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Yankees Activate Luke Voit, Place Anthony Rizzo On COVID-IL

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11:30AM: The Yankees have also recalled Luis Gil as a replacement player and optioned Nick Nelson to Triple-A, per a club announcement.

9:51AM: The Yankees have activated Luke Voit and placed Anthony Rizzo on the COVID-IL. Manager Aaron Boone says Rizzo has tested positive, per Lindsey Adler of The Athletic. He also is exhibiting some symptoms. As a positive test, he will be quarantined for at least 10 days.

The Yankees are now further hampered by an ongoing COVID outbreak that has already seen them place Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Gary Sanchez on the IL in recent days. Since being acquired in a deal just before the deadline, Rizzo has had an excellent debut as a Yankee. In nine games, he’s slashed .281/.400/.563, for a wRC+ of 163.

The club will now turn to Voit and hope that he can return to last year’s excellent form. His wRC+ of 152 in 2020 was one of the best in the league. But 2021 has been a struggle so far, with a wRC+ of 98 while dealing with various injuries. The club reportedly nearly traded Voit after acquiring Rizzo, but the deal fell through at the last hour. After a knee injury in July, he had only started a rehab assignment a few days ago. But it seems Rizzo’s positive test has hastened his return.

Despite scrambling to cover for all of these players missing time, the team is on a hot streak and currently just 1 1/2 out of a playoff spot.

Chris Sale To Be Activated On Saturday

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Chris Sale will be activated and start for the Red Sox this Saturday, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. This will mark the end of a long absence for Sale, who has been out of action for two whole years now.

In August of 2019, Sale began having elbow problems that forced him to miss the remainder of the season. Although Tommy John surgery was not recommended at the time, it would be eventually, and Sale underwent the procedure in March of 2020.

If he can quickly return to his previous form, or anything close to it, it will be a huge upgrade for a Red Sox team that has recently slid in the standings, surrendering the top spot in the AL East to the Rays. The lefty has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past decade. Since his 2010 debut, he has thrown 1629 2/3 innings, with a 3.03 ERA and excellent strikeout and walk rates of 30.7% and 5.7%.

In other Red Sox news, Alex Verdugo has gone on the paternity list and will be away from the team for a few days, per Bill Koch of the Providence Journal. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo adds that Connor Wong has been optioned, while Jarren Duran and JD Martinez have been activated from the COVID-IL. Both Duran and Martinez went on the IL in recent days because they weren’t feeling well. COVID testing must have come back negative, because a positive test would have resulted in a 10-day quarantine. Wong was only just recalled to help cover for their absence but didn’t get into any game action.

Orioles Place Ryan Mountcastle On IL, Recall Alexander Wells

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Ryan Mountcastle has been placed on the 7-day concussion IL, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Alexander Wells was recalled to take his spot on the roster. Mountcastle was removed from Friday’s game after being tagged on the helmet by Wander Franco and dealing with concussion-like symptoms. The team also announced that Domingo Leyba has cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A.

Mountcastle has gotten his career off to a great start. Since debuting last year, he’s had 539 plate appearances, producing a slash line of .282/.308/.481, for a wRC+ of 119. The Orioles’ lineup will surely miss his bat. But there’s no reason to rush him back into action since the club is well out of contention with the worst record in the American League.

For Wells, he is continuing to live the life of the up-and-down optionable reliever. This is his third time being recalled from the minors this year. In 17 2/3 innings, he has an ERA of 7.64 with a strikeout rate of 16.1%.

Leyba has struggled at the MLB level this year in a small sample size. Though his Triple-A numbers are much better. The 25-year-old infielder will now try to work his way back into another shot at the show.

Reds Activate Lucas Sims, Place Brad Brach On IL

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The Reds have activated Lucas Sims from the IL, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Brad Brach will be heading the other direction in a corresponding move, going on the IL with a shoulder impingement.

Sims has been out since late June with an elbow sprain. At the time, it was expected that he would miss about a month, a timeline that proved to be just a tad optimistic. The 27-year-old has been an important member of a Reds bullpen that has been a source of frustration for the club this year. His 5.02 ERA looks high but all the advanced metrics like him better. (3.26 xERA, 3.45 FIP, 3.75 xFIP, 3.19 SIERA) This optimism is borne out by his excellent strikeout rate of 34.9%, although his walk rate is a bit high at 11.9%.

As for Brach, a timeline for his injury is unknown. But a shoulder issue is always worrisome for a pitcher. The 35-year-old has thrown 29 innings for the Reds this year, with a 5.59 ERA, strikeout rate of 24.1% and walk rate of 12.8%.

