Hector Rondon Retires
Longtime major league reliever Hector Rondon retired earlier this month, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com relays. Rondon had been with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, though he didn’t earn a promotion to MLB this season.
The right-handed Rondon appeared in the majors in each season from 2013-20 – an eight-year run he divided among the Cubs, Astros and Diamondbacks. Rondon experienced his greatest success in Chicago, which added him as a Rule 5 pick from Cleveland in December 2012. Rondon went on to pitch his first five seasons as a member of the Cubs, with whom he recorded a 3.22 ERA, posted a 24.9 percent strikeout rate against a 6.8 percent walk rate, logged a grounder percentage of 48.0, and piled up 77 saves. He amassed 50-plus innings in each of his seasons with the Cubs, including 51 in their World Series-winning 2016 campaign.
Rondon’s fruitful Cubs tenure came to an end when the Astros signed him to a two-year, $8.5MM guarantee going into 2018. He delivered typically strong results during the first year of the deal before fading somewhat in the second season. The Astros didn’t bring back Rondon, who inked a $3MM deal with the Diamondbacks last year. After Rondon slumped to a career-worst 7.65 ERA across 20 innings in 2020, the Diamondbacks declined his $4MM option in favor of a $500K buyout. He spent time with the Phillies on a minors deal before his brief stint with the Boston organization.
While Rondon’s career didn’t end well, the 33-year-old was a reliable and durable arm overall. He’ll hang up his cleats having pitched to a 3.49 ERA with 92 saves and 63 holds in 436 innings. MLBTR congratulates Rendon on a quality career and wishes him the best going forward.
Cardinals Place Yadier Molina On 10-Day IL
The Cardinals have placed catcher Yadier Molina on the 10-day injured list with a right foot tendon strain, Zachary Silver of MLB.com tweets. The team recalled catcher Ali Sanchez in a corresponding move.
Molina suffered the injury last Friday against the Reds, forcing him to leave early and miss the Cardinals’ games over the weekend. However, he did return to their lineup Monday in Philadelphia.
The Cardinals’ offense ranks a middle-of-the-pack 14th in runs scored and a less-than-stellar 23rd in wRC+, though Molina has certainly done his part. Re-signed to a one-year, $9MM contract in the offseason, the career-long Card has batted an excellent .323/.366/.631 with five home runs in 71 plate appearances. Behind the plate, the nine-time Gold Glove winner has thrown out an above-average 29 percent of would-be base thieves.
With Molina landing on the shelf, Andrew Knizner will handle the primary catching duties during a grueling stretch in which St. Louis will play 13 games in 13 days. Knizner has totaled 21 PA this year and hit a respectable .263/.333/.368.
White Sox To Place Luis Robert On IL
The White Sox are placing center fielder Luis Robert on the injured list with flu-like symptoms, general manager Rick Hahn told James Fegan of The Athletic and other reporters. Robert will undergo further testing to determine how much time he’ll miss. The team is recalling right-hander Alex McRae to take Robert’s roster spot.
Robert burst on the scene in 2020 as an American League Rookie of the Year candidate and a Gold Glove winner, and he got off to a nice start this season before this illness cropped up. The 23-year-old has slashed .305/.356/.463 with a home run and four steals in 90 plate appearances, and has cut his strikeout rate by almost 7 percent since last season.
Robert will be a difficult player for the White Sox to go without, considering he has started all 21 of their games in center this year. The White Sox will start Leury Garcia there on Tuesday against the Tigers, and they also recalled Luis Gonzalez for depth purposes.
Giants Outright Trevor Gott
Giants right-hander Trevor Gott has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the team’s alternate site, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group tweets. Gott had been in limbo since the Giants designated him for assignment last Tuesday.
This is the second time since February the Giants have outrighted Gott, whom they relied on somewhat heavily as recently as 2019. That season, his first as a Giant, Gott threw 52 2/3 innings of 4.44 ERA/3.73 SIERA ball with a 26.6 percent strikeout rate and a 7.9 percent walk rate.
Gott was unable to build on his 2019 success last season, when he dealt with elbow troubles and tossed just 11 2/3 frames. While the 28-year-old did average an imposing 95.5 mph on his fastball, opposing offenses still smacked him around for 13 earned runs on 13 hits (including seven homers) and eight walks.
Royals Sign Mike Shawaryn To Minor League Deal
The Royals have signed right-hander Mike Shawaryn to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. He’ll presumably head to Triple-A once their season begins next week.
