NL East Notes: Blair, Revere, Herrera, Bonds
Top prospect Aaron Blair, acquired by the Braves in the Shelby Miller blockbuster, is a “strong possibility” to step into the Atlanta rotation on Sunday, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. While Mike Foltynewicz is another alternative, O’Brien notes that the start aligns better with Blair’s pitching schedule, and Blair has simply outperformed Foltynewicz this season. The primary reason to go with Foltynewicz over Blair would seemingly be to prevent Blair from gaining service time in an effort to avoid Super Two status, but manager Fredi Gonzalez tells O’Brien that such factors aren’t typically a concern for the organization. “I’ve been lucky, ever since I’ve been here that (delaying arbitration clock, avoiding Super Two) has never come out of anybody’s mouth,” said Gonzalez. Blair, 23, was the 36th overall pick in the 2013 draft and has allowed just three runs on 10 hits and five walks with 22 strikeouts through his first 19 innings at Triple-A this season. He rated comfortably among baseball’s top 100 prospects in the eyes of ESPN’s Keith Law (No. 39), Baseball Prospectus (No. 43) MLB.com (No. 54) and Baseball America (No. 60).
More from the NL East…
- Nationals center fielder Ben Revere is slowly progressing toward a return, writes MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. Revere, who strained his oblique on Opening Day, has begun running in the outfield and taking light swings, he tells Zuckerman. Though he’s a left-handed hitter, Revere is currently taking right-handed swings, per his doctors’ recommendation, in order to protect his oblique. The fleet-footed 27-year-old is still several weeks away from a return, Zuckerman notes.
- Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera tells Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com that he has made a concerted effort to improve his plate discipline this season as he looks to cut down on his strikeouts. “Too many for a little guy, you know?” Herrera asked rhetorically in reference to last year’s total of 129 punchouts. Herrera is still striking out at the same rate in 2016 (24 percent), but as Lawrence points out he’s also walked 15 times (22.7 percent) and leads the Majors with 5.03 pitches per plate appearance. The positive trends are strong indicators for one of the players that could be a part of the next contending version of the Phillies’ lineup, Lawrence adds.
- Barry Bonds has excelled in his new role as the Marlins‘ hitting coach, writes Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. Passan spoke to Marlins stars Dee Gordon and Giancarlo Stanton, each of whom offered praise for the first-year hitting coach. “I want to get better,” said Gordon. “So why not let him help me get better? That would be foolish and prideful of me to be that way. He’s only the best hitter ever.” Bonds has embraced 2015 hitting coach Frank Menechino (now his assistant hitting coach) and the knowledge of Marlins hitters that he brought to the table, and he’s a down-to-Earth approach in working to educate Marlins batters in the arts of swing mechanics and the mental approach to hitting. “We’re both aware that pitchers’ meetings are about us,” Stanton told Passan. “They want to get us out. We’re the ones they focus on not to beat the other team. How do you maneuver? How do you stay patient?”
Rockies Designate David Hale
The Rockies have designated right-hander David Hale for assignment, the club announced. His roster spot will go to fellow right-hander Gonzalez Germen, whose contract was selected.
Colorado also announced several other pitching moves. Starter Jon Gray has been activated from the DL, as expected, and will make his first start of the year tonight. Heading onto the DL is young reliever Miguel Castro, who is suffering from shoulder soreness that isn’t reportedly a significant concern, per Nick Groke of the Denver Post. Righty Carlos Estevez is moving up to the active roster to take the place of lefty Jason Gurka, who will remain on the 40-man on optional assignment.
Hale came to the Rockies via trade before the 2015 campaign. The 28-year-old had allowed three earned runs in his two innings of relief work on the year. He also struggled at the major league level last year, when he functioned as a swingman.
