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Athletics Claim David McKay, Designate Jake Lemoine

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The Athletics announced that they have claimed right-hander David McKay off waivers from the Rays. Fellow righty Jake Lemoine has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. McKay had been designated for assignment by the Rays a few days ago when they acquired Christian Bethancourt from the A’s.

McKay, 27, underwent hip surgery in April of 2021 and missed that entire season. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays prior to this year, but was traded to the Yankees for cash considerations before the season began. He made the Yankees 40-man roster but was recalled and optioned to Triple-A three times, only getting two big league innings in the process. He was designated for assignment in June and sent back to the Rays, with cash considerations once again changing hands. He threw another two big leagues innings for the Rays, before being optioned to Triple-A and then being designated in recent days.

He fared quite well for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the Yankees’ Triple-A team, throwing 21 2/3 innings with a 2.91 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate, though with subpar walk rate and ground ball rates of 12.5% and 33.3%, respectively. He was less effective for the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A team of the Rays, though in a small sample of just four innings.

Generally speaking, the strikeouts and the walks have been the recipe for McKay, with teams continually intrigued enough by the Ks to give him chances and hope the control improves. For the A’s, their 29-59 record is the worst in baseball, making them perhaps the most logical team to take a shot on a flawed player and hope that he finds a new gear. This is McKay’s last option year, meaning he will have to stick with the big league club next year as long as he holds onto his roster spot.

As for Lemoine, 28, he was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason and cracked Oakland’s Opening Day roster. He has struggled in the majors with a 7.71 ERA, though in a small sample of 16 1/3 innings. He’s fared much better in Triple-A, between last year with the Rangers and this year with the A’s. Since the start of 2021, he has thrown 64 Triple-A frames with a 2.67 ERA, 19.1% strikeout rate, with ground ball rates around 60% in each season. He still has all three of his options, which could appeal to team’s looking for bullpen depth. The A’s will have a week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him.

Brewers Designate Chi Chi Gonzalez For Assignment

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The Brewers announced that outfielder Hunter Renfroe has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. To make room for him on the active roster, right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez has been designated for assignment. Their 40-man roster is now at 39.

Gonzalez, 30, has been filling up transaction logs this year, as this is his second DFA, in addition to once being removed from the roster as a COVID “substitute”. He started the year on a minor league deal with the Twins, getting added to the big league roster in early June for a series in Toronto in which four unvaccinated players couldn’t cross the border. He was removed a day later but selected back to the roster in mid-June. That second stay also just lasted a single day, with his first DFA of the season leading to a waiver claim from the Brewers.

Milwaukee’s pitching staff had been a bit dented at the time by Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta landing on the injured list. They subsequently also lost Aaron Ashby and Adrian Houser to the IL, but Woodruff and Ashby have now returned, diminishing the need for Gonzalez’s services after close to a month on the team.

Gonzalez didn’t do much to warrant sticking around, as he’s put up a 6.87 ERA in 18 1/3 innings this year. That’s is a small sample, but his 15.2% strikeout rate is well below league average, although he did limit walks to a 5.1% pace. Gonzalez is out of options, making the Brewers unable to send him to the minors.

He did spend some time in the minors with the Twins before being selected, where he showed enough promise to get called up. In 36 2/3 frames in Triple-A this year, he had a 3.44 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 55.7% ground ball rate. The Brewers will have one week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him. If he clears waivers, he would have the ability to reject an outright assignment by virtue of having been previously outrighted in his career.

Royals Acquire Drew Waters From Braves For Draft Pick

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The Royals have made their second deal of the past week, acquiring former top outfield prospect Drew Waters, minor league righty Andrew Hoffmann and minor league corner infielder CJ Alexander from the Braves in exchange for their Competitive Balance draft pick (No. 35 overall). Both teams have announced the trade.

The 15 selections in the two Competitive Balance rounds — Round A ranges from Nos.33-39, Round B from picks 67-74 — are the only picks eligible to be traded each year’s draft and can only be traded once (meaning the Braves cannot subsequently flip the pick to another team). The No. 35 pick that Atlanta is receiving comes with a slot value of $2,202,100, all of which will be added to the Braves’ league-allotted bonus pool of $8,022,200. That’ll bump the Braves from the 19th-largest draft pool to the 10th-largest (barring any additional trades).

The added pick and financial might will give the Braves some extra means of replenishing the farm after surrendering four prospects to acquire Matt Olson this offseason (to say nothing of the handful of trades made at each of the past few deadlines). Between those deals, low draft selections the past few years (due to strong regular-season performances) and the international free-agent penalties incurred by the former front office regime, the once-vaunted Braves farm system has taken a hit.

