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Archives for September 2022

Orioles Release Kelvin Gutierrez

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The Orioles released third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez yesterday, as first indicated on the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’d have been a minor league free agent this offseason anyhow and will now get an early jump on trying to secure a new landing spot for the 2023 season, likely on a minor league contract.

It feels like far more than just a few months ago that the 28-year-old Gutierrez was the Opening Day third baseman for the O’s, but that is indeed the case. Gutierrez got the Opening Day nod at the hot corner and started 10 games at third base for the O’s early this season (in addition to a pair of pinch-hit appearances). He appeared in a dozen games, hit .143/.250/.179 in 33 plate appearances, and was designated for assignment on May 2.

Gutierrez went unclaimed on waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Norfolk, where he spent the bulk of the 2022 season. In 238 plate appearances with the Tides, he turned in a .242/.315/.384 slash with six homers, eight doubles, a pair of triples, a 21.4% strikeout rate and a 10.1% walk rate. He’s now a .265/.334/.411 hitter in parts of three Triple-A campaigns.

There’s been some turnover in the Baltimore infield, as the O’s have gotten first looks at younger players such as Tyler Nevin, Terrin Vavra and, most recently, top prospect Gunnar Henderson. The latter of that trio has stepped in for six games at third, three apiece at shortstop and second base, and another two at designated hitter. He’s posted a combined .320/.370/.520 in his first 54 big league plate appearances and, in the process, continued his torrid minor league pace and illustrated just why the O’s are so confident he can be a future building block in the infield.

Mets Conducting Interviews For Team President; Sandy Alderson To Eventually Transition To Advisory Role

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The Mets announced Thursday afternoon they’ve begun a hiring process for a new team president. Sandy Alderson will remain in the role until a new hire is finalized, at which point he’ll become a “special advisor” to ownership. Andy Martino of SNY reported the development shortly before the team announcement.

Mets owner Steve Cohen settled on Alderson as team president in the fall of 2020, a couple months before his purchase of the franchise from the Wilpon family was even finalized. As soon as that sales process closed, the club parted ways with then-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen and much of his high-ranking staff and announced Alderson’s hiring.

“When I asked Sandy to come back to the team, it was for a defined period of time and with a specific mandate — revive our culture and this iconic franchise for our fans, partners and employees,” Cohen said today in the press release announcing the news. “Sandy has done those very things and more and we have begun a search for his successor. When we find that person, I have asked Sandy to continue in a new role as special advisor to me and the senior leadership team.”

Alderson originally signed a two-year contract, which Martino reports is set to expire at the end of December. According to Martino, Alderson and Cohen mutually agreed it was time to bring in a new team president. None of the specific candidates are yet known, although Martino adds the people currently under consideration primarily come from business backgrounds as opposed to baseball operations careers. No hiring appears imminent, and Alderson is expected to remain team president until a new hire is found, even if that process stretches past the official expiration of his contract.

The team president role is an overhead position, with that individual responsible for impacting both the baseball and business operations of the organization. Alderson is not the team’s day-to-day baseball ops decision-maker, and the incoming hire is not expected to take that role either. Daily baseball operations tasks fall to general manager Billy Eppler, who signed a four-year contract last November. There’s no indication that Alderson’s change will have any impact on Eppler’s job status; Martino writes that Mets ownership has been “pleased” with Eppler’s work thus far, hardly a surprise considering the team is a lock to reach the playoffs and is battling the defending World Series champion Braves for the NL East title.

Alderson had been the Mets daily baseball operations decision-maker in the past, serving as GM from 2010-18. He stepped away in the summer of 2018 after being diagnosed with cancer. He returned to the organization a year and a half later but has seemingly never had any interest in reassuming his old responsibilities. The 74-year-old was pressed into temporarily running the baseball operations department late last season, but Jon Heyman reported at the time that Alderson had no interest in taking the role permanently.

