With the calendar now flipped to June, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Tigers roster moves incoming:
The Tigers are set to promote third base/outfield prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy to the big leagues today. Corresponding moves to clear space on the active and 40-man rosters will be needed, though one of those has already come to light, as Detroit will reportedly option former No. 1 overall draft pick Spencer Torkelson to Triple-A Toledo.
Torkelson, 24, enjoyed what appeared to be a breakout second half last year with the Tigers as he slashed .261/.345/.576 with 16 home runs in his final 48 games. That strong production unfortunately has not carried over into the 2024 campaign, and the slugger has hit a paltry .201/.266/.330 with just four home runs in 54 games so far this season. Veterans Gio Urshela and Mark Canha are among the first base-capable options who could step into Torkelson’s shoes.
Malloy is in his second season with the Tigers organization after coming over from the Braves in the Joe Jimenez trade and has done nothing but hit at the Triple-A level since arriving in Toledo. He slashed .277/.417/.474 last season and has delivered a very similar .252/.410/.473 slash line in 45 games this season. Malloy has plenty of experience at the hot corner, but the Tigers said prior to the season that he’d play the outfield exclusively this year.
2. Snell to the IL?
Reigning NL Cy Young award winner Blake Snell’s 2024 campaign has been nothing short of disastrous. The San Francisco southpaw has already spent time on the injured list due to an adductor strain and has an ugly 9.51 ERA with an 11.8% walk rate against a 26.1% strikeout rate across six starts this season. That all came before Snell suffered a groin injury yesterday that required him to leave his start against the Yankees in the fifth inning.
Snell is set to undergo an MRI today and appears poised to make a second trip to the injured list since signing with the Giants. With Alex Cobb, Robbie Ray, Keaton Winn, and Tristan Beck already on the IL, the Giants will have just three regular starters left in their rotation: Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison, and Jordan Hicks. Long reliever Spencer Howard could pitch in a bulk role during bullpen games for the Giants, and Triple-A arms Mason Black, Landen Roupp, and Kai-Wei Teng could all be options to replace Snell in the club’s rotation.
3. Middleton meeting with Tommy John specialist:
The Cardinals have been without veteran reliever Keynan Middleton, who signed with the club on a one-year, $6MM pact over the offseason, for the entire regular season to this point. It now appears possible that Middleton’s absence from the club’s bullpen could last the entire season. Middleton is reportedly poised to meet with UCL expert Dr. Christopher Ahmad for a second opinion. In addition to costing Middleton the remainder of the season, surgery would also surely prompt the Cardinals to decline their $6MM 2025 club option on the veteran right-hander in favor of a $1MM buyout.
No Sunday night chat?
I’m old enough to remember when Boras was demanding $270 million for Snell.
Casey
I als9 think it’s funny that your employer doesn’t pay you your worth
Capital taking advantage of labor is awesome!
I’m retired so a couple of my former employers are paying me pensions. Right now Snell is worth several boxes of used baseballs.
Casey
Ah, yes, old guy who already “got his” ripping a younger guy for trying to get his.
It’s about a 99% certainty that Snell is better at his profession than you ever were at any of yours.
Right now Snell looks worse at his profession than a whole lot of people. Anyway, a lot of teams are happy they didn’t pay Boras’ ridiculous demands.
Casey
And, again, it’s almost a near certainty that he’s been more successful in his field than you ever were.
The projection is strong with you
It’s about a 99% certainty that Snell is better at his profession than you ever were at any of yours.
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And what exactly does that mean? It is about a 99% certainly that Trump is better at his profession than you are.
In any case, Casey says is worth several boxes of used baseballs. He isn’t. He is worth nothing. He is currently way overpaid.
JB
“And what exactly does that mean?”
Exactly what it says. Snell has had an above average career at the highest level of a professional sport. It’s unlikely that Casey has been as successful at whatever they do as Snell has.
“He is currently way overpaid.”
