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Indians Acquire Phil Maton From Padres

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The Indians have acquired righty Phil Maton from the Padres, per a club announcement. International bonus poll space is headed to San Diego in the deal.

In other moves, the Friars announced that that they have selected the contract of righty Andres Munoz. That explains the need to free a 40-man roster. Catcher Austin Allen is also coming to the majors, with backstop Austin Hedges and lefty Eric Lauer being moved to the bereavement list.

Maton, 26, has appeared at the MLB level in each of the past three seasons. Through 114 2/3 total innings, he carries a meager 5.02 ERA — a mark that has skyrocketed this year, in particular.

That said, there are still reasons for some optimism. Maton has shown an ability to generate swings and misses (13.3% for his career). And he has dominated at Triple-A in recent years.

For the Indians, it was easy to take a shot and add some depth. Righty Cody Anderson won’t be returning to action this year anyway. He was bumped to the 60-day injured list to create roster space.

On the Friars’ side of the deal, it’ll be interesting to see what the team has in Munoz. The live-armed 20-year-old has shown intriguing K/BB numbers in the upper minors this year. Through 35 2/3 innings, split about evenly between Double-A and Triple-A, he owns a 3.03 ERA with 58 strikeouts and 18 free passes.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/11/19

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The latest minor moves from around the game…

Most Recent

  • The Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk announced several roster moves today, including the news that right-hander Matt Wotherspoon was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers.  Wotherspoon was designated for assignment last week, and this marks the second time this season that the O’s outrighted him off their 40-man roster.  Now in his sixth pro season, Wotherspoon made his Major League debut earlier this year, getting hit hard for eight earned runs over 4 2/3 innings for Baltimore.

Earlier Today

  • Brewers right-hander Deolis Guerra cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A San Antonio, per MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter link). The 30-year-old Guerra made just one appearance with the Brewers after having his contract selected, wherein he was hammered for four runs in two-thirds of an inning. Ugly as that outing was, Guerra has been excellent in an extraordinarily hitter-friendly Triple-A environment in 2019: 2.61 ERA, 10.5 K/9, 2.2 BB/9, 1.09 HR/9 in 41 1/3 innings of relief. It seems the well-traveled Guerra will remain in the organization as a depth piece; he had the right to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but there’s no indication he plans to do so.
  • Lost in the All-Star shuffle on Tuesday was the Indians’ announcement that righty Chih-Wei Hu cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Columbus. Hu, 25, was originally signed by the Twins as an amateur free agent out of Taiwan but was traded to the Rays in 2015 (for Kevin Jepsen) and then to the Indians this past offseason (for minor leaguer Gionti Turner). Hu pitched 23 innings of 3.52 ERA ball with a 21-to-7 K/BB ratio for Tampa Bay in 2017-18, but he’s been rocked for a 7.95 ERA while allowing 2.96 HR/9 in 48 2/3 innings in Triple-A this year. Hu had a 4.06 ERA and solid K/BB numbers in parts of four prior seasons of Triple-A ball prior to 2019, and he’ll strive to get back to that level of performance while no longer occupying a 40-man roster spot.

Poll: Shopping Trevor Bauer

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MLBTR’s Jeff Todd asked an interesting question Tuesday morning: Should the Mets entertain trade offers for ace Jacob deGrom? To this point, the majority of voters believe they should at least listen to other teams’ proposals for the 31-year-old right-hander. As great as deGrom is, he’s probably not going to help pitch the woebegone Mets into the playoffs this season.

On the other hand, Indians righty Trevor Bauer may aid in a playoff berth for his team yet again in 2019. Nevertheless, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Monday that the Indians are “aggressive listeners” on Bauer as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. There’s wide-ranging interest in Bauer, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Cleveland, which happens to be hosting Tuesday’s All-Star Game, went on a tear to end the season’s first half. Winners of six straight, the Indians are 50-38 – good for the majors’ seventh-highest winning percentage (.568) – and have suddenly made the AL Central race intriguing. For a large portion of the first half, it looked as if the Twins would skate to a division title. Now, though, the Indians sit a manageable 5 1/2 games behind them. The Tribe’s also 1 1/2 games up on the AL’s second wild-card spot and a half-game behind the Rays for the league’s No. 5 seed.

An appreciable amount of the Indians’ success can be attributed to the 28-year-old Bauer, which would make trading him in the next three weeks all the more surprising. No, Bauer hasn’t been the ace-caliber performer he was a year ago. Still, though, Bauer has recorded a 3.61 ERA (granted, with a less inspiring 4.10 FIP) and 10.16 K/9 against 3.48 BB/9 over a major league-leading 132 innings.

