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Archives for September 2019

Injury Notes: Dyson, Cueto, Polanco, Dominguez, Morejon

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The Twins are waiting to see how reliever Sam Dyson responds to some time off to deal with recurring biceps soreness. Chief baseball officer Derek Falvey discussed the matter with reporters including Phil Miller of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). It’s an effort to “get out ahead” of things, says Falvey. The Twins need their most significant trade deadline acquisition at top form with a major postseason clash beckoning. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been himself since coming over. Dyson owns a 7.15 ERA in a dozen appearances in Minnesota.

More injury updates from around the game …

  • Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto, on the mend from 2018 Tommy John surgery, experienced a setback in his most recent rehab outing, tweets Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News. He’ll be reevaluated in the next few days but won’t be an option for the team as soon as originally hoped. Manager Bruce Bochy had previously put a tentative date of Sept. 8 on a return for Cueto, but that no longer appears to be a plausible timeline. Back tightness, rather than arm issues, has caused the revised timeline. While there’s still hope that Cueto will make it back to the big-league bump this season, the organization will surely avoid any unnecessary risks.
  • A few Pirates outfielders won’t return to action this year, as Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter links). Gregory Polanco will receive platelet-rich plasma injections in a bid to spur healing in his troublesome shoulder. That’ll be a key situation to monitor in the offseason for the Pittsburgh organization. Jason Martin now has his own shoulder malady to deal with: a separation suffered yesterday. He’s expected to miss the rest of the year. Infielder Kevin Kramer will come up to the active roster due in part to Martin’s absence. Though Bucs righty Mitch Keller was hit in the wrist with a batted ball yesterday, he was able to play catch today. his timeline isn’t clear, but that certainly seems like promising news.
  • The Phillies got some promising news on righty reliever Seranthony Dominguez, who has at times seemed destined to miss the rest of the season. Despite a recent scare, he has shown enough progress in his elbow health to resume throwing, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters including Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philly (via tweet). It’s still not clear that Dominguez will have enough time to ramp up and return to active duty, though perhaps there’s still an outside shot.
  • Padres southpaw Adrian Morejon will not make it back to the bigs in 2019, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. That’s not to say that the widely hailed 20-year-old isn’t making progress. His injured shoulder is in good enough shape to allow Morejon to resume throwing. Though he struggled quite a bit in limited MLB action, Morejon has generally shown all the skills that made him a consensus top-100 leaguewide prospect. He’ll likely again factor into the San Diego plans next season, though he’ll do so without much of an innings base to work from. Morejon has not yet thrown more than 65 1/3 frames in a given campaign and fell shy of that mark this year.

Yankees Health Updates: Severino, Betances, Andujar, Urshela, Stanton

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Rumor has it that the Yankees have dealt with a few bites of the injury bug this year. Here’s the latest on the health front …

  • It’ll be a big day for the Yanks on Friday. Two key righties — Luis Severino and Dellin Betances — will each take the ball for the club’s Trenton affiliate. Neither has pitched in the big leagues yet this year, but both could be key late-season additions for the AL East champions-to-be. It’s still anyone’s guess what these hurlers will be able to contribute.
  • Third baseman Miguel Andujar has been undergoing physical therapy since his season-ending shoulder surgery back in May and will begin participating in full baseball activities next week (Twitter link via Laura Albanese of the New York Daily News). Andujar expects to be at 100 percent come Spring Training next season. The talented 24-year-old figures to play a major role in the club’s near-future plans, though he’ll be returning to a different situation than the one he left.
  • Of more immediate concern at the hot corner is Gio Urshela, who has been out with a groin injury. He’s likely to jump right back into the lineup after the ten-day minimum, skipper Aaron Boone indicated to reporters including James Wagner of the New York Times (Twitter link). The 27-year-old Urshela has outdone Andujar, slashing .331/.370/.555 with 18 long balls in 414 plate appearances.
  • And then there’s long-lost slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who’s still nursing a knee injury. While the 29-year-old’s anticipated output has improbably been replaced by a rotating cast of unlikely heroes, it’d still be nice to get him back for the postseason. Stanton has finally picked up some “momentum,” per Boone (via Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, on Twitter). The outfielder/DH is slated to face live pitching at the club’s Florida facility. His timeline remains unclear, but it seems there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel.

