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Archives for May 2023

Jeff Hoffman Exercises Opt-Out Clause In Phillies Deal

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Right-hander Jeff Hoffman exercised the opt-out clause in his minor league contract with the Phillies on Monday, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. That gave the Phillies a 48-hour window to add him to the big league roster or release him. Forty-eight hours have since elapsed without an announcement from the team either way; it’s possible the two parties agreed that his contract would be selected in the coming days, but barring that Hoffman would become a free agent in short order.

The 30-year-old Hoffman spent spring training with the Twins but opted out of that deal upon being informed he had not made the roster. He signed with the Phillies shortly thereafter and has spent the first month of the season with their Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley, where he’s yielded seven runs in nine innings of relief. Hoffman has only surrendered five hits, but he’s also issued a free pass to seven of his 39 opponents (17.9%). Those red flags notwithstanding, he’s also punched out a whopping 16 of those 39 hitters (41%), and Gelb notes that his fastball has touched 99 mph with the IronPigs.

Command issues aren’t exactly a new phenomenon for Hoffman, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2014 draft. He’s pitched 348 1/3 innings across parts of seven big league seasons with the Rockies and Reds, walking 11.1% of his opponents against a 20.3% strikeout rate en route to a lackluster 5.68 ERA. The increased velocity and uptick in missed bats, however, figure to pique the interest of other teams, just as they did for the Phillies and Twins. In addition to his gaudy strikeout numbers in Lehigh Valley, Hoffman whiffed eight of the 19 hitters he faced in spring training with Minnesota (42.1%).

Hoffman entered the 2023 season with four years, 105 days of Major League service time, so if he does land with another club and prove capable of sticking in the Majors, he’d reach five years of service this season (assuming 67 days in the bigs) and be controllable for another year via arbitration.

Guardians Option Zach Plesac

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The Guardians announced Thursday that they’ve optioned struggling right-hander Zach Plesac to Triple-A Columbus. It’s the first time he’s been optioned to the minors since the 2020 season.

Plesac’s 2023 campaign has been a disaster thus far. While he’s walking fewer hitters than ever (4.8%), he’s also sporting a career-low 13.3% strikeout rate. Opponents have posted a staggering .374/.404/.576 batting line against Plesac, and while a .410 average on balls in play surely points to at least some small-sample randomness that might even out over the course of a season, his struggles can’t be solely pinned on bad luck. Plesac has yielded a 91.7 mph average exit velocity, and 43% of the balls put in play against him have been hit at 95 mph or greater. His fastball has averaged a career-low 91.4 mph, and this season’s 9.6% swinging-strike rate is his lowest since debuting back in 2019.

Now 28 years old, Plesac had a strong debut effort in 2019-20, tossing 171 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with a 21.3% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. That performance helped him earn a place in the team’s long-term rotation, but it’s been a steady downhill trajectory since. That early success was in no small part due to a tiny .246 average on balls in play and lofty 81.5% strand rate. Those numbers regressed toward the league averages in 2021-22 and did so in conjunction with velocity and strikeout rate both taking a step back. The result was 274 1/3 innings of 4.49 ERA ball — a passable but unexciting set of results that looked more commensurate with a fourth or fifth starter than what Plesac had displayed in his first two seasons.

Now, with Plesac optioned out, the Guards will seemingly go with a mostly young and inexperienced group in the rotation for the foreseeable future. Shane Bieber remains entrenched atop the starting staff, and righty Cal Quantrill is holding onto a spot despite some struggles of his own. Behind that pair, the Guardians currently have a trio of rookies: Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Peyton Battenfield. Bibee and Allen are both on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list and have enjoyed excellent debut efforts. Battenfield impressed with strong Triple-A numbers to earn a look in the big league rotation, and while his results have been mixed, he’ll get a longer look to sort things out.

It’s at least possible that Plesac’s stint in the minors alters his trajectory to free agency, though it’d need to be a lengthy stay in Triple-A for that to happen. The right-hander entered the 2023 season with three years, 86 days of Major League service time, meaning he needed another 86 days to reach four years of service and remain on track to hit the open market following the 2025 campaign. He’s already picked up 35 of those 86 days, so as long as he returns for at least 51 days, he’ll hit the four-year mark. If Plesac is relegated to Triple-A work for longer than that, it might be a moot point anyhow, as if he can’t pitch his way back into the big league mix he’d become a non-tender candidate this winter.

