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Pirates Select Will Craig, Designate Sean Poppen

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The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of first baseman/outfielder Will Craig from Triple-A Indianapolis and designated righty Sean Poppen for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Craig will take the active roster spot of infielder/outfielder Phillip Evans, who is going on the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported earlier in the day that Craig would be brought back up to the MLB roster.

Pittsburgh designated Craig, their first-round pick from the 2016 draft, for assignment back in November after claiming righty Ashton Goudeau off waivers. Craig went unclaimed on waivers and remained with the organization and headed to Spring Training as a non-roster player.

Craig has opened the year just 6-for-26 in Triple-A, but he’s fanned only three times and three of those six hits have been round-trippers. With Colin Moran and Evans on the injured list and Todd Frazier having been recently designated for assignment himself, it seems like Craig will have an opportunity to another look at first base — at least in the short term.

Poppen, 27, was claimed off waivers out of the Twins organization over the winter but hasn’t found much success in his short time with the Bucs. He tossed just 4 1/3 innings this season and was tagged for seven runs (four earned) on 11 hits and a couple of walks with four strikeouts. He’s served up a pair of runs in four Triple-A frames as well.

Poppen, a Harvard product, has spent parts of five seasons in the minors since being selected by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2016 draft. He’s compiled a 3.39 ERA in 413 2/3 minor league innings, punching out 23.5 percent of opponents against a 7.6 percent walk rate.

Mariners Officially Promote Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert

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The Mariners have made it official: top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert have had their contracts selected to the Major League roster and will make their MLB debuts tonight against the Indians. Seattle has also selected the contract of right-hander Paul Sewald.

To make room on the 26-man roster for that trio, the Mariners have optioned outfielder Taylor Trammell, lefty Aaron Fletcher and righty Wyatt Mills to Tacoma. Additionally, Seattle designated outfielder Braden Bishop for assignment and transferred both Nick Margevicius and Ljay Newsome to the 60-day injured list to open spots on the 40-man roster. Margevicius, according to the team, has been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. Newsome is weighing options for a UCL injury.

Jarred Kelenic | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The promotions of both Kelenic and Gilbert were reported to be taking place earlier in the week. Kelenic comes to the Majors as one of the game’s top overall prospects — a potential five-tool outfielder who was the No. 6 overall pick in the 2018 draft. Kelenic, in many ways, has become the face of the Mariners’ rebuilding effort. Not only is he the top-ranked prospect in a farm system that was rapidly turned from one of the game’s thinnest to one of the game’s best, but he was the centerpiece of the trade that saw the Jerry Dipoto-led front office trade away Robinson Cano — the signature addition of predecessor Jack Zduriencik.

Kelenic, who has yet to turn 22, had an even brighter spotlight cast upon him after now-former Mariners president Kevin Mather revealed during a recorded interview that Kelenic had turned down an extension offer and the club planned to call him up in late April. It was a clear nod to service time manipulation, one that prompted Kelenic and agent Brodie Scoffield to publicly state that the Mariners had made clear that he’d have been in the Majors last summer had he accepted their offer prior to the 2020 season.

As if that situation didn’t cast enough eyes on Kelenic, he quickly put on a display in Triple-A Tacoma that illustrated why he is so highly regarded within the industry. Kelenic homered twice in his Triple-A debut last week, and he’s gone on to bat .370/.414/.630 with a pair of steals in a total of 29 plate appearances in what the organization hopes will be the only Triple-A time he ever needs.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks Kelenic as the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball, and Kelenic checks in as the game’s No. 4 overall prospect on the lists penned by Baseball America, MLB.com, Keith Law of The Athletic and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs. Scouting reports on him are rife with superlatives. BA calls him an “elite young hitter” who projects to be an “offensive force,” while FanGraphs touts him as a “lethal offensive threat” who’ll hit enough to be a star regardless of his defense — which nearly all suggest to be solid in the outfield corners, at least during his younger seasons.

