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Rhys Hoskins Likely Headed To DL Due To Broken Jaw

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A CT scan taken of Rhys Hoskins’ jaw revealed a fracture that will likely send the slugger to the disabled list, writes Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Hoskins, who fouled a ball into his jaw Monday, is headed back to Philadelphia for further examination by an oral surgeon to determine whether he’ll require surgery or simply just rest and rehab. Salisbury’s colleague, Corey Seidman, writes that the Phillies look poised to recall prospect Dylan Cozens from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to replace Hoskins on the active roster.

Hoskins, 25, took the NL by storm in an explosive rookie season last year, hitting .259/.396/.618 with 18 homers and seven doubles in just 212 trips to the plate. His 2018 work has been solid but diminished, as he’s currently sporting a .233/.363/.415 slash with six homers in 216 PAs with a considerably higher strikeout rate (21.7 percent in 2017, 28.2 percent in 2018).

With Hoskins out of action for the time being, the Phils will likely turn to Nick Williams, Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr as their primary outfield contingent, though Cozens will surely be dropped into the mix as well. It’s not clear how long Hoskins would be out in either the surgical or non-surgical route of treatment just yet, but manager Gabe Kapler did call a trip to the disabled list likely.

For the 23-year-old Cozens, this’ll represent the first call to the Majors. The 2012 second-round pick has long been considered to be among the Phillies’ top farmhands, but his star has dimmed a bit in recent seasons. Cozens had no trouble with Class-A Advanced pitching (.282/.335/.411) and utterly obliterated Double-A pitchers at the age of 22 (.282/.352/.594), but he faceplanted with a .210/.301/.418 slash in 542 Triple-A PAs last season.

More troubling was Cozens’ 35.8 percent strikeout rate in Lehigh Valley last year, and while his overall batting line has improved to .228/.323/.432, his strikeout rate is up to 38.3 percent. Cozens has walked in 11 percent of his plate appearances in Triple-A, helping to salvage a decent OBP, but his contact issues do present concern about how he’ll handle MLB pitching. As Seidman notes, though, the left-handed-hitting Cozens has been markedly better against right-handed pitching and does have a 40-homer season on his resume in the minors, so he’ll likely be utilized in a platoon capacity in his first stint with the Phils.

Phillies Select Mitch Walding, Transfer Jerad Eickhoff To 60-Day DL

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The Phillies announced that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Mitch Walding from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and created a spot on the 40-man roster by shifting righty Jerad Eickhoff from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. Walding will step into the spot that had been previously occupied by Pedro Florimon, who has been placed on the 10-day disabled list. Florimon sustained a broken bone last night when he fouled a ball into his foot.

Walding, 25, has played third base almost exclusively in the minors, so he won’t be able to replicate Florimon’s ability to handle shortstop. But he’ll bring a productive Triple-A bat to the table, having slashed .271/.379/.484 through 182 plate appearances so far in his first crack at the Triple-A level. Though Walding’s 29.7 percent strikeout rate and .372 BABIP in Lehigh Valley suggest that his overall line is likely to regress, he’s also walked at a 14.3 percent clip and largely continued the uptick in power he displayed at the Double-A level in 2017, when he smacked a career-high 25 homers.

As for Eickhoff, the move is largely a procedural one. The right-hander was placed on the 10-day disabled list at the beginning of the season due to a strained lat muscle, and the team recently halted his rehab program after he experienced some numbness in his fingertips. Eickhoff wouldn’t have returned by the 60-day mark of the season anyhow, and the move to the 60-day DL doesn’t reset his DL “clock,” so to speak, meaning he’ll still be eligible to be activated whenever the Phillies deem him healthy enough to embark on and complete a new minor league rehab assignment. That said, it’s not clear at all just when Eickhoff might be medically cleared to do so.

Phillies Place Pedro Florimon On DL With Broken Foot

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The Phillies will place infielder Pedro Florimon on the 10-day DL with a broken foot, as Matt Gelb of The Athletic was among those to tweet. It is not yet known who’ll take his place on the roster.

Details of the injury are not available at this time, so his anticipated timeline remains a mystery. Florimon, a talented defender, has spent most of his time this season at shortstop. The Phils do still have two players on the active roster — Scott Kingery and Jesmuel Valentin — capable of playing that position defensively.

