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Cishek To Injured List With Hip Issue

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Hip inflammation will send Cubs reliever Steve Cishek to the injured list, according to a report from MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. Bastian’s report characterizes Cishek’s ailment as “minor”, but one that has nonetheless been a hindrance to the righty in his last several appearances.

Cishek, a veteran of 556 MLB games, has been a solid member of the Chicago relief corps since signing a two-year/$13MM accord with the club in December of 2017. In 54 appearances in 2019, the Massachusetts native has recorded a 3.58 ERA, despite underlying metrics that indicate that he has been the beneficiary of some good luck to this point.

So far in 2019, the Chicago bullpen has seen more movement than O’Hare International–following this injured list placement, Pedro Strop and Tyler Chatwood are the only active relievers left from the Cubs’ Opening Day lineup. It doesn’t appear, however, that Cishek will be sidelined for a long period, and the club may soon welcome back Craig Kimbrel in time for its upcoming series against the Phillies.

 

 

Angels Release Jose Briceno

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According to a morning announcement from the PR Department of the Angels, 26-year-old catcher Jose Briceno has been released from the organization following his waiver clearance. After a 46-game big league debut with the Anaheim-based club in 2018, Briceno had been stationed with the Salt Lake Bees of the Pacific Coast League for the entirety of 2019. This move comes in conjunction with the reinstatement of Andrew Heaney from the injured list, and the send-down of pitcher Jaime Barria.

Given the constant demand for passable catching options at the game’s highest level, it would not be a shock to see Briceno latch on with a big league club looking for battery depth–that is, of course, if only Briceno can prove he’s healthy. As it is, the Venezuelan-born catcher has been sidelined for the majority of the Triple-A season with shoulder issues, following a 2018 campaign in which he logged a respectable 91 wRC+ as a member of the Angels.

Mariners Reinstate Dee Gordon, Option Court

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Infielder Dee Gordon is back in the lineup for Seattle this evening, following the team’s announcement of his activation from the 10-day injured list. In a corresponding move, utilityman Ryan Court has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.

It’s been a season to forget for GM Jerry Dipoto’s “reimagined” Seattle crew, with the northwestern outfit limping to a 48-69 record entering play Saturday. As such, it’s difficult to see the Mariners having much to gain from the reinstallation of the 31-year-old Gordon, who, in this phase of his career, offers little aside from a light bat and some still-flight feet. The second baseman, who has been sidelined since July 22nd with a left quad strain, has hit .280/.306/.367 (81 wRC+) in 2019, his second season with Seattle. It is worth noting that a good late-season showing from Gordon could, in theory, help DiPoto’s chances of offloading the veteran in the offseason; Gordon will make $13.5MM in 2020, the last guaranteed season of a 5-year/$50MM deal signed in 2016 with the Miami Marlins.

Court’s initiatory stint in the big leagues granted him just 18 at-bats with Seattle. The 31-year-old has amassed over 3000 at-bats at the minor league level and is a career .275/.366/.430 hitter within the developmental ranks.

Jose Castillo Out For Season With Torn Hand Ligament

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Per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, promising Padres reliever Jose Castillo will miss the remainder of the 2019 season with a torn hand ligament (Twitter link). No surgery will be required, although this is certainly bitter news for a San Diego organization in sore need of bullpen aid.

After a solid 2018 debut in which the lefthanded Venezuelan logged a 3.29 ERA (2.64 FIP) in 38.1 innings, San Diego was likely looking for Castillo to develop into a viable bridge to vaunted closer Kirby Yates. Unfortunately, Castillo was sidelined for the entirety of 2019 with a left forearm flexor strain, until his activation this week. It was in his very first appearance back with the club on Thursday that Castillo exited a game with what at the time was believed to be a finger blister. As it turns out, the problem may end up being much more severe than the primary diagnosis indicated.

In a conference with The Athletic’s Dennis Lin, Padres manager Andy Green explained that the “pulley system” that straps a tendon in the middle finger to the bone was torn in Castillo’s hand (Twitter link). It is fair to speculate that Castillo’s return to the 60-day list will follow in due course.

 

Angels Promote Patrick Sandoval

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AUGUST 5: The move is official. Roster space was created by moves involving a pair of right-handers. Luke Bard was placed on the 10-day IL with a right triceps contusion, while Pena was moved to the 60-day IL — no surprise given the recent diagnosis of a torn ACL.