The Mets hired Eppler this past offseason, with Alderson sliding back into his team president position for the second year of his deal. Martino adds that he and Cohen always planned to limit his time in that capacity to two years; his forthcoming move into a less demanding advisory role isn’t tied to any new health concerns, fortunately.

Alderson’s time as team president was not without a notable misfire. Not long after returning to the organization, Alderson helped orchestrate a GM search process that culminated in the hiring of former Diamondbacks executive Jared Porter. Hired in December 2020, Porter held the position for around one month, before ESPN reported he had sexually harassed a reporter four years prior. The Mets promptly dismissed Porter, who was eventually banned by Major League Baseball through at least the end of the 2022 season.

A few months thereafter, The Athletic reported allegations of sexual misconduct against former Mets manager Mickey Callaway, whom Alderson had hired during his stint as the club’s general manager. Callaway, who was working for the Angels at the time those allegations were made public, was ultimately dismissed and likewise declared ineligible by MLB through at least 2022.

In the wake of the Porter debacle, the Mets promoted assistant GM Zack Scott to acting general manager. Scott appeared a strong candidate to take that role permanently, but he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in September 2021. The Mets placed him on administrative leave and thrust Alderson into control of baseball operations for a few months.

New York parted ways with Scott after the season while his criminal case was still pending. Scott was acquitted this January, with the trial court judge writing that he “performed (field sobriety) tests in a manner in which no neutral observer would conclude he was drunk, especially to the point of intoxication.” Scott hasn’t returned to baseball operations with an MLB team, although Tim Healey of Newsday reported in April that he’d turned down front office jobs to work with a private consulting firm.

In the wake of Scott’s departure, the Mets conducted a highly-publicized search process for their baseball operations leader last offseason. The Mets reportedly made runs at Theo Epstein, Billy Beane and David Stearns (among others) before tabbing Eppler. While the Mets have consistently maintained they’ve been happy with Eppler’s performance, some fans and outside observers have speculated about the possibility of the club making another run at one of those notable executives this winter. Alderson stepping down may add some fuel to that fire, but it’s worth reiterating the team president vacancy is a more overarching position than the jobs that Epstein, Beane and Stearns have held in recent years.

Beane and Stearns remain with the A’s and Brewers, respectively, with both working as their clubs’ president of baseball operations. Milwaukee owner Mark Attanasio blocked the Mets efforts to interview Stearns last winter. He remains under contract with the Brewers through 2023, although a deep postseason run this year (either to the NLCS or the World Series) would reportedly allow him to opt out of that deal at the end of this season. Milwaukee is currently 1 1/2 games out of the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Epstein and Beane were permitted to speak with the Mets last fall, but both eventually took themselves out of consideration for the job.

At this point, the most likely course of action is that the Mets eventually bring in a business-oriented team president while continuing to delegate baseball operations to Eppler. Even if the incoming president isn’t brought aboard to take over daily baseball decisions, it marks a notable hire for Cohen and his staff. For the third straight winter, there’ll be some key changes in the Mets executive hierarchy.

Twins Designate Jharel Cotton For Assignment

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The Twins have designated righty Jharel Cotton for assignment, tweets Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. The move is made in preparation for the activation of Bailey Ober from the 60-day injured list, which is expected to be finalized tomorrow.

Cotton is no stranger to DFA limbo, as he’s been on and off the Minnesota roster all year. Claimed off waivers from the Rangers over the offseason, the 30-year-old opened the year on the active roster but was DFA a week into the season. He cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A St. Paul, kicking off a series of moves between the majors and Triple-A dependent on the Twins’ need for pitching depth. Minnesota has selected Cotton’s contract on four separate occasions, but he’s now been designated for assignment after each promotion.

On every prior occasion, the four-year MLB veteran has gone unclaimed and accepted an assignment back to the Saints. It’s surely frustrating not to carve out a permanent spot on the roster, but Cotton has navigated the constant shuffling and performed very well in Triple-A. Over 25 innings with the Saints, he has a 2.88 ERA with a massive 37.1% strikeout rate. He’s gotten swinging strikes on a whopping 16.9% of his offerings in the minors.

