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Jonatan Clase

Bo Bichette Placed On Injured List Due To Fractured Finger

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The Blue Jays announced Thursday that shortstop Bo Bichette suffered a fractured middle finger and has been placed on the 10-day injured list, ending his 2024 season. Bichette was scratched from yesterday’s lineup after suffering a hand injury during pregame fielding drills. Outfielder Jonatan Clase has been recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to take Bichette’s spot on the active roster.

The broken finger caps off a nightmare season for Bichette — one that’s seen the two-time All-Star weather a pair of IL stints due to calf strains that have severely hobbled him. Bichette only just returned from the injured list Tuesday and played in one game after a nearly two-month absence due to that ailing calf. He’ll close out the year with a wildly uncharacteristic .225/.277/.322 batting line and four homers — a far cry from the .299/.340/.487 batting line he carried into the 2024 campaign.

Bichette was the subject of trade rumblings early this summer, but Toronto GM Ross Atkins quickly shut down any real notion of selling low on his star shortstop when he said in mid-June that trading Bichette (or teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) “[didn’t] make any sense” for the Jays. While the Blue Jays ultimately operated as deadline sellers, they mostly moved players who’d have been up for free agency at the end of the current season.

All indications have been that Atkins & Co. want to retool the roster and take aim at a return to contending next season. Bichette, who recently voiced a strong desire to stay with the Jays, will presumably be a part of those efforts — although other teams around the league will likely at least inquire about the possibility of prying him loose from the only organization he’s known to this point in his career.

The 2025 season will be Bichette’s final year before reaching free agency for the first time. The Jays signed him to a three-year, $33.6MM deal buying out all three of his arbitration seasons back in February of 2023. That contract, which did not delay his path to the open market, calls for Bichette to earn $16.5MM next season in what will be his age-27 campaign.

Mariners Acquire Yimi Garcia

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Less than 24 hours after beefing up their lineup with the acquisition of Randy Arozarena, the Mariners have bolstered their bullpen by acquiring right-hander Yimi Garcia from the Blue Jays. Outfielder Jonatan Clase and minor league catcher Jacob Sharp are going from Seattle to Toronto in return.

Garcia, 34 next month, is in his third season with the Jays. He originally signed a two-year, $11MM contract with Toronto, but he’s beefed up that contract through his performance. Garcia pitched enough games to vest a $6MM option for the current season and also picked up an additional $1MM of incentives in years one and two of the contract, ultimately turning it into a three-year, $18MM pact. He’s a rental for the Jays who’ll be owed $2.1MM from now until season’s end. Garcia is a free agent thereafter.

Regarded as one of the better relief arms on this year’s market, Garcia will bolster a bullpen that looked like one of the strongest in the game heading into the season but has been hit with some notable injuries. Star setup man Matt Brash required Tommy John surgery that knocked him out for the season, while offseason trade acquisition Gregory Santos only recently made his team debut after suffering a significant lat strain in spring training. The right-hander was removed from his most recent appearance with a knee issue. Perhaps that pushed the Mariners to make this move, but Santos has not yet been placed on the injured list, nor has the team announced a substantial injury for the right-hander.

Seattle has spent much of the season patching things together on the bridge to manager Scott Servais’ excellent closer, Andres Munoz. Now, if Santos’ knee injury proves minor they could go from a piecemeal approach to a pair of high-octane setup men in a matter of weeks.

Garcia has been a force this year, sporting a career-high 96.7 mph average fastball en route to a mammoth 36.5% strikeout rate that tops his prior career-high by nearly five percentage points. He’s coupled that with a strong 7% walk rate.

Over the past two seasons, Garcia has notably cut back on the usage of that fastball and significantly upped his curveball usage, helping to contribute to the rise in punchouts. He’s sitting on an excellent 2.70 ERA that metrics like FIP (2.64) and SIERA (2.30) suggest could undersell his performance to date. Garcia has gone 5-for-6 in save opportunities (bringing his career total to 26) and picked up 10 holds this year as well. He only just returned from a monthlong stay on the injured list due to a bout of elbow neuritis (nerve inflammation), but Garcia has tossed two innings, faced eight batters and punched out five of them while averaging 96.6 mph on his fastball; the elbow doesn’t seem to be bothering him.

In return for Garcia, the Jays will add a big league-ready outfielder with a full six seasons of club control: Clase. The 22-year-old speedster made his big league debut with the M’s earlier this season and .195/.233/.220 slash in a tiny sample of 44 plate appearances. That’s a small enough number of plate appearances at a young enough age that it’s not worth reading into; Clase has had a nice season in Triple-A Tacoma this year, slashing .274/.373/.483 with 10 homers, 11 doubles, four triples and 26 steals in 35 attempts. His 25.7% strikeout rate there is higher than one would prefer for a player who’s considered to have below-average power, but Clase has also walked in nearly 15% of his plate appearances.

