Corey Seager To Undergo Tommy John Surgery, Miss Remainder Of 2018
The Dodgers have announced stunning news regarding top young shortstop Corey Seager. He’ll undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the 2018 season, according to the team.
For the time being, infielder Breyvic Valera will come up to take the open roster spot created by Seager hitting the DL. But he won’t come close to accounting for the yawning gap created by Seager’s absence the rest of the way. Seager had dealt with elbow troubles late in 2017, but the news still comes as a major surprise.
Los Angeles entered the season with one of the game’s best duos on the left side of the infield. Though third baaseman Justin Turner has missed the first month of the season, the hope was that he’d soon re-join Seager and re-create a unit that combined for about 12 fWAR annually over the past two campaigns. Instead, the team will cross its fingers that Turner can regain his form at the hot corner while scrambling to account for the hole at short.
Despite a tepid start from the Dodgers overall, it has remained reasonable to anticipate that the club would begin picking up the pace as the season wears on. But losing Seager takes away the Los Angeles organization’s top position player and makes the road to a sixth-straight NL West title seem much tougher.
Despite his own middling run to begin the 2018 campaign — a .257/.339/.366 slash through 115 plate appearances — Seager is viewed as one of the top young talents in baseball. After all, he is a .301/.372/.492 hitter in over 1,500 MLB plate appearances, with quality glovework and baserunning adding to his value. And he just turned 24 three days ago.
Looking to the future, the hope will obviously be that Seager can rehab and get back to full health in advance of the 2019 season. As a position player, rather than a pitcher, the odds are much better that he’ll be able to participate fully in spring camp next year. In the best-case scenario, perhaps, he’ll also have an opportunity to rest some other maladies that have arisen over the years and enjoy a full and unrestrained 2019 campaign. Unfortunately for the young star, the timing of the injury will rob him of a chance at compiling statistics in his final pre-arbitration season, meaning he’ll earn far less next season (and for the following two campaigns) than he would reasonably have anticipated.
More immediately, the Dodgers need to figure out how to make it through the current season. Perhaps the club can account directly for the loss of Seager by moving Chris Taylor back to short, which is the position he broke into the majors playing. Of course, that’d just allow another leak to spring in center field, where Taylor has mostly lined up in 2018. While the organization can call upon its outfield depth — including just-promoted top prospect Alex Verdugo — to make things work, the result is obviously a less-fearsome lineup than it expected to be fielding.
The loss of Seager does create an obvious and intriguing — but still quite speculative — match on paper between the Dodgers and Orioles. The Baltimore club has limped out of the gates in spite of a monster first month from Manny Machado, who is one of a relative few players in baseball (and the only one reasonably available via trade) in Seager’s league at the shortstop position. Doing so, particularly early, would mean not only coughing up a haul of talent but also executing some financial tightrope walking. The club premised its offseason strategy on staying beneath the luxury tax line to re-set its tax obligations, and has just over $15MM of wiggle room to work with at last look. That makes Machado (who’s earning $16MM in his final season of arb eligibility) a tight squeeze. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, who could opt out of his contract in the coming offseason, is also an interesting-but-expensive conceivable target, though he’s on the DL at the moment. Odds are, the Dodgers will take their time in assessing the possibilities before they make a highly consequential move.
Twins To Promote Fernando Romero
Twins skipper Paul Molitor announced today that the club would promote top pitching prospect Fernando Romero to join the rotation, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN was among those to tweet. He’ll take the ball on Wednesday night.
Romero, 23, has steadily moved up the ladder since entering the Twins’ system in 2012. He cracked the top-100 prospect lists of MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus entering the current season, following a year in which he threw 125 innings of 3.53 ERA ball, with 8.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 along with a 52.0% groundball rate, at the Double-A level.
The results have continued into the 2018 season, as Romero has now held opposing teams to a 2.57 earned run average through 21 frames in his first few outings at the Triple-A level. He’s continuing to get plenty of groundballs with his high-velocity sinker, though his 20:10 K/BB ratio isn’t exactly scintillating and may hint at the need for further refinement of his slider and change.
Some prospect hounds see some risk in Romero’s profile, particularly as to whether he’ll have long-term health issues and/or whether he’ll stick in the rotation. For now, though, they’ll bet on his talent with the organization badly in need of a shot in the arm after a 9-14 start to the season.
Fellow righty Phil Hughes will be bumped into a relief role to accommodate Romero’s move into the rotation, though a roster move has yet to be announced. Hughes was knocked around in two poor starts to open the year, and is coming off of two consecutive poor and injury-plagued seasons, so he’ll look to get back on track in the bullpen.
Phillies Place Victor Arano On 10-Day DL
The Phillies have placed righty Victor Arano on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He has been diagnosed with a strained right rotator cuff.
To replace Arano on the active roster, the Phils have promoted fellow right Zach Eflin. That move had been anticipated, as he’ll make a start tomorrow night — thus filling the rotation spot vacated (at least temporarily) by Ben Lively.
