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Diamondbacks Reportedly Agree To Sign Ben Taylor

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The Diamondbacks have reportedly agreed to terms on a minor-league deal with right-hander Ben Taylor, according to the Roster Roundup Twitter account (link). Taylor was released recently by the Indians.

Claimed by the Indians last February, Taylor was cut loose after he was knocked around in two innings this spring. The club evidently did not desire to keep him in their system after bumping him from the 40-man roster. Taylor had undergone hip surgery late last season, according to his own Twitter account.

While the results haven’t been there for Taylor in his limited MLB opportunities, he has run up 26 strikeouts against ten walks in 23 1/3 big-league frames. That has come despite an uninspiring 8.4% swinging-strike rate, though Taylor has shown an ability to get Ks in the upper minors. In 70 2/3 total Triple-A frames, he owns a 2.55 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9.

Reds Acquire Rob Refsnyder

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The Reds have acquired utilityman Rob Refsnyder from the Diamondbacks, according to the Reds’ official Twitter account. In return, the Diamondbacks will receive a player to be named later or cash. Refsnyder will report to Triple-A.

After signing with the Diamondbacks during the offseason, Refsnyder’s stint with the team is over already. The 28-year-old will join a Reds team that has sorely lacked outfield production during the young 2019 season, representing a depth option behind Matt Kemp, Scott Schebler, and Jesse Winker. Should any of that trio’s early season struggles grow into a significant concern, Refsnyder will be in the minor leagues, capable of filling in at a corner outfield spot. Refsnyder can also play first base and, in theory, second base (though he hasn’t appeared at the keystone in the Major Leagues since 2017), but the path to infield playing time in Cincinnati is crowded.

Refsnyder, who broke into the big leagues in 2015 with the Yankees, has appeared in parts of four seasons with three different teams and owns a career batting line of .218/.308/.302 in 423 MLB plate appearances. Last season, he worked to a .760 OPS in Triple-A, though the .588 mark he posted in 40 games with the Rays was less impressive. Refsnyder, out of options and not on the 40-man roster, largely represents organizational depth at this juncture.

Diamondbacks Place Alex Avila On Injured List

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The Diamondbacks will place catcher Alex Avila on the 10-day IL with a strained left quad, according to Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. In a corresponding move, the team will recall utilityman Tim Locastro from Triple-A to take Avila’s place on the 25-man roster.

Avila, 32, has made four starts for the Diamondbacks in 2019 and has performed well, slashing .333/.524/.800 in his 21 plate appearances. The veteran backstop has also hit two home runs on the young season and has posted an impressive 6:5 BB:K ratio. Though the results were not as encouraging in 2018, Avila’s first season in Arizona, the team will surely miss his presence behind the plate. However, Avila’s absence will open up opportunities for the team to give more ABs to young catcher Carson Kelly, who was acquired in the Paul Goldschmidt trade. Kelly, blocked by Yadier Molina for his entire career, has amassed just 145 career plate appearances in parts of four big league season, first with the Cardinals and now in Arizona.

Since the D-Backs opened the season carrying three catchers on the 25-man roster, the team didn’t need to replace Avila with another catcher. John Ryan Murphy will assume the backup duties behind Kelly, and Locastro will join the Major League roster as a reserve who can play all three outfield spots and second base. The 26-year-old spent several seasons with the Dodgers before being traded twice this offseason, first to the Yankees, and later to the Diamondbacks, who surrendered Ronald Roman and cash considerations to acquire Locastro. With Jarrod Dyson the team’s fourth outfielder and Ildemaro Vargas slotted in as the backup infielder following Jake Lamb’s injury, it’s unclear how much playing time Locastro will see, though he will afford the D-Backs some flexibility to rest outfielders.

Jake Lamb Placed On IL With Quad Strain

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The Diamondbacks have put corner infielder Jake Lamb on the 10-day injured list. He’s dealing with a grade 2 quad strain, manager Torey Lovullo tells reporters including Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Lamb is expected to miss around six weeks of action, by Lovullo’s reckoning, though that seems only to be an initial guess. It seems the team will be pleased if he’s back on the MLB diamond by the end of May. For the time being, at least, the D-Backs will recall utilityman Ildemaro Vargas to fill the open roster spot.