It’s hard to believe the Indians would be able to trade Bauer and better themselves for this year, especially in light of the other concerns in their rotation. The Tribe’s starting staff looked like one of the league’s best entering the season. Since then, however, Corey Kluber has struggled and missed a vast amount of the campaign because of a fractured forearm. Mike Clevinger has made just five starts, over which he has been a mixed bag, because of a back injury. Worst of all, the team’s still reeling from the awful news that the excellent Carlos Carrasco, who hasn’t pitched since May 30, is battling leukemia.

The absences of Kluber and Carrasco have left Bauer, Clevinger and stellar young righty Shane Bieber as the lone truly dependable members of the Indians’ rotation. Fill-in Jefry Rodriguez has been on the injured list since June 1 with a strained shoulder, and rookie Zach Plesac has fallen off of late. Meantime, Adam Plutko has posted a below-average ERA (4.95) through 36 1/3 innings, and that outdoes even less shiny peripherals.

All of that said, Cleveland’s in an unenviable position with Bauer, whom it will probably lose soon even if it keeps him through the season. Bauer’s making a somewhat expensive $13MM and only controllable through 2020. If we’re to take his word for it, the offbeat Bauer will be trying to max out on one-year contracts every winter in free agency after that. Therefore, if the Indians weren’t in contention, now would clearly be the time for the Indians to flip Bauer. But the back-to-back-to-back AL Central champions are very much in the hunt right now, which could set the stage for an agonizing Bauer decision this month. What do you think they should do?

(Poll link for app users)

What should the Indians do with Trevor Bauer this month?
Listen to offers, but only deal him for a huge return 49.66% (3,913 votes)
Trade him for the best offer 35.10% (2,766 votes)
Keep him and try to win it all 15.24% (1,201 votes)
Total Votes: 7,880

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

AL Central Notes: Indians, Abreu, Allen

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The Indians never so much as made a contract offer to Michael Brantley before he inked a two-year, $32MM deal in Houston this offseason, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports within a broader look at the club’s struggles to retain top stars. Nightengale interviews both Brantley and CC Sabathia about their emotional departures from Cleveland as part of a piece that wonders whether Francisco Lindor’s eventual exit is anything less than a foregone conclusion. For his part, Lindor calls Cleveland “home” and adds that he hopes to stay before more vaguely stating: “When that time comes, we’ll decide.” Lindor’s long-term future has been particularly in question since Indians owner Paul Dolan ominously told fans to “enjoy him” while the team has him under control.

Indians fans will want to give the column a read not only for talk of Lindor’s future but also some heartfelt reminiscing from both Sabathia — “I cried like a baby when I was traded” — and Brantley. Both players offer nothing but fond memories of the city, the organization and the fanbase.

More from the division…

  • Jose Abreu’s contractual status with the White Sox has been an ongoing story throughout Chicago’s rebuild. While he’s long been a logical on-paper trade chip, Sox brass has maintained that the first baseman’s clubhouse presence and leadership is virtually indispensable; both sides have openly stated a desire to continue the relationship beyond his current contract, but no deal has come to pass. Now, with Abreu months from free agency, GM Rick Hahn touched on the subject again — discussing the delicate balance of cold, hard statistical value and less quantifiable intangible means of value. “That’s the more, unfortunately, clinical side of things is, ‘OK, a right-handed hitting first baseman who’s produced at this level over the last few years at this age, what do you project going forward and what’s the value of that?'” Hahn asked rhetorically in an interview with The Athletic’s James Fegan. “It’s sort of that more touchy-feely, emotional side of things in terms of knowing the value that he has in this clubhouse and the leadership skills, the softer benefits that he brings to the club, that affects your valuation of a guy like that.”
  • Since signing a minor league deal with the Twins, right-hander Cody Allen has pitched four shutout innings in Class-A Advanced Fort Myers, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out four hitters. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that Allen has made some mechanical adjustments to use his core and legs more effectively, and the Twins will move him to Triple-A Rochester shortly after the All-Star break. Allen’s stock tumbled in 2018 and cratered earlier this season when he was released by the Angels, but he’s a known commodity for Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, who was in the Cleveland front office for most of Allen’s peak with the Indians. Whether he can return to form following his latest change of scenery is anyone’s guess, but Allen is a nice flier to have in the upper minors as Falvey and general manager Thad Levine peruse the trade market for bullpen reinforcements.

Latest On Trevor Bauer

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10:38pm: There’s interest “around the block” in Bauer, one official told Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Astros “are said to be among the most interested,” Sherman writes. Houston has questions in its rotation now beyond Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Wade Miley, and Verlander is the lone member of the trio who’s under contract past this season. Bauer would somewhat help cover for the potential exits of Cole and Miley in 2020.

