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Mark Melancon Weighing Surgery For Unknown Injury

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Giants reliever Mark Melancon is considering undergoing surgery, he told reporters today, including Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (links to Twitter). The veteran righty declined to disclose the precise nature of the injury, but did indicate it is not an elbow ligament problem.

Whatever the malady, it has evidently plagued Melancon for quite some time. He says the problem has arisen from time to time dating back to 2012. This year, though, it has been a bigger concern. Melancon says he has dealt with “discomfort every day this season.” (Via MLB.com’s Chris Haft, on Twitter.)

It seems the decision has yet to be made, with the possibility of a procedure and also its timing still being weighed. Melancon noted that he wants to keep pitching down the stretch this year, even if there’s no hope of a postseason berth, because the club hopes to gain some momentum for a rebound in 2018.

Clearly, though, having a healthy and effective Melancon for the season to come will be the priority. He has not been at his best since landing in San Francisco over the winter on a four-year, $62MM free-agent pact. The 32-year-old has dealt with injury issues in or around the elbow joint, limiting him to 23 2/3 innings this season. He has pitched to a 3.80 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 1.1 BB/9.

Trevor Rosenthal Seeking Second Opinion For Ligament Issue

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TODAY: A surgical approach is on the table for Rosenthal, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter. Rosenthal is set to receive a second opinion on how best to deal with the “stability of his ligament,” per the report.

It certainly sounds as if a Tommy John procedure is at least a possibility. Even if it isn’t ultimately pursued, a rehab course for UCL damage typically involves a fairly lengthy rest and rehab program. Were Rosenthal to require TJ surgery, he’d almost certainly be non-tendered this fall; 2018 is his final season of arbitration eligibility. And avoiding the knife would still seemingly leave it uncertain whether he’ll be able to return this season.

YESTERDAY: The Cardinals have placed reliever Trevor Rosenthal on the 10-day DL with what the team is calling right posterior elbow irritation, per an announcement. Young righty Luke Weaver has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.

Rosenthal had recently regained the team’s closer role, turning in quality results as the Cards surged in the standings. But the hard-throwing righty left last night’s outing after exhibiting diminished velocity, with indications at the time that he was experiencing tightness in his pitching arm.

The 27-year-old hurler has turned in a bounceback year after a rough 2016 campaign that was marred by arm problems. Through 47 2/3 innings to date, he carries a 3.40 ERA and has racked up 14.3 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. Rosenthal has not only reversed last year’s walk problems, but has worked at a career-high 98.9 mph and generated a personal-best 15.9% swinging-strike rate.

While any elbow problems are of concern, the outlook on Rosenthal remains unclear at this point. Certainly, the Cardinals will hope that he can recover after a relatively brief DL stint and return to the pen down the stretch.

After all, St. Louis remains in the hunt for the NL Central title and it’s a difficult time to find a quality replacement via trade. The team could return Seung-hwan Oh to closing duties, give lefty Tyler Lyons a shot, or utilize a committee to finish out games. Internal solutions will still leave the club down a late-inning arm, though Weaver certainly represents a quality new addition to the unit.

Cardinals Place Adam Wainwright On 10-Day DL

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The Cardinals have placed righty Adam Wainwright on the 10-day DL with an elbow impingement, as MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch reports on Twitter and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had previously indicated (Twitter links). He’ll be replaced on the roster by righty Mike Mayers.

It isn’t yet clear just how serious the issue is for the veteran Wainwright, who had exhibited a concerning velocity loss of late. The 35-year-old has battled with some back issues recently, too, though this new problem is perhaps of greater concern. Wainwright has been knocked around while failing to touch 90 mph with his fastball in his past two outings.

For now, the Cards appear set to lean on Luke Weaver in Wainwright’s stead. The impressive young righty makes for quite the insurance policy: he has briefly contributed at the majors in each of the past two seasons while dominating in the upper minors. But that doesn’t mean the loss won’t tell, particularly with Trevor Rosenthal also just going on the DL with elbow troubles of his own. St. Louis will not be able to utilize Weaver in a relief role to help make up for the loss of its closer.

