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Marlins Release Johnny Giavotella

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The Marlins have released second baseman Johnny Giavotella from their Triple-A club, the infielder himself revealed yesterday (Twitter link). The 30-year-old Giavotella will now explore opportunities in free agency as he looks to latch on with another organization.

Giavotella opened the 2018 season on the minor league disabled list with a hip issue — he had arthroscopic surgery on his right hip last August — but was activated mid-April and appeared in 10 games before being cut loose. He hit .214/.389/.250 with a stolen base in that brief sample of work with the Marlins’ New Orleans affiliate. Miami activated shortstop JT Riddle from the 10-day DL yesterday and optioned him to Triple-A, adding an important name to the mix for middle infield playing time in New Orleans and likely cutting into some of Giavotella’s opportunity.

Giavotella received just 10 big league plate appearances in 2017, all coming with the Orioles, but he enjoyed a highly productive season with Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate, hitting .306/.368/.441 with five homers, 22 doubles, four triples and four steals in 379 plate appearances. He was also a regular in the Angels’ big league lineup not long ago, totaling 869 PAs and hitting a combined .267/.305/.375 with the Halos from 2015-16.

In all, while Giavotella has struggled to get on base in the Majors (career .294 OBP in 1344 PAs), he’s a lifetime .312/.381/.446 hitter in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns — a track record that should provide him ample opportunity to latch on with a club in need of some depth second base.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/2/18

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We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post:

  • The Marlins announced that catcher Tomas Telis has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A. He had been designated for assignment recently. Telis, a 26-year-old switch-hitter, was hitting just .207/.258/.241 through 31 plate appearances on the year and hasn’t shown much more than that with the bat in his limited action over the past five seasons. Additionally, infielder JT Riddle was activate from the DL and optioned to New Orleans.

Twins Place Miguel Sano On DL, Designate Dietrich Enns

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The Twins have announced a series of roster moves today. Star third baseman Miguel Sano is heading to the 10-day DL with a hamstring strain, with infielder Gregorio Petit replacing him on the active roster after his contract was selected.

To create a 40-man opening, the Minnesota organization has designated southpaw Dietrich Enns for assignment. The club also announced that previously DFA’ed righty Tyler Kinley, a Rule 5 pick, has been returned to the Marlins.

The Twins had hoped to avoid a DL stint for Sano. After all, the last thing the team needs is another key player out of action. But his injury evidently did not improve enough to forestall the placement.

Petit, 33, is obviously not going to make up for the loss of Sano’s power bat in the lineup. The veteran utilityman has compiled only a .249/.291/.353 lifetime slash in 426 MLB plate appearances. But he’ll help round out the roster for at least a few days’ time.

As for Enns, who is nearing his 27th birthday with just four MLB frames under his belt, it seems the Twins were not optimistic that he’d be a notable contributor in the near term. Acquired from the Yankees in last summer’s Jaime Garcia deal, Enns had worked to a 4.50 ERA with as many strikeouts as walks (11 each) in his twenty Triple-A frames this year. He has previously produced outstanding results in the minors, though evidently teams do not quite anticipate him carrying that effectiveness into the majors.

Marlins Activate Dan Straily, Wei-Yin Chen

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The Marlins activated righty Dan Straily yesterday, meaning he and fellow starter Wei-Yin Chen are each now officially back in the team’s rotation. The initial results were somewhat mixed, unsurprisingly. Straily managed just one strikeout while allowing four earned runs on six hits and four walks in four frames; Chen was much more effective, limiting the damage to one earned on four hits and two free passes, though he retired only three batters by strikeout in his 5 1/3 innings. From a health perspective, though, the returns are quite promising. Both hurlers worked in their typical velocity ranges and will have several months to build value in advance of the trade deadline. Whether either will be moved remains to be seen, but both could be interesting chips in their own ways. Straily could be an appealingly affordable plug-in for the right contender, perhaps returning some young talent to the rebuilding Miami org. As for Chen, the $42MM guarantee left on his contract beyond the present season remains a major impediment to any trade. But if he can show he’s effective and healthy, perhaps the Marlins can find a taker for some of that cash.

