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Blue Jays Sign Wes Parsons To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have signed right-hander Wes Parsons to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the club’s Florida Complex League affiliate but will presumably head to Triple-A once he gets into game shape.

Parsons, 30, was an undrafted free agent who nonetheless worked his way up to the major leagues a few years ago. He tossed 39 2/3 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons for Atlanta and Colorado. He posted an ERA of 5.67 in that time along with a 16.1% strikeout rate, 17.8% walk rate and 45.6% ground ball rate. He was in the Rockies’ player pool during the 2020 season but didn’t get called up to the majors.

The righty went to Korea in 2021, signing with the NC Dinos of the KBO League and having some good results over there. He worked out of their rotation in 2021, tossing 133 innings over 24 starts with a 3.72 ERA. He struck out 148 of the 577 batters he faced, a 26.4% rate, though the 63 walks still amount to a high rate of 10.9%. He re-signed with the Dinos for 2022 but was only able to make eight starts with a 3.56 ERA. He was released in August while dealing with a back injury so the club could replace him with Matt Dermody, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. KBO teams only have three roster spots for foreign players and needed to remove the injured Parsons to get Dermody aboard.

Parsons will now return to North America by entering the farm system of the Blue Jays. It’s unclear if they are interested in him as a starter or reliever, but he will give them some non-roster depth either way. The club’s rotation is fairly stable at the moment, with Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi all healthy and depth starter Mitch White currently rehabbing in the minors. The relief corps has had a couple of recent injuries with Zach Pop and Adam Cimber on the injured list. Thomas Hatch and Trent Thornton are depth options on the 40-man roster, though White is out of options and will need a roster spot when his rehab is up, which could lead to the recently-recalled Jay Jackson getting optioned back to Buffalo in the near future.

White Sox Designate Alex Colome For Assignment

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The White Sox designated right-hander Alex Colome for assignment and selected the contract of outfielder Jake Marisnick from Triple-A Charlotte on Wednesday, per a team announcement. Marisnick will join the active roster as fellow fleet-footed, veteran outfielder Billy Hamilton heads to the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. Chicago has also recalled righty Nick Padilla from Charlotte.

Colome’s reunion with the ChiSox, for whom he closed games in 2019-20, proved to be short-lived. The 34-year-old’s contract was selected earlier this month, and he’s since tossed three innings with four runs allowed (two earned) on two hits and three walks. His 93.9 mph average fastball in that time ties a career-low from the 2021 season.

While Colome notched a pristine 2.27 ERA in 83 1/3 innings during his original run with the White Sox, there were longstanding indicators that he’d be hard-pressed to sustain that success. The right-hander had sub-par strikeout and walk rates during that two-year stretch and yielded plenty of hard contact, allowing an average of 90.2 mph off the bat. The market seemingly agreed, as despite his sharp bottom-line numbers in his run-up to free agency, Colome settled for an affordable one-year deal with the Twins late in the offseason.

The results in Minnesota were pedestrian, and Colome hasn’t found much success since. Dating back to 2021, he’s sitting on a 4.85 ERA with a 17.7% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. His 55.1% ground-ball rate remains excellent, but the remainder of his profile hasn’t been encouraging. The White Sox will have a week to trade him or else pass him through outright or release waivers. Colome can reject an assignment to the minors even if he goes unclaimed.

Marisnick, 32, will bring a similar skill set to that of Hamilton to the White Sox. While he’s not quite as fast as Hamilton, he’s a premier defensive center fielder whose offensive shortcomings have largely outweighed his proficiency in the outfield and on the basepaths. He’s out to a nice .264/.407/.391 start in Charlotte so far this season, but over the past five big league seasons Marisnick is a .228/.285/.406 hitter.

Marisnick does have some power against lefties, and he also boasts career marks of 50 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average in center field. His .224/.274/.366 career output against right-handed pitching leaves plenty to be desired, but he’s not a bad fourth outfielder if a team is comfortable limiting him to a rather strict platoon arrangement.

Rays Sign Jake Diekman To Major League Deal

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May 10: The Rays have now officially signed Diekman, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The corresponding move had been reported earlier today as righty Chase Anderson getting designated for assignment, which is also now official.

