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Stevie Wilkerson Suffers Broken Finger

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Orioles utilityman Stevie Wilkerson received an unfortunate diagnosis tonight, as Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun was among those to cover on Twitter. Skipper Brandon Hyde says that Wilkerson has suffered a phalanx fracture in his left ring finger.

The expectation is that the injury will sideline Wilkerson for a “significant” period of time, according to Hyde. The precise anticipated timeline isn’t clear, but there obviously isn’t all that much season to work with — particularly given the lack of minor-league rehab opportunities.

Wilkerson, 28, appeared with the O’s in each of the past two MLB seasons. He carries a cumulative .219/.279/.365 slash line in the bigs. That wasn’t enough to maintain a 40-man spot — he was outrighted before Spring Training opened — but it seemed Wilkerson had a solid shot of earning his way back into the major-league ranks to open the 2020 season.

Cards Set Roles For Kwang Hyun Kim, Carlos Martinez

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The Cardinals have settled upon some pitching roles for the outset of the season, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was among those to cover on Twitter. Newly inked southpaw Kwang-Hyun Kim is headed to a high-leverage relief role, while right-hander Carlos Martinez will step back into the rotation.

This represented one of those good problems in need of resolution. Lacking any health issues to drive a decision, the Cards had to take their pick between two rather appealing choices to round out the starting staff.

Kim inked a two-year, $8MM deal under which the club also posted a $1.6MM fee to his former KBO outfit. Kim was sharp in Spring Training, throwing eight scoreless frames with 11 strikeouts and just one walk. While he made his mark as a starter in Korea, Kim will have to earn his way back into the rotation in St. Louis. Alternatively, he could etch out a prominent gig at the back of the pen, perhaps as a closer.

There’s a model to follow in Martinez himself, who was a high-quality MLB starter for years before health issues intervened. He ended up being shifted back into the pen, where he rung up saves in half of his 48 appearances in 2019. Now, the talented 28-year-old will get a chance to reestablish himself as a starter. It makes sense that the club elected to give him another crack at the rotation. Beyond his established ceiling in that role, Martinez is owed $11.5MM in 2021 with two high-priced club options to follow.

Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria To Open Season On Injured List

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Giants corner infielders Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria will open the season on the injured list, manager Gabe Kapler told reporters including John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). They’ll both be eligible for activation after ten days on ice.

Belt, who has dealt with numerous maladies in recent seasons, is still nursing a heel problem. Longoria has an oblique issue. In both cases, the timelines for a full return aren’t yet evident.

With this news, the Giants will be looking to alternatives at both first and third base for a decent chunk of the regular season. Fellow veterans Wilmer Flores, Pablo Sandoval, and Donovan Solano represent the most obvious fill-in candidates. Darin Ruf and Zach Green are other 60-man player pool members with MLB experience in the corner infield.

Marlins Release Ryan Cook

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The Marlins have released righty Ryan Cook, per a club announcement. He had been in camp on a minor-league deal.

Additionally, the team announced that fellow righty relievers Josh Smith and Nick Vincent have been reassigned to the club’s alternative training site. It appears that they’ll both remain with the organization but fall shy of making the Opening Day roster.

Cook hooked on with the Fish in January after pitching in Japan for the 2019 season. The 33-year-old is a six-year MLB veteran but has only made 28 total appearances since the start of the 2015 campaign.

Braves Sign Matt Adams

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The Braves announced today that they have signed first baseman Matt Adams. It’s a minor-league arrangement.

Adams had recently opted out of his deal with the division-rival Mets. Though there just wasn’t room for him on the New York roster, it seems the left-handed hitter showed enough to earn a spot in the Atlanta 60-man player pool.

This isn’t the first go-round for Adams with the Braves. He had a productive part-season stint with the team in 2017 — so much so that Freddie Freeman lined up at third base to keep Adams in the lineup. While he was also effective at the plate in 2018, Adams limped to a .226/.276/.465 slash line in 333 plate appearances last year with the Nationals.

Mariners Reportedly Expected To Sign Bryan Shaw

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The Mariners are evidently closing in on a veteran bullpen addition. Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter), the Seattle club is expected to land recently released reliever Bryan Shaw. Contract details aren’t yet known.

Shaw, 32, was cut loose a few days ago by the Rockies, who’ll continue to owe him for the pro-rated portion of his $9MM salary along with a $2MM buyout in advance of the 2021 campaign. The Mariners would only be on the hook for the league-minimum rate if Shaw is able to crack the active roster.

After a long run of success with the Indians, Shaw struggled mightily over two seasons with the Rockies. It wasn’t just a matter of pitching at altitude, as he was actually better at Coors Field last year. Shaw dealt with a notable velocity drop-off and rise in the frequency of hard contact against him.

The M’s will undertake a bit of a reclamation effort, perhaps banking on the fact that Shaw still generates 80th percentile spin with his cut fastball. If he shows well at the team’s satellite location, there ought to be plenty of opportunity in a bullpen that’s short on sure things.

Mets Place Jed Lowrie, Walker Lockett On Injured List

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Infielder Jed Lowrie and pitcher Walker Lockett will open the season on the injured list, the Mets informed reporters including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter links). The former will be placed on the 10-day list, while the latter will go on the 15-day list under the newly tweaked rules.

Lowrie’s left leg remains shrouded in both mystery and braces. The 36-year-old veteran has not yet contributed to the Mets since signing a two-year deal in the 2018-19 offseason. He has finally made some progress but obviously still isn’t in game shape.

As for Lockett, he’s said to be dealing with a lower back ailment. It’s not yet clear just how long he might be sidelined. Lockett has yet to fully establish himself in the majors but had seemed to be lined up for an active roster spot to open the year. He’s out of options, so will need to be moved onto the active roster or exposed to waivers once he’s healthy.

