Jarren Duran

AL East Notes: Fairbanks, Jays, Arroyo, Duran, Donaldson

By Darragh McDonald | March 27, 2022 at 10:29pm CDT

Rays’ right-hander Pete Fairbanks was removed from today’s game due to right lat tightness, per Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz. Manager Kevin Cash spoke with reporters, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, saying that more information will be forthcoming but that Fairbanks is “going to miss some time.” Topkin relays that Fairbanks will undergo an MRI on Monday.

It’s been a fairly quiet offseason for the Rays so far, at least in terms of bringing in new faces, as their biggest move of the past few months has been to extend Wander Franco. In terms of new additions, it’s been Corey Kluber, Brooks Raley and Jason Adam. Of course, the team wasn’t desperate for upgrades, having won the AL East in each of the past two seasons. Fairbanks has somewhat quietly emerged as a dominant part of the club’s pitching staff over those two seasons. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, he’s thrown 69 1/3 innings with a 3.25 ERA, 31% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate. If Fairbanks is headed for the IL, the club would certainly miss that level of performance. They’d be well-equipped to weather his absence, given the many talented arms they have in their relief corps, such as Andrew Kittredge, J.P. Feyereisen and JT Chargois. However, given that the AL East is expected to be a heated four-team standoff, every inch will count in the next six months.

Elsewhere from around the division…

The Blue Jays are set to begin the season with an Opening Day payroll around $171MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That would be a new franchise record, going just beyond the $163MM of 2017, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. But it’s possible that the spending could be pushed even further, according to team president/CEO Mark Shapiro. “Those wins from like 90 to 93 are usually the most important ones and you usually have to outpace revenue at some point,” Shapiro told Scott Mitchell of TSN. “When they start to outpace our budget, then it’s up to me to go (to ownership) and propose and say, ‘Here’s what we feel another addition beyond our budget could mean.’ We never feel limited by that.” The Jays somehow missed the playoffs last year despite winning 91 games, as that was only good enough for fourth place in the stacked AL East. The club has been aggressive in making moves for the upcoming campaign, adding free agents such as Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi, as well as trading for Matt Chapman and Raimel Tapia. Despite looking good on paper, Shapiro knows that they will inevitably need resources to react to events as the season unfolds. “We’re going to face something that none of us are thinking about right now.”
Christian Arroyo got his first taste of outfield action on the spring today, manning right field for the Red Sox. Manager Alex Cora was apparently pleased, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Arroyo has played all four infield positions in his career but never on the grass. However, Boston’s recent signing of Trevor Story has reduced his likelihood of seeing any significant playing time on the dirt, forcing him to attempt to expand his defensive repertoire. Enrique Hernandez and Alex Verdugo figure to be fixtures in the outfield mix, leaving one spot up for grabs. J.D. Martinez will still be the club’s primary designated hitter but will apparently see more time in the field this year. Jackie Bradley Jr. is also around, though he’s coming off an awful campaign with Milwaukee, posting a wRC+ of just 35, the lowest in the league among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. Jarren Duran was thought to be in the mix, despite a lackluster showing in his MLB debut last year, but the club announced today that he’s been optioned to Triple-A. Taking all that into consideration, there’s a path for Arroyo to earn himself some playing time, should he adapt well to the defensive switch. In 57 games with the Red Sox last year, he hit .262/.324/.445 for a wRC+ of 106.
Josh Donaldson is under consideration to be the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, according to manager Aaron Boone. Newsday’s Erik Boland relays word from the skipper, who had this to say about the idea: “Guy that controls the strike zone like he does, the ability to get on, power, great hitter…yeah, he’s definitely someone I would consider.” Boone is certainly correct about Donaldson’s on-base abilities, as the slugger has posted an above-average walk rate for each of the past nine seasons. While he might not fit the classic model of leadoff hitter, Donaldson would certainly fit the recent trend of opting for on-base ability over speed. It wouldn’t be the first time the experiment was tried, as he was pencilled into the top spot of the lineup seven times by the Jays in 2015, the year he went on to be crowned AL MVP. In those seven games, he hit .276/.313/.586 over 32 plate appearances. That amounted to a wRC+ of 137, not too far below his season-long number of 154, suggesting Donaldson didn’t seem to be bothered by the switch.

