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Dinelson Lamet Leaves Start With Right Forearm Tightness

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APRIL 22: The Padres do not plan to send Lamet for an MRI, Acee tweets. He’s likely to go on the injured list, though.

APRIL 21, 10:50 pm: Lamet is presently considered day-to-day but he’ll head for an MRI to determine the extent of the injury, manager Jayce Tingler told reporters (including Craig Elsten of 619 Sports and Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune).

4:18 pm: Padres right-hander Dinelson Lamet made his much-anticipated 2021 debut on Wednesday against the Brewers, but it didn’t last long. Lamet left with forearm tightness after two innings and 29 pitches, the team announced.

Lamet spent the past several months recovering from a UCL strain – an injury that brought a premature end to his breakout 2020 season. Prior to Wednesday, he hadn’t taken the mound for the Padres since Sept. 25 of last year. The hard-throwing Lamet ended last season with stellar numbers – a 2.09 ERA/3.16 SIERA with a 34.8 percent strikeout rate in 69 innings – and could help form an elite foursome alongside Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove if he’s able to recover quickly and stay healthy for the remainder of the season. Of course, that’s now up in the air in light of Wednesday’s news, which is especially troubling when considering Lamet previously underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018.

If Lamet does have to miss more time, it would be the second shot to the Padres’ starting depth this week. The team learned Tuesday that lefty Adrian Morejon, who began the year in their rotation, will undergo TJ surgery. Even without Lamet and Morejon, San Diego could still form a capable five-man starting staff with Darvish, Snell, Musgrove, Chris Paddack and Ryan Weathers. However, there’s no doubt the Padres are a better team with a healthy Lamet, who finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting in 2020.

West Notes: Solano, Crawford, Rendon, Fiers, Pena

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Giants second baseman Donovan Solano exited their game against the Phillies on Wednesday with a right calf strain, manager Gabe Kapler announced (Twitter links via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). Kapler admitted that the injury could lead to an IL stint for Solano, who’s off to a .300/.333/.380 start in 54 plate appearances this year. Should he land on the shelf, Tommy La Stella, Mauricio Dubon and Wilmer Flores would be candidates to fill in at the keystone. Brandon Crawford was also removed from this afternoon’s game early, but it seems his issue isn’t as severe. The longtime San Francisco shortstop felt some tightness in his side and was pulled for precautionary reasons, Kapler said (via Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic).

More from the West divisions:

  • Anthony Rendon is “getting really, really close” to returning to the Angels, manager Joe Maddon told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). The star third baseman landed on the injured list April 12 due to a left groin strain. There’s still no specific date for Rendon’s anticipated return, but it doesn’t seem they’ll be without him too much longer. Because of a trio of postponements, the Angels have only played seven games without Rendon so far, going 3-4 while relying on José Rojas, Jack Mayfield and Luis Rengifo at the hot corner.
  • The Athletics could activate right-hander Mike Fiers from the IL in the coming days, according to Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. The A’s have gone the first few weeks of the season without Fiers after he suffered a lumbar strain that was initially diagnosed as hip inflammation. Fiers, 35, had a rough 2020 – 4.58 ERA/5.41 SIERA in 59 innings – but the A’s still brought him back on a one-year, $3.5MM guarantee in free agency. He figures to slot back into the A’s rotation when he returns, though it’s unclear whom Fiers will replace if the team sticks with a five-man starting staff.
  • Astros shortstop prospect Jeremy Pena will undergo surgery on his left wrist, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle reports. The Astros announced that Pena will require “approximately five months” to recover, meaning his minor league season is likely over before it even began. Pena hadn’t played above High-A ball coming into this year, but Rome notes that he was expected to start this season at the Triple-A level. The 23-year-old, who is regarded as one of the Astros’ best prospects, combined for a terrific .303/.385/.440 slash with seven home runs and 20 steals across 473 plate appearances between High-A and Low-A in 2019.

Latest On Sixto Sanchez

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The Marlins have gone the entire season thus far without one of their most promising young players, injured right-hander Sixto Sanchez, and his return is not imminent. General manager Kim Ng told Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald and other reporters that Sanchez is “still a ways out” in his recovery from shoulder inflammation.

Health has been an issue since last month for Sanchez, who started the spring behind schedule because of COVID-19 protocols and didn’t make his exhibition debut until March 15. The Marlins optioned Sanchez to the minors before the regular season to let him continue building up arm strength, but his shoulder began bothering him during a simulated game on April 1.

