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Athletics Place J.B. Wendelken On Injured List

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The Athletics have placed right-handed reliever J.B. Wendelken on the injured list and recalled righty James Kaprielian, per a team announcement. The club didn’t provide a reason for Wendelken’s IL placement, nor will it announce why it sent him to the IL, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

If Wendelken ends up missing an extended period, it would be a tough blow to the AL West champion A’s bullpen as they head into the postseason. After all, Wendelken has joined Liam Hendriks, Jake Diekman, Joakim Soria, Yusmeiro Petit and Jordan Weems, among others, to form an outstanding Oakland relief corps this year.

Now 27 years old, Wendelken has been a highly effective member of Oakland’s bullpen since 2017. He has given Oakland 25 innings of 1.80 ERA/3.06 FIP ball with 11.16 K/9, 3.96 BB/9 and a 46 percent groundball rate in 2020.

Rangers Designate Nick Goody, Select Andrew Romine

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The Rangers have designated right-hander Nick Goody for assignment and selected infielder Andrew Romine, the team announced.

Goody, whom the Rangers claimed from the Indians last winter, has posted a couple of respectable seasons since he debuted in 2015 with the Yankees. He logged a 3.54 ERA/4.62 FIP with 11.07 K/9 and 4.87 BB/9 over 40 2/3 innings in Cleveland in 2019, for instance, but wasn’t able to keep that momentum going this year in Texas. As a Ranger in 2020, the 29-year-old Goody allowed 12 runs (11 earned) on 14 hits and totaled 13 strikeouts against eight walks over 11 frames.

Romine, 34, signed a minors pact with the Rangers on Sept. 15. The former Angel, Tiger and Mariner has amassed 1,323 major league plate appearances, but he has hit just .235/.291/.301 and hasn’t seen action in the bigs since 2018.

Blue Jays Activate Nate Pearson, Designate Wilmer Font

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5:16pm: Toronto has designated Font for assignment, Nicholson-Smith tweets.

3:39pm: The Blue Jays are activating right-hander Nate Pearson from the 10-day injured list and removing fellow righty Wilmer Font from their roster, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet was among those to report. It’s not clear what the Blue Jays will do with Font, but he’s out of minor league options, so they can’t send him down without possibly losing him.

Pearson, one of the game’s elite pitching prospects, hasn’t taken the mound since Aug. 18 because of elbow tightness. It’s obviously a relief for him and the team that he’s ready to return just over a month after that, as elbow problems often lead to far longer absences.

The 24-year-old Pearson made four appearances, all starts, for Toronto before going on the IL, but the club’s set to break him back in as a reliever, per Nicholson-Smith. Despite averaging 96.1 mph on his fastball, Pearson has struggled to a 6.51 ERA/7.65 FIP with 7.71 K/9 and 6.61 BB/9 in 16 1/3 innings this season.

Font, 30, has been a liability for Toronto in 16 1/3 innings this year. He owns a bloated 9.77 ERA (with a much more palatable 4.77 FIP) and 8.27 K/9 against 4.96 BB/9. Font has been victimized by a .448 batting average on balls in play against, though he also ranks toward the bottom of the league in several important Statcast categories.

Cardinals Place Carlos Martinez On IL With Oblique Strain

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The Cardinals have placed right-hander Carlos Martinez on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain and recalled righty Johan Oviedo, per a team announcement.

With oblique injuries often leading to weeks-long absences, this figures to end the season for Martinez, who has logged all five of his 2020 appearances out of the Cardinals’ rotation after working from their bullpen a year ago.

While Martinez was a high-end starter earlier in his career, opposing offenses have smashed the 29-year-old for a 9.90 ERA/6.88 FIP in 20 innings this season. Martinez has easily posted career-worst strikeout and walk rates along the way, having logged 7.65 K/9 and 4.65 BB/9, respectively. And Martinez has averaged under 93 mph on his fastball – far below the 95-96 mean he has typically recorded.

The Cardinals, who are 27-26, do have their next five starters lined up, with Kwang Hyun Kim, Jack Flaherty, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Adam Wainwright and Austin Gomber scheduled to take the mound in their upcoming matchups. Regardless of how their season ends, though, the Cardinals will owe Martinez $11.5MM in 2021. That would have looked like a bargain price not long ago, but that’s not the case with the way he has performed this year.

Latest On Max Fried

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SEPT. 24: Great news for the Braves: Fried will “certainly be ready” for the start of the playoffs, general manager Alex Anthopoulos told MLB Network Radio.

SEPT. 23: Braves southpaw Max Fried exited his start against the Marlins on Wednesday after one inning because of a tweaked left ankle, the team announced. Fried previously missed time with a left-side muscle spasm in his lumbar spine.

With the Braves having clinched yet another NL East title and looking for their first World Series title since 1995, a significant Fried injury could be a catastrophe for a team whose rotation has had to overcome multiple problems during the season. The Braves are already set to enter the playoffs without Mike Soroka (Achilles) and Cole Hamels (shoulder), who haven’t contributed nearly as much as expected this year and won’t pitch again in 2020.

In a rotation devoid of two of its highest-profile arms, Fried has been a saving grace and one of the NL’s premier starters. It took until Wednesday for Fried to allow a home run, when the Marlins teed off on him for two in an inning of work, though he has been brilliant for the most part. The 26-year-old owns a 2.25 ERA/3.09 FIP with 8.04 K/9, 3.05 BB/9 and a 53 percent groundball rate in 56 innings.

