MLB, MLBPA Reach Agreement On Postseason Plan
3:55pm: Because of concerns over air quality in the West Coast (the Mariners-Giants game in Seattle on Tuesday was postponed for that reason), the Phoenix area has become the league’s top fallback option for postseason games, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets.
12:52PM: Major League Baseball has officially announced the postseason schedule, which is set to begin on September 29 with the start of the AL wild card series. One notable aspect of the schedule is that there aren’t any scheduled off-days until the World Series, so teams won’t get any break (or a chance to reset their pitching staffs) unless they win their series in early fashion.
10:25am: Players’ families will have the option of quarantining at the hotel with them in the seven days prior to the postseason, Rosenthal tweets. They’d then be able to join the bubbles for the duration of the playoffs.
9:49am: Sherman further reports that teams will continue operating their alternate training sites during the pre-postseason quarantine, but transfers between the alternate site and big league roster won’t be permitted. As such, all players on the IL and 40-man roster are likely to join in that quarantine setting to allow clubs to continue to make roster moves.
That’s hardly an ideal setup, as those players seem unlikely to be able to participate in simulated games and other standard workouts, but the league is clearly exercising extra caution in order to ensure the postseason is able to take place.
9:37am: Sherman adds that the previously reported quarantine measures leading up to the playoffs will remain in place for players. All members of contending clubs, even those playing at home, will quarantine in hotels for seven days prior to the first round of postseason play. They’ll be tested daily during that period. If a team is eliminated from postseason contention in that seven-day span, of course, those players can leave the hotels early.
9:30am: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are in agreement on a plan for the 2020 postseason that includes a “bubble” format hosted at neutral sites for the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). A formal announcement is expected today.
Details of the arrangement remain sparse, although at last check, the plan was to host the ALDS and ALCS at National League stadiums in southern California (Dodger Stadium and San Diego’s Petco Park). The NLDS and NLCS, in turn, would be hosted at a pair of American League sites: the Rangers’ Globe Life Field and the Astros’ Minute Maid Park. The World Series would be staged at Globe Life Field as well. The first round of play would be hosted at the home park of the matchup’s higher seed, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.
Those points seemed largely agreed upon, but there were other details to be hammered out. Notably, players pushed back against the quarantine measures that were to be put in place for their family members before being permitted to join them in the bubble. It also appears that there’s been some discussion of allowing fans in a limited capacity, as commissioner Rob Manfred suggested last night in an online event with Hofstra University’s business school (link via Evan Drellich of The Athletic). Whether that possibility is woven into the agreement is not yet clear.
“I’m hopeful that the World Series and the LCS we will have limited fan capacity,” Manfred said in that appearance. “…Obviously it’ll be limited numbers, socially distanced, protection provided for the fans in terms of temperature checks and the like. Kind of the pods like you saw in some of the NFL games. We’ll probably use that same theory.”
Referring to anything as a “bubble” when family members and fans — even in limited quantities — are permitted to enter the equation seems like a reach, but it’s notable that it’s even under discussion. Limited fan attendance would complicate health and safety protocols but would also soften the financial blow that clubs are facing without gate revenue in 2020. It could also serve as somewhat of a litmus test in advance of the 2021 season, which Manfred acknowledged is not a given to return to normalcy from day one:
“I think the trick in terms of what’s going to happen next year, it’s dependent on the virus,” said Manfred. “The virus controls and it’s ‘do you have a vaccine? Are we still seeing spikes?’ That’s going to drive what local governments are going to allow us to do.”
MLBTR Chat Transcript
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Braves Promote Jasseel De La Cruz
The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve promoted right-hander Jasseel De La Cruz and optioned Touki Toussaint to their alternate training site. De La Cruz will make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game.
Ranked as Atlanta’s No. 12 prospect at each of Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com on their respective midseason updates, the 23-year-old De La Cruz will be the latest promising Braves arm to try to help patch an injury-decimated pitching staff. He split the 2019 season between Class-A, Class-A Advanced and Double-A, pitching to a collective 3.25 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9 and a healthy 47.6 percent ground-ball rate.
