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NL West Notes: Padres, Giants, D-backs, Swihart

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Few teams have received worse second base production than the Padres, for whom Ian Kinsler, Luis Urias and Greg Garcia have combined for minus-0.7 fWAR and a dismal .144/.252/.237 line in 111 plate appearances. Now, the Padres find themselves waiting for someone to “take hold of” the job there, manager Andy Green said Saturday (via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune). Kinsler has had the most opportunities (66 PA), but while he’s a longtime quality starter at the keystone, he has been a detriment to the Padres’ on-field efforts in the first season of a two-year, $8MM contract. Urias, a high-end prospect, may be the Padres’ long-term solution at the position. The 21-year-old has only come to the plate 28 times this season, though, leaving Acee to wonder if the Padres will send him back to the minors for more reps. However, Green believes Urias has gotten “consistent enough” playing time in the bigs this year.

Elsewhere around the division…

  • Giants manager Bruce Bochy says they expect Mark Melancon to close games at some point this season, per Kerry Crowley of The Mercury News. Melancon has been about as good as can be so far this year, scattering seven hits across ten scoreless innings. The 34-year-old has also finished five games for the Giants, though none were save opportunities. He’s no stranger to the ninth inning, having saved 182 games in his career, including a league-leading 51 for the Pirates in 2015. Melancon followed up that campaign by saving 47 games for the Pirates and Nationals before cashing in on his current four-year, $62MM deal, of which he will have one year and $14MM remaining after this season. The bullpen has been an area of strength for the 8-14 Giants, with lefty Will Smith the nominal ninth-inning anchor. Given the number of horror-show bullpens around the league right now, there’s likely to be trade interest in one or more of San Francisco’s high-performing relievers at some point this season. Melancon figures to stick around, however, as his deal is more cumbersome than the contracts belonging to Smith, Tony Watson, Nick Vincent, Sam Dyson et al.
  • If the Giants do part with any of those veterans, it could open up a spot for Triple-A righty Ray Black. For now, however, the team has shut down Black for seven to 10 days on account of a right pronator strain, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to tweet. It’s troubling news in light of Black’s injury-checkered past, and it continues a rough April for the flamethrowing 28-year-old. After posting a 3.16 ERA with 16.13 K/9 and 2.81 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level last year, Black has pitched to a 6.43 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 7.71 BB/9 in seven frames this season. He also had trouble preventing runs in a 23 1/3-inning major league debut in 2018, when he recorded a 6.17 ERA, though he did manage 12.73 K/9 against 3.86 BB/9.
  • The Diamondbacks plan to utilize just-acquired catcher Blake Swihart in the outfield corners on occasion, according to manager Torey Lovullo (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Lovullo added that the Diamondbacks will use the 27-year-old Swihart there to spell veterans Adam Jones and David Peralta, both of whom are in their 30s. The outfield’s not foreign to Swihart, who played 48 games there as a member of the Red Sox, as Piecoro notes. While it’s rare for any catcher to line up in the grass, Lovullo says Swihart is “a pretty special athlete.”

Nathan Eovaldi To Undergo Elbow Surgery

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MONDAY: Eovaldi will go under the knife tomorrow, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports via Twitter. The club anticipates that the righty will be sidelined for four to six weeks, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets.

SATURDAY, 4:27pm: Eovaldi is indeed “leaning” toward minor elbow surgery to clean up loose bodies, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe.

10:37am:Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a loose body in his elbow, per MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. Bobby Poyner will take Eovaldi’s roster spot (Twitter links). The move is retroactive to April 18th.

This is not a new injury for Eovaldi, as just last season he had arthroscopic surgery to remove a similar loose body, causing him to miss roughly two months of the season. Obviously, Eovaldi recovered just fine, but the injury is still a blow to the defending champs as they have yet to play up to the level of expectations thus far in 2019. There has been no indication as to whether or not this current IL stint will require surgery. NBC Sports Boston’s Evan Drellich posted this report from November which gave Eovaldi a clean bill of health, though of course, Eovaldi has put a few more miles on the elbow since then.

The injury hits after just four starts this season in which Eovaldi did not record a decision, totaling 21 innings with an even 6.00 ERA. It was certainly a rough start as his walk rate was up (4.71 BB/9), strikeout rate was down (6.86 K/9), and he  surrendered 2.57 home runs per game on a 25% HR/FB rate. Those numbers were bound to normalize at least somewhat over time, though obviously this new injury revelation might speak to his early season struggles as well.

