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Phillies Select Fernando Salas

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran reliever Fernando Salas. Outfielder Andrew McCutchen was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster, while fellow righty Enyel De Los Santos was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to clear a spot on the active roster.

Salas, 34, opened the season pitching in the Mexican League but signed a minor league contract with the Phillies a couple of weeks ago. Salas notched a terrific 30-to-4 K/BB ratio while pitching in Mexico and has been sharp for the Phils’ Triple-A club since signing. In 6 2/3 frames with Lehigh Valley, he’s allowed one earned run on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

Last season, Salas spent the bulk of the year with the Diamondbacks, logging a 4.50 ERA with 6.8 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 40 innings of relief. He’s a veteran of nine big league seasons and has thrown at least 30 2/3 frames at the MLB level every year dating back to his 2010 debut with the Cardinals. In 487 innings as a Major Leaguer, Salas owns a 3.90 ERA with averages of 8.7 strikeouts, 2.8 walks and 1.03 homers allowed per nine innings pitched. He’s tallied 30 saves in his career to along with 76 holds.

The Phillies have the equivalent of a full MLB bullpen on the injured list, but the team announced some encouraging news with regard to its bevy of injured relievers today. Per Scott Lauber of Philly.com (Twitter link), right-hander Tommy Hunter will throw 20-25 pitches in a rehab appearance at Double-A tomorrow, while David Robertson is playing catch today and could throw a bullpen session Wednesday.

White Sox Designate Odrisamer Despaigne, Activate Jon Jay

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve activated outfielder Jon Jay from the 60-day injured list for his season debut and designated right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne for assignment in order to open a roster spot.

Jay, 34, was signed to a one-year deal worth $4MM in the offseason — perhaps in part as an unsuccessful enticement to close friend Manny Machado, whom the Sox recruited heavily — but has yet to play in 2019 due to a hip injury. Jay hit .358/.382/.396 in 13 games with Triple-A Charlotte while rehabbing and batted a combined .268/.330/.347 through 586 combined plate appearances with the Royals and D-backs in 2018.

The veteran Jay is capable of manning all three outfield spots, and while he’s lacking in power, he has a knack for putting the ball in play at a high rate (career 16.5 percent strikeout rate). A lifetime .285/.352/.378 hitter, he’ll join an outfield mix that currently contains Eloy Jimenez, Leury Garcia, Charlie Tilson and Ryan Cordell.

Despaigne, 32, was tattooed for 14 runs on 24 hits and seven walks with seven strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings for the South Siders. The Cuban-born righty has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past six seasons but hasn’t found success outside of his 2014 rookie season in San Diego and a solid run with the Marlins in 2017. Overall, he has a career 5.11 ERA with 224 strikeouts against 130 walks in 363 MLB innings.

Marlins Return Riley Ferrell To Astros

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11:02am: MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart tweets that the Astros have assigned Ferrell to Double-A Corpus Christi.

10:37am: Right-hander Riley Ferrell has cleared outright waivers and been returned to the Astros, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Ferrell, whom the Marlins selected out of the Houston organization in last December’s Rule 5 Draft, was placed on waivers by Miami late last week. He is not required to be placed on the 40-man roster now that he’s back with his original organization.

Ferrell, 25, pitched reasonably well for the Marlins in Spring Training, yielding a pair of runs on five hits and five walks with 10 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. While the walks were obviously unwelcome, Ferrell did look to have a chance to crack the big league roster. Instead, a case of biceps tendinitis landed him on the injured list and has prevented him from pitching in the Majors at all in 2019.

Ferrell did start a rehab assignment in mid May but had that assignment halted after just four appearances. He rebooted his rehab efforts on June 12 and tossed 4 2/3 shutout innings (no hits, one walk, two strikeouts) before the Marlins cut bait. Ferrell averaged nearly 12 punchouts per nine innings in a combined 51 1/3 frames with the Astros’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates in 2018 but also logged an ugly 5.9 BB/9 mark in the process. Through a total of 10 1/3 rehab innings in 2019, he issued six walks and hit a batter.