Mayers, 25, has minimal experience at the game’s highest level. He has been rather productive in the upper minors over the last two seasons, though. This year, over 99 frames at Triple-A (including 15 starts and ten relief appearances), Mayers carries a 3.36 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.

Royals Put Joakim Soria On 10-Day DL With Oblique Strain

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The Royals announced Friday that setup man Joakim Soria has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a strained left oblique. The move is retroactive to Aug. 16, so Soria can be activated on the 26th of this month, but oblique injuries often require upwards of a month to fully heal. Right-hander Kevin McCarthy is up from Omaha to take Soria’s roster spot.

The loss of Soria is a notable one for a Royals club that has slipped to 5.5 games back in the AL Central recently but is still just a half game out of the race for the second American League Wild Card spot. Soria has tossed 50 innings with a 3.96 ERA this season, but that mark is massively skewed by a four-run meltdown in his most recent outing — an appearance that lasted just one-third of an inning and sent his 3.26 ERA skyrocketing.

Soria’s secondary marks are all quite good. In fact, when looking at his K/9 (10.6), BB/9 (2.9), HR/9 (0.18) and ground-ball rate (55.2 percent), there’s a case to be made that Soria is in the midst of one of his most dominant seasons as a Major Leaguer. He’s currently sporting a 2.06 FIP, a 2.91 xFIP and a 2.96 SIERA, all of which suggests that his ERA isn’t exactly representative of the overall quality of his work in 2017.

With Soria on the shelf, trade deadline pickups Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter could each see their roles increase for the time being. Neither has fared especially well in his new environs, but both relievers have the ability to miss bats in bunches and could help bridge the gap to closer Kelvin Herrera.

Angels Claim Noe Ramirez

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The Angels announced on Friday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Noe Ramirez off waivers from the Red Sox and optioned him to Triple-A Salt Lake. Ramirez, 27, was designated for assignment yesterday. The claim represents a potential homecoming for Ramirez, who is from the L.A. area and played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton.

Ramirez totaled 4 2/3 innings in two appearances with Boston this season and has posted a combined 4.99 ERA in 30 2/3 frames across the past three seasons with the Red Sox. In that time, he’s averaged 9.4 K/9, 4.7 BB/9 and 2.64 HR/9 with a 36.4 percent ground-ball rate.

Ramirez has a history of missing bats and posting solid ERA marks in Triple-A (9.9 K/9, 2.60 ERA in 135 innings there), but he’s averaged just under 90 mph on his fastball as a big leaguer. He’s in his final option year, so the Angels can send him to Triple-A for the time being but would need to carry him on the 40-man roster all winter and put him on the Opening Day roster next year if they wish to avoid exposing him to waivers after the end of the current season.

Blue Jays Re-Sign Taylor Cole To Minors Deal

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The Blue Jays announced on Friday that they’ve re-signed right-hander Taylor Cole to a minor league contract after releasing him earlier this week.

Cole, 27, missed the first several months of the season on the disabled list but worked his way back to toss 12 2/3 scoreless innings across three minor league levels before making his Major League debut last week. Cole’s release came at the tail-end of a 10-day stint on the DL for a broken fifth toe in his right foot, and the release may have simply been a means of preventing another team from claiming him on waivers. A 29th-round pick by the Jays back in 2011, Cole will presumably return to the club’s Triple-A affiliate and hope to build on the solid results he’s posted in the minors both this year and last, perhaps with a chance for a September call-up on an injury-depleted Blue Jays staff.

Cubs Place Jon Lester On Disabled List

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The Cubs announced that they’ve placed left-hander Jon Lester and right-hander Justin Grimm on the 10-day disabled list due to left shoulder fatigue and an infected right index finger, respectively. It’s the first trip to the disabled list for Lester since 2011. Left-hander Rob Zastryzny and right-hander Felix Pena have been recalled from Triple-A Iowa to fill the two roster spots.

