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Brewers Designate Marcos Diplan

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The Brewers have designated pitching prospect Marcos Diplan for assignment, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. His 40-man spot goes to righty Jordan Lyles, whose acquisition was just announced.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see the Milwaukee org giving up on a player who was once considered a potential mid-rotation starter. Diplan has never been an elite prospect, but has certainly been on the prospect map for quite some time.

Unfortunately, despite holding a 40-man spot since the fall of 2017, Diplan has yet to earn his way past the Double-A level. He returned there to begin the present season, but continued to struggle. In 114 2/3 total frames at the penultimate level of the minors, Diplan carries a 4.79 ERA with 9.4 K/9 and 5.7 BB/9.

It bears noting that the Brewers could still utilize Diplan in a trade. He can be shipped out to another organization before the trade deadline. Otherwise, he could be a possible waiver claim target for a team that likes his long-term outlook.

Brewers Acquire Jordan Lyles

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2:17pm: The teams have announced the deal.

2:02pm: The Brewers have reached a deal to acquire right-hander Jordan Lyles from the division-rival Pirates, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Milwaukee will send Double-A right-hander Cody Ponce to Pittsburgh in return, tweets Robert Murray of The Athletic.

Jordan Lyles | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

It’s the second straight season that Brewers general manager David Stearns has acquired Lyles, as the Brewers also picked him up in an August waiver deal a season ago. He tossed 16 1/3 innings of 3.31 ERA ball out of the Milwaukee ’pen down the stretch last season before hitting free agency and inking a one-year, $2.05MM deal with the Pirates as a free agent. He’s still owed about $705K of that sum between now and season’s end.

That contract looked like a steal for the first couple months of the season, as Lyles pitched to a 3.09 ERA with a 61-to-19 K/BB ratio in 57 innings through the end of May. He missed time with a hamstring injury last month and has struggled mightily with control issues dating back to early June, however. In 27 innings across his past seven outings, Lyles has been torched for 30 earned runs on 46 hits (including 11 home runs) and 14 walks. He’s still whiffed 34 hitters in that time, maintaining his career-best strikeout tendencies, but the Brewers will obviously be looking for a way to bring back the April/May Lyles rather than the June/July iteration that has manifested.

Clearly, the Brewers aren’t putting much stock in Lyles’ earned run average — few, if any, front offices do at this point — and are instead betting on the career-best strikeout rates and Lyles’ increased reliance on his curveball. It’s a relatively low-profile pickup but one that’ll give Milwaukee a much-needed arm to help stabilize an increasingly worrisome rotation. Brandon Woodruff will be out until September with an oblique strain, and Jhoulys Chacin just hit the injured list within the past few days due to a lat strain. Jimmy Nelson is also on the shelf due to an elbow issue.

Ponce, 25, was the Brewers’ second-round pick back in 2015 but isn’t regarded among the organization’s top tier of prospects. He is, however, in the midst of a strong season in Biloxi, having pitched to a 3.29 ERA with a 44-to-12 K/BB ratio and a 56.5 percent ground-ball rate in 38 1/3 innings out of the bullpen. The 6’6″ inch, 240-pound Ponce ranked as the Brewers’ No. 27 prospect on the offseason, per Baseball America, and BA pegged him 25th among Brewers farmhands on their recent midseason update of their farm system.

Brewers Considering Trading Moustakas, Grandal For Pitching

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Only one game back in the NL Central but featuring one of baseball’s worst farm systems, the Brewers are kicking around ideas to address their beleaguered pitching staff. Per Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic, Milwaukee has had internal discussions about moving one of its productive big leaguers, Yasmani Grandal or Mike Moustakas, to bolster other areas of the roster. As Rosenthal notes, each player is scheduled to hit free agency after this season.

To be clear, such a move would not be part of a broad sell-off. Instead, Milwaukee would consider moving a veteran position player only to add to a starting rotation in desperate need of aid. Injuries to ace Brandon Woodruff and Opening Day starter Jhoulys Chacin in the past week have dealt a blow to what was already the roster’s weak point, while Gio Gonzalez left Friday’s start with shoulder tightness (although fortunately he appears to have avoided another serious injury). Even with Woodruff’s stellar contributions, Milwaukee’s rotation ranks 20th in park-adjusted ERA and 17th in park-adjusted FIP. The current crop of Gonzalez, Zach Davies, Chase Anderson and Adrian Houser hardly inspires much confidence as Milwaukee looks to remain afloat in a crowded NL playoff field.

