Retirements: Stewart, Nieuwenhuis
A couple of former role players are leaving the game…
- Longtime catcher Chris Stewart has called it quits, Andy Martino of SNY tweets. Stewart entered the pros as a 12th-round pick of the White Sox in 2001 and went on to play with them as well as the Rangers, Yankees, Padres, Giants, Pirates, Braves and Diamondbacks from 2006-18. Although Stewart hit just .230/.297/.291 with nine home runs in 1,334 major league plate appearances, he earned the trust of plenty of teams behind the plate. The 37-year-old threw out 28 percent of would-be base stealers and garnered high marks from Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average metric.
- Long Island Ducks outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis has also retired, the team announced. The former Met, 31, gave up baseball on the four-year anniversary of his personal masterpiece – a three-home run game against the Diamondbacks on July 12, 2015. Nieuwenheis was a third-round pick of the Mets in 2008 who also went on to see MLB action with the Brewers and Angels. He combined to hit .221/.311/.384 with 31 homers and 20 stolen bases over 1,116 plate appearances from 2012-17. Nieuwenhuis spent a greater amount of time at the Triple-A level, batting .253/.348/.441 with 49 HRs and 27 steals in 1,616 PA.
Yankees To Activate Luke Voit; Latest On Stanton, Betances
The Yankees will activate first baseman Luke Voit from the 10-day injured list Saturday, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweets. The club cleared room for Voit on Friday by optioning infielder Breyvic Valera to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
It’s not apparent from looking at the Yankees’ major league-best 58-31 record, but long-term injuries to core players have haunted them all season. Voit, however, is returning to their lineup in short order after going to the IL on July 2 (retroactive to June 30) with an abdominal strain. Before that, Voit was continuing his emerge as one of the majors’ best offensive first basemen with a .280/.393/.509 line and 17 home runs in 349 plate appearances. The Yankees primarily relied on Edwin Encarnacion and DJ LeMahieu at first in Voit’s absence.
Unfortunately for New York, outfielder Giancarlo Stanton won’t return to its lineup in the near future. Stanton, who has dealt with a series of injuries this year and played in just nine games, went back to the IL on June 26 with a PCL strain in his right knee. At the time, general manager Brian Cashman cast doubt on the possibility of Stanton returning in July. Stanton still hasn’t resumed baseball activities, according to Hoch, so a July return does indeed look out of the question. The Yankees have gotten through Stanton’s latest injury with the aid of a hot streak from his replacement in left field, Brett Gardner.
While the Yankees’ offense has barely had Stanton this season, the team’s bullpen hasn’t gotten a single pitch from right-hander Dellin Betances. The four-time All-Star setup man first dealt with a bone spur in his shoulder before suffering a lat injury, though there is progress to report: Betances is slated to begin a throwing program Monday, per Hoch. The solid season-long performances of Adam Ottavino, Zach Britton and Tommy Kahnle have helped the Yankees build a sturdy bridge to closer Aroldis Chapman even without Betances.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/12/19
Keeping track of the latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Giants have signed infielder Cristhian Adames to a minor league contract, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Adames had been with the Cubs until this past Monday, when they released him after injuries limited him to 75 plate appearances with their Triple-A affiliate. Also a former Rockie and Marlin, the 27-year-old Adames has hit a respectable .288/.343/.423 in 1,582 trips to the plate at the minors’ top level. On the other hand, Adames put together a miserable .206/.283/.278 line in 343 big league PA with the Rockies from 2014-17.
Andy MacPhail Discusses Phillies’ Deadline Approach
Philadelphia came into 2019 mired in a seven-year playoff drought, but an aggressive winter made the club a popular pick to turn around its fortunes this season. With the second half of the campaign now underway, the good news for the Phillies is that they are in possession of a playoff spot. The bad: It’s by the slimmest of margins.
Owners of an underwhelming 47-44 record and losers of 22 of 36 – including a 4-0 home defeat against the Nationals on Friday – the Phillies are tied with the Brewers for the NL’s last wild-card position. Earning a place in a one-game playoff appears to be Philly’s most realistic path to the postseason, as the team’s sputtering and sitting a lofty seven back of the first-place Braves in the NL East.
