Mariners Place Bryce Miller On Injured List
The Mariners placed rookie starter Bryce Miller on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 1, on account of a blister. Darren McCaughan and Matt Festa were recalled from Triple-A, with the latter taking the bullpen spot vacated by today’s Trevor Gott trade.
Miller only made it into the fourth inning of last Friday’s start against the Rays. The blister’s emergence coincided with a Randy Arozarena homer that led to Miller’s removal. It’s a setback in what has otherwise been a quality debut season. The 24-year-old righty had allowed three or fewer runs in eight of his first 10 MLB starts, working at least six innings in seven of those outings.
A former fourth-round pick, Miller has developed into a top pitching prospect in pro ball. He had a breakout 2022 campaign in the minors and picked up where he left off this year. Over 59 big league innings, he carries a 3.97 ERA with a solid 23.8% strikeout rate and an excellent 5.2% walk percentage. He has established himself as part of a high-quality rotation also including Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and fellow rookie Bryan Woo.
The M’s don’t have an off day this week, so they’ll need a spot starter or bullpen game to take them into the All-Star Break. It’s unclear whether Seattle anticipates Miller returning when first eligible coming out of the layoff.
Nationals, Jacob Nottingham Agree To Minor League Contract
The Nationals are in agreement with catcher Jacob Nottingham on a minor league deal, tweets the Talk Nats blog. It’s the second minor league deal in as many days for Washington. They also signed right-hander Daniel Mengden last night.
Nottingham just hit the open market last week. He was released from a non-roster pact with the Giants. The right-handed hitter had posted a .232/.329/.432 line over 34 contests for San Francisco’s Triple-A club. That’s right in line with the .229/.333/.425 slash he’d put up through 89 minor league games last season, which he spent in the Orioles’ organization.
A former sixth-round draftee, Nottingham was once a fairly well-regarded prospect and has appeared in parts of four big league seasons. He got to the highest level each year from 2018-21, splitting his time between the Brewers and Mariners. Working primarily in a depth capacity, he appeared in 53 games and hit .184/.277/.421. He connected on eight home runs in only 130 trips to the plate but struck out over 34% of the time.
Prospect evaluators generally credited Nottingham with above-average to plus raw power but raised concerns about his strikeout tallies and receiving skills. He’ll head to Triple-A Rochester as a non-roster depth option with some power potential.
The Nats have used Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams as the catching duo this year. Nottingham won’t jump either player on the depth chart, but the only other catcher on the 40-man roster (Israel Pineda) in on the injured list. Luis Torrens had been in Rochester but opted out of his contract with the Nats over the weekend; Nottingham will step into that role.
Dodgers Place Clayton Kershaw On Injured List
The Dodgers placed Clayton Kershaw on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 30, due to soreness in his throwing shoulder. L.A. also optioned reliever Victor González to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Righties Michael Grove and Gavin Stone have been recalled to take the active roster spots.
There’s no indication it’s a worrisome issue. Kershaw has felt the soreness for the past few days. The Dodgers held off until this evening to determine whether he’d be able to make his scheduled start tonight against Pittsburgh. That won’t happen, but Dodgers’ beat reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com) noted that Kershaw was on the field throwing long toss.
Dave Roberts also downplayed any concern. The Los Angeles manager told reporters the club was confident Kershaw would be eligible to jump back into the rotation coming out of next week’s All-Star Break (relayed by Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). Keeping Kershaw out of action through the Break avoids pushing his shoulder and also serves as a way to monitor his innings.
The three-time Cy Young award winner has made 22 starts in each of the last two seasons, coming in just under 130 frames in each. He’d already gotten up to 17 starts and 95 1/3 innings this year. While Kershaw is no longer capable of carrying league-high workloads as he did during his peak, he remains one of the sport’s most effective arms. Kershaw sports a 2.55 ERA and was selected to his tenth All-Star Game over the weekend. Obviously, he won’t participate in the Midsummer Classic, meaning he’ll be replaced on the National League roster.
Grove will get the start tonight against the Bucs. The righty has taken the ball nine times (seven starts) on the season. Over 37 innings, he has a 7.54 ERA and is allowing just under two homers per nine. Neither Grove nor Stone has filled in as hoped in depth roles this year, making the starting staff a potential deadline focus for the front office. Kershaw joins Dustin May, Noah Syndergaard, Ryan Pepiot and Walker Buehler (the latter two of whom haven’t pitched all season) on the injured list.
