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Yordan Alvarez To Return Friday

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APRIL 30: Alvarez is back in the Astros’ lineup Friday, McTaggart tweets. The team optioned Jones to its taxi squad.

APRIL 29: The Astros expect Alvarez to rejoin their lineup Friday against the Rays, Baker told McTaggart and other reporters.

APRIL 28: The Astros have placed slugger Yordan Alvarez on the injured list and recalled infielder/outfielder Taylor Jones, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle was among those to report.

The Astros didn’t provide a reason for Alvarez’s IL placement, though it seems to be related to COVID-19. Manager Dusty Baker said earlier Wednesday that Alvarez would miss the team’s game against the Mariners because of “health and safety reasons,” Brian McTaggart of MLB.com relayed.

Alvarez was one of five Astros placed on the COVID-related IL on April 14, but he returned within a week. When he has been healthy enough to play this season, the designated hitter and former American League Rookie of the Year has continued to hold his own with a .309/.355/.529 line and two home runs in 76 plate appearances.

Twins Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The Twins announced a series of roster moves Friday, most notably reinstating outfielders Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick from the Covid-19 list. To make room on the active roster, outfielder/first baseman Brent Rooker and catcher Ryan Jeffers were optioned to Triple-A St. Paul. Meanwhile, infielders JT Riddle and Tzu-Wei Lin have been designated for assignment, while catching prospect Ben Rortvedt has been recalled from Triple-A for his big league debut.

Kepler, 28, hasn’t played in a game since April 16 but will now return to his role as Minnesota’s everyday right fielder. He’s not out to a great start, slashing .234/.315/.362 through his first couple weeks of play, but that’s a sample of just 54 plate appearances. From 2019-20, he turned in a much stronger .246/.332/.499 batting line and clouted 45 homers in 792 plate appearances while playing strong defense in right field.

Garlick, meanwhile, was out to a solid .280/.321/.400 start through 28 trips to the plate and was getting some run as a right-handed bat against lefties. He’ll continue on in that role, giving the Twins a right-handed bat to take some reps in left field. That spot has been occupied by top prospect Alex Kirilloff as of late, but Kirilloff can also play some first base in the absence of Miguel Sano. Luis Arraez could get some time in left field as well, now that the Twins’ middle infield is back to full strength.

Optioning Jeffers began to look increasingly necessary given the 23-year-old’s early struggles. The 2018 second-rounder has emerged as one of the game’s top catching prospects in recent seasons, ranking as a consensus top 100 talent heading into the 2021 season. Jeffers’ big debut effort last year helped to fuel that ranking, as he stepped up for a then-injured Mitch Garver and gave the Twins 64 plate appearances with a hearty .273/.355/.436 batting line and three home runs.

The 2021 season has been a disaster for the promising young backstop, however, as he’s mustered only a .147/.216/.176 slash through 37 plate appearances. Jeffers is still surely viewed as a key part of the organization’s future, but with the minor league season now slated to begin next week, sending Jeffers down for some regular at-bats — as opposed to splitting time with Garver — makes sense to get him on track. It’s also worth noting that he’s only played 24 games of Double-A ball and has never taken a single plate appearance in Triple-A, so he could simply need some more time to polish off his development.

With Jeffers going down, the Twins will now lean on the versatile Willians Astudillo and the young Rortvedt as backup options to Garver. The 23-year-old Rortvedt was Minnesota’s second-round pick back in 2016 and is a career .240/.315/.347 hitter in the minors who is regarded as a strong defensive backstop. He ranks 24th among Minnesota farmhands, per FanGraphs, and 26th on Baseball America’s rankings. BA calls him an “excellent receiver and blocker” with “standout defensive skills” but a limited offensive ceiling.

Turning to the pair of DFAs, neither comes as much of a surprise. Riddle was only selected to the big league roster when Andrelton Simmons initially tested positive for Covid-19, and he wound up being placed on the Covid list himself not long after. Once Riddle hit the Covid list, the Twins turned to Lin and brought him to the MLB roster. With Simmons now back in the fold alongside Jorge Polanco and utility man Luis Arraez, there’s little room for either Lin or Riddle.

