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Dodgers Acquire Breyvic Valera

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The Dodgers have acquired infielder Breyvic Valera from the Cardinals for minor league outfielder Johan Mieses, according to an announcement from St. Louis.

The 26-year-old Valera spent a bit of time in limbo after the Cardinals designated him for assignment on Wednesday. He’s now set to join his second major league organization since signing with the Redbirds as a Venezuelan prospect in 2010. Valera saw minimal time in St. Louis (11 plate appearances, all of which came last season), but he climbed to the Triple-A level in 2016 and impressed there through last season. The switch-hitting Valera owns a .323/.386/.438 line in 727 PAs at the minors’ highest level, and with a pair of options remaining, he should serve as Triple-A depth with the Dodgers.

Mieses, 22, signed with the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic prior to the 2013 campaign. He then had some success at the minors’ lowest levels through last season, when he batted .353/.411/.707 in 129 PAs in high-A ball. But Mieses struggled mightily in his first Double-A action – .160/.246/.347 in 329 plate trips – and did not rank among the Dodgers’ top 30 prospects at MLB.com. Mieses will begin his Cards tenure at the Single-A level, they announced.

Athletics Acquire Josh Lucas From Cardinals

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The Cardinals and Athletics have swapped a pair of right-handers. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that reliever Josh Lucas is headed to the A’s, with the Cardinals receiving minor-league starter Casey Meisner in exchange.

The 27-year-old Lucas made his majors debut last season with St. Louis, tossing 7 1/3 relief innings across five appearances. He struck out seven hitters and walked four while allowing three earned runs. Across the past two seasons in the Cardinals’ farm system, the righty posted a K/9 north of 10 and a ground ball rate of nearly 50%. He has 49 career MiLB saves, but was designated for assignment by the Cards earlier this week, a move that came as something of a surprise considering that Lucas seems to carry some upside.

The towering 6’7″ Meisner had a solid showing with the A’s High-A affiliate last season, posting a 3.98 ERA with 9.64 K/9. However, he struggled a bit upon a midseason promotion to Double-A; after that point, the 22-year-old averaged fewer than five innings per start while seeing his walk rate nearly double and his strikeout rate plummet to 5.64 K/9. Meisner was selected by the Mets in the third round of the 2013 draft, and subsequently traded to the A’s in exchange for reliever Tyler Clippard.

Cardinals Place Brett Cecil on DL, Recall Ryan Sherriff; Alex Reyes Moved To 60-Day DL

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Minutes after the Greg Holland signing became official, the Cardinals placed left-hander Brett Cecil on the 10-day disabled list with a left shoulder strain, and recalled left-hander Ryan Sherriff from Triple-A in a corresponding move. The club also transferred right-hander Alex Reyes from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL in order to make room for Holland.

The news of Cecil’s injury comes as something of a surprise, and is upsetting news to a Cardinals club that’s currently without Luke Gregerson and will need to wait for Holland to work his way back into game shape. The lefty’s 2017 performance was middling, as he pitched to a 3.88 ERA and 3.65 xFIP with just 8.82 K/9 after exceeding 11 K/9 in each of his previous three seasons. Hope for a another strikeout-heavy campaign isn’t off to a good start with news of a shoulder injury about which we don’t yet know the severity.

The 31-year-old Cecil has been a reliable setup man since his first full season as a starter-turned-reliever in 2013. In the past five seasons with the Blue Jays and Cardinals, the southpaw owns a 3.14 ERA with 327 strikeouts in 272 2/3 innings to go with 12 saves and 66 holds. Cecil also sports an impressive 48.2% ground ball rate during that time.

For Reyes, being transferred to the 60-day DL means the Redbirds’ top prospect won’t be eligible to pitch for the team until at least May 28th. It’s a quick change of heart for a team that only recently said that the fireballer, who underwent Tommy John surgery last year, wouldn’t be moved to the 60-day DL. The club doesn’t have much rotation depth beyond Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, Luke Weaver, Miles Mikolas and Jack Flaherty, particularly following an offseason trade of Sandy Alcantara to the Marlins as part of a package for Marcell Ozuna.

