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Archives for July 2019

Mariners Designate Mike Wright

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The Mariners announced today that they have designated righty Mike Wright for assignment. His roster spot was needed for fellow right-hander Matt Wisler, who is active after being acquired yesterday.

Wright, 29, landed with the M’s in late April and ended up being designated and outrighted by the Seattle org. He earned another shot after an effective run at Triple-A, but was obviously seen by the team as a fringe roster piece.

In 29 1/3 innings this year, Wright carries an ugly 8.28 ERA. He has coughed up six home runs and 45 total base knocks, but does have a solid 30:12 K/BB ratio. Wright has never managed to sustain success in the majors; he’s allowing more than six earned per nine over 258 career frames.

Tigers Rumors: Boyd, Castellanos, Jimenez, Greene

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The Tigers’ asking price on lefty Matthew Boyd continues to be an impediment for interested teams, Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported this week on the Big Time Baseball podcast. Heyman notes that multiple GMs from other clubs used the phrase “over the top” when describing Detroit’s ask on Boyd, who whiffed 13 hitters in yesterday’s win but also continued his recent struggles with keeping the ball in the park by allowing a pair of homers. Boyd has fanned a ridiculous 32 percent of the hitters he’s faced in 2019 and walked just 4.5 percent of them; that K-BB% of 27.5 trails only Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer and Chris Sale, so he’s in some elite company with regard to his combined ability to miss bats and avoid walks. However, Boyd also allowed only seven homers through his first 12 starts (72 2/3 innings) but has now served up 12 long balls in 34 1/3 innings dating back to June 2.

Boyd is still just 28 with three and a half seasons of control remaining to go along with his elite K/BB skills (and a $2.6MM salary). His penchant for serving up the long ball also has to be a source of trepidation as teams weigh a pursuit of the lefty, though.

More chatter on the rebuilding Tigers…

  • Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press provides an excellent look at a number of trade chips for the Tigers, listing potential suitors and, in some instances, pulling back the curtain a bit on previous trade talks. For instance, Fenech writes that the Tigers and Astros discussed a trade involving Nicholas Castellanos last summer, with Houston offering outfielder Derek Fisher in return. Castellanos’ stock has dipped since last year and he’s now a rental, but Fisher’s stock hasn’t exactly risen itself since last July. That still seems like a lofty ask for the Tigers to make for only two months of Castellanos, but the prior interest is nevertheless noteworthy now that Castellanos appears a near-surefire bet to be traded.
  • In addition to closer Shane Greene, who is as obviously available as any player in baseball, right-hander Joe Jimenez is also available in trade talks, per Fenech. Multiple clubs, including the Mets and Rays, have inquired on Jimenez — a 24-year-old once heralded as Detroit’s future close. Jimenez averages better than 95 mph on his heater and has no issue missing bats (12 K/9 since 2017), but his control has long been shaky and he’s averaged 1.93 HR/9 in 2019. He’s also controlled through the 2023 season, so the Tigers have zero urgency to move him. Fenech adds that the Dodgers have inquired on Greene, though if anything it’d be more surprising if the bullpen-needy L.A. club hadn’t done so by now.

Corbin Martin Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Astros righty Corbin Martin is down for the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, GM Jeff Luhnow told reporters including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Martin had been pitching at Triple-A on optional assignment after debuting in the majors earlier this year.

Entering the 2019 campaign, the 23-year-old Martin was graded as one of the game’s top 100 prospects and seen by the Houston organization as a key near-term depth piece. He already took five MLB starts for the club in just his third season as a professional.

Martin wasn’t able to establish himself in the Astros rotation, working to a 5.59 ERA with 19 strikeouts and a dozen walks over 19 1/3 innings. He was done in by the long ball, coughing up eight. But Martin is hardly the first young hurler to have some early hiccups and had turned in good results at Triple-A prior to his promotion.

This injury dents both the depth and the upside of the Houston pitching staff, a strong unit that nevertheless seems a likely area to upgrade at the trade deadline. The loss of Martin comes amidst ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brad Peacock. There are plenty of other options to patch things up for the time being — Jose Urquidy just got the call; Framber Valdez and Cionel Perez are among those available at Triple-A — but it’s hard to imagine the ’Stros won’t look far and wide for new arms. Indeed, it seems that pursuit has already begun.

