The Mets are promoting Triple-A righty Tyler Pill to join their pitching staff, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link). It’s not clear exactly what role Pill will have with the club, though DiComo does note that Jacob deGrom is healthy and is making his start tonight, so Pill won’t be stepping directly into the rotation. Pill, who turns 27 this weekend, has done a nice job keeping runs off the board in a tough Las Vegas environment this year, tossing 46 innings with a stellar 1.96 ERA. His secondary stats aren’t as encouraging, as he’s averaged just 4.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 with a 43.4 percent ground-ball rate. Pill isn’t on the Mets’ 40-man roster, meaning New York will have to make some type of move in order to formally select his contract from Triple-A.
Elsewhere in the NL East…
- Rio Ruiz wasn’t called upon when Adonis Garcia hit the disabled list last week, but after being promoted in the wake of Freddie Freeman’s injury, the 23-year-old corner infielder has impressed the Braves enough that he’ll likely remain their primary third baseman upon Garcia’s activation, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports. Atlanta still has some questions about Ruiz’s strikeout tendencies and ability to hit lefties, but his .320/.393/.480 start to his career and .262/.305/.447 effort thus far in Triple-A have apparently earned him some trust. (It probably doesn’t hurt Ruiz’s case that Garcia was struggling to a dismal .237/.278/.348 batting line at the time he was placed on the DL.) With Garcia nearing activation from the DL, the roster spots of Emilio Bonifacio and Danny Santana could be at risk, Bowman adds.
- The potential price tag in a sale of the Marlins could dip further below the reported $1.3 billion mark that both the Derek Jeter/Jeb Bush and Tom Glavine/Tagg Romney groups were said to be willing to exceed, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Heyman spoke to one person with knowledge of the Bush-Jeter group in particular and said that group is still short of the necessary capital to formally make such a bid. He adds that some potential suitors for the Marlins have backed away after looking “under the hood,” so to speak, which gels with previous reports that the team’s lack of revenue and long-term payroll commitments could be negatively impacting the sale process.
- Though he’d already been operating in such a capacity without the title, Koda Glover has been officially labeled the Nationals’ closer by manager Dusty Baker, writes MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. “We wanted to break him in slowly because this guy’s … shoot, he’s only a year-and-a-half out of college,” said Baker. “So he had said that’s the job he wanted, and so it’s his now.” Glover took the reins from veteran righty Shawn Kelley after Kelley blew a save recently and has excelled since being activated from a minor DL stint. The 24-year-old hasn’t been scored upon in his past five appearances and has been the Nationals’ most effective reliever in 2017, tossing 14 innings with a 2.57 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 1.3 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent ground-ball rate.
ilikebaseball 2
This makes it two franchises that MLB has allowed Loria to pilfer? That guy should be banned from baseball worse than the Pete Rose.
RiverCatsFilms
He’s an owner not a gambler
retire21
You sure?
vinscully16
Agreed, no more Loria, please.
Dookie Howser, MD
Ruiz has benefited most from his new haircut.
leefieux
Ruiz played an awful 3b in the Pirate/Brave series. Without him, my Pirates might’ve gotten swept.
bravesfan
stop… you have no idea how bad Garcia can be
Dookie Howser, MD
Robert Nutting, is that you?
baseball10
Garcia as an option off the bench and vs lefties will really help the club assuming Ruiz proves capable. Boni and Santana on the bench are awful
Jared Swanson
Between the 2 I’d much prefer Boni get his pink slip, but Santana is pretty awful right now too. Boni prolly keeps his job for his baserunning?
bravesfan
God, I just wish they would trade garcia to a team that needs a bench bat, and cut the other two because they all suck. Just bring up the young guys. heck, some are close enough to be ready… surly they can’t perform worse than Boni and Santana… right? Camargo.. that kid can play… let’s bring him up.
BravesBoi
I would much rather see Santana get sent down. Up until a couple games ago he didn’t have a hit the whole year. And he doesn’t have the versatility or speed of boni
wipeout88
Hopefully Boni will get cut. Waste of a roster spot.
bravesfan88
Soon enough the Braves will actually have a decent bench…
Ruiz can man 3B, unless a LHP is starting, then Garcia should start at 3rd. Then, you have Suzuki and Jace, and then you have some young talents like Dustin Peterson or Johan Camargo…or the aforementioned Santana.
Bonifacio just has to go, I mean at least Santana has gotten a couple of hits here and there. Every single game, you look at the box score and you see Bonifacio 0-1, and typically it is with a K attached.
If Rodriguez and Freeman were healthy, this bench would look MUCH BETTER!! A bench consisting of some combination of Rodriguez, Adams, Suzuki, Jace, Garcia, and Camargo would definitely help this team tremendously!! BUT injuries are a part of baseball, and every team suffers through them year in and year out. There is no point in crying about injuries…but they still suck lol
Cardsfan69
The Mets are such a sad organization, even in the worst division in baseball. They’re up 8-1 right now in the 6th, and I still wouldn’t be surprised to see them lose 15-10.