AL Notes: King Felix, Tigers, Angels, Richards
Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez‘s contract expires after next season, but he doesn’t expect it to be his last deal. “Oh yeah, I’ve got more years to play. I’m not going to retire,” Hernandez told Jon Heyman of Fancred, adding that he has an affinity for Seattle and would like to continue his career in the only major league city he has ever called home. Whether the Mariners feel similarly is up in the air, as Hernandez has fallen off in recent seasons since inking a seven-year, $175MM extension prior to the 2014 campaign. Hernandez was among the game’s best starters then, but he’s now sporting a career-worst 5.11 ERA over 100 1/3 innings in his age-32 season.
More on a couple other AL teams:
- Tigers center fielder Leonys Martin is headed to the 10-day disabled list, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets. Martin departed Detroit’s game on Sunday with a left hamstring cramp – a similar injury to the one that sent him to the DL in early May. Hamstring troubles aside, Martin has been a solid contributor for the Tigers this year, having hit .257/.327/.431 with nine home runs and 2.2 fWAR over 303 plate appearances. The 30-year-old looks like a logical trade candidate as a result, as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote this week, but that’s up in the air given Martin’s health issues.
- Injured right-hander Garrett Richards could return to the Angels’ rotation as early as Wednesday, per Ian Quillen of MLB.com. Richards went to the DL on June 15 with a left hamstring strain, and he’s among a slew of injured Angels pitchers who are currently on the shelf. Thanks in part to their host of injuries, the Halos are amid a slide in which they’ve fallen to 11 1/2 games behind AL West-leading Houston and 10 1/2 back of a wild-card spot. The 30-year-old Richards, a pending free agent, did his best to keep the Halos in the hunt before going on the DL, as he recorded a 3.42 ERA with 10.27 K/9, 4.21 BB/9 and a 50 percent groundball rate over 68 1/3 innings.
- Although 39-year-old Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez is struggling, the fact that this may be his last season means manager Ron Gardenhire will continue to give him opportunities (via Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). “We all know what’s going on with him. It’s the last year of his contract,” Gardenhire said. “Right now he feels really good, he’s feeling great, so we’re letting him play. We’ll get him more breaks as we go along. But like I said, if this is his swan song, or whatever you want to call it, I’m going to make sure he gets as many opportunities as he needs here as we go along. Hopefully he’ll keep having quality at-bats.” While Martinez has been an offensive standout for most of his career, he’s now in the throes of his third subpar season in the past four years, having batted a meager .238/.293/.321 with the majors’ fifth-worst ISO (.083) in 290 trips to the plate. He’s in the final season of a four-year, $68MM deal.
West Notes: Beltre, Rangers, Ohtani, Giants, Buehler
Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre spoke about his future Saturday, telling Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and other reporters that he’s unsure if he’ll return in 2019. But if Beltre does come back for what would be his age-40 season, the impending free agent only wants to play for the Rangers. “If I’m going to play next year, I want it to be here,” Beltre said. “Right now, that’s a big if. But, if I play, I think I owe it to these fans. And I want to retire as a Ranger.” The Rangers seem open to welcoming back Beltre if he continues playing, as general manager Jon Daniels said that “having him finish his career here would be an honor.” In the meantime, it’s possible Beltre will finish this season on a playoff contender if Daniels trades him. However, given that Beltre has 10-and-5 rights, he could stand in the way of a deal.
- Angels star Shohei Ohtani took part in a simulated game consisting of 10 at-bats on Saturday, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. “It all went well. It’s definitely a positive step for him,” said manager Mike Scioscia, leading Fletcher to posit that Ohtani could be within a week of returning if he doesn’t suffer any setbacks. Damage in Ohtani’s ulnar collateral ligament has kept the two-way standout off the field since early June, and he might not pitch again this season as a result. It appears the 23-year-old rookie will factor into the Angels’ offense again in 2018, though, and that would be a boon for the club. Before going on the DL on June 8, Ohtani slashed an excellent .289/.372/.535 with six home runs in 129 plate appearances.
