Tommy Hunter Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery
Phillies right-hander Tommy Hunter underwent surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon and will miss the remainder of the season, manager Gabe Kapler announced to reporters Tuesday (Twitter link via Scott Lauber of Philly.com). Hunter’s ulnar collateral ligament was examined but was cleared of any damage.
The operation will effectively close the book on Hunter’s two-year, $18MM deal with the Phillies. His results when healthy enough to take the mound were solid — a 3.50 ERA with a 56-to-15 K/BB ratio — but the organization surely hoped to receive more than 69 1/3 innings from Hunter. Unfortunately, Hunter missed about three and a half weeks due to a hamstring strain in 2018 and was limited to just 5 1/3 innings in 2019 by the forearm injury that will ultimately require surgical repair.
Hunter, who just recently turned 33, will have the final two-plus months of the 2019 campaign and the entire offseason to recover from the procedure, so he should be an option for clubs again in 2020. He may have to settle for a minor league pact coming off such an injury-ruined season, but his track record will be plenty appealing. In his past 350 big league appearances, Hunter has pitched to a 3.19 ERA (3.42 FIP) with 7.4 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, 0.9 HR/9 and at least average ground-ball rates in all but one full season (2013).
Rockies Designate Seunghwan Oh For Assignment, Select Yonder Alonso
The Rockies have selected the contract of veteran first baseman Yonder Alonso from Triple-A, per a club announcement. In order to clear roster space, Colorado optioned right-hander Yency Almonte to Triple-A and designated right-hander Seunghwan Oh for assignment.
Oh recently underwent season-ending elbow surgery, so his subtraction from the 40-man roster is a formality. He’s in the final season of his contract and, in all likelihood, will be released in the coming days. Whether he opts for another season in the U.S. is entirely his call, but Oh recently turned 37 and reportedly contemplated returning to South Korea this past offseason.
The 32-year-old Alonso was released by the White Sox after a miserable half season in Chicago but quickly latched on with the Rockies. He’s raked at a .419/.500/.774 clip with two homers, three doubles and a triple in 38 plate appearances down in Albuquerque and will look to bounce back in hopes of securing a big league deal in free agency this winter. Alonso may only have batted .178/.275/.301 in 251 trips to the plate with the ChiSox, but he hit a combined .257/.340/.458 with the A’s, Mariners and Indians across the 2017-18 seasons.
Rays Designate Ian Gibaut For Assignment, Place Yandy Diaz On IL
The Rays announced that they’ve designated right-hander Ian Gibaut for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to third baseman Matt Duffy, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Tampa Bay also placed corner infielder Yandy Diaz on the 10-day IL due to a foot injury.
Gibaut, 25, spent the first two months of the season on the minor league injured list but returned in early June and made his MLB debut earlier this month. In 12 1/3 innings in the minors this season, Gibaut allowed 10 runs (only four earned) on 12 hits and 11 walks with 17 strikeouts. He also yielded a pair of runs in his two-inning MLB debut.
That said, Gibaut pitched well enough in 2018 that the Rays protected him from the Rule 5 Draft by adding him to the 40-man roster in the offseason. Last year in Triple-A, Gibaut logged a 2.09 ERA with 12.1 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.48 HR/9 and an even 47 percent ground-ball rate. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that the Rays have already heard from clubs expressing interest in Gibaut, and they expect to be able to trade the righty.
It’s not yet clear how long Diaz will be sidelined. Topkin tweets that the slugger is on crutches at the moment with what the team has termed to be a bruise, but Diaz is still in a good amount of pain. The fact that there’s no break or structural damage in his foot is obviously encouraging, however. A speedy return would prove most beneficial for the Rays, as their under-the-radar acquisition of Diaz looks like one of the offseason’s best moves for the team. In 344 plate appearances, he’s hitting .270/.343/.480 with 14 homers, 20 doubles and a triple.
The 28-year-old Duffy will be making his season debut after missing nearly four months due to a hamstring injury. Acquired in the trade that sent Matt Moore to the Giants, Duffy’s Rays tenure has been punctuated by injury. It’s been nearly three years to the day since Duffy was traded, but he’s only been able to suit up for 153 games. He’s been productive in that time (.292/.354/.364) and is regarded as a strong defender on the left side of the infield, but his acquisition has yet to yield significant dividends — at least, not to the extent the organization had hoped.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Phillies Outright Fernando Salas
1:55pm: Salas has accepted the outright assignment, tweets MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
12:46pm: The Phillies announced today that righty Fernando Salas has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He had been designated for assignment recently.
