Nori Aoki To Retire At NPB Season’s End
Former big league outfielder and current member of Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yakult Swallows Nori Aoki is set to retire following the 2024 campaign, per an announcement from the Swallows yesterday (hat tip to The Yomiuri Shimbun). Aoki, 42, spent parts of six seasons in the majors in addition to a lengthy career in Japan.
Aoki’s career first began with the Swallows back in 2004 when he debuted at the age of 22. He made it into just ten games with Yakult that year, going 3-for-15 at the plate with a walk, a stolen base, and six strikeouts. That tiny sample size did nothing to suggest what Aoki would go on to do in his first full season with the club, however, as he slashed an excellent .344/.387/.417 in 144 games during the 2005 season, becoming just the second player in NPB history (after Ichiro Suzuki) to collect 200 hits in a single season.
He improved to even greater heights throughout his mid-20s, slashing 15-to-20 homer power to go along with fantastic contact and baserunning skills. As his plate discpline developed, he even began to walk more than he struck out, leading to a dominant stretch of seasons from 2007 to 2010 where he walked at a 10.6% clip against a minuscule 9.8% strikeout rate in addition to his aforementioned solid power and impressive base-stealing abilities, and even crossed the 200-hit barrier for a second time in 2010 to become the only NPB player in history to achieve the feat twice.
Given the excellence he had demonstrated throughout his time with the Swallows, it was hardly a surprise when he was quickly snapped up by the Brewers on a two-year deal after being posted for major league clubs prior to the 2012 season. In Milwaukee, Aoki was a slightly above average hitter with a solid .287/.355/.399 slash line. While he only hit a combined 18 home runs over his two seasons with the Brewers, he swiped 50 bags while hitting 57 doubles and 7 triples in that same period. That was a strong enough performance for Milwaukee brass to pick up Aoki’s club option for the 2014 season, but he did not last the offseason with the club and was swapped to the Royals in a deal that brought lefty Will Smith to the Brewers.
After departing the Brewers, Aoki wouldn’t stick around with an MLB club for more than a season at the time for the rest of his time in stateside ball. After acting as the regular right fielder in Kansas City for the club’s AL pennant-winning 2014 season, Aoki departed in free agency to sign with the Giants but was limited to just 93 games when he suffered a broken leg and a concussion in two separate hit-by-pitch incidents. Aoki then signed a one-year deal with the Mariners in 2016 but began to show some signs of decline, notably stealing only seven bases in sixteen attempts with the worst strikeout and walk numbers of his MLB career, though he did display his best power numbers since his rookie 2012 campaign with the Brewers.
Aoki’s final season in the big leagues came back in 2017 and saw him change uniforms several times. The veteran outfielder was claimed off waivers from the Mariners by the Astros during the 2016-17 offseason. Aoki struggled somewhat through 70 games with Houston, however, and ended up traded to the Blue Jays at the deadline that year alongside Teoscar Hernandez in a deal that brought Francisco Liriano to Houston. Aoki managed to catch fire down the stretch, however, and while his playing time was further split between the Blue Jays and Mets over the final two months of the season he slashed .281/.294/.594 for Toronto in August before slashing .284/.371/.373 in Queens that September.
Following the end of his MLB career, Aoki returned home to the Swallows and has played for the club in each of the past seven seasons. Now 42, the veteran is the league’s oldest active player and has collected more than 7,000 plate appearances with a .313/.392/.445 slash line in 1,713 NPB games. Between NPB and MLB play, Aoki has stepped up to the plate more than 10,000 times with 2,765 hits, 470 doubles, 51 triples, 179 homers and 279 stolen bases. We at MLBTR congratulate Aoki on a fine career and wish him all the best in his post-playing pursuits.
Chas McCormick Suffers Fractured Hand
10:15am: The Astros have now formally placed McCormick on the injured list. They also optioned righty Nick Hernandez to Triple-A. Infielder Grae Kessinger and lefty Bryan King were recalled from Triple-A in a pair of corresponding moves.
