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Kyle Hendricks Not Planning To Return During 2022 Season
Kyle Hendricks hasn’t pitched since early July due to a strain in his right shoulder, and it appears as though his 2022 season is over. The Cubs right-hander told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian) that he is trying to get healthy in order to have a normal offseason and ramp-up period for the 2023 season, and to that end, Hendricks plans to restart a throwing program at the Cubs’ training complex in Arizona this week.
Hendricks underwent an MRI earlier this month that didn’t reveal any structural damage, according to Chicago manager David Ross. However, it seemed even at the time that Hendricks’ 2022 campaign was probably over, as Ross said that getting Hendricks back this season wasn’t “a top priority” compared to the bigger-picture desire to make sure the veteran is healthy.
As such, it looks like Hendricks will wrap up his ninth MLB season with a 4.80 ERA over 84 1/3 innings. This marks two underwhelming seasons in a row for Hendricks, who has a 4.78 ERA/4.62 SIERA in 265 1/3 frames since the start of the 2021 campaign. His once-elite walk rate fell to a still-decent 6.7% this year, but combined with a big increase in hard-hit ball rate, Hendricks’ low-velocity, contact-heavy arsenal wasn’t fooling many batters.
While the 2020 season was only 60 games long, Hendricks was still a capable front-of-the-rotation starter as recently as two years ago, when he finished ninth in NL Cy Young Award voting. Sometimes underrated as a key piece of the Cubs’ success over the last decade, Hendricks was a very solid member of the rotation from 2014-20, with a 3.12 ERA over 1047 1/3 innings of an old-school approach that relied more on command and soft contact rather than missed bats. The 2016 season was a peak for Hendricks, both due to his league-best 2.13 ERA and his big role in the Cubs’ World Series triumph.
With the Cubs now in a rebuild, it’s safe to guess that if Hendricks hadn’t been struggling with both performance and injury over the last two seasons, he might very well have joined the long list of veterans traded away. Hendricks’ salary was also a big factor — 2023 is the final season of the four-year, $55.5MM extension he signed in March 2019, and he is owed $14MM for the 2023 season.
The Cubs also have a $16MM club option on the right-hander’s services for 2024, but at this point, it would seem like Chicago will buy that option out for $1.5MM unless Hendricks can turn things around next year. Or, if a bounce-back year is in the cards, that option decision could be in the hands of another team, if the Cubs looked to finally trade Hendricks after all. Since it doesn’t seem like Hendricks has much trade value at the present, he’ll need to return healthy and pitch well in the first half of 2023 before we get more clarity on his future either in Chicago or as a potential trade chip.
NL Central Notes: Pujols, Peterson, Wisdom, Miley, Overton
Albert Pujols’ recent hot streak hasn’t changed the legendary slugger’s mind about retirement, as Pujols told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that he is “still going to retire” at season’s end. Despite a 1.428 OPS in 53 plate appearances since the All-Star break and his ever-nearing proximity to some notable milestones, Pujols confirmed that he hasn’t thought about playing in 2023.
“I don’t get caught up in numbers. If you were going to tell me 22 years ago that I would be this close, I would have told you that you’re freakin’ crazy,” Pujols said. “My career has been amazing…I’ve had enough. I’m glad I made the announcement this was it when I signed. Really, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Pujols now has 692 career homers, making it a realistic possibility that he can pass Alex Rodriguez (696 homers) on the all-time list and perhaps even become the fourth player in history to reach the 700-homer threshold. After last night’s four-hit performance against the Diamondbacks, Pujols is also now second on the all-time total bases list, passing another Cardinals legend in Stan Musial. Interestingly, Nightengale also notes that Pujols’ desire to return to St. Louis led him to pass up on offers from three other teams this winter, even though those other clubs were offering either more playing time or more money than Pujols’ $2.5MM salary for 2022.
