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Quick Hits: Soria, Renfroe, Gordon, Stanton

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Joakim Soria suffered a mild right groin strain during the Brewers’ ninth-inning meltdown against the Padres today. Soria walked off the mound with an apparent injury after allowing a go-ahead grand slam to Hunter Renfroe. According to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, the malady was later described as a mild right groin strain. There’s no official word on the severity of the injury yet, so it’s not known at this time whether Soria will need to miss any games. The right-hander came over from the White Sox just prior to the trade deadline in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers: left-hander Kodi Medeiros and right-hander Wilber Perez.

Here are a few other small items from around the league this evening…

  • Speaking of Renfroe, the Padres outfielder has been on a tear of late. Including tonight’s grand slam off Soria, Renfroe’s slugged four homers in his past four games. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune suggests that Renfroe’s performance could solidify an everyday spot in the lineup even after Wil Myers returns from the disabled list. That’s good news for the 26-year-old in the wake of today’s news that some of the young Padres outfielders are being intensely evaluated, but it’s also worth noting that Franmil Reyes also homered tonight; his third in his past four games. It will be interesting to see how the Padres address their corner outfield logjam this offseason, or if they choose to at all (Reyes and Renfroe both have minor league options remaining and can be stashed at Triple-A).
  • The Mariners moved Dee Gordon all the way down to ninth in the batting order in tonight’s game. That’s largely due to the speedster’s incredibly pedestrian offensive performance on the season. He’s hitting .280, but with just a .300 on-base and .343 slugging percentage. The biggest culprit to his lackluster showing is a paltry 1.5% walk rate that’s by far the lowest in the majors and approximately half the size of the next player on that list (Salvador Perez of the Royals). Though the plan right now seems to be for Robinson Cano to usurp some playing time from Ryon Healy when he returns from his suspension, it’s fair to wonder whether Gordon could rest in favor of Cano on occasion down the stretch, if he can’t figure out how to show more patience.
  • With his 121.7 MPH homer tonight off Rangers starter Ariel Jurado, Giancarlo Stanton broke a Statcast record. The Yankees’ headline offseason acquisition drilled the ball at a launch angle of 17 degrees, propelling it an estimated 449 feet. It’s officially the hardest-hit homer that Statcast has ever tracked. It’s part of a larger trend for Stanton, who has heated up after a somewhat average start to the season. The right-hander’s .308/.363/.561 batting line since the start of June is much more in line with what the Bombers had imagined when they took on the lion’s share of his contract from the Marlins this offseason.

NL Notes: Brewers, Fiers, Mets, Reyes, Padres

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The latest on a few National League clubs…

  • The Brewers were “thought to be” vying for then-Tigers right-hander Mike Fiers before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Fiers didn’t end up going to the the Brewers or any other team that day; instead, he ultimately headed to Oakland, which Fenech notes was the only team competing with Milwaukee for his services at the deadline, in a deal on Monday. Had he gone to the Brewers, it would have represented a homecoming of sorts for the 33-year-old Fiers, whom Milwaukee drafted in the 22nd round in 2009 and who later pitched with the team from 2011-15.
  • Although he has been among the worst players in baseball this season, 35-year-old infielder Jose Reyes is hopeful of continuing his career in 2019 and would like to do so with the Mets. “Of course I’d want to come back,” Reyes told Howie Kussoy of the New York Post this week. “My body feels good. I feel healthy. We’ll see if there’s an opportunity.” An opportunity could be difficult to come by next year for Reyes, a .186/.261/.281 hitter across 184 plate appearances this season. Despite that disastrous production, though, the Mets haven’t been willing to cut the cord on the longtime franchise staple thus far.
  • The Padres plan to select righty Jacob Nix from Triple-A El Paso to make his major league debut in a start against the Phillies on Friday, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. The Friars have an open spot on their 40-man roster, so adding Nix wouldn’t force them to make a corresponding move in that regard. Nix joined the Padres in the third round of the 2015 draft and now ranks as their 14th-best prospect at MLB.com. The 22-year-old has spent most of this season at the Double-A level, where he has logged a 2.05 ERA/3.41 FIP with 7.01 K/9, 1.54 BB/9 and a 45.2 percent groundball rate in 52 2/3 innings.

DL Placements: Fried, Carle, Albers

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A trio of pitchers have hit the disabled list this afternoon… here are the details.

