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Huascar Ynoa

NL Notes: Mike Soroka’s Return, Cardinals’ Rotation Health

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Alex Anthopolous spoke to Craig Mish of Sportsgrid about when Mike Soroka might be ready to return to a big-league mound. Anthopolous suggested he’ll be more-or-less ready in April, and though it sounds like he isn’t likely to be on the opening day roster, joining the club before the end of the season’s first month appears likely. That’s great news for an Atlanta rotation that’s looking better by the day. Max Fried remains at the top of their projected pitching staff, while Ian Anderson continues to look the part of a Major League hurler. In the meantime…

  • Huascar Ynoa, Kyle Wright, and Bryse Wilson continue to compete to be Soroka’s understudy. Because of the way the schedule shakes out, the Braves could open the season with a four-man rotation of Fried, Anderson, Charlie Morton, and Drew Smyly. But one of Ynoa, Wright, and Wilson would still likely make the team in that case as a long-man out of the pen, writes MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. All three young pitchers have some experience in that role, but Ynoa, in particular, has struggled somewhat pitching deep into games, which the Braves are monitoring closely this spring, writes Bowman. If the Braves prefer Ynoa as a couple-innings-at-a-time-type arm out of the pen, that could bode well for his chances to make the opening day roster.
  • The Cardinals, meanwhile, might be without yet another starter when the season opens. Manager Mike Shildt put Kwang Hyun Kim in the same camp as Miles Mikolas concerning their readiness for opening day. Kim missed his most recent start after his back tightened up on him during a bullpen session, per MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (Twitter links). There’s not much concern long-term regarding Kim’s health, but there are now a couple of open rotation spots behind Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty and Carlos Martinez. John Gant is the favorite to nab one of those two spots, with Daniel Ponce de Leon, Jake Woodford and Johan Oviedo among the candidates to start games early in the year.
  • The Cardinals have come to terms with 24 pre-arbitration players, per Jones (via Twitter). This is notable because it means they didn’t have to renew anyone’s contract, an option that teams retain under the current arbitration system. While pre-arbitration players don’t have the right to arbitration yet, they do still have to come to terms on a new deal each season. In cases where an agreement can’t be made, the team can unilaterally renew a player’s contract. The Cardinals had had to renew contracts in the past for Flaherty and Jordan Hicks, and while it’s hard to quantify long-term damage, it certainly paints a poor portrait of team-player relations. It is a good sign, in this case, that the Cardinals found common ground with all of their pre-arbitration players.

Braves Recall Chad Sobotka, Option Huascar Ynoa

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The Atlanta Braves optioned right-hander Huascar Ynoa to their alternate training site after yesterday’s doubleheader. Chad Sobotka has been recalled to take his place on the roster.

This could be a bit of roster management for the Braves, as Ynoa started the second game of yesterday’s doubleheader and Atlanta may simply want a fresh arm for the bullpen. On the other hand, one of the reasons they need a fresh arm is because Ynoa lasted just 2 1/3 innings while giving up 6 earned runs to a last-place Nationals team that was without their MVP Juan Soto. Ynoa has made six appearances for Atlanta this season, three of them starts, but totaling just 11 2/3 innings with a 7.71 ERA/6.39 FIP.

The Braves have faced rotation issues all season, though Max Fried has pitched like a bona fide ace, Ian Anderson is off to a strong start to his major-league career, and veteran Tommy Milone joined the corps before the trade deadline. Josh Tomlin has served as a swingman, but it remains to be seen what the Braves’ long-term plans are for the back two spots in the rotation. Atlanta has many options remaining in their player pool – Kyle Wright, Touki Toussaint, Sean Newcomb, for example – but many of these young arms have struggled to establish themselves as reliable options thus far in 2020.

Sobotka will jump into the bullpen to provide right-handed relief. The 27-year-old has yet to surrender a run in 3 innings so far this season. For his career, Sobotka owns a 4.47 ERA/4.98 FIP in 46 1/3 innings spread across the last three seasons.

