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NL East Notes: Rendon, Acuna, Hunter

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The latest from around the NL East…

  • Anthony Rendon left last night’s game after fouling a ball off his left big toe, and he wasn’t in today’s Nationals lineup. X-rays on the toe were negative, and manager Dave Martinez told MLB.com’s Jamal Collier and other reporters that there had yet to be any discussion of a possible DL stint for the star third baseman. Washington is already short Daniel Murphy and Adam Eaton from their first-choice starting lineup, and a Rendon absence would give Bryce Harper even less protection.
  • Ronald Acuna is hitting just .138/.219/.172 over his first 32 Triple-A plate appearances this season, and with Preston Tucker playing well for the Braves in left field, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that we may have to wait a while longer to see Acuna make his big league debut. There had been speculation that Acuna could have been called up as early as today, as he would no longer accumulate a full year of MLB service time if he remained on the roster for the entire season, giving the Braves an extra year of control over the star prospect. Service time considerations aside, it doesn’t seem like Atlanta would try to rush Acuna to the majors when he is on such a cold streak. O’Brien did wonder, however, if the team could promote Acuna on Monday to generate some extra interest for the start of a new homestand.
  • Tommy Hunter will participate in a game at the Phillies’ extended Spring Training camp today, though manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury) that the team would see how Hunter felt afterwards before deciding whether he needed one more rehab outing or not.  Hunter suffered a hamstring strain in late March and has yet to make his debut in a Phillies uniform.  The club signed Hunter to a two-year, $18MM free agent deal in the wake of his very strong 2017 season with the Rays.  Even if Hunter requires one more outing, he is likely to be activated sometime this week, provided there aren’t any health setbacks.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/14/18

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The latest minor league moves from around baseball….

Newest Moves:

  • The Rangers signed infielder Nick Noonan to a minor league deal, according to team executive VP of communication John Blake (Twitter link).  Noonan has been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock.  Noonan was selected 32nd overall in the 2007 draft by the Giants and has appeared in 83 Major League games (with San Francisco and San Diego) as he begins his 12th pro season.  The 28-year-old has a .267/.319/.373 slash line over 4497 minor league PA, plus extensive playing time as a second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop, so he’ll provide some extra depth for a Texas club that has lost Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor to the disabled list.

Earlier Today:

  • The Nationals have officially released Miguel Montero, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  The veteran catcher was designated for assignment earlier this week. He signed a minor league contract with the Nats over the offseason and ended up appearing in four games with the team, filling in as Washington dealt with some catching injuries.
  • With Montero now gone, the Nationals added some minor league catching depth by inking Tuffy Gosewisch to a minors deal, as per the team’s MLB.com transactions page. Gosewisch was released by the Mariners in early April after re-signing with the organization on a new minor league deal over the offseason. Gosewisch appeared in just 11 big league games with Seattle last season, but received 369 PA as a backup catcher with the D’Backs from 2014-16.

Orioles Place Jonathan Schoop On 10-Day DL, Recall Alex Cobb

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3:42PM: Schoop’s injury is a Grade 1 strain, manager Buck Showalter told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters, which is the least-serious type of oblique strain.

11:07AM: The Orioles announced that second baseman Jonathan Schoop has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a right oblique strain.  In a corresponding move, Alex Cobb was recalled from Double-A to take Schoop’s place on the roster, and Cobb will start this afternoon’s game in Boston.

Schoop suffered the injury last night during a swinging strikeout, and was removed from the game in the seventh inning.  He underwent an MRI this morning, and the results were apparently such that the Orioles felt it necessary for Schoop to take some time off to recover.  The severity of his oblique strain isn’t known, though since similar injuries have generally resulted in players missing at least a couple of weeks of action, the O’s could be without the slugger until the start of May.

Tim Beckham is Baltimore’s starting second baseman today, with Danny Valencia stepping in to take Beckham’s usual spot at third base.  Engelb Vielma was added to the 25-man roster a few days ago for further infield depth, so the O’s could get by with Valencia and Vielma filling in for Schoop on a short-term basis.  Ruben Tejada and Luis Sardinas are veteran infield options both on the farm, while top prospect Ryan Mountcastle is himself on the minor league DL recovering from a fractured right hand.

