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Kendall Graveman

Athletics Non-Tender Mike Fiers, Kendall Graveman, Cory Gearrin

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The Athletics have non-tendered a trio of right-handed pitchers, as MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets. Starters Mike Fiers and Kendall Graveman will be sent to free agency along with reliever Cory Gearrin.

It had been widely expected that Fiers would return to Oakland. After all, the A’s certainly need arms and he was quite successful in 2018 on both sides of the trade that sent him out west from the Tigers. He ended the season with a 3.56 ERA in 172 innings.

Still, Fiers projected to earn a hefty $9.7MM salary. And the results came in spite of some rough underlying stats. Fiers checked in with 7.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9, but coughed up 32 home runs — the same tally he allowed in the prior campaign. All of the major ERA estimators value him as a 4+ performer over each of the past four campaigns.

Graveman, meanwhile, is still recovering from Tommy John surgery and will likely miss most or all of the 2019 campaign. But he’s an interesting pitcher who should draw plenty of looks on the market. Gearrin, too, seems like a prime target as a steady veteran reliever. The A’s simply preferred not to pay their salaries, which were projected at $2.5MM and $2.4MM, respectively.

A’s Designate Bruce Maxwell, Outright Josh Lucas/Boog Powell

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The Athletics announced an avalanche of September 1st roster moves. The club has designated catcher Bruce Maxwell for assignment. Meanwhile, righty Josh Lucas and outfielder Boog Powell have cleared waivers and have been outrighted to Triple-A. Kendall Graveman was also recalled in order to be placed on the 60-day disabled list. Those four moves made room for the four contracts the A’s selected today; left-hander Dean Keikhefer, right-handers Chris Hatcher and Liam Hendriks, and catcher Beau Taylor, who will be making his first appearance in the major leagues.

Maxwell is probably the most notable player on this list, though certainly more for his non-baseball publicity than any actual merit in his gameplay. The backstop was the first baseball player to join the police brutality protests during the national anthem, a movement that had then been mainly held to NFL circles. More recently, Maxwell was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and disorderly conduct. On the field, he owns a .240/.314/.347 batting line with five homers and a 24.3% strikeout rate.

Lucas, meanwhile, has had a wretched showing with the Athletics at the MLB level. The 27-year-old righty owns a 6.28 ERA across 14 1/3 innings with Oakland, thanks in part to a troublesome 5.65 BB/9. Even in the minors, he’s pitched to a 2.63 ERA but a much less attractive 4.17 FIP while exhibiting the same sort of walk issues. Prior to this season, Lucas had spent the entirety of his career in the Cardinals organization; he was traded to the A’s in exchange for fellow minor-league hurler Casey Meisner.

The 25-year-old Powell hasn’t given the A’s much to be excited about this year, either. He had an excellent showing across 92 plate appearances with Oakland in 2017, when he batted .321/.380/.494 with a trio of homers and average center field defense, but this year has been an entirely different story. Powell’s wRC+ on the year sits at just 28, and his wOBA is an equally poor .211. That’s the result of just four hits (two for extra bases) across 25 MLB plate appearances. Overall, Fangraphs rates his 2018 performance at 0.3 wins below replacement level.

Kendall Graveman To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Athletics right-hander Kendall Graveman will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair ligament damage in his right elbow, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Graveman tells Slusser that he’s been rehabbing in the minors for six weeks after an MRI revealed some damage, but he hasn’t healed sufficiently enough to avoid surgical repair. He’ll be out for the remainder of the 2018 season and will likely miss the majority of (or possibly all of) the 2019 campaign as well.

Graveman, 27, emerged as a solid mid-rotation option for the A’s from 2015-17 after coming over as part of the widely panned Josh Donaldson blockbuster with the Blue Jays. While he was hardly a household name outside of Oakland, Graveman worked to a 4.11 ERA with 5.6 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9 and well above-average ground-ball tendencies through 407 innings across that three-year span. That proved enough to land him an Opening Day start in 2018, but the season wound up being a forgettable one for the righty.

Graveman was tagged for five runs in five innings to kick off the Athletics’ season, and he ultimately made only six starts in the Majors (allowing three or more runs in each) before being surprisingly optioned to Triple-A Nashville. He’d return for one start in mid-May before being sent back to Nashville, and he’s been on the minor league disabled list since early June.

