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Diamondbacks Notes: Rotation, Lamb

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At 32-32 and just 2 1/2 games out of wild-card position in the National League, the Diamondbacks are approaching the July 31 trade deadline with a buyers’ mindset, according to general manager Mike Hazen (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic).

Hazen suggested Arizona’s main priority is upgrading its starting staff, saying, “We’re looking at any way we can to continue to improve and help both our depth and our rotation in general.”

Injuries to Luke Weaver and Taijuan Walker, not to mention Zack Godley’s demotion to the bullpen, have left Arizona’s rotation without any clear answers after Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray and Merrill Kelly. The club’s on the lookout for help as a result, and it tried to swing a deal with the Mariners for right-hander Mike Leake earlier this week. Now, though, those talks “appear to have gone dormant,” Piecoro writes.

Assuming a trade for Leake or another starter doesn’t come together imminently, the D-backs seem inclined to continue with Jon Duplantier and Taylor Clarke at the back of their rotation. Duplantier, MLB.com’s 62nd-ranked prospect, has turned in 10 innings of nine-hit, five-earned run ball and notched 11 strikeouts against three walks in two starts since the Diamondbacks recalled him from Triple-A Reno. Clarke hasn’t been that successful as a starter this year, having compiled a 5.12 ERA/4.55 FIP with 6.05 K/9 against 3.26 BB/9 in 19 1/3 frames.

On the position player side, Arizona has been without corner infielder Jake Lamb for almost the entire season. The 28-year-old went to the injured list with a quad strain April 5, but he’ll begin a rehab assignment Saturday at the Triple-A level, Piecoro reports. A third baseman from 2014-17, Lamb entered this season as the D-backs’ primary first baseman in the wake of Paul Goldschmidt’s exit via trade. The lefty-swinging Lamb’s injury opened the door for the righty-hitting Christian Walker, who excelled in April but has come back to Earth since. Those two seem likely to form a platoon upon Lamb’s return.

D-Backs, Mariners Nearly Struck Trade Involving Mike Leake

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Details remain sparse, but it seems the Diamondbacks and Mariners nearly lined up on a trade involving veteran Seattle right-hander Mike Leake. According to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, the teams “worked to finalize” the swap as late as Tuesday evening.

Clearly, talks fell through since Leake ended up on the bump. He says that he never caught wind of the possible deal, which certainly is notable given that he possesses full no-trade protection. Leake added that he’s willing to consider approving a deal in the right circumstances.

It seems quite likely Leake will at some point have an opportunity to consider approving a move. With the Mariners trying to move more veteran assets after already shipping out Jay Bruce, it’s not surprising to hear that the club went down the line on a swap involving the expensive pitcher.

Leake, 31, has managed to deliver 81 2/3 innings of 4.30 ERA ball this year despite some worrying peripherals. He has averaged 6.2 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 but has already surrendered 18 home runs. That said, Leake’s start last night was awfully impressive. He worked a 119-pitch complete game while allowing just one earned run.

While the Diamondbacks are obviously interested in adding Leake or another veteran starter to bolster their staff, it’s hard to imagine they’d take on anything close to his remaining contract. Leake is earning $16MM this year, $15MM in 2020, and a $5MM buyout for a 2021 mutual option. The Cardinals are on the hook for $5MM this year and $4MM next, but it’s still a hefty commitment. It’s not clear whether the Arizona organization remains a potential landing spot for Leake.

Minor MLB Transactions: Marlins, D-backs, Padres

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A couple of the latest minor moves from around baseball, courtesy of Roster Roundup:

  • The Marlins have acquired catcher Tyler Heineman from the Diamondbacks. The D-backs presumably received cash in the deal for Heineman, who took 90 plate appearances with their Triple-A club in Reno and hit .325/.407/.525 (134 wRC+). Now 27, the amateur magician was a decent Astros prospect in his younger days. Heineman entered the pros as Houston’s eighth-round pick in 2012.
  • The Padres have released outfielder Jacob Scavuzzo, who posted quality power numbers with their Triple-A team in El Paso this year. While the 25-year-old slashed .259/.300/.696 (127 wRC+) with 15 home runs and a .438 ISO in the offense-driven Pacific Coast League, he went down on strikes 40 times against just five walks. Scavuzzo was with the Dodgers through last season after joining them as a 21st-rounder in 2012. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen pointed out Scavuzzo’s lack of plate discipline a little over a year ago while assessing the Dodgers’ prospects, but he did credit the right-handed hitter’s “big pop.”