Poyner, 26, will join the team as a left-handed option out of the bullpen for the time being. He went 1-0 with a 3.22 ERA across 20 appearances out of the Red Sox pen last season with an impressive 9.7 K/9 to 1.2 BB/9 in the admittedly small sample.

Pirates Select Bryan Reynolds, Recall Cole Tucker, Place Starling Marte On 10-Day IL

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1:45 pm: Per a team release, Marte will hit the 10-day IL with an “abdominal wall contusion,” while Gonzalez will be placed on the 60-day IL with a fractured left clavicle.

11:57 am:The Pirates have recalled shortstop Cole Tucker and selected the contract of outfielder Bryan Reynolds, adding both to the 25-man roster, the team announced. Reynolds will take the final remaining spot on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster. There has been no corresponding roster moves announced, but it’s been widely speculated that Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez may both be headed to the IL after their collision in last night’s ballgame.

Fangraphs puts Tucker and Reynolds as the #5 and #9 ranked prospects, respectively. Both will be making their major league debuts after strong showings in Spring Training this year. Tucker, 22, hit .259/.333/.356 in Double-A last year, but he’s torn his way through the Arizona Fall League, Spring Training, and his first thirteen games with Triple-A Indianapolis so far this season, where he was hitting a robust .333/.415/.579 in 66 plate appearances.

Reynolds, you may remember, joined the Pirates as part of the Andrew McCutchen trade. As MLB.com’s Adam Berry points out (via Twitter), the Pirates 25-man roster is now populated by the Pirates’ returns from the McCutchen and Gerrit Cole trades, with Michael Feliz being the only piece from either deal not currently in Pittsburgh. Kyle Crick recently returned from the injured list, Jason Martin is hitting .333/.391/.429 in limited playing time in left, Colin Moran platoons at third, and Joe Musgrove ably holds down a rotation spot for the Pirates.

Indians Activate Francisco Lindor, DFA Hanley Ramirez

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The Indians activated Francisco Lindor from the injured list today, while veteran Hanley Ramirez was designated for assignment to clear the roster spot, per MLB Roster Moves (Twitter links).

This should come as a welcome bit of news for Indians fans, who finally have their middle infield at full health for the first time this season. Cleveland performed arguably better than expected in their superstar’s absence, as the team sits one game up on the AL Central with an 11-7 record. While the team stayed afloat, offense from the shortstop position was abysmal without Lindor, as his understudies hit a combined .069/.139/.097 – that’s a full -1.0 fWAR in 18 games (-43 wRC+). Replacing that production with anything close to Lindor’s career .288/.350/.487 ought to provide a significant boost to a Cleveland offense that ranks 28th with a .266 wOBA.

For Ramirez, thus ends a second straight disappointing season for the 35-year-old Dominican. He appeared in 16 games this season, hitting only .184/.298/.327 with two home runs. The former highlight-reel shortstop has been relegated to designated hitter duties, from which he simply does not provide Cleveland with enough utility to warrant a roster spot. If this spells the end for Ramirez’s major-league career, he would finish as a career .289/.360/.486 hitter with 271 home runs and 1,834 hits across 7,127 plate appearances in 15 years.

Diamondbacks Option Tim Locastro, Recall Taylor Clarke

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The Diamondbacks added righty Taylor Clarke to the 25-man roster, per a team tweet, while utility man Tim Locastro was optioned back to Triple-A.

Locastro got a start at each outfield position this season while appearing as a pinch-hitter five times and once as a pinch-runner. For what it’s worth, he had a good run, if short-lived, as he knocked four singles in eleven at-bats, stealing a pair of bases and scoring four runs. Locastro’s utility role will presumably be assumed by new arrival Blake Swihart.

Clarke was the Diamondbacks 10th ranked prospect per MLB.com, and though he’s not as heralded as fellow right-handers like Jon Duplantier and Taylor Widener, Clarke is nonetheless an intriguing arm with stellar control and a hopeful future in Arizona’s rotation. He has struggled to kick off the season for Triple-A Reno, going 1-1 with a 7.36 ERA, but he put in a solid campaign in 2018 with an overall 13-8 record and 4.03 ERA over a full season in Reno.

Clarke provides the bullpen with an extra arm while they await Swihart’s arrival from Boston. Swihart will likely join the team on Monday in Pittsburgh, per MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert (via Twitter). The former catcher will shed his shinguards in Arizona, who already have three catchers on the roster.

