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Cardinals To Place Tommy Pham On Waivers

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The Cardinals are going to place outfielder Tommy Pham on waivers, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. He has not been designated for assignment and can continue playing for the Cards for now. He can also stay with them if he goes unclaimed, but the waivers are irrevocable, so he will be changing teams if any other clubs puts in a claim. He will be postseason eligible for his new club as long as he is claimed prior to September 1.

Acquired from the White Sox alongside Erick Fedde in the three-team deadline deal that sent Tommy Edman and minor league righty Oliver Gonzalez to the Dodgers, Pham returned home to the organization that originally drafted him. He debuted with a bang, hitting a pinch-hit grand slam in his return to the Cards, but the 36-year-old outfielder has since fallen into a slump. After posting a Herculean .379/.400/.759 slash in his first eight games back in St. Louis, Pham has just three hits in his past 47 plate appearances.

Even with that downturn over the past three weeks, Pham still owns a solid .254/.321/.378 slash in 374 plate appearances this season. He’s only been about 2% worse than league average at the plate this season overall, as measured by wRC+, and he’s been characteristically solid against lefties: .232/.323/.439 (115 wRC+). He’s drawn poor defensive ratings across the board, though his defensive marks have been weighed down by the White Sox playing him in center field for more than 200 innings — largely out of necessity. Pham isn’t the plus corner outfielder he once was but can still handle left field capably.

Pham is playing the current season on a $3MM base salary, and he’ll be a free agent at season’s end. Any team that claims him will owe Pham $484K for the remainder of the season before he returns to the open market this winter.

The Cardinals are seven games back in the Wild Card hunt and even further buried in the National League Central. Both FanGraphs and PECOTA give St. Louis scarcely more than a 1% chance of reaching the playoffs. We’ve seen teams erase larger leads in September in the past, but it seems charitable to even call a playoff berth a “long shot” at this point. Even if the Cards like their chances more than those odds would indicate, the team surely recognizes the slim nature of their playoff hopes and will give Pham a chance to chase down a ring in the event that another club wants to add a veteran right-handed bat to its bench mix for the regular season’s final four weeks.

Rockies Outright Antoine Kelly

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The Rockies announced Thursday that left-hander Antoine Kelly passed through waivers unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. The team did not make a corresponding transaction, nor had Kelly previously been designated for assignment. His outright drops Colorado’s 40-man roster to a count of 39 players.

Kelly, 24, was claimed off waivers out of the Rangers organization back on July 15. The 2019 second-rounder went from Milwaukee to Texas in 2022’s Matt Bush trade. He had a breakout 2023 showing in the Rangers’ system, splitting the year between Double-A and Triple-A while working to a combined 2.04 ERA with 11 saves, a 32.1% strikeout rate and a 9.3% walk rate.

That performance had Kelly looking as though he could be on the cusp of joining the Rangers and carving out a permanent place in the bullpen. Had he continued on that trajectory, perhaps that’d have been the case. However, Kelly missed time with a forearm injury this season, and his control has been nonexistent when healthy. He’s posted a staggering 10.98 ERA in 19 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, and he’s walked more batters than he’s fanned. A woeful 25.4% of Kelly’s opponents have reached via base on balls, compared to a 23.7% strikeout rate. He’s also plunked a pair of hitters and thrown five wild pitches.

There’s little doubt that when healthy and at his best, Kelly had the look of a viable big league reliever. He’s never demonstrated plus command, but in the past, his strikeout rate and an above-average ground-ball rate have helped to offset a walk rate that was a tick or two higher than average. This year’s injury-marred and walk-riddled season has clearly thrown the lefty’s future outlook into question. For now, he’ll stick with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate and look to get back on track without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.

As for the Rox, they now have a vacancy if they wish to claim any of the recently DFA’ed players or veterans who’ve been placed on outright waivers as teams look to shed salary. Colorado isn’t likely to claim anyone who’s a free agent at season’s end, but speculatively speaking, they could potentially consider taking a look at someone who’s signed/controlled beyond the current season. At the moment, only the Marlins and White Sox have waiver priority over them.