Phillies Release Drew Anderson

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The Phillies announced today that they have released right-hander Drew Anderson after he cleared waivers. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Anderson, a 25th-round pick in 2012, has had success at times as a starter in the upper minors. But he has struggled in limited MLB action, coughing up 18 earned runs on 29 hits in 21 total frames.

It has been a rough overall campaign for Anderson, who has been sidelined since late June and was ineffective before that. Over 11 starts at the Triple-A level, he managed only a 5.77 ERA with 7.4 K/9 against 5.0 BB/9.

Dodgers Health Updates: Verdugo, Muncy, Hill, May

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With the NL West sewn up, the Dodgers have two primary goals down the stretch: secure home-field advantage throughout the postseason and get to full health. Here are the latest updates from manager Dave Roberts on a few key players, as MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick was among those to cover on Twitter:

  • Back soreness has halted the rehab work of outfielder Alex Verdugo. He had seemingly been nearing a return from an oblique injury. Now, per Roberts, Verdugo may head back to the club’s Arizona facility to receive further treatment. Verdugo had emerged as an important part of the Los Angeles outfield mix, even commanding time against left-handed pitching. On the year, he owns a strong .294/.342/.475 batting line with a dozen long balls. Verdugo has also graded as a plus defender and is capable of lining up anywhere in the outfield. It’s completely unclear at this point what kind of timeline to anticipate for the new malady.
  • In more promising news, infielder Max Muncy is participating in baseball activities. He has already taken groundballs and will soon resume swinging. That represents fast progress for a player who recently suffered a fractured wrist. The club’s optimism regarding the severity of the injury has thus far been justified. Needless to say, the Dodgers will be focused on ensuring Muncy’s readiness for the postseason. The 29-year-old is carrying a big .253/.375/.525 batting line on the year. His left-handed bat is all the more important given Verdugo’s uncertainty.
  • Southpaw Rich Hill is prepared to take the bump against live batters later this week, which could set the stage for a return as soon as next week. The plan remains for Hill to come back as a reliever. It seems the flexor tendon strain that sidelined the veteran hurler has recovered fully, though it remains to be seen what sort of form he’ll show upon his return. Hill almost certainly won’t be at full strength in the postseason, but he will have a few weeks to build up innings. He’ll surely play an interesting role in the L.A. playoff effort, with his showing also destined to impact his forthcoming free agency. The 39-year-old was outstanding (2.55 ERA in 53 innings) before going down with the injury.
  • As for prized young hurler Dustin May, it seems awfully promising that he was able to throw a simulated inning today. The team still isn’t sure what will come next for the right-hander, who was drilled by a comebacker over the weekend but seems to have avoided serious injury. As in the above cases, the Dodgers will proceed with caution — all the more so given that the 21-year-old is considered a major future asset.

The Luke Voit Trade Doesn’t Look So Lopsided Anymore

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The Luke Voit trade (as it’s now known) barely drew any headlines when it was struck last July between the Cardinals and Yankees. Chasen Shreve was the best-known player in a deal that was viewed largely as two clubs dealing from positions of organizational depth.

Voit got a quick look with the Yankees before being optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, then returned in late August when the Yankees needed an extra bat after Didi Gregorius landed on the shelf due to a heel injury. His first two appearances in his second Yankees stint were of the pinch-hit variety, but he drew a start at first base on Aug. 24 and, in belting a pair of home runs that day, began a rapid ascension. Those two long ball were the first of seven in a 12-game span. By the end of the year, Voit had exploded with a .333/.405/.689 batting line and 14 home runs in just 148 plate appearances as a Yankee.

A huge showing in Spring Training and yet another Greg Bird injury locked Voit into a spot on the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. Meanwhile, Shreve was designated for assignment by the Cardinals late in camp and went unclaimed on waivers. The trade looked like an all-out heist for the Yankees.

Enter Giovanny Gallegos.

