Nationals To Select Fernando Rodney On Tuesday
The Nationals will add right-handed reliever Fernando Rodney to their roster before Tuesday’s game against the Marlins, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports. Rodney’s not on the Nationals’ 40-man roster, though they do have an opening after releasing fellow reliever Trevor Rosenthal on Sunday.
Rodney’s addition will be Washington’s latest attempt to repair what has been a horrible bullpen in 2019. The Rosenthal signing didn’t work, leading the team to jettison him, nor has picking up Kyle Barraclough over the winter. Barraclough has been on the IL since June 16 with a forearm issue.
Including Rosenthal and Barraclough, the Nationals have shuffled threw 17 relievers this year. The group has combined for an unsightly 6.29 ERA, which helps explain the Nationals’ 37-40 record. It’s anyone’s guess whether Rodney will be able to help the team’s cause, though there’s little risk in trying from its perspective. Washington brought in the 42-year-old on a minor league contract three weeks ago. He then allowed five runs (four earned) with 11 strikeouts and nine walks in eight innings with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate in Fresno.
Rodney has been a solid major league reliever for most of his career, though the journeyman began so poorly this season that the low-budget Athletics paid him to go away. Oakland had to pay $3.53MM to part with Rodney, who logged a 9.42 ERA/5.55 FIP with 8.79 K/9 and 7.53 BB/9 in 14 1/3 innings. Rodney’s just a year removed from recording a 3.36 ERA/4.03 FIP with 9.79 K/9, 4.48 BB/9 and a 44.4 percent groundball rate in 64 1/3 frames, though. The Nationals, who haven’t found capable bridges to closer Sean Doolittle this year, would sign up for that type of production.
Orioles Sign Adley Rutschman
5:04pm: Rutschman’s deal is official, Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com tweets. He signed for under slot at $8.1MM, according to Callis, who notes it surpasses the record $8MM the Pirates gave No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole in 2011.
9:27am: The Orioles are close to a deal with No. 1 overall draft pick Adley Rutschman, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). The former Oregon State catcher’s No. 1 overall slot carries a value of $8.42MM. Rutschman isn’t the only top O’s pick on whom there’s news today, however; MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports (also via Twitter) that the team’s second-rounder, Gunnar Henderson, has agreed to a deal worth $2.3MM. A high school shortstop out of Alabama, Henderson will receive a bonus that is well north of his No. 42 selection’s $1.771MM slot value.
Rutschman, 21, entered the draft as the consensus top talent on the board. The switch-hitter posted a ludicrous .411/.575/.751 batting line with 17 home runs, 10 doubles and a triple through 266 plate appearances in his junior season with the Beavers. Rutschman’s eye-popping batting average and considerable power numbers almost overshadow his plate discipline at first glance, but his 76-to-38 BB/K ratio is every bit as impressive as the rest of his numbers — if not more so.
Baseball America, MLB.com, Fangraphs and ESPN all ranked Rutschman as the top player in the 2019 draft. ESPN’s Keith Law noted that Rutschman’s defense and plus power give him a high floor with the ceiling of a repeated All-Star, while BA’s report touts him as a potential .300 hitter with plus defensive tools and “excellent” makeup and leadership abilities. Rutschman was the only player in the draft that Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen tabbed as a 60 FV (future value) player on the 20-80 scouting scale. Over at MLB.com, Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo note that while some players who enter a season as a projected top talent struggle with that pressure and spotlight, Rutschman thrived and elevated his game en route to further cementing himself as this year’s best draft prospect.
Broadly speaking, Rutschman is regarded as a plus defender with power from both sides of the dish, strong plate discipline and a strong enough hit tool to post high batting averages as well. If all of that pans out, Rutschman has the makings of a franchise catcher for the new-look Baltimore front office.
Henderson, meanwhile, has yet to turn 18. Scouting reports were reflective of a split camp as to whether he can remain at shortstop or will need to move to third base down the road. MLB.com (No. 27) and Baseball America (No. 30) pegged him as a late-first-round talent, while ESPN (No. 40) and Fangraphs (No. 41) had him a bit lower. Henderson was Gatorade high school player of the year in Alabama and draws praise for his above-average power and the potential for an above-average hit tool. Henderson is young for his graduating class and still filling out his 6’3″ frame, leading to varying projections about his power potential and eventual defensive home. Even reports who project him to move to third base, though, suggest that he has the tools to be a quality defender there.
MLB Issues Three-Game Suspension To Asdrubal Cabrera
JUNE 24: The league has reduced Cabrera’s suspension to three games, Grant tweets. Cabrera will sit out the Rangers’ series against the Tigers from June 25-27.
JUNE 21: Major League Baseball has issued a four-game suspension to Rangers third baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Cabrera will appeal the ban, TR Sullivan of MLB.com tweets.
Cabrera received the suspension for throwing equipment on the field at umpire Bill Miller on Thursday, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. One piece of equipment “apparently” struck Miller in the ankle, per Grant. Cabrera’s outburst came amid an ejection for arguing balls and strikes.
