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Rays Expected To Pursue Multiple Bullpen Upgrades

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The Rays are expected to pursue multiple bullpen upgrades on this year’s trade market, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports in his latest inbox column. Toribio lists some speculative targets, including Shane Greene, Ken Giles and Kirby Yates. It’s also possible, Toribio notes, that Tampa Bay will look to add a right-handed bat to its bench mix.

Rays relievers entered play Wednesday ranked third in the Majors in ERA (3.60) and FIP (3.94), and they rank 11th in xFIP (4.36). They’re also in the bottom five of MLB in terms of K/9, though, and they’ve benefited from the game’s lowest HR/9 mark (0.98) and second-lowest homer-to-flyball ratio (11.5 percent).

The Rays have gotten strong results from lefty Jalen Beeks while working as a bulk reliever behind the Rays’ frequently utilized openers, which has somewhat skewed those league-wide rankings. Late-inning relievers Jose Alvarado, Diego Castillo and Emilio Pagan have all pitched well, but the Tampa Bay bullpen has been somewhat top-heavy toward the end of the game. They’ve been all the more thin with Alvarado away due to family reasons and Castillo on the IL due to a shoulder issue.

Rostering a deep bullpen is of particular importance for the Rays, given their nontraditional approach to constructing a pitching staff. At the moment, they’re only deploying three traditional starters in Charlie Morton, Yonny Chirinos and struggling reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell. Tyler Glasnow would give them another option in that regard once healthy, but he recently suffered a setback in his recovery from a forearm injury and will be shut down for another three weeks. That atypical pitching formation leads the Rays to utilize multiple “bullpen” games per week, with Ryne Stanek serving as the most frequent opener and Beeks operating as the leading bulk reliever.

As for the potential addition of a right-handed bat, the Rays have Yandy Diaz, Christian Arroyo, Matt Duffy and Daniel Robertson all on the injured list, with Robertson set to miss up to six weeks following knee surgery and Duffy sidelined indefinitely. They recently turned to 25-year-old Mike Brosseau for his MLB debut as a righty bench bat, with backup catcher Travis d’Arnaud and light-hitting outfielder Guillermo Heredia rounding out an all-right-handed, three-man bench that can’t be reasonably expected to provide much offense.

Red Sox Release Brian Ellington

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The Red Sox have released hard-throwing righty Brian Ellington from his minor league contract, per an announcement from the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket.

The 28-year-old Ellington spent parts of the 2015-17 seasons with the Marlins — during which time Aroldis Chapman was the only pitcher in baseball whose average fastball topped Ellington’s 97.9 mph. In 102 2/3 innings at the big league level, Ellington has a 4.65 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 5.6 BB/9, 0.88 HR/9 and a 34.4 percent ground-ball rate.

Ellington hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since the 2017 campaign. While he inked a minor league pact with the Diamondbacks in 2018, a biceps injury limited him to just 11 1/3 innings. This year, he’s notched a 3.32 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19 innings between Boston’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, but he’s also issued 20 walks and hit five batters.

At his best, Ellington paired his premium velocity with a swinging-strike rate near 13 percent and an opponents’ chase rate near 33 percent. Control troubles have been a longstanding issue and have clearly hindered him this year, but Ellington does boast a career 13.6 K/9 mark in Triple-A. His next stop figures to be on another minor league pact.

Angels Designate Wilfredo Tovar For Assignment

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The Angels announced Wednesday that they’ve designated infielder Wilfredo Tovar for assignment as part of a series of roster moves. Right-hander Jaime Barria was recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake, with righty Jake Jewell being optioned back to Salt Lake in his place. The Halos also reinstated right-hander Trevor Cahill from the injured list.

Tovar, 27, appeared in 16 games with the Halos and tallied 46 plate appearances with a timid .195/.283/.293 slash in that time. That marked his first big league action since appearing in nine games with the Mets from 2013-14. The versatile Tovar has also spent time with the Twins and Cardinals at the Triple-A level, and he logged a .289/.332/.407 slash in 211 plate appearances with the Angels’ Salt Lake club prior to his promotion earlier this month.

Cahill, who signed a one-year deal worth $9MM this offseason, has been sidelined since June 3 due to elbow soreness. Like fellow offseason pickup Matt Harvey, who also agreed to a one-year deal, he’s struggled immensely in his time with the Halos. The 31-year-old enjoyed a strong season with the division-rival Athletics in 2018, logging a 3.76 ERA and 3.54 FIP with 8.2 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 53.4 percent grounder rate in 110 innings. The Angels will surely hope that version of Cahill returns from the IL rather than the iteration who has limped to a 7.18 ERA and 6.39 FIP through his first 57 2/3 frames of the 2019 campaign.

Nationals Select Jonny Venters

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3:25pm: To make room for Venters and Rodney, the Nationals moved injured right-hander Jeremy Hellickson to the 60-day IL and optioned fellow righty Kyle McGowin to Triple-A Fresno.

