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Nationals To Place Keibert Ruiz On Injured List, Select Israel Pineda

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The Nationals will place catcher Keibert Ruiz on the 10-day injured list Friday and select the contract of fellow catcher Israel Pineda from Triple-A Rochester, as first reported by TalkNats (Twitter links). They’ll also recall righty Jordan Weems from Rochester. The team hasn’t formally announced the moves, though Pineda’s reps at PNY Sports have announced his promotion to the big leagues (Twitter link).

Ruiz was injured behind the plate yesterday when he took a foul ball off his groin. While he initially remained in the game for a few innings, he was eventually lifted and replaced by Riley Adams. Manager Dave Martinez told reporters after the game that Ruiz was headed to a hospital for further evaluation due to swelling in his testicles.

The 24-year-old Ruiz was widely considered one of the top prospects in all of baseball prior to his arrival on the big league scene, and he was one of the headline talents acquired in the blockbuster deal that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from D.C. to L.A. at the 2021 trade deadline. He’s had a solid but unspectacular showing at the plate in his first full year with the Nats, batting .251/.313/.360. That’s 11% worse than the league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, but right in line with the average production among big league catchers.

The Nats didn’t necessarily need to replace Ruiz with another catcher, as they were already carrying three, with both Adams and Tres Barrera on the big league roster. They’ll stick with that three-catcher arrangement for now, though, and in doing so will get their first look at the 22-year-old Pineda, who’s had a breakout season across three minor league levels.

Pineda hit just .208/.260/.389 in High-A last year but has soared from that level all the way to Triple-A in 2022. He followed up a solid .264/.325/.443 showing in 67 High-A games with an excellent .280/.340/.538 output in 26 games at the Double-A level. He’s just 2-for-21 in his first six Triple-A contests, but Pineda’s combined .258/.325/.458 batting line this year is plenty productive — particularly for a catcher. Pineda has nabbed an impressive 41% of runners who’ve attempted to steal against him in parts of five professional seasons.

Pineda currently checks in as the No. 22 prospect at FanGraphs, No. 23 at Baseball America and No. 26 at MLB.com in what’s obviously considered a much-improved farm system following the complete roster tear-down in Washington. Given his performance in 2022, Pineda would likely have been added to the 40-man roster this winter anyhow, as the Nats would’ve needed to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 Draft. They’ll now get an early look at him, at least for the next few days.

Giants Outright Andrew Knapp

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Sept. 9: Knapp went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento, per the transaction log at MLB.com. Given his Major League service time, he’ll have the ability to reject that assignment in favor of free agency.

Sept. 6: The Giants announced they’ve designated catcher Andrew Knapp for assignment. The move clears a spot on the active roster for Joey Bart, who has been reinstated from the concussion injured list.

It’s the reversal of a move from a week ago, when Knapp was selected to the majors when Bart first went on the IL. He made three appearances with San Francisco, collecting a single and a pair of walks in seven trips to the plate. It was a decent showing in that exceptionally limited look, but Knapp has just a .128/.239/.154 line in 16 games between the Pirates, Mariners and Giants this season. The switch-hitting backstop owns a .209/.310/.313 mark through parts of six big league seasons — all of which came with the Phillies before he’s donned a number of uniforms this year.

While he has not made a huge offensive impact as a big leaguer, Knapp has a solid track record in the minors. He’s a .261/.330/.426 hitter across 670 career plate appearances in Triple-A. A former second-round pick, he’s drawn a fair bit of interest this season as a depth option with clubs always on the hunt for experienced catching help.

The Giants will place Knapp on waivers in the next few days. If he goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to refuse an outright assignment and again set out to minor league free agency.

Brewers Planning To Place Freddy Peralta On Injured List

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Brewers starter Freddy Peralta left tonight’s start against the Giants in the third inning. The right-hander’s velocity dipped, and the club announced he’s battling shoulder fatigue. After the game, manager Craig Counsell informed reporters (including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com) that Peralta is likely headed back to the 15-day injured list.

It has to be a frustrating development for the 2021 All-Star, who already lost a good chunk of the year to a lat strain. Since returning from the IL, he’s had some trouble maintaining his strongest form every fifth day. Peralta hadn’t pitched since August 31, as the Brewers pushed his scheduled Monday start back to tonight to buy him a bit more rest. That unfortunately didn’t work out as intended, and it now seems the club will give him at least a couple weeks before he returns to the mound.

While it’s obviously not an ideal situation, both Peralta and Counsell indicated they weren’t especially concerned about his long-term health. Initial evaluations didn’t reveal any structural concerns, and the club is confident the issue is simply one of fatigue. Peralta flatly told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) that he’ll pitch again this season, expressing confidence he just needs some time to rest his arm.

