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Marlins Designate Ross Detwiler, Select Eddy Alvarez

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The Marlins announced that left-hander Ross Detwiler has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up space for Eddy Alvarez to join Miami’s roster for the first time this season, as the infielder’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Jacksonville.

After working as a low-strikeout, groundball specialist for his first 12 Major League seasons, Detwiler flipped the script in 2021 after inking a one-year deal with Miami last winter.  Detwiler’s increased use of a slider has elevated his strikeout rate to 28% over 45 1/3 frames for the Marlins, exactly double the 14% strikeout rate he carried over the rest of his career.  Detwiler’s grounder rate has also dropped to 39.7% (from 47% prior to 2020).

Unfortunately for Detwiler, he hasn’t had much luck this season.  While he has a 3.38 SIERA and .299 xwOBA, his actual ERA (4.96) and wOBA (.328) are much less flattering.  He has worked almost entirely as a relief pitcher this season while making five “starts” as an opener, and two of those outings were responsible for much of the damage to Detwiler’s ERA.  If you subtract the 3 2/3 innings and 13 runs allowed over those two rough starts (July 7 against the Dodgers and July 19 against the Nationals), Detwiler has a 2.59 ERA over his remaining 41 2/3 innings of work.

Given this overall solid track record, it is a little surprising to see Detwiler hit the DFA wire, though the Marlins might simply want to give some opportunity to younger pitchers.  It seems quite possible that another club (perhaps a contender looking for left-handed relief depth) will claim Detwiler away from Miami.  Detwiler wouldn’t be eligible for postseason play since he would be joining a new team after August 31, though he could certainly help a team on the bubble get into the playoffs.

A waiver claim would mean absorbing the approximately $108K remaining on Detwiler’s original $850K salary for the season, but that is hardly a hefty sum to add to a payroll, unless a team is in a major luxury tax crunch.  If Detwiler isn’t claimed, he has the right to reject an outright assignment from the Marlins and choose free agency.

Alvarez made his MLB debut last season, appearing in 12 games with his hometown Marlins and hitting .189/.268/.216 over 41 plate appearances.  Perhaps best known for his two-sport exploits, Alvarez was an accomplished speed skater who won a silver medal as part of the U.S. 5000m relay team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.  Alvarez compounded that success by winning a silver medal as a member of the American baseball team at this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo, making him just the sixth athlete in history to capture medals in different sports at both the Winter and Summer Games.

Orioles To Promote Pitching Prospect Mike Baumann

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The Orioles are promoting right-hander Mike Baumann to the big leagues, The Baltimore Sun’s Nathan Ruiz reports (Twitter link).  Baumann turns 26 later this week, and his first appearance with the Orioles will mark his Major League debut.

A third-round pick out of Jacksonville University in the 2017 draft, Baumann pitched at the Triple-A level for the first time this season, posting a 2.00 ERA over 27 innings with a 24.1% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.  Baumann started all six of his Triple-A games and has worked almost exclusively as a starter during his pro career, so it seems likely that he’ll be given a look in Baltimore’s rotation given how the Orioles have been increasingly desperate for extra arms.

Baumann’s work in Triple-A salvaged what had been a bit of a troubling season, as the righty missed some time with an elbow injury that also led to a shutdown last September and then posted a 4.89 ERA over 38 2/3 innings of Double-A ball.  He allowed six homers during that brief time in Double-A, which was more or less the first time the long ball has really been an issue for Baumann in the minors.  Subtracting this year’s Double-A numbers and Baumann had given up only 16 home runs over his other 329 innings in Baltimore’s farm system.

Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each rank Baumann within the top ten Orioles prospects, with BA placing him ninth and Pipeline putting him right at the #10 spot.  Baumann’s slider and fastball each receive 60-grades from Pipeline’s scouting report, with the heater able to hit the 98-99mph threshold but usually sitting around 94 or 95mph.  These two pitches would seem to make “his floor that of an impact reliever,” according to Pipeline, and if Baumann can get something out of his more average curveball or changeup, he can develop as a Major League starter.