Marlins Have “No Intention” Of Trading Caleb Smith

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Although the Marlins have the worst record in the National League and the fifth-fewest wins in all of baseball, the organization has “no intention” of trading left-hander Caleb Smith to further its rebuilding effort, tweets Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. More broadly, he notes that Miami isn’t looking to deal from its core of controllable starters.

It still seems quite likely that teams will at least ask about Smith, 27, in the weeks leading up to the July 31 trade deadline. He’s currently on the 10-day IL due to some inflammation in his hip, but there’s no indication to this point that the injury is especially serious. Smith is controllable for four years beyond the 2019 campaign, which would hold enormous value to another club, particularly given how well he’s thrown when healthy.

Through 66 innings this year, Smith has turned in a 3.41 ERA with 11.2 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher who has been homer-prone even with a cavernous home park, but his 15.1 percent swinging-strike rate ranks fifth among pitchers with at least 60 innings thrown, trailing the quartet of Blake Snell, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole. Smith’s 35,4 percent opponents’ chase rate is tied for 12th-best in that same set of 114 pitchers, and the spin rate on his heater falls in the 80th percentile among MLB pitchers.

Of course, all of those reasons are also cause for Miami to hang onto Smith. The Marlins aren’t going anywhere in 2019 and aren’t likely to contend in 2020, either, but they can keep Smith on the roster via arbitration all the way through the 2023 campaign. And for as solid as Smith has been on a per-inning basis, he’s yet to throw more than 77 1/3 innings in a big league season. He reached that level in 2018 before a Grade 3 lat strain ended his season, and his innings in 2019 are expected to be limited as a result. Other clubs may even be more interested in Smith if he proves durable enough to handle a full season of starts (or close to it), and Miami will have ample opportunity to market him down the road if the concept of moving him becomes more palatable.

As for the rest of the Marlins’ rotation, the bulk of their arms are even longer-term pieces. Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and Trevor Richards are all controllable for five years beyond the current season, while fresh faces like Jordan Yamamoto and Zac Gallen can be controlled through at least 2025. Righty Jose Urena could very well have been attainable, but he’s now on the 60-day injured list due to a herniated disk in his back.

Frankly, the Marlins don’t seem to have many trade assets at all if the plan is indeed to hang onto their intriguing mix of young arms. Veteran Neil Walker has had a productive year and could be flipped for a modest return if he continues to perform once he’s recovered from the quad strain that currently has him on the IL. Fellow free-agent pickups Curtis Granderson and Sergio Romo haven’t been effective (particularly in the case of Granderson), and veteran Starlin Castro is having the worst offensive season of his career. It could be a quiet deadline for the Marlins unless they surprise by changing course with regard to their controllable starters and/or opt to pursue some bats with a good bit of team control remaining.

Quick Hits: Pujols, Dodgers, Haniger, Dipoto, Bichette

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On July 31, 2000, the Padres and Cardinals swung a trade deadline deal that sent Heathcliff Slocumb and prospect Ben Johnson to San Diego in exchange for catcher Carlos Hernandez and minor league utilityman Nate Tebbs.  The swap is little more than a footnote in team history, though it could’ve been a far more legendary trade had Johnson been replaced with another prospect who was on the Padres’ radar — Albert Pujols.  Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details the intriguing history of that would-be deal, and how the Cardinals front office had to make a decision between including Pujols (a famously unheralded 13th-round pick in the 1999 draft) or Johnson, a much more highly-touted fourth-rounder from that same draft.  Pujols showed so much promise in his early pro career, however, that the team ultimately decided to move Johnson and spend more time evaluating a potential hidden gem.  “I really didn’t want to give up Ben, either, but that’s why you always have your top guys scout your own system,” said Walt Jocketty, then the Cardinals’ general manager.  “You have to know your own, like Pujols. There was no way we could trade him. No way, just based on what our guys had seen in a short period of time. They said, ‘I think he’s going to be something special – or has a chance to be.’ When I saw it myself, it was obvious.”

