Angels Select Scott Schebler
The Angels are expected to select the contract of outfielder Scott Schebler before this evening’s game against the Yankees. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com was among those to note that Schebler has joined the team in the Bronx. Infielder Kean Wong was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake, but the Angels will need to make another transaction to clear space for Schebler on the 40-man roster.
Schebler, who signed a minor league deal with the Angels over the winter, briefly appeared on the big league club earlier in the season. He tallied just 27 plate appearances before being outrighted, but he’s done well at Salt Lake. The left-handed hitter has a .281/.355/.523 line with eight home runs across 172 plate appearances with the Bees. Triple-A West, like its predecessor the Pacific Coast League, has played extremely hitter-friendly. Nevertheless, Schebler’s offensive production has been nine percentage points better than the league’s average, by measure of weighted runs created.
Best known for his time with the Reds, Schebler has appeared in the majors in each of the past seven seasons. He was a regular for Cincinnati between 2017-18, popping 47 homers across those two seasons. Schebler’s never been one to draw many walks, though, and he’s better suited for the corner outfield than center. He wound up squeezed out of Cincinnati early in 2019 and has only tallied a cumulative 123 major league plate appearances over the past three years.
The Angels have been without Mike Trout and Dexter Fowler for extended stretches, and Justin Upton recently went on the 10-day injured list with back soreness over the weekend. That’s left Los Angeles rather thin in the outfield. General manager Perry Minasian told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register) over the weekend that Trout hasn’t begun running or any sort of baseball activity. Trout, who’s been out since May 18, could be a candidate for a transfer to the 60-day IL, if the Angels don’t expect him to return to big league action before the July 12-15 All-Star Break.
Royals Designate Kelvin Gutierrez For Assignment, Select Emmanuel Rivera
The Royals announced Monday that they’ve designated infielder Kelvin Gutierrez for assignment and selected the contract of fellow infielder Emmanuel Rivera from Triple-A Omaha. Rivera, who’ll be making his MLB debut, is batting sixth in tonight’s lineup and manning the hot corner.
Gutierrez, 26, was acquired from the Nationals back in the 2018 trade that sent righty Kelvin Herrera from K.C. to D.C. At the time of the swap, Gutierrez was arguably the top prospect headed back to Kansas City — a potentially plus defender at third base with above-average power but questions about his hit tool. His development, unfortunately, hasn’t rounded out as hoped.
The Royals gave Gutierrez a look in each of the past three seasons, but he’s mustered only a .226/.275/.309 slash through 223 Major League plate appearances. He’s posted a .289/.364/.429 slash in 84 Triple-A games as well, although given the hitter-friendly nature of that setting, that output checks in at roughly league average, per wRC+. Gutierrez hasn’t been as strong defensively as expected at third base, either; he’s committed a dozen errors in 490 innings at third base while logging below-average marks in Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average.
That said, Gutierrez can be optioned for the remainder of the 2021 season and has been an average or better hitter at nearly every minor league stop. He’ll turn 27 two months from now, but another club in need of some depth at third base could take a mostly free look at this point. The Royals have a week to trade Gutierrez or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.
Rivera’s call to the big leagues serves as an early birthday present, as he’ll turn 25 tomorrow. He’s spent the season with Triple-A Omaha and posted a .282/.337/.593 batting line with 14 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple so far in 193 plate appearances. He doesn’t walk much (6.2 percent in 2021) but also has a seemingly manageable strikeout rate (22.3 percent).
Rivera as a mid-range prospect for the Royals heading into the 2019 season, but a forgettable .258/.297/.345 (79 wRC+) performance in Double-A caused him to fall off most organizational rankings. This is the most productive season of his career so far, however, and he’ll now get a chance to carry it over to the big league level for a Royals club that can afford him ample playing time.
Rangers’ Willie Calhoun, Hunter Wood Require Surgery
Rangers outfielder/designated hitter Willie Calhoun will require surgery to repair a fracture in his left ulna, the team announced to reporters Monday (Twitter thread via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). Calhoun sustained the injury when he was hit by a pitch on the forearm over the weekend. A clear timetable hasn’t yet been revealed — that’ll presumably come after the operation — but an absence of some note now looks all the more inevitable.
Meanwhile, right-hander Hunter Wood, who has been out since late May after hitting the IL with an elbow surgery that was eventually termed a “mild” sprain of his right ulnar collateral ligament. He’s now undergone elbow surgery and will miss a minimum of eight months, which suggests that Wood did not require a full Tommy John surgery (which comes with a 12- to 16-month recovery period). Indeed, the procedure in question installed an internal brace in Wood’s elbow, tweets The Athletic’s Levi Weaver.
