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Brewers Activate Hunter Strickland, Return Blaine Hardy To Minors

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The Brewers announced they’ve activated reliever Hunter Strickland from the COVID-19 injured list. Left-hander Blaine Hardy, who was selected as a COVID replacement last week, has been removed from the 40-man roster and returned to Triple-A Nashville.

Because Hardy came up as a COVID replacement, he needn’t be passed through waivers to return to the minor leagues. The 34-year-old made one big league appearance since being selected on July 31, allowing three runs in an inning of work against the Pirates. That marked Hardy’s first big league action since 2019, as the longtime Tiger missed the entire 2020 season recovering from a Tommy John surgery. He’ll head back to Nashville, where he’s worked to a 3.50 ERA with nearly average strikeout and walk rates (22.4% and 8.9%, respectively) over 46 1/3 innings.

Reliever Jake Cousins — who landed on the COVID-19 IL ten days ago after testing positive at the same time as Strickland — is expected to be activated tomorrow, according to Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter link). Milwaukee has a vacancy on the 40-man roster to accommodate Cousins’ forthcoming reinstatement. The Brew Crew are still without Keston Hiura, Adrian Houser, Josh Hader, Eric Lauer and Jandel Gustave because of their subsequent positive tests.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/9/21

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The latest minor moves from around the league:

  • The Royals announced that left-hander Daniel Tillo has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Double-A Northwest Arkansas. Kansas City had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was required. Tillo, named the #51 prospect in the Royals system entering the year by Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs, was selected to the 40-man roster in advance of last winter’s Rule 5 draft. The 24-year-old has spent the entire year recovering from a 2020 Tommy John surgery and has thus far topped out at Double-A.
  • The Giants signed right-hander Logan Ondrusek to a minor league contract over the weekend. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento, where he made his first appearance on Saturday. Ondrusek made 288 MLB relief appearances between 2010 and 2016, the bulk of that time coming with the Reds. The 36-year-old hasn’t appeared in the majors in five years, but he’s worked his way back to affiliated ball after beginning the year well with the Leones de Yucatán of the Mexican League. Now working as a starting pitcher, Ondrusek pitched to a 2.38 ERA with an incredible 50:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 45 1/3 innings in Mexico this season.
  • Dodgers right-hander Yefry Ramírez has cleared outright waivers, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Ramírez, who was designated for assignment last week, had the right to reject an outright assignment because he’d been outrighted in the past. He has apparently chosen to accept an assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City, though, as he’s listed on OKC’s active roster. The 27-year-old made one appearance with L.A. but has otherwise spent the year with Oklahoma City, working to a 5.49 ERA across 62 1/3 innings.

Marlins Select Deven Marrero, Shawn Morimando

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The Marlins are selecting infielder Deven Marrero and left-hander Shawn Morimando to the big league roster, relays Christina de Nicola of MLB.com (Twitter link). Second baseman Jazz Chisholm is landing on the COVID-19 injured list. Chisholm has been suffering from virus-like symptoms and stayed behind in Denver, where the Fish just wrapped up a series against the Rockies.

Both Marrero and Morminado have been yo-yoed on and off the roster this season. Miami has rather remarkably selected Marrero’s contract four times, designating him for assignment and passing him through outright waivers shortly after each of his first three calls. Most recently, Marrero was selected and DFA’d just last week — incidentally while Chisholm was on the COVID-19 IL for a day after not feeling well. The 30-year-old has only picked up seven plate appearances over his various big league stints; he’s hitting .252/.327/.397 this year with Triple-A Jacksonville.

Morimando is up for the third time. He’s made two appearances, allowing four runs in just two-thirds of an inning against the Phillies on May 24 but tossing five scoreless frames against the Braves on July 9. The 28-year-old has a 4.43 ERA over 63 innings with Jacksonville this season.

Diamondbacks Release Josh Reddick

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve released veteran outfielder Josh Reddick. He had been designated for assignment last week.

A release was the anticipated outcome once Arizona bumped Reddick from the 40-man roster. The 34-year-old has more than enough big league service to reject an outright assignment, and the rebuilding Diamondbacks are long past focusing on the 2021 season. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week that Reddick’s designation was part of a broader organizational plan to give some more run to younger players as the front office looks for more information about who could comprise their core in future years.

