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Jerry Blevins

Braves Select Jerry Blevins, Release Jonny Venters

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The Braves are again shaking up the bullpen, selecting the contract of lefty Jerry Blevins, who’d been designated and outrighted earlier in the week after clearing waivers, to replace fellow lefty Jonny Venters, who’s been issued his release by the club. (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman).

The latest chapter in the renaissance project for three-time Tommy John surgery survivor Venters, 34, didn’t go as planned. Though the lefty threw just 4 2/3 IP for a shaken Atlanta pen, he allowed three homers and walked eight over the frame. His average fastball velocity still registers at a competitive 93.0 MPH, so he may yet have some juice left in the tank, but it seemingly won’t be deployed for the team with whom he initially made his mark.

Blevins, 35, has been on a whirlwind tour in the last week, and he’ll again find himself at SunTrust Park for the back half of Atlanta’s weekend series with Milwaukee. Blevins has been left-handed kryptonite over the course of his 13-year MLB career, holding southpaws to a sickly .215/.271/.315 career mark. His numbers, though, have slipped considerably over the last two seasons – the lefty’s been homer prone for nearly the first time – and he hasn’t held lefties in comparable check.

It’s the latest in an early-season lefty exodus from the Atlanta ’pen, as the club had already sent down penciled-in set-up man A.J. Minter and designated Jesse Biddle for assignment.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/17/19

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We’ll track some minor moves from around the league here…

  • Southpaw Jerry Blevins was outrighted by the Braves, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Blevins had been designated for assignment recently; whether he’ll accept the assignment isn’t yet clear, but he has the right to decline. The veteran reliever only saw six appearances with the Atlanta organization and they didn’t go very well. He suffered a big drop-off in strikeouts last season. That being said, Blevins has compiled nearly five hundred innings of MLB pitching with a 3.57 ERA and 9.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9; it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see him back up to the majors this year.
  • The Red Sox signed right-hander Dylan Thompson to a minor league contract, per an announcement from the independent American Association (Twitter link). Thompson had been slated to open the season with the AA’s Winnipeg Goldeyes before his contract was purchased by the Red Sox. A former Rockies farmhand, Thompson spent the past three seasons pitching for the AA’s Sioux Falls Canaries — primarily as a reliever in 2017 but exclusively as a starter in 2018. While his overall numbers don’t immediately jump out, the right-hander’s sinker movement is eye-opening, to say the least (as depicted in GIF form by Rob Friedman, on Twitter). Whether Thompson can parlay that wiffle-esque movement into success in affiliated ball remains to be seen, but he’ll make for an interesting addition to the lower levels of Boston’s system. He’s opened the year with Class-A Advanced Salem and allowed a pair of runs on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts in three innings.
  • Left-hander Tyler Lyons accepted his outright assignment after clearing waivers this week, per an announcement from the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. Lyons, 31, was dominant out of the Cardinals’ bullpen as recently as 2017 — 2.83 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.50 HR/9 in 54 innings — but has struggled since that excellent showing. The southpaw yielded 16 runs in 16 2/3 innings last season with St. Louis and was rocked for five runs in four innings with the Pirates earlier this season. He had the option of rejecting his assignment in favor of free agency but will remain in the Pittsburgh organization as he works toward another opportunity later in the year.

Braves Designate Jerry Blevins

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The Braves have designated lefty Jerry Blevins for assignment, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets. Righty Kyle Wright was already optioned down, thus creating two active roster openings that will be filled by relievers Jesse Biddle (back from the IL) and Wes Parsons (recalled from Triple-A).

Blevins opened the season in the Athletics organization, facing the unfamiliar position of earning his way onto a major league roster. He ended up being acquired by the Braves and installed in their relief unit.

Things haven’t worked out as hoped for Blevins, who has allowed four runs with four strikeouts and three walks in his 3 1/3 innings over six appearances. That’s too short a sample to draw any final conclusions, but Blevins was working at or near career-worst levels of velocity (89.1 mph average fastball), swinging strikes (8.1%), and hard contact (50.0%) in th ebrief showing.

Braves Acquire Jerry Blevins

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The Braves have acquired left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins from the Athletics, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Oakland announced that it will receive cash or a player to be named later in return. Atlanta subsequently selected Blevins’ contract, optioned Wes Parsons to Triple-A Gwinnett and transferred reliever Arodys Vizcaino to the 60-day injured list.

