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Nationals Notes: Kuhl, Kieboom, Dickerson

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Prior to this evening’s game against the Cubs, the Nationals placed starter Chad Kuhl on the 15-day injured list. The placement is retroactive to April 30, ruling him out for the next two weeks. Cory Abbott was recalled from Triple-A Rochester to take the open active roster spot.

Kuhl told reporters he sprained the big toe on his right foot during Saturday’s appearance against Pittsburgh (relayed by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com). He stayed in the game and logged 3 2/3 innings but was tagged for eight runs. It was another rough appearance for the 30-year-old, who has allowed four-plus runs in four of five outings this year. He hasn’t gotten past five innings in any of his appearances.

All told, Kuhl lands on the shelf with a 9.41 ERA through his first 22 frames in a Washington uniform. He’s striking out a below-average 16.8% of opponents while walking a lofty 15% of batters faced and surrendering more than two home runs per nine innings. The offseason minor league signee will obviously have to perform better once he returns from the IL if he’s to hang onto his roster spot for the entire season.

The rebuilding Nationals enter play Monday with a 4.75 rotation ERA that ranks 18th in the majors. Young pitchers Josiah Gray and MacKenzie Gore are both faring well from a run prevention perspective, though Gore has walked an alarming 14.4% of opponents. Trevor Williams has provided a 4.10 ERA over 26 1/3 frames, while veterans Kuhl and Patrick Corbin have been hit hard.

Abbott seems likely to step into Kuhl’s rotation spot. The righty started nine of 16 big league outings last year and has opened all five of his appearances in Rochester this season. He carries a 6.46 ERA in spite of a strong 28.8% strikeout rate over 23 2/3 Triple-A innings.

The Nationals also provided reporters with injury updates on the position player side. Infielder Carter Kieboom is soon to report to Double-A Harrisburg for a rehab stint, tweets Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. That sets the stage for a forthcoming return to major league action, which’ll be Kieboom’s first MLB game time since 2021. The right-handed hitter missed all of last season with a forearm issue that eventually required Tommy John surgery; he’s been out for the first month of this year on account of a shoulder impingement. A former top prospect, Kieboom carries a career .197/.304/.285 batting line and is looking to establish himself as a potential long-term piece.

Outfielder Corey Dickerson landed on the IL with a strained left calf two games into the season. He’s further behind in his recovery. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, Dickerson has been throwing and swinging a bat but is not yet cleared to run. He signed a $2.25MM free agent deal over the winter to add a veteran left-handed bat to the corner outfield rotation.

Astros Place Jose Urquidy On Injured List

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The Astros have placed starter José Urquidy on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder discomfort, per a club announcement. Righty Brandon Bielak was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land to take the vacated active roster spot.

Urquidy departed last night’s start against Philadelphia with the injury. The club announced postgame he was headed for an MRI. Chandler Rome of the Athletic tweets the team has yet to provide any specifics on the imaging, as Urquidy is slated to meet with medical personnel to analyze the results this evening. Regardless, Houston determined they weren’t going to run Urquidy back out there within the next two weeks.

The 28-year-old righty has started six games this year. He owns a 5.20 ERA through 27 2/3 innings. He’s striking hitters out at a below-average 18.7% clip while walking a career-high 8.1% of opponents. While it has been a bland first month, Urquidy has been a reliable mid-rotation control specialist for the bulk of his big league career. He’d allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine in spite of middling strikeout tallies for the past few years, including a 3.94 ERA across a personal-best 164 1/3 innings last season.

Houston is also without Lance McCullers Jr. due to injury. The Astros are down to a four-man starting staff of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and touted rookie Hunter Brown (who has had an excellent first month in a big league rotation). Bielak has starting experience but manager Dusty Baker said the club will use him out of the bullpen initially (relayed by Mark Berman of Fox 26). Houston has an off day Thursday, allowing them to potentially skip the fifth starter this week while keeping everyone else on regular rest.

Tigers Sign Heath Hembree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed right-hander Heath Hembree to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He elected free agency last week after being outrighted by the Rays. He’s been assigned to the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.

This is the third relief pitcher the Tigers have added today, as they also signed left-hander Sam Clay to a minor league deal and claimed right-hander Braden Bristo off waivers from the Rays. Those three will give the club some extra depth arms in Toledo to be potentially called upon when needed.

Hembree, 34, was a fixture of the Boston bullpen for many years. From 2016 to 2019, he made at least 38 appearances in every one of those seasons with his ERA finishing between 2.65 and 4.20 in each. He struck out 25.8% of batters faced in that time against an 8.6% walk rate while racking up a couple of saves and 43 holds.

