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Orioles Notes: Means, Suarez, Perez, McKenna

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The Orioles could soon welcome John Means back for his season debut. Manager Brandon Hyde told reporters yesterday the O’s were considering activating Means to start on Sunday against the A’s (X link via the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich). The left-hander has been on the injured list all year, as the team opted to build him up slowly this spring. While Means made four starts late last year in his return from Tommy John surgery, he experienced residual elbow soreness that kept him off the postseason roster.

Means would likely have found himself on some kind of innings limit after throwing 31 2/3 combined frames between 2022-23. With that in mind, the O’s opted against pushing him this spring. The 2019 All-Star has started five games at Triple-A Norfolk on a rehab stint. The results have not been good, as he’s allowed 18 runs over 11 2/3 innings. The O’s probably aren’t especially concerned, though, as the southpaw’s primary focus has been building his workload. He got to 79 pitches over 4 1/3 innings on Tuesday.

If Baltimore decides to give Means one more rehab appearance, righty Albert Suárez would likely take the ball on Sunday. The 34-year-old has twirled 11 1/3 scoreless innings in two starts since the O’s selected his contract last week. Suárez couldn’t have asked for much better in his return to the big leagues for the first time in seven years. Whether it’ll be enough to hold a roster spot once Means is ready isn’t clear, but Suárez has outpitched fellow back-end arms Dean Kremer and Cole Irvin in a very limited look.

Despite the long layoff between his big league appearances, Suárez is out of options. Baltimore can’t send him back to Norfolk without first exposing him to waivers. Irvin is also out of options, but the O’s could theoretically send Kremer down if they want to ensure all three pitchers stay in the organization.

They could also nudge one of those players to the bullpen. Baltimore’s roster flexibility is limited in that regard as well, though. Five of the eight current members of their bullpen — Craig Kimbrel, Danny Coulombe, Mike Baumann, Jacob Webb and recent trade pickup Yohan Ramírez — can’t be sent down. Neither Yennier Cano nor Keegan Akin are going to be optioned. Unless the O’s were to option grounder specialist Dillon Tate, they could soon need to DFA one of their out-of-options arms.

That might happen once lefty Cionel Pérez returns to the big league club. He landed on the 15-day IL with a moderate oblique strain shortly after Opening Day. The Orioles sent him to Norfolk on a rehab stint yesterday, suggesting he’ll be back in the next week or two. Pérez, who is also out of options, turned in a 3.54 ERA behind a massive 60.7% ground-ball percentage over 53 1/3 innings last season.

The news out of Norfolk isn’t all injury related. Ryan McKenna was assigned outright after clearing waivers at the start of the regular season. Danielle Allentuck of the Baltimore Banner tweets that the career-long outfielder has started taking reps at second base in an effort to expand his defensive flexibility. While McKenna has not appeared there in a game yet, successfully acclimating to the infield could give him a better chance of cracking a loaded Baltimore bench at some point during the season.

D-Backs Sign Chris Ellis To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed right-hander Chris Ellis to a minor league contract. The deal was announced by the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, with whom Ellis had been slated to pitch. Ellis is one of two players signed from the Ducks today, as veteran righty Dan Straily landed with the Cubs on a minor league deal.

Ellis, 31, is a former third-round draftee who has appeared in parts of three big league campaigns. Originally selected by the Angels out of Ole Miss, he was dealt to the Braves alongside Sean Newcomb in the Andrelton Simmons trade. Atlanta subsequently moved him to the Cardinals as part of a package for Jaime García, but Ellis peaked at Triple-A in the St. Louis system.

He made his big league debut with a lone appearance for the Royals in 2019. It’d take two more years for him to get a somewhat longer look, as he logged 29 1/3 frames between the Rays and Orioles. Ellis turned in a 2.15 ERA but had a below-average 19.6% strikeout rate and an elevated 11.6% walk percentage. He started two games for the O’s the following year, allowing five runs over 4 1/3 innings. He promptly underwent season-ending shoulder surgery and was outrighted off the roster at the end of that season.

Ellis sat out the entire 2023 campaign. He’s apparently healthy enough to get back on the mound and figures to join Triple-A Reno as non-roster rotation depth. The Diamondbacks have taken a few hits to their rotation in recent weeks. Eduardo Rodriguez will be out at least into late May because of a Spring Training lat injury. Ryne Nelson was knocked out for at least a few weeks by a comebacker. The biggest hit came earlier this week, as Merrill Kelly looks to be in for a lengthy absence due to a shoulder strain. That pushed Tommy Henry and Slade Cecconi into the starting five behind Zac Gallen, Jordan Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt.

Zack Gelof Placed On IL With Oblique Strain

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April 25: The A’s have now made it official, placing Gelof on the IL and recalling Hernaiz as the corresponding move.

