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Dodgers Place Max Muncy On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced a handful of moves before tonight’s series opener with the Giants. Right-hander Emmet Sheehan was selected to start tonight, as previously reported. Los Angles also recalled infield prospect Michael Busch from Triple-A Oklahoma City. They put Max Muncy on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 13, with a left hamstring strain while optioning right-hander Michael Grove to Triple-A.

Muncy has been hobbled by the hamstring for the past few days. He’d hoped to avoid the IL but still isn’t at full strength. Skipper Dave Roberts downplayed real concern, saying the club was confident the power-hitting infielder would be back once first eligible a week from now (relayed by Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic).

Chris Taylor is getting the start at third base tonight. Busch could also factor into that mix as part of his second MLB stint. The former first-round pick got into seven games earlier in the year, hitting .211/.348/.211 over 23 trips to the dish.

Sheehan, on the other hand, is making his big league debut. It’s more than just a spot start for the Boston College product. Roberts said they’re likely to give Sheehan a couple turns through the rotation with Grove heading to the minors (relayed by Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Grove has had a tough go this season, allowing an 8.10 ERA over 30 innings across seven appearances.

Dodgers To Select Emmet Sheehan

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The Dodgers are going to select right-hander Emmet Sheehan to their roster, reports Juan Toribio of MLB.com. He will start tonight’s game, making his major league debut. The club has an opening on their 40-man roster from designating Adam Kolarek for assignment earlier this week but will need a corresponding move to get Sheehan onto the active roster.

Sheehan, 23, was selected by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2021 draft and made a brief professional debut at the lower levels of their farm system in the subsequent months. Last year, he spent most of it at High-A and was able to reach Double-A by the end of the year. He tossed 68 innings on the year with a 2.91 ERA, striking out an excellent 38% of opponents though with an 11.1% walk rate that was on the high side. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and added another 20 1/3 frames with a 3.54 ERA in six starts.

Coming into this season, he was generally considered to be just outside the club’s top tier of prospects. Many outlets had roughly five to eight Dodgers on their top 100 lists, with Sheehan just a bit behind that group. Baseball America ranked him #13 in the system, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs at #17 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #14.

Here in 2023, Sheehan has returned to Double-A and has been getting great results. He has an ERA of 1.86 in 53 1/3 innings so far, with a massive strikeout rate of 41.7%. His 10.9% walk rate is still a bit on the high side and he won’t be able to maintain a .211 batting average on balls in play or 91.1% strand rate, but his numbers would surely be impressive even with a bit of regression.

The Dodgers are now going to have Sheehan leapfrog over Triple-A and into the majors. That’s partially a testament to his impressive work but it’s also related to some challenges they have faced with the big league staff. Walker Buehler had Tommy John surgery last year and won’t be an option until late in the season, even in a best-case scenario. Dustin May was able to make nine starts this year but departed the last of those and was diagnosed with a flexor pronator strain. He’s on the 60-day injured list and ineligible to return until mid-July. Julio Urías has been on the IL since mid-May due to a hamstring strain and was supposed to come back this week but suffered a setback and will likely require a rehab assignment now. Noah Syndergaard went on the shelf just over a week ago due to a blister.

Amid all of those injuries to their established starters, the club has been forced to turn to their prospect depth. Ryan Pepiot was going to open the season in the rotation but he himself got injured at the end of Spring Training as he strained his oblique and isn’t expected back until the All-Star break. Michael Grove and Bobby Miller have been pushed into the rotation next to incumbents Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin. Miller’s ERA is a miniscule 0.78 but Grove’s is way up at 8.10.

Despite all those challenges, the Dodgers are managing to stay afloat. Their 39-30 record places them second in the National League West and they are currently holding the top Wild Card spot in the league. Whether this is just a spot start for Sheehan or he sticks around for longer will likely be determined by a few different factors. His own performance will surely be one of them, as will the continued results of Grove and Miller, along with the health situations of the guys on the injured list.

Dodgers Designate Adam Kolarek For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that left-hander Adam Kolarek has been designated for assignment.  The move opens an active roster spot for Shelby Miller, who has been activated from the bereavement list.

Kolarek signed a minors contract with Los Angeles back in December, and his contract was selected to the active roster earlier this week.  While a brief stint in the majors, Kolarek did at least appear in one game, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings during the Dodgers’ 7-3 loss to the Phillies on June 11.

That made it seven MLB seasons for Kolarek, and his second stint in Dodger Blue could be coming to an end.  The southpaw previously pitched for L.A. during the 2019-20 seasons, posting an eye-popping 0.84 ERA over 32 total innings over the two seasons and earning a World Series ring for his part in the Dodgers’ 2020 championship run.