As for Germen, who is also 28, he’ll look to stick on the staff this time around after being moved as much as any player in baseball in recent years. He contributed 32 2/3 frames out of the Colorado pen last year, sporting a decent 3.86 ERA but also posting 6.9 K/9 against 5.8 BB/9, but is off to a nice start at Triple-A. Over his six innings, Germen has yet to allow an earned run and has seven strikeouts against just one walk.
Rays To Promote Blake Snell
4:19pm: Snell is expected to be active only for one start, manager Kevin Cash tells reporters, including Topkin (Twitter link).
2:09pm: The Rays will promote one of the game’s top pitching prospects, left-hander Blake Snell, to start Saturday at Yankee Stadium, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Snell, the No. 52 overall pick in the 2011 draft, will be making his Major League debut.
While he wasn’t an overly heralded prospect until last season, Snell’s 2015 was simply too dominant to ignore. The Washington native began the season at Class-A Advanced and had a meteoric rise to the Triple-A level, beginning with an incredible streak of 46 scoreless innings to open the year. All told, Snell’s 2015 season culminated with a microscopic 1.41 ERA with 10.9 strikeouts and 3.6 walks per nine innings pitched. That showing prompted Baseball America and MLB.com each to rank him as the No. 12 prospect in baseball, while ESPN’s Keith Law rated him 14th and Baseball Prospectus penciled Snell in at No. 21 on their list.
Snell is said to have the upside of a No. 2 starter now that his command has taken several steps forward (he averaged 6.6 and 4.4 walks per nine innings in 2013 and 2014, respectively). The 6’4″ lefty has a 92-94 mph fastball that can reach 96-97 mph and complements that plus heater with a plus changeup and a plus slider in addition to a curveball that BA calls “more of a supplement to his arsenal than a true weapon.” Law writes that Snell is probably a No. 3 even if his command doesn’t take a further step forward, and he could become one of the 10 best lefties in baseball.
Because Snell will have spent the first 20 days of the season at the minor league level, he’ll be able to earn a maximum of 163 days of Major League service this season. That’s assuming he doesn’t make a return trip to the minors, which is far from a given. It’s also worth noting that the 20 days he’s spent in the minors is the minimum he could’ve spent at that level without retroactively receiving the service time he’s missed by being optioned to open the season. In essence, Saturday then marks the first day that Snell could be recalled without the Rays running the risk of losing a year of club control. In the event that Snell does not return to the minors this year, the Rays would be able to control him through the 2022 season, though he would still qualify as a Super Two player and be arbitration eligible four times instead of the more typical three. Snell is already on the 40-man roster, so Tampa Bay will only need to clear space for him on the active roster. He’s begun the season with a 2.41 ERA and a 21-to-7 K/BB ratio in 14 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level.
Whether Snell sticks with the big league club remains to be seen. As Topkin notes, the promotion was necessitated by the need for a fifth starter after Erasmo Ramirez was needed in relief, so there may not be a permanent spot in the rotation — especially with right-hander Alex Cobb making his way back from Tommy John surgery. It’s conceivable, though, that Snell would be impressive enough to earn a lengthier look than merely one start with a strong showing, leaving Ramirez in a swing-man role while Cobb continues his rehab.
Chris Colabello Receives 80-Game PED Suspension
Blue Jays first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello has received an 80-game PED suspension, per a league announcement, which is the penalty for a first-time offender. He tested positive for the banned substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone. The 32-year-old’s roster spot will go to southpaw Chad Girodo, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets.
In a statement, via the Toronto Star’s Brendan Kennedy (Twitter link), Colabello says that he was informed of his positive test on March 13th. It would appear, then, that he’s only just lost his appeal. Colabello suggests that he is not at fault for the test, saying that he “would never compromise the integrity of the game of baseball” and has “spent every waking moment since that day trying to find an answer as to why or how” he ended up with the banned substance.
Even before today’s news, things hadn’t gone as hoped for the late-blooming slugger, as Colabello has logged just two hits and two walks in 32 plate appearances. Both he and the club were no doubt hoping for quite a bit more, given that he ran up a .321/.367/.520 batting line with 15 home runs in 360 trips to the plate in 2015.
