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Kevin Gausman

60-Man Roster Notes: Orioles, Phillies

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As teams continue to get health and travel reports, many have slots left to fill on their 60-man rosters, so we’ll use this post throughout the day to track the minor changes.

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  • The Orioles added Evan Phillips to their 60-man roster, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Baltimore gave themselves more leeway than most, however, and they still have 15 slots available on their 60-man roster. The Maryland native made 25 appearances out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2019, pitching to a 6.43 ERA/3.96 FIP. Phillips joined the Baltimore organization from Atlanta as part of the Kevin Gausman/Darren O’Day trade from deadline day 2018.
  • The Phillies added two catchers to their 60-man roster, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Henri Lartigue and Logan O’Hoppe will bring the Phillies’ total number of catchers to five. Lartigue, 25, hit .136/.259/.248 in 78 games in Double-A last year. O’Hoppe, 20, went to the Phillies in the 23rd round of the 2018 draft. In Low-A in 2019, the New York native hit .216/.266/.407. The pair of catchers are presumably in camp to spread the defensive workload. J.T. Realmuto, Andrew Knapp, and Deivi Grullon are far better bets to see any game time once the season opens.

Rebound Candidate: Kevin Gausman

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While Kevin Gausman has never developed into the top-of-the-rotation starter many envisioned, he carved out a role as a solid innings eater in his first five MLB seasons. Between 2016-18, Gausman averaged 183.1 innings with a 4.07 ERA/4.30 FIP between the Orioles and Braves.

Then the wheels fell off in the first half of 2019. The righty started his first full season in Atlanta with a 6.21 ERA in 13 starts; he hit the shelf for a month-plus with plantar fasciitis in his right foot June 11. Gausman would make just three more starts for the Braves, who waived him in August. The non-contending Reds claimed him for the stretch run.

It was Gausman’s time in Cincinnati that offers the most hope for a rebound. With a full rotation, manager David Bell deployed him solely in short stints (14 relief appearances and one ’start’ as a two-inning opener). While he managed just a 4.03 ERA in that time, the now 29-year-old racked up an impressive 29:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Gausman’s midseason bullpen bump wasn’t at the level of someone like Drew Pomeranz’s, who struck out nearly half the batters he faced as a reliever and parlayed it into a four-year deal. It was, however, enough to remind us Gausman’s nowhere near as bad as he looked at the start of last season.

In fact, much of Gausman’s abysmal results in Atlanta can be chalked up to bad luck. Hitters put up an unsustainable .345 BABIP against him in his time as a starting pitcher. And those batted balls tended to fall in at the least opportune times. As a Brave in 2019, Gausman faced 53 batters with two outs and runners on base. He struck out 18 of them, but opponents hit .406 on balls in play in those spots. If just a handful of those batted balls had found defenders’ gloves, his ERA would’ve looked quite a bit better. Luck isn’t to blame for all of Gausman’s trouble in Atlanta. He did allow more hard, airborne contact than ever before, which is a bit worrisome. Nevertheless, it’s fair to point out things beyond his control contributed to his struggles.

The rotation-needy Giants signed up for a potential Gausman rebound this offseason. He’ll get another crack at cementing himself as a rotation piece at pitcher-friendly Oracle Park. He doesn’t throw as hard as he once did, but he still sits 94+ MPH on his fastball. That pairs with a knockout splitter that’s allowed him to handle left-handed hitters throughout his career. At the very least, he should be well-equipped for the three batter minimum if he ends up back in the bullpen at some point.

Surely, though, SF is hoping for a successful return to the rotation for the still-young hurler. Perhaps the organization can unlock further upside by coaxing a usable breaking ball. David O’Brien of the Athletic reported last summer Gausman had toyed with a curveball while rehabbing from the aforementioned injury, but he was almost exclusively fastball-splitter in the big leagues. Even a mere return to form would position Gausman well when he hits the open market next offseason. The Giants don’t appear likely to contend in 2020, so the righty could find himself changing uniforms for the third straight season.

Giants Notes: Roster Adds, Sandoval, Anderson, Rotation

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The latest from San Francisco….

