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MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Buxton, Camargo, Gamel, Hill

By Jason Martinez | April 18, 2018 at 11:02pm CDT

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(April 18th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

  • ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS | Depth Chart
    • Injury news: SP Taijuan Walker will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.
  • ATLANTA BRAVES | Depth Chart
    • Signed: OF/3B Jose Bautista (MiLB contract)
    • Activated from 10-Day DL: INF Johan Camargo 
      • Camargo was not in Wednesday’s lineup.
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: SP Anibal Sanchez (strained hamstring), RP Jose Ramirez (shoulder inflammation)
      • Lucas Sims and Matt Wisler are the leading candidates to start in Sanchez’s place on Thursday.
    • Promoted: RP Jesse Biddle
  • LOS ANGELES DODGERS | Depth Chart
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: SP Rich Hill (finger inflammation)
    • Promoted: RP Adam Liberatore
  • SAN DIEGO PADRES | Depth Chart
    • Reinstated from five-game suspension: SP Luis Perdomo

—

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • HOUSTON ASTROS | Depth Chart
    • Activated from DL: RP Tony Sipp
    • Optioned: RP James Hoyt
  • MINNESOTA TWINS | Depth Chart
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: CF Byron Buxton (migraines)
      • Max Kepler started in CF in Buxton’s place. Robbie Grossman has played RF for the past two games.
    • Promoted: OF Ryan LaMarre
  • NEW YORK YANKEES | Depth Chart
    • Signed: 1B Adam Lind (MiLB contract)
  • SEATTLE MARINERS | Depth Chart
    • Activated from 10-Day DL: OF Ben Gamel
      • Gamel played LF and batted 7th on Wednesday.
    • Optioned: INF/OF Ariel Miranda

—

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

  • ARZ: SP Matt Koch will be recalled from the minors on Friday April 20th, according to Steve Gilbert of MLB.com . He’ll be taking Walker’s turn in the rotation.
  • BOS: SP Drew Pomeranz will be activated from 10-Day DL on Friday April 20th, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.
  • COL: 3B Nolan Arenado will be reinstated from his 5-game suspension on Friday April 20th.
  • NYY: SP CC Sabathia will be activated from the DL on Thursday April 19th, according to Erik Boland of Newsday.
  • SDP: OF Wil Myers is likely to be activated from the DL on Friday April 20th, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune.
  • SEA: C Mike Zunino is expected back from the DL on Friday April 20th, according to Greg Johns of MLB.com. SP Erasmo Ramirez will be activated from the DL on Sunday April 22nd, also according to Johns.
  • SFG: SP Jeff Samardzija will likely be activated from the DL on Friday April 20th, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
  • STL: OF Tyler O’Neill will be recalled from Triple-A on Thursday April 20th, according to Joe Trezza of MLB.com. O’Neill is needed with OF Tommy Pham dealing with a mild groin strain.
  • TEX: Delino DeShields Jr. will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday April 19th and will be re-evaluated on Saturday, according to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He could be activated from the DL sometime this weekend.
  • TOR: DH Kendrys Morales is likely to be activated from the DL on Friday April 20th, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.
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Daily Roster Roundup

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Injury Notes: Anibal, Buxton, Hill, Swarzak, Brewers

By Steve Adams | April 18, 2018 at 8:51pm CDT

Braves righty Anibal Sanchez landed on the 10-day disabled list on Wednesday after suffering a hamstring strain while running in the outfield during pre-game warmups, as the team announced. Things looked potentially much worse, as Sanchez reportedly collapsed and was down for several minutes before having his leg placed in an air cast and being carted off the field (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). Thus far in 14 innings (two starts, one relief appearance), the 34-year-old Sanchez has yielded just two runs on 11 hits and six walks with 14 strikeouts. He’d been relying more heavily on a cutter and a changeup with the Braves than he had in previous seasons, and those tweaks had generated positive gains in swinging-strike rate, chase rate and ground-ball rate. Lucas Sims, Matt Wisler and Max Fried are among the 40-man roster options to step into the rotation in place of Sanchez for the time being.