Upon clearing release waivers, Reddick will be free to sign elsewhere. He’ll presumably be looking at minor league offers, as he settled for a minors pact over the offseason before being selected to Arizona’s big league club in late May. He struggled to the worst offensive showing of his career — .258/.285/.371 over 158 plate appearances — in the desert.

Nevertheless, Reddick figures to find decent interest from other clubs willing to offer him a Triple-A opportunity. The left-handed hitter has generally been a productive player over the course of his career, and he posted league average offensive numbers between 2018-20. If Reddick signs elsewhere on or before August 31, he’d be eligible for a new team’s postseason roster.

Yankees Place Gleyber Torres On Injured List

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5:12 pm: The Yankees were relieved by the MRI results on Torres, according to Boone, who estimates the shortstop could be back within 10-20 days (via Marly Rivera of ESPN). Urshela, though, suffered some form of setback that’ll push back his expected return date for at least a few days (relays Lindsey Adler of the Athletic).

3:15 pm: The Yankees announced they’re placing shortstop Gleyber Torres on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb sprain. Utilityman Andrew Velazquez has been selected to the roster in a corresponding move.

Torres suffered the injury diving into the second base bag during the fourth inning of yesterday’s game against the Mariners. He stayed in for a few frames before being removed for a defensive replacement in the top of the ninth. Torres was sent for an MRI after the game, with manager Aaron Boone acknowledging the team had some concern it was a noteworthy issue. There’s no indication at this point that Torres will have to miss anything beyond the ten day minimum, but the injury is apparently severe enough for the organization to shut him down for the next week-plus.

It comes at an unfortunate time for Torres, who had heated up at the plate over the past couple weeks after a subpar first half. Altogether, the 24-year-old has a .253/.328/.351 mark with six home runs across 407 plate appearances this season. Torres’ power production has largely evaporated over the past couple years, but he’d shown signs of life coming out of the All-Star Break. Torres has popped three home runs and hit .300/.337/.500 over his past 90 plate appearances.

With Torres landing on the IL, the Yankees rather incredibly have twenty players on the injured list at the moment. A few of those players figure to return in the coming days after testing positive for COVID-19, but New York will have to make due for now without lineup regulars such as Torres, Gio Urshela, Gary Sánchez and Anthony Rizzo — as well as key starters Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery. It’s particularly poor fortune for a Yankee club 2.5 games back of the Red Sox for the American League’s final playoff spot.

Torres, Urshela and Tyler Wade are the only players to see action at shortstop for the Yankees this season. It now seems Wade and the switch-hitting Velazquez could cover the position. Velazquez, signed to a minor league deal over the offseason, has a .156/.257/.219 line in 113 big league plate appearances between 2018-20. He’s had a very strong season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, though, slashing .283/.367/.471 while logging significant action at each of shortstop, second and third base.

Indians Select Francisco Perez

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The Indians announced this afternoon they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Francisco Pérez. First baseman Bobby Bradley is landing on the 10-day injured list after missing the club’s past few games with a left knee injury. Cleveland already had two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was needed in that regard.

Pérez is in line to make his big league debut after spending seven years in the minors. He signed as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic during the 2014-15 international signing period and has spent his entire career in the Indians organization. Pérez began his career as a starting pitcher but has worked exclusively out of the bullpen this season.

While Pérez has never appeared on an organizational top prospects list at Baseball America or FanGraphs, he’s been nothing short of dominant in the high minors this year. The 24-year-old has worked 45 1/3 innings of 1.19 ERA ball split between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus. Along the way, Pérez has punched out a whopping 40% of batters faced, although he has walked an elevated 11.7% of opponents. That’s a new development for Pérez, who had posted average or better walk rates at every level until this season.

White Sox Activate Luis Robert, Release Luis Gonzalez

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve reinstated center fielder Luis Robert from the 60-day injured list. Outfielder/first baseman Gavin Sheets was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte in order to open a spot on the active roster. Minor league outfielder Luis Gonzalez was released in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Gonzalez’s release may initially surprise some fans, given his standing as one of the organization’s 10 to 20 best prospects over the past few years, but he’s slated to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so the team’s only recourse was to either release Gonzalez or add him to the MLB roster and place him on the Major League 60-day injured list. The Sox will opt for the former path and presumably look to re-sign him to a new minor league contract, as is fairly common in these instances.

