Orioles Select Anthony Bemboom; Givens, Tate, McCann Placed On Injured List
The Orioles finalized their Opening Day roster this morning, selecting the contract of catcher Anthony Bemboom in the process. Lefty John Means, recovering from Tommy John surgery, was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Baltimore also placed catcher James McCann on the 10-day IL with an oblique strain and placed righties Dillon Tate (flexor strain) and Mychal Givens (left knee inflammation) on the 15-day IL.
Bemboom, 33, appeared in 22 games with the O’s in 2022 and posted a .115/.207/.212 batting line in a tiny sample of 59 plate appearances. He’s a career .160/.231/.265 hitter in 203 big league plate appearances, but he’s drawn plus defensive and framing grades while thwarting 40% of stolen base attempts against him. Bemboom is out of minor league options, so it could be a relatively brief stay on the 40-man roster once McCann is up to full strength.
The Orioles announced early in camp that Tate had suffered a forearm strain back in November during his offseason program and was likely to miss the first month of the season. The latest timetable indicated a potential mid-May return for the righty, who broke out with 73 2/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball and served as one of the Orioles’ top late-inning arms in 2022.
McCann, acquired from the Mets over the winter, was expected be a backup to star young catcher Adley Rutschman but reported feeling tightness in his side earlier this week. The Orioles haven’t given a timeline, but even grade 1 oblique strains can cause players to miss around a month of action. The O’s have McCann under contract for two more seasons, though the Mets are picking up the majority of the bill. McCann hit just .220/.282/.328 in two seasons with the Mets, but .258/.325/.452 hitter against lefties who could benefit from more selective usage in with his new team.
Givens returned to the O’s on a one-year, $5MM contract over the winter but last pitched in a spring game on March 16. He was testing his ailing knee earlier in the week but lasted only 10 pitches before departing the mound and showing visible frustration (per MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubtako). There’s no timetable on his return just yet. Givens, who spent the first five and a half seasons of his career with the Orioles, split the 2022 season between the Cubs and Mets. He pitched to a strong 3.38 ERA with a 27.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate through 61 1/3 innings between the two teams.
Nationals Select Four Players
The Nationals have announced their Opening Day roster, revealing within that they’ve selected the contracts of four non-roster invitees to spring training: righty Chad Kuhl, lefty Anthony Banda, infielder Michael Chavis and right-hander Hobie Harris. In order to make room on the roster, the Nats placed right-handers Cade Cavalli, Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Rainey and Victor Arano on the 60-day injured list. Infielder Carter Kieboom and catcher Israel Pineda were placed on the 10-day IL with a right shoulder impingement and fractured finger, respectively.
Kuhl was widely expected to claim a spot in the rotation following the unfortunate news that Cavalli, Washington’s top pitching prospect, would miss the upcoming season due to Tommy John surgery. The veteran Kuhl, 30, tossed 17 2/3 innings this spring, allowing 10 runs on 18 hits and seven walks with 15 strikeouts along the way.
Kuhl spent the 2022 season in Colorado, getting out to a strong three-month start that he capped off with a shutout of the Dodgers at Coors Field. That gem dropped his ERA to 3.49, but Kuhl was clobbered for 29 runs in 25 2/3 innings over his next six starts before a hip strain sent him to the injured list. He was hit hard upon returning three weeks later, and the Rox put him back on the injured list with what proved to be a season-ending triceps strain. Clearly not pitching at 100% down the stretch, Kuhl was shelled for 57 runs in his final 59 2/3 innings, ballooning his ERA to 5.72. Prior to that season, he tossed 439 2/3 innings over several seasons in Pittsburgh, logging a much more respectable 4.44 ERA.
Banda, 29, once ranked as one of the sport’s top pitching prospects but hasn’t yet established himself as a viable big leaguer in parts of six MLB campaigns. He’s had some brief success with the 2018 Rays and 2021 Pirates, but overall the journeyman southpaw carries a 5.64 ERA in 111 2/3 Major League innings. He yielded seven runs on seven hits and five walks in 11 spring innings. Despite that unsightly 5.64 ERA, Banda likely impressed the Nats by striking out 14 of 46 batters (30.4%). He’ll open the season as the lone lefty in manager Dave Martinez‘s bullpen.
