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Quick Hits: Ramirez, Kazmir, Strasburg

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In his second season in Boston, Hanley Ramirez is settling into a leadership role, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald writes. In the piece, Ramirez addresses a variety of topics, but perhaps the most interesting is his view of the Red Sox and Marlins franchises. “It’s way different,” he says. “Down there, we were just happy to be there and make it to the big leagues. We didn’t have that kind of pressure. Here, it’s about winning, it’s about success and winning.” Ramirez also describes how Mookie Betts looks to him for advice. Lately, of course, Ramirez has mostly led with his bat, hitting .356/.415/.746 in September even before his two-homer outburst today against the Yankees. After a torrid second half in which he’s run his season line up to .290/.361/.503, Ramirez’s current four-year, $88MM contract looks wildly more successful than it did this time last season. Here’s more from around the big leagues.

  • Dodgers starter Scott Kazmir developed a blister on his finger after pitching a simulated game Sunday, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick writes. Manager Dave Roberts says he doesn’t yet know how serious the blister is, but it has to be an annoying development for both player and team. Kazmir has been out since late August with neck inflammation, and the Dodgers are trying to decide who will start for them in the playoffs besides Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda. Kazmir has a 4.59 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 135 1/3 innings so far this season.
  • Another injured starter trying to return to action, Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals, played catch on flat ground Saturday, writes MLB.com’s Bill Ladson. Strasburg suffered a flexor mass strain earlier this month and later told reporters he wasn’t sure if he would be able to return for the postseason. Playing catch on flat ground is dramatically different from pitching in a game, but it appears he’s at least taken a first step toward coming back. The 28-year-old has a 3.60 ERA, 11.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 147 2/3 innings in 2016.

Steven Matz Could Soon Return From DL

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Mets lefty Steven Matz, who’s been out for over a month with shoulder trouble, could return this week, ESPN’s Roger Rubin writes. Matz threw a successful 30-pitch bullpen session Saturday, then took a scheduled day off today.

Today against the Twins, the Mets had rookie Gabriel Ynoa make his first big-league start after five bullpen outings. The Mets hope Matz will be a candidate to pitch when that turn in the rotation comes up again on Friday, although they note that they will monitor his workload.

“We have no plans yet. Nothing’s written. Steven Matz’s name certainly will be in the mix,” says manager Terry Collins. “But Steven, when he gets here, is going to be a guy with a limit in workload that he has. So to get him built up and get him where we want, I am not sure we have the starts available.”

Every game is crucial right now for the Mets, who are battling with the Giants and Cardinals for two Wild Card spots. And, of course, Matz’s return could impact the team in the playoffs should the Mets advance to play a full series. (Should the Mets play in the NL Wild Card game, Noah Syndergaard would be the obvious option to start.) The 25-year-old Matz has posted a 3.40 ERA with a strong 8.8 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 132 1/3 this year in his second full season in the big leagues.

Starlin Castro Strains Hamstring, Could Miss Rest Of Season

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Yankees infielder Starlin Castro suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain while running the bases Saturday and could miss the rest of the season, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes. Grade 1 strains are the least severe type of strain, but could require a two-week recovery time. The Yankees are likely to use Ronald Torreyes and Donovan Solano at second base in Castro’s absence. The Yankees promoted Solano today after a .319/.349/.436 season for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The loss of Castro is a tough one for the Yankees, who are currently 3 1/2 games back in the AL Wild Card race. Castro has batted .273/.304/.439 in 593 plate appearances in his first season in pinstripes, but he’s been hot down the stretch, hitting .313/.333/.571 in August and .310/.328/.483 in September.

The 26-year-old Castro will, of course, remain under team control for the foreseeable future, with the Yanks paying him a total of $30MM over the next three years, plus either a $16MM 2020 option or a $1MM buyout, as per the terms of the pre-arbitration extension he signed with the Cubs in 2012.

Mark Reynolds Has Broken Bone In Hand, Will Miss Rest Of Season

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Rockies first baseman Mark Reynolds has a broken bone in his left hand and will be out the rest of the season, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding tweets. Reynolds left today’s game after being struck by a fastball from Jose Dominguez of the Padres, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post tweeted earlier today.

