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Derek Dietrich

Derek Dietrich Undergoes Shoulder Procedure

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Reds infielder Derek Dietrich has undergone left shoulder surgery, as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to cover on Twitter. Fortunately, the clean-up procedure did not reveal any significant damage.

The expectation is that Dietrich will have a more-or-less unimpeded offseason. If there truly aren’t any real ongoing concerns, then it seems likely the club can make a decision whether to tender Dietrich a contract without worrying much about his health.

That said, it’s hardly clear that the Reds will want to commit to Dietrich for 2020. The 30-year-old had a monster showing in the first two months of the season but fell off badly thereafter. He hasn’t played much at all in the second half and a .187/.328/.462 overall slash line that translates only to a 103 wRC+.

Injury Notes: Kluber, Gallo, Dietrich, Casali, Robinson

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After just one inning of work in a rehab start on Sunday, Corey Kluber was removed from the game due to left abdominal tightness.  (Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga was among those to report the news.)  Kluber is expected to receive further tests on Monday, though the early word is that Kluber was simply removed as a precaution.  While the Indians and their fans won’t fully exhale until those tests come back clean, it’s at least some measure of good news that Kluber didn’t have a setback involving his forearm, which was fractured back on May 1.  Sunday’s start could potentially have served as Kluber’s final rehab outing before being activated from the injured list, and now it seems as if he’ll likely have to get one more minor league start under his belt before the Tribe can be fully prepared to bring him back to the 25-man roster.

Some more on injury situations from around baseball…

  • Rangers slugger Joey Gallo is targeting a mid-September return from hamate bone surgery, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan writes.  The procedure back on July 25 was expected to keep Gallo out for four-to-six weeks, though since he only just started taking light swings off a tee, his recovery will be at the long end of that projected timeline.  “I don’t want any setbacks, but I think I’m going to be able to play before the season is over.  That’s the hope,” Gallo said.
  • Two injured Reds are working their way back to the club, as manager David Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that Derek Dietrich will begin a Triple-A rehab assignment on Monday, while catcher Curt Casali starts a rehab assignment of his own on Tuesday.  Both players could be back in time for the Reds’ series against the Pirates that begins on Friday.  Dietrich hit the IL due to left shoulder inflammation on August 5, while this will actually be Casali’s second rehab stint since first being placed on the IL on July 18 with a right knee sprain.  Casali’s previous assignment was halted after two games due to soreness in his left hamstring.
  • Cardinals utilityman Drew Robinson recently underwent a season-ending, “progressive” version of Tommy John surgery on his left elbow, manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters.  The surgery was only a partial version of the normal Tommy John procedure and it was on Robinson’s non-throwing arm, so Shildt believes Robinson will be ready for Spring Training.  Acquired in the trade that sent Patrick Wisdom to the Rangers last December, Robinson appeared in five MLB games for the Cardinals and hit .265/.385/.423 over 234 PA for Triple-A Memphis this season before hitting the injured list on June 24.  Robinson has some very solid minor league numbers over his ten pro seasons, though he hasn’t hit much over 253 Major League plate appearances with Texas and St. Louis from 2016-18.

Pirates Season Marked By Conflict On-Field And Off

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Last night’s walkoff victory against the reeling Cubs aside, the Pirates are mired in a deep funk. They started the second half in free fall, going 6-25 as they’ve dipped from the fringes of the playoff race to (at one point) twenty games under .500. The Pirates have been involved in multiple on-field conflicts, with manager Clint Hurdle stealing focus as he spars with other managers within the NL Central. Hurdle has a well-known strategic proclivity towards pitching up and in – with which certain managers haven taken issue when Pirates hurlers struggle with their command. As a team, they rank 24th out of 30 in BB/9 with a team average of 3.58 BB/9.

Perhaps more worrying to the organization, in-fighting has become a hallmark of this Pirates squad, per The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel. Mercurial reliever Keone Kela is the source of at least some of the conflict. Kela not only inspired the trade deadline fracas with the Reds by throwing behind Derek Dietrich, but he also took a two-game suspension earlier this season for his part in a clubhouse altercation with performance coach Hector Morales. The Buccos explored trading Kela, but ultimately failed to find a suitable deal, and it’s safe to wonder whether his trade worth took a hit, either from recent suspensions, injury history, or a reputation as a difficult clubhouse personality.

