Rangers Promote Sam Huff
11:40am: The Rangers have formally selected Huff’s contract, per a team announcement. Outfielder Scott Heineman was optioned to the alternate training site to open a spot on the active roster.
10:40am: The Rangers are set to promote catching prospect Sam Huff to the Major League roster in the wake of Jose Trevino‘s left wrist injury, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports (via Twitter). Manager Chris Woodward acknowledged last night that promoting Huff was at least something the team would discuss (Twitter link via T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com).
Huff, 22, entered the season ranked as the game’s No. 99 prospect at Baseball America — the infusion of 2020 draftees has since pushed him off the list — and currently ranks second among the organization’s prospects there. He ranks 75th overall at MLB.com. Other outlets, such as FanGraphs, aren’t as bullish given questions about his ability to stick behind the dish and his lofty strikeout rates. There’s no questioning Huff’s raw power, however, which draws 70 grades on the 20-80 scale in most scouting reports.
A seventh-round pick back in 2016, Huff split the 2019 season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, where he hit a combined .278/.335/.509 with 28 homers, 22 doubles, a pair of triples and six steals (albeit in a dozen attempts). He’s been an average or better offensive producer at every minor league stop — well above average, in most cases — and boasts a career 34 percent caught-stealing rate thanks to a plus arm that generally receives 60 grades.
On the negative side of the coin, Huff has punched out in 29.7 percent of his minor league plate appearances to date and walked at just a 7.3 percent clip. MLB.com’s scouting report notes recent improvements in his framing and footwork but also observes that only five players as large as the 6’5″, 240-pound Huff have ever caught 300 games in the Majors. Given that lack of precedent, a broad range of outlooks is to be expected.
Huff has yet to play a game against Double-A pitching, so Major League opposition should present a particularly formidable test. Even if Huff returns to the minors at some point, the club is hopeful that he can emerge as a viable long-term piece of the puzzle. The Rangers have leaned heavily on 36-year-old veteran Robinson Chirinos since 2014 (last year’s one-year departure for the Astros notwithstanding), but Texas traded him to the Mets at the deadline.
The hope at one point may have been that Trevino could’ve been next in line, but he’s now 27 years of age and yet to produce in the upper minors or at the MLB level. Broadly speaking, the Rangers have lacked a top-tier catching prospect for quite some time. Huff is their most well-regarded young backstop in recent memory, and he’ll now get his first big league audition over the next few days. If he sticks in the Majors, he’d be controllable all the way through the 2026 season and wouldn’t be arbitration-eligible until the 2023-24 offseason, but further optional assignments could alter those timelines.
Kluber, Leclerc, Santana Won’t Return To Rangers This Season
SEPT. 9: Santana underwent elbow surgery and will miss seven to eight months, TR Sullivan of MLB.com tweets. That could jeopardize at least some of Santana’s 2021 campaign, which will be his final arbitration-eligible season. After Santana made a prorated $3.6MM this season, the Rangers will have to decide whether to keep him on the heels of a rough year.
SEPT. 5: Three injured Rangers players are done for the season, as manager Chris Woodward told reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that Corey Kluber, Jose Leclerc, and Danny Santana won’t return to action in 2020. Kluber and Leclerc were each already on the 45-day injured list with teres major problems, while Santana has been on the 10-day IL since August 28 due to a right elbow strain.
The Rangers expected all three to be key contributors this season, hoping for a repeat of Santana’s breakout 2019 numbers, Leclerc to return to his 2018 form after a somewhat shaky 2019, and for Kluber to bounce back from an injured-plagued 2019 season that ultimately closed the book on the former ace’s tenure in Cleveland.
Instead, Kluber pitched in just one inning of one game for Texas before hitting the IL with a grade 2 tear of the teres major muscle. Leclerc only banked two games before suffering a strain in his own teres major muscle, while Santana has been limited to 63 PA in 15 games (and only a .145/.238/.273 slash line) thanks to two trips to the injured list. A right forearm strain put Santana on the 10-day IL on August 2 and kept him out of action until the middle of the month.
Leclerc is under contract through at least the 2022 season, while Santana has one more year of arbitration eligibility remaining before hitting free agency in the 2021-22 offseason. Santana obviously won’t earn much of a raise on his $3.6MM salary for 2020, but given how the Rangers (like many teams) are planning on a lower payroll next season, it is conceivable that Santana could be non-tendered and then pursued at a lower price than a salary in the ballpark of $3.6 or $3.7MM.
