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Archives for June 2024

Giants Place Keaton Winn, Mike Yastrzemski On Injured List

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The Giants announced some roster moves this morning, including the news that right-hander Keaton Winn and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski have both been sidelined with injuries.  Winn has been placed on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his throwing elbow, while Yastrzemski is headed to the 10-day IL with a left oblique strain.  Both placements are retroactive to June 21.  Outfielder Luis Matos and infielder David Villar were called up from Triple-A in corresponding moves, and the Giants also sent utilityman Tyler Fitzgerald to Triple-A.

Yastrzemski left Thursday’s game due to his strain, and while oblique problems are known to have fluid timelines, the outfielder told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser (all links to X) that he doesn’t think he’ll miss much if any time beyond the minimum 10 days.  After a very slow start to his season, Yastrzemski’s bat has started to heat up over the last few weeks, bringing him to an above-average 104 wRC+ and a .224/.304/.406 slash line over 215 plate appearances.

Yaz has been the Giants’ regular right fielder when a right-handed pitcher is on the mound, but his absence will leave the team short on left-handed bats as a whole, with LaMonte Wade Jr. is also on the IL and Jung Ho Lee is gone for the season.  It isn’t an ideal situation for a team that likes to play matchups as much as the Giants, though Matos can help fill the void in the outfield overall, even though Matos is another right-handed hitter.

This is the second time Winn has visited the IL this season, as a forearm strain put him on the shelf for four weeks.  He had made three starts since his last activation from the 15-day, though the righty has struggled both before and after his IL stint, posting a 7.16 ERA across 55 1/3 innings.

As much as the Giants were hoping Winn could become a solid rotation piece in his first full Major League season, health is now the bigger question for the 26-year-old.  Winn missed the entire 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, so a pair of injuries to his forearm/elbow area in quick succession certainly is a big cause for concern.  Past health history notwithstanding, it is also possible Winn’s current issue is just some basic soreness that can be cleared up with 15 days of rest and rehab.

Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks are now the only two healthy starters in San Francisco’s rotation, though both Blake Snell and Robbie Ray will pitch in rehab work for Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday.  Giants manager Bob Melvin told Slusser and other reporters that Snell might just need the one rehab start before being activated from the 15-day IL, if all goes well.  Kyle Harrison is rehabbing from a sprained ankle and might not need any rehab work after being placed on the IL last weekend with an ankle sprain.

Mets’ Grant Hartwig Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Mets reliever Grant Hartwig underwent surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee, the team announced (X link via Tim Healey of Newsday). He’ll be out for six to eight weeks.

Hartwig, 26, is a depth arm who has pitched for the Mets in each of the last two seasons. He made 28 appearances as a rookie, working to a 4.84 ERA across 35 1/3 innings. That was enough for Hartwig to hang onto his spot on the 40-man roster throughout the offseason. He has pitched in four big league games this year, allowing six runs over 6 2/3 frames.

New York has kept Hartwig on optional assignment to Triple-A Syracuse for the majority of this season. The righty has turned in a 2.31 earned run average in 23 1/3 innings there. Hartwig has an average 22.3% strikeout rate against a lofty 11.7% walk percentage. He’ll continue to count against the 40-man roster while he’s on the minor league injured list.

Dodgers Transfer Max Muncy To 60-Day Injured List

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The Dodgers transferred third baseman Max Muncy to the 60-day injured list this evening. The move opened a spot on the 40-man roster for righty Kyle Hurt, who was reinstated from his own stint on the 60-day IL and optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Muncy has been out since May 17 with an oblique strain. While the team initially expressed hope that he’d back in relatively short order, that’s not how things played out. Muncy is now officially out of action through the All-Star Break. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement when the season’s second half gets underway. Muncy has been taking ground-balls but has yet to resume swinging a bat.

Enrique Hernández has gotten the majority of the third base work in Muncy’s absence. He’s hitting .191/.276/.324 in 76 plate appearances over that stretch. The Dodgers have given a few third base reps to Cavan Biggio, Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor as well. Neither Biggio nor Taylor has hit well this season. Rojas is having a nice year but had to move to shortstop after the Mookie Betts injury.

Muncy was out to his typically solid start before the injury. He’d driven nine home runs with a .223/.323/.475 slash in 167 trips to the plate. The Dodgers’ fill-in options at third base are a clear downgrade, though there’s no indication they’re especially alarmed. L.A. has built a wide enough lead in the NL West to withstand injuries to Betts, Muncy and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, among others. GM Brandon Gomes said earlier in the week that the team wasn’t changing its deadline approach to compensate for losing Yamamoto and Betts. The same is presumably true of Muncy, assuming the Dodgers expect him back sometime in July.

