Report: Orioles “Certainly Would” Trade Andrew Cashner
Orioles general manager Mike Elias suggested in late June it would be difficult for the starter-starved club to part with either Dylan Bundy or Andrew Cashner prior to the July 31 trade deadline. However, at least in Cashner’s case, Baltimore “certainly would” part with the right-hander, according to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Elias has been “checking the Cashner market for quite a while,” Kubatko adds.
The Orioles obviously haven’t found a taker for Cashner yet, though he has upped his value with a resurgent year. After Cashner’s disastrous 2018, his first season as an Oriole, it would have been difficult to envision him emerging as a trade chip this summer. But the 32-year-old has come out of the gates this season with a 3.83 ERA/4.26 FIP, 6.17 K/9 against 2.71 BB/9, and a 49.2 percent groundball rate in 96 1/3 innings. Cashner turned in his fifth consecutive quality start Saturday, throwing seven innings of one-run ball in Toronto.
Cashner’s success in 2019 has come thanks in part to an ability to stymie opposite-handed hitters, whom he has limited to a paltry .229 weighted on-base average. At the same time, Cashner has held enemy lineups to a .273 wOBA the first time through the order, a .311 mark the second time and a .312 figure the third time. Cashner’s better output has come with an increase in velocity. He averaged 92.4 mph on his fastball a year ago, but the number has revisited its 93.5 mph mean from 2017 – a season in which he defied uninspiring peripherals to post a 3.40 ERA with the Rangers. He landed a two-year, $16MM deal from the O’s the next winter as a result.
Cashner’s on track to reach free agency again during the upcoming offseason, and he is owed approximately $3.7MM of his current $8MM salary in the meantime. Considering Cashner is not a major difference-maker at this stage of his career, Baltimore might have to eat some of his remaining money to augment his trade value in the next few weeks. If Cashner keeps pitching well until then, though, he may indeed end the season with a playoff contender.
Tigers Outright Jose Fernandez
After being designated for assignment earlier this week, Tigers lefty Jose Fernandez has cleared waivers and will remain with AAA Toledo, per the MLB Roster Moves Twitter feed.
Fernandez came to Detroit this offseason via waivers after several years in the Blue Jays organization, but a brief pit stop with the Tigers across April and May yielded unpalatable results. After giving up 7 ER in just 3.2 big league IP, Fernandez was optioned to Toledo on May 9th. All told, the 26-year-old Dominican has an even 9.00 ERA across 14 big league innings dating back to last season.
Fernandez has been much more successful at preventing runs in Toledo this season, having logged a 3.90 ERA over 27 2/3 frames. However, he has only put up 5.86 K/9 against 4.23 BB/9 with Detroit’s top affiliate.
Latest On Edwin Diaz
6:04pm: Diaz remains the Mets’ closer for now, Callaway announced Saturday (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com).
9:48am: The Mets are considering removing Edwin Diaz from the closer role after another rough outing on Friday night, per Wallace Matthews of Yahoo Sports.
In the span of five batters in the top of the ninth inning last night against the Phillies, Mets closer Edwin Diaz unraveled once again. The half inning provided a microcosm of the season thus far for the moribund Mets. Diaz walked a batter and surrendered three hits, Wilson Ramos gave away an extra base with a throwing error, and the Mets past mistakes came back to haunt them once again – this time in the form of Jay Bruce, who singled in the go-ahead run before being lifted for a pinch-runner.
Mickey Callaway has little choice but to consider removing Diaz from the closer role. Diaz now carries a 5.67 ERA, a far cry from the 1.96 ERA he put together last year en route to 57 saves for the Mariners. The situation is further pressurized by the prospects whom the Mets surrendered for Diaz, who continue to climb up prospects boards as they near their new futures in Seattle. Robinson Cano, either the tax in the deal or Diaz’s sidekick, depending on your perspective, hasn’t helped matters either. Hampered by injuries, Cano has produced just a .244/.292/.368 batting line while drawing boos from the New York crowd.
