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Giancarlo Stanton Could Return In Late September

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AUG. 28: Stanton could indeed be back for the last week of the season, per FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman, though his recovery would have to go “absolutely perfect” (Twitter link).

AUG. 21: Giancarlo Stanton’s season was thought to be over when news broke of his severe groin strain last week, though the slugger isn’t closing the door on a return.  Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill told MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro that Stanton is aiming to play during the last week of the regular season and, as everyone in the organization hopes, the postseason as well.

Stanton suffered a Grade 3 strain, and the Marlins put a six-week timeline on his recovery in a best-case scenario.  That means Stanton is expecting a minimal amount of recovery time in order to return for the Marlins’ last handful of regular season games.  Hill said Stanton’s rehab process is progressing well, though “I don’t think we’ll be able to truly assess where he’s at until he is doing functional, on-field stuff.”

Groin and muscle strains can be difficult injuries to properly gauge, so while Stanton may simply be being optimistic, it could also be possible that his strain (severe as it is) heals quicker than projected and he is able to get back on the field.  It has also been only a week into Stanton’s rehab, of course, so it seems far too soon to tell if the slugger has a realistic chance of playing against in 2016.

The Marlins have been linked to outfielders like Carlos Gomez (who has since joined the Rangers) and Jeff Francoeur in the wake of Stanton’s injury as the Fish look for a platoon partner for Ichiro Suzuki.  The prospect of a final-week return for Stanton probably won’t impact this search, given the uncertainty of his recovery.

Marlins To Attend Tim Tebow's Workout

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The Marlins will attend former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow’s workout for major league teams Tuesday in Los Angeles, a source told George Richards and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Tebow has experienced plenty of success in Florida, of course, having won a Heisman Trophy and two national championships as the Gators’ starting signal-caller from 2007-09. The 29-year-old faces long odds of landing a contract with a major league team, though, as he hasn’t played baseball in more than a decade. As for the Marlins, Richards and Jackson note that they have a scout in the LA area and will merely do their due diligence in checking out Tebow’s audition.

Padres Claim Oswaldo Arcia From Marlins

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The Padres have claimed Oswaldo Arcia from the Marlins, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. Arcia will start in the Padres’ outfield tonight. The team has optioned outfielder Patrick Kivlehan to make room for Arcia on its active roster.

The last two months have been something of a whirlwind for Arcia. The Twins designated him for assignment in mid-June, then traded him to the Rays. After 61 plate appearances, the Rays designated him, and the Marlins claimed him this week before designating him for assignment Thursday.

It’s not hard to see why many teams find Arcia somewhat appealing, just as it’s easy to see the flaws that have prevented him from sticking with a team this season. He’s just 25 and has obvious power, with 42 home runs in 1,030 career big-league plate appearances. Unfortunately, he’s also struck out in over 30% of his plate appearances and doesn’t walk much, leading to low batting averages and on-base percentages. It appears he’ll get another shot in San Diego, where he’ll join an outfield that’s been depleted by a host of recent injuries (Jon Jay, Jabari Blash) and recent trades (Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton).

Marlins Designate Oswaldo Arcia For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that they have designated outfielder Oswaldo Arcia for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for the newly acquired Jeff Francoeur. Arcia had only recently been claimed off waivers from the Rays, but his time with the Marlins will amount to just two games/two plate appearances.

The 25-year-old former top prospect has now been designated for assignment three times this season — once by the Twins and once by the Rays prior to today’s move. Arcia showed promise coming up through the Twins system and in 2013-14 when he batted .241/.302/.441 with 34 homers across 200 games in his first two big league seasons after debuting as a 21-year-old. However, Arcia’s defensive shortcomings in the corner outfield are tough to overlook, and he’s posted lofty strikeout totals while hitting poorly against left-handed pitching in the Majors. Over the past two seasons, his power has taken a dip, and an extended run at the Triple-A level in 2015 yielded just a .199/.257/.372 slash.

Nonetheless, Arcia is still young and has shown some legitimate pop against right-handed pitching in his career, so he makes some sense as a bench bat for a contending club looking for some left-handed punch. In 715 career plate appearances against right-handed opponents, Arcia has slashed .244/.316/.467 with 36 home runs. He’s out of minor league options, so any club that claims him will have to carry him on its big league roster. However, with rosters set to expand a week from today, that’s not as tall an order as it would be earlier in the season.