Braves Outright Chris Rusin

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Aug. 6: The Braves announced that Rusin has been assigned outright to their alternate training site after clearing waivers. He’ll remain in the team’s 60-player pool but is no longer on the 40-man roster. Because he’s still in the player pool, he’s eligible to rejoin the club later this season.

Aug. 4: The Braves have designated lefty Chris Rusin for assignment, per a club announcement. Additionally, the team placed righty Mike Soroka on the 45-day injured list. Those moves created a pair of active roster spots to enable the promotion of two pitchers. Righties Chad Sobotka and Huascar Ynoa will each join the MLB team.

Rusin, 33, earned a job out of Summer Camp but only got one appearance before he was set free. He allowed three earned runs in a 3 1/3-inning outing last night after Soroka departed with what turned out to be a season-ending injury. The former Cubs and Rockies southpaw was quite effective in Colorado from 2016-17, pitching to a 3.19 ERA in 169 1/3 frames, but success has been hard to come by outside of that two-year stretch. In 468 2/3 innings across part of nine MLB seasons (2020 included), Rusin has a 4.65 ERA with 6.5 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9.

Braves Activate Ender Inciarte From Injured List

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The Braves have activated outfielder Ender Inciarte from the 10-day injured list, the team announced.  Right-hander Kyle Wright was also called up from Triple-A to start tonight’s game, while righties Huascar Ynoa and Bryse Wilson were sent down to Triple-A to create roster space.

Inciarte is set to take the field for the first time since May 14, as the outfielder has been sidelined with a lower lumbar strain that ended up costing him over a third of his season.  That injury led to Atlanta’s promotion of top prospect Austin Riley, who got off to a scorching start before seeing his production severely drop off over the last month.  While Riley still seems likely to get the bulk of everyday at-bats, his struggles will mean Inciarte will get at least some looks, if perhaps only against some right-handed starters.  Ronald Acuna Jr. will obviously continue to be a fixture in every Braves lineup, likely moving between center and right field depending on whether Riley or Inciarte is playing.

While never a truly dangerous offensive threat, Inciarte had at least been roughly a league-average offensive producer before falling to a 90 wRC+ in 2018, and then this season’s disastrous 61 wRC+ mark (.218/.300/.323 over 140 plate appearances before hitting the IL).  Even if Inciarte is reduced to being only a fourth outfielder, his strong defense and baserunning make him a valuable bench asset.

Since the Braves opted to demote a pitcher rather than a position player for Inciarte, Atlanta will go with a five-man bench that consists of four outfield options — Inciarte, Matt Joyce, and utilitymen Charlie Culberson and Johan Camargo.  MLBTR’s Jeff Todd recently explored the Braves’ rather crowded bench situation, tossing around ideas like demoting Riley to get him straightened out at the plate to designating for assignment (or trading) one of Culberson, Adams, or even Inciarte.  The latter would be the costliest and thus probably the least likely idea, as Inciarte is still owed over $16.4MM through the 2021 season.

Players Added To The 40-Man Roster

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Tonight marks the deadline for players to be added to their respective organizations’ 40-man rosters. Over the nine hours, there’ll be a flurry of moves, ranging from minor trades (like the one the Indians and Rays made yesterday), waiver claims and players being designated for assignment or outrighted. Each will be made to clear room for players who need protection from this year’s Rule 5 Draft. As a reminder, players who signed at 18 years of age or younger and have five professional seasons are eligible, as are players who signed at 19 or older and have four professional seasons under their belts.

Here’s a rundown of players who’ve been added to their respective 40-man rosters (which will be updated throughout the day)…

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Twins Acquire Jaime Garcia, Anthony Recker

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The Twins have acquired lefty Jaime Garcia and catcher Anthony Recker from the Braves, per a club announcement.  In return, Atlanta acquires young righty Huascar Ynoa.

