Pirates Sign First-Rounder Quinn Priester
The Pirates have announced the signing of first-round pick Quinn Priester. He’ll earn $3.4MM, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter).
Priester, an Illinois high-schooler, went with the 18th overall selection. The slot value is $3.48MM. He’ll forego a commitment to TCU to launch his professional career.
Entering the draft, most rankings had Priester slotted in just the range he was chosen. Fangraphs (17) and MLB.com (19) had him just ahead of ESPN.com’s Keith Law (20) and Baseball America (23).
While the BA crew ranked a few additional players above Priester, they still lauded his “excellent physical projection and advanced strike-throwing capabilities.” MLB.com cited his “athleticism and the ease of his arm action.” It seems all the physical tools are there for Priester and the Bucs’ player development system.
Yankees Sign First Rounder Anthony Volpe
The Yankees have announced the signing of first-round draft pick Anthony Volpe was signing on the dotted line. He’ll receive $2,740,300, per MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (via Twitter).
Volpe, a high-school shortstop from New Jersey, was taken with the 30th overall selection. That choice comes with a $2.37MM pool allocation, so the Yanks will have to find some savings from other signings.
Most pundits didn’t have Volpe rated quite this high. But the Fangraphs duo of Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel graded him the 38th-best prospect available.
Volpe is known most for his glovework, as he’s considered a polished and talented shortstop. Questions remain about his bat. Entering the draft, many wondered whether Volpe would end up at Vanderbilt, but he chose instead to launch a career with his hometown team.
Rays Prospect Brent Honeywell Fractures Bone In Elbow During Rehab Process
MONDAY: Honeywell could be ready to pick up a ball again in January of 2020, Topkin tweets. His replacement ulnar collateral ligament is just fine, which represents a silver lining to the unfortunate situation.
SATURDAY: Top Rays prospect Brent Honeywell, on the mend from an April 2018 Tommy John Surgery, fractured a bone in his right elbow during a scheduled bullpen in Port Charlotte, Florida, and is out for the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. A surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Honeywell, a consensus top-30 prospect in every major outlet even after the Tommy John, had already experienced a major setback in his rehabilitation process this April when he was temporarily shelved with forearm soreness, an injury often precursor to major elbow damage. The 24-year-old’s vaunted screwball, perhaps the only pure version of the pitch used with regularity among professional hurlers today, was felt in some circles to be the tear’s root, though Honeywell only features it sporadically and had never been hurt prior to the surgery.
It’s obviously a brutal hit for both Honeywell and the Rays, though the latter can at least can hang its hat on an impressive young group of big-league arms and emerging talents below. Topkin, in a follow-up tweet, writes that Honeywell’s 2020 outlook is at yet unclear, though the club should know more after the Monday surgery is complete.
In 416 minor-league innings before last season, Honeywell had set down 458 batters on strikes while walking just 93 en route to a 2.88 ERA. He had little issue with the longball until he arrived for 2017 at Triple-A Durham, but his grounder rates remained robust. He was near-unanimously projected as a #2 starter in the majors should his stuff have returned to form. The future outlook now, of course, is far cloudier.
Rockies Place Seunghwan Oh On IL, Select Philip Diehl
The Rockies have placed righty Seunghwan Oh on the 10-day injured list with a left abdominal strain. MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (via Twitter) reported the move, which is retroactive to June 7th.
Taking the active roster spot is lefty Phillip Diehl. His contract was selected to the 40-man roster.
Oh has not pitched since May 30th, making for quite a lengthy stretch of inactivity for a player on the active roster. He has struggled quite a bit to open the season, working to a 9.33 ERA in 18 1/3 innings with 7.9 K/9 and 2.9 K/9. Opposing hitters haven’t struggled to make good contact, with 29 total hits and six long balls.
Diehl, 24, came to the Rox in a pre-season swap with the Yankees. He has compiled 29 strikeouts against eight walks in 27 1/3 upper-minors frames this year. Diehl owns a 2.30 cumulative ERA, though that mark has risen a fair bit since he was promoted to Triple-A following 13 1/3 scoreless frames at Double-A.
Pirates Place Jordan Lyles On 10-Day IL
The Pirates have placed righty Jordan Lyles on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by reliever Montana DuRapau.
Lyles is said to be dealing with left hamstring tightness. The muscle has given him issues of late, disrupting what had been an excellent start to the season.
After joining the Pirates on an affordable, one-year deal, Lyles turned in eight starts of 1.97 ERA pitching. But he stumbled in his next outing and soon thereafter reported hammy troubles. Lyles has permitted 16 earned runs in his past 18 2/3 frames.
