Orioles Claim Phoenix Sanders
The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed righty Phoenix Sanders off waivers from the Rays. Tampa Bay designated Sanders for assignment over the weekend.
Sanders, 27, made his big league debut with Tampa Bay this season, tossing 14 2/3 innings with five runs allowed on a dozen hits and three walks. The former 10th-round pick fanned 21.1% of his opponents, walked 5.3% of them and kept 41.5% of batted balls against him on the ground.
Solid as those numbers are, Sanders hasn’t exactly shined with Triple-A Durham this year. While he’s posted an eye-popping 36-to-2 K/BB ratio there, Sanders and his 89.8 mph average fastball velocity have also been tagged for 39 hits — six of which cleared the fence for home runs (1.8 HR/9) — en route to a 5.40 ERA in 30 innings. He yielded plenty of hard contact in his limited big league time as well, evidenced by a sky-high 92.9 mph average exit velocity and a 45.2% hard-hit rate from his opponents.
The 2022 season may be a mixed bag of results in some regards, but looking more broadly, Sanders has a solid overall track record in the upper minors and has a full slate of minor league options remaining, as this year marked the first occasion on which his contract has been selected to the 40-man roster. He’ll give the O’s a somewhat intriguing, league-minimum arm who can be optioned freely and provide depth in the ‘pen moving forward.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Wednesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Giants Place Brandon Belt On Injured List
The Giants have placed first baseman Brandon Belt on the 10-day injured list due to discomfort in his bothersome right knee, per a team announcement. Outfielder Bryce Johnson has been recalled from Triple-A Sacramento take his spot on the roster.
Belt, 34, has been battling chronic knee issues for much of the season and acknowledged in a candid interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser yesterday that the injury could well impact his baseball future. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about what happens if I’m not able to bounce back,” Belt told Slusser. “But I don’t like thinking about it, because it’s kind of upsetting.”
With two surgeries on that problematic knee already in the rear-view mirror, Belt added to Slusser that he’s “not sure there is anything else that can be done.” Belt has had his knee drained three times already this season, per Slusser.
It’s been a tough season for Belt, who’s hitting .213/.326/.350 on the year with just 18 extra-base hits (eight homers, nine doubles, one triple). From 2020-21, Belt was one of the best hitters in all of baseball, logging a combined .285/.393/.595 batting line with 38 home runs in 560 plate appearances. Among qualified hitters in that time, Belt’s .302/.404/.638 slash and 175 wRC+ against right-handed pitching trailed only Bryce Harper and Juan Soto for tops in Major League Baseball.
This year has been another story entirely, as Belt has been prone to prolonged slumps while navigating the ongoing troubles with his knee. He’s hitting just .150/.269/.200 over his past 25 games and has just two hits and five walks in his past 45 trips to the plate. He’s maintained a keen eye and knowledge of the strike zone, evidenced by this season’s 12.4% walk rate, but Belt has also seen his average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate all decline noticeably from that 2020-21 peak. A timetable for Belt’s return hasn’t been provided, but given the recent struggles, there’s a clear need to get him some rest and hope that’ll alleviate some of the discomfort that has contributed heavily this swoon.
Johnson, 26, made his big league debut earlier this season but was held hitless in a tiny sample of four plate appearances spread across four games. He’s hitting .287/.358/.398 in 287 Triple-A plate appearances — a similar but slightly diminished follow-up to last year’s .286/.377/.433 slash in 407 plate appearances at this same level.
A 2017 sixth-rounder, Johnson has never ranked among the system’s very best prospects, but he’s provided average or better offense at just about every minor league spot while serving as a prolific base thief. The speed that makes him a threat on the bases also led to plus scouting grades on his glove in center dating back to his college days. He’ll give the Giants a switch-hitting option who can plug in at any of the three outfield spots for the time being.
Outrights: Clay, Marrero, Fry
A roundup of some recent outright assignments for players who cleared waivers following a DFA…
- Mets lefty Sam Clay passed through waivers unclaimed and was assigned outright to Syracuse, tweets Michael Mayer of MetsMerized. The ground-ball specialist appeared in just one big league game with the Mets this season and allowed an unearned run on a hit and a walk with two punchouts. Clay carries a 5.90 ERA in 50 1/3 Major League innings but also boasts a mammoth 62.5% ground-ball rate in that time. He also has a career 3.81 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate in 59 Triple-A innings, making him a nice depth piece to have on hand in the upper minors, even if he’s yet to find real success in the big leagues just yet.