Shawaryn, 26, ranked among the top prospects in the Red Sox’ system from 2017-19 but was hit hard when he finally cracked the big leagues in ’19. Through 20 1/3 frames, he was tagged for 22 runs on the strength of 26 hits (five homers), 13 walks and five hit batsmen. Shawaryn did strike out 29 of the 103 batters he faced (28.2 percent), but the control problems and susceptibility to home runs were an obvious concern.
Shawaryn didn’t pitch in the big leagues last season, but he spent most of the year as part of the Red Sox’ 60-man player pool at their alternate training site. Boston designated Shawaryn for assignment in late August, however, and removed him from the player pool after outrighting him. He was cut loose by the Sox over the weekend, per his transaction log at MLB.com.
Prior to that rough big league debut, Shawaryn had a mostly solid track record in the minors. He’d pitched to a mid-3.00s ERA at Class-A, Class-A Advanced and Double-A, and while he was hit harder in Triple-A, the results were still respectable, particularly given the offensive explosion at that level in ’19. All in all, he has a 3.79 ERA, a 24.5 percent strikeout rate and an 8.7 percent walk rate in 389 1/3 minor league innings. In their 2019 scouting report, Baseball America called Shawaryn a “physical strike-thrower” who could become a “solid medium-leverage reliever” or a back-of-the-rotation starter depending on the development of his changeup.
Mariners Claim Jack Mayfield
The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder Jack Mayfield off waivers from the Angels and optioned him to their alternate site. Shed Long was transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding roster move.
The slick-fielding Mayfield now joins his third American League West club. He was signed and developed by the Astros but found his way to the Angels via some offseason waiver maneuverings — briefly stopping in Atlanta but not making it to a Spring Training game before being waived a second time. He’ll give the Mariners some extra infield depth, which is needed in part due to Long’s lingering injury.
Mayfield, 30, appeared in a pair of games with the Angels but was hitless in three trips to the plate. He’s a career .165/.193/.275 hitter in the Majors, but that unsightly batting line comes in a sample of just 115 plate appearances, so it’s hard to glean too much from it. Mayfield carries a much more palatable .268/.325/.475 output in parts of four Triple-A seasons, and he’s regarded as a solid defender who can handle shortstop, second base or third base as needed. He still has a minor league option remaining beyond this year, so he can be an up-and-down depth option for the Seattle infield if he performs well enough to stick on the 40-man roster.
Phillies Plan To Move Spencer Howard Into Rotation
The Phillies optioned righty Spencer Howard to their alternate site this week, but it’s not the demotion it might appear to be upon first glance. Rather, they’ll get him stretched out to work as a starter over the next few weeks with an eye toward adding him to the rotation next month, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
It’s a quick change in direction for a Phillies club that had previously planned to keep Howard, the organization’s top pitching prospect, in a bullpen role for the 2021 season. President of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski plainly said as much prior to the season, but as Breen highlights, the team’s fourth and fifth spots in the rotation have yielded dreadful results.
Lefty Matt Moore, signed to a one-year deal on the back of a solid showing in Japan last year, has yet to give the Phillies a competitive start. He’s been tagged for a dozen earned runs on 17 hits with an ugly 12-to-9 K/BB ratio through 11 innings of work. Righty Chase Anderson was mostly solid during his first three starts, yielding two runs apiece, but those starts lasted just five, four and four innings, respectively. He was clobbered for six runs in 3 2/3 innings in his most recent turn (albeit at Coors Field). Vince Velasquez has made only one start, lasting four innings, and hasn’t fared especially well in relief.
Fortunately for the Phillies, the top three starters in their rotation have each been excellent. Ace Aaron Nola is sitting on a 2.84 ERA through 31 2/3 innings and recently hurled a shutout in which he punched out 10 Cardinals. Zack Wheeler‘s strikeouts are back after a 2020 hiatus, and he’s sporting a 3.13 ERA through an identical 31 2/3 inning workload. Zach Eflin leads Philadelphia starters with a 2.77 ERA and a brilliant 19-to-2 K/BB ratio in 26 innings.
Ideally, Howard will get stretched out and turn that strong trio into a formidable quartet. The 2017 second-rounder has ranked among the game’s Top 50 prospects for the past two seasons, according to each of Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com. He hasn’t exactly thrived in the Majors to this point (6.28 ERA, 4.44 SIERA), but he’s only tallied 28 1/3 MLB innings and is still just 24 years of age. We don’t have 2020 minor league numbers to look at for obvious reasons, but back in ’19, Howard tallied 71 innings across four levels and logged a combined 2.03 ERA with a brilliant 34.8 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 5.9 percent walk rate.
