Marlins Reportedly In Talks With Dustin McGowan
The Marlins are discussing a deal with free-agent righty Dustin McGowan, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The veteran reliever was in Spring Training with the Rays on a minor league deal but was granted his release in early March when he learned he would not make the 25-man roster. He’s represented by ACES.
McGowan is no stranger to South Florida, having spent the 2016-17 seasons with the Marlins. In that time, he totaled 144 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball with 7.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 with a 53 percent ground-ball rate. A starter early in his career with the Blue Jays, McGowan has worked almost entirely out of the bullpen since 2013 — often tossing more than one inning per appearance — and logged a 4.08 ERA in 275 2/3 frames in that time.
Miami entered the season with Brad Ziegler as its closer and a pair of quality setup pieces behind him in the form of Kyle Barraclough and Drew Steckenrider. Beyond that trio, though, the relief corps has been largely pieced together, currently featuring Junichi Tazawa, Tayron Guerrero, Jarlin Garcia, Odrisamer Despaigne, Chris O’Grady and Jacob Turner.
Adding McGowan to the mix — presumably down the line a bit, as he’d likely need a tune-up in the minors — would give the Fish some more experience and some more length out of their bullpen. That seems particularly important to a club that’s currently relying on righty Jose Urena and three rookies (Dillon Peters, Trevor Richards and Caleb Smith) in a four-man rotation while Dan Straily recovers from a forearm issue.
NL East Notes: Neshek, Kapler, Kolek, Harvey
The Phillies received good news after righty Pat Neshek underwent an MRI, as Todd Zolecki of MLB.com tweets. There’s some inflammation, as might have been expected given that he had identified an issue, but nothing more concerning than that. The expectation at this point, though, is that Neshek will remain on ice for “a couple more weeks” to allow things to calm down. Philadelphia has yet to receive a contribution from Neshek or fellow recent signee Tommy Hunter, though as Zolecki recently tweeted, it seems Hunter is nearing his return and perhaps Neshek won’t be far behind.
Here’s more from the NL East:
- New Phillies skipper Gabe Kapler was again forced to defend his early-season decision-making, as Zolecki also writes. This time, the questions arose in relation to defensive positioning, yet another area in which the Philadelphia club is experimenting with unconventional methods. Interested readers will want to review the full post for the details. Generally, though, Kapler again emphasized that he believes the process will pay dividends in the long run, even if the short-term results have raised the ire of many Phillies fans.
- Former top Marlins pick Tyler Kolek has been scratched from his first scheduled start of the new season, as Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com tweets. He’ll instead go on the minor-league DL. Details aren’t known at this point, but it’s hardly an auspicious start for the 22-year-old, who has thrown just 3 2/3 innings over the past two seasons in large part due to Tommy John surgery. Kolek, now 22 years of age, was the No. 2 overall selection in the 2014 draft.
- Of course, things can change quickly — in either direction — for a pitcher, particularly when health issues are involved. The Mets and Matt Harvey know that as well as anyone. As James Wagner of the New York Times wrote after Harvey’s first start of the new season, the once-dominant, then dumped-on hurler has shown signs of reemerging as a new but potentially effective starter in his final season of team control. Wagner notes that the Mets fielded trade interest in Harvey this offseason but opted not to sell low on the right-hander — in part at the behest of newly hired manager Mickey Callaway and new pitching coach Dave Eiland. A free agent at season’s end, Harvey opened the year with five shutout innings, during which he yielded just one hit and one walk with five strikeouts.
Marlins Outright Severino Gonzalez, Austin Nola
The Marlins announced this morning that they have outrighted righty Severino Gonzalez and catcher Austin Nola to Triple-A. Both players cleared waivers after recently being designated for assignment.
In other moves, the Fish put outfielder/first baseman Garrett Cooper on the 10-day DL with a right wrist contusion. He’ll be replaced by outfielder Braxton Lee, who was recalled.
Gonzalez was brought up for only a single game and did not end up entering. It is not clear whether he has accepted the assignment, but he would have the right instead to elect free agency. Gonzalez owns a 6.68 ERA in his 66 career frames in the majors, all with the Phillies in 2015 and 2016, but did manage 8.5 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 in that span.
As for Nola, the 28-year-old has played all over the infield, including behind the dish, making him an interesting potential asset. But he has never really advanced with the bat. In 750 career Triple-A plate appearances, he carries only a .259/.320/.353 batting line.
Trevor Rosenthal Does Not Expect To Sign For 2018 Season
After reporting this morning that the Marlins had agreed to a deal with right-hander Trevor Rosenthal, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reversed his initial report upon being informed by agent Scott Boras that no deal was in place. (Twitter links.) Indeed, to the contrary, Boras says that Rosenthal does not plan to sign a contract at all for the coming season.
