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Winter Meetings Preview: Rangers, Rockies

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In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams out west…

  • The Texas Rangers have their sights laser-focused on Anthony Rendon, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Recent additions have more-or-less locked their rotation class, with Kolby Allard, Joe Palumbo and Brock Burke looking like the 5 through 7 options behind Lance Lynn, Mike Minor, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles. Should prices drop on starters like Dallas Keuchel or Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Rangers could add further pitching in the right deal and potentially explore flipping Lynn or Minor, tweets Grant, though that’s less a strategy and more of the “open to anything” ethos employed by most front offices. Otherwise, the group of internal candidates, if expanded, would include Taylor Hearn and Tyler Phillips, plus any vets they are able to grab on minor league deals in the mold of Edinson Volquez (though Volquez himself is more likely ticketed for the pen if he makes the team). The Rangers reportedly offered Zack Wheeler a $100MM contract before he signed with Philadelphia, so the pursestrings have been loosed. For now, however, they’re stuck in traffic waiting to see if the “Adrian Beltre treatment” can sell Rendon on playing the latter half of his career in Arlington. 
  • The Colorado Rockies need for starting pitching is clear, but they are highly unlikely to walk away from the winter meetings with a new arm atop their rotation, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Irrespective of the financial crunch – which is significant and detailed in MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook – the history of Coors Field continues to scare away free agent pitchers. Not to mention, the haunted past of big-ticket hurlers signed by past regimes in Colorado is no less an impediment to building through free agency. Denny Neagle, Mike Hampton, and Darryl Kile can all profess their tale of woe, but Kile’s case is particularly damning given the success he enjoyed in St. Louis once freed from Coors. Speculatively speaking, the Rockies aversion/inability to add frontline pitching via free agency could be a factor in their bearish resistance to trading Jon Gray. If internal development is the only path to roster improvement, trading a talent like Gray would be an even greater white-flag move than under most circumstances.

Rangers Place Nomar Mazara on IL, Purchase Nick Solak’s Contract

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Following an early exit from last night’s game, Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara will head to the injured list with a strained left oblique muscle, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning-News (link). The team has purchased the contract of infielder Nick Solak in a corresponding move.

This sequence of moves has been suspected since last night when Mazara went down. It’s been a difficult season for Mazara, with these last few weeks particularly trying as the Rangers have cut into his playing time in an open audition to get more production from his spot in the lineup. The 24-year-old outfielder was a star-in-the-making not all that long ago, but he has yet to improve much in any aspect of his game since his rookie season in 2016.

Still, it’s not all doom-and-gloom for Mazara, who was headed for a fourth-straight 20-homer campaign had he stated healthy. Depending on the length of his layoff, he’ll still have a decent shot at notching the three home runs needed to hit the mark in 2019. On the whole, the power has been there for Mazara this season, with .467 slugging and .197 ISO both career-high marks. The rest of his game has maintained an almost bizarre consistency for a player so young. He’s sitting right now at a 95 wRC+ mark–right in line with his previous three marks of 96, 89, and 91 in seasons dating back to 2016. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough pop from a corner outfielder who doesn’t rate well on defense or on the basepaths.

Solak is penciled into the 6th spot in the batting order to make his major league debut today. He is listed right now as the designated hitter, though much of his perceived long-term value stems from his defensive versatility. Throughout his minor league career, he has shuttled between second base, left field, and centerfield, while seeing an occasional inning at third or in right. It’s a good time to be debuting in Texas: yesterday alone, Jose Trevino, 26, smashed his first career home run, Scott Heineman, 26, registered his first career RBI, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 24, ended the night with his first career walkoff knock.

Joe Palumbo has also been added to the roster today to serve as the 26th man for the twin bill against the Angels – one of two rookie starters taking the hill in today’s doubleheader. Palumbo lines up against Andrew Heaney in the afternoon tilt. It will be Palumbo’s 4th appearance of the year for the Rangers, having been hit hard for 11 earned runs across 9 innings of work. Despite the slow start at the ML level, the 24-year-old native of New York state is highly-regarded. MLB.com lists Palumbo as the 6th-best prospect in the Texas system, while Baseball America ranks him 4th.

