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Mariners Select Robert Dugger

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The Mariners announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Robert Dugger to the 40-man roster and called him up from their taxi squad as the 27th man for their doubleheader against the Orioles.

Dugger, 25, will now have the chance to pitch for the club that originally drafted him in the 18th round back in 2016. That appeared unlikely not long ago, as Seattle traded him to the Marlins alongside righty Nick Neidert and infielder Christopher Torres in the trade that brought Dee Strange-Gordon to the Mariners.

Things didn’t pan out for Dugger in Miami. He posted strong numbers through Class-A and Double-A before struggling immensely at Triple-A in 2019 (albeit in the juiced-ball season of an already hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League). The Fish called Dugger to the big leagues for a look both in 2019 and 2020, but he was tattooed for a 7.40 ERA in a total of 45 innings. Miami tried to pass him through waivers to open a 40-man spot back in December, but the Mariners scooped him back up — only to later DFA him after signing Ken Giles. Seattle then succeeded in passing Dugger through waiver themselves.

While Dugger hasn’t had success above the Double-A level, last year’s small sample of work included a nearly two-mile-per-hour jump in fastball velocity (90.3 mph average to 92.1 mph) as well as some notable spin-rate increases on that four-seamer (2191 rpm in 2019; 2321 rpm in 2020) and on his slider (2311 rpm to 2443 rpm).

Dugger will be available out of the ’pen behind Marco Gonzales in Game 1 and Justin Dunn in Game 2 today. He still has a minor league option remaining, so the Mariners can shuttle him between their alternate site/Triple-A and the Majors for the remainder of the season without exposing him to waivers if the change of scenery brings about some improvement in his overall results.

KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes Acquire Jake Brigham, Waive Josh A. Smith

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The Korea Baseball Organization’s Kiwoom Heroes have made an early change in their rotation involving a pair of former big league pitchers. Per Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the Heroes announced that they’ve reacquired righty Jake Brigham and waived right-hander Josh A. Smith.

Brigham had been pitching with the Wei Chuan Dragons Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. He’ll finish out the remainder of the month with the Dragons, per the report, then join the Heroes after a two-week quarantine period. It’s not clear what type of compensation the two clubs will exchange, but Brigham will be guaranteed $480K for the remainder of the season with another $50K available via incentives.

Now 33 years old, Brigham was a sixth-round pick by the Rangers back in 2006 and for a few years was considered to be among their top 30 prospects. He was traded to the Cubs in the deal that sent Geovany Soto to Texas back in 2012, and he bounced to several teams thereafter. Brigham appeared in a dozen games with the 2015 Braves but was hit hard, and that still stands as his only MLB experience to date.

Despite a lack of success in North American ball, Brigham has carved out quite a nice career pitching in Asia. A brief stint with Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2016 didn’t bear much fruit, but he signed with the Heroes in 2017 and spent the next four seasons as a key piece of their rotation. From 2017-20, Brigham racked up 608  1/3 innings and pitched to a 3.70 ERA with a 19.7 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 6.3 percent walk rate.

Brigham was out to a very strong start in Taiwan this year, pitching to a 0.63 ERA with 15 strikeouts against three walks in 28 2/3 frames. That, it seems, was enough to convince the Heroes that he was past the elbow issues which plagued him during 2020 and prompted the team to move in another direction.

As for Smith, his time with the Heroes will prove quite limited. He made just two starts after signing a one-year deal that came with a $500K salary. Smith pitched just 10 innings and was tagged for seven runs on nine hits and five walks with nine strikeouts.

Smith, 33, has quite a bit more Major League experience than Brigham and was in the bigs as recently as last season, when he tossed 26 1/3 innings for the Marlins. He’s also spent time with the Reds, A’s and Red Sox, logging a collective 5.60 ERA (4.72 SIERA) with an 18 percent strikeout rate, a 9.7 percent walk rate and a 40.6 percent ground-ball rate through 184 2/3 innings at the MLB level.

