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AL East Notes: Tillman, Harvey, Duffy, Red Sox Rotation

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There was a bit of news on some Orioles arms this morning, as Rich Dubroff of PressBoxOnline.com was among those to report (Twitter link). Veteran righty Chris Tillman was able to make it through a flat-ground throwing session without incident, which bodes well as he attempts to get on track to join the rotation early in the upcoming campaign. There’s still a longer way to go for young right-hander Hunter Harvey, who is working back from Tommy John surgery. The organization expects him to be ready for game action by July, per manager Buck Showalter, which would represent a return within a year of his procedure.

  • Rays infielder Matt Duffy is expected to be ready to return to the field by mid-March, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. His surgically repaired heel appears to be on the mend, but it’s still not quite clear whether he’ll be ready to go for Opening Day.
  • While Red Sox camp has largely been a quiet affair, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing at stake, as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes. In particular, the battle over the final two rotation jobs still appears unresolved. Cafardo takes an interesting look at the situation, with Drew Pomeranz and Steven Wright discussing their approach this spring. Young lefty Eduardo Rodriguez is the third competitor for a rotation spot.
  • Meanwhile, Red Sox southpaw David Price is fully assured a spot on the staff. But he will need to make a slight adaptation to his pitching approach. As ESPN.com’s Buster Olney explains, the league has asked Price (and others with a similar delivery) to make clear to umps whether they are working from the stretch or the windup when there’s a runner on third.

East Notes: Harvey, Nationals, Mets, McCutchen

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Former big-leaguer Bryan Harvey says his son, Orioles prospect Hunter Harvey, could return to throwing next week after having Tommy John surgery in July, reports Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. (Hunter Harvey himself told MASN’s Steve Melewski last week that he would begin throwing the day after Christmas.) Harvey’s progression will be slow, in keeping with the very long timeline associated with TJ recoveries — he won’t pitch off a mound for quite awhile. Still, he appears to be on schedule, and there’s a chance he could pitch near the end of the 2017 minor league season. Harvey, the 22nd pick in the 2013 draft, is currently the Orioles’ third-best prospect, according to MLB.com. He was off to a very promising start to his pro career in 2014 when he suffered an elbow injury that caused him to miss the entire 2015 season. He briefly returned in 2016 before it became clear Tommy John surgery was necessary. Here’s more from the East divisions.

  • The Nationals’ search for a solution to their closer issues goes back nearly a decade, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. Janes identifies Chad Cordero — who had three good seasons in Washington from 2004 through 2006 — as the team’s last good long-term option at the position. Now, the departure of Mark Melancon and the team’s failure to sign Kenley Jansen fit in with a long-term pattern of the Nats missing out on long-term closer help. The team could now turn to an internal option like Blake Treinen or Shawn Kelley to take the ball in the ninth.
  • The Mets do not need to trade for Andrew McCutchen, who provides “a very convoluted answer to their outfield logjam,” Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News writes. The Mets have been fleetingly connected to McCutchen, but he’s coming off a season in which he was poorly rated defensively and didn’t fare much better on offense. The McCutchen rumors indicated the Pirates would want pitching in return, but Ackert notes that the Mets themselves can use their young pitcher stockpile, and that their young arms are likely to be healthier in 2017 than they were last year.

Orioles’ Hunter Harvey To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Orioles top pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will undergo Tommy John surgery, general manager Dan Duquette revealed on today’s Baseball Tonight Podcast with ESPN’s Buster Olney (audio link). “He’s had a strain in his elbow, and we’ve been trying to see if he could pitch with it,” Duquette explained, “but he had another setback last week, and it looks like he’s going to need to have a ligament reconstruction procedure here.”

Harvey was selected with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2013 draft but has scarcely pitched since due to a series of injuries, including a flexor mass strain, a broken shin and surgery to repair a hernia. He’s frequently been rated among the game’s Top 100 overall prospects by the likes of Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN’s Keith Law, but Harvey didn’t pitch at all in 2015, threw just 12 2/3 innings this season and will now miss most or all of the 2017 season as well. The injury serves as a blow to the Orioles from a depth standpoint and also undoubtedly comes as a crushing bit of news to a pitcher that is still just 21 years of age. From a deadline perspective, the injury also eliminates any possibility of Harvey’s inclusion in a deal to help augment the Orioles’ big league rotation, which currently ranks 27th in the Majors with a 5.11 ERA and last in total innings pitched at 503 1/3.

