Archives for 2024

Alex Cobb Replaced By Ben Lively On Guardians’ ALCS Roster

By Darragh McDonald | October 15, 2024 at 3:20pm CDT

Major League Baseball announced that it has approved a roster change for the Guardians, with right-hander Alex Cobb replaced by fellow righty Ben Lively. MLB didn’t announce the specific nature of Cobb’s injury but the Guards announced it as an acute left low back strain. Per MLB playoff roster rules, a player removed with an injury is not eligible to return during that series nor in the subsequent series. That means that Cobb won’t be available for the World Series if Cleveland makes it, so his season is now over.

It’s an unfortunate development both for Cobb and the Guardians. The club acquired him prior to the deadline a few months ago in the hopes of bolstering their rotation, which had been slowed down both by injuries and underperformance. But Cobb had been having his own injury issues prior to the trade and struggled to stay healthy after it, which will impact his earning power as he heads into free agency this winter.

Cobb, 37, has a lengthy track record that includes a 3.84 earned run average in 233 starts dating back to his 2011 debut. He signed a two-year deal with the Giants for the 2022 and 2023 seasons and pitched rather well. He made 28 starts in each of those seasons, with his ERA coming in a bit below 4.00 in each of them. He tossed 301 innings in those two years with a 3.80 ERA, 22.1% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 59.4% ground ball rate.

He underwent hip surgery in October of 2023 with a six-month recovery estimate but the Giants still felt good enough about his prognosis to exercise a $10MM club option for the 2024 season. The news of his recovery was fairly positive throughout the winter and it seemed there was a chance that he could be pitching in the majors early in 2024, but he got transferred to the 60-day injured list in mid-April after he was slowed by shoulder inflammation. Even at that point, the Giants were hoping for a late-May return but his shoulder discomfort lingered.

He was still on the IL as the trade deadline was approaching but he was rehabbing at the time and the Guardians decided to take a shot on him, sending minor league left-hander Jacob Bresnahan and a player to be named later (later announced as minor league infielder Nate Furman) to San Francisco. The Guards had lost Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery while hurlers like Triston McKenzie, Logan Allen and Carlos Carrasco had struggled badly. Despite the challenges in the rotation, the Cleveland bullpen was the best in baseball in 2024, helping them lead the American League Central for most of the way.

Cobb made his debut for the Guards on August 9 but only made two starts before going back on the IL, this time due to a fractured nail on his right hand. He was reinstated from the IL and made another start for Cleveland in early September but returned to the IL after that, this time due to blisters on his pitching hand.

Though he missed the final few weeks of the season, the Guards added Cobb to their roster for the ALDS against the Tigers. He started the third game of that series but was pulled after three innings, having thrown 41 pitches while allowing two earned runs. He then started the first game of the ALCS against the Yankees last night, tossing 65 pitches but without making it out of the third inning and with three earned runs on his ledger.

Now it seems this back injury will add to a very frustrating season for the veteran, as it’s evidently serious enough that they felt compelled to remove him. As mentioned, he won’t be eligible to return in the ALCS. If they make it to the World Series, he won’t be an option there either.

He’ll be heading into free agency having just turned 37 years old and without much of a platform season. Around the hip recovery, the shoulder problems, the hand issues and now this back strain, he only made the three regular season starts and two more in the postseason, logging a total of 22 innings.

For the Guardians, they will have to try to stay alive with their pitching depth thinned out even further. Without Cobb, they have Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd and Gavin Williams as their top three starters, with those three able to start the next three contests. By game five, scheduled for Saturday, they may have to consider a bullpen game, with guys like Joey Cantillo or Lively possibilities for bulk innings.

Lively, 32, had a solid year for the Guards in terms of surface-level results but less in terms of underlying numbers. He made 29 starts and logged 159 innings with a 3.81 ERA, but his 18.7% strikeout rate and 41.9% ground ball rate were both subpar. He did keep his walks down to a 7.8% clip and his 6.5% barrel rate was considered by Statcast to be in the 73rd percentile, but his 4.66 FIP and 4.58 SIERA suggest his ERA could be at least slightly misleading. Game two of the ALCS kicks off in the Bronx tonight at 7:38pm local time.

