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Archives for May 2021

Astros Notes: Minor Leaguers, Valdez, Urquidy

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The Astros are providing fully furnished apartments to all of their minor leaguers across all levels for the 2021 season, reports Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic. Housing for minor leaguers has been complicated due to Covid-19 regulations, as host families are not allowed this season and there are restrictions on how many players can live in a given apartment. Minor league salaries are generally scant enough that it’s common for several teammates to crowd into a one- or two-bedroom apartment in order to save on rent and cover other basic expenses. It’s a commitment we’ve not previously seen an organization make for its minor league talent, most of whom receive much smaller bonuses than the six- or even seven-figure numbers that frequent the top end of each summer’s draft. It’s not known whether this will be a permanent commitment from the ’Stros, nor is it clear whether other organizations might adopt a similar approach now or in the future.

More on the Astros…

  • Southpaw Framber Valdez got through a 25-pitch bullpen session unscathed on Friday and will start a Triple-A rehab assignment on Sunday, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com was among those to report. Valdez will throw three innings in that game. Expectations are that he’ll rejoin the Astros’ rotation in June, which Valdez called a “miracle.” After all, there was fear back in the spring that Valdez’s broken left ring finger would require surgery and prevent him from pitching this year. “It was a bad injury, a break to the finger,” said Valdez, who was able to avoid going under the knife. When the 27-year-old does come back, he’ll work to build on an impressive 2020 in which he turned in 70 2/3 innings of 3.57 ERA/3.23 SIERA ball with great strikeout (26.4), walk (5.6) and groundball (60.0) percentages.
  • Right-hander Jose Urquidy exited his start on Wednesday against the Angels in the fourth inning with shoulder discomfort, and it’s possible the issue will shelve him for a bit. Manager Dusty Baker told Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and other reporters Friday that an MRI on Urquidy’s shoulder didn’t “show anything significant,” but said today (to FOX 26’s Mark Berman and others) that Urquidy will miss his next scheduled start on Tuesday.  Urquidy shut out the Angels over 3 2/3 innings, continuing a nice start to 2021 for the 26-year-old. He has totaled 44 2/3 frames across eight starts and recorded a 3.22 ERA (with a less shiny 4.56 SIERA) and an 18.6 percent strikeout rate against a terrific 5.1 percent walk rate.

Brewers Select Hoby Milner, Option Eric Lauer

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The Brewers have selected the contract of left-hander Hoby Milner, the team announced.  Milner will take the place of Eric Lauer on the active roster, as Lauer was optioned to Triple-A.

The move could essentially just be a way for Milwaukee to get a fresh arm in the bullpen, as Lauer threw 55 pitches over three innings in yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the Braves.  Lauer’s future also won’t be in the bullpen, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy notes that the team plans to stretch Lauer out as a starter since the Brew Crew will be adopting a six-man rotation for the upcoming stretch of the schedule.

Lauer has already made two starts for Milwaukee this season, to go along with two relief appearances.  The southpaw has a very solid 2.81 ERA/3.23 SIERA over 16 innings this season, as well as an above-average 24.6% strikeout rate and an outstanding 3.1% walk rate.  On the down side, Lauer has allowed five home runs over those 16 innings.

Milner signed a minors contract with the Brewers last winter and now looks to get some action in his fifth MLB season.  The lefty has a 4.53 ERA over 55 2/3 career innings with the Phillies, Rays, and Angels, with most of that experience coming in the form of 31 1/3 frames for Philadelphia in his 2017 rookie season.  Milner has struggled since that first year, despite doing a good job of limiting hard contact.

Rangers Select Hunter Wood, Designate Jack Kruger

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The Rangers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Hunter Wood and designated catcher Jack Kruger for assignment. They also optioned lefty Wes Benjamin to Triple-A Round Rock.

Wood is now in line for his first major league action since 2019. The Rangers signed Wood to a minor league contract last offseason after he spent 2020 with the Cleveland organization, though he didn’t appear in the bigs. The 27-year-old has pitched to a solid 3.32 ERA/4.22 SIERA with a 21.6 percent strikeout rate and an 8.0 percent walk rate in 86 2/3 innings between the Rays and Indians.