The 27-year-old Chavis was the Red Sox’ first-round pick in 2014 and, like Banda, once ranked among the game’s top 100 farmhands. He had an encouraging rookie season, batting .254/.322/.444 with 18 home runs in just 382 plate appearances, but in 708 MLB plate appearances since that time he’s mustered only a .229/.263/.388 output with a concerning 30.8% strikeout rate. He’s been primarily a first baseman, but Chavis has experience at second base, third base and in the outfield corners. He’ll be a righty bat off Martinez’s bench.
Harris’ selection to the roster was announced earlier in the week by his agent, Matt Gaeta. It caps an eight-year minor league grind for the former Yankees 31st-rounder, who held opponents to one run on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in 10 innings this spring. Harris spent the 2022 season with the Brewers’ Triple-A club, where he pitched to a 2.04 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate. He’s likely ticketed for a middle-relief role early in the year.
None of the 60-day IL placements come as a major surprise. Cavalli’s Tommy John surgery was announced earlier in camp, as was Strasburg’s setback in his recovery from thoracic outlet surgery. A timetable for the 2019 World Series MVP remains unclear. Rainey had Tommy John surgery last August, so he was never going to be an option until late in the season, at best. Arano is the only mild surprise of the bunch, but the Nats announced midway through the month that he was dealing with a shoulder impingement and would be shut down for at least 10 days. The Nats are now classifying the injury as a strain, and no timetable for his return has been provided.
Athletics Trade Cristian Pache To Phillies
The Athletics have traded outfielder Cristian Pache to the Phillies in exchange for minor league right-hander Billy Sullivan, per announcements from both teams. The Phillies opened a spot on the 40-man roster by placing first baseman Rhys Hoskins on the 60-day injured list.
Once one of the sport’s top-ranked overall prospects, the now 24-year-old Pache is an elite defender whose bat has yet to develop at the game’s top levels. He’s also out of minor league options and has been leapfrogged on Oakland’s depth chart by offseason trade acquisition Esteury Ruiz, which led manager Mark Kotsay to announce earlier in the week that Pache wouldn’t make the roster and that the front office was exploring potential trades.
They’ve found a match to their liking in Philadelphia, who’ll presumably use Pache as a reserve outfielder and perhaps a righty-swinging complement to left-handed-hitting center fielder Brandon Marsh. Pache is a particularly logical fit for the Phils, given that he can provide a late-game defensive upgrade over either Kyle Schwarber or Nick Castellanos (either by playing a corner himself or by stepping into center and pushing Marsh to a corner).
Pache has always been rated as an excellent defender going back to his early prospect days with Atlanta and that’s held true during his time in the majors as well. He’s already earned +9 Outs Above Average and +4 Defensive Runs Saved in 824 2/3 innings, though Ultimate Zone Rating does have him slightly below average. The major issue has been on offense, where he has struggled mightily. In 332 career plate appearances thus far, he’s hit just .156/.205/.234 for a wRC+ of 26, indicating he’s been 74% worse than the league average hitter. If the Phillies do plan on platooning him with Marsh, that might be the best use of abilities. He’s produced a passable .214/.267/.337 line against lefties for a wRC+ of 73, compared to a dismal .129/.176/.186 showing against righties, wRC+ of 4. These are fairly small sample sizes but there’s perhaps some glimmer of hope there.
For the A’s, they originally acquired Pache from Atlanta just over a year ago as part of the Matt Olson trade. They still have Shea Langeliers, Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes from that deal, but they surely hoped to get more from Pache in 2022 than they eventually did. He struggled enough that they had to send him to the minors for a few months, exhausting his final option year. When they acquired Ruiz and squeezed Pache out of regular action, they decided to pivot and move on.