Sherriff, 27, has just 13 major league appearances to his name, all coming in the latter half of 2017. The lefty showed well in a small sample, striking out 15 hitters while allowing just five earned runs. For his MiLB career, Sherriff has proved something of a ground ball phenom, topping 56% in three of his past four seasons. He’s spent his entire career in the Cardinals organization after being selected in the 28th round of the 2011 draft.

Cardinals Sign Greg Holland

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March 31: The Cardinals have made the signing official.

March 30: Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that Holland’s salary is not pro-rated. He will earn the full $14MM sum regardless of when he is added to the big league roster. Beyond that, his contract comes with the standard awards bonus package ($50K for All-Star or a playoff MVP Award, $250K for Rivera/Hoffman Relief Award, etc.).

It does not, however, sound like anything will be finalized today. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that the Cards are still reviewing his physical and still need to lay out a preparation plan for Holland to get into game shape.

March 29, 10:35am: Heyman tweets that Holland will earn $14MM on a one-year deal with the Cardinals.

10:25am: Mark Saxon of The Athletic reports that the two sides have agreed to terms on a deal (Twitter link). The contract is still pending a physical.

10:16am: The Cardinals and free-agent closer Greg Holland are moving close to a deal, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The 32-year-old Holland, a client of the Boras Corporation, is the lone remaining top-tier free agent that has yet to sign.

Greg Holland | Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Holland paced the NL with 41 saves and 58 games finished as the Rockies’ closer last season but stands alone as the last remaining top-tier free agent on the open market. Reports have indicated that the righty received an offer to return to the Rockies earlier this winter, but Colorado pivoted and signed Wade Davis after Holland didn’t bite on their initial proposal.

St. Louis will stand to benefit from a collapsed market, as they’ll now land one of the better available relievers of the winter for a value that falls shy of the $17.2MM qualifying offer and $15MM player option that Holland rejected back in November. The Cards had previously been set to enter the season with Luke Gregerson handling ninth-inning duties, but the veteran Gregerson has been slowed by an oblique injury in camp and, more recently, a hamstring issue that will shelve him to open the year. Dominic Leone figures to open the season in the ninth, though he could very well give way to Holland once the former All-Star works his way into game shape.

The Cardinals, clearly, will be hoping for the dominant form that Holland displayed through the season’s first three months before wilting in the second half of the year. August proved to be a particularly dreadful month for the former Rockies stopper, as he surrendered 14 runs on the strength of four homers in just 9 1/3 innings.

While he rebounded with a solid finish in September, Holland’s fastball velocity and location were off for much of the summer — even when his ERA wasn’t reflecting it — and his struggles returned against the Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card game. Of course, given that the 2017 season was Holland’s first back from September 2015 Tommy John surgery, it’s perhaps not surprising that he faded down the stretch. Certainly, it’s plausible that fatigue played a significant role in those difficulties.

In order to sign Holland, the Cardinals will forfeit their second-highest pick (their second-round selection) in the 2018 draft as well as $500K of international money. Because he signed a contract for less than $50MM in total guarantees, Holland will net the Rockies a draft pick after Competitive Balance Round B — in the 75 to 80 range of the draft.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cardinals Designate Josh Lucas, Breyvic Valera

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The Cardinals have designated righty Josh Lucas and infielder Breyvic Valera, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via Twitter). That’ll open space on the 40-man for the team to select the contracts of reliever Jordan Hicks and catcher Francisco Pena.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see Lucas, who generates whiffs and grounders at solid rates, bounced from the 40-man. He is coming off of a spring showing in which he recorded 11 1/3 scoreless innings with a dozen strikeouts while permitting only four base hits and a pair of walks. Lucas briefly reached the majors last year after throwing sixty frames of 3.15 ERA ball, with 10.2 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9, at the Triple-A level.