While there’s little harm in considering creative solutions, it remains difficult to imagine this working in practice. Any club acquiring Moustakas and Grandal would need to be contending this year themselves, since both players are rentals. Given every contender’s reluctance to thin out their pitching depth, it’s hard to find a match on paper. (Indeed, Rosenthal notes it’s possible these discussions haven’t actually led Milwaukee’s front office to contact any potential trade partner yet).

Further, it’s not entirely clear moving one of their top performers would be anything more than a lateral move for Milwaukee. Grandal and Moustakas trail only Christian Yelich among Brewer position players in Fangraphs WAR in 2019. Each has been a strong hitter; Grandal’s 126 wRC+ has been fourth-best among regular catchers, while the Moose’s 119 wRC+ might finally have him poised for the multi-year contract that has so long eluded him.

Replacing Grandal, one of baseball’s best pitch framers, might also have cascading effects on the questionable pitching staff inspiring these talks in the first place, to say nothing of the clear offensive downgrade to backup Manny Pina and/or any veteran stopgap Milwuakee could bring in to replace Grandal behind the dish. Moving on from Moustakas could be easier, Rosenthal opines, with rookie second baseman Keston Hiura raking and veteran Travis Shaw on hand at the hot corner. Shaw, though, has had a woeful offensive season that led Milwaukee to demote him to Triple-A just last month. While he hit well in the minors since then and was an above-average player in each of his first two years in Milwaukee, handing a player sporting a season .160/.273/.283 line a full-time job with little depth on hand may prove too risky.

Given the challenges, it seems more likely than not Milwaukee will hold Grandal and Moustakas and make smaller additions to the pitching staff by moving lower-level prospects. General manager David Stearns and his front office have had success over the past few years turning such seemingly marginal acquisitions (including Shaw himself) into productive big leaguers, so it may be best to hope the player development group can work some more magic. Nevertheless, it’s at least noteworthy to hear the club exploring nontraditional ways to improve. The addition of Grandal and Moustakas to the trade market, if it does end up happening, could change the outlook of the crowded National League race.

Jhoulys Chacin Out 2-4 Weeks With Lat Strain

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  • The injury that forced Brewers righty Jhoulys Chacin to the IL on Thursday is a lat strain – not an oblique strain, as was previously believed – per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The Brewers expect Chacin to miss two to four weeks. After back-to-back productive seasons, the 31-year-old has managed an awful 5.79 ERA/5.69 FIP across 88 2/3 innings in 2019. Chacin’s struggles, not to mention his injury, are among the reasons the Brewers could bolster their rotation ahead of the deadline.

Gio Gonzalez Exits With Shoulder Tightness

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10:34pm: Gonzalez may have avoided a serious injury. Manager Craig Counsell said after the game, which the Brewers came back to win, that Gonzalez is day-to-day and could make his next start (via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

10:03pm: The Brewers announced that left-hander Gio Gonzalez exited his start against the Cubs on Friday with shoulder tightness. That’s a potentially ominous development for a Milwaukee club already down two starters, Brandon Woodruff and Jhoulys Chacin, because of injuries.

The 33-year-old Gonzalez only just returned from his own IL stint. Thanks to a dead arm, Gonzalez went from May 27 until July 20 without taking the ball at the major league level. During the eight starts Gonzalez has made this year, including his 6 1/3-inning, two-run performance against the Cubs, he has recorded an effective 3.48 ERA/3.30 FIP with 7.84 K/9, 2.61 BB/9 and a 42.8 percent groundball rate over 41 1/3 innings.

The Brewers couldn’t have realistically expected the type of results they’ve received from Gonzalez on a per-inning basis when they signed him in late April. That came after an odd several months for Gonzalez, who – despite years of quality work with the Athletics and Nationals – was unable to find a guaranteed contract in the offseason. Gonzalez instead settled for a minor league deal with the Yankees toward the end of March, ultimately opting out of it to take a better opportunity in Milwaukee.

As of this writing, the Brewers are trailing the Cubs, 2-1, in the eighth inning of the NL Central rivals’ hugely important matchup. First-place Chicago entered this weekend’s three-game set with a two-game lead over Milwaukee, which is 1 1/2 back of wild-card position. General manager David Stearns suggested earlier this week the loss of Woodruff’s unlikely to affect the Brewers’ plans heading into the July 31 trade deadline. However, the team appeared as if it needed starting help even before Woodruff suffered an oblique strain that will keep him out several weeks, and that will become all the more obvious if it sees Gonzalez join him and Chacin on the shelf.