The Snakes tendered Lamb a contract and promised him $4.825MM despite a miserable 2018 season. He had been a solidly above-average hitter in the prior two seasons, though, so the hope was that the 28-year-old would bounce back after an injury riddled campaign. He’ll now need to get past his new injury before taking a crack at finding his form.

Injury/Rehab Notes: Tulo, Lamb, Jeffress, Heaney

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Yankees shortstop Troy Tulowitzki exited Tuesday’s game with a left calf strain and will “almost certainly” head to the injured list, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (Twitter link via the YES Network’s Jack Curry). If and when Tulo does hit the IL, he’ll bring the Yankees’ total to a staggering 11 players on the shelf, including two left-side infielders in as many days. Third baseman Miguel Andujar went on the injured list due to a labrum tear yesterday, and with both him and Tulowitzki out of the picture, the Yankees will be relying on a mix of Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Wade around the infield. Young Thairo Estrada is already on the 40-man roster and could get a call to help provide some depth while Tulowitzki is out. There’s no firm timetable for Tulo just yet.

Some more notable health updates from around baseball…

  • Diamondbacks infielder Jake Lamb pulled up lame while legging out a double in this afternoon’s game, and the early diagnosis is a strained left quadriceps, per The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (Twitter link). Lamb will undergo an MRI tomorrow to further evaluate the severity of the injury. If Lamb is to miss time with the injury, the D-backs can increase Christian Walker’s role at first base and perhaps mix in Alex Avila a bit as well. The 28-year-old Lamb has gotten off to a slow start in 2019 as he looks to rebound from a 2018 campaign that was ruined by shoulder troubles.
  • Brewers righty Jeremy Jeffress is slated to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A San Antonio tomorrow, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. He’s been sidelined with some weakness in his shoulder but hasn’t been diagnosed with any structural damage or significant injury. Jeffress has been building strength since being slowed down in mid-March and will test out his shoulder over a series of appearances with San Antonio. President of baseball operations David Stearns recently suggested that mid or late April could be a reasonable return date for Jeffress, whose importance to the team only increased with the revelation that Corey Knebel will miss the entire 2019 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
  • The Angels announced yesterday that a CT scan revealed “chronic changes to the elbow” in left-hander Andrew Heaney. Ominous as that sounds, Heaney will be cleared to resume a throwing program within the next week to 10 days. He’s also undergoing a cortisone shot to help combat the discomfort in his elbow. The good news for the Angels is that there seemingly wasn’t any evidence of structural damage regarding Heaney’s ulnar collateral ligament. Heaney has yet to appear in a game this season and was limited to just 1 2/3 innings early in Spring Training, so even once he does resume a throwing program, he’ll still be several weeks from surfacing as an option in the Halos’ rotation.

Diamondbacks Promote Jon Duplantier

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The Diamondbacks announced today that they have selected the contract of righty pitching prospect Jon Duplantier. He’ll take the active roster spot of infielder Ildemaro Vargas, who was optioned back to Triple-A.

Generally regarded as the best prospect in the Arizona farm system, Duplantier will initially work out of the bullpen, according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). It seems likely he’ll serve in a long-relief capacity for the time being and will generally remain stretched out.

Duplantier was a third-round pick out of Rice back in 2016. He has marched up the chain since that time, turning in excellent results all along the way. He pitched to a 2.69 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 67 Double-A innings last year, but some arm issues kept him from working a full season. Duplantier then threw another 21 2/3 frames in the Arizona Fall League (3.32 ERA, 32:10 K/BB ratio) to build up his workload.

Prospect hounds generally view Duplantier as a high-ceiling hurler. He has proven capable in the minors of producing grounders as well as swings and misses, with a mid-nineties heater that he combines with a good slider and still-progressing curve and change. There’s some worry about his long-term health outlook, and he has missed some action since joining the professional ranks, but the consensus is that the talent is there for the 24-year-old to be a top-flight pitcher.

