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Archives for May 2024

Marlins Select Tristan Gray

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The Marlins announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Tristan Gray. In corresponding moves, the club optioned right-hander George Soriano to Triple-A and transferred righty JT Chargois to the 60-day injured list.

Gray, 28, was a 13th-round pick by the Pirates in the 2017 draft but was traded to the Rays alongside Daniel Hudson in the deal that brought Corey Dickerson to Pittsburgh back in 2018. Gray worked his way through the minor league system with the Rays to reach the Triple-A level in 2021, but ultimately stalled out at the level thanks in part to Tampa’s deep cache of infield talent across the past two seasons.

After slashing a solid .235/.312/.485 in 132 games at the level last year, Gray finally got his first big league opportunity in the form of a two-game cup of coffee with the Rays in September. The 27-year-old made the most of his time in the big leagues, going two-for-five with a home run and zero strikeouts, but was outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster back in November nonetheless.

That lead Gray to sign a minor league deal with the Marlins this offseason, and after the longtime minor leaguer clubbed ten home runs in 34 games with Triple-A Jacksonville to open the year it appears Miami plans to give him a shot at the big league level. Gray has plenty of experience at all four infield spots and should get the opportunity to contribute to the Marlins, who have received below average production all around the infield except at second base, where the club recently traded away Luis Arraez and is now left to rely on Vidal Brujan and Otto Lopez.

Whether Gray will be able to seize upon this opportunity is an open question. His power potential is self-evident, as he’s walloped 73 homers at the Triple-A level since the start of the 2022 campaign with isolated slugging percentages of .250 or more in each of the past three seasons. That proclivity towards the long ball comes with a worrisome amount of swing-and-miss, however. Gray’s striking out in a whopping 36.4% of his trips to the plate in the minors this year, and his 29.5% strikeout rate back in 2021 was the only time he’s struck out less than 30% of the time in a season at the Triple-A level.

Making room for Gray on the roster is Soriano, a 25-year-old righty who pitched to solid results in multi-inning relief for the Marlins last year. In 52 innings of work across 26 appearances, Soriano posted a 3.81 ERA and 4.37 FIP while striking out 22.8% of batters faced. The wheels have come off for the right-hander this season, however, as he’s been lit up to the tune of a 9.26 ERA with a 6.76 FIP in 11 2/3 innings of work this year. Walks have been a major problem for Soriano this year, as he’s offered free passes to a whopping 13% of batters faced across his ten appearances. The righty figures to try and get his command back under control at the Triple-A level going forward and could return to the Marlins later this season should he get things back on track.

As for Chargois, the right-hander has been out since February with neck spasms and last appeared in a rehab game on April 26. The 33-year-old righty has a respectable 3.55 ERA and 3.85 FIP in 195 innings of work when healthy enough to take the mound and would surely improve the club’s pitching staff once healthy enough to return, though it’s unclear what his timetable for returning to action might be.

Kris Bryant Discusses Injuries, Rockies Tenure

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Kris Bryant and the Rockies have endured a brutal start to the seven-year deal the sides agreed upon prior to the 2022 season. Since he landed in Colorado, the veteran has appeared in just 135 of the club’s 363 contests and has generally struggled at the plate even when healthy enough to take the field, slashing just .249/.329/.391 in 571 trips to the plate with the club. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post took an in-depth look at Bryant’s Rockies tenure this morning, noting that despite the veteran’s struggles he still believes he’ll be able to contribute in Colorado once healthy.

“I know [my talent] is still in there. There are flashes of it, and I can’t wait to get out there and play again,” Bryant told Saunders.

It’s an open question whether Bryant will eventually get healthy enough to rediscover the talent that convinced the Rockies to invest $182MM in him just over two years ago, but it’s hard to deny how valuable such an outcome would be for Colorado. The second-overall pick in the 2013 draft, Bryant’s career kicked off with a bang when he slashed an excellent .284/.377/.522 in 306 games as the Cubs’ starting third baseman over his first two years in the big leagues. Those seasons saw him earn two All Star appearances, a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP award, and hoist the first World Series trophy on the north side of Chicago in more than a century. Bryant would go on to finish seventh in NL MVP voting the following year and make two more All Star appearances throughout his time with the club before wrapping up his Cubs career with a .279/.378/.508 slash line across 833 games.