The Phillies have obvious weak points, including throughout their pitching staff, but it doesn’t seem they’re lining up as aggressive buyers with the July 31 trade deadline approaching. President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail spoke about the Philllies’ status with Todd Zolecki of MLB.com and other reporters Friday, admitting he and his front office cohorts “don’t believe” the roster’s one trade away from turning into a World Series winner.
MacPhail acknowledged that an extremely impressive run of baseball to end July could sway him toward a bolder deadline approach. As of now, though, MacPhail’s expecting “to be a little judicious and careful about what talent’s walking out the door” in trades. That suggests MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak won’t be dealing any of the Phillies’ very best prospects away this summer, at least not for short-term help. However, the Phillies are willing to take advantage of their financial clout to better their roster. They could land upgrades by taking on salary in exchange for giving up “lesser talent,” as Zolecki writes. MacPhail certainly isn’t ruling it out.
“Our ownership has been pretty clear, and they’ve demonstrated by their actions, that salary is not something that is going to be … it has to make some sense, but that’s not going to be something that’s going to hold us back,” MacPhail said.
While it remains to be seen what the Phillies will do at the deadline, their 2019 is looking a bit too similar to their disappointing 2018 right now. The Phillies got off to a solid start then, even sitting atop the NL East from July 6 through Aug. 12, before petering out and finishing two games below .500. Acquiring several veteran stopgaps (Wilson Ramos, Asdrubal Cabrera, Justin Bour, Jose Bautista and others) couldn’t save the Phillies’ season a year ago. We’ll find out in the next two-plus weeks the caliber of help they’ll bring in this summer in an effort to return to the postseason.
Latest On Francisco Cervelli
JULY 12: Cervelli now says that he does hope to return to working behind the plate. (Post via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on Twitter.)
“Saying that I quit from my catcher responsibilities is inaccurate,” he writes. “My hope is to catch again.”
Cervelli goes on to explain that he is merely staying out from behind the dish for the present as “part of the process of recovery from several concussions that have forced me to stop and think about my health beyond my baseball years.” The long-time receiver says he loves the game too much not to try to “reinvent” himself and keep plugging.
There’s certainly some ambiguity here. Whether he was prompted to clarify his stance based upon contractual concerns or a genuine desire to get back behind the plate, there’s no doubting Cervelli’s heart. At this point, though, it seems uncertain at best whether he will again don the mask in the majors.
JULY 7: Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli is giving up his career-long position because of chronic concussion issues. The 33-year-old told Dejan Kovacevic of DKPittsburghSports.com that he will no longer catch.
“That’s enough,” Cervelli stunningly revealed to Kovacevic. “This time is different. I can’t live like this.”
Cervelli has been on the injured list since suffering a concussion May 25. It’s at least the sixth he has incurred since his major league career began with the Yankees in 2008, Kovacevic notes. It’s unclear which position Cervelli will take next, though he emphasized to Kovacevic it was his decision – not the Pirates’ – to leave behind catching. Cervelli added he hopes to begin a rehab assignment at the Triple-A level in the coming weeks.
Cervelli, a Pirate since 2015, had been a respectable starting catcher for the club when he was healthy enough to man the position. He was at his best in 2015, a season in which he logged a tremendous 5.9 fWAR in 130 games. That compelled Pittsburgh to extend Cervelli in May 2016, when it awarded him a three-year, $33MM guarantee. Cervelli lived up to that pact as recently as last year, hitting .259/.378/.431 (125 wRC+) with 2.6 fWAR in 404 plate appearances and 104 games. Thanks in part to injuries, though, he got off to a slow start this season. As of now, he owns a .193/.247/.248 line (47 wRC+) across 123 PA.
With no obvious position anymore and Cervelli’s contract set to expire at season’s end, it seems likely this will be his final year with the Pirates. Speculatively, if he does return in 2019, he could try his hand as a reserve corner infielder. The Pirates have one of the majors’ premier first basemen, Josh Bell, and a capable starter at third in Colin Moran. Regardless of whether Cervelli shifts to either of those spots, it doesn’t seem he’ll garner much more playing time this year, and will now cede his customary position to Elias Diaz and Jacob Stallings.
Max Muncy: Not A Fluke
Max Muncy rose from obscurity last year to become one of the majors’ most improbable success stories. The Athletics jettisoned Muncy in April 2017, a half-decade after they used a fifth-round draft pick on him. The Dodgers then scooped up Muncy on a minor league contract that has turned into one of the greatest low-risk deals in recent memory.
