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Starling Marte

NL Central Notes: Moustakas, Pirates, Senzel, Reds

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Brewers infielder Mike Moustakas will try to play through a fracture in the tip of his right ring finger, and is hopeful of avoiding an injured list stint.  (Todd Rosiak of Milwaukee Journal Sentinal was among those to report the news.)  Moustakas suffered the injury yesterday while fielding a ground ball and left the game after the sixth inning.  X-rays were negative, though Moustakas isn’t in the Brewers’ lineup today.  The third baseman-turned-second baseman has received mixed reviews at his new position depending on which defensive metric you prefer — the Moose has a +3.9 UZR/150 but minus-2 Defensive Runs Saved over 137 1/3 innings as a second baseman this season.  No matter the position, Moustakas has continued to hit, with six homers and a .239/.349/.549 slash line through 83 plate appearances.

Some more from around the NL Central…

  • Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and GM Neal Huntington updated the media (including Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) on the status of several injured Bucs players.  A collision between Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez during Friday’s sent both men to the injured list, with Gonzalez on the 60-day IL with a broken collarbone and Marte to the 10-day IL with abdominal wall and quadriceps bruises.  While Marte has the shorter timeline on paper, Huntington wasn’t certain when Marte could be back in action.  Corey Dickerson isn’t yet ready for a minor league rehab assignment as he recovers from a shoulder strain, while Gregory Polanco (labrum surgery) could potentially make his season debut sometime this week.
  • In other Pirates injury news, the team placed catcher Jacob Stallings on the 10-day IL with a cervical neck strain.  Stallings’ roster spot will be filled by Einar Diaz, who was activated off the IL after recovering from a virus that sidelined him for two weeks’ worth of Spring Training action.
  • Top Reds prospect Nick Senzel is scheduled to play in his first Triple-A game of the season on Tuesday, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes.  Senzel was sidelined late in Spring Training with an ankle injury, so it will end up being roughly a month-long absence for the infielder-turned-center fielder.  Senzel has already been playing some extended Spring Training games, and will now return to Triple-A Louisville after posting an .887 OPS in 193 PA at the top minor league level in 2018.  The Reds are expected to promote Senzel at some point this season, though they’ll first want to see the 23-year-old get an extended stretch of good health, as Senzel has been plagued by a variety of injuries over the last year.
  • The Reds’ starting pitching has looked much better this season than in the last several years, and catcher Tucker Barnhart feels part of the reason for the improvement is an increased focus on analytics.  Under new manager David Bell and new pitching coach Derek Johnson, discussions with Reds coaches are “more numbers-driven now,” Barnhart tells Fangraphs’ David Laurila.  “They’re more percentage-driven, and more based on exit velocities and probable outcomes. Things like that. I still trust my eyes, but in the back of my mind there are always the percentages of what’s supposed to work. You’d be naive not to fall back on that, especially if you’re stuck calling a pitch.”

Pirates Select Bryan Reynolds, Recall Cole Tucker, Place Starling Marte On 10-Day IL

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1:45 pm: Per a team release, Marte will hit the 10-day IL with an “abdominal wall contusion,” while Gonzalez will be placed on the 60-day IL with a fractured left clavicle.

11:57 am:The Pirates have recalled shortstop Cole Tucker and selected the contract of outfielder Bryan Reynolds, adding both to the 25-man roster, the team announced. Reynolds will take the final remaining spot on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster. There has been no corresponding roster moves announced, but it’s been widely speculated that Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez may both be headed to the IL after their collision in last night’s ballgame.

Fangraphs puts Tucker and Reynolds as the #5 and #9 ranked prospects, respectively. Both will be making their major league debuts after strong showings in Spring Training this year. Tucker, 22, hit .259/.333/.356 in Double-A last year, but he’s torn his way through the Arizona Fall League, Spring Training, and his first thirteen games with Triple-A Indianapolis so far this season, where he was hitting a robust .333/.415/.579 in 66 plate appearances.

