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Follow The NBA Offseason With HoopsRumors.com

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The Warriors only need one more win to take home their second straight title, which means we may just be days away from the start of a very eventful 2018 NBA offseason.

Stars like LeBron James, Paul George, and DeMarcus Cousins are poised to hit free agency, while others – such as Kawhi Leonard and Kemba Walker – could become trade candidates. Meanwhile, standout Arizona center Deandre Ayton looks like the favorite to be picked first overall by the Suns on draft night two weeks from today, but the order behind him remains a mystery.

Be sure to head over to Hoops Rumors and follow @HoopsRumors on Twitter for all the latest news as the NBA’s summer rumor mill heats up!

White Sox Purchase Contract Of Xavier Cedeno

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The White Sox announced today that they have purchased the contract of veteran lefty Xavier Cedeno. He’ll take the roster spot vacated by southpaw Aaron Bummer, who was optioned down.

Cedeno, 31, appeared only briefly in the majors last year with the Rays. He has thrown 142 1/3 innings over parts of seven campaigns in the big leagues. He carries a lifetime 3.98 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 at the game’s highest level, where he has held opposing lefties to a .226/.286/.299 cumulative slash but been battered by right-handed hitters (.844 OPS).

Since joining the Chicago organization on a minors deal, Cedeno has turned in impressive numbers at Triple-A. Through 21 2/3 innings, he has allowed just three earned runs on a dozen hits while recording 25 strikeouts against only four walks.

Bummer’s performance to date has been rather uplifting, making his demotion a bit of a surprise, though perhaps an opt-out clause in Cedeno’s contract forced the team’s hand. Over 19 1/3 frames on the year, Bummer owns a 3.26 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 as well as a sturdy 60.3% groundball rate. That’s a vast improvement on his walk-marred debut effort last year and is all the more impressive given that opposing hitters have benefited from a lofty .429 BABIP.

The South Siders had an open 40-man roster spot available, though it seemed that had been cleared to make way for Carlos Rodon. When the team activates Rodon from the 60-day DL this weekend, then, it’ll need to create another opening.

Latest On Andrelton Simmons, Shohei Ohtani

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Mike Trout is somehow having the best season of his already illustrious career, but otherwise the Angels’ top two players have been shortstop Andrelton Simmons and starter/DH Shohei Ohtani. For a Halos club that’s engaged in a tough division battle, then, it’s certainly worrisome to see both show up on the injury sheet.

Fortunately, there’s no reason at present to believe that either Simmons or Ohtani are dealing with serious maladies, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports. But Simmons, the club’s magnificent shortstop, has been placed on the DL with a grade 2 ankle sprain. And Ohtani, who was pulled after four frames, will need to allow a blister to heal up before he takes his next start.

In the case of Simmons, the injury grade indicates that there is at least a slight tear to a ligament. Online sources, at least, suggest a potential recovery time in the range of two to six weeks, though the club has not yet offered a timeline specific to the player.

Any absence is most unwelcome, given that Simmons is both fielding and hitting at top-of-the-line levels thus far. Fortunately, Zack Cozart is also an outstanding defender at short, though obviously the loss of Simmons will mean plugging in less-polished options on the left side of the infield. Fletcher says the club expects to utilize Luis Valbuena, Jefry Marte, and Kaleb Cowart (who was recalled after just being optioned) in some combination at the hot corner.

As for Ohtani, skipper Mike Scioscia says that the blister does not seem to be as serious as one he experienced earlier in the season, when he was able to make his next scheduled start. However, his status will surely depend upon how this particular injury heals up.

Even if Ohtani does need some time away from the mound, it seems reasonable to anticipate that he’ll still be able to appear as a hitter. And despite some notable injuries to starters, the team still has five other worthwhile options to go to in the rotation. Youngster Jaime Barria has pitched well in seven starts this year and is waiting in the wings at Triple-A if he’s needed.

Diamondbacks Acquire Jon Jay

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9:41pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the D-backs are taking on the remainder of Jay’s salary and will be on the hook for any of the $1.5MM worth of incentives he unlocks. Jay reportedly receives $100K for every 25th plate appearance beginning at 250 plate appearances and escalating up through his 600th plate appearance of the year. He’s already at 266 PAs on the season.

7:52pm: The Diamondbacks announced that they’ve acquired outfielder Jon Jay from the Royals in exchange for minor league left-hander Gabe Speier and minor league right-hander Elvis Luciano. Infielder Kristopher Negron has been designated for assignment to clear roster space.