The 31-year-old Florimon won a reserve job in camp and has ended up being quite a useful asset thus far. He’s slashing a healthy .268/.328/.500 through 61 plate appearances, which is quite a bit more output than he customarily produces.

An eight-year MLB veteran, Florimon has only twice taken more than one hundred plate appearances in a given season — the 2012 and 2013 seasons, which he spent with the Twins. Despite strong offensive numbers over the past two seasons in Philly, in limited opportunities, Florimon carries a meager .213/.273/.322 career batting line in 852 career trips to the dish.

Poll: Which Surprise Team Has Best Shot At Playoff Berth?

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As the 2018 MLB season nears the one-third mark, the playoff races in each league are beginning to take shape. While it’s no surprise that the majority of the sport’s so-called super teams have lived up to the billing thus far, several unexpected contenders may be emerging to challenge for postseason berths. None of the Mariners, Athletics, Braves, Phillies or Pirates were popular playoff picks entering the campaign, but all are in contention at this point, and a few of those teams even possess elite records.

The most successful of those clubs has been Seattle, which is one of just five teams with a winning percentage above .600. The Mariners have raced to a 32-20 mark (.615), the fourth-best record in the American League, even though they’ve had to go without superstar second baseman Robinson Cano for two weeks and won’t get him back in the near future. Cano suffered a fractured right hand in mid-May, but the 80-game suspension he incurred almost immediately after that injury is the more costly blow because it’ll render him ineligible for the playoffs – if the Mariners qualify, that is.

A postseason berth for Seattle would be its first since 2001, thus snapping the longest playoff drought in American sports. There’s clearly plenty of work for that to happen, particularly for a team that hasn’t been spectacular statistically and possesses a less shiny 27-25 Pythagorean record. But the Mariners’ actual record right now is so impressive that they won’t need to be great from here on out to remain firmly in the mix throughout the regular season. FanGraphs is projecting a mediocre 56-54 win-loss total over the Mariners’ final 110 games, but even in that scenario, they’d finish with 88 victories – three more than Minnesota amassed in 2017 en route to an AL wild-card berth.

The wild card is likely the M’s only path to the playoffs, as even though they’re just one game out of the AL West race, there’s little question the reigning World Series champion Astros will pull away with the division. Given the talent in the AL, a wild-card spot will be tough to come by for the Mariners, but general manager Jerry Dipoto seemingly increased his team’s odds last week when he acquired reliever Alex Colome and outfielder Denard Span from the Rays. The Mariners already owned one of baseball’s best bullpens without Colome, and his presence should make Seattle an even harder out in close games. At 15-8, the Mariners have been one of the majors’ top teams in one-run contests this season.

Staying in the AL West, Oakland has perhaps exceeded expectations at 28-25, though it has scored fewer runs than it has allowed (234 to 237). Still, despite its underwhelming Pythagorean mark (26-27), FanGraphs is projecting an above-.500 final record for Oakland (82-80) – which would be its first such season since 2014 and could keep it in the discussion into September. However, with the Yankees or Red Sox (whichever team doesn’t win the AL East), Angels and Mariners among the teams fighting for two wild-card positions, a playoff position looks a bit unrealistic for the A’s.

Over in the National League, both the Braves (30-21) and Phillies (29-21) have gone from serving as longtime NL East doormats to looking like two of the premier teams in the game. Milwaukee, arguably a surprise team but one that did garner some preseason hype after winning 86 games in 2017, is the lone NL club with a superior record to Atlanta and Philadelphia. And only the Cubs have a better run differential than the Braves, who have outscored their opponents by 60 (261 to 201).

The Braves’ arduous, years-long rebuild is clearly paying dividends now, as a host of players under the age of 25 – including Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna (who’s now on the DL), Dansby Swanson, Sean Newcomb, Mike Soroka, Luiz Gohara and A.J. Minter – have been among their driving forces this year. With that group joining a few slightly older, already established players (superstar Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte and Mike Foltynewicz, to name a few), Atlanta looks as if it’s going to be around for a long time. And it might be ready now to return to the playoffs, where it hasn’t been since 2013, though the NL East is going to be a dogfight with both the Phillies and favored Nationals (29-22) right behind the Braves.