Cotton has had similar success keeping runs off the board in the big leagues this year, carrying a 2.83 ERA through 35 innings. Unlike his Triple-A production, he’s not posted especially promising peripherals against MLB hitters though. Cotton has a below-average 21.5% strikeout rate and an elevated 11.5% walk percentage. He’s benefited from a meager .182 batting average on balls in play, and Minnesota’s front office has clearly maintained justifiable skepticism Cotton can continue keeping runs off the board at his current rate.

He’ll yet again find himself on waivers in the next few days. If he clears again, it’s possible he accepts another assignment back to St. Paul, but he’ll have another opportunity to test the free agent market if no other team puts in a claim.

As for Ober, he’s slated to start tomorrow night to kick off the Twins’ biggest series of the season. Minnesota will play five straight against the AL Central-leading Guardians, including a doubleheader on Saturday. The Twins trail Cleveland by four games, with the White Sox sitting one game above Minnesota in a three-way battle for the division title. The Wild Card spots look likely to go to the Rays, Mariners and Blue Jays in some order, leaving the division as the best chance for any of the AL Central teams to secure a playoff spot.

It’s a key outing for Ober, who steps right into the fire after a three and a half month absence. First sidelined on June 2 with a right groin strain, the big righty was eventually moved to the 60-day injured list and didn’t head out on a rehab assignment until this month. He’s made two appearances in Low-A and one outing with St. Paul, working 4 2/3 innings and 66 pitches on Monday evening. He’ll presumably be on some kind of pitch count tomorrow, but it stands to reason skipper Rocco Baldelli would be happy if Ober’s capable of effectively turning the Cleveland lineup over twice.

Outrights: Mazeika, Davis, Arihara

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An update on a trio of players who’ll remain with their prior organizations after being designated for assignment and clearing waivers…

Latest updates

  • The Giants outrighted catcher Patrick Mazeika to Triple-A Sacramento, tweets Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Mazeika, who’d been DFA this week, didn’t make a big league appearance with San Francisco. Claimed off waivers from the Mets last month, he’s spent the past couple weeks on optional assignment to Sacramento. Mazeika hasn’t hit well there, but he’d posted solid numbers with New York’s top affiliate earlier in the season. Mazeika has never previously been outrighted and doesn’t have three years of MLB service, so he’ll stick in the organization for this year’s final few weeks. He’d reach minor league free agency over the offseason if he’s not added back to the 40-man roster.

Earlier

  • Red Sox outfielder Jaylin Davis went unclaimed on outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Worcester, tweets Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. The 28-year-old Davis has spent time with the Twins, Giants and Red Sox organizations over the past five years but has never carried his stout Triple-A production over to the big league level. Granted, none of those clubs has given him much of a look in the Majors; Davis has just 95 plate appearances in the big leagues, during which time he’s posted a tepid .207/.274/.299 batting line. Davis turned in a colossal .306/.397/.590 slash with 35 homers in 541 plate appearances between the Triple-A affiliates for Minnesota and San Francisco in 2019, but even his Triple-A output has deteriorated since that standout showing. He’s had 353 turns at the plate in Triple-A this season and hit just .211/.317/.343 with a 30.9% strikeout rate.
  • Right-hander Kohei Arihara, designated for assignment by the Rangers this week, cleared outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. That’s not particularly surprising, given Arihara’s struggles and the fact that he’s still owed the balance of this season’s $2.6MM salary. It’s “only” about $286K, but given that Arihara has yielded 21 earned runs in 20 innings this season and carries a 7.57 ERA in 60 2/3 frames dating back to 2021, he was never likely to be claimed. Texas signed the now-30-year-old righty on the heels of a solid six-year run in NPB (3.74 ERA, 18% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate), hoping that he could provide some innings at the back of the rotation. That two-year, $6.2MM contract hasn’t panned out, however, and this is now the second time Arihara has been outrighted by the Rangers.