  • The Braves have placed Max Fried on the DL with a left groin strain, the club announced. It’s a notable loss for a pennant-chasing Atlanta club, as Fried’s been excellent in four starts (nine total appearances) so far this season. Despite walking a whopping 16 batters in just 26 2/3 innings, Fried’s managed to post a tidy 3.38 ERA thanks in part to 34 strikeouts and a 50.8% ground ball rate. He’s benefitted from an 80.5% strand rate, but his whopping 23.1% HR/FB rate suggests a bit of bad luck in that department. Fried’s injury suggest that Atlanta will likely return to a traditional five-man rotation for the time being, utilizing Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz, Sean Newcomb, Anibal Sanchez and the newly-acquired Kevin Gausman.
  • Simultaneously, the Braves have lost a valuable righty reliever to the DL in the form of Shane Carle (shoulder inflammation). Carle’s been fantastic out of the bullpen this season, posting a 2.53 ERA across 53 1/3 innings. The righty’s been used for four or more outs a whopping 14 times in 2018, so the club will surely miss his ability to eat late innings for the time being. In the absence of Fried and Carle, the Braves have recalled lefty Adam McCreery and righty Wes Parsons from Triple-A Gwinett.
  • The Brewers have unsurprisingly added righty reliever Matt Albers to their disabled list, owing to a left hamstring issue. It’s been clear that something isn’t right with the 35-year-old veteran, as he’s allowed a cataclysmic 18 earned runs across his past eight appearances spanning 5 1/3 innings dating back to the start of June. In the season’s first two months, though, Albers had allowed just three earned runs across 25 innings; the club will hope to get him right in time for him to make an impact out of their ’pen down the stretch. Recently-acquired right-hander Jordan Lyles will take Albers’ place on the active roster for the time being.

Brewers Acquire Sal Biasi

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In a swap of minor leaguers, Brewers announced that they’ve acquired A-ball righty Sal Biasi from the Royals in exchange for Triple-A right-hander Jon Perrin.

Biasi, 22, has only been a professional ballplayer for about a year; he was selected by the Royals in the 11th round of the 2017 draft. Though he managed ERA outputs below 2.50 at each of his first two stops throughout the minors, there was cause for skepticism based on his FIP figures (both above 4.00). Biasi hasn’t had the good fortune of out-pitching his peripherals at the A level; he’s been hit hard to the tune of a 5.08 ERA despite a 9.70 K/9 across 42 2/3 innings pitched so far on the season. Biasi’s pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, making 27 appearances.

Perrin, 25, is a towering 6’5″ righty who’s split the 2018 season between the Brew Crew’s Double-A and Triple-A levels. He’s chucked 47 1/3 innings thus far across 28 appearances (one start), and allowed 20 earned runs while notching 44 strikeouts against 20 walks. Despite that gaudy walk total, Perrin’s actually exhibited great control at previous levels of the minors. He’s never known any team other than the Brewers, who selected him in the 27th round of the 2015 draft.

Neither player is on the club’s 40-man roster, so this swap isn’t subject to the limitations beyond the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. However, it’s not outlandish to think that the teams made this trade with major-league roster ideas in mind. Perrin, after all, has proven capable of limiting runs at the minors’ highest level, and the Kansas City bullpen isn’t exactly overflowing with high-end talent. Perhaps we’ll see Perrin get a look in the majors at some point down the stretch, though that’s obviously no certainty. For the Brewers, they’ll get something back for a player who’d have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft in the offseason to come.

Brewers Claim Ariel Hernandez

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The Brewers announced today that they have claimed right-hander Ariel Hernandez off waivers from the Dodgers. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Hernandez worked at 98.1 mph with his fastball and produced a 12.6% swinging-strike rate in 24 1/3 MLB frames last year with the Reds. But he also handed out 22 free passes in that span, which perhaps led the Cincinnati club to designate him for assignment early in the present season.

It’s also clear, though, that teams are intrigued at the idea of harnessing Hernandez’s stuff. The Dodgers had to give up some value to acquire him in mid-April, indicating that there was competition, and now the Brewers will tie up a 40-man spot (for the time being, at least) in the middle of a pennant race.

Thus far in 2018, Hernandez has posted a 2.52 ERA in fifty frames over 37 appearances in the upper minors. But he has also produced just 49 strikeouts to go with 29 walks on the year. Hernandez has struggled in particular at the highest level of the minors; in 42 1/3 total frames there over the past two seasons, he has retired 40 batters on strikes but issued 39 free passes.

Brewers Claim Jordan Lyles

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The Brewers have claimed right-hander Jordan Lyles off waivers from the Padres, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. San Diego has decided to let Lyles go for no compensation, Acee adds.

The 27-year-old Lyles, a first-round pick of the Astros in 2008, has generally struggled since debuting in the majors in 2011. However, Lyles was decent this year as a member of the Padres, with whom he logged a 4.29 ERA/4.45 FIP with 7.82 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a 46.7 percent groundball rate in 71 1/3 innings. He worked primarily out of San Diego’s bullpen before it said goodbye to him, totaling eight starts in 24 appearances.

