Mariners’ Owner: Front Office Will Have Resources To Pursue Deadline Upgrades
The Mariners’ lack of offseason spending drew the ire of the fanbase, as Seattle’s offseason dealings appeared to be as much about managing payroll as they were reshaping the team. Seattle traded away Eugenio Suarez, used Jarred Kelenic to dump the contracts of Evan White and Marco Gonzales on the Braves, made financially motivated swaps involving Robbie Ray and Mitch Haniger, and only signed three free agents to major league contracts (Mitch Garver, Ryne Stanek and Austin Voth). The series of fiscally influenced moves came amid uncertainty surrounding the future of their television contract with ROOT Sports, and while the M’s certainly weren’t alone in their hand-wringing over their broadcast rights, they were arguably impacted as heavily or more heavily than many clubs around the game.
While those uncertainties still exist, Mariners managing partner John Stanton made clear in an interview with Adam Jude and Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times that he’ll provide president of baseball operation Jerry Dipoto, general manager Justin Hollander and the rest of the front office with some financial latitude as the current AL West division leaders look to bolster their club.
“[W]e will look at the [July 30] deadline,” Stanton said. “I’ll spend time with Jerry and Justin as we approach the deadline, and we’ll talk about where we are. Jerry and Justin are 10 times smarter about what it takes to have a successful baseball team. My job is to make sure they have the resources available to get there.”
MLBTR readers are encouraged to read the interview in full, which is rife with quotes from Stanton about the Mariners’ offseason, the future of the television contract and his hope to eventually sign other young players to extensions as the club did with Julio Rodriguez. Broadly speaking, Stanton touted “substantial” financial losses amid the television situation, suggested that ROOT Sports will continue to operate independently through the 2025 season, and claimed that loss of television revenue “isn’t the reason we’ve made any decisions over the past couple years.”
Such comments will undoubtedly raise some skepticism among the fanbase, but the forward-looking takeaway is that Dipoto, Hollander & Co. will be afforded some flexibility to build upon this year’s roughly $140MM payroll. Presumably, augmenting the lineup will be the front office’s prime focus. The Seattle pitching staff is sixth in the majors in ERA and FIP. They’re fourth in SIERA. Only three teams have a better collective strikeout rate than the Mariners 23.8%, and they’re tied with the Twins for MLB’s best walk rate at 6.6%. The starting rotation appears largely set with Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo — health permitting, of course. Any contending club can always deepen its bullpen, but that’s likelier to be a secondary objective.
For as excellent as Seattle’s pitching staff is, the offense has been another story entirely. The Mariners’ 230 runs scored are the fourth-fewest in baseball. That comes despite sitting ninth in the majors with 66 home runs — a testament to the general lack of baserunners their lineup has produced. The M’s rank 29th in baseball with a .222 average, 27th with a .298 OBP and 25th with a .365 slugging percentage. Seattle’s .252/.329/.401 slash with men in scoring position is actually ninth-best in baseball by measure of their 113 wRC+ … but the Mariners’ 504 plate appearances with runners in scoring position is the second-fewest in MLB, leading only the tanking White Sox (476 plate appearances with RISP).
The majority of the regulars in Seattle’s lineup have underwhelmed this season. Rodriguez, Ty France, Luke Raley and Dylan Moore have all been productive over the past month, following poor starts to the season, but that’s only boosted Rodriguez to slightly below-average production overall. France has been a bit better than average but nowhere near the offensive force he was from 2020-22. Catcher Cal Raleigh has popped a team-leading 11 homers but is hitting just .209 with a .278 on-base percentage.
What’s particularly problematic for the Mariners is that several of the weakest spots in the lineup are the ones they sought to address in the offseason. Switch-hitting second baseman Jorge Polanco was one of the American League’s steadiest hitters from 2018-23 in Minnesota, batting a combined .270/.338/.455 in nearly 2700 plate appearances. He’s hitting .195/.293/.302 for the Mariners. Haniger got out to a blistering .300/.382/.500 start through his first 68 plate appearances but has faceplanted with a .185/.234/.281 line over his past 145 trips to the plate. Garver hit .250/.346/.508 in his final 1242 plate appearances before signing a two-year deal in Seattle. He’s hitting .170/.276/.309 as the team’s primary DH.