Since then, he’s worn many different jerseys as he’s become a well-traveled journeyman. From 2020 to 2022, he went from the Sox to the Phillies, Mets, Reds, Pirates and Dodgers. This winter, he signed a minor league deal with the Rays and got selected to the big league club last week but was designated for assignment the very next day. He managed to make one scoreless appearances of an inning and a third during his brief stay on the roster.

Hembree cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A but rejected that in favor of a return to the open market. Any player with a previous career outright or more than three years of service time has that right, both of which apply to Hembree. He’ll now head to Toledo and try to earn his way back to the big leagues and add yet another new jersey to his collection.

Submit Your Questions For The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast

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Each week on the MLB Trade Rumors podcast we’ll answer questions submitted by our readers. With the next episode due out Wednesday morning, we’re looking for MLBTR readers to submit a voice memo with their question and we’ll pick three to answer.

If there’s anything you’d like to get our thoughts on then please submit your questions via a voice memo to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.

Voice memos will be played out on air so speak clearly and cleanly. Please start your recording with your name and try and keep it as succinct as possible – no more than 15 seconds. An example might be: “Hey guys, Simon here in Minneapolis, what are your thoughts on the Pablo Lopez extension and do you think the Twins will try and extend any of their other starters?”

We look forward to hearing from you!

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

You can also listen to Episode 4 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts! On that episode, Betsy Helfand and I discussed the A’s likely move to Las Vegas and the state of the Twins, while Anthony Franco and I talked Bryan Reynolds’ extension with the Pirates and what’s next for Madison Bumgarner.

Yankees Place Aaron Judge On Injured List

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The Yankees announced that outfielder Aaron Judge has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 28, with a right hip strain. Outfielder Franchy Cordero was recalled in a corresponding move.

Judge was diagnosed with a hip strain in recent days but he and the club tried to see how it developed before officially placing him on the injured list. IL placements can be backdated as many as three days, as long as the player didn’t play in that time. Judge last played on Thursday but it seems that there’s still enough lingering concern with the issue that he’ll take another week off to get it healthy.

Obviously, playing without Judge will be a blow for the Yanks as he’s one of the best players on the planet. Last year, he had an epic season that involved 62 home runs, a 15.9% walk rate and a .311/.425/.686 batting line. Keeping that kind of production going for a second straight year would have been an incredibly difficult task and Judge is indeed shy of that, but his .261/.352/.511 line this year is still excellent.

While losing Judge will undoubtedly hurt the Yanks, it’s still quite early in the season and it makes sense for the club to exercise caution as opposed to heedlessly throwing him into the lineup every day and risk of exacerbating the issue. Since his IL placement seemed to be a borderline case, it seems fair to expect a minimal stint, though the club hasn’t announced any kind of official timeline.

Without Judge, the Yanks will have a hodgepodge of outfielders jockeying for playing time, including Cordero, Willie Calhoun, Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jake Bauers and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. None of those players is having a strong season so far, with Cordero’s .151/.182/.396 batting line and 52 wRC+ the strongest of the bunch.

Help could be on the way shortly, however, as Harrison Bader is currently on a rehab assignment. He’s missed the entire season thus far due to an oblique strain but manager Aaron Boone tells reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, that he could be back by this weekend.

Tigers Claim Braden Bristo, Transfer Austin Meadows To 60-Day IL

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5:05pm: The Tigers have announced the claim of Bristo, who has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. The corresponding move is transferring outfielder Austin Meadows to the 60-day injured list. Meadows was placed on the 10-day IL due to anxiety on April 7 and will now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that point, which would be early June.

1:35pm: The Tigers have claimed right-hander Braden Bristo off waivers from the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Bristo was designated for assignment on the weekend when the Rays acquired right-hander Javy Guerra from the Brewers. The Tigers have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move in order to open a spot for Bristo.

Bristo, 28, was drafted by the Yankees in 2016 and was on their farm through the end of 2022, working exclusively in relief apart from a couple of two-inning starts as an opener. He made it all the way up to Triple-A, posting big strikeout totals but also dealing out more than his fair share of walks. He tossed 103 1/3 Triple-A innings between 2021 and 2022, posting a 4.70 ERA with a 27.1% strikeout rate but also a 13.2% walk rate.