Of course, a big chunk of money will be coming off the Rangers’ books in the form of Kluber’s contract, as Texas is surely unlikely to exercise its $18MM club option on the veteran righty for the 2021 campaign. With just 36 2/3 total innings pitched since the start of the 2019 season, Kluber will be hard-pressed to find anything more than a single guaranteed year on his next contract, though his track record could still land him another Major League deal. We aren’t far removed, after all, from the dominant five-year stretch Kluber delivered in the Indians’ rotation from 2014-18 — 2.85 ERA, 10.1 K/9, 5.51 K/BB rate, two AL Cy Young Awards, and an average of 218 innings pitched.
Rangers Place Shin-Soo Choo On Injured List, Activate Rougned Odor
The Rangers placed outfielder Shin-Soo Choo on the 10-day injured list due to a right hand sprain, the team announced. Choo’s placement is retroactive to Setpember 8. Rougned Odor will take Choo’s spot on the active roster, as the second baseman has recovered from an eye infection and been activated from his own 10-day IL stint.
With the Rangers at 14-27 and well out of contention, it seems eminently possible that we’ve seen the last of Choo this season. This injury could also spell the end of Choo’s Rangers tenure, as he’s due to reach free agency in the winter.
Choo, now 38, signed a seven-year, $130MM contract with the Rangers before the 2014 season. He was coming off strong offensive runs with the Indians and Reds at the time, and has continued as an above-average batter with the Rangers. The switch-hitting Choo has only produced 8.7 fWAR in Texas, though, largely owing to an inability to contribute much value on defense. And 2020 has been Choo’s worst season as the plate as a Ranger, as he has hit a measly .229/.318/.395 in 126 PA. Regardless of whether Choo plays again this year, he’ll have to decide in the offseason if he’s going to call it a career or seek another deal.
Rangers Place Joely Rodriguez On IL
The Rangers announced today that LHP Joely Rodriguez was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Jesse Chavez, who’s been activated from the IL after spraining his left big toe on August 23. Rodriguez suffered the injury during last night’s game against the Mariners.
With just three weeks until the scheduled end of the regular season, it’s unlikely that Rodriguez, 28, will return to health quickly enough to pitch again this year. It’s an unfortunate break for the Rangers, for whom Rodriguez has been something of a surprise, establishing himself as one of the club’s most reliable relievers to this point.
In 12 2/3 innings of work—his first MLB appearances since 2017—Rodriguez has produced an impressive 2.13 ERA. He’s reinvented himself since his days with the Phillies, adding a changeup upon which he relies heavily, throwing it about 30% of the time. That pitch has effectively replace the slider in his repertoire, and his strikeouts have climbed to career-best rates as a result: he boasts a nice 17:5 K:BB ratio, good for a 12.1 K/9 average.
Without Rodriguez available, the Rangers will turn to Chavez, now recovered from a toe sprain suffered last month. Unlike Rodriguez, the 37-year-old Chavez was off to a slow start to the year prior to his injury. He’s allowed 11 runs (including 6 homers) in just 11 1/3 innings, all while striking out batters at his lowest rate in a decade. Make no mistake, that could be dismissed as an aberration in any other season, but in this unique shortened campaign, small sample sizes can’t be so easily ignored.
Quick Hits: Rangers, Andrus, Red Sox, Pérez, Cardinals, Cruz
The Texas Rangers are paying Elvis Andrus for another two seasons at $14.25MM per season, but their long-time shortstop might have to start yielding minutes to Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Anderson Tejeda, writes Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. While one consideration might be the $15MM vesting option the Rangers hold on Andrus for 2023, the fact is Andrus hasn’t provided positive value with the bat since 2016 and 2017, the only two seasons of his 12-year career with a wRC+ north of 100. The last remaining member of the Rangers’ back-to-back World Series squads in 2010 and 2011, Andrus long provided value with the glove to offset his subpar bat, but the defensive numbers have slipped a touch and, at his price point, the Rangers can’t afford for him to be a one- or two-dimensional player. Andrus himself admits that he’s been slow to adapt, saying in a quote provided by Grant, “The toughest thing for me is to not to believe my instincts during the game and to actually believe more in a piece of paper, or report. That’s where the game is right now. I think that’s what I’ve been a little hard-headed about.”
- Boston Red Sox lefty Martin Pérez is glad he remained with the team through the trade deadline. The 29-year-old veteran is trying to do his part to mentor the young players on an inexperienced Boston staff, writes Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Said Pérez, “I’ve been at this level for a couple of years and I’ve learned from a lot of guys. Now it’s time for me to let the youngest guys know what they have to do.” The Red Sox have leaned on Pérez in a season where they’ve lacked veteran options. Boston holds a $6.25MM option for Pérez next season, a reasonable price point for the kind of production he’s offered this season (4.07 ERA across 42 innings).
