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Red Sox Sign Jose Iglesias

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11:46am: The Red Sox have announced the signing of Iglesias to a Major League deal and added him to the active roster. Additionally, Boston has reinstated reliever Josh Taylor from the Covid-19 list, selected the contract of right-hander Michael Feliz and returned Covid replacement players Kutter Crawford, Jack Lopez and John Schreiber to Triple-A Worcester. None of the three had to be passed through waivers to be sent down and removed from the 40-man roster because they were specifically appointed as Covid-19 replacements.

11:30am: Shortstop Jose Iglesias, who was released by the Angels over the weekend, is at Fenway Park today, per the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham (Twitter link). The Globe’s Alex Speier tweets that the Red Sox are expected to announce the signing of Iglesias shortly. He’s represented by the MVP Sports Group.

The Red Sox, in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak in their clubhouse, have a whopping 11 players in Covid protocol at the moment. That group includes infielders Xander Bogaerts, Christian Arroyo, Enrique Hernandez and Yairo Munoz, leaving the Sox in dire need of some infield help. Jonathan Arauz and Jack Lopez have been lining up in the middle infield in recent days, but Iglesias figures to step into that mix and begin logging some regular reps while the team awaits the return of Bogaerts and others.

It was a rough season for Iglesias in Anaheim — his lone year with the Angels. The 31-year-old wasn’t able to replicate last year’s enormous production at the plate — or even to come particularly close. It was just 150 plate appearances, but Iglesias posted a career-best .373/.400/.556 batting line with the Orioles in 2021 before slipping back to a .259/.295/.375 slash that falls more in line with his overall career numbers.

More troubling than a return to the norm at the dish, however, has been the decline in Iglesias’ glovework. He’s made 16 errors in 961 innings this year after making just 18 errors in 2393 innings from 2018-20 combined. Iglesias had never made more than 11 errors in a season but already has 10 throwing errors alone, in addition to six fielding errors. Defensive Runs Saved pegs Iglesias at a stunning minus-21 this season, while his Ultimate Zone Rating is a career-low minus-4.9.

Defensive struggles notwithstanding, Iglesias now returns to his original organization as a veteran reinforcement at a critical juncture. The Sox are quite unlikely to run down the Rays, who lead them by eight games in the standings, but are hoping to maintain a three-game lead over the upstart Mariners for the second AL Wild Card spot. They’re also just a half-game behind the Yankees for the top AL Wild Card spot and would surely like to eek ahead of their archrivals in order to seize home-field advantage in a theoretical Wild Card showdown.

The Red Sox originally signed Iglesias back in Sept. 2009 after he left his native Cuba. He spent the next several seasons rising through their minor league ranks and making a handful of big league appearances before settling in as their shortstop in 2013. Boston, however, sent him to the Tigers that summer in a three-team trade that sent Jake Peavy from the White Sox to the Red Sox and Avisail Garcia from Detroit to Chicago. (The White Sox picked up both Frankie Montas and J.B. Wendelken from the Red Sox in the trade as well.)

It’s something of a full-circle moment for Iglesias, who won’t be eligible for the postseason roster due to the fact that he’s joining the organization after Aug. 31. He’ll still have the opportunity to help his original club reach the postseason again, though, and this late change of scenery can also provide him an offseason for the league’s other teams as he preps to head back to free agency this winter.

Rays Select David Hess

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The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander David Hess, per a team announcement. Left-hander Dietrich Enns was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move. Hess is joining the Rays’ big league roster for the second time this season. Tampa Bay doesn’t need to make a corresponding roster move due to the fact that righty Chris Mazza is on the Covid-19-related injured list in Triple-A, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times points out (Twitter link).

Hess, 28, has bounced back and forth between the two Florida clubs so far in 2021. He inked a minor league pact with the Rays in the offseason and, after a very strong start to the year in Triple-A, was traded to the Marlins and plugged into their big league bullpen. Miami cut him loose a few weeks later, and he quickly returned to the Rays on another minor league deal. He’s since been selected back to the MLB roster, designated for assignment and outrighted before now being selected back to the Majors.

It’s been a rather tumultuous year, transactions-wise, for the former Orioles right-hander. In terms of performance, Hess has pitched quite well in Triple-A, where he carries a 3.28 ERA with very strong strikeout and walk percentages (27.2 and 5.4, respectively) in 35 2/3 frames. He’s been tagged for 16 runs in 18 MLB frames this year, although seven of those came in one brutal inning for the Marlins at Coors Field. Despite signing a pair of minor league deals with Tampa Bay and already being selected to the MLB roster once this year, Hess still hasn’t thrown a pitch in the Majors as a member of the Rays, so he’ll be making his team debut if he gets into a game this time around.

