The Guardians made a series of roster moves today, with Zack Meisel of The Athletic among those to relay them. Catcher Zack Collins has been selected to the roster while left-hander Tim Herrin has been recalled. In corresponding moves, Cam Gallagher was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list while lefty Daniel Norris was designated for assignment.
Gallagher was removed from last night’s game with a potential head injury, per Tom Withers of the Associated Press. It appeared to stem from being struck by a foul ball earlier in the contest, per Bally Sports Cleveland. It seems the issue is significant enough that the club will give him a breather for at least a week.
The Guards have had Gallagher and Bo Naylor as their catching duo in recent days, with David Fry having been placed on the IL due to a left hamstring strain last week and Mike Zunino released earlier in the summer. With Gallagher now set to miss some time, the club needed an extra backstop and has opted for Collins.
The 28-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Guards in the offseason and has been with Triple-A Columbus all year so far. In 109 games at that level this season, he’s hit .255/.364/.437 for a wRC+ of 101. He’s struck out in 31.5% of his plate appearances but walked at a 14.5% clip and launched 15 home runs.
That’s somewhat similar output to what he’s done in the majors so far. In 150 games dating back to 2019 with the White Sox, Blue Jays and Pirates, he’s been punched out at a 33.6% clip while walking in 12.9% of his trips to the plate. He has 11 home runs in 459 plate appearances while slashing .185/.295/.327 for a 74 wRC+. He has generally received poor marks for his defense in the big leagues, with -23 from Defensive Runs Saved so far and a score of -16.7 from the FanGraphs framing metric.
Collins is out of options but can be retained for future seasons via arbitration if he continues to hang onto his roster spot. He came into this year with a service time tally of two years and 95 days. He won’t have enough time to reach the three-year mark this year and could therefore be controlled for four future seasons.
In order to get Collins onto the 40-man, the Guards have bumped off Norris. The 30-year-old southpaw signed a minor league deal with Cleveland in the offseason and has twice now been selected and then designated for assignment shortly thereafter. He’s made six appearances for the Guards with a 3.38 ERA but has been helped by a .172 batting average on balls in play in that time. He has a 5.60 ERA in 53 Triple-A innings this year.
With the trade deadline now in the rearview, the Guards will have to put Norris on waivers in the coming days. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but he accepted his outright when he was DFA’d in June and could perhaps do the same again this time around.
Cam Gallagher should never see the Guardians roster again.
OPS+ of -4
I am laughing too hard at this. There are guys at my gym that could out-hit him
@left nut you didn’t read above? It says ” In order to get Collins onto the 40-man, the Guards have bumped off Norris.”
RIP Norris. I didn’t think he pitched THAT bad!
I don’t know. Guardians seem to have a penchant for catchers who have the hitting skills of most pitchers.
Letting Hedges go was huge mistake. The fact he’s outhit Cam speaks volumes.
He has almost a 6 FIP…But he’s a lefty, he’ll latch on somewhere.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up going back to Columbus.
Mike Zunino walks into a TMobile store to complain that his phone hasn’t rung once since CLE released him. The agent examines the phone and says, “Oh I see the problem! You SUCKED this year in every way imaginable. I wish I could help you, sir. Who’s next?!!”
Cam Gallagher makes Zunino look like Barry Bonds.
Van Man is still around? Wow. Daniel Norris has nine lives as a MLB pitcher.
I thought that was a picture of Bumgarner. Haven’t heard a word about him since the Dbacks released him. Mason Saunders must be living it up on the rodeo circuit.
Surprised about no comments on Collins. He was mashing in the minors earlier, cooled off but he and Luken Baker were both at 18 home runs earlier in the season.
Watching Collins try to catch will make fans long for Gallagher.
Best case scenario: Collins becomes a serviceable bench bat with a little power that can pretend to be a major league catcher. Fry could be the actual backup catcher when he comes off the IL and they could find at bats for both, especially since Bo Naylor is apparently forbidden from playing on consecutive days.
Most likely scenario: Collins is up for a week, goes 0-4, and gets DFAed for Gallagher coming back. The 2023 Guardians continue their impressive run of Immaculate Grid immortality.
Norris will go home and collect the rest of his money. Sign a minor league deal with an invite in the off-season.
I thought they may pick up Kevin Plawecki for the seven day assignment. Norris was a much better option in the pen than Herrin, but the Guards are doing their best to let the Twins run away with the division, but Minnesota doesn’t seem interested in doing so.