Yankees Sign Quintin Berry
The Yankees announced today that they have signed outfielder Quintin Berry to a minor-league deal. Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com had reported the news on Twitter.
Berry had spent the season in the minors in the Brewers organization before his recent release. In 98 plate appearances on the year, the 33-year-old carries a .216/.296/.318 slash. He was also successful on ten of eleven stolen-base attempts, however. Likewise, through over two thousand career plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, Berry is just a .241/.337/.309 hitter but has swiped 159 bags.
It’s something of an annual tradition for Berry to pop up on the radar at this time of year. He has been utilized as a late-season and even postseason bench piece, owing to his sterling reputation as a baserunner. It’s possible, then, that he’ll show up on the Yankees roster at some point once rosters expand, though the organization would have to open a 40-man spot to utilize him in the majors.
Reds Pull Matt Harvey Off Revocable Waivers
1:14pm: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that Reds owner Bob Castellini “loves” Harvey, which could’ve played a role in the decision to retain him. Heyman agrees, tweeting that Castellini ultimately did not want to trade the right-hander, which could indicate that the Reds will push to re-sign him this winter.
12:20pm: Even more definitively, Reds GM Nick Krall tells C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic that Harvey will remain with the team (Twitter link).
12:15pm: Bob Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Harvey will not be traded to the Brewers before the deadline expires (Twitter link). He’ll start today’s game in a Reds uniform and, presumably, remain with the Reds through season’s end.
7:23am: The Brewers are the team that placed the winning claim on Reds right-hander Matt Harvey on Wednesday, reports Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). They’ve yet to agree to a trade with the Reds, it seems, though there’s still time to do so before waivers on Harvey expire this afternoon at 1:30pm ET. Harvey recently landed 12th on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the Top 20 August trade candidates in baseball.
Much has been mad about the Brewers perceived need for rotation help, though in truth, all five members of their current rotation have generally outperformed Harvey even since his trade to the Reds. Jhoulys Chacin, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley all have ERAs of 4.02 or better, and of that bunch, only Anderson lags behind Harvey’s 4.50 FIP.
[Related: Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]
Having said that, there’s certainly plenty of reason to maintain interest in Harvey all the same; Miley has been injured for much of the season and has totaled just 45 1/3 innings after a pair of dismal seasons in the American League in 2016-17. Peralta, meanwhile, is a rookie who has already thrown a combined 130 1/3 innings between the Majors and minors after totaling 120 frames in 2017. Anderson is among the game’s most homer-prone starters. Guerra has had a solid season but pitched at sub-replacement level in 2017. Adding Harvey to the staff, especially considering the improvements he’s made since being traded from New York to Cincinnati, has plenty of merit even if it can be argued that it shouldn’t be an imperative.
Harvey has unquestionably improved since changing uniforms a first time this season, working to a solid 4.28 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 1.39 HR/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 90 1/3 innings. Much of the damage against him came in one eight-run meltdown against the Pirates back on July 22, but the majority of Harvey’s starts with the Reds have at the very least been competitive efforts outside of that showing. He’s still averaging just 5 1/3 innings per start, but Harvey’s velocity has steadily increased with Cincinnati. He’s also seen a modest improvement in his swinging-strike rate (currently 8.9 percent) and seen substantial jump in his chase rate on out-of-zone pitches while also throwing first-pitch strikes at a considerably higher clip (up to 63.3 percent).
There’s little denying that Harvey would at the very least deepen the current pitching staff by adding another serviceable arm to the mix, and that depth is especially important with rosters set to expand in September. Even incremental upgrades for the Brewers should be viewed as important, given that they’re currently 3.5 games back of the National League Central-leading Cubs and a half-game behind the Cardinals in the division as well. Milwaukee is more favorably positioned in the Wild Card hunt — currently tied with Colorado for the second spot and a half-game back of the Cardinals, who hold the top spot.
For the Reds, there’s been no indication that they’d simply let Harvey go via waivers. His $5.6MM salary has about $1.13MM remaining to be paid out, so the financial implications aren’t exactly overwhelming. But if the Brewers are willing to offer even a modest prospect in return, the Reds should be happy to add to their continually improving farm system in exchange for a pitcher who is otherwise set to hit free agency after the season.