Because Graveman’s injury appears to have occurred in the minors, he’ll spend the remainder of the season on the minor league disabled list (barring an additional move to the MLB 60-day DL). As such, he’s not likely to accrue the Major League service time needed to reach four full years of service. Put another way, the circumstances of his season-ending injury seem likely to delay his path to free agency by a year. Graveman will finish out the season with between three and four years of service, meaning he’ll arbitration-eligible this offseason and once again in each of the two subsequent offseasons. While he’d previously been on track to hit the open market after the 2020 season, it now seems he’s lined up to reach free agency after the 2021 season.

Of course, that assumes that the A’s retain Graveman. He’s earning $2.375MM this season after avoiding arbitration for the first time last winter, and he’d likely be in line for the same salary — or at best, a very minimal raise — in 2019. There’s certainly reason to think the A’s would keep him around anyhow, as they’d effectively be paying him in 2019 for the right to control him cheaply in 2020-21, but the injury at the very least creates some uncertainty surrounding his future with the organization.

Injury Notes: Murphy, Archer, T. Frazier, Graveman

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Unfortunately for the Nationals, second baseman Daniel Murphy doesn’t seem close to making his 2018 debut. Manager Dave Martinez told Jamal Collier of MLB.com and other reporters Sunday that Murphy remains “a ways” away from coming off the disabled list. What’s more, Murphy – who underwent microfracture surgery in his right knee last October – has not looked healthy during his Double-A rehab assignment, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post hears. A scout informed Janes that Murphy has been “gimpy,” “struggling to move laterally” and lacking “straight-ahead speed” during action this weekend. Not only is that bad news for the Nats, with whom Murphy starred from 2016-17, but also for the impending free agent. While Murphy did all he could to set himself up for another nice payday over the previous couple seasons, the 33-year-old is now amid a less-than-ideal platform campaign.

  • Rays right-hander Chris Archer dealt with groin tightness during his start Saturday, helping lead to his exit after five innings of two-run ball, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. It doesn’t seem to be a major concern, but “he’ll probably get checked out here in the next day or two and see how it is,” manager Kevin Cash said. Thanks in part to Saturday’s performance, Archer has seen his ERA plummet from a season-worst 7.84 on April 14 to 4.24 over his past nine starts. That should help the hard-throwing 29-year-old’s stock if the Rays make him available in advance of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, as some expect them to do.
  • Mets third baseman Todd Frazier is primed to come off the DL in time for the team’s series against Baltimore, which begins Tuesday, Matt Ehalt of The Record suggests. Indeed, Frazier tweeted Sunday that he’s on his way back to New York, thus wrapping up a Triple-A rehab assignment. His return will be a rare positive development for the free-falling Mets, who placed Frazier on the DL with a hamstring strain on May 8. Prior to suffering the injury, the offseason free-agent signing opened 2018 with a helpful .237/.357/.412 line and five home runs in 140 plate appearances.
  • The Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville has placed righty Kendall Graveman on the DL with a forearm strain, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Fortunately, Graveman doesn’t have any structural damage and should only miss 10 days, Slusser reports. Nevertheless, the injury continues a difficult year for Graveman, who entered 2018 off three straight respectable campaigns but has spent a large portion of the season in the minors. The 27-year-old worked to a 7.60 ERA in 34 1/3 innings prior to his demotion and also hasn’t been great in Nashville, where he has posted a 4.50 ERA in 24 frames.

AL West Notes: Athletics, Heaney, Moore

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Trevor Cahill is set to return from the disabled list tomorrow after missing one start, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Athletics will have him displace Kendall Graveman in the rotation, she adds in a separate column. Graveman pitched reasonably well in his one start after a demotion to Triple-A, but the A’s still would like him to continue to round back into form in Nashville following a surprisingly ugly start to the season. As Slusser notes, Oakland could’ve dropped Brett Anderson from the rotation, but doing so would mean designating the lefty for assignment.

Graveman was optioned out to make room on the roster for the return of Stephen Piscotty — who homered in his first at-bat back with the team tonight — from the bereavement list. The Athletics will need to make another roster move to accommodate Cahill’s activation tomorrow, which could mean optioning Jake Smolinski to Nashville as well, per Slusser.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Angels lefty Andrew Heaney dominated the division-rival Astros last night, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes, in what the pitcher calls “probably the best game I pitched in my career.” Heaney now carries a 3.93 ERA over 34 1/3 innings through six starts. But fielding-independent pitching numbers suggest he has been even better; he’s carrying an appealing combination of 10.2 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. As Fletcher notes, the results have been particularly promising over the last four outings, reflecting a decision by Heaney to abandon an experiment with pitching on the third-base side of the rubber. All said, his performance to date has been enormously encouraging, though the big question remains whether he can stay healthy.
  • Despite a terrible start to the season, left-hander Matt Moore will remain in the Rangers’ rotation for now, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. The former Rays/Giants southpaw will lug a 7.82 ERA into Saturday’s start against the White Sox, having averaged 6.6 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9 with 1.42 HR/9 and a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate. Moore has no doubt had some poor fortune, with a .388 BABIP and 62.3 percent strand rate, but even fielding-independent metrics peg him well north of 5.00. Sullivan does note that Moore’s spot, however, is in some jeopardy. Manager Jeff Banister stressed that Moore has “got to show some progress” before adding that he’s not considering a switch in the rotation just yet. Right-hander Jesse Chavez has showed well in a long relief role, though Banister suggested that the organization is happy with Chavez in his current role at present.