For all of the focus on Kelenic, the also-touted Gilbert seems to get lost in the shuffle at times. Selected just eight picks after Kelenic in the first round of that 2018 draft, Gilbert tore through minor league lineups in 2019 and may well have been positioned for a call to the big leagues in 2020 had their been a full season. As with Kelenic, Mather said in that interview that Gilbert would be in the big leagues just a few weeks into the season.

Logan Gilbert | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Gilbert, who recently turned 24, racked up 135 innings across two Class-A levels and Double-A in 2019, pitching to a minuscule 2.13 ERA with a huge 31.7 percent strikeout rate against a tiny 6.3 percent walk rate. While he’s not ranked among the game’s five best prospects, none of the aforementioned prospect rankings have Gilbert listed any lower than No. 47 overall.

Both BA and MLB.com rank Gilbert as the game’s No. 28 farmhand, painting the 6’6″ 225-pound righty as a viable mid-rotation starter with the upside to develop into even more than that. He doesn’t have the triple-digit fastball we’ve practically come to expect from so many top pitching prospects, but Gilbert has a mid-90s heater with three average or better secondary offerings and, as Law writes, “some of the best command of anyone on this list.”

The organizational hope is that Gilbert steps up as a foundational piece in an increasingly promising young mix of starters. Ideally, recent first-rounders George Kirby and Emerson Hancock will join him over the next year or so.

The timing of those promotions remains to be seen, but with regard to both Kelenic and Gilbert, they’ll be controlled all the way through 2027 even if they never return to the minors. Both are now likely to be Super Two players — assuming they stick in the Majors and assuming Super Two designation survives the upcoming wave of collective bargaining talks. That would make both players arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, with the first offseason of arb eligibility coming post-2023.

Seattle will also get its first look at the 30-year-old Sewald, a former Mets reliever who has spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues. He’s had some solid stretches out of the ’pen in Queens, but the overall body of work was lacking, as the righty owns a 5.50 ERA in 147 1/3 Major League innings. That said, he also has a career 3.01 ERA in parts of five Triple-A campaigns and had been absolutely lights-out so far in Tacoma, tossing 4 1/3 shutout frames with 10 strikeouts and no walks. It’s always possible that a change of scenery will unlock something, and this is indeed a change for Sewald, who’d spent his entire career prior to 2021 in the Mets organization.

Turning to the players who are being sent out, Trammell will now head to Tacoma and get regular at-bats as he looks to get on track. A well-regarded, top-100 prospect himself, the 23-year-old made the big league roster out of Spring Training but struggled in his initial look at MLB pitching. Through his first 95 trips to the plate, the former No. 35 overall pick (Reds, 2016) managed just a .157/.255/.337 output with a troubling 43 percent strikeout rate.

Trammell spent the 2020 season at the alternate sites for the Padres and Mariners — he was part of last summer’s Austin Nola trade — but hadn’t played in a game setting since 2019 and has never taken a plate appearance in Triple-A. With Kelenic, Kyle Lewis and Mitch Haniger now slated to make up the Mariners’ starting outfield, there weren’t going to be everyday at-bats for Trammell. Given his prospect status and his ceiling, the Mariners clearly want to make sure he’s getting everyday reps to build toward a future where he’s a vital piece of a dynamic outfield mix.

Bishop, meanwhile, now becomes a candidate to either be traded or passed through outright waivers, where any team can claim him. The 27-year-old hasn’t hit much in a small sample of 99 Major League plate appearances, but he does have a career .267/.355/.465 slash in Triple-A and is capable of playing all three outfield spots. He’s also optionable for the rest of the season, so a club with some depth issues in center field — e.g. the Phillies or Pirates — could have interest in taking a look either via waiver claim or a small trade.

As for Margevicius and Newsome, their diagnoses are obviously quite unfortunate. The Mariners initially placed Margevicius on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, but a thoracic outlet syndrome diagnosis is typically followed by an invasive surgery to remove a portion of the pitcher’s rib. TOS surgery has a much spottier track record of recovery for pitchers than Tommy John surgery, and if Margevicius ultimately goes under the knife, it’d quite likely end his 2021 season. Manager Scott Servais revealed last night that Tommy John surgery was on the table for the 24-year-old Newsome, so it’s hardly a surprise to see him moved to the 60-day IL with a confirmed diagnosis of a UCL injury.

