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Rays To Promote Shane McClanahan

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The Rays are set to promote top pitching prospect Shane McClanahan to start Thursday’s game against the Athletics, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. It’s a nice birthday present for the 2018 No. 31 overall pick, who turns 24 today.

Shane McClanahan | Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

McClanahan technically already made his Major League debut, but it came during last year’s postseason. This will represent the left-hander’s first taste of big league action during the regular season. It’s not yet clear whether this will be a spot start or the beginning of a legitimate audition for a rotation job, but the Rays have thus far received shaky work from lefties Ryan Yarbrough and veteran Rich Hill. Right-hander Chris Archer, meanwhile, is on the injured list with a forearm injury.

McClanahan pitched just seven innings of Rookie ball after being drafted and didn’t pitch at all in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season. He was excellent in his only full minor league season, however, pitching to a 3.36 ERA with a huge 30.6 percent strikeout rate and a solid 8.9 percent walk rate through 120 2/3 innings across three levels (Class-A, Class-A Advanced and Double-A). He’s considered to be one of the game’s better all-around prospects, sitting 75th at MLB.com, 90th at Baseball America and 117th at FanGraphs.

Scouting reports on McClanahan all note that his future may ultimately lie in the bullpen, where he can lean on a triple-digit heater and a wipeout breaking ball to thrive as a two-pitch, late-inning weapon. But he’s also improved his control and added a still-developing changeup to his arsenal, and the Rays understandably will give him a chance to start before dropping into a relief role. MLB.com’s report suggests McClanahan could be a solid No. 3 starter if the changeup and control are there, while FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen believes he’ll eventually be a power reliever at the back of the Tampa Bay ’pen.

Whatever the outcome for McClanahan, most expect that he’ll be an important piece of the Rays’ pitching staff for the foreseeable future. He didn’t accrue any big league service for last year’s postseason play, and he’s now spent enough time at the alternate site that his path to free agency has been pushed back a year. Even if he’s in the Majors for good from this point forth, he’d be controllable all the way through the 2027 season. Due to the timing of his promotion, he’s currently on track to qualify as a Super Two player, which would make him arbitration-eligible four times, beginning in the 2023-24 offseason. Future optional assignments to the minors, of course, could impact both timelines.

Marlins To Place Jazz Chisholm On Injured List

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April 28: Chisholm will be placed on the 10-day injured list, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). The Marlins will recall fellow infielder Isan Diaz in his place. Diaz, who’ll turn 25 next month, is a former top prospect himself but has yet to find any sustained success in his limited big league action to date. Through 223 plate appearances, he’s batted just .174/.251/.294.

The Marlins have yet to provide any sort of timeline on Chisholm’s expected return, although manager Don Mattingly will surely touch on the subject prior this afternoon’s game against the Brewers.

April 27: Marlins second baseman Jazz Chisholm exited their game against the Brewers on Tuesday with a strained left hamstring, the team announced. The severity of the injury is unknown at this point.

Chisholm, originally acquired from the Diamondbacks for right-hander Zac Gallen in 2019, has emerged as one of baseball’s most electrifying players so far this season. The 23-year-old has already totaled 1.0 fWAR in 80 plate appearances, having slashed .290/.375/.551 with four home runs and a National League-leading seven stolen bases.

In the event Chisholm has to go on the injured list, it would further weaken a Marlins lineup that’s already missing a couple of other important contributors. Center fielder Starling Marte has been on the shelf since April 18 with a fractured rib, and his return isn’t imminent. Meanwhile, third baseman Brian Anderson and catcher Jorge Alfaro have been on the IL for a week apiece.

Jon Berti has racked up the most playing time at second for the Marlins behind Chisholm, but he has been filling in at third during Anderson’s absence. Miami replaced Chisholm on Tuesday with Jose Devers, a 21-year-old who had never played above High-A ball until the team recalled him last week.