In exchange for Pache, the A’s will get Sullivan, a right-handed pitcher who turns 24 next month. He’s spent the past two years getting work as a reliever, spending all of last year at Double-A. He tossed 51 innings over 44 appearances at that level with a 4.59 ERA. His 15% walk rate is very concerning, but he also struck out 32.1% of batters faced and got ground balls at a solid 45.5% clip. He’ll head over to a new organization that will undoubtedly be looking to improve that control in order to get those earned runs down.
Transferring Hoskins to the 60-day IL was an inevitable formality after he recently tore his ACL and will require surgery. That will almost certainly result in him missing the entire 2023 season.
White Sox Notes: Hendriks, Right Field, Colas, Garcia
The White Sox will open the season without closer Liam Hendriks, who announced in January that he’d begun undergoing treatment following a non-Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosis. The team hasn’t provided much in the way of updates since that time, but general manager Rick Hahn tells reporters on the eve of Opening Day that Hendriks is making good progress in his battle (Twitter link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). While the Sox aren’t placing a formal timeline on his return, Hahn noted that the Sox have deliberately avoided placing Hendriks on the 60-day injured list thus far.
That’s certainly not a guarantee that Hendriks will return within the season’s first two months, but the fact that the Sox are leaving themselves open to the possibility is encouraging. Hendriks will still open the season on the 15-day injured list, and if the White Sox need a 40-man roster spot at any time prior to his activation, he can be transferred to the 60-day IL without penalty. (The 60-day term is retroactive to the original IL placement and does not reset when a player is moved from the 15-day to the 60-day.)
More on the South Siders…
- Manager Pedro Grifol has not yet announced who’ll get the first start of the year in right field, though it’s expected to be one of Oscar Colas, Eloy Jimenez or Romy Gonzalez. Colas, one of the White Sox’ top prospects, will play in right field frequently this season even if he doesn’t get the Opening Day nod, Grifol tells the White Sox beat (Twitter link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). The 24-year-old Colas hit .314/.371/.524 across three minor league levels in 2022, improving his production at each stop (albeit with just seven games in Triple-A). Jim Callis of MLB.com takes a look at what the Sox can expect from Colas in 2023, writing that despite a two-year layoff from competitive games, he arrived in Chicago’s farm system as a more advanced hitter than anticipated in 2022. Colas hit .262/.273/.431 with three homers, two doubles, a walk and nine strikeouts in 66 spring plate appearances.
- Reports emerged over the weekend that Chicago was moving on from utilityman Leury Garcia. That came as a bit of a surprise considering the Sox still owe Garcia $11MM over the next two seasons under the terms of an ill-fated three year free agent contract. Hahn addressed the situation this afternoon, saying that owner Jerry Reinsdorf “was clear that we need to go with the best 26 to put us in the best position to win this year” (link via James of the Athletic). “Even if in the end, as was the case with Leury, it wound up with us having to eat some sunk cost on the contract there.” There’s no question Garcia will go unclaimed on waivers, as no team will assume the remainder of his contract. He’ll hit free agency — either via release by the Sox or rejection of an outright assignment — and seek out other opportunities in the coming days. Gonzalez and Hanser Alberto are likely to assume the utility role Garcia has played in recent seasons, with the Sox widely expected to select Alberto’s contract tomorrow morning.
Tigers To Acquire Grant Witherspoon From Rays
2:51pm: The Tigers sent cash to the Rays in exchange for Witherspoon, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Detroit will still need to open a 40-man roster spot before tomorrow to accommodate the additions of Shreve and Wingenter.
2:06pm: The Tigers have acquired minor league outfielder Grant Witherspoon in a trade with the Rays, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). Tampa Bay’s end of the deal remains unclear as of yet, though it’s worth noting that the Tigers need to open a 40-man roster spot to accommodate the expected addition of relievers Chasen Shreve and Trey Wingenter. They already opened one spot by outrighting Rony Garcia to Triple-A Toledo not long ago. That doesn’t ensure that the Tigers are sending a player from the 40-man roster, though it’s certainly possible.