Tigers Select Drew Hutchison’s Contract

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The Tigers have selected the contract of right-hander Drew Hutchison from Triple-A Toledo, and also called up right-hander Bryan Garcia.  The two hurlers will take the places of righties Joe Jimenez (placed on the COVID-related injury list) and Drew Carlton (optioned to Triple-A yesterday).

This will be Hutchison’s second appearance on Detroit’s big league roster this season, as the 31-year-old was previous designated for assignment and then outrighted to Toledo last month.  Hutchison’s previous stint saw him make two starts, the first a rough outing against the Indians on August 15 that saw Hutchison allow six runs (but only two earned) in 1 2/3 innings.  The righty fared much better in his second start, as he allowed one unearned run on four hits in 4 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays on August 22.

The result was a 3.00 ERA over six total innings, which served as Hutchison’s first MLB action since the 2018 campaign.  At the Triple-A level this season, Hutchison has a 3.77 ERA, 23.5% strikeout rate, and a 10.8% walk rate over 88 1/3 innings for Toledo, starting all 19 of his appearances.

Since the Tigers are already working with a six-man rotation, Hutchison might be deployed out of the bullpen for now.  However, as Detroit’s younger starters approach innings limits, Hutchison could be called upon for spot-start duty, or perhaps piggyback outings.

Reds Sign Tommy Milone, Release Ender Inciarte

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Catching up on a pair of minor league moves from late August, the Reds signed left-hander Tommy Milone to a minor league deal and released outfielder Ender Inciarte.  According to MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (Twitter link), Inciarte opted out of the minors contract he signed with the Reds in early August.

Milone has already pitched twice for Triple-A Louisville as the veteran looks to work his way back to the majors.  Milone made it an 11th MLB campaign when he suited up for the Blue Jays earlier this season, tossing 14 innings and posting a 6.43 ERA.  Shoulder inflammation then resulted in a trip to the 60-day injured list, and Toronto released Milone last month after he began a rehab assignment.

Should Milone appear in a big league game with the Reds, it will mark the 10th different team of a journeyman career for the 34-year-old.  Working mostly as a starter over his career, Milone offers Cincinnati some depth as a potential fill-in starter or perhaps as a long reliever out of the bullpen.  It has been some time since Milone has been a truly effective hurler, as he has been plagued by the home run ball.  Since the start of the 2016 season, Milone has a 5.83 ERA over 308 2/3 innings, with an 18.4% home run rate over that stretch.

The Braves released Inciarte in late July, ending a six-year run in Atlanta that included the highs of a 2016 All-Star nod and three Gold Gloves, plus the lows of an offensive swoon.  Inciarte’s defense declined and his already below-average bat completely cratered, resulting in only a .200/.267/.277 slash line in 220 plate appearances since the start of the 2020 season.  Inciarte is in the final guaranteed season of the five-year, $30.525MM extension he signed with Atlanta back in December 2016, so any team that signs Inciarte and adds him to their active roster for the remainder of the season will only owe him the prorated portion of a minimum salary (with the Braves footing the rest of the money owed).

Extension Candidate: Teoscar Hernandez

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To some extent, Teoscar Hernandez has been a bit of an overlooked figure on the Blue Jays roster.  He wasn’t part of the homegrown core of young talent, he isn’t exactly young himself since he turns 29 in October, and he wasn’t one of the major free agent signings that have played such key roles for the Jays in 2021 and (the team hopes) into the future.  Hernandez did get a turn in the spotlight when he was voted into the American League’s starting All-Star lineup this past July, marking some overdue recognition of a player who has quietly been one of baseball’s best hitters over the last 26 months.

If “26 months” seems like something of an arbitrary timeline, it is because Hernandez has a pretty clear line of demarcation at almost the exact midpoint of his career.  Prior to July 16, 2019, it wasn’t like Hernandez was a bad player, as he even hit 22 home runs for Toronto during the 2018 season.  However, power was much pretty much all Hernandez had to offer over the first 971 plate appearances of his MLB career, as he swatted 42 home runs but batted only .231/.292/.447.  This led to a 96 wRC+, and between that below-average offensive production and a very subpar outfield glove, there was some question about whether or not Hernandez could develop into anything more than a part-time player.

