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Padres To Select Contract Of Tyson Ross

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The Padres will select the contract of veteran righty Tyson Ross in time for him to start today’s contest, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell reports on Twitter. He joined the team on a minors deal over the winter.

Ross had been reassigned to open the season, but was expected to join the MLB roster in short order once he was needed to make a start. He’ll earn a $1.75MM base salary and can also achieve up to $4.25MM in incentive pay that accrues with every fifth start.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see whether Ross can rediscover the form that made him such an effective hurler for the Padres in his original run with the organization. Injuries have intervened, of course, and Ross was markedly ineffective (7.71 ERA, 36 K, 37 BB) in his 49 MLB innings last year while maintaining career-low velocity readings on his four- and two-seam fastballs.

That said, Ross had quite a strong track record before his shoulder problems began. And reports were fairly promising this spring. Ross allowed five earned on ten hits in his 15 Cactus League innings, with an 11:6 K/BB ratio.

NL West Notes: Padres, Rockies, Giants

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A quick look around the NL West…

  • After a rough season debut Saturday, Padres right-hander Luis Perdomo is in danger of losing his starting job, perhaps even his roster spot, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes. The 24-year-old Perdomo surrendered five earned runs on seven hits and four walks (with seven strikeouts) in four innings during a loss to Milwaukee, after which Padres manager Andy Green said: “It’s two years on the roster [for Perdomo]. It’s just one outing this year, and it wasn’t a great outing. But it’s time for him to go. It’s time for him to step up and attack. The challenge is out there in front of him.” If Perdomo does fall out of San Diego’s starting five, it could turn to left-hander Robbie Erlin, per Cassavell. Erlin, 27, pitched 3 2/3 innings of two-run relief Saturday in his first action since undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2016.
  • Rockies first baseman Ian Desmond left the team’s game early Saturday with right knee soreness, and he’s now day-to-day, according to Nick Groke of the Denver Post. Desmond got off to a good start prior to the injury, going 4 for 10 with a home run, as he attempts to rebound from an injury-filled, highly disappointing 2017. Colorado replaced him with Ryan McMahon on Saturday.
  • Giants righty Jeff Samardzija, who has been out for over a week with a strained pectoral muscle, is progressing in his recovery, manager Bruce Bochy told Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News and other reporters Saturday. Samardzija probably won’t be ready the first time the Giants need a fifth starter (April 10), Bochy suggested, but it appears likely he’ll return to their rotation sometime this month.

NL Notes: Phillies, Arrieta, Neshek, Padres, Myers, Gallardo

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Phillies right-hander Jake Arrieta is on track to make his first start with the club on April 8, per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Arrieta’s going to miss the first week-plus of the season because he’s not yet in game shape, having gone without a contract in free agency until the Phillies handed him a three-year, $75MM guarantee on March 12. The former Cubs star will join Aaron Nola atop Philly’s rotation when he does debut with the team.

  • In not-so-good news for the Phillies, righty Pat Neshek is fearful that the shoulder strain which forced him to the disabled list could “be something serious,” the reliever informed Matt Breen of Philly.com and other media. The 37-year-old Neshek added that this is the first time he has dealt with this type of injury. “And that’s what’s kind of weirding me out a little bit,” he continued. “But it’s something like, if I had to pitch today, I know I could. But I’m more worried about how it’s going to progress over the next couple weeks.” Neshek was the recipient of a two-year, $16.25MM deal in the offseason. Teammate and fellow reliever Tommy Hunter also landed a two-year deal (for an even richer $18MM). Both pitchers opened the season on the DL, though, with Hunter battling a hamstring strain.
  • Padres corner outfielder Wil Myers has been dealing with back trouble over the past couple weeks, and it kept him out of the lineup Saturday. It doesn’t seem to be a serious injury, however, as manager Andy Green told reporters including AJ Cassavell of MLB.com that Myers’ issue is “a day-to-day thing at most.” Myers suggested that moving from his previous position, first base, to the outfield has had a detrimental effect on his back in the early going. “I need to work on my posture a little more,” Myers said. “Playing a new position kind of wears on you a little bit. I’ll be fine, going to keep working to get it better. Before too long, it’ll be gone.” Myers, who began his major league career in 2013 as an outfielder, spent the previous two seasons as a first baseman. He moved back to the grass in the offseason to accommodate Eric Hosmer, whom the Padres signed to an eight-year, $144MM contract in free agency.
  • Yovani Gallardo signed a major league deal with the Reds on Saturday, but they weren’t the only team that pursued the right-hander. Gallardo told C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic and other reporters that he garnered offers from other clubs before joining the Reds (though it’s unclear whether those were big league proposals). He’s now in position to return to regular-season action in the NL Central, where he pitched with the Brewers from 2007-14. Gallardo has collected plenty of experience at the Reds’ Great American Ballpark as a result, having made 15 starts there, Rosecrans notes.