Over the long term, of course, Schoop’s absence is a big loss for an Orioles lineup that has had a lot of problems generating offense.  Schoop himself has contributed to these struggles, posting just a .230/.266/.344 slash line and one home run over his first 65 plate appearances of this young season, though he is coming off a breakout 2017 campaign that saw him hit 32 homers and finish 12 in AL MVP voting.  The O’s have been hit hard by the injury bug this year, with Schoop joining Mark Trumbo, Zach Britton, and Colby Rasmus on the DL.

Some type of roster move was expected today so the Orioles could create room for Cobb, as the right-hander will make his first start in the black-and-orange.  Cobb didn’t officially sign his four-year, $57MM deal until March 21, so he needed some extra preparation time in the minors to fully get ready for the season.

Pirates Claim Enny Romero From Nationals

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The Pirates have claimed left-hander Enny Romero off waivers from the Nationals, as per a Pittsburgh media release.  Romero will claim an open spot on the Bucs’ 40-man roster, and the release stated that he’ll join the Major League roster once a corresponding move is made.

Washington designated Romero for assignment last week in the wake of a tough start to the season that saw the lefty allow three runs over two innings pitched.  Romero was something of the victim of a roster crunch, as the Nats chose to subtract from their eight-man bullpen to add extra bench depth in the form of utilityman Matt Reynolds.  In 2017, Romero posted a 3.56 ERA, 10.5 K/9, and a 2.83 K/BB rate over 55 2/3 IP for the Nationals.

Romero will join closer Felipe Vazquez as the only other left-handed reliever on the Pirates’ 25-man roster, with Steven Brault (in the rotation) and Josh Smoker (at Triple-A) representing the only other southpaws on Pittsburgh’s 40-man.  Romero isn’t an ideal candidate, however, to provide balance to the Pirates bullpen since he has been a reverse-splits pitcher over his 138 career innings. Left-handed batters have a healthy .317/.398/.467 slash line against him while right-handed batters have hit just .232/.317/.371.

Padres Claim Tyler Webb

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The Padres announced that they have claimed southpaw Tyler Webb off waivers from the Brewers.  Webb will report to Triple-A, while Dinelson Lamet (who is slated for Tommy John surgery) will be shifted to the 60-day DL to create a 40-man roster spot.

Milwaukee designated Webb for assignment last week, and the 27-year-old will now join his third different organization in less than a year.  Webb was selected by the Yankees in the 10th round of the 2013 draft, and he made his MLB debut in the pinstripes last season before being traded to the Brewers last July for Garrett Cooper.  Webb ended up tossing eight innings for New York and Milwaukee in his first taste of Major League action, and he’ll join Buddy Baumann as San Diego’s top minor league choices for a left-handed bullpen arm.  Southpaw relievers Kyle McGrath and Robbie Erlin currently have places on the 25-man roster, as well as closer Brad Hand.

Webb has worked primarily as a reliever throughout his pro career, only making five starts in 156 career minor league appearances.  Over 264 2/3 frames in the minors, Webb has a 3.64 ERA, 11.2 K/9, and a 4.45 K/BB ratio.

Latest On The Orioles’ Ownership/Front Office Dynamic

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“Virtually every level of the [Orioles] organization is in flux,” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes in his latest subscription-only piece, as he describes how John and Lou Angelos (the sons of owner Peter Angelos) are taking an increasingly larger role in the team’s regular operations.  The elder Angelos “is less involved than at any point in his” 25 years of owning the team, Rosenthal notes, and it could mark significant changes in how the O’s do business in the coming seasons.  Most directly, the changes could impact executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter, both of whom are in the final years of their contracts.

Despite the Orioles’ success in Duquette’s tenure, there has long been speculation surrounding his future in Baltimore, particularly after the Blue Jays made a strong push to lure Duquette away in the 2014-15 offseason.  Duquette “is frustrated by his loss of power,” Rosenthal writes, as Lou Angelos, Showalter, and VP of baseball ops Brady Anderson also have significant voices within the team’s front office.  Anderson, in fact, “was the point man” in Baltimore’s signings of Alex Cobb, Andrew Cashner, and Chris Tillman this offseason.

It isn’t clear what direction the Orioles will take if Duquette did leave after the season.  Anderson may prefer to remain in his somewhat undefined role (which hasn’t always pleased some past players and coaches) rather than become an official general manager, while it’s also possible Showalter could move into a front office role rather than continue in the dugout.  Sources within the organization aren’t sure if Showalter would prefer to keep managing or shift to a baseball operations position, though he could conceivably do both in some capacity — a GM would be hired to handle day-to-day business while Showalter acted as the de facto front office head while still managing the team.

