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AL West Notes: Mazara, Mariners, K. Calhoun

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Nomar Mazara has gone from an expected foundational piece with the Rangers to a platoon outfielder whose future is somewhat up in the air, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. Texas is committed to getting lengthy looks at Willie Calhoun and Scott Heineman in the outfield, and when Joey Gallo returns from the IL, he’ll reenter the outfield mix as well. Mazara, meanwhile, has the worst OBP against left-handed pitching of any qualified hitter in the AL and ranks near the bottom in terms of average and slugging as well. He’s nearing the conclusion of his fourth full year in the big leagues, and while he’ll likely put together his fourth 20-homer season — he’s at 15 presently — he’s never produced even a league-average offensive season based on OPS+ or wRC+. He’ll be arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter and earn a raise on this year’s $3.3MM salary. Texas has some in-house alternatives and the ability to spend in free agency, and Mazara drew some interest prior to the July 31 trade deadline. It’d be painful to sell low on the former top prospect, but it’s clear that his stock has dropped considerably.

Some more news and notes from the AL West…

  • Asked during a conference call about the Mariners’ plans in free agency this winter (link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times), general manager Jerry Dipoto replied: “We don’t expect to go into the offseason scouring the free-agent market at the top of the food chain.” That shouldn’t be a particularly surprising stance for anyone to see, as the Seattle club has made it abundantly clear that its rebuild will be a multiyear process. With Felix Hernandez’s contract coming off the books and just over $86MM committed to next season’s payroll at present, the Mariners will have plenty of money to spend, but those funds seem likelier to be allocated to stopgaps, potential summer trade chips and/or mid-range free agents than to any top-tier talent. As Divish points out, Seattle would have overpay (substantially, most likely) in order to sway any free agent to join a club that just lost 90-plus games and is publicly rebuilding.
  • The Mariners will consider moving to a six-man rotation in the near future, MLB.com’s Greg Johns writes. Well-regarded pitching prospects Justus Sheffield and Justin Dunn, acquired in the offseason deals for James Paxton and Edwin Diaz, respectively, will likely join the club by September. Felix Hernandez, too, could return in September. Such an arrangement could help Seattle in monitoring the workload of rookie Yusei Kikuchi and also preventing Marco Gonzales from a radical increase in his innings count from 2018. Sheffield was given a reprieve from the comically hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League recently and has dominated Double-A opposition with a 1.64 ERA and 65-to-14 K/BB ratio in 60 1/3 innings of work. Dunn has also spent the year in Double-A, compiling 100 1/3 innings of 3.59 ERA ball with 10.7 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9.
  • Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun knows that with Jo Adell looming, the team has an affordable alternative to his $14MM club option, but he tells Mik DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times that he’s focused more on his current play than his contractual status. “I’m worried about playing now, and what happens will happen,” said Calhoun. “[Adell] is definitely a great player. He’s a young guy, and we’ll see how he continues to develop, but the talent is there. He’s going to be a big league player for a long time.” Calhoun has been the Angels’ primary right fielder since 2014 and, with the exception of a down season in 2018, has been a generally underrated player. Still, it’s questionable whether the Angels or another club would value him at a net $13MM — the option has a $1MM buyout — in advance of his age-32 season. Free agents entering their mid-30s haven’t fared well in recent years, and corner bats in particular have struggled on the open market. Calhoun’s case is surely helped by the fact that a good bit of his value is tied to his glove and a 10.2 percent walk rate across the past four seasons.

Orioles Outright Nate Karns

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Right-hander Nate Karns cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Orioles and was sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk, per the International League’s transaction log. Karns does have enough service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean surrendering the remainder of this season’s $800K salary, so he’ll likely remain with the organization.

Karns, 31, was the Orioles’ only Major League signing of the 2018-19 offseason, but he hasn’t been healthy enough to factor into the team’s plans in the Majors. A forearm strain landed Karns on the injured list in early April and has proved difficult to move past. He’s tallied just 5 1/3 innings in the Majors this season, with another 10 1/3 innings pitched on a minor league rehab assignment. Karns didn’t allow a run in his tiny stretch of MLB work, but he’s yielded 10 runs on 10 hit and 10 walks with five strikeouts during his rehab efforts.

