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Brent Suter

NL Injury Notes: Dodgers, Padres, Brewers

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AJ Pollock of the Dodgers suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain on Friday, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register (via Twitter). He’s being re-evaluated today. Pollock has been a force for good in Los Angeles this year, slashing .261/.313/.446 with 4 home runs across 99 plate appearances. Matt Beaty or Sheldon Neuse could see time in the outfield if Pollock needs time off. Elsewhere around the National League last night…

  • The Padres had a couple of players leave Friday’s game due to injury. Keone Kela left with forearm tightness, always a scary diagnoses. There has been no update as per his status. Austin Nola, meanwhile, only recently returned from the injured list, burst a blood vessel in his hand. The Padres are hopeful that he can return to the lineup as early as today, per Dennis Lin of the Athletic (via Twitter).
  • Brent Suter got a spot start for the Brewers on Friday, but he lasted just to the third inning before being removed due to injury. Early reports suggest Suter suffered from cramping in his right calf, per Sophia Minnaert of Bally Sports Wisconsin (via Twitter). That’s potentially a big sigh of relief for Milwaukee. Suter has been effective as a multi-inning reliever out of the pen tossing 16 2/3 innings in 12 outings prior to Friday’s spot start. He has a 2.70 ERA/3.58 FIP on the year with a strong 54.3 percent groundball rate, 22.4 percent strikeout rate, and 6.0 percent walk rate.

Brewers, Brent Suter Avoid Arbitration With Two-Year Deal

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The Brewers announced on Sunday that they’ve signed left-handed pitcher Brent Suter to a two-year deal, avoiding arbitration. Per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, it’s a $2.5MM guarantee for the 30-year-old Suter: he’ll collect salaries of $900K in 2020 and $1.5MM in 2021, along with a $100K signing bonus. The contract also includes incentives that could bring Suter’s 2021 salary to $1.75MM based on innings pitched milestones.

Until the two sides reached an agreement, Suter was scheduled to have an arbitration hearing tomorrow; he had asked for $1.25MM while the Brewers offered $825K.

The two-year deal means that the Brewers have bought out Suter’s first two years of arbitration eligibility. However, since he’s a Super Two player, he’ll still have two years of eligibility remaining after the contract expires. Suter is due to reach free agency after the 2023 season.

Suter enjoyed a nice season—albeit a shortened one—in 2019, after spending the majority of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery. He proved a valuable multi-inning, change-of-pace option in the bullpen, tossing 18 1/3 innings and allowing just one run.

And while Suter seems likely to begin the 2020 season in the bullpen, it’s clear from the incentive clauses in his contract (Suter would max out the bonuses with 160 IP) that the Brewers still see potential for Suter to start games this year. With newcomers Josh Lindblom, Eric Lauer, and Brett Anderson rounding out the projected Opening Day rotation, Suter will likely have to cut his teeth as a multi-inning reliever and spot starter, but could get an opportunity to start in case of injuries.

Quick Hits: Astros, Venable, Suter, Kim

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In the wake of the sign-stealing scandal that has enveloped the Astros and become perhaps the biggest story of the offseason, Astros fan Tony Adams decided to analyze the data from the 2017 season in perhaps the more straight-forward way possible — Adams listened for any loud banging sounds (i.e. someone hitting a trash can) during every opponents’ pitch thrown during Astros home games in 2017.  The whistling, clapping, and vocal signals the Astros allegedly also used to alert batters weren’t chronicled, as such sounds are harder to detect amidst the usual sounds of the ballpark.

After breaking down the 58 Houston home games that had available video, Adams made his work public at SignStealingScandal.com, with intriguing results.  The banging sounds were almost non-existent for the first two months of the season before spiking during a May 28 game against Baltimore (an 8-4 Astros win) and then staying at a noticeably high level for most of the remaining games over the following four months.  More data is available on a game-by-game basis, and on a player-by-player basis.

