- The injury-plagued Diamondbacks had another scare today when Luke Weaver left today’s start due to right shoulder discomfort. Speaking to The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (Twitter links) and other reporters after the game, Weaver downplayed the issue, saying that he thinks the shoulder problem can be corrected with a change to his pitching mechanics. The righty is “pretty confident” he won’t have to miss his next start, currently slated against the Rockies on Friday. It has been an inconsistent year for Weaver, as the Statcast metrics haven’t liked his work and he has posted a 4.50 ERA over 40 innings. Counting today’s outing, however, Weaver has tossed 10 1/3 shutout innings over his last two starts, so the right-hander may have turned a corner.
- Ketel Marte will begin a Triple-A rehab assignment on Monday, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com’s Jake Rill and other reporters. Marte only played six games for the D’Backs before hitting the injured list with a right hamstring strain back on April 8. Due to the long absence, it isn’t yet clear how long Marte will be at Triple-A Reno, though he has been working out with the Diamondbacks and also played a six-inning simulated game at the team’s alternate training site. The 18-23 D’Backs are trying to stay afloat despite several notable injuries in the last few days alone, and the return of their star Marte would be an enormous boost to the club.
Diamondbacks Rumors
Rays Acquire Wyatt Mathisen From Diamondbacks
The Rays have acquired utilityman Wyatt Mathisen from the Diamondbacks, with cash considerations heading back Arizona’s way. Mathisen was designated for assignment by the D’Backs earlier this week, and he will report to Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate.
The 29-year-old Mathisen made his MLB debut last season with Arizona, and over 32 games and 84 plate appearances in 2020-21, Mathisen has hit .159/.298/.290. He has also seen time at both corner infield positions and in left field.
Third base has been Mathisen’s primary position over 649 games in his minor league career. Initially breaking into the pros as a catcher when he was a second-round pick for the Pirates in the 2012 draft, Mathisen hasn’t been behind the plate since 2013, moving on to play mostly third base but also a lot of time at first and second. The outfield work is a relatively new part of his defensive arsenal, as Mathisen hadn’t played outside the infield until 2019.
With a .272/.360/.396 slash line over 2507 PA in the minors, Mathisen has shown some decent on-base skill, and he’ll add yet another multi-position weapon to the Rays’ stash of versatile players. Yandy Diaz, Mike Brosseau, and Kevin Padlo are all on the big league roster and are all right-handed hitters who can play corner infield roles, so Mathisen may have to wait until circumstances change for his next call-up to the Show.
Diamondbacks Place Kelly, Bukauskas, Devenski On Injured List
MAY 16: “All options,” including surgery, are a possibility for Devenski, Lovullo said this afternoon (via Zach Buchanan of the Athletic).
MAY 15, 7:05PM: Right-hander Chris Devenski has also been sidelined, as the D’Backs announced that Devenski is headed to the 60-day injured list due to a sprained right UCL. Left-hander Joe Mantiply’s contract has been selected from Triple-A to take Devenski’s place on both the active roster and 40-man roster.
MAY 15, 6:49PM: Both Kelly and manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jake Rill) that they’re hopeful Kelly will be able to return shortly after his 10-day minimum absence.
MAY 15, 5:48PM: The Diamondbacks announced that catcher Carson Kelly and righty J.B. Bukauskas have been placed on the 10-day injured list. Kelly is suffering from a tuft fracture in his big left toe, while Bukauskas has a right elbow flexor strain. In corresponding moves, right-hander Yoan Lopez was called up from Triple-A and infielder Domingo Leyba’s contract was selected from Triple-A. To create a 40-man roster spot for Leyba, Kole Calhoun was moved to the 60-day IL.
It’s another damaging injury blow to an Arizona team that has placed Zac Gallen, Christian Walker, and Asdrubal Cabrera on the IL just in the last few days, and the D’Backs have already been without Calhoun and Ketel Marte for the majority of the season.
Kelly’s loss is particularly tough, as the catcher has hit a scorching .338/.491/.613 over his first 110 plate appearances of the season. While Kelly has enjoyed some BABIP luck (.344) and isn’t posting memorable hard-hit ball numbers, he is also doing an outstanding job at getting on base and making contact. Kelly’s .491 OBP leads the National League, and he has more walks (23) than strikeouts (16).
