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Reds Sign Jonathan India

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TUESDAY: The deal is official. India receives a $5.3MM bonus, MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets.

SUNDAY: The Reds will sign first-round pick Jonathan India, per Jon Heyman of Fancred. India’s bonus isn’t known, but his selection – No. 5 – comes with a $5.9MM slot value.

India was a star third baseman at Florida, where he was particularly excellent in 2018. The 21-year-old concluded his tenure with the Gators by slashing .350/.497/.717 with 21 home runs in 226 at-bats as a junior, leading to both a high selection and top 1o pre-draft rankings at Baseball America (No. 6), MLB.com (No. 8), ESPN (No. 9) and FanGraphs (No. 9).

India will bring an “advanced” offensive approach to the Reds, per MLB.com, which lauds his “excellent plate discipline,” ability to hit for average and decent power. He’s also a threat on the base paths and has the athleticism to play all over the infield, according to MLB.com. India’s defensive versatility could be especially useful for a Cincinnati team which has third baseman Eugenio Suarez locked up for the long haul.

Latest On Matt Harvey, Raisel Iglesias

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3:20pm: A source disputes the reporting from the Nationals’ perspective, per Chelsea Janes and Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post (Twitter links). The Washington organization does not have interest in Harvey and “seems unlikely” to be a real bidder on Iglesias, according to the WaPo duo. The Nats are said to have shown some interest in Iglesias as a reliever, but that came before they acquired Kelvin Herrera.

10:07am: The Nationals have been in touch with the Reds recently and are eyeing right-handers Matt Harvey and Raisel Iglesias, in particular, according to Jon Heyman of Fancred (Twitter link). Perhaps most interestingly, Heyman notes that several clubs are intrigued by the idea of using Iglesias as a starter.

Harvey, 29, has undeniably raised his stock since joining the Reds in a trade nearly two months ago in a trade that sent Devin Mesoraco to New York. Through 53 2/3 innings out of the Cincinnati rotation, he’s worked to a 3.86 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 1.17 HR/9 and a 43 percent ground-ball rate. More encouraging than the bottom-line numbers is the fact that Harvey has steadily improved his velocity over the course of his tenure in Cincinnati; he’s averaged nearly 95 mph on his fastball over his past five starts and is averaging 94.2 mph on his heater as a Red after averaging 92.6 mph as a Met.

Harvey would be a pure rental for any team that acquires him, as he’s slated to hit free agency at season’s end. From the Nationals’ vantage point, though, it’s not clear he’d be a definitive upgrade over their in-house options. The Nats’ current top three of Max Scherzer, Tanner Roark and Gio Gonzalez is a strong trio, and while it’s not known exactly when Stephen Strasburg will rejoin the team, he did recently throw a bullpen session. If Strasburg’s absence proves to be lengthy, the need for a starter would be more pronounced. If he can return in the reasonably near future, though, it’s tougher to call Harvey a demonstrative upgrade over current fifth starter Jeremy Hellickson, who has turned in a perhaps surprisingly effective season to date (2.63 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 1.5 BB/9, 3.51 FIP, 3.55 xFIP through 48 innings).

As for Iglesias, he stands out as a reasonable target for virtually any team with postseason aspirations. The 28-year-old has stepped up as Cincinnati’s closer over the past two seasons and pitched quite well, regularly pitching more than an inning per appearance. Since Opening Day 2017, he’s pitched 112 2/3 innings (97 appearances) and posted a 2.48 ERA with 10.6 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9. Beyond that, he’s controlled for three more years after the 2018 season, making him a long-term piece for any club to add to its staff — be it in the bullpen or rotation.

The Nationals’ bullpen is much improved from a year ago, as they’ve since added Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson, Brandon Kintzler and Kelvin Herrera, to say nothing of the surprisingly dominant Justin Miller. But Iglesias would nonetheless further deepen an increasingly productive relief corps for manager Dave Martinez or, perhaps, serve as an upside play to plug into the fifth spot in the Washington rotation. If that proved to be a role in which he could thrive, he’d give the team a valuable option there with Gonzalez and Hellickson set to hit free agency at season’s end and Roark controlled only through 2019.

