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Archives for August 2020

Reds Acquire Mark Payton From Athletics

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The Reds have acquired outfielder Mark Payton from the Athletics for cash considerations, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. Cincy took Payton from Oakland during last winter’s Rule 5 Draft, but it returned him to the A’s on July 21.

The 28-year-old Payton entered the pro ranks as a seventh-round pick of the Yankees in 2014, and he hasn’t played in the majors yet. However, he is coming off a 2019 in which he was a tremendous minor league producer. Payton logged 447 plate appearances with the A’s top minors affiliate, mashed 30 home runs and hit .334/.400/.653 – good for a 148 wRC+ even in the offensively charged Pacific Coast League. He only struck out in 17 percent of trips to the plate, so Payton certainly wasn’t selling out for power.

Twins Place Josh Donaldson On IL

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The Twins have placed third baseman Josh Donaldson on the injured list with a strained right calf, Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those to report. The move’s retroactive to Aug. 4, though it’s unclear how long Donaldson will take to recover.

Minnesota has gone all week without Donaldson, who suffered the injury July 31. It’s especially concerning when you consider that calf issues played a role in Donaldson’s limited 2018 between the Blue Jays and Indians. The former MVP returned to health and form a year ago as a Brave, though, and that was enough to convince a Twins club that hopes to push for a World Series title to sign him to a four-year, $92MM contract in free agency over the winter. The 34-year-old has since accumulated 27 plate appearances as a Twin and batted .182/.296/.318, though the team has still gotten off to a spectacular 10-3 start.

With Donaldson unavailable over the past several days, the Twins have turned to Marwin Gonzalez and Ehire Adrianza at the hot corner. Gonzalez has enjoyed a nice start, but Adrianza has begun poorly.

Royals Place Mike Montgomery On 45-Day IL

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The Royals announced that they have moved left-hander Mike Montgomery and righty Glenn Sparkman from the 10-day injured list to the 45-day version. They also reinstated righty Chance Adams from the IL and optioned him to their alternate training site.

The most notable name here is Montgomery, who began the season in the Royals’ rotation before quickly succumbing to a lat strain. The 31-year-old has made made one start this year, back on July 27, but it didn’t go well. Montgomery lasted just two innings against the Tigers then and yielded five runs (three earned) on three hits. Considering Friday’s news, it’s unknown whether Montgomery will pitch again this season.

Montgomery’s best known as one of many 2016 heroes for the Cubs, as he saved their Game 7 World Series victory over the Indians that broke a 108-year championship drought. But Montgomery fell out of favor last season in Chicago, which dealt him to Kansas City for catcher Martin Maldonado with the trade deadline approaching.

During his second stint with the Royals, who first acquired him in Round 1 of the 2008 draft, Montgomery has put up a 4.91 ERA/5.33 FIP with 7.09 K/9, 2.86 BB/9 and a 51.7 percent groundball rate over 66 innings. Montgomery’s on a a prorated $3.1MM salary this year and has another season of arbitration eligibility left if the Royals choose to retain him on the heels of an injury-limited 2020.

George Springer Suffers Sprained Right Wrist

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AUG. 7: Springer has a sprained wrist, manager Dusty Baker said Friday (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle).

AUG. 6: Astros outfielder George Springer departed the team’s loss to the Diamondbacks on Thursday with a right wrist strain, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic was among those to report. Fortunately, X-rays came back negative, so he shouldn’t sit out for a significant amount of time, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Although Springer seems OK, even a few days off could be damaging to a Houston team that’s off to a 6-6 start. The reiging AL champions have already had to go without ace Justin Verlander and slugger Yordan Alvarez for most or all of the season because of health problems, and their bullpen has taken a beating from injuries. Those troubles have helped lead to an early 2 1/2-game deficit in the AL West, a division the Astros have won three years in a row. They’re now staring up at the Athletics.

Of course, a great deal of Houston’s recent success has been on account of Springer, who has slashed .269/.360/.488 with 163 home runs in 3,398 plate appearances since he debuted in 2014. He’s one of the premier pending free agents in baseball, and with such a short season, any missed time could hurt the 30-year-old’s earning power heading into the offseason.

The Astros replaced Springer with Myles Straw in center field on Thursday. Michael Brantley, Kyle Tucker and Josh Reddick represent the rest of the healthy outfielders on their roster.

Stephen Strasburg To Make 2020 Debut Sunday

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Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg will make his 2020 debut Sunday against the Orioles, Jessica Camerato of MLB.com reports. Manager Dave Martinez indicated the Nationals are hopeful that Strasburg will give them 75 to 80 pitches in his first start of the season.

Strasburg has been on the shelf with a nerve issue in his right hand, which is certainly not the way he or the Nats expected him to begin the seven-year, $245MM contract they re-signed him to last offseason. Injuries have often been a problem for Strasburg, whose career began with great fanfare in 2010, but he stayed healthy in 2019 en route to a 209-inning campaign and a 3.32 ERA/3.25 FIP with 10.81 K/9 and 2.41 BB/9. He put the cherry on top with a marvelous playoff performance that concluded with a title for the team and a World Series MVP for himself.

This year’s Nationals have come out of the gates slowly at 4-5, but a few of the starters they’ve used – Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Austin Voth and Erick Fedde – have done well to prevent runs. Scherzer left his start Wednesday with a hamstring injury, but the three-time Cy Young winner is optimistic he’ll make his scheduled start, per Camerato.

Reds Add 3 To Player Pool

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The Reds have added left-hander Brandon Finnegan, infielder Rece Hinds and outfielder TJ Friedl to their 60-man player pool, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. All three players will report to the team’s alternate site.

