Guardians Claim Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Matt Moore
In a swift retooling of the pitching staff, the Guardians have claimed right-handers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez and lefty Matt Moore off waivers from the Angels, Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN report. It’s a sudden, jarring final push to salvage a postseason appearance by Cleveland — one that would have seemed impossible just 72 hours ago.
The Angels’ decision to place roughly a quarter of their roster on waivers — Hunter Renfroe, Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone all hit waivers on Tuesday as well — stunned the industry, though the rationale behind it is at least sound. The Angels aggressively pushed for a postseason berth at the deadline, acquiring Giolito, Lopez, Grichuk and C.J. Cron, but have since lost two-thirds of their games and fallen from postseason contention in a stacked AL West. (Somewhat amusingly, their 64-70 record is the same as the Guardians, though the AL Central is the sport’s weakest division.)
That slate of trades pushed the Halos over the luxury tax threshold, which would reduce their draft compensation in the event that Shohei Ohtani signs elsewhere after rejecting a qualifying offer. They’d also face steeper penalties in 2024 in the event that they exceeded the tax barrier next year. But, by waiving this slate of players and seeing each of Giolito, Lopez, Moore, Renfroe (Reds) and Leone (Mariners) all come off the books, the Angels will duck back under the tax threshold. Their theoretical comp pick for Ohtani’s departure would come prior to the third round of the draft rather than between the fourth and fifth rounds. They also won’t face any escalating penalties in the event that they wind up as a luxury tax payor next season.
It’s a bad look for MLB to see such a brazenly non-competitive move by a team that just four weeks ago energized its fanbase and clubhouse with a bold win-now push. At the same time, the Angels can’t really be faulted for the decision at this juncture, given the manner in which things have played out. They’re merely taking advantage of the rules that have been collectively bargained between the league and the Players Association. None of the players they waived would’ve been eligible or considered for a qualifying offer anyhow, so there’s quite literally no incentive for the Angels to hold onto them and strong incentive for them to engage in this tactic now that their playoff hopes are all but mathematically dashed.
While Major League Baseball perhaps ought to look into ways to prevent mass roster purges of this nature in future Augusts, there’s little to be done about it now — and the Guardians stand to benefit. Cleveland has spent the entirety of the year looking up at the Twins in the American League Central standings, and after taking two of three from Minnesota in their just-completed series now faces only a five-game deficit. It’s worth wondering what might’ve happened if the Twins had swept or at least won the series — Minnesota was within one strike of winning yesterday’s game, but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead — though perhaps Cleveland would’ve made the claims even if facing a six- or seven-game deficit.
A firm answer to that hypothetical probably can’t ever be known, but it’s a moot point anyhow; the Guardians’ comeback win yesterday brought them within striking distance of the Twins in the division, and they’ll now add three high-caliber arms to their pitching staff. Giolito, of course, is the most notable of the bunch and perhaps the most vital, given the extent of the pitching injuries that have ravaged the Cleveland rotation this year. Each of Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill has been out more seven weeks. The Guardians, acknowledging that their playoff hopes had slipped, traded Aaron Civale to the Rays prior to the deadline.
Giolito joins a rookie-laden rotation, adding a veteran arm to stand alongside the impressive trio of Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen. The expectation is that Quantrill will soon be ready to join that group, and the club has also expressed optimism that Bieber could return late in the month.
While the 2023 season has been Giolito’s worst in recent memory, that’s largely due to poor results with the team that just waived him. After pitching to a 3.79 ERA with a 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate in 121 innings with the White Sox, Giolito was torched for a 6.89 ERA with worse strikeout (22.8%) and walk (10.3%) rates as a member of the Halos. Most dramatically, an already too-high home run rate of 1.49 per nine innings pitched spiked to 2.76 as an Angel.
Looking at Giolito’s track record as a whole, however, it’s easy enough to see why he was claimed by several teams (the others all having lower waiver priority than Cleveland). Dating back to 2019, Giolito sports a 3.99 ERA in 743 innings. His strikeout rate has dipped over the past two seasons, but he’s still averaging 93-94 mph on his heater, punching out about a quarter of his opponents, and has generally shown good command throughout his MLB career. The Cy Young-caliber breakout many expected perhaps never came, but Giolito is a durable mid-rotation arm who misses bats, limits walks and is a playoff-caliber arm.
Meanwhile, an already excellent Cleveland bullpen will now add two formidable arms in Lopez and Moore. Guardians relievers already rank fifth in the Majors with a 3.48 ERA, and the addition of two veterans just in time for rosters to expand will put them in the conversation for best relief corps in baseball.
