Diamondbacks Rumors

NL West Notes: Upton, D’backs, Freeland, Dodgers

By Mark Polishuk | April 16, 2022 at 9:29am CDT

The Diamondbacks have “considered” a reunion with Justin Upton, The New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes, though it isn’t yet clear what the 34-year-old outfielder is himself planning for his next step. Upton has given some thought to retiring altogether after the Angels released the veteran last week.

If Upton does continue his career, a return to the D’Backs would represent a nice full-circle moment. Arizona selected Upton with the first overall pick of the 2005 draft, and Upton spent his first six Major League seasons with the Diamondbacks. That tenure included two All-Star appearances for Upton and arguably the finest year of his entire career, as he hit .289/.369/.529 with 31 home runs in 2011 and finished fourth in NL MVP voting.

Upton has been roughly a replacement-level player over his last three seasons with the Angels, but since signing him would cost the Diamondbacks only a prorated minimum salary, it might be a worthwhile flier for a team that has gotten off to a brutal start at the plate. The right-handed hitting Upton represents some lineup balance since many of Arizona’s top outfield choices (David Peralta, Daulton Varsho, Pavin Smith, Jake McCarthy) are all left-handed, plus DH Seth Beer is also a lefty bat.

Diamondbacks Place Luke Weaver On 10-Day IL

By Mark Polishuk | April 10, 2022 at 12:44pm CDT

The Diamondbacks announced that right-hander Luke Weaver has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation. The placement is retroactive to April 8. Left-hander Kyle Nelson has been called up from Triple-A to take Weaver’s spot on the active roster. In other moves, the D’Backs outrighted southpaw Caleb Baragar and righty Humberto Mejia to Triple-A, as both of the recently-designated pitchers cleared waivers.

Weaver tossed two-thirds of an inning of relief work in Thursday’s 4-2 Arizona win over the Padres, allowing a run on three hits. An elbow issue could be the reason behind that shaky outing, though Weaver was also dealing with a blister problem during the end of Spring Training. Weaver worked exclusively as a starter in 2019-21, but the D’Backs are using him as a reliever in the early going of the season, so this IL stint could delay any eventual return to the rotation.

Nelson will now step into Arizona’s bullpen, and the southpaw’s first appearance will mark his Diamondbacks debut. Nelson has pitched in each of the last two seasons, with only a 12.19 ERA to show for 10 1/3 innings in The Show. The D’Backs claimed Nelson off waivers from the Guardians in November, after Nelson had spent all five of his professional seasons in Cleveland’s organization.

Rangers Trade Yonny Hernandez To Diamondbacks

By Steve Adams | April 7, 2022 at 11:55am CDT

The Rangers have set their Opening Day roster, announcing a series of transactions that includes the trade of infielder Yonny Hernandez to the Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league outfielder Jeferson Espinal. Arizona has designated right-hander Humberto Mejia for assignment in a corresponding roster move.

Texas also designated infielder Sherten Apostel for assignment and selected the contracts of veterans Matt Bush, Charlie Culberson and Greg Holland. Right-hander Garrett Richards, meanwhile, has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a blister issue, while righty Jose Leclerc has been placed on the 60-day IL as he continues recovering from last March’s Tommy John surgery.

Hernandez, 24 next month, made his big league debut with Texas last year and batted .217/.315/.252 in 166 trips to the plate. His work in Triple-A, where he slashed .250/.424/.323 in 261 plate appearances, was far better. Hernandez walked at a gaudy 20.3% clip in Triple-A last season and has a penchant for drawing free passes and making contact, albeit rarely with any real power. He’s walked in more than 15% of his professional plate appearances and also possesses plenty of speed, evidenced by 23 steals in the minors and another 11 in the big leagues last season.

Hernandez has experience all over the infield and has all three minor league option years remaining, so he’ll give the D-backs some flexibility and versatility not only in 2022 but for the foreseeable future. He can be controlled for at least the next six seasons, and possibly more, depending on how much big league time he accrues while he has those options remaining.

Espinal, 19, batted a combined .259/.340/.357 between Rookie ball and Low-A last season, with the vast majority of his production coming at the lower of those two levels. Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski wrote at FanGraphs back in January that Espinal has 70 speed on the 20-80 scale but a long swing and serious questions about his overall hitting profile. Espinal did swipe 16 bases in 19 tries last season, but he’ll have a ways to go before the Rangers can even hope to have him as a viable option in the outfield.

