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Mariners Sign Alen Hanson

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The Mariners have agreed to a minor league deal with utilityman Alen Hanson, per an announcement from their player development department. Hanson, a client of Daniel Szew’s L.A. Sports Management, will report to Triple-A Tacoma.

Hanson, 28, signed a similar deal with the Mariners prior to the 2020 season, though that arrangement was impacted by the lack of a minor league season in 2020. He’ll now return to the Mariners and give them some depth both around the infield and in the outfield.

The last big league appearance for Hanson came with the 2019 Blue Jays, for whom he posted a .163/.229/.163 slash in a small sample of 48 plate appearances. That marked Hanson’s fourth season with some big league time, as he’s also had stints with the Pirates, White Sox and Giants.

At one point, Hanson was considered one of the top prospects in the game. Baseball America rated him as a Top 75 prospect in 2013-14, while MLB.com had him ranked among the game’s 100 best farmhands each year from 2013-15. Unfortunately for Hanson and for the Pirates, who signed and developed him, the results have never been there at the MLB level.

Hanson did rack up 30 extra-base hits in a career-high 310 plate appearances for the 2018 Giants, but his overall .232/.266/.368 line in 625 plate appearances as a Major Leaguer has been lacking. He’s had better results in the upper minors and has logged at least 180 innings at every position on the field other than first base, catcher and pitcher, so he’ll give the M’s some depth at multiple spots.

Rays Acquire Mike Ford From Yankees

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The Rays have acquired first baseman Mike Ford from the Yankees for cash considerations and a player to be named later, both clubs announced. Ford has been optioned to Triple-A Durham. To clear 40-man roster space, Tampa Bay transferred righty Tyler Glasnow from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Ford has appeared in the majors in each of the past three seasons. The left-handed hitter showed plenty of offensive promise as a rookie, when he raked at a .259/.350/.559 clip with twelve home runs over his first 163 MLB plate appearances. Ford, whom the Mariners had selected in the Rule 5 draft the previous year but returned in Spring Training, looked like a potential long-term contributor in the Bronx after that strong debut. He hasn’t been able to follow up on that over the past two years, though.

In 156 plate appearances since the start of 2020, Ford has mustered just a .134/.250/.276 line with five homers. With Luke Voit tearing the cover off the ball last year en route to an MLB-best 22 homers, Ford didn’t have much of an opportunity for regular playing time. Voit’s injury issues this season opened up some recent run for Ford, but the 28-year-old didn’t take advantage. He’s hit just .133/.278/.283 in 72 plate appearances this season with a fairly significant bump in his strikeout rate. That led the Yankees to designate him for assignment last weekend.

Ford’s MLB career is still a collection of fairly small samples. He’s tallied just 319 total plate appearances at the highest level, with a resulting .199/.301/.422 line. Ford has a much bigger body of work at Triple-A, where’s hit a robust .268/.359/.501 in parts of four seasons. With a quality minor league track record, a pair of minor league option years remaining and a low acquisition cost, the Rays felt Ford was a worthwhile pick-up.

Ji-Man Choi has hit very well in limited time between a pair of injured list stints this season. He returned to the lineup this week and figures to assume much of the playing time at first base. Tampa Bay has primarily rotated Austin Meadows and Randy Arozarena between DH and the corner outfield this year. Ford’s likely being brought on as an optionable depth player, and he adds another lefty bat to a first base/DH mix that also includes righties Yandy Díaz and Mike Brosseau.

Glasnow’s move to the 60-day IL is unsurprising. The 27-year-old went on the IL this week after an MRI revealed a partial tear of his UCL. He’s hoping to rehab the injury and avoid Tommy John surgery, but he told reporters after the diagnosis his goal was to make it back for a potential playoff run. Regardless of whether he’ll be able to return at the tail end of the regular season or during the postseason, it never seemed plausible he’d be back within two months.

Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media reported that the Rays had acquired Ford shortly before the official announcement. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link) first reported Ford would be optioned to Triple-A.

