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Outrighted: Hurst, Paulino, Morimando

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A trio of players have been passed through outright waivers:

  • Cardinals outfielder Scott Hurst will remain at Triple-A Memphis after he cleared waivers. Hurst made his first five big league plate appearances in April but he’s spent the past few months with Memphis. It’s been a difficult season for the lefty-hitting Hurst, who has just a .186/.289/.270 line over 251 plate appearances with the Redbirds.
  • The Phillies have sent right-hander David Paulino to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The former Astro and Blue Jay was selected to Philadelphia’s big league club last week. He got into a major league game for the first time since 2018, allowing two runs in as many innings during a loss to the Reds before being designated for assignment. The 27-year-old Paulino has spent the bulk of the year with the IronPigs, working to a 4.35 ERA over 51 2/3 innings.
  • Marlins left-hander Shawn Morimando has been outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. He has the right to elect free agency but has seemingly accepted the assignment, as he’s listed on the Jumbo Shrimp active roster. That’s not especially surprising, as Morimando had twice previously accepted outright assignments after being waived earlier in the year. The 28-year-old southpaw has a 9.58 ERA over 10 1/3 innings with the Fish this season.

Pirates Designate John Nogowski For Assignment

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The Pirates are designating first baseman John Nogowski for assignment, manager Derek Shelton told reporters (including Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). Pittsburgh has also finalized their signing of first baseman/corner outfielder Yoshi Tsutsugo to a major league contract. He’ll be active for tonight’s game against the Dodgers.

Pittsburgh picked up Nogowski from the division rival Cardinals for cash considerations last month. He hit well in his first couple weeks with the Bucs but has seen his bat crater recently. Altogether, Nogowski has compiled just a .233/.301/.310 line over 143 plate appearances split between St. Louis and Pittsburgh this year.

Nogowski will find himself on waivers in the next few days. The 28-year-old has had a tough season but he’s an accomplished minor league hitter. Nogowksi owns a .270/.386/.431 line in parts of two Triple-A seasons and has a .295/.380/.424 mark in three years at Double-A. That high minors track record could pique the interest of another club. Nogowski still has another minor league option year remaining, so any claiming team could move him between the majors and Triple-A through the end of the 2022 season if they keep him on the 40-man roster.

Red Sox Release Marwin Gonzalez

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The Red Sox announced they’ve released utilityman Marwin González. That was the expected outcome after Boston designated the 32-year-old for assignment last week. The Sox also officially added waiver claim Travis Shaw to the active roster and optioned outfielder Franchy Cordero and catcher Connor Wong to Triple-A Worcester.

Signed to a one-year deal over the winter, González’s tenure in Boston was a disappointment. He hit a career-worst .202/.281/.285 with two home runs across 271 plate appearances. That marked his second consecutive very poor season at the plate, as González also struggled last year — his final with the Twins. His monstrous 2017 season looks like an outlier, but González hit at a league average level from 2018-19 before falling off over the past two years.

González inked a $3MM guarantee, around $738K of which is still due to be paid out. Any club that claims González off waivers would assume that obligation, but it seems more likely the switch-hitter will pass through unclaimed and reach free agency, leaving the Red Sox on the hook for the money. At that point, another team could sign González and would owe him the prorated league minimum salary for any time he spends on the big league roster, which would be subtracted from what he’s owed by Boston. If González lands elsewhere before August 31, he’d be eligible for his new team’s postseason roster.

The Red Sox are off tonight but will have a doubleheader against the Yankees tomorrow. Tanner Houck will be recalled as the 27th man to start one half of that twin bill. Boston’s pair of optional assignments leaves another active roster spot open, and Ian Browne of MLB.com notes the hope is reliever Josh Taylor will be activated from the injured list tomorrow. Taylor landed on the COVID-19 IL over the weekend but has apparently not tested positive to this point. If Taylor is indeed ready for reinstatement, Boston will need to create a 40-man roster spot.