Scouting reports at BA, FanGraphs and MLB.com all credit De La Cruz with a mid-90s heater that can reach the upper 90s and, per BA, has occasionally scratched triple digits. He’s made strides with his slider and improved his changeup as well, but while he’s worked as a starter for most of his minor league career, his violent delivery leads many to believe that he’s eventually bullpen-bound. That would allow his heater to play up and perhaps allow De La Cruz to focus on the better of his two offspeed offerings, which is currently his slider.
It doesn’t appear as though De La Cruz will start a game anytime soon, so he could just be bullpen depth for the time being. David O’Brien of The Athletic tweeted last night that the Braves expect to start Huascar Ynoa today, with Cole Hamels coming off the injured list for his season debut tomorrow and Max Fried slated to return Friday. (The Braves are off Thursday.) As such, there’s no guarantee that De La Cruz will get into a game before he’s sent back out, but Atlanta fans could still get a glimpse of the future in the coming days if he’s called upon.
The impending activation of Hamels and Fried should be a welcome breath of fresh air for a Braves club that has continually struggled to piece together its starting staff in the wake of myriad injuries and unexpectedly poor performances. They’re still a lock to make the postseason, holding a 2.5-game lead in the NL East at present, but the type of starting pitching they’ve received recently wouldn’t instill much confidence in a playoff series. However, a group led by Fried, Ian Anderson and a hopefully healthy Hamels looks considerably more impressive.
Injury Notes: Piscotty, Blue Jays, Dean, Pirates
Injuries continue to mount for the Athletics, who could now face an absence for right fielder Stephen Piscotty. Per Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News, manager Bob Melvin revealed after Game 1 of yesterday’s doubleheader that Piscotty suffered a knee sprain when leaping in an attempt to rob a Jose Marmolejos home run. Piscotty will be further evaluated today, but Melvin added that Piscotty “had a pop” when he jumped. The 29-year-old Piscotty’s bat has gone cold this month, but he was one of Oakland’s best hitters in August, when he posted a .289/.323/.511 slash with five homers and five doubles on the month. His recent slump has dropped his season slash to .248/.289/.406, however. Mark Canha, who has already been spending time in right field, would likely be in line for more playing time should Piscotty require an IL stint.
A few more injury notes from around the game…
- Blue Jays righties Nate Pearson and Matt Shoemaker will throw live batting practice this week and could return to the roster before season’s end, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Neither can be expected to build back up to a full starter’s workload at this point, however, so their likeliest roles would be shorter stints out of the ‘pen. Putting Pearson in a short, multi-inning relief role or even an inning-at-a-time relief role would give Toronto a potentially formidable postseason weapon if he is indeed able to make it back from his current flexor strain. Shoemaker, meanwhile, is working back from shoulder inflammation that has sidelined him since Aug. 23.
- The Cardinals placed outfielder Austin Dean on the 10-day injured list due to a right elbow strain, per a club announcement. His injury comes just three days after returning from the Covid-19 injured list. The three games in which the 26-year-old Dean were his only appearances on the season. He went 1-for-4 with a double and three walks in that short time. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Dean might have avoided the IL were the club not pressed for bullpen arms, so it seems there’s a chance Dean will return before season’s end. Acquired in a January trade with the Marlins, Dean hasn’t yet had the opportunity to prove himself with his new club. He’s just a .224/.274/.390 hitter in 318 MLB plate appearances, but he carries a much more robust .331/.398/.546 line in 640 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
- Pirates righty Jameson Taillon chatted with reporters about the rehab of his second career Tommy John surgery and offered an optimistic outlook (link via MLB.com’s Adam Berry). Taillon is facing live hitters and said his elbow feels “amazing” at this point in the process. He’s worked with senior rehab coordinator A.J. Patrick, pitching coach Oscar Marin and bullpen coach Justin Meccage on what he believes to be a more mechanically sound delivery, Berry notes. Taillon acknowledged that changing the way he’s thrown since childhood is “tricky… But I came to the realization that two Tommy Johns kind of lets you know that what you’re doing isn’t working.” He also added that he’s seen his spin rate and spin efficiency increase — a reminder that pitchers are more data-focused than ever before in today’s game.
