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David Peralta

Diamondbacks Place David Peralta On DL, Select Contract Of Michael Bourn

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The Diamondbacks have placed outfielder David Peralta on the 15-day disabled list with right wrist inflammation and selected the contract of Michael Bourn from Double-A Mobile, the team announced.

Bourn, whom the Blue Jays released Monday, quickly latched on with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal and racked up 23 plate appearances in Mobile prior to today’s promotion. The Braves previously released Bourn last month after they couldn’t find a trade partner for the two-time All-Star.

Bourn owns a career .266/.331/.356 batting line in 4,910 major league plate appearances. In his prime, he was a respectable hitter who served as both a significant asset on the bases (326 career steals) and in the outfield. The 33-year-old hasn’t been particularly productive over the last three seasons, however, since inking a $48MM contract with the Indians in February 2013.

Before landing on the DL, Peralta hit a respectable .260/.321/.439 with three homers in 134 PAs. He had established himself as a greater offensive threat during the previous two campaigns, combining to hit .301/.351/.492 in 865 trips to the plate.

Injury Notes: Young, Peralta, Canha, Hendriks

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Royals right-hander Chris Young is leaving the team to travel back to Kansas City, where he’ll receive an MRI on his right forearm, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Via Flanagan (link), Young says that he’s felt some soreness in his forearm since Spring Training ended. However, he adds that the club’s medical staff has informed him that the “serious stuff checks out OK,” though it remains to be seen what the MRI will reveal. Young’s fastball velocity is actually up from previous seasons, but the increased zip hasn’t done him any favors; the 6’10” righty has been roughed up to the tune of a 6.68 ERA in 32 1/3 innings this season and has been astonishingly homer-prone, serving up 13 long balls in that time.

A couple more injury situations around the league that merit keeping an eye on…

  • Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta is meeting with hand specialist Dr. Don Sheridan in Phoenix on Thursday this week, he tell Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Peralta was hit by a pitch on the right wrist/forearm area last week and was out of Arizona’s lineup both Sunday and Monday, though he did pinch-hit in Sunday’s contest. He’s out of the lineup again tonight, Piecoro notes, and it seems reasonable to expect that he’ll be sidelined at least until he meets with Sheridan later this week. The 28-year-old indy league reclamation has been a revelation with the D-backs since first working his way onto the big league club in 2014, hitting a combined .295/.347/.485 in 999 plate appearances. This season, he’s batting .260/.321/.439 with three homers.
  • Athletics first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha is heading back to the Bay Area tomorrow and will undergo an MRI on his left hip, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Canha says he feels fine when running, but hitting is currently “excruciating,” adding that he can’t get any rotation in his hips and as such cannot swing very hard at the moment. “You don’t want to hope for something bad like a labrum tear to come up but at the same time, I want an answer about what’s wrong so we can pinpoint the problem,” said the 27-year-old. Canha has gotten off to a dreadful start to the season, hitting .122/.140/.341 in 44 plate appearances , though the hip troubles certainly help to explain the downturn in his productivity. He was placed on the disabled list today.
  • MLB.com’s Jane Lee writes that right-hander Liam Hendriks, also placed on the DL by the Athletics today, will receive an MRI on his right elbow as well. Hendriks explained that he’s having difficulty getting full extension on his arm and has periodically experienced pain in the elbow since undergoing surgery to remove bone chips a few years ago.

NL Notes: Diamondbacks, Fowler, Dodgers

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The Diamondbacks are considering having left fielder David Peralta and right fielder Yasmany Tomas switch positions, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. The idea is that, given the departure of Ender Inciarte in the Shelby Miller trade, the Diamondbacks stand to take a step back in right field, the corner outfield position those within the game generally consider to require a higher degree of skill. Peralta isn’t the defender that Inciarte is, but he’s better than Tomas. Tomas has said he’s more comfortable in right, but if the Diamondbacks do have him switch with Peralta, Tomas will get all of Spring Training to adjust to his new position. Here’s more from the National League.

