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Drew Pomeranz Re-Signs With Dodgers On Minor League Deal

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April 20: Just one day after opting out of his deal with the Dodgers, Pomeranz has re-signed with the club on a fresh minor league deal according to Triple-A Oklahoma City’s broadcaster and communications director Andrew Freedman. Freedman adds that Pomeranz will remain at the Triple-A level for the time being.

April 19: Left-hander Drew Pomeranz has opted out of his minor league deal with the Dodgers, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, and is now a free agent again.

Pomeranz, 35, is attempting to get back to the majors after two lost years. He signed a minor league deal with the Angels in February and was in Spring Training with that club. He tossed eight innings with five earned runs allowed, striking out six while walking three.

He was able to opt-out of that deal if he didn’t break camp with the club and the Halos released him a few days before Opening Day. He got another minor league deal, this time with the Dodgers, and has been pitching for Triple-A Oklahoma City. He has tossed five innings for that club, allowing six earned runs but striking out seven opponents while giving out just one walk.

As of a few years ago, Pomeranz was one of the better relievers in the league. The Brewers acquired him in 2019 and moved him from the rotation to the bullpen, with great results. The lefty tossed 26 1/3 innings for Milwaukee with a 2.39 earned run average, striking out 45% of batters faced.

The Padres made a bet that Pomeranz could continue performing in that manner, signing him to a four-year, $34MM deal going into 2020. That deal was working out great for the first two years, as Pomeranz made 47 appearances with a 1.62 ERA for the Friars. He walked 11.4% of batters faced but struck out 33.7%.

Unfortunately, he required flexor tendon surgery in August of 2021 and hasn’t pitched in a big league game since. Over the past two years, repeated attempts to get healthy have seen him continually hit setbacks, including a “cleanup surgery” in May of last year.

The lefty will surely get a new opportunity elsewhere in the coming days. He hasn’t been preventing runs of late but the fact that he’s healthy and striking out opponents is a good sign. Given the excellent results he posted in the past, he should be fielding plenty of calls from clubs who will dream of benefitting from a bounceback.

Dodgers Place Kyle Hurt On 15-Day Injured List

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Right-hander Kyle Hurt has been placed on the Dodgers’ 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including the Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya).  Hurt’s placement is retroactive to April 17.  Right-hander Nick Ramirez was called up from Triple-A to take the open spot on Los Angeles’ 26-man roster.

Hurt was only just recalled from Triple-A himself last Tuesday, and that same day pitched two scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory over the Nationals.  With just one earned run allowed in 6 2/3 MLB innings this season, Hurt has a 1.04 ERA over his 8 2/3 total frames as a big leaguer, including his one-game cup of coffee of a debut last year.  While not the biggest of sample sizes, the fact that Hurt has only issued one walk against Major League batters is encouraging, as he has experienced some control problems in the minors.

The righty’s ungainly 14.03% walk rate over 188 2/3 minor league frames is offset, to some extent, by his equally outsized 36.6% strikeout rate.  The ingredients are clearly there for a potential future as a bullpen weapon, though Hurt has started 41 of his 65 career minor league games, so the Dodgers will likely want to more fully explore what they have in Hurt as a starter before considering a transition to relief work.

For now, however, Hurt will become the 10th different pitcher on the Los Angeles injured list, as the Dodgers continue to search for healthy arms to fill innings.  The pitching schedule is further complicated by the team’s desire to keep Yoshinobu Yamamoto on a once-per-week schedule (mirroring his usage in Japan) for the time being, rather than on a regular turn through the rotation.  Of everyone on the IL, Walker Buehler might be the closest to activation, though Buehler will be making at least one more minor league rehab start as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery.

Yankees Claim Taylor Trammell, Designate Kevin Smith

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The Yankees announced that they have claimed outfielder Taylor Trammell off waivers from the Dodgers, the latter club having designated him for assignment earlier this week. To open a roster spot for Trammell, the Yankees designated infielder Kevin Smith for assignment.

Trammell, 26, was only with the Dodgers for a couple of weeks. They claimed him off waivers from the Mariners in early April and he only got six hitless plate appearances, striking out three times, before getting bumped off the roster and put right back on waivers.

The Yankees are likely interested based on Trammell’s past status as one of the top prospects in the game. Selected 35th overall by the Reds in 2016, he was on Baseball America’s top 100 lists in three straight years starting in 2018.

But his results started to dip as he began to be passed around the league a bit. He was flipped to the Padres in the 2019 deal that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds and Yasiel Puig to Cleveland, then was traded again, going to the Mariners in the 2020 deal that also sent Ty France and Andrés Muñoz to Seattle.

