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Central Notes: Cubs, Castro, Diaz, Sierra, Williams, Tigers

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The Cubs will soon deal with a roster crunch, writes Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald. The returns of catcher Miguel Montero and infielder Tommy La Stella from the disabled list will force additional moves. Montero joined the lineup today. No transaction was necessary because David Ross was temporarily moved to the bereavement list. LaStella could return to the team tomorrow or Tuesday.

As GM Jed Hoyer pointed out, a deep roster meshes with manager Joe Maddon’s disposition. The young players on the roster are showing some signs of fatigue in their first major league season. Additional depth along with Maddon’s penchant for tinkering should keep everybody fresher. As for who might go, Chicago has already said that prospect Kyle Schwarber will remain with the team. It’s just my guess, but I suspect Jonathan Herrera and Matt Szczur will wind up holding the short straws.

Here’s more from the Central divisions:

  • The Cubs have removed Starlin Castro from the starting lineup with Addison Russell sliding over to shortstop. If Castro is asked to play another position, he would request to speak with front office personnel, tweets Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com. Per Levine, Maddon prefers to have one shortstop rather than a rotation. With La Stella returning soon and Schwarber getting pushed to the outfield by the return of Montero, Castro may see limited playing time in the weeks ahead.
  • The Twins have been scouting Cuban talent, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN. Yesterday, representatives of the club attended a showcase in the Dominican Republic. Outfielder Yusniel Diaz was the headliner per Wolfson. The 18-year-old was viewed as the probable Rookie of the Year in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, but he defected immediately after the season. He is subject to international spending limits. The Twins will also watch pitcher Yasiel Sierra today. Sierra, 23, will be exempt from the international bonus pool once he’s declared a free agent.
  • Brewers pitching prospect Taylor Williams will have Tommy John surgery, tweets Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He’ll likely miss the entire 2016 season. Williams, a 2013 fourth round pick, entered the year as the 11th ranked prospect in the Brewers system per FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel. Over the last two seasons, he has a 3.09 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 174 innings split between the lower minors. He did not appear this year.
  • The Tigers have shuffled their front office titles following the promotion Al Avila to GM, tweets Jason Beck of MLB.com. David Chadd is now the new Assistant GM, and Scott Bream will now serve as VP of Player Personnel.

Hector Gomez Elects Free Agency

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SATURDAY: Gomez has elected free agency, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets.

FRIDAY: The Brewers have outrighted infielder Hector Gomez, according to a club announcement. Milwaukee brought up Jason Rogers to take his place on the roster.

Gomez, 27, owns a .181/.212/.323 batting line over 134 plate appearances on the season. He’s seen action in two prior campaigns, but this was his most extensive time on a big league roster. Gomez was productive last year at Triple-A, putting up a .768 OPS with 17 home runs.

Rogers is also 27 and plays the corner infield. He’s destroyed pitching at the Triple-A level after posting strong numbers in the upper minors over the past two seasons. In 95 big league plate appearances earlier this year, he slashed .236/.284/.360 with two home runs.

Podcast: New Brewers Righty Zach Davies

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In our third and final interview with just-traded young players, host Jeff Todd spoke with Brewers pitching prospect Zach Davies before he took the hill for his first outing with his new organization. (It went quit well: six innings, one earned run, and seven strikeouts against three walks.) Davies represents a nice, near-to-the-majors starter for Milwaukee, which added him in the Gerardo Parra trade.

Be sure to check out the previous podcast episodes featuring key deadline movers Brett Phillips of the Brewers and Daniel Norris of the Tigers.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Kyle Lohse To Be Placed On Revocable Waivers

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With the non-waiver trade deadline in the past, teams now must pass players through revocable trade waivers in order to freely shop them around the league. The specifics of the August trading process are expanded upon in our August trade primer, for those who are unfamiliar with how it works.

We’ll run down today’s list of players that are reported to be on revocable trade waivers here…

  • The Brewers will place right-hander Kyle Lohse on revocable waivers in the hope that someone will claim the remaining ~$3.55MM on his 2015 salary, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). That’s an unlikely outcome, especially when considering Lohse’s struggles this season. The veteran Lohse was shifted from the rotation to the bullpen yesterday, with MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy noting that it “sounds like” the Brewers are attempting to trade him. If Lohse clears waivers, the Brewers will be free to trade him to any team, though I’d imagine they’d have to assume a sizable portion of the remaining salary to find any serious takers. Lohse was very good in his first two seasons with the Brewers but has a 6.21 ERA in 124 innings this season. His velocity remains unchanged, but he’s been exceptionally homer-prone. For what it’s worth, xFIP and SIERA both peg him for a more serviceable 4.37 mark.