Traded to the A’s in February 2021, the last two seasons have been a lot rockier for Kolarek, who had a 5.74 ERA over 26 2/3 total innings in Oakland.  Kolarek elected free agency following the season, and since he has been outrighted before in his career, he can elect free agency again if he clears DFA waivers and if the Dodgers try to outright him to Triple-A.  That said, after being shuttled up and down between the majors and minors so many times in his career, Kolarek might prefer to accept an outright assignment and remain in a familiar organization rather than test the open market again.

Alex Reyes Undergoes Shoulder Surgery, Won’t Pitch In 2023

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Right-hander Alex Reyes won’t pitch in 2023 after undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this week, according to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. This past offseason, the 28-year-old hurler signed with the Dodgers on a one-year deal that includes a $3MM club option for the 2024 season.

That, of course, will not come to pass, as Reyes as now gone under the knife for a second time in hopes of returning to the major league mound. Reyes has managed just 145 innings in his career since making his big league debut during the 2016 season due to countless injuries, though the right-hander has flashed immense talent when healthy. Most recently, Reyes posted a 3.24 ERA across 72 1/3 innings of work in 2021 that earned Reyes his first career All Star appearance.

As Plunkett notes, Reyes is now not expected to return to the majors until sometime in 2024, with a recovery time of at least twelve months. The outcome is surely deeply disappointed for both Reyes and the Dodgers, as Reyes had begun to ramp-up during Spring Training with an eye toward returning sometime before the All Star break. Unfortunately, Reyes had to be shut down thanks to increasing pain in his shoulder throughout his rehab process. At that point, Plunkett notes that more damage was found in Reyes’s throwing shoulder, though it was not related to the labrum that was repaired by Reyes’s previous surgery.

Fortunately for the Dodgers, the club has a solid bullpen even without Reyes, as the likes of Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and Caleb Ferguson have done well in holding down the late innings for LA this season. Going forward, the Dodgers will have to make a decision on Reyes’s $3MM option for 2024 in the coming months, though it’s possible the player and the club could come to terms on a different deal that would keep Reyes in LA without requiring the Dodgers to commit $3MM in guaranteed money to a pitcher who will have had a layoff of at least two and a half seasons due to injury.

Dodgers Select The Contract Of Adam Kolarek

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The Dodgers have selected the contract of left-hander Adam Kolarek, per a team announcement. In corresponding moves, right-hander Andre Jackson was optioned to Triple-A and transferred outfielder Trayce Thompson to the 60-day injured list.

A veteran of six MLB seasons, Kolarek made his MLB debut with the Rays in 2017, struggling to a 6.48 ERA in 8 1/3 innings of work in his first taste of big league action. He turned things around after that shaky debut, however, as he posted a 3.94 ERA (109 ERA+) in 77 2/3 innings with the Rays split between the 2018 and 2019 seasons prior the being shipped to the Dodgers at the 2019 trade deadline.

Kolarek was a revelation in LA, with a 0.77 ERA in 11 2/3 innings down the stretch with the Dodgers. He followed up with another sterling performance during the shortened 2020 campaign, pitching to a 0.95 ERA in 19 regular season innings as the Dodgers stormed to a World Series championship in 2020, though Kolarek allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings during the 2020 postseason.

After being swapped from the Dodgers to Oakland ahead of the 2021 campaign, Kolarek’s dominance with the Dodgers seemed to vanish. In 26 2/3 innings of work with the A’s between the 2021 and 2022 campaigns, Kolarek struggled to a 5.74 ERA with a 5.53 FIP. That downturn in performance came primarily from struggles with control, as Kolarek walked a 10% of batters faced with the A’s compared to just 5.7% of batters faced across the 2018-2020 campaigns. With an equal number of walks and strikeouts during his time in Oakland, it was no surprise when the A’s designated Kolarek for assignment last summer.

Since then, Kolarek returned to LA on a minor league deal and has dominated at the Triple-A level in 2023, with a 2.18 ERA in 20 2/3 innings of work this season. Kolarek figures to give the Dodgers an addition left-handed option in their bullpen alongside the likes of Caleb Ferguson, Alex Vesia, and Victor Gonzalez going forward.

Headed out in favor of Kolarek is Jackson, who returns to the minors after a three scoreless innings against the Phillies yesterday. It was a solid rebound for Jackson, who posted an ugly 7.98 ERA in six games over two previous call-ups to the majors this season. Going forward, Jackson figures to continue serving as valuable, optionable depth in the club’s bullpen who is capable of delivering in multi-inning stints.

