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Guardians Notes: McKenzie, Lively, Curry, Martinez

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Triston McKenzie has had a rough start to the season, allowing 11 runs over his first 13 innings. The lanky righty has issued 12 walks with just five strikeouts. His swinging strike rate has plummeted to 5.6% while his velocity has backed up. McKenzie’s average fastball has sat at 90.9 MPH, down from its standard 92-93 range.

McKenzie entered the season hoping for a rebound after his 2023 campaign was mostly lost to injury. He began last year on the shelf with a teres major strain in his throwing shoulder. He returned in June, made two starts, and then was shut back down after spraining the UCL in his throwing elbow. That initially led to concern that he might go under the knife, but he opted for non-surgical rehab. McKenzie made it back for a pair of appearances in the final week of the season.

While he was able to get back to the mound, McKenzie clearly hasn’t been operating at peak form. The 26-year-old candidly admitted to Zack Meisel and Jason Lloyd of the Athletic that he’s still unsure whether his decision not to undergo surgery was the correct one. McKenzie told The Athletic that he’s not pitching through pain but conceded the possibility of a serious injury is “always in the back of (his) head.” While he said that hasn’t changed his approach or effort level on the mound, he clearly hasn’t found his best stuff.

Meisel’s and Lloyd’s piece is worth a full perusal, as they also speak with former Cleveland reliever Bryan Shaw and Guards starter Shane Bieber about the health and contractual considerations a player weighs when deciding whether to undergo surgery. Bieber, of course, opted for non-surgical rehab for elbow inflammation last season. After two excellent starts this year, he required Tommy John surgery — a brutal development six months before his first trip to free agency. McKenzie has three seasons of remaining arbitration control and won’t get to the open market until the 2026-27 offseason.

Bieber’s absence makes it all the more significant that McKenzie is able to get back on track in short order. The Guardians have also been without Gavin Williams thus far after the second-year righty experienced elbow discomfort of his own this spring. McKenzie has been joined Logan Allen, Tanner Bibee and Carlos Carrasco in the rotation. Of that quartet, only Carrasco has an ERA below 4.82 so far.

The Guardians have nevertheless gotten out to a great start behind an excellent bullpen and a surprisingly potent offense. They enter today’s series finale against the Red Sox with a 12-6 record. Still, the rotation will feel tenuous — at least until Williams’ return — if McKenzie’s struggles continue.

In the short term, it seems journeyman righty Ben Lively will hold down the #5 spot. He somewhat surprisingly landed a major league contract from Cleveland after being waived by the Reds last winter. Lively started the season on the IL after being delayed by an illness, but he was activated for his team debut last night. The 32-year-old worked five innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts in a loss to Boston.

Lively is out of options, so the Guardians need to keep him on the big league club or put him on waivers. That perhaps gave him the edge over Xzavion Curry, who was optioned back to Triple-A Columbus as the corresponding move for Lively’s reinstatement. Curry had returned from his own virus-related IL stint to make his season debut on Monday. He worked five scoreless frames with a trio of strikeouts and could be the top depth option if anyone from the current rotation suffers an injury.

In other Guardians news, the team placed infield prospect Angel Martínez on the 60-day injured list yesterday. According to the MLB.com injury tracker, Martínez is undergoing surgery to repair a hamate fracture in his wrist. The 22-year-old has yet to make his MLB debut. He split last season between the top two levels of the minors, hitting .251/.321/.392 with 14 homers.

Brewers Outright Kevin Herget

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Right-hander Kevin Herget has cleared waivers and been outrighted by the Brewers to Triple-A Nashville, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Brewers had designated the righty for assignment on the weekend.

Herget, 33, signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in the offseason. He had his contract selected April 9 and was bounced off the roster five days later without making an appearance. Prior to joining the big league club, he made four scoreless appearances in Triple-A, striking out five batters while only issuing one walk. He also had two scoreless appearances in Spring Training.

