Quick Hits: 2009 Draft, Trout, Morton, Twins, Bradley, Marlins
Stephen Strasburg generated headlines as the consensus first overall pick of the 2009 draft, though that draft has taken on a different historic import almost ten years later, as that was the night Mike Trout officially became a Major League player. MLB.com’s Jim Callis looks back at the 2009 draft with a decade of hindsight, re-drafting the first round with the top players who were selected (and signed contracts) from that year’s class. In this scenario, the Nationals take Trout first overall instead of Strasburg, who falls to the Pirates with the fourth overall pick. The Mariners take Nolan Arenado with the second pick, while the Padres take Paul Goldschmidt third overall.
The actual draft spots of these superstars (Trout went 25th overall, Arenado in the second round, and Goldschmidt not until the eighth round) is indicative of the draft’s unpredictable nature, as teams and pundits simply never know which unheralded youngster might develop into a gem. Callis includes several interesting notes and scouting opinions about various players at the time of the 2009 draft, including the item that only the Athletics, Diamondbacks, and Tigers were known to be linked to Trout, among teams who had a chance to select him before the Angels. Many clubs didn’t have interest due to rumors that Trout was seeking a $2.5MM draft bonus, which would’ve exceeded the slot price for all but the top five picks, though in the end Trout signed with the Angels for the $1.215MM league-recommended slot price attached to the 25th overall selection.
More from around the baseball world…
- Correcting one of his own reports from the offseason, Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link) notes that the Twins “were very much in on” Charlie Morton before the veteran righty signed a two-year, $30MM deal with the Rays. Since Morton was only looking for a short-term deal as he nears the end of his career, he fit the model of what the Twins were looking for this past winter, as the club inked the likes of Nelson Cruz, Martin Perez, Jonathan Schoop, and Marwin Gonzalez to contracts consisting of no more than one or two guaranteed years. It isn’t known how close Morton and the Twins might have come to an agreement, though the Rays did have a geographical ace up their sleeve, as Morton has stated that the Rays’ close proximity to his family’s home in Florida was a factor in his decision. Given that the Twins have already posted the best record in baseball, it’s hard to imagine how much better things could have been for the club with Morton in the rotation.
- After two seasons as an important weapon out of the Diamondbacks‘ bullpen, Archie Bradley has struggled to a 4.63 ERA over 23 1/3 innings in 2019. As a result, manager Torey Lovullo told the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other media that Bradley will continue to handled carefully so he can get back on track, and likely won’t see many high-leverage moments. “We might get him some (appearances with) multiple innings to continue to develop a feel. We might give him some really short spurts to walk off the mound and have a good result,” Lovullo said. While a .409 BABIP is a big factor in Bradley’s issues, a lack of control has been his biggest problem, as his 5.79 BB/9 is more than double his walk numbers from the previous two seasons.
- Marlins fans bemoan the fire sale that saw the likes of Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, J.T. Realmuto, and Dee Gordon leave the team over the last 18 months, yet as The Athletic’s Marc Carig (subscription required) observes, Miami also parted ways with a wealth of pitching talent in recent years. Luis Castillo, Domingo German, Trevor Williams, and Chris Paddack were all somewhat unheralded prospects when the Fish traded them in various deals for veterans who ultimately didn’t help the team return to contention. Between all of these names and some other notables (Derek Dietrich, Nick Wittgren, Anthony DeSclafani), Carig comprises a startling what-if of a 2019 Marlins roster that would be on pace to win 102 games, as per Baseball Reference WAR calculations. “By simply securing the talent, they’d accomplished the hardest part of assembling a dynasty,” Carig writes. “Then, all of it slipped away. No team bats 1.000 when it comes to trades. Few teams hit near .000. For a period, the Marlins were seemingly one of those.”
Outrights: Mets, Marlins, Pirates
A few outrights from Wednesday…
- Mets outfielder Rajai Davis has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Syracuse, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. The 38-year-old Davis, whom the Mets designated for assignment Sunday, had the option of declaring free agency instead of remaining with the organization. But Davis will head back to Syracuse, his home for nearly the entire season thus far.
- The Marlins have outrighted outfielder Isaac Galloway to Triple-A New Orleans, per the MLB.com transactions page. The club designated Galloway last Friday. The 29-year-old has been outrighted in the past, meaning he has the right to elect free agency this time. It appears Galloway will remain in the organization, though. Galloway logged 54 plate appearances with this year’s Marlins before they cut him, limping to a .167/.167/.185 line with no home runs, no walks and 17 strikeouts. Galloway also hasn’t produced much this season in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, where he has hit .227/.261/.515 (78 wRC+) in 70 trips to the plate.
