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Nationals Sign Josh Harrison

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12:57pm: The Nationals have announced the signing. Harrison will be in uniform for tonight’s game. Catcher Raudy Read was optioned to alternate camp to make space on the 30-man roster.

July 27, 10:15am: Harrison has passed his physical and Covid-19 tests, Heyman tweets. A formal announcement should be made by the team today.

July 25, 8:54pm: The Nats and Harrison have agreed to a contract, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.  The deal will become official once Harrison passes a physical.

10:52am: The Washington Nationals are closing in on a deal with Josh Harrison, tweets Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. The Nats had looked into Harrison before signing Brian Dozier ahead of the 2019 season (Twitter links). Moments before Dougherty’s post, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported that Harrison had multiple major-league offers in hand.

Harrison was only recently released from the Phillies after not making their Opening Day roster. The veteran infielder has primarily played second and third base in his career, but he’s a flexible defender who could see time in the outfield in a pinch as well.

Harrison has struggled to find his footing since his best years with the Pirates. After signing a $2MM deal with the Tigers last offseason, a partially torn hamstring ended his season in late May, leading to his release in August. Harrison appeared in only 36 games with the Tigers, slashing a tough-to-stomach .175/.218/.263. The 33-year-old still owns a career triple-slash of .273/.313/.401 over nine seasons.

The Nationals have their infield minutes fairly well accounted for between Starlin Castro, Asdrubal Cabrera, Trea Turner, Howie Kendrick, Eric Thames, and Carter Kieboom. The organization was shook by Juan Soto’s positive coronavirus test on Opening Day, per Dougherty, and this move could be as simple as the Nats wanting to protect themselves againast an uncertain playing environment. They’ve been bit by a lack of depth in the past, and while Harrison isn’t the type of ballplayer likely to invigorate a fanbase, he’s a veteran who might be more capable than a rookie of handling the dynamic playing conditions of 2020.

Multiple Teams Reportedly Interested In Josh Harrison

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Infielder Josh Harrison returned to the free-agent market when the Phillies released him Tuesday, but he may not be without a team for long. The Braves, Reds, Yankees and Rangers have all shown interest in Harrison, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

If Harrison does land another contract, it’s likely to be a minor league deal, as his pact with the Phillies was. Now 33 years old, Harrison earned two All-Star trips as a Pirate from 2011-18, but his production in Pittsburgh plummeted during his final season with the club and continued to decline in Detroit in an injury-shortened 2019 campaign. Harrison managed a horrid line of .175/.218/.263 (22 wRC+) in 147 plate appearances last year, leading the Tigers to release him in August despite handing him a guaranteed $2MM before the season.

At best, Harrison would likely be a bench option at second and third for any of the teams eyeing him. The Braves have Ozzie Albies at the keystone and Austin Riley at the hot corner. Harrison’s native Cincinnati boasts big-money offseason pickup Mike Moustakas at second and 49-home run man Eugenio Suarez at third. Meanwhile, the Yankees look to be in good shape at the two positions with DJ LeMahieu (who should soon return after a coronavirus-caused absence) and Gio Urshela/Miguel Andujar. So, Texas could arguably present the best opportunity for Harrison, considering second baseman’s Rougned Odor’s immense struggles in 2019 and the lack of a clear solution at third.

Josh Harrison Granted His Release By Phillies

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The Phillies announced Tuesday evening that veteran infielder/outfielder Josh Harrison requested and was granted his release. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.

Harrison, 32, was a fixture in the Pirates’ lineup from 2014-17, hitting a combined .290/.331/.428 with 37 homer and 59 steals in 2063 plate appearances. He bounced all over the diamond, lining up at third base, second base, shortstop and both outfield corners. The versatile Harrison twice made the All-Star team in that stretch and was even rewarded by the Bucs with a four-year, $27.3MM extension back in 2015.

Things began to go downhill for Harrison in 2018, when he sustained his second fractured hand in as many months of play. Harrison broke his left hand and missed the final month of the 2017 season, and he broke the same hand early in 2018 when he was hit by a Jose Urena fastball. Upon returning, Harrison slumped to a .250/.293/.363 line. His 2019 option was bought out by the Pirates, and he lingered in free agency for much of the winter before signing a one-year, $2MM deal with the Tigers. Hamstring issues limited him in Detroit, and his time with the Tigers resulted in a career-worst .175/.218/.263 slash in just 140 plate appearances.

