MLBTR Chat Transcript: Bautista, Eloy, Senzel, Vlad Jr.
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Early Returns On Minor-League Signings: Starting Pitchers
We checked in yesterday on the position players that have carved out major roles despite signing minor-league deals over the winter. Today, we’ll turn to the hurlers, where it’s generally more difficult — but hardly impossible — to find serviceable assets in the rotation than in the bullpen.
These pitchers have to this point filled rotation slots with their organizations despite inking non-roster deals entering the season (presented by order of innings pitched):
- Tyson Ross, Padres: Thus far, Ross has been a jackpot signing for the Pads. He won’t be cheap if he keeps performing, as his deal includes a base salary of $1.75MM with another $4.25MM in potential incentives, but that’s still plenty reasonable given what Ross has shown thus far. The 31-year-old has rediscovered much of his pre-injury ability to miss bats and currently owns a 3.28 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, and a 47.3% groundball rate through 35 2/3 innings. Oh, and he very nearly threw a no-hitter.
- Bartolo Colon, Rangers: The ageless wonder was just named the Rangers’ player of the month, if you’re looking for a concise explanation of how things are going for both player and team. He’s allowing less than a walk per nine while carrying a .225 BABIP-against. That’s not really sustainable, but while Statcast suggests some good fortune, it also indicates that Colon is legitimately drawing poor contact (.251 wOBA vs. .326 xwOB).
- Derek Holland, Giants: Though he’s coughing up 5.76 earned runs per nine and has only averaged five innings in his five outings, Holland is filling an important need for the Giants and has probably thrown better than the results. He owns a 25:11 K/BB ratio, after all, and fielding-independent pitching metrics value him as a more serviceable hurler thus far (4.57 FIP, 4.61 xFIP, 4.33 SIERA). Holland can earn up to $4MM if he reaches all his incentives.
- Jeremy Hellickson, Nationals: After signing late and getting up to speed, Hellickson has stepped into the Nats rotation and been a useful fifth starter. He’s not getting many strikeouts, and his FIP numbers look more like Holland’s, but he has worked to a 4.11 ERA over 15 1/3 innings. Unless injury or a trade acquisition intervened, Hellickson will have a chance to maintain his role. He’s earning $2MM with another $4MM possible via incentive pay.
- Anibal Sanchez, Braves: Sanchez spent camp with the Twins after agreeing to a non-guaranteed MLB deal. He collected the portion that was guaranteed when he was released late in camp and shortly thereafter joined the Braves on a minors arrangement. While he’s currently working back from the DL, and will need to hold off impressive youngster Mike Soroka and others, Sanchez has been rather impressive in Atlanta. He has allowed just two earned runs in 14 innings while recording 14 strikeouts and six walks, with a swinging-strike rate (11.2%) that sits near his career peak.
A few other minor-league signees have taken starts, such as Miguel Gonzalez, but no others have produced useful results over a relatively sizable number of innings. That could still change, of course. Wade Miley is up for the Brewers, while Brett Anderson is slated to take the hill for Oakland tonight. A few other hurlers — Kris Medlen is a candidate to step up for the D-backs next week — could press for rotation opportunities before long.
Jordan Montgomery Out Six To Eight Weeks With Flexor Strain
4:20pm: Montgomery has been diagnosed with a flexor strain in his left arm and is expected to be out anywhere from six to eight weeks, manager Aaron Boone tells WFAN’s Mike Francesca (via WFAN’s Sweeny Murti, on Twitter). Montgomery will be shut down from throwing entirely for the next two to three weeks.
Clearly, that comes as a significant hit to the rotation. For the time being, righty Domingo German is slated to take the hill in what would’ve been Montgomery’s place this coming weekend, though the team will surely consider other options in the long run as well.