- As the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline approaches, staying under the $197MM competitive-balance tax figure is “a target, not a mandate” for the Giants, according to general manager Bobby Evans (via John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle). At the moment, the Giants are under the threshold, per Evans. If they stay under it through the end of the season, the Giants would lower their tax rate from 50 percent to 20 percent in time for the offseason, when rumored target Bryce Harper is scheduled to be among the majors’ available free agents. Indeed, “there are a lot of incentives to stay below it,” Evans added. But it could be difficult, Shea explains, especially if the Giants remain in playoff contention around the deadline. They entered Saturday at 43-40, putting them just 1 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot.
- Dodgers rookie righty Walker Buehler had worked exclusively as a starter this year until Thursday, when he came out of the bullpen in his return from the disabled list. That outing – Buehler’s first with the Dodgers since June 8 – didn’t go well, and after yielding five earned runs over an inning against the Cubs, LA optioned him to the Single-A level on Friday. Now, Buehler will have to make a minimum of two minor league rehab starts before returning to the Dodgers’ rotation, manager Dave Roberts told reporters, including Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. The Dodgers’ plan was for Buehler to work three innings Thursday in lieu of a rehab assignment, but that blew up in their faces.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/30/18
The latest minor moves from around baseball:
- The Nationals opened up a spot on their 40-man roster Saturday by transferring first baseman Ryan Zimmerman from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day DL. The club made the move to create 40-man room for catcher prospect Raudy Read, whom it reinstated from the restricted list after he served an 80-game suspension. Zimmerman has already been on the DL for nearly two months (since May 10) on account of a strained right oblique, though there’s hope he’ll return in the near future, per Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. He’ll be eligible to rejoin the Nats on July 9.
- The Angels have acquired catcher Joe Hudson from the Reds for cash, per an announcement from Cincinnati. Hudson had been with the Reds since they chose him in the sixth round of the 2012 draft. Now 27, Hudson has seen his first Triple-A action this year and hit .235/.339/.294 in 60 plate appearances.
John Lamb To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Angels southpaw John Lamb will undergo Tommy John surgery after an MRI revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, according to a team media release. Lamb just hit the disabled list a few days ago due to shoulder and elbow inflammation.
Lamb signed a minor league deal with Los Angeles in the 2016-17 offseason and made three starts for the team this year, which represented his first taste of MLB action since pitching for the Reds in 2016. Lamb was solid in his first outing but struggled in his next two starts, and he’ll end the year with an ugly 7.20 ERA and four homers allowed over just 10 innings pitched.
The surgery represents the latest setback for Lamb in a career that has been marked by injuries and off-the-field issues. Considered one of the game’s top pitching prospects in his early days in the Royals’ farm system, Lamb was never quite the same after undergoing his first Tommy John procedure in 2011. He has also battled back injuries and served a 50-game suspension last season after testing positive for a drug of abuse. Over 129 2/3 career innings with the Reds and Angels, Lamb has a 6.25 ERA, 8.8 K/9, and 3.25 K/BB rate, with the long ball being a consistent problem (1.8 HR/9) for the left-hander.
The Angels have been ravaged by pitching injuries over the last few seasons, and Lamb is now the fourth Halos pitcher (after J.C. Ramirez, Keynan Middleton, and Blake Wood) to require Tommy John surgery in the last two-plus months. Jake Jewell is also gone for the season after undergoing right fibula surgery, while Matt Shoemaker could potentially miss the rest of the year after he needed to go under the knife to fix a split tendon in his forearm. All told, Anaheim currently has a whopping 11 pitchers on its disabled list, including front-of-the-rotation names like Garrett Richards and Shohei Ohtani (though Ohtani may be close to a return as a hitter, if not yet as a pitcher as the team continues to monitor his UCL sprain.)
