Marlins Select Archie Bradley
The Marlins made some roster moves today, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Right-hander Archie Bradley has been selected to the roster, with Huascar Brazobán optioned in a corresponding move. To make room for Bradley on the 40-man roster, lefty Trevor Rogers has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Bradley reaches the majors for the first time this year. It’s now nine consecutive seasons for the former top ten pick. He had a strong run of high-leverage relief from 2017-20 with the Diamondbacks and Reds. His results have gone in the wrong direction over the past two seasons. Bradley is coming off a career-worst year with the Angels, tossing 18 2/3 innings of 4.82 ERA ball while missing extended chunks of action with an elbow fracture and a forearm strain.
That down year kept the 30-year-old on the open market until after Opening Day. He signed a minor league contract with Miami in mid-April. He’s since pitched nine games (including one five-inning start) for Triple-A Jacksonville, tossing 18 1/3 frames. While Bradley has allowed 13 runs, only six have been earned. He’s fanned 16 while walking five.
Miami plugs him into a bullpen that has been solid. They’re 15th in ERA (4.17) but fourth in strikeout rate (24.9%) and third in ground-ball percentage (45.5%). That’s played a role in the club’s 17-5 record in one-run contests, which has them seven games above .500 despite a -27 run differential.
Rogers moves to the 60-day IL after sustaining an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. He’s been out since April 20, initially landing on the shelf with a biceps strain in his throwing arm. Rogers made a pair of rehab starts but had a scheduled outing over the weekend scrapped.
The IL transfer doesn’t have much of an impact on Rogers’ eligibility. It backdates to his initial placement, so he’s eligible to return as early as next Wednesday. However, Craig Mish of SportsGrid tweets that he’s not likely to be reinstated when first permissible because of the shoulder discomfort.
Juan Soto Has Found His Stride After Slow Start
Early in the year, there was a decent amount of trepidation about Juan Soto. The Padres superstar was still reaching base at an excellent clip but was clearly performing below his established level. Soto carried a .202/.373/.384 line across 126 plate appearances through the end of April. That came on the heels of a .236/.388/.390 showing in 52 games last summer after one of the biggest deadline trades in MLB history.
For most players, those numbers wouldn’t be cause for concern. While the batting averages weren’t eye-catching, consistently excellent walk tallies kept the on-base mark at an elite level. Among qualified hitters, Soto ranked 12th in the majors with a .382 OBP between the time of the trade and the start of this May.
By Soto’s standards, though, that production was a disappointment. He’d been a top-five hitter in MLB virtually from the moment he was promoted as a 19-year-old five seasons back. For him to hit only 11 homers with a .388 slugging percentage through his first 81 games as a Padre was a surprise. A .254 average on balls in play certainly didn’t do him any favors, but the three-time Silver Slugger also seemed relatively out of sorts. In mid-April, he told Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post he felt he was pulling off too many pitches, resulting in weak ground-ball contact to the pull side.
As the season has gone on, Soto has more consistently found his power stroke. He caught fire in May, hitting .333/.482/.632, resulting in a 202 wRC+ that ranked third among qualified hitters that month. While he’s slowed down in June, he still carries a .302/.433/.524 line over the past six weeks. He’s drawn 29 walks against 28 strikeouts while hitting 13 doubles and five home runs over his last 36 contests.
That’s essentially the kind of production we’ve come to expect from Soto. He’s a career .282/.422/.520 hitter in just under 3000 plate appearances. He’s played essentially at that pace for a month and a half. The beginning of May is an arbitrary endpoint, of course. There’s nothing more meaningful about May 1 than there would be about April 26. It’s nevertheless encouraging to see Soto performing at his typical Nationals level for an extended stretch.
Soto is still pulling the ball on the ground a little more often than he had in prior seasons. That’s not ideal given his April comments about getting out in front of too many pitches. When he puts the ball in the air, though, he’s hitting it harder than he did at the start of the year.
The contact quality was the only potential concern. His strike zone discipline has never wavered. Soto sustaining this level will be crucial for a club that still hasn’t kicked things into gear. His hot stretch coincided with a Manny Machado injury and a dismal recent run of play from Xander Bogaerts. The offense as a whole has yet to get going, leaving the Padres with a 31-34 record heading into tonight’s series opener with the Guardians.
