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Archives for August 2023

Nationals Select Drew Millas

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The Nationals announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Drew Millas, a move that seemed to be coming since it was reported yesterday that Millas was travelling with the club to Toronto. In corresponding moves, outfielder Blake Rutherford was optioned after yesterday’s game while righty Carl Edwards Jr. was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Millas, now 25, was originally drafted by the Athletics in 2019 but came to the Nats in the 2021 deadline deal that sent Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison the other way. He has since climbed his way up the minor league ladder, finishing last year at Double-A. Coming into this year, he was considered the club’s #25 prospect by Baseball America, who highlighted his defense but expressed concerns about his aggressiveness at the plate, with Millas having been punched out in 31.4% of his Double-A plate appearances last year.

He started this year back at Double-A and showed a great deal of improvement. In 99 plate appearances, he struck out at just a 16.2% clip and slashed .341/.455/.537, getting promoted to Triple-A in late May. FanGraphs then published its list of top prospects in the system in early June, bumping Millas up to the #6 spot. Since getting up to Triple-A, he’s taken 229 trips to the plate over 58 games. He drew walks at a 11.4% rate and struck out at a 14.4% strikeout clip while hitting .270/.362/.403 and will now get a bump to the majors.

The Nats will now have a three-catcher setup a tad earlier than usual, as such roster alignments are popular around the league when rosters expand in September. Millas will join Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams as the club’s catching trio for the time being, perhaps for the remainder of the season. The club has been playing well of late but are still well below .500 and eight games out of a playoff spot, meaning they are still clearly focused on the future.

Ruiz is hitting around a league average rate this year but his defensive marks aren’t great, including -11 Defensive Runs Saved and negative grades for his framing from both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus. Nonetheless, he is fairly settled in as the club’s primary backstop, having signed an eight-year extension back in March. Adams is also graded poorly for his glovework but has a strong .278/.338/.489 batting line for the year. Most of that damage has come against lefties, as the right-handed hitter is slashing .349/.414/.603 with the platoon advantage. The Nats will have the final month-plus of the schedule to sprinkle playing time around to these three and determine how to proceed in future seasons.

As for Edwards, his transfer is little more than a formality. He’s already been on the injured list longer than 60 days, having landed there on June 21. He’s eligible to be reinstated whenever he’s healthy, but that isn’t likely to be in the near future as he was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in his throwing shoulder and shut down.

Blue Jays Place Matt Chapman On Injured List

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The Blue Jays have placed third baseman Matt Chapman on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right middle finger, per a team announcement. Infielder Ernie Clement has been recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to take his spot on the active roster. Chapman exited yesterday’s game with discomfort in that finger, and manager John Schneider revealed after the game that it had been bothering Chapman for several weeks after a weight room accident.

Chapman’s season began with a blistering hot streak that saw the former A’s slugger briefly regain the MVP-caliber form he’d displayed earlier in his career. Through the end of April, the two-time Platinum Glove winner posted an outrageous .384/.465/.687 batting line with a 12.3% walk rate and 22.8% strikeout rate. That checked in 115% better than league average, by measure of wRC+, but Chapman’s previous strikeout woes have since come roaring back since that time. In 406 plate appearances dating back to May 1, he’s batted .211/.303/.360 with a 30% strikeout rate.

The past few weeks have indeed been particularly difficult; Schneider didn’t place an exact date on Chapman’s injury, but he’s hitting .194/.256/.278 since the trade deadline — a far cry from the month of July, when he looked to be on the upswing (.247/.402/.506). Chapman averaged a hefty 94.2 mph off the bat with a massive 59.3% hard-hit rate through Aug. 1 of this season, but since the deadline he’s been at 89.5 mph and 41.3%, respectively, in those regards. It seems rather clear that something hasn’t been right.

It’s not presently known just how long Chapman will be sidelined, though the Jays will certainly hope for a swift return. Even as his bat has fallen off, Chapman has continued to play his customary brand of excellent defense at third base. His batted-ball profile also creates some consistent hope for a turnaround at the plate. Players who can consistently make high-end contact at Chapman’s rate tend to eventually see their production line up with those batted-ball trends. Toronto is currently 2.5 games out of the American League Wild Card hunt as well, and getting a healthy Chapman back into the lineup would be a boon as they look to chase down the Rays, Rangers and Astros — who currently hold those three Wild Card spots.