Reynolds, you may remember, joined the Pirates as part of the Andrew McCutchen trade. As MLB.com’s Adam Berry points out (via Twitter), the Pirates 25-man roster is now populated by the Pirates’ returns from the McCutchen and Gerrit Cole trades, with Michael Feliz being the only piece from either deal not currently in Pittsburgh. Kyle Crick recently returned from the injured list, Jason Martin is hitting .333/.391/.429 in limited playing time in left, Colin Moran platoons at third, and Joe Musgrove ably holds down a rotation spot for the Pirates.

Central Notes: Twins, Castellanos, Bucs, Cards/Cubs

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The Twins’ reported agreement with left-hander Martin Perez won’t preclude them from adding further arms this offseason, writes Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I think there are still some guys on the board that are interesting, certainly that could fit, so we remain engaged with those,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey tells Helfand. Falvey wouldn’t rule out adding another pitcher on a big league deal, acknowledging that the team has some payroll flexibility — especially relative to the previous levels at which they’ve spent.

Somewhat surprisingly, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tweets that the Twins are indeed viewing Perez as a starting pitcher. Perez is coming off a season in which he ranked in the bottom one percent of strikeout rate and opponents’ weighted on-base average among big league pitchers in 2018. Perez is still just 27, was once a well-regarded prospect and is a known commodity for GM Thad Levine (formerly an assistant GM in Texas), but the Twins weren’t short on options for the fifth spot in the rotation. Adalberto Mejia, Fernando Romero, Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler Duffey, Kohl Stewart and Zack Littell were all already on the 40-man roster, but the Twins are seemingly more comfortable with Perez as a back-of-the-rotation option early in 2019 than any of that bunch.

More from the central divisions:

  • If there’s a key remaining question for the Tigers this winter, it probably relates to the future of Nicholas Castellanos. Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press takes stock of the situation. Critically, as he notes, it’s largely unclear just how much interest there is among rival clubs. Castellanos is still just 26 years of age and out-hit most remaining free agents in 2018, but he’s also still considered a defensive liability and is earning a hefty $9.95MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility. Whether a significant offer will materialize remains to be seen; as Fenech suggests, though, it’s hard to fault the Tigers for holding on to a reasonably steep asking price to this point.
  • Some potentially eyebrow-raising chatter arose yesterday regarding the Pirates, but Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets that there’s nothing of substance. There’s no possibility of a deal between the Bucs and Dodgers regarding outfielder Starling Marte, says Heyman, shooting down speculation that had arisen. That, at least, had some facial plausibility since the L.A. organization would no doubt be interested in such a pursuit. Heyman also shoots down a much more fanciful idea that evidently arose involving a certain superstar free agent.
  • Elsewhere in the NL Central, the Cardinals and Cubs seem to be primed for a feud in the coming campaign. Both teams are dead set on getting back to the top of the division. And now things are getting personal. As Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch deftly explains, Chicago star Kris Bryant’s casual and mostly harmless jab at the city of St. Louis (“boring”) ignited a “scorched-earth response” from stalwart St. Louis backstop Yadier Molina. It might seem like much ado about nothing; it may turn out to be just that. But Molina promises “it will carry” into the season. And as Frederickson explains, the matter touches at something deeper in the psyches of Molina, the Cards, and even the city they play in.

Pirates Hire Rick Eckstein As Hitting Coach

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have filled their hitting coach vacancy with former Nationals coach Rick Eckstein, per Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (via tweet).

Eckstein’s career can be traced back to 2004 when he served in the Montreal Expos’ organization as a minor league hitting coach for two seasons. From there he spent the next three years as the hitting coach for the Nationals’ and Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliates.

David Eckstein’s older brother joins manager Clint Hurdle’s staff with four years of previous major league hitting coach experience with the Washington Nationals from 2009 to 2013. After being released mid-season from manager Davey Johnson’s staff, Eckstein spent the year after in the Angels organization where he served as a front office liasion, a role that merged the responsibilities of an assistant hitting coach with those of an advanced scout.

For both 2015 and 2016, Eckstein moved to the college ranks as an assistant hitting coach for the University of Kentucky before spending the last two seasons as the minor league hitting coordinator for the Minnesota Twins.

He’ll work to improve a Pirates’ offense that scored 692 runs in 2018 – 20th overall in the MLB. They were 25th in home runs and 16th in slugging percentage. They did display some decent contact skills, striking out at the fifth lowest rate in the majors (20.3%) while tying for 8th league-wide in batting average (.254).