That incredible talent has not been on display in Colorado, but it appears he could return to action and resume his attempts to rediscover his power stroke in the near future. MLB.com’s Injury Tracker indicates that Bryant is on track to make a relatively quick return to the Rockies, with manager Bud Black telling reporters yesterday that Bryant is slated to begin a rehab assignment later this week and could return to the big league club as soon as May 17 in San Francisco. That the 32-year-old is nearing a return hardly means his injury woes are entirely behind him. Bryant told Saunders that the disc problems and severe arthritis he’s dealing with will be an issue throughout the remainder of his playing career. Even so, the former MVP went on to note that he’s currently feeling “the best [he’s] felt in a long time” in terms of his health.

Bryant isn’t the only player making his way toward a return for the Rockies, as Black also told reporters (including Luke Zahlman of the Denver Gazette) that Bryant will be joined in Albuquerque by outfielder Nolan Jones. Jones, who impressed with a 135 wRC+ in his first season with the Rockies last year but struggled badly in 26 games this season before hitting the injured list, is said by Black to be “a couple days” behind Bryant but nonetheless figures to start a rehab assignment of his own in the near future with a return by the end of the month on the table.

Further away from big league action is right-hander German Marquez, who underwent Tommy John surgery a year ago today. Black told reporters (including Zahlman) that Marquez is making progress in his rehab and has already thrown four innings in extended Spring Training and a scoreless frame in the Arizona Complex League. That being said, the right-hander figures to require a lengthy rehab assignment once he’s ready to begin starting games, with Black suggesting that the righty will likely need five or six rehab outings before he can return to the big league mound. Marquez returning in time to pitch the second half for Colorado would be a huge boost to the club’s rotation, which currently ranks dead last in the majors with a 5.91 ERA.

Cubs Activate Kyle Hendricks From Injured List

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TODAY: The Cubs officially reinstated Hendricks from the injured list this morning, and announced that right-hander Jose Cuas had been optioned to Triple-A Iowa in the corresponding move. Cuas, 30 next month, has struggled to a 9.00 ERA and 5.03 FIP in six appearances with the club this year.

May 11: The Cubs plan to activate right-hander Kyle Hendricks from the 15-day injured list tomorrow, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun Times) following tonight’s game. He’ll start tomorrow’s game against the Pirates opposite left-hander Bailey Falter. The Cubs will need to make space for Hendricks on the active roster prior to the game.

Right-hander Jameson Taillon was initially expected to start tomorrow’s game, but Counsell told reporters (as noted by Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) earlier today that the right-hander was dealing with a bout of back stiffness that cropped up during a bullpen session on Tuesday. While Counsell indicated after the game that Taillon’s bullpen session today went well, he nonetheless is “not quite ready” to start another game. With left-hander Shota Imanaga lined up to start Monday’s series opener in Atlanta, that would put Taillon in line to potentially take the ball opposite the Braves on Tuesday.

That Taillon won’t require another trip to the injured list is surely a relief for Cubs fans. The right-hander missed the first three weeks of the season with lower back and quad issues but has been excellent in four starts since being activated off the IL, with a 1.13 ERA and 3.52 FIP in 24 innings of work. On the other hand, it’s somewhat surprising to see Hendricks activated off the injured list so quickly. While the right-hander has been on a rehab assignment since the start of May, the club had previously indicated that the plan was for Hendricks to make a third rehab start this weekend before determining next steps. That plan now appears to have been scuttled in favor of Hendricks returning to the club’s rotation.