10:05am: Astros outfielder Chas McCormick is headed to the 10-day injured list with a small fracture in his right hand, he told the team’s beat last night (video link via MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart). He suffered the injury upon colliding with the outfield fence while pursuing a foul ball. The fracture, located “right underneath” McCormick’s index finger, is “not a serious thing” and is small enough that the outfielder is still hoping to return this season. There are just 17 days left on the regular season schedule, though another deep postseason run for Houston could obviously make that return more feasible.
The team has yet to formally announce the IL placement, though that’ll happen before today’s day game against the A’s. A corresponding move will be announced at the time. With McCormick on the shelf, Houston’s outfield mix will consist of Yordan Alvarez, Jake Meyers, Jason Heyward and Ben Gamel — plus any potential call-up who takes his roster spot. Star right fielder Kyle Tucker has played exclusively as a designated hitter and pinch-hitter since returning from a monthslong absence due to what was originally termed a bone bruise but eventually revealed to be a fractured shin. He’s collected two hits in 16 plate appearances.
The timing of the injury is frustrating for McCormick — “disappointing” to use his own words. The 28-year-old has been struggling through the worst season of his professional career and was even optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land last month, only to return just days later when Meyers was placed on the paternity list. McCormick doubled in his first game back, collected two hits in his second game and has played well enough since that brief minor league assignment that manager Joe Espada has been playing him regularly.
McCormick has tallied three multi-hit games in the past week and told the ‘Stros beat the he was “feeling like [him]self finally” at the plate when the injury happened. It’s obviously a minuscule sample, but he’s hitting .417/.440/.583 over his past 25 trips to the plate. That’s only boosted his season slash to .211/.271/.306, but he was obviously trending in the right direction.
Only time will tell whether McCormick can indeed make it back this season. He’s at the mercy of how quickly the small break in his hand mends and at how deep his teammates can progress in the postseason (assuming they indeed qualify; FanGraphs gives them a 94% chance to do so at the moment). Every injury plays out differently, however, and it’s not yet clear who Houston will face in the event that they do indeed reach the playoffs for a ninth straight season.
Prior to this year’s dreadful campaign, McCormick was a quietly productive member of a perennial World Series contender in Houston. He batted .273/.353/.489 with a career-high 22 homers in 2023 and entered the current season as a lifetime .259/.336/.449 hitter with particularly formidable numbers against lefties and quality defensive ratings across all three outfield spots. McCormick is earning $2.85MM and is controlled for two more seasons via arbitration.
Astros Outright Parker Mushinski
Left-hander Parker Mushinski went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week, the Astros announced Monday. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Sugar Land and will remain with the organization but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Mushinski’s DFA came as the corresponding move for Kyle Tucker‘s return from the 60-day injured list.
The 28-year-old Mushinski has pitched in each of the past three seasons with Houston, logging a combined 33 innings of relief and pitching to a 5.45 ERA along the way. He’s fanned 17.4% of his opponents against an 8.1% walk rate and kept 45.2% of his batted balls on the ground. He’s had spotty command against lefties but generally prevented them from hitting for power, evidenced by a career .255/.354/.327 slash from opposing southpaw bats. However, righties have tattooed Mushinski at a brutal .280/.357/.587 clip in his career. He’s faced 84 righties in the big leagues and surrendered 13 extra-base hits (five homers, eight doubles).
While Mushinski hasn’t had much big league success, he does have a sharp track record in Triple-A. The 2017 seventh-rounder out of Texas Tech has pitched in parts of four seasons at the top minor league level and sports a collective 3.25 ERA, 27.3% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate there. That’s come over a sample of 127 1/3 innings, with all but one of his 118 appearances at the Triple-A level coming out of the bullpen. Mushinski isn’t a particularly hard thrower — his four-seamer has sat just over 92 mph this season — but he’s nevertheless missed bats at a high level in the upper minors, both in terms of swinging-strike rate and his raw strikeout rates.