Reds Claim Phillip Diehl, Transfer Michael Lorenzen To 60-Day Injured List

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2:28pm: Lorenzen had a setback in his initial recovery from the shoulder strain and, after getting a second opinion from a specialist, recently received a plasma-rich platelet injection, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon reports. He’s scheduled for a second such injection in two weeks, and the Reds are hopeful that he’ll be able to return sometime in the month of June. That, of course, is dependent on how his shoulder responds to the pair of injections, though.

2:21pm: The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed lefty Phillip Diehl off waivers from the Rockies and optioned him to their alternate training site. Righty Michael Lorenzen was transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Lorenzen has been battling a shoulder strain, and manager David Bell recently told reporters that the right-hander’s recovery was “not going as fast as [Lorenzen] would like.”

The waiver claim represents a homecoming for the 26-year-old Diehl, a Cincinnati native who attended Moeller High School before playing his college ball at Louisiana Tech. The Rockies acquired Diehl from the Yankees in exchange for Mike Tauchman — a trade they’d surely like back — and Diehl has been tagged for 13 runs in 13 1/3 innings to this point in his brief career. It’s a small sample, so take this with a grain of salt, but all 13 of those runs have come in 6 1/3 innings at Coors Field; Diehl is unscored upon on the road.

Diehl was hit hard in his lone season of Triple-A ball, recording a 6.75 ERA and serving up a staggering 16 home runs in 45 1/3 frames. That came in 2019’s juiced ball season, however, and he was excellent throughout his minor league career to that point. He boasts a 0.90 ERA in 40 innings of Double-A ball and a 3.15 mark across two Class-A levels. On the whole, he’s punched out a hefty 30.5 percent of the hitters he’s faced in the minors against a similarly impressive 7.1 percent walk rate. Diehl also has a minor league option remaining, so it’s not too tough to see why the Reds were intrigued.

With regard to Lorenzen, it’s an unfortunate development for one of the game’s more interesting players. Lorenzen has been one of the Reds’ top setup men in recent years but was also a part-time outfielder — a strong defender in center field with a career .235/.284/.432 batting line in 146 career plate appearances. He’s belted seven homers in that time and also chipped in a trio of doubles, a triple and even five stolen bases (in seven attempts).

The Reds were planning to give Lorenzen an audition in the starting rotation this year, but it seems the shoulder troubles will table that experiment through at least the season’s first two months. Lorenzen’s initial 10-day IL placement was on Opening Day, retroactive to March 28 — the maximum three days allowed when backdating an IL stint. He’ll be eligible for return 60 days from that point, not from today’s transfer.

In the meantime, the Reds will look forward to getting Sonny Gray back in the near future. He’ll join Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle and Wade Miley as locks in the rotation. Jeff Hoffman has gotten a pair of early looks, too, but at some point one would expect electric multi-inning reliever Tejay Antone to get an opportunity to show he’s worthy of a rotation job.

Phillies Place Adam Haseley On Restricted List, Recall Mickey Moniak

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The Phillies announced that outfielder Adam Haseley is stepping away from the team for an “undetermined amount of time” due to personal reasons. He’ll be placed on the restricted list while he is away from the team, and Mickey Moniak has been recalled from the team’s alternate training site to fill his spot on the active roster.

Haseley, who just turned 25 this week, was out to a slow start to the season but had a brilliant Spring Training and has been a solid contributor for the Phils since debuting in 2019. Through 334 plate appearances between the 2019-20 seasons, he slashed .269/.330/.382 with strong defensive ratings in the outfield. The Phillies declined to provide any additional detail as to the reason for Haseley’s leave of absence.

Moniak was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft and still has just 18 plate appearances under his belt. He had a monster spring showing, though, hitting .273/.385/.727 with two doubles, two homers and a triple in 26 trips to the plate. Moniak’s prospect status has obviously tumbled since he was taken with that top overall pick, but it’s far too early to write him off. He won’t even turn 23 until next month, and while his .252/.303/.439 batting line from Double-A in 2019 may not look like much, it was 15 percent better than the league-average in an extraordinarily pitcher-friendly setting.

Moniak now seems to have a clear path to fairly regular playing time. Roman Quinn will still factor into the center field mix as well, but Moniak’s left-handed bat would be on the larger side of any platoon arrangement, and the Phillies undoubtedly want to see what their former top pick can do when given a significant role.