  • The Cardinals are the best fit for Dexter Fowler, MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince writes. Fowler tops Castrovince’s list of this offseason’s top remaining free agents (which also includes names like Yovani Gallardo, Ian Desmond and Tyler Clippard). Randal Grichuk had sports hernia surgery in December, Castrovince points out, and the Cards can use a veteran outfielder to help compensate for the inexperience of players like Stephen Piscotty and Tommy Pham.
  • If the Dodgers can stay healthy, they won’t have many roster decisions to make in Spring Training, writes Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times. They will have to decide whether Hyun-jin Ryu, who’s returning from surgery, is healthy enough to take the ball every fifth day. There’s also the issue of how to handle Alex Guerrero, who lacks a defensive position, hit very poorly in the second half of the 2015 season and who can’t be optioned without his permission. In general, though, the Dodgers don’t figure to have many position battles.

NL West Notes: Padres, Aoki, Casilla, Tomas

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The Padres have been fined by Major League Baseball for an infraction of the international signing rules, reports Scott Miller of Bleacher Report. According to Miller, the Padres flew prospects from Venezuela to Aruba for private workouts shortly before the onset of this year’s international signing period. That maneuver violated a league rule which states that teams are not allowed to host workouts for prospects that are not yet old enough to sign anywhere other than their native countries. The amount of the fine is not clear, per Miller, and the violation hasn’t done anything to jeopardize the job status of GM A.J. Preller, who is still in the first season of a five-year contract.

Elsewhere in the division…

  • It was reported over the weekend that the Giants hope to bring back Marlon Byrd in 2016, and as Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News now writes, manager Bruce Bochy has also expressed a desire to retain Nori Aoki. A platoon of the two in left field could make some sense, Baggarly notes, though paying that platoon a combined $13.5MM (the sum of Byrd’s $8MM option and Aoki’s $5.5MM option) may be too much. Baggarly points out that the top priority this winter will be to rebuild the rotation, and an expensive outfield platoon could detract from that goal. Byrd’s option will vest with another 18 plate appearances.
  • Also within the piece, Baggarly points out that closer Santiago Casilla’s option will vest if he finishes two more games this season. That would lock in his 2016 salary at $6.5MM, but Baggarly writes that the Giants will probably pick up the option anyway, even if Casilla doesn’t reach the necessary milestone.
  • The Diamondbacks’ outfield situation is crowded, writes Yahoo’s Tim Brown, meaning the team might end up moving one of its corner options this winter. David Peralta, Ender Inciarte and Yasmany Tomas have all seen time in the corners this season, but despite Tomas’ shrinking role and disappointing second half, he’s likely to remain with the club. As Brown points out, Tomas reported to Spring Training out of shape this season, and the club will push him to arrive in much better physical condition next year. Manager Chip Hale told Brown to expect “a huge jump” in Tomas’ performance next season, adding, “No. 1, he’s going to come back in a lot better shape.”

Rosenthal’s Latest: Pitching Market, O’s, Zunino, Inciarte, Astros

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In his latest notes post for FOX Sports, Ken Rosenthal writes that while he opined on Saturday that pitching-hungry GMs should act sooner rather than later, he spoke to one exec yesterday that plans to wait until the trade deadline is nearly at hand, believing prices will drop late in the month. A second exec opined to Rosenthal, though, that the market for pitchers other than Johnny Cueto and Cole Hamels will soften in the coming days. Rosenthal gets the sense that the trade market will “erupt” and action will be “frenetic,” but it might take awhile to reach that boiling point.

Some highlights from his column (though I’d recommend checking out the entire column)…