Needless to say, those questions have been answered.  Hernandez hit a home run against the Red Sox in that July 16 game and then hit two more homers the next day, essentially heralding his arrival as a first-rate hitter.  Over Hernandez’s last 916 plate appearances, he has hit 59 home runs and slashed .285/.343/.548 slash line.  His 136 wRC+ since July 16, 2019 has been topped by only 12 qualified hitters in all of baseball, and he is also tied for eighth in slugging percentage in that timeframe.

Hernandez made some mechanical changes to his swing during a minor league demotion earlier in 2019, though there isn’t really a simple “lightbulb switched on” reason why Hernandez was suddenly much more productive.  Looking at his numbers pre- and post-July 16, 2019, Hernandez’s walk rates have actually declined in the last 26 months, while his strikeout rates have gone from being almost league-worst to merely bad.

Hernandez always made plenty of hard contract, and with a .350 BABIP during the productive half of his career (and a .296 BABIP beforehand), there is some level of good fortune involved in Hernandez’s rise.  That said, Hernandez has helped himself by making more contact in general and hitting more line drives, with his above-average baserunning allowing him to translate that hard contact into hits.

Turning to the defensive side, Hernandez has worked to become a respectable outfielder after struggling so badly in the field earlier in his career.  Over 926 innings (707 in right field, 212 in left) this season, Hernandez has a +0.1 UZR/150 and +1 Outs Above Average, while the Defensive Runs Saved metric still gives him a -2 score.  While a Gold Glove probably isn’t in Hernandez’s future, he has at least proven that he isn’t a DH-only player — which could prove important to his future earning potential.

Hernandez was arbitration-eligible for the first time this season, and avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $4.325MM salary.  He’ll get a sizable raise coming this winter, and then another in the 2022-23 offseason before becoming eligible for free agency following the 2023 campaign.  Should Hernandez keep up his level of offense next year, he should earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $17MM in 2022-23 before hitting the open market prior to his age-31 season.

That is, unless the Blue Jays keep him off the open market by working out a contract extension.  With two-plus years remaining of control over Hernandez, the Jays aren’t in any immediate rush to make a decision one way or the other, and naturally quite a few other matters will need to be addressed in the interim.  Re-signing impending free agents Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray seem to be a priority for the club, and one would imagine the Jays will make a hard push to extend Jose Berrios (a free agent after 2022) given how they surrendered such a notable prospect package to acquire him from the Twins at the trade deadline.  Elsewhere on the extension front, Toronto might also look to land some long-term cost certainty over cornerstones Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, even though both are already controlled through the 2025 season.

In short, Hernandez might find himself somewhat overlooked again, if the Jays are content to go year-by-year.  However, there is some logic in the team exploring a longer deal with the slugger right now.  While the Blue Jays are one of the league’s best offensive teams, the lineup will take a big hit if Semien leaves, and the future depth has been a bit depleted — Cavan Biggio has struggled through an injury-plagued year, Rowdy Tellez was traded to the Brewers, and top prospect Austin Martin was dealt in the Berrios swap.

Speaking of the prospect ranks, the Toronto farm system has plenty of intriguing infielders and pitchers, but the Jays are short on young outfielders ready to make an impact at the big league level.  While that could change in the two years before Hernandez hits free agency, the lack of young outfield depth was one reason the Jays felt compelled to sign George Springer this past offseason.  There isn’t anyone immediately coming to push for Hernandez’s role, and in any case, Hernandez would seem to have a lot more job security than the much more inconsistent Randal Grichuk and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.  Grichuk is signed through 2023 but has provided below-average offense in Toronto, while Gurriel is controlled through 2024 but has been part of trade rumors in the past.

