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Giants Place Thairo Estrada, Taylor Rogers On Waivers

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The Giants placed second baseman Thairo Estrada and lefty relievers Taylor Rogers and Tyler Matzek on waivers, report Grant Brisbee and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. They’re the latest veteran players known to hit the waiver wire as fringe contenders attempt to offload some salary.

Estrada, Rogers and Matzek were not designated for assignment. They can continue to play for the Giants pending resolution of the waiver process. If they go unclaimed, San Francisco can (and quite likely will) simply keep them on the roster for the rest of the season. However, waivers are irrevocable. If another team places a claim on anyone, the Giants do not have the ability to rescind the placement.

Of course, the Giants wouldn’t have placed the players on waivers if they weren’t hoping another team made a claim. This is strictly a move to try to shed payroll. Estrada probably stands the best chance of the group to be claimed. He’s playing on a $4.7MM arbitration salary. There’ll be roughly $810K to be paid from tomorrow through the end of the season.

The 28-year-old Estrada is generally well regarded for his defensive acumen. Defensive Runs Saved has never been keen on his performance, but he grades very highly by Statcast’s Outs Above Average. While that hasn’t changed this year, his offense has fallen off a cliff. Estrada was an average or better hitter during his first three seasons with the Giants, combining for a .266/.320/.416 slash. He topped 20 stolen bases and drilled 14 homers apiece in 2022 and ’23.

This season, Estrada has been one of the worst hitters in the game. He sports a .216/.246/.345 line through 374 plate appearances. While that’s partially due to a career-low .245 average on balls in play, Estrada has never walked much or had particularly strong batted ball metrics. Among hitters with 300+ plate appearances, only Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall have a lower on-base percentage.

That performance makes it likely the Giants will move on from Estrada next offseason even if he sticks on the roster for the remainder of the year. He’d be due a small raise on this year’s salary, likely into the $5-6MM range. The Giants have evidently determined they were going to decline to tender him a contract, so they’ll make him available to other teams a month earlier to see if they can shed the final month of his 2024 salary.

Rogers is having a much better season than Estrada, but he’d be a far costlier pickup. The veteran southpaw is in the second season of a three-year, $33MM free agent deal. It’s a backloaded contract that pays him $12MM this year and next. He’ll be due a little more than $2MM for the final month of the season. A claiming team would also need to absorb his $12MM salary for the ’25 season. That isn’t an outlandish amount for a reliever of Rogers’ caliber but represents a hefty sum to take on via midseason waiver claim.

The 33-year-old Rogers is a former All-Star closer with the Twins. He has remained effective over his two seasons in San Francisco. After turning in a 3.83 earned run average across 51 2/3 innings a year ago, he carries a 2.45 mark in 51 1/3 frames this season. Rogers has fanned an above-average 28.2% of opponents against a solid 7.7% walk rate. He has been generally solid all year yet hasn’t pitched his way into first-year manager Bob Melvin’s circle of trust.

By measure of leverage index, Rogers has been eighth on San Francisco’s bullpen hierarchy (among relievers with at least 10 innings). That hasn’t changed throughout the season despite Rogers’ numbers. It’s understandable the Giants wouldn’t want to pay $12MM next season to a reliever whom Melvin feels is best suited in the middle innings.

Matzek is the most affordable of the trio. Acquired from the Braves as a salary offset in the Jorge Soler deadline deal, he’s playing on a $1.9MM contract. Matzek was on the injured list at the time of the trade and hasn’t thrown a pitch as a Giant. He missed all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Matzek returned this season before landing back on the IL in May with elbow inflammation.

The 33-year-old southpaw had a tough first month in Atlanta, giving up 11 runs over 10 frames. The Giants sent him to Triple-A on a rehab stint a couple weeks ago. He has made five appearances, allowing four runs through 4 2/3 innings. Matzek should be able to return in September, though it’s not clear if a contender is willing to plug him into their bullpen after a five-month layoff.

Matzek is due around $330K for the rest of the year. His deal contains a $5.5MM team option for next season without a buyout. That’s unlikely to be exercised by the Giants or a hypothetical claiming team.

Reds To Promote Rhett Lowder

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The Reds are going to promote pitching prospect Rhett Lowder, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic on X. The young righty will start for Cincinnati on Friday, making his major league debut. The club will need to open spots on both the active and 40-man rosters to make space for Lowder.

Lowder, now 22, was a standout during his time at Wake Forest. In his final year with the Demon Deacons, he tossed 120 1/3 innings, allowing 1.87 earned runs per nine. He struck out 38.6% of batters faced while giving out walks just 6.5% of the time. He was one of the top ranked players in the 2023 draft and the Reds took him seventh overall, the second pitcher taken after the Pirates took Paul Skenes with the first overall pick, with Lowder eventually signing and receiving a $5.7MM bonus.