Brewers To Call Up Travis Shaw

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The Brewers will call infielder Travis Shaw up from Triple-A prior to tomorrow’s game, The Athletic’s Robert Murray and Ken Rosenthal report (Twitter link).  Shaw will take the 25-man roster spot left open by Jhoulys Chacin’s placement on the 10-day injured list.

Shaw was demoted on June 27, but has since shredded Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .316/.494/.754 slash line and eight home runs over only 77 plate appearances.  While the Pacific Coast League is notoriously hitter-friendly, Shaw’s breakout provides some hope that he has gotten on track after a dreadful beginning to the 2019 season.  Shaw hit just .164/.278/.290 with six homers over 212 PA for the Brewers, though his performance could have been hampered by a wrist injury that cost him roughly three weeks on the injured list.

While Shaw may be back in the majors, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be back in an everyday role.  The Brewers are likely to stick with Keston Hiura at second base as long as the prized rookie’s bat stays hot, and Shaw obviously isn’t supplanting Mike Moustakas at third.  This could leave first base as Shaw’s best option for playing time, though Eric Thames (another left-handed bat) is hitting well in part-time duty alongside struggling right-handed hitter Jesus Aguilar.

Milwaukee could also simply use Shaw in several places around the diamond, seeing time at first, second, and third base spelling the regulars or being a late-game replacement.  With the trade deadline also looming on July 31, the Brewers could also be looking to shop Shaw (or Thames or Aguilar) to any interested parties, as pitching seems like a much bigger need for the Brew Crew than infield depth.

Brewers Place Jhoulys Chacin On 10-Day Injured List

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TODAY: The Brewers have officially announced Chacin’s IL placement.  A corresponding move will be announced tomorrow.

YESTERDAY: Brewers right-hander Jhoulys Chacin is on his way to the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. It’ll be the second IL stint of 2019 for Chacin, who previously missed time with a lower back strain.

When healthy, the 31-year-old Chacin has been a major disappointment for the reigning NL Central champion Brewers, which is one of the reasons why they’re out of a playoff spot right now. At 54-50, they’re two games behind the division-leading Cubs and one back of the NL’s second wild-card spot. Chacin helped guide the Brewers to a playoff spot a year ago, but he has pitched to a woeful 5.79 ERA/5.70 FIP with 8.12 K/9, 3.96 BB/9 and a 37.4 percent groundball rate in 88 2/3 innings this season.

Chacin’s struggles are among the reasons Milwaukee’s a prime candidate to acquire rotation help in advance of the July 31 trade deadline. General manager David Stearns downplayed the possibility Tuesday, but the Brewers are now without two starters in Chacin and their No. 1, Brandon Woodruff. Worsening the Brewers’ situation, their main healthy options – Zach Davies, Chase Anderson and Gio Gonzalez – don’t inspire a great deal of confidence.

Free Agent Stock Watch: Mike Moustakas

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You already know the essentials here. Mike Moustakas has twice entered the open market in apparent position to secure a strong, multi-year contract. And he has twice come away with a one-year pillow deal (in each case involving a mutual option that mostly functions to defer some salary). As he closes in on his 31st birthday at the tail end of the 2019 season, Moustakas is still playing well. Can he finally hit it big in free agency? Or will he again be forced to go year-to-year?

When Moustakas first prepared for free agency, entering his age-29 season, he seemed a good bet for a rather hefty contract. He had bounced back well from an injury-limited 2016 campaign; rejecting a qualifying offer was a foregone conclusion. Last winter, the value was down a bit, as were the expectations, but Moustakas still seemed to carry the profile of a player that could hold down regular playing time for a contender. He got a bigger contract, but only a single-season promise.

Fool me once, fool me twice … how about a third time? If the season ended today, I’d be on board once again with predicting multiple seasons at a strong salary. His prior forays may not have ended as hoped, but Moustakas has now twice disproved the doubters. He’s much the same player as ever … thus knocking down some of the biggest questions raised. And there are also some notable shifts in his profile that enhance his appeal.

Offensively, Moustakas hasn’t undergone any reinventions. Instead, he has more or less been the best possible version of himself in 2019. His 123 wRC+ matches his career-best mark from his breakout 2015 season. He’s still tough to strike out (16.8%) and is sporting a career-best 8.3% walk rate. Moose is stinging the ball (career-best 43.0% hard-hit rate) and spraying it to all fields more than ever, even while carrying a career-best .276 isolated power mark and setting a pace to challenge his personal-high of 38 home runs (he has 26 through 410 plate appearances).

