Brewers Designate Luke Voit For Assignment
The Brewers are designating first baseman Luke Voit for assignment, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Meanwhile, reliever Alex Claudio has been outrighted to Triple-A Nashville after going unclaimed on waivers, according to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link).
Voit’s time in Milwaukee likely comes to a close after 22 games. The Brewers signed him to a minor league deal over the offseason. He opted out of that contract towards the end of Spring Training but quickly re-signed on a major league contract with a $2MM base salary for time spent in the majors. Voit was slated to pair with the lefty-swinging Rowdy Tellez at first base and designated hitter.
The 32-year-old didn’t find his footing in Milwaukee. He didn’t connect on a single home run in 74 trips to the plate. Voit hit .221/.284/.265 overall, striking out 27 times while drawing four walks. While he’s always had a fair amount of swing-and-miss, his 36.5% strikeout rate in this year’s small sample would be the worst of his career. He was eventually shelved by a neck strain on May 15.
In conjunction with Voit’s IL placement, Milwaukee signed Darin Ruf to a major league deal. Also a veteran right-handed hitter at the bottom of the defensive spectrum, Ruf looked like a curious fit on a club that already employed Voit. It seemed likely the Brewers would part ways with one of that duo once Voit were healthy. They’ll stick with Ruf, who’s hitting .250/.348/.300 over his first nine games.
Voit’s stock has fallen swiftly over the past three seasons. He was an impact power bat for a time with the Yankees, leading the majors with 22 home runs during the shortened 2020 campaign to secure a ninth-place finish in AL MVP balloting. Voit had hit .263/.378/.464 over a full season the year prior, so that production wasn’t a one-off product of the truncated schedule. He battled various injuries in 2021, though, leading the Yankees to bring in Anthony Rizzo from the Cubs at the trade deadline.
With Voit more or less displaced in the Bronx, the Yankees dealt him to the Padres coming out of the lockout. He hit .225/.317/.416 for San Diego and was packaged to the Nationals in the Juan Soto blockbuster. He slumped on a rebuilding Washington club and was non-tendered. This year’s struggles bring his cumulative batting line to .229/.311/.399 in just shy of 900 plate appearances over the past three seasons.
The Brewers have a week to explore the trade market. If they can’t find a taker, they’ll place Voit on waivers. He surpassed five years of major league service this season. That gives him the right to decline a minor league assignment in favor of free agency while still collecting his entire guaranteed salary if he goes unclaimed.
Claudio has that opportunity as well. The veteran southpaw was designated for assignment on Saturday. He’d pitched only once since his contract was selected a month ago. The 31-year-old had worked to a 2.63 ERA over 13 2/3 innings with Nashville before being called up.
Lance McCullers Jr. No Longer Throwing Off Mound
Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. is no longer throwing from a mound, manager Dusty Baker informed reporters before today’s matchup with the Twins (relayed by Chandler Rome of the Athletic). Baker didn’t provide any additional specifics, noting only the club will “take it slow with Lance until we know that he’s 100 percent.”
It’s unclear how significant this latest development will be — the Astros are as cagy as any team about providing injury updates — but it represents a scaling back from where McCullers was a couple weeks ago. He’d progressed to bullpen sessions in mid-May but had moved back to throwing from flat ground of late. General manager Dana Brown recently pegged the All-Star Break as a loose estimate for his return to a big league mound; it’s unclear if or to what extent that timeline might now be delayed.
McCullers hasn’t pitched this year on account of a muscle strain in his forearm that was diagnosed over the offseason. It marked the continuation of arm issues for the 29-year-old, who was diagnosed with a flexor strain during the 2021 postseason. That cost him until mid-August last year. McCullers returned to make 11 starts between the regular season and playoffs to help the Astros to a World Series title but unfortunately again battled arm soreness over the winter.
The right-hander also has a Tommy John surgery in his history, having undergone the procedure over the 2018-19 offseason. There’s nothing to suggest he’s in danger of going back under the knife to address the current issue but it adds another reason for the Astros to be particularly cautious as they navigate any bumps in his recovery process.
McCullers has proven a very effective pitcher when healthy. He owns a career 3.48 ERA in 718 2/3 regular season innings and has a nearly identical 3.47 mark over 72 2/3 postseason frames. He allowed only 2.27 earned runs per nine innings over his eight regular season starts last year. McCullers’ upper mid-rotation form led the Astros to sign him to a five-year, $85MM extension in March 2021. That deal covers the 2022-26 campaigns. He’s making $15.25MM this season and will be paid $17MM annually over the next three years.
