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Nationals Place Travis Blankenhorn On IL, Recall Blake Rutherford

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The Nationals have placed outfielder Travis Blankenhorn on the 10-day injured list with plantar fasciitis, the team announced. The move is retroactive to September 16, which means the left-handed hitter could return as soon as next Tuesday. In a corresponding move, Washington recalled Blake Rutherford, another lefty batting outfielder, from Triple-A.

Blankenhorn, a long-time Twins prospect, made his MLB debut with Minnesota in 2020 but was designated for assignment in May 2021. He has since spent time in the Dodgers, Mariners, Mets, and Nationals organizations, mainly at the Triple-A level. The 27-year-old earned his first real shot at regular playing time this September, posting a forgettable .555 OPS but showing off impressive plate discipline, with six walks and only six strikeouts in 37 trips to the plate.

It’s possible to play through plantar fasciitis, as Carlos Correa has demonstrated this season, but with so few games remaining and the Nationals already eliminated from postseason contention, the team has little reason to put an ailing player back on the field. Rest is key for treating plantar heel pain, and an early start to the offseason should do Blankenhorn more good than a brief stint on the IL. Then again, he might prefer to get back in the lineup as soon as possible, in an effort to improve his numbers and increase his chances of sticking on Washington’s 40-man roster throughout the offseason.

The 26-year-old Rutherford made his MLB debut this August, seven years since he was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2016 draft. Despite strong numbers at Double and Triple-A, he struggled to make the adjustment to the majors, batting .182 with a .388 OPS in 15 games. Ultimately, he was optioned at the end of the month to make room for catcher Drew Millas on the active roster. Rutherford will now have a second chance to make a good impression over the final 11 games of the season.

Pirates Select Kyle Nicolas

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The Pirates have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Kyle Nicolas, the team announced. In corresponding moves, fellow right-hander Thomas Hatch has been optioned to Triple-A, while Andrew McCutchen has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

The 24-year-old Nicolas came to Pittsburgh in 2021 as part of the trade that sent Jacob Stallings to Miami. Primarily a starting pitcher during his first two years in the minors, he transitioned to a relief role this summer. By and large, he has performed much better out of the bullpen, albeit in a limited sample size. From August 1 to September 13, he pitched 21 innings in relief, posting a 2.14 ERA and striking out an incredible 30 batters.

Entering the season, both Baseball America and FanGraphs ranked Nicolas as the no. 14 prospect in the Pirates system. The evaluators at Baseball America praised his powerful fastball, while those at FanGraphs were more impressed with his consistent command. However, it should be said that both sources were assessing his body of work as a starter. Thus far, he has looked more like a power pitcher out of the bullpen, with an impressive 36.8% strikeout rate but a less-than-ideal 11.4% walk rate.

After four years in the Blue Jays organization, Hatch was designated for assignment this August. The Pirates quickly scooped him up and added the right-handed to the active roster. In 12 appearances for Pittsburgh, the 28-year-old pitched to a 4.03 ERA and a 4.49 SIERA, nothing spectacular, but perfectly serviceable numbers for a long reliever. Still, it’s understandable why the Pirates would be more interested in the potential that Nicolas brings. It’s far more likely that the youngster plays a significant role in next year’s bullpen.

As for McCutchen, his move to the 60-day IL is nothing more than a formality. The veteran tore his left Achilles tendon earlier this month, ending his 2023 campaign. According to Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, the team believes McCutchen will be back on the field in 2024, and the two sides have agreed to discuss a contract for next year during the offseason.

Royals Announce Five Roster Moves

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The Royals announced several roster moves today, including the news that Brady Singer and Brad Keller have both been placed on the 15-day injured list, ending their seasons.  Kansas City recalled right-hander Jonathan Bowlan from Triple-A and selected the contract of left-hander Anthony Veneziano from Triple-A as well.  To create 40-man roster space for Veneziano, Matt Beaty was designated for assignment.