Injury Notes: Naquin, Graveman, Buchter, Hendriks, Vielma, Alvarez,

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The Indians have placed outfielder Tyler Naquin on the DL with a left hamstring strain, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com writes. Naquin limped into second during yesterday’s game while running out a double, and stayed in the game through the remainder of the inning. He was taken out subsequently, though, and sent to get an MRI. There’s no word yet on the severity of Naquin’s injury, nor how long he’ll be out. It’s surely a disappointing development for the Indians; Naquin’s hitting .333/.367/.453 on the year, albeit with an unsustainable .442 BABIP. In a related move, the Indians activated reliever Tyler Olson from the paternity list for today’s game.

Other injury notes from around the league…

  • Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle provided some injury updates on Athletics players with a pair of tweets today. Right-hander Kendall Graveman is “limping around” after taking a liner off his shin last night. While the situation is reportedly better than expected, the A’s aren’t yet certain whether they’ll need to push back Graveman’s next side session. Meanwhile, Ryan Buchter (shoulder strain) will begin a throwing program next week, and Liam Hendriks (groin strain) is scheduled to throw off a mound today.
  • In Orioles injury news, infielder Engelb Vielma is set to have surgery on his knee (according to Rich Dubroff of PressBoxonline.com). He sustained the injury after tripping over a mound while running down a fly ball in foul ground during a minors game, and while it’s not thought to be season-ending, some in the Orioles organization have loudly voiced their frustrations about the circumstances surrounding the injury. Meanwhile, Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun tweets that Pedro Alvarez’ hamstring tightness will hold him out of today’s lineup, though there’s still hope that he could be called upon to hit if needed.

Athletics Option Kendall Graveman

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The Athletics announced this afternoon that they’ve optioned Opening Day starter Kendall Graveman to Triple-A Nashville. Fellow righty Chris Bassitt is also being optioned to Triple-A, while recently acquired reliever Wilmer Font has been added to the active roster. The A’s will announce another move tomorrow (perhaps Yusmeiro Petit being activated from the bereavement list, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests).

The move comes as somewhat of a surprise given Graveman’s standing in the organization. The 27-year-old has been a reliable member of the starting five (when healthy) dating back to the 2015 season, pitching to a 4.11 ERA through 407 innings from 2015-17.

Thus far, the 2018 campaign has proven to be a nightmare for Graveman, however. In 28 1/3 innings, Graveman has allowed 28 earned runs on 41 hits (seven homers) and 11 walks with 23 strikeouts. No pitcher in Major League Baseball has allowed more hits or earned runs, and Graveman’s seven homers trail only Cole Hamels for the MLB lead. (Hamels has tossed 6 1/3 more innings.)

[Related: Oakland Athletics depth chart]

Graveman entered the season with three years, 14 days of Major League service time, putting him on track to reach free agency after the completion of the 2020 season. He needs to accumulate a total of 158 days of big league service time in 2018 in order to surpass four years of service and remain on track for that free agency date, which should still be attainable unless the demotion proves to be an especially lengthy one. He’d need to spend about a full month in the minors in order to miss out on the requisite service time for free agency that offseason.

With Graveman temporarily out of the rotation, the A’s have Sean Manaea, Daniel Mengden, Trevor Cahill and Andrew Triggs holding starting jobs. There’s been no announcement as to who’ll step into his spot, but righty Daniel Gossett has pitched well in two starts since being optioned to Nashville. Flamethrowing Frankie Montas is also starting down in Nashville and is on the 40-man roster, though he’s gotten off to a poor start. Veteran lefty Brett Anderson is also with Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate and throwing well — 1.89 ERA, 25-to-2 K/BB ratio in 19 innings — and the A’s have an open 40-man roster spot to accommodate him if he is the preferred option.