Red Sox Designate Geoff Hartlieb, Yacksel Rios For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | September 23, 2021 at 3:15pm CDT

The Red Sox announced they’ve designated relievers Geoff Hartlieb and Yacksel Rios for assignment. The moves create space on the 40-man roster for Jarren Duran and Jonathan Araúz, both of whom have reinstated from the COVID-19 injured list and optioned to Triple-A Worcester.

Boston claimed Hartlieb off waivers from the Mets a few weeks ago, right as the bullpen was being hit hard by the virus spread throughout the clubhouse. Added for depth, he was immediately optioned to Worcester and didn’t wind up making an appearance with the Red Sox before losing his spot on the 40-man roster.

Hartlieb will find himself on waivers for the third time this season. The 27-year-old began the year with the Pirates, with whom he’d spent the first five years of his pro career. Pittsburgh waived Hartlieb in July, where the Mets claimed him. He’s worked nine innings of eleven-run ball between the two clubs, striking out nine but issuing eleven walks and hitting three batters. In 66 1/3 innings over parts of three MLB seasons, the right-hander owns a 7.46 ERA with a below-average 20.5% strikeout rate and an elevated 14.9% walk percentage.

In spite of those big league struggles, Hartlieb hasn’t yet made it through waivers unclaimed. He’s induced ground-balls on exactly half the balls in play in the majors, a quality rate. He also owns a far more impressive 3.06 ERA in 64 1/3 Triple-A innings, fanning 27.8% of opponents with a more manageable 10.9% walk rate. Hartlieb throws a mid-90s sinker and has gotten decent swing-and-miss numbers on his slider, and he can still be optioned through the end of the 2022 season. It’s not out of the question he lands with another club on waivers.

Rios has been a part of three organizations this year as well. The right-hander signed a minor league deal with the Rays and got off a sterling start with their top affiliate in Durham. He couldn’t crack the loaded Tampa Bay bullpen, but the Mariners acquired him in early June and almost immediately selected him to the majors. His time in Seattle was short-lived, as he was designated for assignment less than a week later and traded to Boston.

Between the M’s and Red Sox, Rios has tossed 27 1/3 innings of 4.28 ERA ball. That’s come with similarly poor peripherals as Hartlieb’s, but Rios has missed plenty of bats in Triple-A. The 28-year-old has a 1.45 ERA in the minors with a 32.9% strikeout percentage. As with Hartlieb, it’s possible another team takes a flier based on that Triple-A dominance, although Rios is in his final option year. Any team that claims him would need to keep him on the active roster next season or expose him to waivers themselves. Rios has previously been outrighted in his career, so he’d have the right to elect free agency if he passes through unclaimed.

Jarren Duran Tests Positive For COVID-19

By Anthony Franco | September 3, 2021 at 9:49pm CDT

Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran has tested positive for COVID-19, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald). Boston had placed Duran, who had been feeling virus-like symptoms, on the COVID IL before tonight’s game. Catcher Connor Wong was recalled to take his active roster spot.

Duran becomes the eighth Red Sox player to test positive over the past week. Kiké Hernández, Christian Arroyo, Martín Pérez, Matt Barnes, Hirokazu Sawamura, Xander Bogaerts and Yairo Muñoz have all tested positive and are currently unavailable, as is reliever Josh Taylor (who was isolated as a close contact). Despite the series of hits to the roster, the Red Sox have pushed their lead over the Athletics to three games in the race for the American League’s final Wild Card spot.

One of the game’s top prospects, Duran got his first big league call in mid-July. The 24-year-old has had some struggles at the plate to begin his career, hitting just .215/.241/.336 with a pair of homers over his first 112 plate appearances.

Red Sox Option Jarren Duran

By Steve Adams | August 24, 2021 at 1:51pm CDT

The Red Sox have optioned outfielder Jarren Duran to Triple-A Worcester, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. Righty Tanner Houck will take his spot on the active roster. The Red Sox have yet to formally announce this and any other roster moves that will be made this afternoon.

Duran, 24, is regarded as one of the top all-around prospects in baseball but did not hit the ground running upon his initial call-up from Worcester last month. The 2018 seventh-rounder was plugged in as the everyday center fielder in Boston upon his debut but has struggled to adjust to big league pitching. Through 89 plate appearances, Duran has posted a .221/.236/.372 slash. He’s drawn just two walks in that time and struck out at a whopping 37.1 percent clip to begin his big league career.