Lopez, 29, is one of MLB’s hardest throwers, averaging a blistering 98.4 mph on his heater this year. He’s seen his previously strong command erode in 2023, walking a career-worst 12.6% of his opponents, but he’s also fanning a career-best 29.8% of hitters and boasting a career-high 14.1% swinging-strike rate. In 55 innings of relief, the former top prospect has a 3.93 ERA. Lopez is limiting hard contact at the best levels of his career as well and throwing his blazing fastball more often than ever before — generally at the expense of his third and fourth pitches (curveball, changeup). He’s primarily been a fastball/slider pitcher this year, and while the results have been a bit mixed, he’ll add a power arm capable of missing bats in droves to Terry Francona’s bullpen.
Moore, meanwhile, gives Francona a second lefty alongside Sam Hentges. The 34-year-old has found new life in his career since moving to a full-time relief role last year. He’s pitched 44 innings for the Angels in 2023, working to a 2.66 ERA with a career-high 28% strikeout rate and a very strong 6.9% walk rate.
Once the game’s consensus top pitching prospect, Moore impressed early on with the Rays before Tommy John surgery derailed his career. The left-hander never seemed to fully recover. After pitching to a 3.53 ERA from 2011-14, he missed most of the 2014-15 seasons recovering from that surgery, and posted a 5.26 ERA over his next 620 2/3 innings post-surgery.
Moore had a one-year stop in Japan along the way and pitched fairly well there, but it wasn’t until signing a minor league deal with Texas last year that he became a pitcher of note at the big league level again. Moore’s 1.95 ERA set the stage for a $7.55MM deal with the Angels this year, and he’s now logged a combined 2.21 ERA in his career’s second act as a late-inning reliever.
All in all, it’s a borderline unheard-of boon to a Major League pitching staff at this stage of a season — and all it will cost the Guardians is the collective $3.727MM that remain on the trio’s 2023 contracts. Each of Giolito, Moore and Lopez will be a free agent after the season, and the Guardians won’t receive any compensation if and when they enter free agency. They’re still a long shot to erase that five-game gap in the standings, particularly with the Twins still having series against the A’s, Rockies, White Sox, Mets and a now-depleted Angels team. But the Guardians were presented an opportunity to do everything they could to boost their slim playoff odds, and just like the Angels did one month ago, they took their shot.
White Sox Name Chris Getz General Manager
The White Sox announced Thursday that assistant general manager Chris Getz has been promoted to the position of senior vice president and general manager. Chicago fired longtime baseball operations executives Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams last week.
Getz, who turned 40 yesterday, will join the likes of Rangers GM Chris Young, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, Phillies GM Sam Fuld and Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes among high-ranking baseball operations executives who also played at the Major League level. (Fuld and Gomes are second on their respective organizations’ baseball operations hierarchies. Young, Dipoto and now Getz are their teams’ top baseball operations decision-makers.)
A fourth-round pick of the White Sox back in 2005, Getz played in parts of seven Major League seasons between the White Sox, Royals and Blue Jays. In 459 big league games and 1574 plate appearances, he posted a .250/.309/.307 batting line and swiped 89 bases in 117 tries. Getz was the White Sox’ primary second baseman in 2009 before being traded to the Royals as part of a package to acquire infielder/outfielder Mark Teahen, and he served as Kansas City’s primary second baseman from 2010-11.
Getz announced his retirement as a player in May 2014, and spent the next two years as a baseball operations and player development assistant with the Royals. The White Sox hired him in October 2016 to take over as the team’s new director of player development — a role he held from 2017-20 before being promoted to his most recent title of assistant general manager. Throughout his time with the Sox, Getz has overseen day-to-day operation of the minor league system and the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic. He’s also contributed to player evaluation and contract negotiations.
“Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and experience within our organization to this role,” owner Jerry Reinsdorf said Thursday in a statement within the press release announcing Getz’s promotion. “Most importantly, he knows our players, both at the major league level and in our system, knows our staff and is familiar with all aspects of our baseball operations department. Chris has impressed me greatly over the past seven years. In our conversations together this season, I have become energized by his vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again. With his existing knowledge of the organization, top to bottom, I believe his leadership will provide us with the quickest path forward to our goal, a consistently successful baseball team that competes and plays the game the right way. He will re-energize this organization.”
