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Pirates Claim Tyler Beede Off Waivers From Giants

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The Pirates have claimed right-hander Tyler Beede off waivers from the Giants, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). San Francisco had designated him for assignment last week. Pittsburgh later announced the move, designating Beau Sulser for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.

Beede, who turns 29 later this month, is a former first-round pick and highly-regarded prospect. The Vanderbilt product reached the big leagues in 2018 and got his first extended look in the rotation the following year. Beede allowed a 5.08 ERA over 24 appearances (including 22 starts) in 2019, posting roughly league average strikeout, walk and ground-ball numbers but struggling with the longball. The Giants no doubt hoped he’d cement himself as a long-term starting pitcher in 2020 and beyond, but that didn’t wind up being the case.

Unfortunately, Beede required Tommy John surgery in March 2020. That cost him the entire season and kept him out until the following July. Beede spent the bulk of last season with Triple-A Sacramento, struggling to a 6.66 ERA with a massive 18.4% walk rate at the minors’ top level. Much of that came while he was still rehabbing from the Tommy John procedure, and his season ended in mid-August when he landed back on the IL because of a lower back strain.

Beede exhausted his final minor league option last year, meaning the Giants had to keep him on the active roster or expose him to waivers this season. They’d transitioned him to relief but he struggled over six outings. Beede allowed five runs in 9 2/3 innings, walking six batters while striking out just four. Devoting an active roster spot to a pitcher still battling control woes proved too much for a win-now Giants team, but that’s an easier dice roll for a rebuilding Pittsburgh club. Beede is averaging nearly 96 MPH on his heater this year and won’t reach arbitration eligibility until after the season, so there’s a chance he sticks around long-term if the Bucs can help him regain his control of the strike zone.

Sulser, 28, got his first MLB call last month. He made four appearances, allowing nine runs (albeit just four earned) in 9 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. The right-hander had an excellent three-start run with Triple-A Indianapolis to earn his first call-up and still has all three minor league options remaining. It’s possible another club takes a shot on him via small trade or waivers within the next week.

Mariners Acquire Mike Ford From Giants

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The Mariners announced they’ve acquired first baseman Mike Ford from the Giants in exchange for cash considerations. It’s a reversal of the teams’ deal from two weeks ago that sent Ford from Seattle to San Francisco for cash.

Ford has pinballed between the two clubs as virtually the 41st player on both rosters. Seattle signed him to a minor league deal 0ver the offseason, then selected him to the big leagues while Luis Torrens was on the COVID-19 list. Once Torrens was healthy enough to return, the M’s designated Ford for assignment.

San Francisco jumped the waiver order by acquiring him, but the 29-year-old only appeared in one MLB game. The big left-handed hitter lost his 40-man roster spot yesterday when the Giants and M’s swung another trade, with San Francisco picking up utility infielder Donovan Walton for a pitching prospect.

The M’s now had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, and they’ll bring Ford back to the organization. The Princeton University product had acquitted himself well during his first run, hitting .317/.404/.488 through 11 games with Triple-A Tacoma. If the M’s are prepared to keep Ford on the 40-man this time around, he could serve as a left-handed bench bat for skipper Scott Servais or head back to the Rainiers as a depth player. He’s in his final minor league option year.

Giants Acquire Donovan Walton, Designate Mike Ford

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The Giants have acquired infielder Donovan Walton from the Mariners in exchange for pitching prospect Prelander Berroa, according to announcements from both teams. San Francisco has designated first baseman Mike Ford for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.

Walton, 28 later this month, has appeared in the majors in each of the past four seasons. He’s tallied just 102 cumulative plate appearances across 37 games, though, and his only MLB outing this year saw him enter as a pinch-runner. A left-handed hitter, Walton has posted a modest .196/.260/.315 showing in the majors.

The Oklahoma State product has a more robust body of work in the minors, where he’s a .287/.375/.427 hitter in parts of six seasons. That includes a .302/.391/.518 line in just shy of 400 trips to the plate at Triple-A, and Walton’s hitting .294/.368/.510 through 12 contests there this season. Perhaps of greatest import to the Giants, he’s a versatile defender who has a ton of professional experience in the middle infield. He figures to bounce around the diamond in a utility capacity for a Giants team that has dealt with injuries to both Evan Longoria and Tommy La Stella (although Longoria is making his season debut today). Walton is in his final minor league option year, meaning the Giants can shuttle him between San Francisco and Triple-A Sacramento for the remainder of the season if he sticks on the 40-man roster.

