Orioles Release Jahmai Jones
June 4: Jones cleared waivers and was released. He is now a free agent.
June 3: The Orioles announced they’ve placed infielder Jahmai Jones on unconditional release waivers. The 29 other clubs will have an opportunity to put in a claim. If he passes through unclaimed, he’ll be a free agent.
This was the likely outcome once the O’s designated Jones for assignment over the weekend. The 24-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery last week and will miss the remainder of the season. By rule, injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers. When the O’s designated Jones for assignment, they committed to either trading him or releasing him.
Jones suffered the injury while on optional assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. He could’ve been placed on the minor league injured list but would’ve continued to occupy a spot on the 40-man roster for the rest of the season. Baltimore could’ve recalled him and placed him on the MLB 60-day IL to free a 40-man roster spot, but doing so would’ve required paying him at the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum salary for the rest of the year.
Rather than do so, Baltimore will run the risk of losing Jones on waivers or via free agency. It’s not out of the question another team places a claim and is willing to pay Jones the big league minimum — the Giants snagged Luis González from the White Sox last summer in a similar circumstance, for instance — but it’s also possible he simply clears waivers. In that event, the O’s could try to re-sign Jones on a minor league deal, but he’d be free to explore similar arrangements with other teams.
The Orioles acquired Jones over the 2020-21 offseason in the deal that sent starter Alex Cobb to the Angels. The former second-round pick and well-regarded prospect hit .149/.208/.194 over 26 big league games last year. He’d had a .212/.339/.343 line through 118 plate appearances with Norfolk prior to the injury.
Marlins Option Elieser Hernandez
The Marlins have optioned right-hander Elieser Hernandez to Triple-A, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (via Twitter). Hernandez has mostly pitched out of the rotation this season, making nine starts, though he also has a pair of relief outings to his name.
It was not long ago that Hernandez looked like a bedrock arm for the Marlins’ rotation, but the 27-year-old has been unable to keep the ball in the ballpark this season. He has surrendered a whopping 18 home runs in just 48 innings of work, leading to a 6.75 ERA/7.25 FIP. Hernandez has continued to control the zone in line with his career marks, posting a 47-to-15 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Hernandez tends to keep this ball in the air, but he’s done so this year more than usual with just a 30.0 percent groundball rate.
Though no corresponding move has been made yet, Braxton Garrett is expected to get the call-up tomorrow to step into Hernandez’s rotation spot, per MLB Network contributor Craig Mish (via Twitter). The 24-year-old southpaw has yet to appear in the Majors this season, but he has made 10 appearances (nine starts) over the past two seasons for Miami, compiling a 5.18 career ERA over 41 2/3 innings. Time will tell whether Garrett is able to hold onto a rotation spot in the long-term.
Rangers Promote Ezequiel Duran
The Rangers are promoting top infield prospect Ezequiel Duran to the big league club, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter). He will start today’s ballgame at third base. Duran, 23, is already on the 40-man roster, so no move is required on that front.
Before the season started, Duran was the 83rd-ranked prospect in baseball per MLB.com and the 99th-ranked prospect by Baseball Prospectus. He has risen to the 66th-ranked overall prospect per Baseball America, who ranks him as the 4th-best prospect in the Rangers’ system. He was one of the pieces sent to Texas as part of the Joey Gallo trade.
Duran has improved his stock without appearing as high as Triple-A. In Double-A, he has a .317/.365/.574 triple slash line through 200 plate appearances this season. He spent all of last season in High-A. Duran will play third base today, but he has the ability to play up the middle. Of course, the Rangers doled out millions this winter for Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to play second and shortstop, respectively. Both players are signed through 2028.
Josh Smith was placed on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left shoulder, per the team. Smith, also acquired in the Gallo deal, has raked in his first taste of the big leagues, going 5-for-12 with a pair of walks to just one strikeout over five games. Smith is the Rangers’ 9th-ranked prospect, per Baseball America.
Royals Recall Kris Bubic, Option Ronald Bolanos
The Royals recalled Kris Bubic to start today’s ballgame and optioned Ronald Bolanos to Triple-A, per the Athletic’s Alex Lewis (via Twitter).
Bubic, 24, got off to a disastrous start this season with a 12.83 ERA over five starts and one relief appearance totaling 13 1/3 innings. He fared little better over three starts in Triple-A, surrendering 10 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings. His peripheral numbers did improve, however, with a 4-to-17 walk-to-strikeout ratio after posting a 11-to-10 such mark in the bigs.
Bolanos, 25, has made eight appearances out of the bullpen this year while serving as a bulk reliever. He has a 4.42 ERA/5.71 FIP over 18 1/3 innings of work with 12 strikeouts and 12 walks in that time. Bolanos has primarily served as a starter while in the minors.