Padres Sign Jake Arrieta

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The Padres are taking a flier on Jake Arrieta, announcing a deal with the veteran right-hander this afternoon. While San Diego technically inked Arrieta to a minor league contract, the club announced they plan to formally select him to the big league roster on Wednesday, when he’ll get make his team debut with a start against the Rockies. San Diego already has a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard unless they add somebody to the roster in the intervening two days. Arrieta is repped by the Boras Corporation.

San Diego suddenly finds itself desperate for innings — a scenario few would’ve anticipated after an offseason in which the Friars acquired Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove to strengthen a rotation that already looked to have a fair bit of depth. However, Darvish was placed on the injured list yesterday owing to back issues, and the Padres are also currently without Chris Paddack (oblique strain), Dinelson Lamet (forearm inflammation, hip surgery) and Adrian Morejon (Tommy John surgery). Touted prospect MacKenzie Gore hasn’t pitched in a game since June 13, as he was sent back to the team’s Spring Training complex to work on mechanical issues not long after.

Arrieta will give the Padres a veteran option to soak up some innings, but the extent of his struggles with the Cubs underscore the dire nature of the need for arms in San Diego at the moment. While Arrieta got out to a nice start after signing a one-year, $6.5MM deal to return to the Cubs, his production cratered after a handful of solid outings to begin the season.

Arrieta pitched to a 2.57 ERA through his first five starts but has since been shellacked for 58 runs in 58 1/3 innings. He completed six innings just one time in those 15 outings and completed five frames in just six of them. And while a few poor outings can always skew a few months’ worth of numbers, that isn’t necessarily the case here; Arrieta allowed at least four runs in 10 of those 15 starts. This year’s 90.8 mph average fastball is the lowest of his career and represents a two mile-per-hour drop from last year’s levels.

Of course, Arrieta was once one of the game’s best arms. He followed up a strong first half in 2015 with a historically dominant second half, cruising to a National League Cy Young Award and a sixth-place finish in NL MVP voting. He went on to throw a shutout in his postseason debut in 2015. That was followed by All-Star campaign in 2016, which featured 197 1/3 innings of 3.10 ERA ball, and Arrieta posted a 3.63 ERA in 22 1/3 postseason frames as the Cubs marched to a World Series victory. Broadly speaking, he was one of the primary drivers behind the Cubs’ transformation into a perennial contender during his initial run there.

That all feels like a distant memory after three lackluster years in Philadelphia, an elbow surgery, and this year’s unsuccessful Wrigley reunion. The Padres will hope a change of scenery can lead to some late-season lightning in a bottle, but the mounting number of rotation injuries has left their grip on the second NL Wild Card spot feeling more tenuous than ever. What was a six-game lead over the Reds as recently as July 27 has been whittled away to a 2.5-game lead over their closest competitors in Cincinnati.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the sides were close to a deal. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was first to report the Padres were among the teams with interest in Arrieta. Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the sides had an agreement and that Arrieta would get the start on Wednesday. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Marlins Designate Deven Marrero For Assignment

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The Marlins announced they’ve designated infielder Deven Marrero for assignment. Outfielder Jesús Sánchez is being reinstated from a stint on the COVID-19 injured list in a corresponding move. Miami already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, but Marrero is out of minor league options, meaning he had to be placed on waivers in order to be bumped from the big league club.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see Marrero pass through waivers unclaimed, seeing as he’s already done so three times this season. Despite having only eleven MLB plate appearances in 2021, the 30-year-old has rather remarkably been selected and designated for assignment on four separate occasions. Each time before, he’s accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Jacksonville in lieu of free agency.

Marrero, who’s also seen big league time with the Red Sox and Diamondbacks, has gotten more extensive playing time with Jacksonville this year. The right-handed hitter has compiled a .252/.327/.397 line across 150 plate appearances with the Jumbo Shrimp.

