Marlins Release Jesus Aguilar
TODAY: Aguilar cleared waivers and has been released, as per the Marlins’ MLB.com transactions page.
AUGUST 26: The Marlins have designated first baseman Jesus Aguilar for assignment, general manager Kim Ng announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). All-Star Garrett Cooper is back from the injured list in a corresponding move.
Now that the trade deadline has passed, the only course of action for the Marlins will be to place Aguilar, 32, on waivers and hope that another club claims him. Given the $7.5MM guarantee on the struggling Aguilar’s 2022 contract, however, that appears quite unlikely. While Aguilar’s deal does carry a mutual option for the 2023 campaign, mutual options are rarely exercised, so teams will look at him as a pure rental.
There’s still about $1.6MM left to be paid out on the contract of Aguilar, plus a $200K buyout on that option. It’s hard to imagine a contending club dropping $1.8MM to claim a player who is hitting just .236/.286/.388 on the season as a whole — including a dismal .188/.246/.347 slash since the All-Star break. The overwhelming likelihood is that Aguilar will clear waivers and become a free agent — whether by being released or rejecting an outright assignment.
At that point, Aguilar would be free to sign a new contract with any team, and the new team would only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. The mutual option would no longer be a consideration, as he’ll have been released from the contract containing that clause. Aguilar would be postseason-eligible for a new club as long as he is signed (or, far less likely, claimed) prior to Sept. 1.
While a team isn’t likely to take a chance on Aguilar at the cost of his remaining salary, it stands to reason that several clubs would hold interest in signing him at the prorated league minimum. Aguilar hasn’t been himself in 2022, but as recently as 2020-21 he gave Miami a combined 726 plate appearances of .265/.336/.458 production, smacking 30 home runs and 33 doubles with an 18.3% strikeout rate against a solid 9.5% walk rate.
Aguilar doesn’t carry a significant platoon split, so at his best, he’s an above-average, everyday slugger with 30-homer pop … he just hasn’t been close to his best in 2022. His 23.2% strikeout rate is the highest it’s been since 2018, and Aguilar has seen his average exit velocity (87.7 mph) and hard-hit rate (35.4%) dip to career-worst levels in 2022.
Aguilar has generally graded out as a solid defender at first base, but he’s seen his typically solid grades take a step back in 2022, clocking in at -4 Defensive Runs Saved, a -1.4 Ultimate Zone Rating and zero Outs Above Average. He’s limited to first or designated hitter for the most part, with the lone exception being a few emergency appearances across the diamond at the hot corner over the years (27 career innings, including five in 2022).
Assuming Aguilar indeed clears waivers, teams in need of some offensive help at first base or designated hitter — or just a right-handed bat off the bench — could take a low-cost look in hopes of turning his season around. For the Marlins, they’ll use the remainder of the year to give a larger look to Lewin Diaz, who once ranked among the organization’s top prospects but has seen his stock tumble in recent seasons. The aforementioned Cooper also figures to see additional time in the lineup.
Mariners Sign Julio Rodriguez To Extension
The Mariners have locked up one of the sport’s brightest young stars on a record-setting contract, announcing late Friday night they’ve signed Rookie of the Year candidate Julio Rodriguez to an extension. The deal, which begins this season, guarantees him $210MM over 12 years and contains both player and club options that can extend the length of the contract and push the total value as high as $470MM. Rodriguez, an Octagon client, also reportedly receives a full no-trade clause.
It is one of the more complex contracts agreed upon in major league history. According to reports from ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic, Rodriguez will make $120MM through 2029. Per Rosenthal, that takes the form of a $15MM signing bonus to be paid up front, with $105MM to be distributed between 2023-29. After the contract’s seventh year (2028), the Mariners must decide whether to effectively re-extend Rodriguez for either eight or ten years, with the size and value of that long-term “club option” dependent on how Rodriguez finishes in MVP voting.