Fortunately for San Diego, few teams in the National League have separated themselves from the pack. The Padres are looking up at a 9.5-game deficit on the Diamondbacks in the NL West, which will obviously be difficult to close, even with more than three months remaining on the schedule. However, they’re only two and a half games behind the Giants and Brewers for the Senior Circuit’s last Wild Card spot. Aside from the Dodgers, no team in the Wild Card mix has a better run differential than San Diego’s +19 figure. Despite the mediocre start, there’s still plenty of time for the Friars to play their way into the postseason picture.
Soto should be a central part of that effort. His start in San Diego raised some eyebrows, but he’s looked much more like himself over the last six weeks. Continued production like that should quiet questions about whether his camp had made a grave mistake turning down a reported $440MM extension offer from Washington before the trade. He has a chance to make last summer and this April look like a blip. He looks on his way to doing so.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Trevor Story Targeting August Return To Infield, Potential DH Work In July
The Red Sox have been without Trevor Story all season. The middle infielder underwent internal brace surgery to repair the UCL in his throwing elbow in January. He’s been on the 60-day injured list since Spring Training.
Fortunately, it seems Story is progressing well in his rehab. The two-time All-Star met with the Boston beat today and reiterated he expects to be back in the second half (audio transcript via WEEI). He expressed confidence he could return to the MLB infield by August and suggested it’s possible he could be back as a designated hitter by next month.
Breaking back in at DH isn’t uncommon for hitters in this situation since swinging can put less stress on the elbow ligaments than throwing does. The Phillies, for instance, have used Bryce Harper as a DH since early May as he works back from last November’s Tommy John surgery. It’s possible Harper eventually gets back to playing defense — either at first base or in the corner outfield — but Philadelphia expedited his return by putting him in a bat-only role.
Story, of course, isn’t the same caliber of hitter as Harper. He’s a solid but not elite offensive player who’s coming off a .238/.303/.434 showing during his first season in Boston. That puts more pressure on him to provide the club some defensive value when he’s able, though the Sox would presumably be happy to welcome him back a few weeks earlier as a DH option.
The 30-year-old worked exclusively at second base last season. That was in deference to Xander Bogaerts, so the longtime Rockies shortstop is likely to move back to the left side of the infield once healthy. Story said today he’d been “expressive” about his desire to reclaim shortstop after Bogaerts signed with the Padres and that the organization is on board with him returning to his initial position.
Boston has given the majority of the shortstop reps to Enrique Hernández in Story’s absence. Hernández has struggled offensively for a second consecutive season, hitting .228/.296/.356 in 243 trips to the plate. Public metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average have also panned his defensive work, which isn’t too surprising given his lack of consistent experience at the position before this season. The Sox have given sporadic playing time to Yu Chang and Pablo Reyes too. Neither player is hitting well and Chang has been out since late April when he fractured the hamate bone in his left hand.
Second base hasn’t been any more settled. Enmanuel Valdéz tailed off dramatically after a hot start and was optioned a few days ago. Christian Arroyo is the starter for now but carries a .258/.289/.409 slash in 98 plate appearances. The organization’s hope that offseason trade acquisition Adalberto Mondesí could pick up the slack in Story’s absence appears to have been dashed. He’s still working back from an April 2022 ACL tear and seems without a clear return timetable.
All that makes Story’s health a pivotal question for the club. Adding to the group via trade could also be under consideration for the front office if the team can hang close enough to the playoff picture to make it worthwhile. After tonight’s extra-inning loss to Colorado, Boston dropped back below .500 at 33-34. There’s virtually no chance of winning the AL East at this point and they’re 4 1/2 games back of the Astros (with the Blue Jays and Angels also above them) for the final Wild Card spot.
Rockies Notes: Blackmon, Bryant, Rolison
The Rockies put designated hitter Charlie Blackmon on the 10-day injured list yesterday after x-rays revealed a fracture in his right hand. That injury is expected to keep him out of action for four to six weeks, writes Manny Randhawa of MLB.com.
Blackmon was first hurt a week ago when he was hit by a pitch on June 3. He played through the issue for a few days before the break became clear over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, the intervening week was a struggle for the veteran hitter, who collected just three hits in 21 trips to the dish from June 4 onwards.