Depending on the severity of the fracture, Kelly’s absence could either be relatively short or rather lengthy. Stephen Vogt could now assume starting catching duties with Kelly out, or the D’Backs could explore giving top prospect Daulton Varsho more of a look behind the plate. Since making his MLB debut last season, Varsho has made 11 total appearances at catcher, but he has only played the position once in 2021. Given Varsho’s ability to play the outfield, the Diamondbacks could more or less split his playing time between catcher and outfield whenever Vogt needs a break.
Bukauskas made his Major League debut this season, and has posted an 8.31 ERA out of Arizona’s bullpen over his first 8 2/3 innings in the Show. While the righty has given up a lot of hard contact, his ERA isn’t quite indicative of how he has pitched — Bukauskas has a much more respectable 3.64 SIERA, as he has been hampered by an abnormally low 54.8% strand rate and an abnormally high .433 BABIP. Bukauskas the 15th overall pick of the 2017 draft, and was sent to the D’Backs from the Astros as part of the Zack Grienke trade in 2019.
Leyba was also a trade pickup for Arizona, coming to the organization from the Tigers along with Robbie Ray as part of the three-team trade in 2014 that saw Shane Greene go to Detroit and Didi Gregorius to the Yankees. Leyba made a solid accounting of him by hitting .280/.367/.440 in 30 PA during his 2019 rookie season, but missed all of 2020 due to an 80-game PED suspension.
Leyba has plenty of experience as a shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman, so he represents a versatile asset for the Diamondbacks as they figure out how to juggle their roster amidst all these injuries. Speculatively, Leyba could provide infield depth if Josh Rojas sees more time in the outfield on account of Varsho getting more catching starts.
D’Backs Prospect Corbin Carroll To Miss Rest Of 2021 Season
Diamondbacks outfield prospect Corbin Carroll will undergo shoulder surgery that will keep him out of action for the remainder of the 2021 season, MLB Pipeline’s William Boor reports. The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (via Twitter) adds the detail that Carroll injured his shoulder while hitting a home run — presumably the solo homer Carroll hit on May 10, in his last game with the high-A level Hillsboro Hops.
Selected with the 16th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Carroll has hit .316/.428/.542 over his first 215 plate appearances in pro ball. Between this injury and the canceled 2020 minor league season, Carroll will lose two critical years of development, though Buchanan notes that the 20-year-old Carroll was seen as being “already ahead of the curve.”
Carroll is the consensus pick as the top prospect in Arizona’s farm system, and one of the better minor leaguers in all of baseball. Fangraphs ranks him 20th on their top prospects list, and Carroll also has high finishes on top-100 rankings from Keith Law (23rd), Baseball America (34th) and MLB.com (38th).
Carroll is already considered to be big league-ready as a center field-capable defender and a baserunner with 70-grade speed, and is seen as a future leadoff man due to his on-base skills and contact-oriented approach at the plate. “So exceptional are Carroll’s hand-eye coordination and barrel accuracy, especially for his age, that he now has among the best hit tool projections in the minors,” according to Fangraphs’ scouting report.
Diamondbacks Place Zac Gallen, Christian Walker On 10-Day IL
5:46pm: Early test results on Gallen’s elbow have been “encouraging,” Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.
5:02pm: The Diamondbacks have placed right-hander Zac Gallen (elbow sprain) and first baseman Christian Walker (right oblique soreness) on the 10-day injured list, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. The team also selected righty Seth Frankoff, recalled infielder Andrew Young and designated infielder/outfielder Wyatt Mathisen for assignment.
Gallen was supposed to start Wednesday against his former team, the Marlins, but he’ll instead be out for a while longer. He’s dealing with a “minor sprain of one section of his UCL in his right elbow,” according to manager Torey Lovullo, who added that the team will “reassess in a couple weeks” (via Piecoro). If the issue is anything but “minor,” it would be a terrible development for Gallen and the D-backs, as the 25-year-old has thrived since they acquired him from Miami for second baseman Jazz Chisholm in 2019.
Chisholm has turned into a valuable player in his own right since the deal went down, but Arizona’s surely pleased with Gallen’s output in its uniform. Gallen owns a 2.85 ERA in 142 1/3 innings as a Diamondback, including a 3.04 mark over 26 2/3 frames this year, and has posted a 28.4 percent strikeout rate against a 9.7 percent walk rate.
