Is The White Sox’ Season Already Lost?
The White Sox’ catastrophic start to the season has all but eliminated the team’s playoff hopes before the first month of the schedule has even concluded. The South Siders sit at 7-19 with a -58 run differential. FanGraphs has already dropped their projected playoff odds to 4.8%. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA is even more bearish, at 3.6%.
Unsurprisingly, general manager Rick Hahn and executive vice president Kenny Williams have come under fire for the calamitous beginnings of the 2023 season, though the team’s struggles date even further back than that. The Sox dropped eight in a row last September to fall from three games out of the division lead to 11 back and a .500 finish. Hahn was candid in discussing his struggles with the team’s beat yesterday (link via Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times).
“I think that makes it clear that my job is potentially on the line,” Hahn said of the team’s awful start to the season. The 11-year GM emphasized that the team’s struggles “sure as heck isn’t on [manager Pedro Grifol] and his coaching staff” and repeatedly said of the team’s struggles: “Put it on me.”
It has indeed been a brutal start for the Sox in just about every sense. Their collective .231/.289/.373 batting line translates to an 84 wRC+ that sits 26th in the Majors. The Sox are 23rd in team batting average, 28th in on-base percentage, 22nd in slugging percentage, 28th in walk rate (6.6%) and 16th in strikeout rate (23.7%). They’ve dealt with their share of injuries, but that’s increasingly looking more like an undesirable feature of this team’s core rather than a bug. The Sox’ depth behind the core group — or rather, the lack thereof — was far from unforeseeable. I wrote about that topic back in late January in a piece for MLBTR Front Office subscribers. It’s been a perennial issue for the team.
So too has the lack of defense. Hahn, Williams & Co. sought to remedy that issue in 2023 by making the tough decision to move on from clubhouse leader Jose Abreu, opening first base for Andrew Vaughn and paving a path to improved outfield defense with Andrew Benintendi in left, Luis Robert Jr. in center and top prospect Oscar Colas in right field. The team’s overall defense is better in 2023 but is still far from a strength; they’re sitting at a combined -10 Defensive Runs Saved, -2 Outs Above Average and, most charitably, a scratch grade from Ultimate Zone Rating. Their 12 team errors tie them for 12th in Major League Baseball. Colas, meanwhile, has looked overmatched at the plate so far.
Chicago’s pitching staff — specifically the rotation — was supposed to be its great strength, but things simply haven’t panned out in that regard. Every member of the rotation, including last year’s Cy Young runner-up Dylan Cease, has an ERA north of 4.00. Veteran Lance Lynn and once-vaunted prospect Michael Kopech are both north of 7.00. The options beyond the top quintet of Cease, Lynn, Kopech, Lucas Giolito and free-agent signee Mike Clevinger aren’t much more encouraging; the Sox’ sixth starter, Davis Martin, posted a 4.83 ERA in 63 1/3 MLB innings last year. He’s out to a nice start through three turns in Triple-A this season but also turned in a 6.11 ERA in 13 starts there in 2022.
In the bullpen, the Sox have baseball’s second-worst ERA at 6.06, leading only the hapless Athletics. There was no foreseeable way to plan for Liam Hendriks‘ absence, and the Aussie closer’s announcement that he’s cancer-free and eyeing a return to the mound sooner than later is one of the game’s great feel-good stories at the moment.
Even with Hendriks sidelined, the Chicago relief corps should be vastly better than this, however, particularly given the weighty contracts to which they’ve signed free agents like Kendall Graveman (three years, $24MM) and Joe Kelly (two years, $17MM). The Sox are spending more than $42MM on their bullpen in 2023, and while Hendriks accounts for $14MM of that (and has been every bit as excellent as expected when healthy), that still leaves more than $28MM in salary committed to a group that has delivered the second-worst bottom line results in all of baseball.