The injuries have prevented Peralta from replicating last year’s form, when he worked to a 2.81 ERA through 144 1/3 innings. He’s still been plenty effective when healthy, carrying a 3.45 ERA with an above-average 26.6% strikeout rate, but he’s only been able to take the ball 15 times. Needless to say, losing roughly half a season’s workload from an arm of that caliber has been a tough blow for a Milwaukee club jockeying for a playoff spot.

The Brewers are already without Aaron Ashby, who’s been out since August 20 with shoulder inflammation. Milwaukee was dealt another scare yesterday when left-hander Eric Lauer left his start early and was diagnosed with an elbow strain. McCalvy relays tonight that an early MRI was encouraging, and Lauer will go for further evaluation tomorrow. Milwaukee hasn’t placed him on the injured list to this point, so it seems there’s still a chance he’ll be able to make his next start.

Despite Peralta’s early departure, the Brewers held on to sweep today’s doubleheader with San Francisco. That pulled them within 2 1/2 games of the Phillies for the National League’s final Wild Card spot with roughly a month left on the schedule.

Rays Likely To Activate Wander Franco From Injured List

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The Rays are likely to activate Wander Franco from the 10-day injured list before tomorrow’s series opener with the Yankees, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The shortstop has been on a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham, but he traveled with the team to the Bronx during today’s off day and is likely to be back in the lineup on Friday night.

Franco has been out for two months. He suffered a hamate fracture in his right wrist on July 9, and he underwent surgery a few days later. That procedure came with a five-to-eight week recovery timetable. Franco comes in toward the latter end of that timeline, largely thanks to a couple brief setbacks along the way. Sent out on a rehab assignment in mid-August, the 21-year-old was pulled back a few days later after experiencing some residual soreness. That set Franco back a couple weeks, but he’s been in Durham’s lineup each of the past two nights.

A two-day rehab stint after an absence of this length doesn’t give Franco much time to get back into a rhythm, but the Rays are also facing one of their most important series of the year. Tampa Bay trails the Yankees by five games, and this weekend’s series will be the teams’ final meeting of the regular season. For the Rays to have a realistic chance at winning the AL East, they’ll probably have to at least take two of three to gain a game in the standings. Getting Franco back certainly helps those efforts, even if his second season in the majors hasn’t gone as smoothly as they’d have hoped.

The sport’s consensus top prospect before his promotion last summer, Franco hit .288/.347/.463 through his first 70 MLB games. He already looked like one of the sport’s top overall players, but the switch-hitting infielder has taken a bit of a step back in his sophomore campaign. He carries a .260/.308/.396 line through 247 trips to the plate. He’s been one of the league’s toughest players to strike out, but his power production has taken a bit of a step back. Franco has also had a pair of extended IL stints, missing a month due to a quad strain before this hamate issue.

Relatively slow start aside, there’s no question Franco represents a marked upgrade over the Rays other options at shortstop. Tampa Bay has primarily turned to Taylor Walls there in his absence. A former highly-regarded prospect himself (albeit not one of Franco’s caliber), Walls has stumbled to a .176/.267/.282 line over 408 trips to the dish.

Franco was joined on his rehab stint by Tyler Glasnow, who tossed an inning on 19 pitches last night for Durham. It marked the big right-hander’s first game action since he underwent Tommy John surgery last August. Glasnow, who signed an extension two weeks back, continues to pursue a late-season return to the club. There’s a bit less than a month remaining on the regular season schedule, but the 29-year-old could factor in as an abbreviated starter or reliever for the stretch run and postseason if all goes according to plan.

It wasn’t all positive news on the injury front for the Rays, as they’re shutting down one of their top prospects for the season. Infielder Curtis Mead is out for the year with a forearm/elbow issue, tweets Triple-A broadcaster Patrick Kinas. Mead, a 21-year-old third baseman/second baseman, raked at a .305/.394/.548 clip through 56 games with Double-A Montgomery. That earned him a bump to Durham in late June, where he’d been off to a .278/.376/.486 start before the injury.

That monster showing has elevated Mead’s prospect status. Baseball America slotted the Australia native 3rd in an excellent Tampa Bay system and 24th overall on its most recent Top 100 prospect rankings. While he’s yet to make his major league debut, he’ll no doubt be added to the 40-man roster this winter to keep him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. With a strong start to next season for the Bulls, Mead could factor into the Rays infield by the middle part of next season.