Riddle went 2-for-6 with a run scored in four games with the Twins and is a career .223/.261/.355 hitter in 793  MLB plate appearances. Lin appeared in just one game and didn’t take a plate appearance. He was a .223/.298/.316 hitter in parts of four seasons with the Red Sox from 2017-20.

Nationals Activate Jon Lester

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2:00pm: The Nationals officially announced that Lester has been reinstated from the injured list. The team optioned righty Steven Fuentes to open a spot on the 26-man roster and moved southpaw Luis Avilan to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Avilan will miss the 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

8:50am: Veteran left-hander Jon Lester will be activated from the injured list and make his 2021 debut (and Nationals debut) tonight against the Marlins, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Corresponding roster moves are still being sorted out.

Lester, 37, signed a one-year deal worth $5MM to step into the Nats’ rotation this winter. His trajectory to their active roster has been impeded multiple times, however. The southpaw underwent surgery to remove his thyroid gland early in Spring Training after experiencing abnormal levels of fatigue and having that course of treatment recommended by multiple doctors. He then was one of several Nationals players to land on the Covid-19 list amid the team’s early-season outbreak.

A five-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion, Lester recently wrapped up a six-year, $155MM contract with the Cubs and will now suit up for the fourth team of an exceptional career. Unlike so many big-money free-agent contracts, Lester’s proved to be a worthwhile investment for the Cubs. His production waned in the final years of the deal, particularly in 2020, but he was every bit the ace they hoped he be early on. Lester carried a 3.33 ERA through the contract’s first four years, including a superlative 2.44 mark during 2016’s World Series-winning season. He finished second in NL Cy Young voting that year and was dominant in the playoffs, earning NLCS MVP honors along the way.

The Nationals know they’re not getting the same Lester, but they’ll hope that he can continue to serve as a workhorse rotation stabilizer, throwing competitive innings behind a high-priced and high-profile trio atop the rotation. That trio of Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin was expected to be the team’s strength in 2021, but instead their inconsistency has been one of the primary drivers of Washington’s struggles as a team.

Scherzer is sitting on a terrific 3.00 ERA and is still posting elite K/BB numbers, but it’s been an uneven road. He’s mixed in a pair of poor outings with three utterly dominant starts. The end results are solid, though, and he’s easily the least worrisome of the Nats’ top three.

Strasburg has thrown just 10 innings so far in 2021 and is currently on the 10-day injured list with a bout of inflammation in his right shoulder. There’s no clear timeline for his return, but he’s already past the 10-day minimum and a return does not appear to be on the immediate horizon.

Corbin has been the most troublesome of the team’s rotation triumvirate. He was lights-out against the Cardinals back on April 20, but his other three starts have been outright nightmares. The lefty was absolutely torched for 10 runs (nine earned) in two innings by the D-backs on April 15, and he’s yielded a combined 10 runs through 8 1/3 innings in his other two starts. Overall, Corbin is lugging a 10.47 ERA through 16 1/3 frames. His velocity has ticked up about a mile per hour in his two most recent outings, including that excellent start against the Cardinals (six shutout innings), so the Nats can only hope that he’s begun to turn the corner.

Given the ups and downs throughout the Washington rotation at the moment, there’s perhaps a bit more expectation placed on Lester’s shoulders than most would’ve expected heading into the season. Lester is no stranger to weighty expectations, of course, but he’ll be looking for a rebound of his own after logging a career-worst 5.16 ERA in 61 innings last season. He said during Spring Training that the improved energy levels he felt post-thyroidectomy were higher than he’d felt in years, which could be a source of some optimism regarding a bounceback effort in 2021.

A’s Sign Cam Bedrosian

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The Athletics have signed right-hander Cam Bedrosian to a minor league contract, Melissa Lockard of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). He’ll open the year with their top affiliate in Las Vegas.

The 29-year-old Bedrosian is no stranger to the AL West, having spent the majority of his career in the division-rival Angels’ bullpen. The Halos non-tendered Bedrosian this winter and, after latching on with the Reds on a minor league deal, he broke camp with Cincinnati on the heels of a strong spring showing. Bedrosian punched out 16 of the 32 hitters he faced during Cactus League play en route to that Opening Day roster nod.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse once the regular season was underway. Bedrosian was rocked for seven runs on 10 hits, including a pair of homers, while posting a 7-to-6 K/BB ratio in 5 2/3 innings.

