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Pirates Place Gregory Polanco On IL, Select Hunter Owen

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The Pirates have placed outfielder Gregory Polanco on the injured list and selected outfielder/infielder Hunter Owen, the team announced. The club didn’t give a reason for Polanco’s IL placement.

Polanco entered this season hoping to bounce back from two straight unproductive years, but it hasn’t happened yet. Dating back to 2019, Polanco has batted an unsightly .197/.263/.369 over 431 trips to the plate, including 90 PA of .200/.289/.350 hitting this season. Phillip Evans could handle most of the work in right field during Polanco’s absence.

This is the first big league promotion for Owen, a 25th-round pick in 2016 who worked his way to the Triple-A level in 2019. Owen struggled during his debut there, but he has performed well in the minors overall. The 27-year-old owns a .266/.341/.473 line with 55 home runs in 1,425 PA.

Pirates Release Brian Goodwin

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The Pirates have released veteran outfielder Brian Goodwin, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was among those to report. The 30-year-old Goodwin joined the Pirates back in February on a minor league contract. The deal included an opt-out clause for May, so it’s possible Goodwin exercised it before the Pirates decided to cut him loose.

Goodwin has experience at all three outfield positions, but the former National, Royal, Angel and Red was unable to work his way up to the majors with Pittsburgh. The Pirates have primarily relied on Bryan Reynolds, Dustin Fowler (whom they outrighted last week), Phillip Evans and Gregory Polanco in the grass this year, and they’ve given a few starts to recent waiver pickup Ka’ai Tom of late. Reynolds has been far and away the most effective member of that group, while Evans has put up league-average offense and Polanco has gotten off to a slow start.

Goodwin has logged average offense in his own right during his 1,124-plate appearance career, in which he has hit .250/.317/.455 (101 wRC+) with 42 home runs and 22 stolen bases. That history of respectable offensive production should help him latch on elsewhere sometime soon.

Pirates Sign Christian Bethancourt To Minors Contract

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The Pirates have signed catcher Christian Bethancourt to a minor league deal, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).  Bethancourt will report to Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate for the beginning of the minor league season.

From 2013-17, Bethancourt hit .222/.252/.316 over 489 plate appearances with the Braves and Padres, primarily playing catcher but also getting some time as a corner outfielder, second baseman, and even as a pitcher over six relief appearances.  (He also played some first base in the minors.)  Bethancourt is still looking for a return trip to the majors, having played with the Brewers’ Triple-A team in 2018, the KBO League’s NC Dinos in 2019, and he has also inked minor league contracts with the Phillies in each of the last two offseasons but didn’t see any official playing time with Philadelphia.

Bethancourt will likely be deployed as catching depth, joining Andrew Susac and Joe Hudson as MLB-experienced backstops in Pittsburgh’s farm system.  Jacob Stallings and Michael Perez are the Pirates’ top two catchers at the big league level, and since the Bucs are still in the midst of a rebuild, it wouldn’t be a shock if Stallings (currently hitting a cool .246/.388/.400 in 80 PA) was moved before the July trade deadline.  This could open the door for Bethancourt or one of the other catchers to be bumped up to the active roster.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/2/21

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

  • The Brewers injury-ravaged pitching staff will reach further down the depth chart today. Alec Bettinger will join the Major League club to make his debut, starting today’s game against the Dodgers, per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (via Twitter). The Brewers also signed catcher Christian Kelley to a minor league contact, per Robert Murray of FanSided (via Twitter). The 27-year-old will provide much-needed depth at catcher for the Brewers.
  • The Pirates released a pair of minor-leaguers today. Catcher Daniel Angulo and infielder Carlos Arroyo are now free agents, per Kevin Gorman of Trib Sports (via Twitter). While settling on the assignments as the minor league season opens, the Pirates have granted a number of veterans their release.

Pennsylvania Notes: Hayes, Goodwin, Howard, Realmuto

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The latest on the Keystone State’s two MLB teams…

