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Archives for June 2021

Kris Bryant Exits Game After Being Hit On Hand By Pitch

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9:23pm: X-rays were negative on Bryant’s bruised right hand, Cubs manager David Ross told the Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro and other reporters.  Bryant is a question mark for Wednesday.

6:56pm: Cubs star Kris Bryant exited tonight’s game against the Mets after being hit on the hand by a Taijuan Walker pitch in the first inning, according to reporters.  Patrick Wisdom took his place at third base.  ESPN’s Marly Rivera adds a few details.  At present, the Cubs are describing the injury as a right hand contusion.  We’ll update this post with further information on Bryant’s status when it becomes available.

Bryant, 29, ranks 12th in MLB with a 150 wRC+, though he’s slumped in the past few weeks.  He’s logged at least 60 defensive innings at every outfield position, as well as the infield corners.  It’s been a strong comeback season for Bryant thus far, and his stellar play is one reason the Cubs entered play tonight in a first-place tie with the Brewers.  Given the Cubs’ estimated 43% chance at the playoffs, GM Jed Hoyer will have a hard time trading Bryant before the July 30th deadline – despite the slugger’s pending free agency.

If you’re thinking MLB hitters are being hit by pitches more than ever lately, you’re right.  Dating back to 1920, batters were never hit more frequently than they were in 2020: once per every 81 plate appearances.  But the 2021 season, which has already gone on longer than the COVID-shortened campaign, is challenging that record at once per every 86 or so.  We should see soon whether MLB’s enforcement of its foreign substances rule further increases HBPs, but the fact is they were already at an all-time high.

Dodgers Place Cody Bellinger On IL

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The Dodgers placed center fielder Cody Bellinger on the IL for left hamstring tightness and recalled Mitch White, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio was among those to report.  The timing of the injury is unfortunate, as tonight is the first full-capacity game at Dodger Stadium since before the pandemic.  Bellinger is eligible to be activated on June 22nd, notes Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A.

Bellinger returned from a lengthy IL stint on May 29th after recovering from a hairline fracture in his left fibula.  Now, he’s back to the IL due to a hamstring injury, which first cropped up last Friday.  The Dodgers will again make do without the 2019 NL MVP.  This year, that’s generally meant Chris Taylor and Mookie Betts in center field.  With Max Muncy hitting the IL on Saturday, the Dodgers’ current first base tandem is Matt Beaty and Albert Pujols.  In his 66 plate appearances with the Dodgers, Pujols has a 131 wRC+.  The Dodgers are also without star shortstop Corey Seager, who might return early next month from a broken hand.

In recalling White, the Dodgers have gone to a nine-man bullpen after yesterday’s short start from Tony Gonsolin.

Glasnow: Enforcing Sticky Stuff Rule Midseason Is “Insane” And Contributed To Injury

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Rays starter Tyler Glasnow hit the IL with a partially torn UCL and a flexor tendon strain today, and he feels that MLB’s decision to finally enforce the foreign substance rules on the books is a contributing factor.  In advance of MLB’s new enforcement policy, Glasnow ceased usage of sunscreen, changing the grips on his fastball and curveball.  Here’s what Glasnow had to say (Bally Sports Florida sideline reporter Tricia Whitaker has the video here):

“Do it in the offseason, give us a chance to adjust to it. But I just threw 80-something, 70-whatever innings, and then you just told me I can’t use anything in the middle of the year? I had to change everything I’d been doing the entire season. Everything, out of the window, I had to start doing something completely new.

And then I’m telling you, I truly believe, that’s why I got hurt. Me throwing 100 and being 6’7″ is why I got hurt, but that contributed. I’m just frustrated that they don’t understand how hard it is to pitch, one, but to tell us to do something completely different in the middle of the season is insane. It’s ridiculous. There has to be some give and take here. You can’t just take away everything and not add something. Pitchers need to be able to have some sort of control or some sort of grip on the ball. And I just don’t want this to happen to somebody else, I don’t want a fastball to sail away and hit somebody in the face like it already has.