Rushing the veteran back into action at the big league level is a risky decision after his start to the season. The 34-year-old righty was placed on the injured list at the end of April due to a lower back issue of his own after making five starts, the results of which were nothing short of brutal. Hendricks has yet to record an out in the sixth inning in any of his appearances this season, and has completed the fifth inning just once while striking out just 15.1% of batters faced. While his 6.6% walk rate is more or less in line with his career norms, he’s allowed a whopping eight home runs this season en route to a ghastly 12.00 ERA and 7.72 FIP in 21 innings of work. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored Hendricks’s tough start in depth shortly before the club placed him on the IL last month.

Assuming Taillon is able to slot back into the club’s rotation next week and Hendricks will remain in the mix for starts for the time being, the Cubs figure to have an overflow of starting pitching options for their rotation at the moment. Right-hander Ben Brown has already moved into a bullpen role after starting four games for the club earlier this year, and lefty Jordan Wicks is currently on the injured list while nursing a forearm strain, but that still leaves Imanaga, Justin Steele, Javier Assad, and Hayden Wesneski in the mix for starts alongside Taillon and Hendricks, to say nothing of top prospect Cade Horton lurking at the Triple-A level.

Assuming an injury within that group doesn’t solve the logjam organically, the Cubs appear likely to either utilize a six-man rotation or simply move Wesneski to the bullpen, where he would pair with Brown to form a lethal multi-inning duo who could be used in a variety of roles to bolster a struggling relief corps. Assad also has relief experience on his resume, but it would be something of a shock to see the Cubs move the 26-year-old out of the rotation given sensational start to the season that’s seen him pitch to a 1.70 ERA in eight starts. It’s also possible that if Hendricks’s struggles continue the club could look to remove him from the rotation, although his lone relief appearance at the big league level came all the way back in 2016.

Red Sox Activate Brayan Bello From Injured List

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The Red Sox announced this morning that the club has activated right-hander Brayan Bello from the 15-day injured list. Right-hander Josh Winckowski was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Bello is slated to start this afternoon’s game against the Nationals at Fenway Park.

Bello, who will celebrate his 25th birthday later this week, has been on the shelf since late April due to a bout of lat tightness. Prior to the injury, the young righty had pitched solidly through five starts with the Red Sox this year with a 3.04 ERA and 4.06 FIP in 26 2/3 innings of work. He’s struck out a respectable 23.6% of batters faced and generated groundballs at a 51.3% clip during that time, although a whopping 19% of his fly balls leaving the yard for home runs stands out as a potential red flag in an otherwise impressive early-season performance.

That success on the mound has been par for the course among Red Sox starters this year, as the club’s 2.42 rotation ERA is the best figure in the majors to this point in the season thanks to excellent starts from the likes of Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. With righty Nick Pivetta having also been activated from the injured list in recent days, the club’s rotation is once again approaching full strength. While righty Garrett Whitlock remains on the shelf due to an oblique strain, righty Cooper Criswell has performed admirably in his absence with a 2.10 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 25 2/3 innings of work.

Making room for Bello on the active roster is Winckowski, who will turn 26 next month. It’s a somewhat surprising move given his success over the past two seasons. The righty was among the best multi-inning relief arms in all of baseball last year as he posted a 2.88 ERA with a 3.91 FIP in 84 1/3 innings of work across 60 appearances. He hasn’t quite kept that performance up this year, although he’s still enjoyed solid results with a 3.33 ERA and 4.27 FIP in 24 1/3 innings of work.

While that sort of performance would seem to warrant a spot in the club’s bullpen over other optionable arms such as Cam Booser, it’s worth noting that Winckowski’s peripherals have taken a significant turn for the worse this year. The right-hander has struggled to miss bats this year as his strikeout rate has fallen from a respectable 22.3% last year all the way to just 16.8% this season. Meanwhile, his walk rate has ticked up from 8.4% to 9.7% and his groundball rate has dropped more than five points after sitting at a strong 51.2% last season. Those shaky peripheral numbers suggest that regression may have been on the horizon for Winckowski had he remained in the majors, a possibility supported by is elevated 4.53 xFIP and 5.43 xERA.

