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White Sox Place Dallas Keuchel On Injured List

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The White Sox have placed lefty Dallas Keuchel on the 10-day injured list and recalled righty Reynaldo Lopez from their alternate training site in his place, per a team announcement. Keuchel is dealing with back spasms. His placement on the IL is retroactive to Sept. 7, so he could return in as little as a week. That appears to be the hope, as it was already known that Keuchel’s next start would be skipped because of this issue. Given that expectation, it’s not entirely surprising to see an IL stint to bring in a fresh arm.

Chicago’s three-year, $55.5MM investment in Keuchel has paid off in spades thus far. Prior to going on the injured list, the 32-year-old was in the midst of perhaps his best run since capturing the 2015 American League Cy Young Award. Through 53 1/3 frames this year, Keuchel has worked to a 2.19 ERA and 3.14 FIP with 5.4 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.34 HR/9 and a 56 percent ground-ball rate. He’s never managed to limit home runs at this rate, so there may be some regression coming on that front, but Keuchel still looks better than he’s been since that Cy Young win.

Lopez was only just optioned to the White Sox’ Schaumburg site last week. The former top prospect simply hasn’t performed well enough to be one of the team’s top rotation options over the past two seasons. Dating back to Opening Day 2019, Lopez carries a dismal 5.53 ERA and 5.18 FIP in 193 2/3 innings. He started four games for the Sox in 2020 before being optioned out, but he lasted only 9 2/3 innings overall. In that short time, he yielded 11 runs (nine earned) on 14 hits, eight walks and a hit batter with 10 strikeouts.

Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease and Dane Dunning currently lead an impressive core of young ChiSox starters, and veteran Gio Gonzalez was just activated from the injured list earlier this week. Assuming Keuchel’s injury doesn’t worsen, he could return for the finale of a pivotal series against the division-rival Twins next Thursday. The Sox also play four games in Cleveland from Sept. 21-24, and if Keuchel is able to make it back for the finale against the Twins, he’d line up to start the second game of an equally important series against the Indians.

Bo Bichette Nearing Return

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The 24-19 Blue Jays are firmly in possession of a postseason spot at the moment, and an already-strong roster could soon get a major reinforcement. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi tweets that young shortstop Bo Bichette could return from the injured list in tie for this weekend’s series against the Mets. Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet tweeted yesterday that Bichette was 2-for-3 in a simulated game Tuesday before taking four plate appearances and playing six inning at shortstop in another sim game Wednesday.

Bichette, 22, has been nothing short of amazing through his first 60 big league games, hitting .323/.366/.595 with 16 homers, 22 doubles and eight stolen bases through 276 trips to the plate. He was particularly remarkable in 14 games this season before suffering a knee sprain, as he’d slashed .361/.391/.672 through his first 64 plate appearances. The Jays are off today, but a return tomorrow could mean Bichette returns for as many as 17 games to close out the regular season.

In Bichette’s absence, the Blue Jays have relied on the trio of Santiago Espinal, Joe Panik and recent trade acquisition Jonathan Villar have worked to hold down the fort at shortstop — with mixed results. Panik has hit quite well since Bichette went down (.327/.444/.423), though he’s spent more time at his customary second base than on the other side of the bag at shortstop. Espinal carries a .282/.326/.359 slash in 44 plate appearances dating back to Bichette’s injury. Villar, the most established player of the bunch, has struggled to a .194/.306/.194 slash in 33 plate appearances over his eight games in Toronto.

With 17 games remaining on the schedule and none against the division-leading Rays, the Blue Jays are a long shot to overtake Tampa Bay for the division lead. However, they’ll follow up this weekend’s three-game series against the Mets with three games at Yankee Stadium, and they still have another four-game set against the Yankees later this month. With the Yanks trailing the Jays by two games and seven contests between the two clubs still to come, Bichette’s impending return carries all the more consequence.

Marlins Place Elieser Hernandez On 60-Day Injured List

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TODAY: Hernandez’s season is over, as the Marlins today shifted him from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.

SEPTEMBER 2: The Marlins have placed right-hander Elieser Hernandez on the 10-day injured list due to a strained right lat and recalled infielder Eddy Alvarez from their alternate training site, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald tweets.

It’s a tough blow for the Fish, as Hernandez has been a key piece of their surprising 2020 season. The 25-year-old has made six starts and totaled 25 2/3 innings while running up a 3.16 ERA and a brilliant 34-to-5 K/BB ratio in that time. He departed last night’s game after just two innings due to soreness in his problematic lat muscle, and a subsequent MRI revealed the strain.