At minimum, Seattle will be deciding on whether to extend the contract by eight years and another $200MM. That figure could escalate as follows, depending on Rodriguez’s finishes in MVP balloting over the next seven years:
- $240MM over eight years with two or three top ten finishes
- $260MM over eight years with four top ten finishes
- $280MM over eight years if he wins an MVP and finishes in the top five once more or finishes in the top five of MVP balloting on three occasions
- $350MM over ten years if he wins two MVP awards or finishes among the top five in balloting on four occasions
In the event Rodriguez hits that highest threshold and the Mariners exercise the option, the contract would max out at 18 years and $470MM in total value.
If the Mariners do not exercise their multi-year option after Year 7, Rodriguez will have a five-year, $90MM player option he can exercise after Year 8 of the contract. (That option value could escalate as high as $125.5MM based on his finishes in Silver Slugger voting and All-Star appearances). That $90MM figure is considered guaranteed money, as is the case with all player options. Between the $120MM he’ll be paid over the next eight seasons and the $90MM base value of the player option, Rodriguez’s guarantee lands at the aforementioned $210MM. There is, of course, a scenario where the Mariners do not pick up their 8- to 10-year “club option,” and Rodriguez also declines his five-year “player option,” which would then allow him to reach free agency after collecting $120MM over eight years, when he’ll be heading into his age-30 campaign.
Rodriguez, 21, broke camp with the Mariners this season and, after a rough couple of weeks to begin the year, burst into immediate stardom and has established himself as one of the frontrunners for Rookie of the Year honors. He’s currently hitting .269/.328/.471 with 20 home runs, 19 doubles, three triples and 23 steals (in 29 tries) — plus above-average defensive contributions in center field.
Those numbers are at least slightly skewed by a poor start to the year in which Rodriguez batted .136/.208/.159 with a 45% strikeout rate. Dating back to April 22, Rodriguez has mashed at a .285/.342/.508 clip. That production is about 46% better than league average after weighting for park and league, by measure of wRC+, which places him in a three-way tie with Alex Bregman and the also recently-extended Austin Riley for 12th-best among qualified Major League hitters. Rodriguez also ranks 13th in the Majors in both average exit velocity (92 mph) and hard-hit rate (49.6%) in that time, and his 14.9% barrel rate is MLB’s ninth-best mark.
Add in the fact that he’s done all of this at 21 years of age and after skipping the Triple-A level entirely, and his rookie season becomes all the more remarkable. Given that youth and lack of upper-minors seasoning, it’s quite possible that even though Rodriguez already ranks among the game’s best hitters, we’ve yet to see the best he has to offer.
From a defensive standpoint, Rodriguez has more than held his own in center field this season, turning in positive marks in Defensive Runs Saved (2), Ultimate Zone Rating (0.3) and Outs Above Average (5). Many scouting reports penned before his MLB debut suggested that as Rodriguez ages and continues to fill out, he could be destined for a corner outfield slot, but given his 70- or even 80-grade raw power and the solid work he’s flashed in center this season, he’ll have both the bat and likely the defensive chops to be an above-average contributor in right or left field.
The $210MM guarantee will give Rodriguez the record for largest contract ever signed by a player with under a year of Major League service time. That distinction currently belongs to Rays shortstop Wander Franco, who inked an 11-year, $182MM extension last November.
Rodriguez will topple that mark with ease, although it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Franco wasn’t promoted until midseason and inked his deal in the winter, when the Rays had six full seasons of club control left over him. Because Rodriguez made the Opening Day roster, he’ll get a full year of service in 2022 and would “only” have had five additional years of club control remaining. In that respect, he could technically be considered more of a one-plus player (between one and two years of service time), although even when viewing the contract through that lens, it’s still a record-setting agreement; Ke’Bryan Hayes‘ $70MM extension in Pittsburgh was the previous record for a player with between one and two years of service.
Regardless of which service bracket one thinks more aptly applies to Rodriguez, this new deal now stands as the largest contract ever promised to a player with fewer than two years of Major League service time. In that aspect, Rodriguez and the Major League Baseball Players Association are surely pleased to see the precedent for young, superstar extensions moved even further forward.
