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Cubs Notes: Mills, Stroman, Smyly, Suzuki
Alec Mills threw only seven pitches in today’s start against the Red Sox before being forced out of the game due to lower-back pain. More will be known once Mills undergoes testing, but it would seemingly appear as though the right-hander’s bad back could again be forcing him to the injured list.
Mills missed a little over three weeks of the 2021 season with a lower back strain, and a similar injury also put him on the IL to begin the 2022 campaign. Unfortunately for Mills, he then suffered a quad injury while rehabbing earlier this season, which delayed this season debut until June 7. This missed time has clearly had an adverse effect on Mills’ pitching, as he has struggled to a 9.68 ERA over 17 2/3 innings since coming off the IL. Today’s abbreviated outing was only the second time in seven appearances that Mills hadn’t allowed multiple earned runs.
It was also only Mills’ second start in those seven games, as Chicago had primarily been using him as a reliever until injuries forced Mills back into rotation duty. Should Mills be headed to the IL again, the Cubs will be in need of a starter in the short term, though help could be on the way soon.
Marcus Stroman is set to make a rehab start on Sunday for Triple-A Iowa, as the righty looks to be on the verge of returning from a stint on the 15-day IL. Shoulder inflammation sidelined Stroman back on June 10, and he also missed around two weeks earlier this season due to a placement on the COVID-related IL.
The stop-and-start nature of his season has contributed to Stroman’s disappointing 5.32 ERA. While his 3.71 SIERA is more palatable, Stroman’s strikeout rate is barely above the league average and he has some of the worst hard-contact numbers of any pitcher in baseball. It could be that this IL visit serves as a reset on his season, as Stroman told MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian that he feels he more “proper build-up” after two bullpen sessions and a live BP session. The right-hander hopes that he’ll only need the one rehab start before returning to the Cubs, which would line Stroman up for a start in Chicago’s upcoming series against the Dodgers.
Drew Smyly is also set to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Monday, following a similar ramp-up pattern of two bullpens and a live BP session. Smyly has missed a little over a month due to an oblique strain. The veteran lefty’s first season in Wrigleyville has seen him post a 3.80 ERA/4.09 SIERA over 42 2/3 innings, with a strong 5.6% walk rate, but also a career-low 18.9% strikeout rate. That latter figure could give rival teams some pause in considering Smyly as a deadline pickup, though if he is able to return quickly and pitch well in July, Smyly figures to get some attention by August 2.
On the position-player side, manager David Ross told Bastian and other reporters that Seiya Suzuki should be activated from the IL as early as Monday. Suzuki has a third minor league rehab game scheduled for today, which could be the final step in his recovery from a sprained left ring finger. The outfielder has now missed over five weeks of action, interrupting his first MLB season. Suzuki had gotten off to a red-hot start in the first few weeks of play, but came down to earth in the 23 games prior to his injury — Suzuki has hit only .183/.253/.293 in his last 91 plate appearances.
AL Central Notes: Twins, Guardians, Blitzer, Ilitch, Tigers
The bullpen will be a focus for the Twins heading into the trade deadline, even though “the reliever (trade) market is always the toughest one to navigate and always the toughest one to pin down,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey told The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman and other reporters. “It all depends on what’s available, but this year we’ll be more open-minded to adding whatever what we think will be something that will help us more toward the middle or the back end, ideally.”
However, it doesn’t seem like a trade may come together quickly, as with a month still left before the trade deadline, Falvey noted that many teams still haven’t decided if they’ll be buying or selling. “You can’t really accelerate that part of the conversation,” Falvey said. “Sometimes it’s ’all right, we’ll wait and see, we’ll put you down as interested in Player X and we’ll circle back if we’re moving in that direction.’ ” While the Twins could push the market with an aggressive offer, that only increases the risk of overpaying for a player now when they could get the same pitcher for less in a few weeks’ time. Getting at least one of Emilio Pagan or Tyler Duffey pitching well would greatly help Minnesota’s bullpen and trade leverage, but until that happens, the club may need to continue to explore outside options.
More from around the AL Central…
- The Guardians figure to make some middle-infield prospects available at the trade deadline, as The Athletic’s Zack Meisel writes that the club has such a surplus that some names will eventually need to be moved by this offseason at the latest. In terms of deadline targets, Meisel figures Cleveland will look to add in the bullpen and perhaps at catcher, though the rotation (for the first time in a while) could also be an area of need. Adding one more quality starter would help reinforce a rotation that has been only okay this season, rather than its normal above-average quality.