Bryan Price Steps Down As Giants Pitching Coach

By Leo Morgenstern | October 15, 2024 at 2:00pm CDT

Bryan Price is stepping down from his role as the Giants’ pitching coach, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reports.

From 2001-2013, Price worked as a pitching coach for the Mariners, Diamondbacks, and Reds. He took over as the Reds’ manager for the 2014 season and held that position until April 2018, when he was fired following a disastrous start to the season. He briefly returned to coaching after that, serving as the Phillies’ pitching coach for one year, before announcing his retirement from coaching following the 2020 season. However, he worked as a senior advisor to the Padres’ coaching staff from 2022 to ’23, and when long-time friend Bob Melvin moved from the Padres to the Giants, he convinced Price to come out of retirement and join him in the Bay Area.

The veteran coach explained to Baggarly that his return to the dugout was always meant to be a short-term arrangement. To that point, the Giants offered him a two-year contract last winter, but he requested a one-year deal. Price was born in San Francisco and couldn’t refuse the offer to coach for the team he grew up supporting.

It certainly wasn’t an easy season for Price, who had to deal with Blake Snell’s early-season injury woes, closer Camilo Doval’s unforeseen struggles, and Jordan Hicks’s difficult transition from reliever to starter to reliever again, among other problems. Still, the season wasn’t without its bright spots, most notably Ryan Walker’s breakout as a relief stud and Snell’s resurgence in the second half of. All things considered, the Giants’ pitching staff was slightly worse in 2024 than it was the year before – their ERA, FIP, and xFIP were all closer to league average – despite several notable additions in Snell, Hicks, and Robbie Ray. That’s not to say Price is to blame for all (or even most) of what went wrong, but it’s not as if Giants fans were begging him to stick around for another year.

It’s unclear if this is a proper and complete retirement for Price, or if he still plans to work in an advisory capacity with the Giants or another club. As for his replacement, Baggarly notes that Ryan Vogelsong, currently a roving minor-league instructor in the organization, is expected to have “an instrumental voice in the organizational pitching hierarchy.” That could mean helping to select Price’s replacement or filling the role himself. Baggarly also mentions that assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez and bullpen coach Garvin Alston are expected to return in 2025; if the Giants are considering internal candidates, either of them could be up for the job. Finally, Baggarly names Javier López, who is currently working as a color commentator on the Giants’ broadcast team. While Baggarly does not necessarily suggest the 14-year MLB veteran is a candidate for the pitching coach position, he writes that López could one day “transition into a role” in the front office or on the coaching staff.

Orioles Notes: Angelos, McCann, Asche

By Leo Morgenstern | October 15, 2024 at 1:01pm CDT

John Angelos was the chairman of the Orioles from 2020, when he formally took over from his father, Peter, until earlier this year, when his family sold the club to new owner David Rubenstein. Initially, Angelos was expected to remain with the club in a senior adviser role, but it seems as if that arrangement didn’t last long. According to Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun, Angelos is no longer connected to the team in any capacity after selling his remaining shares to Rubenstein’s ownership group this past August.

Angelos was hardly popular within the Orioles fanbase. The team’s payroll shrunk dramatically under his leadership, and he often complained about the lack of financial resources available to smaller-market organizations. In 2023, he told The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner that the only way to keep all the team’s young stars would be to raise ticket prices “dramatically.” Yet, he reneged on his promise to show reporters the complete “financials of the Orioles” (per the Associated Press). With Rubenstein’s takeover came the hope that the O’s would start spending significantly more on player payroll, and the news that Angelos is no longer exerting any influence over the team’s decisions can only increase that optimism. Baltimore’s payroll was significantly higher in 2024, though still well below league average. Earlier this month, general manager Mike Elias said he was “pretty confident” the payroll will continue to increase in 2025.