It seems that Rosenthal, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, had been weighing an offer from Miami that would have allowed him to complete his rehab and potentially return later in the 2018 season. Per the initial report, Rosenthal would have earned at the league-minimum rate in both the minors and majors for any active time in the current season.
Importantly, it was unclear whether the prospective contract was a minor-league deal or a split major-league deal. In the latter situation, presumably, Rosenthal would have earned MLB service time while on the disabled list. Whatever the case, Brian Stull of St. Louis Baseball Weekly reported (Twitter link) that the Cardinals made a “similar offer,” so there were evidently multiple teams in pursuit.
Instead, Rosenthal expects to complete his rehab and showcase for the teams in the 2018-19 offseason. It seems, then, that he’ll follow the course taken previously by Greg Holland, another Boras client. Holland underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2015 season, much as Rosenthal did a year ago. He ended up waiting until early in 2017 to sign a deal that allowed him to earn good money for the coming season and then return to the open market thereafter.
There were, of course, alternatives. Many recovering TJ patients have found guaranteed money on the open market. Drew Smyly and Michael Pineda recently took down $10MM guarantees on two-year deals, despite the expectation that both will miss most or all of the 2018 campaign. Nathan Eovaldi was promised $4MM in the prior offseason. Relievers have similarly inked two-year arrangements in prior years, with Luke Hochevar and Eric O’Flaherty representing examples (though in both cases, their rehab timelines led to expectations of significant availability in the first season of the contract).
When the now-discarded report came through this morning, though, it seemed that there were two other possibilities. Because Rosenthal currently has just over five years of MLB service, he’d remain eligible for arbitration in 2019 even if he returned late in the season. Had he joined the Miami organization on a minors pact, then, the club would effectively have picked up an option. Rosenthal had projected to earn $7.9MM in his final season of eligibility, which isn’t exactly cheap but would also be quite an appealing price tag if he can regain his former form.
Of course, Boras no doubt anticipates there could be quite a bit more earning power for a pitcher who is still just 27 years of age. Thus, it seemed possible that Rosenthal could have inked a split MLB contract. In that case, he’d have gone onto the major-league DL, where he could have accrued enough service time to qualify for free agency at the end of the campaign while also having a shot at showcasing at the MLB level late in 2018. Only the possibility of a qualifying offer — unlikely, perhaps, to be issued by a budget-conscious Marlins organization — would have clouded Rosenthal’s future open-market status. Whether or not such an arrangement would have passed muster with league and union officials, perhaps, is an open (and thus-far hypothetical) question.
In any event, that’s all academic at this point. It now seems Rosenthal will work back to full strength before he goes after his next contract. Given his age and track record, it’s conceivable that he could end up even seeking a longer-term deal than the one Holland initially signed with the Rockies.
There certainly seems to be reason to hope that Rosenthal can again be a premium relief asset. Long a quality late-inning arm, he struggled quite a bit in 2016 but bounced back last season. In his 47 2/3 innings in 2017, Rosenthal pitched to a 3.40 ERA with a career-high 14.3 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9. He worked at 98.8 with his average heater and generated a 15.9% swinging-strike rate — both also personal bests, the latter by quite a significant margin over his career average.
Injury Notes: Musgrove, Mercer, Wieters, Cruz, Realmuto, Yankees
The Pirates announced today that right-hander Joe Musgrove has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a muscle strain in his right shoulder. Righty Clay Holmes, who’d previously been returned to Triple-A after serving as the 26th man for yesterday’s doubleheader, has been recalled. (Holmes’ optional assignment needn’t be for the typical 10-day minimum, as he’s replacing an injured player.) As MLB.com’s Adam Berry notes, the move seemed somewhat curious at first, as Musgrove had said he felt good physically not long before the announcement. But testing ended up revealing a strain, leading to the roster move.
Musgrove’s DL placement is retroactive three days, so he can be activated on April 9. In his place, the Pirates could turn to one of Steven Brault or Tyler Glasnow to start in Musgrove’s place on Thursday. At present, it doesn’t seem that the injury is serious. Musgrove was slowed by some shoulder troubles in Spring Training, so it seems the Bucs are just being cautious early in the season. Pittsburgh will also need to evaluate shortstop Jordy Mercer, who exited after jamming his finger into the bag when diving back to first on a pickoff attempt. The Pirates, so far, have only said that Mercer left the game with right hand/finger “discomfort.”
Some more injury news from around the league…
- The Nationals recalled catcher Pedro Severino from Triple-A and placed Matt Wieters on the disabled list with a “mild left oblique strain.” Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post first reported today that Wieters was dealing with some type of injury and that Severino was headed to Atlanta in the event that Wieters needed a DL stint (Twitter links). Janes noted that Wieters didn’t take batting practice yesterday on his off day and “looked uncomfortable” throwing the ball back to the mound when catching warm-up pitches between innings for Nats starters. Both Wieters and Severino are coming off down seasons in 2017, as is Washington’s current backup, Miguel Montero.