Brian McCann To Undergo Knee Surgery

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2:00pm: McCann will require surgery on his knee that will sideline him for the next four to six weeks, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).

It seems doubtful that’ll change the team’s immediate approach all that much, though if Stassi is struggling in a regular role three weeks from now, perhaps the organization would consider some type of addition behind the plate.

10:39am: The Astros will place Brian McCann back on the 10-day disabled list due to a right knee injury and will select the contract of Tim Federowicz from Triple-A Fresno in his place, as Jake Kaplan of The Athletic tweets. The Astros will also activate Joe Smith from the 10-day DL. Houston’s 40-man roster is currently at 38 players, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move for Federowicz’s addition, though they’ll need to open a 25-man spot for Smith.

McCann has now been on the DL three times with right knee soreness dating back to August 2017. For a 34-year-old who was long one of the league’s most durable backstops, perhaps that’s not exactly surprising. Still, whether it’s due to his apparently ongoing knee discomfort or simply due to a decline in skills, McCann is currently enduring the worst season of his Major League career. Through 173 plate appearances, he’s batting just .206/.283/.323 with five homers and three doubles. He’s the league’s second-slowest runner as well, per Statcast, topping only Albert Pujols in terms of sprint speed (22.6 feet per second).

Max Stassi will serve as the primary catcher in place of McCann — and it’s very arguable that despite McCann’s contract, that should be the arrangement through season’s end. The 27-year-old Stassi is hitting .255/.335/.482 with seven homers and 11 doubles through 158 plate appearances so far in 2018, and while he’s been below average in terms of throwing out would-be base thieves (22 percent to McCann’s 33 percent), Stassi rates as the top framing catcher in the league, per Baseball Prospectus. In fact, Stassi leads all big league catchers in BP’s Fielding Runs Above Average metric.

As for Federowicz, the 30-year-old journeyman will return to the ’Stros for a second time in 2018. He came up earlier this season and went 1-for-7 in a tiny sample of work. Federowicz has turned in a brilliant season in Triple-A so far, hitting .328/.404/.560 through 151 PAs. That’s largely how Federowicz’s career has gone to this point. In parts of eight Triple-A campaigns, he’s mashed at a .306/.376/.508 clip, but he’s managed just a .195/.243/.312 batting line through 325 PAs in the Majors.

Dodgers Interested In Michael Fulmer

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The Dodgers have been oft-linked to Manny Machado in recent weeks, but Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the team is also “aggressively” pursuing Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer. Just how receptive the Tigers are to trade offers for their top starter remains unclear.

Certainly, Detroit will have to at least entertain offers on virtually any player on the roster, as the organization’s rebuild is still in its early stages. But the Tigers are in a more difficult spot with Fulmer, whose 2017 season ended due to ulnar nerve transposition surgery in his right arm. Thus far in 2018, Fulmer hasn’t been nearly as good as he was in his 2016 Rookie of the Year season or for the vast majority of the 2017 season before a series of awful starts leading up to that surgical procedure.

Through 94 1/3 innings in 2018, Fulmer is sitting on a 4.20 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a 46.3 percent ground-ball rate. More troubling than his bottom-line numbers, though, is the quality of contact he’s allowed. Both Fangraphs and Statcast indicate that Fulmer’s hard-contact rate has soared by 10 percent this season. The average exit velocity of a ball put in play against Fulmer has leaped from 85.6 mph in 2017 to 88.8 mph in 2018.

There are certainly positives surrounding Fulmer’s season as well, of course. His average fastball velocity of 95.8 mph is right in line with his pre-surgery levels. His strikeout percentage (20.4), swinging-strike rate (10.3 percent) and chase rate (34.2 percent) are all either at or above his career-high levels. Fulmer looks to be in good health, and if he can sharpen his pitch location a bit, there’s reason to believe he can take some significant strides forward.

For the Tigers, though, that all boils down to the fact that Fulmer’s value simply isn’t at its peak at the moment. And given that he’s under club control for another four and a half seasons, there’s no need to rush into a trade unless the Dodgers (or any other club) bowl them over with a package from which they can’t walk away. Conversely, it’s tougher for an interested party to make that type of offer when there’s some uncertainty surrounding the pitcher’s current performance level.