The Mariners gave him sporadic playing time in the majors over the past few years but he didn’t live up to his previous prospect hype. He currently has a line of .165/.266/.361 in 357 plate appearances, having struck out in 37.3% of those. His 10.9% walk rate is strong but the overall output has obviously not been good. He is now out of options, which is why the Mariners and Dodgers have each had to designate him for assignment in recent weeks.

Reasons for optimism can be found on Trammell’s Triple-A performance. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has 812 plate appearances at the top minor league level. He struck out in 24% of those but also drew walks at a 14% rate and hit 38 home runs. That’s to be taken with a grain of salt since those homers were all in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but his .274/.381/.506 batting line nonetheless translated to a 116 wRC+, indicating he was 16% above league average. He also stole 33 bases in 40 tries in that time.

The Yanks will give Trammell a roster spot to see if he can finally have his long-awaited breakout in pinstripes. While that’s a sensible decision in a vacuum, it seems less than ideal in terms of roster construction.

The Yankees already have a pretty loaded group in terms of outfielders, with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo getting the regular playing time. Giancarlo Stanton is in the designated hitter slot most days while Trent Grisham is on hand as a glove-first backup.

Smith was added to the roster on the weekend with the club’s infield injuries mounting. Oswald Peraza and DJ LeMahieu both started the season on the injured list, which prompted the Yanks to trade for Jon Berti. But then Berti himself landed on the IL a few days ago, which is what led the club to select Smith’s contract.

Swapping in Trammell for Smith will seemingly give the club a surplus of outfielders but leave them a bit shorthanded on the dirt. Oswaldo Cabrera has taken over as the regular third baseman amid all those injuries, taking a spot next to Anthony Volpe, Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo. The Yankees have Jahmai Jones on hand as a depth infielder but he’s been given just one plate appearance so far this year and only has major league experience at second base and in left field.

LeMahieu is starting a rehab assignment this week but a bench of catcher Jose Trevino, Jones, Grisham and Trammell will leave the club a bit thin on the infield until LeMahieu is ready to rejoin the big league club. Someone will have to lose their roster spot when LeMahieu gets back and time will tell who that is. If Trammell hangs onto his spot, he can be retained well into the future. He has less than two years of service time, meaning he has four years of club control beyond the current campaign.

As for Smith, the Yankees will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He got into one game as a pinch runner during his time on the roster but didn’t get sent to the plate. He has hit .173/.215/.301 in his 333 career plate appearances at the major league level.

He seemed to have a Triple-A breakout in 2021 when he hit .285/.370/.561 for the top minor league affiliate of the Blue Jays. But since then, his Triple-A performance has been an average-ish .280/.340/.497, which translates to a 101 wRC+. He also struck out in  29.9% of his plate appearances in that time. Like Trammell, he’s out of options but comes with years of potential club control. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Yankees as depth but without occupying a roster spot.

MLBTR Podcast: Free Agent Power Rankings, Ohtani’s Stolen Money And The A’s Moving To Sacramento

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • How can a pitcher blow a save in the seventh inning? How early can a save be blown? (38:25)
  • Do you think the Tigers will release Javier Báez? It is painful to watch him. (41:15)
  • Who could the Braves target inside or outside the organization to replace Spencer Strider? (45:15)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Dodgers Designate Taylor Trammell For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced a series of roster moves in advance of tonight’s matchup with the Nationals. Los Angeles confirmed their previously reported selection of reliever Eduardo Salazar and recalls of righty Kyle Hurt and outfielder Andy Pages. To create spots on the roster, the Dodgers optioned relievers Ricky Vanasco and Nick Ramirez and designated outfielder Taylor Trammell for assignment. The latter move clears the necessary 40-man roster spot for Salazar.

Trammell only spent two weeks on the L.A. roster. The Dodgers claimed him off waivers from the Mariners on April 2. He barely played, going hitless with three strikeouts in six plate appearances. Trammell appeared in five games but only got one start. As an out-of-options player who was clearly relegated to a depth role, his spot in the organization was tenuous. Pages, one of the organization’s top prospects, will step into the vacated outfield spot.

The 26-year-old Trammell was once a top minor league talent himself. The 35th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Reds, he was twice involved in significant trades. He went to the Padres in a 2019 deadline deal and was flipped to the Mariners the following season. Trammell debuted with the M’s in 2021 and spent parts of three years in Seattle, but he never hit at the level the Mariners had envisioned.