An Athletic earlier in his career, Blevins never made it back to Oakland this year after returning to the organization on a minor league contract in the offseason. The 35-year-old instead tossed 10 2/3 innings of 1.69 ERA ball with 13.5 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9 with the A’s Triple-A affiliate.

Blevins had to settle for a role in the minors after a trying 2018 as a member of the Mets, with whom he posted a 4.85 ERA, 8.65 K/9 against 4.64 BB/9, and a measly 21.8 percent groundball rate. Difficulty retiring same-handed hitters played into Blevins’ struggles last year, a season in which he declined sharply after a largely impressive run with the A’s, Nationals and Mets. From 2016-17, his first two full seasons in New York, the soft-tossing Blevins managed a stingy 2.87 ERA with 11.97 K/9, 3.86 BB/9 and a 43.3 percent grounder mark across 91 innings. He was tough on both left- and right-handed hitters in the first of those two seasons, though the latter teed off on him in 2017.

Blevins will now join an Atlanta bullpen which is in dire straits, having limped to the majors’ eighth-highest ERA (4.74) with its worst walk rate (5.87 per nine) and second-worst fWAR (minus-0.7) this season. In the Braves’ estimation, the fact that lefties Jonny Venters and Jesse Biddle are on the injured list and fellow southpaw A.J. Minter has been awful helped create a need for Blevins.

West Notes: Castillo, Arenado, Rockies, A’s, Ohtani

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Padres left-hander Jose Castillo will be sidelined for an estimated six-to-eight weeks to recover from a flexor strain in his throwing arm, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes.  Castillo began feeling forearm tightness last week, which caused San Diego to shut down his bullpens and then ultimately place him on the 60-day injured list today.  Needless to say, any type of forearm injury is cause for concern, though the team is still “confident” that Tommy John surgery won’t be required.  The 23-year-old Castillo made his MLB debut last season and immediately delivered results, posting a 3.29 ERA, 4.33 K/BB rate, and a whopping 12.2 K/9 over 38 1/3 innings out of San Diego’s bullpen.  With Castillo on the IL, the Padres’ top left-handed options consist of Matt Strahm and the recently-signed Aaron Loup, with former big leaguers Eric Stout, Kyle McGrath, and Brad Wieck also available in the upper minors.

Some more from both the NL and AL West divisions….

  • The specter of what Manny Machado or Bryce Harper could land in free agency theoretically loomed over the extension talks between Nolan Arenado and the Rockies, though the Machado/Harper situations “had a lot less to do with it than you might think,” Rockies GM Jeff Bridich said in an appearance on Inside Pitch show on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link).  While both the team and Arenado’s camp were obviously cognizant of the larger market forces at play, Bridich said “There were never any sort of deadlines or caveats put in going ’Hey, we need to know this first before…’ We just focused on our business at hand, and I think that’s why we ended up getting what hopefully ends up to be a great deal for everybody involved.”
  • Now that Arenado has been locked up to the biggest contract in franchise history, the Rockies don’t have any more big extension candidates on their radar for at least a couple of years, Kyle Newman and Jeff Bailey of the Denver Post write.  Colorado’s top young stars are still controlled through arbitration or have yet to even reach their arb years — Trevor Story and Jon Gray are controlled through the 2021 season, while Kyle Freeland and German Marquez aren’t eligible for free agency until after the 2022 campaign.  This doesn’t mean the Rockies couldn’t explore a long-term deal in advance, though it’s worth noting that Arenado and Charlie Blackmon both only signed their extensions when they were a season removed from the open market.  Looking at Colorado’s long-term payroll, Arenado and Blackmon are the only players guaranteed salary beyond 2021, several of the team’s other big contracts (Wade Davis, Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee, Daniel Murphy, and likely Ian Desmond) come off the books after 2020 or 2021.
  • The early start to the regular season for the Athletics and Mariners (who play a two-game series in Tokyo on March 20-21) has also pushed up some roster deadlines.  Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the A’s will have to decide by March 14 whether or not minor league signees Jerry Blevins and Nick Hundley will make the MLB roster.  Otherwise, Blevins and Hundley each can opt out of their minors contracts.  It could be a moot point, however, as “Blevins and Hundley both appear to be near-locks to make the team,” Slusser writes.  Hundley’s inclusion could leave Josh Phegley as the odd man out of the catching mix, and the out-of-options backstop is a good candidate to be claimed off waivers, multiple scouts tell Slusser.  Oakland’s early start doesn’t extend to out-of-options players, however, as the club has until March 28 (when their regular season resumes) to decide on Phegley, Frankie Montas, Aaron Brooks, and other players who can no longer be freely optioned to the minors.
  • Shohei Ohtani has moved from hitting off a tee to hitting soft toss, as the Angels slugger continues his recovery from Tommy John surgery.  The Halos are targeting a May return for Ohtani, though manager Brad Ausmus told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger and other media that the unique nature of Ohtani’s two-way status makes him “patient zero,” and thus “he doesn’t really have a set schedule.  He is making the schedule for future Shohei Ohtanis.”  Ohtani obviously won’t pitch this season, and he’ll be limited to DH-only duty once he does return to the team’s lineup.

