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Phillies Acquire Jason Vargas

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4:46pm: The move is official. The Phillies designated righty Yacksel Rios to open a 40-man spot.

3:51pm: The Phillies have reportedly struck a deal to acquire veteran lefty Jason Vargas from the Mets. Catcher Austin Bossart is going to the New York organization in the swap. The Mets will cover the larger portion of the remaining contractual obligation to Vargas, ultimately saving $2MM.

This long-anticipated trade of Vargas clears a rotation spot for just-acquired righty Marcus Stroman. Though Vargas is far senior to Stroman in age and MLB service, they’re in similar contract situations. The former is earning $8MM this year with a $8MM club option. The latter is taking down a $7.4MM salary in 2019 and stands to earn a nice raise on that amount in the offseason, when he’ll go through the arbitration process for the final time. Viewed in the aggregate, the Mets will still end up taking on added salary (and giving up prospect capital), though they did get $1.5MM in salary relief as part of the Stroman swap. The New York org will remain on the hook for what’s left of Vargas’s remaining 2019 salary along with a $250K assignment bonus. The Phillies will be responsible for a $2MM buyout on the option.

It’s not surprising to see Vargas on the move. It’s mostly a salary-saving transaction, designed to help partially offset the new obligations to Stroman. The 26-year-old Bossart won’t really make up for the prospects sent to the Blue Jays. He’s in the midst of a rough campaign, his second at the Double-A level. In his 236 trips to the plate, he’s slashing just .195/.303/.335 with seven home runs.

The more interesting question for the Mets is whether any of the club’s other starters will end up following Vargas out the door. While there has never been any indication that the club is considering offers on Jacob deGrom, it is said to be interesting in moving Zack Wheeler and/or Noah Syndergaard. The latter two starters are indeed still on the block, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets.

There are questions, too, from the Phillies’ perspective. It seems fair to assume that Vargas will step into the rotation, though it’s not clear where the opening will come from. And it remains to be seen whether the club will also pursue other pitching upgrades.

Vargas, 36, won’t exactly be a marquee addition for the Phils, but he ought to help hold firm up the staff down the stretch. The soft-tossing southpaw has somehow managed to keep opposing hitters off balance despite averaging less than 85 mph with his fastball. He has bounced back from a terrible start to the season and steadily delivered solid work. He carries a 4.01 ERA through 94 1/3 frames, with 7.7 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Andy Martino of SNY.tv first reported that a deal involving Vargas was close (via Twitter). ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan reported that the Phillies were the acquiring team (Twitter link). Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter) and Jon Heyman of MLB Network (in a tweet) reported on the return. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that the Mets would be covering some of the remaining cost, with Sherman tweeting the financial details.

Cardinals Acquire Zac Rosscup

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The Cardinals have acquired lefty Zac Rosscup from the Dodgers, per a club announcement. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Cash considerations are going to Los Angeles in return. Rosscup will begin his tenure with his new organization on optional assignment at Triple-A.

Rosscup, 31, has already appeared with three other clubs this season. He owns a 5.16 ERA in 83 2/3 career innings at the game’s highest level, averaging a healthy 12.2 K/9 but also an ugly 5.9 BB/9. The free passes have been a particular issue this season.

In other moves from the Dodgers, utilityman Kike Hernandez is going on the 10-day injured list with a sprained hand. The club optioned down righty Jaime Schultz while activating just-acquired infielder Kristopher Negron and calling up righty reliever Josh Sborz.

Brewers Designate Marcos Diplan

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The Brewers have designated pitching prospect Marcos Diplan for assignment, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. His 40-man spot goes to righty Jordan Lyles, whose acquisition was just announced.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see the Milwaukee org giving up on a player who was once considered a potential mid-rotation starter. Diplan has never been an elite prospect, but has certainly been on the prospect map for quite some time.

Unfortunately, despite holding a 40-man spot since the fall of 2017, Diplan has yet to earn his way past the Double-A level. He returned there to begin the present season, but continued to struggle. In 114 2/3 total frames at the penultimate level of the minors, Diplan carries a 4.79 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9.

It bears noting that the Brewers could still utilize Diplan in a trade. He can be shipped out to another organization before the trade deadline. Otherwise, he could be a possible waiver claim target for a team that likes his long-term outlook.