All that said, there’s still potential for the contract to be quite favorable for the Mariners. Rodriguez would’ve likely earned near the league minimum in salary over the next two seasons (plus any payouts from the newly collectively bargained bonus pool for pre-arbitration players). A player with his upside and early dominance would likely have done quite well in arbitration, and while we can never know exactly how much he might’ve earned through that process, arbitration is generally based on precedent. Looking for recent comparables, Mookie Betts secured $57.5MM for his three arbitration seasons. If we put Rodriguez into that broad vicinity, his remaining five years of club control might have netted him somewhere in the range of $60MM — perhaps a few million more if he’d taken home an MVP Award and/or pushed the Betts precedent a bit further.
Rodriguez will be paid $15MM on average over the next eight seasons, with at least two free agent seasons bought out. That obviously pales in comparison to what he could’ve earned on the open market had he gone year-to-year and hit the free-agent market in advance of his age-27 season, and the Mariners will have an opportunity to keep him from hitting free agency at any point in his prime. That risk-reward tradeoff is the nature of early contract extensions, of course. There’s obviously ample risk of injury or downturn in performance for Rodriguez, all of which is baked into the relative discount rate for those open-market seasons.
From a team payroll vantage point, there’s ample room for Seattle to make a commitment of this nature. A significant portion of the team’s recent rebuild was dedicated to clearing long-term clutter from the books — e.g., the Robinson Cano trade — and the team’s long-term commitments are now rather minimal. Left-hander Robbie Ray is signed through the 2026 season, as is shortstop J.P. Crawford, but they’ll combine for just $37MM at that point. That would’ve only been Rodriguez’s fifth big league season, so the salaries on his contract will not quite have escalated to their maximum levels.
Looking more short-term, the books are also still accommodating. The Mariners, who’ll see veterans Mitch Haniger and Adam Frazier reach free agency at season’s end, had just over $63MM in guaranteed money on the 2023 payroll prior to this contract. That number doesn’t include an $8MM option for righty Chris Flexen, nor does it include a handful of arbitration raises: Luis Castillo (earning $7.35MM this season), Diego Castillo ($2.315MM), Paul Sewald ($1.735MM), Ty France (pre-arb) and Erik Swanson (pre-arb).
It’s a momentous day in Mariners history, one that firmly drives home the organization’s “win-now” mentality as it inches toward a postseason berth that would smash a two-decade playoff drought — currently the longest in major North American professional sports. There’s risk for both parties, but the contract is a continuation of the ever-growing trend of extending young stars at nine-figure rates that guarantee a player’s entire prime. The contract also locks Rodriguez down as the new face of Mariners baseball for the next decade-plus, ensuring them a charismatic, marketable star around whom to both build the roster and sell the product to the fanbase.
Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com first reported that the two sides were nearing an extension worth more than $200MM guaranteed and as much as $450MM in total value. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the contract length and exact guarantee. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported the agreement was in place. Passan and provided specifics on the financials. Rosenthal also reported the deal contained a full no-trade clause.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mets Release Johneshwy Fargas, Outright Nate Fisher
The Mets have released outfielder Johneshwy Fargas and infielder Tzu-Wei Lin from their Triple-A affiliate in Syracuse, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. They’ve also assigned lefty Nate Fisher to Syracuse after he passed through outright waivers unclaimed, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets.
Fargas, 27, made his big league debut with the 2021 Mets after their outfield was hit with a barrage of injuries last summer. Fargas himself fell victim to that injury deluge after just seven games, suffering a sprained AC joint when colliding with the outfield wall on a leaping catch. He went 6-for-21 with a few highlight-reel moments in the outfield that, paired the effusive energy he displayed on both sides of the ball, made him a quick fan favorite in Queens. Fargas was designated for assignment, claimed by the Cubs, and eventually returned to the Mets on a minor league deal over the winter.