May 9: The Rays are finalizing a major league deal with left-hander Jake Diekman, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN, who adds that the deal is expected to be finalized in the next 48 hours. Once the move is official, a corresponding move or moves will be required to get the southpaw onto the active and 40-man rosters.

Diekman, 36, began the season with the White Sox but was released after posting a 7.94 ERA in 13 outings. In spite of those unfortunate results, he has quickly found a new home with the Rays. As Passan points out, Tampa recently got the unfortunate news that left-hander Garrett Cleavinger will likely miss the rest of the season due to an injury to the ACL in his right knee. In order to counteract that blow to their lefty relief mix, they’ll insert Diekman into Cleavinger’s spot.

It won’t be any kind of significant commitment from the Rays since Diekman already has a salary of $3.5MM this year and a $1MM buyout on an option for 2024 as part of the deal he signed with the Red Sox going into 2022. Since the White Sox released him, they will be on the hook for the majority of that, with the Rays only responsible for the prorated league minimum for any time Diekman is on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay.

Diekman has been a useful reliever in the past and the Rays will surely be hoping to find a way to get him back to that previous form. Control has always been an issue for the lefty as he only once posted a walk rate below 10%, which was way back in 2013, and his career walk rate currently sits at 13.3%. But he’s been most successful when overcoming those walks by racking up strikeouts. From 2012 to 2022, he struck out between 25% and 32% of batters faced in each full season, as well as punching out 36.9% in the shortened 2020 campaign. However, it’s been just 19% in the early going here in 2023.

Despite that fairly consistent strikeout stuff, the walks have caused his ERAs to fluctuate wildly over the years. He’s finished above 4.00 in four of the last seven full seasons while getting as low as 2.53 in 2017 and a sparkling 0.42 figure in the truncated 2020 year.

Since the Rays will be paying him the league minimum, there’s very little risk in giving him a shot to see if he can get a better handle on his stuff. If it doesn’t work out, they can quickly make him another casualty of the ongoing roster churn they do at the fringes of their roster without really losing anything.

Twins Option Jose Miranda To Triple-A

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9:50am: The Twins announced that Farmer has been reinstated from the injured list, with Miranda indeed being optioned to St. Paul.

9:37am: Infielder Kyle Farmer is set to return to the Twins after missing roughly a month following a fastball to the jaw that required dental surgery, and La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports (via Twitter) that the Twins will open a spot on the roster by optioning third baseman Jose Miranda to Triple-A St. Paul.

Miranda, 24, was regarded as one of the sport’s top infield prospects prior to making his big league debut in 2022. He struggled immensely in the early portion of last year’s debut campaign but after a brief demotion to Triple-A, returned with a stout .286/.346/.451 batting line, 14 home runs and 20 doubles over his final 413 plate appearances. That looked to cement Miranda in the Twins’ long-term lineup — so much so that the club felt comfortable trading Gio Urshela this offseason as a means of clearing regular playing time for Miranda at the hot corner.

The 2023 season, however, has been a grind for Miranda. He’s taken 142 turns at the plate and thus far produced only a .220/.275/.318 batting line. His 16.2% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate are actually improvements over last year’s respective marks of 18% and 5.8%, but Miranda’s quality of contact has taken a dive. He’s seen his exit velocity and hard-hit rate both take a step back, and his ground-ball rate has spiked from 42.1% to 48.6%, which isn’t ideal for a player with below-average speed. He’s also popping up at a slightly higher clip in 2023 and making contact on pitches within the strike zone at an 85.8% rate — down from last year’s mark of 88.2%.

Aside from the spike in ground-balls, most of the dips in Miranda’s profile at the plate are relatively minor. But, taken in totality, it appears that a large number of small steps back have combined to suppress his production at the plate in the early stages of the season. The Twins, in all likelihood, will view this as an opportunity to give Miranda a mental reset over in St. Paul, with an eye toward getting him back on the big league roster sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, Farmer seems like the most obvious candidate to take up the mantle at third base, though utilitymen Willi Castro and Donovan Solano could also mix in at the position. The 32-year-old Farmer just went 4-for-13 with a homer and two doubles in a brief rehab assignment in St. Paul and is no stranger to the left side of the infield. He was the Reds’ primary shortstop in 2022 but also spent 299 innings at third base, drawing generally positive defensive marks at both positions while batting .255/.316/.386 in 583 plate appearances.