More from around the baseball world…

  • Will Venable interviewed for the Astros’ managerial vacancy earlier this month and for the Cubs’ and Giants’ jobs earlier this offseason, though he appears to be stepping out of the managerial race for the time being.  MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports that Venable will remain as the Cubs’ third base coach and thus won’t be a candidate to fill the sport’s last remaining managerial opening with the Red Sox.
  • After undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-2018, Brent Suter returned to the Brewers in a relief role in September and looked tremendous, allowing just a single earned run in 18 1/3 innings (for a tiny 0.49 ERA).  While the Brewers generally like to be as flexible as possible with their pitchers’ assignments, GM David Stearns told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that he thinks Suter will continue to work as a reliever in 2020.  “We’ll make sure Brent lengthens out so that he can cover multiple innings and accentuate his versatility.  It’s keeping someone in a role where they’ve demonstrated they can be successful,” Stearns said.  Suter pitched mostly as a reliever in his 2016 rookie season but started 32 of 42 appearances in 2017-18, though rarely pitching too deep into games.  A soft-contact specialist whose fastball averaged only 87.5mph last season, Suter provides quite a contrast paired alongside with Milwaukee’s other multi-inning relief ace, the hard-throwing strikeout machine Josh Hader.
  • Korean outfielder Jae-Hwan Kim did not draw sufficient interest from MLB teams this winter to make a move across the Pacific, but he’s determined to try again after the 2020 campaign, Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News reports.  “If I do well this year, I’ll take another shot at the majors,” Kim said.  The outfielder had a monster run with the Doosan Bears from 2016-18, averaging nearly 40 homers per season and topping the 1.000 OPS plateau in all three years.  In 2019, however, Kim dropped back to a .283/.362/.434 slash and 15 dingers last year, which he said isn’t just a reflection of the suppressed KBO offensive environment.  Kim is hoping to iron out his swing in 2020 and turn in a convincing season before offering his services again to big league clubs.

David Stearns Discusses Brewers Roster Questions

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Brewers GM David Stearns talked about the upcoming offseason in the wake of his club’s Wild Card loss, with Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel among those to cover the proceedings.

Despite the disappointing end, it was obviously another successful campaign, as the Brewers charged late and again reached the postseason despite losing superstar Christian Yelich. But the club won’t be able to rest on its laurels, as there are a variety of decisions to be made right out of the gates.

As Stearns puts it, he and his front office has “some important questions” that will need to be answered. Every offseason has its own “narrative,” he said, and it’s still not clear what path this one will take.

The first call that has to be made involves corner infielders Eric Thames ($7.5MM club option, $1MM buyout) and Travis Shaw (arbitration eligible). Stearns said he hasn’t reached any decision on Thames, who had a productive season with the bat and seems a reasonable value at that price. As for Shaw, whose season was a disaster, Stearns says the club will “spend a lot of effort internally determining what to do” in advance of the non-tender deadline.

The Shaw situation ties in to the Brewers’ slate of departing free agents, which includes several key players. Infielder Mike Moustakas could replace Shaw, though he’ll likely require a bigger commitment to retain than he commanded on the open market last winter. And then there’s Yasmani Grandal, who had a highly productive year behind the plate and will leave a big hole. Stearns was happy to acknowledge that he’d “love to have both of them back.” Will it happen? “Whether the realities of the market permit that and whether the realities of the free-agent market permit that is something we will have to evaluate as we go through the off-season.”

Likewise, a pair of key hurlers will be available to all teams. Mid-season trade acquisitions Jordan Lyles and Drew Pomeranz. Stearns called the pair “unbelievable” and said he’d be interested in returns in both cases. “They both contributed a lot to this club and I’m sure we’ll be in contact with them,” said Stearns.

There’s no shortage of other roster issues to be addressed. The Brewers’ creative pitching strategies will again be tested. Stearns said he isn’t ready to say precisely how hurlers such as Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Brent Suter will be used next year, though he did note that “we tend to blur lines between starters and relievers anyways.” And it certainly sounds as if the Brewers will at least be interested in exploring ways of supplementing (if not supplanting) Orlando Arcia at shortstop. Stearns says the team “need[s] better overall production” from that spot, though he added that he believes Arcia is “a better player than he showed this year” and that the incumbent could still represent the necessary solution.

Brewers Activate Nelson, Suter; Designate Wilkerson, Stokes

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The Brewers announced they have reinstated right-hander Jimmy Nelson and left-hander Brent Suter from the 60-day injured list. To create 40-man roster space, the club has designated right-hander Aaron Wilkerson and outfielder Troy Stokes, Jr. for assignment. The club also confirmed the previously-reported designation of right-hander Jeremy Jeffress.

