Giants Playing Marco Luciano At Second Base
The Giants recalled Marco Luciano and Luis Matos from Triple-A Sacramento this afternoon. San Francisco optioned Blake Sabol and Casey Schmitt in corresponding moves. Luciano is in tonight’s lineup at second base against Arizona’s Ryne Nelson. It seems that’ll be a frequent occurrence this month.
Manager Bob Melvin told reporters this evening that the Giants will play Luciano regularly at the keystone for the season’s final few weeks (relayed on X by Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Tonight’s start there will be the 22-year-old’s first second base action in the big leagues.
Luciano is no stranger to the middle infield. He has started 19 MLB games at shortstop over the last two years. He has nearly 2500 shortstop innings in the minors. Luciano has made 27 appearances at second base in his minor league career, all but six of which have come this season with Sacramento.
Despite his ample shortstop experience, the rookie infielder struggled at the position earlier in the year. He was charged with five errors in only 60 innings. Luciano’s fielding percentage sat at a dismal .865, and while that almost certainly would’ve risen in a larger sample, the frequency of the mistakes led the Giants to quickly decide that he wasn’t ready for everyday shortstop work. San Francisco flirted with playing him at designated hitter after the Jorge Soler deadline trade. That didn’t last long either, and he has all of 48 plate appearances over 17 MLB games this year.
The Giants’ playoff hopes have been all but officially ended, so the next few weeks are primarily about evaluation. Luciano’s development is one of the organization’s key storylines. Scouting reports have long touted his raw power, but that has yet to translate against upper level pitching. Luciano has four extra-base hits (three doubles and a triple) in 31 career big league contests. He only has 10 homers with a .250/.380/.380 batting line over 384 plate appearances in the Pacific Coast League this year. A near-17% walk rate has driven a huge on-base mark, but he’s striking out 27% of the time without making much of a power impact.
Luciano is a few days shy of his 23rd birthday, so there’s still plenty of time for him to figure things out. The Giants haven’t given him any kind of consistent run against MLB pitching before now. That said, his pedestrian upper minors production and the ongoing questions about his long-term defensive home leave a lot unsettled.
Acclimating well to second base could at least address the latter question. The Giants are going to need a long-term solution at the position. Thairo Estrada has held the job for the past three-plus years. He has had a very poor ’24 campaign, though, and the Giants outrighted him off the roster last week. Estrada remains in the organization for now, but the Giants will almost certainly move on during the upcoming offseason: either by allowing him to elect minor league free agency or declining to tender him an arbitration contract.
Luciano will need to tighten things up defensively if he’s to stick on the infield at all. Scouts’ questions about his chances of playing shortstop have been more about his hands and lateral mobility than any issues with his arm strength. Four of his five errors at the position were of the fielding variety. That’d be problematic no matter where he is on the dirt, though perhaps moving off the infield’s most demanding spot would allow him to be more comfortable.
Erasmo Ramirez Accepts Outright Assignment With Rays
Erasmo Ramírez accepted an assignment to Triple-A Durham after being outrighted by the Rays. Tampa Bay had designated the veteran long reliever for assignment late last week.
It’s the second DFA of the year for Ramírez. Tampa Bay ran him through waivers in late May and kept him in Durham until August 26. The Rays brought Ramírez back for a few days, getting him into two games before pulling him off the roster. Ramírez tossed two scoreless innings against the Mariners in his first outing, but the Padres tagged him for two runs on four walks across 2 2/3 frames during his second appearance.
On the season, Ramírez has tossed 20 2/3 innings across 13 low-leverage relief outings. He has a 4.35 ERA with a below-average 17.6% strikeout rate and a lofty 11.8% walk percentage. He has turned in very strong numbers for Durham, pitching to a 3.02 ERA with plus strikeout (28.6%) and walk (6.5%) numbers over 47 2/3 frames.
Ramírez is clearly comfortable with the Rays, as he has signed there on multiple occasions and now accepted a pair of outright assignments. He’ll stick around for the season’s final month and will be a free agent at year’s end. The 34-year-old will likely look for another minor league contract during the upcoming offseason.