Nationals Place Max Scherzer On 10-Day IL

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The Nationals have placed ace righty Max Scherzer on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. Erick Fedde was called up to take his active-roster spot.

Scherzer is dealing with a mild rhomboid strain, the second seemingly minor upper back/shoulder malady he has come down with this year. The hope remains that the superb starter will not miss too much time, but it was evidently determined he’d be sidelined long enough to warrant a move to bring in another arm.

It’s a balancing act for Scherzer and the Nats. Both would obviously prefer that he be on the mound right now, but the issues he’s experiencing are in a worrying area of the body. The club must also ensure it has Scherzer at full health down the stretch.

Fedde, 26, has delivered 50 1/3 innings of 3.40 ERA ball this year in eight starts and five relief appearances. Unfortunately, he’s also carrying an uninspiring blend of 26 strikeouts and 21 walks. He’ll help hold down the fort for the time being, but the Nats have an obvious need to add hurlers over the next two days.

Brewers Acquire Jordan Lyles

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2:17pm: The teams have announced the deal.

2:02pm: The Brewers have reached a deal to acquire right-hander Jordan Lyles from the division-rival Pirates, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Milwaukee will send Double-A right-hander Cody Ponce to Pittsburgh in return, tweets Robert Murray of The Athletic.

Jordan Lyles | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

It’s the second straight season that Brewers general manager David Stearns has acquired Lyles, as the Brewers also picked him up in an August waiver deal a season ago. He tossed 16 1/3 innings of 3.31 ERA ball out of the Milwaukee ’pen down the stretch last season before hitting free agency and inking a one-year, $2.05MM deal with the Pirates as a free agent. He’s still owed about $705K of that sum between now and season’s end.

That contract looked like a steal for the first couple months of the season, as Lyles pitched to a 3.09 ERA with a 61-to-19 K/BB ratio in 57 innings through the end of May. He missed time with a hamstring injury last month and has struggled mightily with control issues dating back to early June, however. In 27 innings across his past seven outings, Lyles has been torched for 30 earned runs on 46 hits (including 11 home runs) and 14 walks. He’s still whiffed 34 hitters in that time, maintaining his career-best strikeout tendencies, but the Brewers will obviously be looking for a way to bring back the April/May Lyles rather than the June/July iteration that has manifested.

Clearly, the Brewers aren’t putting much stock in Lyles’ earned run average — few, if any, front offices do at this point — and are instead betting on the career-best strikeout rates and Lyles’ increased reliance on his curveball. It’s a relatively low-profile pickup but one that’ll give Milwaukee a much-needed arm to help stabilize an increasingly worrisome rotation. Brandon Woodruff will be out until September with an oblique strain, and Jhoulys Chacin just hit the injured list within the past few days due to a lat strain. Jimmy Nelson is also on the shelf due to an elbow issue.

Ponce, 25, was the Brewers’ second-round pick back in 2015 but isn’t regarded among the organization’s top tier of prospects. He is, however, in the midst of a strong season in Biloxi, having pitched to a 3.29 ERA with a 44-to-12 K/BB ratio and a 56.5 percent ground-ball rate in 38 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. The 6’6″ inch, 240-pound Ponce ranked as the Brewers’ No. 27 prospect on the offseason, per Baseball America, and BA pegged him 25th among Brewers farmhands on their recent midseason update of their farm system.

Athletics Designate Brian Schlitter

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The Athletics have designated righty Brian Schlitter for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot goes to the just-acquired Jake Diekman.

Additionally, the Oakland org announced that right-hander Jharel Cotton has been activated from the 60-day injured list. He was optioned down to Triple-A.

Schlitter, 33, has seen sporadic MLB action since his 2010 debut, appearing in parts of four seasons. This year, with Oakland, he allowed four runs on a dozen hits with six walks and four strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings of work. Schlitter has spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he carries a 3.89 ERA in 34 2/3 frames with 7.0 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9.

Blake Parker Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Blake Parker rejected an outright assignment from the Twins and has instead elected free agency, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Betsy Helfand the St. Paul Pioneer Press).

