Nate Jones Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Nate Jones, who was designated for assignment by the Dodgers last week, has elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment, as first reflected on the Triple-A transactions log at MLB.com.
Jones, 35, has spent time with the Braves and the Dodgers this season but has yet to recapture the form that made him one of the game’s better setup men at his peak. He pitched to a 3.48 ERA in Atlanta but also yielded an untenable 10 walks in 10 1/3 innings before being cut loose. In L.A., Jones cleaned up the walks but surrendered four homers in 8 2/3 frames. Overall, he’s pitched to a 5.69 ERA with 14 punchouts against 12 walks in 19 innings this year.
From 2012-19, Jones logged a tidy 3.12 ERA with a hearty 26.5 percent strikeout rate against a 9.2 percent walk rate. That 26.5 percent strikeout clip is above average even by today’s standards, but Jones struck out nearly 30 percent of his opponents from 2013-17 at a time when the overall league strikeout rate was much lower than it is at present. Health issues plagued him throughout his time with the White Sox, but when he was healthy enough to take the mound, Jones was generally a high-end reliever.
Jones’ sinker still has plenty of life, averaging 95.6 mph according to Statcast, and his slider generated a 39.6 percent whiff rate. That’s down a bit from his peak, when the sinker sat around 98 mph and the slider induced whiffs at better than a 50 percent clip, but Jones is still throwing hard and still capable of generating swings and misses at a healthy clip. Between that and his generally strong track record, there should be interest from other clubs on a minor league pact.
Injury Updates: Gregorius, Plesac, Smith, Yajure, Duran
Didi Gregorius resumed his Triple-A rehab assignment tonight, after halting the assignment on June 10 after just two games. Gregorius hasn’t played a big league game since May 12 due to a right elbow impingement and a condition known as pseudogout, which might have led to the setback in his rehab. However, Gregorius now looks to be on track, and if all things go well, could be on pace to rejoin the Phillies before the end of June. Now in his second season in Philadelphia, Gregorius was off to a slow start with a .229/.266/.364 slash line in his first 128 plate appearances.
More on other sidelined players from around the majors…
- Indians right-hander Zach Plesac has been on the 10-day injured list for almost a month due to a non-displaced fracture in his right thumb, but he took another step forward in his recovery process today. Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was among those to report that Plesac was set to throw a 40-pitch bullpen session today, with 20 pitches each on flat ground and off a mound. This is Plesac’s second bullpen session in seven days’ time, so if he emerges in good condition, a rehab assignment might not be too far away.
- Veteran reliever Joe Smith is also on tap for a bullpen session, with Smith telling reporters (including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle) that he plans to run through his entire arsenal of pitches when throwing tomorrow. Elbow soreness sent the Astros righty to the IL on June 9, and he could just need the one bullpen before beginning a minor league rehab assignment.
- The Pirates shifted right-hander Miguel Yajure from the seven-day minor league IL to the 60-day IL. Yajure was first sidelined with right elbow/forearm soreness on June 1, and today’s transaction is “just more of a paper move” that “has nothing to do with how he’s progressing or what he’s doing,” manager Derek Shelton told reporters (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Yajure only just began throwing, and it appears as though he wasn’t going to be back within 60 days from his initial IL placement anyway — as Mackey notes, the Bucs don’t gain a 40-man roster spot with the move, since Yajure was in the minor leagues when first placed on the injured list. One of the four players acquired from the Yankees in the Jameson Taillon trade back in January, Yajure has a 2.76 ERA over 16 1/3 MLB innings over the last two seasons.
- Twins right-handed pitching prospect Jhoan Duran was shut down three days ago due to an elbow strain, though the team announced (hat tip to MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park) that surgery wasn’t recommended. The shutdown will continue for the next 5-6 weeks as Duran’s elbow will continue to be monitored, and there is hope that he can then rehab in time to pitch again before the 2021 season is cover. Currently ranked as the 80th-best prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline, Duran made his Triple-A debut this year but has struggled, posting a 5.06 ERA with 13 walks in 16 innings (though with a 29.33% strikeout rate).