Brewers Designate Phil Bickford For Assignment

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The Brewers have designated right-hander Phil Bickford for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Zack Godley, whose contract has been selected from the team’s alternate training site. Manager Craig Counsell indicated last night that Godley’s contract would be selected, and outfielder Corey Ray would be optioned, but the corresponding 40-man move was only revealed this morning.

Bickford, 25, was the No. 10 overall pick by the Blue Jays back in 2013. He opted to attend college rather than sign, but he was again a first-rounder once eligible, going to the Giants with the No. 18 overall selection. San Francisco traded Bickford and catching prospect to Milwaukee in exchange for lefty Will Smith back in 2016, but Bickford has yet to establish himself as a viable big league arm. He’s tossed just two innings in the Majors — one in 2020 and one in 2021 — allowing a total of six runs.

Bickford’s path to the big leagues hasn’t exactly been a straightforward one. He served a 50-game suspension after a second positive test for a drug of abuse in 2017. Upon returning, he was struck in the hand by a batted ball, fracturing both the pinkie and ring finger in his pitching hand, which required surgery to repair. Because of that suspension and surgery, Bickford totaled just 51 2/3 innings from 2017-18.

A return to the mound in a bullpen role in 2019 proved quite fruitful, when Bickford notched a 2.48 ERA and a whopping 41.1 percent strikeout rate in Class-A Advanced, but the lack of minor league games in 2020 and so far in 2021 hasn’t done any favors for his development. All in all, he sports a 2.98 ERA in 226 2/3 frames, but Bickford will also turn 26 this summer and hasn’t pitched above High-A with the exception of those two MLB innings.

The Brewers will have a week to trade Bickford or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Given his former pedigree, a solid minor league track record and a pair of minor league options remaining, it’s possible that another club will look at him as an intriguing project.

Indians Designate Oliver Perez For Assignment

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The Indians have designated veteran lefty Oliver Perez for assignment in order to open a roster spot for righty Nick Wittgren, who has been reinstated from the paternity list, manager Terry Francona announced to reporters this morning (Twitter link via Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal).

It’s a bit of a surprising move, as Perez has pitched well for Cleveland dating back to 2018 and has yet to surrender a run in 3 2/3 innings this season. Francona, however, acknowledged that he’s had a difficult time finding opportunities to deploy Perez — perhaps a nod to the three-batter minimum rule that was implemented in 2020 and is rather limiting for lefty relievers of Perez’s nature. Perez has faced just six lefties in 2021, as opposed to a dozen right-handed batters. He’s done just fine against those right-handers, but as with most lefty relievers, Perez has a rather substantial platoon split over the course of his career.

Career platoon splits notwithstanding, Perez has reinvented himself after washing out as a starting pitcher back in 2010. The 39-year-old has a 3.42 ERA in 350 relief innings dating back to 2012, and he’s been particularly effective in Cleveland after a lackluster two-year run in Washington from 2016-17. In 94 2/3 frames with the Indians, Perez has pitched to a 2.57 ERA (3.22 SIERA) with a strong 28.5 percent strikeout rate against a similarly impressive 6.8 percent walk rate. Lefties have posted a pitiful .203/.254/.297 line through 197 plate appearances against him in that time, but Perez has also held righties to a relatively tepid .220/.306/.341 slash through 186 plate appearances.

Given that recent track record and an affordable base salary of $1.25MM, it’s quite possible that Perez will draw interest from another club — be it via a minor trade or a waiver claim. Were he to go unclaimed on waivers, he’d be eligible to reject any outright assignment in favor of free agency. In that scenario, a new club would only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster, with Cleveland on the hook for the remainder of the contract.

Yankees Reducing Gary Sanchez’s Playing Time

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Gary Sanchez gave Yankees fans hope when he launched a pair of homers in the season’s first two games, but he’s batting just .146/.281/.167 in 57 plate appearances since that time and is currently mired in a 2-for-28 slump. In light of those struggles, Yankees skipper Aaron Boone acknowledged last night that Kyle Higashioka will see increased playing time at the expense of some of Sanchez’s starts (link via the New York Post’s Dan Martin).