6:25pm: The Indians face an interesting potential dilemma — and opportunity — with regard to starter Trevor Bauer. Even as they continue to ramp up the pressure on the AL Central-leading Twins and remain in Wild Card position, the Cleveland organization may consider swapping out the excellent but costly right-hander.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic characterizes the Cleveland organization as “aggressive listeners” when it comes to Bauer (audio link via Twitter; further discussion via subscription link). That’s an understandable position for the organization to take. After all, any deal would have to both respect the team’s immediate prospects for contention and represent a significant boost to the future outlook.

There’s ample long-term uncertainty between the Indians and Bauer. He’s earning $13MM this year and promises to take down another significant raise on top of that (particularly after twice defeating the club in an arbitration hearing). It will likely be difficult for the team to afford him in 2020. Beyond that, Bauer has made clear for some time now that he intends to head onto the open market and sign a string of one-year contracts. Even if the Indians want to retain him, they’ll need to top quite a few other potential bidders.

That said, there isn’t exactly immediate pressure to do a deal. If the Indians are determined not to hang onto Bauer next season, they can still certainly move him over the offseason. Having already skimped on salary entering this season and run into a surprisingly stiff challenge from Minnesota, the Indians will surely hesitate to draw away too much present ability from the MLB roster. And the rotation is in greater need than might have been anticipated due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco. While each is expected to return, it remains to be seen whether either can make it back to top form this season.

If there’s room for a deal, it surely involves a scenario in which the Indians are able to acquire high-quality, MLB-ready position-player talent. There are quite a few marginal offensive performers on the roster at present, leaving ample room to improve. It’s not altogether impossible to imagine a trade coming together, particularly if the Indians can find a partner with a bit of a surplus to work with in the right areas. But this was all largely true over the offseason, when the Cleveland front office explored but did not consummate deals involving its slate of starters.

The obvious connection to be made here is between the Indians and Yankees. The New York outfit needs starters and just so happens to possess an excess young slugger that was once a top performer on the Cleveland farm. But Rosenthal reiterates (as he has suggested previously) that the Yanks don’t want to move Clint Frazier for a quality starter who comes with another season of control. The staying power of that stance seems a bit dubious — if the New York organization was really so convinced of the 24-year-old’s abilities with the bat, it probably wouldn’t have been so eager to displace him from the 2019 roster — but it remains the prevailing characterization of the situation.

That’s not to say the Yankees aren’t interested in Bauer, a 28-year-old hurler who hasn’t been quite as excellent as he was last year but nevertheless paces the American League with 132 frames and carries a strong 3.61 ERA. To the contrary, Rosenthal says that NYY scouting guru Tim Naehring watched Bauer’s most recent outing. As Andy Martino of SNY.tv notes, that’s not necessarily an overly momentous occurrence, though there’s little doubt the Yankees were glad to have a close look at Bauer.

If the Indians do indeed crank up the volume on their headphones and bust out the air guitar for a truly aggressive listening session, they’ll no doubt want to check out some other artists beyond the Bronx Bombers. Quite a few other contenders would no doubt prefer to pay a bit more for Bauer than to give up a haul for a true rental pitcher. In addition to the extra season of control, which could fill a rotation need for next season or be cashed back in via trade, a new team might reasonably anticipate recouping draft compensation in the future by extending a qualifying offer.

Carlos Carrasco Diagnosed With Leukemia

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SUNDAY: The Indians issued an update on Carrasco on Sunday, Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets. “Last month, Carlos Carrasco was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a treatable form. He has been cleared to resume strength and conditioning workouts and throwing activity. No timetable for a return.”

SATURDAY: Carlos Carrasco has been diagnosed with leukemia, he told Dominican news channel CDN 37. Carrasco has been treated, and he has it under control to the point where he hopes to return to pitch again this season, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).

The Indians certainly will take their time with Carrasco, though this newest diagnoses sheds some light on what has been a difficult season for Carrasco. Previous indications were that Carrasco was suffering from a blood condition that, at the very least, prompted lethargy and the pursuit of treatment.

The Indians placed him on the injured list on June 5 after seeing their longtime co-ace pitch to a  4-6 record with an uncharacteristic 4.98 ERA (4.13 FIP). Carrasco has long been underrated while pitching in the shadow of star righty Corey Kluber and the outspoken Trevor Bauer, but even in an off-year with significantly mitigating factors, Carrasco put together 65 innings of palatable baseball.

The team has shown up in full support of Carrasco as he recovers. Per Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal, Carrasco was present on June 4 for a team meeting wherein they discussed the situation. This team meeting was not about baseball, but about supporting Carrasco as he undergoes recovery.

Indians Acquire Andrew Velazquez From Rays

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The Indians have announced a swap with the Rays in which they’ll acquire utility infielder Andrew Velazquez. An unstated amount of international spending capacity will head to Tampa Bay in return.