Brewers Move Kyle Lohse To Bullpen, May Seek Trade

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The Brewers have shifted struggling veteran Kyle Lohse to the bullpen, reports MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. McCalvy says that Lohse handled the disheartening news well, and while the right-hander didn’t go into detail, it “sounds like” the Brewers are trying to trade him. GM Doug Melvin did discuss Lohse with other teams prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, but nothing materialized, he adds. Via McCalvy, Lohse had the following to say about his move to a relief role:

“That’s where I’ll be residing for the time being, and we’ll just kind of see what options there are, and we’ll go from there. All that stuff is out of my hands, but [the Brewers have] been good to me. Stuck through a pretty tough year and gave me the opportunity to go out there every five days until now. It didn’t work out.”

The 36-year-old Lohse is in the final season of a three-year, $33MM contract signed with the Brewers in Spring Training of the 2013 season. Lohse proved to be a very good value in the first two seasons of the pact, tossing 397 innings with a 3.45 ERA, 6.0 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a 40.1 percent ground-ball rate. Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference both agreed that he was worth roughly five to six wins over the first two years of the deal, with the latter being a bit more bullish.

The 2015 season, though, has been an entirely different story. Lohse has pitched to a 6.31 ERA in 124 innings this season. He leads the National League in both hits allowed (152) and earned runs (87). The 25 homers he’s yielded are already just three shy of his career-worst 28, despite the fact that he pitched 194 innings when he allowed 28 all the way back in 2004.

McCalvy also notes that the Brewers could simply end up releasing Lohse if they’re unable to find a taker, as they did with veterans Randy Wolf and Jeff Suppan at the tail end of their Milwaukee tenures. Given the fact that Lohse is owed $3.6MM of his $11MM salary through the end of the season, the Brewers would need to eat all or nearly all of the money remaining in order to make a deal happen. Asked if he still intended to pitch beyond the 2015 in spite of this year’s struggles, Lohse answered in the affirmative. “Obviously I’m not ready to hang it up yet,” he said. “The stuff’s still there, [the problem was] just the execution or whatever it was this year.”

While that may strike some as a curious statement given his struggles, it should be noted that Lohse’s velocity, though not overpowering (89.4 mph fastball) is nearly identical to the 89.6 mph he averaged back in 2010 with the Cardinals. Whatever difficulties he’s experienced, it would seem, aren’t due to a decline in arm strength.

Podcast: Brewers Prospect Brett Phillips On His Deadline Trade

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We’re changing things up a bit this week, as three key prospects in recent deadline deals took the time to join host Jeff Todd to discuss their trade deadline experiences and new organizations. So, rather than our usual Thursday afternoon episode, we’re releasing three episodes of the podcast.

First up is Brett Phillips, the rising center fielder who has shot up prospect lists and just headed from the Astros to the Brewers as a major piece in the blockbuster that sent Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers to Houston.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and whether you’re a long-time subscriber or just getting on board today, please leave a review! We’d love to hear your thoughts. The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Minor Moves: Cards, Carpenter, Murphy, Clemens

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Here are today’s minor league transactions from around baseball, with the newest moves at the top of the post…

  • The Cardinals outrighted right-hander Marcus Hatley and first baseman Dan Johnson off the 40-man roster and sent them to Triple-A, according to the club’s official transactions page.  Both players were designated for assignment earlier in the week.
  • Braves right-hander David Carpenter has accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  Carpenter was designated for assignment last week and had the option of becoming a free agent, which he declined to stay in the Braves organization.  Carpenter has only appeared in four games for Atlanta this season, posting a 7.36 ERA over his 3 2/3 innings of work.
  • The Brewers released infielder Donnie Murphy, as per the Pacific Coast League’s transactions page.  Murphy signed a minor league contract with Milwaukee in February and had a .257/.352/.371 line over 162 PA at Triple-A Colorado Springs.  The 32-year-old Murphy has appeared in parts of nine Major League seasons with five different teams since 2004.
  • The Royals signed righty Paul Clemens to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s transactions page.  Clemens posted a 5.51 ERA over 98 innings with the Astros in 2013-14 and a 5.54 ERA over 26 innings in the Phillies’ minor league system this season.  He was released by the Phils in June.
  • Chris Capuano has accepted his outright assignment from the Yankees and reported to Triple-A, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  The veteran southpaw had the option of becoming a free agent, though doing so would’ve forfeited the roughly $1.7MM still owed to him on his Yankees contract for the rest of the season.
  • Angels right-hander Jeremy McBryde has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, the club’s communications department tweets.  McBryde was designated for assignment earlier in the week.  McBryde has a 4.07 ERA over 659 1/3 career minor league innings, though he’s struggled to a 5.63 ERA in 46 1/3 relief frames for the Halos’ Triple-A affiliate this season.
  • While McBryde’s case has been settled, over 20 players are still in DFA limbo.  Check out the MLB Trade Rumors DFA Tracker for a full accounting of the players still awaiting their next assignment.