The Brewers’ Rotation Is Holding Up
The Brewers have the best run differential in MLB. Milwaukee has outscored its opponents by 139 runs, putting them 14 runs clear of the second-place Yankees’ +125 gap. Milwaukee is coasting to another division title and sit half a game behind the Phillies for the #2 seed in the National League, which would give them a first-round bye in the postseason.
It’s not a shock that the Brewers are good. They’ve proven time and again they’re capable of outperforming a middling payroll to compete for a playoff spot. Yet few would’ve predicted they’d be this good: 24 games over .500 with the largest division lead in baseball. Milwaukee’s previous success was built largely around the three-headed rotation monster of Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff. Between the Burnes trade and Woodruff’s shoulder injury, they’ve been forced to make do with a far less established rotation. Milwaukee’s rotation might not have the firepower it once did, yet it has held all the same.
Brewers starters are 12th in the majors with a 3.92 earned run average. That’s already an achievement considering the challenges of pitching at Miller Park, and they’ve been even better lately. Since the trade deadline, only the Astros and Tigers have a lower rotation ERA than Milwaukee does. Detroit’s mark is skewed by frequent use of openers; Tiger “starters” have an MLB-low 112 1/3 innings since the end of July. Milwaukee’s starters have tied for the third-most innings over that stretch (174 2/3), narrowly behind Houston and the Mets. For the past month and change, the Astros and Brewers have had the most valuable rotations in the league.
Not coincidentally, they were two of the league’s best teams last month. While Houston’s rotation turnaround has been a big story in its own right, Milwaukee’s rotation performance is probably more surprising. The Brewers signed Jakob Junis to take a season-opening rotation spot; he made one start, got hurt, and was eventually moved at the deadline. Wade Miley and Robert Gasser each blew out early in the season. Joe Ross and DL Hall each spent multiple months on the injured list.
The Brewers have given multiple starts to 13 different pitchers this year (15 if one includes the opener appearances by Jared Koenig and Rob Zastryzny). They’ve only had three pitchers top 50 innings working from the rotation in a Milwaukee uniform. Still, between a pair of unexpected contributors and two buy-low deadline pickups, they’re trending towards October with a settled starting five.
Peralta has headlined the group. He’s the team leader in starts (28) and innings (153 2/3). Peralta carries a 3.75 ERA behind a strong 27.3% strikeout rate. While he can battle the home run ball at times, Peralta is one of the better pitchers in the league. He was supposed to deliver at the front of the rotation, and he has.
The pitchers coming after Peralta entered the year with a lot less fanfare. Colin Rea logged 124 2/3 innings over 26 appearances a year ago. He posted a 4.55 ERA with middling peripherals. When Milwaukee brought him back on a $4.5MM deal on November 2, the most notable aspect of the deal seemed to be its timing — a few days before the official opening of free agency. Rea secured a spot in the Opening Day rotation, likely as the #5 arm.
Through four months, Rea ranks narrowly behind Peralta for second on the team in innings. He has tossed a career-high 146 frames with a solid 3.70 ERA. His 8% swinging strike rate and 19.4% strikeout percentage still suggest he’s more of a back-end arm, but Rea has thus far avoided any regression in terms of run prevention. He has an ERA between 3.25 and 4.22 in every month of the season, welcome consistency for a rotation that has dealt with significant injuries.
Rea has been a surprisingly key contributor, though he at least started the year on the MLB roster. That wasn’t the case for Tobias Myers, who has gone from minor league signee to #3 starter. The 26-year-old righty was a prospect of some regard early in his career, performing well through Double-A. Cleveland acquired Myers in a regrettable trade that sent future top prospect Junior Caminero to the Rays. Triple-A hitters obliterated him in 2022, leading multiple teams to cut him loose without giving him a look at the big league level.
Myers signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee going into 2023. He spent most of the season in Double-A, where he racked up huge strikeout totals against generally younger opposition. Myers never got himself back on the prospect radar, but he earned a look from the Brewers in mid-April when the rotation was floundering.
Shuttled on and off the active roster through the end of May, Myers had a 5.40 ERA in seven appearances. That’s the kind of production expected from a minor league signee pressed into action. As recently as a few months ago, it wasn’t clear if the Brewers would keep him on the roster all season. Gasser’s injury in early June gave Myers another shot. He has seized it.
