Juan Lagares Expected To Miss Rest Of Season After Toe Surgery
The Mets have announced that outfielder Juan Lagares will require toe surgery and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Needless to say, this comes as quite an unwelcome surprise.
The organization provided a detailed explanation of the malady:
Juan Lagares hyperextended the big toe on his left foot. The MRI revealed a complete tear of the big toe plantar plate, which is a thick supporting ligament of the toe.
It seems there’s still some hope that Lagares will be able to make a return late in the present campaign. At least, it hasn’t yet been ruled out. But the organization surely did not sound an optimistic tone in stating that he likely would be sidelined the rest of the way. Plus, the fact that the surgery is “tentatively scheduled for next week” does not suggest that it’s being performed as soon as possible in hopes of speeding up his timeline.
The news comes at an especially unwelcome time for player and team. Lagares had been off to a solid .339/.375/.390 batting line through 64 plate appearances to open the year. While that low-power, largely BABIP-dependent output was not exactly a stirring showing, it did represent an improved performance from what Lagares had provided at the plate over the prior three seasons. Of course, the calling card for Lagares remains his outstanding glove.
Plus, the Mets are now dealing with the absence of Yoenis Cespedes, who just hit the DL. It had seemed that Lagares would get a fair bit of action, as the club’s remaining top outfield pieces (Jay Bruce, Michael Conforto, and Brandon Nimmo) are all left-handed hitters. Instead, the just-recalled Phillip Evans could get some opportunities.
This is the latest indication that the Mets won’t get what they hoped out of the extension they agreed to with Lagares at the outset of the 2015 season. Since putting pen to paper, Lagares owns a mediocre .258/.299/.366 batting line in 961 plate appearances. Under the deal, he’s due $6.5MM this year, $9MM for 2019, and then either a $500K buyout or $9.5MM salary via club option in 2020.
Dodgers Designate Henry Owens
The Dodgers have designated lefty Henry Owens for assignment. His roster spot will go to Erik Goeddel, who was claimed off waivers today.
Owens was once viewed as a significant prospect, but never really took the final steps in his development. The Dodgers claimed him over the winter from the Diamondbacks, who had previously nabbed him off waivers from the Red Sox. Owens is still just 25, and will surely receive further opportunities to put it all together, but he has yet to pitch in the 2018 season.
In his 85 innings at the game’s highest level, Owens carries only a 5.19 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9. The results had been better at Triple-A, despite middling K/BB figures, until a disastrous 2017 campaign. Owens dished out 115 walks to go with his 121 strikeouts in 126 frames split between Double-A and Triple-A, then was tagged for 21 earned runs (with a 15:13 K/BB ratio) in his 21 1/3 innings in the Arizona Fall League.
Cardinals Place Carson Kelly On 10-Day DL, Select Steve Baron
2:28 pm: Veteran righty Adam Wainwright is moving to the 60-day DL to create roster space, the team announced.
1:55pm: The Cardinals have placed catcher Carson Kelly on the 10-day DL with a hamstring injury, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by fellow backstop Steve Baron, which will mandate a still-undetermined 40-man roster move.
Kelly, 23, has long been seen as the heir apparent to Yadier Molina, who is himself on the shelf at the moment. But Kelly has struggled offensively in his limited MLB action over the past there years. This season, he has mustered only two singles in 19 plate appearances.
Francisco Pena has appeared in a dozen games, making him the most-used catcher other than Molina, who’s expected to be out until at least early June. In the meantime, Baron will help hold down the fort. The 27-year-old, a former first-round pick, has appeared briefly in the majors once before. He signed a minors deal with the Cards and was off to an ugly .153/.167/.186 slash in sixty plate appearances at Triple-A.
MLBTR Chat Transcript: Catchers, Injuries, Early Trade Chatter
Click here to read a transcript of today’s live chat with host Jeff Todd.