Athletics, Jerry Blevins Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Athletics are in agreement on a minor league contract with left-hander Jerry Blevins, tweets Joel Sherman of the New York Post. He’d earn a $1.5MM base salary if he makes the big league roster. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle had reported just minutes prior that Blevins and the A’s were close to a deal. With this deal, the Excel Sports client will be returning to Oakland for a second stint after breaking into the Majors with the A’s and spending the 2007-13 seasons there.

Since departing the A’s, the now-35-year-old Blevins has spent the past five seasons in the National League East — one with the Nationals and four with the Mets. While the 2016-17 seasons were both strong ones for Blevins — 2.87 ERA, 12.0 K/9, 3.9 BB/9 — the 2018 season was a rough one. Blevins limped to a 4.85 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 4.6 BB/9, 1.27 HR/9 and a career-worst 21.8 percent ground-ball rate.

Despite last season’s unsightly results, Blevins has a long track record of overwhelming left-handed opponents, having held them to a .206/.264/.306 slash through the other 11 seasons of his career. In all, he has a career 3.52 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 463 Major League innings.

Left-handed relief is a clear area of need for the Athletics, making Blevins a logical addition for VP of baseball operations Billy Beane, GM David Forst and the rest of the Oakland front office. At present, Ryan Buchter is not only the sole left-handed bullpen option on the 40-man roster — he’s the only healthy left-handed pitcher on their 40-man roster at all. The A’s, however, have several other non-roster invitees to big league camp in the form of Kyle Crockett, Dean Kiekhefer and Kyle Lobstein — each of whom will compete with Blevins to earn a spot in manager Bob Melvin’s relief corps.

New York Notes: Yanks’ Infield, Gray, Kluber, Bauer, Mets

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With shortstop Didi Gregorius set to miss a large chunk of next season, the Yankees are reportedly in the market for the best infielder available, free agent Manny Machado. But in the event the team loses out on Machado, general manager Brian Cashman is casting a wide net in his search for infield help. “I’ve talked to [agent] Danny Lozano about Manny, I’ve talked to the agents for Freddy Galvis. I’ve talked to everybody, from high end to low end,” Cashman said (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). “This marketplace is deep on second basemen. I have a shortstop that we’re playing at second in Gleyber Torres, so how does this play out?” As Cashman implied, the Yankees could easily slide Torres to short to cover for Gregorius’ loss. In doing so, they’d perhaps be able to add one of the many veteran second basemen available in free agency, though no one from that group would move the needle nearly as much as Machado.

More from the Big Apple…

  • The Mets have picked up standout relievers Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia this offseason, but given the struggles of their bullpen in 2018, they could still use more late-game help – particularly from the left side. However, after the Mets agreed to a deal with Familia on Thursday, GM Brodie Van Wagenen “downplayed” the possibility of the club adding a high-profile southpaw, Mike Puma of the New York Post writes. It seems the Mets won’t be the next team for either Zach Britton or Andrew Miller, then, but Anthony DiComo of MLB.com points to Tony Sipp and familiar faces Jerry Blevins and Oliver Perez among potential targets for the club.
  • While the Yankees have now marketed Sonny Gray for quite some time, the club is still sifting through offers. “A bunch” of rivals remain interested, per AGM Michael Fishman, who tells Hoch (Twitter link) that some possible deal scenarios would involve major-league assets coming back in return. New York’s reportedly seeking “high-end” MLB talent for Gray, despite his subpar performance in 2018.
  • There’s no room anymore for Gray in New York, yet the Yankees could still pick up another starter this winter to join an already crowded staff that includes Luis Severino, James Paxton, J.A. Happ, Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia. With that said “it sounds like there’s little optimism” the Yankees will acquire Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer from the Indians, Marc Carig of The Athletic tweets. Either Kluber or Bauer would bring back a haul in return, and with a farm system that has taken some major hits via trades and prospect graduations in the past year, it doesn’t appear the Yankees will emerge from the offseason with either righty. Speculatively speaking, Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar would make sense for the Indians after the latter traded Yandy Diaz on Thursday. However, while the Yankees are reportedly “open” to moving Andujar, giving him up would create another hole in their infield at the cost of improving a rotation which already has at least five viable options.