Over his past 15 starts, the rookie owns a 2.27 ERA while working nearly six innings per appearance. He has a roughly average 21.1% strikeout rate and is limiting walks to a 6.3% clip. Myers has unquestionably been aided by a meager .264 average on balls in play. He doesn’t miss enough bats to be an ace. Yet even with some level of inevitable regression, Myers looks like a polished strike-thrower who fits in the middle of a rotation. Were it not for an absolutely loaded field in the National League this year, Myers might have gotten some Rookie of the Year attention.
Effective as Rea and Myers had been early in the summer, Milwaukee’s front office understandably viewed the rotation as their priority at the deadline. Myers was early into what has become a three-month stretch of excellent play. Rea’s workload was a question mark. Milwaukee made one of the first pickups of note early in July, bringing in Aaron Civale from the Rays. The night before the deadline, they flipped Junis and young outfielder Joey Wiemer (who’d been mostly squeezed out with the Brewers) to the Reds for Frankie Montas.
Both acquisitions were rebound hopefuls. Civale and Montas had each looked like upper mid-rotation arms at their best, but they’d fallen on harder times. Both pitchers had an ERA narrowly above 5.00 with their previous teams. They’re each allowing fewer than four earned runs per nine in Milwaukee. Civale has a 3.72 mark across 48 1/3 innings as a Brewer. Montas carries a 3.82 ERA in 33 frames following the trade.
Civale’s underlying performance isn’t dramatically different from where it’d been in Tampa Bay. His strikeout and walk profile has gone in the wrong direction. He’s getting more ground-balls with the Brew Crew — somewhat diminishing the home run issues that really plagued him with the Rays — but he’s giving up more contact than ever before. As with Rea and Myers, the change is largely about his ball in play results. Opponents hit .312 on balls in play off Civale with the Rays; that’s down to .257 since the trade.
Montas has shown more obvious signs of improvement. His strikeout rate with the Reds sat a below-average 19%. It’s up to 22.7% in his brief stint in Milwaukee. His fastball velocity has climbed from the 94-95 range to sit more comfortably above 96 MPH this month. Montas’ velocity was steadily building throughout the year in Cincinnati, so perhaps he’d have found this level regardless of where he was traded. Even if that’s the case, the Brewers deserve credit for identifying him as a buy-low target.
All of a sudden, manager Pat Murphy has a number of options he can choose from in constructing a playoff rotation. Milwaukee is going to win the NL Central. They’ll at least play in a three-game Wild Card set. Winning that (or tracking down one of the Dodgers or Phillies for a bye) would guarantee at least a five-game Division Series.
Peralta is the obvious call to pitch the first game. Myers’ recent form probably gives him a leg up as a Game 2 starter, though that could be determined by how well he finishes the regular season. Montas may not be all the way back to the peak he showed with the A’s, but he’s pitching well enough to be a fine choice for either Game 2 or 3. That’d likely leave Murphy to choose between Civale and Rea for a potential fourth game, perhaps in tandem with a multi-inning relief appearance from Hall.
It still may not be an elite starting staff, but it’s hardly a liability. A shorter series will allow Murphy to leverage his excellent relief group more heavily. Late in close games, the scales should tip in Milwaukee’s favor. The rotation now looks strong enough to get them there.
Pirates Re-Sign Jake Woodford
TODAY: Woodford elected free agency, but MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf reports (X link) that Woodford has re-signed with the Pirates on a new minor league contract.
AUGUST 29: Pirates righty Jake Woodford cleared outright waivers, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. He has the ability to elect free agency because he has been outrighted before in his career.
Woodford pitched in six games for Pittsburgh before they designated him for assignment on Monday. The 27-year-old righty started four of those appearances and posted a 6.95 ERA across 22 innings. Woodford had allowed 10 runs over two starts with the White Sox earlier in the year and carries an 8.01 ERA over 30 1/3 frames.
A former supplemental first-round pick of the Cardinals, Woodford pitched parts of four seasons with St. Louis. He combined for 184 2/3 innings of 4.29 ERA ball. That’s decent run prevention but came with a well below-average 15.1% strikeout percentage. Woodford’s lack of missed bats has caught up to him, as he has followed up a 6.23 ERA last year with this season’s disappointing numbers.
