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Injury Notes: Hiura, Cubs, Ender, Rockies, Mariners

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The playoff-contending Brewers received terrible news Tuesday when their best player, all-world outfielder Christian Yelich, suffered a season-ending broken kneecap. Fortunately for the club, though, one of its other top players is on the way back from the injured list. Second baseman Keston Hiura, out since Aug. 31 with a left hamstring strain, could get “some at-bats maybe over the weekend and more game action and field action on the home stand, is what it’s looking like,” according to manager Craig Counsell (via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The Brewers, who are now tied with division-rival Chicago for the Nl’s second wild-card spot, will open up a seven-game home stand next Monday. They’re in contention thanks in part to the rookie Hiura, who has slashed .301/.369/.571 with 16 home runs and nine stolen bases in his first 295 plate appearances in the majors.

  • More unwelcome news for the Cubs, who are in real danger of missing the postseason: They won’t get closer Craig Kimbrel back from the injured list for “at least” another week, Scott Miller of Bleacher Report tweets. The club has been without Kimbrel since Sept. 1 because of right elbow inflammation. Meanwhile, the Cubs will evaluate shortstop Addison Russell when they return home Friday, Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com relays. Russell has been dealing with concussion-like symptoms since last weekend.
  • Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte likely won’t return until the last week of September, David O’Brien of The Athletic suggests. Inciarte has been on the shelf since mid-August with a hamstring strain. It’s the second long-term injury of the year for Inciarte, who previously missed two months with a back issue. Inciarte had been amid a hot streak when he suffered his current ailment, as his OPS skyrocketed from .605 to .740 in the month between his IL stints. He and the soon-to-return Nick Markakis could act as a pair of important outfield reinforcements for the Braves as they gear up for the postseason.
  • Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson underwent season-ending left knee surgery back on June 11, but he still won’t be at full strength at the beginning of next year, per manager Bud Black (via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post). The hope is that Anderson will come back “within the first couple of months” of 2020, Black said. The 29-year-old Anderson’s procedure wrapped up a nightmarish campaign for a hurler who was a respectable member of the Rockies’ rotation from 2016-18. He yielded 27 earned runs on 33 hits, including eight homers, in 20 2/3 innings this season.
  • Mariners outfielder Jake Fraley will miss the remainder of the season because of sprained ligaments in his right thumb, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. Fraley got his first taste of major league action in recent weeks, though he struggled to a .150/.171/.200 line with no home runs in a span of 41 trips to the plate. The 24-year-old offseason acquisition was far better in the minors, though, as he slashed a combined .298/.365/.545 with 19 long balls in 427 plate appearances between the Double-A and Triple-A levels.

Cubs Outright Taylor Davis

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Cubs catcher Taylor Davis, who was designated for assignment over the weekend, cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Iowa, per the MLB.com transactions log.

Davis, 29, has been up and down with the Cubs over the past three seasons, appearing in just 20 games and putting together a .222/.256/.333 slash with a homer and a double in 39 trips to the plate. He also made one lone appearance on the mound in 2019, entering an 11-2 blowout and allowing three straight singles against the A’s before pulling an improbable Houdini act and escaping the jam unscathed.

A .277/.350/.386 hitter across parts of five Triple-A seasons, Taylor is known as a difficult player to strike out (12.5 percent) with a penchant for drawing plenty of walks (9.9 percent). Davis has thwarted exactly one quarter of the stolen-base attempts against him in his minor league career (60 of 240) and has posted well-above-average framing numbers in Triple-A over the past few seasons.

Cubs Name Jason McLeod Senior VP of Player Personnel

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The Cubs announced Wednesday that senior vice president of amateur scouting and player development Jason McLeod will change role, transitioning to senior vice president of player personnel.