All told, it’s a rather lengthy list of transactions for the Mariners — but one they hope will mark a watershed day in their organization’s history. It’s probably unfair to any prospect to view him as a potential organizational savior and tie the fate of a broad-reaching rebuild to his successes or failures, but right or wrong, those are the type of expectations fans will place on the likes of Kelenic and Gilbert. They’ll now join Lewis, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, on a roster that seems to skew younger and younger as the months tick by.

Should this youth movement bear fruit in the form of multiple productive young stars, the Mariners will look all the more formidable in the long run. Seattle has just $19.2MM in guaranteed salary on the books next year — including the $3.75MM they owe to the Mets as part of the Cano/Kelenic agreement — and that number drops to $14MM in 2023. Considering this is a club that has in the past trotted out a $158MM Opening Day payroll, the confluence of this group’s arrival and next year’s star-studded free-agent class offers Mariners fans the hope of finally reaching an oasis in desert of a playoff drought that now spans two decades.

Mariners’ Ljay Newsome Could Require Tommy John Surgery

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A Mariners pitching staff that is reeling from injuries may have suffered another blow to its depth, as manager Scott Servais told reporters yesterday that Tommy John surgery is a possibility for right-hander Ljay Newsome (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Corey Brock).

Seattle opened the season with a six-man rotation featuring Marco Gonzales, James Paxton, Justus Sheffield, Yusei Kikuchi, Chris Flexen and Justin Dunn. However, the Mariners have already lost Paxton for the year due to Tommy John surgery, and Gonzales is currently on the injured list due to a forearm strain. Lefty Nick Margevicius, who got a look in the rotation following Paxton’s injury, is now out due to shoulder troubles. Seattle is also without relievers Keynan Middleton (biceps strain) and Casey Sadler (shoulder inflammation) at the moment.

The 24-year-old Newsome has only pitched in a dozen big league games but was one of the club’s first depth options in the event of injuries to its starting staff. He’s been roughed up for a 6.53 ERA through 30 big league innings, but he’s whiffed 25 hitters against just four walks (one of which was intentional) during that time — a much more encouraging sign. In his last full minor league season, Newsome posted a combined 3.54 ERA with a superlative 169-to-17 K/BB ratio (27.3 percent strikeout rate, 2.7 percent walk rate) through 155 innings across three levels.

Newsome hit the injured list earlier this week for what looked at the time to be a rather innocuous bout of elbow inflammation. It’s now clear that further testing has revealed a much more severe prognosis. A final decision on his treatment has yet to be made, and Servais did note that other options, including a platelet-rich plasma injection, are under consideration. Still, it’s a tough bit of news for both the organization and the young righty himself, as he won’t be able to return to the mound anytime soon regardless of which path they take.

With Newsome joining Gonzales, Paxton and Margevicius on the shelf and the Mariners slipping below .500, it’s not a surprise to see the team turning its sights to top prospect Logan Gilbert. The 2018 first-rounder is slated to make his Major League debut for the Mariners today.

Cubs Agree To Minor League Deal With Adrian Sampson

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The Cubs agreed to a minor league pact with right-hander Adrian Sampson, as Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register tweeted yesterday. The team didn’t make a formal announcement, but the 29-year-old Sampson is now listed on the roster of their top affiliate in Iowa.

Sampson has pitched in part of three big league seasons, spending some time with the Mariners in 2016 and tossing 153 frames with the Rangers from 2018-19. Sampson spent the 2020 season with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization, racking up 130 innings but struggling to a 5.40 ERA with just a 14.7 percent strikeout rate. He did notch a strong 6.1 percent walk rate in the KBO, in addition to a massive 65.2 percent grounder rate.