Of course, the Phillies’ initial reason for wanting to use Howard in the ‘pen was to limit his 2021 workload after he battled shoulder troubles in both 2019 and 2020. He’s not going to be plugged into the rotation and given the go-ahead to toss six or seven innings every fifth day through season’s end. Breen suggests the righty could be tasked with working the first four or perhaps five innings of a game every fifth day. Perhaps both he and Anderson — if Anderson can continue working in mostly solid four- or five-inning blocks — could then round out the starting staff, with the Phils leaning more heavily on the ‘pen on those days.
The Phillies have one of the game’s bottom 10 farm systems by most rankings (including BA and MLB.com), so it’s not a huge surprise that they’re lacking in upper-level alternatives to plug into the rotation. Left-hander Bailey Falter and righty Adonis Medina give them a pair of candidates, and both have already very briefly cracked the big leagues.
The Phils will surely have some other internal arms pop up, and they have some depth pieces like Bryan Mitchell and Enyel De Los Santos slated to begin the year in Triple-A. They were also among the teams to watch Anibal Sanchez’s workout last Friday. Still, if they continue to hover around .500 and remain in the playoff hunt, it’s easy to envision Dombrowski hitting the summer trade market in search of some arms to augment his starting staff.
Yonder Alonso Joins MLB Network
Recently retired slugger Yonder Alonso has joined the MLB Network as an on-air analyst, the network announced in a Tuesday press release. He’ll debut as a guest co-host on Intentional Talk this Friday.
“I am beyond thankful to be joining MLB Network’s team, and I can’t thank everybody enough that has helped me get to this point,” Alonso said in today’s press release. “Having just retired, I look forward to having fun and contributing new insights about the game to baseball fans all over the world.”
The 34-year-old Alonso announced his retirement back in November after a 10-year big league career split between the Padres, Athletics, Reds, Rockies, Indians, Mariners and White Sox. The No. 7 overall pick in the 2008 draft, Alonso finished sixth in Rookie of the Year voting with the Padres in 2012 and was an All-Star with the 2017 A’s. He finished up his playing days with a career .259/.332/.404 batting line and an even 100 home runs.
Blue Jays Sign Christian Colon
The Blue Jays have signed veteran infielder Christian Colon, per an announcement from the Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association — the team for which Colon had been slated to begin his 2021 season. Presumably, it’s a minor league pact for Colon, giving the Jays some additional infield depth with the expected start of the Triple-A season looming in early May.
“We as an organization are extremely happy that Christian Colon is getting this opportunity with the Toronto Blue Jays,” said Monarchs manager Joe Calfapietra in a statement announcing the news. “We are very excited for the possibilities of Christian playing again in Kansas City but even more excited that he is getting this chance. We all wish him the very best.”
Now 31 years old (32 in May), Colon was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2010 draft and a member of the Royals’ 2014-15 World Series rosters. Colon had only one at-bat during that victorious 2015 World Series, but to call it a big one would be an understatement; he delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead single during the 12th inning of the decisive Game 5.
Overall, Colon’s time with the Royals didn’t align with the expectations that naturally come with such a lofty draft status. He spent parts of four years in the Majors with Kansas City, batting .269/.323/.329 in 348 plate appearances while playing multiple infield positions. He’s since bounced to the Marlins, Braves, Mets and Reds organizations, though of that quartet, he only appeared in the big leagues with Miami and Cincinnati. Most recently, he appeared in 19 games for the Reds from 2019-20, going 6-for-29 with a double, a stolen base, a walk and three strikeouts.
Colon is a career .249/.312/.310 hitter in 418 Major League plate appearances and a .292/.361/.408 batter in parts of eight seasons at the Triple-A level (2415 plate appearances). He’s spent the bulk of his career in the middle infield, with more than 3000 pro innings at both shortstop and second base. Colon also has more than 1600 innings of work at third base under his belt in addition to a handful of appearances at first base and in left field.
Jeff Bridich Steps Down As Rockies General Manager
In a statement released by the Rockies, the team and executive vice-president/general manager Jeff Bridich “have mutually agreed” that Bridich will step down from his duties with the club. The Rockies will appoint an interim GM for the remainder of the 2021 campaign and then look for a full-time general manager after the season.
The baseball operations department is now under the purview of Greg Feasel, who has now been promoted to the role of team president as well as chief operating officer. Feasel was already COO and an executive VP since the 2010 season, and he has been a member of the organization for 26 seasons.
The news comes as the Rockies are off to an 8-13 start, and are widely seen as heading towards their third straight losing season. A front office shakeup in late April makes for unusual timing, yet it could allow time for Feasel and the interim GM to alter the franchise’s direction as it heads towards the July trade deadline. Assuming owner Dick Monfort signs off on the decisions, impending free agents like Trevor Story and Jon Gray could now be prime trade candidates, to say nothing of Charlie Blackmon, German Marquez, or really just about anyone if the Rockies decide that a rebuild is necessary.
