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Orioles Designate Cesar Valdez For Assignment

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The Orioles announced Wednesday that right-hander Cesar Valdez has been designated for assignment for a second time this season. Baltimore also recalled second baseman Jahmai Jones and righty Konner Wade from Triple-A Norfolk, optioned right-hander Joey Krehbiel to Norfolk and placed infielder Ramon Urias on the 10-day injured list due to a right adductor strain.

Valdez, 36, only had his contract selected back to the big league roster yesterday. It’ll be a daylong stint on the MLB roster for the righty, who pitched two-thirds of an inning in last night’s game and surrendered two runs (one earned) on a hit and a walk. Valdez has now been scored upon in six of his past seven Major League appearances and 12 of his past 19 dating back to June 1.

Up to that point, Valdez had emerged as an unlikely closer in Baltimore. The journeyman right-hander notched eight saves for the O’s through the season’s first five weeks and carried a 1.23 ERA into mid-May before a swift collapse cost him the closer’s gig and eventually his spot on the roster. Dating back to May 11, Valdez has been tagged for 28 earned runs on 51 hits and 11 walks with 28 strikeouts through 31 1/3 innings. The O’s will either place him on outright waivers or release waivers within the next couple of days.

Given the timing of the Urias IL placement, it seems quite possible that this injury will end his season. He’s somewhat quietly had a nice run as a utility option with the O’s since making his MLB debut last summer, as the 27-year-old has batted .286/.365/.425 with eight home runs and 16 doubles in his first 323 big league plate appearances. A .376 average on balls in play has surely helped his cause, but Urias also owns an impressive 25 percent line-drive rate and a 42.9 percent hard-hit rate.

Urias has split his time between second base, shortstop and third base, although he doesn’t have particularly strong grades. Still, his solid showing at the plate to date suggests he could be a bat-first utility option for the O’s moving forward.

Marlins Designate Taylor Williams For Assignment

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The Marlins have designated right-hander Taylor Williams for assignment and selected the contract of fellow righty Luis Madero from Triple-A Jacksonville, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald.

Williams, 30, was a waiver claim out of the Padres organization earlier this month. He appeared in six games with the Fish, yielding a total of six runs (five earned) on nine hits and five walks with three strikeouts through 3 1/3 innings. That rough showing bumped his season ERA to 4.63, albeit in a tiny sample of 11 2/3 frames overall.

A fourth-round pick by the Brewers back in 2013, Williams has seen time in parts of five big league seasons. Through 98 2/3 frames, most of which have come with Milwaukee, he’s compiled a 5.29 ERA with a 23.3 percent strikeout rate and a 10.9 percent walk rate — both a bit worse than the current league averages. The Marlins will either place Williams on outright waivers or release waivers within the next few days. If he goes unclaimed, he can be outrighted to Jacksonville, although Williams has enough service time that he can reject the assignment or elect free agency at season’s end if he wishes.

Madero, 24, has had multiple stints with the Marlins this year, totaling six innings in the big leagues. He’s allowed seven runs over those six frames, but Madero has had a nice run down in Jacksonville. Through 57 Triple-A innings, he’s notched a 2.84 earned run average with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 10 percent walk rate.

Yankees Activate Domingo German; Jameson Taillon Begins Rehab Assignment

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The Yankees have reinstated right-hander Domingo Germán from the 10-day injured list. Outfielder Estevan Florial was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move. Additionally, New York announced that Jameson Taillon will begin a minor league rehab assignment with Scranton this evening.

Germán returns after missing nearly two months due to shoulder inflammation. He’d been a reliable back-of-the-rotation option for the Yankees over the season’s first few months, tossing 97 innings of 4.45 ERA ball over 21 appearances (including 18 starts). The 29-year-old has posted solid strikeout and walk numbers, contributing to a more appealing 4.02 SIERA, but he’s been a little too prone to the home run ball.

