Mets Place Luis Guillorme On Injured List
The Mets are placing infielder Luis Guillorme on the 10-day injured list due to a groin strain, the team announced. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reported the diagnosis and the potential 3-4 week recovery period that Guillorme will need shortly before the team made it official (Twitter link). Once Guillorme recovers from the injury, he’ll need some time to build back up and go out on a rehab assignment, so he could be on the shelf as long as six weeks, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets.
There’d already been some speculation about top prospect Brett Baty joining the Mets to make his big league debut in place of Guillorme, but manager Buck Showalter quashed those rumors in meeting with reporters today. Neither Baty nor Mark Vientos are viewed as options to take Guillorme’s spot on the roster at this time, DiComo tweets.
The loss of Guillorme is tough for the Mets, whose infield mix has thinned out a bit recently. Eduardo Escobar isn’t on the injured list but has been battling oblique discomfort. He’s in the lineup tonight, but the veteran switch-hitter is limited to batting left-handed for the time being. J.D. Davis, meanwhile, was traded to the Giants prior to the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
Guillorme has been solid on both sides of the ball in 2022, batting .283/.355/.357 while taking a career-high 289 plate appearances. He’s offered next to no power but has also shown strong bat-to-ball and plate discipline skills, evidenced by a career-low 13.5% strikeout rate and a sharp 10% walk rate.
It’s not yet clear how the Mets will handle filling Guillorme’s spot on the roster, though Showalter indicated that someone is on the way to take that spot, specifically mentioning a need to add a player who can cover some middle infield work as needed, as well. (Guillorme is the team’s lone backup to shortstop Francisco Lindor.) Speculatively, the Mets have both JT Riddle and Deven Marrero as veteran options in Triple-A Syracuse, though there’s been no indication from the team that either is being selected to the MLB roster.
Guillorme isn’t the only player the Mets will be without for the time being, either. Showalter indicated that catcher Tomas Nido is away from the club due to illness, which has prompted the Mets to recall catcher Michael Perez from Triple-A. Perez, acquired from the Pirates in late July, will make his team debut if he gets into a game while Nido is unavailable.
Blue Jays, Yoshi Tsutsugo Close To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays are close to signing first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo to a minor league contract, interim manager John Schneider indicated to reporters Monday (Twitter link via Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic). Yuki Yamada of Japan’s Sankei Sports first reported that Tsutsugo was likely to land with Toronto on a minor league pact.
The 30-year-old Tsutsugo began the 2022 season on a one-year, $4MM deal with the Pirates but was cut loose by Pittsburgh last week after hitting just .171/.249/.229 with a pair of homers and four doubles through 193 plate appearances. That output was miles from the .268/.347/.535 slash turned in by Tsutsugo through 144 plate appearances down the stretch with the Pirates in 2021. The Pirates are on the hook for the remainder of his salary, so the Jays would only owe Tsutsugo the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the Major League roster.
Once a star-caliber slugger in with Japan’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars — when he posted a combined .293/.402/.574 with 139 home runs, 116 doubles, five triples, a 15.1 percent walk rate and a 20.4 percent strikeout rate in his final four NPB campaigns from 2016-19 — Tsutsugo has struggled in the big leagues. Originally signed by the Rays to a two-year, $12MM contract back in Dec. 2019, Tsutsugo has drawn plenty of walks throughout his big league tenure (11.6%) but has struggled with strikeouts (26.9%) while showing a particular susceptibility to sliders.
Tsutsugo likely amounts to little more than a depth addition for the Jays at this point, though with a nice showing in Buffalo he could emerge as an option to give Toronto an extra left-handed bat when they pick up another couple roster spots in September. Following today’s DFA of outfielder Bradley Zimmer, the Blue Jays currently have just three left-handed hitters on the Major League roster — Raimel Tapia, Cavan Biggio, Jackie Bradley Jr. — none of whom are especially productive hitters. Tapia is the only one logging regular at-bats right now, and he figures to continue doing so in center field for at least a few days, with George Springer being eased back in as a designated hitter following today’s activation from the injured list (Twitter link via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi).
The righty-heavy Jays have still been one of baseball’s most productive clubs against right-handed pitching, but there’s little harm in picking up a lefty bat with some thump and taking a low-cost look at him in Triple-A in order to see if they can help to coax some more production out of his swing later this season.