Apostel, 23, went 2-for-20 in his big league debut back in 2020 and didn’t appear in the Majors last season. He’s primarily a third baseman but has experience at first base as well. Apostel posted a lackluster .235/.321/.416 across three levels last season, topping out with a sub-par showing in Triple-A Round Rock. The Rangers will have a week to trade Apostel, place him on outright waivers or release him.

As for the D-backs, they’re in the same boat with regard to the 25-year-old Mejia. He’s tallied 32 1/3 big league innings but struggled to a 6.68 ERA in that time, and last year’s work in the minors was not decidedly more encouraging. In 103 2/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A, Mejia pitched to a combined 5.12 ERA with a 22.1% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. Another club in need of some pitching depth might take a look in a small trade or via waivers, but Mejia has not yet found too much success above A-ball.

Diamondbacks To Select Oliver Perez, Designate Caleb Baragar

By Steve Adams | April 6, 2022 at 1:24pm CDT

The D-backs have selected the contract of veteran left-handed reliever Oliver Perez and, in a corresponding roster move, designated fellow southpaw Caleb Baragar for assignment, according to the team’s transactions page.

Perez, 40, joined the D-backs on a minor league deal on March 21 and has logged 3 1/3 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed thus far during Cactus League play. This will mark his second stint with the D-backs, for whom he also pitched in 2014-15.

Perez has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, pitching to a combined 2.57 ERA with a 28.5% strikeout rate against a 6.8% walk rate over the life of 94 2/3 innings. Only 3 2/3 of those innings came in 2021, however. Perez was cut loose early in the year, and he spent the rest of the season pitching with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League. He’d been slated to return to los Toros in 2022, signing there during the lockout and announcing his intention to retire after the season. However, once it became clear that the season could get underway only about a week later than originally scheduled, Perez reversed course and signed on with a Major League organization.

It still seems as though this could be the final year of a lengthy and largely successful Major League career for Perez, who had a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher early in his career but reinvented himself as a reliever in his 30s. Since moving to the ’pen on a full-time basis in 2012, Perez carries a 3.45 ERA in 350 innings spread across five different organizations.

Turning to the 27-year-old Baragar, this marks his second DFA of the spring. A ninth-round pick of the Giants back in 2016, he’s seen Major League time with San Francisco in each of the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 2.78 ERA with an 18.8% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate and a 21.7% ground-ball rate.

Despite that strong bottom-line run prevention, Baragar has now been designated for assignment both by the Giants and by the D-backs, who claimed him off waivers last month. Fielding-independent marks don’t paint as rosy a picture as Baragar’s more rudimentary ERA, due largely to his pedestrian K-BB% and an extremely low home-run rate — the latter of which doesn’t mesh particularly well with his sky-high 58.1% fly-ball rate.

Over the past two seasons, nearly 14% of the fly-balls put in play by Major League hitters have gone for home runs, whereas Baragar has seen just 5.3% of his flies clear the fence. Playing his home games at the spacious Oracle Park and inducing pop-ups at an above-average rate have both surely helped him, but it nevertheless seems inevitable that he’s in for some regression with regard to that minuscule homer-to-flyball ratio.

Baragar, who’ll turn 28 this weekend, has multiple minor league options remaining, so he could be looked at by another club as a possible depth option in the bullpen. He’s been tagged for an 8.01 ERA and surrendered nine home runs through 30 1/3 innings in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting, but he carries a 4.06 ERA and respectable strikeout and walk percentages in 421 minor league innings on the whole. The D-backs will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through waivers.

D-backs Set Rotation; Luke Weaver To Pitch Out Of Bullpen

By Steve Adams | April 5, 2022 at 6:00pm CDT

The Diamondbacks are moving right-handed starter Luke Weaver to a bullpen role to begin the season and will open the year with lefty Caleb Smith in the rotation in his place, manager Torey Lovullo announced to reporters Tuesday (Twitter links via Steve Gilbert of MLB.com and Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Arizona’s rotation to begin the season will be Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly, Zach Davies, Smith and Zac Gallen.

Weaver, 28, has been used exclusively out of the rotation since coming over from the Cardinals alongside Carson Kelly, Andy Young and a Competitive Balance Draft selection in the trade that sent Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis. As was the case in his short time with the Cardinals, who originally drafted him with the 27th overall pick back in 2014, Weaver has at times looked like a quality big league rotation piece but has struggled to stay healthy.

