With the trade deadline just eight days away and an early morning signing already in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. France on waivers:
The Mariners reportedly placed first baseman Ty France on waivers yesterday, making him available to any of the other 29 clubs in the league willing to pick up the remainder of his $6.775MM salary for the 2024 season. France, 30, is in the midst of his second consecutive down season at the plate. Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, the first baseman has slashed just .241/.328/.361 (101 wRC+), though in the three seasons prior to that he posted a far more robust .285/.355/.443 (128 wRC+) line.
Even France’s more recent production, while certainly disappointing for a first baseman, could be helpful for a contender such as the Astros or Yankees that has gotten below-average offense out of the position this year. That doesn’t necessarily mean either club (or any other team, for that matter) will claim France while he’s on waivers, however. Interested clubs could instead wait for France to clear waivers and then either sign him for the prorated league minimum if he’s released by the Mariners, or try to work out a trade where they take on less money if Seattle retains him.
2. Braves promoting top infield prospect:
The Braves are set to place second baseman Ozzie Albies on the injured list today after he suffered a wrist fracture during yesterday’s game. He’ll be out for approximately eight weeks and, Atlanta is poised to turn to infield prospect Nacho Alvarez at second base. Alvarez is not yet on the 40-man roster, and while the club’s roster currently stands at 39 that figure doesn’t including veteran utility man Whit Merrifield, who the club signed to a big league deal this morning. As such, a 40-man move will be necessary to add Alvarez to the roster. That could be accomplished by placing Albies on the 60-day IL, although it’s also possible the club instead opts to designate another player for assignment to keep the door open for Albies to return ahead of schedule.
Alvarez, 21, began the year hitting well (115 wRC+) at the Double-A level but has really taken off following his promotion to Triple-A. In 28 games at the highest level of the minors, the youngster has slashed .336/.432/.575 with seven homers and five stolen bases in just 132 trips to the plate. That tantalizing power and speed potential is paired with solid on-base ability, as Alvarez has walked (12.9%) nearly as much as he strikes out (15.2%) so far in Triple-A.
3. Dodgers likely to promote starting pitching prospect:
Last week, it was reported that the Dodgers were planning to promote right-handed pitching prospect River Ryan to the majors in the days following the All-Star break. While Ryan did not make his debut over the weekend, manager Dave Roberts confirmed to reporters (including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) on Saturday that Ryan was an option to start for the club this week, suggesting that either today or tomorrow could be on the table for the righty. Since then, the club has announced that rookie Landon Knack will take the ball tomorrow before Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow return to action later this week, leaving Ryan as a possible starter for the club’s game against the Giants tonight.
Ryan has made just five starts at the Triple-A level this year after the start of his season was delayed by a shoulder issue, but he’s looked great with a 2.76 ERA and 3.64 FIP to go along with a 28.8% strikeout rate in 16 1/3 innings of work. Should the Dodgers wind up turning to Ryan this evening, the club will need to make corresponding moves to create space for the youngster on both their 40-man and active rosters as Ryan’s contract has not yet been selected from the minors.
I don’t think those stats on Nacho are accurate. He slugged 312 at AA. He had a sub-700 ops.
So they put cheese on top, lol.
Rishi, correct that was his slugging in Mississippi at AA, his numbers at AAA however are much more impressive. .336/.432/.575 with seven homers and five stolen bases in just 132 trips to the plate as the article stated. It could be because he’s seeing better pitches, from pitchers with more control, instead of trying to hit anything close at the lower level.
The Braves also implemented swing changes w/Alvarez at AAA to help him w/pull power on inside pitches. He still generates too much weak contact, pops up a lot of fastballs, and posts generally low EV’s in the low 80’s. Not dogging Alvarez because the work he’s put in has improved his results. Don’t believe he should be expected to steal a lot of bases at the ML level either. He’s a smart base runner, but his sprint speed isn’t impressive. Hope this works out for the Braves, but imo Alvarez would be better served to play the rest of this season at Gwinnett. Hope he proves me wrong.
…if 33 y/o Freddie can steal 20+, a smart, aggressive Nacho lead the team without Ronald/Ozzie – not hard to do.
he walked like crazy so he wasn’t swinging at junk.
wRC+ does account for stadium. The formula is (((wRAA per PA + league runs per PA) + (league runs per PA – ballpark factor x league runs per PA) / league wRC per plate appearance, not including pitchers)) x 100.
