Ronald Torreyes Granted Release By Phillies
Veteran infielder Ronald Torreyes has requested and been granted his release by the Phillies, tweets Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Torreyes had been with the Phils on a minor league pact but is now a free agent who is free to explore opportunities with other clubs.
Torreyes, 29, has gotten out to a slow start in Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season, hitting just .171/.237/.200 while seeing time at second base, shortstop and third base. The Phillies’ recent move to option top prospect Bryson Stott to Lehigh Valley surely stood to impact the playing time available to Torreyes — which may have been a contributing factor in his decision to request his release.
Last season, Torreyes appeared in 111 games with the Phils and took 344 turns at the plate, posting a .242/.286/.346 slash that rated well below the league average (32% worse, by measure of wRC+). He provided some value with the glove, appearing at third base, shortstop, second base and center field — with particularly strong marks for his defensive work at the hot corner (2 Defensive Runs Saved, 2.9 Ultimate Zone Rating, 4 Outs Above Average in 354 innings).
Torreyes is a favorite of Phillies skipper Joe Girardi, dating back to the pair’s time together with the Yankees, but it seems there’s no opportunity for him at the MLB level presently. As such, he’ll head into free agency in search of a new opportunity — ideally with a club that is thin in terms of its infield options at the moment. In 983 plate appearances in the Majors, Torreyes is a .265/.299/.361 hitter who has fanned at just a 12.6% clip.
Tommy Hunter Works Out For Teams
Veteran reliever Tommy Hunter didn’t pitch after May 18 last season, spending the remainder of the 2021 campaign on the injured list — first with the Mets and then with the Rays, who acquired him as a financial counterweight in the trade that sent Rich Hill from Tampa Bay to New York.
Neither the Mets nor the Rays announced a formal diagnosis for Hunter beyond the Mets’ original indication that he was dealing with a lower back injury. As it turns out, Hunter missed the remainder of last season after undergoing back surgery, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reports (Twitter links). Furthermore, Ghiroli adds that Hunter is now healthy and recent held a bullpen session attended by scouts from upwards of a dozen teams, reaching the mid-90s with his heater during that showcase.
Hunter, 35, appeared in just four games with the Mets last season but was sharp in that brief time, logging eight shutout innings with a 6-to-3 K/BB ratio and an above-average 47.8% ground-ball rate. Solid work out of the ‘pen is nothing new for Hunter, who since moving to the bullpen on a full-time basis in 2013, has compiled 402 innings of 3.18 ERA ball with a 20.7% strikeout rate, an outstanding 5.3% walk rate and a solid 45.9% grounder rate. He’s seen that strikeout rate jump in recent years (23.2% from 2017-21) without significantly increasing his walk rate (5.3%).
Unfortunately for Hunter, injuries are also nothing new for him. There’s little doubt that he’s a talented late-inning arm, but Hunter has dealt with back, forearm (twice), hamstring and calf strains dating back to 2017, and he missed a good portion of the 2016 season following sports hernia surgery as well. Since Opening Day 2016, he’s averaged just 32 innings per season (34 if you exclude the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which skews the number a bit even though Hunter was healthy for it).
Hunter has pitched for seven big league teams and carries a career 3.21 ERA out of the bullpen. Given the lengthy layoff from pitching, he might require a minor league tune-up before he’s able to jump back onto a big league roster, but bullpen-hungry teams will surely be interested in taking a low-cost look at a pitcher with his track record if he’s indeed healthy now.
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 every other Monday at noon CT between now and September, so mark your calendars for those and feel free to drop him some questions on Twitter @BaseballATeam as well.
Astros Moving Cristian Javier Into Rotation
The Astros are moving right-hander Cristian Javier from the bullpen back into what will now be a six-man rotation, manager Dusty Baker told reporters yesterday (link via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). Houston is facing a daunting stretch of 33 games in the next 34 days, and Baker revealed that the team has been expecting to move to a six-man rotation since Spring Training, recognizing this marathon stretch on the schedule.
Javier joins Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy and Jake Odorizzi in what Baker termed a “temporary” six-man rotation. Of course, the fact that the team isn’t planning to trot out a six-man unit for the duration of the season doesn’t mean that Javier is ticketed for bullpen work once this imposing stretch of games draws to a close. Injuries can always alter the picture, and right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. will be eligible to return not long after this 34-day gauntlet. The Astros will also surely need to see better results from Odorizzi (nine runs, five strikeouts, seven walks in nine innings) and Urquidy (5.52 ERA, 11.3% strikeout rate in 14 2/3 innings) for either to hold their starting job in the long term.
