Cubs Select Adrian Sampson, Designate Johneshwy Fargas
The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Adrian Sampson from Triple-A Iowa and designated outfielder Johneshwy Fargas for assignment in a corresponding move, per a club announcement.
Sampson, 29, will be returning to the Majors for the first time since 2019. He’s spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues between the Mariners and Rangers but struggled to a 5.71 ERA in that time. He spent the 2020 season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants and racked up 130 innings in their rotation, albeit with a lackluster 5.30 ERA in that time.
Sampson has been far from dominant in Iowa this year, but he’s carrying a 4.12 ERA over his past 10 starts — a span of 55 2/3 innings. That includes a seven-run meltdown on Aug. 7, but he’s been largely solid for the better part of two months outside of that hiccup. He’ll give the Cubs a fresh arm to start with Adbert Alzolay hitting the 10-day injured list due to a blister issue.
Fargas, 26, was claimed off waivers earlier in the summer and has gone 7-for-26 in his limited time with the team. He’s hitting .277/.292/.426 through 49 plate appearances this year between the Cubs and the Mets — the first big league action of his career. The longtime Giants minor leaguer is a career .255/.331./346 hitter in parts of eight minor league seasons, but he possesses well above-average speed — as evidenced by 248 minor league steals — and can play all three outfield spots. The Cubs will place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days.
Twins Designate Nick Vincent For Assignment
The Twins announced Wednesday morning that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Nick Vincent for assignment. The move opens a spot on the active roster for left-hander Lewis Thorpe, who has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul to start today’s game.
Vincent, 35, appeared in just two games for Minnesota but pitched quite well, holding opponents to a run on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts in that limited action. Prior to his selection to Minnesota’s big league roster, he split the 2021 season with the Triple-A affiliates of the Twins and Rangers, pitching to a combined 4.19 ERA with very strong strikeout and walk rates of 29.3 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
Minnesota was the sixth big league organization for which the increasingly well-traveled Vincent has pitched. The soft-tossing righty continues to bounce around the league despite enjoying fairly consistent success. He’s never posted a single-season ERA higher than last year’s 4.43 mark, and he’s posted strong strikeout-to-walk numbers throughout his career. Vincent averaged just 88.8 mph on his fastball in his brief time with the Twins, although that’s not exactly a new or notable decline in his velocity. He’s never averaged even 91 mph on his heater in a given season and hasn’t cracked a 90 mph average since 2017 — but he’s nevertheless had success along the way.
A fly-ball pitcher who averages around 89 mph on his heater is something of an oddball in today’s velocity-driven game, however, so Vincent will now head to either outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days, giving the other 29 clubs around the league a chance to pick him up. In 403 1/3 career innings, he carries a 3.37 ERA with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 6.1 percent walk rate.
Thorpe, 25, has seen action in parts of three seasons with the Twins. The Australian southpaw was once a highly touted prospect within the system but has had his career slowed by injuries, most notably Tommy John surgery. He’s tossed 14 innings of 3.86 ERA ball in Minnesota this season but did so with career-low velocity and a perilously low 8.6 percent strikeout rate. Thorpe missed a good chunk of the minor league season on the injured list due to a shoulder strain and only recently returned to the team’s Triple-A club. He’s tossed a 8 1/3 innings since that return, allowing a pair of runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts while stretching back out to 65 pitches in his most recent outing.
Chris Bassitt To Undergo Surgery For Facial Fractures After Being Struck By Line Drive
10:30am: The Athletics announced that Bassitt “received stitches for two facial lacerations and was diagnosed with a displaced tripod fracture in his right cheek that will require surgery.” Vision tests and a CT scan revealed no additional damage, and Bassitt also avoided any damage to his orbital bone. He’s been released from the hospital for the time being.
Aug. 18, 8:20am: Bassitt sustained fractures to his cheekbone and upper jawbone, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, but all other tests have come back clean and his vision is unaffected. He’ll require surgery in the next three to five days once the swelling has subsided.