Between Rodriguez, France, Raleigh, Polanco, Garver, Haniger, injured shortstop J.P. Crawford and others, the Mariners have the makings of a productive lineup. Almost the entire unit has underwhelmed, however, leading to far more one- and two-run victories than the club would prefer. Those offensive weaknesses could be particularly exposed in a short postseason series, when teams can more aggressively lean on their top few pitchers to cover the bulk of their innings.
An upgrade in the outfield corners, in particular, seems like a worthwhile pursuit for the Mariners — and some help at the hot corner or second base could prove sensible as well, depending on whether Polanco can turn things around. (Adding at third base could allow hot-hitting Josh Rojas to slide over to second more regularly.) But while ownership can pledge to provide sufficient resources to the baseball operations staff, at least some of the improvement is going to need to come internally.
The Mariners have too many underperforming veterans with strong track records to upgrade over on the fly this summer — many of whom (e.g. Garver, Polanco, Haniger, France) are commanding salaries of note and are signed/controlled beyond the current season. That collection of veterans has exactly eight weeks until July 30 to get back on track. It’s unlikely they all manage to do so, but the front office’s strategy will come into focus as those who are able to bounce back begin to show signs of life.
Nationals Place Trevor Williams On Injured List, Recall DJ Herz For MLB Debut
2:20pm: Williams spoke to the Nationals beat and said while there’s no firm timetable for his return, he’ll be shut down from throwing entirely for at least the next two weeks (X link via MASNsport.com’s Mark Zuckerman). That effectively rules out any hope of a minimum 15-day stint on the injured list for the righty.
11:10am: The Nationals announced Tuesday that they’ve placed right-hander Trevor Williams on the 15-day injured list due to a strained flexor muscle in his right forearm. Left-hander DJ Herz has been recalled from Triple-A Rochester and will make his MLB debut when he starts tonight’s game.
Williams is in the midst of a career year at age 32, having pitched 56 1/3 innings of 2.22 ERA ball out of the Washington rotation. He’s achieved those results in spite of a below-average 21% strikeout rate and benefited from both a .270 average on balls in play and minuscule 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate — all of which signal the potential for regression. Nonetheless, Williams’ performance thus far has been a major driving factor behind the Nationals exceeding preseason expectations and hanging around an NL Wild Card race that is largely populated by sub-.500 clubs at the moment.
The Nats didn’t provide a timetable for Williams’ return. That he’s dealing with a muscle strain as opposed to a damaged flexor tendon is perhaps a silver lining, but that doesn’t preclude a notable absence in and of itself. Teammate Josiah Gray is dealing with the same injury and has been on the shelf for nearly two months at this point. All injuries cases are different, and we don’t know how the placement and severity of Williams’ strain compares to that of Gray, but Gray’s injury is evidence that Williams is hardly assured a swift return to the mound.
The timing of the injury is particularly poor for both the team and Williams himself. If Washington were to hang around and make a Wild Card push, one would presume a healthy Williams would play a notable role. Even if he saw his pristine ERA regress toward the vicinity of his 3.97 SIERA, he’d still be a useful veteran presence on the staff. And if the Nats were to fall well out of the postseason picture, it’s easy to envision Williams becoming a sought-after trade chip. His injury throws a wrench into both scenarios.
On a personal level, it’s also poorly timed for the pitcher himself. Wiilliams is playing out the second season of a two-year, $13MM contract and is slated to reach free agency at season’s end. He landed that $13MM guarantee in the 2022-23 offseason on the heels of a year spent primarily in a swingman role with the Mets. Had Williams reached the market a second time on the heels of a two-year run as a starter — the second season being a career-best performance — he’d have been in line for a more substantial payday, even heading into his age-33 season. It’s still possible he could return in a relatively timely manner, pitch well and reach that endgame, but the injury muddies his chances of doing so.
Turning to the 23-year-old Herz, he’ll get his first big league start less than a year after being acquired in the trade that sent Jeimer Candelario from the Nats to the Cubs. The 2019 eighth-rounder has had mixed results in the minors this year. On the one hand, his 3.75 ERA and 27.5% strikeout rate in Rochester are both strong marks. On the other, Herz has averaged just four innings per start and walked an astounding 19% of his opponents. Command has always been a weakness for the 6’2″ lefty; he’s never walked fewer than 13% of his opponents in a full season.