Only Hernandez himself (and maybe his agents at Republik Sports) would know the answer to this subject, but the outfielder also might be eager to lock in the first big payday of his professional career.  Hernandez made more in 2021 than he did in the rest of his career combined, as he received only a $20K bonus when first signing with the Astros back in 2011.  While $7MM+ in arb earnings is lined up for 2022, Hernandez might not want to run the risk of injury or a downturn in performance next season, so he could be open to a deal of fewer additional years, but maybe a higher average annual value in 2024 or 2025.

Grichuk’s four-year/$47MM deal in April 2019 is the only major multi-year extension of the Ross Atkins era, so there isn’t much of a hint about how this front office might approach a Hernandez extension, or if such a deal is even truly on their radar.  The trade that brought Hernandez to Toronto is already one of the canniest moves of Atkins’ tenure as GM, and that trade will only look better if a deal can be worked out so Hernandez can continue to be a big part of the Blue Jays lineup for years to come.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/7/21

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The latest minor league moves from around the baseball world…

  • The Twins outrighted Derek Law to Triple-A, after the right-hander cleared waivers.  Law was designated for assignment earlier this week, and this is the second time he has been outrighted — Law had the option of choosing free agency after this second outright, though he opted to remain in the Minnesota organization.  Law has a 4.20 ERA over 15 innings this season, spending much of the year at Triple-A St. Paul and also spending over a month on the injured list due to a right shoulder impingement.  Best known for his three seasons in the Giants bullpen from 2016-18, Law is in his first season with the Twins after signing a minor league deal last winter.

COVID Notes: 9/7/21

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The latest on coronavirus-related situations around baseball…

  • The Tigers placed right-hander Joe Jimenez on the COVID-related injury list yesterday due to a positive test.  First base coach George Lombard also tested positive, while pitching coach Chris Fetter, quality control coach Josh Paul and bullpen catcher Jeremy Carroll are away from the team due to contact tracing procedures.  Jimenez and Lombard were fully vaccinated but are both experiencing symptoms, manager A.J. Hinch told The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky and other reporters.  Jimenez has struggled to a 6.15 ERA over 41 innings out of the Tigers bullpen this season, largely due to control problems.  After posting an 8.3% walk rate over his first four MLB seasons, Jimenez’s total has ballooned to 16.7% this season.

Braves Extend Charlie Morton

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The Braves announced Monday that they’ve signed right-hander Charlie Morton to a one-year contract worth $20MM. (The Braves are one of the few teams who formally disclose the terms of their player contracts themselves.) The Jet Sports client also has a $20MM club option for the 2023 season that does not have a buyout.

Charlie Morton | Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Morton had somewhat of a slow start in his return to the Braves organization, pitching to a 5.08 ERA through his first eight starts of the season. He’s been lights-out ever since, however, working to a combined 2.95 ERA with a terrific 29.9 percent strikeout rate and a strong 7.4 percent walk rate over his past 20 starts — a total of 119 innings pitched. Overall, Morton has a 3.47 ERA in 158 frames with the Braves thus far in 2021.

This is the second go-around in Atlanta for Morton, whom the Braves selected with their third-round pick nearly two decades ago in 2002. He made his big league debut as a Brave in 2008 but was traded to the Pirates in the June 2009 swap that brought outfielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta. Morton would settle in as a mid-rotation starter in Pittsburgh, but a velocity spike in a very brief four-game stint with the Phillies — he missed the rest of the year with a torn hamstring — set the stage for him to land in Houston. With the Astros, Morton maintained that velocity bump and leaned more heavily into his four-seamer and curveball, at the expense of his sinker.

Morton broke out as one of the game’s best starters with the Astros, parlaying a brilliant two-year stint there into a two-year, $30MM contract with the Rays. He’d finish third in American League Cy Young voting and play a major role in the Rays’ postseason bid that year before some arm trouble brought about a slow start in 2020. Morton righted the ship in the season’s final couple weeks, however, and looked to be back to his dominant ways for much of the Rays’ 2020 run to the World Series.

