Tommy La Stella Suffers Hand Fracture
Giants infielder Tommy La Stella‘s minor league rehab assignment has been delayed due to a new injury, as MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (Twitter link) was among to report that La Stella suffered a small fracture in his throwing hand. La Stella jammed his thumb while taking grounders, resulting in the fracture, and he will now be shut down for two weeks before restarting baseball activities.
This setback will extend what has already been a lengthy absence for La Stella, who went on the 10-day injured list (and was eventually moved to the 60-day IL) due to a left hamstring strain back on May 4. This IL stint was nearing an end, as he had just started his rehab games before suffering his thumb injury. La Stella’s earliest possible return date now looks to be July 16, the Giants’ first game after the All-Star break, though even that date is likely tentative given the sometimes tricky nature of hand-related injuries.
The Giants made a notable investment in La Stella during the offseason, inking the veteran to a three-year, $18.75MM deal that stands as the club’s priciest free agent contract since Farhan Zaidi became president of baseball operations. While many of Zaidi’s other moves have worked out extremely well for the first-place Giants, La Stella has yet to get out of the blocks this season, as he was hitting only .235/.297/.353 over his first 75 plate appearances.
That small sample size aside, however, the 32-year-old La Stella has been an above-average hitter for much of his career, and he’ll represent a boost to San Francisco’s depth when he is able to get back onto the field. La Stella had played only second and third base for the Giants prior to his injury, though with Brandon Belt facing a potentially lengthy IL absence, La Stella might eventually be worked into the first base mix.
Orioles Outright Mickey Jannis
The Orioles announced that right-hander Mickey Jannis has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk. He’d been designated for assignment earlier in the week.
Jannis will remain in the organization as high minors depth. The 33-year-old has had a strong season with the Tides, working to a 2.92 ERA across 24 2/3 innings. His strikeout and walk rates (13% and 10%, respectively) are uninspiring, but that’s generally to be expected for a knuckleballer.
That quality Triple-A work earned Jannis the briefest of looks at the big league level earlier this week. He was selected to the roster and made his MLB debut on Wednesday. Jannis was called on for a few innings of mop-up work against the Astros, the league’s top lineup. He didn’t fare well, as Houston tagged him for seven runs on eight hits (including three homers) and four walks. At the very least, Jannis did record his first major league strikeout, punching out Yordan Álvarez.
Diamondbacks Outright Stefan Crichton
JUNE 27: Crichton cleared waivers and has been sent outright to Reno, the D-Backs announced.
JUNE 23: The Diamondbacks announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-handed reliever Stefan Crichton for assignment and recalled outfielder Nick Heath from Triple-A Reno in his place.
Crichton, 29, worked some high-leverage spots for the Snakes early in the season and even tallied four saves in the season’s first five weeks. In fact, Crichton is the only D-backs reliever with multiple saves this season and leads the team with nine saves dating back to Opening Day 2020.
The right-hander’s results have tanked as of late, however, leading to a 6.04 ERA that surely prompted Wednesday’s DFA. Crichton has totaled only 11 innings over his past 15 appearances, during which time he’s been tagged for 10 earned runs on 16 hits (two homers) with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five).
From 2019-20, Crichton was a solid member of the D-backs’ relief corps, tallying 56 1/3 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with a 50.3 percent grounder rate, a 24.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate. His velocity, strikeout rate and walk rate have all gone in the wrong direction for two consecutive seasons, however. This year’s middling 13.9 percent clip is barely half what it was back in 2019 when he notched a career-best 26.8 percent mark.
The Diamondbacks will have a week to trade Crichton or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. This year’s struggles and velocity dip, paired with the fact that he’s out of minor league options, might temper optimism among other clubs, however.
Padres Place Dinelson Lamet On Injured List With Forearm Inflammation
Before this afternoon’s game against the Diamondbacks, the Padres placed right-hander Dinelson Lamet on the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his throwing forearm. James Norwood was recalled from Triple-A El Paso to replace him on the active roster.
Lamet left last night’s start in the third inning due to what manager Jayce Tingler called forearm “fatigue.” Today’s diagnosis of inflammation is a bit more concerning at first glance, although the team has yet to provide any other update.
It’s the continuation of a rather alarming series of arm issues for Lamet, who underwent a Tommy John surgery in April 2018. His breakout 2020 season was ended early after he felt biceps discomfort in his final regular-season start last September. The Padres played things cautiously with Lamet, bringing him along slowly and having him begin this season on the injured list. The 28-year-old returned in late April but left his first start with forearm soreness. He was back by early May but is now dealing with renewed issues in the area.