Mets Purchase Vance Worley’s Contract
The Mets have purchased the contract of right-hander Vance Worley from the independent Kane County Cougars, as announced yesterday via the Cougars’ official Twitter feed. Worley will report to the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse.
This is Worley’s second stint in the Mets organization, as he signed a minor league deal with the team back in April 2018. He didn’t see any big league action, however, and ended up being released just two months later after elbow problems limited him to just 16 2/3 innings of work with the Mets’ Triple-A team. That represented Worley’s last bit of on-field action until his work with Kane County this year, as a deal with the independent Somerset Patriots in 2020 fell through after the pandemic canceled the Patriots’ season.
Worley posted a 4.09 ERA/4.23 SIERA over 667 career innings with five different teams from 2010-17. The 33-year-old is probably best remembered for his career-opening three-year stint with the Phillies, which included a third-place finish in NL Rookie Of The Year voting in 2011. Never a hard thrower or a big strikeout pitcher, Worley nevertheless lasted eight years in the majors by keeping batters off-balance with a four-pitch (and occasionally even a five-pitch) arsenal.
With the Mets currently shorthanded by a number of pitching injuries, there’s little harm for the club in picking up a veteran arm for some extra depth. It remains to be seen if Worley will actually get a call back to the Show, as it is possible Marcus Stroman‘s recent hip issue won’t be serious enough to merit an IL trip or even a missed start.
AL East Injury Notes: Means, Arroyo, Walls, Borucki
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters that John Means is slated to return “at some point right after the All-Star break.” Means hit the 10-day injured list on June 6 due to a shoulder strain, and his timeline wasn’t entirely clear at the time of the placement. For now, Means is able to play catch, and will gradually work his way up to readiness over the next few weeks.
Though it’s good news that a projected return date is in place, the timing confirms that Means won’t be participating in the All-Star Game, and the left-hander certainly looked like a strong candidate for his second All-Star selection based on his first two months of work. A return shortly after the July 12-15 All-Star break would allow time for Means to show that he is healthy for any teams interested in a deal prior to the July 30 trade deadline, though since Means is controlled through the 2024 season, there isn’t any immediate pressure on the Orioles to move Means unless a great offer comes along.
More on other injury situations from around the AL East…
- The Red Sox placed Christian Arroyo on the 10-day IL due to a right knee contusion, with the placement backdated to June 21. Michael Chavis was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move. Arroyo left Sunday’s game after a collision with teammate Enrique Hernandez, though x-rays were negative on what the club described as a bone bruise in his right shin. Arroyo has hit a solid .264/.324/.432 over 138 plate appearances while getting the bulk of playing time at second base this season, though this is his second trip to the IL, after missing two weeks in May with a hand contusion after being hit by a pitch.
- The Rays placed shortstop Taylor Walls on the 10-day IL (retroactive to June 23) due to right wrist tendinitis, and right-hander Drew Rasmussen has been called up to take Walls’ spot on the active roster. Walls told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and other reporters that he received a cortisone shot after trying to play through the injury for around two weeks, and he doesn’t expect to miss time beyond the minimum 10 days. Walls made his MLB debut just over a month ago, and he has posted a respectable 95 OPS+ while hitting .222/.337/.333 over his first 95 big league plate appearances. The Rays have used Walls as their starting shortstop since his promotion, though now that star prospect Wander Franco is on the roster, Franco is likely to get the bulk of time at the position while Walls is out. Given how the Rays mix and match players around the diamond, Walls probably isn’t in danger of getting Wally Pipp’d by Franco, who made his own debut on Tuesday as Tampa’s starting third baseman.