April 24: A’s second baseman Zack Gelof has been diagnosed with a left oblique strain, tweets Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The second-year infielder is likely headed to the 10-day injured list.

Oakland hasn’t provided a specific timetable for Gelof’s return, nor have they announced the variety of the strain. Even Grade 1 strains (the lowest severity) usually require multiple weeks to recover. The A’s will be hoping for a relatively quick return for one of their most talented hitters.

Gelof, a second-round pick out of UVA in 2021, was arguably the A’s best player as a rookie. He earned his first MLB call around the All-Star Break. Gelof popped 14 homers with a .267/.337/.504 batting line in his first 300 plate appearances. While he’ll need more than a half-season of strong play to establish himself as an organizational building block, his performance was a rare bright spot for a team that limped to a 50-112 record.

The right-handed hitter has started this year slowly. He’s fanned 33 times in his first 101 plate appearances, hitting .196/.260/.337. Gelof drilled a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie in the ninth and secure a 2-0 win over the Yankees on Monday before an 0-4 showing yesterday. Abdominal soreness led the A’s to scratch him from tonight’s lineup and send him for testing that apparently revealed the strain.

Gelof had started all 24 games at second base before tonight. Manager Mark Kotsay went with Abraham Toro at the keystone this evening. Toro had otherwise played either third base or designated hitter this season. If the A’s stick with Toro at second base, they could turn to Tyler Nevin at the hot corner. They recently optioned 22-year-old infielder Darell Hernaiz, who hit .103/156/.103 in his first look at MLB pitching. He seems the most logical candidate to be called back up if the A’s want to add another infielder to the big league roster. Jessica Kleinschmidt tweets that Hernaiz was removed from tonight’s Triple-A contest, seemingly in preparation for a promotion.

Royals Release Mike Brosseau

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The Royals released infielder Mike Brosseau from his minor league contract last night. The move was announced by Kansas City’s Triple-A club in Omaha this morning.

Brosseau, 30, signed with Kansas City over the offseason. He appeared in 12 games this spring, hitting .156 without an extra-base knock. Those struggles carried into the regular season with Omaha. In 33 plate appearances with the Storm Chasers, he posted a .107/.212/.143 slash.

That’s clearly not the way in which Brosseau wanted to start his season. Still, he has enough of a track record that he might be able to find another minor league deal elsewhere. Brosseau appeared in the majors in each season between 2019-23. He was an above-average hitter off the bench for the Rays over his first two years and produced a solid .255/.344/.418 line in 70 games for the Brewers two seasons ago. Last year was a challenge, as he hit .205/.256/.397 in 29 games before Milwaukee released him. Brosseau subsequently landed with the NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines but only mustered a .191/.218/.297 slash in Japan.

Despite his recent struggles, Brosseau has a .249/.344/.455 mark over parts of five Triple-A seasons. While he hasn’t hit righties well in the majors, he’s managed a .265/.326/.464 line and 17 homers in 383 MLB plate appearances against left-handed pitching. That could attract attention from teams looking for righty-hitting infield depth.

Jared Walsh Elects Free Agency

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First baseman Jared Walsh has cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, according to the transaction tracker at MLB.com. The Rangers had designated the former All-Star for assignment over the weekend.

Walsh broke camp with Texas while Nathaniel Lowe was sidelined by an oblique injury. He collected hits in seven of his first eight games before falling into a slump. In 60 total plate appearances, Walsh hit .226/.317/.321 with one home run and a pair of doubles. He struck out 21 times, a huge 35% clip. Once Lowe made his return, Texas squeezed Walsh off the roster.

It has been three years since Walsh was an impact hitter for the Angels. He followed up a huge showing in the shortened season with a 29-homer campaign in 2021. He slumped to a .215/.269/.374 line the following year, striking out at a 30.4% clip in the process. Towards the end of the ’22 season, Walsh underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome.

While he was able to get back on the field, the left-handed hitter hasn’t rediscovered his previous form. He punched out nearly 39% of the time in 116 MLB plate appearances last season, leading the Angels to cut him loose. Since the start of 2022, he’s a .200/.263/.352 hitter in 169 games. He’s hit 20 homers in that time but has a 32.4% strikeout rate.

Walsh can look for other opportunities now that he’s back on the open market. The Red Sox are a speculative fit after losing Triston Casas to a broken rib, though they’re reportedly considering bringing C.J. Cron back to the organization. The Rockies are without a clear timeline for Kris Bryant to return from a back issue, while the Astros have gotten very little production out of their first base combination of José Abreu and Jon Singleton.

Rockies, Tyler Danish Agree To Minor League Contract

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The Rockies have signed Tyler Danish to a minor league deal, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He has been assigned to Triple-A Albuquerque. According to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (on X), the right-hander will start for the Isotopes tomorrow.