I understand you need to take an aggressive approach here, but I just think people are going about it all wrong. And I’m sitting here, my lifelong dream, I want to go out and win a Cy Young, I want to be an All-Star, and then now it’s all just shit on. Now it’s over. I have to try and rehab and come back in the playoffs. I’m clearly frustrated…people need to figure this out. You can’t just tell us to use nothing. It’s crazy.”

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Glasnow’s sentiments are “shared by a lot of people across baseball — and not just players.”  Dodgers righty Trevor Bauer is another pitcher who takes issue with MLB’s timing on the enforcement, tweeting, “They’ve knowingly swept this under the rug for 4 years. Now they implement a knee jerk reaction to shifting public perception. Hard to hear them talk about “competitive integrity” when they have no integrity to begin with.”

The pitchers who have been speaking up recently on this topic have sound points: this issue could have been tackled with care in the offseason, and MLB should have tried to get players on board.  As the Nationals’ Max Scherzer put it, “The players should have a say in this. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will. It just appears that MLB is going to do whatever they want with this.”  The use of “sticky stuff” by pitchers has been an unenforced rule for many years, and forcing pitchers to go cold turkey could bring unintended consequences – including injuries.  MLB’s new “enhanced enforcements” go into effect Monday, though some pitchers have clearly been weaning off the sticky stuff this month.

Diamondbacks Select Contract Of Keury Mella

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Righty reliever Keury Mella is returning to the Diamondbacks’ 40-man roster, according to The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan.  The club transferred Seth Frankoff to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot, while Taylor Clarke hit the 10-day IL to create an active roster opening.  Incredibly, the D’Backs are vying for their first road win since April 25th tonight in San Francisco.

Mella, 27, has logged 27 career innings for the Reds and Diamondbacks.  In his 11 appearances at Triple-A Reno this year, he punched out 24.4% of batters and walked 9.0%.  Mella averaged 95.2 miles per hour last year in the bigs, a bit above the average ’21 reliever figure of 93.8.  Two years ago as a Reds farmhand, Mella was considered to be a 45-grade prospect by Baseball America.  The Reds had acquired Mella and Adam Duvall from the Giants in the 2015 trade deadline trade of Mike Leake.  At the time, Mella was thought to have a plus fastball without a “true offspeed weapon.”  Mella was deemed expendable back in February, as Arizona designated him for assignment and he passed through waivers unclaimed.

As you might expect from the worst team in baseball, the Diamondbacks’ bullpen has been pretty bad, with a 4.64 ERA.  But still better than three other NL teams!  Mella joins a D’Backs bullpen consisting of Stefan Crichton, Joakim Soria, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Buchter, Humberto Castellanos, Joe Mantiply, Riley Smith, and possibly Corbin Martin at present.  Clarke joins relievers J.B. Bukauskas, Tyler Clippard, Chris Devenski on the IL, with Devenski done for the season due to Tommy John surgery.

Latest On Cole Hamels

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18 months ago, Cole Hamels was an $18MM pitcher.  Back in December 2019, the Braves signed the veteran southpaw to a one-year contract, just shy of his 36th birthday.  Atlanta headed into Spring Training with Hamels, Mike Soroka, Max Fried, and Mike Foltynewicz as rotation locks, with Sean Newcomb, Felix Hernandez, and others competing for the fifth starter job.

2020 did not go as planned for just about anyone, and Cole Hamels was no exception.  He reported to camp with irritation in his left shoulder stemming from an offseason workout.  The expected normal Opening Day was ruled out, and by April 6th Hamels was said to be pain-free, and he was expected to be ready for the “new” Opening Day.  However, triceps tendinitis popped up, and Hamels wouldn’t make his lone Braves start until September 16th.  He returned to the IL with shoulder fatigue after the 52-pitch outing.  The Braves’ contract with Hamels was tied with Marcell Ozuna as the largest one-year deal of the 2019-20 offseason, and the club got nothing to show for it.

So, what’s the word on Hamels?  He’s not anywhere close to contributing to an MLB team, but at least he’s somewhere, throwing a baseball.  According to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, the lefty “continues to throw off a mound and is building up every day but has not scheduled a showcase yet.”  I assume that if Hamels can show MLB teams he still has the ability to throw around 91 miles per hour, interest should be plentiful in a year where pitching depth is especially compromised.  The injuries will only continue to mount over the next few months.