D-Backs Nearing Extension With CEO Derrick Hall; Stewart Decision Unlikely Before End Of Season

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The Diamondbacks are nearing an eight-year contract extension with president and CEO Derrick Hall, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The new contract will replace Hall’s expiring contract and run through the 2024 season. Hall has been the club’s president since 2006 and CEO since 2008.

While Hall’s fate looks to be sorted out (with the result coming as little surprise), the same can’t be said of chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and GM Dave Stewart, both of whom are currently in limbo as their superiors (Hall included) evaluate what has been a wildly disappointing season for the D-backs. Stewart’s contract is reported to have an option that must be exercised by the end of the month of August, but Hall tells Piecoro that the team will push that decision back a ways. “We’ve decided we’ll go until the end of the season and then we’ll evaluate everything,” said Hall. “It was pretty successful last year, and we know there have been a lot of injuries, a lot of things haven’t gone our way. There’s a lot to think about here.”

In an effort to take some of the heat off of his baseball ops department, Hall stressed that while La Russa and Stewart may be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the club, he plays a role in those decisions by having a say on final approval as well. “I’m obviously just as guilty with approvals or disapprovals and all the meetings I’m a part of,” he said. “I think we all have to look in the mirror right now when it comes to baseball and really turn the page and start to produce.”

Piecoro also asked Hall about a weekend report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, which stated that Hall and owner Ken Kendrick stepped in and vetoed a trade of Shelby Miller to the Marlins and the dismissal of manager Chip Hale. Hall didn’t deny either report, and in reference to Miller said that he didn’t feel this was an instance of ownership being too involved in operations, explaining that about 95 percent of proposed deals receive approval, but there is also a “small percent that we challenge or push back.” Regarding Hale, Hall simply said that as was the case with Stewart, the team plans to see how the remainder of the season plays out before making any kind of final decision. Hale, like Stewart, has an option on his contract for the 2017 season.

The D-backs have limed to a 53-74 record that is currently tied with the Padres for the second-worst in all of Major League Baseball this season. Injuries to the likes of A.J. Pollock, David Peralta, Chris Owings, Zack Greinke and Rubby De La Rosa (among others) have certainly played a significant role in that lackluster performance but have also magnified the poor results from a number of the team’s other recent personnel moves, prompting speculation about the futures of La Russa and Stewart.

Marlins Acquire Jeff Francoeur In Three-Team Deal With Braves, Rangers

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The Marlins announced tonight that they have acquired outfielder Jeff Francoeur and cash considerations from the Braves in a three-team deal that also involves the Rangers. The Braves will acquire minor league shortstop Dylan Moore from the Rangers and minor league catcher/first baseman Matt Foley from the Marlins. The Rangers, meanwhile, will receive three international bonus slots — two from the Marlins and one from the Braves — that total $860K in value.

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Francoeur will give the Marlins a right-handed bat to play in right field in the wake of Giancarlo Stanton’s injury, possibly sharing time with the left-handed-hitting Oswaldo Arcia (whom Miami claimed off waivers from the Rays earlier this week) and veteran Ichiro Suzuki.

While the veteran Francoeur’s overall .249/.290/.381 batting line isn’t especially impressive, his .273/.313/.431 line against lefties is much more palatable, and he regularly draws positive reviews for his presence in the clubhouse. Any alignment featuring regular time from Francoeur and/or Arcia figures to be sub-par from a defensive standpoint, but the pair’s platoon stats (Arcia is a .244/.317/.468 hitter vs. righties) complement each other nicely, and Ichiro still profiles as a useful defender in right even at 42 years of age.

The 32-year-old Francoeur is a free agent at season’s end, making this is a short-term pickup for the Fish. Francoeur inked a minor league pact with Atlanta this offseason that came with a $1MM base salary and another $1MM available via incentives. Presumably, the cash considerations headed to Miami will help cover the remaining $213K on Francoeur’s deal plus any incentives he may have already reached. (The specific nature of his performance bonuses was not reported at the time of his signing.)

As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out (Twitter link), the $860K total value of the international slots in this deal, when paired with the $210K the Rangers acquired in the trade that sent outfielder Ryan Strausborger to the Mariners, mean that Texas has acquired the maximum $1.07MM they were allowed to add to their international signing pool. Per the league’s stipulations, a team can only acquire up to 50 percent of its original bonus pool, and Texas entered the current signing period with a pool of $2,157,400 (per Baseball America).