Going forward, Winckowski will head to the Triple-A level and look to recapture what made him such an effective reliever for the club last season while acting as an optionable depth arm for the club to lean on alongside former NPB starter Naoyuki Uwasawa. Meanwhile, the Red Sox appear poised to lean on right-hander Justin Slaten to fill the sort of high leverage, multi-inning role they turned to Winckowski for last year. Slaten has impressed in 13 contests this year with a 1.74 ERA and 2.34 FIP in 20 2/3 innings of work.

Dylan Bundy Retires

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Veteran right-hander Dylan Bundy hasn’t pitched professionally in nearly a year, and in an interview with MASN’s Roch Kubatko this morning revealed that he has retired from baseball. The veteran right-hander pitched in parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Orioles, Angels, and Twins.

Drafted fourth overall by Baltimore out of high school in the 2011 draft, Bundy was long a consensus top prospect in the sport. He flew threw the minor leagues to make his big league debut in September of 2012 at the age of 19, throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings across two appearances in the brief cup of coffee. Unfortunately, injuries would keep him from returning to the big leagues for several years after that. Bundy underwent Tommy John surgery back in 2013, and rehab cost him that whole season as well as the first half of 2014. Bundy then made just eight starts in 2015 due to shoulder issues.

The right-hander finally re-emerged at the big league level in 2016 at the age of 23. He split time between the Orioles’ starting rotation and bullpen throughout his rookie season, pitching to an above-average 4.07 ERA and striking out 21.9% of batters faced. That performance was enough to earn Bundy a rotation spot entering the 2017 season, and he delivered a solid back-of-the-rotation season for the Orioles with a 4.24 ERA and a 4.32 FIP in 169 2/3 innings of work. The highlight of Bundy’s 2017 campaign came on August 29, when he struck out 12 batters in a complete game shutout of the Mariners that saw him surrender just one hit and two walks.

Bundy was the club’s Opening Day starter in 2018 and remained with the Orioles through the end of the 2019 season as a dependable starting pitcher, ultimately posting a roughly league average 4.67 ERA with a 4.75 FIP and 602 strikeouts during his tenure in Baltimore. Bundy’s time with the Orioles came to an end in December of 2019, when he was traded to the Angels in a deal that sent a package of four youngsters to Baltimore, including current Orioles starter Kyle Bradish.

While the 2020 season was cut to just 60 games by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bundy nonetheless went on to post the best season of his career during the abbreviated season. In 11 starts with the Angels, the righty pitched to a strong 3.29 ERA (138 ERA+) with an excellent 27% strikeout rate in 65 2/3 innings of work. The strong performance earned Bundy a ninth place finish in AL Cy Young award voting that year, and his sterling 2.95 FIP ranked behind only Shane Bieber, Zack Greinke, and Framber Valdez among AL starting pitchers.

The strong performance during the shortened season earned Bundy Opening Day starter honors for the second time in his career, but the righty struggled badly throughout the 2021 campaign and eventually found himself moved to the bullpen in late June. After returning to the swing role in which he started his MLB career, Bundy performed a bit better with a decent. 4.21 ERA in nine appearances (five starts) through the rest of the summer before his season came to a premature end in late August thanks to a shoulder strain.

Bundy went on to pitch for the Twins in 2022 after signing a one-year deal with the club. He made 29 starts for Minnesota, though he struggled to a relatively pedestrian 4.80 ERA and 4.66 FIP as his strikeout rate dipped to just 15.8%. That left Bundy to sign a minor league deal with the Mets during the 2022-23 offseason, though he made just six starts for Triple-A Syracuse before being placed on the injured list in May of that year and eventually being released from the Mets that July.

