Padres GM Preller: Hot Start Doesn’t Change Pitching Plans
The Padres are off to a dream start, running out to an 11-6 record after a memorable offseason capped by some aggressive Opening Day promotions. Starting pitching was and is the area of greatest uncertainty, but San Diego GM A.J. Preller says the club’s rotation plans haven’t changed, as Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
“The way we’ve designed it, I don’t think this changes the planning,” says Preller, who has thus far been rewarded for his bold approach to managing the club’s staff. After looking into significant additions all winter, the club elected instead to bypass the market entirely and roll with a series of young arms. The rookie starters have been stunning, with Chris Paddack, Nick Margevicius, and Pedro Avila combining to allow just six earned runs in 35 1/3 innings.
Those fascinating early results don’t tell the entire story, of course. It’s still quite an inexperienced overall starting unit — just one pitcher, Matt Strahm, had appeared in the big leagues prior to 2018 — and there’s uncertainty to go with the talent. Strahm is still a bit of a wild card, while Eric Lauer and Joey Lucchesi are still working to build upon their promising debut showings to fully establish themselves at the game’s highest level.
Preller isn’t just going to lean on that group, however, as the surprise call-up of Avila demonstrates. He tells Acee that he plans to continue drawing from the well of talent in the Friars’ farm system.
There are certainly plenty of other interesting arms floating around. Preller has already proved he’ll dip deep into the farm to call up the pitchers he deems ready. But doing so means clearing and tying up a 40-man roster spot for a player who may not remain on the active roster for much of the season. Robbie Erlin and Anderson Espinoza are on the 40-man, but exciting hurlers such as Logan Allen, Cal Quantrill, MacKenzie Gore, Adrian Morejon, and Michel Baez are not. Otherwise, Luis Perdomo and Matt Wisler (currently working in relief) join the recently outrighted Bryan Mitchell as conceivable depth options, with Tommy John recoveree Dinelson Lamet a potential mid-season boost.
The strategy is fascinating, particularly since many of these hurlers will face innings limits this year. Monitoring work load and discerning which pitchers are best prepared to deliver results — and least susceptible to developmental damage — will be a season-long juggling act.
There’s an argument to be made that the Padres should instead act now, or at least prepare now, to add a veteran stabilizer or two. Dallas Keuchel, whose free agency is showing no signs of coming to an end, represents the obvious option. Perhaps some early-season trade possibilities could also be explored, though Preller would no doubt be wary of overpaying just to get something done. (He has experience on the other side of just such a scenario.)
At the same time, a new veteran might make for some roster complications of its own. And there’s no rush to act with so many things going right — even if Strahm, Lauer, and Luchessi are all allowing more than four earned runs per nine at the moment. (Luchessi, at least, has sparkling peripherals.)
Preller suggests that the organization will begin to consider market possibilities when the calendar flips to June, by which time there’ll be much more information on where the Pads are heading and what can be accomplished by trade. Tempting as it may be to try to press an early advantage, particularly after such an aggressive offseason, the team obviously wants to see through its opening gambit and get a full look at the internal slate of talent. It’ll be fascinating to watch this strategy unfold and to see where it leads.
Angels Place Tyler Skaggs On Injured List
The Angels announced today that starter Tyler Skaggs is headed to the 10-day injured list. He’s dealing with a left ankle sprain incurred in his last outing, as MLB.com’s Maria Torres was among those to cover via Twitter.
Fortunately, the outlook seems to be quite positive for Skaggs. His hope is to return to action in short order. It seems reasonable to presume that he’ll be able to keep his arm in condition for whatever time he is down, so a return to action ought to be in sight once the ankle progresses.
That’s about the least worrying possible explanation for the velocity dip that Skaggs showed late in his last start. His problematic arm injury history isn’t implicated. The Halos will hope that Skaggs can use the down time both to rest up a bit and figure out how to tamp down on the long balls that have thus far marred his season.
Skaggs has shown some promising and some worrying signs thus far. Through 15 innings over three starts, Skaggs carries a promising combination of 8.4 K/9 and 1.2 BB/9. But he has already allowed four balls to leave the yard. The 27-year-old is exhibiting reduced velocity thus far, which perhaps has been part of the impetus for his shift away from the heater in favor of his curve and change.
Despite the uncertainty, there’s no doubting Skaggs’s importance to the Halos — particularly with Andrew Heaney also on the sideline at the moment. The void in the rotation will be filled by Jaime Barria, who’s joined by fellow righty John Curtiss in ascending to the active MLB roster. Infielder Taylor Ward was optioned to open the other needed roster spot for those promotions.
