The Rangers’ Unexpected All-Star
The Rangers will have three representatives at tonight’s All-Star Game. Joey Gallo has been there before, and the slugger’s rare combination of light-tower power and athleticism could earn him a few more nominations before the end of his career. Kyle Gibson’s dominance this season has been surprising, but he’s an eight-year veteran with a generally solid track record. Few would’ve projected him to be an All-Star entering the season, particularly coming off a down 2020, but he was the team’s Opening Day starter. It wasn’t crazy to think he’d have a bounceback year.
Adolis García making the All-Star Game would’ve been inconceivable three months ago. He wasn’t even on the Rangers roster to start the year, having been designated for assignment so they could sign Mike Foltynewicz. In February, all twenty-nine other clubs were offered the opportunity to add García for nothing more than a 40-man roster spot and the standard $50K waiver fee. Each one passed. So García reported to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee and began the year at the alternate training site.
In retrospect, each team made an error in judgment in not putting in a claim for García (as did the Rangers for designating him in the first place). It’s hard to assign too much blame around the league, though. At the time of his designation, García was soon to turn 28 years old with all of 24 major league plate appearances under his belt. An obvious combination of power and speed had made him a fairly well-regarded prospect in Cuba and in his days in the Cardinals system, but scouting reports also came with question marks about his plate approach. His 2019 season in the minors did him no favors in that regard; García popped 32 homers and swiped 14 bags, but he also reached base at just a .301 clip and posted extremely concerning strikeout and walk rates (30.1% and 4.2%, respectively).
Given his first extended big league run after being re-selected in mid-April, García has continued to actualize his physical tools at the highest level. The right-handed hitting outfielder is surprisingly tied for eighth in the majors with 22 home runs this season. He’s sporting an impressive .270/.312/.527 line across 333 plate appearances. He leads all rookie position players in FanGraphs WAR and looks to be the midseason favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.
It’s an open question whether García can continue to succeed at this level. His MLB strikeout and walk rates this season (30.6% and 4.8%) are eerily similar to those he posted during his last Triple-A campaign. He’s frequently chasing pitches outside the strike zone, and his 17.5% swinging strike rate is ninth-highest among the 231 hitters with 200+ plate appearances.
There’s still some chance García’s aggressiveness undercuts his production moving forward. Some players have enough power and athleticism to succeed in spite of a poor approach. It’s possible García’s that kind of talent, but he’ll need more than half a season of great play to cement himself within that rare group.
Whether or not García’s performance takes a step back in the second half, there’s no taking away what he’s accomplished to this point. To earn an All-Star selection just five months after clearing waivers is an incredible achievement. Among the players whose talents will be on display tonight, García’s had arguably the most meteoric rise.
Brewers Acquire Kyle Lobstein From Nationals
The Brewers announced they’ve acquired left-hander Kyle Lobstein from the Nationals in exchange for cash considerations. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Nashville. To create space on the 40-man roster, righty Ryan Weber was designated for assignment. Additionally, Milwaukee announced that infielder Daniel Robertson has passed through outright waivers.
Washington selected Lobstein to the roster late last month, marking his first major league action in five years. The 31-year-old made three appearances totaling 1 1/3 innings before the Nats designated him for assignment last weekend. Prior to his promotion, Lobstein had spent the year with Triple-A Rochester, where he impressively tossed 21 1/3 innings of 1.69 ERA ball, striking out a lofty 29.8% of opposing hitters against an average 9.5% walk rate.
That performance evidently intrigued the Milwaukee front office, which also has Brent Suter, Aaron Ashby, Hoby Milner and Angel Perdomo as left-handed options behind relief ace Josh Hader. Lobstein is in his final option year, so he can be shuttled between Milwaukee and Nashville for the remainder of the season if he sticks on the 40-man roster.