Jon Jay | Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Jay, 33, inked a one-year contract worth $3MM this offseason and is still owed about $1.86MM through season’s end. He’s gotten off to a nice start at the plate in his first year with Kansas City, hitting .307/.363/.374 with a homer, nine doubles, two triples and three steals on the year.

That’s a fairly typical year at the plate for Jay, who has batted at least .291 and posted an OBP of at least .339 in four of the past five seasons. While he doesn’t provide much in the way of pop, he’ll give the Diamondbacks a high-average hitter with solid OBP skills who rarely strikes out and can handle all three outfield spots.

For a team that currently strikes out at a 25 percent clip — fourth-highest in the Majors — Jay’s 14.7 percent punchout rate would seem to be particularly appealing. Beyond that, Jay has virtually no discernible platoon split, having hit lefties (.288/.361/.347) at a comparable rate to righties (.290/.354/.393) throughout his career.

Jay will join an outfield mix that also includes David Peralta, Jarrod Dyson and Chris Owings at the moment. Heading into the season, the outfield hardly looked to be a serious need for the D-backs, but they’ve since seen March acquisition Steven Souza hit the DL twice and are also without A.J. Pollock for upwards of two months due to an avulsion fracture in his thumb.

While that has the makings of a potentially crowded outfield mix if everyone can get healthy, the D-backs will worry about that theoretical logjam down the line. For the time being, they’re taking a proactive approach to help stop the bleeding after a dreadful freefall that has seen their once-monstrous division lead whittled down to a half-game advantage over the Rockies.

The price the D-backs paid for Jay appears modest, at best (as one might expect for a part-time outfielder on a modest contract). The 23-year-old Speier was a 19th-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2013 that has now been traded four times in his career. He went from Boston to Detroit in the Yoenis Cespedes/Rick Porcello blockbuster before next making his way to the Braves alongside Ian Krol in the trade that sent Cameron Maybin back to Detroit. Speier never threw a pitch in the Braves organization, though, as he was traded to the D-backs alongside Shelby Miller in the infamous Ender Inciarte/Dansby Swanson deal.

For a player that’s bounced around so much, though, Speier has solid numbers in the minors. He’s currently in his second full season at the Double-A level and has thus far notched a tidy 3.03 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a whopping 60.5 percent ground-ball rate through 29 2/3 frames. In all, he has a 3.67 ERA in 112 2/3 innings at that level, though he’s yet to ascend to Triple-A and is not considered to be among Arizona’s top 30 farmhands.

Luciano, then, may be the more notable of the pair of hurlers headed to Kansas City. MLB.com ranks him 26th among D-backs farmhands, while Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDainiel of Fangraphs noted in their rundown of the system that Luciano has a 55-grade curveball and a chance to start. Of course, at 18 years of age, he’s years away from even sniffing the big leagues.

Luciano pitched in the Dominican Summer League and in Rookie ball last season, posting a combined 2.84 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com give him a chance to have three average or better offerings, highlighted by the aforementioned hook, but he’ll need quite a bit more development. Callis and Mayo, though, note that he has “plus mound presence and maturity” and was well-regarded by many in the D-backs organization.

For the Royals, the trade of Jay figures to be the first of many in a long summer of rebuilding. Jay was among the many veterans on a contract set to expire after this season, and it’s likely that the Royals front office will field offers on everyone from high-profile rentals like Kelvin Herrera and Mike Moustakas to veteran starters like Jason Hammel and even more controllable assets like Whit Merrifield. The rentals seem like virtual locks to go (Herrera and Moustakas, in particular), but GM Dayton Moore and his staff will undoubtedly carry an open mind as they entertain offers for nearly anyone on the roster.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Red Schoendienst Passes Away

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Baseball lost a legend on Wednesday evening, as the Cardinals announced that Red Schoendienst has passed away at the age of 95. The Hall of Famer was a 10-time All-Star who won a pair of World Series rings as a player and another during a managerial career that spanned parts of 14 seasons at the helm of the Cardinals.

A native of Germantown, Ill., Schoendienst made his big league debut as a 22-year-old with the 1945 Cardinals, leading the NL with 26 steals and hitting .278/.305/.343. He made the first of his 10 All-Star teams in his sophomore year with the Cards, a team for whom he enjoyed 15 seasons as a player in addition to his 14-year run as manager. Schoendienst also spent parts of four seasons with the Milwaukee Braves and two seasons with the New York Giants.

