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NL Notes: Nationals, Roster Expansion, Coke

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Major League Baseball and many teams are currently celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, but Hispanic identity is a complex topic for the many US-born players of Latin descent, Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post writes in an interesting look at the highly variable backgrounds of MLB players. “If I talk to a Latin ballplayer, I’m Cuban. And if I talk to an American guy, I’m American. No matter what,” says Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez, who is of Cuban heritage but who was born in the Miami area. “You’re never going to win in that argument. It’s never a win-win situation.” Nats reliever Rafael Martin, meanwhile, was born in the Los Angeles area but spent much of his childhood in Mexico. He had never met Latinos who weren’t Mexican before becoming a pro baseball player. “At first, it’s interesting,” says Martin. “Weird sometimes. Especially like [how] other countries use different words in Spanish. I find it very interesting, the way people come up in different countries, different styles.” Here’s more from the NL.

  • September roster expansion has led to some exhausting games between the Mets and Phillies this weekend, writes Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. On Thursday, the Mets used 27 players and the Phillies 22 in an 11-inning game that lasted well over four hours. On Friday, the two teams combined to use 38 players in a game that lasted 3:40. Mets starter Gabriel Ynoa pitched just two innings and allowed two runs before departing, leading to a conga line of relievers and pinch-hitters. “It’s getting a little out of hand, but I think everybody would do the same thing,” said Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson. “You’ve got 15 guys down there, why not use them all? And it worked.” Rules regarding September roster expansion could be on the docket during CBA talks this offseason, Gelb notes. One possibility would allow teams to expand rosters to 40 as they currently do, but require them to submit a 25-man active roster before each game. That would limit the amount of specialization that’s currently so prevalent in September games.
  • Veteran lefty Phil Coke has spent the 2016 season traveling around the state of Pennsylvania, Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes. After being released by the Braves near the end of Spring Training, Coke joined the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League. He eventually signed with the Yankees and headed to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, about two and a half hours away. Coke was in Scranton following the end of the minor league season when Yankees GM Brian Cashman called him earlier this week to ask if he wanted to join the Pirates’ bullpen. “OK, that’s not far away,” Coke said. “I’m in.” He officially headed to the Pittsburgh organization on Thursday in a minor trade.

AL Notes: Liriano, Royals, Mariners

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After struggling through the first four months of the season with the Pirates, lefty Francisco Liriano has enjoyed success since coming to the Blue Jays in a deadline trade, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Nicholson-Smith notes that, since the trade, Liriano has gotten opposing batters to swing at pitches outside the strike zone 35.1% of the time, up from 27.8% with the Bucs. “He’s always had one of the better arms in baseball. He’s one of those guys that can always dominate teams and he really hasn’t lost a whole lot,” says manager John Gibbons. In seven starts with Toronto, Liriano has a 3.35 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. If he can maintain similar numbers in 2017, he’ll be more than worth his $13.7MM salary, which means that the Blue Jays will likely come out significantly ahead in the trade that brought Liriano to Toronto, in which they also received prospects Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez while giving up only righty Drew Hutchison, who hasn’t been impressive in the Pirates organization so far. Here’s more from the American League.

  • In the coming offseason, the Royals will discuss how best to use righty Joakim Soria and lefty Matt Strahm, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. Soria signed a three-year deal last winter and has had an uneven first season in his return to Kansas City, posting a 4.12 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9. It sounds like he’ll be back in the Royals’ bullpen next year, although the team isn’t sure in what capacity. “[W]e’re going to be very active trying to make sure our bullpen gets back to what it has been. Joakim can be a big part of it,” says GM Dayton Moore. “I know it hasn’t been the type of year that he expected.” Strahm, in contrast, has had an outstanding rookie season in the bullpen, allowing just two runs while striking out 26 batters in his first 19 big-league innings. Strahm spent part of the season as a starter at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, though, and the Royals say they’ll continue to consider him as a starter and that it isn’t guaranteed he’ll break camp with the team.
  • The Mariners have announced that they’ve named Justin Hollander their director of baseball operations. The 37-year-old Hollander had previously worked with Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto with the Angels, and last year Hollander served as that organization’s director of player personnel.

