Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Andrelton Simmons

AL Injury Notes: Simmons, Yankees, S. Perez, Astros

By | at

The Angels reinstated Andrelton Simmons from the 10-day injured list and placed catcher Max Stassi (right quad strain, knee bruise) on the IL, the team announced. Simmons is back after a three-plus-week absence because of a sprained left ankle. It could be an interesting upcoming 10 days for Simmons, a soon-to-be free agent whom the non-contending Angels may choose to move before the Aug. 31 trade deadline. Regardless, the 30-year-old Simmons will spend the next month-plus trying to boost his stock before he reaches the open market for the first time in his career. He dealt with injury issues (including to his ankle) during a down season in 2019, and he has hit a mere .188/.188/.250 in 16 plate appearances this year.

  • Yankees manager Aaron Boone issued updates Friday on a few of their key players who are on the IL, telling WFAN (via Marly Rivera of ESPN.com) that right fielder Aaron Judge is “likely” to be in the Yankees’ lineup for their next game (that won’t be this weekend, as their series with the Mets was postponed). Judge has been down for a week with a mild calf strain. Meanwhile, second baseman DJ LeMahieu is doing “significantly better” as he recovers from the left thumb sprain that sent him to the IL last weekend. And reliever Zack Britton, whom the Yankees shelved Thursday with a strained left hamstring, should recover “on the shorter side.”
  • The Royals announced that they’ve placed catcher Salvador Perez on the IL, retroactive to Aug. 18, with left eye central serous chorioretinopathy and recalled left-hander Randy Rosario. Perez’s issue has bothered him since last weekend and hampered his vision, though it’s not believed to be a long-term problem. After missing all of last year because of Tommy John surgery, Perez was enjoying a strong return season with a .307/.326/.511 line, four home runs and a 25 percent caught-stealing percentage prior to going to the IL.
  • Astros outfielder Michael Brantley is eligible for activation Saturday, but manager Dusty Baker told Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and other reporters he’s “not real optimistic” that will happen. It seems Brantley will need a bit more time to recover from a right quad injury that has kept him out since Aug. 11. Baker also suggested (via Rome) that yet another Astro – right-hander Josh James – will probably go on the IL. James suffered a hip injury and had to be helped off the field in Colorado on Thursday. That continued a nightmare of a season for James, who has surrendered 13 earned runs on 12 hits and 14 walks (with 13 strikeouts) in 10 2/3 innings.

Latest On Andrelton Simmons

By | at

Injured Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons is closing in on a return, manager Joe Maddon said Monday (via Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). Simmons, who landed on the IL on July 28 with a left ankle sprain, has progressed to taking batting practice.

Ankle problems have slowed Simmons since last season, during which the 30-year-old totaled only 103 games played. Simmons’ well-known defensive wizardry continued then, but his offense dropped off a cliff compared to his respectable 2018-19 performance. Still, as Jeff Todd of MLBTR explained, Simmons entered this season as an especially interesting pending free agent. Thanks to the shortened campaign and the time he has already missed, though, Simmons doesn’t have much time to rebuild his stock before a potential trip to the open market.

Since Simmons went down in the first week of the season, the Angels have turned to David Fletcher at short. Fletcher has been highly productive so far, and the Angels surely want his bat in the lineup every day, but he’s versatile enough on the defensive side to move around the diamond. That will give Maddon the freedom to pencil the two in on a daily basis when Simmons is able to return.

Latest On Simmons, Ohtani

By | at

Angels skipper Joe Maddon provided an update on the injury situations of shortstop Andrelton Simmons and starter/DH Shohei Ohtani. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times was among those to cover the chat (Twitter links).

In the case of Simmons, who is nursing an ankle injury, he’s not going to be activated as soon as eligible. Fortunately, it isn’t as serious as the one he suffered last year, but there’s still some healing left to be done.

Simmons is “still pretty sore,” Maddon explains, and will likely not be back in the “real immediate future.” Maddon continued: “From what I read today, it’s progressing but not as quickly as it could.”

Meanwhile, tantalizing talent Shohei Ohtani is expected to be back in lineup tomorrow. That’s a consoling development after the recent news that he’ll be sidelined from mound work for the foreseeable future after suffering a forearm injury.

Ohtani, who didn’t pitch last year due to Tommy John surgery, spoke to media members including MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger (Twitter link) this evening. The injury isn’t that severe, by Ohtani’s reckoning, which at least seems to indicate he’s not at risk of another procedure.