In 351 plate appearances, the lefty hitter turned in a .168/.270/.368 slash. He drew a decent number of walks and hit 15 homers in 121 games, but he hasn’t made consistent contact. Trammell has gone down on strikes at an untenable 37.3% clip against big league pitching. That has now squeezed him off a pair of rosters.

The Dodgers have a week to trade Trammell or put him on waivers. Los Angeles was near the bottom of the waiver priority when they successfully claimed him a couple weeks ago, so they may be able to get him through the wire unclaimed. If another team does take a flier on Trammell, they’d have to keep him on the MLB team or designate him for assignment themselves.

Dodgers To Select Eduardo Salazar

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The Dodgers are calling up right-hander Eduardo Salazar, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The club has a full 40-man roster and the righty is not yet on it, so a corresponding move will be required to add him.

Salazar, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason after previously having spent his entire career in the Reds’ organization. He was able to make his major league debut last year with Cincinnati, allowing 11 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings. He struck out five opponents but also allowed 11 hits, gave out five walks and hit four batters.

He was outrighted off the Reds’ roster in August and was able to elect minor league free agency at season’s end. The Dodgers clearly saw something they liked, perhaps the ability to generate ground balls. Salazar averaged over 93 miles per hour on both his four-seam fastball and his sinker, while also offering a slider and a changeup. He got grounders at a 51.1% clip in his brief time in the majors and even more than that in the minors last year.

Salazar has made three Triple-A starts already this year, having thrown 15 2/3 innings with a 2.87 ERA. His 14.3% strikeout rate is nothing special but his 7.9% walk rate is fine while opponents have pounded the ball into the dirt at a 58.3% clip.

The Dodgers’ pitching staff is getting a bit squeezed. They already opened the season with Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Emmet Sheehan, Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen on the injured list. In recent days, Bobby Miller and Connor Brogdon have joined them.

The Dodgers have a four-man rotation of Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone and James Paxton but nonetheless are planning on two straight bullpen games today and tomorrow. That’s due to Miller’s recent IL stint and the plan to keep Yamamoto on a weekly schedule for now as he transfers from Japan to North America. Glasnow, Paxton and Stone pitched in the last three days and won’t be available for the next two games either.

With an off-day on Thursday, the club is trying to fight through the next two contests as best they can, with guys like Landon Knack, Kyle Hurt, Ricky Vanasco and Salazar all being rotated through the roster either today or tomorrow. Pitchers who were already in the mix like Michael Grove and Ryan Yarbrough could be called upon to eat some innings as well.

Taking all that into consideration, it’s possible Salazar is slated for a short stay in the big leagues but he has a couple of options and could therefore be sent back to Triple-A without being exposed to waivers.

Carl Erskine Passes Away

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Former big league right-hander Carl Erskine passed away today after a brief illness, per multiple sources, including Dana Hunsinger Benbow of The Indianapolis Star. He was 97 years old.

Erskine was born in Anderson, Indiana in 1926. As a boy, he was friends with Johnny Wilson (Wikipedia link), who was black and would go on to play baseball in the Negro leagues as well basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters. Erskine would later mention his friendship with Wilson when the issue of race came up as he shared a locker room with Jackie Robinson.

The young Erskine was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and would go on to spend his entire baseball career with that organization, though he played for them in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles. The righty made his debut in 1948, the year after Robinson broke the color barrier. Erskine told Benbow that Robinson once approached him and asked “Hey Erskine, how come you don’t have a problem with this black and white thing?” It was then that Erskine mentioned his friendship with Wilson, telling Robinson: “I didn’t know he was black. He was my buddy. And so I don’t have a problem.”

For his initial season in 1948, Erskine worked a swing role, starting nine of his 17 appearances and tossing 64 innings with a 3.23 earned run average. He would gradually increase his workload in the seasons to come, getting to 79 2/3 in 1949 and then 103 the season after that before getting into the 185-265 range for each season from 1951 to 1956.

It was in that latter stretch that Erskine racked up his most notable career highlights. He made the All-Star team in 1954, a year in which he tossed 260 1/3 innings with a 4.15 ERA. He tossed two no-hitters, one against the Cubs in 1952 and another against the Giants in 1956.

In 1955, Erskine tossed 194 2/3 innings in the regular season with a 3.79 ERA. The Dodgers had made it to the World Series seven times at that point in history but lost each time, including the ’52 and ’53 teams that Erskine was a part of. Erskine’s best World Series performance was in the ’53 series when he struck out 14 batters in Game 3, though the Dodgers eventually lost the series to the Yankees. The Dodgers faced the Yankees again in ’55 and Erskine only tossed three innings in the series but the Dodgers finally emerged victorious to capture the first title in franchise history.