It’s a dismal look top-to-bottom at the moment, and it calls into question the team’s direction at the trade deadline at a stunningly early juncture of the season. The White Sox would need to play at a 74-62 pace (.544) just to finish the season at .500. If we were to set the hypothetical bar for a playoff berth at 90 wins, they’d need to go 83-53 (.610) from here on out to reach that threshold. Put another way, they’d need to play at the rough equivalent of an 88-win pace (over a 162-game season) just to get to .500 and at the equivalent of a 99-win pace to reach 90 wins.
Based on everything we’ve seen thus far, that’s decidedly unlikely. The overwhelming likelihood is that the Sox will enter the summer as a sub-.500 club with minimal playoff hopes. Even if they were able to claw back into within arm’s reach of the AL Central or a Wild Card chase, the team’s farm system is once again fairly barren, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf hasn’t appeared keen on taking payroll much beyond its current levels.
The greater likelihood would be one of selling off some veteran pieces, though that comes with its own questions. It seems doubtful Reinsdorf would want to commit to a full rebuild so soon after emerging from a yearslong effort to do just that. The Sox could trade off players who are only controlled through the end of the 2023 season or perhaps through the end of the 2024 campaign, but outside of Tim Anderson and Lucas Giolito, they don’t have many appealing players in that group. And, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic rightly pointed out this morning, trading away only impending free agents would need to signal that the team feels it can compete in 2024, which would probably require the type of bump in payroll that Reinsdorf resisted heading into the current season — when he actually lowered payroll on the heels of a disappointing 2022 season.
There’s still a possible avenue to better days with that approach, however. The team’s commitments to Lynn, Grandal, Kelly, Clevinger, Diekman, Elvis Andrus and Hanser Alberto are all up at season’s end. That’s about $65MM in combined salary. Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, notably, are free agents as well. The Sox currently have about $109MM committed to next year’s club, per Roster Resource, with a tiny arbitration class (Cease, Kopech, Vaughn, Garrett Crochet).
The Sox could have as much as $60MM to work with this coming offseason before they get back to their current Opening Day payroll levels. That’s quite a bit to work with, but they’ll also need to add multiple starting pitchers, try to fix the bullpen and address multiple spots in a deficient lineup and defense — and do so with greater success than their last waves of free-agent investments (e.g. Grandal, Graveman, Kelly, Dallas Keuchel).
Ultimately, there’s no easy path to salvaging the 2023 season, and the long-term questions are every bit as confounding, if not more so. Hahn surely knows he’s on the hottest of seats, but even with a change atop the baseball operations pyramid, the team will be facing bigger-picture questions. Will Reinsdorf push payroll to previously unseen levels in an effort to spend his way out of the current mess? Would he green-light another rebuild at 87 years old and only a couple years removed from a four-year step back from competitive baseball? The White Sox are in one of the least-enviable spots in all of baseball right now, and the questions will only grow louder if the team can’t quickly begin to correct course.
Aaron Judge Undergoing MRI; Jake Bauers On Yankees’ Taxi Squad
3:35pm: Bauers is indeed heading to New York, Kirschner and colleague Brendan Kuty write in further detail, but his contract has not yet been formally selected. The team is waiting on the results of an MRI that Judge underwent and could keep him on the taxi squad for now, depending on the results of Judge’s imaging.
3:01pm: The Yankees are set to select the contract of first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers from Triple-A Scranton, reports Chris Kirschner of The Athletic (Twitter link). New York will need to open space on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters in order to accommodate Bauers.
Bauers, 27, once ranked among the sport’s top prospects but never found his footing in Tampa Bay, Cleveland or Seattle, batting a combined .213/.307/.348 in 1126 plate appearances between the three teams from 2018-21. He signed a minor league pact with the Yankees back in December and opened the season in Scranton, where he’s been on an absolute tear.
Through his first 87 plate appearances with the RailRiders, Bauers has turned in a comical .319/.460/.812 batting line with nine home runs, five doubles, a triple, five stolen bases, a 20.7% walk rate and an 18.4% strikeout rate. Kirschner wrote about Bauers’ performance in Scranton yesterday, noting that he’s made substantial alterations to his swing path and approach at the plate. Manager Aaron Boone told Kirschner that Bauers “definitely caught our eye” and was someone the organization was paying close attention to while seeking ways to escape the offensive doldrums that have plagued the Yankee lineup for much of the season.