Brewers Option Corey Knebel, Zach Davies
The Brewers have optioned righties Corey Knebel and Zach Davies, per the MLB.com transactions page. (H/t MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy & Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Twitter links.) Davies had been on a rehab assignment following an extended absence.
This move is notable enough for what it says about two of the team’s most important pitchers heading into the season. But it’s also an intriguing development with the revocable waiver trade deadline drawing near.
[RELATED: Brewers Depth Chart]
Knebel was expected to anchor the Milwaukee pen, but carries a 5.08 ERA through 39 innings on the season. He has generated 12.7 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 along with a 50.0% groundball rate, but has also been touched for home runs on 28.0% of the flyballs put in play against him. Knebel is sitting just under 97 mph with his average fastball, but has lost some of swinging-strike gains from 2017, with his 13.9% rate falling to 11.6% this year. His struggles have deepened of late, as he has coughed up eight earned runs in his past 6 1/3 innings.
As for Davies, who turned in solid campaigns from the rotation in each of the past two years, the 2018 season has been a rough one thus far. He only managed a 5.23 ERA through eight starts before hitting the shelf with shoulder troubles. Davies has actually taken more starts in the minors this year than in the majors, owing to a halting rehab course.
While Knebel will head to Triple-A to work out the kinks, Davies was formally assigned to the organization’s nearby Class A affiliate. The reason for the latter’s placement isn’t entirely clear, but it could be that the club thinks it may need to bring him back onto the MLB roster on short notice or that he’ll be getting some added rest time without re-starting another rehab stint. Or, perhaps this is just a holding spot for the time being while the next steps are hammered out.
Both pitchers will need to remain on optional assignment for at least ten days unless an active roster spot opens due to a DL placement. It’s at least worth noting that, to this point of the season, MLB players have only accrued 147 days of service. Knebel, a Super Two this year, will cross into the 3+ service class regardless of whether he returns to the MLB roster. Davies, though, entered the campaign with 2.020 service years on his ticker and is therefore still a few days shy of reaching arbitration eligibility in the coming offseason. He would still likely qualify as a Super Two, but that’d mean pushing back his eventual free agency by one season. Whether or not that’s a factor isn’t at all clear; it certainly could be that the organization plans to bring Davies back when rosters expand, if not sooner.
For the time being, there’s no known replacement for Knebel on the active roster. Milwaukee is off today. As Rosiak notes, he could be replaced by Joakim Soria, if he’s activated from the DL tomorrow. But the open roster spot could also be filled from the outside. Several starting pitchers are rumored to be on waivers or to have cleared waivers. It’s certainly possible — but by no means certain — that the Brewers are contemplating the acquisition of an outside arm.
[RELATED: Top 20 August Trade Candidates]
NL Central Links: Hamels, Schoop, Aguilar, Reds
Some items from the NL Central…
- Cole Hamels has been nothing short of excellent since joining the Cubs, posting a microscopic 0.72 ERA over his first 25 innings with the team. With Hamels pitching like an ace again, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wonders if this could bode well for the Rangers, as Texas wouldn’t be on the hook for the $6MM buyout of Hamels’ $20MM option for 2019 if Chicago decided to exercise that option. There are some complications, Grant notes, as the Cubs may not want to spend that much on a pitcher who turns 35 in December, no matter how well Hamels performs down the stretch. The Cubs already have quite a bit of money tied up in their rotation, and keeping Hamels would put them in danger of surpassing the luxury tax threshold (MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes has written in the past about the Cubs’ strange reluctance incur a tax penalty, despite the relatively meager financial cost they’d face as “a first-time payor.”)
- “There are rumblings that the Brewers will try to flip” Jonathan Schoop after the season, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. If a trade partner can’t be found, Milwaukee might just non-tender Schoop. The middle infielder earned $8.5MM this season and, despite his struggles, will be due a raise in 2019 in his third and final year of arbitration eligibility. Schoop has posted just a .384 OPS over 50 PA this joining the Brewers, and he has only started two of Milwaukee’s last five games. Barring a turn-around, it’s hard to see Schoop generating much interest on the trade front.