It was already apparent that Calhoun would be out awhile following the announcement of a fracture, but it’s a tough blow all the same. The 26-year-old wasn’t hitting for the type of power he displayed in 2019, but Calhoun’s 8.4 percent walk rate and 11.6 percent strikeout rate are both career-best marks. He’s long been a touted hitting prospect, and had he been able to maintain that improved approach while reclaiming some of his 2019 pop as the summer wore on, there was some breakout potential.
It remains to be seen when or whether Calhoun will return to the big league club in 2021, but the injury will deprive him of a chance to bolster his case in his first offseason of arbitration eligibility. He’s under club control through the 2024 season.
As for Wood, the surgery will cut his season short at just five big league innings. The right-hander joined the organization on a minor league pact over the winter and showed well in a brief Triple-A look before allowing a pair of runs in his MLB frames. Wood didn’t pitch in the Majors last season, but he’s seen MLB time with both the Rays and the Indians in the past, throwing quite well along the way. He’s tallied 91 2/3 innings at the MLB level and put together a 3.34 ERA with a below-average 21.9 percent strikeout rate against an very solid 8.1 percent walk rate.
While Wood’s 2021 season is over, he can remain under team control with the Rangers organization — they’re comfortable committing a 40-man roster spot over the winter. There’s no guarantee that’ll be the case, but Wood has been outrighted in the past, so even if the Rangers remove him from the 40-man this winter and he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the option of electing free agency to determine the best fit.
Boras On Scherzer Trade Speculation
June 28: In an interview with Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, Boras struck a somewhat different tone: “When players are traded, and you refer to contract amendments, it does not necessarily mean an extension. It could be any amendment that gives him a reason to exercise his rights. That’s up to the player at the time. Max and I have never discussed the subject.”
Moreover, Boras noted that the Nationals’ recent surge in the standings renders any such trade speculation largely “moot,” as the team now increasingly looks like a potential deadline buyer (or, at least, one that won’t sell off major assets).
June 25: With a little more than a month to go before the July 30 trade deadline, some enterprising teams figure to reach out to the Nationals to gauge the availability of ace Max Scherzer. There are myriad roadblocks that stand in the way of a midseason deal, though. Among them: the full no-trade rights granted to players (like Scherzer) who have ten-plus years of MLB service, the past five with the same team. The star hurler’s agent, Scott Boras, suggested Scherzer wouldn’t waive those 10-and-5 rights to facilitate a midseason deal unless he and the acquiring team agreed on a contract extension.
“The reality of it is (a trade) is going to have to lead to something,” Boras told Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago, clarifying that “something” would have to be an extension. Scherzer is entering the final season of his seven-year, $210MM free agent deal with the Nationals. That pact came with a series of deferrals, with Washington on the hook for successive $15MM payments through the end of 2028. Determining how much of the deferred money would fall on the Nationals versus any potential acquiring team would make a Scherzer trade something of an endeavor to begin with, and the player’s demand for an extension on top of that only further complicates matters.
Scherzer will turn 37 years old before deadline day. Teams are typically wary of investing in pitchers of that age, but he’s obviously no ordinary pitcher. Scherzer’s a three-time Cy Young award winner who looks as good as ever. Through 14 starts this year, he’s worked to a pristine 2.19 ERA/2.73 SIERA. Scherzer’s among the top ten qualifiers in both categories, as well as in strikeout rate (36.1%) and strikeout/walk rate differential (30.3 percentage points).
Justin Verlander, Scherzer’s former teammate, secured a two-year, $66MM extension from the Astros in March 2019. That deal didn’t go into effect until 2020, Verlander’s age-37 season. It came on the heels of a dominant 2018 effort that’s not all that dissimilar from Scherzer’s performance this year. Verlander’s deal was signed a full season in advance of free agency, though, not months-long into an elite platform campaign (although he would go on to post dominant results in 2019 after signing the extension).
With Scherzer halfway through another incredible season, he and Boras can justifiably set their sights higher than Verlander’s mark. Indeed, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently ranked the superstar righty the game’s #10 impending free agent, suggesting he might command a three-year deal despite his age.