MLB Players Association Joins AFL-CIO

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The MLB Players Association recently joined the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), reports Evan Drellich of the Athletic. The AFL-CIO is a federation of various unions in different industries throughout the country.

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark pointed to the contentious return to play negotiations in the aftermath of the COVID-19 shutdown and last winter’s lockout as reasons for joining a broader labor federation. “The truth is we reflected on where our organization was, and the things that we potentially could do moving forward as a part of the broader labor discussion, and that’s why we’re here today,” Clark said upon announcing the decision yesterday.

The decision comes at a time when the MLBPA is attempting to vastly expand its membership. The union recently began efforts to incorporate minor leaguers. Just this week, the MLBPA announced that a majority of minor leaguers signed authorization cards that’d demonstrate interest on their part in joining the Players Association. The MLBPA petitioned Major League Baseball to recognize its authority to represent minor leaguers on that basis. If MLB declines to do so, the MLBPA could file a motion with the National Labor Relations Board for an election among minor leaguers. If more than half of those who cast votes do so in favor of unionization, the NLRB would require MLB to recognize the PA’s authority to represent minor leaguers.

“We have engaged the league formally and informally,” Clark said yesterday of the request for voluntary recognition. “We remain hopeful that that conversation and decision will bear fruit. In the event that it doesn’t, we have the opportunity to petition the NLRB and go that route. So I truly think that there is an opportunity for us as an industry to have a conversation here, and a level of engagement that is beneficial for all involved. And we’ll just have to see how that plays out, but we’re encouraged, at least initially, with some of the dialogue that we’ve had. But we’ll have to see.”

It’s tough to know at this point whether the PA’s decision to join the AFL-CIO will have major repercussions on its handling of future discussions with the league. At the very least, it seems to allow Clark, lead negotiator Bruce Meyer and other MLBPA members freer communication with union leaders in other arenas. Labor attorney Eugene Freedman provides a breakdown (Twitter thread) of various benefits in areas like mortgages and car purchases that rank-and-file MLBPA members could now receive as part of AFL-CIO programs. Those aren’t likely to move the needle for major leaguers at the top of the salary scale, but they could be more meaningful for lower-salaried minor leaguers if they’re formally included in the MLBPA over the coming months.

The Changing Landscape Of The AL Cy Young Race

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Two weeks ago, the Cy Young race in the American League looked like a two-horse race, with both Houston’s Justin Verlander and Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan hovering at or below the 2.00 ERA mark and racking up innings atop their teams’ respective rotations. McClanahan has the larger strikeout percentage and subsequently superior marks from fielding-independent metrics that some voters increasingly weigh. Verlander was averaging one extra out recorded per start prior to being lifted early his last time out, and his 16-3 win-loss record might hold some sway with traditionalist voters.

Or, all of that could be rendered moot.

Both Verlander and McClanahan are on the 15-day injured list, and Verlander, who had been improbably leading the Majors in ERA as a 39-year-old in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, sounds as though he’ll miss several weeks rather than just the 15-day minimum. McClanahan, a late scratch from his last start, is already throwing and seems likelier to make a quick return. However, the Rays could very well take a cautious approach and limit his innings after a two-week absence due to a shoulder impingement.

At the very least, the door is now open for further competition in Cy Young voting, ostensibly setting the stage for the closest AL vote we’ve seen since 2019, when Verlander and then-teammate Gerrit Cole finished in the top two positions on the ballot. Last year’s NL Cy Young voting sparked plenty of controversy and debate as well, and as things currently stand, we could get an encore of that scene in the AL this year.

If not Verlander or McClanahan, who are the top names to consider? Let’s dive in.

Dylan Cease, RHP, White Sox

Cease, following a near-no-hitter against the Twins that saw him go 8 2/3 before Luis Arraez cracked a ninth-inning single, may have leapfrogged both Verlander and McClanahan as the odds-on favorite in the American League. He’s sitting on MLB’s third-lowest ERA — sandwiched right between Verlander and McClanahan, no less — and that 2.13 mark is complemented by a 31.4% strikeout rate that ranks as the fourth-highest of any qualified starting pitcher in baseball.

At 5.5 wins above replacement (per Baseball Reference), Cease already leads American League pitchers — even over Verlander and McClanahan. That’d due largely to the fact that Cease is putting up these numbers in front of one of the game’s bottom-10 defenses.

It’s not all roses, as Cease has a 10.4% walk rate that sits dead last among qualified starters. He hasn’t been terribly efficient, either; where both Verlander and McClanahan have averaged comfortably more than six innings per start, Cease has averaged 5.77 innings per appearance this year.