11:30am: The Nationals will select the contract of left-hander Jonny Venters prior to tonight’s game against the Marlins, reports Grant Paulsen of NBC Sport Washington (via Twitter). He’ll join fellow veteran Fernando Rodney in a constantly changing Nats bullpen mix; the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reported yesterday that Rodney is also set to have his contract selected. Both promotions will require corresponding 40-man and 25-man roster moves.

Venters, 34, was the National League Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 after he returned from three Tommy John surgeries and a five-year MLB absence in 2018 to give the Braves 34 1/3 innings of 3.67 ERA ball. Along the way, the southpaw averaged 7.1 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and 0.26 HR/9 to go along with a superlative 69.1 percent ground-ball rate while holding left-handed opponents to a laughable .133/.200/.200 batting line.

The Braves naturally tendered a contract to Venters following that performance, but the 2019 season was nothing short of a nightmare. Venters appeared in just nine games with the Braves, pitching a total of 4 2/3 innings but surrendering nine earned runs (plus another four unearned runs). He faced 31 batters and allowed more to reach than he retired (nine hits, eight walks) before being released in May.

Since signing with the Nats on May 29, Venters has been pitching for the team’s Double-A club. While he’s allowed just one run in seven innings, the control problems that dogged him in Atlanta earlier this season have persisted. Venters has issued six walks in seven innings and also hit a batter. He’s generated grounders at a ridiculous 72.7 percent clip in that tiny sample, and lefties are hitting just .194 against him with a .323 slugging percentage between the Majors and Minors in 2019. However, he’s also walked 11 of the 43 lefties he’s faced (against 10 strikeouts), so he’ll need to quickly rediscover some semblance of control if he’s to have much hope of sticking in the Washington ’pen.

As has been well documented, the Nationals’ bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster so far in 2019, although they no longer lay claim to the league’s worst collective ERA, having narrowly squeaked ahead of Baltimore for that onerous distinction (6.29 to 6.34). Nationals relievers have the game’s fifth-worst collective FIP and second-worst xFIP, and they rank in the bottom third of MLB in BB/9 and HR/9 as well.

Orioles Claim Tayler Scott, Designate Sean Gilmartin

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The Orioles have claimed right-hander Tayler Scott off waivers from the Mariners and designated left-hander Sean Gilmartin for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot, per a club announcement. Scott has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk.

The South African-born Scott, 27, made his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2019, pitching 7 2/3 innings but yielding eight earned runs on 11 hits and six walks with seven strikeouts. Scott’s bottom-line numbers in Triple-A aren’t much more appealing — 6.43 ERA in 35 innings — but he’s posted a 57 percent grounder rate across his past two Triple-A campaigns and averages roughly 95 mph on his sinker. That, it seems, piqued the interest of the new-look Orioles front office. Because Scott only just had his contract selected for the first time in 2019, he has all three minor league option years remaining (2019 included).

Gilmartin, 29, yielded five runs on seven hits and two walks with one strikeout across 2 1/3 innings in his lone start for the O’s. The former first-round pick was once a fairly well-regarded pitching prospect but hasn’t found much MLB success outside a solid 2015 rookie season with the Mets when he was a Rule 5 pick out of the Twins organization. In 107 2/3 innings in the big leagues, Gilmartin has a 4.18 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 (5.90 ERA in 50 1/3 frames from 2016-19). He’s struggled throughout much of his time in Triple-A as well, though he did give the Orioles’ top affiliate 36 1/3 sharp innings this year prior to his selection to the MLB roster. The O’s will have a week to trade Gilmartin or run him through outright waivers.

Twins Designate Gabriel Moya For Assignment

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The Twins announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated infielder Ronald Torreyes from the restricted list and designated left-handed reliever Gabriel Moya for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Torreyes was placed on the restricted list earlier this month for undisclosed reasons after already having spent a stretch on the temporarily inactive list. He’s been assigned to Class-A Advanced Fort Myers, where he’ll build back up after last playing in a game on May 3.

Moya, 24, hasn’t pitched in the Majors in 2019 but appeared in the big leagues with the Twins in 2017 and 2018. In 42 2/3 innings at the MLB level, he’s posted a 4.64 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, 1.69 HR/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate. Moya has dominated in the upper minors in the past despite a pedestrian fastball that averages under 90 mph, but he’s been clobbered for a 7.36 ERA with a 27-to-13 K/BB ratio and three hit batters in 22 innings with Triple-A Rochester this year.

Moya logged a 1.90 ERA in 42 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball in 2018 and an eye-popping 0.77 ERA in 58 1/3 Double-A frames back in 2017. Although he’s anything but overpowering, he’s managed to consistently post gaudy strikeout totals in the minors, with a career minor league K/9 of 11.4. He has a minor league option remaining beyond the 2019 season, which, when paired with his prior success in the upper minors, could make him an appealing flier for another team (either via minor trade or a waiver claim).