Dan Straily Likely To Make Season Debut Monday

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  • Marlins right-hander Dan Straily will likely make his 2018 debut Monday against the Phillies, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com suggests. Straily, arguably Miami’s best starter, has been on the DL all season with a forearm injury. The 29-year-old is coming off back-to-back respectable campaigns, including 2016 with Cincinnati, and could perhaps emerge as a trade chip for the Marlins if he’s healthy and effective as the season progresses.
  • Righty Luis Castillo was a key part of a Reds-Marlins trade in 2017 that also involved Straily, and the former has struggled mightily this year after looking like a potential long-term cog last season. The Reds are now working to fix Castillo, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com details. “They all agree that his arm angle has changed a little bit,’ interim manager Jim Riggleman said of pitching coach Danny Darwin, bullpen coach Ted Power and coach Derrin Ebert. “His hand is maybe not getting on top of the ball like it needs to. What that does, is it causes the ball to flatten out instead of sink. Hitters love that when the ball moves [flat] across the plate instead of having some sink. It’s kind of running right into their barrel.” Hitters have indeed barreled up against Castillo, who has seen his ERA rise from 3.12 in 2017 to 7.85 this year. Along the way, the 25-year-old has experienced a velocity drop and allowed more hard contact, Sheldon explains in a piece that’s worth checking out in full. It’s been a discouraging development for the Reds, who haven’t had much success developing front-line pitching from within.

Marlins Reinstate Wei-Yin Chen

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The Marlins have activated left-hander Wei-Yin Chen from the disabled list; they’ve designated catcher Tomas Telis for assignment in a corresponding move. Chen will make his season debut tonight against the Rockies.

Chen has had a rough go of it since signing a five-year, $80MM contract with Miami prior to the 2016 season. The pact was based at least on part on the southpaw’s impressive durability to that point in his career, but Chen’s only managed to throw 156 1/3 innings in a Marlins uniform due to myriad injuries, most recently a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. Chen had an opt-out clause in his contract that he could’ve activated this past offseason, but wisely chose not to do so.

His return to the mound will be a welcome sight for a Marlins club that has trotted out a host of inexperienced starters this season, headlined by Jose Urena as the club’s “ace by default”. As a group, their rotation has posted a 5.13 ERA and -0.1 fWAR, both marks that rank among baseball’s bottom five. Meanwhile, they’ve issued walks at the third-highest rate in the majors. They’ll hope that changes with today’s addition of Chen, along with tomorrow’s addition of right-hander Dan Straily, who’s also scheduled to come off the DL and make a start.

Telis, a 26-year-old switch-hitter, was mainly on the roster to back up Bryan Holaday in J.T. Realmuto’s absence; with Realmuto healthy (and homering at a surprising rate), Telis became an expendable piece. He owns a .230/.267/.298 career batting line in 267 plate appearances; he had been even worse than that in a small sample this year in addition to striking out in a career-high 25.8% of his plate appearances.

Marlins Activate Martin Prado, Option Trevor Richards

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The Marlins have activated third bagger Martin Prado from the DL, per a club announcement. To make way for the veteran, the club optioned intriguing young righty Trevor Richards.

Prado had been hoping to be ready for the Opening Day roster after undergoing season-ending knee surgery in 2017. But he suffered a setback in camp and evidently also had to battle through a hamstring strain. Issues in both of those areas limited him to just 37 games last year.

Hopefully the leg troubles are in the past for Prado, who had played in at least 128 games annually since establishing himself as a regular in 2009. He also had been a steadily above-average offensive producer over his career until the 2017 campaign, when he limped to a .250/.279/.357 slash in 147 plate appearances.

If Prado can reestablish himself over the next several months, he could turn back into a potential trade piece for the rebuilding Marlins. He’s owed a hefty $13.5MM this year and $15MM in 2019 under the extension he signed late in the 2016 season, though, so in all likelihood any deal would mostly convey some cost savings.

The third-base role that Prado left open had been filled well by Brian Anderson early in 2018. The 24-year-old, one of Miami’s most highly regarded prospects, has posted an impressive .385 on-base percentage through his first 104 plate appearances. Of course, he’s also sporting a decidedly less-promising .349 slugging percentage, though he has demonstrated more power than that in the minors (22 homers between Double-A and Triple-A last season).

Rather than dropping Anderson back to Triple-A, the plan is to use him elsewhere, as Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald writes. The Marlins are preparing Anderson to see time in the outfield and at first base so that they can keep him in the lineup. He’ll also spell Prado at the hot corner.

Richards, meanwhile, will head back to New Orleans — where he has actually never played. The indy ball find did burn through every other affiliate he was placed at over the past two seasons, compiling a 2.52 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 200 1/3 cumulative minor-league frames (including 146 innings last year at the High-A and Double-A levels)

It’s unremarkable, on the one hand, to see a young starter with a 4.94 ERA and 9.1 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9 headed out on optional assignment. But Richards is fresh off of a ten-strikeout gem in which he got the better of the legendary Clayton Kershaw. For a Marlins club that isn’t exactly overloaded with quality MLB pitching — see their depth chart here — it’s a somewhat debatable decision, particularly with Dillon Peters still evidently holding a rotation spot. It’s worth noting that the move will allow the Marlins to keep Richards from achieving a full year of MLB service, if they hold him down long enough.