Since the dismissal of Hahn and Williams, most reports out of Chicago have indicated that Reinsdorf was likely to go with an in-house hire — many tabbing Getz as the favorite. While Getz has clearly put in time with the organization and risen through the ranks since his playing days, it’s still a move that’s likely to be unpopular among Chicago fans, who were hoping for an outside hire to shake up what has been labeled by multiple former Sox players as a chaotic organizational culture. Reinsdorf, however, has a reputation as perhaps the most fiercely loyal owner in all of sports — which is what made the firing of Hahn and Williams so surprising. Even prior efforts to turn the organization around have included the return of old faces, such as the 2021 hiring of Tony La Russa as a second stint managing the team.
Getz now has nearly a decade of experience working in player development and baseball operations, and he’ll take the knowledge he’s accrued over that time and attempt to win over a fan base that has grown frustrated with the lack of results from the team’s lengthy rebuilding effort. The Sox tore things down back in 2016, trading names like Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Adam Eaton, David Robertson and Todd Frazier and taking a hyper-aggressive approach to international free agency — which led to the signings of Jose Abreu and Luis Robert Jr.
The White Sox’ farm system was regarded as one of the best in the sport as prospects like Robert, Lucas Giolito, Michael Kopech, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson and others began to graduate to the Majors, and things looked to be on track when the Sox went 35-25 in the shortened 2020 season and then steamrolled the AL Central with a 93-69 showing in 2021 — winning the division by 13 games.
However, the Sox fell flat in 2022, and the 2023 season has been an unmitigated disaster. The Sox opened the season 7-19 with a -58 run differential through their first 26 games, and it looked as though their season was lost before the end of April. That’s proven to be the case, as the Sox never really recovered from that opening swoon and spent deadline season trading away the likes of Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Kendall Graveman, Lance Lynn, Jake Burger and Keynan Middleton in an attempt to restock the farm.
With Getz now at the helm, the broader questions will surround precisely what Reinsdorf meant when referencing the newly minted GM’s “vision, approach and sense of what this organization needs to become competitive again.” The Sox eschewed trades of controllable talents like Jimenez, Kopech, Robert, Dylan Cease and Andrew Vaughn. If the Sox opt for another aggressive rebuild, any combination of that group could be on the trade market this offseason. On the other hand, that’s a talented core to try to surround with talent, and Chicago has more than $100MM coming off the books this winter — in addition to some new players in the upper levels of the system following the deadline sell-off of shorter-term pieces.
Time will tell which direction the team chooses, but Getz faces an uphill battle both in restoring the White Sox to prominence and in winning over a fanbase that had been pining for broader-reaching changes.
Cubs To Select Shane Greene, Recall Alexander Canario
The Cubs are set to select the contract of veteran right-hander Shane Greene from Triple-A Iowa, reports ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. He adds that outfield prospect Alexander Canario, who’s already on the 40-man roster, will also be recalled for his Major League debut.
Greene, 34, has pitched in the Majors every year since 2014, albeit for just three innings in 2022. The former All-Star reliever experienced a stark dip in performance back in 2021 and has tallied just 26 2/3 innings from 2021-22, posting a 7.09 ERA in that time. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs earlier in the summer and has since appeared in five games — all of them starts, interestingly — pitching to a 2.16 ERA with a 28.6% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate in a still-tiny sample of 16 2/3 innings. The Cubs have built him up since signing, and he’s totaled nine shutout innings with 12 strikeouts against three walks in his past two starts.
Whether Greene is used as a starter or initially added to the bullpen as a long reliever isn’t yet clear. The fact that he’s been starting and is stretched out enough to have thrown five innings in a recent start, however, gives the Cubs some options to consider in the season’s final month.
As for the 23-year-old Canario, he’ll make his big league debut just over two years after being acquired from the Giants in the trade that sent former Rookie of the Year and NL MVP Kris Bryant to San Francisco. While he’s not generally considered to be among the game’s very best prospects, Canario ranks 12th within the Cubs’ system at Baseball America, 14th at MLB.com and 24th at FanGraphs. He draws praise for his impressive raw power, above-average speed and strong throwing arm, but there are also concerns about Canario’s hit tool and penchant for strikeouts.
Shoulder and ankle injuries have limited Canario to 161 plate appearances at the Triple-A level this year, but he’s slashed .276/.342/.524 when healthy. He’s swatted eight homers in that time and popped 37 long balls across three levels (High-A, Double-A, Triple-A) during the 2022 season. However, Canario also fanned in 27.5% percent of his plate appearances last year and has struck out at a 28% clip so far in Triple-A this season.
Brewers Considering Josh Donaldson
The Brewers are “considering” free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson after his recent release from the Yankees, per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic. Donaldson was on the 60-day injured list at the time of his release but is reportedly healthy and was expecting to return to the roster in September. If the Brewers do sign Donaldson, they’ll only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster or injured list.