Rangers Designate Drew Smyly

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The Rangers announced today that they have designated veteran pitcher Drew Smyly for assignment. His 40-man and active roster spots will go to fellow lefty Locke St. John, whose contract was selected.

In a pair of other moves also involving southpaw hurlers, the Texas club called up Kyle Bird and optioned Joe Palumbo.

While rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, Smyly signed a two-year, $10MM deal with the Cubs in anticipation of a full and productive 2019 season. The Rangers acquired that contract last fall, installing the lefty in a rotation full of salvaged former quality starters.

Unfortunately, Smyly’s attempt to come back after two missed campaigns has simply not gone as hoped. He has been torched for 8.42 earned runs per nine in 51 1/3 innings on the season, with his struggles continuing after a move to the bullpen.

Though Smyly is back to his customary 91 mph fastball range, he’s having a hard time coaxing hitters to offer at pitches out of the zone (22.4% chase rate). With batters not being fooled by the breaking stuff, they’re having an easy time drawing walks (just under six per nine) from the typically under-control Smyly. And they are teeing off on his mistakes, having already launched 19 long balls against him.

Still only thirty years of age, Smyly may well have a second act left. He was at times a highly effective starter with the Tigers and Rays. If he’s to get back on track, though, it’ll likely mean spending some time working on things at an extended spring facility and then earning another shot at the big leagues through some time in the minors.

Quick Hits: C. Martinez, Rangers, Straily, Mercer

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Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez has been a highly capable starter for most of tenure with the club, which dates back to 2013. But the Cardinals moved the then-injured Martinez to their bullpen in late April, and that’s where he’s going to stay for the time being, per manager Mike Shildt (via Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Shildt suggested the Cardinals don’t have time to build up Martinez, who opened the season on the injured list with shoulder problems. “To put him back in that cycle again doesn’t make a lot of sense when he’s in a spot where he’s had success and he’s recovering,” Shildt said of Martinez, who has totaled 12 appearances and 13 1/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA/3.47 FIP, 8.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 58.3 percent groundball rate since he made his season debut May 18. Even though Martinez has posted good numbers as a reliever, the Cardinals’ rotation has missed the 27-year-old. Their starting staff has been mediocre or worse this season.

Here’s more from around the majors…

  • The Rangers were planning on giving left-hander Joe Palumbo a chance to audition for a role in their thin rotation, but that may not be the case anymore, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. The 22-year-old Palumbo has started twice, including in Wednesday’s 10-4 drubbing at the hands of the Indians. The Tribe lit up Palumbo for seven earned runs on six hits (two home runs) in two innings. Reliever Jesse Chavez came in after Palumbo and tossed five innings of one-run ball. Although Chavez, 35, hasn’t started extensively since 2017, the Rangers are so hard up for stability in the back of their rotation that they’ll “consider” shifting him there, manager Chris Woodward said.
  • Orioles righty Dan Straily’s place on the team’s roster may be in jeopardy, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com suggests. The low-risk flier the club took on Straily on April 5, a little over a week after the Marlins released him, hasn’t worked out to this point. Straily, 30, was coming off a multiyear run as a useful starter when he joined Baltimore, yet he has worked to a hideous 9.82 ERA/9.30 FIP in 47 2/3 innings since then. While Straily began 2019 as a starter, his struggles convinced the O’s to demote him to their bullpen nearly a month ago. Straily has fared even worse in that role.
  • Injured Tigers shortstop Jordy Mercer is nearing a rehab assignment and could return to the majors by the first week of July, according to manager Ron Gardenhire (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News). Mercer, out since April 14 with a right quad strain, already began a rehab stint once. However, he suffered a setback three weeks ago and hasn’t returned to game action yet. When the rebuilding Tigers signed the soon-to-be 33-year-old Mercer to a $5.25MM guarantee in the offseason, they were likely hoping he’d perform well enough to emerge as a summer trade chip. Instead, the former Pirate got off to a brutal start – .206/.275/.317 (55 wRC+) in 69 plate appearances – and hasn’t played since.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/8/19