- Jesus Cruz has cleared waivers and been outrighted to the Cardinals’ alternate site, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Twitter). Cruz was designated for assignment last week. Cruz, 25, appeared in just one game for the Cardinals this season, yielding 2 earned runs on 3 hits and a walk. Cruz has been in the Cardinals organization since 2017, marching steadily up the organizational ladder year-by-year. In 2019, he stuck out 13.1 batter per nine innings across Double-A and Triple-A, but struggled with his comman, surrendering 6.8 BB/9. He worked a 6.02 ERA across 61 1/3 innings between the two levels.
Rangers Designate Yadiel Rivera, Select John King
The Rangers have designated infielder Yadiel Rivera for assignment and selected the contract of left-hander John King from their alternate training site, per a club announcement. They’ve also added lefty Jake Latz to their 60-man player pool and assigned him to their alternate site.
Rivera, 28, appeared in just four games and went 0-for-5 in that brief time. The former Brewers and Marlins utilityman is a career .175/.244/.217 hitter in 319 Major League plate appearances and a .243/.280/.352 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. The Rangers will have a week to put him through waivers or release him.
The 25-year-old King was Texas’ 10th-round pick in 2017 and will be making the jump from Class-A Advanced to the Major Leagues thanks to the lack of a minor league season in 2020. King started 19 games between two Class-A levels last year and was dominant, pitching to a 2.40 ERA with a pristine 91-to-13 K/BB ratio and a huge 57.9 percent ground-ball rate in 97 1/3 innings. On top of that, King induced a whopping 23 infield flies.
Additional Context On Padres’ Flurry Of Trades
The Padres were the most active buyer at the 2020 trade deadline — arguably of any trade deadline in recent history — reshaping their roster with additions of Mike Clevinger, Austin Nola, Trevor Rosenthal, Mitch Moreland and Jason Castro, among others. The dizzying sequence of additions hearkened back to the days when Matt Kemp labeled A.J. Preller a “rock star” GM during Preller’s frenetic first offseason on the job, but the biggest trades swung by the Padres over the weekend didn’t necessarily come together in straightforward fashion.
Preller, in fact, was informed Sunday evening that his Padres were “out” of the Clevinger bidding, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (via Twitter). The Indians told the Padres that they were sitting on a better offer and likely to proceed in another direction. That call prompted the club to reconvene and alter its package, ultimately adding infield prospect Owen Miller and catcher Austin Hedges early Monday morning. Those pieces put San Diego’s offer over the top, it seems, as word of Clevinger’s trade to the Friars was out several hours before the 4pm ET deadline.
Hedges and Miller, the final two pieces of the Padres’ six-player package, added quite a bit more near-term value to the arrangement. Hedges is considered one of the best defensive catchers (if not the best) in the game and is controlled through the 2022 season. The 23-year-old Miller has yet to make his big league debut, but he slashed .290/.355/.430 in a full season at the Double-A level last year while playing three infield positions. He’s in Cleveland’s player pool now and could conceivably be an option this month. If not, he’ll certainly be in consideration for a call to the big leagues come 2021. With Cesar Hernandez playing on a one-year deal, it’s possible that Miller could be in the mix for regular playing time next season.
But the Clevinger blockbuster wasn’t the only Friars swap that required some persistent iterations. Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto told reporters after trading Nola, Austin Adams and Dan Altavilla to the Padres that he didn’t expect to trade Nola this summer (as opposed to Taijuan Walker, whom the M’s fully anticipated moving).
“They had called repeatedly on Austin Nola and we had repeatedly rebuffed that interest until the return just became too big for us to pass up in our minds,” Dipoto said Monday (link via MLB.com’s Greg Johns).
The key element of the trade for the Mariners was getting both infielder Ty France and outfield prospect Taylor Trammell in the deal. Dipoto didn’t hide his affinity for either player, revealing that he’s contacted the Padres on France repeatedly over the past couple seasons and been similarly drawn to Trammell dating all the way back to the 2016 draft. “As many phone calls as A.J. made to me this last week about Austin Nola, I have made as many to him over the last couple of years regarding Ty France,” said Dipoto.