Tigers Sign Daniel Ponce de Leon To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers signed right-hander Daniel Ponce de Leon to a minor league contract this week. He made his organizational debut with Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday, tossing six innings of one-run ball.

It’s the third organization of the season for Ponce de Leon, who is still searching for his first big league call of the year. He opened the season on a non-roster deal with the Mariners, spending three months with their top affiliate in Tacoma. Ponce de Leon struggled to a 7.95 ERA there and was released in mid-July. He caught on with the Nationals not too long after, making seven Triple-A starts before being released earlier this month.

Between the three clubs, the 30-year-old has a 6.96 ERA in 24 starts at the minors highest level. He’s punched out a solid 25.7% of batters faced over that stretch, but he’s also walked an alarming 11.5% of opponents and struggled to keep the ball in the yard. Before this season, the former 9th-round pick had a stronger track record in the upper minors. Over parts of five Triple-A seasons, he owns a decent 3.88 ERA.

Despite his series of minor league deals this year, Ponce de Leon has only appeared in the majors with one club, the Cardinals. He suited up as a swing option in St. Louis from 2018-21, starting 22 of 57 outings. Through 147 2/3 MLB frames, Ponce de Leon owns a 4.33 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate but a 12.7% walk percentage.

The Tigers rotation has thinned out significantly in the past few months. Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal have long since been lost for the season, and Rony García was also knocked out for the year. Meanwhile, Detroit released Michael Pineda last week. Of late, Detroit has turned to a starting five of Eduardo Rodríguez, Matt Manning, Joey Wentz, Tyler Alexander and Drew Hutchison. Rodríguez and Manning are the only members of that group who are likely to open next season in the rotation (although Wentz may get an opportunity to compete for a job in Spring Training), so there’s room for Detroit to take a look at Ponce de Leon during the season’s final few weeks if they’re intrigued by his form in Toledo.

The Angels’ Promising Young Lefties

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For years, there have been commonly cited (and generally deserved/accurate) narratives surrounding the Angels: They’re squandering the primes of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. They can’t keep their roster healthy. They overspend on the wrong free agents. Holy cow, do they need pitching.

There’s merit to each and every one of those criticisms, but perhaps the longest-running critique has been that the Angels are in dire need of starting pitching. Year in and year out, the team would trot out an expensive core of position players while hoping to patch things together on the pitching staff.

Generally speaking, the Angels have shown an aversion to committing virtually any long-term risk to a starting pitcher. The team’s pursuit of Gerrit Cole is an exception to this thinking, but he may have been the exception. And the (obvious) fact of the matter is that even if the Angels were legitimately interested, Cole chose to sign elsewhere. The last time the Angels signed a free-agent starter for multiple years, Jerry Dipoto was the GM and Joe Blanton was inking a two-year deal.

That the Angels haven’t spent on starting pitching is just a fact — one that spans multiple general managers, thus pointing more toward an ownership preference. The team’s lack of investment beyond one-year deals, often for former stars in need of a rebound (e.g. Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Julio Teheran), was generally apparent in the results. A repeated inability to develop homegrown arms is as big a factor, if not a larger factor of course, but from 2016-21, the Angels’ rotation ERA ranked 20th (4.78 in 2016), 12th (4.38 in 2017), 19th (4.34 in 2018), 29th (5.64 in 2019), 29th again (5.54 in 2020), and 22nd (4.78 in 2021). Taken as a whole, the 2016-21 Angels ranked 24th in the Majors with a 4.76 rotation ERA and 29th with just 39.8 fWAR out of their starting pitchers — about 42% of the nearby Dodgers’ MLB-best 92.4 fWAR in that time.

With yet another diappointing season brewing in Anaheim, it’s tempting to assume that it’s more of the same. The Angels, once again, stuck to one-year free agent deals for Syndergaard and Michael Lorenzen. They didn’t trade for anyone meaningful. And yet… the Angels’ rotation this season has not only been pretty good — ninth-best ERA in the sport — but finally appears poised for some longevity.