At his disposal, Eckstein will have an offensive core that should be entering their prime. Starling Marte is the oldest of the group at thirty, and Gregory Polanco is somehow still just 27-years-old – but they also boast a trio of 26-year-old regulars – Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, and Colin Moran – that will need to excel for the Pirates to contend in a crowded NL Central.

The 45-year-old Eckstein takes over for Jeff Branson, whom the Pirates let go along with assistant hitting coach Jeff Livesey in early October. Both Branson and Livesey had served in their posts since 2014.

Injury Notes: Morton, Gregorius, Marte, Valera

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Astros hurler Charlie Morton departed from today’s contest against the Angels after pitching just one inning. As Brian McTaggart of MLB.com was among those to tweet, the cause for his exit was discomfort in his right shoulder. Shoulder inflammation was what sent Morton to the DL earlier this season, and the situation is particularly concerning considering Morton was already pitching on seven days’ rest. We’ll await further news from Houston’s camp on Morton’s situation, but needless to say, this is an unfortunate development for a team hoping to begin its title defense in under two weeks. Morton’s been a force for the Astros this season, posting a 3.15 ERA with 195 strikeouts in just 163 innings, and they can scarce stand to lose him for any stretch of the playoffs with Lance McCullers Jr.’s ability to pitch deep into games still an uncertainty.  [UPDATE: A.J. Hinch told McTaggart and other reporters that Morton was only supposed to throw three or four innings, and was removed for precautionary reasons after Morton’s velocity dropped.  The righty is still expected to make a start next weekend against the Orioles.]

A few more unfortunate injury developments from around baseball…

  • Another AL playoff team will be white-knuckling it today, as Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced that Didi Gregorius tore cartilage in his wrist on a slide home yesterday and may not return this season (h/t Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). He’s since received a cortisone injection, and while there’s no definitive word on his status for October, the news is ominous and unwelcome to a Yankees ballclub that would definitely like to be at full strength as they attempt to secure home field advantage over the A’s in a return to the one-game Wild Card playoff.
  • Add Orioles infielder Breyvic Valera to the list of players whose status for the season’s final weeks is in doubt. X-rays showed a fracture of the second metacarpal in his left index finger, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Valera was one of five players to join the Orioles as a component of the trade that sent Manny Machado to the Dodgers. He’s collected nine hits (all singles) in 38 plate appearances since coming to Baltimore, chipping in a stolen base along the way.
  • Pirates outfielder Starling Marte departed today’s game with left calf tightness. The two-time Gold Glove award winner has hit .277/.322/.452 with 19 homers and 33 steals in 576 plate appearances in 2018, and while the Pirates were eliminated from playoff contention with a loss in that game, they’ll surely be hoping the injury to Marte isn’t serious. Needless to say, he’s a vital component in their contention plans for the 2019 season, and as we await further word on the details, the Pittsburgh fan base will surely be hoping that a late-season calf issue doesn’t disrupt that.

Pirates Activate Starling Marte, Option Jose Osuna

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After reporting earlier today that Starling Marte could be activated from the DL if he felt good upon arrival to PNC Park, Adam Berry of MLB.com tweets that Marte has indeed been reinstated, with the Pirates optioning first base/outfield type Jose Osuna to the minors.

The quick DL stint for Marte is obviously best-case scenario for the Pirates, who must have been concerned at first considering the dubious nature of oblique injuries in general. Marte’s kicked off the 2018 season with a bang, hitting .308/.366/.503 with six homers and ten steals, so his return to the lineup is excellent news for Pittsburgh, who’ve been a .500 team in his absence.

The more interesting implication of this transaction is that outfield prospect Austin Meadows survived the roster crunch. Meadows was promoted to the big leagues for the first time ever following Marte’s placement on the disabled list, despite hitting a tepid .294/.336/.397 in Triple-A this season. His performance in the majors, however, has earned him a longer look: Meadows has homered three times and struck out just twice while hitting .448 in his 29 MLB plate appearances.