Walton, somewhat ironically, becomes the third infielder the Giants have acquired from Seattle in as many weeks. San Francisco also picked up Kevin Padlo on April 26 and acquired Ford on April 30. Both those deals were for cash considerations, but the M’s recoup a minor league arm in exchange for Walton.

Berroa, a 22-year-old righty, originally signed with the Twins as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic. San Francisco acquired him at the 2019 trade deadline, and he’s spent the past few seasons in the lower levels of the farm system. Baseball America named Berroa the #29 prospect in the Giants’ system over the offseason, writing that he owns a mid-upper 90s fastball and a solid slider. The outlet suggested Berroa’s control is a work of progress but that he has a chance to develop into a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Over four appearances with High-A Eugene this season, Berroa has worked 13 1/3 innings of one-run ball. He has 16 punchouts and six walks, a continuation of the high-strikeout, high-walk ways he’s shown throughout his young career. Berroa will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter if he’s not added to the Mariners’ 40-man roster.

Ford, meanwhile, suited up in just one game in black and orange. He collected a single in four plate appearances and has a .271/.417/.417 line over 60 Triple-A plate appearances this season. It’s the second time this year that Ford has been designated for assignment, as a DFA preceded the aforementioned trade from Seattle to San Francisco. The Giants will have a week to trade the 29-year-old or try to run him through outright waivers.

Giants Activate Evan Longoria, Place Jake McGee On IL

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The Giants reinstated third baseman Evan Longoria prior to this afternoon’s matchup with the Rockies. He’s at the hot corner and hitting third against Colorado starter Chad Kuhl in his season debut. In a corresponding move, reliever Jake McGee has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to lower back tightness.

Longoria underwent surgery to repair a ligament tear in his right index finger late in Spring Training. That procedure wound up costing him the first five weeks of the regular season, and the Giants have patched third base together in his absence. Five different players have started multiple games there for San Francisco, with Wilmer Flores and Jason Vosler picking up the bulk of the time. The group has acquitted themselves quite well, with Giants’ third basemen combining for a .277/.330/.436 slash line that translates to a 120 wRC+ (indicating offensive productivity 20 percentage points above the league average). That ranks 13th among the league’s 30 teams.

San Francisco is off to another nice start. Their 18-12 record is unsurprisingly short of last season’s 107-win pace, but it’s still the fifth-best mark in the National League. The entire NL West has come out of the gates well, though, and the Giants sit a few games behind the Dodgers and Padres in the division standings.

Longoria was a big part of the team’s incredible 2021 campaign. The veteran hit .261/.351/.482, improbably rebounding from four straight pedestrian seasons with a bounceback year at age 35. A shoulder injury kept the three-time All-Star to playing in exactly half the team’s games, but that marked Longoria’s best production on a rate basis during his time in the Bay Area.

McGee was also a pivotal player in last year’s success. The left-hander tossed 59 2/3 innings of 2.72 ERA ball, saving 31 games in the process. It was a continuation of the strong work he’d shown in the shortened 2020 season with the Dodgers, but he’s scuffled in the early going this year. McGee has been tagged for 12 runs in his first 10 1/3 frames, striking out just six batters on a personal-low 8.4% swinging strike rate. The team hasn’t provided a timetable for his return.

Phillies Acquire Corey Oswalt From Giants

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander Corey Oswalt in a trade with the Giants, as noted by Oswalt’s MLB.com profile page on May 8 (hat tip to The Morning Call’s Tom Housenick).  Oswalt has been assigned to the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley.

San Francisco inked Oswalt to a minor league deal back in January, after the righty opted for free agency when the Mets outrighted him off their 40-man roster following the season.  Though he has a respectable 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate with Triple-A Sacramento this season, Oswalt has an ungainly 7.11 thanks in large part to six home runs over 12 2/3 innings.

This work with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate represents Oswalt’s first pro action outside of the Mets organization.  A seventh-round pick for New York back in 2012, Oswalt has appeared in each of the last four Major League seasons, though only 30 of his 94 2/3 career innings have come since the end of the 2018 campaign.  He has a 5.89 ERA as a big leaguer, with a 17.2K% and 7.3BB%, getting work as a starter and (more recently) as a multi-inning reliever or swingman.

The Phillies got a good look at Oswalt during his time with the Mets, and now they’ll see what he can do as an extra arm on the depth chart.  Considering that both Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin are both on the COVID-related injury list, the Phils might turn to Oswalt for a spot start (or maybe in a piggyback or bulk pitcher role) as they try to figure out their rotation mix for the near future.

