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Steven Brault, Starlin Castro Sign With Atlantic League Team

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Left-hander Steven Brault, right-hander Brett de Geus and infielder Starlin Castro have signed with the new and yet to-be-named Atlantic League team based in Frederick, Md., the team announced this week (Twitter links).

Brault, 30, spent the 2022 season in the Cubs organization but was on the injured list for the majority of the season. The former Pirates hurler originally inked a one-year, Major League deal with the Cubs in the offseason, but that was reworked as a minor league pact following some injury concerns. Those proved to have merit, as Brault pitched in just 16 innings between the minors and the big leagues, due in large part to a shoulder strain.

The few innings Brault managed to pitch with the Cubs were solid. He tossed nine frames and allowed three runs on eight hits with an 8-to-5 K/BB ratio. Brault is best known for his six-year run with Pittsburgh, where he frequently bounced between the Pirates’ rotation and bullpen, ultimately tossing 343 1/3 innings of 4.77 ERA ball in 107 appearances (52 starts, 55 in relief).

Castro, 33, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since the Nationals released him in the summer of 2021 on the heels of a 30-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He had a brief 28-game stint in the Mexican League last year, where he batted .240/.312/.323 in 109 plate appearances for los Leones de Yucatan. A stint in the the Dominican Winter League didn’t go any better this past offseason; Castro managed only a .219/.250/.250 output in 168 plate appearances.

From 2010-21, Castro played in 1573 Major League games and logged nearly 6600 plate appearances with the Cubs, Yankees, Marlins and Nationals. He holds a career .280/.319/.412 batting line.

The 25-year-old de Geus was one of the top picks in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft but struggled to a 7.56 ERA in 50 innings between the Rangers and Diamondbacks that season. The former Dodgers farmhand spent the 2022 season in the D-backs organization, tossing 22 2/3 of 5.96 ERA ball with their Double-A affiliate.

Rockies Option Elehuris Montero

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The Rockies announced today that they have recalled outfielder Brenton Doyle, a promotion that was reported yesterday to be imminent. The corresponding move is that infielder Elehuris Montero has been optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque.

Doyle was called up as a couple of Colorado outfielders are dealing with some day-to-day injuries. Kris Bryant is experiencing pain in the sacroiliac joint and glute on his left side, while Yonathan Daza was hit by a pitch on his hand yesterday. It had been speculated that perhaps one of them would be headed to the injured list, but the club has instead demoted a player who was their regular third baseman until recently.

Montero, 24, was one of five players that came over to the Rockies in the Nolan Arenado trade, which continues to look like a major misstep for the organization. Montero and left-hander Austin Gomber were the two most notable players coming the other way and neither has provided much value to the Rockies thus far. Gomber has an even 5.00 ERA through 360 1/3 innings and recently got candid about how the pressure of trying to live up to that trade was affecting him.

As for Montero, his prospect hype was at its peak going into 2019, when Baseball America ranked him the #81 prospect in the entire league. His stock faded a bit over the next two years, but the Rockies still liked him enough to make him a key piece of their return for Arenado. He has continued to play well since the trade, but only in the minors. He spent 2021 between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .278/.360/.529 for a wRC+ of 132. He continued hitting well in the minors last year, getting called up to make his major league debut. But in 69 major league games thus far, he’s hit just .238/.276/.419 for a wRC+ of 77. He’s struck out in 33.9% of his plate appearances while walking in just 4.2% of them.

Montero is primarily a third baseman but has been blocked there by Ryan McMahon. This spring, second baseman Brendan Rodgers dislocated his shoulder and required surgery that could be season-ending. The club decided to deal with that issue by moving McMahon to second and giving Montero a crack at the third base job. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out, as Montero has continued struggling at the plate and also in the field. All three of Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average and Ultimate Zone Rating have given him negative reviews for his glovework in the early going this year.

