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AL West Notes: Seager, Moniak, Rodriguez

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Rangers fans have been anticipating the imminent return of star shortstop Corey Seager from his hamstring injury for some time now. As noted by Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, the club appears to have a clear plan in place for Seager’s rehab, which began yesterday, and return to action in the majors. After playing five innings at shortstop as planned last night, Seager is expected to start as the DH for the club’s Double-A affiliate in Frisco before playing seven innings at shortstop on Sunday. If all goes well, manager Bruce Bochy indicated that Seager could be activated from the injured list in time for Monday’s game against the Braves.

Should Seager indeed be ready to return early next week, the Rangers would return one of their best hitters to a team that has taken control of the AL West with a 23-14 record in the early going. Seager was off to a torrid start through 11 games this season, slashing .359/.468/.538 in 49 plate appearance prior to his stint on the IL. As the Rangers have indicated a desire to keep Ezequiel Duran in the lineup going forward, Seager’s return could cut into the playing time of players like Brad Miller, Robbie Grossman, and Bubba Thompson.

More from around the AL West…

  • The Angels today announced that they have recalled outfielder Mickey Moniak to the big league club. Moniak will take the roster spot of infielder Jake Lamb, who was previously reported to have been optioned down to Triple-A. A former 1st overall pick by the Phillies in 2016, Moniak has struggled offensively since his big league debut in 2020, slashing just .157/.218/.268 in 167 plate appearances, a slash line that’s 68% worse than league average by measure of wRC+. Moniak has impressed so far at the Triple-A level this season, however, with a solid .308/.355/.585 slash line in 141 plate appearances this season. Moniak figures to factor into the corner outfield mix along with Taylor Ward and Hunter Renfroe, with Mike Trout locked in as the everyday center fielder.
  • Mariners star Julio Rodriguez moved down to the sixth spot in the batting order in yesterday’s game against the Rangers, marking the first time this season the young outfielder batted outside of the leadoff spot. Manager Scott Servais told reporters, including The Athletic’s Corey Brock, that the move was designed to take pressure off of last year’s AL Rookie of the Year, who has scuffled to a .205/.270/.384 slash line, good for a wRC+ of just 85. Rodriguez, for his part, expressed support for the decision, noting that he believed it was the best thing for the team.

Marlins Select Eury Perez, Designate Chi Chi Gonzalez For Assignment

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The Marlins have officially selected top prospect Eury Perez to both the active and 40-man rosters. The 20-year-old right-hander will start tonight’s game against the Reds. To clear room for Perez on the roster, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald notes that the club has designated right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez for assignment.

The move comes as little surprise, as Perez’s pending promotion had been reported earlier this week. A consensus top 10 prospect in the entire sport, Perez will skip the Triple-A level entirely and make his MLB debut less than a month after celebrating his 20th birthday. So far this season, Perez has posted a 2.32 ERA, 35.9% strikeout rate, and 51.6% groundball rate through six starts at the Double-A level.

Making room on the roster for Perez is Gonzalez, a former first round pick by the Rangers in the 2013 draft. Gonzalez made his MLB debut in 2015, but over seven seasons in the major leagues has struggled to match the promise of his former top prospect status, with a career 5.64 ERA in 287 1/3 innings of work. Having been used primarily as a starter throughout most of his career, Gonzalez has found some success with the Marlins as a reliever in 2023, albeit in a microscopic sample. In 2 2/3 innings of work with Miami this season, Gonzalez has allowed one run on four hits while striking out two and walking one.

Should Gonzalez go unclaimed on waivers, he will have the option to reject an outright assignment to the minor leagues, both as a player with more than three years of service time and as a player who has already received an outright assignment in the past.

Rays Claim Zack Littell

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The Rays have claimed right-hander Zack Littell off of waivers from the Red Sox, according to Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe. The Rays have transferred Garrett Cleavinger to the 60-day IL to clear space on the 40-man roster for Littell, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Littell, 27, was acquired by the Red Sox from the Rangers last week in exchange for cash considerations. In three innings of work with the Red Sox, Littell struggled, allowing 3 runs on four walks (one intentional) and three hits while striking out just two. An eleventh round pick by the Mariners in the 2013 draft, Littell made his debut for the Twins in 2018, pitching to a 4.52 ERA with the club in 63 2/3 innings over the course of the next three seasons.