“Jason has made immense contributions to the organization in his eight years supervising Amateur Scouting and Player Development,” president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said in the press release announcing McLeod’s new position. “He helped build and grow two departments that were crucial in the Cubs’ rebuild, championship and run of sustained success. As his career has evolved, Jason is prepared for new challenges at the Major League level, where his strengths in evaluation, development and culture-building will be quite impactful.”

McLeod, like Epstein and Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, has roots in the Red Sox organization and has long been seen as a potential future GM himself. He served as Hoyer’s assistant general manager with the Padres in 2010-11 before that duo joined Epstein atop the Cubs’ baseball operations hierarchy. He’s been a fixture in the Cubs’ front office since that time but has been considered for in GM searches around the league, interviewing with both the Twins and the Giants in each club’s most recent front office restructurings.

While McLeod’s focus has been more on the amateur and development side of things with the Cubs, he’ll now take on a greater role in the day-to-day operation of the Major League club and its roster construction, per today’s release.

NL Injury Notes: Kimbrel, Verdugo, Renfroe, Taijuan

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Injured Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel is progressing toward a return, but that won’t come until at least the weekend, Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com reports. The big-money in-season signing has been on the injured list with right elbow inflammation since Sept. 1, making him eligible to come back as early as Thursday. Kimbrel’s IL placement came on the heels of yet another disappointing performance, in which he yielded three earned runs on two hits (including a homer) in two-thirds of an inning. He’s one of the greatest closers ever, which is why the Cubs guaranteed him $43MM over three years, yet Kimbrel hasn’t resembled his dominant self this season. While the 31-year-old has converted 13 of 15 save opportunities, he owns a bloated 5.68 ERA with 12.32 K/9 against 5.21 BB/9, and has given up just under three HRs per nine across 19 innings of work.

  • The Dodgers clinched their seventh straight NL West title Tuesday, but they’re also dealing with some unwelcome news: Outfielder Alex Verdugo isn’t nearing a return, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. An oblique strain forced the rookie to the IL back on Aug. 6, but he suffered a back injury on a rehab assignment and will sit out “for at least a few days,” Castillo writes. Verdugo has been a valuable contributor this year, having slashed .294/.342/.475 with 2.2 fWAR in 377 plate appearances, but the loaded Dodgers have carried on fine without him thus far.
  • Padres manager Andy Green isn’t willing to guarantee that banged up outfielder Hunter Renfroe will play again this season, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune relays. For now, Renfroe’s going to rest on account of right elbow and ankle problems. “Hunter has battled through a lot this second half,” said Green, who added, “There have been a number of days he was unavailable and we’ve managed not to talk about it.” We covered Renfroe’s significant second-half struggles earlier Tuesday, though it now seems possible health problems have been a major cause for his summer slump.
  • Injuries have prevented Diamondbacks right-hander Taijuan Walker from taking a big league mound since April 2018, but he said Tuesday (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) he’s still hoping to make an appearance this year. The 27-year-old sat out the majority of 2018 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and has dealt with shoulder troubles this season. However, he threw his first bullpen session in four months Tuesday and came out unscathed. Walker’s absence is among the reasons the Diamondbacks’ starting staff has been shaky this year, though the club has nonetheless stayed in the National League wild-card race.

Javier Baez Unlikely To Return In September

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The Cubs announced today that Cubs shortstop Javier Baez likely won’t be able to return to the field of play this month, with ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers among those covering the news on Twitter. He’s planning to rehab his hairline thumb fracture in hopes of being ready for some or all of the postseason.

The news is obviously disappointing, if not unexpected given recent developments. That said, it’s promising that the examination by a specialist did not result in the identification of any damage to thumb ligaments.

Going without Baez undoubtedly hurts the Cubs, who are still trying to chase down the Cardinals in the NL Central while holding off challengers for the final Wild Card spot. With Addison Russell also sidelined, the club was forced to dip into its minor-league system and call up top prospect Nico Hoerner today.

While Baez won’t be able to help the Cubs make it into the postseason, it seems there’s still hope he’ll return to action if they do qualify. His progress, therefore, remains of keen interest even though it doesn’t seem there’s any cause for long-term worry.