He reached free agency in the winter and signed a minor league deal with the Rays, who selected his contract just over two weeks ago. He made one appearance against the Red Sox, tossing three innings without allowing a run, but was optioned back to Triple-A Durham the next day. He has an ERA of 10.00 in a small sample of six appearances for the Bulls this year.

Bristo will now head over to the Tigers, who will see if they can help him better harness his strikeout stuff so that he limits the free passes. The righty still has a full slate of options and essentially no service time, meaning he can be a depth option for the foreseeable future as long as he continues to hang onto his spot on the 40-man.

Giants Place Brandon Crawford, Mike Yastrzemski On IL

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4:50pm: Crawford provided a few more details to members of the media, including Slusser (Twitter links). He said his own MRI showed his strain to be worse than he thought but he still expects to return after a minimum stint on the IL. He also says that Yastrzemski’s strain is of the Grade 1 variety, or the least severe.

4:30pm: The Giants announced a few roster moves prior to tonight’s game, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle among those to relay them on Twitter. Outfielder Cal Stevenson and infielder Brett Wisely were recalled from Triple-A to take the spots of shortstop Brandon Crawford and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, who have both been placed on the 10-day injured list. Crawford’s move, which is retroactive to April 30, is due to a right calf strain whereas Yastrzemski is dealing with a left hamstring strain.

The club hasn’t provided timelines for either player, but these moves will mean the Giants will play at least the next little while without two of their lineup regulars. Crawford, 36, has been the club’s shortstop for over a decade now, having taking over the job back in 2011. He’s long been considered a strong defender and has had seasons where he’s been an above-average performer on both sides of the ball. The most recent of those was 2021, where he hit .298/.373/.522 for a wRC+ of 138. Towards the end of that season, with Crawford headed for the open market, he and the club agreed on a two-year, $32MM extension to keep him around.

Though the Giants eventually won 107 games that year, things haven’t gone as well since, both for the club or for Crawford personally. He hit .231/.308/.344 last year for a wRC+ of 87 while making multiple trips to the injured list, with the Giants eventually finishing 81-81. This year, he’s hitting just .169/.244/.352 for a wRC+ of 63 as the club is out to a rough 11-16 start in the early going. He experienced some calf tightness on Saturday and didn’t play in yesterday’s game.

As for Yastrzemski, he departed yesterday’s game with the hamstring strain and was reported to be undergoing an MRI, so it’s not surprising to see he’ll be taking a bit of a breather here. He had a bit of a down year at the plate in 2022, hitting .214/.305/.392 for a wRC+ of 99, but he he’d been off to a great start here in 2023. His current batting line is .292/.333/.521, which translated to a wRC+ of 131. That strong stretch of play will now but put on hold for an undetermined amount of time.

Taking their place will be Wisely and Stevenson. The former has been up and down for the Giants a few times already this season, but Stevenson will be making his debut with the club whenever he gets into a game. He was acquired from the Athletics a couple of weeks ago but has been kept in Triple-A since then. He made his major league debut with the A’s last year but hit just .167/.261/.217 in 23 games. He has a much nicer batting line of .288/.392/.415 in Triple-A dating back to the start of 2022.

With Crawford sitting out yesterday’s game, the club used Thairo Estrada at short and will likely keep him there for the time being. He’s off to a torrid start this year, hitting .346/.393/.529 while playing a lot of second base. His move should leave the keystone open for someone like David Villar, though he’s sitting on a line of .156/.258/.351 at the moment. A .174 batting average on balls in play suggests positive regression is forthcoming, but they could look to other options. There’s also Wilmer Flores, who has been primarily at the corners this year but has plenty of second base experience in previous seasons. Wisely is primarily an infielder and could be in the mix to help out there, but he also might be needed in center field, helping to cover for Yastrzemski alongside Austin Slater.

Jonathan Loáisiga To Undergo Surgery To Remove Bone Spur

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Yankees right-hander Jonathan Loáisiga will undergo surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com (Twitter links). Loáisiga won’t be able to throw for the next three to six weeks and Boone estimates he won’t return to the big league club until August or September.

Loáisiga, 28, has been on the injured list for most of the year so far. He made just three appearances before hitting the shelf a few weeks ago, with his ailment listed at that time as elbow inflammation. It now seems the specific problem has been found and he will go under the knife, missing the next few months of the season.

It’s an unfortunate development for both the club and Loáisiga, who has emerged as a key piece of the bullpen in recent seasons. Going back to the start of 2020, the righty has tossed 145 innings with a 3.04 ERA. He’s struck out 21.5% of batters faced in that time while walking just 7% and has kept balls in play on the ground at an excellent 58.9% clip.

