Indians Place Mike Clevinger On 10-Day IL
FRIDAY: The Indians have placed Clevinger on the IL (retroactive to June 18) and recalled lefty Josh Smith from Triple-A Columbus, Mandy Bell of MLB.com tweets.
THURSDAY: After spending over two months on the injury list, Indians right-hander Mike Clevinger is likely going to be sidelined again due to a sprained left ankle, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Clevinger suffered the injury on Monday, while fielding a grounder in the second inning of the Tribe’s 7-2 loss to the Rangers. He stayed in to finish the outing, ultimately lasting 4 2/3 innings and allowing five earned runs.
An IL placement could be somewhat precautionary in nature, as Hoynes thinks Clevinger could ultimately just miss one start if the Tribe backdates the move to June 18th. As Clevinger only just returned from a teres major muscle strain, the team doesn’t want him to try and tough it out with an injury to his plant foot, which Hoynes notes could alter his delivery and lead to more serious injury problems. Clevinger had been slated to start on Saturday against Detroit.
While this latest injury seems pretty minor, it still represents an unwelcome setback for a Cleveland team that needs all the help it can get as the Tribe try to remain in the wild card race (and within shouting distance of the Twins in the AL Central). Clevinger has emerged as one of the Indians’ better pitchers over the last two seasons, and looked great in his first two outings of 2019 before his first injury absence.
Royals Activate Hunter Dozier
The Royals have activated third baseman Hunter Dozier from the 10-day injured list and optioned outfielder Jorge Bonifacio to Triple-A Omaha.
Dozier’s back after missing three weeks with chest tightness. The 27-year-old performed like one of the majors’ breakout stars over the season’s first two months, posting a .314/.398/.589 line with 11 home runs in 216 plate appearances. Dozier significantly slashed his swinging-strike, chase and strikeout rates along the way, and drew walks at a 12 percent clip.
Among hitters who have totaled at least 200 trips to the plate this year, Dozier ranks eighth in wRC+ (157, tied with Freddie Freeman and Pete Alonso) and 10th in weighted on-base average (.413). Dozier’s expected wOBA sits at a much lower .379, though it’s still an impressive figure in its own right.
The production Dozier has recorded this year is what the Royals had in mind when they spent the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft on him. Dozier didn’t do much in the majors or minors over the previous couple years, but his output this season has reportedly made him one of the only untouchable members of the rebuilding Royals’ roster.
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Giants Claim Joey Rickard, Place Nick Vincent On 60-Day IL
The Giants have claimed outfielder Joey Rickard from the Orioles, per a club announcement. He had been designated for assignment recently.
To create 40-man roster space, the club placed reliever Nick Vincent on the 60-day injured list. He has been sidelined for nearly a month already with a pec strain.
Rickard will become the latest outfielder to get a look with the San Francisco organization, though he could open up his tenure at Triple-A. He’s a .245/.299/.372 hitter through 924 career plate appearances in the majors.
As for Vincent, this move seems to take away any hope that he’d be a mid-summer trade piece for the Giants. Vincent had a great start to the year before hitting a rough patch in his last several outings. Even if he’s able to get back to health, the veteran righty won’t be eligible for activation until just before the trade deadline.
Mets Not Expected To Make Managerial Change
Though the fading Mets axed a pair of pitching coaches yesterday, reports indicate that skipper Mickey Callaway is likely to remain at the helm through season’s end. Mike Puma of the New York Post said yesterday that Callaway is considered safe barring a full-blown devolution of the season, while Andy Martino of SNY.tv writes much the same today.
It wasn’t long ago that Callaway was said to be on the hot seat. But GM Brodie Van Wagenen came in with a vote of confidence and hasn’t backed down publicly since in his support for the skipper. Puma writes that COO Jeff Wilpon “remains [Callaway’s] strongest backer in the organization.” Since Wilpon writes the checks, there won’t be a change at the helm of the dugout unless he says so.