Baker: Michael Brantley Has “Plateaued” In Attempt To Rejoin Astros
Astros outfielder Michael Brantley still hasn’t played this season, repeatedly struggling to get fully back to health after last year’s shoulder surgery. Now manager Dusty Baker tells Chandler Rome of The Athletic that Brantley has “plateaued” in his attempt to come back (Twitter links). “He’s plateaued somewhat,” Baker said in response to a question of whether Brantley had increased his workload. “We want to increase it, but then we don’t want to have to go backwards either. I’d rather have it plateau for a while then increase it.”
Brantley, now 36, underwent the shoulder procedure in August of last year. He reached free agency at the end of last season and re-signed with the club on a one-year, $12MM deal with performance bonuses. Since then, he has made repeated attempts to get into game shape but has continued to hit speed bumps along the way, with the timeline continually pushed back.
He once seemed like he was going to be ready for Opening Day, but in early March, the expectation changed to “a week into the season at the worst.” He began the season on the injured list and the timeline then became that the club was hoping for a return in the “next couple of weeks.” He was sent out on a rehab assignment in late April but was shut down in early May due to inflammation. Since then, he has attempted to some baseball activities but hasn’t yet progressed enough to start another rehab assignment.
At this point, it’s very difficult to know what to make of Brantley’s current status or the likelihood of him returning to the field at all this year, let alone at his previous level of performance. The Astros are arguably the most evasive club in the league when it comes to providing health updates on their players and the ongoing Brantley saga has often been difficult to parse from the outside. While the long-term picture remains murky, today’s update seems to indicate that Brantley isn’t close to a return in the short term, since he’s still struggling to push his activities into another gear.
It’s undoubtedly frustrating both for Brantley and the Astros, who were surely hoping he could return as the consistently above-average hitter he’s been in his career. As recently as last year, prior to the surgery, he hit .288/.370/.416 through 277 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 127. But the club has been without that production at any point this year and has also seen Yordan Alvarez miss almost a month at this point due to a strained oblique.
Those two injuries have left Kyle Tucker the only left-handed bat to feature as a regular in the club’s lineup over the past few weeks and general manager Dana Brown has repeatedly highlighted another lefty bat as a deadline target. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the club is expecting Brantley to miss the remainder of the season, but perhaps the continual setbacks have made them realize that they can’t be wholly reliant on his return either.
The trade deadline is now effectively four weeks away, giving the club some time to gauge the market and continue to monitor Brantley’s progress. They are currently in possession of a Wild Card spot and figure to be making additions at that point regardless. They might also need some time to figure out who is available in trade talks, since few teams are clear-cut sellers at this point thanks to the expanded postseason and weak Central divisions.
Jeimer Candelario is a switch-hitter and should be available as an impending free agent on a rebuilding Nationals club. The Astros would likely prefer someone who can play the outfield, which Candelario has never done, but he could play the infield corners and serve as the designated hitter. Cody Bellinger could be available, though he’s struggled since coming off the injured list about three weeks ago and the Cubs are only six games back in the NL Central right now. Yasmani Grandal and Carlos Santana are switch-hitters that could be available, though both are hitting around league average so far this year, in addition to being in their mid-30s, making significant salaries and not being options for the outfield. Both of their clubs are also just 5.5 games back in their respective divisions.
The market will undoubtedly change quite a bit in the next few weeks as the on-field results push clubs in one direction or another, but the Astros seems likely to be shopping in this aisle. A return from Brantley could impact how aggressive they are in that pursuit, though it seems as though that’s not something they want to be banking on.
Royals Transfer Josh Taylor To 60-Day Injured List
The Royals today announced that outfielder Diego Hernandez was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to High-A Quad Cities. Left-hander Josh Taylor goes the other way, transferred to the 60-day IL in a corresponding move.
It’s not a shock to see Taylor wind up on the 60-day IL. He was placed on the 15-day IL in late May due to a shoulder impingement and it was reported last week that he would require lower back surgery to address a herniated disk. He’ll now be officially ineligible to return until late July, which didn’t seem especially likely anyhow. He’ll need to recover from that surgery and then will likely need a rehab assignment to get back into a game shape.