Of course, much could also depend on the direction of the Orioles’ season, as the team could look to trade one or more of its prominent free agents (i.e. Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Zach Britton, Brad Brach) if it falls out of contention.  A total rebuild seems unlikely, as Cobb just signed for four seasons and the O’s would still have a core group that includes Jonathan Schoop, Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Trey Mancini, and older veterans like Chris Davis.

Though John and Lou Angelos have been involved in a wide variety of the Orioles’ operations, “concerns exist in the industry about their ability to run a franchise” since Peter Angelos carried such a dominant role in the team’s business, Rosenthal writes. There are some indications, however, that the Angelos brothers’ influence is helping the franchise act in a more efficient way.  For instance, since the owner’s approval is no longer constantly required, some of the decision-making process has gone from “painstakingly slow” to “more streamlined.”  Some in the front office feel that the new direction will lead to the Orioles spending more on young talent pipelines such as the international signing process, which the O’s have (somewhat notoriously) almost entirely avoided in recent years — sources tell Rosenthal that “Peter Angelos never found anyone he trusted to run the international department.”

Heyman’s Latest: Arrieta, Lucroy, Tigers, Puig, Gordon, K-Rod, Acuna

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The Cubs were known to have made “one last call” to Jake Arrieta’s agent Scott Boras before signing Yu Darvish, and FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman provided some new details on that exchange.  Theo Epstein proposed a “theoretical” offer of six years and $120MM to Arrieta if, and only if, things did not work out with Darvish.  Epstein reportedly didn’t seriously think Arrieta’s camp would take the offer, and the executive was “just making the call to show respect” to a player who was such a major factor in Chicago’s recent success.  Even if Darvish had turned the Cubs down, it still doesn’t seem as if Arrieta and the team would’ve been able to come to an agreement, as Arrieta simply wanted a larger average annual value than Chicago was willing to offer (due to their desire to stay under the luxury tax threshold).  The Cubbies also are said to have put $48MM over four years on the table for Alex Cobb earlier in the winter before putting pen to paper with Darvish, and Heyman speculates that the Cubs might have eventually become interested in Alex Cobb had they missed out on both Darvish and Arrieta.

Here are a few items from Heyman, in his latest notes column…

  • The Nationals could potentially be contenders to sign Jonathan Lucroy next offseason.  Matt Wieters is in his last year under contract, and Washington had some interest in Lucroy this winter despite Wieters still being on the hook for $10.5MM this season.  Of course, quite a bit could happen to affect this interest between now and next winter, particularly since Lucroy is looking to rebound with the Athletics after a very inconsistent 2017 season.  If Lucroy does bounce back and the A’s are out of contention this year, I would think it possible that the Nats could even target Lucroy at the trade deadline.
  • In some Tigers agency news, righty Franklin Perez is joining Beverly Hills Sports Council while infielder Dixon Machado is now with Octagon. You can track the latest representation information with MLBTR’s agency database.
  • Speaking of agents, Yasiel Puig has been in talks with “several agencies” about representation since the Wasserman agency cut ties with the Dodgers outfielder in February.  Puig has also been considering having one of his current financial advisors represent him, though the MLBPA has “strongly advised” Puig to work with an established agency.
  • “It was very much a split decision” within the Royals front office to re-sign Alex Gordon to a four-year, $72MM deal in the 2015-16 offseason.  Gordon’s return to Kansas City was seen as something of a surprise at the time, though he had a strong personal desire to return to the team and the Royals were willing to spend extra to retain a key member of their World Series-winning team.  Gordon was entering his age-32 season at the time, however, and some in the organization felt “he had had worn down by that point” and wasn’t a good investment.  These concerns seem to have been well-founded, as Gordon has hit just .213/.300/.343 over 1071 PA through two-plus years of that contract.
  • Reliever Francisco Rodriguez is determined to continue pitching at age 36, even if it means going to an indy ball club.  He was released by the Phillies last month after spending most of the spring with the organization on a minor league deal, and K-Rod posted a 5.40 ERA over 6 2/3 Grapefruit League innings.
  • Shortstop Luisangel Acuna, the younger brother of star Braves prospect Ronald Acuna, will be a sought-after name in the next July 2 international signing period, Heyman writes in a separate piece.  The Rangers are one of multiple teams interested in the younger Acuna, who could receive a bonus as high as $500K.  This estimated price tag will keep the Braves out of the running, as they are limited to spending no more than $300K on any single international prospect for the next July 2 period.  MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez writes that some scouts feel Acuna will eventually have to move to second base, and he “has shown some power and has the potential to be an average-or-better hitter with proper instruction, but he’ll have to grow” beyond his current 5’9″, 160-pound frame.