That said, Bedrosian has a strong track record with the Angels. From 2016-20, he gave them 225 innings of 3.20 ERA ball with a 3.74 SIERA, a 25.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate. He’s missed fewer bats in recent years after seeing his strikeout rate peak in 2016-17, but Bedrosian has been a largely reliable bullpen option who even saw a bit of an uptick in fastball velocity this year in Cincinnati. He’ll give the A’s a rather experienced depth option to call upon should injuries or poor performances among their big league relief corps necessitate some personnel change.

Indians Notes: Allen, Rotation, Vargas, Hankins, Jones

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The Indians optioned lefty Logan Allen to Triple-A following a trio of rough starts, including this week’s six-run drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Three of that game’s first four batters homered off Allen to put Cleveland in an early hole. Manager Terry Francona told reporters, including Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes, that Allen’s fastball command has been off. The pitcher himself agreed, calling his location “spotty” and acknowledging that he’s regularly put himself behind in the count and tipped the advantage in the hitters’ favor. Allen was brilliant in Spring Training, allowing just one run in 14 innings with an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio, but the early results this year just haven’t been there. He’s allowed 18 runs (16 earned) on 20 hits (seven homers) and seven walks with 12 strikeouts in 15 2/3 frames.

With Allen out of the rotation for now, it’s not clear who will step into the fifth spot. Righty Cal Quantrill and lefty Sam Hentges are possible options, and Hoynes notes that Hentges was stretched out to 85 pitches at the alternate site before being recalled and plugged into the team’s bullpen. Cleveland had an off-day yesterday, but the Indians are embarking on a stretch of 10 straight days with games, so they’ll need a fifth starter this coming Tuesday.

A few more notes out of Cleveland…

  • The Indians received poor news on a pair of their top pitching prospects, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Right-hander Carlos Vargas will miss the 2021 season after recently undergoing Tommy John surgery, while fellow righty and 2018 No. 35 overall pick Ethan Hankins has been sidelined by an elbow injury of his own that is currently being evaluated by team doctors. Vargas ranks 15th among Indians prospects at FanGraphs, 17th at MLB.com and 18th at Baseball America. Hankins respectively lands 12th, 10th, and ninth on those same rankings. Neither pitcher was likely to emerge in the Majors this season, as Vargas hadn’t pitched above short-season Class-A and Hankins hadn’t progressed beyond A-ball himself. Still, it’s a noted setback for a pair of promising arms who’ll now see their timeline to the big leagues pushed back — by at least a full season in the case of Vargas.
  • Top organizational prospect Nolan Jones will see the bulk of his time at his natural position, third base, in Triple-A to begin the season, but VP of player development James Harris tells Mandy Bell of MLB.com that Jones will also see work at first base and in the outfield in order to improve his versatility. “…[W]e just don’t know where the opportunity will be,” Harris says of working Jones at multiple positions. Both first base and the outfield have been much weaker spots in the Cleveland lineup than third base in recent seasons — in part due to Jose Ramirez’s emergence as an MVP-caliber talent but also due to a generally lackluster collection of hitters in a cobbled-together mix in the outfield and at first base. Jake Bauers has been among the game’s least-productive hitters at first base this season, and the Indians’ piecemeal approach to the outfield has again resulted in sub-par production. Indians outfielders have combined for a lowly 83 wRC+ in 2021, which ranks 23rd in MLB. Their first basemen are 29th of 30 by that same measure, checking in at just 58. Jones entered the season widely regarded as one of MLB’s top 50 overall prospects.

Reds Sign Tim Adleman To Minor League Deal

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The Reds announced this morning that they’ve signed righty Tim Adleman to a minor league contract and assigned him to their alternate training site. He’ll presumably open the year with their Triple-A club.

It’s a blast from the past for Cincinnati fans, who likely recall that the now-33-year-old Adleman pitched in 43 games (33 starts) for the Reds back in 2016-17. Adleman racked up 192 innings in that time, logging a combined 4.97 ERA with an 18.9 percent strikeout rate and an 8.7 percent walk rate. He spent the 2018 season with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization and split the 2019 season between the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks and the Tigers’ minor league system.

