Marlins Announce Numerous Roster Moves
As they prepare to resume play, the Marlins have announced a flurry of additions to the active roster (as covered on Twitter by reporters including Jordan MacPherson of the Miami Herald). Just who’ll move to the COVID-19 injured list remains to be seen.
Most of these players were picked up in the last week or so as the organization’s coronavirus outbreak unfolded. The Fish will select the contracts of righties Nick Vincent and Josh A. Smith, infielders Logan Forsythe and Eddy Alvarez, and catcher Ryan Lavarnway.
Also coming up are a host of other fill-ins that had already gone onto the 40-man roster. Outfielders Matt Joyce and Lewis Brinson are coming off of the injured list. Righties Justin Shafer, James Hoyt, and Mike Morin will join lefties Josh D. Smith, Richard Bleier, and Brian Moran in the bullpen.
Most notably, perhaps, are the additions of youngsters Jordan Yamamoto, Monte Harrison, and Jorge Guzman. Yamamoto had 15 solid starts in 2019 and will be looking to lock down a job for the foreseeable future. As for Harrison, a former top-100 prospect, it’ll be his first taste of the bigs. Guzman is a live-armed young hurler who’ll get his first look.
In other news from Miami, both president Derek Jeter and manager Don Mattingly pushed back on the prevailing narrative surrounding the team’s coronavirus issues. While the leaders acknowledged that some players may have let their guard down, they rejected any rumors that players had recklessly engaged in risky activities away from the ballpark.
Jeter also rejected the notion that the Marlins’ players had made their own decision to take the field against the Phillies after several players tested positive. He says the organization simply played a scheduled game and noted that the league and opposing team had full knowledge of the testing results.
Marlins Claim Brian Moran, Sign Brett Eibner
The Marlins announced they have claimed left-handed reliever Brian Moran off waivers from the Blue Jays. They’ve also purchased the contract of two-way player Brett Eibner from the Eastern Reyes del Tigre of the independent Constellation Energy League, per an announcement from the indy ball club. (Mark Berman of Fox 26 was first to report that agreement was close). They’re the latest additions to a pitching staff decimated by this week’s onslaught of positive COVID-19 tests.
The sidewinder Moran actually made his debut as a member of the Marlins last season. He worked 6.1 innings across ten games, leveraged heavily against left-handed batters (including his younger brother Colin, whom he struck out). While the elder Moran performed well both in Triple-A and in his brief MLB action, the Marlins outrighted him last fall. Moran signed a minor-league deal with the Jays over the offseason and made Toronto’s season-opening roster, but he only appeared in two games before they cut him loose.
Meanwhile, Eibner will return to affiliated ball for the first time since 2018. The onetime Royal and Dodger outfielder flirted with a two-way role toward the end of his L.A. tenure but was derailed by a Tommy John surgery. He’s stuck with playing both ways since his return, although he’s presumably being viewed as a primary pitcher in Miami. Eibner has not been added to the 40-man roster but seems likely to report to the club’s alternate training site. In 5.1 relief innings in indy ball this season, he’s struck out eight against one walk.
Marlins To Resume Season On Tuesday; Updates on Cardinals, Phillies
9:42AM: Yesterday’s testing of Phillies personnel revealed no new positive cases, according to a team press release.
TODAY, 9:04AM: For the second straight day, the group of Marlins players currently in Philadelphia haven’t had any positive COVID-19 test results, the Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson reports (Twitter link). The team is planning to head to Baltimore today in advance of Tuesday’s series opener.
AUGUST 1: Major League Baseball released a statement this afternoon providing updates on a number of clubs, including the Marlins, who have been out of action for the last week after a COVID-19 outbreak within the organization. As of now, Miami is set to resume its season on Tuesday with a four-game series against the Orioles in Baltimore, which will take place over three days and include a doubleheader. The Marlins will be the designated “home” team for two of those games.
MLB’s announcements, which also include the latest on the Cardinals and Phillies, can be found in their entirety here, courtesy of MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
For a second consecutive day, the scheduled Brewers-Cardinals matchup has been postponed. The decision comes after this morning yielded news that the Cardinals have several more positive tests on their hands. As of now, there’s no word on when the Cardinals can be expected to take the field again.
Meanwhile, the Phillies and Yankees will begin a four-game home-and-home series on Monday. The Phils were also sidelined this week after potential exposure to the coronavirus during last weekend’s series against the Marlins. However, it appears that Philadelphia has avoided the worst-case scenario, with MLB revealing that two of the three positive tests in the Phillies organization appear to have been false positives. No players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the team’s last contact with the Marlins on Sunday.
The proliferation of the virus within the Marlins organization has posed an early threat to MLB’s plans to conduct a baseball season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and the developing outbreak within the Cardinals could be similarly crucial to the outlook for the remaining two months of play.
These intra-team infections mean that the MLB schedule is fluid and evolving, with postponements forcing on-the-fly adjustments to the schedule. This can have a ripple effect throughout the league, as several other teams in MLB’s East division have been forced into schedule alterations despite maintaining comparatively good health. Health concerns notwithstanding, teams like the Phillies and Marlins might be faced with especially demanding schedules as they attempt to squeeze more games into a shorter time period for the remainder of the season.
