Sam Dyson Out Up To 12 Months Following Shoulder Surgery
Twins right-hander Sam Dyson underwent capsule repair surgery on his right shoulder yesterday, manager Rocco Baldelli revealed to reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). It’s a brutal development for both Dyson and the organization, as the recovery period associated with that procedure could span a full 12 months. It’s not clear whether Dyson will be able to take the ball at all in 2020, which seemingly makes an offseason non-tender of the righty a necessity.
At the time of the trade that sent Dyson from San Francisco to Minnesota, the Twins looked to be acquiring one of the more effective relievers who’d been made available. Dyson posted a 2.69 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.64 HR/9 and a 61.3 percent ground-ball rate in 70 1/3 innings with the 2018 Giants and had followed that up with 51 innings of 2.47 ERA ball to open the 2019 campaign. He’d improved both his strikeout and walk rates while continuing to allow fewer than one homer per nine innings pitched.
Minnesota sent three prospects — Jaylin Davis, Prelander Berroa and Kai-Wei Teng — to the Giants in order to acquire Dyson for this season and for 2020, which would be his final arbitration-eligible season. However, Dyson was shelled in his first outing as a Twin and quickly landed on the injured list. He returned and actually pitched fairly well (2.53 ERA in 10 2/3 innings) before again being shut down due to ongoing discomfort in his biceps/shoulder.
More troubling than the quick IL placement, for the Twins, was the fact that Dyson revealed to the club that he’d been dealing with some discomfort since mid-July — before he was ever traded to the Twins. Medical records at the time of the swap checked out, as Dyson had not even divulged the pain he was feeling to the Giants (and, thus, the Giants had no way of documenting said red flags).
The Twins reportedly investigated whether there was any possibility that the Giants might’ve had some inkling of Dyson’s shoulder troubles — as any team would — but there’s no evidence of any efforts to withhold information. In the end, it appears to be a simple case of miserable luck for the Twins, who almost certainly won’t commit to a raise on Dyson’s $5MM salary for the 2020 season and now seem likely to cut him loose for nothing.
If there’s any silver lining for Minnesota, it’s that the need for Dyson is less acute than it was at the time of the trade to acquire him. Tyler Duffey hasn’t allowed a run since the trade and has a 38-to-5 K/BB ratio over his past 22 2/3 scoreless innings. Closer Taylor Rogers remains an excellent weapon, and hard-throwing righty Trevor May has been largely excellent over the past two months as well. The Twins’ other deadline pickup, Sergio Romo, has been terrific since his acquisition as well. Rookies Zack Littell, Cody Stashak and Ryne Harper have emerged as solid options, and flamethrowing top prospect Brusdar Graterol is making a push for a spot on the postseason roster as well.
That’s not to downplay the loss of Dyson, of course. A healthy Dyson would give the Twins an even more formidable back of the bullpen, which has become a necessity for postseason play given the evolution of pitcher usage (particularly in short series). But the overall state of Baldelli’s relief corps is much stronger than it was even two months ago, with more questions now seemingly focused on the Twins’ sputtering rotation.
Sonny Gray Undergoes Arthroscopic Elbow Surgery
Reds right-hander Sonny Gray underwent an arthroscopic procedure to remove loose bodies from his right elbow today, the team announced. The procedure isn’t expected to impact his offseason training regimen, nor should it have any sort of impact on his availability for the beginning of Spring Training.
Cincinnati’s decision to buy low on Gray, who’ll turn 30 this winter, proved to be one of the best moves made by any team this winter. The Reds bet big on Gray not only by trading Shed Long and a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick to obtain the former Oakland ace but also by inking him to a three-year, $30.5MM extension that covers the 2020-22 seasons.
Gray put a forgettable 2018 season with the Yankees squarely in the rear-view mirror by not simply returning to his 2017 form but arguably by delivering the best season of his career. Through 175 1/3 innings, the 2011 first-rounder logged a 2.87 ERA (3.43 FIP, 3.65 xFIP) with a career-high 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Gray’s average of 3.5 walks per nine frames was up from the 2015 season in which he finished third in American League Cy Young voting, but he also managed to allow just 0.87 homers per nine innings pitched. That’s a strong number in any season but is particularly impressive when pitching in the cozy confines of Great American Ball Park during 2019’s record-setting home run boom.