Heyman’s Latest: Blevins, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Happ, Straily, Urena, Marlins

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“There’s been some trade talk of late involving Mets reliever Jerry Blevins,” Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman reports in his weekly roundup of baseball notes.  Blevins has posted a 2.65 ERA and 38 strikeouts (against 13 walks) over 34 innings since May 1, and even his inflated April ERA was largely due to one disastrous outing against the Braves.  He is eligible to be dealt since he cleared revocable trade waivers in August, and the veteran southpaw could provide a boost to a team looking for left-handed relief help (though Blevins is actually in the midst of a reverse-splits season, dominating right-handed batters and getting hit hard by lefty batters).  While Blevins could help get a team into the playoffs, however, he wouldn’t be eligible for postseason play himself due to being dealt after the August 31st deadline.  Blevins is a free agent after the year and is owed roughly $583K in remaining salary.

Here’s more from Heyman’s notes…

  • In more Mets news, the team has over 30 names on its list of general manager candidates, though the interview process has yet to begin.  As Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported earlier this week, the Mets plan to have their new hire in place before the GM Meetings begin on November 4.
  • Even with the Dodgers in jeopardy of missing the postseason, it doesn’t appear that manager Dave Roberts, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, or GM Farhan Zaidi are in any danger of losing their jobs.  It seems as if this season could be seen as an aberration, given that L.A. has been beset by injuries yet still leads the National League in run-differential.  (The Baseball Reference standings page notes that the Dodgers are eight wins behind their expected Pythagorean win-loss record.)  While management changes don’t seem to be afoot, there will likely be some type of contract talks among Dodgers brass this offseason since Friedman is only under contract through the 2019 season.  Roberts is already in the last guaranteed year of his deal, though the Dodgers have a club option on his services for 2019.
  • The Red Sox didn’t put much focus on relief pitching at the trade deadline, with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski noting that “If we addressed the bullpen, then there’d be other needs we’d have.  It wasn’t that we weren’t open to some moves. But we addressed some of our other priorities.”  Boston was linked to multiple relievers in trade rumors but didn’t find a fit anywhere.  In regards to one name in particular, Dombrowski said that “we couldn’t touch” Roberto Osuna, who the Astros acquired from the Blue Jays in a deal that generated quite a bit of controversy, given the domestic assault charges still pending against him.  The bullpen has been seen as a possible Achilles’ heel for an otherwise dominant Red Sox team, though as Dombrowski observed, Boston’s relief corps still ranks within the top ten in most major categories.
  • Heyman expects the Yankees to try and re-sign J.A. Happ in free agency.  The southpaw has done nothing but impress since coming to New York from the Blue Jays in a midseason trade; Happ has a 2.70 ERA, 8.3 K/9, and 4.78 K/BB rate over 46 2/3 innings in the pinstripes.  MLBTR’s Jeff Todd recently projected that Happ’s next contract could exceed $40MM over three years, as the veteran is still posting strong numbers even as he approaches his age-36 season.  Retaining Happ would go a long ways towards solidifying a Yankees rotation that has only Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka as certainties for 2019.
  • With the Marlins still years away from contending, they could consider trading Dan Straily or Jose Urena this offseason even though the two starters still have two and three years, respectively, of arbitration control remaining.  This added control, of course, could also entice suitors to give up more in a potential deal.  Straily has been mentioned in trade rumors ever since Miami began its fire sale last year, though the team held onto him through the deadline and pulled him back from revocable waivers in August after an unknown club submitted a claim.

