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Adam Wainwright

Cardinals Re-Sign Adam Wainwright

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OCTOBER 29: Wainwright receives a $2MM guarantee, per Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link) has details on the extensive list of incentives. Wainwright can earn the following salary boosts:

  • For games started, he’ll earn $500K upon his fifth start, $1MM upon his tenth and 15th, $1.5MM for his twentieth, and $2MM apiece for his 25th and 30th. Maxing out this run of bonuses would add $8MM of salary.
  • For relief appearances, Wainwright can earn $500K apiece for every fifth appearance, beginning at #35 and ending at #60. That provides an avenue to $3MM in extra money.
  • For games finished, Wainwright will receive $500K for the 25th and 30th game in which he records the final out and $600K for every fifth game finished beginning at #35 and ending at #55. If Wainwright serves as the Cards’ closer and meets all of those thresholds, he’d tack on another $4MM, meaning he could in total earn up to an additional $7MM in a relief capacity.

OCTOBER 11, 2:18pm: Wainwright’s contract includes incentives based on both starting and relieving, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (on Twitter). The contract’s base salary remains unknown.

12:24pm: The Cardinals announced Thursday that they’ve re-signed right-hander Adam Wainwright to a one-year contract for the 2019 season. Wainwright, who recently turned 37, had been slated to hit free agency. He’s a client of Aegis Sports Management.

Adam Wainwright | Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

The 2019 season will mark the 15th Major League season of Wainwright’s illustrious career — each of which has come as a member of the Cardinals. A two-time NL Cy Young runner up and four-time top-three finisher in that voting, Wainwright has now tied righty Bob Forsch for the third-most seasons as a Cardinals pitcher in team history.

This past season was an injury-plagued campaign for Wainwright, who pitched just 15 1/3 innings in April before hitting the disabled list due to elbow inflammation. He returned after a few weeks only to land on the disabled list after just 2 1/3 innings. That second DL stint, which was also initially due to elbow inflammation lasted nearly four months.

Once healthy enough to return to the mound, Wainwright reeled off 17 shutout innings on a minor league rehab assignment and returned to the Cards to make four starts in September. He was tagged for four runs in three of those four starts and turned in an unsightly 4.84 ERA in 22 1/3 innings, but he also notched an impressive 25-to-4 K/BB ratio in that time and saw his fastball jump back up to the same levels at which it sat in 2016-17.

The question for St. Louis now is one of just how Wainwright will factor into the 2019 staff. The Cards weren’t lacking rotation options even without Wainwright, with Carlos Martinez, Jack Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Michael Wacha, Alex Reyes (if healthy), Luke Weaver, Dakota Hudson, John Gant, Daniel Poncedeleon and Austin Gomber all on the roster. It’s not clear that he’ll be promised a rotation spot at this point, but perhaps a return to the bullpen shouldn’t be entirely discounted. The Cardinals’ relief corps was somewhat jumbled late in the season after a massive overhaul prior to the non-waiver trade deadline in which Greg Holland, Sam Tuivailala and Tyler Lyons were all sent packing.

Bud Norris, who spent much of the season closing in St. Louis before ceding that role to Martinez in the latter’s return from the disabled list, is a free agent and isn’t any sort of lock to return. August addition Tyson Ross is bound for the open market, too. Meanwhile, 2017-18 offseason pickups Luke Gregerson (two-year, $11MM free-agent deal) and Dominic Leone (acquired from the Blue Jays for Randal Grichuk) combined for just 36 2/3 innings due to injury.

The 2018 season wasn’t all bad for the Cards in terms of bullpen developments, though. Flamethrowing young righty Jordan Hicks arrived on the scene and established himself as a potential long-term piece, while righty John Brebbia somewhat quietly turned in an excellent sophomore season. Wainwright could certainly be penciled in to join that pair, along with some of the rotation candidates who don’t ultimately secure starting jobs, though perhaps the team will simply wait until Spring Training to see how the staff comes together. The Cards, after all, figure to have a busy offseason ahead of them as they look to rework a flawed roster, and it’s possible that some of those younger pitching options could land elsewhere via the trade market.

Regardless of his role, Wainwright will return to serve as a leader on a staff of considerably younger arms, and his new contract will give him one more year with Yadier Molina — one of the most iconic pairings in franchise history.