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We’ll use this post to track some minor moves around the majors…

  • The Yankees placed Masahiro Tanaka on paternity leave so he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the team announced. He will miss his scheduled start on Sunday. Lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. has been called up from Triple-A in the meantime. This will be Cortes Jr.’s second stint with the big league club this season. He made four appearances in May, soaking up eleven innings as a long man with a 4.91 ERA. He is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in Triple-A, making six starts and one appearance out of the pen. Cortes could certainly slide in for a spot start on Sunday, but the Yankees have not yet made that determination. Tanaka leads the Yanks in innings pitched with 76 1/3 across 13 starts. He is 3-5 with a 3.42 ERA (4.09 FIP). He should be ready to rejoin the club by Tuesday.
  • The Rangers have called up lefty Joe Palumbo from Double-A, while David Carpenter has been designated for assignment, per MLB Roster Moves. Palumbo, 26, will be making his major league debut after pitching to a 3.38 ERA across nine starts for the Frisco RoughRiders. Carpenter, 33, made just one appearance with the Rangers after collecting a 1.76 ERA in 15 appearances for their Triple-A club. The veteran righty has pitched for the Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Yankees and Nationals, though his lone appearance with the Rangers on Tuesday was his first in the majors since 2015. He owns a solid 3.74 career ERA, earned across 219 career appearances from 2011 to 2015.
  • The Orioles recalled Evan Phillips from Triple-A after optioning Branden Kline yesterday as they continue to seek personnel to get outs out of their bullpen, per MLB.com’s Joe Trezza (via Twitter). Phillips has struggled to find a foothold in the big leagues with a 9.85 ERA across 21 appearances, including a 6.92 ERA in 12 appearances for Baltimore this season. He came to Baltimore from Atlanta as part of the Kevin Gausman deal at last year’s deadline. Kline, for his part, heads to Triple-A with a 5.89 ERA in 15 appearances, though he has been particularly ineffective of late. He was tagged with an earned run in each of his last five appearances, taking two losses in that span. Of the ten pitchers who have pitched out of the Oriole bullpen and made at least 10 appearances on the season, only Gabriel Ynoa (4.96 ERA, 4.92 FIP), Paul Fry (3.51 ERA, 4.67 FIP), and Shawn Armstrong (1.93 ERA, 4.57 FIP) can boast an ERA under 5.00. Although, amongst those in that same group, Phillips actually holds the lowest FIP on the season at 3.76, helped by 11.8 K/9.

Rangers Likely To Call Up Joe Palumbo This Weekend

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It’s “likely” the Rangers will call up left-hander Joe Palumbo from Double-A Frisco to make his major league debut Saturday, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Palumbo, who’s already on the Rangers’ 40-man roster, would serve as the 26th man in their doubleheader against the Athletics.

Palumbo is six years removed from joining the Rangers as a 30th-round pick in 2013. Since then, the 24-year-old has made an impressive climb up the Texas organization’s farm system. While Palumbo underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, FanGraphs (No. 6), MLB.com (No. 7) and Baseball America (No. 8) each regard him as one of the Rangers’ 10 best prospects two years later. Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs laud Palumbo’s “timeless, rainbow curveball” and write he could develop into a No. 3-4 starter at the major league level.

So far in 2019, Palumbo has parlayed his fastball-curve-changeup mix into a 3.38 ERA/3.85 FIP with 11.55 K/9 and 4.26 BB/9 over 50 2/3 innings. It might be too optimistic to expect Palumbo to emerge as a capable big league starter right away – Grant notes he may only throw a few innings Saturday – but the need is there for playoff-contending Texas. The Rangers haven’t gotten anything out of offseason acquisition Drew Smyly, though they’re not yet willing to pull him from their starting five. However, if Palumbo shows well Saturday and Smyly’s struggles continue, the former could get a shot to join Texas’ rotation later in the season.