Keller already spent a big chunk of the season on the 60-day IL due to a right shoulder impingement, and his placement today was due to a “return of symptoms associated with thoracic outlet syndrome,” according to the Royals’ official announcement.  That is unwelcome news for the veteran righty, and it implies that a TOS surgery might be required to correct the problem.  The Diamondbacks’ Merrill Kelly is one of the rare examples of a pitcher returning from a TOS procedure and still pitching well in the aftermath, though if Keller does need a surgery, his chances of a recovery and a return to form might hinge on the specific nature of his TOS issue.

In the bigger picture, undergoing a major surgery will also certainly hamper Keller’s chances of landing a new contract in free agency this winter.  With a 5.17 ERA over 318 2/3 innings since Opening Day 2021, Keller was already likely looking at a non-guaranteed deal on the open market, but he might now face a longer wait before landing any kind of contract if he does indeed have to get a TOS procedure.

Singer has a strain in his left lower lumbar area, and the injury will put a coda on an overall disappointing year for the 27-year-old.  After seemingly breaking out in 2022, Singer appeared to be the front-of-the-rotation type of pitcher the Royals were desperately hoping to find from their group of highly-touted (but to date underwhelming) crop of top pitching prospects.  Unfortunately, Singer took a step backwards in 2023, with a 5.52 ERA over 159 2/3 innings and some of the worst hard-contact numbers of any hurler in baseball.  The right-hander’s strikeout rate was also well below average, sharply declining from 24.2% in 2022 to 18.9% in 2023.

One of the many questions the Royals face heading into 2024 is discovering what exactly they have in Singer, and whether or not he can be an effective and consistent starting pitcher.  He did have a few stretches of quality starts amidst his broader struggles in 2023, but that is small consolation for a Kansas City team in dire need of rotation help.

Veneziano has been in the Royals organization since he was selected in the 10th round of the 2019 draft.  After a strong start to the season at Double-A, he earned a promotion to Triple-A Omaha in mid-May.  He has pitched to a 4.22 ERA over 89 2/3 innings with below-average strikeout (20.6%) and walk (11.2%) rates, but it has been enough to earn the 26-year-old his first taste of Major League action.

Baseball America ranks Veneziano as the fourth-best prospect in the Kansas City farm system, while Bowlan is 18th on their list.  MLB Pipeline has Veneziano 16th and Bowlan out of their top 30 altogether, quite possibly owing to the injuries that have plagued Bowlan since he was a second-round pick in the 2018 draft.  He underwent a Tommy John surgery in 2021, and has dealt with some shoulder issues this year.

The results haven’t been there for Bowlan since returning from his TJ rehab, as he posted a 5.92 ERA over 62 1/3 combined innings (at rookie ball, high-A ball, and Double-A) in 2022, and he has a 5.91 ERA over 102 frames of Double-A and Triple-A work this season.  His first appearance with the Royals will also mark the MLB debut for the right-hander.

Since the Royals have off-days on both Thursday and Monday, it remains to be seen how they’ll line up their rotation over the final two weeks of the season.  However, it stands to reason that both Bowlan and Veneziano will get at least one start as K.C. looks to patch these holes in their rotation and takes a look at two farm system arms that could factor into the club’s 2024 plans.

This is the second time that Beaty has been designated for assignment this season, as the Giants DFA’ed him at the end of May.  Beaty opted for free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, and he landed in Kansas City on a minors deal in June.  This was technically his second stint with the Royals, as Beaty also signed a minor league contract with K.C. during the offseason but was then traded to San Francisco just prior to Opening Day.

Beaty has appeared in 26 big league games with the Royals, hitting .232/.358/.304 over 67 plate appearances.  That gives him only a .518 OPS over 119 PA since the start of the 2022 season, though Beaty was hampered by a shoulder injury for much of last year when he was a member of the Padres.  It seems likely that Beaty will clear waivers and again face an opt-out decision, and he could opt for free agency just to get a head start on the offseason rather than stick it out for the last few games of the Triple-A season.

Marlins Claim Matt Moore From Guardians

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3:09pm: The Marlins have recalled Tommy Nance from Triple-A and placed him on the 60-day injured list, thus opening up a 40-man roster spot for Matt Moore, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The 32-year-old Nance last appeared for Triple-A Jacksonville on September 6, and he has not appeared in a major league game since last October.