The only season in which Weaver has managed a full workload for the Diamondbacks was the shortened 2020 campaign, when he was rocked for an uncharacteristic 6.58 ERA in 52 innings over the life of 12 starts. Weaver posted a 2.94 ERA with brilliant strikeout and walk rates through a dozen starts in 2019, his first year with the Snakes, but also spent the bulk of the season on the injured list due to a forearm strain. In 2021, he turned in a solid 4.25 ERA with slightly worse (but still solid) strikeout and walk rates. A shoulder strain, however, kept him out from mid-May until September 1.

It’s of course possible that it’ll prove to be a short-term move to the bullpen for Weaver, but it’ll also be interesting to see whether a move to shorter stints will help him to remain healthy. Weaver’s fastball sat at an average of 93.7 mph last year while working as a starter, and it’s common for pitchers to see their velocity tick upward when moving to a relief role. Weaver also has fairly extreme splits when facing lineups for the second and third time in a game. When facing the lineup the first time through, he’s held opponents to a rather tepid .241/.297/.393 output.

As for the 30-year-old Smith, he’s no stranger to a rotation role. He pitched exclusively as a starter with the Marlins in 2018-19 and made 13 starts for Arizona last year, though the D-backs deployed him more heavily out of the bullpen in 2021. Smith has had more success pitching in relief in his career, with superior marks in ERA (3.45 to 4.90), walk rate (9.8% to 11.3%) and home run rate (1.15 per nine to 1.79 per nine) relative to his work as a starter. That said, Smith did pitch to a 4.41 ERA with a 26.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 230 2/3 innings as a member of the Marlins’ rotation in 2018-19.

Both Smith and Weaver have four-plus years of Major League service time and are thus controlled through the 2023 season. Given their relatively short amount of remaining club control, there could be trade speculation surrounding both this summer as the trade deadline approaches. However, Arizona recently extended two of its most popular trade candidates — Ketel Marte, Merrill Kelly — continuing to make an effort to put a competitive roster on the field as they await a wave of high-end prospects who are on the cusp of MLB readiness.

Diamondbacks’ Josh Rojas Suffers Grade 2 Oblique Strain

By Mark Polishuk | April 3, 2022 at 4:36pm CDT

The Diamondbacks will be without utilityman Josh Rojas for “weeks, not days,” manager Torey Lovullo told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters, as Rojas has suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain. It’s a rough setback for both Rojas and the team, as Rojas was projected to serve as the Diamondbacks’ starting third baseman.

One of four prospects acquired from the Astros in the 2019 Zack Greinke trade, Rojas was perhaps the least-heralded member of that quartet at the time of the deal, but has thus far had the biggest impact for the D’Backs at the big league level. The 27-year-old hit .264/.341/.411 with 11 home runs over 550 PA with Arizona last season, good for a 102 wRC+ and a 106 OPS+. Between this slightly above-average offense and Rojas’ ability to play all over the diamond, he was one of the few bright spots of an otherwise dismal season for the Snakes.

Rojas spent much of his time last season in right field and at both middle infield spots, also making 12 starts as a left fielder and seven starts at third base. Though it is probably safe to assume that Rojas will still get plenty of utility time in 2022, he had been slated for regular third base duty, as Arizona is lacking in depth at the hot corner.

Unfortunately, the D’Backs already now find themselves without their intended left side of the infield, between Rojas’ injury and Nick Ahmed’s ongoing shoulder problems. Ahmed is expected to start the season on the injured list, and while it seems like Rojas will have the longer absence of the two, the lingering nature of Ahmed’s sore shoulder has to be a concern.

Piecoro noted that Drew Ellis seems to be back in the Diamondbacks’ big league camp after previously being optioned to Triple-A, so Ellis looks to be in the mix for third base duty while Rojas is out. Ellis joins Sergio Alcantara and non-roster invites Wilmer Difo and Matt Davidson as candidates to fill in for Rojas. Josh VanMeter saw a good chunk of third base time for the D’Backs last season, but VanMeter was just traded to the Pirates on Thursday.

D-Backs Sign Ryan Meisinger To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | April 1, 2022 at 4:57pm CDT

The Diamondbacks have signed reliever Ryan Meisinger to a minor league contract, according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. The 27-year-old will add to Arizona’s organizational bullpen depth.

Meisinger has pitched in the big leagues in three of the past four seasons. He worked 21 innings over 18 appearances with the Orioles as a rookie in 2018, posting a 6.43 ERA. Meisinger pitched briefly with the Cardinals in 2020 and saw action in seven games with the Cubs last year. The Dodgers claimed the Radford University product off waivers in August, then outrighted him off their 40-man roster about a week later. Meisinger never pitched with L.A. and elected minor league free agency at the end of the season.

