Mariners Designate Rafael Montero For Assignment
The Mariners announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Rafael Montero for assignment. His spot on the active and 40-man rosters will go to righty Casey Sadler, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Acquired from the Rangers in an offseason trade that sent a pair of 18-year-old prospects — righty Jose Corniell and infielder Andres Mesa — to the Rangers, Montero opened the season as the closer in Seattle. He struggled early in the year and eventually relinquished that ninth-inning job to breakout righty Kendall Graveman.
Montero never found much consistency, even in a setup capacity, but his results dating back to the end of June have just become too much for the club to overlook. Montero has not only been scored upon in seven of his past eight appearances — he’s given up multiple runs in each of those seven outings. Since June 25, he’s pitched to a whopping 13.09 ERA in 11 innings — surrendering 16 runs on 25 hits and four walks with 11 punchouts in that time. That brutal stretch has ballooned his season ERA all the way to 7.27.
As rough as the 2021 season has been for Montero, the former Mets farmhand was quite good in his two seasons with Texas. He signed with the Rangers while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and eventually made his debut partway through the 2019 season, slowly earning the team’s trust in higher-leverage spots. By the 2020 season he was the primary closer in Arlington, leading the club with eight saves. Montero’s two years in Texas produced a 3.09 ERA with a strong 28.6 percent strikeout rate against just a 5.9 percent walk rate.
Things clearly didn’t work out in Seattle, and the Mariners will now have a week to trade Montero, place him on outright waivers or simply release him. He’s on a $2.25MM salary, making it highly unlikely that a team would either trade for him or claim him on waivers if placed there. And, even if Montero goes unclaimed, he reached five years of Major League service time in 2021, giving him the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency — without forfeiting the remaining guarantee on his deal.
As such, it seems quite likely that today will spell the end of Montero’s time with the organization. If he does either receive his release or reject an outright assignment, he’ll hit the open market in search of a change of scenery and fresh opportunity. Given how well Montero pitched in 2019-20, other clubs would surely have interest on what would essentially be a free look.
As for the 31-year-old Sadler, he’ll return to the Mariners and look to build on what was a strong start to his time with the club. Seattle plucked him off waivers out of the Cubs organization in 2020, and he’s proceeded to give them 21 innings of 3.00 ERA relief work dating back to the time of that claim. Sadler has fanned exactly a quarter of the 88 batters he’s faced as a Mariner and kept the ball on the ground at a roughly 44 percent clip as well.
Nationals Backing Down Stephen Strasburg’s Throwing Program
July 23: The Nats are now backing down Strasburg’s throwing program after continued discomfort in his neck, Martinez announced to reporters (Twitter link via MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman). It’s possible he’ll see another specialist before the team determines next steps.
July 17: Stephen Strasburg has encountered a setback in his recovery from nerve irritation in his neck, as the Nationals righty continued to feel discomfort in his neck while pitching a simulated game on July 9. As manager Davey Martinez told The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty and other reporters, Strasburg threw on flat ground prior to tonight’s game, and also threw on Friday.
The fact that Strasburg is still throwing is a good sign, and perhaps indicative that this latest issue could ultimately end up being pretty minor. That said, Strasburg was placed on the injured list on June 2, and it doesn’t bode well that he is still feeling soreness after over six weeks. It isn’t clear when Strasburg’s recovery might kick back into higher gear (such as a minor league rehab assignment), as Martinez made it clear that the team wants to fully correct the injury problem. “When Stephen comes back, I want him to come back and finish the season on the mound and not have this recurrence again,” Martinez said.
Between this absence and an earlier IL stint due to shoulder inflammation, Strasburg has tossed only 21 2/3 innings this season. Due to Strasburg being sidelined by carpal tunnel syndrome for much of the 2020 season, he has pitched only 26 2/3 total frames since the start of the 2020 campaign, and since the right-hander inked a seven-year, $245MM free agent contract to return to Washington.
While Strasburg is far from the only Nats player to be waylaid by injuries over the last two seasons, his contract and his importance to the starting rotation make him stand out as a particular reason why the Nats have had trouble stringing wins together since their 2019 World Series victory. A five-game losing streak has now dropped the D.C. squad to 42-48 for the season, and while things remain close in the NL East, more losses could potentially send the Nationals pivoting towards selling some veterans at the trade deadline.