NL West Notes: Lucchesi, Turner, Souza, D-backs

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The Padres rotation — like other parts of the roster — came with some surprises. As Dennis Lin of the Athletic tweets, Joey Lucchesi is going to take the ball for the team’s second game of the season. And while veteran righty Tyson Ross didn’t open the season on the active roster, he’s expected to be added in short order, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune adds on Twitter. Acee notes that there’ll be some competition early in the season to see who’ll be able to stick as a long-term piece in the unsettled rotation mix, noting that Lucchesi has a chance to stay if he performs well.

Lucchesi, 24, was a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft and will be the first pitcher taken that season to appear in the Majors. He ranks ninth in a stacked Padres farm system according to both MLB.com and Baseball America, having turned in a combined 2.20 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 50 percent ground-ball rate in 139 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A last season.

More from the NL West…

  • Justin Turner is moving closer to swinging a bat, but he’s not yet been cleared to do so, reports Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times. The Dodgers’ third baseman was diagnosed with a nondisplaced fracture in his wrist late in Spring Training after being hit by a pitch, and Turner tells McCullough that he was initially projected to require two to three weeks of rest before being cleared to swing at all. McCullough writes that Turner will be out until at least May, though his exact timeline remains rather nebulous at present. Turner says that upon being diagnosed with the fracture, he was told the recovery could take anywhere from four to 10 weeks depending on how his wrist responds. “There really is no timetable,” says Turner.
  • The Diamondbacks may not need to fill in for outfielder Steven Souza for quite as long as had been feared, as Zach Buchanan of The Athletic reports on Twitter that Souza’s pectoral strain is progressing better than anticipated. That’s promising near-term news for the D-backs, but the team’s long-term outlook remains subject to quite a lot of uncertainty, as Buchanan explores in a subscription piece. The key question, perhaps, is whether the organization can find common ground on a second extension with Paul Goldschmidt. As Buchanan explains, there’s no real indication at this point whether that’ll take place, though CEO Derrick Hall does tell him that “neither side feels an urgency” to explore a new deal at the moment.

Notable Roster Decisions: Wednesday

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The latest noteworthy roster decisions across Major League Baseball as Opening Day draws ever closer…

  • The Brewers announced that they’ve selected the contract of Ji-Man Choi, who’ll make their Opening Day roster. (Sung Min Kim of Fangraphs and River Ave. Blues first tweeted that Choi had made the roster.) That means both Choi and the out-of-options Jesus Aguilar will make a roster which also includes first base options Eric Thames and Ryan Braun. However, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel points out (via Twitter), the composition is likely to change quickly — possibly as soon as Friday. Choi has an option remaining, Haudricourt notes. More interestingly, Haudricourt adds that the Brew Crew is pursuing an external pitching addition, and if said move goes through, then Choi could quickly be optioned to Colorado Springs to clear a 25-man roster spot. Also of particular note for the Brewers is that Wade Miley was reassigned to minor league camp and won’t be making the club.