Naturally, the Marlins aren’t going to rush Sanchez back, as the 22-year-old is among their most valuable building blocks. Originally acquired in a 2019 trade that sent star catcher J.T. Realmuto to the Phillies, Sanchez has so far lived up to the considerable hype he garnered as a prospect. Sanchez debuted in the majors last year with 39 innings of 3.46 ERA/4.18 SIERA ball and averaged just under 98 mph on his fastball. While Sanchez’s elite velocity didn’t lead to a high strikeout percentage (20.9), a 58.0 percent groundball rate helped him keep runs off the board and finish in a seventh-place tie for National League Rookie of the Year honors.

To its credit, Miami’s rotation has opened 2021 well without Sanchez and fellow righty Elieser Hernandez, who has been on the injured list since April 5 with a biceps issue. Thanks largely to Sandy Alcantara, Trevor Rogers (who threw seven shutout innings against the Orioles on Wednesday) and Pablo Lopez, the Marlins’ starting staff has notched a 3.39 ERA/3.98 SIERA through the first 17 games of the season.

Brewers Sign Dee Strange-Gordon

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April 21: The Brewers have now formally announced their minor league agreement with Strange-Gordon. He’s been assigned to their alternate training site for the time being.

April 8: The Brewers have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder/outfielder Dee Strange-Gordon, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets.

Milwaukee will be the second straight National League Central organization for Strange-Gordon, who spent time with Cincinnati during the offseason and in the spring. The Reds ended up releasing him toward the end of March, and though Strange-Gordon subsequently rejected minors offers from other teams, he’ll now settle for one a little over a week into the season.

While the 32-year-old Strange-Gordon has an accomplished resume – two All-Star bids, an NL batting title, a Gold Glove Award and three seasons with at least 58 stolen bases – the former Dodger, Marlin and Mariner has struggled recently. From 2018-20 in Seattle, Strange-Gordon batted a meek .266/.293/.343 (good for a 73 wRC+) in 1,091 trips to the plate. Strange-Gordon stole 55 bags in that span and saw time in the middle infield and multiple outfield positions, but the Mariners made the easy decision to decline his $14MM club option in favor of a $1MM buyout after last season.

Now that he’s joining the Brewers, Strange-Gordon will give the team some middle infield depth behind Kolten Wong and Luis Urias after it dealt Orlando Arcia to the Braves on Tuesday. The Brewers’ outfield boasts Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Avisail Garcia as regulars, while Daniel Robertson and Billy McKinney are on their bench.

No Extension Negotiations Between Braves, Freddie Freeman

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First baseman Freddie Freeman has become an institution in Atlanta since his career began in 2010, but there is a chance this will be his final season with the Braves. The reigning National League Most Valuable Player is not signed beyond this season, and if he does reach the open market over the winter, he’ll be one of the game’s highest-profile free agents. As of now, Freeman and the Braves are not progressing toward a long-term contract.

Asked about extension talks with the Braves, Freeman said Tuesday (via Jeff Schultz of The Athletic), “There is no negotiations.” Freeman added that discussing a deal during the season “would be a distraction and I don’t like distractions. My main focus is the game tonight and I don’t think there’s going to be much talking any time soon.”

Freeman has already received one lucrative payday from the Braves – an eight-year, $135MM extension in February 2014. As a soon-to-be 32-year-old, Freeman won’t sign a deal that long again, but a five- to six-year contract worth $25MM or more per season doesn’t seem outlandish. One comparable could be the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt, who inked a five-year, $130MM guarantee with the Cardinals in 2019 at the age of 31. However, that was an extension hammered out several months before Goldschmidt could have gone to free agency, meaning the Cardinals weren’t competing against anyone for his services. The Braves may not have the luxury of avoiding a multi-team bidding war for Freeman if they’re unable to lock him up before the offseason opens.

Whether with Atlanta or another club, Freeman has done enough to earn a second nine-figure deal. The four-time All-Star has batted .294/.383/.510 (139 wRC+) with 245 home runs in 6,036 plate appearances, and he has missed only four games dating back to the beginning of the 2018 season. Freeman’s currently on pace for another tremendous year, having hit .233/.387/.517 (140 wRC+) with five HRs and a 14:6 BB:K ratio in 75 plate appearances. While Freeman’s batting average is uncharacteristically low, Statcast data suggests his .188 BABIP will eventually soar closer to his lifetime mark of .339.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/20/21

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Tuesday’s minor moves from around baseball:

  • The White Sox selected right-hander Alex McRae before their game against the Indians and optioned righty Zack Burdi to their alternate site. McRae, a 10th-round pick of the Pirates in 2014, amassed 33 innings with the team from 2018-19, but he struggled to an 8.18 ERA with similarly unappealing strikeout and walk percentages of 14.6 and 12.8, respectively. The Pirates outrighted McRae after his second season in the majors, and he caught on with the White Sox on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old threw three scoreless innings for the club in 2020, but it then outrighted him before bringing him back on another minors deal.
  • The Phillies have signed left-hander Rob Kaminsky to a minors pact and added him to their player pool, per a team announcement. Kaminsky, the 28th overall pick of the Cardinals in 2013, left the St. Louis organization when the team traded him to Cleveland in a 2015 deal centering on slugger Brandon Moss. The 26-year-old rejoined the Cardinals on a minor league contract heading into last season and wound up making his MLB debut. Kaminsky allowed one earned run on three hits and two walks (three strikeouts) in 4 2/3 innings with the Cardinals, who outrighted him in September.