As for the dynamic Robert, he’ll return after missing more than three months due to a Grade 3 hip flexor sustained back in early May. The injury initially called for a rehab period of 12 to 16 weeks, and he’ll return on the shorter end of that timetable. Robert appeared in a dozen minor league rehab games — four in Class-A Advanced and eight in Triple-A — and notched a combined .268/.388/.390.

Robert, 24, won a Gold Glove and finished second to Kyle Lewis in American League Rookie of the Year voting. He’s played in 81 big league games to this point in his young career, batting .259/.320/.444 with 12 home runs, 17 doubles, a triple and 13 steals (in 16 attempts). Strikeouts have been an issue (30.6 percent), but Robert has been regarded as an elite prospect since he left Cuba and signed with the Sox for a $26MM bonus (that came with a $26MM overage penalty for Chicago, whose bonus pool was just north of $2.9MM at that point). He then inked a six-year, $50MM contract extension with a pair of club options before even suiting up for his first big league game.

The White Sox lost both Robert and Eloy Jimenez early in the 2021 season, but they’ve nevertheless been able to steamroll a feeble American League Central, building a 10.5-game lead  over the second-place Indians as of this writing. With Robert and Jimenez now back from injury and Craig Kimbrel at the back of the bullpen, the South Siders are as strong as they’ve been at any point this season. The division title has long looked like a foregone conclusion, but the return of their promising young outfielders and a few key deadline pickups have better positioned the Sox as a postseason threat.

Edwin Jackson Open To MLB Comeback

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Edwin Jackson will turn 38 in a month, but the well-traveled right-hander isn’t planning on retiring after his recent run with the United States Olympic roster and is open to signing with a big league club, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com.

Jackson a run in 3 2/3 innings between the qualifying rounds and the actual Olympic play as the U.S. eventually won a Silver Medal. He hasn’t pitched in the Majors since a rough 2019 campaign split between the Tigers and the Blue Jays. Jackson did sign with the D-backs in the 2019-20 offseason and also had an offer from the Mets that winter, but Arizona cut him loose rather than bringing him to its alternate site once play resumed last summer, and Jackson did not sign with another club.

That 2019 run between Detroit and Toronto saw Jackson yield 72 runs in 67 2/3 innings pitched, thanks largely to a whopping 23 homers allowed in that relatively short period of time. Home runs were a problem for pitchers throughout the league that season, as most believed the ball was juiced, but Jackson’s 3.06 HR/9 mark was nonetheless the second-highest of any pitcher in baseball (min. 50 innings pitched).

For as rough as Jackson’s 2019 season was, however, his 2018 work was every bit as solid. He tossed 92 innings with the A’s that year, working to a 3.33 ERA over the life of 17 starts. His 17.8 percent strikeout rate was below the league average, and his 9.7 percent walk rate was a bit high, but the results were obviously quite sound.

While it’s now been three years since Jackson’s last productive MLB run, it still wouldn’t be a surprise to see a club take a look on a minor league deal. The trade deadline has passed, and the elimination of revocable August trade waivers has left clubs with limited options to add depth. Jackson probably isn’t an option to step right into a big league rotation, but he could head to someone’s Triple-A club to stretch out or at least get some innings in the ’pen before emerging as an option a few weeks down the line. September rosters can no longer expand to 40 players, but the standard roster size will still grow from 26 to 28 players on Sept. 1.

Jackson is one of few notable free agents on the Team USA roster who could conceivably sign with a big league team as a depth candidate. David Robertson and Todd Frazier are also current big league free agents. Veteran lefty Scott Kazmir was also on the roster, but he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A with the Giants after he cleared waivers back in June, so he remains under Giants control.

If Jackson does ultimately sign with a team and return to the Majors, he could potentially add to one of the more oddball records around the league; Jackson has pitched for 14 Major League teams, the most in MLB history.