Additionally, extended “break” periods like those endured by the Phillies and Marlins over the last week could interrupt players’ mojo during an already irregular season; whereas daily games allow players to establish a rhythm, a “stop-and-start” schedule means that players will be expected to jump right back into competitive games after several days off, perhaps akin to a team awaiting an opponent after handily winning a playoff series. We’ll have to see whether that produces any noticeable effects, and even then it will be an imprecise science, but it’s one of many difficult circumstances unique to the 2020 season.
Marlins Acquire Richard Bleier
AUGUST 1: In a corresponding roster move, the Orioles selected the contract of catcher Bryan Holaday, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com (via Twitter). Holaday becomes the third catcher on the O’s active roster, joining Pedro Severino and Chance Sisco.
JULY 31: The Orioles announced that they have traded left-hander Richard Bleier to the Marlins for a player to be named later.
For the Marlins, this is clearly an attempt to fill in a roster that has been decimated by the coronavirus. Miami has seen a whopping 18 players test positive for the illness, which has prevented the club from taking the field this week.
In Bleier, the Marlins are getting a 33-year-old Davie, Fla., native who has experienced his share of success in the majors. Despite a measly lifetime strikeout rate of 4.47 per nine and a sub-90 mph fastball, Bleier has managed a 2.99 ERA/3.74 FIP across 177 1/3 innings with the Yankees and Orioles since he debuted in 2016. Excellent walk and groundball rates of 1.47 and 62.4 percent, respectively, have enabled Bleier to prevent runs at such an impressive clip.
While Bleier logged a woeful 5.37 ERA over 55 1/3 frames a year ago, he gave the O’s three scoreless frames this season before the rebuilding club parted with him. Bleier’s on a prorated $915K salary this year and still has two more seasons of arbitration eligibility left.
Marlins Acquire James Hoyt
The Cleveland Indians have traded reliever James Hoyt to the Miami Marlins for cash considerations, per TribeInsider (via Twitter). Hoyt was designated for assignment on July 28th.
The Marlins continue their efforts to re-stock their pitching supply after more than half their active roster tested positive for coronavirus. They will need to field a big league roster as soon as Tuesday when they’re set to resume play. Basically, if there’s a pitcher with major league experience on waivers these days, chances are the Marlins will claim them. In the past week, they claimed Josh D. Smith and Justin Shafer from the Reds and Mike Morin from the Brewers. They also signed Pat Venditte and traded for Richard Bleier from the Orioles.
Hoyt pitched for the Astros from 2016 to 2018, making 66 appearances out of the pen across those three seasons. While he owned an unexceptional 4.40 ERA, a 3.84 FIP and 3.92 K/BB ratio suggested a better effort. He made just 8 appearances in his lone season with the Indians, serving primarily as organizational depth. In Triple-A, he continued to put up solid numbers (2.93 ERA, 3.50 K/BB across 30 2/3 innings).
While no spring chicken at the age of 33, Hoyt represents a solid low-cost option for the Marlins as they look to fill out their roster. For Hoyt, these are obviously not the conditions under which he would choose to break out as an MLB regular, but he nonetheless has the opportunity to do exactly that if he can provide Miami some stability out of the pen.
Angels Select Jose Rodriguez, Option Kyle Keller
The Los Angeles Angels announced a pair of roster moves after last night’s ballgame. Right-hander Kyle Keller has been optioned to their alternative training site. In his place, righty Jose Rodriguez has been selected to join the major-league roster.
Keller, 27, made two appearances this season, allowing 2 earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. He was acquired this past offseason from the Miami Marlins for Jose Estrada. Keller made his major-league debut with ten appearances last season. He has consistently put up more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings in the minor leagues since being selected in the 18th round of the 2015 draft. He’ll likely find his way back to the major-league roster at some point this season.
Rodriguez, 24, made 9 appearances for the Angels last season as a long man out of the pen (1 start), putting up a 2.75 ERA across 19 2/3 innings. Rodriguez has primarily been a starter in the minors, though it’s been a less-than-stellar last couple of seasons in the upper levels of the Angels’ system. He posted a 6.57 ERA across Double-A and Triple-A in 2019.
Marlins’ Isan Diaz Opts Out Of 2020 Season
Marlins infielder Isan Diaz has opted out of the 2020 season. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted yesterday that Diaz was considering such a decision, and the move became official last night when Miami placed Diaz on their restricted list. Diaz released a statement on his Instagram page:
“This has been a tough week to see so many of my teammates come down with the virus, and see how quickly it spreads. After much deliberation and thought, I have made the difficult choice of opting out for the remainder of the 2020 season. This has been a decision that I have discussed with my family, and I feel it’s the best one for me and my overall well-being. I will deeply miss my teammates and competing on the field. I wish my brothers the best and look forward to taking the field again with them soon!!”
Diaz is not one of the 18 Marlins players who have thus far tested positive for COVID-19. Given the widespread nature of the team’s outbreak, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if more Miami players joined Diaz in sitting out the 2020 campaign, though obviously circumstances and personal feelings are different for every individual.