Harvey’s surgery will take place next Tuesday, according to Rich Dubroff of CSNMidAtlantic.com.

AL East Notes: Uehara, Orioles, Bautista, Morales, Sanchez, Cobb

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The Red Sox placed right-hander Koji Uehara on the 15-day disabled list with a pectoral strain earlier today, and manager John Farrell told reporters tonight that due to the “unique” nature of the injury, it’s difficult to put a timetable on the 41-year-old’s return (link via WEEI’s Ryan Hannable). “At the time of the injury we knew it was significant and we put him on the DL before the MRI,” Farrell explained. “It obviously confirms a strain. To what extent? We’re still getting our arms around that. This is a unique injury for a pitcher. I guess the best thing I can tell you is the MRI does confirm the strain.” With Uehara now joining closer Craig Kimbrel and Junichi Tazawa on the shelf (as shown on their depth chart), Brad Ziegler will step into the ninth inning for the BoSox. However, one can imagine that poor news regarding Uehara could prompt Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski to further explore a trade market which he has already frequented.

A few more notes from the AL East…

  • The Orioles’ troubles with pitching prospects are seemingly continuing, as Rich Dubroff of CSN Mid-Atlantic writes that top pitching prospect Hunter Harvey is visiting Dr. James Andrews to have his right elbow/forearm examined after exiting a weekend start due to the aggravation of his previous flexor mass strain. As Dubroff notes, Harvey has made five appearances this season — his first action on a minor league mound in nearly two full calendar years. Harvey’s career has been dramatically slowed arm injuries — a familiar story for the Orioles, who have also seen Dylan Bundy and a number of other pitching prospects battle through arm injuries.
  • The Blue Jays expect Jose Bautista to rejoin the club as soon as Monday of next week, according to skipper John Gibbons (via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi). Bautista has been absent from the Jays’ lineup for more than a month now due to a toe/foot injury but is embarking on a rehab assignment and is expected to get up to speed quickly. The free-agent-to-be is having a down season but has still been an above-average bat for the Jays despite a .230 average thanks to his hefty .360 on-base percentage and .455 slugging percentage.
  • Davidi also writes that the Blue Jays will make a decision on left-handed reliever Franklin Morales tomorrow. Wednesday marked the final day of Morales’ minor league rehab assignment, meaning the Jays will need to put him on the roster. However, there’s no clear spot for Morales at this time, Davidi notes, and Morales can refuse a minor league assignment by virtue of his service time. Morales has tossed just two-thirds of an inning this year for the Jays, but his $2MM salary became guaranteed when injury prevented the Jays from leveraging a 45-day advance consent clause early in the season. If he elects free agency, Toronto would still be on the hook for the remainder of his salary. Morales, for what it’s worth, has pitched pretty well on his rehab stint. He’s allowed two runs in 11 innings with a 9-to-6 K/BB ratio.
  • In a second piece, Davidi writes that Aaron Sanchez is making the Blue Jays’ dilemma about whether to return him to the bullpen in an effort to conserve his arm more and more dilemma. The right-hander dominated the Diamondbacks over seven one-run innings yesterday but also boosted his innings total to 125 1/3 in the process. The plan for Sanchez was always to shift him to the ’pen midway through the season due to the fact that he threw only 102 total innings between the Majors and Minors last season, but manager John Gibbons acknowledged that it’s becoming more difficult to envision. Gibbons tells Davidi that he still thinks the move will happen at some point, though he recognized that it won’t be popular among fans or in the locker room. “I know it would upgrade the bullpen, that’s for damn sure,” said Gibbons, “but he’s one of the best young starters in the league, too. I don’t know when that’s going to happen.”
  • The Rays have recalled Alex Cobb from his minor league rehab assignment due to fatigue and mechanical issues, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Cobb, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery that he underwent last May, is now unlikely to return to a big league mound until at least mid-August, though it could be a bit later depending on when he gets back on a minor league mound. Topkin notes that the Rays aren’t concerned about a larger-scale injury, however.

