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Jesse Winker

Injury Notes: Winker, Lindor, Phillies, Brewers

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Jesse Winker’s return to the Reds lineup was short-lived, as the outfielder left today’s game prior to the bottom of the third inning.  Winker went 0-for-2 with two flyouts in his first two plate appearances before re-aggravating the mild intercostal strain that sidelined him for Cincinnati’s previous two games.  A previous MRI didn’t reveal any damage, though manager David Bell told reporters (including The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans) that Winker will be re-evaluated prior to tomorrow’s game against the Cubs.

While the Reds are in the thick of the wild card race, the team will surely be careful with one of their top bats to prevent a longer-term injury.  Winker has hit .307/.395/.560 with 24 home runs over 481 plate appearances this season, and he entered today’s action as the NL leader in doubles (32) and total bases (235).  The Reds are in the midst of a grueling stretch of 29 games over 30 days, so there isn’t any built-in time for Winker to really get a break, and a trip to the injured list might be necessary to fully correct the issue.

More on other injury situations from around baseball…

  • Francisco Lindor participated in just about a full range of baseball activities prior to today’s game against the Dodgers, and Mets manager Luis Rojas told reporters (including MLB.com’s Bill Ladson) that Lindor could potentially be activated off the injured list when New York begins its next homestand on August 24.  Lindor will travel with the Mets on their road trip and continue to work out, so the club will monitor his progress and then determine whether a minor league rehab assignment is necessary, or if Lindor could return to the active roster without the benefit of any minor league tuneup games.  A Grade 2 oblique strain sent Lindor to the IL on July 17, so even a return by that Mets homestand would be a pretty decent turn-around time for the shortstop, given how more severe oblique problems can sometimes linger.
  • Zach Eflin (right knee tendinitis) threw a live batting practice session today, while Vince Velasquez (right middle finger blister) and Sam Coonrod (forearm tendinitis) threw live BP sessions yesterday.  The Phillies pitchers are at different stages in their recoveries, and Velasquez and Coonrod will each begin minor league rehab assignments on Tuesday.  Eflin’s next step could be another simulated session before he starts his own rehab assignment, though the right-hander told NBC Sports’ Jim Salisbury and other reporters that he “felt great” during today’s 28-pitch session.
  • The Brewers are almost all the way out of a COVID-19 outbreak on their roster, and two of the remaining sidelined players (Adrian Houser and Jandel Gustave) are nearing returns.  As Brewers manager Craig Counsell told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak and other reporters, Gustave is working out with the team and Houser is expected to join the club when the Brew Crew begin a series with the Cardinals on Tuesday.

MLB Announces All-Star Starters

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Major League Baseball announced the starting lineups for the 2021 All-Star Game this evening. The starting lineups are determined by fan vote. This year’s All-Star Game will take place in Coors Field on Tuesday, July 13. The starting pitchers and reserves will be announced at a later date.

National League

American League

*On the 60-day injured list

Reds Activate Shogo Akiyama From Injured List, Shuffle Defensive Alignment

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The Reds announced Friday that they’ve reinstated outfielder Shogo Akiyama from the 10-day injured list and put Joey Votto on the injured list in his place. Votto is expected to be out three to four weeks after fracturing his thumb in yesterday’s game. Akiyama has yet to play in 2021 due to a hamstring injury.

Perhaps of more interest to Reds fans will be the new-look defensive alignment the team is rolling out in the wake of Votto’s injury and Akiyama’s return. They’ll open this weekend’s series against the Indians with Mike Moustakas sliding over to first base in Votto’s place, while Nick Senzel moves from center field to second base. Eugenio Suarez is back at third base today, with Kyle Farmer stepping in for him at shortstop. Tyler Naquin is in Senzel’s customary center field, and Akiyama is getting a day in left while Jesse Winker serves as the designated hitter.

This particular alignment obviously won’t be the norm in Votto’s absence, as the Reds won’t have the DH in most of the games they play over the next month. But Moustakas sliding over to first base and Senzel moving from a crowded outfield into the infield could be frequently featured tactics. Second baseman Jonathan India has ample experience at third base, of course, so it’s possible we’ll see a frequent infield of India, Suarez, Senzel and Moustakas. Meanwhile, the Reds will rotate Winker, Naquin, Nick Castellanos and Akiyama in the outfield. Presumably, with the first three all hitting so well to begin the year, they’ll be viewed as the starting trio.

That said, the club surely still has hope of a better performance for Akiyama in is second season at the MLB level. The former Seibu Lions star signed a three-year, $21MM deal with Cincinnati in the 2019-20 offseason, and while he got on base at a nice clip last year, he struggled to hit for much average or power. The now-33-year-old Akiyama batted .245/.357/.297 with six doubles, a triple, no home runs and seven steals (10 attempts) through his first 183 big league plate appearances.