AL Injury Notes: Robert, Grandal, Rogers, Archer

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Luis Robert is expected to rejoin the White Sox this week, per Jared Wyllys of The Chicago Sun-Times. The outfielder has been out since early May after suffering a Grade 3 strain of his right hip flexor tendon. Rehabbing players can spend 20 days in the minors on rehab assignments. Since Robert’s first game of his rehab was July 21st, the 20 days will have elapsed tomorrow, August 9th. [UPDATE: Robert will be activated before tomorrow’s game, Tony La Russa told The Athletic’s James Fegan and other reporters.]

Given Robert’s immense talent, this is tremendous news for the club. But it’s also going to create some tough decisions. “We’re going to get squeezed. We’ve had some guys earn a lot of at-bats who don’t want to give them up, so we’ll see what happens,” Wyllys quotes manager Tony La Russa as saying. In the absence of Robert, and the recently-returned Eloy Jimenez, the White Sox have had some players step up and hold the outfield together. Brian Goodwin, signed to a minor league contract in May, has been given 165 plate appearances and responded by putting up a wRC+ of 119. Gavin Sheets has a wRC+ of 111 across 99 plate appearances. But before going on the IL, Robert was a notch above both, with a wRC+ of 128 in 103 plate appearances. And the White Sox obviously consider Robert a cornerstone of their club, given the big extension they gave him before the 2020 season. Between Robert, Jimenez, Goodwin, Sheets and Adam Engel, the team will be spoiled for choices in the outfield, as they are sitting comfortably atop the AL Central 10 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland.

More from the Junior Circuit…

  • La Russa also provides an update on Yasmani Grandal, who is doing on-field drills but isn’t quite ready for a rehab assignment. “There’s been some discussion, but I think it’s still a guestimate,” La Russa said. “The big thing, he’s improving, and he’s getting better.” Grandal has always had a profile that included low batting averages, overcome by high walk rates and power. But he took that model to new extremes in 2021 before tearing a tendon in his knee in July, as evidenced by his incredible slash line of .188/.388/.426, producing a wRC+ of 135. Seby Zavala has done well in his stead, slashing .238/.333/.500, though in a small sample of just 50 plate appearances.
  • Chris McCosky of The Detroit News gets an update on Jake Rogers from Tigers manager AJ Hinch. “He’s not quite ready to throw yet,” Hinch said. “We won’t see him in the month of August. September at the earliest. We just hope there are no setbacks at this point. If we do anything that causes a setback between now and September, then we’re talking about missing the rest of the year. So we’re trying to be super cautious with his step by step progress.” Before hurting his throwing arm in July, the 26-year-old catcher was enjoying a breakout season, slashing .239/.306/.496, with a wRC+ of 116. With Rogers out, Eric Haase has taken over with aplomb, producing an even better line of .247/.297/.532, for a wRC+ of 122.
  • Chris Archer could potentially resume his rehab assignment this week, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The righty was removed from a rehab start a week ago with hip soreness. It seems to have only been a minor setback, with Archer getting back on the mound this week. As of last week, Archer was scheduled to throw 75 pitches, on his way to building up for a starter’s workload. But he was removed after 31 pitches because of the hip issue. Tampa surprisingly subtracted from its rotation at the trade deadline, sending Rich Hill to the Mets, seemingly confident enough in the emergence of younger options such as Luis Patino, Shane McClanahan and Josh Fleming. Archer has an excellent track record but is a few years removed from meaningful contributions on the hill, due to various injuries. Since 2019, he’s thrown 124 innings, with an ERA of 5.23.

Tigers Extend Jonathan Schoop

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The Tigers announced that infielder Jonathan Schoop has signed to a two-year contract extension.  Schoop has been scheduled to hit free agency this winter, but will now remain in the Motor City through the 2023 season.  The 29-year-old will earn $7.5MM in each of those two additional seasons for a total of $15MM in guaranteed money, and Schoop can also opt out of the deal following the 2022 campaign.  Schoop is represented by The Boras Corporation.

Schoop is in the midst of his second season in Detroit, having signed one-year free agent deals (for $6.1MM in 2020 and $4.5MM this year) in each of the last two offseasons.  Considering the Tigers have been rebuilding, Schoop seemed like a logical candidate to be dealt at either of the last two trade deadlines, but the team has instead pivoted and decided to retain Schoop as a building block.

In a statement released by the club, Tigers GM Al Avila described Schoop as “a constant professional since joining our clubhouse, and is the exact type of player we want to wear the Olde English ’D’.  His production on the field matches the value of his leadership with all of our players, and we’re looking forward to that contribution continuing for the next few seasons.  This is a big step towards bringing winning baseball back for our fans, and we know Jonathan will be a big part of that.”

The opt-out clause gives Schoop some flexibility, and he’ll only be turning 31 years old in October 2022.  If he keeps up his current numbers through next year, it seems quite possible that he’ll exercise that opt-out clause in search of a longer-term deal with the Tigers or another team.