Witherspoon, 26, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in 2018. He split the 2022 season between Double-A and Triple-A, slashing a combined .266/.343/.467 with 17 home runs and 15 stolen bases. The bulk of that production came against right-handed pitching, as the lefty-swinging Witherspoon mustered a rather tepid .237/.313/.404 slash against fellow lefties. The Rays split Witherspoon’s time in the outfield rather evenly between all three spots last year, though he’s primarily been a center fielder to this point in his professional career.
He’s not on the 40-man roster but was in big league camp with Tampa Bay. He struggled to a .154/.291/.231 output there, but that came in a tiny sample of 31 trips to the plate. With the Rays, Witherspoon was behind Randy Arozarena, Manuel Margot, Jose Siri, Josh Lowe and Luke Raley on the depth chart, at the very least, as all are on the 40-man roster. Tampa Bay has also played infield prospects Vidal Brujan and Greg Jones in the outfield of late.
With the Tigers, there’ll be a less crowded path to playing time. Detroit is lacking in established big league outfielders, and while they’re hopeful of an Austin Meadows rebound and steps forward from players like Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter and Matt Vierling, there’s more room for a productive upper-level minor leaguer like Witherspoon to force his way into the mix with the Tigers than with the Rays.
Tigers To Select Chasen Shreve, Trey Wingenter
Left-hander Chasen Shreve and right-hander Trey Wingenter have made the Tigers’ Opening Day roster, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reports (Twitter link). Both were in camp as non-roster invitees, so the Tigers will need to make a pair of corresponding 40-man roster moves.
Shreve, 32, is the more experienced of the pair, having accrued almost six years of service time across parts of nine seasons at the MLB level. He punched his ticket to the Opening Day club when he held opponents to a pair of runs on five hits and three walks with ten punchouts through eight innings this spring.
The Tigers will be Shreve’s sixth club, as he’s previously logged time with the Mets, Yankees, Cardinals, Pirates and Braves. Overall, he has a 3.87 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate, 11.1% walk rate, 41% ground-ball rate and 1.56 HR/9 mark in 311 1/3 big league innings. Shreve spent the 2022 season with the Mets — his second stint there — but was tagged for a 6.49 ERA in 26 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate remained consistent with career levels and he actually improved on his walk rate, but ’22 was one of the most homer-prone seasons of Shreve’s career (2.05 HR/9).
At his best, Shreve misses bats at an above-average level and lacks the platoon splits one might typically expect of a lefty reliever. Opponents have nearly identical career batting lines against him, regardless of handedness. Righties have slashed .226/.317/.423 to left-handed batters’ .231/.320/.420.
Turning to the 28-year-old Wingenter, this will be the towering 6’7″ right-hander’s first MLB work since 2019. The former Padres reliever missed the 2020-21 seasons following Tommy John surgery in July of 2020. He was non-tendered by San Diego and signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati, but he was out for all of the 2022 season due to continued elbow troubles.
This offseason, Wingenter pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball with the Dominican Winter League’s Leones del Escogido and showed enough to pique the Tigers’ interest there. He was sensational during spring training, tossing seven shutout innings and holding opponents to four hits with an 11-to-1 K/BB ratio. Wingenter averaged just shy of 97 mph on his heater prior to surgery and has punched out 33.1% of his opponents at the MLB level. Walks have been an issue (13.3%), and his overall 5.14 ERA in 70 innings with San Diego doesn’t stand out much, but there’s plenty to like between his huge frame, impressive velocity and ability to miss bats.
Wingenter has spent enough time on the Major League injured list that he’s accrued three years of MLB service time. If he’s able to stick on the Tigers’ roster and remain healthy, he’d be controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration.
Rangers Re-Sign Dominic Leone To Minor League Deal
The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed veteran reliever Dominic Leone to a minor league deal after his recent release. Texas also announced the signing of righty Robert Dugger to a minor league deal and optioned lefty John King to Triple-A Round Rock. Both Leone and Dugger have been assigned to Round Rock as well.