On the field, Kela missed too much time to raise his stock, returning from the injured list for just four appearances before the deadline. That put him at 18 appearances on the season with a 3.45 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings. Fine numbers not far off from Kela’s career norms, but clearly not compelling enough to drive significant trade interest.

Only a week after Kela’s incident, bullpen coach Euclides Rojas drove a pre-game on-field dust-up with reliever Kyle Crick. The incident nearly turned physical before the two men were pulled apart. Crick had been publicly bemoaning perceived preferential treatment given to closer Felipe Vazquez by the coaching staff.

Birtempfel notes that the clubhouse lacks the veteran leadership provided over the years by vets like A.J. Burnett, David Freese, Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen, or more recently from Jameson Taillon and Francisco Cervelli, who have been absent due to injuries.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom for the Pirates, however, as Crick insists there’s a growing camaraderie among this exceptionally young group of Pirates players.

The depth of conflict reported here certainly pulls back the curtain a touch further than usual. Not necessarily evidenced here, however, is the Pirates clubhouse being any more or less destructive than a typical clubhouse enduring a tough stretch on the field. Fangraphs Ben Clemens recently wrote this of the 5-24 stretch that opened the Pirates’ second half:

“Think of it this way: the worst team in baseball since World War II, by winning percentage, was the expansion New York Mets of 1962. They were cover-your-eyes awful, going 40-120, a .250 winning percentage. Let’s assume, despite its absurdity, that the Pirates suddenly transformed to a team with a .250 winning percentage overnight. Their odds of going 5-24 or worse over a 29-game stretch would still only be 23%. Even the worst team in baseball history, in other words, would be unlikely to look this bad over a month of play.”

Any clubhouse might struggle with a degree of in-fighting while losing at that rate. Still, the Pirates seem more combative than your average team. Hurdle seems to set the tone there, and though the team could very well emerge from this season more galvanized as a unit, it’s a troubling environment in which to see the indoctrination of young stars like Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller.

Reds Place Derek Dietrich On IL, Select Brian O’Grady, Designate Blake Trahan

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The Reds announced a series of moves today, driven by ongoing shoulder inflammation for infielder Derek Dietrich. He’ll head to the 10-day injured list.

To fill the opening, the Cincinnati organization selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Brian O’Grady. That necessitated a 40-man opening, which was created by designating infielder Blake Trahan for assignment.

It isn’t known how long the Redlegs expect to go without Dietrich, who has been in a cold spell for some time now. He remains a key piece for the team, particularly after Scooter Gennett was sent packing at the deadline.

In Dietrich’s steady, O’Grady will receive his first shot at the majors. The 27-year-old has appeared in exactly 100 games this year at Triple-A, slashing .277/.351/.562 and popping 27 long balls. That’s a big power outbreak for the former eighth-round draft pick, even after accounting for the wild offensive environment in the International League.

As for the 25-year-old Trahan, who received a cup of coffee last year, the bat just hasn’t come around. He’s carrying an ugly .230/.280/.324 line in 323 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors. The 2015 third-rounder has failed to produce at a league-average rate in the upper minors in prior seasons.

Latest On Scooter Gennett

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The Reds have gone without injured second baseman Scooter Gennett all season, but his return is getting closer. Gennett could begin a rehab assignment within “two or three weeks,” manager David Bell said Saturday (via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com).

Gennett suffered a right groin strain March 22, at which point he was projected to miss eight to 12 weeks. It’s now clear the 29-year-old won’t return until near the end of that timeline, if not later. Fortunately for the Reds, they’ve received excellent second base production even without Gennett. Minor league signing Derek Dietrich has been a revelation in Gennett’s place, having slashed an elite .260/.366/.707 (168 wRC+) with 17 home runs over 145 plate appearances.

Like Dietrich, Gennett originally arrived in Cincinnati as a low-risk pickup. The Reds claimed Gennett off waivers from the NL Central rival Brewers on the brink of the 2017 campaign. Little did either team know Gennett would emerge as one of the game’s most valuable second basemen in Cincy. The 28-year-old’s coming off a two-season, 1,135-PA stretch in which he batted .303/.351/.508 with 50 home runs to place third at his position in wRC+ (124) and sixth in fWAR (6.7).