- The Mariners are leaning toward placing Nelson Cruz on the 10-day disabled list so they can have a full bench for their upcoming interleague series, manager Scott Servais said today in an appearance on Brock & Salk on 710 ESPN in Seattle (Twitter link via 710’s Brent Stecker). Cruz suffered an ankle injury when slipping on the dugout steps after a two-run homer over the weekend and had an MRI, though the results of that test haven’t been announced yet.
- Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto has progressed to the point where he’s been cleared to resume catching drills, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. However, Frisaro cautions that Realmuto will probably still require “a few more weeks” before he’s able to return from the lower back injury that landed him on the disabled list to open the 2018 campaign. Chad Wallach, Tomas Telis and Bryan Holaday have been doing the catching in Realmuto’s absence.
- The Yankees announced today that they’ve voided right-hander Ben Heller‘s optional assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and instead placed him on the Major League 10-day disabled list with a bone spur in his right elbow. There’s no immediate timetable provided for Heller’s return, though he’ll benefit from being on the MLB disabled list instead of the minor league DL, as he’ll now gain big league service time (and be paid the pro-rated portion of the league minimum) while sidelined.
Marlins Designate Severino Gonzalez For Assignment
The Marlins announced that they’ve designated right-hander Severino Gonzalez for assignment to clear a spot on the roster for right-handed pitching prospect Trevor Richards, who will make his MLB debut and start tonight’s game against the Red Sox.
Gonzalez’s stint with the Marlins will last just one day. Miami selected his contract yesterday to provide some pitching depth, but Gonzalez didn’t get into the game and now won’t have the opportunity to do so in the near future. The Marlins will have seven days to trade Gonzalez or place him on outright waivers. Because Gonzalez has already been outrighted once in his career, he’d have the right to elect free agency if he does pass through waivers unclaimed.
The former Phillies prospect has an unsightly 6.68 ERA in 66 big league innings — albeit with a considerably more impressive 62-to-14 K/BB ratio. Gonzalez hasn’t posted especially impressive ERA marks in the minors, but he’s long displayed very strong control numbers as he’s ascended through the minor league ranks.
Both MLB.com and Baseball America ranked the 24-year-old Richards as Miami’s No. 22 prospect. In 146 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A last season, Richards worked to a pristine 2.53 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 with a ground-ball rate well north of 50 percent. Both scouting reports on Richards peg him as a consistent strike-thrower who’ll pound the zone without overpowering stuff, and each suggests that he could settle in either as a back-of-the-rotation starter or a long reliever.
NL East Notes: Kapler, Braves, Marlins
The Phillies will receive a formal warning letter from Major League Baseball in the wake of an unusual situation from Saturday’s game, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney tweets. The league ruled that home plate umpire Jerry Layne was right to allow Phils reliever Hoby Milner some extra warm-up pitches after Milner was brought into the game seemingly without warning by manager Gabe Kapler, as Milner wasn’t even up in the bullpen. The Braves objected to Milner being allowed any warm-up pitches after being called into the game, yet Layne felt the extra time was necessary for the sake of Milner’s health. Kapler’s usage of his bullpen has already become a controversial subject in Philadelphia, as the Phillies used 21 pitchers over their first three games of the season. “Any time we have a miscommunication it’s my responsibility so I take full responsibility for it,” Kapler told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salibury and other media after the game.
Some more items from the NL East…
- The Braves are set to add both Anibal Sanchez and Carlos Perez to their 25-man roster for tomorrow’s game, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. Corresponding moves have yet to be determined, as Atlanta still isn’t certain whether Kurt Suzuki could require some DL time after he was hit in the hand with a pitch on Friday. Perez is out of options, so the newly-acquired catcher seemed likely to get an immediate placement on the MLB roster to avoid being exposed to waivers. Sanchez was signed to a minor league contract two weeks ago and will make $1MM for reaching the Braves’ big league roster.
- There could be quite a bit of roster-juggling for the Braves in the next couple of weeks, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman details in a reader mailbag piece. Bowman actually wasn’t certain the team would go ahead with promoting Sanchez since the Braves don’t need a fifth starter until April 10, and there wasn’t any major need to use Sanchez out of the bullpen since the relievers weren’t overly taxed over Atlanta’s first three games. (Plus, the Braves are off today and on April 5.) Much will depend on Suzuki’s DL status or if Johan Camargo will be immediately activated when he is eligible to come off the disabled list on April 5, or if the Braves will give Camargo some time in the minors to get fully up to speed after missing three weeks.