Though he didn’t get into a big league game with the Brewers, he has 31 1/3 innings of major league experience with the Rays and Reds. He has a 5.74 earned run average in that time, striking out just 12.6% of batters faced but limiting walks to a tiny rate of 4.4%. His work in the minors has naturally been more intriguing. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has tossed 230 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.86 ERA, 24.1% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate.

Herget has been outrighted before in his career, which gives him the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. It’s not yet clear whether he’s chosen to report to Nashville or head back out to the open market.

Red Sox Place Tyler O’Neill On Injured List

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The Red Sox announced they’ve placed Tyler O’Neill on the seven-day concussion injured list, retroactive to April 16. Rob Refsnyder was reinstated from the IL to take the active roster spot.

O’Neill suffered the injury on Monday when he collided with Rafael Devers while tracking a shallow fly ball. O’Neill’s forehead hit the back of Devers’ head. Devers stayed in the game but O’Neill came out. While he initially cleared concussion protocol, he hasn’t played in either of the last two games. He’s evidently still not ready to return and will be out for at least another five days. MassLive’s Christopher Smith tweets that O’Neill was diagnosed with a mild concussion.

Acquired in something of a buy-low offseason trade, O’Neill has been off to a scorching start to his Red Sox tenure. He’s hitting .313/.459/.750 and is third in the majors with seven homers. O’Neill showed impact ability intermittently throughout his time with the Cardinals, but he’d produced at a roughly league average level from 2022-23. He’ll be a free agent for the first time at the end of this season.

In other injury news, manager Alex Cora said the Sox are sending Devers for an MRI on his left knee (relayed by Sean McAdam of MassLive). The two-time All-Star has played through some discomfort in the joint in recent days, although there’s nothing to suggest it’s related to Monday’s collision. He was the designated hitter yesterday but is out of the lineup for this afternoon’s contest with the Guardians.

It seems the current round of imaging is mostly precautionary. The Sox surely want to rule out any possibility that Devers is playing through some kind of structural issue that would necessitate a shutdown. He’s still day-to-day pending the MRI results.

Devers has gotten off to a slow start. He’s hitting only .188 through his first 13 games. A massive 15.5% walk rate has kept his on-base percentage at a respectable clip, but Devers clearly hasn’t found his typical form. His hard contact percentage has been well below his normal level. It’s likely that playing through discomfort — he also battled shoulder soreness around Opening Day — has contributed to the slump. Assuming there’s nothing significantly wrong with his knee, Devers shouldn’t have much issue recapturing his groove offensively.

There’s nevertheless added uncertainty to an already shaky Boston infield. Devers and Triston Casas flank a much less imposing middle infield group. Injuries to Vaughn Grissom and Trevor Story have pushed the likes of Enmanuel Valdez, Pablo Reyes and David Hamilton into meaningful roles. Story is out for the season, so shortstop will remain a question all year unless the Sox go outside the organization.

Grissom, who started the year on the shelf with a hamstring strain, will take over second base within two weeks. He began a minor league rehab assignment last Friday, opening a 20-day window for his activation to the MLB roster. Cora said this morning that the Sox aren’t likely to reinstate Grissom before their forthcoming week-long road trip (X link via The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey). Grissom didn’t get any game action in March, so he’s using the rehab period as something of an abbreviated Spring Training.

Latest On Padres, Diamond Sports Group

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11:38am: The second payout is evidently not all that significant. Sanders reports (on X) that the Padres will receive roughly $17MM in total from the settlement, indicating the remaining-asset value is roughly $6.5MM.

10:06am: There were minor developments in the long-running Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy proceedings this week. Most notable is the revelation of a deal that the broadcasting conglomerate struck with the Padres last summer.

As Daniel Kaplan of Awful Announcing first reported, Diamond agreed in July to a deal that could pay the San Diego organization as much as $78.9MM to resolve breach of contract claims which the Padres made after Diamond dropped the team’s TV deal last spring. The Padres initially sought a $162MM award as compensation for the lapsed television contract before agreeing to the lesser sum in mediation.