With Gray and midseason acquisition Trevor Bauer now in the plans for 2020, joining holdovers Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani, the Reds look to have the foundation for an extremely strong starting staff in place. There’ll be work to do elsewhere on the roster this winter, but the Reds’ pitching next season could be more formidable than at any point in recent memory.
Curtis Granderson Hopes To Continue Playing In 2020
Marlins outfielder/pinch-hitter Curtis Granderson will turn 39 next March and is struggling through the worst offensive season of his career, but he tells Bill Ladson of MLB.com that he hopes to continue his career beyond the 2019 season. The veteran is open to a reunion with the Marlins, should the club have interest in re-signing him.
Granderson acknowledges that it’s not a “slam dunk” for a player of his age to find interest from any of the clubs in the league. This time last year, he was finishing up a season in which he hit .242/.351/.431 with 13 home runs between the Blue Jays and Brewers. Despite that solid production and his highly regarded clubhouse presence, Granderson had to settle for a minor league contract.
Now, Granderson will carry an eyesore of a batting line (.186/.286/.355 at present) into free agency. To his credit, the Grandy Man does have 11 home runs, 17 doubles and a triple under his belt this year. And his 26.9 percent strikeout rate, while higher than the league average, is only a modest increase from last season’s 26.3 percent clip. He’s still walking at an 11.6 percent rate, hasn’t seen his infield-fly rate jump and has slightly improved his hard-contact rate from 34.3 percent to 35 percent, per Statcast. Silver linings aside, it’s hard to hide from struggles of this magnitude. If Granderson lands back with the Marlins or with a new club, it seems likely that it’d be on another minor league pact with an invitation to Major League Spring Training.
If there’s one thing working in Granderson’s favor, it could be that the standard Major League roster size is set to expand from 25 players to 26 players, beginning next season. Big league clubs will have an additional roster spot at their disposal, and it’s not out of the question that the Marlins (or perhaps another rebuilding club) would want to take advantage of that by rostering a veteran of 16 Major League seasons to help mentor emerging big leaguers.
To that end, the Marlins’ decision to extend manager Don Mattingly can’t hurt Granderson’s chance of suiting up for a second season in South Beach. Mattingly gushed praise for the veteran outfielder and the influence he’s had on the Marlins’ young players, calling him “one of the keys” to the Marlins’ clubhouse. “He is willing to give these guys advice, help a guy grow up,” Mattingly said.
Max Stassi To Undergo Hip Surgery
Angels catcher Max Stassi will undergo right hip surgery and require a recovery timeline of four to six months, manager Brad Ausmus announced to reporters Tuesday (Twitter link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register).
That timeline could well hinder Stassi, 28, from being ready for the beginning of Spring Training. A six-month rehab process would carry him through late March, potentially rendering him unavailable for the start of the 2020 campaign. Of course, that assumes that Stassi makes it to Spring Training with the Angels next season. He’ll be eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, and between his hip surgery and a feeble .136/.211/.167 batting line through 147 plate appearances, he stands out as a non-tender candidate.
The Angels acquired Stassi shortly before this year’s trade deadline with the hope that a change of scenery could invigorate his bat. Stassi’s defensive prowess is well known, as he perennially rates as a premium pitch framer and draws strong reviews for his blocking abilities as well. Stassi posted a respectable .226/.316/.394 batting line with eight long balls and 13 doubles in 250 plate appearances with Houston a season ago, so it’s not a stretch to think that he could have more in the tank offensively. A change of fortune was (clearly) not in the cards, however.
Between Stassi, the since-released Jonathan Lucroy, Kevan Smith, Dustin Garneau and Anthony Bemboom, the Angels haven’t received much at all in terms of offensive production from their catchers in 2019. The organization’s farm system has improved dramatically in recent seasons but still lacks a potential difference-maker behind the dish; of the Angels’ top 30 prospects at MLB.com, none are catchers. Fangraphs lists Double-A backstop Jack Kruger 27th among Angels farmhands, but he hit just .240/.300/.309 in 380 Double-A plate appearances this season.
Suffice it to say, the Angels look like a team that’ll have catching help near the top of the offseason wishlist. Yasmani Grandal will headline this year’s class of free-agent catchers, while Jason Castro and a revitalized Travis d’Arnaud look like potential regulars for catching-needy teams, as well. Trade possibilities will surely arise as well in what should be a busy offseason for an Angels club that’ll also be looking to fortify its injury-plagued starting rotation.