Read The Transcript Of Today’s Fantasy Baseball Chat With Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson has been writing about fantasy baseball for more than a decade and has considerable experience in Roto, H2H, dynasty, DFS, and experimental formats. As an expert in the field, Brad participates in the Tout Wars Draft and Hold format and was crowned the league’s winner in 2020. Brad’s writing experience includes RotoGraphs, NBC SportsEDGE, and right here at MLB Trade Rumors. He’s also presented at the First Pitch Arizona fantasy baseball conference.
We’ll be hosting fantasy baseball-focused chats with Brad regularly, and feel free to drop him some questions on Twitter @BaseballATeam as well.
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Guardians Designate Jake Jewell For Assignment
The Guardians have designated right-hander Jake Jewell for assignment, tweets Mandy Bell of MLB.com. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Xzavion Curry, who will indeed be selected to the 40-man roster to start the second game of today’s doubleheader (as already covered here). Cleveland also reinstated James Karinchak from the restricted list and returned righty Peyton Battenfield to Triple-A Columbus.
Jewell, a longtime Angels farmhand, has begun to bounce around the league via waivers and minor league free agency in recent years, spending time with the Giants, Cubs, Dodgers and now Guardians since being let go by the Halos organization. He’s been hit hard in 38 1/3 career innings at the MLB level (7.75 ERA) but has posted a strong season in Cleveland’s system so far this year.
Through 43 1/3 innings in Triple-A Columbus, Jewell has pitched to a 2.49 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and a huge 63.3% ground-ball rate. Despite that strong showing, Jewell wasn’t selected to the 40-man roster until a few days after the trade deadline. He didn’t make it into a big league game before being optioned back to Columbus and now jettisoned from the 40-man roster. With trades of players who’ve been on the Major League roster at any point now prohibited, Jewell will be placed on waivers or released within the next week. All 29 other clubs would be able to claim him.
Despite the lack of big league success, there’s a chance Jewell could end up claimed by another club. He’s optionable for the remainder of the season, creating some flexibility, and beyond the strong numbers he’s logged so far in 2022, he has a lengthy track record of sharp numbers at the game’s top minor league level. Jewell had a rough showing in Triple-A in 2019 — a season that saw Triple-A leagues use the same juiced ball as the Majors — but has otherwise managed ERAs well south of 4.00 and solid strikeout rates in his other three Triple-A campaigns. On the whole, Jewell has racked up 151 innings of 3.64 ERA ball with a 25.1% strikeout rate, a 10.5% walk rate, an impressive 59.8% ground-ball rate and just 0.50 HR/9 at the game’s top minor league level.
Guardians To Select Xzavion Curry
The Guardians will turn to right-handed pitching prospect Xzavion Curry to start the second game of today’s doubleheader, manager Terry Francona announced (Twitter link via Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga). He’ll need to have his contract formally selected to the 40-man roster, which is currently at capacity.
Curry, 24, was Cleveland’s seventh-round pick back in 2019 and has enjoyed a strong season between Double-A and Triple-A, working to a combined 3.48 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate over the life of 101 innings (17 starts, two relief appearances). Curry didn’t post dominant numbers in his college days at Georgia Tech and was listed at “just” 5’10”, which might’ve contributed to him landing in the seventh round of his draft. However, he’s had little to no problems adapting to professional ball, posting strong results at every minor league stop — culminating in a career 2.90 minor league ERA.
FanGraphs tabs Curry 12th among Guardians farmhands in an absolutely stacked system, and he lands 18th on Baseball America’s midseason rankings. Scouting reports on Curry note that even though his heater sits in the low 90s, its huge spin and his deceptive delivery help it play up as a plus pitch that can miss bats in bunches. His secondary offerings don’t garner as much praise, though his slider is regarded as a potentially above-average pitch — and Curry’s outstanding command helps all of his pitches exceed expectations at times. He’s walked just 46 off the 795 hitters he’s faced as a pro (5.8%).
Curry will give Guards fans their first look at the latest rotation option to step out of the organization’s pitching factory. Cleveland seems to grow viable big league starters on trees, with both Curry and righty Peyton Battenfield (drafted two rounds after Curry) the latest unheralded prospects to surge through the system and position themselves as potential big league contributors. The Guardians’ five-man rotation is presently full, thanks to the presence of Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac and Cal Quantrill, but both Curry and Battenfield have seemingly pitched their way to the upper levels of the organization’s depth chart.
Success in routinely turning out promising arms is one of the many reasons the Guardians have regularly been able to trade from their Major League pitching staff to keep the minor league system stacked without needing to dive headlong into a tedious, years-long rebuilding effort in recent seasons. Cleveland was reportedly open to trade offers on some controllable arms prior to the deadline — Plesac’s name was most commonly speculated upon — and promising late showings from arms like Curry who make their debuts this season will make it easier for the Guardians to renew any of those conversations this winter if they choose.