That money has not yet been paid. The settlement calls for an initial payment of roughly $10.5MM, followed by a second payout worth a maximum of $68.3MM that’ll be determined by calculating the remaining assets of that contract’s value after the Diamond/Padres RSN network is officially liquidated. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Diamond will owe the approximate $10.5MM payment by the middle of May. The timeline for the second sum is still not clear.

As part of the agreement, the Padres and Diamond agreed to drop all litigation against one another. The Friars have proceeded without an RSN deal since Diamond abandoned the contract. MLB has handled in-market broadcasting in San Diego via MLB.tv. The league covered 80% of what the Padres would’ve received — Sanders writes that the deal was valued around $60MM annually — for the 2023 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the league would not cover lost rights fees for this year and beyond.

The Padres are one of two teams which Diamond had covered but abandoned midseason. The company did the same with the Diamondbacks a few weeks after dropping the San Diego deal. It is not known if Diamond has agreed to any kind of settlement with the Arizona franchise.

Diamond continues to hold local broadcasting rights for 12 teams: the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers and Twins. While it initially seemed as if Diamond would disband after the 2024 season, an influx of cash as part of a streaming partnership with Amazon has given the company confidence about its viability beyond this year. That’s not entirely shared by MLB, which continues to express skepticism about Diamond’s long-term prospects. The Atheltic’s Evan Drellich writes that the bankruptcy court has scheduled a hearing for June 18 on the company’s specific plans for its $450MM in financing from the Amazon deal.

Rangers Promote Jack Leiter

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April 18: Texas officially selected Leiter’s contract on Thursday morning. The Rangers optioned Grant Anderson to Triple-A in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster, they transferred lefty reliever Brock Burke to the 60-day injured list. Burke broke his non-throwing hand last week and will now be out of action until at least the middle of June.

April 16: The Rangers announced this morning that top pitching prospect Jack Leiter will have his contract selected to the major league roster and make his big league debut Thursday against the Tigers. Texas has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to accommodate the right-hander, whom they drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021.

It’s an early birthday present for Leiter, who’ll turn 24 just three days after making his long-awaited debut. The second-generation talent is the son of two-time World Series champion and two-time All-Star Al Leiter, the nephew of 11-year MLB veteran Mark Leiter, and the cousin of current Cubs setup man Mark Leiter Jr.

The fourth Leiter to reach the majors, Jack hasn’t had the most straightforward path to the show despite his considerable draft and prospect pedigree. He annihilated hitters in college ball at Vanderbilt, fanning 41% of his opponents in two seasons prior to being drafted, but struggled with command following an aggressive assignment to Double-A right out of the gate.

Leiter walked more than 13% of his opponents and posted an ERA north of 5.00 in each of his first two seasons at the Double-A level but has been an absolute monster in his first three Triple-A appearances this season. In 14 1/3 innings, he’s punched out 25 of his 57 opponents (43.9%), walked only three (5.3%) and surrendered just 11 hits. Four of those, unfortunately, have left the yard and saddled Leiter with a 3.77 ERA that’s far less impressive than his overpowering K-BB profile would otherwise suggest, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by the strikeout and walk trends. That’s especially true given that Leiter also pitched 12 2/3 innings for Texas this spring and posted a much-improved 9.6% walk rate in that short time as well.

Texas’ rotation has been hammered by injuries. Jacob deGrom, signed to a five-year contract in the 2022-23 offseason, opened the year on the 60-day injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June. Max Scherzer, acquired at least year’s trade deadline, required offseason back surgery to repair a herniated disc. Twenty-six-year old southpaw Cody Bradford was a godsend through three starts to begin the season (1.40 ERA) … until he suffered a lower back strain of his own and was subsequently placed on the 15-day IL.