A speedy return to the lineup will also be of importance to Chapman himself, who’s slated to become a free agent for the first time at season’s end. The month of August hasn’t gone as he’d hoped following a productive July, and the ideal scenario for him would be to allow that barking hand to heal and finish out the season on a productive stretch. A qualifying offer for Chapman appears quite likely, and provided he can return and finish out the season with a strong performance, he’d have little hesitation in rejecting it in favor of a multi-year deal. Up-and-down as his season may have been, Chapman is currently batting .248/.338/.431 on the whole — production that’s about 13% better than league average, per wRC+. Coupled with his standout glovework and the general upside of his batted-ball profile, he’d still be one of the market’s most sought-after free agents — albeit not to the extent that he’d have been had he maintained his plus offensive output all season.

Francisco Mejia Accepts Outright Assignment With Rays

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Catcher Francisco Mejia, whom the Rays designated for assignment last week, has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham after clearing waivers and will remain with the organization, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. As a player with more than five years of service time, Mejia could’ve rejected that assignment in favor of free agency and still retained the remainder of this year’s $2.2MM salary, but he’ll opt to remain with the Rays and hope for a call back to the big leagues. If he’s not added back to the 40-man roster between now and season’s end, Mejia can become a free agent to begin the offseason.

Mejia, 27, was once regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball but has not yet seen his offense in the big leagues match his prodigious output in the upper minors. The switch-hitter is a .304/.348/.507 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, but the former San Diego and Cleveland farmhand has produced just a .239/.284/.394 batting line in 1098 plate appearances between his three organizations. Cleveland flipped him to San Diego as part of the 2018 Brad Hand trade, while the Friars sent him to Tampa Bay as part of 2020’s Blake Snell trade.

While Mejia showed some promise in 2021, hitting .260/.322/.416 in his first season with the Rays, he’s batted .237/.262/.387 in 143 games since that time. He’s regularly drawn below-average framing grades, and this year he’s thwarted just four of the 42 stolen base attempts against him. Dating back to the 2018 season, Statcast also grades him 61st of 75 qualified catchers in terms of pitch blocking (-14 blocks above average).

With Mejia now off the 40-man roster (but still in the organization), the Rays are going with the light-hitting but defensively superior tandem of Rene Pinto and Christian Bethancourt behind the plate. Mejia will now be the primary fallback option for that pair, and with rosters set to expand to 28 players on Sept. 1, it could be easier to get him back on the big league roster if the organization wishes to do so.

Jorge Soler Interested In Extension With Marlins

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1:25pm: Mish now tweets that Soler’s agent, Dan Lozano of the MVP Sports Group, tells him there have not yet been any formal extension discussions with the team. Mish adds that Soler is interested in remaining with Miami, however.

11:47am: The Marlins and designated hitter Jorge Soler have held “preliminary” talks about a potential contract extension, Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald report. Soler’s contract calls for him to earn $12MM next year — a number that’ll soon jump to $13MM when he tallies his 550th plate appearance — but that’s a player option. Soler, unsurprisingly, is likely to decline that player option and return to the open market if a new deal isn’t reached, per the report.

The 31-year-old Soler is in the midst of a rebound season at the plate, having slashed .241/.328/.516 with 35 home runs in 525 trips to the plate. It’s a stark turnaround from the 2022 season — his first in Miami — during which he batted just .207/.295/.400 during an injury-marred campaign. Soler has slightly improved on his walk rate in ’23 (10.7%), and his strikeout rate has fallen from an ugly 29.4% last year to a more manageable 24.6% in 2023.

Soler’s 91 mph average exit velocity (76th percentile), 15.1% barrel rate (93rd percentile) and 47.5% hard-hit rate (82nd percentile) all lend some credence to his rebound effort at the plate. His 35 home runs tie him with Mookie Betts for fifth in the Majors. He’s held his own against right-handed pitching (.229/.310/.458) and absolutely decimated left-handed opponents (.282/.380/.718). As such, teams that have struggled against southpaws could have particular interest in Soler this winter.

