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Archives for August 2018

Greg Holland Rumors: Saturday

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Amidst the whirlwind of rumors and action leading up to the trade deadline, one notable transaction may have flown under the radar. After being released by the Cardinals, Greg Holland (he of a 7.92 ERA and as many walks as strikeouts) is officially a free agent and can be signed by any team… if they think he’s worth a roster spot.

Here’s the latest on the 2017 NL saves leader…

  • According to agent Scott Boras, Holland has “received five or six calls from teams” (h/t Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe). Of course, it’s not clear exactly what level of interest these teams might have in actually signing the right-hander, who can be added for just the pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary (leaving the Cardinals on the hook for the prorated portion of the one-year, $14MM contract they signed him to at the end of March).
  • Elsewhere in Boston media, Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal reports that the Red Sox aren’t among the teams to have allegedly inquired on Holland. However, the club is “open to continuing to look at the relief market”, per McAdam. Boston’s bullpen has been one of the best in baseball so far this season, compiling a combined 3.35 ERA that ranks fifth-best in baseball thanks in part to excellent performances by Craig Kimbrel, Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree.

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Matz, Miller, Pham, Pillar

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ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(August 3rd)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • CLEVELAND INDIANS | Depth Chart
    • Activated from 60-Day DL: RP Andrew Miller
    • Designated for assignment: RP Zach McAllister
    • Injury news: OF Tyler Naquin is likely out for the remainder of the season after undergoing hip surgery. He is currently on the 10-Day DL.

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

Injury Notes: Deal Medicals, Matz, Devenski, Nicasio, Kinsler

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WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford took an interesting look at changes that have been made to the process of assessing health in trades. The 2016 Drew Pomeranz swap, and more particularly the fallout from it, sparked the development of a much more robust system for documenting and assessing medical matters. While thee’s obviously an advantage in enhancing the scrutiny, it also leads to what Bradford calls a “tremendously tedious process.”

Here’s the latest on some injury situations around the league:

  • The Mets announced today that they have placed lefty Steven Matz on the 10-day disabled list with a flexor pronator strain. That sounds a bit frightening, though indications are that it’s not a terribly concerning injury situation. Still, any arm troubles are somewhat more worrisome for a young hurler that has experienced so many already since his 2015 debut. Matz, who will be replaced on the active roster by right-hander Corey Oswalt, joins Phillip Evans on the shelf. The 25-year-old infielder suffered a non-displaced fracture of his tibia, though it is perhaps still possible he’ll be able to return to action this season.
  • The Astros have placed reliever Chris Devenski on the 10-day disabled list with left hamstring tightness, the club announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by southpaw Cionel Perez. Devenski had been cruising through another dominant season before he imploded very recently. Devenski had a 1.32 ERA as of July 1st, but has since allowed 13 earned runs in seven outings — including eight without recording an out over his past two appearances. Clearly, something isn’t quite right, so the ’Stros will give him a chance to get back to full health before the stretch run.
  • Also heading to the DL is Mariners righty Juan Nicasio, the team announced. He’ll be replaced by reliever Chasen Bradford. Knee problems have been an issue for the 31-year-old Nicasio this year. He’s now sporting a 6.00 ERA through 42 frames on the season, though he’s also carrying a sparkling 53:5 K/BB ratio.
  • Just-acquired Red Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler is likewise set to hit the DL after leaving tonight’s game with a tight hamstring, Bradford tweets. The seriousness isn’t yet apparent, but it doesn’t appear to be a major source of concern. Kinsler will be replaced for the time being by infielder Tony Renda.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/3/18

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We’ll use this post to track the day’s minor moves:

  • The Athletics have outrighted right-hander Carlos Ramirez, who cleared waivers after being designated for assignment recently. Ramirez, 27, has allowed just eight earned runs on nine hits in his 25 MLB innings over the past two years. Of course, he also dished out nine free passes to go with only five strikeouts in 8 1/3 frames this season. Ramirez has spent most of his time of late in the upper minors. At Triple-A this year, in 32 1/3 innings with the A’s and Blue Jays organizations, Ramirez has worked to a 5.01 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 5.6 BB/9.