August Trade Deadline Countdown Rumors

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Midnight eastern time will mark the end of the August revocable waiver trade period. While deals can still occur in September, organizations must form their eventual postseason rosters out of players on hand when the calendar flips tonight. We have already seen several notable players move today. Josh Donaldson is reportedly going to the Indians; Gio Gonzalez is said to be moving to the Brewers; Ryan Madson went to the Dodgers; and Andrew McCutchen is now a member of the Yankees.

There’s still time for dealing to be done, though — just under an hour and a half, in fact. We’ll use this post to track any late-breaking developments …

  • The Dodgers are still looking to make a late strike for a right-handed hitter, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). It’s not entirely clear whether the team is trying to obtain a specific target or, rather, still working the lines on multiple options. Neither is it fully evident precisely what sort of player the Dodgers would be interested in, though an outfield-capable bat of some kind would seem to make the most sense given the recent travails of Matt Kemp and Chris Taylor.
  • Mets lefty Jerry Blevins won’t be spending the final month of the season in a different uniform, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter link). As had been hinted earlier today, the veteran reliever will rather surprisingly stay in Queens until his contract runs out at season’s end. He had cleared waivers, suggesting contenders weren’t interested in taking his entire salary, but still seemed like a fairly obvious target for organizations interested in boosting their matchup options for the final month of the season.
  • Whether it means anything or not is hard to say, but Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press notes on Twitter that the Twins elected to hold second baseman Logan Forsythe out of the lineup today, “just in case.” There hasn’t been a lot of chatter surrounding the pending free agent, who was acquired as part of the salary swapping involved in the deal that sent Brian Dozier to Los Angeles in July. But Forsythe has gone on to post a .406 OBP in 106 plate appearances in Minnesota. While he’s not hitting for much power and hasn’t maintained his hot start, it’s certainly possible to imagine Forsythe fitting on some rosters — even, perhaps, that of his former team. And the Twins, surely, would be glad to save some further cash.

Trade Chatter: Gio, Brewers, Granderson, Mets, O’s

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Major League teams have until midnight ET tonight to acquire players who can still be eligible for their postseason roster. While this deadline isn’t likely to be as significant as the July 31 non-waiver deadline, major swaps can still take place. Andrew McCutchen has already gone from the Bay Area to the Bronx, and it was one year ago today that the Astros pulled off a trade for Justin Verlander that played an absolutely pivotal role in their eventual World Series victory. While there is understandably a large focus on Josh Donaldson, who seems likely to be traded today, here are some other rumblings from around the game…

  • The Nationals are discussing a trade of left-hander Gio Gonzalez, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com, though it’s not clear if multiple clubs are showing interest in the veteran southpaw with tonight’s deadline looming. Gonzalez has been rocked in three of his past five starts, causing his ERA to balloon from 3.78 on July 28 to its present mark of 4.57. He’s still averaging 7.8 K/9 with quality home-run and ground-ball rates, but he’s walking batters at a higher clip than he has since 2009 (4.6 BB/9). Gonzalez has a lengthy track record as a solid mid-rotation arm, though, and he’s one of very few starers reported to have cleared waivers. He’s still owed about $2MM of this season’s $12MM salary.
  • The Brewers are still looking into multiple upgrade possibilities, and though their fans are clamoring for rotation help, they’re also looking at adding a left-handed bench bat, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. Curtis Granderson is one possibility to land in Milwaukee, he notes. Granderson has already cleared trade waivers, meaning the Blue Jays can shop him around to any team in the league. He’s owed the remainder of this year’s $5MM salary (about $829K) and is hitting well against right-handed pitching (.250/.345/.443). USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Granderson is expected to be traded at some point before midnight.
  • Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets that the Mets don’t expect to trade either Jerry Blevins or Devin Mesoraco today. Both are free agents at season’s end, and Blevins was already reported to have cleared waivers (while Mesoraco was also a virtual lock to do so). If that indeed proves to be the case, the May trade in which the Mets and Reds swapped Mesoraco and Matt Harvey won’t have garnered either team any value beyond the current season (unless either player’s time in his new organization leads him to re-sign there).
  • The Post’s Joel Sherman tweets that the Orioles have actually made a surprising number of waiver claims recently, though obviously none have led to a trade just yet. The O’s clearly aren’t going anywhere in 2018, so it’s likely they’ve been attempting to acquire pieces that are controlled into 2019 (and likely beyond). Such players are difficult to acquire in the first place, and doing so in the allotted 48-hour window is all the more difficult.

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