1:35pm: The Marlins have claimed left-hander Matt Moore off waivers from the Guardians, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’s the second waiver claim in recent weeks for Moore, who just went from the Angels to the Guardians at the end of August. He won’t be eligible to play in the postseason for the Marlins but will give their bullpen a boost for the final weeks of the regular season.

Moore, 34, has had an up-and-down career as a starting pitching but recently underwent a bullpen renaissance. He posted a 1.95 earned run average with the Rangers last year and parlayed that into a one-year, $7.55MM contract with the Angels. His ERA has ticked up a bit this year, but is still quite good at 2.77. He’s striking out 28.5% of opponents and walking just 7%.

He’s now set to join his third club of the year, which says more about his teams than anything he is doing. The Angels hovered around contention through the summer and decided to go for it at the deadline, holding onto Shohei Ohtani as well as giving up prospects for players like Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and others. But they then suffered a miserable August, losing both games and players. They fell back in the standings as Mike Trout was unable to get healthy in the wake of his hamate surgery, while Ohtani suffered a tear of his ulnar collateral ligament that kept him from pitching.

Ohtani would also suffer an oblique injury in September that stopped him from hitting as well, but that was after the club had already waved the white flag on the season, putting six players on waivers at the end of August. Since the trade deadline had already passed and each player was an impending free agent, the Angels were hoping other clubs would grab them and take on their contracts, allowing the club to save some money and dip under the luxury tax.

Moore was one of those players and he was claimed by the Guardians along with Giolito and López. It was a bit of a surprising landing spot, as that club has generally shied away from significant spending and were sporting a record of 64-70 at the time. But in the weak American League Central, they were actually only five games back of the division-leading Twins and decided to take a shot. By grabbing those three pitchers, they added roughly $3.727MM to their payroll but hopefully increased their odds of chasing down Minnesota.

But it now seems that they are following the Angels and waving their own white flag, having fallen to seven games back of the Twins with now less than two weeks left to play. It wasn’t known prior to this report that Moore was on waivers, but it seems the Guards put him on the wire with the hope of shaving off some of that money they took on. Moore is still owed about $529K for the remainder of the season.

It seems the Marlins consider that to be an acceptable expense for a handful of games from Moore. Since he is being acquired after the September 1 cutoff date, he won’t be able to pitch for them in the postseason, making this a very temporary bullpen upgrade. But unlike the Angels and Guardians, their season is still very much alive. The National League Wild Card race is extremely tight right now, with the Phillies in the top spot but a tangled mess beneath them. The Diamondbacks, Cubs, Reds and Marlins are all within one game of each other, with the Giants just a game and a half back of that pack. While all those clubs want to win, the Marlins are arguably the most motivated. Leaving aside the shortened 2020 season, they haven’t finished above .500 since 2009 and haven’t been in the playoffs since 2003.

Miami’s relievers have a collective ERA of 4.19 on the year, which places them 18th. It’s also been a bit worse of late, with a 4.45 ERA since the start of August. Adding in Moore will hopefully give the group a bit of a boost, though it’s not really about his left-handedness. The club already has four strong southpaw options in the bullpen but the Marlins seem to have decided they are willing to put some cash on the barrel in the hopes of squeezing out any possible upgrade, with the importance of each game magnified down the stretch.

Details From Rays’ Stadium Announcement

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It was reported yesterday that the Rays would be announcing a plan for a proposed new stadium in St. Petersburg today, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed the details of the festivities.

The stadium itself will cost $1.3 billion but is part of a larger redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District site, where Tropicana Field is already located, which will cost $6.5 billion overall. Despite the announcement, the financing hasn’t quite been finalized just yet. The Rays are covering more than half of the $1.3 billion price tag for the stadium, approximately $700MM. That leaves $600MM to be covered by the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.

That structure has been agreed to by the Rays, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Pinellas County administrator Barry Burton, but it still needs to be approved by the city council and the county commission. Assuming that comes to pass and everything gets rubber stamped, the Rays will sign a 30-year lease that starts with the 2028 season. The stadium will seat around 30,000 under a fixed roof, with artificial turf on the field and “operable walls to bring the outside in.”