Some injury news from around the game…

  • The Twins announced that Byron Buxton has been placed on the 10-day DL, retroactive to April 15, with migraine headaches. Outfielder Ryan LaMarre was added to the 25-man roster in place of Buxton, who’ll be eligible to return next Wednesday. It’s been a slow start to the year for Buxton after a strong five-month stretch to close out the 2017 season; the longtime top prospect hit .274/.335/.448 in his final 459 plate appearances last season but is off to a .195/.233/.244 start to the season.
  • Left-hander Rich Hill hit the disabled list due to a finger injury, the Dodgers announced today. Fellow southpaw Adam Liberatore is up from Triple-A to take Hill’s place for the time being. Specifically, Hill told reporters that he’s dealing with a cracked fingernail and that the DL stint is “precautionary” in nature (Twitter link via Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times). The Dodgers have a reputation for aggressively utilizing the shortened 10-day DL and their Triple-A depth to keep their roster fresh, and that seems like the tactic they’re employing in this instance. Of course, as Aaron Sanchez’s 2017 season with the Blue Jays demonstrated, fingernail and blister issues can be more serious for pitchers than they initially sound.
  • Anthony Swarzak’s rehab with the Mets has been shut down for now due to lingering discomfort in his ailing oblique muscle, tweets MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. He’d been throwing off of flat ground but now won’t be throwing at all and won’t travel with the club on its upcoming road trip, per DiComo. Swarzak inked a two-year, $14MM deal with the Mets this offseason but has pitched just 2 1/3 innings on the year due to a DL stint that now looks like it’ll be prolonged.
  • Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel passes along some Brewers injury news, reporting that Wade Miley’s first rehab start went smoothly and adding that he’ll start again on Sunday (Twitter links). At that point, the Brewers will likely have to make a decision whether they’ll add him to the big league rotation or keep him in the minors for another rehab outing. Additionally, lefty Boone Logan threw a bullpen session for the first time since injuring his left triceps muscle — a notable first step in his debut in the Milwaukee ’pen.
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Anibal Sanchez Anthony Swarzak Atlanta Braves Byron Buxton Los Angeles Dodgers Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins New York Mets Rich Hill Wade Miley

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Yankees Re-Sign Adam Lind

By Steve Adams | April 18, 2018 at 7:02pm CDT

7:02pm: The Yankees have formally announced the signing.

5:04pm: The Yankees have agreed to a new minor league contract with free-agent first baseman Adam Lind, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links). Lind, who was with the club for a portion of Spring Training, is represented by ISE Baseball.

Lind, 34, was given his release by the Yankees on March 14 after it became apparent that he didn’t have a clear path to the big league roster. However, Greg Bird underwent ankle surgery shortly thereafter, and the Yankees will soon see Tyler Austin serve a suspension of up to five games following last week’s brawl against the Red Sox, though Lind may not be ready in time to help out in that regard. Cotillo adds that he’s expected to report to extended Spring Training, where he’ll ramp up in preparation after the downtime following his mid-March release.

The veteran Lind is coming off a strong season with the Nationals, having raked at a.303/.362/.512 clip and clubbed 14 homers in 301 plate appearances. He’s posted an OPS+ of 123 or better in four of the past five seasons — an ugly 2016 in Seattle being the lone exception — and batted a combined .282/.348/.473 through 2142 plate appearances in that time.

Of course, he’s not without his limitations. Lind has a disastrous .217/.263/.329 slash against left-handed pitchers over the course of 12-year MLB career and is largely limited to first base on the defensive spectrum. The Nats did trot him out to left field for 197 innings last season, though that marked his first work on the outfield grass since 2010, and he unsurprisingly did not rate well there in the estimation of defensive metrics.