Muncy didn’t take a single at-bat with the Dodgers in his first year with the franchise, instead thriving for the entire season at the Triple-A level, but he broke out as a premier major leaguer in 2018. Muncy slashed a remarkable .263/.391/.582 (162 wRC+) with 35 home runs in just 481 plate appearances, all while seeing significant action at first and third base. The all-around package was worth an astounding 5.2 fWAR – the same amount Braves superstar Freddie Freeman totaled in 226 more trips to the plate.
Muncy was a good-not-great A’s prospect who wasn’t a remotely successful big leaguer prior to last season. As such, questions abounded over what he’d do for an encore this season after his eye-opening breakout in 2018. Three-plus months into the season, Muncy hasn’t quite been the force he was a year ago, but that’s a compliment to what he accomplished then – not an indictment on his current production. Having just earned the first All-Star nod of his career, Muncy is emphatically showing he’s not a fluke.
The 28-year-old has already accounted for 3.0 fWAR, good for a 20th-place tie among position players, through 359 trips to the plate. Once again, his offensive output has been fantastic, as the lefty’s slashing .265/.365/.529 (134 wRC+) with 22 homers. Muncy’s power has dropped in comparison to last year – his ISO has fallen from .319 to .265, and his launch angle has sunk from 17.8 degrees to 12.6 – though he has still been one of the game’s most imposing threats at the plate. Statcast backs up Muncy’s bottom-line production, evidenced in part by a .379 expected weighted on-base average that actually outdoes his .377 wOBA. Muncy’s xwOBA ranks in the league’s 90th percentile, while his hard-hit percentage (61st), expected batting average (73rd) and expected slugging percentage (83rd) are also comfortably above average.
Muncy, however, hasn’t achieved his resounding success the same way he did last year. A more aggressive approach (his swing rate’s up 5 percent since 2018) has helped lead to more swings and misses and fewer walks, yet Muncy is making more contact and striking out less. Unlike last season, Muncy’s doing more of his damage against right-handed pitchers than lefties. Once again, though, he has had little trouble with either, as shown by his 143 wRC+ versus southpaws and a 131 mark against righties.
For the second straight year, Muncy’s proving capable of helping his loaded team in multiple ways. The Dodgers, unafraid to heavily deploy players at two or more positions, have given Muncy between 23 and 46 appearances at first, second and third this year. He has risen to the challenge by offering plus defense at each position, per Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating. Adding up his work at all three spots, Muncy has accounted for 10 DRS and a 2.4 UZR.
With Muncy’s help last year, the Dodgers won their sixth straight NL West crown and their second consecutive pennant. With Muncy’s help this year, they’re shoo-ins to take home their seventh division championship in a row. More importantly, he may aid in the club’s first World Series title since 1988. Not bad for a player who’s only two years removed from joining the Dodgers off the scrapheap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
A Breakout Reliever Emerges For Rays
Rays reliever Emilio Pagan was not the headliner in a three-team offseason trade featuring Tampa Bay, Oakland and Texas. That honor went to infielder Jurickson Profar, whom the Athletics acquired from the Rangers in the swap. However, between Pagan and Profar – the two major leaguers involved in the deal – it’s the former who has been the more valuable player so far in 2019.
Although Pagan just debuted in the majors in 2017, he’s already something of a journeyman. Pagan spent his rookie season as a useful piece of the Mariners’ bullpen before going to the Athletics in a trade prior to the 2018 campaign. While Pagan wasn’t that effective in his lone year with the A’s, he has emerged as one of the Rays’ go-to relievers since they recalled him from the minors in mid-April.
Pagan, a 28-year-old right-hander, has recorded a 1.75 ERA with 11.75 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9 in 36 frames, making him one of the majors’ premier relievers in the run prevention and K/BB categories. Pagan also ranks 11th among all pitchers in weighted on-base average against (.221) and an even better third in xwOBA (.220), trailing only elite relievers Josh Hader and Kirby Yates in the latter department.