Things certainly haven’t improved since they last came to a head in mid-May. The club has hovered at .500 ball since, but that hasn’t helped jump-start a move in the standings. The Mets sit five games under the mean and nine games back of the Braves. They were just passed by a Nationals team that dug a deeper hole but has been on a nice run of late.
None of that is terribly encouraging. The club remains in need of some kind of jolt — or just better, more consistent across-the-board play. But it seems the Mets’ top brass has decided that canning Callaway isn’t likely to spur improvement. Van Wagenen issued another public vote of confidence in the wake of the pitching coach change, saying that Callaway “has my full-blown confidence.”
There’s certainly an argument to be made that a managerial change isn’t the right way to go, though one could’ve said the same of the interim step of swapping out coaches. And it’s frankly not clear what can be done at the moment. As Marc Carig of The Athletic wrote this morning (subscription link), the “brunt of th[e] failure rests on the shoulders of Van Wagenen.” The new GM’s early moves haven’t worked out as hoped; now, he’ll have to deal with a complicated roster situation.
White Sox Sign Jacob Scavuzzo
The White Sox have signed outfielder Jacob Scavuzzo, according to a club announcement. He’ll report to Triple-A Charlotte.
Scavuzzo, 25, posted an intriguing — if unbalanced — .259/.300/.696 slash line in 120 plate appearances at Triple-A with the Padres organization. That wasn’t enough to impressive the San Diego brass, as Scavuzzo’s tally of 15 long balls was accompanied by a worrisome blend of forty strikeouts and just five walks.
A former Dodgers draftee, Scavuzzo has shown the same essential attributes ever since he cracked the pro ranks in 2012, but never to quite these extremes. It’s clear there are some intriguing physical tools to work with, but the South Siders obviously have their work cut out if they are to find a way to help Scavuzzo reach base at a palatable rate.
Marlins Place Rule 5 Pick Riley Ferrell On Outright Waivers
The Marlins have placed Rule 5 pick Riley Ferrell on outright waivers, per Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (via Twitter). Other organizations will have a chance to claim him; otherwise, he’ll be offered back to the Astros.
Ferrell seemed on track to crack the Marlins’ roster out of camp, but the former third-round pick ended up being forced to the injured list to open the season. He was shifted to the 60-day IL, so was not occupying a 40-man roster spot, but would have needed one upon his activation.
Despite some stops and starts in his rehab work, Ferrell has thrown 10 1/3 innings of 0.87 ERA ball over seven appearances. He allowed just three base hits, but also managed only eight strikeouts against six walks. Evidently, the Marlins weren’t sufficiently impressed to give Ferrell his first MLB opportunity.
Johnny Cueto Still On Track For Potential 2019 Return
Giants righty Johnny Cueto has been on a relatively aggressive timetable in his effort to work back from Tommy John surgery. He’s still on track for a possible return to the majors this September, as Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group reports.
The 33-year-old Cueto was turning in good results last year when he went down, making it through 53 frames of 3.23 ERA ball. But his velocity was down and the peripherals painted a different picture. His outlook soured quite a bit more when it was determined he’d require a replacement ulnar collateral ligament last August.
Expectations will be modest, but there’s still quite a bit at stake here for the San Francisco organization. Cueto is earning $21MM annually through the 2021 season, with a $5MM buyout due thereafter on a $22MM club option. It’s tough to imagine he’ll be worth anything close to his annual salary moving forward, but every bit of contribution will help the club to stomach its already-fixed financial commitment.
Cueto is still working out at the Giants’ Arizona facility, so he’ll hop over to Chase Field for a ‘pen session while the club is in town. If all continues to go well, says Crowley, Cueto could embark upon a rehab assignment in August and be back in the bigs for the final month of the season. That would represent a fast-tracked, though hardly unprecedented return. While the Giants won’t have much to play for, seeing him in action could at least help with the offseason planning.
Reds Reportedly “Open To Adding A Controllable Hitter”
The Reds are “open to adding a controllable hitter” this summer, according to a recent report from MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link).