Braves Place Mike Soroka On 10-Day DL, Recall Max Fried
The Braves have placed young righty Mike Soroka on the 10-day DL with a right shoulder strain, per a club announcement. The placement is retroactive to May 14th. His scheduled start tonight will instead be taken by Max Fried, who has been recalled.
That’s not the news the Braves were hoping for with a prized young hurler, though perhaps the team is just exercising precaution. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that the club believes he could be able to return in time to make his next scheduled start, which would presumably mean coming off of the DL after the minimum absence.
Soroka, one of the Atlanta roster’s slate of fascinating twenty-year-old talents, has impressed through three MLB starts. He carries a 3.68 ERA in 14 2/3 innings, with underlying peripherals (9.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 42.9% groundball rate) that suggest he’s more than ready for the majors. Though it was not certain when he came up whether he’d stick, it now seems reasonable to anticipate he’ll be in the majors to stay so long as he remains healthy.
For the time being, though, it’ll be Fried who gets the chance. The 24-year-old has made four relief appearances on the year in the majors but also took three starts at Triple-A. At his best, Fried can generate grounders and strikeouts in much the same manner Soroka has, though the southpaw has long handed out too many free passes and is not considered as promising as the man he’ll substitute for.
Red Sox To Sign Josh Smith
The Red Sox have reportedly agreed to a minor-league deal with righty Josh Smith. The Roster Roundup Twitter account (link) first conveyed the move, which Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com confirms on Twitter.
Smith was released recently by the Mariners after originally joining the Seattle organization on a minors deal. The 30-year-old had allowed seven earned runs on 17 hits in 10 1/3 innings to open the season, compiled over one start and three relief appearances at Triple-A. He had also run up a much more promising 14:2 K/BB ratio.
It seems that Smith could function as bullpen/swingman depth for a Boston organization that has faced some questions in its relief unit. He has appeared in the majors in each of the past three seasons, working to a cumulative 5.30 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 over 127 1/3 innings.
Notably, if Smith ends up reporting to Triple-A Pawtucket, he’ll join another player of the same name on the roster. The Boston organization already employs lefty Josh Smith at its top affiliate.
Mid-Season Roster Check: Los Angeles Angels
The Angels won the offseason, as you may have read. In years past, that has often meant only that a team sacrificed the most in future resources (salary commitments and/or pre-MLB talent) to improve its MLB roster. With regard to the 2018 Halos, though, it meant landing a great degree of major-league talent at a relative bargain — thanks, mostly, to the score of the century in Japanese wunderkind Shohei Ohtani.
We’ve already broken down the Angels’ offseason efforts in full. And we’ve now observed the team run out to a 25-18 start to the season that has kept it in range of the defending World Series champion Astros in the AL West. So, what are the key factors in the team’s quality opening play and can it be sustained?
How have the Angels succeeded thus far?
It’s not all about Ohtani, of course, but adding him at minimal cost has been everything the Halos hoped for and more. He’s settling in and looking increasingly dangerous on the mound, where he has provided 32 2/3 innings of 3.58 ERA pitching. And Ohtani has exceeded even the most optimistic projections at the plate, with a .348/.392/.652 output through 74 plate appearances.
The other significant position players the Angels added or retained over the winter, meanwhile, have been more solid than great. Justin Upton is hitting well but not exactly outproducing his hefty contract. Zack Cozart has been solid. Ian Kinsler is continuing to defend like a star but is off to a sluggish start at the plate.
The rock upon which all of this is built, of course, remains Mike Trout, who’s a merciless WAR machine. But Andrelton Simmons has somewhat quietly also been among the game’s very best players to this point in 2018. The all-world defender is rather amazingly walking at nearly twice the rate he has struck out (9.3% vs. 5.6%) while producing at about 50% better than league-average on offense.
With Ohtani in the mix, the rotation has been in the top third of the league by measure of ERA, FIP, and xFIP. In some ways, this is the most promising development of the young season. Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Heaney, Garrett Richards, and Nick Tropeano are all healthy and delivering quality results, while Jaime Barria has a 2.13 ERA through his first 25 1/3 MLB innings.