Earlier Decisions & Moves

  • The White Sox have selected the contract of left-hander Hector Santiago, giving them a full 40-man roster, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to report on Twitter. In other moves, the club sent southpaw Carlos Rodon (left shoulder rehabilitation) and catcher Kevan Smith (left ankle sprain) to the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to March 26. Santiago will now officially begin his second major league stint as a member of the White Sox, with whom he started his career in 2011 and stayed with through 2013. Santiago was successful during that span, but his career has trended downward lately – particularly last season as a Twin – which prevented him from landing a major league contract over the winter. The minors deal the 30-year-old signed with Chicago includes a $2MM salary in the bigs, which he’s now in position to earn. Santiago’s a longtime starter, but he’ll open 2018 in the Sox’s bullpen.
  • The Dodgers have optioned outfielder Andrew Toles, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Toles’ demotion means Joc Pederson is likely to be the Dodgers’ Opening Day left fielder, DiGiovanna notes. Toles had been part of a crowded corner outfield battle during spring action alongside Pederson, Matt Kemp, Enrique Hernandez, Alex Verdugo and the just-jettisoned Trayce Thompson. The fact that Toles had options remaining – unlike the expensive, apparently immovable Kemp – probably didn’t do him any favors in his bid to make the Dodgers. The 25-year-old Toles has been successful in Los Angeles since debuting in 2016, having batted .294/.341/.483 with 2.1 fWAR n 217 plate appearances. He missed all but 31 games last season, though, after suffering a torn ACL in May.
  • Outfielders Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez will open the season with the Giants, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The Giants signed Blanco, 34, to a minors pact back in January. Per that deal, he’ll earn a $1MM salary in the majors and have a chance at $500K in incentives in San Francisco, with which he previously played from 2012-16 and won a pair of World Series. Hernandez is out of options, so he was also in a do-or-die position this spring. The 30-year-old rose to the challenge, though he’ll surely need to improve on last season’s showing (.255/.327/.326 line with no home runs in 348 PAs) to keep his roster spot for all of 2018.
  • Outfielder Matt Szczur and righty Jordan Lyles will be part of the Padres’ Opening Day roster, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets. The out-of-options Szczur, 28, will continue to provide outfield depth in San Diego after coming over in a trade with the Cubs last summer. Lyles, meanwhile, spent a bit of time with the Padres in 2017 and then re-signed on a major league contract in the offseason. The deal also features a club option for 2019 for Lyles, who’ll begin the year in the Friars’ bullpen. Having pitched to a 5.43 ERA/4.55 FIP across 681 combined innings (182 appearances, 107 starts) with the Astros, Rockies and Padres, Lyles hasn’t lived up to the billing he had as a prospect. He’s still just 27, however.
  • Catchers A.J. Ellis and Raffy Lopez will also be on the Padres’ roster, the team announced. Those two and starter Austin Hedges will give the Padres three backstops on their 25-man roster. Ellis, an established veteran backup, is now set to make $1.25MM after signing a minor league deal in the offseason. The 30-year-old Lopez, who brings just 83 PAs of MLB experience, also signed a minors pact over the winter.
  • The Marlins will add catcher Bryan Holaday to their 40- and 25-man rosters, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. Holaday, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Marlins in the offseason. He’ll be one of three catchers on their season-opening roster, joining Tomas Telis (out of options) and Chad Wallach, son of bench coach Tim Wallach. It’s not an ideal setup for Miami, which won’t have standout starter J.T. Realmuto at the outset of the season. Realmuto is on the DL with a bone bruise.
  • The Twins will roster outfielder Ryan LaMarre to open the year, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune tweets. LaMarre, an offseason minor league signee of the Twins, spent last year with the Triple-A affiliates of the Angels and Athletics, combining for a meager .628 OPS. He’s a lifetime .268/.335/.388 hitter at the Triple-A level (954 PAs) who has seen very brief MLB action with the Reds, Red Sox and A’s.
  • The Tigers announced that they’ve selected infielder Niko Goodrum’s contract, which puts their 40-man roster at capacity. Goodrum, who signed a minors deal with Detroit in November, spent 2010-17 with the Minnesota organization and batted .250/.333/.379 in 2,796 minor league PAs. He saw minimal big league action with the club (18 PAs, all of which came last season).
  • The Mariners made the DL placements of Erasmo Ramirez, Ben Gamel and David Phelps official, and they also announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Casey Lawrence, who will return to the team after spending parts of the 2017 campaign on Seattle’s big league roster. The M’s also optioned infielder/outfielder Taylor Motter to Triple-A Tacoma.