Woodford has gotten better results in the upper minors. He has started 17 games in Triple-A this year, working to a 4.02 ERA through 85 innings. He carries a matching 4.02 mark over parts of six seasons at that level.
Pirates Remove David Bednar From Closer Role
The Pirates are pulling star closer David Bednar out of the ninth inning, manager Derek Shelton told the Pittsburgh beat before tonight’s loss to Cleveland. The team will go with a committee approach for now (X link via Alex Stumpf of MLB.com).
Bednar was one of the best relievers in the majors each season between 2021-23. He posted a sub-3.00 ERA with plus strikeout rates in all three years. Bednar worked as a setup option in 2021 before assuming the closing role in ’22. He made the All-Star Game in both 2022 and ’23 and topped the National League with 39 saves just last season. That’s particularly impressive on a team that finished 10 games below .500.
This year has been far less consistent. Bednar was torched for more than 11 earned runs per nine through the end of April. He turned in an excellent 2.01 earned run average in 23 appearances from the start of May through the All-Star Break, though his modest 20.7% strikeout rate suggested he still wasn’t back to peak form.
The wheels have come back off since the Midsummer Classic. Bednar has given up 16 runs (15 earned) in his last 14 2/3 innings. Opponents have teed off at a .328/.434/.531 slash in 77 plate appearances. Bednar’s strikeouts are still down (20.8%) while his walk rate has spiked to an untenable 14.3% clip. His season hit its nadir on Wednesday. Shelton called upon Bednar to protect a two-run lead against the Cubs. He allowed three hits and two walks (one of which was intentional) while recording two outs. Chicago tagged Bednar for five runs — two of which were inherited runners who scored after he was replaced by Jalen Beeks — and went on to a 14-10 win.
For the season, Bednar now carries a 6.32 ERA through 47 innings. His 22.9% strikeout percentage is six points lower than last season’s mark, which had been the lowest of his career. He’s giving up home runs at an elevated rate of 1.53 per nine innings. Bednar’s 97.2 MPH average fastball velocity is still as strong as ever. Opponents have nevertheless feasted on the pitch, connecting for six homers with a .286 average and .527 slugging mark.
Aside from Bednar, Aroldis Chapman and Colin Holderman have been Pittsburgh’s primary high-leverage arms. Holderman has been out for a few weeks with a sprained wrist, leaving Chapman as the favorite for most of the closing work. Dennis Santana and Carmen Mlodzinski are potential options to pick up save chances if Shelton wants to turn to a right-hander.
How the Pirates handle the ninth inning for the next few weeks isn’t as significant as determining whether Bednar can recapture his lockdown form. A disastrous August has tanked their playoff hopes. As the focus turns toward the offseason, the front office could face questions about Bednar’s future with the organization. Pittsburgh rebuffed trade interest when the big righty was at his peak form. They had an extended control window and probably had some designs on agreeing to an extension with the Pittsburgh native. That’s a tougher call to make coming off the worst season of Bednar’s career.
The 29-year-old is playing on a $4.15MM arbitration salary. The process is designed to escalate salaries even amidst down years, so Bednar’s price tag next year should top $5MM. His track record makes a non-tender difficult to envision, but the Pirates could entertain trading his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility.
Cubs Release Tomas Nido
The Cubs released catcher Tomás Nido, tweets Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. Nido had been on the 10-day injured list but was occupying a 40-man roster spot. Chicago needed to create a 40-man vacancy to finalize their claim of reliever Shawn Armstrong from St. Louis.
Nido has been on the IL since July 25 with a meniscus injury that required right knee surgery. The Cubs sent him on a rehab stint with Triple-A Iowa last night. That suggests he’s nearing a return, but the Cubs no longer felt they needed him in the catching corps. Chicago called up Christian Bethancourt once Nido landed on the shelf. He has mashed over 11 games in the backup role. Starter Miguel Amaya, meanwhile, has a huge .337/.375/.554 slash since the All-Star Break. It’s a huge turnaround after the 25-year-old hit .201/.266/.288 in the first half.