Kruger joined the Rangers as a waiver claim from the Angels on May 9, but he’s back in limbo in less than a week. He didn’t even take an at-bat with the Rangers before they designated him. As a minor leaguer, the 26-year-old has topped out in Double-A ball, where he has hit .262/.309/.354 in 560 plate appearances.

East Notes: Means, Mets, Yankees, Strasburg

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The Mets made an attempt to acquire left-hander John Means from the Orioles during the offseason, but Baltimore rebuffed New York, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The Mets surely weren’t alone in trying to acquire Means, who’s making a minimal salary this year and still has three years of arbitration control remaining. Means proved himself as a capable mid- to back-of-the-rotation starter from 2019-20, but he has taken his game to an entirely different level this season. The 28-year-old has pitched to a microscopic 1.21 ERA with impressive strikeout and walk percentages of 28.0 and 5.3, respectively, over 52 innings. This has been a May to remember for Means, who no-hit the Mariners on the 5th and then tossed six scoreless innings against the team that wanted him, the Mets, this past Tuesday.

Here’s more on the Mets and a couple other East Coast clubs:

  • The Yankees announced Friday that designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton is dealing with tightness in his left quad. The issue sidelined Stanton on Friday, and he’s now “day to day, hopefully nothing more than that,” manager Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com and other reporters. Stanton endured a pair of injury-ruined seasons from 2019-20, in which he played in 41 of a possible 222 games, but has mostly stayed healthy this year. The 31-year-old slugger has been in excellent form with a .282/.347/.534 line and nine home runs in 144 plate appearances.
  • Sticking with the Yankees, right-hander Luis Severino is at the “start of spring training mode” as he works his way back from February 2020 Tommy John surgery, Boone said Friday (via Marly Rivera of ESPN). Severino threw 23 pitches of live batting practice Friday and averaged between 96 and 97 mph. The 27-year-old was one of the game’s elite starters from 2017-18, leading the Yankees to sign him to a four-year, $40MM extension, though he totaled only 12 innings in 2019 as a result of shoulder problems and hasn’t pitched since. To its credit, New York’s rotation has done well this year without Severino; nevertheless, the team will surely be glad to welcome him back if he’s healthy.
  • Nationals righty Stephen Strasburg will make a Triple-A rehab start on Sunday, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com tweets. Manager Dave Martinez said the hope is that Strasburg will go five innings and throw 75 to 80 pitches. Washington has barely gotten anything in 2021 from Strasburg, who’s in the second season of a seven-year, $245MM contract, as a result of shoulder inflammation. This is the second straight injury-limited year for the former World Series MVP, who has totaled just 15 innings since 2020.
  • Mets third baseman J.D. Davis and reliever Seth Lugo will soon begin rehab assignments at the Triple-A level, Bill Ladson of MLB.com writes. While the Mets hoped Davis would exit the 10-day injured list Saturday, he’s still not ready to come back since suffering a left hand sprain on May 1. The club has gone all season without Lugo, who underwent surgery to remove a bone spur in his right elbow in February. Lugo started in seven of 16 appearances last season, but he’ll return to a relief role when he rejoins the Mets, per manager Luis Rojas.

Cubs Activate Ian Happ, Designate Ildemaro Vargas

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The Cubs have activated outfielder Ian Happ from the 10-day injured list and designated infielder Ildemaro Vargas for assignment, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets.

Happ is returning after spending the minimum amount of time on the IL with a rib contusion. Before that, Happ got off to an uncharacteristically slow start with the bat, evidenced by a .167/.307/.250 line with two home runs in 109 plate appearances. Happ’s strikeout, groundball and fly ball rates have all trended in the wrong direction, which helps explain his poor production, though he has dealt with some bad fortune. The 26-year-old’s .245 batting average on balls in play is easily a career low, and he’s well above average in such Statcast categories as hard-hit percentage and average exit velocity.

