AL East Notes: Yankees, Johan, Red Sox
While the Yankees have had “at least” internal discussions regarding Kendrys Morales, his bat wouldn’t solve all of the problems with the team, writes Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The Bombers’ bullpen has faltered of late and doesn’t have room for error given the lackluster offense, he opines. Meanwhile, Mark Teixeira‘s wrist offers no certainty, even if he did homer last night. Davidoff notes that Teixeira looked “tentative” from both sides during batting practice and “fiddled” with his surgically repaired right wrist while others took their cuts.
More notes from the AL East…
- The Orioles could be looking at a six-man rotation when Johan Santana is ready to join the club, manager Buck Showalter told reporters, including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. As the Baltimore Sun’s Eduardo A. Encina notes, the plan for Santana, who was placed on the 15-day DL after his contract was purchased on Monday, is to make one more start in extended Spring Training before heading on a rehab assignment. After two starts, the former ace would be on track to join the team on June 20. Said Showalter: “I’ve been hinting at going to six starters anyway. It’s easy to solve. It’s not a problem. Any time there’s good pitchers available, I’m in, especially with his pedigree.”
- The Red Sox continue to search high and low for an outfielder, reports Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, who points out that the Sox are on pace to field their least-productive outfield group of the 162-game era. Cafardo runs down a list of some names that might potentially be available as the summer wears on, and he also reports that the Phillies have had three scouts following the Sox for their past five series.
AL East Notes: Cano, Yankees, Cruz, Francisco
Robinson Cano told reporters, including the New York Daily News’ Andy Martino, that he wasn’t bothered by the boos he received in returning to Yankee Stadium. Martino goes on to opine that the booing of Cano seems to be the only emotion the Yankee fanbase can muster due to the team’s lackluster performance. He asked Brett Gardner how the club could be more consistent at the plate and received a frustrated reply: “Well, if we knew that, we would have done it two days ago.” More on the Yankees’ decision to let Cano walk and the AL East…
- Martino’s colleague, John Harper, wonders if the Yankees would let Cano walk again if they had a mulligan on the offseason. As he notes, there’s virtually no certainty next season in the infield with Derek Jeter retiring, Brian Roberts on a one-year deal, Mark Teixeira‘s injuries, an unproven track record for Yangervis Solarte and Alex Rodriguez‘s suspension. While the back-end of any Cano deal would surely look poor, he asks if that would be an acceptable price to pay for chasing greatness in the short term.
- Rangers GM Jon Daniels appeared on The Afternoon Show with Cowlishaw and Moseley in Texas yesterday and discussed Nelson Cruz‘s hot start with the Orioles. Daniels said he’s not surprised to see Cruz thriving — though they wouldn’t have expected 20 homers through this point in the season. He adds that Texas made multiple attempts to sign Cruz, making a qualifying offer and offering a multi-year deal at the Winter Meetings. Daniels adds: “…by the time it came down to Spring Training, when he was signing, there was some other factors at play. We made the decision that we did to give our own guys an opportunity and keep the draft pick.”
- Shi Davidi of Sportsnet breaks down Juan Francisco‘s strong play for the Blue Jays and wonders if the Jays could possibly have struck gold on a third low-cost slugger acquisition. Davidi points out that Toronto stumbled into franchise cornerstones Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, and Francisco is cut largely from the same cloth. Davidi looks at improvements to Francisco’s pitch selection — though his strikeout rate remains high — and changes to his approach made by the team’s coaching staff. Francisco, a close friend of Encarnacion, says he feels at home with the Jays. Davidi also reports that Toronto tried to acquire Francisco last season as well before Atlanta traded him to Milwaukee, suggesting he’s been on their radar for quite some time.
Orioles Purchase Johan Santana’s Contract
The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contract of Johan Santana and placed him on the 15-day disabled list as he continues his recovery from left shoulder surgery. Santana had an opt-out clause in his contract that would’ve allowed him to elect free agency at midnight tonight. Instead, he will be added to the team’s 40-man roster, though not the 25-man roster for the time being. MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko tweets that technically, Santana did exercise his opt-out, which is what prompted the team to instead purchase his contract and place him on the Major League disabled list.
Santana’s recovery has progressed nicely, as he’s pitched in extended Spring Training and is said to be eyeing a return to the Majors as early as June 18. The Orioles signed him to a minor league contract this offseason that came with a hefty $3MM base salary plus $5.05MM worth of incentives.
