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Minor MLB Transactions: 5/7/21

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Let’s round up some minor moves from around the game…

  • The Mariners signed a trio of players to minor league deals: Justin Grimm, Brooks Pounders, and Caleb Joseph. Grimm surrendered nine earned runs in just four innings with the Brewers last season after spending 2019 in Triple-A. The 32-year-old owns a 5.14 career ERA in 360 2/3 innings since his debut with the Rangers in 2012. This will be his second go-round in Seattle: he made five appearances for the Mariners in 2019. Pounders did not make a big league appearance in 2020 after appearing for the Mets, Rockies, Angels, and Royals in the four seasons prior. Joseph is a depth catcher who spent the past two seasons with the Blue Jays and Diamondbacks after carving out significant playing time with the Orioles from 2014 to 2018.
  • The Brewers signed outfielder Mitch Longo to a minor league contract and assigned him to Double-A Biloxi. Noah Zavolas, meanwhile, was assigned to Triple-A Nashville, per the team. Zavalos posted a 2.98 ERA over 22 starts for the Brewers High-A affiliate in 2019. Longo, 26, was a 14th-round draft choice by Cleveland in 2016. He hit .248/.320/.370 across 365 plate appearances in Double-A back in 2019.
  • The Astros signed Brandon Lawson to a minor league deal and assigned him to Double-A, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). The 26-year-old right-hander was solid in 2019 with a 3.70 ERA in 129 innings for the Giants’ Double-A affiliate. He was drafted by the Rays in the 12th round of the 2016 draft when current Astros GM James Click was working in their front office.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/5/21

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The latest minor moves from around the game:

  • The Astros signed right-hander Ryan Eades to a minor-league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Sugar Land, per an announcement from the Skeeters. Selected by the Twins in the second round of the 2013 draft out of LSU, Eades got to the majors in 2019. Across eight games with Minnesota and Baltimore, he worked 11 1/3 relief innings of three-run ball with ten strikeouts and six walks. He hasn’t pitched since being outrighted off the Orioles’ roster at the end of that season. For his career, Eades has a 3.93 ERA with strong strikeout and walk rates (28.9% and 7.1%, respectively) in 75 2/3 Triple-A frames.
  • The Cubs reinstated righty Tyson Miller from the COVID injured list before this evening’s game against the Dodgers (via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com). Miller was optioned to Triple-A Iowa, so no change to the active roster was needed. To create 40-man roster space, Chicago transferred catcher Austin Romine to the 60-day IL. Romine suffered a significant left wrist sprain and was known to be in for an extended absence. Tony Wolters was selected to the roster to back up Willson Contreras when Romine first went down. Prospect Miguel Amaya, assigned to Double-A Tennessee, is the only other catcher on the 40-man.

Injury Notes: Mondesi, Gonsolin, Strasburg, Solis

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The Royals have stormed out of the gate with a 16-9 start to take an early lead in the AL Central. That’s in spite of the absence of shortstop Adalberto Mondesi, who was placed on the injured list just before the regular season kicked off due to a right oblique strain. There’s still no timetable for the 25-year-old’s return to game action, but he made a notable step in his rehab process this week. Mondesi recently participated in a batting practice session, per manager Mike Matheny (via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). Royals’ shortstops (primarily Nicky Lopez) have hit .254/.325/.338 in Mondesi’s absence, which is tied for twelfth in park-adjusted offense (90 wRC+) at the position.

Some more injury situations around the league:

  • Dodgers righty Tony Gonsolin has also yet to make his regular season debut- in his case, on account of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Gonsolin has progressed to working off a mound, though, throwing a 20-pitch bullpen session earlier this week (via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). The 26-year-old has emerged as another potential quality rotation option for Los Angeles, working to a 2.60 ERA/4.11 SIERA across his first 20 MLB appearances (14 starts) between 2019-20. Even before the injury, though, Gonsolin was slated to start this season in the bullpen on account of the Dodgers’ incredible rotation depth.
  • Stephen Strasburg threw approximately 30 pitches in a bullpen session this morning, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com was among those to note. It’s the right-hander’s first mound work since he was placed on the injured list two weeks ago with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. Washington still hasn’t offered a ton of clarity as to when Strasburg is expected to return to game action. The former World Series MVP has been limited to two unproductive starts so far this year.
  • Astros right-handed pitching prospect Jairo Solis will be out approximately three months after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow, per Jake Kaplan of the Athletic (Twitter link). It’s a disappointing development for a young hurler who missed the entire 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Entering the year, FanGraphs’ Kevin Goldstein called Solis a potential future top 100 prospect, but this latest development will wipe out at least a good chunk of his 2021 minor-league season. Solis, ranked 16th among Astro farmhands by Baseball America, was added to the 40-man roster last offseason.

