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NL Central Notes: Bell, Peraza, Senzel, Capuano, Nolin

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The Pirates recalled top first base prospect Josh Bell over the weekend, and he’ll have a larger role than he had in his brief initial call-up earlier this season (three brilliant pinch-hit plate appearances), GM Neal Huntington tells Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We brought Josh up to play a decent amount,” said Huntington of the 24-year-old Bell, who has batted a .295/.382/.468 with 14 homers in 114 Triple-A games this season. Bell’s prospect pedigree and strong minor league production, paired with a .167/.306/.250 second half from John Jaso, could well pave the way to everyday at-bats (or something close to it) down the stretch. If he can prove himself to be a consistent hitter in the Majors and one capable of playing a passable first base — Huntington tells Brink that Bell’s defense will “continue to be a work in progress” — Bell could unseat Jaso and lead the team to shop the veteran (and his two-year, $8MM contract) over the winter.

A bit more from the NL Central…

  • Reds manager Bryan Price tells MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon that Jose Peraza could remain with the team for the rest of the year even if Zack Cozart returns quickly from a minor Achilles injury, but he stopped short of committing to the notion of Peraza sticking in the Majors through the end of the Triple-A season on Sept. 5. As Sheldon notes, Peraza was scarcely used when he spent a month and a half in the Majors earlier this summer, but he’s had a pair of multi-hit games since being recalled to fill in for Cozart at shortstop and could get looks at second base, in left field and in center field over the course of September in an effort to see what he can do with consistent playing time against MLB pitching. It would be somewhat strange for the Reds not to work him into the lineup as much as possible in order to get a better evaluation of Peraza, especially considering the fact that he can be deployed at a number of positions.
  • Having watched Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman and Andrew Benintendi go from the 2015 draft to the Majors less than a year later, Reds third base prospect Nick Senzel said on the MLBPipeline.com podcast that he hopes for a similarly quick ascent (also via Sheldon). Senzel, the No. 2 overall pick in this season’s draft, is hitting .309/.400/.545 with seven homers in 46 games with Class-A Dayton. He hasn’t been moved quite as aggressively as Bregman, who played at Class-A Advanced during his debut season, but neither Swanson nor Benintendi topped Class-A last season and both still made it to the bigs this year. “You look at those guys … get there their first full year, as a player and a college hitter that makes you hungry to get up there,” said Senzel.
  • Brewers left-hander Chris Capuano isn’t likely to return to the team in 2016, GM David Stearns tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The 38-year-old has been sidelined by an elbow injury since late May, and a platelet-rich plasma treatment hasn’t sped along his recovery as much as had been hoped. Stearns notes that Capuano “is still very motivated to make it back and continue his career,” so it sounds as if there’s a good chance he’ll aim to return in 2017 if he can’t do so at the tail end of the present season.
  • Another Brewers southpaw, Sean Nolin, recently underwent Tommy John surgery after trying to stave off the procedure, Haudricourt further reports. He, too, tried a PRP treatment but did not improve enough to avoid a UCL replacement. Milwaukee outfielder Rymer Liriano, meanwhile, has faced slow going after being struck by a pitch in the face this spring. Though he has now begun baseball activities, Liriano won’t be able to make it to the majors this year. Instead, says Stearns, he may be able to participate in fall instructional league action.

Injury Notes: Darvish, Zimmermann, Miggy, A-Rod, Brewers

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Here’s the latest on some notable names who are either preparing to return from the DL or could miss a bit of time…