Santana, a two-time American League Cy Young Award winner, can now be sent on a minor league rehab assignment as he continues to build strength in his surgically repaired shoulder. The 35-year-old Legacy Agency client has a career 3.20 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 2. BB/9 in 2025 2/3 innings for the Twins and Mets. Reports in early May indicated that his velocity had reached 89 mph, meaning he’s not far off from the 2009-10 speed at which he posted a combined 3.05 ERA in 365 2/3 innings.
East Notes: Red Sox, Marlins, De La Rosa, Ayala
The injury bug has struck the Red Sox again. Mike Carp, who replaced the injured Mike Napoli at first base, under went a CT scan today and it revealed a broken foot, tweets Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. The injury will set off a series of roster moves with Stephen Drew ready to join the club in Cleveland tomorrow. MacPherson tweets the Red Sox will place Carp on the disabled list and and recall Daniel Nava. Garin Cecchini, who made his MLB debut today when Dustin Pedroia was ejected and went 1-for-2 with a RBI double, told reporters (including Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com) he will have dinner with his parents and then report to Triple-A Pawtucket. Prior to the announcement of Carp’s injury, the Boston Herald’s Scott Lauber outlined how the Red Sox could juggle playing time with the addition of Drew.
Elsewhere in baseball’s East divisions:
- The Marlins acquired right-handed reliever Bryan Morris from the Pirates earlier in the day and the team is already being criticized for the move. Fangraph’s Dave Cameron opines Morris is a below replacement level pitcher and giving up the 39th pick in the draft for him (an asset worth several million dollars) is “beyond crazy” (Twitter links).
- Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio agrees with Cameron tweeting Morris is not worth past number 39 picks like Lance Lynn (Cardinals), Anthony Ranaudo (Red Sox), and Joey Gallo (Rangers).
- Marlins President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill defended the trade to reporters, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Juan C. Rodriguez. “We had a need,” Hill said. “It was in our bullpen. We were looking for the piece that was the right fit for us in terms of controlling, not just short-term, but long-term, and [Morris] had the stuff to help our club as well.“
- Hill also said the trade “is the first piece” as he attempts to strengthen the second-place Marlins. “I don’t think we’re finished in trying to improve our club. We’re still trying to make as many improvements as we think we can to help this team.“
- Alex Speier of WEEI.com chronicles the development of Red Sox right-hander Rubby De La Rosa from a prospect who had trouble harnessing his potential to the pitcher who tossed seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts Saturday night.
- Right-hander Luis Ayala, who opted out of his minor league deal with the Orioles yesterday, will pitch in Mexico, tweets MASNsports.com’s Rock Kubatko.
Evan Meek Accepts Outright Assignment
SUNDAY, 9:44am: Meek has accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk rather than elect free agency, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.
WEDNESDAY, 3:27pm: The Orioles have outrighted reliever Evan Meek off of the club’s 40-man roster, the team announced. It is not yet clear whether Meek will accept the assignment, which he has the right to decline since he has previously been outrighted.
Meek was previously designated for assignment off the club’s active roster, then optioned to Triple-A once he had cleared optional assignment waivers. By now passing him through outright waivers, Baltimore has cleared a 40-man roster spot.
The 31-year-old has tossed 11 2/3 MLB innings thus far in 2014, surrendering nine earned runs on nine strikeouts and six walks. Meek has scuffled at Triple-A as well, working to a 5.59 ERA in 9 2/3 innings after posting a 4.50 mark in 108 innings in the upper minors last year (including 15 starts). He has thrown 184 1/3 MLB innings of 3.56 ERA ball over his career.
Quick Hits: Holt, Astros, Bell, Simmons
Infielder Brock Holt was surprised when the Pirates traded him to Boston before last season, but he’s doing his best to provide the Red Sox with value in the deal, writes WEEI.com’s Katie Morrison. “I was expecting to go to big league camp with them [the Pirates] with the chance to make the team,” says Holt. “Then a couple days after Christmas, Neal Huntington called me, and said, ‘Hey, we traded you to the Red Sox,’ so then I didn’t have a clue what to expect.” Morrison points out that the other player the Red Sox received was Joel Hanrahan, who got hurt almost immediately and then left via free agency, so Holt represents the Red Sox’ only chance of recouping value from the trade (a deal that netted the Pirates a very good reliever in Mark Melancon, along with another interesting arm in Stolmy Pimentel). Holt has hit well this year while filling in at third base, with a .299/.349/.390 line in 87 plate appearances this season. Here’s more from around the big leagues.
- The Astros‘ strong month of May suggests they might not be a punch line anymore, Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes for FOX Sports. The big differences between this year’s Astros team and the 100-loss teams of years past are, of course, rookie outfielder George Springer and breakouts from starters Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh. Keuchel and McHugh didn’t look like important parts of the Astros’ future before this season, and now it looks like they might be, so the next competitive Astros team might be coming more quickly than we think.