Rays Select Chris Ellis

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The Rays announced they’ve selected right-hander Chris Ellis to the big leagues. Fellow righty DJ Johnson has been transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40–man roster, while southpaw Ryan Sherriff was optioned to Triple-A Durham to clear active roster space.

Ellis was originally a third-round pick of the Angels in 2014. A fairly well-regarded pitching prospect early in his career, he was traded to the Braves (as part of the Andrelton Simmons deal) and then to the Cardinals (as part of the return for Jaime García). He never made it to the majors with St. Louis, but he did log one big league appearance with the 2019 Royals as a Rule 5 pick.

Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, Ellis has spent the season with Triple-A Durham. He’s had a rough go of things in a hitter-friendly Triple-A environment, pitching to a 6.32 ERA over 15 appearances (13 starts). Ellis’ strikeout and walk rates (22.7% and 10.9%, respectively) are both a little worse than league average, but his biggest issue has been the home run ball. Ellis has coughed up 14 homers over 57 innings with the Bulls (a lofty 2.21 HR/9).

Ellis is at least stretched out, though, making him equipped to work multiple innings if needed. He’s worked five-plus innings in each of his four most recent starts with Durham, so he’ll serve as a swingman for a Rays pitching staff that has been hit hard by injuries this season. Ellis still has all three minor league option years remaining, so the Rays can move him back-and-forth between Tampa Bay and Durham without exposing him to waivers so long as he sticks on the 40-man roster.

The Rays acquired Johnson from the Indians just before the July 30 trade deadline. The 31-year-old only made three appearances with his new club before going down with the shoulder injury August 8, which manager Kevin Cash described at the time as “pretty severe.” Today’s transfer officially rules Johnson out for the remainder of the regular season. While he could technically return for a Tampa Bay postseason run, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s instead shut down for the year altogether.

Yankees Activate Gerrit Cole, Transfer Clint Frazier To 60-Day IL

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The Yankees have reinstated Gerrit Cole from the injured list, per a club announcement. Right-hander Brooks Kriske, who’d been up as a replacement player, was returned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move.

Meanwhile, the Yankees transferred outfielder Clint Frazier from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. That opens up a 40-man spot for Cole, who’d temporarily been removed while on the Covid list, but the Yankees also indicated that Frazier’s rehab stint in Triple-A has been halted. No further word has been provided on his status at this time. Frazier has already been out since July 1; the move to the 60-day IL means he can’t return until the end of August.

Cole tested positive for Covid-19 back on Aug. 2 and wound up missing two weeks of action. He’ll jump back into the mix at a time when the Yankees have won 12 of 16 games since the July 30 trade deadline to pull within five and a half games of the American League East lead and just two and a half games of the second American League Wild Card spot.

Cole, who signed the largest contract of any pitcher in MLB history two offseasons ago, has pitched to a 3.11 ERA with a 34.4 percent strikeout rate and 5.5 percent walk rate in 130 1/3 frames thus far for the Yankees in 2021. He was one of the focal points of Major League Baseball’s crackdown on the usage of foreign substances by pitchers. He’s had his share of slips along the way since the league implemented foreign-substance checks for pitchers, but Cole has also looked like every bit the ace that signed that record contract at times since the new enforcement of the policy; he punched out 12 hitters in a shutout of the Astros on July 10 and followed with 11 strikeouts in six innings of one-run ball against the Red Sox his next time out.

As for Frazier, it’s a concerning development in the outfielder’s health outlook. He was placed originally placed on the injured list with dizziness, vision problems and other symptoms perhaps consistent with vertigo. That was said to have been ruled out early in the process, however, and there’s been no firm indication as to what is at the root of the issue. He’d recently returned the field and gone 4-for-10 with a double in three games, but it now seems he’ll step back from playing in games as the team further evaluates his status.

Frazier, 26, had a big showing in 2020, hitting .267/.394/.511 with eight homers, six doubles and a triple through 39 games and 160 plate appearances. He looked poised to step up as an everyday option in left field for the Yanks, but in 218 plate appearances this year he’s batted just .186/.317/.317.