Boone declined to name Higashioka the new starter and said decisions on who’ll start behind the plate will be made on a “day-by-day” basis, but he made clear that Higashioka has “earned more playing time.” Higashioka has already drawn the start in four of Gerrit Cole’s five appearances this season, so it seems fair to assume that pairing will continue. Corey Kluber also had his best start of the season last night with Higashioka behind the dish, so perhaps that’ll set the tone moving forward. There’s no concrete definition of how playing time will be divided up, but at the very least fans ought to expect closer to even timeshare for now. Boone noted that he’s already spoken to Sanchez about Higashioka receiving increased playing time.

Of course, while Sanchez’s struggles are likely the primary driver of this shift in playing time, it also has to be emphasized that Higashioka has put himself into position for an increased role. He’s out to a strong start in 2021, hitting .320/.414/.880 with four homers and a pair of doubles through 29 trips to the plate.

The power may seem like a sudden development for the 30-year-old Higashioka, but that’s really not the case. He hit .250/.250/.521 with four homers in 48 plate appearances last year, and back in 2019 his ISO (slugging minus batting average) of .250 highlighted plenty of pop as well. Since Opening Day 2020, Higashioka is slashing .274/.312/.644 in 77 plate appearances.

Higashioka’s batted-ball profile gives some optimism that this isn’t a total small-sample fluke, too. Statcast credits him with 10 barreled balls in those 77 PAs dating back to 2019 and 13 in 134 PAs dating back to 2020. He’s being credited with a barrel in 9.7 percent of his plate appearances dating back to ’19 and 12.9 percent since the start of the 2020 season; either would rank among the game’s very best over a full season. It’s unlikely that Higashioka is going to continue to make premium contact at quite such a high level, but those results certainly merit a larger opportunity — particularly when his counterpart is struggling to this extent.

From a defensive standpoint, Higashioka is the superior of the two and is generally regarded as a plus defensive option. He’s drawn strong framing marks and positive totals in Defensive Runs Saved each season since 2018 in a limited workload, though his career 20 percent caught-stealing rate is below the league average of around 27 percent. Sanchez, to his credit, is at a hefty 32 percent in that regard, but he’s more prone to passed balls and draws inferior framing ratings to Higashioka. Catching coordinator Tanner Swanson told reporters yesterday that Higashioka’s defensive skills are “elite.”

The shuffle in playing time only further shines a spotlight on what has been a mounting issue for the Yankees for years. Sanchez’s ceiling is obviously an All-Star caliber slugger, but he’s been maddeningly inconsistent — to the point that the Yankees mulled whether to trade him or even perhaps non-tender him this past offseason. They opted to tender him a contract and eventually agreed to a one-year deal that pays Sanchez $6.35MM for the 2021 season. He’d be arbitration-eligible for a third and final time this winter, but the early shuffle behind the dish seems like a portent for greater change down the road.

If Higashioka struggles with an increased workload or goes down to injury, Sanchez may yet be given another opportunity to snap out of his current swoon and recapture his 2019 form. But if Higashioka proves capable of handling a larger role and/or Sanchez continues to struggle, the questions about Sanchez’s future will only grow louder. At the very least, taking a closer look at Higashioka now gives the Yankees more information on how to address the catcher position moving forward. Higashioka is controlled through 2024 via arbitration. Sanchez is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2022 season.

Yankees Trade Mike Tauchman To Giants For Wandy Peralta

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The Yankees have traded outfielder Mike Tauchman to the Giants for left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta, Jack Curry of the YES Network reports. New York will also receive a player to be named later, the team announced.

This deal sends the 30-year-old Tauchman back to the National League West, where the former 10th-round pick played with the Rockies from 2017-18. Tauchman was unable to establish himself in Colorado, which traded him to the Yankees for lefty Phillip Diehl shortly before the 2019 season.

At first, the Tauchman pickup looked like a steal for the Yankees, as he appeared in 87 games as a reserve in his initial year with the team and slashed a terrific .277/.361/.504 with 13 home runs, six steals and 2.6 fWAR over 296 plate appearances. Tauchman blended that offensive performance with great work among all three outfield positions, combining for 19 Defensive Runs Saved in the grass.