- The Pirates placed righty Kyle Crick on the 10-day injured list with a lat strain, manager Derek Shelton announced to reporters yesterday (Twitter link via Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The 27-year-old missed more than a month due to shoulder and lat discomfort earlier this season as well. Crick has pitched just 5 2/3 innings in 2020, and while he’s only surrendered one earned run with seven strikeouts, he’s given up another five unearned runs on seven hits and four walks. Crick hasn’t looked right in 2020, as he’s averaged just 91.3 mph on his four-seamer — a pitch that averaged 95.4 mph in 2019 and 96.4 mph in 2018. Crick was lights-out in 2018, but he’s struggled with control issues and now a velocity dip since that time. He still carries a 3.44 ERA and 4.32 FIP with 10.4 K/9 in 115 frames since coming over from the Giants in the Andrew McCutchen deal, but there are some visible red flags at the moment. Crick is controlled through 2023 and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter.
Brewers’ Stearns Addresses Josh Hader Trade Rumors
Josh Hader‘s name surfaced in trade rumors both at this year’s deadline and last winter, as teams understandably inquired on one of the game’s most prolific strikeout arms. There was never any real indication that the Brewers were in serious trade talks regarding the left-hander, though, and over the weekend, president of baseball operations David Stearns all but confirmed that nothing was ever close. Speaking in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link, with audio), Stearns acknowledged that he listened to offers on Hader but chalked it up to due diligence and strongly downplayed the possibility of moving Hader anytime in the near future:
..There are always going to be calls on elite players in the game, and certainly Josh is no different. But we believe he’s a really valuable member of our team and will be going forward. I think there are a couple times of year where you’re going to get that volume of calls: the trade deadline and around the Winter Meetings. Sometimes into Spring Training, the volume of calls picks up. That was certainly the case this deadline, and when you get calls, it’s our obligation to listen and engage and see if something makes sense. With all of that said, as I said before, Josh is a really important member of our team. We’re not looking to move him. We’ve never really looked to move him, and I don’t really anticipate that changing.”
That’s a bit short of former Braves GM John Coppolella’s declaration that he’d sooner give his right arm than trade Freddie Freeman, who remains in Atlanta a half-decade after that comment, but it’s still a notable on-record statement about a disinclination to move the 26-year-old Hader.
There have been plenty of trade rumors surrounding Hader dating back to last offseason, when the Brewers defeated him in arbitration. There was a wide gap between the two sides then, as the Brewers presented $4.1MM and Hader requested $6.4MM. Hader said after the decision came down that arbitration for relievers was “outdated.” That may be true, but considering he’s still scheduled to go through the arb process three more times, the Brewers haven’t felt any urgency to part with Hader so far.
Hader was fresh off his third straight stellar season last winter, of course, but the two-time All-Star hasn’t been as sharp in 2020. Granted, a large portion of the damage Hader has suffered this year came in a four-run, one-inning blowup against the Cubs on Saturday. With that performance factored in, he owns a 4.30 ERA/4.50 FIP with 14.11 K/9 and a career-worst 6.14 BB/9 across 14 2/3 frames this season. Teams still probably won’t be deterred from continuing to try to acquire Hader from the Brewers during the upcoming offseason, but Stearns clearly isn’t in any hurry to give him up.
Braves Release Robbie Erlin
The Braves announced this afternoon that they’ve released left-hander Robbie Erlin, who’d been designated for assignment over the weekend. The veteran southpaw is now free to sign with any club.
Erlin, 29, opened the season with the Pirates but was designated for assignment and picked up off waivers by the Braves shortly thereafter. The longtime Padres hurler made a pair of solid starts for the Braves early in his tenure, tossing eight innings and holding opponents to a combined two runs, but he’s been hammered over his five most recent outings. Overall, he’s put together an ugly 8.49 ERA with Atlanta and an 8.10 mark on the season as a whole.
Rough 2020 results aside, Erlin isn’t far removed from a solid 2018 campaign in San Diego. He tossed 109 frames that year between a dozen starts and 27 relief outings, working to an overall 4.21 ERA and 3.31 FIP with averages of 7.27 strikeouts, 0.99 walks and 0.99 homers per nine innings pitched. Prior to his poor results from 2019-20, Erlin had compiled a lifetime 4.40 ERA and 3.58 FIP in 257 2/3 MLB frames.
