Kyle Schwarber To DL; Awaiting MRI Results On Left Leg Injury
3:06pm: Schwarber is headed to the DL, per MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat (via Twitter). It appears that Munenori Kawasaki could be the roster replacement. He is not on the 40-man, so space would need to be cleared.
APRIL 8, 11:33am: There is “a lot of concern” in the Cubs organization about Schwarber’s injury, tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. According to Olney, the team is more concerned about Schwarber’s knee than his ankle. ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers tweets that an update from the Cubs won’t come until “very late in the day.”
APRIL 7: Cubs catcher/outfielder Kyle Schwarber left today’s game after a scary collision with Dexter Fowler. Preliminary x-rays were negative, with the initial diagnosis suggesting that he has escaped with only a left ankle sprain, MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat was among those to report on Twitter. He’ll have an MRI tomorrow for a closer look.
While any loss would be unfortunate, it’s certainly promising to hear that the results don’t appear as serious as they looked on the field. Medical personnel checked out both Schwarber’s knee and lower leg after the impact. He was able to get to his feet, but couldn’t put enough weight on the leg to walk all the way from the warning track to the dugout, so he ultimately departed via cart.
It’s important to note, too, that the Cubs are as well-equipped as any team to absorb the loss of a regular position player. Chicago did deal away Chris Coghlan, but signed two everyday options in Jason Heyward and Dexter Fowler to go with Schwarber and Jorge Soler in the outfield. Kris Bryant and Javier Baez could also factor into the outfield mix, and Matt Szczur also remains on hand.
The 23-year-old rose quickly to the majors and made a huge impact last year. A catcher by trade, Schwarber’s bat has been good enough that he’s expected to spend regular time in the outfield while he hones his craft behind the plate. He ended the 2015 season — his age-22 campaign — with a robust .246/.355/.487 batting line and 16 home runs over 273 plate appearances. Of course, there’s room for growth. In particular, Schwarber saw most of his action against right-handed pitching, which he demolished, but struggled to a .481 OPS in 61 trips to the plate against southpaws.
Schwarber’s real upside, perhaps, is down the line, as he could be an immensely valuable player if he’s even a passable option in a catching role. Big-time prospect Willson Contreras will factor into the future at the position as well. Even if he sticks in the outfield, though, there’s reason to think Schwarber can provide sufficiently useful glovework to be a significant asset. Some notable gaffes aside, he rated somewhat below average by measure of Defensive Runs Saved last year but was an approximately average performer in the eyes of UZR — which is no mean feat given his limited experience on the grass.
Quick Hits: Schwarber, Nathan, Lincecum, Capuano
Cubs catcher/outfielder Kyle Schwarber left today’s game after suffering an apparent left leg injury in an outfield collision with Dexter Fowler. He ended up being carted off of the field after medical personnel examined his knee and lower leg — including his ankle. It’s usually difficult to know the severity of an injury just from watching a review, and it’s certainly possible that Schwarber escaped serious harm, but the violent impact to a vulnerable area certainly did not look promising. Currently, there’s no news of even an initial assessment, so this remains a notable story to watch at present.
Here’s more from around the game:
- Free agent righty Joe Nathan is working out on his home with intentions of a return at some point this year, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. The 41-year-old is on his way back from Tommy John surgery and will also be looking to bounce back from some tough recent results, but he’s had success well into his late thirties.
- Another familiar veteran righty working out privately is Tim Lincecum, who was reportedly planning a showcase that has yet to occur. While we await further news on that front, Dan Wade of the Hardball Times looks at the general prognosis for his attempt to rehab a hip labrum tear. In Wade’s analysis, it’s reasonable to think that the 31-year-old could return to being a back-of-the-rotation arm, though anything more may be wishful thinking.
- Chris Capuano is set to earn a $1.5MM base salary with the Brewers after cracking the Opening Day roster as a minor league free agent, Heyman reports on Twitter. The southpaw can also take down as much as $1.25MM in incentives. Capuano, 37, will open in the pen but could also provide a swingman option as the season goes along.
NL Notes: Epstein, Blash, Perdomo, Martin, Pollock, Gray
Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said that there’s been progress in extension talks with president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com reports on Twitter. While the sides aren’t setting any expectations for when a deal could be finalized, Ricketts gave the impression that one could be close. As has been widely expected for some time, Epstein is in line to overtake the Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman as the game’s highest-paid executive, Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com adds on Twitter.
Here’s more from the National League …
- The Padres are hoping that Rule 5 picks Jabari Blash and Luis Perdomo can justify their roster spots not only with their long-term upside, but also their immediate contributions, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes. Blash looks to be the more MLB-ready of the two, notes Cassavell, with the 22-year-old Perdomo showing plenty of talent but also a lack of polish. It looks like it’ll be an uphill battle for the young righty to stick all year after a tough spring and rough handling by the Dodgers late in today’s blowout loss.