Mariners Release Tommy La Stella

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The Mariners announced Thursday afternoon that infielder Tommy La Stella has cleared waivers and been released. He’s now a free agent.

Seattle designated the 34-year-old La Stella for assignment earlier in the week when selecting the contract of top pitching prospect Bryce Miller. He’d signed on with the team back in January after being released by the Giants ahead of the third and final season of a three-year contract, but a spring elbow injury had prevented La Stella from playing the field. He’s been limited to DH and pinch-hit duties so far, taking just 24 plate appearances in 12 games over the season’s first month. It was a curious use of a roster spot in the first place, and La Stella’s .190/.292/.238 slash in that span didn’t make the decision look any better.

La Stella was a high-end, contact-oriented utilityman with the Cubs, Angels and A’s from 2016-20, batting a combined .282/.358/.435 in 1061 plate appearances and walking at nearly as high a clip as he struck out (9.6% vs. 10.6%). That strong run helped him land a three-year, $18.75MM deal with the Giants, but things didn’t pan out for La Stella either in San Francisco. His .250/.308/.405 line in 242 plate appearances in 2021 was at least passable, but a hamstring tear limited him to just 76 games. The following season saw La Stella miss time with Achilles and neck injuries, batting just .239/.282/.350 in 195 plate appearances between stints on the injured list.

Health troubles have mounted for La Stella in recent years, but given his track record, contact skills and ability to play multiple positions, another club could still show some interest. He’ll likely need to settle for a minor league deal at this point, particularly since it’s not fully clear when he might again be an option to play defense on a regular basis.

A’s Designate Jeurys Familia, Domingo Acevedo For Assignment

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The Athletics are shaking up their bullpen, designating right-handers Jeurys Familia and Domingo Acevedo for assignment, per a team announcement. Righty Adam Oller was also optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. In a set of corresponding moves, righties Spencer Patton, Austin Pruitt and Rico Garcia have all had their contracts selected from Triple-A.

Familia, 33, returned to the A’s for a second stint late in spring training, after the D-backs cut him loose late in spring training. The former Mets closer had enjoyed a strong showing in camp with Arizona and landed a big league deal with Oakland, but things haven’t gone well in his return to the Coliseum. Through 12 2/3 innings, Familia has been tagged for a 6.39 ERA, due in no small part to a sky-high 20.3% walk rate.

It’s been a tough two years for Familia, who was sharp with the Mets from 2020-21 but was roughed up for a 6.09 ERA in 44 1/3 frames between the Phillies and Red Sox in 2022. Familia’s fastball, which once averaged better than 97 mph, sat at what was then a career-low 95.6 mph between those two teams last year. This season, he’s averaged 94.8 mph on the pitch.

As for the 29-year-old Acevedo, his bottom-line run prevention numbers are even more jarring. In 9 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, he’s been clobbered for 11 runs on 16 hits (two homers), a pair of walks and a hit batter with seven punchouts. The resulting 10.61 ERA is more than triple the strong 3.33 mark he posted in 67 2/3 innings for the A’s during the 2022 season.

Acevedo’s velocity hasn’t changed — his 93.2 mph average heater is an exact match with his 2022 velocity — nor has he made any radical alterations to his pitch selection/usage. However, he’s seen his swinging-strike rate plummet from 15.6% to 8.8%, while his opponents’ chase rate has fallen from 35.6% to 29%. While he’s undoubtedly had some poor fortune in terms of batted balls (.400 BABIP), Acevedo also just isn’t missing many bats and is getting chases off the plate at a below-average rate after excelling in both those areas a year ago.

Pruitt returns to the A’s for a second season after spending the bulk of the 2022 campaign in their bullpen and pitching to a 4.23 ERA in 55 1/3 innings. The A’s removed him from the 40-man roster but re-signed him to a minor league deal this past offseason, and he’s begun the year with a 2.30 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 15 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. Pruitt has only fanned 17.4% of his Major League opponents, so he’s not likely to keep missing bats at this level, but he also boasts a very strong 5.3% walk rate in his MLB career.