Is it sustainable?
On a team level, there’s no indication that the Angels are just lucking their way into victories by squeezing out close wins. Their Pythagorean and BaseRuns records are spot on to the actual results for a team with a +31 run differential to this point of the season. But that’s not to say there aren’t some underlying numbers worth considering.
Catchers Martin Maldonado and Rene Rivera have each hit at an average-or-better rate. Unfortunately, their career number suggest that’s unlikely to continue; each (particularly Rivera) has benefited from ball-in-play fortune. Of course, some other players have been on the other side of the BABIP gods. That’s particularly true of Kinsler, though he certainly has not stung the ball this year (.298 xwOBA). Similarly, Kole Calhoun‘s miserable start has likely been the product of both bad luck and suboptimal contact (.173 wOBA vs. .271 xwOBA). Somewhat worryingly, reserves Chris Young (.246 wOBA vs. .237 xwOBA) and Luis Valbuena (.283 wOBA vs. .263 xwOBA) have even been a bit fortunate to produce at the middling rate they have to this point, though certainly both have broader track records of solid offensive output.
One issue remains the ongoing presence of Albert Pujols, whose fall-off at the plate has really not abated. He doesn’t strike out much but also doesn’t get on base or even hit for all that much power (.165 ISO). Limited to first base or the DH slot, he’s a replacement-level player. If you imagine he and Simmons swapping batting lines, perhaps it doesn’t sting us much. But there’s no indication that Pujols will get back to being an above-average hitter, while there’s likely good reason to believe that Simmons will begin to regress back toward his typical levels of average (or worse) outcomes with the bat. Likewise, it seems reasonable to bake in a bit of caution into projections for Ohtani’s work at the plate.
In the aggregate, the Halos may be outperforming their true talent on offense, but not dramatically so. Entering the season, though, that wasn’t the question. Instead, as we heard over and over in MLBTR chats, fans wondered: “Do the Angels have enough pitching to contend?”
There’s good news and bad news on that front. While Barria and Tropeano are outperforming their peripherals, the rotation as a whole has deserved its quality results. Ohtani and Heaney have each been much more impressive by measure of fielding-independent pitching than of actual earned runs. Promising as it is to see so many talented arms finally healthy and productive in the majors, there still has to be some concern about whether that’ll hold up all year long. The club has already lost JC Ramirez for the year, while there’s increasing concern for Matt Shoemaker.
It therefore seems that depth, more than quality, is a concern in the rotation. But what about that bullpen?
Areas of need and resources
The Halos’ somewhat dodgy relief unit leads to worry that the club won’t capture as many winnable contests as possible. Keynan Middleton had been effective (more so than his peripherals) but now seems destined to miss a big chunk of time. Blake Parker has continued to excel after his surprising 2017 showing, while Noe Ramirez is quietly breaking out (his peripherals are better than his 3.80 ERA). Jose Alvarez has been a solid southpaw presence. And veteran Jim Johnson is another useful arm to have around. But that’s not an overly impressive group of leading bullpen lights. Cam Bedrosian has come crashing back to earth; Justin Anderson is getting loads of whiffs but also doling out too many walks and dingers.
There’s little question, then, that the Angels are going to be prowling the waiver wire for arms over the next ten weeks. And they’ll likely be among the most relief-needy teams at this summer’s trade deadline. The club could justifiably target high-quality, high-leverage assets as well as useful middle-relief arms … to say nothing of whatever the needs in the rotation will be come July.
Otherwise, perhaps, there may not be much work to be done unless an injury intervenes. It’s certainly possible that the front office could weigh an outfield addition, but it’s hard to imagine Calhoun and Young will continue to be this bad. And relatively unknown reserve Jefry Marte has been on fire out of the gates, helping to ease the situation. While Pujols likely isn’t going anywhere, Valbuena is an increasing concern in his own right; he’s now striking out more and walking less than ever. With the possibility of some quality bats being available for little, it’s not inconceivable that the Angels could at some point jettison Valbuena and reduce Pujols’s role to fit another player on the roster.