The 33-year-old Cabrera’s in his first season with the Rangers, who signed him to a $3.5MM deal over the winter to succeed Adrian Beltre as their primary third baseman. The switch-hitting Cabrera has since batted an underwhelming .242/.322/.428 (92 wRC+) with 11 home runs in 267 plate appearances.
Gabe Kapler Gets Vote Of Confidence
It hasn’t been a banner year for the Phillies, who’ve fallen short of expectations after an action-packed winter, but they’re not going to assign blame to manager Gabe Kapler. He’s not in danger of losing his job this season, general manager Matt Klentak told Matt Breen of the Philadelpia Inquirer and other reporters Monday.
A longtime major league outfielder, the 43-year-old Kapler’s in his second season atop the Phillies’ dugout. They brought in the analytically minded Kapler after a three-year run as the Dodgers’ director of player development. Kapler got off to a rocky start at the outset of his tenure as a big league manager in 2018, though his club rallied in the summer to hold a first-place spot in the National League East from July 6 through Aug. 12. The Phillies sat at 65-52 with a month and a half left in the season, but they collapsed from there to finish 80-82.
While last year didn’t end to the Phillies’ liking, there was no way they were going to move on from Kapler, who was in charge for the team’s best record since 2012. Instead, Klentak & Co. focused during the offseason on giving Kapler more pieces. The Phillies aggressively acquired the likes of Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura, Andrew McCutchen and David Robertson in free agency and trades. Aside from McCutchen, who suffered a season-ending torn left ACL three weeks ago, no one in that group has been as effective as they were a year ago.
Thanks in part to somewhat underwhelming production from their high-profile newcomers, not to mention shaky pitching, the Phillies are just 39-38. While the Phillies are 6 1/2 games back of the reigning NL East-winning Braves, they’re a mere one out of a wild-card spot. That gives the Kapler-led team a realistic chance to rally for a playoff spot even though it has lost six straight – including sweeps at the hands of sub-.500 division rivals Washington and Miami – and 16 of 22 overall.
Jordan Hicks, Alex Reyes Undergoing Medical Evaluations
Cardinals closer Jordan Hicks and oft-injured prospect Alex Reyes are both undergoing tests today to determine the severity of a pair of potential injuries, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hicks is having an MRI after being slowed by triceps tightness in recent days and could potentially land on the injured list. Reyes, meanwhile, exited yesterday’s Triple-A outing due to right pectoral discomfort and is being reevaluated today.
Were Hicks to require a stint on the injured list, the Cardinals could turn to either Andrew Miller or John Gant for ninth-inning work in his absence. Miller struggled terribly through his first 13 games this year but has rebounded with a 2.70 ERA and, more importantly, a 25-to-4 K/BB ratio over his past 16 2/3 innings. That sterling ratio comes after the lefty issued eight walks and hit three batters in his first 9 1/3 innings of action as a Cardinal. Gant, meanwhile, boasts a 2.40 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.65 HR/9 and a 47.1 percent grounder rate in 41 1/3 innings of relief.
That’s not to say that the loss of Hicks wouldn’t sting, of course. The 22-year-old has improved in every meaningful category in 2019. At present, he has a 3.14 ERA with 9.7 K/9, 3.5 BB/9 and a superlative 67.2 percent ground-ball rate. He’s upped his swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rates from 9.4 percent and 26.1 percent to 11.9 percent and 29.5 percent, respectively. Even Hicks’ otherworldly heater has taken a step forward in 2019; after averaging a blazing 100.5 mph on the pitch in 2018, he’s upped his average fastball velocity to 101.2 mph this year.
The news on Reyes, 24, is more concerning not necessarily because of the specific nature of his injury but because the vaunted right-hander has an already lengthy injury history that has led to concerns about his ability to remain on the field. Reyes has thrown just 64 1/3 innings from 2017-19 combined and has never reached 120 innings in a single season. He’s previously undergone Tommy John surgery as well as surgery to repair a tendon in his lat muscle last season.
The Cardinals’ pitching staff has received a boost in recent weeks. Carlos Martinez returned to bolster the bullpen and has turned in 15 innings of 3.00 ERA ball. Michael Wacha tossed two quality starts (albeit against one clunker) upon rejoining the rotation following a bullpen sojourn. Miller’s resurgence, too, has been a vital development. The club looks better equipped to handle absences for Hicks and/or Reyes with that trio looking mostly sharp, but a significant absence for either pitcher could of course impact the manner in which the Cards operate in the weeks leading up to next month’s trade deadline.
St. Louis currently looks like a buyer, as the Cards are in a tie for an NL Wild Card spot and just two games behind the division-leading Cubs. That stance isn’t likely to change, but their area of focus and level of urgency to make a deal will undoubtedly be impacted by health throughout the roster.
Phillies Select Fernando Salas
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
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
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
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
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.