Between that success at the plate and a woefully thin class of free-agent position players this winter, it’s only logical that Soler would exercise his right to opt back into free agency. His Herculean run with the Braves following a 2021 trade from Kansas City to Atlanta set the stage for Soler to land his current three-year, $36MM deal in free agency. And while Soler is now a couple years older, of course, his 2023 campaign at the plate has been a more consistent and complete year overall than he had in 2021 (.223/.316/.432 between the Royals and Braves).

One potentially complicating factor this time around would be a qualifying offer. Soler was ineligible to receive a QO last time he reached free agency, due to the fact that he was traded midseason. He’ll spend the entire 2023 season with one team and, as a player who hasn’t previously received a QO, will be eligible for one this winter. The QO value figures to increase from last year’s $19.65MM, likely surpassing $20MM this time around. As is frequently the case, Soler probably won’t match that AAV on a multi-year deal, but he could earn more than double the QO value in guaranteed money on a multi-year deal in free agency.

There will be fewer impact bats available in free agency this offseason than perhaps at any point in recent history. Shohei Ohtani and Cody Bellinger topped the most recent edition of MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings, and Jeimer Candelario is having his third strong season in his past four years.

There’s little in the way of productive, prime-aged hitters reaching the market thereafter. Matt Chapman’s bat has cooled considerably since a torrid start to the season. Teoscar Hernandez is having his least-productive campaign since 2018. Neither Michael Conforto nor Hunter Renfroe is hitting anywhere close to previous peak levels. Rhys Hoskins tore his ACL in spring training. Justin Turner seems likely to decline his own player option, but he’ll turn 39 this winter. J.D. Martinez is having a strong season but has twice been on the injured list and just turned 36.

Jackson and Mish write that Soler has enjoyed his time in Miami and has interest in working out a longer-term arrangement. That said, between his age and this year’s production, Soler will have a case as one of the more appealing bats on a thin market. Given his proximity to free agency, it seems unlikely he’d take a substantial discount. The Marlins already outbid the field to sign Soler once, when signing him to his current contract, but it’d not yet clear if they’ll be comfortable putting forth another market-value offer when Soler’s stock is presumably higher than it was last time around.

Rockies Outright Justin Bruihl

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The Rockies have sent left-hander Justin Bruihl outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Bruihl, 26, made seven appearances for the Rockies this month after being acquired from the Dodgers in a cash deal. Unfortunately, he allowed six earned runs in his 3 2/3 innings in that time. An incredibly low 12.5% strand rate surely distorted his 14.73 ERA in that small sample, but he quickly lost his roster spot nonetheless.

He could have perhaps garnered interest based on his longer track record with the Dodgers, having had a 3.65 ERA with that club from 2021 to the present season. However, he only struck out 15.6% of batters faced in that time, with a .263 batting average on balls in play and 74.8% strand rate helping him out. ERA estimators like his 4.48 FIP and 4.62 SIERA suggested he may have had some luck helping him keep a few extra runs off the board.

No other club put in a claim, so Bruihl will stay in the Rockies’ organization as non-roster depth. He doesn’t have three years of service time or a previous career outright, meaning he won’t have the right to reject this assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll therefore head to Albuquerque and look to work his way back to the majors.

Braves Promote Darius Vines, Activate Ozzie Albies

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The Braves announced a handful of roster moves Monday, optioning infielder Vaughn Grissom and lefty Jared Shuster to Triple-A Gwinnett while recalling righty Darius Vines for his MLB debut and reinstating second baseman Ozzie Albies from the injured list.

Vines, 25, was Atlanta’s seventh-round pick back in 2019 and has pitched well across three minor league levels this season after returning from a lengthy absence brought about by shoulder inflammation. Baseball America currently ranks him fifth among Braves prospects, while MLB.com has him tenth and FanGraphs pegs him 13th.

Since returning from the injured list in June, Vines has made nine starts: two with the team’s Rookie-level affiliate in the Florida Complex League, two in High-A and five with Triple-A Gwinnett once those four rehab appearances were complete. He hadn’t pitched beyond six innings until his most recent outing — a seven-inning start against the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate — but Vines has reached 90 pitches in each of his past three starts. He’ll give the Braves a long option out of the bullpen or a candidate to make a spot start, as needed.