  • President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters (including Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle) that he would like to acquire a platoon player before Spring Training camp opens, though not anyone ticketed for something close to an everyday role.  The Giants would prefer to give their young players more time rather than block them with a veteran regular, which Schulman feels lessens the chance of a new contract with Kevin Pillar.  The team has been already added several veterans as depth pieces in recent days, such as Wilmer Flores (whose multi-year deal hasn’t yet been officially announced), Brandon Guyer, Yolmer Sanchez, and Pablo Sandoval.
  • Speaking of the Panda, Zaidi said the 33-year-old is recovering well enough from Tommy John surgery that Sandoval could return to hitting action during Spring Training.  It will still take “a month or two into the season” for Sandoval to be ready to throw, Zaidi said, but that would still represent a pretty quick recovery considering Sandoval went under the knife in early September.
  • Zaidi also had positive health news about Tyler Anderson, as the left-hander might not begin the season on the 60-day injured list.  Anderson underwent knee surgery last summer and was claimed off waivers from the Rockies at the end of October, only to be non-tendered and then quickly re-signed by the Giants in early December.  The knee problems turned 2019 into a lost season for Anderson, who pitched only 20 2/3 innings for Colorado and posted an ugly 11.76.
  • Manager Gabe Kapler discussed his rotation with the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea on the “Giants Splash” podcast, naming Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Kevin Gausman, and Drew Smyly as the projected top four heading into Spring Training.  There was no doubt about the top two names, though Kapler’s confirmation about Gausman and Smyly leaves quite a battle for the fifth starter role among the many other starters (both young arms and more experienced names like Anderson) in camp.  As Shea notes, things could very possibly change over the course of camp or the season, depending on injuries, trades, or various pitchers performing better or worse than expected.  If the Giants look to deal some veterans at the trade deadline, Samardzija, Gausman, and Smyly all stand out as logical trade chips, as all three hurlers will be free agents after the 2020 season.

Giants Sign Kevin Gausman

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The Giants have signed right-hander Kevin Gausman, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic was among those to report. It’s a one-year, $9MM contract with up to $1MM in performance bonuses, the team announced. Gausman is a client of Tidal Sports Group.

If he maxes out his bonuses, Gausman will end up with almost the same payday he’d have received had the Reds retained him for 2020. They moved on from Gausman at last week’s non-tender deadline in lieu of paying him a projected $10.6MM next season. However, that doesn’t mean Gausman performed poorly as a member of the Reds, who claimed him off waivers from the Braves in August. On the contrary, the soon-to-be 29-year-old Gausman pitched well over a limited sample of 22 1/3 innings, evidenced by a 4.03 ERA with tremendous strikeout and walk rates of 11.7 and 2.0, respectively.

Of course, Gausman only became a Red because he had trouble preventing runs as a Brave. He put up an ugly 6.19 ERA across 80 innings as a starter before working almost exclusively as a reliever for the Reds. That said, the Atlanta version of Gausman did manage a respectable 4.20 FIP with a similarly solid 9.6 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9. And before Gausman’s career experienced a downturn in Atlanta, he recorded several quality seasons as a starter for the Orioles, who selected him fourth overall in the 2012 draft.

Now that he’s on the fourth team of his career, Gausman will presumably return to a role as a full-time starter. The Giants – whose longtime No. 1 starter, Madison Bumgarner, remains a free agent – are sorely lacking in that department. Unless the Giants re-sign Bumgarner or add another veteran, the hard-throwing Gausman, who has averaged just under 95 mph on his fastball during his time in the majors, looks as if he’ll team with Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija as the elder statesmen of the group. At least for now, Gausman’s guarantee is the largest one president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has doled out since he joined the organization last winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Blue Jays Notes: Ryu, Roark, Gibson, Gausman

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Free agent left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu “is emerging as one of the Blue Jays’ prime targets” in the team’s wide-ranging search for pitching, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes.  With other major pitchers like Stephen Strasburg and Zack Wheeler already off the board, however, the Jays will face a lot of competition to land Ryu, particularly from teams that come up short on signing Gerrit Cole or Madison Bumgarner.  Should the Dodgers fail to sign Cole, Davidi notes, Los Angeles would seem like a prime candidate to pursue re-signing a known quantity in Ryu — indeed, we’ve already heard reports that the Dodgers have Ryu in their sights.