Danish had just signed with the Mexican League’s Olmecas de Tabasco last week. He started once, tossing six innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts and two walks. Colorado was evidently impressed with the 29-year-old’s form, as they signed him after that lone start. He’ll apparently get a chance to continue working out of the rotation in affiliated ball. Danish has worked almost exclusively from the bullpen since 2017, when he was in Triple-A with the White Sox.

Chicago initially selected Danish in the second round of the 2013 draft. He made cameos with the White Sox between 2016-18 but didn’t get his first extended MLB opportunity until 2022. After signing a minor league contract with the Red Sox, Danish logged 40 1/3 innings over 32 relief outings in Boston. He worked to a 5.13 ERA with a below-average 18.5% strikeout percentage, although he showed solid control and kept the ball on the ground at a solid 47.2% clip.

Danish hasn’t reached the majors since the Red Sox waived him at the conclusion of the ’22 season. He signed successive minor league deals with the Yankees and Nationals a year ago. Danish spent a couple months with Washington’s Triple-A affiliate, where he posted a 3.72 ERA in 29 innings out of the bullpen. That solid run prevention figure wasn’t supported by middling strikeout and walk numbers, though, and Washington decided against calling him up when he triggered an opt-out in his deal last July. He remained on the open market until his cameo in the Mexican League served as a springboard for his next minor league chance.

Colorado has had a predictably rough rotation. No team has gotten a worse ERA from their starting staff than the Rox’s 6.29 mark. Opening Day starter Kyle Freeland recently suffered an elbow strain that’ll cost him upwards of a month. That pushed Peter Lambert from long relief to the rotation, where he joins Austin Gomber, Cal Quantrill, Ryan Feltner and offseason pickup Dakota Hudson. Righty Noah Davis might’ve been the next man up, but he recently suffered a shoulder strain and is going on the minor league injured list (as reflected on the MLB.com injury tracker).

Merrill Kelly Expected To Miss More Than A Month

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The Diamondbacks placed Merrill Kelly on the 15-day injured list this evening due to a shoulder strain. After tonight’s 14-1 drubbing of the Cardinals, manager Torey Lovullo said the Snakes expected Kelly to be out for an extended stretch.

“We’re not looking in terms of weeks as what we had hoped for,” Lovullo admitted (link via Theo Mackie of AZ Central). “So I think the next step up is a month, more than that.” While the manager said that surgery is not under consideration, he was noncommittal when asked if Kelly would be back before the All-Star Break.

It’s another hit to a rotation that’s already without Eduardo Rodriguez until at least the end of May. Arizona’s biggest offseason signee suffered a lat strain in Spring Training. A recent setback resulted in a move to the 60-day IL. The D-Backs subsequently signed Jordan Montgomery to offset some of the impact of losing Rodriguez, yet Kelly’s absence adds more uncertainty to what is arguably the team’s weakest area: rotation depth.

Zac Gallen, Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt will hold the top three spots. Ryne Nelson opened the season in the rotation before taking a comebacker off his elbow and landing on the IL last week. Slade Cecconi and Tommy Henry seem like the top options for the #4/5 spots until Nelson returns. There’s very little experience behind them. Cristian Mena and Blake Walston are on the 40-man roster but have yet to make their MLB debuts. Humberto Castellanos and Konnor Pilkington have limited big league experience and are in the organization as non-roster players at Triple-A Reno.

No one from that group can be expected to come particularly close to matching Kelly’s reliability. The veteran righty has allowed fewer than 3.40 earned runs per nine while reaching 30 starts in each of the past two seasons. He’d gotten out to another excellent April, working to a 2.19 ERA in his first 24 2/3 frames.

The defending NL champs have had a pedestrian start overall, posting a 12-13 record. They’ll hope a talented lineup keeps them in the playoff mix until their rotation gets closer to full strength. Rodriguez and Kelly could be back well in advance of deadline season, but an extended absence from one or both may increase the pressure on the front office to upgrade the starting pitching this summer.

Rockies Notes: Bryant, Jones, Freeland, Gilbreath

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Kris Bryant’s frustrating Rockies tenure continued last week when the former MVP went on the injured list thanks to a lower back strain. The placement was retroactive to April 14, so he would be eligible to return tomorrow. That’s not going to happen, as manager Bud Black told reporters that the first baseman/outfielder hasn’t been cleared for baseball activities (X link via Patrick Lyons).

Black stressed that surgery is not on the table, but there’s no timeline for Bryant’s return. Injuries have been a recurring theme throughout his first three seasons in Denver. Bryant’s 2022 campaign was ended in August by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. He had multi-week absences for a heel contusion and a broken finger last year. The four-time All-Star has appeared in 135 games with Colorado, tallying 571 plate appearances. He owns a middling .249/.329/.391 batting line, including a .149/.273/.255 mark over 13 games this year.

