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Archives for April 2023

NL Notes: Giants, Hendricks, Lewis

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Giants manager Gabe Kapler recently discussed the club’s current catching situation following San Francisco’s signing of Gary Sanchez on a minor league deal, telling reporters (including Maria Guardado of MLB.com) that the club views the Sanchez signing as “a good opportunity for us to add some depth on a guy that we feel like has a chance to make a contribution at the Major League level at some point.”

If Sanchez is going to contribute to the major league Giants this season, it will likely come before May 1, when he will have the opportunity to opt out of his deal with the club if he hasn’t already been added to the team’s active roster. Still, that outcome certainly seems to be within the realm of possibility. Though the Giants opened the season with three catchers on their roster, the Giants have previously indicated that their current catching situation may not stick deep into the season.

Rule 5 pick Blake Sabol’s positional versatility will hold less value when outfielders Austin Slater and Mitch Haniger are ready to return from the injured list. Meanwhile Joey Bart, who the Giants selected with the second overall pick of the 2018 draft, has struggled all throughout his MLB career to this point. He’s posted a wRC+ of just 84 in 133 big league games, with a whopping 38% strikeout rate. Kapler noted Bart could still be significant part of the club’s future in spite of his past struggles saying “it’s absolutely the best outcome” if the 26 year-old is able to establish himself as the Giants’ everyday catcher going forward. However, with Bart dealing with back tightness to open the season and the club’s fluid catching situation, it’s an open question whether or not he’ll be able to do that early in this season.

All that potentially opens the door for Sanchez, a bat-first catcher who Kapler notes has been improving on defense in recent years and could complement the glove-first Roberto Perez nicely in a potential catching tandem, should the Giants indeed shift to a roster that features only two catchers later this season.

More from around the National League…

  • The Cubs are continuing to take Kyle Hendricks’s rehab slowly, as noted by Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Hendricks, who is suffering from a capsular tear in his throwing shoulder, threw a bullpen session on Friday, but will take a brief recovery period before his next two bullpen sessions. Following those sessions, Hendricks will advance to live batting practice. Hendricks was among the more effective starters in the game for the first seven seasons of his career, posting a 3.12 ERA and 3.53 FIP in 1,047 1/3 innings of work 2014-2020 while earning votes for the NL Cy Young award in both 2016 and 2020. Since the start of the 2021 season, however, Hendricks struggled to a 4.78 ERA (87 ERA+) in 265 1/3 innings before being shut down midway through the 2022 season. Fortunately for Chicago, the club has plenty of starting options even without Hendricks, with Adrian Sampson serving as depth behind the starting five of Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon, Drew Smyly, and rookie Hayden Wesneski.
  • Diamondbacks slugger Kyle Lewis is feeling good as he attempts to compete in a full 162 game season for the first time in his career. Lewis, the AL Rookie of the Year during the shortened 2020 season, has struggled badly with injuries (including a torn meniscus and a concussion) in each of the past two seasons, prompting his trade to the Diamondbacks from the Mariners. Arizona has planned to use Lewis carefully to open the season, opting to play him at DH against left-handed starters and as a pinch-hitter rather than use him everyday or give him reps in the outfield. That said, Lewis is hoping for an expanded role in the near future. The slugger told reporters, including Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic, that he should be able to play “almost every day”, should the club want him to. Lewis is currently competing for at-bats in the Dbacks outfield with Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

Cardinals Notes: Contreras, Nootbaar, Gallegos, Wainwright

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Cardinals manager Oli Marmol provided a litany of injury updates yesterday to reporters, including Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Among those was an update on catcher Willson Contreras, who took a 103 mph sinker from Cardinals flamethrower Jordan Hicks off his knee in the season’s opener on Thursday and had to be helped off the field. Both x-rays and an MRI came back negative, and Contreras said he could return to the lineup as soon as today after briefly catching warm-up pitches for Jack Flaherty between innings on Saturday.

Contreras, 31 in May, was the Cardinals’ biggest addition of the offseason on a five-year, $87.5MM deal. Prior to signing with St. Louis, Contreras was the everyday catcher for the division rival Cubs since his debut during the 2016 season, posting a 118 wRC+ in seven seasons and racking up three All Star appearances. One of those All Star selections came during the 2022 campaign, which was the best of Contreras’s career: in 113 games, Contreras posted a career low 21.1% strikeout rate and career highs in both wRC+ and fWAR despite a career-low BABIP of just .270.

In signing Contreras, the Cardinals appear to have found their replacement not only to Yadier Molina behind the plate, but also to the thump Albert Pujols provided their lineup in 2022. Given his importance to the club, it’s surely a relief for St. Louis that Contreras’s leg injury is not particularly serious. Andrew Knizner started behind the plate in Saturday’s game, with Taylor Motter and Brendan Donovan among the possible options to catch on an emergency basis while Contreras was unavailable.

