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Archives for June 2024

Giants To Promote Hayden Birdsong

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The Giants will call up pitching prospect Hayden Birdsong to start tomorrow against the Cubs. Manager Bob Melvin announced the news this evening (X link via Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle).

It’s the first major league call for the 6’4″ right-hander. Birdsong was a sixth-round pick out of Eastern Illinois in 2022. He has quickly outperformed that modest draft stock. Birdsong pitched quite well in the low minors during his first full professional season. While he ran into a bit of trouble during his first crack at Double-A, he established himself as one of the more intriguing arms in the organization.

Baseball America ranked Birdsong the #5 prospect in the San Francisco system entering the season. The Athletic’s Keith Law slotted him 10th in February, while Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice of FanGraphs ranked him 17th on their organizational write-up in April. All three outlets credit him with a velocity jump into the mid-90s during his first season in pro ball. Evaluators praise Birdsong’s 12-6 curveball and slider as well, though scouting reports haven’t been especially keen on his changeup.

FanGraphs writes that Birdsong is likely to end up in relief because of subpar command. The reports at BA and The Athletic were more optimistic on his chances of sticking in the rotation, though both outlets noted that he’ll need to continue improving to profile as a starter. Baseball America writes that the development of Birdsong’s command could be the x-factor, while Law suggests the biggest question is whether he’ll find a pitch with enough lateral movement to complement his north-south breaking stuff.

Even if Birdsong does wind up as a bullpen piece, that’d be a very good outcome for a sixth-round draftee who signed for less than $200K. The Giants will give him an opportunity to stick as a starter before considering that possibility. Birdsong has turned in excellent numbers for Double-A Richmond this year. In 11 starts, he worked to a 2.05 earned run average while punching out 30.7% of opposing hitters. While he issued walks at a lofty 10.1% clip, his stuff was clearly too advanced for Double-A.

The Giants bumped the 22-year-old to Triple-A Sacramento 10 days ago. Birdsong allowed five runs on eight hits and six walks over his first nine innings in the Pacific Coast League. Despite his limited experience at the top minor league level, he’ll get a look against MLB hitters. The Giants lost Keaton Winn to the injured list over the weekend, necessitating a fifth starter if they weren’t going to use a bullpen game.

Birdsong is not on the 40-man roster. The Giants will select his contract tomorrow and will need to make corresponding active and 40-man roster transactions. They don’t have any obvious candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list, so they’ll likely designate someone for assignment.

Cubs Release Yan Gomes

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The Cubs have released veteran catcher Yan Gomes, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment last week. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.

Gomes is a veteran with over a thousand games in the majors and a 37th birthday coming up next month. He has spent most of that as a solid defender behind the plate with some inconsistent but potent offense. He doesn’t draw a lot of walks and can be strikeout prone, but he’s generally been a reliable source of double-digit home runs whenever he gets regular playing time.

Going into the 2022 season, the Cubs signed him to a two-year deal with a $13MM guarantee and a $6MM club option for 2024. His first season with the Cubs was a bit of a disappointment but he hit 10 home runs last year and slashed .267/.315/.408 for a wRC+ of 95. That means he was 5% below league average overall but that’s a strong result for a catcher.

The Cubs picked up the option for 2024 but the results from Gomes took a nosedive. In 96 plate appearances with the Cubs this year, he slashed .154/.179/.242. He walked just 2.1% of the time while getting punched out at a massive 37.5% clip and the defensive metrics soured on him as well.

The club was also seeing significant struggles from youngster Miguel Amaya, turning the catching position into a black hole on the roster. Amaya is just 25 years old and has five years of club control beyond this one, so the Cubs weren’t likely to give up on him based on a few rough months, but he has exhausted his option years and can’t be sent down to the minors. That left Gomes squeezed off the roster with a few months left on his contract.

No other club was going to acquire Gomes based on how rough he’s been this year, as doing so would involve absorbing what’s left of his salary, just over $3MM. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so the Cubs have released him, which leaves them on the hook for the remainder of that money.

Any of the other clubs can now sign him while only paying him the prorated version of the major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay. Despite his rough season, perhaps that will spur some team to take a low-cost chance on him based on his track record. He has 137 career home runs and a .246/.295/.412 slash line overall, with that translating to an 89 wRC+.