Still, Chicagoans can no doubt see the parallels between Cease’s 2022 showing and the 2016 performance of another Chicago hurler — crosstown righty Jake Arrieta, when he rode a historic summer surge to Cy Young honors. Over his past 15 starts, Cease has tallied 93 innings of 1.45 ERA ball and held opponents to one or zero runs on a dozen occasions. Cease isn’t quite in Arrieta territory (0.86 ERA in his final 147 innings), but he’s not terribly far off, either. If he can sustain anything close to this pace, Cease will finish the season at or near the top of the AL in terms of innings pitched, ERA, total strikeouts and strikeout rate.

Alek Manoah, RHP, Blue Jays

Manoah looked borderline unhittable for the season’s first two months, carrying a 1.67 ERA in that time and allowing just 55 hits and a 0.59 HR/9 mark through June 13 (75 2/3 innings). He had a solid but closer-to-average run for much of the summer but has now yielded just three runs in his past 28 1/3 innings.

At 171 innings of 2.42 ERA ball on the year, the 24-year-old is on the periphery of the race at present. He ranks fourth in American League ERA but trails McClanahan, Cease and especially Verlander in that department. He lacks the gaudy strikeout ratios boasted by both Cease and McClanahan but limits hard contact better than any non-McClanahan pitcher in the AL, evidenced by a 31.3% hard-hit rate. (McClanahan leads qualified AL starters at 30.1%.)

However, Manoah’s 171 are second-most in the American League, and if he continues this hot streak, there’s a chance he could wind up among the league leaders in ERA, innings pitched and other key categories. In terms of wins and losses, everyone’s trailing Verlander’s 16 victories, but Manoah’s 14 are tied with Framber Valdez for second in the league. Speaking of which…

Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros

It’s easy to be overshadowed by the season Verlander is enjoying, but we should all probably be discussing Valdez’s outstanding year more than we are. The 28-year-old southpaw is just one-third of an inning behind Manoah at 170 2/3, and he also sits sixth in ERA (2.64) and ninth in bWAR (3.4).

Valdez has emerged as baseball’s preeminent ground-ball starting pitcher, and it’s not close; he leads all qualified pitchers in ground-ball rate at 66.7%, and Logan Webb’s 57.5% rate is second-best. Even dropping the minimum to 50 innings as a starter, he still leads Alex Cobb (61.9%) and Andre Pallante (61.4%) by a wide margin.

In an age where starters are yanked from the game earlier than ever before, Valdez is a throwback. He’s worked at least six innings in every one of his starts since April 25, completing seven or more innings on 11 occasions and twice going the distance with a complete game. Over his past five starts, Valdez has 35 2/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball. It’ll be a challenge for him to drop his ERA into the low 2.00s, and he can’t match Cease or McClanahan in terms of strikeouts, but Valdez will likely be the American League innings leader and finish with a mid-2.00s ERA and MLB-leading ground-ball rate.

Shohei Ohtani, RHP, Angels

When Ohtani pitched to a 3.99 ERA through the first six weeks of the season, it looked as if we were in for an (almost) mortal season out of the two-way phenom. He averaged just over five innings per start, and while the strikeouts were still there in droves, he was also unusually homer-prone. A Cy Young pursuit did not appear to be on the horizon.

In 88 2/3 innings since that time? Ohtani has a 1.83 ERA with fewer homers allowed (six) than in his first 47 1/3 innings (seven). He at one point rattled off six consecutive starts with double-digit strikeout totals, and opponents have batted .199/.249/.301 against him during this stretch.

Ohtani’s 33% strikeout rate on the season leads qualified starting pitchers (though would trail Braves phenom Spencer Strider by a good margin if Strider had a few more innings), and while many fans and Ohtani detractors bristle at the notion, it’s hard not to consider that he does all this while also serving as a middle-of-the-order slugger who ranks among the league’s top power threats.

Ultimately, with just 136 innings pitched this season, it’s hard to imagine that Ohtani will actually garner many (if any) first-place Cy Young votes. Yes, he’s sporting a 2.58 ERA, leading the league with a 33% strikeout rate and sitting second among AL starters with 4.7 bWAR. But Ohtani is ultimately going to be up against multiple starters with better bottom-line run prevention numbers and as many as 40 to 50 additional innings pitched. Corbin Burnes won an NL Cy Young last year with just 167 frames, but the top names in the American League this year have had better seasons.