While Germán served almost exclusively as a starter earlier this year, he seems likely to work from the bullpen for the stretch run. With the regular season dwindling, the Yankees sent Germán on a rather brief rehab assignment in which he made two appearances with the RailRiders. He topped out at 35 pitches in his last outing, so he seems likely to occupy a similar multi-inning relief role to the one Luis Severino took on last night.

Taillon has only been away from the club for two weeks because of a partially torn tendon in his right ankle. Given that shorter absence, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he’s back in the majors after a lone rehab start. Acquired from the Pirates over the offseason, Taillon has a 4.41 ERA/4.29 SIERA in his first year in the Bronx.

The Yankees enter play tonight half a game back in a jam-packed American League Wild Card race. After tonight’s series finale against the Rangers, they’ll play road series against the two clubs directly ahead of them in standings — the Red Sox and Blue Jays — before closing out the year at home against a Rays team that looks likely to have clinched the AL East by that point.

Reds Extend Manager David Bell Through 2023

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The Reds and manager David Bell have agreed on a contract extension that runs through the end of the 2023 season, Bell himself told reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). Bell anticipates his entire coaching staff will return next season as well.

Bell has led the Cincinnati dugout for the past three seasons, with the team posting a cumulative 184-190 record (.492 winning percentage). Before landing his first managerial gig, he’d worked in a few different capacities, serving on Mike Matheny’s coaching staff with the Cardinals for five years before spending a season as the Giants’ vice president of player development.

The Reds hired Bell in October 2018, signing him to a three-year guarantee. That deal contained a club option for the 2022 season. Rather than exercise the option and potentially enter next season with Bell in a lame duck capacity, Cincinnati struck early to guarantee Bell’s position for another two years. It’s not clear whether his new deal also contains options beyond 2023.

At the time of Bell’s initial hiring, the Reds were still amidst a multi-year rebuild. They’d posted below-average records in each of the five prior seasons, finishing last in the NL Central every year from 2015-18. The club dismissed skipper Bryan Price early in 2018, with Jim Riggleman taking the reigns on an interim capacity for the remainder of the year.

The team made some progress in Bell’s first year at the helm. After winning between 64 and 68 games in each of the prior four seasons, the Reds went 75-87 in 2019, surpassing the Pirates to get out of the basement of the division. They flipped the switch completely into win-now mode late in the year, acquiring Trevor Bauer at the trade deadline with an eye towards 2020 and pushing payroll to a franchise-record height that winter. The front office signed Mike Moustakas and Nick Castellanos to matching $64MM guarantees and also added Shogo Akiyama and Wade Miley on multi-year deals.

The organization clearly envisioned 2020 as the opening of a new competitive window. Obviously, the pandemic-necessitated shortened season threw a wrench in those plans, but the Reds did at least finish 31-29 last year to earn a spot in the expanded playoff. That snapped a six-year postseason drought, but Cincinnati was quickly dispatched by the Braves in the Wild Card round. The club then had a relatively inactive offseason, entering this year with a significant question mark at shortstop and some concerns about the relief corps.

Those issues impacted the club’s early-season play, particularly as Eugenio Suárez struggled badly in an attempt to move from third base to shortstop. Cincinnati hovered right around .500 through the season’s first half before catching fire coming out of the All-Star Break. Not too long ago, they looked as likely as anyone to claim the NL’s second Wild Card spot, but the club has stumbled to a 7-12 record in September. Coupled with the Cardinals’ recent surge, Cincinnati now sits four games back of St. Louis for the final playoff spot. According to FanGraphs, their postseason odds are down to 5.9%.

Missing the playoffs would certainly be a disappointing outcome for a Cincinnati club that expected to contend this season. GM Nick Krall and the front office nevertheless believe in Bell’s ability to lead the club back to the playoffs over the coming years. Despite their up-and-down play this season, the Reds have seen homegrown, controllable players like Jesse Winker, Jonathan India and Tyler Stephenson emerge as above-average regulars during Bell’s tenure. That trio will work with the resurgent Joey Votto and a talented pitching staff led by Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle to form what the club hopes to be a competitive core in 2022 and beyond.

Jake Faria Elects Free Agency

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The Diamondbacks announced last night that Jake Faria has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency. Arizona designated him for assignment over the weekend.