When asked about the possibility of ultimately focusing only on one side of the game, Ohtani said he’d rather keep trying to do both. At the same time, he indicated he’d be open to considering that possibility if the team made such a request. It seems unlikely at this point that the Halos would forgo a chance to see Ohtani reemerge on the mound.

Injury Notes: Simmons, Odorizzi, Kershaw, Bowman

By | at

There’s still no official timeline on Andrelton Simmons’ return from his latest ankle injury, but the Angels shortstop said Thursday that his injury isn’t as bad as the ankle issue that cost him more than a month of his 2019 season, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The slick-fielding shortstop hasn’t undergone an MRI to this point and noted that his range of motion is already improving.

Simmons had two separate IL stints for problems in the same ankle last year and limped to a .264/.309/.364 slash line in 424 plate appearances. However, his 2017-18 numbers with the Angels had seemed to indicate an upward trajectory with the bat: .285/.334/.419 in 304 games. A strong 2020 output might cause teams to view the 2019 season as an outlier for Simmons, a free agent this winter, but the recurrence of ankle troubles shortens his window to perform and serves as a red flag for interested clubs. Obviously, it’s also a critical loss for an Angels club that spent significantly this winter and hopes to return to the the postseason in this year’s expanded format. Simmons is among this generation’s most gifted defenders and leads all MLB players, regardless of position, with 192 Defensive Runs Saved since his 2012 debut. (Kevin Kiermaier is second … at 115.)

Some more injury updates from around the game…

  • Jake Odorizzi threw a bullpen session yesterday and feels that his lower back strain has healed, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. However, the right-hander will still face some live hitters at the Twins’ alternate training site over in St. Paul before he’s activated from the injured list. Odorizzi tabbed Monday as a potential date to face hitters. Right-hander Randy Dobnak could get another start as Odorizzi finalizes his rehab. The 30-year-old Odorizzi enjoyed a career year with the Twins in ’19, pitching to a 3.51 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 0.91 HR/9 in 159 innings. He accepted a one-year, $17.2MM qualifying offer last November and will be a free agent again this winter.
  • Clayton Kershaw could join the Dodgers’ rotation as soon as Sunday or Monday, manager Dave Roberts told reporters Thursday evening (link via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). The three-time Cy Young winner and five-time NL ERA leader was scratched from his Opening Day start just hours before first pitch due to back tightness and replaced by rookie Dustin May. Since Kershaw hit the IL, the Dodgers have also lost Alex Wood, prompting them to bring up another young right-hander, Tony Gonsolin, to take the ball in tonight’s game. Kershaw tossed a bullpen session yesterday, and all indications right now are that his IL stint will be rather brief.
  • The Reds announced yesterday that they’ve reversed their option on right-handed reliever Matt Bowman and instead placed him on the 10-day injured list due to an elbow sprain. That’s both an ominous diagnosis for the 29-year-old Bowman and important distinction with regard to service time. Because Bowman was determined to have an injury that existed prior to being optioned to alternate camp, he’s been brought back up and placed on the Major League injured list, where he’ll receive MLB service time and MLB pay. The Reds didn’t offer a potential timeline for Bowman, who tossed 32 frames for them a year ago and recorded a solid 3.66 ERA with 25 strikeouts against 13 walks (three intentional) with just two homers allowed.

Angels Place Andrelton Simmons On IL

By | at

The Angels announced that they have placed shortstop Andrelton Simmons on the 10-day injured list with a left ankle sprain. The club reinstated infielder Luis Rengifo from the IL in a corresponding move.

Simmons, who incurred the injury against the Athletics on Monday, also dealt with left ankle troubles last year. Those issues helped limit Simmons to just 103 of a possible 162 games and a less-than-stellar .264/.309/.364 batting line across 424 plate appearances last season. While Simmons has never been anything close to an elite hitter, the 30-year-old has paired slightly above-average offense with spectacular defense when at peak form. The Angels are no doubt hoping he’ll return to that level this season, though this latest injury doesn’t help. It also doesn’t do Simmons any favors, as he could in for an interesting trip to free agency during the upcoming offseason.

For the most part, the Angels turned to utility player David Fletcher at short last year when Simmons was unavailable. They’ll do the same again Tuesday against the Mariners. Rengifo also saw some time at short in 2019, and he’s back in Angels uniform after an offseason trade with the Dodgers that involved him fell through. Hamstring soreness delayed Rengifo’s debut this season.