Cubs Select Caleb Kilian, Option Mark Leiter Jr., DFA Conner Menez
The Cubs have officially selected the contract of Caleb Kilian while making a number of other roster moves to accommodate his arrival and prepare for today’s doubleheader against the Cardinals. Mark Leiter Jr. was optioned to Triple-A and Conner Menez was designated for assignment, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian (via Twitter). Anderson Espinoza was also brought aboard to serve as the 27th man for today’s twin bill.
The news of Kilian’s promotion first came across the wire yesterday. His performance will carry more consequence to Cubs’ fans than a normal prospect because of his status as the trade return for Kris Bryant, the one-time face-of-the-franchise. Whether or not it makes sense to put that burden on Kilian, the optics of Kilian’s progress are likely to serve as a touch point for judging the effectiveness of President of Baseball Ops Jed Hoyer’s rebuilding efforts. He’s not the only one, but because Kilian was one of only two pitching prospects returned in the deals for Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Yu Darvish, and Javier Baez, his importance among the group of acquired prospects is somewhat bloated.
Leiter Jr., 31, has been up and down this season as both a starter and reliever. He has been a tad generous with free passes with a 9-to-16 walk-to-strikeout ratio over 17 1/3 innings in the bigs. Though a 4.53 FIP suggests he can be a serviceable arm, the bottom-line results have not been there, as he has racked up a 6.23 ERA.
Menez, 27, was designated for assignment to clear a space on the 40-man roster. He made just one appearance for the Cubs, tossing a scoreless inning. The southpaw has logged 17 1/3 innings in Triple-A, however, with a 2.08 ERA. Claimed off waivers from the Giants this past December, Menez will again be exposed to open waivers.
Espinoza, meanwhile, made his Major League debut just a couple of days ago, tossing four innings against the Brewers, giving up two earned runs on two hits and three walks while striking out six.
Yankees Reinstate Giancarlo Stanton
The Yankees have reinstated slugger Giancarlo Stanton from the 10-day injured list, per the team. He is back on the active roster batting cleanup as the designated hitter.
New York weathered the loss of Stanton just fine, having gone 7-2 in his absence. Stanton spent the minimum amount of time away, missing only nine games. Prior to his placement on the injured list, Stanton was hitting .285/.339/.523 in 168 plate appearances with 11 long balls.
The corresponding roster moves were made yesterday after last night’s ballgame. Miguel Andujar was optioned to Triple-A. Andujar appeared in 12 games, slashing .268/.279/.317 through 43 plate appearances while mostly playing left field.
Tim Locastro also completed his rehab assignment. He was reinstated and optioned to Triple-A as well. The speedy Locastro is largely a reserve option for the Yankees. His ability to play all three outfield positions provides some value as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement.
Nationals Sign Ildemaro Vargas To Minors Deal
The Nationals signed utility man Ildemaro Vargas to a minor league deal last week and assigned him to Triple-A Rochester, per MLB.com.
The 30-year-old Vargas spent a little less than two weeks in the Majors this year with the Cubs before being designated for assignment and released. It was his second tour of duty with the Cubbies, having spent parts of the 2020 and 2021 seasons in Chicago. This year he managed to his just .130/.231/.348 in 26 plate appearances with the Cubs.
Vargas was originally signed by the Cardinals as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela back in 2008. Prior to his time in Chicago, Vargas appeared with the Diamondbacks (twice), Pirates, and Twins, with the brunt of his 407 career plate appearances coming with Arizona. For his career, reaching back to include every season since 2017, Vargas owns a ..227/.265/.354 line. He has primarily contributed at second base and third base, but he has also made appearances at shortstop and the corner outfield spots.
With the Nationals, he’ll serve as infield depth, especially useful given the recent injury to Alcides Escobar, Washington’s de facto shortstop. The Nationals are rolling with a 3-man bench unit right now, with Lucius Fox as the only reserve infielder.
Phillies Fire Joe Girardi
Joe Girardi is out as the Phillies manager, as the team announced today that he’s been “relieved of his duties.” Coaching assistant Bobby Meacham has also been dismissed. Bench coach Rob Thomson has been named interim manager and will hold that post for the remainder of the season, according to the team. To fill Thomson’s role, the Phillies have promoted Mike Calitri from quality assurance coach to bench coach.
“It has been a frustrating season for us up until this point, as we feel that our club has not played up to its capabilities,” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in a statement within today’s press release. “While all of us share the responsibility for the shortcomings, I felt that a change was needed and that a new voice in the clubhouse would give us the best chance to turn things around. I believe we have a talented group that can get back on track, and I am confident that Rob, with his experience and familiarity with our club, is the right man to lead us going forward.”