Robert Gasser To Undergo UCL Surgery

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June 21: Milwaukee indeed reinstated Junis from the 60-day IL this evening. The Brewers optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. Their 40-man roster is at capacity.

June 20: Brewers rookie left-hander Robert Gasser will undergo surgery to fix the UCL in his throwing elbow, he told reporters this evening (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). It won’t be clear until the operation whether he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction or a modified ligament repair. Even in the better scenario of a slightly less significant procedure like the internal brace surgery, Gasser said he expects to miss at least a full calendar year.

The 25-year-old southpaw made his major league debut last month. Gasser found immediate success, working 28 innings of 2.57 ERA ball through his first five starts. The University of Houston product only walked one of the 114 hitters he faced. While he certainly wouldn’t have maintained that level of control, Gasser has been a solid strike-thrower whom most scouts expect to stick in the rotation. Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Milwaukee system and slotted him among the sport’s top 100 minor league talents entering the season.

Gasser’s initial MLB success might have increased his stock a little bit, even though his 14% strikeout percentage was well below the swing-and-miss rates he’d shown in the minor leagues. He’d certainly performed well enough to continue taking the ball every fifth day in a patchwork Milwaukee rotation. Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea have been the constants. Peralta is the unquestioned staff ace, while Rea has stepped up with a 3.29 ERA over 76 2/3 innings despite a modest 16.7% strikeout rate.

Milwaukee has otherwise cycled through a number of starters as they’ve navigated various injuries. They have lost an entire rotation to extended absences. Wade Miley underwent Tommy John surgery after two starts. Jakob Junis has pitched once all season. DL Hall has been sidelined since April. Joe Ross went down in May with a lower back strain; he suffered a setback a couple weeks ago. Gasser is now also out for the season. That’s not even counting Brandon Woodruff, whom the Brewers knew would miss all of 2024 after he underwent shoulder surgery last October.

Bryse Wilson and Tobias Myers have stepped into the third and fourth rotation spots. While they’ve each managed decent run prevention numbers, neither pitcher is without question marks. Wilson opened the season as a reliever and has an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile as a starter. Myers is a former minor league signee on the sixth organization of his professional career. His 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk percentage are fine, but he’s had to work around an elevated home run rate.

The fifth rotation spot has recently fallen to Carlos Rodriguez, a rookie who has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two starts. Junis is nearing a return from the 60-day injured list — MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that he could be reinstated as soon as tomorrow — but he isn’t expected to immediately step back into a rotation spot. Junis has only made two abbreviated rehab appearances for Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have suggested he’s likely to work out of the bullpen initially as they try to expedite his return to the major league staff.

In that context, it’s remarkable that the Brewers have managed a 44-30 record and pulled out to a fairly comfortable 7.5 game lead in the NL Central. They’ll almost certainly bring in at least one starting pitcher before the July 30 trade deadline. There’s a reasonable argument for GM Matt Arnold and his staff to land multiple rotation pickups. Losing Gasser should only add to the urgency to address what was the team’s biggest question mark well before their last couple months of terrible injury news.

Gasser is on the MLB injured list and will collect service time and be paid at the league minimum rate for whatever time he spends on the IL. Milwaukee can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises. (They already have a vacancy for Junis’ reinstatement after designating Elieser Hernández for assignment last night.) Gasser will not get to a full service year and remains controllable for six seasons beyond this one.

Yankees Interested In Garrett Cooper

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The Yankees are showing interest in free agent Garrett Cooper, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. He hit the open market a week ago after being released by the Red Sox.

Cooper is looking for his third team of the 2024 campaign. He cracked the Cubs’ season-opening roster after signing a minor league contract. Cooper had a solid .270/.341/.432 showing across 12 games for Chicago, yet the Cubs designated him for assignment in April. The front office was evidently alarmed that he had struck out 13 times over his first 41 plate appearances. That skepticism seems to have been warranted, as Cooper struggled upon being dealt to the Red Sox in a cash trade.

Over 24 games with Boston, the righty-hitting first baseman slumped to a .171/.227/.229 batting line. He fanned 22 times while drawing only three walks in 75 trips to the plate. Boston elected to stick with Dominic Smith over Cooper once they welcomed Masataka Yoshida back from the injured list.

Whiffs have been an escalating problem for Cooper, who has struck out in 29.1% of his plate appearances since the start of last season. He owns a .242/.297/.395 line in 573 plate appearances across four teams over that stretch. Cooper had been a productive middle-of-the-order bat for the Marlins before that. Between 2019-22, he hit .274/.350/.444 and earned a nod to the ’22 All-Star Game.