One task the Orioles will face this offseason (though hardly their most expensive decision) will be re-signing or replacing backup catcher James McCann. On that subject, Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports recently pointed out that McCann initially had the O’s on his five-team no-trade list back when he signed a four-year, $40.6MM deal with the Mets during the 2020-21 offseason. Needless to say, he ended up approving a trade to the Orioles anyway. What’s more, including the Orioles on his five-team no-trade list doesn’t necessarily mean McCann was opposed to playing in Baltimore. At the time he signed that deal, the Orioles were one of the basement-dwellers of the American League. That’s no longer the case. And it bears repeating that he ultimately accepted the trade that sent him to the Orioles – after they proved they were opening their window of contention with an 83-win season in 2022. Still, it’s a tidbit of information worth keeping in mind as the veteran backstop approaches free agency. McCann is well-liked by his Orioles teammates and has gotten plenty of playing time over the past two years as a backup for Adley Rutschman.

In one more note of interest, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com discussed the Orioles coaching staff today, specifically the hitting coach vacancy left behind after co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller was let go and fellow co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte returned to the Twins. Dubroff pointed out that Cody Asche, technically the team’s offensive strategy coach, also functioned as a third hitting coach for the club. It’s unclear if Asche will change roles next season, but Dubroff does mention that Asche is “respected in the clubhouse.” He has been with the organization since 2022, first as a minor league hitting coordinator before joining the big league staff for the 2023 campaign. Previously, he was a minor league hitting coach in the Phillies organization. At 34 years old, he is still young for a big league coach, but he is certainly a name to keep in mind as the Orioles look to find their next hitting guru.

The Opener: ALCS, Phillies, Managerial Searches

By Nick Deeds | October 15, 2024 at 8:55am CDT

As the 2024 postseason continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1: ALCS Game 2:

The Yankees took Game 1 of the ALCS last night thanks to a gem from left-hander Carlos Rodon that saw him strike out nine Guardians across six innings of one-run ball. Now, Cleveland will look to rebound with right-hander Tanner Bibee (3.47 ERA in 31 starts) on the mound. It’ll be the third start of the postseason for Bibee, who already posted 8 2/3 innings of two-run ball with nine strikeouts and three walks against the Tigers in the ALDS. The Yankees will turn to ace Gerrit Cole (3.41 ERA in 17 starts) as they look to keep their momentum rolling. Cole has a lengthy and accomplished postseason resume with a 2.94 ERA across 19 playoff starts, and his performance in the ALDS against the Royals mostly matched his reputation: he surrendered five runs (four earned) in 12 innings of work while striking out eight batters.

2: Phillies end-of-season presser:

After a frustrating defeat at the hands of the Mets in the NLDS, the Phillies have entered the offseason earlier than they were hoping. The club will formally kick off its offseason later today with an end-of-season press conference where both president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and manager Rob Thomson are expected to be available to field questions from the media. The Phillies could be in for a relatively quiet offseason by their standards with their entire starting rotation and lineup under team control for 2025, although it wouldn’t be a surprise if the club looked to upgrade in the outfield or address a bullpen that could lose Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez to free agency next month.

3. Managerial searches underway

While winning teams spend October focused primarily on the playoff push, teams that missed the postseason often spend the month focusing on personnel changes in the dugout and front office. This winter, the two most high-profile jobs up for grabs are managerial gigs in Miami and on the south side of Chicago. The rumor mill as been relatively quiet regarding both the Marlins’ and White Sox’ plans so far, though a handful of candidates have seen their names floated already including Angels manager Phil Nevin for the job in Chicago and current bench coach Luis Urueta for the Marlins gig. Whoever is ultimately hired to fill those vacancies will have their work cut out for them as the White Sox look to bounce back from the worst season in modern MLB history and the Marlins plan to rebuild their entire coaching staff from the ground up.

Royals Notes: Lineup Needs, Outfield, Wacha, Frazier

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 11:48pm CDT

Royals brass held their end-of-season press conference today, with general manager J.J. Picollo and manager Matt Quatraro fielding questions from MLB.com’s Anne Rogers (two links) and other reporters about the club’s successful 2024 campaign and some of their plans for the coming offseason.