It’s been a tough season in the minors for Fargas, who carries a combined .212/.305/.340 batting line in 301 plate appearances between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. He’s still gone 28-for-30 in stolen base attempts, underscoring speed that allows him to provide value both on the bases and in the outfield. He’s played all three outfield positions in the minors this season, though the bulk of his time has been spent in center.
Fisher, meanwhile, just received his first major league call over the weekend. The 26-year-old tossed three scoreless innings of mop-up work and was promptly designated for assignment. After going unclaimed on waivers, he’ll head back to Syracuse, where he has a 3.12 ERA across 43 1/3 frames in 12 appearances (ten starts). The Nebraska product remains in the organization but no longer occupies a spot on the 40-man roster.
Nationals Release Maikel Franco
The Nationals have released veteran infielder Maikel Franco, reinstated second baseman Luis Garcia from the injured list, optioned righty Cory Abbott and selected the contract of top pitching prospect Cade Cavalli, per a team announcement. Cavalli’s looming promotion had been announced by the team earlier in the week. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com first noted that Garcia was in the clubhouse and that Franco appeared to be packing up and saying his goodbyes, indicating a move was on the horizon.
Franco, who turns 30 today, has spent the season as Washington’s primary third baseman. The Nats signed the former Phillies top prospect to a minor league deal over the winter, and he broke camp with the team. Franco has gotten 99 starts, with the vast majority of that time coming at his customary position at the hot corner. While he’s been a durable lineup fixture, the right-handed hitter simply hasn’t produced much at the plate. Franco posted a .229/.255/.342 showing across 388 plate appearances, only connecting on nine home runs with a meager 3.1% walk rate.
It’s a second straight well below-average season for Franco, who managed a .210/.253/.355 line with the Orioles last season. Fellow journeyman Ildemaro Vargas, who was selected onto the big league roster at the start of this month, has a far more productive .317/.354/.450 showing in 65 plate appearances. The switch-hitting Vargas has taken hold of the third base job as a result, while Garcia is now in line to pair with top prospect CJ Abrams as the primary middle infield duo. That pushed veteran second baseman Cesar Hernandez to the bench and squeezed Franco off the roster.
A nine-year MLB veteran, Franco finds himself on release waivers. Assuming he goes unclaimed, he’ll hit free agency and be able to explore other opportunities elsewhere. It seems likely he’ll be limited to minor league offers, although he’d technically be eligible for another team’s postseason roster if he signs before the end of this month.
Phillies Activate Bryce Harper
The Phillies have reinstated reigning National League MVP Bryce Harper from the 60-day injured list, tweets Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Infielder/outfielder Yairo Munoz was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to open a spot on the active roster, while fellow outfielder Simon Muzziotti was recalled from Triple-A and placed directly on the 60-day injured list in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Philadelphia also recalled southpaw Bailey Falter from Lehigh Valley to start tonight’s game.
Harper is hitting cleanup in today’s Phillies lineup and serving as their designated hitter — a role he figures to occupy down the stretch as he continues to nurse a ligament tear in his throwing elbow. That, of course, is not the injury that’s held Harper out for the past two months. Harper was playing through the elbow issue and serving as a highly productive DH before suffering a fractured thumb upon being hit by a pitch. He required surgery to address the issue and has been out of action since June.
The Phils weathered that absence extremely well, and they find themselves in strong playoff position as a result. Philadelphia heads into tonight’s game with a 70-55 record that places them firmly in possession of the National League’s second Wild Card spot. They’ll now welcome back Harper, owner of a massive .318/.385/.599 showing through 275 plate appearances, to the lineup for the season’s final five weeks. The aforementioned elbow ligament tear will keep Harper at DH, at least for the time being, but Philadelphia is no doubt thrilled to get his bat back in the lineup.
