Marlins To Designate Devin Smeltzer, Select Enmanuel De Jesus
The Marlins plan to designate left-hander Devin Smeltzer for assignment prior to today’s game, reports Noah Berger of Fish On First. Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base adds that Smeltzer’s spot on the roster will go to southpaw Enmanuel De Jesus, whose contract is being selected from Triple-A Jacksonville.
This marks a jarring fourth DFA of the season for Smeltzer, who signed a minor league contract with Miami over the winter. He’s had his contract selected to the big league roster on four different occasions but been jettisoned to waivers after a brief stay in each instance. Most recently Smeltzer mopped up 3 2/3 innings in yesterday’s blowout loss to the Dodgers. Pitching on his 28th birthday, Smeltzer came into a 6-0 game and was tagged for four runs, though he spared the Marlins from depleting their bullpen in a game that was largely out of hand before he took the mound. In 22 1/3 innings this year, Smeltzer has a 6.45 ERA.
Smeltzer, a former Dodgers draft pick, went to the Twins as part of a Brian Dozier trade and spent parts of four seasons with Minnesota, pitching to a combined 3.99 ERA in 140 innings of work. That includes 70 1/3 frames of 3.71 ERA ball last year, though that success came with a tepid 13.9% strikeout rate. Smeltzer has never missed many bats at the MLB level, evidenced by a career 16.5% strikeout rate, but he’s also only walked 6% of his opponents — a far better-than-average mark. Overall, he has a 4.32 ERA in 162 1/3 big league innings. He’ll be placed back on waivers for a fourth time within the next five days.
De Jesus, 26, will make his big league debut the first time he takes the mound. Originally a Red Sox signee, he spent the 2022 season in the Giants’ minor league system and signed a minor league pact with the Marlins over the winter. He’s pitched 87 minor league frames for the Fish this year (all but seven coming in Triple-A), logging a 4.86 ERA with a 17% strikeout rate, 12.4% walk rate and 40% ground-ball rate.
In parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level, De Jesus has worked to a 4.69 earned run average. He’s been working out of the rotation in Jacksonville and could give Miami some length in the bullpen. The Marlins also still have Sunday’s starter listed as TBD, so De Jesus could potentially be an option that day if he’s not used in relief prior to that contest.
Cubs Reinstate Brad Boxberger
The Cubs reinstated right-hander Brad Boxberger from the 60-day injured list and optioned fellow righty Keegan Thompson to Triple-A Iowa, the team announced. The activation of Boxberger, who’s been out since mid-May with a forearm strain, brings Chicago’s 40-man roster to capacity.
Boxberger, 35, signed a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $2.8MM this offseason (in the form of a $2MM salary and an $800K buyout on a $5MM mutual option). He’s been limited to just 14 2/3 frames on account of this injury, however.
As one would expect from a pitcher dealing with forearm issues, the results in that timeframe were far from Boxberger’s previously established levels. The veteran righty’s velocity was down 0.8 mph from its 2022 levels and 1.5 mph from where it sat in 2021, and Boxberger was tagged for nine runs on 13 hits and nine walks. The resulting 5.52 ERA would be the worst mark of his 12-year MLB career, while his 20% strikeout rate would be his second-worst and his 13.8% walk rate would tie for his third-worst.
Difficult as the early stages of the season were for Boxberger, he of course has a lengthy track record of success. The right-hander spent the past two seasons with the division-rival Brewers, for whom he compiled 128 2/3 innings of 3.15 ERA ball while picking up five saves and 52 holds. Boxberger has pitched to a sub-4.00 ERA in eight of his 11 full big leagues seasons and dropped under the 3.00 mark four times (most recently last year’s 2.95). He carries a lifetime 3.51 earned run average in the Majors, with a hearty 28.8% strikeout rate against an 11.5% walk rate that has been his primary downfall during his worst seasons. Boxberger has 92 career holds and 84 saves, so he’s no stranger to working in leverage spots.
The Cubs will hope that they’re getting a healthier version of Boxberger whose results align more closely with his broader track record. Boxberger stumbled early in his minor league rehab stint but made four straight scoreless appearances (totaling 3 2/3 innings) before being activated — including scoreless outings on back-to-back days (his first time working on consecutive days since early May).
Injury Notes: McClanahan, Rengifo, Kershaw, Stroman
News that Rays ace Shane McClanahan would require Tommy John surgery already strongly implied that he’ll miss not just the remainder of the 2023 season but perhaps the entire 2024 campaign as well — and McClanahan has effectively confirmed as much to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Topkin writes that the 26-year-old McClanahan expects to be sidelined until 2025 after renowned surgeons Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Keith Meister both made the same recommendation. Meister, who performed the procedure, also “cleaned up” some bone chips in McClanahan’s elbow, the pitcher added.