Yordan Alvarez To Return Friday

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APRIL 30: Alvarez is back in the Astros’ lineup Friday, McTaggart tweets. The team optioned Jones to its taxi squad.

APRIL 29: The Astros expect Alvarez to rejoin their lineup Friday against the Rays, Baker told McTaggart and other reporters.

APRIL 28: The Astros have placed slugger Yordan Alvarez on the injured list and recalled infielder/outfielder Taylor Jones, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle was among those to report.

The Astros didn’t provide a reason for Alvarez’s IL placement, though it seems to be related to COVID-19. Manager Dusty Baker said earlier Wednesday that Alvarez would miss the team’s game against the Mariners because of “health and safety reasons,” Brian McTaggart of MLB.com relayed.

Alvarez was one of five Astros placed on the COVID-related IL on April 14, but he returned within a week. When he has been healthy enough to play this season, the designated hitter and former American League Rookie of the Year has continued to hold his own with a .309/.355/.529 line and two home runs in 76 plate appearances.

Injury Notes: Jays, Fried, Astros, Freeland

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A few health updates from around the game…

  • Center fielder George Springer’s Blue Jays debut is on hold yet again. As of Sunday, manager Charlie Montoyo was optimistic Springer would debut tonight, but that wasn’t the case. Springer is “not ready yet,” Montoyo said (Twitter links via Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet), though he did take batting practice and run the bases on Tuesday. Montoyo added that “[Springer] feels great except the running.” The former Astro has been trying to work back since suffering a right quad strain three weeks ago. In better news for the Blue Jays, ace Hyun Jin Ryu is recovering well from the right glute strain he incurred Sunday and shouldn’t miss a start, Nicholson-Smith relays.
  • The Braves are “likely” to activate left-hander Max Fried from the 10-day injured list next Tuesday or Wednesday, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. If true, it’ll go down as roughly a three-week stay on the IL for Fried, who suffered a right hamstring strain during his most recent start on April 13. Once he returns, the 2020 NL Cy Young contender will try to rebound from a ghastly three-start, 11-inning stretch in which hitters victimized him for 15 runs (14 earned) on 23 hits and five walks.
  • Tuesday brought some positive and negative health-related developments for the Astros’ pitching staff. The good news: Southpaw Framber Valdez is making tremendous progress from a left ring finger injury and could rejoin their rotation sometime in June, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic relays. Valdez turned in a stellar performance in 2020, but he hasn’t gotten a chance to follow up on it this year. As for the bad news, righty reliever Pedro Baez has halted his throwing program on account of lingering shoulder soreness. The Astros transferred Baez from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL on Monday, meaning he won’t make his first appearance with the club until June 9 at the earliest. Houston signed the former Dodger to a two-year, $12.5MM guarantee over the winter.
  • Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland said Tuesday that he will “absolutely” pitch in the majors this season, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter links). Freeland, a little over a month removed from suffering a strained pitching shoulder, had an “outstanding” bullpen session on Tuesday and could throw a sim game next week, according to manager Bud Black. However, there’s still no clear timetable for a potential 2021 debut for Freeland, who finished third on the Rockies in innings (70 2/3) and recorded a 4.33 ERA/4.95 SIERA with a 51.5 percent groundball rate last season.

Hector Rondon Retires

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Longtime major league reliever Hector Rondon retired earlier this month, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com relays. Rondon had been with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, though he didn’t earn a promotion to MLB this season.

The right-handed Rondon appeared in the majors in each season from 2013-20 – an eight-year run he divided among the Cubs, Astros and Diamondbacks. Rondon experienced his greatest success in Chicago, which added him as a Rule 5 pick from Cleveland in December 2012. Rondon went on to pitch his first five seasons as a member of the Cubs, with whom he recorded a 3.22 ERA, posted a 24.9 percent strikeout rate against a 6.8 percent walk rate, logged a grounder percentage of 48.0, and piled up 77 saves. He amassed 50-plus innings in each of his seasons with the Cubs, including 51 in their World Series-winning 2016 campaign.