Brewers Place Brett Anderson On Injured List

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The Brewers have placed left-hander Brett Anderson on the injured list, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. Anderson’s dealing with a blister.

Anderson was one of the Brewers’ most important offseason acquisitions of the winter, when they signed him to a one-year, $5MM guarantee, and should play a key role in their rotation when he returns to health. But various injuries have troubled the 32-year-old Anderson since he debuted in the majors with the Athletics in 2009. He remained healthy for the most part last year, though, throwing 176 innings and registering a 3.89 ERA/4.57 FIP in Oakland despite a measly 4.6 K/9. Anderson helped his cause with an above-average 54.5 percent groundball rate and a 2.51 BB/9.

The Anderson IL placement is the latest setback for Milwaukee’s rotation, which will also begin the season without fellow southpaw Eric Lauer. As a result, it’s unclear how their rotation will look when the season starts. Brandon Woodruff, Adrian Houser and Josh Lindblom make for some of the Brewers’ most experienced healthy starting options. They’re in line for starting jobs, while Brent Suter, Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and David Phelps have also opened games in their own right and could fill in thanks to the team’s health issues.

Health Notes: E. Rodriguez, Teheran, Brewers, Rox, Rangers, Nats

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Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez tested positive for the coronavirus July 7, but he returned to the club over the weekend and detailed his serious bout with the illness. Rodriguez told Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe he has never been sicker, saying he felt “100 years old” and was concerned he wouldn’t “make it to the season.” Fortunately, Boston’s No. 1 starter will pitch this year, though it’s going to take time for him to ramp up before he makes his 2020 debut. Rodriguez took an encouraging step Saturday when he came out of a 25-pitch bullpen session feeling fine.

  • Like Rodriguez, Angels righty Julio Teheran will miss the start of the season because of a positive COVID-19 test. Teheran began feeling sick in late June, but he explained (via Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) that he was more concerned about the illness affecting those around him. Teheran’s parents are at high risk of catching the virus, and two other members of his family – his wife and 4-year-old son – as well as their nanny tested positive. Teheran’s wife and son were asymptomatic, but he and the family nanny were not. All of them seem to be doing OK now, luckily. Teheran’s Angels debut will be delayed, but the former Brave informed DiGiovanna he’s only “about a week behind.”
  • Brewers slugger Ryan Braun is dealing with “nagging” back, oblique and neck issues, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays (Twitter links). It’s unclear whether those problems will jeopardize his Opening Day chances, but it’s worth noting that they have prevented Braun from playing in Summer Camp. Meanwhile, teammate and southpaw Eric Lauer will miss the start of the season “by a little bit,” manager Craig Counsell revealed. Lauer is behind schedule because he was exposed to someone with the coronavirus, but he is healthy. The 25-year-old was a key offseason pickup for Milwaukee, which landed him in a four-player trade with San Diego. Lauer tossed 149 2/3 innings of 4.45 ERA/4.23 FIP ball with 8.3 K/9 and 3.07 BB/9 a season ago.
  • It’s in question whether Rockies right-hander Scott Oberg will be available when their season starts Friday, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Oberg has battled a back strain, but he threw his first intrasquad game Sunday and indicated afterward he has made progress in the past week. Manager Bud Black is also encouraged, though he expects a decision on Oberg to “go down to the wire.” Considering Wade Davis’ recent struggles, Oberg looks like unquestionably the Rockies’ best reliever. The 30-year-old put up his second straight impressive season in 2019, logging a 2.25 ERA/3.54 FIP with 9.32 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 56 innings.
  • Rangers left-hander Brett Martin has been cleared for Summer Camp following a positive COVID test.  Manager Chris Woodward told MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan and other media members Sunday that Martin will still begin the season on the injured list since “he’s not there yet. So we’re going to keep monitoring him, have him throw bullpens and maybe some live [batting practices] to get him ready.”  Martin posted a 4.76 ERA, 3.44 K/BB rate, 53.8% grounder rate, and 8.95 K/9 over 62 1/3 innings in 2019, his debut season in the big leagues.
  • Right-handed pitching prospect Wil Crowe is at the Nationals’ minor league training camp after being in COVID quarantine for several weeks, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports (Twitter link).  The Nats’ second-round pick in the 2017 draft, Crowe is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the fourth-best prospect in Washington’s farm system.  Crowe has a 4.03 ERA, 2.41 K/BB rate, and 7.5 K/9 over 290 minor league innings, and while reached Triple-A last season, his 6.17 ERA over 54 Triple-A innings indicates that he might yet need some more seasoning before receiving a Major League promotion.  The Nationals did include Crowe on their initial 60-man player pool at the start of Summer Camp.

George Kontos Retires

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Longtime major league reliever George Kontos has hung up his cleats, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports. The 35-year-old Kontos hasn’t pitched since the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate released him last August, but he will stay in baseball as an analyst with NBC Sports Bay Area.

“I did have some inclinations from early on when I was a player in San Francisco that one day this might be the route that I would take,” Kontos told Pavlovic on the Giants Insider Podcast. “It’s definitely nice to be coming back to the black and orange and being around San Francisco again.”

The right-handed Kontos was a fifth-round pick of the Yankees in 2006, but the majority of his work as a big leaguer came as a member of the Giants. He notched quality results with the club from 2012-17 – a 309 2/3-inning span in which he logged a 3.05 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.06 BB/9. Kontos was also part of a pair of World Series-winning Giants teams.

Along with the Yankees (with whom he debuted in 2011 and spent time with again in 2018) and Giants, Kontos saw major league action with the Pirates and Indians. All told, he amassed 357 innings of 3.10 ERA ball in the bigs over parts of eight seasons. MLBTR congratulates Kontos on a successful career and wishes him the best in his new role.

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