Leone, 31, is a veteran who has pitched in the past nine major league seasons. He has a career 3.69 ERA in 353 big league games. The past few years have been remarkably inconsistent, as he posted a bloated 8.38 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, but dropped that all the way to 1.51 in 2021. Last year, it evened out at a more reasonably 4.01 mark in 49 1/3 innings with the Giants. He struck out 23.4% of batters faced last year but also walked 10.8%.
That control has long been an issue for Leone, as he hasn’t posted a walk rate below 10% since 2018. Here in spring this year, he posted a 2.16 ERA over his eight appearances, but walked eight hitters and only struck out five. He wasn’t able to get himself a roster spot and the Rangers released him a few days ago, though they’ve evidently worked out a new pact to keep him around to get some work in Triple-A and serve as depth.
As for Dugger, 27, he has appeared in each of the past four seasons, suiting up for the Marlins, Mariners, Rays and Reds. He has a 7.17 ERA in his career over 27 games and 86 2/3 innings. Though his 6.19 ERA last year is roughly in line with his previous work, he did get an encouraging bump in the strikeout department. He had only punched out 14.4% of opponents in his first three seasons but got that up to 26.4% in 16 innings last year. Then again, he only struck out 18.4% of hitters in the minors, so that bump might be small sample noise.
It’s unclear whether the Rangers view Dugger as a starter or a reliever, but he’s done his share of both over the past few years. He can perhaps give the club a bit of depth in both areas of their roster. The starting rotation is already proceeding without Jake Odorizzi and Glenn Otto, as both are dealing with injuries, while the bullpen will be without Brett Martin for much of the season due to shoulder surgery.
Blue Jays Re-Sign Jay Jackson
March 29: The Blue Jays announced the signing of Jackson to a one-year, Major League contract. He will indeed head to Triple-A Buffalo for now. Righty Chad Green, who’s still on the mend from Tommy John surgery, was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
March 28: The Blue Jays and righty Jay Jackson have agreed to a new split contract following the reliever’s release a few days ago, reports Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet (Twitter thread). Jackson, a client of Nello Gamberdino, will earn a $1.5MM salary at the MLB level.
The 35-year-old Jackson originally inked a minor league deal with the Jays over the winter. He enjoyed a strong spring, yielding only a pair of unearned runs on seven hits and two walks while punching out 13 hitters over the course of 9 1/3 frames.
That excellent spring effort in many ways marked a continuation of a strong run that Jackson enjoyed with the Braves organization in 2022. He tossed just 1 1/3 scoreless innings with the big league club in Atlanta, though his lack of opportunity was largely due to a stacked MLB bullpen. Jackson posted a 2.29 ERA with a 31.3% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate in 19 Triple-A appearances as well.
Jackson spent the 2021 season with the Giants organization, pitching to a 3.74 ERA with a 31.1% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate in 21 2/3 big league innings. He’s also spent parts of four seasons in Japan, split between the Hiroshima Carp and Chiba Lotte Marines, with a combined 2.16 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate in 183 innings there. It’s far from a typical career arc, but Jackson has had plenty of success from his late 20s into his mid-30s, and he could get a chance to continue that trend with the Blue Jays before long.
Yankees, Franchy Cordero Agree To Major League Deal
The Yankees have signed outfielder Franchy Cordero to a Major League contract, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter thread). It’s a split deal that’ll pay Cordero $1MM in the big leagues and at a $180K rate in the minors. Yeimel Mendez first reported late last night that Cordero was nearing a deal with the Yankees.
Cordero spent spring training with the Orioles and fared quite well, turning in a .413/.426/.674 slash with a pair of homers, four doubles, a triple and a stolen base. He also fanned 11 times in 47 plate appearances and didn’t draw a walk. The Orioles apparently determined that he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster, however, and cut him loose earlier this week.