  • Pirates GM Ben Cherington provided reporters (including Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) with an update on Ke’Bryan Hayes, saying that the third baseman hasn’t yet started to swing a bat, but is still “feeling improvement” in his bothersome wrist.  Hayes has been sidelined since the second game of the season and has already been dealt with one setback in his recovery process.  Cherington didn’t give a timetable on a potential return for Hayes, though he will be joining the Pirates on their upcoming road trip from May 3-9.
  • Brian Goodwin wasn’t on the list of names slated for the Pirates’ preliminary Triple-A roster, and Cherington told The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel that the team hopes to have the situation with Goodwin’s opt-out clause settled in a day or two.  Goodwin’s minor league deal with the Bucs contains an opt-out clause in May, and it remains to be seen if that opt-out date could be extended, or if Goodwin could leave the organization, or even if Goodwin could be called up to the Pittsburgh roster.  Gregory Polanco, Bryan Reynolds, and utilityman Phillip Evans comprise the team’s first-choice starting outfield mix, with utilityman Wilmer Difo and recent waiver claim Ka’ai Tom on the bench.  The veteran Goodwin would certainly represent a more experienced, outfield-only presence on the roster, and Goodwin can play all three positions.  As per the terms of the minor league deal, Goodwin would earn $1.6MM if he made Pittsburgh’s active roster.
  • The Phillies announced earlier this week that top pitching prospect Spencer Howard was going to be stretched out for a rotation spot, though president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski provided a bit more detail on Howard’s role to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer and other reporters.  Howard might technically start a game, but “we’re talking about giving him two-, three-, maybe even a four-inning type of thing,” Dombrowski said.  “But we’re not talking about stretching him out to those number of innings where you consider him as a starting-starting pitcher, per se.”  Between Howard’s health history and the lost 2020 minor league season, the Phillies are being careful with their young hurler’s arm, targeting him for an unspecified innings limit in 2021.  The Phils initially aimed to use Howard as a reliever this season, but plans changed given the lack of production from the fourth and fifth spots in the team’s rotation.
  • J.T. Realmuto has been out of the Phillies’ starting lineup for two straight games due to a sore left hand.  The catcher suffered the injury while trying to block a wild pitch in Thursday’s game, with the ball hitting the heel of Realmuto’s hand.  It isn’t yet known how much more time Realmuto will miss, though it might not be too serious a situation, considering Rafael Marchan was optioned back to the alternate training site earlier today — Realmuto and Andrew Knapp are the only catchers on Philadelphia’s 26-man roster.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/30/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Indians have selected right-handed reliever Nick Sandlin’s contract, Zack Meisel of The Athletic was among those to report. Sandlin joined the Indians as a second-round pick in 2018, but he has thrown just 50 1/3 innings in the minors since then, owing in part to a forearm strain in 2019 and the canceled minor league season in 2020. The 24-year-old submariner has been effective in the minors when healthy, having put up a 2.68 ERA with 74 strikeouts and 18 walks. MLB.com ranks Sandlin 30th in the Indians’ system, writing that “[h]e has a high floor as a multi-inning reliever and the upside of a back-of-the-rotation starter.”
  • The Pirates have released catcher Christian Kelley, Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets. Kelley had been with the Pirates since they chose him in the 11th round of the 2015 draft, but he hasn’t made it to the big leagues yet. The 27-year-old topped out at Triple-A in 2019 and hit .179/.251/.282 with five home runs in 281 plate appearances.

Pirates Outright Dustin Fowler

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Center fielder Dustin Fowler cleared outright waivers after being designated for assignment last week and has been assigned to the Pirates’ alternate training site, tweets Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He’ll remain with the organization but is no longer on the team’s 40-man roster.

The Pirates acquired Fowler, from the A’s in exchange for cash back in late February. An 18th-round pick of the Yankees back in 2013, Fowler emerged as one of the game’s more highly regarded outfield prospects and was a key piece sent from New York to Oakland in 2017’s Sonny Gray trade. Fowler was injured at the time, having incurred a ruptured patellar tendon when crashing into the wall in foul ground at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field in his MLB debut.

Fowler never managed to right the ship in the big leagues following that injury. He made his A’s debut in 2018 but managed only a .224/.256/.354 batting line in 203 trips to the plate. His work in Triple-A remained solid but not spectacular, and the A’s opted to move on in order to open a roster spot for their surprise signing of Trevor Rosenthal.

Fowler was a sensible roll of the dice for a Pirates club with little in the way of proven options in center field. He opened the year sharing time with fellow former top prospect Anthony Alford, but neither produced whatsoever in the first few weeks of the season. Fowler hit .171/.239/.195 with 20 strikeouts in 46 plate appearances before the Bucs designated him for assignment and turned center field over to Bryan Reynolds. Recent waiver claim and Rule 5 pick Ka’ai Tom figures to see some time out there as well now that he’s cleared intake testing and joined the club.

Fowler and Alford, who were designated for assignment one day apart, will get in some work with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate when the season gets underway next week and hope to work their way back into the mix for big league playing time. The Bucs seem to prefer Reynolds in left field and don’t have a clear center fielder ready to take over the reins, so it’s certainly possible that either could impress to the point that they receive another look.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/25/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

Latest Moves

  • The Pirates assigned Anthony Alford to their alternate training site after the outfielder cleared waivers.  Alford was designated for assignment earlier this week.  Claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays last August, Alford looked great in a five-game stint with Pittsburgh last season but got off to a rough start in 2021, posting a .325 OPS over his first 29 plate appearances.

Earlier Today

  • The Reds reinstated Vladimir Gutierrez from the restricted list and assigned the right-hander to their alternate training site.  Aristides Aquino (who underwent hamate surgery earlier this month) was moved to the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man roster spot.  Gutierrez was the centerpiece of the Reds’ 2016-17 international signing class, though the righty hasn’t been overly impressive in 387 minor league innings, posting a 4.98 ERA and 21.34% strikeout rate.  Gutierrez was issued an 80-game PED suspension last June.