Rangers Option Nick Solak, Designate John Hicks
The Rangers announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of minor league first baseman Curtis Terry (as previously reported) and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating catcher John Hicks for assignment. Texas also reinstated catcher Jose Trevino from the 10-day injured list and, perhaps most notably, optioned struggling infielder Nick Solak to Triple-A Round Rock.
Hicks, 31, smacked four home runs in 10 games for the Rangers prior to his DFA but was squeezed out by Trevino’s return. He’s 8-for-31 on the season with those four dingers and has also posted a .275/.352/.440 slash in 122 Triple-A plate appearances.
Of course, Hicks has had numerous chances in the Majors prior to the 2021 season and has yet to establish himself as a consistent MLB presence. He made his big league debut with the Mariners back in 2015 and then saw action in parts of four straight seasons with a rebuilding Tigers club. He’s a career .236/.279/.401 hitter with a 32 percent caught-stealing rate but more questionable marks in the pitch framing and pitch blocking departments. Texas will have a week to trade him, place him on outright waivers or release him.
Solak, 26, opened the season as the primary second baseman in Arlington and got out to a blistering start. He carried an OPS north of .900 as far into the season as early May, but his production has been in a rapid tail spin since that time. Over his past 255 plate appearances, Solak is hitting just .190/.256/.273. It’s been nearly a month since he logged multiple hits in a game, and since that two-hit night back on June 29, he’s posted a .149/.216/.191 batting line.
Given those struggles, it’s plenty understandable that the Rangers feel it’s in his best interest to get something of a reset. It’s unlikely that this will impact Solak’s service time or general path to free agency. He entered the season with a year and 41 days of service time and would remain on track for free agency post-2025 so long as he accumulates a total of 131 days of service in 2021. He’s already at 113 days of service time this year, so unless he remains in the minors through season’s end, he’ll accumulate the necessary service to sustain that trajectory.
Reds Place Nick Castellanos On 10-Day IL, Release Jose De Leon
The Reds announced Friday that right fielder Nick Castellanos has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to July 20. Castellanos revealed earlier this week that a CT scan found a microfracture in his right wrist. Cincinnati also placed lefty Amir Garrett on the paternity list. Right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez and infielder Alejo Lopez were recalled from Triple-A in a pair of corresponding moves. Meanwhile, right-hander Jose De Leon, who was designated for assignment earlier in the week, was released.
There’s never a good time for an injury to a team’s best hitter, but Castellanos’ absence will come at a particularly critical time for the Reds, who have seven straight games against divisional opponents leading up to next Friday’s trade deadline. The Reds have lost five of their first six games coming out of the All-Star break, including a sweep at the hands of the first-place Brewers. They’re currently six and a half games back of both the division lead and the second Wild Card spot in the National League.
Suffice it to say, a strong run for the Reds over the next week could embolden the front office to act as buyers in an effort to push for a postseason berth. A particularly poor showing could have the opposite effect. The Reds will now have to make this pivotal push without their most dangerous hitter; Castellanos, who leads the NL in batting average and doubles, is batting .329/.383/.582 through 368 plate appearances.
Cincinnati is also without slugger Mike Moustakas, infielder/outfielder Nick Senzel and three of its best relievers: Tejay Antone, Lucas Sims and Michael Lorenzen. The fact that Garrett is being placed on paternity leave for the next three games against the Cardinals only further thins out the bullpen. The Reds are fortunate that neither the Cubs nor the Cardinals have been playing particularly well in their own right, however, so there’s still a chance for them to make up some ground and the final pre-deadline run.
As for De Leon, the 28-year-old former top prospect will now be free to sign with any club. The former Dodgers and Rays farmhand saw his development slowed by injuries, most notably Tommy John surgery, and has yet to develop into the high-quality MLB arm that scouts envisioned in his younger days.
The Reds acquired De Leon from Tampa Bay in exchange for cash last year. Since the swap, he’s whiffed 43 of the 126 batters he’s faced in the Majors (34.1 percent), but he’s also been clobbered for 29 runs. Control has been a problem, as evidenced by a 17.6 percent walk rate and a pair of hit batters in that time.
