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Twins Sign Daniel Descalso To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have signed veteran infielder Daniel Descalso to a minor league contract, their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul announced.

This is the first we’ve heard about Descalso since the Cubs declined their $3.5MM option for 2021 in favor of a $1MM buyout after last season. It was an easy decision for the Cubs, who signed Descalso to a two-year, $5MM guarantee entering 2019. That deal couldn’t have worked out much worse for Chicago, as Descalso struggled to a .173/.271/.250 line with two home runs in 194 plate appearances in 2019 and then missed all of last season as a result of a left ankle injury.

The 34-year-old Descalso has typically been a below-average hitter during his career, as evidenced by the .235/.320/.362 line he has posted in a combined 2,893 plate appearances with the Cubs, Cardinals, Rockies and Diamondbacks. But he has played all over the infield throughout his career, and he did slash a career-best .238/.353/.436 with 13 home runs in 423 PA with the D-backs in 2018, so perhaps he’ll prove to be a useful addition for the Twins.

Mike Soroka To Undergo Exploratory Surgery On Achilles

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Braves right-hander Mike Soroka recently felt discomfort in his right Achilles and will have to undergo exploratory surgery, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports.

While it’s unknown how long this procedure will shelve Soroka, it’s yet another brutal injury blow to one of baseball’s most promising young hurlers. Soroka impressed during his first major league action in 2018 and was even better in 2019, when he logged a 2.68 ERA over 174 2/3 innings and earned an All-Star nod. Unfortunately, the 23-year-old has barely taken the mound since then.

Just three starts into the 2020 campaign, Soroka tore his Achilles and had to undergo season-ending surgery. Soroka wasn’t ready for the start of this season as a result, though the hope was he would make his 2021 debut sometime in mid-April. However, Soroka’s shoulder began to act up that month, and he has been slow in recovering from that issue. Still, indications before Wednesday were that Soroka would return in June; now, though, it looks as if this latest setback could prevent that from happening.

The Braves fared quite well without Soroka during a division-winning 2020 in which they advanced to the NLCS, but they haven’t carried that success over to this season so far. They’re just 17-18 and three games out of the NL East lead, thanks in part to a Soroka-less starting staff that owns the league’s eighth-highest ERA and sits fourth from the bottom in fWAR. Ian Anderson and Huascar Ynoa have done well to keep runs off the board across a combined 14 starts, though 2020 star Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Drew Smyly and Bryse Wilson have struggled in that regard.

Edwin Rios To Undergo Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

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Dodgers infielder Edwin Rios will undergo season-ending surgery on a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder, the team announced. Rios  went on the 10-day IL because of the injury on May 4.

A sixth-round pick of the Dodgers in 2015, Rios tore through minor league pitching and earned his first promotion to the majors in 2019 as a result. Rios thrived both that year and last season, posting far above-average offensive numbers, albeit over a small sample of plate appearances. He took 139 trips to the plate during that span and slashed .260/.338/.634 with 12 home runs and a jaw-dropping .374 ISO, mostly lining up in the corner infield along the way.

Even prior to this injury, this season was a major step back for the 27-year-old Rios, who hit an ugly .078/.217/.137 with one home run and a .059 ISO over 25 games and 60 PA. He’ll now have to wait until 2022 for a potential rebound.

Brewers Notes: Burnes, Yelich, Godley

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A few updates on the Brewers…

