AL Central Notes: Kluber, Carrasco, Turnbull, Buxton, ChiSox, Abreu
The Indians have been without Corey Kluber since May 3, when he suffered a forearm fracture upon being hit by a comeback line-drive, but Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer provides some reason for optimism regarding his return. Kluber went through his throwing motion while wearing “stabilizing straps” this week and is slated to undergo MRIs to determine whether his fracture has healed. If that proves to be the case, he’d be cleared to begin a throwing program.
There’s also some progress to report on Carlos Carrasco, who is out indefinitely due to an undisclosed blood condition. Carrasco played catch this week, Hoynes notes, and the Tribe could learn within the next two to three weeks whether his condition can be managed. If that’s the case, he could rejoin the Indians’ rotation even before Kluber. That said, the Cleveland organization still isn’t fully sure when or if either righty will return to the 2019 club.
Here’s more from the division…
- Tigers right-hander Spencer Turnbull left today’s start after just two innings due to shoulder fatigue, manager Ron Gardenhire told The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen (Twitter link) and other media. An MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage and Turnbull didn’t feel any pain, but rather the club decided to make the move due to a drop in Turnbull’s fastball velocity. It isn’t known yet if Turnbull will miss any time, though it would mark yet another pitching injury for Detroit’s rotation this season. Turnbull’s emergence helped the club fill one hole in the starting five, as the rookie has a 3.31 ERA, 8.43 K/9 and 49% grounder rate over 89 2/3 innings.
- Byron Buxton is “getting close to his return” from the injured list, MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park tweets. Buxton was sidelined on June 18 (IL placement retroactive to June 15) with a wrist contusion after being hit by a pitch, and while the Twins outfielder has already exceeded the 10-day minimum IL stint, the injury isn’t considered to be serious. Buxton was expected to face live pitching today in the Twins’ indoor batting cage, though rain kept him participating in on-field batting, Park notes. Buxton’s all-around play has been a key factor in Minnesota’s rise to the top of the AL Central, as he has provided his usual excellent center field defense and baserunning while also hitting .266/.324/.527 with nine homers over 227 plate appearances.
- The White Sox have been open about their desire to keep Jose Abreu beyond the 2019 season, and the first baseman also has no plans to leave the south side, he tells Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. “I’ll always be a White Sox….I’m a part of this organization. This is the organization that gave me a chance to play at this level and made all my dreams come true. I hope to stay here a very long time,” Abreu said. While there’s nothing stopping the Sox from trading Abreu at the deadline and then re-signing him after the season, Abreu said he expects to remain with the club. As Sullivan notes, this might leave Alex Colome as the only real trade chip for the White Sox at the deadline, as Chicago’s other veteran players apart from Colome, Abreu, and James McCann (who might also be retained) have largely struggled.
White Sox To Designate Yonder Alonso For Assignment
2:28pm: Feinsand tweets that the move won’t become official until tomorrow because the Sox are off today.
1:31pm: The White Sox have designated first baseman/designated hitter Yonder Alonso for assignment, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). The team has yet to formally announce the move or a corresponding transaction.
The trade to bring Alonso to Chicago from Cleveland this offseason simply hasn’t panned out on any front for the White Sox. In 251 plate appearances, the 32-year-old slugger has struggled to a career-worst .178/.275/.301 batting line through 251 plate appearances with the South Siders. His acquisition was also portrayed as a potential means of swaying his brother-in-law, Manny Machado, to choose the ChiSox in free agency, but Machado ultimately went to San Diego, who topped the Sox’ reported offer by a hefty $50MM in guaranteed money.
Alonso is only two years removed from a breakout All-Star campaign in which he slashed .266/.365/.501 with a career-high 28 home runs. Alonso was one of the foremost examples of the “fly-ball revolution” that season, but this year’s 43.1 percent ground-ball rate is his highest mark since the 2016 season. His 37.7 percent fly-ball rate, meanwhile, is his lowest since that same year.
Alonso parlayed that breakout effort into a two-year, $16MM contract with the Indians. Viewed as a more cost-effective replacement for Carlos Santana (who they reacquired this winter), Alonso wasn’t able to replicate his 2017 production in Cleveland but still posted a respectable .250/.317/.421 line with 23 homers last year. The Indians spent much of the offseason working to shed salary and reduce payroll, though, and dealing Alonso to the division-rival White Sox was a part of those efforts.