Rays Sign David Robertson

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The Rays are adding some big-name bullpen depth for the final six weeks of the season, announcing on Monday that they’ve signed right-hander David Robertson to a Major League contract. Robertson, who just pitched for Team USA during the Summer Olympics, will head to Triple-A for a tune-up for the time being. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs, who’d been out with a knee sprain, has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

David Robertson | Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Robertson, 36, will be aiming to return to a big league mound for the first time since early in the 2019 season. He reached free agency for the second time of his career on the heels of a strong season with the Yankees in 2018 and wound up inking a two-year, $23MM deal to serve as the Phillies’ closer. He was entering his age-34 season at the time and had been the game’s most durable reliever in the nine prior seasons — averaging 65 appearances and 65 innings per year without ever incurring a major arm injury.

As has so often been the case with relievers acquired by the Phillies in recent years, however, things simply didn’t go according to plan. The ultra-durable Robertson hit the injured list early in the 2019 campaign, and by season’s end it was clear that he’d require Tommy John surgery. He missed the entire 2020 campaign as well and ultimately only pitched 6 2/3 frames as a member of the Phils.

Robertson received some interest from clubs during Spring Training but opted not to sign prior to the season. Instead, he wound up as one of a handful of highly recognizable veterans who pitched for the United States during the Olympic Games this summer, eventually earning a Silver Medal. Robertson tossed three innings during tournament play and yielded a pair of runs — not ideal results, but the event also served to demonstrate his health for contenders in need of bullpen depth.

From 2010-18, Robertson was one of the game’s most consistent and most successful relievers. He racked up 583 innings between the Yankees and White Sox in that time, pitching to a 2.72 ERA with a brilliant 32.6 percent strikeout rate and a 9.3 percent walk rate. He served as a setup man for Mariano Rivera for much of that time but eventually stepped up as the Yankees’ closer in their first post-Rivera season before inking a four-year, $46MM deal to serve as the White Sox’ closer.

Time will tell what type of form Robertson is in at this juncture of his career, but for the Rays there’s no reason not to take a look and see if Robertson can recapture some of his old form. If he’s able to do so, he’d not only be a major boost to the team down the stretch but also in pivotal postseason games. Tampa Bay currently leads the American League East by three games.

As for Springs, it’s an unfortunate outcome for the 28-year-old southpaw, who’d had a career year in Tampa Bay. Acquired in a deal that sent former top catching prospect Ronaldo Hernandez to Boston, Springs worked to a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 frames with the Rays before going down with a knee sprain. While he said at the time of the injury that he hoped to be back in a matter of two to four weeks, it seems the damage was either worse than initially expected or perhaps worsened during Springs’ rehab efforts. He underwent surgery to repair an ACL tear today, which will end his season and call for a rehab process that could potentially linger into 2022.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the move (Twitter link).

White Sox Designate Zack Burdi For Assignment

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The White Sox announced Monday that they have designated right-hander Zack Burdi for assignment to clear a spot for right-hander Mike Wright, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago also placed outfielder Adam Engel on the 10-day IL with inflammation in his left shoulder, recalled righty Ryan Burr from Charlotte and optioned righty Matt Foster to Charlotte.

Burdi, 26, was a first-round pick out of Louisville back in 2016. As was the case with his older brother, Nick, he was drafted as a flamethrowing righty with the potential to emerge as a dominant late-inning reliever. Unfortunately, both Burdi brothers have been repeatedly hindered by injuries. Both had Tommy John surgery — Zack’s back in 2018 — and Zack has also missed significant time due to a torn patellar tendon in his knee.

Those injuries, as one would expect, have limited Burdi’s time on the field. He’s pitched just 16 1/3 innings in the Majors, all coming since Opening Day 2020, and allowed 15 runs in that time. The damage has come largely on the strength of an alarmins seven home runs, which have been a problem for the younger Burdi throughout the upper minors (combined 1.40 HR/9 between Double-A and Triple-A).