The Red Sox surely still view Duran as a key piece to their future. However, with deadline acquisition Kyle Schwarber now in the fold as an option in left field — Alex Verdugo is capable of manning center — the Sox can send Duran back to Worcester for further refinement in a lower-pressure setting. The fact that Boston has slid down the AL East standings in rapid fashion due both to the Sox’ own poor play and the Yankees’ 10-game winning streak surely also adds some pressure to get better immediate results on the field.

Duran appeared in 46 games with Worcester earlier this season and fared quite well, batting .270/.365/.561 with vastly better walk and strikeout percentages — 11.0 and 23.7, respectively — than he showed in the Majors. He’ll need to spend 10 days in the minors unless he’s recalled as the corresponding move in an injury. Rosters can expand from 26 to 28 players beginning Sept. 1, so he could very well get another opportunity in the Majors before too long.

The decision to option Duran today won’t impact his path to free agency or his arbitration schedule. Based on the July 17 date of Duran’s initial promotion to the big leagues, the maximum amount of service time he could’ve accrued in 2021 was 79 days — well shy of a full year of service (172 days). He’s controllable through at least the 2027 season as it stands and would reach arbitration in the 2024-25 offseason. Even if Duran stays in Triple-A for the remainder of the current season, that free agency timeline would remain intact so long as he accrues at least 134 days of service time next season. The Sox would need to keep him in Worcester through late May next year to change that timeline, which seems unlikely.

Chris Sale To Be Activated On Saturday

By Darragh McDonald | August 8, 2021 at 11:19am CDT

Chris Sale will be activated and start for the Red Sox this Saturday, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. This will mark the end of a long absence for Sale, who has been out of action for two whole years now.

In August of 2019, Sale began having elbow problems that forced him to miss the remainder of the season. Although Tommy John surgery was not recommended at the time, it would be eventually, and Sale underwent the procedure in March of 2020.

If he can quickly return to his previous form, or anything close to it, it will be a huge upgrade for a Red Sox team that has recently slid in the standings, surrendering the top spot in the AL East to the Rays. The lefty has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past decade. Since his 2010 debut, he has thrown 1629 2/3 innings, with a 3.03 ERA and excellent strikeout and walk rates of 30.7% and 5.7%.

In other Red Sox news, Alex Verdugo has gone on the paternity list and will be away from the team for a few days, per Bill Koch of the Providence Journal. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo adds that Connor Wong has been optioned, while Jarren Duran and JD Martinez have been activated from the COVID-IL. Both Duran and Martinez went on the IL in recent days because they weren’t feeling well. COVID testing must have come back negative, because a positive test would have resulted in a 10-day quarantine. Wong was only just recalled to help cover for their absence but didn’t get into any game action.

East Notes: Red Sox, Martinez, Houck, Rays, McHugh, Phillies, Anderson

By TC Zencka | August 7, 2021 at 11:58am CDT

The Red Sox have placed designated hitter J.D. Martinez on the COVID-related injured list today after he wasn’t feeling well, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). Martinez joins centerfielder Jarren Duran as players recently placed on the COVID-related IL. Test results have not returned for either Martinez or Duran, notes The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. Connor Wong has been added to the active roster in Martinez’s place.

Tanner Houck was also added to the roster to make a start in today’s doubleheader, notes Abraham. He will be their 27th man. Houck has a 2.45 ERA in 22 innings, which includes four starts and a pair of appearances out of the pen — his last start coming on July 28th. His Triple-A numbers haven’t been quite as good, but no matter where he’s pitched, he’s been striking out batters, owning a combined 31.3 percent strikeout rate on the year.
Elsewhere in the American League East, the Rays reinstated Collin McHugh from the injured list, optioning Louis Head to Triple-A, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Head has been tremendous when active, tossing 20 innings with a 1.35 ERA/2.71 FIP. McHugh is no slouch himself, however, with a 1.51 ERA/1.36 FIP across 41 2/3 innings. Both right-handers have been able to fill a role as a multi-inning reliever for manager Kevin Cash.
In the National League, the Phillies placed Chase Anderson on the 10-day injured list with right triceps tendinitis, recalling Nick Maton from Triple-A, per the team. With a 6.75 ERA/5.85 FIP on the year, one would think that Anderson’s rotation spot would be up for grabs if his absence.The first-place Phillies won’t need to fill his rotation spot until next Saturday, notes The Athletic’s Matt Gelb (via Twitter).