Ohtani, of course, is at the center of all things Angels — well, when Trout isn’t homering in seven straight games — and he’s been a huge part of the Angels’ rotation success this year. A lower innings count will probably keep Ohtani from legitimate Cy Young candidacy, but he’s tossed 141 innings of 2.55 ERA ball with a 33% strikeout rate that trails only Atlanta’s Spencer Strider for best in the game among starters. For once, Ohtani isn’t the only horse pulling his weight, however. Here’s a look at the next three up in the Anaheim rotation:

  • Patrick Sandoval, 25, LHP (controlled through 2026): 132 1/3 innings, 2.99 ERA, 23.6% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate, 3.19 FIP, 3.95 SIERA
  • Reid Detmers, 23, LHP (controlled through 2027): 113 innings, 3.82 ERA, 23% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate, 4.03 FIP, 4.13 SIERA
  • Jose Suarez, 24, LHP (controlled through 2026): 91 1/3 innings, 3.84 ERA, 22.3% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate, 4.03 FIP, 4.03 SIERA

It’s an impressive group of lefties all under 26 years of age and all controlled for at least four seasons beyond the current campaign. Health and year-to-year volatility are obviously considerations with any group of starting pitchers, but the Angels still have a solid trio here on which to build.

Sandoval is the “most experienced” of the bunch, though he’ll finish the season with just over two years of big league service time. Yesterday marked the 18th time in 24 starts this season that Sandoval has allowed two or fewer runs to an opponent.

The Halos originally acquired Sandoval from the Astros alongside a $250K international bonus slot in exchange for a Martin Maldonado rental back in 2018. (Maldonado re-signed in Houston a couple years later and has since signed an extension.) It’ll go down as one of the best moves now-Mets GM Billy Eppler made during his time as general manager of the Halos, as Sandoval looks to have established himself as a high-quality hurler.

While the 25-year-old southpaw isn’t a flamethrower, he’s turned in an above-average strikeout rate, a slightly worse-than-average walk rate, a strong ground-ball rate, and very good marks in swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates (13.1% and 35.6%, respectively). He generates plenty of spin and whiffs with his breaking pitches and sits in the top quarter of big league pitchers in terms of limiting hard contact.

Dating back to last season, Sandoval has a 3.28 ERA in 219 2/3 innings. He’s fanned nearly a quarter of his opponents in that time — a bit more than a batter per inning — and kept nearly half of the batted balls against him on the ground.

Among the 104 pitchers who’ve totaled at least 200 innings since Opening Day 2021, only eleven have induced swinging strikes at a greater clip than Sandoval, and the names atop him on the list are a group of the game’s best: Corbin Burnes, Shane McClanahan, Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Clayton Kershaw, Robbie Ray, Shane Bieber, Carlos Rodon, Cole and Ohtani. Not bad company! Sandoval has also posted the ninth-lowest opponents’ contact rate, trailing only Burnes, Cease, McClanahan, Freddy Peralta, Bieber, Kershaw, Scherzer and Blake Snell. Again — not a bad list of names with which to surround oneself.

Good as Sandoval has been, it might be Detmers that proves the best of the bunch. The No. 10 overall pick in the 2020 draft, Detmers sprinted through the minors and made his big league debut less than 14 months after being selected. Had there been a minor league season in 2020, the former Louisville standout might have reached the Majors even sooner.

Last year’s debut was rough for Detmers, and there’s no sugar-coating that fact. He was excellent across three minor league levels but was absolutely rocked in the Majors, yielding a 7.40 ERA with disappointing K-BB numbers and a hefty five long balls allowed in just 20 2/3 innings (five starts). Not the way anyone wants to make his debut — and certainly not a top prospect and former first-rounder who comes with a good bit of hype and lofty long-term expectations.