Morton was a coveted free agent this offseason but had a small selection of teams he was willing to consider. Playing with the Rays afforded him the opportunity to live in his Bradenton, Fla. home, and Morton was reportedly very intent on remaining in the southeast to be near his family. His one-year deal with the Braves underscored that preference, as does today’s decision to forgo the open market entirely in favor of another one-year pact in a setting where he’s obviously quite comfortable.

With this deal in place, the Braves have now extended a pair of veterans in advance of free agency. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud inked a two-year, $16MM contract a couple weeks back, giving the club some stability behind the dish (as well as a potential bridge to William Contreras and/or Shea Langeliers).

Having Morton and d’Arnaud locked up for 2022 gives the Braves a total of $77MM committed to six players next season, although the status of Marcell Ozuna and his $16MM salary remain to be determined. The Braves also have option buyouts to pay to Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Josh Tomlin and the already-released Ender Inciarte.

The Braves opened the 2021 season with a payroll of $131MM, so there’s plenty of room for them to further add to that $77MM in guarantees this coming winter. Presumably, some of those funds are earmarked for what the team and its fanbase hope will be a long-term extension for franchise cornerstone Freddie Freeman. That they’ve been able to secure new deals with d’Arnaud and Morton shows the Braves are more than comfortable having these discussions not only in-season but in the midst of a playoff race, so perhaps they’ll yet aim to strike up a new deal with Freeman before he ever formally reaches the market.

For now, the certainty with Morton means they’ll be able to count on the return of a veteran who has blossomed into one of the game’s most steadily productive arms late in his career. Morton can be penciled into the 2022 rotation alongside lefty Max Fried, right-hander Ian Anderson and, hopefully, oft-injured righty Mike Soroka. Still just 24 years old, Soroka broke out as one of the game’s most talented young starters in 2019 but has only pitched 13 2/3 innings since that time after tearing his Achilles tendon on two occasions. Soroka isn’t expected to be ready for the beginning of the 2022 campaign, however, so it stands to reason that the Braves could look for some additional rotation help this winter even with Morton now locked into a return.

Willie Calhoun Begins Rehab Assignment

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Rangers corner outfielder/designated hitter Willie Calhoun began a minor league rehab assignment this evening, the team announced. He has been assigned to the club’s Arizona Complex League affiliate.

Calhoun hasn’t played since June 26, when he suffered a forearm fracture after being hit by a Kris Bubic pitch. The injury ultimately required surgical repair, which looked at the time as if it could threaten the remainder of his season. It now seems Calhoun is likely to make it back for the season’s final couple weeks. Position players can spend up to twenty days on a rehab assignment.

The forearm fracture was only the latest in a long line of health woes for Calhoun, who was also hit in the face with a pitch during Spring Training in 2020 and has dealt with a few leg issues. The injuries have perhaps impacted Calhoun’s productivity, as the former top prospect has underperformed over the last two seasons. After a 2019 season in which he hit .269/.323/.524 and looked to be emerging as one of the game’s better young bats, the lefty-hitting Calhoun has stumbled to a .233/.293/.344 mark in 334 plate appearances going back to the beginning of 2020.

The 48-88 Rangers have long been simply playing out the stretch, so the season’s final few weeks aren’t of much importance from a team perspective. But getting back onto the field and logging some at-bats could be meaningful for Calhoun as he looks to put his past couple years behind him. The 26-year-old is eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason, and he remains under team control through the end of 2024.

In other injury news, Levi Weaver of the Athletic reports (Twitter link) that reliever Matt Bush has begun throwing at the Rangers’ complex in Arizona. It seems unlikely he’ll have sufficient time to build his way back up to big league readiness before the end of the season, but Weaver adds that the hope is for Bush to log some minor league action over the next few weeks.

The 35-year-old Bush made just three appearances in the first week of April before landing on the injured list with elbow inflammation and a flexor strain. That came after the righty missed all of the 2019 and 2020 seasons with elbow injuries that eventually culminated in a Tommy John surgery. Even getting into a few minor league games before the end of the year would be a positive development if Bush is looking to make another run in 2022.

Texas could bring Bush back next season via arbitration for very little financial cost, although doing so would require keeping him on the 40-man roster all offseason. After three consecutive lost years, he seems likelier to be non-tendered and potentially brought back on a minor league deal.