How many current MLB rotation members are older than Cole Hamels?  Just four: Rich Hill,  Adam Wainwright, J.A. Happ, and Zack Greinke.  Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Hamels, but his 15-year career will probably at least merit a few Hall of Fame votes.

Injury Notes: deGrom, Mondesi, Kim, Rendon, Davidson, Means

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It’s the Year of the Injury, and this post will house many of the evening’s updates on that front.

  • Let’s start off with some good news for everyone except the Cubs: Mets ace Jacob deGrom is set to start tomorrow night.  DeGrom left his start Friday due to right flexor tendinitis, but the MRI came back clean.
  • Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi was reinstated from the IL, with reliever Ronald Bolanos going on it.  Mondesi, who strained his hamstring on May 31st, is active but not in tonight’s lineup.
  • Cardinals lefty Kwang Hyun Kim is also off the IL, and is starting tonight against the Marlins.  Kim had a brief IL stint for lower back soreness.
  • Angels manager Joe Maddon told reporters the injured list has been ruled out for third baseman Anthony Rendon, who’s recovering from a mild triceps strain.  Rendon has struggled at the plate this year, with a 90 wRC+ in 191 plate appearances.  By measure of OPS, his .679 mark is the worst single-season 45-game slump of Rendon’s career since his 2013 rookie season.
  • Luis Severino’s rehab start injury Saturday was described as a Grade 2 groin strain by Yankees manager Aaron Boone.  This will set him back about a month, leading to a possible late July/early August return.
  • Braves southpaw Tucker Davidson left tonight’s start after 53 pitches with left forearm tightness, according to the team.  Davidson entered the night unscored-upon in his last 11 2/3 innings, spanning a pair of starts.
  • Orioles ace John Means, pulled from a June 5th start in the first inning, began playing catch for the first time since the injury according to MLB.com’s Joe Trezza.  Means may be able to return by month’s end.  With a 2.28 ERA and a no-hitter on the season, the lefty seems a lock for the All-Star Game.

Pirates Acquire Taylor Davis

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The Orioles acquired minor league outfielder Jose Berroa from the Pirates for catcher Taylor Davis, reported Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com among others.

Davis, 31, picked up 20 games of big league experience with the Cubs from 2017-19.  He signed a minor league deal with the Orioles in January 2020, and played in 12 games for the Norfolk Tides this year.  Davis may not have made much of a big league impact yet, but he did garner fame for “shooting icy stares at the Iowa Cubs’ cameras,” as SI’s Dan Gartland put it in 2017.  Davis will now make the trip to the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate.  The Indianapolis Indians open a six-game set against the Memphis Redbirds tonight.

Berroa, 19, did not fall within FanGraphs’ top 51 Pirates prospects back in February.  He played 56 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2019 and will be assigned to the Orioles’ Florida Complex team in Sarasota.  He was a July 2 signing out of the Dominican Republic back in 2018.

Tigers’ Matt Manning To Make MLB Debut Thursday; Matthew Boyd To IL

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The Tigers announced a series of roster moves today, the most exciting of which is the planned MLB debut of acclaimed pitching prospect Matt Manning.  Manning, 23, will start Thursday night in Anaheim against the Angels.  Additionally, pitchers Matthew Boyd and Alex Lange hit the IL, Wily Peralta and Miguel Del Pozo had their contracts selected, and Jeimer Candelario was reinstated from the IL.

Manning was drafted ninth overall by the Tigers in 2016 out of high school.  Prior to the season, Baseball America ranked Manning as the 33rd-best prospect in the game.  The COVID-19 pandemic deprived Manning and many others of a minor league season in 2020, and he also dealt with a right forearm strain.   Manning made his Triple-A debut on May 4th of this year.  He’s scuffled to an 8.07 ERA in seven starts, with more than 27% of his flyballs leaving the yard.  Still, Manning’s last outing was solid, and he retains “frontline starter potential” according to Baseball America.  He’ll get a tough assignment, going up against Shohei Ohtani.

