Minor MLB Transactions: 6/8/19

We’ll use this post to track some minor moves around the majors…

• The Yankees placed Masahiro Tanaka on paternity leave so he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the team announced. He will miss his scheduled start on Sunday. Lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. has been called up from Triple-A in the meantime. This will be Cortes Jr.’s second stint with the big league club this season. He made four appearances in May, soaking up eleven innings as a long man with a 4.91 ERA. He is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in Triple-A, making six starts and one appearance out of the pen. Cortes could certainly slide in for a spot start on Sunday, but the Yankees have not yet made that determination. Tanaka leads the Yanks in innings pitched with 76 1/3 across 13 starts. He is 3-5 with a 3.42 ERA (4.09 FIP). He should be ready to rejoin the club by Tuesday.
• The Rangers have called up lefty Joe Palumbo from Double-A, while David Carpenter has been designated for assignment, per MLB Roster Moves. Palumbo, 26, will be making his major league debut after pitching to a 3.38 ERA across nine starts for the Frisco RoughRiders. Carpenter, 33, made just one appearance with the Rangers after collecting a 1.76 ERA in 15 appearances for their Triple-A club. The veteran righty has pitched for the Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Yankees and Nationals, though his lone appearance with the Rangers on Tuesday was his first in the majors since 2015. He owns a solid 3.74 career ERA, earned across 219 career appearances from 2011 to 2015.
• The Orioles recalled Evan Phillips from Triple-A after optioning Branden Kline yesterday as they continue to seek personnel to get outs out of their bullpen, per MLB.com’s Joe Trezza (via Twitter). Phillips has struggled to find a foothold in the big leagues with a 9.85 ERA across 21 appearances, including a 6.92 ERA in 12 appearances for Baltimore this season. He came to Baltimore from Atlanta as part of the Kevin Gausman deal at last year’s deadline. Kline, for his part, heads to Triple-A with a 5.89 ERA in 15 appearances, though he has been particularly ineffective of late. He was tagged with an earned run in each of his last five appearances, taking two losses in that span. Of the ten pitchers who have pitched out of the Oriole bullpen and made at least 10 appearances on the season, only Gabriel Ynoa (4.96 ERA, 4.92 FIP), Paul Fry (3.51 ERA, 4.67 FIP), and Shawn Armstrong (1.93 ERA, 4.57 FIP) can boast an ERA under 5.00. Although, amongst those in that same group, Phillips actually holds the lowest FIP on the season at 3.76, helped by 11.8 K/9.