The devolution of Cano isn’t all that stunning – though Brodie Van Wagenen clearly did not see this coming – but few expected Diaz to stumble into the All-Star break such as he has. How bad Diaz has been is a matter of debate, as he’s been worth -0.4 wins above replacement by measure of rWAR, whereas Fangraphs takes a brighter view, putting his worth on the year at a positive 0.4 fWAR. Neither are what the Mets hoped for, but by Fangraphs measure there is some hope that Diaz hasn’t lost what made him so special last season.
Looking at fielding independent metric, Diaz looks downright functional with 3.72 FIP and 2.87 xFIP. His 14.85 K/9 is only down a little from last year’s mark, while a .425 BABIP and 21.9% HR/FB% speak to a certain degree of poor luck. If Diaz can get the balls to stop leaving the yard, his overall numbers should rebound. Of course, it’s a zero sum game for closers, and no matter how the peripheral numbers look, the blown saves have piled up and forced Callaway to consider his options, such as they are.
Were there a deputy on hand to depose Diaz, his removal might be hastened, but it’s slim pickings these days in the Mets bullpen. Jeurys Familia has been an equal disaster, and Seth Lugo blew three saves from June 23-29. Robert Gsellman saved 13 games for the Mets last season, but his surface numbers (4.96 ERA) aren’t much better than Diaz. The lack of alternatives might buy Diaz some time to turn it around, but the watch is on.
The Marlins’ Sneaky Trade Chip
Apart from a few scattered signs of promise dotting the South Florida tank, it’s been another year to forget for the Fish. The Marlins currently sit at 32-54, 19.5 games back of the Braves in a tough NL East, a mark that all but assures the club of a decade-long losing-season sweep.
The club’s heaviest assets of yesteryear have all been pawned, leaving an assortment of pre-arb castoffs, up-and-comers, and journeymen hangers-on. Still, it’s baseball, and where playing time awaits, new assets will emerge. The club has steadily rebuilt its once-barren farm, stolen a couple names from regimes with which new club personnel were familiar, and allowed previously cast aside young talent to flourish. Even Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara, the bulk of the oft-pilloried return for Marcell Ozuna, have spread their wings this season, with the former vaulting into top-100 territory and the latter notching the club’s lone ’19 All-Star appearance despite shaky peripherals.
Can the club add to its array of projected big leaguers on the farm? Many of its top performers this season – Brian Anderson, Pablo Lopez, Garrett Cooper, Caleb Smith – figure to comprise the core of Miami’s next contending club, and are thus unlikely to move. Veterans Martin Prado, Starlin Castro, Wei-Yin Chen, Adam Conley, and Sergio Romo have done little to boost their respective values, and high-octane hurler Jose Urena hasn’t take the step forward the team hoped. But one former throw-in from a long-ago deal has remained steady as always.
Enter Miguel Rojas. Acquired in the head-scratching deal that sent Andrew Heaney, Kiké Hernandez, and Austin Barnes to LA in exchange for Dee Gordon and an aging Dan Haren, Rojas was used sparingly in his first couple seasons with the club. He opened eyes with a 1.4 fWAR performance in just 90 games in 2017, pairing strong contact ability with above-average defense at multiple positions. The gutting of 2018’s roster left near-full-time opportunity at shortstop for Rojas, a position at which he sparkled defensively, notching 10 defensive runs saved in nearly half the innings of NL-leader Nick Ahmed, who posted 21, and a UZR/150 that ranked among MLB’s best.
The 30-year-old Venezuelan has vaulted up a notch this season, pacing the big leagues in both UZR/150 and the range component of the stat, with a striking 13 Defensive Runs Saved to boot. With Andrelton Simmons on the shelf, and Brandon Crawford looking a shell of his former shelf all across the diamond, Rojas has staked a legitimate claim to the league’s best defender at the most difficult defensive position on the field.
His bat, too, has taken off: his 97 wRC+ has the one-time utility man on pace for nearly 3.0 fWAR this season, an easily above-average mark, and his second such offensive campaign in three years. His hard-hit rate has jumped to a career-high 35.5%, and the righty’s chasing pitches outside the zone at a career-low pace. Rojas’ 12.8 K% (paired with a respectable 7.8% BB) ranks among the league’s lowest.