Red Sox Sign Carlos Martinez To Minor League Contract

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The Red Sox have signed right-hander Carlos Martinez to a minor league deal, as per Martinez’s MLB.com profile page.  Martinez had been signed to a minors contract with the Giants, but San Francisco released him from that deal on April 28.

The timing could indicate an opt-out, since Martinez was one of several Article XX(B) free agents who faced a mandatory decision date of May 1 on whether or not to opt out of their minor league contracts.  If the Giants let Martinez know in advance that he wasn’t going to be added to their active roster and Martinez subsequently informed the team that he would opting out, it may be that the two sides decided to part ways in advance of that May 1 deadline.

Martinez has yet to pitch this season, as he continues to recover from the thumb injury that prematurely ended his 2021 season.  The thumb issue was the latest in a series of injuries (including a shoulder problem, two oblique strains, and a nasty case of COVID-19 that required hospitalization) that have set Martinez back since midway through the 2018 season.  Prior to those health problems, Martinez had three years of strong work at the front of the Cardinals rotation, reaching the All-Star team in both 2015 and 2017.

While Martinez still pitched well as a reliever in 2018-19, he has only a 6.95 ERA over 102 1/3 innings (in 21 starts) since the beginning of the 2020 season.  That lack of performance led the Cards to decline their $17MM club option on the righty for 2022 campaign.

The Red Sox will now see if they can manage a second act in Martinez’s career.  The 30-year-old would at least seem to have some viable potential as a reliever going forward, and the Sox are certainly on the lookout for bullpen help given how their relief corps has struggled thus far in the season.

There is some irony in the signing, as Martinez originally signed with the Red Sox for $140K as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic back in 2009.  That was when Martinez as known as “Carlos Matias,” but due to questions about both his name and birthdate, MLB voided the righty’s contract with Boston.  Martinez had to serve a year-long suspension, but then inked a deal with the Cardinals for a $1.5MM bonus in 2010.

Giants Reinstate Brandon Belt, Dominic Leone From COVID List

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The Giants have reinstated first baseman Brandon Belt and right-hander Dominic Leone from the COVID-related injured list.  Infielder Jason Vosler and righty Sean Hjelle were optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding roster moves.

Belt and Leone return after positive COVID-19 tests sidelined the duo on April 29.  Both were off to strong starts — Belt hit .242/.367/.470 with four home runs over his first 79 plate appearances, while Leone had a 2.57 ERA over his first eight innings out of the Giants bullpen.

With Belt moving back to his customary first base spot, Wilmer Flores (who had been filling in at first base) is likely to slide across the diamond and take over at third now that Vosler is back in Triple-A.  Evan Longoria has yet to play this season due to finger surgery, but the veteran is on a minor league rehab assignment and could be close to his 2022 debut.

Giants Promote Sean Hjelle, Activate LaMonte Wade Jr.

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The Giants announced a series of roster moves to reporters today, including Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com. Right-hander Sean Hjelle has been recalled from Triple-A Sacramento, while outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. has been activated off the injured list. Sam Long and Mauricio Llovera were both sent to Triple-A to create roster space.

Hjelle was a second round selection of the Giants in the 2018 draft and has been working his way up the minor league ladder since then. His promotion is something of an early birthday present, as he turns 25 years old tomorrow. The 6’11” right-hander was ranked #5 in the club’s system by Baseball America back in 2019, though he has slid a bit in those rankings as he has struggled with higher levels of competition.

In 2019, he reached Double-A for the first time, throwing 25 1/3 innings with a 6.04 ERA. After the minor leagues were canceled in 2020, Hjelle returned to Double-A in 2021 and fared much better, putting up an ERA of 3.15 in 14 starts, along with a 25.2% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 54.6% ground ball rate. In Triple-A last year, however, his ERA shot up to 5.74. He was still getting grounders at a 54.1% clip, but saw the strikeouts dip down to 14.1% and the walks bump up to 11.7%. This year, he’s made five Triple-A starts and has improved those results somewhat, getting his ERA to 4.37 and his walks down to 5.1%, along with a 54.8% grounder rate. He’s still not racking up Ks though, with a 14.3% rate on the year. Whenever he gets into a game, it will be his major league debut.