It’s possible Faria latches on elsewhere in the coming days, but it seems likelier the move brings an end to his 2021 campaign. There are a little less than two weeks to play in the regular season, and Faria is ineligible for postseason play since he’s been let go after August 31. The 28-year-old will presumably field minor league offers with Spring Training invitations from clubs this winter.

Faria began this season on a minors deal with his hometown Angels. He didn’t make it to the big leagues in Anaheim but signed a major league contract with the D-Backs shortly after being released in mid-June. Faria spent the next three months in the desert, posting a 5.51 ERA across 32 2/3 innings (all but three of his appearances coming in relief). The righty threw a decent amount of strikes, but he posted below-average swinging strike and ground-ball rates.

It has been a few seasons since we’ve seen Faria at his best. He broke into the majors with an impressive 3.43 ERA/4.26 SIERA across 86 2/3 frames with the Rays in 2017. He hasn’t been able to consistently build off that promising rookie showing in the years since, owning just a 5.65 ERA since the start of the 2018 season. Faria has a more consistent track record of productivity in Triple-A, pitching to a 3.99 ERA over five seasons with an impressive 27.9% strikeout rate.

Reds Select Dauri Moreta, Place Mike Moustakas On Injured List

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The Reds announced they’ve selected reliever Dauri Moreta to the big league roster. (Héctor Gómez of Z 101 previously reported Moreta’s impending call-up). Infielder Mike Moustakas has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 21, due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. To clear space on the 40-man roster for Moreta, Cincinnati designated R.J. Alaniz for assignment.

Moreta is up for his first call after spending six years in the minors. He signed with the Reds as a 19-year-old (three years older than most international amateur prospects) during the 2015-16 signing period. Moreta has worked exclusively out of the bullpen since signing, and immediately racked up huge strikeout totals. He partially offset that massive swing-and-miss stuff by issuing too many free passes early in his career, but Moreta has made significant strides as a strike-thrower in recent years.

In High-A in 2019, Moreta walked only 4.1% of opponents. That was half his walk percentage from Low-A the season prior and nowhere near the untenable control issues he’d shown in rookie ball. Moreta has retained that improved command even after the lost minor league campaign in 2020. He’s split this year between Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville, combining for a 1.02 ERA with a 29.1% strikeout percentage and just a 4.5% walk rate. Moreta’s strikeout tally fell precipitously after he made the jump from Double-A to Triple-A, but he’s continued to post highly effective bottom line results against top minor league hitters.

Adding Moreta to the bullpen mix bumps Alaniz from the roster. Signed to a minor league deal over the offseason, the 30-year-old was promoted to the majors in mid-July. He’s worked just 2 2/3 big league innings this season, bringing his career total to 18 1/3. Alaniz has an 8.35 ERA at the big league level with worse than average peripherals.

While he’s yet to find big league success, the right-hander has had a nice season with Louisville. Across 39 frames of relief with the Bats, Alaniz owns a 3.46 ERA with a solid 26.9% strikeout rate and an average 10.2% walk percentage. Alaniz has previously been outrighted in his career, so he’d have the right to elect free agency and explore opportunities elsewhere if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Moustakas winds up back on the injured list with a right foot issue for the second time this season. In mid-May, he was placed on the IL due to a heel contusion. He suffered a setback during a minor league rehab appearance and wound up missing more than two months.

With just a week and a half left in the regular season, it’s possible this latest injury ends Moustakas’ season. The Reds have fallen four games behind the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card race, making them increasingly unlikely to reach the playoffs. Moustakas is hitting a career-worst .208/.282/.372, including a .177/.225/.313 line since he returned from the injured list. He’s guaranteed $38MM over the next two years (including a buyout on a 2024 club option). With Jonathan India having locked down second base, Moustakas and Eugenio Suárez — who’s having a very poor season himself — could be in line to split time at the hot corner moving forward.