- The Pirates have sent infielder Jake Elmore outright to Triple-A Indianapolis (also via MLB.com). He, like Galloway, has been outrighted in the past. Elmore has been terrific this year in Indianapolis, having slashed .380/.444/.546 in 124 attempts, but wasn’t able to carry that success to Pittsburgh. The 31-year-old managed one hit and no walks in 20 PA before the Pirates designated him Sunday.
Marlins’ Jose Urena Drawing Trade Interest
With the July 31 trade deadline getting closer and the Marlins in last place in the National League, they’ll have to decide which veterans to jettison from their roster. One of them could be right-hander Jose Urena, who has drawn inquiries from “several teams,” per Marlins reporter Craig Mish.
A member of the Miami organization since 2009, Urena made his major league debut six years later and has turned into a fixture in its starting staff in recent seasons. Dating back to 2017, the first season in which most of his appearances came in the Marlins’ rotation, Urena has logged a team-leading 69 starts and 387 innings. The 27-year-old has pitched to a solid 4.02 ERA (but with a less impressive 4.64 FIP) with 6.37 K/9, 3.02 BB/9 and a 47.5 percent groundball rate since he became a permanent starter for the Marlins.
So far this season, Urena’s numbers look fairly similar to the production he managed over the previous couple years. Even though his 96 mph fastball velocity outdoes most starters‘, Urena hasn’t had much success generating strikeouts. Among qualifying starters, Urena ranks fourth last in K/9 (5.98) and 17th from the bottom in swinging-strike rate (8.9 percent). Urena has offset those figures to some degree with the game’s eighth-best groundball percentage (52.4) and an above-average walk rate (2.76), helping him to a passable 4.30 ERA/4.35 FIP in 58 2/3 frames.
Urena clearly isn’t any kind of front-line option, though it does appear he’s a capable back-end starter. There’s value in that, especially considering Urena’s affordable ($3.2MM salary) and controllable. With two seasons of arbitration eligibility remaining, the Marlins don’t have to part with Urena this summer, but Mish reports that the rebuilding club may be open to it.
Marlins Designate Isaac Galloway For Assignment
The Marlins announced today that outfielder Isaac Galloway has been designate for assignment. That creates 40-man space for the addition of Bryan Holaday, who is coming onto the roster as Chad Wallach hits the injured list with a concussion.
Galloway, 29, is a career-long Marlin who finally got his first chance at the majors last year. He performed well enough, but still ended up being bumped from the 40-man just before the start of camp. When he was brought back up to the majors earlier this year, things didn’t go quite so well.
In 54 plate appearances in the majors in 2019, Galloway carries an ugly .167/.167/.185 slash without a single walk. He has also drawn just two free passes while racking up 31 strikeouts in 70 plate appearances at Triple-A, though he has delivered strong power output (five home runs, .515 SLG) at the highest level of the minors.
Marlins To Select Bryan Holaday
2:08pm: Mish tweets that Wallach has been diagnosed with a concussion, which prompted Holaday’s return to the club. A 40-man roster move will still need to be made.
2:01pm: The Marlins will select the contract of veteran catcher Bryan Holaday prior to this weekend’s series against the Nationals, Craig Mish of SiriusXM reports (via Twitter). Miami has a full 40-man roster and will thus need to make a corresponding move.
There’s no known injury issue with either Jorge Alfaro or Chad Wallach at the moment, and Alfaro has already been listed in today’s lineup for the Marlins. Wallach has been reasonably productive in a limited sample, so it seems unlikely that he’d be optioned out in favor of a veteran like Holaday. In all likelihood, an injury or perhaps a trip to the bereavement list could be the reasoning behind the move, but the Miami organization has yet to make a formal announcement.
Holaday, 31, is no stranger to the Marlins organization, having appeared in 61 games for the Fish last season. He hit just .205/.261/.258 through 166 plate appearances in his time as a Marlin but has had a better showing so far in Triple-A: .247/.385/.387 with more walks (17) than strikeouts (12) in 118 plate appearances. Holaday has never been much of a threat at the plate, evidenced by a lifetime .234/.274/.320 slash in the Majors, but he’s a veteran of seven MLB campaigns who has a career 32 percent caught-stealing rate.
Latest On Don Mattingly’s Future
Although manager Don Mattingly is in the throes of his fourth straight trying season at the controls of the Marlins, it doesn’t appear his job is in jeopardy just yet. Mattingly will “probably” stay on through the end of the season, but it’s “likely” the team will replace him after that, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (video link).