Drew Waters

Waters, 23, ranked among the sport’s top-100 prospects from 2019-21 but has seen his stock fall precipitously in recent seasons as he’s struggled against Triple-A pitching. Waters is currently in his third season with Triple-A Gwinnett, but his .246/.305/.393 batting line isn’t an improvement over the pedestrian output he’s recorded there in both 2019 and 2021. Overall, in 788 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Waters is a .246/.324/.383 hitter. Those struggles are reflected in the fact that the former second-round pick, who was once seen as a key building block for the Braves organization, is now instead part of a three-player package that will net Atlanta a draft pick that’s just six places higher than Waters was selected a half-decade ago.

With Ronald Acuna Jr. and Michael Harris II set to hold down two-thirds of the Atlanta outfield for the future — plus veterans Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna and Guillermo Heredia all signed or controlled beyond the current season, there wasn’t much immediate room for Waters to make an impact on the big league outfield anyhow. Braves fans might be disheartened when thinking about what Waters might’ve fetched in a trade had he been moved a year or two ago, but the team did manage to net some value for the former Futures Game participant.

From the Royals’ vantage point, the long-term outfield picture is far less certain, so there’s good reason to take a chance on getting Waters back on track. Kansas City has been working to put a winning product on the field for the past couple seasons, and while the results haven’t been there yet, Waters provides more immediate potential to help the team than whomever would have been tabbed with that No. 35 overall pick. Waters posted a huge .319/.366/.481 batting line in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting back in 2019, when he was one of the youngest players in the league. Baseball America and MLB.com both ranked him within the sport’s top 40 overall prospects in consecutive offseasons.

With Andrew Benintendi all but certain to be traded and center fielder Michael A. Taylor a candidate to go as well — he’s signed affordably through 2023 — the Royals will soon have some outfield vacancies. If veteran Whit Merrifield is finally moved at this year’s deadline, that’d represent another subtraction from the outfield corps.

The organizational hope has been that 25-year-old Kyle Isbel can claim a long-term spot in the outfield mix, but he’s currently hitting just .216/.248/.328. Twenty-six-year-old Edward Olivares has performed well in a much more limited role. Generally speaking, though, the Royals are thin on outfield prospects. College pitching has been a focus of their drafts during their recent rebuild, and while they have standout young options at shortstop/third base (Bobby Witt Jr.), catcher (MJ Melendez) and first base/designated hitter (Vinnie Pasquantino, Nick Pratto), there’s no ballyhooed outfielder knocking down the door to the Majors for the Royals at the moment. Waters, clearly, is something of a project, but he’ll give the Royals an immediate option to join that young core if he can indeed benefit from a change of scenery.

Also heading to the Royals are Hoffmann, a 22-year-old righty selected in the 12th round of last summer’s draft, and Alexander, a 25-year-old who’s shown power, speed and concerning on-base struggles while playing against younger competition in Double-A.

Hoffmann ranked 16th among Braves prospects at FanGraphs and 23rd at MLB.com, where scouting reports on the 6’5″ righty peg him as a high-probability back-of-the-rotation piece — a rather notable step forward for a player just a year removed from being selected so late in the draft. So far in 2022, Hoffmann has posted terrific numbers in Class-A, making 15 starts with a 2.36 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate and 46.3% ground-ball rate. Hoffmann’s fastball sits in the 91-93 mph range — below-average by today’s standards — and he relies heavily on above-average command to help mitigate the lack of a power primary offering.

Alexander, meanwhile, isn’t as highly regarded — as one would expect for a player who is in his third trip through Double-A despite the fact that he’ll turn 26 this month. A 20th-round pick in 2018, Alexander has dramatically reduced his strikeout rate in 2022, as it’s currently at 21.8% after sitting at 32% in 2019-21. He’s slugged 15 homers and gone 13-for-15 in stolen base attempts through 289 plate appearances this year, but Alexander has also walked at a meager 4.8% rate. Overall, his .258/.294/.465 isn’t particularly exciting, but he gives Kansas City yet another lefty corner infield bat, as he’s capable of playing first base as well.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the trade (Twitter links).

Brewers Release David Dahl

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The Brewers announced that outfielder David Dahl has been released from his minor league contract. The 28-year-old heads back to free agency in search of another opportunity elsewhere.