Shane Victorino To Sign One-Day Contract, Retire As Member Of Phillies

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Shane Victorino hasn’t played since the 2015 season, but the 37-year-old has now formally announced his retirement as a player to Rob DeMello of KHON-TV (Twitter link with video). He’ll sign a one-day contract with the Phillies on Aug. 3 — the date of their Alumni Weekend — to retire as a member of the organization with which he established himself as a big leaguer, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Shane Victorino | Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

The “Flyin’ Hawaiian” will officially wrap up his career as a two-time World Series champion and one of the more notable success stories in the history of the Rule 5 Draft. Originally a sixth-round pick of the Dodgers back in 1999, Victorino was twice taken in the Rule 5 — first by the Padres in 2002 and again by the Phillies in 2004. While the Padres returned Victorino after a rough stretch of 86 plate appearances, the Phillies stuck with him and were handsomely rewarded for their faith.

Victorino went on to make two All-Star teams, win three Gold Gloves and hit a postseason grand slam off CC Sabathia in 2008 that will forever be remembered by Phillies fans. He batted .279/.345/.439 in total over parts of eight seasons with the Phils, hitting 88 homers, 181 doubles and 63 triples along the way. Victorino was also both prolific and efficient when it came to stealing bases, swiping 179 bags in 218 tries as a member of the Phillies (82.1 percent success rate).

Victorino’s time with the Phillies came to a close in 2012, when he was traded back to the Dodgers just prior to the non-waiver deadline on July 31. That swap didn’t bring about a return to the postseason for Victorino, but the three-year, $39MM contract he signed with the Red Sox in the subsequent offseason did.

While some raised an eyebrow at the contract given Victorino’s pedestrian 2012 season, he more or less justified the entire investment in year one of the deal by turning in one of his best seasons and playing a significant role in Boston’s 2013 World Series championship. Victorino hit .294/.351/.451 with 15 homers and 21 steals for the Sox that season while playing some of the best outfield defense in all of baseball as Boston’s primary right fielder. And while he didn’t have an overly productive postseason that year, his bases-clearing double against Michael Wacha in the decisive Game 6 and a later RBI single played a huge role in sealing the victory.

Over the next two seasons, Victorino’s bat faded, and his final big league appearances came during a short run with the Angels following a trade in July 2015. He went on to play with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in 2016 but hasn’t suited up in either the Majors or the Minors since that May.

In the end, Victorino will retire as a lifetime .275/.340/.425 hitter over the course of 12 seasons and 5164 plate appearances at the game’s top level. He hit 108 homers, stole 231 bases, scored 731 runs and knocked in another 489 as a big leaguer, taking home three Gold Gloves, two All-Star nods and a pair of World Series rings. Baseball-Reference pegs his career at a strong 31.6 wins above replacement, while Fangraphs credited him with 29.6 WAR. Along the way, Victorino earned more than $65MM while staking a legitimate claim to being the best position player to ever hail from his home state. Congrats to the Flyin’ Hawaiian on a terrific career and what will surely be a fitting way to formally bring it to a close.

Nationals Sign First-Rounder Mason Denaburg

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11:38am: MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets that Denaburg received a $3MM bonus, putting him $527K over slot value.

11:19am: The Nationals announced Tuesday that they’ve signed top their pick from the 2018 draft, high school right-hander Mason Denaburg. Fancred’s Jon Heyman first tweeted that the two sides were nearing a deal, while Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post added that the two sides had agreed to terms on an over-slot bonus (Twitter links). Denaburg was advised by and is now a client of the Boras Corporation.

Denaburg was selected 27th overall — a pick that comes with an assigned slot value of $2,472,700. That Nats, it seems, were willing to top that mark as a means of enticing the 18-year-old righty to forgo a college commitment to Florida. Denaburg would likely have gone earlier in the draft had he not missed more than a month of his 2018 season due to biceps tendinitis. He ranked 16th in the class per Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs, while the team over at Baseball America pegged him 22nd. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com rated him 24th in the class, and ESPN’s Keith Law had him 29th on his rankings.