NL Notes: Reds/Cardinals Brawl, Castellanos, Padres, Baez

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Outfielder Nick Castellanos was issued a two-game suspension for his part in Saturday’s brawl between the Reds and Cardinals, the league announced.  Castellanos was the only player suspended, and he is appealing his two-game ban.  Fines were issued to three players on each team — the Reds’ Castellanos, Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez, and the Cardinals’ Jordan Hicks, Yadier Molina, and Nolan Arenado.

The incident developed after Cards pitcher Jake Woodford hit Castellanos with a pitch during a fourth-inning at-bat.  Castellanos wasn’t pleased by the HBP, and picked up the ball and held it in Woodford’s direction as he went to first base.  Later in the inning, Castellanos scored from third on a wild pitch, and celebrated the run by standing over Woodford (who was covering home plate) and flexing.  This led to the benches clearing, and a lot of shoving and heated words between the two NL Central rivals.

More from the division….

  • The Padres hope to have Trent Grisham back in center field when they travel to play the Rangers on April 9, manager Jayce Tingler told Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (via Twitter).  Grisham has been out of action since suffering a hamstring strain during a Spring Training game on March 11, though he did play in some simulated games at the end of camp.  Austin Nola isn’t quite as far along in his rehab from a fractured left middle finger, but he could soon get some plate appearances at the Padres’ alternate training site.
  • The Cubs drafted Javier Baez with the ninth overall pick of the 2011 draft, a selection that has proven to be a winner even though Baez was one of many notable players taken in an unusually star-studded first round.  As Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune writes, the Cubs were set on Baez as their pick, though they were eyeing Jose Fernandez and C.J. Cron as Plan B options if Baez was selected by one of the eight teams picking in front of Chicago.  Tim Wilken, the Cubs’ director of amateur scouting at the time, said that the club would have taken Baez even if another star shortstop prospect in Francisco Lindor was still on the board — it ended up being a moot point, as Cleveland took Lindor with the eighth overall pick, just ahead of Baez and the Cubs at ninth.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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Reds Activate Tyler Mahle, Place Jesse Winker On IL

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The Reds have activated right-hander Tyler Mahle from the injured list and sent outfielder Jesse Winker to the IL (retroactive to Monday) with a cervical strain, the team announced. Mahle will head to Triple-A Louisville.

Mahle missed just over a month with a hamstring injury. Prior to that, the 24-year-old gave the Reds 102 1/3 innings and 19 starts of 4.93 ERA/4.31 FIP ball. Those numbers don’t look impressive, though Mahle also recorded 9.32 K/9 against 2.29 BB/9 and posted a solid 45.6 percent groundball rate at the same time. He’ll hope that production, not to mention whatever he does the rest of the season (if he returns to the Reds), will help him earn a place in the club’s rotation next year. The group figures to welcome back Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer and Anthony DeSclafani then, while Kevin Gausman could join Mahle in pushing for the last spot.

Winker, meanwhile, represents another of Cincinnati’s promising young players. In his most extensive big league action to date, the 26-year-old has slashed .269/.357/.473 (113 wRC+) with 16 home runs, 38 unintentional walks and 60 strikeouts over 384 plate appearances this season. The lefty-swinging Winker hasn’t been a legitimate option this year versus southpaws, though, as he has hit just .163/.280/.163 against them in 50 PA.

Injury Notes: Ozuna, Gyorko, Winker, Longoria

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The latest on some injury situations from around baseball…