The young righty didn’t make his professional debut last year, but he was still considered one of the top 100 prospects in the sport based on his college numbers and draft pedigree. Here in 2024, the Reds started him off at High-A, but his time there proved to be short. In five starts, he tossed 25 1/3 innings with a 2.49 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, 5.9% walk rate and 49.2% ground ball rate.

That got him bumped to Double-A, where he made 16 starts with a 4.31 ERA but better peripherals. He had a 23.8% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 50.9% ground ball rate. If it weren’t for a fairly high .333 batting average on balls in play, he would have fared better, which is why his 3.33 FIP was almost a full run better than his ERA.

Lowder then got bumped to Triple-A and made one good start there, tossing six shutout innings on Thursday last week. Though Lowder’s numbers have continued to impress, he may not have been promoted to the majors if it weren’t for the club getting devastated by injuries. In the month of August, the Reds have lost Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa to the injured list.

Losing a bunch of arms like that would be a challenge for any club, but the Reds already had guys like Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson on the IL. Also, they have a double-header on Friday and just started a stretch of playing eight games in seven days. The current rotation mix involves rookie Julian Aguiar and swingmen who have been bumped into starting roles, such as Nick Martinez, Carson Spiers and Junis.

Perhaps this will just be a spot start to help the club navigate this challenging patch of the schedule. Even if Lowder stays a bit longer than one outing, the Reds will surely be keeping his rookie status intact one way or another. The club is now nine games out of a playoff spot and doesn’t have a strong chance of cracking the postseason at this point.

Lowder is already a consensus top prospect in the sport. Baseball America currently has him in the #38 slot overall. FanGraphs has him at #73, MLB Pipeline at #35 and ESPN at #55. Assuming the Reds don’t let him toss 50 innings this year, he’ll still be a rookie going into 2025 and will likely still be on those lists in some form.

That will allow the Reds to potentially take advantage of the prospect promotion incentive. To combat service time manipulation, the collective bargaining agreement awards draft picks to clubs if certain conditions are met. If the player is on two of three top 100 lists at BA, MLB Pipeline and ESPN with less than 60 days of service time, and then is promoted early enough in a season to get a full year of service, he can earn his club an extra draft pick just after the first round by either winning Rookie of the Year or finishing in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting during his pre-arbitration years.

At this point, the Reds don’t have much left to play for in 2024, so they will probably look to keep that PPI incentive on the table. But for now, they can get give Lowder a taste of big league life as they trudge through this viscous portion of the schedule. Though the club is currently in rough shape due to all those health concerns, fans can dream of a future rotation consisting of Lowder, Greene, Abbott, Lodolo and others going forward, as no one in that group is slated for free agency until after 2027.

Astros, Jason Heyward Agree To Deal

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Aug. 28: Heyward is taking his physical today, manager Joe Espada tells the Astros beat (X link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Assuming it goes well, he could officially be added to the club tomorrow.

Aug. 27: The Astros are nearing a deal with Jason Heyward, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on X. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN relays on X that the deal is done, pending a physical. The outfielder was recently released by the Dodgers. The Astros will need to make a corresponding move to open a spot on the 40-man once the deal is official, as well as a move to open an active roster spot once Heyward reports to the team.

Heyward, 35, was able to engineer a nice bounceback season with the Dodgers last year. After struggling for much of his time with the Cubs, he spent 2023 in Los Angeles, hitting 15 home runs while walking in 9% of his plate appearances. His .269/.340/.473 batting line translated to a 120 wRC+, indicating he was 20% better than league average.

Most of that damage came with the platoon advantage, as the lefty swinger only stepped to the plate 28 times against southpaws, compared to 349 times against righties. But it still allowed him to have a productive season. When combined with strong defense, he was considered to be worth 2.2 wins above replacement by FanGraphs.

He and the Dodgers reunited this winter on a one-year, $9MM deal but the Hollywood sequel wasn’t as satisfying as the original. In 197 plate appearances with the Dodgers this year, Heyward slashed .208/.289/.393 for a wRC+ of 91.

The Dodgers faced a tough roster decision when Mookie Betts was recently returning from the injured list. He had been serving as the club’s everyday shortstop prior to getting hurt but the decision was made to move him back to his customary right field spot for the stretch run and postseason. The club had Teoscar Hernández in left and was planning to use a mixture of Tommy Edman and Kevin Kiermaier in center, with Andy Pages also around as optionable depth. For bench/utility roles, they decided to keep multi-positional guys like Enrique Hernández and Chris Taylor, which nudged Heyward off the roster.