Prior to being hit by the pitch, Blackmon carried a .277/.356/.447 batting line over 216 trips to the plate. That’s slightly above-average offense even after accounting for his hitter-friendly home park. That marked a decent step up relative to last year’s .264/.314/.419 showing, largely thanks to a strikeout rate that he’d cut from 18.9% to 13.4%.
While he’s certainly not back to his peak, Blackmon had been one of the better hitters in a middling Colorado lineup. He’ll now be out past the All-Star Break and potentially into August, leaving the Rox down another of their veteran players. Colorado has already been without Kris Bryant for nearly two weeks thanks to a bruised left heel.
Foot issues have plagued Bryant off and on since he signed a seven-year free agent deal over the 2021-22 offseason. Plantar fasciitis in his left foot cost him a good chunk of the ’22 season, cutting his year short by the end of July. Bryant acknowledged he’s not entirely past that issue, telling reporters yesterday the plantar fasciitis still “comes and goes” (link via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post).
Bryant indicated he has yet to begin baseball activities and is without a clear timetable for a return. He said this year’s issue hasn’t inhibited him to the extent that last year’s problems had, though it’s still concerning that the foot has given him continued trouble. It’s possible it’s had a deleterious effect on Bryant’s performance, as he hasn’t made his typical level of impact as a Rockie.
The former MVP is hitting .263/.346/.374 in 50 games this season. He carries a .283/.358/.420 slash in just under 400 trips to the dish in a Colorado uniform. Bryant’s strike zone discipline has remained strong, but he’s had surprisingly light power numbers (ten homers, .137 ISO) despite playing half his games at altitude.
Colorado has been hit with the injury bug on the pitching side as well. Things have been particularly tough for former first round draftee Ryan Rolison. The Ole Miss product likely would’ve made his MLB debut by now if not for shoulder surgery that cost him all of 2022 and the first couple months of this season. The Rox reinstated Rolison from the 60-day injured list at the end of May, seemingly opening the door for him to factor in this summer.
While that might still be the case, the 25-year-old is again dealing with shoulder concerns. He left a Triple-A start on June 2 after just one inning because of discomfort. General manager Bill Schmidt said today that Rolison has returned to the club’s Arizona complex to rehab (via MLB.com injury tracker). It’s not clear how long this latest setback is expected to keep him out of game action, but it represents another obstacle for a pitcher trying to crack the back of a flexible Colorado rotation.
Picollo: Royals Have No Intention Of Trading Salvador Perez
The Royals head into tonight’s series opener with the Reds sitting on a dismal 18-47 record. They’ve dropped six straight, and a surprising five-game win streak from the A’s has pulled Oakland within two games of K.C. in the race to the bottom of the league.
Kansas City is clearly ticketed for another summer as a deadline seller. While the Royals have a few interesting trade chips who seem likely to change uniforms within the next two months, franchise backstop Salvador Perez is not among them. Royals general manager J.J. Picollo went on record to quash speculation about a Perez deal, saying the organization doesn’t “have any intention of trading Salvy and it’s not something we are looking to do” (link via Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star).
Last week, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported the Royals were open to packaging other veteran players in trade discussions involving reliever Aroldis Chapman. That fueled some loose speculation about Perez’s potential involvement, though that always seemed far-fetched for myriad reasons. Picollo stated that another team reached out to inquire about the backstop’s availability but downplayed the importance of that (via Anne Rogers of MLB.com).
Even if the front office had a desire to move Perez, they’d face a number of hurdles. Foremost is his full no-trade protection as a 10-and-5 player (one with ten years of MLB service, the past five of which have come with his current team). “He completely controls the destiny and he has told us over and over again he wants to be a Royal his whole career,” the GM said.
Perez could kill any trade talks from the get-go. Even if he reconsidered moving on from the only franchise he’s ever known, a deadline trade would be tough to engineer. Significant midseason deals for catchers are rare, with teams often apprehensive about an incoming backstop adjusting to an unfamiliar pitching staff on the fly.
There’d also be a noteworthy financial component to any Perez trade. He’s playing this season on a $20MM salary. He’ll take home a matching figure next year and is guaranteed $22MM for 2025. There’s also a $2MM buyout on a $13.5MM club option covering the ’26 campaign. All told, Perez would have a little under $54MM in guaranteed money still remaining on the deal at the deadline.