Reynolds spent time on the 15-day DL last month due to a hamate bone injury in his left hand before making a remarkably quick return. It’s unknown whether the injuries are related, but it isn’t much of a stretch to guess that they are. Gerardo Parra has collected playing time at first base over the past few weeks, and seems likely to continue to do so with Reynolds out and with David Dahl, Charlie Blackmon and Carlos Gonzalez manning the outfield positions.

The Rockies signed Reynolds to a one-year, $2.6MM deal last offseason, and heading into today, he had batted .281/.354/.442 in 438 plate appearances in Colorado. Those look like fine numbers, but they’re far from outstanding for a player in Coors Field, particularly one without much defensive value. Ominously, Reynolds — once one of the league’s most prolific home-run hitters — swatted just 14 long balls (including one today). It remains to be seen, of course, how his hand injury will affect his power, but the possibility of a further power decline surely will be on teams’ minds this offseason when they think about whether to acquire Reynolds.

5 Key Stories: 9/11/16 – 9/17/16

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Here are five important stories from the last week of coverage here at MLBTR.

MLB suspends A.J. Preller. The league suspended Preller for 30 days and fined the Padres for the team’s failure to disclose medical information in the Drew Pomeranz / Anderson Espinoza trade. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that the Padres kept two separate sets of injury information on each player and only made one available to the rest of the industry, and that teams the Padres traded with, including the Red Sox, White Sox and Marlins, were furious that they’d been tricked. The Red Sox felt MLB’s decision to suspend Preller wasn’t enough and that they should have received a player as compensation. Meanwhile, top Padres brass are split on the now-controversial Preller, with executive chairman Ron Fowler questioning Preller’s performance.

MLB: MLB: ALCS-Boston Red Sox WorkoutMore front office movement. The Blue Jays hired former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington as their new vice president of baseball operations, and he’ll focus on player development in Toronto. The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, will not pick up their option on senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson’s contract, furthering talks of change in the Arizona front office.

Billy Butler changes teams. The Athletics released their former DH early in the week, and the Yankees quickly signed him to a big-league deal. Since Butler had been released, signing him was a low-risk proposition on the Yankees’ part, as they’ll only owe him a pro-rated portion of the league minimum.

Dodgers, Brewers nearly completed — and could later revisit — trade involving Yasiel Puig and Ryan Braun. The rumored Puig/Braun blockbuster continued to generate headlines this week, as it became clear that the deal almost happened and that talks could be rekindled this winter. One possibility had Puig and Brandon McCarthy heading to Milwaukee along with two prospects.

Orioles, Scott Boras to discuss Matt Wieters extension. With catcher Matt Wieters set to hit free agency, Scott Boras and the Orioles front office will discuss a deal that could keep him in Baltimore after what’s been somewhat of a rough season. Boras also represents fellow Orioles Zach Britton and Pedro Alvarez, so talks between the two sides might not be limited to Wieters.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL Central Notes: Brewers, Cubs, Reds, Pirates

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Time will tell whether the Brewers can follow the Cubs’ path back to contention, but it would help if Brewers GM David Stearns ended up with Theo Epstein’s trade record, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. The Cubs acquired Anthony Rizzo, Jake Arrieta, Kyle Hendricks and Addison Russell in a series of terrific trades. They’ve also added Jon Lester, Jason Heyward, John Lackey and Ben Zobrist via the free agent market, but the smaller-payroll Brewers won’t be able to depend on a similar infusion of talent. Here’s more from the NL Central.