A’s Notes: Parker, Maxwell, Rotation

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Former Athletics right-hander Jarrod Parker has officially decided to halt any comeback attempts and retire, he tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The now-29-year-old Parker was a promising building block for the A’s in 2011-13, posting a 3.68 ERA through his first 384 big league innings at ages 22 through 24.

Once the ninth overall pick in the MLB draft (Diamondbacks, 2007), Parker found his way to Oakland as part of the return that Arizona surrendered when initially acquiring a more established, controllable young righty: Trevor Cahill. Parker showed all the promise in the world, landing on five Top 100 lists from Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus after being drafted out of high school, and the fine early work in his career serves as a testament to what might have been had injuries not ruined a promising career.

Unfortunately for the talented young Parker, his elbow simply didn’t allow him to realize his considerable potential. The righty twice underwent Tommy John surgery before fracturing his elbow in his comeback attempt from that second Tommy John procedure. Unfathomably, Parker re-fractured the epicondyle bone in his elbow, necessitating a fourth elbow surgery. Parker’s former teammate Ryan Cook, A’s executive vice president Billy Beane and former A’s lefty Barry Zito are among the notable names who raved to Slusser about Parker’s raw potential and expressed sadness over never seeing how high his ceiling could have been.

Parker, now looking to the future, tells Slusser that he’d look to work in the health industry, potentially serving as a rehab coordinator for players returning from injury.

A bit more on the A’s…

  • Also via Slusser, Oakland catcher Bruce Maxwell did not reach a plea agreement in his recent settlement conference, thus prompting a second such meeting to be scheduled for April 13. Maxwell, who is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct after allegedly pointing a firearm at a delivery person back in October, is slated for an Aug. 9 trial if no plea agreement can be reached. Maxwell is still expected to serve as Oakland’s primary catcher in 2018 despite those struggles; Slusser adds (via Twitter) that GM David Forst cited the team’s long relationship with Maxwell as a factor in its decision to give him a chance as the starting backstop in 2018. Maxwell was the Athletics’ second-round pick back in the 2012 draft.
  • Jane Lee of MLB.com breaks down the rotation situation in Oakland, noting that only right-hander Kendall Graveman and left-hander Sean Manaea are considered locks to hold down a starting job at present. The final three spots are up for grabs in a race consisting of Andrew Triggs, Jharel Cotton, Daniel Mengden, Daniel Gossett and Paul Blackburn — assuming Oakland does not make any further additions to the staff. Lee adds, on Twitter, that manager Bob Melvin said Mengden’s strong finish to the season has him in the lead for the third spot in the rotation right now, but the A’s look to have a fairly sizable competition for rotation innings.

A’s Defeat Kendall Graveman In Arbitration

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Kendall Graveman has lost his arbitration case against the Athletics, Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reports via Twitter. Though he filed for $2.6MM in his first trip through the arb process (which incidentally also happened to be what MLBTR’s arbitration model projected for him), he’ll instead make the $2.3MM salary that Oakland filed for.

The 27-year-old ground ball artist came to Oakland as one of the pieces in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays. He’s owns a career ERA of 4.11 across 411 2/3 major league innings spanning 71 starts with Oakland and five relief appearances for Toronto. His lifetime record stands at 22-24.

Likely working against Graveman in the arbitration process is his lack of strikeouts. The righty’s K/9 over the past three seasons with the A’s stands at a paltry 5.64, a figure that ranks fourth-worst in baseball among qualified pitchers during that time span. Of course, he made up for that somewhat by posting a 51.3% ground ball rate that falls within MLB’s top 20. But arbitration panels don’t take that into account the way they do strikeouts.

Graveman’s case was Oakland’s only one to go to trial. Now that it’s been settled, the team’s arbitration salaries are all fully resolved for the 2018 season.

Unresolved 2018 Arbitration Cases

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We’ve covered a whole lot of arbitration deals today, many of them reached before today’s deadline to exchange filing figures. Some other agreements have come together after team and player submitted their numbers. It’s still possible, of course, that these situations will be resolved before an arbitration hearing becomes necessary. (At this point, we seem to lack full clarity on teams’ approaches to negotiations after the filing deadline. And most organizations make exceptions for multi-year deals even if they have a file-and-trial stance.)

Some situations could even be dealt with in short order. As things stand, though, these unresolved arbitration cases could turn into significant hearings. (As always, MLBTR’s 2018 arbitration projections can be found here; you will also want to reference MLBTR’s 2018 arbitration tracker.)

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