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NL Injury Notes: Giants, Floro, Ahmed, Simmons

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The Giants provided updates on some veteran names who have yet to appear in Spring Training games, though Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria are both expected to be ready for Opening Day, manager Gabe Kapler told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado and other reporters.  Longoria has been dealing with right index finger tendinitis, while Belt has inflammation in his right knee.  The latter issue might be the bigger problem on paper, given Belt’s history of knee injuries, but Kapler said “We don’t really have concerns.  It’s just going to be a later start for Brandon.”

Tommy La Stella has also yet to take the field this spring, but is running the bases and taking part in other baseball activities.  After undergoing Achilles surgery in October, La Stella is now “getting very close to being ready,” Kapler said, and “Tommy has shared strongly that he wants the opportunity to be ahead of schedule and be ready for Opening Day.”  The final call will be up to La Stella and the team’s training staff, but even if La Stella isn’t quite ready to go when San Francisco begins play, Kapler intimated that the infielder wouldn’t miss too much time.

Some other injury notes from around the National League…

  • Dylan Floro has yet to pitch during Spring Training, as the right-hander is dealing with some arm soreness.  Marlins manager Don Mattingly was non-committal about Floro’s readiness for the Opening Day roster, telling MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters that “We’ll just have to see how that goes,” though Mattingly did note that Floro worked through some similar issues last year with no ill effects during the season.  One of baseball’s more underrated relievers of the last four seasons, Floro posted a 2.81 ERA over 64 innings in 2021, his first year in Miami.  This performance had put Floro in line for perhaps the majority of ninth-inning work for the Marlins this season, though Mattingly said “I think we’re going to be more of a mix-and-match club” for save situations.  Some new faces could also be joining the bullpen, as GM Kim Ng has stated the Marlins are exploring the relief market.
  • Nick Ahmed’s bothersome right shoulder is “good enough” for the Diamondbacks shortstop “to be out there right now,” but Ahmed told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro that his shoulder still isn’t 100 percent after almost two years of intermittent soreness.  Even after receiving two injections in his shoulder this past offseason, Ahmed said the treatment “didn’t go great, how I wanted them to go.  I just ended up rehabbing it most of the offseason.”  Surgery doesn’t appear to be an option at this point, as Ahmed said he has been working out a training regiment to help keep his shoulder strong and capable of holding up over 162 games.  Between his nagging shoulder injury and a knee problem, Ahmed admitted that injuries played a big part in his steep dropoff at the plate, as the shortstop batted only .221/.280/.339 in 473 plate appearances in 2021.  On the plus side, Ahmed’s health didn’t hamper his fielding, as he was still one of the game’s better defensive shortstops.
  • Speaking of Gold Glove shortstops, Andrelton Simmons is also dealing with some right shoulder soreness, Cubs manager told reporters (including The Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro).  Simmons hasn’t played the last two days and was in Thursday’s lineup only as the DH.  Simmons joined the Cubs on a one-year, $4MM deal soon after the lockout ended.

Diamondbacks, Ketel Marte Working On Extension

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The Diamondbacks and Ketel Marte are discussing the possibility of a contract extension, per Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter). No deal is imminent, though Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reports that the two sides are discussing adding three years of team control to his current contract at a total value of roughly $75MM.

Marte is already under contract for the below-market sum of $8.4MM for 2022, with the Dbacks holding team options for 2023 and 2024 at $11MM and $13MM, respectively. Obviously, those numbers come in far shy the $25MMper annum he would theoretically earn in his age 31-33 seasons under the terms reported by Heyman. And yet, it’s still a number that could be considered a discount, given Marte’s proven ceiling.

Marte has been floated as a potential trade candidate for much of the offseason, but his value has been somewhat difficult to peg because he’s so eminently affordable for the next three campaigns thanks to the extension he signed in March 2018. At the time that he signed the deal, Marte had not yet entered his arbitration seasons, and he’d already been dealt once in what turned out to be one of the more interesting swaps of the past decade. In the deal, Arizona acquired righty Taijuan Walker with the 23-year-old Marte in exchange for an unproven Mitch Haniger, a post-breakout Jean Segura, and southpaw Zac Curtis. Notably, it was one of the very first moves of GM Mike Hazen’s tenure in Arizona.