  • The Reds are still hoping for the returns of several key injured players, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. Zack Cozart (knee soreness), Billy Hamilton (oblique strain), Homer Bailey (biceps tenderness) and Cody Reed (back tightness) are all currently unavailable, but of the four, only Reed has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Bailey threw a bullpen session Sunday, and Cozart and Hamilton are both rehabbing their injuries. Of course, there’s little time left for them to return, and manager Bryan Price characterizes the likelihood of a Hamilton return as “improbable,” but he wants to keep the door open. “The easy thing is to shut down — that’s the easiest thing in the world is to shut everyone down,” says Price. “However, that’s not a culture that we really want to build here. … And unless these guys are deemed incapable of playing, they should be working hard to get back on the field and I think they are.”
  • The Pirates could still theoretically win a playoff berth, but if their remote postseason chances do evaporate, their distribution of playing time is unlikely to chance much, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. “Look at the at-bats that Adam Frazier and Josh Bell are getting, look at the innings that (Jameson) Taillon, (Steve) Brault and now (Tyler) Glasnow are getting, and (Felipe) Rivero is an anchor in our bullpen,” says GM Neal Huntington. “We don’t feel like we’ve got a veteran who’s taking innings or at-bats from a young player that necessarily we would change if we were to get eliminated.” Huntington does allow that Glasnow could get a turn in the Bucs’ rotation before the end of the season.

Latest On Twins’ Front Office Search

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The Twins are moving quickly in their search for a president of baseball operations and could hire one by the end of the regular season, club president Dave St. Peter told La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune earlier this week.

“That certainly is within reach,” said Peter. “It’s certainly not a requirement, but I think I have reason to believe that it is possible.”

St. Peter wasn’t willing to discuss specific candidates with Neal, who notes that the next head of the Twins’ baseball department might land the job in the next couple weeks but not take over until late October or early November. That could be the case if the Twins select a candidate from a team with World Series hopes. The Cubs fit that description, and the Twins have shown interest in multiple Chicago executives, including senior vice president of player development Jason McLeod, assistant general manager Shiraz Rehman and pro scouting director Jared Porter. They’ve also been connected to a pair of other likely playoff-bound assistant GMs, the Mets’ John Ricco and the Indians’ Derek Falvey. Royals AGM J.J. Picollo and Rays vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom are also possibilities, but Kansas City is barely in the postseason race and Tampa Bay is out of it.

To this point, Minnesota hasn’t reached out to Red Sox GM Mike Hazen or Rangers assistant Thad Levine, reports Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). It’s unclear if either would want to join the Twins, who have had difficulty finding candidates willing to interview, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan reported Wednesday. “Multiple GM types” haven’t reciprocated the Twins’ interest, per Passan, but St. Peter refuted that notion.

“We certainly understand and appreciate the high level of interest in our search,” he said. “We also recognize that a search of this nature is going to bring in a heavy dose of speculation. I will just say that it also brought a heavy dose of misinformation. Unfortunately, that is a product of the media world we live in today.”

In addition to candidates reportedly turning down Minnesota’s overtures, some teams have declined the Twins’ requests to conduct interviews with key members of their front offices, writes Neal. It’s not unusual for teams to prevent their executives from potentially heading elsewhere, but it’s an inconvenience for a Twins club that has been on the hunt for a front office leader since firing longtime GM Terry Ryan in July.

R.A. Dickey Undecided On Retirement

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With the end of the regular season approaching, right-hander R.A. Dickey realizes that the start he made Friday could be his last with the Blue Jays, he told Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. The knuckleballer threw five shutout innings against the Angels, yielding seven hits and one walk against five strikeouts in a 5-0 victory.

“When I came out I kind of ruminated over what that might be because there’s a chance that could be my last start as a Blue Jay. That’s somewhat emotional,” Dickey said. “But I have one singular goal, and I’ve made no secret about what that is: I just want to be on a championship ball club. That’s all I care about.”

At 81-67, The Blue Jays have a three-game cushion in the American League wild-card race. If they hold on and make the playoffs, Dickey is unlikely to factor into their October rotation plans. In the meantime, left-hander Francisco Liriano is expected to start the two regular-season games in which Toronto hasn’t officially scheduled a starter, writes Davidi. With that in mind, Dickey’s tenure as a Jays starter could indeed be over.

Looking beyond this season, Dickey is set to hit the free agent market as a 42-year-old during the winter. Dickey is unsure if he’ll pitch in 2017, however. While he has “never felt better” physically and believes he’s still capable of contributing, whether Dickey continues his career is “going to be a family decision.”