In 43 1/3 innings this year, the Cal State Bakersfield product has posted a 2.70 ERA with a 27.1% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate. Scouting reports at BA, MLB.com and FanGraphs tab Vines as a potential back-of-the-rotation arm thanks to his command of a three-pitch repertoire (fastball, slider, changeup). The changeup draws plus (60 on the 20-80 scale) or better offerings, with BA’s report noting that some scouts have put a plus-plus (70) grade on the pitch.

Vines joins Shuster, Dylan Dodd, Michael Soroka, AJ Smith–Shawver, Allan Winans and (once healthy) Ian Anderson as an in-house option who can compete for a rotation job next year. The Braves are largely set with Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Bryce Elder and a soon-to-return Kyle Wright making up the front four in the rotation both down the stretch and likely in the 2023 postseason. Morton isn’t a lock to return — the Braves have a $20MM option on him for the 2024 season — which will leave at least one and possibly two spots to be sorted out next spring. (The offseason could bring about trades and/or free-agent additions to address the starting staff, of course.)

As for Albies, he’ll return after two weeks on the shelf due to a strained hamstring. The Braves initially expressed optimism that Albies was only dealing with some minor cramping and might not even require an IL stint, but further testing revealed what wound up apparently being a fairly minor strain. Given Atlanta’s overwhelming lead in the NL East, there was every reason to proceed with caution, as they can effectively sleepwalk their way to a division title with a 12.5-game lead and just 33 games left to be played. Albies is in the midst of another terrific season, batting .267/.327/..514 with 28 home runs in 510 plate appearances.

Charlie Morton’s Continued Late-Career Success

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Shortly before the start of last offseason, the Braves checked off a key part of their winter checklist. Atlanta agreed to preemptively exercise a $20MM option on Charlie Morton at the end of September. In exchange, the veteran righty gave the club a matching option for the ’24 campaign.

It was a fairly typical move for an organization that has both been very aggressive on doling out in-season extensions and adept at securing future option years. At the same time, the decision was met with a fair bit of skepticism from a chunk of the fanbase (as evidenced by the comment section on MLBTR’s post). It was a relatively lofty salary — albeit on just a one-year commitment — for a pitcher who carried a 4.29 ERA during his age-38 campaign at the time of signing.

The Braves bet on Morton’s more impressive peripherals and sustained mid-90s velocity in projecting his ERA to improve this year. They’ve been proven right in that evaluation, as the 16-year veteran is turning in one of the better seasons of his career. Morton carries a 3.37 ERA across 141 2/3 innings over 25 starts. He’s averaging 5 2/3 frames per appearance, a bit better than last season, and is on his way to a fifth sub-4.00 showing in the seven years since his late-career breakout for the 2017 Astros.

Morton has been particularly good of late. In 10 starts dating back to the beginning of July, he owns a 2.70 ERA across 56 2/3 innings. He’s reeled off three straight scoreless outings in his last trio of appearances, fanning 25 hitters in the process. Those starts have admittedly come against the plummeting New York offenses, but it’s still a promising sign for Atlanta as they set their pitching staff for October.

On the whole, the two-time All-Star has performed as the front office had envisioned. His strikeout rate has taken a slight step back, dipping from 28.2% a season ago to 25.5% this year. That’s still a couple points above the 22.1% league mark for starting pitchers. Morton has compensated for the slight dip in punchouts with a few more grounders.

His repertoire looks as strong as it had been. Morton’s 94.9 MPH average four-seam fastball speed exactly matches last year’s mark. His curveball velocity is up a tick. He’s getting whiffs on both those offerings at a similar clip as he did in 2022. Morton’s overall swinging-strike rate is trending to land between 12% and 13% for a fifth consecutive season.

The only quibble with his performance has been spotty command. The righty has battled walks intermittently throughout his career, particularly since finding the velocity surge that has enabled his productive second act as a power pitcher. He’s walking just under 11% of opposing hitters this year, which would be his highest full-season rate since his 2008 rookie campaign. No National League pitcher has plunked more batters than Morton, who has hit 10 opponents. That’s a decent amount of free passes, but he hasn’t had any issue working around those extra baserunners thanks to his strikeouts and general lack of authoritative contact allowed.