- After being designated for assignment by the Indians in the 2016-17 offseason, Jesus Aguilar told Tyler Kepner of the New York Times that he considered leaving MLB due to overseas interest. “I even was thinking about Korea and Japan,” Aguilar said. “When they put me on waivers, my agent was talking to me: ‘They got people there. They want me there, too.’ ” This career crossroads ended when Aguilar was claimed by the Brewers, and the first baseman blossomed after receiving more playing time, hitting .280/.366/.579 with 29 homers and a league-best 89 RBI over 413 plate appearances this season.
- The Reds‘ recent front office shuffle was likely due to the team’s lack of recent success at developing pitchers and finding international prospects, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. While the Reds signed Aroldis Chapman and Raisel Iglesias out of Cuba, they haven’t had a real find in the Dominican or Venezuelan player markets since Johnny Cueto back in 2004, which Fay argues could stem from parting ways with scout Johnny Almaraz in 2007. (Almarez has since gone on to become the Phillies’ director of amateur scouting.)
Injury Updates: Altuve, Nationals, Red Sox, Brewers
Here’s the latest key injury news from around Major League Baseball:
- Astros second baseman and reigning American League MVP Jose Altuve will play a rehab game at the Triple-A level on Sunday, and it’s possible he’ll be back in the majors Monday, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Right knee soreness has kept Altuve out of action since July 25, and the Astros have gone just 7-12 without him and fallen out of sole possession of first place in the AL West. They lost to the Athletics on Saturday, putting the two teams in a first-place tie atop the division.
- There is a chance that starter Stephen Strasburg and reliever Kelvin Herrera will rejoin the Nationals during their next series against the division-rival Phillies, which begins Aug. 21, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes. Strasburg has been out since July 20 with a pinched nerve in his neck, while Herrera hasn’t pitched since Aug. 7 because of a right rotator cuff impingement. Starter Jeremy Hellickson and reliever Ryan Madson have joined those two on the DL this week, making it all the more important for the disappointing Nats to get back both Strasburg and Herrera as they try to make up a seven-game deficit in the National League East.
- Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright, out since June 26 with left knee inflammation, is closing in on a rehab assignment, manager Alex Cora told Christopher Smith of MassLive.com and other reporters. Wright will work out of Boston’s bullpen when he does return, Cora added. The 33-year-old Wright has served as a reliever in six of 10 appearances this season and registered a 3.38 ERA/4.49 FIP with 6.98 K/9, 4.5 BB/9 and a 53.2 percent groundball rate in 40 innings.
- While Brewers GM David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell indicated Wednesday that Jimmy Nelson probably won’t pitch this year, the righty said Saturday that he still hopes to return in 2018 (via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). “I’m still doing everything in my power,” said Nelson, who hasn’t taken a major league mound since Sept. 8, 2017, because of shoulder problems. Nelson’s absence has robbed the Brewers of someone who was seemingly turning into a front-line starter before he went down, but they’ve still managed a 68-56 record and a half-game lead on a wild-card spot without him this season.
Outrighted: Alec Asher, George Kontos
We’ll track the day’s minor moves in this post …
- The Brewers announced that Alec Asher was outrighted after recently being designated for assignment. That’s the second time this year the Milwaukee organization has sent Asher to Triple-A after he cleared waivers. He can choose instead to go into free agency now or at the end of the season. Asher, 26, has spent most of 2018 at Triple-A, where he owns a 5.42 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 32 walks in 88 innings.
- Likewise, the Yankees say they outrighted veteran righty George Kontos, who was also in DFA limbo. As with Asher, he can elect the open market now or later. Kontos has seen time with three MLB teams this year, most recently making only a single appearance in New York. The eight-year veteran carries a 4.39 ERA with 5.1 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 26 2/3 innings in the majors this season.
Jimmy Nelson Unlikely To Return In 2018
Brewers GM David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell indicated today that righty Jimmy Nelson is unlikely to make it back to the hill for the club this season, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was among those to report (Twitter links: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5).
That conclusion was largely evident from the fact that Nelson had not yet begun a rehab assignment. Stearns acknowledged today what was becoming clear, saying that time is running short. Further comments from Counsell removed any remaining doubt as to the team’s expectations. While neither man would rule out the possibility that Nelson will make a surprising late-season return, it seems there’s not much reason at all to think that’ll take place.
