Cubs Promote Matt Mervis
May 5: The Cubs officially selected Mervis’s contract this morning, as noted by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. In a corresponding move, infielder Edwin Rios was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. The club already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was required to select Mervis. Mervis will make his MLB debut in this afternoon’s game against the Marlins, playing first base and batting seventh.
Rios, 29, has struggled with the Cubs so far this season, albeit in a tiny sample of just 25 plate appearances, with a slash line of .100/.280/.300 and nine strikeouts. He figures to serve as infield depth for the club at the Triple-A level going forward.
May 4: The Cubs will select the contract of first base prospect Matt Mervis, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’s not with the team for today’s series finale in D.C. but will join the Cubs when they return to Chicago tomorrow to kick off a homestand with a series against the Marlins.
Mervis, 25, was a 39th-round pick of the Nationals back in 2016 but didn’t sign, instead opting to attend college at Duke. He wasn’t selected in the shortened, five-round iteration of the 2020 draft and wound up signing with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent.
That’s proven to be quite the find for the Cubs, as Mervis has laid waste to minor league pitching and established himself as one of the organization’s top-ranked prospects. Over the past two seasons, Mervis has skyrocketed from High-A to Triple-A (and now the Majors), batting a combined .305/.383/.615 with 42 home runs in 161 games across three minor league levels. That includes a torrid .286/.402/.560 slash and six home runs through his first 112 plate appearances in Triple-A this season.
Baseball America ranks Mervis fourth among Cubs farmhands, while MLB.com has him sixth. Mervis is generally regarded as an all-bat prospect, as he’s a sub-par runner and not a standout defender at first base. BA’s report on him notes that a shortened swing and refined approach at the plate unlocked a new level of performance for Mervis in 2022, and he’s clearly kept that up in 2023, given that he’s walked (16.1%) nearly as often as he’s punched out (17%). The left-handed-hitting Mervis was awful against left-handed pitchers in his first pro season, but he improved to .268/.339/.529 against southpaws in 174 plate appearances last year and is 6-for-20 with two homers, two doubles, six walks and six strikeouts in 27 plate appearances against same-handed opponents so far in 2023 (.300/.482/.700).
Mervis’ ascension to the big leagues comes at a time when veteran first baseman Eric Hosmer is struggling, having batted just .250/.294/.363 in 85 plate appearances. Cubs first basemen are still hitting .296/.331/.470 on the season, though that’s skewed by the fact that the vast majority of Trey Mancini‘s production has happened to come while he’s playing at first base rather than in the outfield or at designated hitter. Mancini is certainly capable of playing either outfield corner and has enough bat to be an option at DH, so there’s room to get both into the lineup.
Keeping Hosmer, who’s also a lefty hitting, first base-only player on the roster alongside Mervis would be trickier, though there’s no direct indication yet that Mervis’ promotion puts Hosmer’s roster spot in jeopardy. Hosmer himself recently acknowledged that may end up being the case in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, though he voiced nothing but support for Mervis.
“This is my 13th year in the league,” Hosmer told Rosenthal. “I’m not going to sit here and be bitter about a young kid coming up. That’s not right. … I was in spring with Matty. I was always trying to help, give him my two cents on what’s coming for him in the league, how you can simplify some stuff. It’s not something where I’m watching over my shoulder, or living and dying by his at-bats. When it comes that time, that’s when you can move on and do something else. I know he’s going to be a big part of this organization. I’ve got to help him any way I can.”
While future optional assignments can always impact a player’s timeline to arbitration and free agent, it’s worth at least outlining where those milestones currently stand for Mervis. If he’s in the big leagues for good from this point forth, he’ll fall shy of a full year of service in 2023 (barring a top-two finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting). That means he’d be on pace to reach free agency after the 2029 season, although an early-May call-up will surely afford him enough service time to qualify as a Super Two player. As such, he’d reach arbitration following the 2025 season and be eligible four times rather than the standard three.