In his career, Bauers has logged nearly twice many innings at first base (5151) as in the outfield (2587). However, he’s spent 91 innings in the outfield corners this year compared to just 40 at first base. Given the Yankees’ woeful production in left field this year and Anthony Rizzo‘s strong performance at first base, it stands to reason that Bauers will be viewed more as a left field option than as a complement to Rizzo at first.
So far in 2023, Yankees left fielders have been among the least-productive in baseball, batting a combined .209/.273/.308. The combination of Oswaldo Cabrera, Aaron Hicks and Franchy Cordero haven’t produced at all when lining up in left field, and the Yankees have also received sub-par production from Willie Calhoun in right field and at designated hitter. Cabrera certainly isn’t a candidate to lose his spot on the 40-man roster, but any of Calhoun, Cordero and perhaps even Hicks ostensibly have less secure grasps on their current roster spots.
Beyond the dearth of production in left field, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is currently banged up. Judge exited yesterday’s contest with discomfort in his hip, and while initial indications were that he’ll avoid a stint on the injured list, the team will surely have more information today. Even if Judge is indeed just sidelined for a game or two, Bauers will give the Yankees another option in the outfield corners while the reigning AL MVP is on the mend.
Marlins Designate Devin Smeltzer For Assignment
The Marlins have designated lefty Devin Smeltzer for assignment and selected the contract of right-hander Johan Quezada, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com (hat tip: Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald on Twitter).
Smeltzer, 27, wore the brunt of the damage for the bullpen at the hands of the Phillies in early April after they ambushed reigning Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara for 10 runs in four innings of work. Smeltzer came on in mop-up duty and was tagged for five more runs of his own, but he’s thrown well in his previous three outings, including a four-inning spot start. Since April 21, he’s pitched seven innings of one-run ball with a 5-to-3 K/BB ratio. He’s still at an ugly 6.75 ERA in 12 innings overall, however.
This is Smeltzer’s first season with the Marlins organization. The 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 16.4% strikeout rate, but he’s also only walked 6.4% of his opponents — a far better-than-average mark.
All told, Smeltzer has 152 innings of 4.20 ERA ball under his belt in the Majors. He’s made 20 big league starts and 39 more relief appearances, demonstrating the ability to pitch in just about any role asked of him. He’s out of minor league options, so any team that trades for him or claims him on waivers would need to carry him on the big league roster. The Marlins will have a week to try to trade Smeltzer or pass him through waivers.
As for the 28-year-old Quezada, he’ll be making his first MLB appearance since 2020 (also with the Marlins) if he gets into a game with the Fish. He’s yielded a pair of runs on five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts through his first 6 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this season and carries a career 2.60 ERA in 34 2/3 innings there. He’s spent time with the Twins and Cardinals organizations in addition to the Marlins.
Twins To Place Kenta Maeda On Injured List
The Twins are placing righty Kenta Maeda on the injured list with what’s been diagnosed as a strained right triceps, per Dan Hayes of The Athletic (Twitter links). He’ll be shut down for three to seven days. Twins trainer Nick Paparesta tells Hayes and others that examinations did not reveal anything related to Maeda’s 2021 Tommy John surgery and that he’s being treated only for the muscle strain.
The team also offered some insight into righty Tyler Mahle, who was lifted from yesterday’s blowout of the Royals after throwing just 66 pitches through four innings of one-run ball. Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com tweets that Mahle is dealing with an impingement in the back of his elbow, which contributed to his drop in velocity during yesterday’s fourth inning. The Twins aren’t yet sure whether he’ll make his start and will reevaluate him in 48 to 72 hours, after he’s been treated with anti-inflammatories.