Red Sox Promote Jarren Duran

By Anthony Franco | July 14, 2021 at 10:59pm CDT

The Red Sox are promoting top outfield prospect Jarren Duran to make his major league debut tomorrow night against the Yankees, reports Joe McDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Twitter link). Boston’s 40-man roster is full, so another move is required to accommodate the formal selection of his contract.

Duran is one of the game’s more promising young talents. While he fell to the seventh round of the 2018 draft coming out Long Beach State, he immediately improved his stock upon entering pro ball. The speedster posted incredible numbers across two levels of A-ball over his first year-plus in the minors before hitting a bit of a bump in the road upon a 2019 promotion to Double-A. He spent all of 2020 at the alternate training site, where reports suggested he’d revamped his swing path to incorporate more loft in an attempt to hit for power.

Evaluators took note of Duran’s changed profile, but last year’s cancelation of the minor league season still left some question whether he’d be able to translate his new mechanics into results. He’s done all he can to answer those doubts this season, hitting a whopping .270/.365/.561 across 219 plate appearances with Triple-A Worcester. Duran has popped fifteen home runs over the year’s first half after hitting a grand total of seven round-trippers over his 880 trips to the plate between 2018-19. A livelier Triple-A baseball could account for some of that production, but there’s little question Duran’s adjustments have had a sizable impact upon his newfound power.

The improved performance has also raised Duran’s stock in the public prospect rankings sphere. Eric Longenhagen and Kevin Goldstein of FanGraphs now slot the left-handed hitting outfielder as the game’s #55 overall prospect. (Entering the season, he wasn’t among FanGraphs’ top 133 farmhands, although he did slot seventh in the site’s rankings of Red Sox minor leaguers).

Importantly, Duran’s uptick in power hasn’t come with much accompanying swing-and-miss. His 23.7% strikeout rate this season is right in line with his 2019 mark in Double-A. That’s a bit higher than his low minors strikeout percentages but not glaringly so, and there’s little question the improved batted ball authority has been worth any small dip in contact rate.

Now that he’s in the big leagues, Duran looks likely to take over center field on a regular basis. Boston has gotten very little out of the position this year, with a cumulative .236/.300/.392 mark from their group of Kiké Hernández, Alex Verdugo, Danny Santana and Hunter Renfroe. With Duran up, the Sox can rely on Verdugo and Renfroe in the corners on most days while keeping J.D. Martinez at designated hitter. That’ll push Hernández back into the utility role for which he’s best suited. Santana’s currently on the injured list, with Marwin González expected to land on the shelf as well. One of that underperforming duo could find themselves squeezed off the roster upon their return from the IL.

The Red Sox hold a 1.5 game lead over the Rays in the American League East, so Duran’s being thrust right into the thick of a pennant race. Between his combination of Triple-A production and the Sox mediocre center field situation, it had become increasingly apparent Boston should at least give Duran an opportunity to stake a claim to the job. He’ll get that chance beginning tomorrow against their archivals, over whom they have an eight-game advantage in the standings.

Duran won’t earn a full year of major league service in 2021, nor is he expected to accrue enough service time to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player. If he remains in the majors from here on out, he’ll be controllable through 2027 and won’t reach arbitration-eligibility until after the 2024 campaign.

AL East Notes: Cashman, Red Sox, Armstrong

By Mark Polishuk | June 16, 2021 at 9:41am CDT

The Yankees collected a 6-5 victory over the Blue Jays last night, though New York’s 34-32 record is still well below the team’s expectations. General manager Brian Cashman was blunt in speaking to reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News) prior to yesterday’s game, saying that “Talk is cheap. No one really cares about all the hard work, all the good intentions. All they care about, and understandably so, is the results and the results just have failed so far.” In terms of addressing these problems, Cashman said the team is prepared to make additions prior to the July 30 trade deadline, with pitching and center field looking like obvious areas of improvement. It remains to be seen whether or not the front office will be allowed any additions that would put the Yankees over the $210MM luxury tax threshold, but Cashman said he would present ownership with “all recommendations that include that we’re going to have opportunities that present themselves that are money related.”

The GM also gave something of a vote of confidence to manager Aaron Boone and his coaches, saying that “I believe in the same coaching staff and same manager that’s had a lot of success here.” Cashman also made note of his track record in sticking with his personnel, as Cashman hasn’t made an in-season managerial or coaching change since becoming the Yankees’ general manager in 1998.