The Nats have already had one lefty make his MLB debut and greatly exceed expectations this season. They’ll hope that Herz can follow in the footsteps of teammate Mitchell Parker in that regard. Given the state of the rebuilding Nationals and the lack of other upper-minors pitching depth, Herz could have a fairly long runway to prove himself in the event that Williams and/or Gray remain sidelined for a significant period. Top prospect Cade Cavalli stands as one potential alternative, but he’s being monitored carefully in his return from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Prospect Jackson Rutledge and last season’s Rule 5 pick, Thaddeus Ward, are both on the 40-man roster in Rochester but both have ERAs north of 6.00 in Triple-A this season.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of this week’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Braves Sign Brian Anderson To Major League Deal
The Braves have signed veteran third baseman/corner outfielder Brian Anderson to a major league contract, reports Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Anderson, a CAA client, will be in uniform for tonight’s game. He opted out of a minor league deal with the Mariners over the weekend. Atlanta transferred lefty Tyler Matzek from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the roster for Anderson.
Anderson, 31, should be a familiar face for Braves fans and those within the organization. The former third-round pick spent the 2017-22 seasons with the Marlins, taking regular at-bats between stints as the team’s everyday third baseman and everyday right fielder. From 2018-20, Anderson was one of Miami’s most reliable hitters, batting .266/.350/.436 with 42 home runs, a hefty 74 doubles and six triples in 1419 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he was 15% better than a league-average hitter in that span.
Shoulder injuries and a severe oblique strain both weighed down Anderson’s production in 2021-22, however, and the always cost-conscious Marlins non-tendered him following the ’22 campaign, making him a free agent a year early. He signed with the Brewers in hopes of rebounding but didn’t manage to do so, slashing .226/.310/.368 (85 wRC+) in 361 plate appearances. So far with the Mariners’ Triple-A club in Tacoma, Anderson had tallied 176 plate appearances and recorded a .270/.358/.439 batting line with six round-trippers and seven doubles.
While Anderson obviously can’t replace Ronald Acuña Jr., whose 2024 season ended last week when he suffered a torn ACL, the seven-year MLB veteran can still give the Braves an experienced right-handed bat to pair with lefty-swinging Jarred Kelenic in left field. Kelenic, Michael Harris II and Adam Duvall figure to take the bulk of the outfield at-bats, with Marcell Ozuna seeing regular time at DH and left-hitting J.P. Martinez receiving sporadic outfield at-bats as well.
Orioles, Julio Teheran Agree To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have agreed to a deal with right-hander Julio Teheran, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. It’ll be a minor league pact, Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner adds.
Teheran, a client of Mato Sports Management, opted out of a minor league deal with the Cubs over the weekend. This is his second deal of the season with the Orioles, who originally signed him to a minor league pact back in spring training. Teheran opted out of that deal upon being informed he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster. He went on to sign with the Mets, for whom he logged one start before being released, and then his more recent minor league pact with the Cubs.
While the O’s clearly didn’t feel they had a spot for Teheran at the end of camp, the calculus has changed. Both left-hander John Means and right-hander Tyler Wells recently underwent surgery to repair UCL tears in their pitching elbows, knocking them out for the remainder of the season. Right-hander Dean Kremer is also on the shelf at the moment, owing to a triceps strain. Baltimore’s current five-man rotation includes Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish (who rehabbed his own UCL sprain without surgery), Grayson Rodriguez, Cole Irvin and journeyman Albert Suarez.
The 33-year-old Teheran was tagged for four runs in 2 2/3 innings during that lone start with the Mets and has spent the rest of the regular season with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate in Iowa. Things haven’t gone much better there, however. The longtime Braves hurler has made eight starts in Des Moines and been roughed up to the tune of 32 runs in 32 2/3 innings — an 8.82 earned run average. He’s yielded 48 hits — eight of them homers — and issued 11 walks against 37 punchouts.
It’s not an inspiring sample of work, but the O’s are potentially heartened by Teheran’s 23.1% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate, both of which are far more encouraging than his dismal ERA. The righty has also been plagued by a bloated .400 average on balls in play, which surely hasn’t helped his cause. More broadly, it’s clear the Orioles see something they like in Teheran’s raw stuff. He’s now twice signed with them this season, so the Orioles likely feel they have some tweaks or adjustments that can help the well-traveled right-hander improve on that minor league output.
