The Reds announced this morning that right-hander Rookie Davis has been optioned to Triple-A Louisville. The 24-year-old Davis, acquired in the trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Yankees, had a nice season in Double-A last year and performed well in Spring Training, but he’s been hit hard through five starts in the Majors. Davis has worked a total of 19 innings, yielding 16 earned runs (7.58 ERA) on 29 hits and 13 walks with 15 strikeouts. A corresponding move hasn’t been announced, though Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets that a Triple-A arm is likely to be recalled to join the rotation rather than turning to Robert Stephenson for a spot start.
A couple more notes from the NL Central…
- The Pirates have, incredibly, deployed 30 different lineups and 29 different defensive alignments (not including the starting pitcher) thus far in 2017, per Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A large portion of the shuffles have been borne out of necessity, as Nesbitt also points out that the Bucs are currently carrying nine rookies on their roster. “There’s not always experienced guys to go get,” said manager Clint Hurdle of the team’s youthful composition. “With what’s happened to us, this wasn’t the plan coming in. This is an adapt, improvise and overcome situation.” While many Pirates fans have clamored for the team to pursue outside help, Hurdle suggested that improvements aren’t available at this time. “We don’t feel there have been better options outside,” said the manager.
- Nesbitt also writes that the Pirates now seem to have entirely scrapped their offseason outfield realignment, as Gregory Polanco has been shifted back to right field. The suspension of Starling Marte led Pittsburgh to move Andrew McCutchen back to center field, and Polanco’s shift back to right field is tied to the revolving door that the Bucs have had at that spot. “He’s done fine. Pretty average metrics in left,” said Hurdle of Polanco. “But we keep shuffling guys into right, and we’ve already got a guy who has played right pretty well.” Of course, Polanco’s move across the outfield could lead to similar issues in left field. Asked if he’ll keep Polanco in right field once Marte returns from his suspension, Hurdle said the team hasn’t yet made that decision.
- Brewers third baseman Travis Shaw and Red Sox right-hander Tyler Thornburg were swapped for one another this offseason but are in very different places as Milwaukee takes on Boston in interleague play, notes Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Shaw has settled in as the Brewers’ cleanup hitter, and his seven homers, 24 RBIs and .544 slugging percentage would all lead the Red Sox. Thornburg, meanwhile, has yet to pitch in a game for the Sox due to a shoulder impingement that has him on the disabled list. Thornburg expressed frustration about his injury and his subsequent inability to face his former team, while Shaw admitted that the games against his former team mean a bit more. “Everybody is a competitor,” Shaw told Haudricourt. “You want to kind of show your old team up.” The trade looks to be a good one for the Brewers at present, though a healthy Thornburg could certainly balance out the scales. The 28-year-old logged a 2.15 ERA and averaged better than 12 strikeouts per nine innings pitched with Milwaukee last year.
This is why you don’t give up solid players/prospects for one year wonders like Thornburg. Don’t get me wrong I loved the guy in Milwaukee but he hasn’t proven it longer than 70 innings. The jury is still out of course but I bet Boston missed Shaw quite a bit with how terrible and injured Pablo has been…again..
Yeah, Thornburg was good for the Brewers when healthy but the trade looks great for Milwaukee right now.
Agreed that this move is working out much better for the Brewers, though at the time of the trade it seemed just about everyone thought it was fair. This is the astronomical price of relief pitching today. It’s ridiculous. It makes me happy to see the Brewers using mostly homegrown, or at least “home-groomed” players in the bullpen. Our only major free agent signing, Neftali Feliz, has been mostly bad. The only reason he’s converting saves is he’s getting mostly 2-3 run leads in his opportunities. Here’s to hoping he’s gone by the deadline and we have Knebel/Torres/Barnes (not in that order necessarily) pitching 7/8/9.
I agree, paying for free agent bullpen arms rarely works as planned, and it’s especially something smaller-budget teams need to avoid.
Nobody was saying this was a bad deal afteR Travis completely disappeared the second half of last season. I don’t recall anybody calling him a “solid player” in September of last year when he hit around the Mendoza line.
