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Indians Option Greg Allen, Recall Jordan Luplow

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The Indians have optioned outfielder Greg Allen to Triple-A, according to Mandy Bell of MLB.com. To take Allen’s place on the active roster, the team has recalled outfielder Jordan Luplow.

It’s been an abysmal start to the season for Allen, 26, who finds himself mired in a slump to the tune of a .325 OPS, having struck out 14 times in 42 plate appearances and walking just twice. His struggles have compounded the Tribe’s outfield problem, which has lacked for production outside of Leonys Martin. It’s an unfortunate turn for Allen, who flashed potential in 91 games with the Indians last year. However, a ballclub that intends to win games cannot afford to continue giving plate appearances to a struggling young player in hopes that he breaks out of a slump. Allen will be given ample opportunity in Columbus to right himself and return to form with hopes that he can contribute to a playoff team later in the season.

The Indians will turn to Luplow in hopes that he will offer a boon to their faltering outfield. Luplow represents a right-handed option for an Indians outfield that features Martin, Jake Bauers, Tyler Naquin, and Carlos Gonzalez—all left-handed hitters. While Luplow started slow with the Major League club and was quickly optioned to the minors, he only received 17 MLB plate appearances before the demotion and has dominated Triple-A pitching since then. Though he boasts an impressive minor-league track record, he has thus far failed to put it together at the Major League level, though inconsistent playing time may in part be to blame: he has only received 207 scattered PAs between Pittsburgh and Cleveland since debuting in 2017.

AL Central Notes: Mize, Carrasco, Soler

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The Tigers announced Thursday that top pitching prospect Casey Mize has been promoted to Double-A Erie. Mize, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft, tore through an early assignment to Class-A Advanced, posting a comical 0.35 ERA with a 25-to-1 K/BB ratio in 26 innings of work prior to the promotion. The former Auburn ace, clearly miles ahead of the competition he faced at that first stop, looks to be on a relatively fast track to the big leagues. The 21-year-old (22 on May 1) totaled 128 1/3 innings between college ball and the minor leagues last season, so he may not even be on all that aggressive of an innings cap (although surely the Tigers will exercise some degree of caution as pertains to his workload). Widely regarded as one of the game’s best overall prospects, Mize could put himself in the conversation for a big league promotion this summer or in early 2020, at the latest, assuming things go smoothly in Double-A and Triple-A.

More from the division…

  • An MRI revealed no damage in the ailing knee of Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco, Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes. Carrasco tweaked the knee in his most recent start against the Marlins while covering first base on a grounder, and while he finished that frame (the fourth), he didn’t return for the fifth. The righty told skipper Terry Francona that the knee had begun to tighten up, and the Cleveland manager understandably opted to go the cautious route. Carrasco is in line to make his next scheduled start on Sunday and seemingly won’t have any limitations placed on him.
  • The Royals are cognizant of the fact that Jorge Soler’s work in right field is a work in progress, at best, but the organization plans to continue giving him opportunities to improve, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. It seems the team believes there’s better glovework to be unlocked with more reps, with Soler possessing the physical tools needed to man the position. The coaching staff is stressing the need for him to take better routes to the ball — particularly when it’s hit over his head. There’s little doubt that Soler’s upside would be maximized by playing on the grass regularly, rather than serving solely as a DH, though he has already logged more than two thousand MLB innings in the outfield without mastering the gig. He’s also pacing the American League with 39 strikeouts and carrying a .288 on-base percentage, which arguably represent larger concerns. Soler is under contract through 2020 under the international free agent contract he originally signed out of Cuba. The out-of-options 27-year-old will be eligible for arbitration for one season thereafter.

Indians Select Tyler Clippard

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The Indians announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Tyler Clippard. He’ll step into the vacant spot on the organization’s 40-man roster. In order to open a space on the active roster, right-hander Jefry Rodriguez was optioned back to Triple-A Columbus.

Clippard, 34, appeared poised to earn a spot with the Indians in Spring Training but sustained a pectoral strain that prevented him from being ready for Opening Day. The two sides agreed to a restructured minor league pact that kept Clippard in the organization, and he’s now worked back to health and shown the organization enough to deem him ready to contribute at the MLB level. In three innings at Columbus, Clippard allowed a run on two hits and no walks with four strikeouts.