Farmer was off to a slow start in his first season with the Twins, batting .226/.286/.355 before that ill-placed fastball interrupted his season. However, in three prior seasons with Cincinnati, he turned in a .259/.316/.395 slash in just shy of 1200 plate appearances while doing plenty of damage against left-handed pitching — a glaring weakness so far for the 2023 version of the Twins (in part due to Farmer’s absence). The Twins have posted an awful .203/.280/.369 batting line against left-handed pitching this year, so if Farmer is able to play up to his typical standard (.286/.343/.487 versus lefties), he’ll provide a notable boost in that regard.

If Miranda isn’t able to right the ship in Triple-A, the Twins should soon have options beyond Farmer. Former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis is nearing a minor league rehab assignment and, as a shortstop who’s been displaced by Carlos Correa, would make a natural option. He’s on the mend from his second right ACL tear in as many years, so even in the absence of Correa, it was up for debate whether that pair of injuries would allow him to handle shortstop at a high level moving forward.

The 23-year-old Lewis will surely need a rehab stint of some length after a year off the field, but he batted .300/.317/.550 through his first 12 big league games last year. Behind him, the Twins have 2022 first-round pick Brooks Lee rapidly climbing the big league ladder; he’s out to a .290/.350/.458 start in Double-A Wichita.

The Opener: Syndergaard, Farmer, MLBTR Chat

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There’s already been one move made this morning, but here are three things well be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Syndergaard to be re-evaluated:

Dodgers right-hander Noah Syndergaard left yesterday’s start against the Brewers after just one inning with a cut on his finger. After the game, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that it’s possible Syndergaard would need a trip to the 15-day injured list, but that they want to give the veteran righty and the club’s training staff more time to evaluate the situation before make a decision.

It’s been a difficult season for Syndergaard so far, as the 30-year-old has posted a 6.12 ERA, 27% below league average by measure of ERA+, with a 4.77 FIP in 32 1/3 innings of work. The peripherals are hardly encouraging, either, as Syndergaard is posting the lowest strikeout and ground-ball rates of his career, along with the highest barrel rate of his career. An IL stint for Syndergaard would likely open the door to Gavin Stone returning to the majors for additional starts after he made his major league debut last week.

2. Kyle Farmer set to return:

After a rash of early season injuries to their position player corps, the Twins are approaching a return to full strength. First baseman Alex Kirilloff and second baseman Jorge Polanco both began the season on the injured list but have since slid into their expected roles since then, and now utility infielder Kyle Farmer, who has missed the past month of action after being struck in the jaw by a pitch, is on the verge of a return as well. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli tells reporters (including Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic) that Farmer could return to action as soon as today. Willi Castro, who signed with the Twins on a minor league deal this past offseason, has taken up Farmer’s utility role while the 32-year-old veteran has been away from the team, slashing .190/.306/.310 (80 wRC+) in 49 plate appearances.

3. MLBTR Chat Today:

Yesterday, MLBTR’s Steve Adams fielded questions during yesterday’s live chat, the transcript of which can be found here. If you still have unanswered questions about the beginnings of the 2023 season, you’re in luck, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco will be hosting a live chat of his own today at 5pm CT. You can submit a question in advance here, and you can use the same link to check back in this evening and participate live once the chat begins.

Rays To Designate Chase Anderson For Assignment

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The Rays will designate right-hander Chase Anderson for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for left-hander Jake Diekman, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Tampa Bay and Diekman were finalizing a Major League contract yesterday, but the team has not yet formally announced the signing or the corresponding 40-man move.

Tampa Bay acquired the veteran Anderson from the Reds in exchange for cash earlier this month after he exercised an out clause in his minor league deal with Cincinnati. The Reds apparently weren’t keen on adding Anderson to the 40-man roster but found him another opportunity and shipped him to the Rays. Anderson tossed five scoreless frames and notched a three-inning save with the Rays, allowing two hits and a walk while punching out two batters. It was a solid showing, but as is often the case for veterans on minor league deals, it’ll be a relatively short stay on the big league roster nonetheless.