While Picollo described the Royals’ offense as “acceptable” overall, the team is looking for bookends around the powerful 2-3-4 lineup combination of Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino, and Salvador Perez. The Royals relied heavily on that trio for most of their offense, and thus finding a more consistent leadoff hitter and no. 5 hitter are the first steps in increasing production.

Picollo noted that impending free agent Tommy Pham did a good job in stabilizing the leadoff spot after Pham was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals at the end of August. In general, however, “that leadoff spot, we were circulating guys all year long, trying to find the right person….Every lineup, and the better lineups that we faced, they’re deep,” Picollo said. “The more you can push guys down, the better our lineup will be. You start with a leadoff man, and then you try to find somebody in the middle of the lineup, as well. The deeper you get, the more explosive you can be as an offense.”

Kansas City batters had a collective .306 on-base percentage this season, ranking 19th of 30 teams. Witt’s .389 OBP did a lot of the heavy lifting on that cumulative total, as Yuli Gurriel (in only 65 plate appearances) ranked second on the team with a .338 OBP, followed by Perez at .330. Maikel Garcia had the majority of at-bats out of the leadoff spot and his strong third base defense kept him in the lineup, but he hit only .231/.281/.332 over 626 PA. Garcia’s 69 wRC+ was the lowest of any qualified hitter in baseball this season.

Despite Garcia’s lack of production, Picollo said Garcia and left fielder MJ Melendez (who also struggled) will be counted to improve at the plate as they head into their fourth Major League campaigns. However, Picollo singled out the outfield as a natural area where the Royals could add some power and more offense in general, as only the Pirates and White Sox got less production from their outfielders in 2024 than the 79 wRC+ posted by Kansas City’s outfield mix.

“Generally speaking, when you’re looking at left field, right field, that’s where you’re thinking about power guys,” Picollo said. “And we know this ballpark doesn’t lend itself to homers, but it does lend itself to slug. So we’ve got to be more productive there. And that’s where being optimistic about some of the guys that we have and looking at the experience they had, I think that’s fine.”

Right field is the most logical target area if Hunter Renfroe declines his $7.5MM player option for 2025, though Picollo said he hadn’t yet spoken to Renfroe about his upcoming decision. Renfroe can take a $1MM buyout and return to free agency, but it probably seems likelier than Renfroe will take the larger $7.5MM payday after a sub-replacement season. Renfroe had a -0.1 fWAR over 120 games with Kansas City, hitting .229/.297/.392 with 15 home runs, and he sandwiched a red-hot stretch in June and July between ice-cold performances in the first two and final two months of the regular season.

Kyle Isbel was also a below-average hitter but at least played some solid defense in center field, so he might have the most job security of all Royals outfielders heading into 2025. If K.C. did indeed pick up a new corner outfielder or two, Renfroe, Melendez, Dairon Blanco, and Nelson Velazquez could all be vying for part-time or bench duty, or the Royals could look to move any to create roster space.

On the pitching end, Michael Wacha will have to decide on either exercising or declining his $16MM player option for the 2025 season. Wacha’s excellent changeup powered his 3.35 ERA over 166 2/3 innings in his first season with the Royals, and induced a ton of soft contact while posting an above-average 6.6% walk rate. Though his lack of strikeouts and velocity will always limit his market to some extent, Wacha has now posted very solid results in each of the last three seasons, and should certainly find a multi-year pact again on the open market this year.

Even if the likelihood is that Wacha does pass on his option, Picollo said “there’s no question we’d like to have him back. How we go about that, I’m not sure just yet….He’s going to have opportunities with other clubs. So we’ll work on that.”

The Royals aim to add more pitching with or without Wacha still in the rotation, though obviously it will be a more glaring need if Wacha does head elsewhere. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, and Brady Singer still combine for a nice top three and Alec Marsh earned himself a rotation job, so on paper Kansas City would have plenty of internal candidates to compete for just one open starting job. But as Picollo noted, “we were remarkably healthy this year,” so the club expects to need more pitching in the likely even that the Royals aren’t as lucky in avoiding the injury bug.