NL Central Notes: Cardinals, Yelich, Anderson, Hayes

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Facing a run of 17 games in 17 days, the Cardinals will move to a six-man rotation for the time being, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Young righty Johan Oviedo will make at least a pair of starts to afford the remainder of the Cardinals’ rotation five days of rest between outings. Pitching coach Mike Maddux says the team is focused on “keeping guys fresher for September and we hope October” with a shift to a larger starting staff. Right-hander Miles Mikolas, who has yet to pitch this season due to shoulder troubles (after missing the 2020 season because of flexor tendon surgery), is still a few weeks away from being a viable rotation option, per Goold. As such, the Cards will rely on Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Kwang Hyun Kim, John Gant, Carlos Martinez and Oviedo to make starts for the foreseeable future.

A few more notes from the division…

  • Brewers star Christian Yelich won’t be activated from the injured list when he is first eligible Saturday, manager Craig Counsell tells reporters (Twitter link via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Counsell didn’t offer a potential return date for Yelich, who hasn’t played since April 11 because of a back ailment. Billy McKinney has been the Brewers’ main left field fill-in since Yelich went down, and though he hasn’t gotten on base much, his .275/.293/.550 line through 41 plate appearances is 25 percent above the league-average mark, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
  • McKinney hit his third homer of the season Friday, but the Brewers still took a 15-2 beating at the hands of the division-rival Cubs. The game started inauspiciously for Milwaukee, which saw starter Brett Anderson exit with an injury in the first inning after facing four batters and surrendering three earned runs on three hits. Anderson said after the game that he’s dealing with a hamstring issue and will undergo an MRI, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. The Brewers will know Saturday whether the 33-year-old southpaw will require an IL stint.
  • Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes suffered a setback in his left injured wrist earlier this week, but he’s “doing better” now, manager Derek Shelton said (via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic, on Twitter). Shelton added that the Pirates will know more on Hayes’ status when their road trip ends Sunday. Hayes was a popular NL Rookie of the Year pick entering the season, but he has only played in two games so far, and there’s no clear timetable for his return.

Pirates Select Todd Frazier, Designate Dustin Fowler, Place Chad Kuhl On IL

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The Pirates announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Todd Frazier, designated outfielder Dustin Fowler for assignment, placed righty Chad Kuhl on the 10-day injured list and recalled right-hander Geoff Hartlieb. Kuhl is dealing with right shoulder discomfort, and a timeline for his return was not provided.

Frazier, 35, inked a minor league deal with the Bucs over the winter and had a productive Spring Training, slashing .250/.343/.643 with three homers and a pair of doubles in 34 trips to the plate. He’s coming off a rough 45-game showing between the Rangers and Mets last season (.236/.302/.382) but was a productive hitter with the Mets as recently as 2019.

Frazier gives the Pirates some additional cover at third base in the wake of Ke’Bryan Hayes’ setback in his recovery from a wrist injury. He also gives manager Derek Shelton a right-handed platoon partner for Colin Moran, a career .236/.287/.361 hitter versus southpaws, at first base.

Fowler’s DFA comes just one day after the Pirates designated fellow center fielder Anthony Alford for assignment. The Bucs had hoped that between the pair of former top 100 prospects, they’d be able to unearth a late bloomer, but Pittsburgh center fielders have combined for an awful .170/.245/.261 output thus far in 2021 (including seven hitless plate appearances from Wilmer Difo in center).

The Pirates claimed Rule 5 pick Ka’ai Tom from the Athletics yesterday in conjunction with Alford’s DFA, and it now seems that he’ll have a clearer path to playing time in center. Left fielder Bryan Reynolds can also slide over to center if the Pirates choose, with Phillip Evans moving to left field and Frazier manning third base. Pittsburgh’s stance to this point has been that they prefer Reynolds in left field, but the departure of Fowler and Alford has obviously changed the equation. Prospect Jared Oliva may eventually get a look as well, but the Pirates’ announced an Oliva injury alongside their announcement of Hayes’ setback this morning; Oliva will miss around four weeks with a left oblique strain.

Turning to the 28-year-old Kuhl, he drew the Opening Day start for the Pirates this season but hasn’t looked right through his first four trips to the mound. He’s regained some life on his fastball after experiencing a post-Tommy-John dip in 2020, but Kuhl has also walked more batters (16) than he’s struck out (14) through his first 15 2/3 frames. He’s sitting on a 6.32 ERA at the moment and hasn’t lasted more than five innings in any of his four starts.

Kuhl is only controlled through the 2022 season, so with a return to health and a similar performance to his 2016-18 form — 4.37 ERA, 20.4 percent strikeout rate, 9.2 percent walk rate — he could be marketed as a trade asset for clubs seeking affordable arms to stabilize the rotation. He drew interest from a few clubs, including the Blue Jays, last summer. He’ll first need to get past this latest injury and string together some productive starts for that scenario to come together, though.

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