Despite throwing forty innings last year with the D-Backs, Salas opened the current season in the Mexican League before joining the Phillies on a minors pact. The 34-year-old ultimately received a three-game audition with the Phils, but the results weren’t promising. Opposing batters were as likely to get a base knock as to make an out, rapping eight hits and plating two runs in his 2 2/3 innings of work.
It is not clear at this point whether Salas will elect to remain with the Philadelphia organization, but he’ll have an opportunity instead to return to the open market. Through nearly five hundred career innings at the game’s highest level, he carries a 3.91 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.
Angels Release Matt Harvey
July 23: Harvey is now officially a free agent after clearing waivers, the Angels announced.
July 21: The Angels have requested unconditional release waivers on right-handed pitcher Matt Harvey, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The move comes after Harvey was designated for assignment on Friday.
Thus continues a frustrating season for Harvey, who earned an $11MM contract from the Halos, representing an opportunity to re-establish himself as a viable rotation option after injuries derailed his career. Unfortunately, though, the contract has been a disaster for the playoff-hopeful Angels, who have by all measures received negative value from their one-year investment: Harvey’s ERA has ballooned to 7.09, the worst of his career. Other indicators paint a similar picture: with a 6.36 FIP and a .390 xwOBA, the Angels had little reason to continue trotting Harvey out to the mound every fifth day.
Harvey has seen his fastball velocity take yet another step back this season, continuing a trend that began after his peak in 2013. In 2019, Harvey’s fastball has averaged 93.68 mph per Brooks Baseball, a far cry from the 96.96 mark he posted in his All-Star season. While the former number still comes in slightly above average, the declining velocity mirrors an overall trend in Harvey’s performance, with his strikeout rate declining to a career-worst 14.7%. That, coupled with a walk rate that is likewise trending in the wrong direction, has led to an abysmal 1.34 K:BB ratio.
With his Angels tenure now in the rear-view, it will be intriguing to monitor Harvey’s status in free agency. Given the prodigious success that he enjoyed early in his career, it seems likely that several teams will have interest in taking a flyer on the veteran, especially at a much more affordable price; in light of his recent performance, Harvey may only garner a minor-league deal. Perhaps teams would be interested in converting Harvey to a bullpen role in hopes that his stuff would play up, though it’s unclear if Harvey himself would be open to such a change. The Mets experimented with Harvey as a reliever prior to his departure in 2018, though he only made four appearances, making it hard to draw any conclusions about his viability out of the bullpen.
Cardinals Designate Chasen Shreve For Assignment
The Cardinals announced Tuesday that they’ve designated lefty Chasen Shreve for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 25- and 40-man rosters for righty Mike Mayers, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Shreve, 29, allowed a pair of runs in two innings of work during his second go-around with the Cardinals. St. Louis acquired him from the Yankees in the trade that sent Luke Voit to New York last summer. Shreve has given them 16 2/3 innings of work out of the ‘pen but has now also been twice jettisoned from the 40-man roster. This season in Triple-A, Shreve pitched to a 3.80 ERA with 10.6 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a 36.3 percent ground-ball rate.
Of course, Shreve didn’t go to the Cardinals alone, and the breakout being enjoyed by 27-year-old righty Giovanny Gallegos lessens the sting of what once looked to be a decidedly lopsided swap. Gallegos also went to the Cards in that deal, and he’s been brilliant in his first full MLB season. Through 46 2/3 frames out of the bullpen, he’s pitched to an excellent 2.31 ERA with 67 punchouts against six unintentional walks. Metrics like FIP (2.39), xFIP (2.85) and SIERA (2.25) all generally agree that Gallegos has been nothing short of outstanding.
The same doesn’t hold true for Shreve, unfortunately. The Cardinals now have a week to trade him, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Shreve has enough service time to elect free agency if he does clear waivers, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this season’s $900K salary. As such, he’s likely to stick with the organization if he is not traded and goes unclaimed by another team.
Mac Williamson Set To Join KBO Team
The Korea Baseball Organization’s Samsung Lions appear to have a deal with outfielder Mac Williamson. Sung Min Kim of Fangraphs tweeted the news that a signing was imminent, with Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweeting that Williamson is heading out for his new gig today.