Elehuris Montero has taken over as the primary first baseman with Bryant out. The 25-year-old has yet to take advantage of the opportunity. Montero entered tonight’s game against the Padres with a .210/.250/.226 slash in 68 plate appearances. Only the Astros have gotten less offensive production from their first basemen overall.

The corner outfield hasn’t been much better. Colorado’s left fielders entered play Tuesday with a .149/.237/.253 line, placing 28th (above the Dodgers and White Sox) by measure of wRC+. That’s mostly because of a tough start from Nolan Jones, who was arguably the team’s best player in 2023. After an impressive .297/.389/.542 showing last year, Jones has started the ’24 campaign with a .148/.219/.250 slash. He snapped an 0-26 skid with a base hit in tonight’s win over San Diego but was removed from the game in the seventh inning.

Colorado announced that Jones experienced some back stiffness (relayed by Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette). The Rox will hope it’s nothing more than a blip as the 25-year-old tries to recapture last year’s form. Jake Cave came off the bench to finish the game in left and could pick up a few more at-bats if Jones needs any time off.

Injuries have also been a story on the other side of the ball. Colorado went into the season without Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela as they rehab from Tommy John procedures. Kyle Freeland went on the shelf with an elbow injury last week. The southpaw indicated that testing revealed a small strain in his UCL but seemed optimistic about the prognosis, suggesting that doctors didn’t expect it to worsen (link via MLB.com’s Thomas Harding). The Rockies have floated a four-to-six week timeline for Freeland’s return.

In more positive news, lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath took a significant step forward in the recovery from his March 2023 Tommy John procedure. Colorado sent Gilbreath to Triple-A Albuquerque to begin a minor league rehab assignment. The results weren’t great — two runs on a hit and two walks with one out — yet it’s more notable that he was able to toss 18 pitches in his first affiliated game action since August 2022.

Now 28, Gibreath turned in solid results between 2021-22. He logged 85 2/3 innings with a 3.78 ERA, punching out a quarter of opponents. While he’s had below-average command, Gilbreath looked the part of a potential setup option before the surgery.

Francisco Alvarez Expected To Miss Roughly Eight Weeks After Thumb Surgery

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Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez underwent surgery to repair the UCL tear in his left thumb, the team announced. The club suggested the procedure tends to require eight weeks before a player can return to game action. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported shortly before the team announcement (on X) that the young catcher expected to be back at some point in July.

That’s at the longer end of the timeline which the team provided over the weekend. New York announced on Saturday that Alvarez was going under the knife. At the time, manager Carlos Mendoza loosely floated a recovery timetable in the six-to-eight week range, although he noted the team would have a clearer picture after the surgery.

New York initially placed Alvarez on the 10-day injured list. It’s likely that he’ll be moved to the 60-day IL once the team needs to open a spot on the 40-man roster. It’s a tough loss to the Mets lineup, as Alvarez is one of the team’s better power threats. He hit 25 homers last year as a 21-year-old rookie. He’d only connected on one longball in his first 59 plate appearances this season, hitting .236/.288/.364 over 16 games.

The Mets selected Tomás Nido onto the major league roster after the Alvarez injury. He’ll back up Omar Narváez for the foreseeable future. They’re the only healthy catchers on the 40-man roster. Narváez, who is likely to get the majority of the playing time, has struggled since signing a two-year free agent deal. The veteran hit .211/.283/.297 in 49 games last season. He’s out to a .179/.233/.214 start over his first 10 contests.

Robert Stephenson To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Angels reliever Robert Stephenson announced that he’ll undergo Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure next week (X link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). That’ll likely sideline him a few months into the 2025 season.

The Halos revealed last week that an elbow injury would cause Stephenson to miss all of 2024. While the team didn’t indicate at the time whether he’d need surgery, it’s not a surprising development. The righty said he’s hopeful of returning early next year, although the timeline for a Tommy John recovery is usually in the 14-16 month range.

Stephenson didn’t get to pitch during his first season with the Angels. He was delayed in camp by a sore shoulder. He reported the more significant elbow pain during his first (and only) rehab outing for Triple-A Salt Lake. That evidently revealed UCL damage, which has contractual ramifications. Stephenson’s deal contained a conditional option for the 2027 season that would go into effect if he suffered a serious elbow injury. While he’ll make $11MM annually over the next three years, the Angels now have a very modest $2.5MM club option for ’27.

Of course, the team would have preferred to have Stephenson on the Angel Stadium mound this year instead. They envisioned him as an anchor of their setup corps after his breakout with the Rays. The hard-throwing righty pitched to a 2.35 ERA with a 42.9% strikeout rate in 38 1/3 innings after Tampa Bay acquired him last June. He’ll miss all of this season, his age-31 campaign. The option year covers his age-34 season.

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