Thompson’s placement on the 60-day IL clears a roster spot for Kolarek and comes as little surprise after manager Dave Roberts noted recently that the outfielder would miss more than a month with his current oblique strain, though the injury is not expected to end Thompson’s season. After a breakout season with the Dodgers in 2022, Thompson has struggled in 87 plate appearances this season to a .155/.310/.366 slash line while logging time at all three outfield spots.

Julio Urias Suffers Setback In Rehab From Hamstring Injury

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Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias was set to be activated from the 15-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Phillies, but manager Dave Roberts tells reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) that those plans have been put on hold after Urias didn’t bounce back fully from Thursday’s bullpen session. Ardaya notes that while Urias has not been shut down from throwing, he’ll be limited to throwing off flat ground for the time being, and will likely need a rehab assignment before he can return to the club’s rotation.

The news is a blow to the Dodgers, who recently put right-hander Noah Syndergaard on the IL where he and Urias are joined by the likes of Ryan Pepiot, Walker Buehler, and Dustin May. Urias was expected to help stabilize a rotation that currently only has four set starters in Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Bobby Miller, and Michael Grove. While right-hander Gavin Stone is healthy in the minors, Roberts noted that the 24-year-old right-hander isn’t an option for this coming turn through the rotation after the youngster pitched 4 1/3 innings in a start at the Triple-A level yesterday.

That leaves the Dodgers likely set to utilize a bullpen game on Sunday. While Gonsolin would be on regular rest if he were to start Sunday, the Dodgers appeared poised to utilize their coming off-day on Monday to rest their rotation, which a bullpen game on Sunday would still allow them to do. Andre Jackson and Justin Bruihl are the other Triple-A pitchers currently on the 40-man roster for the Dodgers.

As for Urias, his start to the 2023 season has surely not been the platform campaign he was hoping for ahead of his expected free agency this winter. Urias entered this season with a career 2.82 ERA and 3.44 FIP in 599 2/3 innings of work following a particularly stellar 2022 campaign where he led the NL in ERA while finishing top three in Cy Young award voting. All that figured to make Urias perhaps the most coveted free agent of the coming offseason this side of Shohei Ohtani, and while that certainly could still prove to be the case, Urias’s injury woes and pedestrian 4.39 ERA in ten starts this season have done little to boost his resume ahead of his first foray into free agency.

William Cuevas Signs With KBO’s KT Wiz

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The KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-hander William Cuevas, the team announced (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). He’ll receive a $450K salary. In a corresponding move, the Wiz released righty Beau Sulser.

Cuevas, who pitched in the majors between 2016-18, had been in Triple-A with the Dodgers after signing a minor league deal in April. He started nine of 11 appearances for their Oklahoma City affiliate, working to a 6.14 ERA through 44 frames. Cuevas had a decent 22.1% strikeout rate but struggled with home runs in the difficult Pacific Coast League setting. The Dodgers granted him his release yesterday, which Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman notes (on Twitter) coincides with the recent signing of veteran lefty Mike Montgomery to a non-roster deal.

While the jump from an American to an Asian professional league could lead to an adjustment for some players, Cuevas shouldn’t have much trouble getting acclimated. He signed with this same Wiz club leading into the 2019 season and spent three-plus years there. Cuevas was a reliable rotation fixture through 2021, helping them win the Korean Series during his third year. An elbow injury led the Wiz to let him go last May. Now that he’s healthy, they’ll bring him back to a familiar setting.

Sulser signed with the Wiz last November. The 29-year-old made nine starts but struggled to a 5.62 ERA through 49 2/3 innings. He struck out a fairly modest 15.8% of opponents against a quality 6.3% walk rate. The KBO club moved on quickly once the chance to reunite with Cuevas presented itself.

As a result, Sulser returns to the open market and could seek out minor league landing spots. He has ten games of major league experience, all coming last season between the Pirates and Orioles. Sulser has a 5.17 ERA over 179 1/3 frames at the Triple-A level.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History, #5: Pirates Get A Shortstop With Elite Tools For Tony Watson

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With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades of rental players to provide a loose guideline of what sort of returns fans can expect with their teams’ current rental players. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017-21, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player. We’ve already published some honorable mentions as well as entries No. 10, No. 9, No. 8, No. 7. and No. 6. If you disagree with our rankings, let us know! It’s all part of the subjective fun! Onto No. 6…

The Pirates endured a long postseason drought that spanned the changing of the millenium. They made the postseason in three straight years from 1990 to 1992 but then didn’t return for over 20 years. They had another three-year run beginning in 2013, qualifying for the Wild Card game that year as well as the next two. They couldn’t keep it going in 2016, dropping to 78-83 and missing the postseason.