As to how much the Royals will have to spend for any upgrade, Picollo was naturally unspecific on the topic, but he felt owner John Sherman would have as much “flexibility” with the payroll as last winter. “I would suspect it would be very similar,” the GM said. “Not necessarily in, ’We’re going to spend $100 million,’ but more so his flexibility, him being open-minded to what our team’s needs are.”

RosterResource estimates that the Royals finished the year with a payroll of slightly more than $113.5MM, which represents the franchise’s biggest spend since its $122.2MM payroll on Opening Day 2018. An increase in attendance and two playoff games should boost revenue, but the Royals are also one of the teams whose broadcast deals with Diamond Sports Group will be severed as part of DSG’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

It remains to be seen if the Royals could work out a new deal with DSG/Bally Sports for the 2025 season or if the team might seek out another broadcast partner, or pursue an agreement with Major League Baseball itself to broadcast games (as six other clubs have done). While obviously a lot of uncertainty exists here, it should be noted that the Royals’ previous deal with Bally was already up after the 2025 season, and the team still went ahead and had a relatively big spending splurge last winter even with the looming questions about its broadcast future.

In some injury updates, Hunter Harvey, James McArthur, and Chris Stratton should all be ready for the start of Spring Training after finishing the season on the injured list. Some health uncertainty awaits Adam Frazier, who will be undergoing some type of procedure on his right thumb this week.

Frazier had a minimal 10-day IL stint in late June/early July due to a sprain in that same thumb, and an injury could explain his rough hitting numbers, as the veteran batted only .202/.282/.294 in 294 PA. Kansas City is sure to decline its end of an $8.5MM mutual option on Frazier for 2025, and he’ll be bought out for $2.5MM. Between his down year and perhaps this surgery impacting his readiness, Frazier may have to settle for a minor league pact in free agency.

Quick Hits: Bieber, Niebla, Shildt, Cardinals

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 10:52pm CDT

Shane Bieber’s season was ended by a Tommy John surgery back in April, and he’ll now head into free agency with this big question mark attached to his health. It could be that Bieber ends up sticking with the Guardians, as Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer thinks “there’s interest on both sides” about a new contract. Since Bieber won’t be able to return to a big league mound until probably June or July, a new deal might just involve one guaranteed season with some type of option for the 2026 season, or potentially a two-year guarantee with a small salary in 2025 and then the majority of the money slated for 2026 when Bieber will presumably be able to complete a full season.

Similar contracts have emerged in the past for pitchers coming off major surgeries and facing reduced or non-existent workloads in the first year of the two-year pacts, and the reduced cost of such a trade has particular appeal for a lower-payroll team like the Guardians. A two-year guarantee would keep Bieber from entering free agency again until he is about to enter his age-32 season, though he might want to lock in some more guaranteed security now while he is still dealing with the uncertainty of his TJ rehab. From a baseball perspective, Bieber surely would be open to staying in a familiar environment and playing for another winning team, while bringing back Bieber for even a half-season could be a help for a very unsettled Guards rotation.

How Cole Ragans Built On His Breakout Season

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 9:38pm CDT

After losing 106 games in 2023, the Royals responded to the embarrassing result by going on a relative spending spree last winter. Bobby Witt Jr.’s 11-year, $288.78MM extension naturally drew most of the attention, but Kansas City spent $110.5MM on free agent contracts, most notably bringing Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha to bolster the pitching staff. The strategy paid off handsomely, as the Royals rebounded for their first winning record and playoff berth since 2015.

Not content to just make the postseason, K.C. defeated the Orioles in the Wild Card Series before falling to the Yankees in four games in the ALDS. This playoff run provided a bit of a national showcase for Cole Ragans, who had a sterling 0.90 ERA in 10 innings and two postseason starts.