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Adam Lind New York Yankees Transactions

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MLBTR Chat: Bautista, Cueto, Hader, Jansen

By Jason Martinez | April 18, 2018 at 6:28pm CDT

Click here to view the transcript for MLBTR Chat With Jason Martinez: April 18, 2018.

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MLBTR Chats

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Taijuan Walker To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

By Steve Adams | April 18, 2018 at 5:53pm CDT

The D-backs were hit with a significant blow on Wednesday, as manager Torey Lovullo revealed to reporters that right-hander Taijuan Walker has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and will require Tommy John surgery (Twitter link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Walker will be out for the remainder of the 2018 season.

Clearly, it’s a huge loss for a D-backs team that watched Walker, long heralded as one of MLB’s most promising pitching prospects, break out with a 3.49 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.97 HR/9 and a 48.9 percent ground-ball rate in 157 1/3 innings last season. The 25-year-old Walker has averaged 27 starts per season over the past three years between the Mariners and D-backs, but Arizona was counting on him taking an even more pivotal role in 2018, joining Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, Patrick Corbin and Zack Godley in what looked to be one of the National League’s more formidable starting quintets.

[Related: Arizona Diamondbacks depth chart]

Matt Koch will start in Walker’s place on Friday, tweets Zach Buchanan of The Athletic, but he tossed just 56 innings last season and doesn’t have any sort of big league track record. Arizona thinned out its rotation depth in the March trade that saw left-hander Anthony Banda — a largely MLB-ready rotation piece — head to the Rays in the three-team Steven Souza / Brandon Drury swap. Former first-rounder Braden Shipley is still on hand in Triple-A as a potential option, as is recent waiver claim Troy Scribner.

Walker’s injury will now put the recovery of right-hander Shelby Miller under even more of a microscope. The embattled righty struggled through a catastrophic first season in the Diamondbacks organization but looked to be in the process of righting the ship in 2017 before he, too, suffered a UCL tear that necessitated Tommy John surgery. The 27-year-old Miller has yet to pitch in the minors as he continues rehabbing from his own operation, performed early last May, but he could emerge as a viable fifth starter for a talented D-backs rotation at some point in June or July.

The D-backs still control Walker through the 2020 season, and given his reasonable $4.825MM salary as a second-time arbitration player (with Super Two status), the ligament replacement procedure is unlikely to spell the end of his time with the D-backs. Walker’s limited workload in 2018 — he made just three starts and totaled 13 innings — should limit him to a minimal raise in arbitration this offseason. The D-backs will be able to hang onto him for something in the vicinity of $5MM, and while Walker almost certainly won’t be ready to take the hill until at least next May, if not early summer, that’s an eminently reasonable price to pay — especially when considering that he could still be controlled for one year beyond the ’19 campaign.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Newsstand Taijuan Walker

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Mike Napoli Suffers “Significant” Knee Injury

By Steve Adams | April 18, 2018 at 4:07pm CDT

The Indians announced that veteran first baseman Mike Napoli suffered a “significant” right knee injury while playing with their Triple-A club in Columbus last night. He’s expected to miss an “extended amount of time,” per the team, though specifics of his timeline or the nature of the injury remain unclear.

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer quotes Indians skipper Terry Francona in relaying that Napoli was injured when chasing down a foul pop early in the game (Twitter link). The injury sounds grim, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian adds that Francona suggested that if this proves to be the end of Napoli’s playing career, he has the ability to “make an impact” on the game in his post-playing days.

The 36-year-old Napoli signed a minor league contract with Cleveland this offseason and agreed to report to Triple-A when he didn’t make the club in Spring Training. He’s gotten off to a 1-for-24 start, though his lone hit was a home run and he’s also drawn seven walks.

Napoli was a fan favorite virtually everywhere he’s played later in his career and was especially popular in his first stint with Cleveland in 2016, when he hit .239/.335/.465 with 34 homers and helped the Indians reach the World Series. His 2017 season with the Rangers wasn’t as successful, as he posted a more tepid .193/.285/.428 slash with a career-worst 33.6 percent strikeout rate.