While the 2019 version of Tauchman was a gem, his production and playing time have significantly dwindled since then. Tauchman did appear in 43 games and total 111 PA last season, but he failed to hit a homer, batted a below-average .242/.342/.305 and essentially broke even in the field with zero DRS and a minus-2.2 Ultimate Zone Rating. Meanwhile, fellow Yankees outfielders Aaron Judge, Clint Frazier, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner each recorded far superior production, which helped lead Tauchman to fall out of favor.

With Judge, Frazier, Hicks and Gardner returning, Tauchman became an afterthought for the Yankees this year. So far, he has picked up a meager 16 trips to the plate and batted .214/.267/.286 without a homer. Now, the out-of-options Tauchman will provide versatile depth in a Giants outfield that has used Mike Yastrzemski (though he’s currently dealing with a mild oblique issue), Austin Slater, Alex Dickerson, Mauricio Dubon and Darin Ruf, among others, this season. Tauchman won’t reach arbitration for the first time until the upcoming winter, so he could be a multiyear piece for the Giants if he performs to their liking this season.

Peralta, 29, started his career in 2016 with the Reds, who lost him on waivers to the Giants late in the 2019 campaign. Despite 95-96 mph fastball velocity and a career 50.4 percent groundball rate, Peralta has typically had trouble keeping runs off the board. Through 192 2/3 innings, including 8 1/3 this season, Peralta has recorded a 4.72 ERA/4.58 SIERA with unspectacular strikeout and walk percentages of 18.5 and 10.8, respectively.

Peralta still has a minor league option remaining, though he’ll only be eligible for arbitration one more time. For now, Peralta will give the New York organization a third southpaw relief option behind closer Aroldis Chapman and Lucas Luetge. The Yankees have had to go this season without key lefty setup man Zack Britton, who’s on the mend from arthroscopic elbow surgery and probably won’t return until the summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Brewers To Select Zack Godley

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The Brewers will select right-hander Zack Godley’s contract prior to their game against the Marlins on Wednesday, manager Craig Counsell told Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters. Godley is not on the Brewers’ 40-man roster, which is full, so they will have to clear a spot before he makes the start in Miami.

Godley, whom the Brewers signed to a minor league contract last month, will earn at an $800K rate now that he’s back in the majors. The 31-year-old will also temporarily take over in the Brewers’ rotation for left-hander Brett Anderson, who’s on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring.

Godley brings a fair amount of experience in teams’ rotations, having started in 88 of 136 appearances since he debuted with the Diamondbacks in 2015. He put together impressive numbers during his best season, 2017, when he threw 155 innings of 3.37 ERA/3.67 SIERA ball with a 55.3 percent groundball rate. Godley has not approached that type of success since then, however, and is now coming off an especially difficult two-year stretch divided among the D-backs, Blue Jays and Red Sox.

Last season in Boston, opposing offenses lit up Godley for 42 hits and nine home runs in 28 2/3 innings, which helped lead to a career-worst 8.16 ERA. Godley, who averaged just under 90 mph on his fastball, also registered a personal-low grounder rate (40.8) and a below-average strikeout percentage (19.6).

Injury Notes: Jays, Fried, Astros, Freeland

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A few health updates from around the game…