In his interview with Kubatko, Bundy discussed his decision to step away from the game, noting that “nothing was feeling good” during his stint in the Mets organization last year as he sat just 87-88 with his fastball, which had averaged 91.7 mph throughout his big league career. After departing the Mets last summer, Bundy decided to stay home for the rest of the 2023 season and while he considered returning to pitching during the offseason, he ultimately decided to step away from the game. Kubatko added that Bundy has now begun work as a real estate agent for Ary Land Company in his hometown of Sperry, Oklahoma.

In all, Bundy pitched 910 2/3 innings in 190 appearances across eight big league seasons. He finishes his career with 852 strikeouts, 54 wins, and a 4.74 ERA. We at MLBTR congratulate Bundy on a fine playing career and wish him all the best in retirement.

Pirates Designate Roansy Contreras, Place Ke’Bryan Hayes On 10-Day IL

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2:18PM: The Pirates have officially announced the selection of Skenes’ contract and the other transactions.  Hayes’ IL designation is listed as low back inflammation.

12:53PM: Pirates GM Ben Cherington announced to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (links to X) and other reporters that right-hander Roansy Contreras has been designated for assignment.  This move opens up a roster spot for Paul Skenes, as the star prospect is set to make his Major League debut in today’s game against the Cubs.  Cherington also revealed that third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a bad back, and infielder Alika Williams has been called up from Triple-A to take Hayes’ spot on the active roster.

It wasn’t long ago that Contreras was a notable prospect in his own right, checking into the back end of top-100 lists from Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline prior to the 2022 season.  Acquired from the Yankees as part of the four-player return in the Jameson Taillon trade in the 2020-21 offseason, Contreras elevated his stock in his first season in Pittsburgh’s farm system, culminating in reaching the big leagues for one game before the 2021 campaign was over.  The righty then posted a 3.79 ERA in 95 innings (starting 18 of 21 games) in 2022, and looked like a promising building block within the Pirates’ rotation heading into 2023.

Unfortunately, things then went south for Contreras during a disastrous season.  He posted a 6.59 ERA over 68 1/3 MLB innings, and first lost his rotation job with a demotion to the bullpen, and then was optioned back to Triple-A altogether and didn’t pitch again in the majors after July 5.  The move to Triple-A didn’t get Contreras on track, as he had a 4.96 ERA over 32 2/3 frames for Indianapolis.  Contreras also spent some time going fully back to the drawing board with the Pirates’ Complex League team, trying to work out the mechanical problems that led to such issues a drop in his strikeout rate, an increase in his walk rate, and a minor velocity drop on his fastball.

Pitching out of the Pittsburgh bullpen this season, Contreras’ bottom-line numbers improved to the tune of a 4.41 ERA in 16 1/3 innings, and his strikeout rate rose from 18.2% in 2023 to 21.6% this year.  It still isn’t exactly an eye-catching set of results, and the Pirates have seen enough to feel comfortable in possibly losing Contreras to the waiver wire.  While the righty is out of minor league options and thus had to be DFA’ed in order to be sent to Triple-A, it still counts as a bit of a surprise to see the Bucs potentially move on from a 24-year-old who showed such potential as recently as 2022.  Odds are that Contreras will be claimed away for nothing unless the Pirates can get some kind of trade return from a particularly interested team before the end of Contreras’ DFA period.

Skenes’ first taste of the majors will come without the luxury of the game’s best defensive third baseman behind him.  Hayes hasn’t played since May 7 and he is only 2-for-26 in his last seven games, dropping his slash line to .240/.322/.318 over 149 plate appearances for the season.  Hayes has only hit one home run after he hit 15 taters in 2023, and his Isolated Power total of .078 is less than half of his .182 ISO from last year.

While Hayes has both increased his walk rate and reduced his strikeouts, it is fair to wonder if his back problem is the cause of these offensive struggles.  Hayes only had a 101 wRC+ in 2023, but getting even league-average offense from such an elite defender makes Hayes a very valuable player.  Speaking of glovework, a -9.1 UZR/150 for Hayes this season is perhaps the bigger red flag that he isn’t physically right, even if other defensive metrics (+2 Outs Above Average, +3 Defensive Runs Saved) still have a positive view of Hayes’ defense.