All indications are that the injury occurred after Martin’s demotion; Luhnow specifically said so this afternoon, in fact. (Via Rome, on Twitter.) If that is indeed the case, then Martin will not accrue MLB service time while he is sidelined. Given the typical year-plus layoff occasioned by a TJ procedure, it’s likely that Martin won’t be seen again at the game’s highest level until late in 2020 or early in the 2021 campaign.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/5/19

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The latest minor moves from around the league…

  • The Cardinals have released left-hander Tommy Layne from their Triple-A club, per the Pacific Coast League transactions log. Layne, 34, has previously pitched for the Padres, Yankees and Red Sox, last appearing in the big leagues with New York in 2017. He’s recorded a solid 3.61 ERA in 149 2/3 innings as a Major Leaguer and gave the Cardinals 29 innings of sub-2.00 ERA ball in the minors last season. However, Layne has been hammered for a 6.45 ERA in 37 2/3 frames this season while allowing 10.5 hits, 1.9 homers and 4.3 walks per nine innings pitched.
  • Right-handers Casey Coleman and Louis Coleman (no relation) were both cut loose by the Mets, as first reflected on the International League’s transactions log. Casey Coleman, 32, started hot in Syracuse with a 3.06 ERA and 28-to-12 K/BB ratio through his first 32 innings. Since that time, he’s allowed 31 runs in 32 innings — largely on the strength of eight home runs. He’s pitched parts of four seasons in the Majors between the Cubs and Royals but never found much success. That’s less true of Louis Coleman, 33, who owns a lifetime 3.51 ERA in 177 2/3 MLB innings. Louis was in camp with the Tigers this year but didn’t win a roster spot for what would’ve been a second run in the Detroit ’pen. He signed with the Mets in late May but surrendered nine runs on a dozen hits and eight walks with 12 strikeouts in 13 2/3 frames before being let go. Louis has a 2.49 ERA in parts of 10 Triple-A seasons to go along with his respectable big league track record, so he could certainly find a new opportunity based on that encouraging history.

A Less-Talked-About Giants Trade Chip

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As the baseball world collectively waits for trade season to begin in earnest, the Giants may find more eyes on their team than at any other point in 2019. Entering the season, no one gave the club a chance in a stacked NL West division, and at 39-47, the team is predictably all but out of playoff contention. San Francisco may have the most appealing rental starter on the market in Madison Bumgarner and the most appealing rental reliever in Will Smith. Fellow left-hander Tony Watson is likely to be moved as well, and even Pablo Sandoval has hit his way back onto the rumor circuit.

Sam Dyson | Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports

For all the attention placed on that group, righty Sam Dyson is nearly every bit as interesting. That’s not to say that Dyson is an under-the-radar trade chip, as even casual onlookers are well aware that the rebuilding Giants have a wealth of interesting bullpen arms to market this month. But the extent of Dyson’s appeal is somewhat overshadowed by the bigger names the Giants have to sell.

Dyson, who turned 31 back in May, is enjoying his best season since 2016 by virtually any measure and is arguably in the midst of the best year of his career. The ground-ball specialist has pitched to a 2.48 ERA with averages of 7.7 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and 0.68 HR/9. His sinker’s average velocity is down from its 96.5 mph peak but still sits at a comfortable 94.1 mph. And while Dyson’s 57.3 percent grounder rate is somehow the lowest of his career, it’s also still well above the league average of 43 percent among relievers.

The control Dyson has demonstrated in 2019 is not only the best of his career — it’s among the best in baseball. Only eight qualified relievers have walked a smaller percentage of opponents than the 3.9 percent to whom Dyson has issued a free pass. He’s appeared in 38 games this season, totaling 40 innings of work, and has not issued multiple walks in a single outing. Dyson’s 63.6 percent first-pitch strike rate is a career-high.

Hard contact has also been difficult to come by for opponents of Dyson, as they’ve averaged an exit velocity of just 85.5 mph against him — a mark that puts Dyson in the 94th percentile of MLB pitchers. Right-handed opponents have mustered an awful .202/.237/.281 line against Dyson in 2019, while lefties have only managed a .226/.293/.377 output. Playing his games at San Francisco’s Oracle Park as opposed to Arlington’s Globe Life Park surely has helped Dyson limit homers, but his stinginess on round-trippers is nothing new (career 0.69 HR/9). It’s also worth noting that balls in the air against Dyson in 2019 have averaged 91.2 mph off the bat — a decline even from his strong 2016 campaign (93.2 mph) and a huge departure from the outlier 2017 campaign that saw Texas give up on him (96 mph).

That his 2017 season was an outlier should also be a point of emphasis. It’s tough for a player to shake the label of being traded in a salary dump as Dyson was in ’17. However, the righty notched 70 1/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball last season with a slightly lower strikeout rate, a higher walk rate and a higher ground-ball rate. More broadly looking at Dyson’s track record dating back to 2014, the only point at which he’s pitched particularly poorly was that 17-game stretch that prompted the Rangers to unload him. Dyson finished that year with an ERA just over 6.00, but he’s checked in with a 2.70 or better in the other five seasons dating back to 2014 (this year included).