  • Center fielder George Springer’s Blue Jays debut is on hold yet again. As of Sunday, manager Charlie Montoyo was optimistic Springer would debut tonight, but that wasn’t the case. Springer is “not ready yet,” Montoyo said (Twitter links via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet), though he did take batting practice and run the bases on Tuesday. Montoyo added that “[Springer] feels great except the running.” The former Astro has been trying to work back since suffering a right quad strain three weeks ago. In better news for the Blue Jays, ace Hyun Jin Ryu is recovering well from the right glute strain he incurred Sunday and shouldn’t miss a start, Nicholson-Smith relays.
  • The Braves are “likely” to activate left-hander Max Fried from the 10-day injured list next Tuesday or Wednesday, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. If true, it’ll go down as roughly a three-week stay on the IL for Fried, who suffered a right hamstring strain during his most recent start on April 13. Once he returns, the 2020 NL Cy Young contender will try to rebound from a ghastly three-start, 11-inning stretch in which hitters victimized him for 15 runs (14 earned) on 23 hits and five walks.
  • Tuesday brought some positive and negative health-related developments for the Astros’ pitching staff. The good news: Southpaw Framber Valdez is making tremendous progress from a left ring finger injury and could rejoin their rotation sometime in June, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic relays. Valdez turned in a stellar performance in 2020, but he hasn’t gotten a chance to follow up on it this year. As for the bad news, righty reliever Pedro Baez has halted his throwing program on account of lingering shoulder soreness. The Astros transferred Baez from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL on Monday, meaning he won’t make his first appearance with the club until June 9 at the earliest. Houston signed the former Dodger to a two-year, $12.5MM guarantee over the winter.
  • Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland said Tuesday that he will “absolutely” pitch in the majors this season, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter links). Freeland, a little over a month removed from suffering a strained pitching shoulder, had an “outstanding” bullpen session on Tuesday and could throw a sim game next week, according to manager Bud Black. However, there’s still no clear timetable for a potential 2021 debut for Freeland, who finished third on the Rockies in innings (70 2/3) and recorded a 4.33 ERA/4.95 SIERA with a 51.5 percent groundball rate last season.

COVID Notes: 4/27/21

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Tuesday’s coronavirus-related updates from around the majors:

  • Twins outfielders Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick have cleared Major League Baseball’s COVID-19 protocols and could return by the end of the week, manager Rocco Baldelli announced (via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Both Kepler and Garlick tested positive for COVID, leading the Twins to place them on the injured list last Tuesday. Neither player has appeared in a game since April 16. Before going on the shelf, Kepler began a disappointing .234/.315/.362 with no home runs in 54 plate appearances. Garlick has also gone without a homer, but he has still hit a passable .280/.321/.400 over 28 PA.

Jerry Blevins Announces Retirement

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Veteran reliever Jerry Blevins has retired from baseball, he announced Tuesday on Twitter (click here to read his statement). The left-hander had been with the Mets on a minor league contract.

Now 37 years old, Blevins entered the pros as a 17th-round pick of the Cubs in 2004. He never pitched for the Cubs, however, as they traded him to the Athletics as part of a deal for catcher Jason Kendall in 2007. Blevins debuted in the majors that year, which began a fairly long run in Oakland. He stuck with the A’s through 2013 and notched ERAs ranging from 2.48 to 3.70 in four different seasons as a member of the club.

Despite his solid production in an A’s uniform, they moved on from him heading into 2014, sending Blevins to the Nationals for outfielder Billy Burns. That proved to be the lone season in Washington for Blevins, whom the Nationals traded to the Mets for outfielder Matt den Dekker before the 2015 campaign.

Blevins missed almost all of his first season as a Met because of a fractured pitching arm, but he returned to deliver outstanding results over the next two years. In a 91-inning span from 2016-17, Blevins put up a 2.87 ERA with a 30.6 percent strikeout rate and a 9.9 percent walk rate. However, Blevins couldn’t replicate that success in 2018 – his last year with the Mets – and then reunited with the A’s on a minor league deal in the ensuing offseason. Oakland wound up trading Blevins to Atlanta before the 2019 season, which will go down as his final year in the majors. Although Blevins threw 32 1/3 frames of 3.90 ERA ball that season, he couldn’t make it back to the bigs on a minors deal with the Giants in 2020 or with the Mets this season.

In all, Blevins appeared in parts of 13 MLB seasons and posted a 3.54 ERA with 508 strikeouts in 495 1/3 innings. Blevins was especially tough on lefties, whom he held to a weak .213/.270/.313 line. MLBTR congratulates Blevins on a very solid career and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.

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