Gennett will reclaim his spot once he returns, Bell suggested, saying, “Obviously, Scooter is going to be playing.” But Bell indicated the Reds’ lineup is big enough for Gennett and Dietrich, pointing to the latter’s ability to play multiple other infield positions – first and third base – as well as the outfield.

First (Joey Votto) and third (Eugenio Suarez) are spoken for in Cincinnati, whereas corner outfielders Yasiel Puig and Jesse Winker haven’t established themselves as Reds cornerstones the way Votto and Suarez have. And Dietrich has handily outproduced Puig and Winker, which could open the door for him in the outfield. Platooning Dietrich – a lefty hitter who does all his damage versus righties – with Puig or Winker wouldn’t be easy, though. The righty-swinging Puig has typically caused more harm to same-handed pitchers (that hasn’t been the case this year, but he has scuffled in general), while the lefty Winker hasn’t had any success against southpaws this season. Of course, the Reds could resolve the situation to a degree if they fall out of contention in the coming weeks and trade Puig – an impending free agent.

Derek Dietrich Turns On The Power

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Reds second baseman Derek Dietrich has seemingly been on a mission to torture the NL Central rival Pirates so far this season. The brash 29-year-old homered off the Pirates on Opening Day and continued his onslaught just over a week later, mashing a pair of HRs and helping spark a brawl in Pittsburgh on April 7. Not content to stop there, Dietrich victimized the Pirates this week for another four HRs in a four-game series, giving him seven in nine appearances against the Buccos.

Dietrich’s most publicized moments have come at Pittsburgh’s expense this season, but the Pirates aren’t the only team he has frustrated. As a .262/.368/.713 hitter through 144 plate appearances, Dietrich owns the majors’ seventh-highest wRC+ (171) among batters who have accrued at least 140 PA. He also leads the league in isolated power (.451) by 51 points over second-place Christian Yelich on the strength of 17 home runs. That’s already a career-best mark for Dietrich, who hadn’t amassed more than 16 in a season since he made his major league debut with the Marlins in 2013.

Dietrich was typically a useful player in Miami across six seasons and 2,132 PA, combining respectable offense (.254/.335/.422 – good for a 109 wRC+) with an ability to line up at several positions. Despite that, the Marlins – unwilling to pay Dietrich a projected $4.8MM in arbitration – designated him for assignment in November. While Dietrich now looks like yet another one who got away for the down-and-out Marlins, it’s worth noting the rest of the league didn’t really want him either during the offseason. Finally, almost three full months after Miami cut Dietrich, he joined the Reds on a minor league deal in February.

Baseball slept on Dietrich over the winter, but he has since burst forth as one of the game’s shrewdest offseason signings. For the Reds, his emergence has been all the more fortuitous given that they have gone all season without injured second baseman Scooter Gennett. Like Gennett, whom the Reds claimed off waivers from Milwaukee entering the 2017 season, it appears Dietrich has gone from under-the-radar pickup to star in their uniform.

The question is: How is Dietrich suddenly one of the league’s most powerful and productive hitters? It seems to stem from a change in approach. Dietrich is pulling the ball more than ever, which is conducive to hitting for power, and looks like the latest beneficiary of the sport’s fly ball revolution. Although he never posted a fly ball rate better than 43.3 percent in a season with the Marlins, he’s currently at 52.2 percent – the sixth-highest mark in the league. As you’d expect from his stat line, Dietrich has made his fly balls count. He’s averaging 348 feet on his flies, a 38-foot increase from last year’s 310, and has significantly upped his exit velocity while putting the ball in the air. Dietrich’s fly balls and line drives have traveled at a 96.7 mph mean after clocking in at 90.8 in 2018, according to Statcast.

In theory, the fact that Dietrich is running a ridiculously low batting average on balls in play (.176, compared to .308 in Miami) makes his success all the more amazing. That said, fly ball-heavy hitters aren’t usually candidates for high BABIPs; beyond that, the stat doesn’t factor in homers – which make up more than half of Dietrich’s 32 hits this season. Though there’s a strong likelihood Dietrich’s BABIP will rise closer to career norms as the season progresses, his overall production will inevitably go backward to some degree.