Any discussion about Scherzer waiving his 10-and-5 rights might only be academic, anyways. The Nationals have won nine of their last ten games to vault into second place in the National League East. At 36-36, Washington sits just three and a half games back of the division-leading Mets. The Nationals haven’t traditionally been a team that likes to trade away top players midseason, and their recent resurgence has them right in the thick of the playoff mix. Barring a dramatic drop-off over the next couple weeks, general manager Mike Rizzo and the rest of the front office look far more likely to add help to the big league roster rather than entertain offers on players like Scherzer.
Reds Designate Scott Heineman For Assignment, Select Alejo Lopez
The Reds announced Monday morning that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Alejo Lopez and designated outfielder Scott Heineman for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Heineman, 28, was 3-for-30 in a brief, 19-game look with Cincinnati this season after coming over from the Rangers via a December trade that sent young Jose Acosta to Texas. That rough showing dipped his career batting line in the big leagues to .172/.249/.325 through 173 plate appearances — all coming with either Texas or Cincinnati. Heineman has a much better track record in Triple-A, where he’s posted a hearty .302/.368/.458 slash through 699 trips to the plate.
As for the 25-year-old Lopez, he’s in the midst of a breakout campaign in the upper minors. He didn’t enter the season regarded as one of the better prospects in the Reds organization, but Lopez destroyed the Double-A Southern League with a .362/.437/.448 batting line before moving to Triple-A and upping the pace with a .358/.436/.526 slash through a nearly identical sample of plate appearances.
Lopez has had some good fortune in terms of balls in play (.404 BABIP in Double-A, .368 in Triple-A), but his output is also buoyed by what look to be exceptional bat-to-ball skills. Lopez has just 18 strikeouts against 24 walks through 229 plate appearances this season, helping to offset a lack of power. Lopez has only two home runs (both in Triple-A) and just nine long balls in 1564 plate appearances in minor league ball overall. But he’s also swatted 19 doubles in this year’s 229 trips to the plate and gone 6-for-7 in stolen base attempts.
Lopez has split his time between second base and third base this season, with the former of those two spots being his primary position throughout his minor league career. He does have some experience at shortstop and got some work in left field while playing winter ball in Mexico. He’ll give Cincinnati a switch-hitting presence to bounce around the diamond. This will be Lopez’s first call to the Majors after being a 27th-round pick by the Reds back in 2015. He’s controllable through at least the 2027 season.
Mariners’ Hector Santiago Ejected Following Foreign Substance Inspection
Mariners left-hander Héctor Santiago was ejected from today’s game against the White Sox by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after a between-innings foreign substance inspection, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post was among those to relay. Santiago’s glove was confiscated. (Ben Verlander of Fox Sports provides video of the incident).
Seattle manager Scott Servais confirmed (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN) that Santiago was deemed to have used a foreign substance but claimed Cuzzi’s judgment was incorrect. “He had rosin all over himself. Phil thought he had sticky stuff on his glove,” Servais said. “There is no sticky stuff in the glove.” Rosin is permitted under the league’s substance policy.
If Santiago’s ejection is ultimately deemed to be due to a foreign substance and not rosin, as Servais suggested, the left-hander wiill be subject to a ten-day suspension under the terms of Major League Baseball’s new enforcement of the prohibition against ball doctoring. Santiago would become the first player to be disciplined since MLB’s crackdown went into effect on Monday. The Mariners would not be permitted to replace him on the active or 40-man rosters during the course of any suspension.
The 33-year-old Santiago first appeared in the majors in 2011 and has thrown just under 1000 innings at the big league level. Signed to a minor league deal last month, he’s made nine appearances since being selected to the roster. Santiago entered play today with a 2.45 ERA/2.89 SIERA across 14 2/3 innings.
Athletics Sign Homer Bailey To Minors Contract
The A’s signed right-hander Homer Bailey to a minor league deal earlier this week and assigned the veteran to Triple-A Las Vegas. This is Bailey’s second stint with Oakland, after first joining the organization via a trade from the Royals in July 2019 and then posting a 4.30 ERA over 13 starts and 73 1/3 innings in the green and gold.
Bailey was a front-of-the-rotation arm during his prime years in Cincinnati, which included no-hitters in both 2012 and 2013. This led to a six-year, $105MM extension prior to the 2014 season that unfortunately became something of an albatross for the team, as Bailey battled multiple injuries (including a Tommy John surgery) over his remaining five years with the Reds. However, after catching on with the Royals on a minors deal, he rebounded to post serviceable numbers over 163 1/3 combined innings with K.C. and Oakland in 2019, with a 4.57 ERA/4.60 SIERA and an above-average 7.6% walk rate.
