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Cardinals Place Masyn Winn On 10-Day IL, Activate Nolan Gorman

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The Cardinals announced that shortstop Masyn Winn was placed on the 10-day injured list due to back spasms.  Winn will be replaced by fellow infielder Nolan Gorman, whose own 10-day IL stint (due to a hamstring strain) has now ended with Gorman’s activation to the big league roster.

Winn lasted just an inning into yesterday’s game before his bad back required his removal from the lineup.  Winn also fought through some back problems last season, and told reporters (including MLB.com’s John Denton) yesterday that his current issue “was similar” but “last year was actually a little bit worse.”  Winn felt he might miss a couple of games but wouldn’t need an IL trip, yet the Cardinals have apparently decided to take the cautious route in giving the shortstop 10 days to fully recover.

A second-round pick for St. Louis in the 2020 draft, Winn went from highly-touted prospect to everyday shortstop when he hit .267/.314/.416 with 15 homers over 637 plate appearances in 2024.  With both this above-average hitting and strong glovework in the view of some defensive metrics, Winn earned himself an everyday role in the Cardinals’ lineup, though he was off to a slow start at the plate this year.

Thomas Saggese now looks to play shortstop while Winn is out, though super-utilityman Brendan Donovan will also receive his first taste of shortstop playing time since 2023 as the Cardinals figure out how to juggle their roster.  Having Donovan at shortstop would open up second base for Gorman, since third base will only be a possibility if Nolan Arenado is given a rest day.  Gorman appeared in two games before hitting the IL, but he’ll now make it back after just a minimal 10-day absence.

Rays Place Kevin Kelly On 15-Day Injured List

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Prior to Friday’s 6-3 win over the Braves, the Rays placed right-hander Kevin Kelly on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to April 10) with a left gluteal strain.  Righty Cole Sulser was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding roster move.

Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud and other reporters that Kelly woke up feeling sore on Thursday, following the reliever’s scoreless inning of work against the Angels the previous night.  There was some initial uncertainty over whether Kelly might’ve been dealing with a nerve issue or not, but Cash said “it’s an actual glute strain.  So, pretty unique in that fact.  We’ll see if it shrunk down in a couple days and get a ball back in his hands and see where he’s at.”

As Cash noted, a timeline isn’t yet in place for when Kelly might return, but the Rays will be without one of their more underrated relievers for at least the next two weeks.  The Rockies selected Kelly out of the Guardians’ organization in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft, and after Tampa acquired Kelly in a trade that same draft day, the right-hander has become the latest in a long line of pitchers to blossom with the Rays.

Kelly posted a 2.88 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, and a superb 4.3% walk rate over 137 2/3 relief innings for Tampa Bay in 2023-24.  That walk rate ranks among the best in the game over the last two seasons, and Kelly augmented that excellent control with very good soft-contact numbers.  His grounder rate also jumped from a very good 47.7% in 2023 to an elite 56.8% mark in 2024.  Kelly isn’t a hard thrower, but he rarely uses a traditional four-seamer, as he relies heavily on a devastating slider and an above-average sweeper to retire batters.

If that production wasn’t enough, Kelly is also a workhorse, often working multiple innings.  He has yet to go beyond one inning of work in any of his five outings this season, and his numbers are a bit more on the modest side in the small sample size of those five innings — a 3.60 ERA and an equal number of walks and strikeouts (two apiece).  All of the damage came on a two-run homer Kelly allowed to the Rockies’ Mickey Moniak on March 30, which marked only the tenth home run Kelly has surrendered in his MLB career.

In the short term, Cash said the Rays view Sulser as a candidate to take over from Kelly in that multi-inning capacity.  Tampa acquired Sulser from the Mets in a cash transaction last July, and Sulser tossed 11 2/3 scoreless innings for the Rays over the rest of the season.  Sulser had an excellent season out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2021, but has since posted a 4.69 ERA over 55 2/3 innings with four different Major League teams.

Twins Designate Scott Blewett For Assignment

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The Twins announced that right-hander Scott Blewett has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for left-hander Kody Funderburk, who was called up from Triple-A.