When healthy, Denaburg can reach 97 mph with his fastball, though he sits a few ticks below that. McDaniel and Longenhagen write that he boasts “one of the most consistently 60-grade breaking balls in recent memory,” adding that his changeup has the makings of an above-average pitch as well. Baseball America’s report suggests that Denaburg could be the most athletic pitcher in the class, as he would’ve also been a legitimate prospect as a catcher with a strong arm and impressive raw power. Denaburg’s future, though, is on the mound, and he’ll now join Erick Fedde and Seth Romero among the top-rated arms in the Nats’ minor league ranks.

Blue Jays Release Al Alburquerque

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The Blue Jays have released veteran right-handed reliever Al Alburquerque from the organization, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate.

The well-traveled Alburquerque, who recently turned 32, was in the midst of a solid campaign in Buffalo, having pitched to a 3.77 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.94 HR/9 and a 50.6 percent ground-ball rate through 28 2/3 innings out of the Bisons’ bullpen. He enjoyed a fair amount of success in 2017, too, throwing well in Triple-A before tossing a combined 18 big league innings with a 2.50 ERA between the Royals and White Sox.

Alburquerque, as always, relied heavily on his slider in ’17 (54.5 percent), and while his strikeout rate wasn’t great in that small sample, he posted a characteristically strong 12.9 percent swinging-strike rate. In 245 innings of work at the MLB level, he’s posted a 3.16 ERA with 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, though he’s also yielded an average of five walks per nine innings in that time as well.

John Mozeliak Discusses Cardinals At Halfway Point Of Season

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Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak did not sugarcoat the challenges facing his team in his latest appearance on the podcast of Dan McLaughlin of FOX Sports Midwest (audio link). The club must find a way to begin winning more consistently, said Mozeliak, though it remains unclear just what can be done to spur such a change.

The sense of frustration surrounding the Cards, who are sitting just above .500 on the year, seemingly extends from the fanbase to the front office. Mozeliak acknowledges that this club “hasn’t been the easiest team to sort of think through, in terms of how to get better, or what to do, or what changes need to be made.”

Mozeliak identified “outfield inconsistencies” and bullpen struggles as the two key concerns. Spurring the needed change won’t be easy. Mozeliak says the club needs to be open-minded and creative in all regards.

Bolstering the relief unit can be accomplished via trade, perhaps. Internal options for deepening the pitching staff are relatively sparse, Mozeliak suggested. He bemoaned the loss of Alex Reyes while noting that Dakota Hudson’s success at Triple-A does not necessarily portend an immediate impact in the majors.

Addressing the outfield concerns is a trickier business. Mozeliak wouldn’t rule out moving Jose Martinez to the outfield, saying that the slugger — who is as unpolished in the field as he has been excellent at the plate — is “putting a lot of stress on everyone” with his play at first base. But that seems like a somewhat dubious option when outfield defense is one of the areas of concern. Presumably, the club will look first at ways to get its existing options to play at the necessary levels.

Mozeliak addressed veteran Dexter Fowler, in particular. The top St. Louis baseball executive offered some rather surprisingly pointed words on the respected and highly-paid Fowler:

“I’ve also heard a lot of people come up to me and question his effort and his energy level. Those are things that I can’t defend. What I can defend is trying to create opportunities for him, but not if it’s at the expense of someone that’s out there hustling and playing hard.”

To an extent, Mozeliak seemingly tried to soften the meaning of his statement in ensuing comments to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He and Fowler have spoken since, says Mozeliak, who hinted that he was not trying to single out Fowler. “I would not make too much of this and really what I was trying to say is: I hear what our fan base is saying,” Mozeliak said.

Ultimately, mid-season trades can only do so much to boost the performance. And the Cards brass will need to take its cues from the existing roster. With less than a month’s worth of games left to go before the trade deadline, Mozeliak says that “everybody just needs to take a hard look in the mirror and decide what they want that next chapter to look like.”

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Greene, Kingham, Polanco, Pollock

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ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 2nd)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

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