- The Diamondbacks have acquired right-handed reliever Brad Goldberg from the White Sox for cash considerations, per Scott Merkin of MLB.com and Zach Buchanan of The Athletic. Goldberg, 28, will now head to his second organization after initially joining Chicago in the 10th round of the 2013 draft. The hard thrower debuted in the majors last year with 12 innings of 8.25 ERA ball, but other than that, he has worked exclusively in the minors (including a 22 1/3-inning run at Double-A this season). Goldberg owns a 3.07 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 91 Triple-A innings.
Diamondbacks Rumors
Diamondbacks Acquire Tyler Ladendorf From Blue Jays
- The D-backs acquired infielder Tyler Ladendorf from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. A second-round pick of the Twins back in 2007, Ladendorf eventually reached the Majors with the A’s but hit just .123/.149/.154 in 68 plate appearances. Ladendorf appeared in just two games with the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate and went hitless in six plate appearances, but he’s a career .256/.324/.347 hitter in parts of eight Triple-A seasons.
Diamondbacks, Henry Owens Agree To Minor League Deal
The Diamondbacks and left-hander Henry Owens have agreed to a minor league contract, tweets MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. He’d recently been released by the Dodgers.
This’ll mark the second time that the D-backs have picked up the former Red Sox top prospect, which makes sense given that Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen and AGMs Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter were all at one point in Boston’s front office. The D-backs claimed Owens off waivers back in December but lost him to Los Angeles a couple of weeks later when they tried to pass him through waivers themselves.
Owens, the 36th overall pick in the 2011 draft, was at one point considered to be among baseball’s best pitching prospects. He’s yet to deliver on his potential, though, as the 25-year-old has managed just a 5.19 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9 in 85 big league innings. More troubling, though, is that the lefty saw his control of the strike zone utterly evaporate in 2017 when he walked 115 batters, hit 17 more and threw 17 wild pitches in 126 Triple-A innings. Walks have long been an issue for Owens, though he’d never struggled to that extent in the past. Owens had yet to pitch in the Dodgers organization this season at the time of his release last month.
Pollock's Absence Likely Closer To Eight Weeks Than Four Weeks
- A.J. Pollock’s fractured thumb has not yet fully healed, D-backs skipper Torey Lovullo told reporters (Twitter link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). That didn’t come as a surprise to the organization, per Lovullo, who said that Pollock’s progress is “exactly where we thought it would be.” As Piecoro indicates, the latest update suggests that Pollock’s return won’t come on the short end of his originally projected timetable of four to eight weeks. The short end of that timeline would’ve lined up Pollock for a return in mid-June, but the eight-week timeline would extend his absence closer to the All-Star break.
Shelby Miller Set For Rehab Assignment; Latest On Ray, Pollock
Diamondbacks right Shelby Miller is set to embark upon a rehab assignment beginning tomorrow night, as MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert writes. That’s encouraging news for both player and team, as it suggests he’s now not all that far from returning to a MLB mound.
Miller, who’s about 13 months removed from Tommy John surgery, will be looking to reestablish himself in advance of his final season of arbitration eligibility. It’s not yet known exactly how many starts he will make in the minors. Presumably, that’ll be determined in no small part by how his elbow responds. The rules allow up to thirty days for a pitcher’s rehab assignment.
Last we saw him in the majors, Miller was giving reason to believe he could put his miserable 2016 season in the rearview mirror. He turned in three strong starts to open the ensuing campaign — including a fastball velocity boost (to 95.5 mph) and swinging-strike rebound (9.6%) — only to see the elbow problem arise and cut his season short.
The Arizona organization will hope that Miller can regain that momentum on the other side of his TJ rehab. There’s clearly some interesting upside; in 2015, Miller threw 205 1/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball. Whether he has that kind of effort left in his 27-year-old right arm remains to be seen. Miller says he has “felt really good physically” but believes “there’s some room to work on some command stuff” as he prepares for his return to competitive action.