  • Milwaukee will welcome back ace Corbin Burnes from the COVID-19 injured list on Thursday, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com relays. Burnes confirmed Wednesday that he landed on the shelf April 26 as a result of a positive test, but he was asymptomatic and able to continue working out, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Prior to going on the IL, the 26-year-old flamethrower got off to a remarkable start with 29 1/3 innings of 1.53 ERA/1.25 SIERA, and he also piled up 49 strikeouts without issuing a single walk. Burnes is now three punchouts away from breaking Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen’s 4-year-old record of 51 strikeouts against no walks to open a season.
  • McCalvy also passes on the latest regarding left fielder Christian Yelich, who hit the 10-day IL for the second time last week because of ongoing back troubles. Yelich has returned to “doing baseball activities,” according to manager Craig Counsell, who didn’t offer a timeline for when he could rejoin their lineup. Yelich’s second IL placement came just one game after the team activated him from a three-week absence. Yelich has appeared in only 10 games and collected 41 plate appearances this year, but the former MVP has hit a rather productive .353/.463/.382 in that short span.
  • The Brewers designated righty Zack Godley for assignment on Monday, and he has since gone unclaimed on waivers, Steve Adams of MLBTR tweets. Godley has up to two days to accept an outright assignment or return to free agency. The Brewers signed the 30-year-old to a minor league contract in March, and they selected his contract April 27. Godley made a start the next day, but he managed only three innings of three earned-run ball before exiting with a right finger injury that required an IL stint.

Diamondbacks Place Zac Gallen, Christian Walker On 10-Day IL

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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.

Mariners To Promote Logan Gilbert

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The Mariners will promote standout pitching prospect Logan Gilbert, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. Gilbert will start their game against the Indians on Thursday, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets.

This is the second major promotion coming this week for Seattle, which is also set to call up elite outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic prior to Thursday’s contest. The Mariners and their fans will get their first major league looks at two players they hope will be part of the solution in Seattle for the long haul.

Like Kelenic, Gilbert was part of the first-round class of 2018. The Mariners took the right-hander 14th overall out of Stetson University, where Cy Young winners Jacob deGrom and Corey Kluber attended. And though Gilbert didn’t pitch professionally that season because of mononucleosis, he has since dominated minor league competition. Gilbert combined for 135 innings among the Single-A, High-A and Double-A levels in 2019, when he recorded a sterling 2.13 ERA with 165 strikeouts against 33 walks. There was no minor league campaign in 2020, which prevented Gilbert from pitching in a real game, but he threw five innings of four-hit, one-run ball with five strikeouts and no walks in his Triple-A debut this year.

Thanks in part to the excellence he has shown at lower levels, Gilbert ranks as one of the sport’s premier pitching prospects. MLB.com places Gilbert No. 28 on its top 100 list and writes that his impressive four-pitch repertoire – a fastball, slider, curve and changeup – could help him turn into a No. 2 starter in the majors. Baseball America joins MLB.com in ranking Gilbert 28th, while FanGraphs (No. 37), ESPN (No. 43) and The Athletic (No. 47) also regard him as a top-end prospect.

Gilbert will now join a starting rotation that has received mixed results this year. Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Flexen and Justin Dunn have fared reasonably well over a combined 18 starts. On the other hand, the M’s only other hurlers with three or more starts – Marco Gonzales, Justus Sheffield and Nick Margevicius – haven’t performed as hoped. Gonzales and Margevicius have been out since late April with injuries.

If Gilbert takes hold of a rotation spot and stays up for good, the Mariners will be able to control him through 2027. He’s also slated for Super Two status, meaning he’ll go through arbitration four times.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Fernando Tatis Jr., Wil Myers Test Positive For Covid-19

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May 12: Wil Myers, who actually started last night’s game, exited after three innings when the team learned of a positive Covid-19 test, manager Jayce Tingler revealed after the game (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Eric Hosmer, meanwhile, departed for contact-tracing purposes and has been placed on the injured list as a result. The league’s health-and-safety protocols stipulate that a player who tests positive will be away from the team for at least 10 days.

The Padres selected outfielder Patrick Kivlehan to take Myers’ roster spot. Kivlehan, whom the Padres signed to a minor league deal over the winter, has hit .208/.302/.401 with 10 home runs in 242 PA in the bigs.

May 11, 4:34pm: Tatis tested positive for COVID-19 and is asymptomatic, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. Profar and Mateo are in contact tracing. To fill their open roster spots, the Padres selected the contract of outfielder John Andreoli and recalled a pair of players – infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano and righty Nabil Crismatt – per a club announcement.