That’s a hefty figure for another club to take on midseason. Trades of players with significant contracts can be easier to put together over the offseason, when clubs have greater budgetary flexibility and/or more time to ship out money in other deals. Kansas City would likely have had to eat some of that money to facilitate a trade. The front office probably isn’t eager about doing so considering Perez’s importance to the franchise as a seven-time All-Star and anchor of their 2015 World Series club.
To his credit, the 33-year-old has continued to produce offensively even as the lineup around him has floundered. Perez is hitting .273/.308/.502 through 247 trips to the plate. His 13 home runs are the most in the majors for a catcher. As has been the case throughout his career, Perez has gotten below-average marks for his pitch framing from public metrics. He’s clearly respected for his unquantifiable work with the pitching staff, however, and the Royals have kept him behind the plate while primarily moving MJ Melendez to the corner outfield.
Even with Perez all but a lock to stick in Kansas City past August 1, Picollo and his staff should be able to make some moves. Chapman is as likely as anyone in the sport to be traded, perhaps early in deadline season. Closer Scott Barlow, arbitration-eligible through 2024, could be on the move. Hard-throwing righty Josh Staumont could intrigue some clubs if healthy (he’s currently out with a neck strain), while players like Nicky Lopez and Matt Duffy might have modest appeal to teams trying to add a depth infielder.
Mariners Select Ty Adcock
The Mariners announced they’ve selected right-hander Ty Adcock onto the big league roster. Reliever Penn Murfee hit the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation in a corresponding move. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Seattle transferred Robbie Ray from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.
Adcock, 26, gets his first major league call. A college teammate of George Kirby at Elon, Adcock also joined the Seattle organization in the 2019 draft. Seattle selected him in the eighth round and moved him to relief in pro ball after a college career as a two-way player. At the time, Baseball America praised a fastball that could touch 98 MPH and an intriguing slider.
The 6’0″ righty hasn’t logged a ton of professional experience. The pandemic cancelation of 2020 and an April ’21 Tommy John procedure prevented him from throwing his first minor league inning until last August. Adcock logged just eight innings late in the year, then started this season in High-A Everett. He tossed seven scoreless frames there to earn a bump to Double-A Arkansas in early May.
Through 13 innings in the Texas League, the North Carolina native has a stellar 13:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s up to 22 punchouts and only three free passes in 20 combined innings of 1.35 ERA ball on the year. That was enough for the M’s to look past his lack of professional experience to plug him directly into the MLB bullpen. While he makes the jump past Triple-A for now, he has three option years remaining and could eventually find himself back in the minors as Seattle juggles its relief corps moving forward.
Murfee just returned from an IL stint last week. He’d missed around five weeks battling a flexor mass strain in his forearm. During his first appearance back yesterday, the 29-year-old righty again experienced arm discomfort. Manager Scott Servais said this afternoon that Murfee was headed for an MRI (relayed by Curtis Crabtree of Fox 13). He’ll miss at least two weeks as the club tries to determine the source of the injury.
Ray is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last month. There was never any question he’d move to the 60-day IL when Seattle needed to create a 40-man vacancy. Ray will spent the rest of the year on the IL but has to be reinstated at the start of the offseason.
MLBTR Poll: Will Lack Of Extension Interest From Cubs Lead To Marcus Stroman Trade?
A little over six weeks from the trade deadline, contending clubs are beginning to identify target areas for midseason upgrades. Pitching is always in demand in the middle of the summer. D-Backs’ GM Mike Hazen has already gone on record about his desire to upgrade the staff; virtually every playoff contender surely feels they could use another arm or two.
On the rotation front, few candidates stand out more than Cubs’ righty Marcus Stroman. The sinkerballer has a $21MM player option for next season. Given his current trajectory, re-testing free agency seems the likeliest course of action. Stroman is pitching well enough he’s on pace to handily top a one-year, $21MM contract as a free agent. He’s angled publicly for an extension that’d take the opt-out off the table, though recent comments from the player cast doubt on that possibility.