His absence is one of a number of rotation issues for the Astros. Houston lost Luis Garcia to Tommy John surgery earlier this month. José Urquidy is battling shoulder discomfort and might not be back until around the All-Star Break. Cristian Javier, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have been fantastic, but the injuries have forced Houston to lean on depth options like J.P. France and Brandon Bielak at the back of the staff. There’s virtually no experienced depth in the organization beyond that quintet, so the rotation figures to be a deadline target area for Brown and his front office.
Diamondbacks Reinstate Kristian Robinson, Designate Peter Solomon
The D-Backs announced this afternoon they’ve designated reliever Peter Solomon for assignment. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for outfield prospect Kristian Robinson, who has been officially reinstated from the restricted list and optioned to Low-A Visalia.
Robinson has been on the restricted list for the better part of three years. A high-profile amateur signee out of the Bahamas, he quickly became one of the sport’s most promising low minors talents. Robinson appeared among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects entering both the 2020 and ’21 seasons and was regarded as a potential franchise building block.
His career has been in limbo for the past few years for legal reasons. Robinson pled guilty to what was initially a felony assault charge stemming from an April 2020 incident with a law enforcement officer. (Zach Buchanan of the Athletic wrote in 2021 that Robinson said he’d been amidst a mental health crisis at the time.) As part of the plea agreement, Robinson’s charge was to be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completed 18 months of probation without incident. In the interim, having a felony on his record prevented him from renewing a work visa that would allow him to continue to participate in minor league games. Robinson had been permitted to partake in extended Spring Training workouts but could not play in official games.
Nevertheless, he would’ve been eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft over the 2021-22 offseason. The D-Backs added him to their 40-man roster in a procedural move to keep him out of that process but immediately placed him back on the restricted list, temporarily clearing that spot. Robinson fulfilled his probation requirements this spring; as a result, his conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor and he was granted his work visa at the end of April. That opened a 30-day rehab window before which the Diamondbacks had to decide whether to activate him onto the 40-man roster or make him available to other clubs via DFA.
They’ll go with the former course of action to ensure Robinson remains in the organization. He hasn’t played any minor league games over the past month — Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reported a few weeks back that he’s been bothered by a minor hamstring injury — but he’s now in position to get back into game action once healthy. Robinson still hasn’t advanced past Low-A and surely won’t be under consideration for a major league look in 2023.
Solomon, 26, landed with Arizona over the offseason in the Triple-A phase of the Rule 5 draft. His MLB experience at the time consisted of six outings for the 2021 Astros. Solomon eventually bounced to the Pirates via waivers before clearing waivers at the end of last year. The D-Backs selected his contract in April and have used him five times in a multi-inning relief capacity.
The righty has been hit hard over his 13 1/3 frames for the Snakes. He’s surrendered 18 runs on 17 hits and 11 walks while striking out six. Solomon has also allowed 15 runs in 13 innings with Triple-A Reno, struggling with home runs in one of the game’s toughest home ballparks for pitchers. He’s likely to land on waivers within the next week.
Rangers Select Grant Anderson, Designate Ricky Vanasco
The Rangers announced they’ve selected reliever Grant Anderson onto the MLB roster. Texas optioned southpaw Cody Bradford to Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move. To create a spot on the 40-man roster, the Rangers designated minor league righty Ricky Vanasco for assignment.
Anderson, 25, gets a big league call for the first time. He was selected by the Mariners in the 21st round of the 2018 draft, signing for $50K out of McNeese State. The following spring, Texas acquired Anderson in an intra-division trade that sent hard-throwing reliever Connor Sadzeck to Seattle. Anderson has climbed the ranks of the Rangers’ system since then, first reaching the upper minors in 2021.
Over the past two years, Anderson has bounced between Double-A Frisco and Round Rock. He’s spent the majority of 2023 at the top minor league level, frequently working multiple innings of relief. Anderson has tossed 21 1/3 frames over 11 appearances for the Express, posting a 3.80 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
More impressive has been Anderson’s ability to miss bats this year. He’s punched out an eye-popping 43.2% of opposing hitters, the highest rate among 280 Triple-A pitchers with 20+ innings. Even with an elevated 11.4% walk rate, Anderson has racked up enough strikeouts to get a spot in Bruce Bochy’s bullpen. Texas’ major league relief corps has been light on whiffs, ranking 25th with a 22.3% strikeout rate. A middling bullpen has been the only real question mark for a club that leads the AL West with a 33-19 record and has outscored opponents by an MLB-best 124 runs.