The club had many star players in that time, particularly Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Russell Martin, Gerrit Cole, Francisco Liriano and others, but one fixture of those Pittsburgh clubs was left-handed reliever Tony Watson. Drafted by the Bucs in 2007, he made it to the majors in 2011. He tossed 41 innings in his debut season with a 3.95 ERA, securing 10 holds in the process.

He would get even better in the seasons to come, his peak coinciding with those postseason years for the Pirates. He had a miniscule 1.63 ERA in 77 1/3 innings in 2014, striking out 26.6% of batters faced while walking 4.9% and getting grounders on 47.7% of balls in play. He only notched a couple of saves as Mark Melancon was in the closer’s role, but Watson tallied 34 holds.

Watson’s effectiveness would fade a bit in the subsequent seasons, hardly a surprise given that his excellent 2014 campaign would be almost impossible to maintain. His ERA climbed to 1.91 in 2015 and then 3.06 in 2016. His strikeout rate also fell to 21.2% and 21.3% in those seasons. Nonetheless, he was still a very effective relief pitcher.

The Pirates weren’t able to bounce back from their down season in 2016. At the end of July 2017, they were sporting a record of 51-54, fourth place in the National League Central and 8.5 games back in the Wild Card race. Watson was pitching fine that year, with a 3.66 ERA at the time. But since he was just a few months away from free agency and the club was struggling, it made sense to move on.

Watson had spent his entire career with the Pirates up until he was traded to the Dodgers on July 31, 2017. He made 24 appearances for his new club with a 2.70 ERA as they finished 104-58, the best record in the majors. He made 11 more appearances in the postseason with a 2.70 ERA. The Dodgers eventually lost the World Series in what will go down as a major “what if” since it was the now-infamous sign-stealing Astros club that emerged victorious in seven games.

In exchange for Watson, the Pirates got a couple of younger players from the Dodgers. One of them was 21-year-old right-hander Angel German. He wasn’t considered a top prospect but had a 1.91 ERA in Single-A that year. Unfortunately, he bumped that to a 6.92 ERA in High-A in 2018 and then a 4.33 in Double-A in 2019. He reached free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Rays going into 2020, but was released in May of 2020 amid the pandemic shutdown. He hasn’t pitched in an official capacity since.

The other player in the deal was 18-year-old infielder Oneil Cruz. He had signed with the Dodgers in July of 2015 as a 16-year-old international amateur, securing a bonus of $950K. He played in the Dominican Summer League in 2016, hitting .294/.367/.444 in 211 plate appearances and stealing 11 bases.

Going into 2017, Baseball America ranked him the #27 prospect in the Dodgers system and their report highlighted something that has been a subject of interest in the years since: his size. “Cruz is a great example of the challenges unique to international scouting,” the report states. “As a 15-year-old working out for clubs in the Dominican Republic, Cruz was a 6-foot-1 shortstop. By the time he signed with the Dodgers for $950,000 as a 16-year-old, Cruz had shot up to 6-foot-4. He grew taller after signing, and by the time the 2016 Dominican Summer League season began, he was pushing 6-foot-6.”

Cruz actually was slumping in the first half of 2017, as he was hitting just .240/.293/.342 in 89 Single-A games. He had eight home runs and eight stolen bases but was striking out at a 29.3% clip. Nonetheless, the Pirates decided to take a gamble on him and brought him aboard in the Watson deal.

Six years later, it certainly seems like it was a worthwhile gamble. Cruz has risen through the ranks over the years, becoming a top 100 prospect thanks to his elite tools. He got a very brief two-game cup of coffee in the majors at the end of 2021 but then was sent back to the minors at the start of 2022. He was recalled in June and showed both the reasons for his prospect hype but also the concerning parts of his game.

Cruz has arguably the best raw athletic traits of any player in the league. His 122.4 mph maximum exit velocity was tops in the majors last year. His sprint speed was in the 98th percentile. His arm strength was in the 97th percentile. In short, he can hit for power, run and throw among the best in the world.

But one of the major questions around Cruz as a prospect was whether his height, now 6’7″, would prevent him from playing shortstop. No one that size had ever successfully played the position before. The other question was whether or not his penchant for strikeouts would become too much of a problem. Neither of those questions were definitively answered last year.