With an improving farm system, GM Billy Eppler has an increasing slate of prospect assets from which to trade. Of course, he’ll surely be hesitant to part with any of the team’s most treasured young players. It seems likely the Angels will attempt to utilize their financial flexibility to the extent possible. With nearly $25MM in space beneath the luxury line, there is some room to work with. But there are limits to how much talent you can get without giving up talent in return. The organization could well end up facing some tough questions over the summer.
Outlook
All things considered, the Angels have performed up to expectations and seem to be positioned to continue to do so. That said, the club is somewhat more exposed to injury risk than others and may need to be creative to land mid-season improvements given that it is still rebuilding its talent pipeline.
Blue Jays Prospect Bo Bichette Hires CAA Baseball
Blue Jays prospect Bo Bichette has changed representation, hiring CAA Baseball, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). The 20-year-old was a second-round pick in the 2016 draft.
Bichette vaulted up prospect rankings boards after a big showing in two A-ball leagues in 2017. He opened the current season at Double-A, where he carries a .279/.353/.421 slash with one home run and nine steals.
Though he is not quite as celebrated as teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is also the son of a long-time big leaguer, Bichette entered the year as a consensus top-20 prospect leaguewide. There’s some question whether Bichette will stick at shortstop, he carries the promise of delivering some defensive value along with an intriguing bat.
As always, you can find up-to-date MLB representation information at MLBTR’s Agency Database.
Mariners Designate Erik Goeddel, Select Christian Bergman
The Mariners have designated righty Erik Goeddel, per a club announcement. That’ll create roster space for the M’s to select the contract of fellow right-hander Christian Bergman.
It’s a tough result for Goeddel, 29, who had allowed just one earned run on four hits in his 5 1/3 MLB innings this year while recording seven strikeouts and a pair of walks. He threw nine scoreless frames at Triple-A to open the year after joining the M’s late in camp.
As for the 30-year-old Bergman, he’ll look to carry over his successes thus far at Triple-A into the majors. He has generally struggled in prior attempts at the bigs, but is carrying a healthy 3.40 ERA with a 41:12 K/BB ratio through 45 frames on at Tacoma.
Cardinals Place Luke Gregerson On DL; Carlos Martinez Headed For MRI
The Cardinals have placed righty Luke Gregerson on the 10-day DL with a right shoulder impingement, the team announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by John Brebbia.
Meanwhile, starter Carlos Martinez — who has been on the shelf since May 10th — is headed for an MRI to further assess the injury, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Martinez won’t return when he’s eligible to be activated, then, but we likely won’t learn more about his anticipated timeline until his imaging is read.
It’s not clear just how concerning the shoulder condition is. That broad description has resulted in brief DL stints or much more significant problems, so it’s hard to make much of it without more information. Notably, though, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza adds on Twitter that Gregerson has also dealt with some elbow soreness, adding to the universe of concerns.
The 34-year-old Gregerson has had some stumbles to start his tenure in St. Louis. Since returning from a hamstring injury, he has thrown only 8 1/3 innings in a dozen appearances, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits (two for home runs) and three walks. He has recorded a typically useful tally of eight strikeouts and 14 groundballs, however, and despite a bit of velocity loss is still maintaining a strong 16.7% swinging-strike rate.
All told, then, it still seems there’s reason for optimism regarding Gregerson’s ability to contribute this year — so long as he’s able to get back to full health. The Cards owe him $11MM over a two-year term, including a buyout on an option for 2020. While there’s still quite a lot of pitching talent at and near the MLB level for the St. Louis organization, the team is stretched a bit with Gregerson joining Martinez and Adam Wainwright on ice. Fortunately, high-octane youngster Alex Reyes is not only nearing a return from Tommy John surgery, but has opened eyes with his early rehab showing.