Odorizzi, in particular, has drawn the ire of fans early in the season. The righty has gotten out to a slow start for a second straight year, but it’s worth pointing out that in his final 96 2/3 innings after returning from the injured list last season, he pitched to a 3.72 ERA with a 19.8% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate — solid marks that generally fall in line with his career numbers. Odorizzi is playing the 2022 season on a $5MM base salary and is also owed at least a $3.25MM buyout on next year’s $6.5MM player option. He can earn up to $6.75MM via incentives this year, with a $500K bonus for reaching 100 innings and then a $1MM incentive for every 10 innings thereafter, up through 150. He’d receive a $1.25MM bonus for hitting 160 innings.
Turning back to Javier, there’s an easy argument that, based on the talented 25-year-old’s prior success as a starter, a permanent move to the rotation is the right call. While his velocity and strikeout rate are higher when working out of the ‘pen, as one would expect, Javier nevertheless carries a 3.42 ERA and a hearty 26.7% strikeout rate in 19 career appearances as a starter. His 9.8% walk rate when starting games is a good bit lower than the 12.1% mark he’s posted out of the ‘pen, and while it’s still a small sample, Javier hasn’t shown the drastic splits that many pitchers have when facing a lineup for a third time. Opponents have batted .151/.270/.377 against Javier when facing him for the third time in a day.
Looking beyond the current season and what Javier’s move to the rotation could mean for the 2022 Astros, there’d be notable ramifications as soon as 2023. Javier is eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, and he’d be poised for a much larger jump in salary with a successful season’s worth of starts than he would with a season worth of multi-inning relief work. Javier was placed into a long relief role in order to keep him stretched as a starter, Baker noted, but that’s meant only three appearances thus far. Dominant as they’ve been — Javier has yet to allow a run and has fanned 12 of his 31 opponents (38.7%) — Javier hasn’t been put in position to earn a save or a hold, either of which could help his case in arbitration. Working as a starter seems likely to be the best use of his talents for the Astros, but it’s also best for him and his long-term earning capacity in arbitration.
Javier’s first start of the season will be a road outing against the Rangers on Wednesday this week. He’s thrown 28, 53 and 55 pitches in his first three appearances this season, so it’s unlikely he’ll be tasked with tossing 100 pitches and pitching deep into the game. Five to six innings is probably the longest he’ll be allowed to pitch, depending on his efficiency, but the fact that he eclipsed 50 pitches both on April 13 and April 20 indicates that he won’t need to go through a particularly lengthy build-up process.
Rays Notes: Zombro, Yarbrough, Stadium
Right-hander Tyler Zombro made his return to the mound last night with the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate — the first time he pitched in a regular-season game since last season’s horrifying injury. Zombro, struck in the head by a 104 mph comeback liner early last June, underwent emergency brain surgery and had his skull stabilized with 16 plates and 36 screws, as detailed by MLB.com’s Adam Berry. That Zombro fully recovered is a triumph in and of itself, but returning to the mound in less than a year’s time seems nearly impossible to fathom. Last night’s return came on the road against the Norfolk Tides (the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate), and in a particularly classy scene, the entire Tides dugout emptied to laud Zombro with a standing ovation as he took the mound (video link). Zombro’s teammates and many of the fans in attendance followed suit. “That’s been one of the moments that certainly hit me the hardest,” Zombro tells Berry. “…I think it all came kind of full circle there and definitely was a symbol of me ‘completing the journey’ to be back to performing in Triple-A.”
More on the Rays…
- Lefty Ryan Yarbrough made a rehab outing yesterday in hopes of a quick return to the roster, but he retired just one batter, walked four hitters and threw only 10 of his 27 pitches for strikes. Yarbrough, on the shelf since April 8 due to a groin strain, has yet to pitch in a big league game for Tampa Bay so far in 2022. The 30-year-old southpaw is hoping to bounce back from a career-worst year in 2021, when he logged a 5.11 ERA in a career-high 155 frames. He pitched well this spring (one run in 8 1/3 official frames), but it’s not yet clear when he’ll return to the club. Tampa Bay has been (quite successfully) using setup man J.P. Feyereisen as a an opener with Yarbrough, Luis Patino, Shane Baz, Yonny Chirinos, Tyler Glasnow and Brendan McKay all on the injured list. The team hasn’t made any kind of formal announcement regarding Yarbrough’s status, but given the short nature of that outing and the ugly results, it’d be a bit of a surprise to see him activated without another rehab appearance.