More from around the NL Central…
- Brewers utilityman Jace Peterson told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that he’ll start a three-game minor league rehab assignment on Tuesday, with an eye towards returning to the majors when the Brewers open a series with the Cubs on Friday. A left elbow sprain sent Peterson to the 10-day injured list on July 20, and since he had been bothered by a UCL injury prior to that IL placement, there was some concern that he would be sidelined deeper into September or even that his season could be threatened. However, Peterson is now on pace to continue what has been a quietly valuable season, as he has contributed both versatility all around the diamond and above-average offense (111 wRC+) in 241 plate appearances, batting .252/.325/.439 with eight home runs.
- Cubs manager David Ross provided updates on some injured players, telling MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and other reporters that x-rays were negative on Patrick Wisdom’s left ring finger, and Wisdom is day to day. Wisdom suffered the injury on a slide into home plate in yesterday’s game. Wade Miley will also get back onto the mound and throw tomorrow, after experiencing some tightness in his left shoulder on Friday. Between two shoulder-related IL stints and some elbow tightness at the end of Spring Training, Miley has tossed only 19 innings in his first season in Chicago. Before this latest setback, Miley has pitched four rehab outings and seemed to be nearing a return, so it remains to be seen how much more time (if any) this recent bout of soreness could cost the veteran southpaw.
- Speaking of setbacks, Reds right-hander Connor Overton had a hamstring tweak while working out at the Reds’ Arizona training complex, manager David Bell told reporters (including The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bobby Nightengale). A stress fracture in Overton’s lower back sent him to the 60-day injured list on May 19, and he has already been sidelined for well beyond the initial 6-to-8 week recovery timeline. A rehab assignment was still a ways away, as Overton had progressed only to long toss. Depending on the severity of Overton’s hamstring issue, the rookie is running short on time to make it back to the field before the end of the season.
Yasmani Grandal To Miss 10-14 Days With Knee Injury
Aug. 21: The White Sox announced that further testing revealed “no acute damage to the ligaments, tendons or cartilage around the knee.” They diagnose the issue as “inflammation caused by the hyperextension of the knee” and say that Grandal should return to action in 10-14 days.
Aug. 20, 10:58PM: Grandal will be going on the injured list and Perez will be called up from Triple-A, manager Tony La Russa told reporters (including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times).
10:27PM: The White Sox announced that Grandal left the game due to left knee discomfort, and the catcher is still being evaluated.
10:18PM: White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal left Saturday’s game with an apparent left leg injury after a play at the plate. After Elvis Andrus singled in the seventh inning, Grandal was thrown out trying to score from second base, and seemed to hurt his knee on an awkward attempt to avoid the tag. Grandal had to be helped off the field, and didn’t return to the game.
More will be known about Grandal’s status after the game, yet it would certainly appear as though the veteran catcher will miss at least some time. Considering the calendar, anything beyond a minor injury could put the rest of Grandal’s 2022 season in jeopardy.
Grandal already missed five weeks due to back spasms earlier this season, and another significant injury would only add to a nightmarish year for the 33-year-old backstop. Limited to 287 plate appearances over 73 games, Grandal is hitting only .202/.307/.258, career lows in all three slash-line categories. His once-notable power has completely declined, with an Isolated Slugging statistic of only .056 (miles beneath the .211 ISO he carried over his first 10 seasons). While Grandal still has one of the league’s best walk rates, his lack of other production at the plate has made him a sub-replacement player, with a -0.2 fWAR.
As rough as Grandal’s season has been, the White Sox won’t be helped by the possible loss of their starting catcher as the team continues to battle for a playoff spot. Chicago dealt defensive specialist Reese McGuire to the Red Sox at the trade deadline, leaving Seby Zavala as the primary backup and now potential starter down the stretch. Zavala (who turns 29 later in August) has posted big numbers at Triple-A this season and has an above-average 108 wRC+ in 142 PA in the majors this season, hitting .281/.329/.398.
