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AL East Injury Notes: Means, Arroyo, Walls, Borucki

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Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters that John Means is slated to return “at some point right after the All-Star break.”  Means hit the 10-day injured list on June 6 due to a shoulder strain, and his timeline wasn’t entirely clear at the time of the placement.  For now, Means is able to play catch, and will gradually work his way up to readiness over the next few weeks.

Though it’s good news that a projected return date is in place, the timing confirms that Means won’t be participating in the All-Star Game, and the left-hander certainly looked like a strong candidate for his second All-Star selection based on his first two months of work.  A return shortly after the July 12-15 All-Star break would allow time for Means to show that he is healthy for any teams interested in a deal prior to the July 30 trade deadline, though since Means is controlled through the 2024 season, there isn’t any immediate pressure on the Orioles to move Means unless a great offer comes along.

More on other injury situations from around the AL East…

  • The Red Sox placed Christian Arroyo on the 10-day IL due to a right knee contusion, with the placement backdated to June 21.  Michael Chavis was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.  Arroyo left Sunday’s game after a collision with teammate Enrique Hernandez, though x-rays were negative on what the club described as a bone bruise in his right shin.  Arroyo has hit a solid .264/.324/.432 over 138 plate appearances while getting the bulk of playing time at second base this season, though this is his second trip to the IL, after missing two weeks in May with a hand contusion after being hit by a pitch.
  • The Rays placed shortstop Taylor Walls on the 10-day IL (retroactive to June 23) due to right wrist tendinitis, and right-hander Drew Rasmussen has been called up to take Walls’ spot on the active roster.  Walls told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and other reporters that he received a cortisone shot after trying to play through the injury for around two weeks, and he doesn’t expect to miss time beyond the minimum 10 days.  Walls made his MLB debut just over a month ago, and he has posted a respectable 95 OPS+ while hitting .222/.337/.333 over his first 95 big league plate appearances.  The Rays have used Walls as their starting shortstop since his promotion, though now that star prospect Wander Franco is on the roster, Franco is likely to get the bulk of time at the position while Walls is out.  Given how the Rays mix and match players around the diamond, Walls probably isn’t in danger of getting Wally Pipp’d by Franco, who made his own debut on Tuesday as Tampa’s starting third baseman.
  • Ryan Borucki is slated to throw a bullpen session on Friday, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling and other reporters.  Borucki hasn’t pitched since May 7 due to a left flexor strain, and while the southpaw was tentatively scheduled to return sometime before the end of June, Montoyo didn’t commit to any firmer timeline.  “We’ll see how he does….If he throws a good bullpen, then we’ll go from there,” Montoyo said.

Latest On Steven Matz

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JUNE 24: Matz has cleared protocols and rejoined the team, Sportsnet.ca’s Arden Zwelling tweets.  Matz threw a 60-pitch live BP session today, and he is slated to return to the rotation during the Jays’ series with the Mariners next week (June 29-July 1).

JUNE 15: The Blue Jays announced yesterday that left-hander Steven Matz has tested positive for COVID-19 (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). Fortunately, he is asymptomatic, although he’ll still need to isolate for ten days from the date of the test. The team conducted follow-up testing in the wake of Matz’s result but no other players have turned up positive.

Matz was placed on the COVID-19 IL over the weekend when his first test showed an inconclusive result. Acquired from the Mets over the winter, the 30-year-old has gotten off to a decent start with his new team. Matz has tossed 69 2/3 innings of 4.26 ERA/3.77 SIERA ball, a bounce back effort after a disastrous 2020 campaign. It’s not clear who will replace Matz in the rotation while he’s out, although each of Nate Pearson, T.J. Zeuch and Anthony Kay have been starting games at Triple-A Buffalo.

In other Jays news, Scott Mitchell of TSN reports that reliever Julian Merryweather won’t be reinstated from the injured list until late June at the earliest. The fireballing 29-year-old went on the IL with a left oblique strain April 14, so he’s eligible for activation whenever he returns to health. Merryweather was off to a fantastic start to the season, striking out seven of the fourteen batters he faced while holding opponents hitless through 4 1/3 innings.

Braves Select Jesse Chavez, Tanner Roark

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5:58PM: The Braves officially announced the roster moves.