Brewers Select Joel Kuhnel

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The Brewers announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Joel Kuhnel. In corresponding moves, right-hander Carlos Rodríguez was optioned to Triple-A Nashville while left-hander Robert Gasser was transferred to the 60-day injured list. The Brewers also announced their previously-reported deal to acquire Dallas Keuchel from the Mariners.

Kuhnel, 29, has bounced around the league this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason and made that club’s roster in mid-April. He was later designated for assignment and flipped to the Blue Jays in a cash deal, though that club kept him on optional assignment before eventually designated him for assignment again. He cleared waivers and elected free agency, which led to his minor league deal with the Brewers a couple of weeks back.

Around those transactions, he has tossed 25 Triple-A innings between three different organizations with a 2.52 earned run average, 14.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and a lot of ground balls. Those peripherals are fairly in line with his major league track record, which consists of 85 2/3 innings dating back to his 2019 debut with the Reds. In that time, he has a 6.30 ERA, 19% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 52.2% ground ball rate.

He’ll give the club a fresh arm in their bullpen for the time being. He is in his final option season and can be easily sent back to Nashville at some point if the Brewers would like. He has not yet reached arbitration and could be retained beyond this season if he holds his 40-man spot all year, though he’ll be out of options next year.

Rodríguez was recently promoted for a rotation audition but currently has a 7.30 ERA through three starts. His optioning perhaps suggests that Keuchel will be added to the club’s roster to take that spot shortly. As noted by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com on X, the club lists tomorrow’s starter as TBA, with Colin Rea having previously been in that spot. That perhaps suggests that Keuchel will take the ball tomorrow and Rea will get an extra day of rest, though more information will undoubtedly be forthcoming between now and then.

As for Gasser, it was reported last week that he will require UCL surgery and is done for the year, so this transfer was an inevitable formality.

Patrick Sandoval To Undergo UCL Surgery

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June 25: The Angels moved Sandoval to the 60-day injured list today. Silseth was reinstated from the 60-day IL and optioned, keeping their 40-man roster at capacity.

June 24: Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval told reporters that he has a high-grade flexor tear and a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left arm. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com was among those to relay the news on X. While Bollinger uses the phrase “Tommy John surgery,” Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register says on X that the exact nature of the surgery isn’t yet clear. Regardless, the lefty is done for this year and part of 2025 as well.

The news is obviously devastating, both for Sandoval personally and for the Angels as a team. As the club has struggled to find consistent quality pitching in recent years, the southpaw has been one of the few bright spots of their staff.

Since the start of 2021, Sandoval has tossed 460 innings for the club, allowing 3.80 earned runs per nine frames. He struck out 22.6% of batters faced in that time with a 10.2% walk rate and 47.3% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, he had to leave Friday’s start in obvious pain and was placed on the 15-day injured list with an elbow strain, and now the decision has been made that surgery is required.

Sandoval qualified for arbitration after 2022 as a Super Two player. He made $2.75MM last year and is making $5.025MM this year, with two more arbitration seasons remaining. With the Angels having a poor season and no return to contention in sight, he could have been made available at this summer’s deadline and been one of the more attractive arms on the market, something that MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a look at.

Now that won’t be on the table and Sandoval is looking at a lengthy layoff. A full Tommy John surgery usually comes with a recovery timeline of 14 to 18 months, which would put his 2025 season in jeopardy. The internal brace variety can sometimes have shorter timelines, but only by a few months.

The Angels will transfer Sandoval to the 60-day injured list when they need a roster spot but he will need to be reinstated for the offseason. Assuming they tender him a contract for 2025, he won’t be able to get much of a raise on the heels of this truncated season. The club may be tempted to non-tender a pitcher that may not contribute anything next year, but pitchers in this situation often sign two-year deals to cover their recovery and return to the mound. The Angels can effectively do that just by tendering him a deal for next year and then for 2026.

It’s also another challenge for a rotation that has had plenty. Reid Detmers struggled enough this year that he was optioned down to the minors. Tyler Anderson is having a good year but is 34 years old and has one year left on his contract, making him a logical trade candidate. Griffin Canning has just one year of control beyond this year as well. Chase Silseth and José Soriano are also on the injured list. Zach Plesac has been added to the roster lately but hasn’t found much success in his first two starts. With Sandoval’s surgery, piecing together the rotation will be even harder, both this year and next year.