Baseball’s Most Interesting Upcoming Free Agent?

By | at

This post is about Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons. But really, it’s about how teams value and conceive of defense in the game of baseball … and what his upcoming free agency could tell us about it.

On the one hand, it’s rather straightforward: preventing runs is as good as creating them. It’s an oversimplification, but for the most part the name of the game is simply to turn would-be baserunners into outs.

Things get quite a bit more complicated when you wade into an attempt at valuing a given player’s impact on a team’s ability to make outs and prevent runs. Avoiding miscues is obviously a big part of the picture, but that hardly provides the full picture of a defender. (Past a diving Jeter, anyone?) Range — the ability to get to more balls — is obviously of critical importance. And there are a host of subtle skills to consider … catcher framing, perhaps, being the most susceptible of statistical precision. But how do you value a tagging maestro, for example? And how do we account for contemporary baseball’s ceaseless shifting, particularly given that much of it is engineered by analysts rather than players’ gut instincts on positioning?

While it’s pretty easy to get a sense of a hitter’s profile and productivity from a glance at a stat sheet, it’s obvious that truly understanding defensive value requires more. Even the most sophisticated analytical systems have struggled to reach anything like the kind of precision that we’d need to make fine distinctions. Ultimate Zone Rating, Defensive Runs Saved, and the more recent Statcast-based Outs Above Average all have their merits and aid in the understanding of a ballplayer. But it’d be a stretch to say that you could look at the numbers they produce and use them to determine that player A is superior to player B at fielding his position.

All that said … shouldn’t we listen when all the stats, and all the scouts, and all that we see with our own eyes tell us that one particular player is in his own particular category when it comes to defensive play? On a rate basis, no infielder comes particularly close to Simmons in UZR. To understand how that translates to value when estimating runs saved and tabulating wins above replacement … well, just look how many more innings it took guys like J.J. Hardy and Jimmy Rollins to accrue similar total value above replacement at the shortstop position. And it’s not just UZR. Far from it. By measure of DRS, Simmons has been outlandishly superior to the rest of the shortstop field. Statcast, at least, shows some competition over the past three seasons from Nick Ahmed, but it too agrees that Simmons is an exceptional performer. (It’s also less than clear that Statcast is as useful for infielders as it is for outfielders.)

It doesn’t seem wild to presume, for purposes of this post at least, that Simmons is a historically amazing defensive performer. Teams no doubt have their own ways of translating fielding performance to value, but it’s generally reasonable to believe they’ll put a high price on run prevention. Even if you’d rather market a slugger than a glove-first shortstop, there’s no general reason to prefer the former to the latter from a competitive standpoint.

Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that a truly elite defender is all the more valuable to a team — especially in this day and age. Positioning defenders to account not only for hitters, but defenders, has long been a part of the sport. But it’s now done with much greater sophistication and frequency. The Reds just signed Mike Moustakas to play second base after watching the Brewers try him there despite a career spent at third. For creative ballclubs looking for ways to shoehorn every advantage into a lineup, the ability to deploy a human vacuum/cannon on the left side of the infield could convey even greater value than that player’s directly attributable individual contribution.

It’s truly fascinating to imagine what teams might envision doing with Simmons … and wondering how much they’ll be willing to pay. (Setting aside the likely market-skewing impact of the coronavirus-shortened season, anyway.) The Diamondbacks just made a fairly significant outlay to Ahmed, despite the fact he has never really come close to league-average offensive productivity over a full season and was still a year from free agency. Even if you believe Ahmed has approached Simmons in defensive capabilities, he hasn’t done it as long. And Simmons has a far superior overall track record at the plate, with a lifetime batting output that’s about the same as Ahmed’s single-season peak. Supposing Simmons is in typical form in 2020 — unparalleled glovework and league-average-ish offense — he ought to fetch a fair sight more on the open market … particularly if big-market teams get involved with big ideas about how to squeeze value from such a unique player.