NL West Notes: Weil, Seager, Sanchez, Crawford

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The Rockies and assistant GM Jon Weil have mutually decided to part ways, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link).  Weil has been with the organization since 2005 and in his current role since 2014, and The Denver Post’s Nick Groke writes that Weil is known league-wide as “an astute evaluator,” such as his “instrumental” role in the Rockies’ acquisition of German Marquez in a trade with the Rays back in January 2016.

Weil was considered a candidate for the interim GM role after Jeff Bridich’s resignation back in April, though the club opted to give the job to another long-time employee in VP of scouting Bill Schmidt.  The circumstances of Weil’s departure aren’t known, and it could be just as simple as both sides wanting a change after so many years.  For a Colorado front office known for its long-term continuity, however, it could perhaps be a hint that the organization is looking ahead to some wider-scale changes after the season, such as the hiring of a new general manager or president of baseball operations from outside the organization.

More from the NL West…

  • Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is hopeful that Corey Seager can begin a minor league rehab assignment by the “middle to end of next week,” the skipper told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters.  Seager suffered a fractured right hand after being hit with a Ross Detwiler pitch on May 15, and was expected to miss at least a month in recovery.  The first step will come this weekend, as Seager is slated to do some hitting on the field at the Dodgers’ Spring Training facility.  Seager was still ranked in the spot on MLBTR’s most recent 2021-22 Free Agent Power Rankings, assuming that he is able to return to the field in due course and is still able to play to his usual high standard in the wake of his injury.
  • Aaron Sanchez left a minor league rehab outing tonight after 1 1/3 innings due to a blister on his throwing hand, Mark W. Sanchez of KNBR reports.  The Giants right-hander has a checkered history of blister and finger issues, which ruined his last three seasons with the Blue Jays following an All-Star season in 2016.  Sanchez missed all of 2020 recovering from shoulder surgery and was seemingly putting together a decent comeback campaign (3.18 ERA/4.26 SIERA) over 28 1/3 innings with San Francisco this year before biceps tightness sent him to the injured list on May 8.
  • Longtime Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford hit a career milestone today when he officially reached 10 full years of Major League service time, and Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group commemorated the achievement with a look back at several memorable moments from Crawford’s career.  Ten years in the big leagues is a major landmark for any player, perhaps especially for a somewhat modestly-scouted player (Crawford was a fourth-round pick in 2008) who has become a fixture with his hometown team.  Crawford’s contract with the Giants already contained a full no-trade clause, though by locking in “10-and-5” rights, Crawford can veto any potential trade for the remainder of his career.  This isn’t to say that a trade is anywhere on the horizon, as the shortstop is posting career-best numbers for the first-place Giants.

Latest On Mike Trout’s Calf Injury

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One month to the day after Mike Trout suffered a right calf strain, his injury rehab is “going good, I feel great,” the star outfielder said as part of an in-game interview during tonight’s Tigers/Angels game (hat tip to Brent Maguire).  Trout is looking to “hopefully start some baseball activity in the next few days and go from there,” though he stressed that he is waiting to get the green light from doctors before going ahead with any sort of running drills.

Trout’s injury carried a rough timeline of 6-8 weeks, so if Trout is indeed almost on the verge of starting baseball activities after a month, that is a good sign that he might be back on the low end of that estimated absence.

Obviously the sooner Trout is able to return the better for the Angels, who took a 33-35 record into tonight’s contest with Detroit.  A recent six-game winning streak gave the Halos a winning record for the first time since May 1, though three consecutive losses has brought them back under the .500 mark.  Nine games back of the division lead and seven games back of the second AL wild card spot, Anaheim needs to make up at least some of that ground by the time Trout returns to have any chance at the postseason.  If not, the Angels could be deadline sellers and staring at their seven consecutive season without any playoff baseball.