Kevin Gausman, RHP, Blue Jays

Gausman will be the analytic darling in this year’s field. I debated whether to mention him at all for this breakdown, as he’d need a pretty dominant finish to push his way in among the leaders in more traditional categories, but the right-hander is second in the American League at FanGraphs with 5.2 wins above replacement. fWAR is based on fielding-independent pitching rather than actual runs allowed, and Gausman has been quite good this season — 3.12 ERA in 147 innings — despite being one of the game’s least-fortunate pitchers in terms of balls in play. He’s lugging around an MLB-worst .368 BABIP, and the next-highest mark (Jordan Lyles at .323) isn’t even close.

There’s perhaps some temptation to think that Gausman is then yielding far too much hard contact, but that’s not necessarily the case. He’s not managing contact as well as any of the others profiled here, but his 89 mph average exit velocity and 39% hard-hit rate are barely north of the respective 88.6 mph and 38.3% league averages in those regards.

Gausman has the game’s third-best walk rate (3.8%), the tenth-best strikeout rate (27.9%) and is sixth-best in the differential between those two (24.1 K-BB%). He’s averaging just 5 2/3 innings per start, however, and isn’t particularly helping his cause down the stretch (3.99 ERA over his past five outings… again, with a .370 BABIP).

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A lot can (and will) change between now and season’s end, but since this is all just for debate anyhow, I’ll include a poll to close this out:

Competition Committee To Vote On Several Rule Changes For 2023 Season

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The competition committee is set to vote on various proposed rule changes for the 2023 season, report Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic. A pitch clock, limitations on defensive shifting, pickoff limits and enlarged bases are all set to be formally voted upon tomorrow at 11:00 am CST.

As Drellich and Rosenthal note, it seems a mere formality that all the proposed changes will pass. The competition committee was established by mutual agreement between the league and Players Association during the most recent round of collective bargaining. It’s an 11-person panel designed to vote upon potential changes to the on-field playing rules. That committee is comprised of six league appointees, four MLB players and an umpire. Andy Martino of SNY reported in June that the league would be represented by Dick Monfort, John Stanton, Greg Johnson, Tom Werner, Mark Shapiro and Bill DeWitt for this round of voting. The players on the panel are expected to be Jack Flaherty, Tyler Glasnow, Whit Merrifield and Austin Slater (with Ian Happ and Walker Buehler as alternates), while Bill Miller will represent the umpires.

With MLB appointing a majority of the committee, it’s generally expected the league will be able to push through its desired changes with relative ease. (MLB had a unilateral right to change playing rules under the prior CBA, although it had been required to wait a full year after formally proposing it to the MLBPA in the event the union refused to sign off on earlier implementation). Under the current CBA, the committee can implement rules changes 45 days after making a recommendation to the union. That grace period won’t be relevant for this set of proposals, all of which are focused on 2023 and beyond.

The timing of the vote had been unclear, but it has seemed a formality for months that each of the pitch clock, a shift limitation and larger bases would be implemented by the start of next season. MLB had pushed for all three of those provisions at one point during CBA negotiations this past offseason. The parties eventually agreed to temporarily shelve any changes to the on-field product and focus on larger economic issues, but it has seemed inevitable since March that these three factors would be on the agenda (and would very likely be approved) for the 2023 campaign.

Drellich and Rosenthal report the specifics on the proposed alterations. Pitchers would have 15 seconds to begin their delivery with no one on base, while they’d have 20 seconds to start their motion with runners aboard. The countdown begins when the pitcher has the ball, the batter and catcher are in the vicinity of home plate, and all baserunners are in an appropriate position. Catchers must be in position with no more than nine seconds remaining on the clock. If either the pitcher or catcher violates the provision, an automatic ball is called.

Batters also have a time limit. They’re required to be in the box and “alert to the pitcher” with no more than eight seconds remaining on the clock. If he’s not prepared, an automatic strike will be assessed. (The league also has the authority to impose additional discipline on players and/or staff circumventing the clock). There are 30 seconds allotted between batters and 135 seconds between innings and for pitching changes.

The pickoff limit is also a pace-of-play measure. Pitchers are freely allowed to disengage from the rubber twice per plate appearance — whether to throw a pickoff or for any other reason. Doing so resets the clock for that pitch. A pitcher can disengage for a third time, but an automatic balk is assessed if the baserunner is not thrown out. Essentially, the disengagement rule limits pitchers to two “free” pickoff attempts per batter. After two unsuccessful step-offs, the pitcher can again attempt a pickoff but the baserunner would be awarded an automatic base if he’s not thrown out. If the runner advances without a ball put in play — via balk, stolen base, wild pitch, etc. — the pitcher’s disengagement limit resets.