Mariners Sign Chris Herrmann To Minors Deal

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The Mariners have signed catcher/outfielder Chris Herrmann to a minor league contract, Tacoma Rainiers broadcaster Mike Curto reports.  Curto broke the news yesterday that Herrmann was working out with the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate, and it may be a couple of days before Herrmann is officially activated in order to give him time to get fully ramped up.

Herrmann will take over from the just-released Tuffy Gosewisch as the primary Triple-A depth catcher for the Mariners, as Curto notes.  The M’s are thin at the position at the big league level, with Mike Marjama and David Freitas handling duties behind the plate while Mike Zunino is on the DL with an oblique injury, so there’s a chance Herrmann could get a promotion sooner rather than later.  (Especially since Seattle is being cautious with Zunino’s recovery.)

The Diamondbacks designated Herrmann for assignment and ultimately released him prior to Opening Day, thus saving themselves three-quarters of the $1.3MM owed to Herrmann in an arbitration-avoiding deal over the winter.  Herrmann is coming off a rough .181/.273/.345 performance over 256 plate appearances with Arizona last season, a major dropoff from the impressive .284/.352/.493 slash line he posted over 166 PA in 2016.  Herrmann can also fill in at first base and in the corner outfield, giving him more versatility than the average backup catcher.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/7/18

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Here are the latest minor moves from around baseball, with the newest moves at the top of the post…

  • The Angels have outrighted Juan Graterol to Triple-A after the catcher cleared waivers, the team’s communications department announced (Twitter link).  Graterol was designated for assignment earlier this week to create 40-man roster space for the newly-acquired Miguel Almonte.  Graterol appeared in 48 games for the Halos last season but their offseason signing of Rene Rivera pushed Graterol down to the level of a minor league depth piece.  Graterol has a .493 OPS over 102 MLB plate appearances in his career, and a .271/.321/.336 slash line over 1912 PA in the minors.

AL East Notes: Rasmus, Drury, Rays

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Some items from around the AL East…

  • The Orioles placed outfielder Colby Rasmus on the 10-day DL due to a left hip flexor strain, the team announced prior to today’s game.  Right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis was called up from Triple-A to take Rasmus’ spot on the active roster.  Rasmus has battled hip problems in the past, and the latest injury apparently was caused several days ago when he was hit in the hip with a cleat.  This could account for Rasmus’ slow start to the year, as he has just two hits in his first 23 plate appearances for the O’s.  Rasmus’ injury will cost Baltimore one of the few left-handed bats in their lineup; switch-hitter Anthony Santander is now likely to get more playing time in right field against right-handed pitching.
  • Brandon Drury has been bothered with migraines and blurred vision since early in Spring Training, the Yankees third baseman told reporters (including the New York Post’s Zach Braziller).  Drury was placed on the 10-day DL due to the problem, which led him to be removed from Friday night’s game against the Orioles.  This newest issue seems to be the latest manifestation of an ongoing problem for Drury, as he told the team last night that he has been dealing with similar symptoms for the last six years.  This came as news to the Yankees, according to GM Brian Cashman — Drury was known to have suffered a migraine while playing for the Diamondbacks in 2016, though an MRI at the time came back clean.  Cashman said that Drury will receive “an entire assessment” on Monday: “All I care about is finding out what’s going on.  He’s in a great city and we’ll give him the best medical care that New York City has to offer.  I can’t say what my level of concern is at this point.”
  • The Rays’ plan to use a three-man rotation and frequent “bullpen days” to fill the remaining starts has already run into obstacles, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  Nathan Eovaldi’s injury thinned the rotation from a four-man unit down to just three regular starters, and any lack of effectiveness from the established rotation members creates a ripple effect of usage for the rest of the week.  Topkin’s piece was written prior to today’s game, though it represents a perfect example — starter Jake Faria lasted just 1 2/3 innings in a 10-3 loss to the Red Sox, forcing the bullpen to eat a lot of innings.  (Infielder Daniel Robertson was even called in for an inning of mop-up work.)  The lack of flexibility has also impacted how the Rays use their short and long relievers.  Topkin feels that making multi-inning reliever Yonny Chirinos into a full-time starter would help add more stability to the pitching situation.

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