Montero is just 24 and certainly could still take steps forward at the plate and in the field, but there may be an inflection point not too far over the horizon as he has just one option year remaining. Once he spends 20 days in the minors, 2023 will officially burn that final option. Unless he’s quickly recalled in the next couple of weeks and stays in the majors the rest of the way, he will be out of options next year. McMahon is under contract through 2027, which perhaps means Montero should spent more time at first base, where he’s also seen some action. C.J. Cron is an impending free agent, perhaps opening up that spot next year, though Montero would have competition from Michael Toglia. For now, Montero will continue his development in Albuquerque and try to work his way back up to the big leagues.

Reds Designate Jason Vosler For Assignment

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The Reds announced Monday that they’ve designated infielder Jason Vosler for assignment and selected the contract of outfielder Henry Ramos from Triple-A Louisville.

Vosler signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati late in the offseason and rode a solid .263/.341/.526 spring performance to a spot on the team’s Opening Day roster. He roared out of the gates with a trio of home runs in his first 15 plate appearances, coming over a span of five games, but has since gone cold at the plate. Dating back to April 7, Vosler has taken 50 turns at the plate and turned in a .106/.160/.128 batting line with 20 strikeouts.

The 29-year-old Vosler has now seen Major League time in each of the past three seasons, including a pair of stints with the Giants. He’s logged 97 Major League games and 258 plate appearances but has a rather unsightly .210/.279/.408 slash to show for it. He’s been vastly better in Triple-A, where he’s a .272/.344/.485 hitter in 345 games.

Vosler has plenty of power, substantial experience at both infield corners, and also seen brief spells at second base, in left field and even at shortstop. He still has a minor league option remaining, so a team looking for a left-handed bat and some corner depth might be inclined to take a look via a small trade or waivers. The Reds will have a week to find a trade partner or attempt to pass him through waivers.

As for the 31-year-old Ramos, he’ll get what’s just the second look of his big league career. The older brother to Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos, Henry received a cup of coffee with the 2021 D-backs but only received 55 plate appearances, hitting .200/.255/.300 with a homer and two doubles. He also had a short stint with the Korea Baseball Organization’s KT Wiz last year, but the majority of his recent professional experience is in Triple-A. In parts of six seasons there, he’s .297/.352/.472 hitter — including a .314/.400/.486 start to his season in Louisville this year (41 plate appearances).

Read The Transcript Of Today’s Fantasy Baseball Chat With Nicklaus Gaut

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Nicklaus Gaut has been writing about fantasy baseball since 2019, covering a variety of roto and point league topics at RotoBaller and RotoGraphs, with over a decade of playing experience. He plays multiple formats but has recently leaned more heavily into NFBC high-stakes contests, entering his first Main Event and Online Championships in 2023. You can follow him here on Twitter.

Our regular fantasy chat host, Brad Johnson, is on vacation for a few weeks, so Nicklaus will be stepping in to field your questions while Brad’s away! Click here to read a transcript of today’s chat!

AL East Notes: Rodon, Pearson, Tate

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The Yankees are still waiting on Carlos Rodon’s team debut after signing him to a six-year contract this offseason. The lefty took a positive step this weekend when he resumed playing catch, writes Dan Martin of the New York Post. The goal is for Rodon to continue throwing throughout the upcoming week, though there’s no concrete timetable for when he might take the mound for the big league club just yet. Rodon pitched just two official innings during Grapefruit League play this spring before a forearm strain sidelined him. He’s spent the first several weeks of the year rehabbing that injury, but a recent flare of back pain has further slowed the process for the team’s $162MM co-ace. The Yanks still rank sixth in the Majors with a 3.53 ERA from their rotation, though that’s due largely to a superhuman start from Gerrit Cole (0.79 ERA in 34 innings). Nestor Cortes Jr. has a 3.09 ERA in 23 1/3 frames of his own, but each of Domingo German, Clarke Schmidt and Jhony Brito have pitched to a 4.50 ERA or higher through their first four to five starts of the season.