Over the weekend, Stroman tweeted the Cubs currently “(weren’t) interested in exploring” an extension despite multiple attempts from his camp at Roc Nation Sports to initiate talks. He followed up in a chat with Patrick Mooney of the Athletic, saying “there’s been nothing from (the Cubs’) side. No offers, no talks, really, at all.” While there were reports that preliminary conversations had taken place during Spring Training, those evidently haven’t progressed. Stroman made clear the lack of negotiations haven’t resulted in any animosity towards the organization and stated he’s still hopeful talks will get off the ground.
“Yeah, I have no problem with them. There’s no problem. It’s just, like I said, there’s been no offer. There’s been no extension talks,” he told Mooney. “My agent and I have been very open, pretty much multiple times a month, saying, ‘Hey, let’s sit down. Let’s talk. Let’s get something done.’ There’s been nothing from their point (of view). … Yeah, I would truly love to stay a Cub. You never know how it’s going to play out. I’m also very aware of that, too. That tweet wasn’t like a shot.”
The situation has some parallels with last summer’s Willson Contreras saga. Contreras had angled publicly for an extension for months but the Cubs never seemed keen on getting a long-term deal done. Chicago wound up holding onto the catcher beyond the trade deadline but allowed him to depart in free agency, recouping a compensatory draft choice once Contreras declined a qualifying offer.
Of course, the team isn’t obligated to pursue an extension simply because the player is seeking one. Chicago wasn’t alone in having questions about Contreras’ defense. There’d similarly be risk in a long-term investment for a pitcher who recently turned 32. One can make a reasonable case for the Cubs preferring to go in different directions in both instances.
Yet the lack of extension talks raises real questions about whether Stroman will be donning a Cub uniform in August. Few viable rotation trade candidates are having as productive a season. Over 14 starts, Stroman has pitched to a 2.42 ERA across 85 2/3 innings. His 21.7% strikeout rate is narrowly a career high and almost exactly league average for a starting pitcher. Average swing-and-miss is more than enough for Stroman, who’s one of the sport’s premier ground-ball specialists at his best.
This season, the 5’7″ hurler has kept the ball on the ground 61% of the time opponents have put it in play. That’s back in line with the peak numbers he posted as an upper mid-rotation arm for the Blue Jays. Stroman’s grounder rate had dipped to a “merely” very good 50-54% range between 2019-22. It has been elite again this year, tops among the 102 starting pitchers who’ve tallied at least 50 innings.
Stroman’s arsenal isn’t much different than it was in prior seasons. He’s averaging a career-low 91.3 MPH on his sinker, while the velocity on his breaking ball and cutter aren’t much changed. He’s more consistently locating at the bottom of or below the strike zone than he had over the past few seasons, however. Hitters are having a tough time elevating the ball, diminishing the amount of damage they can do. No starter has allowed a lower slugging percentage than Stroman’s .277 mark.
Even in the absence of eye-popping whiff rates, Stroman would be an upgrade for any contender seeking starting pitching help. He’s at least better than any team’s back-of-the-rotation options and would be a strong candidate for a postseason start elsewhere.
A playoff appearance looks unlikely to come with the Cubs this year. Chicago enters play Monday carrying a 28-37 record. The dismal NL Central picture leaves them within shouting distance — they’re six and a half games behind the first-place Pirates — but they’ve dropped 24 of 38 since the start of May. They haven’t looked much better than last year’s 74-88 club. Projections from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference and Baseball Prospectus place their playoff chances between 8% and 14%. The season isn’t over, but the Cubs are longshot contenders as things stand.
The Chicago front office isn’t going to pull the plug yet. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said last week the team was still uncertain about its deadline direction, no surprise with a month and a half of intervening games to potentially crystalize their position (link via Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). Selling looks likelier than buying barring a surge from the team in the next few months.
If the Cubs are reluctant to engage in extension discussions with Stroman, there’s little reason not to put him on the trade market if they fall out of contention. Whether the Cubs made the right call in holding onto Contreras last summer is debatable, but they at least weren’t left empty-handed when he departed. The QO ensured they’d receive a compensatory pick, which landed 68th overall in the upcoming amateur draft.
That fallback isn’t available in Stroman’s case. The collective bargaining agreement prohibits players from receiving multiple qualifying offers in their careers. Stroman received and accepted the QO from the Mets over the 2020-21 offseason. That prevents the Cubs from making one. If Stroman tests free agency and signs elsewhere, Chicago wouldn’t get any compensation.