- Padres GM A.J. Preller says he’s hoping to find a way to keep Rule 5 righty Josh Martin even after designating him for assignment yesterday, Cassavell tweets. By waiting to put him in DFA limbo, rather than utilizing outright waivers, San Diego has ten days to work out a deal with the Indians to retain Martin’s rights — assuming he isn’t ultimately claimed by another organization.
- Losing A.J. Pollock for what could be a huge chunk of the 2016 season puts the Diamondbacks in a significant hole, Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs explains. What had been a promising outfield mix, led by Pollock, now appears to have significant issues up the middle and in left, as Socrates Brito and Chris Owings — along with, perhaps, some outside help — figure to share time in center while putting even more pressure on Yasmany Tomas. It’s obviously always rough for a team to lose a player who’s expected to be a major contributor, but Sullivan explains that Arizona was already a mostly-borderline contender before losing one of the game’s best outfielders.
- The Rockies have received positive returns on Jon Gray‘s efforts to work through an ab injury, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports. After a lengthy live-BP session, Gray appears ready to make a minor league rehab appearance and also feels he may have discovered an important mechanical adjustment. Colorado is hoping for big things from the 24-year-old, and it is certainly good news that it seems he’ll soon be ready to join the MLB staff.
NL Central Notes: Cubs, Nolin, Torres, Pirates
The Cubs never made the big offseason deal to acquire a starting pitcher that many expected of them, but president of baseball operations Theo Epstein tells Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago that his team will be ready to pounce on a deal should the right opportunity present itself during the season. “We built in a little bit of room for in-season,” says Epstein. “We built in some (budget) flexibility, but I wouldn’t expect a very aggressive winter next year. I think we’ve been open about the fact that we really did two offseasons worth of spending and acquisitions in one winter, knowing that we like the players available this winter more than next winter.” Epstein also tells Mooney that any trade in which he surrenders young talent would have to land someone that fits “both for now and probably for the long-term if it’s going to be a bigger deal.”
Here’s more from the NL Central…
- Brewers lefty Sean Nolin has been officially diagnosed with a UCL sprain and not an elbow strain, GM David Stearns told reporters, including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter link). Nolin will rehab the injury for the next six weeks before making a decision on Tommy John surgery. Milwaukee picked up Nolin from the A’s this offseason and had expected to use him in the ‘pen prior to his injury.
- Via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt (Twitter link), Stearns also revealed that he had interest in signing right-hander Carlos Torres earlier this offseason upon his release from the Mets. Torres, however, inked a minor league contract with the Braves and headed to camp with Atlanta. While the Brewers weren’t prepared to offer a big league deal at the time, they clearly had a change of heart late in camp, as Milwaukee signed Torres to a Major League pact over the weekend after he opted out of his deal with Atlanta. The Brew Crew can control Torres through 2018 via the arbitration process if he excels in his new environs.
- While many Pirates fans have focused on the losses of Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and second-half surprise J.A. Happ this offseason, Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that not enough emphasis has been placed on retaining an expensive closer in Mark Melancon — a decision that kept a dominant Pirates relief corps intact. Cook spoke to GM Neal Huntington about the decision to hold onto his All-Star closer. “I know first-hand,” Huntington told Cook. “One year I was with Cleveland, we lost more late leads in a month than most teams do all season. I know that’s hard to come back from. That’s a big part of our decision to keep Mark.” Huntington said that he never got any offers to his liking for Melancon this winter and didn’t see many ways to effectively reallocate the $9.65MM Melancon earned in arbitration to definitively improve the 2016 club. Notably, he discussed the loss of Happ and explained that part of the reason the front office felt Happ was so successful was that he was asked to throw more than six innings just once with the Bucs — due in large part to Pittsburgh’s strong bullpen.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/3/16
Here are the today’s minor moves from around the league:
- Utility infielder Munenori Kawasaki has been added to the Cubs 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A, tweets Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago. Kawasaki, 34, will serve as middle infield depth. While he’s never been known for his bat, he generally draws positive defensive reviews at shortstop, second base, and the hot corner. Despite a lack of power, he’s also known for posting high walk rates and tolerable strikeout rates.
- Two notable minor league signings occurred earlier in the day. The White Sox inked starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez. He was released by the Orioles earlier in the week. Meanwhile, the Angels signed reliever Neal Cotts. He was cut loose by the Astros over a week ago.
- A bevy of players were designated for assignment earlier today. Check out the MLBTR DFA Tracker to learn all the latest.
Quick Hits: Morosi, Epstein, Trout
Congratulations to Jon Morosi, one of the reporters most frequently cited here at MLBTR, who has announced (Twitter links) that he’ll now be working full-time for the MLB Network and MLB.com. He adds that he’ll continue working for FOX Sports as a game reporter and on FOX Sports 1 network shows. Here’s more from around the game.
- Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has acquired an unusual reputation within the game and changed the qualifications typically associated with becoming a top team executive, Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post writes in a lengthy profile. As Svrluga points out, ten of baseball’s GMs are now Ivy League products, and none were the year before Epstein took over the Red Sox GM job. The profile features a number of fascinating details about Epstein’s life in the game, like how he used to trade game tickets for class notes when he was working for the Padres and going to law school simultaneously, and how, with the Red Sox, he got access to 30 years of college baseball stats by sending interns to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to photocopy them.