- Major League Baseball nixed the Rays’ convoluted split-city plan with Montreal back in January, and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch now tells John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times that he believes there’s a path forward for the Rays right at home in St. Petersburg. While Romano notes that a move to Tampa is the team’s preferred option, they’ve been unable to work out the necessary funding to facilitate such a move (hence the outside-the-box Montreal plan). Welch notes that the city of St. Petersburg has hired new financial consultants to explore whether the possibility of a mixed-use development similar to the Braves’ Battery development surrounding Truist Park could be plausible. Major funding from Pinellas County’s tourist tax would still be required, but Welch struck an optimistic tone that the team and the city could eventually figure out a workable plan. Of course, there’s been no shortage of optimism regarding various stadium plans in recent years, and the team has nevertheless continually found itself back at square one after each has fallen through. The Rays’ current lease at Tropicana Field runs through 2027.
Yankees, Padres Discussed Joey Gallo Deal In Spring Training
Coming off a frustrating half-season in the Bronx last season, Joey Gallo was an oft-speculated trade candidate throughout the offseason. The Yankees indeed explored trade scenarios involving the 28-year-old slugger after the lockout, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, who reports this morning that the Yanks spoke to the Padres about a possible swap during Spring Training.
It’s not the first time that the Padres have inquired on Gallo. San Diego looked into Gallo at last year’s trade deadline, and Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has made a habit of acquiring players he knows well from his days as an assistant GM in Texas. That no deal came together is surely reflective of multiple complicating factors.
First and foremost, the Padres appeared to be generally hamstrung for much of the offseason, as they signaled limited payroll capacity while seeking to shed salary (e.g. Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers) in trades. Even in their trade sending Chris Paddack, Emilio Pagan and a PTBNL to the Twins in exchange for Taylor Rogers, the Padres had Minnesota take on $6.6MM of Rogers’ $7.3MM salary — effectively reducing him to a league-minimum player.
Secondly, Heyman suggests that the Yankees weren’t looking to sell low on Gallo. Rather, they were seeking a return that did not discount for his recent struggles and was more commensurate with his overall ability. Gallo hit .223/.379/.490 with 25 homers in 388 plate appearances with the Rangers prior to last July’s trade but fell into a .160/.303/.404 swoon in 228 trips to the plate as a Yankee. His gaudy 19.1% walk rate dipped to a still-excellent 16.2% in New York, but Gallo’s already problematic 32.2% strikeout rate as a Ranger soared to 38.6% with his new club.
Gallo, of course, is an excellent defensive outfielder with surprising speed, an elite walk rate and perhaps as much raw power as any hitter in the game today. Those perks have been well known for some time, and they’ve tantalized scouts even as the slugger’s contact woes have led to him regularly punching out in more than a third of his plate appearances. Gallo embodies the three-true-outcome approach as much as any hitter in baseball, making him one of the game’s most polarizing talents.
We can’t know how Gallo might have fared upon moving from New York to San Diego, but the start of the 2022 season hasn’t been been a good one for the impending free agent. Gallo had a decent Spring Training, but he’s currently hitting .121/.256/.121 through his first 39 plate appearances. He’s made some hard contact — half the balls he’s put into play have been hit at 95 mph or more — but Gallo is also putting the ball on the ground more than usual and has generally mirrored the worsened K-BB profile he showed following last summer’s trade.
Obviously, we’re just 12 games into a 162-game marathon, so there’s ample time for Gallo to right the ship. When he gets hot, he’s the type of bat who can absolutely carry an offense — evidenced by the outrageous .308/.479/.813 slash he posted from early June through the All-Star break last season. A stretch like that will earn him plenty of leeway, but Gallo has yet to truly ignite in that fashion since being traded. And, given that the Yankees currently rank 25th in runs scored, there’s some extra attention on Gallo and others who are struggling (e.g. Josh Donaldson, Gleyber Torres, Giancarlo Stanton, Kyle Higashioka).