“Right now, the Blue Jays seem determined to not block themselves out of a possible run at Ryu by doing something else,” Davidi writes in a separate piece.  Aside from the acquisition of Chase Anderson from the Brewers, however, the Jays haven’t done much to upgrade a rotation that was the team’s chief offseason priority.  It could be that the Jays’ deliberate methods of pursuing and evaluating every possible arm on the market are leaving them behind other teams who make a more direct push for a specific pitcher at the top of their list.  In the view of one agent, talks with the Blue Jays “are 90 per cent due diligence that doesn’t go anywhere.”

To this end, Davidi wonders if the Jays are really willing to spend “outside their comfort zone” to sign Ryu if he is their top choice, since if not, missing out on Ryu could also in Toronto missing out on several other pitchers who could sign elsewhere in the interim.  For instance, Davidi notes that “one path the Blue Jays are particularly keen on” would see Ryu and Tanner Roark both sign with the Jays, after the Dodgers leave the Ryu sweepstakes due to a Cole signing.  If this is the case, I’d argue there’s no reason the Jays couldn’t go out of their way to sign Roark now, as he wouldn’t require nearly the price tag of the top pitchers on the free agent market.  (MLBTR projected Roark for a two-year, $18MM deal, and in fact predicted he’d end up signing with the Jays.)  Toronto is nowhere near any kind of payroll crunch, given the team’s lack of financial commitments both in 2020 and in future seasons.

That said, the Blue Jays have done more than just talk, as the club made multiple contract offers to Kyle Gibson, as manager Charlie Montoyo told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other reporters.  The right-hander ended up going to the Rangers on a three-year, $28MM deal.  “You hate to lose guys like Gibson.  I was there when we made the offers and they were pretty good offers, just somebody else made a better offer,” Montoyo said.

Kevin Gausman is another free agent hurler who doesn’t appear to be coming to Toronto.  Davidi reports that the Jays had interest in the recently non-tendered righty, but Gausman is likely going to sign elsewhere this week.

Orioles Notes: Cashner, Gausman, Joseph

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The Baltimore Orioles are looking for a slew of rotation candidates to push the holdovers in competition for their two to three open slots this winter. John Means and Alex Cobb appear locked into their turns, and Asher Wojciechowski has a spot to lose. MASN’s Roch Kubatko quoted GM Mike Elias recently, on Wojiechowski: “…if the season started today I think he’d absolutely project for a rotation spot if he shows up in good health at spring training.”

Still, from everything Elias has said so far this winter, his primary goal is to add enough pitching depth at the major league level such that they don’t get caught promoting prospects up the totem pole before they’re ready. Baltimorebaseball.com’s Rich Dubroff explores potential retreads, casting Kevin Gausman as likely out of Baltimore’s price range, while he sees an Andrew Cashner reboot as within the realm of possibility. Cashner does check a lot of boxes in that he won’t cost much, he’s good for 150 innings or so a year, and he won’t be cowed by having to wear one here and there for the rebuilding Orioles. The Athletic’s Dan Connolly adds his own list of potential rotation options like Martin Perez, Shelby Miller, Drew Smyly, Chad Bettis, and other reclamation projects of that ilk.

Caleb Joseph is another ex-Oriole who could return. Elias won’t necessarily be drawn to former Orioles the way others in the building might, but he is on the lookout for a veteran backstop to complete their catching quartet. Pedro Severino, 25, is a lock for one roster spot after a mini breakout at the plate that saw him put up a .249/.321/.420 line while starting just over half of Baltimore’s games. Statcast ranked his glovework in the bottom half of the league in both poptime and framing, while by Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average, a -13.8 FRAA mark landed him next to last (Josh Phegley).

Chance Sisco should have a chance to claim the other spot, though his defensive marks didn’t grade out much better (-11.1 FRAA). Austin Wynns rounds out the group as presently constituted, though he spent most of last year in the minors.

The other well-known area of focus simply from the standpoint of needing to roster enough bodies to make it through a 162-game season is the middle infield. Hanser Alberto figures to see significant playing time at second, while Stevie Wilkerson, Dilson Herrera, Pat Valaika, Jose Rondon and Richie Martin make up the contenders, though nobody from that group is guaranteed – or even necessarily favored – to secure an Opening Day roster spot.

Reds Non-Tender Kevin Gausman

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The Reds have non-tendered Kevin Gausman, reports Mark Sheldon of MLB.com (via Twtter). The righty’s $10.6MM arbitration projection apparently proved too lofty.

