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Giancarlo Stanton Nearing Rehab Assignment; Dellin Betances Suffers Setback

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Injured Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t appeared in the majors since March 31, but it looks as if he’s nearing a return. The slugger will begin a rehab assignment Monday or Tuesday, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone (via James Wagner of the New York Times). If there aren’t any setbacks, he’ll be back in the majors 20 days from then.

In Stanton’s case, it would be unwise to automatically assume a smooth rehab stint. After all, the 29-year-old Stanton has already seen his rehab process go haywire this season. Stanton originally went to the injured list because of a left biceps strain, and he then suffered multiple other left side injuries (to his shoulder and calf) which have prevented him from returning to the Yankees.

Injuries to Stanton and fellow big-hitting corner outfielder Aaron Judge have forced New York to rely on Brett Gardner, Clint Frazier, Cameron Maybin and Mike Tauchman for the majority of the season. That quartet, to its credit, has performed reasonably well. However, every member of that group pales in comparison to Judge and Stanton. While Stanton didn’t come close to matching his NL MVP-winning output with the Marlins from 2017 last season, he still slashed .266/.343/.509 (127 wRC+) with 38 home runs in 705 plate appearances.

Just as the Yankees will welcome Stanton’s return with open arms, they’ll be thrilled when injured reliever Dellin Betances is back on their roster. However, Betances isn’t as close to a comeback. The right-hander, who has been out all season with a bone spur in his shoulder, “felt soreness” in his lat during a throwing session this week, Wagner reports. Betances will head to New York for tests.

Pitcher Notes: Angels, Padres, Mets, Rangers

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The Angels are set to place right-hander Trevor Cahill on the injured list with elbow soreness, according to Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times. Manager Brad Ausmus suggested Cahill won’t miss more than one start, though. Regardless of how long he sits out, this has been a disastrous season for Cahill, who joined the Angels after a solid 2018 showing with the Athletics. The 31-year-old Cahill has recorded a 7.18 ERA/6.35 ERA with 7.18 K/9 and 3.12 BB/9 in 57 2/3 innings since the Angels inked him to a $9MM guarantee over the winter.

  • Cahill and fellow righty Matt Harvey (one year, $11MM) were the Angels’ highest-profile free-agent additions during the offseason. Harvey has joined Cahill in disappointing during an injury-limited campaign, but he’s on the way back. Harvey began a Triple-A rehab assignment Saturday, the team announced. The 30-year-old went to the IL on May 25 because of an upper back strain. He got off to a brutal start before then, posting 48 innings of 7.50 ERA/6.17 FIP pitching with 6.56 K/9, 3.94 BB/9 and 2.06 HR/9.
  • The Padres announced that they’ve placed reliever Adam Warren on the 10-day IL with a right forearm strain. The team recalled righty Gerardo Reyes in a corresponding move. The injury adds to what has been a trying season for Warren, a 31-year-old free-agent signing who has registered a 5.34 ERA/6.84 FIP with 7.85 K/9, 3.77 BB/9 and 2.83 HR/9 in 28 2/3 innings.
  • Mets reliever Justin Wilson is slated to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. Wilson’s not sure when he’ll return, but barring setbacks, it’ll have to be within 30 days. Elbow soreness sent Wilson to the injured list May 11, the second time the southpaw has been on the IL with issues in the joint this season. Not only that, but Wilson – whom the Mets signed to a two-year, $10MM contract in the offseason – has yielded five earned runs on nine hits with four walks (against nine strikeouts) in 9 1/3 innings in 2019.
  • The Rangers have activated righty reliever Matt Bush and assigned him to the Double-A level, per TR Sullivan of MLB.com. It’s an important step forward for Bush, who underwent surgery on a partial UCL tear in his elbow last September. However, the procedure didn’t stop the Rangers from bringing back the 33-year-old on a minor league deal. Bush debuted with the Rangers in 2016 and has since notched a 3.35 ERA/3.65 FIP with 9.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 137 innings.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Trout, Archer, Kimbrel, M’s, Gore

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This week in baseball blogs…

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Rangers Select Peter Fairbanks, Designate Nick Gardewine

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The Rangers have selected right-hander Peter Fairbanks from Triple-A Nashville and designated fellow righty Nick Gardewine for assignment, executive vice president of communications John Blake announced. The team also optioned lefty Joe Palumbo.

Fairbanks joined the Rangers as a ninth-round pick in 2015. The 25-year-old has divided 2019 among the Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A levels and pitched to a 2.35 ERA with a whopping 14.1 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 23 innings. Gardewine, also 25, totaled 13 innings with the Rangers from 2017-18 but has spent this season with their Triple-A affiliate. The 2013 seventh-round pick has thrown 4 1/3 scoreless, three-hit innings this year with eight strikeouts against two walks.

Athletics Place Nick Hundley On IL, Select Beau Taylor

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The Athletics have placed catcher Nick Hundley on the 10-day injured list with back spasms and selected the contract of fellow backstop Beau Taylor from Triple-A Las Vegas, per a team announcement.

Hundley, whom Oakland signed to a minor league contract in February, made its roster but got off to a miserable start prior to his IL placement. The 35-year-old hit just .200/.233/.357 (55 wRC+) in 73 plate appearances before landing on the shelf. Nevertheless, he and Josh Phegley are the only Athletics catchers who have logged playing time this season.

A fifth-round pick of the A’s in 2011, Taylor experienced a brief stint with the club in 2018 but only picked up six PA. The A’s then outrighted Taylor on Nov. 5, only to re-sign him to a minor league deal a week later. The 28-year-old slashed an excellent .297/.450/.492 (141 wRC+) with five home runs and 33 walks against 38 strikeouts in 151 PA as a member of the team’s Triple-A affiliate before it called him back up.