Detmers improved early in the 2022 season, even throwing a May 10 no-hitter against a contending Rays club. Skeptics could point out that he managed only two strikeouts that day, but a no-hitter in any capacity is a feat. The greater course of concern was simply that Detmers’ no-no was bookended by general mediocrity; as of late June, Detmers had a 4.66 ERA and 5.36 FIP in 58 innings. His career, to that point, included 17 starts of 5.38 ERA ball with peripherals that generally matched.

On June 22, Detmers was optioned to Triple-A. On July 8, he came back a different pitcher. Detmers threw 47.8% fastballs, 21.5% curveballs, 16.6% sliders and 14% changeups prior to being optioned. Since returning, he’s thrown 42.7% heaters, 32.4% sliders, 15.3% curveballs and 9.6% changeups. The slider usage is way up — nearly doubled — and all other offerings have been scaled back a few percentage points.

Prior to being optioned, Detmers’ 4.66 ERA/5.36 FIP were backed by an 18.6% strikeout rate, an 8.9% walk rate, a 35.9% grounder rate and an 8.7% swinging-strike rate. Since returning and ramping up his slider use, Detmers touts a 2.95 ERA/2.62 FIP with a 27.5% strikeout rate, a 9.4% walk rate, a 42% ground-ball rate and a 12.5% swinging-strike rate.

Detmers has given up eight runs in his past 9 1/3 innings — beginning the very day I mentioned this altered repertoire in a broader piece for our Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers… sorry for the jinx, Reid — but he also threw his slider less frequently in Monday’s start than he has since the June 21 outing that saw him optioned. It’s also worth pointing out that Detmers is up to 119 innings on the season between his one minor league appearance and 22 big league starts; there’s probably some fatigue for a pitcher who only threw 82 2/3 innings last year and didn’t have an actual minor league season in 2020.

The bottom line for Detmers is that he features high-end breaking stuff, even if his fastball is more hittable. Opponents are hitting .206/.257/.302 and have fanned in 29.2% of the plate appearances Detmers has ended with a slider this year; they’re hitting .192/.288/.365 off the curve and punching out at a 27.1% clip. No wonder he’s throwing the heater less and less often.

Not to be overshadowed, the 24-year-old Suarez has had a fine season of his own. He’s flown even more under the radar than his two teammates — so much so that I initially planned to title this “The Angels’ Pair of Promising Lefties” before reminding myself what a strong season Suarez has had.

Suarez hasn’t been as flashy as either Sandoval or Detmers. He throws a bit softer than both (92.8 mph average fastball compared to 93.3 mph for Detmers and Sandoval), doesn’t have a gaudy strikeout rate and is about average in terms of his walk rate. Suarez limits hard contact nicely, but not anywhere near league-leading levels. He’s posted solid but not elite marks in swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rate. Suarez hasn’t excelled in any one specific category, but he also hasn’t been bad or even much below-average in many areas, either.

It’s not the dominant ace profile around which to build your rotation… but no one’s asking Suarez to be that. He’s the Angels’ fourth starter right now, and he’s posting solid numbers while averaging 5 2/3 innings per start. It’s the second straight year that Suarez has notched an ERA right in this same vicinity — he was at 3.75 in 98 1/3 innings last year as a swingman — but he’s improved each of his strikeout rate, walk rate, swinging-strike rate, chase rate and first-pitch strike rate. Suarez has been more aggressive in the strike zone, and a quite likely corollary has seen hitters chase off the plate more often (while making contact on those chases at a lower rate than in 2021).

It’s not an out-of-nowhere development, either. Suarez doesn’t have the big-time draft pedigree that Detmers does. Still, he was a well-regarded prospect in an admittedly thin Angels system, even reaching top-100 status at FanGraphs back in 2019, when he was listed baseball’s No. 79 prospect. At the time, Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel noted on their scouting report that an uptick in velocity elevated Suarez to “project as a good fourth starter,” which is exactly what he’s become.

