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Tyler Glasnow

Pirates To Promote Tyler Glasnow

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9:25am: Glasnow will actually debut tomorrow against the Cardinals, Olney now tweets. Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets that Glasnow’s promotion was in part driven by uncertainty surrounding Niese’s left knee. Niese’s start has been pushed from Thursday to Sunday, and he’s being examined in Pittsburgh today.

8:39am: The Pirates will promote top prospect Tyler Glasnow to make a start this weekend against the Cubs, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (via Twitter).

Tyler Glasnow

The 22-year-old Glasnow entered the season rated as a consensus top 15 prospect throughout the game and has worked to a 1.78 ERA through 96 innings at the Triple-A level this season. While he’s averaged 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in that time, he’s also averaged 4.9 walks per nine, so there are certainly some control issues that need to be further smoothed out. That high walk rate notwithstanding, Glasnow has yielded just 13 hits over his past 40 frames.

Entering the season, Baseball America rated Glasnow as the No. 14 prospect in baseball, writing that he featured a fastball that sits 94-96 mph but tops out at 99 mph and appears even faster than that to hitters due to his 6’8″ frame. Glasnow also offers a curve and a changeup, the former of which BA termed “unhittable when he has command of it.” MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis rated Glasnow as the No. 10 prospect and praised his clean delivery but noted that he struggles to consistently repeat it due to his size. ESPN’s Keith Law ranked him fourth on his midseason update of the game’s Top 25 prospects, calling him a future ace. Virtually any scouting report one can find on Glasnow agrees that his ceiling is that of a top-of-the-rotation starter, and the Pirates undoubtedly have visions of Glasnow and fellow top prospect Jameson Taillon joining current ace Gerrit Cole atop their rotation for the next several years in their perfect-world scenario.

Pittsburgh currently has Cole, Taillon and Ryan Vogelsong on the Major League disabled list, so the need for some rotation help is understandable. Those injuries, combined with struggles from veterans such as Francisco Liriano and Jon Niese, have led to season-long rotation problems. As such, the Bucs have had to dip into their farm system on multiple occasions to help patch things up; Pittsburgh received four good innings from left-hander Steven Brault in his big league debut yesterday and, and rookie right-hander Chad Kuhl has also made a pair of starts in the past week. The overall results for the starting staff haven’t been pretty, as Pirates starters rank 20th in the Majors with a 4.67 ERA and 21st with 464 innings thrown. Glasnow will become the 11th player to make a start for the team in 2016.

Innings don’t figure to be as significant of an issue with Glasnow as they are with Taillon, who didn’t pitch in 2014-15 due to injuries. However, Glasnow did total a fairly limited 109 1/3 innings last season between Double-A and Triple-A (an ankle injury cost him about a month of the season), and his career-high for innings pitched came back in 2014, when he totaled 143 2/3 frames between Class-A Advanced and the Arizona Fall League. As such, the Bucs will probably keep an eye on his workload moving forward.

Exactly how he factors into the rotation plans moving forward is yet unclear — this could be a spot start, or Glasnow could make regular starts with innings/pitch limits moving forward — but given the team’s injuries and the presence of Brault and Kuhl in the current rotation picture, it certainly seems possible that there’s a permanent spot to be won. If Glasnow is indeed in the Majors to stay, he’d be controllable through the 2022 season and would not be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season. He won’t sniff Super Two eligibility as it stands right now, as he’d finish the year with 87 days of Major League service time if he’s promoted on Friday and sticks through season’s end.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pitcher Notes: Gray, Lincecum, Bucs, Rosenthal, BoSox

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Athletics manager Bob Melvin thinks the trapezius problem that forced Sonny Gray to the disabled list Sunday is at the root of the right-hander’s early season woes. “It’s like pitching with a rock in the bottom of your neck,” Melvin said (Twitter link via Joe Stiglich of CSNBayArea.com). If Gray had been pitching through the injury before landing on the DL, it would explain his swift descent from an ace to one of the majors’ worst starters in 2016. For his part, Gray expects the DL stint to serve him and the team well. “It’s better to go ahead and try to miss a couple starts and knock this thing out. In the long run, it’ll benefit everyone,” he commented (Twitter link via Jane Lee of MLB.com).

Here’s more on a handful of other pitchers:

  • Newly signed Angels righty Tim Lincecum will head to Triple-A Salt Lake City at the end of the month and make at least two rehab starts there before joining the big league club, tweets Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times.
  • Pirates general manager Neal Huntington wants elite pitching prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon to spend the entire season with Triple-A Indianapolis, but he realizes that it’s unlikely to happen. “Perfect world they have a full year at Triple-A. It’s probably not going to be a perfect world,” he said Sunday (Twitter link via Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review). Glasnow and Taillon have torched the minors this year and look poised to join the Pirates when the Super Two threshold passes in June. Aside from Gerrit Cole and, to a much lesser extent, Juan Nicasio, Pittsburgh has gotten little production from its rotation members this year. Thus, Glasnow and Taillon will provide a pair of welcome reinforcements.
  • The Pirates have gotten many offers for minor league right-hander Chad Kuhl over the years, Huntington said Sunday (Twitter link via Stephen Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Huntington added that he thinks Kuhl has the potential to be an asset in either the rotation or bullpen at the major league level. Both Glasnow and Taillon overshadow Kuhl, but the latter has gotten eye-opening results at Triple-A this year, posting a microscopic .99 ERA in 45 2/3 innings. Kuhl, 23, also demonstrated similar abilities at lower minor league levels.
  • Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal has struggled with command this month, walking nine batters in six innings, which manager Mike Matheny attributes to a lack of work. “If we see him take long breaks and then be really sharp when he comes in, that’s another story. But right now, he’s just not quite where he wants to be. And sometimes the only way of fixing that is to throw,” Matheny said (via Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com). Matheny plans to use Rosenthal more, even if it means the Cardinals deploy the 25-year-old so often that they have to rest him for certain save situations. “I think it’s probably the priority at this point to get [Rosenthal] the amount of work that he needs until he is right, and then build on that confidence,” Matheny stated.
  • Triple-A Pawtucket has placed Red Sox southpaw Brian Johnson on the temporary inactive list as he seeks treatment for anxiety, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com. Johnson, whom MLBpipeline.com ranks as Boston’s sixth-best prospect, will partake in “non-game baseball activities” in Fort Myers, Fla., while undergoing anxiety treatment. “Obviously we’re well aware of what he’s dealing with and we support him,” said manager John Farrell. “He’s a talented young guy and we’ll provide every available resource to him to get back to being a productive pitcher and a guy that we’d hope to factor in as we go forward.”