Here’s more from around the baseball world…

  • Even with Rich Hill on the IL for an undetermined period of time, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman isn’t planning to make starting pitching a particular focus at the trade deadline.  “I don’t see it being an area where we spend a lot of energy,” Friedman told reporters, including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “Could that change? Of course. But I don’t expect it right now. We don’t expect it to be an area of need.”  In fact, Friedman didn’t think his team had any obvious weak spots, which perhaps isn’t a surprise given the Dodgers’ league-best 54-25 record.  Instead, the front office will look out for “impact players,” since such additions are “what moves the needle in October.”
  • In an interview on “The Front Office” on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (audio link), Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto reiterated that his trade deadline efforts will be directed towards moving veteran players.  Younger and more controllable members of the Seattle roster are less likely to be moved, since they are part of what Dipoto hopes “is a very quick turnaround” within 12-18 months.  “Some of the guys that we do have here that attract the most trade attention, particularly guys like Mitch Haniger, they’re critical to our growth.  So at some point, you do have to build around something,” Dipoto said.
  • With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio now in the majors, speculation is swirling in Toronto about when Bo Bichette could make his Blue Jays debut.  A consensus top-12 prospect in the sport prior to the season, Bichette has a .256/.316/.453 slash line and three homers over 96 Triple-A plate appearances in 2019, while missing over six weeks due to a fractured hand.  As a result, Jays GM Ross Atkins told Sportsnet.ca’s Ben Nicholson-Smith that Bichette still needs a bit more seasoning in his first stint at the Triple-A level.  “We’d really like to see some time in triple-A and have him get his legs under him and have a good strong foundation before we have that discussion [about a promotion],” Atkins said.  For comparison’s sake, Nicholson-Smith notes that Biggio had 174 PA and Guerrero 162 PA for Triple-A Buffalo before getting the call to the Show.

White Sox Haven’t Discussed Extension With Lucas Giolito

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A long-term deal between right-hander Lucas Giolito and the White Sox “hasn’t been talked about at all,” Giolito tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.  “I know that’s kind of like the new thing, organizations coming to young players. But I haven’t thought about it myself, and I don’t know where the White Sox are at, either. Just keep playing, play well, and all that stuff takes care of itself,” Giolito said.

It isn’t surprising that the club has yet to broach a deal with Giolito’s reps at CAA Sports, as players in general prefer to stay away from in-season extension talks for fear of distraction.  Needless to say, the Sox don’t want to do anything to throw Giolito off during what has been a breakout season for the 24-year-old.  Giolito has a 2.74 ERA, 10.97 K/9, and 3.59 K/BB rate over 85 1/3 innings for Chicago, with a 14.6% swinging-strike rate that easily tops his previous career high of 10.1% (in 2017), and a drastic reduction in the home run issues that plagued Giolito over his first three seasons in the big leagues.  The righty has only an 0.8 HR/9 in 2019, as opposed to a 1.6 HR/9 in his 240 innings prior to the current seasons.

There isn’t any particular rush for the White Sox to seek out an extension, as Giolito isn’t eligible for arbitration until after the 2020 season and free agency until after 2023.  Plus, it could be that the front office wants to see just a bit more positive evidence before making a big financial commitment given how Giolito struggled last season, though MLB success has long been predicted for the right-hander.  If it weren’t for elbow problems that eventually required Tommy John surgery, Giolito might have very well been the first pick of the 2012 draft, and was still taken 16th overall by the Nationals.  After returning to health and becoming a staple of top-prospect rankings (Giolito was a consensus top-five prospect prior to the 2016 season), he was part of the trade package the Nationals sent to the White Sox for Adam Eaton in December 2016.

As Van Schouwen notes, the White Sox have been proactive in extending young talent since Rick Hahn took over as general manager.  Such notable names as Eaton, Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Nate Jones, Tim Anderson and (just this spring) Eloy Jimenez have all signed extensions under Hahn’s regime, and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if the Sox approach the likes of Giolito or Yoan Moncada about a multi-year contract in the offseason.

In terms of possible comps, Giolito will have between two and three years (two years, 80 days) of MLB service time if he remains on Chicago’s 25-man roster for the rest of the season, which seems like a lock.  German Marquez had a similar amount of time on his MLB clock when he inked a five-year, $43MM extension with Colorado in early April, though Marquez is about seven months younger than Giolito and had more of a proven track record at the Major League level.  Luis Severino also has had more consistent big league success than Giolito, though Severino’s four-year, $40MM extension with the Yankees may also have not have been an ideal model since that contract covered four arbitration years (Severino is a Super Two player).