Pagan’s transformation into a great reliever, at least this year, has come with a change in pitch mix. He has always leaned on two offerings – a four-seam fastball and a slider – but the usage of each has changed significantly since last year. Pagan’s throwing his four-seamer 55.5 percent of the time, down from 64.5 in 2018, and has upped his slider usage from 29.4 percent to 40.6 in the same span. Both pitches have produced excellent results to this point, especially his fastball. Hitters have mustered an awful .200 wOBA/.156 xwOBA against it, thanks in part to an increase in velocity. The pitch averaged 93.8 mph in 2018, but it has shot to 95.4 this season. Unsurprisingly, the whiff percentage on Pagan’s four-seamer has risen substantially since 2018, having gone from 25.8 to 34.9 percent.
As you’d expect, with his strikeout rate and velocity at an all-time high, Pagan has fooled more hitters this year. Pagan’s chase rate is almost 4 percent better than his career mark, hitters have made 4-plus percent less contact against him than usual, and his swinging-strike rate is roughly 2.5 percent superior to his lifetime mean. While the average reliever has drawn swings and misses at an 11.8 percent clip this season, Pagan’s at 17.1 – good for ninth in the majors.
When batters have made contact against Pagan this season, it hasn’t been as easy to elevate the ball. At a piddly 24.9 percent, Pagan posted the majors’ last-ranked groundball rate among relievers from 2017-18. That number has elevated to an even 40.0 since he joined the Rays. With help from his uptick in grounders, home runs have become rarer against Pagan, who rated last among relievers in HRs per nine (1.60) over his first two seasons. He’s now surrendering just one per nine, which checks in well south of the league average (1.34).
It’s true Pagan is benefiting from a .224 batting average on balls in play and a 90.2 percent strand rate, two figures that could be difficult to sustain. But he’s handling both same-handed and lefty hitters, and Statcast is quite bullish on his work. At this point, Pagan looks like one of the majors’ most underrated additions of last winter and someone who could help pitch the playoff-contending Rays to the postseason.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Tigers, Nicholas Castellanos Expected Extension In Spring
It doesn’t appear Tigers right fielder Nicholas Castellanos is going to get a contract extension before the July 31 trade deadline, which means the impending free agent is likely to find himself in another uniform by Aug. 1. Castellanos said in March, a few weeks before the season started, that he and the Tigers hadn’t engaged in extension talks. That may have been true at the time, but it turns out the two sides regarded a new contract as “likely” for a short period in the spring, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reports.
The length and value of the extension the Tigers and Castellanos thought they’d strike are unknown, but it was the team that “pulled back,” per McCosky. Castellanos hired the Boras Corporation to represent him April 19, and it doesn’t seem as if the Tigers and the agency have had any meaningful talks since then.
Considering Detroit made a spirited effort to trade Castellanos in the offseason, it’s not surprising the rebuilding club was reluctant to pull the trigger on an extension in the spring. Castellanos’ previous agent even publicly stated in January that his client would prefer a trade, though general manager Al Avila couldn’t net an offer to his liking. Avila admitted then that trying to find a taker for Castellanos had been “frustrating.”
Seven months later, the frustration has likely persisted for Avila in regards to Castellanos. The 27-year-old’s offense has gotten rolling of late after a slow start to the season, but he hasn’t done much to boost his trade stock. Castellanos is a good hitter who doesn’t offer much in the field, which has been the case since he broke out at the plate in 2016. Through 366 plate appearances this season, Castellanos has slashed .282/.342/.468 (113 wRC+) with nine home runs. Notably, there’s almost almost no gap between his weighted on-base average (.344) and expected wOBA (.346).
Diligent work to improve as an outfielder actually has paid off to a degree for Castellanos, though he has still only managed minus-5 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-5 Outs Above Average and a minus-4.0 Ultimate Zone Rating in the grass in 2019. The former third baseman’s best fit, at least if a playoff-contending team acquires him for the stretch run, may be as a designated hitter. The trouble is that Castellanos’ output this year hasn’t been much better than that of an average DH (110 wRC+).
Given his flaws, Castellanos is unlikely to fetch much for the Tigers prior to the deadline. Assuming a trade does come together, though, Castellanos will be on track to reach free agency after the season with zero chance of a qualifying offer hurting his earning power. Once he hits the open market, Castellanos will try to build on the $9.95MM he’s making this season.