Despite the recent downturn, there’s still plenty to like about the 28-year-old’s work to this point. He’s averaging more than a strikeout per nine for the first time in his career while sustaining the swinging-strike increase he has shown in recent years. Lyles isn’t throwing as hard as he did last year but has found more and more success by shelving his once heavily used sinker in favor of his four-seamer and curve.
It seems reasonable to hope that Lyles won’t require too long an absence, though he’d do well to ensure the problem is behind him. Trouble is, the Pirates are already dealing with some tough injury and performance issues in the rotation. Just what the team will do to fill in isn’t immediately clear. The Bucs are already on the look for innings from outside the organization.
Giants Acquire Alex Dickerson
The Giants and Padres have announced a swap that will send outfielder Alex Dickerson to San Francisco. Righty Franklin Van Gurp goes to San Diego in return.
Dickerson, 29, was designated for assignment recently by the Friars. He’ll find a match with a Giants organization that has been on the hunt for interesting opportunities in the outfield all season long.
Though the Friars long tried to give Dickerson an extended look, his body didn’t hold up long enough for extended action. He turned in a solid offensive showing in his first full MLB action back in 2016, only to miss all of 2017 and 2018 owing to back issues and Tommy John surgery.
Dickerson returned this year to a tough roster situation in San Diego. The club has several younger players who deserve looks of their own at the game’s highest level.
Though Dickerson didn’t run with what limited opportunity he did have in the majors — just three singles to go with seven strikeouts in 19 MLB plate appearances this year — he has once again showed an interesting bat at Triple-A. In 113 plate appearances, Dickerson is batting .372/.469/.606 with an 18:14 K/BB ratio and five home runs.
As for Van Gurp, he’s a 2017 25th-rounder who just received a promotion to the Double-A level. The 23-year-old has battled walk issues at times but has performed well in that area this year. Through 33 2/3 innings — five at Double-A and the bulk at Class A — Van Gurp owns a 4.54 ERA with 13.1 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.
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White Sox Release Nicky Delmonico
The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve released outfielder Nicky Delmonico. His spot on the 40-man roster will got right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne, whose contract as been formally selected from Triple-A Charlotte (as was first reported last night). To open space on the 25-man roster for Despaigne, left-hander Jace Fry was placed on the injured list due to soreness in his left shoulder.
The 26-year-old Delmonico recently underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. Injured players can’t be run through outright waivers, so Chicago opted to simply release Delmonico to open the necessary 40-man roster spot. As noted at the time of his surgery, it’s commonplace to see teams release and then re-sign 40-man players who incur a season-ending injury while in the minors. That could well be the case here. Delmonico certainly has the right to explore other options, but as a player who’s fresh off surgery and won’t be ready to play until 2020, his appeal to a new organization will be fairly limited.
Back in 2017, Delmonico looked like a nice find for the White Sox when he hit .262/.373/.482 with nine homers and four doubles in a 43-game audition down the stretch (166 plate appearances). The former Orioles and Brewers prospect made the team’s Opening Day roster the next year but hasn’t produced in the Majors since that rookie season. Over his past 386 plate appearances at the MLB level, he’s slashed an anemic .213/.290/.357 with a 27.2 percent strikeout rate.
Rays Reinstate, Option Michael Perez
The Rays announced Monday that they’ve reinstated catcher Michael Perez from the 10-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Durham. Perez missed more than a month due to an oblique injury.
Not long ago, it looked as through Perez’s return could push Travis d’Arnaud out of the mix in Tampa Bay. The longtime Mets catcher had struggled considerably at the plate in his time with the Rays and was acquired only for cash considerations, so there’d have been little harm in cutting him loose based on his struggles. Since late May, however, d’Arnaud has come to life at the plate. He’s hit safely in six of his past seven starts, including four multi-hit efforts. He’s suddenly batting .259/.323/.481 with three homers as a member of the Rays, albeit in a small sample of 62 plate appearances.
With Mike Zunino back from the injured list and d’Arnaud riding a hot streak, there’s not much room on the big league roster for Perez at the moment. The 26-year-old has batted .274/.328/.389 in 126 plate appearances with the Rays since being acquired from the D-backs in the trade that sent Matt Andriese to Arizona last year, but he’ll have to wait for another opportunity at the MLB level. He still seems like a viable long-term piece for the Rays moving forward — particularly given that he can be controlled through 2024. Zunino is a free agent after the 2020 season, while d’Arnaud will be a free agent this offseason.