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Cleveland Indians Mike Napoli

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Braves Promote Jesse Biddle, Place Jose Ramirez On 10-Day DL

By Jeff Todd | April 18, 2018 at 2:01pm CDT

The Braves are set to promote lefty Jesse Biddle to the big-league roster, per a club announcement. He’ll replace righty reliever Jose Ramirez, who is heading to the 10-day DL after experiencing shoulder inflammation.

It’s a long-awaited call-up for Biddle, who was selected in the first round of the 2010 draft and once regarded among the game’s hundred top pre-MLB players. Injuries disrupted his progress, however, and forced him out of the rotation.

Since landing with the Braves and working back to health, Biddle has shown well in the upper minors. He turned in 49 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball last year at Double-A, registering 9.6 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9. And Biddle was off to an excellent start in the highest level of the minors in 2018, allowing just three hits and no runs while running up eight strikeouts against a single walk in his 6 1/3 innings.

As for Ramirez, 28, this’ll be a much-needed reprieve after a brutal opening to his own season. He has also tossed 6 1/3 frames, all in the majors, but with much different results. Ramirez has not only coughed up a dozen earned runs, but has surrendered eight walks to go with his seven punchouts.

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Atlanta Braves Jesse Biddle Jose Ramirez Transactions

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Offseason In Review: New York Yankees

By Steve Adams | April 18, 2018 at 1:33pm CDT

This is the latest entry in MLBTR’s 2017-18 Offseason In Review series. Click here to read the other completed reviews from around the league.

The Yankees managed to go from July 2016 sellers to the 2017 ALCS, coming within one game of a World Series appearance in a remarkable turnaround. Their offseason was reflective of the fact that any “rebuild” in the Bronx has already come and gone.

Major League Signings

  • CC Sabathia, LHP: One year, $10MM
  • Neil Walker, 2B/1B/3B: One year, $4MM
  • Total spend: $14MM

Trades and Claims

  • Acquired OF Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins in exchange for 2B Starlin Castro, RHP Jorge Guzman, INF Jose Devers and cash
  • Acquired 2B/3B/OF Brandon Drury from the D-backs in three-team trade that send 2B Nick Solak to Tampa Bay and RHP Taylor Widener to Arizona
  • Traded 3B Chase Headley and RHP Bryan Mitchell to the Padres in exchange for OF Jabari Blash and cash
  • Traded LHP Caleb Smith and 1B/OF Garrett Cooper to the Marlins in exchange for RHP Michael King and $250K international bonus allotment
  • Traded OF Jake Cave to the Twins in exchange for RHP Luis Gil
  • Traded RHP Ronald Herrera to the Rangers in exchange for LHP Reiver Sanmartin

Notable Minor League Signings

  • Oliver Perez, Adam Lind (since released), Jace Peterson, Danny Espinosa (released), Shane Robinson, Erik Kratz, Wade LeBlanc (released, signed MLB deal with Mariners)

Notable Losses

  • Matt Holliday, Jaime Garcia, Michael Pineda, Headley, Mitchell, Smith, Cooper

Needs Addressed

As one would expect of a club that came within a game of the World Series and retained the majority of its roster, the Yankees weren’t exactly teeming with clear needs entering the offseason. GM Brian Cashman and his lieutenants completed a good portion of their offseason shopping back in July, in fact, acquiring not only Sonny Gray but also David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle, thus bolstering the pitching staff for the foreseeable future in the course of adding reinforcements down the stretch.

For the Yankees, the 2017-18 offseason was much more about being opportunistic and reinforcing existing areas of strength than it was about addressing glaring weaknesses. Rather than acquire a specific skill set or a player at a certain position, the team’s top priority seemed to be resetting its luxury tax penalty by dipping back beneath the $197MM tax threshold.