“I was really frustrated when I found out, but I can’t control that,” McClanahan tells Topkin. “…I want to control how hard I work, the quality of teammate I am and the consistency on the field. And ultimately, the next year, year and a half, whatever it may be, I’m going to work my butt off to make sure that when I’m healthy, it’s going to be the same me.” Topkin’s piece contains plenty of quotes from McClanahan on his injury, the surgery and his mindset as he embarks on a lengthy rehab process, so Rays fans in particular will want to check it out in full.
A few more injury notes from around the league…
- Angels infielder/outfielder Luis Rengifo exited last night’s game with a strained left biceps that he apparently sustained taking swings in the on-deck circle prior to his first at-bat, per Sarah Valenzuela of the Los Angeles Times. The Angels are further evaluating him today, but manager Phil Nevin conceded that the injury “doesn’t look good.” Further details will surely follow once the 26-year-old Rengifo has undergone imaging. A Rengifo injury of note would be the latest in a series of unwelcome developments for the Angels. He’s been the team’s hottest hitter for the past six weeks, evidenced by a scalding .342/.393/.602 batting line with nine homers, nine doubles, three triples and just a 14.6% strikeout rate in that time. On the whole Rengifo is hitting .264/.339/.444 in what has easily been the most productive all-around season of his still-young career. He’s under club control for an additional two seasons beyond the current campaign.
- Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw still isn’t pitching at 100% following the shoulder strain that sent him to the injured list this summer, writes Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Kershaw didn’t reach 90 mph in his most recent start, and his average fastball velocity of just 88.4 mph in that outing was the second-lowest of any appearance in his career. Kershaw, however, is adamant that he can continue to pitch through the issue — and the Dodgers appear willing to let him do so. “If he is able to take the baseball, he’s going to take the baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said of the left-hander.
- Marcus Stroman hasn’t pitched since July 31 due to inflammation in his hip and, more problematically, a rib cartilage fracture that was discovered as he was on the cusp of returning from that hip issue. However, he tossed 29 pitches during a live batting practice session yesterday, per Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Cubs manager David Ross acknowledged that the right-hander appears to be ahead of schedule in his recovery. Stroman will likely require at least one minor league rehab start (if not two), but it seems there’s a good chance the 32-year-old could return before season’s end — and perhaps factor into the postseason rotation. How Stroman fares down the stretch will be worth watching with a particularly close eye, as he has a $21MM player option for the 2024 season but has long appeared likely to decline that and return to the market in search of a lengthier pact.
Padres Claim Glenn Otto, Designate Ben Gamel
The Padres announced Thursday that they’ve claimed righty Glenn Otto off waivers from the Rangers, who designated him for assignment earlier in the week. San Diego designated outfielder Ben Gamel for assignment in a corresponding move.
Otto, 27, was a fifth-round pick by the Yankees out of Rice University back in 2017. He went to the Rangers alongside Ezequiel Duran and Josh H. Smith in the 2021 trade that sent Joey Gallo from Arlington to the Bronx.
At the time of the swap, Otto was one of the more well-regarded prospects in the Yankees’ system, ranking 19th on New York’s top-30 list at Baseball America. He placed 15th among Rangers’ farmhands heading into the 2022 season, with BA labeling him a potential fourth starter who could likely be moved to the ‘pen if things didn’t pan out in the rotation.
Otto has gotten looks in the Majors in each of the past three seasons with Texas, but he’s yet to find his footing. While the right-hander tossed 135 2/3 innings over 27 starts last year, he posted a rather pedestrian 4.64 ERA and fanned just 18.2% of his opponents against an unpalatable 10.6% walk rate along the way. He also struggled in six starts down the stretch following the trade in 2021, and he was hit hard in six bullpen appearances this year. Overall, Otto has pitched 169 2/3 innings in the Majors but carries just a 5.69 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout, walk and home-run rates (in addition to a roughly average ground-ball rate).
That said, there’s plenty in Otto’s minor league track record to give the Friars some optimism. He posted a strong 3.20 ERA in 96 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A during the 2021 season that saw him traded, and that year’s 35.3% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate in the minors were both excellent. Otto has never posted an ERA higher than 3.48 at any minor league level, and he’s punched out 32% of his total opponents in the minors.