As for those Phillies, they own an even longer playoff drought than the Braves (six years), but that streak doesn’t look as if it’ll last much longer. Like Atlanta, Philadelphia went through a few years of suffering while simultaneously managing to stockpile young talent (Aaron Nola, Odubel Herrera, Rhys Hoskins, Seranthony Dominguez, Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez, Scott Kingery) that has either already established itself in the majors or is in the midst of doing so. Philly’s also a sleeping giant in terms of payroll, a club capable of spending alongside other big-money juggernauts, and it’ll put that advantage to use in the coming years. It already started last winter with the expensive free-agent signings of Jake Arrieta and Carlos Santana, two additions which have paid off so far (Santana did endure a poor April, but he’s gotten off the mat this month).

As with the Braves, the Phillies should be around for a while, and a playoff spot this year certainly isn’t out of the question. Although, despite their tremendous starts, FanGraphs is projecting both teams to finish with 82 wins and extend their playoff droughts.

Baseball’s other Pennsylvania-based team, the low-payroll Pirates, lost the battle for public opinion over the winter when they traded two veteran cornerstones (Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole) for younger players and didn’t sign any free agents to major league contracts. Some Pirates fans even called for owner Bob Nutting to sell the team in the wake of those deals, but he didn’t oblige.

Now, the Pirates are a solid 28-24 (plus-22 run) and have gotten there with some help from Colin Moran and Joe Musgrove, two players acquired in the Cole package. Fellow offseason acquisition Corey Dickerson – whom general manager Neal Huntington stole from the Rays in another trade – has been even better, while veteran holdovers Starling Marte and Francisco Cervelli are also amid excellent seasons. Pittsburgh may be able to hang in the race all year, then, for the first time since 2015 – its most recent playoff berth. It’s going to be an extremely tall task to actually return to the postseason, though, with six NL teams – including the division-rival Brewers, Cubs and Cardinals – ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings and several more breathing down its neck.

Every year in baseball, surprise teams emerge to upset the preseason apple cart. Just as the Twins, Diamondbacks and Rockies crashed the playoff party last year, at least one of the Mariners, Athletics, Braves, Phillies or Pirates could do it in 2018. The question is: Which team has the best chance to play into the fall?

(poll link for app users)

Trade Notes: Machado, Phils, Cubs, Yanks, Rays, Padres, M’s, Tribe

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Orioles shortstop Manny Machado seems like a good bet to end up on the move this year, though it’s not “anywhere close” to happening, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. The Orioles aren’t “actively shopping” Machado right now, and they’re content to keep the soon-to-be free agent until closer to the July 31 non-waiver deadline, Kubatko writes. Kubatko goes on to list some potential Machado suitors, including the Phillies, who “left open the possibility of engaging in talks” with the Orioles when they were in Baltimore a couple weeks ago. Meanwhile, according to Kubatko, the Cubs reached out to Orioles general manager Dan Duquette to express interest in Machado, but Chicago – like Baltimore – isn’t prepared to make a major deal yet. Of course, Cubs president Theo Epstein addressed the Machado-Chicago speculation earlier this week, saying it’s “in fantasy land at this point.”

Here are more trade-related items:

  • The Yankees, owners of arguably the majors’ premier offense and its second-best record (32-16), “need pitching more than anything else,” general manager Brian Cashman said Saturday (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Cashman made that observation before right-hander Sonny Gray’s latest subpar start – a 3 2/3-frame, five-run performance in a loss to the Angels. Gray has now posted a 5.98 ERA/4.78 FIP with 7.97 K/9 and 5.07 BB/9 in 49 2/3 innings this year, which wasn’t the type of production the Yankees had in mind then they acquired him from the Athletics last July. His 2018 woes – not to mention a general lack of front-end starters behind ace Luis Severino – could force the World Series hopefuls to revisit the trade market for rotation help in the next couple months.
  • Tampa Bay pulled off a surprise trade Friday when it sent reliever Alex Colome and outfielder Denard Span to Seattle, and that won’t be be the end of the Rays’ moves, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times suggests. With Colome and Span gone, Topkin names Chris Archer, Wilson Ramos, C.J. Cron, Carlos Gomez, Adeiny Hechavarria, Brad Miller, Sergio Romo, Matt Duffy, Chaz Roe, Nathan Eovaldi and Jonny Venters as candidates to wind up in other uniforms.
  • Padres outfielder Travis Jankowski has drawn trade interest, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reported before the Mariners-Rays swap. It seems the Mariners tried for Jankowski prior to landing Span, but according to Divish, the Padres didn’t show much interest in the M’s low-ranked farm system. Known mostly for his speed and defense, the 26-year-old Jankowski has gotten off to a .313/.382/.400 start at the plate in 89 attempts this season. He’s controllable through the 2021 season.
  • Thanks to their bullpen’s dreadful start to the season, the Indians have been inquiring about outside help, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com relays. It doesn’t seem as if any trades are close to happening, however, as Hoynes points out that the deadline’s still more than two months away. Cleveland’s bullpen entered Saturday last in the majors in both ERA (6.23) and fWAR (minus-0.8), and it then lost integral lefty Andrew Miller to the disabled list for the second time this season.

Knocking Down The Door: Alcantara, De Los Santos, Fletcher, Jimenez, Santana

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“Knocking Down the Door” is a regular feature that identifies minor leaguers who are making a case for a big league promotion.

Sandy Alcantara, SP, Marlins (Triple-A New Orleans) | Marlins Depth Chart

In this rebuilding season, the Marlins are taking the opportunity to evaluate several young starting pitchers at the Major League level. Dillon Peters and Trevor Richards are back in Triple-A after getting an extended look. Jarlin Garcia made six starts before being moved to the bullpen. He was replaced in the rotation by Rule 5 pick Elieser Hernandez. Triple-A starters Zac Gallen and Ben Meyer have both been good enough to warrant a promotion, and 22-year-old Pablo Lopez (1 ER in 31 2/3 IP) has been one of the best pitchers at the Double-A level. Next in line, though, should be Alcantara, the prized prospect acquired from the Cardinals in the offseason trade of Marcell Ozuna.

After tossing eight shutout innings in his latest start, the 22-year-old right-hander’s debut with the Marlins has to be on the horizon. Alcantara doesn’t have the high strikeout rate that you’d expect from a top prospect, but he throws in the mid-to-high 90s—he averaged 98 MPH in eight relief appearances last season—and has been a strike-throwing machine as of late. Since walking 16 batters over his first six starts, Alcantara has been in control over his last three outings with only one walk in 20 innings, including back-to-back starts without issuing a free pass. As a comparison, he walked a batter in all but one of his 22 Double-A starts last season.

If the Marlins hold off and give Alcantara two more Triple-A starts, he could make his ’18 debut when they face his former team in St. Louis between June 5th-June 7th.

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Enyel De Los Santos, SP, Phillies (Triple-A Lehigh Valley) | Phillies Depth Chart

The Phillies’ rotation is on a roll—they have the sixth-lowest ERA in the Majors and the third most quality starts—and currently have no weak link in their five-man rotation. But despite lacking a clear path to the Majors, De Los Santos is making it obvious that he’s ready when needed.

After allowing a run in each of his first three Triple-A starts, the 6’3″ right-hander stepped it up a notch with three consecutive scoreless outings, a quality start on May 16th (6 IP, 3 ER) and another gem yesterday (7 IP, ER, BB, 5 K). At just 22 years of age, De Los Santos is dominating at the Triple-A level (1.39 ERA, 3.0 BB/9 and 9.7 K/9) and also has a 150-inning season under his belt at the Double-A level. With the Phillies primed for a playoff run, it’s almost certain that the young workhorse will figure into their plans at some point.

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David Fletcher, INF, Angels (Triple-A Salt Lake) | Angels Depth Chart 

Replacing an accomplished 12-year veteran who is struggling mightily at the plate with an unproven prospect who is putting up huge numbers in Triple-A is not an easy decision. While the 35-year-old Ian Kinsler is no longer the hitter who slashed .288/.348/.484 with 28 homers back in 2016, he’s probably not as bad as he’s looked through his first 149 plate appearances of 2018, either (.197/.275/.288). Regardless, the Angels have to at least be considering whether it’s time to give the 23-year-old Fletcher a chance.