Rondon’s fruitful Cubs tenure came to an end when the Astros signed him to a two-year, $8.5MM guarantee going into 2018. He delivered typically strong results during the first year of the deal before fading somewhat in the second season. The Astros didn’t bring back Rondon, who inked a $3MM deal with the Diamondbacks last year. After Rondon slumped to a career-worst 7.65 ERA across 20 innings in 2020, the Diamondbacks declined his $4MM option in favor of a $500K buyout. He spent time with the Phillies on a minors deal before his brief stint with the Boston organization.

While Rondon’s career didn’t end well, the 33-year-old was a reliable and durable arm overall. He’ll hang up his cleats having pitched to a 3.49 ERA with 92 saves and 63 holds in 436 innings. MLBTR congratulates Rendon on a quality career and wishes him the best going forward.

Astros To Activate Jose Altuve, Place Jake Odorizzi On 10-Day IL

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5:43pm: Houston has also optioned infielder Abraham Toro and moved righty reliever Pedro Baez from the 10-day IL to the 60-day version, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic tweets. Baez inked a two-year, $12.5MM contract in free agency, but he hasn’t made his Astros debut yet. He began the season on the COVID-19 list, and then the Astros moved him to the 10-day IL on April 10 because of shoulder soreness.

3:13pm: The Astros will activate second baseman Jose Altuve from the COVID-19 list and place right-hander Jake Odorizzi on the 10-day injured list, Mark Berman of Fox 26 was among those to report. The team has also recalled righty Peter Solomon.

Altuve hasn’t played since April 13 on account of a positive COVID test. Before that, the former AL MVP got off to a strong .318/.380/.455 start over 50 plate appearances. The Altuve-less Astros primarily turned to Aledmys Diaz at the keystone during Altuve’s absence, and he performed well as a fill-in, evidenced by his .245/.327/.388 line through 55 trips to the plate.

Odorizzi is dealing with a right pronator muscle strain that forced him to exit his start against the Angels on Saturday after he threw just five pitches. Signed to a two-year, $23MM contract before the season, Odorizzi has been the weakest link in the Astros’ rotation thus far, having yielded nine earned runs on nine hits (including three homers) with 11 strikeouts against three walks in eight innings. The Astros expect Odorizzi to miss two starts.

Pitching Notes: Corbin, Odorizzi, Tepera, Ohtani

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Patrick Corbin was the subject of some trade discussions this winter, as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (subscription required) reports that the Nationals had talks with other teams about the veteran left-hander.  It isn’t clear whether the Nats initiated these talks or if other teams were exploring Corbin’s availability, or if any of these discussions were anything beyond standard offseason “checking-in” types of conversations.  It could be that teams were trying to buy low on Corbin in the wake of a down year that saw him post a 4.66 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, and a career-low 90.2 mph average fastball velocity over 65 2/3 innings.  Between 2020’s shortened season and Corbin’s stint on the COVID-related injury list this April, it makes it hard to gauge whether or not Corbin’s struggles last year and in the early days of the 2021 season are truly due to a decline.

Trading Corbin would have been quite the pivot for a Washington team that planned on contending in 2021.  It’s possible the Nats could have looked to add Major League-ready pieces rather than prospects in any Corbin deal, or perhaps moved the southpaw for a comparably high-priced proven veteran.  Corbin is owed $106MM from 2021-24 in the four remaining seasons of his original six-year, $140MM free agent deal from the 2018-19 offseason.  The topic of a Corbin trade could be worth revisiting of the Nationals don’t get into the playoff race and become sellers at the trade deadline, though Corbin’s contract would seemingly make him one of the less-likely Nats players to be dealt, considering how D.C. has so many rental players available.

More pitching-related items…

  • Jake Odorizzi is being examined today after having to leave yesterday’s game after just five pitches.  More will be known when tests are complete, but Astros GM James Click gave an optimistic view on the injury during an interview on the team’s pregame radio show today (hat tip to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle).  “The initial read yesterday was more of a muscle cramp in the pronator muscle, which is not the flexor mass,” Click said.
  • The Cubs announced that Ryan Tepera’s three-game suspension was reduced to two games on appeal, and the right-hander will begin serving his suspension today.  Tepera’s suspension was issued earlier this month after an incident that saw Tepera throw behind the Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff.
  • We’ll conclude this edition of Pitching Notes with an item on…an outfielder, sort of.  Shohei Ohtani played an inning of left field, moving from DH to the grass at the end of the Angels’ 16-2 loss to the Astros yesterday.  As Angels manager Joe Maddon told MLB.com’s Daniel Guerrero and other reporters, the move was made “out of necessity” due to a short-handed bench and outfielder Anthony Bemboom getting called to the mound for an inning of mop-up duty.  There has often been speculation that Ohtani could be deployed in the outfield as a way of keeping him in the lineup and opening up Anaheim’s DH spot, but Maddon stressed that using Ohtani as a position player is “not part of the plans” going forward.  Maddon did note, however, that Ohtani “is such a great athlete…I’m telling you he could do it.”

