Justin Dunn To Undergo Shoulder Surgery
Reds right-hander Justin Dunn will undergo surgery to repair the anterior capsule of his throwing shoulder, the team informed reporters (including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com). The club didn’t provide a timetable but it’d seem likely he’ll at least miss the remainder of the 2023 season.
Dunn has been on the injured list for the entire season. The former first-round pick has been battling shoulder concerns for a couple years. Dunn had shoulder soreness (of which Cincinnati was aware at the time) even before the Mariners dealt him to the Reds in the Jesse Winker/Eugenio Suárez trade coming out of the lockout. He lost the first half of 2022 rehabbing, returned to make seven starts, then was shut back down last September.
The injuries persisted over the offseason, as Dunn continued to battle a strain in his rotator cuff area. The Reds sent him out on a minor league rehab stint a couple weeks ago. That raised some hope he might make it back to the mound, even if just in short stints, but he’s unfortunately still not past the shoulder woes.
Dunn owns a 4.44 ERA in 32 big league starts. He’s making $900K this year after avoiding arbitration. He’d likely be in line for the same amount next season if the Reds tender him a contract, though that doesn’t seem assured since Cincinnati would have to carry him on the 40-man roster all offseason. He’ll surpass the four-year service threshold this year and would be eligible for arbitration through 2025 if the Reds keep him on the roster.
Tigers Designate Bennett Sousa For Assignment
The Tigers announced they’ve designated reliever Bennett Sousa for assignment. That’s the 40-man move for Miguel Díaz, whose contract was selected last night.
Detroit just nabbed Sousa off waivers from Milwaukee on Tuesday. It’s possible his stay in the organization won’t result in an appearance, as the Tigers will now have to put him back on waivers. Having already gone from the White Sox to the Reds to the Brewers to Detroit via minor transactions this year, he could well be claimed again.
Sousa has pitched twice this season for Milwaukee and made 25 appearances for the ChiSox a season ago. The southpaw has allowed 24 runs in 23 big league innings, striking out 14 while walking 12. He owns a 2.98 ERA in parts of five minor league campaigns, though, striking out nearly 31% of opposing hitters in the process. Sousa still has a couple options remaining, meaning another team that claims him could keep him in Triple-A if they’re willing to carry him on the 40-man roster.
Reds Designate Alan Busenitz For Assignment, Reinstate Tejay Antone
The Reds announced a batch of moves between games of today’s double-header. Right-hander Tejay Antone was reinstated from the 60-day injured list, righty Lyon Richardson was recalled and righty Carson Spiers has been added as a substitute player. Righties Fernando Cruz, Hunter Greene and Ben Lively were placed on the COVID-19 injured list, while outfielder TJ Hopkins was optioned to Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Alan Busenitz was designated for assignment and righty Tony Santillan cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Louisville.
Antone is back on the MLB roster for the first time in over two years. The reliever was amidst a breakout 2021 showing, emerging as Cincinnati’s closer late in the season after throwing 33 2/3 innings of 2.14 ERA ball, before his UCL gave out. He underwent Tommy John surgery — the second of his career — and spent all of 2022 rehabbing.
The Reds expressed hope Antone would return by the start of the ’23 campaign. He suffered a setback over the offseason, announcing in February that he’d been diagnosed with a flexor strain. It didn’t require surgery but has cost him the first five months of the season.
Antone has been on a rehab stint since late July. He pitched twice at the club’s complex before heading to Triple-A Louisville for 12 appearances. He was solid if unexceptional for the Bats, turning in 12 innings of four-run ball while striking out 11 and walking five.
It’d be a lot to ask of Antone to immediately rediscover his 2021 form. Yet even average output would be welcome for a Cincinnati relief corps that ranks 15th with a 3.96 ERA and 25th with a 22.5% strikeout rate. The bullpen hasn’t been as catastrophic as it had been for the past two seasons, but it’s still a relative weak point on an offense-first Reds’ roster.