NL Notes: Wainwright, Robles, Braves

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37-year-old Adam Wainwright, who re-upped with the club on a one-year pact earlier this month, was elated with the progress of his balky right elbow over the season’s last two months, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details in a lengthy overview of the situation.  Wainwright, who had Tommy John surgery in 2011 and has dealt with discomfort in his elbow on multiple occasions, has apparently had issues with “deep” bone bruises in the area for a number of years now, an ailment for which he could not seem to find a solution.  That appears to have changed, as Goold notes, with Wainwright’s adoption of a new, longer arm swing in the middle of his delivery.  “Whole new avenues are back in play that I haven’t been able to do in years,” Wainwright said. “I left this season, I left that last start feeling motivated and feeling better than I have in a long time.” The stats do seem, at least in part, to reinforce Wainwright’s perspective: in 22 1/3 IP after his return from the DL on September 10, Wainwright struck out 25 batters and walked just three.  His 8.93 K/9, albeit in an extremely small, 40 1/3 IP sample, ranks as the highest in his career, though the rest of his peripherals (a 4.02 BB/9 that led to a career-worst 106 xFIP-) leave little to shout about.

In other news from other around the league . . .

  • Mark Zuckerman of MASN peers into Victor Robles’ place in a potentially crowded Washington outfield next season.  The consensus top five overall prospect’s status as a coveted trade chip will likely be on hold until the impending Bryce Harper sweepstakes have reached their conclusion, it seems, as the Nats will almost certainly plug Robles into the center field role should Harper depart.  Zuckerman notes that Robles, in addition to possessing a near limitless all-around ceiling, is a “gregarious” personality who brims with confidence in all aspects of his play.  Indeed, after an uninspiring start to the season at Triple-A Syracuse and in a short stint with the parent club, the 21-year-old unleashed his dormant offensive ability, slashing .359/.405/.718 over the season’s last two weeks after recovering from a hyperextended elbow suffered earlier in the year.  The Nats, of course, could both re-sign Harper and make room for Robles by trading outfielder Adam Eaton, though that scenario does not seem to be on the club’s table at the moment.
  • MLB.com’s Mark Bowman outlines the Braves’ prospective payroll next season, estimating that the club will have “at least” $60MM with which to maneuver this offseason.  Atlanta, who boasts one of the game’s deepest farm systems, a unit stacked with high-upside starting pitchers of all kinds, could look to the trade market – as GM Alex Anthopoulos seemed to suggest in a recent summit with reporters – to address a thin big league rotation and question marks behind the plate and (at one spot) in the corner outfield.  Third base, manned mostly by a resurgent Johan Camargo, who slashed just .278/.333/.372 across parts of seven minor league seasons, could also be an area of need, as projection systems will likely not be kind to the 24-year-old.  For his part, David O’Brien of The Athletic believes the Braves will have far less than Bowman’s $60MM estimate to spend, placing the figure at nearly half the stated mark.

Cardinals Notes: Coaches, Clapp, Ankiel, Wainwright, Offseason

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The Cardinals will face some changes in the coaching ranks, as third base coach Jose Oquendo has informed the team he will not return in 2019, president of baseball ops John Mozeliak announced to reporters Tuesday (links via Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Mark Saxon of The Athletic). Oquendo, who was offered the opportunity to return, will work with the club in Spring Training but will spend the bulk of the season away from the game with his family.

In Oquendo’s absence, bench coach Ron Warner is moving to third base coach. First base coach Oliver Marmol is taking the reins at bench coach, while hitting coach George Greer will be a minor league hitting coordinator moving forward. That leaves the Cards with a vacancy both at hitting coach and first base coach, and Goold notes that Triple-A manager Stubby Clapp is expected to be offered one of those two positions if he is not hired away from the team. Clapp, who has been quite successful in his current role with the Cardinals’ Memphis affiliate, is also a rumored candidate for the Blue Jays’ managerial post (though he has denied hearing from the Jays to this point).