This is the second IL placement of the year for Walker, who has landed on the shelf both times because of his oblique. Even when healthy enough to play this season, Walker has fallen well short of the above-average numbers he registered from 2019-20, having hit a disappointing .203/.268/.313 through 71 plate appearances.
Mathisen has joined Walker in seeing time at first base for the Diamondbacks, who will have a week to trade the 27-year-old or get him through waivers. Mathisen has been tremendous at the Triple-A level, where he has slashed .267/.370/.514 with 32 home runs in 627 trips to the plate. However, that success hasn’t translated to the majors, as Mathisen has batted .159/.298/.290 over a much smaller sample size of 84 plate appearances. Mathisen has two minor league options left, so perhaps a team seeking offensive depth will take a chance on him.
Frankoff, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks last winter after the Mariners outrighted him. He had a productive run with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears from 2018-19, during which he combined for a 3.68 ERA in 266 2/3 frames. Prior to that, almost all of his career was spent in the minors with the Athletics, Dodgers and Cubs. Frankoff only has 4 2/3 big league innings under his belt.
Cubs Acquire Trayce Thompson
The Cubs have acquired outfielder Trayce Thompson from the Diamondbacks for cash considerations, per Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. Thompson is now with Triple-A Iowa.
Thompson began his professional career with another Chicago organization – the White Sox – who chose him in the second round of the 2009 draft. He climbed to the majors in 2015 and wowed over 135 plate appearances with a .295/.363/.533 line and five home runs, though that wasn’t enough for the White Sox to keep him in the fold. In the ensuing offseason, they traded Thompson to the Dodgers in a three-team deal that also involved the Reds and featured some other notable names (including Todd Frazier, Frankie Montas and Scott Schebler).
Now 30 years old, Thompson hasn’t been able to replicate the success he had during his initial MLB action. His time with the Dodgers ran out after two seasons, and he most recently appeared in the majors in 2018 with the Athletics and his first team, the White Sox. In all, Thompson has amassed 589 plate appearances at the game’s highest level and batted .206/.276/.389 with 22 home runs. Thompson has posted fairly similar numbers in Triple-A, where he has hit .229/.288/.417 with 50 long balls in 1,373 PA.
Diamondbacks Reinstate Christian Walker, Tim Locastro From 10-Day iL
- The Diamondbacks have reinstated first baseman Christian Walker and outfielder Tim Locastro from the IL, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. The club optioned outfielder Nick Heath and infielder Andrew Young in corresponding moves. The Diamondbacks have been without Walker since April 12 because of a right oblique strain, while Locastro suffered a dislocated finger April 17. Walker had a rough go early on with a .179/.250/.282 line and one homer in 44 trips to the plate. Locastro, meantime, took 58 PA last month and batted .269/.345/.327 with an HR and three steals.
Kole Calhoun Undergoes Hamstring Surgery
APRIL 30: Calhoun underwent surgery on his hamstring, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic tweets. He could miss six to eight weeks, general manager Mike Hazen announced (via Steve Gilbert of MLB.com).
APRIL 28: The Diamondbacks announced that they have placed outfielder Kole Calhoun and right-hander Taylor Widener on the 10-day injured list. They recalled catcher/outfielder Daulton Varsho and righty Riley Smith to fill the empty roster spots.
Calhoun suffered a left hamstring strain during the Diamondbacks’ win over the Padres on Tuesday, forcing him to leave early. This will already be the second IL stint of 2021 for Calhoun, who was unavailable to start the season after undergoing surgery on a torn right meniscus. Calhoun, who’s in the last season of a two-year, $16MM guarantee, has been one of Arizona’s top hitters since he joined the team. The ex-Angel had an impressive 2020 and has continued to fare well this season with a .292/.333/.479 line and a pair of home runs in 51 plate appearances.
Calhoun’s injury creates another opportunity for the 24-year-old Varsho, whom Baseball America ranks as the sport’s 60th-best prospect. Varsho, the 68th pick in the 2017 draft, debuted in the majors last year and batted .188/.277/.368 with three homers over 115 trips to the plate. He was far more productive during his most recent minor league action in 2019, when he slashed .301/.378/.520 with 18 HRs and 21 steals across 452 PA.