Vinny Nittoli Opts Out Of Mets Deal

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Right-hander Vinny Nittoli opted out of his minor league deal with the Mets and is once again a free agent, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. He’ll head back to the open market and continue his 2024 tour of the league.

The Mets were the fourth organization to sign Nittoli this season alone. He began the year in the A’s system after signing a minor league contract over the winter. After being selected to Oakland’s big league roster and later designated for assignment, Nittoli elected free agency and has since signed a minor league deal with the Orioles, a big league deal with the Cubs and a minors pact with the Mets. The Cubs cut ties with Nittoli before he got into a game with them, but he did also pitch for the Orioles in addition to some work with the A’s.

In 12 innings this year, Nittoli carries a 1.50 ERA, 17.4% strikeout rate and 4.3% walk rate. He’s only pitched a total of 18 2/3 major league innings overall, during which time he’s logged a 2.41 ERA. Nittoli’s primary pitch this season has been a cutter that’s sat in the 89-90 mph range, and he’s paired that with a slider and occasional curveball. He’s been sharp in Triple-A as well, pitching 30 innings of 3.60 ERA ball between the A’s, O’s and Mets. During that Triple-A run, Nittoli has fanned a hefty 33.9% of his opponents against a 9.4% walk rate.

Nittoli can now look to latch on with another club, and if he’s with a new organization on or before Aug. 31, he’d be a postseason-eligible depth piece. He might not get an immediate look in the big leagues, although with rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players on Sept. 1, it’d be easier for a new club to give him a look at the MLB level.

Reds Designate Casey Kelly For Assignment

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Brandon Leibrandt from Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Casey Kelly has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has been quite banged up of late. Coming into August, they already had Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson, Brent Suter, Ian Gibaut and Tejay Antone on the injured list. Since the month has started, Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa have been added to the pile.

The club has already made a few transactions to bolster the pitching staff in recent days, including selecting Kelly. The 34-year-old had been pitching for the LG Twins of the KBO but got released when that club signed Elieser Hernández. That ended an almost six-year relationship, as Kelly had signed with the Twins going into 2019. He had a 3.25 ERA in that time, tossing just under 1,000 innings, but that ERA jumped to 4.51 this year and the Twins let him go.

He landed a minor league deal with the Reds in early August and made two Triple-A starts, allowing four earned runs in eight innings. He got called up to the majors a few days ago and logged 5 1/3 innings over two relief appearances, allowing three earned runs in that time.

The Reds needed six pitchers to get through last night’s game, including Kelly, and have decided to get a fresh arm into the mix. With the trade deadline now passed, Kelly will be placed on waivers in the coming days. He has a previous career outright and would therefore have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Taking his spot is the 31-year-old Leibrandt. He has a small amount of major league experience, having tossed nine innings for the Marlins in the shortened 2020 season. Since then, he has bounced around to various minor league and indy ball clubs.

He started 2024 with the High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League, tossing 19 1/3 innings over four starts with a tiny ERA of 0.93. That got him a minor league deal with the Reds in May and he has been with Louisville since then. He has logged 72 2/3 innings over 15 starts there with a 4.46 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 39% ground ball rate.

Given the club’s aforementioned challenges with the pitching staff, they may call upon Leibrandt to absorb some innings at some point. He still has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, so the club will be able to retain him for a long time. But since they have been rotating guys on and off the roster lately, it’s entirely possible that it will be a short stint for Leibrandt, like it was for Kelly.

Joely Rodriguez Elects Free Agency

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Left-hander Joely Rodriguez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Red Sox and elected free agency in lieu of an outright assignment, per the transaction log at MiLB.com.