Wade is coming off an excellent breakout campaign in 2021, where he hit 18 home runs and slashed .253/.326/.482, 117 wRC+. This year, he’s yet to make his season debut due to inflammation and a bone bruise in his left knee. After a seven-game rehab assignment, he’s now back on the roster and should slot into regular action in the outfield next to Mike Yastrzemski, with Luis Gonzalez, Joc Pederson, Austin Slater, Darin Ruf and Mauricio Dubon also in the mix.

As for Long and Llovera, Guardado’s tweet says that Long was optioned and Llovera was returned to Triple-A. The language different could be significant. Under the 2022 health and safety protocols, the commissioner’s office has the sole discretion to determine whether a team has been sufficiently impacted by COVID to call up “substitute” players. If granted permission, the team can then return those substitutes back to Triple-A (and, if he was not previously on the 40-man, off the roster entirely) without utilizing a minor league option or passing the player through waivers. Llovera was selected to the club’s 40-man roster a week ago amid a run of positive tests among Giants’ players. The fact that he has been “returned” to Triple-A, suggests that he is no longer on the roster. However, Llovera’s transactions tracker at MLB.com says he was optioned, meaning it’s possible he still has that roster spot.

Giants Designate Tyler Beede For Assignment

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6:05PM: In addition to the Beede DFA, Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado) that the club also reinstated right-hander Zack Littell from the COVID-19 list, optioned infielder Kevin Padlo to Triple-A, and called up right-hander Gregory Santos.

5:10PM: The Giants designated right-hander Tyler Beede for assignment, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link).  Beede is out of minor league options, so a DFA was necessary for the Giants to send him to the minors or outright him from their 40-man roster.

The 14th overall pick of the 2014 draft, Beede has appeared in four of the last five MLB seasons, posting a 5.39 ERA over 135 1/3 innings in a San Francisco uniform.  This season saw Beede record six walks against only four strikeouts in 9 2/3 frames of work out of the Giants bullpen, en route to a 4.66 ERA.

Between Beede’s high draft pedigree out of Vanderbilt and his quality numbers early in his minor league career, Beede appeared on some top-100 prospect lists prior to the 2017 season but then seemed to hit something of a wall.  The right-hander was rarely consistent at the Triple-A level or in his first few tastes of MLB action, and Beede’s career was then further interrupted by Tommy John surgery in 2020.

Returning from the IL last May, Beede’s 2021 season consisted of a single big league inning, a 6.66 ERA over 48 2/3 innings for Triple-A Sacramento, and a lower back strain that required a trip to the 60-day IL.  Those Triple-A numbers were exacerbated by an ugly 18.4% walk rate, as Beede continues to be hampered by the major control issues that began to surface in 2018.

While the Giants might be able to sneak Beede through waivers, today’s move might mark the end of his time in San Francisco.  Another team could possibly make a waiver claim to see if the 28-year-old Beede would benefit from a change of scenery, given the potential he showed early in his career.

Giants Outright Jason Krizan, Activate Mike Yastrzemski

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The Giants informed reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) that outfielder Jason Krizan has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento. The Giants also activated Mike Yastrzemski from the COVID-19 injured list. San Francisco’s 40-man roster now sits at 39, although they still have three players on the COVID IL who don’t currently count against that tally.

Krizan was selected last week when the Giants lost both Brandon Belt and Dominic Leone to the COVID list. While it came under unfortunate circumstances, it marked a heart-warming culmination of a long journey for the lefty-hitting outfielder. Krizan has played in parts of 11 minor league seasons, and his perseverance was rewarded with an MLB debut a bit shy of his 33rd birthday.

Unsurprisingly, Krizan’s stay on the major league roster proved brief this time around. He appeared in three games and collected his first hit (a single off the Nationals’ Josiah Gray) in eight at-bats. He’ll rejoin the River Cats, where he’s hitting .224/.350/.347 in 60 plate appearances this year, and try to work his way back to the majors.

San Francisco also announced they’ve signed left-hander Darien Núñez to a minor league contract (via Slusser). The Giants claimed Núñez off release waivers from the Dodgers last week. He had just undergone Tommy John surgery and won’t return until some point in 2023. The Giants quickly released him themselves but brought him back on a deal that won’t require dedicating him a 40-man roster spot or paying him a major league salary while he rehabs. Núñez appeared in six major league games with L.A. last season.

Yastrzemski got off to a decent start before landing on the shelf, hitting .267/.340/.356 through his first 50 plate appearances. He’ll slot right back into the lineup, starting in right field and hitting sixth tonight against Dodger starter Tony Gonsolin.

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