MLB Draft Signings: 6/23/19

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Here’s a look at the latest noteworthy draft signings, with the newest moves at the top of the post.  Click here for the full list of slot values and draft pool bonuses, and you can find prospect rankings and scouting reports from Baseball America’s Top 500,  Fangraphs’ Top 200, MLB.com’s Top 200, and the Top 50 of ESPN.com’s Keith Law….

  • Gunnar Henderson, the first pick of the second round (42nd overall), has decided to sign with the Orioles and will officially do so in a few days’ time, Maria Martin of WSFA 12 News reports (Twitter link).  Contract terms aren’t known, though the 42nd overall pick has a recommended slot price of $1,771,100 and Baltimore’s offer might well have exceeded that number to get Henderson to break his commitment to Auburn.  Henderson was ranked by MLB.com as the 27th-best prospect of the class, with BA (30th), Fangraphs (40th) and Keith Law (42nd) also giving high grades to the Alabama high schooler.  Henderson is praised for his hitting potential and some scouts feel he can remain at shortstop, though there is some thought that a move to third base is inevitable.

Aaron Sanchez’s Diminishing Trade Value

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Trade rumors have swirled around both Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman for months, though teams considered the Blue Jays’ asking price for either young right-hander to be “uncomfortably high” during the offseason.  The Jays were thought to still be looking for a premium return in any deal, despite the fact that both Sanchez and Stroman were coming off inconsistent, injury-shortened seasons.  The prevailing wisdom was that the Jays would be counting on both pitchers to be healthy and effective in the first half of 2019, paving the way for the duo to become prime trade chips at the July 31st deadline.

For Stroman, it’s been all systems go in amassing a 3.04 ERA over 100 1/3 innings, including his six shutout frames against the Red Sox today.  For Sanchez, however, his first 16 starts have only led to more frustration.  Sanchez has managed only a 5.49 ERA over 78 2/3 innings this season, with ERA indicators (5.48 FIP, 5.30 xFIP, 5.43 SIERA) and hard-contact numbers (a .355 xwOBA just slightly below his .359 wOBA) providing evidence that Sanchez’s struggles are far removed from simple bad luck.

Counting his abbreviated 2017 season, Sanchez is now in his third straight year of issuing at least five walks per nine innings.  While he has a 50% grounder rate, 16.4% of the fly balls he has allowed have left the yard, leading to an unimpressive 1.4 HR/9.  Never a big strikeout pitcher even at his peak in 2016, Sanchez has a 7.44 K/9 this season.

Speaking of Sanchez’s 2016 season, that excellent year stands out as the most recent bit of evidence that the right-hander has be a front-of-the-rotation type of starter, as Sanchez has since been consistently hampered by a variety of finger problems.  Between cracked and removed fingernails, surgery to repair a right index finger injured after being caught in a suitcase, and constant blister problems, Sanchez has been fraught with the type of hard-to-diagnose yet persistent injury concerns that would give any team pause.

As Sanchez told The Athletic’s John Lott (subscription required) last winter, the finger problems led to mechanical issues, as Sanchez tried to adjust for a new grip on the baseball.  This led to a steep increase of Sanchez’s use of a changeup in 2018 that has continued into this season, and Sanchez’s curveball usage has also spiked to a career-high 22.7% this season (his previous high was 16.6% in 2017).

Though Sanchez is averaging 94mph on his fastball, he has only been throwing it 58.3% of the time in 2019 due to a lack of effectiveness.  As per Fangraphs’ fastball runs above average metric (wFB), Sanchez has gotten less than his heater (-12.1 wFB) than all but two other qualified pitchers in baseball.  Lott noted back in January that Sanchez’s sinker was a plus pitch for him in 2016, yet it has become an increasingly smaller part of the righty’s arsenal — after throwing it 54.9% of the time in 2016, that total dropped to 37.9% last season and 36.3% this year.

