Red Sox Claim Andrew Triggs, Designate Stephen Gonsalves
The Red Sox have claimed righty Andrew Triggs off waivers from the Giants and designated southpaw Stephen Gonsalves for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, per a team announcement. Triggs has been optioned to their alternate training site.
Back in 2016-17, the Athletics looked as though they might’ve unearthed a useful starter in Triggs after claiming him from the Orioles. He gave the A’s 121 1/3 frames of 4.29 ERA ball but with more encouraging secondary numbers: 3.88 FIP, 3.96 xFIP and SIERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 50.3 percent grounder rate. It wasn’t a world-beating performance, but Triggs looked like a capable fourth starter — a mighty fine outcome for a simple waiver claim.
Injuries, however, have spoiled those hopes. Triggs had surgery to repair the labrum in his left hip in 2017, cutting his season short, and 14 months later he underwent thoracic outlet surgery. He was bothered by nerve irritation for months leading up to that second procedure, and Triggs has totaled just 41 2/3 innings in the Majors since the end of that ’17 season (including one-third of an inning with the Giants in 2020).
The Red Sox are in dire need of serviceable options on the pitching staff, though, and Triggs’ background is clearly of some interest to chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and his staff. The right-hander won’t join the big league staff just yet, but he could be an option at virtually any time given the ragged state of the Red Sox’ Major League staff.
Gonsalves, 26, could have a brief stay in the Red Sox organization. Boston claimed him earlier this month after the Mets designated him for assignment. The former fourth-round pick at one point a top-100 prospect as he rose through the ranks with the Twins, but Gonsalves has battled some arm troubles in recent years and struggled at the MLB level in very limited opportunities. The Sox likely hope to be able to sneak him through waivers and keep him in the player pool as a depth piece, but another club could show some interest in a waiver claim of its own.
Reds Place Nick Senzel On Injured List
The Reds have placed center fielder Nick Senzel on the injured list and reinstated infielder Mike Moustakas from the 10-day IL, per a club announcement. An injury designation for Senzel was not provided. Cincinnati will also have infielder Robel Garcia on hand as the 29th man for today’s twin bill against the Royals.
There’s no firm indication that Senzel has tested positive for the coronavirus, but his vague IL placement comes after the club had its past three games postponed due to a positive test within the organization. Players can also be placed on the Covid-19 IL for exhibiting symptoms or coming into contact with someone who has since confirmed positive for the virus.
Moustakas has been out since Aug. 4 due to an injured left quadriceps and has played in just seven games this season, hitting .238/.333/.524 with a pair of homers in 24 plate appearances. He’s at designated hitter for the first game of today’s doubleheader but should eventually resume his duties as the club’s everyday second baseman. Senzel is hitting .244/.327/.489 with a pair of homers, five doubles and two steals in 14 games this year.
Both Moustakas and the 25-year-old Senzel missed time earlier this season after self-reporting symptoms of Covid-19 to the Reds. Each tested negative in the subsequent days, however. As MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon wrote last Friday, Senzel was withheld from the team’s victory line at the end of a win and exited the field with visible frustration. The Reds have not had a positive test since the decision to postpone Saturday’s game.
Red Sox Designate Mike Shawaryn For Assignment
The Red Sox announced Wednesday that righty Mike Shawaryn has been designated for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot for newly claimed infielder Christian Arroyo. Righty Marcus Walden was optioned to the alternate training site to open a spot on the 28-man roster.
A fifth-rounder back in 2016, Shawaryn was considered one of the better arms in a thin Boston system from 2017-19, but he struggled in both Triple-A and particularly in the big leagues in 2019. Last season saw Shawaryn pitch to a 4.52 ERA with a lackluster 76-to-49 K/BB ratio in 89 2/3 frames with Triple-A Pawtucket. He was crushed for 22 runs on 26 hits (five homers) and 13 walks with 29 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings in his first taste of the Majors.
Prior to a forgettable 2019 campaign, Shawaryn had a solid minor league track record. He’d never posted an ERA higher than 3.93 at any given level, and he turned in an impressive showing in a brief tour through the 2018 Arizona Fall League (three runs, 11 hits, four walks, 15 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings). Shawaryn has worked primarily as a starter in the minors but did make a dozen relief outings with Pawtucket last season. Shawaryn has a minor league option remaining beyond 2020, which could enhance his appeal to other teams.
For the Red Sox, this only further distances the organization from the crop of prospects inherited by new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom — a relatively common trend when a new regime takes over a baseball ops department. The Sox have moved on from Sam Travis (outrighted, traded), Brian Johnson (released) and Shawaryn in the past nine months — all former top-10 prospects within the organization.