Marlins Outright Austin Pruitt

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Marlins right-hander Austin Pruitt went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment Friday. It’s the second time since acquiring Pruitt prior to the trade deadline that Miami has passed him through waivers.

Pruitt, 32, has the service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. However, with the regular-season calendar winding down and a $617,500 salary that checks in a bit north of the league minimum — he’d forfeit the remainder of his guarantee by electing free agency — Pruitt may simply ride out the season with the Marlins’ top minor league affiliate or hope to be added back to the 40-man roster. If he’s not on the 40-man roster at the end of the season, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency then, as an outrighted player with three-plus years of MLB service time.

The Marlins acquired Pruitt alongside outfielder Bryan De La Cruz in the trade that sent Yimi Garcia to the Astros, but De La Cruz was the team’s primary target in that deal. Pruitt has pitched well in a limited sample with the Fish, holding opponents to one run on four hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 big league frames. He’s been sharp in Triple-A, too, with just four runs and a 10-to-1 K/BB ratio through 11 innings of work.

Pruitt has spent most of the 2021 season on the 60-day injured list as he recovered from Sept. 2020 surgery to repair a fracture in his elbow. That elbow trouble last year kept him off the mound for the entirety of the shortened 2020 campaign. In 207 Major League innings, most of which came with the Rays from 2017-19, Pruitt has a 4.83 ERA with a below-average 17.2 percent strikeout rate, an excellent 5.7 percent walk rate and an above-average 48.5 percent ground-ball rate.

Injury Notes: Rodon, Blue Jays, Slater, Gsellman, Cardinals

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The White Sox are skipping Carlos Rodon’s next turn in the rotation due to shoulder soreness, and manager Tony La Russa told reporters (including NBC Chicago’s Maddie Lee) that the team is hopeful Rodon can pitch during the upcoming September 10-12 series with the Red Sox.  That said, “when he doesn’t feel right, it’s impossible to push it,” La Russa said, noting that in the wake of Rodon’s recent injured-list stint due to shoulder fatigue, “that’s what’s concerning, that all this should add up to where right now he would be in peak form.”

Rodon missed a little over two weeks on the IL and has pitched well in two starts since returning, posting a 2.70 ERA over 10 innings.  However, the Sox were easing Rodon back into action, limiting him to 144 total pitches over the two outings.  La Russa said Jimmy Lambert would likely be called up to take Rodon’s spot in what has become an increasingly injury-riddled pitching staff — Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn are also on the 10-day injured list.

The latest on other injury situations around baseball…

  • Cavan Biggio and Ross Stripling are slated to begin rehab assignments at the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes (Twitter link).  Stripling was placed on the 10-day IL on August 11 with a left oblique strain and could be closer than Biggio to a return, as Stripling might be back when the Jays begin a series against the Orioles on Friday.  Biggio was already on a rehab assignment for a back problem when he suffered an elbow injury two weeks ago, thus setting back his progress.
  • The Giants placed outfielder Austin Slater on the seven-day concussion IL prior to tonight’s game.  Left-hander Sammy Long was also sent down to Triple-A, while righty Camilo Doval and outfielder Steven Duggar were recalled in corresponding moves.  Slater suffered his concussion while crashing into the outfield wall in Saturday’s game in an attempt to catch a Trea Turner home run.  Now in his fifth season with San Francisco, Slater is hitting .227/.313/.395 with 10 home runs over 288 plate appearances while seeing time at all three outfield positions.
  • Robert Gsellman began a rehab assignment at the Mets’ low-A affiliate today, Newsday’s Tim Healey tweets.  Gsellman has been sidelined since June 21 due to a torn lat muscle, and though he’ll need multiple rehab outings due to the long layoff, he is on pace to return to the Mets bullpen before the season is out.
  • Cardinals manager Mike Shildt told The Athletic’s Katie Woo and other reporters that Jack Flaherty will take the “huge step” of beginning to play catch within the next day or two.  Flaherty’s season seemed to be in jeopardy when he was placed on the IL on August 25 due to a shoulder strain, though there is some optimism that the right-hander may be able to return as either a reliever or as a piggyback starter.  In other Cardinals pitching news, Shildt said that Dakota Hudson will throw at least three more rehab starts as the righty continues to work his way back from Tommy John surgery.  The timing will be somewhat tight, but there is some hope that Hudson can return to a big league mound this season, which would mark a tremendous recovery considering that Hudson underwent his surgery in late September 2020.