5:50PM: Tanner Roark’s contract has also been selected, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (Twitter link).  Roark inked a minor league deal with Atlanta shortly after the Blue Jays released him in early May.  The veteran righty is looking for a fresh start after posting a 6.75 ERA over 54 2/3 innings for Toronto since the start of the 2020 season.  In corresponding moves, Atlanta optioned right-handers Kyle Wright and Ty Tice to Triple-A, while catcher Alex Jackson and lefty Tucker Davidson were moved to the 60-day IL to create space for Chavez and Roark on the 40-man roster.

12:26PM: The Braves will select the contract of right-hander Jesse Chavez to start a bullpen game against the Reds tonight, tweets Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Chavez signed a minor league pact with the Braves back in April.

It was already known that Atlanta would be going with a bullpen game Thursday after recently placing Max Fried on the injured list due to a blister and playing a pair of doubleheaders this week. The Braves have yet to formally announce the move themselves, though that announcement — and a corresponding 40-man roster move — figures to come along shortly.

Chavez, 37, is a 13-year Major League veteran who’ll now be in his second stint as a member of the Braves. He pitched in 28 games for Atlanta back in 2010 when he was still working to solidify himself as a viable big league arm. Things didn’t pan out the first time around, but Chavez has gone on to have a solid career as a well-traveled swingman. From 2013-19, he split time between the A’s, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs, working to a combined 4.12 ERA in 738 2/3 innings (77 starts, 230 relief outings).

The 2020 season was an ugly one for Chavez, who was tagged for 13 runs in 17 innings out of the Rangers’ bullpen. He’s bounced back with a strong showing for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2021, logging 20 innings of 2.25 ERA ball with a 27-to-8 K/BB ratio. He’s been particularly sharp of late, rattling off six straight shutout innings and punching out 11 of his past 22 opponents.

Chavez hasn’t thrown more than two innings or topped 35 pitches in any of his 13 appearances with Gwinnett this season, so it’s unlikely he’ll be tasked with pitching any more than three innings unless he makes particularly quick work of the Reds the first time through the order. Today’s outing figures to be a spot start, but Chavez has a solid overall track record in the Majors and could stick around to give the Braves some depth in the bullpen if he fares well.

Nate Pearson Seeking Additional Opinion On Groin Strain

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Blue Jays right-hander Nate Pearson was recently placed back on the minor league injured list due to a groin strain — his second IL placement for the injury in 2021. It appears there’s some difficulty in ascertaining the root of the issue, as Jays CEO Mark Shapiro said today on Sportsnet 590 that Pearson is headed for what will be a fourth opinion on the injury (Twitter link via Sportsnet’s Arash Madani).

Pearson, 24, has been one of the prized prospects in the the organization for the past four years. Selected with the No. 28 pick back in 2017, Pearson dominated in 2019 to the point that he was not only considered the Blue Jays’ best pitching prospect, but one of the premier pitching prospects in all of baseball.  Baseball America, MLB.com and FanGraphs all listed Pearson as one of the sport’s top ten minor leaguers prior to the 2020 campaign, and he garnered similar fanfare heading into 2021.

Pearson made his big league debut in 2020, firing five shutout innings against the Nationals and flashing a triple-digit heater which he complemented with a plus slider (and less-utilized changeups and curves). Elbow tightness sent him to the injured list just a few starts later, however, and Pearson wound up pitching just 18 innings during his debut campaign as the Jays took a cautious approach with their prized young righty.

Injuries have been a persistent source of frustration for Pearson, though some of his troubles have been rather fluky in nature. He suffered a fractured forearm in his first minor league start of the 2018 season when he was hit by a comeback liner, only to later sustain an oblique strain while rehabbing that injury. That pair of issues limited him to just 1 2/3 innings that season, and it’s now looking as though another set of injuries will significantly hamper his workload in 2021. Pearson has tallied just 27 innings overall so far in 2021.

Another injury-marred season is surely disheartening for Pearson, and it’s also likely thrown a bit of a wrench into the Blue Jays’ expectations. Pearson likely would’ve been on some type of innings limit in 2021, but he still reported to camp seen as an MLB-ready option in the rotation.

