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The Rotation Trade Market Takes Two More Hits

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The past few days haven't been good for teams looking to acquire controllable starting pitching. On Friday, Angels southpaw Patrick Sandoval came out of his start shaking his arm. The Halos put him on the 15-day injured list the next day with an elbow strain. One day later, the Marlins announced that Jesús Luzardo was being shut down with a lumbar stress reaction in his back. Miami almost immediately put him on the 60-day injured list -- ruling him out into August.

Sandoval hasn't officially been ruled out beyond the early part of July, but it's hard to imagine he's looking at a minimal IL stint. Within 48 hours, two of the most talented controllable starting pitchers who could've plausibly been available instead very likely came off the trade market. (Players can still be traded while on the injured list, but it'd be such a sell-low on either pitcher that Sandoval and Luzardo would almost certainly stay put.)

Starting pitching injuries have been an unfortunate storyline throughout the season. Almost every team has been impacted, leaving all but a handful of contenders looking for rotation help over the next five weeks. Barring injuries of their own, the Mariners, Phillies and perhaps Yankees could feel great about the strength of their rotation. Everyone else has at least one or two points on which they could upgrade. Milwaukee, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Diego, Arizona and St. Louis could go into deadline season viewing the rotation as their top priority.

There aren't enough healthy starters to go around. Teams like the D-Backs and Reds came up empty in rotation pursuits at the '23 trade deadline. That'll be the case for a handful of teams yet again, particularly with two more arms more or less off the board. The White Sox are even more firmly positioned to dominate the market for controllable starting pitching, while the dwindling supply could provide an opportunity for a team like the Rockies or Rays to get good value for a mid-rotation type.

There are a handful of impending free agents who could change hands -- Jack Flaherty, Yusei Kikuchi and Luis Severino among them. Flaherty looks to have pulled to the top of the rental starter group. The supply of starters under control beyond the 2024 campaign is dwindling, though. Let's take stock of that market:

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Twins Outright Jay Jackson

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June 24: Jackson passed through waivers unclaimed and has been assigned outright to Triple-A St. Paul, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. As previously noted, he’ll have the right to reject that assignment but is extremely unlikely to do so, as that would require forfeiting the remaining $685K on this year’s salary and the $200K buyout on next year’s $3MM club option.

June 20: The Twins are designating reliever Jay Jackson for assignment, manager Rocco Baldelli told the team’s beat after today’s loss to the Rays (relayed on X by Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Darren Wolfson of SKOR North reports (on X) that Minnesota will recall southpaw Kody Funderburk from Triple-A St. Paul to step into the bullpen. Minnesota’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

It’s the second time this season that Minnesota has taken Jackson off the roster. The Twins designated him for assignment in May and successfully ran him through outright waivers. The righty accepted his assignment to St. Paul and pitched his way back to the big leagues a couple weeks later. Jackson had only made a trio of appearances in Triple-A, working three innings of one-run ball.

He has pitched 20 times for Minnesota at the big league level. Despite decent strikeout and walk numbers, he has had a tough time keeping runs off the board. That continued this afternoon. Jackson allowed three runs on homers by Jose Siri and Yandy Díaz, stretching a one-run deficit into a 6-2 gap. Minnesota scored four in the bottom of the ninth to tie it but lost in the tenth inning.

The longball has been Jackson’s biggest concern. He’s up to seven homers surrendered across 26 1/3 innings. That’s the biggest reason he has been unable to strand many baserunners. After today’s outing, he carries a 7.52 earned run average. That’s a sharp downturn from the excellent 2.12 ERA he posted in 29 2/3 frames for the Blue Jays a year ago. Jackson’s strikeout and walk numbers are essentially unchanged from his productive stint in Toronto, but his batted ball results have pushed him off the roster twice.

It is likely that Minnesota will place the 36-year-old on waivers again in the next few days. Jackson could decline an outright assignment if he goes unclaimed, though doing so would require forfeiting what remains of this year’s $1.3MM salary and the $200K buyout on next year’s $3MM club option. He could wind up back in St. Paul as a result.