Angels GM Billy Eppler Discusses Wheeler, Simmons, Ohtani, Canning

By | at

Angels general manager Billy Eppler took part in an online Q&A session with fans on Friday, addressing many topics about his team.  Here are some of the highlights, with Eppler’s answers compiled by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register…

  • The Angels were linked to Zack Wheeler’s market over the winter, and Eppler filled in some details about the team’s interest, saying “we pursued Wheeler pretty aggressively.”  That pursuit included a cross-country trip in November for Eppler, manager Joe Maddon, and team president John Carpino to meet with Wheeler in person.  Despite this courtship, Wheeler ended up signing with the Phillies, though the Halos may have faced an uphill battle to sign the right-hander for geographical reasons, as Wheeler wanted to stay on the East Coast and in closer proximity to his wife’s family in New Jersey.  Other suitors such as the Twins and White Sox also seemingly fell short of Wheeler’s services for the same reason, as Chicago’s offer was reportedly worth more than the $118MM Wheeler received from Philadelphia.
  • Fletcher reported in February that the Angels had yet to begin extension talks with Andrelton Simmons, and Eppler confirmed that the club hadn’t held any negotiations with Simmons and his agents prior to the league shutdown.  As per the GM, there had only been “internal discussions” within the front office at the start of Spring Training about a possible new deal for the defensive wizard.  Simmons is set to become a free agent in the 2020-21 offseason, and the shortstop would still be eligible for the open market even if the COVID-19 pandemic wipes out the entire 2020 season.  Of course, the league-wide transactions freeze also covers extension negotiations, so the Angels and other teams can’t talk contracts with any players during the shutdown.
  • Shohei Ohtani threw two bullpen sessions this week, Eppler revealed, including a 15-pitch session on Friday that consisted of only fastballs.  Ohtani continues to progress in his recovery from Tommy John surgery and should be ready to pitch when and if the season does get underway.  The two-way star was originally slated to return to the mound in mid-May, though since games surely won’t resume by that point, Ohtani likely won’t end up missing any time in the Los Angeles rotation.
  • Eppler also provided an update on Griffin Canning, saying that the young righty should start throwing off a mound within 7-10 days.  “His throwing program is back to 120 to 150 feet this week, at about 70 to 80 percent intensity,” Eppler said.  Canning was sidelined early in Spring Training due to elbow problems, including what the club described at the time as “chronic changes to the UCL and acute joint irritation.”  While there was much speculation that Canning would need Tommy John surgery, Canning instead received a platelet-rich plasma injection, as Eppler said that “surgery wasn’t recommended in Griffin’s case…ultimately the different physicians we had him see didn’t recommend it.”  The prospect of the season being canceled doesn’t have any bearing on whether Canning would eventually undergo a Tommy John procedure, as Eppler said “we would not proactively subject him to that surgery unless there was new evidence or a new injury that took place.”

Latest On Andrelton Simmons’ Future

By | at

Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons is one of baseball’s most prominent players entering a contract year. It remains to be seen whether the Angels will stop him from reaching the open market, but they have held “internal discussions” regarding an extension for Simmons, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register wrote a few weeks ago. However, as of then, they hadn’t reached out to Simmons or his representatives about a long-term deal, per Fletcher.

Simmons offered an uncontroversial statement in regards to his future, saying: “I’m not even thinking about it. The only time I think about it is when (the media) brings it up. It is what it is. All I can do is play. I’m going to try to get better in spring training and just play good and at the end of the day, we’ll be where we need to be.” 

Acquired from the Braves entering the 2016 season, Simmons has been highly effective as an Angel, thanks in no small part to his well-known wizardry as a defender. His brilliance at short gives him a high floor, meaning he doesn’t have to star at the plate in order to provide significant value to his team. For example, Simmons totaled 5.0-plus fWAR in both 2017 and ’18 despite combining for a decent (hardly great) .285/.334/.419 line over those two seasons. But last season represented a step back for Simmons, who wasn’t himself because of an ankle injury. Simmons wound up with a .264/.309/.364 line and 1.7 fWAR across 424 plate appearances, though he did continue to amaze in the field, accounting for 12 Defensive Runs Saved and a 10.4 Ultimate Zone Rating.

Simmons is a historically marvelous defender, but as Fletcher explains in his piece, shortstops tend to wear down quickly once they reach their 30s. So, there would be plenty of risk on the Angels’ part in making a multiyear commitment to Simmons now, especially after he put up such a mediocre 2019 on the offensive side. A healthy Simmons may very well bounce back, though, and if that happens and if the Halos don’t extend him, he’ll enter what may be an interesting class of free agents at his position. The Athletics’ Marcus Semien and the Phillies’ Didi Gregorius are the other two headlining free agents-to-be whom shortstop-needy clubs could pursue.