With less than a month left in the season, it’s tough to say whether Hernandez will be able to take the hill for the Marlins. And having just traded away Caleb Smith and Humberto Mejia to acquire Starling Marte from the Diamondbacks, the Marlins’ rotation depth has been thinned out a bit in recent days. Miami will continue to trot out Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Sixto Sanchez and Trevor Rogers for the time being, and they also have Jordan Yamamoto and Dan Castano in their player pool at the alternate training site. Both have started games for the Marlins in 2020.

Right-handers Jose Urena and Nick Neidert have not pitched yet in 2020 and were placed on the injured list at the time of the team’s Covid-19 outbreak, but SportsGrid’s Craig Mish tweeted earlier today that both could be ready to return should Hernandez need to go on the injured list.

Rangers Designate Yadiel Rivera, Select John King

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The Rangers have designated infielder Yadiel Rivera for assignment and selected the contract of left-hander John King from their alternate training site, per a club announcement. They’ve also added lefty Jake Latz to their 60-man player pool and assigned him to their alternate site.

Rivera, 28, appeared in just four games and went 0-for-5 in that brief time. The former Brewers and Marlins utilityman is a career .175/.244/.217 hitter in 319 Major League plate appearances and a .243/.280/.352 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. The Rangers will have a week to put him through waivers or release him.

The 25-year-old King was Texas’ 10th-round pick in 2017 and will be making the jump from Class-A Advanced to the Major Leagues thanks to the lack of a minor league season in 2020. King started 19 games between two Class-A levels last year and was dominant, pitching to a 2.40 ERA with a pristine 91-to-13 K/BB ratio and a huge 57.9 percent ground-ball rate in 97 1/3 innings. On top of that, King induced a whopping 23 infield flies.

Yankees Place Gio Urshela, Jonathan Loaisiga On Injured List

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The Yankees announced Friday that third baseman Gio Urshela and right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga have been placed on the 10-day injured list. Urshela is dealing with a bone spur in his right elbow, while Loasigia has “a medical condition that prevents him from playing and necessitates placement on the injured list,” per the team’s release. Manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler) that Loaisiga’s condition is not Covid-19 related. Infielder/outfielder Miguel Andujar and righty Miguel Yajure are up from the team’s alternate site.

Urshela, 28, has continued last year’s breakout showing in 2020, getting out to a very strong .272/.358/.515 start at the plate and swatting six homers in his first 120 plate appearances. He heads to the injured list, alongside shortstop Gleyber Torres, less than a week after DJ LeMahieu returned from the injured list. The Yankees are also without key sluggers Aaron Judge (strained calf) and Giancarlo Stanton (strained hamstring).

There’s no further information on Loaisiga at this point. It’s a rather ominous update on the 25-year-old righty, who has pitched quite well in 17 frames with the Yankees in 2020. Loaisiga has a 20-to-4 K/BB ratio and a 3.18 ERA in that short time, and he’s also induced grounders at a solid 48.8 percent clip. His absence will be felt by the Yankee pitching staff, but the greater concern is his overall well-being. Best wishes to the young right-hander on a full recovery.

Player Pool Additions: Phillies, Brewers, Padres, Orioles

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We’ll track the latest additions to teams’ 60-man player pools in this post…

  • The Phillies added lefty Jeff Singer to their pool, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (via Twitter). The 26-year-old signed with the Phils as an undrafted free agent in 2016 and has steadily risen through their system, reaching the Double-A level in 2019. Last year, Singer tossed 61 2/3 frames with a 74-to-22 K/BB ratio, a 2.34 ERA and a 2.77 FIP. Singer isn’t considered to be among the club’s top-ranked prospects but will get some developmental reps in Allentown and could conceivably even be an option later this month, given his success in the upper minors.
  • The Brewers announced three new additions to their player pool: infielder Gabe Holt, outfielder Carlos Rodriguez and righty Bowden Francis. Their 60-man group is up to 59 players. Holt, 22, was a seventh-round pick out of Texas Tech in 2019 and hasn’t played above Rookie ball, so his addition is purely developmental. That’s also true of Rodriguez, a 2017 international signee out of Venezuela who is considered among to be the organization’s top 20 prospects. Francis, meanwhile, was a 2017 seventh-rounder and split the 2019 season between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. In a combined 142 2/3 innings, Francis pitched to a 3.97 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. Francis seems like a viable candidate to debut over the final three-plus weeks of the 2020 season, as he’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft this winter anyhow.
  • Righty Justin Lange and catcher Blake Hunt have been added to the Padres’ player pool, tweets Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sanders adds that outfielder Jorge Ona was also quietly added to the pool “some time” ago. The 18-year-old Lange was taken with the No. 34 overall pick in this year’s draft, but as a high school draftee, he obviously won’t be considered for an MLB look this month. Hunt, 21, was the Padres’ second-rounder in ’17 and hit .255/.331/.381 in 376 Class-A plate appearances last year. The 23-year-old Ona was a high-profile signing out of Cuba. He was sidelined for much of the 2019 season but put together a huge .348/.417/.539 slash through 103 plate appearances in a pitcher-friendly Double-A environment last year. He’s already on the 40-man roster after having his contract selected last November.
  • The Orioles announced that lefty Zac Lowther has been added to their player pool in Bowie. Lowther, 24, was the Orioles’ second-rounder in 2017 and posted a 2.55 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 0.49 HR/9 and a 40.1 percent ground-ball rate in 148 innings. He’s generally considered to be among the Orioles’ 15 best prospects.