If Mervis does manage to secure a top-two place in NL Rookie of the Year voting, he’d gain a full year of service and bump his free agent timeline up to the 2028-29 offseason in the process. He’d still be arb-eligible following the 2025 season, but he’d get there as a player with three years of service and thus only be eligible three times.
Jeff Hoffman Exercises Opt-Out Clause In Phillies Deal
Right-hander Jeff Hoffman exercised the opt-out clause in his minor league contract with the Phillies on Monday, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. That gave the Phillies a 48-hour window to add him to the big league roster or release him. Forty-eight hours have since elapsed without an announcement from the team either way; it’s possible the two parties agreed that his contract would be selected in the coming days, but barring that Hoffman would become a free agent in short order.
The 30-year-old Hoffman spent spring training with the Twins but opted out of that deal upon being informed he had not made the roster. He signed with the Phillies shortly thereafter and has spent the first month of the season with their Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley, where he’s yielded seven runs in nine innings of relief. Hoffman has only surrendered five hits, but he’s also issued a free pass to seven of his 39 opponents (17.9%). Those red flags notwithstanding, he’s also punched out a whopping 16 of those 39 hitters (41%), and Gelb notes that his fastball has touched 99 mph with the IronPigs.
Command issues aren’t exactly a new phenomenon for Hoffman, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2014 draft. He’s pitched 348 1/3 innings across parts of seven big league seasons with the Rockies and Reds, walking 11.1% of his opponents against a 20.3% strikeout rate en route to a lackluster 5.68 ERA. The increased velocity and uptick in missed bats, however, figure to pique the interest of other teams, just as they did for the Phillies and Twins. In addition to his gaudy strikeout numbers in Lehigh Valley, Hoffman whiffed eight of the 19 hitters he faced in spring training with Minnesota (42.1%).
Hoffman entered the 2023 season with four years, 105 days of Major League service time, so if he does land with another club and prove capable of sticking in the Majors, he’d reach five years of service this season (assuming 67 days in the bigs) and be controllable for another year via arbitration.
Guardians Option Zach Plesac
The Guardians announced Thursday that they’ve optioned struggling right-hander Zach Plesac to Triple-A Columbus. It’s the first time he’s been optioned to the minors since the 2020 season.
Plesac’s 2023 campaign has been a disaster thus far. While he’s walking fewer hitters than ever (4.8%), he’s also sporting a career-low 13.3% strikeout rate. Opponents have posted a staggering .374/.404/.576 batting line against Plesac, and while a .410 average on balls in play surely points to at least some small-sample randomness that might even out over the course of a season, his struggles can’t be solely pinned on bad luck. Plesac has yielded a 91.7 mph average exit velocity, and 43% of the balls put in play against him have been hit at 95 mph or greater. His fastball has averaged a career-low 91.4 mph, and this season’s 9.6% swinging-strike rate is his lowest since debuting back in 2019.
Now 28 years old, Plesac had a strong debut effort in 2019-20, tossing 171 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with a 21.3% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. That performance helped him earn a place in the team’s long-term rotation, but it’s been a steady downhill trajectory since. That early success was in no small part due to a tiny .246 average on balls in play and lofty 81.5% strand rate. Those numbers regressed toward the league averages in 2021-22 and did so in conjunction with velocity and strikeout rate both taking a step back. The result was 274 1/3 innings of 4.49 ERA ball — a passable but unexciting set of results that looked more commensurate with a fourth or fifth starter than what Plesac had displayed in his first two seasons.
Now, with Plesac optioned out, the Guards will seemingly go with a mostly young and inexperienced group in the rotation for the foreseeable future. Shane Bieber remains entrenched atop the starting staff, and righty Cal Quantrill is holding onto a spot despite some struggles of his own. Behind that pair, the Guardians currently have a trio of rookies: Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Peyton Battenfield. Bibee and Allen are both on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list and have enjoyed excellent debut efforts. Battenfield impressed with strong Triple-A numbers to earn a look in the big league rotation, and while his results have been mixed, he’ll get a longer look to sort things out.