More out of St. Louis…

  • Goold notes that Mozeliak plans to speak with Rick Ankiel about the former left-hander/outfielder’s desire to make a comeback in 2019. Ankiel announced back in August that he was planning on pursuing a return to the Majors as a relief pitcher. He told Yahoo’s Tim Brown that month that he has “nothing to lose” and feels that he’s “in a better place” than he was when his career on the mound was derailed by the yips nearly two decades ago. While Ankiel would be nothing more than a roll of the dice, Mozeliak did express a desire to improve the left-handed pitching in the Cardinals’ relief corps. Zach Britton and Andrew Miller headline this year’s crop of free-agent lefty relievers, though there are ample names beyond that pair (to say nothing of countless options on the trade market).
  • Details of Adam Wainwright’s contract to return to the Cardinals won’t become clear for a few weeks, but Mozeliak indicated (via Saxon) the venerable right-hander was “willing to bet on himself,” adding that the risks associated with the contract are low. Obviously, that indicates that the contract will come with a fairly small base salary. It’s already been reported that Wainwright’s contract will have both rotation- and bullpen-based incentives, so the team may not yet even have a determination on what his role will be in 2019. Mozeliak did note that the rotation, which is loaded with depth options, is “probably not going to be our focus of energy.”
  • Rather, Saxon notes, supplementing the offense seems to be a greater focus. The preference, Mozeliak implied, would be a left-handed bat, though he added that he “[doesn’t] think it has to be.” The longstanding head of baseball ops for the Cards firmly indicated that the team hasn’t given up on Dexter Fowler being able to bounce back, though he also wouldn’t make any declarative statements about Fowler’s role in 2019. Mozeliak called the positions filled by Yadier Molina (catcher), Paul DeJong (shortstop), Marcell Ozuna (left field) and Harrison Bader (center field) all “pretty certain,” and indicated that Matt Carpenter would be in the lineup as well, most likely at first base. Beyond that, Mozeliak emphasized that he’s been a “big advocate” for Kolten Wong and hopes the defensive stalwart can continue to improve.
  • As Goold notes, third base and right field seemed the two most plausible areas for upgrade based on Mozeliak’s comments. That’ll lead to no shortage of speculation tying the Cards to top free agents Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, though when asked about free agents, Mozeliak explained that he has “to be pragmatic and understand what that looks like” from a long-term vantage point.

Cardinals Notes: Wainwright, Clapp, Pitching

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It was on this day in 1985 that Jack Buck asked Cardinals fans to “Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!” in the wake of Ozzie Smith’s walkoff homer to win Game Five of the NLCS.  The Wizard Of Oz wasn’t known for his power, of course, though the defensive legend’s only career postseason home run (and, remarkably, the switch-hitting Smith’s first career homer as a left-handed batter) could hardly have come at a better time.  The victory gave the Cards a 3-2 lead in the series, and they clinched the National League pennant two days later at Dodger Stadium.

Here’s some modern-day buzz out of St. Louis…

  • The official details of Adam Wainwright’s new contract with the Cardinals won’t be known until after the World Series, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes.  Wainwright will have to officially file for free agency before the deal is finalized, as league rules stipulate that a player currently on a team’s roster cannot re-sign for less than a 20% pay cut from their previous salary, and Wainwright’s new deal will obviously be far less than the $19.5MM he earned last year, in the final season of his five-year, $97.5MM contract.  His new deal is just a one-year pact, as Wainwright tells Goold that “I’m going to treat every year from here like it’s my last and go year to year.  I’m going to have a great time and maybe a year from now we’re having the same conversation or we’re having a retirement conversation.”  After being greatly limited by injuries in three of the last four seasons, Wainwright was greatly encouraged by how his elbow felt in some late-season appearances, and now feels ready for whatever role the team wants him to fill in 2019.  It’s clear that Wainwright is hoping to spend his entire baseball career in a Cardinals uniform, telling Goold “I wanted to do all I could to keep the door open with St. Louis. I was trying not to think about the possibility of going somewhere else. I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
  • Stubby Clapp, manager of the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate in Memphis, has widely been mentioned as a possible candidate to be the next Blue Jays manager, though Clapp tells Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi, “I haven’t heard anything from Toronto.  It’s been all rumors.”  Before taking over in Memphis in the 2016-17 offseason, Clapp spent the previous four seasons as a hitting coach in the Jays’ minor league system, so he has some ties to the organization.  The Windsor, Ontario native would also be the Jays’ first Canadian-born manager.  Even Clapp’s current duties carry some Blue Jays connections, as star prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is playing on the team Clapp is managing in the Arizona Fall League.  “If there’s an opportunity to get an interview or something like that, great, I’d be excited to do something like that,” Clapp said.  “Right now, I’m a Cardinal, that’s my focus and that’s where my mind is, and on taking care of these guys in Arizona.”
  • While the Cards have some uncertainty about their 2019 rotation, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch doesn’t consider starting pitching to be a top priority for the offseason.  Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, and Carlos Martinez look to have rotation jobs locked up for next year, while Wainwright, Michael Wacha, Luke Weaver, Austin Gomber, Daniel Poncedeleon, and John Gant are all in the mix for the final two slots.  While this group carries a lot of injury and experience questions, Frederickson figures there’s enough depth on hand that the Cardinals don’t need to add another arm unless a clear top-of-the-rotation pitcher like Patrick Corbin or Dallas Keuchel can be had at a reasonable price.  The team’s more pressing needs are a left-handed bat for the lineup and more bullpen depth, the latter being particularly important given how successful teams around baseball are increasingly relying on strong bullpens to carry them into (and through) the postseason.