It should also be noted that Teheran is only months removed from a solid 2023 showing with the Brewers. In 71 2/3 innings last year, he delivered a respectable 4.40 ERA in Milwaukee. Teheran’s 17.4% strikeout rate was only about three-quarters of the way to league-average, but his 4.5% walk rate was nothing short of excellent. Looking through an even wider lens, Teheran has a 3.85 ERA in nearly 1500 big league innings, although much of his success came in his early to mid-20s with the Braves during the 2010s. For now, he’ll give the O’s some experienced depth on which to lean in the event of further injuries.
Johnny Cueto Agrees To Push Back Opt-Out Date With Rangers
Veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto, who signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in late April, had an early-June opt-out opportunity but has agreed to push his out dates back, Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 reports. Cueto’s opt-out dates now fall on June 14 and on July 1. If he’s not on the roster by either date, Cueto will have the right to trigger the clause, giving Texas 48 hours to add him to the big league roster or else grant him his release.
The 38-year-old Cueto is looking for a rebound from last year’s rough showing in Miami, when he pitched in 13 games (10 starts) for the Marlins and posted an unsightly 6.02 ERA. The right-hander’s 17.9% strikeout rate was actually up from the prior season’s 15.7% mark but still well below average. His walk rate jumped from 5.1% with the 2022 White Sox to 6.9% last year, and despite working in a pitcher-friendly loanDepot Park setting, Cueto’s staggering 2.92 homers per nine innings were a career-worst mark (and the highest of any pitcher in MLB who tossed at least 50 innings).
Cueto has made four minor league starts with the Rangers: one at their Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League and three with Triple-A Round Rock. Combined, he’s totaled 18 innings with a 2.50 ERA, a 20.5% strikeout rate and a microscopic 2.7% walk rate (two walks, 73 batters faced). He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a hefty 55.3% clip.
It’s a tiny sample of work against lesser competition, but the results are nevertheless broadly encouraging. Texas clearly wasn’t ready to add Cueto to the big league roster just yet but presumably has interest in doing so — hence the mutual agreement to extend the opt-out window. It’s only natural for the Rangers to want to preserve the depth and perhaps take a look at Cueto sooner than later, given the mounting number of injuries among the team’s big league staff.
The Rangers entered the season knowing that Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle all faced prolonged absences. Mahle (an offseason signee) and deGrom are recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Scherzer underwent back surgery in December. Texas has since lost left-hander Cody Bradford to a stress fracture in his ribcage and more recently placed Jon Gray on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain. Right-handers Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning also had IL stints owing to a groin strain and shoulder strain, respectively, but both returned to the rotation in late May.
At present, the Rangers are going with a starting five that includes Eovaldi, Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney and minor league signee Jose Ureña. That quintet has delivered solid results on the whole, despite a spotty track record from Ureña and the late nature of Lorenzen’s signing with the team. However, the depth beyond those five names is suspect.
Former No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter has pitched well in seven Triple-A appearances this season but has also been rocked for 17 earned runs through just 9 1/3 innings in his first three big league starts. He only just turned 24, so there’s plenty of time for him to figure things out, but he hasn’t looked ready for MLB opposition yet. Fellow righties Owen White and Cole Winn both ranked as top pitching prospects at one point, but neither has given ample reason to believe he can be a solution at the moment. Winn, a former No. 15 overall pick, has been moved to the bullpen and struggled in 11 MLB appearances this year. White has a 4.69 ERA in eight Triple-A starts with a lackluster 15.8% strikeout rate against a weighty 11.3% walk rate.
The Rangers’ hope is that Gray will only require a minimal stay on the injured list, thus allowing him to return in short order, but a setback for him or an injury elsewhere in the big league rotation would prove highly problematic. Keeping Cueto around gives Texas an additional option and affords the veteran righty the opportunity to continue ramping up. Cueto tossed six scoreless innings in his most recent appearance and for a second straight outing topped 80 pitches. He should be working without any pitch restrictions at this point, and it’s plenty feasible that a big league opportunity in Arlington will present itself before long.
MLB Issues Lifetime Ban To Tucupita Marcano For Betting On Baseball, Announces Four Other One-Year Suspensions
Major League Baseball announced Tuesday morning that Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has been declared permanently ineligible for violating the league’s sports betting rules and policies — specifically Rule 21(d)(2). Per this morning’s press release:
In March 2024, MLB learned from a legal sports betting operator that it had identified past baseball betting activity from accounts connected to multiple Major and Minor League players. MLB obtained data from that operator and other sportsbooks, including authentication data for bets. None of these players played in any game on which they placed a bet. Further, all of the players denied that they had any inside information relevant to the bets or that any of the baseball games they bet on were compromised or manipulated, and the betting data does not suggest that any outcomes in the baseball games on which they placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way. None of the players are appealing their discipline.