There’s no clear timetable on when Maeda will return, but for now the Twins will turn to 6’9″ right-hander Bailey Ober in his place. The towering righty has made a full season’s worth of starts for Minnesota dating back to 2021, including one earlier this year. In those 32 trips to the hill, he’s pitched to a 3.74 ERA with a strong 24.1% strikeout rate against an even better 5.3% walk rate. Ober allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings during a spot start in place of Maeda earlier this season and has a 2.55 ERA in four starts with Triple-A St. Paul to begin the season.
If it’s determined that Mahle also requires a trip to the injured list, the Twins’ depth will be tested further, though they’re well-stocked in that regard. Right-hander Louie Varland, who’s also made a spot start already this season, owns a 3.94 ERA in six big league starts and has a 2.72 ERA with a 52-to-7 K/BB ratio in 36 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level. He’s widely regarded as one of the team’s ten best prospects.
Beyond Ober and Varland, the Twins have options on the 40-man, including righty Simeon Woods Richardson and lefty Brent Headrick, both of whom have made their big league debuts already. Headrick was in a long relief role with the Twins for a chunk of April but worked a three-inning outing against the Red Sox in his debut appearance and tossed 84 pitches over five innings of two-run ball in relief of Maeda after his early exit against the Yankees this week. Given those pitch counts, he’d be an option to start at the MLB level, should the need arise.
Reds Select Matt Reynolds
The Reds announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of utilityman Matt Reynolds from Triple-A Louisville and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring right-hander Tony Santillan from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Santillan has yet to pitch in the Majors this season due to a back injury that dates back to the 2022 campaign. He’d gone out on a minor league rehab assignment earlier this month, but the Reds halted that when he began experiencing discomfort in his knee.
Reynolds, 32, played in 93 games with the 2022 Reds and posted a .246/.320/.332 batting line while appearing at every position on the diamond other than catcher (pitcher included). The former Mets farmhand is out to a nice start in Louisville this season, slashing .263/.364/.544 with three homers and seven doubles through his first 66 trips to the plate.
The Reds placed Wil Myers on the injured list yesterday and didn’t announce a corresponding 26-man roster move, so Reynolds is effectively coming up to take his spot on the roster for the time being. He’ll give the club a versatile bench option for now, with catcher Tyler Stephenson likely slotting in as the primary option at first base. Cincinnati currently has three catchers on its roster with Stephenson, Curt Casali and Luke Maile, and Stephenson has already appeared in five games at first base on the young season.
Red Sox Claim Justin Garza
The Red Sox have claimed right-hander Justin Garza off waivers from the Angels, per an announcement from both clubs. The Red Sox had an open spot on the 40-man roster so a corresponding transaction isn’t necessary. Garza has been optioned to Triple-A Worcester.
Garza, 29, was designated for assignment a week ago when the Halos selected the contracts of Chad Wallach and Austin Warren. He didn’t pitch for the Angels at the MLB level this season but opened the year with their Triple-A club, where he tossed 8 1/3 innings with four runs allowed on six hits and four walks. Garza’s stay with the Angels organization was rather brief. The Guardians outrighted him off the 40-man roster back in November, at which point he elected free agency and signed a split Major League contract with the Angels, thus placing him on their 40-man roster.
In 2022, Garza made his big league debut with the Guardians, pitching to a 4.71 ERA with a roughly average 22.7% strikeout rate against a bleak 14.1% walk rate. Garza sits at 95 mph with his heater and has missed bats at a high level in Triple-A (29.2% strikeout rate), but command has been an issue for him even in the minors (12.2% walk rate).
The Sox rank 13th in the Majors with a 3.58 ERA from their bullpen, though it’s a decidedly top-heavy unit. Kenley Jansen, Josh Winckowski, John Schreiber and Kutter Crawford have all gotten out to excellent starts, but the rest of the group has been severely lacking. Ryan Brasier and Kaleb Ort, in particular, have been hit hard. Offseason signee Chris Martin, meanwhile, is on the injured list and Zack Kelly‘s season is in jeopardy due to elbow surgery. Garza will give the Sox some depth with good life on his fastball, but for now he’ll head to Worcester and look to refine his command while awaiting an opportunity.