Milwaukee claimed Weber off waivers from the Red Sox a little more than a month ago. He’s made just one appearance with the Brewers, tossing a scoreless inning of relief against the Rockies. Weber has spent more of the year at Triple-A, pitching to a 5.02 ERA with an average 23.5% strikeout rate and a stingy 6% walk percentage over 43 frames split between Boston’s and Milwaukee’s affiliates. He’s appeared in the big leagues for five teams over the past seven seasons, compiling a 5.27 ERA/4.30 SIERA at the highest level. Milwaukee will have a week to trade Weber or place him on waivers.
The Brewers signed Robertson to a one-year, $900K deal over the offseason. The right-handed hitting utiltityman didn’t produce much in a limited look, though, hitting just .164/.303/.274 across 90 plate appearances before being designated for assignment last week. As a player with between three and five years of MLB service time, Robertson has the right to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency. Doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of his guaranteed salary, though, so he seems likelier to report to Nashville and hope to play his way back onto the big league roster before the end of the year.
Braves Outright Jay Flaa
The Braves announced they’re passed reliever Jay Flaa through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. The 29-year-old doesn’t have the requisite service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization.
Flaa is a longtime Orioles farmhand who made his big league debut with Baltimore earlier this year. The O’s waived him after one appearance, though, and the Braves claimed him in mid-May. He’s spent the majority of his Braves tenure with Gwinnett, appearing in 13 games and totaling 14 innings of relief. Flaa’s allowed seven runs (six earned) with the Stripers, striking out a stellar 22 hitters (33.3%) but issuing an alarming 10 unintentional walks (15.4%).
Over parts of two Triple-A seasons, Flaa has pitched to a 5.22 ERA with a 21.1% strikeout rate and a 12% walk percentage. He’ll serve as high minors right-handed depth for an Atlanta bullpen that has disappointed this season. The Braves now have a pair of vacancies on their 40-man roster after placing Ronald Acuña Jr. on the 60-day injured list over the weekend.
Dodgers Claim Jimmie Sherfy, Designate Bobby Wahl
The Dodgers have claimed right-hander Jimmie Sherfy off waivers from the Giants, according to multiple reporters (including MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado and Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times). Righty Bobby Wahl was designated for assignment to create roster space.
San Francisco designated Sherfy for assignment last week. After being released by the Diamondbacks last August, Sherfy caught on with the Giants on a minors contract during the winter and tossed 10 2/3 MLB innings this season (posting a 4.22 ERA and 19.6% strikeout rate). Sherfy totaled 45 1/3 innings over parts of the 2017-19 seasons with Arizona but didn’t see any big league action in 2020.
The Dodgers will now give Sherfy a look in their organization and may be pretty quickly parting ways with Wahl, who was acquired on another waiver claim off the Brewers’ roster just two weeks ago. Wahl’s tenure with the Dodgers has thus far consisted of just one total inning over two appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The right-hander has 15 1/3 total innings on his big league resume, with 13 of those frames coming with the A’s and Mets in 2017-18 and the other 2 1/3 innings coming with the Brewers in 2020. Wahl didn’t pitch at all in 2019 due to a torn ACL, and he has a 3.90 ERA and some big strikeout numbers (31.29% strikeout rate) over 233 career innings in the minors.
Mets’ Thomas Szapucki To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
Mets left-hander Thomas Szapucki needs ulnar nerve transposition surgery, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link). The procedure will end Szapucki’s season, though the expectation is that he’ll be recovered in time for Spring Training.
The southpaw is just two weeks removed from his MLB debut, as Szapucki allowed six runs over 3 2/3 innings of relief work in New York’s 20-2 blowout loss to the Braves on June 30. That unfortunate outing stands as Szapucki’s lone appearance in the Show, as the Mets optioned him back to Triple-A two days later. (He was also called up to the big league roster in May but was optioned back a day later without seeing any game action.)