Notably, top prospect Chance Adams has gotten off to a dismal start to his Triple-A campaign in 2018, though southpaw Justus Sheffield has thrown quite well in Double-A. Both rank among the game’s best pitching prospects, though the 25-year-old German has handled himself quite well through his first 14 1/3 innings with the Yankees this season.
2:31pm: The Yankees have announced a series of roster moves driven largely by the decision to place lefty Jordan Montgomery on the 10-day DL. He is dealing with an elbow strain, per the club.
Righty David Hale, who recently re-signed with the organization, will join the active roster after his contract was purchased. To create a 40-man spot, the Yanks bumped outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury to the 60-day DL. Meanwhile, outfield prospect Clint Frazier has been activated from the concussion DL and optioned to Triple-A.
The real question here involves the health of Montgomery, who is a key rotation piece. There’s not much more clarity on that question now than there was yesterday, when he left his start early owing to the elbow problem. The 25-year-old is carrying a 3.62 ERA over 27 1/3 innings on the year but has seen his K/BB numbers dip along with his average fastball velocity as compared with his 2017 debut effort.
As for Ellsbury, the move to the 60-day DL is largely procedural. He’s already been on the shelf for more than half of that time, and the transfer to the lengthier of the two disabled lists is unlikely to impact his return date, as the 60-day term is tied to his original DL placement rather than today’s move. He’ll be eligible to return to the active roster in late May, though there’s no clearly defined timetable to suggest exactly when he may be activated.
Rangers Claim Carlos Perez From Braves
The Rangers announced that they’ve claimed catcher Carlos Perez off waivers from the Braves. Texas has opened a 40-man roster spot by transferring injured shortstop Elvis Andrus from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. That move seemingly carries little impact on Andrus’ timetable for a return from an elbow fracture, as he was widely expected to miss around eight weeks with the injury anyhow. As Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets, Andrus can be activated on June 11.
Texas didn’t immediately reveal a corresponding 25-man roster move, as executive VP of communications John Blake indicated that said move will be announced tomorrow. However, it seems unlikely that the Rangers would carry three catchers on the big league roster, and Perez is out of minor league options, so it’s fair to speculate that current backup catcher Juan Centeno‘s spot could be in jeopardy. It’s also possible, of course, that one of Centeno or Robinson Chirinos is dealing with a yet-undisclosed injury and could land on the disabled list, thus prompting the Texas organization to pick up some additional depth behind the dish.
Perez, 27, was traded from the Angels to the Braves on March 31 in the wake of an injury to Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers. He appeared in eight games with the Braves but went just 3-for-21 with a walk and six strikeouts in 22 trips to the plate. That lack of production mirrors Perez’s meager output from a near-identical sample of 21 plate appearances in 2017 with the Halos. Overall, he’s hit just .122/.163/.195 over the past two seasons and .221/.264/.325 in a total of 617 big league plate appearances.
Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. The Venezuelan-born backstop has successfully halted 38 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.
It’s been an ugly start to the season for the season for the 28-year-old Centeno, which only makes it easier to speculate on his potential dismissal. He’s posted a tepid .147/.171/.176 slash in 35 plate appearances as the backup to Chirinos, and while he’s yet to have an opponent attempt a steal against him, Centeno has just a 13 percent caught-stealing rate as a Major League catcher.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/2/18
We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post:
- The Marlins announced that catcher Tomas Telis has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A. He had been designated for assignment recently. Telis, a 26-year-old switch-hitter, was hitting just .207/.258/.241 through 31 plate appearances on the year and hasn’t shown much more than that with the bat in his limited action over the past five seasons. Additionally, infielder JT Riddle was activate from the DL and optioned to New Orleans.
Giants Place Johnny Cueto On Disabled List
TODAY: Skipper Bruce Bochy did not exactly calm fears over Cueto’s health in his update to reporters today, though uncertainty remains the overarching theme at the moment. As Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets, the skipper says that Cueto is heading out for opinions from multiple specialists — likely including Dr. James Andrews.