5 Key Stories: 9/17/16 – 9/23/16

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Here’s a look back at five crucial stories from this week at MLBTR.

"<strongJacob deGrom has surgery. The righty had a procedure to alleviate an ulnar nerve issue in his elbow. His recovery period is three months, so obviously, he won’t pitch for the Mets in the postseason, assuming they get that far. The loss was the latest for an injury-riddled Mets rotation that has also dealt with extended absences from Zach Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz.

Mariners suspend Steve Clevenger. The M’s suspended the backup catcher without pay for the rest of the season after he issued a pair of offensive tweets. “As soon as we became aware of the tweets posted by Steve yesterday we began to examine all of our options in regard to his standing on the team,” Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto said.

Pirates try to extend Ivan Nova. The Bucs have reportedly made two extension offers to keep righty Ivan Nova, who’s been terrific since arriving in a deadline trade with the Yankees. In response, Nova’s camp asked for $70MM over five years, a price that would have been unimaginable for him just two months ago. It appears likely Nova will head to this winter’s free agent market as one of the top starters available.

Nationals try to extend Wilson Ramos. The Pirates aren’t the only team trying to keep a free-agent-to-be. It emerged this week that the Nationals have begun discussing a new deal with catcher Wilson Ramos. The Nats reportedly initially offered a little more than $30MM over three years, seemingly a very low bid for a player who’s hit .304/.351/.496 this season. Talks reportedly didn’t go far, and it’s unlikely the two sides will revisit them before Ramos hits the open market this winter.

Padres promote Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot. A final wave of Padres call-ups this week following the end of Triple-A El Paso’s season included top outfield prospects Renfroe and Margot, along with infielder Carlos Asuaje and catcher Austin Hedges. Renfroe, the 13th overall pick in the 2013 draft, batted .306/.336/.557 for El Paso, while the 21-year-old Margot (who arrived along with Asuaje in the Craig Kimbrel deal) hit .304/.351/.426.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Quick Hits: Ramirez, Kazmir, Strasburg

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In his second season in Boston, Hanley Ramirez is settling into a leadership role, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald writes. In the piece, Ramirez addresses a variety of topics, but perhaps the most interesting is his view of the Red Sox and Marlins franchises. “It’s way different,” he says. “Down there, we were just happy to be there and make it to the big leagues. We didn’t have that kind of pressure. Here, it’s about winning, it’s about success and winning.” Ramirez also describes how Mookie Betts looks to him for advice. Lately, of course, Ramirez has mostly led with his bat, hitting .356/.415/.746 in September even before his two-homer outburst today against the Yankees. After a torrid second half in which he’s run his season line up to .290/.361/.503, Ramirez’s current four-year, $88MM contract looks wildly more successful than it did this time last season. Here’s more from around the big leagues.

  • Dodgers starter Scott Kazmir developed a blister on his finger after pitching a simulated game Sunday, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick writes. Manager Dave Roberts says he doesn’t yet know how serious the blister is, but it has to be an annoying development for both player and team. Kazmir has been out since late August with neck inflammation, and the Dodgers are trying to decide who will start for them in the playoffs besides Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda. Kazmir has a 4.59 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 135 1/3 innings so far this season.
  • Another injured starter trying to return to action, Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals, played catch on flat ground Saturday, writes MLB.com’s Bill Ladson. Strasburg suffered a flexor mass strain earlier this month and later told reporters he wasn’t sure if he would be able to return for the postseason. Playing catch on flat ground is dramatically different from pitching in a game, but it appears he’s at least taken a first step toward coming back. The 28-year-old has a 3.60 ERA, 11.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 147 2/3 innings in 2016.

