? Bad teams like the White Sox are just awful, worse than the A’s. They’ve gotten rid of so many players they only have three starters, one of which belongs in the minors. They’re not tanking. They’re just awful.
Large market teams like to throw out the tanking theory instead of admitting there is an income inequity issue in MLB that is getting worse by the year.
Hard to believe this is Bruce Hooper’s 12th year! Man, times flies when you’re having fun…
Yeah, except I don’t remember exactly when “Bruce Hooper” came into the league.
lesterdnightfly: I’m rather shocked that you don’t remember Bruce Hooper. He broke in in 1905, the same year as Ty Cobb. While Cobb hit for average, Hooper hit for power. He finished his career with 384 home runs despite playing in the dead ball era where baseballs were rolled up socks. Players would spit tobacco juice on them to give them some body. Ah, Hooper. Another one the HOF missed. I remember the annual chant at the HOF ceremony: “Jackson and Hooper belong in Cooper(stown)”
Oh, THAT “05. I was thinking 2005. Now I remember–I have Ol’ Hoops’ rookie card, along with my set of eight T206 Honus Wagner cards.
lesterdnightfly: The difference between Wagner and Hooper is that Hooper smoked like a machine. He would have a ciggy in his mouth while batting. Often, his head was hidden in a cloud of smoke. Hooper couldn’t see the ball yet he managed to hit it into the crowd lining the outfield. The sound of Hooper coughing and hacking while he ran the bases brought the customers to the field in droves. Fan Duel made a fortune taking bets on whether he would make it to first, then second, then third, then home.
Will any of these guys be a lot of help? Baltimore could use relievers, but surely they will be gone before they pick. Fangraphs seems lo like Bader best, but would he help anyone that much? Will the teams who pick these guys up have a better chance of signing them next year? And do they want to?
Giolito would be a nice add for Baltimore. He won’t make it that far but another experienced starter would be nice.
Ive read all these waivers articles but I dont think it has been directly referenced once as to when the waiver claims will be awarded. I remember seeing it will be determined by the reverse standings as of Thursday morning. I am assuming this means the claims will be announced at some point Thursday afternoon…
Can one team claim all of them?
Yes, if they choose to absorb the payroll and cut down their 26/40 Man!
If a player is selected from the waiver wire can the team negotiate and potentially sign that player to a contract for next year during the rest of the season? Or must he reach free agency first? Giolito sure could help the Cardinals for next year.
Wow only a 157 players. With all the home runs being hit in this era. That is still a relatively low number. Means a lot. Congrats to Cutch and Harper.
Why has nobody called attention to this portion of the waiver rules from MLB.com?
“If a club has already previously claimed a player on outright waivers in a given year, the club’s claiming priority will be moved to last among the 30 clubs.”
This seems like a major deal that could significantly affect the waiver order, as only 4 teams have not made waiver claims this year by my count (Rangers, Diamondbacks, Giants, Cardinals). If it doesn’t apply to this situation, it would be nice to know why.
I can read that rule two different ways. It’s not worded very clearly.
As you say, the rule could apply to all clubs that have already claimed any player this season. But instead it could apply only in cases where a club has already claimed that specific player who is now on waivers again. Not sure, but I think it’s intended to be the latter — for cases where a team is reclaiming the same player.
If it’s the latter, I feel like it would be more clear because that’s very case specific and would require a player being waived three times in total in order for this situation to apply. Team A waives player, Team B claims him, then waives him again, Team C claims him, then waives him yet again, but now Team B is booted to the back of the line. It’s possible this is the correct interpretation of the rule, but it would be very complicated for something that is otherwise vaguely worded.
And if it was the former, the rule would probably need to specify how the teams “moved to the back” are themselves ordered. As it stands, by your count, there are now 26 teams that are “last among the 30 clubs.”
If I had to guess, it could just be by what order they made a claim. Team A moves behind every other team with a claim, but Team B now moves behind Team A with a waiver claim of their own a few days later. The rule is almost too vague though, wish somebody would address it in an article, here or elsewhere. If it doesn’t apply then fine, but I’ve seen no mention of it anywhere and it at least feels important enough to warrant one.
Pretty sure it’s in reverse order of overall record, Starting in the same league and then moving to the other league.
That’s how it used to work, now it’s just reverse order regardless of league, which is only used in tiebreaker scenarios. Either way, the point of my comment is that it may be reverse order by default? but that’s not necessarily set in stone according to the rules, and I’m trying to get clarification on those rules to see if this changes the waiver order at all.
mlb.com/news/mlb-outright-waivers-rules-claims-exp…
It’s just damn strange that guys are put on waivers yet are starting for the team that placed them. I don’t get it. I know it’s a CBA thing but still bizarro world.