Donaldson, 37, was traded from Minnesota to New York alongside Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt prior to the 2022 season, with Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela heading back in the other direction. His tenure with the Yankees hasn’t gone as they hoped, to say the least. Injuries limited the former AL MVP to 132 games last year and just 34 games this season, and even when healthy, Donaldson’s once-potent bat has faded. In 666 plate appearances as a Yankee, Donaldson slashed .207/.293/.385 — including a .142/.225/.434 output in 120 plate appearances this season.
Rough as Donaldson’s overall numbers this year may be, his glovework at third base has continued to grade well into his late 30s, and he’s popped 10 home runs in just 120 plate appearances. With rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players tomorrow and Donaldson available for the minimal cost possible, the Brewers could at least take a short look to see how Donaldson fares in the wake of his most recent calf strain — the injury that’s sidelined him since July 20 (and an issue that has plagued him on multiple occasions in recent years).
Third base has been a weak spot for the Brew Crew of late, with previously hot-hitting rookie Andruw Monasterio‘s bat cooling and veteran Brian Anderson also wilting after a strong start to the season. Brewers third basemen have posted an awful .188/.250/.260 slash during the month of August, giving Donaldson — or any other potential addition/call-up — a rather low bar to clear in the season’s final month.
Reds Designate Michael Siani, Alejo Lopez For Assignment
The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated outfielder Michael Siani and utilityman Alejo Lopez for assignment. That pair of moves will open space on the 40-man roster for outfielders Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe, whose previously reported waiver claims have now been announced by the team.
Siani, 24, made his big league debut with the Reds last year and has briefly appeared this season as well, though he has just 25 MLB plate appearances under his belt overall. He’s 4-for-24 in that time (all singles). The 2018 fourth-round pick has never provided much offense in the minors, where he’s a .244/.338/.362 hitter (including .230/.337/.360 in Triple-A), but his glove and speed are his calling cards.
Siani once ranked as high as eighth among Reds prospects at Baseball America, but his bat hasn’t come around much as he’s progressed through the system. He still draws praise for 60-grade speed — which is made evident by last year’s 52 steals — and plus-plus defense in center field, where he has both ample range and a strong throwing arm. Siani has also walked in 11.4% of his minor league plate appearances, so while his hit tool and power are lacking, he can still post respectable OBP marks and provide value both with his glove (at all three outfield spots) and on the basepaths.
While Siani isn’t an impact bat, he has the makings of a glove-first fourth outfielder and has two minor league option seasons remaining beyond the current year. That could add up to some interest on the waiver wire. The Reds will place him on outright waivers within the next five days.
The 27-year-old Lopez was just selected to the big league roster two days ago but didn’t appear in a game before being removed. He’s seen big league time in each of the past two seasons with the Reds. Lopez has hit for a solid but empty .262 average in 179 career plate appearances, getting on base at a below-average .307 clip with just a .321 slugging percentage. He has big league experience at second base, third base and in the outfield corners. He’s fanned in just 14.6% of his career plate appearances but also walked at a well below-average 5% clip.
Like Siani, Lopez will be placed on waivers within the next five days. Unlike Siani, he’s been outrighted previously in his career, so if he clears waivers he’ll be able to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.
Guardians Designate Eric Haase, Peyton Battenfield For Assignment
The Guardians have designated catcher Eric Haase and right-hander Peyton Battenfield for assignment, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic. Their removal from the 40-man roster will clear space for the addition of waiver claims Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Moore. (Cleveland already had one open spot on the 40-man roster.)
Haase, 30, only recently returned to the Guardians, his original organization, after being claimed off waivers from the division-rival Tigers, who’d also designated him for assignment. He went 2-for-10 with a walk in three games in what looks like it’ll be a brief return to Cleveland.
From 2021-22, Haase turned in a .242/.295/.451 batting line with his hometown Tigers, swatting 36 home runs, 29 doubles and a pair of triples in 732 plate appearances. That offense clocked in about six percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, and Haase showed some defensive versatility along the way. In addition to his work behind the plate, the Tigers frequently used him in left field (in addition to a pair of one-off appearances in right field and at first base).
The 2023 season has been a rough one for Haase, however. In 93 trips to the plate, he’s slashing .201/.247/.281. Haase has seen his ground-ball rate increase, while his exit velocity and hard-hit rate have both trended in the wrong direction. He’s also popping the ball up to the infield at a career-high rate. He’ll be placed on outright waivers or released within the coming days.
If Haase goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d remain with the Guardians and could yet be postseason-eligible if added back to the 40-man roster. He’d also have the right to reject the assignment in favor of minor league free agency. If he clears, stays with the Guards and is not added back to the 40-man by season’s end, he’ll be able to become a free agent, as is the case with all outrighted players who have three or more years of service time.