- Heath Bell will opt out of his minor-league deal with the Orioles next Saturday if he isn’t promoted, David Hall of the Virginian-Pilot tweets. Since being released by the Rays, Bell has pitched 6 2/3 innings for Triple-A Norfolk, allowing five runs while striking out five and walking six.
- Reliever Shae Simmons, whose contract the Braves purchased on Saturday, was so good in Double-A that the Braves didn’t feel he needed to go to Triple-A, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. Simmons struck out 30 batters in 23 Double-A innings this season, throwing a fastball that reaches into the high ’90s to go along with a good slider. O’Brien notes that Simmons has been compared to Craig Kimbrel and Billy Wagner — like those pitchers, Simmons has great stuff and is a bit small, at 5-foot-11.
Minor Moves: Ramirez, Ayala, Adams, Simmons
Here are today’s minor moves from around baseball.
- The Orioles have agreed to terms with pitcher Ramon Ramirez, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski tweets. Ramirez will report to Sarasota before heading to Triple-A Norfolk. Ramirez had previously made four appearances this year for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma. He played sparingly for the Giants last season and spent most of the year at Triple-A Fresno, where he had a 3.46 ERA with 10.7 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9. In addition to that of the Giants, the righty has also pitched out of the Rockies, Royals, Red Sox and Mets bullpens.
- Reliever Luis Ayala is opting out of his minor-league deal with the Orioles, MLB Daily Dish’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Ayala pitched 5 1/3 innings for Double-A Bowie, striking out five and walking two while allowing three runs. He pitched for the Braves and Orioles in 2013, posting a 2.90 ERA with 5.8 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 31 innings.
- Outfielder Brian Adams, the Padres‘ eighth-round pick in the 2012 draft, has retired, MLB.com’s Corey Brock tweets. In 410 career plate appearances at the Class A level, Adams hit .219/.262/.356. Brock notes that Adams will go back to the University of Kentucky to finish his degree.
- The Braves have announced that they’ve purchased the contract of pitcher Shae Simmons from Double-A Mississippi and optioned pitcher Ian Thomas to Triple-A Gwinnett. Simmons, 23, shined at Double-A, posting an ERA of 0.78 to go with 11.7 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.
- The Marlins have signed 18-year-old Colombian pitcher Cristian Olmos, Joe Frisaro and Maria Torres of MLB.com write. Olmos is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, and he throws as hard as 94 MPH and has the makings of a good curveball. He will start the season in the Dominican Summer League.
Draft Notes: Astros, Nola, White Sox, Orioles
As we approach the draft next week, MLB.com’s draft database now features profiles of 200 prospects. Here are a few notes on the draft.
- The Astros take high school pitcher Brady Aiken with the top pick in Jonathan Mayo’s latest mock draft for MLB.com. High school C/OF Alex Jackson heads to the Marlins at No. 2 and NC State lefty Carlos Rodon goes to the White Sox at No. 3 in what’s becoming a fairly standard (but by no means unanimous) projection for the top of the draft.
- The White Sox take high school pitcher Tyler Kolek in John Manuel’s new mock for Baseball America, leaving Rodon to fall to the Cubs at No. 4.
- LSU righty Aaron Nola heads to the Cubs in Kiley McDaniel’s mock for Scout.com, with Jackson dropping all the way to the Mariners at No. 6. McDaniel also writes that the Astros aren’t yet sure who they’ll take at No. 1, although he, like most other experts, projects they’ll take Aiken.
- The White Sox will take the best player available at No. 3 no matter who his agent is or whether he’s a high school or college player, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin writes (all Twitter links). That player will likely be a pitcher, Merkin reports.
- One team that won’t have any tough decisions in the first round is the Orioles, as MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski notes. The Orioles gave up their first three picks in the draft so that they could acquire Ubaldo Jimenez, Bud Norris and Nelson Cruz, and now their first overall pick doesn’t come until the third round. That means the Orioles have a bonus pool of just $2.2MM, so their flexibility will be limited.
- The Nationals, who pick at No. 18,have been connected to UNLV pitcher Erick Fedde, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post tweets. Fedde was once projected as a top-ten pick, but he recently had Tommy John surgery.
