The Rockies have optioned righty Jordan Lyles to Triple-A, per a club announcement. Things have not gone as hoped for the 25-year-old, who missed much of last season with a toe injury. Through four starts, he’s lasted only 17 2/3 innings while allowing 11 earned runs on 22 hits and 11 walks, with just eight strikeouts on his ledger. To be fair, Lyles has been hurt badly by a sub-50% strand rate, and he’s still hovering around 50/50 in terms of generating grounders on balls in play. But his swinging strike rate is sitting at a career-worst 5.2% despite a career-high 92.9 mph average four-seamer, and advanced metrics haven’t seen much cause for optimism. (Lyles owns at a 4.85 FIP, 5.50 xFIP, and 5.73 SIERA.) Colorado will hope that Lyles can turn things around at Triple-A; otherwise, he could be headed for a non-tender. It’s worth noting that the right-hander entered the season with 4.060 years of service to his credit, so he could fall shy of reaching his final year of arb eligibility if he doesn’t return for a sufficient stretch of major league action. Lyles is earning $2.98MM in 2016.
Here are a few more notes from the National League:
- Shortstop Erick Aybar has been a huge disappointment early on for the Braves, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. While the Atlanta front office emphasized that it valued his inclusion in the Andrelton Simmons trade, Aybar has been one of the league’s least productive offensive players over the first several weeks of the season. Hopes were that the 32-year-old would help keep the team competitive and, perhaps, turn into a mid-season trade chip before hitting the market after the season. Instead, he’s followed up on a down year in 2015 with a remarkable -1.1 fWAR thus far, the worst mark in the majors by a full half-win.
- Interestingly, it’s been quite the opposite tale at short for the Cardinals, who were noted as an organization with hypothetical trade interest in Aybar after losing Jhonny Peralta this spring. Instead, Aledmys Diaz has knocked the cover off of the ball, as ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon explains. Diaz is hitting at a ridiculous .480/.509/.860 clip through 53 plate appearances, and while his .477 BABIP will undoubtedly fall, he’s also recorded only three strikeouts on the year to go with three walks. And though he has recorded five errors at short, his metrics grade out at average (in an undeniably tiny sample). All told, Diaz has already racked up 1.4 fWAR, checking in at fourth in the big leagues by that measure of total value. Trevor Story may have occupied the early headlines, but Diaz has actually been much more productive overall and has perhaps shown a more sustainable, better-rounded offensive skillset.
- Giants relievers Sergio Romo and George Kontos are both beginning to test out their injured elbows, with the latter slightly ahead of the former, as Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area tweets. Kontos is still at least two weeks away, and the club may get a better read on Romo once he attempts to throw for the first time later this week.
Watching Diaz he definetly looks like his bat can stick at the majors as a ss. His defense however, really is that bad. He needs a lot of work there. Pair him with Wong, who’s signed long term at 2nd, and I see a lot of errors in the future middle infield of the cardinals.
I think this Aybar situation is a good example of knowing he’s been bad just by looking, but please don’t ever specify just how bad because I don’t like feeling worse about that trade than I already do.
Regardless what anyone says, from the front office, Aybar was merely a fill-in at short, with the hope he could bring back “something” at the deadline.
The real pieces of the trade were Chris Ellis and Sean Newcomb…and last I checked Ellis was pitching lights out and Newcomb has steadily been a solid force as a starter with a ridiculous upside!!
Chris Ellis might very well end up being a great steal, even if most scouts see his ceiling as a low 3rd-4th starter. His stuff will not leave you screaming ace potential, like Newcomb’s, but Ellis knows how to pitch!!
From what I’ve seen of Ellis this year, he very well may become a solid #3 on a contending team, and if Newcomb comes anywhere close to reaching his potential then I still really like the trade for the Braves…
With Albies busting on the scene, it was only a matter of time before Simmons was gone anyways, rebuild or not…Getting two solid, advanced pitchers, one lefty with absolute ace potential, and one fellow starter that can eat up innings and will undoubtedly become a solid middle of the rotation pitcher, the Braves got what they could for Simmons.
Maybe they could have gotten more at the deadline this season, maybe not, we will never know, but I tend to like the trade for the Braves, even if Aybar has been putrid this year…
Also, with Aybar’s garbage play, it has given the Braves a chance to take a long look at Daniel Castro. While never a prospect, Castro has come up and suprisingly hit over .300, and he has played pretty solid defense at the SS position. So far, Castro has made the most of his opportunity, and hopefully he can continue to play well, and surpass any and everyone’s projections!!
Agree with you one hundred percent. Worst case scenario out of these two pitchers we flip one. No Aybar is not what he once was, but he is who he is. He was by no means the centerpiece of this deal.
I like what we have with Albies, Swanson, and Ruiz right now. Castro and Garcia are nice CHEAP pieces to have.
I like getting our young guys e pertinence in the rotation, but I hope their confidence does not get rocked in the process. We surely need to round out a rotation by the end of the season. Would like to see Teheran as our 3rd, pick up an Ace to carry next couple years via the deadline or FA (Strasburg possibly), and let the kids fight for 2, 4, and 5 spots. Worst case for Foltz, is he becomes our long relief man.
I have a hard time defining Strasburg as a reliable ace, the braves would be wiser saving their money/spending it on a left fielder that can hit a baseball and field (quite a concept, I know.)
I really like what Ive seen out of Diaz so far, and the fact that it’s at SS, a position the Cards never had a good offensive player handling until Peralta came in, is even better. The defense needs work, but that’ll come with time
Edgar Renteria and David Eckstein.
I mean in a while, thats all. Sorry forgot to add that
/Goes to baseball-reference
/looks up Aybar’s career splits
/sees April has historically been his worst month offensively
/shakes head at Dave O’Brien’s shoddy journalist work
I mean, that’s fair to note I guess, but I’m not aware whether that has much predictive value and he’s been unequivocally the worst everyday player in baseball.