To create 40-man roster space, the Indians have designated righty Chih-Wei Hu for assignment. The 25-year-old has been hit hard this year at Triple-A, allowing 16 home runs in 48 2/3 innings.

Soon to turn 25, Velazquez is an exceptionally versatile player. In limited MLB action, he has already been trusted to play shortstop, second, third, and all three outfield positions.

Velazquez has shown some stolen-base ability and a bit of pop in the upper minors, though he’s not exactly a premium offensive prospect. He has swung through quite a few pitches in his early exposure to MLB pitching and has gone down on strikes 154 times in 602 career Triple-A plate appearances, over which he carries a .261/.320/.418 slash.

Indians’ Nick Sandlin Out For Season

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Indians right-handed relief prospect Nick Sandlin is out for the season with a forearm strain, according to the team’s official Tribe Insider Twitter news feed.

Forearm troubles limited the 22-year-old Sandlin to 26 1/3 innings between the Double-A and Triple-A levels this season. When Sandlin was healthy enough to pitch, the 2018 second-round pick from Southern Mississippi held his own.

Making his debut at the minors’ top level, Sandlin gave up a mere five hits and racked up 11 strikeouts over nine innings with Columbus. A pair of home runs and seven walks helped lead to four runs against, however. To this point, Sandlin owns a 2.68 ERA with an impressive 13.2 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 50 1/3 minor league frames.

At the outset of 2019, MLB.com (No. 18) and FanGraphs (No. 23) each placed Sandlin among the Indians’ 30 best prospects. The more bullish outlet, MLB.com, suggested Sandlin could have made a case for a major league promotion as early as this season. Now, though, that’ll have to wait until at least 2020.

Orioles Acquire Asher Wojciechowski

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The Orioles have acquired right-hander Asher Wojciechowski from the Indians in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk for the time being, although the O’s are listing a TBD for tomorrow night’s game, which would align with Wojciechowski’s schedule. He last started for Cleveland’s Triple-A club on June 26. MLB.com’s Joqe Trezza tweets that Dylan Bundy had been slated to pitch tomorrow night, and no reason has been given as to his apparent scratch from that start.

Wojciechowski, 30, has pitched to a 3.61 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 in 84 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball so far in 2019. Like many other pitchers in Triple-A this season, he’s been exceptionally home-run prone after the league switched the baseball. Wojciechowski has averaged two long balls per nine innings pitched, prompting fielding-independent metrics like FIP (5.80) and xFIP (5.50) to paint an uglier picture. It should be noted that homers have been a longstanding issue for Wojciechowski, but he’s never struggled with them to this extent in the minors.

Wojciechowski isn’t a stranger to the big leagues, having pitched 78 2/3 innings in the Majors between the Astros in 2015 and the Reds in 2017. Like recently acquired Tom Eshelman, who’ll start tonight for the O’s, Wojciechowski is something of a familiar face for Baltimore GM Mike Elias, whose time in the Houston front office overlapped with Wojciechowski’s four years in the Astros organization. The 6’4″ righty has yet to find much big league success (6.44 ERA), but he’s averaged better than a strikeout per inning in the Majors. In 635 career innings of Triple-A ball, Wojciechowski has a 4.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

Danny Salazar To Begin Rehab Assignment

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Per Zack Meisel of The Athletic, Indians righty Danny Salazar will begin a rehab assignment with the club’s Arizona League affiliate tomorrow evening. It’s been a long road back for the 29-year-old Salazar, who’s been beset by shoulder injuries since his last appearance in a major league game on September 27, 2017.

Salazar’s shoulder surgery, which took place nearly a year ago to the day, was exploratory in nature and left the fireballing righty no timetable for a return. The team had initially expressed optimism that the 2016 All-Star could return early in 2019, but Salazar suffered multiple setbacks in his rehab process and had been unable to return to bullpen mounds until earlier this month.

When healthy, the five-year vet’s dynamite repertoire is among the nastiest in the game. Salazar’s yet to complete a season, partial or otherwise, where he didn’t set down at least a batter an inning, and in 19 starts for the club in 2017, the flamethrower averaged 95.1 MPH on his fastball and struck out nearly 13 men per nine. A fully healthy, back-to-form version of Salazar, who’d project to return around the same time as ace Corey Kluber, could give the Indians the AL’s most formidable rotation and supercharge the team’s push toward the AL Central crown.

Such a scenario may be pie in the proverbial sky, though, as the club will almost certainly let caution reign with the still-controllable righty, who’s set to hit arbitration for the final time in 2020. The club hasn’t been shy about deploying Salazar as a ’pen arm in the past, a role which may again be his if he’s to return to Cleveland without incident in ’19.

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