AL East Notes: Yankees, Headley, Blue Jays, Smith, Harvey, Britton

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Less than one-sixth of the season is in the books, but the Yankees already find themselves looking at a six-game gap in the AL East. GM Brian Cashman acknowledged that the start is concerning, telling Ken Davidoff of the New York Post that “we urgently need to stop the bleeding now.” But doing that is more a matter of minor adjustments and improvements than significant changes to the roster or field staff, the veteran executive suggests — at least for now. “We’ll continue to do the work necessary to put ourselves in position to succeed, and eventually that worm will turn. In the event things don’t turn I’m going to have to make it turn and be forced to do things that weren’t part of the game plan, whatever that would be,” Cashman said. “The best answer would come from this mix of players.”

  • Perhaps no Yankees player has scuffled as badly as third baseman Chase Headley, who has been among the worst regulars in baseball. In Cashman’s view, Headley isn’t so much a victim of batted ball luck as he is simply struggling to hit the ball with authority (as his lack of a single extra-base hit would suggest). “He’s getting his walks, and thank God for that because it would be worse [without them],” said Cashman. “He has not been able to impact the baseball like he’s capable of. We have problems all over, but … he’s definitely someone you can point to and say we have to figure it out. He’s struggling the most.” While Headley has dealt with back issues at times, Cashman says that’s “definitely not an issue” right now. Headley is in the second season of a four-year, $52MM free agent contract.
  • The Blue Jays are in better position than their division rivals from New York, but also have played beneath their high expectations in the early going. That doesn’t mean that manager John Gibbons is at risk, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Instead, Toronto’s new front office is focused on finding a way to improve the results from the bullpen, per Heyman. Gibbons is under contract through 2017 under a reworked deal he agreed to this winter.
  • The Red Sox are finally in position to call upon reliever Carson Smith, as he’s officially been activated from the DL. Smith has been expected to hold down a significant late-inning role since coming over this winter via trade, but first had to battle through a flexor strain. Boston will undoubtedly hope that Smith can avoid further elbow complications.
  • Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will be delayed yet again, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports, as he will undergo sports hernia surgery this week. Now, it’s not clear that Harvey will have a shot at making his next regular season, minor league appearance before passing the two-year anniversary of his last. Harvey is still just 21, and remains a highly-regarded prospect, but has yet to move past the Class A level due to a litany of injuries. He’s expected to begin working back to action in July.
  • Meanwhile, the Orioles got promising news on closer Zach Britton, as MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via Twitter) that an MRI revealed no major cause for concern. The southpaw relief ace is hopeful that he’ll avoid the DL entirely after turning his ankle recently.

Quick Hits: Robinson, PEDs, Harvey

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Angels outfielder Shane Robinson has an upcoming opt-out, MLBTR has learned. On Monday, Robinson can request his release, and the Angels have to either promote to the big leagues or grant his request. Robinson was in camp this season with the Indians, but exercised an opt-out from his minor-league deal and signed with the Angels in late March. Since then, he’s hit .306/.348/.371 with Triple-A Salt Lake. The 31-year-old is a veteran of six big-league seasons, most recently hitting .250/.299/.322 while playing all three outfield positions for the Twins in 2015. Here’s more from around the league.

  • On FOX Sports today, Ken Rosenthal discussed players’ feelings on PEDs in the wake of the 80-game suspension to the Marlins’ Dee Gordon (video link). Rosenthal believes it is at least fairly likely that the next collective bargaining agreement will include stiffer PED penalties. He suggests, however, that it’s not likely those penalties will include voiding contracts, since the possibility of voided deals could raise suspicions about teams tampering with players who have albatross contracts — by, for example, putting something in a player’s drink to ensure he tests positive for PEDs.
  • 2013 Orioles first-round pick Hunter Harvey will see a specialist next week after having a setback in his recovery from a groin injury, according to reporters, including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. The injury isn’t healing as expected, and the team is concerned that there’s more going on than just groin discomfort — according to Dan Connolly of Baltimore Baseball, the specialist will try to determine whether Harvey actually has a sports hernia, in which case he will miss four to six weeks. Manager Buck Showalter does express optimism that Harvey will pitch this season. The 21-year-old Harvey hasn’t pitched since the middle of the 2014 campaign, when he was sidetracked by a strained flexor mass and then a fractured fibula. His pro career had previously been off to a terrific start, with a 2.87 ERA, 11.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in his first 113 innings in the low minors.