Nick Ciuffo and Raudy Read are the only other catchers in Chicago’s farm system with MLB experience. Neither are on the 40-man roster, and neither is Carlos Perez, a longtime member of the White Sox farm system who is hitting .259/.317/.448 with 17 homers for Triple-A Charlotte this season. In the event that Grandal misses some of all of the season, the Sox would have to turn to one of these options, or perhaps seek out the waiver wire or minor league trade route to land more catching depth.
Quick Hits: Maddon, Molina, Hernandez, Gilbert
After being fired as the Angels manager in June, Joe Maddon would like to return to baseball, but “right now I need to get tired of what I’m doing in order to want to do something else,” Maddon told Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. The veteran skipper is enjoying a rare “summer vacation” of sorts, and would only be interested in a managerial or advisory job with a team that had a “strong balance between the old and the new” approaches to the game, and not too tilted in favor of analytics.
It seems clear that Maddon didn’t feel this balance existed in Anaheim. In general, Maddon felt the Angels’ “infrastructure needs to be improved….It’s the non-sexy stuff that has to get better. It’s not just bright, shiny objects — they have that. They need to do the infrastructure better in order to get to where we had been in the past.” Maddon also implied that the front office tried to have too much of an influence on baseball decisions, thus trying to turn the manager into a “middle man” rather than an actual leader in the clubhouse.
“It’s at the point where some GM should really just put a uniform on and go down to the dugout, or their main analytical membrane, he should go down to the dugout….And what happens is when the performance isn’t what they think it should be, it’s never about the acquisitional process,” Maddon said. “It’s always about the inability of coaches and managers to get the best out of a player. And that’s where this tremendous disconnect is formed.”
More from around the baseball world…
- The Cardinals placed Yadier Molina on the restricted list today, and called up catcher Ivan Herrera from Triple-A to take Molina’s place on the active roster. Molina is away for “business reasons” in Puerto Rico, Cards president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other reporters, and the longtime catcher is expected to return to the Cardinals on Monday. Goold notes that the pro basketball team Molina owns is playing in the finals of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional championship, Puerto Rico’s top league. While seemingly an unusual reason to take time off during the season, Molina’s absence probably amounts to one game at most, as the catcher played on Friday and wouldn’t have played in both weekend games against the Diamondbacks.
- X-rays were negative on Teoscar Hernandez’s left foot after the Blue Jays outfielder fouled a ball off his foot in the eighth inning of today’s 5-2 win over the Yankees. Hernandez was replaced in right field for the bottom half of the eighth inning. While it appears as though Hernandez has avoided any serious injury, it seems likely that he’ll miss Sunday’s game, thus leaving the Jays even more shorthanded in the outfield. George Springer has been limited to DH duty since returning from the injured list, and Springer has also missed the last two games due to a sore right knee after a wayward foul ball of his own on Thursday. While Toronto has outfield depth on the bench, the lineup would be hurt if both Hernandez and Springer each have to miss more time.
- Drew Gilbert’s first pro season is already over due to a dislocation in his right elbow, the Astros announced. (Hat tip to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle.) Gilbert hasn’t played since August 13, when he suffered a forearm contusion after a collision with the outfield wall in a game for the Astros’ A-ball affiliate. However, according to the team, a further medical exam revealed that Gilbert “had sustained a dislocated right elbow that spontaneously went back into place before he was examined.” The 21-year-old Gilbert was the 28th overall pick of the 2022 draft, and MLB Pipeline already ranks the University of Tennessee product as the second-best prospect in the Astros’ farm system.
Latest On Yordan Alvarez
Yordan Alvarez left Friday’s game in the fifth inning due to shortness of breath, and went to a local hospital for examination later that evening. Both the Astros and manager Dusty Baker addressed the situation today, saying that Alvarez was released from hospital after tests revealed nothing abnormal, and the slugger was even back at the ballpark today, though he wasn’t in the starting lineup for the Astros’ game against the Braves.
Baker even suggested that Alvarez could play on Sunday, though “We still have to watch him. He’s still under (something) similar to a concussion protocol,” the manager told The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome and other reporters. “You don’t want him to maybe fall out. They couldn’t find anything, but that don’t mean nothing’s wrong. We’re just going to wait today, see how he is tomorrow.”
