Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for 2023

Giants To Reinstate Luke Jackson

By and | at

The Giants are reinstating right-hander Luke Jackson from the injured list, reports Evan Webeck of the San Jose Mercury News. The righty will be making his first appearance since the 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April of 2022. Infielder David Villar will be optioned to Triple-A Sacramento in an associated active roster move, reports Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). Jackson was on the 60-day injured list, so the club will still need to make a corresponding move to put him back onto the 40-man roster.

Jackson was an effective middle innings arm for the Braves before the Tommy John procedure. While he’d struggled in the abbreviated 2020 season, he posted sub-4.00 ERA seasons in the two surrounding full schedules. That included a sparkling 1.98 ERA through 63 2/3 innings in 2021. Jackson punched out a solid 26.8% of opponents while inducing grounders on well over half the batted balls he allowed.

That quality performance led the Giants to take a shot on Jackson in spite of last year’s lost season. San Francisco signed him to a somewhat surprising two-year, $11.5MM free agent guarantee over the winter. He’s making $3MM this year and will be paid a $6.5MM salary in 2024 and at least a $2MM buyout on a 2025 club option. That’s a reasonable price tag for a setup type but a roll of the dice on the 31-year-old recapturing his pre-surgery form. Jackson has made five rehab appearances with Sacramento, allowing four runs with eight strikeouts and four walks through 4 1/3 innings.

Villar entered the season as San Francisco’s expected third baseman. He’d performed well as a rookie following a late-season call in 2022. The right-handed hitter has had a rough start to his ’23 campaign, however. Over 108 plate appearances, he has hit just .135/.222/.292 with four home runs and a 32.4% strikeout rate. J.D. Davis has taken hold of the third base job and pushed Villar into a depth capacity.

Brewers Place Jesse Winker On IL With Neck Strain

By | at

The Brewers announced that outfielder Jesse Winker has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 28, with a cervical strain. Infielder Abraham Toro has been recalled in a corresponding move.

Winker’s neck started bothering him a few days ago, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the hope is that he’ll feel better after the IL stint. That would seem to suggest the issue is mild and won’t require a significant absence, though there are some reasons for concern. One is that Winker’s performance has been nose-diving in recent years. He hit a tremendous .288/.385/.504 with the Reds from 2017 through 2021 for a wRC+ of 132. After getting traded to Seattle, he hit .219/.344/.344 last year, 108 wRC+, and has fallen even further this year after getting dealt to Milwaukee. He’s hit no home runs in 127 plate appearances and is slashing .204/.315/.231 for a wRC+ of just 60.

Furthermore, this isn’t the first time that neck issues have held him back. He also went on the injured list due to a cervical strain with the Reds in August of 2019, missing over a month. In October of last year, the Mariners put him on the IL due to a cervical disc bulge and he eventually required surgery. That makes this the third time in the past four years that a neck issue has put him out of action.

Whether the neck injury is the culprit or not, the Brewers were obviously hoping for more when they acquired Winker this past offseason when they sent second baseman Kolten Wong to Seattle with both Winker and Toro coming to Milwaukee. The deal hasn’t worked out for either club so far, as Wong is hitting a dismal  .160/.250/.189 for the Mariners. Toro has spent the entire season in Triple-A so far, hitting .258/.344/.352 for a wRC+ of 80.

Winker has been serving as Milwaukee’s designated hitter most of the time, which only made his struggles more glaring, given the offensive expectations of that position. With Luke Voit having been designated for assignment yesterday, the Brewers are now without two of their primary options for that spot, perhaps freeing them up to rotate playing time around to various players on the roster.

Tigers Acquire Jake Marisnick From White Sox

By | at

The Tigers announced that they have acquired outfielder Jake Marisnick from the White Sox in exchange for cash considerations. Marisnick wasn’t on Chicago’s 40-man roster and won’t require a corresponding move.