Given Heyward’s diminished performance and notable salary, he unsurprisingly went unclaimed off waivers, but there’s logic to the Astros picking him up now. With Heyward’s recent release, the Dodgers are on the hook for the majority of what is left to be paid out of that salary. The Astros will only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $740K league minimum, making him more or less a free pickup.

It’s also possible that his results this year are a bit based on luck. His .224 batting average on balls in play is well below the .291 mark he had last year and the league-wide average of .290 this year. His average exit velocity and hard hit rate are actually higher than last year’s, according to Statcast, though his launch angle is less than ideal. His 41.4% ground ball rate last year was a career low, as he has pounded the ball into the dirt at a 48.3% clip in his career. That number is up to 51.4% this year, so perhaps he could have some better results if that normalizes by even a few points, getting closer to his career rate.

The Astros have been without their regular right fielder for a long time. Kyle Tucker put up a monster batting line of .266/.395/.584 for a 174 wRC+ in 60 games before fouling a ball off himself in early June. The club announced his injury as a shin contusion and it didn’t seem like he was going to be away from the club for long, but he’s coming close to a three-month absence at this point. The club is hopeful of Tucker returning in September, but as of a few days ago, he still hasn’t been able to sprint at full speed. That suggests there’s still some hurdles to clear before he’s a candidate to return.

On top of that, Yordan Alvarez missed a few days recently due to some neck stiffness, though he was able to return to the lineup last night. Alex Bregman was also taking up the designated hitter spot for a while due to elbow inflammation, though he’s been back at the hot corner for the past three games.

Jake Meyers is the regular in center field. The corner outfield mix consists of Alvarez, Ben Gamel, Mauricio Dubón and Chas McCormick. Gamel is a 32-year-old journeyman who was just claimed off waivers recently. Dubón is a glove-first utility guy. McCormick has some good results on his track record but is having a brutal year, currently slashing .188/.253/.275.

Heyward isn’t a guarantee but he has a decent shot at being an upgrade over that group, and at no real cost to the Astros. Even if his bat doesn’t turn around, he’s still a solid defender at this point in his career. It’s a solid pickup and one that raises the possibility of Heyward perhaps facing his former club in the World Series, if the Astros and Dodgers end up in a rematch of the scandal-plagued 2017 series.

Pirates To Move Oneil Cruz To Center Field

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Pirates manager Derek Shelton announced to reporters today that shortstop Oneil Cruz will be moved to center field. As to whether this is a permanent move or just an experiment, Shelton said “I think right now, we’re looking at him as a center fielder” per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on X. Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be the club’s primary shortstop for the rest of the year, per Hiles on X.

Cruz, now 25, has long been an exciting player due to his obvious natural abilities. His Statcast page features plenty of red, as he frequently features as one of the best players in the league in terms of things like exit velocity, sprint speed and arm strength.

However, there have always been questions about concerning elements in his game. One of those is his that his tremendous ability to crush the baseball also comes with huge amounts of strikeouts. And the other big question has been about whether his height would prevent him from sticking at shortstop. Cruz is listed at 6’7″ and there’s never really been a player of that size at that position for an extended period of time. The Bucs have given it a try but the results haven’t been amazing. Cruz has over 1700 major league innings at shortstop now but with -8 Defensive Runs Saved and -13 Outs Above Average.

It seems the club has decided now is time to try a change. The Bucs hovered around contention for much of the summer but they have fallen back lately. As of right now, they are eight games back of a playoff spot in the National League and would need to pass six other clubs in order to get in. The Playoff Odds at FanGraphs give them just a 0.4% chance of pulling it off while the PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are even less optimistic at 0.1%.

With the season more or less on life support, the club is clearly turning its attention to the future. Center fielder Michael A. Taylor has reportedly been placed on waivers as the club hopes for someone to take on what’s left of his $4MM salary. If he is claimed, it would save the club some money and open up the position for Cruz. If Taylor isn’t claimed, the club will presumably either move him to a bench role or cut him from the roster regardless.

The remaining five weeks of the schedule will give Cruz a chance to get familiar with the position, which he has never played. He has 80 minor league innings in left field and one major league inning in that corner as well, but that’s the sum of his outfield experience. Perhaps the natural athletic abilities of Cruz, particularly his speed, can be better deployed in center field.

If he seems passable out there in center, it will naturally impact the club’s future, this offseason and beyond. He can still be retained for four seasons beyond this one, so he could give the club an anchor in center if he takes to it. Bryan Reynolds was once the club’s center fielder but he has mostly been in the corners for the past two years. Jack Suwinski got a shot up the middle after a strong 2023 season but he crashed back to earth this year.