Orioles Notes: Rutschman, Severino, Mateo

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The Orioles have promoted catcher Adley Rutschman from Double-A to Triple-A Norfolk, the team announced last night. (MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubtako first reported he’d be moving up a level.) Rutschman, who now ranks as the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball at Baseball America and MLB.com following Wander Franco’s graduation from the list, opened the year at the Double-A level and posted a .271/.392/.508 batting line with 18 home runs, 16 doubles and nearly as many walks (15.4 percent) as strikeouts (15.9 percent). That slash was good for a whopping 144 wRC+ in the a very pitcher-friendly Double-A setting — the tenth-best mark of any qualified hitter in Double-A this season.

While he’s now technically just one step from the big leagues, it’s hard to imagine Rutschman would be summoned to the Majors before season’s end. The Orioles have just a 38-72 record on the season, and they’d gain another year of control over Rutschman by waiting until the third week of the 2022 season to promote him to the big leagues, barring any changes to service time structure in collective bargaining talks between MLB and the MLB Players Association. The current CBA expires on Dec. 1, and service time issues such as this are widely expected to be a talking point.

Some more notes out of Baltimore…

  • While Rutschman is the hopeful future at catcher for the Orioles, it’s been Pedro Severino there more often than anyone else over the past couple of seasons. The 28-year-old has batted .245/.316/.400 over the past three seasons in Baltimore (94 wRC+), but his bat has dipped slightly in 2021. Kubatko suggests that Severino, who’ll be a due a raise on this year’s $1.825MM salary in arbitration over the winter, is likely to instead be non-tendered by the O’s. Severino has been a solid bat relative to other catchers around the league, but defensively, he’s had his share of struggles. He’s been roughly average in terms of caught-stealing rate over the past few years, but Severino draws poor pitch-blocking ratings at Baseball Prospectus, sub-par framing marks and checked in at -19 Defensive Runs Saved since coming to the O’s in 2019.
  • The Orioles are open to eventually playing Jorge Mateo in the outfield, writes Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun, but manager Brandon Hyde also added that the team’s hope is to get the recently claimed speedster comfortable playing in the middle infield. Baltimore claimed the 26-year-old Mateo off waivers from the Padres just four days ago — a move that could finally give the former top prospect a path to regular playing time in the big leagues. Mateo originally signed with the Yankees but was traded to Oakland in the Sonny Gray swap and then to the Padres for a player to be named later. Mateo is 3-for-11 with a double, a triple and a pair of steals to begin his Orioles tenure. The Padres acquired Mateo on June 30, 2020, but on a win-now club with a crowded roster, he never had much of an avenue to playing time. He appeared in 79 games with San Diego from 2020-21 but only recorded a combined 121 plate appearances in that time.

Justin Turner To Miss “A Few Days” With Groin Injury

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Justin Turner left today’s game due to what the Dodgers described as left groin discomfort, and manager Dave Roberts said the third baseman will have to miss at least a brief amount of time.  Turner will “be down for a few days and then we’ll re-evaluate,” Roberts told Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register and other reporters.

In the top of the second inning, Turner made an impressive play to get to a grounder and then throw out Jose Iglesias at first base.  Turner picked up his injury on this play, though he remained in the game to finish the inning before being replaced by pinch-hitter Albert Pujols (who homered) in the bottom half of the frame.

Los Angeles doesn’t have a game on Monday, though Turner seems set to miss most or all of the team’s upcoming series with the surging Phillies from August 10-12.  Since the Dodgers have dropped to four games behind the Giants in the NL West race, L.A. can’t afford to be without its star third baseman for long, as Turner has continued to excel in his age-36 season.

After re-signing with the Dodgers for two years and a guaranteed $34MM in the offseason, Turner has hit .289/.376/.491 with 20 home runs over 439 plate appearances.  While Turner has been no stranger to the injured list over his career, he has been the picture of durability this year, ranking second on the Dodgers with 105 games played.

The veteran’s stability has helped carry the Dodgers through a number of other injuries, so the team’s depth will again be tested for what it hopes will be a brief absence for Turner.  The Dodgers do have enough versatile players to make do in the short term, as the club could slide Max Muncy or Chris Taylor over to the hot corner and then mix and match other bench options to fill in gaps.

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