Despite hitting 17 home runs in 87 games, Cruz went down on strikes in 34.9% of his plate appearances. Among players with at least 350 trips to the plate, only Joey Gallo and Chris Taylor were punched out at a higher rate. On the defensive side of things, the reviews were mixed. Defensive Runs Saved gave him a grade of +1, but Ultimate Zone Rating came in at -7.5 and Outs Above Average at -9.

2023 was going to be an important season for Cruz, still just 24, to show the Pirates if he were capable of improving in either of those areas. Unfortunately, after just nine games, he suffered an ankle fracture during an awkward slide in a close play at home plate. The estimated timeline on that injury was four months, meaning he could be back in August if that prediction holds.

It’s still unknown whether Cruz will reach his full potential or not. Despite the injury setback, the Pirates have time to find out, as Cruz isn’t slated for free agency until after 2028. He and the club have also discussed an extension that could potentially keep him around even longer. Regardless of how it plays out, the Pirates have a player who arguably has one of the highest ceilings in the sport. If he takes a step forward in terms of defense and plate discipline, his tools will give him the chance to be one of the best players in the league.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Dodgers Place Noah Syndergaard On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced Thursday morning that struggling right-hander Noah Syndergaard has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a blister on his right index finger. Fellow righty Tayler Scott has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take Syndergaard’s spot on the roster.

The 2023 season has been an abject nightmare for Syndergaard. The former Mets powerhouse inked a one-year, $13MM contract with the Dodgers in hopes of rebounding from last year’s pedestrian showing between the Angels/Phillies and returning to the market in stronger standing. Instead, the 30-year-old righty has floundered through the worst season of his big league career. In 12 starts, Syndergaard has averaged just 4 2/3 innings per outing, sitting at a total of 55 1/3 frames on the year. In that span, he’s been rocked for a 7.18 ERA with a career-worst 15.4% strikeout rate.

Syndergaard averaged a career-low 94.5 mph on his heater in 2022, and though he voiced confidence in his ability to push that mark toward his pre-Tommy John Surgery levels of 97-99 mph upon signing with the Dodgers, his heater has continued to diminish. He’s sitting at an average of 92.8 mph in 2023 (93.3 mph over his three most recent starts). As that four-seamer has deteriorated, Syndergaard has added a new cutter and increasingly favored his sinker. Neither pitch has been effective, however. Opponents are hitting .366/.381/.537 against that freshly implemented cutter, while plate appearances ended with his sinker have produced a .309/.380/.529 slash. Per Statcast, the only of Syndergaard’s five pitches that has a better-than-average “expected” wOBA is his curveball — his least-used offering (12.2%).

Syndergaard’s walk rate remains elite, checking in at an outstanding 3.7% this season. That’s the fourth-best mark in MLB (min. 50 innings), trailing only George Kirby (2%), Zack Greinke (3.3%) and Zach Eflin (3.5%). However, Syndergaard’s 15.4% strikeout rate is tied for eighth-lowest in that same set of pitchers — a remarkable fall for a pitcher who fanned 26.5% of his hitters through his first five MLB seasons. Compounding the problem is that Syndergaard’s average of 1.95 homers allowed per nine innings pitched is the eighth-worst mark among the 98 pitchers with at least 50 innings in 2023.

Were the Dodgers healthier as a team, perhaps they might’ve already had their hand forced with regard to the struggling Syndergaard. They’ve been hit hard by injuries on the pitching side of the roster, however, with each of Julio Urias, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Ryan Pepiot and Michael Grove requiring notable stints on the injured list. That’s perhaps bought Syndergaard some extra time, but Urias is expected to return this weekend. At that point, the Dodgers will have Clayton Kershaw, Urias and Gonsolin in their top three spots, with impressive rookie Bobby Miller tightening his hold on that fourth spot.

Syndergaard would join Grove and top prospect Gavin Stone as a candidate for that fifth spot, and at least for the time being, neither of those two younger options has seized the job. But with Pepiot and May expected back this summer and the trade deadline now about seven weeks away, there’s no certainty Syndergaard will have a long leash to prove himself as one of the team’s five best options.

Trayce Thompson Likely To Miss More Than A Month

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  • Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson landed on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain over the weekend. Manager Dave Roberts initially pegged his expected absence around a month, though it seems that was a bit optimistic. Roberts told reporters this evening that Thompson is likely to miss beyond 30 days (via Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). It’s not expected to be a season-ending injury but there wasn’t any further clarity on the timeline. It seems possible he’ll wind up on the 60-day injured list if L.A. needs a 40-man roster spot in the coming weeks. The Dodgers called up rookie Jonny DeLuca to take Thompson’s spot on the MLB roster.
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