The Bucs acquired Bryan De La Cruz from the Marlins at the deadline to try to solidify right field. He has three seasons of club control beyond this one while Reynolds is under contract through 2030 with a club option for 2031. The club also has guys like Billy McKinney, Connor Joe, Ji Hwan Bae, Joshua Palacios and Suwinski on the roster to potentially help out in the future as well.

Kiner-Falefa is a competent defender at multiple positions, including shortstop, and is under contract for another season beyond this one. The club will need a long-term solution there but he can cover the spot in the short term. Termarr Johnson, one of the club’s best prospects, is a middle infielder but hasn’t yet reached Double-A and will need some more time to climb the ladder.

If the club feels good about Kiner-Falefa at shortstop and Cruz in center, then their offseason can be spent focusing on other aspects of the roster, such as second base, first base or the bullpen. For Cruz personally, he has been a strong offensive performer despite his strikeouts. He has hit .252/.314/.459 so far in his career for a wRC+ of 111 while also stealing 30 bases. That has come with subpar shortstop defense but he could perhaps increase his future earning power if he can become a solid defensive center fielder instead.

Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery Discuss Relationship With Scott Boras

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The most recent offseason was undoubtedly disappointing for the players on the whole. Many of them signed deals well south of expectations, with the most high-profile examples being the so-called “Boras Four”. Each of Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, Matt Chapman and Cody Bellinger, who are all represented by the Boras Corporation, lingered on the market deep into the offseason and ultimately signed deals below industry forecasts, though with opt-outs that will allow them to retest free agency in the future.

The two pitchers in that foursome evidently have different feelings about how this played out, based both on their actions and their words. Montgomery landed a one-year, $25MM deal with the Diamondbacks that didn’t become official until March 29. The deal also contained a $20MM vesting player option that Montgomery could unlock with at least ten starts in 2024, with his 18th and 23rd starts also adding $2.5MM to the option. On April 11, less than two weeks after that deal was signed, it was reported that Montgomery had switched his representation from Scott Boras to Joel Wolfe and Nick Chanock of Wasserman.

“I don’t know, obviously Boras kind of butchered it,” Montgomery said last week, per Mac Cerullo of the Boston Herald, “so I’m just trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it.” Montgomery adds that, to his knowledge, he didn’t receive an offer from the Red Sox in the winter.

“Yeah, for sure. Me and my wife loved it here. She was at Beth Israel for a year, love the area, love the fans,” Montgomery said when asked whether he would have considered an offer from the Sox. “It would have been awesome if it had worked out that way, but it didn’t.”

The Herald also received a comment from Boras himself in response. “I saw what Jordan said. I know what it is to be frustrated with this game. As a former player I feel for him. But I’m also a lawyer with obligations to my clients, including former ones. So I cannot discuss what happened or the decisions Jordan made unless he gives me permission,” Boras said. “If he gives me the green light I’ll be happy to talk about it. I’ve been doing this for over 35 years. I relay all offers and relevant information to all my clients and act at their direction. They make all decisions. We wish Jordan well.”

Montgomery was frequently connected to the Red Sox both because the club was in need of starting pitching and because his wife was working in the area, as he mentioned. Most reporting throughout the offseason suggested that the two sides weren’t close to agreeing on a deal. In early March, Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that the two sides were in contact but that Montgomery was looking for a seven-year deal that the Sox didn’t want to give out.

We can’t know for sure what sorts of discussions were taking place between Boras and the Red Sox, or any other teams, but Montgomery is clearly not thrilled with the way it played out. Not everyone places the blame on Boras though, as Blake Snell is still a Boras guy and defended him when asked about the Montgomery comments.

“My experience with Scott has been great,” Snell said yesterday, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. “He told me everything that was happening, all the offers I got. So for him to just get bashed for what I believe is false, that’s not fair at all. I really strongly believe that.”

When asked about Montgomery’s tough time, Snell responded thusly: “He signed the deal that he ultimately wanted to sign,” Snell said. “He has the choice. I don’t know what other deals he was offered, but I know everything that was offered to me. It’s just sad that he thinks that way when I see Scott as a very honorable man.”

Boras has a lengthy track record of securing huge deals for his clients but it’s possible that he still could have whiffed on the recent offseason, which Snell was asked about. “Yeah, or it could just be a free agency where no one was really pushing to get anybody,” said Snell. “It sucks because that was … our year to get our deals that we worked so hard to get. But ultimately the market’s the market. You can’t control it. You can’t get upset about it the way it is. Just pitch better, find a way to do better, continue to compete. Whatever you believe you deserve, you go earn it.”