NL West Notes: Marquez, Rays, Lamb, Padres

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As Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team race to the finish at Padres games, let’s take a look around the NL West…

  • As the Rockies make a rare visit to Tampa Bay this weekend, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times looks back at the trade that sent German Marquez from the Rays to the Mile High City.  This deal may be known as “the German Marquez trade” in hindsight, though back in January 2016, Marquez was a little-known minor leaguer who had yet to even reach Double-A when he and Jake McGee were sent to Colorado in exchange for Corey Dickerson and infield prospect Kevin Padlo.  In 2017-18, however, Marquez developed into a stalwart member of the Rockies’ rotation, posting a 4.05 ERA, 9.5 K/9, and 3.56 K/BB rate over 358 innings.  Marquez’s “abilities and the ingredients were there to have this type of impact in time…so in that way [I’m] not surprised,” Rays GM Erik Neander said.  Dickerson was traded after the 2017 season and Padlo is still at high-A ball, though Neander said that Dickerson contributed some solid offensive production to help the Rays.  “To make trades at the volume and frequency at which we do you have to be very comfortable knowing you’re not going to get them all right,” Neander said.  “That’s something we understand and expect, and are willing to accept that because we think the total volume of the transactions we make are best for our organization…Without knowing exactly what winning a transaction even means because a lot of them are made with different goals at the time between the teams.”
  • In a bit of a reversal from a statement earlier this weekend, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters that Jake Lamb will still see some action at his old third base position.  Lovullo even considered using Lamb at the hot corner on Saturday to get some work in, as Lamb spent much of Spring Training learning on his new first base role, and also was briefly sidelined with a back problem.  While Lamb hasn’t been much of a defender at third, it can’t hurt to keep him sharp at the position for the sake of roster flexibility.
  • The Padres’ young rotation will be tested by an upcoming stretch of 11 straight games, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes.  There aren’t any offdays scheduled for the Padres between April 6-16, which could prove tricky for a team carrying two hurlers (Chris Paddack, Matt Strahm) on pitch limits, and southpaw Nick Margevicius, who had never pitched above A-ball before making his MLB debut on Saturday.  “All options are on the table, from bullpen days to openers to protecting certain starters by pushing guys back and having guys step in front of them in the rotation.  We’ll be creative,” manager Andy Green said.  Cassavell also isn’t ruling out the possibility of a spot start by another minor leaguer, or perhaps even a newly-acquired pitcher joining the rotation mix.

NL West Notes: Tatis Jr., D-backs, Pollock, Rockies

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Padres veterans Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer received some credit for the team’s decision to include shortstop prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. on its season-opening roster, but it was more of a front office-driven call, Dennis Lin of The Athletic writes (subscription required). While a report suggested Machado and Hosmer lobbied for Tatis’ promotion over dinner with Padres owner Ron Fowler, that meeting never took place, according to Fowler. “There was no dinner,” Fowler told Lin. “There was no request for a dinner.” Rather, Fowler revealed he and general manager A.J. Preller had been discussing elevating the 20-year-old Tatis “for quite some time.” The move may cost the Padres a year of control over the standout prospect, though Preller was nevertheless insistent upon placing him in their season-opening lineup. “We talked about it, and frankly it was his decision,” Fowler said. “There are ramifications in terms of control and all those things, but based upon his input, based upon his feeling that that would be our strongest team, he made the recommendation to do it, and we agreed with it. So, it was totally coming from A.J., coming from baseball ops.” To this point, the Padres have not discussed a contract extension with Tatis, per Lin, who adds that could change if he acquits himself well early in his major league career. Tatis has done exactly that so far, having collected three hits and a walk in his first seven plate appearances.

The latest on a couple of San Diego’s division rivals…

  • At the beginning of the offseason, the Diamondbacks issued center fielder A.J. Pollock a one-year, $17.9MM qualifying offer as he geared up for a trip to free agency. Although Pollock went on to reject the offer and sign with the NL West rival Dodgers for a four-year, $60MM guarantee, he told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic this week that he nearly accepted the D-backs’ QO. “That was a really tough decision on my part,” Pollock said. “It seemed like a great option. I was 100 percent thinking about it.” Pollock added that he and the Diamondbacks didn’t engage in any substantive talks once he turned down the offer, paving the way for him to leave the franchise he had been a part of since it used a first-round pick on him in 2009. So far in his Dodgers tenure, Pollock has torched the Diamondbacks in a pair of head-to-head matchups, having gone 4-for-9 with a home run and two walks.
  • Rockies first baseman Daniel Murphy, the team’s big-ticket offseason acquisition, suffered a left index finger injury Friday that required X-rays, Thomas Harding of MLB.com was among those to report. There’s no word yet on the severity of the issue, though it did keep Murphy out of the Rockies’ lineup for their game against the Marlins on Saturday. Ryan McMahon took the reins at first in his stead. Murphy, 33, climbed aboard the Rockies on a two-year, $24MM contract in free agency after a few strong seasons divided among the Mets, Nationals and Cubs.
  • Back to the Diamondbacks, who don’t expect to return Jake Lamb to third base in the near future, Piecoro relays. The 28-year-old Lamb played third almost exclusively from 2014-18, but the departure of Paul Goldschmidt and the free-agent signing of Eduardo Escobar spurred the club to shift him to first. Regardless of where he lines up, this is a pivotal season for the 28-year-old Lamb, a valuable Diamondback from 2016-17 who fell to earth last season. The lefty-hitting Lamb’s now in his penultimate season of arbitration control.