Braves Activate Michael Harris II
The Braves announced this morning that they’ve reinstated reigning NL Rookie of the Year Michael Harris II from the injured list. Atlanta optioned outfielders Nick Solak and Eli White (who’d been on the paternity list but was first reinstated) to Triple-A Gwinnett to open a spot on the active roster.
Harris played in just seven games this season before landing on the 10-day IL due to a lower back strain. While initial indications from the team were that Harris could be back after only a minimum stay on the IL, he wound up missing about three weeks of action due to the issue. His absence hasn’t done much to slow down a deep and talented Braves roster, as Atlanta currently sits atop the NL East with a 17-9 record, holding a two-game lead over second-place New York and a four-game lead over both Miami and Philadelphia, who’ll head into the weekend at 13-13.
The return of Harris figures to push Sam Hilliard from center field to left field somewhat regularly, with Kevin Pillar and Eddie Rosario also mixing in at the position. Hilliard, in particular, has been a key contributor in Harris’ absence, batting .296/.367/.537 with three home runs, four stolen bases and solid glovework in center field.
That said, Hilliard has also punched out in a mammoth 41.7% of his plate appearances (25 of 60) and is currently sporting a .500 average on balls in play that is sure to regress over time. Hilliard rarely chases off the plate (21%), but when he does, his 31% contact rate is the second-lowest mark in all of baseball (min. 60 plate appearances). His 70% contact rate on pitches within the zone is the third-lowest among that same subset, and his overall 58.6% contact rate leads only Giants Rule 5 catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol. Strikeout issues are nothing new for Hilliard, who entered the season with a career 32.7% rate in 639 plate appearances with the Rockies.
None of Pillar (.227/.277/.341), Rosario (.222/.263/.417) or Marcell Ozuna (.085/.194/.203) are hitting well this year. The Braves are winning anyway, and particularly now with Harris returning, they can afford to see if Hilliard can improve his contact skills or if one or more of those three struggling veterans can turn things around to help solidify the team’s outlook in left field and at designated hitter. If not, those could be potential areas of focus at this summer’s trade deadline.
Turning back to the 22-year-old Harris, he went just 5-for-23 to open the season. However, he was of course nothing short of brilliant as a rookie, batting .297/.339/.514 with 19 homers and 20 steals in 114 games en route to the aforementioned Rookie of the Year honors. He went 1-for-7 with a pair of walks, three strikeouts and a stolen base in two Triple-A rehab games before this morning’s reinstatement from the injured list. Harris is in the first season of an eight-year, $72MM extension he signed last summer; the contract spans the 2023-30 seasons and contains club options for the 2031 and 2032 campaigns.
Pirates Could Pursue More Contract Extensions
The Pirates’ extension of Bryan Reynolds — seven years and $100MM on top of his current $6.75MM salary — put an end to a long-running saga of trade rumors swirling around the All-Star outfielder. It’s the first nine-figure contract in franchise history and the second long-term deal with a hopeful core player of the past 14 months; Pittsburgh also signed third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM deal prior to the 2022 season. Speaking at yesterday’s press conference to announce the Reynolds extension, Pirates owner Bob Nutting suggested that he hopes to work out long-term deals with additional core players (link via Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
Nutting noted that “to a great degree, we’re just getting started,” going on to call Reynolds’ new contract “a huge step forward for the franchise” before adding that he’s “confident we’ll have future steps as we go forward.” Pirates fans, in particular, will want to check out Gorman’s full piece for comments not only from Nutting but also from Reynolds himself and from general manager Ben Cherington.
On the one hand, it’s fairly common for owners and baseball operations leaders to offer up what’s essentially boilerplate executive-speak about wanting to extend core players on a young club. On the other, Nutting has kept a notoriously tight budget and small payroll for the Pirates. The extensions for Hayes and especially for Reynolds mark a definitive change in course for the club, and with fresh off guaranteeing his top player an additional $100MM in guaranteed money, Nutting’s words perhaps carry a bit of extra credence.