It’s impossible to simply ignore his recent results, but perhaps a club with some other ideas for his pitch selection might have ideas about how to help him return to form. Erlin did scrap his once-effective sinker entirely in 2020, gravitating more toward four-seamers and curveballs than ever before.
Neil Walker Elects Free Agency
The Phillies announced that veteran infielder Neil Walker, whom they designated for assignment last Friday, has elected free agency after clearing waivers. Philadelphia also reinstated Scott Kingery from the injured list and optioned lefty Ranger Suarez to the alternate training site.
Walker, 35, struggled to a .231/.244/.308 slash through 18 games and 41 plate appearances prior to being designated on Friday. The Phils opted to swap him out for fellow infielder Ronald Torreyes, who gives them an option at shortstop — a position not in Walker’s repertoire — and to provide better overall glovework at other spots around the infield.
Although Walker wasn’t particularly sharp with the Phillies, he notched a solid .261/.344/.395 batting line with the Marlins just last year. He was also a consistently productive hitter from 2010-17, slashing a combined .273/.342/.439 in 4294 plate appearances between the Pirates, Mets and Brewers. He’ll be eligible to sign with any club for the duration of the season should he choose. If he does latch on with a new club by tomorrow, he’d still be eligible for his new club’s postseason roster.
Brewers Claim Billy McKinney; Trey Supak, Ronny Rodriguez Designated For Assignment
The Brewers announced Monday that they’ve claimed outfielder Billy McKinney off waivers from the Blue Jays, who had designated him for assignment on Friday. He’s been optioned to the Brewers’ alternate training site. Milwaukee also added righty Justin Topa as the 29th man for their doubleheader today and reinstated right-hander Ray Black from the 45-day injured list.
In order to make room on the 40-man roster for McKinney and Black, the Brewers designated right-hander Trey Supak and infielder Ronny Rodriguez for assignment.
The 26-year-old McKinney was a first-round pick (No. 24 overall) by the Athletics back in 2013 and has since bounced around the league in a series of high-profile swaps. Oakland initially sent him to the Cubs as part of the Jeff Samardzija/Jason Hammel trade, but McKinney never made it to the big leagues in Chicago. Instead, the Cubs shipped him to the Yankees alongside Gleyber Torres in 2016’s Aroldis Chapman deadline swap. Nearly two years to the day later, the Yankees flipped McKinney to Toronto as part of their return for lefty J.A. Happ.
McKinney appeared in only two games for the Yankees and has spent the other 122 games of his big league career with the Toronto organization. He’s shown some pop, evidenced by a .209 ISO, 18 homers, 21 doubles and a triple in 407 plate appearances with the Jays, but McKinney has also been prone to strikeouts and infield flies without drawing much in the walk department.
Overall, McKinney is a .231/.291/.437 hitter with a 25.8 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate in the Majors. He’s drawn average reviews for his glovework in right field and below-average marks in left. McKinney has never played center in the Majors but does have a handful of innings at first base. He’s out of minor league options after this season, so there will be increased pressure for him to make the club in 2021 — if he survives on the 40-man roster until next year’s Spring Training, that is.
The decision to designate Supak is somewhat of a surprise, given that he’s long been regarded among the organization’s better pitching prospects and put together a nice season in Double-A last year. True, the Milwaukee farm has been regarded as one of the lower-ranking systems in the game for several seasons, but Supak looked to have an opportunity to make it to the Majors this year.
Supak spent most of last year in Double-A, where he pitched 122 2/3 frames of 2.20 ERA ball with 6.9 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.44 HR/9 and a 44.8 percent grounder rate. It’s a very pitcher-friendly setting, and the right-hander’s fielding-independent metrics weren’t as bullish as that rudimentary ERA — 3.14 FIP, 3.59 xFIP — but it was still a promising season all around. Supak was hit hard in a brief seven-game Triple-A stint, but that was true of most pitchers, given the offensive eruption throughout Triple-A that coincided with changes to the composition of the ball itself.
Milwaukee can’t trade Supak at this point, so he’ll now surely be run through outright waivers. He has a minor league option remaining beyond this season and a relatively strong minor league track record, so it wouldn’t all be a surprise to see another club place a claim. Perhaps of note, the club that originally drafted Supak, the Pirates, has the top waiver priority at present. (They’ve since turned over the top of their front office, however.) If Supak goes unclaimed, Milwaukee will be able to outright him to its alternate site and keep him both in the organization and in the 60-man player pool.