For Sandoval personally, he will lose the remainder of his age-27 season and a decent chunk of his age-28 season as well, putting a big dent in his earning power. He’ll turn 29 years old in October of next year.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand To Undergo Wrist Surgery

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Reds infielder Christian Encarnacion-Strand will have wrist surgery on July 11 and there’s a three-month recovery timeline. If that timeline holds, that means he won’t be able to return during the regular season. Manager David Bell relayed the information to reporters today, with Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer among those to pass it along. X link one and two.

It’s been a frustrating and unusual saga for Encarnacion-Strand. Back at the end of April, he was hit on the hand by a pitch and X-rays were negative but revealed a small pre-existing fracture. The infielder said he didn’t know how that came about and that he wasn’t in any discomfort prior to being hit by that pitch.

He was placed on the injured list about a week later, with the club describing his ailment as a right ulnar styloid fracture. Just over a week ago, Bell revealed that surgery was being considered and it now seems that it has been deemed necessary. Given the three-month recovery timeline, Encarnacion-Strand won’t be able to return this year unless the club makes the playoffs and survives through the middle of October. Even if that does come to pass, it will be a challenge for him to get back into game shape and earn his way onto the roster, so it seems there’s a decent chance his 2024 is effectively done.

That’s a very frustrating blow for Encarnacion-Strand and the club. A highly-touted prospect, he debuted with a splash last year by hitting 13 home runs in his first 63 major league games. He slashed .270/.328/.477 overall for a wRC+ of 112.

He was undoubtedly hoping to build off that with a healthy and productive showing in his first full season, but it hasn’t come to pass. He hit just .190/.220/.293 in his 29 games this year and that will almost certainly be his final line when the year is over. He’s already on the 60-day injured list and is now slated to stay there for the rest of the campaign.

For the team, this just adds to the number of missed opportunities by their players this year. Noelvi Marté was hit with an 80-game PED suspension and has missed the entire season thus far. Injuries have plagued Matt McLain, TJ Friedl and various pitchers on their staff, leaving the club fairly hampered all year long.

Their season is still alive thanks to the weak National League Wild Card race. The Reds are just 37-41 but that is only 2.5 games out of a playoff spot at the moment. That’s somewhat encouraging but it also leads to plenty of “what if” questions amid all the various issues the club has dealt with.

Encarnacion-Strand was the everyday first baseman prior to the landing on the injured list but that job has primarily fallen to Spencer Steer in recent months. Marté could return soon to possibly factor into the third base mix and perhaps that will lead to Jeimer Candelario moving over to first base at times. That could push Steer into a corner outfield role, where Will Benson and Jake Fraley are having underwhelming seasons.

Marlins Claim Austin Kitchen From Rockies

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The Marlins announced that they have claimed left-hander Austin Kitchen off waivers from the Rockies. Right-hander Sixto Sánchez has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com relayed the Kitchen claim on X prior to the official announcement, adding that the lefty will report to Triple-A Jacksonville.

Kitchen, 27, was just added to Colorado’s roster over the weekend as that club wanted a fresh arm. However, he was designated for assignment the very next day without getting into a game. Though he’s still looking to make his major league debut, the Marlins are intrigued enough to give him a roster spot.

The lefty hasn’t racked up a ton of strikeouts in his minor league career but has been able to keep the ball on the ground. He has a 3.95 earned run average in 225 2/3 innings on the farm overall, with a 19.4% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate. But he has kept at least 50% of balls in play on the ground at each stop along the minor league ladder.

Sánchez was placed on the 15-day injured list at the start of this month due to right shoulder inflammation. There haven’t been many updates since then, but that’s an ominous diagnosis since he has had multiple surgeries on that shoulder, which limited him to just one minor league inning pitched over the 2021 to 2023 period. Now that he’s been transferred to the 60-day IL, it seems the Marlins aren’t expecting him back by the end of July.