Williamson gets the call to head to the hitter-friendly KBO after failing to take advantage of his latest MLB opportunities and finally losing his 40-man roster status. After a brief stint with the Mariners, who claimed him from the Giants, Williamson cleared waivers and took up residence at Triple-A. For all his struggles in the majors, the 29-year-old Williamson is a .265/.343/.487 hitter in over a thousand Triple-A plate appearances.
It’s fun to foresee the bat-flipping highlights that are soon to come from the Samsung lineup, which already features former big league slugger Darin Ruf. Whether or not Williamson can carve out a similar path to earnings and notoriety remains to be seen, but he’ll have a good example to follow in Ruf, who is now in his third season as a Lions star.
As Kim notes, it’s quite rare for KBO clubs to carry two foreign-born position players. They typically use at least one of their slots on hard-to-find arms. In this case, Kim says, former MLB righty Justin Haley will be cut loose after struggling. The Lions still employ hurler Deck McGuire along with Ruf.
Rays Have “Checked In” On Nicholas Castellanos
The Rays have at least “checked in” with the Tigers regarding outfielder Nicholas Castellanos, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). That said, there’s no indication that the sides are particularly close to making a deal.
We’ve heard plenty about Tampa Bay’s interest in various pitching targets, but the club is also clearly angling for a new righty bat. The organization was connected yesterday to Hunter Pence, who’d be a cheaper alternative to the younger Castellanos as a DH and part-time corner outfielder.
It’s clear that the Detroit organization is willing to discuss Castellanos in trade talks. The 27-year-old is earning $9.95MM this year before reaching the open market at season’s end. For a rebuilding club, there’s little reason to hold on to such a player unless there’s a strong chance he’d receive and decline a qualifying offer.
Castellanos has turned things on of late and has been about 20% better than the league-average hitter for the past four seasons. His youth is another feather in his cap. On the other hand, Castellanos’s defensive shortcomings are well-documented. While he has improved, metrics still view him as a clear negative and Statcast measures are less-than promising. It’d be a bit surprising to see the Tigers planning to issue a QO, as it’d be tough for Castellanos to say no given his inherent market limitations.
That being said, it could be that other organizations aren’t overly concerned with the fielding questions. Castellanos has reportedly drawn interest from two National League organizations — the Phillies and Cubs — that wouldn’t be able to hide his bat in the DH slot. That creates at least some market competition to help the Tigers pry something of value in return, though the team’s best hope for a significant prospect haul would be for multiple American League clubs to decide that Castellanos is an impact bat worth acquiring as a full-time DH.
Rays, Giants Still Discussing Relief Pitching In Trade Talks
The Rays remain engaged with the Giants in trade talks regarding San Francisco relievers, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Prior reports have connected the clubs on pitching, though the circumstances have since changed for both organizations.
While the Giants are increasingly a threat to hold pat, owing to a still-ongoing surge, the club continues to discuss sell-side or repositioning swaps with other organizations. The San Francisco organization is facing a tough position with only the Wild Card in play.
Down in Tampa Bay, the movement has been in the opposite direction but the outlook is generally not all that different. The Rays have long since given back the nice lead they staked out in the AL East and will face a tough test just to snag a Wild Card.
Given the respective situations, it’s an intriguing to wonder whether the teams could find common ground on a swap that isn’t a strict “buy” or “sell” for either side. The Giants could relievers to give while their position-player mix (especially in the infield) isn’t exactly laden with sure things. On the other side, the Rays continue to look into pitching while thinking about how best to take advantage of an infield overload.
The Rays’ abundance of infielders at and near the MLB level — with former Giants third baseman Matt Duffy potentially among them if he can finally wrap up his rehab — creates both opportunity and 40-man roster pressure. (That’s not to say that Duffy is a possible trade piece. Morosi mentions Joey Wendle and Michael Brosseau, though only speculatively.) Of course, the depth situation can all change in an instant. The Rays are still waiting to learn more about the status of Yandy Diaz after he fouled a ball off his foot last night.
It’s not really evident at this point precisely which players have been chatted about between the San Francisco and Tampa Bay orgs. Frankly, it’s possible to imagine quite a few different scenarios that might conceivably be of interest. There’s also still a chance that the course of play over the next week will shift the Giants into a selling stance, or even push the Rays away from a buying approach. If both teams attempt to chart a middle course, though, they could make for an interesting match.