Since Nido’s injury, Cubs’ catchers own an MLB-leading .327/.358/.634 batting line. Chicago’s catchers almost instantaneously flipped from one of the league’s worst groups to being among the best for the last month. There’s not much of a reason to make a change. The Cubs could have carried three catchers for September but probably would not have had many at-bats available for Nido.
Chicago has put the 30-year-old on waivers. He’d be a free agent if he goes unclaimed, though there may not be enough time for him to catch on elsewhere while still remaining eligible for postseason play with his new club. If another team claimed him or signed him to a big league contract, they’d only be responsible for the prorated portion of the league minimum. The Mets are otherwise paying his $2.1MM salary in the second season of a two-year contract.
Nido is a career .210/.245/.309 hitter over parts of eight seasons. He’s obviously not going to bring much to the table offensively but has a strong defensive reputation. Statcast grades him highly for his pitch framing acumen and arm strength.
Rockies Select Seth Halvorsen
The Rockies announced they’ve selected reliever Seth Halvorsen onto the MLB roster. He joins the bullpen in place of Noah Davis, who was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rox had an opening on the 40-man roster after passing left-hander Antoine Kelly through outright waivers yesterday.
Halvorsen, 24, will be making his big league debut. The 6’2″ righty spent two years at the University of Missouri before transferring to Tennessee for his junior season. He turned in a 3.81 ERA over 52 innings for the Vols. The Rockies selected him in the seventh round of last year’s draft.
Colorado got Halvorsen to Double-A by the end of his draft year. He has split this season between Double-A Hartford and Albuquerque. Halvorsen turned in a 4.84 ERA in 35 1/3 Double-A frames, striking out nearly 26% of opponents while walking 12% of batters faced. While he only has nine Triple-A appearances under his belt, he has already punched out 15 at the top minor league level.
In April, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Halvorsen the #14 prospect in the Colorado system. Longenhagen credited him with an upper-90s fastball, as well as an above-average slider and splitter duo. He doesn’t have great control, potentially pushing him into a middle relief role. The Rox are desperate for reliable contributors in the bullpen. There’s plenty of room for Halvorsen to establish himself quickly.
Giants Outright Thairo Estrada, Release Tyler Matzek
Thairo Estrada and Tyler Matzek both went unclaimed on waivers. The Giants announced they’ve assigned Estrada outright to Triple-A Sacramento while recalling Brett Wisely (X link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). Matzek, who’d been on the 60-day injured list, was placed on unconditional release waivers. Estrada drops off the 40-man roster, which now carries 38 players.
San Francisco reportedly placed Estrada, Matzek and lefty reliever Taylor Rogers on waivers earlier in the week. The Giants did not announce what happened with Rogers’ waiver process. It’s possible that they didn’t officially place Rogers on waivers until a day later than the Estrada and Matzek moves (and are therefore still waiting on a resolution). However, it seems likely that Rogers went unclaimed and the Giants simply elected to hold onto him.
A team is not required to send a player to the minors after he clears waivers. The Giants would have no reason to do so with Rogers. If the Giants tried to demote him, the former All-Star could elect free agency while retaining his $12MM salary for next season. That’d simply amount to cutting Rogers, a productive reliever, without any financial benefit for doing so.
Estrada does not have that luxury. The glove-first second baseman has between three and five years of service. That gives him the right to decline an outright assignment but would require him to forfeit the remainder of his salary to do so. Estrada is playing on a $4.7MM arbitration deal and isn’t likely to give up the more than $800K remaining on that contract. He’ll almost certainly report to Sacramento, while Wisely could get a look as the everyday second baseman at Oracle Park.
The 28-year-old Estrada was an average or better hitter during his first three seasons with the Giants, combining for a .266/.320/.416 slash. He topped 20 stolen bases and drilled 14 homers apiece in 2022 and ’23. He hasn’t been anywhere near that effective this season. He’s hitting .217/.247/.343 across 381 trips to the plate. Among hitters with 300+ plate appearances, only Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall have a lower on-base percentage.
San Francisco can reselect Estrada onto the 40-man roster through season’s end. He’d technically remain eligible for arbitration if they called him back up, but the waiver process makes clear that the Giants don’t plan to tender him a contract in either case. Whether he returns to the MLB club next month, he’s very likely to be on the open market (either through minor league free agency or a non-tender) during the upcoming offseason.