Vinny Nittoli Elects Free Agency

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TODAY: Nittoli cleared waivers, the A’s announced, and Nittoli has chosen to become a free agent rather than accept the outright assignment to Triple-A.

JUNE 21: The A’s designated reliever Vinny Nittoli for assignment before tonight’s matchup with the Twins. Oakland recalled righty Osvaldo Bido from Triple-A Las Vegas to replace him on the active roster. Nittoli is out of options, so the A’s couldn’t take him off the big league club without removing from the 40-man roster. Their 40-man tally is down to 38.

Nittoli cracked the big league bullpen a couple weeks ago when Michael Kelly was suspended. Mark Kotsay has called upon him seven times, generally in low-leverage situations. Nittoli has allowed two runs over eight innings, punching out five against two walks. It was a generally solid showing, but the 33-year-old pitched two innings and tossed 28 pitches in yesterday’s loss to Kansas City. That’d likely have ruled him out for today and prompted the A’s to bring up a fresh arm. Bido, who hasn’t pitched in a week, should be able to work multiple innings out of the bullpen.

It’s a tough break for Nittoli, who has had MLB cups of coffee in each of the last four seasons. This year’s eight innings already topped his previous combined workload between the Mariners, Phillies and Mets. Nittoli has pitched in five seasons at the Triple-A level. He owns a 4.73 ERA there for his career, though he turned in an impressive 2.70 mark through 23 1/3 innings with Las Vegas before being called up. Nittoli punched out 36% of batters faced for the Aviators against an 11% walk rate.

The A’s have five days to trade him or place him on waivers. Nittoli has cleared outright waivers a few times in his career and would have the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed. Since he’s out of options, another team would need to plug him directly into the MLB bullpen if they claim him.

Rockies Reinstate Kyle Freeland From 60-Day Injured List

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TODAY: The Rockies announced that they’ve activated Freeland from the 60-day IL. To make room for Freeland on the 40-man roster, lefty Austin Kitchen was designated for assignment. Kitchen was selected to the roster just yesterday and did not make an appearance in the majors during his brief stint with the big league club. The Rockies will now have one week to either trade Kitchen or attempt to pass him through waivers.

June 20: The Rockies will welcome Kyle Freeland back to the rotation for Sunday’s game against the Nationals. Colorado’s Opening Day starter has been out since April 19 because of an elbow strain.

Freeland avoided surgery despite that alarming diagnosis. He has made a trio of rehab appearances — one at the complex before a pair of games for Triple-A Albuquerque. Freeland made his most recent outing on Tuesday, tossing four innings while running his pitch count to 67. The veteran southpaw allowed only three runs over eight Triple-A frames.

The Rox will hope that kickstarts a turnaround for Freeland, who was battered over his first four starts of the season. He averaged fewer than four innings per appearance and was tagged for 25 runs across 15 2/3 frames. Freeland issued eight walks with nine strikeouts and allowed a trio of home runs.

Freeland is on the 60-day injured list, so the Rox will need to reinstate him onto the 40-man roster. They opened a 40-man spot earlier in the week by placing reliever Gavin Hollowell on waivers. Unless they make another 40-man transaction in the intervening three days, they’ll only need to option out a pitcher to clear space for Freeland on the active roster.

In other Colorado injury news, manager Bud Black told reporters that rookie infielder Adael Amador suffered a mild oblique strain in today’s loss to the Dodgers (relayed on X by Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). While it doesn’t seem to be a long-term concern, Amador will probably land on the 10-day injured list. Colorado promoted Amador directly from Double-A Hartford earlier this month when Brendan Rodgers went on the IL.

It was a surprisingly aggressive promotion for one of the organization’s top prospects. The 21-year-old was hitting only .194/.337/.329 in Double-A. That made it quite unlikely that he’d produce in his first look at big league arms. Amador has struggled as expected, hitting .171 with one walk in his first 36 plate appearances.