Over his time in the majors, Meisinger has worked 31 frames with a 7.26 ERA. His 21.7% strikeout rate, 13.8% walk percentage and 37.6% ground-ball rate are all a bit worse than the respective big league averages. Meisinger has an impressive minor league track record, though, owning a sub-3.50 ERA at every level below MLB. He has a 2.97 mark in 103 career Triple-A innings, including a 3.35 ERA in 40 1/3 innings between the Cubs and Dodgers top affiliates last year. Meisinger punched out a very strong 34.6% of batters faced at the minors’ top level last season.

Arizona had one of the weaker bullpens in the majors in 2021. The D-Backs ranked 28th in bullpen ERA at 5.08, prompting the front office to add Mark Melancon and Ian Kennedy to the late innings. There still figure to be opportunities in the middle innings for some younger or less heralded arms to earn a spot. Meisinger figures to open the year with Triple-A Reno but could get a big league look if he performs well with the Aces.

Diamondbacks Extend Merrill Kelly

By Steve Adams | April 1, 2022 at 10:45am CDT

The Diamondbacks announced Friday that they’ve signed right-hander Merrill Kelly to a two-year contract extension, covering the 2023-24 seasons. There’s a club option for the 2025 season as well. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that Kelly will be guaranteed $18MM in new money on the contract. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic adds that the right-hander will receive a $1MM signing bonus and earn $8MM in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The 2025 club option is valued at $7MM and comes with a $1MM buyout. Kelly is represented by Apex Baseball.

The new contract for Kelly ought to put any trade speculation to rest for the foreseeable future. Kelly was an oft-mentioned trade candidate prior to the 2021 deadline given his solid production for a noncontending D-backs club and a contract that, prior to today’s announcement, only ran through the 2022 season. Instead, he’ll join recently extended Ketel Marte as a consistent presence for a D-backs team that clearly has no plans to tear down or take a step back despite last year’s poor showing and a stacked division.

Kelly, 33, had been slated to earn $5.25MM this season before reaching free agency for the first time next winter. That $5.25MM salary was locked in after Arizona picked up a club option on Kelly, who originally joined the D-backs on a two-year, $5.5MM deal with a pair of options after a strong run pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Prior to signing in Arizona, Kelly had never thrown a pitch in the Majors. An eighth-round pick of the Rays back in 2010, Kelly never got a look in the Majors with Tampa Bay before being lured to the KBO after a strong run in the upper minors. He spent the 2015-18 seasons pitching for the KBO’s SK Wyverns — now the SSG Landers — where he logged a 3.86 ERA with a 20.6% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate.

That showing was enough to entice the D-backs to bring him back stateside on a guaranteed multi-year deal, and Kelly has rewarded the D-backs with three years of solid performance to date. In 427 2/3 innings, he’s posted a 4.27 ERA with a 20.2% strikeout rate, a 6.6% walk rate and a 43.1% grounder rate. Kelly made 32 starts in his first big league season and another 27 last year. His 2020 campaign was cut short by thoracic outlet surgery, but he was the rare pitcher who immediately bounced back from TOS to produce quality results the following season.

Given the solid nature of Kelly’s work since that big league debut, it’s a rather risk-averse decision to take a reasonably priced extension with free agency just a few months away. That said, given his recent injury and the fact that he didn’t cash in on his first Major League deal until his age-30 season, it’s plenty understandable that he’d opt for the security of a new deal right now. The $18MM in new guarantees will more than double his career earnings, after all. And, in putting pen to paper on this deal, he’ll further establish himself as an aspirational benchmark for little-known players who sign overseas in hopes of eventually cashing in upon a return to North American ball.

With Kelly now locked into a steady back-of-the-rotation spot, he’ll be counted on alongside Madison Bumgarner, Zac Gallen and Luke Weaver to round out the starting staff both this year and into future seasons. Veteran right-hander Zach Davies, signed to a one-year deal in March, non-roster righty Dan Straily (another KBO returnee), lefty Tyler Gilbert and prospect Corbin Martin are among the other options for the Diamondbacks as they look to rebound from last year’s woeful 52-110 showing.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pirates Acquire Josh VanMeter From Diamondbacks

By Anthony Franco | March 31, 2022 at 8:11pm CDT

The Pirates and Diamondbacks announced a deal sending utilityman Josh VanMeter to Pittsburgh for minor league pitcher Listher Sosa. To clear space on the 40-man roster, Pittsburgh designated outfielder Jared Oliva for assignment.