AUGUST 3: The Angels are set to promote pitching prospect Patrick Sandoval to take the ball for Monday’s game in Cincinnati. Ryan Falla of Halo Hangout initially reported that Sandoval was due to be called up (Twitter link), and this report was confirmed by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic (Twitter link).

A corresponding roster move has not yet been announced, but the Angels may have a ready-made fill-in in the event that Felix Pena–who was injured in tonight’s contest–ends up needing an IL placement.

Sandoval’s ascension to the big league represents something of a homecoming for the 22-year-old, who was developed at nearby Mission Viejo High School before being drafted by the Houston Astros in the 11th round of the 2015 draft. Acquired by Los Angeles in a 2018 deal involving Martin Maldonado, Sandoval has been identified by evaluators as a lefty with a reasonable ceiling as a back-end starter. Fangraphs has him ranked 15th in Los Angeles’s lightly regarded system.

Beginning the year with his second stint in Double-A, Sandoval overwhelmed hitters across his first five appearances, logging a 14.40 K/9 and 1.76 FIP in 20.0 innings before receiving a promotion to Triple-A. The PCL has been less kind to the southpaw, as his 6.41 ERA through 60.1 innings isn’t all that much better than his 4.97 FIP mark. Nevertheless, in a season challenged by pitching injuries, the Angels will look to provide MLB opportunity to this college-aged hurler.

Pitcher Notes: Kluber, Stripling, Alvarado

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Indians fans will be relieved to hear that Corey Kluber was back to throwing darts at Progressive Field again on Saturday–even if Kluber’s teammates weren’t set to take the field for several hours. Before Cleveland’s game with the Angels today, the decorated hurler threw roughly 35 pitches in a simulated game setting, according to a report from Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. While facing three batters from the organization’s Double-A Akron affiliate, Kluber was able to get his fastball up to 89 mph, which manager Terry Francona saw as encouraging progress. “I was kinda surprised [Kluber] was actually at that point, just because [of] the lack of what he’s been doing for three months,” Francona told reporters. Kluber has been sidelined since May 1st with a non-displaced fracture to his arm’s ulna bone–an injury he suffered when struck by a comebacker off the bat of Miami’s Brian Anderson. After the Progressive session, Francona said Kluber would start his rehab assignment in the minors on Thursday.

More hurler hat tips from around the web…

  • Dodgers righty Ross Stripling was also seen on the mend today, as a “max effort” bullpen session didn’t seem to produce any pain in his injured neck and biceps, according to Orange County Register writer Bill Plunkett (Twitter link). Manager Dave Roberts later told Plunkett that Stripling would make an appearance with the club’s affiliate in Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday, with the team still uncertain of his post-activation role on the roster (link). Of course, the Texas A&M product has shown comfort in his career thus far in both bullpen and starting roles: since his debut in 2016, Stripling has posted a 3.24 ERA in 125 career relief innings, contrasted with a respectable 3.70 ERA in 248 starting frames.
  • Sidelined Rays reliever Jose Alvarado told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that he will likely rejoin his team next weekend for a slate of games against the Mariners, after completing two scheduled rehab appearances with Tampa affiliates (Twitter link). Juan Toribio of MLB.com further elucidates that Alvarado (oblique) will pitch tomorrow for High-A Charlotte–welcome news for a Rays team that has been without the strikeout-inducing arm of Alvarado since July 7th. The Tampa pen unit has pitched well in the last week following a rough July, but would surely benefit from the inclusion of Alvarado into a mix that was augmented greatly by the team’s moves at the MLB trade deadline.

Rangers Release Carlos Tocci

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The Rangers released outfielder Carlos Tocci from his contract at Triple-A Nashville today, according to a tweet from team VP John Blake (link).

Tocci originally signed out of Venezuela in 2011 via a $759K agreement with the Phillies. He became a Rule 5 draft pick of the White Sox in 2018 and was ultimately traded to the Rangers for cash. The defensively gifted outfielder was then stashed on Texas’s big league roster throughout the entirety of the 2018 campaign, despite profound struggles in limited playing time (.225/.271/.283 slash in 135 at-bats). At just 23 years of age, it would stand to reason that Tocci would be worth keeping around the Rangers org–if not for his upside, then certainly for the substantial commitment Texas has already placed in him.