More from St. Louis…

  • Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar also suffered an injury during the season opener on Thursday, having injured his thumb on a slide into third base. Nootbaar, who was out of the lineup yesterday and hopes to play catch today, is considered day-to-day. The 25 year-old outfielder was a revelation for the Cardinals last year, slashing .228/.340/.448 in 108 games with a 20.5% strikeout rate and a phenomenal 14.5% walk rate. While Nootbaar is unavailable, Dylan Carlson figures to take the newly-available starts in the outfield alongside Jordan Walker and Tyler O’Neill.
  • Reliever Giovanny Gallegos has yet to make his season debut after suffering from back tightness ahead of season opener on Thursday. Marmol expressed optimism about Gallegos, however, noting that his MRI came back clean and that, in a best case scenario, Gallegos could be available out of the bullpen as soon as today. Gallegos has been among the most reliable relievers in the game since he was acquired by the Cardinals in 2018, posting identical ERA and FIP figures of 2.82 in 229 2/3 innings of work while racking up 33 saves.
  • Starting pitcher Adam Wainwright still appears a ways away from returning from the injured list to make his season debut, as he progressed to playing catch off flat ground yesterday. On the shelf with a groin injury suffered in the weight room while with Team USA during the World Baseball Classic, the 41 year-old Wainwright is set to retire at season’s end. Wainwright has seen a late-career resurgence in recent years, posting a 3.34 ERA and 3.72 FIP in 463 2/3 innings since the start of the 2020 season. Until Wainwright is ready for his season debut, right-hander Jake Woodford is set to take his turn in the rotation.

Mariners Place Robbie Ray On 15-Day Injured List

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5:44PM: Ray suffered a Grade 1 strain, Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters (including MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer).  The team’s plan is to shut Ray down for two weeks and then re-evaluate after that period of daily treatment, with a rough timeline of 4-6 weeks until Ray’s eventual return from the IL.  Ray told media that he began to develop some flexor pain during the second inning of yesterday’s game.

3:24PM: Left-hander Robbie Ray has been placed on the Mariners’ 15-day injured list due to a left flexor strain.  Southpaw Gabe Speier was called up from Triple-A to take Ray’s spot on the active roster.

Ray made his season debut last night and only lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits and five walks.  Even with Ray’s history of control issues, the five walks is probably the biggest indicator that something wasn’t quite right with Ray, and he threw 91 pitches over his 3 1/3 frames of work.  The Mariners have yet to publicly comment on the severity of Ray’s injury or a possible return timeline, but it would certainly seem like he’ll miss more than the minimum 15 days just out of pure caution in dealing with injuries in the forearm or elbow area.

After Ray won the AL Cy Young Award as a member of the Blue Jays in 2021, Seattle inked him to a five-year, $115MM free agent contract in the following offseason.  Ray’s first season as a Mariner wasn’t up to the level of his 2021 performance but it was still solid, as the southpaw posted a 3.71 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate, and a slightly below-average 8% walk rate.  Ray continued to allow a lot of hard contact, but that has been the norm throughout his MLB career.

Just three days into the 2023 season, the Mariners have already had to deal a notable rotation injury, after getting through 2022 with a remarkable run of health from its starters.  While the M’s have four off-days between today and April 25, the construction of their schedule means they will need a fifth starter in Ray’s absence, though Seattle has a very qualified replacement in Chris Flexen.  Trade rumors swirled around Flexen (and Marco Gonzales) for much of the offseason, though the Mariners’ decision to hang onto their starting depth is now looking wise in hindsight, especially if Ray is facing any kind of extended absence.

Speier is now set to make his first appearance in a Seattle uniform, after being claimed off waivers from the Royals last November.  Speier is also the only left-handed pitcher in a bullpen stacked with right-handed relievers, so Speier’s inclusion will add some balance to the relief mix.  A veteran of four MLB seasons, Speier has a 3.83 ERA over 40 career innings with the Royals, appearing in rather sporadic fashion for Kansas City since making his debut in the Show in 2019.

Injury Notes: Dickerson, Whitlock, Gonsolin, Haniger, Slater

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Corey Dickerson left today’s game due to tightness in his left calf, and Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) that the outfielder will receive an MRI tomorrow.  This isn’t the first time that Dickerson has dealt with such an injury, as a strain in his left calf cost him about a month of Dickerson’s 2022 season with the Cardinals.

Washington signed Dickerson to a one-year, $2.25MM deal over the offseason, adding a left-handed veteran to their mix of right-handed hitting and mostly less-experienced young outfielders.  Dickerson was slated to get the bulk of work in left field whenever a righty starter was on the mound, and considering how the Nats are rebuilding, Dickerson will likely be shopped at the trade deadline if he is performing well.  Of course, staying healthy is the first step, and Dickerson and the Nationals can only hope that tomorrow’s MRI doesn’t reveal anything serious.