After a subpar performance during his first full season in the upper minors in 2017 (.655 OPS in 111 games between Triple-A and Double-A), the former sixth-round draft pick has taken a huge step forward in 2018. He already has 20 multi-hit games and 28 extra-base hits—he had 24 total extra-base hits in 2017—while striking out just 13 times in 193 trips to the plate. A rare 0-fer on Tuesday has his slash line down to .356/.401/.599 in 192 plate appearances. Capable of playing second base, third base and shortstop, Fletcher could be used in a utility role while taking at-bats away from Kinsler, who is currently in a 5-for-34 rut.

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Eloy Jimenez | USA Today Sports Images

Eloy Jimenez, OF, White Sox (Double-A Birmingham) | White Sox Depth Chart

It’s not surprising that 19-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been the most impressive and most talked-about prospect in Double-A since the start of the season. But Jimenez, who began the season on the disabled list with a strained pectoral muscle, is quickly making up for lost time. The 21-year-old debuted on April 19th and, after going hitless in his first 11 at-bats, is now hitting .328/.360/.608 with eight homers and 11 doubles.

While he doesn’t have the plate discipline of Guerrero or Juan Soto, another impressive 19-year-old who made his MLB debut with the Nationals this past weekend, Jimenez doesn’t strike out a ton. He has 21 total strikeouts (a 15.9 percent clip) and has gone without a strikeout in 15 of his 31 games. When he does put the ball in play, it’s often very loud. There’s also a clear path to the Majors on a rebuilding White Sox team with one of the least-productive group of outfielders in baseball.

—

Dennis Santana, SP, Dodgers (Triple-A Oklahoma City) | Dodgers Depth Chart

Digging deep into their starting pitching depth is nothing new for the Dodgers. They’ve been doing it for years and, for the most part, their second wave of starting pitching has done an excellent job. This year has been no exception with Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu on the disabled list and Walker Buehler (2.38 ERA in six starts), Ross Stripling (3.26 ERA in four starts) and Brock Stewart (one run in four innings in his lone spot start) doing their part to hold down the fort. Next in line could be the 22-year-old Santana, who threw six shutout innings with only three singles allowed and 11 strikeouts in his Triple-A debut over the weekend.

After he struggled badly in seven Double-A starts last season (5.51 ERA, 6.3 BB/9), an MLB debut in 2018 did not appear to be in the cards despite being added to the 40-man roster over the offseason. But that’s changed after eight impressive Double-A starts (2.56 ERA, 3.3 BB/9, 11.9 K/9) and, probably even more so, after whiffing 11 hitters without issuing a walk over six shutout innings in his Triple-A debut. Like Kenley Jansen and Pedro Baez, Santana started his professional career as a position player—he was a shortstop for one season after signing in 2013—so he should feel at home in the Dodgers’ clubhouse.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

East Notes: Miller, Britton, Quinn

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The Nationals added lefty Tim Collins to the big league roster on Monday to step into the void left by Ryan Madson’s trip to the DL, but Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes that another Triple-A arm, veteran Justin Miller, could also emerge as an option in D.C. The former Rockies setup man has impressed to open the season, pitching 12 2/3 shutout innings with a 21-to-3 K/BB ratio and a 44.4 percent grounder rate. Miller’s minor league deal with the Nats has a June 15 opt-out provision, according to Janes, so the Nationals will need to make a call on him in the coming weeks. The 30-year-old Miller showed swing-and-miss stuff with the Rox in 2015-16 but struggled to strand runners and was plagued in 2016 by sub-par control and some home run troubles.