Battenfield, 26, was a ninth-round pick by the Astros in 2019 who’s since been traded to the Rays (for Austin Pruitt) and to the Guardians (for Jordan Luplow). He made his big league debut earlier this season and has appeared in seven games (six starts), pitching to a 5.19 ERA with an 18.5% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate and 43% ground-ball rate in 34 2/3 innings of work. He’s also struggled in 47 2/3 Triple-A frames this year, recording a 5.66 ERA with a 10.3% walk rate that’s nearly as high as his uncharacteristically low 11.8% strikeout rate.
While the 2023 season has been a rough one, Battenfield was quite solid in Triple-A just a year ago. He piled up 153 2/3 innings in Columbus during the 2022 season and notched a 3.66 ERA with a 17% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 39.1% ground-ball rate. Battenfield has never been regarded as one of the organization’s top prospects, but he has a nice minor league track record prior to the 2023 season and has a pair of minor league option years remaining beyond the current campaign. Teams in search of rotation depth could potentially give him a look on waivers in the coming days. If he goes unclaimed, he’d remain with the Guardians but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.
Carlos Carrasco Clears Waivers
Mets right-hander Carlos Carrasco has passed through waivers unclaimed, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. He was freely available to any club willing to take on his contract but will remain with the Mets, unless the team opts to outright him to a minor league affiliate (which he could reject in favor of free agency).
Acquired from Cleveland in the Francisco Lindor blockbuster, Carrasco was a quality member of the Mets’ pitching staff in 2022, tossing 152 innings of 3.97 ERA ball with a slightly better-than-average 23.6% strikeout rate against a sharp 6.4% walk rate. As has been the case with so many Mets in 2023, however, he’s seen his performance take a nosedive. The 36-year-old righty has been rocked for a 6.80 earned run average in 90 frames this year, posting the worst full-season marks of his career in strikeout rate (15.8%), walk rate (9.1%) and average fastball velocity (92.9 mph).
In addition to those struggles on the mound, Carrasco has battled injury troubles this season. The right-hander was on the injured list from April 16 through May 19 due to inflammation in his right elbow. He’s earning $14MM this year under the final season of his current contract, with about $2.333MM of that sum yet to be paid out.
Between the struggles on the mound, the early-season elbow trouble and the money remaining on his contract, Carrasco always looked like a good bet to clear waivers. He’ll likely finish out the season on the Mets’ staff and then hit free agency this winter, where he’ll be a candidate for a rebound pact on the open market — be it a one-year deal or a non-guaranteed pact.
Guardians Release Noah Syndergaard
The Guardians have released right-hander Noah Syndergaard following his recent DFA, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. If he signs with a new team by 11:59pm ET tonight, he’ll be eligible for that club’s postseason roster.
Cleveland acquired the former All-Star in a swap of underwater contracts at the deadline, sending infielder Amed Rosario to the Dodgers in hopes that a change of scenery could help get Syndergaard back to form. Syndergaard, who’d pitched to a 7.16 ERA in 55 1/3 innings with Los Angeles, signed a one-year, $13MM deal with the Dodgers over the winter. Rosario, an impending free agent who’d been the Guardians’ primary shortstop since 2021, was hitting just .265/.306/.369 at the time of the swap. Neither player has gotten his performance back up to previous levels since the exchange, however.
The Guards might’ve at least hoped that Syndergaard could stabilize an injury-plagued rotation down the stretch, taking some of the innings that were lost when Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie or Cal Quantrill went down with long-term injuries. That hasn’t happened. Syndergaard made six starts with Cleveland, pitching to a 5.40 ERA with a 12.4% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate in 33 1/3 innings. That 12.4% strikeout rate is the lowest of any pitcher since the time of the trade (min. 30 innings).
Now 31 years old, Syndergaard was one of the most promising power pitchers in the sport early in his career, breaking out as a legitimate Cy Young contender early on. Through his first 518 1/3 big league innings, the 6’6″ righty notched a 2.93 ERA, fanning 27.1% of his opponents and averaging 98.2 mph on his heater along the way. Unlike so many flamethrowers, Syndergaard possessed pristine command, too; his 5.5% walk rate in that stretch was outstanding. His ERA spiked to 4.28 in 2019, but Syndergaard retained premium velocity, strikeout and walk rates while logging a career-high 197 2/3 innings.