More on other injury situations from around the majors…

  • Garrett Whitlock made a Triple-A rehab start yesterday, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) that Whitlock is planned for one more outing with Double-A Portland on Thursday.  Assuming all goes well, the Sox would then activate Whitlock from the 15-day injured list for his next outing and his 2023 debut.  The right-hander needed a little more time to prepare following hip surgery last September, thus necessitating the IL visit at the start of the season.  The Red Sox are planning to use Whitlock as a full-time member of the starting rotation this year, after hip problems interrupted his first stint in the rotation in 2022.
  • Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters that Tony Gonsolin is intended to throw a bullpen session on Sunday and then a live batting practice session at the team’s extended spring camp on Wednesday.  Gonsolin suffered an ankle sprain in early March and is expected to need until late April to return to the L.A. rotation, but the righty appears to be making good progress in recovery.
  • The Giants provided media (including MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado) with several updates on injured players, including the news that Mitch Haniger and Austin Slater will both be re-evaluated this week in San Francisco when the Giants begin their first homestand of the year.  Both players began the season on the 10-day IL, with Haniger dealing with a Grade 1 oblique strain and Slater a hamstring strain.  A more concrete timetable might be known after next week’s check-ins, though the team did have some hope that Haniger (who suffered his strain on March 10) would be ready for Opening Day, and Slater was given an initial estimate of a 3-4 week recovery period.  Slater is starting to progress to baseball activities in his rehab, so it would appear he has a chance of returning within that initial window.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/1/23

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The latest minor moves from around the league…

  • The Guardians outrighted right-hander Jason Bilous to Triple-A.  Bilous was designated for assignment in advance of Opening Day, but he cleared waivers and will now remain in Cleveland’s organization.  The Guards themselves claimed Bilous off waivers from the White Sox in February after the Chicago also DFA’ed the righty off its 40-man roster.  Bilous has posted some good strikeout totals but also a lot of walks and not much overall success in the upper minors, with a 5.81 ERA over 148 2/3 innings at Double-A and then a 10.23 ERA in 22 frames with Triple-A Charlotte last year.

NL East Notes: Verlander, Wright, Keuchel, Plawecki

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Justin Verlander’s tenure with the Mets got off to an unfortunate start when the veteran righty was placed on the 15-day injured list due to a teres major strain.  The injury was described as “low-grade” in the Mets’ initial release, and a source tells SNY TV’s Andy Martino that Verlander’s strain is “very minor.”  More will officially be known when Verlander undergoes a follow-up MRI next week, but it does seem like the ace might be able to be activated from the IL when first eligible.  That could mean a home start against the Padres on April 11 or 12, or just out of added precaution, the Mets might wait to activate Verlander until April 14 when the team visits Oakland.

More from around the NL East….

  • Kyle Wright is slated to throw a start at Triple-A on Wednesday, Braves manager Brian Snitker told The Atlanta Journal-Constiution’s Justin Toscano and other reporters.  The team’s initial plan was to give Wright both a minor league outing and an outing in spring camp as he continues to make his preparations for the season, and Wright checked one box with a start in extended Spring Training last Thursday.  Due to an offseason cortisone shot in his throwing shoulder, Wright’s normal winter routine was set back, and thus the Braves placed him on the IL to allow him more time to fully ramp up.  Assuming no setbacks, Wright is projected to be activated from the IL during Atlanta’s series with the Reds from April 10-12.
  • There hasn’t been any public buzz about Dallas Keuchel’s market since the former AL Cy Young Award winner was released by the Rangers back in September, but the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reports that the Phillies had some interest in signing Keuchel to a minor league deal, though no official offer came.  Keuchel has struggled to a 6.35 ERA over 222 2/3 innings with the White Sox, Diamondbacks, and Rangers since the start of the 2021 season, so it would be something of a low-risk flier for the Phillies or any other team to bring Keuchel aboard on a minors contract.  While Keuchel might not be the choice, it certainly tracks that Philadelphia would be looking for some rotation depth, since Ranger Suarez, Nick Nelson, Cristopher Sanchez, and Andrew Painter are all battling injuries to begin the season.
  • The Nationals and Kevin Plawecki agreed to terms on a minor league deal earlier today, and Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes that the move was inspired by Israel Pineda’s IL placement.  Pineda suffered a fractured finger and was placed on the 10-day IL, leaving the Nats short some catching depth at Triple-A Rochester.  Plawecki now joins Francisco Arcia on the Red Wings’ roster, providing support behind Washington’s big-league catching tandem of starter Keibert Ruiz and backup Riley Adams.