Leiter will step onto a starting staff that’s in flux. Veteran righty Michael Lorenzen, who inked a one-year deal late in spring training, made his Rangers debut yesterday with five shutout frames over his former Tigers teammates (albeit with five walks against four strikeouts). Veteran lefty Andrew Heaney would’ve been on tap for Thursday’s start, but he’s yet to last five innings in any of his three starts while pitching to a 6.75 ERA. It seems Leiter will overtake that spot, at least for the time being.

That all points to a rotation that’ll include Lorenzen, Leiter, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray and Wednesday’s starter Dane Dunning — at least for the time being. It’s not clear how long a leash Leiter will be given if he struggles out of the gate, though one would imagine the Rangers are planning to give him multiple starts following his initial call to the big leagues. Manager Bruce Bochy and/or general manager Chris Young will presumably expand on the team’s plans for their young righty in the days to come.

Leiter’s 2022-23 struggles were enough to drop him off prospect rankings, meaning he’s ineligible for MLB’s prospect promotion incentives. He won’t accrue a full year of service time, given the lack of sufficient time remaining on the calendar, nor can he net the Rangers a draft pick based on his Rookie of the Year voting. As it stands, he’ll be controllable through the 2030 season and is set up on pace to reach Super Two status, granting him four trips through the arbitration process rather than the standard three. The first of those arb-eligible offseasons would come in the winter of 2026-27, though future optional assignments could yet impact both his free agent timeline and arbitration status.

The Opener: Leiter, Taillon, Rehab Assignments

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As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Leiter to make MLB debut:

The second overall pick of the 2021 draft is set to make his MLB debut today, as the Rangers announced earlier this week that right-hander Jack Leiter will be promoted to make today’s start against the Tigers in Detroit, where he’ll be matched up against veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda. Leiter, who will celebrate his 24th birthday on Sunday, was a consensus top-25 prospect in the sport after being drafted out of Vanderbilt three years ago but has struggled in professional ball with ERAs north of 5.00 in each of the last two seasons.

That being said, the righty has looked good three appearances into his 2024 season, posting a 3.72 ERA at the Triple-A level while striking out an incredible 43.9% of batters faced against a walk rate of just 5.3%. If Leiter has recaptured the form that made him the most dominant pitching prospect on the planet during his college days, that would be a huge boost to a Rangers club that started the season without veteran aces Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. Leiter’s debut is scheduled for 1:10pm local time in Detroit and 12:10pm CT for fans in Texas.

2. Taillon to make season debut:

The Cubs have weathered plenty of key injuries early in the 2024 campaign, ranging from staff ace Justin Steele suffering a hamstring strain on Opening Day to right fielder Seiya Suzuki being placed on the shelf with an oblique strain earlier this week. The club is slated to move closer to full strength later today when right-hander Jameson Taillon, who is set to be activated from the injured list today, makes his first start of the 2024 campaign. Taillon, 32, is in the second year of his four-year, $68MM contract with the Cubs and posted slightly below average results (93 ERA+) last year after a brutal first half that saw him post a 6.93 ERA and 5.14 FIP in his first 14 starts.

He’ll look to turn the page on that rough performance starting today, when he’ll face off against left-hander A.J. Puk and the Marlins at Wrigley Field in a game schedule to begin at 6:40pm local time this evening. Taillon’s return could see the Cubs push youngster Ben Brown, who has dominated with a 1.23 ERA in 14 2/3 innings of work since joining the club’s rotation, into a relief role, though it’s possible the club could make another move like optioning young lefty Jordan Wicks or going with a six-man rotation if they want to keep Brown in a starting capacity.

3. LeMahieu, Lowe to begin rehab assignments:

A pair of key players in the AL East are on the road to their season debuts today, as MLB.com indicates that veteran Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu is set to begin a rehab assignment as soon as today, while reporting earlier this week indicated that Rays outfielder Josh Lowe is also slated to begin a rehab assignment today. LeMahieu, 35, suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right foot during Spring Training and figures to get the majority of his reps at third base, where Oswaldo Cabrera is off to a hot start, upon his return to action. The veteran was roughly league average at the plate in a down season last year but has a strong .285/.358/.430 slash line since joining the Yankees prior to the 2019 season.

