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Archives for August 2022

Brett Baty To Undergo Thumb Surgery, Potentially Done For Season

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Mets infielder Brett Baty will undergo surgery tomorrow due to a torn UCL in his thumb, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Baty is potentially done for the year, as the expected recovery time is five weeks, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. Sammon adds that outfielder Terrance Gore will also be joining the team. The Mets announced that Baty has been placed on the 10-day IL retroactive to August 29.

It’s an unfortunate blow to the Mets and for Baty, personally. The 22-year-old prospect was promoted to the big leagues just under two weeks ago. He has struggled in his first 42 plate appearances, slashing just .184/.244/.342 so far. However, it’s fairly standard for young players to take some time finding their footing in their first taste of major league action. Based on his 315/.410/.533 batting line in the minors this year, it would have been reasonable to expect him finding better results as he got more exposure to big league pitching.

However, that progression will now have to wait, as Baty will apparently be out of action for the next five weeks. Since there are five weeks remaining on the regular season schedule, it will be very difficult for him to return to action and contribute down the stretch. A lengthy postseason run would surely help his chances of coming back, but even in that scenario, the club would have to view him as a better option than the more established players available for those opportunities.

For the Mets, this will leave them shorthanded on the infield, as least temporarily. Luis Guillorme is on the injured list due to a groin injury, leaving them with Pete Alonso at first, Jeff McNeil at second, Eduardo Escobar at third and Francisco Lindor at shortstop. For the moment, the club doesn’t really have a player on their bench who can reasonably play the non-first-base infield positions. Earlier this year, outfielder Mark Canha played third base for the Mets in an emergency situation, something he hadn’t done since he 2016 with the A’s. It’s possible he may be in that position again, though perhaps not for long. Rosters expand from 26 to 28 tomorrow, which should allow the Mets to bring in reinforcements. Also, Guillorme doesn’t seem to be too far away from coming back. Tim Healey of Newsday relays word from manager Buck Showalter that Guillorme will begin a rehab assignment this weekend.

As for Gore, 31, he’s never been much of a hitter but has always found work due to his speed and defense. In 102 MLB games, he’s hit just .224/.325/.284 but has 40 stolen bases in that time. The Mets signed him to a minor league deal in June, with Gore hitting .241/.313/241 in Triple-A since then. The Mets should have plenty of options for the outfield grass, with Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Tyler Naquin present alongside Canha, though Gore could jump up the depth chart if Canha is needed on the dirt. Otherwise, he should be available off the bench for pinch running and defensive replacement assignments.

Royals Sign Jakson Reetz To Minor League Deal

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The Royals signed catcher Jakson Reetz to a minor league deal last week, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had recently elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Brewers.

Reetz, 26, got a sip of a cup of coffee in the majors last year, making two plate appearances over two games with the Nationals. That’s the extent of his big league experience thus far. He was designated for assignment in September and eventually signed a minor league deal with the Brewers.

His season got off to a great start, as he hit 22 home runs in 64 Double-A games, getting bumped up to Triple-A. In August, the Brewers added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from triggering an opt-out, but they kept him down on the farm. Though the club liked him enough to try to retain him, he got squeezed off the roster two weeks later.

The Royals subtracted from their catching depth on deadline day, sending Cam Gallagher to the Padres for outfielder Brent Rooker. They still have Salvador Perez taking the majority of playing time behind the dish, with MJ Melendez also on hand, though he’s been playing more outfield to get his bat in the lineup alongside Salvy. Sebastian Rivero is also on the roster to act as bench catcher when both of Perez and Melendez are in the lineup. Reetz will be on hand in the minors should they need him to step up and help out the big league team.

Rays Place Shane McClanahan, Brandon Lowe On IL

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4:05pm: Topkin relays word from Cash, who says that McClanahan’s MRI confirmed the impingement diagnosis, describing it as a “best case scenario.” McClanahan will get a cortisone shot and could return after the 15-day minimum absence.

1:00pm: The Rays announced that they have placed starter Shane McClanahan on the 15-day injured due to a left shoulder impingement and infielder Brandon Lowe on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 28, with a right triceps contusion. Infielder/outfielder Vidal Brujan and right-hander Calvin Faucher have been recalled in corresponding moves.

McClanahan’s move may be disappointing but it’s hardly surprising. He was scheduled to start yesterday but felt his injury pop-up while throwing his pregame bullpen and never actually threw a pitch in the game. He and manager Kevin Cash both expressed cautious optimism after the game, feeling that an extended absence wouldn’t be necessary. That might still prove to be true, but it appears the team feels he needs at least two weeks before he can contribute again. Whether he will need longer than that still remains to be seen.