The talent-starved Marlins have gone a league-worst 12-31 in 2019 and only mustered a 231-296 mark since hiring Mattingly, though it’s hard to fault him for the team’s failures. In 2016, Mattingly’s first year on the job, the Marlins won their most games since 2010 (79). However, the late-season death of ace Jose Fernandez cast a pall on the campaign and has continued to loom over the franchise. As they moved on without Fernandez, the 2017 Marlins – buoyed by an NL MVP-winning season from outfielder Giancarlo Stanton – did contend into the summer, but they tailed off in September to finish 77-85. As unimpressive as that record appears, it looks downright good compared to the direction the Marlins have gone in since.
One of co-owner Derek Jeter’s first acts of business after taking over the franchise from the loathed Jeffrey Loria was to conduct a firesale following the ’17 season. The decision to launch a full rebuild stripped the Marlins’ roster of a great outfield consisting of Stanton, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna and starting second baseman Dee Gordon, all of whom were dealt in cost-cutting, farm system-bolstering moves. The Yelich trade looks especially egregious at the moment, largely because he went from an under-the-radar standout with the Marlins to a MVP-winning demigod with the Brewers. Meanwhile, the package the Marlins acquired for Yelich and team-friendly contract hasn’t yet yielded dividends in the majors.
Unsurprisingly, without their best outfielders and Gordon, the Marlins limped to 63 wins in 2018. Afterward, they shipped out another homegrown star – now-Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto – as he was unwilling to sign an extension with the club and was getting closer to free agency. That deal may pay off for Miami, which acquired a package featuring its No. 1 prospect, righty Sixto Sanchez, for Realmuto. That can’t be of much consolation to Mattingly right now, though. He’s in charge of a roster that got even weaker with Realmuto’s departure, after all, and the results bear that out.
Prior to his Marlins tenure, Mattingly oversaw much more respectable Dodgers teams from 2011-15. Mattingly’s time in LA could convince a manager-needy club to give him a chance if the Marlins do go in another direction sometime soon. Changing managers would be an especially interesting decision coming from Jeter, however, considering he and Mattingly are Yankees icons who were briefly teammates and still stand as the two most recent captains of the franchise.
Marlins’ Drew Steckenrider Out Indefinitely
Marlins righty Drew Steckenrider will be sidelined for a yet-to-be determined period of time after Dr. James Andrews confirmed the team’s initial diagnosis of a right flexor strain, the team told reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Wells Dusenbury of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel). For the time being, rest has been recommended rather than surgery. The team moved Steckenrider to the 60-day injured list recently, so he’ll be out until at least early July.
Entering the season, Steckenrider looked primed to hold down a prominent late-inning role — if not as the team’s closer then as one of its top setup options. The 28-year-old carried a 3.35 ERA with 11.6 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and 1.0 BB/9 through 99 1/3 career innings into the 2019 season. However, Steckenrider slumped late in the 2018 season and had a tough Spring Training, and it seems those troubles carried into the 2019 campaign. Through 14 1/3 innings this season, he’s toting a 6.28 ERA and has surrendered a jarring six home runs.
A healthy Steckenrider would make for an interesting trade piece, given the strong showing he displayed in 2017 and up through the All-Star break in 2018. But with no timetable for his return to the mound at present, it seems unlikely that he’ll be moved. He’s under club control all the way through the 2023 campaign and won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2020 season, so he could certainly present a potential trade asset somewhere down the line as the Marlins continue plodding through what seems likely to be a lengthy rebuilding endeavor under new ownership.
With Steckenrider on the shelf indefinitely, Miami will continue to lean heavily on a collection of largely unproven bullpen pieces. Tyler Kinley and Tayron Guerrero have each displayed impressive strikeout numbers but each averaged seven walks per nine innings pitched. Offseason trade acquisition Nick Anderson has racked up a ridiculous 31 strikeouts through 17 1/3 innings but has also been too prone to home runs. Righty Austin Brice has turned in a solid 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 innings but ha control issues of his own, while veteran Sergio Romo hasn’t yet been the stabilizing force Miami hoped to acquire when signing him over the winter.
MLB Issues Five-Game Suspension To Kevin Gausman
May 12: Gausman has elected to drop his appeal and will begin serving his five-game suspension on Sunday. He will miss the Braves’ three-game set against the Cardinals, as well as Friday’s series-opener against Milwaukee.
May 6: Braves hurler Kevin Gausman has been slapped with a five-game suspension and undisclosed fine, per a league announcement. The punitive measure relates to a recent incident on the mound.