Selected by the Rockies with the #10 overall pick a decade ago, Dahl developed into one of the sport’s top prospects. He reached the majors in 2016 and hit at an above-average level (even after accounting for Coors Field) for his first few seasons. Various injuries limited him to 239 MLB games through the end of the 2019 campaign, but the lefty-swinging Dahl compiled a strong .297/.346/.521 line when he was healthy enough to take the field.

That seemed to position him as a key piece of Colorado’s long-term future, but the Rox made the surprising decision to cut bait after the 2020 season. Dahl had a woeful 24-game stretch and missed extended chunks of action with back and shoulder injuries that year. The Colorado front office nevertheless came under some fire for not retaining him for an arbitration salary that would’ve still been fairly modest.

The Rangers signed Dahl that offseason, buying low on a $2.7MM guarantee. Texas hoped they’d unearth a long-term outfield contributor, but he instead continued to scuffle. Dahl hit only .210/.247/.322 across 220 plate appearances, seeing his power numbers take a dramatic step back. Texas released him last August, and Milwaukee brought him aboard on a multi-year minor league deal last summer.

Dahl has spent the past year with the Brewers’ top affiliate in Nashville. He’s shown well at the dish, hitting .327/.375/.536 in 31 games down the stretch last season. He’s had another quality performance this year, posting a .294/.357/.468 mark with nine round-trippers in 280 trips to the plate. Milwaukee has Christian Yelich and Hunter Renfroe as their primary corner outfielders, leaving them without a clear path to at-bats for Dahl in the outfield. Center field has been a problem area, but Dahl has played almost exclusively in right field with Nashville.

Milwaukee could’ve given him a look at designated hitter, but they’ve stuck with righty-hitting veteran Andrew McCutchen in that role. Instead, the Brewers will let Dahl search for other opportunities. Between his prospect pedigree, strong minor league performance and history of big league success, he shouldn’t have much problem latching on somewhere else on a minor league pact.

Cardinals Release Nick Wittgren

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The Cardinals have released reliever Nick Wittgren, tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The veteran will head back to the open market upon clearing waivers.

St. Louis signed Wittgren to a one-year contract during Spring Training that guaranteed him $1.2MM. He’ll receive the remainder of that salary, with the Cards on the hook for the tab. A club that signs the righty will only be responsible for the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum for any time he spends on their MLB roster. That figure would be subtracted from the Cardinals obligations.

Wittgren, 31, appeared in 29 games for St. Louis. He tossed a matching number of innings, posting a disappointing 5.90 ERA while striking out a career-low 12.7% of opponents. That was a marked drop relative to the league average 23.6% mark he posted for Cleveland last season, and a particularly stark decline from his personal-best 28.6% during the truncated 2020 campaign. Wittgren demonstrated continued strong control, but the downturn in swing-and-miss led the Cardinals to go in a different direction.

A seven-year MLB veteran, Wittgren has also suited up with the Marlins and Indians during his career. He’s allowed just under four earned runs per nine over 300 1/3 innings, posting slightly below-average strikeout and grounder rates but working as a generally durable and reliable middle innings arm. He’ll surely get another opportunity elsewhere, although it’s likely to be of the minor league variety given his slow start in 2022.

Mariners Designate Jacob Barnes For Assignment

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The Mariners announced that righty Erik Swanson has been reinstated from the paternity list. To make room for him on the active roster, fellow righty Jacob Barnes has been designated for assignment.

Barnes, 32, is a veteran in his seventh season of MLB action, having previously pitched for the Brewers, Royals, Angels, Mets and Blue Jays, before signing with the Tigers in the offseason on a minor league deal. He made Detroit’s Opening Day roster and threw 20 2/3 innings out of their bullpen, but saw his strikeouts mysteriously evaporate. Prior to this year, he had a career strikeout rate of 24.4% but saw that drop to just 11.2% this year. Given that development and his unsightly 6.10 ERA, the Tigers designated him for assignment about a month ago.

Once he cleared waivers, the Tigers were on the hook for the remainder of his $1.13MM salary. As a veteran with over five years of MLB service time, Barnes has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while still retaining his rate of pay. Any team that picked him up would only owe him the prorated league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what the Tigers pay.

Barnes latched on with the Mariners on a minors deal about a week later and joined the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. He threw four innings there and got an encouraging five strikeouts, though in a very tiny sample size. The M’s selected him to the big league club on Saturday for an extra bullpen arm but have now sent him into DFA limbo without getting him into a game. Since Barnes is out of options, this was the only way to get him off the roster to make room for Swanson.

Seattle will now have a week to trade Barnes, pass him through waivers or release him. Like his last DFA, the most likely scenario is that Barnes clears waivers and elects free agency again. He’ll then be free to work out a deal with any of the 30 teams, likely of the minor league variety.