Witt’s MVP-level performance, Salvador Perez’s strong bounce-back year, and the immediate impact of Lugo and Wacha rightly drew a lot of credit for the Royals’ success, yet they also somewhat overshadowed Ragans’ continued excellence since coming to the Royals in June 2023. Continuing the “under the radar” theme, Ragans’ season would be drawing a lot of Cy Young Award buzz if Tarik Skubal wasn’t such a heavy favorite for the trophy. In fact, Skubal is the only AL pitcher who had a higher fWAR than Ragans, and only Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler topped Ragans among the National League’s arms.

Ragans posted a 3.14 ERA over 186 1/3 innings, and his 29.3% strikeout rate and 31.8% whiff rate both ranked in at least the 88th percentile of all pitchers. Ragans did a good job of limiting hard contact and avoiding home runs, which couldn’t be entirely attributed to pitching at Kauffman Stadium — the left-hander’s road ERA (2.87) was actually better than his home ERA (3.40). A below-average 8.8% walk rate was the only real flaw in Ragans’ arsenal, though he at least improved on his 10.5% walk rate from the 2023 season.

The changeup has been Ragans’ most consistently solid pitch over his three MLB seasons, and batters only hit .183 against the offspeed offering in 2024. The big difference in arsenal this season, however, was that Ragans started to more fully capitalize on his 95.4mph fastball’s elite spin rate. Ragans’ fastball was ranked by Statcast as a below-average pitch in 2022 and 2023, but adding about 1.2 inches of vertical break on the pitch from 2023 to 2024 seemed to unlock something special, as his four-seamer was suddenly among the more effective pitches in all of baseball.

This big year only continued the sudden success Ragans enjoyed after he was traded to the Royals (along with outfield prospect Roni Cabrera) from the Rangers for Aroldis Chapman in June 2023. Selected 30th overall in the 2016 draft, Ragans’ career was put on hold for the entirety of the 2018-20 seasons due to two Tommy John surgeries and then the canceled 2020 minor league season. He pitched well enough after his return to action to eventually earn his first MLB call-up in 2022, and Ragans had a 4.95 ERA over nine starts and 40 innings for Texas in his rookie season.

Working out of the bullpen in 2023, Ragans had struggled to a 5.92 ERA in 24 1/3 relief innings at the time of the trade, but the Royals immediately gave him another look in the rotation. As if a switch was flipped, Ragans posted a 2.64 ERA in 12 starts and 71 2/3 innings over the remainder of the 2023 campaign, and the Royals suddenly had a rotation building block as a silver lining within their dismal season.

After now a full season of success for Ragans, that Royals/Rangers trade is looking like one of the more impactful win-win deadline deals in recent memory. Calling it a “deadline deal” is perhaps a misnomer since it came a month before the trade deadline, as the Royals were already in sell mode and the Rangers were desperate to shore up their badly struggling relief corps. Teams tend to have higher asking prices in trade talks further in advance of the deadline, yet moving Ragans was a price the Rangers were willing to pay in order to achieve bullpen help as quickly as possible.

While Chapman wasn’t exactly airtight during his time in Arlington, he pitched well enough down the stretch and in the playoffs to help Texas secure its first World Series championship. The “flags fly forever” mantra is a pretty good salve for any regrets the Rangers or their fans might have about letting Ragans go for a rental reliever, while the K.C. organization is undoubtedly thrilled with everything they’ve seen from their new ace.

Ragans turns 27 in December, and still has another full season remaining before reaching salary arbitration. Locking up Ragans to a contract extension would help the Royals get some cost certainty over a pitcher whose ceiling only seems to be rising, plus the rotation could use some solidification since Wacha will surely exercise his opt-out clause and test free agency again. On the flip side, since Ragans is under team control through his age-30 season and already has two Tommy John surgeries on his resume, the Royals might well hold off on any serious extension talks and just go year-by-year with Ragans for now.