When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles for the ’58 season, Erskine went with them, though his career was tailing off by then. He tossed 98 1/3 innings that first year in L.A. with a 5.13 ERA, then had a 7.71 ERA in 23 1/3 frames the next year, which was his final major league action. He finished his playing career with an even ERA of 4.00 in 1,718 2/3 innings.

He returned to Indiana after his playing days and worked various jobs. A profile last year from Tyler Kepler of The New York Times says Erskine “sold insurance, worked as a bank president and coached baseball at Anderson College.” Though perhaps the most notable of his post-playing endeavors was his work with people with developmental disabilities.

Erskine’s son Jimmy was born with Down syndrome, with Carl and his wife Betty deciding to raise him at home, an unusual path in a time when most such cases saw the child sent to an institution of some kind. The couple would later form the Carl and Betty Erskine Society to raise money for the Special Olympics. That charity work led to Carl being given the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum last year.

By all accounts, Erskine was beloved by everyone in the Dodgers’ organization, baseball in general and his community in Indiana. MLBTR joins all of them in sending condolences to the Erskine family and everyone else mourning him today.

Dodgers To Promote Andy Pages

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The Dodgers are calling up top outfield prospect Andy Pages, as first reported by Francys Romero (X link). The 23-year-old is already on L.A.’s 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding 26-man move, though it’s possible his promotion still leads to a 40-man move. Speculatively speaking, fellow outfielder Taylor Trammell could be at risk with Pages’ ascension to the big leagues, and Trammell is a recent waiver claim who’s out of minor league options.

Pages currently ranks as baseball’s No. 94 overall prospect at MLB.com and No. 95 overall at Baseball America. He garnered additional top-100 fanfare heading into the 2023 season but saw his stock take a bit of a hit due to injury troubles; Pages’ 2023 campaign ended when he underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in early June.

That injury came on the heels of Pages’ first promotion to the Triple-A level. He appeared in just one game with the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City affiliate but had turned in a stout .284/.430/.495 batting line in 142 Double-A plate appearances prior to that move up the minor league ladder. The righty-swinging Pages has obliterated Triple-A pitching in the early stages of the 2024 season, tallying 73 plate appearances and recording a .371/.452/.694 slash with five homers, three doubles, a triple, two steals, an 11% walk rate and a 17.8% strikeout rate.

Pages draws praise for his raw power — which couples nicely with a swing and approach geared for lifting the ball — and plate discipline. He can play all three outfield positions, though scouting reports at BA and MLB.com suggest he profiles best in a corner, where he has the speed and instincts to be a capable defender.

The Dodgers’ outfield currently features Teoscar Hernandez in right, with a combination of James Outman, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor and the aforementioned Trammell rounding things out in the other two spots. Jason Heyward is currently on the injured list with a lower back issue, though when healthy, he and Hernandez can be expected to roam the corners most days. Pages could potentially serve as a righty-hitting complement to Heyward and/or Outman, though it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the Dodgers plan to get him more regular work than the short side of a platoon.

Given the timing of the promotion, Pages can’t accrue a full year of big league service time in 2024 — at least not solely by remaining on the roster. Because he was regarded as a top-100 prospect on multiple outlets, he’d qualify for a full year of service time if he finishes in the top two in this year’s National League Rookie of the Year voting. Barring that — and pending future optional assignments bac to the minors, which are a firm possibility — Pages will be controllable all the way through 2030. If he’s in the big leagues to stay, he’ll be a surefire Super Two player who’s eligible for arbitration four times, rather than the standard three, beginning in the 2026-27 offseason.

Dodgers To Recall Ricky Vanasco, Landon Knack For MLB Debuts

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The Dodgers are planning to recall right-handers Ricky Vanasco and Landon Knack from Triple-A Oklahoma City this week, reports Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. Should either pitcher get into a game, they’d be making their respective major league debuts.

Knack and Vanasco are both on the 40-man roster, so the Dodgers would only need to make corresponding active roster moves to bring them up. Knack has actually accrued a few days of major league service, as he was in the L.A. bullpen for their season-opening set against the Padres in Seoul. He didn’t get into a game and was optioned before the team’s domestic opener.

An East Tennessee State product, Knack was a second-round senior sign in 2020. He has worked as a starter throughout his minor league career, turning in a solid 3.44 ERA over 243 professional innings. That includes a stellar 2.51 mark over 22 appearances between Double-A Tulsa and OKC last season. Knack has taken the ball three times in Triple-A this year, posting a 16:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing seven runs through 15 2/3 frames. Baseball America ranked him the #11 prospect in the system this winter, pointing to a future as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Vanasco did not appear among L.A.’s top 30 prospects. However, the Dodgers liked him enough to sign him to a major league deal this offseason. That came a few months after L.A. had run him through outright waivers but within two weeks of his qualifying for minor league free agency for the first time.