Blue Jays Hopeful Of Retaining Marcus Semien, Robbie Ray

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Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray have been two of baseball’s best players this season, let alone big reasons why the Blue Jays are still in the hunt for an AL wild card berth.  Both are scheduled to hit free agency this winter, and it isn’t any surprise that the Jays have interest in keeping both players in the fold.  The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that the Jays have already tried to sign Semien to a contract extension, while the club intends to discuss a long-term deal with Ray after the season.

The wording would seem to imply that the Jays have yet to broach an extension with Ray, which might not necessarily mean that the team is prioritizing Semien.  Ray (like many players) might simply prefer to not talk contract during the season, in order to focus solely on baseball.  Also of note, Semien is represented by the Wasserman Agency, which has traditionally been more open to in-season negotiating — in the last month alone, Wasserman clients Travis d’Arnaud and Brandon Crawford each inked new deals to remain with their current teams.

Barring a truly massive offer from the Blue Jays, it was probably unlikely that Semien would’ve accepted an extension this close to free agency, as the veteran infielder looks set to land the pricey multi-year deal that eluded him on the open market last year.  Semien didn’t hit well over the first month of the shortened 2020 season, leaving him with only a .223/.305/.374 slash line in 236 total PA even after he hit much better in late September and during the Athletics’ playoff run.  Rather than take a multi-year contract at a lowered cost, Semien opted for a one-year, $18MM deal with Toronto, betting on himself to deliver bigger numbers over a full season.

That bet has paid off handsomely, as Semien hit his 35th homer of the season today, and is now batting .266/.334/.530 over 601 plate appearances.  With the abbreviated 2020 season folded between Semien’s big years in 2019 and 2021, his three-season cumulative total of a .268/.346/.501 slash line over 1579 PA works out to a 128 wRC+, solidly placing him amongst the best middle infielders in baseball.  Semien had been a starting shortstop in Oakland before becoming the Jays’ second baseman this season, to accommodate Bo Bichette at short.

Ray also had something to prove in the wake of a rough 2020 season with the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays, and he moved quickly to rejoin the Blue Jays on a one-year, $8MM pact soon after the opening of the official free agent period.  Ray had always been plagued by inconsistency and high walk totals during his five-plus seasons in Arizona, but after working with the Jays’ coaching staff and overhauling his offseason training regimen, Ray has blossomed as a candidate for the AL Cy Young Award.

Including today’s 6 2/3 shutout innings of work against Oakland, Ray has a 2.60 ERA and 32.3% strikeout rate over 166 frames.  Perhaps most importantly, Ray has only a six percent walk rate — easily his career best, and in the 82nd percentile of all qualified pitchers this season.  Ray has also gained enough innings to qualify as baseball’s all-time leader in K/9, with an 11.2 total over his eight MLB seasons.

In short, both Semien and Ray project to be two of the offseason’s top free agents, and re-signing both could potentially cost the Blue Jays upwards of $200MM.  While it remains to be seen if the Jays will indeed be able to bring even one of the duo back for 2022 and beyond, money alone shouldn’t be a deterrent.  The signings of George Springer and Hyun Jin Ryu are evidence that Toronto is willing to spend big in free agency, and many of the Jays’ young stars are either cost-controlled via arbitration or (in Bichette’s case) are still over a year away from arbitration eligibility.  The Blue Jays also don’t have that much money on the books in future years, creating the possibility that both Semien and Ray could be slotted alongside Springer, Ryu, and possibly major extensions for the likes of Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Teoscar Hernandez.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/5/21

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Today’s minor league moves…

  • The Dodgers cleared a 40-man roster spot by outrighting right-hander Ryan Meisinger to Triple-A.  Los Angeles claimed Meisinger off waivers from the Cubs on Tuesday and only briefly kept him on the big league roster before assigning him to the minors.  Meisinger has tossed 31 innings over parts of three MLB seasons, including 7 1/3 frames with Chicago this season that saw the righty post a 12.27 ERA.  The results have been much better for Meisinger at Triple-A over his career, as he has a 3.18 ERA and 31.25% strikeout rate over 93 1/3 frames at the top minor league level.

Dodgers Place AJ Pollock On 10-Day Injured List

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4:06PM: The Dodgers officially placed Pollock on the 10-day injured list.  Right-hander Mitch White was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

TODAY, 1:15AM: Pollock has a Grade 2 strain, and will miss “two, three weeks at a bare minimum,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett and other reporters.

SEPTEMBER 4: Dodgers outfielder AJ Pollock left tonight’s game with what the team described as a right hamstring strain.  Pollock hurt himself while trying to steal third base in the top of the first inning, as he was limping off the field following the play.