Unlike teammates Smith and Watson, Dyson is under club control through the 2020 season. (Well, Watson technically is as well, though he’s unlikely to exercise the player option on his uniquely structured contract.) Dyson is being paid a $5MM salary this season, and while that means he’ll have a relatively notable salary next year after an arbitration raise, even a jump into the $6-7MM range isn’t exorbitant. For a team in need of bullpen help, buying a reasonably affordable second season of Dyson likely sounds better than rolling the dice on a multi-year deal for free-agent relievers — particularly when looking at how poorly this past winter’s group of multi-year contracts for relievers has panned out.

At the same time, there’s little reason for the Giants to hang onto Dyson at that price point when they’re in the nascent stages of their rebuild. And, he’ll have more value at this year’s deadline than he would in the offseason. There’s an argument to be made that the Giants should listen on all of their interesting relievers — even more controllable arms like Reyes Moronta and Trevor Gott — but neither will even be arbitration-eligible next year. Dyson, like Smith and Watson, should be a lock to be moved in the next 26 days barring some kind of injury.

The Giants find themselves in this rebuilding state in large part because of some missteps by the former front-office regime, but that group’s acquisition of Dyson (in exchange for 26-year-old Hunter Cole, who has yet to see the Majors) proved to be a steal. Beyond the 148 innings of strong relief work Dyson has given the Giants since that trade, he now gives first-year president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and his staff a player who ought to net far more than what the Giants gave up to acquire him.

Mets Still Pondering Trade Deadline Approach

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This season has been a horror show for the Mets, who entered the campaign with designs on a playoff berth but have stumbled to a 39-48 record thus far. With the July 31 trade deadline just over three weeks away, the Brodie Van Wagenen-led club looks like a surefire seller. However, the Mets have told other teams they’re still in wait-and-see mode when it comes to the deadline, Buster Olney of ESPN tweets.

The Mets have shown no real life since a decent early start to the season. As lousy as they’ve been over the past couple months, though, the Mets still aren’t completely dead in the National League playoff race. While New York is 12 1/2 games back of Atlanta in the NL East, it’s a more manageable 6 1/2 out of a wild-card spot. That’s not an insurmountable total with three months remaining on the schedule. However, as the NL’s second-worst team, it’s going to be a massive challenge for the Mets to hop over 10 clubs with superior records in order to earn a playoff spot.

The greater likelihood is the Mets will indeed wind up selling off select veterans by the end of the month. Doing so would enable the team to somewhat improve a farm system that’s lacking – especially after the Mets traded top 100 prospects Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn to the Mariners in a winter deal for Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz. Three months into the season, the disappointing performances of Cano and Diaz are among the reasons the Mets are in this unfavorable position.

There are two obvious trade chips on the Mets in right-hander Zack Wheeler and third baseman Todd Frazier, both impending free agents. Multiple teams have already shown interest in Wheeler, arguably the best rental starter who could change hands this month. Lefty Jason Vargas has perhaps pitched his way onto starter-needy teams’ radars, meanwhile, and there has been speculation about the Mets trying to move catcher Wilson Ramos. They may have buyers’ remorse in the first season of Ramos’ two-year, $19MM contract.

Dodgers Sign First-Rounder Michael Busch

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JULY 5: The Dodgers have signed Busch for full slot value, Jim Callis of MLB.com tweets.

JULY 3: The Dodgers are closing in on an agreement with first-round pick Michael Busch, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. The two sides will ultimately reach a deal, according to Heyman. As the 31st overall choice, Busch’s selection calls for a $2.31MM slot value.

Busch, a former University of North Carolina first baseman, is one of two first-rounders the Dodgers reeled in during this year’s draft. They nabbed third baseman Kody Hoese, who’s already signed, at No. 25 overall. The club received the pick it used on Busch as compensation for not signing 30th overall choice J.T. Ginn in 2018.

Entering the draft, ESPN’s Keith Law (No. 16), Baseball America (24), FanGraphs (24), MLB.com (26) ranked Busch in the vicinity of where the Dodgers picked him. Law (subscription required) credits Busch as disciplined hitter who showed “quick hands” and an ability to make impactful contact at UNC. While Heyman notes Busch could become the Dodgers’ second baseman, Law suggests he’ll be limited to first and questions whether he’ll even perform well there in the majors.

Rays Notes: Alvarado, Castillo, Duffy

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Rays reliever Jose Alvarado has been a go-to option for the team in high-leverage situations, but the left-hander has struggled since missing almost a month because of a family medical matter. As a result, the Rays will try to use Alvarado in lower impact spots for the time being, manager Kevin Cash suggested (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).

