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Cardinals Select T.J. McFarland

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The Cardinals announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander T.J. McFarland. Fellow southpaw Brandon Waddell was optioned to Triple-A Memphis and placed on the Covid-19-related injured list in a corresponding move.

McFarland, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Cards earlier this summer. He’s since appeared in four games, holding opponents to a pair of runs on six hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in seven frames. Swapping out Waddell for McFarland will keep three lefties in manager Mike Shildt’s bullpen, as McFarland will join Genesis Cabrera and Andrew Miller in the Cardinals’ relief corps.

An eight-year Major League veteran, McFarland last pitched in the Majors with the 2020 A’s, for whom he notched 20 2/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball. He’s never missed many bats, but McFarland has solid control and is among the game’s best relievers in terms of keeping the ball on the ground. He’s pitched 401 innings since his 2013 MLB debut and compiled a 4.08 ERA with a 13.6 percent strikeout rate, a 7.6 percent walk rate and a gaudy 62.8 percent ground-ball rate.

White Sox Acquire Deivy Grullon

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The White Sox have acquired catcher Deivy Grullon from the Rays in exchange for cash considerations, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter link).

With Yasmani Grandal still recovering from knee surgery, it isn’t surprising that the White Sox are looking to add to their catching depth.  Zack Collins has been starting while Grandal is sidelined, with Seby Zavala as the backup and Yermin Mercedes (who has caught in a couple of games but is primarily a DH) is at Triple-A trying to get his swing on track.  Grullon adds another backstop with at least some MLB experience to the mix.

It represents an opportunity for Grullon to perhaps finally get another crack at the big leagues after a number of different uniform changes over the last 10 months.  Originally with the Phillies last September, Grullon has been claimed off waivers five times by four different teams — the Red Sox, Reds, Rays, Mets, and then the Rays again back in May.

Grullon appeared in one game with Boston in 2020, after debuting with four appearances for Philadelphia during the 2019 season.  A veteran of eight minor league seasons, the 25-year-old Grullon didn’t show much at the plate until 2018, when he hit 21 homers over 353 plate appearances for the Phillies’ Double-A affiliate.  He has had a lot of success at the Triple-A level, hitting .265/.340/.488 with 29 homers in 574 Triple-A plate appearances.

Astros Release Hector Velazquez

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The Astros have released right-hander Hector Velazquez, as per the official transactions page for Triple-A West.  According to multiple reports out of Mexico, Velazquez will now pitch for Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League, and he will also be a part of Mexico’s national baseball team roster for the Olympics.

Velazquez posted a 3.90 ERA over 166 innings for the Red Sox from 2017-18, chipping in as both a long reliever and occasional spot starter (or opener) over his 89 games with the team.  After struggling in 2019, however, Velazquez was designated for assignment during Spring Training 2020 and then claimed by the Orioles, before being traded to Houston in July 2020.

Despite these changes of scenery, Velazquez still hasn’t pitched in a big league game since 2019.  The righty had a 1.46 ERA and a 21.8% strikeout rate over 24 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, yet even though the Astros have dealt with a number of pitching injuries this season, it seemed as though Velasquez simply wasn’t in the team’s plans.

He’ll now return to his old stomping grounds, as Velazquez previously pitched in the Mexican League from 2010-2016.  The last of those seasons was also with Monclova, with Velazquez posting an impressive 2.47 ERA over 22 starts and 131 1/3 innings.  The Red Sox purchased his contract following that strong season.

Yankees To Place Hoy Jun Park On Taxi Squad

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The Yankees have placed infielder Hoy Jun Park on the team’s taxi squad, according to The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler (via Twitter).  Reporter Daniel Kim (Twitter link) said earlier today that Park was being called up to the Yankees, and such a move could quite possibly still be imminent, given that infielder Gio Urshela is reportedly in COVID-19 protocol.  Park is not on New York’s 40-man roster, though the team has roster space available and won’t need to make a corresponding move if/when Park’s contract is officially selected.

Though MLB Pipeline doesn’t rank Park among the Yankees’ top 30 prospects, the Seoul native has been crushing Triple-A pitching this season, batting .325/.475/.541 with eight home runs over 206 plate appearances.  This is a marked increase from Park’s numbers in five previous minor league seasons, as he offered some good on-base skills but little in the way of power.  Even with this year’s Triple-A dominance factored in, Park has a pretty modest .254/.366/.369 slash line over 2411 career PA in New York’s farm system.