Nonetheless, Szapucki can now officially call himself a Major League player, following an injury-plagued pro career that began when the Mets selected him in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. Szapucki only pitched 145 innings from 2015-19, in large part due to a Tommy John surgery that entirely erased his 2018 season and a good chunk of his 2017 campaign. This latest procedure represents another significant setback, and it continues a trend of ulnar nerve transposition surgery for current and former Mets pitchers (such as Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz, and Zack Wheeler) in recent years.
Despite all these setbacks, Szapucki still carries some potential. MLB Pipeline ranks the left-hander 10th on their current list of Mets minor leaguers. As per Pipeline’s scouting report, Szapucki’s signature pitch is a 60-grade curveball, which he pairs with a fastball that only has low-90’s velocity but still grades as a 55 on the 20-80 scouting scale. It remains to be seen if Szapucki can stay healthy enough to work as a starter at the big league level, but he has started 42 of 49 minor league games, posting a 2.80 ERA and an impressive 28.91% strikeout rate over 186 2/3 total innings in New York’s farm system.
KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Acquire Will Craig
The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization have acquired first baseman Will Craig (hat tip to reporters Sung Min Kim and The Yonhap News’ Jeeho Yoo). Craig will earn $371K for the remainder of the KBO season according to Yoo, while MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports a $425K salary.
Craig was most recently a member of the Pirates, and GM Ben Cherington said over the weekend that Craig had been given permission to look into opportunities with Asian teams. Pittsburgh has designated Craig for assignment and outrighted him off its 40-man roster twice, with the most recent outright assignment coming last month.
Craig has spent his entire professional career with the Pirates, beginning after the Bucs selected him with the 22nd overall pick of the 2016 draft. He has a .261/.351/.421 slash line over 2060 career plate appearances in the minor leagues, mostly playing first baseman but also getting some as a third baseman and right fielder. After being selected for Pittsburgh’s alternate training site in 2020, Craig made his MLB debut with two games last season, and then appeared in 18 games for the Pirates this year.
In 69 PA in the majors, Craig has hit .203/.261/.281 with one home run (in his first game of the 2021 season). Unfortunately for Craig, his most famous moment as a big leaguer was a uniquely memorable fielding error against the Cubs this season, when he engaged in a rundown with batter Javier Baez between first base and home plate rather than just step on first base to retire Baez on a routine grounder.
As noted by Kim, Craig will replace David Freitas as the foreign-born position player on the Heroes roster. Freitas was placed on waivers by the Seoul-based team last month.
A Potential First Base/Corner Outfield Upgrade For Contending Clubs
The Marlins are generally expected to move some players off the big league roster in advance of the July 30 trade deadline. They’re in last place in the National League East at 39-50, and FanGraphs gives the Fish just a 0.2% chance of reaching the postseason. Indeed, the Marlins already began selling last month, when they sent corner outfielder Corey Dickerson and reliever Adam Cimber to the Blue Jays.
Miami’s biggest decision over the coming weeks will be whether to trade star center fielder Starling Marte. The two sides are reportedly discussing an extension, with the expectation that Marte will be moved if they don’t agree on a long-term deal. But there’s another Miami hitter who should intrigue contenders, one whose production has flown a little more under the radar: Garrett Cooper.
Cooper wasn’t a top prospect coming up in the Brewers or Yankees farm systems, and he’s never been a name familiar to most casual fans. Since breaking into the majors, he’s always performed when given the opportunity though. Miami acquired Cooper from the Yankees before the 2018 season, but he spent most of that year on the injured list. He returned to play fairly well in 2019 but again missed time with injury, and he lost a month of the 2020 season amidst the Marlins’ team-wide COVID-19 outbreak last summer.
Upon being reinstated from the COVID IL last August, Cooper mashed down the stretch to help lead the Marlins to a postseason berth. He’s improved upon that production this season, putting up a .291/.387/.481 line over 238 plate appearances. He’s sporting a .288/.375/.488 mark since the start of 2020, and he owns a .284/.355/.457 line (122 wRC+) over 875 trips to the dish at the major league level.
