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Niko Goodrum Elects Free Agency

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Utilityman Niko Goodrum elected free agency after the Pirates designated him for assignment last week, tweets Alex Stumpf of MLB.com. Goodrum went unclaimed on outright waivers and had sufficient service time to explore the market.

The 32-year-old didn’t appear in a game with the Pirates. Pittsburgh claimed Goodrum off waivers from the Angels on June 10 before squeezing him off the roster four days later. The Bucs were his fourth organization of the 2024 season. Goodrum spent Spring Training with the Twins on a minor league deal. He had brief MLB stints with the Rays and Halos before his stopover in the Steel City.

Goodrum hit just .103/.188/.103 in 33 MLB plate appearances. He’d hit well for Tampa Bay’s Triple-A team in Durham, running a .316/.422/.605 slash in nine games. Goodrum had excellent numbers (.280/.448/.440) with Boston’s top minor league affiliate a year ago and continued to hit well as a member of the KBO’s Lotte Giants. He shouldn’t have an issue finding another minor league contract.

Pittsburgh also granted infielder Jake Lamb his release from Triple-A Indianapolis, tweets Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Lamb evidently had an opt-out deal in the minor league contract he signed over the winter. The 33-year-old hit .289/.380/.416 with a strong 12% walk rate and an 18.4% strikeout percentage through 234 Triple-A plate appearances.

Lamb had started the season on a huge hot streak and once looked like a candidate to supplant Rowdy Tellez as a left-handed first base option. His bat has tailed off in June, though, and the Bucs decided to let him explore other opportunities rather than giving him an MLB shot.

Marlins To Select Yonny Chirinos

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Yonny Chirinos will start for the Marlins on Wednesday against the Cardinals, the team announced (X link via Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase). Isaac Azout of Fish on First noted (on X) this afternoon that Chirinos was in the clubhouse.

Miami will need to select Chirinos onto the 40-man roster tomorrow morning. Their roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move. Miami will also need to option (or DFA) a pitcher to create a spot on the active roster.

Chirinos, 30, gets to the majors for a sixth season. He signed with the Fish on a minor league deal over the winter. Chirinos has taken the ball 12 times for Triple-A Jacksonville, allowing an even three earned runs per nine across 66 innings. The Venezuelan-born righty has a modest 17.2% strikeout rate against a decent 8.4% walk percentage.

Command has always been Chirinos’ biggest strong suit. He has a tidy 6.3% walk rate in 326 1/3 MLB frames between the Rays and Braves. He hasn’t missed many bats but managed a sub-4.00 ERA with Tampa Bay between 2018-20. Chirinos underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2020 campaign and fractured his elbow while rehabbing from that procedure. He struggled in his return a year ago, allowing a 5.40 ERA over 85 frames.

Chirinos has more than five years of major league service. The Marlins won’t be able to send him back to Jacksonville without his agreement now that he’s back in the big leagues. He’d qualify for free agency at the end of the season if he pitches well enough to hold his MLB spot for the rest of the year.

Fantasy Baseball: Prospect Fever

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Hello friends.

Unfortunately, we have to start with some bad news - I have a fever. And judging by the questions coming in during our weekly Monday chats, a lot of you have one too. But good news! The only prescription for the aforementioned fever is more prospects and we have those in spades. Or even bells*, one might say.

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The Jesus Luzardo Alternative Who *Should* Be Available Next Month

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Find virtually any primer for the 2024 trade deadline and you'll see Jesus Luzardo's name at or near the top of the discussion. He's probably even the feature image on many of those pieces. It's not hard to see why. A hard-throwing 26-year-old lefty with two seasons of club control beyond the current campaign and big strikeout abilities is always going to be in demand. And the Marlins, sitting at 23-48 on the season, have effectively been out of postseason contention since the second week of the season. A 1-12 start to the year will do that to you.

Luzardo might be the most talked-about name on the trade market this summer and has a far better chance to move than your standard prime-aged starting pitcher with two-plus seasons of club control. The Marlins already traded Luis Arraez in early May, after all. They're clearly open for business.

Nearly everything I just said about Luzardo applies to another lefty on the opposite coast. And yet for all the Luzardo chatter we've already heard and will continue to hear, the trade buzz between the two southpaws doesn't align.

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Mike Tauchman Out Roughly Four Weeks With Groin Strain

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The Cubs will be without Mike Tauchman for a few weeks. Chicago placed their right fielder on the 10-day injured list this evening with a strained left groin. Miles Mastrobuoni is up from Triple-A Iowa to take the active roster spot.

Manager Craig Counsell told the Chicago beat that Tuchman’s strain is of the Grade 2 variety (relayed on X by the Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro). Counsell suggested it’ll be around a month before the injury is fully healed. That could take Tuchman’s rehab close to the July 30 trade deadline.

