Giants Acquire Cal Stevenson, Designate Sam Long
The Athletics traded outfielder Cal Stevenson to the Giants in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. Oakland had designated Stevenson for assignment late last week. San Francisco designated lefty Sam Long for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Stevenson has been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Stevenson, 26, appeared in his first 23 big league games with Oakland last year but managed only a .167/.261/.217 output in 71 plate appearances. Oakland picked him up alongside minor league righty Christian Fernandez in a trade that sent catcher/first baseman Christian Bethancourt back to Tampa Bay. Thus far, that hasn’t panned out in the A’s favor, though Fernandez is out to a nice start in High-A this season.
Stevenson has been an on-base machine in the minors, with more walks (240) than strikeouts (222) through 1471 minor league plate appearances. He’s spent parts of two seasons (2023 included) at the Triple-A level and posted a combined .289/.397/.414 batting line, showing plus plate discipline and bat-to-ball skills but minimal power. He’s never turned in a double-digit home run total in a professional season, though he did pop nine long balls in an injury-shortened 2021 Double-A campaign that saw him tally just 365 plate appearances. He has ample experience in both center field and in left field. Stevenson also has two minor league option years remaining (2023 included).
As for Long, the 27-year-old southpaw has spent parts of the past two seasons in the Giants’ bullpen but opened the 2023 campaign in Sacramento, where he’s gotten out to a rough start. Through 10 Triple-A innings, Long has been tagged for 11 runs on the strength of 14 hits and five walks with just seven punchouts.
Long tallied a career-high 42 1/3 Major League innings last season with San Francisco, pitching to a 3.61 ERA with a sharp 7.7% walk rate but a well below-average 18.2% strikeout rate. He averaged 94.5 mph on his heater but was also exceptionally homer-prone despite a spacious home park, serving up an average of 1.70 big flies per nine innings pitched. Metrics like FIP (5.07) and SIERA (4.31) felt he had some good fortune to keep his ERA so low, which is likely the case to some degree, given a fairly low .248 average on balls in play.
This is Long’s final minor league option year, so he can freely be shuttled between Triple-A and the big leagues for the remainder of the season but not in 2024. The Giants will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.
Nationals Release Yadiel Hernandez
The Nationals released outfielder Yadiel Hernandez on Monday, per the transactions log at MiLB.com. He’d opened the season as a non-roster player with their Triple-A club but was cut loose after a .205/.225/.256 start to his season through a small sample of 40 plate appearances.
The 35-year-old Hernandez was a regular presence in the Nationals’ lineup from 2021-22, logging a combined 616 plate appearances while batting .271/.320/.411 with 18 home runs, 24 doubles, a triple and five steals (in six tries). Hernandez wasn’t a well-rated defender in the outfield corners but was a roughly league-average bat (100 wRC+) who lacked glaring platoon splits; he hit fellow lefties slightly better than righties during his time with the Nats. Washington designated Hernandez for assignment when setting its roster ahead of 2022’s Rule 5 Draft and successfully passed him through outright waivers.
Hernandez didn’t make his Major League debut until 2020, having spent the bulk of his prime years playing professionally in Cuba, where he was a lifetime .324/.450/.487 batter in 2167 plate appearances for los Cocodrilos de Matanzas. Hernandez defected from Cuba in 2015 but wasn’t declared a Major League free agent until 2016. He signed for a $200K bonus with the Nats late in the ’16 season and spent the 2017-19 seasons between Double-A and Triple-A.
In a total of 1564 minor league plate appearances, all coming between Double-A and Triple-A, he’s a .298/.379/.499 hitter with 68 home runs, 65 doubles and three triples. Given his age, slow start in Rochester this season and relatively limited big league track record, Hernandez isn’t likely to jump right onto an MLB roster but could be a candidate for a minor league deal with another team in need of outfield depth or perhaps could garner some interest abroad.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Injury Notes: Burnes, Blackburn, Hendricks, Haniger
Brewers ace Corbin Burnes called for the trainer and exited last night’s game after recording the first out in the sixth inning, with 85 pitches under his belt. After the game, manager Craig Counsell told reporters that Burnes had a minor strain of the left pectoralis in his chest (link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Burnes incurred the injury in the fourth inning after picking off Eugenio Suarez at second base, catching him in a rundown, and stretching to make the tag on the play. Burnes explained that the injury cramped up beginning in the sixth inning. “I had zero command and then clearly the velo started to drop,” said Burnes, who began the inning with a four-pitch walk.