If the Bucs do plan to explore — or already have explored — long-term pacts with additional players, there are a handful of logical candidates for such a deal. In the rotation, right-handers Roansy Contreras and Mitch Keller both increasingly look like solid building blocks, though they’re at very different stages of their careers. The 23-year-old Contreras doesn’t yet have a full season of Major League service time, putting his earning power on an extension considerably south of Keller. The Reds just locked up righty Hunter Greene, who was controllable for five more seasons, on a six-year, $53MM contract. Contreras is even further removed from free agency and would presumably come with a lower price tag.
Keller, meanwhile, is earning $2.4375MM in 2023 with just two more seasons of club control remaining beyond the current campaign. The 2014 second-rounder ranked as one of the game’s top pitching prospects prior to his debut in 2019, and while it’s taken some time for him to get there, Keller has begun to solidify himself as a quality starter.
Dating back to last May, when he added a sinker to his repertoire and began to rely less heavily on his four-seamer, the 27-year-old sports a 3.28 ERA with a 21.9% strikeout rate, 8.6% strikeout rate and 48.1% ground-ball rate in 159 1/3 innings. That includes an impressive six-inning, two-run, 10-strikeout performance against the Dodgers today. If he were to continue at this pace, he’d have a strong case in extension talks. For some context, Keller will be in the same service class following the 2023 season that Kyle Freeland (five years, $64.5MM) and Pablo Lopez (four years, $73.5MM) were when they signed their own extensions. The Bucs could try to pursue something sooner, but regardless, much of Keller’s breakout looks sustainable.
Elsewhere on the roster, closer David Bednar is a local product who’s emerged as a fan favorite and as one of the game’s better relievers. Since coming over from the Padres as part of the return for Joe Musgrove, he’s pitched to a 2.26 ERA with a 32.6% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate, 30 saves and 17 holds. His 2023 campaign has been particularly impressive, as Bednar has yielded just one run in 12 innings with a 15-to-1 K/BB ratio.
That said, relievers are notoriously volatile on a year-to-year basis, and Bednar is already 28 years old. The Pirates control him through his age-31 season and might find some risk in locking him into an extension that would effectively be buying his age-32 campaign and perhaps a season or two thereafter.
In the lineup, the Pirates have some interesting candidates. Shortstop Oneil Cruz is currently out while recovering from a fractured ankle but has displayed some of the most tantalizing tools in all of baseball when healthy. His development is still a work in progress, particularly with regard to his approach at the plate, but few players can match his combination of power, speed and athleticism. Meanwhile, outfielder Jack Suwinski has quickly become a Statcast darling, with eye-popping exit velocity, barrel rates and sprint speed. Both young hitters are controllable through the 2028 season at present.
The Bucs have plenty of young talent beyond that grouping — some of it yet to debut in the Majors. Catchers Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis are among the most highly regarded in the sport at their position. Right-handers Luis Ortiz and Quinn Priester are both considered potential rotation pieces in the long term. Infielder Nick Gonzales just hit the minor league injured list with a shoulder strain today but is in Triple-A and could potentially make his debut later this year if the issue proves minor.
Broadly speaking, the Pirates have a deep and talented system, with plenty of interesting long-term pieces already on the roster and also on the cusp of debuting while biding their time in the upper minors. There’s always risk for a low-payroll club like this to lock players up so early, as the margin for error is thinner than with a deep-pocketed rival. That said, hitting a home run on an early extension can also be key in allowing teams in this payroll sphere to spend a bit more in free agency, if their core players are locked in at affordable rates. Only time will tell whether Nutting’s comments were merely lip service or the beginning of a welcome trend for Bucs fans, but regardless of which is true, the organization’s future looks increasingly bright.
