By Jeff Todd | at
The Marlins will designate utilityman Rosell Herrera for assignment, per Craig Mish of MLB Network on Sirius XM (Twitter link). Corresponding moves aren’t yet known.
Herrera, a 26-year-old switch-hitter, has yet to make good on his former prospect promise. He’s now a .225/.286/.316 hitter through 421 career MLB plate appearances.
By Jeff Todd | at
The Marlins are reportedly planning to promote righty Zac Gallen for his first MLB start. Craig Mish of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM confirms some quality Reddit sleuthing (Twitter links). He’ll take the ball tomorrow in place of Pablo Lopez, who is headed to the injured list.
Gallen has been among the most intriguing hurlers in the minors thus far in 2019. He’s now through 91 1/3 innings of 1.77 ERA ball over 14 starts, with an impressive tally of 112 strikeouts against just 17 walks. While he has certainly shown legitimate potential at times in the past, that’s a new level of productivity for the 23-year-old.
Things are certainly headed in an interesting direction for a player who arrived in Miami without a ton of fanfare. He was a notable, but not overly hyped piece of the swap that sent outfielder Marcell Ozuna to the Cardinals. Gallen came over with Sandy Alcantara, whom he’ll now join on the Marlins staff.
As exciting as it is to get a look at Gallen at the MLB level, it’s unfortunate that his ascent comes with uncertainty for Lopez. Mish says (Twitter link) that shoulder concerns appear to have spurred the IL placement. There’s no indication at this point whether it’s a serious malady; it seems that’s just what is being assessed at the moment.
By Connor Byrne | at
The Mets are optimistic the right hamstring strain that sent starter Noah Syndergaard to the 10-day injured list Sunday isn’t serious, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com relays. Syndergaard said Monday he’s in “tip-top” shape, while manager Mickey Callaway announced the right-hander’s dealing with a “low-grade” strain. Additionally, Callaway suggested righty Wilmer Font could take Syndergaard’s next turn in New York’s rotation. The 29-year-old Font has managed a 4.43 ERA/5.25 FIP with 5.31 K/9 and 3.98 BB/9 in 20 1/3 innings since the Mets acquired him from the Rays on May 6.
Here’s more from the East Coast…
By George Miller | at
Tigers right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, currently on the mend after suffering a UCL sprain, looks to be nearing his return, writes Chris McCosky of the Detroit News. On Thursday, Zimmermann threw 4 2/3 innings in a rehab start for Triple-A Toledo, coming away pleased with the 69 pitches he threw and declaring his readiness to rejoin the Major League rotation for his next start. Whether that will actually come to fruition is up to the Tigers’ brass, though manager Ron Gardenhire seemed hesitant to welcome back a pitcher whose limited workload could lead to more bullpen days, which the team is trying to avoid. Regardless, the 33-year-old’s return looks to be just around the corner, certainly a promising development for a team that has had to patch together a starting staff after withstanding injuries to four-fifths of its Opening Day rotation.
Here are the latest updates on other injuries from around baseball…
By Jeff Todd | at
3:14pm: An MRI revealed a herniated disc in Urena’s back, Wells Dusenbury of the Sun Sentinel was among those to tweet.
1:07pm: Marlins right Jose Urena is hitting the shelf for the foreseeable future, with the club announcing that he’s going to the 60-day injured list. Urena is said to be dealing with a left lower back strain.
It’s a bit of a surprising turn of events for the starting pitcher, who had been scheduled to start on Wednesday before hitting the 10-day IL. At the time, there wasn’t much indication that he’d be sidelined for a lengthy stretch. The injury is evidently more severe than is apparent from the basic description of a lower back issue.
Given the timing, Urena won’t be eligible to return from the IL until mid-August. That all but eliminates him as a summer trade target. The 27-year-old hadn’t been in top form, with a 4.70 ERA in 74 2/3 innings, but he turned in consecutive sub-4.00 ERA campaigns in the prior two seasons. With his steady mid-to-upper nineties fastball velocity, Urena could have been an interesting swingman for the right contender.
Urena is earning $3.2MM this year as a 3+ service-class arbitration player. That leaves two more arb-eligible campaigns to come. The injury will sap his ability to procure a significant raise next fall, so it’s still plausible to imagine the Marlins tendering him a contract. Whether that’ll be a sensible approach will depend upon Urena’s recovery and showing upon his return,
This move represents the corresponding 40-man roster transaction for the club’s previously reported decision to select the contract of Yadiel Rivera. He’ll help fill in for Martin Prado while the veteran infielder is sidelined.
By Steve Adams | at
The Marlins expect Martin Prado to miss some time due to a hamstring injury, per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. It’s not clear yet just how serious an injury he’s sustained nor how long he’ll be out, but Frisaro tweets that Miami is expected to bring infielder/outfielder Yadiel Rivera up from Triple-A in Prado’s absence. Rivera isn’t on the Marlins’ 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a 40-man move in order to formally select his contract.
Prado, 35, is in the final season of a three-year, $40MM extension that has not panned out as the organization had hoped. When he initially signed the extension, Prado was putting the finishing touches on a .305/.359/.417 campaign in which he took the field for 153 of the Marlins’ 162 games. Injuries, however, have not only limited Prado to just 142 total games dating back to the 2017 season — they’ve also dramatically reduced his productivity. He’s made just 519 plate appearances while playing on his current contract and has produced an unsightly .244/.277/.319 batting line in that time.