Even if he does miss just the minimum amount of time, it will still be a significant loss for Tampa. The southpaw has thrown 147 1/3 innings this year with a 2.20 ERA, 32.5% strikeout rate, 5.4% walk rate and 52.3% ground ball rate. That elite production has put him squarely in the American League Cy Young debate. Though the Rays are known for stockpiling quality depth pieces, any team would suffer from losing that caliber of performance.

As for Lowe, it’s been a frustrating stop-and-start season for him, with this just the latest setback. He first landed on the IL in mid-May due to low back discomfort. He ended up missing about two months due to that ailment, returning in mid-July. He was then hit by a pitch on Friday and was diagnosed with an elbow contusion at the time. He has sat out the club’s past few games, but it seems that the injury is lingering enough that they’ll have him sit out for at least another week. Despite those injuries, he’s still been able to produce for Tampa, hitting .234/.319/.405 in 61 games. That amounts to a wRC+ of 114, a drop from last year’s 137 but still 14% above league average.

With both Lowe and McClanahan out of action, the Rays will have to get by with a weakened rotation and lineup for a while. They are currently in possession of the top Wild Card spot in the American League, though the Mariners are just half a game behind and the Blue Jays separated from the Rays by just a single game. There’s a bit more breathing room until the best non-playoff teams, with the Orioles and Twins three games back. Nevertheless, it figures to be a tight race over the remainder of the schedule, with just five weeks left to go, with the Rays surely hoping to secure not just a playoff spot but also earn home field advantage in the first round by keeping the top Wild Card slot. Hopefully, a little bit of time off for Lowe and McClanahan will allow them to return and contribute down the stretch.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times announced the move before the official announcement (Twitter links).

Red Sox Outright Hirokazu Sawamura

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The Red Sox have outrighted right-hander Hirokazu Sawamura to Triple-A Worcester, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. He had been designated for assignment on the weekend but passed through waivers unclaimed. He will remain with in the Red Sox organization but without taking up a spot on the 40-man roster.

After a ten-year stretch of pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, he came over to North American by signing a two-year deal with the Red Sox prior to the 2021 season. He pitched fairly well last season, registering a 3.06 ERA over 53 innings, along with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 51.8% ground ball rate. However, he did give away free passes at a 13.7% rate, much higher than last year’s 9.8% average for relievers.

His performance has taken a step backwards here in 2022, with his ERA increasing to 3.73, his strikeout rate dipping to 18% and his walk and ground ball rates not moving much. Based on that downturn in performance, the Red Sox cut him from the roster on the weekend.

There might have also been a financial motivation to the decision, given Sawamura’s contract structure. His deal guaranteed him $3MM with a $1.2MM salary both last year and this year, as well as a $600K buyout on a club option for 2023. However, there were also escalators in the deal, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently explored. Sawamura had already pushed the value of his player option to $1.9MM and would have increased it to an even $2MM after appearing in his 50th game. The Red Sox designated him for assignment after his 49th. Despite losing his roster spot, Cotillo relays that Sawamura’s option is still active.

Sawamura hasn’t previously been outrighted in his career and also has less than three years of MLB service time. That means he does not have the ability to reject this assignment and must report to Worcester to try to get back on track in Triple-A.

Marlins Designate Jake Fishman For Assignment

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The Marlins have activated lefty Trevor Rogers from the 15-day injured list to start today’s game, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Fellow lefty Jake Fishman was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

It’s been a bit of a catch-and-release season for Fishman, a 27-year-old southpaw. Originally a Blue Jays draftee, he went to the Marlins in the minor league phase of the 2020 Rule 5 draft. He began this season in Triple-A, joining the big league club at the end of July. After a single appearance of 3 1/3 innings, he was designated for assignment and outrighted after clearing waivers. He was selected again on Saturday but has now been sent into DFA limbo a second time, also after a single appearance.

The lefty now has two MLB appearances on his record but has thrown 53 Triple-A innings this year. In that time, he has a 2.04 ERA, 23.9% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 52.6% ground ball rate. Players who have previously been outrighted in their careers can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Because Fishman got the outright treatment earlier this year, he now would have that right. The Marlins will place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days.

Giants Select Andrew Knapp, Designate Andrew Vasquez

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The Giants have selected catcher Andrew Knapp to their roster, tweets Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News. Utility player Yermin Mercedes was optioned to make room on the active roster. To open a space on the 40-man roster, left-hander Andrew Vasquez was designated for assignment.

The Giants are in need of another catching option due to Joey Bart leaving Monday’s game after suffering a concussion. He was placed on the seven-day concussion IL yesterday with Yermin Mercedes being recalled in a corresponding move. Mercedes is more of an emergency catcher these days, however, as he’s only donned the tools of ignorance for one inning in the majors this year and eight in Triple-A. With Austin Wynns likely to become the primary catcher in Bart’s absence, the Giants could use a veteran backstop on hand in order for Wynns to get the occasional day off. As such, Knapp will step in with Mercedes heading back to the minors.