Widener’s heading to the shelf with a right groin strain, retroactive to April 25. The 26-year-old is tied for second on the Diamondbacks in starts (four) this season and has pitched to a 2.82 ERA with a 6.5 percent walk rate through 22 1/3 innings. However, Widener’s fielding-independent numbers – including a 4.52 SIERA, 4.73 FIP and 4.75 xFIP – aren’t as encouraging. Smith will start in Widener’s place Wednesday against the Padres.
Latest On Anibal Sanchez
April 29: Sanchez is still evaluating his options and will throw a four-inning bullpen on Friday, Rosenthal tweets. He wants to build up to the 100-pitch mark before he signs anywhere.
April 28: Sanchez is planning to sign this week and could settle on a team as early as tomorrow, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).
April 23: The Yankees, Phillies, Marlins, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays were among the teams at Sanchez’s showcase this morning, Heyman tweets.
April 21: Sanchez will throw yet another bullpen session for teams this Friday, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He worked out for clubs in the offseason and reportedly turned down a couple offers, opting instead to see how health-and-safety protocols played out. He then worked out for teams early in the season but suffered the aforementioned finger laceration midway through his bullpen.
April 20: Free-agent righty Anibal Sanchez has been working out for clubs around the league and is drawing interest from several of his former employers, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins have all looked into Sanchez, whose last bullpen session was truncated by a laceration on his middle finger that ought to have healed up by now. There’s interest from a couple of AL clubs as well, per Rosenthal.
Interest from any of the clubs linked to Sanchez this morning makes plenty of sense, given the pitching situations on each of the three. The Braves have recently placed Max Fried and Drew Smyly on the injured list, where they’ve joined Mike Soroka, whose recovery timeline recently hit a setback. None of the injuries is thought to be especially long-term, but the team’s depth has been tested early on.
The Nationals placed Stephen Strasburg on the injured list this week and have watched as left Patrick Corbin has been crushed by opposing lineups (15 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings). Last night’s rough start from Joe Ross only added fuel to the fire, sending the team’s collective rotation ERA to a disastrous 6.24 that ranks last among all big league teams. Currently, Max Scherzer is the only Nats pitcher who has started more than one game and has an ERA south of 5.00.
Meanwhile, Marlins righties Sixto Sanchez and Elieser Hernandez have dealt with injuries early in the 2021 season. They’re also carrying a pair of Rule 5 right-handers, Zach Pop and Paul Campbell, who have been hit hard in their first exposure to big league pitching.
Sanchez, 37, didn’t sign over the winter and is coming off a rough 2020 showing. The veteran right-hander was tagged for a 6.62 ERA in 53 innings with the Nationals last summer, although he’s only a season removed from 166 innings of 3.85 ERA ball during his first season with Washington.
Hector Rondon Retires
Longtime major league reliever Hector Rondon retired earlier this month, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com relays. Rondon had been with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, though he didn’t earn a promotion to MLB this season.
The right-handed Rondon appeared in the majors in each season from 2013-20 – an eight-year run he divided among the Cubs, Astros and Diamondbacks. Rondon experienced his greatest success in Chicago, which added him as a Rule 5 pick from Cleveland in December 2012. Rondon went on to pitch his first five seasons as a member of the Cubs, with whom he recorded a 3.22 ERA, posted a 24.9 percent strikeout rate against a 6.8 percent walk rate, logged a grounder percentage of 48.0, and piled up 77 saves. He amassed 50-plus innings in each of his seasons with the Cubs, including 51 in their World Series-winning 2016 campaign.
Rondon’s fruitful Cubs tenure came to an end when the Astros signed him to a two-year, $8.5MM guarantee going into 2018. He delivered typically strong results during the first year of the deal before fading somewhat in the second season. The Astros didn’t bring back Rondon, who inked a $3MM deal with the Diamondbacks last year. After Rondon slumped to a career-worst 7.65 ERA across 20 innings in 2020, the Diamondbacks declined his $4MM option in favor of a $500K buyout. He spent time with the Phillies on a minors deal before his brief stint with the Boston organization.
While Rondon’s career didn’t end well, the 33-year-old was a reliable and durable arm overall. He’ll hang up his cleats having pitched to a 3.49 ERA with 92 saves and 63 holds in 436 innings. MLBTR congratulates Rendon on a quality career and wishes him the best going forward.