To that end, the team seemed to be primed for a spirited pursuit of young phenom Shohei Ohtani, whose signing bonus wouldn’t have counted against that tax calculation and who could pitch several seasons near the league minimum. The former Nippon Professional Baseball superstar seemingly shocked the Yankees, however, when he informed them that they would not even be one of the seven finalists with whom he sat down for an in-person interview.

Cashman & Co. evidently subscribe to the belief, however, that when one door closes another opens elsewhere. With the DH spot in the lineup no longer earmarked for Ohtani on his non-pitching days, the Yankees circled back to the Marlins, who’d previously contacted them to gauge their interest in Giancarlo Stanton. To that point, trade talks surrounding the reigning NL MVP had focused on the Giants and Cardinals — a pair of clubs that weren’t on Stanton’s list of desired trade destinations. Stanton kept an open mind in meeting with each organization, but the Yankees’ miss on Ohtani created a new opportunity with a team that Stanton had expressed a desire to land with.

Roughly a week later, the two sides had agreed to arguably the biggest deal of the offseason. Stanton was introduced to the media as the newest Yankee at this year’s Winter Meetings. In exchange for taking on the vast majority of his contract, the Yankees only were required to part with a pair of mid-range prospects and Castro, whose own $22MM commitment helped to offset some of Stanton’s deal.

Stanton’s massive contract, of course, came with plenty of luxury tax concern, which made the inclusion of Castro’s deal important and made the subsequent trade of Chase Headley back to the Padres all the more critical. The Yankees agreed to part with young pitcher Bryan Mitchell and received Jabari Blash in return — a 28-year-old outfielder whom they later designated for assignment. The Headley trade, as far as the Yankees were concerned, was all about shedding the vast majority of his $13MM annual luxury hit. Surrendering four years of club control over Mitchell at an affordable rate was the cost of doing business.

Missing out on Ohtani, though, left the Yankees with at least a modicum of uncertainty in their rotation scene. CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda were no longer in the fold, leaving Luis Severino, Gray, Jordan Montgomery and Masahiro Tanaka (who surprised many by forgoing his opt-out clause) as the top four options in the Bronx. While prospects Chance Adams and Justus Sheffield loom in the upper minors, the Yanks struck a one-year, $10MM deal to put Sabathia back in pinstripes as means of deepening the rotation and ensuring that their prized young arms wouldn’t need to be rushed to the big leagues.

That Castro and Headley were now on new clubs left the Yankees with a pair of openings around the infield. Those vacancies left many Yankees fans eagerly envisioning a high-upside infield of Miguel Andujar at third base, Didi Gregorius at short, Gleyber Torres at second base and Greg Bird at first base. That alignment may very well be the future in New York, but the Yankees understandably had some trepidation about turning the infield over to three inexperienced players. Andujar and Torres had scarcely played above the Double-A level.

In March, Neil Walker told the New York Times that he thought he’d been close to an agreement with the Yankees before they swung a three-team deal with the D-backs and Rays that sent Swiss Army knife Brandon Drury to the Bronx instead. That deal seemed to prolong a surprisingly tepid market for Walker, but in the end, the Yankees came away with both players. As they did with Stanton, the Yanks parted with a pair of mid-range prospects in order to install Drury into their infield mix for the next four seasons, and they later added Walker for just a $4MM guarantee despite his steady track record as a decidedly above-average bat and ability to handle multiple positions.

Questions Remaining

Despite the team’s quick turnaround and Joe Girardi’s general success over a decade-long run at the helm for the Yankees, Girardi was not offered a contract to return for the 2018 season. Rather, the Yankees conducted a search of surprisingly inexperienced managerial candidates and ultimately settled on the least-experienced option interviewed by any of the five clubs who hired new managers this past offseason.