Cardinals Release T.J. McFarland
The Cardinals have released left-hander T.J. McFarland following last week’s DFA, as first indicated on their transactions log at MLB.com. He’s free to sign with any of the 29 other clubs and, so long as he’s in a new organization prior to Sept. 1, could be postseason-eligible with that new team.
Of course, the veteran McFarland would need to rediscover his 2021 form before even being considered for such a role with a new team. The 33-year-old was a rock-solid member of the Cardinals’ bullpen last year, racking up groundouts in droves (63.7%) while rarely issuing free passes (6.3%) or surrendering home runs (0.70 HR/9). Despite a paltry 14.6% strikeout rate, that blend of grounders and lack of walks/dingers resulted in a 2.56 ERA through 38 2/3 frames. Fielding-independent metrics weren’t as bullish but generally pegged the southpaw as a quality bullpen option (3.78 xERA, 3.79 FIP, 3.85 SIERA).
McFarland faced exactly one more batter with the Cardinals in 2022 (145) than he did in 2021 (144), but his return stint in St. Louis proved nightmarish in that near-identical sample. All of his rate stats trended in the wrong direction (11% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate, 53% grounder rate, 1.38 HR/9) — and so, too, did his results. In 32 2/3 innings, McFarland was rocked for a 6.61 ERA. Fewer strikeouts and grounders, paired with a considerable uptick in walks, long balls and general hard contact is hardly a recipe for success for any pitcher, after all.
That said, McFarland’s 88.9 mph average sinker in 2022 was pretty closely in line with his 89.2 mph average in 2021, and even his “diminished” walk and ground-ball rates are well better than the league average. The bottom-of-the-barrel strikeout rate is an obvious concern, but McFarland has never been one to miss bats (13.8% career strikeout rate) and nonetheless still carries a 4.13 ERA in 472 1/3 Major League frames.
If a new team can help McFarland get his sinker back on track and bump that grounder rate closer to the 63% mark he carried into the season, it’s possible he could get back on track and contribute some useful innings in the season’s final few weeks. The Cardinals are paying the remainder of this year’s $2.5MM salary regardless, so a new club would only need to pay McFarland the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. At the very least, any contender looking for some lefty depth to stash in Triple-A could take a chance on stashing McFarland in the upper minors.
Orioles Promote DL Hall
TODAY: The Orioles officially announced Hall’s promotion. Left-hander Nick Vespi was optioned to Triple-A to make room on Baltimore’s active roster.
AUGUST 12, 9:41pm: Hall will start Saturday’s game, Hyde confirmed to reporters (including Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball). Kostka first suggested as much this afternoon.
2:59pm: Top pitching prospect DL Hall is traveling to meet the Orioles in St. Petersburg for their upcoming series against the Rays, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports (Twitter link). Manager Brandon Hyde confirmed that Hall was being promoted but suggested the team has yet to decide when he’ll first pitch (via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Sun).
It’s been a half-decade since Hall entered the organization as the 21st overall pick in the 2017 draft. A Georgia high school product, he received a $3MM signing bonus on the strength of a mid-90s fastball and a curveball that most evaluators considered at least a plus offering. Hall also showed a promising changeup but had some questions about the consistency of strike-throwing ability.
That report — monster raw stuff paired with spotty control — has become perhaps even more extreme during his time in the professional ranks. Baseball America wrote over the offseason that Hall now touches 100 MPH and averages around 97 MPH on his heater. That’s atypical velocity for any starter but particularly rare for a left-hander. Among MLB starters with 30+ innings on the season, Jesus Luzardo and Shane McClanahan are the only southpaws averaging north of 96 MPH (although Carlos Rodon, Blake Snell and Aaron Ashby are all between 95.5 MPH and 96 MPH).
BA credits Hall with two distinct breaking pitches — a mid-80s slider and a somewhat softer curveball — and grades both as at least above-average offerings. The outlet also credits him with the solid changeup he’s long had in his arsenal, giving him one of the better repertoires for any young pitcher. Hall has appeared among BA’s top 60 overall prospects entering each of the past four years, and he earned the #59 ranking on the publication’s latest update from last week.
That elite arsenal has unsurprisingly translated into plenty of whiffs at the minor league level. Hall has fanned more than a third of opponents at every stop since hitting High-A in 2019. That includes a massive 36% strikeout rate through 18 starts with Triple-A Norfolk this season. Among International League pitchers with 50+ frames, only teammate Grayson Rodriguez (who’s widely regarded as the top pitching prospect in the sport) has punched out batters at a better clip.