It’s notable, too, that lefty Robbie Ray has a notable date tomorrow. He’s due to have his injured oblique examined for progress. It’s even possible that he will throw a pen session if the imaging looks good. While we’ll obviously need to wait to see how the medical evaluation goes, it seems generally promising that these steps are even under contemplation at this point. Ray hit the DL about a month ago with what seemed to be a rather significant muscle injury.
The D-Backs undoubtedly miss Miller and Ray, particularly with the team presently enduring an extended slide. Every piece of talent helps, after all, even though run-prevention has been a notable strength to this point of the season. But the lagging offense is the real problem, and that’s an ongoing concern that won’t be addressed by the eventual return of those hurlers.
The player the Snakes miss most, surely, is center fielder A.J. Pollock. He’ll also be looked at tomorrow to see how his fractured thumb is healing. When that injury was announced, there was a fair bit of uncertainty in Pollock’s timeline, so the results will be of no little interest for a club that badly misses its most productive hitter through the first six weeks of the season. Pollock, too, is surely anxious to get back in action after missing so much time in recent seasons. Once he’s back, he’ll be looking to shore up his free-agent stock, which had been on the rise before he hit the DL.
Kris Medlen Retires
Veteran right-hander Kris Medlen has retired, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic reports. He had been pitching in the minors with the Diamondbacks organization.
The 32-year-old Medlen only spent a few months with the Diamondbacks, who signed him to a minor league deal in January. He eventually worked his way back to the majors, earning a start in early May as the Diamondbacks dealt with injuries to Robbie Ray and Taijuan Walker. That May 4 outing didn’t go well for Medlen, who allowed seven earned runs on nine hits and four walks (with four strikeouts) across four frames in a loss to the reigning World Series champion Astros. Arizona then optioned Medlen to Triple-A, where he spent the final few weeks of his career.
Even though his last season didn’t go well, Medlen enjoyed an accomplished big league career. The California native went in the 10th round of the 2006 draft to the Braves, who initially used him solely out of the bullpen before he later worked as both a starter and a reliever with the club. Medlen debuted in Atlanta in 2009 and went on to turn in 512 2/3 innings of 2.95 ERA ball with the team through 2013, also notching 7.62 K/9, 2.12 BB/9 and a 46.2 percent groundball rate over 152 appearances (61 starts).
While Medlen offered high-end production in Atlanta, his arm health began to deteriorate with the club. Medlen missed the majority of the 2011 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, which proved to the first of two TJ procedures he’d undergo in his career. Medlen went back under the knife prior to the 2014 campaign, bringing about the end of his first Braves tenure.
The Royals took a flyer on Medlen in the wake of his second surgery, inking him to a two-year deal, but he wasn’t able to regain his old form in Kansas City. However, in the better of those years – 2015 – Medlen pitched to a respectable 4.01 ERA over 58 1/3 innings (15 appearances, eight starts) and was part of the Royals’ first World Series-winning team since 1985. Neither Medlen nor the Royals could replicate that success the next season, leading him to exit and reunite with the Braves on a minor league deal entering the 2017 campaign. Medlen didn’t return to the majors with the Braves, instead spending the season primarily with their Triple-A affiliate.
Unfortunately, thanks to injuries, Medlen’s career didn’t reach the heights it could have. Nevertheless, he still registered a more-than-respectable 3.33 ERA in 599 1/3 major league frames. MLBTR wishes Medlen the best in retirement.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Latest On Robbie Ray, Shelby Miller
- The free-falling Diamondbacks may welcome both lefty Robbie Ray and righty Shelby Miller back in mid-June, general manager Mike Hazen told reporters, including Kathleen Fitzgerald of AZCentral and Nick Piecoro of AZCentral. After getting off to a 24-11 start, the Diamondbacks have lost 14 of 16, perhaps thanks in part to the absences of Ray (strained oblique) and Taijuan Walker (Tommy John surgery) since late April. The D-backs’ banged-up rotation is hardly the primary reason for their slide (the club’s offense has only averaged two runs per game during its slump), but the returns of Ray and Miller should be welcome nonetheless. Along with Zack Greinke, Patrick Corbin and Zack Godley, Ray and Miller would help form a nice rotation on paper. Miller has been working back since he underwent a Tommy John procedure last May.