As for the wider development, Topkin relays that it includes “14,000 parking spaces; 4,800 market rate residential units, plus 600 at affordable/work force prices and 600 for seniors; 1.4 million square feet of office and medical space; 750 hotel rooms; 750,000 square feet of retail space; a concert venue with a capacity of 3,000-4,000; and a new home for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida.” Michael Harrison of Hines, the real estate firm the Rays have partnered with, says that about 20% of the total project will be complete when the stadium opens in 2028.

Despite the stadium upgrades, there are still concerns around the location. Many have previously cited the fact that the Trop is far away from downtown Tampa and not easily accessible as one of the reasons for the club’s persistently low attendance. This new proposal would see the club stay on essentially the same site, but team president Brian Auld doesn’t seem to share those concerns. “One of the things I’ve said multiple times is we’re in the same location as we were five years ago, but I really do feel like we’re in a different city,” Auld said. “There are so many (new condos and apartment buildings) all across the city, and all across this region, that I do believe it has fundamentally changed this region’s, and this city’s, ability to support our team.” Auld added that Major League Baseball is already on board with the proposal.

As for the next steps towards making everything official, Topkin relays that the expectation is that the Pinellas County commission will vote soon, perhaps before the end of the year. The city would then follow early in 2024.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has long stated that the league wants to expand from 30 to 32 teams, but that the Athletics and Rays need to resolve their respective stadium situations before that can really be considered. The A’s have a plan in place to relocate to Las Vegas, with an ownership vote on that likely to come in November. With the Rays potentially finalizing their financing plan not too long after that, the ingredients could be place for future expansion just a few months from now.

Braves Reinstate Jesse Chavez, Designate Lucas Luetge For Assignment

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The Braves announced that right-hander Jesse Chavez has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, with left-hander Lucas Luetge designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Chavez, who turned 40 while on the IL, has been out of action since mid-June after being hit by a comebacker on his left leg. The club announced at the time that X-rays did not reveal a fracture, but it nonetheless took him over three months to rejoin the team.

The veteran signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in the offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He made 31 appearances prior to his injury with an earned run average of 1.55 in that time. He was helped out a bit by an 85.4% strand rate but still had excellent peripherals with a 30.8% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate.  If he can get back into that form now that he’s healthy, he will strengthen the club’s bullpen just in time for the playoffs.

Luetge, 36, was acquired from the Yankees in an offseason trade and has bounced on and off the Atlanta roster this year. He was selected just yesterday and was entered into last night’s game with the club down 7-1 to the Phillies. He threw two scoreless innings to finish the contest and has now been quickly cut from the roster for a fresh arm, his third time being designated for assignment this year.

The lefty has more than three years of major league service time, which means he can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. But since he has less than five years of service, doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of his $1.55MM salary. Twice already this year, he has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment, which could perhaps come to pass again in the coming days. Around those transactions, he’s posted a 7.24 ERA in 13 2/3 innings at the big league level, along with an ERA of 3.91 in 23 Triple-A innings.

Spencer Torkelson Is Taking Off

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The Tigers had a very concerning season in 2022. They had entered the year with their sights set on returning to contention. A young core of prospects had bubbled up to the majors and it was hoped that big free agent deals for players like Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez could supplement them. Unfortunately, just about everything went wrong. All over the roster, players either underperformed or missed significant time or both. That applied to each of Báez and Rodriguez, as well as several of the younger guys.

One of those young players that had high hopes pinned on them was Spencer Torkelson. After the Tigers had a dismal 47-114 season in 2019, they secured the first overall pick in the 2020 draft and used it on Torkelson. Due to the pandemic, there were no minor leagues for him to play in that year but he nonetheless shot all the way up to #5 on Baseball America’s 2021 list of the top 100 prospects in the league. That was largely based on his tremendous performance in college. In 129 games for Arizona State, he had 54 home runs and a batting line of .337/.463/.729.

In 2021, the minor leagues were back and he shot through them. He began the year in High-A but was in Double-A by June and Triple-A by August. He hit 30 home runs in 121 games and drew walks in 14.5% of his plate appearances, showing both power and plate discipline. His combined batting line of .267/.383/.552 amounted to a wRC+ of 148.