Bridich has been a fixture in Denver since 2004, working his way up from his initial job as the Rockies’ manager of minor league operations to senior director roles in baseball operations and player development before being named GM following the 2014 season. That move also came on the heels of a somewhat surprising resignation, as former GM Dan O’Dowd and senior VP of major league operations Bill Geivett both stepped down, and the Rockies seemingly didn’t perform much (if any) of a candidate search before promoting from within.
Still, a shakeup seemed necessary at the time given how the Rox were coming off four consecutive losing seasons, and Bridich began the heavy lifting of a rebuild by moving longtime shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays as part of a blockbuster deal at the 2015 trade deadline. However, it didn’t take long for Bridich to turn the Rockies into a winner, as the team reached the postseason in both 2017 and 2018 by winning wild card berths. Colorado lost the 2017 wild card game to the Diamondbacks, but defeated the Cubs in 2018 to advance to the NLDS before being swept by the Brewers.
This ended up being the high point for Bridich, as the 2018 Rockies succeeded despite some ill-fated transactions that ended up being some of the most notable misfires of Bridich’s tenure. It was Ian Desmond‘s second season of a five-year, $70MM free agent deal that surprised many at the time of the signing, both because the Rox gave up the 11th overall pick of the 2017 draft as a compensatory pick (under the old qualifying offer system) to land Desmond, and because they were going to deploy him as a first baseman. Desmond simply didn’t produce during the 2017-19 seasons, and he chose to opt out of playing in both 2020 and this season.
The 2017-18 offseason saw Bridich’s front office spend $106MM on three free agent relievers in Wade Davis, Jake McGee, and Bryan Shaw, none of whom succeeded in bolstering the bullpen. Daniel Murphy‘s two-year, $24MM deal in the 2018-19 offseason also backfired on the Rockies, especially since Murphy struggled and the player he effectively replaced (DJ LeMahieu) went on to become an MVP candidate after leaving Colorado to sign with the Yankees.
This focus on free agent moves was due in part because Bridich didn’t swing many trades, and yet ironically, his time with the team will largely be remembered for both the Tulowitzki swap near the beginning of his GM tenure, and the Nolan Arenado trade that came near the end.
Arenado signed a hefty contract extension prior to the 2019 season, guaranteeing the star third baseman $234MM in new money over seven additional seasons and seemingly locking him up as the Rockies’ signature star. However, the team’s struggles in 2019 almost immediately soured the relationship between not just Arenado and the team, but Arenado and Bridich specifically. The “disrespect” that Arenado said he felt immediately sparked speculation that a trade was inevitable, and after much speculation, Arenado was dealt to the Cardinals this winter. Left with relatively little leverage thanks to both Arenado’s no-trade clause and his ability to opt out of the contract following the 2021 season, the Rockies ended up sending $51MM to St. Louis to help cover Arenado’s remaining salary, while receiving an unspectacular trade package of Austin Gomber and three non-elite prospects.
Beyond these public controversies, there were also plenty of issues behind the scenes, as illustrated by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke in a wide-ranging piece published in March. Rosenthal and Groke dove deeper into Bridich’s conflict with Arenado, the Rockies’ lack of investment in an analytics department, the failed free agent signings, and some criticisms of Bridich’s personality and demeanor from some players and former employees, specifically in regards to his communication (or lack thereof) with the team and the rest of the front office.
Beyond Bridich, however, several criticisms were also directed at Monfort, described by one source as someone who “likes the limelight, likes being in the middle of it all.” If Monfort continues taking such an active role in Colorado’s baseball operations, it remains to be seen how a change in general manager might improve things in the Mile High City. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, assistant GM Zack Rosenthal and scouting director Bill Schmidt are two early candidates for the interim GM role. It isn’t surprising that the Rockies would look to a familiar face for an interim job, though it doesn’t help shake the perception that the organization is very insular.
Feasel’s new role could be a step in a new direction, however, even though Feasel is himself a longtime Rockies employee. This is the first time the club has has an official team president since former president Keli McGregor passed away in 2010, and Rosenthal/Groke noted that Monfort more or less stepped into the president role. Feasel comes from a business background rather than a baseball background, and it is possible he could return to focusing on the team’s business operations after the season if the Rockies were to hire a new president of baseball ops to specifically handle the on-field product. A new voice from outside the organization might be necessary to get the Rockies back on track.