Rockies’ Elias Diaz Placed On Restricted List After Violating Protocol
Rockies catcher Elias Diaz was sent home to Denver by the club after violating Covid-19 protocols “around the team hotel in Houston,” Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports. Diaz was placed on the restricted list for unspecified reasons Monday, with manager Bud Black only publicly divulging that Diaz “violated some team protocols, some guidelines.” Specifics surrounding Diaz’s violations aren’t known, but the Rox have been able to continue playing. Saunders adds that the club has continued its standard testing regiment and has not incurred an issue.
Diaz, 29, inked a minor league contract with the Rockies over the winter and made the club’s Opening Day roster as a backup to Tony Wolters. He’s appeared in just three games thus far, going 3-for-12 with a double. Unlike the situation in Cleveland, where the players who violated Covid-19 protocols are key contributors (Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac), Diaz is a role player whom the team can more easily replace. Veteran Drew Butera is backing up Wolters, and 25-year-old Dom Nunez is at the team’s alternate training site and on the 40-man roster, making him a readily available alternative as well.
The Rockies haven’t given any sort of indication as to when — or if — Diaz will rejoin the team.
Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto On Trade Deadline Expectations
The expanded playoff field and the tightly bunched middle class of MLB clubs, so to speak, leaves few defined sellers, even with under two weeks until this year’s Aug. 31 trade deadline. It’s become increasingly common in recent years for analytically driven front offices to wait until the final day or two to make significant moves anyhow, but that could be all the more true in 2020. Baseball’s most active general manager on the trade front, Seattle’s Jerry Dipoto, spoke with Jim Bowden and Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM recently (Twitter link, with audio) to discuss that notion and his expectations for a unique deadline season.
“A lot of teams are still trying to sort out whether they are actually in this or not and how much they want to push the chips into the middle of the table,” says Dipoto. “We’ve received a handful of phone calls, particularly on the pitching, which is where we may have some attractive targets toward the end of the month. We’re open, as we always are, to any type of inquiry and discussion.”
Seattle indeed has some arms that seem like obvious targets. Righty Taijuan Walker is healthy again and out to a decent start while playing on a cheap one-year deal. Reliever Matt Magill was blown up for five runs in his latest outing, but he’s pitched well for Seattle since last season outside of that nightmare appearance. It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that a team would be able to pry Marco Gonzales away from the M’s — he’s signed affordably through 2024 with a 2025 club option — but it’s only logical to think that clubs have at least inquired (and been rebuffed).
Dipoto, though, gives the impression that around the league — and not specifically with the Mariners — there could be a different vibe and a different trend at this year’s deadline. Without directly acknowledging the revenue losses brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic (but clearly alluding to them), Dipoto suggests that arbitration-eligible players and those on expensive, guaranteed contracts aren’t likely to change hands all that much. There’s already been plenty of speculation about a huge wave of non-tenders this winter as teams look to recoup their losses, and picking up such mid-range players only adds another pricey line item to an ownership group’s budget.
“It’s likely to be a little bit more young-player driven than normal trade markets,” Dipoto says. “…I think you’re going to see a lot of the typical moves where a pending free agent is moved on at the trade deadline, and you’re going to see at least some rumblings about young-player-for-young-player ‘challenge’ deals, because the middle ground — the established veteran players either in the arb system or already generating high-level paychecks — I think those guys are likely to stay still. But the pending free agents and the younger players, I think have a chance to be movers in these last two weeks.”
Dipoto is but one general manager of course, and it’s notable that his club in particular doesn’t have many arb-eligible players who’d represent trade pieces at the moment. Injured players like Mitch Haniger, Tom Murphy and Carl Edwards Jr. aren’t going to be moved, and Mallex Smith was optioned to the team’s alternate training site yesterday after a dismal start to the year. J.P. Crawford is considered a long-term piece. That said, Dipoto surely has a sense of what’s going on elsewhere in the league, and a slow-moving market for arb-eligible players aligns with previous reports and speculation.
Viewed through that lens, perhaps this will be a relatively quiet deadline in Seattle. A deal involving Walker certainly seems feasible, but it’s tough to see the Mariners agreeing to part with much in the way of young pitching. Justus Sheffield is pitching well but is also controlled through 2025, just as Gonzales is. Parting with either would be more a step backward than forward. Swapping out a promising young arm who’s struggled (e.g. Justin Dunn) for a position player in a similar rut could fit the “challenge” deal mold that Dipoto referenced, but that’s reading pretty heavily into what appeared to be a broader statement about the league as a whole.