Unlike Rodriguez, however, Hall has still yet to consistently harness his arsenal. He’s walked upwards of 10% of batters faced at each level and has doled out free passes to 13.9% of opponents in Norfolk. No qualified big league starter has a walk rate anywhere near that high, and it’s the third-highest mark among that group of International League hurlers with 50 or more innings. The free passes, paired with an elevated .340 batting average on balls in play against him, have contributed to a lackluster 4.76 ERA over his first 70 Triple-A innings.
Nevertheless, the Orioles are set to get a look at Hall against big league hitters in what is surprisingly a pivotal series for Baltimore. They’re 58-53 on the year, just half a game behind the Tampa Bay club against which he’s likely to make his debut for the American League’s last Wild Card spot. The next three games are arguably as important as any the franchise has played in over five years. Giving Hall the ball in any of those contests is a strong show of faith in the 23-year-old.
Hall is already on the 40-man roster, having been added last offseason to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft that never wound up happening. He’s in the first of three minor league option years and could certainly bounce between Baltimore and Norfolk over the coming weeks. We’re already well past the date for Hall to get either a full season of service time or enough to have a serious possibility at qualifying for early arbitration as a Super Two player after 2024. Even if he’s in the big leagues from here on out, he won’t reach arbitration until after the 2025 campaign and won’t hit free agency until the 2028-29 offseason. That trajectory could be pushed back further by future options to the minor leagues.
Tarik Skubal Visiting Specialist With Elbow Issue; Expected To Miss Remainder Of Season
4:32pm: Skubal is set to visit orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache next week, reports Chris McCosky of the Detroit News (Twitter link). The 25-year-old is alarmingly dealing with some form of elbow injury, although Hinch declined to speculate as to whether surgery was a possibility until the results of next week’s testing became apparent. McCosky adds that Skubal will not return to the mound in 2022 in any event.
3:03pm: The Tigers announced Friday that they’ve transferred lefty Tarik Skubal from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. The move opens a spot on the roster for lefty Daniel Norris, whose contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Toledo (as previously reported). It also casts doubt on whether Skubal will return at all in the 2022 season. Since he was placed on the 15-day IL on Aug. 2, there’s still technically time for him to get back for the final week of games in early October — but today’s move makes that look fairly unlikely.
It’s a fairly surprising shift for Skubal, who was placed on the injured list due to general arm fatigue. Skubal was lifted from his final start of the season after five efficient innings and downplayed any severity, telling the Tigers beat that he anticipated making his next start. Instead, it’s now possible that he won’t pitch in a game until next season. The Tigers didn’t provide any further updates on Skubal’s health beyond the move to the 60-day IL, though manager AJ Hinch will presumably divulge some additional context prior to tonight’s game.
If Skubal’s season is indeed over, it was a strong breakout year for the former top prospect. The 25-year-old will fall shy of last year’s 149 2/3 innings, but in the 117 2/3 frames he managed during the 2022 campaign, Skubal worked to a 3.52 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate, a strong 6.7% walk rate and a solid 45.7% grounder rate. Most importantly, he maintained the generally sharp strikeout and walk rates he’d displayed in 2021 while dramatically scaling back his home-run rate (2.11 HR/9 in 2021; 0.69 HR/9 in 2022). If Skubal can continue to miss bats, limit walks, keep the ball on the ground and limit home runs in this capacity, there’s room for even greater improvement (as evidenced by his hearty 2.97 FIP).
Whether there’s another gear for Skubal or this is roughly his peak output, he’s solidified himself as at least a quality mid-rotation option for Hinch in the coming years. Though there was talk of the Tigers being willing to at least listen to offers on the lefty before the Aug. 2 trade deadline, the Tigers would’ve required an exorbitant haul to part with him given that he’s still under team control for another four seasons beyond the current campaign. Given the current uncertainty regarding his arm, it’s difficult to imagine those talks being revisited this winter, as the Tigers — who’ll be operating under a new general manager after firing Al Avila yesterday — would be selling low on the heels of a lengthy IL stay.
As for what the Tigers’ rotation will look like moving forward, it’s practically anyone’s guess. Skubal joins Casey Mize and Spencer Turnbull (Tommy John surgery in both cases) as key rotation pieces on the 60-day injured list. The Tigers are currently also without Michael Pineda, Beau Brieske and Rony Garcia (injured list) and lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (rehabbing following a lengthy stay on the restricted list while dealing with a reported marital issue). That’s left the Tigers with Norris, Matt Manning, Tyler Alexander, journeyman Drew Hutchison and rookie Garrett Hill as options for the time being. With little certainty among that quintet, there figures to be additional rotation tumult in the final weeks of the year.