Cooper is a former Yankee. New York acquired him from the Brewers back in 2017 when he was still in Triple-A. The Yankees called him up for 13 games late in the year before trading him the following offseason. They sent Cooper and Caleb Smith to the Fish for then-prospect Michael King — a move that worked out fairly well for both teams but eventually turned more clearly in New York’s favor.

The Yanks lost Anthony Rizzo for at least two months when he broke his arm in a collision at first base over the weekend. They called up Ben Rice in the wake of Rizzo’s injury. The 25-year-old has played in his first three big league contests, collecting two singles and a pair of walks in 11 plate appearances. Cooper could theoretically pair with the lefty-swinging Rice in a platoon, though the Yankees already have DJ LeMahieu as a potential right-handed complement.

GM Brian Cashman and the front office could explore the trade market for help at either corner infield spot over the next five weeks. It’s not easy to land a significant upgrade this far from the deadline, though, particularly with all but five teams still harboring some level of playoff aspirations. Cooper and José Abreu are options for teams looking for a stopgap at first base, though it’s not clear whether either player will command a big league contract offer. J.D. Davis is currently in DFA limbo with the A’s and will be traded or placed on waivers this weekend.

Angels Select Hans Crouse

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The Angels announced they’ve selected righty reliever Hans Crouse onto the MLB roster. Los Angeles opened an active roster spot last night by placing José Soriano on the 15-day injured list. They already had an opening on the 40-man roster, so no further move was necessary.

Crouse, who signed a minor league deal with the Halos in February, reaches the big leagues for the first time in three years. The 6’4″ hurler was a second-round pick of the Rangers back in 2017. Crouse was initially a well-regarded prospect whom the Rangers sent to the Phillies at the 2021 trade deadline. He started two games for the Phils late in the season, allowing four runs in seven innings.

That’s the entirety of his MLB experience. Crouse lost most of the following year to injury and the Phils waived him at the end of the ’22 campaign. He went unclaimed and spent last season in the minors. Philadelphia moved Crouse to the bullpen, but he didn’t find much immediate success. He surrendered a 6.75 ERA while walking more than 20% of opposing hitters over 16 Triple-A appearances.

Crouse has flipped the script with a huge performance this season. He carries a 2.70 earned run average through 23 1/3 frames with Triple-A Salt Lake. He has cut his walk rate all the way to 7.4% while striking out 44.7% of batters faced. No pitcher with at least 20 innings at the top minor league level has fanned opponents at a higher rate. That earns the 25-year-old another shot against MLB hitters. Crouse still has two options remaining and could bounce between Angel Stadium and Salt Lake without going on waivers.

Rockies Select Sam Hilliard

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The Rockies announced they’ve selected outfielder Sam Hilliard onto the MLB roster. Colorado also reinstated second baseman Brendan Rodgers from the 10-day injured list. The Rox placed Charlie Blackmon and Adael Amador on the 10-day IL in corresponding moves. Amador has right oblique tightness — manager Bud Black had termed it a mild strain last night — while Blackmon suffered a strained right hamstring. Blackmon’s placement is retroactive to June 19.

Hilliard joins the big league club for the first time this year. He’s in line for his second major league stint with the Rockies. Colorado initially drafted him back in 2015. Hilliard turned in a .212/.294/.424 line in parts of four seasons. The Rox traded him to the Braves within days of the 2022-23 offseason getting underway. Hilliard played in 40 games for Atlanta a year ago, running a .236/.295/.431 slash in 78 trips to the plate.

Last winter, the Wichita State product bounced from Atlanta to the Orioles and back to Colorado via waivers. The Rox designated him for assignment in Spring Training and successfully passed him through the waiver wire. Hilliard reported to Triple-A Albuquerque and has had an excellent season. He owns a .288/.374/.542 mark with 14 homers and 13 stolen bases over 65 contests. Hilliard has drawn walks at a strong 12.5% clip while striking out around a quarter of the time.

Whiffs have been the biggest problem for Hilliard at the MLB level. He has significant raw power in a 6’4″ frame but hasn’t made enough contact to tap into it on a consistent basis. The left-handed hitter has punched out in 33.8% of his 717 MLB plate appearances. Despite a decent 9.8% walk rate and 32 home runs, the strikeouts have led to a subpar .215/.294/.424 career batting line.