A.J. Puk, Jesus Luzardo Set To Begin Minor-League Rehab Stints

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Per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, A’s lefties A.J. Puk and Jesus Luzardo will each begin a rehab stint on Tuesday with High-A Stockton. Puk will be making his first live-game mound appearance since undergoing Tommy John Surgery last April, while Luzardo, who’d been dealing with left shoulder soreness, will appear in an official game for the first time since last August.

Puk, a 6’7 lefty who was the sixth overall pick in the 2016 draft, had laid waste to the minors before his injury in the Spring of last season. His “double-plus” fastball and “vicious” (adjectives per Baseball America) slider allowed him to post double-digit strikeout rates in each of his three minor-league stops, culminating in a 61-inning stint for Double-A Midland in which the U of Florida product set down 86 batters in just 64 innings. It’ll surely be a lengthy rehab process for the projected ace, though it appears the club will use him in relief should he crack the majors this season.

Luzardo, a 21-year-old Peruvian-born hurler, was acquired in mid-2017 from Washington with Blake Treinen for relievers Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle. Little known at the time of the deal, Luzardo has rocketed up prospect lists after dominating performances of his own the last two seasons. Baseball America ranked him as the top lefty in the minors after 2018, waxing especially thorough on his changeup, which the site ranks as one of the minors’ best. Shoulder injuries are always cause for serious concern, but if Luzardo can make it through his first few outings unscathed, he’ll be a strong candidate to crack what’s been a middling A’s rotation thus far.

Twins Select Ryan Eades, Option Willians Astudillo

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The Twins have selected the contract of righty Ryan Eades and optioned C/INF/OF Willians Astudillo to AAA-Rochester, the team reported.

Eades, 27, had appeared in 17 games as a swingman for Rochester, notching a 5.88 ERA despite excellent peripheral markers.  The former second-rounder struck out 42 men over those 33 2/3 innings while walking just 12. After his second-round selection in the 2013 draft, Eades has never cracked the top 30 in Baseball America’s assessment of the Twins system, though pre-draft reports lauded his “power curve” and “athletic frame.”  He’s been generally stellar since transitioning to a mostly-relief role following the 2016 season, and he’ll look to make his mark as a likely longman in an unsung Twins pen.

Astudillo, also 27, rose to prominence with one of baseball’s most bizarre offensive profiles. The squatty backstop swings at nearly everything – his 63% swing rate was far and away tops in the majors this season – and makes contact nearly every time (his 4.1% strikeout rate was easily MLB’s lowest). The approach hasn’t worked for him so far this year, though, as the Venezuelan slashed just .250/.273/.357 (62 wRC+) in 120 plate appearances for the club. He’ll look to regain the magic-wand touch he brought to the majors last season in what hopes to be a brief stint with the Red Wings.

Cardinals Select Tommy Edman, Designate Merandy Gonzalez

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The Cardinals have selected the contract of infielder Tommy Edman, the team reported. He’ll replace Jedd Gyorko, who was placed on the 10-Day IL with a lower back strain. Righty Merandy Gonzalez was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man.

Edman, a 24-year-old Stanford product, is a switch-hitter who’d slashed .305/.356/.513 in over 200 plate appearances for Triple-A Memphis this season. The 5’10 utilityman didn’t crack the team’s top ten prospects on most major outlets, though the organization certainly has a history of turning players of this ilk into valuable contributors.

This’ll be the third designation this season for Gonzalez, 23, who was also cut loose by the Giants and Marlins. The six-foot righty threw 25 innings for AA-Springfield this season, striking out 21 and walking an unsightly 20 more. He’ll have to sharpen his command to work his way back to the big leagues, though his upside does remain high.

Pirates Designate Nick Kingham For Assignment

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Among a slew of roster moves this afternoon, the Pirates have designated former top-100 prospect Nick Kingham for assignment. The 27-year-old, who established residence on Pirates top ten lists for much of the decade, has been largely ineffective in 110 big-league innings since his MLB debut last summer.

Kingham’s main issue has been the gopher ball – he’s allowed over two per nine over that stretch – but the 6’5 righty’s also struggled to command the ball and keep it on the ground. His 91.4 average fastball velocity is down from the 92-94 MPH reported range in which he sat before his 2015 Tommy John surgery, and Kingham’s swinging strike rates and overall contact percentage against have also been trending in the wrong direction of late. He still sports some affinity for bat-missing, though, so it’s likely another organization will swoop in and attempt to nab the potential reclamation project.

The Pirate staff, currently minus Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Keone Kela, Nick Burdi, and Chris Stratton, was thin to begin and is now almost in shambles. Both Chris Archer and Joe Musgrove have been hammered in recent weeks, and the S.O.S. calls for Kingham, Steven Brault, and Rookie Davis were met mostly with deaf ears.  The club may need to turn for good to top prospect Mitch Keller, who’s lately been lights out for AAA-Indianapolis, and hope for unlikely production from any number of sources if it’s to stay afloat in a very competitive NL Central.

Yankees Sign Erik Kratz To Minors Deal

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The Yankees have signed catcher Erik Kratz to a minor-league deal, Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune has reported. Kratz has already reported to AAA-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This’ll be the third organization this season for the 38-year-old Kratz, who was released by Tampa yesterday morning. Oft-lauded for his staunch defense behind the plate, Kratz has never much hit at the MLB level. In 921 plate appearances with ten teams over the last decade, the righty’s slashed just .205/.252/.354 (61 wRC+).

Kratz will provide experienced depth on the farm, should backup Austin Romine or force-of-nature Gary Sanchez be again shelved with injury. The veteran did accumulate a very respectable 0.8 fWAR in just 219 plate appearances with Milwaukee last season, so he should at least be a steadying force behind the dish if duty calls.

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