The 27-year-old Rivera appeared in a career-high 111 games with the Marlins in 2018 but was used primarily as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and defensive replacement. He accrued just 160 plate appearances in those 111 contests, batting .173/.269/.216. Rivera, though, is enjoying a strong start in Triple-A New Orleans, where he’s batted .318/.333/.516 in 233 trips to the plate.
By Jeff Todd | at
The Marlins now have at least a general timeline for relief pitcher Drew Steckenrider, who has already missed a big chunk of the season with a flexor strain. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports (Twitter links), Steckenrider is expected to be able to return to the MLB mound by early August.
Last we heard, the hard-throwing righty was set to be sidelined indefinitely. While it’s hardly heartening to hear that Steckenrider could miss another two months of action, it seems generally positive that there’s a reasonably anticipated end point to his absence. Better still, it seems he’ll be able to avoid surgical intervention for the flexor injury.
That potential schedule will require steady progress from this point forward. Even in a best-case scenario in which the 28-year-old comes in a bit sooner than anticipated, he won’t have time to build a substantial MLB showing before the trade deadline. That effectively eliminates any trade scenarios, not that there was much chance he’d be dealt this summer anyway.
This time last year, the Marlins had Steckenrider inside the showroom with a big sticker price (alongside Kyle Barraclough and Adam Conley). He had emerged in the prior season, mowing down opposing hitters and sporting a 13.2% swinging-strike rate with a fastball-heavy approach. Unfortunately, Steckenrider’s results took a dip in the second half. He was hit hard by lefties, in particular.
The former eighth-round draft pick tried to switch things up in 2019, doubling his slider usage, but wasn’t able to get the fish to bite. His chase rate dropped to 23.5% and his swinging-strike rate dipped to 9.3%. Steckenrider made it through 14 1/3 innings before the injury, allowing ten earned runs despite a minuscule .094 BABIP-against. The reason? He teed up six long balls.
In the long run, it’ll be interesting to see whether Steckenrider can rediscover a formula that allows him to translate his physical skills into MLB outs. At some point, perhaps as soon as the 2019-20, the Marlins may again have a shot at testing his trade value. First, Steckenrider will need to get back to health.
By Steve Adams | at
9:40pm: Urena’s battling lower back tightness, Wells Dusenbery of the Sun Sentinel tweets.
7:10pm: Right-hander Jose Urena, who had been lined up to start tomorrow’s game, will be placed on the injured list, tweets Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. It’s not yet known what type of injury Urena is dealing with. The team has yet to formally announce either move.
5:16pm: The Marlins will promote right-handed pitching prospect Jordan Yamamoto to make his Major League debut tomorrow, Yamamoto himself confirmed to FishStripes.com’s Ely Sussman (Twitter link). He’s already on the 40-man roster, so the team will only need to make a 25-man roster move to accommodate his arrival.
Yamamoto, 23, is one of the four players Miami received in the 2017-18 offseason blockbuster that sent future MVP Christian Yelich to the Brewers. Being a part of such a high-profile trade will always lead to some unfair expectations, but to this point in his tenure with the Miami organization, Yamamoto has looked like a rather intriguing pitching prospect. In 68 2/3 innings split primarily between Class-A Advanced and Double-A last year, the Hawaiian-born righty notched a 1.83 ERA with a tremendous 85-to-14 K/BB ratio (11.1 K/9, 1.8 BB/9). He also pitched to a 2.08 ERA in 26 inning during the Arizona Fall League.
So far in 2019, he’s turned in a strong 3.58 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.96 HR/9 and a 45.6 percent ground-ball rate through 65 1/3 innings of work. In all, he has a 3.28 ERA with better than a strikeout per inning and roughly average ground-ball tendencies in 82 1/3 innings of Double-A ball.
MLB.com ranks Yamamoto as the Marlins’ No. 17 prospect, calling his curveball a “consistent plus pitch” and adding that high spin rate on his fastball helps to offset the pitch’s fairly pedestrian velocity. Fangraphs tabbed him 23rd among Miami farmhands to open the season, noting that there’s a wide variety of outcomes on Yamamoto — all of which are somewhat dependent on his secondary offerings. He’s a potential back-of-the-rotation starter who could also find some success as a multi-inning reliever if he’s ultimately unable to survive multiple trips through the batting order.
By TC Zencka | at
Back on April 21st, Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman launched a pair of solo home runs in a 5-0 win over the Miami Marlins, putting him one RBI away from a cool one thousand in his career. Nearly seven weeks later, Zimmerman still sits on the precipice of that milestone as plantar fasciitis has put his season on hold. “It’s been probably one of the more frustrating things I’ve gone through,” Zimmerman says of the heel injury, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Though Zimmerman has resumed baseball activities – namely, batting practice and fielding drills – the next step is being able to run comfortably. Howie Kendrick’s preternatural .325/.359/.583 mark through 151 at-bats helps mitigate Zimmerman’s long-term absence, as does the presence of his planned platoon partner Matt Adams (.245/.277/.481). Still, the man dubbed “Mr. Walkoff” in DC has appeared in every season the Nationals have been in existence, and he has the potential to buoy an offense that has generally floated near the middle of the pack. Years of injuries and a rock-bottom 2016 dimmed Zimmerman’s star, but in stretches he still resembles the ballplayer of his youth. For those of you who don’t remember, Zimmerman was a force, a .279/.343/.475 career hitter with 1,756 hits, 267 home runs, and of course, 999 career RBIs. For reference, Zimmerman, now 34, is listed as Manny Machado’s fifth-most similar batting comp through age-25 per Baseball-Reference.
By Connor Byrne | at
Keeping up with the latest MLB draft signings…
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information
hide arrows scroll to top