Unfortunately, the present-day version of Syndergaard doesn’t look much like that peak version. Tommy John surgery wiped out the 2020 and 2021 seasons for Syndergaard, who serves as something of a cautionary tale and reminder that for as common as the procedure has become, a return to form following such a major surgery is by no means a foregone conclusion. He still boasts outstanding command — he’s walked just 4.9% of his opponents this year — but Syndergaard’s fastball averaged 92.8 mph in Los Angeles and was down to just 91.9 mph during his brief stint with Cleveland. The once-wicked slider that averaged a ridiculous 93.1 mph is down to 85 mph in each of the past two seasons, and his peak 14.2% swinging-strike rate has plummeted to a well below-average 8.2%.
Syndergaard will now hit the market as a depth option for postseason hopefuls. He’ll cost a new club only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. With active rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players tomorrow, he’ll have a clearer path back to a big league roster, although a team in the midst of a tight postseason race would likely be wary of plugging him right into the rotation. Many have wondered what Syndergaard might look like coming out of the bullpen — he’s only made two relief appearances in his career — and that could be another avenue for him to join a contender’s staff.
The Best Fits For Harrison Bader, Hunter Renfroe, Randal Grichuk
A somewhat surprising trend began yesterday when the Angels placed six members of their active roster on outright waivers: Lucas Giolito, Hunter Renfroe, Reynaldo Lopez, Matt Moore, Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone. The White Sox (Mike Clevinger), Mets (Carlos Carrasco) and Tigers (Jose Cisnero) all followed suit, to varying degrees.
In many ways, it hearkens back to the days of revocable August trade waivers, when it was common for teams to run the majority of their roster through trade waivers. That led to what was effectively a second trade deadline at the end of August, as high-priced veterans who’d gone unclaimed were free to be moved. This set of circumstances, however, is quite different.
The players waived by the Angels, White Sox, Mets and Tigers are on irrevocable outright waivers. Any team that is awarded a claim on one of these players immediately takes on the remainder of that player’s contract. If one of these veterans goes unclaimed — it’s likely that a few of them will — their current team does not have to outright them to a minor league affiliate. They can simply return said player to their active roster and continue playing him as normal. (The Angels reportedly already passed Tyler Anderson through outright waivers last week and just kept him on the roster after he went unclaimed.) Similarly, these players are quite obviously free to keep playing. Many of them played last night. Renfroe literally hit a home run as I was typing this paragraph. Waivers are fun!
The outright waiver period is 48 hours, meaning we’ll have resolution on everyone from this group at some point tomorrow afternoon (though news of the claims being awarded could be staggered a bit). Waiver priority is determined based on reverse order of winning percentage and is not league specific. League-specific waiver priority was unique to revocable August trade waivers and is now defunct. It’s a common misconception that it remains in place, but MLBTR has confirmed with league sources on multiple occasions that waiver priority is simply worst team through best team — in this case, starting with the A’s and ending with the Braves. More specifically, waiver priority is determined based on the reverse standings on the day players clear waivers, meaning we’ll know the final waiver priority for all of these veterans once tonight’s games are wrapped up.
That’s a whole bunch of preamble that may or may not have been necessary, depending on your prior understanding of waiver minutiae. It felt pertinent to do a brief crash course, however, given the unusual nature of this sequence of moves and the major ramifications it could hold with teams in a tight playoff race.
It’s fair to assume the non-contenders are going to pass on picking up any of these players — they’re all impending free agents — but any club with a glimmer of postseason hope could place a claim. That technically includes the Guardians and the Padres, although both are long shots, at best to play meaningful games in October. FanGraphs gives Cleveland and San Diego respective playoff odds of 3.3% and 1.8%, while Baseball Prospectus has the Guards at just 1.6% and the Friars at what seems like a generous 7%. You can never rule out the Padres on big-name players, but they’re already in the third tier of luxury penalization, so anyone they acquire will come with a 75% tax. It’d be a steep price to pay, but hey, when has that ever stopped president of baseball ops A.J. Preller and owner Peter Seidler?
We’re writing about the best fits for this trio of outfielders, however, and the “best” fit doesn’t seem like a team whose playoff hopes are the rough equivalent of hitting a one-outer on the river in a hand of Texas Hold ‘Em. So, with all that said, let’s take a look at each outfielder, how much he’s still owed on his contract, his strengths/flaws, whether he’s likely to be claimed at all, and where he might best fit among the group of contenders who’ll have priority over the Braves, Orioles, Dodgers, Rays and Mariners (i.e. the upper echelon of MLB’s standings).