Rangers Outright Carlos Perez

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The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve activated catcher Carlos Perez from the 10-day disabled list and sent him outright to Triple-A Round Rock. In doing so, they’re creating a roster spot that’ll go to lefty Joe Palumbo who has been activated from the 60-day DL and optioned to Class-A Advanced Down East. Palumbo had been recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Perez, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Braves back in early May and appeared in 16 games with Texas before landing on the disabled list. In that time, he posted a lowly .167/.205/.286 slash with a homer and a pair of doubles in 46 plate appearances. He’s never been much of a threat with the bat in the big leagues, hitting a combined .218/.260/.322 in 663 PAs between the Angels, Braves and Rangers.

Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. He’s successfully halted 39 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.

Rangers Sign Jesse Chavez

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Feb. 23: The Rangers have announced the signing. Chavez does indeed go on the 40-man roster, taking the place of left-hander Joe Palumbo, who has been transferred to the 60-day DL in a corresponding move. Palumbo underwent Tommy John surgery last April and will not be ready for the start of the season.

Feb. 22: Chavez’s deal is a guaranteed, Major League contract at $1MM, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. He’ll get a 40-man roster spot, it seems, and Chavez’s base salary will elevate to $1.5MM once he is placed on the 25-man roster. Cotillo notes that there’s a very strong chance that Chavez breaks camp on the Rangers’ roster.

Feb. 21: The Rangers are in agreement on a contract with veteran right-hander Jesse Chavez, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (Twitter links). The Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon client seems to have signed a non-guaranteed deal, as Heyman notes that the pact calls for a $1MM base that’ll increase to $1.5MM if he makes the big league roster. Chavez’s contract has $500K worth of incentives based on relief appearances and $1MM based on starts, Heyman adds.

Now 34 years of age, Chavez will return to the organization that gave him his first professional opportunity. Texas selected Chavez in the 42nd round of the 2002 draft — a round that no longer even exists in modern drafts — and the righty spend parts of four seasons in their system before being traded to the Pirates in the 2006 Kip Wells swap.

Chavez went on to make his big league debut with the 2008 Pirates, and he’s spent time with six additional big league organizations since that time (primarily with Oakland). Chavez’s 2017 season was spent with the division-rival Angels, for whom he pitched to a disappointing 5.35 ERA in 138 innings. Chavez managed respectable marks of 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 41.1 percent ground-ball rate, but like so many other pitchers throughout MLB was plagued by the long ball; in those 138 frames, he surrendered 28 big flies — good for a career-worst 1.83 HR/9 mark.

Texas has been aggressively stockpiling veteran arms on which to rely over the course of the season, adding Doug Fister on a low-cost MLB deal while also picking up Chavez, Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese and Edinson Volquez on minor league contracts. (Volquez’s deal was a two-year minor league deal, as he’ll miss 2018 recovering from August Tommy John surgery.)

The Rangers currently project to have Cole Hamels, Fister, Matt Moore, Mike Minor and Matt Bush in their rotation. There’s plenty of talent in that bunch, to be sure, as each has had big league success at various points. However, it’s a fairly uncertain group at present.

Hamels is coming off a down season in which he logged significant time on the DL, and Moore, too, is in need of a rebound after a dreadful showing with the 2017 Giants. Minor, meanwhile, will be returning to a rotation role for the first time in four years, and Bush has never worked as a starter. Fister posted promising peripherals in a tough AL East last year, but he hasn’t had a full season with above-average run prevention numbers since 2014. Given the uncertainty among that group, it makes sense for GM Jon Daniels and his staff to create a fairly large supporting cast of experienced arms to serve as insurance.