As for Muziotti, his 2022 season is over due to a torn patellar tendon in his right knee. The 23-year-old, one of the better outfield prospects in the organization, made his MLB debut this April and appeared in nine games. He spent the majority of the year with Double-A Reading, hitting .259/.339/.455 through 38 games. He’ll be paid at the prorated $700K MLB minimum rate for the rest of this season and collect around five weeks of big league service time while looking ahead to 2023.
Rays Extend Tyler Glasnow Through 2024
The Rays announced agreement Friday on a contract extension with Tyler Glasnow that will run through the 2024 season. The deal reportedly pays the Wasserman client $5.35MM in 2023, his final season of arbitration-eligibility, and jumps to a hefty $25MM in 2024. It also contains potential bonuses dependent upon Glasnow’s finishes in Cy Young balloting over the next two seasons.
Last year, the now-29-year-old Glasnow looked well on his way to establishing himself as one of the sport’s most dominant arms. Long a top prospect in the Pirates organization, Glasnow was infamously traded to the Rays, alongside Austin Meadows and Shane Baz, in exchange for Chris Archer — one of the most lopsided deals in recent memory.
He’s spent parts of four seasons with Tampa Bay — 2018-21 — and posted a combined 3.10 ERA and 3.19 FIP with 34.3% strikeout rate against a 7.9% walk rate. That includes a relatively slow start, as the big righty managed a 4.20 ERA through 11 appearances down the stretch after the 2018 deadline deal. Since the calendar flipped to 2019, Glasnow has been an excellent performer. He posted a microscopic 1.78 ERA across 60 2/3 innings in 2019, striking out a third of opponents while inducing grounders on over half the batted balls against him. While his ERA jumped to 4.08 during the shortened 2020 campaign, Glasnow punched out an even more impressive 38.2% of batters faced that season.
Everything seemed to be coming together last year, Glasnow’s age-27 campaign. He’d been on a potential Cy Young trajectory, starting 14 games and working to a 2.66 ERA over 88 frames through mid-June. He paired that with an elite 36.2% strikeout rate while generating swinging strikes on more than 17% of his offerings, but he blew out his elbow and was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. That procedure ended his season and led to some speculation the payroll-conscious Rays could consider trading him last offseason, but there’s no indication they ever came close to doing so.
Glasnow maintained over the winter that he hoped to stick with Tampa Bay. He reiterated that sentiment when chatting with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times this afternoon, saying he’d much preferred to stay in the organization. The Rays held onto him throughout his rehab process, and the former fifth-rounder could make his return to the mound later this season. Glasnow told Topkin he’s headed to Triple-A Durham to throw some live batting practice sessions and could soon embark on a minor league rehab assignment.
It’s a bold move for the Rays, whom Topkin notes have never previously paid a player a $25MM annual salary (although franchise shortstop Wander Franco will reach that mark in 2028 under the terms of the 11-year extension he signed last November). Next year’s $5.35MM figure represents only a marginal bump over this year’s $5.1MM mark, reflecting the fact that he hasn’t pitched all season and wouldn’t have been in line for a notable arbitration raise. It’s the 2024 commitment to buy out Glasnow’s first free agent year that comes as a surprise.
It’s easy to see both the high risk and reward of the move from Tampa Bay’s perspective. If Glasnow picks up right where he’d left off pre-surgery, he’ll immediately form a fearsome pairing with AL All-Star starter Shane McClanahan at the top of the rotation. It’s not uncommon for ace-caliber hurlers to surpass $30MM annually over a multi-year free agent investment, one the Rays seem unlikely to make. Even factoring in the potential bonuses, a $25MM base salary in 2024 would be more than reasonable if Glasnow pitches as he did in 2019-21, and the team isn’t on the hook for any longer-term commitment. It’s a match for the guarantee the Astros gave Justin Verlander last winter coming off two seasons largely lost to a Tommy John surgery of his own. Verlander has returned to the top of the rotation and pitched exceptionally, and the Astros have been handsomely rewarded for their investment.