Spiers, 25, also steps into the relief corps, in his case for the first time. The Clemson product is in position to make his major league debut after turning in a 3.69 ERA through 83 innings as a swing option for Double-A Chattanooga. He’s striking out nearly 30% of opposing hitters against an elevated 11.3% walk rate.
Players designated as COVID substitutes are temporarily added to the roster. Spiers won’t assume a permanent spot on the 40-man roster and can be sent back to the minors without first clearing waivers. He’ll help cover for the trio of pitchers affected by an apparent virus spread in the clubhouse.
Busenitz will hit waivers in the next few days. The right-hander has been on and off the big league roster a few times since his contract was selected in mid-May. Busenitz has pitched just five times at the MLB level, allowing two runs in five innings during his first big league work since 2018. Over 43 frames with Louisville, he owns a 4.53 ERA with slightly worse than average strikeout and walk numbers.
Santillan clears waivers after being designated for assignment a few days ago. It’s his first career outright and he has less than three years of MLB service, so he’ll stick in the organization at Triple-A. If the Reds don’t add him back to the 40-man roster by the end of the season, he’d reach minor league free agency.
A’s Freddy Tarnok Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery
The A’s informed reporters that righty Freddy Tarnok underwent surgery to repair the labrum and cartilage in his right hip yesterday (relayed by Karl Buscheck). He’ll miss the rest of the season but is expected to be ready for Spring Training.
Tarnok was one of four young players acquired in last winter’s Sean Murphy trade. The hard-throwing hurler had made one big league appearance with the Braves a season ago. He was in the mix for a rotation spot on a rebuilding A’s club but battled injuries during his first year in Oakland.
The 24-year-old missed the first couple months with a strain in his throwing shoulder. He returned shortly before the All-Star Break. Tarnok started one of five appearances, logging 14 2/3 innings of eight-run ball. He struck out 14 and walked 11. Tarnok landed back on the IL a few weeks ago with what the team initially called a right calf strain. That discomfort was seemingly connected to the hip issue, requiring surgical repair.
Oakland will keep Tarnok on the IL through season’s end. They’ll have to carry him on the 40-man roster through the offseason. Assuming his recovery goes as planned, he could vie for a spot on a 2024 pitching staff that isn’t likely to be much more settled than this year’s iteration.
Nationals To Select Travis Blankenhorn
The Nationals are selecting first baseman/corner outfielder Travis Blankenhorn, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter link). He’ll take one of the extra spots on the September active roster. The club’s 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move tomorrow.
Blankenhorn, 27, has spent the season with Triple-A Rochester after signing an offseason minor league deal. He’s had a productive year, hitting .264/.363/.521 with 23 longballs. The left-handed hitter has walked at a strong 11.3% clip and hit for enough power to offset a slightly elevated 24.3% strikeout rate.
A former third-round pick of the Twins, Blankenhorn has gotten cups of coffee with Minnesota and the Mets at the big league level. He has 26 games of MLB experience between 2020-22. The Pennsylvania native has shown well against upper minors pitching, carrying a .262/.354/.487 line in a little more than 1000 career Triple-A plate appearances.
Blankenhorn is limited defensively but offers a bat-first option for manager Dave Martinez down the stretch. He’ll look to impress the front office enough over the next five weeks to stake a claim to a 40-man spot over the winter.
Angels To Select Kyren Paris
The Angels plan to promote middle infield prospect Kyren Paris from Double-A Rocket City, reports Taylor Blake Ward of the Sporting Tribune (on Twitter). He’ll take one of a number of open roster spots for the Halos.
Paris, whom Baseball America recently ranked the #5 prospect in the Angels’ system, was a second round pick out of a Bay Area high school in 2019. He has been among the better prospects in the organization since then even though the canceled 2020 minor league campaign combined with hamate and leg fractures to keep him from playing regularly until 2022.