With the Phillies, Harrison had been vying for a utility job, although he was part of a crowded competition. The Phillies also inked veterans Neil Walker, Logan Forsythe, Phil Gosselin, Ronald Torreyes and T.J. Rivera to minor league contracts with invitations to camp. Of that bunch, Walker has already been informed he’ll make the Opening Day roster. Forsythe was released earlier this week, and Rivera was cut loose in late May. Gosselin and Torreyes remain with the team in hopes of securing an Opening Day roster spot.

NL East Notes: Harrison, Braves, Nationals

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Josh Harrison received interest from multiple teams before signing his minor league deal with the Phillies yesterday, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link) that the Mets were the runners-up in the race for the veteran infielder.  Given that Cesar Hernandez has been widely tabbed as a non-tender candidate, Harrison would seemingly have a smoother path to possible playing time at second base in Philadelphia, whereas Robinson Cano, Jeff McNeil, and Jed Lowrie could all be ahead of Harrison on the depth chart in Queens.  Despite the seeming glut of infield talent, it isn’t surprising that the Mets were on the lookout for more depth given that Cano battled both injuries and a downturn in performance in 2019, while Lowrie spent most of the year on the injured list.

More from around the NL East….

  • While the Braves have been the winter’s busiest team thus far, their “offseason will rise/fall on [Josh] Donaldson’s decision,” Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution opines.  Missing out on Donaldson would leave the team with a big hole in the lineup, and one that couldn’t be entirely filled by another third base addition like Mike Moustakas.  As Bradley puts it, “Moustakas is a good player. Donaldson and [Anthony] Rendon are great players.”  This take is perhaps rather dismissive of Moustakas’ abilities, as while Donaldson is the better player, there is some upside to inking a lesser third base option — for instance, Atlanta could sign Moustakas and a starting pitcher for the same price it would take to land just Donaldson.  While it remains to be seen if Donaldson will be re-signed, Bradley notes that the Braves’ early flurry of signings has quieted some critics who felt the team wasn’t prepared to spend to reinforce its NL East-winning roster.
  • The Braves’ quick pace wasn’t by design, however, as GM Alex Anthopoulos tells The Athletic’s Jayson Stark (subscription required).  “I’m not in a position to forecast what the rest of our offseason is going to look like because what we’ve done so far was really just circumstance.  It just happened to come together the way it did,” Anthopoulos said, noting that the deals with Chris Martin, Darren O’Day, Nick Markakis, and Tyler Flowers were aided by the fact that all four players were already with Atlanta in 2019.  As a result, Stark writes that fans might be disappointed if they think Atlanta’s moves or the White Sox moving quickly to sign Yasmani Grandal could signal a busier hot stove season for all 30 teams rather than the slow-moving winters of the last two years.
  • Relief pitching looks to be a clear need for the Nationals this offseason…or is it?  As Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post observes, the Nats’ early acquisitions of Trevor Rosenthal and Kyle Barraclough last winter ended up as disasters, and the club ended up more or less entirely remaking their bullpen by season’s end.  With this in mind, the Nationals might aim lower in picking up any new relievers this offseason because, since relief pitching performance is so hard to predict from year to year, the club might prefer to save such acquisitions for closer to the trade deadline.  GM Mike Rizzo “prefers to assess relievers in-season, with fresh data and video to parse through,” Dougherty writes.

Phillies Sign Josh Harrison

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The Phillies have signed infielder Josh Harrison to a minor league contract and invited him to Spring Training, per a team announcement. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman had recently reported that the MSM Sports client was weighing minor league interest from as many as five clubs (Twitter link).

A two-time All-Star with the Pirates, Harrison spent the 2019 season with the Tigers after signing a one-year pact to serve as their primary second baseman. However, the deal didn’t pan out, as shoulder and hamstring injuries combined to limit the versatile Harrison to just 36 games, during which time he batted .175/.218/.263.

Last year’s lost season notwithstanding, the 32-year-old Harrison isn’t far removed from a productive four-year run as a key contributor with the Pirates. From 2014-17, he batted a combined .290/.331/.428 with 37 homers, 118 doubles, 17 triples and 59 stolen bases while playing second base, third base, shortstop and the outfield corners.

Pirates Season Marked By Conflict On-Field And Off

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Last night’s walkoff victory against the reeling Cubs aside, the Pirates are mired in a deep funk. They started the second half in free fall, going 6-25 as they’ve dipped from the fringes of the playoff race to (at one point) twenty games under .500. The Pirates have been involved in multiple on-field conflicts, with manager Clint Hurdle stealing focus as he spars with other managers within the NL Central. Hurdle has a well-known strategic proclivity towards pitching up and in – with which certain managers haven taken issue when Pirates hurlers struggle with their command. As a team, they rank 24th out of 30 in BB/9 with a team average of 3.58 BB/9.