East Notes: Ozuna, Gordon, Francoeur, Mets, O’s, Castro

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Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna has enormous upside, assistant hitting coach Frank Menechino said in an interview today on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). Menechino noted that Ozuna’s early success came despite the fact that he was quite raw, explaining that he’s had to learn on the fly — even as expectations, contract considerations, and other pressures were converging. Ozuna, of course, has long been seen as a trade chip, although momentum seems to be shifting away from that scenario.

More from Miami and some other news from the eastern divisions:

  • The Marlins ought to make a long-term deal with Dee Gordon a priority, argues Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. After all, he suggests, his agents at Beverly Hills Sports Council might well try to argue that Gordon’s marquee accomplishments — leading the league in batting average, hits, and stolen bases while picking up a Gold Glove — support an outside-the-box arbitration payday. While MLBTR projects a $5.9MM salary in his second of four turns through arbitration, Gordon and his reps could always file for more and take their chances. Of course, as MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz explained in a recent podcast appearance (at about the 20-minute mark), Gordon’s meager home run and RBI tallies limit his arb-earning upside despite his other big numbers.
  • While the Marlins have been fairly quiet this winter, they are still looking to add some players. Jon Heyman tweets that the club has its eye on some right-handed bats, with Jeff Francoeur among them.
  • Mets GM Sandy Alderson and the rest of the organization’s leadership have managed to upset a segment of the team’s fans despite last year’s World Series run, writes Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Of course, as Davidoff explains, appeasing a “populist” sentiment in the fanbase (as Alderson put it) with a big signing would hardly guarantee on-field success.
  • Young Orioles righties Hunter Harvey and Dylan Bundy are participating in minicamp and appear to be in good health, Roch Kubtako of MASNsports.com reports. Both have had very tough runs of bad luck, and certainly the organization will be holding its collective breath to see how they feel as they ramp up this spring.
  • Orioles skipper Buck Showalter said today that he could imagine slugger Chris Davis waiting to sign until late in camp, Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun reports. “That’s not surprising at all the way that camp does business,” Showalter said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it went to February. It wouldn’t surprise me if it goes to March.” It’s probably not worth reading too much into those comments, since Showalter is obviously not privy to the specific strategy of Davis and his agent, Scott Boras. But his words do seem to hint at some frustration in the organization at the inability to achieve resolution one way or the other.
  • If the Yankees need someone to step in at third base for Chase Headley, the club could well turn to Starlin Castro, GM Brian Cashman suggested today. As Chad Jennings of the LoHud Yankees Blog writes, the newly-acquired infielder is still likely to spend most of his time at second, but his experience on the left side of the infield (almost entirely at short) could increase the team’s roster flexibility. Meanwhile, Cashman emphasized that Alex Rodriguez will not see time in the field.

Duquette, Showalter On Pitching, Davis, Machado, Harvey

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Orioles executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette and skipper Buck Showalter addressed the media together yesterday, as Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports. The pair is set to continue on for 2016, with Showalter explaining that both are committed to putting the club back in contention after a somewhat disappointing year.

Here are some more highlights;

  • Duquette talked about the club’s needs heading into the offseason, saying that “we need to focus on a stronger pitching staff.” As for whether the club can afford to upgrade its rotation and bring back slugger Chris Davis, he made no promises but left open the possibility: “I don’t know what the final market’s gonna be for Chris Davis, but having looked at some of the other contracts, it’s gonna be a lot of money. And we’re gonna have to weigh the competitiveness of the team and the need of the team to staff a strong pitching staff. I don’t know where the money’s going to end up, but we have enough resources in this market to field a competitive team and our aim is to do that again in ’16.”
  • Baltimore is assessing whether to make qualifying offers to Davis, Wei-Yin Chen, and Matt Wieters, per the report. “The qualifying offer is under consideration for all those players,” Duquette said. “The club has to decide that by the end of the World Series, so we’re currently working on that.” It still seems probable that all three will be recipients, though the backstop Wieters seems most likely to avoid the QO.
  • In terms of pursuing offensive additions, Duquette said the focus would be in acquiring players with good on-base skills.
  • While the Orioles would love to extend third baseman Manny Machado, Duquette says that pursuing a new deal with him is not atop the organization’s priority list, as Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports. “It is heartening that Manny wants to play here, we’ve got him for three more years and that’s something we can consider in the offseason but I’ve got to tell you, we got a lot more work to do,” Duquette said. “We’ve got a lot more work to do and the fact that Manny’s gonna be here for the next three years under his current arrangement, doesn’t mean that’s a back-burner item, but we have a lot more urgent things to look at.”
  • Duquette also noted that he has had discussions with Machado’s reps in the past, but said that they “didn’t quite get to a deal.” It was wise of the O’s to try, because Machado’s combination of performance and age figure to make him exceedingly expensive to lock up, even after accounting for his somewhat worrying injury history.
  • Meanwhile, Duquette said that highly-regarded pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will not require surgery, at least for the time being. “The doctors are recommending based upon the healing they’ve seen, they’re recommending he continue to pitch,” said the club’s top baseball decisionmaker. “If he does throw four to six weeks from now and still has an issue, we can do the surgery then. But we’ve sent him to see several doctors and they’re all recommending he continue to throw.”