Tyler Thornburg was pretty good in MIL especially considering what was pitching and defending around him. As for Travis Shaw, he performed all star caliber the first 2 months then the Red Sox replaced him with Aaron Hill/Brock Holt and gave a shot to Yoan Moncada. You can’t fault the BoSox for making this trade.
I don’t think Josh Rutledge is the answer but, they’re stuck with the Panda through 2020.
Mind boggling that the Red Sox gave up Shaw plus three other players for Thornburg. I can understand the Miley-Smith trade as Miley was limited to being a back end starter but Shaw is a power hitting, solid fielding, cost controlled third baseman. Trading him to clear room for Sandoval is crazy. Boston had other pitchers similar to Thornburg (Kelly, Barnes)..
The Pirates were iffy coming into this season, but Marte’s decision to go rogue really threw a monkey wrench into the works.
Question: If (as it was reported) the Pirates knew in Spring Training that Marte was appealing his proposed suspension, and probably wouldn’t win the appeal, why didn’t they quietly bolster the OF lineup then?
Because teams aren’t necessarily informed of the suspension. The player and the agent know, but teams aren’t informed unless the player/agent inform the team.
The team and players union are informed!
Not always the team, no.
The Pirates suck. The manager (who absolutely earned his MOTY award a few years ago) makes terrible decisions, the defense is bad (probably because no one plays the same position two days in a row) and they can’t hit with any kind of consistency (probably because the lineup is different every night). I want them to win and I’m really hoping the season isn’t over *already* but man, they are hard to watch in this current state. It’s heartbreaking.
The constant shuffling of literally everything has to stop. These 6th-7th inning “defensive replacements” are the dumbest decisions I’ve ever seen. Yet they continue to happen nightly. But what can you do? Clint is doing what he can with what he’s got. Like you said…nobody plays the same position two days in a row. And as much as I would love to blame Nutting for not opening the wallet to actually TRY to make this team better in the offseason, you can’t. When your core guys in Cervelli (who’s been sort of a victim of bad luck with where balls are hit), and Cutch/Polanco look like absolute garbage…you’re going to be awful. Your 3-4 hitters look like they belong in Triple-A.
And I’m no brilliant baseball mind, but this team also lacks one thing it had two years ago and in ’12-’13 with AJ Burnett in that clubhouse…and that’s a swagger to them. I’m convinced Burnett brought an absolute fire to this team that gave them confidence. Something that I haven’t seen since 2015. This team this year has absolutely no fire at all. No leader. Nothing. It’s like they show up, just to see what happens, then go home. Repeat another 161 times.
Can’t wait (he says sarcastically) to see Jaso, Osuna, et al, playing that PNC LF.
Sal Romano is down with a shoulder so I wonder who they will call up? Tyler Mahle?
I’d like that, but he’s not on the 40 man.
I bet it’s Bonilla. They were high on him out of spring training.
I think the Pirates would love to unload McCutcheon but the market won’t be very high on him. They’ll opt out of their contract after this year and he’ll be FA with not a lot of interest unless he really turns things around. the Bucs were doormats for a couple decades and came alive a few years ago with some good farm system development and making some prudent FA signings. But it’s back to the role of cellar dweller as they have been for so much of their history.
Someone needs to brush up on their Pirates history
The Bucs still have a lot of talent. They lost their 2 best position players, not many teams are going to survive that. They will be right there as a fringe contender entering next season. This is nothing like the teams of 20 straight losing seasons.
Another ” Spectacular” move by the Sox. 1st Birdbrain ( our GM) lets Eric Thames slip thru his fingers
I loved thornburg but we needed a 3rd baseman. Thornburg when healthy is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He just can’t stay healthy. Shaw is great but it was still a fair trade.
Shaw wasn’t that good till he was traded to Milwaukee
I’m sure he’s glad to be away from Boston.
Could be that the move to NL gave Shaw new life but can he keep it up for rest of the season
Does Rookie Davis have to change his name next season? And what happens in year 3?
I hope by year 3 he can stay below 100 pitches going into the 5th inning.
Are we judging trades after 40 games now boys?