The veteran Clippard spent the 2018 season with the Blue Jays, for whom he turned in a 3.67 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9. Home runs, however, have become an increasing problem for Clippard in recent seasons. Always an extreme fly-ball pitcher, the right-hander posted a league-low 19.2 percent ground-ball rate last season and allowed a whopping 1.70 home runs per nine innings pitched. Clippard’s penchant for strikeouts and inducing infield pop-ups (16.3 percent; 17 pop flies in total last season) have helped him to strand an above-average number of baserunners, but the heightened threat of a long ball when he’s pitching with men on base leaves him susceptible to big innings.

Clippard will join a Cleveland bullpen that includes closer Brad Hand; lefties Tyler Olson and Oliver Perez; and right-handers Adam Cimber, Nick Wittgren, Dan Otero and Neil Ramirez.

Yankees Acquire Cameron Maybin

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1:59pm: The Yankees announced that they have acquired Maybin from the Indians and immediately selected his contract to the Major League roster. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Luis Severino was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.

11:31am: MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Yankees are sending cash to the Indians in return for Maybin.

11:06am: The Yankees have acquired veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin from the Indians, Jack Curry of the YES Network reports (Twitter link). He’d been with Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league contract and was not on the club’s 40-man roster.

It seems quite plausible, however, that Maybin could be added to the big league roster in New York. The Yankees placed Clint Frazier on the injured list this morning and are also without Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Jacoby Ellsbury, leaving them with an outfield mix comprised of Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade.

Maybin, 32, has opened the season in Triple-A Columbus with a .229/.397/.292 batting line through 63 trips to the plate. He is, of course, a seasoned big league veteran who has logged parts of 12 seasons at the MLB level and compiled a career-long .254/.322/.368 slash line. Most recently, Maybin split the 2018 season between the Marlins and Mariners, hitting .249/.326/.336 with four homers and 10 steals in 384 plate appearances. He spent Spring Training with the Giants organization, but poor performance and a DUI arrest while in camp unsurprisingly led the Giants to move in another direction.

Defensively, Maybin isn’t the player that he once was, but he still boasts well above-average speed and has ample experience playing all three outfield spots. Last year’s 28.5 ft/sec average sprint speed, as measured by Statcast, ranked Maybin in the 84th percentile of all big leaguers.

The move seems likely to be a short-term boost for the Yankees’ outfield depth. If the team can manage to get each of Hicks, Judge, Stanton and Frazier healthy, there’d be little room with Gardner and Tauchman also in the fold. And if injuries to any of the Yankees’ key outfield assets prove to ultimately be more severe than initially feared, it’s likely that the New York front office would pursue a more impactful upgrade down the line.

AL Pitching Injury Notes: Snell, Carrasco, Smyly, Estrada, Hardy

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The Rays have decided to start ace lefty Blake Snell today after he bounced back quicker than expected from a minor toe fracture, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. There are some obvious risks to bringing him back before he’s ready, but the organization obviously feels that isn’t the case. The reigning American League Cy Young winner has been outstanding once again early in 2019, with a 2.16 ERA and 13.0 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9 over 25 frames.

More on the health front, focusing on some other AL hurlers:

  • Indians righty Carlos Carrasco departed his start yesterday early with some left knee discomfort and will undergo an MRI to make sure there isn’t an injury. It’s being billed as a precautionary measure, as MLB.com’s Mandy Bell reports (via Twitter). The Indians will hope it comes back clean, as he’s a key part of the team’s plan to fend off challengers in the AL Central. Carrasco has had a few rough outings this year, but has also spun a pair of 12-strikeout gems and was getting the job done yesterday before tweaking the joint.
  • Rangers starter Drew Smyly was placed on the 10-day injured list yesterday with what the club described as mid-arm nerve tightness in his left arm. It seems the hope is that he’ll only miss a start or two; the placement was back-dated to April 20th. The 29-year-old Smyly hasn’t quite had the bounceback campaign he was hoping for to this point, with a 7.80 ERA, 19:10 K/BB ratio, and four home runs allowed through 15 innings over four starts. Right-handed Wei-Chieh Huang is up to take the open roster spot. He made his MLB debut earlier this season and has been throwing well at Double-A.
  • The Athletics sent righty Marco Estrada in for an “ablation procedure” on his balky back yesterday, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to cover (Twitter links). It seems he’ll be out through at least early May, though there isn’t a precise timeline just yet. The hope seems to be that this surgery will speed things up a bit. Meanwhile, the A’s hoping that reliever Lou Trivino will bounce back quickly after he was struck in the thumb by a baseball. He’s taking a few days but not slated to hit the injured list at the moment.
  • The Tigers announced yesterday that lefty Blaine Hardy was heading to the IL with a left forearm strain. Injuries to that area can be quite concerning for a pitcher, but there’s no real indication at this point of the outlook for the 32-year-old. After dabbling with the rotation in 2018, Hardy has been utilized in a multi-inning relief capacity thus far, throwing a dozen frames in eight appearances. Fellow southpaw Jose Fernandez takes his spot on the active roster.