Zack Cozart Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery
TODAY: Cozart underwent the surgery, the Angels announced. The procedure carries a recovery timetable of 6-8 months, so Cozart will indeed miss the rest of the season and could miss some Spring Training time if his rehab is on the longer end of the spectrum.
WEDNESDAY: The Angels announced tonight that infielder Zack Cozart has been diagnosed with a torn labrum in his left shoulder that will require surgical repair. The Angels didn’t provide a timetable for his return, though it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to recover in time to return in 2018.
Cozart, 32, signed a three-year, $38MM contract with the Angels to serve as their everyday third baseman this past offseason. However, after a strong start to the season, he faded badly, hitting just .184/.287/.224 in his final 27 games before landing on the disabled list on June 15. Given today’s medical update, it seems quite likely that his first season with the Halos will come to a close with an overall .219/.296/.362 batting line.
It’s the latest in a staggeringly long line of injuries for an Angels club that now has an incredible 13 players on its Major League disabled list. Beyond Cozart, key players including Shohei Ohtani, Garrett Richards, Matt Shoemaker, Nick Tropeano and Keynan Middleton are all on the shelf at present.
[Related: Los Angeles Angels depth chart]
Rookie David Fletcher and veteran Luis Valbuena have been sharing the workload at third base since Cozart landed on the disabled list, though Valbuena is in the midst of his worst offensive season since 2012. Fletcher was on an otherworldly tear in Triple-A before his call to the Majors and has hit well in a tiny sample of 24 plate appearances. Certainly, the Angels could elect to stick with that pair for the remainder of the season, but the loss of Cozart also presents GM Billy Eppler and his staff with the possibility of acquiring a short-term upgrade at the hot corner at a time when the market figures to be flush with options.
Manny Machado, of course, is the biggest name on the trade market who fits that bill, but there will surely be others on the table. Mike Moustakas is already available, and it stands to reason that the Mets would be willing to part with either Todd Frazier or Asdrubal Cabrera. Adrian Beltre stands out as yet another intriguing possibility, as the Rangers are reportedly open to dealing the future Hall of Famer, who is a free agent at season’s end. Old friend David Freese, too, could emerge as a trade candidate next month, depending on the Pirates’ play.
At a certain point, however, it’s worth wondering if the Angels will even function as buyers on the summer trade market. The Halos are 4-11 in their past 15 games and have fallen to fourth place in the AL West, currently sitting a likely insurmountable 12 games back of the Astros. The Wild Card prospects are a bit better for the Halos, as they’re “only” eight games out of that race. That said, with injuries mounting and a tough schedule ahead — they have two series against the Mariners and Dodgers each before the All-Star break — it shouldn’t necessarily be considered a lock that the Angels will be in position to be adding pieces a month from now.
AL West Notes: Cruz, Athletics, Gallardo, Angels
Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz not only plans to keep playing in 2019, but Fancred Sports’ Jon Heyman reports that Cruz has hopes of landing a multi-year contract as a free agent this winter. Cruz will be an interesting test case within a market that has been increasingly unkind to veteran bat-only players over the last two offseasons. He turns 38 tomorrow and his list of suitors is almost surely limited to American League teams since Cruz has become a full-time DH. On the plus side, Cruz is still hitting as well as ever, with 21 homers and a .273/.358/.569 slash line through 288 PA. Teams are increasingly preferring to rotate several players through their DH spot rather than employ a full-time designated hitter, though Cruz’s production has been so excellent in recent years that you’d think at least a couple of clubs would be willing to trade lineup versatility for a big bat.