- Ryan Borucki is slated to throw a bullpen session on Friday, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling and other reporters. Borucki hasn’t pitched since May 7 due to a left flexor strain, and while the southpaw was tentatively scheduled to return sometime before the end of June, Montoyo didn’t commit to any firmer timeline. “We’ll see how he does….If he throws a good bullpen, then we’ll go from there,” Montoyo said.
Latest On Steven Matz
JUNE 24: Matz has cleared protocols and rejoined the team, Sportsnet.ca’s Arden Zwelling tweets. Matz threw a 60-pitch live BP session today, and he is slated to return to the rotation during the Jays’ series with the Mariners next week (June 29-July 1).
JUNE 15: The Blue Jays announced yesterday that left-hander Steven Matz has tested positive for COVID-19 (via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). Fortunately, he is asymptomatic, although he’ll still need to isolate for ten days from the date of the test. The team conducted follow-up testing in the wake of Matz’s result but no other players have turned up positive.
Matz was placed on the COVID-19 IL over the weekend when his first test showed an inconclusive result. Acquired from the Mets over the winter, the 30-year-old has gotten off to a decent start with his new team. Matz has tossed 69 2/3 innings of 4.26 ERA/3.77 SIERA ball, a bounce back effort after a disastrous 2020 campaign. It’s not clear who will replace Matz in the rotation while he’s out, although each of Nate Pearson, T.J. Zeuch and Anthony Kay have been starting games at Triple-A Buffalo.
In other Jays news, Scott Mitchell of TSN reports that reliever Julian Merryweather won’t be reinstated from the injured list until late June at the earliest. The fireballing 29-year-old went on the IL with a left oblique strain April 14, so he’s eligible for activation whenever he returns to health. Merryweather was off to a fantastic start to the season, striking out seven of the fourteen batters he faced while holding opponents hitless through 4 1/3 innings.
Braves Select Jesse Chavez, Tanner Roark
5:58PM: The Braves officially announced the roster moves.
5:50PM: Tanner Roark‘s contract has also been selected, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports (Twitter link). Roark inked a minor league deal with Atlanta shortly after the Blue Jays released him in early May. The veteran righty is looking for a fresh start after posting a 6.75 ERA over 54 2/3 innings for Toronto since the start of the 2020 season. In corresponding moves, Atlanta optioned right-handers Kyle Wright and Ty Tice to Triple-A, while catcher Alex Jackson and lefty Tucker Davidson were moved to the 60-day IL to create space for Chavez and Roark on the 40-man roster.
12:26PM: The Braves will select the contract of right-hander Jesse Chavez to start a bullpen game against the Reds tonight, tweets Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Chavez signed a minor league pact with the Braves back in April.
It was already known that Atlanta would be going with a bullpen game Thursday after recently placing Max Fried on the injured list due to a blister and playing a pair of doubleheaders this week. The Braves have yet to formally announce the move themselves, though that announcement — and a corresponding 40-man roster move — figures to come along shortly.
Chavez, 37, is a 13-year Major League veteran who’ll now be in his second stint as a member of the Braves. He pitched in 28 games for Atlanta back in 2010 when he was still working to solidify himself as a viable big league arm. Things didn’t pan out the first time around, but Chavez has gone on to have a solid career as a well-traveled swingman. From 2013-19, he split time between the A’s, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers and Cubs, working to a combined 4.12 ERA in 738 2/3 innings (77 starts, 230 relief outings).
The 2020 season was an ugly one for Chavez, who was tagged for 13 runs in 17 innings out of the Rangers’ bullpen. He’s bounced back with a strong showing for Triple-A Gwinnett in 2021, logging 20 innings of 2.25 ERA ball with a 27-to-8 K/BB ratio. He’s been particularly sharp of late, rattling off six straight shutout innings and punching out 11 of his past 22 opponents.
Chavez hasn’t thrown more than two innings or topped 35 pitches in any of his 13 appearances with Gwinnett this season, so it’s unlikely he’ll be tasked with pitching any more than three innings unless he makes particularly quick work of the Reds the first time through the order. Today’s outing figures to be a spot start, but Chavez has a solid overall track record in the Majors and could stick around to give the Braves some depth in the bullpen if he fares well.