Health Notes: Eovaldi, Peralta, Jay, Franchy, Bradford

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Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi could return from the injured list as early as June 15, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe suggests. As Abraham notes, that would mark 52 days since Eovaldi underwent right elbow surgery April 22, at which point he was reportedly supposed to miss four to six weeks. Eovaldi’s absence has deprived Boston of a second-half hero from 2018, someone whose late-season excellence convinced the reigning world champions to bring him back on a four-year, $68MM contract in free agency. The hard-throwing Eovaldi, 29, then came out of the gates slowly prior to his surgery, logging a 6.00 ERA/7.05 FIP with 6.86 K/9 and 4.71 BB/9 over 21 frames and four starts. Still, considering the Red Sox are fighting for a playoff spot and haven’t gotten enough from their rotation in general, Eovaldi’s return should be a welcome one for the club.

  • The Diamondbacks activated outfielder David Peralta from the 10-day IL on Monday and optioned right-hander Stefan Crichton to Triple-A Reno, the team announced. Peralta had been out since May 22 with right AC joint inflammation. He got off to a terrific start before then, following up last year’s 30-home run effort with a .309/.357/.524 line (126 wRC+) and seven HRs in 207 trips to the plate.
  • White Sox outfielder Jon Jay began a rehab assignment with Double-A Birmingham on Monday, Scott Merkin of MLB.com tweets. Perhaps in an attempt to lure his friend Manny Machado to the South Side of Chicago, the White Sox signed Jay to a $4MM guarantee in the offseason. Machado wound up in San Diego, however, and the 34-year-old Jay still hasn’t played under his new deal because of a hip issue. Long a competent if unspectacular offensive player, Jay has batted .285/.352/.378 (103 wRC+) in 4,061 attempts at the major league level.
  • Outfielder Franchy Cordero could rejoin the Padres as early as Wednesday, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. The 24-year-old has been shelved since April 9 because of a right elbow sprain. Cordero underwent surgery on the same joint in early July of last year, ending his season.
  • The Mariners placed Chasen Bradford on the 10-day IL and recalled fellow righty reliever Matt Festa from Triple-A Tacoma, per a team announcement. Bradford’s dealing with a right forearm strain, which is an ominous-sounding injury for a pitcher. This also marks Bradford’s second IL stint of the season, as he previously missed time with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. The 29-year-old still ranks fifth among 2019 Mariners relievers in innings (16 2/3), and has only walked 2.16 hitters per nine while generating ground balls at a 51.9 percent clip. However, a lack of strikeouts (5.94 K/9) and a bloated home run rate (3.24 HR/9) have contributed to an uninspiring 4.86 ERA/7.23 FIP for Bradford.

Diamondbacks Outright John Ryan Murphy

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Diamondbacks catcher John Ryan Murphy has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Reno, per a team announcement. The Diamondbacks designated Murphy for assignment last Saturday.

The 28-year-old Murphy will continue with the D-backs, who acquired him from the Twins for left-hander Gabriel Moya in July 2017. It was the second trade of Murphy’s career, as the Yankees sent him to the Twins for center fielder Aaron Hicks in a November 2015 swap. Needless to say, New York got the better end of that transaction.

Dating back to his big league debut with the Yankees in 2013, Murphy has hit .219/.265/.357 (65 wRC+) with 18 home runs in 673 plate appearances. While Murphy limped to a 70 wRC+ in 69 PA this year before Arizona cut him from its 40-man roster, his defense has been an asset in the desert. Baseball Prospectus has given the backstop outstanding grades behind the plate over the past year-plus, and Murphy even served as ace Zack Greinke’s personal catcher until the team went in another direction.

Diamondbacks Release Marc Rzepczynski

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The Diamondbacks have released left-handed reliever Marc Rzepczynski, according to Roster Roundup. He had been with the organization since signing a minor league deal in February.

The journeyman Rzepczynski has been an effective reliever for most of his career, which began with the Blue Jays in 2009, but hasn’t seen much action at the game’s highest level of late. After a 31 1/3-inning season with the Mariners in 2017, “Scrabble” threw just 10 1/3 frames between the M’s and Indians last year. Opposing offenses battered Rzepczynski during that small sample, collecting eight earned runs on 16 hits and 10 walks.