Cardinals Notes: Martinez, Mayers, Reyes

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Carlos Martinez “feels great” as he continues to rehab his shoulder, per Stu Durando of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The next steps will be either a more aggressive side session or a trip to the team facility in Jupiter, Florida. The Cardinals have been treading water up until this point with a 10-9 record, but little ground has been lost in a tightly-bunched NL Central. Martinez’s return will be interesting to track, as he is a relative rarity in terms of the breadth of his usage possibilities (and therefore the breadth of his potential impact). The party line was Martinez would return to the rotation where – when healthy – he has pitched like an ace. At the same time, when he returned from injury last season, the Cards sent him to the pen where he saved five games and earned more than three outs in an outing five times. Whether the Cards bring him back as a starter, a closer or in the fireman role, he should be a big piece for a pitching staff whose starters rank 23rd in the majors with a 5.28 ERA. Let’s check in on a couple other Cardinals pitchers looking to make it back to the bigs…

  • Also from Durando, Mike Mayers – placed on the IL on April 16th – is expected to be out for “a couple of months.”  Shoulder surgery is not in the offing, however, as the Cards appear consigned to rest and rehab. There was no mention of a specific grade level on Mayers’ shoulder injury, though it stands to reason based on the recovery timeline that he suffered a Grade 2 lat strain. Mayers, 27, made eight relief appearances for the Cards this season after 50 in 2018. Overall in that span, he pitched to a 4.80 ERA with a 2.85 K/BB rate.
  • Alex Reyes has a new role in Memphis, as the right-hander has been moved into the starting rotation for the Cardinals’ Triple-A club, per MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch. The club’s intention is to get Reyes more game time to work on his changeup and slider, though overall command consistency remains the primary goal. The plan is for Reyes to put in 40-50 pitches in his first Triple-A start, though that number could grow as he strengthens. The team says the move is purely to get Reyes more opportunity to find his stride with those secondary pitched in-game, and while in a vacuum that explanation makes sense, it’s hard to overlook potential context clues such as the ongoing struggles of the St. Louis rotation, or the continued uncertainty around Carlos Martinez’ eventual role. Reyes’s has been in the spotlight since tossing 46 shimmering innings of 1.57 ERA baseball as a 21-year-old back in 2016, though it’s been a wait-and-see game for the Cardinal faithful since then.

Tigers Assign Gregory Soto To High-A Lakeland

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Tigers’ promising lefty Gregory Soto has been reinstated from the restricted list and assigned to High-A Lakeland, per the Tigers PR Department (via Twitter). Soto was added to the 40-man roster for protection in the Rule 5 draft back in 2017, so his reinstatement means the Tigers’ 40-man roster is now full. As Evan Woodbery of MLive Media Group notes (via Twitter), the Tigers can shift Matt Moore to the 60-day IL should they need to open a spot on the 40-man.

Soto, 24, is a power lefty with considerable promise, though he has yet to pitch above High-A. He was the Tigers’ organizational Pitcher of the Year in 2017 after going 12-2 with a 2.25 ERA between Single-A and Lakeland. Last season, Soto struggled to find the strike zone with consistency. He walked 5.56 batters per nine innings en route to an 8-8 season with a 4.45 ERA before being suspended for the first 20 games of 2019.

The reason for the suspension was left unspecified at the time, though the listed infraction denotes “conduct that is materially detrimental or materially prejudicial to the best interests of Baseball,” in short, though as Woodbery pointed out, this particular case was not prompted by an arrest, domestic violence, drugs or gambling.

Upon his return, the hope would be for Soto to make significant strides towards reaching his presumptive ceiling and one day make the big league rotation, though it’s hard to overlook the fact that his profile mirrors those of many eventual relievers. For now, the Tigers are in a better position than some organizations might be to use a 40-man roster spot on a 24-year-old in High-A. Soto was listed as the Tigers’ 26th ranked prospect at the start of this season by both MLB.com and Fangraphs.

Blue Jays Select Eric Sogard, Option Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

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April 15: The Blue Jays announced the move. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Sogard, the team has transferred left-hander Ryan Borucki from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Borucki has already been on the IL all season but will now be definitively ruled out until May 27.

April 14: The Blue Jays are sending infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to Triple A, per Scott Mitchell of TSN Sports. Gurriel the younger was removed from today’s game for a “mental break” per manager Charlie Montoyo. The team hopes their young infielder can get back on track with a Triple-A reset, per Mitchell (Twitter links). MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm tweeted about the possibility of a Gurriel demotion earlier today.

While Gurriel Jr. heads to Buffalo, veteran infielder Eric Sogard is set to join the major league roster. The spectacled Sogard received the bulk of his big league playing time with the A’s from 2010-2015, where he slashed .239/.295/.313 over 1331 plate appearances while playing second, third and short. He spent the last two seasons with the Brewers, hitting .234/.351/.318 across 412 PAs.