Twins, Marlins Could Explore Trade Scenarios Involving Tyler Kinley

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  • Also from Bollinger’s piece, the Twins are hoping they can find a way to retain right-hander Tyler Kinley, whom they selected in the Rule 5 Draft but designated for assignment yesterday. Kinley will first have to be exposed to waivers, but if he clears, the Twins could look to work out a trade with the Marlins that would allow them to keep Kinley in their minor league ranks. “We’ve talked about the possibility of what had to be done, even last night, to be able to keep him in a Twins uniform,” manager Paul Molitor told reporters. “I don’t know how likely that is. But we’ll see what kind of response and interest there is.”

    [SOURCE LINK]

Twins Designate Tyler Kinley

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The Twins announced after tonight’s game that they will designate righty Tyler Kinley for assignment, as Phil Miller of the Star Tribune was among those to report on Twitter. A corresponding move has yet to be announced.

Kinley, 27, received his first shot at the majors after being plucked from the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft over the offseason. He’ll now be offered back to the Miami organization if he clears waivers.

The Twins have not utilized Kinley much to open the year, and for good reason. In his 3 1/3 innings, he has allowed nine earned runs on nine hits while recording as many walks as strikeouts (four apiece).

Though he’s sitting at nearly 97 mph with his average fastball and keeping a decent 10.8% swinging-strike rate, Kinley has surrendered a .538 batting average on balls in play. While that would surely have trended down over time, it’s also not a complete aberration given that he has allowed hard contact at a whopping 73.3% clip.

Wei-Yin Chen, Dan Straily Nearing Return To Marlins’ Rotation

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The Marlins could soon be installing a pair of veteran arms into their struggling young rotation. Craig Mish of SiriusXM reports that lefty Wei-Yin Chen will be activated to start Saturday’s game against the Rockies (Twitter link), and it seems that right-hander Dan Straily won’t be far behind (link via Doug Padilla at MLB.com). Straily tossed 88 pitches in yesterday’s rehab assignment and, so long as his arm feels good today, his next outing will likely be at the big league level.

Late last season, the Marlins organization expressed uncertainty as to whether Chen, who had a minor tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, would be able to pitch at all in 2018. However, he’s made multiple rehab starts in extended spring camp and Class-A Advanced and is now set for his 2018 debut. MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets that a scout who was at Chen’s most recent start felt he looked ready to return to the big leagues. Chen allowed one run on five hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings in his two Class-A rehab appearances.

A healthy Chen would have to be considered a huge bonus for the Marlins, who have routinely trotted out a collection of inexperienced arms thus far in the season. Jose Urena is the most seasoned arm in the Marlins’ rotation at present, with rookies Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards and Dillon Peters following him up. Lefty Jarlin Garcia technically isn’t a rookie, but this is his first big league season as a starter and just his second year in the Majors overall.

The 32-year-old Chen, unsurprisingly, forwent the opt-out clause in his five-year, $80MM contract this offseason, as opting out would’ve meant leaving $52MM on the table. That enormous financial commitment remains immovable for a Miami team that tore down the vast majority of its roster this offseason, and that’s highly unlikely to change regardless of how Chen performs. If Chen rounds into form, though, perhaps we’ll see Miami offer to eat a notable chunk of the remaining salary on his contract this July in an effort to at least partially unburden themselves — though a lot will need to go their way for that to even be possible.

Miami inked Chen prior to the 2016 season in large part due to the durability he displayed with the Orioles. While he never cleared the 200-inning mark in the regular season, Chen averaged 29 starts per year (30 if you count his postseason work). Since signing in Miami, however, he’s pitched a total of just 156 1/3 innings over two seasons combined, due to the previously mentioned elbow issues.

Straily, on the disabled list for the first time in his big league career, has also been working his way back via minor league rehab appearances after his 2018 debut was delayed by a forearm injury. Unlike Chen, he’ll immediately become a relatively desirable trade asset, assuming good health. Controlled for two seasons beyond 2018 and earning a modest $3.375MM this season, Straily has made 64 starts and pitched to a combined 4.01 ERA over the past two seasons combined. Straily drew plenty of interest on the trade market last summer, and it stands to reason that he’ll be in demand again as one of the few controllable starters available in trade.

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