Padres Outright Rowan Wick

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The Padres have outrighted right-hander Rowan Wick after he cleared waivers, per a club announcement. That move frees up a 40-man spot for the club’s final roster decisions.

Claimed off waivers from the Cardinals during the offseason, Wick will land somewhere in the Padres system to open the 2017 season. He’s known for a big arm but is still new to pitching after moving out from behind the plate. Last year, he worked to a 3.19 ERA in 42 1/3 innings, most of them in the upper minors, while recording 8.9 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9.

Padres Release Chris Young

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Veteran right-hander Chris Young has been released by the Padres, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). Young triggered his opt-out rights after learning that he would not be added to the Opening Day roster.

The Pads had given Young a long look as a rotation candidate this spring, but ultimately decided against keeping the 38-year-old. He had been slated to earn a $1MM base salary in the majors, with a hefty potential incentives package that included up to an additional $6MM more.

Young had been hoping to bounce back with the Pads after a pair of miserable seasons. He has already shown he can be useful in his late thirties, with two sturdy campaigns in 2014 and 2015, but has stumbled to a 6.52 ERA in his 118 2/3 frames since the start of 2016. This spring, he recorded 15 strikeouts against four walks in his 14 1/3 innings, but also coughed up four dingers and a dozen earned runs.

San Diego’s decision to keep reliever Adam Cimber left no space in the bullpen and created additional 40-man roster pressure, leaving Young on the outside looking in. Presumably, he could still rejoin the organization on another minors deal if he’s unable to find a better situation elsewhere.

The decision means we won’t see Young pitch for the Padres for the first time since 2010. But it could suggest that another old favorite, Tyson Ross, will earn his way back onto the team after also joining as a non-roster player. Ross, whose career dove when shoulder issues arose, has reputedly looked good this spring and has allowed only five earned runs in his 15 Cactus League frames.

NL Notes: Padres, Brewers, Verdugo

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The Padres are in the process of finalizing their pitching plans for the start of the coming campaign. Righty reliever Adam Cimber has forced his way onto the Opening Day roster after turning in an unexpectedly excellent spring, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune reports on Twitter. The 27-year-old built off of a quality 2017 effort in the upper minors — over which he threw 80 2/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9 and just 1.1 BB/9 — by posting nine scoreless frames in the Cactus League. Meanwhile, veteran righty Chris Young will not break camp in the majors, Acee also tweets. It’s not known at this point whether he’ll exercise his opt-out clause, but that’s at least an option for the towering 38-year-old, whose spring (15 strikeouts but also four home runs in 14 1/3 innings) largely imitated his past two seasons’ output (116 strikeouts but also 35 home runs in 118 2/3 innings).

Here are a few more notes from the National League:

  • It seems increasingly unlikely that the Brewers will make a move to alleviate their evident logjam of bats. As Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports, that has left some eyebrows raised among the team’s players, some of whom still aren’t sure exactly how much playing time they’ll get once the season gets underway. It’s not exactly a new subject, of course, as the Milwaukee roster has been under a microscope all winter long. But it’s interesting to consider it from the player’s perspective, as Nightengale does. As third baseman Travis Shaw puts it: “Depth is a nice problem to have, but I’m sure it sucks individually for a couple of guys.” Meanwhile, skipper Craig Counsell says “there’ll be a lot of shuffling going on” early in the season, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports, but also notes that he anticipates some clarity to emerge as the season goes along.
  • Pedro Moura of The Athletic takes a long look (subscription link) at talented Dodgers prospect Alex Verdugo, who drew much better reviews in camp this year than he did in his brief MLB call-up in 2017. The change wasn’t to his swing mechanics, though. Instead, Verdugo impressed the organization by making strides with his work ethic and attitude. As Moura documents, those improvements were the result of intentional offseason effort, though Verdugo’s overall level of professionalism also surely remains a work in progress.