Luhnow: Jose Urquidy “Likely” To Be In Astros’ 2020 Rotation
With both Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley slated to hit free agency this winter and Lance McCullers Jr. still on the mend from 2018 Tommy John surgery, it’s readily apparent that the Astros are going to have some offseason pitching needs. As such, it’s of some note that president of baseball operations Jeff Luhnow told The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan (subscription required) this week that the organization views young right-hander Jose Urquidy as a likely member of its 2020 rotation.
“Urquidy’s going to be likely in our rotation next year,” Luhnow said in discussing the 24-year-old’s chances of making the postseason roster. “…He’s done an unbelievable job. He’s a talented pitcher who knows how to pitch in high-pressure situations. If he’s the right guy to make our roster in the DS or the CS or the WS, he’ll make it ,and hopefully he’s going to get some big outs for us in the postseason.”
It’s a strong vote of confidence in Urquidy, who made his MLB debut earlier this season and has appeared in eight games as a big leaguer. Through 35 frames with the Astros, Urquidy has pitched to a 4.63 ERA, although the rest of his numbers are more intriguing. Through six starts and a pair of relief appearances, he’s sporting a terrific 38-to-6 K/BB ratio and has generated a healthy 12.1 percent swinging-strike rate. Urquidy is currently carrying a 3.79 FIP, 3.80 SIERA and 4.18 xFIP, suggesting that his ERA could be a bit over-inflated.
It’s notable, too, that Urquidy has already set a new career-high with 138 innings in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Given that he’s still likely to pitch another game before Sunday’s regular-season finale and could clearly log some postseason innings, it seems likely that he’ll be free of any workload restrictions next year.
Looking ahead to the 2020 rotation, if Urquidy is indeed penciled into that mix, he’ll join veteran workhorses Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke as well as a returning McCullers (assuming no hiccups in his rehab). Other options within the organization include left-hander Framber Valdez, right-hander Rogelio Armenteros and top prospect Forrest Whitley, though Whitley may require some further minor league time after injuries limited him to 55 1/3 innings in 2019. Right-hander Aaron Sanchez, acquired at the trade deadline, would surely have been a favorite for a starting job next year had he not recently undergone shoulder surgery. That operation has not only clouded his availability for Opening Day 2020 but may lead to him being non-tendered.
Earmarking a starting spot for Urquidy, ostensibly, would leave the Astros with only one vacancy in their rotation this winter. Trade scenarios that arise and/or free-agent prices could potentially impact any tentative alignments being currently contemplated by the organization, but Urquidy seems to have put himself in a strong position heading into 2020.
Indians Activate Jose Ramirez
Sept. 24: Cleveland has officially reinstated Ramirez from the injured list, per a club announcement.
Sept. 23: The Indians are expected to activate infielder Jose Ramirez from the injured list on Tuesday, manager Terry Francona told reporters this weekend (link via Mandy Bell of MLB.com). He’s been out since Aug. 26 due to a fractured hamate hook in his right hand, but he’ll beat even the optimistic end of his initially projected recovery period (five to seven weeks).
A healthy Ramirez — or even a mostly healthy Ramirez — will be a notable jolt to an Indians lineup that has been utilizing Mike Freeman, Ryan Flaherty, Andrew Velazquez and Yu Chang in the infield with both Ramirez and Jason Kipnis sidelined. (Kipnis suffered a hamate fracture of his own last week and will undergo surgery tomorrow.) While Ramirez started the season in a dreadful slump, he heated up along with the weather and has turned in a sensational .313/.360/.643 with 16 home runs, 22 doubles and three triples in 253 plate appearances since seeing his OPS bottom out at .586 in mid-June. In fairness to Freeman, he’s certainly held his own at the dish (.269/.366/.391 in 192 plate appearances), but few can stack up against Ramirez when he’s at his best.
Ramirez has experience at second base, but Francona was clear about the fact that he’ll remain at third base once he returns. “When he comes back, we’ll have six games left,” Francona said. “We’re just going to leave him right at third. That’s a big ask. That’s another transition that we don’t need to do.”