Red Sox Reinstate Steven Wright

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The Red Sox announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Steven Wright from the restricted list. Wright had been serving an 80-game suspension following a failed PED test, but he’ll now join the Boston bullpen in place of righty Josh Smith, who has been optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket. The Sox transferred Nathan Eovaldi from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Wright on the 40-man roster.

Wright, 34, was afforded a brief minor league tuneup in accordance with the suspension rules set forth in the JDA, and he pitched 9 2/3 innings with two runs allowed in Triple-A during that unpaid stint. He’ll return to the Sox in hopes of approximating the 2.68 ERA he posted in 53 2/3 innings last season. The knuckleballer’s averages of 7.0 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 weren’t nearly as impressive as that ERA, however, and Wright has been rather inconsistent on a year-to-year basis, making it tough to know what to expect from him moving forward.

Despite a lack of offseason additions, Boston relievers rank eighth in the Majors in ERA (3.96). seventh in FIP (4.07) and seventh in xFIP (4.17). The Boston ’pen currently paces the Majors in K/9 (10.7) and overall strikeout percentage (27.5 percent), and while Wright won’t help in that regard, he’ll be expected to strengthen the overall unit by deepening the mix and perhaps providing some stability in a long relief capacity.

Wright won’t be eligible for postseason play, should the Red Sox return to October baseball. He’ll turn 35 in August and is under team control through the 2020 season via the arbitration process. His 80-game ban ultimately cost him roughly $651K of this season’s $1.375MM salary.

Astros To Activate George Springer, Collin McHugh

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The Astros are set to activate outfielder George Springer and right-hander Collin McHugh from the injured list, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Lefty Reymin Guduan and righty Rogelio Armenteros will be optioned to Triple-A to open spots on the active roster.

Springer will return to the ’Stros after missing exactly one month due to a hamstring injury. While Springer’s absence surely wasn’t the sole factor — Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa had IL stints overlap with Springer’s time on the IL — Houston posted a 14-12 record while he was sidelined. That’s a far cry from the 35-18 pace to which they’d played prior to his injury, but the club still holds a comfortable six-game lead over the surprising Rangers in the American League West. With Springer’s return, the team’s lineup is near full strength, as well; Altuve was reinstated last week, leaving Correa as the lone injured regular.

The 29-year-old Springer was in the midst of his finest offensive campaign at the time of his injury. Despite tallying just 216 plate appearances on the season, his 17 home runs are just five shy of last year’s season-long total. Springer’s walk rate, average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate have all soared in 2019, and the resulting .308/.389/.643 batting line checks in at about 70 percent better than the league-average hitter (per OPS+ and wRC+).

It was a different story for the 32-year-old McHugh, who struggled tremendously in his return to the Houston rotation in 2019. Through eight starts, McHugh was tagged for 30 runs in 41 innings — albeit with 10 of them coming in one road meltdown against the Rangers. Still, the Houston organization apparently deemed McHugh better suited for a relief role, as the Astros moved him to the bullpen in early May.

There’s no indication that McHugh will be returning to the Astros’ rotation now that he’s returned from a minor elbow issue. Framber Valdez has turned in a pair of strong outings (against weak Blue Jays and Orioles lineups) and one ugly one (at Yankee Stadium) since assuming the fifth spot in the rotation. It’s certainly possible that McHugh will eventually get another look, but he was also dominant in a multi-inning relief role last season (1.99 ERA, 11.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 in 72 1/3 innings). Which role McHugh occupies will be of particular interest, as he’s set to become a free agent for the first time this winter and his role could well impact his offseason earning power.

Yankees Designate Kendrys Morales For Assignment

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The Yankees announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated first baseman/designated hitter Kendrys Morales from the injured list and designated him for assignment. New York also optioned righty Jonathan Holder to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled lefty Stephen Tarpley in his place.

Morales’ roster spot has looked to be in jeopardy since Didi Gregorius returned and the team and added another healthy option to the infield mix. He dodged one bullet and quite likely had his Yankees tenure prolonged due to the calf strain that landed him on the IL 12 days ago, but his tenure in the Bronx now looks to have reached its conclusion. With Luke Voit and the newly acquired Edwin Encarnacion now likely to split time between first base and DH, the Yankees simply don’t have room on the roster for Morales.

The 35-year-old Morales mustered only a .177/.320/.242 line through 75 plate appearances with New York while splitting first base/DH duties with Voit.  It’s been a rough season overall for the veteran slugger, who has followed up a solid 2018 season at the plate (.249/.331/.438) with a .194/.313/.253 effort in 201 plate appearances between Oakland and New York. The Yankees will gauge interest in Morales, if they haven’t done so already, and if there’s no suitor in a trade, he’ll likely be released and return to the open market in search of a new opportunity.

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