This may be true
“Casey says is worth several boxes of used baseballs. He isn’t. ”
This is not. If Snell were a free agent right now, teams would certainly offer more than a box of used baseballs for him
If Snell were a free agent right now,
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But he isn’t. And that is exactly the point.
Is not paying your bills a profession? If so, he really is #1.
I als9 think it’s funny that your employer doesn’t pay you your worth
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That’s an odd take.
1-What is Casey’s labor worth? Would it not be akin to what breakfast at the local diner is worth? Which is basically, whatever the market can bear.
2-And what is the labor at the local diner worth? Are you not paying the help what they are worth?
JB
If Casey works in a capitalist market his labor is almost certainly worth more than what he is paid.
If Casey works in a capitalist market his labor is almost certainly worth more than what he is paid.
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But that is clearly NOT how capitalism works. The demand for a product (my services) adjusts to the market place. When there are less of me, my price increases. When there are more me, my price decreases. It has nothing to do with what my labor is worth. In fact, the value of what my labor is worth is impossible to calculate.
JV
“When there are less of me, my price increases. When there are more me, my price decreases”
This is true
What is also true is that you don’t get paid the value of your labor. You get paid a portion of your labor – the rest goes to profit
That portion not paid to me is the return on their investment. No one invests in a company without the expectation of profits.
If I were to perform tax returns for $100 each, and the owner charged $150, then theoretically, $25 of the return goes to pay off overhead, and $25 goes to reward the owner for the investment he made in the business, as well as profit to cover their risk.
If you were to buy the local diner for $500,000, you have to probably expect at least a 20% ROI to even consider it.
That has -0- to do with the value of my labor.
JB
“That portion not paid to me is the return on their investment.”
And that’s value that your labor is producing and that is not being paid to you.
NEITHER OF YOU have apparently ever heard of Barnum Bailey and have NO IDEA how the capitalist system works…….
Saber
The floor is yours
Enlighten us
What about the Cardinals’ Dylan Carlson for Detroit’s Torkelson-straight up? One-for-one swap and give both young players the change of scenery needed.
Carlson only has 2 years of control left and is playing even worse than Torkelson. Plus the Cardinals don’t have any centerfield depth until Edman gets back and Scott learns how to hit.
I do think Torkelson is a potential fit for the Cardinals though. Perhaps Liberatore? Maybe Herrera? Those are 2 guys that are probably worth more to another team than they are worth to the Cardinals.
On behalf of Tigers fans that’s a hard no. Try again.
Blackpink mentions Liberatore and Herrera. Tigers don’t need pitching but a long term catcher is definitely something they do need. Maybe with some complimentary pieces from both sides they could match up
Gorman or Walker for Tork with complimentary pieces from both sides to even it out? Dude hit 30 HRs last year and 200 ABs is not a season so its not like he’s washed up..
Gorman isn’t happening. And no the team isn’t trading Walker either.
Herrera for Torkelson 1 for 1 is fair.
no, it isn’t. Dumb dumb
Nope.
We should give snell the old Byron button treatment being very surprised to see him injured
I saw a lot of comments slamming Tork yesterday. He’s to blame, sure–it’s his performance on display. But it’s also true that the Tigers absolutely fail to develop top talent time and time again.
Too many players have failed in Detroit and then found success after moving away.
It’s an organizational problem.
Not anymore. Kids are getting better at a much better pace than before. This is all on Tork. Listen to his interviews. It’s all about “trusting his swing” and never about self-improvement. You can hear the arrogance. He needs to change his mindset.
JD Martinez rings a bell. Lol. You aren’t wrong, but maybe they actually overvalue and overhype their prospects?
Overhyping and overvaluing prospects is a thing throughout baseball, not just with Detroit. You even see it among the fans here.
Remember, prospect is just another word for “ain’t done nothing yet.”
It’s an organizational problem.
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Greene, Skubal, and Olson seem to be doing okay.
Who are these players you speak of? Were they actually with the Tigers for any length of time? Paredes wasn’t traded because he didn’t develop. They thought Meadows was a better fit. Its not like Austin was a throw away at the time of the trade.