NL Notes: Glasnow, d’Arnaud, Story, Rizzo

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Coming into the season, Tyler Glasnow was expected to provide a mid-season boost to the Pirates rotation, and that looks likelier by the day. As MiLB.com’s Sam Dykstra writes, the young righty has been dominant at Triple-A and currently leads the International League in strikeout rate. Though a promotion seems all but inevitable at some point, the timing remains uncertain and may be dependent upon what the club can get from its current options (as well as its estimation of where the Super Two cutoff will fall). Jeff Locke is coming off of his best start of the year after some significant early struggles, while Juan Nicasio is throwing well enough currently to hold down another slot and Ryan Vogelsong remains a factor.

Here’s more from the National League …

  • The Mets may ultimately need to consider moving Travis d’Arnaud out from behind the plate, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post suggests. If d’Arnaud misses an extended stretch, argues Davidoff, the organization ought at least to think about alternatives to full-time catching. Of course, while the 27-year-old hit well enough last year (.268/.340/.485 in 268 plate appearances) to play anywhere on the diamond, he’s yet to carry that kind of production over even a full season and — regardless — is most valuable as a backstop.
  • Opposing pitchers have exhibited a new approach to breakout Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes. After initially testing him on the inner half, with memorable results, hurlers are now attacking him away. While he’ll obviously have a chance to respond in the cat-and-mouse game, Story’s production has fallen off significantly. He still owns a rather productive .247/.306/.649 overall slash, but his 36.5% strikeout rate and recent lack of pull-side power opportunities certainly rate as concerns looking forward.
  • Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post questions the Nationals’ lack of action on GM Mike Rizzo’s contract. The veteran executive says he’s not yet heard anything, though he also expressed a lack of concern on the subject. While there’s no rush to decide on Rizzo’s two-year option (it’s due June 14), and expectations remain that he’ll remain with the organization, Svrluga says it remains a mystery why ownership hasn’t gone ahead and made a seemingly obvious decision to lock up club’s head baseball decisionmaker.

Pirates Notes: McCutchen, Stewart, Glasnow

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Andrew McCutchen reiterates that he’s interested in sticking with the Pirates, ESPN’s Jayson Stark reports. “[E]veryone knows I want to be here,” McCutchen says. “So that’s nothing new to anyone.” McCutchen has repeatedly maintained his interest in staying in Pittsburgh beyond the expiration of his contract following the 2018 season (or the 2017 season, in the unlikely event that the Bucs don’t exercise his 2018 option), and he’s also said he doesn’t define himself in terms of how much money he makes. According to Stark, though, McCutchen was cautious when asked whether he would take a hometown discount to stay with the Bucs. “I still stick with the [idea that] money doesn’t define me because it doesn’t,” he says. “But it’s not altered like that in this game. No one plays for free. People rarely ever work for free. But you know, whenever that time comes, that time comes. But I’m trying not to think about it too much.” The question, from the Pirates’ perspective, is whether there’s a way to extend McCutchen that makes sense within their budget. They already control him through his age-31 season, and they might not want to pay what the market would consider a fair salary for a player of McCutchen’s talent — surely over $20MM a year — for what could turn out to be decline years in his thirties. Here’s more on the Bucs.

  • Backup catcher Chris Stewart is happy to have received a multi-year deal this winter, MLB.com’s Adam Berry writes. Stewart’s deal was modest — he’ll get just $2.75MM total for 2016 and 2017, along with a $250K buyout on a cheap option in 2018. But it gives him more of a sense of stability than he’s previously had in his career. “Knowing that I’ll be here for more than a year — hopefully three or more, that’s the goal — that’s something I’m not used to,” he says. Stewart is slated to back up Francisco Cervelli in 2016, and then could back up Elias Diaz, a prospect with a good defensive reputation, in 2017 if Cervelli isn’t extended.
  • Top pitching prospect Tyler Glasnow appears likely to make an impact sometime in the coming season, but the Pirates also considered promoting him during the 2015 campaign, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “We had legitimate discussions about (calling up) Tyler last year,” says Pirates GM Neal Huntington. “Ultimately, we felt it was in his and our best interest to continue the development and command of the fastball, the consistency of his breaking ball, the ability to throw it for a strike and for a chase, and to develop the changeup (in Triple-A).” He now seems likely to have to wait to be promoted until June, after the passing of the Super Two threshold. That’s what the Bucs did with Gerrit Cole three years ago, and Cole says it had no ill effects on him. “It’s actually better; you kind of light a fire under somebody,” Cole says “And he gets an opportunity to fine-tune his routine.”

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