- Veteran infielder Deven Marrero also cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets after being designated last week. The team didn’t make a formal announcement on the matter, but Marrero, who could’ve rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, was back in the Syracuse lineup last night. Marrero, who’ll turn 32 tomorrow, appeared in three games at the big league level and went hitless in four plate appearances, though he did swipe a base. He’s a career .192/.247/.280 hitter in parts of seven big league seasons but is a well-regarded defender capable of handling any of shortstop, second base or third base. He’s appeared in 33 games with Syracuse and hit .229/.323/.349 in 125 plate appearances.
- Left-hander Paul Fry cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks and was assigned to Triple-A Reno, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Fry has previously been outrighted and could rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, but he’d have punted the remainder of this year’s $850K guarantee in doing so, as he doesn’t yet have five years of Major Leaguer service time. The 30-year-old pitched just one MLB frame with the Snakes this season, plus another dozen with the Orioles, with whom he’s spent the prior four years. Fry was a solid lefty in the Baltimore ‘pen in 2020 and for much of the 2021 season before a late collapse last year (due primarily to repeat drubbings at the hands of the Rays). Fry hasn’t regained his form in either the big leagues (6.23 ERA in 13 innings) or Triple-A (5.50 ERA, 18 innings).
Yankees Notes: Stanton, Florial, Britton
The Yankees are expected to reinstate Giancarlo Stanton, who has been on the shelf since late July due to tendinitis in his left Achilles, prior to tomorrow’s series opener in Oakland. Stanton was on the field going through a full pre-game routine yesterday, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link with video). The Yankees already announced following last night’s game that outfielder Estevan Florial has been optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which seems to further set the stage for Stanton’s return.
Stanton, 32, has had a productive season at the plate in terms of power output and run production, belting 24 homers and plating 61 runs through just 324 trips to the plate. After an excellent first two months at the plate — Stanton hit .285/.339/.523 through the end of May — he’s been more of a pure “three true outcomes” slugger in the summer months of the season.
Since the calendar flipped to June, a whopping 56% of Stanton’s hits have been home runs (13 of 23). He’s batting just .167 in 40 games since June 1, but he’s still walking at a strong 13.1% clip and obviously flexing his power. Exactly half of his plate appearances have ended in a strikeout, walk or home run in that time. Stanton’s .167/.277/.471 slash dating back to June has dropped his season-long line to .228/.309/.498. That’s still 28% better than league average, per both wRC+ and OPS+, but the Yankees and Stanton alike will surely be hoping for a more balanced set of results when he returns.
Stanton will return to the lineup at a time when the Yankees’ offense has been stumbling through one of its driest spells of the year. The Yanks are just 7-14 this month and have plated only 70 runs in those 21 contests — an average of 3.33 runs per game (all while allowing 89 runs in August). They’ve been held to four or fewer runs in 13 of their past 15 contests.
Florial’s return to the big leagues will prove quite brief. There was optimism among Yankee fans when he was promoted on the heels of a .286/.368/.490 showing in Scranton, but he wound up starting just three games, going 1-for-9 with four strikeouts in that tiny sample. The former top prospect, like many Yankee farmhands in recent years, has yet to receive an earnest audition at the MLB level, receiving just 50 plate appearances over the past three seasons (and hitting just .186/.302/.300 in those sparse opportunities).
Stanton isn’t the only veteran reinforcement on the horizon for the Yanks, it should be noted. Lefty Zack Britton, who has yet to pitch in 2022 while rehabbing from last year’s Tommy John surgery, is set to embark on a minor league rehab assignment today, tweets Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network.
The 34-year-old lefty has been a vital part of the Yankees’ late-inning relief corps when healthy, logging 123 2/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball while brandishing one of the game’s most notoriously devastating sinkers. It’ll take a bit of time for Britton to build up to readiness for a big league return, of course, but the commencement of a rehab assignment means that both he and injured closer Clay Holmes could return to the bullpen in the near future. If Holmes is back to form after a brief trip to the injured list, the Yankees can deploy two of the game’s premier sinker/grounder specialists to help lock things down late in games.