Pearson’s injuries and the early struggles of Tanner Roark — which prompted the right-hander’s release — have left the Jays with a rotation that probably doesn’t look quite like they envisioned but has still been solid. Steven Matz is currently out after testing positive for Covid-19, but he’s given the Jays 69 2/3 innings of 4.26 ERA ball. Fellow southpaw Robbie Ray is enjoying an excellent rebound campaign on a one-year deal, while righty Ross Stripling has stepped up as a dependable option. The Jays’ second-ranked pitching prospect, Alek Manoah, has been quite good in three of his five outings since his own MLB debut a month ago.

Combined with top starter Hyun Jin Ryu, the quartet of Matz, Ray, Stripling and Manoah gives the Jays a solid enough starting five for the time being. That said, as is the case with Pearson, Manoah is surely someone whose workload the Blue Jays will want to monitor. Matz threw just 30 2/3 innings last season, while Stripling (49 1/3) and Ray (51 2/3) also had fairly light workloads even by 2020 standards.

The Jays have some depth at the moment. Anthony Kay is starting tonight’s game, and down in Triple-A, the trio of Jacob Waguespack, T.J. Zeuch and Nick Allgeyer has thrown reasonably well. But the Blue Jays are lacking veteran arms with an established track record, making rotation help a logical target as the trade deadline approaches. GM Ross Atkins has already acknowledged a desire to add bullpen help and perhaps a left-handed bat, but the newfound uncertainty surrounding Pearson likely enhances the need for some innings in the rotation as well.

Indians Make Four Roster Moves

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The Indians announced a quartet of roster moves today, including the news that right-hander Aaron Civale has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 22) with a sprained middle finger on his throwing hand.  Also, catcher Ryan Lavarnway has been designated for assignment.  The two open roster spots will be taken by catcher Austin Hedges and right-hander Justin Garza — Hedges has been activated off the concussion-related injury list, while Garza’s contract was selected from Triple-A.

Civale is expected to be out of action for 4-to-5 weeks, in the latest blow to Cleveland’s injury-plagued rotation.  With Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and now Civale on the IL, the Tribe are missing their top three starters, leaving a makeshift starting five of very inexperienced pitchers tasked with keeping the team afloat in the AL Central race.

With several pitchers moving from the bullpen to fill these holes in the rotation, Garza gets the opportunity to make his MLB debut.  An eighth-round pick for the Tribe in the 2015 draft, Garza isn’t ranked by Baseball America or MLB Pipeline as a top-30 prospect in Cleveland’s farm system, but the righty has an 0.42 ERA over 21 1/3 combined innings at Double-A and Triple-A this season.  This is Garza’s first season working exclusively as a reliever, and the result is an uptick in his strikeout rate (to an impressive 35.36%), though also a 15% walk rate.

Lavarnway signed a minor league deal with the Indians this past offseason, and his contract was selected from Triple-A last week when Hedges was placed on the concussion-IL.  Lavarnway played in four games, officially putting him in the books as appearing (if sparingly) in ten different Major League seasons.  The journeyman backstop has appeared in just 160 games total over those 10 seasons, suiting up for eight different teams at the big league level.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/24/21

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The latest minor league moves from around baseball…

  • The Nationals outrighted southpaw Ben Braymer off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A.  Braymer was designated for assignment over the weekend.  The left-hander has worked mostly as a starting pitcher (starting 59 of 82 games) over his six years in Washington’s organization, posting a 3.88 ERA in 366 2/3 overall innings but struggling to the tune of a 7.06 ERA in 88 frames at the Triple-A level.  In terms of Major League experience, Braymer tossed 7 1/3 innings for the Nats in 2020, posting a 1.23 ERA during in his brief stint in the Show.

Rays Trade Wyatt Mathisen To Mariners

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The Mariners announced Thursday that they have acquired infielder/outfielder Wyatt Mathisen from the Rays in exchange for cash. Left-hander Daniel Zamora was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Tampa Bay had designated Mathisen for assignment earlier in the week as a corresponding roster move when promoting top prospect Wander Franco.

Seattle also announced that righty reliever Keynan Middleton has been recalled from Triple-A Tacoma. Fellow right-hander Vinny Nittoli was optioned back to Tacoma in his place.