It’s a surely a relative sigh of relief for Brewers fans, though the team figures to have more info on Burnes in the next day or so as he progresses. For now, it seems the 2021 NL Cy Young winner has avoided a major injury, which is particularly important with righty Brandon Woodruff facing a lengthy absence due to a shoulder strain.
Some more injury scenarios to monitor around the league…
- Right-hander Paul Blackburn‘s return to the Athletics could be further delayed by a blister issue on his pitching hand, tweets Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. The 29-year-old Blackburn rode a first-half breakout to an All-Star nod last summer, but his season went off the rails in mid-July, when he was torched for 21 runs in a span of 14 1/3 innings. He was diagnosed with a torn tendon sheath in his pitching hand, which ended his season. Blackburn looked to be on track for the 2023 campaign, but a fingernail avulsion shelved him briefly. He’s made a pair of rehab starts but will see his third rehab outing delayed by the current blister troubles. Through his first 16 starts last season, Blackburn pitched to a 2.90 ERA with a below-average 18.8% strikeout rate but strong walk and ground-ball rates of 6.2% and 48.7%, respectively, while yielding just an 87.7 mph average exit velocity.
- Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks threw 36 pitches in a two-inning simulated game yesterday and came away from that session feeling good, tweets Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. Assuming he doesn’t incur any setbacks in the coming days, that could put Hendricks on pace for a minor league rehab stint sooner than later. He’d likely need multiple starts to build up, which generally aligns with Hendricks’ previous statements that he’s aiming to be on a rehab assignment by May. The 33-year-old Hendricks was one of the NL’s most durable and consistently effective starters from 2015-20, pitching to a 3.17 ERA over the life of 967 innings in that time. He’s stumbled to a 4.78 ERA in 48 starts over the past two seasons, however, as he’s become increasingly homer-prone. Hendricks is entering the final guaranteed season of a four-year, $55MM contract, though the Cubs hold a net $14.5MM decision on him for the 2024 campaign ($16MM option with a $1.5MM buyout).
- Mitch Haniger is slated to begin a minor league rehab assignment today, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Giants signed Haniger to a three-year, $43MM contract over the winter (which contains an opt-out after 2024), but he’s yet to make his team debut after suffering an oblique strain during spring training. He went 3-for-10 with a pair of doubles in 10 official spring at-bats before sustaining the injury. Haniger dealt with myriad injuries in 2019-20 and 2022 but played in 157 games apiece in 2018 and 2021, slugging a combined 65 home runs between those two seasons. Once healthy, he’ll add some more thump to a Giants lineup that somewhat surprisingly ranks fourth in the Majors with 25 homers so far.
Matt Manning Aiming To Return To Mound In Six Weeks
Tigers righty Matt Manning suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot last week when he was struck by a comeback liner, and the team placed him on the 15-day injured list the next day. Manning told reporters Sunday that after his x-rays were examined by multiple specialists, the agreed-upon treatment would be let the fracture heal with rest (Twitter thread via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). The alternative would’ve been to have a screw inserted to help stabilize the fracture, but both options came with recovery timelines of six weeks anyhow. He could begin a throwing program as soon as next week and is hopeful he can meet that six-week timeline.
Manning’s foot fracture is the latest in a growing line of setbacks for both Manning himself and the Tigers’ rotation at large. Manning’s career to date has been slowed by both shoulder and forearm troubles, which combined to limit him to just 85 1/3 innings between the minors and big leagues a year ago. He, along with fellow right-hander Casey Mize and lefty Tarik Skubal, was generally viewed as a the foundation of what the Tigers hoped to be their rotation of the future. Mize, however, had both Tommy John surgery and back surgery last summer. Skubal went on the injured list just prior to the trade deadline with what was originally billed as a minor forearm strain, only to undergo flexor surgery a few weeks later.
With that trio now shelved, the Tigers are looking to the quintet of Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Lorenzen, Matthew Boyd, Spencer Turnbull and Joey Wentz in the rotation for the time being. Rodriguez is playing out the second season of a five-year deal that has thus far not panned out. Both Lorenzen and Boyd signed one-year deals in free agency. Turnbull is looking to bounce back from his own Tommy John surgery (performed in 2021), while Wentz, a former Braves top prospect who came over in the Shane Greene trade, is merely hoping to establish himself at the big league level.