Cincinnati grabbed Gausman off waivers from Atlanta in August and let him work out of the bullpen down the stretch. While he did some solid work for the Reds, he never seemed especially likely to return at that price. Gausman struggled mightily to keep runs off the board as a starter with the Braves over the season’s first four months.

That said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the veteran draw strong interest as a free agent. He’ll presumably attract teams in need of starting and relief depth. He is coming off a career-best strikeout rate (25.3%), although some of that was a reflection of his quality work in shorter stints.

With five-plus years of service, Gausman would’ve been ticketed for free agency at the end of next season. He’ll hit the open market a year earlier than expected, entering his age-29 season.

Reds Claim Kevin Gausman

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1:00pm: The teams have announced the move. Atlanta also announced that Mike Foltynewicz is up from Triple-A Gwinnett, so he’ll take Gausman’s spot in the rotation.

12:25pm: The Reds have claimed right-hander Kevin Gausman off outright waivers from the Braves, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). That’s not to be mistaken with the now-defunct revocable August trade waivers, to be clear. The claim means that Gausman is now a member of the Reds, who by claiming him are agreeing to take on the remainder of the right-hander’s $9.35MM salary — a sum of about $2.815MM between now and season’s end.

Cincinnati is obviously banking on a return to form following a change of scenery, as Gausman is mired in the worst season of his big league career. The former No. 4 overall draft pick (Orioles, 2012) joined Atlanta last season in a deadline trade that saw Atlanta take on the remainder of Darren O’Day’s salary while also shipping out international bonus allotments and minor leaguers Brett Cumberland, JC Encarnacion, Bruce Zimmermann and Evan Phillips.

Gausman performed admirably down the stretch in 2018 and was a big part of the Braves’ rotation (2.87 ERA in 59 2/3 innings), but he’s been among the league’s least effective pitchers in 2019. Through 80 innings, he’s pitched to a 6.19 earned run average with 9.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 1.35 HR/9 and a career-low 37 percent ground-ball rate.

There’s little denying that Gausman has had his share of poor fortune in 2019. His .345 average on balls in play is well north of both his career mark (.313) and the league average (.299), and his 59.3 percent strand rate appears fluky and due for some positive regression toward his lifetime mark of 74.1 percent. Fielding-independent metrics peg him as a candidate for considerable improvement (4.20 FIP, 4.40 SIERA, 4.47 xFIP).

Gausman’s average fastball velocity (93.8 mph) is down from its 95 mph peak, however, and he’s allowing line drives at a career-worst 24.7 percent clip. Opposing hitters are barreling up Gausman’s offerings at a higher rate than ever before, per Statcast, and the increased number of hard-hit balls in the air has come back to bite him.

The Reds don’t appear to have an immediate need for starting pitching, with Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer, Sonny Gray, Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood all in the rotation at the moment. It’s possible that Cincinnati could utilize Gausman out of the bullpen or deploy a six-man rotation to keep their arms fresh down the stretch.

The move could very well have been made with an eye toward 2020 as well — as was the case with their acquisition of Bauer. Gausman is controllable via arbitration for the third and final time this winter, although at present he looks like a potential non-tender candidate. Still, perhaps a strong showing to the season will convince the Cincinnati front office that Gausman is deserving of the $10MM+ salary he’d command in arbitration this offseason. If he is able to return to form, Gausman would slot in fourth behind the formidable trio of Bauer, Castillo and Gray.

Braves To Activate Kevin Gausman

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Braves right-hander Kevin Gausman will be activated from the 10-day injured list to start this evening’s game against the Nationals, reports David O’Brien of the Athletic. Gausman has been out since June 10 with plantar fasciitis in his right foot. The team has yet to formally announce the move, which will require a corresponding 25-man roster opening.

The 2019 season has been a challenge for Gausman, owner of a 6.21 ERA over 13 starts. There’s reason to believe he can at least reemerge as a capable mid-rotation starter if the injury is behind him. Gausman’s strikeout, walk and home run rates this year aren’t significantly different from those of the past three seasons. While he’s never quite lived up to the #2 starter billing he received as a former top-five draft choice and top-25 overall prospect, his track record is certainly one of a competent big-league starter. Between 2016-2018, Gausman combined average rate performance (a 4.17 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate) with rare durability, ranking seventh in baseball with 95 starts.