As for the 28-year-old Rodriguez, he never got into a game with the Brewers after coming over from the Tigers in a December waiver claim. He’s a versatile utility piece with a bit of pop but overwhelming on-base issues, as can be seen in his career .221/.254/.396 batting line. Rodriguez did swat 14 big flies in 294 MLB plate appearances last year, but he also carries a career 24.8 percent strikeout rate and has seen a dismal 18.2 percent of his fly-balls register as infield pop-ups. Thirty percent of Rodriguez’s plate appearances have resulted in either a punchout or a pop-up, and he’s walked at just a 4.6 percent pace in the Majors.
Reds’ Matt Bowman To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Reds right-hander Matt Bowman will undergo Tommy John surgery later this week, manager David Bell announced to reporters Monday afternoon (Twitter link via C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic). Given the timing of the procedure, he’ll likely miss the entirety of the 2021 season.
Bowman, 29, hasn’t pitched this season due to an elbow sprain. The club originally optioned him to the alternate training site in late July, but that move was rescinded when Bowman’s injury was discovered after the fact. He was placed on the Major League injured list instead and has spent the season there, accruing service time along the way.
Bowman has spent his entire big league career in the NL Central, pitching with the Cardinals from 2016-18 and the Reds last season. His lone season in Cincinnati resulted in a 3.66 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 3.7 BB/9 over the life of 32 innings. That solid showing would likely have put him in position to pitch out of the Reds’ bullpen again in 2020 had he been healthy. Now, his future with the organization is up in the air. Bowman will finish this season with four-plus years of MLB service time, meaning he’ll be arbitration-eligible over the winter. Given that he’s a long shot, at best, to pitch at all in 2021, he’s a virtual lock to be non-tendered. Cincinnati could bring him back on a minor league arrangement, but Bowman may also wait until the 2021-22 offseason to latch on with a new organization.
In 181 2/3 innings at the Major League level, Bowman carries a 4.02 ERA and a 3.67 FIP with averages of 7.5 strikeouts, 3.0 walks and 0.7 homers per nine innings pitched. He’s also turned in a strong 56.6 percent ground-ball rate, picked up two saves and been credited with 41 holds in the big leagues.
Reds Activate Nick Senzel, Transfer Tyler Thornburg To 45-Day IL
The Reds announced Monday that center fielder Nick Senzel has been activated from the injured list, with right-hander Tyler Thornburg moving from the 10-day injured list to the 45-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot. Senzel, who’ll technically return as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader, has been out since Aug. 19. He’s starting the first game of today’s twin bill in center.
Senzel, 25, was the No. 2 overall pick back in 2016 and was out to a .244/.327/.489 start through 14 games and 53 plate appearances in 2020. He hit .256/.315/.427 with a dozen homers and 14 steals as a rookie last year. He’ll add another option to an outfield mix that has seen seen Jesse Winker break out as one of the league’s more productive hitters. Nick Castellanos, meanwhile, has faded after a blistering start to the season, while rookie Shogo Akiyama has gone the opposite route — heating up in September after a slow start to his big league career.
The 31-year-old Thornburg went on the 10-day injured list late last week due to an elbow sprain — the latest in a mounting series ailments for the talented but oft-injured righty. Thornburg allowed three runs and punched out 10 hitters in seven innings with the Reds this year before the latest issue popped up.
Thornburg looked to be a breakout bullpen piece for the Brewers back in 2016 when he tossed 67 frames of 2.15 ERA ball with a 90-to-25 K/BB ratio, but he’s been derailed by injuries since being traded to the Red Sox in the Travis Shaw deal that winter. He battled shoulder troubles in early 2017 before undergoing thoracic outlet surgery that summer — a procedure that kept him out until July 2018. Thornburg returned to Boston in 2019 but was sidelined by a hip impingement for much of the season as well. Details on his current injury are still sparse, but the move to the 45-day IL formally brings his 2020 season to a close. He crossed six years of big league service in 2020, so he’ll be a free agent this winter.