Cubs Designate Randy Rosario

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The Cubs have designated Randy Rosario, per a club announcement (h/t Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, on Twitter). That’s the corresponding move for the previously reported promotion of top prospect Nico Hoerner.

In other news, the club has recalled James Norwood and optioned fellow righty Adbert Alzolay. Indications are that the club decided that Alzolay had thrown enough innings — just over eighty at all levels — on the heels of an injury-limited 2018 season. While there was no need to utilize the option to create active roster space, that’ll hit pause on Alzolay’s service clock.

Rosario, 25, had turned in good results for the Chicago organization in 2018, albeit with less-than-promising peripherals. The groundball-oriented southpaw ended up spending the bulk of the present campaign at Triple-A. Through 59 2/3 total innings at the MLB level, Rosario carries a 5.13 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 along with a 53.6% groundball rate.

Minor MLB Transactions: 9/9/19

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We’ll track Monday’s minor moves from around the game here…

  • Cubs outfielder Mark Zagunis has been outrighted off the 40-man roster, per the league transactions log at MLB.com. Zagunis, 26, was designated for assignment last weekend and went unclaimed on outright waivers. Once considered to be among the organization’s better prospects, Zagunis has had an ugly season in 2019. While his .294/.361/.475 batting line through 285 plate appearances in Triple-A appears sound, that was actually barely above the league average in this year’s explosive offensive environment (102 wRC+). Beyond that, Zagunis punched out in a third of his plate appearances and saw his offensive production buoyed by a .439 average on balls in play, suggesting that he’s highly unlikely to maintain that level of offense. A third-round pick in 2014, Zagunis has now appeared in parts of four Triple-A seasons and has typically handled himself well, but he’s a .200/.313/.273 hitter in a tiny sample of 64 Major League plate appearances and has fallen considerably down the organizational depth chart in the outfield.

Cubs To Promote Nico Hoerner

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The Cubs are set to call up top infield prospect Nico Hoerner, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune suggested earlier this morning that Hoerner could be in line to get the call with both Javier Baez and Addison Russell dealing with injuries. The Cubs will need to make a 40-man roster move in order to accommodate the promotion.

Hoerner, 22, was the No. 24 overall selection in the 2018 draft and is widely considered to be among the game’s 100 best prospects. The Stanford product hit .284/.344/.399 with three home runs, 16 doubles, three triples and eight steals through 294 plate appearances in the pitcher-friendly Double-A Southern League this season. Beyond the leaguewide hitting environment, Hoerner’s production in Double-A is all the more impressive when considering that he played in just 14 games below the Double-A level before being rather aggressively promoted there by the Chicago organization. He did turn in an outstanding .337/.362/.506 showing through 94 plate appearances in last year’s Arizona Fall League as well.

Currently, Hoerner ranks 40th on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list. He also checked in 47th on the midseason re-rank at MLB.com and 51st over at Fangraphs. He’s an extremely high-contact hitter, having fanned in fewer than 10 percent of his professional plate appearances, and he draws praise for his above-average speed as well. There’s some debate as to which middle-infield position Hoerner will ultimately play at the MLB level, but the Cubs have given him quite a bit more time at shortstop early in his minor league career.

Hoerner didn’t need to be added to the 40-man roster to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft this winter, so the Cubs are being more aggressive with his service clock than they have with previous prospects (most notably Kris Bryant). Chicago, though, saw Russell go down with a potential concussion yesterday and lost Baez to a hairline fracture in his thumb a day prior. The Cubs are 4.5 games back of the Cardinals for the NL Central lead and suddenly have a mere 1.5-game lead over the scorching Diamondbacks for the second Wild Card spot in the National League, giving them even greater reason for urgency.