- David Blitzer is now officially a minority owner of the Guardians, though GM Mike Chernoff told Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal and other reporters that “I wouldn’t expect our operating philosophy to change. The industry economic model is what it is and so we know what our challenges are being a small market. We don’t shy away from those at all.” While the financial status quo will remain in place for now, it remains to be seen what could happen if Blitzer eventually becomes the Guards’ majority owner — in six years’ time, Blitzer has an option to buy a majority share of the franchise.
- The Tigers have a disappointing 29-46 record, but owner Christopher Ilitch is still “very pleased with the progress” of his team. “Despite a very slow start this season with our team, there’s actually some good progress happening with some of the young guys that have come up and developed and so on and so forth,” Ilitch told reporters, including Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press. After years of rebuilding and a big offseason spending spree, the Tigers were expected to take a big step forward this season, but Ilitch sees these struggles as another natural part of “a process that takes time.”
Aaron Barrett To Retire
After 11 professional seasons, right-hander Aaron Barrett announced (via Twitter) that he is retiring from baseball. The 34-year-old said he’ll pitch in his final game on Monday, July 4, as a member of the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate.
Barrett began his pro career when the Nationals selected him in the ninth round of the 2010 draft, though Barrett had also been taken (but didn’t sign) in the 2006, 2008, and 2009 drafts by the Dodgers, Twins, and Rangers, respectively. This began a run in the Washington that lasted until Barrett inked a minor league deal with the Phillies this past winter, and Barrett’s final season has been a struggle, with a 13.86 ERA over 12 1/3 innings for Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
As Barrett put it in his goodbye message, “I went into this year thinking this could be my last run. I gave it EVERYTHING I had. It didn’t go the way I thought it could. That’s life! It’s time for me to start the next chapter of my life.”
Barrett appeared in parts of four MLB seasons, with most of that work coming in the 2014-15 seasons when he posted a 3.47 ERA over 70 innings and 90 relief appearances. The rest of his big league resume consists of four total innings across the 2019-20 campaigns. The gap in between those Major League stints perhaps defines Barrett’s character, as his promising was sidetracked by both a Tommy John surgery, and then a fractured humerus bone.
The latter injury was particularly devastating, as Barrett broke his arm in horrific fashion while pitching, and extensive surgery was required. However, Barrett’s long road back eventually led him to once again pitch in the majors — fans may recall the viral video of Double-A manager Matt LeCroy fighting back tears while telling Barrett that he had been promoted back to the Nationals’ active roster. While Barrett only tossed 2 1/3 innings for the 2019 Nationals, he was still part of a World Series championship team.
We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Barrett on his career, and we wish him the best in his post-playing endeavors.
Jacob deGrom To Begin Minor League Rehab Assignment
Jacob deGrom has hit another key marker in his injury recovery, as Mets GM Billy Eppler and manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including Deesha Thosar of The New York Daily News) that deGrom will begin a minor league rehab assignment on Sunday with the Mets’ low-A affiliate. DeGrom is slated to toss two innings and roughly 25 pitches.
It will mark deGrom’s first official game action of any kind in almost a full year, as the former NL Cy Young Award winner tossed seven innings against the Brewers on July 7, 2021 before forearm problems prematurely ended his 2021 season. During Spring Training, deGrom was then set back by a stress reaction in his right shoulder, again keeping the ace on the sidelines.
Given the long layoff, deGrom has been slowly brought along, and that timeline won’t change now that he has embarked on his rehab assignment. Eppler compared deGrom’s planned workload for Sunday’s game to what would be expected from a pitcher in his first Spring Training outing, and the Mets plan to be fluid with deGrom’s schedule going forward (i.e. he might not pitch every five days). Even if all goes well, this elongated timeline means that deGrom will surely still be on the injured list until after the All-Star break, and he might not be fully ready to return to the big leagues until early in August.
Still, there does appear to be some light at the end of what has surely been a frustrating tunnel for deGrom. While the Mets are still in first place in the NL East even without their longtime ace (and other key players like Max Scherzer for long portions of the season), the Braves have moved to within 3.5 games of the division lead, and the Phillies have played much better baseball over the last month. Beyond just the NL East, the Mets will surely need their rotation in top form if they hope to continue their strong play into the postseason and then contend for a World Series title.
Given how aggressive the Mets were in the offseason, starting pitching is probably on the team’s deadline checklist even if deGrom progresses well in his rehab. At full strength, New York’s first-choice rotation of deGrom, Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt, and Taijuan Walker is among the best in the league, but health is certainly no guarantee. Eppler told Thosar and other media members that he is open to all possibilities at the deadline, and that owner Steve Cohen has no issue continuing to spend big in the right situation.