7 AL West Hitters Looking For Bounce-Back Years

By | at

As the season draws closer, we’ll be examining several prominent players around the majors who are hoping for bounce-back years. Let’s start with a group of well-known American League West position players whose numbers dipped dramatically in 2019…

Justin Upton, LF, Angels: The 32-year-old Upton has been terrific for the majority of his career (otherwise, the Angels wouldn’t have given him a five-year, $106MM guarantee after 2017), but last season was a nightmare. A foot injury kept Upton out until June, and his season ended prematurely in September on account of a right knee issue. When Upton was healthy enough to take the field, he batted a disappointing .215/.309/.416 with 12 home runs and a career-worst 30.5 percent strikeout rate (5 percent worse than his lifetime mark). Compared to 2018, his fly ball percentage and launch angle went way up, but his average exit velocity dropped almost 4 mph, and his hard-hit rate plummeted. The banged-up Upton was even worse in left field, where he accounted for minus-13 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-5.2 Ultimate Zone Rating. Upton recently told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register that he’s healthy and aiming for a rebound. The Angels will likely need one from him if they’re going to break a five-year playoff drought; if they get one, Upton should form a lethal offensive quartet with Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and Shohei Ohtani.

Andrelton Simmons, SS, Angels: Like his teammate Upton, Simmons missed a significant number of games last year because of injury issues. Ankle troubles limited Simmons to 103 games, his fewest since 2012, and his effectiveness at the plate waned compared to the prior couple years. While Simmons has never been an offensive force, the defensive maven’s slightly above-average work with the bat from 2017-18 helped him combine for 10.4 fWAR in that span. Simmons only put up a .264/.309/.364 line in 424 PA last year, though he did continue to avoid strikeouts (8.7 percent), and his wizardry in the field helped him to a respectable 1.7 fWAR. However, he still finished near the bottom of the majors in several key offensive Statcast categories. For instance, Simmons’ xwOBA (.265) ranked in the bottom 2 percent of the league and fell 59 points from 2018. The ankle may have been holding Simmons back, but regardless, a return to form in 2020 would aid the Angels and the pending free agent’s bank account.

Khris Davis, DH, Athletics: Yet another injury case from 2019, Davis’ normally elite power was sapped during a season in which he fought hip, oblique and hand problems. After three straight 40-home run seasons (and four in a row in which he hit .247), he finished with a .220/.293/.387 line and 23 HRs over 533 PA. His ISO sunk like a stone, going from .302 in 2018 to .166 last year, and his hard contact went way down in the process. The 32-year-old has already been slowed by a calf injury early in camp, but indications are that it’s minor. Oakland will need that to be the case, especially considering the commitment the low-budget club made to Davis before last season. It still owes him $16.75MM on a two-year, $33.5MM contract that hasn’t worked out for the team so far.

Stephen Piscotty, RF, Athletics: The missed time theme continues. Piscotty’s 2019 ailments ranged from frightening (a melanoma on his right ear) to more conventional (knee and ankle injuries). The 29-year-old made just 93 appearances as a result, and he didn’t produce like the big-hitting, 3.0-fWAR player he was in 2018 when he did play. Piscotty hit .249/.309/.412 with 13 homers and 0.6 fWAR in 393 PA, though his hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity both increased. There may be hope for return to his career-best output, then, but Piscotty will first have to get over yet another health issue. He’s dealing with an oblique/rib cage injury that could jeopardize his status for Opening Day.

Mitch Haniger, RF, Mariners: Haniger was quietly great in 2018, but his playing time and his numbers sagged last season. He sat out 99 games after suffering a ruptured testicle at the beginning of June, didn’t play again after that and still hasn’t returned to health. Haniger just underwent his second surgery in the past few weeks – a microdiscectomy on his back – leaving it up in the air when he’ll debut in 2020. The 29-year-old is the Mariners’ best player, though, and if they can get a healthy version back sometime in 2020, he’s as logical a bounce-back candidate as anyone.

Mallex Smith, OF, Mariners: Smith looked like a quality pickup for the Mariners when they acquired him from the Rays after the 2018 campaign. At that point, the speedster was coming off a 3.5-fWAR, 40-steal showing in Tampa Bay. Smith amassed even more stolen bases in is first year in Seattle (46), but the rest of his stats tanked. The 26-year-old hit a weak .227/.300/.335 in 566 trips to the plate, while his defensive output was similarly poor (minus-12 DRS, minus-9.5 UZR).  The combination of subpar offense and defense led to a replacement-level fWAR for Smith, who also fell victim to a massive decline in batting average on balls in play. He logged an inflated .366 BABIP in ’18 and a .302 mark in that category last season, which partially explains the drastic difference in year-to-year production.