It does not seem there’s much cause for long-term concern regarding Arano, a 23-year-old reliever who has swiftly turned into a key cog for the Phils. The strain is said to be “mild,” MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets.
Certainly, the Phils will hope the young hurler is not facing more than a brief respite. After a strong debut in 2017, Arano entered the current season with fairly high expectations. He has delivered beyond any reasonable hope thus far, allowing just one earned run on five hits and one unintentional walk over a dozen frames. Throwing his slider on more than half of his deliveries to the plate, Arano has carried an 18.1% swinging-strike rate through his 22 2/3 total MLB innings.
Eflin, meanwhile, will look to improve upon his less-than-promising major-league numbers to date. Through 127 2/3 innings over the past two seasons, he carries a 5.85 ERA with 4.7 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. There’s probably an opportunity to grab ahold of a starting job if he throws the ball well, though there’s no indication at this point that Lively will be out for long.
Injury Notes: Teheran, Buchter, Giants, Donaldson, Schoop, Nats
Braves righty Julio Teheran left his outing today with what the team is calling “right upper trap tightness.” He had shown a concerning velocity drop before departing, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. The 27-year-old Teheran entered the day with a 4.00 ERA in his 27 innings, while carrying a career-best 12.8% swinging-strike rate, but gave up three earned in his three frames. It seems generally promising that there’s a muscular explanation for Teheran’s sudden loss of velo, though of course that does not necessarily mean he’s out of the woods and we’ll have to await further word.
Here’s the latest on some other health situations around the league:
- The Athletics have placed southpaw Ryan Buchter on the DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Danny Coulombe. At this point, the team plans to shut Buchter down for at least ten days and possibly longer, as MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets. The 31-year-old southpaw, who was acquired over the offseason, has been quite good thus far for the A’s. He’s carrying a 1.69 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 over 10 2/3 innings.
- While the Giants will hold off on putting Mac Williamson on the DL, he’s in the concussion protocol at present, as manager Bruce Bochy informed reporters including Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). In the meantime, the organization has brought fellow outfielder Austin Slater onto the active roster, creating space by sending reliever Josh Osich to the 10-day DL. It’s unclear at this point how long Slater will have in the majors, but he’ll surely be hoping to follow the same track as Williamson, who kept on raking after receiving a promotion. Slater owns a .358/.435/.642 slash with just six strikeouts in his 62 plate appearances on the year at Triple-A.
- Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson is beginning his rehab assignment tomorrow, as the team announced. He’ll open as a DH as he eases back into action, though the real test will come when he puts his throwing back on display at game speed. There’s similarly good news for the division-rival Orioles, who expect to send second baseman Jonathan Schoop on a brief rehab assignment next week, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets. He has been out for two weeks with an oblique strain.
- The Nationals, who are still waiting for a trio of important players, gave some updates today. (Links to the Twitter feed of Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com.) Third baseman Anthony Rendon is reasonably close and is expected to return in relatively short order after a brief stint on the shelf. It’s not quite as rosy for outfielder Adam Eaton, who has seemingly had some ups and downs in rehabbing his ankle issues, but — GM Mike Rizzo emphasized — also has not experienced any setbacks. As for second baseman Daniel Murphy, who has yet to play at all following offseason knee surgery, there’s still no timeline for a return.
- A number of other players are already coming off of the DL. The Reds have activated righty David Hernandez and the Mariners have brought back first baseman Ryon Healy. Both were relatively significant offseason acquisitions for their organizations. Meanwhile, the Rays activated infielder Matt Duffy and the Rangers did the same with righty Tony Barnette.
Royals Release Tyler Collins
The Royals have released outfielder Tyler Collins, according to Rustin Dodd of The Athletic (via Twitter). He was playing at the organization’s top affiliate on a minor-league deal.
Collins, 27, had seen MLB action over the past four seasons with the Tigers. He has had his share of opportunities, but has only managed a .235/.299/.380 slash in 552 plate appearances in the majors.
It seemed that Collins might have a shot at earning some time in the K.C. outfield mix, but he turned in a tepid performance in the Cactus League. And he never got going at Triple-A Omaha, where he has managed just seven base hits — all singles — in his 62 plate appearances.
Phillies Place Ben Lively On 10-Day DL
The Phillies have announced that righty Ben Lively will go on the 10-day DL with a lower back strain. It seems the issue arose in Lively’s most recent outing.
Fellow right-hander Jake Thompson will take his spot on the active roster for the time being, but Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that Thompson will not move into Lively’s rotation spot.
At the moment, then, it’s not clear who’ll take the starting role while Lively is down. Zach Eflin is perhaps the top option that is currently on the 40-man roster, though Thompson and Drew Hutchison are both presently working as relievers despite histories as starters.