Marisnick, 32, first appeared in the majors almost a decade ago, debuting in July of 2013. He’s spent most of that time as a glove-first outfielder, generally hitting at a below-average rate while providing good defense and some speed. In over 2,000 plate appearances in his career, he’s hit .228/.281/.384 for a wRC+ of 80 while walking at a 5.4% rate and striking out 30.1% of the time. But he’s stolen 79 bases while also tallying 76 Defensive Runs Saved, 48 Outs Above Average and a mark of 22.9 from Ultimate Zone Rating.

He signed a minor league deal with the White Sox this winter and was added to the big league squad about three weeks ago. He was primarily utilized as a defensive replacement, appearing in nine games but with just a pair of trips to the plate. He was designated for assignment last week when the club selected Clint Frazier, then cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment.

The Tigers had their outfield depth thinned a bit today, as Matt Vierling was placed on the injured list, joining fellow outfielders Kerry Carpenter and Austin Meadows. Marisnick will presumably head to Triple-A Toledo and provide the club with a veteran option to turn to if they suffer another injury.

Tigers Place Eduardo Rodriguez, Matt Vierling On IL

By | at

The Tigers announced that they have placed left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez on the 15-day injured list and infielder/outfielder Matt Vierling on the 10-day injured list. The former has a left index finger pulley rupture while the latter is dealing with a low back injury, with both moves retroactive to May 29. Right-hander Braden Bristo and infielder/outfielder Tyler Nevin have been recalled in corresponding moves.

The absence of Rodriguez will be an unfortunate one for the Tigers, as the lefty has been out to an excellent start this year. He has a 2.13 ERA through his first 11 outings, a figure that would easily be the best of his career, which is the 3.81 mark he posted in 2019 with the Red Sox. He’s had a bit of luck from a .253 batting average on balls in play and 83.3% strand rate but his 6.1% walk rate is on pace to be the lowest of his career and his 25.5% strikeout rate is a bit above his career 24% rate.

That excellent campaign will now be put on pause and it seems unlikely he will be able to return after the 15-day minimum. A detailed injury report from the Tigers, relayed by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, says that Rodriguez will rest for seven to days before being re-evaluated for a throwing program. That seems to suggest he’ll need at least a small ramp-up after that rest.

For however long he’s out, the club will need to find another starter to join Michael Lorenzen, Matthew Boyd, Alex Faedo and Joey Wentz in the rotation. Finding a replacement will be a bit tricky given the club’s other injuries, as staters Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Beau Brieske and Spencer Turnbull are each already on the IL themselves. Reese Olson and Garrett Hill are on the 40-man roster, though each has an ERA above 5.00 in Triple-A this season. Non-roster options include Rony García, Ashton Goudeau and Zach Logue, though they each have a Triple-A ERA of 4.97 or higher this year. The club has an off-day on Thursday but will need a solution at some point this weekend.

Rodriguez has also been floated as a speculative trade candidate for this summer on account of his strong season. That’s complicated by a couple of factors, one is the weak American League Central division. Despite a 25-27 record, the Tigers are in second place in the division and just two games back of the Twins. If they are able to hover around that level, trading one of their better players would be a tough sell.

It’s also complicated by his contract, which allows him to opt out after this season when he will have three years and $49MM remaining on the deal. His strong season was putting him on track to trigger that opt-out, thus making him a rental. However, the three remaining years would give pause to any acquiring club, as they would have the downside of remaining on the hook for that money if Rodriguez got hurt or underperformed after a trade. Such options and opt-outs generally make trades tricky and that would have been the case for Rodriguez. This injury will only add a further layer of complication on any future trade talks.

As for Vierling, he was acquired from the Phillies this offseason and has received regular playing time from the Tigers, appearing in 46 of 52 games thus far. He’s hit .241/.297/.352 for a wRC+ of 82 while stealing four bases and bouncing to all three outfield spots as well as brief stints at second and third base. It’s unclear how long he’s expected to be out of action but it’s possible that utility players like Nevin and Zach McKinstry get some more playing time next to outfield regulars Riley Greene and Akil Baddoo.