Perhaps more worrying to the organization, in-fighting has become a hallmark of this Pirates squad, per The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel. Mercurial reliever Keone Kela is the source of at least some of the conflict. Kela not only inspired the trade deadline fracas with the Reds by throwing behind Derek Dietrich, but he also took a two-game suspension earlier this season for his part in a clubhouse altercation with performance coach Hector Morales. The Buccos explored trading Kela, but ultimately failed to find a suitable deal, and it’s safe to wonder whether his trade worth took a hit, either from recent suspensions, injury history, or a reputation as a difficult clubhouse personality.

On the field, Kela missed too much time to raise his stock, returning from the injured list for just four appearances before the deadline. That put him at 18 appearances on the season with a 3.45 ERA and 17 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings. Fine numbers not far off from Kela’s career norms, but clearly not compelling enough to drive significant trade interest.

Only a week after Kela’s incident, bullpen coach Euclides Rojas drove a pre-game on-field dust-up with reliever Kyle Crick. The incident nearly turned physical before the two men were pulled apart. Crick had been publicly bemoaning perceived preferential treatment given to closer Felipe Vazquez by the coaching staff.

Birtempfel notes that the clubhouse lacks the veteran leadership provided over the years by vets like A.J. Burnett, David Freese, Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen, or more recently from Jameson Taillon and Francisco Cervelli, who have been absent due to injuries.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom for the Pirates, however, as Crick insists there’s a growing camaraderie among this exceptionally young group of Pirates players.

The depth of conflict reported here certainly pulls back the curtain a touch further than usual. Not necessarily evidenced here, however, is the Pirates clubhouse being any more or less destructive than a typical clubhouse enduring a tough stretch on the field. Fangraphs Ben Clemens recently wrote this of the 5-24 stretch that opened the Pirates’ second half:

“Think of it this way: the worst team in baseball since World War II, by winning percentage, was the expansion New York Mets of 1962. They were cover-your-eyes awful, going 40-120, a .250 winning percentage. Let’s assume, despite its absurdity, that the Pirates suddenly transformed to a team with a .250 winning percentage overnight. Their odds of going 5-24 or worse over a 29-game stretch would still only be 23%. Even the worst team in baseball history, in other words, would be unlikely to look this bad over a month of play.”

Any clubhouse might struggle with a degree of in-fighting while losing at that rate. Still, the Pirates seem more combative than your average team. Hurdle seems to set the tone there, and though the team could very well emerge from this season more galvanized as a unit, it’s a troubling environment in which to see the indoctrination of young stars like Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller.

Tigers Release Josh Harrison, Sandy Baez

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The Tigers have granted unconditional releases to infielder Josh Harrison and right-hander Sandy Baez, per a team announcement. The club also made the previously reported promotion of righty Edwin Jackson official.

This marks the end of a tough Tigers tenure for Harrison, a former Pirate who joined Detroit on a $2MM guarantee in free agency last winter. Harrison, who underwent surgery on a partially torn hamstring in June, hasn’t played since May 27. The 32-year-old was a capable hitter for most of his Pirates stint, but he only managed a .176/.219/.265 line with one home run in 146 plate appearances as a Tiger.

Baez, 25, was once a promising prospect. He topped out as Baseball America’s 13th-ranked Tigers farmhand after the 2016 season. He threw 15 1/3 innings with the Tigers from 2018-19, but only one of those frames came this year – a season in which he has dealt with injuries. Baez debuted at the Triple-A level this year and posted a 7.36 ERA with 7.36 K/9 and 5.73 BB/9 in 22 innings.

AL Injury Notes: Tigers, Maybin, Lucroy

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The Tigers had a bit of a good news/bad news day in regards to some currently injured players. Gargantuan catcher Grayson Greiner has reportedly suffered a setback in his recovery process, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. Sidelined with a lower back injury since June 13th, Greiner experienced a “flare up” in that region during a rehab game with High-A Lakeland. Apparently, subsequent tests have revealed a deeper issue: “They took a scan and saw something,” said Tigers skipper Ron Gardenhire. “Not a break, but a stress area, so they’ve immobilized it.” Greiner has been shut down from all baseball activities for the moment, so catching duties will continue to be split between John Hicks and Bobby Wilson, while a potential call-up of prospect Jake Rogers still looms in the offing.