Nelson, the former staff ace, has worked out of the bullpen on rehab, where he’ll presumably factor in down the stretch. He’s battled velocity loss and ineffectiveness in the wake of 2017 shoulder surgery. Suter, too, figures to work in short stints as he returns from 2018 Tommy John Surgery. He’s worked primarily as an opener on rehab, although he did work his way up to four innings in his most recent minor-league start. The soft-tossing lefty was a solid back-end command artist for the club before going under the knife, which would be valuable for a rotation that has undergone its fair share of struggles in 2019.

To welcome back the veterans, Milwaukee cuts bait with Wilkerson and Stokes. Wilkerson’s a 30 year-old swingman whose logged 35.2 subpar innings for the club the past three seasons. He has long been an adequate high minors starter though, explaining why he’s lasted three years on Milwaukee’s 40-man.

Stokes, a former fourth-round pick, has emerged as a noteworthy prospect in Milwaukee’s system the past few seasons. Featuring above-average raw power and speed, per Fangraphs’ prospect duo, Stokes had generally shown solid power and walk rates in the low minors. He hit a speed bump in his first taste at Triple-A, though, where his .233/.341/.385 line was 20% below PCL average. That proved too much for Milwaukee’s taste for a player who has increasingly seen time in left field, not center, in recent years, likely due to a below-average arm. That said, it’s easy to imagine a non-contender taking a chance on Stokes’ physical gifts and pre-2019 track record, so it’s possible, if not likely, he’ll be claimed off waivers. He comes with two additional option seasons, so there’d be no hurry to get him to the big leagues before he’s ready.

Injury Notes: Cano, Chirinos, Sanchez, Suter

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Robinson Cano went 3-for-3 in the Mets’ 13-2 win over the Pirates today, though the veteran infielder’s big day was tarnished by a left hamstring strain.  Cano had to be removed from the game after suffering the injury while running the bases during a fourth-inning single.  An MRI is scheduled for Monday, and it seems likely that Cano will face the third injured-list stint of the season due to his left leg — a pair of quad injuries sidelined the veteran second baseman earlier in the year.  While Cano is still hitting only .252/.295/.415 over 346 PA this season, he was in the midst of a hot streak at the plate, as Sunday marked his fourth consecutive multi-hit game.

We’ve already had quite a bit of injury news from around the game today, and here are updates on some other situations…

  • Yonny Chirinos’ start was cut short after five innings and 63 pitches today due to right middle finger inflammation.  Chirinos will undergo tests on Monday, though the Rays right-hander told MLB.com’s Juan Toribio and other reporters that he doesn’t think his finger is a major concern.  Today’s outing boosted Chirinos to a 3.62 ERA and 7.82 K/9 (against just a 1.99 BB/9) over 126 2/3 innings this season, as Chirinos has increasingly been used in a traditional starting pitching role rather than as the “bulk pitcher” behind an opener.  Chirinos’ emergence has helped a Rays rotation that has continued to rely heavily on openers and bullpen games, particularly with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow both on the injured list.
  • Gary Sanchez is tentatively scheduled to return to the Yankees’ lineup during their series with the Blue Jays from August 8-11, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch tweets.  Sanchez is on the verge of beginning a rehab assignment, in the wake of a left groin strain that sent him to the IL on July 24.  At the time of the injury, Sanchez was suffering through a brutal slump that had seen him post only a .370 OPS over his previous 93 plate appearances, which dropped his season slash line to .229/.299/.508 over 328 PA.
  • After beginning a minor league rehab assignment for the Brewers’ rookie league affiliate, left-hander Brent Suter will continue the process at Double-A, Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes.  Suter underwent Tommy John surgery in late July 2017 and is still hopeful of returning to the hill for the Brewers before the season is over.  The soft-tossing Suter posted a 3.91 ERA, 3.54 K/BB rate, and 7.2 K/9 over 204 2/3 innings for Milwaukee from 2016-18, overcoming his lack of velocity by becoming a master at generating soft contact from opposing batters.

Stephen Vogt Elects Free Agency

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According to a team announcement, Brewers catcher Stephen Vogt has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency. Vogt, along with pitchers Jimmy Nelson and Brent Suter, was reinstated from the 60-day disabled list today. The 34-year-old Vogt did not play in the majors in 2018 after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in May. With the addition of Nelson and Suter, the Brewers’ 40-man roster now consists of 37 players.