Anderson, 35, has now appeared with six big league clubs over the course of a decade-long MLB career. While he was a solid starter for the D-backs and Brewers from 2014-19 — 3.94 ERA in 857 innings — his results dropped sharply after being traded to the Blue Jays following the 2019 campaign. Anderson was torched for a 7.22 ERA in 10 appearances (seven starts) for the Jays in the shortened 2020 season, and subsequent stops in Philadelphia (6.75 ERA, 48 innings) and Cincinnati (6.38 ERA, 24 innings) over the past two seasons haven’t produced better results.

All told, Anderson has a 4.23 ERA in 967 2/3 big league innings since making his debut back in 2014. However, even including his brief scoreless run with the Rays, he’s sporting a grisly 6.51 ERA dating back to 2019. He has ample rotation experience and is stretched out to throw multiple innings already, so it’s possible another team will come calling, whether via a small trade, waiver claim or a quick signing should the Rays release him. Tampa Bay will have the next week to trade Anderson or place him outright waivers or release waivers.

The Upcoming Shortstop Class Looks Increasingly Bleak

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The top free agent storyline of each of the past two offseasons was the respective star-studded shortstop classes. In 2021-22, it was Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Trevor Story and Javier Báez. Last winter, Correa was back on the market again, joined by Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson.

Next winter’s group was never going to rival that previous collection. The class in general is very light on star position player talent beyond Shohei Ohtani. It’s particularly barren up the middle of the diamond. It’s hard to imagine a more complete 180° turn than how things appear to be trending with the shortstop class, though. Virtually everyone involved is off to a very slow start.

The early-season performances from the impending free agents at the position:

Amed Rosario (28)*

While Rosario is not the superstar some evaluators had anticipated during his time in the Mets’ farm system, he’d been a solid regular for two seasons since landing in Cleveland in the Francisco Lindor blockbuster. Rosario’s solid batting averages helped offset his very low walk tallies. He hit 25+ doubles with double-digit homers in both 2021-22, playing on a near everyday basis. His cumulative .282/.316/.406 batting line was almost exactly league average. Public metrics were mixed on Rosario’s defense but the Guardians have been content to keep him at shortstop despite plenty of upper minors infield talent. Only 27 and without a ton of market competition, he entered the year in position for a strong three or four-year contract.

That could still be the case but Rosario is doing himself no favors with his early performance. He’s sitting on a .217/.262/.300 showing through his first 130 plate appearances. He has just one homer and is striking out at a 29.2% clip that’d easily be the worst full-season mark of his career if it holds. After making contact on 81.3% of his swings last season, he’s putting the bat on the ball only 71.5% of the time this year. He’s also committed six errors in 255 1/3 innings after being charged with just 12 in more than 1200 frames last year. Rosario is still the top impending free agent shortstop by default but he’s struggling in all areas right now.

Javier Báez (31), can opt out of final four years and $98MM on his contract

Báez is hitting .256/.318/.376 through his first 130 plate appearances. That’s an improvement over the lackluster .238/.278/.393 line he managed during his first season in Detroit. His 16.2% strikeout rate is the lowest of his career, pushing his overall offense near league average in spite of just three home runs in 32 games. Báez’s 2023 campaign has been fine but hardly overwhelming. It’s nowhere near what it’d take for him to beat the $98MM remaining on his existing contract. He’d need a torrid summer to put himself in position to test free agency.

Enrique Hernández (32)

Hernández has been pushed into primary shortstop duty by the Red Sox’ various injuries. The early reviews from public defensive metrics aren’t favorable, with Statcast putting him at seven outs below average in 199 innings. Hernández is off to an equally slow start at the plate. He’s hitting .236/.295/.362 over 139 plate appearances on the heels of a .222/.291/.338 showing last year. He’s been a valuable super-utility option and everyday center fielder at times in his career, including a 20-homer campaign in 2021. The past year-plus hasn’t been especially impressive, though, and Hernández has yet to demonstrate he’s capable of handling shortstop regularly from a defensive standpoint.

Brandon Crawford (37)

The career-long Giant had a tough April on both sides of the ball. He’s hitting .169/.244/.352 with a personal-high 28.2% strikeout rate in 21 games. His defensive marks through 173 2/3 innings are unanimously below-average. A right calf strain sent him to the injured list last week. Even if Crawford is willing to explore all opportunities next winter after 13 seasons in San Francisco, he’ll need much better production once he returns from the IL to find any interest as a starting shortstop.