Chris Young Undergoes Hip Surgery

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Angels outfielder Chris Young has undergone right hip surgery, per a club announcement. He will need an additional procedure on his left hip as well. Both are to address labral tears.

The 34-year-old’s outlook isn’t immediately clear, but it seems reasonable to guess it’ll be challenging for him to make it back this year. He has already been on the shelf for a month with a hamstring strain. With just two months of the season left to be played, Young may be looking at a return next spring.

Regardless, the Halos likely will not get value on the $2MM they invested in Young over the winter. That was certainly a reasonable amount to pay for the veteran reserve, who has mostly provided solid overall output over his 13-year career. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out as hoped.

In 128 plate appearances on the year, Young carries only a .168/.252/.363 batting line with six home runs. It’s fair to note that he’s only carrying a .183 BABIP, but Young is also producing soft contact at a whopping 38.5% rate and his strikeout rate has jumped to 28.9% after sitting in the twenty percent range in recent years. Plus, he has graded as a below-average defender in the outfield.

Young has been more effective against left-handers (85 wRC+) than against same-handed pitchers, but obviously he has lagged even in that regard. The expectation was that he’d provide something of a platoon partner for Kole Calhoun and a back-up for Mike Trout and Justin Upton, helping to form a highly productive outfield unit on a contending team. Instead, with the since-rejuvenated Calhoun embroiled in a miserable slump to begin the year, right field became one of the problem areas for a club that has fallen short of expectations.

Hunter Greene Diagnosed With Sprained UCL

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Top Reds prospect Hunter Greene has been diagnosed with a sprained right ulnar collateral ligament, the team announced. He won’t pitch again this season.

For the time being, Greene is slated to attempt to rehab the injury. The announcement indicates that he’ll report to the organization’s Spring Training facility and be monitored “throughout the offseason.” Perhaps the hope is that he’ll be ready to ramp up fully in camp next year.

It seems promising that the organization feels it’s worth pursuing a rehab rather than a surgical route. The club has not specified the grade of the strain. Obviously, any UCL injury raises the specter of the famous Tommy John procedure, but there’s no indication that it’s a consideration at this point in Greene’s case and plenty of pitchers have made it back from the injury without going under the knife.

Greene, who’s closing in on his 19th birthday, was the second overall pick in the 2017 draft. The high-powered righty rose to 18th on MLB.com’s mid-season ranking of the top prospects in baseball. In eighteen starts this year, he compiled a 4.48 ERA with 11.7 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 over 68 1/3 innings at the Class A level.

Cardinals Outright Tyler Lyons, Release Greg Holland

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The Cardinals announced today that two recently-designated relief pitchers have cleared waivers. Lefty Tyler Lyons was outrighted to Triple-A, while right-hander Greg Holland was given his release.

Both of these hurlers were trimmed from the St. Louis roster during a pre-trade deadline bullpen purge. Clearly, neither performed to expectations this year.

Lyons, 30, was one of the club’s most reliable relievers over the past few campaigns. But he dealt with injuries and struggled through 16 2/3 innings on the current season, allowing 16 earned runs on 24 hits.

Though he looks similar in many respects over that short sample — velocity, swinging-strike and strikeout rate — Lyons has given up quite a bit of hard contact. That’s reflected in the .412 BABIP he surrendered, which could reflect some poor fortune and/or degradation in the quality of his work.

As for Holland, he was off to a miserable start before hitting the DL for a hip impingement. Things were generally better upon his return: outside of one particularly awful outing, he allowed three earned runs and recorded 11 strikeouts in 11 frames.

Still, it’s hard to fault the Cards for deciding they’d seen enough, especially after Holland turned in another poor outing in his last appearance with the team. He ended up with a 7.92 ERA in his 25 frames for the St. Louis organization, which is not at all what the team bargained for when it made a late strike that promised the veteran hurler $14MM this season. The remainder of that promise will stay on the Cardinals’ books, less any pro-rated portion of the league minimum he makes with another organization.

Twins Claim Oliver Drake, Johnny Field

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The Twins announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-hander Oliver Drake off waivers from the Blue Jays and outfielder Johnny Field off waivers from the Indians. Drake will step right into the MLB bullpen, while Field will head to Triple-A Rochester for the time being. Minnesota already had two open spots on the 40-man roster, so no additional 40-man moves were necessary to accommodate the pair of claims.