Mets Designate Jimmy Yacabonis For Assignment

By | at

The Mets reinstated right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis from the injured list and designated him for assignment, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

Yacabonis, 31, was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He was selected to the club’s roster in the middle of April and made five appearances with an ERA of 9.00 before landing on the injured list with a quad strain. He began a rehab assignment a couple of weeks ago but the club evidently couldn’t find room for him on the roster now that he’s healthy. Since he’s out of options, that left them little choice but to designate him for assignment.

That brief stint means that his career now consists of time with five clubs, as he has previously played for the Orioles, Mariners, Marlins and Rays. Going back to 2017, he has 127 career innings over 76 appearances with a 6.24 ERA. He has a 17.6% strikeout rate in that time along with a 12.4% walk rate and 39.5% ground ball rate.

The Mets will now have one week to trade the righty or pass him through waivers. In the latter case, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, due to having been previously outrighted in his career.

Orioles Sign Aaron Hicks, Place Cedric Mullins On IL

By | at

The Orioles announced that they have signed outfielder Aaron Hicks to a major league contract and placed fellow outfielder Cedric Mullins on the 10-day injured list with a right groin strain. They already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster and won’t require a corresponding move in that regard. JoezMcFly of Pinstripe Strong had reported on the signing of Hicks earlier today.

Hicks, 33, quickly finds a new landing spot after being released by the Yankees last week. That move was prompted by a tepid performance over the past two-plus seasons. Since the start of the 2021 campaign, Hicks has hit .209/.315/.310 for a wRC+ of 83, indicating he’s been 17% below league average in that time. That includes an even worse .188/.263/.261 showing here in 2023.

Prior to that, however, he had been an all-around contributor. From 2017 to 2020, he hit a much stronger .247/.362/.457 for a wRC+ of 123. He combined that with 26 stolen bases and solid defense, much of that in center field. He was worth 8.7 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, over those three full seasons plus the shortened 2020 campaign.

In the midst of that strong run, the Yankees placed a bet on Hicks by signing him to a seven-year, $70MM extension going into 2019. While the first couple seasons of the deal were fairly smooth sailing, Hicks’ performance fell off, as mentioned. That caused the Yanks to cut bait, even though there’s still more than two years remaining on the contract. He’s making $10.5MM this year, with roughly $7MM left to be paid out, and a $9.5MM salary in each of the next two years. The Yanks will remain on the hook for almost all of that, as well as a $1MM buyout on the 2026 club option.

That will allow the Orioles to bring Hicks aboard and pay him only the prorated league minimum salary for any time he spends on the roster, with that amount being subtracted from what the Yankees pay. The O’s will be hoping that a change of scenery can help Hicks look more like the 2017-2020 version of himself as opposed to what he’s shown recently. It’s also possible that there have been reasons for his struggles. He only played 32 games in 2021 due to a wrist injury, then he tried to come back healthier and leaner in 2022. He spoke openly about how he felt that approach deprived him of his power, despite keeping him healthy enough to play 130 games last year. He only hit eight home runs on the year, compared to a career high of 27 in 2018. This year, he only had scattered playing time as the Yanks tried out various younger players in the outfield mix.

There will be essentially no financial risk to the O’s as they bring Hicks into the fold and see if he can move past those circumstances and perhaps find better results. Despite the low cost, there is still the risk that his poor results continue, but it seems they are willing to take that risk in order to try to deal with the absence of Mullins. It’s unclear exactly how long Mullins will be sidelined by this groin injury, but it will be at least 10 days. General manager Mike Elias tells reporters, including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, that he’s hoping it will be measured in weeks and not months.

It will be a blow to the club for as long as he’s out, whatever the eventual length of his IL stint. He’s been a key member of the Baltimore lineup, going back to his 2021 breakout. Since the start of that season, he’s hit .273/.341/.463 for a wRC+ of 122 while also stealing 77 bases and providing quality defense in center. Even a bounceback from Hicks will still be a drop-off from that kind of excellent production.

Time will tell exactly how much playing time Hicks gets. As a switch-hitter, he could perhaps take the large side of a platoon alongside right-handed hitters like Austin Hays and Ryan McKenna, with switch-hitter Anthony Santander also in the mix. Hicks has plenty of center field experience but has been more of a left fielder in recent years. Hays, meanwhile, is considered capable of playing center but has spent more time in the corners recently in deference to Mullins.