Aug. 17, 10:10pm: Manager Bob Melvin spoke to reporters on Zoom after the game and provided the following update (Twitter link via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle):
“Bass is conscious. He was the entire time. We don’t think the eye is a problem at this point. It felt like it was below it. He’s got some cuts. They had to do some stitches. He’s in a scan and we’ll know more about potential fractures tomorrow or later tonight.”
8:12pm: In a frightening scene at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday evening, Athletics right-hander Chris Bassitt was carted off the field after being struck on the side of the head by a comeback line drive off the bat of White Sox outfielder Brian Goodwin. Bassitt spent several minutes down on the mound with the training staff, who held multiple towels to the side of his face. He was eventually helped onto the cart and driven off the field, still clutching a towel to the side of his head.
The Athletics, thankfully, have issued the following statement:
“Chris Bassitt is conscious and aware, and is on his way to the hospital. We will provide additional information when possible.”
The overwhelming concern right now is not on the outcome of the game itself or potential impact on playoff races, but rather on Bassitt’s overall health and well-being. The line-drive left Goodwin’s bat at just over 100 mph, per Statcast, and Bassitt did not appear to deflect the ball prior to contact. Players on the field were visibly shaken — Bassitt’s teammates and his opponents alike.
Bassitt, 32, is in the midst of the finest season of his career, having emerged as the top starter on the Oakland staff. He’s carrying a 3.04 ERA through 151 innings this season and entered play ranked third in total innings among all MLB pitchers.
David Hess Elects Free Agency
Marlins right-hander David Hess has rejected an outright assignment following his recent DFA and elected free agency, as first reported by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).
Hess, 28, spent seven seasons in the Orioles organization after being selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. He debuted with Baltimore in 2018 and was an up-and-down member of their staff over the next three seasons, pitching to a 5.86 ERA through 190 1/3 innings.
The Orioles removed Hess from the 40-man roster after those struggles, and he quickly signed with the Rays as a minor league free agent last winter. A strong minor league start with Tampa Bay’s top affiliate this season — 32 innings, 2.81 ERA, 28.9 percent strikeout rate, 3.9 percent walk rate — led the Marlins to acquire Hess in a trade that sent minor league righty Justin Sterner to the Rays. Hess was immediately selected to the MLB roster and started out well in Miami, pitching to a 3.94 ERA with a 15-to-8 K/BB ratio through his first 16 innings. However, Hess yielded seven runs in one inning during a disastrous outing at Coors Field and ultimately finished his time with the Marlins with an 8.00 ERA through 18 frames, owing largely to that rough evening in Colorado.
While Hess has yet to find consistent big league success, he has a solid track record in the upper minors, having pitched to a 3.55 ERA with a 26 percent strikeout rate and a similarly strong 7.3 percent walk rate. He’s worked primarily out of the bullpen in recent years, although he did make a four-inning appearance with Miami earlier this year. With a solid Triple-A track record and virtually every club on the hunt for pitching depth, Hess ought to find another opportunity on a minor league deal before too long.
Giants Likely To Discuss Extension With Buster Posey
Heading into the 2021 season, Buster Posey was somewhat of a question mark for the Giants. The former NL Rookie of the Year and MVP had long since cemented his place in franchise lore, but Posey battled hip, hamstring and concussion issues from 2017-19 before opting out of the 2020 season. Posey had hip surgery in Aug. 2018, and his 2019 return wasn’t exactly peak form: .257/.320/.368 with seven home runs in 445 plate appearances.
Even the most bullish Posey fans would’ve been hard-pressed to predict the type of rebound that has since unfolded. Posey has not only returned to form but is arguably in the midst of the finest season of what could end up being a Hall of Fame career. And while his future with the club might not have been certain even four months ago — not with a new front office, a checkered recent injury history and one of the game’s top catching prospects looming in the minors — that no longer appears to be the case.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Giants fully intend to keep Posey beyond the 2021 season — be it via the $22MM club option they hold over him or, perhaps likelier, on a multi-year extension like the two-year deal just brokered with shortstop Brandon Crawford.