Outrights: Garza, Bugg, Godoy
A trio of updates on some recent DFAs who have cleared waivers and will remain with their organizations…
Latest Updates
- The Pirates announced that catcher Jose Godoy accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Indianapolis. The backstop was designated for assignment over the weekend. Claimed off waivers from the Twins, Godoy appeared in five games with the Bucs. He has 52 big league plate appearances under his belt with the Mariners, Twins and Pirates over the past two seasons. He’s a .267/.320/.390 hitter in parts of three campaigns at Triple-A.
Earlier
- Right-hander Ralph Garza Jr. went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Durham by the Rays, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The 28-year-old Garza appeared in 19 games with Tampa Bay this season and pitched 35 innings of 3.34 ERA ball, albeit with a dismal 17-to-16 K/BB ratio (11.1% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate). He’s posted better strikeout and walk numbers down in Durham, where he carries a 2.84 ERA with a 19.4% strikeout rate against a tiny 3.2% walk rate in 25 1/3 frames. Garza has big league experience with the Astros, Twins and Rays, and he’s generally turned in solid results in the upper minors and in the Majors. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get another look in the big leagues before too long.
- Marlins righty Parker Bugg was assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville after clearing waivers, per the team’s transactions log. He’s already made his first appearance in Triple-A since passing through waivers. The 27-year-old Bugg was selected to the Major League roster on Aug. 14 but was designated for assignment just two days later and without ever getting into a game for his Major League debut. A 27th-round pick by the Fish back in 2016, Bugg has pitched to a 1.82 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate in 29 2/3 innings of Triple-A work this season. It’s his third stint at the Triple-A level for Bugg, who was hit hard there in ’19 (7.68 ERA in 36 1/3 innings), improved in ’21 (4.46 ERA, 66 2/3 innings) and is now enjoying some of the best results of his career.
Rays Designate Tommy Romero, Kevin Herget For Assignment
The Rays announced Tuesday that right-handers Tommy Romero and Kevin Herget have been designated for assignment, thus clearing space on the 40-man roster for right-hander JT Chargois and lefty Brendan McKay to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list. McKay has been optioned to Triple-A Durham, while Chargois will step directly into the big league bullpen. Both Romero and Herget will be placed on waivers within the week, as neither can be traded now that the Aug. 2 deadline has passed.
Romero, 25, figures to be more appealing to other organizations than your typical DFA, given his relative youth, full slate of remaining minor league options and strong performance in Triple-A to this point in the season. Through 66 2/3 innings in Durham thus far, he’s pitched to a 3.51 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. That walk rate is a bit of an abnormality, as Romero turned in lower walk rates in recent years and was credited with plus-plus command in Baseball America’s most recent scouting report, wherein they pointed out that Romero posted one of the highest strike rates in the minors last year (68.8%).
Earlier in the season, Romero was working out of the rotation in Durham, and he got the ball to “start” one game with the big league club as well (albeit as an opener). More recently, the Rays have been deploying Romero in short-relief stints down in Triple-A, perhaps taking a look at him in that role for a late-season add to the bullpen. The progression of other arms on the injured list, however, has squeezed him out of the mix for the time being, even in spite of excellent numbers since sliding to the bullpen (0.59 ERA, 18-to-3 K/BB ratio in 15 1/3 innings).
A former 15th-round pick of the Mariners (2017), Romero landed in the Rays organization by way of the 2018 Denard Span/Alex Colome trade between Tampa Bay and Seattle. He’s never ranked among the Rays’ very top tier of prospects, but Baseball America tabbed him 22nd among Tampa farmhands just a few weeks ago when updating their ranking of the Rays’ system. Every team is going to have its own evaluation of Romero, of course, but it’d be somewhat of a surprise if another team didn’t claim him — particularly with so many non-contenders in need of cost-controlled arms.