Cooper’s had his share of health troubles, but there’s little question he’s a quality offensive player when healthy. His bottom line results are strong, and his underlying batted ball metrics are plus. Cooper’s in the 75th percentile or better this in average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard contact rate. His peak exit velocity (114 MPH) is in the 92nd percentile, a reflection of his high-end raw power.
Unsurprisingly, the right-handed hitting Cooper has been a bit better against left-handed pitching than right-handers over the course of his career. He’s far from a platoon player, though, owning a productive .280/.362/.434 mark against same-handed hurlers. Cooper does strike out a fair amount and shouldn’t be expected to sustain this season’s .383 batting average on balls in play. But he makes consistent hard contact and uses the entire field, so it’s fair to expect he’ll continue to have his fair share of hits fall in. Even if Cooper’s BABIP dips toward his .337 figure from last year, he should remain a well above-average hitter based on his quality of contact and decent plate discipline.
The bat is the calling card for Cooper, who’s best suited at first base. With Jesús Aguilar at first in South Florida, he’s seen more time in the corner outfield than at his natural position in recent seasons. He’s not a disaster in the grass, but defensive metrics all agree he’s below-average, which isn’t surprising for a player listed at 6’5″, 235 pounds.
It’s worth noting that the Marlins needn’t move Cooper this summer if they’re so disinclined. He’s controllable via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one, and the Marlins could keep him around in hopes of making a run in 2022. There was some speculation about Miami moving Cooper last offseason after they signed Adam Duvall. There was no indication the Marlins came all that close to pulling the trigger on a deal, but it stands to reason clubs will again be in contact with general manager Kim Ng to gauge his potential availability over the coming weeks.
If Miami is willing to move Cooper, there are a handful of teams who look like strong fits on paper. The Dodgers and Padres were among the clubs interested in Cooper over the winter, and they’re amidst a tight race with one another and the division-leading Giants in the NL West. (Padres general manager A.J. Preller expressed interest over the weekend in upgrading his lineup). The Red Sox and Mariners have gotten very little from their first basemen, and Seattle’s Evan White might not return from a hip injury this year. The Braves could use corner outfield help.
Even perennially low-payroll teams could inquire on Cooper, who’s making just $1.9MM (with less than half of that sum still owed). The A’s and Rays could use more production out of the designated hitter spot. Indians first basemen have been among the worst in the league; while Cleveland might be falling out of position to buy for this season, they could acquire him with an eye towards 2022.
Cooper might not have the name recognition or long track record of some of this summer’s other trade candidates. He’s a quality hitter, though, the kind of player who would upgrade most teams’ lineups. Between his production and affordability, Cooper should pique the interest of a handful of contenders over the coming weeks.
Mets Promote Two Executives To Assistant General Manager Positions
The Mets have promoted Ian Levin and Bryn Alderson to assistant general manager, reports Andy Martino of SNY. Both executives have been with New York for extended periods of time. Levin has been in the organization since 2005, while Alderson joined the Mets in 2011.
Levin had been the Mets’ senior director of baseball operations. Martino notes that he’s taken roles in the analytics and player development departments over the course of his tenure. Alderson, meanwhile, has worked on the scouting side of the organization. He has been the team’s director of professional scouting over the past two seasons.
The Mets’ front office has undergone quite a few changes since last winter’s sale of the franchise. Former general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and a significant portion of his staff left the organization immediately after new owner Steve Cohen took over. Previous GM Sandy Alderson (Bryn Alderson’s father) was brought back as team president.
Jared Porter was hired as general manager but fired shortly after when his past sexual harassment of a reporter came to light. Zack Scott has been functioning as acting general manager since that time. Martino writes that Scott has “earned many fans inside the organization” for his work over the past six months and could eventually earn a permanent promotion, but he continues to hold the position in an interim capacity for now.