Mariners Interested In Adam Frazier
The Mariners are known to be on the lookout for infield upgrades, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that Seattle is currently in active pursuit of infielders who are controlled beyond the 2021 season — including Pittsburgh’s Adam Frazier. The Pirates are obvious sellers, and the widespread expectation is that Frazier will likely be traded between now and next Friday’s 4pm ET deadline.
Frazier, 29, is in the midst of the finest season of his solid career. His 413 plate appearances are the fourth-most in Major League Baseball, and he’s turned in a robust .327/.390/.453 batting line with four home runs, 27 doubles, four triples and five stolen bases. Frazier’s 10.9 percent strikeout rate is the fifth-lowest among 137 qualified big league hitters. He’s also tied for the game’s fifth-best contact rate (88.4 percent) and has the game’s seventh-lowest swinging-strike rate (5.4 percent).
It’s true that Frazier has benefited to an extent from some good fortune on balls in play; this year’s .363 BABIP is a career-high. However, even with some regression in that department, Frazier would likely still be enjoying a career year by virtue of that career-low strikeout rate. Statcast pegs his “expected” batting average at .297, after all, and he’s still walking at a respectable eight percent clip while swinging and missing less than ever before. He may not sustain this level of output, but he’s made his rough 2020 season look particularly fluky.
Frazier’s value goes beyond his contributions at the plate, too. His defense at second base has drawn plus ratings in Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average for his career, and he’s also an above-average left fielder by virtually any measure.
The Mariners surely see Frazier as a potential upgrade at second base, where they’ve received a collective .198/.267/.345 output so far in 2021. That’s a disastrous output no matter how you frame it, but it’s actually been far worse as of late; that combined effort includes 69 very strong plate appearances from Ty France, who’s slashed .293/.391/.483 while playing second base. France, however, has been playing more first base lately. Non-France Mariners second basemen in 2021 are hitting just .178/.239/.317 on the season.
As such, it’s no surprise to see Frazier among the Mariners’ targets. He’s playing the year on a $4.3MM salary and is controlled through 2022 via arbitration. That’s a key distinction for the Mariners, who are seven games back in the AL West and four and a half games back of a Wild Card spot. They’re aiming to stock up for a bit of a long-shot postseason run in 2021, but adding players who can help next year when their young core is more established (and likely after some offseason spending) is sensible.
It stands to reason that if Seattle is looking into Frazier, then general manager Jerry Dipoto has also gauged the asking price on Royals All-Star Whit Merrifield, who has again seen his name surface on the summer rumor mill. Dipoto is never afraid to make deals and will likely be checking in on a number of controllable, longer-shot trade candidates as the deadline approaches.
Cubs Claim Johneshwy Fargas, Transfer Brad Wieck To 60-Day IL
The Cubs have claimed outfielder Johneshwy Fargas off waivers from the Mets and created a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring lefty Brad Wieck from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL, per a club announcement. Fargas, who was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier in the week, has been optioned to Triple-A Iowa. Wieck, who is sidelined by an irregular heartbeat, will undergo an ablation procedure in an effort to address the issue, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He had a similar procedure performed in February 2020.
Fargas, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter after seven minor league seasons in the Giants organization. He quickly found himself in the Majors after an astonishing deluge of injuries saw Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Pillar, Albert Almora Jr., Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis all land on the IL within the season’s first six weeks.
Unfortunately for Fargas, he wasn’t able to escape the injury bug himself. He played in his first seven big league games, going 6-for-21 with three doubles and a triple, before sustaining a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder upon colliding with the outfield wall. He spent nearly two months on the injured list before being reinstated and designated for assignment.
Fargas’ first career action at the Triple-A level came this year with the Mets, though he tallied only eight games there. Overall, he’s a career .254/.331/.345 hitter in parts of eight minor league seasons. He can play all three outfield spots and has racked up 246 stolen bases in his minor league career, including single-season tallies of 47 (2018), 50 (2019) and 59 (2015). He’s only played in 19 minor league games this year but has nevertheless stolen 11 bases in that time.