Blewett’s minor league deal was selected to Minnesota’s roster earlier this week, and the righty made a good accounting for himself by allowing one run over 4 2/3 relief innings, while striking out five of 19 batters faced and allowing no walks in his two appearances.  Today’s transaction simply seems to be about getting a fresh arm into the Twins pen, since Blewett tossed 36 pitches over 2 1/3 innings in yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the Tigers.

Blewett now has a 1.80 ERA over 25 big league innings for Minnesota over the last two seasons, though the strong bottom-line results haven’t earned him any kind of roster stability.  The Twins twice outrighted him off the 40-man roster in 2024, with Blewett both times clearing waivers and electing free agency, only to resign with the club on a new minors contract.  Assuming Blewett clears waivers again, the same scenario could play out this time around, though a team in need of some swingman help could consider putting in a claim.

The return to the big leagues and then to DFA limbo has made for quite the birthday week for Blewett, who turned 29 on Thursday.  Blewett is out of minor league options, so the Twins had no choice but to pursue the DFA/outright route in order to try and send him to Triple-A.  Blewett has worked only as a reliever over his 33 career MLB innings, but he has a lot of experience as a starter in the minors and during a brief stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2023.

Angels Place Ben Joyce On 15-Day Injured List

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The Angels placed right-hander Ben Joyce on the 15-day injured list Friday, prior to the club’s 14-3 loss to the Astros.  Joyce is dealing with inflammation in his throwing shoulder, and the IL placement is retroactive to April 9.  Righty Michael Darrell-Hicks was called up from Triple-A to take Joyce’s spot on the active roster.

Shoulder inflammation brought Joyce’s 2024 season to a premature end, as the reliever didn’t pitch after September 3.  Joyce posted a 2.08 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 58.9% grounder rate, and 9.9% walk rate over 34 2/3 innings in between his June call-up and that September 3 date, establishing himself as a force out of the Angels’ bullpen.  While Joyce had the high grounder rate and modest strikeout total of a pitch-to-contact type of hurler, he is best known for being one of the baseball’s hardest throwers, as Joyce averaged an absurd 102.1mph on his fastball last season.

Joyce has such extreme velocity that it registered as unusual when his fastball was humming at “only” 99.3mph during his last outing, but something seemed amiss when he allowed three runs on four hits over just a third of an inning on Tuesday against the Rays.  Joyce told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other reporters that his shoulder was feeling fine during the game, and that he only started feeling sore while playing catch on Wednesday.

There isn’t yet any timeline for when the reliever might be able to return to action, though Joyce indicated that the IL placement was somewhat precautionary in nature.  He said initially, he “just kind of thought it was normal soreness, and ended up getting reevaluated and just a little more inflamed than we wanted it to be.  So [we’re] just trying to get ahead of it.”

The three-run meltdown against Tampa boosted Joyce’s ERA to 6.23 over 4 1/3 total innings this season, though he hadn’t allowed any earned runs in his four prior appearances.  The Angels have been using Joyce as a high-leverage fireman in front of closer Kenley Jansen, and so Joyce’s absence will essentially mean that everyone else in the Los Angeles bullpen might have to take a step up the depth chart.  Ryan Zeferjahn might be the favorite for the role out of default, as Zeferjahn is one of the few pitchers that has gotten off to a decent start within a tough couple of weeks for the Halos relief corps.

No Structural Damage In Blake Snell’s Shoulder; Dodgers Hoping For Short-Term Absence

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April 8: An MRI confirmed that Snell is not facing any structural damage in his shoulder, per the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett. His treatment will likely include an injection of some sort, but the team is hopeful the two-time Cy Young winner will only require a short-term absence.

April 6: The Dodgers have placed left-hander Blake Snell on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder.  The placement is retroactive to April 3.  Right-hander Matt Sauer was called up from Triple-A to take Snell’s spot on the active roster.

Despite allowing eight walks in nine innings of work this season, Snell emerged with a 2.00 ERA over his first two starts of the season.  It seems as if this shoulder issue developed in between Snell’s last outing on April 2 and a bullpen session today, as Jack Harris of the L.A. Times reports that Snell talked with GM Brandon Gomes and team trainer Thomas Albert in the aftermath of the bullpen.