It’s at least possible that Plesac’s stint in the minors alters his trajectory to free agency, though it’d need to be a lengthy stay in Triple-A for that to happen. The right-hander entered the 2023 season with three years, 86 days of Major League service time, meaning he needed another 86 days to reach four years of service and remain on track to hit the open market following the 2025 campaign. He’s already picked up 35 of those 86 days, so as long as he returns for at least 51 days, he’ll hit the four-year mark. If Plesac is relegated to Triple-A work for longer than that, it might be a moot point anyhow, as if he can’t pitch his way back into the big league mix he’d become a non-tender candidate this winter.
Mariners Release Tommy La Stella
The Mariners announced Thursday afternoon that infielder Tommy La Stella has cleared waivers and been released. He’s now a free agent.
Seattle designated the 34-year-old La Stella for assignment earlier in the week when selecting the contract of top pitching prospect Bryce Miller. He’d signed on with the team back in January after being released by the Giants ahead of the third and final season of a three-year contract, but a spring elbow injury had prevented La Stella from playing the field. He’s been limited to DH and pinch-hit duties so far, taking just 24 plate appearances in 12 games over the season’s first month. It was a curious use of a roster spot in the first place, and La Stella’s .190/.292/.238 slash in that span didn’t make the decision look any better.
La Stella was a high-end, contact-oriented utilityman with the Cubs, Angels and A’s from 2016-20, batting a combined .282/.358/.435 in 1061 plate appearances and walking at nearly as high a clip as he struck out (9.6% vs. 10.6%). That strong run helped him land a three-year, $18.75MM deal with the Giants, but things didn’t pan out for La Stella either in San Francisco. His .250/.308/.405 line in 242 plate appearances in 2021 was at least passable, but a hamstring tear limited him to just 76 games. The following season saw La Stella miss time with Achilles and neck injuries, batting just .239/.282/.350 in 195 plate appearances between stints on the injured list.
Health troubles have mounted for La Stella in recent years, but given his track record, contact skills and ability to play multiple positions, another club could still show some interest. He’ll likely need to settle for a minor league deal at this point, particularly since it’s not fully clear when he might again be an option to play defense on a regular basis.
A’s Designate Jeurys Familia, Domingo Acevedo For Assignment
The Athletics are shaking up their bullpen, designating right-handers Jeurys Familia and Domingo Acevedo for assignment, per a team announcement. Righty Adam Oller was also optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. In a set of corresponding moves, righties Spencer Patton, Austin Pruitt and Rico Garcia have all had their contracts selected from Triple-A.
Familia, 33, returned to the A’s for a second stint late in spring training, after the D-backs cut him loose late in spring training. The former Mets closer had enjoyed a strong showing in camp with Arizona and landed a big league deal with Oakland, but things haven’t gone well in his return to the Coliseum. Through 12 2/3 innings, Familia has been tagged for a 6.39 ERA, due in no small part to a sky-high 20.3% walk rate.
It’s been a tough two years for Familia, who was sharp with the Mets from 2020-21 but was roughed up for a 6.09 ERA in 44 1/3 frames between the Phillies and Red Sox in 2022. Familia’s fastball, which once averaged better than 97 mph, sat at what was then a career-low 95.6 mph between those two teams last year. This season, he’s averaged 94.8 mph on the pitch.
As for the 29-year-old Acevedo, his bottom-line run prevention numbers are even more jarring. In 9 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, he’s been clobbered for 11 runs on 16 hits (two homers), a pair of walks and a hit batter with seven punchouts. The resulting 10.61 ERA is more than triple the strong 3.33 mark he posted in 67 2/3 innings for the A’s during the 2022 season.