Ultimately, past efforts to trade Gallo could be taken as little more than anecdotal. However, it’s of some note that Preller’s Padres still harbored interest as recently as a few weeks ago and, of course, that the Yankees were indeed open to moving Gallo in the run-up to the season. April or May trades involving a player of Gallo’s stature are quite rare, so it’s not especially likely that we’ll see a move involving him in the near future. That said, he could very well be a name to keep in mind again this summer as teams begin to explore the trade market more earnestly.
Gallo is playing the 2022 season on a $10.275MM salary and is slated to become a free agent at season’s end.
Red Sox Activate Christian Vazquez
Apr. 20: Vazquez has been reinstated with Hernandez optioned backed to Triple-A Worcester, per a team announcement.
Apr. 19: The Red Sox have selected the contract of veteran infielder/outfielder Rob Refsnyder and recalled right-hander Tyler Danish from Triple-A Worcester, per a club announcement. Catcher Christian Vazquez and infielder Jonathan Arauz were placed on the Covid-19-related injured list.
The series of moves leaves Connor Wong as the only catcher on Boston’s active roster, as backup Kevin Plawecki was also placed on the Covid list yesterday. It would appear that additional moves could be forthcoming, as MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reported last night that minor league catcher Ronaldo Hernandez was expected to be promoted to the big league roster. Hernandez has since shared news of a big league call-up on his Instagram story. The Sox have not yet formally announced that move, however.
Refsnyder, 31, spent the 2021 season with the Twins and logged 157 Major League plate appearances, batting at a .245/.325/.338 pace while spending time at all three outfield positions. Refsnyder also has ample experience at second base and third base, though Minnesota used him exclusively in the outfield. In 614 career plate appearances between the Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers and Twins, Refsnyder is a .224/.310/.308 hitter.
Both Vazquez and Arauz will be away from the Sox for a yet-to-be-determined period of time. Boston has not yet announced whether either Vazquez or Arauz has tested positive or whether they’re showing symptoms and thus undergoing further testing. The jointly agreed-upon health and safety protocols for the 2022 season stipulate a 10-day absence following a positive test, though that absence can be shortened if the player records a pair of negative PCR tests and is approved by a team medical official and a joint committee of one MLB-appointed and one MLBPA-appointed doctor.
Twins Outright Jharel Cotton
Apr. 20: Cotton has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A St. Paul, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Apr. 13: The Twins have selected the contract of right-hander Dereck Rodriguez and designated righty Jharel Cotton for assignment in a corresponding move, tweets Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Rodriguez, 29, will be making his debut for the team that originally selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 draft, though he took a rather roundabout way to getting there. The son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Dereck never got a big league look in seven years with Minnesota before becoming a minor league free agent and signing on with the Giants. He made his MLB debut with San Francisco in 2018 and enjoyed a brilliant rookie season before struggling immensely in 2019-20.
With the 2018 Giants, Rodriguez posted an out-of-the-blue 2.81 ERA in 118 1/3 innings. His 18.3% strikeout rate and 39.5% grounder rate were both well below the league average, but his 7.4% walk rate was strong. Fielding-independent marks weren’t as bullish on Rodriguez as his bottom-line ERA but generally felt he looked the part of at least a fourth/fifth starter.
Rodriguez unraveled in 2019, however, when opponents belted 21 home runs against him in just 99 innings, en route to a 5.64 ERA. His strikeout and walk rates trended in the wrong direction, and by 2020, Rodriguez received just four big league innings (allowing six runs on 10 hits, including two more homers) before being designated for assignment. The Tigers claimed him off waivers but didn’t put him on the mound in a big league game, and Rodriguez elected free agency after clearing waivers that November. He signed a minor league deal with the Rockies last year but pitched to a 6.72 ERA in 22 Triple-A games.
Rodriguez returned to his original organization on a minor league contract this winter. He tossed a scoreless inning for the Twins during Spring Training and has gotten out to a nice start with the Saints, tossing four more shutout frames with a 5-to-2 K/BB ratio and 50% grounder rate in his lone start thus far. Rough showing from 2019-21 notwithstanding, Rodriguez has a career 4.27 ERA, a 17.1% strikeout rate and a 7.9% walk rate in 221 1/3 big league innings. He’ll be able to give the Twins some length in the bullpen and perhaps make a spot start if necessary.
As for the 30-year-old Cotton, he was an offseason waiver claim out of the Rangers organization who stuck on the 40-man roster through the winter and through Spring Training. Cotton held opponents to a pair of runs in seven Grapefruit League innings, but he walked five batters during that time and has seen his command woes continue. While Cotton has pitched a pair of scoreless frames for the Twins so far, he’s walked four of the 10 opponents he’s faced and also thrown a wild pitch.