The 35-year-old Patton has had the most MLB experience in recent seasons. Patton, who starred for NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars for several years before returning to MLB with the Rangers in 2021, pitched to a 3.83 ERA in 49 1/3 innings with Texas in 2021-22. He had a very strong ’21 season, fanning 27.9% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate, but Patton’s velocity dipped by more than a mile per hour in 2022 as his walk and strikeout rates spiked in the wrong directions. Through 8 1/3 innings with Las Vegas this season, he’s allowed four runs on 11 hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts.

Garcia, 29, has appeared in three big league seasons, splitting a total of 24 innings between the Rockies, Giants and Orioles. He has a grisly 6.38 ERA in that time and has issued more walks than strikeouts. However, he’s sitting on a 2.03 ERA in 13 1/3 innings so far in Las Vegas, with a hefty 32.8% strikeout rate and 18% swinging-strike rate against a more troublesome 15.5% walk rate.

Marlins Designate Devin Smeltzer, Select Chi Chi Gonzalez

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The Marlins have designated lefty Devin Smeltzer for assignment, the team announced. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Jacksonville. It’s the second time in the past week that the Marlins have designated Smeltzer for assignment. He cleared waivers the first time around and was immediately selected back to the MLB roster.

Smeltzer returned to the roster to give the Marlins some length out of the bullpen and provided just that, albeit without particularly encouraging results. He tossed 3 2/3 innings of relief in yesterday’s blowout loss to the Braves but was tagged for three runs on three hits — two of them home runs. That rocky outing bumped his season-long ERA to an unsightly 6.89.

The broader track record with Smeltzer is more encouraging. From 2019-22 with the Twins, he logged 140 innings of 3.99 ERA ball, working both out of the rotation and the bullpen at times. Smeltzer has never missed many bats, evidenced by a career 16.3% strikeout rate, but his 6.3% walk rate is solid. As with his last DFA, Smeltzer will be traded or placed on outright waivers again within a week’s time. He’s been previously outrighted, so if he goes unclaimed, he’d have the option of electing free agency and exploring other opportunities.

Like Smeltzer did this week, the 31-year-old Gonzalez will give the Marlins a long relief option to help spare a taxed bullpen. The former first-round pick has settled into a journeyman role, starting five games between three teams (Twins, Yankees, Brewers) in 2022. Miami will be the sixth big league organization for Gonzalez, who’s opened the year with a 4.54 ERA through six starts and 33 2/3 innings at Jacksonville. Gonzalez is out of minor league options, so he could face a similar fate to Smeltzer and righty Johan Quezada, both of whom have been cycled through the final bullpen spot over the past week.

Mets Sign Dominic Leone, Activate Justin Verlander

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11:29am: Leone’s deal with the Mets carries a $1.5MM base salary, tweets DiComo. Once prorated for the remaining number of days on the calendar, that comes out to about $1.22MM. The Mets are paying a 90% luxury tax on any payroll additions at this point. Between that prorated base and heavy tax, the signing of Leone will ultimately cost them about $2.313MM.

10:05am: The Mets have formally announced Leone’s signing. Catcher Omar Narvaez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. New York also reinstated ace Justin Verlander from the injured list, as expected, and optioned both Muckenhirn and John Curtiss to Triple-A Syracuse. Butto has been returned to Syracuse after operating as the 27th man in yesterday’s doubleheader.

9:43am: Veteran right-hander Dominic Leone, who opted out of a minor league deal with the Rangers earlier this week, has a locker set up in the Mets’ clubhouse this morning, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Leone is represented by ACES.

The team hasn’t made a formal announcement just yet and will need to clear a 40-man spot, but Leone is in the clubhouse and in uniform already. Lefty Zach Muckenhirn has been optioned to Triple-A to open a spot for Leone on the active roster, per DiComo, but the team will still need to announce the corresponding 40-man move.