The 34-year-old Parker was non-tendered by the Angels last winter and went on to sign a one-year, $1.8MM deal with the Twins. Parker is still a bit shy of five years of MLB service time, meaning his decision to opt for free agency will actually result in him surrendering the remainder of that contract in exchange for a return to the open market. He’ll look to latch on with another club in hopes of a quick return to the big leagues.

Parker logged a 4.21 ERA in 36 1/3 innings with the Twins but struggled more than that number would indicate. The right-hander’s velocity dipped to its lowest mark since 2014 (91.5 mph average fastball), and he averaged four walks per nine innings pitched — the worst mark of his career excluding a small 17-inning sample in 2016. Parker’s overall strikeout rate, his swinging-strike rate and his first-pitch strike rate were all down from his 2017 peak with the Halos, and he gave up far too much hard contact; Statcast put his 42.9 percent opponents’ hard-hit rate in just the 10th percentile among MLB pitchers and felt that he was actually fortunate to escape with a .246/.331/.442 opponents’ batting line (based on the quality of the contact he allowed).

Parker turned in an outstanding 2017 season with the Angels when he logged 67 innings of 2.54 ERA ball with 11.5 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 with a 47-percent grounder rate. But after striking out more than a third of batters he faced that season, Parker whiffed just 21.7 percent of opponents this year, and his walk rate jumped four percent as well. Between the diminished K/BB numbers and a career-high 1.73 HR/9, fielding-independent metrics like FIP (5.35), xFIP (4.79) and SIERA (4.58) were all rather bearish on Parker’s performance.

Red Sox, Mets Have Discussed Edwin Diaz

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As the Red Sox continue their search for bullpen help and the Mets continue to puzzle onlookers, the two teams have been in touch about a potential Edwin Diaz deal. ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted early this morning that third base prospect Bobby Dalbec or corner infielder Triston Casas would likely be targeted as the centerpiece of any deal by the Mets. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets that Boston has indeed discussed a possible Diaz swap with the Mets, though, adding that the Red Sox are likely to add at least one, if not two relievers in the coming days. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that there’s “nothing hot” between the two sides at the moment, however.

It’s shaping up to be quite the deadline for the Mets, who shipped their two best pitching prospects to the Blue Jays yesterday in a trade that netted them Marcus Stroman. At the same time, the Mets appear poised to trade away some combination of Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, Jason Vargas, Todd Frazier and Diaz — the latter of whom was portrayed as a signature offseason acquisition in what proved a near-immediately regrettable trade with the Mariners.

Instead of anchoring the bullpen and reprising his role as one of the game’s premier relievers, Diaz has taken a step back in nearly every category this season. The 25-year-old has seen virtually every one of his rate stats — strikeout, walk, home-run, ground-ball, swinging-strike, hard-hit and opponent chase — trend in the wrong direction. His premium velocity has held strong, as he’s averaged 97.2 mph on his heater, but the across-the-board results for Diaz have been ugly. It doesn’t help him that the Mets’ defense is awful, but he’s sitting on a bloated 4.95 ERA and has already allowed more runs, hits and homers in 40 innings this season than he did in 72 1/3 frames last year. A 3.24 xFIP and 2.87 SIERA each portend better days, but it’s tough to understate what a disappointing season it’s been for Diaz so far.

All of that said, Diaz appears healthy and still possesses an elite arsenal of pitches. Paired with the fact that he’s not eligible for arbitration until this winter and can be controlled through the 2022 season, Diaz’s plus raw stuff surely gives other clubs confidence that he can be fixed (be it through pitch selection, a mechanical adjustment, improved defense behind him, etc.). The Boston bullpen has lacked established talent all season, and the relief corps has been particularly problematic this summer.

As for the Mets, they seemingly hope to structure their 2020 rotation around 2018 Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom and Stroman — a fine one-two combination, to be sure — and believe they’ll get more in trading away others than they surrendered to acquire Stroman. While they can’t unscramble the egg, so to speak, and recoup the value they lost in dealing Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners (while taking on half the remaining money on Robinson Cano’s deal), the apparently forthcoming slate of trades should indeed replenish their farm to an extent. Syndergaard has more trade value than Stroman did, and Diaz should fetch some quality young talent if he is indeed shipped off.