In order to add Anderson to the major league club, Texas runs the risk of losing a young pitcher who was somewhat recently among their better prospects. Vanasco appeared among Baseball America’s top 25 minor league talents in a quality farm system each year from 2020-22. Praised for a mid-upper 90s fastball and a pair of quality breaking pitches, Vanasco was thrown off track by 2021 Tommy John surgery. He returned to start 21 games in High-A last year but was again delayed early this season by a Spring Training knee injury that required surgery.
Vansaco recently returned from the minor league injured list but has been blown up for ten runs in 2 1/3 innings over two starts in Frisco. That costs him the 40-man roster spot he first secured over the 2021-22 offseason when Texas added him to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’ll now have a week to trade him or try to run him through waivers.
The 24-year-old still has yet to reach Triple-A, much less appear in the majors. He owns a 3.84 ERA with a 30.9% strikeout rate over 178 career minor league frames. Vansaco is in his second of three option years and could draw some interest from other teams based on his previous prospect standing.
Twins Transfer Nick Gordon To 60-Day Injured List
The Twins announced this morning they’ve transferred utilityman Nick Gordon from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for Royce Lewis, who has been reinstated from the 60-day IL. Minnesota also confirmed they’ve activated Max Kepler from the 10-day IL and optioned both Matt Wallner and Kyle Garlick to Triple-A St. Paul to clear active roster space.
Gordon fractured his right shin a little less than two weeks ago. The left-handed hitter fouled a ball off his leg during a loss to the Dodgers. Minnesota hasn’t provided specifics on the 27-year-old’s recovery timetable, but it’s now official he’s in for a lengthy absence. The transfer backdates to May 19, the date of Gordon’s initial IL placement. Nevertheless, it ensures he won’t be able to return until the third week of July at the earliest.
It has been a tough season for the former fifth overall pick. Gordon is hitting .176/.185/.319 over 34 games. Even before the leg injury, it had marked a disappointing follow-up to a solid .272/.316/.427 showing over a career-high 443 plate appearances last year.
Lewis officially returns one year to the day since his last MLB action. The former first overall pick tore the ACL in his right knee for the second time in as many seasons last May. The injuries have kept him to just 12 big league games to date, but the 23-year-old certainly still has time to emerge as a key contributor for Minnesota.
Dan Hayes of the Athletic chatted with Lewis and his mother Cindy about the physical and mental challenges associated with near-consecutive year-long rehab processes. Lewis has shown no signs of rust on a rehab stint with St. Paul, hitting .333/.371/.727 with four homers in 35 trips to the plate. He’s expected to log a decent amount of action on the left side of the infield. Carlos Correa is day-to-day with plantar fasciitis, while third baseman José Miranda struggled enough that the Twins optioned him a few weeks ago. Kyle Farmer has taken the bulk of third base reps since Miranda’s demotion.
Reds Outright Silvino Bracho
Reds reliever Silvino Bracho went unclaimed on outright waivers over the weekend, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. The right-hander had been designated for assignment when the club promoted relief prospect Eduardo Salazar.
Bracho signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati over the winter. He spent a couple weeks in the majors after the Reds selected his contract in mid-May. He’d pitched reasonably well for Triple-A Louisville prior to the promotion, allowing only five runs in 14 1/3 innings. Bracho struck out 15 of 57 batters faced while issuing only four walks. Those solid Triple-A results didn’t translate to big league success in his brief look in Cincinnati. He walked five against four punchouts while allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The 30-year-old Bracho has now appeared in parts of seven major league campaigns. He spent the bulk of his career with the Diamondbacks but has bounced around since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019. He was briefly on the MLB rosters with the Red Sox and Braves last season but only appeared in three games for Atlanta. As he has thus far in 2023, Bracho had a strong Triple-A showing last year. He worked to a 2.67 ERA with a lofty 30.4% strikeout rate and excellent 4.3% walk percentage across 57 1/3 frames.
Bracho has gone unclaimed on waivers multiple times in his career. That gives him the right to elect minor league free agency and explore other opportunities if he doesn’t want to accept the assignment back to Louisville.