Back in 2015, Karns tossed 147 innings of 3.67 ERA ball for the Rays and looked to be an interesting, controllable piece of their staff. He was traded to the Mariners in the Logan Morrison deal, however, and then flipped to the Royals for Jarrod Dyson after struggling in his lone Seattle season. Karns pitched 45 1/3 innings with Kansas City before undergoing thoracic outlet surgery and missing the entire 2018 season. At this point, he’s spent time on the 60-day IL in each of the past four big league seasons.

Mariners Select Reggie McClain

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The Mariners announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Reggie McClain. He’ll meet the team in Houston and join manager Scott Servais’ bullpen mix.

McClain, 26, was Seattle’s 13th-round draft pick back in 2016 and has posted strong numbers at three different minor league levels this season (Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A). In all, he’s tallied 72 2/3 innings of 2.23 ERA ball with 8.9 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9 and a ground-ball rate north of 57 percent.

That success corresponds with a shift from the rotation to the bullpen; McClain struggled to keep his ERA south of 5.00 in two trips through the Class-A Advanced California League in 2016-17 before breaking out as a fast riser with the move to a relief role in 2019. He’s not ranked among the club’s top prospects, but his excellent season to date will earn him a chance to carve out a spot in the Mariners’ bullpen moving forward.

Seattle’s 40-man roster is now up to a total of 38 players.

Indians Release Neil Ramirez, Trayce Thompson

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Right-hander Neil Ramirez and outfielder Trayce Thompson have been granted their release from the Indians organization, per an announcement from the team’s Triple-A affiliate. Both former big leaguers are free agents and can now sign with another club.

Ramirez, 30, was with the Indians earlier this season but struggled to a 5.40 ERA and allowed five home runs in 16 2/3 innings. Ramirez notched an 18-to-9 K/BB ratio in that time and has a lengthy history of missing bats, but he’s struggled to throw strikes and command the ball within the zone throughout his career. In 171 1/3 innings as a Major Leaguer, he’s logged a 4.41 ERA with 10.8 K/9, 4.7 BB/9, 1.63 HR/9 and a 30.1 percent ground-ball rate.

Thompson, the younger brother of NBA star Klay Thompson, played 51 big league games between the White Sox and the A’s in 2018. The No. 61 overall pick by the White Sox in the 2009 draft, the now-28-year-old Thompson was a fairly well-regarded minor league talent but hasn’t found sustained success. He’s batted .206/.276/.389 in 589 MLB plate appearances and was hitting .219/.294/.482 with 24 homers, 10 doubles, three triples and eight steals in 89 Triple-A games this season. Strikeouts have increasingly become an issue for Thompson, as evidenced by this year’s 36.1 percent rate in Columbus.

Twins Acquire Brandon Barnes

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The Twins have acquired outfielder Brandon Barnes from the Indians, per an announcement from the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus. While the move will surely generate some confusion because it comes after the July 31 trade deadline, Barnes was still tradeable by virtue of the fact that he’s on a minor league deal and at no point had been on a 40-man roster this season. (We took a look at how these and other minor moves could still occur yesterday here at MLBTR.)

Cleveland didn’t specify a return, though it’s quite likely that the veteran Barnes was merely flipped to Minnesota for cash. The Twins have been looking for outfield depth in the minors — they signed Ramon Flores out of indie ball two days ago — and the Indians, conversely, have come into some newfound outfield depth. The trade of Trevor Bauer netted them both Franmil Reyes and Yasiel Puig, thus pushing Greg Allen and Jake Bauers to Triple-A Columbus and squeezing Barnes out of his everyday job there.

Barnes, 33, has posted a .271/.336/.529 batting line with 24 home runs, 25 doubles and nine steals in 420 plate appearances with Cleveland’s top affiliate in Columbus this season. He’s spent parts of six seasons at the Major League level, most recently appearing in 19 games with Cleveland just last season. Barnes is capable of playing all three outfield spots but carries an underwhelming .242/.290/.357 batting line through 1274 big league plate appearances. He’ll give the Twins some depth in Triple-A Rochester.