Even a mere return to form would be a boon to an Atlanta rotation that could use the stability. On the season, the Braves’ rotation has posted respectable if unspectacular numbers, but things have been a little more worrisome recently. Mike Soroka’s numbers have tailed off somewhat following his otherworldly start, while Dallas Keuchel and Julio Teheran have worrying peripherals belied by their solid ERA’s (although it’s worth noting both veterans have made something of a habit of outperforming ERA estimators in the past). Most worrisome, #2 starter Max Fried recently hit the 10-day IL with a blister. Former ace Mike Foltynewicz, meanwhile, has been better at Triple-A following a nightmarish start to the season, but the organization evidently feels he has more kinks to work through before getting recalled.

As O’Brien explores more fully in the above-linked piece, though, Gausman isn’t merely targeting a return to the status quo. He’ll bring with him a new toy, having found the grip on a curveball, a pitch he hasn’t thrown since 2016, per Brooks Baseball. Gausman has long had above-average fastball velocity and a vaunted split-change, but he’s yet to settle on a trusted breaking pitch. He scrapped the curveball for a slider entering 2017, but never felt comfortable with the new offering, which was average at best at generating swings-and-misses and ground balls.

Of course, Gausman’s curveball was never an elite pitch either, the reason he dropped it in the first place. It’s fair, then, to be skeptical of the hook unlocking another gear in Gausman until we see him deploy it at the highest level. Nevertheless, it’s at least notable to hear the hurler express excitement about a new breaking pitch, considering he’s essentially pitched the entire 2019 season with only a fastball and splitter, having ditched the slider from the season’s outset.

Whether Gausman’s third offering spurs a new level of performance remains to be seen. Regardless, just having a healthy, competent version of Gausman taking the ball every fifth day should help assuage some of the front office’s concerns about the rotation, which have caused them to poke around on the cream of the crop on the trade market. Perhaps the NL East frontrunners will swing a deal for starting pitching in the coming weeks no matter what, but a return to form (or further breakout) from their prized deadline acquisition last year might allow them to deploy their still-elite farm system to address other weak points on the roster.

Braves Place Gausman On IL; Donaldson Appeals One-Game Suspension

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The Braves announced Tuesday that right-hander Kevin Gausman has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. Lefty A.J. Minter is up from Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move. Meanwhile, the league announced that third baseman Josh Donaldson has received a one-game suspension for his role in last night’s benches-clearing incident with the Pirates, but he’s appealed the punishment and is in Tuesday’s lineup.

With Gausman shelved for the time being, lefty Sean Newcomb will likely make at least a one-off return to the rotation in Atlanta this weekend, tweets MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. That’d change in the event that Newcomb is needed out of the bullpen Friday, but he won’t pitch out of the ’pen for at least the next couple of days after picking up a win with 4 2/3 innings of exceptional relief yesterday.

It’s been a nightmare of a season for Gausman, whom the Braves acquired from the Orioles at last year’s non-waiver trade deadline. Acquired to be a piece of the rotation for multiple years, Gausman has instead pitched like a non-tender candidate thus far in 2019. He’s posted a 6.21 ERA through 62 1/3 innings, albeit with more promising K/BB numbers. Gausman has averaged 9.2 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings while actually logging the lowest full-season home run rate of his career (1.16 HR/9). He’s been plagued by a somewhat elevated .339 average on balls in play, but the greater problem has been an inability to strand runners; Gausman’s 57.6 percent strand rate is nearly 20 percent lower than his career mark (74.2 percent).

It’s not clear how long Gausman is expected to be out, but even if he’s facing an extended absence, this figures to be a brief return to the rotation for Newcomb. Atlanta signed Dallas Keuchel last week, and he’s slated to make a second minor league appearance on Saturday, per David O’Brien of The Athletic (Twitter link). Keuchel tossed seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts in his first appearance with Class-A Rome this week as he continues to build toward a return to the big league mound.

As for Donaldson, he clearly took exception to being hit by a Joe Musgrove offering in last night’s contest and voiced his thoughts toward Musgrove as he walked toward first base. The two eventually had to be separated by Pittsburgh catcher Elias Diaz, and the incident led to ejections for Donaldson, Musgrove and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.

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