While his K:BB ratios remain constant, Colabello has clearly suffered from more than just a turnaround in luck. His .411 BABIP from a year ago now stands at a meager .100, but he’s also making tons of soft contact (40.0%) and putting the ball on the ground much more often (60.0% after a 47.9% mark last year).
As those round numbers suggest, it’s still early, but it would have been hard for any organization to wait much longer on a player who is so limited defensively and doesn’t have an extensive history of production. Colabello racked up extremely negative defensive ratings, especially in the corner outfield, in his extensive action last year. And the indy ball find had never previously posted a major league season with an above-average batting line.
Needless to say, the suspension spares Toronto from making any tough calls on Colabello at the moment. But it also changes the calculus for the organization quite a bit moving forward. Colabello won’t be eligible to return until just before the trade deadline, and under the league rules will not be eligible for the postseason.
Jays GM Ross Atkins expressed support for Colabello in a statement on the team’s behalf, despite what he called an “unfortunate situation.” Atkins says that the organization is “confident he’ll return ready to compete and will have taken the steps necessary to ensure that this does not happen again.”
With the right-handed hitter out of the picture for at least eighty games, the Jays will presumably rely more heavily on Justin Smoak — a switch-hitter who is deployed mostly against righties, and could ultimately be paired with another option to face opposing southpaws. Jesus Montero presents an internal possibility, and veteran power hitter Michael Morse just entered the free agent market. Of course, the organization could instead look to fill out its roster with a different kind of player entirely. For now, of course, they are going with an eighth reliever, but outfielders such as Dalton Pompey, Darrell Ceciliani, and the just-signed Michael Bourn could add a different element if the team were to use Edwin Encarnacion more often at first and/or give Jose Bautista more time in the DH role.
Colabello had only just cracked two years of MLB service after entering the year with 1.157 years on his ledger. The Joint Drug Agreement provides that suspended players “shall receive Major League Service while suspended during any period he would have received such service but for his placement on the Restricted List as a result of violating the Program.” Colabello will, therefore, remain on track to reach Super Two status next winter if he returns to Toronto’s active roster after his ban is complete.
Reds Designate Tim Melville
The Reds have designated righty Tim Melville for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot will go to fellow righty J.C. Ramirez, whose contract was selected by Cincinnati.
The 26-year-old Melville had been up for his first major league stint. He ultimately allowed 11 earned runs in nine innings — including two starts — while recording eight strikeouts against nine walks. Melville worked to a 4.63 ERA in 151 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level last year in the Tigers organization.
As for Ramirez, 27, this will be his third MLB team in parts of three seasons of action. All said, he owns a 6.42 ERA over 47 2/3 innings, with 6.0 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9. But he’s been better at the Triple-A level. That’s especially true in the present season, as Ramirez has struck out ten in six innings and has yet to allow a run.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/22/16
Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Giants have selected the contract of third baseman Conor Gillaspie from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned outfielder Mac Williamson to clear a spot on the 25-man roster, the club announced. To clear a space on the 40-man roster, San Fransicso has transferred utility man Ehire Adrianza to the 60-day disabled list. Gillaspie, 28, was originally a supplemental-round draft pick of the Giants in 2008 and made his big league debut in a Giants uniform. He spent parts of three seasons with the Giants before being traded to the White Sox in 2013. The left-handed-hitting Gillaspie spent two and a half seasons as the primary third baseman for the White Sox and batted .260/.314/.397, largely in a platoon capacity. But he was largely ineffective at the plate last year and wound up returning to the Giants on a minor league deal this winter.