The precise nature of the injury, though, is not yet clear (publicly, at least). There’s no indication at present how likely it is that a surgical approach will be pursued, let alone what kind of timeline Cueto could be looking at for making it back to the mound.
YESTERDAY, 8:23pm: Giants GM Bobby Evans tells Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic that Cueto has been dealing with some elbow discomfort for at least a couple of starts (Twitter link). “We are getting our heads wrapped around it now,” the GM said. “We’re still trying to understand where he’s at.”
The organization is presently awaiting MRI results.*
8:04pm: The Giants have placed right-hander Johnny Cueto on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his right elbow, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).
It’s yet another costly injury for a Giants team that is currently without Madison Bumgarner, Joe Panik, Mark Melancon and Mac Williamson, among others. Lefty Andrew Suarez is up to step into Cueto’s rotation spot, rounding out a starting mix that also includes Jeff Samardzija, Derek Holland, Ty Blach and Chris Stratton.
Even a brief absence for Cueto is a notable hit to the Giants, considering the level of utter dominance put forth by Cueto thus far in what was shaping up to be a rebound campaign. After missing much of the 2017 season due to a forearm issue (and struggling when healthy), Cueto opened the year with a superlative 0.84 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.28 HR/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate through 32 innings. With Bumgarner shelved for the first two months of the season, Cueto had stepped up and filled those considerable shoes, providing the Giants with a much-needed ace atop a shakier bunch of two-through-five starters.
*An earlier version of this post mistakenly stated that the team had not yet sent Cueto for an MRI.
Athletics Select Contract Of Brett Anderson
TODAY: Oakland has indeed selected Anderson’s contract. Righty Emilio Pagan was optioned to create roster space.
YESTERDAY: Brett Anderson arrived in the Athletics’ clubhouse on Tuesday night and is expected to start for Oakland tomorrow in place of recently demoted Opening Day starter Kendall Graveman, writes John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. The A’s will have to formally select Anderson’s contract beforehand, though they have an open spot on the 40-man roster, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move to accommodate him.
The news means that for the first time in seven years, the Athletics’ rotation will feature both Anderson and Trevor Cahill — two now-30-year-old pitchers who were once viewed as potential building blocks for the A’s. Over a span of two years, however, Oakland traded both pitchers in separate deals that netted Jarrod Parker, Drew Pomeranz, Ryan Cook, Collin Cowgill and Chris Jensen.
Since he last suited up for the A’s, Anderson has appeared for the Rockies, Dodgers, Cubs and Blue Jays at the big league level, at times functioning as a decidedly above-average starter but also dealing with myriad back injuries in addition to blister issues and a broken finger on his pitching hand. In the four seasons since he was traded Anderson has pitched a total of 290 1/3 innings — the vast majority of which came with the 2015 Dodgers (180 1/3 innings, 3.69 ERA, 5.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 66.3 percent ground-ball rate).
[Related: Oakland Athletics depth chart]
As Shea notes, Anderson had an opt-out provision in his contract, which likely contributed to the decision to bring him back to the big league level. However, one could hardly argue that Anderson didn’t earn the promotion based on merit, either; in four starts and 19 innings thus far with Triple-A Nashville, he’s surrendered four earned runs (1.89 ERA) on 17 hits and two walks with 25 strikeouts and a 65.2 percent grounder rate. He’ll join Cahill, Sean Manaea, Daniel Mengden and Andrew Triggs in Oakland’s rotation for the time being.
Jake Arrieta On Declining Cubs’ Offer
In a chat with Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times, Phillies hurler Jake Arrieta verified prior reports that Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein made a last-ditch offer before the team agreed to terms with Yu Darvish.
Arrieta, who ultimately signed with the Philadelphia organization later in the winter, tells Wittenmyer that he does not really believe that Epstein expected to get a deal done when he called with a “take it or leave it” proposal of six years and $120MM. That statement reflects previous reporting on the perceptions of both sides to that conversation.