Giovanny Gallegos | Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

The least-known player involved in that July 28 swap, Gallegos didn’t distinguish himself much early in his Cardinals tenure. It’s true that he dominated in 16 2/3 innings with the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate following the trade in 2018, but he made just two big league appearances in St. Louis (1 1/3 innings pitched) last season and didn’t even break camp with the Cards in 2019. When he did arrive in the Majors on April 11, Gallegos limped out to a slow start. He allowed three home runs and pitched to a 4.80 ERA through his first 15 innings this season. While the 25-to-5 K/BB ratio he posted in that time looked encouraging, Voit was at that point sitting on a .282/.382/.575 batting line and 24 home runs in 319 total plate appearances as a Yankee. The Cardinals drew plenty of criticism for the trade (including from myself).

That May 12 cutoff, admittedly, is rather arbitrary. But since that point, Gallegos has been one of the most effective relief pitchers on the planet. Over his past 46 2/3 innings of work, the right-hander has pitched to a pristine 1.35 ERA with a 56-to-7 K/BB ratio. He’s allowed only three home runs in that span — the same number he yielded in his first 15 innings — and held opponents to a .150/.194/.250 batting line (.193 wOBA) through 170 plate appearances.

Since that time, there’s not a single pitcher in baseball (min. 40 IP) who has been tougher to hit than Gallegos. That .190 wOBA is more than 30 points lower than the second-best pitcher in that same span (Boston’s Brandon Workman). He’s surely benefited from some good fortune (.206 BABIP, 90 percent strand rate), but Gallegos is also 11th in the big leagues with a 28.8 K-BB% in that time. He’s whiffed 32.9 percent of the batters he’s faced since that point and walked just 4.1 percent of them.

On the season as a whole, Gallegos is now boasting a 2.19 ERA with 11.8 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and 0.88 HR/9. A 2.58 FIP and 2.70 SIERA support his emergence as a top-tier reliever. His 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate puts him on par with Max Scherzer and places him 11th among MLB pitchers with at least 50 innings thrown in 2019. Statcast indicates that Gallegos is in the 87th percentile of MLB hurlers in terms of fastball spin rate. He’s also in the 87th percentile in expected slugging percentage and the 97th percentile in both expected batting average-against and expected wOBA-against. While some higher-profile relievers have posted similar ERAs with the benefit of some smoke and mirrors, Gallegos’ success doesn’t look to be a fluke.

All of that is particularly good news for the Cardinals, because they can control the late-blooming 28-year-old all the way through the 2024 season. Gallegos won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2021 campaign; he’ll earn scarcely more than the league minimum in both the 2020 and 2021 campaigns. There’s no more volatile asset in Major League Baseball than relief pitchers, but for the time being, Gallegos has dominated enough to flip the narrative on last year’s trade. One can certainly still argue that the Cards would’ve been better off keeping Voit, but St. Louis was by no means left empty-handed and may even have come away from the exchange with a dominant bullpen anchor for years to come.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants Promote Jaylin Davis

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The Giants announced today that they have selected the contract of outfielder Jaylin Davis. He’ll take the 40-man roster spot of reliever Reyes Moronta, who was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Davis came to the San Francisco organization as part of the deadline deal that sent reliever Sam Dyson to the Twins. The former 25th-rounder was putting up big numbers in the upper minors at the time of the swap but was obviously deemed expendable by the Minnesota organization.

Since changing jerseys, Davis has continued to rake. Over the course of the year, he has posted well-above-average numbers at each stop: a 147 wRC+ at Double-A, 175 wRC+ in the International League, and 160 wRC+ in the Pacific Coast League.

It remains to be seen whether Davis will be able to apply his power consistently enough at the major-league level. But it’ll certainly be fun to see whether he can do so. We’ve seen other under-the-radar slugger types carry forward big upper-minors production into the bigs. If that’s the case for Davis, the Giants could have a steal. He’d have required a 40-man spot in advance of this winter’s Rule 5 draft regardless of today’s move, so there was little reason not to give him his first look now.