Jake Odorizzi Removed From Start With Forearm Tightness

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7:00 pm: Odorizzi left today’s game with right forearm tightness, writes Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Forearm tightness can sometimes be a precursor to serious elbow injuries, but manager Dusty Baker told reporters (McTaggart link) that Odorizzi didn’t have any issues in his pregame bullpen session and is “not real worried.” Nevertheless, he’ll go for further evaluation in the coming days, Baker says (via Mark Berman of FOX 26).

3:45 pm: Astros right-hander Jake Odorizzi faced just one batter before being removed from today’s start against the Angels.  Odorizzi retired David Fletcher on five pitches but then seemed to be “flexing out his arm after the pitch,” according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), and left the game after a visit from the team trainer.  None of Odorizzi’s five pitches to Fletcher topped the 87.6 mph mark, according to MLB.com’s Gameday tracker.

Odorizzi was making his third start since signing a two-year (plus a player option for 2023) free agent deal that will pay the veteran righty at least $23.5MM in guaranteed money.  Since Odorizzi didn’t sign until early March, he required some extra time to prepare for the season, and he was clearly rusty in his first two outings — Odorizzi allowed nine earned runs over 7 2/3 innings for a 10.57 ERA.

Odorizzi has dealt with a variety of fairly minor injuries over his career, including a rib strain, a blister, and a chest contusion all during the 2020 season that limited him to only 13 2/3 innings with the Twins, and undoubtedly contributed to his long stay in free agency.  For the most part, however, Odorizzi has been a durable starter over his 10 MLB seasons, averaging 165 innings per season from 2014-19 while pitching for the Rays and Twins.  Blisters aside, he has avoided any notable arm injuries, though that streak could be in jeopardy given the circumstances of today’s removal from the game.

Any sort of long-term injury would be a real blow to both Odorizzi and the Astros rotation, since the team was counting on Odorizzi to join Zack Greinke and Lance McCullers Jr. as the veteran bedrocks ahead of Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy.  The good news for Houston is that Javier has pitched well in the follow-up to his strong 2020 rookie season, and righty Luis Garcia has a 2.70 ERA over two starts and a long relief outing so far this year.  Garcia is probably the Astros’ best candidate to replace Odorizzi in the event of injury, as the team is short on big league experience at the alternate training site, and it still isn’t known when (or if) Framber Valdez might be ready to pitch this season after suffering a fractured finger.

COVID Notes: 4/24/21

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The latest coronavirus-related situations from around baseball…

Latest Updates

  • The Dodgers are placing reliever Dennis Santana on the COVID injured list after he experienced side effects related to the vaccine, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com). The right-hander pitched in mop-up duty against the Padres last night, allowing a pair of runs on two hits and two walks in one inning of work.

Earlier Notes

  • Jose Altuve was placed on the Astros’ injury list on April 14, and the second baseman confirmed to reporters (including the Houston Chronicle’s Danielle Lerner) today that his placement was due to a positive COVID-19 test.  Altuve isn’t in today’s Astros lineup but he did say he’s feeling better, so a return to the field shouldn’t be too far away.
  • The Marlins have closed down their minor league complex through the weekend due to multiple COVID-19 positives, Fox Sports Radio 640’s Andy Slater reports (Twitter link).  A team spokesman told Slater that the shutdown “will not have an impact on the start of the seasons” for Miami’s affiliates, all scheduled to begin play on May 4.  At least five players and staffers tested positive for the coronavirus, according to SportsGrid’s Craig Mish (via Twitter).
  • The Twins reinstated southpaw Caleb Thielbar from the COVID-IL, the team announced, with right-hander Luke Farrell optioned to the alternate site in a corresponding move.  Thielbar was placed on the IL on April 20 along with Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick, though while the two outfielders actually tested positive for the virus, Thielbar was noted only as a close contact.  Thielbar has a whopping 48.4% strikeout rate over seven innings this season but only a 5.14 ERA, thanks in large part to three home runs allowed.
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