This bit of scuttlebutt seems mostly to reflect a few self-evident realities about the Cincinnati org’s situation. The Reds have steadily moved back into plausible contention in the National League Central and the NL Wild Card race. The club’s pitching staff has generally performed admirably while its bats have been surprisingly silent. Looking up and down the 2019 stat sheet, you’ll find a whole lot of average or worse hitters on this Cincinnati club.
Doing the math … Quite a few obstacles still separate the team from the postseason, so a present-and-future move would arguably be most sensible. Outwardly, at least, the lineup is an area for improvement. x+y = “controllable hitter.”
But does that really tell us anything about how the Reds will actually approach the deadline? For one thing, there’s still ample uncertainty in the team’s actual competitive position. It’s not hard at all to imagine the club slipping into the status of a rental seller, or stepping up to be a clear rental buyer. The Reds already invested in a series of one-year assets over the winter, so why wouldn’t they consider more if they are in relatively strong position come late July? Even if the club won’t go wild for the best rental pieces, it could certainly see value in some added relief depth and bench bats that make for nice platoon fits.
Neither is the area of need fixed in stone. Entering the year, the questions were in the pitching staff; some may yet arise. While Alex Wood has been sidelined (he’s now on the road back), the team has been quite fortunate to sport a five-man rotation unit that has taken all but one of the team’s starts and performed beyond expectations. The bullpen has been excellent but isn’t without potential questions of its own. Meanwhile, the talented slate of hitters may — some might argue, probably will — get things going in earnest. Rental bat Yasiel Puig is doing just that. Ditto Joey Votto, Jesse Winker, and Nick Senzel, each of whom joined Derek Dietrich in posting a strong past thirty days at the plate. (That includes Dietrich’s late-May burst; he has slumped of late.) Let’s not forget that Scooter Gennett is now on a rehab assignment, too.
It isn’t entirely obvious what position would best be targeted, either. You could say catcher, but good luck finding a quality, controllable bat in that spot. The outfield is far from perfect, but it looks increasingly accounted for with Puig and Winker hitting alongside Senzel. With Gennett’s return, Dietrich may need to find more of his opportunities on the grass. The left side of the infield isn’t exactly mashing, but Eugenio Suarez is a fixture at third and Jose Iglesias has provided excellent value at shortstop.
It’s always worth paying attention to indications of a team’s own assessment of its needs. But this particular early signal seems a bit too vague to have all that much informational value in divining the shape of the summer trade market. The Reds are certainly an interesting team to watch. They may well end up in a sort of opportunistic hold position, standing pat with most current MLB assets while exploring the addition of a controllable hitter at some position or another. But it seems just as likely that the club will end up simply selling a few of its pending free agents or buying a couple of veteran bench pieces.
NPB’s Yomiuri Giants To Acquire Rubby De La Rosa
The Diamondbacks are in the process of selling the rights to right-hander Rubby De La Rosa to Japan’s Yomiuri Giants, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. Terms of the deal aren’t known, though Piecoro writes that De La Rosa is “likely to make more significant money” for the Nippon Professional Baseball team than he would if he cracked Arizona’s Major League roster.
De La Rosa underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2017, and then turned a two-year minors deal with Arizona that offseason. The agreement allowed the D’Backs to retain De La Rosa’s rights while he spent all of 2018 rehabbing, with an eye towards being fully healthy this season.
Thus far, De La Rosa seems to be both healthy and effective, judging by his 2.49 ERA, 4.14 K/BB rate, and 12.1 K/9 over 21 2/3 relief innings for Triple-A Reno. Piecoro also notes that the right-hander is again throwing a high-90s fastball, yet despite this apparent success and the overall middling results posted by Arizona’s bullpen, De La Rosa doesn’t appear to be in the Diamondbacks’ plans.
De La Rosa has a significant injury history that includes two Tommy John procedures and a stem cell treatment on his elbow, though he achieved some decent success in appearing in parts of seven big league seasons with the Dodgers, Red Sox, and D’Backs from 2011-17. Over 421 1/3 career innings (starting 70 of 98 games), De La Rosa posted a 4.49 ERA, 2.27 K/BB rate, 48 percent grounder rate, and 7.6 K/9.