Nate Pearson Seeking Additional Opinion On Groin Strain
Blue Jays right-hander Nate Pearson was recently placed back on the minor league injured list due to a groin strain — his second IL placement for the injury in 2021. It appears there’s some difficulty in ascertaining the root of the issue, as Jays CEO Mark Shapiro said today on Sportsnet 590 that Pearson is headed for what will be a fourth opinion on the injury (Twitter link via Sportsnet’s Arash Madani).
Pearson, 24, has been one of the prized prospects in the the organization for the past four years. Selected with the No. 28 pick back in 2017, Pearson dominated in 2019 to the point that he was not only considered the Blue Jays’ best pitching prospect, but one of the premier pitching prospects in all of baseball. Baseball America, MLB.com and FanGraphs all listed Pearson as one of the sport’s top ten minor leaguers prior to the 2020 campaign, and he garnered similar fanfare heading into 2021.
Pearson made his big league debut in 2020, firing five shutout innings against the Nationals and flashing a triple-digit heater which he complemented with a plus slider (and less-utilized changeups and curves). Elbow tightness sent him to the injured list just a few starts later, however, and Pearson wound up pitching just 18 innings during his debut campaign as the Jays took a cautious approach with their prized young righty.
Injuries have been a persistent source of frustration for Pearson, though some of his troubles have been rather fluky in nature. He suffered a fractured forearm in his first minor league start of the 2018 season when he was hit by a comeback liner, only to later sustain an oblique strain while rehabbing that injury. That pair of issues limited him to just 1 2/3 innings that season, and it’s now looking as though another set of injuries will significantly hamper his workload in 2021. Pearson has tallied just 27 innings overall so far in 2021.
Another injury-marred season is surely disheartening for Pearson, and it’s also likely thrown a bit of a wrench into the Blue Jays’ expectations. Pearson likely would’ve been on some type of innings limit in 2021, but he still reported to camp seen as an MLB-ready option in the rotation.
Pearson’s injuries and the early struggles of Tanner Roark — which prompted the right-hander’s release — have left the Jays with a rotation that probably doesn’t look quite like they envisioned but has still been solid. Steven Matz is currently out after testing positive for Covid-19, but he’s given the Jays 69 2/3 innings of 4.26 ERA ball. Fellow southpaw Robbie Ray is enjoying an excellent rebound campaign on a one-year deal, while righty Ross Stripling has stepped up as a dependable option. The Jays’ second-ranked pitching prospect, Alek Manoah, has been quite good in three of his five outings since his own MLB debut a month ago.
Combined with top starter Hyun Jin Ryu, the quartet of Matz, Ray, Stripling and Manoah gives the Jays a solid enough starting five for the time being. That said, as is the case with Pearson, Manoah is surely someone whose workload the Blue Jays will want to monitor. Matz threw just 30 2/3 innings last season, while Stripling (49 1/3) and Ray (51 2/3) also had fairly light workloads even by 2020 standards.
The Jays have some depth at the moment. Anthony Kay is starting tonight’s game, and down in Triple-A, the trio of Jacob Waguespack, T.J. Zeuch and Nick Allgeyer has thrown reasonably well. But the Blue Jays are lacking veteran arms with an established track record, making rotation help a logical target as the trade deadline approaches. GM Ross Atkins has already acknowledged a desire to add bullpen help and perhaps a left-handed bat, but the newfound uncertainty surrounding Pearson likely enhances the need for some innings in the rotation as well.
Indians Make Four Roster Moves
The Indians announced a quartet of roster moves today, including the news that right-hander Aaron Civale has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 22) with a sprained middle finger on his throwing hand. Also, catcher Ryan Lavarnway has been designated for assignment. The two open roster spots will be taken by catcher Austin Hedges and right-hander Justin Garza — Hedges has been activated off the concussion-related injury list, while Garza’s contract was selected from Triple-A.