Black suggested earlier in the week that the Rox planned to option Amador back to Double-A once Rodgers was ready to return (X link via Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette). An injured list stint would delay that, but he’ll probably head back to Hartford once he’s healthy. Rodgers started a rehab assignment in Albuquerque tonight and could be back in the next few days.

Angels Place Patrick Sandoval On 15-Day IL With Elbow Strain

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TODAY: The Angels announced this evening that Sandoval has been placed on the 15-day injured list with an elbow strain. Right-hander Guillo Zuniga was recalled from Triple-A to take Sandoval’s spot on the active roster. The severity of Sandoval’s injury is not yet clear, though he’s now set to miss at least the next two weeks of action.

June 21: Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval left tonight’s start against the Dodgers in the third inning. After walking former teammate Shohei Ohtani, Sandoval began shaking his arm and called for a trainer. The Halos announced the initial diagnosis as forearm tightness.

It seems fair to presume Sandoval will head for imaging in the next couple days. While it’s too early to know whether he’s facing a significant absence, the southpaw’s reaction on the mound and the diagnosis are clearly cause for concern.

Sandoval worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings tonight. He still has an uninspiring 5.08 earned run average over 79 2/3 frames on the season. The 27-year-old’s underlying indicators are quite a bit more promising. Sandoval has punched out a solid 23% of batters faced while keeping the ball on the ground 45% of the time. He has issued a few too many walks (9.9% rate), but he looks like a mid-rotation arm at his best. Sandoval carried an above-average 11.7% swinging strike rate into tonight’s start.

Between 2022-23, Sandoval was somewhat quietly one of the better starters in the league. He topped 140 innings in both seasons, combining for a 3.50 ERA over 55 starts. While Sandoval was more effective in ’22 than he was a year ago, he has generally been a bright spot amidst a tough few years in Orange County.

As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explored in a piece for Front Office subscribers just this week, Sandoval looked like a very appealing trade candidate. Steve noted the parallels between the Angels hurler and Miami’s Jesús Luzardo, who is regarded as one of the best (if not the top) controllable starting pitcher who is likely to move this summer. The Angels haven’t shown the same willingness to deal key players as the Marlins’ new front office has, yet Los Angeles GM Perry Minasian would get no shortage of calls on a healthy Sandoval.

Tonight’s injury at least complicates that possibility. An extended absence would take a deadline deal off the table entirely. The Angels control Sandoval via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one. He’s making $5.025MM this season in his second of four arbitration years after qualifying as a Super Two player in 2022.

Mets’ Grant Hartwig Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Mets reliever Grant Hartwig underwent surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee, the team announced (X link via Tim Healey of Newsday). He’ll be out for six to eight weeks.

Hartwig, 26, is a depth arm who has pitched for the Mets in each of the last two seasons. He made 28 appearances as a rookie, working to a 4.84 ERA across 35 1/3 innings. That was enough for Hartwig to hang onto his spot on the 40-man roster throughout the offseason. He has pitched in four big league games this year, allowing six runs over 6 2/3 frames.

New York has kept Hartwig on optional assignment to Triple-A Syracuse for the majority of this season. The righty has turned in a 2.31 earned run average in 23 1/3 innings there. Hartwig has an average 22.3% strikeout rate against a lofty 11.7% walk percentage. He’ll continue to count against the 40-man roster while he’s on the minor league injured list.

Dodgers Transfer Max Muncy To 60-Day Injured List

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The Dodgers transferred third baseman Max Muncy to the 60-day injured list this evening. The move opened a spot on the 40-man roster for righty Kyle Hurt, who was reinstated from his own stint on the 60-day IL and optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Muncy has been out since May 17 with an oblique strain. While the team initially expressed hope that he’d back in relatively short order, that’s not how things played out. Muncy is now officially out of action through the All-Star Break. He’ll be eligible for reinstatement when the season’s second half gets underway. Muncy has been taking ground-balls but has yet to resume swinging a bat.