As for the 26-year-old Valera, who is mostly a second baseman but has played a variety of other positions as well, he too briefly cracked the bigs last year. Playing at Triple-A for most of the season, he carried a .314/.368/.450 batting line — his best full-season effort as a pro — through 470 plate appearances. Valera showed a big leap in power with eight long balls, topping his career tally to that point. He also walked as much or more than he struck out for the sixth time in eight professional campaigns.

Cardinals To Add Jordan Hicks To Opening Day Roster

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The Cardinals will include right-hander Jordan Hicks on their 25-man roster, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, with the move becoming official on Wednesday or Thursday morning.  Righty John Brebbia will be optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding transactions once Hicks’ contract has been selected.

A third-round pick for St. Louis in the 2015 draft, Hicks has looked good in Spring Training, posting a 2.35 ERA and recording eight strikeouts against just one walk over 7 2/3 innings.  Despite this strong performance, this is quite an aggressive promotion for the Cards, as Hicks will be entirely skipping both Double-A and Triple-A en route to the majors.  He posted good but not dominant numbers (2.82 ERA, 7.4 K/9, 1.85 K/BB rate) over 165 2/3 innings in the minors and was a well-regarded but not elite prospect, ranked as the sixth-best minor leaguer in the Cardinals’ farm system by both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus.

[Updated Cardinals depth chart at Roster Resource]

Despite this lack of a standout pedigree, Hicks obviously impressed Cardinals officials during the spring and offers even more potential as a bullpen weapon.  Just three of Hicks’ 34 career appearances in the minors have come as a reliever, though the 2018 Baseball America Prospect Handbook predicted that relief pitching could be Hicks’ ultimate future due to some issues with his control and command.  Hicks offers an arsenal of two excellent pitches that would seem to lend itself to bullpen work, including a power curveball “that draws plus-plus grades from evaluators,” according to BA.  He is best known, however, for a fastball that routinely averages in the mid-90’s, and he has touched the 102-mph threshold this spring.

This type of velocity could be even more dangerous in short bursts as a reliever, and Hicks’ inclusion on the roster adds another fascinating wrinkle to the Cardinals’ closing situation.  Luke Gregerson was signed this winter to ostensibly work as the St. Louis closer, though it seems as if the team will take something of a situational approach to the ninth inning, especially since Gregerson will start the season on the DL.  Tyler Lyons and Dominic Leone look like the top choices for saves right now, though there have been rumors that the Cards are still interested in free agent Greg Holland.  Should Hicks impress early in the season, however, his power arm could quickly move him up the depth chart and potentially get him into the closer mix as well.

Adam Wainwright To Start Season On DL

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  • The Cardinals scratched Adam Wainwright from his start Sunday, and president John Mozeliak told reporters (including Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that the right-hander is dealing with a hamstring injury. Consequently, Wainwright will start the season on the disabled list, and righty Jack Flaherty will replace him, Joe Trezza of MLB.com reports. The 36-year-old Wainwright was on the shelf for a large portion of last season because of elbow problems, and he managed some of the worst run prevention numbers of his stellar career during the abbreviated campaign. Across 123 1/3 innings, the former ace pitched to a personal-high 5.11 ERA, though he did post a 4.29 FIP with 7.01 K/9, 3.28 BB/9 and a 47.2 percent groundball rate.

Cardinals Have Checked In On Greg Holland

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  • Jim Bowden of The Athletic confirms in a tweet that the Braves, Diamondbacks and Cardinals have all checked in on free agent reliever Greg Holland. However, none of them feel as though they can be competitive financially based on the right-hander’s current asking price. Bowden suggests that Holland should take the best offer on the table. With less than a week left until opening day, it’s hard to argue that point.

Injury Notes: Sale, Pomeranz, Rodriguez, Gregerson, Lincecum, Hughes

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Red Sox starter Chris Sale left today’s start after being struck by a comebacker off the bat of J.D. Davis. Chad Jennings of the Boston Herald was first to tweet that the club called it a hip contusion. Thankfully for fans in Boston, the X-rays on his hip came back negative (according to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). For his part, Sale himself has said that he feels fine and that it “looked a lot worse than it actually is.” The lack of serious injury to their prized left-hander brings a sigh of relief to the Red Sox, as they need him now more than ever; Alex Cora announced today that both Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz will begin the season on the DL (h/t Sean McAdams of the Boston Sports Journal). With Steven Wright set to face a 15-game suspension, that leaves Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez at the back end of the club’s rotation. With David Price no sure bet to stay healthy, any questions surrounding Sale would have been wildly unsettling for a club hoping to compete with a tough Yankees ballclub for the AL East crown.