Any sort of breathing issue is naturally cause for concern, though it is a very good sign that Alvarez’s initial round of testing and observation didn’t reveal any more serious problem. It could be that Alvarez was affected by playing in Atlanta in particular, with Baker noting that there is more smoke than usual in the atmosphere due to Truist Park’s tradition of shooting fireworks every time a Braves player homers, or every time a Braves pitcher records a strikeout.
Alvarez is also working through his first real slump of the 2022 season, as he has only one home run and a .572 OPS over his last 78 plate appearances. However, even with his cold streak, Alvarez is still batting .295/.400/.612 for the season, and his 31 homers ties him for the third-highest total in baseball. The season has cemented Alvarez as one of the game’s top hitters, and he will be a major factor for the Astros as they try to capture the World Series.
Dodgers Release Pedro Baez
The Dodgers have released Pedro Baez, according to the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page. Baez made his return to the organization when he signed a minor league contract in May.
Baez appeared in three games with the Astros before being released in late April, but didn’t return to the mound until July, when he pitched with the Dodgers’ Arizona Complex League affiliate. Moving to Triple-A Oklahoma City at the end of July, Baez struggled to a 14.29 ERA over 5 2/3 innings in OKC, with much of that damage coming in his final outing. Just yesterday, Baez allowed five runs without recording a single out against the Sugar Land Skeeters.
From 2014-20, Baez was a very dependable member of the Los Angeles bullpen, posting a 3.03 ERA over 356 innings with the Dodgers and helping the team capture the World Series in 2020. However, Baez’s strikeout rate and fastball velocity both started to decline during that 2020 season, but that didn’t stop Houston from inking the right-hander to a two-year deal worth a guaranteed $12.5MM.
That deal ended up being a bust for the Astros, as Baez threw only 6 2/3 innings in a Houston uniform before being released in April. Shoulder problems kept Baez on the sidelines for the majority of the 2021 season, and given his near-total lack of results over the last two years, there is certainly a fear that Baez may no longer be effective as a big league pitcher (or perhaps even as a Triple-A pitcher) at age 34.
The Dodgers would’ve only owed Baez the prorated portion of the Major League minimum salary if he’d reached their active roster, so with this release, the Dodgers cost themselves nothing by seeing if a familiar face could regain his old form. The Astros are responsible for what remains of Baez’s $5.5MM salary for the 2022 season, and that figure will only lessen by a prorated minimum salary if another team should sign Baez and add him to the MLB roster.
Padres To Use Closer Committee, Give Josh Hader “A Little Break” From Save Chances
Since being acquired by the Padres in a surprising deadline trade, Josh Hader’s San Diego tenure has gotten off to a rough start. The All-Star has been scorched for six runs over his last three outings and 1 1/3 innings of work, and as a result, Hader has temporarily lost the closer’s job. As Padres manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including The Athletic’s Dennis Lin), the team will deploy a committee for the ninth inning, while giving Hader “a little break” from save situations.
This obviously isn’t the outcome the Padres were hoping for when they gave up a significant prospect package to the Brewers on August 1, in addition to taking on the remainder of Hader’s $11MM salary for the 2022 season. However, it is worth noting that we’re dealing with a very small sample size of 3 1/3 total innings for Hader in a Padres uniform. In three of his five appearances, Hader has allowed two hits and a walk over 2 2/3 scoreless frames — but, in his other two outings, the Giants and Nationals each scored three runs off the right-hander. The result is a 16.20 ERA for Hader since coming to San Diego.
These recent struggles also underline Hader’s dropoff in performance since the start of June. Hader didn’t allow a single earned run over his first 19 appearances of the season, but over his last 19 2/3 innings, his ERA is a whopping 10.07, with three blown saves in 14 chances. For comparison’s sake, Hader only blew three saves total during the 2020-21 seasons.
