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Yankees Activate Luke Voit, Place Gio Urshela On IL

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The Yankees announced Friday that they’ve reinstated first baseman Luke Voit from the injured list and placed third baseman Gio Urshela on the 10-day IL due to a left groin injury.

Voit, 28, hasn’t played in a month thanks to an abdominal injury that, at one point, looked like it could require surgery. Rather than undergo a sports hernia procedure, though, the burgeoning slugger was able to rest and rehab the injury sufficiently enough to suit up for a minor league rehab assignment recently. To say that Voit didn’t miss a beat would perhaps be putting things mildly; in four games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he went 8-for-17 with two doubles, two home runs and two walks (against two strikeouts).

This marked the second time in 2019 that Voit missed time due to abdominal injuries, but those have been the only blemish on an otherwise excellent showing in his first full season of big league duty. In 94 games (416 plate appearances), he’s hitting .278/.392/.493 with 19 home runs, 16 doubles and a triple. Overall, he’s raked at a .293/.395/.547 clip in Yankee Pinstripes, although the trade that brought him from St. Louis to the Bronx now looks quite a bit less lopsided in light of righty Giovanny Gallegos’ own breakout in the Cardinals’ bullpen.

Speaking of breakouts (and of players named Giovanny), the 27-year-old Urshela has erupted at the plate this summer. Long touted as a steady defender with questionable offensive capabilities, he’s not only looked like a potential regular but been one of the Yankees’ best hitters. In 414 trips to the dish, he’s laid waste to MLB pitching with a .331/.370/.555 batting line.

While his .366 average on balls in play still looks ripe for some regression, Urshela’s hard-hit rate and average exit velocity are both well above the league average. Statcast pegs him as one of the game’s leaders in expected batting average, slugging percentage and weight on-base average. In short: he’s hitting with excellent power and demonstrating previously unseen levels of power. Offensive breakouts throughout the league abound in 2019 amid questions about structural changes to the baseball itself, but it’s impossible to ignore just how valuable Urshela has been for the Yankees to date.

The Yankees didn’t provide any sort of timeline on Urshela, so it remains unclear just how long he’ll be sidelined. Presumably, manager Aaron Boone will have an update later tonight. In his absence, the Yankees can still lean on a high-quality quartet of Voit, DJ LeMahieu, Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres around the infield, though the roster is unequivocally stronger with a healthy Urshela in tow.

Indians Sign Ryan Lavarnway

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The Indians announced Friday that they’ve signed veteran catcher Ryan Lavarnway to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Columbus.

Lavarnway, 32, appeared in five games with the Reds this summer amid a series of injuries to Cincinnati’s catching corps, hitting .278/.316/.722 with a pair of homers in 19 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .211/.270/.343 hitter at the MLB level and a .271/.363/.426 hitter in parts of nine seasons of Triple-A ball.

The Indians have both Roberto Perez and Kevin Plawecki as catching options on the big league roster, but Lavarnway will become a candidate to get a look once rosters expand on Sunday. He’ll provide some direct competition to Columbus catcher Eric Haase, who previously appeared a good bet to join the Indians as a September call-up.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/30/19

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Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the game…

  • The Twins released veteran infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. from his minor league deal, per the Triple-A International League transactions log. The 32-year-old has split the 2019 season between the Twins and White Sox systems, hitting a combined .235/.337/.325 through 194 plate appearances. He’s seen action both in Double-A and Triple-A, primarily logging innings at second base and third base. At one point, De Jesus was considered a well-regarded prospect with the Dodgers, but he never established himself in the Majors despite multiple stints with three different clubs. In parts of four MLB seasons, De Jesus hit .242/.303/.327 through 545 plate appearances. His most recent look in the bigs came with the 2016 Reds.

NL West Notes: D-backs, Dodgers’ Rotation, Richards

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The Diamondbacks have had mixed results when buying low on relievers under GM Mike Hazen’s regime, but Hazen tells The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (subscription required) that prior outcomes won’t close off his mind to any avenues when building his ’pen this winter. “Shutting yourself off to whatever’s happened in the past, or hard-and-fast making rules that you won’t do something again, that just sets you up to miss out on the next opportunity,” said Hazen.