The Opener: Soroka, Blackburn, Twins, Cubs
Memorial Day has arrived, marking the unofficial start to summer. It’s also near the two-month point on the baseball calendar. A few storylines of note today with around one-third of the regular season in the books:
1. Soroka’s first MLB appearance since 2020:
The Braves are going to recall right-hander Michael Soroka from Triple-A Gwinnett, manager Brian Snitker confirmed last night. He’ll get the start this evening in Oakland. It’s the culmination of a multi-year rehab process for the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up. Soroka pitched to a 2.68 ERA as a 21-year-old that season but saw his career waylaid by successive Achilles tears. He hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since 2020 and has made just three big league starts since his All-Star showing four years ago. Finally healthy, Soroka has logged a 4.33 ERA through eight starts in Gwinnett. Even if this proves a one-off spot start, it’s sure to be a rewarding moment for the former first-round pick after years of brutal injury luck.
Soroka will be opposed by A’s right-hander Paul Blackburn, who’s also making his first MLB appearance of the season. An All-Star in 2022, Blackburn has dealt with various injury concerns of his own over the past ten months. Fingernail and blister issues on his throwing hand cost him the first couple months of this season. Blackburn will try to halt an 11-game losing streak for the A’s, who have fallen to a staggering 10-45 on the year.
2. Twins’ roster move incoming:
The Twins are set to welcome back both Max Kepler and Royce Lewis from the injured list before their series opener in Houston. They’re reportedly optioning Matt Wallner and Kyle Garlick to Triple-A St. Paul to clear active roster space, though they’ll still need to clear a 40-man roster spot. Lewis hasn’t counted against the 40-man since being placed on the 60-day injured list at the start of Spring Training. Unless Minnesota anticipates two-plus month absences for someone like Nick Gordon or Jorge Alcalá — transferring either to the 60-day IL would officially rule them out past the All-Star Break — they’ll need to designate someone for assignment.
3. Can the Cubs stop their skid?
The Cubs were swept at home by the Reds over the weekend. They’ve lost four in a row and dropped to 22-30 overall. They’re now narrowly behind the Rockies and Nationals with the worst record in the National League. The NL Wild Card bubble is still wide open, so it’s too soon to hammer the nail in the coffin. Chicago clearly anticipated hanging around the playoff mix on the heels of an active offseason and a solid 11-6 start. They’ve dropped 17 of 25 games in May, though, and they’ll finish out the month with a three-game set against the 39-16 Rays. Marcus Stroman, who could be one of the trade deadline’s top rental starting pitchers if the Cubs don’t turn things around, gets the ball this afternoon. He’ll be opposed by Tampa Bay rookie righty Taj Bradley.
White Sox To Activate Liam Hendriks From Injured List
Liam Hendriks is officially returning to the majors, as the White Sox announced (via a welcome-back video on their team Twitter feed) that the closer will be activated from the 15-day injured list on Monday prior to their game with the Angels. Hendriks revealed in January that he was starting treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but after finishing that treatment in early April, he thankfully announced a cancer-free diagnosis just over a month ago.
Hendriks threw six Triple-A rehab outings earlier this month, and has also been throwing bullpens and live BP sessions to continue building up his arm strength. Reports surfaced yesterday that Hendriks seemed to be nearing his return date, and the decision was made that the closer was ready to again face Major League hitters.
It’s great news all around that Hendriks has been able to emerge from his health scare, and now looks to get back onto the mound for what will be his 13th MLB campaign. It remains to be seen if Hendriks will be eased into action or whether or not he’ll be immediately able to pitch at his usual elite level, but even off the field, his return is an enormous lift to the White Sox clubhouse, as Hendriks is a beloved figure both with teammates and with his peers throughout baseball. Sticking just to on-field matters, it will naturally help Chicago’s struggling bullpen to regain a top closer.
Hendriks has three All-Star appearances and two top-nine AL Cy Young finishes in the last four seasons, racking up 114 saves for the A’s and White Sox in that time. 2023 is technically the final guaranteed year of Hendriks’ three-year, $54MM free agent deal with the Sox, but the White Sox have a $15MM club option and a $15MM buyout on his services for the 2024 season, so it would appear as though Hendriks will be retained for another year.
A trade could change matters, but while the White Sox fell to 22-33 after today’s loss to the Tigers, the club has somewhat stabilized things after their dreadful 7-20 April record. No one player can turn things around for a team, but getting Hendriks back should help the Sox try to get back into contention in the weak AL Central.