Keeping Morton has taken on extra importance for an Atlanta team that has needed to tap into its rotation depth more than it did a year ago. The Braves had nine players log at least 10 innings out of the rotation in 2022; they’re already at 12 such arms this season. Extended absences for Max Fried and Kyle Wright have left the Braves rotating a number of players through the two spots not locked down by Spencer Strider, Morton and Bryce Elder. Fried is back and Wright is on a minor league rehab stint, so things are trending up with a month to go before the postseason, but Morton’s durability was key for Atlanta in building their essentially insurmountable NL East lead.

As the season winds down, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos and his front office are faced with an identical decision on Morton as they had last summer: whether to bring him back for another season at $20MM. There’s a strong case for them doing so. If the Braves (correctly) felt Morton would live up to that sum last September, they could make a similar calculation this time around. His stuff looks the same and he’s been better at keeping runs off the board. Even with a few more walks, it’s easy to argue Morton is a comparable or better pitcher than he was at this time a year ago.

His age is a relevant factor for any contract questions. Morton turns 40 next offseason. At some point, as happens to almost every player, his performance will fall off. There’s nothing beyond the general risk of any 40-year-old pitcher to suggest Morton is nearing a cliff, though. If he decides to suit up for a 17th season, he’d enter next year again looking like a quality mid-rotation arm.

Atlanta has control over every starting pitcher on the roster. Fried and Wright are eligible for arbitration. Strider is already signed through 2028 (plus a 2029 option) under last year’s extension, while Elder and their host of younger rotation options (AJ Smith-Shawver, Jared Shuster, Dylan Dodd) are in their pre-arbitration seasons. Roster Resource projects the club’s 2024 guaranteed commitments around $133MM, roughly $70MM south of this year’s franchise-record Opening Day payroll. Exercising Morton’s option would bring them to approximately $153MM, while an arbitration class including Fried, Wright and A.J. Minter tacks on something in the $25-30MM range. Exercising Morton’s option and a $9MM option for Eddie Rosario — which could be a borderline call — would leave the Braves within $20MM of this year’s payroll entering the offseason.

Of course, they’d also virtually be retaining the entirety of what looks to be the best team in the majors. The Braves did almost nothing in free agency last winter and have excelled regardless thanks to their incredible internal core and the Sean Murphy trade acquisition (and subsequent six-year extension). The organization could be content with a similar approach during the upcoming winter.

Assuming Morton wants to continue playing, will the Braves bring him back at another $20MM price point?

(poll link for app users)

 

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The Opener: Guardians, Giants, Cubs/Brewers

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As an eventful month of August winds down, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Who will replace Thor?

The Guardians designated right-hander Noah Syndergaard for assignment yesterday, ending his tenure in Cleveland after just six starts. Upon announcing the move, the club indicated that a corresponding move would be made today, before this evening’s game against the Twins in Minnesota. Syndergaard’s departure leaves the club with just four pitchers in the starting rotation: right-handers Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee and Xzavion Curry as well as lefty Logan Allen. Left-hander Joey Cantillo and righties Peyton Battenfield and Hunter Gaddis are the club’s starting options already on the 40-man roster, though with Syndergaard’s depature the club will have the opportunity to explore other options as well without the need for a 40-man roster move.

Of course, with an off-day on Thursday and right-hander Cal Quantrill nearing a return from the shoulder inflammation that’s kept him off the big league mound since early July, the club could simply decide to wait on adding a starter until Quantrill is ready or the schedule forces the issue. In that case, a reliever currently at Triple-A like lefty Tim Herrin or righty Cade Smith could be called up for the interim to help out in the club’s bullpen.

2. Giants getting healthy:

The Giants are expecting to welcome back a pair of outfielders into the mix during the club’s series against the Reds, which starts today. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area relayed yesterday that both Mike Yastrzemski and Mitch Haniger are nearing a return, with Haniger having participated in what could be his final rehab game last night while Yastrzemski ran the bases. Both players will be welcome additions to a beleaguered offense in San Francisco; as a team, the Giants slashed just .209/.289/.343 in July, and their slash line of .230/.299/.348 in August is only marginally better.