Sampson’s time in the big leagues has resulted in a 5.71 ERA through 153 innings, most of which came with the 2019 Rangers. He’s a strike-thrower, evidenced by a career 6.0 percent walk rate, but Sampson also carries a below-average 17.1 percent strikeout rate and has been extremely prone to home runs, yielding an average of 2.2 round-trippers per nine innings pitched.

It’s a depth pickup for the Cubs — one that adds another arm with big league experience to a rather veteran pitching staff in Iowa. Sampson joins new teammates Shelby Miller, Adam Morgan, Kyle Ryan and Joe Biagini veterans with more than 100 Major League innings under their belt. Kohl Stewart, Robert Stock, Ryan Meisinger and Jake Jewell have all seen big league action with other organizations as well.

Tigers Select Eric Haase, Place Franklin Perez On Release Waivers

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The Tigers announced a series of roster moves Wednesday, placing catcher Grayson Greiner on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring, selecting the contract of catcher Eric Haase in his place and placing right-hander Franklin Perez on unconditional release waivers.

The Perez move comes just one day after the Tigers announced that he’s in for a lengthy absence due to surgery on his continually problematic right shoulder. It sounds callous, but teams aren’t able to place injured players on outright waivers, so the only means of removing Perez from the 40-man were to release him or call him up to place him on the Major League 60-day IL, where he’d accrue MLB service time and a big league salary. While another club could claim Perez, or he could sign elsewhere in the likely event that he clears, it’s also fairly common to see players in these circumstances quickly re-sign on minor league deals.

Perez was the top-ranked prospect the Tigers received in return for Justin Verlander back in 2017, but injuries and last year’s canceled minor league season have limited him to just 27 innings with the organization. Perez missed three months back in 2018 due to a strained lat, and he’s since battled shoulder tendinitis and a shoulder strain and has yet to even reach the Double-A level. Last year’s canceled minor league season obviously contributed to his lack of innings, but the injury troubles have tanked Perez’s prospect status. Baseball America rated him as the No. 35 overall prospect in baseball heading into the 2018 season, but he was listed just 28th in the Tigers organization even before the news of this surgery.

As for the catchers in question, Haase’s call to the roster was necessitated both by Greiner’s injury and by the fact that starting catcher Wilson Ramos is currently on the IL due to a back injury. Haase will serve as the backup to 26-year-old Jake Rogers, who was coincidentally one of the other two players the Tigers received in exchange for Verlander. (Outfield prospect Daz Cameron is the third.)

Haase, 28, has appeared in each of the past three big league seasons, spending time with the Indians in 2018-19 and with the Tigers in 2020. He’s struggled mightily, hitting just .122/.170/.184, albeit in a minimal sample of 53 plate appearances. Haase has played parts of four seasons in Triple-A, slashing .234/.306/.479 with 49 homers in 906 plate appearances.

Mets Promote Khalil Lee, Place Albert Almora On Injured List

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The Mets announced Wednesday that they’ve placed outfielder Albert Almora Jr. on the injured list with a shoulder contusion and promoted outfield prospect Khalil Lee for what will be his Major League debut. Almora sustained the injury on a full-sprint collision with the center field wall on what was very nearly a brilliant catch against the Orioles last night (video link). Almora briefly caught what was a deep drive off the bat of Austin Hays before the impact knocked the ball loose and resulted in a triple. He left the game for testing, and the fact that he escaped with what appears to be a relatively minor injury is welcome news.

In place of Almora, the Mets will turn to the 22-year-old Lee — a 2016 third-round pick by the Royals who ranked as one of the better prospects in the Kansas City organization before coming to the Mets by way of the three-team Andrew Benintendi trade over the winter. Lee opened the season in Triple-A but will get his first call to the big leagues after a six-game stint in Syracuse that saw him bat .250/.478/.313 in a small sample of 23 plate appearances.

Entering the season, Lee was generally regarded among the Mets’ ten best farmhands, ranking seventh at MLB.com, eighth at FanGraphs and ninth at Baseball America. Scouting reports on Lee praise his plus arm, above-average raw power and above-average speed, but his tools have been counteracted to an extent by his penchant for striking out. Lee has punched out in just over 28 percent of his professional plate appearances, though he’s also walked in nearly 12 percent of them. He can handle all three outfield positions and has a 53-steal campaign in 2019 under his belt, although both BA and FanGraphs note that’s more a product of his aggression on the bases than blistering raw speed.