Schoop has hit .286/.331/.470 with 26 home runs over 633 plate appearances and 151 games with the Tigers — solidly above-average (116 wRC+, 123 OPS+) production over essentially the equivalent of a full season.  After playing only second base in 2020, Schoop has seen more action as the regular first baseman this year, so Detroit has some flexibility in how it wishes to deploy Schoop in 2022 and beyond.

While there isn’t huge money involved, there is certainly a symbolic element to Schoop’s deal, as it marks the first extension for the Tigers since J.D. Martinez was inked to a two-year deal (buying out his remaining arbitration years) way back in February 2016.  As Avila’s statement indicates, the Tigers believe they are close to ending their rebuild, and even this season’s results bear some promise.  After a brutal 9-24 start to the 2021 campaign, Detroit has a very solid 44-35 record since, giving the club a shot at its first winning season since 2016.

This success seemed to change the equation for the Tigers, who had a pretty quiet trade deadline and seemed more inclined to see how far they could get with the current roster, in order to give their young core a taste of winning.  Since team president/CEO Christopher Ilitch recently suggested the team might raise payroll and look to add “high-impact players,” the 2021-22 offseason looks to be Detroit’s most exciting winter in quite some time, since the team conceivably has the payroll space to make multiple significant additions.  Schoop, Robbie Grossman, and Miguel Cabrera are the only players signed through the 2022 season, representing $44.5MM in salary.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link) was the first to report on the contract’s $15MM value, and the opt-out clause after the 2022 season.  Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. had the breakdown of Schoop’s annual salaries in each of the two seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Giants Sign Tyler Chatwood, Matt Shoemaker To Minors Contracts

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The Giants have signed right-handers Tyler Chatwood and Matt Shoemaker to minor league contracts.  MLB.com’s official transactions page was the first to report the Chatwood deal, while the Shoemaker news actually came from Evan Longoria, who mentioned Shoemaker had joined the Triple-A team during an interview with Sean Cunningham of KXTV Sacramento.  Both hurlers were released within the last week, with the Blue Jays letting go of Chatwood and the Twins parting ways with Shoemaker.

Chatwood signed a one-year, $3MM free agent deal with Toronto this past offseason, and was initially a tremendous help for an otherwise injury-riddled Jays bullpen.  After allowing just one run in his first 17 innings of work, however, Chatwood was then scorched for 11 runs over his next four outings and 3 1/3 innings.  Another decent stretch followed, but two more rough performances on June 25 and July 1 closed the book on his tenure with the Blue Jays, as a neck strain went Chatwood to the injured list for much of July.

Shoemaker had a similar tale, as a one-year, $2MM free agent contract with Minnesota resulted in an ugly 8.06 ERA over 60 1/3 innings.  His 14.1% strikeout rate was near the bottom of the league and down dramatically from his previous 21.8% career average, while Shoemaker’s 9.5% walk rate was also subpar.  Shoemaker started his first 11 games and a move to the bullpen didn’t help, as he allowed eight runs in 2 2/3 innings of relief work on June 30, in his final appearance as a Twin.

The Giants have recently displayed a knack for reviving veteran pitchers, so it isn’t out of the question that Chatwood or Shoemaker could yet provide some quality work for the team before the 2021 season is out.  Since the Jays and Twins are on the hook for the rest of the two right-handers’ MLB salaries, San Francisco only owes the prorated portion of the Major League minimum salary to Chatwood or Shoemaker if they get called up to the big league roster.

NL Injury Notes: d’Arnaud, Ynoa, Flaherty, Mikolas, Sims, Antone, Senzel

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The Braves are planning to activate Travis d’Arnaud from the 60-day injured list this week, possibly on Tuesday when the team begins a series with the Reds.  Manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including Gabriel Burns of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) that d’Arnaud is slated to catch all nine innings of a minor league rehab game tomorrow, representing a final step in his recovery from surgery to repair a thumb ligament.  A Silver Slugger winner in 2020, d’Arnaud hasn’t played since May 1 of this season, contributing to Atlanta’s near-total dearth of production from the catcher position.

Huascar Ynoa is also working his way back from a broken hand, as Snitker said the righty threw 68 pitches in his most recent rehab outing on Friday, and is scheduled to toss roughly 85 pitches in his next outing.  With a 3.02 ERA over nine starts and 44 2/3 innings, Ynoa was a nice surprise for Atlanta’s rotation prior to his injury, and he could be used as either a starter, long reliever, or both upon his return to the active roster.