Still, there’s no real risk for the Yankees in riding the hot hand, especially since the club may need some roster reinforcements in short order.  Kim doesn’t know if Park’s call-up is specifically related to the COVID situation, as Park’s Triple-A numbers were already making a strong case for a promotion.

An international signing back in July 2014, Park offers some added value to the Yankees beyond his bat.  Park has 116 stolen bases (from 152 chances) in the the minors, and he has displayed some defensive versatility — mostly a second baseman and shortstop during his six pro seasons, Park has also received a handful of games as a third baseman, left fielder, and center fielder.  This could indicate an opportunity for Park to supplant either Rougned Odor or Tyler Wade for backup infield duty, if he indeed gets a look on the Major League roster.

Yankees Select Trey Amburgey, Activate Zack Britton

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The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of minor league outfielder Trey Amburgey to the Major League roster and reinstated lefty Zack Britton from the 10-day injured list. In a pair of corresponding roster moves, both Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta were placed on the Covid-19-related injured list. The team has not provided further updates on their status. Players on the Covid list do not count against a team’s 40-man roster, so no further corresponding move was necessary to place Amburgey on the 40-man.

Amburgey, 26, was the team’s 13th-round pick back in 2015. He’s never been considered one of the organization’s top prospects and posted mostly average results while rising through the minor league ranks. However, his 2019 campaign in Triple-A was a bit above the league average, and his second go-around at that level has been enormously productive.

Through 161 plate appearances so far in 2021, Amburgey has tattooed Triple-A pitching at a .312/.379/.582 clip. He’s connected on seven home runs, 15 doubles and a triple while walking at a healthy 9.9 percent clip and fanning in 24.2 percent his plate appearances.

Amburgey has played the outfield corners exclusively so far in 2021, but he does have 753 innings of center-field work under his belt — including 122 innings there back in Triple-A during the 2019 season. That makes him an option to work into the mix at multiple spots, as the Yankees have received generally poor collective output from both left field (.232/.297/.363, 83 wRC+) and center field (.182/.289/.312, 71 wRC+) so far in 2021. Right fielder Aaron Judge has been characteristically excellent, both with the glove and the bat, but the outfield group as a whole has been a key factor in the Yankees’ underwhelming 2021 campaign.

The 33-year-old Britton, meanwhile, will return from his second IL stint of the season — the second a much shorter one than the first. Britton was out from Opening Day through June 12 due to arthroscopic surgery that removed bone chips from his left elbow. He tossed just 4 1/3 innings upon his activation before going down with a hamstring strain that sidelined him another three weeks.

Britton’s return will come at a time when the Yankees’ other high-priced bullpen lefty, Aroldis Chapman, has been melting down at the most alarming rate of his career. Chapman carried a near-immaculate 0.39 ERA through early June before imploding in a four-run loss to the Twins at Target Field in which he failed to retire any batters. He’s now allowed runs in five of his past ten outings, including three of his past four, and pitched to a disastrous 18.90 ERA over those ten outings. Since that June 10 meltdown, Chapman has yielded 14 earned runs on 15 hits and 11 walks in just 6 2/3 frames. Four of those hits have left the yard, and he’s also hit a batter. He’s faced 46 batters and allowed 27 of them to reach.

Given those struggles, it wouldn’t at all be a surprise to see a returning Britton and the steadier Chad Green supplant Chapman in high-leverage and/or save situations. (Although Green himself just imploded for four runs in his final first-half outing.) Britton, of course, has more closing experience than just about any “setup” man around the game, having racked up 153 saves in his career — including an AL-best 47 back in 2016 with the Orioles.

The Yankees are turning to Amburgey and Britton at a pivotal time for the club. They’ll face the division-leading Red Sox in eight of their next ten games, with the only reprieve coming via a two-game set against the Phillies.

The Yankees’ season in many ways hangs in the balance; they’re already eight games behind Boston in the AL East and four and a half games back in the AL Wild Card chase. A strong showing in these eight games could rally the club and push the front office into buy mode with the July 30 trade deadline looming, but if the Sox are able to topple the Yankees in the majority of these eight games, it could serve as a proverbial nail in the coffin of the 2021 Yankees, who’d have some interesting veterans to peddle in advance of the deadline.

Red Sox Promote Jarren Duran

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The Red Sox are promoting top outfield prospect Jarren Duran to make his major league debut tomorrow night against the Yankees, reports Joe McDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Twitter link). Boston’s 40-man roster is full, so another move is required to accommodate the formal selection of his contract.