This year’s 26 steals are a nice mark but they don’t tell the full tale of Clase’s speed. Baseball America pegs him as a 70-grade runner (on the 20-80 scale), while FanGraphs lists him as a true 80-grade burner. His 29.6 ft/sec average sprint speed this season (as measured by Statcast) ranks in the 97th percentile of MLB players. Clase swiped a whopping 79 bases (94 attempts) in just 129 games between High-A and Double-A last year — all while hitting .242/.353/.449.

For a Jays club that’ll see Kevin Kiermaier retire at season’s end, he stands as a potential everyday player as soon as 2025 … if he can make enough quality contact to keep himself in the lineup. The Blue Jays have one of the game’s best outfield defenders in Daulton Varsho, who could slide to center in place of Kiermaier next year, but Clase will have a chance to win an everyday role regardless of whether it’s in left or center. Despite all his speed, Clase isn’t regarded as the same level of defender as Varsho, though he’s young enough that he could of course improve his reads, jumps and routes in the years ahead.

Sharp, 22, was Seattle’s 17th-round pick just last summer. The former UNLV backstop is a right-handed hitter who’s spent the season thus far in Class-A, hitting .255/.339/.435 (105 wRC+). He’s a bit old for that level, but it’s still hard to overlook his eye-catching bat-to-ball skills. Sharp has struck out in only 9.9% of his plate appearances — a mark that’s barely higher than his 9.4% walk rate. He’s thrown out 21% of runners who’ve attempted to steal against him since being drafted. He’s a longer-term play than Clase, but a catcher with that type of feel for contact makes for an interesting add to the lower levels of the farm.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported that the Mariners were acquiring Garcia and sending Clase to Toronto. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith first reported Sharp’s inclusion in the trade.

Mariners To Sign Víctor Robles

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The Mariners are signing outfielder Víctor Robles, per Ty Dane Gonzalez of the Locked on Mariners podcast on X. The Mariners optioned Jonatan Clase earlier today, opening an active roster spot for Robles but they will need a corresponding move to open a 40-man spot.

Robles, 27, was once a top prospect with the Nationals but has repeatedly struggled in recent years, both with underwhelming performance and injury absences. The Nats finally decided to move on last week and designated him for assignment. They seemingly explored trades but couldn’t find a deal to their liking and eventually released Robles. The Nats remain on the hook for his $2.65MM salary, meaning the Mariners will only have to pay him the prorated portion of the $740K league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Nats pay.

That makes it a fairly low-risk move for the Mariners, who will surely be hoping Robles can revert to his earlier career form. A few years ago, he was one of the top prospects in the whole league, with Baseball America giving him the #5 spot going into 2018 and the #11 slot the year after.

He seemed to be delivering on that prospect hype in 2019, when he was just 22 years old. He hit 17 home runs for the Nats that season and stole 28 bases while also providing elite defense in center field. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 3.7 wins above replacement that year and his strong performance helped the club reach the postseason, eventually winning the World Series.

Unfortunately, his performance slipped after that season and he hasn’t been able to get it back on track. He hit just .220/.293/.315 in the shortened 2020 season and produced fairly similar numbers in the two full seasons that followed, leading to a batting line of .216/.291/.306 over the 2020-22 period.

The fortunes of the club also faded in that time and the Nats entered a rebuilding phase. That should have left Robles with plenty of chances to turn things around but his health didn’t cooperate. He only got into 36 games last year due to back spasms in the lumbar spine and missed about a month of the current campaign due to a left hamstring strain. He managed to show some encouraging signs last year, hitting .299/.385/.364 despite the back problems, but has produced a brutal line of .120/.281/.120 so far this year.

Despite all the struggles, Robles is still young and could engineer a comeback. As mentioned, he was hitting okay last year. That didn’t carry over into this season, but he won’t maintain a .176 batting average on balls in play and it’s perhaps a good sign that he has drawn walks at a strong rate of 15.2% this year. That’s in a small sample of 33 plate appearances but it’s more than double his career rate of 6.2%, so it could be a nice step forward even if it regresses a bit.

The Mariners currently have an outfield/designated hitter mix consisting of Julio Rodríguez, Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone and Mitch Haniger. It’s possible that Robles will be utilized in the short side of a platoon. The right-handed hitter has slashed .262/.353/.373 against lefties and .226/.293/.349 against righties, leading to respective wRC+ counts of 101 and 72. Both Raley and Canzone are lefties with notable platoon splits. Raley has a 119 wRC+ against righties and 84 otherwise, with Canzone’s numbers at 86 against southpaws and 65 versus righties.

The M’s can use Robles to shield Raley and/or Canzone from some lefties while also perhaps using Robles for pinch running duties or as a late-game defensive replacement. For his part, Robles will get a chance to reinvent himself with a chance of scenery before he’s slated for free agency this winter.

Mariners Promote Jonatan Clase, Place Dominic Canzone On Injured List

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April 15: The Mariners formally announced Monday that they’ve recalled Clase for his MLB debut. Canzone indeed was placed on the injured list with a sprained AC joint.