More from the division…

  • Former top prospect Nate Pearson’s start to the season in the Triple-A Buffalo bullpen is garnering plenty of attention, and he figures to be among the top candidates for a look whenever the Blue Jays look to the minors for some reinforcements, writes Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. As Nicholson-Smith points out, the Jays haven’t made a single move pertaining to their bullpen yet in 2023. The Toronto Sun’s Rob Longley wrote yesterday that the Pearson watch is picking up some steam. Much of the Toronto ’pen has performed well in 2023, with Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, Trevor Richards and Tim Mayza out to nice starts. Both Yimi Garcia and Adam Cimber have allowed runs in three of their past four outings, though, and Anthony Bass has yielded at least one run in four of his past five trips to the mound. Pearson has a 2.16 ERA and 45.7% strikeout rate in 8 1/3 innings to begin the year in Triple-A, although he’s also walked 14.3% of his opponents and thrown three wild pitches, so his command hasn’t exactly been pristine. The former first-round pick was once ranked as one of the top three pitching prospects in all of baseball but has seen his career slowed by repeated injuries.
  • Orioles righty Dillon Tate is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment this week and told reporters that he’ll likely need five or six appearances before he’s ready to make his 2023 debut (Twitter link via Jake Rill of MLB.com). Tate, who’ll turn 29 in a week, suffered a flexor strain during his offseason program back in November and hasn’t pitched yet this year (spring training or regular season). The former No. 4 overall draft pick stepped up as a key setup man in Baltimore’s bullpen last year when he tossed 73 2/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball. Tate’s 20.5% strikeout rate was a bit below the league average, but both his 5.5% walk rate and 57.4% ground-ball rate were outstanding. He finished out that breakout season with five saves and 16 holds.

The Opener: Extensions, Rockies, Injuries

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As the end of the 2023 season’s first month draws near, here are three things to keep an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Extension season continues:

Typically, players and clubs set something of a deadline on extension talks for Opening Day, leaving extensions as a somewhat rare occurrence in the early months of the season. That trend has been bucked so far this season, however, as four players signed extensions in recent weeks: Ian Happ signed a three-year, $61MM extension with the Cubs, Logan Webb inked a five-year, $90MM extension with the Giants, Hunter Greene agreed to a six-year, $53MM extension with the Reds, and Pablo Lopez landed a four year, $73.5MM extension with the Twins.

It seems somewhat unlikely that another player from the 2023-2024 free agent class will join Happ in signing an extension just six months before free agency opens, at least without receiving top dollar. Still, there are plenty of players controlled by their clubs beyond the 2023 campaign who might look to extend their stay with the team, including Bryan Reynolds, with whom the Pirates continue to leave the door for extension negotiations open despite a series of roadblocks in contract talks. The Reds, in particular, seem interested in locking up their other young pitchers along with Greene, as the club has recently had extension talks with both left-hander Nick Lodolo and right-hander Graham Ashcraft.

2. Rockies to promote Doyle:

It’s been reported that Rockies outfield prospect Brenton Doyle is set to get called up to the majors today, with the possibility that he’ll make his major league debut as soon as this evening against the Guardians. Doyle, who has torn up the Triple-A level to the tune of a 1.123 OPS in 21 games (98 plate appearances) at the level, appears poised to get his opportunity thanks to injuries that have left both Kris Bryant and Yonathan Daza day-to-day. With two of the club’s regular outfielders potentially out of action, Doyle makes sense as a solution thanks to his solid defense at all three outfield spots and presence on the 40-man roster. Still, a transaction of some sort will be necessary to make room for Doyle on the active roster.

3. Injury updates expected today:

Updates on the availability of both Bryant, who suffered a glute injury on Saturday, and Daza, who was hit by a pitch during yesterday’s game, seem likely to come ahead of this evening’s Rockies game at 5:10pm CT. The Rockies aren’t the only club from which updates regarding injured players are expected, however. Santiago Espinal of the Blue Jays was recently hit by a pitch from Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole and, while x-rays on his wrist were negative, Espinal is expected to undergo additional testing today as manager John Schneider told reporters, including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.