Cardinals Transfer Jack Flaherty To 60-Day IL

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The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, activating left-hander T.J. McFarland from the COVID IL. To create space on the active roster, fellow lefty Zack Thompson was optioned to Triple-A Memphis. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Jack Flaherty was transferred to the 60-day IL.

Flaherty began the year on the IL due to shoulder bursitis, returning just under a month ago. However, after three truncated appearances, he returned to the IL due to continued shoulder issues. It was subsequently announced that he would be shut down from throwing for 2-3 weeks as the club tries to return him to health.

Given today’s transfer, Flaherty will be unable to return until 60 days from his June 27 IL placement, meaning he’s now out until late August. With a weeks-long shutdown, it was going to be difficult for him to get back before than in any event, unless the club considered bringing him back as a reliever, as that course of action would require less of a ramp-up period after the shutdown. However, manager Oli Marmol says they still want to build him up as a starter, per Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat.

Flaherty pitched at an ace-like level in 2019, throwing 196 1/3 innings with a 2.75 ERA. However, he slumped a bit in 2020 and then has been derailed by injuries in the past couple of seasons. He and the Cardinals will surely be hoping for this rest period to allow him to come back and salvage some of his season, giving a boost to the club down the stretch.

Pirates Outright Austin Brice

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July 11: Brice has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis, per Justice delos Santos of MLB.com. It’s unclear if Brice has accepted the assignment or elected free agency.

July 6: The Pirates have designated right-hander Austin Brice for assignment and optioned lefty Cam Vieaux to Triple-A Indianapolis, per a team announcement. That pair of moves creates space for right-hander Yerry De Los Santos to return from the Covid-related injured list and for newly acquired southpaw Manny Banuelos to be added to the active roster.

Brice spent a couple weeks in the majors, having been selected to the roster in late June. Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, the 30-year-old earned a brief look with a strong showing in Indianapolis. Across 26 2/3 innings, Brice posted a solid 3.04 ERA while striking out a lofty 27.2% of opposing hitters and inducing grounders on more than half the batted balls he allowed. Since adding him to the MLB staff, Pittsburgh has deployed him on only two occasions for low-leverage relief work.

While a limited look, that did mark Brice’s seventh consecutive year stepping onto a major league mound. He’s also played for the Marlins (a pair of separate stints), Reds and Red Sox. He’s typically racked up grounders at a solid clip and sports a fastball in the mid-90s, but he’s generally had issues keeping runs off the board at the highest level. Brice has allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings just once in a season, and he owns a 5.16 ERA through 165 2/3 career MLB innings.

The Pirates will presumably try to send Brice through waivers over the coming days. His quality Triple-A numbers may earn him a look from another team, but he is out of minor league option years. That means any team that claims him would have to keep him on their active roster or designate him for assignment themselves. Brice cleared outright waivers twice last season with Boston, meaning he’ll have the right to refuse an assignment back to Indianapolis in favor of minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed again.

Pirates Place Bryan Reynolds On IL With Oblique Strain

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The Pirates announced a series of transactions prior to tonight’s game, with outfielder Bryan Reynolds being placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain. To take his place on the active roster, outfielder Jake Marisnick was activated from the 60-day IL. To make room for Marisnick on the 40-man roster, left-hander Cam Vieaux was designated for assignment.

Reynolds was removed from yesterday’s game with some discomfort in his side, which has now been diagnosed as an oblique strain. The outfielder has been one of the bright spots of a rebuilding Pirates team in recent years, with his 2021 campaign standing out the highlight so far. Last year, he hit .302/.390/.522 for a 142 wRC+ and helping him produce 6.1 fWAR, the tenth-highest such mark across the majors. This year, Reynolds struggled for the first month or so but has looked like his old self recently. On the whole, his batting line for the season is .261/.343/.465 for a wRC+ of 126.

Given the fact that Reynolds plays at a high level on a rebuilding team, there’s naturally been much trade speculation hovering around him. However, given that he’s not slated to reach free agency until after the 2025 season, the Pirates have maintained sky-high asking prices in any trade talks, which is why no trade has come together thus far. That hasn’t stopped teams from trying, however, with reporting from earlier today indicating the club has rejected offers on Reynolds, as well as closer David Bednar. It’s always seemed like the Pirates would hang onto him, but this IL placement effectively closes the door on whatever chance there was. The club hasn’t provided an estimated timeline for his recovery, but the August 2 deadline is now just over three weeks away. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review points out that oblique strains typically come with a recovery time of about a month. If that holds true in Reynolds’ case, he’d be out of action until after the deadline.