With Nola and Castro now on hand, the Padres have completely remade their catching tandem midseason, but changes could yet be coming. The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reports (subscription required) that the club is contemplating a September promotion for 21-year-old Luis Campusano — a top-ranked catching prospect who was an in-demand piece himself at this year’s deadline. Per Lin, both the Indians and Rangers asked the Padres about Campusano in trade negotiations, but the Friars clearly weren’t inclined to include him in a deal. Cleveland initially sought Campusano and Luis Patino as centerpieces in the Clevinger deal, while the Rangers were interested in that pair as well as shortstop CJ Abrams when discussing Lance Lynn and Joey Gallo with the Padres.
The 21-year-old Campusano has yet to play above Class-A Advanced, but he tore through the pitcher-friendly California League last year, slashing .325/.396/.509 (148 wRC+). If the Padres do bring him up, they could rotate him, Nola and Castro through the catcher slot while maximizing Nola’s versatility with reps at any of first base, second base, third base or the outfield corners.
Suffice it to say, we could’ve seen any number of permutations of the Padres’ deluge of deals this past week. Such is the nature of a win-now team with a deep farm system. The club’s minor league system undoubtedly took a hit with this wave of trades, but San Diego also managed to hang onto the majority of its top-ranked prospects while clearly placing themselves in a better competitive position both now and into at least the 2022 season, after which Clevinger is scheduled to become a free agent.
Recent Player Pool Additions: Tigers, Rangers, Rays, Pirates, Phillies
The flurry of trades leading up to the deadline created some vacancies in teams’ player pools, and we’ve continued to see a few clubs add prospects to their ranks even in the days since the deadline as they look to get said players some vital developmental reps late in the season. Here’s a look at some of the latest additions around the league…
- Outfielder Parker Meadows and right-handers Logan Shore, Jason Foley and Alex Lange have all been added to the Tigers‘ pool, the team announced Thursday morning. Meadows, the No. 44 pick in 2018 and the younger brother of Rays star Austin Meadows, is the most highly regarded of the bunch. He posted strong numbers that summer but struggled in his first full season, slashing .221/.296/.312 against older competition in Class-A. He’s ranked 13th among Detroit prospects at MLB.com and at FanGraphs. Lange, 24, was the better of the two pitching prospects acquired from the Cubs in the trade that sent Nick Castellanos to Chicago last year. He’s pitched as a high as Double-A already and could be an option for the Tigers by next year. Foley was an undrafted free agent in ’16 who missed the 2018 season due to injury but returned with solid numbers in Class-A Advanced last year. Shore, a former second-round pick of the A’s, was sent to Detroit as a PTBNL in 2018’s Mike Fiers trade. Shore’s changeup is considered a potentially plus pitch, but the rest of his arsenal isn’t regarded nearly as highly.
Earlier Additions
- The Rangers announced that infielder Davis Wendzel, outfielder Bubba Thompson and outfielder Steele Walker were all added to their 60-man pool this week. Wendzel was the No. 41 overall pick in the 2019 draft, while Thompson was selected 26th overall back in 2017. Wendzel saw just seven pro games after being drafted last year, so he’s still relatively light on overall professional experience. Thompson had a strong 2018 campaign in his first year of pro ball but saw his production crater in Class-A Advanced last year. He fared better in the Arizona Fall League, however. The 24-year-old Walker was a second-rounder of the White Sox back in 2018 but was traded to Texas over the winter in exchange for Nomar Mazara. He hit .284/.361/.451 in 525 plate appearances across Class-A and Class-A Advanced last year.
- Infield prospect Greg Jones was added to the Rays‘ player pool, per a club announcement. Tampa Bay selected the now-22-year-old Jones with the No. 22 pick out of UNC Wilmington in 2019. He posted a .335/.413/.461 slash in 48 games and 218 plate appearances with the Rays’ short-season Class-A affiliate in the New York-Penn League, although that wasn’t a particularly aggressive initial assignment for a college bat. The success is still notable, of course, and he’ll get some additional simulated game reps and face time with coaches over the season’s final month.
- The Pirates added 2019 first-rounder Quinn Priester to their player pool earlier this week, MLBTR has learned. The Illinois native was selected with the 18th overall pick in the 2019 draft and logged 36 2/3 innings between Rookie ball and short-season Class-A last year. Priester pitched to a 3.19 ERA in that time with a 41-to-14 K/BB ratio and a hefty 59.1 percent ground-ball rate. He’s considered to be one of the organization’s best two to three best pitching prospects.
- The Phillies added former No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak to their player pool a day prior to the trade deadline. As Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia noted at the time, it was possible the timing of the move was sheer coincidence and not part of any scheme to trade the 22-year-old outfielder. Moniak had been rehabbing a knee injury, Salisbury wrote, and he’d progressed to the point where he’s able to work at the Phillies’ alternate training site rather than rehab at their Spring Training complex. Moniak hasn’t lived up to his 1-1 billing, but he did post better-than-average numbers against much more advanced pitching in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting last year. His .252/.303/.439 slash doesn’t look like much, but that checked in 15 percent better than average in the Eastern League, per wRC+.