Hanley Ramirez Elects Free Agency

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1:20pm: The Indians have announced that Ramirez is officially a free agent.

1:00pm: Hanley Ramirez has elected free agency after declining an outright assignment from the Indians, as indicated on the Triple-A International League transactions log. He’ll presumably venture out into the open market in search of a new opportunity.

The 35-year-old Ramirez signed a minor league contract with Cleveland over the winter and broke camp as the club’s primary designated hitter, but he batted just .184/.298/.327 with two homers and 17 strikeouts in 57 plate appearances in his short stint there. That minor league deal came roughly nine months after being released by the Red Sox last June, though Ramirez told The Athletic’s Zack Meisel back in February that he turned away offers from clubs following last year’s release so that he could “get my body healthy and come back next year.”

It’s fair to question what Ramirez has left in the tank. He hasn’t been a decidedly above-average bat since the 2016 season, and while this year’s 57 plate appearances are too small a sample from which to glean anything meaningful, the former NL Rookie of the Year and batting champion has managed a paltry .241/.317/.414 batting line through 805 PAs dating back to the 2017 season. While that output is only about eight percent worse than league average by measure of park- and league-adjusted stats like OPS+ and wRC+, a player with Ramirez’s lack of defensive value has a much higher bar to clear when determining what’s an acceptable level of offensive performance.

Ramirez was a pure designated hitter with Cleveland this season, so it’s doubtful that he’ll generate much, if any, interest from National League clubs. There may very well be some American League organizations that take a speculative look at the former Marlins/Dodgers star, but it stands to reason that Ramirez would need to work his way back to the big leagues on a minor league deal.

Indians Activate Francisco Lindor, DFA Hanley Ramirez

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The Indians activated Francisco Lindor from the injured list today, while veteran Hanley Ramirez was designated for assignment to clear the roster spot, per MLB Roster Moves (Twitter links).

This should come as a welcome bit of news for Indians fans, who finally have their middle infield at full health for the first time this season. Cleveland performed arguably better than expected in their superstar’s absence, as the team sits one game up on the AL Central with an 11-7 record. While the team stayed afloat, offense from the shortstop position was abysmal without Lindor, as his understudies hit a combined .069/.139/.097 – that’s a full -1.0 fWAR in 18 games (-43 wRC+). Replacing that production with anything close to Lindor’s career .288/.350/.487 ought to provide a significant boost to a Cleveland offense that ranks 28th with a .266 wOBA.

For Ramirez, thus ends a second straight disappointing season for the 35-year-old Dominican. He appeared in 16 games this season, hitting only .184/.298/.327 with two home runs. The former highlight-reel shortstop has been relegated to designated hitter duties, from which he simply does not provide Cleveland with enough utility to warrant a roster spot. If this spells the end for Ramirez’s major-league career, he would finish as a career .289/.360/.486 hitter with 271 home runs and 1,834 hits across 7,127 plate appearances in 15 years.

Brad Miller Elects Free Agency

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The Indians announced today that infielder Brad Miller has elected free agency after clearing waivers. Recently designated for assignment, Miller had expressed some frustration with the organization’s decision and preferred not to take a spot at Triple-A.

This move puts an interesting player back onto the open market. The 29-year-old is a fairly accomplished left-handed batter with some defensive versatility. He opened the current campaign with forty plate appearances of .250/.325/.417 hitting and ought to be ready to hit the ground running with a new club.

That being said, Miller may still need to take up residency with an affiliate for a stretch before returning to the majors. He could have been claimed had any team really wanted him on its active roster. After all, he was slated to earn only $1MM for the season under the deal he inked with the Indians. (Having signed an advance consent clause, the club must pay only for about a sixth of that amount.)