While he was formerly a high-end prospect whom the Reds acquired from the Royals in the teams’ 2015 Johnny Cueto blockbuster, Finnegan hasn’t made a major impact in the bigs. Finnegan threw 172 innings of 3.98 ERA ball as a Red in 2016, but injuries have helped cut him down since then. He threw just 33 2/3 innings from 2017-18 and then didn’t pitch at all in the majors last season. The Reds outrighted the 27-year-old back in April.

Both Hinds and Friedl rank among the Reds’ most promising farmhands, as MLB.com places the former ninth in their system and the latter 22nd. Hinds, just 19 years old, was a second-round pick in 2019 who took a mere 10 plate appearances in rookie ball last season because of a quad injury. The 24-year-old Friedl has topped out at Double-A, where he batted .257/.353/.372 with seven home runs in 565 trips to the plate from 2018-19.

Indians Hitting Coach Ty Van Burkleo Opts Out Of Season

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Indians hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo has elected to opt out of the season over coronavirus concerns, Zack Meisel of The Athletic was among those to report. He’ll continue to assist the club remotely. Meanwhile, Alex Eckelman will join the big league staff to join Victor Rodriguez and Justin Toole as coaches who will work with the Indians’ hitters in person, Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com tweets.

Van Burkleo has been the hitting coach in Cleveland since before the 2013 season. While it’s difficult to quantify how much impact a coach can have on a team’s production, the team’s offense has generally been a strength since it hired Van Burkleo. The Indians are sixth in the majors in runs and ninth in wRC+ during his run on their staff.

Latest On Yordan Alvarez, Jose Urquidy

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A litany of health problems have slowed the Astros, who have started 2020 an even 6-6 after winning the American League a year ago. Slugger and 2019 AL Rookie of the Year Yordan Alvarez is among the team’s most important players on the shelf, likely owing to a positive coronavirus test. Alvarez is taking batting practice and running, but manager Dusty Baker suggested a return is not imminent.

“The cavalry is a ways off,” Baker said of Alvarez and right-hander Jose Urquidy, who has also been on the IL for an undisclosed reason early this year, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Urquidy just began throwing off a mound.

The 23-year-old Alvarez was a critical piece of the puzzle for the Astros last season, when he slashed .313/.412/.655 with 27 home runs in 369 plate appearances. There’s obviously no realistic way to replace that type of production.

Urquidy, 25, didn’t star as a rookie last year, but he was impressive in his own right, as he amassed 41 innings of 3.95 ERA/3.68 FIP ball with 8.78 K/9 and 1.54 BB/9. The Astros, who are facing several injuries in their pitching staff, will welcome similar numbers this year if Urquidy is able to pitch.

Austin Pruitt is also among the wounded in Houston, and the club decided to transfer the righty to the 45-day IL because of an elbow ailment on Friday, Mark Berman of Fox 26 tweets. The move opened up space for just-acquired righty Chase De Jong in their 60-man player pool. Pruitt still hasn’t pitched for the Astros, who added him in an offseason trade with the Rays, and it remains very much in question whether he’ll take the mound at all this season.

Rays Select Sean Gilmartin

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The Rays announced Friday that they’ve placed lefty Jose Alvarado on the paternity list and selected the contract of fellow left-hander Sean Gilmartin from their alternate training site. A 40-man roster spot was opened by reinstating outfielder Manuel Margot from the bereavement list and placing him on the Covid-19-related injured list so that he can undergo mandatory intake testing. It should be noted that there’s no indication of a positive test or any symptoms for Margot; this is merely standard protocol after Margot left the team earlier this week following the death of his father.

Gilmartin, 30, has pitched in the big leagues in each of the past five seasons — albeit just 2 1/3 frames with the Orioles in 2019. The Braves selected him with the No. 28 pick back in 2011, and he’s since bounced around the league in a series of trades, a Rule 5 pick and waiver claims.

Back in 2015, the Mets looked wise to have plucked Gilmartin out of the Twins organization in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft. He stuck with the club all season and gave the Mets 57 2/3 innings of 2.67 ERA ball with a strong 54-to-18 K/BB ratio and just two home runs allowed. Outside of that rookie season, however, success in the Majors has been hard to come by.

In the four years since that time, Gilmartin has pitched to a combined 5.90 ERA and 6.46 FIP, averaging just 5.5 strikeouts and 3.8 walks per nine innings pitched. Gilmartin’s home-run and walk rates have ballooned as his strikeout rate has dipped. He’ll hope to reverse those trends with the Rays, but it’s also possible that his stay with the club will be rather abbreviated, as Alvarado should return to the Rays in just a few days.

Royals Designate Jorge Lopez For Assignment

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The Royals announced Friday that right-hander Jorge Lopez has been designated for assignment. He’d been on the bereavement list, and because he’s out of minor league options, had to either be added back to the 28-man roster or designated for assignment. The Kansas City front office clearly didn’t feel that Lopez was among the team’s 28 best options, so he’ll now await the resolution of his DFA status. The Royals have a week to trade Lopez, release him or run him through outright waivers.

Lopez, 27, ranked among baseball’s 100 best prospects prior to the 2016 season but has never pieced things together at the game’s top level. The former second-rounder went from Milwaukee to K.C. alongside outfielder Brett Phillips in the trade that initially brought Mike Moustakas to the Brewers. Lopez, however, has logged 190 innings in the Majors between the two teams and stumbled to a 5.97 ERA with a pedestrian 157-to-70 K/BB ratio. He’s struggled quite a bit in Triple-A as well, and while the Pacific Coast League is notoriously hitter-friendly, a 6.31 ERA and 11 hits per nine innings pitched still doesn’t reflect well.

Lopez does average 94 mph on his sinker and generate grounders at an above-average rate, but his lack of minor league options might make it tough for another club to claim him.

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