The 32-year-old Rodriguez had two stints with the Red Sox this season, pitching a combined 13 2/3 innings with a 5.93 ERA but more encouraging secondary marks. While Rodriguez’s 18.8% strikeout rate is a few percentage points shy of league-average, he issued walks at a tiny 3.1% clip and kept the ball on the ground at a gaudy 59.2% rate. Metrics like FIP (4.93) and especially SIERA (2.87) are far more bullish on this year’s work.

In 170 2/3 innings in the majors, Rodriguez has pitched to a 4.80 ERA. That pedestrian mark belies more encouraging strikeout and ground-ball numbers (22.5% and 56%, respectively), although Rodriguez’s ability to miss bats and keep the ball out of the air have both been undercut by sub-par command. He’s walked 10% of his career opponents and struggled to strand the runners he does allow (career 64% left-on-base rate).

This year’s 90 mph average sinker is down nearly five miles per hour from Rodriguez’s peak, but he still pitched reasonably well in Triple-A and still managed to pile up grounders in bulk at the big league level. He’ll be a depth option for clubs seeking lefty relief in the season’s final month.

White Sox Release John Brebbia

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The White Sox released veteran right-handed reliever John Brebbia after designating him for assignment earlier this week, tweets Vinnie Duber of CHGO Sports. He’s now a free agent.

Brebbia inked a one-year, $5.5MM deal with the ChiSox in the offseason and has had a tumultuous tenure with the club. The 34-year-old righty started the season on a run of six scoreless appearances and had a sharp 3.38 ERA in mid-May before falling into a monthlong slump that ballooned his ERA to 7.71. He bounced back with a dominant five-week run kicking off in early June, wherein he rattled off 18 1/3 innings while allowing just two runs with a 27-to-4 K/BB ratio. Since that time, he’s been tagged for another 16 runs in 11 2/3 innings, however.

The end result of that roller coaster is a 6.29 ERA in 48 2/3 innings, although Brebbia’s rate stats are far more encouraging. He’s fanned a strong 26.9% of his opponents against a tidy 7.9% walk rate. Home runs have been a prominent issue for the righty (1.66 HR/9), however, and have typically been at the root of his struggles. That’s been especially true at the homer-friendly Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, where Brebbia has posted an ERA north of 7.00 and allowed seven of his nine homers on the season.

While Brebbia’s run with the White Sox won’t go down as an overall success, the right-hander has a solid track record and an encouraging K-BB profile even during his down 2024 showing. Brebbia entered the 2024 season with a career 3.42 ERA, 25.5% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate in 299 2/3 innings. He’d pitched in six big league seasons prior to the ’24 season and logged a sub-4.00 ERA in five of them.

Now that he’s been released, the Brebbia can sign with any club. If he lands with a new team on or before Aug. 31, he’d be eligible for the postseason roster, provided he can turn things around in the season’s final month. Any team that signs Brebbia would owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster or injured list. The White Sox are on the hook for the remainder of his 2024 salary.

Reds Outright Alan Busenitz

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The Reds have sent right-hander Alan Busenitz outright to Triple-A Louisville, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Busenitz, 34, had the right to elect free agency but it appears he has chosen to accept this assignment. He pitched in Tuesday’s game for the Bats, tossing two scoreless innings. That will give the Reds an extra bit of non-roster depth.

The Cincinnati pitching staff is pretty banged up at the moment. Each of Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa have hit the injured list this month. The club already had Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson, Brent Suter, Ian Gibaut and Tejay Antone on the shelf, so it adds up a lot of absences.

They are currently two games into a stretch of playing eight games in seven days thanks to a double-header coming up on Friday, so the group of guys who aren’t on the IL might be fairly taxed in the coming days, which could lead to them reaching into their depth from time to time.

Busenitz signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason and has now tossed 57 Triple-A innings for the year over 41 appearances. He has allowed 3.79 earned runs per nine innings with a 21.6% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate. He was selected to the big league club last week and tossed one inning for them, but allowed three earned runs. He now has a 4.71 ERA in 65 big league frames dating back to his 2017 debut.