Yankees Release David Hernandez

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The Yankees have released veteran right-hander David Hernandez, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate in Scranton (h/t: Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune, on Twitter).

The 34-year-old Hernandez had signed with New York on a minor league pact back on Aug. 15 after a disastrous season with the Reds, but he didn’t fare much better in his brief time with his new organization. Playing out the second season of a two-year, $5MM contract signed with the Reds in the 2017-18 offseason, Hernandez turned in a ghastly 8.02 ERA in 42 2/3 innings with Cincinnati. While he averaged a hefty 11.2 punchouts per nine innings pitched, the well-traveled righty also averaged 4.2 walks and 1.48 homers per nine frames.

More than anything, Hernandez appeared to be plagued by a gaudy .393 average on balls in play and a 54.5 percent strand rate that checked in more than 20 percent worse than his career rate. The Yankees took a no-risk flier on both of those numbers being aberrations, but Hernandez was tagged for six earned runs on five hits and eight walks through just seven innings in Scranton. He did tally 11 strikeouts, but the Yankees didn’t see enough to bring him north as a September call-up (as they did with veterans Ryan Dull and Tyler Lyons).

The release could mark the end of the season for Hernandez, although his track record should generate offseason interest. The right-hander put together terrific results just a year ago in Cincinnati when he notched a 2.53 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.84 HR/9 over the life of 64 innings. He missed the 2014 season due to injury but has otherwise averaged 63 appearances per season with a 3.39 ERA, 10.0 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 dating back to 2011.

Hernandez hasn’t lost any zip on his fastball from recent seasons — to the contrary, his 93.6 mph average is actually up from last year’s 93.0 mph mark — and his ability to induce whiffs is as strong as ever. This year’s 14.7 percent swinging-strike rate and 35.3 percent opponents’ chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone are career-highs, in fact. Hernandez has above-average spin on his fastball, and the .065-point gap between his actual opponents’ wOBA (.380) and expected wOBA (.315), per Statcast, is the ninth-largest in the league among pitchers who’ve faced at least 100 hitters. Overall, he looks like a solid bounceback candidate, though this season’s struggles could force him to settle for a minor league contract this winter.

Latest On Jeremy Jeffress

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Right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, officially released by the Brewers yesterday, has drawn some level of interest from several teams, tweets Yahoo’s Matt Ehalt. The Reds, Mets, Phillies, Rays and even the Brewers are among the teams who’ve inquired about the 2018 All-Star.

Jeffress isn’t postseason eligible, having been cut loose in September, but some of the interested teams would apparently like to proactively lock him up to a deal that covers the 2020 campaign (perhaps via a club option). That’d help to explain Milwaukee’s reported interest in bringing the righty back; the Brewers clearly had no intention of exercising Jeffress preexisting $4.3MM option for the 2020 season, but they (or another suitor) could conceivably try to hammer out an option at a lower base salary with some additional incentives. Any team signing Jeffress would only owe him the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the current season.

It’s also possible, though, that Jeffress could simply sit out the remainder of the season and explore opportunities this winter. He was on the injured list due to a hip ailment at the time of his release, and there’d surely be some benefit to an extended period of rest for the righty. He’ll likely have offseason minor league offers with decent base salaries (though less than the previous $4.3MM) at the very least, meaning there’s no rush to sign at the moment. There’ll surely be teams who are only interested in adding him after the current season draws to a close, so waiting until November to take a deal would widen his market.

Open-market circumstances surrounding Jeffress will always be somewhat atypical, given the right-hander’s history. He’s served multiple minor league suspensions for drugs of abuse (i.e. marijuana) and was charged with a DWI while pitching for the Rangers in 2016. That track record surely contributed to the club-friendly deal Jeffress signed with Milwaukee prior to the 2018 season, which came with two team options at relatively low base rates and plenty of yearly incentives based on innings pitched and games finished.

Jeffress’ release earlier this week marked the end of a radical downturn in performance. The right-hander logged a 1.29 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 0.59 HR/9 and a 56.4 percent ground-ball rate in last year’s All-Star season before unraveling in the playoffs. He then missed the first several weeks of the 2019 season due to shoulder fatigue.