Marlins Outright Billy Hamilton
The Marlins have outrighted outfielder Billy Hamilton to Triple-A Jacksonville and optioned outfielder Bryan De La Cruz to Jacksonville, tweets Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. That pair of moves makes room for infielder/outfielders Jon Berti and Brian Anderson to be reinstated from the injured list.
That Hamilton has already been outrighted to Triple-A indicates that he passed through waivers unclaimed. Given the time of year and the number of teams that could view him as a vital defensive replacement/pinch-runner late in the season, that’s a bit of a surprise. That said, Hamilton also has the ability to reject this assignment in favor of free agency, which would allow him the opportunity to potentially latch on with a contender.
Hamilton, 31, appeared in 20 games with the Marlins but, reflective of the role in which he’ll most often find himself at this point in his career, logged just 15 plate appearances. The former top prospect averaged 57 steals per season with the Reds from 2014-17 and has long been regarded as one of the best defensive players in the sport, regardless of position. His offense has never matched the baserunning and defensive value, however, and his typically pedestrian output at the plate has dwindled even further in recent years.
Dating back to the 2019 season, the switch-hitting Hamilton is a .209/.266/.293 hitter in 241 plate appearances. Though he had a knack for putting the ball in play early in his career, he’s fanned in nearly 37% of his plate appearances over the past two seasons.
That said, Hamilton has gone 16-for-16 in stolen bases over the past two seasons and is 321-for-392 (81.9%) in his career. He’s also racked up a whopping 74 Defensive Runs Saved and 59 Outs Above Average to go along with a 57.9 Ultimate Zone Rating in 6865 career innings in the outfield (nearly all coming in center).
Michael Brantley Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery
The Astros announced Friday that outfielder Michael Brantley, who has been out since June due to a shoulder issue, underwent an arthroscopic procedure to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. The surgery will end his season.
Since Brantley was placed on the injured list, the Astros have been vague regarding the nature of Brantley’s injury. General manager James Click said in July that there were no updates on Brantley other than that the team was waiting for inflammation in his shoulder to subside. Acting manager Joe Espada (filling in while Dusty Baker was out due to Covid-19) said earlier this week that Brantley was seeking a second opinion.
Today’s announcement is the first indication of structural damage within the shoulder. This is the second time in Brantley’s career that he’s required surgery on this shoulder; he also suffered a small tear in his labrum late in the 2015 campaign and eventually underwent surgery that November.
Brantley, 35, is the second season of a two-year, $32MM contract with the Astros. It’s the second consecutive two-year, $32MM deal he’s signed with Houston, where he’s now played since the 2019 campaign. He’s appeared in 64 games and taken 277 plate appearances this season, batting .288/.370/.418 with five homers, 14 doubles and a triple. In all, Brantley has batted a combined .306/.368/.464 in just over 1600 regular-season plate appearances as an Astro, plus an additional 211 plate appearances of .314/.376/.408 production in the postseason.
If that’s the end of Brantley’s run with the Houston franchise, he’ll go down as an immensely successful veteran signing. There’s no option on Brantley’s contract, so he’s set to become a free agent in a couple months’ time. The Astros did not provide a timetable for when he might return to playing. The Astros’ announcement added that Click will speak to reporters in a couple hours, so further updates could be provided at that time.
The ‘Stros have been dealing with Brantley’s absence for some time already, most regularly turning to Chas McCormick, Yordan Alvarez and Aledmys Diaz in his absence. Houston acquired Trey Mancini from the Orioles prior to the Aug. 2 trade deadline, but Baker has voiced a reluctance to play him in the outfield, given Mancini’s limited outfield work in recent seasons. (More broadly, he’s opted to sit Mancini nearly as often as start him since the trade, much to the chagrin of Astros fans.)
Subtracting Brantley from the outfield mix entirely puts a damper on the potential postseason roster, as players like McCormick and Diaz — generally viewed as depth/bench options — will now be pressed into more full-time duty. Add in the ongoing struggles of center fielder Jake Meyers, who’s batting just .218/.260/.328 this season (and .147/.205/.221 over his past 23 games), and the outfield is at least a potential area of concern for the remainder of the year. It also stands out as a natural area of focus for Click and his staff in the coming offseason, whether they pursue a Brantley reunion or look for alternatives on the free-agent and/or trade markets.