Though Marte was a high-end prospect, Walker was viewed as the real get at the time. Marte had yet to fully establish himself over parts of two seasons with the Mariners. His extension, then, came after just one additional year with the Diamondbacks, one in which the switch-hitter managed only 255 plate appearances. Marte’s career triple-slash line was just .265/.319/.361 (84 wRC+) with eight homers and 22 steals over his first 968 major league PAs. And yet, Hazen didn’t blink in locking him up for the next seven years.

Hazen’s prescience paid off as Marte broke out in a big way during the 2019 season, finishing fourth in MVP voting. Marte absolutely leveled up to a .329/.389/.592 line over 628 plate appearances, chipping in 36 doubles, nine triples, and 32 home runs, good for 6.9 rWAR/7.0 fWAR. After taking a step back in 2020, Marte posted a reasonable facsimile of his breakout campaign last year with a 139 wRC+, but he was only able to stay on the field for 90 games.

An extension now would be an interesting gambit for the Diamondbacks, considering the injuries that have followed Marte throughout his career. And while he’s a multi-positional standout – and somewhat of an oddity in that he has more-or-less split his career playing time between second base, shortstop, and centerfield – his glovework has largely earned subpar marks everywhere on the diamond except the keystone.

Add to the total picture Marte’s tremendous, if surprising offensive ceiling, and he’s not a player that takes easily to projections. One could argue that the Diamondbacks would be better off waiting on extending Marte to see if he can produce another full season like 2019, given that he’s already under team control for three more seasons. By the time a new extension would kick in, Marte would be on the other side of his prime.

Perhaps they want to put an end to any trade rumblings and commit to Marte as a centerpiece of their offense for the next half decade. Hazen’s been right about Marte twice before, so the pair are probably due the benefit of the doubt.

Besides, Arizona’s future payroll is totally clear. They have nobody currently on the books for after the 2024 season, when Marte’s current contract runs out.

When he’s right, Marte brings a plus ability to put the ball in play, above-average power, above-average speed, and enough positional versatility to be an asset, at least in a game-to-game basis. It’s easy to understand why the Diamondbacks would want him at the forefront of their future endeavors.

Diamondbacks Sign Zach Davies

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March 24: The D-backs have announced the signing. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Arizona placed right-hander J.B. Bukauskas on the 60-day injured list. Bukauskas suffered a Grade 2 teres major strain earlier this week and is expected to be sidelined for “months” with the injury.

March 22, 10:54am: Davies is guaranteed $1.75MM on the deal, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. He’ll earn a $1.5MM base salary and is also guaranteed at least a $250K buyout on next year’s option. The contract allows him to earn an additional $2.5MM based on his number of games started. The 2023 option is a mutual option, Heyman reports.

8:58am: The D-backs have reached a one-year agreement with free-agent righty Zach Davies, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). There’s also a 2023 option on the contract. Davies, a client of the Boras Corporation, can earn up to $4.5MM this year, per Heyman. Robert Murray of FanSided first tweeted that the two sides were close to a deal.

Zach Davies | Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports

Davies, who turned 29 last month, was one of the younger free-agent starters on the market but also hit free agency in need of a rebound campaign after a lackluster 2021 showing with the Cubs. Acquired from San Diego in Chicago’s salary dump of Yu Darvish, Davies made 32 starts and covered 148 innings but did so while limping to a career-worst 5.78 ERA. Among the 129 pitchers with at least 100 innings last year, Davies’ 17.1% strikeout rate ranked 116th, while his 11.2% walk rate was the sixth-highest mark in that same set.

Just a year prior, during the shortened 2020 campaign, Davies had the finest season of his career. Obviously it wasn’t a full slate of 30-plus starts, but Davies nevertheless pitched 69 1/3 innings over a dozen appearances and turned in an outstanding 2.73 ERA with vastly superior strikeout (22.8%) and walk (6.9%) rates to those that he displayed in his lone year with the Cubs.

Davies has never missed bats at that 2020 level in any other season, which perhaps makes it something of a small-sample anomaly, but it should also be noted that he’s never struggled with his command like he did in 2021. To the contrary, prior to this past season’s surprising uptick in free passes, Davies offset his pedestrian strikeout rates and lack of velocity with strong command of the zone. From 2016-20, he walked just 6.7% of his opponents — a mark that tied him for 48th among 181 qualified pitchers.