Nonetheless, it’d be a dizzying sequence of moves that wouldn’t clearly leave the Mets better off than they started. While it’s commendable, on the one hand, that the team continues to eye contention in the short-term rather than acquiesce to the growing trend of large-scale rebuilds, the tightrope act the Mets look to be attempting is rife with risk. Perhaps moving Diaz and Syndergaard can each net a near-MLB-ready asset or two, but it’s not at all clear that they’d be in a better position with Stroman and those theoretical young assets. Stroman himself isn’t a particularly controllable player, after all, as he’ll be a free agent in the 2020-21 offseason. If things go south again next year, he’d likely be traded as a rental for less than the Mets paid to acquire him. And, in moving Diaz by Wednesday, they’d open a need for further late-inning bullpen help in the offseason — the very same need that led to this situation.

Royals Release Lucas Duda

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The Royals announced Monday that they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on first baseman/designated hitter Lucas Duda. He’ll be a free agent in 48 hours once he clears.

Kansas City designated Duda, 33, for assignment over the weekend. He signed a minor league contract with the club in Spring Training after being cut loose from a similar pact he’d signed with the Twins. However, Duda mustered only a .171/.252/.324 batting line with four home runs in 119 trips to the plate in his second stint with the Royals. Given the magnitude of those struggles and the number of alternate options — Ryan O’Hearn, Cheslor Cuthbert and even Frank Schwindel, who was released over Duda early in the year — it’s a bit surprising that Duda lasted on the roster as long as he did.

Duda’s track record against right-handed pitching could get him a minor league deal elsewhere once he reaches the open market. He’s a lifetime .249/.351/.481 hitter when holding the platoon advantage at the Major League level, and he hit .264/.336/.477 in such situations just last year. But Duda is also strictly a first baseman, if not a pure designated hitter in the eyes of clubs around the league at this point in his career. If he’s to find his way back onto a big league roster, he’ll likely need to head to Triple-A and show some signs of life against minor league opposition in order to earn another look.

Braves Interested In Joe Biagini

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There’s been plenty written about potential deals between the Blue Jays and Braves recently, but Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (subscription required) that Atlanta’s trade talks with Toronto center around a different target than most would expect: right-handed reliever Joe Biagini.

That Biagini would be a trade candidate isn’t exactly a surprise. He’s controlled through the 2022 season via arbitration, and the Blue Jays are likely to willing to deal from anywhere outside their emerging core of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio and other young, pre-arbitration players. Still, for an Atlanta club eyeing bullpen help, a higher-end target like Ken Giles is likely the name that most would expect to hear when discussing potential deals with Toronto.

Biagini, 29, has been with the Blue Jays since he was selected out of the Giants organization in the 2015 Rule 5 Draft. Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos had already left the Toronto organization by the time Biagini was selected, but two of his assistant GMs with the Braves, Perry Minasian and Jason Pare, were with the Jays when that selection was made.

During the 2016 season, Biagini enjoyed one of the more successful Rule 5 seasons in recent memory. His rookie campaign featured 67 2/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball with 8.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.40 HR/9 and a 52.2 percent ground-ball rate. However, the Blue Jays’ subsequent attempt to move Biagini into the rotation in 2017 proved an ill-fated mistake, and his 2018 season spent mostly back in the bullpen didn’t yield quality results, either (6.00 ERA in 72 innings).

The 2019 season has seen Biagini bounce back to the tune of a 3.75 ERA over the life of 48 innings. He’s been homer-prone — like most of the league — but is sporting a career-high 9.0 K/9 against an even 3.0 BB/9 with a 45.3 percent ground-ball rate. There’s reason to be optimistic about further improvement, too; Biagini’s 13.7 percent swinging-strike rate is easily a career-best, as is his 36.1 percent opponents’ chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone. The spin rate on his breaking ball is elite as well, ranking 21st of 399 big league pitchers to throw the pitch at least 100 times dating back to 2016.

Biagini avoided arbitration as a Super Two player this past offseason, settling on a $900K salary that’d be affordable for any interested party. He’ll go through arbitration another three times before reaching free agency in the 2022-23 offseason, but as a non-closing reliever, he won’t receive exorbitant raises through the arbitration process.

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