USA Baseball Announces Olympic Qualifying Roster

By Mark Polishuk | May 23, 2021 at 11:10am CDT

11:10AM: The full roster has been announced by USA Baseball (Twitter link). Beyond the names already mentioned, the roster also includes Clayton Andrews, Jonathan Bowlan, Brandon Dickson, DJ Johnson, Trevor Lane, Matthew Liberatore, Drew Parrish, Marc Rzepczynski, James Sherfy, Simeon Woods Richardson, Tim Federowicz, Mark Kolozsvary, Nick Allen, Eddy Alvarez, Logan Forsythe, Luke Williams, Eric Filia, and Jon Jay.

9:54AM: The United States Olympic baseball team will have its full roster announced later today, though MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link) reports that several well-known big league names will be part of Team USA.

Right-handers Homer Bailey, Edwin Jackson, and David Robertson will be part of the pitching mix, as will left-hander Anthony Gose. Matt Kemp, Matt Wieters, and Todd Frazier are some of the veteran position players. Bailey, Kemp, and Wieters all played in the majors as recently as 2020 and didn’t sign with a new team this past offseason, while Frazier appeared in 13 games for the Pirates just this season. It was only back on May 13 that Frazier chose to become a free agent, after Pittsburgh designated him for assignment.

Beyond these experienced names, some notable youngsters will also be on the team, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted yesterday that Red Sox prospects Triston Casas and Jarren Duran are participating. Rays right-handed pitching prospect Joe Ryan is also expected to be part of the team, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Any player not on a current 40-man Major League roster was eligible for Team USA, though naturally a team would have to agree to allow its minor leaguers to play.

Mike Scioscia will manage Team USA, and the team will take to the field on May 31-June 5 during a qualifying tournament in Florida. The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela are the other seven teams involved, and the winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the Olympics. The second- and third-place finishers will advance to a final qualifying tournament against Australia, Chinese Taipei, and the Netherlands on June 16-20 in Mexico, and the winner of that event will claim the sixth and final Olympic berth.

Japan, Mexico, Israel, and South Korea have already qualified for the baseball event at Olympic Games, which are scheduled to be held July 23-August 6 in Tokyo. Originally set to take place in 2020, the Olympics were naturally postponed for a year due to the pandemic, and the Games are still slated to get underway in July despite a worsening COVID-19 situation in Japan.

Quick Hits: Mets, Lindor, Red Sox, Cordero, González

By TC Zencka | March 8, 2021 at 8:37am CDT

The Mets and Francisco Lindor will explore extension talks “in earnest” this week, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Lindor has set opening day as the deadline for an extension, but the Mets have not appeared overly concerned by the limited timetable thus far. They are presumably confident in their ability to work something out in a short amount of time, or less concerned with the prospect of Lindor hitting free agency. If there were a year to allow a star like Lindor to test the market, after all, next winter is the time as there are plenty of potential options in the much-vaunted 2022 free agent class. While we continue to wait for progress on this front, let’s check in on some roster news from the Red Sox…

Newly-acquired Franchy Cordero may not be ready for opening day, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Cordero has yet to clear COVID-19 protocols. It would be understandable to be judicious with someone in Cordero’s position – a not-yet established big-league regular joining a new franchise. Especially considering Cordero’s spotty injury history, the Red Sox may want to prioritize getting Cordero’s year started with a head full of steam. The Red Sox are planning to start the season with a short bench, but Cordero’s delay could mean an early roster spot for Michael Chavis or Marcus Wilson. By adding Marwin González and Kiké Hernandez this winter, the Red Sox have afforded themselves plenty of roster flexibility.
González figures to find himself playing left field against lefties even when Cordero returns, writes the Athletic’s Chad Jennings. But he won’t be much help in center, whereas Cordero could see some time in the middle. While they wait for Cordero – assuming Jarren Duran doesn’t make the roster – Boston is without a clear every down option in center. Alex Verdugo and Kiké are the two players on the roster most clearly prepped for the spot, but Boston does seem to favor Duran joining the team at some point during the 2021 season. Not only has the youngster received favorable comparisons to Grady Sizemore this winter, but he’s gone 5-for-11 with a .500 OBP through their first six spring games. Though that means very little in terms of statistical significance, first impressions at this level can certainly impact an organization’s viewpoint on a player.

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