In all likelihood, Davies’ true performance level lies somewhere between the extremes he posted in 2020 and 2021. He’s worked to a career 4.14 ERA with a 17.3% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate and a 45.3% grounder rate in 831 2/3 innings between Milwaukee, San Diego and Chicago. Davies doesn’t miss many bats, given that his arsenal is headlined by a sinker that averages 88.2 mph, but he’s better than average when it comes to inducing weak contact. Outside of 2021, he hasn’t been particularly homer-prone in his career, either.

Arizona’s rotation is currently projected to include Madison Bumgarner, Zac Gallen, Luke Weaver, Merrill Kelly and perhaps non-roster invitee Dan Straily, who signed a minor league deal during the lockout after a solid two-year run in the Korea Baseball Organization. Gallen, however, is nursing some shoulder troubles at the moment, and Weaver has battled his own share of injury problems in recent years. Both Weaver and Kelly have also garnered trade interest at various points, though there’s no current indication the Snakes are weighing a move involving any member of their staff.

The signing of Davies could push Straily to a long-relief role or perhaps even to Triple-A Reno to begin the season, but teams are going to be cautious with their starters early in the season following a truncated Spring Training that did not give pitchers a full ramp-up period. It’s likely that there will be innings to go around for all six of those rotation candidates — to say nothing of upper-minors options like Tyler Gilbert, Corbin Martin, Humberto Mejia and Humberto Castellanos.

Diamondbacks Claim Caleb Baragar

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The D-backs have claimed left-hander Caleb Baragar off waivers from the Giants, per a club announcement. Arizona also confirmed its previously reported signing of Oliver Perez to a minor league contract.

Baragar remains in the NL West, as he’d spent his entire career to date with San Francisco. That includes stints in the big leagues in each of the past two seasons, over which time he’s combined for 45 1/3 innings in 49 games. The former ninth-round pick has an impressive 2.78 ERA in that time, but his underlying numbers haven’t supported that kind of run prevention. Baragar’s 18.8% strikeout rate is about five points below that of the league average reliever. He excelled at avoiding walks during his rookie campaign (5.7%), but last year’s 12.2% walk rate was much more problematic.

Walks and home runs proved a major problem for Baragar in Triple-A as well. He handed out free passes at an untenable 17.6% clip with the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento, allowing seven homers in 22 1/3 innings. That led to an 8.46 ERA at the minors’ top level, and San Francisco designated him for assignment last week.

The D-Backs will take a shot on the 27-year-old (28 next month) returning to form. Until last season, Baragar generally had a decent track record in the minors. He still has a pair of option years remaining, so Arizona can keep him with their top affiliate in Reno as needed. He joins Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson and swingman Caleb Smith as lefty relief options on the Arizona 40-man roster.

Diamondbacks Sign Oliver Perez To Minor League Deal

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The D-backs have signed lefty Oliver Perez to a minor league contract, Perez himself tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter thread). Perez is a client of the Boras Corporation.

The deal with Arizona represents a change of plans for the veteran Perez, who’d previously been slated to play with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League for the upcoming season. Perez announced that he planned to retire after spending the season with the Toros, although that signing and the announcement by Perez came while the MLB lockout was still in place. For now, Perez will shift his focus and instead take aim at an incredible twentieth MLB season.

Perez, 40, has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, where he’s pitched to a combined 2.57 ERA in 94 2/3 frames of relief work. Perez, however, only tossed 3 2/3 innings in the Majors last year. He spent the rest of the season pitching with that same Toros club for which he’d been planning to play while the lockout was still ongoing.

At this point, the veteran Perez’s track record largely speaks for itself. After a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher from 2002-10, Perez moved to the bullpen with the 2012 Mariners and embarked on what has essentially amounted to a second career as a reliever. Working for a long time as the quintessential lefty specialist, Perez has made 489 relief appearances and totaled 350 innings of 3.42 ERA ball since that 2012 campaign began.

The implementation of the three-batter minimum wasn’t a great development for pitchers with specialized skill sets of this nature, but Perez had no trouble getting right-handed opponents out in 2020. It was an admittedly short sample, and his career numbers tell another story, but Perez held righties to a .229/.342/.286 slash in 41 plate appearances that year and was similarly effective in another dozen tries last year.