Deciding how to best deal with the unexpected windfall of a frontline pitcher is a nice problem for the Royals to have, and in hindsight the Ragans trade was the first sign that K.C. was going to able to rebound from its 106-loss disaster. An inability to develop homegrown pitching prospects stalled the Royals’ rebuild for years, so there is some irony in the fact that the team’s emergence has now been led in part by another team’s seemingly stalled prospect.

Brandon Nimmo Playing Through Plantar Fasciitis Injury

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 7:52pm CDT

Brandon Nimmo is 0-for-12 with four walks over his last 16 plate appearances, and was removed from both Game 1 (for a pinch-hitter) and Game 2 (for a defensive sub in left field) of the Mets’ NLCS clash with the Dodgers. It seems the issue is health-related, as Nimmo told The Athletic’s Tim Britton that he believes he re-aggravated a case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot during the sixth inning of Game 3 of the NLDS against the Phillies. The fact that Nimmo was dealing with plantar fasciitis is itself news, as Nimmo said he has been playing through the injury since May.

The discomfort is only an issue when running, Nimmo said, and “I think when I really need it, I’m probably not 100 percent, but I can get going pretty good.” He has been able to hit and throw with relatively little problem, so while it is clear that Nimmo isn’t quite himself, he is intent on staying in the lineup and will wait until after the season to pursue any more long-lasting tretament.

Nimmo hit .224/.327/.399 with 23 home runs over 663 plate appearances in the regular season, translating to a 109 wRC+. This was a step back from the 134 wRC+ Nimmo produced in 1966 PA during the 2020-23 seasons, though the downturn is understandable considering that Nimmo has been battling plantar fasciitis for much of the year. Interestingly, Nimmo stole a career-high 15 bases and was a perfect 15-for-15 on the basepaths, despite playing through the pain in his foot.

If the discomfort ever became so severe that Nimmo couldn’t start in left field, the Mets could install Jeff McNeil (himself just returning after a wrist fracture) in left or move Tyrone Taylor into left field while Harrison Bader plays in center field. But, the plan seems to be to just keep Nimmo in the starting lineup and then manage his time with tactical substitutions, as in the first two games against Los Angeles.

It obviously isn’t good for the Mets that one of their key hitters has been hampered at such a pivotal time in October, or that the three off-days between the NLDS and NLCS provided only scant relief. (“It wasn’t as good as I was hoping when I got out there,” Nimmo said of how his foot responded to the three-day break.) While some injury cases like Freddie Freeman’s bad ankle are obvious, Nimmo’s situation is an example of how there are likely several players trying to grit out non-publicized injuries through these key postseason games.

Orioles Sign David Banuelos To Minor League Contract

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 6:21pm CDT

The Orioles signed catcher David Banuelos to a new minor league contract, MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (X link). The deal contains an invitation to Baltimore’s big league Spring Training camp.

Banuelos had been eligible for minor league free agent but the contract ensures that he’ll remain in the Orioles organization for a second year. After signing a minors deal with the O’s last winter, Banuelos made his Major League debut in the form of a pinch-hit appearance in Baltimore’s 11-3 win over the Twins on April 16. That lone game marked Banuelos’ only MLB appearance of the season, and he also played in only 22 games for Triple-A Norfolk.

The lack of proper playing time was due to Banuelos’ status as a regular member of the Orioles’ taxi squad, as the O’s wanted an emergency catcher available to back up Adley Rutschman and James McCann. With Rutschmann playing almost every day as either a catcher or DH, the Orioles wanted extra depth if an injury hit either of their two regular backstops. This left Banuelos without much playing time since Rutschman and McCann both avoided the injured list — somewhat remarkably in McCann’s case, given how he was hit in the face with a pitch back on July 29.

Banuelos also spent part of the season in roster limbo, as the Orioles designated the catcher for assignment and outrighted him off their 40-man roster on three separate occasions. After being outrighted the first time, Banuelos gained the right to reject any future outright assignments in favor of free agency, though Banuelos opted to remain with Baltimore after he cleared waivers the next two times.