There is some logic to Snell’s framing of the winter, which was mostly defined by a lack of spending. Only four free agents got nine-figure deals in the winter, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, compared to nine in the previous offseason. Of the four from the most recent winter, three of them were fairly unique cases. One of those was the mega deal for Shohei Ohtani, who is an unprecedented talent. Two others were for 25-year-olds coming over from Asia: Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee. The fourth was for Aaron Nola. The rest of the market was modest, with solid regulars like Amed Rosario, Jurickson Profar, Randal Grichuk, Michael A. Taylor and others getting $4MM or less. It would appear that Montgomery believes Boras could have handled that environment better while Snell simply views it as something that was beyond his control.

In addition to their differing opinions about the past, both players now appear to have divergent future. Montgomery has struggled badly with the Snakes this year and was recently moved to the bullpen. As of today, he has a 6.44 earned run average through 95 innings and 19 starts. Unless he turns things around dramatically in the coming weeks, it would appear his best course of action is to take his player option and hope for better results in 2025. By making at least 18 starts this year, he has unlocked that option and raised the value to $22.5MM.

Snell, on the other hand, has been on fire after a slow start. By the end of June, he had two stints on the injured list, six starts and a 9.51 ERA. But he came off the IL in early July and has posted a 1.30 ERA in his nine most recent starts, including a no-hitter against the Reds earlier in August. The lefty signed a two-year, $62MM deal with the Giants that allows him to opt-out at season’s end. He could trigger a $30MM player option for 2025 but could also walk away with $32MM banked and then take another shot at free agency.

If he keeps putting up good numbers for the next few weeks, it’s highly likely that another trip to the open market is in the cards. Speaking of the rest of the season, Snell says that “I’ll enjoy those starts and make the most of them and we’ll figure out what happens after that later,” before adding that he has high confidence in Boras to handle whatever comes next. “Of course,” Snell said. “High confidence. Really high.”

Boras tends to be a polarizing figure in baseball circles, so the struggles of the “Boras Four” led to a lot of schadenfreude and declarations that he was “washed” or over the hill. However, Boras is well set up to be a key player in free agency again this winter. Snell, Chapman and Bellinger will all have chances to return to the open market, while Boras also represents big-name players slated for free agency this winter such as Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, Yusei Kikuchi, Sean Manaea, Tyler O’Neill, J.D. Martinez and many others. What those players will be entering another frosty market or not remains to be seen.

Nationals Promote Dylan Crews

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Aug. 26: The Nationals have formally selected Crews’ contract, per a team announcement. Their 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Aug. 25: The Nationals announced that they have optioned catcher Riley Adams to Triple-A, making room for Crews to join the active roster tomorrow.

Aug. 23: The Nationals are planning to promote prospect Dylan Crews, reports Grant Paulsen of MLB Network Radio on X. Crews will be making his major league debut when the Nats host the Yankees on Monday. The young outfielder is not currently on the club’s 40-man roster but they already have a vacancy there. Unless they use that roster spot over the weekend, only a corresponding active roster move will be necessary.

Crews, now 22, was selected with the second overall pick in last year’s draft, after his Louisiana State teammate Paul Skenes was taken first by the Pirates. Crews put up huge numbers at the plate throughout his college career and carried that over into his professional career. After drafting him last summer, the Nats got his feet wet with some time at the Complex League level, Single-A and Double-A. He slashed .292/.377/.467 in 159 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 135.

Coming into 2024, Crews was already considered one of the top ten prospects in the sport and he has continued to justify that status here in 2024. The Nats started him at Double-A and he got into 51 games at that level this year. He slashed .274/.343/.446 for a 122 wRC+ while also stealing 15 bases. He was then promoted to Triple-A and has played in 48 games at that level, producing a line of .271/.343/.464 and a 108 wRC+ while swiping another 10 bags.

In addition to that strong work at the plate and on the basepaths, Crews is considered a strong defender who could stick in center field for the long term. The Nats have given him a bit of time in the corners but have mostly had him up the middle, and will likely view him as a fit there for the future.

With his ability to contribute in all facets of the game, he is unanimously viewed as one of the best prospects in the sport at the moment. Baseball America currently lists him fourth overall, though fellow Nat James Wood is listed #1 and has since graduated from prospect status, effectively putting Crews in the #3 spot. The other two guys ahead of Crews are already in the majors: Jackson Holliday of the Orioles and Junior Caminero of the Rays. FanGraphs has Crews at #6, with MLB Pipeline at #3, ESPN at #12 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #7.

The Nats have been in rebuilding mode for a few years and have been gradually building a core of young and controllable talent. In addition to the aforementioned Wood, they have shortstop CJ Abrams, pitcher MacKenzie Gore and others. Their record is 58-70 this year, well out of contention, so they can focus on playing young players and getting them acclimated to the big leagues.