Royals Activate Joel Payamps, Outright Daniel Mengden
The Royals activated right-hander Joel Payamps from the COVID-related injury list today. In the corresponding move, Kansas City outrighted right-hander Daniel Mengden off the 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A.
Payamps was placed on the COVID list on June 13, and he returned to the field last week to make a trio of Triple-A outings as part of a rehab assignment. Despite below-average strikeout and walk rates, Payamps has a 2.42 ERA over 26 relief innings for K.C. this season, relying on a 53.7% grounder rate, a lack of hard contact, and zero homers allowed. The righty used a pretty similar recipe for success in 2021, as Payamps posted a 3.40 ERA over 50 1/3 innings with the Blue Jays and Royals in his first full MLB season.
Payamps is only 28 years old but he has 11 years of pro experience, including time in the majors in each of the last four seasons. While not a premium bullpen arm, his numbers could get him some looks from other teams heading into the trade deadline, as the Royals are already known to be open to offers on veteran players.
Mengden signed a minor league deal with Kansas City in March, and in fact got his contract selected to the Show when Payamps was first placed on the COVID-IL. Mengden appeared in four games with the Royals, posting a 2.08 ERA over 4 1/3 innings — this marked his first MLB action since 2020, as Mengden pitched in South Korea last season.
Though the Royals have only deployed Mengden as a reliever to date, he has started 11 of his 12 games for Triple-A Omaha, and has worked as a starter for the bulk of his career in the majors, minors, and the KBO League. Mengden had some solid numbers pitching for the A’s in 2017-18 before control problems hampered him in 2019.
Brewers Activate Aaron Ashby From 15-Day IL
The Brewers reinstated left-hander Aaron Ashby from the 15-day injured list today, as Ashby is slated to start today’s game against the Pirates. Righty Trevor Kelley was optioned to Triple-A to open up a 26-man roster spot.
Following his (retroactive) IL placement on June 17, Ashby ended up missing only a minimal amount of time — a sigh of relief, given that Ashby had been sidelined by forearm inflammation. The injury wasn’t considered to be too serious at the time, and Ashby will indeed make a pretty quick return to help a Milwaukee rotation that has been shorthanded for much of the season. Even with Ashby and (earlier this week) Brandon Woodruff returning, Freddy Peralta is still on the 60-day IL until late July, and Adrian Houser was just placed on the 15-day IL yesterday due to a flexor strain.
Ashby will try to pick up the slack by continuing what has been a pretty solid sophomore year in the big leagues. Beginning the season as a swingman, Ashby’s last five outings were all as a starting pitcher. The left-hander has a 4.25 ERA over 55 total innings, posting a 62.6% grounder rate and an impressive array of Statcast numbers, apart from a 10.7% walk rate that is well below the league average. Control has been something of an issue for Ashby at both the MLB and minor league levels, but his ability to miss bats and generate grounders makes him yet another intriguing product of the Brewers’ pitching development system.
In other Brewers injury news, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Todd Rosiak of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that Luis Perdomo is “struggling to get going” from an elbow injury that sent him to the IL back in late May. Perdomo underwent a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2021 season, though Counsell didn’t give any indication that Perdomo’s current issue was also season-threatening, or something that could require another surgical procedure.
Hunter Renfroe will also still miss a bit more time, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy writes that Renfroe has yet to start running on the field following a calf strain that sent him to the injured list over a week ago. Renfroe’s 10-day minimum IL time expires on Sunday, but the Brewers will continue to be cautious in bringing Renfroe back, for fear of exacerbating the injury. Renfroe had 13 home runs and a .247/.300/.490 slash line over his first 217 plate appearances this season.
Twins Pitching Coach Wes Johnson Hired As LSU Pitching Coach
June 27: The Twins formally announced this morning that Johnson will depart the organization to accept his new role at LSU. His final day with the Twins will be Thursday.
“Wes Johnson has been an integral part of our organization over the last three and a half seasons and has helped guide our pitchers at the highest level,” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said in a press release. “His leadership, insight, creativity, and ability to effectively work across a diverse team were hallmarks of his time with the Minnesota Twins. His influence and impact will continue to be realized in Minnesota through the pitchers and staff members he helped mentor. We wish him and his family all the best during his next stop at LSU.”
June 26, 11:03PM: Johnson will receive a $380K annual salary from LSU, according to the school, a modest increase over the approximately $350K per year that the coach received from the Twins. Johnson will indeed leave for LSU when the Twins’ series in Cleveland concludes on Thursday.
7:17PM: Maki will be promoted and become the Twins’ new pitching coach, Gleeman and Hayes report (via Twitter). Also from Hayes, talks between the Twins and Johnson were more about “what might make [the] job more appealing” to Johnson, and he didn’t ask the club for more money. LSU, meanwhile, was “very aggressive” in recruiting Johnson.