This is Mushinski’s first career outright assignment, and he also lacks three full seasons of big league service. As such, he can’t reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency for the time being. He’ll be able to become a minor league free agent in the offseason, however.
Astros Reinstate Kyle Tucker From Injured List
The Astros have reinstated outfielder Kyle Tucker from the 60-day injured list. Infielder Zach Dezenzo has been optioned to Triple-A in order to open an active roster spot. Left-hander Parker Mushinski has been designated for assignment to create room on the 40-man. Chandler Rome of The Athletic was among those to relay the moves on X.
Tucker got out to a brilliant start this season, hitting 19 home runs in 60 games while walking more than he struck out. He slashed .266/.395/.584 for a wRC+ of 175 despite a subpar .245 batting average on balls in play. On June 3, that wRC+ was third in the majors behind Aaron Judge and Juan Soto despite some poor treatment from the baseball gods.
But it was on that June 3 date that Tucker began a strange saga. He fouled a ball of his shin and landed on the 10-day injured list. The club continued to described his injury as a “deep bruise of the bone” or a “shin contusion,” all while seeming to expect him to make a quick return. His absence turned to weeks and then months as fans continued to wonder how a simple bruise could lead to such an extended absence.
Just a few days ago, Rome reported that Tucker had suffered a fracture, despite continued denials from general manager Dana Brown. After that report came out, Brown and Tucker both admitted that the player had indeed suffered a fracture.
Though the reasons for that obfuscation aren’t clear, the larger point is that Tucker is now back. He didn’t go on a rehab assignment and is in the designated hitter slot tonight, so perhaps the club is easing him back after a long layoff. Maybe he will experience some rust but he will obviously be a huge boon to the Astros if he can get anywhere near his pre-injury form.
Despite the lineup boost, he will give the club a bit less lineup flexibility if he stays in that DH slot. Yordan Alvarez has been the DH more than anyone else but he will perhaps have to play left field more regularly. It will also be harder to put Alex Bregman in there, as he has been battling a minor elbow issue of late. The club also likes to have Yainer Diaz as the DH sometimes when Victor Caratini is behind the plate, keeping Diaz’s bat in the lineup. Perhaps that will happen less often as a result as well.
The outfield group currently consists of Alvarez, Jake Meyers and Ben Gamel, with Chas McCormick and Jason Heyward also in the mix. Whenever Tucker is ready to take the field again, he will push into that group and take some of their playing time, but also free up the DH spot once again.
Mushinski, 28, could perhaps join a new club for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Astros in 2017 and was added to their 40-man roster in 2022. He has served as a frequently-optioned depth arm for them since then. He has tossed 33 major league innings over those three campaigns with a 5.45 earned run average. His 8.1% walk rate and 45.2% ground ball rate are close to average but he’s only struck out 17.4% of batters faced.
His minor league work has been more impressive. In that same three-year span, he has tossed 114 2/3 innings for Triple-A Sugar Land, putting up a 3.30 ERA despite that club playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has a 26.7% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate in that sample.
The Astros will have to put Mushinski on waivers in the coming days. He can still be optioned for what remains of this year but will be out of options next season. If he does get claimed, he has less than two years of service time and can therefore be controlled for five seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he wouldn’t have the right to elect free agency since he has never been previously outrighted and has less than three years of service time.
A’s Designate Janson Junk For Assignment
The A’s have designated right-hander Janson Junk for assignment and recalled left-hander Brady Basso from Triple-A Las Vegas, the team announced Thursday.
Junk was claimed off waivers just six days ago. He made his first and only appearance for Oakland last night in a nightmare outing wherein he faced eight batters and allowed them all to reach base (six hits, two walks). Junk was charged with seven earned runs and did not record an out.
Disastrous as that outing was, Junk has been quite effective in Triple-A this season and had a nice year at that level with the Brewers in 2023. He’s pitched 50 innings with a 3.60 earned run average for the Triple-A affiliates of the Brewers and Astros this season, and last year the now-28-year-old righty logged 140 innings with a 4.18 ERA, 15.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate for Milwaukee’s top affiliate in Nashville. Junk’s calamitous outing with the A’s sent his career ERA in 40 major league innings careening from 5.18 to 6.75. He’s been far better in Triple-A, with 266 innings of 4.26 ERA ball and consistently strong walk rates.