The lefty-swinging Tauchman has emerged as a surprising contributor for Chicago. He hit .252/.363/.377 over a career-high 401 plate appearances a season ago. As MLBTR’s Nick Deeds explored last month, the lefty-hitting Tauchman has hit his way to regular playing time in the Wrigley Field outfield. Tauchman carried a .257/.375/.407 line at the time of Nick’s post. His production has tailed off a bit since then, as he ran a .263/.330/.338 slash in 88 plate appearances over the past month. That hadn’t changed his standing, as Counsell has continued to pencil him in atop the lineup.

That’ll be on hold after Tauchman came up limping beating out an infield single. Nico Hoerner jumps to the top of the order for tonight’s game. The Cubs moved Cody Bellinger from center to right field with Pete Crow-Armstrong taking over in center. Seiya Suzuki is serving as the designated hitter. Crow-Armstrong will probably see the biggest uptick in playing time with Tauchman on the shelf.

The Cubs enter tonight’s game with a 34-39 record. Chicago washed away a strong April with a 16-27 showing going back to May 1. They’ve dropped into 13th place in the National League, but everyone in the NL besides the Marlins and Rockies is still in the playoff picture. Chicago is only two games back of the Giants, who currently hold the last Wild Card spot. They’re among 8-10 teams in the Senior Circuit whose approaches to the trade deadline will be determined by how well they play over the next six weeks.

Cubs Acquire William Simoneit From Phillies

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The Cubs have acquired catcher William Simoneit from the Phillies, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The backstop has been assigned to Double-A Tennessee for now. He wasn’t on Philadelphia’s 40-man roster and therefore won’t require a spot with the Cubs. The Phils receive cash considerations in return.

Simeonit, now 27, signed with the Athletics as an undrafted free agent in 2020. From 2021 to 2023, he got into 244 minor league games from High-A to Triple-A. He produced a combined batting line of .259/.359/.408 in that time, which led to a 108 wRC+.

The Phils nabbed him away from the A’s in the minor league phase of the 2023 Rule 5 draft. His results have fallen off since the organizational switch, as he’s hit .145/.286/.306 between Double-A and Triple-A this year, striking out in 39% of his trips to the plate. The Phillies recently lost some catching depth with J.T. Realmuto requiring knee surgery but still decided they would rather have the cash than Simoneit.

The Cubs have received very little from their catching position this year, something that manager Craig Counsell recently discussed. As of today, Miguel Amaya is hitting .185/.248/.267 on the season while Yan Gomes has a line of .154/.179/.242. Neither of those two can be optioned and the club doesn’t have another catcher on the 40-man.

Alí Sánchez is in the system as non-roster depth but Simoneit will now join him in that capacity. It’s obviously been rough going to start this year for Simoneit but perhaps he can get back to into his pre-2024 form.

Yankees Place Ian Hamilton, Cody Poteet On Injured List

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The Yankees announced a series of roster moves today. First baseman Anthony Rizzo was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right forearm fracture, an injury that was reported yesterday. They also placed right-handers Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet on the 15-day injured list. Hamilton’s move is due to a right lat strain and retroactive to June 17. Poteet’s is due to a right triceps strain and retroactive to June 15. In corresponding moves, they recalled left-hander Clayton Andrews and also selected the contracts of left-hander Anthony Misiewicz and catcher/infielder Ben Rice. The moves for Misiewicz and Rice were previously covered on MLBTR.

In terms of the 40-man roster, the Yankees had one vacancy for Misiewicz/Rice but opened another by transferring righty Clarke Schmidt to the 60-day injured list. The 40-man is now full but the club is planning to reinstate righty Gerrit Cole from the 60-day IL tomorrow and will need to open a spot for him.

Poteet was recalled a few weeks ago to take a rotation spot when Schmidt landed on the injured list. Poteet has made four good starts since then, currently sitting on a 2.14 earned run average for the year. Despite that strong work, he was likely going to be optioned back to the minors to make way for Cole, since each of Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón, Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman have been in good form this year.

But instead of going back down to the minors, Poteet is now on the IL. He won’t throw at all for the next week or two, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic on X, before taking things from there. The Yanks have the strongest rotation in the league this year, even before accounting for Cole’s return, as their collective 2.90 ERA leads the majors at the moment. But having both Schmidt and Poteet on the IL at the same time leaves their depth a bit thinned out.

Clayton Beeter is on the 40-man roster but seems to be injured as well, since he hasn’t pitched at Triple-A since May 15. Yoendrys Gómez is also on the roster and has a 3.13 ERA in Triple-A, but is working around a high walk rate of 13.9%. If they suffer another rotation injury, that depth situation could be a factor, though perhaps Schmidt and/or Poteet can return to health before it becomes an issue.

As for Hamilton, his injury seems to be even more significant as he won’t throw for three to four weeks, per Kirschner on X. He’ll likely have to build back up after such an absence so he might end up missing a couple of months, depending on how things develop in the interim.