Otto missed the first three months of the 2023 season due to a lat injury, so he’s pitched just 40 total innings this year. While his 10.13 ERA in the big leagues (12 runs in 10 2/3 frames) is an eyesore, he’s also posted a sharp 3.38 ERA with his typically promising strikeout tendencies (32.5%) in 29 1/3 Triple-A frames. Otto also has a pair of minor league option years remaining beyond the current season, plus an additional five years of team control remaining. Given that context, it’s not a surprise to see a Padres club that could lose a good bit of pitching depth this winter take a more or less free look at the former prospect.
San Diego, after all, could see each of Blake Snell, Josh Hader, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill and Nick Martinez reach free agency this winter, either via the expiration of their current contracts or via opt-outs/player options that could be declined. The Padres aren’t going to firmly bank on Otto replacing anyone from that group, but he’s a controllable depth option who could earn his way into the mix and help patch some of those gaps. If nothing else, he could be called upon as a spot starter or extra bullpen arm next year in the event of injuries on the MLB roster.
As for the 31-year-old Gamel, he appeared in just six games with the Padres before today’s DFA. The veteran outfielder has been quite good between the Triple-A affiliates for San Diego and Tampa Bay, batting a combined .286/.402/.498 in 332 plate appearances, but the Friars are prepared to cut ties after just 15 plate appearances, during which Gamel collected three hits (two singles, one double).
In parts of eight Major League seasons between the Mariners, Pirates, Brewers, Padres, Guardians and Yankees, Gamel is a .252/.332/.384 hitter. He’s drawn walks at a healthy 10.1% clip but also fanned in just under a quarter of his plate appearances. Gamel is primarily a corner outfielder but lacks the prototypical power associated with those positions, evidenced by a career-high 11 home runs and a tepid .131 ISO in his career (slugging percentage minus batting average). Now that Gamel has been designated for assignment, the Padres will place him on outright waivers or release waivers within the next five days.
Angels To Recall Davis Daniel For MLB Debut
The Angels are planning to recall right-hander Davis Daniel prior to today’s game, reports Sam Blum of The Athletic. The Halos currently have tonight’s starter listed as TBD, so it would seem the 26-year-old Daniel is in position to make his big league debut.
A seventh-round pick back in 2019, Davis originally had his contract selected to the big league roster last summer but didn’t appear in a game before being optioned back to Triple-A Salt Lake. He’s spent the bulk of the season on the injured list due to a shoulder strain but returned to the mound in early August. He’s worked 25 1/3 innings between rehab stints with the Angels’ Rookie-ball and Class-A affiliates, pitching to a 1.78 ERA with an outstanding 37-to-5 K/BB ratio in that time (against much younger and less experienced competition, of course).
While Daniel has spent this year rehabbing and facing only lower-level minor leaguers as he ramps back up, he did log 102 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level a year ago. In that time, he pitched to a 4.49 ERA in a very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League environment, striking out 19.4% of his opponents against a 7.5% walk rate.
Daniel ranked among the Angels’ top 30 prospects on most publications heading into the 2022 season, but his velocity and strikeouts were down last year — and this year’s shoulder strain has only further led to concern. Injuries have been an issue for the former Auburn hurler, who also had Tommy John surgery during his draft season. Davis no longer ranks within the Angels’ top 30 prospects at either MLB.com or Baseball America, but FanGraphs tabs him 21st among Anaheim farmhands.
Daniel is fully rested and is stretched out to the point where he’s a clear option to start tonight’s game. He pitched 5 1/3 innings in his most recent start on Aug. 29, and he went six innings and five innings, respectively, in his two starts prior to that outing. He could also provide bulk innings behind an opener if the Halos choose to go that route. That’s not a tactic they’ve used in 2023, but they did turn to openers and bullpen games on occasion last year.
Royals Transfer Daniel Lynch To 60-Day IL
The Royals announced yesterday that they’ve transferred left-hander Daniel Lynch from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list, opening a spot on their 40-man roster. Kansas City followed that announcement by announcing Thursday (an off-day for them) that first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty has been optioned to Triple-A Omaha. An additional roster move is forthcoming tomorrow, per the team.
Generally speaking, transfers to the 60-day IL are accompanied by corresponding 40-man moves, so it’s feasible that Kansas City will have such a move to make tomorrow. Right-hander Brad Keller, out since May due to a shoulder impingement, has been on a minor league rehab assignment for three weeks and could be an option to return (speculatively speaking). He’s been working out of the bullpen in Double-A and pitched two innings on Monday. Keller still has a week left on his rehab window, however, so the Royals could delay that move and select the contract of prospect or perhaps make an external addition via waivers or free agency. Kansas City’s starting pitcher for Friday’s game in Toronto is currently listed as TBD.