Basso, 26, made his big league debut earlier this season and tossed 3 1/3 innings. The former 16th-round pick breezed through six Double-A starts this year (2.84 ERA, 30.5 K%, 2.9 BB%) and has now appeared in 16 Triple-A games (12 starts). In 67 2/3 innings in Vegas, he’s logged a 5.19 ERA while fanning 26.4% of his opponents against a 7.5% walk rate.
Latest On Kyle Tucker
Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker hasn’t played in a big league game since fouling a ball off his leg on June 3. The club placed him on the 10-day injured list shortly thereafter, listing his injury as a right shin contusion, and it seemed like a short absence was possible. But weeks gradually turned into months without much progress being made towards a return and now Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports that Tucker suffered a fractured shin, even though it was never framed that way to reporters.
As noted by Rome, the club has described the injury using terms such as a “deep bruise of the bone” or a “shin contusion” but never used the word “fracture”. As recently as Saturday, general manager Dana Brown responded in the negative when asked if Tucker had a fracture, though he seemed to cop to it today.
“After several rounds of medical imaging, we suspect there was some type of small fracture,” Brown said this morning. “As with all injuries of this type, once the fracture heals it takes time for the muscles around the leg to regain strength. Tuck has worked extremely hard to get back on the field and thankfully is ready now to help us in September and in the postseason.”
The news at least provides some clarity on why Tucker’s absence has extended for as long as it has, but it does raise other questions. If it took the club three months to find the fracture, what took so long? If they knew all along, why keep it a secret? Members of the media have often expressed frustration about a lack of information coming from the club about its injured players. When Dusty Baker was still the manager, he would often cite HIPAA laws as a reason for not providing health updates (X links from Rome), despite the fact that other clubs regularly provide such information. Rome has also relayed (X link) that the club doesn’t make its trainer available to the media and says it is against the collective bargaining agreement, which is not true. He’s also relayed that the trainer has, in the past, discouraged players from speaking to the media about their injuries (X link). It seems this Tucker incident could perhaps be the latest and most extreme example of a strange organizational pattern.
Regardless, Tucker is now nearing a return. Pet Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle on X, manager Joe Espada said that Tucker is now running the bases at about 85% intensity and could rejoin the club soon.
Tucker was having an incredible season before the injury, hitting .266/.395/.584 for a 175 wRC+ through 60 games, in spite of a subpar .245 batting average on balls in play. Since the landed on the IL, the Astros have given right field playing time to each of Chas McCormick, Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, Mauricio Dubón, Trey Cabbage, Pedro León and Joey Loperfido before he was traded to the Blue Jays. Gamel is the only one in that group to have produced above-average offense this year and his output is propped up by a .410 BABIP in his 70 plate appearances, so getting Tucker back will obviously be a boost to the Astros.
AL West Notes: Blanco, Scherzer, Soriano
The Astros have been using a six-man rotation for the last couple of weeks, in order to both ease Justin Verlander‘s return from the 15-day injured list and to help manage the innings of Ronel Blanco and Spencer Arrighetti. With the team preparing to move back to the traditional five-man staff, GM Dana Brown said on his weekend radio show (hat tip to The Athletic’s Chandler Rome) that Blanco will probably be the pitcher moved into relief work. The right-hander had a 4.98 ERA in his last seven starts and 34 1/3 prior to today’s start, when he looked sharp in tossing five shutout innings in the Astros’ 7-2 win over the Royals.