2021 was on pace to be perhaps Trout’s best season yet, considering that his 194 wRC+/OPS+ at the time of his injury represented a new career best.  (In baseball history, the list of players with full seasons better than 194 wRC+ is not a long one.)  Trout was hitting .333/.466/.624 with eight home runs over his first 146 plate appearances, and it’s fair to guess that the Angels would be a bigger factor in the AL West race if he had been healthy over the last month, though the Halos have been a respectable 15-13 since Trout hit the injured list.

AL Injury Notes: Gleyber, Boyd, Turnbull, White

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Gleyber Torres made an early exit from tonight’s game due to what the Yankees described as stiffness in his left lower back.  The shortstop will receive further examination tomorrow, when the Yankees return to the Bronx to open a three-game series with the Athletics.  Torres took an awkward fall while fielding a Bo Bichette grounder in the third inning, and was replaced for a pinch-hitter in the top half of the fourth.

Torres has hit .260/.342/.344 over 244 plate appearances this season, working his way back up to close to league-average production (96 wRC+) after a rough April, and also a week-long absence in May due to a positive COVID-19 test.  He also has a +3.7 UZR/150 and -2 Defensive Runs Saved over 505 2/3 innings at shortstop, a significant improvement with the glove after his shortstop defense has been such a point of criticism.  If Torres’ back problem is serious enough to merit a visit to the injured list, Tyler Wade or Gio Urshela are the likely choices to step in at shortstop, with DJ LeMahieu or Miguel Andujar capable of stepping in at third base if Urshela changes positions.

More on other injury situations from around the American League…

  • Matt Boyd will visit Dr. Neal ElAttrache for an examination of the Tigers southpaw’s ailing left arm, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Chris McCosky of The Detroit News).  More will be known once the exam takes place, though the team is already considering holding Boyd and Spencer Turnbull back until after the All-Star break.  “Are we going to push these guys before the All-Star break versus utilizing the time (the four-day break) and targeting them back after the break?  That’s the assessment that’s going to be done over the next couple of weeks on how we’re going to ramp these guys back up,” Hinch said.  A forearm strain sent Turnbull to the IL on June 5, and while his injury wasn’t though to be overly serious, naturally the Tigers will be cautious with any forearm issue.  Boyd — and perhaps Turnbull as well — figure to be trade chips for Detroit at the deadline, so while the team would surely want both hurlers to prove they’re healthy prior to July 30, there is no point in rushing them back and risking further injury.
  • After missing a month due to strained left hip flexor, Mariners first baseman Evan White has halted his rehab due to a setback.  (Jen Mueller of Root Sports was among those to report the news.)  While White could potentially return to Triple-A Tacoma within a week, it represents another delay in his sophomore season.  Though White won the Gold Glove for his excellent first base defense in 2020, he has yet to hit at the big league level, with only a .165/.235/.308 slash line in 306 career plate appearances in the majors.

Brewers Notes: Wong, Fisher, Trade Deadline

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The Brewers have fought through a pile of injuries to post a 38-30 record, good for a tie with the Cubs for first place in the NL Central.  While still far from fully healthy, the Brew Crew are starting to get closer to full strength, as outfielder Derek Fisher was activated off the 10-day injured list today.  (Utilityman Tim Lopes was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.)  In addition, manager Craig Counsell is “somewhat optimistic” that second baseman Kolten Wong is ready to return from his own trip to the IL.

As Counsell told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy and other reporters, Wong took part in a pregame workout today.  Wong hit the injured list on June 4 due to a left oblique strain, which was the second such injury the former Gold Glover has suffered this year.  Wong has been limited to 44 games and 178 plate appearances due to the two IL stints, though given the nature of oblique injuries, it’s at least fortunate that both of his strains have been on the mild side, rather than more severe issues that would require months of recovery time.

Wong has been a tremendous all-around force for the Brewers, hitting .280/.343/.441 in those 178 PA while delivering more strong defense at the keystone.  With Wong out, Luis Urias got most of the second base reps, before Travis Shaw’s dislocated shoulder required Urias to see more time at third base.  Jace Peterson, Daniel Robertson, and Lopes have also been part of the second base picture.