Arizona had designated VanMeter for assignment over the weekend. The 27-year-old is out of minor league option years, meaning the D-Backs had to keep him on the active roster all season or bump him from the 40-man. The Arizona front office evidently determined they weren’t prepared to carry him in the majors.

The Bucs will have to keep VanMeter in the bigs themselves. That they parted with a minor leaguer, rather than waiting to try to grab him off waivers, indicates he’s at least likely to break camp with the MLB team. Pittsburgh would’ve been third in waiver priority based on their finish near the bottom of last year’s standings. (The Pirates had the league’s fourth-worst record, but the D-Backs were one of the teams below them). Rather than risk another team trading for VanMeter or the Orioles/Rangers grabbing him on waivers, the Bucs decided to relinquish a young pitcher to add him.

VanMeter adds a left-handed, multi-positional bat to the mix for skipper Derek Shelton. He has appeared in each of the past three seasons with the Reds and D-Backs, tallying 649 plate appearances. The former fifth-round pick has a career .212/.300/.364 slash line, offense that checks in 25 percentage points below average by measure of wRC+. It was a similar story last season, when VanMeter hit .212/.297/.354 in a personal-high 310 trips to the dish with Arizona.

Those results aren’t great, but VanMeter has shown some promising traits that caught the attention of the Bucs front office. He’s walked in an above-average 10.6% of his plate appearances. Last season, he only chased 21.1% of pitches outside the strike zone, the tenth-lowest mark among the 262 hitters with 300+ trips. That’s partially attributable to an overall patience at the plate — he also has one of the lower swing rates on pitches in the zone — but that selectivity has allowed VanMeter to work plenty of deep counts. He also has slightly above-average career marks in hard contact rate and average exit velocity, pairing his measured approach with some raw power.

VanMeter isn’t regarded as a great defender anywhere, but he’s got plenty of experience at each of first, second and third base and in left field. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Yoshi Tsutsugo are going to play most days in the respective corner infield spots, but the Bucs don’t have obvious answers at the keystone or in left. VanMeter will presumably start off as a bench bat, but there should be a chance to earn more at-bats on a rebuilding Pittsburgh team if his performance warrants.

Oliva had been one of the candidates to see some time in left field, but his future in the organization is now in question. Ranked among the back half of the Bucs top 30 prospects by Baseball America in each of the past three seasons, the University of Arizona product looked like he may develop into a fourth or fifth outfield type. He posted strong offensive numbers with gaudy stolen base totals up through Double-A in 2019, but he’s coming a tough campaign.

The right-handed hitter appeared in 64 games and tallied 249 plate appearances with Triple-A Indianapolis last season. He posted a .249/.321/.364 line in a fairly hitter-friendly setting, and he didn’t produce in a 20-game big league look in July. The Bucs will now have a week to trade Oliva or place him on outright waivers. Given that he’s only 26 years old and still has a couple option years remaining, it’s not out of the question another club takes a flier.

Sosa, meanwhile, is a 20-year-old righty who spent last season in the Florida Complex League. The Bucs signed him for $150K out of the Dominican Republic during the 2018-19 international signing period. The 6’4″ hurler posted a 4.31 ERA in 31 1/3 innings last season, striking out 25% of opponents against a tiny 3.8% walk rate.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

D-Backs Notes: Marte, Ahmed, Luplow

By Steve Adams | March 30, 2022 at 5:23pm CDT

Ketel Marte will remain in Arizona for quite some time after agreeing to this week’s contract extension. The deal, which exercised his preexisting 2023 and 2024 options, tacked on three more years and gave the Diamondbacks a 2028 club option as well. Zach Buchanan of The Athletic notes that, in total, the new contract gives the D-backs the opportunity to control Marte for another four years at a total of $63MM (although the deal contains various incentives and escalators that can further bolster that price). Marte tells Buchanan and others that he hopes to spend the remainder of his career with the Diamondbacks, citing, a strong relationship with Torey Lovullo among his reasons for wanting to stay put.

The D-backs could’ve traded Marte for a king’s ransom, but Hazen tells Buchanan and others that the front office also feels it necessary to “make some commitments,” both to current stars and perhaps to future core pieces they hope will be rising up to the Majors sooner than later.

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