Dickey’s days as a front-line starter are long gone, but the 2012 National League Cy Young Award winner with the Mets has at least shown the ability to chew up innings this year. Dickey has tossed 169 1/3 frames, and his 4.46 ERA isn’t significantly worse than the AL league-average mark of 4.25. Entering 2016, he went five straight campaigns with 200-plus innings and posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the previous two years.

In the aggregate, Dickey has been much closer to average than great since Toronto surrendered a haul to the Mets to acquire him after the 2012 season. The Jays traded now-ace Noah Syndergaard and catcher Travis d’Arnaud in the package for Dickey, who has pitched to an unspectacular 4.05 ERA in 824 innings with the fifth major league team of his unique career. Dickey is cognizant of what Toronto gave up for him, of course.

“It’s been a real balancing act for me to walk the line between what people might expect of me because of past successes and what I was traded for,” he said.

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Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Cy Young, Nats, Bucs, Phillies, Yanks

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This week in the baseball blogosphere…

Please send submissions to ZachBBWI @gmail.com.

Latest On Ivan Nova, Pirates’ Offseason

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The Pirates acquired Ivan Nova from the Yankees without much fanfare at the Aug. 1 trade deadline, but the right-hander has since turned into Pittsburgh’s latest successful reclamation project. Nova had a rough showing against the Reds on Sunday, but he entered the contest with a 2.41 ERA to pair with an even more impressive 0.52 BB/9 in 52 1/3 innings with the Pirates. As an impending free agent, Nova’s breakout might go down as a bittersweet development for the Bucs, who could lose him after the season.

“He has obviously changed the direction of his winter in the last six weeks,” manager Clint Hurdle admitted to Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Nova, 29, was back-of-the-rotation fodder in New York over the past couple seasons, but he’s likely to cash in soon as an appealing arm in a free agent market that will be largely devoid of them. It will also help Nova’s cause that the Pirates won’t be able to tender him a qualifying offer, which would force another team to give up a first-round pick to sign him. J.A. Happ, who was dominant with the Pirates after they acquired him from Seattle a year ago, also didn’t have a qualifying offer weighing him down when he hit free agency last winter. That, combined with his down-the-stretch performance in Pittsburgh, earned him a three-year, $36MM deal with the Blue Jays.

While many are quick to credit highly regarded pitching coach Ray Searage when an unheralded pickup fares well with the Pirates, Hurdle told Nesbitt that the team hasn’t had Nova make any significant changes since it landed him.

“There’s been no major overhaul,” Hurdle said. “For Nova, the downhill angle has been there, the strike-throwing efficiency has been there. It’s just been a couple things he has tightened up.”

In addition to Nova, the Pirates will have offseason decisions to make on other free agents, including reliever Neftali Feliz and a pair of position players – outfielder Matt Joyce and utilityman Sean Rodriguez – writes Nesbitt. All three signed inexpensive one-year deals with the Bucs last offseason, and Joyce and Rodriguez have been especially effective in 2016. As a result, they’re in line for raises. Joyce, who’s on a $1MM salary, has batted a stellar .248/.408/.481 with 12 home runs in 262 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from the .174/.272/.291 line and five homers he put up in 284 PAs with the Angels last year. Rodriguez, a $2.5MM player, has slashed a career-best .266/.349/.516 with 16 homers in 293 trips to the plate. Along the way, the 31-year-old has spent time at every position but pitcher and catcher.

Elsewhere on the roster, arbitration-eligible pitchers Juan Nicasio, Jared Hughes, Jeff Locke and Wade LeBlanc are potential non-tender candidates, per Nesbitt. Nicasio and Hughes have been superior to Locke and LeBlanc, both of whom seem likely to go. Locke will be due a raise over his $3.025MM salary despite having posted ugly numbers (5.49 ERA, 1.64 K/BB ratio) in 126 1/3 innings this year. LeBlanc, meanwhile, joined the Pirates on Tuesday after they picked him up in a trade with Seattle. The Mariners previously designated him for assignment in late August.

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