This is the second time since the end of March that the Cubs have designated Vargas, who has appeared in nine of their games and taken 24 trips to the plate this season. The 29-year-old has batted .143/.250/.238 with no home runs.

Twins To Place Jake Cave On 60-Day IL, Select Rob Refsnyder

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The Twins will place outfielder Jake Cave on the 60-day injured list with a fracture in his back and select the contract of infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder, Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

The 60-day placement means Cave won’t return until at least the middle of July, which is a blow to the Twins’ outfield depth. Cave has played all three outfield positions this year and has totaled the team’s second-most appearances in center field after starter Byron Buxton, who is on the injured list with a strained hip. Fellow outfielder Alex Kirilloff, meanwhile, has been out of commission for almost all of May with a sprained wrist, and Kyle Garlick is playing through a groin injury.

While Cave has offered defensive flexibility, his offensive production has left much to be desired dating back to last season. He was a valuable offensive contributor for the Twins from 2018-19, during which he combined for a .262/.329/.466 line with 21 home runs in 537 plate appearances. But Cave had trouble at the plate last year and has put up a career-worst .167/.239/.262 line with one long ball and 35 strikeouts in 93 PA this season.

Cave’s injury will lead to another major league opportunity for the 30-year-old Refsnyder, whom the Twins signed a minor league contract in the offseason after he appeared in 15 games with the Rangers in 2020. Refsnyder has only hit .217/.305/.297 with four home runs in 457 major league PA.

Latest On Albert Pujols

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11:38am: Heyman now reports that there’s not “much traction” on a potential Cardinals-Pujols reunion.

10:01am: Legendary slugger Albert Pujols became a free agent Thursday, one week after the Angels designated him for assignment, and the first baseman is now garnering interest from a few teams. Three to four clubs are in on Pujols, Robert Murray of FanSided reports. St. Louis is part of that group, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Katie Woo of The Athletic tweeted Friday that the team has “had limited internal conversations” about a possible deal for Pujols. However, Woo added that the Cardinals had yet to contact Pujols’ camp.

While Woo suggests the Cardinals are unlikely to add Pujols, doing so would make for a compelling story. Pujols, of course, spent the first 11 seasons of his career (2001-11) in St. Louis, where he became a franchise icon and helped the team to a pair of World Series championships. On an individual level, Pujols earned nine All-Star nods, won three National League Most Valuable Player Awards and the NL Rookie of the Year, among many other accolades.

Pujols’ fruitful run with the Cardinals ended heading into the 2012 campaign, when he inked a 10-year, $254MM contract with the Angels. It was the second-largest deal in baseball history at the time, though the Angels didn’t get enough bang for their buck after taking the risk. Pujols’ production declined significantly with the Halos, and dating back to 2017, he ranks second to last among 2,278 qualified position players in fWAR (minus-3.3). During that 1,934-plate appearance span, the 41-year-old has also notched a meager 84 wRC+, which is a far cry from his exemplary lifetime mark (142).

In terms of bottom-line production, this season has been more of the same for Pujols, owner of a .198/.250/.372 line (74 wRC+) with five home runs in 92 trips to the plate. But Pujols has at least shown some encouraging signs, including a typically low strikeout rate (14.1 percent) and his highest average exit velocity since 2016 (90.5 mph). Pujols is also sporting a career-worst .176 batting average on balls in play, though that’s not necessarily shocking for someone devoid of speed. Still, if that number increases and his .270 weighted on-base average moves closer to his .347 expected wOBA, Pujols could perhaps serve as a useful bat/veteran leader for a club willing to take a chance on someone with 667 home runs on his resume.

Mets Select Jake Hager, Designate Trevor Hildenberger

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The Mets have selected the contract of infielder Jake Hager and designated right-handed reliever Trevor Hildenberger for assignment, according to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. The team also optioned outfielder Khalil Lee to Triple-A Syracuse.