Lee’s initial call to the big leagues comes at a time when the Mets have both Almora and Brandon Nimmo on the injured list, which should create some opportunities to get him into the lineup. He may not have an immediate path to a roster spot once the team is back up to full strength, but Mets fans will get their first look at a player who could factor into the team’s plans for the next several years at some point in the near future. Lee isn’t in the starting lineup today — Dominic Smith, Kevin Pillar and Michael Conforto are manning the outfield — but is available off the bench and figures to get into a game before too long.

Previewing 2021-22 Opt-Out Clauses & Player Options

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Next year’s free-agent class is a legitimately star-studded group even when focusing only on true free agents who’ll hit the market due to service time or an expiring contract. But the class has the potential to become even stronger depending on the play of this year’s collection of veterans who have opt-out clauses and player options in their contracts. Their performance over the next five months will determine whether they opt for another trip to the free-agent market or simply stick with the remaining salary guaranteed to them on their existing deals.

We’re about a sixth of the way through the season, so it’s worth taking an early look at how this group is faring…

Nolan Arenado, 3B, Cardinals (can opt out of remaining six years, $179MM): Arenado, who was always a better hitter at Coors Field, is yet another example of the manner in which home/road splits are overstated with regard to Rockies players. The 30-year-old is now playing his home games at Busch Stadium and still raking at a .279/.336/.507 clip with top-notch defense at the hot corner. Arenado has stated that he plans “to be a Cardinal the rest of the way” and said there is a “very, very high” chance that will forgo the opt-out clause in his contract. After the Cardinals tacked a year and $15MM onto the original five years and $164MM he had remaining on the deal, there’s less incentive for him to test the market.

Trevor Bauer, RHP, Dodgers (can opt out of remaining two years, $62MM): While some might balk at the notion of Bauer opting out when he’s guaranteed a whopping $45MM next year on this front-loaded contract, the opt-out wouldn’t really be about 2022 — it’d be about improving upon the total guarantee. Right now, if Bauer were to suffer an injury in 2022, he’d have a $17MM player option for the 2023 season. If he opts out this winter, however, he could aim to negotiate something similar to or greater than his original three-year, $102MM guarantee with the Dodgers. Bauer could still secure a huge salary in year one of a new contract but give himself a greater safety net against injury or decline. He also won’t have a qualifying offer to deal with this time and would be entering what most expect to be a market with more teams willing to spend. With a 2.50 ERA, 34.7 percent strikeout rate and 7.3 percent walk rate, the current NL strikeout leader is enjoying the kind of start that will make him think about it.

Nick Castellanos, OF, Reds (can opt out of remaining two years, $34MM): If Castellanos keeps hitting anywhere near this pace, that opt-out clause will assuredly be exercised. His age-29 season has kicked off with an outstanding .303/.346/.607 slash, and he already has 18 extra-base hits (nine homers, eight doubles, one triple) in just 126 plate appearances. Castellanos fizzled after a similarly electric start in 2020, so we’ll have to see if he maintains — but he’s one of the best hitters on the planet right now.

Charlie Blackmon, OF, Rockies ($21MM player option for 2022; $10MM player option for 2023): The Colorado fan favorite has come to life after a woeful start to the 2020 season. Over his past 13 games, Blackmon is hitting .319/.396/.447 with more walks than strikeouts. That surge still only has his season line up to .222/.328/.343 in 125 plate appearances, though, so Blackmon has plenty of work to do before he’d even consider opting out of a $21MM payday in what will be his age-35 season.