The player option complicates his trade status somewhat. Teams considering a Stroman deal would have to anticipate him declining and going to the open market. He’s not a true rental, though, as the option looms as a potential downside for clubs in the event his production collapses or he gets injured down the stretch. That’ll diminish the return the Cubs could’ve expected were Stroman simply in the final year of his contract. Still, there should be plenty of interest from contenders given his current form and a potentially lackluster trade market.
There aren’t many slam-dunk rotation trade candidates. The likes of Lucas Giolito, Jordan Montgomery and Jack Flaherty could wind up being available. Perhaps things eventually become dire enough for the Phillies or Padres to entertain moving Aaron Nola or Blake Snell, respectively. Eduardo Rodriguez has a tougher version of the Stroman option issue; the Detroit southpaw is guaranteed three years and $49MM beyond this season but can opt out at the end of the year. Corbin Burnes, Dylan Cease and Shane Bieber are all controllable beyond 2023.
Stroman may wind up being one of the summer’s biggest names to watch. Unless the Cubs change course — either by playing well enough to get back into the postseason mix or showing a genuine interest in an extension — he figures to find his name in plenty of rumors during deadline season.
What does the MLBTR readership anticipate happening? Will Stroman still be a Cub two months from now?
(poll link for app users)
Will The Cubs Trade Marcus Stroman This Summer?
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Yes. 72% (2,324)
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No; they'll play out the season and reevaluate next winter. 15% (489)
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No; eventually they'll talk extension. 12% (395)
Total votes: 3,208
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Pete Alonso To Miss 3-4 Weeks With Bone Bruise, Sprain Of Left Wrist
The Mets announced that first baseman Pete Alonso has been diagnosed with a bone bruise and a sprain of his left wrist, with the expected return timeline as three to four weeks. He has been placed on the 10-day injured list as part of a slate of moves that also involves right-hander Stephen Nogosek being designated for assignment. Infielder Luis Guillorme and left-hander Zach Muckenhirn were recalled in corresponding moves.
Additionally, the club announced that catcher Tomás Nido has been outrighted to Triple-A Syracuse and that right-hander Edwin Uceta underwent surgery to address a torn meniscus in his left knee, with an expected return timeline of eight weeks.
Losing Alonso is the biggest development for the Mets, of course. Reports emerged this morning suggesting MLB’s home run leader was headed to the IL. He’ll be out beyond the minimal stay, though the silver lining is that he didn’t suffer a fracture. Alonso’s absence likely opens first base for rookie Mark Vientos, who’s in the lineup at designated hitter tonight against Pittsburgh starter Rich Hill. Outfielder Mark Canha slides over to first base this evening.
Nogosek has logged action for the Mets in four different seasons. He’s worked 57 1/3 innings across 33 career relief outings, posting a 5.02 ERA. The Oregon product has tallied a career-high 25 2/3 frames this season, pitching to a 5.61 ERA with middling peripherals. He’s striking hitters out at a slightly below-average 21.2% rate while walking nearly 12% of opponents. He’s surrendered six home runs, one of which came off the bat of Marcell Ozuna in last night’s disheartening extra-inning loss to the Braves.
The 28-year-old Nogosek has exhausted his minor league option years. The Mets had no choice but to take him off the 40-man roster to remove him from the big league club. They’ll have a week to deal him or look to run him through waivers. If another team rolled the dice on a claim, they’d also have to keep him in the majors or designate him for assignment.
Nido went through the DFA process earlier in the week. The Mets reportedly explored trade scenarios after taking him off the roster but apparently didn’t find sufficient interest. They waived him instead. He’s gone unclaimed, in part on account of a $1.6MM salary this season and a guaranteed $2.1MM next year.
The Mets DFA Nido just before he was set to surpass five years of major league service. That meant that while he can technically decline the minor league assignment in favor of free agency, he’d have to relinquish that guaranteed money to do so. With other clubs apparently unwilling to match that deal, Nido is accepting the assignment to Syracuse, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. He’ll stick in the organization as a defensive depth option but no longer occupies a 40-man roster spot.