Alvarado boasted a 1.04 ERA as late as May 15, though that figure rose to 3.09 before he took his leave June 1. It’s now up to 4.85 since his June 29 return, largely because of a catastrophic performance in a 9-6 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday. Alvarado entered a 3-3 game in the top of the ninth and proceeded to allow six runs (five earned) on four hits, including a homer, and a walk in two-thirds of an inning.

Factoring in his horrific two-out showing, Alvarado has tossed 26 innings with a 3.55 FIP, which is significantly worse than the 2.27 he posted during a great 2018 campaign. Alvarado has continued to pump high-90s heat and strike out upward of 11 batters per nine, though his control has tanked. The 24-year-old’s first-pitch strike percentage has dropped approximately 14 percent since he debuted in the league in 2017, when he walked fewer than three hitters per nine. Alvarado’s BB/9 is now all the way up to 5.88. His home run rate has also fattened by 7 percent since 2018, though it’s still an above-average 9.5 on the year.

Cash noted the Rays will need both Alvarado and fellow flamethrowing reliever Diego Castillo – who lead the team with seven saves each – to return to form if the club’s going to maintain a playoff spot. At 50-38, the Rays are a game up on the AL’s No. 1 wild-card position. Both Alvarado and Castillo helped the Rays’ cause earlier in the season, but the latter also saw his production crater before going to the injured list June 23 with shoulder inflammation. The hope is that he’ll return right after the All-Star break, according to Topkin.

The right-handed Castillo, 25, entered June with a 2.12 ERA, only to see it rocket to 3.93 in a six-appearance span. Like Alvarado, Castillo has battled more control and homer problems than he grew accustomed to last season. Castillo’s walk rate has climbed from 2.86 per nine to 4.19 since then, and he has surrendered HRs on 17.9 percent of fly balls after yielding them at a 12 percent clip as a rookie in 2018. While Castillo has struck out almost 10 hitters per nine and induced ground balls just under 53 percent of the time, his 4.55 FIP still pales in comparison to last year’s 3.30.

As with Alvarado and Castillo, infielder Matt Duffy was an important Rays contributor last year whose 2019 hasn’t gone according to plan. In fact, thanks to back and hamstring injuries, Duffy hasn’t played at all this season. However, Duffy did just restart a rehab assignment for the first time in over a month, per Topkin. The 28-year-old had to halt his previous rehab stint May 22 after re-aggravating his hamstring injury.

West Notes: Yordan, Angels, Rangers, Padres

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Rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez garnered some first base experience during his time in the minors, but the Astros have no intention of trying him there in the majors this year, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. The team wasn’t “comfortable” with Alvarez’s performance at first in the minors, according to manager A.J. Hinch. Thanks in part to that, the Astros will stick with the hot-hitting Yuli Gurriel as their starter, with Rome noting Aledmys Diaz will serve as the backup when he comes off the injured list. Alvarez will continue as a designated hitter/left fielder, a role which has suited him well during what has been a brilliant introduction to the majors. Through his first 69 plate appearances, the 22-year-old has slashed .317/.406/.733 (196 wRC+) with seven home runs.

More from the majors’ West divisions…

  • The Angels received an encouraging second opinion this week on infielder Zack Cozart’s problematic left shoulder, manager Brad Ausmus revealed (via Dave Sessions of MLB.com). The doctors “seem to be narrowing it down to a couple things it could be, and I guess the MRI is to further narrow that down,” Ausmus said. Cozart has been down since May 28 with inflammation in his shoulder, a joint that also cost him a significant chunk of 2018. He underwent season-ending surgery on a torn labrum last season, ending his first year with the Angels after just 58 games. Cozart will visit Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed his surgery a year ago, for more imaging tests Friday, Sessions relays.
  • The Rangers were within a week of summoning reliever Matt Bush back to the majors before he was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Bush had been rehabbing a prior UCL injury all season, but this week’s news means he’ll wind up missing the entire campaign and surely a large portion of 2020. The Rangers plan on sticking with in-house relievers to help fill Bush’s void in the immediate term, according to Wilson, though he suggests the injury will place a greater urgency on the club to acquire outside help before the July 31 trade deadline.
  • Padres left-handed reliever Jose Castillo – out all season because of a flexor strain – could be one bullpen session away from restarting a rehab assignment, manager Andy Green said Thursday (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). The 23-year-old was pitching in what was supposed to be his final rehab appearance June 10 when he suffered a setback. Castillo was a quietly outstanding piece of the Padres’ bullpen as a rookie in 2018, when he pitched to a 3.29 ERA/2.64 FIP with 12.21 K/9 and 2.82 BB/9.

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