The Giants’ Breakout Young Starter

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Much has been made of the uncertainty in the Giants’ rotation beyond this season. Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto (whose club option is likely to be bought out) are all in line to hit free agency. The San Francisco front office will have their work cut out for them in reconstructing a starting staff, but they do have one long-term building block under control: Logan Webb.

Webb hasn’t gotten as much fanfare as he deserves, probably a byproduct of the numerous bounce-back and breakout seasons up and down the San Francisco roster. His volume has been held in check by a couple of mid-season stints on the injured list due to shoulder troubles. But when Webb has been healthy enough to take the ball — as he is at the moment — he’s been incredible.

The right-hander has been one of the league’s most successful at keeping runs off the board. Webb owns a 2.56 ERA over 112 1/3 frames, the eighth-lowest mark among pitchers with 100+ innings pitched. And he’s unanimously posted strong peripherals. Webb has struck out 27% of batters faced, a mark that’s more than four percentage points better than the 22.7% average for starters. That’s backed up by strong rates of swinging strikes (12.3%) and called strikes (18.8%), both of which are more than a point above average. Webb has always had solid control, and his 6.7% walk percentage this season is lower than the league-wide mark.

While Webb has been at least solid across the board, he’s been truly excellent at keeping the ball on the ground. His 60.8% grounder rate is second-highest (trailing only Framber Valdez) among that same group of starters. Webb has leaned more heavily on his sinker, one of the lower-spinning fastballs in the game, this season. Unlike with four-seamers, the lack of spin is a feature for the sinker. Lower spin makes it less resistant to gravity, generally enabling pitchers to get more downhill action on the offering. Unsurprisingly, his sinker has been one of the best ground-ball pitches in the game.

Webb’s wide array of abilities makes for a rare skillset. Only 17 of the 103 pitchers with 100+ innings have posted better than average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. That’s not a unanimously great group — Adbert Alzolay and JT Brubaker haven’t had much success, for instance — but it’s certainly a positive indicator. 13 of those 17 hurlers have an ERA of 3.76 or lower, with five posting a sub-3.00 mark.

Webb has been good since the start of the season, but he’s really turned things on of late. Going back to the All-Star Break, he has an MLB-best 1.64 ERA in ten starts with high-end strikeout and walk rates. He’s benefitted from some batted ball and strand luck, but fielding independent pitching metrics still suggest Webb has been highly impressive. Only Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer have a SIERA better than Webb’s 3.00 since the Break, and his full-season mark of 3.18 is among the league’s ten best.

While the Giants’ front office will have plenty of decisions to make this offseason, they can at least pencil Webb in at or near the top of the 2022 rotation. The 24-year-old still has four more seasons of team control, and he won’t reach arbitration eligibility until the conclusion of next season. They could contemplate a long-term extension, but there’s still not yet a ton of urgency on that front.

One more pressing call that could be on the table is whether Webb’s breakout season has vaulted him to the top of this year’s rotation. San Francisco holds a one-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West race after taking two of three from Los Angeles over the weekend. While they’re obviously hoping to hang onto that lead and avoid the Wild Card Game, there’s still a real chance they wind up in a one-game playoff next month.

If that ultimately turns out to be the case, Giants’ brass would face a tough choice deciding to whom to give the ball. Opening Day starter Gausman has been excellent going back two years and might be the top starting pitcher to hit the free agent market this offseason. But Webb has arguably been even better than Gausman this year. They’re essentially tied in ERA. Gausman has a slight edge in punchouts but Webb’s been much better at racking up grounders. Webb has the edge in SIERA and the two have nearly identical marks in FIP (2.89 for Gausman, 2.90 for Webb).

That would be a moot point if the Giants hold onto the division. Even if they do wind up in the Wild Card, having to make that kind of difficult decision is a good “problem” to have. That’s a testimony to Webb’s fantastic campaign, one which makes him the long-term anchor of a Giants’ rotation that could see plenty of upheaval elsewhere a few months from now.

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