Injury Notes: Gomez, Sanchez, Marte, Bird, Prado

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Rays outfielder Carlos Gomez has been activated from the 10-day disabled list; he’d been sidelined since May 16th with a strained groin. The injury was thought to be minor at the time, and the fact that Gomez missed only the ten-day minimum leaves little room to doubt his health at this time. That doesn’t mean his performance comes without questions, though, as the veteran is slashing just .200/.252/.345 on the season. No corresponding move was required for Tampa Bay, as their roster was two men short following yesterday’s surprising trade with Seattle.

And now a flurry of other injury-related items from around the league…

  • David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that Anibal Sanchez could be the Braves’ starter on Tuesday following a successful rehab start on Friday. Mark Bowman of MLB.com takes it a step further by quoting manager Brian Snitker, who reportedly said that Sanchez is indeed penciled in to start Tuesday’s game. Sanchez has a 1.29 ERA in three appearances (two starts) on the season.
  • Adam Berry of MLB.com writes that Starling Marte will be activated from the DL by the Pirates today if he reports to the ballpark feeling ready to play. It’d be a remarkably quick return for the 29-year-old outfielder, who has been sidelined with an oblique injury. Injuries of that type have a reputation for lingering and causing players to miss extended time. One has to wonder what Marte’s potential activation would mean for the red-hot Austin Meadows, who’s managed more homers in the big leagues thus far (3) than strikeouts (2).
  • The Yankees have reinstated first baseman Greg Bird from the disabled list, optioning infielder Ronald Torreyes to Triple-A in a corresponding move. Marc Carig of The Athletic notes that the move makes plenty of sense considering the versatility of Gleyber Torres and the fact that a removal of Neil Walker from the roster isn’t reversible. Bird entered the season with plenty of hype surrounding him, but has yet to make his 2018 debut thanks to right foot surgery.
  • In a move that was widely expected, the Marlins placed Martin Prado (hamstring) on the 10-day DL today, recalling J.T. Riddle from Triple-A to take his place on the roster. It’s the latest in an unfortunate series of injuries for the formerly-durable Prado, who made only 147 trips to the plate last year following eight straight seasons with at least 500 PA.

Pirates Promote Austin Meadows, Place Starling Marte On DL

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May 18: The Pirates have announced Meadows’ promotion and Marte’s placement on the DL.

May 17: The Pirates announced tonight that they’re planning to promote top outfield prospect Austin Meadows tomorrow. Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic first reported that the Bucs were planning to call up the long time top prospect. Biertempfel adds that he’ll be stepping into the roster spot of Starling Marte, who’ll land on the disabled list with a right oblique strain.

Austin Meadows | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Meadows, 23, has long rated as one of the game’s most promising outfield prospects. The ninth overall pick in 2013, Meadows entered the season ranked among the game’s top 50 prospects, per Baseball America (44), MLB.com (45), Fangraphs (47), Baseball Prospectus (34). After a down season at the Triple-A level in 2017, Meadows is hitting .281/.326/.380 with a homer and eight steals (in nine attempts). He’s struck out in just 20 of his 131 plate appearances but also drawn just seven walks.

The promotion will give the Pirates their first regular-season look at Meadows against Major League pitching. Hamstring injuries throughout his minor league tenure likely delayed Meadows’ timeline, and while he still has yet to truly overpower Triple-A pitching as he did at the Double-A level, there’s plenty of reason for optimism regarding his bat. Scouting reports on Meadows credit him for having an above-average to plus hit tool with average power and plus speed. Those wheels serve him well defensively, also, as he’s capable of playing center field, though more recent scouting reports on him forecast a potential move to left field when all is said and done.

It’s possible that this is merely a short-term promotion for Meadows, but oblique injuries tend to keep players on the disabled list for around a month, so he may also get a reasonably prolonged look in the outfield with Marte on the shelf. With Andrew McCutchen now in San Francisco and Corey Dickerson only controlled through 2019, Meadows will be fighting to show the Pirates that he deserves the long-term spot in the outfield that the organization has long hoped he’d eventually claim. For the time being, it seems likely that Meadows will man center field, with Dickerson and Gregory Polanco flanking him in the outfield corners.