As for Uceta, he joined New York at the start of April on a waiver claim from the Pirates. He made one three-inning appearance at the big league level and pitched twice more in Triple-A. He initially landed on the injured list with an ankle sprain but apparently suffered a knee injury while rehabbing. The Mets could move him to the 60-day IL if they need a 40-man roster spot at some point, though the recent DFA’s of Nido and Nogosek have already dropped that tally to 38.
William Cuevas Signs With KBO’s KT Wiz
The KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-hander William Cuevas, the team announced (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). He’ll receive a $450K salary. In a corresponding move, the Wiz released righty Beau Sulser.
Cuevas, who pitched in the majors between 2016-18, had been in Triple-A with the Dodgers after signing a minor league deal in April. He started nine of 11 appearances for their Oklahoma City affiliate, working to a 6.14 ERA through 44 frames. Cuevas had a decent 22.1% strikeout rate but struggled with home runs in the difficult Pacific Coast League setting. The Dodgers granted him his release yesterday, which Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman notes (on Twitter) coincides with the recent signing of veteran lefty Mike Montgomery to a non-roster deal.
While the jump from an American to an Asian professional league could lead to an adjustment for some players, Cuevas shouldn’t have much trouble getting acclimated. He signed with this same Wiz club leading into the 2019 season and spent three-plus years there. Cuevas was a reliable rotation fixture through 2021, helping them win the Korean Series during his third year. An elbow injury led the Wiz to let him go last May. Now that he’s healthy, they’ll bring him back to a familiar setting.
Sulser signed with the Wiz last November. The 29-year-old made nine starts but struggled to a 5.62 ERA through 49 2/3 innings. He struck out a fairly modest 15.8% of opponents against a quality 6.3% walk rate. The KBO club moved on quickly once the chance to reunite with Cuevas presented itself.
As a result, Sulser returns to the open market and could seek out minor league landing spots. He has ten games of major league experience, all coming last season between the Pirates and Orioles. Sulser has a 5.17 ERA over 179 1/3 frames at the Triple-A level.
Jack Baldschun Passes Away
Former big league reliever Jack Baldschun passed away this week after a battle with leukemia, according to an obituary from the Malcore Funeral Home in Green Bay. He was 86 years old.
An Ohio native, Baldschun entered the minor league ranks in 1956 as a signee of the Washington Senators. He’d spent four years in the Reds’ organization thereafter before moving to the Phillies during the 1960 Rule 5 draft. That set the stage for the right-hander to make his big league debut with Philadelphia in April 1961.
Baldschun took an immediate key role on the Phils’ pitching staff. He logged 99 2/3 innings over 65 relief appearances as a rookie, leading the majors in pitching appearances. Baldschun posted a 3.88 ERA, then followed up with consecutive sub-3.00 showings. He pitched to a 2.96 ERA over 112 2/3 frames of relief in 1962, then posted a career-best 2.30 mark in 113 2/3 innings the next season.
While he didn’t quite keep his ERA below 3.00 for a third straight year, Baldschun tossed a personal-high 118 1/3 frames of 3.12 ball in 1964. He fell just shy of the century mark the following season, working to a 3.82 ERA over 99 innings.
Over the stretch between 1961-65, only Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Perranoski and Stu Miller absorbed a heavier workload out of the bullpen. Baldschun posted a cumulative 3.18 ERA and, while the save wouldn’t become an official statistic until the end of the decade, he’d be retroactively credited with 59 of them.
After the ’65 season, Philadelphia traded Baldschun to the Orioles. Baltimore would flip him back to Cincinnati within a matter of days, packaging him in one of the most impactful trades in MLB history. Baldschun joined starter Milt Pappas and outfielder Dick Simpson in heading to the Reds for Frank Robinson. The future Hall of Famer would go to win an MVP in his first season in Baltimore and help the club to a pair of World Series titles.
Baldschun never really found his form with the Reds, pitching to a 5.25 ERA in parts of two seasons. He signed with the Padres going into 1969 and pitched for two years there. He retired after the 1970 campaign, having appeared in parts of nine MLB seasons. Altogether, Baldschun pitched 704 innings over 457 games as one of the top bullpen workhorses of the 1960s. He posted a 3.69 ERA, struck out 555 and finished 267 contests.
MLBTR sends our condolences to Baldschun’s family, friends and loved ones.