The fact that Pollock’s injury has already been diagnosed as a strain would seem to imply that he’ll require a trip to the injured list.  The next step will be learning the severity, as anything more than a minor strain could potentially cause Pollock to miss most or even all of the Dodgers’ remaining regular-season games (and into the postseason).  Pollock missed just shy of three weeks with a strain to his left hamstring earlier in the season.

Perhaps a little overshadowed by the many big names on the Dodgers’ roster, Pollock has rather quietly been a key cog in the L.A. lineup.  He entered tonight’s game hitting .295/.351/.504 with 16 homers over 385 plate appearances, with plenty of hard contact backing up his 131 OPS+/wRC+.  Playing mostly left field, Pollock has also been a solid defensive force, with +3 Defensive Runs Saved and +1 Outs Above Average (though the UZR/150 metric has a -2.0 score on his glovework).

Should Pollock indeed be heading back to the IL, Los Angeles can turn to a combination of Zach McKinstry, Billy McKinney, or (down at Triple-A) Matt Beaty to handle left field duty, or utilityman Chris Taylor could simply assume the everyday role.  Taylor has already been seeing more regular work in center field, however, as the struggling Cody Bellinger hasn’t been playing against left-handed pitching.  In short, the Dodgers’ depth will be tested yet again, which isn’t optimal for a team fighting hard with the Giants for first place in the NL West.

Tigers Shut Julio Teheran Down For The Season

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After spending almost the entire season on the injured list, right-hander Julio Teheran has been officially shut down for the remainder of the 2021 campaign.  Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen and other reporters that the decision was made after Teheran “wasn’t himself” during some recent throwing sessions.

Teheran suffered a shoulder strain while warming up for his second start of the season, way back in early April.  That shoulder issue simply never got better, as Teheran was also temporarily shut down from throwing in August when he was throwing at an unusually low velocity during a live batting practice session.  Barring a reunion on another minor league deal this offseason, Teheran’s tenure in Detroit will be limited to just a single start — a quality outing that saw Teheran allow one run over five innings in a 5-2 victory over the Indians back on April 3.

Ironically, Teheran has been best known for his durability over his 11 MLB seasons, averaging 191 innings per year with the Braves from 2013-19.  After struggling through a tough 2020 season with the Angels, Teheran settled for a minor league pact with the Tigers, and he locked in a $3MM guaranteed salary by reaching the big league roster.  The Tigers were hoping to add an innings-eating veteran to their young rotation, though their investment in Teheran simply didn’t pan out.

It seems as though Teheran will again have to showcase himself for scouts this winter in order to attract another minors contract, but the larger concern could be Teheran’s overall health, if he is still not able to effectively throw almost five months after his initial injury.  The exact nature of Teheran’s shoulder strain isn’t known, though it wouldn’t be a surprise if some type of surgical procedure was required to fully correct the problem.

Braves Sign Maikel Franco

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The Braves signed third baseman Maikel Franco last week, according to Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle.  The signing took place prior to September 1, as per The Athletic’s David O’Brien, so Franco would be eligible for inclusion on a postseason roster.

It can be assumed that Franco’s deal is a minor league pact, and if he does reach Atlanta’s active roster, the Braves will only owe him the prorated portion of a minimum salary.  The Orioles are on the hook for the remainder of Franco’s salary (what is left on the infielder’s one-year, $1MM deal) after releasing Franco on August 27.

After a solid season with the Royals in 2020, Franco couldn’t keep the momentum going during his lone season in Baltimore, hitting only .210/.253/.355 with 11 home runs over 403 plate appearances in an O’s uniform.  These struggles prevented Franco from being a trade chip for the rebuilding Orioles at the trade deadline, and so the team opted to cut him loose to open up more playing time for younger players.

Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos has shown a propensity for adding veterans as roster depth, and Franco’s presence will provide some extra backing for Austin Riley at third base.  Riley (enjoying a big breakout season) has seen almost all of the action at the hot corner this season, with utilityman Ehire Adrianza serving as the primary backup.  Franco also has experience at first base, so he could theoretically also back up Freddie Freeman

Franco was a Riley-esque top prospect himself when coming up in the Phillies farm system, though now in his eighth MLB season, Franco hasn’t been able to consistently deliver on that potential.  As per the wRC+ and OPS+ metrics, Franco has been an above-average hitter only three times (2015, 2018, 2020) in his career, and he has a .246/.297/.423 slash line over 3185 total PA in the big leagues.  He does have 121 home runs, as Franco has topped the 20-homer threshold three times.

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