If the Reds need a fresh arm in the future, particularly one capable of tossing multiple innings out of the bullpen, Busenitz could perhaps get back to the majors and have a chance to add to his totals.

Will Gerrit Cole Get To Free Agency?

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For most of the season, it has seemed quite unlikely that Gerrit Cole would be part of next year's free agent class. The defending AL Cy Young winner has an opt-out clause after this season, but the deal is structured in such a way that makes it difficult for him to get to the market.

This is year five of his nine-year, $324MM free agent pact. Cole's dominant first four seasons in the Bronx have already established him as one of the best top-of-the-market signings in recent history. The deal allows Cole to opt out of the remaining four years and $144MM after this season. The Yankees could then void the opt-out by triggering a $36MM club option covering the 2029 campaign. In the aftermath of Cole's first Cy Young, it was fair to presume the right-hander would opt out, only for New York to exercise the '29 option. Cole's agent Scott Boras suggested as much last December. That's no longer a lock.

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Astros Option Chas McCormick

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The Astros optioned outfielder Chas McCormick to Triple-A Sugar Land following last night’s game — presumably to clear an active roster spot for the pending arrival of newly signed outfielder Jason Heyward. The team didn’t formally announce the move yet, but McCormick took it upon himself to call the Astros beat over to his locker last night and inform them of the news after he’d been told (X links via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Houston still needs to clear a 40-man spot for Heyward.

It’s the first time McCormick has been sent to the minors since June 2022 — a trip that only lasted one day, as he was quickly recalled to the big leagues after Michael Brantley landed on the injured list. With the exception of that one-day trip to Sugar Land, this new optional assignment is the first time McCormick has been sent down since initially being called to the majors. (He’s briefly played in the minors in the past two years while on injury rehab assignments but hasn’t actually been optioned.)

The 2024 season has been a nightmare for the 29-year-old McCormick and a noted departure from the productive three-year stretch he enjoyed from 2021-23. McCormick posted a solid .257/.319/.447 slash as a rookie in 2021, enjoyed a more productive year in 2022 and broke out with a career-best .273/.353/.489 slash last year. McCormick enjoyed career-best marks in home runs (22), doubles (17), stolen bases (19), plate appearances (457), strikeout rate (25.6%), wRC+ (134) and wins above replacement (3.3 fWAR, 3.6 bWAR) during that standout 2023 campaign.

Everything has trended in the wrong direction in 2024. The 2017 21st-rounder has posted a disastrous .192/.256/.292 batting line in 243 plate appearances this season. McCormick’s 28.8% strikeout rate isn’t a career-worst but is a significant increase from last year. His 6.6% walk rate is a career-low. McCormick has chased pitches off the plate at the highest rate of his career (33.1%) and made contact on pitches within the strike zone at the lowest rate of his career (76%). The contact he’s made has generally been weak. Statcast pegs him with career-worst marks in average exit velocity (85.2 mph), barrel rate (7.8%) and hard-hit rate (31.4%). McCormick has hit more infield flies (six) in a career-low 243 plate appearances this season than he has in any previous campaign.

Depending on the amount of time McCormick spends in Sugar Land, there could be contractual implications. He entered the 2024 season with exactly three years of service, meaning he’d need 172 days in the majors to hit four years of service. At the moment, he’s accrued 154 days of major league service. McCormick still needs another 18 days to cross four years of service and remain on track for free agency in the 2026-27 offseason. If he’s not recalled on or before Sept. 12, his path to free agency will be pushed back by a year.

For now, the focus will be getting McCormick back on track down in Triple-A, where he can get everyday at-bats that haven’t been available as a contending Astros club looks to stay atop a closely contested AL West race. McCormick did pinch-hit in last night’s game and swat a two-run homer, though that was just his fourth hit in 48 plate appearances since the trade deadline.