Harrison Bader
Age: 29 | Bats: R | Salary: $4.7MM ($783K yet to be paid out) | Position: Center Field
Bader is the youngest, the cheapest and the likeliest of this trio to be claimed. Age and salary play a major role in that, but so does his glove. Bader isn’t just the best defensive outfielder of this bunch — he’s one of the best defensive outfielders in Major League Baseball. He can play any of the three outfield spots, but the defense is so strong that it’s almost a waste to have him anywhere other than center. In 4243 innings of center field play at the big league level, Bader has piled up 43 Defensive Runs Saved and a mammoth 61 Outs Above Average.
For some further context, Bader’s 4243 innings in center field from 2017-23 rank just 96th among all big league players in terms of total innings played at one position. But he nevertheless ranks 18th among all Major Leaguers in Defensive Runs Saved and seventh in Outs Above Average. In other words, even though 95 players have had a larger sample of innings to rack up accolades in that pair of cumulative defensive metrics, Bader still has higher totals than nearly all of them.
Prior to the 2023 season, Bader has been more or less a league-average hitter. From 2018-22, he batted .245/.319/.407 — good for a 98 wRC+. By that measure, he was 2% worse than a big league hitter. For a player with this type of defensive talent, that made him a standout all-around performer. This year, however, has seen his bat take a step back. Bader is fanning at a career-low 18%, but he’s hitting just .239/.275/.365. He’s walking less than ever, hitting more fly balls than ever before, and seeing just 6.5% of those flies turn into home runs (the second-lowest mark of his career).
One thing Bader is doing quite well — and that he’s always done well — is torching left-handed pitching. He’s a career .267/.332/.508 batter against southpaws, but in 2023 he’s absolutely demolishing lefties at a .348/.389/.697 clip. Granted, it’s only 72 plate appearances, but Bader has nonetheless been a behemoth when holding the platoon advantage.
Any team can stand to improve its outfield defense, but there are still a few contenders who could make particular use of this type of glove. The Marlins have been seeking a center fielder for years. They rank 29th in the Majors with -19 DRS and are tied for 22nd with -7 OAA. The Phillies, Red Sox, Giants and Cubs all grade as below-average defensive outfield units, too. As far as production against lefties, the Giants, Diamondbacks, Twins and Reds are all bunched tightly together in terms of wRC+ (ranging San Francisco’s 90 to Cincinnati’s 94). The Brewers are also at 94, but they’re currently tied with the Rangers and Astros for the sixth-worst waiver priority in MLB. It’s hard to imagine Bader falling that far.
The Twins have a similar skill set here (Michael A. Taylor) and are hoping to get Byron Buxton back soon. The Cubs and Red Sox make some sense — Boston in particular, after Jarren Duran‘s injury — but both are a ways down the waiver pecking order. Bader would make any contending team better — even if only as a bench player — but he seems like a particularly good fit for the Marlins or the Giants.
Hunter Renfroe
Age: 31 | Bats: R | Salary: $11.9MM ($1.98MM remaining) | Position: Right field
Renfroe’s salary is significant enough that he’s not a lock to be claimed at all — particularly since he’s in the midst of a down year at the plate (the aforementioned homer notwithstanding). A well above-average hitter with the Red Sox and Brewers in 2021-22 when he batted .257/.315/.496, Renfroe finds himself batting .239/.301/.430 on the year — about 3% worse than average, per wRC+. He’s hitting more grounders than he has since his rookie season, popping up more often than ever, and has seen both his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate drop to nearly career-low levels.
Earlier in his career, Renfroe was considered a premium defensive outfielder, but his sprint speed and outfield reads have degraded over the past few years, per Statcast. His raw arm strength still sits in the 92nd percentile of MLB players, so opposing baserunners will want to think twice about tagging up when Renfroe is on the receiving end of a fly-ball, but Renfroe’s range simply isn’t what it once was. DRS pegs him at -8, while OAA is a bit more favorable but still gives him a mark of -3.
Traditionally, Renfroe has punished left-handed pitching. He’s a lifetime .261/.342/.523 hitter against lefties in the big leagues, but this season has seen that production muted. Nearly all of Renfroe’s power has come against right-handed opponents; he’s hitting .250/.304/.356 against lefties, with a higher strikeout rate and lower walk rate than he currently sports against right-handed opponents.
Renfroe was hot-potato’ed around the league even during more productive times, bouncing to four teams in four years — Rays, Red Sox, Brewers, Angels — a reflection of the manner in which the market has generally deprioritized/devalued bat-first corner players with OBP concerns. It’ll now cost a team just shy of $2MM to rent him for one month, and that may be a price at which some clubs balk.
That said, Renfroe has some track record and has still been a roughly average hitter in 2023. He’d be an upgrade over bench bats that are being rostered even on a number of contending clubs, and a team dealing with injuries in the outfield could certainly view him as a potential difference-maker.