  • Marcell Ozuna isn’t sure when he’ll be able to return to the Cardinals lineup, MLB.com’s Anne Rogers writes, as the outfielder is still battling swelling in his right hand.  As a result, Ozuna “hasn’t been able to test his grip strength much.”  Ozuna suffered a fractured middle finger (and also jammed several other fingers) in late June, and there isn’t a clear idea as to when he’ll be ready to play again, though the team is hopeful the slugger will be back before the end of July.  Ozuna had hit .259/.331/.515 with 20 homers over his first 326 plate appearances this season.
  • Also from Rogers’ piece, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt told reporters that Jedd Gyorko will be out of action until at least the middle of August, and potentially not until the start of September.  While a back problem was the initial cause of Gyorko’s injured list that began on June 8, his return was delayed by a left calf strain, and then minor surgery on his right wrist.  He also started the year on the IL due to a right calf strain suffered during Spring Training.  With only 38 games and 62 plate appearances under his belt for the year, it’s beginning to look like a lost season for Gyorko in what might well be his final season in St. Louis.  The Cardinals will surely take the $1MM buyout of their club option on Gyorko’s services for 2020 rather than pay him $13MM.
  • Reds outfielder Jesse Winker left today’s game in the middle of an at-bat due to injury.  After swinging at a pitch, Winker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon) that “my lower left back, side area tightened up.  I was feeling some tightness in my right rib cage as well.”  The problem first arose during his initial swing in the plate appearance, Winker added.  He will undergo tests tomorrow to further access the damage, though if Winker has suffered an oblique injury, he would be facing an absence of several weeks.  The 25-year-old has a .250/.328/.462 slash line and 13 home runs over 290 PA with Cincinnati this season, playing mostly against right-handed pitching (and with some drastic splits, including a .428 OPS in his only 39 PA against lefties).  Should Winker miss time, a platoon of Derek Dietrich and Phillip Ervin in left field would seem to be the Reds’ likeliest response.
  • X-rays were negative on Evan Longoria’s left foot after the third baseman left after four innings of today’s Giants game due to plantar fasciitis.  Longoria told Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle and other reporters that he has been dealing with the nagging problem since last season.  The Giants are scheduled for a double-header against the Rockies on Monday and Longoria hopes to play in the second game, though he will get an MRI in the morning to access the damage.  Plantar fasciitis could explain Longoria’s overall struggles since coming to San Francisco in the 2017-18 offseason, though he has quietly been roughly a league-average (102 OPS+, 101 wRC+) hitter this year in the wake of a recent hot streak.  While a .241/.318/.446 slash line is a marked improvement over Longoria’s 2018 numbers, it still ranks as disappointing considering his track record and hefty contract.

NL Central Notes: Reds, Winker, Dozier, Martinez

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As they ramp back up following some holiday downtime, the Reds are still looking at external center field candidates, president of baseball operations Dick Williams tells Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. However, Williams expresses confidence that in-house options like Scott Schebler and Phil Ervin can handle center field if needed, and he also lists top prospect Nick Senzel as a possibility there. “If this is the group we go into camp with, I think we’d be open-minded there,” said Williams of his current outfield mix. “But between now and Spring Training, we’ll continue to look at ways to address that area.” Cincinnati already has Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Schebler, Ervin and Jesse Winker as options in the outfield.

Regarding Winker, who has posted a terrific .299/.397/.460 slash through his first 136 MLB games, Williams indicated that the Reds still view him as an everyday option or, at the very least, “a very consistent regular contributor.” Winker’s playing time could be cut into by the additions of veterans Kemp and Puig, though he’s coming off surgery in his non-throwing shoulder, so perhaps some additional rest would prove beneficial.

Here’s a bit more from the NL Central…

  • The Brewers “like” free-agent second baseman Brian Dozier, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in his latest notes column (subscription required), though there’s no clear indication that the two sides have had any substantial talks to this point. Bringing Dozier into the fold would give Milwaukee a potential short-term bridge to prospects Keston Hiura and Mauricio Dubon while affording the longtime Twins slugger to rebuild some value in the wake of a poor 2018 season which was hindered by knee troubles. From 2014-17, Dozier hit .254/.338/.476 and averaged 32 homers per season, but he faceplanted with a .215/.305/.391 slash between Minnesota and Los Angeles last year.
  • Rosenthal also writes that one executive from a rival club feels the Cardinals are becoming decreasingly likely to move Jose Martinez in a trade this winter. The late-blooming 30-year-old has hit .309/.372/.478 with 31 homers, 44 doubles and a triple through his first 915 MLB plate appearances since debuting in 2016, though his pronounced defensive shortcomings at first base and in the outfield have made him a potential trade candidate. That, of course, hardly precludes a trade, but it seems the Cards may be more keen on keeping Martinez as a bench bat now that they don’t need to rely on him for a full slate of games following the acquisition of Paul Goldschmidt. Martinez only has two years and 27 days of Major League service time, leaving him a year shy of arbitration eligibility and giving the Cardinals another four seasons of club control before he can become a free agent. Given that Martinez isn’t likely to earn much more than $600K in 2019, the Cardinals aren’t under any sort of pressure to move him unless they receive immediate MLB-ready help at a position of greater need.

Jesse Winker To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Reds outfielder Jesse Winker will have surgery on his right shoulder and miss the remainder of the season, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. The 24-year-old was placed on the disabled list yesterday with a subluxation in that shoulder. President of baseball operations Dick Williams told reporters that Winker is expected to be ready for Spring Training (Twitter link via John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

Winker has yet to tally a full season’s worth of games in the big leagues, but he’s been terrific at the plate when healthy. Through 471 plate appearances, he’s raked at a .299/.397/.460 clip, slugging 14 homers along the way. Like teammate Joey Votto, Winker has a remarkably discerning eye in the batter’s box, as he walked more times in 2018 (49) than he struck out (46).