Padres Outright Carter Capps

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Padres reliever Carter Capps has been outrighted to Triple-A El Paso after clearing waivers, according to a team announcement. The move frees up a spot on the Padres’ 40-man roster.

Earlier in his career, the right-handed Capps looked like one of the game’s next great relievers. He was electrifying across 31 innings with the Marlins in 2015, when he recorded a 1.16 ERA/1.10 FIP with a ridiculous 16.84 K/9 against 2.03 BB/9. Capps then had to undergo Tommy John surgery prior to the 2016 campaign, keeping him out that entire year, and his career hasn’t gotten back on track since.

In July 2016, when he was recovering from surgery, the Marlins traded Capps to the Padres in a seven-player deal that also involved the likes of Andrew Cashner and now-Red Luis Castillo. Capps returned to the mound with the Padres last season, but the near-invincibility he showed in 2015 wasn’t on display. Thanks in part to a significant drop in velocity, Capps yielded nine earned runs on 12 hits and two walks, with just seven strikeouts, in 12 1/3 innings. He then underwent another serious procedure, thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, in late September.

Capps returned to action this spring and struggled again, allowing four earned runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. While Capps didn’t walk anyone, he only fanned four. Now, given that there aren’t any MLB teams that believe this version of Capps is worthy of a 40-man spot, he’ll have to rebuild his stock in the minors.

NL West Links: Lamet, Giants, Salas, Dodgers

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Padres right-hander Dinelson Lamet is headed for the disabled list after leaving Sunday’s outing after just six batters due to elbow pain, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.  There doesn’t appear to be any structural damage to Lamet’s elbow and a source tells Acee that the righty will miss just “minimal time,” though that absence looks like it could last into May.  “The hope is he will miss only the season’s first month,” Acee writes, which is a somewhat ominously vague timeframe for a pitcher who was expected to play a big role in San Diego’s rotation.  Lamet posted a 4.57 ERA, 2.57 K/BB rate and a whopping 10.9 K/9 over 114 1/3 innings in his rookie season, displaying some control and home run-allowance issues but impressing many with his ability to miss bats.

More from around the NL West…

  • A Giants trade for starting pitching help is “not likely” as of tonight, a source tells MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi (Twitter links), though the team is considering adding a starter with Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija both on the DL.  Morosi cites the Astros’ Brad Peacock and Collin McHugh as arms that could be available, though these could be speculative names rather than pitchers the Giants are directly targeting.  San Francisco doesn’t have much luxury tax room to afford taking on any significant salary, nor does the club have much in the way of prospect depth to trade away, so it will be interesting to see how (or if) the Giants can adjust to these devastating early-season rotation losses.
  • Fernando Salas’ minor league contract with the Diamondbacks will pay him $1.5MM in base salary now that he has made the team’s Opening Day roster, The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan reports (Twitter link).  The right-hander can also earn some additional money via performances bonuses.  Salas posted an 0.90 ERA, 7.2 K/9, and just two walks over 10 spring innings for the D’Backs, an impressive performance that won him a slot on the 25-man roster.
  • Even though the Dodgers made moves to get under the luxury tax threshold this winter, ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) isn’t certain that this team will use the reset of their tax penalties to pursue a big-name free agent like Manny Machado or Bryce Harper.  Splurging on a decade-long contract for Machado or Harper would seem to run counter to how president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman works, though Olney wonders if Friedman could pursue a tactic like offering a shorter-term deal but with a higher average annual value.  Of course, L.A. could also spend in different ways next winter, such as acquiring an expensive player in a trade, or (most importantly) exploring an extension for Clayton Kershaw, who can opt out of his current deal after the season.
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