Even with just a cup of coffee in the Show, Banuelos can now officially call himself a big leaguer after seven pro seasons. A fifth-round pick for the Mariners in the 2017 draft, Banuelos spent just his first season in Seattle’s organization before he was dealt to the Twins, and he played in Minnesota’s farm system from 2018-23. Banuelos has hit .216/.283/.354 over 1265 career plate appearances in the minors.

Clayton Kershaw Intends To Pitch In 2025

By Mark Polishuk | October 14, 2024 at 5:06pm CDT

Clayton Kershaw has been forced to watch the Dodgers’ playoff run from the dugout due to the bone spurs in his left big toe, which capped off an injury-marred season that saw him pitch a career-low 30 innings. Despite these obstacles, Kershaw told the Fox Sports pregame crew today (video link) that he plans to return for his 18th Major League season.

Referring to the shoulder procedure he underwent last November, Kershaw said “I want to make use of this surgery, you know? I don’t want to have surgery and shut it down. So I’m gonna come back next year and give it a go and see how it goes.” While he referred to his bone spurs as “some tough luck,” Kershaw said that otherwise, “my shoulder and elbow, everything, my arm, feels great.”

Injuries have been an omnipresent part of Kershaw’s story for the last several seasons, and he has openly considered retirement before eventually deciding to keep pitching in general, and keep pitching for the Dodgers. With a 4.50 ERA over his 30 frames in his age-36 season, this marked the first time Kershaw showed any decline in performance amidst his health concerns — while limited to 258 innings over the 2022-23 seasons, Kershaw still had a 2.37 ERA and was an All-Star in both campaigns.

Kershaw didn’t give any hint as to whether or not another surgery might be required to address his bone spurs, though that might seem the logical course of action for what has seemingly been a longer-term issue. (Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said in August that Kershaw had been dealing with the bone spurs for multiple years.) Until we know if such a procedure is even required or not, it’s too soon to say if Kershaw might be fully ready to go when the Dodgers start their Spring Training camp in February. His shoulder rehab delayed his 2024 debut until July 25.

While rehabbing from the shoulder surgery, Kershaw delayed his next contract until February 2024, when he rejoined the Dodgers on a two-year, $10MM guarantee. The contract is specifically a $5MM deal for the 2024 season and then a minimum $5MM player option for 2025 that Kershaw will presumably exercise. As per the terms of the contract, Kershaw earned an extra $2.5MM in 2024 salary, and an extra $5MM on his player option, so he’ll now bank another $10MM by picking up his player option. It is possible Kershaw and the Dodgers could work out an extension of some kind to lock in that salary and tack on another option for 2026, to give both sides flexibility should Kershaw want to keep pitching for yet another season.

Though Kershaw could still find himself with a World Series ring in a few weeks’ time, it isn’t surprising that he isn’t considering ending his career on the low note of a 30-inning season. He even had a 2.63 ERA in his first five starts before allowing eight runs over his last six innings pitched, presumably when the returned discomfort from his toe started to impact his performance. If Kershaw can remain as healthy as possible for a 37-year-old pitcher with his injury history, it isn’t hard to imagine that he can still deliver quality production.

After struggling through a mountain of pitching injuries this season, the Dodgers technically have a full staff worth of options for 2025, even if every available arm has some degree of health concerns. As noted by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stated over the weekend that the team may use a six-man rotation in order to help keep everyone healthy, and to provide more rest for Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto specifically. Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2024 due to UCL surgery and naturally has the added workload of his DH duties, while the Dodgers have been keeping Yamamoto on the Japan-like schedule of pitching with at least five days of rest.

Between that duo and Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow missed the end of the season and the playoffs due to an elbow strain, Tony Gonsolin didn’t pitch in 2024 while recovering from a Tommy John surgery, and Dustin May didn’t pitch in 2024 due to recoveries from a pair of arm procedures in July 2023 and then a throat surgery in July of this year. Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski, and prospect Jackson Ferris are other arms that figure to be part of the rotation mix. It also stands to reason that L.A. will surely add another pitcher or two this offseason to help safeguard this group against any further injury hits.

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