Yankees Notes: Bader, Trevino, Stanton

By | at

Yankees outfielder Harrison Bader departed yesterday’s game with right hamstring tightness and it seems he’s unlikely to make a quick return. Manager Aaron Boone tells Talkin’ Yanks that Bader will miss at least a few games and could even require a trip to the injured list.

The club can take a couple of days to decide since IL stints can be backdated by three days, provided that the player hasn’t participated in those intervening games. The Yanks can give Bader some time to see how his hamstring feels and then place him on the IL if it doesn’t improve. Of course, taking that path means playing shorthanded for a few days, but it could possibly allow them to avoid putting Bader on the shelf if his health improves.

Injuries have become a frequent thread in Bader’s career, as he’s spent some time on the IL in each full season from 2019 to the present. He played 103 games in 2021 and 86 last year, then started the 2023 season on the injured list due to an oblique strain. He eventually returned and has been playing very well of late, hitting .267/.295/.511 through 26 games while stealing six bases and providing quality glovework. However, he’s now at risk of having that production put on hold yet again, depending on how things develop in the coming days. Whether he goes on the IL or not, the club will have to fill center field in his absence, with playing time potentially going to Aaron Judge, Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Greg Allen.

Elsewhere on the roster, catcher Jose Trevino seems ready for a fairly quick return. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays word from Boone that the backstop could be activated during the club’s current series against the Mariners, which runs through Wednesday. He landed on the 10-day injured list May 18 with a hamstring strain, so it looks like his stint could wind up being just over the minimum.

The glove-first catcher led the league in Defensive Runs Saved last year with 21 and also had the best framing marks in the majors according to FanGraphs. He wasn’t quite at the same pace this year but was still above-average before straining his hamstring. Once he’s able to return, it could mean that Ben Rortvedt gets optioned back to the minors. He has done a good job filling in for Trevino, hitting .286/.444/.429 but in a small sample of nine plate appearances.

Lefty Carlos Rodón is also on track to return to the team, though his return won’t be as imminent as Trevino. He threw a 20-pitch bullpen session at high intensity, per Hoch, and will soon throw another bullpen before moving on to live hitters. Signed to a six-year, $162MM deal this offseason, the southpaw has yet to make his Yankee debut after suffering a forearm strain in the spring and then dealing with back problems.

With both Rodón and Frankie Montas having been absent all season so far, it’s opened some rotation work for other hurlers like Domingo Germán, Clarke Schmidt, Jhony Brito and Randy Vásquez. Germán also had to miss some time due to his 10-game sticky stuff suspension, though he has now served that and returned yesterday. That shuffling of arms has left the club’s rotation ERA at 4.38 for the year, placing them 15th out of the 30 clubs in the league. Rodón has a 2.67 ERA dating back to the start of the 2021 season and will undoubtedly provide the club with a boost once healthy, but he still has a long road ahead of him in building back up to a full starter’s workload, since he’s effectively just starting his delayed spring ramp-up now.

There are some other reinforcements that appear to be closer at hand, as the Double-A Somerset Patriots announced (Twitter links) that third baseman Josh Donaldson, outfielder/designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton and right-hander Tommy Kahnle are all joining that club for rehab work tonight. Donaldson and Kahnle were already rehabbing with other affiliates but this will be Stanton’s first game action in a while. He was out to a strong .269/.296/.558 start before suffering a hamstring strain about six weeks ago. He’s always been an excellent hitter but health has been a frequent concern lately, as he’s been on the IL in each season since 2018.

Orioles Showing Interest In Aaron Hicks

By | at

The Orioles have shown “serious” interest in outfielder Aaron Hicks, whom the Yankees released last week following a DFA, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Pinstripe Strong podcast host JoezMcFly first connected the two parties (Twitter link). The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka tweets that no deal is finalized but adds that one could come together quickly. That could suggest that Hicks has yet to complete a physical, but regardless of whether things have progressed to that stage, it seems quite possible that Hicks will wind up remaining in the AL East.