Lynch, 26, has been out since mid-July with a left shoulder strain. The move to the 60-day injured list is largely procedural. He hasn’t yet begun a minor league rehab stint and had already been on the injured list for 50 days (51 now), so it’s highly unlikely he’d have returned before reaching the 60-day mark anyhow. (The 60-day term on such IL stints is retroactive to the original placement on the injured list and does not reset when a player is transferred to the lengthier IL designation.) Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that Lynch is slated to begin pitching live batting practice this week, so it seems there’s still a chance he could return before season’s end.
Selected with the No. 34 overall pick in 2018, Lynch was one of several college arms (joining Brady Singer, Kris Bubic and Jackson Kowar) on whom the Royals were banking to quickly turn the tides on their big league roster. The lefty ranked among baseball’s top pitching prospects prior to his 2021 debut but has yet to solidify himself as a staple in the Kansas City rotation.
Lynch opened the season on the injured list with a strained rotator cuff, returned in late May and made nine starts prior to returning to the 15-day IL. The 92.8 mph average velocity on his fastball was noticeably down from the 94.2 mph he averaged in 2022. In those nine starts, he pitched 52 1/3 innings of 4.64 ERA ball, striking out just 15.2% of his opponents against a sharp 7.2% walk rate.
That’s among the best stretches of Lynch’s career to date. He has an excellent but brief stretch last summer, tossing eight starts with a 3.18 ERA from June 17 through Aug. 17, but that was bookended by a poor start to the year (5.50 ERA in 54 frames) and an even rockier finish (6.63 ERA in 38 innings). Overall, Lynch has made 51 big league starts and pitched 252 innings with a 5.18 ERA, 18.6% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk rate.
Rangers Have Considered Promotion For Top Prospect Evan Carter
With the team’s left-handed-hitting outfielders struggling recently, the Rangers have considered a big league promotion for top outfield prospect Evan Carter, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. General manager Chris Young effectively confirmed as much earlier in the week, telling Grant that the team has “not ruled anything out” as it seeks to put forth its best lineup on a nightly basis.
Notably, that comment from Young and Grant’s initial report predate last night’s potential injury for star outfielder Adolis Garcia. The 30-year-old Garcia is slated to undergo an MRI on his right knee, per Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today, after landing awkwardly following an attempt to rob a Michael Brantley home run that narrowly cleared the right field wall.
Garcia, hitting .244/.322/.494, has been one of the Rangers’ top power threats and top defensive players this season. Any absence for him — even if only for a few games — would presumably increase the temptation to call Carter to the big leagues as Texas hopes to climb out of its recent skid. The Rangers dropped eight games in a row in August and have won just four of their past 19 contests, dropping from a commanding favorite in the AL postseason hunt to a half-game back of the Blue Jays for the top spot in the Wild Card chase. Texas currently sits three games behind the division-leading Astros and two behind the second-place Mariners.
Carter, 21, was a surprise pick by the Rangers at No. 50 overall in the 2020 draft. Carter wasn’t considered anywhere near that caliber of prospect at the time. He didn’t rank inside MLB.com’s top 200 draft prospects and didn’t even land inside Baseball America’s ranking of the top 500 amateurs in the draft. The canceled high school season that year surely contributed to the general lack of awareness regarding Carter, but the Rangers were convinced of his potential based on prior scouting trips — and it hasn’t taken long for their leap of faith to be proven correct.
Currently, Carter ranks as the No. 8 prospect in the sport at MLB.com, No. 10 on Baseball America’s top 100, and No. 32 at FanGraphs. He opened the 2023 season in Double-A, where he was more than four years younger than the average player, and he’s recently been promoted to Triple-A, where he’s more than six years younger than his average competitor.
Carter breezed through Double-A, batting .284/.411/.451 with a dozen homers, 22 steals (albeit in 32 tries) and a massive 16.3% walk rate — against a less-impressive but hardly alarming 22.3% strikeout rate. In eight games since being bumped to the Rangers’ top affiliate in Round Rock, he’s 12-for-34 (11 singles, one double) with three steals, four walks and six strikeouts. Overall, he’s combined for a .288/.415/.450 slash at the top two minor league levels.
At this point in the season, a promotion to the big leagues for Carter would surely leave his rookie status intact for the 2024 season. That’s of increased importance for teams with regard to their late-season promotions of top prospects, as it keeps them eligible to benefit from the “prospect promotion incentives” (PPIs) in the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement. Those incentives can award bonus draft picks to teams whose top prospects finish well in awards voting, and Carter will surely enter next year’s season with the requisite prospect rankings to position the Rangers to potentially gain a coveted draft selection.