  • Orioles GM Dan Duquette is very serious about wanting to add a bat and has indeed expressed interest in Jay Bruce, Justin Upton and Carlos Gomez, but as Rosenthal notes, the Orioles may have the thinnest farm system in the game. Baseball America ranked Baltimore’s farm just 29th heading into the season, and that was before recent injuries to top arms Dylan Bundy and Hunter Harvey. The team has some interesting names ready at the Triple-A level, but they also need to replace departing free agents Chris Davis, Matt Wieters and Wei-Yin Chen and will need to rely on the farm to fill some of those holes.
  • The Mariners aren’t just looking for a backup to Mike Zunino, Rosenthal hears, but a veteran option who would allow them to send Zunino back to Triple-A. Of course, he points out the fact that Seattle had such a player in the form of Welington Castillo but traded him to the D-Backs in the Mark Trumbo deal, only to watch Castillo out-hit Trumbo.
  • The Padres talked with the Diamondbacks about a trade that would’ve brought both Aaron Hill and Ender Inciarte to San Diego during Spring Training, and they’ve made a much more recent inquiry on Inciarte than that as well. The D-Backs are also receiving interest in David Peralta, Rosenthal writes, but Arizona isn’t motivated to trade either outfielder. Both are controlled through the 2020 season. Inciarte is a logical trade candidate for the Padres, in my mind, as a plus defender in center field and a left-handed bat — two things which the club currently lacks.
  • The Phillies may end up hanging on to Jeff Francoeur rather than trading him, according to Rosenthal. While a last-place team hanging onto a short-term veteran such as Francoeur seems counter-intuitive, he notes that the return on Francoeur would be extremely minimal, so the team may value his leadership over the warm body they’d receive for trading him. I agree that the return on Francoeur, who’s hitting .257/.288/.449 with suspect range in the corner outfield, wouldn’t be all that exciting.
  • The Astros do want to add a bat, but the team’s search for starting pitcher is a significantly greater priority, sources tell Rosenthal. GM Jeff Luhnow did tell MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart on Friday that getting a bat is a growing area of focus, however, and Chris Carter hasn’t played since Friday due to an ankle sprain. (He and other Houston first basemen have struggled at the plate even when healthy, as well.)

NL West Notes: Castillo, Olivera, Jansen, Peralta

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Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart joined Mike Ferrin of MLB Network Radio (audio link) to discuss last night’s multi-player deal sending Mark Trumbo to the Mariners. He explained that Welington Castillo (acquired in the deal) was not initially a backstop that had interested him upon taking the helm in Arizona — as he hinted, the club conceivably could have made that move when shipping Miguel Montero to the Cubs — but that the loss of Tuffy Gosewisch forced the team’s hand. “The first guy on my list of catchers was [Dioner] Navarro up in Toronto,” said Stewart, who explained that he “had [him] in my sights even in the winter months, before the Winter Meetings.” Stewart added that prospect Gabby Guerrero, who also comes over in the trade, impressed the club this spring.

That deal is a subject that Steve Adams and I tackle in today’s podcast, which will be available in a few hours. Meanwhile, here’s more from the NL West:

  • New Dodgers infielder Hector Olivera will make his professional debut tomorrow at Double-A, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets. Director of player development Gabe Kapler had positive things to say about Olivera’s early time in the organization, as Plunkett also reports. “He clearly can handle either” second or third, Kapler added.
  • Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen was unavailable last night for unknown and somewhat mysterious reasons, as Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports. Something apparently occurred during the game itself that changed his status, but what that is has yet to be reported. Meanwhile, four other relievers oversaw a 9th-inning meltdown in Colorado. After the game, the team said that Jansen “wasn’t feeling well, while ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe tweeted that he was “sending [his] prayers” to the Dodgers and their closer, adding to the intrigue. The outstanding power pitcher has dealt with heart issues in the past, including experiencing an irregular heartbeat while in Denver.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta has changed agencies and is now a client of ACES, Devan Fink tweeted recently and ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick confirms (Twitter link). The 27-year-old has quickly established himself as a solid major leaguer, and owns a .280/.323/.460 slash line in his first 490 plate appearances. With just 120 days of service accumulated last year, he’ll likely not qualify for arbitration until 2018.

NL West Notes: Hamels, D’Backs, Rockies, Gee, Closers

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The Padres are still involved in some chatter involving Phillies ace Cole Hamels, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. Prior reports had indicated that a hypothetical deal could include recently-acquired, high-upside outfielder Wil Myers, but Heyman says that recently-discussed trade scenarios have been based around San Diego prospects. That being said, the report stresses that nothing is close and that other clubs are still involved. And, of course, GM A.J. Preller said recently that he does not expect any more truly significant deals.