That 2016-17 run with the Reds is the only big league experience Adleman has to date. He does own a career 2.97 ERA in parts of three Triple-A seasons (166 2/3 innings), however, to go along with a similarly strong 2.70 mark in parts of three Double-A campaigns (243 innings).

Braves Activate Sean Newcomb, Transfer Mike Soroka To 60-Day IL

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The Braves announced this morning that lefty Sean Newcomb has been reinstated from the Covid-19 injured list. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Mike Soroka was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Atlanta also recalled righty Edgar Santana and optioned both Bryse Wilson and Johan Camargo to their alternate site.

The Soroka portion of the announcement may cause some alarm among fans, but that 60-day term refers to the total number of days he must spend on the injured list — including days already spent there. In other words, it’s 60 days from his initial placement on Opening Day — not 60 days from today. Soroka will be eligible to return at the end of May, but the latest reports out of Atlanta suggest he’s not likely to be ready to return to the roster until mid-June anyhow. It’s a largely procedural move.

Newcomb, 27, got out to a fast start this season but has been sidelined since being placed on the Covid list back on April 17. The starter-turned-reliever has pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed just one run while striking out a whopping 12 of the 22 hitters he’s faced. Granted, he’s also walked four batters and hit another, but the early uptick in strikeout rate, average fastball velocity (95.2 mph, up from 93.6 mph in 2020) and swinging-strike rate (14 percent, up from seven percent in 2020) are intriguing small-sample things for Braves fans to keep an eye on.

The 23-year-old Wilson started last night’s game, so he’ll head down to the alternate site as a means of getting some fresh arms into the ’pen. Santana will be making his club debut when he first gets into a game. The former Pirates righty missed the 2019 season due to an elbow injury that eventually required Tommy John surgery. He didn’t make it back to the big leagues in 2020 due to that surgery and an 80-game PED suspension. The Braves picked him up earlier this month in exchange for cash. Prior to surgery, he sat 95 mph with his heater and carried a career 3.31 ERA with a sub-par 21 percent strikeout rate but a 6.8 percent walk rate that was much better than the league average.

Brewers Place Corbin Burnes, Zack Godley On IL

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The Brewers placed right-handers Corbin Burnes and Zack Godley on the injured list Thursday, the team announced. Manager Craig Counsell was unable to discuss why Burnes went on the IL, which suggests the hurler tested positive for COVID-19, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Meanwhile, Godley landed on the 10-day IL with a right index finger contusion. Milwaukee recalled righty Alec Bettinger and lefty Eric Lauer in corresponding moves.

While it’s unclear how much time Burnes will miss, the Brewers can ill afford to go without him for long. The flamethrowing 26-year-old broke through as one of the game’s premier starters last season and has continued to roll in 2021. Burnes has pitched to 1.53 ERA with even more impressive fielding-independent numbers (0.50 FIP, 1.18 xFIP, 1.24 SIERA), and he has somehow managed to avoid walking anyone over the first 29 1/3 innings of his season. Not only that, but Burnes has fanned a whopping 49 hitters – putting him two strikeouts away from tying Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen’s 51:0 K:BB ratio for the all-time record to begin a season.

The loss of Godley is much less troubling for the Brewers, though it does further subtract from their starting depth. Milwaukee, which is also without injured starter Brett Anderson, selected Godley’s contract before its game against the Marlins on Wednesday. Godley threw just three innings of three-run ball in a 6-2 loss before exiting with his injury.

Lauer, who made 54 starts between San Diego and Milwaukee from 2018-20, will slot into the Brewers’ rotation for the time being. Although Lauer faced a daunting opponent, the Dodgers, on Thursday, he rose to the occasion with five shutout innings in a 2-1 victory.

Latest On Anibal Sanchez

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April 29: Sanchez is still evaluating his options and will throw a four-inning bullpen on Friday, Rosenthal tweets. He wants to build up to the 100-pitch mark before he signs anywhere.

April 28: Sanchez is planning to sign this week and could settle on a team as early as tomorrow, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link).