Because he was selected out of high school in 2020, Carter has not yet been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft and has thus not yet been selected to the Rangers’ 40-man roster. Texas currently has a full 40-man roster, so they’d need to make some type of transaction in that regard if they ultimately decide to bring Carter to the Majors.
Cardinals Outright Taylor Motter
The Cardinals have once again sent utilityman Taylor Motter outright to Triple-A Memphis after he went unclaimed on waivers, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Motter was designated for assignment earlier in the week.
It’s the third time this season that the veteran Motter has been designated for assignment by the Cards and gone unclaimed on waivers. He elected free agency but quickly returned on a new minor league pact the first time around. He accepted an outright assignment the second time. With minimal time remaining on the 2023 schedule, there’s a good chance he’ll do the same in this third instance.
Motter, 33, has appeared in 29 games with St. Louis this season and tallied 82 plate appearances, posting a tepid .171/.232/.211 slash in that time. He’s primarily played second and third base during his time with the Cards but also has very brief appearances at shortstop, at first base and in right field. The bulk of Motter’s season has been spent in Memphis, where he’s batted .255/.343/.438 with eight homers and eight steals in 236 trips to the plate.
The Cardinals are Motter’s seventh team at the big league level. The journeyman jack of all trades has played in 190 big league games and owns a lifetime .188/.258/.294 line in the Majors. He’s a far more accomplished hitter at the Triple-A level, where he’s spent parts of seven seasons and compiled a .262/.351/.477 line with 96 homers in 2298 plate appearances.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Miguel Castro Has Reached Required Number Of Appearances For 2024 Option To Vest
Diamondbacks righty Miguel Castro signed a one-year deal that guaranteed him $3.25MM but also came with various incentives and a vesting option for the 2024 season. That $5MM salary was contingent on Castro reaching 60 appearances and passing an end-of-season physical, the former of which Castro quietly checked off late last month. The right-hander is now up to 65 appearances on the year, meaning that so long as he’s healthy for that end-of-year physical, he’ll be back in the fold for the D-backs next year at that $5MM price point. He’s also maxed out his appearance-based incentives for the 2023 season, adding an additional $900K to this year’s salary.
Already in his ninth Major League season despite not yet celebrating his 29th birthday, Castro was a solid member of the Arizona bullpen for the bulk of the year before a recent pair of nightmare outings sent his ERA north of 5.00. From Opening Day through Aug. 14, Castro logged a 3.86 ERA — albeit with worse-than-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (20.9%, 10.2%, 41%, respectively). Castro was rocked for four earned runs in each of his next two appearances and tagged for three runs less than two weeks later; more than one-third of the runs he’s yielded this season came in a span of just 10 days.
It’s an awful stretch, but Castro’s season otherwise more or less lines up with the broader track record he put together from 2017-22: 350 innings, 3.93 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, 12.5% walk rate, 49.6% ground-ball rate. Both his ground-ball rate and average sinker velocity are down this season — he’s still averaging a hearty 96.8 mph on that two-seamer — but Castro is also walking batters at his lowest clip of any full big league season (9.8%).
Assuming Castro indeed passes his physical, he’ll return to a D-backs relief corps that’ll be fronted by deadline pickup Paul Sewald. Righty Kevin Ginkel and lefty Kyle Nelson have both cemented their places in the Arizona ‘pen as well, and veteran Scott McGough is slated to return for the second season of his two-year deal. (Like Castro, McGough got out to a strong start but had his ERA blown up by a rough patch this summer.) Newcomer Ryan Thompson will also be looking to earn a role for the ’24 bullpen over the final few weeks of the current season.
If the D-backs want to go outside the organization to add to that group, there ought to be ample funds available to do so. Even after accounting for Castro’s $5MM salary next year, Arizona has just shy of $53MM on the books, per Roster Resource. That doesn’t include arbitration raises to notable names like Christian Walker, Zac Gallen, Sewald and Ginkel. Still, that bunch of raises will likely leave the Diamondbacks south of $90MM in guarantees, which is well shy of both this year’s $123MM payroll and their franchise-record $132MM payroll from the 2018 season.
As such, general manager Mike Hazen and his staff should have some money to work with this offseason — particularly with the organization’s regrettable commitment to Madison Bumgarner set to expire after the 2024 campaign. The D-backs owe Bumgarner $14MM for the 2024 season but are off the hook beginning in 2025. They have just $21MM on the books in 2025: a $5MM salary for Corbin Carroll and a $16MM salary for Ketel Marte.