Prior to his release, Rzepczynski recorded mediocre numbers across 25 2/3 innings with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate in Reno. The 33-year-old pitched to a 3.86 ERA/4.74 FIP with 6.31 K/9 and 4.21 BB/9, though he did log a superb 60.5 percent groundball rate. Rzepczynski has also induced grounders at a high clip in the majors (59.7 percent), where he has posted a 3.89 ERA/3.88 FIP and 8.47 K/9 against 4.24 BB/9 in 434 2/3 innings. Most of his success has come at the expense of same-handed hitters, whom he has held to a .227/.296/.305 line.

Luke Weaver Will Attempt To Rehab Through UCL Injury

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The Diamondbacks announced that righty Luke Weaver has been diagnosed with an injury to his right ulnar collateral ligament and flexor pronator but will not undergo surgery. Instead, he’ll “be treated conservatively.”

Weaver and the D-Backs did not arrive at this conclusion without quite some thought. He was checked out by four different physicians, per manager Torey Lovullo. The injury turned out to be rather significant — last we checked in, it had been labeled a forearm strain — but not quite bad enough to warrant a procedure that would likely have cost Weaver the remainder of this season along with a big chunk of 2020.

It’s obviously preferable to avoid Tommy John surgery whenever possible, since it’s a major procedure that isn’t foolproof and require a lengthy layoff. That said, there’s also some real risk in holding off when it may well be warranted. If a rehab approach fails to take, it can make for a delay that pushes back the ultimate return date.

Though it’s good to hear that the injury is on the mild side, there’s really no sugarcoating UCL issues. There’s enough time for Weaver to make it back to the mound this season, if all goes well in the healing process and there aren’t setbacks when he tries to ramp back up. But the injury will still rob him of a big portion of the present season and will hang over his head thereafter.

Weaver still holds plenty of promise. He boosted his stock after landing with the Snakes on the heels of a messy 2018 effort, opening the current season with 62 1/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball while recording 9.8 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9. So long as he’s able to heal up, the 25-year-old should have many good years ahead of him. And the Diamondbacks have ample time to receive further production, as Weaver will be under team control through at least 2023.

Quick Hits: 2009 Draft, Trout, Morton, Twins, Bradley, Marlins

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Stephen Strasburg generated headlines as the consensus first overall pick of the 2009 draft, though that draft has taken on a different historic import almost ten years later, as that was the night Mike Trout officially became a Major League player.  MLB.com’s Jim Callis looks back at the 2009 draft with a decade of hindsight, re-drafting the first round with the top players who were selected (and signed contracts) from that year’s class.  In this scenario, the Nationals take Trout first overall instead of Strasburg, who falls to the Pirates with the fourth overall pick.  The Mariners take Nolan Arenado with the second pick, while the Padres take Paul Goldschmidt third overall.

The actual draft spots of these superstars (Trout went 25th overall, Arenado in the second round, and Goldschmidt not until the eighth round) is indicative of the draft’s unpredictable nature, as teams and pundits simply never know which unheralded youngster might develop into a gem.  Callis includes several interesting notes and scouting opinions about various players at the time of the 2009 draft, including the item that only the Athletics, Diamondbacks, and Tigers were known to be linked to Trout, among teams who had a chance to select him before the Angels.  Many clubs didn’t have interest due to rumors that Trout was seeking a $2.5MM draft bonus, which would’ve exceeded the slot price for all but the top five picks, though in the end Trout signed with the Angels for the $1.215MM league-recommended slot price attached to the 25th overall selection.