Knapp, 30, was a second-round draft pick of the Phillies and spent the first five years of his career there. From 2017 to 2021, he hit .214/.314/.322. A switch-hitter, he’s generally been better as a lefty against right-handed pitchers, though he’s been subpar on each side. He has a 54 wRC+ against lefties and a 73 against righties.

He was outrighted by the Phillies at the end of last season and has leaned into journeyman status since then. He signed a minors deal with the Reds in December but didn’t make the Opening Day roster. He was released and signed with the Pirates, getting designated for assignment after over a month with the Bucs. He then signed a minors deal with the Mariners, eventually getting called up and spending about two weeks with them before getting designated again and landing with the Giants on another minors deal. Between all those transactions, he’s hit .114/.205/.143 in 13 big league games but .259/.316/.540 in 47 Triple-A games.

Vasquez, 28, has seen very scattered MLB action in his career, logging 13 1/3 innings since the start of the 2018 season. He began this year by signing a big league deal with the Blue Jays, though spent most of his time optioned to Triple-A. He lost his spot on the 40-man roster at the end of August as the Jays made other acquisitions, landing with the Phillies on waivers. The Phillies also kept him in the minors, designating him for assignment two weeks later. The Giants followed the same playbook, claiming him off waivers and sending him to Triple-A before designated him a couple of weeks later. Across those three organizations, he’s thrown 19 1/3 Triple-A innings on the year with a 1.86 ERA, 36.5% strikeout rate and 4.1% walk rate. Given those solid results and the fact that left-handed relief is always in demand, it seems like a decent bet he’ll find interest on the waiver wire.

Twins Claim Austin Davis From Red Sox

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The Twins have claimed reliever Austin Davis off waivers from the Red Sox, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Davis had been designated for assignment on Sunday.

The 29-year-old left-hander spent some time with the Phillies and Pirates to begin his career. The Red Sox acquired him from the Bucs in a July 2021 trade that sent Michael Chavis to Pittsburgh. After the trade, Davis put up a 4.86 ERA in 16 2/3 innings, along with a 22.7% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 47.1% ground ball rate. This year, he has a 5.47 ERA through 54 1/3 innings, striking out 24% of batters but walking 11.4% of them.

Boston decided to shake up their struggling bullpen recently, with Davis among those to get the cut. The Twins had an open spot on their 40-man roster and used it to pick him up. Active rosters expand from 26 to 28 tomorrow, which should make it easy for Davis to fit in there. He will join Caleb Thielbar and Jovani Moran as lefty options out of Minnesota’s bullpen. Because he has joined the club’s 40-man roster prior to tonight’s 11:59pm ET postseason eligibility deadline, he will have the chance to earn a spot on the club’s playoff team. That will likely involve him having improved results in his new uniform, in addition to the Twins gaining ground in the Wild Card race, where they are currently three games behind the Blue Jays for the last spot.

Orioles Sign Jesus Aguilar To Minors Contract

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The Orioles have signed first baseman Jesus Aguilar to a minor league contract, MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko reports (Twitter link). Aguilar, who was released by the Marlins after being designated for assignment, has been added to Baltimore’s taxi squad for the time being. With rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players tomorrow, he could potentially be selected to the Major League roster in short order.

It’s been a poor season for the 32-year-old Aguilar, who batted just .236/.286/.388 through 456 trips to the plate with Miami prior to being designated for assignment. The Fish reportedly explored the trade market to find takers prior to the deadline but did not find much of a market. At the time, Aguilar was in the midst of a weeks-long slump, and he failed to right the ship in his final weeks as a Marlin. Since the All-Star break, he’s turned in a disastrous .188/.246/.347 slash line.

Poor as his 2022 season has been, there’s plenty of track record with Aguilar, a 2018 All-Star who swatted 35 home runs with the Brewers that season. That year represents a clear peak in Aguilar’s career, but he’s been an above-average hitter with Miami in each of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. From 2018-21, Aguilar touted a .262/.339/.471 batting line with 77 home runs and 70 doubles in 1661 plate appearances. The righty-swinging slugger also has a negligible platoon split in his career, so when he’s at his best, he’s a potential everyday option at either first base or designated hitter.