Chicago will have a week to trade, outright or release Alonso, who is still owed about $5.13MM through season’s end (including the buyout on a 2020 option). That salary makes a release the most likely outcome. If Alonso is indeed cut loose, he’d become a free agent who can sign with any club and would only be owed the prorated portion of the league minimum through the remainder of the season. That sum would be subtracted from what the Sox still owe him.
White Sox To Sign First-Rounder Andrew Vaughn
The White Sox have agreed to sign first-rounder Andrew Vaughn, the third pick in this year’s draft, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports. Vaughn will receive a bonus worth $7.2212MM, right in line with the recommended slot value of his selection.
Vaughn, a 21-year-old first baseman from the University of California, entered the draft as a consensus elite prospect. All of ESPN’s Keith Law (No. 2), MLB.com (No. 3), Baseball America (No. 3) and FanGraphs (No. 4) ranked Vaughn as one of the four best players on the board. Law, the most bullish of the bunch, wrote in his subscription-only draft preview that Vaughn possesses the “best pure bat in the class” and likely the best plate discipline in the group. There are, however, questions about Vaughn’s 5-foot-10 frame, Law notes.
Vaughn’s a year removed from winning the Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the premier player in college baseball. The honor in 2019 went to Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman, whom the Orioles took No. 1 this year and then signed to a record bonus.
White Sox To Place Tim Anderson On Injured List
WEDNESDAY, 11:27am: Anderson’s going to the IL, though the severity of his injury is still unknown, per Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. Garcia will start at short for the White Sox on Wednesday.
9:39am: Anderson has a high ankle sprain and is wearing a walking boot, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to report. An IL stint does seem likely for Anderson, but the team will know more after he goes for an MRI.
TUESDAY: White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson left the team’s game Tuesday against the Red Sox because of a sprained right ankle. X-Rays came back negative, though a stint on the injured list is still a legitimate possibility, James Fegan of The Athletic suggests. Anderson will undergo an MRI on Wednesday to determine the severity of the sprain.
An IL stay would temporarily halt what has been a career offensive season for Anderson. After combining for an 86 wRC+ in 1,643 plate appearances during his first three seasons from 2016-18, Anderson’s up to 122 in that category this year.
Over 281 trips to the plate in 2019, the 26-year-old Anderson has slashed .317/.342/.491 with 11 home runs and 15 stolen bases. Anderson’s production has dropped as the season has gone on, however, and further regression could be in store. After all, he owns the league’s worst K/BB ratio, a sky-high .375 batting average on balls in play and a 22-point gap between his .354 weighted on-base average and .332 expected wOBA.
While good fortune has aided Anderson’s numbers this year, he’s still one of Chicago’s most valuable players and building blocks. It’s fair to say Anderson’s absence would further damage the team’s fading playoff hopes. During the rare occasions Anderson hasn’t lined up at shortstop this year, the White Sox have turned to Jose Rondon and Leury Garcia in his stead. Rondon has been dreadful this season, though, while Garcia is the club’s preferred starter in center field.
MLB Draft Signings: 6/25/19
Here’s a look at the latest noteworthy draft signings, with the newest moves at the top of the post. Click here for the full list of slot values and draft pool bonuses, and you can find prospect rankings and scouting reports from Baseball America’s Top 500, Fangraphs’ Top 200, MLB.com’s Top 200, and the Top 50 of ESPN.com’s Keith Law….
- The White Sox have signed second-rounder Matthew Thompson for $2.1 million, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com tweets. Thompson’s pick, No. 45, came with a recommended slot value of $1,650,200. The 18-year-old Thompson’s a high school right-hander from Texas whom Mayo and colleague Jim Callis ranked as the 69th-best player entering the draft. Thompson, who had committed to Texas A&M, possesses “an ultra-quick arm and an athletic delivery” that could help him turn into a No. 3 starter in the majors, Mayo and Callis write. He’s the first of the three top 100 White Sox picks from this year’s class to sign. They still have to lock up first baseman Andrew Vaughn (No. 3 overall) and righty Andrew Dalquist (No. 81).
White Sox Designate Odrisamer Despaigne, Activate Jon Jay
The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve activated outfielder Jon Jay from the 60-day injured list for his season debut and designated right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne for assignment in order to open a roster spot.