This is the tenth visit to the injured list Snell has taken over his 10 MLB seasons, and today’s news continues his career-long theme of both health concerns and early-season issues.  Snell is somewhat infamously a slow starter, with a 3.95 ERA over 555 2/3 career innings prior to the All-Star break, and then a 2.32 ERA in 500 innings over the second halves of seasons.

These splits notwithstanding, there are few pitchers in the game better than Snell when he’s in top form, as evidenced by his two Cy Young Awards.  The 2024 campaign was another example of Snell’s hot-and-cold tendencies, as he signed with the Giants late in Spring Training and subsequently spent much of the first three months either injured or struggling, until the switch flipped and Snell posted a 1.23 ERA over his final 80 1/3 frames of the season.

Snell was encouraged enough by this spectacular finish to opt out of the final season (and $30MM) of his contract with the Giants, and that decision proved to be wise, as Los Angeles signed Snell to a five-year, $182MM free agent deal.  The contract is worth “only” around $160MM-$165MM in current value since $65MM of Snell’s salary is deferred, yet it still represented the big long-term payday that eluded Snell in his previous trip to free agency.

The fact that Snell has already gone on the IL will bring some fresh questions about the Dodgers’ investment, yet there isn’t any indication that Snell’s shoulder inflammation is anything serious.  It does leave the Dodgers in a bit of a tricky spot when it comes to filling Snell’s rotation spot, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki are both only being used once per week, replicating the standard usage of a Japanese pitching rotation.  Landon Knack, Justin Wrobleski, and Bobby Miller are the likeliest candidates to receive a Triple-A call-up and at least one spot start in Snell’s place.

In the bigger picture, Tony Gonsolin is on a Triple-A rehab assignment, and Clayton Kershaw (toe/knee surgeries) and Emmet Sheehan (Tommy John surgery) are expected to be available later in the season.  Shohei Ohtani is also slowly ramping up his pitching workload in preparation of his mound debut in a Dodgers uniform, though it will still be at least a couple of months before Ohtani becomes available from a pitching perspective.  In theory, Los Angeles has enough pitching depth available or eventually available to withstand another injury-riddled year like 2024, though Snell’s injury underlines the difficulty the Dodgers face in trying to maintain and preserve a staff of so many pitchers with significant durability questions.

Sam Menzin Resigns As Tigers’ Assistant GM Amid Lewd Photo Allegations

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April 7: Per a report from Britt Ghiroli and Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, Menzin was under investigation for sending photos of his genitals to female staffers and was about to be fired before he resigned.

April 5: Tigers assistant general manager Sam Menzin resigned his position on Thursday, according to The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen.  Menzin had been working in this role since August 2021, and he briefly served as the club’s acting front office boss during the roughly six-week period between the firing of former GM Al Avila and Scott Harris’ hiring as the new president of baseball operations.

Though Menzin is only in his mid-30s, he had been one of the Tigers’ longest-tenured front office employees, as he started as a front office intern back in 2012.  He worked his way up the ladder in a variety of different roles, with a focus on the player development department.  Chris McCosky of the Detroit News notes that one of Menzin’s recent responsibilities included overseeing some upgrades to the Tigers’ Spring Training facility.

The timing of the resignation (just a week into the season) is a little unusual, and no reason was given for Menzin’s departure.  Speculatively speaking, it could be that Menzin simply felt it was time for a fresh start, if there was perhaps little room for immediate future advancement within Detroit’s front office.  Harris doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, and Jeff Greenberg was hired after the 2023 season in the GM role as Harris’ chief lieutenant in baseball ops.  Menzin was one of four assistant GMs in the front office, along with Ryan Garko, Rob Metzler, and Jay Sartori.

Angels Select Michael Darrell-Hicks, Release Hans Crouse

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The Angels announced a trio of roster moves, including the news that right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks’ contract was selected from Triple-A Salt Lake.  In corresponding moves, the Angels released right-hander Hans Crouse and optioned righty Caden Dana to Triple-A.