At the same time, there’s no sugarcoating the downside for Tampa Bay if Glasnow suffers an injury setback or performance regression. The Rays have never opened a season with a player payroll higher than this year’s estimated $83.9MM tab, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Presumably, owner Stuart Sternberg is willing to push that number upwards over the coming two seasons, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll eclipse nine figures by that point. Glasnow’s deal could wind up counting for around one-quarter of the team’s player expenditures, and the club also has fairly notable salaries for Manuel Margot ($10MM) and Brandon Lowe ($8.75MM) for that season. Players like McClanahan, Randy Arozarena and Drew Rasmussen will have reached arbitration-eligibility by then as well.
It’s a bold strike from an organization that doesn’t customarily make this kind of financial investment. If all goes well, the Rays will get an extra season of ace-level performance for a price below the free agent market value. Glasnow, meanwhile, locks in a fair amount of financial security as he wraps up his Tommy John rehab. He tacks on another year with a club for which he’s clearly comfortable playing, and he could still land a multi-year deal once he hits the open market in advance of his age-31 season. There’s risk for the Rays in committing a sizable portion of their expected 2024 payroll to a player who hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch in 14 months, but they’re clearly confident Glasnow will be no worse for wear than he was before he went under the knife.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the Rays and Glasnow were in agreement on an extension that ran through 2024. Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report the salary terms. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic noted the presence of “significant” bonuses based on Cy Young finishes.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Twins Designate Tim Beckham For Assignment
The Twins announced Friday that they’ve reinstated outfielder Kyle Garlick from the 10-day injured list and designated infielder Tim Beckham for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Beckham, 32, inked a minor league deal with the Twins over the winter and recently had his contract selected as Minnesota deals with a deluge of injuries both in the outfield and around the infield. He appeared in a dozen games with the Twins but took just 25 plate appearances and went 2-for-25 with nine strikeouts in that time.
Beckham has had a monster season in Triple-A, hitting .413/.481/.579 in 133 plate appearances, but it was never particularly realistic to expect the journeyman to sustain anything close to that level of output in the big leagues, where he’s a .247/.299/.426 hitter in 1776 plate appearances. He’ll be placed on waivers or released within the coming days now that he’s been designated for assignment.
Garlick, 30, will give the Twins a much-needed healthy outfielder and some desperately needed help against left-handed pitching. He’s hitting .257/.319/.514 in 116 plate appearances this year and has carved out a role with the Twins based on his ability to clobber southpaws. In 172 career plate appearances against lefties, the right-handed-hitting Garlick is a .266/.314/.576 hitter.
MLB, MLBPA Announce November “Korea Series” As Part Of MLB World Tour
Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced Friday morning that Major League players will travel to South Korea in November for a four-game exhibition series involving players from the Korea Baseball Organization. The “2022 Korea Series” will run from November 9-16 and feature two-game sets at Busan’s Sajik Baseball Stadium (home to the KBO’s Lotte Giants) and at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome (home to the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes). The four-game series is both a part of MLB’s new “MLB World Tour” initiative to expand the game’s global presence and a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the KBO.
“Major League Baseball is excited to travel to Busan and Seoul for this historic series,” said MLB chief operations & strategy offer Chris Marinak in a statement within this morning’s press release. “This tour is the next step of MLB’s plan to deliver regular baseball events in Korea in the coming years and follows our upcoming Home Run Derby X, scheduled for September 17th in Seoul. South Korea’s rich baseball tradition has produced many accomplished Major League players, including All-Stars Chan Ho Park and Shin-Soo Choo, as well as current Blue Jays pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu and Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi. We thank J-One and the KBO for partnering with us and the MLBPA on this great event.”
As MLB’s release further indicates, this will be the first time Major League players have traveled to play games in South Korea in a century, when a group including Casey Stengel, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock, among others, made the trip back in 1922.
Under the MLB World Tour, MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to host as many as 24 regular season games and 16 exhibition contests between Asia, Europe, Latin America and Mexico through 2026. The KBO’s news release (hat tip: Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency) indicates that KBO commissioner Koo-youn Heo and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred also discussed back in June the eventual possibility of regular-season KBO games being played in the United States and of regular-season MLB games being played in South Korea.