In short, he’s as solid as they come. But where will he fit? Unlike other positions – catcher, second base – shortstop is rife with talent, and nearly every contender has a good one. Milwaukee, who’s seen Orlando Arcia reprise his poor performance from a season ago, could be a fit, as might Tampa or perhaps Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. Washington could again shift its shortstop, Trea Turner, around the diamond – he’s been awful defensively in limited action so far this season – as could the Cubs, whose second-base hole might simply be plugged by the displacement of one-time incumbent Javier Baez.
Given the propensity of new-wave front offices to acquire pieces without a clear fit, it stands to reason that Rojas’ market may be wider than it first appears. He’s arbitration-eligible for the final time in 2020, so Miami’s return won’t be negligible; the one-time throw-in may soon find himself a centerpiece.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/6/19
The latest in minor moves from around the game…
- The Reds have released Zach Duke, per Mark Sheldon of mlb.com. Duke, now 36, has long been an effective reliever from the left side, but was viciously knocked around in 30 appearances for the club this season, posting identical 6.94 K and BB/9 marks in 23 IP. The lefty’s assortment of offspeed offerings has been death on same-side hitters for nearly a decade and a half now, but even southpaws crushed him this year, posting an eye-popping .250/.385/.500 slash through the season’s first half. He’s a decent bet to catch on elsewhere, given his track record, but the leash won’t be nearly as long this time around.
- Former Mets infielder T.J. Rivera has signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, tweets Jon Heyman of MLB Network, who notes that the 30-year-old took much of the early season off to “fully recover” from his 2017 Tommy John Surgery. Rivera posted consecutive above-league-average offensive marks in limited time for the 2016 and ’17 Mets, though the club never seemed keen on giving him a full-time gig. A strong Indy showing should land him a spot in affiliated ball, though it may be too late this season for him to make a mark.
Orioles Claim Aaron Brooks, Designate Josh Lucas
The Orioles have claimed righty Aaron Brooks off waivers from Oakland and designated right-hander Josh Lucas for assignment, the team reports.
Brooks, 29, appeared in 15 games for the A’s this season, starting six. He was mostly rocked over that span, pitching to a 5.01 ERA/5.67 FIP with a chilling 12 homers allowed in just 50 1/3 IP. The former Royal, Cub, and Brewer farmhand’s had major difficulty keeping the ball in the yard throughout his nine-year big-league career, so he wouldn’t figure to be a choice fit for Baltimore’s cozy Camden Yards dimensions.
Lucas, 28 and coincidentally a member of the A’s last season, was hit hard in nine appearances for Baltimore this season. The righty’s average fastball checked in at just 90.1 MPH for the club this year, well below the 93.5 MLB reliever average.
It’s the latest in a near-constant reshuffling of the Oriole pitching staff this season, yet again a sore spot for the club on its second consecutive #1 pick trajectory. Only John Means and Andrew Cashner have offered any solace in the rotation, with 23 bullpen members combining to post a league-high 1.89 HR/9.
Yankees Select Daniel Camarena
The Yankees have selected the contract of lefty Daniel Camarena from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the team reports. It’ll be the major league debut for the 26-year-old Camarena, who was re-signed by the club earlier this season after a short stint with the Twins organization.
Camarena was a late-round pick by the Yankees in 2012, and has since spent parts of each of his eight professional seasons in the Yankee farm (he also had a brief upper-minors stint with San Francisco last season). In 69 2/3 innings for Scranton this season (11 starts), the lefty’s pitched to an ugly 6.09 ERA, results only slightly inferior to his AAA output of a year prior. Camarena’s near 4/1 K/BB ratio is encouraging, especially in the juiced environs of the new-look International League, but he’s likely little more than a long man or fill-in at this point.
With the move, the club’s 40-man roster is now full. A staggering ten players still sit on the team’s 60-Day IL, so the club will almost certainly be faced with difficult roster decisions in the days ahead.
Brewers Designate Deolis Guerra For Assignment
The Brewers have designated righty Deolis Guerra for assignment, per a team release. Right-hander Burch Smith has been recalled in his place.