J.D. Martinez, OF/DH, Red Sox ($19.375MM player option for 2022): An ugly 2020 season had many wondering whether Martinez was beginning to decline. It seems safe to stop wondering. The first few weeks of the 2021 season have been some of the finest of JDM’s career; offense around the league is down, but he apparently didn’t get the memo, as he’s destroyed opposing pitchers at a .331/.416/.632 clip. His  10 dingers give him a share of the MLB lead. While there were some conflicting reports on the number of opt-outs in his contract at the time of the deal, MLBTR confirmed this week that Martinez has a $19.375MM player option for the 2022 season on his deal, so he’s controlling his own fate, so to speak. If he keeps hitting like this, why wouldn’t he test the market again (or at least parlay his performance into an extension in Boston)?

Jackie Bradley Jr., OF, Brewers ($11MM player option for 2022): The Bradley signing hasn’t panned out for the Brewers just yet. No one should be surprised to hear that Bradley has excellent defensive ratings through his first 260 innings in center field, but he’s hitting a mere .175/.242/.316 in 124 plate appearances. Bradley didn’t sign until a few weeks into Spring Training, and we’ve seen plenty of late signees start slowly in the past, but so far things aren’t going great.

Jurickson Profar, INF/OF, Padres ($6.5MM player option for 2022; $7.5MM player option for 2023): Profar hasn’t been anywhere near the hitter he was in 2020, slashing just .234/.333/.308 through 128 trips to the plate. The investment in Profar was always a risk. He was one of the least-productive hitters in the National League for the first month of the 2020 season and only salvaged his year with a blistering .375/.398/.534 showing in his final 93 plate appearances. That well-timed hot streak rather stunningly earned him a three-year guarantee and multiple opt-out opportunities, and he’ll need some more of that magic if he’s going to consider walking away from the $14MM he’s still owed beyond 2021. Profar is currently on the Covid-related IL for contact-tracing purposes.

Kevin Pillar, OF, Mets ($2.9MM player option for 2022): Pillar entered the season with a sub-.300 OBP for his career, and he’s not doing that mark any favors in 2021. We’re only looking at 66 plate appearances, but his .254/.288/.381 output looks more like his below-average career line than last year’s stronger showing. Pillar found a pretty frosty market for his services even on the heels of last summer’s .288/.336/.462 performance, so if he doesn’t turn things around at the plate, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him pick up the option.

Justin Wilson, LHP, Yankees ($2.3MM player option for 2022; Yankees hold $7.15MM club option/$1.15MM buyout if Wilson declines): Wilson has served up a pair of homers, walked five batters, hit a batter, and yielded a total of six runs in 8 2/3 innings. He also opened the year on the IL due to shoulder soreness, and his average fastball velocity is down at 93.7 mph after sitting at 95.1 mph in each of the past two seasons. A reliever with Wilson’s track record can turn things around in a hurry, but it hasn’t been the start he or the team envisioned. If Wilson exercises his player option, it triggers a 2023 club option valued at $500K over the league minimum, meaning he’d only do so with a particularly poor year on the mound.

Brett Gardner, OF, Yankees ($2.3MM player option for 2022; Yankees hold $7.15M club option/$1.15MM buyout if Gardner declines): The Yankees lifer hasn’t shown much life at the plate in 2021, hitting .190/.284/.238 in 75 turns at the dish. He has just one multi-hit game to his credit so far in 2021 and is being used in his most limited role ever.

Darren O’Day, Yankees, RHP ($1.4MM player option for 2022): The 38-year-old O’Day has been great for the Yankees through nine innings, but he’s currently on the injured list due to a strained rotator cuff in his shoulder. As long as he comes back and demonstrates his health, he should be expected to decline his option in favor of a $700K buyout. He’s only securing himself an additional $700K if he picks the option up — barely more than the current league minimum (which could very well rise in the offseason CBA talks).

Dellin Betances, RHP, Mets ($1-3MM player option depending on number of games pitched): Betances needs to reach 60 games pitched in 2021 for his player option to be valued at $2MM and 70 games for it to check in at $3MM. So far, he’s pitched one. It’s all but certain to be a $1MM player option on the righty, who may still take the deal given how catastrophic the last few years have been. Betances is on the 60-day IL with a shoulder impingement at the moment, and since Opening Day 2019, he’s totaled just 13 2/3 innings due to injuries.