The best season of Littell’s career to this point came in 2021, as a member of the Giants. In 61 2/3 innings of work that season, Littell posted a phenomenal 2.92 ERA (142 ERA+) with a 3.87 FIP. That season, Littell struck out a career-high 25% of batters faced while walking 9.5%. The then 25-year-old also posted a career high 46.9% groundball rate during the 2021 campaign. Unfortunately, Littell’s previous struggles returned in 2022, as he posted a 5.08 ERA in 44 1/3 innings with San Francisco.

Without options remaining, Littell figures to factor into the Rays’ bullpen that has posted the third best ERA in the majors as a group thanks to stellar performances from the likes of Jason Adam, Colin Poche, and Ryan Thompson in addition to Cleavinger, who is likely out for the season after suffering an ACL injury.

Rockies Claim Chase Anderson

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The Rockies have claimed right-hander Chase Anderson off waivers from the Rays, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Rockies have open space on their 40-man roster, meaning no corresponding move is necessary.

Anderson, 35, was acquired by the Rays last week from the Reds in exchange for cash. He ultimately made two appearances for the Rays, picking up a save while not allowing a run in five innings of work. Anderson was then designated for assignment to clear room on the roster when Tampa signed lefty reliever Jake Diekman earlier this week.

Now in his tenth season as a major league player, Anderson has struggled in recent seasons with an ERA of 6.81 from 2020-2022 across 105 2/3 innings with the Blue Jays, Phillies, and Reds organizations. Those seasons saw Anderson struggle with the long ball, as he allowed more than two home runs per nine innings as 19.2% of his fly balls left the yard for home runs, far above his career 12.8% rate heading into the 2020 campaign.

Given Anderson’s terrible fly ball luck in recent years and his flash of quality results with the Rays this past week, it’s of little surprise that a team elected to claim him off waivers. That team ended up being the Rockies, who could certainly use the rotation depth that Anderson can provide. The club has already lost German Marquez and Noah Davis to injury, and right-hander Antonio Senzatela left his most recent start with forearm tightness. With the addition of a swingman to the roster in Anderson, the Rockies figure to have a potential replacement for Senzatela should he require a stint on the injured list, and a quality multi-inning relief arm should Senzatela be able to make his next start.

Red Sox Acquire Pablo Reyes

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The Red Sox have acquired infielder Pablo Reyes from Oakland in exchange for cash considerations, the A’s have announced. Reyes had signed with Oakland on a minor league deal this past offseason.

The 29-year-old Reyes has appeared in parts of four seasons since making his MLB debut with the Pirates in 2018. That year, he hit well in 18 games for the Pirates, slashing .293/.349/.483 with a wRC+ of 126. That showing earned him an expanded role with the club in 2019, though he ultimately struggled over 157 plate appearances with the club to a slash line of just .203/.274/.322 that led the club to designate him for assignment in January of 2020. The following month, Reyes was served an 80-game suspension for PEDs, causing him to miss the entire pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Reyes latched on with the Brewers on a minor league deal ahead of the 2021 season, ultimately sticking with the club for two seasons. During that time, he slashed .258/.330/.344 with a wRC+ of 85 in 103 plate appearances before electing free agency after the 2022 season and signing with the A’s, for whom he did not appear in a major league game.

In addition to his time in the majors, Reyes has spent parts of 11 seasons in the minor leagues, including 1,265 plate appearances at Triple-A, which have resulted in a slash line of .274/.350/.419 at the highest minor league level. Much of Reyes’s value comes from his versatility, as the journeyman has appeared at every position on the diamond except for catcher.

Reyes figures to serve as infield depth in the upper minors for a Red Sox club that has struggled to keep players healthy in the middle infield this season. Infielders Trevor Story, Adalberto Mondesi, Yu Chang, Christian Arroyo, and center fielder Adam Duvall are all currently on the injured list after being penciled in for regular playing time up the middle for the Red Sox at one point or another.

NL Notes: Nationals, Scherzer, Gallen

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Fans of the Nationals received positive injury news today, as their Triple-A affiliate in Rochester announced that left fielder Corey Dickerson is set to begin a rehab assignment. Dickerson signed in Washington on a one-year deal this past offseason, but appeared in just two games for the club prior to the club placing Dickerson on the 10-day injured list with a calf strain. Dickerson, who will celebrate his 34th birthday later this month, is in his eleventh season as a major league player, with a career 112 wRC+.