In between the injuries, Lamet has shown top-of-the-rotation ability. He pitched to a pristine 2.09 ERA/3.16 SIERA across 69 innings during last year’s shortened season, earning him a fourth-place finish in NL Cy Young award balloting. Lamet hasn’t quite pitched at that level this season, but he’s again been effective. Through 34 1/3 frames, he’s worked to a 3.67 ERA/3.82 SIERA. Ryan Weathers, recently optioned to Triple-A, looks likely to be recalled to assume Lamet’s rotation spot while he’s out.
Willie Calhoun Suffers Forearm Fracture
12:47 pm: Texas placed Calhoun on the 10-day injured list prior to today’s game. Outfielder Jason Martin has been recalled from Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move.
9:14 am: Rangers left fielder/DH Willie Calhoun fractured his forearm after being hit by a Kris Bubic pitch during yesterday’s game against the Royals, manager Chris Woodward told reporters (including Jeff Wilson). A more definitive timetable for his recovery won’t become clear until he undergoes further testing, but he’s obviously looking at a rather significant absence.
It’s unfortunately the latest in a series of injuries that have befallen Calhoun in recent years. The 26-year-old has spent time on the injured list due to leg issues in each of the last three seasons, and he was struck in the face by a Julio Urías pitch during Spring Training in 2020. Those persistent health problems have kept the promising hitter from picking up more than 337 plate appearances in any single major league season.
Calhoun has made 226 trips to the dish this year, hitting at a league average level (.254/.323/.385). That’s not the high-end offensive output the Rangers are hoping for from a player with limited defensive utility, but Calhoun still seems to have the potential to make more of an impact. He was a highly-regarded offensive player during his time as a prospect, and he looked to be on the verge of a breakout after putting up a .269/.323/.524 line in 2019.
Calhoun hasn’t hit for anywhere near that level of power this year, but he’s been one the game’s toughest players to punch out (11.9% strikeout rate). His batted ball metrics also indicate he’s made more quality contact to this point than his bottom line numbers would suggest. The left-handed hitter is scheduled to reach arbitration eligibility for the first time after the season.
The Marlins’ Trade Deadline Outlook
At 33-42, the Marlins have dropped nine games back of the division-leading Mets in the National League East. They’re even further behind in the Wild Card picture, and they’d also need to jump each of the Nationals, Braves and Phillies to make a run at the division. That’s decidedly unlikely, with FanGraphs’ updated playoff odds giving the Fish just a 0.2% chance of making the postseason. With their hopes of competing in 2021 all but dashed, the Marlins look to be one of a few teams (the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Pirates, Rangers, Tigers and Orioles are among the others) who are virtually certain to move players off the big league roster before the July 30 trade deadline.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem the Miami front office is inclined to relaunch a full teardown. The Marlins are expected to hold onto their young, controllable starting pitchers this summer, reports Joe Frisaro of Man On Second Baseball (Twitter link). Instead, the team is more likely to trade position players on expiring contracts and relievers.
That’s not a particularly surprising development. The Marlins have been amidst a rebuild for the past few seasons, and they’ve started to see the fruits of that effort at the major league level. Miami made last year’s expanded playoff, although they never looked especially likely to compete for the division title over the course of a 162-game season. Still, the development of the controllable young pitching gives plenty of hope for 2022 and beyond.
Each of Pablo López, Trevor Rogers and Sandy Alcantara have had fantastic campaigns to date; López and Alcantara are controllable through 2024, Rogers through 2026. Shoulder troubles have kept Sixto Sánchez from making his season debut, but the Marlins were surely never considering moving the promising 22-year-old even before his series of injuries.
Even without Sánchez, Miami’s rotation has been one of the league’s better units. Marlins starters rank sixth in ERA (3.37) and groundball rate (45.1%), eleventh in SIERA (3.92) and twelfth in strikeout/walk rate differential (15.7 percentage points). Obviously, that hasn’t been reflected in the standings, but the team has been more competitive than its .434 winning percentage would suggest.
Miami has outscored their opponents by 21 runs over the course of the season (which is tied with New York for the fifth-best run differential in the NL). A 6-16 record in one-run games has tanked their postseason chances, but their Pythagorean record (essentially a team’s estimated place in the standings based on run differential) is a much better 41-35. That’s largely a moot point this year, but the encouraging underlying numbers lend additional support to the front office’s apparent belief that they needn’t move core players under long-term control.