Whether the Mariners play a prominent role or not, trade chatter figures to ramp up considerably in the coming days. Dipoto’s comments offer an interesting glimpse into the type of rumors that could begin to swirl and the deals that could come together.
White Sox To Promote Dane Dunning
The White Sox will promote right-hander Dane Dunning to make his MLB debut for Wednesday’s game against the Tigers, manager Rick Renteria announced after last night’s game (Twitter link via James Fegan of The Athletic). General manager Rick Hahn strongly implied as much earlier this week. It’ll make for an exciting pitching matchup that provides a glimpse into the future for both clubs. The Tigers will throw 2018 No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize for the first time this afternoon.
Dunning, 25, doesn’t draw the same prospect fanfare as Mize, but he’s a highly touted righty himself who has long been considered a top prospect. Selected by the Nationals with the No. 29 overall pick back in 2016, Dunning found himself on the move to the White Sox (alongside Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez) in the trade that shipped Adam Eaton to the Nationals. That trade came just a day after the ChiSox sent Chris Sale to the Red Sox in exchange for a package headlined by Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech at the ’16 Winter Meetings, effectively marking the point of no return in Chicago’s arduous rebuilding process.
Now, with Moncada taking a starring role and numerous other promising young talents bubbling up to the Majors, the rebuild is coming full circle. Dunning becomes the latest reinforcement to join the fray. He hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since 2018 due to Tommy John surgery, but prior to going under the knife, he was a top-100 caliber talent himself. The former Florida Gator has pitched in parts of three professional seasons (not including his work in intrasquad games at Chicago’s alternate site this year) and compiled an excellent 2.74 ERA with 10.2 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and 0.6 HR/9 in 266 frames.
Dunning has yet to pitch in Triple-A thanks to the absence of a minor league season in 2020, but he topped out as a 23-year-old in Double-A back in ’18 and more than held his own: 62 innings with a 2.76 ERA and an even better 2.40 FIP. Dunning routinely generates big ground-ball numbers, misses bats and demonstrates above-average control. He doesn’t have the type of power arsenal that leads scouts to project him as a front-of-the-rotation presence, but a healthy Dunning could be a third or fourth starter for the ChiSox down the road.
For the time being, Dunning will step into a starting staff that is currently without the aforementioned Lopez (shoulder strain) and lefty Carlos Rodon (shoulder soreness). Given Lopez’s struggles as a starter, Rodon’s durability issues and the fact that Gio Gonzalez is on a one-year deal, there’s ample opportunity for Dunning to work his way into the long-term rotation outlook — beginning today. If he’s in the big leagues for good, Dunning has likely spent enough time in the minors this year that the White Sox have avoided Super Two status. He can’t accrue a full year of service at this point, either, so the White Sox could control him through at least the 2026 season.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of this week’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Rays Acquire Edgar Garcia; Designate Daniel Robertson
The Phillies have agreed to trade right-hander Edgar Garcia to the Rays in exchange for a player to be named later, Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Tampa Bay has designated infielder Daniel Robertson for assignment to create roster space for Garcia, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio reports (Twitter link).
Philadelphia designated Garcia for assignment late last week. The 23-year-old made his big league debut in 2019, tossing 39 innings out of the Phils’ bullpen and posting 5.77 ERA, 10.4 K/9, and 1.73 K/BB. Homers and walks were Garcia’s biggest issue, as he allowed 11 home runs and issued 26 free passes over his 39-inning stint.
The long ball also developed as a problem for Garcia at Triple-A (1.6 HR/9), though admittedly over the small sample size of 33 2/3 career innings at the top minor league level. For his entire minor league career, Garcia has posted some solid numbers — a 3.43 ERA, 3.27 K/BB rate, and 9.3 K/9 through 301 1/3 innings in Philadelphia’s farm system. The Rays obviously think there’s some potential for Garcia to add their ever-revolving bullpen mix.
It wasn’t long ago that Robertson was considered to be a potential shortstop of the future in Tampa, or at least the type of multi-positional player the Rays love to deploy. He even hit .262/.382/.415 over 340 plate appearances in 2018, though a thumb injury shortened that season and then a knee problem hampered Robertson in 2019. With Willy Adames taking over at shortstop (with Wander Franco looming on the horizon) and Joey Wendle and Mike Brosseau emerging as utility infield answers, it seems like Robertson was simply squeezed out of a job.