The pickoff limit figures to incentivize more aggressive baserunning, at least among faster runners. Particularly once a pitcher uses his first two step-offs, a baserunner can theoretically extend his lead. The third disengagement means the runner won’t have free rein, but there’ll be more flexibility to push the leadoff knowing that another unsuccessful pickoff attempt is treated as a balk.

Turning to the shift restrictions, teams would be required to deploy four players (not including the pitcher and catcher) on the infield. All infielders have to have both feet on the dirt, and two players must be completely on either side of the second base bag. A shift violation results in an automatic ball, unless it occurs on a ball in play or hit batsman. If the baserunner reaches anyway, the play stands. If there’s an out recorded, the batting team’s manager decides whether to let the play stand. In most instances, they obviously wouldn’t do so, although there are certain situations (i.e. a sacrifice fly) where teams may be content to accept the out for the advancement of other baserunners. Whether a team violated the shift ban is subject to replay review, while possible pitch clock offenses are not.

The league has experimented with the possibility of restricting shifts for quite some time in an effort to increase the batting average on balls in play. That has included some rather complex and extreme tests in the minor leagues. Jayson Stark of the Athletic reported in July that MLB was introducing a “pie-slice” restriction on shifting at the Low-A level. Not only did that require two infielders on either side of second base, it carved out a restricted area around the bag to prevent middle infielders from playing deep and just to their side of second base to take away would-be hits up the middle. That is not in the proposed rules changes for MLB in 2023, to be clear, but it illustrates the league might experiment with further defensive restrictions down the line if the initial shift ban doesn’t produce a desired uptick in base knocks.

The bases, meanwhile, would be enlarged from their current 15 inches square to 18 inches square. That’s a small change designed to facilitate more aggressive baserunning and minimize the chance of collisions on bang-bang plays at first.

Drellich and Rosenthal report a host of other timing restrictions (on mound visits, in-stadium music, defensive timeouts, etc.) that would also go into effect if approved. The Athletic’s post is worth a full read for those interested in all the changes that seem likely to come to the majors next season.

Yankees Place DJ LeMahieu On Injured List

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The Yankees announced that infielder DJ LeMahieu is headed to the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 5, with toe inflammation on his right foot. Miguel Andújar has been recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take his spot on the active roster. New York also reinstated starter Nestor Cortes from the IL after optioning out Deivi García following last night’s ballgame.

LeMahieu has been out of action since Sunday dealing with the toe discomfort. He’s battled the issue off and on for a few weeks, and he’ll need at least another week off to recover. It certainly appears as if the discomfort has had an effect on LeMahieu’s performance, as he’s struggled mightily of late. Going back to the start of August 1, he’s hitting .187/.254/.243 through 119 trips to the plate. That’s obviously nowhere close to the .285/.389/.424 line he carried through the end of July. Precisely when LeMahieu started hurting isn’t clear, but he’s seemingly been operating at less than full strength.

The organization hasn’t provided a specific timetable for his return, although the fact that they’ve waited a few days to put him on the IL could suggest they don’t anticipate it being a long-term absence. New York also just lost Anthony Rizzo to the IL, though, leaving them particularly short-handed on the infield. They called up former Ranger first baseman Ronald Guzmán this week, and he started one of the club’s games in their doubleheader against the Twins yesterday. Utilityman Marwin González got the nod there in the nightcap, and he’s back in the lineup at first tonight. Gleyber Torres, Josh Donaldson (who’s currently on paternity leave), Isiah Kiner-Falefa, rookie Oswald Peraza and Andújar round out the healthy infield mix at the moment.

The silver lining of today’s news is that the Yankees welcome Cortes back from his own IL stint. He only missed a bit more than two weeks with a groin issue. The southpaw owns a 2.68 ERA through 131 innings on the season. He’ll make his 24th start of the year tonight against Minnesota.

The Yankees enter play Thursday holding a five-game lead over the Rays in the AL East. They’re five games back of the Astros for the top record in the Junior Circuit, seemingly setting themselves up to secure the #2 seed in the postseason. A second-half swoon has knocked the club off its once-historic pace, but they’ve still got a strong chance of securing a first-round bye.

Two Minor Leaguers File Lawsuit Against Angels In Dominican Court

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A pair of minor league players have filed suit against the Angels for allegedly reneging on verbal agreements made back in 2019, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. Outfielder Willy Fañas, now with the Mets, and infielder Keiderson Pavon, now with the Rangers, claim that the Angels verbally agreed to respective signing bonuses of $1.8MM and $425K in 2019. The Dominican Prospect League shared a video of former Angels director of international scouting Carlos Gomez (not the former player) informing Pavon the team plans to sign him, at which point a then 15-year-old Pavon breaks down in tears of joy (YouTube link).