Understandably, the long-term focus for Angels fans is on what the future holds for Ohtani. Will he be traded? Can a new owner somehow convince him to sign an extension, even though Ohtani has publicly stated a desire to win? Those questions might not be answered until it’s clear who’s purchasing the team and when that theoretical new owner might be installed as the club’s control person.

At least for the time being, however, Ohtani is in line to return for his final season of club control, when he’ll both serve as DH and the ace to a staff that can follow him with a pair of solid No. 2/No. 3 starters (Detmers, Sandoval) and a quality No. 4 starter (Suarez). It’s a very nice foundation on which to build a starting staff, and while the Halos might need another starter — or even two, if they continue to deploy a six-man group — for once, the primary question surrounding them won’t be, “When are they going to get some pitching?”

Pirates Designate Tyler Beede, Dillon Peters For Assignment

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The Pirates designated right-hander Tyler Beede and lefty Dillon Peters for assignment this afternoon, per a team announcement. Southpaw Eric Stout was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis to take Beede’s spot on the active roster; Peters had been on the injured list, so there’s no corresponding transaction in his case. Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Beede spent four months in Pittsburgh, working primarily as a multi-inning reliever. Since being claimed off waivers from the Giants in mid-May, he’s worked 51 2/3 innings across 25 appearances (including five starts). It was Beede’s longest stretch of MLB action since 2019, but the 29-year-old generally struggled. He posted a 5.23 ERA with the Bucs, only striking out 14.8% of batters faced on a modest 9.1% swinging strike percentage. Beede has induced a fair number of ground-balls, but the lack of swing-and-miss eventually squeezed him off the roster.

A former first-round pick, Beede had spent his entire professional career with the Giants before this year. He made 22 starts in 24 appearances with San Francisco three years ago, pitching to a 5.08 ERA but working in the mid-90s with nearly average peripherals. It was enough to offer some hope that Beede might be a back-of-the-rotation option for a few seasons, but his 2020-21 campaigns were mostly wiped out by injury. He underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020, keeping him out of action until last July. After a month primarily spent working his way back into game shape, he suffered a lower back strain that ended his 2021 campaign after a lone big league outing.

Beede is out of minor league option years, so the Giants had to carry him on the big league roster or make him available to other teams this season. He spent the first month in the Bay Area, coming out of the bullpen six times. After walking more batters than he struck out, he was designated for assignment and placed on waivers. Pittsburgh used their relatively high priority on the waiver wire to bring him aboard, but he didn’t manage to sustain some early success. Beede carried a 2.64 ERA as a Pirate through the end of July, but he’s been tagged for an even 9.00 ERA in 21 frames since then.

The Bucs will now place him on waivers themselves. He’s averaged 95.6 MPH on his sinker this season, with the still-intact arm strength perhaps intriguing enough another team will roll the dice on a claim. Beede is slated to be arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason and would be controllable through 2025 if another team is willing to give him a roster spot.

Peters, meanwhile, was first acquired from the Angels in July 2021. The 30-year-old picked up six starts down the stretch last season, but he’s worked primarily as a long reliever this year. Peters has started just four of his 22 outings in 2022, tossing 39 1/3 innings. He owns a 4.58 ERA and has fanned 15.8% of batters faced while walking opponents at an elevated 10.3% clip. He landed on the 15-day injured list in early August with inflammation in his throwing elbow, but he’s apparently ready for reinstatement after a pair of rehab outings at Double-A Altoona.

Like Beede, Peters is out of minor league options. The Bucs would’ve had to reinstall him onto the MLB pitching staff now that he’s healthy, but they’ll instead take him off the 40-man roster. He’ll land on waivers in the next few days. Peters is a virtual lock to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player this winter if another team were to claim him and keep him in the big leagues. He’s controllable through 2026.

Marlins Select Jake Fishman, Transfer Jorge Soler To 60-Day IL

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The Marlins on Thursday placed right-hander Tommy Nance on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain and selected the contract of lefty Jake Fishman in his place, tweets Payton Titus of the Miami Herald. Outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler was transferred from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man move.