Schoendienst, who had been the oldest living member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, finished his career with 2449 hits, 1223 runs scored, 84 homers, 427 doubles, 78 triples, 89 steals and a .289/.337/.387 batting line in 2216 games and 9224 plate appearances. He finished in the Top 4 of the National League MVP voting on two occasions and garnered votes in four other seasons, and he posted a career 1041-955 record as a manager — twice managing the All-Star team on the heels of a World Series appearance (1968-69). Enos Slaughter, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn and the great Stan Musial were among the all-time greats that Schoendienst called teammates over the course of a 19-year playing career. Since his playing and managerial days, Schoendienst had served as a Senior Special Assistant to the Cardinals organization.

The Cardinals issued a video tribute to their beloved franchise icon (on Twitter), paying homage to his legend against the audio backdrop of an excerpt from his Hall of Fame induction speech. Commissioner Rob Manfred also offered a statement:

“Red Schoendienst was one of the most beloved figures in the rich history of the St. Louis Cardinals, the franchise he served for 67 years. He was a 10-time All-Star second baseman, a World Series Champion as a player with the 1946 Cardinals and the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, and a championship-winning manager with the 1967 Cardinals. Red was a teammate, manager, and friend of some of the greatest players in the history of Baseball. The connection between Red and the fans of St. Louis spanned multiple generations and he was a wonderful ambassador for our game. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Red’s family, his many friends and admirers throughout our game, and Cardinals fans everywhere.”

Alex Reyes Undergoes Surgery On Torn Tendon, Likely Out For Season

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The Cardinals received brutal news on touted right-hander Alex Reyes, as the 23-year-old was ultimately diagnosed with a torn tendon in his right lat that necessitated surgical repair (Twitter links via Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Reyes, who pitched four innings in his first start back from Tommy John surgery, is expected to need six months to recover, which would effectively end his 2018 season. The doctors did tell the team that they expect a full recovery, Timmermann adds.

The abrupt end to Reyes’ season is a transformative injury for a Cardinals rotation that was dreaming of six quality options: Reyes, Carlos Martinez, Miles Mikolas, Luke Weaver, Michael Wacha and Jack Flaherty (to say nothing of the rehabbing Adam Wainwright and depth arms like Austin Gomber and John Gant). While the very presence of Flaherty, Gomber and Gant should allow the Cards to field a competitive rotation even without Reyes and Wainwright, the group now looks thinner than the organization would’ve hoped. Martinez himself is only just back from a less-severe lat injury of his own, and he looked decidedly rusty in his first start since being activated off the DL yesterday.

Of greater concern, of course, is the long-term ability of Reyes to contribute in the rotation. While there’s no doubting the talent he possesses in his right arm, his four-inning appearance this season was his first action since the 2016 campaign. As Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch rightly points out (via Twitter), by the time the 2019 season kicks off, Reyes will have pitched just four MLB innings in a span of 31 months. That doesn’t even factor in a shoulder injury he had in the minors back in 2015. In all, the highest total of innings Reyes has ever thrown in a full season is 116 1/3 in 2015 (101 1/3 regular-season frames and 15 innings in the Arizona Fall League).

Reyes will continue to accrue MLB service time while he misses a second straight season rehabbing from a major surgery, meaning that by Opening Day 2019, he’ll have racked up two years, 55 days of service despite throwing only 46 innings at the Major League level. He’s on track to be eligible for arbitration following the 2019 season and can be controlled through the 2022 season as things currently stand.

Rays To Promote Jake Bauers

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The Rays are set to promote top prospect Jake Bauers from Triple-A Durham, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). The first baseman/outfielder will join the team for his MLB debut on Thursday.

Jake Bauers | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Bauers, 22, entered the season to quite a bit of Top 100 prospect fanfare, ranking 43rd at Fangraphs, 45th at Baseball America and 68th at MLB.com. (He’s since risen to 42 at BA and 55 at MLB.com.)

Bauers is not yet hitting for a great deal of power but is off to a fine start in Durham, slashing .279/.357/.426 with five homers, 14 doubles and 10 steals (in 16 attempts). He’s drawn a walk in 10.4 percent of his 222 trips to the dish and has whiffed at a 21.2 percent clip. Defensively, Bauers has spent the bulk of his time in the field at first base, his primary position in the minors, but has logged 47 innings in the outfield corners as well (35 in left field and a dozen in right field).