Former Yankee and ESPN broadcaster-turned-manager Aaron Boone has been thrown directly into the fire with the Yankees, managing a club with World Series aspirations, plenty of star power and also a number of key young talents who figure to make their MLB debuts this season. Boone will juggle all of that in the nation’s largest media market while dealing with one of the game’s most vocal fanbases. It’d be a daunting task even for an experienced skipper, and there’ll probably be some bumps along the way.

Most of the other questions facing the Yankees pertain more to their health and finances than the on-field product. Namely, after spending the entire offseason unsuccessfully trying to find a taker for Jacoby Ellsbury, they’ve now watched as a concussion, hip issue and plantar fasciitis have all combined to prevent Ellsbury from taking the field in 2018. Ellsbury was owed more than $68MM with a full no-trade clause even before that slate of injuries, and the possibility of shedding his contract looks increasingly remote.

While many Yankees fans have clamored for the club to simply release him, though, Ellsbury was a perfectly serviceable piece when healthy in 2017. His .264/.348/.402 slash (clearly) wasn’t worth the near-$22MM salary the Yankees are paying him, but he’s also not devoid of on-field value. That’ll be a situation on which Cashman and his charges will have to deliberate at length; at some point, perhaps they’ll simply cut bait, but in doing so they’d be committing to fully paying his luxury tax hit for the next three seasons. If the front office still feels that a healthy Ellsbury can contribute on the field or eventually be moved for some salary relief, then an unconditional release is an understandably unpalatable course of action.

At first base, meanwhile, Bird has already undergone ankle surgery, further raising questions about his ability to remain healthy in the long term. The 25-year-old has legitimate power (16 homers, .250 ISO through 348 MLB plate appearances), but this will be the third straight surgery-shortened season for him. He’s previously had shoulder surgery (2016) and a separate ankle surgery (2017). Walker and Tyler Austin present alternatives (Walker’s poor start notwithstanding), but the 2018 season will be critical for Bird as he looks to establish himself as an infield fixture.

If there’s one area the Yankees are lacking, it’s left-handed relief, with Chasen Shreve and closer Aroldis Chapman constituting the lone southpaw options on the 40-man roster. Oliver Perez is in the organization as a potential veteran option, though, while righties Chad Green and David Robertson have actually dominated lefty opponents more than same-handed hitters.

The rest of the roster looks to be largely set, at least for the coming season. Perhaps if Bird’s ankle injuries linger or if Andujar and/or Torres struggle for a prolonged stretch, they’ll seek additional depth. But the acquisitions of Walker and Drury already offer some measure of contingency plan. Austin Romine’s career .266 on-base percentage is an eyesore, but the Yanks seem content with his defense and were never rumored to be in the market for an upgrade over him as the backup to Gary Sanchez.

Any deadline needs that pop up for the Yankees figure to be driven by injuries and/or underperformance rather than area of weakness heading into the season. On paper, the club looks stacked, and while dismal starts from Stanton and Sanchez, in particular, have caused some angst, the Yankees look like a potential juggernaut once their bats wake up.

Overview

If Plan A for the Yankees was to land Ohtani, their Plan B of Stanton plus a series of quality depth additions is no small consolation. By midseason, it’s possible that the Yankees’ lineup will feature Stanton, Sanchez, Gregorius, Aaron Judge, Torres, Andujar, Bird, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner — a collection of veterans and high-upside talents that could form one of the most productive units in all of baseball. With an exceedingly deep bullpen and a quality rotation backed by prospects like Adams and Sheffield, there should be similar optimism for the pitching staff. Prospect trade chips abound. And because the front office succeeded in not only resetting the luxury tax but dropping beneath the penalty line by roughly $16MM, there’s ample room for the Yankees to upgrade as necessary this summer.

The expectation level has quickly been raised in the Bronx, though, and it stands to reason that anything shy of a deep postseason run will be considered a disappointment.

How would you grade the Yankees’ offseason? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors app users.)