Of the Tigers’ once-touted trio of youngsters, Manning could still be the first to rejoin the team. He’ll certainly beat Mize back to the field, barring any kind of major setback, as Mize’s Tommy John procedure and back procedure both came last June. Skubal, at last check earlier this month, was doing some low-intensity throwing nearly every day but hadn’t yet built up to mound work. He’s on the 60-day injured list, so the earliest he’d be able to return is late May.
Manning, a former No. 9 overall pick in the draft, climbed as high as No. 17 on Baseball America’s annual Top 100 prospect list (pre-2020) but has yet to solidify himself as a big league regular. After a brutal debut in 2021, when he was tagged for a 5.80 ERA in 85 1/3 innings, he improved to a 3.43 ERA in 63 frames last year — albeit with a middling 18.3% strikeout rate. His velocity during spring training was a point of concern, though the 93.2 mph he averaged on his heater in two regular-season starts is generally in line with the 93.5 mph he averaged last season.
Manning only turned 25 years old two months ago, so there’s plenty of time for him to get healthy and step up as a vital member of the Detroit rotation, both in 2023 and for the foreseeable future. Given the health troubles elsewhere among the team’s formerly ballyhooed collection of pitchers, it’s all the more pivotal to the team’s outlook that he does so.
Brewers Outright Payton Henry
The Brewers announced Monday that catcher Payton Henry, whom they designated for assignment last week, went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville. He doesn’t have a prior outright assignment or three years of big league service, so Henry doesn’t have the option of rejecting the assignment.
Henry, 25, was originally selected by the Brewers in the sixth round of the 2016 draft but found himself traded to the Marlins in exchange for reliever John Curtiss in July of 2021. Miami traded him back to Milwaukee this past offseason, with the Brewers sending minor league righty Reminton Batista back to the Fish to complete the swap.
A thumb injury that required surgery cost Henry much of the 2022 season. He was limited to just 44 games across four levels, including 15 big league games with Miami, during which he posted a .143/.314/.143 slash in 35 plate appearances. Henry has just 51 trips to the plate at the Major League level and just 251 in Triple-A, where he’s a .227/.319/.352 hitter. He’s yet to appear in the Majors this season but got out to a 3-for-15 start with a pair of walks in 17 plate appearances at Nashville. The Brewers dropped him from the 40-man roster last week when they needed to clear space for righty Colin Rea.
Now that he’s cleared waivers, Henry will return to Nashville and continue to work toward a return to the big leagues. Henry doesn’t have standout numbers at the plate in the minors, but he blocks pitches well, has a strong 35% caught-stealing rate across all professional levels, and is generally regarded as a solid defender behind the dish. He could still carve out a role as a backup to William Contreras somewhere down the line, but he also has enough minor league service time to opt for minor league free agency at season’s end if he’s not added back to the 40-man roster.
Giancarlo Stanton Expected To Miss Four To Six Weeks
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton is expected to miss the next four to six weeks of action, reports Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. The Yankees placed Stanton on the 10-day injured list yesterday due to a hamstring strain and recalled top shortstop prospect Oswald Peraza in his place, but it seems Stanton will miss a good bit more than the 10-day minimum. An MRI revealed a Grade 2 strain of Stanton’s hamstring, as ESPN’s Marly Rivera first reported last night.
With four homers and three doubles already under his belt in just 54 plate appearances, Stanton has had his power on display early. He’s walked in an uncharacteristically low 3.7% of his plate appearances but also fanned at just a 20.4% clip with a higher contact rate than usual. The resulting .269/.296/.558 batting line checks in 32% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+. Stanton’s four long balls trail only Aaron Judge among Yankee hitters, and his 11 runs plated tie the surprisingly productive Franchy Cordero for the team lead.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, absences of this nature for Stanton have become all too familiar. This is the slugger’s tenth placement on the injured list dating back to the 2019 season, and a whopping eight of those have come due to leg injuries of sorts. Dating back to ’19, Stanton has missed time with hamstring, quad, knee and Achilles injuries. In that time, he’s played in just 303 of 562 possible games (53.9%), including 13 of this year’s 16 contests for the team.
With Stanton once again sidelined for the foreseeable future, the Yankees will have some questions to sort out in the lineup. A combination of Judge, Cordero, Oswald Cabrera, Willie Calhoun and Aaron Hicks can be leaned on in the outfield, though Harrison Bader‘s impending return also calls that group’s stability into question — particularly with the team now viewing Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a viable option in center field (five games, two starts in ’23).