Darrell-Hicks wasn’t selected during his draft year in 2022, but he signed a free agent deal with the Angels and is now in the majors less than three years after his college career came to an end.  The 27-year-old became a full-time reliever in 2024 and had a 2.60 ERA, 26.44% strikeout rate, and a tiny 4.98% walk rate over 62 1/3 combined innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.  Most of that success came in Double-A as Darrell-Hicks’ ERA spiked upwards in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, and the righty has a 4.15 ERA in four appearances and 4 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball this year.

MDH’s first taste of big league action will give the Halos a bit of extra bullpen depth.  Dana threw 56 pitches in a three-inning relief outing on Friday, and Ryan Zeferjahn also made an early exit from Friday’s game with hamstring tightness.  With two pitchers likely unavailable today, optioning Dana and calling up Darrell-Hicks gives Los Angeles a fresh arm to utilize in today’s game with the Guardians.

To add Darrell-Hicks to the 40-man roster, the Angels parted ways with Crouse, which is a little surprising given that the righty seemed to be facing an injury scare of his own.  Crouse left a Triple-A outing on Thursday after just four pitches, and there hasn’t yet been any word on his status.

Crouse made his MLB debut in the form of two games with the Phillies in 2021, and didn’t return to the Show until he posted a 2.84 ERA over 25 1/3 relief innings for the Angels last season.  His impressive bottom-line results were augmented by a strong 31.8% strikeout rate, though Crouse also had a 15.9% walk rate and some batted-ball luck in the form of a .231 BABIP.  His control issues continued into Spring Training this year and might’ve cost Crouse a shot at the Opening Day roster.

A second-round pick for the Rangers in the 2017 draft, Crouse was a prospect of some note during his time in the Texas farm system, cracking the MLB Pipeline and Baseball America top-100 prospect rankings prior to the 2019 campaign.  Crouse had big strikeout totals in the minors but his walk rate spiked big in 2023 before somewhat normalizing with Triple-A Salt Lake in 2024, which was his first year in the Angels’ organization.  Assuming first and foremost that he is healthy, Crouse figures to draw some attention from a team interested in his ability to miss bats.

Braves Activate Sean Murphy, Designate Chadwick Tromp

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The Braves announced that catcher Sean Murphy has been activated from the 10-day injured list.  Fellow backstop Chadwick Tromp was designated for assignment to create space on Murphy on the active roster.

The moves are surprising on a couple of levels, firstly because Murphy played only three games during his Triple-A rehab assignment.  Murphy was expected to spend the full nine innings behind the plate in another Triple-A game today and then likely get activated from the IL prior to Tuesday’s game with the Phillies, but the Braves instead opted to bring Murphy back a little early.

Murphy suffered a cracked left rib after he was hit by a pitch during a Spring Training game at the start of March.  Given a 4-6 week recovery timeline, Murphy’s return falls squarely within that timeframe, so the fact that the Braves felt confident enough to forego Murphy’s last rehab game is a good sign that the catcher is back to full health.

Now entering his third season in Atlanta, Murphy is looking to bounce back from a dreadful 2024 campaign.  Murphy was an All-Star in 2023, but an early-season oblique injury cost him most of the first two months of the 2024 season, and he never really got on track, leading to a .193/.284/.352 slash line over 264 plate appearances.  The catcher’s hopes of a rebound year were then delayed by his rib injury, though he’ll end up missing only the first nine games of the Braves’ season.

Murphy hasn’t missed much, as the Braves are a dismal 1-8 over their first nine games  Most of Atlanta’s starting lineup has gotten off to a cold start, so there’s an even greater need for Murphy to regain his 2023 form.

It appears as though the club will keep Drake Baldwin on the big league roster as Murphy’s backup, which is the other unexpected element of today’s news.  Indications were that Baldwin would optioned back to Triple-A in order to get more regular playing time.  Instead, the Braves chose to DFA Tromp, who is out of minor league options and must clear waivers in order for the Braves to move him to the minors.