Lester was rocked for nine runs (seven earned) on seven hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings yesterday against the Reds, and his afternoon ended with him calling for the trainer to come to the mound. The Cubs expect Lester to return by Sept. 1, writes USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, and manager Joe Maddon didn’t sound overly concerned when discussing the injury with Nightengale and other reporters.

While even a short-term injury for Lester is significant for a Cubs team that has a small 1.5-game lead on the NL Central, the fact that the 33-year-old doesn’t have any structural damage in his shoulder comes as a relief for the club. For the time being, fellow southpaw Mike Montgomery will step into Chicago’s rotation. Zastryzny, then, will fill Montgomery’s spot and give Maddon an additional lefty in the ’pen behind Justin Wilson and Brian Duensing.

The 2017 season has been a struggle for Grimm, 29, who served as a solid setup piece for the Cubs from 2014-16 but has limped to a 5.40 ERA through 43 1/3 innings this year. Grimm has seen his K/9 rate dip from better than 11.0 to 9.6 in 2017. His BB/9 rate has also spiked to 4.8, and he’s been more homer-prone than ever before in his career.

Twins Notes: Garver, Colon, Enns, Ervin, Rosario

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In the wake of Robbie Grossman’s fractured thumb, the Twins are turning to one of their top organizational prospects. Catcher Mitch Garver, who ranked ninth on Fangraphs’ summer edition of the team’s top prospects, is being called up to the Majors, the club announced. In addition to his work behind the plate, the 26-year-old Garver has played 14 games in left field this season, so he can serve as a third catcher as well as a spare outfielder or first baseman.  Garver’s bat also could be a nice addition to the team’s bench. In 372 Triple-A plate appearances, Garver has slashed .291/.387/.541 with 17 homers and 29 doubles.

A few more notes out of the Twin Cities…

  • Right-hander Bartolo Colon has enjoyed some success with the Twins after a terrible start to the season in Atlanta, and he tells John Shipley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he’s open to playing beyond the 2017 season. There was some brief talk of retirement for Colon, but the 44-year-old has turned in a solid 4.21 ERA in 36 1/3 innings with the Twins (albeit with more concerning peripheral metrics). Colon also tells Shipley that a phone call from former Angels teammate Ervin Santana may have been the tipping point in Colon signing with the Twins. The Mets were also pursuing a reunion with Colon, but the veteran righty said some urging from Santana, the Twins superior place in the standings and the opportunity to serve as a mentor for a number of young Twins pitchers all appealed to him. “…I thought it’s not only an opportunity for me to pitch, but an opportunity to teach other young players how to pitch and how to be big-leaguers,” said Colon.
  • The Twins placed lefty Dietrich Enns, who was only just acquired from the Yankees as part of the Jaime Garcia swap, on the 10-day disabled list with a shoulder strain yesterday. Enns missed more than two months of the season with a shoulder issue as a member of the Yankees’ Triple-A club, and Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press suggests that the Twins could potentially seek additional compensation from the Yankees if Enns’ shoulder issue proves to be serious.
  • The Astros and Mariners have both showed plenty of interest in right-hander Ervin Santana this summer, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN reports in his latest podcast (audio link, Twins talk starts up around the 45:00 mark). However, Minnesota has never shown any real willingness to deal him, and there’s no reason to expect that they’d change that mentality now with a Wild Card spot still in the crosshairs.
  • Minnesota GM Thad Levine joins Wolfson to discuss several Twins topics ranging from outplaying their run differential, to the performance of young players to the fine line between making short-term and long-term moves this time of year. Of surging outfielder Eddie Rosario, Levine notes that he and Twins chief baseball office Derek Falvey received quite a few inquiries from other clubs regarding Rosario. Many teams wanted to gauge whether the new front office duo valued Rosario (and others, though Levine doesn’t get into specific names) as highly as their predecessors. “We made it clear to them that we view this guy as part of the core, part of the future of this franchise,” said Levine of Rosario. The 25-year-old Rosario is hitting .297/.337/.500 with 16 homers, 25 doubles and a pair of triples this season.