Rockies Select Drew Butera, Place Chris Iannetta On 10-Day IL
The Rockies announced today that backstop Drew Butera‘s contract was selected from Triple-A. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow receiver Chris Iannetta, who was placed on the 10-day inured list with a strained lat muscle.
In other roster moves, the club announced that outfielder Noel Cuevas and righty Antonio Senzatela are also joining the big league club. Outfielder Yonathan Daza and righty Yency Almonte were optioned down to make way.
It’s not clear at this point how severe an injury Iannetta is dealing with, but it’s hardly promising to see him go down. He’s the latest veteran position player to hit the IL, further downgrading an already terrible offensive outlook for the Colorado organization.
Butera has loads of MLB experience and represents a worthwhile insurance policy to cash in. But he’s known far more for his sturdy presence behind the dish than his work with the bat in hand. The 35-year-old is a .201/.258/.299 lifetime hitter in the majors.
Brandon Phillips Intends To Play In 2019
Veteran second baseman Brandon Phillips is still hoping to continue his playing career, MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reports on Twitter. He has not signed with an organization since wrapping up a brief stint with the Red Sox last year.
Now 37 years of age, Phillips is well removed from his days as a stalwart performer with the Reds. He topped 120 games for the 12th straight season — and topped 140 for the 11th time in a dozen years — in a 2017 campaign split between the Braves and Angels. But Phillips didn’t sign on with the Boston organization until late last June and ultimately appeared in only nine contests at the game’s highest level.
Phillips didn’t exactly thrive in his brief MLB time last year, though a 27-plate-appearance sample isn’t much to go on. He was strong at Triple-A, turning in a .302/.348/.477 slash with four home runs over 161 plate appearances. And Phillips was still capable of near-average offense in the majors in 2017, posting a .285/.319/.416 slash in 604 trips to the plate.
That ’17 effort wasn’t far off of Phillips’s career mean. Trouble is, he’s no longer an elite defender at second base. Though UZR graded him as approximately average at the position in his most recent full MLB campaign, DRS assigned a well-below-average -7 score for the second consecutive season. Phillips has also posted some notable negatives in the baserunning arena, though he’s still capable of stealing a bag.
Phillips’s low-walk, high-contact skillset could still hold appeal, particularly to a team that still believes in his glovework. The grading systems were neutral to bullish on his 218 innings at third base in 2017, the first time he had ever played there in the majors. Phillips is no shrinking violet; his occasionally brash presence might not be for every team but could be seen as a bonus in the right circumstances.
It isn’t apparent what kind of opportunity Phillips is looking for. He says he’s staying in shape, but there’s no indication of his preferred timeline. Phillips showed last year that he’s willing to undertake an extended run in the minors, though he surely did so knowing there was a chance at an important role for a championship contender. Whether he’ll be able to secure such an opportunity this time around remains to be seen.
Dodgers To Activate Clayton Kershaw On Monday
APRIL 15: As expected, Kershaw is now back on the active roster. The club optioned righty Jaime Schultz to open roster space.
APRIL 11: Clayton Kershaw will come off the injured list to make his season debut on Monday when the Dodgers host the Reds, manager Dave Roberts revealed to reporters Thursday morning (Twitter link via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register).
Kershaw landed on the IL to begin the season due to a bout of shoulder inflammation that slowed his progress during Spring Training. He’s made a pair of minor league rehab starts since Opening Day — one with Triple-A Oklahoma City and a second with Double-A Tulsa — working six innings and tossing 81 pitches in the latter of the two. In total, Kershaw yielded four runs on nine hits and a pair of walks with a dozen strikeouts in 10 1/3 rehab innings.
Since it became apparent that Kershaw would require an IL stint to begin the season, the Dodgers have also lost both Rich Hill (knee strain) and Hyun-Jin Ryu (groin strain) to injuries. Those maladies pushed lauded southpaw Julio Urias into the rotation to begin the year after he’d been slated to open the 2019 campaign in the bullpen to manage his workload. He’s been limited to about 75 pitches in each of his two starts so far.
It’s not clear exactly how the Dodgers’ rotation will shake out in the coming weeks as both Hill and Ryu mend; Walker Buehler, Kenta Maeda and Ross Stripling figure to join Kershaw in the starting five for now, and it’s possible that Urias will make another start or two until one of Hill or Ryu is able to step back into the fray. At some point, Urias will have to shift to the ‘pen, given that he only pitched a total of 22 innings between the Majors (postseason and regular season) and minors last year in his return campaign from major shoulder surgery in 2017.