Some more from around the AL West…
- The Athletics are getting calls about their relievers, as a scout tells Peter Gammons (Twitter link) that Blake Treinen, Lou Trivino, and Ryan Buchter have all drawn interest from multiple teams. Treinen has been mentioned as a potential trade chip, though Gammons says that Oakland has declined all offers for the closer. Treinen has two more years of control remaining via arbitration, while Buchter has three and Trivino only made his MLB debut this season. The A’s would surely need quite a bit to part with any of the trio, though a trade isn’t out of the question if the team is considering buying at the deadline. The A’s still have a big deficit to make up in both the AL West and wild card races, though an 11-2 run in their last 13 games has given them an impressive 45-38 record.
- With the Rangers facing a lot of uncertainty with their starting rotation in 2019, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram suggests that Yovani Gallardo could potentially return to the team next season. Gallardo hasn’t shown much in three starts for Texas, though he would likely be a low-cost signing in the offseason and would give the Rangers some veteran depth as they juggle their various pitching options going forward.
- While the Angels‘ farm system is usually rated around the middle of the pack in most organization rankings, this represents a major improvement from just a couple of years ago, when the prospect-starved Halos were considered to have one of the worst collections of minor league talent of any team in recent memory. The Athletic’s Steve Dilbeck (subscription required) looks at how the Angels have rebuilt their player development system under GM Billy Eppler, with a particular organization-wide focus on finding athletic players. “You’ve seen over the course of [Eppler’s] drafts a very common thread,” Angels director of scouting Matt Swanson said. “Athleticism and not being afraid of high upside players and understanding that we can bring guys in and get them bigger, faster and stronger.”
Angels Righty Jake Jewell Diagnosed With Fractured Fibula
Angels reliever Jake Jewell has been diagnosed with a fractured right fibula, the team announced and MLB.com’s Maria Guardado was among those to report (Twitter links). He will require season-ending surgery.
Jewell suffered the injury on a play at the plate last night. The images left little doubt that he was seriously hurt, with a cart removing him from the diamond. At this point, his long-term outlook is not clear, though hopefully he’ll be able to rest and rehab over the winter and return to full strength next spring.
Certainly, that’s not how anyone would have wished Jewell’s third MLB outing would end. The 25-year-old, a former fifth-round draft pick, had only just ascended to the big leagues to help fill out an increasingly thin Halos’ staff. Now, he’s the latest to go down with injury — in this case, in quite an unusual and unfortunate manner.
Jewell had never even pitched at Triple-A when the 2018 season began. He quickly earned a promotion to the highest level of the minors, but had struggled there before moving to the bigs. In 25 frames at Triple-A, Jewell managed a 3.60 ERA but handed out 6.1 BB/9 to go with his 8.6 K/9 and 54.9% groundball rate. Jewell, who had previously been added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, did show a 97+ mph heater in his brief time in the majors.
Shohei Ohtani Cleared To Begin Hitting Program
After undergoing an MRI this morning, Shohei Ohtani has been cleared to begin a hitting program, the Angels announced today. He’ll be further evaluated in another three weeks, but tests today showed improvements in his ulnar collateral ligament (Twitter links via Joel Sherman of the New York Post). The Angels aren’t making a definitive call on whether he’ll be able to pitch again this season until that subsequent followup exam.
While Ohtani certainly isn’t entirely out of the woods just yet, it’s obviously an encouraging update for the Angels that the platelet-rich plasma and stem cell injections he received earlier this month have resulted in some meaningful improvement. Eppler indicated yesterday that if Ohtani were strictly a designated hitter, he’d likely have been cleared right away. That, coupled with today’s clearance, makes it seem likely that Ohtani will, at the very least, return to the Angels’ lineup at some point this summer — if not the rotation.
Ohtani was widely expected to be a superior pitcher than hitter, and many reports at the time of his signing cited scouts who remained skeptical of his ability to hit Major League pitching. While he’s only had 129 plate appearances to date, he’s looked every bit the part of someone talented enough to excel in both areas. Thus far in the Majors, Ohtani has raked at a .289/.372/.535 pace, clubbing six homers, eight doubles and a triple.