Under Major League Rule 21, “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.” Whereas, “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
MLB’s investigation found that from Oct. 16-23, 2022 and from July 12 to November 1, 2023, Marcano placed 387 bets on baseball, including 25 bets on Pirates games where he was a member of Pittsburgh’s roster. All 25 of those Pirates bets came while Marcano was rehabbing from a season-ending ACL tear, so he did not appear in any of the games in question. The bets nonetheless violate the league policy and have thus triggered the lifetime ban.
The league’s investigation found that Marcano placed more than $150K worth of bets on baseball. Most of the bets in question were parlays, some including his own (at the time) Pirates club. Marcano’s bets typically involved the Pirates winning the game or were over/under bets on the number of runs scored within the game.
Major League Baseball also announced that Athletics right-hander Michael Kelly, Diamondbacks lefty Andrew Saalfrank, Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome and Phillies minor league infielder Jose Rodriguez have been given one-year bans for violating Rule 21(d)(1). All four players were found to have made bets on Major League Baseball games but were not on the Major League roster or injured list of any teams involved in the bets they placed.
Kelly, 31, is an active member of the Athletics’ bullpen and has pitched to a 2.59 ERA in 31 1/3 innings this season. His bets were all placed in Oct. 2021, when the right-hander was with the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate. He made only ten bets for a total of $99.92, with three of those bets coming on games involving the Astros’ big league club during the postseason. Despite the meager total of Kelly’s bets, his gambling activity was a violation of the rule in place and will trigger that one-year ban.
Similarly, each of Saalfrank ($445), Groome ($453) and Rodriguez ($749) bet under $1,000 on Major League games back in 2020-21. All were minor league players at the time — Saalfrank with Arizona’s Low-A team, Groome with the Red Sox’ High-A affiliate and Rodriguez with the White Sox’ Double-A club.
Commissioner Rob Manfred issued the following statement on today’s suspensions:
“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans. The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people. Since the Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity perspective through the transparency that a regulated sports betting system can provide. MLB will continue to invest heavily in integrity monitoring, educational programming and awareness initiatives with the goal of ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”
MLBTR readers can view the league’s entire press release, which contains further specifics on the nature of each player’s bets, in its entirety at MLB.com.
KBO Infielder Hyeseong Kim Hires CAA Ahead Of Expected Posting For MLB Teams
Infielder Hyeseong Kim, who stars for the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes, has hired CAA Baseball to represent him ahead of his expected move to Major League Baseball in the upcoming offseason, reports Jeeho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. (Kim’s name is commonly written as Kim Hye-Seong or Hye-Seong Kim, but Yoo further notes via X that CAA specifically informed him the infielder will go by Hyeseong Kim if he indeed moves to North American ball.)
Kim, who’ll turn 26 next January, is old enough and has enough experience in a major foreign league to be considered a “professional” under Major League Baseball’s international standards. He’ll be exempt from international amateur free-agent bonus pools and thus able to sign a major league contract for any length and dollar amount with an interested team.
The former double-play partner of current Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim, the younger Kim is a lifetime .301/.361/.398 hitter in 876 games with the KBO’s Heroes. One of the primary knocks on his MLB outlook throughout his pro career has been a lack of power, but he’s begun to change that narrative in his age-25 campaign. The lefty-swinging Kim has appeared in 50 games and taken 224 plate appearances this year but has already set a new career-high with eight home runs. (He’d previously hit seven homers in two different seasons, including 2023.) Overall, Kim is slashing .309/.366/.471 this season — his fourth consecutive season with a .300 or better average.
Kim has also picked up seven doubles and a triple this season in addition to going 15-for-16 in stolen bases. The 6.7% walk rate Kim has posted so far in 2024 is a career-low — perhaps a sign of a more aggressive approach as he tries to showcase for MLB teams, speculatively speaking — but his minuscule 9.8% strikeout rate is also the lowest of his career. Kim has dropped his strikeout rate in every season of his pro career, beginning with a 25.2% mark back in 2018. He’s now seen as a hitter with plus contact skills, well above-average speed — he’s 195-for-226 (86.3%) in career stolen base attempts — and a strong glove in the middle infield.