Turning to players the Marlins do look likely to move in the coming weeks, none stands out more than star center fielder Starling Marté. A left rib fracture sidelined Marté for a few weeks in April and May, but he’s been stellar when healthy. The 32-year-old is hitting .301/.411/.486 with six home runs across 175 plate appearances this season. Marté has been a productive player for years, but his current offensive output is the best of his career. Most notably, he’s chasing pitches outside the strike zone less than ever, helping to drive a 13.7% walk rate that’s far and away his best mark.
Marté is in the final year of his contract, still due the balance of a $12.5MM salary that’s a bargain relative to his current level of production. Earlier this month, he expressed an interest in signing an extension that would keep him in Miami for the remainder of his career. General manager Kim Ng said there’d been no extension talks to date, though, and it’s certainly possible the Marlins prefer to move Marté for young talent rather than offer a player his age a long-term deal. The M’s could theoretically hold onto Marté through the end of the season and make him a qualifying offer, but they’ll likely be offered a midseason prospect return more valuable than the compensatory draft choice they’d receive if Marté rejects a QO.
Few of the Marlins other realistic trade candidates figure to bring back as much as Marté would, but there’s a handful of players who could attract interest. Corner outfielders Corey Dickerson and Adam Duvall are having passable seasons. The shape of their production differs (Dickerson’s hitting for average and getting on base but not hitting for much power, Duvall has slugged sixteen homers but has a lowly .266 OBP), but they’ve both been average offensive players in aggregate.
Dickerson’s due the remainder of a $9.5MM salary, while Duvall is making $5MM this year (including a $3MM buyout of a 2022 mutual option). The Marlins might have to pay down some of that respective money to facilitate trades, but each player could hold modest appeal to an outfield-needy club. (Dickerson is currently on the IL with a left foot contusion). First baseman Jesús Aguilar is having a solid season, hitting .260/.321/.453. He’s controllable through 2022 via arbitration, but Miami could move him, particularly if they’d be disinclined to offer him a raise on his current $4.3MM salary next year.
The Marlins also have a host of affordable relievers who could hold appeal to other clubs. Dylan Floro and Richard Bleier are veteran ground-ball specialists. Ross Detwiler and John Curtiss are missing bats at above-average rates. Yimi García and Anthony Bass have had fine, if unexciting, seasons.
Perhaps most interestingly, rookie Anthony Bender has been a revelation. The 26-year-old hasn’t allowed an earned run over his first 21 1/3 MLB innings. He’s averaging 97.5 MPH on his sinker, missing bats (29.9% strikeout rate), inducing tons of grounders (53.2%) and avoiding walks (6.5%). Miami controls the righty for six-plus seasons, so they could certainly elect to hang onto him in hopes that he cements himself as one of the sport’s top relievers. His breakout isn’t all that dissimilar from Nick Anderson’s in 2019, though, and the Marlins elected to move Anderson at the deadline that year. (Notably, that was under previous general manager Michael Hill, not Ng).
Even if the Marlins don’t listen to offers on their cornerstone rotation pieces, contending teams figure to be in touch with Ng and her front office in the coming weeks. The Marlins have plenty of complementary veterans and quality relievers who could help contenders down the stretch.
Freddy Galvis Out One-To-Two Months
JUNE 27: Galvis has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right quadriceps strain, the team announced. Urias and Leyba were each recalled from Norfolk, as was outfielder Ryan McKenna. Righty Konner Wade and utilityman Stevie Wilkerson were optioned in corresponding moves.
Galvis will miss between one and two months, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com). That casts serious doubt about his trade candidacy. Galvis would need to return at the very early end of that projected timetable to be healthy by the July 30 deadline. Players on the injured list can still be traded, but a veteran role player like Galvis never looked likely to bring back a highly impactful return, and contenders’ interest in acquiring him would be dealt a serious blow if he’s still on the IL come deadline day.
JUNE 26: Freddy Galvis was carted off the field during today’s loss to the Blue Jays. The team described the injury as right quadriceps discomfort. A roster move appears likely to follow, with Galvis heading to the injured list, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com.
Along with being one of the Orioles’ more vocal veteran leaders, the well-respected, glove-first shortstop was a potential trade piece for GM Mike Elias. With little more than a month before the trade deadline, Baltimore will have to wait and see about the severity of Galvis’ injury to know whether he might still be considered a trade chip. Galvis has been worth 0.9 rWAR while slashing .246/.304/.411 in 273 plate appearances.