With the Twins’ magic number down to three and six game remaining, the Indians are in a virtual Wild-Card-or-bust scenario. They’re two games behind the A’s for top Wild Card billing and currently in a tie (92-64) with the Rays for the second spot. The Indians will finish out the year with three games in Chicago against the White Sox and three in D.C. against the Nationals. The Rays, meanwhile, have one more game to host against the Red Sox, two to host against the Yankees and will finish the year with a three-game set in Toronto. Oakland has two road games against the Halos and four in Seattle. The Twins play three in Detroit followed by three in Kansas City.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Angels Claim Kean Wong
The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder Kean Wong off waivers from the Rays. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was designated for assignment over the weekend. The Angels transferred right-hander Griffin Canning from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in order to open a spot for Wong on the roster.
Wong, 24, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut earlier this month, going 3-for-14 in a six-game cup of coffee. He spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Durham, where he logged his second consecutive above-average season at the plate. After hitting .282/.345/.406 with nine homers, 23 doubles, three triples and seven steals in 2018, Wong turned in a .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals in 2019. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A this season, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+.
While he’s primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong has begun to see time at third base and in the outfield — mostly the corners but also 24 innings in center — over the past couple of seasons. Defensive versatility is a hallmark of the Rays organization, and familiarizing himself with multiple spots on the diamond obviously increased Wong’s chances of cracking a deep Rays roster. Now, that versatility will help in affording him more opportunities with a new organization.
Wong ranked 40th in an absolutely stacked Rays farm system heading into the season, per Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs. Their scouting report pegs Wong as more of a utility option than an everyday player, but he’ll aim to prove himself capable of handling a prominent role with the club over the next few days and possibly next spring, if he survives the offseason on the Angels’ 40-man roster. The Angels control Tommy La Stella for another season and also have Zack Cozart under contract through the 2020 campaign. But La Stella might not make it back to the field in 2019 after suffering a fractured tibia in early July, and Cozart’s Angels tenure has been absolutely decimated by injuries of his own
Younger options like David Fletcher and Matt Thaiss have seen action at second and third in lieu of those injured veterans, but Wong would add another versatile candidate to the mix for playing time. As somewhat of a bonus, he brings a left-handed bat to an Angels roster where the majority of the team’s regulars hit from the right side. Wong’s contract was selected to the MLB roster for the first time earlier this month, meaning he’ll have all three of his minor league option years remaining beyond the 2019 season.
Ned Yost Announces Retirement
Royals manager Ned Yost will officially retire following the completion of the 2019 season, the team announced today in a press release. He’ll finish his career with the most victories in Royals franchise history and is the only Royals manager to ever make consecutive World Series appearances. Yost issued the following statement in today’s release:
“With the development of our young players and our returning veterans, I feel and hope the worst is behind us in this rebuilding phase of our organization. My plan all along was to get us through the rough times then turn it over to a new manager to bring us the rest of the way. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here as your manager and will never forget the good and the hard times we had together as an organization and a fan base.
I will never forget the fact that you fans supported us through it all. Kansas City will always have a special place in my heart, and I look forward to rooting for the Royals on to their next World Championship very soon.”
Yost, 65, has managed the Royals since the 2010 season, logging a collective 744-836 record in that time. Prior to that, he’d spent parts of six seasons skippering the Brewers, with whom he won 457 games. Overall, Yost will complete his managerial career with a 1201-1338 record, two American League pennants and one World Series title. He’s 32nd all-time in total games managed at the MLB level, and his current total of 1201 wins ranks 45th — though he’ll have the opportunity to tack on a few more victories and six more games managed between now and Sunday’s farewell game.
Yost’s retirement has been widely expected, as the skipper himself has hinted in the past that he isn’t likely to see a rebuild all the way through. There’s no firm word yet on a successor to Yost, of course, but it was speculated last November when the Royals hired former Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny as a special advisor that he was a strong candidate to take the reins following Yost’s retirement. The Royals won’t make any formal announcement on the matter for now. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Matheny is indeed “expected” to be the team’s next manager, but MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports that the Royals have yet to commit to Matheny as the new manager (Twitter link).
Of course, even if that was the plan last November, much has changed in the Royals organization since Matheny’s hire. Owner David Glass has agreed to sell the team to Kansas City entrepreneur John Sherman, and while it’s been reported that general manager Dayton Moore will receive a contract extension once the new ownership regime formally takes over, it’s not as clear that the new owners will have the same vision for the manager and his coaching staff.