Indians Sign Rene Rivera

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The Indians have signed veteran catcher Rene Rivera to a minor league contract and assigned him to their alternate training site, per a club announcement. He’s represented by MDR Sports Management.

Rivera, 37, has spent the past two seasons with the Mets organization — a return to the organization with which he has spent the most time in the Major Leagues. He tallied just four plate appearances last summer and only 20 the previous year, however. He hasn’t reached 100 plate appearances in the big leagues since the 2017 season, which he split between the Mets and the Cubs.

Rivera doesn’t hit much and never really has. He’s the consummate glove-first, grizzled veteran backstop who draws praise for framing, throwing, calling a sound game and offering plenty of veteran insight to young pitchers and catchers alike. He’s a career .221/.272/.353 hitter in 1551 plate appearances at the MLB level.

Cleveland has Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges currently atop its depth chart for catchers, while fellow veteran Ryan Lavarnway is at the team’s alternate site as well. Perez is out to a fast start this season, while Hedges is 1-for-8 with a solo homer (and just 2-for-20 dating back to last season’s acquisition). Of course, Hedges himself is a defense-first catcher with enough power to occasionally run into a big fly, so the lack of offense in that tiny sample isn’t a huge shock. Hedges, however, is regarded as one of the best, if not the best defensive catcher in baseball, so he’s unlikely to be displaced by Rivera anytime soon (barring injury).

Red Sox Prospect Bryan Mata Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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The Red Sox announced Wednesday that pitching prospect Bryan Mata underwent Tommy John surgery in Los Angeles yesterday. The right-hander was diagnosed with a “slight” tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in early March and hoped to avoid surgery. After several weeks of downtime, however, it appears the outlook had not changed. He’ll miss the 2021 season and the early portion of 2022 as well.

Mata, 22 next month, is widely regarded as the organization’s top pitching prospect. He reached Double-A as a 20-year-old in 2019 and posted a combined 3.43 ERA, 24.7 percent strikeout rate and 9.3 percent walk rate in 105 innings across two levels that season. Had he been healthy, he’d likely have been ticketed for a return trip to Double-A and may even have emerged as a candidate to join the big league club later in the year.

Instead, as is the case with injured prospects around the league, Mata will now go about two years without playing in a competitive game setting. The lack of a minor league season in 2020 deprived prospects around the game of critical development time, and Mata will tack another 12 months onto his layoff from competition. He did see some work at the Red Sox’ alternate training site last summer, so it’s not as though he was completely idle, but the lost time to refine his skills nevertheless stings. Of course, Mata has youth on his side and could still very plausibly make it to the big leagues in his early 20s if he’s able to make a relatively swift recovery from yesterday’s procedure.

Cubs Select Shelby Miller

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The Cubs have selected right-hander Shelby Miller from their alternate training site in South Bend, per a team announcement. The Cubs also reinstated righty Jason Adam from the injured list and optioned righty Adbert Alzolay and lefty Brad Wieck to the alternate site. These moves come in addition to the reinstatement of Austin Romine and the DFA of Tony Wolters, which were announced earlier in the day.

A first-round pick in 2009, third-place Rookie of the Year finisher in 2013 and All-Star in 2015, Miller appeared to be on a trajectory to superstardom not long ago. He debuted in the Majors as a 21-year-old in 2012 and over the next four seasons tossed 575 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball between the Cardinals and the Braves. The Cards sent him to Atlanta as part of the return for then-star outfielder Jason Heyward, and Atlanta flipped him a year later when the D-backs offered up shortstop Dansby Swanson just months after he’d been selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

Miller’s career fell off a cliff almost immediately after the trade. The righty lost some velocity, lost his control of the strike zone and began giving up considerably more hard contact, leading to more home runs. He was eventually optioned to Triple-A by the D-backs, and the following season he underwent Tommy John surgery. Miller attempted a comeback with the Rangers in in 2019 but had even worse results than he did in Arizona. He’s since spent time with the Brewers organization but didn’t pitch for them in the Majors.