Hired in advance of the 2020 season, the now-57-year-old Girardi came to the Phillies as an experienced dugout leader whom owner John Middleton hoped could pull the club out of what has now been more than a decade-long playoff drought. That hasn’t happened yet, and even on the heels of an aggressive offseason of spending to bolster the lineup, the Phils have fallen into a dismal swoon that has seen them plummet to seven games under .500 (22-29) and 12 games out of first place in the National League East.
Of course, the personnel acquired via that offseason spending falls on the front office and ownership — not Girardi. The Phils have routinely been one of the worst defensive teams in baseball over the past decade, but their offseason strategy was not to remedy that longstanding shortcoming but to instead double down by giving weighty long-term contracts to defensively challenged sluggers Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber. Philadelphia, predictably, ranks as one of the game’s worst defensive teams (and the worst defensive team, by measure of Outs Above Average).
More concerning, however, has been the team’s ineffectiveness in other areas. The Phillies rank tenth in the Majors with 230 runs scored and are tied for ninth with 58 home runs — both solid showings but not exactly the juggernaut offense the team and pundits (myself included) had expected. Philadelphia hitters have posted a combined .245/.310/.403 batting line, and the resulting 99 wRC+ ranks 18th in MLB and effectively amounts to league-average offensive output on the whole.
The Phillies’ bullpen woes may not date back quite as far as their defensive ineptitude, but faulty relief pitching has nevertheless been an unfortunate hallmark of Phillies baseball for at least the past few seasons. They relief corps is improved to an extent in 2022, ranking 21st in the game with a 4.15 ERA — an improvement over bottom-of-the-barrel showings in recent seasons. However, no team’s relievers have walked hitters at a higher clip than the Phillies’ 11.7% mark so far in 2022, and the bullpen is a top-heavy unit that has had to rely on inexperienced bargain pickups. The trio of Nick Nelson, Andrew Bellatti and James Norwood, for instance, have accounted for nearly a third of the Phillies’ total innings of relief work.
Some of that, of course, falls on the manager’s usage of the relievers at his disposal. Bullpen management is a generally thankless job when executed well and also perhaps the most frequently cited flaw of any skipper when things are going poorly. Girardi faced plenty of criticism for his usage of the team’s bullpen at times, including some recent handling of closer Corey Knebel. Time will tell whether a managerial change will bring about better results from the relief corps, but it seems unlikely Thomson will be able to bring about significant change with the same group of personnel in the ‘pen.
Just as it was expected that the Phils would struggle on defense, it was expected that their rotation would nonetheless be a strength — and that’s generally been true. Each of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Kyle Gibson are sporting ERAs comfortably south of 4.00, while Ranger Suarez and Zach Eflin have been at least serviceable in the mid-4.00s. Overall, the Phillies’ rotation ranks 14th with a 4.02 ERA, although their sixth-ranked 3.49 FIP (fielding-independent pitching) naturally suggests that the defense has let Philadelphia starters down.
Ultimately, it’ll have to come down to the Phillies’ lineup if they’re to turn things around. Schwarber is hitting for power and drawing walks but not doing much else, evidenced by his .192/.314/.429 batting line. Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm and Rhys Hoskins have faded after hot starts, with Castellanos now rating as only a slightly above-average hitter and the others sitting south of league-average. J.T. Realmuto is still hitting better than the majority of big league catchers, but he’s well below his career rates and sitting close to league-average overall, himself. Second baseman Jean Segura, having a solid season at the plate, was recently lost for 10-12 weeks when he broke his finger attempting to bunt for a hit.
Bryce Harper continues to be a powerhouse presence in the middle of the lineup, carrying the batting order with a .303/.359/.534 output. But even he’s not operating neat 100%, as he’s dealing with a torn ligament in his elbow that has relegated him to designated hitter duties because he’s not able to throw from the outfield.
A team with Harper, Castellanos, Schwarber and Hoskins constituting the heart of the lineup is liable to go on an offensive tear at any moment, and as we saw with Schwarber during last year’s historic June power surge, hitters of that caliber can carry a team for lengthy stretches. There’s enough talent in the lineup and in the rotation for the Phillies to get hot and return to the fringes of the newly expanded 12-team playoff picture, but ownership seemingly no longer felt Girardi to be the best option to guide them there. The Phils will be a team worth monitoring closely over the next six weeks, because if Thomson’s unable to right the ship, the focus will turn to the possibility of trading some notable veterans in advance of this year’s Aug. 2 deadline.
Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia first reported that the Phillies were set to make a change at manager, and Jayson Stark of The Athletic first reported that Thomson would take over for Girardi.
Reds Sign T.J. Zeuch To Minor League Deal
The Reds have signed right-handed pitcher T.J. Zeuch to a minor league deal, according to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. Zeuch had been released by the Cardinals earlier this week.
A first round draft pick of the Blue Jays, Zeuch struggled in his first tastes of MLB action. Over the 2019-2021 seasons, he got into 13 games but put up an ERA of 4.59. His 50.9% ground ball rate in that time was fairly healthy, though he struck out just 14.1% of the batters he faced, well below league average. Toronto designated him for assignment last year and traded him to the Cardinals.
After the trade, Zeuch had a 4.93 in Triple-A last year, but took a huge step back this season. Through five starts and 19 1/3 innings, he let up 25 earned runs for an ERA of 11.64. He got his strikeout rate up to 20% but lost the ground balls, with his rate dropping to 36.8%.
Despite that lackluster start to the year, there’s little harm in the Reds taking a flier on him. He’s still just 26 years old and is a former first round draft pick. The club recently recalled Mike Minor to a rotation that also includes Tyler Mahle, Luis Castillo, Hunter Greene and Graham Ashcraft. Mahle and Castillo are each free agents after 2023 and have been in trade rumors for quite some time. They both could be on the move this summer, given the club’s 18-32 record. Minor was just acquired in an offseason trade not long ago but could also be a trade candidate. The Reds have a club option for his 2023 season valued at $13MM with a $1MM buyout, though the Royals agreed to pay that buyout as part of the trade.
Zeuch will try to put up some better results in the minors and earn his way up the starting pitching depth chart, with the club potentially needing innings to be eaten later in the year if they decide to pull the trigger on trading away some arms from their rotation.
Mets Notes: Smith, Loup, Lindor
Mets manager Buck Showalter spoke with reporters about the team’s decision to option Dominic Smith to Triple-A this week, calling it a “difficult” conversation to have with the first baseman (link via Newsday’s Laura Albanese). “You always try to put yourself in their shoes knowing that, in a lot of cases, you can’t,” Showalter said of his conversation with Smith. “It’s one of those cases where someone says, I know what you’re feeling. No, you don’t. No, you don’t, so don’t act like you do. I’ve learned in situations like that, you’re better off listening than you are talking.”
Smith will play primarily first base in Syracuse, and Showalter voiced confidence in the 26-year-old’s ability to find his swing with the help of regular at-bats and to get back to the Majors sooner than later. For the time being, however, with a banged-up pitching staff, the Mets needed a extra arm. Smith had minor league options remaining and had been struggling through infrequent usage. The former first-rounder hit .299/.366/.571 from 2019-20, but he batted just .186/.287/.256 in 101 plate appearances this year. Smith told SI.com in March that he played through a small tear of the labrum in his right shoulder last year, and it’s certainly possible there are (or were) some lingering effects of that issue.
A few more notes out of Queens…
- Former Mets lefty Aaron Loup chatted with SNY’s Andy Martino about his decision to sign with the Angels over the winter, revealing that the Mets indeed made an offer but did not match the two-year, $17MM terms he received from the Halos. Loup details that the Angels were aggressive from the jump, while the Mets took their time in putting together an offer as they sorted through front-office and managerial searches. Loup acknowledges that he and his agents “tried to stall the Angels as long as we could” while waiting to see if the Mets would match the offer. Ultimately, the Mets came in the $12-12.5MM range with a two-year offer, per Loup, who unsurprisingly opted for the larger guarantee in Anaheim. Loup has already allowed more runs in 18 2/3 innings with the Angels than he did in 56 2/3 frames as a Met last year, though the bulk of the damage against him has come over his past four appearances. No one expected the 34-year-old to replicate last year’s immaculate 0.95 ERA in the first place, and the fact that he’s sporting nearly identical strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates suggests that Loup ought to bounce back from this rough patch before long.
- Showalter told reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that Francisco Lindor has “a form of” fracture in his finger. However, it doesn’t seem to be terribly serious, as Lindor is in tonight’s lineup, hitting third and playing shortstop. The injury came about in an unusual fashion, as he got his finger stuck in a hotel door. The shortstop seems to be in good spirits about the situation, joking with reporters about keeping the door open from now. “I ain’t touching that door,” Lindor said, per Tim Healey of Newsday. “It can stay open.” Lindor has been a key part of the club’s tremendous start to the season, as he’s hitting .261/.345/.442 for a wRC+ of 126. He’s also added seven steals and quality defense, accumulating 2.1 fWAR already with less than a third of the season played.