Jared Triolo is the only other Pirate to get any time at third base besides Hayes this season, so Triolo could be shifted from his usual second base spot over to the hot corner while Hayes is sidelined.  This would make Williams and Nick Gonzales the top options for second base, leaving the Bucs quite thin on the infield.  Llover Peguero and Ji Hwan Bae are on the 40-man roster and could be called up more easily from Triple-A if a need develops, or the Pirates could look to obtain more experienced infield help on the open market or via a minor trade.

Masataka Yoshida Avoids Surgery On Thumb, Facing Extended Absence

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Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida was placed on the injured list at the start of May due to a sprained left thumb, but after he underwent an MRI it was reported that he would be receiving a second opinion on the injury, with surgery potentially on the table. That ominous signal eventually gave way to a more positive update yesterday after Boston received a third opinion on the injury, with Christopher Smith of MassLive among those to relay that manager Alex Cora told reporters Yoshida’s injury would not require surgery.

While the most worrisome outcome is now off the table for Yoshida, that isn’t saving him from an extended absence. Cora told reporters (including Smith) that the 30-year-old figures to return this season but also noted that the club will “see how he feels in a few weeks.” In the meantime, Cora added, Yoshida won’t be swinging the bat at all. With even the most optimistic reading of that language suggesting the earliest Yoshida could resume full baseball activities is early June, it appears safe to assume that he’ll have missed at least two months with the injury when all is said and done.

The lengthy absence comes at an unfortunate time for both Yoshida and the Red Sox. Now in the second season of his five-year, $90MM pact with Boston, Yoshida got off to a rough start this season with a .229/.302/.271 slash line in his first 53 trips to the plate this season but had begun to heat up in recent weeks, hitting a scorching .344/.417/.563 in his final ten games before being placed on the injured list. If Yoshida was beginning to get into a groove, it would’ve been a relief for a Red Sox offense that had recently lost young slugger Triston Casas to a rib fracture that figures to keep him out of action for the next several weeks, if not longer.

Without Yoshida and Casas in the mix for at-bats, the Red Sox have turned to players outside the organization to add some thump to the lineup. The club acquired first baseman Garrett Cooper from the Cubs and signed Dominic Smith to a one-year deal in recent weeks, though Cooper has hit a paltry .130/.231/.174 in 26 trips to the plate since arriving in Boston while Smith has similarly struggled to a .190/.227/.238 slash line so far in his Red Sox tenure. Both players’ struggles come in microscopic sample sizes and could certainly turn around in the coming weeks, but the tepid starts to their seasons do little to instill confidence in either player as quality options for regular at bats in the middle of the lineup.

Unfortunately, the club’s options in terms of internal help are fairly minimal. Infielders Bobby Dalbec and Enmanuel Valdez are on the 40-man roster at Triple-A, but both players faced even deeper struggles during cameos at the big league level than Cooper and Smith are currently scuffling through. First base prospect Niko Kavadas is hitting well at the Triple-A level this season and could be a potential solution, but the 25-year-old is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster and sports an unsustainable .375 BABIP that’s helped to bolster his numbers.

NL Central Notes: McLain, Carpenter, Almonte

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The Reds lost a key piece of their starting lineup just before the season began when infielder Matt McLain underwent labrum surgery back in March. As relayed by Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, McLain recently discussed his timeline for return with reporters, although he’s still a ways away from his name appearing in the Cincinnati lineup.

Per Goldsmith, McLain indicated that he’s still six weeks away from being cleared to swing a bat, indicating he can begin ramping up in earnest in early July. Given the length of his absence, McLain will surely require a rehab assignment in the minor leagues once he’s ready to return to game action, and given that the 24-year-old said that he’s targeting a potential return to the big league Reds sometime in August, just over four months after undergoing surgery. While that timeline still puts him around three months away from big league games, McLain indicated that his rehab is going well, telling reporters (including Goldsmith) that “Right now, [he’s] in a great spot.”