Enrique Hernández has gotten the majority of the third base work in Muncy’s absence. He’s hitting .191/.276/.324 in 76 plate appearances over that stretch. The Dodgers have given a few third base reps to Cavan Biggio, Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor as well. Neither Biggio nor Taylor has hit well this season. Rojas is having a nice year but had to move to shortstop after the Mookie Betts injury.

Muncy was out to his typically solid start before the injury. He’d driven nine home runs with a .223/.323/.475 slash in 167 trips to the plate. The Dodgers’ fill-in options at third base are a clear downgrade, though there’s no indication they’re especially alarmed. L.A. has built a wide enough lead in the NL West to withstand injuries to Betts, Muncy and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, among others. GM Brandon Gomes said earlier in the week that the team wasn’t changing its deadline approach to compensate for losing Yamamoto and Betts. The same is presumably true of Muncy, assuming the Dodgers expect him back sometime in July.

Robert Gasser To Undergo UCL Surgery

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June 21: Milwaukee indeed reinstated Junis from the 60-day IL this evening. The Brewers optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. Their 40-man roster is at capacity.

June 20: Brewers rookie left-hander Robert Gasser will undergo surgery to fix the UCL in his throwing elbow, he told reporters this evening (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). It won’t be clear until the operation whether he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction or a modified ligament repair. Even in the better scenario of a slightly less significant procedure like the internal brace surgery, Gasser said he expects to miss at least a full calendar year.

The 25-year-old southpaw made his major league debut last month. Gasser found immediate success, working 28 innings of 2.57 ERA ball through his first five starts. The University of Houston product only walked one of the 114 hitters he faced. While he certainly wouldn’t have maintained that level of control, Gasser has been a solid strike-thrower whom most scouts expect to stick in the rotation. Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Milwaukee system and slotted him among the sport’s top 100 minor league talents entering the season.

Gasser’s initial MLB success might have increased his stock a little bit, even though his 14% strikeout percentage was well below the swing-and-miss rates he’d shown in the minor leagues. He’d certainly performed well enough to continue taking the ball every fifth day in a patchwork Milwaukee rotation. Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea have been the constants. Peralta is the unquestioned staff ace, while Rea has stepped up with a 3.29 ERA over 76 2/3 innings despite a modest 16.7% strikeout rate.

Milwaukee has otherwise cycled through a number of starters as they’ve navigated various injuries. They have lost an entire rotation to extended absences. Wade Miley underwent Tommy John surgery after two starts. Jakob Junis has pitched once all season. DL Hall has been sidelined since April. Joe Ross went down in May with a lower back strain; he suffered a setback a couple weeks ago. Gasser is now also out for the season. That’s not even counting Brandon Woodruff, whom the Brewers knew would miss all of 2024 after he underwent shoulder surgery last October.

Bryse Wilson and Tobias Myers have stepped into the third and fourth rotation spots. While they’ve each managed decent run prevention numbers, neither pitcher is without question marks. Wilson opened the season as a reliever and has an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile as a starter. Myers is a former minor league signee on the sixth organization of his professional career. His 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk percentage are fine, but he’s had to work around an elevated home run rate.

The fifth rotation spot has recently fallen to Carlos Rodriguez, a rookie who has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two starts. Junis is nearing a return from the 60-day injured list — MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that he could be reinstated as soon as tomorrow — but he isn’t expected to immediately step back into a rotation spot. Junis has only made two abbreviated rehab appearances for Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have suggested he’s likely to work out of the bullpen initially as they try to expedite his return to the major league staff.

In that context, it’s remarkable that the Brewers have managed a 44-30 record and pulled out to a fairly comfortable 7.5 game lead in the NL Central. They’ll almost certainly bring in at least one starting pitcher before the July 30 trade deadline. There’s a reasonable argument for GM Matt Arnold and his staff to land multiple rotation pickups. Losing Gasser should only add to the urgency to address what was the team’s biggest question mark well before their last couple months of terrible injury news.

Gasser is on the MLB injured list and will collect service time and be paid at the league minimum rate for whatever time he spends on the IL. Milwaukee can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises. (They already have a vacancy for Junis’ reinstatement after designating Elieser Hernández for assignment last night.) Gasser will not get to a full service year and remains controllable for six seasons beyond this one.