It’s likely not a coincidence that Crews is being promoted at this part of the calendar, as the Nats should be able to keep his rookie status intact for 2025. To lose rookie status, a position player needs to either spend 45 days on an active roster or log 130 at-bats. There are now less than 45 days left in the 2024 season, so the Nats will undoubtedly manage his playing time in such a way that he doesn’t get to that 130 at-bat threshold.

That is significant due to the prospect promotion incentive. In an attempt to mitigate service time manipulation, the collective bargaining agreement allows clubs the chance to earn an extra draft pick if they promote a top prospect for a full season and that player goes on to win Rookie of the Year or meet other awards voting criteria. By keeping Crews a rookie for 2025, the Nats will have a chance to reap that reward if he ends up sticking on their roster for all of next year.

For now, it will be interesting to see how the Nats deploy Crews in the outfield. As mentioned, Crews is considered a capable defender in center but has seen some time in the corners. The Nats currently have Jacob Young, one of the best defensive center fielders in the league. Young has hit just .248/.308/.318 this year for a 79 wRC+ but he has 13 Defensive Runs Saved and 18 Outs Above Average. That OAA total is tops among all fielders at all positions this year, while the DRS mark is third among center fielders behind Jarren Duran and Daulton Varsho.

Perhaps the club will have Wood in left, Young in center and Crews in right, though they could also have Alex Call in right and bump Young down to fourth outfielder status. Call is slashing .347/.429/.531 this year in his 112 plate appearances.

Regardless of how they disperse the playing time, it’s yet another promotion that is part of the Nats putting together a young group they can build around. As they push towards opening a new competitive window, their payroll slate is fairly clean. With the Patrick Corbin contract off the books after this season, their two notable commitments will be for catcher Keibert Ruiz and retired star Stephen Strasburg. Perhaps that will make them an interesting player in the upcoming offseason, though that might depend on how their young players perform in the remainder of the schedule.

Cardinals Place Willson Contreras On 15-Day IL Due To Finger Fracture

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TODAY: The Cardinals officially announced the IL placement for Contreras, and Herrera’s promotion to the active roster.

AUGUST 24: Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras has suffered a fracture to his right middle finger and is headed for the injured list, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Per Goold, catcher Ivan Herrera is expected to replace Contreras on the active roster tomorrow. Contreras suffered the injury when he was hit by a pitch during the club’s loss to the Twins this evening, and a specific timetable for his return is not yet available. Per Goold, Contreras is set to undergo scanning on the injured finger on Monday that could help determine the length of his absence.

While it’s not yet clear exactly how long Contreras figures to be out due to the injury, the news is nonetheless an incredibly frustrating development for the Cardinals. The 32-year-old has been among the club’s most reliable hitters this season with an excellent .263/.379/.470 slash line (141 wRC+) this season but has struggled to stay on the field between this latest injury and a broken arm suffered back in May when he was struck with a backswing after St. Louis coaches suggested he move closer to the plate to improve his pitch framing. With just over a month remaining in the regular season, a lengthy absence for Contreras could spell the end of his 2024 campaign.

Even if Contreras manages to return before the year comes to an end, it’s a worrisome omen for the Cardinals’ dwindling playoff aspirations. The club dropped to a 64-65 record today that puts them below .500 and in third place in the NL Central behind both the Brewers and Cubs. Given Milwaukee’s near-insurmountable 10.5 game lead in the division, however, the club’s playoff hopes have been more focused on the Wild Card in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the Cardinals are now six games back of the Braves for the final NL Wild Card spot and would not only need to make up that deficit but also surpass the Cubs, Giants, and Mets in the standings to claim a spot in the postseason.

Much of the club’s struggles this year have been due to an offense that has been rather lackluster this season. The club’s collective wRC+ of 97 is 18th in the majors, down from 13th with a 103 wRC+ when compared to last year’s 91-loss team. Improvements in the club’s rotation have helped to make the club more competitive than they were last year, but improving the starting staff’s collective ERA from 5.08 last year to 4.46 this season has not been enough to overcome the struggles of key offensive players from last year’s club like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Nolan Gorman.

On an offense that’s seen only Alec Burleson, Masyn Winn, and Brendan Donovan post numbers more than 5% better than league average by wRC+ among its qualified hitters, it’s hard to overstate the importance of Contreras as a middle-of-the-order power bat for the Cardinals. With the veteran backstop now sidelined for the foreseeable future, the club will now need to hope for improvements from pieces like Arenado and Lars Nootbaar down the stretch to keep what little playoff hopes the club has alive.