The Tigers added him to their Opening Day roster in 2022 and it was hoped that he would be entrenched at first base for a long time to come. But he didn’t hit the ground running, or even crawling for that matter. He hit a paltry .197/.282/.295 through the middle of July, results poor enough to get him optioned down to the minors. That performance was especially concerning since his bat has long been considered his carrying tool. Without especially strong speed or defensive skills to give him a solid floor, he essentially needs to hit and clearly didn’t do that. The power potential was still in there if you looked, as his maximum exit velocity was considered to be in the 80th percentile at that time. But he wasn’t squaring it up often enough, with his hard hit rate in the 39th percentile and his barrel percentage 37th.

He played 35 Triple-A games that summer and produced around league average, before getting recalled to the big leagues when rosters expanded in September. He hit .219/.292/.385 down the stretch, which only amounted to a 94 wRC+, but was still better than the 68 wRC+ he had before his demotion.

As mentioned, the struggles of Torkelson were just one of the many things that went wrong for the club. They finished the season 66-96, nowhere near the contender status they envisioned. General manager Al Avila was fired along the way, with Scott Harris hired as president of baseball operations to replace him as they top baseball decision maker in Detroit.

Expectations were far different for 2023, both for the Tigers and Torkelson. Many had already written off the former first round pick as a bust, even though he was still just 23 years old at the start of the campaign. He didn’t do much to change those peoples’ mind in the early going of this year either, as he was hitting just .206/.266/.309 through the end of April.

But as the calendar flipped to May, more encouraging results came. From the start of that month through the end of July, he hit 13 home runs and produced a much more respectable .233/.317/.433 line for a wRC+ of 106. He has taken things to another level since the start of August, hitting 13 more home runs in his past 43 games. His slash in that time is .248/.342/.547 for a 141 wRC+. The Stork, which no one calls him but perhaps they should, has taken flight.

For the season as a whole, his batting line of .233/.315/.444 is only marginally above league average, translating to a 107 wRC+. But the Statcast data likes him a lot, with his average exit velocity in the 88th percentile, his barrel percentage 90th and his hard hit rate 93rd. His 24.7% strikeout rate is a bit above league average, but he’s also drawing walks at a strong 10.1% clip. Given that he’s gotten better as the season has gone along, perhaps he can carry that over into 2024 and have an even better year.

Although the Tigers surely would have loved for this breakout to have occurred last year, the silver lining of Torkelson’s struggles in 2022 is that it secured them an extra year of control of his services. Since he was optioned to Triple-A for about six weeks last year, he didn’t earn a full year of service time. That means he can be controlled through the 2028 season, whereas he would have been set for free agency after 2027 if he had stayed up all of last year.

As they move forward and try to build a competitive club in those years, they still have many challenges. There are still question marks on the roster, including the pitching staff and the middle infield. But their first base situation looks to be in good shape, especially compared to where it was just one year ago.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The Opener: Rays, Correa, Rodriguez

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As the 2023 season nears its conclusion, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Rays Stadium Announcement Incoming:

Yesterday, it was reported that the Rays are poised to announce an agreement to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg. That announcement is expected to come today, and with it more details on the coming ballpark can be expected. The stadium is expected to be ready in 2028, the year after Tampa Bay’s lease at Tropicana Field expires. The off-the-field victory for the club comes as the team on the field is enjoying an unprecedented run of success, with a 92-59 record so far this season and a fifth consecutive postseason berth clinched. With the Rays on the verge of settling their stadium situation and the A’s putting the finishing touches on a bid to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, the biggest hurdle for league expansion that commissioner Rob Manfred has publicly mentioned in the past has been cleared. Of course, expansion must be collectively bargained with the MLBPA, meaning there are still hurdles to clear before MLB welcomes its thirty-first and thirty-second teams.