Wainwright Wants To Pitch In 2019, Will Discuss New Deal With Cardinals

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There’s been plenty of speculation about whether Adam Wainwright was playing out his final season as a big leaguer, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Wainwright does want to continue pitching and has already been in touch with the Cardinals about a possible return. GM Mike Girsch seemingly confirmed as much, telling Goold that the two sides have had “general conversations” about a 2019 return.

The 37-year-old Wainwright’s future was in doubt for much of the year, as he pitched just 15 1/3 innings in April before hitting the disabled list due to elbow inflammation. Wainwright returned after a few weeks only to return to the disabled list (once again, due to elbow discomfort) after just 2 1/3 innings. That second DL stint lasted nearly four months.

Wainwright, however, rattled off 17 scoreless innings on a minor league rehab assignment and returned to the St. Louis rotation in September, making four starts down the stretch. He allowed four runs in three of those four outings and pitched to an overall 4.84 ERA in 22 1/3 innings, but he also turned in a dominant 25-to-4 K/BB ratio. Fielding-independent metrics pegged him for a true ERA more in the low-3.00s, and his average fastball sat at an even 90.0 mph — nearly identical to his career 90.4 mph average. Wainwright won’t turn 38 until Aug. 30 of next year, and it seems that he still has fuel left in the tank on what has been a terrific career to date.

[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart and payroll outlook]

Exactly how he’d fit into the pitching staff, however, remains to be seen. The Cards project to have Carlos Martinez, Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Michael Wacha and, if healthy, Alex Reyes in next year’s rotation. If Reyes’ injury troubles persist or if he’s moved to a bullpen role, the St. Louis organization has numerous internal alternatives in Luke Weaver, Dakota Hudson, John Gant, Austin Gomber and Daniel Poncedeleon, among others. Certainly, it’s a deep core of starting pitching options and one that seems unlikely to maintain wholly intact as pitching-hungry teams offer up MLB-ready bats to the Cardinals on the offseason trade market.

Reinserting Wainwright into that mix would only deepen the staff and further make trades easier to stomach for Girsch and president of baseball ops John Mozeliak, though the financials of a Wainwright return still need to be hammered out. It’s clear that Wainwright won’t command a salary along the lines of the $19.5MM annual rate that came with his previous five-year, $97.5MM deal, but the Cards would still likely need to make a reasonable guarantee, likely with the opportunity for additional earnings via incentives.

Speculatively speaking, even if the organization were to decide that there’s no room for Wainwright in the rotation, it’d be interesting to see if he’d be amenable to returning as a reliever. Wainwright, after all, cemented himself in Cardinals lore by closing out the NLCS and the World Series as an exuberant 25-year-old rookie back in 2006. The Cardinals’ closer role is currently up in the air, and a return to that job for Wainwright would represent something of a full-circle journey.

The Cardinals already have more than $110MM on the books for 2019, and that’s before arbitration raises for Wacha, Marcell Ozuna, Dominic Leone, and Chasen Shreve. It’d be a surprise, though, if St. Louis didn’t try to shed some payroll by moving some veterans whose performance makes it clear that they no longer fit with the roster. Dexter Fowler’s remaining $49.5MM over the next three seasons will be near impossible to move without absorbing a significant portion of that deal, but he no longer looks to be a par of the long-term outlook in the outfield. Relievers Brett Cecil and Luke Gregerson are on less onerous contracts and could potentially be moved in salary-motivated trades, as well. Mozeliak, Girsch and the rest of the front office figure to be in for an active offseason, with the Wainwright decision presumably serving as the first of many.