Apparently, though, Texas found Tocci’s 2019 production with Nashville to be underwhelming enough to justify walking away altogether. After being designated for assignment on July 22nd, Tocci was outrighted last week to the club’s Triple-A roster–a roster where he recorded just a 55 wRC+ in 367 Pacific Coast League at-bats on the year.

Aaron Hicks Scheduled For MRI

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A doubleheader of games, a doubleheader of injuries for the Yankees today, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com reports that outfielder Aaron Hicks injured his elbow in Saturday’s nightcap with the Red Sox. Hicks will undergo an MRI tomorrow (Twitter link).

Of course, this news comes hand-in-hand with the news that Edwin Encarnacion will miss 3-5 weeks with a fractured wrist suffered in the first game of today’s double-tilt with Boston. Though it’s important to note that the extent of Hicks’ impairment isn’t yet known, followers of New York’s 2019 campaign have surely already been conditioned to expect the worst in regard to player prognosis.

Hicks–who already spent more than a month as an injured list resident this year following a preseason back injury–would not qualify as the 25th New York player to hit the IL this year, but his apparent injury is surely enough to cause handwringing for manager Aaron Boone. The outfielder, who is earning $8MM this season in the first year of a just-dried seven-year, $70MM pact, has been roughly league-average at the plate this year, with a 98 wRC+ in 251 at-bats (.229/.319/.440 slash line).

Injury Notes: Carpenter, Contreras, Simmons

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As our thoughts remain with those affected by the events in El Paso tonight, a few collected injury notes from around the game of baseball…

  • It’s been a season to forget for Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter, who, before being placed on the IL with a foot contusion on July 16th, was scuffling to the worst batting line of his accomplished career. Good news tonight, though, from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who reports that Carpenter will rejoin his teammates on Saturday night in advance of a possible Sunday activation. Carpenter has some work to do in the season’s remaining months if he wants to end up with a more characteristic batting line–his .215/.321/.372 slash and 86 wRC+ are a far cry from the production Cardinal nation has become accustomed to over the years (129 career wRC+).
  • As Jordan Bastian of MLB.com points out, the Cubs might have erred in trading defensive backstop extraordinaire Martin Maldonado in a deadline deal–with the hamstring injury endured by starter Willson Contreras on Saturday, Chicago’s catching depth is likely about to be tested. Contreras grabbed his right leg while running out a fly ball in the seventh inning, but manager Joe Maddon was unwilling to place a firm prognosis on the injury. “I really don’t know at this point,” said the manager. “We’ll just wait and see how it plays out.” While Contreras is scheduled for an MRI on Monday, the club will look to Victor Caratini to man the dish in his absence. The call-up of Triple-A Iowa’s Taylor Davis is a definite possibility in the event of an eventual injured list placement.
  • Early in the day, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported that Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons was a scratch from Saturday’s game due to “left foot soreness”. Fletcher later relayed that Simmons injured his foot in the batting cage before Saturday’s loss to the Indians and that an MRI was set to follow. Any extended loss of the defensively stingy Simmons would obviously be a blow to the beleaguered Los Angeles club, who turned to David Fletcher to man short in today’s action. Simmons had been hitting .274/.315/.382 on the year while turning in typically strong defensive marks.

Felix Pena Suffers Right Knee Sprain

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In a 24-hour cycle that has seen big leaguers hitting the IL in droves, it may be time to declare the “dog days” as being officially upon us. Angels hurler Felix Pena–he of the emotionally charged combined no-hitter from earlier this season–is the latest athlete to endure an apparently serious injury, as the team announced via Twitter that Pena was removed from tonight’s game with a right knee sprain.

Given the events happening elsewhere in our nation this evening, it would be crass to make too much of a non-life-threatening injury sustained by an athlete on a baseball field. That said, when paired with the tragic loss of Tyler Skaggs earlier this year, Pena’s injury is just the latest episode in what has been a season from heck for Angels fans. The team in Anaheim has already seen injuries befall Andrew Heaney, Tommy La Stella, and several other contributors amidst a 56-55 campaign.

In addition to his part in that unforgettable no-hitter on July 12th, Pena has logged respectable numbers in his second Los Angeles season, with a 4.66 ERA that looks slightly worse than his solid 9.60 K/9 and 3.23 BB/9 markers. The 29-year-old had been working out of the rotation in tonight’s game with the Baltimore Orioles.

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