 

Diamondbacks Sign Wilmer Difo To Minors Contract

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The Diamondbacks have inked utilityman Wilmer Difo to a minor league deal, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (via Twitter).  Difo receives an invitation to Arizona’s big league spring camp as part of the contract.

Difo hit .269/.329/.384 over 240 plate appearances with the Pirates last season, appearing in 116 games after signing another minors contract last winter.  It marked the first time Difo had ever played outside the Nationals organization, as Difo had spent his entire 11-year pro career with Washington since D.C. signed him to an amateur contract out of the Dominican Republic in 2010.

That stint in the District resulted in 373 big league games spread over the 2015-20 seasons, with Difo seeing a lot of time as a starting shortstop when Trea Turner was injured in 2017 and 2019, and as part of a second base platoon in 2018.  Known more for his versatility than his switch-hitting production at the plate, Difo hit .247/.309/.348 over 1060 PA in a Nationals uniform.  While he didn’t appear on the postseason roster in 2019, Difo’s 43 games played for the Nats that season earned him a World Series ring for his contribution to the championship year.

Difo has spent much of his career at the two middle infield positions, but has also played a good deal of third base and at least a couple of games at all three outfield positions.  The D’Backs don’t have much in the way of veteran utility players competing for jobs on the MLB roster, so Difo’s experience could give him an edge in competing for a roster spot.

Diamondbacks’ J.B. Bukauskas To Miss “Months” With Teres Major Injury

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Diamondbacks right-hander J.B. Bukauskas has suffered a grade two tear of his teres major muscle, manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters.  A specific timetable is not yet known for Bukauskas’ return, but Lovullo said the righty will miss “months, not weeks.”

Former D’Backs righty Taylor Clarke was cited as possible comp, as Lovullo noted that Clarke suffered a similar injury last season.  In that situation, Clarke missed just over a month and a half of action, hitting the injured list on June 15 and being activated on August 5.  However, it is probably safe to guess that Bukauskas will be sidelined for a longer amount of time, given that he’ll have to both recover from the injury and then do some extra prep work to make up for missing so much of Spring Training.

The teres major tear is another in a series of injury setbacks for Bukauskas, who missed about six weeks of the 2021 himself himself due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Wrist and other elbow problems have been issues in the past, and Bukauskas also hurt his back during a car accident during Spring Training 2018 when he was a member of the Astros organization.

With all these injuries in mind, it isn’t surprising that Bukauskas has yet to produce much at the big league level.  Making his debut last season, he had a 7.79 ERA over 17 1/3 relief innings for the Diamondbacks, though advanced metrics (4.49 SIERA, 4.50 xFIP) were a bit more favorable, accounting for Bukauskas’ .357 BABIP and an absurdly low 47.2% strand rate.  That said, Bukauskas didn’t help himself with only a 17.3% strikeout rate, and four homers allowed during his brief time in the Show.

Concerns over Bukauskas’ durability have lingered for a while, though it also wasn’t long ago that he drew some attention on top-100 prospect lists.  Houston selected Bukauskas with the 15th overall pick of the 2017 draft, and the righty was one of the key pieces of the four-player package the Astros sent to Arizona for Zack Greinke at the 2019 trade deadline.  Bukauskas hasn’t actually started a game at the major or minor league level since 2019 when he was with the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, and with his injury history only lengthening, it remains to be seen if his future will be as a starter or as a reliever.

Diamondbacks Release Zack Burdi

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The Diamondbacks released right-handed pitcher Zack Burdi earlier this week according to MLB.com’s transaction tracker. Arizona frees up a spot on its 40-man roster, which currently has 39 spots filled.

Acquired in an October waiver claim out of the Baltimore organization, Burdi’s time in the desert will prove practically nonexistent. A former first-round pick with the White Sox, Burdi has endured a trying handful of years since a scintillating minor league debut in 2016. After he skyrocketed all the way up to Triple-A in his first minor league season, the one-time relief prospect has endured a number of health issues, headlined by Tommy John surgery in July 2017.

While Burdi has shown promise when taking the (predominately minor league) field in recent seasons, hitting the mid to upper 90’s with his fastball and striking out batters in droves, he’s also proven awfully susceptible to walks and home runs. Last season proved no different, unfortunately, as the 27-year-old was rocked in Triple-A and in the Majors. Between a Chicago call-up and a cameo out of the Orioles bullpen Burdi sported a 5.40 ERA, with his three home runs and five walks allowed through 10 innings actually looking better than his work in 28 plus Triple-A frames.