With that situation, the Fish essentially had a roster spot to burn and have used it to grab Kitchen. He’ll report to their Triple-A club and give them a bit of optionable bullpen depth. He has a full slate of options and essentially no service time, so he could stay on the 40-man roster for a long time if his performance justifies him hanging onto a spot.

Mets Place Starling Marte On Injured List, Select Ben Gamel

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3:05pm: Mets manager Carlos Mendoza says that Marte will be shut down from baseball activities for two weeks and will be sidelines for at least four weeks. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to relay the news on X.

2:20pm: The Mets announced that outfielder Starling Marte has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 23, with a right knee bone bruise. Outfielder Ben Gamel has been selected to take his spot on the roster. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man, which is now full.

It was reported over the weekend that Marte has been dealing with knee soreness for about three weeks. He has been playing through the ailment and generally performing well, but it seemed to become too much recently. He departed Saturday’s game due to that knee and was set for an MRI on Monday. It’s unclear how long the Mets expect him to be out, but they’ll give him at least another week to rest up.

The knee soreness didn’t seem to be slowing him down much, as he’s currently sporting a line of .278/.328/.416 for the year, production which translates to a 116 wRC+. That includes an excellent .304/.360/.457 showing in the month of June, when the issue cropped up.

It’s been a nice bounceback for Marte, who hit just .248/.301/.324 for a 76 wRC+ last year while dealing with lingering effects of groin surgery. He was back to health and in good form for the first half of this year but will now have to overcome this bone bruise before continuing with his bounceback season.

That’s a loss for the Mets, given how well Marte has been performing. They still have Brandon Nimmo and Harrison Bader in two outfield spots, but Marte’s absence could open up more playing time for DJ Stewart or Tyrone Taylor. Stewart can hit but isn’t a great fielder, while Taylor has been in the inverse position this year.

The 32-year-old Gamel will join the outfield mix alongside those two. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason and has been performing very well in Triple-A this year. He has drawn a walk in 16.3% of his 190 plate appearances and has also hit seven home runs. A .400 batting average on balls in play has also helped, with Gamel sporting a line of .314/.423/.538 and 149 wRC+ on the year for Syracuse.

Carrying even a fraction of that to the big leagues would be a nice boost for the club, though it’s a far cry from his career numbers in the big leagues. He has hit .252/.332/.384 in his in his 685 major league games dating back to his 2016 debut, leading to a 96 wRC+. He has been playing all three outfield slots for Syracuse this year and has done so in his major league career, making him a solid fit for a bench role on the big league club while Marte is out.

Gamel has more than five years of major league service time and therefore can’t be optioned without his consent, so he’ll need to be removed from the 40-man if the Mets want to take him off the active roster later in the season.

Edwin Diaz Given 10-Game Suspension For Foreign Substance Check

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June 25: Diaz will not appeal and will start serving his suspension tonight. Joel Sherman of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X.

June 24: As expected, Diaz has received a 10-game suspension. Jon Heyman of The New York Post was among those to relay the news on X. The righty can appeal the decision but it’s not yet clear if he will.

June 23: Mets closer Edwin Diaz was ejected from tonight’s game due to an apparent use of an illegal substance on his hands.  Diaz was taking the field in the bottom of the ninth to try and preserve a 5-2 New York lead, but after the standard check every pitcher receives before entering and exiting games, crew chief Vic Carapazza tossed Diaz from the game.  Drew Smith and Jake Diekman combined for a scoreless inning to preserve the Mets’ victory over the Cubs.

As per league rules, Diaz now faces a mandatory 10-game suspension for use of foreign substances.  He won’t be paid for those 10 games, and the Mets aren’t allowed to replace him on the roster, so the club will have to field a 25-man roster over the course of Diaz’s suspension.  Diaz has the right to an appeal, so it is possible he might receive fewer than a 10-game ban, even if that scenario is rather unlikely given the seemingly apparent evidence.

Diaz is the third Mets pitcher in the last two seasons to be tossed for a game for use of an illegal substance, as both Smith and Max Scherzer received 10-game suspensions during the 2023 campaign.  Similar suspensions were issued to the Astros’ Ronel Blanco earlier this season, and to Robert Suarez and Domingo German last year.