Vogt didn’t take the field this season due to that surgery, though he spent the year traveling with the team even after the operation. The veteran backstop joined the Brew Crew via waivers last June after being designated for assignment by the A’s. Vogt showed good pop with Milwaukee last year, hitting .254/.284/.508 with seven big flies in just 129 plate appearances and was rewarded with a $3.065MM deal in the offseason, avoiding arbitration. Unfortunately for both team and player, that proved to be a sunk cost, as shoulder issues in Spring Training lingered into the season before it was determined that Vogt was facing a potentially career-threatening injury.

As it stands, it’s not clear where Vogt is in terms of recovery from an injury which the veteran described as “[feeling] everything go wrong that could go wrong with a shoulder.” If doctors determine his arm can handle another attempt at playing, he could look to re-up with the Brewers on a minor league pact or seek out a non-guaranteed deal with another club on the open market.

Nelson, too, missed the entire 2018 season as he recovered from shoulder surgery that he underwent last September. If he can come back at full strength in 2019, he’ll add a dynamic presence to the top of a Brewers rotation that proved to be a surprising strength in 2018. He’d join Jhoulys Chacin and Chase Anderson in the rotation, with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Zach Davies and Junior Guerra representing further options (to say nothing of any potential offseason additions).

The 29-year-old Suter surely would’ve been in that group as well, but the left-hander underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this summer and won’t be an option to return to the active roster until late 2019.

Brewers’ Brent Suter Diagnosed With Torn UCL

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3:40pm: The Brewers announced that Suter does indeed have a UCL tear. He’s been placed on the 10-day DL for now, and right-hander Jorge Lopez has been recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs in his place.

3:15pm: Brewers left-hander Brent Suter, who left yesterday’s start after three innings due to a forearm strain, has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He’s likely to require Tommy John surgery.

[Related: Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]

Suter, 28, has been through a tough stretch recently, struggling to a 7.58 ERA over his past four starts (19 innings). Whether his elbow was at the source of those troubles isn’t clear, though the soft-tossing Suter hasn’t experienced much in the way of a noted velocity drop in that time.

Those four outings have ballooned Suter’s ERA from 4.15 to 4.80, but he’s been a largely serviceable piece for Milwaukee for much of the 2018 season. From April 27 through June 21, Suter logged a tidy 3.47 ERA over the life of 57 innings, and he’s posted excellent K/BB numbers all season long (84 strikeouts, 19 walks in 101 1/3 innings). He’ll drop out of a rotation that should see both Freddy Peralta and Junior Guerra return this week, joining Chase Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley in manager Craig Counsell’s starting five.

If Suter requires Tommy John surgery, he’ll obviously miss the remainder of the 2018 campaign and much of the 2019 season as well. It’s a blow to the Brewers’ pitching staff and to Suter’s future as he looks to solidify himself as a regular big league contributor, though he seems likely to be retained and accrue MLB service time on the 60-day disabled list both this year and next. Suter will finish out the season with one-plus years of MLB service and won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season, at which point he’s a lock to be a Super Two player so long as the Brewers keep him on the roster.

Milwaukee has already been linked to upgrades in the rotation and in the infield, and the loss of Suter would only further the possibility of the team adding some rotation depth. That said, it’s also unlikely that a prolonged absence for Suter will spur the Brewers’ front office into action and prompt a significant rotation upgrade.

Injury Updates: Turner, Suter, Cespedes, Frazier

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A right adductor strain had kept Justin Turner out of the Dodgers’ starting lineup since July 11, though his return to his regular third base spot today didn’t last long.  Turner had to leave today’s 11-2 win over the Brewers in the middle of the third inning due to right groin tightness.  Talking to media (including the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett) after the game, Turner said that his injury “definitely didn’t get worse but wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.”  A DL stint could potentially be in the cards, though Turner will first receive further examination from the team’s medical staff.

Turner already missed the first six weeks of the season due to a fractured wrist, and it’s fair to say that his performance has suffered due to these injuries.  He is still delivering above-average (110 wRC+) production, though his .259/.354/.398 slash line is below his usual standards, particularly in the power department.  If he does hit the DL, Los Angeles likely already has enough infield depth that they wouldn’t look for any more help at the deadline, especially since the Dodgers already made a big infield addition in Manny Machado.  It might be interesting to monitor if Machado gets any time at the hot corner if Turner if out, though it’s more likely that Machado will simply remain at shortstop.