Given his pedigree, it’s likely Burdi can latch onto another organization via a minor league deal. Teams who feel they can tap into the right-hander’s potential may also find his remaining minor league option year appealing, given that they can shuttle him between the big leagues and minor leagues if he can stick on a team’s 40-man roster.

Diamondbacks Sign Ian Kennedy

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TODAY: The D’Backs officially announced the signing, also including the detail that Kennedy’s contract includes a mutual option for the 2023 season.

MARCH 13: The Diamondbacks are in agreement on a one-year deal with reliever Ian Kennedy, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.  According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the deal is worth $4.75MM plus $2.35MM in incentives.  Kennedy, 37, returns to the place of his initial big league success, as he had a strong three-plus-year run as a member of Arizona’s rotation from 2010-13.  The righty is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Kennedy signed a five-year, $70MM free agent deal with the Royals back in January of 2016.  Kennedy scuffled in the second and third years of that deal, missing a large chunk of the second half of 2018 with an oblique injury.  By 2019, the Royals felt they’d get more value out of Kennedy in a relief role.  That proved correct, as he served as the team’s closer that year and saved 30 games with a 3.41 ERA.

Kennedy failed to get on track in the shortened 2020 season, suffering from a calf strain and generally working in the middle innings.  In February of last year, Kennedy wound up with the Rangers on a minor league deal.  He made the team and generally worked as the Rangers’ closer until he was traded to the Phillies along with Kyle Gibson.  On the season Kennedy worked to a 3.20 ERA, 27.2 K%, 7.5 BB%, and 23.3 groundball rate in 56 1/3 innings.  It was the lowest groundball rate of his 15-year career, so the resulting 12 home runs allowed were no surprise.  Statcast doesn’t speak highly of Kennedy’s work in 2021.

Kennedy will not likely be asked to close by D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo, as the team inked longtime stopper Mark Melancon to a two-year, $14MM deal prior to the lockout.  Though Arizona tied the Orioles for the worst record in baseball in 2021, GM Mike Hazen isn’t looking to launch a rebuild.  Third base remains an area of need, though Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that the Diamondbacks were “among the teams showing the most interest in [Michael] Conforto before the lockout.”

Kennedy was one of seven relievers to reach or near an agreement on a big league deal today, along with Jesse Chavez, Matt Strahm, Jake Diekman, Adam Ottavino, Nick Wittgren, and Brad Boxberger.  Click here to see which relievers are still available.

D-backs, Keone Kela Agree To Minor League Deal

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The D-backs have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran righty Keone Kela, reports Fansided’s Robert Murray. Kela had Tommy John surgery mid-May in 2021, so he won’t be ready for the beginning of the season but will give Arizona a potential high-end reliever to join the bullpen at some point midseason.

The 28-year-old (29 next month) has seven seasons of MLB experience under his belt, spending time with the Rangers, Pirates and Padres. From 2015 to 2019, he appeared in 228 games, throwing 214 2/3 innings, recording a 3.23 ERA, along with an excellent 30.1% strikeout rate and slightly-high 9.4% walk rate.

Unfortunately, health issues have slowed him down since then. In 2020, a positive COVID-test and forearm tightness limited him to just two innings on the season. Last year, he logged 10 2/3 frames before requiring Tommy John. As part of his contract with the Padres, the surgery meant that they were allowed to retain Kela for 2022 via a club option valued at $800K. However, they decided not to pick that up, presumably not confident that Kela could make it back to the mound in time for it to be worth their while. Tommy John surgery typically comes with a recovery time of 12 to 18 months for pitchers, meaning that Kela could be ready to go a few months into the season but also could miss the entire year.

For the Diamondbacks, they are coming off a miserable 52-110 campaign that saw them even with the Orioles for worst record in the majors. Despite that, they don’t seem interested in stripping down the roster, instead opting for making some upgrades and hoping for better results this year. In the bullpen, they’ve already added Mark Melancon and Ian Kennedy, who are likely to take the high leverage spots. If Kela can come back from his surgery and perform like he did from 2015 to 2019, he’ll give the club yet another experienced veteran to help out their relief corps. Should the team struggle to contend again, these relievers could all make for intriguing trade chips at the deadline.

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