Lyles will presumably begin his Brewers tenure in relief, and his presence could help a Milwaukee club whose pitching depth has recently taken multiple hits in the form of serious injuries to Brent Suter and Zach Davies. Judging by the work he has done as a reliever this year, Lyles looks capable of serving as an asset for the Brewers, who own a 65-49 record and are 2 1/2 games up on a wild-card spot. In 24 1/3 frames out of the bullpen this season, Lyles has pitched to a 3.33 ERA/3.53 FIP with 8.14 K/9 and 2.96 BB/9, and limited opposing hitters to a .200/.276/.330 line.

Should the Lyles experiment go well for the Brewers this year, they’ll have a chance to keep him in 2019 on a $3.5MM club option (or they could buy him out for $250K). In the meantime, he’s on an ultra-affordable $750K salary this season.

Injury Notes: Snell, Dickerson, Fowler, Williams, Skaggs

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As expected, the Rays have activated left-hander Blake Snell to start tonight’s game against the White Sox. The first-time All-Star will be on a limited pitch count following a two-week DL stint for left shoulder fatigue. Following a trade of Chris Archer to the Pirates, Snell looks like the only reliable starter in a Rays rotation that continues to see relievers open games more often than the starters themselves. Snell’s pre-injury performance, of course, was phenomenal; his 2.27 ERA would be more than a run lower than his career best season.

Here are a few other disabled list transactions from around the league…

  • Pirates outfielder Corey Dickerson has been activated after a short stint on the disabled list; he’d been sidelined with a left hamstring strain. They’ll surely be glad to have him back after the club traded away notable outfield depth in the form of Austin Meadows at the July 31st deadline. While he’s active, Dickerson won’t be starting today’s game against the Cardinals (though he’ll presumably be available off the bench).
  • As expected after last night’s news, Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler will hit the DL after suffering a fractured foot. Fowler’s enduring a miserable season that’s by far his career worst; he’s managed to hit an absolutely wretched .180/.278/.298 across 334 plate appearances while playing middling outfield defense. Fangraphs rates him as being 1.2 wins below replacement level on the season after a 2.5 fWAR debut with the Cards last year.
  • Switch-hitting relief pitcher Taylor Williams is headed to the DL with right elbow soreness. It’s certainly bad news for a Brewers bullpen that’s seeing Corey Knebel struggle mightily of late. Williams has tossed 42 2/3 relief innings and managed to strike out 10.43 batters per nine innings, though he’s only managed to keep the ball on the ground 34.8% of the time and has walked a batter nearly every other inning on average. Williams is in the midst of his first full season in the majors after a 4 2/3 inning cup of coffee last year.
  • Angels hurler Tyler Skaggs is headed to the disabled list with a left adductor strain, the club has announced. Skaggs has described the injury as “extremely frustrating”, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. He apparently sustained it during his last start. In his stead, the Angels have called up right-hander Taylor Cole. The Angels, of course, have already seen their rotation annihilated by injuries this year, with Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani, J.C. Ramirez and Matt Shoemaker among the affected starters.

Brewers Release Brad Miller

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JULY 31: The Brewers have released Miller.

JULY 28: The Brewers have designated infielder Brad Miller, per a team announcement. The move was made to make room for the newly-acquired Mike Moustakas on the active roster. At the same time, the club reinstated right-handed reliever Matt Albers from the 10-day disabled list and optioned outfielder Keon Broxton to Triple-A.

Milwaukee acquired the 28-year-old Miller earlier this season in a one-for-one swap with the Rays, to whom they sent first baseman Ji-Man Choi in exchange. That hasn’t worked out quite as they’d hoped, as Miller’s been worse in 80 plate appearances in Milwaukee than he was in Tampa Bay this season. Since coming over, he’s hit just .230/.288/.378 with an eye-popping 38.8% strikeout rate. That’s incredibly concerning considering his abnormally high .366 BABIP.

Miller’s amassed 2,505 plate appearances during his MLB career, mostly with the Mariners and Rays. All told, he owns a .239/.313/.409 batting line with 75 career home runs. Miller came up through Seattle’s system after being selected early in the second round of the 2011 draft. He put up excellent power and contact numbers throughout his minor-league career while putting up a walk rate of at least 11% at every level from Class A-Advanced up. Those gaudy totals never translated to the majors, though, and while he was a useful player at times, the organizations he was a part of were surely disappointed to never see him reach his full potential.

Brewers Acquire Jonathan Schoop For Jonathan Villar, Two Prospects

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3:39pm: The trade is official.

3:18pm: Feinsand further tweets that Jonathan Villar and minor league shortstop Jean Carmona are headed to the Orioles in the deal.