MLB Investigating Incident Between Fan, Anthony Rendon

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April 1: Rendon, Angels’ manager Phil Nevin and GM Perry Minasian all told reporters that they couldn’t comment on the matter due to MLB’s investigation. Rendon is in the Angels’ lineup batting fourth and playing third base.

March 31: Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon was involved in an argument with an A’s fan during the clubs’ Opening Day contest yesterday (video provided by Jared Carrabis of DraftKings). Rendon first accused the fan of calling him a “b****” as part of a brief exchange, in which he was holding the fan’s shirt through the guardrail. The All-Star then called the fan “a motherf*****” and quickly swiped towards the fan’s head with his left hand.

On the swipe, Rendon didn’t appear to make contact with the spectator, who pulled away. At that point, Rendon walked down the dugout. There’s no indication the situation continued beyond that, nor does the video cover any of the preceding chatter that led Rendon to confront the fan.

It’s unclear if anything will come of the situation. However, it seems there’s at least some chance Rendon could face discipline. Major League Baseball told Sam Blum of the Athletic it is “aware of the video and … now looking into the matter” (Twitter link). MLB hasn’t provided any further word, nor have the Angels commented.

The Oakland Police Department is also monitoring the situation, a police spokesperson tells Blum (via Twitter). OPD “is investigating a battery that occurred on March 30, 2023, following an event in the 7000 block of Joe Morgan Way (the address of RingCentral Coliseum). At this time, no victim has contacted OPD; however, surveillance video of the incident has surfaced. As a result, OPD created an incident, made a report, and is actively investigating.”

The Halos are off today. Rendon is expected to address the situation tomorrow when the club meets with the media.

Braves To Place Max Fried On Injured List

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Braves’ manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that ace Max Fried will go on the injured list as he manages a hamstring problem. Fried exited his Opening Day start after just 43 pitches. It seems the team is in no hurry to make the move official though, and may wait until Fried’s next spot (Wednesday against the Cardinals) to finalize the move.

While the news that Fried is IL-bound is never positive, there’s still nothing to suggest his injury is any more or less concerning than when Snitker initially indicated he’d probably head to the IL after his start. Snitker indicated at the time that Fried may only miss one start, so unless anything changes there seems to be a good chance that Fried only misses the mandatory 15 days. Since up to three days of backdating can be attached to IL placements, Fried’s placement might technically begin on April 2, assuming he is indeed officially sent to the injured list on Wednesday.

A short trip to the IL is undoubtedly positive news for Atlanta, but it’s always a tough blow to lose the ace of the staff early in the season. Fried has been exceptional in the past few years, working to a 2.69 ERA across 407 innings between 2020-22. The best of those years came last season when he finished second in NL Cy Young voting to Miami’s Sandy Alcantara on the back of 185 1/3 innings of 2.48 ERA ball, which included an elite 4.4% walk rate.

It’s unclear yet who the Braves will turn to in Fried’s place on Wednesday, and their rotation picture has been muddied a little by the spring injuries to Kyle Wright and Mike Soroka. Wright is on the IL while Soroka is at Triple-A building back up after only getting one start late in spring training. Wright can’t return until April 11, and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder are options to take Fried’s spot.

Giants Select Bryce Johnson, Option Brett Wisely

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The Giants announced a series of roster moves today, selecting outfielder Bryce Johnson to the active roster and optioning Brett Wisely to Triple-A. The team transferred Luke Jackson to the 60-day IL to make room for Johnson on the 40-man roster.

Johnson, a sixth round pick back in 2017, appeared in a handful of games for the Giants last year, tallying 19 plate appearances and picking up two hits. He was outrighted off the roster but remained with the organization into 2023. At Triple-A, Johnson put together a solid .290/.369/.401 slashline across 352 plate appearances, adding in five home runs and 31 stolen bases. He’ll provide some speed off the bench for the Giants.

Wisely was acquired from the Rays in a trade this winter for Tristan Peters. A 15th round pick by the Rays in 2019, Wisely’s bounced around the diamond a fair bit, earning reps in the infield and outfield. He slashed an impressive .274/.371/.460 with 15 home runs at Double-A last year but was traded just prior to the Rule 5 draft, as the Rays would’ve needed to add him to their 40-man roster or risk losing him in the draft had they not found a trade partner. Wisely did get in to the Giants opener for his first taste of big league action, playing two innings of center field, but the Giants evidently decided to send him back to the minors to continue his development.

Jackson underwent Tommy John surgery in April last year, so is still rehabbing from that. The Giants signed him to a two-year deal knowing he’d likely miss the first few months of the season, so this decision to shift him to the 60-day IL is not overly surprising. It does mean the earliest he’ll return is May 31. Jackson had a breakout year in 2021, working to a 1.98 ERA over 63 2/3 innings of relief for Atlanta.

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