Injuries again hampered Bailey in 2020, as biceps tendinitis limited him to only eight innings with the Twins. The righty didn’t sign with another team during the winter, though he did make Team USA’s roster for the Olympic baseball qualifying tournament.
The 35-year-old has by far the most experience of any pitcher in the Athletics farm system, and Bailey is likely to remain on hand as a depth option should an injury or a need arise in Oakland’s rotation. Mike Fiers was re-signed last February to fill that veteran depth role, though Fiers has been on the injured list since early May due to an elbow sprain and will out of action at least through July after receiving a PRP injection. It’s probably safe to assume that the A’s will continue to seek out more pitching (both for the rotation and the bullpen) as the July 30 trade deadline nears.
Tigers Place Michael Fulmer On 10-Day Injured List
The Tigers placed right-hander Michael Fulmer on the 10-day injured list due to a right cervical spine strain. Left-hander Miguel Del Pozo was called up from Triple-A Toledo to take Fulmer’s spot on the active roster. Despite the rather ominous-sounding official injury designation, “the normal term is his neck is bothering him,” manager A.J. Hinch told The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky and other reporters. Fulmer felt the injury following yesterday’s outing against the Astros, which saw the righty allow three runs on two homers over an inning of work.
While the issue doesn’t sound overly serious, it does represent at least 10 fewer days for opposing scouts and front offices to gauge Fulmer’s value as a trade candidate. The 2016 AL Rookie Of The Year has reinvented himself as a reliever coming off Tommy John surgery in 2019 and some tough results as a starter in 2020, and Fulmer has a 3.62 ERA, 29.66% strikeout rate, and 5.08% walk rate in 27 1/3 innings out of the bullpen this season. He has also shown some quality in high-leverage situations, racking up six saves as part of Detroit’s closer committee.
With Fulmer still under control through one final arbitration year in 2022, he makes for an interesting trade chip for the Tigers to shop prior to July 30, assuming that he is able to return from the IL in good condition. An enterprising team could acquire Fulmer as bullpen help for this season, and then perhaps consider stretching him out next spring for one last crack at starting pitching, with a return to the relief corps available as a fallback option.
The transaction also creates another opportunity for Del Pozo, who didn’t get a chance to pitch when he was briefly called up to the Tigers earlier this month. Del Pozo signed a minor league deal with Detroit last winter, and over 13 innings with the Angels and Pirates in 2019-20, the southpaw issued 16 walks and posted a 12.46 ERA. At Triple-A Toledo this season, however, Del Pozo has a 1.02 ERA over 17 2/3 innings, with a 35.4% strikeout rate and (perhaps most importantly) a much more palatable 9.23% walk rate.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
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Jose Abreu Day-To-Day With Bruised Knee, X-Rays Negative
Jose Abreu was in visible pain after being hit in the left knee by a JT Chargois pitch during today’s 3-2 White Sox loss to the Mariners, but the reigning AL MVP appears to have avoided a worst-case scenario. The Sox announced that Abreu had suffered a bruised knee, and that x-rays were negative.
Abreu had to be removed for a pinch-runner after his HBP in the sixth inning of the first game of the doubleheader, and obviously wasn’t in Chicago’s lineup for Game 2. Andrew Vaughn replaced Abreu at first base and Yasmani Grandal played first in the second game, and these two are likely to see the bulk of first-base duties while Abreu is recovering, or if a stint on the 10-day injured list is ultimately required.
As MLB.com’s Scott Merkin notes, Abreu has had to deal with several minor injuries this season, which could explain his dropoff in production from his big 2020 campaign. Abreu’s 111 wRC+ is still above average, but is hitting a comparatively modest .244/.323/.435 with 12 home runs over an even 300 plate appearances. It’s fair to wonder (as White Sox manager Tony La Russa recently did) whether or not these accumulated knocks were taking their toll on Abreu, since he entered today’s action with only a .523 OPS and one homer over his last 98 PA. It could be that the Sox decide a 10-day IL stint is warranted even if the knee bruise isn’t overly serious, just to give Abreu some time to recharge for the second half of the season.
If Abreu does have to miss time, it would represent yet another significant loss to Chicago’s starting lineup. The team’s entire projected starting outfield (Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Adam Eaton) are on the injured list, as well as backups Adam Engel and Billy Hamilton. As well, second baseman Nick Madrigal‘s season is already over after undergoing hamstring surgery. After the loss in the first half of today’s doubleheader, the White Sox have dropped seven of their last eight games, reducing their lead in the AL Central to two games over the Indians.