While the Marlins could use Bader in center, they’re well-stocked on corner options and have Jorge Soler at DH. The Red Sox and Brewers have both already traded Renfroe once. The Giants (Mitch Haniger) and D-backs (Tommy Pham) have relatively similar players. The Twins could view Renfroe as a viable upgrade over Jordan Luplow or the struggling Joey Gallo, and the Reds are a fit with Jake Fraley, Joey Votto and Jonathan India on the injured list. Renfroe could push Nick Senzel back to Triple-A. If Renfroe makes it to the Mariners, he could be an upgrade over Dominic Canzone in left field with Jarred Kelenic out. The Dodgers could certainly afford to add Renfroe with J.D. Martinez on the injured list and a slew of lefty-hitting outfield options — if he makes it that far.
Randal Grichuk
Age: 32 | Bats: R | Salary: $9.333MM ($1.55MM remaining) | Position: All three outfield spots
Grichuk was having a strong season with the Rockies, batting .308/.365/.496 in 263 plate appearances, but his bat cratered following a trade to the Halos. In 104 plate appearances since the swap, he’s batted .165/.212/.351 with a 25% strikeout rate that’s considerably higher than the 19.4% mark he posted in Denver.
Grichuk has long been a limited player despite tools that suggest otherwise. Statcast annually grades him with above-average speed and arm strength, but he’s never been a threat to steal bases and has drawn inconsistent (at best) grades for his defense around the outfield. He’s probably best-suited for corner work at this point, but the Rox and Angels have given him 143 innings in center this year. He has more than 3000 career innings in both center and right, in addition to nearly 1200 innings in left, so he’s at least going to feel familiar with whichever outfield slot he plays.
While he’s long shown above-average power — career .216 ISO, career-high 31 homers back in 2019, five seasons of 20-plus homers — Grichuk’s offensive value is regularly undercut by his distaste for walks. He’s drawn a free pass in just 5.6% of his career plate appearances, resulting in a lifetime OBP under .300 (.296).
That said, it may be a limited skill set, but Grichuk shines in one particular area: tormenting left-handed pitching. He’s hitting .330/.394/.596 against lefties in 2023 and is a career .266/.314/.503 hitter in such situations.
Grichuk is a bit more affordable than Renfroe, is having a much better season against lefties, and can play center in a pinch, so he may hold more appeal. That same group of the Giants, D-backs, Twins, Reds and Brewers could all use help against southpaws. The Giants are deep in right-handed outfielders though, and the D-backs have Pham to fill a similar role. The Reds and Twins could look at Grichuk for the same reasons they might consider Renfroe, and the Brewers could look at him as a boost against lefties who’d take some pressure off struggling Tyrone Taylor and young Sal Frelick.
Nationals Release Luis Cessa
The Nationals have released veteran right-hander Luis Cessa, who’d been pitching with their Triple-A affiliate, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’s now a free agent.
Cessa, 31, opened the year in the Reds’ rotation but was bounced from the starting staff after just six appearances, during which time he was tagged for 26 runs in 25 innings. He made one appearance out of the bullpen before being designated for assignment and subsequently released.
While he’s since latched on with both the Rockies and Nationals on a pair of minor league deals, he hasn’t fared well in either organization. Cessa pitched 21 1/3 innings with the Rockies’ top affiliate and 20 2/3 innings with the Nats’ Triple-A club, yielding an ERA north of 8.00 during both stints. He’s battled uncharacteristic command issues in both the big leagues and minors this year, and he’s been extremely homer-prone in Triple-A, serving up an average of 1.93 round-trippers per nine innings pitched.
Prior to the 2023 season, Cessa had found success in the bullpen, primarily serving as a long reliever with the Yankees, who traded him to the Reds at the 2021 deadline. From 2019-22, the righty logged 248 innings of 3.77 ERA ball, striking out 19.8% of his opponents against a solid 8.2% walk rate and inducing grounders at an above-average 48.2% clip. The Reds moved him to the rotation late last year and gave him 10 starts, during which he posted a respectable 4.30 ERA with more concerning secondary marks that pointed to some regression (albeit not to anywhere near this extent).
Cessa could still catch on with another team on a minor league deal between now and season’s end. However, given the extent of his struggles, he’d have a difficult time pitching his way back to the big leagues on a postseason contender — and non-contenders may prefer to give those innings to younger options. If that’s it for his 2023 season, Cessa will head back to the market this winter in search of a minor league deal, hoping for an opportunity to put a forgettable ’23 season behind him and get back to his 2019-22 form.