NL Central Notes: Cards, Melvin, Pirates, Kang

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The Cardinals were rumored to be looking for starting pitching depth at the deadline, but instead beefed up the relief corps in the form of Steve Cishek and Jonathan Broxton.  As GM John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, adding quality relievers essentially becomes starting depth as it takes less pressure off the starters to go deep into games.  The new arms also will help cut down on the workload of Kevin Siegrist, Randy Choate and Seth Maness, all of whom have pitched quite often this season.  Some more from around the NL Central…

  • Brewers GM Doug Melvin told Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio (Twitter links) that he feels “the Mets have taken some unfair criticism about asking for money back in the [Carlos] Gomez deal.”  Melvin explained that teams often for money in one form or another in deals, as “it’s all part of the GM landscape these days.“
  • Brewers manager Craig Counsell isn’t sure how long his team’s rebuilding process will take, he told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), as “we’re always going to be trying to win a baseball game….But evaluating it from a bigger picture is part of our jobs as well.”  Haudricourt wonders if the Brewers and their fans would be able to stomach a multi-year rebuilding effort as the Cubs did for the last few years.
  • The Pirates stuck to their recent trend of making “modest upgrades while not giving away their top prospects,” writes Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  While getting an ace pitcher could’ve come at a big price for the Bucs and come with no guarantee of a playoff spot, Sawchik notes that the rotation is suddenly lacking depth with A.J. Burnett’s season now in doubt.
  • Also from Sawchik’s piece, he argues that Jung-ho Kang deserves a regular starting job even when Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer return from the DL.  It’s hard to argue Sawchik’s point given how Kang entered today with a .299/.372/.460 slash line over his first 312 Major League plate appearances, giving the Pirates some badly-needed help given their injury-riddled left side of the infield.

NL Central Notes: Chapman, Reds, Brewers

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A glance at the NL Central..

  • Reds GM Walt Jocketty told reporters that there was a lot of interest in Aroldis Chapman and Jay Bruce, but the Reds were more focused on the free-agents-to-be, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets.
  • Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (on Twitter) hears that the Brewers and Cardinals were never close on Adam Lind.  It would have taken a big haul for Milwaukee to trade Lind within the division since he also has a 2016 option.
  • Jocketty referred to what the Reds are doing as a “reboot,” but not a full rebuild, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com tweets.
  • Jocketty told reporters, including Fay (on Twitter), that the Reds will try infielder Adam Duvall in leftfield at Triple-A Louisville.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/31/15

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Today’s minor MLB moves..

  • The Rays announced (on Twitter) that catcher Bobby Wilson was claimed off waivers by the Rangers.
  • The Pirates designated Deolis Guerra for assignment to clear roster a spot for Joakim Soria, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets.  Guerra gave up two three-run homers to Brandon Phillips yesterday, which probably didn’t help his job security with the Bucs.
  • The A’s announced that they have acquired lefty Felix Doubront from the Blue Jays for cash.  Doubront was designated for assignment just days ago to make room for the acquisition of Troy Tulowitzki.
  • Caleb Thielbar will be designated for assignment to make room for Kevin Jepsen on the Twins’ 40-man roster, according to MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger (on Twitter).
  • To make room for Jonathan Broxton, the Cardinals have designated Marcus Hatley for assignment, Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com tweets.
  • The Brewers announced that they have claimed Preston Guilmet off waivers from the Dodgers.  The well-traveled Guilmet didn’t spend much time with the Dodgers, who selected him off waivers from the Rays on July 10. Guilmet tossed three innings for the club’s Triple-A affiliate prior being designated for assignment.  He’s been very good at Triple-A this season, tallying a 1.95 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 32 1/3 innings between Buffalo, Durham and Oklahoma City.
  • The Nationals announced (on Twitter) that they have assigned catcher Dan Butler outright to Triple-A.
  • The Indians announced (on Twitter) that they have acquired left-hander Jayson Aquino from the Pirates for cash considerations.
  • The Pirates have outrighted Gorkys Hernandez to Triple-A, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets.
  • The Cubs have designated Ben Rowen for assignment, Jesse Rogers of ESPNChicago.com tweets.
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