Elvis Andrus (35)

Much of what applies to Crawford is also true for Andrus. He’s a 15-year MLB veteran with a couple All-Star appearances to his name but his offense has fallen off in recent seasons. Andrus was a well below-average hitter from 2018-21. He rebounded with a solid .249/.303/.404 showing last season but still didn’t generate much free agent attention. After settling for a $3MM deal with the White Sox, he’s hitting only .208/.291/.264 in 142 plate appearances this year. Andrus hit 17 homers last season but has just one through the first six weeks.

Nick Ahmed (34)

Another glove-first veteran, Ahmed is also off to a rough start at the plate. He carries a .227/.239/.318 line over 67 plate appearances. He’s hit only one home run and walked just once. Ahmed has always been a bottom-of-the-lineup defensive specialist, but his career .235/.289/.380 slash is much more tenable than the production he’s managed thus far in 2023. He lost almost all of last season to shoulder surgery.

Gio Urshela (32)

Urshela is hitting plenty of singles to start his time in Orange County. His .303 batting average is impressive but is paired with just a .325 on-base percentage and .345 slugging mark. He’s walking at a career-low 3.3% clip and has only three extra-base hits (two doubles and a homer) in 123 plate appearances.

More concerning for teams looking to the shortstop market is Urshela’s lack of experience at the position. He’s been a third baseman for the majority of his career. Since landing with the Angels, he’s assumed a multi-positional infield role that has given him eight-plus starts at shortstop and both corner infield spots. Even if he starts hitting for more power, he’s better deployed as a versatile infielder who can moonlight at shortstop than an everyday solution there.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa (28)

Kiner-Falefa lost his starting shortstop role with the Yankees towards the end of last season. He’s been kicked into a multi-positional capacity this year and hasn’t logged a single inning at the position in 2023. While Kiner-Falefa presumably could still handle shortstop if asked, he’s contributed nothing offensively in the early going. Through 72 plate appearances, he owns a .191/.225/.206 line.

Adalberto Mondesí (28)

Mondesí is young and has flashed tantalizing tools throughout his major league career. He’s also reached base at a meager .280 clip over 358 MLB games and battled various injuries. An April 2022 ACL tear cut that season short after just 15 games. The Red Sox nevertheless acquired him from the Royals over the offseason, but he’s yet to play a game with Boston. Mondesí opened the season on the 60-day injured list and won’t make his Sox debut until at least the end of this month. There’s a chance for him to play his way into some free agent interest. He’ll need an extended stretch of health and performance.

Players With Club Options

Both Tim Anderson and Paul DeJong can hit free agency if the White Sox and Cardinals decline respective 2024 club options. That seems likely in DeJong’s case but is reflective of the .196/.280/.351 line he managed between 2020-22. If he plays well enough to warrant significant free agent interest — he has been excellent in 11 games this season, to his credit — the Cardinals would exercise their $12.5MM option and keep him off the market anyhow.

The White Sox hold a $14MM option on Anderson’s services. That looks as if it’ll be a no-brainer for Chicago to keep him around (or exercise and make him available in trade). The only way Anderson gets to free agency is if his 2023 season is decimated by injury or an uncharacteristic performance drop-off, in which case he’d be a question mark as well.

Outlook

This was never going to be a great group. It’s comprised largely of glove-first veterans in their mid-30s. Players like Andrus, Ahmed, Crawford and José Iglesias — who’ll also hit free agency and has bounced around on minor league deals thus far in 2023 — don’t tend to be priority targets. That opened the door for the likes of Rosario, Báez and a potentially healthy Mondesí — younger players who have shown some offensive upside — to separate themselves from the pack in a way they wouldn’t have the last couple winters. No one has seized the mantle to this point. While there are still more than four months for someone to emerge, the early returns on the shortstop class aren’t promising.