It seems unlikely that Hoerner will simply be in the big leagues to stay from this point forth. He’s barely a year removed from being drafted and has yet to suit up for a single game of activity at the Triple-A level. An assignment to Iowa to begin next season would make sense, though now that he’s on the 40-man roster, Hoerner has at least put himself in a position to try to force the team’s hand and keep him in the Majors. Should he indeed play his way into a long-term spot on the roster, he’d be controllable through at least the 2025 season and become arbitration-eligible in the 2022-23 offseason. That said, it still seems likelier that he’ll get some Triple-A time next season, and he’d only need to spend about five weeks there for the Cubs to push his path to free agency back to the 2026-27 offseason.

Addison Russell Evaluated For Concussion-Like Symptoms After HBP

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In a scary moment in Milwaukee, Cubs shortstop Addison Russell exited the game after he was hit in the face by a pitch from the Brewers’ Adrian Houser. In a post-game update, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports that Russell suffered a nasal bruise on the play and is under evaluation for concussion-like symptoms.

Russell remained on the ground for several minutes after sustaining a fastball to the face. He was tended to by members of the training staff, though he ultimately remained in the game. Immediately after taking first base, he stole second and would later come around to score. However, when the Cubs took the field in the bottom half of the inning, Russell was replaced defensively.

The incident could hardly come at a worse time for the Cubs, who just yesterday received news that Javier Baez could miss the remainder of the season after suffering a hairline fracture in his thumb. Russell, the Cubs’ best shortstop option behind Baez, was set to take over for the injured Cubs star; however, the Cubs may well find themselves down another infield piece should Russell’s injury require a sustained absence.

While Russell is far from the offensive powerhouse that Baez is, he at least represents a capable backup and a defensive difference-maker at the shortstop position. However, if Russell misses time, Chicago will have to dig even deeper for a replacement shortstop. David Bote, who took over for Russell in today’s game, is perhaps the best choice; he’s played sparingly at the position in his two years of big-league experience, though he’s far from a traditional shortstop. Otherwise, it might be too much to ask one of Tony Kemp, Ian Happ, and Robel Garcia to try their hand at the position—all three have experience at the keystone but have never suited up at shortstop.

Javier Baez Has Hairline Fracture In Thumb, Timeline Unclear

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An MRI today revealed that Cubs shortstop Javier Baez has a hairline fracture in his left thumb, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN. He’ll visit a specialist on Monday for further evaluation. Though the Cubs have yet to release a timeline for his return, it’s possible that this could mean the end of the season for the star infielder.

Baez has missed the last four games after suffering the injury while sliding into second base on September 1. Initial X-rays came back negative and Baez sought to return to the lineup on Thursday, but the persistence of discomfort during batting practice forced him to sit out as the team scheduled a follow-up MRI. Saturday night’s matchup with the Brewers will mark the fifth consecutive game without Baez in the lineup.

Though any injury this late in the season spells trouble for a playoff-hopeful club, this feels especially devastating for the Cubs. Baez has rightfully garnered a reputation as the lifeblood of the Cubs, not only as a mainstay in the middle of the batting order, but as one of the finest defensive infielders in baseball. By Baseball-Reference’s measure of WAR, he has been the most valuable Cub this season, a repeat of last year’s breakout.

Without Baez, Addison Russell is next in line to man the shortstop position. While his defensive talent at the position rivals that of Baez, it’s undebatable that his offensive production leaves much to be desired. If the Cubs, who find themselves in the heat of a contested playoff race, are to overtake the first-place Cardinals, Russell and the rest of the Cubs will need to pick up the slack. If indeed Baez is forced to miss the remainder of the season, it’s an injury that could have a significant impact on the National League Wild-Card chase.

This season, Baez has slashed .281/.316/.532 and has slugged 29 home runs, doubling down on the power surge that carried him to a second-place MVP finish a year ago. On defense, he’s tallied 15 DRS and earned a 9.6 Ultimate Zone Rating, both of which place him among the three best defensive shortstops in baseball.

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