The remaining three years and $30.5MM on Hicks’ contract has bought him an extended leash so far, and perhaps that’ll continue to be the case even when Bader returns. Before long, however, the Yankees will need to make some decisions in the outfield. It’s possible that further injuries will alleviate some of the urgency to do so, but otherwise they’ll certainly be on the clock when Stanton is ready in late May — if not later this month when Bader returns from an oblique strain.
Rays Select Cooper Criswell
The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander Cooper Criswell from Triple-A Durham, per a team announcement. In a pair of corresponding moves to accommodate his promotion, right-hander Trevor Kelley was optioned to Triple-A while righty Shawn Armstrong was moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. The Rays also announced that top prospect Taj Bradley is on today’s taxi squad. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that he’ll likely be added to the 26-man roster to start tomorrow’s game in Cincinnati.
Criswell, 26, made his big league debut with the Angels in 2021 but tossed just 1 1/3 innings, and he had a similarly brief run with the 2022 Rays, tossing 3 1/3 frames. He’s out to a fine start in Durham this year, with a 3.09 ERA and 10-to-1 K/BB ratio in 11 2/3 innings of work. The Rays are expected to use lefty Jalen Beeks as an opener in today’s contest, so Criswell will give Tampa Bay another fresh arm to help navigate the waters of this bullpen day. It could be a brief stay on the big league roster for Criswell, particularly if he throws multiple innings today, as the Rays will need to make another move to get Bradley on the roster for tomorrow’s contest.
Armstrong, 32, posted a 3.60 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate in 55 innings as a Ray in 2022. He’s missed the entire season so far due to a neck injury incurred in spring training. The shift to the 60-day injured list pushes his earliest possible return date back to May 29; it’s retroactive to his initial placement on the IL, not the move from the 15-day to the 60-day. Neil Solondz of Rays Radio tweets that Armstrong would’ve likely needed about that long to finish mending and build back up to game readiness anyhow, so the decision was likely a fairly straightforward one for the team.
Rule 5 Draft Update: April 2023
Fifteen players were selected in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft — an annual avenue for teams to potentially acquire talent from other organizations whose decision-makers did not place them on the 40-man roster. For those unfamiliar, in order to be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, a player must not be on his team’s 40-man roster and must have played in either parts of five professional seasons (if they signed at 18 or younger) or four professional seasons (if they signed at 19 or older). The deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 by selecting their contracts to the 40-man roster typically falls in mid-November and spurs a good deal of player movement as teams jettison borderline players and non-tender candidates from their roster in order to protect younger prospects.
A player who is selected in the Rule 5 Draft must spend the entire subsequent season on his new club’s Major League roster and cannot be optioned to the minors. The player can technically spend time on the injured list as well, but at least 90 days must be spent on the active roster. If not, the player’s Rule 5 status rolls into the following season until 90 days on the active roster have been accrued. If a team at any point decides it can no longer carry a Rule 5 selection, that player must be passed through waivers and subsequently offered back to his original organization. Any other club can claim the player via waivers, but the same Rule 5 restrictions will apply to the claiming team.
Broadly speaking, the Rule 5 Draft rarely produces impact players. There are plenty of exceptions over the years, though, with names like Johan Santana, Dan Uggla, Shane Victorino, Joakim Soria, Josh Hamilton and, more recently, Garrett Whitlock and Trevor Stephan thriving in new organizations. The Rule 5 Draft dates back more than a century and has even produced a handful of Hall of Famers: Roberto Clemente, Hack Wilson and Christy Mathewson.
It’s unlikely we’ll see any Cooperstown-bound players come from this year’s crop, but the teams who opted to select a player will be content if any of these names become a viable reliever or role player for the next several seasons. Here’s a look at this year’s group of 15 Rule 5 players and where they stand a couple of weeks into the 2023 season. We’ll do a few of these throughout the season, keeping tabs on which players survive the season and formally have their long-term rights transferred to their new clubs.
Currently on a Major League Roster
- Thaddeus Ward, RHP (Nationals, from the Red Sox): Ward was one of Boston’s best prospects a few years back but went the better part of two years without pitching due to the canceled 2020 minor league season and Tommy John surgery in 2021. He impressed in 51 minor league frames in his 2022 return, and many Red Sox fans were irked not to see him protected last November. The Nats selected him with the top pick in the Rule 5, and after a solid spring he’s tossed 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on four hits and a couple of walks. Ward is averaging 94.3 mph with his heater and has fanned seven of his 23 opponents (30.4%). The Nats are the exact type of rebuilding team that can afford to carry a player all season even if he struggles, so it’s quite likely that Ward will spend the year in their bullpen — and potentially get a look in the rotation sometime down the road.