Aguilar could give the O’s some thump off the bench at a time when much of the lineup has been struggling to produce, and if he hits the ground running, there ought to be increased playing time available to him. Rougned Odor, Ryan Mountcastle, Jorge Mateo and Kyle Stowers, in particular, have had rough showings across the past couple weeks, while bench options like Robinson Chirinos, Ryan McKenna and Tyler Nevin have provided next to no offense in that time. Based on Aguilar’s own struggles, he shouldn’t be expected to come in and play the role of savior for an O’s team that’s still improbably jockeying for Wild Card position, but there’s little harm in taking what amounts to a free look at this juncture of the season.

Aguilar had been playing on a $7.5MM guarantee in Miami this year, but now that he’s been released and signed a new contract, the O’s will only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. The rest of Aguilar’s salary, plus the buyout on a now-moot 2023 mutual option, will all come out of the Marlins’ pockets.

Phillies Acquire Vinny Nittoli From Blue Jays

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10:38AM: The Phillies have announced the trade, with minor league catcher Karl Ellison heading to the Blue Jays in exchange for Nittoli.  Ellison was an undrafted player who played in independent leagues in 2019 and 2021 before signing with the Phils organization this year for his first season of affiliated baseball.  The 27-year-old Ellison has hit .123/.235/.192 over 150 combined plate appearances at the high-A and Triple-A levels this season.

10:13AM: The Phillies have acquired right-hander Vinny Nittoli from the Blue Jays, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).  Nittoli hasn’t been on a big league roster or injured list all season, and is thus eligible to be dealt after the August 2 trade deadline.  Adding Nittoli now makes him eligible for possible inclusion on Philadelphia’s postseason roster, and Passan writes that the Phils will promote the righty to the majors tomorrow when rosters expand.

Reports surfaced a few days ago that Nittoli was planning to exercise an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Jays, though today was his opt-out date, and Toronto dealt Nittoli before he could exercise the clause.  The 31-year-old Nittoli was only in the Jays organization for a little over a month, as he inked a minor league deal with Toronto after opting out of another minors contract with the Yankees.

While the trade means that Nittoli won’t get to choose his next destination as a free agent, he’ll still achieve his end goal of making it back to a Major League roster.  He’ll also return to Pennsylvania, after playing his high school ball in Gibsonia before heading to Xavier University and being a 25th-round pick for the Mariners in the 2014 draft.

Though Nittoli’s career first took him through the Blue Jays and Diamondbacks farm system, and a stint in independent baseball, his MLB debut took place back in a Mariners uniform, as he tossed one inning for Seattle last season.  The M’s released him in August 2021, leading to Nittoli bouncing around to the Twins, Yankees, and back to the Jays in search of another opportunity in the Show.

Nittoli has had a good season at Triple-A, with a 3.30 ERA, 7.61% walk rate, and 32.06% strikeout rate over 46 1/3 combined innings with the Blue Jays and Yankees’ top affiliates.  A lack of consistent Triple-A success might have been what prevented Nittoli from getting a longer look in the majors in the past, but he’ll now get at least some kind of stint with a Phillies team in the midst of a playoff race.

Seranthony Dominguez is still going to miss at least another week or two on the injured list, thus putting the Phillies on a search for bullpen help.  Chris Devenski was signed to a minor league deal yesterday, and it is possible that the Phils might still acquire someone else besides just Nittoli before the day is over.  Also, Zach Eflin threw a bullpen session yesterday as he tries to work his way back from a knee injury that has sidelined him for over two months, and if Eflin is able to return, he would pitch as a reliever rather than as a starter.

Mets Outright Yolmer Sanchez

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Veteran infielder Yolmer Sanchez went unclaimed on waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. New York designated Sanchez for assignment recently upon reinstating Eduardo Escobar from the injured list.

Sanchez, 30, appeared in three games with the Mets but didn’t receive a plate appearance, so he didn’t get the opportunity to improve even marginally upon a dismal .108/.214/.108 slash he posted in a tiny sample of 44 plate appearances with the Red Sox earlier in the year (4-for-37, seven walks, 13 strikeouts).

At his best, Sanchez was a Gold Glove-caliber defender at second base with just slightly below-average offense. From 2017-18, he slashed .253/.313/.390 as the White Sox’ primary second baseman. His already minimal power output dipped in 2019, but Sanchez also took home a Gold Glove that year, lessening the sting of his fairly punchless approach at the dish. Since that 2019 campaign, however, he’s logged just 65 big league plate appearances and mustered only a .170/.303/.282 output.

Sanchez will have the ability to reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency. (He’s previously been outrighted and also has more than three years of service — either of which would grant him that right on its own.) He’d have to be with a new club by midnight ET tonight if said new team wanted to be able to rely on him as a defensive-minded insurance option for the postseason roster. If he simply accepts the outright and sticks with the Mets, he’d give them a strong glove and some speed to fall back on, should the incur an injury (or multiple injuries) in the infield between now and the playoffs.

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