Yankees Interested In Garrett Cooper

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The Yankees are showing interest in free agent Garrett Cooper, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. He hit the open market a week ago after being released by the Red Sox.

Cooper is looking for his third team of the 2024 campaign. He cracked the Cubs’ season-opening roster after signing a minor league contract. Cooper had a solid .270/.341/.432 showing across 12 games for Chicago, yet the Cubs designated him for assignment in April. The front office was evidently alarmed that he had struck out 13 times over his first 41 plate appearances. That skepticism seems to have been warranted, as Cooper struggled upon being dealt to the Red Sox in a cash trade.

Over 24 games with Boston, the righty-hitting first baseman slumped to a .171/.227/.229 batting line. He fanned 22 times while drawing only three walks in 75 trips to the plate. Boston elected to stick with Dominic Smith over Cooper once they welcomed Masataka Yoshida back from the injured list.

Whiffs have been an escalating problem for Cooper, who has struck out in 29.1% of his plate appearances since the start of last season. He owns a .242/.297/.395 line in 573 plate appearances across four teams over that stretch. Cooper had been a productive middle-of-the-order bat for the Marlins before that. Between 2019-22, he hit .274/.350/.444 and earned a nod to the ’22 All-Star Game.

Cooper is a former Yankee. New York acquired him from the Brewers back in 2017 when he was still in Triple-A. The Yankees called him up for 13 games late in the year before trading him the following offseason. They sent Cooper and Caleb Smith to the Fish for then-prospect Michael King — a move that worked out fairly well for both teams but eventually turned more clearly in New York’s favor.

The Yanks lost Anthony Rizzo for at least two months when he broke his arm in a collision at first base over the weekend. They called up Ben Rice in the wake of Rizzo’s injury. The 25-year-old has played in his first three big league contests, collecting two singles and a pair of walks in 11 plate appearances. Cooper could theoretically pair with the lefty-swinging Rice in a platoon, though the Yankees already have DJ LeMahieu as a potential right-handed complement.

GM Brian Cashman and the front office could explore the trade market for help at either corner infield spot over the next five weeks. It’s not easy to land a significant upgrade this far from the deadline, though, particularly with all but five teams still harboring some level of playoff aspirations. Cooper and José Abreu are options for teams looking for a stopgap at first base, though it’s not clear whether either player will command a big league contract offer. J.D. Davis is currently in DFA limbo with the A’s and will be traded or placed on waivers this weekend.

Angels Select Hans Crouse

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The Angels announced they’ve selected righty reliever Hans Crouse onto the MLB roster. Los Angeles opened an active roster spot last night by placing José Soriano on the 15-day injured list. They already had an opening on the 40-man roster, so no further move was necessary.

Crouse, who signed a minor league deal with the Halos in February, reaches the big leagues for the first time in three years. The 6’4″ hurler was a second-round pick of the Rangers back in 2017. Crouse was initially a well-regarded prospect whom the Rangers sent to the Phillies at the 2021 trade deadline. He started two games for the Phils late in the season, allowing four runs in seven innings.

That’s the entirety of his MLB experience. Crouse lost most of the following year to injury and the Phils waived him at the end of the ’22 campaign. He went unclaimed and spent last season in the minors. Philadelphia moved Crouse to the bullpen, but he didn’t find much immediate success. He surrendered a 6.75 ERA while walking more than 20% of opposing hitters over 16 Triple-A appearances.

Crouse has flipped the script with a huge performance this season. He carries a 2.70 earned run average through 23 1/3 frames with Triple-A Salt Lake. He has cut his walk rate all the way to 7.4% while striking out 44.7% of batters faced. No pitcher with at least 20 innings at the top minor league level has fanned opponents at a higher rate. That earns the 25-year-old another shot against MLB hitters. Crouse still has two options remaining and could bounce between Angel Stadium and Salt Lake without going on waivers.

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