Guerra, a 30-year-old who once upon a time was a headliner in the 2008 Johan Santana trade that sent the left-handed ace from Minnesota to New York, has never quite found his footing in a 14-year professional career thus far. A 2012 move to the bullpen was precipitated by severe bat-missing issues, a malaise that transmuted into homer and command problems in relief stints with both the Pirates and Angels from 2015-17.
He has been sharp this year, however, with 10.45 K/9 against 2.18 walks per nine in 41 1/3 treacherous innings in the homer-happy PCL. Numbers like those will allow him to linger in the upper minors for as long as he chooses, though the far-below average fastball (per MLB standards) may keep him knocking on the big-league door for some time.
Smith, 29, is a former well-regarded Padres and Rays prospect who ran into a heavy wall with Kansas City last season. Injuries kept him out of both the 2015 and ’16 seasons, and the low-slot Smith hasn’t since been able to regain his long-ago form. In 13 starts for San Antonio this season, Smith has paired a strong strikeout rate (10.24 K/9) with sloppy command. He’ll likely be deployed in relief with Milwaukee, though the team’s current pitching mix needs help wherever it can get it.
Nationals Send Austin Voth To Double-A, Activate Max Scherzer From Paternity List
The Nationals activated Max Scherzer today from the paternity list after his wife gave birth to their second child yesterday. Scherzer is expected to make his last start of the first half today wearing the Expos’ powder blue road jersey against the Royals.
Current fifth starter Austin Voth, meanwhile, has been sent to Double-A Harrisburg. The Nationals have a bizarre minor league setup in that the closeness of Harrisburg has been utilized all season to keep major-league-ready players nearby for quick activation, rather than sending them cross-country to their Triple-A affiliate in Fresno.
Voth took three turns through the rotation, holding his own while also struggling to clamp down and finish a third time through the order. He did not take a decision, lasting less than five innings apiece in his final two starts after a strong season debut against Atlanta. He heads to Harrisburg with a 5.52 ERA after showing strong stuff with 9.8 K/9 and a fastball that routinely hit 95mph, but five walks tanked his final two outings and the Nats ultimately went on to lose all three games that he started.
The Nationals will not need a fifth starter until July 17th, MASN’s Mark Zuckerman tweets, so the Nats have some time before they need to decide whether Voth will reclaim the role. Erick Fedde had occupied the spot before Voth, while Jeremy Hellickson remains out for the foreseeable future after being moved to the 60-day IL with right shoulder stiffness. Both Fedde and Voth pitched well enough at times to earn consideration for further evaluation, though Voth’s peripherals and fairly substantive year-over-year jump in velocity (from 91.3 mph to 93 mph) may signal a more compelling arsenal.
Still, neither outright staked their claim to the job, and with the Nationals back in the heat of a playoff race, they could look elsewhere to find a more established fifth option for their already-stacked rotation.
Rays Option Brendan McKay, Recall Ian Gibaut
The Tampa Bay Rays have recalled Ian Gibaut to make his major league debut, the team announced (via Twitter). Much-lauded two-way player Brendan McKay has been optioned to Triple-A to make room.
McKay’s first taste of the majors did little to quell the excitement about his eventual arrival as a regular two-way player. He took two turns through the rotation, accumulating 0.3 rWAR in the process and earning his first major league win. After going six scoreless against the Rangers in his sterling debut, he got a no-decision in giving up three earned runs across five innings against the vaunted Yankees. He returns to Triple-A after 11 innings, three earned runs, seven hits, six strikeouts and a walk.
As a batter, McKay remains largely uninitiated, as he went 0-4 in his only start as a designated hitter. McKay is generally regarded as less advanced as a hitter than a pitcher. The Rays do not likely view him as a contributor on that side of the ball until next season at the earliest. On the hill, however, there’s a good chance he will see another opportunity at some point in 2019.
As for Gibaut, the 25-year-old Texan was an 11th round pick by the Rays in 2015. He missed two months of this season with injury, but since returning to Triple-A Durham, Gibaut has been on his game: 9 appearances, 1.93 ERA, 3.9 H/9, 15.4 K/9, 6.8 BB/9. Outside of some location issues, Gibaut has all the makings of a late-game reliever. He has recorded 35 saves in the minors, though the Rays will no doubt look to leverage his opportunities early on given the depth of their relief corps.