The 28-year-old Cordero has spent parts of six seasons in the Majors, tantalizing the Padres, Royals and Red Sox with off-the-charts tools but a lackluster approach and sub-par feel for making contact. He has immense raw power and speed alike but doesn’t get to that power enough in games due to his lack of selectivity and penchant for putting himself in disadvantageous counts. Cordero has connected on some of the most majestic home runs of the Statcast era, but he’s a career .221/.290/.386 hitter thanks in no small part to a career 34.8% strikeout rate. To his credit, Cordero slightly dropped his strikeout rate with Boston last season (33.5%, down from 35.7% previously) and upped his walk rate (10.2%, up from 8%).
Barring further additions, it now seems likely that Cordero will crack the Yankees’ Opening Day club, perhaps pushing out-of-options Estevan Florial off the roster in the process. The Yankees confirmed this morning that they granted outfielder Rafael Ortega his release — as MLBTR reported yesterday — which left Florial in line for the final outfield spot. The addition of Cordero, however, calls Florial’s role on the club into question.
On the defensive end of things, Cordero has experience at all three outfield spots, and the Red Sox gave him 427 innings at first base over the past two seasons as well. He doesn’t grade out as a strong outfielder by measure of Defensive Runs Saved (-8), Ultimate Zone Rating (-6.3) or Outs Above Average (-1), but he has 1100 innings of big league experience split across all three spots. At least in the early going, he can back up the trio of Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton while providing some lefty thump off the bench.
While Cordero’s contract is a split deal, that’s not likely to come into play right away. Cordero is out of minor league options, so the only way the Yankees could send him to the minors would be by first passing him through waivers. They could opt to do so when Harrison Bader returns from the injured list, but at least for now, the big league agreement seems to signal intent to include him on tomorrow’s 26-mnan roster. He’ll earn the prorated version of that $1MM salary for any time spent on the Major League roster and the prorated $180K for any time spent in the minors.
Daniel Murphy Signs With Long Island Ducks
Three-time All-Star Daniel Murphy, who announced his retirement in 2021, has launched a comeback bid and signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, the team announced this morning. He’ll be reunited with former Mets teammate Ruben Tejada, who signed with the Ducks last month.
“This game is part of my soul, and my passion for playing grew as great as ever when I discovered certain things that I believe will enable me to be productive on the field again,” Murphy said in a statement thanking the organization for the opportunity.
Murphy, who’ll turn 38 this weekend, last saw the big leagues with the Rockies in 2020, when he batted .236/.275/.333 in 132 trips to the plate. That marked the second season of a two-year, $24MM deal he’d inked with Colorado, during which he posted a combined .269/.316/.426 batting line that fell shy of his prior standards with the Mets, Nationals and Cubs.
From 2011-18, Murphy was a consistently above-average to elite hitter, batting a combined .303/.346/.462 while striking out in just 11.6% of his plate appearances. His bat-to-ball skills were among the best in the game and were on full display during a career-best 2016 season in Washington that saw him slash .347/.390/.595 (154 wRC+) with career-highs in home runs (25), doubles (47) and triples (5) while fanning at just a 9.1% clip. Murphy finished second in National League MVP voting that season.
Certainly, a return to that level of play can’t be expected at his age and with two full seasons having elapsed since he last took the field. That said, Murphy is a supremely talented natural hitter, and it’s plenty common to see players remain productive at the plate into their late 30s. The odds are generally stacked against any player in this type of comeback bid, but Murphy’s production with the Ducks will be worth monitoring.
Leg injuries, most notably knee surgery in 2018, dogged Murphy throughout the latter stages of his MLB career. It’s conceivable that the time away from the field has led to better health in that regard. If he looks to have captured some semblance of his old form, it’s easy enough to envision a team in need of a left-handed bat at first base giving him a look at some point during the 2023 season. If not, signing with the Ducks will give him one last opportunity to bid farewell to New York fans who cheered him on for seven memorable seasons with the Mets.