Tonight’s incident is the latest turn in an up-and-down comeback season for Diaz, who missed all of the 2023 season due to a torn patellar tendon.  Diaz has a 4.70 ERA over 23 innings and 23 appearances this season, recording seven saves in 11 chances.  While he looked pretty close to his past All-Star form early in the year, a few shaky outings led the Mets to move Diaz into lower-leverage situations, and he was then sidelined entirely due to a shoulder impingement.

The right-hander missed a little over three weeks due to the injury, and has looked sharp in his three outings since being activated off the 15-day IL.  Diaz has tossed three scoreless innings and earned two saves and a win in those three games, while allowing two hits and no walks, and striking out three batters.

He’ll now get another unwelcome break from action while serving his suspension, leaving the Mets likely to return to the closer committee approach they used earlier this season when Diaz was both injured and out of the closer’s role.  Diaz’s absence throws a wrench into the momentum of a New York that has won 13 of its last 17 teams, and gotten back into the hunt for a wild card berth.

Austin Wynns Accepts Outright Assignment With Reds

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June 25: Wynns cleared waivers and has accepted an outright assignment back to Louisville, tweets Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

June 23: The Reds announced this morning that they’ve designated catcher Austin Wynns for assignment. The move opens up a spot on the active roster for infielder Livan Soto, who has been recalled to the majors from Triple-A.

Wynns, 33, was brought up to the majors by the Reds on Friday to act as a third catcher behind Tyler Stephenson and Luke Maile while Stephenson has been day-to-day with an unknown issue. Evidently, whatever concern the club had regarding Stephenson has passed as the 27-year-old returned to the starting lineup behind the plate today after pinch hitting in yesterday’s game. The catcher is now set to depart the Reds without having made an appearance at the big league level for the club.

The 33-year-old got his start in pro ball as a tenth-round pick by the Orioles back in 2013. He made his big league debut with Baltimore in 2018 and served as a backup for the club behind the plate in parts of the 2018, ’19, and ’21 seasons. He hit just .216/.255/.326 during that time but was generally regarded as a solid defender behind the plate. The Orioles outrighted Wynns off their 40-man roster shortly after the 2021 season concluded, allowing him to test free agency. He found a minor league deal with the Phillies in relatively short order but was swapped to the Giants in June of 2022 and was selected to the club’s 40-man roster when the Giants demoted former top prospect Joey Bart to Triple-A.

Wynns found some success with the Giants in 2022 as he broke out with the bat, slashing a decent .241/.315/.356 (93 wRC+) across 177 plate appearances in that time. Despite that solid success, Wynns nonetheless found himself outrighted off the roster in San Francisco last January. He accepted that outright assignment with the club and found himself added back to the 40-man roster in early April of last year when Roberto Perez was sidelined by a rotator cuff strain, but made it into just one game before being designated for assignment. Wynns briefly caught on with the Dodgers later that month but was designated for assignment once again in early May. His tour of the NL West continued when he was claimed off waivers by the Rockies, and that turned out to be a more permanent home for the veteran as he remained with Colorado through the end of the season, appearing in 45 games but hitting just .214/.273/.282 in that time.

Once again on the open market after being outrighted off the Rockies’ 40-man last October, Wynns found a split big league deal with the Reds back in December and remained with the club even after being outrighted to the minors in January. Looking ahead, Cincinnati will have one week to either trade the journeyman or attempt to pass him through waivers and outright him back to the minor leagues. Although Wynns would have the ability to reject that outright assignment, it seems as though he would be unlikely to do so given the nature of his split contract with the club, which offers him a $300K salary in the minor leagues.

As for Soto, the infielder appeared in 22 games with the Angels between 2022 and 2023 and made the most of that playing time, slashing .375/.414/.531 over the course of his 71 big league trips to the plate. Soto nonetheless found himself designated for assignment by the Angels this past offseason, and he was claimed multiple times by both the Orioles and Angels throughout the early stages of the season before he was finally claimed by the Reds in early April after what proved to be an eventful winter for the 24-year-old. The youngster’s unsustainable .469 BABIP at the big league level suggests that he won’t be able to keep that fantastic slash line up in his third stint in the big leagues, but even Soto’s .292/.384/.385 slash line at the Triple-A level this year would make him a useful bench piece for the Reds infield mix.

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