- With the regular season on its way, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe lists baseball’s 50 most important players, in his estimation. There are certainly some placements one might quibble with, but it’s hard to disagree too strenuously with Cafardo’s pick for No. 1, Angels superstar Mike Trout. Cafardo also lists 20 potential breakout candidates (topped by Phillies infielder Maikel Franco) and ten comeback candidates, including Josh Hamilton of the Rangers.
MLBTR Podcast: Len Kasper on the Cubs, Ben Nicholson-Smith on the Blue Jays
We talk more Cubs this week, bringing in Cubs play-by-play man Len Kasper to discuss the team’s outlook for the season. Then, MLBTR alum and current Sportsnet reporter Ben Nicholson-Smith hops on the line to talk Blue Jays and a curious extension market.
Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.
The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.
Cubs To Sign Jake Buchanan
The Cubs have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Jake Buchanan, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter links). The Astros released Buchanan today.
Buchanan, 26, has a 4.06 ERA, 5.1 K/9 and 1.56 K/9 over 44 1/3 career innings in the bigs, all with the Astros in 2014-15. Just nine of those innings came last season, however, and Buchanan found himself designated for assignment in September. His Major League numbers were roughly identical to the state line he posted over 696 2/3 innings in Houston’s minor league system, beginning as a starter but transitioning to a relief role over the last three seasons.
Cubs Release, Re-Sign Victorino, Parra, Kawasaki
1:55pm: The team has indeed reached new contracts with all three players, ESPNChicago.com’s Jesse Rogers reports on Twitter.
10:43am: The Cubs have released Shane Victorino, Manny Parra, and Munenori Kawasaki, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports (Twitter links). Chicago has interest in reaching new deals with all three, but obviously wasn’t willing to add them to the active roster or pay the $100K roster bonuses that each would have commanded as an Article XX(B) free agent.
Victorino had already been told he wouldn’t make the active roster, and is reportedly taking an opportunity to rehab his injured calf before moving onto the Triple-A roster. The other two players also seemed like longshots to crack a deep Cubs roster coming into the spring. Parra, 33, has had his moments as a southpaw pen piece, but was looking up at Travis Wood and Clayton Richard in the organization’s pecking order. Things were even tougher for the defensive-minded Kawasaki, who was buried behind multiple infielders.
NL Central Notes: Brewers, Shark, Luebke, Cards
It was on this day in 2002 that the Cubs traded swingman Julian Tavarez and three prospects to the Marlins for Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca. While Clement and Alfonseca were useful players for Chicago, this is definitely a “what if?” deal for the Cubs and their fans since Dontrelle Willis was one of the prospects sent to the Fish. The deal immediately led to some pain for the Cubs when Willis’ Marlins beat Chicago in the 2003 NLCS (featuring the infamous Steve Bartman incident) en route to a World Series title.
Here’s some news from around the NL Central…
- The Brewers announced several roster moves today, including the news that Will Middlebrooks, Eric Young Jr., Josmil Pinto, Shane Peterson, Manny Pina and Jake Elmore were told they won’t be making the Major League roster (Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the rundown of all the transactions). All six players will remain in the Brewers’ camp. Five of the six were new arrivals this winter — Pina was part of the Francisco Rodriguez trade with the Tigers, Pinto was a waiver claim from the Padres, and Middlebrooks, Young and Elmore were all minor league signings.
- Jeff Samardzija told ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers that he met with Theo Epstein this winter to explore a possible return to the Cubs, though not much came from the talks. “From where we were at, it takes a lot more to get a deal done. I think Theo had an idea of what they wanted and what they were looking for this year,” Samardzija said. The new Giants rotation member also discusses his previous stint with the Cubs and how the club’s rebuilding process has seemed to pay off.
- The Pirates reinvested in their bullpen this winter, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes, a strategy that makes an increasing amonut of financial and statistical sense, particularly for mid-market payroll clubs like the Bucs.
- Now that Eric O’Flaherty has been traded to Atlanta, it looks like Cory Luebke is going to make the Pirates‘ Opening Day roster, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets. The 31-year-old has reportedly clocking in at 94mph with his fastball and 87mph with his curve this spring. Luebke has an opt-out on Tuesday but it sounds like the Bucs won’t give opposing teams a chance to snatch him up.
- Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says that the team’s decision on Rule 5 right-hander Matt Bowman “could come down to the final hour,” as Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com writes. The Cardinals selected Bowman off of the Mets’ roster in December, making him their first Rule 5 selection in four years. Roughly two weeks ago, ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin reported that Bowman was “more likely than not” to make the cut in St. Louis.
- Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo will be taking a medical leave of absence to recover from offseason knee surgery, the club told reporters today (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Manager Mike Matheny said the Cards are preparing as if Oquendo will miss the entire season, and several members of the St. Louis coaching staff have shuffled positions.
- The Reds have some decisions to make before Opening Day, as C. Trent Rosecrans and Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer project the club’s 25-man roster.