Leone, 31, opened the season with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate and wasn’t added to Texas’ big league roster by his opt-out date — despite an outstanding run to begin the year. In 11 2/3 innings at Round Rock, he posted a 1.59 ERA with a 15-to-2 K/BB ratio and 46.7% ground-ball rate.

This will be Leone’s seventh big league team and the tenth Major League season in which he’s pitched. The right-hander spent the 2021-22 seasons with the Giants, for whom he notched a tidy 2.71 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and elevated 10.4% walk rate over the life of 103 innings. Leone’s fastball sat 95.5 mph in his two years with the Giants, and he delivered impressive swinging-strike and chase rates of 15.7% and 38.4%, respectively.

On the whole, Leone has 356 innings of Major League experience. He’s logged a 3.69 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 1.06 HR/9 mark in that time. ERA alternatives like FIP and SIERA both peg him at exactly 3.91, and he’s tallied 53 holds and seven saves in his career, so he’s no stranger to pitching in leverage spots if need be.

The Mets’ bullpen is taxed after yesterday’s game, which saw long reliever Jose Butto throw 42 pitches, right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis throw 36 pitches and setup man Adam Ottavino toss 24 pitches. With that trio likely unavailable and Muckenhirn optioned to Syracuse, the Mets were a bit light on relief options. Leone will give them a sixth fresh arm to slot into the bullpen for today’s game, and given his broader track record, he figures to have a decent chance at carving out a spot in the ’pen for the remainder of the season if he performs well.

White Sox Place Jake Burger On Injured List

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The White Sox announced that third baseman Jake Burger has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left oblique, which he sustained during his fourth-inning plate appearance in last night’s game. Fellow infielder Lenyn Sosa has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte in his place.

Burger, 27, leads the White Sox with seven home runs and is hitting .224/.312/.612 overall in 77 trips to the plate. He’s walked at a solid 9.1% clip but has also punched out in 31.2% of his plate appearances so far. That early power display and a back injury to Yoan Moncada opened the door for Burger to see regular plate appearances over the past few weeks, but he’ll now join Moncada on the injured list.

The White Sox didn’t provide a specific timetable for Burger’s return, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of a month. With both Burger and Moncada out, the White Sox’ options at third base are veteran Hanser Alberto, who’s had his share of defensive struggles at the hot corner this year, and the newly recalled Sosa. While Sosa has primarily played middle infield in his professional career, he does have 33 games of professional experience at third base and even logged a couple innings there for the Sox earlier this season. Alberto is getting the nod at third base today, with Sosa at second base and Elvis Andrus at shortstop, giving Tim Anderson a day off.

Sosa, 23, appeared in 16 games for the White Sox already this season but batted just .151/.167/.245 in 54 plate appearances. It’s been a completely different story in Triple-A, where in 11 games and 44 trips to the plate he’s posted a dominant .459/.545/.784 slash with two homers, two doubles and more walks (seven) than strikeouts (five). He obviously can’t carry over that level of production to the big leagues, but the Sox would surely be pleased with a mere middle ground between his tepid MLB production and torrid Triple-A output.

Braves Place Kyle Wright On 15-Day Injured List

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May 4: As expected, the Braves announced that Wright has been placed on the 15-day IL and that Dodd has been recalled in his place. The team classified Wright’s injury as right shoulder inflammation.

May 3: Braves right-hander Kyle Wright departed tonight’s game after throwing just 55 pitches in two-plus innings, with the club later announcing his ailment as right shoulder soreness. Manager Brian Snitker later told reporters, including David O’Brien of The Athletic, that Wright will go on the 15-day injured list.

To this point, the severity of Wright’s injury isn’t clear, but it’s noteworthy as an ongoing issue. He also dealt with some shoulder soreness during Spring Training, which put him behind schedule and caused him to start the season on the injured list. He eventually was activated and made five starts, including tonight, but will now return to the IL to figure out what’s going on with his shoulder.

Even if that ultimately ends up being a minor issue, the club will need to proceed without him for the next couple of weeks at least. Wright got some brief stints in the majors in each year from 2018 to 2021 but finally broke out last year by posting a 3.19 ERA in 180 1/3 innings. His 23.6% strikeout rate was right around league average but his 55.6% ground ball rate was quite strong.