NL Notes: Kang, Kennedy, Giants, Wainwright

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The Pirates will be faced with a decision on Jung Ho Kang’s 2019 option this offseason, but GM Neal Huntington tells Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic that Kang’s performance in this weekend series won’t have an impact on the outcome (subscription required). “Truth be told, there’s not going to be a whole lot of value in the evaluation process of a one-game or a one-plus-game look,” said Huntington. Biertempfel notes, though, that the late promotion could earn a bit of good will with Kang’s camp in the event that the team elects to buy out his $5.5MM option and try to bring him back into the fold for a few million less than that. There’s been no indication one way or another as to how the Pirates plan on proceeding, though the very fact that he was brought up to the Majors at all indicates that they’re not totally closed off to the possibility of continuing the relationship in spite of Kang’s legal troubles over the past few seasons.

Here’s more from the National League…

  • Padres right-hander Brett Kennedy underwent knee surgery that will sideline him for the first six weeks of the offseason, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. However, Kennedy is still expected to be able to have a largely normal offseason program, and the operation isn’t expected to impact his availability for the 2019 campaign. Kennedy, 24, didn’t impress in six starts with the Friars this season, working to a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings. However, the 2015 11th-rounder fired off 89 1/3 innings of 2.72 ERA ball with 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 52.6 percent ground-ball rate in an extremely hitter-friendly setting with the Padres’ El Paso affiliate in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He posted solid numbers at Double-A in 2017 and at Class-A Advanced in 2016, and with multiple minor league options remaining beyond 2018, he’ll have ample opportunity to cement himself as part of the San Diego pitching staff in come capacity over the next few seasons.
  • The Giants’ search for a new general manager and/or president of baseball operations isn’t expected to be a quick one, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. The process could take several weeks as Giants leadership interviews a wide range of candidates with varying backgrounds. Notably, Schulman adds that the Giants aren’t set on hiring any one specific type of executive (e.g. analytically inclined, traditional scouting background, etc.) and seem to be embarking on this process with an open-minded approach.
  • With the Cardinals on the brink of elimination, Derrick Gould of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes the uncertain future of Adam Wainwright, who may have made his final start yesterday for the only MLB team he’s ever known. Wainwright’s a free agent at season’s end, and while he spent most of the season sidelined by elbow soreness, he’s rebounded in September to pitch admirably for St. Louis. His 4.84 ERA across his past four starts may not look pretty, but his 3.20 FIP and stunning 6.25 K/BB ratio points to a much more effective pitcher than the version of Wainwright the world had seen across the rest of the past three seasons. Teammate Yadier Molina, for what it’s worth, doesn’t seem to think it’s the last time the two will be batterymates, saying he’s “confident” about that. “It may have been,” Wainwright himself said. “It doesn’t feel like it is. For whatever reason. I haven’t had those emotions. The way I’m feeling now, if that is my last start here it would be kind of hard to walk away knowing the way I’m feeling right now.”

Cardinals Activate Adam Wainwright, Transfer Michael Wacha To 60-Day DL

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7:28pm: St. Louis GM Mike Girsch says that Wacha will not return this season, as MLB.com’s Jen Langosch tweets. Wacha’s oblique injury was aggravated, removing any chance of his return.

1:54pm: The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve activated right-hander Adam Wainwright from the 60-day disabled list and transferred righty Michael Wacha from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL in order to create space on the roster.

The 37-year-old Wainwright will start tonight’s game against the Pirates, marking his first appearance since May 13. The three-time All-Star and two-time Cy Young runner-up has been bothered by elbow issues for much of the season after initially landing on the DL for inflammation back in May. He’s been limited to four appearances in 2018, totaling just 18 innings of work for the Cards in that time.

Wainwright told reporters back in Spring Training that he had no plans to talk about his future in the game and has, to this point, held to that stance (link via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Rick Hummel). But given that the 2018 season is the final year on Wainwright’s contract, there’ll be plenty of speculation as to whether the next few weeks with the Cards represent his big league swan song. Any such determination surely won’t come until after the season, though, and it stands to reason that the manner in which he performs and his ability to recover after this month’s starts will prove instructive in making that call. Wainwright is earning $19.5MM this season in the final year of a five-year, $95MM extension he signed prior to the 2014 campaign.