The Yankees have been getting effective relief work even with injuries to Loaisiga, Lou Trivino and Tommy Kahnle, as their collective 2.93 ERA ranks second in the majors right now. But they will have to now stretch that out for a few more months with depleted depth.

For Loaisiga personally, he is making $2.26MM this season in his second pass through the arbitration system. He’ll be set for one more in 2024 before he’s slated to reach free agency. His earning power for next year will be limited based on the fact that he won’t be able to contribute much this year.

Mets Select Zach Muckenhirn

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3:35pm: Between games of today’s doubleheader, the Mets have now announced they’ve selected Muckenhirn to the roster. In a corresponding move, right-hander Stephen Ridings was transferred to the 60-day injured list. He’s been on the IL all year due to a lat strain and now won’t be eligible to return until late May at the earliest. The 60-day count goes from his initial IL placement, not today’s transfer. Additionally, righty Denyi Reyes was optioned between games of the twin bill while José Butto was recalled.

11:28am: The Mets are set to select the contract of left-handed reliever Zach Muckenhirn in advance of today’s doubleheader against the Braves, reports Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). He’s not yet on the 40-man roster. The team has not formally announced the move, so it’s not yet clear whether Muckenhirn will be up for both games of the doubleheader or just the nightcap.

Muckenhirn, 28, inked a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter and has had a strong start in Triple-A Syracuse, where he’s held opponents to one run on 10 hits and four walks in 11 2/3 frames. The former 11th-round pick (2016, Orioles) also boasts a strong 51.3% ground-ball rate, but he’s punched out just four of his 47 opponents on the year so far (8.5%).

With Brooks Raley landing on the injured list due to elbow inflammation over the weekend and David Peterson being optioned to Syracuse as well, the Mets’ only lefty on the big league roster had been Joey Lucchesi, who’s currently working out of the rotation, Muckenhirn will give manager Buck Showalter an option in the bullpen for today’s twin bill and perhaps for the foreseeable future, depending on today’s bullpen usage.

Muckenhirn has spent the majority of his career in the Orioles organization, but he was with the White Sox organization in each of the past two seasons, generally pitching well with their Double-A and Triple-A clubs. In parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level, Muckenhirn has a 3.45 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and a 44% ground-ball rate.

Dodgers Designate Austin Wynns For Assignment

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May 1: The Dodgers have now made this official, with Rojas recalled and Wynns designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

April 30: The Dodgers have designated catcher Austin Wynns for assignment, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group reports (via Twitter).  Wynns was signed to a Major League contract a little over two weeks ago, as the Dodgers were looking to add some catching depth while Will Smith was on the concussion-related injured list.

With Smith now back in action, the Dodgers were in need of roster space, since Miguel Rojas will probably be activated from the 10-day injured list on Monday and prospect Gavin Stone is being called up (and added to the 40-man roster) in advance of a scheduled start on Wednesday.  That makes Wynns the odd man out, as Los Angeles will return to its usual catching tandem of Smith and Austin Barnes now that Smith has been fully cleared for catching duty.  Wynns ended up appearing in five games in his brief time on the Dodgers’ active roster, with a .523 OPS over 12 plate appearances.

The veteran backstop has already appeared for two different teams in under a month of the 2023 season, as Wynns’ minor league contract was selected by the Giants for a single game before he was DFA’ed earlier this month.  Since Wynns has been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in his career, he had the opportunity to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment from San Francisco, and he indeed took the option of re-entering the open market.

Assuming Wynns clears waivers, he might again opt for free agency rather than remain in the Dodgers organization, considering that (when healthy) Smith and Barnes are a stable duo behind the plate.  If Wynns did accept an outright assignment, David Freitas and Patrick Mazeika are also on hand as MLB-experienced catching depth options at the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, and Hunter Feduccia is also seeing action behind the plate. The fact that Los Angeles signed Wynns at the time of Smith’s injury could indicate their preference for a more seasoned catcher over their other Triple-A candidates, or Wynns might prefer to test the market again in search of a less-crowded depth chart.

Wynns has appeared in five MLB seasons, gaining most of his playing time in a part-time capacity with the Orioles in 2018 and 2021, and with the Giants last season.  Wynns has hit only .229/.273/.334 over 522 career plate appearances, but the 32-year-old has a good reputation for his defense and ability to handle pitchers.  With this in mind, it certainly seems possible that Wynns might catch on elsewhere, given how clubs are constantly on the lookout for help behind the plate.

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