April 14: The Mariners will be calling up outfield prospect Jonatan Clase, according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (X link).  It seems like Clase will replace Dominic Canzone on the active roster, as Canzone suffered a left AC joint sprain in today’s game and will surely be placed on the 10-day injured list.  No further roster move will need to be made since Clase is already on Seattle’s 40-man.

Clase’s first appearance in a game will mark his official MLB debut, and the highlight of a pro career that began as an international signing in 2018.  Over 1483 plate appearances in the minors, Clase has hit .263/.376/.457 with 39 homers and 183 stolen bases (out of 221 attempts).  Those numbers include a .308/.404/.641 slash line in 47 PA for Triple-A Tacoma this season, which marked Clase’s first taste of Triple-A ball.

The combination of this hot start and Canzone’s injury have now punched Clase’s ticket to the Show, though questions remain about his all-around readiness.  Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each rank Clase as the tenth-best prospect in the Mariners’ farm system based on his incredible 70-grade speed and impressive overall set of tools, but as BA’s scouting report notes, “he is an aggressive and energetic player, who alternately excites and frustrates.”

Clase (who turns 22 next month) has struck out in 25.55% of his career minor league plate appearances, making him a bit of a three-true-outcomes style of player given that he draws a fair share of walks and has some good raw power.  At only 5’9″ and 150 pounds, Clase doesn’t fit the usual physical model for a power hitter, so if the power doesn’t translate against Major League pitching, Clase will need to improve his contact to better maximize his speed.  As MLB Pipeline’s report puts it, “maintaining a sound approach and not selling out for power and getting away from his best abilities will also be vital.”

Clase became a switch-hitter in 2022 and his career splits are generally pretty even, though his numbers are a lot better as a left-handed batter in his small sample of Triple-A at-bats.  This could indicate that he’ll slide into Canzone’s role as the left-handed hitting side of a left field platoon with righty-swinging Dylan Moore.  Clase doesn’t have a great throwing arm so he has played only left and center field, and his glovework is considered solid enough to handle some center at the big league level.

MLB Announces Futures Game Rosters

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Major League Baseball announced rosters for the 2023 Futures Game this evening. The contest — a seven-inning exhibition between some of the sport’s most talented minor leaguers — kicks off All-Star festivities in Seattle on Saturday, July 8.

As Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com notes, 28 of the 50 players on the roster are included on MLB Pipeline’s recent Top 100 prospects list. Six of Pipeline’s top ten will participate. The full rosters (MLB Pipeline prospect rank included, if applicable):

American League

National League

Mariners Select Four Players

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of righties Prelander Berroa and Isaiah Campbell and outfielders Cade Marlowe and Jonatan Clase. All four are now on the 40-man roster and protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. The quartet of additions fills Seattle’s 40-man roster for the time being.

Each of Berroa (13), Clase (15) and Marlowe (21) rank within the organization’s top 30 prospects, per Baseball America. Mariners president of baseball operations had already confirmed last week that Berroa would be selected to the 40-man roster, though the other additions had not been made public.

Berroa, 22, was acquired from the Giants in a deal that sent infielder Donovan Walton to San Francisco. The Dominican-born righty split the year between the High-A affiliates of the Giants and Mariners before topping out with Seattle’s Double-A club later in the year. In a combined 100 2/3 innings, Berroa posted a 2.86 ERA with a gaudy 36.5% strikeout rate but also a problematic 15.3% walk rate.

Clase, just 20, draws 80-grade reviews for his speed and is considered a potential above-average or better defender in center field. He spent the year in Class-A, hitting .267/.373/.463 with a hearty 13% walk rate but also a more suspect 26.7% strikeout rate. While earlier scouting reports on him suggested he lacked power, Clase smacked 13 home runs in 499 plate appearances and posted a .196 ISO (slugging minus batting average) this season, showing more pop than some might have expected.

Marlow posted an impressive .287/.377/.487 slash with 23 home runs and a whopping 42 steals in 578 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season. It was an impressive enough showing that he was on the taxi squad and under consideration to make his Major League debut during the playoffs for the Mariners in 2022. The Mariners are expected to add some veteran outfielders this offseason, but Marlowe will be among the options if the team needs to tap into its depth in the event of an injury early in 2023.

Campbell, 25, was the Mariners’ second-round pick in 2019. The 6’4″, 230-pound righty tallied 21 saves and posted a pristine 1.57 ERA with a 33% strikeout rate against a 6.7% walk rate in 46 innings between High-A and Double-A this year.

It’s possible, though not a given, that the Mariners will have further moves in the hours ahead. Seattle is reportedly active on the trade market as teams look to set their rosters in advance of the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft. Seattle is reportedly open to dealing Jesse Winker on the heels of a disappointing season, and they’ve been receiving interest in fifth-starter candidates Chris Flexen and Marco Gonzales since the offseason began.

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