6:30PM: In a surprise midseason move, Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson is leaving the team to return to the college ranks, as D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers (Twitter link) reports that Johnson has been hired as LSU’s new pitching coach. Johnson is in his fourth season with the Twins, but has previous SEC ties — he worked as a pitching coach at Mississippi State and at Arkansas before joining Minnesota in November 2018.
Johnson had never worked in pro baseball prior to being hired by the Twins, though several teams in recent years have hired coaches with more varied resumes than the usual background as a player, coach, or manager at the MLB or minor league levels. In that regard, Johnson was something of a forerunner to this trend, as he was an early adopter of Trackman technology even at the college level.
Since the start of the 2019 season, Minnesota pitchers rank 10th in baseball in fWAR (46.8), which is a strong total even factoring in the injuries and performance drop-offs that plagued the Twins during their disappointing 2021 campaign. Starting pitching was seen as a big question mark for the Twins heading into 2022, but the club has weathered another set of injuries to post strong-to-respectable numbers in several categories. The success stories include Chris Archer’s comeback year, and rookie Joe Ryan pitching well in his first full MLB season.
The pitching has been a reason behind the Twins’ 41-33 record, and rise to first place in the AL Central. With this in mind, it makes it all the more unusual that Johnson would leave so abruptly — The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reports that the Twins only learned yesterday about Johnson’s negotiations with LSU. With Minnesota about to begin an important five-game series against the Guardians, Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic adds that Johnson is expected to remain with the Twins until that series is over.
Presumably, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez or bullpen coach Pete Maki are the likeliest candidates to step into Minnesota’s pitching coach role on at least an interim basis. Given the sudden nature of Johnson’s departure, the Twins are perhaps more apt to wait until after the season to hire a permanent replacement.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
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Dodgers Notes: Betts, Ferguson, Treinen, Kahnle, Gonzalez, Duffy
It has been a week since the Dodgers placed Mookie Betts on the 10-day injured list due to a right rib fracture, and it doesn’t appear as though the five-time All-Star is much closer to a return. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times) that Betts is doing about “the same” after a week of rest, and Betts hasn’t been cleared to start baseball activities.
Given the varied nature of rib injuries, there was no official timeline placed on Betts’ recovery, though Roberts did say there was some initial hope Betts would miss roughly two weeks of action. Unfortunately, it now looks like Betts certainly won’t make that projection, and Roberts didn’t give any updated idea on when the outfielder could be ready.
Looking at the calendar, if Betts has to miss much time beyond just another week, it is possible the team might opt to shut him down through the All-Star break, rather than bring him back for what might be just a few games before the break. Because the All-Star Game is at Dodger Stadium this year, the Dodgers get an early jump on the break, as they don’t play on July 17.
With Betts sidelined, Eddy Alvarez and the newly-acquired Trayce Thompson have formed a platoon to cover one corner outfield slot, while Chris Taylor has seen most of the work in the other corner position. Of course, any method of replacing Betts is going to seem imperfect, considering his status as one of baseball’s best all-around players. Betts was hitting .273/.349/.535 with 17 home runs in 275 plate appearances, and was leading all NL outfielders in All-Star votes, as per the league’s last update.
Roberts also provided updates on several injured Dodgers pitchers both today and in yesterday’s sessions with the media. Caleb Ferguson may be closest to a return, as he tossed a live bullpen session today and is slated to throw another on Wednesday in preparation for a possible activation from the injured list. Ferguson didn’t make his 2022 debut until May, due to a lengthy recovery from Tommy John surgery, and he then went on the IL after six appearances due to forearm tendinitis. Fortunately, it looks like Ferguson could be back within three weeks, as the Dodgers are aiming to activate him for their upcoming June 30-July 3 series against the Padres.
Moving to pitchers on the 60-day IL, Roberts said that Victor Gonzalez (left elbow inflammation), Tommy Kahnle (bone bruise in right elbow), and Danny Duffy (flexor tendon surgery) are all scheduled to return in August. Kahnle has pitched four innings for Los Angeles this season while Gonzalez and Duffy have yet to see any work in 2022 — in Duffy’s case, he hasn’t pitched since July 16, 2021, when he was still a member of the Royals.
The outlook is still unclear about Blake Treinen’s availability, as Treinen threw only three innings before right shoulder inflammation sent him to the IL back in April. The veteran reliever started to play catch earlier in June, but Roberts said today that Treinen is still “weeks away” from being able to throw off a mound. Given the ramp-up time necessary once Treinen does get back on the bump, it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to return before 2022 is over.