Beyond this group, there’s also a conditional player option in the Mariners’ deal with left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. Seattle has until three days after the World Series wraps up to decide whether it wants to exercise a quartet of one-year, $16.5MM options on Kikuchi — a total of four years and $66MM. All four must be exercised together. If they do not make that sizable investment, Kikuchi then has a one-year, $13MM player option for the 2022 season on which he must decide.

At least based on Kikuchi’s career numbers in MLB, it seems unlikely that the Mariners would pick up their end of the deal. He’s compiled a 5.22 ERA through his first 246 1/3 big league innings. That said, Kikuchi saw a major velocity spike in 2020 that he’s actually improved upon again in 2021. Fielding-independent metrics were much more bullish on him than ERA in 2020 (3.30 FIP, 3.37 xERA, 3.78 xFIP, 4.34 SIERA), and this year’s current 4.30 ERA is respectable. He’s also sporting career-bests in swinging-strike rate, opponents’ chase rate, walk rate and ground-ball rate.

It’s still a long shot that the Mariners will pick up all four years on Kikuchi, who’ll turn 30 in June. However, that may simply set him up for a return to the market. It’s certainly plausible that he pitches well enough to command more than the $13MM salary on his player option but less than the four years and $66MM on the Mariners’ end of the arrangement.

Rays Designate Yoshi Tsutsugo For Assignment

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The Rays announced Tuesday that they’ve designated struggling first baseman/outfielder Yoshi Tsutsugo for assignment. He’s in the second season of a two-year, $12MM contract that represented a relatively sizable investment for the cost-conscious Rays. They’ll now have a week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him. Corner infielder Kevin Padlo is up from Triple-A Durham in his place.

Tsutsugo, 29, was a prominent slugger with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, batting .285/.382/.528 in parts of 10 seasons — including a .293/.402/.574 slash with 139 home runs in the four years leading up to his free agency.

He struggled in 2020 with the Rays but at least showed off some of that power, slugging eight long balls, five doubles and a triple in 185 trips to the plate last summer. That power has completely evaporated in 2021, however, as Tsutsugo has just four doubles and no home runs through his first 87 plate appearances.

Overall, Tsutsugo has come to the plate 272 times as a member of the Rays and managed only a .187/.292/.336 batting line with a 28.3 percent strikeout rate. To his credit, he’s walked at a hearty 12.5 percent clip, but that keen eye hasn’t helped him to tap into the obvious power that helped make him a star in Japan. With Ji-Man Choi nearing a return from the injured list and Tsutsugo’s struggles persisting, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wrote yesterday that a touch decision on Tsutsugo seemed virtually “inevitable.”

It’s unlikely that the Rays will find a taker for Tsutsugo’s salary — he’s still owed $5.46MM through season’s end — though they could always try to orchestrate some kind of swap involving another bad contract. Such deals are tough to put together in a short window during the season, making it likelier that he’ll be placed on waivers or simply released.

Braves Claim Jay Flaa

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The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Jay Flaa off waivers from the Orioles, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. The move fills Atlanta’s 40-man roster.

Flaa, who’ll turn 29 in a month, was selected to the big league roster for the first time in his career last month. The Orioles’ sixth-round pick in 2016, he made his MLB debut on April 27, tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief with a pair of walks and a strikeout.

That was Flaa’s lone appearance before the Orioles designated him for assignment in order to open a roster spot for waiver claim Brandon Waddell. While Flaa has struggled in a total of 56 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level, he was excellent at both Double-A and Class-A Advanced while rising through the Orioles’ system. He’s tallied 260 1/3 professional innings since being drafted out of North Dakota State University, working to a 3.49 ERA with an above-average 26.7 percent strikeout rate but a somewhat bloated 11.2 percent walk rate.

Flaa’s fastball sat 93.2 mph in his lone MLB appearance, and he also showed a slider and splitter that day. Because he was selected to the MLB roster for the first time this year, he still has all three minor league option years remaining.

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