The rotation should still be in decent shape, even without Wright’s contributions. Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Max Fried are well established and Bryce Elder seems to be running with his opportunity so far this year by posting a 1.75 ERA through six starts.

Even before the injury to Wright, the club was planning to give a spot start to Dylan Dodd, per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That was to give everyone an extra day of rest after they played a double-header earlier this week, but Dodd could potentially stick around after that. He made two starts earlier this year, allowing just one earned run in the first but seven in the second. He has a 4.91 ERA in three Triple-A starts on the year. If Dodd isn’t kept around for the next few weeks, the club also has Michael Soroka and Jared Shuster as options on the 40-man roster.

Atlanta also got a bit of a scare when outfielder Michael Harris II departed with an apparent knee injury.  The news there is a bit more pleasant as Snitker says they aren’t currently planning to put him on the injured list but will evaluate him some more tomorrow. He’s been struggling this year but in a small sample of just 38 plate appearances due to having spent about three weeks on the IL with a back strain. Last year, he hit 19 home runs, slashed .297/.339/.514, stole 20 bases and provided excellent center field defense en route to winning National League Rookie of the Year honors.

The Opener: Verlander, Taillon, Braves

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As the second month of 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. Verlander’s Mets debut:

Reigning AL Cy Young award winner and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander is set to be activated from the injured list ahead of this afternoon’s game against the Tigers. Verlander signed with the Mets on a two-year deal ahead of his age-40 season, replacing longtime ace Jacob deGrom in the Mets’ rotation, but he has yet to throw a pitch for the club during the regular season due to a teres major strain. Verlander’s debut comes at an opportune time for the Mets, who are 2-8 in their last 10 games and fell to 16-15 after the Tigers swept yesterday’s doubleheader. Verlander will take the ball at 12:10pm CT, looking to help the Mets avoid a series sweep against the Tigers’ Eduardo Rodriguez.

2. Taillon to be activated:

The Cubs are set to activate right-hander Jameson Taillon from the IL  ahead of today’s game against the Nationals. Taillon, who’s been out the past two weeks with a groin strain, signed with the Cubs this past offseason on a four-year, $68MM deal. In his three starts to this point in a Cubs uniform, Taillon posted 4.50 ERA (seven runs in 14 innings) — but with a far more encouraging 16-to-4 K/BB ratio (25.8 strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate) and 1.93 FIP. Taillon rejoins the Cubs as they’re in the midst of a slide in the standings, going 4-9 over their last 13 games, including a 1-5 record on their current road trip.

3. Braves dealing with injuries:

Braves right-hander Kyle Wright left yesterday’s start with a shoulder injury and is headed to the injured list, his second trip of the young 2023 season. Aside from his expected return to the IL, manager Brian Snitker provided few details regarding Wright’s condition, though more information could be available as soon as today. More information could also be made available regarding outfielder Michael Harris II, who left last night’s game with a knee injury. He isn’t currently set to make a trip to the IL, but he’ll be further evaluated today.

The club is expected to call up left-hander Dylan Dodd, who was tagged for eight runs in 9 1/3 innings in two early season starts, to start this afternoon against the Marlins. It’s currently unclear if Dodd is simply going to make his pre-planned spot start before returning to the minors, or if he’ll stick in the rotation for the length of Wright’s absence. Fellow lefty Jared Shuster and right-hander Michael Soroka are among the other options to take over Wright’s spot in the rotation while he’s on the shelf.

MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: White Sox Struggles, Red Sox Options, Managers On The Hot Seat

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Episode 5 of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Simon Hampton is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:

  • The state of the White Sox, and why they find themselves in a deep hole in the AL Central after one month of the season (3:20)
  • If they opt to sell at the deadline, who could they look to move and who might be off limits? (8:10)
  • Whether the Cardinals could look to trade Tommy Edman as Masyn Winn nears the big leagues (18:35)
  • Options for the Red Sox to improve their roster over the next few months (21:54)
  • Plus, are there any managers on the hot seat at this early stage of the season? (25:41)

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