Prior to the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser ranked Kim ninth among the top-ten MLB prospects for fans to track (landing behind current big leaguers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jung Hoo Lee and Yariel Rodriguez). Glaser called Kim a plus defender at second base (and a capable defender at short) with a “preternatural feel for contact,” good pitch recognition and the ability to catch up to good velocity. At the very least, he could profile as a utilityman with high-end speed and contact skills, though it should come as little surprise if there are clubs who view him as a potential regular at second base. Given his age, Kim should find big league interest — particularly if he can continue his newfound power output.
CAA most famously represents Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani but is also one of the industry’s largest firms, representing dozens of clients, including high-profile names like Willy Adames, Sandy Alcantara, Corbin Carroll, Jack Flaherty, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Jon Gray, Josh Hader, J.T. Realmuto and Trea Turner — among many others (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Agency Database).
Max Muncy Shut Down Following Setback
Dodgers slugger Max Muncy has been out since mid-May due to an oblique strain but doesn’t sound closer to returning than he was at the time of his original placement on the injured list. Muncy told the Dodgers beat yesterday that he recently experienced a setback in his rehab when he felt pain in his ribcage while swinging a bat (X link via Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times). He’s currently shut down from all baseball activity, and there’s no timetable for his return.
Muncy, 33, got out to a typical start in 2024, hitting for a low average that was largely offset by a glut of walks and plenty of extra-base hits. He’s batting .223/.323/.475 with nine homers and eight doubles through 167 trips to the plate this season — about 24% better than league-average production, by measure of wRC+. The slugger’s 12.6% walk rate is four percentage points north of average but nevertheless represents a career-low mark (excepting his 2015 season, when he received only 112 plate appearances in his initial call to the big leagues). Muncy’s 29.9% strikeout rate, meanwhile, is the highest of his career.
In Muncy’s absence, utilityman Enrique Hernandez has seen the bulk of the workload at third base. The offensive struggles that plagued Hernandez early in the season haven’t yet subsided, however. He’s hitting .171/.209/.244 since Muncy landed on the 10-day IL and just .198/.255/.278 on the season overall. Veterans Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor have both seen fleeting time at the hot corner as well. The Dodgers have had plenty of struggles from the bottom-third of their lineup throughout the season even without Muncy’s injury, and dedicating regular time to Hernandez in lieu of Muncy hasn’t helped matters.
Poor production from the lower portion of the lineup is a flaw of this Dodgers club but hasn’t prevented the team from building a comfortable lead in the National League West. Buoyed by massive offensive performances from the star-studded top of the lineup featuring Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez, the Dodgers hold a lead of 6.5 games over the second-place Padres, tying them with the Phillies for the second-largest division lead in all of Major League Baseball. (The Brewers’ seven-game lead in the NL Central is currently the largest division lead in MLB.)
Brewers Outright Mitch White
Brewers right-hander Mitch White went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville, reports Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He’s been outrighted once in the past, so he’ll have the opportunity to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, if he prefers to look for opportunities elsewhere.
The Brewers acquired White from the Giants in exchange for cash last month. San Francisco had also designated the right-hander for assignment prior to that swap. White made six appearances with the Brewers, pitching 8 1/3 innings and yielding six earned runs on eight hits and four walks (two of them intentional). He punched out six batters. On the season as a whole, White has tossed 23 2/3 innings and been roughed up for a 7.23 ERA between the Blue Jays, Giants and Brewers. He’s fanned just 11.8% of his opponents against a matching 11.8% walk rate.
Once a prospect of note within the Dodgers organization, the now-29-year-old White has pitched in parts of five big league seasons. The 2016 second-rounder had a nice early-career run in L.A. but has struggled since being traded away from Los Angeles. In 105 2/3 frames as a Dodger, White recorded a 3.58 ERA with a 22% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate. He’s since pitched to a 5.45 ERA with a diminished 17.7% strikeout rate between the Blue Jays, Giants and Brewers.
If he accepts his outright assignment, he’ll stick with the Brewers organization and suit up for their Triple-A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds, while hoping to pitch his way back into another major league opportunity. If he opts to test free agency, he’ll likely find some interest on minor league deals from clubs seeking to stockpile experienced pitching depth.