The 25-year-old is a former Ranger draftee who once ranked among the better prospects in the Texas farm system. Control issues pushed him to the bullpen last season, but Vanasco has shown swing-and-miss stuff. He posted a 2.78 ERA with a near-32% strikeout percentage over 32 1/3 minor league frames last season. Vanasco has fanned eight hitters in four innings of Triple-A work this year, although he’s also walked six.

White Sox Promote Nick Nastrini

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3:40pm: The Sox have now made Nastrini’s promotion official and also activated outfielder Eloy Jimenez from the injured list. To open active roster spots for those two, they optioned right-hander Justin Anderson and infielder/outfielder Zach Remillard. To open a 40-man spot for Nastrini, they transferred catcher Max Stassi to the 60-day injured list. The backstop opened the season on the 10-day IL due to hip inflammation but was hit on the hand by a backswing while rehabbing recently, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com. His exact timeline isn’t clear but he’s now ineligible to be activated until late May.

9:27am: The White Sox will call up right-hander Nick Nastrini to start today’s game in what will be his MLB debut, manager Pedro Grifol announced (link via Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times). He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will need to open a spot for his contract to be formally selected.

Nastrini, 24, is widely regarded as one of the White Sox’ top pitching prospects. Acquired from the Dodgers in the trade sending Lance Lynn to Los Angeles last summer, the 2021 fourth-round pick has routinely posted massive strikeout numbers throughout his minor league tenure but has also battled sub-par command for much of his professional career.

Scouting reports at Baseball America, MLB.com, FanGraphs, The Athletic and ESPN all rank Nastrini eighth or better among ChiSox farmhands, with BA listing him third in the system. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Nastrini 76th on his 2024 top 100 list, touting him as a possible No. 4 starter and with the ceiling to become quite a bit more than that, given the strength of his secondary pitches.

There’s little doubting the quality of Nastrini’s stuff; he runs his fastball up as high as 98 mph and complements it with a slider, curveball and changeup that all project as potentially average to plus offerings. Nastrini features high-end spin rates on his heater and breaking pitches, and his changeup helped him limit lefties to a .226 average with a 29.7% strikeout rate between Double-A and Triple-A last season. (Righties hit .216 and punched out at a 26.1% clip.) Law touts the changeup, in particular, as a potential plus-plus pitch (70-grade on the 20-80 scale).

If Nastrini had better control of his electric arsenal, he’d undoubtedly grade as one of the game’s elite prospects. At 6’3″, 215-pound righty has the size and deep repertoire to profile as a starter, but he’s walked 11.1% of his career opponents. His penchant for missing the zone leads to plenty of deep counts as well; in 2023 he averaged about 4 2/3 innings per start. There’s still some refinement to be made, though he’s improved his command since college ball at UCLA and has also seen further gains in that field since being traded from L.A. to Chicago (9.5% walk rate in the Sox’ system).

The state of the White Sox’ roster amid their current rebuild gives Nastrini ample opportunity to show he can stick. The Sox are out to their worst start in franchise history, sitting at 2-13 on the season. The woeful state of their rotation has played a significant role in those struggles. Even with Garrett Crochet pitching like a borderline No. 1 starter through his first four turns, White Sox starters rank 26th in the big leagues with 72 1/3 innings pitched, 28th with a 5.60 ERA and dead last with a 5.20 FIP. Despite totaling MLB’s fifth-fewest innings, the rotation is tied for the MLB lead with 14 home runs allowed.

Nastrini will join Crochet, Erick Fedde, Michael Soroka and Chris Flexen in the rotation for the time being. Recently re-signed Mike Clevinger will join that group in a few weeks as well, once he’s sufficiently built up, and other prospects like Jake Eder, Jairo Iriarte and Jared Shuster (currently working as a long reliever in the big league ’pen) could eventually garner looks over the course of the season.

Even if Nastrini is in the big leagues to stay, he won’t accrue enough service time to reach a full year in 2024. Were it not for an illness that rendered Nastrini unavailable the first time Chicago needed a fifth starter, that may not have been the case, but he wasn’t healthy enough in the season’s first week to step onto the staff at the time. He’s still made just two starts in the minors this season, in part due to that illness. Further optional assignments could always alter his timeline anyhow, but for now, Nastrini will be controllable all the way through 2030.

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