Boyd, 30, exited Monday’s start due to an arm injury that Tigers manager A.J. Hinch described today as “more toward the elbow.”  Through 13 starts, he was experiencing a resurgent season with a 3.44 ERA in 70 2/3 frames.  With a strikeout rate of just 18.8%, Boyd is likely still a 4.50 ERA type pitcher whose flyballs happened to stay in the yard over a brief sample.  Still, he’s under team control through 2022 as an arbitration eligible player and should be a solid late July trade candidate if the injury turns out to be minor.  Boyd joins rotation-mate Spencer Turnbull on the IL.

Lange, a 25-year-old rookie reliever, struggled to the tune of a 7.31 ERA over 18 fairly low-leverage outings before hitting the IL with a shoulder strain.  He was rated as a 40-grade prospect by Baseball America prior to the season.

Peralta and Del Pozo will be new additions to the Tigers’ 40-man roster.  One such spot was opened with the transferring of Rony Garcia to the 60-day IL.  Peralta, 32, joined the Tigers on a minor league deal back in February.  He was once a productive member of the Brewers’ rotation, peaking with a 3.53 ERA in 198 2/3 innings back in 2014.  He managed to give the Mud Hens six mostly solid but brief outings and is an option to take Boyd’s spot Saturday in Anaheim, Hinch told reporters.

Del Pozo has 13 big league innings to his name.  The 28-year-old southpaw inked a minor league deal with the Tigers back in January.  He’s been dominant in a dozen Triple-A relief outings, punching out 34.7% of batters faced and walking only 6.1%.

Corey Dickerson Placed On IL For Foot Contusion

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Marlins left fielder Corey Dickerson is headed to the IL, manager Don Mattingly told reporters today.  Mattingly said Dickerson had an MRI and it’s “not very promising,” according to SportsGrid’s Craig Mish.  The team later described Dickerson’s injury as a “left foot contusion.”  Earlier today, we learned that the Marlins are calling up prospect Jesus Sanchez from Triple-A.  Sanchez is batting fifth against the Cardinals’ Kwang Hyun Kim, who came off the IL today.

With 45 days until the trade deadline, it appears the last-place Marlins may have missed their chance to recoup some value on Dickerson.  The 32-year-old wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire with a 102 wRC+, the Marlins may have been able to unload the $2.8MM that will remain on Dickerson’s contract come July 30th.  Dickerson had signed a two-year, $17.5MM free agent deal with the Marlins in January 2020.  Dickerson’s contract still marks by far the largest free agent signing of the Bruce Sherman/Derek Jeter era, with no one else topping $5MM.

The Marlins still have a solid trade chip in center fielder Starling Marte, who owns a 174 wRC+ on the season.  Shortstop Miguel Rojas may also generate interest, though the club holds a $5.5M club option for 2022 that will become guaranteed if he reaches 500 plate appearances.  Though controlled through 2022, first baseman Jesus Aguilar may also be available.  Adam Duvall, also controlled through ’22, has had a rough year so far.  On the pitching side, top reliever Yimi Garcia is slated for free agency and should be popular on the trade market.

Nick Madrigal Out For The Season

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White Sox second baseman Nick Madrigal “underwent successful surgery to repair the proximal tendon tears in his right hamstring,” the club announced today.  He’ll be out for the season and is expected to be restriction-free in spring of 2022.  Madrigal’s injury was known to be potentially season-ending last week, as he was placed on the 60-day IL.

The White Sox have done a remarkable job weathering major injuries already this year, sitting in first place in the AL Central with the league’s second-best record despite early-season losses of Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez.  Jimenez could potentially join the club in August after rupturing his left pectoral tendon in late March, while Robert suffered a Grade 3 right hip flexor strain.  Neither player has an official timetable for return from the White Sox.

Madrigal, Chicago’s high-contact 24-year-old rookie second baseman, had a 117 wRC+ on the season that ranked seventh among qualifiers.  Danny Mendick and Leury Garcia have taken over at second since Madrigal’s injury.  Should the White Sox look to upgrade, Adam Frazier, Josh Harrison, Eduardo Escobar, and Jonathan Schoop could be among those available.

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