Blanco’s unexpected emergence has been a revelation for a Houston team hit hard by rotation injuries earlier this season. He threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays in his very first start of 2024, setting the tone for a year that has seen him post a 3.03 ERA over 148 1/3 innings. The concern is that Blanco has already topped his previous high of 125 1/3 innings across the majors and minors in 2023, and Houston naturally wants to keep him fresh for the playoffs. The Astros’ rotation has been so dominant in recent weeks that they can afford to lose Blanco’s production, and there’s plenty of upside to using Blanco as a bullpen weapon down the stretch and into October.
More items from around the AL West….
- It has been over a month since Max Scherzer last pitched, as he was dealing with right shoulder fatigue and then had a Double-A rehab start on August 23 canceled for unspecified reasons. Scherzer discussed the situation with MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry and other reporters this weekend, saying he was hampered by a nerve problem in his triceps area, but it wasn’t actual nerve damage, as tests revealed. A change to Scherzer’s throwing motion might’ve “solved this,” as “there was something mechanically going on with my elbow and elbow retraction that was making that radial nerve of my tricep get irritated,” Scherzer said. “Yesterday, I got on the mound to do a full bullpen and no issue….Structurally, I’m fine. Strength, I’m fine. I don’t have an injury here. This was just a nerve irritation.” Scherzer is now hopeful that he’ll be able to properly resume his rehab program within the week, and he believes he’ll return to the Rangers rotation before the season is over.
- Jose Soriano was placed on the 15-day injured list on August 17, but he won’t be activated when first eligible. It isn’t yet clear if Soriano will return at all in 2024, as Angels GM Perry Minasian told the media (including MLB.com) that the team is considering shutting Soriano down. The right-hander was sent to the IL due to arm fatigue, which isn’t unexpected given that Soriano has thrown a career-high 113 innings this season. His previous high was 82 1/3 innings in the minors in 2019, before two separate Tommy John surgeries put Soriano on the shelf for almost three full years. He made his big league debut as a reliever in 2023 and moved into the rotation this season, posting a very respectable 3.42 ERA across his 113 frames. With some solid results already in the books, the Angels might opt to just let Soriano get a head start on his 2025 preparations rather than ramp him back up for another outing or two this season.
Athletics Claim Janson Junk
The Athletics announced that right-hander Janson Junk has been claimed off waivers from the Astros. Outfielder Miguel Andujar was moved to the 60-day injured list to create roster space, as Andujar’s season is already over due to a core surgery.
Junk’s August has been bookended by a pair of waiver claims, as the Astros initially plucked him off the Brewers’ wire at the start of the month. He didn’t receive any playing time in the majors during his limited time with Houston, and he struggled to a 6.14 ERA in 14 2/3 innings with Triple-A Round Rock. Junk was used exclusively as a starter with Round Rock, as opposed to his usage as both a starter and reliever with Triple-A Nashville earlier this season, when he had a 2.55 ERA over 35 1/3 frames.
Junk has generally decent numbers across parts of four seasons at the Triple-A level, but that hasn’t translated into much success (or even regular playing time) during his brief stints in the big leagues. Over 40 career MLB innings with Los Angeles and Milwaukee since he debuted with the Angels in 2021, Junk has a 5.18 ERA, 20% strikeout rate, and five percent walk rate.
Since the rebuilding A’s are looking to evaluate talent and fill innings over the remainder of the season, Junk might well get another opportunity to show that he can do against big league hitters. Junk will be out of minor league options next year, so Oakland or any other team will need to designate the righty for assignment before trying to send him back to Triple-A.
Astros Designate Janson Junk For Assignment
The Astros announced that they have signed outfielder Jason Heyward and optioned outfielder Chas McCormick, two moves that were previously reported. To open a 40-man spot for Heyward, right-hander Janson Junk has been designated for assignment. The club also reinstated right-hander Ryan Pressly from the injured list and optioned left-hander Bryan King.
Junk, 28, was just claimed off waivers from the Brewers at the start of this month and has been kept on optional assignment since then. He made four starts for Triple-A Sugar Land, allowing 10 earned runs in 14 2/3 innings.