Red Sox To Place Heath Hembree On IL

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Red Sox right-hander Heath Hembree is headed back to the injured list due to an elbow strain, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Hembree also missed about three weeks earlier this summer owing to a similar injury.

Hembree, 30, hasn’t looked right whatsoever in his return from that prior IL stint. He’s made a dozen appearances and totaled only nine innings while yielding 10 runs (nine earned) on 14 hits (including three homers) and six walks with 10 strikeouts. As Speier points out, he’s also displayed diminished velocity readings since being activated.

Hembree punched out 35 hitters and logged a 2.51 ERA through 28 2/3 innings prior to that initial injury. It’s not clear how long he’s expected to miss, but the injury is yet another setback to a Red Sox relief corps that surprisingly went unaddressed at the trade deadline (and in the offseason). The elimination of August trade waivers all but eliminates the possibility of Boston adding any truly notable help to the relief corps, although there are still some ways to add some depth to what they already have in house.

AL East Notes: Lowe, Mancini, Fisher

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The Rays’ decision to option Nate Lowe back to Triple-A Durham following the trade deadline was a “very tough call,” manager Kevin Cash tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. With the acquisition of Jesus Aguilar, however, the Rays had three first basemen on the roster and Ji-Man Choi’s lack of minor league options once again came into play. Tampa Bay seems loath to risk losing Choi on waivers, but Lowe has handily outperformed him at the plate so far, hitting .294/.362/.510 to Choi’s .265/.361/.423. Choi has shown better knowledge of the strike zone, but Lowe nevertheless appears to be the better offensive option between the two (even if he’s had some good fortune in terms of a .362 average on balls in play). Cash expects that Lowe will be back up with the club “soon,” but that redundancy will eventually be an issue the Rays need to address.

More out of the AL East…

  • Trey Mancini remains in Baltimore after the trade deadline, but the decision not to move him doesn’t mean an extension is the next step for the slugger. “Looking at contract extensions is just not at the forefront of my plate right now,” Orioles general manager Mike Elias tells MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, “but certainly he’s an attractive guy to have here for a while.” It’s not the first time that Elias, hired to spearhead the Orioles’ rebuild this offseason, has suggested that he views Mancini as a potential long-term piece. But Mancini is already controlled through 2022 — his age-30 season. Given that he won’t even reach arbitration until this winter, there’s simply not much urgency to extend Mancini, even if he’s in the midst of the best season of his young career. Through 443 plate appearances, Mancini has posted a robust .282/.343/.539 slash (130 OPS+) with a career-high 25 home runs. Elias also praised the recent play of outfielder Anthony Santander the manner in which he has begun to establish himself as a viable big league hitter.
  • The Blue Jays have a crowded outfield mix, but newly acquired Derek Fisher is going to get regular playing time and an opportunity to establish himself as a fixture in the Toronto outfield, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet writes. Most of Fisher’s reps will come in center or right field, as Toronto doesn’t want to disrupt Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s transition to left field (or his offensive breakout). That leaves Fisher, Teoscar Hernandez, Randal Grichuk and Billy McKinney vying for playing time between center, right and occasional reps at DH. Hernandez has been on an otherworldly tear, clubbing seven homers and three doubles in his past 15 games, which should help to keep him in the lineup. If there’s to be an odd man out, McKinney seems the likeliest candidate, given that he has minor league options remaining. But the semi logjam also serves as a reminder that Randal Grichuk hasn’t performed anywhere near as well as hoped in the first season of the head-scratching extension to which the Jays signed him back in April. He’s played solid defense, but Grichuk hasn’t exactly seized an everyday role with his .232/.290/.418 batting line.

Tim Collins Elects Free Agency

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Veteran lefty Tim Collins elected free agency rather than accepting an outright assignment from the Cubs, according to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League’s transactions page. Chicago designated Collins, 29, for assignment over the weekend.

Collins appeared in nine games across multiple stints with the Cubs in 2019, allowing a total of three runs on nine hits and three walks with four punchouts. He’s whiffed 37 hitters in 27 Triple-A innings this season but has also issued 16 walks (three intentional) and surrendered seven home runs there.