The Baltimore outfield took a hit with yesterday’s injury to Cedric Mullins, who was diagnosed with an abductor/groin strain and is expected to land on the injured list. The veteran Hicks would give the O’s an alternative in the outfield, whether directly replacing Mullins in center or logging some time in left field while Austin Hays shifts up the defensive spectrum.

That’s assuming the two parties are discussing a big league deal, which certainly isn’t a given when considering the recent struggles from Hicks, who batted .188/.263/.261 in 76 plate appearances prior to his release. However, a Major League deal would only require Baltimore to pay Hicks the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. The Yankees remain on the hook for the rest of Hicks’ $10.5MM salary, as well as the $9.5MM he’s owed in both 2024 and 2025 (and the $1MM on the buyout for his 2026 club option).

Both Hays and Ryan McKenna present alternatives to Mullins in center field. Prospect Kyle Stowers could also slot in there at some point — or in left field, with Hays sliding to center — but he’s been on the minor league injured list since May 23 due to inflammation in his shoulder. He’s thus not an option in the short term. Baltimore doesn’t have many other outfield options on the 40-man roster, but the O’s do have a 40-man vacancy at the moment, as they’ve yet to fill the spot that opened when catcher Luis Torrens rejected an outright assignment a couple weeks ago.

Hicks, 33, was a solid but oft-injured member of the Yankees outfield from 2017-20, batting a combined .247/.362/.457 (123 wRC+) in 1408 trips to the plate during that time. His offensive output cratered in 2021, however, and has yet to rebound. He’s batting just .209/.315/.310 in 655 big league plate appearances since Opening Day 2021, and his formerly strong glovework has taken a dip as well. With Mullins and Stowers ailing, Hicks presents a low-cost, game-ready option.

There’s minimal risk in bringing him aboard and seeing if he can bounce back to some extent outside Bronx spotlight. If he can successfully do so, he can stick around as a low-cost depth option. If not, the O’s could move on once their incumbent outfielders get a bit healthier (or sooner, if they want to take a look at a non-roster outfielder like former first-rounder Colton Cowser or minor league veterans such as Daz Cameron and Ben DeLuzio).

Angels, Carson Fulmer Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with former top pitching prospect Carson Fulmer, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. The right-hander has been assigned to the organization’s Arizona Complex League affiliate for the time being, presumably as he builds up for an assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake.

Fulmer, 29, was selected by the White Sox with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft. He’d been speculated upon as a possible No. 1 overall pick prior, and while there were some concerns about his ability to stick as a starting pitcher even at the time of the draft, most expected that he was a good bet to serve as a high-end reliever even if the rotation didn’t pan out. Baseball America called him the “surest big leaguer on the board” in the spring of his draft season, and virtually every ranking of that year’s draft class had Fulmer at least within the top 50 prospects of the class — if not the top 10.

Suffice it to say, things haven’t gone according to expectations. While Fulmer breezed through High-A in 2015 following his selection, he struggled with command in Double-A in his first full season. He nevertheless reached he big leagues just over a year after being drafted, but he was hit hard in the South Siders’ bullpen that summer, allowing 11 runs in 11 2/3 innings before being sent down for some more seasons in Triple-A.

Fulmer made 15 starts and another 21 relief appearances for the ChiSox over the next three seasons but struggled in both roles, pitching to a 6.29 ERA with 57 walks against 73 strikeouts in a total of 83 innings, exhausting all of his minor league option years along the way and leaving the win-now White Sox with little choice but to designate him for assignment in advance of the 2020 season.

Including the Angels, Fulmer has now bounced to seven teams since that DFA. He posted a 6.00 ERA between the Tigers, Orioles and Reds from 2020-21 and spent the 2022 season with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Fulmer had a decent showing in Triple-A last year, logging a 2.86 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but still posting an ugly 14.5% walk rate in 56 2/3 frames. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners just prior to 2023 spring training, but Seattle cut him loose at the end of camp. He’ll now land elsewhere in the AL West, as the Angels continue to cast a wide net and take looks at veteran arms in hopes of stabilizing their top-heavy bullpen.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top