They’ll also need young catchers Herrera and Pedro Pages to step up and perform in Contreras’s absence. Pages, 25, has been a suitable back-up for Contreras this year with a .250/.299/.364 slash line that’s good for an 86 wRC+, and his .326/.356/.442 slash line since the All-Star break is encouraging, though it comes in a limited sample size of just 14 games. That leaves Herrera as perhaps the better bet to draw regular starts behind the plate. The 24-year-old youngster has seen action in parts of three big league seasons but got his first extended look earlier this year and performed solidly with a .279/.340/.378 slash line (105 wRC+) and excellent peripheral numbers such as a 9.0% barrel rate that suggest the possibility of positive regression in his future. Herrera has continued to hit quite well since he returned to Triple-A early last month, with a .280/.402/.473 slash line in 112 trips to the plate since being sent back down.

Giants, Matt Chapman Have “Had Conversations” About Potential Extension

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For the second consecutive year, Matt Chapman stands as one of the top impending free agent hitters. Unless he suffers a significant injury in the next few weeks, he is all but assured to opt-out of the final two years and $36MM on his deal with the Giants.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported a couple weeks ago that San Francisco was hopeful of retaining the star third baseman on a new multi-year deal. Agent Scott Boras confirmed as much to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, telling her that the sides have had some discussions. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi framed things similarly, telling Slusser the parties have “had conversations” and “active dialogue” on a long-term arrangement.

That’s rather vague terminology that certainly doesn’t suggest anything is imminent. It’s nevertheless confirmation there’s some amount of mutual interest in keeping Chapman in San Francisco. He’s a California native who has a longstanding relationship with skipper Bob Melvin dating back to their time in Oakland.

Chapman hasn’t had any problem acclimating to Oracle Park. He takes a .245/.335/.442 batting line and his customarily strong defensive grades into tonight’s game in Seattle. He’s at 20+ homers for the fifth time in his career with a strong 11% walk percentage. Chapman’s 24.3% strikeout rate is a bit higher than the league mark but would be his lowest rate since 2019. It’s very good all-around production despite a slow start. Chapman limped to a .266 on-base percentage through the end of April. He has been one of the most productive infielders in the majors since then, posting a .253/.355/.461 line with 16 homers dating back to May 1.

It’s the inverse pattern to Chapman’s 2023 campaign. He was arguably the best player in the majors through the season’s first month last year. His offensive numbers plummeted after that and he hit the market with something of a down-arrow trajectory. Chapman had an easy call to decline a qualifying offer from the Blue Jays, but he and his camp at the Boras Corporation did not find the money they were seeking.  It wasn’t until the beginning of March that he inked a $54MM guarantee with multiple opt-outs.

Between a signing bonus, his salary, and a buyout (assuming he opts out), Chapman is making $20MM this year. That’s about what he’d have made if he’d taken the QO from Toronto — although the extra two years present more long-term security than the qualifying offer would have provided.

Chapman will presumably try again to land a deal that pushes into nine figures. He’ll play almost all of next season at age 32. It’s difficult but not impossible to pull a $100MM+ deal at that age. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, there have been four nine-figure deals within the last decade for hitters who were 32 or older. Freddie Freeman’s six-year, $162MM pact led the way among free agent contracts. Jose Altuve, Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado signed extensions ranging between $125MM and $170MM in new money on five-year terms.

Those players were all better hitters than Chapman has been. As a plus defender at third base, he provides more value on that side of the ball than all of them, aside from maybe Machado. Teams could be wary about paying for defense into a player’s mid-30s.

A five-year term for Chapman would run through his age-36 season. That’s the point through which Kris Bryant and Anthony Rendon were paid on seven-year contracts (both of which have been disasters for the team). Chapman certainly isn’t going to approach Rendon’s $35MM annual salary. Bryant’s $26MM AAV is a more realistic target, albeit on a what’d likely be a four- or five-year term instead of seven.

Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu each signed through age-37 as free agent third basemen. Both guarantees checked in just south of $100MM. Those contracts are a few years old and were both signed after the player declined a qualifying offer, thereby attaching draft compensation. The Giants cannot make Chapman a QO — the CBA prevents a player from receiving more than one in his career — so he’d hit the market entirely unencumbered. Barring some kind of hometown discount, Chapman presumably wouldn’t be interested in forgoing a free agent trip for less than the Donaldson and LeMahieu guarantees.

Alex Bregman leads the impending free agent class at third base. Chapman is the clear #2 option and the class drops off dramatically from there. Last winter’s group was even shallower. Assuming one considers Cody Bellinger primarily an outfielder rather than a first baseman, Chapman’s $54MM guarantee led all infielders.