Quick Hits: Astros, Santana, Pagan, Muncy, Miller
The Astros don’t have an off-day until June 12, so the team had been considering moving to a six-man rotation to help keep their starters fresh during this busy stretch of the schedule. However, manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including the Houston Chronicle’s Danielle Lerner) that the team might be forced to stick with a five-man alignment just due to a lack of available starting depth, since prospect Forrest Whitley has been placed on the Triple-A injured list due to a right lat strain. Whitley was the team’s top option for a spot start or two, and now Ronel Blanco might be the next candidate if Houston does indeed opt for a sixth starter.
Jose Urquidy and Lance McCullers Jr. aren’t expected back until around the All-Star break, while Luis Garcia‘s season has already been ended by Tommy John surgery. The injury situation has left the Astros short on starting pitching, and Whitley’s lat strain has again delayed his MLB debut. Once one of the sport’s top prospects, Whitley’s minor league career has been interrupted by a 50-game PED suspension in 2018, and by a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2021 season.
More on other injury situations that arose from today’s games…
- Carlos Santana left during the sixth inning of the Pirates‘ 6-3 loss to the Mariners today due to what the Bucs described as lumbar spine muscular tightness. It would certainly seem like Santana will miss a couple of games to recovery, and a trip to the injured list is possible if his back problem doesn’t subside. Connor Joe is the likeliest candidate for first base duty in Santana’s absence, but Pittsburgh might now be facing a depth problem at first base since Ji-Man Choi isn’t eligible to return from the 60-day IL until at least mid-July.
- Twins reliever Emilio Pagan faced only one batter in today’s 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays before departing due to a left hip flexor strain. Both Pagan and manager Rocco Baldelli expressed hope that an IL stint wasn’t necessary, with Pagan telling the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Jerry Zgoda and other reporters that “hopefully we caught it early enough, that I’m good to go in a day or two. I think I’ll be ready to go tomorrow if need be.”
- Max Muncy left today’s game with a cramp in his left hamstring, and the Dodgers infielder told MLB.com and other media that he has been dealing with cramps throughout the weekend. Muncy will undergo an MRI to further examine the issue, but for now, he is day to day. Between a scorching-hot April and then a big slump for much of May, Muncy is still hitting .208/.340/.530 over 203 plate appearances this season, and he belted his 17th home run before his early exit today.
- X-rays were negative on Owen Miller‘s right forearm, after the Brewers infielder was removed as a precautionary measure after being hit by a pitch in today’s game. Manager Craig Counsell told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters that Miller is day to day, and could be back for the team’s next game on Tuesday (Monday is an off-day for the Brew Crew). Miller’s hot bat has earned him more playing time, and after collecting two more hits today, Miller is slashing .330/.371/.513 over 124 PA.
Michael Soroka To Start Monday For Braves
9:34PM: Atlanta manager Brian Snitker confirmed to reporters that Soroka will indeed start Monday’s game. The Braves are optioning Rodriguez to Triple-A to create space for Soroka on the active roster.
1:23PM: Michael Soroka hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since August, 2020, but an almost three year wait to return looks set to be over Monday with a series of transactions suggesting he’ll be called up to start tomorrow against the Athletics.
The Braves scratched Soroka from his start at Triple-A today, and as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman draws attention to, the Braves decision to option Dylan Dodd and replace him with Dereck Rodriguez adds further weight to the idea that Soroka will be the one called upon. And if any further evidence was needed, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos was on SirusXM radio today and said Soroka is the “next guy up the next time we need a starter,” before adding that the next time is “tomorrow.”
Soroka, the 28th pick back in 2015, was a quality young starter for the Braves before injuries derailed things. Between 2018-20, he made 37 starts of 2.86 ERA ball, the bulk of which came during the 2019 season when he finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting.
Since the 2020 season, it’s been a wretched run for Soroka. A ruptured achilles tendon set him up for a year long recovery, and just as he was nearing a return to action that achilles blew out again and left Soroka facing another lengthy rehab process. After recovering from that he saw some time at Triple-A towards the back end of the 2022 season but never made it to the big leagues, as he was shut down with shoulder fatigue. He entered spring training competing for a spot in Atlanta’s rotation but a hamstring strain put him behind and he was optioned to the minor leagues to start the season.
He’s made eight starts at Triple-A this season, working to a 4.33 ERA and averaging about 4 1/3 innings per start. It’ll certainly be a much anticipated return to a big league mound for Soroka when he does pitch tomorrow.