Earlier Moves
- The Phillies have outrighted left-hander James Russell after he cleared waivers, the club announced. Philadelphia designated Russell for assignment two days ago and selected the contract of fellow veteran Andrew Bailey. Russell struggled greatly with the Phils this season, allowing nine runs with four strikeouts against five walks in 4 1/3 innings. Because of his service time (five year, 122 days), Russell will have the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency. The longtime Cubs reliever had a career 4.09 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 in 334 2/3 inning and has held lefties to a .242 average and .289 OBP, though the .410 slugging he’s yielded leaves something to be desired.
Al Avila Discusses St. Thomas University: MLBTR College Series
MLBTR continues a series where we interview top baseball executives about their college years. We’ll ask about why those chose their school, memorable moments, their favorite professor, important connections made, college learnings they still use today, their path to a front office and more.
Thus far, we’ve already chatted with Cubs GM Jed Hoyer, Phillies GM Matt Klentak and Reds GM Dick Williams. Next up in our question-and-answer series is Detroit Tigers Executive Vice President, Baseball Operations and General Manager Al Avila – a graduate of St. Thomas University (Miami Gardens, FL).
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Al, first off, thanks for talking to MLBTR. You have taken a different path than most – in that you played professionally before going to college. Can you talk about the initial college steps after your playing career?
“I went to St. Thomas University for both undergrad and graduate school. Both majors were the same – Sports Administration.”
How did you arrive at St. Thomas?
“I graduated high school when I was 17, and that fall I went to Miami-Dade Community College for a year. The following summer, I was signed by the Dodgers’ organization as a non-drafted free agent. I played with their rookie team, but was released the following spring. I didn’t go back to school until I was 24. I went to St. Thomas as a student and as a coach for the baseball team. The head baseball coach was Paul Mainieri – who is now the coach at LSU. So I went to school and worked for free as a coach. After I graduated, I did an internship with the Dodgers in Vero Beach during spring training of 1986. The Dodgers actually then sent me to Latin America to help out in the building of their baseball complex in Las Palmas (Dominican Republic). In 1987, I worked for the Daytona Beach Admirals, an expansion franchise in the Florida State League. That team didn’t last very long. Lucky for me, Paul Mainieri called me back and offered me a full-time assistant coaching job at St. Thomas University.”
So basically, once you got to college, you stayed in college for quite a while.
“Yes. I went back there working for him as an assistant coach. After the 1988 season, he got the head coaching job at the United States Air Force Academy, and the university hired me as their full-time baseball coach. The following year, they made me the athletics director. I was the athletics director and baseball coach there until I joined the Florida Marlins when they first came into existence.”
Can you tell me why you picked St. Thomas when you decided to go back to school?
“There were two reasons. First, they had the Sports Administration program. At that time, they were only the second school in the entire country with that program. The first one was at Ohio University. Back in those days, Sports Administration was pretty much a brand new program. Now, every school pretty much has it. Second, I grew up in the game. My dad (Ralph Avila) worked as a scout with the Dodgers. I played baseball; it just didn’t work out for me as a player. It was about the shortest career you could imagine. So in order to stay in the game, I felt I had to get that degree in Sports Administration. At the same time, what made it perfect for me was that Paul hired me as an assistant coach. I was able to get coaching experience at the college level. That, with the degree, helped me tremendously.”
Can you tell me about some of the other important connections you made at St. Thomas that led to your eventual front office career?
“Being in Miami, I established relationships with Ron Fraser at the University of Miami. I was around Don Shula, the Miami Dolphins coach, since St. Thomas University was their training camp – and Don had an office there. Those relationships helped me get my job with the Marlins. Ron Fraser was one of the guys helping spearhead trying to get a Major League franchise in South Florida. And Don Shula worked for (Dolphins owner) Wayne Huizenga, who was buying the Marlins. They both put in a good word for me. I had other relationships in the game, like Tommy Lasorda through my dad. Peter O’Malley was the Dodgers’ owner at the time – and I had interned with them. So I had some good references.”
While your biggest route to where you are now came on the college baseball field, can you tell me about things you learned in the classroom that apply to what you do today?