As for Wacha, he hasn’t taken the mound since mid-June due to what seems to be a severe oblique injury. It should be noted that today’s news doesn’t technically mean his season is over. Wacha had already been on the disabled list for 60 days, so he’d already have filled that minimum requirement should the Cards deem him ready to pitch between now and season’s end. There’s been no indication that’s likely, however; to the contrary, Wacha was actually scratched from a rehab start last week due to renewed discomfort in his ailing oblique muscle. The 27-year-old enjoyed a fair bit of success when healthy this season, pitching to a 3.20 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9 in 84 1/3 innings over the life of 15 starts.

Injury Notes: Wainwright, Buehler, Stripling, Urias, Rivera

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After pitching in his sixth minor league rehab outing on Saturday, Adam Wainwright could be back in the Cardinals rotation sometime this week, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes.  The former ace has been limited to just four starts and 18 innings in 2018 due to three separate DL stints, the latter two for right elbow inflammation.  During this rehab stint, however, Wainwright has seemingly gotten on track, tossing 17 shutout innings over his six appearances.  While the longtime Cardinal can add some experience to a young St. Louis rotation, it has been some time since Wainwright has exhibited his old front-of-the-rotation form, as injuries and ineffectiveness have plagued the veteran over the last four seasons.

Here are some more injury updates from around the big leagues…

  • Walker Buehler will receive a precautionary x-ray on his left foot following today’s start, the Dodgers told reporters (including J.P. Hoonstra of the Southern California News Group).  It isn’t clear how or when Buehler suffered the apparent injury, though he did see some extra action on the basepaths after hitting two singles today.  The rookie right-hander has been outstanding in his first extended stint in the majors, posting a 2.92 ERA, 9.89 K/9, 2.41 BB/9, and a 48.5% grounder rate over 104 2/3 innings, including today’s quality start against the Diamondbacks.  It isn’t known how serious this injury could be, though losing Buehler would obviously be a blow to the Dodgers as they push for another NL West title.
  • The Dodgers should be getting another arm soon in Ross Stripling, who told the L.A. Times’ Bill Shaikin (Twitter link) and other media that he is targeting next weekend for his return from the disabled list.  Stripling has been sidelined since mid-August due to a sore back, and has been preparing for multiple roles, as he said the Dodgers want him to be capable of either starting or working as a multi-inning reliever.  Despite an outstanding first half as a starter that earned him an All-Star berth, Stripling had been moved to the bullpen just prior to his injury, as the Dodgers had a glut of rotation options and a need for help in their struggling relief corps.
  • The news isn’t as good for Julio Urias, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick and other reporters that “I don’t know when [Urias is] going to pitch again” this season.  Urias underwent anterior capsule surgery in June 2017 and hasn’t been back to the majors since, though Roberts and the team had hoped that he could potentially make a September return as a reliever.  In Urias’ most recent minor league rehab outing, however, he was removed after reaching his pitch count after just three batters faced.  “We said from the beginning that when he’s right physically and performance-wise, then he’ll come [back to the majors].  If either of those things doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t make sense for us or him,” Roberts said.
  • The Mets have shut down infielder T.J. Rivera for the season, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports.  Rivera underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2017, and only played in six minor league rehab games in July before suffering a setback in the form of a right elbow sprain.  Over 106 games and 344 PA for the Mets in 2016-17, Rivera hit .304/.335/.445 with eight homers while seeing significant time as a fill-in at first, second, and third base.  As DiComo notes, however, Rivera could face a tough path back to the big league roster in the spring, as other utility infield options have passed him on the depth chart.

Quick Hits: Werth, Mets, Wainwright, Soroka, Dodgers

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In a recent interview with 94 WIP sports radio in Philadelphia, just-retired outfielder Jayson Werth was critical of agent Scott Boras, saying (via Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post): “I had offers in November, and I was advised by my former agent to wait. Ill-advised, I guess.” The 39-year-old Werth, who largely struggled with the Nationals from 2015-17 and ended up signing a minor league contract with the Mariners in late March, added that he personally “called every team [but one] and tried to get a job.” That one team? The Mets, whom Werth “wouldn’t play for” after spending his career with the division-rival Phillies and Nats. Boras issued a response to Werth’s comments Wednesday, saying (via Janes, on Twitter): “Unfortunately, it appears someone has misled Jayson. We contacted all 30 teams numerous times during the offseason on his behalf, and we have phone logs, emails, and other records to back it up. We received no offers for Jayson in November, or otherwise. We are always prepared to support our work against inaccuracies spread by third parties. We understand the frustration and disappointment players can face and wish Jayson all the best.”