More from the National League West:

West Notes: Dunn, A’s, D-Backs, Zobrist, Chavez, Alonso

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Adam Dunn’s agent, Brian Peters, tells Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (Twitter link) that Dunn is indeed retiring, as was widely expected. Dunn himself said that he would retire following the season back in August, though he created a bit of doubt when he backed off slightly and said, “That’s it, probably,” following the Athletics’ loss to the Royals in the AL Wild Card game. Dunn’s career was unique, to say the least, as he epitomized the “three true outcomes” player, homering 462 times while striking out in 28.6 percent of his plate appearances and walking in  15.8 percent of them. Just under half (49.9 percent) of Dunn’s career plate appearances ended in a long ball, a walk or a whiff, and he will enter the record books with a .237/.364/.490 batting line. Dunn hit 40-plus homers in six separate seasons, including five consecutive years — four of which finished with 40 on the dot (2005-08). The “Big Donkey” will be fondly remembered by many for his light-tower power — a skill that earned him more than $112MM throughout his career, per Baseball-Reference.com. MLBTR wishes Dunn and his family happiness and the best of luck in his post-playing days.

Here are a few notes on some of the game’s Western division clubs, including the final team for which Dunn played…

  • Athletics right-handers Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin are doubtful for Opening Day, tweets Jon Morosi of FOX Sports. That’s not a huge shock, given that both underwent Tommy John surgery last spring, though Parker, whose surgery was on March 25, would have seemed to at least have a chance at being ready. Oakland still has plenty of pitching depth, however, with Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, Jesse Hahn, Jesse Chavez, Drew Pomeranz, Chris Bassitt, Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman all in the fold. Once Griffin and Parker are healthy, Oakland will have a plethora of MLB-ready rotation options, and only Kazmir is set to depart following the 2015 campaign.
  • Morosi also tweets that the Diamondbacks have received calls from the Orioles regarding their outfield depth. Baltimore is known to be looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder, and both David Peralta and Ender Inciarte would fit that description, Morosi notes. Peralta’s name has surfaced in trade talks already this offseason, as the Reds were said to be interested in him prior to acquiring Marlon Byrd. Moving Peralta would allow Arizona to shift Yasmany Tomas to the outfield rather than trying him at third base, as is the current plan, although first-year GM Dave Stewart specifically mentioned Peralta when discussing the club’s strengths shortly after his hiring.
  • Also from Morosi, the D-Backs have called the Blue Jays about Dioner Navarro, but talks haven’t advanced much to this point. Morosi noted last night that Arizona is working hard to acquire a catcher, as Tuffy Gosewich is the lone player on their 40-man roster with big league experience. Navarro is known to be available after the Jays inked Russell Martin to a huge five-year deal earlier this offseason.
  • The Giants tried to work out a deal to acquire Ben Zobrist from the Rays before he was dealt to Oakland, but San Francisco deemed Tampa’s asking price to be too high, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
  • The Mariners are one option for veteran outfielder Endy Chavez, tweets Heyman. Soon to be 37, Chavez remains on the free agent market on the heels of a season in which he batted .276/.317/.371 (99 OPS+, 97 wRC+). While Chavez has never brought much to the table in terms of offense, he’s graded out well from a defensive standpoint throughout his career (though defensive metrics have soured on him over the past two seasons).
  • Yonder Alonso tells Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he is 100 percent healthy after undergoing surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right wrist. Alonso says that he hasn’t been pain-free in his hands since he broke a metacarpal bone in his right hand when he was hit by a pitch on May 31, 2013. Padres GM A.J. Preller has indicated that first base is likely to be handled by some combination of Alonso, Tommy Medica and Will Middlebrooks, and Lin notes that perhaps a lower-pressure environment with more offensive threats throughout the lineup will help Alonso. Still, he notes, Alonso’s tenure with the Padres has been a disappointment to many. “I really thought he’d unleash some power,” a scout from another club tells Lin. “It’s been disappointing.”

Diamondbacks Links: Ladnier, Trumbo, Tomas, Reds

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The Diamondbacks officially announced today that Nationals special assistant Deric Ladnier has been hired as their new scouting director (Jon Heyman of CBS Sports previously reported that the move was likely). The 50-year-old Ladnier has worked in scouting and player development for 24 and was the Royals’ scouting director from 2000-08, during which time Kansas City drafted Zack Greinke, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Greg Holland, Billy Butler, Danny Duffy and Jarrod Dyson.