As for Wieck, it’s obviously a discouraging and unsettling outcome to see him battling heart irregularities for the second time this season. His overall well-being should be the top concern for everyone, but it should also be pointed out that he’s been nothing short of brilliant for the Cubs. The 29-year-old fired 17 shutout innings this year, striking out 28 of the 71 men he faced (39.4 percent) and has an overall 1.93 ERA and 42.1 percent strikeout rate in 28 innings since being acquired by Chicago in 2019.
Cubs Designate Eric Sogard For Assignment
The Cubs announced Friday that they’ve designated veteran infielder Eric Sogard for assignment in order to open a roster spot for fellow infield veteran Matt Duffy, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Sogard, 35, signed a minor league deal over the winter but has made his way into 78 games with the Cubs and tallied 180 plate appearances. He’s seen time at second base, where he has a lengthy track record as a plus defender, and third base for the Cubs this season but managed only a .249/.283/.314 batting line at the plate.
Sogard had a strong showing as recently as 2019, when he hit .290/.353/.457 in 442 plate appearances, but he’s struggled both in 2020 and in 2021. The Cubs will have a week to trade him, place him on outright waivers or release him. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if/when he clears waivers.
Duffy, another minor league signee, has been out since late May with a lower back strain. When healthy, the 30-year-old had proven to be a nice buy-low pickup for the Cubs, batting .278/.377/.356 and playing top-notch defense at the hot corner. It’s a nice start to what would be a rebound from injury-plagued stretch for the former Giants/Rays infielder. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end, and while the Cubs may elect to keep him around and stabilize the roster after an expected flurry of trades in the coming days, it’s also possible that a club in need of some bench depth might look at a healthy Duffy as an intriguing addition in his own right.
Tigers Sign Jackson Jobe, Izaac Pacheco
The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve signed No. 3 overall draft pick Jackson Jobe and No. 39 overall pick Izaac Pacheco. That pair of signings comes just a few days after the Tigers locked up No. 32 overall pick Ty Madden. Jobe received a $6.9MM bonus that clocks in $322K under slot, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter links). He adds that Pacheco signed for a $2.75MM that is about $850K over slot.
Jobe, a high school right-hander out of Oklahoma, was something of a surprise pick to many onlookers. He’s regarded as having one of the highest ceilings in the draft and drew praise as the top high-school pitcher in this year’s class, but prep pitchers have a particularly high attrition rate as prospects, so there’s some risk to the selection.
That said, it’s also easy to see why the Tigers were so drawn to him. Jobe ranked seventh on the pre-draft rankings at ESPN and at MLB.com, eighth at Baseball America and FanGraphs, and 16th at The Athletic. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel wrote that Jobe “might be the best prep pitching prospect in years.” The righty draws 60 to 70 grades (on the 20-80 scale) on three different pitches. Listed at 6’2″ and 190 pounds presently, Jobe was also his high school team’s shortstop and is regarded as an excellent all-around athlete. The history of high school pitchers in the first round, particularly right-handers, isn’t great — but Jobe himself is a highly appealing prospect.
Pacheco, meanwhile, checked in at No. 22 at The Athletic, No. 30 at MLB.com, No. 36 at BA, No. 52 at ESPN and No. 65 at FanGraphs. He’s played shortstop in high school and was committed to Texas A&M. Most scouting reports on him feel he’ll settle in as a power-hitting third base prospect, which isn’t a huge surprise for an 18-year-old already listed at 6’4″ and 225 pounds. MLB.com’s report suggests that he could have more raw power than any left-handed hitter in the draft.
The Tigers have saved a bit of money on Jobe and some down-the-board picks (rounds four, five, six and eight, specifically). Those savings don’t quite balance out the over-slot deals for Madden and Pacheco, but the team could still save a bit of money on some of its yet-unsigned selections. It’s also worth remembering that they can exceed their bonus pool by up to five percent before being penalized with the loss of future picks. Detroit had the second-largest bonus pool at $14,253,800 total, so they could exceed that pool by up to $712K. Given that flexibility, they should be able to sign the rest of their picks without much issue.
Rangers To Select Curtis Terry
The Rangers are expected to select the contract of first baseman Curtis Terry to the big league roster this weekend, according to Kennedi Landry of mlb.com.