More from around the game…

  • Even though former Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright will turn 37 years old on Aug. 30 and is in his second straight injury-plagued season, he suggested Wednesday (via Joe Trezza of MLB.com) that he hopes to pitch in 2019. “I want to see how things end,” Wainwright said. “But it would be really surprising to me if I came out and said I’m retiring.” A free agent at season’s end, Wainwright has made three DL trips this year (two on account of elbow issues) and hasn’t pitched in the majors since May 13.
  • It “remains highly doubtful” Braves righty Mike Soroka will pitch again this season, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. Soroka has been out since June 19 with inflammation in his pitching shoulder, and he still hasn’t been cleared to begin throwing again, according to Bowman. The highly touted 21-year-old began his major league career in promising fashion earlier this season, with a 3.51 ERA and 7.4 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings, but it appears the Braves will have to make do without him for the remainder of 2018. They currently lead the Diamondbacks by half a game for the NL’s second wild-card spot.
  • The Dodgers have placed reliever Daniel Hudson on the 10-day DL and recalled ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte from Triple-A, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Hudson’s dealing with right forearm tightness – a potentially ominous injury for the 31-year-old, especially considering he’s already a two-time Tommy John surgery recipient. To this point, the Dodgers have gotten a good return on their investment in Hudson, whom they signed to a minor league deal in the first week of April. Hudson has tossed 43 2/3 innings this year and posted a 3.92 ERA with 8.2 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9.

NL Injury Notes: D-backs, Cards, Cervelli, Mets, Cespedes

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Diamondbacks right-hander Shelby Miller went on the disabled list Friday with elbow inflammation, though the club’s hopeful he dodged a major injury. The D-backs don’t believe Miller re-injured his ulnar collateral ligament, manager Torey Lovullo told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic and other reporters. Miller previously missed most of 2017 and some of this year after tearing his UCL and requiring Tommy John surgery. Arizona won’t know more on Miller’s status until next week when renowned orthopedist Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed Miller’s surgery, looks at the results of his MRI. If Miller’s able to return to the mound this season, he’ll try to shake off a dreadful four-start, 15-inning stretch in which he yielded 19 earned runs on 24 hits.

With Miller out for now, Arizona is set to reinstall righty Clay Buchholz into its rotation after the All-Star break, per Piecoro. Buchholz has been out since June 25, the day the Diamondbacks activated Miller, on account of a strained left oblique. The minor league signing looked like an excellent buy-low pickup before he went on the shelf, having pitched to a 2.56 ERA in his first 38 2/3 innings and seven starts as a D-back.

  • Righty Michael Wacha likely won’t return to the Cardinals for at least another month, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests. Wacha has already missed nearly a month with a left oblique strain, depriving the Cardinals of someone who had thrown 84 1/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball before going on the DL. Meanwhile, righty Adam Wainwright will also be out into August, Hummel adds. Wainwright, who’s currently on the 60-day DL, has sat out just over two months with elbow problems, making this the second straight injury-shortened year for the former ace.
  • Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli is headed to the seven-day concussion DL for the second time in less than a month, the team announced. Pittsburgh recalled backstop Jacob Stallings to take the place of Cervelli, who’s dealing with post-concussive symptoms. This continues a long history of head injuries for Cervelli and marks the fourth time since June 2017 that he has gone on the concussion DL. Although good health has been all too rare for Cervelli, the 32-year-old has been one of the majors’ best catchers in 2018 when he has taken the field.
  • Rehabbing Mets infielder T.J. Rivera suffered a setback in the minors on Friday, Betsy Helfand of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Rivera, who’s working back from September 2017 Tommy John surgery, exited Triple-A Las Vegas’ game early on account of “discomfort” in his right arm, Helfand writes. “His arm was not feeling the way it should have so we’re going to reevaluate him tomorrow, see what the plan is,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. Rivera hasn’t appeared in a major league game in nearly a year (July 26, 2017).
  • In better news for the Mets, manager Mickey Callaway told reporters (including Tim Britton of The Athletic) on Saturday that left fielder Yoenis Cespedes could make his long-awaited return as early as next weekend. Cespedes, who has been out with a hip strain since mid-May, “could ramp up his rehab in the coming days,” Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets.

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