Reds Place Wil Myers On Injured List, Outright Jason Vosler
The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve place first baseman/outfielder Wil Myers on the injured list (retroactive to Wednesday) and assigned corner infielder Jason Vosler to Triple-A Louisville after he went unclaimed on outright waivers. Cincinnati also placed righty Graham Ashcraft on the bereavement list and recalled right-hander Casey Legumina from Louisville. The Reds are off today, so they’ll presumably add a position player to the roster tomorrow in advance of their series opener in Oakland.
Myers was scratched from yesterday’s game due to an illness and missed Tuesday’s contest due to neck spasms. The Reds didn’t list an injury designation or a timetable for his return in today’s announcement. Myers, who signed a one-year deal worth $7.5MM this offseason, has stumbled out to a .222/.292/.321 start with what would be a career-high 34.8% strikeout rate through his first 89 plate appearances.
With Myers and Joey Votto on the shelf, the Reds could turn to catcher Tyler Stephenson at first base with more regularity. The 26-year-old Stephenson has already started three games there and made five total appearances at the position, and Cincinnati is carrying two other catchers in Luke Maile and Curt Casali. Infielder Spencer Steer is another option; he started his first game of the season at first base when Myers was scratched and has made a total of four appearances there. It’s also possible the Reds will call up a first base option from the minors before tomorrow’s game.
With Votto yet to make his 2023 debut, the Reds’ two primary first basemen have been Myers and the now-outrighted Vosler, who was designated for assignment earlier in the week. Vosler got out to a blistering start with the Reds after signing a minor league deal late in the offseason. He cracked three home runs in his first 15 plate appearances but has since fallen into a protracted slump, batting just .106/.160/.128 with 20 strikeouts in his past 50 trips to the plate.
Vosler, 29, has logged big league time in each of the past three seasons. In 258 Major League plate appearances between the Reds and the Giants, he’s a .210/.279/.408 hitter who’s seen time at both infield and both outfield corners. Vosler has also appeared in 345 Triple-A games in his career, posting a vastly superior .272/.344/.485 slash along the way. This is the first outright assignment of Vosler’s career, and he has fewer than three years of MLB service time, so he doesn’t have the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll remain with the Reds organization and hope to play his way back onto the 40-man roster at some point.
Pirates’ Mike Burrows Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Pirates pitching prospect Mike Burrows underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday and is expected to be sidelined for the next 14 to 16 months, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic). Burrows hit the minor league injured list earlier this month with a UCL sprain and sought multiple opinions before undergoing surgery.
The Pirates selected Burrows in the 11th round of the 2018 draft and lured him away from a college commitment to Connecticut with a hefty $500K signing bonus — effectively late-third or early-fourth round money. He’s dealt with shoulder and oblique injuries in his minor league career but has sharp numbers overall, with a 3.34 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate and 9.0% walk rate in 207 2/3 professional innings.
Those injuries and the canceled minor league season in 2020 slowed Burrows’ development, but he looked like a viable option to make his big league debut in 2023, prior to the revelation of the damaged ligament and subsequent surgery. Burrows turned in a 2.94 ERA in 52 innings at the Double-A level last year and earned his first bump to the Triple-A level. He was tagged for a 5.31 ERA in 42 1/3 Triple-A frames but showed a promising 42-to-12 K/BB ratio and kept the ball in the yard (1.06 HR/9). Burrows had a solid spring training this year (two runs in five innings) and opened the season with just two runs in 6 2/3 frames in a return to Triple-A.
Each of Baseball America (No. 9), MLB.com (No. 9), FanGraphs (No. 7) and Keith Law of The Athletic (No. 7) rank Burrows within the Pirates’ top ten prospects. He’s praised for a plus fastball, high-spin curveball and improved and more oft-used changeup, with enough command to profile as a potential big league starter. There’s a good chance that Burrows might’ve gotten that opportunity at some point this season were it not for the unfortunate injury, but he’ll now see his big league debut pushed off until late in the 2024 season, at the earliest.
Burrows is on the Pirates’ 40-man roster, so it’s possible he’ll eventually be placed on the Major League 60-day injured list, should the Pirates need a 40-man roster spot. In that scenario, he’d accrue big league service time and Major League pay while rehabbing the injury.