More from around the baseball world…

  • Correcting one of his own reports from the offseason, Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link) notes that the Twins “were very much in on” Charlie Morton before the veteran righty signed a two-year, $30MM deal with the Rays.  Since Morton was only looking for a short-term deal as he nears the end of his career, he fit the model of what the Twins were looking for this past winter, as the club inked the likes of Nelson Cruz, Martin Perez, Jonathan Schoop, and Marwin Gonzalez to contracts consisting of no more than one or two guaranteed years.  It isn’t known how close Morton and the Twins might have come to an agreement, though the Rays did have a geographical ace up their sleeve, as Morton has stated that the Rays’ close proximity to his family’s home in Florida was a factor in his decision.  Given that the Twins have already posted the best record in baseball, it’s hard to imagine how much better things could have been for the club with Morton in the rotation.
  • After two seasons as an important weapon out of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen, Archie Bradley has struggled to a 4.63 ERA over 23 1/3 innings in 2019.  As a result, manager Torey Lovullo told the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other media that Bradley will continue to handled carefully so he can get back on track, and likely won’t see many high-leverage moments.  “We might get him some (appearances with) multiple innings to continue to develop a feel. We might give him some really short spurts to walk off the mound and have a good result,” Lovullo said.  While a .409 BABIP is a big factor in Bradley’s issues, a lack of control has been his biggest problem, as his 5.79 BB/9 is more than double his walk numbers from the previous two seasons.
  • Marlins fans bemoan the fire sale that saw the likes of Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto, and Dee Gordon leave the team over the last 18 months, yet as The Athletic’s Marc Carig (subscription required) observes, Miami also parted ways with a wealth of pitching talent in recent years.  Luis Castillo, Domingo German, Trevor Williams, and Chris Paddack were all somewhat unheralded prospects when the Fish traded them in various deals for veterans who ultimately didn’t help the team return to contention.  Between all of these names and some other notables (Derek Dietrich, Nick Wittgren, Anthony DeSclafani), Carig comprises a startling what-if of a 2019 Marlins roster that would be on pace to win 102 games, as per Baseball Reference WAR calculations.  “By simply securing the talent, they’d accomplished the hardest part of assembling a dynasty,” Carig writes.  “Then, all of it slipped away. No team bats 1.000 when it comes to trades. Few teams hit near .000. For a period, the Marlins were seemingly one of those.”

Injury Updates: Sabathia, Gregorius, Peralta, Smith

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The latest on some injured list situations from around baseball…

  • C.C. Sabathia is lined up to start for the Yankees on Sunday, manager Aaron Boone told MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (Twitter link) and other reporters.  Sabathia was placed on the IL on May 23 due to right knee inflammation, and it ended up being both a short absence, and a fairly standard one for a veteran player with a long history of knee surgeries.  Boone noted that Sabathia threw a bullpen session today, so all systems seem to be a go for the left-hander’s 547th career start.  Sabathia has a 3.48 ERA, 7.4 K/9, and 2.00 K/BB rate over 41 1/3 innings for New York this season.
  • Boone also gave Hoch and other media members an update on Didi Gregorius, saying that the shortstop could return during the Yankees’ upcoming road trip to Toronto and Cleveland from June 4th-9th.  Gregorius has yet to play a full nine innings at shortstop in consecutive games, which Boone noted is an important step in his Tommy John rehab process.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta hit the IL on May 24 with shoulder inflammation, and manager Torey Lovullo implied to reporters (including Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic) that Peralta is likely to miss more than the minimum 10 days.  While an early return isn’t totally out of the question, Lovullo said Peralta has yet to begin baseball activities.  The struggling D’Backs are certainly hoping Peralta is able to get back to action as soon as possible, given his .309/.357/.524 slash line through 207 PA this season.
  • Kevan Smith is also looking at a lengthier stay on the injured list, as the Angels catcher had some concussion symptoms return this week, Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times tweets.  Smith was placed on the seven-day concussion IL on May 22 and had begun to take part in baseball activities, though he had been shut down for the last few days.  DiGiovanna notes that Smith will be sidelined at least until June 4, when the Angels begin an eight-game homestand, though that timeline is far from certain given the unpredictable nature of concussions.

Diamondbacks Select Stefan Crichton

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The Diamondbacks announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Stefan Crichton from Triple-A Reno and optioned right-hander Jimmie Sherfy to Reno in a corresponding move.

Crichton, 27, got some experience at the big league level with the Orioles back in 2017, though he tallied just 12 1/3 innings and allowed 11 runs in that brief sample. So far in 2019, he’s pitched 32 1/3 innings out of the Reno bullpen and logged a 4.18 ERA with 8.4 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a hefty 59.8 percent ground-ball rate. Crichton has regularly turned in large ground-ball numbers throughout his minor league career, and he’s averaged just over a strikeout per inning to this point in his Triple-A career as well.

It could very well prove to be a brief promotion for Crichton, but he also has a minor league option remaining, which would allow the D-backs to shuttle him back and forth between Phoenix and Reno as their bullpen needs dictate over the course of the season’s final few months. Of course, it’s also not out of the question that Crichton impresses and secures a more long-term spot in the team’s relief corps. While the D-backs have several relievers locked into bullpen roles, there are a couple of bullpen spots that have been in flux throughout the season.

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