Padres Claim Socrates Brito

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5:02pm: San Diego has now announced the waiver claim. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, they’ve transferred Jankowski to the 60-day injured list.

12:42pm: The Padres have claimed outfielder Socrates Brito off waivers from the Diamondbacks, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Brito will join an already crowed outfield mix with the San Diego organization.

It’s possible that the Friars see Brito as a fill-in for Travis Jankowski, who’s sidelined for an extended stretch to open the year. Brito is a left-handed hitter who’s capable of playing center and runs the bases well, not unlike Jankowski. But other options abound in the San Diego outfield. The club may even open the year with six outfielders on its active roster, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell tweets, though that would assuredly not last long into the season.

Instead, as Piecoro notes, the San Diego club may have other intentions. The Padres may simply put the out-of-options 26-year-old back on waivers in hopes he’ll clear in the midst of the pre-season roster turmoil, or they could flip him on to another organization with a lower waiver priority. Any number of other roster machinations could conceivably be related, though claiming Brito hardly shows the club’s hand.

Steven Souza Jr. To Undergo Season-Ending Knee Surgery

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The Diamondbacks announced Tuesday that right fielder Steven Souza Jr. will undergo major surgery to repair his his left knee. The operation will address not only a torn ACL but also a torn LCL, a partially torn PCL and a posterolateral capsule tear. Souza suffered the injury while crossing home plate in last night’s Cactus League game. He was helped off the field after crumpling to the ground and underwent an MRI to evaluate the damage this morning.

The gruesome injury will bring about a second frustrating year for Souza, whom the D-backs had hoped could give them a controllable power bat in right field at the time of his acquisition from the Rays. A series of pectoral strains limited Souza to just 72 games in 2018, though, and he now won’t suit up until 2020 at the earliest. A specific timetable on injury of this magnitude won’t be known until surgeons have repaired the extensive damage.

Souza, 29, looked to be healthy after last seasons injury troubles this spring as he turned in a 10-for-47 effort with a pair of homers, a double and seven walks. He’d been lined up to serve as Arizona’s everyday right fielder but will now cede those duties to some combination of Adam Jones and Jarrod Dyson. Jones, who signed a one-year deal worth $3MM with the Diamondbacks earlier this month, had been set to play all three outfield positions but may now slot in as the primary right fielder with Dyson backing up Ketel Marte. The loss of Souza significantly increases the odds that utilityman Ildemaro Vargas will break camp with the Diamondbacks.

Arizona and Souza agreed to a $4.125MM salary to avoid arbitration earlier this offseason, and he’ll remain under team control through the end of the 2020 season. It’s fairly common for players who miss the entire season due to injury to receive the same salary in arbitration rather than any kind of raise, so if the team is confident in Souza’s ability to return to health in 2020, he could be in line for a similar (if not slightly reduced) rate of pay.

The loss of Souza is compounded by the fact that Arizona had placed fellow outfielder Socrates Brito on waivers prior to last night’s game, meaning one of the team’s primary depth pieces to replace him could now be lost to another organization. If Brito ultimately clears waivers, the Diamondbacks could immediately select him back to the 40-man roster, as placing Souza on the 60-day injured list would open a spot on the 40-man roster. If Brito is claimed by another club, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Diamondbacks look into outfield alternatives. The team does have some non-roster options to which it could turn in the form of Yasmany Tomas, Abraham Almonte and Matt Szczur, but none of that trio was able to secure a roster spot in Spring Training.

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