A former top-100 prospect with the A’s, Cotton has tallied 191 innings over 54 big league games dating back to his 2016 debut, but he has a tepid 4.66 ERA to show for his efforts. His 19.4% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 35.5% ground-ball rate are all worse than the Major League average, and the 91.7 mph he’s averaged on his fastball in his two innings so far is down considerably from last year’s 93.6 mph average. The Twins will have a week to trade Cotton, place him on outright waivers or release him.
Reds To Place Tyler Stephenson On Concussion List
1:25pm: The Reds have announced the move, with Kolozsvary being recalled to take Stephenson’s placed on the roster.
8:35am: The Reds will place catcher Tyler Stephenson on the 7-day concussion injured list this morning, tweets Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Stephenson suffered a concussion in a collision play at the plate with Padres first baseman/designated hitter Luke Voit last night (video link via MLB.com)
The play itself has become a source of some controversy in the aftermath, with Reds fans and several Reds players feeling there was ill intent behind Voit’s slide. Padres fans, players and manager Bob Melvin, naturally, have opined that Voit didn’t have much of an alternative.
“The ball takes him right into Luke,” Melvin told reporters after the game (video link via Bally Sports San Diego). “There’s nowhere to go, and I think Luke was just trying to protect himself, putting his hands up. I think they got it right.” Voit, of course, insists that he “wasn’t trying to take [Stephenson] out or anything” and added that he hopes Stephenson will be all right.
Reds skipper David Bell said after the game that he “didn’t have a problem with the slide” but called it a “scary” and “helpless” feeling when a manager sees one of his players laid out and injured in that manner (link via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com).
Reds left fielder Tommy Pham, meanwhile, told reporters that the slide was “dirty as [expletive].” Reds shortstop Kyle Farmer, a former catcher, said after the game that he’s “not too happy about the slide,” adding that it’s “not too often you a runner slide and grab someone’s head … you’re usually trying to reach for the bag, and maybe that’s what he was trying to do, but after looking at the replay, it looked like a wrestling move to Tyler’s head and snapped it down” (video link via Bally Sports Cincinnati). “I’ve never really seen someone’s hands go to a catcher’s head on a slide,” Farmer continued.
Regardless of where your thoughts land on the slide by Voit, the relay throw, and the postgame comments from both teams, the end result is the same. Stephenson will be away from the Reds for at least a week. The hope is that he’ll quickly clear concussion protocol and be able to return in short order, though concussions of course are tricky injuries that often have lingering effects.
The 25-year-old Stephenson, selected with the No. 11 overall draft pick back in 2015, has gone from top prospect to Cincinnati’s clear everyday catcher. His performance in 2020-21 was strong enough that the Reds had zero hesitation in trading stalwart catcher Tucker Barnhart to the Tigers early in the 2021-22 offseason, and Stephenson has picked up right where he left off at the plate. In 37 plate appearances this year, he’s batted .267/.378/.467 with a pair of homers, raising his career batting line to a stout .285/.368/.443 with 14 home runs in 459 plate appearances. That’s well above-average production for any player (116 wRC+), but it’s among the best in the league, on a rate basis, among catchers.
Defensively, Stephenson has been sound. He’s 4-for-9 in throwing out base thieves this season (44%), bringing his career rate to 25% (just a percentage point below league average). He’s drawn above-average framing marks from each of Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs, with Prospectus adding that he’s been about average in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt.
With Stephenson sidelined for the time being, the Reds seem likely to turn to Aramis Garcia as their top option behind the dish. Who will back him up remains an open question. Double-A catcher Mark Kolozsvary, a member of last year’s Team USA Olympic club, is on the 40-man roster but has gotten out to a slow start in Chattanooga. The Reds recently signed veteran Sandy Leon to a minor league contract as well, and if the team’s preference is for Kolozsvary to continue getting everyday at-bats rather than playing sparingly on the big league bench, it could be that Leon is quickly called to the MLB roster.
Whatever route the team takes, Stephenson’s loss is a huge blow to a team that has struggled immensely to score runs in 2022. Cincinnati ranks 25th in the Majors in runs scored, and they have more combined plate appearances than all five of the teams behind them (some of whom have had multiple postponements on the year). From a rate standpoint, the Reds’ offense has been far and away the worst in the league. Reds batters have combined for a gruesome .178/.250/.286 batting line, and the resulting 52 wRC+ is a full nine points lower than the second-worst club (Arizona). Stephenson has been one of the team’s only productive hitters, but he’ll now likely be replaced in the lineup by Garcia, a career .218/.255/.371 hitter in 214 Major League plate appearances.