Certainly, the news is unwelcome for the organization and its fans. Winker is among the team’s more promising young players, even if his defensive ratings in the outfield corners have not been pretty to this point in his career. With Winker on the shelf, former first-round pick Phil Ervin is in line to get an extended look in right field. Given Winker’s strong showing at the plate, however, he’ll still have a long-term spot in the Cincinnati outfield waiting for him when he returns in 2019. He’s under club control through the 2023 season and won’t be arbitration-eligible until the 2020-21 offseason.

Reds’ GM On Cozart, Young Players, Rebuild

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Reds president of baseball operations and general manager Dick Williams sat down with C. Trent Rosecrans and Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer for an excellent, lengthy Q&A covering a number of topics pertaining to the Reds’ upcoming offseason and ongoing rebuild.

Of most interest, perhaps, was the fact that Williams was straightforward in stating that he planned to “continue to talk” to Zack Cozart about the possibility of re-signing the shortstop. The 32-year-old Cozart is up for free agency for the first time in his career, and while his age might not necessarily align with the rebuilding Reds’ timeline to contend, he’s one of the team’s longest-tenured players and is fresh off a career year at the plate. In 507 plate appearances, he hit .297/.385/.548 with a career-high 24 homers and a dramatically improved walk rate (to say nothing of his typically excellent glovework at shortstop).

The Reds will face a tough decision on Cozart, who seems to at the very least be a candidate for a $17.4MM qualifying offer. (MLBTR readers were split about 55-45 in favor of the Reds giving him a QO in early September.) If Cozart isn’t retained, though, it doesn’t sound as if the Reds’ top priority would be to delve into the free-agent or trade markets to attempt to replace him.

“[T]he primary candidate would be (Jose) Peraza,” said Williams when discussing a replacement for Cozart, if needed. “We believe that he showed at the end of ’16 with an extended look that this is a young, athletic, talented player. He’s still one of the youngest guys on our roster. … This year, we really asked him to move around a decent amount. I think that made it a little tougher on him than if he settled in at one spot.”

Peraza is, as Williams suggests, still somewhat of a work in progress. Although he’s spent the bulk of the past two seasons in the Major Leagues, Peraza won’t even turn 24 until April 30 of next year. The former top 100 prospect demonstrated a good deal of promise with an impressive .324/.352/.411 batting line and 21 steals in 72 games last year, but he struggled for the majority of the 2017 campaign before turning things around in the season’s last couple of months. In Peraza’s final 48 games (31 starts), he batted .293/.361/.338 with just 18 strikeouts in 149 plate appearances.

[Related: Cincinnati Reds depth chart and payroll outlook]

Williams did go on to state that while he believes Eugenio Suarez to be capable of playing shortstop, he likes Suarez at third base and would like to have two additional players on the roster that can handle shortstop regularly. Conceivably, that could mean a re-signed Cozart and Peraza, or Peraza and a veteran bench option with experience at the shortstop position as well.

More broadly, Williams didn’t reject the notion that top prospect and former No. 2 overall pick Nick Senzel could play in the Majors next season, though it doesn’t sound as if the team will rush him out of Spring Training. Senzel, according to Williams, is capable of playing second, third, shortstop and perhaps even the outfield corners, but the team is reluctant to bounce him around the diamond too much. Second base seems to be a position at which he’ll get a look, as the Reds have Suarez thriving at the hot corner presently.

Senzel raked at a .321/.391/.514 clip in 507 PAs between Class-A Advanced and Double-A last year, mashing his way through the Southern League to the point that many expect him to begin the 2018 season in Triple-A. Scooter Gennett, of course, gives the team another option at second base, though with just two years of club control remaining, I’d imagine that the Reds wouldn’t have many qualms about ultimately moving him if and when Senzel proves ready (though that’s just my own speculation).

Williams also spoke at length about the struggles of several of the Reds’ young pitchers in 2017, noting the lack of innings most of the team’s young starters were able to log in Triple-A. Injuries to Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan and Homer Bailey forced Cincinnati to tap into its reservoir of young pitchers more often than the team would’ve liked. Jesse Winker is also discussed quite a bit, with Williams hinting that he’s intrigued by Winker’s high-OBP skill set as a potential top-of-the-order option. Just 24 years old, Winker hit .298/.375/.529 with seven homers, a 10.9 percent walk rate and a 17.5 percent strikeout rate in 137 big league plate appearances.

While no one should expect the Reds to shell out top dollar in free agency this winter, the GM does suggest that he’ll have some money to spend and that the team’s list of targets is a broad one, including some players looking to move from Japan over to the Major League (and more than just the highly publicized Shohei Otani). The entire Q&A is (obviously) stuffed with quotes from Cincinnati’s top baseball ops executive and is well worth a full read for Reds fans and non-Reds fans alike. Williams gives plenty of insight into where he feels the team is at in its rebuild, his own thoughts on his first year as a general manager and the team’s approach in the upcoming offseason.

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