All told, Miller has pitched just 183 big league innings since the conclusion of that All-Star campaign in 2015. He’s been rocked for a 6.89 ERA and 5.21 FIP in that time. Miller did, however, put together a very nice spring showing with the Cubs. In 12 innings, he held opponents to just two earned runs on nine hits and six walks with 16 strikeouts.

There’s little harm for the Cubs in trying to catch lightning in a bottle with Miller, even if recent history provides little indicator that a turnaround is on the horizon. It’ll surprise many readers to learn that he’s still just 30 years old,, and we’ve seen unexpected resurgences at considerably later points in pitchers’ careers than this.

Royals Designate Nick Heath For Assignment

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The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Nick Heath for assignment, reinstated righty Josh Staumont from the injured list and optioned righty Carlos Hernandez to their alternate site. Staumont was only just placed on the injured list earlier this week, though the Royals did not specify a reason.

Players can be placed on the injured list for Covid-19 related reasons — a positive test, close contact with someone who was positive, or self-reported symptoms — and briefly be removed from the 40-man roster while on the IL. Staumont has obviously been cleared to return in a day’s time, which suggests there was no positive test. However, the Royals also selected the contract of veteran righty Ervin Santana last night, so with Staumont now coming back onto the active roster, they needed a 40-man spot. Heath’s DFA will provide that roster spot.

Heath, 27, made his MLB debut in 2020 and went 2-for-13 with a double and a pair of steals in four tries. He’s not a particularly imposing threat at the plate, evidenced by a .266/.348/.361 batting line in four minor league seasons, but Heath is one of the fastest players in professional ball. Scouting reports at FanGraphs, MLB.com and Baseball America peg him at either 70- or 80-grade speed on the 20-80 scale. He’s swiped 160 bases in 200 tries (80 percent) through just 323 total minor league games.

Heath can play all three outfield spots and has a full slate of three minor league options remaining, so he could certainly intrigue another club in a minor trade or in the event that the Royals try to pass him through outright waivers. Kansas City will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers.

Twins Place Andrelton Simmons On Covid-19 List, Select JT Riddle, Promote Alex Kirilloff

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11:39am: Simmons did test positive and has exhibited “very mild” symptoms, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey announced to reporters (Twitter links via Dan Hayes of The Athletic). There were no other positives on the roster. Simmons will be away from the team for at least a 10-day period, under the league’s 2021 health and safety protocols.

11:23am: The Twins announced a series of roster moves Wednesday, placing shortstop Andrelton Simmons on the Covid-19 related injured list, selecting the contract of JT Riddle in his place and promoting top prospect Alex Kirilloff as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader. Simmons won’t occupy a spot on the 40-man roster while on the Covid-19 list, so an additional corresponding move to accommodate Riddle isn’t necessary.

Twins skipper Rocco Baldelli also tells reporters that the club expects to activate third baseman Josh Donaldson for the second game of today’s doubleheader and adds that the organization has multiple members going through contact tracing (Twitter links via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press).

With Simmons sidelined for at least 10 days from the point of the test, the Twins can utilize Riddle and Jorge Polanco at shortstop in his place. Polanco was the team’s primary shortstop for the past several seasons but shifted over to second base as the club eyed a defensive upgrade up the middle. However, playing Polanco at shortstop regularly will make it easier to get the hot-hitting Luis Arraez into the lineup on a daily basis now that Donaldson is set to return at third base.

Donaldson ripped a blistering double to the left-center gap in his first at-bat of the season but pulled up a bit when heading into second base. The Twins opted to take the cautious route and place him on the 10-day IL due to a hamstring strain rather than chance a few days of rest and Donaldson worsening the injury. It’s surely frustrating for Twins fans to have already seen Donaldson sidelined with an IL stint, though if there’s a silver lining, it’s that the injury was to his hamstring and not to the calf muscle that has given him frequent trouble over the past three seasons.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Kirilloff moving forward. While he was announced as the 27th man for the upcoming doubleheader, we’re also nearing the point of the schedule at which he could remain in the Major Leagues without accruing a full year of big league service. We’re not quite to that point yet, which makes this a likely one-day promotion, but by this weekend he could return and the promotion could carry some more permanence.