Meanwhile, Guardians prospect Daniel Espino, whose struggles with shoulder inflammation recently resulted in the right-hander being shut down for the second time this season, is expected to see a doctor in the coming days. While Espino doesn’t seem likely to impact the big league club this year, as an arm with front-end potential and an already checkered injury history at just 21 years old, his health is of great importance to the organization’s future.

Logan O’Hoppe To Miss 4-6 Months With Torn Labrum

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Angels manager Phil Nevin told reporters (including Sam Blum of The Athletic) today that catcher Logan O’Hoppe has a torn labrum on his left (non-throwing) shoulder that will require surgery. The 23-year-old catcher, who was placed on the 10-day injured list yesterday, is expected to miss four to six months, potentially putting his season in jeopardy.

O’Hoppe was acquired by the Angels at the trade deadline last season in the deal that sent outfielder Brandon Marsh to the Phillies. A consensus top-50 prospect in the sport entering the 2023 season, O’Hoppe earned the Angels’ starting catching job out of camp this season despite having just five games of big league experience under his belt as Max Stassi began the season on the injured list. The youngster was off to an impressive start this season, with a .283/.339/.547 slash line across 16 games that was good for a wRC+ of 142.

Losing such a productive bat for most, if not all, of the remainder of the season is a massive blow to the Angels, who have largely seen their offense struggle outside of superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, with only O’Hoppe and outfielder Hunter Renfroe posting an above average wRC+ so far this season among the rest of the club’s offense.

In addition to losing O’Hoppe’s bat, the Angels now find themselves without either half of their usual starting tandem, as Stassi does not appear to be close to a return from the hip ailment that sidelined him at the start of the season. Until Stassi returns, the Angels figure to use Matt Thaiss, who opened the season as the club’s third catcher, and journeyman Chad Wallach behind the plate. Neither of those options inspire the same confidence that O’Hoppe would, as Wallach sports just a 59 wRC+ in 274 career plate appearances since his MLB debut with the Reds in 2017, while Thaiss only began catching in 2021 and has a career wRC+ of 81 in 298 plate appearances.

Given the worrying situation behind the plate for Anaheim, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the club explore external catching options to supplement their current group. Robinson Chirinos and Austin Romine are available on the free agent market, while Gary Sanchez and Jorge Alfaro are among the catchers with significant big league experience who are on minor league deals in other organizations.

Latest On Jose Altuve

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After undergoing thumb surgery in late March, Jose Altuve was estimated for roughly a two-month recovery period before he could resume baseball activities.  However, Astros GM Dana Brown gave a positive update on Altuve today, telling The Athletic’s Jim Bowden (Twitter link) that Altuve is “ahead of schedule” in his rehab.  Altuve is showing “great movement” in his injured thumb, and Brown said the second baseman “will get an x-ray in 12 days or so to see how the thumb is healing, but [it] appears that it’s healing very well.”

If the x-rays are clean on Brown’s loose target date of May 5, that would seemingly imply that Altuve might be able to start baseball activities shortly thereafter.  Some minor league rehab action would be necessary to get Altuve back up to full game readiness, but it all goes well, Altuve might be more in line for a return by closer to the middle of May than his initial early-June estimate.

It should be noted that the Astros placed Altuve on the 10-day injured list rather than the 60-day IL to begin the season, thus leaving the door open for Altuve to potentially return earlier than expected.  A 60-day IL placement would have kept Altuve out until the very end of May, and even if Houston does eventually shift Altuve to the 60-day in the event of a setback or if he needs more ramp-up time, his 60-day clock would still have a retroactive start date of Opening Day.

The prospect of a quick Altuve return is great news for the Astros, who have still posted a respectable 12-10 record even without their longtime star (and also with Michael Brantley and Lance McCullers Jr. sidelined by injury).  Mauricio Dubon has stepped into the everyday second base job in Altuve’s absence and hit .329/.350/.382 over 80 plate appearances, delivering a 108 wRC+ despite a lack of power.  Dubon’s ability to hold the fort has been a nice relief for Houston, and answered some preseason concerns over whether or not the Astros were lacking in bench depth.