Originally a seventh-round pick of the Padres back in 2013, Bauers went from San Diego to Tampa Bay in the three-team blockbuster that saw Wil Myers land with the Padres, sent Trea Turner to the Nationals and landed the since-traded Steven Souza Jr. in a Rays uniform. While that three-team deal features plenty of name value now, the Nats look to have come out quite a bit ahead thanks to the success of Turner (and righty Joe Ross, who’s currently mending from Tommy John surgery). Bauers, though, will now look to help the Rays recoup some value in his first taste of the Major Leagues.

C.J. Cron has hit quite well as the Rays’ primary first baseman, but Tampa Bay has received modest production from its outfield. With Kevin Kiermaier on the shelf and Denard Span traded to the Mariners, the Rays have been utilizing Mallex Smith, Carlos Gomez, Johnny Field and Rob Refsnyder in the outfield of late.

It stands to reason that the left-handed hitting Bauers could join that mix. Scouting reports on him indicate that while he’s a better defensive first baseman than outfielder, he’s slimmed down in recent years and can handle the outfield grass (or turf, as it were) adequately while chipping in with an above-average hit tool and average or better power at the plate.

The timing of Bauers’ promotion is such that he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least the end of the 2024 season, though his early-June debut figures to leave him on the bubble for Super Two arbitration status down the line.

There’s no exact cutoff date for that nebulous distinction, as it’s dependent on the service time of the other players in Bauers’ service class, but it seems likely that he’ll fall just shy of qualifying. There are only 116 days remaining in the season from the point at which Bauers will be formally promoted, and the lowest that the Super Two cutoff has fallen in recent seasons has been two years, 122 days of MLB service time.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mets Claim P.J. Conlon From Dodgers, Designate Phillip Evans

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The Mets have re-claimed left-hander P.J. Conlon off waivers from the Dodgers and designated infielder Phillip Evans for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the team announced to reporters following this afternoon’s game (Twitter link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Conlon has been optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Conlon’s time with the Dodgers, clearly, will prove to be abbreviated. Los Angeles only claimed him off waivers from the Mets last week, and the southpaw had yet to even pitch in a game with his new organization before being placed back on waivers. It’s nothing new for the Dodgers to claim a player and then try to run him through waivers themselves as a means of keeping him in the organization without committing a 40-man roster spot. It’s a move they’ve had a fair amount of success with in past seasons, though the Mets clearly didn’t see fit to let Conlon get away and seized the opportunity to reclaim the depth they lost last week.

Conlon, 24, allowed seven earned runs in his first two big league starts with the Mets this season, spanning just 5 2/3 innings. His struggles weren’t contained to the MLB level, either, as he posted a whopping 6.58 ERA in 39 2/3 innings spanning eight starts with Vegas this year. However, Conlon possesses solid numbers up through the the Double-A level and turned in promising K/BB numbers in Triple-A this year even while struggling with his bottom-line run prevention numbers. He’ll now return to the organization that originally drafted him and continue on as a depth piece.

As for the 25-year-old Evans, this’ll be the second time he’s been designated for assignment by the Mets in the past calendar year. He’s just 1-for-9 on the young season but hit .303/.395/.364 in a tiny sample of 38 plate appearances in the Majors last year. Evans is a career .273/.337/.445 hitter in 671 PAs at the Triple-A level and has experience at every position other than center field, first base and catcher. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, given that he was outrighted the last time he was designated by the Mets.

Athletics Select Contract Of Nick Martini, Place Matt Joyce On 10-Day DL

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The Athletics announced today that they have selected the contract of outfielder/first baseman Nick Martini. He’ll take the active roster spot of outfielder Matt Joyce, who’s headed to the 10-day DL.

Soon to turn 28, Martini will get the first shot at the majors in his career. The former seventh-round draft pick signed with the Oakland organization as a minor-league free agent over the winter. He owns a .299/.417/.390 slash with 36 walks against 42 strikeouts in 216 plate appearances this year at Triple-A.

As for Joyce, he’s dealing with a lumbar issue but will have his DL stint backdated to June 3rd. The 33-year-old has to this point not hit to the standard he maintained over the prior two seasons. In 199 trips to the plate, he’s slashing .196/.308/.369 with seven long balls.

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