“At St. Thomas back in those days, they had a lot of adjunct professors who were in the sports business. At the time, there was a Miami Grand Prix, and they had people come in and do a class. There was a guy who worked for the Dolphins who was an adjunct professor there. We had a guy from CNN who was there. So we had people who worked in different parts of sports who came in to teach for a semester. They brought in people working in the sports industry who gave you a realistic perspective of the day-to-day operations of working in sports. A lot of it had to do with marketing … sales … budgeting … things of that nature. And we also learned the legal aspects of sports – another area that it was great to get familiarized with. And of course, communications. For me, the uniqueness of it was that Paul Mainieri also taught a Sports Administration class. So I was on the field as a coach and going to school at the same time – which was very helpful. Then, when I became the athletics director, I gained actual work experience in budgeting, hiring and firing, and managing people. And as a baseball coach, I was recruiting players and coaching players. All those things were huge for me in building up the experience needed to run a department.”
Do you ever get back to visit your alma mater?
“It just so happened that we opened this season in Miami, so it was a homecoming for me. When I was there, St. Thomas University reached out to me. They want to put me in their Hall of Fame. I haven’t talked to them yet about it, but I’d like to think I’ll be going back there in the fall for that.”
Your road to being the Tigers’ general manager is pretty different from just about everyone else in the game. You have a different perspective than most. What type of advice do you give students who are looking to one day work in a Major League front office?
“I get asked that a lot. One thing I tell people is that everybody’s path is different, period. Not one path is the same. The biggest thing I can tell people is … whatever job you can get – go get it, and do that job as if it were your first and last job and the job you want to do forever. What you leave behind in that job is going to dictate the next job – and if you’re going to get the next job. My first internship was with the Vero Beach Dodgers – but I also helped in media relations with the big league club during spring training. After that, I worked at Daytona Beach. That job didn’t have anything to do with baseball operations; it dealt with sales, marketing, ticket operations, and the day-to-day operations of running a minor league baseball team. I wanted to be on the field, but that was my start – and that’s what I did. And I was lucky I did that. A couple years later, Paul (Mainieri) asked me to come back to coach. What I initially told Paul was I didn’t want to coach in college; I wanted to work in pro baseball. Paul said, ‘Hey listen, you don’t know how things will work out. I could be moving on, and you can be the head coach of this school someday. Or, this job can lead to another job – like scouting. So you don’t know where this job will take you.’ I took his advice and took the job. And I loved it. It was probably the best job I had my entire life, as I thoroughly enjoyed coaching in college. I tell people that I didn’t plan on being a college coach. I didn’t plan on working in minor league baseball selling advertising. I didn’t plan for it. I just took the route where the door was open – that’s the route I took. Wherever you go, work your butt off. Don’t go there as a stepping stone job. Work it like it’s your last job. And if you do a great job, people will take notice.”
What other advice can you give?
“What people call networking – to me, it came natural. In college and the jobs I had, I just met people. You don’t have to send out 100 letters and 100 emails. Go out and meet people. That’s how relationships are established. And when the timing is right, things will happen. You can’t force timing. Just put yourself in a position where someone will want to hire you when the timing is right. I know how hard it is to get a job. I’m 57 years old. You see how fast and how young some of these guys are who have become GMs. I’m the opposite. It took me a long time.”
But you earned it.
“That’s right. And I can say Paul Mainieri really helped me the most. It was tough going back to school at an older age. I was already married. My wife was working. I wasn’t making any money. The beginnings were very humble and there was a lot of sacrifice. Sometimes you started to think, ‘Where is this taking me? Where is it going? Is it all worth it? And Paul was very helpful to me – almost as a mentor, and he’s only a couple years older than me. He was always very helpful, always very encouraging, always teaching. Having a guy like that was very important – and he helped me a lot. And his dad was the same. Doc Mainieri helped many people in the same way during his long tenure at Miami-Dade, guys like Jim Hendry and Randy Bush, to name a couple.”