The 23-year-old Kirilloff made his big league debut for the Twins in the playoffs last year and has rated as one of the game’s best all-around prospects since being selected in the first round of the 2016 draft. His proximity to MLB readiness undoubtedly played a role in Minnesota’s decision to non-tender Eddie Rosario this winter.

Kirilloff seemingly had a chance to make the big league roster this spring, but he struggled through a .129/.182/.258 showing in 33 plate appearances. That small sample notwithstanding, he’s a lifetime .317/.365/.498 hitter in the minors and widely regarded as one of baseball’s top 30 overall prospects. Even if it doesn’t happen within the next week, at some point before long, Kirilloff should be expected to get an audition as the everyday left fielder for the Twins.

MLB To Experiment With New DH Rule, Mound Distance During 2021 Atlantic League Season

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Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that it will experiment with a pair of new rules during the 2021 Atlantic League season: a “double-hook” implementation of the designated hitter and moving the pitching rubber back one foot. MLB and the Atlantic League began a partnership back in 2019 wherein the latter would serve as a testing ground for rule changes and pace-of-play alterations.

The “double-hook” designated hitter rule will be in place for the entirety of the 2021 Atlantic League season. Under the new rule, a team will lose its designated hitter once the starting pitcher is pulled from the game. From that point forth, the team will need to either deploy a pinch-hitter or allow a relief pitcher to bat in what was the designated hitter’s place.

The goal of the rule, per the league, is to “incentivize teams to leave their starting pitchers in longer, increase the value of starters who can work deeper into games and increase the strategic element in the late innings of a game.”

Turning to the pitching rubber experiment, that change will only be implemented in the second half of the Atlantic League season. (The first-half data will then be compared to second-half data as a direct point of comparison.) MLB’s release notes that the average fastball velocity has risen from 91.6 mph in 2010 to 93.3 mph in 2021. The league posits that a hitter’s reaction time on a 93.3 mph pitch thrown from 61 feet, six inches is approximately the same as the reaction time on a 91.6 mph pitch thrown from 60 feet, six inches.

Within its release, MLB indicates that their analysis concluded a one-foot increase “would be the minimum interval needed to evaluate a change in mound distance,” adding that the change is “expected to be meaningful without being disruptive.” The goal, as readers have surely deduced, is to curb the league’s rising strikeout rate and increase the number of balls in play.

MLB feels the change has been sufficiently determined to be safe and free of increased injury risk, citing a 2019 study conducted by the American Sports Medicine Institute. Within that study, the ASMI asked collegiate pitchers to throw from 60’6″, 62’6″ and 63’8″, ultimately concluding that there were “no significant differences in key measures of rotational motion (kinetics) or acceleration (kinematics).” Pitch velocity and strike percentage also remained consistent, per that study.

MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince also raises an interesting point on the potential shift in distance from home plate to the pitching rubber, writing that league study found a standard deviation of seven inches for how catchers set up behind the plate. Catcher positioning varies on a player-to-player basis, with the difference between some catchers being as large as three feet.

It’s worth emphasizing, of course, that the experimentation in the Atlantic League does not necessarily indicate that either of these changes is any sort of lock to be added to Major League Baseball’s official rulebook moving forward. For instance, the Atlantic League experimented with a two-foot increase in distance between home plate and the pitching rubber during the second half of the 2019 season. They’ve also tested out TrackMan-assisted home plate umpires, measures to limit infield shifts, increased base sizes and the elimination of mound visits for any reason other than pitching changes. Some of those experiments have now been implemented at various minor league levels, and that would surely be the next step for either of the measures announced today.

There’s always a broad range of opinions regarding the changes to any rules and regulations regarding the game, so I’ve included a pair of polls for readers to weigh in on the pair of potential changes (**Note: the initial DH poll inadvertently left off an option for the standard, universal DH; I’ve created a new poll and added that fifth option. My apologies on the accidental oversight. Readers are encouraged to cast their vote in the new poll)…

(Link to mound poll for Trade Rumors iOS/Android app users)

(Link to DH poll for app users)

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