Injury Notes: Tulowitzki, Phegley, Harvey

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Here’s the latest injury related notes from around the league:

  • Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is making progress in his return from a cracked scapula, writes Jaime Ross of MLB.com. The 30-year-old is still a few days from learning his timeline for return. Initial estimates suggested he’d miss two to three weeks. He originally sustained the injury last Saturday. Tulowitzki reports that he can now lift his arm, but it’s unclear when he can begin baseball activities.
  • Athletics catcher Josh Phegley has a concussion, reports Chandler Rome of MLB.com. He sustained the freak injury yesterday during batting practice when a bat clipped the back of his head. Phegley was acquired by Oakland prior to the season as part of the Jeff Samardzija trade.
  • Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey has been shut down with elbow discomfort, writes Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun. It’s a recurrence of an existing problem for the 20-year-old prospect. The club intends for him to visit Dr. James Andrews before setting a course of action, but the renowned surgeon is currently out of the country. Harvey entered the season as the second ranked prospect in the Orioles farm system per Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs.

Dylan Bundy Shut Down Indefinitely

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Highly-regarded Orioles pitching prospect Dylan Bundy has been shut down indefinitely as he continues to deal with shoulder issues, manager Buck Showalter told reporters (press conference video and story via the Baltimore Sun). There is currently no schedule for the former fourth overall draft pick to return to action.

Bundy reached the majors briefly in his first full season as a pro at just 19 years of age, and entered the 2013 campaign rated as the game’s second best overall prospect. But he never threw a competitive pitch that season and ultimately required Tommy John surgery.

More recently, elbow issues have given way to shoulder concerns for the 22-year-old. Bundy experienced soreness about a month ago while working at Double-A and has not pitched since.

As the Sun’s Dan Connolly reports (links to Twitter), famed surgeon Dr. James Andrews found evidence of calcification in the back area of the shoulder. The incomparably experienced Andrews indicated to Bundy that he’d never before observed that type of calcium buildup in that area. Per the report, the calcium accumulation should at some point no longer cause pain, but Bundy will need to wait until then to get back on the mound.

That makes for an uncertain timeline. “Dylan throwing again is not imminent,” said Showalter. Details of Bundy’s path back to action remain sketchy, as Showalter explained that he’ll be “just kind of shut down for the near future, for a while, [to] kind of let everything calm down [and] see where we are. … He won’t be throwing for a little while, we’ll see how long that is.”

The latest medical evaluations may actually not be entirely negative, the skipper suggested, as he noted that he has not “heard surgery mentioned” as a possibility. Bundy himself added that there is no current thought that a surgical procedure will be necessary, as Connolly tweets. While Bundy says he hopes to be able to pitch again this year, he adds that a return that swift seems unlikely.

Notably, because Bundy signed a major league deal out of the draft (as is no longer permitted), he has already burned through all of his option years despite just one big league call-up, Connolly notes on Twitter. That obviously could complicate the team’s ability to retain him if he is not ready to contribute at the big league level come next spring.

Meanwhile, Showalter also noted that former first-round pick Matt Hobgood will need shoulder surgery. Hobgood, 24, went fifth overall back in 2009, but has never been able to harness his potential. He owns a 4.98 ERA over 325 career innings in the minors and has been working as a reliever over recent seasons.

Baltimore did get somewhat more promising news on another young arm, Hunter Harvey. Showalter said that the 20-year-old right-hander will soon begin a throwing program after being diagnosed with a flexor mass strain in his forearm earlier in the year. Harvey entered the season as a consensus top-100 prospect.

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