Rockies To Promote Brenton Doyle

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The Rockies are expected to call up outfielder Brenton Doyle from Triple-A Albuquerque prior to Monday’s game with the Guardians, according to Blake Street Banter (Twitter link).  Doyle is already on Colorado’s 40-man roster, so the Rockies will have to just make one corresponding move tomorrow to create space for Doyle on the 26-man active roster.

This will be the first trip to the big leagues for the 24-year-old Doyle, who was a fourth-round selection for the Rockies in the 2019 draft.  The Rox added him to their 40-man roster in advance of last winter’s Rule 5 Draft, wanting to protect the outfielder in the wake of a solid 2022 season that saw him hit .256/.300/.473 with 26 home runs and 23 steals (in 26 chances) over 548 combined plate appearances at Double-A and Triple-A.  Only 41 of those PA came at the Triple-A level in 2022, but Doyle has looked great in a slightly longer audition in Albuquerque this year, as he has mashed his way to a .306/.404/.633 slash line over 57 PA.

MLB Pipeline ranks Doyle as the 16th-best prospect in Colorado’s minor league system, while Baseball America ranks him 21st amongst Rockies farmhands.  Given plus grades for his defense and throwing arm, Doyle is already big league-capable from a glovework standpoint, able to play center field or (owing to his strong arm) right field.  He also has plus speed, which has translated to success on the basepaths, and some raw power that has led to his power numbers.

Plate discipline is an ongoing question, as Doyle’s strikeout rates have been higher than 30% at each level beyond rookie ball.  Pipeline’s scouting report did note that Doyle made a bit more contact after making some adjustments last season, indicating that Doyle might still be able to reach another level as a hitter.

The Rockies will see if Doyle can unlock some of that potential in the majors, but the fact that the Rox are calling up an outfielder might related to a pair of injury concerns.  Kris Bryant left Saturday’s game after feeling pain in his sacroiliac joint, while Yonathan Daza left today’s game after being hit in the hand by a Zack Wheeler fastball.  X-rays were negative on Daza and other players are day-to-day for now, but either a 10-day injured list placement could be coming Monday or Colorado might just be adding Doyle as outfield depth since neither Bryant or Daza may be available to face the Guardians.

Athletics Acquire Sam Long From Giants

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The A’s announced that left-hander Sam Long has been acquired in a trade with the Giants, with cash considerations heading San Francisco’s way.  Long was designated for assignment by the Giants earlier this week after the club acquired Cal Stevenson (another DFA’ed player) from the Athletics for money, essentially making the pair of transactions into a Stevenson-for-Long swap.

Long made his MLB debut in 2021, and the Giants shuttled him back and forth from Triple-A several times over the course of the last two seasons, with Long amassing 83 big league innings in total.  The lack of stability probably didn’t help Long get too comfortable in the Show, but after posting a 5.53 ERA over 40 2/3 frames in 2021, he improved to a 3.61 ERA in 42 1/3 innings last year.

Fielding-independent metrics indicated Long was pretty similar in both seasons, and his career 4.55 ERA came close to the midpoint between his 4.80 xFIP and 4.35 SIERA.  Long has done a good job of limiting walks but he hasn’t missed many bats, and he has been tagged for 13 home runs in his 83 MLB innings.  The results haven’t been there in the minors this season, however, as Long has a 9.90 ERA over 10 innings with Triple-A Sacramento.

This was enough for the Giants to part ways, and the A’s will now see if Long can provide any relief depth either in the minors or in their Major League bullpen.  The Athletics have been struggling in all facets of the game and the relief corps is no exception, so Long might find some opportunity on a club desperate for any help.  Sam Moll and Richard Lovelady are the current left-handed options in Oakland’s pen.

Two transactions within a week counts as a huge flurry of activity in the limited trade history between the A’s and Giants.  The two Bay Area rivals last connected on an actual player-for-player trade in December 1990, with five player-for-cash swaps happening in the interim.

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