In the meantime, Pat Valaika took over at shortstop today, while Ramon Urias or Domingo Leyba seem most likely to get the call from Triple-A for more regular playing time. For what it’s worth, neither Urias nor Leyba was in the starting lineup for Triple-A Norfolk tonight, notes Kubatko, suggesting one or both could be on the way to Buffalo. The Orioles play a day game against the Blue Jays tomorrow.
MRI Reveals No UCL Damage For Reds’ Tejay Antone
JUNE 27: In encouraging news, Antone told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer and C. Trent Rosecrans of the Athletic) that an MRI revealed no damage to his UCL. The righty suggested he’s targeting a return immediately after the All-Star break, although he’ll be shut down from throwing for the moment.
JUNE 26: The Reds announced that right-hander Tejay Antone has been placed on the 10-day IL due to a right forearm strain. Left-hander Cionel Perez was recalled from Triple-A Louisville in the corresponding move.
Antone only just returned earlier this week from an 11-day stint on the injured list due to inflammation in that same forearm. It certainly isn’t a good sign that the righty is so quickly headed back to the IL with what looks like an even more serious forearm issue, especially since Antone already has a Tommy John surgery in his health history. It certainly looks like Antone will miss more than just a minimal amount of time with his latest injury, as the Reds will want to be as cautious as possible in avoiding any more serious damage.
In part because of that earlier TJ procedure that wiped out his 2017 season, Antone didn’t make his Major League debut until 2020, but he has made up for lost time with some impressive numbers. Over 69 innings in the big leagues, Antone has a 2.22 ERA/3.32 SIERA, 32.5% strikeout rate, and 48% grounder rate. While a .194 BABIP has helped minimize the damage from all those ground balls, Antone also isn’t allowing much hard contact.
There was some speculation in Spring Training that Antone could win a rotation job, though a minor hip injury scuttled that idea and placed him in the Reds’ bullpen. It ended up working out for the best, given that Antone has been more or less the only consistent arm in a very shaky Cincinnati relief corps. Even with Antone’ s 1.60 ERA over 33 2/3 relief innings this season, the Reds bullpen ranks last in the majors in ERA. Assuming Antone misses a noteworthy amount of time recovering from this forearm strain, it will put even more pressure on the Reds’ front office to land some bullpen help before the July 30 trade deadline.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/27/21
The latest minor moves around the league:
- Right-hander Joe Harvey has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. The 29-year-old reliever was designated for assignment by the Rockies earlier in the week. He hasn’t pitched in an MLB game this season, but he combined for 21 1/3 innings of 4.22 ERA/5.25 SIERA ball with Colorado and the Yankees between 2019-20.
- Outfielder Mason Williams has also elected free agency after clearing waivers earlier this week, per his MLB.com transactions log. The 29-year-old garnered brief time with the Mets this season, appearing in 17 games while the big league team was dealing with a series of outfield injuries. Williams has reached the big leagues in each of the past seven seasons- logging time with both New York clubs, the Reds and the Orioles along the way- but he’s only tallied a total of 289 MLB plate appearances. The left-handed hitter owns a .265/.308/.366 line with four home runs at the highest level.
Dinelson Lamet Leaves Game With Forearm Fatigue
JUNE 27: Lamet felt some “fatigue in his forearm area” and had trouble getting the feel for his slider, manager Jayce Tingler said after the game (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). It’s not yet clear whether an injured list stint is under consideration.
JUNE 26: Dinelson Lamet was pulled after just 2 1/3 innings from his start tonight against the Diamondbacks, per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell (via Twitter). The trainer came out to the mound after an apparent dip in velocity, and Lamet was removed from the game.
The Padres are on high alert when it comes to Lamet’s injury status. A UCL strain delayed Lamet’s start to the season. Forearm inflammation ended his first start of the season after just two innings. The Padres have remained conservative, limiting Lamet to three innings or less in each of his first six appearances. Only in June was he stretched out to four and five innings per start.
Watching his innings has worked in terms of performance. Lamet owns a 2.81 ERA/2.77 FIP in 32 innings with a 27.2 percent strikeout rate and 8.1 percent walk rate — both of which are better than league average. Those numbers did not hold against the last-place Diamondbacks on Saturday night, however, as he surrendered four earned runs on six hits — including two home runs — in 2 1/3 innings. He recorded one strikeout.