Collins was a big piece of the Kansas City bullpen from 2011-14 but missed two full seasons due to multiple Tommy John surgeries. He’s totaled 31 1/3 big league innings between the Nationals and Cubs since returning from that pair of operations, posting a 25-to-15 K/BB ratio but has yielded a .237/.328/.492 batting line to opposing left-handers.

Still, as an experienced left-hander with a knack for missing bats, Collins should have little difficulty latching on with a different club — likely a contender. The elimination of August trade waivers will make adding depth via other avenues (e.g. outright waiver claims, free agency) of increased importance.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/1/19

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We’ll track Thursday’s minor moves from around the league here…

  • The Twins signed outfielder Ramon Flores and righty Jonathan Cheshire to minor league deals, per an announcement from the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. Flores, who was assigned to Triple-A Rochester, has spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues but has played with the Patriots in each of the past two seasons. His 2019 output was particularly impressive, as he batted .311/.395/.467 with nearly as many walks (43) as strikeouts (49). The 27-year-old last appeared in the Majors when he got a brief three-game run with the Angels in 2017, but his most significant stint came with the 2016 Brewers. That season, the Venezuelan-born Flores hit .205/.294/.261 in 289 plate appearances while appearing at all three outfield positions. He’s yet to find Major League success, but Flores is a career .281/.373/.429 hitter in more than 1400 Triple-A plate appearances. As for Cheshire, he’s never been in the Majors but notched an impressive 19-to-3 K/BB ratio and a 0.55 ERA in 16 1/3 innings with the Patriots. Cheshire, 24, was cut loose by the Blue Jays earlier this year and has been assigned to Double-A Pensacola with the Twins.

Giants Designate Dan Winkler For Assignment

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The Giants announced that they’ve designated right-hander Dan Winkler for assignment Thursday. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to lefty Sam Selman, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Sacramento. The Giants also placed outfielder Alex Dickerson on the 10-day injured list due to an oblique strain.

Winkler’s DFA comes less than 24 hours after the Giants acquired him in the trade that sent Mark Melancon to Atlanta. Jettisoning Winkler underscores that the move was largely one about finances for the Giants, who were stunningly able to unload the entirety of Melancon’s remaining $18.3MM on the Braves.

The 29-year-old Winkler has struggled in 2019, pitching to an ugly 4.98 ERA with a 22-to-11 K/BB ratio in 21 2/3 innings of relief this season. He’s had similar struggles in Triple-A (4.86 ERA, 20-to-18 K/BB in 16 2/3 innings) but is not far removed from a strong 2018 showing. Last season, Winkler pitched to a 3.43 earned run average (and a 2.76 FIP) with 10.3 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 0.45 HR/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate. He has minor league options remaining beyond the 2019 season, making it somewhat surprising that the Giants apparently aren’t planning to take a look at him. Winkler can’t be traded to another organization under this season’s new trade structure but can be claimed on outright waivers.

Selman will be making his MLB debut as a 28-year-old rookie after posting some jaw-dropping numbers in the minors. After tossing seven shutout innings in Double-A, he moved up to the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and turned in 40 frames of 1.35 ERA ball with 65 strikeouts (14.6 K/9) against 13 walks (2.9 BB/9). He’s benefited from a minuscule .203 BABIP and an 86 percent strand rate, but Selman’s ability to miss bats and limit walks is intriguing.

As for Dickerson, he’s not expected to miss more than 10 days with his current ailment (Twitter link via Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News). The 29-year-old has been a godsend for the Giants and helped to fuel San Francisco’s surge back into the Wild Card picture, hitting .346/.402/.664 with six homers, 10 doubles and three triples in 117 plate appearances.

That level of output isn’t likely to be maintained, as Dickerson’s .413 average on balls in play is the fourth-highest of any hitter in baseball (min. 100 PAs). He’s also battled significant injury issues throughout his career. That said, he does have an outstanding Triple-A track record (.333/.398/.541 in 892 PAs) and enjoyed some big league success with the Padres back in 2016. He’s controlled three more seasons beyond 2019, making him an intriguing find for the Giants even if (or when) his bat regresses to some extent.

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