With all this in mind, Sanchez would need a big turn-around over the next four weeks to merit the type of return that the Blue Jays want for a young (Sanchez turns 27 on July 1) pitcher who is controlled through the 2020 season.  Controllable arms have enough value in baseball that the Jays would surely still get some type of decent offers for Sanchez, especially if there’s a team out there that believes it has a fix for Sanchez’s grip problems.

The trouble is, a “decent” offer would still be seen as a big disappointment for a rebuilding Jays team that hasn’t been able to maximize its return on several of its veterans.  Josh Donaldson would’ve been the Blue Jays’ biggest trade chip of 2018 yet shoulder and calf problems kept the third baseman off the field for much of the season, leaving the Jays forced to settle for just one prospect coming off Tommy John surgery (Julian Merryweather) in a trade with Cleveland.  J.A. Happ was dealt at last year’s trade deadline for Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney, neither of whom have done much for the Jays this season.  Roberto Osuna was sent to Houston last July for a three-pitcher package that included current closer Ken Giles, though Osuna surely would’ve netted more were it not for his off-the-field legal issues.

A case can be made that Toronto could opt to just hang onto Sanchez to see if he can ever get on track either after July 31st or in the first few months of the 2020 season.  Sanchez is earning only $3.9MM this year and will only get a modest raise on that salary in his final season of arbitration eligibility, plus the Blue Jays will still need some kind of veteran rotation help next year.

There’s nothing stopping the Jays from continuing to explore trades for Sanchez over the winter, though then the team runs the risk that his rebound performance simply never comes around (or simply won’t come in a Toronto uniform if a change of scenery is required).  The Jays face an increasingly tough decision leading up to the trade deadline, as the team will have to weigh whether settling for a modest trade return for Sanchez now might be preferable than getting even less, or nothing at all, for Sanchez down the road if his underwhelming 2018-19 performance represents his new normal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Injury Notes: Soroka, Manaea, Gennett, Wood

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Braves right-hander Mike Soroka was removed from today’s game after being hit by a pitch by Austin Voth.  Soroka was struck in his right forearm, and while he took his base and finished the inning, he didn’t return to the mound in the bottom half of the frame.  The team announced that Soroka was removed “as a precaution,” and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweeted that x-rays on Soroka’s forearm were negative.  It doesn’t appear as if the injury is too serious, which is undoubtedly a big relief for both the Braves and the rookie sensation.  While advanced metrics indicate that Soroka’s grounder-heavy (57% ground ball rate) arsenal is due for some regression, his 2.07 ERA over 78 1/3 innings has been a huge boost to an inconsistent Atlanta rotation.

Here’s more on some injury situations from around the game…

  • After throwing 60 pitches in a simulated game on Thursday, Sean Manaea’s rehab has been halted after the southpaw reported soreness in his right side, Athletics manager Bob Melvin told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other media.  “He’s got a little bit of a side soreness, so we’re shutting him down for a little bit. I don’t know if it’s an oblique or if he’s just feeling it a little bit in his side,” Melvin said. “We’re cutting back on him for a little bit here to get healthy. It’s not the arm, which is good.”  There isn’t any known timetable for when Manaea could begin throwing again, though Melvin didn’t seem to consider the issue to be major.  The A’s were projecting a possible return for Manaea after the All-Star break, as the left-hander was slated to begin a minor league rehab assignment following his last simulated outing.  Manaea hasn’t pitched since August 24, 2018 after undergoing shoulder surgery last September.
  • Scooter Gennett’s rehab assignment shifts from high-A ball to Triple-A this week, and Reds manager David Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that “there’s a chance” Gennett could be activated off the injured list on Friday, when the Reds begin a series against the Cubs.  The club will be as careful as possible with Gennett’s recovery process, of course, as the second baseman has yet to play this season due to a severe groin strain.  Gennett’s minor league rehab stint can last up to 20 days in length, and he only just got back on the field earlier this week.
  • Alex Wood, another Reds player who has yet to see action this season, is scheduled for his first rehab start on Thursday, Bell said.  Back problems have kept Wood out of action since late February, and he isn’t expected to be a candidate to join Cincinnati’s roster until after the All-Star break.  “We can’t rush it and he hasn’t had a Spring Training. We have to build him up,” Bell said.

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