- The Marlins will purchase the contract of right-hander Trevor Richards from Triple-A New Orleans tomorrow in time for Richards to start Monday’s game against the Red Sox. The 24-year-old Richards will be making his Major League debut. After going undrafted out of Drury University, Richards pitched in independent ball before signing with the Marlins in 2016 and has done nothing but impress in Miami’s farm system. Richards has a 2.52 ERA, 9.5 K/9, and 4.59 K/BB rate over 200 1/3 innings, starting 34 of his 38 career appearances as a Marlins prospect.
Marlins Designate Brian Ellington, Select Severino Gonzalez
The Marlins have designated right-handed reliever Brian Ellington for assignment and selected the contract of fellow righty Severino Gonzalez, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports.
The flamethrowing Ellington logged significant innings with the Marlins from 2015-17 (a combined 102 2/3) and adeptly prevented runs over his first two years, during which he compiled a 2.64 ERA. That figure came with less enticing peripherals, though, and Ellington crashed to earth last season. The 27-year-old recorded a 7.25 ERA/5.80 FIP with 9.67 K/9, 7.05 BB/9 and a 35.4 percent groundball rate across 44 2/3 innings. He then dealt with biceps tendinitis during spring training, leading the Marlins to send him to Triple-A to open 2018.
Now 25, Gonzalez was once a well-regarded prospect with the Phillies, who dealt him to the Marlins in a small trade over the winter. Gonzalez spent the 2017 season in the minors (mostly Double-A) and posted a 4.82 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 80 1/3 innings. He worked out of the Phillies’ bullpen from 2015-16 and yielded a 6.68 ERA across 66 frames, though he did manage strong strikeout and walk rates (8.45 K/9, 1.91 BB/9).
NL East Notes: Nimmo, Conforto, Cooper, Sanchez
The imminent return of Michael Conforto could force one of his deserving Mets teammates out of a job, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com writes. Specifically, leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo (who reached base four times on opening day) could end up being displaced to the bench, as the Mets also have Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce at the outfield corners. Nimmo, who was the club’s first-round selection in 2011, leapfrogged Juan Lagares on the depth chart with a fantastic spring. However, he doesn’t carry the upside of Conforto or the track record of Bruce or Cespedes. DiComo adds that the Mets are not considering shifting Bruce to first base, as the club seems content with Adrian Gonzalez at that position for the time being. For his part, Nimmo isn’t thinking about the outfield crunch at this time. “When Conforto comes back, we’ll deal with that,” he said. “But as far as right now, I’m just going to try to be me, and be the best me I can.”
Other items from the NL’s eastern teams…
- In other Mets news, Anthony Swarzak left today’s game with an apparent injury. Said injury was later described as a “sore oblique”, and he’s considered day-to-day for the time being (h/t Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). For Swarzak’s part, he’s “not panicking” about the soreness and is hoping it’ll disappear tomorrow.
- After being hit by a pitch on the wrist in yesterday’s 17-inning marathon, Marlins outfielder Garrett Cooper was replaced by fellow outfielder Cameron Maybin. After the game, the club described the injury as a “wrist contusion”, writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. It’s good news for Miami to hear that Cooper’s wrist isn’t broken, but he’s day-to-day for the time being, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to the lineup. “I took the sleeve off, and it was pretty purple,” Cooper said of the injury. “No fracture. Just day-to-day right now. I can move it around. Just a little swollen.”
- The Braves currently have three catchers on the roster, but manager Brian Snitker says that one of them could give way to right-hander Anibal Sanchez soon. David O’Brien of the Atlantla Journal-Constitution writes that while Sanchez has been tabbed for the fifth spot in the rotation (when necessary) for some time, the club may add him sooner than that in case they need to deploy him as a reliever. Sanchez pitched to a horrific 5.67 ERA across 415 2/3 innings across his last three seasons with the Tigers, though his strikeout (8.14 K/9) and walk (2.84) ratios remained generally good during that time.
Marlins Designate Austin Nola For Assignment
The Marlins have designated catcher/infielder Austin Nola for assignment and placed Rule 5 right-hander Brett Graves on the 60-day disabled list, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. The Miami Herald’s Clark Spencer adds that moves clear 40-man spots for the addition of veteran catcher Bryan Holaday, infielder Yadiel Rivera and right-hander Jacob Turner, each of whom has made the Opening Day roster.
Nola, the 28-year-old brother of Philies right-hander Aaron Nola, has yet to reach the big league level after coming off the draft board as a fifth-round selection of the Marlins back in 2012. While he began his pro career playing shortstop, the elder Nola eventually gathered a fair bit of experience at second base and third base before making the even larger jump to catcher last season in the upper minors. To his credit, Nola halted 27 of 65 stolen base attempts against him (42 percent).
Versatility in the field aside, Nola simply hasn’t produced much at the plate as a pro. He’s a career .243/.330/.320 hitter in parts of six minor league seasons, including a .259/.320/.353 slash in 750 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.