In more positive Motor City news, Gardenhire revealed in McCosky’s report that second sacker Josh Harrison (hamstring) is nearing a rehab assignment, with the club eyeing a return at the end of July.

More injury check-ins from around the junior circuit…

  • Well-traveled Yankees outfielder Cameron Maybin has already had an eventful season thus far in 2019. After being cut by the Giants in the wake of a mid-spring DUI arrest and subsequently bouncing to the Indians Triple-A affiliate, Maybin was acquired by an injury-stricken Bombers team that was in sore need of outfield reinforcement. Though he provided superlative offensive performance in his first 42 games in pinstripes (138 wRC+), he hasn’t appeared in a game since suffering a calf injury on June 21st. According to Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News, though, Maybin was running and participating in drills at Yankee Stadium today before the team’s game against the Blue Jays. No word has been given on a rehab date or possible return timeline for Maybin, but the club would certainly welcome back another outfield option given the current status of slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
  • Of course, no team has had a more eventful or emotional season thus far than the Angels. The tragic death of Tyler Skaggs–to say nothing of Friday night’s combined no-hitter dedicated to his memory–would seem to overshadow any baseball-related news story in a given season. However, for a moment, last Sunday’s homeplate collision between Jake Marisnick and Jonathan Lucroy was perhaps the most hot-button topic in sports. “The last thing I remember, I was kind of inching my way up the line and reaching for the baseball,” Lucroy said in a report by the Los Angeles Times’ Mike DiGiovanna. “The first thing I remember after that is when they put me on the golf cart. He knocked me out.” The report goes on to mention that Marisnick–who is appealing a two-game suspension in connection with the collision–texted an apology to Lucroy last week. Lucroy, fortunately, doesn’t expect to be sidelined by his resultant injuries for “too long.”

How Many Trade Chips Do The Tigers Actually Have?

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In case you haven’t noticed, the Tigers are rebuilding. General manager Al Avila has spoken often in the past about the need to build toward a better tomorrow, and he was frank during Spring Training about Nicholas Castellanos’ trade candidacy. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi wrote today that the Tigers are willing to listen on veteran players, but that’s already a well-known fact — not exactly a new revelation.

The greater question is: just how many appealing pieces do the Tigers even possess? Morosi lists the usual suspects, citing Castellanos, Matthew Boyd and Shane Greene as potentially movable assets. Beyond that trio, appeal in Detroit veterans will be limited.

Most of the one-year signees the Tigers added over the winter have minimal value because they’re on the injured list and/or performing poorly. Josh Harrison underwent hamstring surgery this month and didn’t hit when healthy. His double-play partner, Jordy Mercer, is on the IL for the second time and has turned in the worst offensive rates of his career in the 19 games he’s managed to play. Tyson Ross is out indefinitely. Matt Moore looked great for two starts… before he had season-ending knee surgery. Jordan Zimmermann’s contract has looked impossible to move since 2016, and now he has a UCL injury (though he’s trying to pitch through it). Miguel Cabrera? No one was touching that contract even before the Tigers announced the “chronic changes” to his knee that will impact the rest of Cabrera’s career. Aside from Greene, the bullpen’s numbers aren’t especially impressive.

Detroit does have a pair of somewhat interesting, relatively young options it could market in addition to Boyd, Greene and Castellanos, although neither is anywhere near free agency.

Super-utilityman Niko Goodrum has played all four infield positions and all three outfield slots since the Tigers picked him up as a minor league free agent in the 2017-18 offseason. In 740 plate appearances as a Tiger, Goodrum has batted .241/.315/.419 with 22 homers and 16 steals. This season, his average exit velocity (89.3 mph) is in the 77th percentile, while his average sprint speed is in the 93rd percentile of MLB players, per Statcast. In some respects, he’s like Detroit’s version of Marwin Gonzalez — albeit with a lesser overall track record. He’s controlled for four years beyond 2019, so there’s no urgency to move him, but teams looking for a versatile upgrade on the bench could look at Goodrum as an intriguing possibility.

In the outfield, Detroit has seen JaCoby Jones explode at the plate recently. On May 4, the 27-year-old Jones’ OPS sat at a lowly .413. In 127 plate appearances since that time, he’s mashed to the tune of a .315/.389/.595 slash with 16 extra-base hits (eight doubles, a triple, seven homers) and a perfect 5-for-5 in the stolen base column. He’s had his share of BABIP luck, but Jones’ K/BB numbers have improved over that stretch as well. Contact seems like it’ll always be an issue, but there’s a fairly interesting blend of power and speed with Jones. Stastcast puts him in elite company (93rd percentile) both in hard-hit rate and average exit velocity. He’s in the 81st percentile in terms of sprint speed.