The reality is that Dietrich’s not going to continue hitting dingers on 36.5 percent of fly balls, as only the MVP-winning Yelich broke the 30 percent plateau last season. Dietrich also isn’t some plate discipline savant who controls the zone at an elite level. To his credit, Dietrich’s walking at a career-high 9.3 percent clip and has slashed his strikeout rate by almost 5 percent since 2018 (from 25.4 to 20.8). However, those figures are still just a bit above average. And the left-handed Dietrich has continued a career-long trend of slumping against same-handed pitchers, who have held him to a meek .154/.273/.300 line this year. So it’s righties who are going to have to figure out how to handle him. Here’s a tip for them: Dietrich hasn’t done much against inside pitches, as these charts from Baseball Savant show, but has dominated versus most offerings in the middle or outer half. And yet, pitchers have largely lived in Dietrich’s hot zones, evidenced by this heat map via FanGraphs.

Dietrich is unlikely to keep this up (not many could), but that’s not to say his offense will careen off a cliff. True, there’s a 46-point gap between his weighted on-base average (.442) and expected wOBA (.396), yet he still ranks in the top 91st percentile of the majors in xwOBA, per Statcast. If Dietrich manages to produce at anywhere near his xwOBA for the rest of the season, the Reds would surely be ecstatic. They’re paying Dietrich a relative pittance this year ($2MM) and can control him through arbitration in 2020. That could help make Dietrich a valuable summer trade chip if Cincinnati’s out of contention by then. For now, though, the Reds appear to have another Gennett-esque steal in their lineup.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Reds Select Derek Dietrich, Jose Iglesias; Designate Matt Wisler

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The Reds announced a series of transactions today, selecting the contracts of veteran infielder/outfielder Derek Dietrich and shortstop Jose Iglesias to join the Opening Day roster. Righty Matt Wisler was designated for assignment to clear 40-man roster space.

Several players were also shifted to the 10-day injured list, with no surprises in the bunch. Lefty Alex Wood joins infielders Scooter Gennett and Alex Blandino on ice to open the season.

Bringing Dietrich and Iglesias aboard further strengthens a position-player unit that is full of talent. Both are limited players: the former is a quality left-handed hitter who doesn’t field well and the latter is a magician with the glove who doesn’t bring much with the bat. Iglesias’ defensive wizardry will be all the more important early in the season, as he’ll likely see significant time at shortstop with Jose Peraza sliding to second base in place of the injured Scooter Gennett.

As for Wisler, the Reds will now have a week to either trade the former top prospect or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. The 26-year-old was a key part of the trade that sent Craig Kimbrel from the Braves to the Padres several years ago, but he’s never pieced things together at the MLB level. Wisler owns a 5.14 ERA with 6.4 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in 338 frames in the Majors to this point, though he’s consistently posted solid numbers in the minor leagues. He’s also out of options, though, so any club who acquires Wisler would need to carry him on its 25-man roster.

Reds, Derek Dietrich Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have reached an agreement on a minor league contract with free-agent infielder Derek Dietrich, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll be in Major League camp and compete for a roster spot. The contract, according to Rosenthal, has a base salary north of $2MM if Dietrich makes the big league roster. He’s represented by SportsMeter.

Derek Dietrich | Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

It registers as a somewhat of a surprise that Dietrich, who’ll play most of the upcoming season at age 29, had to settle for a non-guaranteed pact on the heels of yet another solid season at the plate. The Marlins cut him loose rather than pay a salary projected to be worth more than $4MM, but Dietrich still seemed like a candidate to land a big league deal after hitting a combined .262/.344/.428 (114 OPS+) over the past four seasons. This past season, he logged career-highs in plate appearances (551), home runs (16) and doubles (26).

While Dietrich has proven himself to be a solid bat, he’s also proven to be a defensive liability. Second base, left field and third base have been his most frequent positions at the MLB level, and he’s drawn negative ratings at each spot from both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. However, the outfield corners are the only spots where Dietrich’s glove has graded out at a particularly alarming level (-23 DRS, -16 in 1120 innings). His defense at second base and third base has been sub-par but not abysmal, and he’s been worth 4.7 wins above replacement overall through the past three seasons, per Fangraphs.

Looking around the Cincinnati roster, it doesn’t appear as though there’ll be everyday at-bats for Dietrich, barring an injury in camp. Joey Votto is entrenched at first base, while Scooter Gennett and Eugenio Suarez have second base and third base, respectively, locked down. The outfield corners don’t present an avenue for regular playing time, either, as the Reds currently have Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Jesse Winker and Scott Schebler all in that mix already. Top prospect Nick Senzel is looming in Triple-A as well, and he seems likely to get a look in center field this season (though he’s a natural infielder).