Fañas and Pavon allege that those agreements, which came more than a year in advance of the players’ eligibility to sign under Major League Baseball’s rules — international amateurs can sign beginning on their 16th birthdays — were withdrawn in 2020, less than one month before the international signing period was set to commence. Fañas had been 14 at the time of his agreement; Pavon was 15. As Passan points out, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the July 2, 2020 signing eligibility date back to January of 2021, and by that point, the Halos had fired then-GM Billy Eppler and replaced him with current GM Perry Minasian. With that change came alterations in the international scouting department; Minasian hired Brian Parker to oversee the team’s international operations.

Both players have since signed with new clubs, though Fañas waited until the following signing period to put pen to paper on a contract with a new team. Because early deals just such as these are so common throughout the industry, neither player was able to find a team able to immediately commit a substantial bonus; like the Angels, other teams had already verbally committed the majority of resources in their hard-capped signing pools to other amateurs well in advance of those teenage prospects reaching actual signing eligibility. Fañas, perhaps unsurprisingly, ultimately inked a $1.5MM bonus with the Mets, where Eppler is now GM. Pavon signed for $150K with the Rangers.

While both players eventually found organizations with which to sign, albeit at reduced rates, they’re still seeking damages from the Angels. Fañas is seeking $17MM, while Pavon seeks $4.25MM.

Those figures represent roughly ten times what the Angels had initially promised, though the representatives for Fañas and Pavon could cite multiple factors in seeking such weighty sums. It’s common for players, upon reaching a verbal agreement with a team, to take out loans with exorbitant interest rates, with the intent that the eventual signing bonus will allow those players to pay back that loan. The team withdrawing an offer obviously creates complications in such instances. Speculatively, it’s also plausible that the Fañas and Pavon camps could claim the players’ delayed paths to potential arbitration and free-agent paydays were delayed by the alleged Angels actions. There’s no guarantee they’d ever reach those milestones, of course, and quantifying the exact amount that delay cost either player is impossible.

Whether the suit is successful carries long-term ramifications with regard to the broader international market. Because the league and players association were unable to come to terms on an agreement regarding an international draft, the status quo system that permits this level of largely unregulated advance agreements is likely to remain in place until 2026, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires. If Fañas and Pavon are successful in demonstrating that there are repercussions for teams pursuing premature verbal agreements that flout the rules put into place by MLB, it stands to reason that they may be more reluctant to barter such deals.

The sword cuts both ways, it should be noted. It’s also not uncommon for a player and his trainer and representation to back out of an agreement with a team if he elevates his profile considerably between the time that agreement is reached and the time he’s actually eligible to sign. The rampant disregard for rules prompted agent Ulises Cabrera, who helped establish the Dominican Prospect League and who works with dozens of Latin American players, to refer to the entire system as “the wild, wild West” when speaking to ESPN.

Although the suit was initially filed in May, any ruling on the litigation will wait until months down the road. Passan adds that a Dominican judge recently moved to postpone the appearance of witnesses until late November. And while many American fans may wonder whether there’s any real chance that a court of law would agree to uphold a verbal agreement as a binding contract, Passan quotes several Dominican lawyers and legal professionals who emphasize that the Dominican justice system places greater emphasis on verbal declarations than the United States court system does. The report features lengthy quotes from Cabrera, from the lawyers representing Fañas and Pavon, from third-party legal professionals in the Dominican and from the plaintiffs themselves, so those with interest will want to check it out in its entirety to grasp the full scope of the controversy.

The Dodgers’ Latest Free Agent Breakout

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Each offseason, the Dodgers are mentioned as at least a speculative favorite for seemingly every top-tier free agent. They’re willing to pursue elite players even in the absence of a true positional need, and they annually sport one of the league’s highest payrolls. This winter should be no exception, with headlines eventually linking the Dodgers to the best free agent shortstops, including their own impending free agent Trea Turner, and top-of-the-market starting pitching.

Los Angeles doesn’t just pursue established superstars in the Freddie Freeman mold, though. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Brandon Gomes and the rest of the front office also leverage their payroll flexibility in another way. While it’s not as visible or exciting, the Dodgers roll the dice on plenty of mid-tier free agents. They signed nine players to major league deals last offseason alone, seven of whom inked a one-year guarantee. It was a blend of high-upside players who carried injury or performance risks with more stable, lower-variance veterans to round out the roster.