Terry, a 13th round pick in the 2015 draft, is currently ranked the 26th best prospect in the Rangers’ system, according to MLB Pipeline. FanGraphs has him further down, at number 61 among Texas farmhands. The 24-year-old first baseman is having an excellent year at the plate. Through 269 plate appearances at Triple-A, he’s slashing .294/.375/.583, producing a wRC+ of 129. This is his first year in the upper levels of the minors, having reached High-A in 2019, before the 2020 minor league season was wiped out.
Terry has consistently put up great offensive numbers in his minor league career, with that being his most exciting tool. The scouting report at MLB Pipeline describes him as “an all-bat player” because he is a “well below-average runner with limited range at first base.” With a profile like that, Terry will have to be well above-average hitter to stick in the big leagues. The scouting report at FanGraphs has similar concerns about the overall profile but notes that he could have a saving grace with “his excellent breaking ball recognition.”
For the Rangers, there’s no harm in calling him up and seeing how he handles big-league pitching. The team is in last place in the AL West and fully in rebuild mode. Nate Lowe has been getting the bulk of first base playing time this year and has been hitting well, with a wRC+ of 115 on the year. But since the team doesn’t have a regular DH and has been using that lineup slot on a rotating basis, it should be easy enough to get both Lowe and Terry into the lineup when they want to. And speculatively speaking, it’s possible they could split time on a platoon basis, as Lowe hits from the left side and Terry from the right. It’s also possible that the lineup could lose Joey Gallo this week, as he has been one of the hottest names on the trading block this year, with the Padres and Yankees among the team to have known interest.
Regardless of whether a trade is in the works or not, a transaction of some kind will be required since Terry is not currently on the 40-man roster.
Dodgers Considering Ian Kennedy
The Dodgers are interested in acquiring Ian Kennedy, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
This isn’t terribly surprising news, as every contending team is always interested in improving their pitching arsenal as the trade deadline approaches. What is surprising is that the Dodgers find themselves three games behind the Giants in the NL West, a team that few picked as division favorites at the start of the season. And that divisional alignment is at least somewhat attributable to the fact that the Dodgers have lost to the Giants by blowing ninth-inning leads the past two nights.
Overall, the bullpen hasn’t been a glaring weakness for the club this year. The Dodgers’ relievers, as a whole, have an ERA of 3.73, the 10th best in the Majors. But they’ve also taken some hits lately, with Jimmy Nelson and Scott Alexander heading to the Injured List. David Price has also had to move from the bullpen to the rotation, in order to cover for the recent injury to Clayton Kershaw.
For Kennedy, it seems to be a foregone conclusion that he will be changing jerseys in the coming week. He is a free agent at year’s end and is currently playing for a Rangers team that is 35-62, behind every team in the American League except the Orioles. Thus far, he’s pitched 31 1/3 innings for Texas, accumulating 15 saves with an ERA of 2.59. Advanced metrics are somewhat skeptical, with xERA, FIP and xFIP pegging him at 3.40, 3.80 and 3.88, respectively. But he has excellent strikeout and walk rates of 26.8% and 5.7%.
Kenley Jansen has been the Dodgers closer for a decade now, and will probably continue in that role. But there are reasons for pessimism in his profile this year. Despite 21 saves, an ERA of 3.05 and a strikeout rate of 27.2%, Jansen has a ghastly walk rate of 16%, more than double his career rate. That’s probably why some advanced metrics think his ERA is a mirage, with xFIP placing him at 4.79 and SIERA at 4.56.
It’s possible this is just small sample noise, since we’re only talking about 38 1/3 innings and Jansen’s Statcast profile still looks quite healthy. But since Jansen is in the last year of his contract and will be 34 years old by season’s end, the Dodgers don’t have to be invested in Jansen for the long term and could certainly pivot to an alternative such as Kennedy if they felt they had to.
On the money side, Kennedy’s is playing on a salary of $2.15MM this year, leaving less than a million still to be paid out. The Dodgers don’t have to worry about tiptoeing under the luxury tax, since they’ve already blown past the top threshold of $250MM. (Roster Resource currently has their luxury tax calculation at $262MM.) But that means that they’re paying a whopping 62.5% tax on any additional salary they take on, which could make a modest contract like Kennedy’s more appealing than a costlier addition such as Craig Kimbrel, who is still owed over $6MM of his $16MM salary this year.