That solid production would be a boon to a Nationals club that has mostly used 28-year-old outfielder Alex Call in left field while Dickerson has been on the shelf. Call has struggled so far in 143 trips to the plate for the Nationals this season, with a .230/.329/.336 slash line (86 wRC+) so far this season. That being said, Dickerson is not without flaws himself: his wRC+ has declined to a mark of just 97 since the beginning of the 2020 season, and he has hampered by a significant platoon split that has seen him post just a .693 OPS against left-handed pitchers throughout his career.

Fortunately for the Nationals, however, they have a seemingly perfect platoon partner for Dickerson in the form of Stone Garrett, a 27-year-old slugger who has slashed .344/.368/.594 against left-handers in 72 career plate appearances in the majors. Platooning Dickerson with Garrett upon his return to the lineup could help the Nationals solve their offensive woes in left field, where the club’s 85 wRC+ ranks seventh worst in the majors.

Dickerson may not be the only reinforcements on the horizon from the injured list, however. MLB.com’s injury tracker notes that right-hander Chad Kuhl, who signed with the Nationals on a minor league deal during the offseason, threw a simulated game of over 60 pitches earlier this week. Kuhl, who has been on the IL with sprained toe since the beginning of the month, could threaten the spot of right-hander Jake Irvin in the rotation going forward. While Irvin is expected to make his next start, the Nationals figure to reevaluate their rotation after that, with Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post noting that Kuhl’s return could give the Nationals the opportunity to manage the 26-year-old Irvin’s innings going forward.

More from around the National League…

  • Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests that the Mets, while not concerned about the neck issue that caused veteran right-hander Max Scherzer to be scratched from his start earlier in the week, are worried that the 38-year-old’s ailment near the scapula, which caused the club to push back one of his starts in mid-April, could be an issue that Scherzer will need to manage all year. It’s been a difficult start to the 2023 campaign for Scherzer, who has posted a 5.56 ERA in 22 2/3 innings amid multiple injury concerns and a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on foreign substances.
  • As noted by Bob Nightengale of USA Today, budding ace Zac Gallen has expressed interest in staying with the Diamondbacks long term, though he noted a preference for avoiding in-season extension negotiations. Gallen, 27, has emerged as one of the game’s best pitchers in recent years, including a breakout campaign last season that saw him post a 2.54 ERA in 184 innings en route to a top 5 finish in NL Cy Young award voting. Fortunately for Arizona, they have plenty of time to discuss a long term deal with their young ace, who is set to hit free agency after the 2025 campaign.

AL Notes: Altuve, Rodon, Twins

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Astros second baseman and franchise face Jose Altuve is set to begin a rehab assignment this evening with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land. Altuve has been on the injured list all season after undergoing surgery on his right thumb after suffering an injury during the World Baseball Classic this spring. Though Altuve was initially expected to miss at least the first two months of the season, his rehab process gone quite well, allowing him to begin a rehab assignment somewhat ahead of schedule.

That’s great news for the Astros, who have scuffled to a 19-18 record in the early going this season, behind both the Rangers and Angels in the AL West. While Mauricio Dubon has filled in adequately at second base during Altuve’s absence, his .287/.306/.357 slash line in 134 plate appearances this season pales in comparison to the .300/.387/.533 line Altuve put up last season en route to the third top-5 finish in AL MVP award voting of his career. Houston is certainly hoping their 33-year-old superstar can jog a lineup whose .672 OPS as a team ranks bottom three in the majors.

More from around the American League…

  • Carlos Rodon has yet to throw a regular season pitch for the Yankees this season after signing a six-year, $162MM deal with the club this past offseason, but Jon Heyman of the New York Post provides some clarity on the lefty’s timetable for return. Heyman notes that with Rodon resuming throwing today after the cortisone injection he received earlier in the week, the 30-year-old figures to be six weeks away from his Yankees debut, should everything go according to plan. The sooner Rodon is able to return to the Yankees, the better, as the club has fallen to fifth place in the AL East with a 21-18 record to open the season. Rodon, who has posted a 2.67 ERA in 310 2/3 innings since the beginning of the 2021 season, would surely bolster a Yankees club that has been forced to rely on Clarke Schmidt, Jhony Brito, and Domingo German to fill out the club’s rotation behind Gerrit Cole and Nestor Cortes.
  • Twins reliever Ronny Henriquez has been reinstated from the 15-day IL and optioned to Triple-A, per the club’s communication director Dustin Morse. Henriquez, 23 next month, pitched to a 2.31 ERA in 11 2/3 innings of work with the Twins as a rookie last season, striking out just 18% of batters faced, though he generated an impressive 52.8% groundball rate. That being said, Henriquez struggled during his rehab assignment this season, with a 4.76 ERA in 5 2/3 innings during that time. Henriquez will look to get right in the minors on a more permanent basis going forward while acting as bullpen depth for the Twins alongside Josh Winder.