As for Marte, his loss shouldn’t be undersold. Though the 29-year-old disappointed fans and the organization alike in 2017 when he was slapped with an 80-game suspension following a failed PED test, he’s bounced back extraordinarily well in 2018, hitting at a career-best .308/.366/.503 pace with six homers, five doubles and an NL-best four triples — all while racking up 10 steals in 13 tries and walking at a career-high 8.6 percent clip. That’s quite a lot of production to subtract from the lineup and leaves Meadows with some sizable shoes to fill, though if he can simply hold his own at the plate in his first exposure to MLB pitching and play capable defense in center field, the Pirates will surely be pleased with that outcome.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Notes: Brewers, Acuna, Braves, Ruiz, Marte

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The Brewers began the season with just about the lowest payroll in baseball, which makes the team’s charge into playoff contention all the more surprising, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes.  Despite spending far less on players than the other contenders, the Brew Crew entered today three games out of both a wild card spot and first place in the NL Central.  Here’s the latest from around the National League.

  • Braves youngster Ronald Acuna blossomed into one of the game’s best prospects this season, and Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser (subscription required) outlines how Atlanta was able to sign the talented and surprisingly unheralded outfielder in 2014 for a mere $100K bonus.  Interestingly, Acuna said that he was expecting to sign with the Royals before the Braves upped their offer to that $100K, and thus Acuna simply went with the highest bidder.
  • Rio Ruiz is hitting well in September and hoping to work himself into the third base picture for the Braves next season, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.  The rookie still has just a .604 OPS over 119 total plate appearances this year, largely due to a nasty slump that led to his demotion earlier in the season, though Ruiz feels he has improved his work both at the plate and especially in the field.  Third base stands out as a clear area of need for the Braves in 2018, though it remains to be seen if the team will make a veteran acquisition or if they’ll stick to the rebuilding plan and continue giving playing time to Ruiz, Johan Camargo or other internal options.
  • Starling Marte talks to ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera (also, here is the link to the interview in its original Spanish) about his life, career and how he is trying to come back from the 80-game PED suspension that marred both his season and his reputation.  The Pirates outfielder said he still doesn’t know how nandrolone got into his system, though ultimately, “it was my mistake” for not being careful about everything he ingested.

Pirates Notes: Marte, Cutch, Cole, Rangers, Phillies

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Eligible to return from his 80-game PED suspension July 18, Pirates outfielder Starling Marte began a High-A rehab assignment Sunday. When Marte does rejoin the Bucs, he’ll do so as a left fielder, manager Clint Hurdle told Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters. Marte has spent the majority of his career in left since debuting in 2012, but thanks to both his excellent work there and Andrew McCutchen’s decline in center field, the Pirates moved the former to center and the latter to right in the offseason (Gregory Polanco shifted from right to left).

Now, with McCutchen enjoying a bounce-back season at the plate, Pittsburgh will keep its longtime face of the franchise in the outfield’s most important position. McCutchen is in the midst of his second straight poor year in center, though, as he posted minus-28 defensive runs saved and a minus-18.7 Ultimate Zone Rating in 2016 and already has a minus-15 DRS and a minus 18.5 UZR/150 this season. But general manager Neal Huntington has seen improvement, noting: “His metrics are better this year. Part of that … is we’ve pushed him back a little bit to play to his strengths and to his confidence, playing gap to gap.”

  • It’s possible Marte will head back to center if the Pirates trade McCutchen before this month’s deadline, and Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observes that the value of both McCutchen and right-hander Gerrit Cole is increasing. Rival evaluators have pointed to Texas as a fit for the two, with one evaluator suggesting that the Rangers would have to give up outfielder Leody Taveras or left-hander Yohander Mendez just for McCutchen, according to Brink. Both Taveras (No. 45) and Mendez (No. 46) rank among MLB Pipeline’s top 50 prospects.
  • Sticking with the McCutchen theme, Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com opines that the in-state rival Phillies should pursue a deal for the 30-year-old. Given that the Phillies have the majors’ worst record (27-53), McCutchen wouldn’t help them vie for a playoff berth this year, but Lawrence argues that he’d still be a worthwhile addition. Philadelphia could acquire McCutchen with the goal of extending him past next season, when his team control expires. If they fail to reach a multiyear agreement by next summer and the Phillies aren’t in the playoff hunt, they’d potentially be able to flip McCutchen, contends Lawrence.
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