As Slusser observes, a Chapman extension may need to be San Francisco’s biggest investment under this front office. The Giants have only signed one nine-figure deal since they hired Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations during the 2018-19 offseason: last winter’s six-year, $113MM pact for 25-year-old center fielder Jung Hoo Lee. They’ve taken plenty of bigger swings and were a failed physical away from signing Carlos Correa for $350MM, but they’ve yet to actually land a domestic free agent on a long-term deal. They’ve been much more amenable to shorter-term pickups with opt-outs for players whose markets didn’t develop as they’d hoped (e.g. Carlos Rodón, Michael Conforto, Blake Snell, Chapman).

The Giants have around $132MM in guaranteed money for next season. Expected opt-outs for Snell and Chapman would knock that down to roughly $85MM. Lee, Logan Webb, Robbie Ray (assuming he doesn’t opt out this year) and Jordan Hicks are the only players signed beyond next year. That doesn’t include arbitration projections for Mike Yastrzemski, Thairo Estrada, Tyler Rogers, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval. Estrada and Yastrzemski are potential trade or non-tender candidates. The Giants should have a good amount of payroll flexibility even if they retain everyone from their arbitration group.

Mariners Hire Edgar Martinez As Hitting Coach For Rest Of 2024

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The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Edgar Martinez as hitting coach for the remainder of the season. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times first reported (X link) yesterday that the Hall of Famer was going to join new manager Dan Wilson’s staff. The role was unreported, but in tandem with Seattle’s dismissal of hitting coach Jarret DeHart yesterday, it wasn’t hard to read between the lines.

While the M’s made clear that Wilson is their full-time manager, Martinez’s status after the year is up in the air. Seattle’s press release specified that Martinez has only taken the job for the final couple months of this season. The M’s would presumably be happy to keep him around beyond this year, but the 61-year-old has previously cited a desire for a less demanding position than a regular coaching role.

Few hitters are more accomplished than Martinez. He won two batting titles and three Silver Slugger awards during his 18-year big league career. Martinez made seven All-Star teams and finished his playing days with a .312/.418/.515 slash line. He spent his entire career with the M’s and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame within three years of his retirement after the ’04 season. While it took more than a decade, he eventually earned the sport’s highest honors with election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2019.

Wilson was an All-Star catcher who played for the Mariners from 1994-2005. He overlapped with Martinez for all but the final season. The two have both remained involved with the organization in their post-playing days. Martinez worked as hitting coach on Lloyd McClendon’s and Scott Servais’ staffs between 2015-18. He stepped down after the ’18 campaign and moved into a less intensive role as organizational hitting advisor — a position that enabled him to work with both minor league and MLB players. Wilson had been a special assistant for player development for seven years before moving into the manager’s office yesterday.

Padres Reinstate Yu Darvish From Restricted List

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The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish has been reinstated from the restricted list and will join the club tonight, though he has been returned to the 15-day injured list. Infielder Matthew Batten was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for him.

Darvish, 38, began his season strong. He made 11 starts through the end of May, allowing 3.20 earned runs per nine innings, but his campaign has been on pause since then. He landed on the 15-day injured list June 1, retroactive to May 31, due to a left groin strain. He was supposed to return on June 25 but then was sidelined by some inflammation in his throwing elbow.

On July 6, he was transferred to the restricted list due to an undisclosed family matter, with no details about that situation having been made public. Last week, it was reported that Darvish set up a live BP session at a high school, trying to keep himself somewhat ready even while he was away from the club and perhaps demonstrating that he had put his injuries behind him. Whatever the family situation was, it now seems it has been resolved enough for the veteran to turn his attentions back to baseball.

However, he may not immediately join the big league club, as he is still on the injured list. After so much down time, he will likely need some kind of rehab assignment to build back up. Still, the fact that he is back from the restricted list at least provides some clarity and some expectations to a situation that was previously difficult to predict.

The Padres just optioned struggling knuckleballer Matt Waldron, leaving them with a rotation consisting of Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Martín Pérez. Whenever Darvish is in game shape, he will jump back into that mix. Until then, the club may need to call upon Randy Vásquez or Jhony Brito to cover Waldron’s spot, or perhaps deploy a bullpen game or two.

Batten, 29, was added to the club’s roster in June of 2022. He has largely been on optional assignment in the two-plus years since then, having appeared in 59 big league games with 164 plate appearances. He has hit .239/.337/.345 in those for a wRC+ of 96. His minor league work has actually been worse, as he has hit .242/.333/.372 at Triple-A El Paso since the start of 2023. In the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that translates to a wRC+ of 75.

He is in his final option year and will be out of options by next season. With the trade deadline having passed, the Friars will have to place him on waivers in the coming days. Despite the lack of offense, some club may be attracted to his other attributes. He has racked up double-digit steal totals in each minor league season since 2021 and has played every position on the diamond except catcher, including some mop-up duty on the mound. He has less than a year of service time and therefore could potentially be retained for six seasons beyond this one.

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