The 31-year-old Drake has already pitched for the Blue Jays, Brewers, Indians and Angels in 2018, making the Twins an incredible fifth MLB organization for which he’ll appear in a single season.

Drake has been rocked for a 7.57 ERA so far, but teams keep taking a chance on him, perhaps in part due to a strong 9.6 K/9 mark against 3.3 BB/9, as well as a healthy 13.3 percent swinging-strike rate. Drake also boasts terrific numbers in Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 2.05 ERA with 155 punchouts against 43 walks in 110 innings of work. He’s out of minor league options, so the Twins (or a sixth MLB team) will have to carry him on the 25-man roster or try, once again, to pass him through outright waivers.

As for Field, the 26-year-old has batted just .213/.253/.373 through 179 MLB plate appearances this season, but he’s displayed some power and a bit of speed with six homers and a .160 ISO to go along with four steals. He’s drawn positive marks at all three outfield spots, in an obviously small sample, and has a career .271/.325/.440 slash in parts of three Triple-A seasons.

Tommy Pham Diagnosed With Fractured Foot

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Just two games into his Rays tenure, outfielder Tommy Pham is headed to the 10-day disabled list due to a fractured foot, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Lefty Adam Kolarek is being recalled from Triple-A Durham to take Pham’s spot on the roster for the time being.

Pham exited last night’s game after being hit on the right foot by an Andrew Heaney pitch, and while initial X-rays proved negative, further evaluation today revealed the hairline fracture. The injury is another stroke of bad luck to a Tampa Bay club that has already had plenty of that this season.

Topkin notes that the Rays hope that Pham can return in less than a month. The outfielder himself says he’s been given a two-to-four week estimate, so it seems that all expectations are for a relatively brief absence.

While the overall situation isn’t that concerning, then, it’s disappointing news given that Pham only just landed in Tampa Bay. The late-blooming outfielder came to the organization in a surprising deadline-day swap.

Of course, the Rays’ interest in Pham had more to do with future campaigns than the present one. There’s little hope of the team cracking the postseason this year, while the 30-year-old will reach arbitration eligibility for the first time this fall.

Indians Designate Zach McAllister For Assignment

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The Indians announced Friday that they’ve activated lefty Andrew Miller from the 60-day disabled list and cleared roster space by designating right-hander Zach McAllister for assignment. McAllister, who has been with the team since 2010, was one of the team’s longest-tenured players.

McAllister, 30, was traded to Cleveland by the Yankees eight years ago this month as the player to be named later in 2010’s Austin Kearns swap. While he never found his footing as a stater with the Indians, McAllister blossomed into a quality bullpen piece when taken out of the rotation in 2014. Over the next three seasons, from 2015-17, he pitched to a pristine 2.99 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 through 183 1/3 innings of work.

This season, however, has been another story entirely for McAllister. Through 41 2/3 innings, he’s limped to a 4.97 ERA with a diminished 7.3 K/9 mark against 2.2 BB/9 while serving homers at a career-worst rate (1.5 HR/9). He’s yielded seven homers through those 41 2/3 frames after surrendering only eight long balls throug 62 innings in 2017.

The 2018 season would’ve been McAllister’s last year of club control anyhow, as he’s now accumulated the requisite six years of Major League service time needed to reach free agency. Unfortunately for him, he’ll hit the open market on his worst full season as a reliever.

It’s still possible, of course, that another club could snag McAllister and plug him into its relief corps in the hopes that a change of scenery and some different coaching will foster a return to form. McAllister, after all, is still averaging just over 95 mph on his fastball with a near-identical swinging-strike rate to the one he posted in 2017, and his chase rate has actually jumped by nearly five percent. He’s only earning a $2.45MM base salary, with about $773K of that sum yet to be paid out, so he wouldn’t exactly break the bank for a team in search of a bullpen mercenary to close out the season.

If he ultimately is run through outright waivers and clears, McAllister does have enough service to reject an outright assignment to the minors in favor of free agency while retaining the rights to the remainder of his salary. At that point, he’d be a free agent available to all 29 other teams for only the pro-rated league minimum.

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