With Nick Markakis choosing to end his opt-out and rejoin the Braves, that leaves 17 players who have decided to opt out of the 2020 season. Players who opt out for specific health-related seasons (such as Orioles righty Kohl Stewart, who has Type 1 diabetes) will still receive their full prorated salary and service time, while players without a personal health issue will forego their service time and remaining salary.
This is the case with Diaz, who is just his second year of Major League action. Ranked as a consensus top-100 prospect prior to the 2017 season, Diaz was one of the four prospects acquired by Miami in the blockbuster trade that sent Christian Yelich to the Brewers in January 2018. (This was already the second big trade of Diaz’s young career, as he came to the Brewers as part of the five-player swap that sent Jean Segura from Milwaukee to Arizona in January 2016.)
A .973 OPS in 435 Triple-A plate appearances in 2019 led to Diaz’s first MLB promotion last season, though he struggled in his first stint in the Show. Diaz hit only .173/.259/.307 over his first 201 PA for the Marlins, which could have been part of the reason why Miami acquired Jonathan Villar as its primary second baseman during the offseason. Since Villar is only under contract through the 2020 season, however, Diaz is still projected as Miami’s second baseman of the future.
Eighteenth Marlins Player Tests Positive For Covid-19
The Marlins have received yet another positive Covid-19 test among their players, bringing the total to an alarming 18 cases, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El ExtraBase reports (via Twitter). The Marlins also have two positive cases on their coaching/training staff, bringing the total to 20 members of the team’s traveling party.
In better news for the Marlins, veteran outfielder Matt Joyce, who missed all of Summer Camp, has tested negative and been cleared to join the team, per SportsGrid’s Craig Mish (Twitter link). To be clear, Joyce was not counted among the 18 positive Marlins cases that have emerged since Opening Day.
Miami’s entire alternate training site reportedly tested negatively recently, and they’ve added several new players via waivers and free agency as they look to offset the enormous toll that the Covid-19 outbreak has taken on their team. It’s troubling, though, that players continue to test positive even though it’s now been five days since the team completed its final game of the opening series against the Phillies. Presently, Miami is slated to resume play early next week, but it’s not clear if the continual positive tests will impact that.
Certainly, the risk of further spreading Covid-19 infections throughout the league is the primary concern, but there’s also the matter of the Marlins being able to field a Major League roster whenever they do seek to return to the field. The team has additional players in reserve at its alternate training site, but of the group that opened the season there, only four had Major League experience (Ryan Lavarnway, Travis Snider, Jordan Yamamoto and Josh A. Smith).
The Marlins have since claimed Mike Morin, Justin Shafer and Josh D. Smith off waivers in addition to signing Logan Forsythe and Pat Venditte. Their additions are crucial, as the Marlins opted to take a very young group to alternate camp for development purposes. A dozen players there are 22 years old or younger — many of them not particularly close to MLB ready. Joyce will presumably need some time to ramp up at their alternate site, but he’ll give the Fish a much-needed option in the relatively near future.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this week that the Marlins outbreak does not qualify as a “nightmare” scenario, although at that point, there were 11 known positives on the roster as opposed to the current 18. And while the positive tests since Opening Day had been confined to the Marlins until this morning, the Cardinals have now reportedly had a pair of players test positive as well, causing their scheduled game in Milwaukee to be postponed.
Marlins To Sign Pat Venditte
The Marlins have added switch-pitcher Pat Venditte on a minor-league deal, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports on Twitter. He had been with the organization during Spring Training.
Venditte, 35, has long been one of the game’s quirkiest players due to his ability to work off the mound with either arm, depending upon the handedness of the hitter. It’s more than a gimmick. He has done enough to warrant MLB stints with five teams over parts of four seasons.
While Venditte’s unique path to the majors is worthy of celebration, he has had a hard time carving out a permanent role. All told, he owns a 5.03 ERA in 68 innings at the game’s highest level. For the Marlins, who are dealing with a coronavirus outbreak that has covered half of the active roster, the key consideration is to pick up another experienced player who is capable of holding his own in the majors.
Additional Marlins Player Tests Positive For COVID-19
Another Marlins player has tested positive for COVID-19 infection, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). His identity is not known at this time.
It’s not altogether surprising to see additional positive tests arising, given the incubation period of the disease and multiple potential chains of transmission. In this case, Rosenthal says, contract tracing efforts had already identified the particular player as likely to have been exposed.
That doesn’t change the gravity of the situation. With this test, Rosenthal says, we’re now up to 17 players from the 30-man active roster and/or 3-man taxi squad that are carrying the virus.
There are many implications of this outcome. For one thing, it seems clear that the Marlins’ anti-transmission measures were insufficient. The team’s protocols — and/or individuals’ commitments to following them — not only failed to prevent an initial infection, but also did not tamp down the spread within the organization.
At a minimum, the Marlins will now have yet another roster spot that it needs to fill with a plausible MLB player. The team has been removed from play for the time being; whether and when it will resume remains to be seen and could yet depend upon whether further players end up registering positive tests.