2. Correa Exits:

Twins shortstop Carlos Correa exited yesterday’s game in the first inning after feeling a “pop” in his left heel, as relayed by The Athletic’s Dan Hayes. Correa, of course, has been playing through plantar fasciitis during most of the 2023 campaign. The injury has seemingly impacted the 28-year-old star at the plate, as he’s slashed just .230/.312/.399 in 135 games while leading the majors with 30 double plays grounded into. As Hayes notes, the Twins and Correa have opted against a trip to the injured list throughout the season because a full recovery would require several months of downtime.

That sort of lengthy absence would have been imprudent with the Twins in the midst of a tight race for the AL Central crown throughout most of the season. Though the club hasn’t yet mathematically clinched the division title, Minnesota enjoys a comfortable seven-game lead over the Guardians in the division with just 11 games left to play and none of them being head-to-head. That healthy lead in the division race could lead the club to contemplate a trip to the IL for Correa or, at the very least, resting their marquee shortstop more aggressively in the days ahead in order to help him stay reasonably fresh for the coming postseason push.

3. Rodriguez to undergo testing:

Tigers left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez exited yesterday’s 8-3 loss against the Dodgers in the fourth inning due to what the club has termed a scapula spasm. Over three innings of work last night, Rodriguez surrendered five runs on five hits and a walk while striking out just one. As noted by Chris McCosky of The Detroit News, the lefty is expected to undergo further testing before being re-evaluated today. While the coming update won’t have much impact on Tigers club that’s on the verge of being mathematically eliminated from the postseason, Rodriguez’s health could impact him as he looks ahead toward a likely return to free agency this coming November, having the ability to opt out of the three years left on his contract. With a strong 3.57 ERA and 3.65 FIP across 24 starts this season, the 30-year-old Rodriguez figures to rank fairly highly among starting options on the market this offseason, though it’s possible an injury that runs the risk of impacting him headed into 2024 could alter that perception.

Rays To Announce New Stadium Deal

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The Rays are poised to make an announcement tomorrow regarding a deal to construct a new stadium in St. Petersburg, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

Not all of the details have been revealed, but Topkin relays that the new stadium will be built near Tropicana Field as part of a redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District site. It is expected to have a fixed dome roof, seat around 30,000 people and open for the 2028 season, just after the club’s lease at the Trop expires after 2027. It is believed to cost around $1.2 billion, with the exact breakdown unclear at this time. Owner Stuart Sternberg previously stated that he expected the club to pay “half or more,” with other contributions coming from St. Petersburg, Pinellas County and investors who would contribute in exchange for shares of the club.

The future home of the Rays has been an ongoing issue for years now, due to various concerns with Tropicana Field. The club has considered moving from St. Petersburg to Tampa and also toyed with a more creative plan that involved splitting the home games with Montreal, though the latter plan was eventually nixed by Major League Baseball.

The move to Tampa was seen as desirable since one of the issues with the Trop is the St. Petersburg location is less accessible. But attempts to secure financing for a stadium in Tampa never gained much traction, which is what led to the Montreal plan. Once that path was cut off and the financial situation in Tampa didn’t change, the club pivoted back to St. Petersburg.

In December of last year, the Rays issued a press release about their proposed stadium, which was said to feature “more than 5,700 multifamily units, 1.4 million square feet of office, 300,000 square feet of retail, 700 hotel rooms, 600 senior living residences, a 2,500 person entertainment venue, and various civic uses.” It went on to say that it would include “more than 850 affordable and workforce housing units on-site” as well as other features.

This plan received the approval of St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch in January, though with still many steps to come. The club had to finalize the financing with the city, the county and new investors. Though those details still aren’t publicly known, it seems they have been resolved enough that the club will be able to make an announcement of a deal tomorrow.

Staying in St. Petersburg won’t solve the location issues that the Trop had, but the new facility will hopefully be an upgrade in other ways. The Trop has been seen by many around the industry as outdated and unpleasant in terms of fan experience. There were also awkward on-field issues, with the various catwalks in the roof interfering with balls in play and leading to complex ground rules unique to that field.

It’s unclear what the future holds for the Trop, but its run as the home of the Rays will seemingly come to an end after 30 years, having been the club’s only ballpark since their first season in 1998. It was actually opened in 1990, with the area hoping to attract an expansion major league baseball franchise for 1993, but they lost out to Denver and Miami. Other sports franchises used the facility at times, including the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League and the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League, before the area was finally awarded an expansion MLB franchise.