Blue Jays Select Eric Sogard, Option Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
April 15: The Blue Jays announced the move. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Sogard, the team has transferred left-hander Ryan Borucki from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Borucki has already been on the IL all season but will now be definitively ruled out until May 27.
April 14: The Blue Jays are sending infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to Triple A, per Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports. Gurriel the younger was removed from today’s game for a “mental break” per manager Charlie Montoyo. The team hopes their young infielder can get back on track with a Triple-A reset, per Mitchell (Twitter links). MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm tweeted about the possibility of a Gurriel demotion earlier today.
While Gurriel Jr. heads to Buffalo, veteran infielder Eric Sogard is set to join the major league roster. The spectacled Sogard received the bulk of his big league playing time with the A’s from 2010-2015, where he slashed .239/.295/.313 over 1331 plate appearances while playing second, third and short. He spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, hitting .234/.351/.318 across 412 PAs.
Gurriel, meanwhile, has flashed moments of athletic playmaking, such as when he stole home off of Chris Sale last week, while also misfiring on a pair of routine throws from second base. An overall rough go of it at the dish (49 wRC+) also likely bolstered the case in favor of demotion. Given the long-term, if reasonable, financial investment the Blue Jays have made to Gurriel, he likely gets ample opportunity to figure it out, though there’s also little reason to rush him back to the majors. Toronto owes the 25-year-old infielder an average of roughly $3.14MM per season until he hits free agency after the 2023 seasons.
MLBTR Chat Transcript: Albies, Rays, Heyward
Click here to read the transcript of today’s chat with Tim Dierkes.
Nationals, Dan Jennings Agree To Minor League Deal
The Nationals are in agreement with left-hander Dan Jennings on a minor league contract, MLBTR has confirmed. Roster Roundup first tweeted that the two sides were nearing a deal.
Jennings, a client of ISE Baseball, struggled through a poor spring with the Angels and was ultimately cut loose at the end of camp. The well-traveled lefty, however, has a history of quality results at the MLB level, most recently having tossed 64 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball with the Brewers in 2018. He’ll turn 32 later this week.
Jennings has logged parts of seven seasons in the big leagues and never posted an ERA of 4.00 or higher. He doesn’t miss bats at a particularly high rate (7.1 K/9) or possess pristine control (3.9 BB/9), but he’s been a durable arm that can retire both left- and right-handed hitters throughout his MLB career (although righties gave him some trouble last season). It’s also difficult to elevate the ball against Jennings, as evidenced by his 58.5 percent ground-ball rate and 0.66 HR/9 mark in 244 innings dating back to 2015.
For the Nats, it’s only logical to tack on some veteran depth in the upper minors. No team in baseball has seen its bullpen post a worst ERA than the Nationals’ collective 7.75 mark in 2019, and while there’s been some degree of poor fortune attached to the extent of that eyesore, the bullpen’s 5.22 FIP, 5.34 xFIP and 4.55 SIERA all support the notion that the overall performance has been legitimately ugly. Beyond closer Sean Doolittle, the Nats’ other two lefties — Tony Sipp and Matt Grace — have each struggled so far.
Jennings isn’t the first veteran arm to pique the organization’s interest in recent days; Washignton reportedly had a near-agreement with Bud Norris fall through last week, and the team will surely continue to explore what’s left in free agency and monitor the waiver wire. At present, Doolittle and Kyle Barraclough are the only Nationals relievers who have an ERA under 5.68, and there’s particular concern surrounding Trevor Rosenthal, who has allowed 12 of the 15 men he’s faced to reach base (seven via walk plus a hit batsman) in his first season back from 2017 Tommy John surgery.
AL Notes: Indians, Miller, Forsythe, Gio
Veteran infielder Brad Miller was understandably frustrated by the news that the Indians had opted to designate him for assignment over the weekend, writes Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The 29-year-old Miller hit .250/.325/.417 with a homer and three doubles in his short time with the organization but lost out on his roster spot with the impending return of fellow left-handed-hitting second baseman Jason Kipnis. “It’s a tough trend,” Miller said of his DFA. “They acknowledge that it wasn’t fair. … I really enjoyed playing for Tito (Terry Francona). That’s why I’m frustrated. I want to be here. I like this group. It’s a good team and I was hoping I’d be a part of it, but they have other plans.”