Upon activation in mid-April, Jeffress pitched well for two months, logging a 2.52 ERA and a 26-to-9 K/BB ratio through his first 22 appearances (25 innings). Since that time, he’s scuffled with an ERA north of 7.00 and a deflated strikeout rate. Jeffress’ velocity has actually improved a bit as he’s distanced himself from the early shoulder fatigue, but the aforementioned hip ailment has added another injury to the ledger. In all, he’s turned in 52 innings with a 5.02 ERA, 8.0 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9 and a 48.4 percent ground-ball rate while enduring a pair of IL stints in 2019. The upside a healthy Jeffress brings to the table is enormous, but he’s struggled to produce consistent results over the past three seasons.

Outrighted: Ramirez, Wilkerson

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The tidal wave of September call-ups earlier this week resulted in nearly two dozen players being designated for assignment to create space on 40-man rosters throughout the league. While some of those players will be claimed by new organizations, we’ll track Wednesday’s collection of players who went unclaimed in this post:

  • Right-hander Neil Ramirez cleared waivers and was assigned outright to the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate, per the International League transactions log. Ramirez averaged 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched with the Indians in 2018 (51 strikeouts in 41 2/3 innings) but has bounced all over the league dating back to 2016. His ability to miss bats has continually intrigued clubs, but Ramirez has also been far too prone to both walks and home runs. In 25 innings between Cleveland and Toronto this season, he posted a 5.40 ERA with a 24-to-15 K/BB ratio and seven home runs allowed.
  • The Brewers assigned right-hander Aaron Wilkerson to Triple-A San Antonio after he went unclaimed on waivers, per a team announcement. The 30-year-old was very good in 76 1/3 innings spanning 17 starts in San Antonio in 2019, logging a 3.42 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 1.18 HR/9 and a 37.5 percent grounder rate. However, Wilkerson also allowed 13 runs in 16 big league innings this year and was tagged for 10 runs in nine MLB frames a season ago. He’s enjoyed plenty of success in the upper minors dating back to 2017 but owns just a 6.88 ERA with 28 strikeouts, 13 walks and nine home runs allowed in 35 1/3 innings as a Major Leaguer.

Yankees Re-Sign Danny Coulombe

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The Yankees have signed left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe to a minor league contract for a second time, Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune reports (via Twitter). New York brought Coulombe into the fold on a minor league pact last winter but gave him his release from the organization on July 1. Coulombe signed with the Brewers a couple of weeks later but opted out of that deal late last month and is now returning to the Yanks.

Coulombe, 29, is a veteran of parts of five Major League seasons split between the Dodgers and Athletics. From 2016-18 with the A’s, the former 25th-round pick tallied 123 innings with a 4.10 ERA and a 119-to-50 K/BB ratio in 123 innings of relief work. In that time, Coulombe limited opposing left-handed batters to a paltry .237/.298/.338 batting line and allowed just four home runs to same-handed foes.

The 2019 season has been a bizarre one for Coulombe. He’s spent the year in an explosive offensive environment in Triple-A and served up nine home runs in 36 1/3 innings of work (2.2 HR/9). But, Coulombe has also missed at an eye-popping level — the likes of which we’ve never seen from the 5’10” southpaw. While he’s posted double-digit K/9 marks throughout his minor league tenure, Coulombe has turned in a superlative 15.1 K/9 mark in 2019. He’s totaled 61 strikeouts in his 36 1/3 frames, striking out 36 percent of the total hitters he’s faced.

Coulombe is still in line to be a free agent at season’s end, unless the Yankees opt to add him to the Major League roster, at which point he’d be arbitration-eligible (and also a non-tender candidate). Coulombe’s official return to the organization came on Aug. 31 — he was initially assigned to Class-A Tampa but did not pitch there — so he could technically be a postseason option if the Yankees see fit to carry him. If not, he can at least give Aaron Boone another lefty setup/middle relief option alongside Zack Britton, Nestor Cortes Jr. and recently selected Tyler Lyons should he find his way to the MLB level.

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