Guardians Announce Several Roster Moves
11:20am: Mandy Bell of MLB.com relays word from manager Terry Francona, who confirms that Quantrill, Miller and Castro are on the Covid-IL. Zack Meisel of The Athletic provides a quote from Francona, who says “I don’t know that we’re out of the woods yet. I hope we are, but I don’t know that that’s going to be the case. We’ll see.”
10:45am: The Guardians announced a series of transactions prior to today’s doubleheader against the White Sox, placing right-hander Cal Quantrill, infielder Owen Miller and righty Anthony Castro on the injured list. No designation was provided, likely indicating that all three are being placed on the Covid-related IL. In their place, Cleveland has selected the contracts of right-hander Enyel De Los Santos and lefties Kirk McCarty and Tanner Tully. Additionally, top shortstop prospect Gabriel Arias is up as the 29th man for today’s twin bill — as first reported last night by Andrea Alejandra Gil of Brujula Deportiva 106.3 FM in Maracay, Venezuela (Twitter link).
It’s not clear whether any of the players placed on the injured list today tested positive or have been deemed close contacts and thus require testing that leaves them unavailable for today’s games. The 2022 health and safety protocols jointly agreed upon by MLB and the MLBPA technically call for a 10-day absence for players who test positive, but players are able to return more quickly than that — provided they receive a pair of negative PCR tests, show no signs of fever and are then subsequently approved by a team medical staffer and a joint committee of one MLB-appointed and one MLBPA-appointed medical expert. Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo, for instance, returned to the team in less than half that 10-day window.
Of the players added to the big league roster today, only De Los Santos has prior MLB experience. A well-regarded prospect during his time with the Padres and the Phillies, De Los Santos debuted with Philadelphia in 2018 but has yet to carry his strong Triple-A production over to the big league level. He’s seen action in parts of three MLB seasons but carries a 6.06 ERA in 65 1/3 innings. De Los Santos has fanned 24% of his opponents against a 10% walk rate, but he’s also yielded an average of 1.9 homers per nine frames — far too many to succeed over any lengthy sample. He’s fared vastly better in Triple-A, where he sports a career 3.37 ERA in 237 2/3 innings and just 1.1 HR/9.
The 27-year-old Tully, meanwhile, was a 26th-rounder back in 2015 who posted a 3.50 ERA in 113 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last year. He’s never posted particularly high strikeout or ground-ball rates, but Tully has walked only 4.5% of the hitters he’s faced in his pro career.
McCarty, 26, was Cleveland’s seventh-rounder back in 2017 and has gotten out to a fast start in Triple-A Columbus, holding opponents to one run on seven hits and five walks with a dozen punchouts through 11 1/3 innings. He was knocked around for a 5.01 ERA in 124 Triple-A frames a year ago.
As for Arias, the 22-year-old infielder is regarded as a potential key piece down the line for the Guardians. Acquired from the Padres (alongside Miller and Quantrill) in the trade that sent Mike Clevinger to San Diego, Arias entered the season ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at Baseball America (No. 100), MLB.com (No. 73), Baseball Prospectus (No. 57), FanGraphs (No. 95) and ESPN (No. 73).
Arias hit .284/.348/.454 with 13 home runs, 29 doubles, three triples and five steals in 483 trips to the plate last season, and he’s out to a near-identical start in 2022, hitting .278/.350/.472 in 40 plate appearances. He’s starting at second base in Game 1 of today’s doubleheader.
In all likelihood, it’ll be a one-day look for the highly touted Arias, but he’ll give Cleveland fans a brief glimpse of the future. The fact that he’s both on the 40-man roster and being considered for roles like this speak to his general proximity to MLB readiness, and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if he were to get a lengthier audition at some point in 2022. Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez are getting a good portion of the middle-infield time early in the season, but Rosario has at least some outfield experience and, of course, injuries are inevitable over the course of a 162-game schedule. Arias is one of many high-end middle infield prospects in the upper levels of the Cleveland system; Brayan Rocchio, Tyler Freeman and Jose Tena, among others, have all received a good bit of fanfare.