Jay, 34, was signed to a one-year deal worth $4MM in the offseason — perhaps in part as an unsuccessful enticement to close friend Manny Machado, whom the Sox recruited heavily — but has yet to play in 2019 due to a hip injury. Jay hit .358/.382/.396 in 13 games with Triple-A Charlotte while rehabbing and batted a combined .268/.330/.347 through 586 combined plate appearances with the Royals and D-backs in 2018.
The veteran Jay is capable of manning all three outfield spots, and while he’s lacking in power, he has a knack for putting the ball in play at a high rate (career 16.5 percent strikeout rate). A lifetime .285/.352/.378 hitter, he’ll join an outfield mix that currently contains Eloy Jimenez, Leury Garcia, Charlie Tilson and Ryan Cordell.
Despaigne, 32, was tattooed for 14 runs on 24 hits and seven walks with seven strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings for the South Siders. The Cuban-born righty has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past six seasons but hasn’t found success outside of his 2014 rookie season in San Diego and a solid run with the Marlins in 2017. Overall, he has a career 5.11 ERA with 224 strikeouts against 130 walks in 363 MLB innings.
White Sox Haven’t Discussed Extension With Lucas Giolito
A long-term deal between right-hander Lucas Giolito and the White Sox “hasn’t been talked about at all,” Giolito tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. “I know that’s kind of like the new thing, organizations coming to young players. But I haven’t thought about it myself, and I don’t know where the White Sox are at, either. Just keep playing, play well, and all that stuff takes care of itself,” Giolito said.
It isn’t surprising that the club has yet to broach a deal with Giolito’s reps at CAA Sports, as players in general prefer to stay away from in-season extension talks for fear of distraction. Needless to say, the Sox don’t want to do anything to throw Giolito off during what has been a breakout season for the 24-year-old. Giolito has a 2.74 ERA, 10.97 K/9, and 3.59 K/BB rate over 85 1/3 innings for Chicago, with a 14.6% swinging-strike rate that easily tops his previous career high of 10.1% (in 2017), and a drastic reduction in the home run issues that plagued Giolito over his first three seasons in the big leagues. The righty has only an 0.8 HR/9 in 2019, as opposed to a 1.6 HR/9 in his 240 innings prior to the current seasons.
There isn’t any particular rush for the White Sox to seek out an extension, as Giolito isn’t eligible for arbitration until after the 2020 season and free agency until after 2023. Plus, it could be that the front office wants to see just a bit more positive evidence before making a big financial commitment given how Giolito struggled last season, though MLB success has long been predicted for the right-hander. If it weren’t for elbow problems that eventually required Tommy John surgery, Giolito might have very well been the first pick of the 2012 draft, and was still taken 16th overall by the Nationals. After returning to health and becoming a staple of top-prospect rankings (Giolito was a consensus top-five prospect prior to the 2016 season), he was part of the trade package the Nationals sent to the White Sox for Adam Eaton in December 2016.
As Van Schouwen notes, the White Sox have been proactive in extending young talent since Rick Hahn took over as general manager. Such notable names as Eaton, Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Nate Jones, Tim Anderson and (just this spring) Eloy Jimenez have all signed extensions under Hahn’s regime, and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if the Sox approach the likes of Giolito or Yoan Moncada about a multi-year contract in the offseason.
In terms of possible comps, Giolito will have between two and three years (two years, 80 days) of MLB service time if he remains on Chicago’s 25-man roster for the rest of the season, which seems like a lock. German Marquez had a similar amount of time on his MLB clock when he inked a five-year, $43MM extension with Colorado in early April, though Marquez is about seven months younger than Giolito and had more of a proven track record at the Major League level. Luis Severino also has had more consistent big league success than Giolito, though Severino’s four-year, $40MM extension with the Yankees may also have not have been an ideal model since that contract covered four arbitration years (Severino is a Super Two player).
White Sox Sign Hector Santiago
The White Sox have signed left-hander Hector Santiago to a minor league contract, according to Roster Roundup. Santiago was most recently with the Mets, who designated him for assignment last Friday.
This will be the third White Sox tour for Santiago, whom the team selected in the 30th round of the 2006 draft. Santiago wound up pitching with the White Sox from 2011-13, during which he notched a 3.41 ERA/4.49 FIP in 224 2/3 innings.