Tyler Anderson seemed to fall into the latter bucket. He’s been a durable back-of-the-rotation arm for much of his career. Anderson lost chunks of the 2017 and ’19 seasons with left knee issues, but he started a full slate of 32 games in 2018 and hasn’t gone on the injured list at any point in the past three years. That kind of reliability appealed to a Dodgers team that opened the season with Dustin May on the IL, Clayton Kershaw coming off a season-ending arm issue and Andrew Heaney (another lower-tier free agent pickup) seeking a rebound after a dismal 2021 campaign.

Reliable as he was in taking the ball every fifth day, Anderson didn’t look like a potential impact arm. He’d only once posted an ERA below 4.00 in a season, and that was in his 2016 rookie campaign. The southpaw had the tough task of pitching his home games at Coors Field for his first four years, but he also had mixed results in a 2021 season split between two more pitcher-friendly settings. Anderson played the year with the Pirates and Mariners, combining for a 4.53 ERA over 167 innings. A nine-run clunker during his third-to-last start of the season inflated that number, but he carried an ERA hovering around 4.00 for much of the season.

Featuring a fastball that averages under 91 MPH, Anderson looked the part of a back-end arm who throws strikes and keeps teams in a ballgame for five innings. That netted him an $8MM guarantee from L.A. in Spring Training. That would’ve been a generally worthwhile investment if Anderson had merely replicated his 2021 numbers over another full season. Instead, he’s posted easily the best showing of his career to date.

Through 26 appearances, the former first-round pick has worked 154 2/3 innings of 2.73 ERA ball. He’s neither striking batters out nor generating ground-balls at a particularly robust clip, with his respective 19% and 39.7% rates each checking in below the league averages. Yet Anderson has improved upon the aspect of his game in which he’d already been most effective: getting opponents to offer at pitcher’s pitches.

Despite not having eye-popping raw stuff, Anderson has always been adept at inducing chases on pitches outside the strike zone. Opponents went after 37.2% of offerings he threw outside the zone last season, well above the 31.5% league average for starters. He’s pushed that already impressive rate further, getting hitters to chase a personal-high 38.9% of pitches this year.

That ability to get hitters to swing at bad pitches drives two key aspects of Anderson’s success. It’s helped him avoid free passes, with this season’s 4.9% walk rate among the best in the game. Anderson has always been adept at pounding the strike zone, and his combination of plenty of pitches within the zone and ability to get hitters to swing at would-be balls keeps him frequently in advantageous counts. It’s also worked to avoid especially damaging contact, with opponents having a hard time squaring him up. Anderson ranks among the league’s top starters in suppressing hard contact, thus far allowing him to avoid home run issues that have plagued him in the past.

The Dodgers have already received more than they could’ve expected from a reasonably low-cost acquisition. He could have a hard time cracking a playoff rotation that’ll certainly feature Julio Urías, Kershaw, May and (if healthy) Tony Gonsolin, but he’s likely to be on the mound for some high-leverage innings this October in some capacity. Anderson also looks to have set himself up for a better payday on his return trip to the open market, although how robust the interest will be depends on how much teams buy into his ability to sustain this year’s elite results.

His lack of premium velocity or swing-and-miss stuff gives him a thin margin for error. Even modest regression in his ability to induce bad swing decisions could lead to results more akin to a back-of-the-rotation arm than this year’s All-Star form. After all, it’s not as if Anderson’s success has come completely out of the blue. He’d already been above-average at getting batters to chase and make weak contact in seasons where his overall output was roughly league average.

The 32-year-old has made tweaks to his repertoire this year that probably helped push his game forward. He’s taken some speed off his changeup, which is getting more downward depth. Batters are swinging through it more often as a result, and given the alterations to his changeup, it’s probably not a coincidence he’s faring better than ever against right-handed batters. That’s a promising improvement, but like the other gains he’s made this season, it’s a rather subtle one.

Put all the changes together, and Anderson looks as if he’s better now than he has been. Is he a true talent 2.73 ERA pitcher who’ll be an annual All-Star? Probably not. His future level likely falls somewhere in between this year’s outstanding numbers and the pedestrian 4.49 mark he posted from 2020-21. Yet even if Anderson allows around three and a half to four earned runs per nine innings moving forward, he’s a valuable pitcher — particularly if he can continue to stay healthy and take the ball every fifth day.

As MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk noted last month, the Dodgers will have to at least consider the possibility of tagging Anderson with a qualifying offer this offseason. It still seems they’d opt against making an offer that, in recent seasons, has sat in the $18-19MM range, but that it’s even a worthwhile consideration is a testament to his strong year. At the very least, Anderson looks to have pitched his way into the first multi-year contract of his career when he returns to free agency.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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