Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for 2016

NL East Notes: Stanton, d’Arnaud, Mets, Ramos

By | at

Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton may be ready to return to the starting lineup as soon as this Friday, manager Don Mattingly told reporters, including MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro, following last night’s win over the Braves. Stanton hit the disabled list with a Grade 3 groin strain that was supposed to effectively end his season in early August, but Miami activated him from the disabled list last week in a surprise move. However, Stanton has been relegated to pinch-hit duties until this point. Frisaro writes that Stanton has been running the bases and performed fielding drills in right field without any signs of discomfort. At 73-73 on the season, the Marlins are currently four games back from an NL Wild Card spot with 16 games remaining on the schedule. Seven of those games will come against the fourth- and fifth-place Phillies and Braves, though, while another three will come against the Mets, who currently lead the Fish in said Wild Card chase.

A bit more from the division…

  • Travis d’Arnaud is beginning to lose his hold on the starting catcher’s job, writes Mike Puma of the New York Post. Mets manager Terry Collins called d’Arnaud’s lack of home run pop in 2016 (four homers in 250 plate appearances) “frustrating,” writes Puma, and said he’s had extensive talks with the coaching staff to try to discern what has caused the downturn in d’Arnaud’s productivity, but to no avail. “You play the hot hand,” Collins explained in reference to starting journeyman Rene Rivera over d’Arnaud. “We’re in a situation now where we’ve got to go with, at this time last year or maybe a little earlier, hey look: The guys that are producing runs are the guys who are going to get in there.”
  • Interestingly, Collins is seemingly electing not to apply that same logic in the outfield. The Mets’ skipper stood by the slumping Jay Bruce, writes the Post’s Mike Vaccaro, making a not-so-subtle statement about his confidence (or lack thereof) in current bench options Michael Conforto and Alejandro De Aza in the process. “If I take him out,” Collins said of Bruce, “I’d better be confident that someone can do a better job.” Bruce is hitting .192/.271/.315 since being traded to the Mets and is in the midst of a 3-for-25 skid over the past week (29 plate appearances). The Mets will have a decision to make on Bruce’s $13MM club option for the 2017 campaign, which doesn’t look nearly as palatable as it did at the time of the trade.
  • Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos admits to Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post that he became distracted by focusing too much on his impending free agency recently. Ramos, who has been mired in a significant slump (.196/.252/.314 over his past 111 plate appearances), homered last night and tells Castillo that he’s come to the park with a better, more focused approach after a supportive conversation with his wife. The 29-year-old is still hitting .304/.354/.496 even after factoring in a month of poor performance at the dish, making him one of the top free agents on the upcoming market.

Injury Notes: Altuve, Bregman, Pearce, Gsellman

By | at

A look at some notable injury situations around the league…

  • Ominous news for Astros fans tonight, as both Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman exited the game with injuries, per a pair of club announcements. Altuve was lifted from the game due to discomfort in his right oblique, while Bregman exited early due to right hamstring discomfort. Julia Morales of ROOT Sports  tweets that both players will be re-evaluated on Friday — the Astros have an off-day tomorrow — but manager A.J. Hinch isn’t optimistic that either will be able to play in the series opener in Seattle on Friday. Houston topped the Rangers in an 8-4 win tonight, but the loss of either Altuve or Bregman would be devastating, particularly with a critical series against the Mariners on tap. Seattle is currently ahead of Houston in the Wild Card standings, though the Mariners themselves are currently two games back in the race.
  • Orioles infielder/outfielder Steve Pearce has been shut down indefinitely after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his ailing right elbow, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. Manager Buck Showalter revealed little about the injury to reporters, though Kubatko writes that the Baltimore skipper stated that Pearce could still return “in some capacity” later this month. The Orioles currently hold one of the two AL Wild Card spots, though having a bat of Pearce’s caliber in the mix would increase their chances of retaining that lead and of advancing in the postseason. Beyond that, Pearce is a free agent following the season, and September elbow troubles don’t figure to do him any favors in terms of earning power. The 33-year-old’s production has tailed off since being traded back to the O’s, but he still owns a terrific .288/.374/.492 slash on the season.
  • ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reports that Mets rookie right-hander Robert Gsellman has been playing through some degree of a labrum tear in his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Gsellman’s injury prevents him from being able to swing a bat, which obviously poses a problem for a National League pitcher — specifically one that has made three starts for the team late in the season. Per Rubin, doctors will wait until the offseason before determining if Gsellman needs surgery to correct the issue or if an offseason of rehab will allow the shoulder to heal. The 23-year-old Gsellman has a 3.92 ERA in 20 2/3 innings for the Mets since debuting earlier this summer.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/14/16