Civale is expected to be out of action for 4-to-5 weeks, in the latest blow to Cleveland’s injury-plagued rotation. With Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and now Civale on the IL, the Tribe are missing their top three starters, leaving a makeshift starting five of very inexperienced pitchers tasked with keeping the team afloat in the AL Central race.
With several pitchers moving from the bullpen to fill these holes in the rotation, Garza gets the opportunity to make his MLB debut. An eighth-round pick for the Tribe in the 2015 draft, Garza isn’t ranked by Baseball America or MLB Pipeline as a top-30 prospect in Cleveland’s farm system, but the righty has an 0.42 ERA over 21 1/3 combined innings at Double-A and Triple-A this season. This is Garza’s first season working exclusively as a reliever, and the result is an uptick in his strikeout rate (to an impressive 35.36%), though also a 15% walk rate.
Lavarnway signed a minor league deal with the Indians this past offseason, and his contract was selected from Triple-A last week when Hedges was placed on the concussion-IL. Lavarnway played in four games, officially putting him in the books as appearing (if sparingly) in ten different Major League seasons. The journeyman backstop has appeared in just 160 games total over those 10 seasons, suiting up for eight different teams at the big league level.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/24/21
The latest minor league moves from around baseball…
- The Nationals outrighted southpaw Ben Braymer off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A. Braymer was designated for assignment over the weekend. The left-hander has worked mostly as a starting pitcher (starting 59 of 82 games) over his six years in Washington’s organization, posting a 3.88 ERA in 366 2/3 overall innings but struggling to the tune of a 7.06 ERA in 88 frames at the Triple-A level. In terms of Major League experience, Braymer tossed 7 1/3 innings for the Nats in 2020, posting a 1.23 ERA during in his brief stint in the Show.
Rays Trade Wyatt Mathisen To Mariners
The Mariners announced Thursday that they have acquired infielder/outfielder Wyatt Mathisen from the Rays in exchange for cash. Left-hander Daniel Zamora was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Tampa Bay had designated Mathisen for assignment earlier in the week as a corresponding roster move when promoting top prospect Wander Franco.
Seattle also announced that righty reliever Keynan Middleton has been recalled from Triple-A Tacoma. Fellow right-hander Vinny Nittoli was optioned back to Tacoma in his place.
Mathisen, 27, will give the Mariners additional depth at second base and both corner infield and corner outfield positions. He never appeared in a big league game with the Rays, who acquired him in a cash deal with the the Diamondbacks earlier this season.
While he’s posted just a .159/.298/.290 hitter in a small sample of 84 MLB plate appearances — all coming with Arizona — Mathisen has a productive career track record in Triple-A. He’s hitting .288/.344/.525 there in 2021 and, in parts of three seasons of Triple-A ball (183 games), Mathisen owns a .269/.368/.515 batting line with 35 homers, 37 doubles and a triple. He also not only has an option for the 2021 season remaining but can be optioned in 2022, making him a nice bit of depth for the Mariners as they began to transition out of a rebuilding phase. For now, he’ll start his Mariners tenure in Triple-A.
The Mariners claimed Zamora, 28, off waivers from the Mets organization a month ago. He yielded four runs (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings out of the big league ‘pen and pitched to nearly identical results in a brief look with Tacoma.
That Zamora made it to the big leagues at all is somewhat remarkable, given his status as a former 40th-round pick of the Pirates. He looked dominant in his 2018 MLB debut with New York, holding opponents to three runs on six hits and three walks with 16 strikeouts through his first nine MLB frames. But Zamora was hit much harder the following season in the Majors while also logging pedestrian numbers in Triple-A.
Zamora is in his final option season and has yet to have sustained success above the Double-A level, although his numbers up through Double-A are quite good. The Mariners will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. If he goes unclaimed, they’d be able to send him outright to Triple-A, keeping him in the organization without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.