Marisnick, 31, signed a deal with the Pirates on the cusp of Opening Day but required thumb surgery in May. He got into 12 games before that but slumped to a .163/.196/.204. Marisnick is a glove-first outfielder anyway, with 78 Defensive Runs Saved on his career ledger. He should be able to help the Bucs cover center field in Reynolds’ absence. If he can get into a nice stretch of play before the deadline, he could be traded to a team seeking a strong defensive outfielder. One year ago, he went from the Cubs to the Padres in a deadline swap.

As for Vieaux, 28, he was selected to the big league roster just a few weeks ago. He was given five appearances, but his line is marred by one particular game wherein the club left him out to dry in order to save their other arms. After allowing one earned run over his first four appearances, the Bucs sent him in to pitch the top of the eighth in a game they were losing to the Brewers 9-1. Despite Vieaux getting hit around badly, there was no help forthcoming to get out of the inning. The lefty ended up tossing 56 pitches in that one frame, allowing six hits, three walks and eight runs, seven of them earned. As a result, he has a 14.40 ERA through five innings this year. In 29 2/3 Triple-A frames, however, he has a 2.12 ERA this year. Lefty relievers are always in demand and Vieaux has options remaining, making it possible some team looking to bolster its depth takes a chance on him.

Guardians Select Alex Call, Designate Oscar Mercado For Assignment

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The Guardians have informed reporters, including Zack Meisel of The Athletic, that they are selecting the contract of outfielder Alex Call with Oscar Mercado being designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Call, 27, was a third round draft pick of the White Sox in 2016 and appeared on Baseball America’s list of top farmhands in the system in 2017 and 2018. Their reports on him noted that he didn’t have a standout tool, but had the work ethic and baseball instincts to be a well-rounded player without obvious weaknesses.

In December of 2018, he moved across the division in the 2018 trade that sent Yonder Alonso to Chicago. In 2019, his first year in Cleveland’s system, he had a disappointing campaign in Double-A, hitting .205/.266/.321 for a wRC+ of 72. He also struck out at a 28.6% clip and walk just 6.8% of the time.

After the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020, Call came out flying in 2021. Returning to the Akron RubberDucks, he got into 43 games, cutting his strikeout rate almost in half to 14.4%, while walking 11.7% of the time. He slashed .310/.389/.503 for a 142 wRC+ and earned a promotion to Triple-A. His first stint with the Columbus Clippers didn’t go so well, despite keeping his rate stats in good form. In 66 Triple-A games last year, he was struck out in 14.1% of his plate appearances, walked in 12.3% of them, but hit just .229/.335/.394, 99 wRC+. This year, however, he’s got even 16.4% strikeout and walk rates while hitting .283/.418/.504 for a 148 wRC+.

Call has played all three outfield spots in his minor league career, including this year. The Guardians have used Myles Straw and Steven Kwan regularly as two of their outfielders this season. Rookie Oscar Gonzalez seemed to be earning a spot beside them until he landed on the injured list. Another rookie got his promotion a few days ago, when Nolan Jones was bumped up to the big leagues. Call will now join that group and see if he can carry any of his offensive skills up to the majors. With Franmil Reyes struggling mightily as the club’s DH, it’s also possible that these four outfielders nudge him out of some playing time there. Reyes is striking out 40.8% of the time this year and hitting  .212/.257/.369 for a wRC+ of 75.

As for Mercado, 27, this is his third DFA in less than a month. He started the year with the Guardians, who cut him loose June 21. He was claimed by the Phillies but then got his second DFA a few days later. The Guardians decided to claim him and bring him back, though his second stint only lasted about a week.

In 2019, Mercado had an excellent rookie season that seemed to establish him as a key building block in the Guardians outfield. That year, he hit 15 dingers, stole 15 bags, hit .269/.318/.443 for a 99 wRC+ and played excellent center field defense, producing 2.2 fWAR in the process. However, it’s been a rough couple of years for Mercado, which started with a disastrous 2020. In the shortened season, he hit just .128/.174/.174, with his strikeout rate shooting up to 29%, after being at 17.4% in his rookie year. He corrected things somewhat in 2021, getting his line to .224/.300/.369 for a wRC+ of 84. He couldn’t build on it in 2022, though, with his numbers slouching downwards again and forcing him into a nomadic life on the waiver wire. Given his past potential and relative youth, he’s likely to garner interest from other clubs again. The Guardians will have a week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him.

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