Mathisen, 27, will give the Mariners additional depth at second base and both corner infield and corner outfield positions. He never appeared in a big league game with the Rays, who acquired him in a cash deal with the the Diamondbacks earlier this season.

While he’s posted just a .159/.298/.290 hitter in a small sample of 84 MLB plate appearances — all coming with Arizona — Mathisen has a productive career track record in Triple-A. He’s hitting .288/.344/.525 there in 2021 and, in parts of three seasons of Triple-A ball (183 games), Mathisen owns a .269/.368/.515 batting line with 35 homers, 37 doubles and a triple. He also not only has an option for the 2021 season remaining but can be optioned in 2022, making him a nice bit of depth for the Mariners as they began to transition out of a rebuilding phase. For now, he’ll start his Mariners tenure in Triple-A.

The Mariners claimed Zamora, 28, off waivers from the Mets organization a month ago. He yielded four runs (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings out of the big league ’pen and pitched to nearly identical results in a brief look with Tacoma.

That Zamora made it to the big leagues at all is somewhat remarkable, given his status as a former 40th-round pick of the Pirates. He looked dominant in his 2018 MLB debut with New York, holding opponents to three runs on six hits and three walks with 16 strikeouts through his first nine MLB frames. But Zamora was hit much harder the following season in the Majors while also logging pedestrian numbers in Triple-A.

Zamora is in his final option season and has yet to have sustained success above the Double-A level, although his numbers up through Double-A are quite good. The Mariners will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he goes unclaimed, they’d be able to send him outright to Triple-A, keeping him in the organization without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

Lucas Sims Out One Month Due To Elbow Sprain

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1:55pm: Reds skipper David Bell tells reporters that Sims is expected to miss around a month’s worth of games (Twitter link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

11:45am: The Reds placed right-hander Lucas Sims on the 10-day injured list due to a right elbow sprain, per a club announcement. Outfielder Scott Heineman is up from Triple-A Louisville to take his spot on the active roster. Sims’ placement on the IL is retroactive to June 23.

Sims has had an up-and-down season but has been the Reds’ most oft-used option in save situations this year. He’s leading the club with seven saves and has also picked up four holds as one of the team’s most prominent high-leverage options.

The 27-year-old Sims got out to a miserable start in 2021, pitching to a 7.20 ERA through his first month of action. But over a span of 16 games from May 5 through June 21, Sims looked like the potentially dominant, breakout reliever he appeared to be last season, posting a 2.41 ERA with a 29-to-8 K/BB ratio in 16 2/3 frames of relief. Sims hit another roadblock in his most recent outing, however, serving up three runs without recording an out.

All told, Sims has gone from a 2.45 ERA in 25 2/3 frames in 2020 to a 5.02 mark through his first 28 2/3 innings in 2021. From a velocity standpoint, he’s actually added about a mile per hour to his heater, and he’s also bumped his strikeout rate from 33 percent to 35 percent. He’s seen a major spike in BABIP (.192 in 2020, .333 in 2021) while his ability to strand runners has taken a nosedive as well.

As is so frequently the case, the reality likely lies somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Sims unquestionably benefited from that minuscule average on balls in play in 2020, but he’s also surely better than his 2021 ERA would indicate. He’s limiting hard contact quite efficiently, striking out batters in droves and keeping the ball in the yard. His sub-par command ought to lead to occasional hiccups, but taken in totality, his 2020-21 numbers — 3.81 ERA, 3.23 SIERA, 34.1 percent strikeout rate, 11.4 percent walk rate — have the makings of a solid late-inning option for the Reds.

The team hasn’t provided a timetable on Sims’ absence, though obviously any type of elbow injury is a concern for a pitcher. Sprains, in particular, can be ominous. The hope is obviously that it’ll prove to be a minor issue, as the Reds can ill afford to lose a key arm from an already struggling bullpen. The Reds’ relief corps did just receive a boost with the return of its best reliever, Tejay Antone, but the Cincinnati ’pen has collectively pitched to an MLB-worst 5.70 ERA so far in 2021.

Rockies Claim Bernardo Flores Jr., Designate Ryan Castellani

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The Rockies announced Thursday that they’ve claimed lefty Bernardo Flores Jr. off waivers from the Cardinals and designated righty Ryan Castellani for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster. Flores has been optioned to Triple-A.