Gurriel, meanwhile, has flashed moments of athletic playmaking, such as when he stole home off of Chris Sale last week, while also misfiring on a pair of routine throws from second base. An overall rough go of it at the dish (49 wRC+) also likely bolstered the case in favor of demotion. Given the long-term, if reasonable, financial investment the Blue Jays have made to Gurriel, he likely gets ample opportunity to figure it out, though there’s also little reason to rush him back to the majors. Toronto owes the 25-year-old infielder an average of roughly $3.14MM per season until he hits free agency after the 2023 seasons.

AL West Notes: Straw, James, Luzardo

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Ever-seeking new ways to expand their depth, the Astros recently approached outfield prospect Myles Straw about taking some groundballs at shortstop, per The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan. Straw was understandably surprised at first, even skeptical, but lo and behold, he has evenly split his time between center and short through ten games at Triple-A Round Rock. Straw, 24, ranks as the #16 prospect in Houston’s system per MLB.com, #17 per Fangraphs. Outfield depth in Triple-A and the Astros’ past success with utility players like Marwin Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel may be driving the Straw experiment, but it’s a win-win for team and player, as it behooves both sides to maximize Straw’s chances of making an impact at the big league level. Even though Straw is already arguably their best defensive outfield prospect, diversifying his defensive profile will certainly increase his odds of finding a permanent role on a major league roster, should the experiment prove fruitful. More from the AL West…

  • Josh James has stumbled out the gate this season, but he’s focused on repeating his delivery and finding a consistent rhythm from which to pump his 100+ mph fastball into the zone, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. The 26-year-old flame-throwing righty has surrendered seven earned runs in only eight innings of work through six appearances out of the Houston pen (7.88 ERA). Wildness has been an issue (6.8 BB/9) as has the long ball (3 HR allowed, 3.4 HR/9) – but gaudy strikeout numbers are also par for the course for James (12.4 K/9). The K-rate provides some statistical backing to James’ hopes that more consistent mechanics could fix his control issues and unlock some real potential – he clearly has the stuff to stick the landing in the pros. A strained right quad injury shortened his Spring Training, which time and again has proved complicating for pitchers trying to find their sea legs, so to speak, early in a new campaign.
  • On a similar note, A’s top prospect Jesus Luzardo will need to essentially go through an entire Spring Training period of his own if/when he starts throwing, per the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser. Luzardo was shut down on March 21st because of a sore left shoulder, and he has yet to resume throwing, though he could do so any day now. A’s manager Bob Melvin reports that Luzardo “feels absolutely fantastic” and “wants to throw,” but it’s unlikely he sees the major leagues before at least mid-season. Given his youth and potential, Oakland will no doubt track him carefully as he builds back shoulder strength for the stretch run.

NL East Injury Notes: Frazier, Foltynewicz

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Let’s grab an update on a couple of players who might returning to NL East action…

  • Todd Frazier has a good chance of making his season debut later this week, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). The Mets third baseman missed the first couple weeks of the 2019 season with a left oblique injury, but he’s on the return trail and could join the team in Philadelphia. J.D. Davis has had his share of moments while playing third in Frazier’s stead, batting .242/.375/.485, including a home run on April 6th – with an exit velocity of 114.6 mph – that was the fourth hardest-hit HR by a Mets player since Statcast started tracking the data in 2015. Both of his home runs this season came in that April 6th contest against the Nationals until he hit his third tonight against the Braves. Given the way Pete Alonso has played at first base, the Mets will face a roster crunch when Frazier does return. Dominic Smith, Luis Guillorme and Davis all have options remaining, making them notably vulnerable.
  • Braves righty Mike Foltynewicz will make his final scheduled rehab start this week before likely joining the Braves rotation for his 2019 debut, per The Athletic’s David O’Brien (via Twitter). Folty enjoyed a breakout 4.2 rWAR 2018, going 13-10 with a 2.85 ERA over a career high 31 starts. The stellar results were driven by year-over-year improvements in strikeouts per nine innings (from 8.4 K/9 to 9.9 K/9) and home runs allowed per nine (from 1.2 HR/9 to 0.8 HR/9). Both his fastball and sinker gained a full mph or more from 2017 to 2018, while he also relied more heavily on his slider, which excelled as a wipe out pitch (36.8 Whiff%, 42.4 K%). Sean Newcomb’s recent demotion opens up a spot in the rotation, as Monday’s day off will allow a four-man rotation until Folty is likely to return.

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