It’s unfortunate, to say the least, that Herget didn’t get into a game during his brief time with the big league squad. Selected to the roster on Aug. 19, the 31-year-old, former 39th-round pick’s ascent to the Majors after a nine-year minor league grind was a feel-good story for any baseball fan, regardless of where one’s allegiance may lie. Herget surely relishes the mere call to the big leagues, the few days of service time and the few days of Major League pay he’ll receive, but it’d have been a thrill for both him and for fans to see him get at least an inning in the show.
It’s possible, of course, that he may yet receive that opportunity. Herget’s promotion to the Majors was well earned based on his Triple-A performance this season. In 80 1/3 innings, he’d logged a 2.45 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, a minuscule 3.4% walk rate and a 34.4% ground-ball rate. A 31-year-old journeyman of this nature isn’t typically claimed off waivers, but perhaps a team in need of some immediate rotation depth will be heartened by those gaudy results in Durham and speculate on a more-or-less free look. Failing that, he’ll head back to Durham and continue the grind, hoping for another shot at the Majors that includes an actual appearance on the bump.
Cubs Select Nicholas Padilla
The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Nicholas Padilla from Triple-A Iowa and appointed him as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader, per a club announcement. Jason Heyward was moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man move. Chicago also formally announced its previously reported selection of righty Javier Assad and optioned righty Kervin Castro to Iowa. Chicago’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.
Padilla, 25, was selected by the Cubs out of the Rays organization in the minor league phase of the 2020 Rule 5 Draft. He’s never ranked among the top prospects in either organization but has set himself up for this call to the big leagues with a strong showing across three minor league levels in 2022.
In 43 innings between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, Padilla has logged a collective 2.30 ERA and fanned 31.5% of his opponents along the way. His 13.8% walk rate, four hit batters (2.2%) and seven wild pitches highlight some command issues that have plagued him dating back to 2019. Padilla’s hefty 55.5% ground-ball rate this season has helped him to mitigate the damage from those free passes, however, and he’s yet to allow a home run on the year. Through 232 career minor league innings, he’s yielded just nine home runs (0.35 HR/9).
Heyward’s move to the 60-day injured list was a pure formality. The Cubs already announced that he wouldn’t return this season, and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer revealed earlier this month that the Cubs plan to release Heyward at the end of the season.
Kyle Hendricks Diagnosed With Capsular Tear In Shoulder
Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks has been dealing with shoulder discomfort for more than a month, and while initial MRIs did not reveal any structural damage, a newer MRI and second opinion revealed a capsular tear, Hendricks explained to reporters yesterday (link via Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune). While capsule tears are often ominous injuries with quite lengthy recovery periods, Hendricks’ tear is relatively small and is not expected to require surgery.
It was already known that Hendricks would not pitch again in 2022, but the diagnosis of the tear obviously adds some additional uncertainty to his long-term outlook. For now, he’ll go through a strengthening program and set his focus on being ready for the 2023 season — the final guaranteed season in a four-year, $55.5MM contract. The Cubs hold a $16MM club option for a fifth season, which comes with a $1.5MM buyout.
From 2016-20, Hendricks was one of the best and most consistent starting pitchers in the National League, logging a combined 3.00 ERA with a 21.1% strikeout rate and an excellent 5.3% walk rate in 787 innings. Hendricks was one of the sport’s most durable arms in that time, requiring only a six-week IL stay in 2017 due to tendinitis in his pitching hand and a minimal 10-day stay in 2019 due to inflammation in his right shoulder.
Since that outstanding half-decade peak, however, Hendricks’ results have tumbled rather quickly. He made 32 starts in 2021 but logged a disappointing 4.77 ERA that was far and away the worst of his career. This year’s 4.80 mark through his first 16 starts was a near identical number. Hendricks, after averaging just 0.89 homers per nine innings pitched through the first seven seasons of his career, has surrendered an average of 1.56 long balls per nine frames since Opening Day 2021. His 17.3% strikeout rate is down nearly four percentage points from that previously mentioned peak, and his 6% walk rate, while still south of the 7.6% league average among starters, is up slightly from Hendricks’ best days as well.