Orioles Place Alex Cobb On Injured List, Outright Mason Williams

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The Orioles announced Friday that righty Alex Cobb has been placed on the injured list. Right-hander Branden Kline has been selected from the team’s alternate training site in his place. Additionally, outfielder Mason Williams cleared waivers and was assigned outright to the alternate site, while infielder Ramon Urias has been added as the 29th man for today’s twin bill.

No reason was provided for Cobb’s IL placement, and manager Brandon Hyde would only state that the club is “following protocol” and hopes Cobb can return soon (Twitter link via MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski). That will surely lead to Covid-19 speculation, although it’s worth reminding that a player can be placed on the Covid-19 IL not only for testing positive but also for exhibiting symptoms or coming into contact with someone who has since tested positive. Righty Tom Eshelman will start in Cobb’s place today.

Cobb, 32, is in the midst of what has been a mostly solid rebound campaign. He was torched by the Blue Jays in his most recent start but still carries a 4.33 ERA with 6.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9, 1.27 HR/9 and an impressive 55.9 percent ground-ball rate. He was viewed as a possible trade candidate prior to the deadline earlier this week, though Baltimore surely would’ve had to pay down the bulk of his contract in order to facilitate a deal; Cobb is being paid a $14MM salary in 2020 (prorated to $5.04MM) and is also set to be paid $15MM in 2021 — the final season of his four-year, $57MM deal.

The 28-year-old Kline was hit hard in his debut campaign last year, yielding a 5.93 ERA with a 34-to-19 K/BB ratio and nine homers allowed in 41 innings. Last year’s poor showing aside, however, Kline has had some success in the upper minors. The 2012 second-rounder missed all of the 2016-17 seasons but came back with a brilliant 1.64 ERA, 9.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 through 65 2/3 minor league frames. He’ll give the O’s some depth in the ’pen with Cobb sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined period of time.

Williams, 29, went 2-for-11 with the O’s in a small sample before he was removed from the roster. The former Yankees prospect had a solid showing with the 2018 Reds when he hit .293/.331/.398 in a career-high 132 plate appearances, but he hasn’t had much success (or opportunity) at the MLB level outside that 51-game stint. He’ll stay on hand as depth in the team’s 60-man player pool and is eligible to rejoin the club later this season, should a need arise.

Twins Place Max Kepler On Injured List, Promote Brent Rooker

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11:32am: Twins skipper Rocco Baldelli tells reporters that Kepler is only expected to be sidelined for the minimum 10 days (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park). Kepler might’ve avoided an IL stint entirely had the team been at full strength, but with several players also banged up, they needed to get a fresh body onto the roster.

11:15am: The Twins have placed right fielder Max Kepler on the 10-day injured list due to a left adductor strain and selected the contract of outfielder Brent Rooker from their alternate training site in St. Paul, per a team announcement. The club also added Willians Astudillo as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader and announced that righty Juan Minaya cleared waivers and has been outrighted back to St. Paul.

Minnesota only just got Josh Donaldson and Byron Buxton back from the injured list, but they’ll now see a third key piece of their lineup sidelined for the foreseeable future. An expected timeline for Kepler’s return has not been provided.

Kepler, 27, has slashed .220/.322/.431 with seven homers, five doubles and three steals through 143 plate appearances to begin the 2020 season. He’s played strong defense along the way, checking with a +2.5 Ultimate Zone Rating and +1 Defensive Runs Saved in 259 innings in right. It’s a notable loss for the Twins, as Kepler is batting .246/.333/.502 dating back to Opening Day 2019 and is tied for fifth among all MLB right fielders with 15 Defensive Runs Saved over the past three seasons.

Rooker, 25, will get his first call to the Major League level. The No. 35 overall pick in the 2017 draft has been a steady source of power in the minors, slashing a combined .267/.357/.505 in 1110 professional plate appearances, including a .281/.398/.535 line in 274 Triple-A plate appearances a year ago.

There are questions about Rooker’s defense, as some feel he’s best suited in a first base/designated hitter role. The Twins, though, have played him in left field for much of his minor league career and seemingly hope that he can at least play passable defense there at the game’s top level. Defensive concerns notwithstanding, Rooker is considered one of the Twins’ better prospects, ranking 12th at MLB.com, 14th at Baseball America and 17th at FanGraphs due to his largely to his plus raw power and his consistently strong performances at each minor league stop.