Since the trade deadline has passed, the Astros will have to put him back on waivers in the coming days. He could perhaps garner interest from clubs in need of innings. He only has four major league frames on his track record so far, with an unimpressive 5.18 ERA. But from 2021 to the present, he has tossed 356 2/3 minor league innings with a 3.84 ERA. His 20.4% strikeout rate in that time is a bit below average but his 7.4% walk rate is strong and he’s also had solid ground ball rates.
He will be out of options next year but can still be optioned for the rest of the 2024 season. He has less than a year of service time and can therefore be controlled well into the future, but he will have less roster flexibility by the next campaign.
Astros Option Chas McCormick
The Astros optioned outfielder Chas McCormick to Triple-A Sugar Land following last night’s game — presumably to clear an active roster spot for the pending arrival of newly signed outfielder Jason Heyward. The team didn’t formally announce the move yet, but McCormick took it upon himself to call the Astros beat over to his locker last night and inform them of the news after he’d been told (X links via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Houston still needs to clear a 40-man spot for Heyward.
It’s the first time McCormick has been sent to the minors since June 2022 — a trip that only lasted one day, as he was quickly recalled to the big leagues after Michael Brantley landed on the injured list. With the exception of that one-day trip to Sugar Land, this new optional assignment is the first time McCormick has been sent down since initially being called to the majors. (He’s briefly played in the minors in the past two years while on injury rehab assignments but hasn’t actually been optioned.)
The 2024 season has been a nightmare for the 29-year-old McCormick and a noted departure from the productive three-year stretch he enjoyed from 2021-23. McCormick posted a solid .257/.319/.447 slash as a rookie in 2021, enjoyed a more productive year in 2022 and broke out with a career-best .273/.353/.489 slash last year. McCormick enjoyed career-best marks in home runs (22), doubles (17), stolen bases (19), plate appearances (457), strikeout rate (25.6%), wRC+ (134) and wins above replacement (3.3 fWAR, 3.6 bWAR) during that standout 2023 campaign.
Everything has trended in the wrong direction in 2024. The 2017 21st-rounder has posted a disastrous .192/.256/.292 batting line in 243 plate appearances this season. McCormick’s 28.8% strikeout rate isn’t a career-worst but is a significant increase from last year. His 6.6% walk rate is a career-low. McCormick has chased pitches off the plate at the highest rate of his career (33.1%) and made contact on pitches within the strike zone at the lowest rate of his career (76%). The contact he’s made has generally been weak. Statcast pegs him with career-worst marks in average exit velocity (85.2 mph), barrel rate (7.8%) and hard-hit rate (31.4%). McCormick has hit more infield flies (six) in a career-low 243 plate appearances this season than he has in any previous campaign.
Depending on the amount of time McCormick spends in Sugar Land, there could be contractual implications. He entered the 2024 season with exactly three years of service, meaning he’d need 172 days in the majors to hit four years of service. At the moment, he’s accrued 154 days of major league service. McCormick still needs another 18 days to cross four years of service and remain on track for free agency in the 2026-27 offseason. If he’s not recalled on or before Sept. 12, his path to free agency will be pushed back by a year.
For now, the focus will be getting McCormick back on track down in Triple-A, where he can get everyday at-bats that haven’t been available as a contending Astros club looks to stay atop a closely contested AL West race. McCormick did pinch-hit in last night’s game and swat a two-run homer, though that was just his fourth hit in 48 plate appearances since the trade deadline.
At the moment, with Kyle Tucker still on the shelf, the Astros’ outfield mix includes Jake Meyers, Yordan Alvarez, utilityman Mauricio Dubon, journeyman Ben Gamel and (soon) the aforementioned Heyward. With Alvarez working primarily as a designated hitter (81 games there versus 43 in left field) and three lefty-swinging options in the outfield mix (Alvarez, Gamel, Heyward), there should be room for McCormick’s right-handed bat if a brief minor league reset can get him back on track. That’s particularly with rosters set to expand from 26 to 28 players on Sept. 1. While he’s struggled against lefties and righties alike this season, McCormick is still a career .286/.358/.508 hitter against southpaws.