Arizona’s run with the Fernando Rodney Experience yielded solid results in 2017, though more recent matches with Brad Boxberger and in particular, Greg Holland, have been less fruitful. The Diamondbacks’ low-cost acquisition of Yoshihisa Hirano has paid dividends. The organization has plenty of young arms it could trot out next season in hopes of compiling a strong collective unit, but Hazen also cautioned against leaning too heavily on young relievers, which can be tantamount to “flipping coins” in the ’pen. A high-end bullpen signing would be out of character for Hazen & Co., but it seems reasonable to expect some upside plays to pair with the team’s incumbent options.

More out of the NL West…

  • The Dodgers have moved to a six-man rotation recently, and manager Dave Roberts said Thursday that he plans to continue that arrangement for the time being (link via MLB.com’s Jake Rill). The current six-man alignment has given the team more opportunity to work in some rest for the suddenly struggling Hyun-Jin Ryu. The lefty, who accepted a $17.9MM qualifying offer last offseason, was dominant through July but has served up 18 runs in 14 2/3 innings since returning from a brief IL stint due to neck soreness earlier this month. Beyond Ryu, the Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Walker Buehler and rookies Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May as rotation options. They’re also likely to get right-hander Ross Stripling back from the injured list this weekend, giving them another candidate to make some starts or long relief appearances should they need to rest Ryu or any of their other arms in advance of the postseason.
  • Garrett Richards returned to the mound after a setback slowed him for three weeks in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. The 31-year-old allowed four runs and walked four hitters in 1 2/3 innings of work for Class-A Advanced Lake Elsinore. Signed by the Padres to a two-year, $15.5MM deal in the offseason, Richards is eyeing a September return to the big league mound and told the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff Sanders last night that he considered yesterday’s outing a positive step — even if the bottom-line results were ugly. Fewer than half of Richards’ 53 pitches were strikes, but the former Angels righty explained that he felt his delivery was consistent, his pitches moved well and that he could’ve kept pitching. Richards hit 95 mph in the first inning of the start, per Sanders, and he’ll join the Friars today to discuss the next steps in his journey back to a Major League mound. Signing Richards was always a move geared toward 2020, but the Padres would assuredly love to get a look at him this year as they begin to map out their plans for next year.

Rays Sign Jhon Diaz

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The Rays have signed 16-year-old Dominican outfield prospect Jhon Diaz, Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Diaz had been widely projected to go to the Yankees, and Sanchez even tweeted on July 2 that Diaz and New York had agreed to a $1.2MM signing bonus. It seems, however, that said deal was never officially finalized. (In the case of today’s report, Sanchez tweeted a photo of Diaz signing with his contract with the Rays.)

The Yankees pledged the vast majority of their $5.398MM bonus pool to fellow Dominican outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez — to the point that they’d have needed to trade for roughly $1MM in additional funds to accommodate both Dominguez and Diaz (at their reported bonus levels). Such a trade never came together prior to the deadline, so perhaps Diaz’s camp simply found another suitor with ample remaining funds in its bonus pool.

When international free agency kicked off on July 2, Diaz ranked as the No. 7 prospect on the market over at Fangraphs and checked in at No. 18 on Sanchez’s list at MLB.com. The specific numerical rankings aren’t of the foremost importance; prospect rankings in general are an inexact science, and that’s even more true when writing about the second tier of more seldom-seen international teenagers. Rather, the key takeaway is that Tampa Bay has added yet another intriguing piece to an already deep farm system that is graded among the game’s elite.

Diaz is a center fielder who draws praise for his above-average speed and defensive instincts in addition to a compact swing and plenty of present-day skill (rather than the pure physical projection that accompanies many 16-year-old signees). He’ll join an international class for Tampa Bay that had previously been headlined by Dominican shortstop Wilmer de la Cruz. Baseball America’s Ben Badler has a list of other prospects the Rays have inked during the current signing period, which runs through June 15, 2020.

Athletics Designate Wei-Chung Wang For Assignment

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The Athletics announced Thursday that they’ve designated left-hander Wei-Chung Wang for assignment and placed designated hitter Khris Davis on the paternity list. Wang’s spot on the 40-man roster will go to infield prospect Sheldon Neuse, whose previously reported promotion to the big leagues is now official. Davis can be on the paternity list until Sept. 1, and at that point rosters will expand, so it’s likely that Neuse will be with the MLB club through season’s end.