It’s the third time this season the Fishman, 27, has been selected to the Marlins’ big league roster. The longtime Blue Jays farmhand has pitched 4 1/3 innings with Miami this season, yielding a run on six hits and no walks (but with two hit batters) and one strikeout in 4 1/3 innings. He’s twice been designated for assignment and passed through waivers unclaimed despite a strong year in Triple-A Jacksonville. In 56 innings with the Marlins’ top affiliate, Fishman carries a 2.25 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 54.2% ground-ball rate.

As for Soler, the move to the 60-day IL doesn’t formally close the book on his season, as that 60-day minimum dates back to his original placement on the IL, on July 23. Still, Soler himself said earlier this week that he does not expect to return to the field this season as he continues to battle a back injury.

Signed to a three-year, $36MM deal over the winter, Soler has fallen well shy of expectations in his first year with the Fish. Through 72 games and 306 plate appearances, Soler has mustered just a .207/.295/.400 batting line with a 29.4% strikeout rate — his worst in a 162-game season since 2017.

It’s a far cry from the 2021 momentum that Soler carried into free agency this past winter. A change-of-scenery trade that shipped Soler from Kansas City to Atlanta at the 2021 deadline set the stage for a mammoth second-half showing: .269/.358/.524, 14 home runs in 255 plate appearances. Postseason heroics ensued, as Soler went 6-for-20 with three homers and three walks en route to World Series MVP honors. The Marlins will hope that in 2023-24, a healthier Soler will get back to that form and provide some much-needed power to a typically light-hitting lineup, but it increasingly looks as though the book on his first Miami campaign is drawing to a close.

Shane Baz Not Expected To Return This Season

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Rays right-hander Shane Baz, who has been out since July 14 due to an elbow sprain, will not make it back to a Major League mound in 2022, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Baz has resumed throwing, but it seems there’s simply not enough time to get him built back up to the point where he’d be a viable option for Tampa Bay.

It’s a sour note on which to end an already injury-decimated season for Baz, who entered the year ranked as one of the top-ranked prospects in all of baseball. The 23-year-old righty underwent an arthroscopic procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow back in early April — a minor surgery that was originally only expected to halt him from throwing for around three weeks. He wound up taking more than two months to return to the big league mound, however, and just one month after returning from that issue, the current elbow sprain popped up to shut him down again.

In all, Baz pitched just 27 big league innings plus another 13 while on a minor league rehab assignment from that original injury. He struggled mightily in his first and last starts of the season (combined 12 runs in 4 2/3 innings), but those served as bookends for a tantalizing run of four starts that displayed why Baz is so highly touted: three runs on 16 hits and six walks with 26 punchouts in 22 1/3 innings. Overall, Baz posted a 5.00 ERA in his 27 frames, but it’s quite possible that the elbow was an issue in his final outing, when he was hammered for seven runs.

If there’s a silver lining it’s that Baz is once again throwing, and the Rays have given no indication that any surgery is on the horizon. Sprains, by definition, involve some degree of stretching and/or tearing in a ligament, so any “elbow sprain” for a pitcher always comes with some concern regarding potential surgery (be it ligament replacement/Tommy John surgery or a less-invasive but still significant operation, such as Primary Repair).

Baz will pick up a year of service for his 2022 season, having spent the entirety of it on either the Major League injured list or the active Major League roster. He’s still controllable for another five years beyond the current campaign, however, setting the stage for him to join the likes of 2022 Cy Young candidate Shane McClanahan and late-blooming breakout hurlers Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs in the rotation for the foreseeable future. The Rays also extended Tyler Glasnow, who’s wrapping up rehab from Tommy John surgery, just last month. He’s now signed through the 2024 season.

Between that quintet and a host of other talented arms and prospects — Yonny Chirinos, Luis Patino, Josh Fleming and Taj Bradley among them — the Rays perennial pipeline of high-end pitching appears as strong as ever.

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