Acevedo’s velocity hasn’t changed — his 93.2 mph average heater is an exact match with his 2022 velocity — nor has he made any radical alterations to his pitch selection/usage. However, he’s seen his swinging-strike rate plummet from 15.6% to 8.8%, while his opponents’ chase rate has fallen from 35.6% to 29%. While he’s undoubtedly had some poor fortune in terms of batted balls (.400 BABIP), Acevedo also just isn’t missing many bats and is getting chases off the plate at a below-average rate after excelling in both those areas a year ago.
Pruitt returns to the A’s for a second season after spending the bulk of the 2022 campaign in their bullpen and pitching to a 4.23 ERA in 55 1/3 innings. The A’s removed him from the 40-man roster but re-signed him to a minor league deal this past offseason, and he’s begun the year with a 2.30 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 15 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. Pruitt has only fanned 17.4% of his Major League opponents, so he’s not likely to keep missing bats at this level, but he also boasts a very strong 5.3% walk rate in his MLB career.
The 35-year-old Patton has had the most MLB experience in recent seasons. Patton, who starred for NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars for several years before returning to MLB with the Rangers in 2021, pitched to a 3.83 ERA in 49 1/3 innings with Texas in 2021-22. He had a very strong ’21 season, fanning 27.9% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate, but Patton’s velocity dipped by more than a mile per hour in 2022 as his walk and strikeout rates spiked in the wrong directions. Through 8 1/3 innings with Las Vegas this season, he’s allowed four runs on 11 hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts.
Garcia, 29, has appeared in three big league seasons, splitting a total of 24 innings between the Rockies, Giants and Orioles. He has a grisly 6.38 ERA in that time and has issued more walks than strikeouts. However, he’s sitting on a 2.03 ERA in 13 1/3 innings so far in Las Vegas, with a hefty 32.8% strikeout rate and 18% swinging-strike rate against a more troublesome 15.5% walk rate.
Marlins Designate Devin Smeltzer, Select Chi Chi Gonzalez
The Marlins have designated lefty Devin Smeltzer for assignment, the team announced. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Jacksonville. It’s the second time in the past week that the Marlins have designated Smeltzer for assignment. He cleared waivers the first time around and was immediately selected back to the MLB roster.
Smeltzer returned to the roster to give the Marlins some length out of the bullpen and provided just that, albeit without particularly encouraging results. He tossed 3 2/3 innings of relief in yesterday’s blowout loss to the Braves but was tagged for three runs on three hits — two of them home runs. That rocky outing bumped his season-long ERA to an unsightly 6.89.
The broader track record with Smeltzer is more encouraging. From 2019-22 with the Twins, he logged 140 innings of 3.99 ERA ball, working both out of the rotation and the bullpen at times. Smeltzer has never missed many bats, evidenced by a career 16.3% strikeout rate, but his 6.3% walk rate is solid. As with his last DFA, Smeltzer will be traded or placed on outright waivers again within a week’s time. He’s been previously outrighted, so if he goes unclaimed, he’d have the option of electing free agency and exploring other opportunities.
Like Smeltzer did this week, the 31-year-old Gonzalez will give the Marlins a long relief option to help spare a taxed bullpen. The former first-round pick has settled into a journeyman role, starting five games between three teams (Twins, Yankees, Brewers) in 2022. Miami will be the sixth big league organization for Gonzalez, who’s opened the year with a 4.54 ERA through six starts and 33 2/3 innings at Jacksonville. Gonzalez is out of minor league options, so he could face a similar fate to Smeltzer and righty Johan Quezada, both of whom have been cycled through the final bullpen spot over the past week.
Mets Sign Dominic Leone, Activate Justin Verlander
11:29am: Leone’s deal with the Mets carries a $1.5MM base salary, tweets DiComo. Once prorated for the remaining number of days on the calendar, that comes out to about $1.22MM. The Mets are paying a 90% luxury tax on any payroll additions at this point. Between that prorated base and heavy tax, the signing of Leone will ultimately cost them about $2.313MM.