Steven Matz Could Soon Return From DL

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Mets lefty Steven Matz, who’s been out for over a month with shoulder trouble, could return this week, ESPN’s Roger Rubin writes. Matz threw a successful 30-pitch bullpen session Saturday, then took a scheduled day off today.

Today against the Twins, the Mets had rookie Gabriel Ynoa make his first big-league start after five bullpen outings. The Mets hope Matz will be a candidate to pitch when that turn in the rotation comes up again on Friday, although they note that they will monitor his workload.

“We have no plans yet. Nothing’s written. Steven Matz’s name certainly will be in the mix,” says manager Terry Collins. “But Steven, when he gets here, is going to be a guy with a limit in workload that he has. So to get him built up and get him where we want, I am not sure we have the starts available.”

Every game is crucial right now for the Mets, who are battling with the Giants and Cardinals for two Wild Card spots. And, of course, Matz’s return could impact the team in the playoffs should the Mets advance to play a full series. (Should the Mets play in the NL Wild Card game, Noah Syndergaard would be the obvious option to start.) The 25-year-old Matz has posted a 3.40 ERA with a strong 8.8 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 132 1/3 this year in his second full season in the big leagues.

Starlin Castro Strains Hamstring, Could Miss Rest Of Season

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Yankees infielder Starlin Castro suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain while running the bases Saturday and could miss the rest of the season, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes. Grade 1 strains are the least severe type of strain, but could require a two-week recovery time. The Yankees are likely to use Ronald Torreyes and Donovan Solano at second base in Castro’s absence. The Yankees promoted Solano today after a .319/.349/.436 season for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The loss of Castro is a tough one for the Yankees, who are currently 3 1/2 games back in the AL Wild Card race. Castro has batted .273/.304/.439 in 593 plate appearances in his first season in pinstripes, but he’s been hot down the stretch, hitting .313/.333/.571 in August and .310/.328/.483 in September.

The 26-year-old Castro will, of course, remain under team control for the foreseeable future, with the Yanks paying him a total of $30MM over the next three years, plus either a $16MM 2020 option or a $1MM buyout, as per the terms of the pre-arbitration extension he signed with the Cubs in 2012.

Mark Reynolds Has Broken Bone In Hand, Will Miss Rest Of Season

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Rockies first baseman Mark Reynolds has a broken bone in his left hand and will be out the rest of the season, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding tweets. Reynolds left today’s game after being struck by a fastball from Jose Dominguez of the Padres, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweeted earlier today.

Reynolds spent time on the 15-day DL last month due to a hamate bone injury in his left hand before making a remarkably quick return. It’s unknown whether the injuries are related, but it isn’t much of a stretch to guess that they are. Gerardo Parra has collected playing time at first base over the past few weeks, and seems likely to continue to do so with Reynolds out and with David Dahl, Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez manning the outfield positions.

The Rockies signed Reynolds to a one-year, $2.6MM deal last offseason, and heading into today, he had batted .281/.354/.442 in 438 plate appearances in Colorado. Those look like fine numbers, but they’re far from outstanding for a player in Coors Field, particularly one without much defensive value. Ominously, Reynolds — once one of the league’s most prolific home-run hitters — swatted just 14 long balls (including one today). It remains to be seen, of course, how his hand injury will affect his power, but the possibility of a further power decline surely will be on teams’ minds this offseason when they think about whether to acquire Reynolds.

5 Key Stories: 9/11/16 – 9/17/16

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Here are five important stories from the last week of coverage here at MLBTR.

MLB suspends A.J. Preller. The league suspended Preller for 30 days and fined the Padres for the team’s failure to disclose medical information in the Drew Pomeranz / Anderson Espinoza trade. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that the Padres kept two separate sets of injury information on each player and only made one available to the rest of the industry, and that teams the Padres traded with, including the Red Sox, White Sox and Marlins, were furious that they’d been tricked. The Red Sox felt MLB’s decision to suspend Preller wasn’t enough and that they should have received a player as compensation. Meanwhile, top Padres brass are split on the now-controversial Preller, with executive chairman Ron Fowler questioning Preller’s performance.