The righty-swinging infielder spent most of last season in High-A, where he hit .229/.345/.387 over 89 contests. The Angels bumped him to Double-A late in the year. He has spent all of 2023 in Rocket City, putting up a .255/.393/.417 batting line through 514 trips to the plate. It’s a solid showing for a 21-year-old overall, although Paris’ profile is fairly volatile.
Prospect evaluators praise his athleticism and plus speed. Paris has stolen 44 bases and been caught just five times this year. He has connected on 14 home runs, 23 doubles and a triple despite a fairly slight 6’0″ frame. Scouting reports raise questions about whether he has the arm strength to stick on the left side of the infield but suggest he could be a good defensive second baseman.
At the same time, there are questions about Paris’ inconsistency making contact. He’s striking out at a near-30% clip in the minors. His youth and lack of professional experience have surely played a role, but Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote in June that Paris is always likely to have well below-average contact skills because of middling bat control.
Even for an organization that is very aggressive about promoting prospects, jumping Paris past Triple-A when he’s striking out so frequently in Double-A is a surprising decision. He’ll likely have some growing pains in his initial look at big league pitching. The Angels are content to live with potential early struggles to get Paris some experience as they close out another disappointing season.
Paris could step in as the primary shortstop with Zach Neto on the injured list. The Halos have been playing Luis Rengifo there. The utilityman is capable of moving around the diamond and could see increased outfield reps after Hunter Renfroe was moved on waivers.
Also taking a 40-man roster spot is right-hander Davis Daniel. The Angels reinstated him from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Salt Lake this afternoon. Daniel has missed the entire season with a shoulder strain. He was called to the majors for a point last summer but has yet to make his MLB debut. Los Angeles still has three open 40-man spots.
Tigers To Select Miguel Diaz, Recall Andre Lipcius For MLB Debut
The Tigers announced a pair of forthcoming promotions with active rosters expanding tomorrow. Detroit will select right-hander Miguel Díaz onto the 40-man roster and recall infielder Andre Lipcius from Triple-A Toledo. The 40-man roster remains at capacity after José Cisnero went unclaimed on waivers. As a result, they’ll need to make a corresponding move when selecting Díaz’s contract.
Díaz is up for the first time this season and his sixth MLB campaign overall. The 28-year-old reliever pitched in three contests for Detroit last season. He was non-tendered at year’s end but returned on a minor league pact. Díaz has pitched 57 innings with Toledo on the year, working to a 5.05 ERA. That’s largely because of an abnormally low 59.6% strand rate, as his underlying marks are better than the run prevention would suggest.
In addition to picking up 14 saves for the Mud Hens, Díaz is striking hitters out at a quality 28.6% clip. He has kept the ball on the ground on nearly half the batted balls against him. He’s issuing a few more walks than ideal, but the combination of whiffs and grounders will get him a middle innings spot in A.J. Hinch’s bullpen.
Now that he’s back on the MLB roster, Díaz will be eligible for arbitration next offseason. The Tigers could keep him around beyond this year if they’d like, though it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s again non-tendered after logging a few innings down the stretch.
It’s the first career promotion for Lipcius, who was initially added to the 40-man roster last winter. The right-handed hitter was a third-round pick out of Tennessee back in 2019. He has never been an elite prospect but has a solid minor league track record. Lipcius placed among the organizational top 30 prospects at Baseball America in each of the past two offseasons, though he wasn’t on the outlet’s midseason update of the farm system.
Lipcius has bounced around the diamond this year. He’s suited up at each of first, second and third base and in left field. He’s not regarded as a particularly good defender at any spot but has the ability to move around the diamond to keep his bat in the lineup. The 25-year-old is hitting .272/.363/.412 with 10 homers through 416 Triple-A plate appearances. While that’s roughly average overall production given the very hitter-friendly nature of the top minor league level, Lipcius has shown strong strike zone awareness. He’s walking at a 12.5% clip while striking out just 17.5% of the time.