3:34pm: The Padres announced that they have placed shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and utilitymen Jurickson Profar and Jorge Mateo on the injured list because of Major League Baseball’s health and safety protocols. They’ll decide on corresponding moves before their game against the Rockies on Tuesday.

As is typically the case in COVID-related situations, there isn’t any word on how much time any of these players will miss. Regardless, it’s a blow to the Padres’ offensive depth. Tatis has gotten off to an effective start, albeit with much less on-base ability than he flashed in his first two seasons, having batted .240/.315/.552 with nine home runs and seven stolen bases in 108 plate appearances. Profar owns a far less imposing .234/.333/.308 line with a home run and five steals over 128 PA, though he has shown off defensive versatility by lining up at first base, second base and both corner outfield spots. And Mateo has hit a useful .250/.325/.417 through his first 40 trips to the plate this year.

This is the second time this year the Padres will have to go some time without Tatis, who was on the 10-day IL for part of April on account of a shoulder injury. They used Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim at short in Tatis’ absence then. Profar, meanwhile, has been the Padres’ primary starter in left field, but Tommy Pham hasn’t been far behind. He figures to get the lion’s share of action there with Profar out.

Outrighted: Farmer, Ryan

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The latest outrights from around the majors…

  • The Tigers have outrighted reliever Buck Farmer to Triple-A Toledo, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. The team designated the right-hander for assignment last week, but he cleared waivers and will stay with the organization. Farmer had the best two-year run of his major league career from 2019-20 – an 89-inning stretch in which he logged a 3.74 ERA with a 23.1 percent strikeout rate, a 7.7 percent walk rate and a 48.6 percent groundball rate. But this season has been a nightmare for Farmer, whom hitters have lit up for 13 earned runs on 12 hits – including a whopping eight home runs – in 9 2/3 innings. The 30-year-old also put up almost as many walks (eight) as strikeouts (10) before the Tigers demoted him.
  • The Cubs have outrighted left-hander Kyle Ryan, Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune was among those to report. Ryan has been added to Triple-A Iowa’s roster, Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register tweets. Although Ryan led Cubs relievers with 76 2/3 innings from 2019-20, he opened this season at their alternate site after a stint on the COVID-19 list delayed him in spring training. The Cubs called up the 29-year-old in late April, and he went on to pitch 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball with five hits allowed, two walks and two strikeouts prior to his designation. Overall as a Cub, Ryan has notched a 3.86 ERA in 79 1/3 frames with a stellar 55.7 percent groundball rate but less inspiring strikeout and walk percentages of 20.8 and 10.9, respectively.

Cubs Acquire Trayce Thompson

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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.

Tigers’ Franklin Perez To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Tigers right-handed prospect Franklin Perez will undergo surgery on his pitching shoulder, Evan Woodbery of MLive.com relays. Manager A.J. Hinch said the hurler “will be out awhile.”

This is the latest in a growing line of injury woes for Perez, whom shoulder and lat troubles have hampered throughout his professional career. As a result, Perez has thrown only 27 minor league innings in the Detroit organization since it acquired him from Houston in a 2017 blockbuster centering on ace Justin Verlander.

It was easy to see why the Tigers wanted Perez as part of their return when the Verlander deal occurred. He was a highly regarded and productive prospect with the Astros who then topped out as Baseball America’s 35th-ranked farmhand and No. 1 in the Tigers’ system in 2018. BA wrote then that Perez didn’t seem far away from joining the Tigers, and it contended he could have a future as a mid-rotation starter. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to fruition yet for the 23-year-old, who hasn’t climbed above the High-A level since Detroit landed him. BA now places him a much less promising 28th in the team’s system.

Perez is on the Tigers’ 40-man roster right now, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll keep his spot in the wake of his latest setback. As Woodbery points out, Perez is in his final option season, which will make it even more difficult for him to stay in the organization heading into 2022.

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