He came over to the Royals from in the January trade that saw the Red Sox acquire Adalberto Mondesí and a player to be named later, who was later named as Angel Pierre. Taylor made 17 appearances this year with an 8.15 ERA, though that number was inflated by a .409 batting average on balls in play and 55.1% strand rate. He struck out 31.3% of batters faced while walking 10.8% and advanced metrics liked him more than his ERA, such as a 4.81 FIP and 3.32 SIERA. Those figures align more closely with his 2022 performance, where he posted a 3.40 ERA in 61 appearances.
As for Hernandez, 22, he has yet to play in the majors or even at the Triple-A level. He was added to the club’s roster in November to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He dislocated his shoulder in February and was placed on the 60-day IL on Opening Day as the club selected the contracts of veterans Matt Duffy, Franmil Reyes and Jackie Bradley Jr. Hernandez was able to earn big league pay and service time for the past three months while on the major league IL, though that will now come to an end. He’ll head to High-A and try to work his way up to his major league debut. He hit .284/.347/.407 between High-A and Double-A last year, stealing 40 bases in 115 games.
Cardinals Designate Óscar Mercado For Assignment
The Cardinals announced that they have recalled first baseman Luken Baker from Triple-A Memphis, with outfielder Óscar Mercado designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Mercado, 28, was signed by the Cardinals to a minor league deal in the winter and was called up to the big league club in mid-May. He’s been serving a part-time role since then, often as a defensive replacement or pinch runner off the bench. He’s appeared in 20 contests, only seven starts, and taken just 32 trips to the plate.
He hit a solid .290/.313/.387 in those but has had a hard time carving out a larger role on a club loaded with viable outfielders. Paul DeJong and Nolan Gorman have been spending a lot of time in the middle infield lately, pushing Tommy Edman and Brendan Donovan into spending more time on the grass alongside regular outfielders like Jordan Walker, Lars Nootbaar, Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson. On top of that, Tyler O’Neill is working his way towards a rehab assignment.
With all of those moving parts, Mercado has only taken two trips to the plate in the past two weeks and is now off the roster. He once seemed like he was carving out a regular role in the big leagues, as he hit 15 home runs with Cleveland in 2019 and slashed .269/.318/.443 overall while stealing 15 bases. When combined with his above-average center field defense, he was able to provide 2.2 wins above replacement that year, per the calculations of FanGraphs. But he fell off in subsequent seasons, hitting just .200/.258/.330 from 2020 to 2022.
The Cards will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers, though he’d have the right to elect free agency in the latter scenario. He has a previous career outright, which will allow him to reject another such assignment in favor of the open market.
Marlins Place Jazz Chisholm Jr. On IL, Designate Eli Villalobos
The Marlins have placed outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique strain, per Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (Twitter links). This move opens an active roster spot for infielder/outfielder Dane Myers, whose impending promotion was reported earlier. Right-hander Eli Villalobos was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot for Myers.
It’s yet another frustrating injury setback for Chisholm, who has dealt with a number of them over the past year. He broke out with a strong .254/.325/.535 showing last year, 139 wRC+, but was placed on the injured list at the end of June. He was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back and didn’t return in the second half of the season. Here in 2023, he played 39 games while transitioning from second base to center field before landing on the IL due to turf toe. He’s now back on the IL yet again just one week after being reinstated.
The timing of this injury is particularly unfortunate, as he had been red hot in the past week, hitting .348/.375/.696. That’s a small sample size, but it was an encouraging sign as he had hit just .229/.291/.403 earlier in the season. He’ll now be out of action for an undetermined amount of time. Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald relays that Chisholm will get an MRI to determine the severity but it’s at least serious enough for the club to have him sit out the next seven games leading into the All-Star break.
As for Villalobos, 26, he was just claimed off waivers from the Pirates a week ago but is now quickly in DFA limbo yet again. It’s been a busy few months of transactions for the right-hander, who was originally added to the Marlins’ roster in November. He was designated for assignment in April and went to the Pirates on waivers before coming back to the Fish last week.
Amid all those transactions, he’s managed to throw 23 innings in the minors this year with a 6.26 ERA. His 21.2% strikeout rate is close to average but his 19.5% walk rate is more than double the major league par. His results last year were far stronger, as he posted a 2.86 ERA while striking out 32.7% of opponents and walking just 9.4%.
The Marlins will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Despite his numbers this year, he could garner interest based on last year’s work and the fact that he still has a full slate of options.
Niko Goodrum Opts Out Of Red Sox Deal
Utilityman Niko Goodrum has opted out of his minor league deal with the Red Sox and is now a free agent, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (Twitter link). He’d been with their Triple-A club in Worcester.