Baldwin is hitting only .154/.241/.192 over his first 29 Major League plate appearances, so it isn’t as if the top prospect is forcing his way into continued playing time.  It could be that the Braves plan to somewhat ease Murphy back into regular duty, thus leaving the door open for Baldwin to still get a good chunk of at-bats and try to acclimate himself against big league pitching.

Tromp has appeared in 28 games for the Braves since the start of the 2022 season, getting some spot duty in place of other catchers like Murphy, Travis d’Arnaud, and William Contreras.  If Tromp clears waivers, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, since he has previously been outrighted in his career.  It is possible he could explore other opportunities on the open market, but Tromp’s lack of minor league options somewhat limits his appeal to other teams looking for catching depth.  The Braves have another veteran in Sandy Leon at Triple-A and just acquired Jason Delay earlier this week in a trade, so the club could be ready to move on from Tromp entirely.

Brewers Place Nestor Cortes On 15-Day IL Due To Flexor Strain

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The Brewers announced that left-hander Nestor Cortes has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.  Southpaw Grant Wolfram was called up from Triple-A to take Cortes’ spot on the active roster.

This is now the second time in eight months that a flexor strain has sent Cortes to the IL, as a similar injury sidelined him last September when Cortes was still pitching with the Yankees.  He was able to make it back for two appearances in the World Series, including his infamous relief outing in Game 1 that saw Cortes allow Freddie Freeman’s walkoff grand slam.

Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that Cortes was feeling some elbow discomfort leading up to his last start, though Cortes still delivered six innings of shutout ball against the Reds on April 3.  Kleine doesn’t think the flexor strain is a “long-term issue,” and Cortes himself told Hogg and company that his concern level is “pretty low.”  A previous round of scans cleared Cortes to pitch three days ago, but Cortes said he’ll seek out a second opinion just out of due diligence.

Cortes is now the seventh starting pitcher on Milwaukee’s absurdly crowded injured list, as the Brewers have already just about reached critical mass for pitching health just over a week into the season.  Tobias Myers and Aaron Ashby both sustained oblique strains during Spring Training, Aaron Civale made one regular-season start before a hamstring strain sent him to the IL, and Brandon Woodruff started the season on the 15-day IL as he continues his lengthy recovery from a shoulder surgery.  In other longer-term absences, DL Hall is on the 60-day IL after suffering a lat strain this spring, and Robert Gasser is recovering from a Tommy John surgery last June.

Freddy Peralta now stands as the only healthy member of the Brewers’ projected rotation.  Tyler Alexander, Elvin Rodriguez, and Chad Patrick (all swingmen or multi-inning relief options in an ideal world) comprise the makeshift rotation behind Peralta, and Rule 5 Draft pick Connor Thomas might now be called upon to make a start or two in Cortes’ absence, with Wolfram taking Thomas’ spot as a left-handed bullpen arm.  The Brewers signed veteran Jose Quintana to provide more rotation depth at the start of March, but he is still building up his arm at Triple-A due to his late start to Spring Training.

Cortes was acquired as part of the biggest trade of the Brewers’ offseason, as Cortes, Caleb Durbin, and $2MM in cash considerations came from the Yankees for Devin Williams back in December.  Both Cortes and Williams are pending free agents, but Milwaukee was able to save a little cash in dealing its star closer while also getting a new long-term infield piece and (in theory) a veteran arm to stabilize the rotation.

This injury to Cortes now possibly throws that plan out of whack, and the southpaw and the Brewers can only hope that the strain is as relatively minor as it seems.  Between his last regular-season game in 2024 and Game 1 of the World Series, Cortes missed about five weeks, which would represent a pretty big chunk of the 2025 campaign if he needs a similar recovery period this time around.

Wolfram’s promotion is also worth noting, as the 28-year-old lefty is now on the verge of making his Major League debut.  An 18th-round pick for the Rangers in the 2018 draft, Wolfram spent his entire career in the Texas farm system before inking a guaranteed deal with Milwaukee last December, putting him onto a 40-man roster for the first time.  Wolfram had a 3.34 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate, and 10.9% walk rate over 56 2/3 innings with Triple-A Round Rock in 2024, and his first two Triple-A outings for the Brewers have resulted in a 6.00 ERA over three innings.

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