  • Yu Darvish threw six shutout innings in a rehab start today and is on track to return to the majors on Saturday against the Pirates.  The Rangers ace told reporters (including Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) that he felt good after the 87-pitch outing, which wrapped up a very impressive rehab stint that saw Darvish allow just two earned runs over 20 minor league innings.  Darvish missed the entire 2015 season due to Tommy John surgery and hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since August 2014.
  • Jordan Zimmermann left during the sixth inning of today’s game with what has been diagnosed as a right groin strain.  The Tigers ace underwent an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, manager Brad Ausmus told MLB.com’s Jason Beck and other media, and it isn’t yet known if Zimmermann will require a DL stint or even a missed start.  Needless to say, losing Zimmermann to the DL would be a major blow to a Detroit rotation that entered Sunday with a 4.76 staff ERA, seventh-worst in all of baseball.  Zimmermann has been the lone bright spot, and after today’s outing he has a 2.52 ERA over his first 60 2/3 innings as a Tiger.  Slugger Miguel Cabrera also suffered a bruised left knee after being hit by a pitch during the same game, though Ausmus doesn’t expect that injury to be too serious.
  • Alex Rodriguez will return from the 15-day DL on Tuesday, Yankees skipper Joe Girardi told reporters (including Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News).  A-Rod was rumored to be set for activation this weekend but Girardi chose to wait until after the Yankees’ Monday off-day to give the veteran slugger extra time to fully recover a hamstring strain.
  • Brewers GM David Stearns updated Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on several injured Milwaukee players.  Sean Nolin recently received a PRP injection to see if he can avoid Tommy John surgery; the southpaw suffered a slightly torn UCL during Spring Training.  Rule 5 draft pick Zack Jones has spent the entire season on the DL with shoulder stiffness and Stearns hopes Jones can begin a rehab assignment in early June.  Former top outfield prospect Rymer Liriano is still recovering after being hit in the face with a pitch during Spring Training and there isn’t any timetable for a return.  Stearns said there is a chance Liriano could miss the entire season.  Also in the piece, as previously reported, reliever Will Smith will begin a rehab assignment this week with an eye towards returning to the Brewers’ roster in the first week of June.

Rymer Liriano Suffers Facial Fractures

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Outfielder Rymer Liriano sustained multiple facial fractures Sunday after being hit by a pitch in the Brewers’ Spring Training game against the Dodgers, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. Liriano was batting in the eighth inning when Matt West’s pitch came up and in and struck him hard on the cheek. He was removed on a stretcher. He will begin the season on the disabled list, and it’s unknown when he’ll return. “It’s serious,” says Brewers manager Craig Counsell. “He got hit in the head.”

The Brewers acquired Liriano in January in a minor trade with the Padres. Liriano, who is out of options, was competing to make the team and possibly earn playing time in center field, where the Brewers have a vacancy. Once a top prospect with the Padres, Liriano batted .292/.383/.460 for Triple-A El Paso last season.

Reactions To The Khris Davis Trade

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The Athletics acquired outfielder Khris Davis  from the Brewers yesterday for prospects Jacob Nottingham and Bubba Derby. The A’s also designated pitcher Sean Nolin in a related move. Here is a sampling of the reactions to and effects of the deal.

  • Brewers GM David Stearns doesn’t expect to make any deals between now and the first day of Spring Training, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Pitchers and catchers report to camp next Sunday. In my opinion, the club does seem to have an opportunity to buy low on a free agent outfielder if they would rather give recent acquisition Rymer Liriano more competition than Kirk Nieuwenhuis or Keon Broxton.
  • In another tweet, Haudricourt relays that the acquisition of Nottingham has no direct effect on Jonathan Lucroy’s status with the team. Nottingham had a successful campaign in High-A last season, but he’s at least one year away from reaching the majors. Given the direction of the Brewers’ rebuild, Lucroy seems to destined to find a new home as soon as he proves himself healthy and effective.
  • The trade made sense in a formulaic way, writes Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs. The A’s had a role for an outfielder while the Brewers are busy acquiring prospects and players with upside. Sullivan provides some background about Davis, noting his ability to slug without steep platoon splits. He ranked in the top five percent of hitters in bat exit velocity on liners and fly balls. In other words, when he makes contact, it’s hard. That could help him to fit into spacious O.Co Coliseum.
  • ESPN’s Christina Kahrl also likes the trade for both teams. As she notes, affordable power hitters are few and far between, making this a rare opportunity for Oakland. Davis is under club control for four more seasons and has yet to reach arbitration. The Brewers farm system was recently rated fifth by ESPN’s Keith Law prior to the trade. The club is poised to rebound quickly from their tear down. They may possibly dodge the scariest years of the new Cubs juggernaut in the process.
  • Nottingham is an offense first catcher, but he’s still one of the best catching prospects, says Jim Callis of MLB.com (video). His power and hitting ability could potentially play at another position if he doesn’t stick behind the dish. Meanwhile, Derby is described as a undersized pitcher who could start or convert into a setup role.

Brewers Acquire Rymer Liriano, Designate Shane Peterson

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The Brewers announced on Thursday that they have acquired outfielder Rymer Liriano from the Padres in exchange for minor league left-hander Trevor Seidenberger. In order to clear a spot for Liriano on the team’s 40-man roster, the Brewers designated fellow outfielder Shane Peterson for assignment.