Rougned Odor, 2B, Rangers: If you’re a Rangers fan (or even part of the organization), you may be tired of Odor’s inconsistency. He has been a 2.0-plus-fWAR player three times in his career, most recently in 2018, but a replacement-level or worse performer twice. That includes last season – even though Odor walloped 30 homers, he was only able to slash .205/.283/.439 in 581 tries. Along the way, the left-handed Odor posted his worst strikeout percentage (30.6) and was eaten alive by righty pitchers, who held him to a dismal .190/.260/.417 line. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Odor was much better in the second half of the season, ending the year with a flourish after general manager Jon Daniels expressed frustration with his production in late August. The Rangers still owe Odor $36MM through 2022, making it all the more important for the club to receive at least passable production from him.

West Notes: A’s Ballpark, Simmons, Dahl, Paddack

By and | at

The Athletics’ plans to build their new ballpark in the Howard Terminal area took a positive step forward when state officials unanimously voted that the State Lands Commission has the authority to decide whether a new stadium “is an appropriate use of the land,” Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.  Several other steps remain before the project is officially a go, such as two separate bills that have to be approved by California governor Gavin Newsom, plus an environmental impact report that should be completed by the end of 2019.  If all goes well, the current timeline has construction underway in 2021, with an eye towards Opening Day 2023.

More items from around the AL and NL West….

  • It’s been a tough season for Andrelton Simmons, who has battled ankle injuries while hitting .256/.301/.355 over 366 plate appearances.  The timing of this down year is particularly poor for a shortstop who could well have been a prime extension candidate this winter, since Simmons is a free agent after the 2020 season.  Now, however, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register wonders if the Angels could wait “until at least the middle of next season before deciding if they want to sign him to an extension,” to see if Simmons can rebound or if he is starting to decline.  Simmons turned 30 just last week, and while he has never been a truly dangerous bat, he had at least posted above-average run production (as per wRC+) in both 2017 and 2018.  Simmons also had the worst defensive season of his eight-year career, though “worst” is relative when discussing arguably the best defensive shortstop of all time — Simmons still posted +11 Defensive Runs Saved and +11.7 UZR/150.  Trading Simmons seems like an unlikely option, though Fletcher wonders if the Angels could explore an extension that could overwrite his current 2020 salary ($15MM) and instead spread that money out over the length of the new deal in order to free up extra payroll space for Los Angeles to pursue pitching this offseason.  Any extension talks, of course, would hinge on Simmons’ own thoughts, as he (like so many players did last spring) might prefer security now rather than deal with potential labor uncertainty at the end of the next collective bargaining contract.  Then again, Simmons might likely feel he’s leaving money on the table by taking an extension in the wake of a down season, and might prefer to instead rebuild his value in 2020.
  • It’s becoming more likely that Rockies outfielder David Dahl won’t play again this year, Nick Groke of The Athletic tweets. Even though Dahl’s progressing in his recovery from the ankle sprain he suffered Aug. 2, manager Bud Black admitted he’s “running out of time” for a 2019 return. Regardless of whether Dahl does come back, this will go down as yet another injury-limited season for the 25-year-old, who has combined for only 240 games since he debuted in 2016 (he didn’t play at all in ’17). A healthy Dahl, to his credit, has been an effective hitter – he got off to a .302/.353/.524 start with 15 HRs in 413 trips to the plate this year before landing on the shelf.
  • Like Dahl, Padres righty Chris Paddack’s season could also be done, as AJ Cassavell of MLB.com observes. Paddack’s not injured, but the Padres have been monitoring the former Tommy John patient’s workload in his rookie campaign. The prized 23-year-old fired six shutout frames against the Cubs on Wednesday, raising his 2019 innings total to 135 2/3 – easily the most he has thrown in a professional season. Whether or not Paddack takes the mound again this year, this season’s sure to go in the books as a resounding success for him. Paddack has logged a 3.38 ERA/3.99 FIP with tremendous strikeout and walk rates (9.55 K/9 , 1.99 BB/9) in his first MLB action.
Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top