Some more D-Backs notes on a day that saw them complete a significant three-team trade…

  • The Diamondbacks will not trade Mark Trumbo, GM Dave Stewart plainly told reporters, including FOX Sports Arizona’s Jack Magruder today (Twitter link). Though some have speculated that the Yasmany Tomas signing opens the door for such a move (myself included), it appears the D-Backs are in no rush to sell low on Trumbo after a down season in 2014. Stewart added that the D-Backs are still looking for a left-handed power bat to sandwich between Trumbo and Paul Goldschmidt in the team’s cleanup spot.
  • One reason that the D-Backs feel they can keep Trumbo around without creating a logjam, manager Chip Hale told Magruder, is that their plan is to try Tomas out as a third baseman (Twitter link). While that may be alarming to many, Tomas has experience playing third base in Cuba and worked out for clubs at the position as well.
  • The Reds, who are known to be seeking a left fielder, are interested in the Diamondbacks’ group of outfielders, tweets Jon Morosi of FOX Sports. Former D-Backs GM Kevin Towers is now in Cincinnati’s front office Morosi notes, and David Peralta’s name is one that has been mentioned internally. While it’s highly early for this type of speculation, a trade of Peralta to Cincinnati would allow the Snakes to play Tomas and Trumbo in the outfield corners, though that could have serious defensive downside, even with the excellent A.J. Pollock in center field. Peralta had a somewhat surprisingly strong rookie campaign despite the fact that he turned 27 years old in August. The D-Backs plucked him out of independent ball in 2013, and he batted .286/.320/.450 in 348 plate appearances in 2014.

D’Backs Notes: Roster, Gardenhire, Payroll, Coaches

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The Diamondbacks more or less kicked off their offseason last week when they announced the hiring of Dave Stewart as general manager and De Jon Watson as vice president of baseball operations. That duo, along with chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, will be tasked with righting the ship for a team that lost an MLB-worst 98 games in 2014. Both Nick Piecoro and Zach Buchanan of the Arizona Republic have authored highly informative columns about how things will shake out this offseason after talking with that group. Here are some highlights from the Republic’s scribes, but each piece is full of lengthier quotes and is well worth reading in its entirety…

  • It’s tough to get a read on Stewart at this point, Piecoro writes, as the new GM expressed a desire to add a front-of-the-rotation arm but expressed hesitancy toward the free agent market and toward the trade market. Stewart appears to be more conservative than predecessor Kevin Towers on the trade front, according to Piecoro, and as for free agency, both Stewart and Watson doubted the team would have the resources to pursue Jon Lester, Max Scherzer or James Shields.
  • A trade of minor league talent to acquire an established pitcher doesn’t seem likely either, Piecoro writes. He quotes Stewart: “We’re going to try to maintain our minor-league system. We’ve got to start putting players back in our system. So the trade market, we’ll look at it if it makes sense, but it’s not likely.”
  • La Russa tells Piecoro that when it comes to a manager, the team is looking for a candidate that can “lead and inspire.” Previous managerial experience sounded important to La Russa, who stated, “…when you start managing the game, the more that you’ve pulled the trigger as a manager somewhere, there is an art to that.” Asked specifically about recently dismissed Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, La Russa said he is “sure” that Gardenhire’s name will come up during their search.
  • La Russa also touched on payroll, though his answer when asked for a specific figure was nebulous; payroll could fall anywhere between $80-110MM, he stated, depending on whether or not there is value to be found, per Piecoro.
  • Shifting to Buchanan’s piece, La Russa said that there may not be many changes to the team’s coaching staff beyond the firings of Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell. La Russa offered particularly high praise for first base coach Dave McKay, pitching coach Mike Harkey and bullpen coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. — the latter two of whom he feels handled Arizona’s slew of injuries well. Roving pitching instructor Dave Duncan, La Russa’s former pitching coach, will take on a bigger role in the organization but will not return to a coaching position.
  • Buchanan spoke with Stewart on the team’s outfield situation. While Towers had expressed the desire to add an outfield bat, Stewart sounds much less inclined to do so. “I think that A.J. (Pollock) in center, (David) Peralta played well, (Mark) Trumbo will probably be in the outfield mix with (Paul) Goldschmidt being at first base and being healthy again,” the GM explained to Buchanan. “It’s a pretty solid outfield, in my opinion.” La Russa spoke on the outfield as well, adding praise for Ender Inciarte.
  • The D’Backs have yet to address their desire to incorporate analytics into their front office, but Stewart again repeated that it is a priority for the team. “…We’ve got to go through the process of trying to get the right person in to take over that department for us,” he said.

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