Nelson, 28, turned in a strong 2017 effort before succumbing to a shoulder injury that required surgery. He spun 175 1/3 frames of 3.49 ERA ball with 10.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, and a 50.3% grounder rate. Despite the season-ending procedure, Nelson’s big year allowed him to command a $3.7MM salary in his first trip through arbitration, a sum the Brewers were glad to pay in hopes that he’d be able to return in 2018 and in order to retain their rights over his 2019 and 2020 campaigns. (He’ll surely command the same amount in arbitration this fall.)
Since Nelson underwent shoulder surgery last September, the organization has expressed varying degrees of optimism that he’d at least potentially be ready to return at some point in 2018. There seemed to be quite a bit of promise in the run-up to camp, with a June return presented as a potential target. Unfortunately, his anticipated mound work continued to be pushed back. As recently as late June, Stearns said the team expected Nelson to appear this season, but the final strides have evidently yet to be made.
As Counsell explains, Nelson’s early rehab work increased expectations. Unfortunately, that did not carry forward to a ramped-up timetable. But the skipper says the goal all along was never to get Nelson back on the mound this year so much as it was to get him back to full health at whatever pace the process would allow.
There isn’t any setback to blame for the fact that Nelson likely won’t return to the MLB roster this year, per Counsell. Rather, the club’s top uniformed decisionmaker says, “it’s just that where we are in the schedule, [Nelson is] not going to get [to] pitch in major-league games.” The goal at this point seems to have shifted to putting Nelson “in a competitive situation” before he takes a breather over the offseason. It’s also possible the righty could appear in winter ball or some kind of instructional league, per Stearns.
Observers have long wondered if Nelson’s absence would lead the Brewers to seek a significant rotation upgrade. The organization has foregone any major moves to this point, though, expressing confidence in a unit made up of preexisting internal options and a few modest additions (namely, Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley). Results have been solid thus far, though the starting staff could still represent an area to improve later this month and in the offseason to come. While the team surely maintains hope that Nelson will be ready to go when camp opens next spring, Stearns & co. will have to weigh the ongoing uncertainty in tweaking the roster over the winter.
Brewers Acquire Jake Thompson, Designate Alec Asher
The Brewers have acquired right-hander Jake Thompson from the Phillies in exchange for cash, the Phillies announced Tuesday. Right-hander Alec Asher has been designated for assignment to open roster space, and the Brewers have optioned Thompson to Triple-A, per an announcement of their own.
Thompson, 24, was once considered to be among the game’s best pitching prospects, entering both the 2015 and 2016 season as a consensus Top 100 prospect. Originally a draft pick of the Tigers, he was traded to the Rangers alongside Corey Knebel in exchange for Joakim Soria and then traded from Texas to Philadelphia in the Cole Hamels blockbuster. In somewhat amusing and ironic fashion, the Brewers now hold all three pieces of that 2014 Tigers/Rangers swap in Knebel, Soria and Thompson.
[Related: Updated Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]
Of course, Thompson hasn’t exactly delivered on his considerable prospect status. He’s tallied 116 1/3 innings at the Major League level across the past three seasons, all with the Phillies, and pitched to a lackluster 4.87 ERA with 6.3 K/9, 4.7 BB/9, 1.55 HR/9 and a 46.1 percent ground-ball rate. The Phillies had been using Thompson primarily in a relief role with Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season, so he could conceivably give Milwaukee some depth either in the rotation or in the bullpen. Thompson has one option year remaining after 2018, so the Brewers will have some flexibility with him in 2019 as well, if he sticks on the 40-man roster for that long.
As if the sequence connecting Knebel, Soria and Thompson wasn’t strange enough, the Brewers are opening room on the roster by designating one of the players alongside whom Thompson was traded from Texas to Philadelphia in that Hamels blockbuster. Both Thompson and Asher went from Texas to Philadelphia in that deal, and Thompson’s addition to the Brewers’ roster will come at the expense of his former teammate.
Asher, 26, has tossed three scoreless innings for the Brewers this season but owns an ugly 5.42 ERA with a 39-to-32 K/BB ratio through 88 innings of Triple-A work between the affiliates for Milwaukee and the Dodgers. That 5.42 mark is a dead match for his career ERA through 119 2/3 Major League innings, the majority of which have come as a member of the Phillies. Milwaukee has a week to trade Asher or try to run him through outright waivers in hopes of retaining him as a non-roster player.