By | at

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Royals announced that they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on outfielder Reymond Fuentes, who was designated for assignment six days ago. Fuentes, 25, made Kansas City’s Opening Day roster after Jarrod Dyson opened the year on the DL due to an oblique injury and batted .317/.364/.341 in 44 plate appearances. His work at the Triple-A level, though, left plenty to be desired, as he batted just .254/.325/.317 with no homers and 17 steals in 65 games. The former first-round pick (28th overall by the Red Sox in 2009) was a key piece of the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego to Boston (though Anthony Rizzo was the headliner) and does have a history of performing well in the upper levels of the minors prior to this season.
  • The Orioles will select the contract of slick-fielding shortstop Paul Janish prior to tomorrow’s contest, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Baltimore will need to make a 40-man roster move in order to accommodate the 33-year-old Janish, who has batted .248/.333/.280 at the Triple-A level this season and a combined .242/.282/.303 in 71 PAs with the Orioles over the past two seasons.

Aaron Judge Placed On Disabled List; Yankees Promote Mason Williams

By | at

8:00pm: Judge has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 oblique strain and has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, the team told reporters (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch).

9:17am: Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is unlikely to return from an oblique injury suffered last night, Sweeny Murti of WFAN reports on Twitter. Fellow young outfielder Mason Williams will be called up to take his place.

[Related: Updated Yankees Roster]

Judge, 24, made his highly-anticipated major league debut this year after a strong run at Triple-A. Over 410 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, the massive slugger posted a .270/.366/.489 batting line with 19 long balls.

The first taste of the majors hasn’t been quite as smooth for Judge, who has whiffed 42 times in 95 plate appearances. His .179/.263/.345 slash leaves quite a bit to desire, though he has launched four big league homers.

Really, the early struggles aren’t of particular concern; it’s worth noting, too, that Judge needed time to adapt at Triple-A. And the injury isn’t likely to be a major problem. But it will prevent him from getting some more plate appearances under his belt, and could conceivably interrupt offseason training or winter ball plans.

It’s not clear that the injury will really impact the offseason plans of the Yankees, who likely already viewed Judge as a work in progress heading into 2017. GM Brian Cashman has already suggested that the club won’t look to add outfielders over the winter.

That approach is based in some part on the availability of other potentially useful players such as Williams, a former top prospect who only just turned 25. His prospect star has faded in recent years, with injuries playing a limiting role, so the move won’t come with much fanfare. This will be Williams’s second run at the majors — he had a nice, but very brief, call-up last year — and it comes on the heels of a 31-game stint at Triple-A in which he slashed .296/.313/.376.

Multiple Candidates Have Declined To Interview With Twins

By and | at

“Multiple GM types” have failed to reciprocate interest shown in them by the Twins, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Passan goes on to suggest that while the job and president of baseball operations title are appealing, there could be some reluctance due to the fact that overhauling the organization’s infrastructure is no small task.

We’ve already heard recently that Alex Anthopoulos turned down a chance at consideration. And Passan says the same held true of former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, who joined the Blue Jays earlier today in a position of less authority than he theoretically could have obtained in Minnesota. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported that Cherington declined Minnesota’s request for an interview and cited “personal reasons” for doing so. Per Neal’s report, Twins brass nonetheless chatted with Cherington and “picked his brain” on some potential candidates.

Athletics GM David Forst, too, has “declined interest,” according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter). Forst only recently moved into the general manager seat in Oakland, with Billy Beane moving up to the president of baseball operations role, though Beane seemingly remains very active in running the Athletics’ operations department.