As for Lowe, the 26-year-old missed virtually all of Spring Training due to hip inflammation and an oblique strain. The former top prospect enjoyed a breakout season at the plate with Tampa last year, slashing an excellent .292/.335/.500 in 501 trips to the plate. In 2024, the Rays appear poised to rely on Lowe as their primary right fielder with Randy Arozarena and Jose Siri manning left and center field. Its been an injury-riddled start to the season for the Rays, particularly on the positional side where Lowe is joined by Jonny DeLuca, Taylor Walls, Brandon Lowe, and Jonathan Aranda on the shelf. Despite those injury woes, the Rays have managed to keep their heads above water with a 10-9 record to this point in the season, though that’s only been good enough for a three-way tie for last place in a highly competitive AL East.

MLBTR Podcast: Free Agent Power Rankings, Ohtani’s Stolen Money And The A’s Moving To Sacramento

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • How can a pitcher blow a save in the seventh inning? How early can a save be blown? (38:25)
  • Do you think the Tigers will release Javier Báez? It is painful to watch him. (41:15)
  • Who could the Braves target inside or outside the organization to replace Spencer Strider? (45:15)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Robert Stephenson To Miss 2024 Season With Elbow Injury

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Angels reliever Robert Stephenson is out for the season with an elbow injury, the team informed reporters (X link via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger). The club will provide further details tomorrow. They have not yet announced whether Stephenson will undergo surgery or whether he is expected to be ready for the start of the 2025 campaign.

It’s a brutal blow for the Halos, who made Stephenson their biggest addition of the offseason. The Angels inked him to a three-year, $33MM contract — their only multi-year investment of the winter. That deal contained a conditional $2.5MM team option for 2027 that triggered if Stephenson suffered damage to an elbow ligament that required an injured list stint of at least 130 consecutive days. Sam Blum of the Athletic tweets that the option will go into effect as a result of the injury.

That still offers little solace in the short term. The Halos envisioned Stephenson taking high-leverage setup work in front of closer Carlos Estévez. The righty was one of the top upside plays in last year’s relief class after an utterly dominant finish to the ’23 season.

Despite a first-round and top prospect pedigree, Stephenson has had inconsistent results for the bulk of his career. He’s long had excellent stuff, though, and he translated that into four months of elite results after being traded to the Rays last June. Stephenson leaned increasingly on a power slider/cutter in Tampa Bay that bordered on unhittable. In 42 games as a Ray, he worked to a 2.35 ERA while punching out nearly 43% of opposing batters. He induced swinging strikes on a laughable 28.9% of his pitches, an MLB-best mark that was well more than double the league average.

The Angels won’t get the chance to see how replicable that production is in 2024. Stephenson battled some shoulder soreness in Spring Training, keeping him out of action during exhibition play. The Halos sent him on a rehab stint last week, but that proved disastrous. Stephenson felt elbow discomfort against the first hitter he faced and was pulled from the game. Unfortunately, that evidently presaged a significant injury.

Los Angeles will move Stephenson to the 60-day IL whenever they need a spot on the 40-man roster. They’ll need to move forward without a player they envisioned as the key piece in a revamped bullpen. Each of Matt Moore, Luis García, José Cisnero, Adam Cimber and Hunter Strickland were offseason additions (although Moore played with the Halos before being waived last summer as part of their CBT-avoiding payroll cuts). The bullpen entered play Wednesday ranked 22nd with a 4.83 cumulative ERA, but they’d been successful holding leads until playing a pair of back-and-forth games against the Rays in the last two days.

Blue Jays Trade Jimmy Robbins To Rangers

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The Rangers acquired minor league left-hander Jimmy Robbins from the Blue Jays, according to an announcement from Texas’ top affiliate in Round Rock. He was not on the Toronto 40-man roster and therefore won’t occupy a spot with Texas. According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, the Jays received cash in return.