Yastrzemski has been a slightly better than league average bat with the Giants this year, slashing .233/.314/.439 in 77 games before going on the IL with a hamstring strain. Haniger, on the other hand, struggled badly to a .230/.281/.372 slash line in 40 games with his new club before he was sidelined due to a forearm fracture that required surgery. The Giants will need both Yastrzemski and Haniger to play closer to their career wRC+ numbers of 113 and 119 respectively if they are to get back into the NL Wild Card mix, as the club has fallen a game and a half behind the Diamondbacks for the last spot in recent days.

3. Brewers head to Wrigley:

The Cubs and Brewers will meet for their third series of the season today. The three-game set will have major implications for the NL Central race headed into the season’s final month. Milwaukee, riding an eight-game winning streak, heads to Chicago with a four-game lead over the Cubs in the division, meaning even a sweep by the north siders wouldn’t end their reign at the top of the division standings. That being said, a series win by the Brewers would put the club firmly in the driver’s seat for a division title headed into the season’s final month, as they’d extend their lead over the second-place Cubs to five or six games with only three more games against Chicago on the schedule this season. Brewers lefty and former Cub Wade Miley (3.18 ERA) will take the mound at 7:05pm CT this evening opposite Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon (5.60 ERA) for the first game of the series.

Guardians Designate Noah Syndergaard For Assignment

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The Guardians have designated right-hander Noah Syndergaard for assignment, as noted by Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. The Guardians have announced the move and indicated that a corresponding roster move will be announced tomorrow.

The 38th overall pick in the 2010 draft by the Blue Jays, Syndergaard made his major league debut with the Mets in 2015 and immediately had the look of a clear top-of-the-rotation arm. While he battled injuries throughout his Mets tenure, he posted a 3.31 ERA and 2.92 FIP in 716 innings of work alongside Jacob deGrom at the front of New York’s rotation from 2015-2019, with a 26.4% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate, and a 49.1% groundball rate. His best season came in 2016, when he dominated to the tune of a 2.60 ERA with an MLB-best 2.29 FIP, a strikeout rate of 29.3% and a groundball rate of 51.2%.

Syndergaard’s career hit a major snag in March of 2020, when the then-27-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery. He would miss the entire shortened 2020 campaign and almost all of the 2021 campaign as well, recording just two September relief appearances that year before hitting free agency.

Syndergaard split his 2022 campaign between the Angels and the Phillies, looking more like a soft-tossing back-of-the-rotation arm than the flamethrowing ace he had been earlier in his career. The results were still solid, however, as Syndergaard posted a 3.94 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 134 2/3 innings of work that year in the regular season. He then went on to pitch for the Phillies during their run to the World Series, allowing three runs in 8 1/3 postseason innings of work.

That solid if uninspiring return to action in 2022 earned Syndergaard a one-year deal with the Dodgers last December. While the sides were hopeful that Syndergaard would be able to build on his 2022 performance and regain some of his lost velocity another year removed from Tommy John, the 2023 campaign didn’t go how either party imagined it would. Through 12 starts with the Dodgers, Syndergaard looked completely outmatched with a disastrous 7.16 ERA across 55 1/3 innings of work, less than five innings per start.

Between Syndergaard’s troubling run prevention numbers and inability to pitch deep into games, the Dodgers moved on from him rather quickly even in spite of an injury-plagued season that saw every other member of their Opening Day rotation spend significant time on the injured list. LA placed Syndergaard on the IL himself with a finger blister in early June and did not appear in the majors again until he was dealt to Cleveland just before the trade deadline in a change-of-scenery swap that shipped Amed Rosario to the Dodgers.

Syndergaard ended up making five starts for the Guardians prior to the club’s decision today to move on from him. While his ERA improved with the club relative to his time with the Dodgers, his 4.94 figure was still 16% below average. To make matters worse, he struck out just 12.5% of batters faced while giving up a whopping seven homers in just 27 1/3 innings of work.

Given those brutal peripheral numbers, it’s hardly a shock that the club has decided to move on from Syndergaard in favor of seeing what they have in youngsters like Xzavion Curry, Hunter Gaddis, and Peyton Battenfield. It’s a particularly reasonable course of action considering the 62-69 Guardians, six games back in a weak AL Central with a 9-15 record so far in August, have seen their hopes of returning to the playoffs this year become considerably fainter over the past month since the club acquired Syndergaard.