Wang, 27, has pitched to an aesthetically pleasing 3.33 ERA through 27 innings with the A’s this season, but he’s also managed just a 16-to-11 K/BB ratio with a 30.5 percent ground-ball rate in that time. His success has been propped up by a .231 average on balls in play and an 84.5 percent strand rate — neither of which seems particularly sustainable over a larger sample. Oakland isn’t short on lefty options in the ’pen, either; Ryan Buchter has been a constant in the bullpen for much of the past two seasons, and he’s joined there by deadline acquisition Jake Diekman and recently promoted top prospect A.J. Puk. That depth had relegated Wang to Triple-A Las Vegas, where he’s logged a 4.78 ERA with 24 strikeouts, eight walks and five homers allowed in 26 1/3 innings.

Although this season’s performance has been mixed both in Triple-A and at the MLB level, Wang does sport a career 3.20 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 115 2/3 innings of Triple-A pitching. If he goes unclaimed on outright waivers, he’ll have the right to reject an assignment to the minors in favor of free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted off a 40-man roster in the past.

Even if Wang is claimed by another club, the former Rule 5 pick is in his final option season, thus hurting his chances of sticking with a team into the 2020 season. Any club could take a flier on Wang via outright waivers and give him a September bullpen audition, but because he’ll be out of options in Spring Training, he’d need to either break camp with a club or once again be placed on waivers.

Nationals Release George Kontos

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Veteran right-handed reliever George Kontos has been released by the Nationals, per an announcement from Paul Braverman of the Fresno Grizzlies PR department (Twitter link). He’d been with the Grizzlies since signing a minor league pact back in late May.

Kontos, 34, has had a tough year in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. It’s worth noting that more than a third of the total runs he’s allowed came between two meltdown appearances, but that doesn’t exactly discount the fact that his bottom-line results haven’t been pretty. In 46 innings with Fresno, he’s posted a 6.07 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 1.37 HR/9 and a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate.

A veteran of eight MLB seasons, Kontos pitched for four clubs from 2017-18, tallying a 3.68 ERA and an 85-to-27 K/BB ratio in 93 innings of work between the Giants, Pirates, Yankees and Indians. He’s best known for his time as a solid middle reliever/setup piece for the Giants, with whom he won a pair of World Series rings (posting a sub-3.00 ERA in both 2012 and 2014). Kontos logged 309 2/3 innings as a Giant from 2012-17, recording a tidy 3.05 ERA with averages of 7.3 punchouts and 2.6 walks per nine innings pitched along the way.

Royals’ Owner Discussing Sale Of Team

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Aug. 28: MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that “barring something unforeseen,” the sale from Glass to Sherman “will happen.” That certainly moves the ball forward from yesterday’s uncertainty regarding the seriousness of the talks, although it also suggests that no firm agreement is in place. Sherman, notably, would need to be approved by the other 29 ownership groups in the league and by MLB itself, though Heyman adds that Sherman is viewed as a “sure thing” for approval from the league (as one would expect from an executive who is already an established minority owner of another franchise).

Aug. 27, 6:20pm: The Royals have issued the following statement on the matter:

“The Kansas City Royals are not in a position to make any comments on the published speculation regarding any potential sale of the ball club. The Royals will make no further statements at this time.”

5:35pm: Royals owner David Glass is discussing a potential sale of the club with Kansas City businessman John Sherman, Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic report (subscription required). ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that the two are discussing a price worth north of $1 billion. Glass purchased the Royals in 2000 for a reported sum of $96MM.

Sherman, 64, is currently the vice chairman of the division-rival Indians, having purchased a minority stake in the team back in 2016. As Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explored last year, Sherman was a Royals season-ticket holder at the time who’d made a fortune in starting natural gas and energy companies (LPG Services Group, Inergy L.P.) and selling them to larger entities. Sherman would, unsurprisingly, divest himself from the Indians organization if a sale is indeed agreed upon (per Passan).

There’s no indication that the two parties are close to an agreement, nor is there any indication that Glass is exploring other sale possibilities in the event that a deal with Sherman cannot be brokered. Asked about the report, general manager Dayton Moore told MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan (Twitter link) that commenting on any potential sale of the club would be “inappropriate.” Glass has not publicly acknowledged the reported negotiations.

Under Glass and Moore, the Royals emerged from irrelevance to appear in consecutive World Series, culminating in a 2015 championship achieved by the core of Salvador Perez, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain and Danny Duffy. But the Royals have faded from contention in the American League Central in recent seasons and acted to cut payroll in each of the past two offseasons. Though the team was reportedly willing to sign Hosmer to a nine-figure deal to lead the club through the current rebuild, he took a more lucrative offer in San Diego while other stalwarts of that 2015 club have signed elsewhere in free agency or been traded.