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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2017-18 Offseason In Review MLBTR Originals New York Yankees

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Braves Sign Jose Bautista

By Jeff Todd | April 18, 2018 at 11:53am CDT

The Braves have announced the signing of veteran slugger Jose Bautista to a minor-league deal. Per the organization, he’ll head to extended spring camp and will line up at third base. The deal would pay him at a $1MM rate in the majors, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.

While Bautista has maintained he still hoped to play in the coming season after sitting out Spring Training, this news comes as a surprise. The Braves have long been expected to fill out their outfield with top prospect Ronald Acuna, which seemed to make them an unlikely destination for Bautista.

In a twist, though, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos — who was with the Blue Jays when Bautista broke out and turned into a superstar — will give the veteran a chance to return to the hot corner at 37 years of age. Bautista certainly has spent plenty of time there, but the vast majority of his experience at third came in the distant past. Needless to say, this isn’t the third-base move that many anticipated at the start of the 2017-18 offseason.

Bautista will not only be looking to show he’s capable of returning to the infield after mostly plying his trade in the grass over the past nine seasons. He’ll also have to prove he can bounce back from a marked decline over the prior two campaigns.

Heading into the 2017 campaign, which Bautista spent with the Blue Jays after having to settle for a one-year deal in free agency, the hope was the his 2016 effort was just a blip. Bautista had experienced a big power drop, after all, but largely maintained his other-worldly plate discipline and still reached base at a healthy .366 clip.

But the most recent season did not go as hoped for the ever-confident veteran. Bautista hit 23 home runs but carried a miserable .203/.308/.366 slash in his 686 plate appearances. He also drew walks and went down on strikes at rates (12.2% and 24.8%, respectively) worse than he had since way back in 2008 — which is also the last time he spent the majority of his time at third.

It’s certainly an interesting gambit for the Braves, whose current plans at the hot corner involve riding out a Ryan Flaherty hot streak, mixing in Charlie Culberson, and waiting for Johan Camargo to return from the DL (while hoping he can repeat a surprisingly solid debut season). If Bautista can return to anything approaching the form he showed at the plate between 2010 and 2015, when he was one of the game’s very best hitters, he could boost a team that is playing solid baseball out of the gates but has cause to anticipate some regression from certain players.

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Atlanta Braves Jose Bautista Newsstand Transactions

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Cardinals To Promote Tyler O’Neill

By Jeff Todd | April 18, 2018 at 10:40am CDT

The Cardinals plan to promote outfield prospect Tyler O’Neill, according to MLB.com’s Joe Trezza. A corresponding move is not yet known, but will occur before tomorrow’s scheduled contest.

O’Neill, who was acquired last summer in a swap that sent young pitcher Marco Gonzales to the Mariners, will receive his first shot in the majors. The former third-round pick was widely rated as one of the game’s hundred best prospects entering each of the past two seasons.

Though O’Neill only received a dozen plate appearances this spring owing to injury, he has certainly earned the chance after going on a tear to open the season at Triple-A. Over his 52 plate appearances, the right-handed hitter carries a .388/.385/.837 slash with six home runs. He carried .800+ OPS marks in the upper minors in 2016 and 2017, so there’s little left for him to show at the plate.

Of course, whether he’ll carry that productivity into the majors is the big question — as it is for any prospect. O’Neill draws walks at a decent rate but has shown some swing and miss. If he can make enough contact, O’Neill is viewed as having a chance at becoming an everyday right fielder at the game’s highest level.

It’s also not yet clear whether O’Neill is slated to receive a full opportunity to prove he belongs. He may just provide some depth while the club evaluates Tommy Pham’s status after he experienced groin tightness in last night’s game. The Cards’ outfield mix currently includes three right-handed hitters (Pham, Marcell Ozuna, and Harrison Bader) and the switch-hitting Dexter Fowler, so there isn’t a clear opportunity in the near-term.

*An earlier version of this post mistakenly identified O’Neill as a left-handed hitter.

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St. Louis Cardinals Top Prospect Promotions Transactions

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