More injury updates from around the National League…

  • “I’m going to pitch in Pittsburgh,” Jack Flaherty told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other reporters, indicating that he plans to return from the 60-day IL during the Cardinals’ upcoming series with the Pirates from August 10-12.  A left oblique strain put Flaherty on the IL on June 1, leaving the Cards without their ace for a big chunk of the season.  Miles Mikolas is also tentatively scheduled to return for next weekend’s series against the Royals, as Mikolas is working through a minor league rehab assignment of his own.  Mikolas missed the entire 2020 season due to flexor tendon surgery, then made just one start in May before heading back to the IL due to forearm tightness.
  • Some bullpen reinforcements look to be on the way for the Reds, as Lucas Sims might be activated from the 10-day IL on Sunday, and Tejay Antone could be ready sometime this week.  Both relievers went on the injured list in the final week of June — Sims with a sprained right elbow, and Antone with a right forearm strain.  Reds manager David Bell told Bobby Nightengale of The Cincinnati Enquirer and other reporters that Sims has “a pretty strong chance” of returning tomorrow, while Antone’s timeline is more tentative since he was only scheduled to begin his rehab assignment today.  “We want to get him back as quick as we can, but we want to do it in a way that is best for Tejay, and we can have him for the rest of the year and he doesn’t have to deal with this anymore at all, even next year or beyond,” Bell said.
  • Nick Senzel’s status is even more uncertain, as Bell said Senzel is “still not recovering exactly how we would want him to” after a week of rehab games.  Senzel underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at the end of May, and was initially given a recovery timeline of 4-6 weeks.  Things are open-ended enough that Bell said Senzel might return to the Reds within a couple of days if he shows improvement, but for now, the oft-injured Senzel is once again sidelined.

Red Sox Sign Jose De Leon To Minors Contract

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The Red Sox signed right-hander Jose De Leon to a minor league deal earlier this week, as the right-hander announced himself on his Twitter feed.  De Leon was designated for assignment and then released by the Reds two weeks ago.

SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson tweets that the Pirates and Blue Jays also showed interest in De Leon’s services, and it isn’t surprising that multiple teams looked into taking a flier on the righty considering his past status as one of the game’s top pitching prospects.  Unfortunately for De Leon, his development was hampered by a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2018 season, not to mention other injuries.

As a result, De Leon has only 48 Major League innings on his career resume since making his big league debut in September 2016.  De Leon has an unimpressive 8.44 ERA over his brief time in the majors, including an 8.35 ERA over 18 1/3 frames with Cincinnati in 2021.  Control (14.5% walk rate) has been a significant issue, though De Leon is missing a lot of bats with a 27.7% strikeout rate.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is no stranger to De Leon, as Bloom was working in the Rays’ front office when Tampa Bay acquired the right-hander from the Dodgers back in January 2017.  There’s no risk for the Sox in seeing if their minor league development staff can sharpen up De Leon’s control and turn him into a real bullpen weapon, considering his obvious strikeout ability.

Latest On Taylor Rogers

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TODAY: Rogers has chosen for the non-surgical option of resting and rehabbing his finger, Baldelli told MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park and other reporters.  There aren’t yet any details on Rogers’ recovery timeline.

JULY 31: Taylor Rogers is hoping to avoid a season-ending surgery in the wake of his recent finger injury, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Phil Miller and other reporters.  Baldelli initially thought that Rogers’ injury would indeed keep the left-hander out of action for the remainder of the 2021 season, though Rogers received a second opinion that could allow him to heal his tendon problem without surgery.

Rogers seems to be considering that second option for now, but it isn’t clear whether or not this non-surgical rehab route might take too long for Rogers to get back on the mound before the season is through.  The other factor could be the Twins themselves perhaps stepping in to shut Rogers down for the season, considering the team is out of the pennant race and might not want to risk Rogers coming back for meaningless games in late September.

The injury was officially termed a left middle finger sprain, though Miller notes that the injury specifically involved the pulley tendon within Rogers’ finger.  While the extent of the tendon damage isn’t known, the fact that surgery appears to be a consideration isn’t a good sign, and there could possibly even be some uncertainty about Rogers’ readiness for the start of the 2022 season.  Given how finger surgeries can often carry unclear timelines, it isn’t surprising that Rogers would prefer to explore any possible avenues to avoid going under the knife.

Were it not for this finger issue, it is quite possible Rogers might no longer be a Minnesota Twin, as the southpaw was drawing a lot of attention prior to the trade deadline.  Given how the Twins are reportedly planning to reload and attempt a return to contention in 2022, it doesn’t seem like Rogers will be shopped this offseason, regardless or whether or not he is healthy.

Rogers has been generally excellent over his six years with Minnesota, and his performance this season (3.35 ERA, 35.5% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate over 40 1/3 innings) earned him his first career All-Star nod.  Rogers has one remaining year of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency in the 2022-23 offseason.

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