Other injury-related news from around the league…

  • Luke Gregerson, who was projected to be the Cardinals’ closer on opening day, will instead begin the season on the DL. Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch outlines the news, which comes as a result of a hamstring strain. The usually-durable Gregerson had also dealt with an oblique injury earlier in the spring, and it’s unclear when he’ll be able to return to major-league action. According to Jon Morosi of MLB.com, the club has said that Dominic Leone or Tyler Lyons will receive closing opportunities. They do not appear close to any sort of deal with free agent closer Greg Holland at this time, Morosi adds.
  • Speaking of right-handers who’ll begin the season on the DL, Tim Lincecum’s blister issues will put him in that company as well. Lincecum joined the Rangers on a one-year deal with a $1MM base salary just weeks ago and didn’t pitch competitively in 2017; by his own words, he was unlikely to be ready for opening day anyway. Still, the blister issue will delay The Freak’s comeback bid, which will be an interesting story to watch as the season progresses considering how much he impressed scouts in a February showcase. Lincecum’s last MLB stint was with the Angels in 2016, when he posted a 9.16 ERA across 38 1/3 innings (nine starts).
  • Twins right-hander Phil Hughes has a mild oblique strain, according to a tweet from Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. Berardino adds that a DL stint would give him more time to build up arm strength following surgery, though I’d add that Hughes might simply be utilized in a long relief role anyway. For the time being, the Twins will continue to evaluate Hughes.

Cardinals Notes: Gregerson, Munoz, Molina, Kelly

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Some items out of the Cardinals’ camp…

  • Righty Luke Gregerson is dealing with a minor hamstring problem and didn’t travel with the team for today’s Spring Training road game, Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (Twitter link).  Gregerson has been limited to just three outings this spring due to a minor oblique injury, and while the severity this new issue isn’t known, it can’t be a good sign with less than a week before Opening Day.  John Mozeliak’s recent comments about the Cardinals’ plans for a flexible approach to the ninth inning has brought further lack of clarity to Gregerson’s role, as he was initially slated to be the team’s closer when signed to a two-year, $11MM deal in December.  Dominic Leone, another offseason acquisition, has recently been mentioned as a potential candidate for saves, plus the Cardinals have been reportedly interested in Greg Holland, who still remains unsigned as we approach the end of March.
  • Yairo Munoz has made the 25-man roster, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza and others reported.  Munoz was acquired from Oakland as part of the Stephen Piscotty trade and wasn’t expected to contend for a big league job this spring, but Munoz forced the issue by hitting .375/.423/.625 over 52 plate appearances.  This red-hot bat and Munoz’s capability of playing virtually every spot on the diamond gave him the edge for a bench job over Harrison Bader and Luke Voit, who were optioned to Triple-A.  Munoz will be one of several multi-position players on the St. Louis roster as the Cards plan to regularly juggle their lineups to keep everyone fresh and regularly receiving playing time.
  • As part of a piece about Yadier Molina’s durability for The Athletic (subscription required), Bernie Miklasz observed that the Cardinals’ recent assignment of top catching prospect Carson Kelly to Triple-A means that Kelly won’t accumulate the MLB service time he would’ve received had he won the job as Molina’s backup.  This could make Kelly more attractive to potential trade suitors, as Kelly has just 102 days of service time accumulated and is controllable through the 2023 season.  Of course, the Cards’ primary reason for the assignment is also valid, as they want Kelly to get regular playing time rather than see him sit on the big league bench, as the durable Molina is showing no signs of cutting back on his workload even as he enters his age-35 season.  Molina is signed through the 2020 season, so there will inevitably continue to be speculation about Kelly as a possible trade chip.
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