Giants’ Baer On Bumgarner, Offseason
The 2019 season has been a transitional year, to say the least, for the Giants franchise. Ownership hired Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi last offseason and named him president of baseball operations, and the Bruce Bochy farewell tour is nearing its completion as the end of the season looms. A perhaps improbable midseason hot streak may have kept the Giants from completely tearing down the roster, but it’s eminently possible that impending free agent Madison Bumgarner‘s scheduled Sunday outing could be his last in a Giants uniform.
Giants CEO Larry Baer joined Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle for a half-hour interview (audio link) over the weekend to discuss a host of Giants topics. Giants fans, in particular, will want to give the entire interview a listen for Baer’s discussion of potential changes to Oracle Park, ticket prices, his perspective on the time he spent away from the team during his recent suspension and his overall impressions and takeaways from Zaidi’s first year on the job. But from a pure roster standpoint, specifically with regard to Bumgarner, Baer doesn’t speak as though a parting of ways is a foregone conclusion.
“I think Farhan has had ongoing discussions with his representatives throughout the 2019 season,” Baer says when asked about the possibility of an extension. “Characterizing them — I don’t want to get into what is or isn’t being discussed, but I know they’ve kept open lines of communication.”
The 30-year-old Bumgarner likely has two starts left as he looks to put the finishing touches on his healthiest season since 2016. He’s already topped the 200-inning mark for the eighth time in his illustrious career and is currently sporting a 3.86 ERA (3.78 FIP, 4.18 SIERA) with averages of 8.7 strikeouts and 1.8 walks per nine innings pitched. It’s not quite the dominant Bumgarner of old, but it’s nevertheless been a sharp rebound effort that has helped to quiet any concerns that might’ve existed surrounding his durability in the aftermath of 2017’s dirt bike debacle.
The question for Baer, Zaidi, the Giants and other interested parties, of course, will be one of how long and how lucrative an offer they’re willing to make to outbid the competition for Bumgarner. The lefty won’t turn 31 until next August, so he likely has at least a couple of prime years remaining. But the free-agent market has become increasingly harsh for players on the wrong side of 30, and we’ve seen fewer and fewer teams willing to push an offer past the hard number at which they value a particular asset. The days of impassioned bidding wars may not be over entirely, but they appear to be waning.
Furthermore, Zaidi’s track record with the Dodgers doesn’t suggest that he’ll adopt a “whatever it takes” mentality to keep Bumgarner. The largest sum of new money the Dodgers promised to a player under Zaidi and Andrew Friedman was Kenley Jansen‘s five-year, $80MM contract — and Schulman reiterates in the podcast that he’s heard that was more an ownership-fueled decision than a front-office-driven reunion. The Dodgers also extended Clayton Kershaw shortly before Zaidi’s departure, but that deal “only” promised Kershaw an additional year and $28MM on top of the two years and $65MM from which he could’ve opted out. Baer references that as a “top-of-the-market” contract and points to the Giants’ own pursuit of Bryce Harper under Zaidi in suggesting that they won’t necessarily shy away from free agency — so long as a deal makes sense.
“It’s not so much, ‘Hey do you have the money for Player X or the money for Player Y, and how much does ownership want to spend?'” Baer explains. “It’s more — how does Farhan and the staff want to bake the cake? The way he’s been successful baking the cake is doing a lot from within, making strategic moves when they make sense. … It’s not about being averse to spending money, but how do you really want to put the whole thing together? When you think about the way it was put together [from] 2009 on, when we won, it was put together pretty much internally. We would complement with free-agent signings a little bit — mainly [additions] at the break, at the trade deadline.”
Again utilizing the cake-baking analogy, Baer states that he believes Zaidi & Co. will do so “with depth, and with looking at current players and what we have in the farm system.” There’s nothing that expressly rules out a series of notable offseason additions, but it’s also far from the aggressive tone that ownership reps from other teams have offered up in recent offseasons (e.g. the Phillies’ “stupid” money decree or the Astros’ public acknowledgment of efforts to add a high-end starter). And while near the end of the interview, Baer suggests that contending for the postseason is a goal every year, including 2020, he spends more time preaching the importance of “taking another large stair-step” forward next season. Progress, he contends, can be measured by the “energy around the Giants,” which he expects to improve in 2020.
Given the Giants’ history with Bumgarner, it’d be a surprise if they didn’t have a significant presence in his offseason market, but beyond that obvious connection, Baer’s comments hardly seem like a portent for aggressive spending on the free-agent market.