Duran is one of the game’s more promising young talents. While he fell to the seventh round of the 2018 draft coming out Long Beach State, he immediately improved his stock upon entering pro ball. The speedster posted incredible numbers across two levels of A-ball over his first year-plus in the minors before hitting a bit of a bump in the road upon a 2019 promotion to Double-A. He spent all of 2020 at the alternate training site, where reports suggested he’d revamped his swing path to incorporate more loft in an attempt to hit for power.

Evaluators took note of Duran’s changed profile, but last year’s cancelation of the minor league season still left some question whether he’d be able to translate his new mechanics into results. He’s done all he can to answer those doubts this season, hitting a whopping .270/.365/.561 across 219 plate appearances with Triple-A Worcester. Duran has popped fifteen home runs over the year’s first half after hitting a grand total of seven round-trippers over his 880 trips to the plate between 2018-19. A livelier Triple-A baseball could account for some of that production, but there’s little question Duran’s adjustments have had a sizable impact upon his newfound power.

The improved performance has also raised Duran’s stock in the public prospect rankings sphere. Eric Longenhagen and Kevin Goldstein of FanGraphs now slot the left-handed hitting outfielder as the game’s #55 overall prospect. (Entering the season, he wasn’t among FanGraphs’ top 133 farmhands, although he did slot seventh in the site’s rankings of Red Sox minor leaguers).

Importantly, Duran’s uptick in power hasn’t come with much accompanying swing-and-miss. His 23.7% strikeout rate this season is right in line with his 2019 mark in Double-A. That’s a bit higher than his low minors strikeout percentages but not glaringly so, and there’s little question the improved batted ball authority has been worth any small dip in contact rate.

Now that he’s in the big leagues, Duran looks likely to take over center field on a regular basis. Boston has gotten very little out of the position this year, with a cumulative .236/.300/.392 mark from their group of Kiké Hernández, Alex Verdugo, Danny Santana and Hunter Renfroe. With Duran up, the Sox can rely on Verdugo and Renfroe in the corners on most days while keeping J.D. Martinez at designated hitter. That’ll push Hernández back into the utility role for which he’s best suited. Santana’s currently on the injured list, with Marwin González expected to land on the shelf as well. One of that underperforming duo could find themselves squeezed off the roster upon their return from the IL.

The Red Sox hold a 1.5 game lead over the Rays in the American League East, so Duran’s being thrust right into the thick of a pennant race. Between his combination of Triple-A production and the Sox mediocre center field situation, it had become increasingly apparent Boston should at least give Duran an opportunity to stake a claim to the job. He’ll get that chance beginning tomorrow against their archivals, over whom they have an eight-game advantage in the standings.

Duran won’t earn a full year of major league service in 2021, nor is he expected to accrue enough service time to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player. If he remains in the majors from here on out, he’ll be controllable through 2027 and won’t reach arbitration-eligibility until after the 2024 campaign.

Angels Sign Adam Eaton

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The Angels announced the signing of veteran outfielder Adam Eaton to a major league contract. To create 40-man roster space, left-hander Dillon Peters has been designated for assignment.

Eaton signed a one-year, $8MM deal with the White Sox over the offseason. He’d generally been a solid performer over his previous four seasons with the Nationals, but it was still a bit of a curious decision given Eaton’s underwhelming 2020 campaign. The left-handed hitter slashed just .226/.285/.384 across 176 plate appearances with Washington last season.

Obviously, the White Sox front office expected he’d be able to bounce back offensively, but that hasn’t yet proven to be the case. While Eaton got off to a strong start to his (second) White Sox tenure, he tailed off rather quickly and has ultimately managed similarly disappointing results as he did last year. He took 219 trips to the dish with Chicago this season, managing just a .201/.298/.344 line with five home runs. Eaton has punched out in a career-worst 25.1% of his plate appearances, his first season with a strikeout percentage higher than the league average. That’s a concerning development for a player whose peak seasons were built upon his ability to put the ball in play to all fields and hit for high batting averages.

The Sox designated Eaton for assignment and granted him his unconditional release earlier this week. They’ll remain on the hook for the bulk of his salary, with the Angels paying Eaton only the league minimum from here on out (just less than $250K after prorating). It’s a no-risk roll of the dice for an Angels team that has had something of a revolving door in right field over the course of the year.

Taylor Ward has played quite well of late and likely has the inside track to the job. Left fielder Justin Upton is currently on the injured list, though, and Eaton’s lefty bat can offer a complement to the series of right-handed hitters (Ward, Upton, Phil Gosselin, Juan Lagares) the club has on hand as corner outfield options. Eaton has a more respectable .235/.316/.404 line against right-handed pitching over the past two seasons, so there’s reason to think he could still offer some value in a platoon role.