Here’s more from the eastern divisions …

  • Orioles reliever Zach Britton is scheduled to start a rehab assignment at Triple-A Norfolk at the end of the month, Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com tweets. Presumably, the club will give Britton a fair bit of time not only to test his surgically repaired Achilles, but also to get his arm into shape, given that he did not participate in Spring Training. But it could be that Britton will be ready for the majors by the middle of June or so — plenty of time for him to build up trade value in advance of the deadline. Of course, the veteran southpaw still not only has to show that he can pitch without physical limitation, but also that he can bounce back from a subpar 2017 season in which he managed a 2.89 ERA over 37 1/3 innings but was nowhere near as dominant as he had been in prior campaigns.
  • Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn is slated for a six-to-eight week DL stint after surgery to repair a torn finger ligament, as Matt Gelb of The Athletic was among those to tweet. This is the latest malady to slow the 25-year-old, who has yet to appear in a hundred or more games in a single professional season. He reached the majors briefly in 2016, showing an interesting blend of patience and speed, but has logged just 294 Triple-A plate appearances since. Quinn was off to a nice start to the current season, slashing .289/.340/.444 and swiping a dozen bags in just 97 plate appearances. He might well have been the first man up had a need arisen at the MLB level. With Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams carrying below-average batting lines, it’s conceivable a chance might have come in the near future. Now, though, Quinn will need to get back to health yet again before waiting for another opportunity.

Phillies Shut Down Jerad Eickhoff’s Rehab Program

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The Phillies received some troubling news on rehabbing right-hander Jerad Eickhoff, as he experienced numbness in his fingers during his most recent rehab appearance (Twitter link via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia).

As Todd Zolecki of MLB.com further notes, Eickhoff experienced a similar sensation in his hand last August and ultimately did not pitch again in 2017 (due to nerve irritation). His rehab has been shut down for now, and he’ll be reevaluated. Eickhoff has yet to pitch in the Majors this season after opening the year on the DL due to a lat strain.

It’s a discouraging outcome for a hot Phillies team that has gone 7-3 in its past 10 games and currently sits 1.5 games out of first in the National League East with an overall record of 26-18. Though the 27-year-old Eickhoff struggled in 2017, he’s been a fairly consistent fixture in the Philadelphia rotation since being acquired as an unheralded piece of 2015’s Cole Hamels blockbuster. In 65 starts since being acquired in late July that season, Eickhoff has given the Phillies 376 1/3 innings of 3.87 ERA ball, averaging 8.0 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 1.22 HR/9 with a 39.2 percent ground-ball rate along the way. He was particularly impressive in 2016, logging 197 1/3 innings over 33 starts and turning in a 3.65 ERA.

[Related: Philadelphia Phillies depth chart]

Eickhoff had been expected to rejoin the Phillies’ rotation immediately upon being activated from the disabled list, but with him on the shelf indefinitely, pending reevaluation, the Phils will continue to shuffle arms through the final spot in their rotation in hopes that someone cements himself in that position.

Ace Aaron Nola and free-agent signing Jake Arrieta are currently joined by emerging righty Nick Pivetta in the top 60 percent of the Phils’ rotation. Meanwhile, righty Zach Eflin has impressed in three starts since coming up from the minors in hopes of laying claim to a permanent starting job. Mercurial right-hander Vince Velasquez has, at times, flashed brilliance at the big league level but has also been maddeningly inconsistent for the organization. Other options for the Phillies include Drew Hutchison (currently in the ’pen) and Triple-A hurlers Jake Thompson, Ben Lively and Mark Leiter Jr. Top prospect Sixto Sanchez is viewed as a potential building block as well, though the 19-year-old is still a ways from big league readiness.

East Notes: Rays, Nats, T. Frazier, Phillies

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The Rays, who have employed some outside-the-box thinking with regards to their rotation this season, will turn to veteran reliever Sergio Romo for his first career start Saturday. The 35-year-old right-hander will take the hill against the Angels’ formidable offense after beginning his MLB tenure with 588 straight appearances out of the bullpen. Unsurprisingly, there’s almost no chance Romo will be in the game long enough to pick up a win, manager Kevin Cash suggested. “The thought process is fairly obvious,” Cash said of the decision to start Romo (via Jay Paris of MLB.com). “They are a heavy stacked right-handed lineup. Now, they can obviously change that, but a couple of their guys aren’t going to move no matter who’s pitching. So, if Romo can get through an inning or two, we’ll see where we are at and probably give the ball to (Ryan) Yarbrough.”

Meanwhile, a more traditional starting option – righty Nathan Eovaldi – is nearing his Rays debut. Eovaldi, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2016 (as a Yankee), is likely to join the team after a Triple-A rehab start Wednesday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Eovaldi underwent Tommy John surgery late in the ’16 campaign, causing him to miss all of last season and some of this year, and has been dealing with a right rib muscle strain more recently.