Blackmon’s injury will give Hilliard another opportunity to put things together offensively. Colorado’s veteran DH/right fielder has taken his customary spot atop the batting order. He’s hitting .266/.337/.410 across 246 plate appearances. Blackmon returned for his 14th season in Denver on a $13MM extension last fall. He would unlock up to $2MM in incentives by tallying 500 plate appearances ($500K apiece at 425, 450, 475 and 500 PAs).

Colorado had an open spot on their 40-man roster for Hilliard after placing reliever Gavin Hollowell on waivers earlier this week. They’ll need to create a 40-man spot on Sunday when they reinstate Kyle Freeland from the 60-day injured list. Hilliard is out of options, so the Rox can’t send him back to Albuquerque without again exposing him to waivers.

Report: Mariners Planning To Be Aggressive In Adding Offense

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The Mariners are planning to be aggressive in adding offense this summer, according to a report from Will Sammon, Patrick Mooney and Ken Rosenthal the Athletic. The report adds that money isn’t expected to be an issue for them in the coming months, which tracks with comments from manager partner John Stanton earlier this month, when he said that the front office would have resources to bolster the club.

While many clubs around the league are hovering around .500 and waiting to decide if they are going to be buyers and sellers or somewhere on the fence, the Mariners are firmly positioned to buy. They have a record of 44-33 on the year and have an eight-game lead in the division, thanks to slow starts from the Astros and Rangers.

They have done that in a decidedly pitching-forward manner. The club has an overall batting line of .220/.300/.369 , which translates to a wRC+ of 97, indicating they have been three percent below average. But the pitching staff has a collective earned run average 3.53, the seventh-best mark in the majors. The rotation has been especially strong, as Seattle starters have a 3.39 ERA that’s behind just three clubs.

Given their position in the standings and the strength of their rotation, the club is well positioned to add a bat or two and strengthen the roster for a postseason run. As mentioned by the Athletic report, the club also has a very strong pipeline of prospects, with five guys on Keith Law’s recently-updated top 50 at The Athletic. Baseball America has seven Mariners on their top 100 at the moment. FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline each have four young Mariners on their respective top 100 lists.

The financial aspect of things is also good news, since that seemed to be an issue in the offseason. Due to concerns about TV revenue, the front office was reportedly given a smaller payroll increase than they had anticipated, which limited what they were able to do. The club didn’t make a qualifying offer to Teoscar Hernández and also made cost-cutting trades that sent away players like Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic.

They did add some of that money back to the ledger by signing Mitch Garver and acquiring Jorge Polanco, among other moves, but some fans were left feeling as though it amounted to a series of lateral plays. The fact that the club has started strong and now seems to have some financial wiggle room is surely encouraging relative to a few months ago.

All of those factors point to the Mariners being one of the most fascinating clubs to watch in the months to come. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto got the nickname “Trader Jerry” for being one of the executives with the strongest propensities for swinging deals. Now his club is going into next month’s deadline in a strong position to add, with prospects and money available for getting things done.

As noted by the report from the Athletic, the primary question for the front office to answer is exactly how much of their future talent are they willing to sacrifice in order to upgrade the team now. Teams seem to get more and more reluctant to give up top prospect talent as times goes on and the Seattle brass may have to make some tough decisions about whether to hold or let go.

There are different ways the M’s could go about adding offense. 16 players have taken at least 20 plate appearances this year with only five of them having an above-average wRC+: Ty France, Josh Rojas, Dylan Moore, Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone. After slow starts, Julio Rodríguez and Garver have begun to heat up. Cal Raleigh is striking out a lot but is a strong defensive catcher and has 12 home runs. J.P. Crawford seems to be getting BABIP’d while still providing strong shortstop defense.

The regulars with the largest struggles have been Polanco and Mitch Haniger. Polanco is currently on the injured list with a right hamstring strain while sporting a batting line of .195/.293/.302 for the year. He has five home runs and a strong 11.6% walk rate but his 30.9% strikeout rate would be easily the worst of his career if it stayed that way. Haniger is slashing .218/.286/.336 for a wRC+ of 83 with subpar defense to boot.

Moore has taken over second base in Polanco’s absence and has been performing well. He has the ability to play all over, which gives the club some flexibility in pursuing external additions. Some of the hitters that could be available include Tommy Pham, Eloy Jiménez, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Bryan De La Cruz. The White Sox may consider offers for Luis Robert Jr., though it would take a blockbuster to get something done there. The Angels and Athletics could look to move players like Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, Brandon Drury, Brent Rooker or Miguel Andujar, though the M’s may be reluctant to send young talent to a division rival. Depending on how the Wild Card races shake out, players like Randy Arozarena, Jesse Winker (though it’s hard to imagine Seattle bringing him back) or Mark Canha may become available as well.