*age for the 2024 season

D-Backs Outright Seth Beer

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Diamondbacks first baseman/DH Seth Beer has been sent outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Beer has played parts of two seasons with the Snakes. The former first round pick was one of four prospects Arizona acquired from the Astros in the 2019 Zack Greinke blockbuster. He’d hit very well in the low minors after an incredible career at Clemson but came with questions about his lack of a defensive home. Beer continued performing at the plate through 2021, eventually reaching the majors towards the tail end of that season.

The left-handed hitter got into five games during his debut. He played a bit more last year, appearing in 38 contests and tallying 126 trips to the plate. He only hit .189/.278/.243 in his first real crack against MLB pitching. Beer spent the bulk of the season with Reno, putting up a solid but unspectacular .242/.361/.435 slash that was below his previous minor league production.

Arizona optioned Beer back to Reno to start the 2023 campaign. He’s been off to a rough start in his third crack at Triple-A, posting a .200/.266/.314 line over 79 plate appearances. Beer has homered just twice while striking out at a personal-worst 29.1% clip. Paired with the concern he could be limited to designated hitter, that slow start pushed Beer off the roster when the D-Backs promoted pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt last Wednesday.

No other team was willing to devote him an immediate 40-man roster spot in light of his early-season slump. This is the first outright of his career and he doesn’t have three years of major league service. As a result, Beer does not have the ability to test free agency. He’ll remain in the Arizona system and try to hit his way back onto the big league radar.

A’s Change Target Site For Stadium In Las Vegas

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The A’s plans for a stadium proposal in Las Vegas have changed. According to reports from both Mick Akers of the Review-Journal and Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent, the A’s have entered into a new land agreement for the construction of a stadium at the current site of the Tropicana hotel on the Vegas Strip.

Initially, the organization had been focused on a site just west of the Strip. They even announced a land deal last month, but the Nevada Independent reported yesterday the franchise was looking into alternatives due to concerns about the extent of the public funding for their previous plan. They’ve quickly settled on a new location and are moving on from the land they’d planned to build on a few weeks ago.

The A’s had been set to propose a plan that called for $500MM in public funding via county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project. Both the Nevada Independent and Review-Journal report that the team’s public funding ask for the new site will be $395MM. The hope is that by reducing their ask on public funding by $105MM, their proposal will be more palatable whenever it’s formally put in front of the Nevada legislature.

Whether that’ll prove to be the case remains to be seen. The A’s are seeking approval from county and state officials for the construction of a park that’d be ready by the start of the 2027 season. If they receive government approval and sign a binding stadium agreement, they could then petition MLB for relocation out of Oakland.

The A’s lease at Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum runs through the end of next season. The organization has until January 15 to formally sign a contract for the construction of a new facility if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients in the collective bargaining agreement.

Latest On Jacob deGrom

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The Rangers placed Jacob deGrom on the injured list on April 29 with inflammation in his throwing elbow. The two-time Cy Young winner had left his previous start early with some forearm discomfort, the second time this season he’d been forced to depart an outing for health reasons.

While deGrom is technically able to return to action this weekend, he won’t be reinstated when first eligible. Manager Bruce Bochy estimated this evening the four-time All-Star could be two to three weeks away (relayed by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). According to Grant, deGrom will meet with team physicians next Monday to determine whether he can start to ramp up the intensity.

The Rangers are understandably going to be cautious with deGrom’s arm health. He’s battled forearm and shoulder issues over the past couple years, resulting in an extended chunk of missed action between 2021-22. deGrom returned at peak form in last year’s second half and the Rangers made him the highest-paid pitcher of the offseason, inking him to a five-year, $185MM guarantee.

Through his first six starts in a Texas uniform, the star hurler has tossed 30 1/3 innings of 2.67 ERA ball. Among pitchers with 30+ frames, only Spencer Strider has a superior strikeout rate to deGrom’s 39.1% clip. It’s exactly the kind of rate production for which general manager Chris Young and his front office had hoped, though the longstanding question has been how many innings they can expect deGrom to shoulder.

With deGrom out, Dane Dunning has stepped into the final rotation spot. Dunning was a solid back-of-the-rotation arm for Texas between 2021-22 and threw five scoreless innings against the Angels last week. He’s a capable fill-in, though his move to the rotation puts added pressure on a bullpen that has been shaky of late. Dunning was arguably Texas’ best reliever for the first month, tossing 20 1/3 frames of 1.77 ERA ball.

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