Not long ago, it looked likely that the $22MM option would be declined in favor of a $3MM buyout. Posey, however, has done enough this season to make even that weighty sum look like a bargain. The 34-year-old is currently hitting .325/.418/.540 with 15 home runs, 14 doubles, an excellent 13.5 percent walk rate and a 19.5 percent strikeout rate. He’s been 59 percent better than a league-average hitter, by measure of wRC+, and that comes during a season in which the average catcher has produced been 11 percent worse than league-average at the plate.
The Giants were able to get an in-season extension done with the aforementioned Crawford, but Posey suggested this week that he’s content to take a more patient approach. “For me, I think I’ll get to the end of the season and kind of assess at that point,” he told reporters, including John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). “Talk to my wife and see where we are.”
Posey will play the 2022 season at 35, so the Giants surely would like to keep any new multi-year investments relatively short. Both the pricing of his club option and some recent contracts for Posey’s peers give some points of comparison. Posey will play next season at age 35 — the same age at which Yadier Molina‘s three-year, $60MM contract with the Cardinals began in 2018. (He’s since re-signed on a one-year, $9MM deal after his production waned late in that three-year deal.) Meanwhile, J.T. Realmuto set a nominal average-annual-value record for catchers when he inked a five-year, $115.5MM contract with the Phillies this past offseason.
Any contractual talks with Posey will come with ramifications for top catching prospect Joey Bart, who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 draft. The 24-year-old previously looked to be the Giants’ heir-apparent behind the plate, but Posey’s resurgence has thrown a wrench into those plans. Bart is enjoying a very strong season in Triple-A Sacramento, hitting .314/.379/.536 in 214 plate appearances. He made his big league debut, somewhat out of necessity, back in 2020 and scuffled with a .233/.288/.320 output in 111 plate appearances.
Bart already saw his name pop up on the rumor mill this summer, and a Posey extension would only further push teams to inquire about the possibility of prying him away from the Giants. That said, retaining Posey certainly doesn’t mean that Bart would become superfluous. Depth is always critical, particularly behind the plate, and while the Giants already have a very fine backup catcher in Curt Casali, he’s a free agent after the 2022 season.
It’s also quite possible that there will be a designated hitter implemented in the National League as soon as next year. Additionally, Posey has seen plenty of time at first base over the years, which could create additional opportunities for Bart. Incumbent first baseman Brandon Belt is a free agent at season’s end.
Depending on what happens with Belt and the universal DH, there could even be enough room for the Giants to carry three catchers on the roster in 2021 while still getting a reasonable number of at-bats for the whole trio. Those decisions will fall under the “good problem to have” umbrella whenever they more firmly present themselves. For the time being, the focus will be on finding terms that are agreeable both to Posey and to the team following the seven-time All-Star’s remarkable rebound.
Yankees, Nick Goody Agree To Minor League Deal
The Yankees are in agreement to bring right-hander Nick Goody back to the organization on a minor league contract, reports Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune (Twitter link). He’ll head back to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre for the time being.
Goody, 30, opened the season with the Yankees on a minor league deal and pitched quite well for their top affiliate in Scranton, logging 22 innings of 2.86 ERA ball with a massive 36.5 percent strikeout rate against just an 8.2 percent walk rate. Goody exercised an early July opt-out clause in that deal, however, and the Yankees elected to let him become a free agent rather than add him to the MLB roster at the time. He went on to sign with the Nationals but didn’t fare as well with their Triple-A club in Rochester; in 14 innings there, Goody yielded eight runs on 13 hits and seven walks with 13 strikeouts (5.40 ERA).
Originally a sixth-round pick by the Yankees back in 2012, Goody made his big league debut with them back in 2015. He was traded to the Indians in a 2016 deal that netted minor league reliever Yoiber Marquina, and he went on to enjoy a solid three-year run in Cleveland from 2017-19: 107 innings, 3.53 ERA, 29.6 percent strikeout rate, 10.4 percent walk rate. After going to the Rangers via waivers in the 2019-20 offseason, Goody was hit hard in the 2020 season, yielding 11 runs on 14 hits and eight walks with 13 punchouts through 11 innings.