Robertson has hit .231/.340/.352 with 16 home runs over 831 career MLB plate appearances, and he also has a .280/371/.411 slash line through 2389 PA in the minors. Between these numbers, his former first-round pedigree (34th overall pick in 2012), and his ability to play left field and all over the infield, Robertson seems like a decent candidate to be plucked off the DFA wire.
Reds/Royals Game Postponed In Favor Of Wednesday Doubleheader
10:19am: Major League Baseball has formally announced that tonight’s game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.
10:06am: The Reds’ schedule has been in a state of limbo after Saturday’s positive Covid-19 test(s), but they appear to be trending toward a resumption of play. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that tonight’s game against the Royals will also be postponed — as was the case with the final two games of this weekend’s series versus the Pirates — but the two sides will play a doubleheader tomorrow (Twitter links). The Reds’ most recent wave of tests came back negative, and they’re en route to Kansas City right now. However, the league will take the extra step of pushing back their return one more day.
It’s a point of frustration for some fans, but MLB has seemingly become more cautious with its scheduling in the wake broad-reaching outbreaks on the Marlins and Cardinals rosters. Both of those clubs saw new positives emerge well after the initial cases were identified. Miami had new cases six days after their initial positives, and the Cardinals had new positives more than a week after their initial cases became known. Other members of the organization tested positive along the way in those outbreaks, and that has not been the case with the Reds. But the league understandably hopes to avoid a third outbreak that wipes out more than a week’s worth of games.
Pushing today’s game into a doubleheader tomorrow won’t delay either club’s schedule, assuming the organization continues to test negative tomorrow. As for the makeup games against the Pirates, there’s no set date yet, although the two teams have a pair of series left on the schedule that present ample opportunity for makeup games. Their Sept. 4-6 series in Pittsburgh is currently scheduled to be bookended by a pair of off-days, and the Sept. 14-16 series in Cincinnati is followed by a Sept. 17 off day.
White Sox Rumors: Trade Deadline, Dunning, Grandal
At 12-11, the White Sox currently sit three games back of the Twins for the division lead. They’re one and a half games behind the Indians for second place in the American League Central. As things stand, they’d squeak into the postseason as an eight seed in MLB’s expanded 2020 playoff format, but the organization that spent $169MM in free agency and $168MM on extensions for young talent surely has its sights set a bit higher. Barring some form of collapse in the next couple weeks, the ChiSox will be looking to add pieces at this year’s deadline, but GM Rick Hahn said last night that rental players won’t be his focus (Twitter link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com).
It’s an understandable outlook, given that the South Siders are only in their first season of attempting to emerge from a lengthy rebuilding process. The early returns look promising, as young players like Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson have fueled a strong offense. There’s work to be done on the pitching side yet — particularly in the rotation — but the Sox clearly aren’t interested in parting with any young talent for a one-off shot at the postseason in a bizarre 2020 campaign. Many fringe contenders could feel similarly, opting instead to focus on players who can help them at least in 2021, if not longer.
A few more notes on the ChiSox…
- Hahn also gave strong indications yesterday that pitching prospect Dane Dunning could be called on for his MLB debut against the Tigers Wednesday (link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). The GM cautioned that he prefers not to announce roster moves until the day they happen so as to avoid unforeseen circumstances necessitating a change of plans, but he followed shortly thereafter with an acknowledgement that Dunning is firmly in the mix as an option. “I know Detroit’s throwing Casey Mize, which will be fun to see,” said Hahn. “And we are certainly having conversations about one of our good young arms, like Dane Dunning, coming to make that start.” Dunning, 25, ranked among MLB’s 100 best prospects but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and hasn’t pitched in a regular-season game since. He’s been working out and pitching in intrasquad games at the team’s alternate training site, however. The righty owns a career 2.94 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 429 minor league frames since being drafted by the Nationals with the No. 29 overall pick in 2016. The White Sox acquired him in the trade that sent Adam Eaton to D.C.
- Yasmani Grandal exited last night’s game with stiffness in his lower back after fielding a ball in front of home plate, Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago writes. There’s no indication to this point of how much time he’s expected to miss. The Sox have a much better backup options than many other clubs in the form of James McCann, who is out to a blistering .333/.400/.583 slash with three dingers through 40 plate appearances. That said, Grandal was the centerpiece of the White Sox’s offseason free-agent spree and offers superior defensive and framing chops to McCann. Grandal is off to a slower start in terms of hitting for power but has walked in 17 percent of his plate appearances, helping him to a .346 OBP. Duber notes that he’s also been plagued by a nagging foot issue as well, so perhaps a few days down would do him some good. Grandal has been in the Sox’ lineup early every day, spending time at DH and first base when he’s not catching.