Braves Sign Justus Sheffield To Minor League Deal

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Left-hander Justus Sheffield has found a new organization, as the former top prospect has signed a minor league deal with the Braves, per the transaction tracker on his MLB.com profile page.

Sheffield, who will celebrate his 27th birthday tomorrow, was the 31st overall pick in the 2014 draft, taken by Cleveland in the first round. Sheffield was long a staple of top 100 prospect lists as he made his ascent throughout the minors, appearing on Baseball America’s top 100 list as early as 2016 before eventually climbing to the 27th spot on the ranking ahead of the 2019 season. In addition to his prospect pedigree, Sheffield was a headliner in multiple significant trades: the Yankees acquired him in the 2016 deadline trade that sent Andrew Miller to Cleveland before sending him to Seattle in the deal that brought James Paxton to the Bronx ahead of the 2019 campaign.

Unfortunately for both Sheffield and the Mariners, the dream of Sheffield anchoring the rotation for the next competitive team in Seattle was never realized. Sheffield struggled badly during the 2019 season, posting a 5.50 ERA with a 4.71 FIP in his first 36 innings with his new club. While he would see a stretch of success during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, with a solid 3.58 ERA and an excellent 3.17 FIP in ten starts, he was unable to carry that success over into the 2021 season. In 92 innings between 2021 and 2022, Sheffield struggled mightily to a 6.46 ERA, 37% below league average by measure of ERA+.

Those struggles led the Mariners to outright Sheffield to Triple-A during the offseason. Unfortunately, Sheffield’s struggles grew even deeper in the early going of the 2023 campaign. In 10 outings with Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, the lefty surrendered 17 runs in just 8 1/3 innings while walking more batters (11) than he struck out (4). That lead the Mariners to pull the plug on their former top prospect at the end of April, releasing him to pursue opportunities in another organization.

Two weeks later, Sheffield has found a home in the Braves organization. Atlanta has seen its rotation ravaged by injuries in recent days, with both lefty Max Fried and right-hander Kyle Wright expected to miss significant time due to injury. That said, Sheffield figures to be below Michael Soroka, Dylan Dodd, and Jared Shuster on the organization depth chart at the very least, and has worked primarily out of the bullpen in recent years.

While Sheffield seems unlikely to provide the Braves useful rotation depth that can solve their current conundrum at the big league level, a minor league deal for a player with Sheffield’s prospect pedigree is rarely a bad decision, given the lack of risk associated with such a deal and the massive potential upside Sheffield showed as a youngster. While it would be a surprise to see Sheffield rebound to the heights he was expected to reach as a prospect, it’s certainly possible that a change of scenery from the organization Sheffield spent the past four seasons with will help him recapture some of the talent that made him such a tantalizing prospect earlier in his career.

The Opener: Perez, Scherzer, Franco

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As the 2023 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Perez to make MLB debut:

Top pitching prospect Eury Perez is poised to make his MLB debut in a start for the Marlins this evening against the Reds. A consensus top 15 prospect in all of baseball, Perez is getting called up directly from the Double-A level without any Triple-A experience. Despite his atypical path to the majors, Perez has certainly justified his shot in the majors. The 20-year-old right-hander has posted a strikeout rate above 30% at every stop on his journey through the minor leagues, with walk rates under 10% and a career minor league ERA of just 2.85. That includes a hot start to the 2023 season where Perez has dominated Double-A pitching to the tune of 2.32 ERA in 31 innings of work across six starts.

In Miami, Perez joins an excellent Marlins rotation that features reigning NL Cy Young aware winner Sandy Alcantara along with Jesus Luzardo, Edward Cabrera, and Braxton Garrett. Perez is not yet on the 40-man roster, meaning the Marlins will have to clear space for their top prospect before he can be added to the active roster to make tonight’s start.