As part of the swap, the Braves will send $100K to cover a piece of Recker’s remaining salary, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets. Minnesota is absorbing all of Garcia’s remaining salary, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter); that represents just over $4.5MM of the original $12MM salary.

Apr 17, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Jaime Garcia (54) throws a pitch against the San Diego Padres in the first inning at SunTrust Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

While these two clubs had seemingly been nearing a deal involving Garcia just days ago, those talks broke down — at least temporarily — when an issue arose in the medicals of Twins righty Nick Burdi. When that fell through, the southpaw ended up making another start for the Braves. It was a good one, which helped buttress the club’s position, though obviously Atlanta did not have an enormous amount of leverage here.

Garcia is a useful pitcher, to be sure, but no team was going to give big value to get him. That was especially true of a Minnesota organization that is looking to stay in the postseason hunt, but has little interest in mortgaging the future to do so. The Twins have said all along their preference was to add a controllable starter, but perhaps that was going to cost too much in prospect capital. Instead, the team will take on a bit of payroll and give up a far-away prospect to help boost its rotation in the near-term.

While he’s no ace, Garcia will represent a pretty significant improvement for this particular staff. Indeed, he’ll probably slot in as the club’s third-best starter behind Ervin Santana and Jose Berrios. Assuming that Adalberto Mejia will hold a rotation spot and Bartolo Colon will receive at least a few more outings, it seems Kyle Gibson is most likely to lose his rotation spot as a result  of the move.

Since arriving over the winter from the Cardinals in a deal that sent young hurlers John Gant, Chris Ellis, and Luke Dykstra to St. Louis, Garcia has largely been a steady presence. He has continued to stay healthy after years of shoulder woes, throwing 113 innings over 18 starts, and has turned in a solid 4.30 ERA. Garcia is carrying only 6.8 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9, but does have an excellent 55.4% groundball rate.

Minnesota also adds Recker, who provides some depth behind the dish. He has received scant MLB action thus far in 2017, but hit quite well last year for Atlanta. Over 156 Triple-A plate appearances thus far in 2017, Recker is slashing .223/.301/.381.

The Braves aren’t likely to make a postseason push, so the club could now safely part with Garcia. Of course, there have also been whispers that Atlanta is looking at adding a controllable starter as soon as this summer. That remains a somewhat low-likelihood proposition, at least as viewed on paper, though it’s worth noting that this deal will free up some finances, which may conceivably aid the team’s efforts to add a pitcher who can be retained past the present season.

Atlanta will also pick up a prospect that has value. Ynoa (the younger brother of Michael Ynoa) just turned 19 years old and has yet to advance out of Rookie ball. This year, he has struggled through just 25 2/3 innings in the Appalachian League, allowing 15 earned runs with 23 strikeouts and 14 walks. MLB.com rates him as the Twins’ 22nd-best overall prospect. Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs, meanwhile, tweets that he sees Ynoa’s upside as at most a #4 type of starter — an outcome that’d be plenty valuable, but perhaps still remains a best-case scenario.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Quick Hits: Drew, Nelson, Smith, Marquis, Hall, July 2

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As expected, recently signed Red Sox shortstop Stephen Drew has cleared waivers and appeared in his first minor league game for the organization, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). The procedural move of placing Drew on revocable outright waivers — a mechanism through which claims are rarely made — was needed since he inked a big league deal. Here’s the latest from around the game:

  • The Brewers will call up top pitching prospect Jimmy Nelson to start Sunday to take the rotation turn of Yovani Gallardo, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At this point, at least, it seems that Nelson may only get one start, as Gallardo is not expected to miss significant time. As I explained back in April, Nelson already has 27 days of service to his credit. Accordingly, if he did stay in the bigs from this point forward, he would accrue enough service time to set himself up to become eligible for an additional year of arbitration as a Super Two player, though he will not be able to pass the one-year service mark by the end of the year.
  • Milwaukee’s decision to deal for reliever Will Smith (in exchange for outfielder Norichika Aoki) has been a key element in the team’s success this year, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The team’s pro scouting staff gave Smith high marks, leading GM Doug Melvin to pull the trigger on the trade. He has allowed just one earned run in 21 2/3 innings of work, posting 12.9 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9.
  • Pitcher Jason Marquis was scheduled to throw for scouts today, Rosenthal reports in the same piece. The 35-year-old had Tommy John surgery last summer after tossing 117 2/3 innings of 4.05 ball for the Padres.
  • Another former big leaguer looking to make a return is infielder Bill Hall, who tweets that he is on the comeback trail. The 34-year-old has spent time at third, short, second, and all over the outfield in his 11 seasons of MLB action, and owns a career .248/.308/.436 line. He spent last year with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, putting up a .225/.321/.407 mark with 17 home runs in 452 plate appearances.
  • Ben Badler of Baseball America has the latest updates on the July 2 market. Yesterday, Badler ticked through the top ten expected bonuses among players eligible to sign for the 2014-15 period, along with the clubs expected to land them. Leading the way is infielder Gilbert Lara, who has been linked to the Brewers and could earn $3MM. Four of the players are expected to go to the Yankees, with the Rays, Red Sox, and Blue Jays also said to be set up for some large outlays among AL East clubs. (The American League could also be in line to pick up the other two players on that list, with the Mariners potentially in position to sign outfielder Brayan Hernandez and the White Sox predicted to land righty Huascar Ynoa.) And today, he profiles a set of field position prospects who figure to be among the best available players, headlined by Venezuelan shortstop Kenny Hernandez, who Badler says could get a nine-figure bonus.
  • Meanwhile, the Yankees are reportedly prepared to ink Korean shortstop Hyo-Jun Park for a $1.1MM bonus, according to a report from Korean outlet Naver (Korean language link; translated article; hat tip to River Ave. Blues ). Jason Cohen of Pinstripe Alley recently compiled the available information on Park, who is said to be a solid all-around player.

Badler On Top July 2 Prospects

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We’re less than two months from the kickoff of the 2014-15 international signing period, during which Major League clubs will spend a combined hundreds of millions of dollars on amateur talents from Latin America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Many of these players will be as young as 16 years old, and Ben Badler of Baseball America has penned a pair of articles in the past two days highlighting some of the top players and their potential landing spots. A subscription is required and highly recommended in order to read the full scouting report that Badler has on each player. Here are a few of the highlights from his work…

  • Huascar Ynoa, the younger brother of A’s righty Michael Ynoa, could land also land a seven-figure bonus and has been scouted by White Sox vice president Kenny Williams and GM Rick Hahn. The Red Sox have also been tied to Ynoa, and some sources of have told Badler that they expect the Twins to be involved as well. One scout told Badler that Ynoa has the tools to be a frontline starter but lacks consistency. Badler points out that his older brother’s $4.25MM signing bonus from Oakland reduces some of the urgency for Ynoa to sign immediately on July 2.
  • The Blue Jays look like the strong favorites to ink Venezuelan right-hander Juan Meza, who could command a bonus as large as $1.5MM. Meza works out at Carlos Guillen’s baseball academy in Venezuela and has a three-pitch mix (fastball, changeup, curveball).
  • Fellow Venezuelan right-hander Frankin Perez is also likely to land seven figures and has been most prominently linked to the Astros. Houston is also oft-connected to Venezuelan shortstop Miguel Angel Sierra, whose bonus could reach $1MM, and Dominican outfielder Rafael Ronny, who could be the second-most expensive Dominican outfielder in this year’s class, writes Badler.
  • The Yankees, who are reportedly planning to shatter the international spending limitations this signing period, are heavily linked to Venezuelan catcher Miguel Flames, Venezuelan outfielder Jonathan Amundaray and Venezuelan shortstop Diego Castillo, says Badler. Flames and Amundaray should top $1MM, while Castillo could get close to that figure, he adds.

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