McLain’s absence from the lineup has been a noticeable one for the Reds this season. The youngster was a key part of the club’s offense during his rookie campaign last season as he slashed an impressive .290/.357/.507 in 403 trips to the plate before an oblique strain ended his 2023 season at the end of August. That sort of offensive presence would be a miracle for the Cincinnati lineup this year, which has posted a lackluster 82 wRC+ that’s good for bottom-five in the majors this year despite strong performances from fellow youngsters Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer. Jonathan India has primarily handled the keystone in McLain’s place, but he’s struggled to a wRC+ of 83 despite solid strikeout and walk rates this season.

More from around the NL Central…

  • The Cardinals welcomed back longtime infielder Matt Carpenter from the injured list this afternoon after he hit the shelf in early April due to an oblique strain. Carpenter, 38, was a 13th-round pick by the Cardinals back in 2009 and spent the first 12 seasons of his big league career with the club before departing following the 2021 season. He’s played for the Yankees and Padres in the majors since then but returned to the club on a one-year deal over the offseason. Carpenter will take the place of infielder Jose Fermin in the St. Louis bench mix, providing a second veteran left-handed bat alongside Brandon Crawford to complement the club’s heavily right-handed infield group that features Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and Masyn Winn.
  • The Cubs’ relief corps took a hit this afternoon as the club placed right-hander Yency Almonte on the 15-day injured list with a shoulder strain. Almonte has been a rare bright spot in a struggling Cubs bullpen this season, pitching to a solid 3.45 ERA with a 3.34 FIP in 15 2/3 innings of work since coming over from the Dodgers alongside first baseman Michael Busch in a trade this past offseason. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune) that there’s no timeline for Almonte’s return to action, leaving the Cubs to piece together solutions in the bullpen while he joins Julian Merryweather, Daniel Palencia, and Drew Smyly in departing the bullpen for the injured list in recent weeks, though right-hander Ben Brown’s recent move from the rotation to the bullpen in deference to Justin Steele could help to fortify the club’s relief corps.

Max Scherzer Receives Cortisone Shot Due To Nerve Irritation

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Rangers right-hander Max Scherzer has spent the season to this point on the injured list while rehabbing from offseason back surgery. While it appeared earlier this season that the 39-year-old hurler would be able to return to action ahead of schedule, and perhaps as soon as the beginning of May, those plans were derailed by a bout of soreness in Scherzer’s right thumb that cropped up at the end of April.

Scherzer reportedly hasn’t thrown since then, and it appears that the issue is more serious than initially believed. As noted this afternoon by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers now believe that Scherzer is dealing with nerve irritation in his thumb, rather than the previously-diagnosed issue of ligament inflammation. Grant adds that Scherzer received a cortisone injection in his neck that provided “some immediate relief” of the discomfort, which allowed Scherzer to resume playing catch on Friday. While the club has previously indicated that Scherzer won’t resume his rehab in earnest until he’s completely pain-free, it seems that the cortisone injection has allowed him to return to some light activities. If he continues moving in the right direction, it’s possible he could begin ramping back up in the near future.

A return from Scherzer would surely provide a massive boost to the club’s rotation, which has already lost Nathan Eovaldi, Dane Dunning, and Cody Bradford to injury during the season on top of Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, and Tyler Mahle, all of whom entered the season expected to miss at least the first half of 2024. While Jon Gray, Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney, and Jose Urena have done an admirable job in cobbling together solid production for the Rangers amid all the injuries, the return of any injured arm would be significant for the club.

That surely goes double for a pitcher with the resume of Scherzer, an eight-time All Star and three-time Cy Young award winner who has tallied more than 3300 strikeouts in his career and has posted ERAs below 4.00 in each of the last twelve seasons. While Scherzer struggled somewhat early in the 2023 campaign, pitching to a relatively pedestrian 4.01 ERA and 4.70 FIP through 19 starts with the Mets, he appeared rejuvenated by a trade to the Rangers down the stretch as he dominated to the tune of a 3.20 ERA in 45 innings of work while striking out a whopping 29.9% of batters faced.