NL Notes: Realmuto, Mets, Brewers, Dodgers
Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto suggested last month he’d be open to discussing a contract extension with the club, but if he’s uninterested in signing a deal over the winter, “there’s a good chance” the team will trade him, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes. The 25-year-old Realmuto, one of the game’s elite backstops, is controllable via arbitration through the 2020 season.
More from the National League…
- The Mets are considering Blue Jays assistant GM Tony LaCava and Rays special assistant Bobby Heck as candidates to be their next general manager, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Neither man has been a GM before, though both LaCava and Heck have a wealth of front office experience, particularly in the areas of scouting and player development. LaCava has been with the Blue Jays since 2002, when J.P. Ricciardi (now a Mets special advisor) was Toronto’s GM. Heck has been with the Rays since 2012, following lengthy stints with the Astros and Brewers that saw him play a notable role as both those clubs amassed a strong collection of young talent.
- Brewers right-hander Zach Davies hasn’t pitched in the majors since May 29, owing to shoulder and back problems, and there’s still no timetable for his return, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But Davies’ absence hasn’t been crippling for the Brewers, as Haudricourt writes that they’ve “been satisfied” with the current members of their rotation. Further, after serving as a solid starter from 2016-17 (his first two full seasons), Davies came out of the gates slowly this year with a 5.23 ERA/5.29 FIP in 43 innings.
- The Dodgers’ decision to move Kenta Maeda to the bullpen may negatively affect the righty from a financial standpoint, given that he has incentives in his contract based on games started and innings pitched. However, the Dodgers and Maeda’s reps at the Wasserman Agency “have a good relationship,” tweets the Los Angeles Times’ Andy McCullough, who notes it would be sensible for both sides to change the language in his deal to include incentives for relief appearances. If the two sides do attempt to work something out, the MLBPA would have to sign off on it.
Quick Hits: Soria, Renfroe, Gordon, Stanton
Joakim Soria suffered a mild right groin strain during the Brewers’ ninth-inning meltdown against the Padres today. Soria walked off the mound with an apparent injury after allowing a go-ahead grand slam to Hunter Renfroe. According to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com, the malady was later described as a mild right groin strain. There’s no official word on the severity of the injury yet, so it’s not known at this time whether Soria will need to miss any games. The right-hander came over from the White Sox just prior to the trade deadline in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers: left-hander Kodi Medeiros and right-hander Wilber Perez.
Here are a few other small items from around the league this evening…
- Speaking of Renfroe, the Padres outfielder has been on a tear of late. Including tonight’s grand slam off Soria, Renfroe’s slugged four homers in his past four games. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune suggests that Renfroe’s performance could solidify an everyday spot in the lineup even after Wil Myers returns from the disabled list. That’s good news for the 26-year-old in the wake of today’s news that some of the young Padres outfielders are being intensely evaluated, but it’s also worth noting that Franmil Reyes also homered tonight; his third in his past four games. It will be interesting to see how the Padres address their corner outfield logjam this offseason, or if they choose to at all (Reyes and Renfroe both have minor league options remaining and can be stashed at Triple-A).
- The Mariners moved Dee Gordon all the way down to ninth in the batting order in tonight’s game. That’s largely due to the speedster’s incredibly pedestrian offensive performance on the season. He’s hitting .280, but with just a .300 on-base and .343 slugging percentage. The biggest culprit to his lackluster showing is a paltry 1.5% walk rate that’s by far the lowest in the majors and approximately half the size of the next player on that list (Salvador Perez of the Royals). Though the plan right now seems to be for Robinson Cano to usurp some playing time from Ryon Healy when he returns from his suspension, it’s fair to wonder whether Gordon could rest in favor of Cano on occasion down the stretch, if he can’t figure out how to show more patience.
- With his 121.7 MPH homer tonight off Rangers starter Ariel Jurado, Giancarlo Stanton broke a Statcast record. The Yankees’ headline offseason acquisition drilled the ball at a launch angle of 17 degrees, propelling it an estimated 449 feet. It’s officially the hardest-hit homer that Statcast has ever tracked. It’s part of a larger trend for Stanton, who has heated up after a somewhat average start to the season. The right-hander’s .308/.363/.561 batting line since the start of June is much more in line with what the Bombers had imagined when they took on the lion’s share of his contract from the Marlins this offseason.