Injury Notes: Lester, Wainwright, Cervelli, Feldman, Tomas

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Jon Lester’s start yesterday lasted just 1 2/3 innings and ended with the Cubs lefty calling for the trainer before exiting with an 8-0 deficit. The Cubs’ initial diagnosis on Lester was tightness in his left lat muscle, though he headed out to see a specialist in Chicago yesterday afternoon. Following that examination, the Cubs are hopeful that Lester will only miss one to two starts, according to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. Even a quick absence of that nature could mean a 10-day DL stint for Lester, and Sullivan notes that left-hander Mike Montgomery would step into the rotation in the interim.

A few more notable injury updates from around the league…

  • Adam Wainwright is on his way back to St. Louis to have his arm examined by Cardinals team physicians, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Wainwright allowed five runs in three innings yesterday and has been plagued by persistent pain in his elbow when pitching. MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch notes that Wainwright hasn’t reached 90 mph in either of his past two starts and has yielded nine runs on 15 hits and nine walks with just one strikeout in his past 11 innings (Twitter link). Wainwright recently spent a bit more than two weeks on the disabled list due to a back injury.
  • The Pirates announced yesterday that Francisco Cervelli has been placed on the 10-day disabled list (retroactive to Aug. 14) due to inflammation in his left wrist. Infielder Max Moroff is up from Triple-A Indianapolis to take Cervelli’s spot on the roster for now. Catcher Elias Diaz was already with the Pirates due to Cervelli’s lingering wrist pain, and he’ll split time with Chris Stewart behind the plate in Cervelli’s absence. It’s an ill-timed injury for the fading Bucs, who have lost five games in a row and are now 5.5 games out of the division lead.
  • The knee injury that landed Reds righty Scott Feldman on the disabled list last month has resurfaced and could potentially end his season, writes Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Feldman was candid in telling the Cincinnati media, “If it doesn’t get any better, I don’t think I can pitch like that anymore.” Feldman served up five homers to the Cubs in fewer than four innings before exiting yesterday’s game. Feldman’s fastball was sitting at 82 mph in that rocky outing, Buchanan notes, and the veteran acknowledged that he’s “not really feeling too confident” about the outlook of the injury. This isn’t Feldman’s first bout of troubles with his right knee; the right-hander underwent microfracture surgery on that same knee back in 2011 and tore a meniscus in that same knee four years later with the Astros.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder Yasmany Tomas has suffered a second setback in his recovery from a groin injury and is traveling to Philadelphia to meet with a specialist on Monday, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Tomas has been out since June 2 with a groin issue and already had to shut down one rehab assignment when he incurred a new (and more severe) injury in a different area of his groin, Piecoro writes. The 26-year-old Tomas was hitting .241/.291/.464 with eight homers through 180 plate appearances at the time of his injury.

New Marlins Ownership Group Still Seeking Equity, Will Replace Samson

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One week back, we learned that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria had finally struck a deal to sell the organization to an investment group led by legendary shortstop Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman. But that was only the beginning of the process to finalize the deal.

Notably, there’s still a possibility of changes to the financial structure of the arrangement. As Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald first reported, the search for cash continues for the expectant new owners. In essence, it seems that the Jeter-Sherman group has something approaching the bare minimum of equity investment needed and would still like to draw additional investors. Those interested in learning additional details about the situation can read more from Jon Heyman of Fan Rag.

Notably, though, it seems there’s little reason to think the bid is in doubt.As Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald writes, commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledges that changes to the deal structure could yet be made, while also saying the current proposal would pass muster under league rules.

Assuming that’s all sorted out, it seems the incoming owners have already made their first significant personnel decision. Current team president David Samson will not be retained in that role, Dan Le Batard of ESPN Radio and the Miami Herald tweets. Le Batard also notes that the Marlins will have a new COO under the incoming ownership group.

There had been indications Samson would be retained in some capacity, and Heyman notes he is still owed a $5MM salary for another year. As Spencer and Jackson further explain, Samson — who is Loria’s son-in-law — has become the public face of the team during an “occasionally polarizing” term in the position. However, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes that it does not appear that Samson will return to the Marlins organization in any capacity next year.

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