Even if we bake in a bit of regression, we’re looking at a pretty strong baseline here. Moustakas has been about 15% better than the league-average hitter over nearly a five-year span. He has stayed in range of that performance level, establishing quite a consistent path. And he has even ironed out his platoon splits this year, performing a touch better against left-handed pitching than against righties. That shift actually accounts for most of Moustakas’s overall improvement at the plate and could be an interesting development in its own right, though it’s tough to assess whether it’s sustainable. The cherry on top offensively? Moustakas appears to be executing better on the bases, with Fangraphs’ BsR grading him as an approximately average runner this season after panning him in some prior campaigns.

And that’s all before we get to the most interesting aspect of Moustakas … his sudden and surprising defensive versatility. He has typically graded well at third base, so it isn’t as if the glove was ever considered a weakness. But there was concern that we were seeing the beginning of a downturn when Moustakas drew negative metrics in 2017, even though he bounced back to average last year. There never seemed to be much hope that he’d expand his repertoire.

As it turns out, the Brewers had other ideas … and they were pretty good ones. The club made the bold move of signing Moustakas with full intentions of deploying him at second base. As things have shaken out, he has split his time between second and his accustomed hot corner. And … Moustakas has thrived at both, grading as a net positive at his new spot and turning in revived marks from both UZR and DRS at third base.

Any other questions? How about durability and conditioning? The torn ACL that ended Moustakas’s ’16 campaign is fully healed. He has never had trouble staying on the field otherwise. While he’s still not speedy, Moustakas has restored his average sprint speed to pre-2016 levels and improved his home-to-first time in successive seasons (by measure of Statcast). Scouts throwing shade at his dad bod may well be humming a different tune this winter. By measure of the eye test, at least, Moustakas is carrying a relatively svelte physique at the moment.

Moustakas will always be more moose than antelope, but he’s also forcing us to reevaluate what such a creature can do on a ballfield. Right now, Moustakas is maximizing his tools offensively, smoothing some rough edges to various aspects of his game, and showing enhanced defensive value and roster versatility. There are some quality infielders on the upcoming market, most notably hot corner stalwarts Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson, but there should still be plenty of places for Moustakas to land. While he’ll obviously be entering free agency at a more advanced age than he did in his two prior experiences, the third trip might well end up being his most lucrative.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Interest In Mets’ Pitchers

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Most reports out of New York over the past few weeks have echoed a familiar trio of names when assessing their trade chips: Zack Wheeler, Todd Frazier and Jason Vargas. The three are free agents at season’s end — Vargas does have an $8MM club option ($2MM buyout) that looks increasingly intriguing — making them natural candidates to be shipped out by a 46-54 Mets team that is closer to the NL’s worst record than to the division lead.

The larger source of intrigue surrounds whether the Mets would move assets controlled beyond the current season. To that end, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports within his latest column that the Mets “have been open to dealing” embattled closer Edwin Diaz. General manager Brodie Van Wagenen isn’t in any type of rush to move his offseason headliner, however. Rather, he’s endeavored to receive a comparable package to the one he surrendered in order to get Diaz in the first place. MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets a similar sentiment, noting that the ask on Diaz is “so sky-high that it’s basically a non-starter.” Though ESPN.com’s Buster Olney suggests on Twitter that the Dodgers are a nice match on paper, he doesn’t indicate whether the sides have had actual discussions — let alone whether the Los Angeles organization would meet the Mets’ asking price.

Finding a deal that compares to the one that brought Diaz to New York seems an impossible order. In addition to taking on a hefty chunk of the Robinson Cano contract, the Mets parted with a pair of young players — Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn — who are soaring through the Mariners’ system and up top prospect rankings. Diaz’s strikeout, walk, ground-ball and swinging-strike rates have all gone in the wrong direction. And while he’s tossed six shutout innings since his most recent meltdown — a four-run collapse against the Phillies — he’s still lugging a 4.81 ERA with as many blown saves (four) as he had all of last season.

Even teams that feel they have an answer for Diaz’s struggles wouldn’t be willing to pay a metaphorical dollar-for-dollar rate in negotiations with the Mets. As for taking a lesser deal, the optics of trading him for cents on the dollar while retaining Cano and the sizable portion of his salary they absorbed in that deal would be poor, to say the least. Diaz is controlled through 2022, so a strong finish and/or a 2020 rebound would do wonders for his value.