Fans of the Rays can now look forward to a new era of the club’s history, hopeful that the new facility will be a significant upgrade over the Trop, though the location concerns will persist. This news will also be significant beyond just its impact on that club, as the potential for future expansion now seems more viable than ever before.

There hasn’t been a new expansion franchise in Major League Baseball since the Rays and Diamondbacks joined the league in 1998. The issue has come up in recent years, with various groups hoping to get new clubs into places like Nashville, Portland or Salt Lake City. Despite that strong interest, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly stated that the Athletics and Rays needed to resolve their respective stadium situations before expansion could be considered.

The A’s seem destined to relocate to Las Vegas, with owners set to vote on their proposed plan in November. Now that the Rays seem to have a new stadium plan in place, it seems the table is set for expansion discussions to pick up in earnest. A timeline for future expansion isn’t clear, but details should continue to emerge as time goes on. New franchises will lead to extra intrigue around the league, with fans able to look forward to an expansion draft. For the owners, it will also be desirable from a financial point of view as the new clubs would have to pay to join the league, with that money dispersed among the existing teams. The Rays and Diamondbacks each paid $130MM back in 1998 but it has been suggested that the next expansion club might have to pay something closer to $2 billion, given the rise of franchise valuation in the interim.

Injury Notes: Correa, Kim, Feltner, Gallegos

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Carlos Correa exited Monday night’s game against the Reds in the first inning following a flare-up of his plantar fasciitis. The shortstop told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) that he felt a tweak in his heel as he ran to catch a pop fly.

Correa has been playing through the painful condition throughout most of the season. He was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and a muscle strain in his left foot arch back in May but has avoided a trip to the injured list thus far. The two-time All-Star suggested he could sit out a few games to preserve his body for the playoffs, although he emphasized that neither he nor the Twins have determined a course of action just yet. He acknowledged that time off his feet would do him some good, but even so, he might prefer to keep playing until Minnesota has officially clinched the AL Central crown.

The 28-year-old is in the midst of a down year, slashing just .230/.312/.399. His injury could certainly be responsible for his dip in production, in which case a few days of rest would make even more sense. The Twins are all but certain to reach October, and now is the time for Correa to focus on restoring his health. That being said, it’s understandable why he’d want to take the field every day down the stretch. As the most accomplished and highest-paid player on the roster, the 2017 World Series champion has a leadership role to play in the Twins’ clubhouse.

In other injury news around baseball:

  • Ha-Seong Kim sits out a second straight game, as he continues to deal with discomfort in his abdomen. The Padres infielder told reporters, including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, that he isn’t sure why he feels so unwell, and he’s waiting on test results that he hopes will reveal the cause. Kim has been a bright spot in a difficult season for San Diego, hitting 17 home runs, stealing 36 bases, and playing excellent defense all around the infield. Unfortunately, he has been slumping as of late, with a .204/.291/.282 slash-line over the past month; it’s unclear if his slump has anything to do with his abdominal pain.
  • The Rockies are preparing to reinstate starting pitcher Ryan Feltner ahead of Tuesday’s contest with the Padres, reports Thomas Harding of MLB.com. Feltner has been on the 60-day IL since late May, as he recovered from a concussion and a fractured skull. The Rockies have an open spot on their 40-man roster, so they can reinstate the righty without making a corresponding move. However, they’ll still need to free up a spot for him on the active roster. Feltner was off to a rough start in 2023 (5.86 ERA in eight starts) even before a liner off the bat of Nick Castellanos nearly ended his season. Suffice it to say, it’s remarkable that he’ll be returning to the field after such a scary injury.
  • The Cardinals have placed Giovanny Gallegos on the 15-day IL with right shoulder rotator cuff tendonitis. Jake Woodford was recalled from Triple-A to take his spot on the active roster. The team told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat) that the injury doesn’t seem serious, but they’re playing it extra safe as the season draws to a close. Indeed, they might have shut the righty down even sooner, but Gallegos wanted to ensure that he had properly addressed the pitch tipping issues he was having earlier in the season.

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