Robbins, a 6’3″ southpaw, has yet to reach the majors. The Jays selected him out of a Florida junior college in the 20th round of the 2019 draft. Robbins has never ranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects at Baseball America. Eric Longenhangen and Tess Taruskin of FanGraphs rated him as an honorable mention on their write-up of the Toronto farm system in 2023, praising his slider and calling him a potential situational lefty out of the bullpen.

The 26-year-old has worked mostly as a starting pitcher in his career, but control issues figure to push him to relief. He started 18 of 22 appearances in Double-A last year, where he walked almost 14% of batters faced. That resulted in a lackluster 4.67 ERA over 86 2/3 innings. Robbins has gotten brief looks as a non-roster invitee to big league Spring Training in each of the last two years, allowing two runs in 5 1/3 frames spanning four relief outings. He has pitched twice out of the bullpen in Triple-A this season, tossing 2 1/3 innings of two-run ball.

Texas will keep Robbins in Triple-A, where he could see action as a starter or multi-inning reliever. The Rangers are calling Jack Leiter up from the Round Rock rotation for his MLB debut tomorrow. Meanwhile, their lefty relief depth took a hit when Brock Burke suffered a self-inflicted hand fracture over the weekend.

Injury Notes: Albies, Suzuki, Basabe, Gipson-Long

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The Braves placed Ozzie Albies on the injured list yesterday after the star second baseman fractured a toe on a hit-by-pitch. The Athletic’s David O’Brien writes that the Braves expect Albies’ absence to be closer to one month as opposed to the three months he lost when he broke his foot during the 2022 season. While that’d be well beyond the 10-day minimum, it’s far from a worst case scenario.

Atlanta’s typically excellent offense has been the best in MLB over the season’s first few weeks. The Braves lead the majors in all three triple-slash stats and entered Wednesday third in runs (behind the Padres and Dodgers, each of whom have played more games). Albies has been a big part of that, hitting .317/.386/.492 with a pair of longballs over his first 70 plate appearances. The Braves selected David Fletcher’s contract after Albies’ injury to add a glove-first utility option. Luis Guillorme has gotten the start at the keystone in each of the last two days.

A few more health situations of note:

  • An approximate month-long absence also seems to be on the table for Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who went on the shelf on Monday with an oblique strain. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters last night that the injury is in the “four-week range,” although the team will have a clearer timetable once Suzuki’s symptoms subside (X link via Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). One of Chicago’s hottest hitters, Suzuki was off to a .305/.368/.525 start to his third MLB campaign. Mike Tauchman has been pushed into right field action against right-handed pitching, with Alexander Canario recalled as a righty complement in the corner opposite Ian Happ.
  • The Rays were dealt a hit to their infield depth this afternoon. Osleivis Basabe landed on the minor league injured list. Patrick Kinas, broadcaster for the team’s Triple-A affiliate, tweets that Basabe fractured his right wrist when he was by a pitch from Naoyuki Uwasawa in yesterday’s game. It’s not clear how long he’ll be out of action, although it stands to reason it’ll be a significant absence. Basabe has spent this year in Triple-A after being optioned during Spring Training. The righty-hitting shortstop got to the majors late last season, appearing in his first 31 MLB contests. He’s on the 40-man roster as a depth option for a middle infield that is already without Brandon Lowe and Taylor Walls.
  • Sawyer Gipson-Long continues to weigh multiple opinions after experiencing forearm tightness, the Tigers informed reporters (including The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen). Detroit hasn’t specified whether surgery is on the table, yet it’s nevertheless worrisome any time a pitcher is dealing with somewhat nebulous forearm soreness. Gipson-Long began the season on the 15-day injured list after suffering a Spring Training groin strain. He had an impressive four-start MLB debut last September, fanning nearly 32% of opponents with a 2.70 ERA in 20 innings. Gipson-Long wasn’t likely to be in contention for an Opening Day rotation spot but projects as one of Detroit’s better depth starters if healthy.

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