Chicago dealt Santiago to the Angels in a noteworthy three-team trade heading into the 2014 campaign. After stints with the Halos and Twins, Santiago returned to the Sox on a minors deal in February 2018. He went on to throw 102 innings (49 appearances, seven starts) of 4.41 ERA/5.09 FIP ball with 9.09 K/9 and 5.29 BB/9 at the big league level last season.
Now, Santiago will once again try to turn a minors pact with the White Sox into a major league opportunity. He’ll have to perform better than he did as a Met, though. While Santiago did log a 3.35 ERA over 43 innings with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate this year, his run prevention success came with far less encouraging peripherals. The 31-year-old then fell flat over eight innings with New York, where he gave up six earned runs on 10 hits and five walks (with six strikeouts).
White Sox Sign Jacob Scavuzzo
The White Sox have signed outfielder Jacob Scavuzzo, according to a club announcement. He’ll report to Triple-A Charlotte.
Scavuzzo, 25, posted an intriguing — if unbalanced — .259/.300/.696 slash line in 120 plate appearances at Triple-A with the Padres organization. That wasn’t enough to impressive the San Diego brass, as Scavuzzo’s tally of 15 long balls was accompanied by a worrisome blend of forty strikeouts and just five walks.
A former Dodgers draftee, Scavuzzo has shown the same essential attributes ever since he cracked the pro ranks in 2012, but never to quite these extremes. It’s clear there are some intriguing physical tools to work with, but the South Siders obviously have their work cut out if they are to find a way to help Scavuzzo reach base at a palatable rate.
Pitcher Notes: Zimmermann, Yanks, Cahill, Mariners, White Sox
The Tigers announced that they’ve reinstated right-hander Jordan Zimmerman from the 10-day injured list. Zimmermann, who hasn’t taken a major league mound since April 25 because of a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, will start Wednesday. Zimmermann’s nearly two-month absence added injury to insult in what has been a terrible Tigers tenure for the 33-year-old. A run as a front-line starter for the Nationals convinced the Tigers to give Zimmermann a five-year, $110MM contract entering 2016, but he has come up way short of expectations since then. Now 33, Zimmermann owns a 5.29 ERA/4.92 FIP with 6.34 K/9, 2.26 BB/9 and a 36.7 percent groundball rate in 427 innings as a Tiger.
- Yankees southpaw Jordan Montgomery seemingly isn’t recovering as hoped from June 2018 Tommy John surgery, as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports. Montgomery exited a live batting practice session Tuesday after throwing 15 pitches. Manager Aaron Boone said afterward Montgomery “had a little discomfort.” The Yankees hope Montgomery will be able to help their pitching staff later in the season, Ackert notes, but that seems even less likely now. The 26-year-old functioned as a full-time starter from 2017-18, a 182 2/3-inning span in which he recorded a solid 3.84 ERA/4.09 FIP with 8.23 K/9, 3.10 BB/9 and a 41.4 percent grounder rate.
- Angels righty Trevor Cahill will make a rehab start Friday with Triple-A Salt Lake, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was among those to report. Cahill has been on the IL since June 8 with soreness in his pitching elbow. The offseason signing got off to a horrible start before then, as shown by a 7.18 ERA/6.37 FIP in 57 2/3 innings.
- The shoulder MRI that Mariners righty Felix Hernandez underwent Tuesday didn’t show any new issues, per Greg Johns of MLB.com (Twitter links). As a result, Hernandez – out since May 11 – will resume his rehab, likely throwing a few bullpen sessions before taking the ball again in the minors. Meanwhile, teammate and fellow righty Sam Tuivailala will begin a rehab stint at the Single-A level Friday. Tuivailala, a July 2018 Mariners trade acquisition, has been out since last August with a right Achilles injury.
- The White Sox have placed southpaw Manny Banuelos on the 10-day IL with shoulder inflammation and recalled righty Carson Fulmer, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. This is the second time in 2019 that shoulder issues have sent Banuelos to the shelf. Injuries have been a common theme throughout the pro career of Banuelos, once a well-regarded prospect with the Yankees. The 28-year-old has pitched to an ugly 6.90 ERA/6.78 FIP with 8.28 K/9, 5.91 BB/9 and a 33.3 percent grounder rate in 45 2/3 innings (13 appearances, eight starts) with the White Sox this season.