Goodrum, 31, has appeared in parts of six big league seasons, spending time with the Twins, Tigers and Astros since his 2017 big league debut in Minnesota. He’s a career .226/.299/.389 hitter in 1531 big league plate appearances, and he was particularly solid with Detroit in 2018-19, when he received semi-regular work all around the diamond. During those two seasons, Goodrum slashed .247/.318/.427 with 28 homers and 24 steals in 964 trips to the plate. Statcast credits Goodrum as a plus defender at both middle infield spots and a passable option in the outfield as well.
It’s been a strong season for Goodrum down in Worcester, where he’s turned in a .280/.448/.440 batting line with more walks than strikeouts. The fleet-footed switch-hitter has swatted eight homers, swiped seven bases and drawn a walk in a sensational 23.1% of his plate appearances through his first 65 games (286 plate appearances).
Despite that production, it seems the Sox will allow Goodrum to seek out other opportunities in free agency rather than add him to the big league roster themselves. That registers as a moderate surprise, particularly given the presence of Trevor Story, Pablo Reyes, Yu Chang and Adalberto Mondesi on the injured list. Boston is currently deploying Christian Arroyo, David Hamilton and Enrique Hernandez in the middle infield and has had issues both offensively and defensively in the middle infield throughout the year.
Mets Designate Zach Muckenhirn For Assignment
The Mets have designated left-hander Zach Muckenhirn for assignment, tweets Will Sammon of The Athletic. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Elieser Hernandez, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Syracuse. Hernandez has been out all season due to a shoulder strain.
Muckenhirn, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter and made his big league debut earlier this season. He’s tallied six innings in the Majors, yielding four runs on 11 hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts. His work in Triple-A has produced far better results; Muckenhirn boasts a sensational 0.88 ERA in 30 2/3 frames, although his 15.7% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate don’t exactly support that minuscule ERA. Muckenhirn has induced grounders at a hearty 50% clip, but he’s also benefited from a .230 average on balls in play and a mammoth 95.2% strand rate in Syracuse so far.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Muckenhirn will either be traded, placed on outright waivers or released within the week. He still has all three minor league option years remaining (2023 included), so between that and his strong performance in Triple-A, Muckenhirn could well hold appeal to other clubs in search of left-handed bullpen depth.
At times, the 28-year-old Hernandez has looked like a solid big league starter with the division-rival Marlins. From 2020-21, he started 17 games with Miami and notched a 3.84 ERA with above-average strikeout and walk rates of 26.4% and 5.7%, respectively. That production came in a sample of 77 1/3 innings thanks to a lat strain, biceps inflammation and a quad strain. His 2022 season was nightmarish, however. Hernandez struggled en route to a 6.35 ERA, losing his rotation spot along the way. Hernandez’s strikeout and walk rates trended in the wrong direction last year, and his average of 2.74 homers per nine innings pitched is one of the higher marks from a pitcher in recent memory.
Those red flags notwithstanding, Hernandez is a 28-year-old righty who’s only one year removed from quality rotation work spread across two seasons. He’s allowed two runs on six hits and a walk with 10 punchouts across a pair of rehab starts thus far. Hernandez will continue building up in Syracuse and figures to be in the mix should the Mets need to further tap into their rotation depth again in the season’s second half.
Marlins To Select Dane Myers
The Marlins are planning to select the contract of infielder/outfielder Dane Myers prior to today’s game, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald (Twitter link). They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move to open a spot for Myers, who’ll be making his MLB debut.
Myers, 27, was a sixth-round pick by the Tigers in 2017 but made his way to the Marlins organization this offseason by way of the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft. He’s had a monster season between Double-A and Triple-A, slashing a combined .335/.423/.533 with 13 homers, eight doubles, a pair of triples and an impressive 16-for-17 showing in stolen base attempts.
That production is all the more impressive when considering that Myers was drafted as a pitcher and spent the first three years of his pro career on the mound. He barely hit at all from 2017-19, didn’t play during the canceled minor league season in 2020, and has only been a position player since the 2021 season. He’s logged time in all three outfield spots this season and also played both infield corners.
Myers will give the Fish another right-handed bat to further deepen a lineup that is among the best in baseball versus southpaws. Marlins hitters have posted a combined .301/.350/.442 batting line against left-handed pitching this season — a major reason they find themselves leading the pack in the National League Wild Card chase.