The Royals’ Opening Day payroll in 2017 reached the unprecedented (for them) peak of $143MM, but since that time the figure has plummeted rapidly. Kansas City opened the 2019 season with a payroll a bit greater than $96MM, and with Alex Gordon set to come off the books, they have just $59MM in guaranteed salary on next year’s payroll. Offseason trades involving veterans such as Duffy, starter-turned-closer Ian Kennedy, quiet superstar Whit Merrifield or breakout slugger Jorge Soler could further reduce that commitment, though it’s not yet clear how motivated the Royals will be to make any such moves.

Moore has been targeting near-MLB-ready assets in trades and college pitchers in the draft in hopes of architecting a quick turnaround, though certainly a sale of the club could impact not only the offseason direction of the team but the very composition of the front office and the field staff. Flanagan reported within the past week that the Royals are nearing a new television contract with Fox Sports Kansas City, which would more than double their annual rights fees (albeit from an average of $20MM per year to $48-52MM per year), and such an agreement would obviously impact the financial evaluation of the franchise and its baseball operations directives as well.

Athletics To Promote Sheldon Neuse

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With Khris Davis headed to the paternity list for the next three days, the Athletics are set to select the contract of infield prospect Sheldon Neuse, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com (via Twitter). It’ll be the first call to the big leagues for the 2016 second-rounder, who is widely considered to be among the organization’s top 10 prospects. Oakland will need to make a 40-man roster move to create room for Neuse’s promotion.

Neuse, 24, was originally drafted by the Nationals, who traded him to Oakland alongside Blake Treinen and Jesus Luzardo in the 2017 deadline deal that netted them Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson. He’s had a strong season in Triple-A Las Vegas, hitting .317/.389/.550 with 27 home runs, 31 doubles, two triples and three steals in 550 plate appearances. While he struggled to make contact in his first run at Triple-A in 2018, Neuse has slashed his strikeout rate and upped his walk rate in 2019. He currently ranks eighth among Oakland farmhands according to both MLB.com and Baseball America, while Fangraphs tabs him ninth in the organization.

Third base is Neuse’s natural position, and that’s currently a rather occupied position in Oakland thanks to Matt Chapman. As such, he’s spent some time playing second base, shortstop and left field this season in an effort to build his versatility and carve out a path to a role on the big league roster. A two-way star in college at Oklahoma, there’s been some previous speculation about utilizing Neuse as a two-way player, but he’s yet to throw a pitch in a game setting since being drafted. As things currently stand, a utility role looks like the best path to playing time for him in the Oakland organization.

As a 2016 draftee who was selected out of college, Neuse would’ve required protection from the Rule 5 Draft this winter anyhow. That would’ve made him a candidate for a September call-up when rosters expand on Sunday, but he’ll get his first crack at the big leagues a few days earlier.

Indians Likely To Activate Carlos Carrasco This Weekend

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In an eminently welcome development, Indians manager Terry Francona announced today in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM that his club plans to activate right-hander Carlos Carrasco from the injured list when rosters expand on Sunday (Twitter link, with audio). Carrasco has been sidelined since late May after being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Carrasco, 32, still has to come through one more bullpen session before the club makes the move, per Francona, but the organization’s plan is to reinstate him Sunday. He’ll be utilized out of the bullpen over the season’s final month and into the postseason, should Cleveland qualify.

A return to a general state of well-being for Carrasco obviously supersedes the potential on-field benefit he brings to the club, but the impact of a healthy Carrasco also can’t be understated for the Cleveland organization. Carrasco wasn’t anywhere near his typical form earlier in 2019 but still posted excellent K/BB numbers through 12 starts before stepping away from the game due to his medical situation. He’ll now join the back end of Francona’s bullpen as a potential bullpen weapon with an opportunity to make a significant impact on the Indians’ postseason race; Cleveland currently sits 3.5 games behind Minnesota in the AL Central and holds a half-game lead over Oakland and Tampa Bay in the Wild Card race.

Looking beyond 2019, Carrasco will surely be a focal part of the pitching staff so long as he remains in good health. The right-hander inked an extension last offseason and is signed through the 2022 season at a total of $37.25MM. The Indians also hold a $14MM club option on him for the 2023 season.

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