Braves Select Dylan Lee

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The Braves have selected reliever Dylan Lee to the big league roster, per a team announcement. They’ve also recalled utilityman Orlando Arcia from Triple-A Gwinnett and placed Edgar Santana on the paternity list and Touki Toussaint on the bereavement list in corresponding moves. Atlanta already had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no move was necessary in that regard.

Lee is up to make his major league debut. The left-hander was selected by the Marlins in the tenth round of the 2016 draft out of Fresno State. He spent the next few seasons in the Miami system, generally posting quality results but never garnering much prospect attention. Miami released him at the end of Spring Training this year.

A few weeks later, Lee hooked on with the Braves via minor league deal. He’s spent the year with Gwinnett and put up dominant numbers, working to a 1.58 ERA across 45 2/3 innings. Lee has punched out a stellar 30.2% of opponents against an extremely low 3.5% walk rate. He’s generated swinging strikes on 16.1% of his offerings, a mark that ranks 14th among the 296 Triple-A hurlers with 40+ innings pitched.

Lee’s fastball has topped out at 96 MPH but gotten plenty of whiffs in the strike zone this year, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote earlier this month. That elite showing at the minors’ top level earns the 27-year-old his first look against big league hitters.

Should the Braves hold onto a three-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East, Lee might even be an option for the postseason roster. Players in the organization but not on the 40-man roster before September 1 can still participate in the playoffs via a petition to the Commissioner’s Office, a fairly common maneuver throughout the league.

Reds Activate Tyler Stephenson From Injured List

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SEPTEMBER 22: Cincinnati activated Stephenson from the injured list before this afternoon’s game against the Pirates. That indicates he did not test positive for the coronavirus. Kolozsvary was optioned back to Louisville to clear active roster space but will retain his spot on the 40-man roster. To open 40-man space for Stephenson, the Reds transferred Tejay Antone from the 10-day to the 60-day IL. Antone underwent Tommy John surgery last month.

SEPTEMBER 20: The Reds announced they’ve selected catcher Mark Kolozsvary to the big league club. Fellow backstop Tyler Stephenson has been placed on the COVID-19 injured list in a corresponding move. Players on the COVID IL don’t count against the 40-man roster, so no additional moves were necessary.

A five-year minor league veteran, Kolozsvary is now in line for his first MLB opportunity. Selected in the seventh round of the 2017 draft out of the University of Florida, he struggled offensively early in his pro career but was off to his best start this season. Koloszvary hit .233/.341/.438 over 170 plate appearances with Double-A Chattanooga, popping six home runs and drawing walks at a strong 11.8% clip. The right-handed hitter fanned in 31.2% of his trips to the plate there, but he flashed enough power and patience to make a decent offensive impact.

Kolozsvary took a hiatus from his time in the Reds’ system to join the U.S. National Team at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics. Somewhat ironically, he’s the second member of that team to get called up today, as the Indians are set to bring up outfielder-turned-reliever Anthony Gose as well. Kolozsvary went 4-21 in a brief look in international competition before returning to the Reds.

Cincinnati bumped Kolozsvary up to Triple-A Louisville last month. He hasn’t performed well in his first 53 plate appearances there, but will nevertheless get a chance to back up Tucker Barnhart while Stephenson’s unavailable. He gets that nod over Beau Taylor, a three-year big league veteran also at Louisville who’s already on the 40-man roster. Because Kolozsvary’s coming up to replace a player on the COVID IL, he can be removed from the 40-man and returned to the minors without being exposed to waivers. It could be a relatively short first stint then, but Kolozsvary would be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason if he’s not on Cincinnati’s 40-man roster at that point.

It’s not clear whether Stephenson’s on the IL for a positive test or if he’s simply a close contact or feeling virus-like symptoms. One of the game’s most promising young backstops, Stephenson came up very briefly last season but has gotten his first extended big league look in 2021. He’s off to a strong start, hitting .279/.368/.420 with nine home runs over 368 plate appearances (109 wRC+). Cincinnati has fallen three games back of the division-rival Cardinals in the race for the National League’s last playoff spot, and an extended absence from Stephenson would obviously make their hopes of tracking St. Louis down over the season’s final two weeks that much more difficult.