Liriano, formerly one of the Padres’ most highly regarded prospects, was designated for assignment himself last Friday to clear a spot for shortstop Alexei Ramirez, who signed a one-year deal with the Padres.. Still just 24 years old, Liriano struggled in his lone glimpse of Major League action, batting just .220/.289/.266 in 121 plate appearances back in 2014. He is, however, a highly accomplished hitter in the minors, having batted a combined .311/.399/.483 to go along with 14 homers and 21 steals in 620 Triple-A plate appearances. Liriano has played more corner outfield throughout his minor league career, but he also saw 168 innings in center field this past season and 349 innings there in 2014. That, it would seem, is his best path to the Brewers’ Major League roster, as Milwaukee is already flush right-handed-hitting corner outfield options, including Khris Davis, Ryan Braun and Domingo Santana.

Prior to the 2012 and 2013 seasons, Liriano made an appearance on a number of league-wide Top 100 prospects, including those from Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus, where he ranged anywhere from 39th overall (B-Pro, pre-2013) to 60th overall (MLB.com, pre-2012). Baseball America credited him with the best outfield arm in San Diego’s system for three consecutive seasons, and prior to the 2012 campaign BA also tabbed him as the best power-hitting prospect in the Padres’ minor league ranks.

Liriano underwent Tommy John surgery that cost him the entirety of his 2013 season, but he’s always produced at the minor league level when on the field. Scouting reports have, in the past, praised him for his ability to hit to all fields with power, even though there’s a general expectation that he’ll lose some of the speed he displayed earlier in the minors as he continues to fill out his frame.

Seidenberger, 23, was Milwaukee’s 12th-round pick in the 2013 draft and advanced to the Double-A level last season, though he struggled in a short time there after excelling at Class-A Advanced. He’s worked exclusively as a reliever — said by Baseball America at the time he was drafted to be his best role — and pitched to a collective 4.38 ERA as a professional thus far. After struggling initially in 2013 following the draft, Seidenberger has stepped up his game, averaging better than a strikeout per inning and working to a 3.77 ERA. He’ll likely head to Double-A to begin the 2016 campaign in the Padres organization, though he is, of course, not on the 40-man roster.

Peterson, 27, batted .259/.324/.353 with a pair of homers in 226 plate appearances for Milwaukee last season, spending time in all three outfield spots. He’s a career .297/.383/.461 hitter in parts of five seasons at the Triple-A level but never received much of a look in the outfield with the Athletics, who originally acquired him from the Cardinals as part of the 2009 Matt Holliday trade. This past season was Peterson’s first in the Milwaukee organization, and he’ll hope now to be claimed by a new club looking for some outfield depth with a fair bit of success in the minor leagues.

Jon Morosi of FOX Sports first reported that the Brewers were nearing a deal for Liriano (on Twitter).

Padres Notes: Cashner, Liriano, Draft

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After a splashy — and ultimately unsuccessful — offseason in 2014-2015, A.J. Preller’s lack of big moves this offseason has been puzzling, FanGraphs’ Dave Cameron writes. The Padres did make what Cameron believes was an excellent trade to send Craig Kimbrel to the Red Sox, and they’ve also made a number of smaller moves to send Joaquin Benoit, Yonder Alonso, Marc Rzepczynski and Jedd Gyorko elsewhere while adding Drew Pomeranz, Jon Jay and Christian Bethancourt via trades and Alexei Ramirez, Fernando Rodney and Carlos Villanueva via the free agent market. They have, however, kept two of their most valuable trade assets in Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross, even though teams paid heavily for pitching in the free agent market this offseason and the Padres don’t project to contend in 2016. That they haven’t yet dealt Cashner is especially vexing, since he’s eligible for free agency next winter and since his new team won’t be able to extend him a qualifying offer if the Padres wait until after the start of the season to deal him. Here’s more from San Diego.

  • Rymer Liriano was once a highly regarded prospect in the Padres’ system, but the team’s recent decision to designate him for assignment is, in some ways, unsurprising, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Liriano is merely the latest in a long line of pre-Preller prospects to depart from the organization, a line that also includes Joe Ross, Trea Turner, Max Fried, Matt Wisler, and many others. Also, the Padres’ string of outfield acquisitions before the 2015 season buried Liriano on their depth chart, and Liriano, though he’s generally hit well in the minors, has had problems with strikeouts. Finally, the team has a number of young outfielders it seemingly likes better, including Hunter Renfroe, Alex Dickerson and Rule 5 newcomer Jabari Blash.
  • The Padres are currently loaded with top 2016 draft picks, Dennis Lin of the Union-Tribune writes. They already had the eighth overall pick, and they’ll also get compensatory picks for the departures of Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy, giving them three of the first 27 selections. They also have a selection (No. 71 overall) in Comp Round B, which means they’ll have made six picks by the time they’ve named their third-rounder at No. 85 overall. All those picks should help them restock after the departures of a number of top prospects last winter.