Safe to say your college experience is a little more unique than most of your colleagues.
“Everybody gets to different positions in a different way. No two routes are the same.”
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Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. Now a freelance writer, his behind-the-scenes stories of his time in a big league front office can be found on www.chuckblogerstrom.com.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Blue Jays, Michael Bourn Agree To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays and free agent center fielder Michael Bourn have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). The 33-year-old Bourn was designated for assignment by the Braves late in Spring Training and subsequently released.
Bourn is in the final season of a four-year, $48MM contract that he signed with the Indians heading into the 2013 season. Hamstring injuries began to slow Bourn down early in the deal, however, and Cleveland flipped him to Atlanta alongside Nick Swisher last summer in an exchange of bad contracts that sent Chris Johnson to the Indians. In the event that he surfaces on Toronto’s Major League roster, they’ll be responsible only for paying the pro-rated portion of the league minimum, as Atlanta is on the hook for the remainder of this 2016 salary.
Once a premier defensive center fielder with a roughly league-average bat and enormous contributions on the basepaths, Bourn has posted deflated offensive numbers over the life of his current contract, batting .253/.313/.336. Beyond that, the hamstring problems that have plagued him have also led to diminished baserunning contributions as he enters his mid-30s; Bourn averaged 51 stolen bases per season from 2008-12 (twice topping 60 steals), but he’s stolen a combined 50 bases in 75 attempts since signing with Cleveland.
Bourn provides the Blue Jays with some outfield depth and could potentially unseat current fourth outfielder Ezequiel Carrera at some point. The 28-year-old Carrera has never been much of a threat with the bat (career .257/.307/.346 batting line) and has logged just 742 Major League innings in center field with below-average ratings from Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating.
Tyson Ross Won’t Require Surgery; Return Date Still Unknown
APRIL 22: Padres manager Andy Green told reporters, including MLB.com’s A.J. Cassavell, that the MRI results reached him in the middle of last night’s game. Ross will not require surgery on the shoulder, but he still won’t throw for another couple of weeks. Ross will be re-evaluated in two weeks, per Green. While the fact that he’ll avoid surgery is obviously a positive for the Padres, that timeline seemingly suggests that Ross could be out until at least mid-May. One has to imagine that he’ll require a minor league rehab assignment before returning, so even in an ideal scenario it’d be fair to tack another week or two on top of the two week point of re-evaluation.
Green did note that the injury to Spangenberg appears to be mild in nature, adding that there’s “some optimism that at the end of 15 days, he could be back with us.”
APRIL 20: Padres right-hander Tyson Ross will undergo an MRI on his ailing right shoulder, per multiple reporters, including Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). Yesterday, Lin tweeted that Ross was beginning to play catch for the first time since being placed on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation on April 5.
While it’s not yet clear that Ross is facing a serious shoulder injury, he’s unquestionably facing a longer absence than he and the club had hoped when he originally hit the disabled list. Ross was initially optimistic that he’d be able to return after missing the minimum amount of time, but it’s already been 15 days since he was placed on the disabled list and a rehab assignment doesn’t appear to be in his immediate future.
The 28-year-old was San Diego’s best starter last season and has in fact quietly been one of the NL’s better starters across the past three seasons. Dating back to 2013, Ross has given the Padres 516 2/3 innings of 3.07 ERA ball, averaging 9.2 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings to go along with a 58.2 percent ground-ball rate. However, Ross also easily leads all Major League starters in slider usage over that three-year span; thirty-nine percent of Ross’ offerings from 2013-15 were sliders (via Fangraphs), and that’s a full four percent higher than Ervin Santana, who rated second on that list. Some in the past have questioned Ross’ delivery, as well, wondering about his ability to remain healthy.