With Kepler sidelined, the Twins can rotate Rooker, Eddie Rosario and Jake Cave through the corners. On the surface, adding Rooker’s right-handed bat would seemingly be a plus for a Twins club that has unexpectedly floundered against left-handed pitching in 2020, but Rooker has actually handled righties better than lefties over the past couple of minor league seasons.

Turning to Minaya, he had his contract selected last week but didn’t make it into a game before being designated for assignment. The 29-year-old  has spent the past four seasons with the division-rival White Sox, where he’s pitched to a combined 3.93 ERA with 10.0 K/9, 4.6 BB/9, 0.98 HR/9 and a 36.8 percent grounder rate in 128 1/3 frames.

Indians Outright Domingo Santana, Release Jake Elmore

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The Indians announced Friday that outfielder Domingo Santana has been assigned outright to their alternate training site after he went unclaimed on waivers. Because Santana was outrighted to the alternate site, he remains in Cleveland’s player pool and is eligible to rejoin the club later this season if they wish to again add him to the 40-man roster. The club also released infielder/outfielder Jake Elmore, who’d been in the 60-player pool.

Cleveland bought low on Santana this winter, signing him to a one-year, $1.5MM contract with a 2021 club option after he was non-tendered by the Mariners. The hope was surely that he could rebound closer to the .278/.371/.505, 30-homer form he showed with Milwaukee in 2017, but Santana struggled through one of the worst showings of his career with his new club. Appearing in 24 games and taking 84 plate appearances, the 28-year-old hit just .157/.298/.286 with a pair of homers and three doubles.

Santana did manage a hearty 15.5 percent walk rate, but he also struck out in 30 percent of his plate appearances. Meanwhile, his average exit velocity was down 3.5 mph from its 2019 levels, per Statcast, and his hard-hit rate fell by seven percent. He might return later this month, but suffice it to say, his $5MM club option won’t be picked up.

The 32-year-old Elmore signed a minor league deal with the Indians back in early July and spent Summer Camp with the team, but he has not been called up from their alternate site to this point. Elmore has appeared in 217 games at the big league level and logged 527 plate appearances.

Though he’s just a .215/.292/.275 hitter in that time, Elmore has demonstrated as much versatility as anyone in baseball. In 2013, the Astros used him at every position on the diamond — including catcher and pitcher. Elmore has at least 106 innings at all four infield spots, 234 innings in the outfield (including 14 in center) and has also caught 4 1/3 innings and pitched two frames (one run allowed) in the Majors.

Royals Designate Randy Rosario For Assignment, Promote Edward Olivares

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The Royals have designated left-hander Randy Rosario for assignment in order to open a spot on the active roster for outfielder Edward Olivares, who has been recalled from the alternate training site and will start tonight’s game in center field, manager Mike Matheny announced to reporters (Twitter link via Alec Lewis of The Athletic). Olivares was acquired in the trade that sent closer Trevor Rosenthal to the Padres.

Rosario, 26, was a somewhat promising bullpen prospect as he rose through the Twins’ system several years back, posting quality numbers in the upper minors before getting hit hard in a brief debut look in 2017. The new Minnesota front office took him off the 40-man roster, and upon landing with the Cubs, Rosario turned in a 3.66 ERA in 46 2/3 frames of work as a rookie in 2018. However, his 30-to-22 K/BB ratio in that time didn’t inspire much confidence, and Rosario has indeed been hit hard in subsequent seasons. Dating back to 2019, he has a 5.09 ERA in just 17 2/3 innings.

The Royals had spoken favorably of the hard-throwing Rosenthal, with GM Dayton Moore expressing a desire to keep him long-term, but the addition of Olivares to the Padres’ offer likely made it too tempting to overlook. The 24-year-old got out to a poor .176/.224/.294 start in his debut season this year, but that ugly line came in a tiny sample of just 36 plate appearances.

The overall body of work for Olivares in the minors is much more favorable, highlighted by a .283/.349/.453 showing in the Double-A Texas League last year. That production may not appear especially potent at first glance, but it was 23 percent better than that of a league-average hitter in an extremely pitcher-friendly environment, per wRC+, and Olivares adds plenty of value on the bases and in the field as well.

Beyond the 18 homers on which he connected last year, Olivares collected 25 doubles and a pair of triples while going 35-for-45 in stolen base attempts. Olivares has fanned in a relatively low 17.6 percent of his career minor league plate appearances and is considered an average or better outfielder capable of playing all three spots. At the very least, he seems capable of stepping in as a quality fourth outfielder, but the rebuilding Royals will likely give him ample opportunity to seize an everyday spot in their outfield moving forward.

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