The Halos won’t send Ohtani on a traditional minor league rehab assignment, according to Eppler (via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, on Twitter). Instead, he’ll get his at-bats in via a series of simulated games and live BP sessions. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Ohtani could begin facing live pitching as soon as next week.
As with any UCL injury, speculation regarding potential surgery for Ohtani will abound. However, Eppler made sure to emphasize today that medical experts have not yet made that recommendation for Ohtani (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Maria Guardado). Said Eppler: “No doctor has told me that Shohei needs surgical intervention at this time.”
Latest On Shohei Ohtani
Angels GM Billy Eppler said today that he anticipates star pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani to return as a hitter regardless of his status on the mound, Jim Duquette of Sirius XM Radio tweets (with some audio available on Twitter as well). Ohtani, who had taken the majors by storm this year after coming over from Japan, was diagnosed earlier this month with a grade 2 sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Ohtani is set to be evaluated tomorrow after resting for several weeks following a platelet-rich plasma injection. But the medical review will not be necessary to determine his availability to resume hitting. As Eppler explains, if Ohtani “was only a DH … he would’ve been cleared right away.”
Rather, the focus at present is on ensuring that Ohtani has the best possible chance of returning to the mound without requiring Tommy John surgery. Whether or not he’ll even be able to try to accomplish that this season remains to be seen. But it seems there was a concern that allowing him to hit right away could jeopardize the ligament.
The point of the three-week layoff, per Eppler, was to make sure the area around the UCL “has plenty of time to scar and heal.” Presumably, that’s largely what will be assessed tomorrow.
Whatever the likelihood is of Ohtani returning to the bump in 2018, the Halos will surely be anxious to get his bat back in the lineup if possible. Since Ohtani went down, the Halos have gone just 5-11.
Angels Acquire Deck McGuire, Request Release Waivers On Juan Graterol
JUNE 24: The Angels have requested unconditional release waivers on Graterol, per a team announcement. His release will become official in 48 hours if he clears waivers.
JUNE 19: The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired right-hander Deck McGuire from the Rangers in exchange for cash. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, catcher Juan Graterol has been designated for assignment. McGuire will head to Triple-A Salt Lake, per the Angels’ announcement.
Texas claimed the 28-year-old McGuire from the Blue Jays last Friday, but he appeared in just one game with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate before being designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for the return of Elvis Andrus. Now, McGuire will change organizations for the second time in a span of less than a week.
A former first-round pick (11th overall by the Blue Jays in 2010), McGuire has yet to establish himself as a viable Major League arm. Prior to the 2018 season, in fact, he’s posted largely unsightful numbers at the Triple-A level. However, McGuire enjoyed a strong season with the Reds’ Double-A club in 2017 and carried that success with him back to the Jays organization in 2018, pitching to a 3.22 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 0.6 HR/9 and a 39.7 percent ground-ball rate in 44 2/3 innings at Triple-A Buffalo.
After making eight promising starts in Buffalo, the Jays summoned him to the Majors, where he was tagged for six runs on nine hits and five walks with seven strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of relief. But the Rangers and Angels, apparently, both saw enough in his work out of the Buffalo rotation to hold some interest in seeing if the former top prospect can emerge as a late bloomer at the big league level. For the Halos, McGuire will at the very least serve as a spot start/depth option in the upper minors — an important addition following injuries to Shohei Ohtani, Matt Shoemaker, J.C. Ramirez and Nick Tropeano.
Graterol, meanwhile, has made just one plate appearance for the Halos this season, going 1-for-1 with a single. He’s been up and down with the club on multiple occasions dating back to 2016, however, and has now been designated for assignment by the Angels on three different occasions. The first of those instances saw Graterol bounce around the league, briefly landing with the D-backs, Reds and Blue Jays before making his way back to Anaheim. The defensively-sound backstop is a career .222/.225/.283 hitter in 103 MLB plate appearances but carries a more encouraging .290/.318/.349 slash in 449 PAs at the Triple-A level.