Quick Hits: Wrigley, Blue Jays, Arenado, Iglesias, Opt-Outs
In case you missed it, the Cubs‘ efforts to renovate Wrigley Field have run into some snags that have stirred up controversy in Chicago. That project has frequently been cited by the team as a key factor in future payroll expansion. Club executive Crane Kenney discussed the latest in an interview with David Kaplan on The Game 87.7 FM (audio link). Kaplan also released a copy of the agreement with the neighboring rooftop owners that is at the center of the dispute (on CSNChicago.com). Today, first baseman Anthony Rizzo expressed frustration over the delays, saying that players had been told to expect significant clubhouse renovations, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Here’s the latest from around the league to finish up the night …
- With the Blue Jays seemingly more interested in adding a short-term rental arm than a player who comes with more control (and a higher price), Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com says that James Shields of the Royals could be a possible target for Toronto. Heyman says that the Jays hope to avoid “gutting” the team’s prospect pool in adding a pitcher, and like that Shields has proven himself in the AL East. Of course, unless Kansas City is well out of the race by the time the trade deadline comes around, Shields may not even be available. And even if he is shopped, he would draw lots of interest from other contenders and should command a substantial prospect haul himself. Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos said earlier today that he is confident the club can take on salary to add an impact pitcher; in discussing that news, MLBTR’s Steve Adams listed several possible free agents-to-be that could become available and attractive to the Jays.
- Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado will not require surgery on his broken left middle finger, reports Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. That is good news for a suddenly-reeling Colorado club, though Arenado still figures to miss at least six more weeks. It will be interesting to see whether an anticipated mid-to-late July return for Arenado could help encourage the Rockies to buy at the trade deadline, if they can stay afloat in the meantime.
- The Reds were among the many clubs on hand to watch Cuban righty Raciel Iglesias throw today in Haiti, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Cinci pen has struggled to the league’s third-worst ERA through the first third of the season. Iglesias is said to have the potential to be a legitimate big league relief contributor right away.
- One aspect of the Mariners‘ decision to purchase the contract of outfielder Endy Chavez today was his June 1 opt-out date, tweets Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. The 36-year-old was carrying a .272/.346/.289 triple-slash in 134 plate appearances at Triple-A.
- Other opt-out situations around the league are coming to a decision point. In addition to attempting to address the clause of rehabbing starter Johan Santana, the Orioles are waiting to find out whether reliever Luis Ayala will opt out of his deal tomorrow, with the expectation that he will, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (Twitter links). The veteran righty has allowed three earned runs (with five strikeouts against two walks) in 5 1/3 innings at Double-A thus far in 2014.
- Meanwhile, Brewers lefty Brad Mills has been excellent at Triple-A and is nearing a June 15 opt-out date, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com. The 29-year-old has a 1.74 ERA in 57 innings (including nine starts), with 9.0 K/9 against just 1.9 BB/9.
NL Notes: Hanley, Samardzija, Young, Severino
It’s time to move Hanley Ramirez from shortstop to third base, writes Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Saxon notes that advanced defensive metrics paint Ramirez as the worst shortstop in the Majors, and with Juan Uribe out for weeks (if not months) and a heavy emphasis on pitching, going with the best defensive alignment makes sense. Uribe could be used in a super-utility role upon his return, with Erisbel Arruebarrena and Dee Gordon forming a solid middle-infield tandem, he argues.
Here are some more notes from the Senior Circuit…
- The landscape in the upcoming Jeff Samardzija sweepstakes is beginning to take shape, writes Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Sun-Times. Gonzalez runs down all of the factors that could determine where Samardzija is dealt (assuming, of course, that he is indeed traded) and examines how the tight race in the AL East benefits the Cubs. An Orioles source told Gonzales last week that they feel they’re in a window to contend through 2015. He also speculates that the Red Sox might be a sleeper for Samardzija given their strong pitching and catching depth in the minors.
- Earlier in the week, Mets GM Sandy Alderson appeared on 98.7 ESPN radio to tackle some criticism he’s received for signing Chris Young for just $750K less than Nelson Cruz received from the Orioles. Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog has highlights from the talk, in which Alderson calls such talk an “unfair comparison,” given the fact that Cruz was seeking $65MM at the time and only was an option in left field. Alderson said the team was searching for an outfielder that could handle center field and provide some pop with a .240-.250 average.
- The Washington Post’s James Wagner looks at the unlikely story of Nationals prospect Pedro Severino, who almost quit baseball after being asked to become a full-time catcher and is now among the organization’s best prospects at the position. Severino caught his first game at age 15 (he had preferred third base at the time) because the team’s regular catcher failed to show up. He impressed his coaches by gunning down a base stealer, and they asked him to stay there. Four months after nearly quitting, the Nats signed him as a 16-year-old catcher for $55K. Now, Severino says, he wouldn’t dream of playing another position. Though his offensive numbers are low, the Nats coaches and front office aren’t worried, as they’ve placed him in leagues where he’s three years younger than the average player in order to challenge Severino.