It seems more plausible that if the Mets were to receive a sizable offer on a controllable arm, it’d be Noah Syndergaard. Olney tweets that the Mets are “seriously listening” to rival clubs that have interest. While Syndergaard hasn’t really thrown in a way that buttresses his own trade value, he’s throwing hard and seems to be in good health. His 4.36 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 would all be career-worsts if the season ended today, but his track record and upside are so impressive that there’ll be loads of interest.

Whether that listening stance has a real chance of turning into meaningful trade talks remains to be seen. Both Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (Twitter links) and Andy Martino of SNY cite the Yankees as the club with perhaps the keenest level of interest in Syndergaard. Both reports suggest that top pitching prospect Deivi Garcia could be a headliner in such a deal, and while GM Brian Cashman plainly stated a couple weeks back that he wouldn’t move Garcia for a rental, Heyman suggests that the Yankees would “surely” put Garcia in play if meant obtaining Syndergaard, who is controlled through 2021.

Of course, the Yankees and Mets simply haven’t dealt with one another on the trade market at any point in recent history, which makes negotiations all the more complicated. And Olney tweets that he doesn’t think the New York rivals will be able to make a deal on such a significant player. Martino writes that the two teams have nevertheless talked Syndergaard “many times” this month, swapping proposals and counterproposals with no real progress being made. A deal is characterized as unlikely, although he also lists the Astros, Padres, Brewers and, to a lesser extent, the Twins as teams trying to pry Syndergaard loose.

That high asking price may not be the case with regard to Wheeler, whose value partially hinges on how well he performs in Friday’s expected return from the injured list. The Mets’ hope seems to be that a strong outing will quiet some concerns about Wheeler’s recent shoulder flareup, but the injury undoubtedly quelled some interest in him. Despite the concerns, Yahoo’s Mike Mazzeo cites a Mets official as calling the chances of a Wheeler trade “pretty high.”

If the Mets don’t find any offers on Wheeler to be viable or, even worse, he experiences renewed shoulder discomfort and is forced back to the IL, the club could retain him and issue a qualifying offer at season’s end. Barring a worrying showing, though, it may be that the Mets will end up simply taking the best offer on a player whose tenure in New York has seen its share of peaks and valleys.

Does Brandon Woodruff’s Injury Affect Brewers’ Deadline Plans?

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The Brewers will go without their best starter, Brandon Woodruff, for approximately six weeks after he suffered an oblique strain Sunday. Woodruff’s absence could make it all the more imperative for the Brewers to add a starter before the July 31 trade deadline, but general manager David Stearns conveyed a lack of urgency on the matter Tuesday.

Asked if the Brewers now feel more pressure to address their rotation, Stearns said (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): “I don’t know that we can let his temporary absence impact how we manage the deadline. I have found that potential acquisition costs generally dictate what is reasonable and what is not.”

With only about nine weeks left in the regular season, it’s probably not reassuring to Brewers fans to hear their GM brush off Woodruff’s absence as “temporary.” Even before the emergent right-hander went down, there was a strong case Milwaukee needed to pick up another starter prior to the end of the month. For what it’s worth, the team did reportedly show interest in the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard–Zack Wheeler duo (links here) and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner (link) back when Woodruff was healthy.

As for the Brewers’ current options, Zach Davies has prevented runs to an impressive degree, but his peripherals don’t inspire nearly as much confidence. Chase Anderson has turned in fine results, though he has only completed six innings in one start. Jhoulys Chacin’s season has been calamitous. Gio Gonzalez just returned from an almost two-month absence because of a dead arm, and has only averaged five frames per outing when he has taken the ball. Adrian Houser had been in the rotation out of desperation before Gonzalez came back last weekend, but the production he has posted as a starter and reliever indicates he’s much better off in a bullpen role.

The flaws in the Brewers’ rotation have helped lead to several weeks of underwhelming play from the club, though it’s still smack dab in the playoff hunt. With a 53-46 record, the reigning NL Central champions are two games behind the division-leading Cubs and 1 1/2 out of a wild-card spot. Of course, it would have been a challenge for the Brewers to clinch their second straight playoff berth for the first time since 1982 even if Woodruff had avoided the IL. Now, if the team doesn’t adequately replace Woodruff in the next week, its chances of fading from the race seem likely to increase.

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