Snell wanted 200mill plus. Ha! Hopefully this is a lesson learned that mlb salaries are getting out of control. How are teams suppose to build around players taking a huge portion of payroll? Look at Machado, his production has fallen off already.
Aoe3: It’s gonna happen again with Soto. He’ll be asking for Ohtani money, which he shouldn’t get because he doesn’t pitch, and he’ll probably spend time on the IL like Machado, Darvish and others did after signing big contracts. It isn’t the players fault that salaries have gotten so outrageous. It’s the owners who need a stricter limit on spending than the luxury tax “limitations”. That’s pocket change for these billionaire owners.
Avenger
It’s nobody’s fault that player salaries are increasing.
It’s GOOD that labor makes more money.
MLB takes in billions, there’s plenty to distribute to the players
Is it good that all factors, including rising player salaries, have made the product unaffordable to the middle class?
stymeedone
First, rising players salaries are the RESULT of people spending money on baseball. If people didn’t spend money on baseball there’d be no money to push salaries up.
Good for who? Is it good for owners and players that people are spending so much on baseball? Yes, of course. How could it not be?
Also, who says that the product in unaffordable to the middle class? Please provide evidence for that statement. No, saying “a ticket costs X, parking costs Y and a beer costs Z” is not evidence – unless you’re operating on the level of a middle school.er. Let’s shoot for better than that. Remember, going to a game IS NOT the only way to consume the product.
What we have here is basic economics.: Customers want products and services to be cheap. Ownership and labor want products to be at the point that brings the most money into the business (which is neither cheap nor expensive as a rule).
Also, who says that the product in unaffordable to the middle class?
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IMHO, it is affordable. I’ve been hearing the “unaffordable” meme for hundreds of years. But people keep coming. Almost by default, I believe that makes it affordable.
A business owner generates a price point by considering exactly how much people are willing to pay. Exactly -0- owners charge a price that no one will pay.
JB
Why are you quoting me and not stymee?
Why Soto? What has he shown you that makes you think he is an injury risk? Snell had a long history of missing games due to injuries. Machado has been mostly healthy and just received an extension on his massive contract, and Darvish received a reasonable extension. Both have been valuable. This take is awful. Teams were smart to not give Snell a long term contract. That’s about all you have correct.
Aoe
The billionaire owners and ownership groups can give bigger budgets and get less of a,return on their investments
So Middleton got his Golden Parachute deal from St Louis and Snell will probably be exercising his 2025 player option in a week or two.
I don’t expect either to turn down the cash they have coming to them, but they both may be looking at their last big paydays. Scott Boras may have over-played his hand again, with Snell as he had done with Conforto before.
He has Soto which he will tout a out how much should get, but he also has Alonso, and he may have over played his hand with Alonso for I doubt Pete gets another $150M deal the Mets had already offered.
Boras may say Pete Alonso is the second coming of Harmon Killebrew, but David Stearns may see him as the second coming or Eric Thames.
Oh yes how does a team replace 5 innings a week?
Supply and demand can make for bad contracts. Owners know when they are overpaying, but they do it when the market demands it. Snell never persuaded people that he would be a consistent high performer. If you are talking about a long term contract to a pitcher, you also have to take into account the distinct possibility of losing significant time due to injury. So, really what you are asking is whether, discounted for age and possibly injury, the total net cost of the contract comes anywhere near the expected value.
A lot of this is because of owners with more money than BB brains. Guys like Seidler & Cohen are worth billions. Writing off $100M contracts barely changes overall worth. In the old days, most owners had to think before spending.
Writing off $100MM contracts is the cost of doing business when team valuations and league revenue continue to rise with the support of the populace. All the owners need is the ability to count their money.
Safe to say Snell won’t be living up to his worth nor having another Cy added. Its looking awfully secure that an opt-in will be in place for 2025
You’ve got to make it happen!
Hire the Superfife
Build a winner
Build a dynasty!
Rex, the wonder dog, approved this message.
Go away, please