Chavez has extensive experience both as a starter and reliever, so he’ll add to that depth and can support the group either as a rotation option in the upper minors or perhaps as a swingman at the big league level. He has a career 4.69 ERA in 742 2/3 Major League innings and enjoyed a solid run from 2013-16, during which time he sported a 3.94 ERA and 3.85 FIP in 427 1/3 frames.

Players Added To The 40-Man Roster

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As detailed earlier this morning at MLBTR, the deadline for Major League clubs to add players to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from next month’s Rule 5 Draft is tonight. Because of that, there will be literally dozens of moves between now and 8pm ET as teams make final determinations on who to protect and who to risk losing in next month’s Rule 5 draft. This process will lead to smaller-scale trades, waiver claims and DFAs, but for some clubs the only necessary moves will simply be to select the contracts of the prospects they wish to place on the 40-man roster. We’ll track those such moves in this post…

Click to check in on other teams that have selected players to their 40-man rosters …

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Quick Hits: Cutch, Nats, Pirates, Crisp, Dodgers, Soler, Rangers

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Financial reasons played a key role in the Nationals’ offseason decision to trade for then-White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton instead of the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link). With his $4MM salary this year, Eaton is much cheaper than McCutchen ($14MM), and acquiring the latter would have forced the Nationals to jettison left-hander Gio Gonzalez and his $12MM price tag in a separate deal, says Rosenthal. In addition to having concerns over how their payroll would have looked with McCutchen, the Nationals had no interest in meeting Pittsburgh’s lofty demands for the five-time All-Star. Washington bought high on Eaton, whose excellent 2016 helped convinced the club to give up high-end pitching prospects Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning for him. McCutchen, on the other hand, had a career-worst season last year, yet the Pirates wanted an even more impressive package for him than the Nationals sent the White Sox, according to Rosenthal. Pittsburgh held out for both pitching prospects and major leaguers, leading the Nats to go in another direction.

More from around the sport:

  • Outfielder Coco Crisp said during the winter that he wasn’t ready to retire, and even though he still hasn’t landed a contract, the 37-year-old wants to continue playing, writes Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Crisp hasn’t been able to find work on the heels of a season in which he hit an underwhelming .231/.302/.397 with 13 home runs and 10 stolen bases in a combined 498 plate appearances with the Athletics and Indians. He was worse in the field, accounting for minus-10 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-11.1 Ultimate Zone Rating.
  • Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias “might” make his first big league start of 2017 in the coming week, manager Dave Roberts said Saturday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). Urias would step in for Alex Wood, who Gurnick notes would return to the bullpen after making a start in place of the injured Rich Hill on Friday. The 20-year-old Urias tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings and 93 pitches Friday with Triple-A Oklahoma. As for Hill, who has dealt with chronic blister issues since last year, he has “tinkered” with a new grip during his latest DL stint, per Roberts. Hill has also tried to cure his problems with pickle juice and rice, among other methods mentioned by Gurnick. It seems the 37-year-old has made progress in his recovery. “It’s toughened up for sure,” Hill said of the blister.
  • Jorge Soler is getting closer to making his Royals debut. The outfielder, on the shelf since March with an oblique injury, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha on Friday, relays Dave Sessions of MLB.com. The Royals are unsure when they’ll call up Soler, whom they acquired from the Cubs for closer Wade Davis over the winter. When Soler is healthy enough to return, his bat “could be a big boost,” manager Ned Yost said. Kansas City’s offense entered Saturday dead last in the majors in both runs and wRC+, so its lineup certainly needs a jolt.
  • Rangers minor league left-hander Joe Palumbo will undergo Tommy John surgery during the upcoming week, tweets TR Sullivan of MLB.com. Palumbo, one of the Rangers’ 10 best prospects, will now lose a year of development as a result of a torn ulnar collateral ligament. The 22-year-old was extremely impressive this season at the High-A level, where he recorded a 0.66 ERA, 14.49 K/9 and 2.63 BB/9 in 13 2/3 innings.

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