At the moment, with Kyle Tucker still on the shelf, the Astros’ outfield mix includes Jake Meyers, Yordan Alvarez, utilityman Mauricio Dubon, journeyman Ben Gamel and (soon) the aforementioned Heyward. With Alvarez working primarily as a designated hitter (81 games there versus 43 in left field) and three lefty-swinging options in the outfield mix (Alvarez, Gamel, Heyward), there should be room for McCormick’s right-handed bat if a brief minor league reset can get him back on track. That’s particularly with rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players on Sept. 1. While he’s struggled against lefties and righties alike this season, McCormick is still a career .286/.358/.508 hitter against southpaws.

The Opener: Waivers, Astros, Phillies, Braves

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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. Last call for waiver activity:

Last night news broke that the Giants had placed infielder Thairo Estrada as well as lefties Taylor Rogers and Tyler Matzek on outright waivers, allowing any of the league’s other 29 clubs to claim any of them for no cost beyond the remainder of the player’s contract. The waiver process lasts for two days, meaning players put on waivers today figure to be claimed on August 31. That makes today the last day to waive players and have them still be eligible for the postseason with their new club, since players who join a new organization after the calendar flips to September are not eligible to participate in the postseason with their new club.

One year ago today, the Angels drew attention to the waiver process by putting a number of pending free agents on waivers, including key pieces like Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez they had just added at the trade deadline. Teams have put plenty of players through outright waivers so far this year in an attempt to offload their salary, with Drew Smyly of the Cubs, and Michael A. Taylor of the Pirates among the most recent examples. Will any other veterans on clubs unlikely to make the postseason hit the waiver wire today?

2. Astros 40-man move incoming:

The Astros recently signed veteran outfielder Jason Heyward to a big league deal following the Dodgers’ decision to part ways with the 35-year-old last week. Heyward, who has hit .208/.289/.393 with a wRC+ of 90 in 197 trips to the plate with L.A. this year, was squeezed off the roster by Mookie Betts’s return to right field after spending the first half on the infield and the club’s acquisition of Kevin Kiermaier just before the trade deadline last month. Now Heyward figures to join the Houston bench mix as a left-handed complement to Mauricio Dubon in left and Jake Meyers in right field.

Heyward reportedly took his physical with the club yesterday, and given the fact that the Astros have already announced that outfielder Chas McCormick was optioned to Triple-A last night it seems likely that the veteran will be active before today’s game against the Royals. The club will need to make room for Heyward on the 40-man roster before he can join the club, and without any clear candidates for the 60-day IL available that will likely mean designating a player for assignment.

3. Series Preview: Braves @ Phillies

With just over a month to go before the regular season comes to a close, the top two teams in the NL East are set to meet for a four-game set in Philadelphia that will be their last head-to-head matchup of the year barring a clash in the playoffs. The Braves took two of three from the Phillies in their meeting last week and have posted a 6-1 record since then, allowing them to gain significant ground in the division. They now sit just five games back in the NL East, meaning that a sweep of their top rival would put them just one game back from claiming their seventh consecutive division crown.

Meanwhile, a poor showing from Atlanta could put them on the back foot in the Wild Card race, with the Mets and Cubs both still lurking on the periphery of the postseason picture. A strong performance from the Phillies, on the other hand, could put them in the drivers’ seat for a bye through the Wild Card series in a tight race for the top two NL seeds between themselves, the Dodgers, and the Brewers. The series will kick off at 6:40pm local time this evening with veteran righty Charlie Morton (4.24 ERA) taking on young southpaw Cristopher Sanchez (3.51 ERA), and later games in the series will pit Reynaldo Lopez (2.02 ERA) against Ranger Suarez (2.82 ERA), Max Fried (3.50 ERA) versus Zack Wheeler (2.74 ERA), and Spencer Schwellenbach (3.72 ERA) against Aaron Nola (3.30 ERA).

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