3:09pm: The Brewers and Orioles agreed to a last-minute deal that will send infielder Jonathan Schoop from Baltimore to Milwaukee just prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (on Twitter). Right-handed pitching prospect Luis Ortiz is among the players going back to Baltimore in the deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link).

It’s no surprise that the Brewers made a move to upgrade at second base, and it’s one that could benefit the team beyond this season. After all, Schopp – who’s on an $8.5MM salary this season – has another year of arbitration eligibility remaining.

After breaking out in 2017 with a .293/.338/.503 line, 32 home runs and a 3.8 fWAR in 675 plate appearances, Schoop has taken steps backward this season. The 26-year-old has slashed a below-average .244/.273/.447 with .7 fWAR over 375 PAs, though he has gone on a home run-happy tear of late to raise his numbers to more respectable levels. Schoop now has 17 homers after mashing seven long balls since July 20.

While Schoop’s overall production has been pedestrian this year, it still easily outdoes the .231/.288/.351 showing Brewers second basemen have compiled in 736 PAs. That obviously wasn’t going to cut it for Milwaukee, which is currently in wild-card position and trails the NL Central-leading Cubs by a game. Villar was part of the problem over the past year and a half for the Brewers, with whom he had a great season in 2016. Now 27, Villar has scuffled to a .248/.302/.374 line with 17 HRs in 715 PAs dating back to 2017, essentially making him a replacement player, though he has stolen 37 bases in that span (including 14 on 16 tries this year). He’ll provide the rebuilding Orioles an immediate successor to Schoop and could be a multiyear piece for the club, which will owe him the rest of a $2.55MM salary in 2018 and could control him via arbitration through 2020.

For now in Milwaukee, Schoop will add to an already crowded infield picture. The team just reeled in third baseman Mike Moustakas last week, forcing Travis Shaw to second. Unlike Moustakas and Shaw, Schoop is a right-handed hitter, though all three have struggled against southpaw pitchers both this season and throughout their careers.

In addition to Villar, Baltimore picked up a pair of prospects who ranked in the top 15 of Milwaukee’s above-average system at MLB.com. Ortiz (No. 7) is a 22-year-old who has worked to a 3.71 ERA/3.85 FIP with 8.6 K/9, 2.38 BB/9 and a 48 percent groundball rate in 68 Double-A innings this season (16 appearances, 11 starts). Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com posit that Ortiz has the ceiling of a No. 3 starter.

As for Carmona (No. 14), the two prospect gurus write that he “has all the components needed to become an impactful player at the highest level.” Still just 18 years old, Carmona has hit .239/.298/.406 in 172 PAs at the Rookie level this season.

For Baltimore, the removal of Schoop from its roster is the latest significant move with the team in the early stages of a rebuild. The Orioles have also dealt shortstop Manny Machado, relievers Zach Britton, Brad Brach and Darren O’Day, and starter Kevin Gausman this month, thus revamping their roster in a last-place season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pirates Moving Closer Deal For Chris Archer

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Rays righty Chris Archer has seemingly been in trade rumors for years; is this the day he finally gets dealt?  Here’s the latest…

 Earlier Updates

  • As this morning’s prior updates indicated, it seems that Archer is drawing the keenest interest from National League organizations. If he’s dealt, he’ll likely be changing leagues, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. He tabs the Braves, Brewers, and Pirates as the likeliest organizations to work something out. Meanwhile, Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets that the Dodgers are also in the picture.
  • The Pirates appear to be heavily involved in Archer’s market, at least as of last night, according to Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). Though the Bucs at one point appeared likely to function as a seller, they have rushed back into a competitive position and struck a deal last night to improve their late-inning relief unit. Of course, that swap and any others that might come to fruition will likely be for affordable, controllable assets. In that regard, Archer certainly makes for a potential fit.
  • Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweets that the Padres’ pursuit of Archer has “lost momentum.” That’s a notable development, given that San Diego has been perhaps the most prominently linked team to the Rays righty over the past few days. While the Friars obviously aren’t contending in 2018, the team has its sights set on contending in 2019 and beyond, and adding Archer right now could have been a forward-looking move that would’ve helped to alleviate the 40-man roster crunch San Diego will inevitably face when setting its 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 Draft this offseason.
  • Meanwhile, Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets that the Braves and Brewers are still in pursuit of Archer. Bowden lists some of the other organizations that have been in contact of late, though it’s not clear which remain firmly engaged on the popular right-hander. The Atlanta and Milwaukee organizations have been connected to controllable starting pitching for quite some time, of course, so it’s no surprise to see them lurking on Archer. Whether the trade deadline will provide sufficient impetus for either team to finally complete talks on a quality rotation piece remains to be seen.
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