While he emphasized that he harbors no ill will at all toward Epstein or the Cubs organization, Arrieta says that approach was a non-starter, even though he had yet to receive a formal contract offer to that point:
“[T]hey weren’t willing to negotiate at all, and that wasn’t acceptable for me,” Arrieta tells Wittenmyer. “I bet on myself just like I have my entire career and ended up getting a good deal.”
Arrieta, of course, is referring to the three-year, $75MM guarantee he took down from the Phils. He obviously preferred the higher average annual value but also emphasized in his comments that he expects to play longer than that in Philadelphia. Arrieta’s deal includes a provision that allows the Phillies to add on two years at a salary of $20MM or more (depending upon escalators) per season.
The veteran hurler certainly exuded confidence in his chat with Wittenmyer, which is well worth a full read. Among other things, he discussed his leadership efforts with the Phillies and flatly rejected the idea that there’s any concern with how he’ll age — or how his velocity will hold up — over the course of his new contract. To the contrary, Arrieta suggests his new organization will receive an exceptional player. “There’s not many like me,” he tells Wittenmyer. “… I don’t care what the situation is, I bet on myself to get the job done.”
Indians Designate Matt Belisle
The Indians have designated righty Matt Belisle for assignment, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian reports on Twitter. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by fellow right-hander Ben Taylor.
Belisle, 37, cracked the Indians’ Opening Day roster but has not impressed out of the gates. He has allowed six earned runs and managed just four strikeouts in his 10 1/3 innings of work though he has maintained his typical fastball velocity (91 mph) and swinging-strike rate (9.8%).
It is not known whether the veteran hurler signed an advanced consent clause, but if so, the organization may simply have decided to cut him loose rather than promising him a salary for the remainder of the season. Belisle’s minors deal called for him to earn at a $1.5MM rate with up to $1.75MM in incentives.
As for Taylor, he was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox during camp. The 26-year-old has turned in an eye-opening start to the season at Triple-A. Through 10 1/3 frames, he has recorded 16 strikeouts against a single walk while generating grounders on nearly half of the balls put in play against him.
Rangers Notes: Calhoun, Daniels, Martin
The Rangers are not totally buried in the American League postseason hunt, but have already fallen eight games back of the division-leading Astros. Particularly with a variety of notable players on the DL, it’s increasingly difficult to see the Rangers contending in 2018. Here’s the latest from Texas:
- Some Rangers fans are displeased with the fact that top prospect Willie Calhoun is plying his trade at Round Rock rather than with the Rangers. GM Jon Daniels bristled at the notion that Calhoun was being held down due to service-time considerations, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. Rather, says Daniels, Calhoun is still at Triple-A because “he’s still working on his defense.” It probably does not help that Calhoun isn’t off to the best start at the plate, though nobody doubts his bat is ready for the majors. Daniels says he’s “really encouraged” by what he has heard about Calhoun’s defensive work thus far, but indicated that it will need to get up to snuff before the call is made.
- More broadly, Daniels certainly sounds like a man who’s well aware of the uphill climb facing his team this year. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports, the team’s top baseball exec acknowledges that “injuries have certainly eroded what depth there was.” That’s obviously sub-optimal, but he does say there are still benefits to the situation. “The upside is that a lot of guys are getting valuable experience they wouldn’t otherwise get,” Daniels said. “That doesn’t do a whole lot for the fans who want to see immediate returns, but long-term we’re going to benefit from experiences [young players] are getting.”
- The Rangers have placed righty Chris Martin on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’s dealing with irritation in his right forearm. Fellow right-hander Nick Gardewine will take his spot on the active roster. That represents another blow to the team’s MLB roster. Though Martin owns a 5.14 ERA on the year, that’s due mostly to the disastrous recent outing that came in advance of the DL placement. Otherwise, he has generally been effective, carrying a solid combination of 8.4 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 while showing a mid-nineties fastball.