Michael Conforto Done For Season

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The Mets have placed outfielder Michael Conforto on the injured list with hamstring tightness and recalled infielder Luis Guillorme, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to report. This will end Conforto’s season.

Plenty has gone wrong this year for the Mets, who entered the campaign with playoff aspirations but have since stumbled to a 25-31 record. But the Mets do boast one of the majors’ best offenses, ranking second in the league in wRC+ and 11th in runs, and Conforto’s a key reason for the success they’ve had at the plate. The 27-year-old was a quality hitter for the Mets from 2015-19, but he found another gear this season with a line of .322/.412/.515 (157 wRC+) and nine home runs across 233 plate appearances.

Conforto earned a prorated $9.7MM this season, and going forward, he has one more year of arbitration eligibility left. The Mets and soon-to-be team president Sandy Alderson will have to decide in the offseason whether to extend Conforto, who’s open to the possibility, trade him or let him play out his final year of team control.

Scott Oberg Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

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Rockies reliever Scott Oberg underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery to help alleviate blood clots earlier this week, Nick Groke of The Athletic reports. The Rockies aren’t yet sure whether Oberg will pitch again.

Thoracic outlet surgery could be a devastating blow to any pitcher’s career, but it’s especially worrying that blood clots continue to serve as a major hindrance to Oberg. The 30-year-old, who hasn’t pitched at all this season, previously underwent three surgeries to address blood clots.

Oberg, of course, was downright excellent out of the Rockies’ bullpen from 2018-19. After combining for 114 2/3 innings of 2.35 ERA ball with 9.03 K/9 and 2.75 BB/9 during that span, Oberg inked a three-year, $13MM extension with Colorado last offseason. Oberg hasn’t taken the mound since then, though, and the hope now is that he’ll return to the mound as soon as possible. However, Oberg’s certainly facing even more of an uphill battle in the wake of such a serious procedure.

Rockies Select Tommy Doyle, Place David Dahl On 45-Day IL

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The Rockies announced that they’ve selected right-hander Tommy Doyle and placed outfielder David Dahl on the 45-day injured list with a right shoulder strain.

Doyle, 24, was a third-round pick of the Rockies in 2017 who posted impressive production in the minors during the previous two seasons. He reached High-A ball for the first time in 2019 and logged a 3.25 ERA/3.61 FIP with 12.0 K/9 and 3.25 BB/9 over 36 innings. Since then, FanGraphs (No. 17), MLB.com (No. 19) and Baseball America (No. 23) have ranked Doyle among Colorado’s 25 best prospects. According to FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, the hard-throwing Doyle could make it as a setup man in the majors.

This is the latest in an ever-growing line of injuries for the 26-year-old Dahl, who has missed an exorbitant amount of time since he debuted in 2016. Dahl sat out almost a month earlier this year with back problems, and he’ll now see his season end now just a week and a half after returning. While Dahl has been an above-average offensive contributor throughout his career, he had an uncharacteristically awful 2020 at the plate, hitting .183/.222/.247 with no home runs in 99 trips.

Greg Bird Tested Positive For COVID-19

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The Phillies signed Greg Bird to a minor league contract Sept. 15, but the first baseman tested positive for the coronavirus upon physical entry after that, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Consequently, the Phillies did not place Bird on their 40-man playoff roster. Fortunately, though, none of the Phillies at the team’s alternate site were exposed to Bird.

The Phillies signed Bird as a potential insurance policy at first base, where starter Rhys Hoskins hasn’t played since Sept. 12 because of a UCL injury in his left arm. It now seems likely the Phillies, who are battling for a playoff spot, will have to go the rest of the regular season without Hoskins. They’ve used a mix of Alec Bohm, Phil Gosselin and Jay Bruce in Hoskins’ place, while Jean Segura has taken over for Bohm as their primary third baseman and Scott Kingery has slid in for Segura at second.

Meantime, it’s very much up in the air whether Bird will ever play for the Phillies, though the main hope for now is that he’ll be able to recover well from this illness. Once a well-regarded Yankees prospect, Bird burst on the scene in 2015, but a series of health issues have derailed his career since then. The 27-year-old took 522 trips to the plate from 2017-19 but could only muster a .194/.287/.388 line, and Bird didn’t stick with the Rangers for long after they signed him over the winter.

Carter Kieboom Done For Season

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The Nationals have placed infielder Carter Kieboom on the 10-day injured list with a left wrist contusion and recalled right-hander Wil Crowe, the team announced. Kieboom’s IL placement is retroactive to Tuesday, but this will nonetheless end his season.

Kieboom was a first-round pick of the Nationals in 2016 who continues to be regarded as a high-end young talent, but this will go down as a disappointing season for him. The reigning World Series champions Nationals had designs on Kieboom capably replacing departed star Anthony Rendon at third base as early as this season, though the campaign has instead gone poorly for the sub-.500 Nats and the 23-year-old.

While Kieboom does lead Washington in playing time at the hot corner, where he has amassed 30 starts and 122 plate appearances, he could only put together a .202/.344/.212 line before his season ended. Kieboom failed to hit a home run this year, and with a mere one extra-base hit, he ranks last in isolated power (.010) among 243 major leaguers who have amassed 120-plus plate appearances in 2020.

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