Ross is earning $9.625MM this year after his second trip through the arbitration process this past winter. He reportedly drew significant trade interest both last summer and in the offseason, but the Padres elected not to move him, instead counting on him to help front the 2016 iteration of their starting rotation alongside James Shields and Andrew Cashner. While moving Ross this summer, when he would have a year and a half of club control left, seemed like a plausible fallback option, a significant injury would of course cast a shadow of doubt on that possibility.
Ross’ troubling news isn’t the only bit of bad luck for the Padres on the health front; the club placed infielder Cory Spangenberg on the disabled list today with a strained left quad. Spangenberg, a former first-round pick, has quietly delivered solid production for the Padres since his big league debut in 2014, batting a combined .269/.327/.402 (106 OPS+, 105 wRC+). The club added Jemile Weeks to its 40-man roster to take Spangenberg’s place.
West Notes: Valencia, Erlin, Skaggs, Castro, Mariners
The Athletics announced following tonight’s game that third baseman Danny Valencia will be placed on the 15-day disabled list due to a hamstring injury suffered in yesterday’s contest. Valencia, though, tells reporters that he doesn’t consider the issue to be serious and doesn’t anticipate missing more than the minimum amount of time (Twitter link via the Bay Area News Group’s John Hickey). “I will be very upset not to be in [the] lineup,” said Valencia in reference to the end of his 15-day DL window. The A’s didn’t announce a corresponding roster move, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that it’s “clear” that the versatile Tyler Ladendorf will be recalled from Triple-A.
A few more notes from the game’s Western divisions…
- The Padres have placed left-hander Robbie Erlin on the 15-day DL and recalled right-hander Leonel Campos from Triple-A El Paso, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. “He’s had some tightness in his forearm,” manager Andy Green said of Erlin. “He’d pitched through it, was capable of continuing to pitch through it. … We just thought it best at this point in time to shut him down for a couple weeks and get on top of it.” The Padres haven’t announced a replacement yet, but Lin tweets that Double-A right-hander Cesar Vargas was scratched from his start tonight and does not have an injury, making him a definite possibility. The Friars gave Vargas a big league contract and put him on the 40-man roster this offseason despite the fact that he’s never pitched in the Majors. Vargas has a 1.42 ERA through his first two starts this season and has a career 2.58 ERA at that level.
- Angels lefty Tyler Skaggs tells MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez that he’s throwing his fastball between 90 and 94 mph and is ready for a return to the Majors. However, Skaggs is still building up his endurance and says he understands the Halos’ cautious approach to his return. “I haven’t had any input or anything,” said Skaggs. “They said they want to save my innings for the end of the year, which completely makes sense. It’s frustrating for me because I want to pitch more. But it’s a good thing that they care about me, care about my future, about my health.” A healthy Skaggs could be a boon to an Angels rotation that is without C.J. Wilson and is going to be without Andrew Heaney for an indefinite amount of time. Heaney went on the disabled list with a forearm strain and, as of earlier this week, was said by manager Mike Scioscia to have “plateaued” in his rehab from the injury.
- Rockies right-hander Miguel Castro is dealing with shoulder inflammation and could land on the disabled list, writes MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The hard-throwing 21-year-old, acquired in last summer’s Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster, has been outstanding for the Rockies early in the 2016 season, allowing just one run on two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in six innings pitched.
- The Mariners‘ revamped bullpen has delivered excellent results early in the season, writes Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Incredibly, as Dutton points out, none of the seven relief pitchers that are currently in manager Scott Servais’ bullpen were on the Mariners’ Opening Day roster in 2015. GM Jerry Dipoto acquired four of the club’s current relievers (Steve Cishek, Joaquin Benoit, Joel Peralta and Nick Vincent — this offseason, but Dipoto explained to Dutton that he’s all too aware of how fleeting the success could be. “I spent my entire major-league career pitching 400 pitched games in the bullpen,” said Dipoto. “Never did anything else. If you think you’ve got it figured out, you don’t. The bullpen is about as unpredictable as it gets.”