Nationals’ AGM Sam Mondry-Cohen To Depart Organization

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Nationals assistant general manager of baseball research and development Sam Mondry-Cohen has informed the club he will not return once his contract expires at the end of the season, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. While Mondry-Cohen does not currently have a new job lined up, he’s planning to pursue opportunities with other clubs this offseason, Dougherty relays.

Mondry-Cohen has been in the organization since 2009, earning a bump to AGM by 2019. Over the past few seasons, he’s been considered the leader of the Nats’ analytics department. (MLBTR’s TC Zencka covered Mondry-Cohen’s role in the organization shortly before the team captured their first World Series title two years ago).

Dougherty notes that the Nationals are expected to look to bolster their analytics group in the wake of departures by Mondry-Cohen and Scott Van Lenten, a former Washington staffer hired as Rockies’ research and development leader earlier this month. Kris Kline, Ted Towne, Mike DeBartolo, Johnny DiPuglia and Mark Scialabba — most of whom work in scouting and player development — remain as assistant general managers under baseball operations head Mike Rizzo.

Padres Designate Jake Arrieta For Assignment

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The Padres announced they’ve designated Jake Arrieta for assignment. The move clears active and 40-man roster space for reliever Javy Guerra, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.

It proved to be a very brief run in San Diego for Arrieta. Released by the Cubs in mid-August, the former Cy Young award winner hooked on with San Diego a few days later. The 35-year-old had struggled mightily in his return to Chicago, working 86 1/3 innings of 6.88 ERA ball with the Cubs. The Friars, thin on starting pitching depth and with a few key hurlers dealing with injury, gave Arrieta a few turns through their rotation in hopes he could find more success in a new environment.

That ultimately proved not to be the case, as Arrieta posted even worse results in his brief look as a Padre. He tossed 12 1/3 innings over four starts, interrupted by a brief injured list stint due to a hamstring strain. He was tagged for sixteen runs (fifteen earned) in that time, while his already lackluster strikeout and swinging strike rates dipped even further relative to his time with the Cubs.

It’s now been three seasons of subpar performance for Arrieta, who was one of the sport’s best handful of pitchers at his peak. The righty reeled off consecutive seasons of sub-4.00 ERA ball from 2014-18, including a 2.53 in 2014 and a sterling 1.77 mark in his Cy Young winning 2015 campaign. That’s climbed successively from 4.64 to 5.08 to 7.39 over the past three years, though, as Arrieta has become one of the game’s least effective pitchers at missing bats while his velocity has fallen.

Arrieta will almost certainly reach free agency in the next few days, either via release or rejection of an outright assignment. In all likelihood, today’s designation will bring his 2021 campaign to a close. Given his significant recent struggles, it’s possible he’ll need to settle for a minor league deal to work his way back onto a big league roster this winter.

The injury woes that inspired the Padres to sign Arrieta have only intensified in the weeks since. They’re down to Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and the recently-signed Vince Velasquez as traditional rotation options, with Chris Paddack and Blake Snell currently on the 10-day injured list. It seems they’ll conduct a handful of bullpen games in the season’s final couple weeks as they try to claw back from a four-game deficit in the race for the National League’s final Wild Card spot.

Guerra hasn’t pitched all season on account of a UCL issue. A former infielder, the hard-throwing righty was converted to mound work in 2019. Over 22 MLB innings, he owns an 8.18 ERA with a below-average 17.5% strikeout rate but a solid 50% ground-ball percentage.

While Guerra hasn’t yet found much big league success, the Padres clearly remain intrigued by his arsenal. The 25-year-old averaged 98 MPH on his sinker last season, making it easy to envision him as a grounder specialist out of the bullpen. Because of his early career as a position player, Guerra has exhausted all three of his minor league option years. That leaves the Padres with no choice but to carry him on the active roster or risk losing him on waivers. They’ve evidently determined to keep him with the major league team for now, and he figures to see some action as part of the aforementioned bullpen-heavy pitcher usage the Padres will need to deploy down the stretch.

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