Indians Select Mike Freeman

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The Indians announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Mike Freeman from Triple-A Columbus and optioned fellow infielder Eric Stamets to Triple-A Columbus in his place. A corresponding 40-man move wasn’t required, as Cleveland had only 39 players on its 40-man.

Freeman, 31, has seen sparse action in the Majors in each of the past three seasons (including one lone plate appearance with the Cubs in 2018), hitting a combined .134/.211/.207 across 91 plate appearances. Lackluster as that small-sample output may be, Freeman is an accomplished Triple-A hitter, as evidenced by a lifetime .305/.372/.418 slash through 2030 PAs at that level. While he’s light on power, Freeman has consistently managed to hit for average and get on base at the top minor league level. He’s walked in 9.2 percent of those 2030 PAs in Triple-A and kept his strikeout rate to a relatively low 16.8 percent.

Track record aside, Freeman needn’t do much to give the Indians at least a modest uptick in offensive production. The 27-year-old Stamets made his big league debut on Opening Day this season and has seen regular work in 15 games. However, he’s collected just two hits and five walks in 48 trips to the plate, resulting in a disheartening .049/.149/.073 slash in his first look at MLB pitching. As a glove-first player, there’s perhaps hope that Stamets could eventually fill a utility spot with the organization, but he looked decidedly overmatched in trying to step into some enormous shoes with Francisco Lindor on the shelf.

Thankfully for Cleveland fans, there’s hope on the horizon with regard to Lindor; the star shortstop embarked on a Triple-A rehab assignment tonight.

AL Notes: Indians, Miller, Forsythe, Gio

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Veteran infielder Brad Miller was understandably frustrated by the news that the Indians had opted to designate him for assignment over the weekend, writes Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The 29-year-old Miller hit .250/.325/.417 with a homer and three doubles in his short time with the organization but lost out on his roster spot with the impending return of fellow left-handed-hitting second baseman Jason Kipnis. “It’s a tough trend,” Miller said of his DFA. “They acknowledge that it wasn’t fair. … I really enjoyed playing for Tito (Terry Francona). That’s why I’m frustrated. I want to be here. I like this group. It’s a good team and I was hoping I’d be a part of it, but they have other plans.”

Per Hoynes, Miller’s $1MM salary with the Indians wasn’t fully guaranteed by virtue of the fact that he agreed to a 45-day advance consent clause. (Full details on those clauses are explored in this 2014 piece from Trade Rumors’ Zach Links, though in essence, they allow teams to cut players with five-plus years of service at any point within the season’s first 45 days for any reason other than injury.) Miller will still be paid for the time he spent with the Indians, but he’ll receive the pro-rated portion of that $1MM salary while losing out on the rest of it. Notably, Hoynes reports that designated hitter Hanley Ramirez also has such a clause in his contract.

Some more from the American League…

  • Infielder Logan Forsythe spoke with MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan about his decision to sign with the Rangers, specifically how the opportunity to play on a near-everyday basis by rotating through a number of positions spoke to him. “Most teams that looked at me had a pretty set infield,” said Forsythe. “There weren’t too many everyday jobs out there, or there were, but not too many guys were signing them. More teams were going for the utility or the platooning matchup type players.” As Sullivan details, Forsythe starts at second base against lefties and first base against righties, and he’s also available as a backup to Asdrubal Cabrera and Elvis Andrus, should either left-side infielder need a day off.
  • Veteran lefty Gio Gonzalez is awaiting an opportunity in the Major Leagues with the Yankees as an opt-out clause in his minor league contract looms, Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post writes. The Yankees, according to Gonzalez, were the only club to even make him an offer this winter and didn’t do so until midway through Spring Training after an injury to Luis Severino. The southpaw had a brutal first start in Triple-A but has bounced back with a pair of strong outings, yielding just two runs through 11 innings with an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio. Gonzalez didn’t shy away from voicing his displeasure with the manner in which the offseason unfolded but also said he doesn’t feel he needs to pitch as though he has a point to prove: “No. I have nothing left to prove to people. [I] throw 180 innings, do your thing, I’m durable, doing it for the last 10 years. If I still have to prove a point, that’s embarrassing in this sport.”
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