Chris Archer, Oliver Drake To Begin Rehab Assignments
Rays starter Chris Archer is beginning a minor league rehab assignment with the club’s Florida Complex League affiliate today, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Reliever Oliver Drake is scheduled to begin his own rehab stint with Triple-A Durham tomorrow, per Topkin.
Archer’s coming off a lost 2020 season, in which he didn’t pitch after undergoing surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome. The Rays bought low on the 32-year-old over the winter, reuniting with the two-time All-Star on a one-year, $6.5MM deal. Unfortunately, forearm tightness knocked him out of his second start of the season and he’s spent the past three months on the injured list.
Now, though, Archer’s on the road to recovery. Players have up to thirty days on a rehab assignment, so the right-hander will be back with the big league club by mid-August at the latest (barring future setbacks). Archer’s return will add some depth to a rotation that has since lost ace Tyler Glasnow to a partially torn UCL that’ll keep him out for most or all of the remainder of the season.
The Rays could still look to add some depth to the pitching staff before the July 30 trade deadline. It’s not a glaring weakness, since the Rays have gotten generally good work from Rich Hill, Ryan Yarbrough, Shane McClanahan and Josh Fleming. There’s room to upgrade over Michael Wacha, though, and the Rays are among the league’s most flexible teams in terms of pitcher usage. It’s easy to envision the front office acquiring another starter and bumping Fleming or Wacha into a multi-inning relief role. At 53-37, Tampa Bay trails the Red Sox by a game and a half in the American League East. With arguably the league’s deepest farm system, there should be no shortage of opportunities for the Rays front office to bolster the big league roster for the stretch run.
Drake, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched all year after suffering a forearm injury during last year’s postseason. The Rays re-signed the 35-year-old over the winter with the understanding he’d miss the first few months of the campaign. Drake is part of a group of Rays relievers — Nick Anderson, Chaz Roe, Colin Poche and Cody Reed among the others — who have dealt with long-term injury issues this season.
Both Archer and Drake are on the 60-day injured list, meaning they’re not currently occupying spots on the 40-man roster. Upon their returns, Tampa Bay will need to create 40-man vacancies, which could inspire them to trade a player or two from the back of the roster before the deadline.
Mets Expected To Finalize Over-Slot Agreement With Kumar Rocker
The Mets are expected to sign first-round pick Kumar Rocker for a $6MM signing bonus, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The tenth overall pick, with which Rocker was selected, comes with a slot value of $4.7399MM. The deal is pending a physical.
New York’s overall bonus pool is $9.0263MM, meaning Rocker will unsurprisingly receive the bulk of the allotment. Teams are allowed to exceed their bonus pool by five percent before forfeiting future draft choices, leaving the Mets with about $3.478MM to spread around for their picks between the second and tenth round. Aside from second-rounder Calvin Ziegler, the Mets went with college draftees on Day Two, which will allow them to cut under-slot deals elsewhere to accommodate Rocker’s bonus.
Rocker’s reported $6MM bonus lands between the slot values of the fifth and sixth overall selections. It’s not especially surprising he commanded an over-slot bonus given his high profile. Rocker entered the 2021 amateur season among the candidates to wind up as the first overall pick. The Vanderbilt righty’s stuff waxed and waned a little bit throughout the season, taking him out of the 1.1 mix, but he nonetheless dominated opposing hitters. Rocker worked to a 2.73 ERA for the national runners-up, finishing second among Division I hurlers (behind teammate Jack Leiter) with 173 strikeouts over 117 2/3 innings.
That performance kept Rocker among the class’ top prospects. Each of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline and Keith Law of the Athletic placed him among the six most talented players in this year’s group, with each outlet slotting him behind only Leiter among college arms. The inconsistency of his stuff this spring presented a bit of concern for evaluators, but Rocker’s plus fastball-slider combination when he’s at his best gives him one of the higher ceilings in the class.