Some more injury updates from around baseball…

  • That same Dodgers/Brewers game also saw Milwaukee southpaw Brent Suter leave after three innings due to a forearm strain.  Manager Craig Counsell told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt and other reporters that Suter would undergo an MRI, though Suter is expected to land on the disabled list.  Suter had a brief DL stint earlier this month with tightness in that same forearm, so it isn’t surprising that the team would be cautious with such an injury even if the MRI doesn’t reveal anything serious.  Milwaukee was already rumored to be looking for pitching at the deadline, and that search is likely to intensify with Suter out of action.  Suter was rocked for six runs today to boost his season ERA to 4.80, though Suter has just a 1.64 BB/9 to go along with a 7.46 K/9 rate, and ERA predictors (such as a 4.04 xFIP) are generally more favorable about his performance.
  • Yoenis Cespedes’ recent comments about considering surgery to fix calcification in his heels caught the Mets by surprise, assistant GM John Ricco told the New York Times’ James Wagner (Twitter links) and other reporters.  Still, Ricco stressed that surgery would be Cespedes’ “last resort” to solve his ongoing leg problems, and that Cespedes’ comments could have been made out of simple frustration.  The outfielder will visit doctors tomorrow, though Ricco said that an examination of Cespedes’ feet in June indicated that the injury could be managed without immediate need for surgery.
  • Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier was placed on the seven-day concussion DL this weekend while playing at Triple-A, though his status has been changed to a 10-day stint on the Major League disabled list.  (NJ.com’s Brendan Kuty was among those who had the news.)  Beyond the specifics of his placement, Frazier’s injury could also impact his immediate future in the organization, as the prospect has often been cited as a popular trade chip for the Yankees at the deadline.

Central Notes: Brewers, Gallardo, White Sox, Cubs

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In the wake of Wade Miley’s multi-week injury, the Brewers have set their season-opening starting five, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays. Brent Suter and Brandon Woodruff will fill out the rotation behind Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Jhoulys Chacin, manager Craig Counsell announced Saturday. That spells bad news for offseason signing Yovani Gallardo, who won’t make the team, Haudricourt tweets. A highly successful Brewer from 2007-14, Gallardo rejoined the club for a non-guaranteed $2MM in December after spending time with the Rangers, Orioles and Mariners. The 32-year-old’s future is now in question. The Brewers could still trade Gallardo, according to general manager David Stearns. However, if no deal comes together by Monday, they’ll have to release him, per Haudricourt.

More on Milwaukee and a couple other Central teams…

  • The Brewers wouldn’t have had two open spots in their rotation if not for the right shoulder injury top starter Jimmy Nelson suffered late last year. Nelson continues to make progress in his recovery from September surgery and could start working from the mound again as early as mid-April, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports. Meanwhile, catcher Stephen Vogt – out since February with a shoulder issue of his own – is aiming to return to game action by May 1.
  • Like Milwaukee, the White Sox have also established their rotation for the beginning of the season. Righty Carson Fulmer has beaten out lefty Hector Santiago (who’s likely to stick around as a long reliever) for the No. 5 spot, Alyson Footer of MLB.com writes. Fulmer will round out a starting staff that’ll also feature James Shields, Lucas Giolito, Miguel Gonzalez and Reynaldo Lopez. Santiago, 30, signed a minors deal in February with the White Sox, with whom he pitched from 2011-13. Although Santiago has functioned as a starter for the majority of his career, he’s content to work in a relief role in his second go-round with the South Siders. “I’m open to whatever,” he said. “As long as I have a uniform on my back, I’m happy with the job that they give me. Right now, it’s in the bullpen as a long guy and I’ll be ready for any role.”
  • The Cubs are going with Victor Caratini, not Chris Gimenez, to back up starting catcher Willson Contreras, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Thanks to his well-known rapport with new Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish from their days in Texas, Gimenez seemed like the front-runner for the job at the outset of spring training; instead, he’ll head to Triple-A Iowa, per Wittenmyer. The 24-year-old Caratini, whom MLB.com ranks as the Cubs’ No. 8 prospect, hit .254/.333/.356 across 66 plate appearances during his first MLB action last season.
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