It was determined that Gausman intentionally threw a pitch at Marlins hurler Jose Urena on Friday night. That assessment was based upon this pitch, which was obviously interpreted as retribution for an incident last season for which Urena himself received a six-game ban.
Gausman is appealing the suspension. That will leave him eligible to make his scheduled start tonight. Whether he’ll ultimately drop the appeal isn’t known, but it shouldn’t be terribly difficult for him and the team to minimize the intrusion. The Braves do have an off day upcoming on Tuesday the 13th to work with as well.
Quick Hits: Jeter, DeShields/Gallo, Bryant
Derek Jeter recognized the social divides that developed in the clubhouses of his playing days between Spanish-speaking players and native English speakers, but since taking over the Marlins in Miami, where Spanish is omnipresent, Jeter has made it a priority to develop the language skills of everyone in the organization – including himself, per James Wagner of the New York Times. While emphasis is often placed on international players developing their English-language skills, Jeter’s programming ensures that the education highway runs in both directions. Major league players cannot be mandated to take language classes because of the collective bargaining agreement, but players in lower levels of the organization are now required to take classes, as are some coaches and Jeter himself, who attends a 90-minute weekly class with the executive team. The branding here is positive for Jeter, who has yet to make much headway in terms of fan engagement in Miami, but the internal benefits of a growing language program will have no end to its usefulness. Tangible effects may not reach the playing field for some time, but it’s encouraging nonetheless to see the Marlins taking a proactive approach to community engagement, emphasizing relationships with players from Latin America, and broadening avenues of communication within the organization. Let’s take a look at a couple of on-field situations throughout the league…
- After another lackluster start at the plate for Delino DeShields, he finds himself back in Triple-A to work on developing a more line drive approach at the plate, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Deshields is one of the fastest players in the league, fifth overall with 16 Bolts this season (individual run times of 30+ ft/sec sprint speeds) and ninth in Sprint Speed, per Statcast. His speed is obviously an asset in the field as well, where Statcast has him tied for 7th with three Outs Above Average this season (three four-star catches). None of which was enough to keep him in Texas after hitting .182/.321/.284 through 108 plate appearances. How much time the 26-year-old spends in Triple-A may have as much to do with his ability to drive the ball as it does Joey Gallo‘s ability to stick in center. It’s certainly uncommon for a third baseman-turned-corner-outfielder to transition into center, but the hulking 6’5″ Gallo hasn’t looked wholly out of place for the Rangers thus far, -1 DRS and -0.3 UZR through 88 innings this season, but over 188 career innings as the outfield captain, Gallo grades out at 1 DRS, 1.4 UZR. Replacing DeShields, a career 77 wRC+ hitter, with Gallo’s 115 wRC+ upgrades center field offensively for Texas, but this is a head-to-head battle worth tracking as the season moves along.
- Chicago’s Kris Bryant finally found his power stroke for the Cubs, with credit going to his new Axe Bat, per The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma. Bryant never tapped into his power after returning from a shoulder injury last season as he finished the season with an uncharacteristically low, but still solid .188 ISO. He has hit four home runs in his last six games, raising his 2019 isolated power to .268, and while that would be a career high if he keeps it up all season, it’s closer to his career average of .232 ISO than his numbers from 2018. This season’s power surge tracks back to a broken bat on April 26th, when Bryant switched to an Axe Bat and promptly homered. An Axe Bat’s defining feature – you might guess – is a handle shaped more like the handle of an axe, though this particular handle is unique to Bryant, christened as the “Bryant Handle” as it was geared specifically towards Bryant’s rather unique grip. Whether it’s the bat, or something mental, or simply the strength in his injured shoulder finally being built back up to normal levels, a maintained resurgence of power from Bryant could make the difference for a Cubs lineup that has struggled at times since Bryant’s shoulder injury last season.
Marlins To Select Contract Of Harold Ramirez
The Marlins will select the contract of outfielder Harold Ramirez, according to Craig Mish of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link). The corresponding move and precise timing isn’t yet known.
Ramirez, now 24, once owned a 40-man roster spot with the Pirates and Blue Jays but never made it onto the active roster before being outrighted. He was a widely pursued minor-league free agent this winter after a solid effort last year at Double-A. Ramirez followed that with a strong showing in the Venezuelan Winter League and has kept the good vibes going since.
Ramirez elected not to opt out of his deal with the club this spring despite not making the active roster. There’s little reason for the Fish not to give Ramirez a look at this point. After turning in 120 plate appearances of .355/.408/.591 hitting at Triple-A, Ramirez is an easy choice for a club that is receiving next to nothing from its outfield unit.