More from Tampa Bay and a few other East Coast cities…

  • In other Rays news, the club placed shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria on the disabled list with a hamstring strain, retroactive to Friday, Topkin writes. The team recalled righty Ryne Stanek from Triple-A to take Hechavarria’s roster spot. The light-hitting Hechavarria’s absence will leave short to infielder Daniel Robertson, who has quietly been one of the majors’ premier offensive players this year. Robertson’s slashing .284/.438/.471 with four home runs and nearly as many walks (26) as strikeouts (29) through 130 trips to the plate.
  • Nationals outfielder Rafael Bautista will undergo season-ending knee surgery, Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reports. Bautista, 25, tore the ACL, LCL and meniscus in his left knee on a collision Thursday while playing for the Nats’ Triple-A affiliate. Even though Bautista has only totaled 33 major league plate appearances (six this year) since debuting last season, his loss is another unwelcome one for a team whose outfield depth has taken multiple hits in 2018. Washington was already down Adam Eaton and Brian Goodwin prior to Bautista’s injury, and it may have to go without Howie Kendrick after he departed Saturday’s game on a cart with an apparent ankle issue.
  • There’s no timetable for Mets third baseman Todd Frazier’s return from the DL, the player said Saturday (via MetsBlog). Frazier landed on the shelf May 8 with a hamstring issue, meaning he would have been eligible to come back Friday. Instead, the injury-riddled, slumping Mets will continue to go without the offseason free-agent signing. The Frazier pickup had been paying off for the Mets prior to his injury, as he began the season with a .237/.357/.412 line and five homers in 140 PAs. New York has turned to Wilmer Flores, Jose Reyes and Luis Guillorme at the hot corner in Frazier’s stead.
  • The Phillies activated righty reliever Victor Arano from the DL on Saturday. Arano went down April 30 with a strained right rotator cuff, before which the 23-year-old rookie produced dominant results. Across his first 12 innings of the year, Arano logged a .75 ERA/1.73 FIP with 9.75 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9.

East Notes: Yankees, Eickhoff, Smith, Garcia

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Aaron Boone recently offered some words of encouragement regarding the imminent return of first baseman Greg Bird to the lineup (h/t Marc Carig of The Athletic). But while Bird’s activation appears to be “around the corner”, news surrounding fellow Yankees hitter Jacoby Ellsbury is not as promising. Ellsbury is reportedly dealing with a minor back injury and as such is not participating in baseball activities at this time. The outfielder made just 406 plate appearances last season and has yet to make his 2018 debut. Unfortunately, Ellsbury’s absence is not the end of the bad news for the Yankees this week, as it turns out hard-hitting outfield prospect Estevan Florial will require surgery on a broken hamate bone (according to a tweet from George A. King III of the New York Post). The injury will keep him sidelined until at least August. Florial was off to somewhat of a slow start at the High-A level, posting a .246/.353/.343 slash line across 156 plate appearances.

More out of the East…

  • Phillies righty Jerad Eickhoff is set to begin a rehab assignment, according to Matt Breen of the Philly Enquirer. He’ll kick it off at Triple-A LeHigh Valley. Eickhoff has been sidelined since spring training due to a lat strain, and at this time it’s not clear how he’d fit into a suddenly crowded Phillies rotation that includes Aaron Nola, Nick Pivetta, Jake Arrieta, Vince Velasquez and Zach Eflin.
  • The Red Sox haven’t gotten any particularly good news about Carson Smith in recent days. According to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, manager Alex Cora says the club can’t determine at this time whether or not the righty will pitch again this season. Smith was off to a serviceable start this season, posting a 3.77 ERA and 11.30 K/9 in his first 14 1/3 innings before going down with a shoulder subluxation.
  • The Blue Jays are describing left-hander Jaime Garcia’s injury as “left shoulder inflammation”. He’s been placed on the DL retroactive to May 16th. The Jays brought Garcia into the fold this past offseason on a one-year deal worth a guarantee of $10MM, but he’s disappointed thus far with a 6.28 ERA across his first 38 2/3 innings. In a related move, the club has recalled righty Deck McGuire from Triple-A Buffalo.
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