Despite being drafted back in 2016, Burdi has thrown just 141 1/3 innings total innings between the big leagues and the minors. He’ll have one more minor league option remaining beyond the 2021 season, however, so a club that’s intrigued by the raw arm strength could potentially overlook the 7.30 ERA and eight home runs he’s logged in 24 2/3 innings of Triple-A this season in order to take a speculative look. With the trade deadline now passed, Burdi will be placed on outright waivers within the next week.

Wright, 31, has pitched 258 innings in the big leagues and had his own struggles, working to a combined 6.00 ERA between the Orioles and the Mariners. He spent the 2020 season with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization and posted a 4.68 ERA in 157 2/3 innings before returning to the U.S. on a minor league deal with the ChiSox. He’s made 16 starts and compiled a 3.40 ERA in 95 1/3 frames with the Knights this year, striking out 23 percent of his opponents against a 7.4 percent walk rate with a 47.7 percent ground-ball rate.

The loss of the 29-year-old Engel for a yet-to-be-determined period of time stings a bit, given the outfielder’s breakout showing at the dish. Engel had a terrific 2020 season, albeit in just 93 plate appearances, and has largely backed that up with a similarly strong showing in 121 trips to the plate this year. He’s hitting .269/.336/.492 across the past two seasons, with 10 homers, 11 doubles, a triple and eight steals in his past 214 big league plate appearances.

Chicago recently welcomed stars Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez back from the injured list, and the South Siders have also gotten fine work from Brian Goodwin and first baseman-turned-outfielder Andrew Vaughn. They’re certainly equipped to handle the loss, particularly with the AL Central already effectively wrapped up, but the hope is obviously that Engel will return in short order to give the club as much depth as possible for the forthcoming postseason run.

Pirates Designate Ka’ai Tom For Assignment

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The Pirates have reinstated outfielder Ka’ai Tom from the 10-day injured list and designated him for assignment rather than adding him back to the active roster, per a club announcement. Pittsburgh claimed Tom off waivers from the A’s earlier this season. He was Oakland’s Rule 5 pick out of the Indians organization and must now be offered back to Cleveland if he goes unclaimed on outright waivers.

Tom, 26, hit the injured list earlier this month with a lower back strain that has now apparently healed sufficiently. He scarcely got a look in Oakland before being designated for assignment there, but the Bucs have given him a lengthier leash in Pittsburgh before making today’s decision. In 117 plate appearances since being claimed by the Pirates, Tom struggled to a .152/.308/.261 batting line.

It hasn’t been an auspicious MLB debut for the Hawaii native and 2015 fifth-rounder, but Tom has a strong track record in the upper minors with Cleveland, so it’s easy to see why multiple outfield-needy clubs have been intrigued. He’s a .296/.362/.558 hitter in 229 Triple-A plate appearances and has also posted a .261/.351/.444 slash in 827 plate appearances at the much more pitcher-friendly Double-A level.

Tom has walked at a robust 11.1 percent clip in his minor league career to date against a manageable 19.5 percent strikeout rate. He slugged a career-best 23 long balls between Double-A and Triple-A in his most recent full season, in 2019, and has five seasons with double-digit stolen base totals under his belt — including a career-best 23 swiped back in 2017. He obviously hasn’t produced much yet in the big league opportunities he’s gotten this season, but the Bucs claimed him earlier in the season with one of the top waiver priorities in the game.

Other teams will at least have the opportunity to add him and hang onto him for the final few weeks of the season. Should a team choose to do so, Tom has enough time on the active roster this year that his Rule 5 restrictions would be lifted in 2022. In other words, any team that claims him and hangs onto him for another six weeks would be able to freely option Tom in 2022 — though they’d also have to carry him on the 40-man roster all offseason.

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