Dodgers Likely To Select Kolten Wong
The Dodgers are planning to select veteran second baseman Kolten Wong onto the big league roster tomorrow, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register. He’ll take one of the expanded active roster spots. To fill the other role, Los Angeles will recall righty Emmet Sheehan from Triple-A (as first reported by Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 in Houston).
Wong joined the organization on a minor league pact a couple weeks ago. He didn’t spend much time in Triple-A. Wong played in just three games, collecting seven hits and a walk in 14 trips to the plate.
Before joining L.A., the veteran infielder had been struggling through the worst season of his career. Wong hit only .165/.241/.227 over 67 games with the Mariners. He struck out at a personal-high 21.3% clip and made hard contact on only around a quarter of batted balls — well below the 36% MLB average.
That offensive output would’ve been untenable even if Wong were continuing to defend at an elite level. Yet the two-time Gold Glove winner received slightly below-average grades from metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average over 513 1/3 innings. It was his second straight season with middling marks for his glovework, as Wong also played below his established level during his final year with Milwaukee.
While Wong’s glove has slipped as he’s gotten into his 30s, he was a productive hitter as recently as a year ago. The lefty-swinging infielder put up a .251/.339/.430 slash with 15 homers and 17 steals in 497 trips to the dish for the Brew Crew. The Dodgers will hope for something more closely approximating that form than his early-season work in Seattle.
Mookie Betts has played second base for the Dodgers lately. Wong can sometimes factor in when there’s a need for Betts to move back to the outfield. The Dodgers have Amed Rosario, Enrique Hernández and Chris Taylor as middle infield options off the bench, though that entire group hits from the right side.
There’s no financial risk for L.A. in bringing Wong up. The Mariners are on the hook for virtually all of his $10MM salary. The Dodgers will pay him just the prorated portion of the $720K league minimum for whatever time he spends on the MLB roster. He’ll be a free agent at year’s end.
While there’s no need for an active roster move, Los Angeles will need to make a corresponding 40-man transaction when Wong is officially promoted. The club filled the 40-man this afternoon by reinstating Shelby Miller from the 60-day injured list. The veteran righty has been out since late June because of a nerve issue in his neck. Miller has turned in 30 innings of 2.40 ERA ball out of Dave Roberts’ bullpen.
Reinsdorf: No Intention To Sell White Sox
The White Sox stayed in-house with their new front office, finalizing the hire of Chris Getz as their general manager this morning. Rumors that the Sox would turn to their AGM began almost immediately after ownership dismissed team president Ken Williams and GM Rick Hahn last week.
Promoting from within is nothing new. Jerry Reinsdorf has developed a reputation as one of the most loyal owners to his top employees. That willingness to stay the course has led to increasing levels of frustration from a good chunk of the fanbase, as the team has made the playoffs on just three occasions since its 2005 World Series win.
That has led to some clamoring for Reinsdorf to sell the team, but he made clear in a chat with reporters this afternoon he has no intention of doing so. “I’m going to couch this so nobody writes that I thought of selling,” Reinsdorf said (links via Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune and Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). “Friends of mine have said: ‘Why don’t you sell? Why don’t you get out?’ My answer always has been: ‘I like what I’m doing, as bad as it is, and what else would I do?’ I’m a boring guy. I don’t play golf. I don’t play bridge. And I want to make it better before I go.”
Reinsdorf went on to downplay speculation about the franchise’s long-term home. Earlier this month, Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business wrote that Sox ownership had considered the possibility of leaving Guaranteed Rate Field when the club’s lease expired after the 2029 season. Hinz wrote that a relocation to Nashville was among the possibilities and suggested there was “some chatter among team insiders” that the 87-year-old Reinsdorf could look to sell the club.
This afternoon, Reinsdorf addressed Hinz’s report. “Ever since the article came out, I’ve been reading that I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville. That article didn’t come from me. But it’s obvious, if we have six years left … we’ve got to decide what’s the future going to be? We’ll get to it, but I never threatened to move out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the (Illinois) Sports Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.”