Hager was the 32nd overall pick of the Rays back in 2011, but he hasn’t played in the majors to this point. The 28-year-old has seen action in Triple-A ball in five seasons, including this one, and batted .243/.291/.373 with 22 home runs in 1,112 plate appearances at that level. He got off to a sizzling start in the minors this year en route to a promotion, slashing .405/.436/.703 with three home runs in 39 PA as a member of the Syracuse club.

Hildenberger, 30, joined the Mets in the offseason on a minor league contract. They promoted the former Twin in early April, but opposing offenses scored four runs off him on on three hits and three walks over 2 1/3 innings and two appearances. That continued a difficult run in the majors for Hildenberger, who has pitched to a 5.52 ERA in 133 2/3 frames. The Mets will have a week to trade, release or pass him through waivers.

Angels Acquire Hunter Strickland

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The Rays have traded right-handed reliever Hunter Strickland to the Angels, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Tampa Bay will receive cash considerations or a player to be named later in return, per an announcement from the Angels.

The 32-year-old Strickland joined the Rays on a minor league contract over the winter, and he wound up holding his own during his short stint with the club after it promoted him in early April. Strickland bounced back from a rough two years divided among the Mariners, Nationals and Mets to log a meager 1.69 ERA (with a less spectacular 3.76 SIERA) across 16 innings and post a 24.2 percent strikeout rate against a 9.1 percent walk rate as a Ray.

Strickland will now return to California, where he spent the first five years of his career in San Francisco. Over 226 frames as a Giant from 2014-18, Strickland recorded a 2.91 ERA/3.80 SIERA with a 22.6 percent strikeout rate and an 8.4 percent walk rate. Production along those lines (or the type of numbers he put up as a Ray) would be welcome for the Angels, whose bullpen has struggled mightily during their 16-21 start. Angels relievers own both the majors’ fourth-worst ERA (5.32) and K-BB percentage (10.7).

MLBPA Files Grievance Against MLB

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The Major League Baseball Players Association has filed a grievance against the league, claiming that MLB did not negotiate in good faith to play as many games as possible in the shortened 2020 season, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. The MLBPA grievance seeks as much as $500MM, which Sherman suggests is the equivalent of roughly 20 games of additional pay.

At this point, the timeline for a potential resolution isn’t fully clear. Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that the grievance was actually filed two weeks ago, adding that the league has argued in response that 60 games was the maximum possible due to health and safety reasons. Of course, the league itself submitted proposals for larger numbers of games, although it did so with additional salary cuts which MLB knew to be a nonstarter in talks with the union.

Both the Post and the Athletic note that the league has asked the union to fast-track this grievance so that a resolution may be reached in advance of the looming expiration of the collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 1, 2021. However, it also seems viable that the union could drag out the process so that an eventual concession to drop the grievance can be used as a negotiating ploy in those CBA talks.

The crux of the grievance seems to stem from the language in the March 26 agreement reached between MLB and the MLBPA last year. That agreement stipulated that the league would make its “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” Less than a month after striking that accord, the two sides were embroiled in a new debate, once it had become clear that it would not be possible to have fans in attendance. The union left open a window for owners to pull back on their commitment to prorated salaries, as language within the March agreement stated that the two sides would “discuss in good faith the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators.”

The result was an ugly, months-long debate that played out in the public eye. A new agreement was never reached, and commissioner Rob Manfred eventually implemented a 60-game schedule under the terms of that March agreement. Players were paid the prorated version of their salaries — roughly 37 percent of what they initially stood to earn with a full, 162-game slate. Service time was also prorated, such that one day on the MLB roster in the shortened schedule amounted to roughly 2.77 days of service time. Incentive clauses and the conditions to trigger vesting options in player contracts were prorated as well.

Now, it seems the two sides are set to spar once again over the vague and nebulous language in that March agreement — this time against a more immediate backdrop of collective bargaining negotiations. If the two sides can’t agree on some form of settlement, the grievance will eventually be heard by a three-person arbitration panel. Because one member of that panel represents the union and another represents the league, the outcome will effectively boil down to the ruling of the lone, mutually agreed-upon third party.

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