Shaw is on the 60-day IL and won’t be back until at least mid-August. Urias and Daniel Vogelbach have both been around league-average hitters at third and first base, respectively, and Milwaukee is hopeful that the struggling Keston Hiura can get himself on track and again factor into the first base mix.  Still, unless Urias, Vogelbach, and Hiura all really get rolling, the corner infield positions figure to be target areas for the Brewers heading into the trade deadline, FanSided’s Robert Murray writes.

The Brewers have already made one early strike into the trade market, landing Willy Adames and Trevor Richards from the Rays in exchange for righties J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen back in May.  Adames has been excellent since coming to Milwaukee, filling the shortstop hole in the infield and allowing the Brew Crew with some flexibility in how they deploy Urias.  Murray also writes that the Brewers will look to add relief help at the deadline, likely to fill in the depth left by the absences of Feyereisen and Rasmussen.

Fisher could also provide some help, as the outfielder is finally healthy after spending the entire season on the IL.  After being acquired in a trade from the Blue Jays in February, Fisher picked up a hamstring injury during Spring Training, and then a calf injury while rehabbing in the minors.  Lorenzo Cain and Tyrone Taylor are both on the injured list, so Fisher steps right in as Milwaukee’s primary backup outfielder.

Rockies Place Mychal Givens On 10-Day Injured List

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The Rockies placed right-hander Mychal Givens on the 10-day injured list due to a strain in his left lower back, the team announced.  Right-hander Justin Lawrence was called up from Triple-A to take Givens’ spot on the active roster.

Givens has a 2.78 ERA/3.98 SIERA over 22 2/3 innings for Colorado this season, with an above-average 26.6% strikeout rate but an 11.7% walk rate that sits only in the 19th percentile of all pitchers.  In short, it isn’t much different from Givens’ usual performance over his seven MLB seasons, as he has missed his share of bats while running into control issues through 368 career innings for the Orioles and Rockies.

One notable difference is that Givens is making his changeup a far bigger part of his arsenal this season — after a 69.6%/9.8% split between his fastball and change prior to 2021, Givens has thrown his heater only 45.2% of the time this season, and increased his changeup usage to 39.9%.  While Givens hasn’t gotten great results from his changeup specifically, his four-seamer has become a more effective pitch, after it had been getting hit increasingly harder over the last few years.

Baltimore sent Givens to Colorado in a deadline deal last August, and the righty again seemed like an obvious trade candidate on a Rockies team that will almost surely be selling by July 30.  Givens is scheduled for free agency after the season, and on a salary of slightly more than $4MM, he’d be an inexpensive add for a team in need of bullpen help.  (Givens would only have about $1.38MM remaining in owed salary if dealt on July 30.)  However, an injury could certainly throw a wrench into those plans, especially considering the vague nature of some back injuries.

Mike Moustakas Re-Aggravates Heel Injury

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Reds infielder Mike Moustakas has been on the injured list since May 19 due to a right heel contusion, and his recovery has now hit a setback.  Manager David Bell told reporters (including The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale) that Moustakas re-aggravated his initial injury and is back wearing a walking boot.

It’s a tough turn of events for Moustakas, who just began a minor league rehab assignment this week and was seemingly closing in on a return to the field.  Bell did note that Moustakas’s heel issue didn’t involve a tear in his plantar fasciitis, though more will be known about Moustakas’ status (such as a possible recovery timeline) when he is re-evaluated next week.

Due to both this injury and a minimal 10-day IL stint due to illness in April, The Moose has only played in 28 games this season.  Moustakas has hit .241/.337/.437 over 102 plate appearances in his second season with the Reds, this year playing only at third base and first base after Cincinnati experimented with him as an everyday second baseman in 2020.  While Moustakas has been an above-average hitter (102 OPS+, 110 wRC+) thus far, his hard-contact numbers are down and his .335 wOBA is significantly higher than his .296 wOBA, though it is hard to draw any real conclusion over a sample size of only 102 PA.