The righty emerged as a key piece of the Yankee bullpen last year, tossing 58 innings with a 2.64 ERA. His 10.9% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 28.9% of batters faced while getting grounders on 55.3% of balls in play.

His ERA has jumped to 4.55 this year but perhaps the injury has played a role in that. He had a 2.81 ERA after his June 6 appearance but has allowed seven earned runs in four innings since then. If the lat issue started bugging him in that time, perhaps that explains the recent struggles. In his absence, pitchers like Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle, Caleb Ferguson and Michael Tonkin will help set up closer Clay Holmes. Most contending clubs look for bullpen additions prior to the trade deadline and the Yankees will surely be in the market since they currently have the best record in baseball.

As for Schmidt, he was placed on the injured list May 27 with a right lat strain and will now be ineligible to be reinstated until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be July 26. Shortly after he was placed on the IL, the Yanks announced that he would be shut down for four to six weeks. Even if he starts throwing in early July, he’ll surely need a few weeks of rehab to build back up to a starter’s workload.

Alex Lange To Undergo Lat Surgery

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Tigers reliever Alex Lange will undergo surgery to repair an avulsion in his right lat next week, the team informed reporters (X link via Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press). The club didn’t provide any kind of return timetable, but it’s fair to wonder if he’ll make it back this season.

Making matters worse, the right-hander suffered the injury while he was pitching in Triple-A. The Tigers had optioned him in late May. He left his appearance on Friday — his ninth minor league outing — in obvious pain. That’ll send Lange to the minor league injured list The Tigers could decide to recall him and place him on the MLB 60-day injured list if they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster, but Lange won’t collect an MLB salary or service time while he’s on the minor league IL.

It’s the toughest blow in an absolute nightmare of a season for Detroit’s former closer. Lange saved 26 games a year ago. He turned in consecutive sub-4.00 ERA showings with plus strikeout and ground-ball rates between 2022-23. Yet the LSU product’s success always felt a little tenuous because of scattershot control. That came back to bite him through the first couple months this season.

Lange walked more than 18% of the hitters he faced over 21 big league appearances. His strikeouts and grounders each dropped to around league average. That’s clearly not a great combination. Lange allowed 16 runs across 18 2/3 innings. While only nine of those runs were earned, his underlying numbers were concerning enough for Detroit to send him down in an effort to back on track. Lange had seemed to be doing just that, striking out 12 with only one walk in 8 2/3 Triple-A frames.

The injury could have an impact on the former first-rounder’s service trajectory. Lange entered the 2024 campaign with two years and 112 days of MLB service. The 172-day threshold marks a full year, meaning he needed 60 days on the MLB roster (or MLB injured list) to reach the three-year threshold in 2024. Detroit optioned Lange after 56 days, leaving him a couple days shy of the three-year mark.

That didn’t seem like much of an issue when the club expected to recall him in relatively short order. It’s more of a concern now, particularly if his season is over. If Lange spends the rest of the season on the minor league injured list, he’ll come up short of the three-year mark. That’d push back his path to free agency by a year and, probably more significantly, prevent him from reaching arbitration next winter as initially expected. (Lange would not qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player, which only applies to players who had at least 86 days of service time in the preceding season.) That could impact whether the Tigers decide to put Lange on the major league 60-day IL at any point this year.

Twins Place Alex Kirilloff On Injured List

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June 18: Kirilloff’s option was rescinded on Tuesday. He is instead going on the MLB 10-day injured list with a back issue (X link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). The first baseman had evidently been playing through the injury which occurred before the Twins made the decision to send him down — thereby negating the option. Kirilloff will continue to pick up MLB service and be paid a major league salary while he recovers.

June 13: The Twins announced that first baseman/outfielder Alex Kirilloff has been optioned to Triple-A St. Paul. Utility player Austin Martin was recalled from Triple-A St. Paul as the corresponding move.

Kirilloff, now 26, has long been seen as a key piece of the future for the Twins. Selected 15th overall in the 2016 draft, he was seen as one of the top prospects in the system and even in the entire league. Baseball America ranked him as one of the 35 best prospects in the majors in three straight years, starting in in 2019.

He made his debut back in 2021 but injuries have prevented him from cementing himself as the big league level. He underwent surgery on his right wrist in July of 2021 and then again in August of 2022. At the end of the 2023 campaign, it was his right shoulder that required surgical treatment.

Those medical issues kept him from sticking with the club for an extended stretch, but he still showed plenty of potential. He hit .270/.348/.445 in 88 games last year, production that translated to a wRC+ of 120.

Ideally, with a clean bill of health, Kirilloff could have finally had his long-awaited breakout over an extended stretch. He has managed to avoid the injured list so far in 2024 but the results haven’t been there. He currently sports a slash line of .201/.270/.384 for the year, which leads to an 85 wRC+.