10:05am: The Mets have formally announced Leone’s signing. Catcher Omar Narvaez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. New York also reinstated ace Justin Verlander from the injured list, as expected, and optioned both Muckenhirn and John Curtiss to Triple-A Syracuse. Butto has been returned to Syracuse after operating as the 27th man in yesterday’s doubleheader.
9:43am: Veteran right-hander Dominic Leone, who opted out of a minor league deal with the Rangers earlier this week, has a locker set up in the Mets’ clubhouse this morning, tweets Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Leone is represented by ACES.
The team hasn’t made a formal announcement just yet and will need to clear a 40-man spot, but Leone is in the clubhouse and in uniform already. Lefty Zach Muckenhirn has been optioned to Triple-A to open a spot for Leone on the active roster, per DiComo, but the team will still need to announce the corresponding 40-man move.
Leone, 31, opened the season with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate and wasn’t added to Texas’ big league roster by his opt-out date — despite an outstanding run to begin the year. In 11 2/3 innings at Round Rock, he posted a 1.59 ERA with a 15-to-2 K/BB ratio and 46.7% ground-ball rate.
This will be Leone’s seventh big league team and the tenth Major League season in which he’s pitched. The right-hander spent the 2021-22 seasons with the Giants, for whom he notched a tidy 2.71 ERA with a solid 23.1% strikeout rate and elevated 10.4% walk rate over the life of 103 innings. Leone’s fastball sat 95.5 mph in his two years with the Giants, and he delivered impressive swinging-strike and chase rates of 15.7% and 38.4%, respectively.
On the whole, Leone has 356 innings of Major League experience. He’s logged a 3.69 ERA, 24.4% strikeout rate, 9.8% walk rate and 1.06 HR/9 mark in that time. ERA alternatives like FIP and SIERA both peg him at exactly 3.91, and he’s tallied 53 holds and seven saves in his career, so he’s no stranger to pitching in leverage spots if need be.
The Mets’ bullpen is taxed after yesterday’s game, which saw long reliever Jose Butto throw 42 pitches, right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis throw 36 pitches and setup man Adam Ottavino toss 24 pitches. With that trio likely unavailable and Muckenhirn optioned to Syracuse, the Mets were a bit light on relief options. Leone will give them a sixth fresh arm to slot into the bullpen for today’s game, and given his broader track record, he figures to have a decent chance at carving out a spot in the ‘pen for the remainder of the season if he performs well.
White Sox Place Jake Burger On Injured List
The White Sox announced that third baseman Jake Burger has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left oblique, which he sustained during his fourth-inning plate appearance in last night’s game. Fellow infielder Lenyn Sosa has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte in his place.
Burger, 27, leads the White Sox with seven home runs and is hitting .224/.312/.612 overall in 77 trips to the plate. He’s walked at a solid 9.1% clip but has also punched out in 31.2% of his plate appearances so far. That early power display and a back injury to Yoan Moncada opened the door for Burger to see regular plate appearances over the past few weeks, but he’ll now join Moncada on the injured list.
The White Sox didn’t provide a specific timetable for Burger’s return, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of a month. With both Burger and Moncada out, the White Sox’ options at third base are veteran Hanser Alberto, who’s had his share of defensive struggles at the hot corner this year, and the newly recalled Sosa. While Sosa has primarily played middle infield in his professional career, he does have 33 games of professional experience at third base and even logged a couple innings there for the Sox earlier this season. Alberto is getting the nod at third base today, with Sosa at second base and Elvis Andrus at shortstop, giving Tim Anderson a day off.
Sosa, 23, appeared in 16 games for the White Sox already this season but batted just .151/.167/.245 in 54 plate appearances. It’s been a completely different story in Triple-A, where in 11 games and 44 trips to the plate he’s posted a dominant .459/.545/.784 slash with two homers, two doubles and more walks (seven) than strikeouts (five). He obviously can’t carry over that level of production to the big leagues, but the Sox would surely be pleased with a mere middle ground between his tepid MLB production and torrid Triple-A output.