Rangers Had High Price On Lynn; Deals With Dodgers, Braves Didn’t Get Close
Despite vast interest from around the majors, the Rangers decided to retain right-hander Lance Lynn through at least the rest of the season. The Braves were among the teams in on Lynn, but the Rangers understandably placed a high asking price on the AL Cy Young contender and his year-plus of affordable control. Texas wanted either Cristian Pache or Drew Waters from Atlanta as the headliner in a package for Lynn, according to David O’Brien of The Athletic, though the Braves clearly were unwilling to part with either of the highly touted outfield prospects.
Both Pache and Waters are 21-year-old outfielders who rank among the game’s top 50 prospects, and it stands to reason that the Rangers would’ve pushed for additional pieces to be added. Had either Pache or Waters changed hands in a deal with Texas or another club, they’d have been the highest-ranked prospect dealt in a deadline season that was punctuated more by players to be named later and mid-tier prospects.
The Braves and the Dodgers were known to be in on Lynn, with L.A. reportedly making a late push but ultimately failing to close a deal. Specific names that were discussed haven’t come to light, but Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels made clear that sufficient value wasn’t presented.
“I would not have been proud of some of those deals if we made them,” Daniels told reporters following the deadline (link via Sam Blum of the Dallas Morning News). “I don’t think our fans would have been happy about it, either.”
All of the top baseball operations execs involved in Lynn discussions has made similar statements in the hours and days since the deadline passed. Via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Dodgers president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman acknowledged his efforts to add an “impactful” starter who could’ve lined up behind Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw in the postseason rotation. Lynn fits that description following his past season-plus with the Rangers, but Friedman characterized those as talks that never “got all that close.”
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos, meanwhile said in a recent radio appearance on 92.9 The Game that his club set a threshold they weren’t willing to cross — much as they do with regard to free-agent negotiations. “The moves that we could’ve made, for us, would not have been good deals,” Anthopoulos said. “…It just came down to — and it’s no knock on anybody — we made the decision that the price for us, we didn’t think that made sense.”
Daniels and the Rangers will have another opportunity to shop Lynn this winter, and while they’re now only marketing one season of Lynn (and one postseason push involving him), interest should still be high as long as Lynn remains healthy. If the 2021 season sees a return to a standard 10-team postseason field, clubs may be more motivated to add impact pieces like Lynn, knowing that multiple postseason spots in each league have been eliminated. That doesn’t guarantee a huge return for the Rangers, of course, but a full season of a high-end starter on a below-market contract ($8MM in 2021) and the right to make him a qualifying offer after the season should still be able to fetch a respectable haul.
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/1/20
Keeping up with the latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The White Sox have outrighted outfielder Nicky Delmonico, James Fegan of The Athletic reports. He’ll remain with the organization at the team’s alternate training site. Now 28 years old, Delmonico enjoyed a terrific 166-plate appearance debut with the White Sox in 2017, when he slashed .262/.373/.482 with nine home runs. Success in the majors has eluded Delmonico since then, though, as he has combined for a weak .210/.287/.346 line with nine HRs in 408 PA dating back to 2018. The White Sox designated him for assignment Aug. 28.
- The Mariners have outrighted Zac Grotz to Triple-A Tacoma, according to Greg Johns of MLB.com. The right-handed Grotz struggled mightily across five appearances and 7 1/3 innings before the Mariners booted him from their 40-man. So far this season, offenses have tattooed Grotz for 12 earned runs on 11 hits and 11 walks, and he has totaled just four strikeouts.
- The Rangers have added infielder Davis Wendzel and outfielders Steele Walker and Bubba Thompson to their 60-man player pool, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets. They’re headed to the Rangers’ alternate site. All three rank among the Rangers’ top 15 prospects at MLB.com, which places Wendzel 11th, Walker 12th and Thompson 15th. Wendzel’s only a year removed from going 41st overall in the 2019 draft, but a thumb injury limited him to 24 plate appearances between rookie and Low-A ball. Walker was a 2018 second-rounder of the White Sox who joined the Rangers in the two teams’ Nomar Mazara trade last winter. The Rangers used a first-rounder on Thompson in 2017, but the 22-year-old is coming off a rough 2019 in High-A, where he batted .178/.261/.312 in 228 trips to the plate.