It’s possible that the baseball gods are being unkind to him, as he has a .245 batting average on balls in play, well below this year’s .288 league average. And that’s despite some decent Statcast metrics, as his barrel rate and average exit velocity are both around the 80th percentile of league hitters while his hard hit rate is 56th. But he’s also striking out 26.4% of the time and has a 47.8% ground ball rate, less than ideal for a left-handed hitter with 37th percentile sprint speed.

Whatever the reasons, that kind of offensive output isn’t acceptable for Kirilloff. He isn’t considered a strong defender, either at first base or in the outfield, and needs the bat to carry his profile. With the results not coming so far this year, the Twins have decided he needs to work on things in St. Paul.

It’s the third time this year that the club has decided to send down a guy they were hoping to be a lineup mainstay, as Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien have also been optioned this year after some struggles. With the club clinging to the final Wild Card spot, their lack of patience is certainly understandable.

Carlos Santana has been getting the bulk of the playing time at first base, with José Miranda in the mix as well. The outfield corners should be manned by some combination of Max Kepler, Trevor Larnach, Manuel Margot, Willi Castro and Martin for the time being, though Wallner or Kirilloff could work their way back into the mix if they post good results in Triple-A or if an injury opens up a need.

Kirilloff came into this year with one of his three option years remaining. A player needs to spend 20 days on optional assignment in order to use one up. He’ll be optionable for the rest of 2024 regardless but will be out of options next year if he doesn’t get recalled in the next three weeks.

He also began this campaign with his service time clock at two years and 141 days. He qualified for arbitration at the end of last season as a Super Two player and is earning $1.35MM here in 2024. He’ll be due a modest raise in arbitration this coming winter. The Twins will likely tender him a contract based on his potential and past prospect status, but he’ll have a tenuous hold on a roster spot given his struggles, especially if he is out of options.

A’s Outright Seth Brown

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The A’s announced they’ve selected Tyler Nevin onto the MLB roster. To open space on the active roster, they sent outfielder Seth Brown through outright waivers. Oakland also confirmed their previously-reported recall of outfielder Lawrence Butler and designation of veteran infielder J.D. Davis for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

There’d been no prior indication that Brown had been removed from the 40-man roster. The A’s evidently placed him on waivers after Sunday’s game without announcing the move. The 31-year-old has already gone unclaimed and will almost certainly stick in the organization with Triple-A Las Vegas.

Brown has upwards of three years of service time, which gives him the right to decline the Triple-A assignment in favor of free agency. He has yet to reach five years in the majors, though, so testing free agency would require him to forfeit what remains of this year’s $2.6MM arbitration salary. He wouldn’t match that sum on the open market, making it an easy call to report to the Aviators and try to play his way back to the big leagues later in the season.

The lefty-hitting Brown has had a sharp drop in production over the last couple seasons. He slumped to a .222/.286/.405 slash across 378 plate appearances a year ago. The past couple months have been among the worst of his career. Brown has punched out more than a third of the time while hitting just .189/.251/.306 across 195 trips to the dish. He owns a .210/.274/.371 line going back to the start of the 2023 campaign.

That’s well below the form he showed in the preceding two seasons. While Brown has never hit left-handed pitching, he was a solid power threat against righties from 2021-22. The former 19th-round pick took 737 plate appearances versus right-handers over that stretch. He popped 41 home runs, 35 doubles and four triples en route to a .483 slugging percentage. An elevated strikeout rate kept his on-base percentage at a modest .304 clip, but the power made him an above-average hitter when he carried the platoon advantage.

While that once looked like it’d make Brown a potentially intriguing trade target for teams seeking an affordable lefty bat, his performance over the past year and a half sapped any trade value. It now seems likely the A’s won’t find a taker for Brown at all. Even assuming he sticks in the organization for now, he’d be a minor league free agent next offseason if he’s not first reselected onto the 40-man roster. Brown would still be eligible for arbitration for two more seasons if the A’s were to call him back up, but they presumably wouldn’t tender him a contract to match or exceed this year’s salary.

In the short term, the A’s will take their second look at Nevin. Oakland outrighted the righty hitter a couple weeks ago. Nevin quickly hit his way back, running a .296/.365/.667 line in 14 Triple-A contests. Claimed off waivers from the Orioles at the start of the season, Nevin appeared in 40 games for Oakland before being designated for assignment. He hit .220/.307/.341 with four homers while splitting his defensive work between all four corner spots.

Nevin steps into Davis’ place as a right-handed bench bat. He could take a few at-bats from the switch-hitting Abraham Toro at third base and/or the lefty-swinging Butler, who is likely to step into Brown’s spot as the primary right fielder. Nevin is out of options, so the A’s would again need to pass him through waivers if they want to take him off the MLB roster at any point.

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