Per Hoynes, Miller’s $1MM salary with the Indians wasn’t fully guaranteed by virtue of the fact that he agreed to a 45-day advance consent clause. (Full details on those clauses are explored in this 2014 piece from Trade Rumors’ Zach Links, though in essence, they allow teams to cut players with five-plus years of service at any point within the season’s first 45 days for any reason other than injury.) Miller will still be paid for the time he spent with the Indians, but he’ll receive the pro-rated portion of that $1MM salary while losing out on the rest of it. Notably, Hoynes reports that designated hitter Hanley Ramirez also has such a clause in his contract.
Some more from the American League…
- Infielder Logan Forsythe spoke with MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan about his decision to sign with the Rangers, specifically how the opportunity to play on a near-everyday basis by rotating through a number of positions spoke to him. “Most teams that looked at me had a pretty set infield,” said Forsythe. “There weren’t too many everyday jobs out there, or there were, but not too many guys were signing them. More teams were going for the utility or the platooning matchup type players.” As Sullivan details, Forsythe starts at second base against lefties and first base against righties, and he’s also available as a backup to Asdrubal Cabrera and Elvis Andrus, should either left-side infielder need a day off.
- Veteran lefty Gio Gonzalez is awaiting an opportunity in the Major Leagues with the Yankees as an opt-out clause in his minor league contract looms, Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post writes. The Yankees, according to Gonzalez, were the only club to even make him an offer this winter and didn’t do so until midway through Spring Training after an injury to Luis Severino. The southpaw had a brutal first start in Triple-A but has bounced back with a pair of strong outings, yielding just two runs through 11 innings with an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio. Gonzalez didn’t shy away from voicing his displeasure with the manner in which the offseason unfolded but also said he doesn’t feel he needs to pitch as though he has a point to prove: “No. I have nothing left to prove to people. [I] throw 180 innings, do your thing, I’m durable, doing it for the last 10 years. If I still have to prove a point, that’s embarrassing in this sport.”
NL Notes: Vargas, Diamondbacks, Cardinals
The Mets plan to stick with Jason Vargas in the rotation despite his struggles, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said Sunday (link via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). “We’re not going to be making drastic changes to our club after one bad inning of a start where he had a schedule that was derailed from the start of the season,” said Van Wagenen of Vargas, who recorded just one out against the Braves on Saturday. Of course, a move to yank Vargas from the rotation would be based on more than just his most recent outing; the 36-year-old has yielded 10 runs on 14 hits and four walks with three strikeouts in 6 1/3 frames this season. And while he did enjoy a solid second half in 2018, his overall results last year were dismal. As DiComo notes, however, the Mets are lacking in terms of internal depth alternatives, and a run at free-agent Dallas Keuchel still does not appear to be in the cards.
More from the NL to kick off the week…
- Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald chatted with D-backs GM Mike Hazen and assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye (both former Red Sox execs) about the team’s current standing and unwillingness to plunge into a full-fledged rebuild. “Teams do that to pick at the top of the draft, more for a monetary perspective,” said Sawdaye of the growing trend of aggressive tanking. However, the Diamondbacks knew they’d have a huge bonus pool this year by virtue of qualifying offers to Patrick Corbin and A.J. Pollock, and they were able to land a second Competitive Balance draft selection in the Paul Goldschmidt trade. Hazen acknowledged that it’s “cleaner and easier” to declare that a team is either rebuilding or “all-in” on winning, but the Arizona organization is trying to walk the line. Hazen cites the unexpected success of the Athletics and Rays in 2018 as a means of pointing out that even clubs tabbed by projection systems as middle-of-the-pack teams can make strong postseason pushes. Sawdaye voiced a belief that the D-backs inherited a team that had more talent than the Astros or Cubs at the time those teams opted for a full-scale teardown, while Hazen stressed the importance of fostering a “culture of winning” even in times of possible transition. Both execs offer insight and perspective that go against some of the game’s common trends right now, making for an interesting interview that’s well worth a read for fans of any club.
- Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader is currently dealing with what the team hopes is a minor hamstring injury, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Bader was out of the lineup Sunday and is expected to be further evaluated today. The initial prescription for Bader was merely to rest the injury for a full day, but if the pain in his leg lingers today, he could undergo an MRI as well. The 24-year-old Bader, one of the game’s premier defenders in center field, is off to a sluggish .179/.347/.359 start through 50 trips to the plate.
- In a separate piece, Goold notes that righty Carlos Martinez threw a 20-pitch bullpen session — consisting entirely of fastballs — on Saturday and is expected to do so again today. From there, he’ll move to live batting practice (assuming today’s ‘pen session goes well) before the Cardinals make a determination on not only the location of his rehab assignment but also the role in which he’ll pitch on that assignment. The organization is still mulling whether Martinez will pitch as a starter or as a reliever in 2019.