April 23: The Yankees, Phillies, Marlins, Tigers, Diamondbacks and Blue Jays were among the teams at Sanchez’s showcase this morning, Heyman tweets.

April 21: Sanchez will throw yet another bullpen session for teams this Friday, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He worked out for clubs in the offseason and reportedly turned down a couple offers, opting instead to see how health-and-safety protocols played out. He then worked out for teams early in the season but suffered the aforementioned finger laceration midway through his bullpen.

April 20: Free-agent righty Anibal Sanchez has been working out for clubs around the league and is drawing interest from several of his former employers, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The Braves, Nationals and Marlins have all looked into Sanchez, whose last bullpen session was truncated by a laceration on his middle finger that ought to have healed up by now. There’s interest from a couple of AL clubs as well, per Rosenthal.

Interest from any of the clubs linked to Sanchez this morning makes plenty of sense, given the pitching situations on each of the three. The Braves have recently placed Max Fried and Drew Smyly on the injured list, where they’ve joined Mike Soroka, whose recovery timeline recently hit a setback. None of the injuries is thought to be especially long-term, but the team’s depth has been tested early on.

The Nationals placed Stephen Strasburg on the injured list this week and have watched as left Patrick Corbin has been crushed by opposing lineups (15 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings). Last night’s rough start from Joe Ross only added fuel to the fire, sending the team’s collective rotation ERA to a disastrous 6.24 that ranks last among all big league teams. Currently, Max Scherzer is the only Nats pitcher who has started more than one game and has an ERA south of 5.00.

Meanwhile, Marlins righties Sixto Sanchez and Elieser Hernandez have dealt with injuries early in the 2021 season. They’re also carrying a pair of Rule 5 right-handers, Zach Pop and Paul Campbell, who have been hit hard in their first exposure to big league pitching.

Sanchez, 37, didn’t sign over the winter and is coming off a rough 2020 showing. The veteran right-hander was tagged for a 6.62 ERA in 53 innings with the Nationals last summer, although he’s only a season removed from 166 innings of 3.85 ERA ball during his first season with Washington.

Cardinals Place Adam Wainwright, Andrew Miller On IL; Activate Harrison Bader

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The Cardinals are placing right-hander Adam Wainwright on the COVID-19 injured list, Katie Woo of The Athletic tweets. The team’s shelving Wainwright as a precautionary move after one of his family members tested positive for the virus, per Woo. In other moves, the Cardinals have activated outfielder Harrison Bader, placed left-hander Andrew Miller on the 10-day IL with a right foot blister, and recalled righty Kodi Whitley, according to Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat.

Wainwright will miss his scheduled start Sunday in Pittsburgh as a result of this IL placement. However, the Cardinals are hopeful the 39-year-old will take the ball against the Mets on Monday.

Wainwright, a career-long Cardinal whom they re-signed to a one-year, $8MM guarantee in free agency, has given the club quality production yet again this season. While Wainwright didn’t come out of the gate particularly well, he has turned it around over his two most recent starts, including a complete game, two-run effort against the Phillies on Monday. Through five starts and 28 2/3 innings, Wainwright has put up a 4.08 ERA (with a far better 3.28 SIERA) and logged above-average strikeout and walk percentages of 26.4 and 5.0, respectively.

Bader is finally set to make his 2021 debut after missing the first several weeks of the season with a forearm injury. He earned the lion’s share of starts for the Cardinals in center last year and batted .226/.336/.443 with four homers 125 plate appearances. Dylan Carlson has handled the position this season, but he’s capable of lining up at both corner outfield spots. Carlson has gotten off to an excellent start, while utilityman Tommy Edman and Tyler O’Neill have put up decent production in the Cards’ outfield, and Justin Williams has struggled mightily.

Miller, once an elite reliever, has seen his career take a negative turn since he signed a two-year, $25MM guarantee with the Cardinals heading into 2019. Miller’s earning $12MM this year on a club option that vested, but his performance hasn’t matched his salary. He yielded two earned runs on two hits in a third of an inning in a win over the Phillies on Thursday, thereby raising his ERA to 8.59 over 7 1/3 innings. Miller has given up 12 hits, including two homers, and walked four in the early going.

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