2. Scherzer to return to the mound:

Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer was scratched from his start with the Mets earlier this week due to neck spasms. The news that Scherzer isn’t fully healthy came as little surprise considering his significant struggles to open the 2023 campaign. Through five starts this season, Scherzer has managed just 22 2/3 innings with a 5.56 ERA and an even uglier 6.31 FIP. A strikeout rate of just 20.8% combined with a 10.4% walk rate help to explain the uncharacteristic struggles Scherzer has dealt with to open the season, as those numbers are a far cry from the 31.8% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate he’s sported throughout the last decade of his illustrious career.

A healthy and effective Scherzer would be a game changer for the Mets, who rank in the bottom 10 of the league with a 4.73 ERA as a team and sport a record of just 18-20 so far this season after losing Carlos Carrasco and Jose Quintana to injury early in the season. The veteran righty will look to get his season back on track against the Nationals on Sunday.

3. Franco to be reevaluated:

Rays fans suffered a scared yesterday evening when star shortstop Wander Franco exited the club’s 8-2 victory with neck tightness. Though the plan is for the 22-year-old phenom to be reevaluated today, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that both Franco himself and Rays manager Kevin Cash have expressed optimism that Franco could return to action as soon as today, indicating that the issue is likely a minor one.

Any missed time on Franco’s part would be devastating for the Rays, as Franco has been the very best player in all of baseball in terms of fWAR so far this year, as his 2.4 figure leads the majors. In 163 plate appearances this season, Franco has slashed a phenomenal .318/.374/.554 with 12 stolen bases while playing elite defense at shortstop. While defensive metrics are fluky on a season-to-season basis, it’s nonetheless worth noting that just four players have bested Franco’s +5 Outs Above Average so far this season.

Tyler Mahle To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Twins right-hander Tyler Mahle will undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Rocco Baldelli announced to reporters Thursday (Twitter link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). Mahle, who’s scheduled to become a free agent at season’s end, will miss the remainder of the 2023 campaign and the early portion of the 2024 season as well.

It’s a brutal blow for a Twins team that traded three prospects to acquire the final year-plus of Mahle’s arbitration eligibility at last summer’s trade deadline. The 28-year-old Mahle has pitched well for the Twins when healthy, notching a 3.64 ERA in nine starts, but shoulder troubles limited him to just four appearances post-trade last year and he’s now done for the season in 2023 after just five starts. Given his impending free agency, it could spell the end of Mahle’s time with the team entirely — hardly what the front office had in mind when sending Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Steven Hajjar to Cincinnati in that swap.

There’s still the possibility that the Twins could try to work out some type extension that’d keep Mahle in Minnesota beyond the current season. They’ve previously shown a willingness to work out that type of deal with pitchers rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Michael Pineda’s original two-year, $20MM free-agent deal with the Twins was signed knowing he’d miss the bulk of that first year recovering from a Tommy John operation. Minnesota also extended right-hander Chris Paddack — another trade acquisition who wound up requiring Tommy John — on a three-year deal earlier this year. Paddack won’t return until this summer.

Regardless of where things go with Mahle’s contract status, his injury leaves an unquestionable hole in the Twins’ rotation. Minnesota is deeper in starting pitching this season than at any point in recent memory, but Mahle will now join Kenta Maeda on the injured list. Right-handers Bailey Ober and Louie Varland began the season with Triple-A St. Paul and might well have been guaranteed rotation spots with many other clubs, given their 2022 success. They’ll both likely be locked into the Twins’ starting staff now, following a strong trio of Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray.

Further injuries to the group could truly begin to test the Twins’ depth. Prospects Simeon Woods Richardson and Brent Headrick have had tough starts in St. Paul — though Headrick excelled in a brief big league look — and former top prospect Jordan Balazovic is just now moving back into a starting role after his 2022 season was ruined by a knee injury. Prospects Josh Winder and Cole Sands were rotation options last year in Minnesota, but both have been primarily working out of the bullpen in 2023.

As it stands, the Twins’ starting five still looks like a strong group. Ober has been brilliant in 2023 (0.98 ERA and 18 1/3 innings through three starts) and now boasts a career 3.51 ERA in 166 2/3 MLB frames. Varland has a 4.32 ERA through three turns and, paired with last year’s handful of starts in his debut season, carries a 4.01 ERA in 42 2/3 big league innings. The previously mentioned Paddack isn’t yet ready to join the group, but he’s nearing the one-year anniversary of his own Tommy John operation. He could be ready for a return mid-summer, and the team is also hopeful that Maeda can avoid a prolonged stint on the injured list — though they’ve not yet placed a hard timetable on his return.

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