While the club’s update regarding Scherzer was surely encouraging for Rangers fans, the same cannot be said about the status of right-hander Carson Coleman, who according to Grant club GM Chris Young said is “unlikely” to pitch in 2024. The 26-year-old righty joined the Rangers this past offseason by way of the Rule 5 Draft, where the club selected him from the Yankees. Coleman underwent Tommy John surgery and entered the season expected to miss at least the first half of the 2024 campaign but now appears to be ticketed for a much longer absence.

Whether Coleman manages to pitch in the majors this year or not, it seems very unlikely that he’ll manage to return quick enough to spend 90 days on the Rangers’ active roster. In the likely event that he doesn’t hit that benchmark, Coleman’s Rule 5 status will roll over into the 2025 season, meaning he must be carried on the Rangers’ active roster until at least 90 days on the active roster have been accrued. If Coleman can make a healthy return to action next season, it’s possible he’ll be an impactful arm for the Rangers out of the bullpen. The relief prospect was nothing short of dominant for the Yankees in 2022, when he pitched to a sterling 2.13 ERA in 63 1/3 innings between the High-A and Double-A levels with an incredible 37.8% strikeout rate.

Tigers Place Kenta Maeda On 15-Day Injured List

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The Tigers announced this afternoon that they’ve placed right-hander Kenta Maeda on the 15-day injured list with a viral illness. Outfield Akil Baddoo was recalled from Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move, though Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports that right-hander Matt Manning is set to be called up to the majors on Monday to take Maeda’s spot in the rotation.

The start to Maeda’s tenure in Detroit has been a difficult one, as he’s posted a 6.75 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work across seven starts with the club this season. Of those seven starts, the majority of the damage has come in just three of them where the veteran was tagged for a combined 19 runs (18 earned) in just eight total innings of work. Now he’ll get the opportunity to rest up and reset on the injured list while he prepares to try and turn his season around. Maeda’s placement on the shelf is retroactive to May 8, meaning he could hypothetically return to action in less than two weeks. That being said, no timetable for his return has been made available.

Per Petzold, Manning is poised to take the ball against the Marlins on Monday, stepping into Maeda’s usual spot in the rotation. The right-hander was the Tigers’ first-round pick back in 2016 and has logged 48 starts in the majors since he first made his big league debut back in 2021. He struggled to a 5.80 ERA in his rookie season but as looked to be a solid back-of-the-rotation arm when healthy since then, with a 3.59 ERA (117 ERA+) and 4.40 FIP in 158 innings of work since then. That includes three starts in the majors this year, during which he’s posted a roughly league average 4.24 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate despite a somewhat lackluster 4.40 FIP. He’ll be returning to a rotation that’s gotten incredible performances from its young arms this season. Tarik Skubal’s 1.90 ERA and 2.07 FIP have placed him firmly in the AL Cy Young award conversation through seven starts, while both Casey Mize and Reese Olsen have also impressed to this point in the year with above-average numbers.

Replacing Maeda on the roster for the time being is Baddoo. The 25-year-old had a breakout campaign as a rookie back in 2021 with a .259/.330/.436 slash line in 124 games but has generally struggled at the big league level since then, hitting just .213/.302/.331 in 582 trips to the plate since the start of the 2022 campaign. Baddoo has spent the entire 2024 campaign to this point at the Triple-A level after being squeezed out of the club’s outfield mix by the addition of Mark Canha as well as the emergence of youngsters like Kerry Carpenter, and Riley Greene.

Baddoo has generally been very successful in the minor leagues this year, slashing .257/.366/.478 in 30 games with the club’s affiliate in Toledo. If Baddoo can carry that success forward at the big league level, it’s possible he could force his way back into the club’s outfield mix, where Opening Day center fielder Parker Meadows struggled badly to open the season, opening the door for rookie switch-hitter Wenceel Perez to take over up the middle in recent weeks.

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