MLB and the MLBPA have yet to announce a slate of participants who’ll travel to South Korea for the event. The KBO release indicates that further details regarding schedule, matchups, ticket sales and participants on both the MLB and KBO side of the event will be announced at a September press conference.
Nationals To Promote Cade Cavalli
The Nationals are calling up top pitching prospect Cade Cavalli for his Major League debut on Friday, per a club announcement. Grant Paulsen of 106.7 FM The Fan first reported Cavalli would be getting the call to the big leagues. The 2020 first-rounder will need to have his contract formally selected to the Major League roster before Friday’s game.
Cavalli, 24, was the No. 22 overall selection in 2020. The Oklahoma native and former Sooner star has enjoyed a solid season in Triple-A Rochester, where he’s notched a 3.71 ERA with a 25.9% strikeout rate, a 9.7% walk rate and a 43.1% grounder rate. Cavalli has gotten more comfortable in Triple-A and gotten stronger as the season wears on; after some rocky outings throughout his first 13 trips to the hill, he’s now rattled off a 1.47 ERA with a 43-to-12 K/BB ratio (29.7 K%, 8.7% BB%) in his past seven starts — a total of 36 1/3 innings.
The 6’4″, 240-pound Cavalli, in addition to his lofty draft status, currently ranks as one of the sport’s top pitching prospects. He checks in at No. 20 on FanGraphs’ most recent prospect rankings and is also featured prominently on the latest leaguewide lists from Baseball Prospectus (No. 29), Baseball America (No. 52) and MLB.com (No. 58).
Cavalli made the Futures Game roster in each of the past two seasons, though he was a late scratch from this year’s game due to a blister issue on his pitching hand. Fans who tuned into the 2021 game saw Cavalli touch 102 mph on the radar gun with a powerful heater that generally draws 70 grades on the 20-80 scale. Command issues, stemming in part from a violent delivery that gives some scouts concerns he’ll ultimately move to the bullpen, have been the big knock on Cavalli. He also works with a slider, curveball and changeup, each drawing praise as anywhere from an above-average to potentially plus pitch. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs writes in his scouting report that while there’s relief risk, “…if things click, Cavalli is going to be a monster.”
For the Nats, the hope is that Cavalli can achieve that top-of-the-rotation ceiling and join left-hander MacKenzie Gore and righty Josiah Gray as the nucleus of the team’s rotation for years to come. Because he’s being called up this late in the season, Cavalli can’t earn a full year of Major League service time and is also well past the point at which Super Two status is attainable. That means he’ll be controllable for six more seasons beyond this one — all the way through 2028 — and won’t be eligible to reach arbitration until after 2025 season. Of course, future demotions back to the minors could push back either of those trajectories.
Athletics Claim Tyler Cyr
The A’s claimed right-hander Tyler Cyr off waivers from the Phillies on Wednesday, per announcements from both teams. Cyr was designated for assignment on Monday when Philadelphia selected lefty Michael Plassmeyer‘s contract from Triple-A.
Cyr, 29, made his big league debut with the Phils earlier in the year, though it spanned just one appearance and three hitters. He yielded a pair of hits, including a home run to Brandon Nimmo, and retired the other batter he faced. It was the tiniest of samples, but Cyr flashed a heater that averaged 94.9 mph that day, while also featuring a cutter and changeup.
It’s been an otherwise solid year for Cyr in Triple-A, where he’s logged a 2.50 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate, a 12.1% walk rate and a 51.1% grounder rate in 36 frames of relief work. This is his first season in an organization other than the Giants, who selected him in the tenth round of the 2015 draft and oversaw his development for parts of six seasons.
Cyr has now appeared in parts of three Triple-A seasons, pitching to a 3.62 ERA with a 28.3% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate in that time. He’s in the first of three minor league option seasons, as this marked the first time his contract has been selected to an MLB roster.