Dietrich, however, can give the Reds a quality left-handed bat off the bench — one who can handle multiple spots around the diamond. Backup catcher Curt Casali and whichever of Schebler, Kemp, Puig and Winker aren’t starting on a given day will fill additional bench spots. Once Senzel arrives on the scene, that mix will only be deepened.

If Dietrich makes the Reds’ roster and proves to be an asset they’d like to retain beyond the 2019 season, they’ll have the opportunity to do so via arbitration. Dietrich has four years, 151 days of Major League service, meaning he’ll fall shy of six years of service next winter and once again be arbitration-eligible. A lot will need to break right for Dietrich between now and then, but it’s certainly plausible to think that he could parlay today’s agreement into a multi-year run with the Reds.

Derek Dietrich Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

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Infielder/outfielder Derek Dietrich has elected free agency after clearing waivers, the Marlins announced today. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Dietrich, 29, possesses a quality left-handed bat that would aid many contending lineups. He also has a varied positional background, but he’s not considered a very good defender at any of the spots — second base, third base, and the corner outfield — he has tried out over the years.

Clearly, no other clubs were interested in paying the projected $4.8MM Dietrich would have commanded in arbitration. He’ll now be available to the highest bidder, with any acquiring team also picking up an added season of arb control (assuming he signs a one-year pact).

That rate of pay would be quite reasonable if Dietrich could even hold his own in the field, but defensive metrics have always been skeptical and it seems the scouts agree. He moved out of the infield in 2018 as the Marlins tried to find a fit, but his time on the grass hasn’t gone well either. Dietrich has graded quite poorly in left field over 1,120 career innings.

All that said, it still stands to reason that Dietrich will get some bites in free agency from clubs that like the idea of utilizing him as a bench bat that can at least plausibly fill in around the diamond. It doesn’t help that there are so many useful infielders floating around the market, but few can match his overall offensive productivity.

Through 1,716 plate appearances over the past four years, Dietrich owns a .262/.344/.428 batting line with 46 home runs — good for a 114 OPS+. He’s best utilized against right-handed pitching, which limits his overall utility but does mean he could occupy the larger share of a potential platoon pairing.

Marlins Acquire Nick Anderson, Designate Derek Dietrich

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The Marlins announced tonight that they have acquired righty Nick Anderson from the Twins in exchange for infielder Brian Schales. To create roster space, the Marlins designated Derek Dietrich for assignment.

Bumping Dietrich from the roster will mean avoiding a significant salary for the rebuilding Marlins. MLBTR had projected a $4.8MM salary in his second-to-last season of arbitration eligibility. It’s still possible a trade will be worked out or that he’ll be claimed over the week to come.

The 29-year-old Dietrich has never comfortably found a defensive fit, though he has appeared at second, third, and the corner outfield and thereby offers at least hypothetical versatility. He’s valued mostly for his steady left-handed bat, which has produced solidly above-average numbers for each of the past four seasons. Most recently, he slashed .265/.330/.421 with 16 home runs in 551 plate appearances.

While he largely maintained his prior level of performance with the bat in 2018, it wasn’t Dietrich’s finest effort. His strikeout rate spiked to a career-high 25.4% while his walk rate dropped to 5.3%. That said, Dietrich was also exposed to left-handed pitching a bit more than he had been, with the resulting 34:1 K/BB mix in 106 plate appearances hardly helping the stat sheet.

Teams considering Dietrich will likely consider him as an option to plug in the lineup in various places against right-handed pitching. He could make particular sense for an American League club that intends to chop up some of its playing time at DH or even first base.

Anderson, 28, was due for Rule 5 protection and will get it from the Miami organization. He was slow to reach and progress through the professional ranks but has impressed upon reaching the upper minors. Last year, working at Triple-A, he turned in sixty frames of 3.30 ERA ball with 13.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.

As for the 22-year-old Schales, he was a fourth-round pick in 2014 who topped out at the Double-A level last year. He turned in his best offensive season as a professional, slashing .258/.354/.403 with ten home runs in 490 plate appearances.

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