Astros Designate Blair Henley For Assignment

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The Astros made a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported promotion of Jake Bloss. They also recalled outfielder Joey Loperfido, a move that was relayed on X last night by Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. To open active roster spots for those two, catcher Victor Caratini was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hip flexor strain, retroactive to June 20, and right-hander Luis Contreras was optioned to Triple-A. To open a 40-man spot for Bloss, right-hander Blair Henley was designated for assignment.

Henley, 27, was selected to the club’s roster in April. The Astros were scrambling to fill their rotation at the time due to injuries. Justin Verlander and José Urquidy were each part of the planned Opening Day rotation but both started the season on the injured list. Then Framber Valdez had some elbow soreness pop up, which prompted the club to turn to Henley and give him his major league debut.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get the storybook version of getting to the show. His first and thus far only major league start saw him record just one out while surrendering five earned runs on four hits and three walks. He was optioned back to the minors after that and has been pitching in Triple-A since then.

His numbers for Sugar Land haven’t been especially impressive. In his 13 starts, he has a 4.50 earned run average but might even be lucky to have that. His 19.2% strikeout rate and 13.2% walk rate are both a few points worse than average and he has stranded 76% of baserunners despite allowing ten home runs, which leads to a 6.69 FIP at that level this year.

The Astros will now have one week to trade Henley or pass him through waivers. The results this year haven’t been great but he’s a former seventh-round pick with a full slate of options. Tommy John surgery wiped out most of his 2021-22 seasons before he returned to the mound last year. He logged 106 2/3 innings at Double-A last year with a 5.06 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate.

Players with a previous career outright or three years of service time can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Henley doesn’t qualify on either count and would therefore stick with the Astros if he were passed through waivers unclaimed.

Yankees Designate Victor González For Assignment

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The Yankees announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Phil Bickford, with left-hander Victor González designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Right-hander Yoendrys Gómez was also recalled, with a roster spot having been opened for him when right-hander Ron Marinaccio was optioned last night.

González losing his roster spot might come as a surprise, since his 3.86 earned run average on the year seems perfectly acceptable. But digging a little deeper, the numbers aren’t nearly as nice. He has issued 13 walks on the year compared to just 11 strikeouts, leading to respective rates of 13.4% and 11.3% that are both significantly worse than average.

His 55.1% ground ball rate is strong but his .149 batting average on balls in play is unsustainably lucky. His 5.93 FIP and 5.59 SIERA suggest that regression is coming, so perhaps the Yanks decided to quit while they’re ahead.

They will now have a week to trade González or pass him through waivers. Though his work this year has been fairly unimpressive, he could garner interest based on his past performance. He made 93 appearances for the Dodgers from 2020 to 2023, missing the 2022 campaign due to an elbow injury that required an arthroscopic debridement procedure. But in his time with the Dodgers, he had a 3.22 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 58.1% ground ball rate.

He exhausted his final option year in 2023, which likely motivated the Dodgers to flip him to the Bronx in the offseason alongside Jorbit Vivas for Trey Sweeney. That inability to send him to the minors will limit interest from other clubs, but he can be controlled through 2026, which may tempt some club to give him a shot. Since his service time count is between three and five years, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of his $860K salary.

His roster spot will go to another former Dodger in Bickford. The 28-year-old has had a strange offseason. Acquired by the Mets from the Dodgers in August of last year, he qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player.

He and the Mets didn’t agree to a salary, going to a hearing over a tiny difference. He and his reps filed at $900K while the club filed at $815K. He technically won that hearing but it wasn’t a real victory. Under the current CBA, arbitration salaries are guaranteed if the sides agree but not if there’s a hearing. The Mets would only owe him 45 days’ termination pay if they released him prior to Opening Day and they did just that.

That led to a minor league deal with the Yankees in early April, with a $1.1MM base salary in the majors, likely prorated based on when he was selected to the roster. Since signing that deal, he has tossed 27 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.93 ERA and 29.9% strikeout rate. His 10.3% walk rate is a tad high but the punchouts are clearly intriguing enough to get him back to the majors.

Those numbers are fairly comparable to his big league numbers in 2021 and 2022. Over those two seasons, he had a 3.85 ERA in 112 1/3 innings, striking out 27.8% of batters faced while walking just 7.3%. Last year, his strikeout and walk rates both moved in the wrong direction a bit to 25% and 12.8%, which led to his aforementioned transactions.

He is out of options and can’t be sent back down to the minors without first being exposed to waivers. But if he manages to stick on the roster, he can be controlled for three more seasons beyond this one.

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