The Twins are dangling an opportunity to achieve the president of baseball operations title, which in theory at least adds to the allure of the position. And the club has gobs of young talent, even if some of it hasn’t panned out thus far at the Major League level. The opportunity seemingly exists for the president-to-be to handpick a general manager, too, though owner Jim Pohlad has made clear that manager Paul Molitor will be retained, and there have been suggestions that interim GM Rob Antony will remain with the organization in some capacity. Antony, long the assistant GM under Terry Ryan and Bill Smith, is reportedly under contract through next season.

It certainly doesn’t seem as if Minnesota has failed to attract any appealing candidates as their front office search gets underway in earnest. The organization already sat down with Royals AGM J.J. Picollo and may be headed for a chat with highly-regarded Cubs exec Jason McLeod as well.

Tyler Skaggs Diagnosed With Mild Flexor Strain; No Ligament Damage Found

By | at

6:42pm: Skaggs’ MRI revealed no damage to his surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament, tweets Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times. General manager Billy Eppler told reporters that Skaggs has a “mild flexor pronator strain” and will sit out for the next week (also via Moura, on Twitter). The southpaw could still pitch again in 2016, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

7:52am: Angels lefty Tyler Skaggs has been scratched from his outing today with tightness in his forearm, as Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times was among those to tweet. Instead, he’ll head in for an MRI on the trouble area.

The organization is surely holding its breath while awaiting the results of the imaging. Skaggs, 25, finally returned recently from his August 2014 Tommy John surgery. After two years of recovery, another scare in the elbow area is the last thing anyone wanted to go through.

Things had been progressing rather well for the talented southpaw before this news. In his nine starts on the year, he logged 48 frames with a 4.13 ERA and excellent 9.4 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9. The hope, surely, is that he will be able to log thirty-plus high-quality starts in 2017.

For the Halos, any questions surrounding Skaggs are yet more concerning given the healthy-related uncertainty of other key arms. Andrew Heaney is already out for all of 2017 after his TJ procedurew, while Garrett Richards remains a question mark as he tries to stave off a UCL replacement. As I just explained in assessing three key needs for the organization, securing pitching depth is essential — but figures to be a challenge with a low-supply free agent market.

It’s certainly too soon to jump to any conclusions about Skaggs, who is obviously and understandably being handled with added care. As MLBTR contributor Bradley Woodrum has written in explaining his statistical assessment of Tommy John likelihood, prior TJ surgery is a significant indicator of future susceptibility, and Skaggs had already been slow to make his way back.

Braves Acquire Josh Collmenter

By | at

5:31pm: David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets that Collmenter is actually more likely to help the Braves’ Major League roster and could even draw a start for the Braves on Saturday. With right-hander Williams Perez sidelined by an elbow impingement after a pair of rough starts earlier this month (via O’Brien on Twitter), it seems that Collmenter will be a depth piece at the big league level.

Collmenter entered the season with exactly five years of service time and won’t reach the requisite 172 days to move up to six years of MLB service time, so he can be controlled through the 2017 season via arbitration if the Braves wish.

5:23pm: The Braves announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Josh Collmenter from the Cubs in exchange for cash. The longtime D-backs hurler joins fellow righty Joe Wieland as the second pitcher picked up by the Braves today in exchange for cash.

Josh Collmenter

The 30-year-old Collmenter was the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day starter as recently as 2015 but lost his rotation spot after a poor start to that season. Collmenter thrived in a bullpen role for his final 52 innings in 2015 and remained in the ’pen to open the 2016 campaign. (The offseason additions of Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller and the return of Patrick Corbin from the disabled list all but closed the door on a return to the rotation.) In 22 1/3 innings of relief work this season, however, Collmenter labored to a 4.84 ERA and was ultimately released by the D-backs. He went on to ink a minor league pact with the Cubs and posted a 2.25 ERA across 16 Triple-A innings with his new organization, though his 9-to-8 K/BB ratio wasn’t especially encouraging.