MLB, MLBPA Hold First CBA Talks

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Major League Baseball and the MLBPA held their first round of collective bargaining talks on Tuesday, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports. The meeting took place via video conference and featured “dozens of people,” including members of player leadership, according to Passan. It was the first time MLB and the union have negotiated since the players rejected the league’s proposal for a delayed 154-game regular season on Feb. 1.

The current CBA expires on Dec. 1, and if the two sides don’t reach a deal by then, the sport could experience its first work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. The relationship between the league and the players has taken an especially contentious turn over the past couple years, which could make it difficult to achieve labor peace by the start of December.  At the same time, both sides understand that failure to reach an agreement could cause serious damage to the $10 billion-per-year industry, Passan writes.

As negotiations continue, the union will turn some of its focus toward “spending and competitive integrity,” per Passan. Along with pushing for teams to spend more, the players would like to earn more money earlier in their careers – which could mean changes to the current service-time setup. Under today’s rules, a player must have six years of big league service time to reach free agency. With that in mind, many clubs have kept talented prospects in the minors for seemingly longer than necessary in order to gain a seventh year of control.

On the ownership side, there continues to be a desire to increase the number of playoff teams per season. More than half of the league’s teams (16 of 30) made the playoffs during the shortened 2020 campaign, but the field reverted to 10 this year after the union turned down an expanded postseason as part of the league’s 154-game proposal.

Adrian Morejon To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Padres left-hander Adrian Morejon will undergo Tommy John surgery, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. He’ll miss the rest of this season and likely a sizable portion of next year as a result.

Morejon last appeared for the Padres on April 11, when he departed a start against the Rangers during the first inning with a left forearm strain. A Tommy John procedure looked like a realistic possibility for the 22-year-old at that point, and that’s unfortunately the route he will have to take.

Morejon, a Cuba native, signed an eyebrow-raising $11MM bonus with the Padres in 2016 and has since ranked among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects on an annual basis. However, Morejon hasn’t yet taken on a significant workload during a professional season, having never thrown more than 65 1/3 innings in an individual year. He combined for 27 1/3 major league innings as a swingman from 2019-20 before earning a rotation spot heading into this season with 14 frames of 3.21 ERA ball and 17 strikeouts in spring training. But Morejon’s 2021 will now end after just two starts and 4 2/3 innings.

The season-long loss of Morejon is obviously a blow to the Padres’ depth, but the team is still in enviable shape in its rotation. Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack and Ryan Weathers are their top options in the majors, and elite prospect MacKenzie Gore could debut sometime this season.

Nationals Place Juan Soto On 10-Day IL

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The Nationals have placed star slugger Juan Soto on the 10-day injured list with a strained left shoulder, the team announced. They recalled outfielder Yadiel Hernandez to take Soto’s place on the roster.

The loss of Soto is yet another early season blow for the Nationals, who own a 5-9 record and the majors’ third-worst run differential (minus-22). Of course, their struggles haven’t been Soto’s fault. While the 22-year-old phenom’s .300/.410/.460 line across 61 plate appearances pales in comparison to his 2018-20 production, that only goes to show how great he has been since breaking into the majors. After all, Soto has still been 31 percent better than the league-average hitter this year, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.

Tuesday’s game against St. Louis will be the first time this season that the Nationals will start someone other than Soto in right field. The role will go to Andrew Stevenson, who has hit .263/.341/.390 in 264 major league PA since he debuted in 2017. The addition of Hernandez gives the Nats another corner outfield option, though the 33-year-old is a completely unproven commodity in the majors.

Reds Place Mike Moustakas On 10-Day IL

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The Reds have placed third baseman Mike Moustakas on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 17, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to report. The team reinstated infielder Alex Blandino from the COVID-19 list in a corresponding move.

Moustakas hasn’t been in the Reds’ lineup since April 14 because of what the team has called a non-COVID-related illness. Cincinnati did, however, list him in its starting lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks before reversing course.

Moustakas, who’s in the second season of a four-year, $64MM contract, got off to a fast start this month before his illness sidelined him. The 32-year-old has slashed an excellent .289/.404/.553 with two home runs and as many walks as strikeouts (seven) in 47 plate appearances. Since Moustakas has been out, the Reds have turned to Kyle Farmer at the hot corner.

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