- Ryan Noda, 1B/OF (Athletics, from the Dodgers): Like the Nats, the A’s aren’t going anywhere this season, so there’s every incentive for them to give Noda a long audition. The 27-year-old slugger hit .259/.395/.474 in Triple-A last season, and while he fanned in 28.2% of his plate appearances he also walked at a gaudy 16% clip. It’s been more of the same with the A’s. He walked 11 times but fanned on 26 occasions in 69 spring plate appearances. So far in the regular season, he’s belted a pair of homers, drawn seven walks and whiffed a dozen times in 37 A’s plate appearances. The A’s aren’t ones to shy away from a three-true-outcomes skill set, and they’ll see if Noda can do the Jack Cust dance for them moving forward.
- Jose Hernandez, LHP (Pirates, from the Dodgers): A rocky spring didn’t dissuade the Pirates from carrying Hernandez on their Opening Day roster, and so far it seems wise that they looked past that 8.18 Grapefruit League ERA. In 5 1/3 frames, Hernandez has held opponents to one run on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts. He’s averaged 96 mph on his heater. The 25-year-old Hernandez used that power fastball and a sharp slider to fan nearly 30% of his opponents in Double-A last year, and the Bucs are currently trusting him as one of two lefties in Derek Shelton’s bullpen. He’s already picked up his first big league hold.
- Blake Sabol, C/OF (Giants, from the Pirates): Sabol was technically selected by the Reds with the fourth pick in the draft, but Cincinnati and San Francisco had an agreed-upon deal sending Sabol to the Giants for a player to be named later. (Such swaps are common in the Rule 5 Draft.) The 25-year-old Sabol split the 2022 season between Double-A and Triple-A in Pittsburgh, batting a combined .284/.363/.497 with 66 games behind the dish and another 22 in the outfield. A monster spring showing (.348/.475/.630) and an injury to Mitch Haniger set the stage for Sabol to open the season in left field for the Giants. He’s hitting just .194/.265/.290 through his first 10 games and has split time between catcher and outfield pretty evenly. If the Giants feel he can legitimately play both spots, that’s just the type of versatility they crave when constructing their roster.
- Mason Englert, RHP (Tigers, from the Rangers): Englert isn’t a power arm but had a strong showing in the Rangers’ High-A and (briefly) Double-A rotations in 2022, when he pitched to a combined 3.64 ERA in 118 2/3 innings. The Tigers have used him out of the bullpen so far, and the results haven’t been great. He’s surrendered six runs in just 7 1/3 innings, including a trio of long balls. Englert was a 2018 fourth-rounder who’s generally regarded as a potential back-of-the-rotation starter. It’s feasible Detroit could get him a look in a starting role at some point. Englert entered the 2023 season with just 15 1/3 innings above A-ball, so some struggles aren’t exactly surprising.
- Kevin Kelly, RHP (Rays, from the Guardians): In a shocking and unprecedented development, the Rays look like they’ve plucked a pitcher from obscurity and perhaps found a keeper. Small sample caveats abound this time of season, but Kelly has now made four relief appearances of at least two innings (including today’s game) and yielded three runs on eight hits and no walks with seven punchouts. That comes on the heels of a 3.38 ERA and 21-to-6 K/BB ratio in 13 1/3 spring innings. The Guardians have a deep farm system and perennial 40-man crunch, which can lead to players like this going unprotected; Kelly posted a 2.04 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate in 57 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A last year.
- Gus Varland, RHP (Brewers, from the Dodgers): The Brewers looked past Varland’s woeful 5.98 ERA in Double-A across the past two seasons, betting on the right-hander’s raw stuff rather than his results. So far, so good. Varland obliterated opposing hitters in spring training, whiffing a comical 17 of the 35 batters he faced (48.6%). So far during the regular season, he’s allowed a pair of runs on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts through six innings out of the bullpen. Varland is averaging 95.9 mph on his fastball and has kept 11 of the 22 balls in play against him on the ground.
On the Major League Injured List
- Nic Enright, RHP (Marlins, from the Guardians): Enright announced in February that just weeks after being selected in the Rule 5 Draft, doctors diagnosed him with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He’s undergoing treatment and has said he hopes to “use his platform to provide hope and inspiration to others who fight their battle with cancer.” Enright is currently on Miami’s 60-day injured list, but baseball of course takes a back seat in this type of instance. We at MLBTR join fans of the Marlins, Guardians and every other organization in pulling for the 26-year-old Enright and wishing him a full recovery.