Neither Moore nor Foley ranked within the top 30 prospects of their respective organizations. The 24-year-old Moore, though, has enjoyed a nice season split between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, hitting .263/.377/.440 with 14 homers and 40 stolen bases. While it should be pointed out that the 2015 seventh-round pick spent most of the season playing at Class-A, where he was a good bit older than the average player in the league, his production didn’t really take off until he was moved up to High-A, where he has slashed .351/.400/.649 with five homers in just 17 games. He’s a bit old for that level as well, but his quick adaptation could prompt further promotion. Beyond that, he’s a jack of all trades in the field, as pointed out by David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). Moore has played every position on the field except catcher, and that includes pitcher (though the seven hits he allowed in his lone inning of work probably mean he won’t be spending much time on the mound in the future).

Foley, meanwhile, has spent the season with the Marlins’ Rookie-level affiliate in Arizona before recently being bumped up to short-season Class-A. The 2015 40th-rounder has totaled just 44 plate appearances and batted .257/.386/.257 and caught one of four runners that have attempted to steal against him.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that a trade between the Braves and Rangers had been agreed to (via Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post added that it was a three-team deal that would send Francoeur to Miami (links to Twitter). Rosenthal tweeted that international bonus money would go to Texas, and Sherman tweeted that the Braves would send one slot while the Marlins would send two. MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweeted that Foley was in the trade, and 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Marlins Claim Oswaldo Arcia, Place Derek Dietrich On 15-Day DL

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The Marlins have claimed outfielder Oswaldo Arcia off waivers from the Rays, the club announced. He’ll take the active roster spot of Derek Dietrich, who hits the 15-day DL with a right knee contusion, and occupy the 40-man spot of first baseman Justin Bour, who moves to the 60-day DL.

[Related: Updated Rays Depth Chart]

Adding an outfielder has long been said to be on the Miami to-do list. While picking Arcia off the waiver wire may not have been the club’s top preference, he’ll help fill the corner outfield mix with Giancarlo Stanton expected to miss much of the remainder of the year.

The talented 25-year-old has had his ups and downs, but was carrying a useful .259/.328/.444 in his 61 plate appearances in Tampa Bay before his release. Still, he parted ways with the Rays by way of his second trip to DFA limbo on the year, so teams obviously have reservations about Arcia’s ability to regain his former trajectory.

Unfortunately, the addition will come even as Dietrich becomes unavailable, joining Bour as injured southpaw hitters who could provide some pop at first base. Arcia represents another lefty bat to help bolster the lineup, but it doesn’t seem that he’ll be an option at first, which he has never played as a professional.

Though Miami has moved Bour to the 60-day DL, that doesn’t seem to change his ability to return when ready. He was placed on the DL retroactive to July 3, and isn’t expected back before the middle of September anyway.

Michael Hill Discusses Marlins Roster

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With the Marlins sitting just out of Wild Card position, president of baseball operations Michael Hill discussed his team’s roster with MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. While Hill didn’t get into specifics, he did suggest that Miami will continue looking for ways to improve its roster.

The club only has about a week to add playoff-eligible players, of course, but has been said to be looking at both pitching and outfield additions. “We’re right in the thick of this thing,” Hill said when asked about possible acquisitions. “Every win counts. We’re going to give ourselves every opportunity to do so, hopefully throughout the rest of August and into September.”

As ever, internal dynamics can have the largest impact. First and foremost, Hill noted that the return of A.J. Ramos will restore the late-inning mix that the club hoped for when it acquired Fernando Rodney earlier in the summer. Rodney will stay in the ninth inning for the time being.

The starting staff is still hurting with Adam Conley and Wei-Yin Chen on the shelf. It seems that the former is closer to his return, though his timetable remains uncertain. Hill suggested that the hope is Chen can make it back by the end of the regular season, though it appears that his elbow injury will keep him out through at least most of the month of September.

Critically, ace Jose Fernandez is on track for the team’s innings target, according to Hill. The team’s top baseball operations man says that Fernandez is set up to shoulder a full workload down the stretch and into a hopeful post-season berth.

Also, with Justin Bour still working his way back from an ankle injury, the Marlins expect to mix and match at first base to get their best bats into the lineup. Hill said that manager Don Mattingly will decide who to go to among Derek Dietrich, Chris Johnson, and the just-recalled Xavier Scruggs.