Now back with the Yankees, Goody will provide some depth to a bullpen that has a different composition than when he left the organization. In the six weeks since that time, the Yankees have lost Darren O’Day to a season-ending hamstring injury; traded Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson; and acquired both Clay Holmes and Joely Rodriguez in separate deals. They’re also currently without closer Aroldis Chapman, who has been on the injured list since Aug. 7 owing to elbow inflammation.
Giants Select Tyler Chatwood
The Giants announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Tyler Chatwood. San Francisco optioned righty Jay Jackson to Triple-A Sacramento to clear a spot on the active roster, and right-hander Tyler Beede was recalled from Triple-A and placed on the 60-day injured list with a lower back strain.
Chatwood, 31, was released by the Blue Jays on July 31 and signed with San Francisco on a minor league pact later that week. He’s tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames with the Giant’s Sacramento affiliate since joining the organization.
Signed by the Blue Jays to a one-year, $3MM deal over the winter, Chatwood moved to the bullpen on a full-time basis this season and got out to a brilliant start with the Jays. He missed a couple weeks early on due to some triceps inflammation, but through his first 17 innings out of the bullpen, Chatwood yielded just one run on eight hits and five walks with 24 strikeouts. Things quickly went south, however.
Over his next four appearances, Chatwood pitched just 3 1/3 innings, walked nine batters and served up a whopping 11 runs. That disastrous stretch ballooned his ERA from 0.53 all the way to 5.31. He righted the ship for much of June, lowering his ERA to 4.00 with a string of scoreless outings. But in what would be his final two appearances with the Blue Jays, Chatwood again lost his ability to locate the ball, issuing four walks and yielding a combined five runs in just an inning of work. He was placed on the injured list with a neck strain and, upon returning, was designated for assignment and released.
The Giants will obviously be hoping to get the early version of Chatwood in what has been a Jekyll-and-Hyde season for the veteran righty. Chatwood has only been scored upon in six of his 30 outings this season, but he’s surrendered runs in bunches — including individual appearances in which he’s yielded four and five runs apiece. Command issues aren’t exactly anything new for the longtime Rockies hurler, as evidenced by his 12.1 percent walk rate, but Chatwood’s uptick in his strikeout rates over the past few years surely piqued the interest of not only the Jays but also the Giants.
Brewers Sign David Dahl To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have signed free-agent outfielder David Dahl to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A, tweets Will Sammon of The Athletic. They’ve also released infielder Kevin Kramer from their Nashville roster.
The 27-year-old Dahl was a first-round pick and longtime top prospect with the Rockies. After debuting as a 21-year-old back in 2016 and hitting the ground running with a .315/.359/.500 slash in 237 plate appearances, Dahl looked like a potential building block for the Rox.
However, Dahl came to the Majors with an injury history of note. He suffered a lacerated spleen during an outfield collision in the minor leagues and had an emergency splenectomy, and since his big league debut he’s incurred a stress reaction in rib cage, a broken foot, a lower back strain, a high ankle sprain and a right shoulder strain — all over the course of about four years.
Dahl spent the 2017 season on the injured list but returned to enjoy productive 2018-19 campaigns. The 2020 season was a disaster, however, as he posted a .183/.222/.247 batting line in 99 plate appearances with the Rockies, who somewhat surprisingly non-tendered him in the offseason. The Rangers swooped in to add Dahl on a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $2.7MM, but he looked nowhere near the 2016-19 version of himself; in 220 plate appearances this season, Dahl has batted only .210/.247/.322.
Texas designated Dahl for assignment earlier this month, and no team saw fit to claim the remainder of his $2.7MM salary on outright waivers. Dahl rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency, and he’ll now join the Brewers in hopes of finding another big league opportunity with a third organization. Milwaukee would only owe Dahl the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster — if he’s called up at all before season’s end.
Kramer, 27, came to the Brewers via a July 4 swap that sent lefty Nathan Kirby to the Pirates. It was an intra-division swap of two formerly high-profile draft prospects who simply haven’t panned out as their organizations had hoped. Kramer improved upon the woeful numbers he’d posted with the Bucs’ top minor league affiliate in what will go down as a brief run with the Brewers’ Nashville affiliate, but his output was still below average overall. In 66 plate appearances with Triple-A Nashville, Kramer hit .245/.379/.321.