It is quite possible that Hader might regain his form once he gets a few more games under his belt in San Diego, and in this scenario, it might not be long before he is Melvin’s top choice at closer once again. In the interim, the Padres could turn to any of Robert Suarez, Luis Garcia, Adrian Morejon, or Nick Martinez in save situations, depending on recent usage or specific situations.
Derek Shelton To Return As Pirates Manager In 2023
Derek Shelton has only a 127-214 record over his two-plus seasons as the Pirates’ manager, as Shelton has been given the difficult task of overseeing the team through an extensive rebuilding period. Despite the lack of on-field results, Pirates GM Ben Cherington told reporters (including The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel) that Shelton will continue to manage the club through the 2023 season, which is the last year of Shelton’s initial contract.
“I love working with Shelty and this staff. They work their tails off every day and care so much about getting this right,” Cherington said. “I’m so confident at the level of effort this staff puts in and I’m looking forward to this group benefiting from the fruits of their labor. I think they will as our roster matures and gets stronger.”
Naturally, Shelton’s record is far from a determining factor in his job security, given how little he has been given to work with on Pittsburgh’s roster. As Cherington noted that “I think we’re at a moment in time (when) progress should not be measured entirely by wins and losses,” and that “I really do believe we’re making progress in a lot of ways that isn’t showing up — it’s not going to show up publicly — but will help lead us to success” in the future.
While the Bucs have only a 47-72 record, the 2022 season has seen such notable youngsters as Oneil Cruz, Roansy Contreras, Rodolfo Castro, and Tucupita Marcano all get more of an extended look at the big league level. Bryan Reynolds has already established himself as an All-Star caliber player, David Bednar has emerged as a quality closer, and Ke’Bryan Hayes has become one of baseball’s best defenders, so the active roster isn’t bereft of productive talent. Plus, many of the top prospects acquired since Cherington took over in November 2019 have yet to even reach the majors.
With all this in mind, it is simply too early to evaluate many aspects of the Pirates’ rebuild, with Shelton’s performance as manager being one of those rather unknown quantities. Since a season still remains on Shelton’s deal, it would’ve been perhaps more of a surprise if a managerial change did happen, as such a move would’ve indicated that Cherington or ownership had some issue with how Shelton was shepherding the Pirates’ young talent. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal observed back in April that “Shelton has served almost as an assistant general manager” to Cherington, and the fact that Shelton received a four-year commitment in his first managerial job perhaps speaks to the early confidence that Cherington showed.
Both Cherington and Shelton (in a radio interview earlier this week) declined to say whether or not any talks had been held about a possible contract extension. A new long-term deal, of course, would be the clearest sign of the Pirates’ faith in their manager, though it is also pretty common for teams to give skippers even a one-year extension just to avoid any “lame duck” perception. At this point, it seems a pretty safe bet that Shelton and the Pirates will work out at least a shorter-term deal, even if such an agreement might not be official until around the start of the 2023 season.
Mets Select Rob Zastryzny
The Mets made a few roster moves in between games of their doubleheader with the Phillies, as left-hander Rob Zastryzny’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Syracuse. In other transactions, left-hander Sam Clay was optioned to Triple-A, while recently-designated right-hander R.J. Alvarez was outrighted to Syracuse after clearing waivers.
Zastryzny pitched 34 2/3 innings for the Cubs over parts of the 2016-18 seasons, and has since bounced around with three other MLB organizations (Dodgers, Orioles, Marlins) and the independent Long Island Ducks before joining the Mets back in May. The 30-year-old has made a solid accounting of himself in Syracuse, with a 3.61 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, and 9.1% walk rate in 47 1/3 Triple-A innings, starting six of his 26 games.
While the Mets’ bullpen has been good overall, left-handed batters have found some success against the team, in part due to New York’s lack of southpaw relievers. Joely Rodriguez has been the only left-handed constant in the relief corps all season, so if Zastryzny is able to even come close to his Syracuse numbers, he could earn himself a longer look in his return to the big leagues.