Lone Star Notes: Correa, Diaz, Bregman, Pence, Smith
Major League Baseball’s two Texas-based teams officially got the second half of the season underway Thursday. Led by another terrific performance from right-hander Lance Lynn, who struck out 11 in seven shutout innings, the Rangers coasted to a 5-0 victory over the Astros. Both teams’ rosters were missing some key components because of injuries. Here’s the latest on a handful of those players…
- Astros shortstop Carlos Correa and infielder Aledmys Diaz could start rehab assignments next week, according to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. A fractured rib sent Correa to the injured list May 27, halting a great start to the season for the 24-year-old star. Diaz (left hamstring strain) went to the IL the same day as Correa. Their absences have had significant consequences for a few of the Astros’ other infielders. With neither Correa nor Diaz around to man short, the Astros have often turned to franchise third baseman Alex Bregman, leaving the hot corner for first baseman Yuli Gurriel and first for Tyler White.
- Speaking of Bregman, he departed in the third inning Thursday after a hard grounder off the bat of Shin-Soo Choo took an unkind hop and struck Bregman in the chin. Bregman left the field bloodied and received four stitches, manager A.J. Hinch said (via McTaggart). It’s unclear whether Bregman will sit out any time going forward. The club replaced him at short with Myles Straw.
- Rangers designated hitter/outfielder Hunter Pence restarted a rehab assignment at the Double-A level Thursday, T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reports. Pence played DH and will likely do the same Friday. After that, the Rangers hope to activate him over the weekend, per manager Chris Woodward. The 36-year-old Pence’s renaissance season came to a pause when he hit the IL on June 17 with a Grade 2 right groin strain. Pence then suffered a setback in his first rehab game July 1, causing the team to briefly shut him down.
- More from McTaggart, who writes that reliever Joe Smith could rejoin the Astros’ bullpen as early as Sunday if he doesn’t incur any setbacks in the meantime. The 35-year-old right-hander has spent the past several months working back from the ruptured left Achilles tendon he suffered in a December workout. Smith, who’s in the last season of a two-year, $15MM contract, logged a 3.74 ERA with 9.07 K/9 and 2.36 BB/9 across 45 2/3 innings in 2018.
Report: Cardinals “Poised” To Renew Will Smith Pursuit
Giants closer Will Smith looks like one of the majors’ most obvious trade chips as the July 31 deadline nears. The left-handed All-Star has already drawn interest from multiple teams, and St. Louis is among those that will join the fray for Smith, according to Jon Morosi of MLB.com. As long as they remain in playoff contention, the Cardinals “are poised to pursue” Smith this month, Morosi writes.
Targeting Smith isn’t anything new for the Cardinals, who made an effort to acquire him early last winter. They and the Giants couldn’t come to an agreement, though, nor did San Francisco find an offer to its liking elsewhere. With a Smith pickup out of the question, the Cardinals addressed the left side of their bullpen by signing free agent Andrew Miller to a two-year, $25MM contract. Miller’s 3.81 ERA and 4.72 FIP in 28 1/3 innings since then are much closer to serviceable than great, but he has recorded 13.66 K/9 against 3.81 BB/9, thus helping him bounce back from a rough April.
The 30-year-old Smith has struck out upward of 13 hitters per nine as well, but he has walked about half as many as Miller (1.98) over 36 1/3 frames. Smith has also pitched to a stupendous 1.98 ERA/2.02 FIP and stymied left- and right-handed hitters alike, having limited the former to a .200 weighted on-base average and the latter to a .218 wOBA. Adding to his appeal, Smith has converted all 23 of his save opportunities, and he has done it on an affordable $4.225MM salary. So, even though Smith’s not under control past this season, the Giants shouldn’t have much trouble netting a solid return for the sought-after late-game ace.
In the Cardinals’ case, reeling in Smith would help them replace heat-dealing closer Jordan Hicks, who underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery two weeks ago. Former starter Carlos Martinez has emerged as Hicks’ successor since then, but picking up Smith would potentially enable the Cardinals to deploy the lethal Martinez in a multi-inning setup role. Regardless, Smith, Miller, Martinez, John Gant, Giovanny Gallegos and John Brebbia would make for a fierce game-ending setup – one that could help pitch the Cardinals to the playoffs.
The Redbirds aren’t in playoff position at the moment, having trudged through a letdown of a first half in which they went 44-44. However, they’re still just two games behind the NL Central-leading Cubs and a pair back of a wild-card spot. With a realistic shot at qualifying for the postseason, the Cardinals look as if they’re lining up as buyers.