- Noah Song, RHP (Phillies, from the Red Sox): Ranked as the No. 65 prospect in the 2019 draft by Baseball America, Song slid to the Red Sox in the fourth round due to his military commitments as a Naval Academy cadet. His professional experience is limited to 17 Low-A innings in 2019 while spending the past three seasons in the Navy but was transferred from active duty to selective reserves earlier this year, allowing him to play baseball. He’s on the Phillies’ 15-day injured list with a back strain, and it’s tough to imagine him just diving into a Major League bullpen after spending three years away from the game. Still, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski held that same title in Boston when the Red Sox drafted Song and has said since the Rule 5 Draft that he feels Song’s pure talent is worth the risk.
- Wilking Rodriguez, RHP (Cardinals, from the Yankees): The 33-year-old Rodriguez is a remarkable story. It’s been eight years since he last pitched in affiliated ball and nine years since his lone MLB cup of coffee with the Royals. Since then, he’s been a staple in the Venezuelan Winter League and the Mexican League. During his past two seasons in Mexico, he hurled 73 innings with a 2.71 ERA — including 44 2/3 innings of 2.01 ERA ball with a 43.2% strikeout rate there in 2022. The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal in August, but because of his prior minor league experience from 2007-15, he was Rule 5-eligible and selected by the Cardinals. A right shoulder issue has Rodriguez on the 15-day IL right now. He’s yet to pitch for the Cardinals this year.
Already Returned to their Former Club
- Nick Avila, RHP: Avila allowed eight runs in ten spring innings with the White Sox and was returned to the Giants, for whom he posted an electric 1.14 ERA in 55 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A last season.
- Andrew Politi, RHP: Politi was tagged for six runs on nine hits and three walks in 8 2/3 spring innings with the Orioles, who returned him to the Red Sox late in camp.
- Jose Lopez, LHP: Lopez walked five batters in six frames with the Padres this spring, and the Friars returned him to the Rays on March 27.
- Chris Clarke, RHP: The towering 6’7″ Clarke faced the tough task of cracking a deep Mariners bullpen and was returned to the Cubs late in spring training after allowing four runs on eight hits and a pair of walks in 6 2/3 innings.
- Zach Greene, RHP: The Mets plucked Greene out of the Yankees’ system, but in 4 2/3 innings during spring training he yielded seven runs with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five). The Mets returned him to the Yankees on March 14.
Roberto Perez Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery
For a second straight year, catcher Roberto Perez‘s season is over before it had much of a chance to get underway. The Giants announced Thursday that Perez underwent surgery to repair the rotator cuff in his right shoulder and will miss the remainder of the season. Perez, who played in just five games before sustaining the injury, was limited to 21 games with the Pirates in 2022 before a torn hamstring required season-ending surgery.
The injury to Perez was rather sudden, as a week ago he was still suiting up for the club. He exited their April 7 contest with what the team originally termed a shoulder strain, but further imaging revealed extensive enough damage that surgical intervention was required. He’d already been placed on the 60-day injured list, but the Giants hadn’t indicated until today that Perez’s entire season was even in jeopardy — let alone finished.
Signed to a minor league contract with a $2.5MM base salary back in early February, the 34-year-old Perez parlayed a decent spring showing (.261/.292/.391) into a spot on the Giants’ Opening Day roster. Long considered one of the premier defenders in the game at the catcher position, he appeared positioned for at least a backup role and — depending on Joey Bart and Rule 5 outfielder/catcher Blake Sabol fare — perhaps even a slightly larger role. Instead, he’ll spend the season on the Major League injured list.
The Giants didn’t do much to address their catching depth this offseason, with Perez and Sabol standing as their primary additions. They re-signed Austin Wynns to a non-roster deal and selected him to the big league roster when Perez hit the injured list, but he’s already since been designated for assignment. San Francisco did pick up Gary Sanchez on a minor league contract a week or so into the season, though he’s just 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts in 19 Triple-A plate appearances.
Sanchez could still factor into the Giants’ plans behind the dish, but at least for the time being, it’ll be Bart and Sabol splitting time behind the plate. Sanchez’s deal comes with a weighty (by minor league deal standards) $4MM base salary in the Majors and affords him the opportunity to opt out and re-enter the free-agent market on May 1 if he’s not been added to the big league roster by that point.