MLB: MLB: ALCS-Boston Red Sox WorkoutMore front office movement. The Blue Jays hired former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington as their new vice president of baseball operations, and he’ll focus on player development in Toronto. The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, will not pick up their option on senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson’s contract, furthering talks of change in the Arizona front office.

Billy Butler changes teams. The Athletics released their former DH early in the week, and the Yankees quickly signed him to a big-league deal. Since Butler had been released, signing him was a low-risk proposition on the Yankees’ part, as they’ll only owe him a pro-rated portion of the league minimum.

Dodgers, Brewers nearly completed — and could later revisit — trade involving Yasiel Puig and Ryan Braun. The rumored Puig/Braun blockbuster continued to generate headlines this week, as it became clear that the deal almost happened and that talks could be rekindled this winter. One possibility had Puig and Brandon McCarthy heading to Milwaukee along with two prospects.

Orioles, Scott Boras to discuss Matt Wieters extension. With catcher Matt Wieters set to hit free agency, Scott Boras and the Orioles front office will discuss a deal that could keep him in Baltimore after what’s been somewhat of a rough season. Boras also represents fellow Orioles Zach Britton and Pedro Alvarez, so talks between the two sides might not be limited to Wieters.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Central Notes: Brewers, Cubs, Reds, Pirates

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Time will tell whether the Brewers can follow the Cubs’ path back to contention, but it would help if Brewers GM David Stearns ended up with Theo Epstein’s trade record, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. The Cubs acquired Anthony Rizzo, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks and Addison Russell in a series of terrific trades. They’ve also added Jon Lester, Jason Heyward, John Lackey and Ben Zobrist via the free agent market, but the smaller-payroll Brewers won’t be able to depend on a similar infusion of talent. Here’s more from the NL Central.

  • The Reds are still hoping for the returns of several key injured players, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. Zack Cozart (knee soreness), Billy Hamilton (oblique strain), Homer Bailey (biceps tenderness) and Cody Reed (back tightness) are all currently unavailable, but of the four, only Reed has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Bailey threw a bullpen session Sunday, and Cozart and Hamilton are both rehabbing their injuries. Of course, there’s little time left for them to return, and manager Bryan Price characterizes the likelihood of a Hamilton return as “improbable,” but he wants to keep the door open. “The easy thing is to shut down — that’s the easiest thing in the world is to shut everyone down,” says Price. “However, that’s not a culture that we really want to build here. … And unless these guys are deemed incapable of playing, they should be working hard to get back on the field and I think they are.”
  • The Pirates could still theoretically win a playoff berth, but if their remote postseason chances do evaporate, their distribution of playing time is unlikely to chance much, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “Look at the at-bats that Adam Frazier and Josh Bell are getting, look at the innings that (Jameson) Taillon, (Steve) Brault and now (Tyler) Glasnow are getting, and (Felipe) Rivero is an anchor in our bullpen,” says GM Neal Huntington. “We don’t feel like we’ve got a veteran who’s taking innings or at-bats from a young player that necessarily we would change if we were to get eliminated.” Huntington does allow that Glasnow could get a turn in the Bucs’ rotation before the end of the season.

Rockies Release Brandon Barnes

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The Rockies have released outfielder Brandon Barnes, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. They had outrighted him early last month after David Dahl’s arrival in the big leagues made him expendable.

Barnes would have been eligible for free agency following the season unless the Rockies had again added him to their 40-man roster, at which point he would have become eligible for arbitration. It’s little surprise, then, that they’re willing to part ways with him.

The 30-year-old Barnes has been useful in the past due to his ability to play solid defense at all three outfield positions, but his career seems to have hit a wall of late. He batted a meager .220/.250/.320 in 109 plate appearances this season, well below his career mark of .242/.289/.356. He also wasn’t terribly impressive in the good hitting environment of Triple-A Albuquerque, batting .282/.323/.416 in 255 plate appearances there this year.

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