Guardians Top Prospect Daniel Espino Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
The Guardians announced Wednesday that right-hander Daniel Espino, the top pitching prospect in their system and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, underwent a right shoulder anterior capsule repair. He’ll miss the remainder of the season. Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery, projects a return to game activity in 12 to 14 months.
The surgery is the latest setback for Espino, 22, who entered the season ranked 33rd or better on the top-100 lists of MLB.com (No. 16), ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (No. 18), Baseball America (No. 19), Baseball Prospectus (No. 25) and The Athletic’s Keith Law (No. 33). That fanfare is attributable to a devastating repertoire that includes a triple-digit heater, a plus slider and an average or better changeup and curveball.
Touted as he may be, Espino’s shoulder surgery means he’ll now pitch in just four total games from 2022-23. He opened the 2022 season with an overwhelming, dominant showing that saw him punch out 35 of his 68 opponents en route to a 2.45 ERA in 18 1/3 innings. He hasn’t pitched in a game setting since, however. Espino missed two months due to tendinitis in his knee and battled shoulder problems later in the summer. An offseason of rest was hoped to clear that issue up, but when he resumed throwing, he again felt discomfort and was eventually diagnosed with a subscapular tear and capsule tear. The team shut him down for eight more weeks, but that didn’t prove sufficient.
Espino was the No. 24 overall pick in the 2019 draft, but he’s managed only 133 2/3 professional innings to date thanks to last year’s injuries and the canceled 2020 minor league season. He’ll now have yet another lengthy layoff and won’t be back on the mound until he’s turned 23. That’s obviously young enough for him to have a long and fruitful career, but the persistent injury problems have obviously stalled what could’ve been a meteoric rise to the big leagues based on his sheer, raw talent.
Given injuries elsewhere on the roster, a healthy Espino would’ve had a good chance at debuting this season. Cleveland is already undergoing something of a youth movement in the rotation, with each of Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Peyton Battenfield making his MLB debut in the season’s first month while Aaron Civale and Triston McKenzie are on the injured list.
Cardinals’ Rule 5 Pick Wilking Rodriguez Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
Cardinals righty Wilking Rodriguez, whom they selected from the Yankees in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft, underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery today and will miss the next four to six months, manager Oli Marmol announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat).
The surgery likely ends Rodriguez’s season. He’ll spend the entire season on the Cardinals’ big league injured list, which won’t wipe away his Rule 5 status. The Cards will have the right to keep Rodriguez if they’re comfortable carrying him on the 40-man roster all offseason and putting him on the Opening Day roster in 2024. He’d still need 90 days on the active roster next season before he’d shed his Rule 5 designation and be eligible to be optioned to the minors.
Rodriguez, 33, is a rather remarkable story. Eight years have elapsed since his last season of affiliated ball, and it’s been nine years since his lone MLB stint with the Royals. He’s been a regular in the Venezuelan Winter League and, more recently, in the Mexican League, where he’s been particularly impressive of late. From 2021-22, Rodriguez tossed 73 innings of 2.71 ERA ball, including a 2.01 ERA and 43.2% strikeout rate in 44 2/3 frames last year.
The Yankees saw that production and signed Rodriguez to a minor league deal back in August. However, Rodriguez had so much minor league service from with the Rays, Reds, Royals and Yanks themselves from 2007-15, that he was eligible for selection when the Rule 5 Draft rolled around. The Cardinals selected him, hoping to plug Rodriguez’s power arm into the bullpen. Things won’t play out that way, and only time will tell whether the Cardinals want to carry the experiment over into the 2024 campaign. For now, Rodriguez will accrue MLB service time and pay so long as he’s on the Cardinals’ Major League disabled list.