Defensively, Jones was excellent in 2018 (10 DRS, +6.1 UZR, 7 Outs Above Average), but those same metrics have soured on his center field glovework in 2019 (-7, -6.4 and 0, respectively). Like Goodrum, he’s controllable through 2023. I don’t know that teams are going to line up to acquire Jones based on what amounts to five weeks of strong offensive output, but he’s at least worth monitoring over the next several weeks. There aren’t going to be too many appealing center fielders on the trade market, after all.

As for the three most logical chips — Boyd, Greene and Castellanos — they’ll face varying levels of interest. Boyd is appealing to any club within a stone’s throw of contending, as he’s in the midst of what looks to be a legitimate breakout season. The 28-year-old is controlled through 2022 and has thus far pitched to a 3.08 ERA with 11.2 K/9 against 1.6 BB/9. Fielding-independent metrics are buying him as a breakout star (2.91 FIP, 3.20 SIERA), and only five qualified pitchers have a better K-BB% than Boyd’s 26.2 percent mark. The cost to acquire him should be enormous, given the time he’s still controlled.

Greene won’t carry as high a price tag, given that he’s controlled through 2020. But he’s sitting on a 1.00 ERA with career-best marks in strikeout percentage (27.4 percent), walk percentage (6.6 percent) and ground-ball rate (52.2 percent). He’s unequivocally elevated his stock in 2019, making the Tigers’ decision not to move him at last year’s deadline look wise. Like Boyd, Greene is appealing to any contender.

Castellanos, meanwhile, faces a less robust market. Defensive metrics suggest he’s improved in right field but is still below average there. More concerning is the fact that Castellanos hasn’t hit that much in 2019. His 21 doubles lead the AL, but his overall .263/.315/.454 slash is roughly league average, per OPS+ and wRC+, and he’s on pace for fewer home runs than last year’s 23. Casteallnos has seen his line-drive rate dip by more than seven percent, and his hard-hit rate has fallen off a bit as well. Corner bat rentals never yield all that great a return these days — as the Tigers learned in trading J.D. Martinez two years ago — and Castellanos’ downturn in production won’t help the team’s cause. There’s certainly time for a rebound, but it’s tough to see Castellanos fetching a sizable return even if his bat wakes up in the next few weeks.

The general expectation is that the Tigers will continue their tear-down this summer, but the pieces they have to market, in the end, aren’t that plentiful. Greene seems like a lock to be moved for a decent haul, and because Castellanos isn’t playing like a qualifying offer candidate, it’s probably best to move him even if the return is modest. But the Tigers’ best asset, Boyd, is controlled for three more years and the only other somewhat interesting pieces are controlled even longer. If the team doesn’t move Boyd between now and July 31, the summer market might not boost the Tigers’ farm as much as fans would hope.

Tigers Select Carlos Torres’ Contract

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TODAY: Torres has officially been added to Detroit’s roster, as per a team announcement.  Reininger was optioned to Triple-A, while Josh Harrison was moved to the 60-day IL to create a 40-man roster spot.  Harrison hasn’t played since May 27, and is facing a six-to-eight week absence due to hamstring surgery.

SATURDAY: The Tigers are set to select right-hander Carlos Torres’ contract from Triple-A Toledo, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets. The team will option fellow righty Zac Reininger to create a 25-man spot for Torres, but it’ll also need to make a corresponding 40-man move.

Sunday will mark the two-week anniversary since Torres joined the Tigers on a minor league deal. Since then, the 36-year-old has pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings at the Triple-A level with five hits allowed and three strikeouts against no walks. Torres previously notched respectable numbers as a member of the Padres’ Triple-A club, with which he logged a 2.49 ERA/4.18 FIP with 8.17 K/9, 3.55 BB/9 and a 50.7 percent groundball rate over 25 1/3 frames. Torres exited the organization when he opted out of his minors pact May 15.

A 15th-round pick of the White Sox in 2004, Torres has seen MLB action in every season but 2011 since he debuted in 2009. Torres owns a 4.04 ERA/4.21 FIP with 7.89 K/9, 3.43 BB/9 and a 44.4 percent grounder mark in a combined 500 2/3 innings with the ChiSox, Rockies, Mets, Brewers and Nationals.

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