St. Louis had designated the 25-year-old Flores for assignment earlier in the week after previously claiming him off waivers from the White Sox. He appeared in just one game with the Cards this season but was unable to retire any of the three Mets hitters he faced in that May 5 outing. Flores posted solid numbers up through the Double-A level during his time with the White Sox organization, but he’s surrendered a 5.74 ERA through 31 1/3 frames with lackluster strikeout and walk rates while pitching for the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate (17.6 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively).

While Flores has struggled this season, left-handed depth is an area of need for the Rockies, who currently have two struggling southpaws in their big league bullpen: Ben Bowden and Lucas Gilbreath. The only other near-MLB left-handed bullpen option on the roster is Yoan Aybar, who hasn’t fared well in Double-A. Veteran Chris Rusin and former Yankees/White Sox prospect Ian Clarkin are both in Triple-A as non-roster players, but neither has pitched well there.

Castellani, 25, was a second-round pick by the Rockies back in 2014 and has landed among their top 15 prospects in each of the past seven years, per Baseball America’s rankings. He posted solid but unspectacular results for the first several seasons of his minor league career but began to see his numbers take a dip when he repeated the Double-A level in 2018.

Despite a particularly rough showing at the Triple-A level in 2019, Castellani made his MLB debut with the Rox in 2020. His first two appearances went quite well, as he held opponents to one run with a 10-to-3 K/BB ratio and a 50 percent grounder rate in 8 2/3 frames, but he was hit hard for most of the remainder of the summer. Castellani oscillated between the bullpen and the rotation, finishing out his rookie campaign with a 5.82 ERA, a 13.2 percent strikeout rate and a 13.8 percent walk rate in 43 2/3 frames. His 2021 season hasn’t gone much better in the big leagues (two runs in 3 1/3 innings) or in Triple-A (7.82 ERA in 35 1/3 innings).

Castellani does have a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, so perhaps another club in need of some pitching depth will have ideas about how to coax a better performance out of him. The Rox have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

NPB/KBO Notes: Smoak, Sparkman, Freitas

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Veteran first baseman Justin Smoak, who’d signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the winter, has returned to the United States to be with his family, the Japan Times recently reported. The 34-year-old switch-hitter was productive in his limited run for the second-place Giants, slashing .272/.336/.482 with seven homers and three doubles in 34 games, but Giants representative Atsuhiro Otsuka told the Times that Smoak’s “love of family outweighed everything else.” As the Times’ Jason Coskrey writes in a second column, the Giants attempted to find ways to reunite the family in Japan, but current travel restrictions there made that impossible.

Smoak’s wife, Kristin, shared a heartwarming video of him returning home to surprise his daughters (Twitter link), calling it a “terribly tough decision” and noting the “amazing” support and understanding the Giants provided throughout the situation. Kristin Smoak later tweeted that the family has been “blown away by the genuine kindness and understanding we have received” from NPB fans.

A few more notes out of Japan and South Korea…

  • The Orix Buffaloes announced this week that they’ve signed right-hander Glenn Sparkman to a contract for the remainder of the season (Yahoo Japan link). He’ll take the roster spot of righty Brandon Dickson, who recently returned to the U.S. to sign a minor league deal with the Cardinals. Sparkman was on a minor league deal with the Twins earlier this year but was released in mid-May. He’s spent parts of four straight seasons in the Majors (2017-20), including a 2019 campaign in which he racked up 136 1/3 innings for the Royals. Sparkman has just a 5.99 ERA in 180 1/3 MLB frames, but he carries a career 2.88 ERA in 378 2/3 minor league innings — including a 3.51 mark in parts of four Triple-A seasons.
  • The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization announced that they’ve placed designated hitter/catcher/first baseman David Freitas on waivers (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). They’re now in the mix for a new bat to add to the lineup. Freitas, 32, was the Heroes’ primary designated hitter but slashed a fairly tepid .259/.297/.374 with two homers and 10 doubles in 148 plate appearances. The former Braves, Mariners and Brewers catcher posted a ridiculous .381/.461/.561 line in 382 Triple-A plate appearances back in 2019 and has a generally strong track record at that level, but he’s yet to produce much in the game’s top leagues in North America or South Korea.

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