Brewers Designate Kyle Lobstein For Assignment
The Brewers have designated left-hander Kyle Lobstein for assignment in order to open a roster spot for infielder Keston Hiura, per a club announcement. Hiura has been formally reinstated from the Covid-19-related injured list and will be active on the Brewers’ Triple-A Nashville roster.
Lobstein, 32, came to Milwaukee in a minor mid-July swap that sent cash back to the Nationals, who’d designated him for assignment. The former Tigers and Pirates hurler made his return to the big leagues earlier this season with Washington after a five-year absence, but he appeared in just three games, yielding three runs in 1 1/3 innings.
With the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, Lobstein pitched quite well, compiling a 1.69 ERA with a very strong 29.8 percent strikeout rate, a 9.5 percent walk rate and an elite 69.4 percent ground-ball rate. Things didn’t go as well with Milwaukee’s top affiliate in Nashville, however, as Lobstein has been tagged for 5.40 ERA with nine strikeouts, four walks, three hit batters and a diminished 52.1 percent grounder rate in 13 1/3 innings.
In 129 1/3 Major League innings overall, Lobstein carries a 5.22 ERA with a 13.3 percent strikeout rate, an 8.9 percent walk rate and a 49.8 percent ground-ball rate, although his improved strikeout numbers in the minors in recent years suggest he’s made some changes from earlier in his career when he was struggling as a starter in Detroit. The Brewers will have a week to place him on outright waivers or release him now that the trade deadline has passed.
Reds Designate Heath Hembree For Assignment
The Reds have designated right-hander Heath Hembree for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow right-hander Tony Santillan, who has been recalled from Triple-A Louisville, per a team announcement. Cincinnati also reinstated right-hander R.J. Alaniz from the injured list and optioned him to Triple-A. Meanwhile, the Reds announced earlier in the day that infielder Mike Freeman cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Louisville.
Hembree’s DFA comes on the heels of a catastrophic outing in which he was tagged for five runs in just two-thirds of an inning. The Reds might’ve been able to look past that meltdown had he continued pitching as well as he did throughout the month of July, but the past several weeks have been a struggle for the veteran Hembree, to say the least. He’s yielded runs in seven of his past nine outings — a total of 13 in a span of just seven innings.
That dismal slump has ballooned Hembree’s ERA to a grisly 6.38 mark, but Hembree has previously been more solid out of the Cincinnati ‘pen and spent several weeks pitching quite well as their primary closer while top relievers Tejay Antone, Michael Lorenzen and Lucas Sims were on the injured list. (Antone is still on the IL.) Hembree logged seven saves and posted a 1.42 ERA with a 19-to-5 K/BB ratio from June 28 through July 24. He’d had some early struggles as well, but that strong stretch dropped his ERA into the low-4.00s and gave the impression he’d righted the ship.
Clearly, that wasn’t the case, but there’s still plenty of reason that another club might be intrigued by Hembree. Among the 321 pitchers who have thrown at least 40 innings this year, Hembree’s 38 percent strikeout rate is the game’s seventh-highest mark. He’s tied for 15th in that same set of pitchers with a 27.4 K-BB% and sits 18th with a 2.84 SIERA.
Hembree has been done in by a ghastly 51.3 percent strand rate that sits more than 20 percent worse than the league average. That’s in part due to a sky-high 2.13 HR/9 mark; he’s yielded 10 long balls in his 44 2/3 innings this season, although seven of them have come in his hitter-friendly home park. Another club with a more spacious home setting might take a look at Hembree’s K-BB profile and generally solid track record from 2015-19 and opt to place a claim on outright waivers. His contract comes with a very reasonable $800K base salary in the Majors, though he’s already unlocked another $225K of incentives on top of that base, I’m told. Hembree would be an affordable change-of-scenery candidate for a team in need of bullpen depth — be it on a waiver claim or on a new contract if goes unclaimed and reaches the market.