The Giants acquired Matzek from the Braves as a salary offset in the Jorge Soler deadline deal. He’s playing on a $1.9MM salary that no team was willing to assume. Matzek was on the injured list at the time of the trade and never threw a pitch as a Giant. He missed all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Matzek returned this season before landing back on the IL in May with elbow inflammation.
The 33-year-old southpaw had a tough first month in Atlanta, giving up 11 runs over 10 frames. The Giants sent him to Triple-A on a rehab stint a couple weeks ago. He made five appearances, allowing four runs through 4 2/3 innings. Matzek could be healthy enough to sign elsewhere, though he’d need to do so within the next day to be eligible for postseason play.
Angels Designate Johnny Cueto For Assignment
The Angels announced they’ve designated Johnny Cueto for assignment. Los Angeles also placed reliever Carson Fulmer on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 27) with elbow inflammation. The moves create active roster spots for the previously reported promotions of Caden Dana and Samuel Aldegheri. The Halos transferred José Marte to the 60-day IL to clear the second 40-man spot.
Los Angeles called Cueto up last week. They gave him two starts, in which he surrendered nine runs over 11 1/3 innings. Cueto struck out six, walked three and gave up four home runs. He managed a quality start against the Royals in his team debut (three ER in 6 1/3 frames) before the Tigers tagged him for six runs on Tuesday.
The Angels then decided to take their first look at Dana and Aldegheri, two of the top pitching prospects in the organization. That’s a better use of the final month of a lost season than continuing to turn to a 38-year-old impending free agent. Cueto’s tenure with the Halos certainly wasn’t the most memorable, but it did mark his 17th straight year logging some amount of MLB action. Los Angeles will place Cueto on waivers in the next few days. He’ll almost certainly clear and become a free agent.
As for the injured players, Fulmer told the Halos beat that he’s headed for an MRI (X link via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). The 30-year-old righty expressed confidence there’s nothing structurally awry. Marte has been on the injured list for a few weeks with a viral infection. Manager Ron Washington told reporters earlier in the week that the righty experienced shoulder soreness once he resumed a throwing program (link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The severity of the injury isn’t clear, but his season is over.
Cubs Claim Shawn Armstrong
The Cubs have claimed reliever Shawn Armstrong from the Cardinals, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (X link). St. Louis had designated the righty for assignment on Tuesday.
Armstrong’s DFA ended a brief run in St. Louis. The Cards acquired him from the Rays at the trade deadline in a swap sending former top prospect Dylan Carlson to Tampa Bay. Armstrong pitched well in St. Louis, running a 12:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing only four runs in 12 2/3 innings. That was quite a bit better than the 5.40 earned run average he’d posted across 46 2/3 frames with Tampa Bay earlier in the year.
While Armstrong held up his end of the bargain, the Cardinals have had a tough month. They’ve dropped six games back of the last Wild Card spot. The front office has conceded the unlikelihood of a playoff run by waiving Armstrong and Tommy Pham, the two impending free agents they’d acquired at the deadline. Doing so allows them to offload what remains of Armstrong’s $2.05MM arbitration salary; they’d save the prorated portion of Pham’s $3MM deal if another team were to claim him.
The Cardinals lose Armstrong to their rivals, who are only one game closer to a postseason spot. Chicago enters play on Friday five games back of the Braves in the Wild Card mix. As with St. Louis, they’re long shots to get to the playoffs. The Cubs are riding a three-game win streak and kicking off a stretch of winnable games against the Nationals and Pirates. The front office isn’t completely throwing in the towel, adding to a bullpen that has pitched well over the past six weeks.
At 68-66, the Cubs had a higher waiver priority than any team that currently occupies a playoff spot (plus the Mariners, Red Sox and Mets). They’ll assume roughly $330K in salary commitments, plus another $66K in estimated luxury tax payments, to plug Armstrong into the bullpen for the season’s final month. Assuming the claim is officially processed tomorrow, he’d be eligible for Chicago’s playoff roster if they made a furious push to snag a spot.