Padres Designate Rymer Liriano

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The Padres have designated outfielder Rymer Liriano for assignment, the club announced. His roster spot goes to Alexei Ramirez, whose signing was announced today.

Liriano, 24, once rated as one of the game’s fifty or so best prospects. But he’s now lost his 40-man spot after only one brief and disappointing MLB cameo in 2014.

Heading into 2015, Baseball America still considered Liriano a top-ten organizational prospect, noting his impressive raw tools but limitations at the plate. Liriano went on to put up a solid .280/.375/.451 batting line (with 14 home runs and 18 steals) over 549 plate appearances in his first full season at Triple-A. He also posted a personal-best 11.7% walk rate, though he continued to strike out in about a quarter of his plate appearances.

That showing was apparently not enough to convince the Pads that Liriano has much of a future in the majors. It seems plausible to think that other organizations might see some upside left to tap into, though it obviously remains to be seen whether any will be willing to give him a 40-man spot to find out.

While the Padres’ offseason may not yet be complete, Liriano had figured to factor in the outfield mix this season. Indeed, it appeared that he and Rule 5 pick Jabari Blash (among others) might battle for a roster spot in camp. Both would have had to make the active roster to be retained. Liriano was added to the 40-man before the 2012 season, which would suggest that he had burned through a fourth option last year.

Padres Designate Jeff Francoeur For Assignment

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The Padres have designated outfielder Jeff Francoeur for assignment to clear room for top prospect Rymer Liriano’s promotion, tweets Marty Caswell of 1090 radio in San Diego.

The 30-year-old Francoeur recently joined the Friars’ big league club after spending much of the season with Triple-A El Paso, but he collected just a pair of hits and three walks in 28 trips to the plate. Frenchy hasn’t produced in the Majors since a surprising 20-20 campaign for the Royals back in 2011 — an effort that was impressive enough to net him a two-year. $13.5MM deal to remain in Kansas City.

That contract proved to be a misstep for Kansas City GM Dayton Moore, however, as Francoeur has batted just .226/.269/.346 since that time and was designated for assignment midway through the contract’s second season. The former top prospect and Rookie of the Year candidate did enjoy a nice season with El Paso this year, as he batted a healthy .294/.325/.465 with 15 homers in 416 plate appearances.

Liriano, 23, is batting a robust .291/.362/.473 with 14 homers and 20 steals between Double-A and Triple-A this season. He ranked sixth on MLB.com’s midseason list of the Top 20 Padres prospects. MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo noted that Liriano has plenty of raw power and above-average speed, but he’ll need to refine his approach at the plate because of his propensity to swing and miss. His bat profiles well at any outfield position, according to the MLB.com duo.

West Notes: Liriano, Gallo, Rockies

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The Padres will promote top outfield prospect Rymer Liriano on Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Liriano hasn’t made many lists of top prospects throughout the game, but Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2014 named him the Padres’ sixth-best prospect heading into the season, praising his five-tool potential, even after he missed the 2013 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. Since then, the 23-year-old has attracted attention with a solid performance at Double-A San Antonio and a ridiculous outburst in a small sample with Triple-A El Paso, in which he’s hit .467/.536/.683 in his first 69 plate appearances. Here are more notes from the West divisions.

  • The Rangers will not promote top prospect Joey Gallo this season, ESPN’s Jim Bowden tweets. The 20-year-old is hitting .255/.347/.568 for Double-A Frisco after putting up even more ridiculous numbers earlier this season at Class A+ Myrtle Beach, and he wowed fans at this year’s Futures Game. But it sounds like we’ll have to wait until 2015 before we see him hit home runs in Arlington. He’s struck out more than three times for every walk so far at Double-A, and he has no Triple-A experience, so there could be merit to allowing him to spend at least a couple more months in the minors.
  • The Rockies should make seven moves to vault themselves into contention in 2015, ESPN Insider’s Jim Bowden writes. FanGraphs’ Paul Swydan recently wrote an article with a similar theme, but very different suggestions, and it’s interesting to compare the two pieces. Some of Bowden’s suggestions (like trading Kyle Parker and DJ LeMahieu to Minnesota for Brian Dozier, or dealing Brett Anderson and prospect Raimel Tapia to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts) seem a bit far-fetched, but they’re good springboards for discussion, and figuring out how to fix a 45-71 team in short order isn’t an easy exercise.

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