Over the weekend, Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote that the Sox were considering three possibilities if they did decide to leave Guaranteed Rate Field: near the United Center, Soldier Field or Arlington Heights. There’ll presumably be more information on the stadium outlook in the coming months, but it’s not the most pressing issue for Reinsdorf or his new GM.
Turning to the on-field product, Reinsdorf called this “absolutely the worst season” of his 43-year ownership tenure. He expressed hope for a rather quick turnaround, pointing to Getz’s familiarity with the organization as a reason for hiring him so quickly after firing Williams and Hahn. That continuity will carry over to the dugout, as Getz confirmed that manager Pedro Grifol will get a second season at the helm (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN).
As for the roster, Reinsdorf expressed broad optimism in the existing core (second Sullivan link). He pushed back against the need for a huge overhaul and indicated the much-maligned organizational culture had already improved. Reinsdorf implied that some external acquisitions — presumably players who have since been traded — “contributed” to their clubhouse discord. While Getz suggested no one on the roster was truly untouchable, Reinsdorf didn’t sound like an owner eager to sign off on another rebuild.
In some respects, that’s an understandable course of action. The AL Central likely projects as one of the league’s weakest divisions yet again. The Sox decided against trading Dylan Cease, Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jiménez or Andrew Vaughn at the deadline. They generally targeted upper minors help in the deals they did make. There should also be plenty of payroll space going into the offseason.
If the Sox buy out their options on Liam Hendriks and Tim Anderson, they’d enter the winter with roughly $84.5MM in guaranteed commitments. An arbitration class headlined by Cease, Vaughn and Michael Kopech could add around $20MM. Bringing Anderson back would tack on $13MM (the difference between the $14MM option value and a $1MM buyout). The Sox opened this season with a player payroll north of $180MM, so there should be a decent amount of room to add from the middle tiers of free agency.
At the same time, Getz and his front office will face an uphill battle in fixing what is currently a 53-81 roster. They dealt away a good chunk of their bullpen at the deadline. The rotation behind Cease is full of questions. Korey Lee is unestablished as an MLB catcher. The Sox would need at least one starting middle infielder and would have to address both spots if they move on from Anderson. They’d have a hard time finding a taker for Yoán Moncada but need better production out of third base.
It’s a lot to address even before considering the clubhouse dynamics which Reinsdorf minimized. Getz should have a fair bit of flexibility during his first offseason at the helm, but it’ll be difficult to fix all the weaknesses in one winter.
Braves, Adam Kolarek Agree To Minor League Deal
The Braves have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Adam Kolarek, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. The veteran southpaw had recently elected free agency after being waived by the Mets.
Kolarek had split the 2023 campaign between the Dodgers and Mets. He has made five MLB appearances, working six scoreless innings. Kolarek has spent the bulk of the season in Triple-A, pitching 35 1/3 innings of 2.55 ERA ball. He has a roughly league average 23% strikeout rate in that time but has walked an uncharacteristic 13.5% of opposing hitters.
Now 34, Kolarek has pitched in parts of seven big league seasons. He was a quietly effective lefty specialist early in his career with the Rays and Dodgers. His performance over the past few seasons has been more mixed, as he struggled for Oakland between 2021-22 before this year’s small-sample success. The sidearmer doesn’t throw hard and has struggled mightily against right-handed hitters, but he’s held lefty swingers to a .184/.234/.250 line in his major league career.
By signing him before September 1, the Braves keep open the possibility of Kolarek factoring into their playoff picture. Players only need to be in an organization by the end of August to be eligible for the postseason. Even players who aren’t on the 40-man roster at the start of September can get onto the playoff roster via application to the league office for an exemption to replace an injured player, which happens a few times each year.
In the interim, the Braves can keep Kolarek at Triple-A Gwinnett as they evaluate their bullpen before October. A.J. Minter and Brad Hand are the two southpaws currently in Brian Snitker’s relief corps.