Rishi, what stats are you talking about??? They do not post any slugging or OPS numbers for him at AA, they only posted his wRC+, the line they posted was for his time at AAA.
While I can appreciate Alvarez’s offensive numbers, it doesn’t say anything about his defense. With a lineup like the Braves have, I would think his defense is just as important as his offense.
It should be noted that Albies is not good defensively, while ATL liked Alvarez’s defense enough in the past to move him off of 3B and play him mostly at SS where his instincts/arm made up for the footwork/speed he lacked, keeping his maturing bat in the lineup.
Maybe the Braves will put a claim in on France to play 2B in case Nacho isn’t ready.
That’s nacho call to make.
You’re probably right…
They’d be Whit-less to do that.
54 games at 2b in five years.
He’s way too slow and unathletic to play 2b
In case you haven’t noticed, Albies hasn’t been very good there and Nacho has never played there.
France at 2B is as unlikely as Marcell ozuna getting called to play center field
Not really, but go off.
If France could play 2nd, he’d still be a Mariner. He long since outgrew the position.
Welcome to the show, Ignacio!
Dodgers starter tonight is still listed as TBD, which probably means it will be Ryan.
@BlueSkies_LA
The manager doesn’t need to announce it until he hands the lineup card to the ump. Could wait until the game starts before it’s announced. I hope they keep it TBD right up to the start of the game.
I realize they can wait that long but it’s rare for them to do so. Either way, Ryan is now announced. I’ll be in the house tonight for his MLB debut.
Problem with France is he hits like a below avg 2B but plays at a position where teams except larger power numbers to come from.
France is much like Joey Menses – but with Menses he had to accept AAA demotion.
Braves fans gassing Nacho up just like they did with Vaughn Grissom.
What decent franchise isn’t excited to see their top positional prospect? And considering our recent history with them, why not? Harris was ROY, Grissom had a tasty cup of coffee, then that cup became bitter in Beantown.
I still think Vaughn is a good hitter. At least capable of being league average. It’s hard for young guys when they get traded, especially when they are the only player in the deal and are immediately an everyday player. I think the SS thing hurt his offense last year in ATL. He was great at AAA. Similarly I would speculate that even Jazz Chisolm was hurt by the defensive switch. He’s overrated tho and was already established as a big leaguer (basically).
He’s also bad defensively at 2B, and only hits singles, even at the AAA level. His offensive skillset projects to be something like Nico Hoerner, except he doesn’t have the speed or defense as Hoerner. I think he’ll be relegated to a benchwarmer role within a couple of years. We’ll see.
“Top positional prospect” isn’t saying much when he’s only the 5th best overall prospect in a farm system that’s one of the worst in the league. At the ML level, we’re likely to see many 0-4 nights like the one today.
‘Top positional prospect’ is the fact I’m hanging my hat on, not the subjective farm rankings that have little merit, especially to a fanbase. The farm is admittedly thin, but it’s also pitching-heavy and they don’t need to have enormous depth in position prospects when they have young, most likely better guys, blocking them under contract for the foreseeable future. Their last 2 positional prospects netted Chris Sale and won RoY.
Dodgers need to start him of course, but are they also showcasing Ryan for the WSox and other teams?
Good points. It wasn’t entirely the OPS I was looking at. And I agree OPS is not a great stat. It was the general lack of any production outside of walks and steals (and a decent bit of singles). No homers. 6 doubles. These players who walk a ton seem to be a bit overrated by most statistics imo. I would assume the average slugging in the league is still well above 312. So he was good at walking…that’s all I’m saying.
I don’t mean to downplay that I was wrong. I always thought adding SLG and OBP was unscientific. But there are other OPS stats. I’m not big on them either. Didn’t Bill James have one where he multiplied them (still odd to me)?
Sadly, a .693 is right around MLB average (currently .709) this season.
CBeisbol,
It’s sad because offense is so pathetic.
Wtf is this sentence? “He’ll be out for approximately eight weeks and, Atlanta is poised to turn to infield prospect Nacho Alvarez at second base.” There shouldn’t be a comma in it. How does no one catch this? Why isn’t MLBTR proofing this kid’s terrible writing? He makes mistakes like this daily.