While the Phils will have to scramble a bit to fill in, the move comes as something of a reprieve for Lively. The 26-year-old has exhibited a year-over-year increase in his strikeout rate (from 5.3 per nine to 8.4 per nine) to this point, but it’s not backed by any improvement in his swinging-strike rate. Otherwise, things have gone backwards for Lively after a solid debut showing in 2017. He’s carrying a 6.85 ERA through 23 2/3 innings over five starts.
Lane Adams Elects Free Agency
Outfielder Lane Adams has elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment from the Braves, per David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). He had already cleared waivers after recently being designated for assignment.
Adams has been a useful asset for the Braves since joining the organization on a minor-league deal in advance of the 2017 season. He has carried a .264/.338/.450 slash line with six home runs in 146 total plate appearances since being called up this time last year.
Of course, that’s obviously not a terribly significant amount of playing time. It’s worth noting, too, that Adams had been more a good than a great performer in the upper minors in recent seasons. (He owns a .721 OPS in 384 Triple-A plate appearances and a .777 mark in his 1,479 cumulative trips to the dish at the Double-A level.) And teams that bypassed Adams on the waiver wire were surely turned off by the fact that the 28-year-old cannot be optioned.
Still, the Braves no doubt would have preferred to hold onto Adams, who might well have been the first man up if a need had arisen at the MLB level. That said, with Ronald Acuna ascending, there just wasn’t an immediate need. Adams obviously decided he could find greater opportunity elsewhere.
Mets Claim Buddy Baumann
The Mets have claimed lefty Buddy Baumann off waivers from the Padres, per an announcement from the San Diego organization. He’ll switch between the organizations as they prepare to square off tonight, though Baumann will not be on the active roster for the series.
There are a few other moving parts for the Mets. Opening a 40-man spot was accomplished by shifting David Wright to the 60-day DL, which was more or less inevitable to occur at some point. The club will also bring up Jacob Rhame while optioning Corey Oswalt, a swap of relief arms for the weekend.
The 30-year-old Baumann could give the Mets another southpaw option in the bullpen, though he’ll have to show himself worthy of an opportunity first. He performed well in 17 2/3 MLB innings last year, allowing just four earned runs on 11 hits and seven walks while striking out 21 batters. And he turned in 6 2/3 scoreless innings this year at Triple-A, though he also allowed five walks in that span and was drubbed in his lone MLB appearance.
Angels Return Luke Bard To Twins
The Angels have returned Rule 5 pick Luke Bard to the Twins, per a club announcement. The reliever had been designated for assignment recently.
Bard, 27, has long been viewed as a high-upside relief arm. But he had managed only a 5.40 ERA in his first 11 2/3 innings at the MLB level. While Bard carried 10.0 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in that span, he also coughed up four long balls.
As they compete for a postseason spot, the Halos will not be able to afford the luxury of carrying a Rule 5 player who will not be an immediate contributor. Evidently, the club did not feel he was going to a valuable enough performer to hold down a bullpen spot the rest of the way.
That’s good news for the Twins, who’ll be able to hold onto their former first-round pick without occupying a 40-man spot. They’ll send $50K to Los Angeles to reacquire his rights. It seems there’s still reason to hope that Bard can turn into a quality MLB asset. He’s certainly dedicated to his craft, as an excellent chat with David Laurila of Fangraphs from earlier this year demonstrates.
Braves Designate Carlos Perez
The Braves have designated catcher Carlos Perez for assignment, per a club announcement. That move came as part of a series of decisions.
Fellow receiver Tyler Flowers will make his return from the DL, which left the team without a need for Perez. The Atlanta organization also elected to bring up righty Chase Whitley while optioning Matt Wisler back to Triple-A.
Perez had a chance to make a case to be retained by the Braves after being acquired from the Angels at the outset of the season. But he managed just three singles and a walk in his 22 plate appearances for the Braves. Though he has hit the ball well at times in the minors, Perez is just a .221/.264/.325 hitter over 617 total trips to the dish at the game’s highest level.
On the pitching side, the Braves will fill out their pen by calling upon Whitley, who was acquired from the Rays over the winter. He has thrown 12 1/3 innings of 3.65 ERA ball thus far at Triple-A, with ten strikeouts against three walks. A veteran of four MLB campaigns, two apiece with the Yankees and Rays, Whitley will be joining the Braves’ MLB roster for the first time.
As for Wisler, he raised hopes with a strong season debut in which he racked up eight strikeouts without issuing a walk in seven two-hit innings. But he coughed up three free passes, nine hits, and four earned runs without recording a single K in his next outing. For now, then, the former top prospect will head back to Gwinnett and wait for another opportunity.
After 310 total frames of 5.20 ERA ball in the majors, Wisler remains in a somewhat precarious roster position. That said the Braves have cleared several 40-man spots in recent weeks, so the pressure shouldn’t be felt immediately, particularly given the team’s ongoing need for rotation depth and the fact that Wisler’s first two outings at Triple-A were quite good.