Peters hasn’t appeared in the majors this year, spending the campaign at Triple-A Salt Lake. The 28-year-old has tossed 41 1/3 frames of 4.35 ERA ball in that hitter-friendly environment. Peters’ strikeout and walk numbers in Triple-A (26.8% and 7.3%, respectively) are quite strong, but he’s also given up an alarming twelve home runs in eight starts. He has seen big league action with the Marlins and Angels between 2017-20, tossing 132 2/3 innings of 5.83 ERA/5.22 SIERA ball. The Angels will have a week to trade Peters or expose him to waivers.

Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com was first to report Eaton’s deal was a major league contract.

D-backs Outright Nick Heath

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Outfielder Nick Heath, whom the Diamondbacks designated for assignment earlier in the week, has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the club. Arizona originally acquired Heath from the Royals earlier this year in a trade that sent minor league righty Eduardo Herrera to the Kansas City organization.

Heath, 27, draws 70 and 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale for his pure speed, but he struggled considerably at the plate with the Diamondbacks in a limited sample this year and with the Royals in 2020. Through 57 plate appearances in the Majors, Heath carries only a .146/.255/.188 line with a 36.8 percent strikeout rate.

Things have gone a bit better for Heath in Triple-A, where he’s posted a .289/.385/.434 line in 91 plate appearances this year. The extraordinarily hitter-friendly environments in Triple-A, however, render that production about four percent better than league-average, by measure of wRC+. That matches Heath’s output in 97 Triple-A plate appearances with the Royals back in 2019. Overall, Heath is a career .268/.351/.366 hitter in parts of five minor league seasons. He’s only hit 15 minor league home runs, but his 17 triples and 167 steals (in 208 attempts — an 80.3 percent success rate) highlight his impressive speed.

Mariners Release Shane Carle

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The Mariners have released right-hander Shane Carle from his minor league contract, as was first indicated on the Triple-A Transactions log at MLB.com. He’s once again a free agent and can sign with any club.

Carle’s stay with the M’s proved quite brief, as he signed there not even two weeks ago. He tossed a pair of shutout frames for the organization’s Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma before being sent back out to the market. That came on the heels of a nice run with the Reds’ top affiliate in Louisville, where Carle held opponents to six runs in 15 2/3 frames. All told, the 29-year-old has pitched to a 3.06 ERA in 17 2/3 innings while striking out 19.7 percent of his opponents against a 6.6 percent walk rate.

It’s been a couple years since we’ve seen Carle in the Majors. He was a solid member of the Atlanta bullpen in 2018, tossing 63 1/3 innings with a 2.86 earned run average, although there was reason to be skeptical of that number. Carle’s 16.6 percent strikeout rate and 10.4 percent walk rate were both markedly worse than the league average, and he benefited from a low homer-to-flyball rate (4.2 percent) as well as some good fortune on balls in play (.258). Carle generally limited hard contact well in ’18, but it’s difficult to maintain that level of run prevention with sub-par strikeout and walk percentages — particularly in the absence of an elite ground-ball rate.

Carle’s 2019 season represented a notable step back, as he yielded 10 runs in 9 1/3 MLB frames while also pitching to a 5.62 ERA through 40 innings of Triple-A ball between the Braves and Rangers organizations. That shaky showing in 2019 notwithstanding, Carle has pitched well enough with a pair of Triple-A affiliates in 2021 that he could well draw interest from a third organization looking to stockpile some depth.

Marlins Activate Jorge Guzman

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The Marlins have activated right-hander Jorge Guzman from the 60-day injured list, Christina De Nicola of MLB.com was among those to relay. He has been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. Miami already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, which is now full.

Guzman, a hard-throwing pitching prospect, made his MLB debut with Miami last season. He began this year with Jacksonville, making four appearances before going down with elbow inflammation. A starting pitcher for much of his minor league career, he’d been working out of the bullpen with the Jumbo Shrimp this season. That’s generally been the expected outcome for the 25-year-old. Entering the year, Baseball America ranked Guzman the #22 prospect in the organization, writing that he could be a productive reliever if he develops adequate control.

Additionally, the Marlins outrighted a pair of hurlers who had recently been designated for assignment: lefty Shawn Morimando and righty Preston Guilmet. Both pitchers made one-day cameos on the roster last weekend. Morimando tossed five innings of scoreless relief, while Guilmet was designated without having made an appearance. Both pitchers have been outrighted before, giving them the right to elect free agency in lieu of assignment to Jacksonville.

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