As for Syndergaard, assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers he’ll have the opportunity to return to the free agent market and look to catch on with another team. Brutal as his results have been this year, teams are always on the lookout for potential depth options, particularly on a no-risk minor league deal like the one Syndergaard would presumably command. To be eligible to participate in the postseason with his new club, Syndergaard will have to sign before September 1.

Injury Notes: Dodgers, Devers, Manning, Houser

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided a host of injury updates this afternoon regarding various relief options for the club as LA hurtles toward their eleventh consecutive playoff appearance, as relayed by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. While right-hander Tony Gonsolin will not be an option for the club down the stretch this year, Roberts provided updates on a pair of relievers who could still impact the club in 2023: right-handers Joe Kelly and Yency Almonte.

Kelly threw a bullpen session recently but is still struggling with pain in his elbow, per Roberts. The veteran righty, who threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings with the Dodgers after joining the club at the trade deadline alongside Lance Lynn, went on the injured list earlier this month with elbow inflammation. According to Roberts, Kelly is expected to return in time for the postseason but there is “a chance he’s not gonna be 100%” when he does. Almonte, meanwhile, has a clearer timeline, with Roberts indicating that the 29 year old is two to three weeks from a return from his knee injury.

Most interesting for Dodgers fans will surely be Roberts’ comments on right-hander Walker Buehler, who’s aiming to return from Tommy John surgery before the 2023 season comes to a close. Buehler hasn’t started a rehab assignment, but Plunkett relays that Roberts still believes Buehler’s long-stated goal of returning to the big league mound for games in September is still on the table, with the manager indicating that the club is planning on Buehler to return to the majors toward the middle of the month. While Roberts notes that Buehler’s stuff is in good shape, his command “hasn’t been good” and is something “he’ll have to work through” on his coming rehab assignment.

Healthy returns to the mound from Kelly, Almonte, and particularly Buehler would substantially deepen the club’s bullpen ahead of the postseason. While the Dodgers have been nothing short of dominant of late with just four losses in August, the club’s bullpen is a potential weak point, ranking roughly middle-of-the-pack in the majors with a 3.83 ERA and having been leaned on for the more innings than any NL bullpen besides those in Cincinnati and San Francisco.

More injury notes from around the league…

  • Star Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers underwent x-rays on his wrist after being hit by a pitch during last night’s game against LA and struck from the lineup this afternoon. Fortunately, Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic relays that those x-rays came back negative, per manager Alex Cora. Cora added to reporters that Devers could return to the lineup as soon as tomorrow, depending on how the slugger is feeling. That’s surely a relief for Boston, as the 26-year-old infielder is perhaps the club’s most important and consistent players. Devers is in the midst of another season right in line with his career norms; since his breakout campaign in 2019, he’s slashed .288/.351/.529 with a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 131 wRC+. In 530 trips to the plate this season, Devers has essentially replicated that line, slashing .272/.347/.516 with a 18.7% strikeout rate and a 127 wRC+.
  • Tigers right-hander Matt Manning is preparing to make his next start on Wednesday after exiting his last start with lower back tightness. With that being said, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press indicated yesterday that Manning actually making his start on Wednesday is not a guarantee. Per Petzold, manager AJ Hinch told reporters that the club will “see how the next couple of days are” regarding Manning’s health before determining whether or not he’ll make his start. Petzold suggests right-hander Spencer Turnbull and left-hander Joey Wentz could be options to take the ball on Wednesday should Manning, who sports a 3.93 ERA in 13 starts with the Tigers this season, require a trip to the shelf.
  • Brewers righty Adrian Houser departed today’s start against the Padres after just two innings, having allowed four runs on four hits and a walk. Milwaukee indicated that Houser’s early exit was due to what the club termed “minor forearm tightness.” As relayed by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Houser downplayed the injury’s seriousness in conversations with reporters, indicating he expects to make his next start after taking some time off to rest. Houser’s next start would line up for Saturday against the Phillies, though with a day off on Thursday Milwaukee has the ability to give Houser additional rest without using another starter, should he need it.

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