The hope for the Cubs, of course, is that a healthier Hendricks can return to form and rejoin a rotation that also includes veteran Marcus Stroman and 27-year-olds Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson. Right-hander Adrian Sampson, 30, has been solid through 10 starts as well. Former top prospect Adbert Alzolay, who started 21 games for the Cubs last year, has missed the entire 2022 season thus far due to a lat strain. However, he embarked on a minor league rehab assignment just yesterday and could yet return before the end of the year.
The extent to which Hendricks progresses from the tear between now and the onset of free agency will, on some level, inform the Cubs’ approach to addressing their pitching staff over the winter. Solid as Steele (3.25 ERA, 3.75 SIERA in 113 2/3 innings) and Thompson (3.97 ERA, 4.21 SIERA, 104 2/3 innings), there’ll still be a need to bring in some reinforcements. Owner Tom Ricketts recently vowed to be “very active” in free agency, although those comments perhaps deliberately stopped short of forecasting an aggressive pursuit of top-tier free agents.
Cubs starters this season rank 21st in the Majors in ERA (4.33), 24th in FIP (4.41) and 20th in SIERA (4.23). They’re also 19th in strikeout rate (20.4%) but have the game’s 10th-highest walk rate (8%). Left-handers Drew Smyly and Wade Miley are both ticketed for free agency this winter. Smyly does have a mutual option on his one-year contract, but it’s quite rare for both sides of a mutual option to be exercised and Smyly has thrown well enough that he could seek a larger guarantee or perhaps a multi-year deal on the open market.
Royals Promote Drew Waters
The Royals have recalled outfield prospect Drew Waters from Triple-A Omaha and optioned outfielder Nate Eaton to Triple-A in his place, per a team announcement. It’ll be the Major League debut for Waters, whom Kansas City acquired from Atlanta last month (alongside two other minor leaguers) in a trade that sent a Competitive Balance draft selection back to the Braves.
Waters, 23, was a second-round pick back in 2017 and long rated as one of the more promising all-around prospects in the game. The switch-hitter was a consensus top-100 prospect each year from 2019-21, but at the time of the trade sending him to Kansas City, his stock was down a fair bit. Waters had mashed his way through the Double-A level but seen his bat stall out in Triple-A, where he’d slashed .246/.324/.383 in just shy of 800 total plate appearances across parts of three seasons. Of even greater concern was the 30.7% strikeout rate he’d posted in those three Triple-A stints.
The Royals, however, remained enamored of Waters’ skill set and clearly held him in high regard. The day after the trade, Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo touted Waters as a “true center fielder” and “plus defender” with still-developing skills at the plate. All indications based both on Picollo’s comments and on the mere fact that the Royals targeted Waters in that trade was that the club still viewed him as an intriguing prospect and a potential everyday option in center field.
To this point, the Royals have to be thrilled with how Waters has responded to the move. Since joining his new organization, Waters has been on absolute fire in Omaha, raking at a .295/.399/.541 pace with seven home runs, five doubles, a pair of triples and a perfect 13-for-13 showing in stolen bases. It’s just a 31-game, 143-plate appearance sample, but the results are quite encouraging. Waters has also walked at a 14% clip that would be the highest single-season mark of his entire career by a fairly wide margin. Strikeouts are still an issues, as he’s punched out at a bloated 28.7% clip since the trade — actually a slight increase from this year’s 27.1% rate in the Braves organization.
Still, the recent production from Waters has surely restored some of the shine on his name, and he ought to be in line for regular work with the Royals as the season draws to a close. At 25 games under .500 and 16.5 games out of the AL Central lead with the third-worst run differential in MLB (-149), the focus in Kansas City is now on the future rather than on the 2022 season. It’s in the Royals’ interest to get Waters some work at the big league level to evaluate whether he’s ready for a prime role in next season’s outfield or whether he might need further time in the minors (perhaps prompting a short-term outfield addition this winter).
There’s no way for Waters to reach a full year of service time in 2022, so even if he’s in the big leagues for good, the Royals will control him all the way through the 2028 season. He’s also being called up for his debut well past the point at which Super Two status could be achievable, so he won’t reach arbitration until the 2025-26 offseason at the earliest. Future optional assignments could delay both that arbitration timeline and Waters’ free-agent timeline, of course. Waters only had his contract selected for the first time this past November, meaning he’s in his first minor league option year and will have a pair of minor league options remaining beyond the current season.