Collmenter, like Wieland, will give Atlanta some pitching depth as the team’s Triple-A affiliate continues on in the playoffs. But, like Wieland, he’ll also be able to elect free agency at season’s end if he’s not added to the 40-man roster, so his time with the Braves organization could potentially be quite brief in nature.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Acquire Joe Wieland From Mariners

By | at

The Braves have acquired right-hander Joe Wieland from the Mariners, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that the Mariners will receive cash in return. The 26-year-old Wieland was outrighted off Seattle’s 40-man roster (for the second time this season) in late August, so he won’t immediately require a 40-man spot from the Braves.

Wieland once looked like a potential back-of-the-rotation option for the Padres, logging a 4.55 ERA across his first five MLB starts on the heels of some promising minor league work in 2011-12, but he underwent Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter and struggled with his recovery before being traded to the Dodgers as part of the Matt Kemp blockbuster. Seattle acquired him this past offseason in exchange for minor league infielder Erick Mejia, but Wieland’s struggles became more pronounced than ever early in his Seattle tenure, and the Mariners outrighted him to Triple-A in early May.

Wieland opened the season with a dreadful 17.31 ERA through his first 13 1/3 innings, prompting that initial outright, but he actually recovered after that unthinkably poor start. From May 4 through Aug. 6, Wieland posted a 3.67 ERA with an 83-to-23 K/BB ratio in 90 2/3 Triple-A innings before having his contract once again selected to the Major League roster. He made one start for the Mariners at the big league level, surrendering six runs in five innings, before being optioned back to Triple-A and eventually outrighted off the 40-man a second time.

Per Bowman’s tweet above, he’ll provide the Braves’ Triple-A roster with some additional rotation depth throughout the remainder of the postseason. While he could potentially serve as rotation depth for the big league team as well, Wieland has enough Major League service time to elect free agency at season’s end if he’s not on the 40-man roster. In 52 2/3 MLB innings, Wieland has a 6.32 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate.

Lourdes Gurriel Hosts Showcase For MLB Clubs

By | at

Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the younger brother of Astros infielder Yulieski Gurriel, hosted a showcase for 60 to 70 Major League scouts today in Panama City, per a pair of reports from MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez and El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro.

The Marlins had a pair of scouts on hand to watch Gurriel, per Ebro, while the Houston Chronicle’s Jake Kaplan reported yesterday that the Astros would be in attendance as well. And earlier this month, FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported that the Cardinals were planning on attending the workout, too. Realistically, though, given the number of scouts reported to be in attendance and the fact that the younger Gurriel brother is one of the most well-regarded prospects on the international scene, it’d probably be more notable to list the teams (if any) that didn’t attend his showcase. Heyman said that roughly 20 teams were likely to be represented, and it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if that number ended up closer to 30.

Gurriel, 22, is currently subject to international bonus pools. That, however, will change next month on Oct. 19 when he celebrates his 23rd birthday. Despite his relative youth, Gurriel spent parts of six seasons playing in Serie Nacional, Cuba’s top league, meaning he’ll have the requisite experience to qualify as a professional upon turning 23, thus exempting him from bonus pools and allowing him to a Major League contract with any team for any amount and length.

Gurriel began his pro career in Cuba at just 16 years of age and batted .277/.362/.426 in 305 games from 2010-16, including an impressive .344/.407/.560 with 10 homers and eight steals across 59 games in his final season on the island. Capable of playing both shortstop and center field, Gurriel showcased his skills at both positions today, per Sanchez, fielding grounders and turning double plays from the shortstop position while also catching fly balls and making throws from center field. He also took four rounds of batting practice, two rounds against live pitching and ran a 6.65 in the 60-yard dash (all via Sanchez’s report). Sanchez writes that Gurriel’s physique and strong arm drew praise, though some teams felt he could use some more work against live pitching.

From here, the likeliest step for Gurriel will be to conduct private workouts for teams with interest in signing him. Because he’s unlikely to sign before his birthday, the Wasserman client should have ample time to allow multiple clubs to make an evaluation before agreeing to terms with a team. In the above-linked piece from the Houston Chronicle, Kaplan spoke to Baseball America’s Ben Badler about Gurriel’s overall skill set, with Badler explaining that the soon-to-be 23-year-old could open next season in Double-A or Triple-A, suggesting that a reasonably quick rise to the Majors is possible.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top