Details On Fernando Rodney's 2017 Club Option

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  • The value of Fernando Rodney’s 2017 team option has risen to $3.5MM due to Rodney reaching various incentive clauses for game played and games finished, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes.  Rodney’s appearance on Sunday was his 53rd of the season, so he is well on pace to earn another $500K bonus for hitting the 60-game plateau.  Today was also his 35th game finished, and Rodney will also earn another $500K if he finishes 40 games and then $500K more for every five finishes thereafter.  Though he got a save today, Rodney will likely return to his role as setup man for the Marlins now that A.J. Ramos is back off the DL.   Jackson isn’t sure if the Fish will exercise Rodney’s option or buy him out for $400K.
  • The process behind the Diamondbacks’ already-infamous trade for Shelby Miller is recapped by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, as the Snakes were intent on adding another top-caliber arm to pair with Zack Greinke last offseason.  Names such as the Marlins’ Jose Fernandez and the Indians’ Danny Salazar were discussed but GM Dave Stewart said those clubs were asking for more than the D’Backs eventually gave up to land Miller from the Braves; both teams wanted A.J. Pollock and Miami also wanted Patrick Corbin.  Once the Braves moved off Pollock themselves and the D’Backs made it clear that pretty much anyone else (including first overall pick Dansby Swanson) could be had, the trade came together quickly.
  • The value of Fernando Rodney’s 2017 team option has risen to $3.5MM due to Rodney reaching various incentive clauses for game played and games finished, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes.  Rodney’s appearance on Sunday was his 53rd of the season, so he is well on pace to earn another $500K bonus for hitting the 60-game plateau.  Today was also his 35th game finished, and Rodney will also earn another $500K if he finishes 40 games and then $500K more for every five finishes thereafter.  Though he got a save today, Rodney will likely return to his role as setup man for the Marlins now that A.J. Ramos is back off the DL.   Jackson isn’t sure if the Fish will exercise Rodney’s option or buy him out for $400K.

D’Backs Ownership Stopped Shelby Miller Trade With Marlins, Hale Firing

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The Diamondbacks and Marlins had worked out a trade that would have sent Shelby Miller to Miami in exchange for three starting pitchers, only for Arizona ownership to shoot down the deal, a Marlins executive tells USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.  The two sides had been linked in talks about Miller, with Miami right-handed pitching prospect Luis Castillo reportedly mentioned as a trade chip before Castillo was dealt to San Diego as part of the Marlins’ deal for Andrew Cashner.

As Nightengale writes (semi-facetiously), the reason given by D’Backs ownership was that such a trade “just wouldn’t look good,” considering the stunningly big trade package the Snakes gave up last winter to acquire Miller from the Braves.  The same “wouldn’t look good” reasoning also impacted another ownership decision, as D’Backs chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and GM Dave Stewart were considering replacing manager Chip Hale with Triple-A skipper Phil Nevin before being told that a managerial change wouldn’t happen.

Nightengale uses these ownership interventions to argue that La Russa, Stewart and senior VP of baseball operations De Jon Watson shouldn’t be blamed for the Diamondbacks’ struggles this season, nor should the trio be fired after less than two years on the job.  The fate of Arizona’s front office is yet to be decided, as 2017 options for Stewart and Watson are up on August 31 and La Russa’s option is up after the season.  As Fan Rag Sports’ Jon Heyman noted earlier this week and Nightengale reiterates here, D’Backs upper management is hoping to let August 31 pass without a decision so they can delay their choice until after the season.

Without knowing what exactly the Marlins were offering for Miller, it’s hard to say that ownership necessarily made the wrong move in nixing the trade.  Obviously, Miami’s offer wouldn’t have come close to matching Dansby Swanson/Ender Inciarte/Aaron Blair, though the feeling could have been that La Russa and Stewart were selling low on Miller.  The three pitchers on Miami’s end of the deal would have almost certainly been prospects, and there wouldn’t have been any blue chip arms in the group given the Marlins’ low-rated farm system.

Hale’s name has been on the hot seat for weeks, and a managerial change would’ve been less surprising than the D’Backs cutting bait on Miller after less than a season.  It’s unknown if La Russa and Stewart were specifically planning to fire Hale or if they were still discussing the idea.  Hale has a 130-156 record as Arizona’s manager and is is under contract for the 2017 season.

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