Diamondbacks Place Steven Souza On 10-Day DL
The Diamondbacks placed outfielder Steven Souza Jr. on the 10-day disabled list with a strained right pectoral. This is the same injury that kept Souza from making his season debut until May. Outfielder Socrates Brito has been recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Souza originally suffered the injury in the last week of Spring Training, while diving for a ball in the outfield. This second DL placement would seem to confirm that the issue was still bothering Souza, as he didn’t look at all like himself at the plate, hitting just a .163/.234/.186 over his first 47 plate appearances for Arizona. While no timeline was given about the DL placement, it’s fair to assume that Souza will miss more than the 10-day minimum absence to ensure that the injury is fully behind him.
[Updated D’Backs depth chart at Roster Resource]
After a breakout 2017 season (.239/.351/.459 with 30 homers over 617 PA) for Tampa Bay, Souza was traded to the D’Backs as part of the three-team deal with the Rays and Yankees that also saw Brandon Drury go to New York and pitching prospect Anthony Banda head to Tampa. Souza was expected to be Arizona’s everyday right fielder and at least somewhat fill the offensive gap left behind by the departed J.D. Martinez, though his injury has essentially kept him from getting out of the blocks thus far in the 2018 campaign.
Injuries to Souza, A.J. Pollock, and Jake Lamb have contributed to a lack of offensive firepower for the D’Backs, not to mention protracted slumps from Paul Goldschmidt and Alex Avila. Arizona ranks at or near the bottom of the league in runs, batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS, and the hitting drought has started to catch up with the team, as the Snakes have lost 11 of their last 12 games. Remarkably, however, the D’Backs are still hanging onto first place in the NL West.
Brito will get his first taste of the big leagues since 2016, as the 25-year-old missed a good chunk of last year recovering from finger surgery. Brito has only a .612 OPS over 131 PA with the Diamondbacks in 2015-16, though he isn’t far removed from being a pretty well-regarded prospect in Arizona’s farm system. He can play all three outfield positions, and has been hitting well at Triple-A Reno, with a .323/.365/.437 slash line over 170 PA this season.
Diamondbacks Select Clay Buchholz
SUNDAY: Arizona has officially selected Buchholz’s contract. To create space for him, the team transferred righty Randall Delgado to the 60-day DL with a strained left oblique and optioned fellow righty Jimmie Sherfy to Triple-A.
FRIDAY: The Diamondbacks will select the contract of veteran righty Clay Buchholz, manager Torey Lovullo told reporters including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). He’ll make a start on Sunday, so presumably the roster move won’t be made official until then.
Buchholz joined the Arizona organization earlier this month after opting out of his deal with the Royals. It turned out that the Snakes needed the extra arm. With Robbie Ray on the shelf and Taijuan Walker down for the year, the club has already dipped into its system to plug in Matt Koch. The fifth spot is open to whoever can lay claim to it; fellow veteran Kris Medlen stumbled in his attempt but is among the other pitchers still on hand at Triple-A.
Like current D-Backs GM Mike Hazen, Buchholz has spent the bulk of his career with the Red Sox organization. Now 33, Buchholz was seen as an interesting bounceback candidate by the Phillies in 2017. But he was knocked around in two starts before going down with a flexor tear.
This upcoming appearance, then, will be Buchholz’s first in the majors in over a year. In five outings in the upper minors, he has worked to a 2.93 ERA with 19 strikeouts and a dozen walks over 27 2/3 innings. The Diamondbacks would obviously be thrilled if he can provide some useful innings.
Clay Buchholz To Earn Prorated $1.6MM Salary
- Veteran right-hander Clay Buchholz’s minors pact with the Diamondbacks comes with a prorated $1.6MM major league salary, Zach Buchanan of The Athletic tweets. Buchholz will begin earning that sum Sunday when he makes a start against the Mets. It’ll be the 33-year-old’s first MLB appearance since April 11, 2017.