The Reds are on a six-game winning streak, bringing their record to 35-31 and within two games of the NL Central lead.  A healthy Moustakas would be a nice boost to a team that is planning to contend for another postseason berth, and Moustakas’ return would likely see Eugenio Suarez moved from third base back to shortstop.  Suarez and regular shortstop Kyle Farmer have been the two weakest links in a Reds lineup that is among the league’s best in several batting categories.

Blue Jays Place Rafael Dolis On 10-Day IL, Select Jared Hoying

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The Blue Jays announced some roster moves prior to tonight’s game with the Yankees, including the news that right-hander Rafael Dolis has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right middle finger strain.  In addition, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez has been placed on the paternity list.  Filling the roster spots will be right-hander T.J. Zeuch (called up from Triple-A to start tonight’s game) and outfielder Jared Hoying, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A.  Carl Edwards Jr. has been moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open up a 40-man roster spot for Hoying.

The injury continues a tough season for Dolis, who has a 5.14 ERA/4.86 SIERA over 21 innings.  After overcoming some notable control issues (14% walk rate) to post a 1.50 ERA over 24 frames for Toronto in 2020, the free passes became even more of a problem this year, with Dolis walking 17.3% of all batters faced.  That is the ninth-highest walk rate of any hurler in baseball this season with at least 20 innings pitched.

Zeuch will get the start in place of Steven Matz, who is recovering from a positive (but asymptomatic) COVID-19 test.  Since the Jays have an off-day on Monday, this could potentially be the only game they need to fill if Matz is able to return as quickly as possible, though Zeuch could put himself in line for another start with a solid performance tonight.  The 25-year-old righty has 46 career MLB innings to his record since 2019, including a 6.75 ERA over 12 frames of work this season.  Zeuch has been used as a starter, reliever, and bulk pitcher (behind an opener) during his brief career, so the Blue Jays have some flexibility in how they’ll use him as Matz’s replacement.

Hoying signed a minor league contract with Toronto in May, and he now might be lined up for his first bit of big league action since 2017.  Hoying’s MLB resume consists of 74 games and a .220/.262/.288 slash line over 126 plate appearances with the Rangers in 2016-17.  After a brief stay in the Angels organization on a minor league deal, Hoying joined the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO, hitting .284/.345/.498 over 1249 PA in parts of three seasons in South Korea.

White Sox Place Adam Eaton On 10-Day Injured List

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The White Sox placed outfielder Adam Eaton the 10-day injured list today due to a strained right hamstring.  The placement is retroactive to June 15.  Right-hander Zack Burdi was promoted from Triple-A to take Eaton’s spot on the active roster.

With Eaton sidelined, this means that Chicago’s entire projected Opening Day outfield is now on the injured list.  While Eaton’s hamstring problem doesn’t seem nearly as serious as the injuries that have sidelined Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert for the bulk of the season, it does underline how the Sox have managed to adapt and thrive despite these significant setbacks.  In particular, hamstring and leg injuries have struck several White Sox players this season, with GM Rick Hahn recently discussing about how the team has been trying to figure out if there is any sort of root cause behind this unusual recurring issue.

Originally a member of the White Sox from 2014-16, Eaton returned to the Windy City this offseason after signing a one-year free agent deal worth $8MM in guaranteed money (including the $1MM buyout of an $8.5MM club option the Sox hold on Eaton for 2022).  The results haven’t been good at the plate, as Eaton is hitting .195/.296/.345 over 203 plate appearances and his 25.1% strikeout rate is the highest of his career.

With Eaton gone, the Sox have Andrew Vaughn, Adam Engel, and Brian Goodwin as their starting outfield, with Jake Lamb and Leury Garcia able to fill in as part-timers.  Outfield already seemed like a target area for the White Sox at the trade deadline given the uncertainty over Jimenez and Robert, and if Eaton ends up having to miss more time beyond the 10-day minimum, the club could be inspired to make a move sooner rather than later to shore up depth.

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