Twins Notes: Maeda, Pineda, Buxton, Arraez, Kepler
The Twins have been plagued by injuries in recent weeks, but they’re on the verge of getting several key players back. Right-hander Kenta Maeda will be activated from the injured list to start tomorrow night’s game against the Mariners, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Dan Hayes of the Athletic). He hasn’t pitched since May 22, when he went on the IL due to a groin strain.
It’s been a difficult season for Maeda, last year’s AL Cy Young award runner-up. The 33-year-old has managed just a 5.27 ERA over his first nine starts. Maeda’s strikeout rate has fallen from an elite 32.3% in 2020 to a below-average 20.5% this season. He’s also seen rather significant drops in his swinging strike and groundball rates, with opposing hitters making much harder contact off him.
Those struggles aside, the Twins will assuredly be happy to get their Opening Day starter back on the mound. Minnesota’s assortment of back-end starters (Matt Shoemaker, J.A. Happ, Randy Dobnak, Bailey Ober) have struggled to varying degrees, perhaps the biggest reason for the team’s horrible 26-39 start. Making matters worse, righty Michael Pineda is day-to-day after leaving this afternoon’s start with right forearm tightness (notes Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). Baldelli suggested Pineda could require an IL stint of his own (via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com).
While the rotation has been a massive disappointment, the Twins also haven’t been helped by a series of injuries to some of their top position players. Byron Buxton was off to an MVP-level start, but he went down with a right hip strain on May 7. Buxton has been on the IL for the past five weeks, but Baldelli said the star center fielder will accompany the team to Seattle (via Park). The same is true of utilityman Luis Arráez, who’s been out since May 26 with a right shoulder strain.
Buxton and Arráez have been on rehab assignments at Triple-A St. Paul, but they’re evidently nearing a return to the majors. They should be followed in relatively short order by Max Kepler. The 28-year-old outfielder began a rehab assignment of his own today, serving as the designated hitter in St. Paul. Kepler put up a .212/.303/.424 line in 152 plate appearances this season before straining his left hamstring.
Injury Notes: Cain, Archer, Garlick, Didi, Smith
The Brewers won’t activate center fielder Lorenzo Cain from the 10-day injured list until at least July 1, manager Craig Counsell told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters. Cain hit the IL on June 1 with a strained right hamstring – an injury that’s “significant,” according to Counsell. It’s been a rough year for Cain in terms of injuries, as he was on the IL earlier with a strained left quad and has only appeared in 31 games. The 35-year-old has hit .223/.322/.350 with three home runs and four stolen bases across 118 plate appearances. With Cain unavailable this month, the Brewers figure to continue turning to Jackie Bradley Jr. and Tyrone Taylor in center.
A few more injury updates from around the majors:
- Rays right-hander Chris Archer is hopeful he’ll return from forearm tightness in early July, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relays. Archer reunited with the Rays on a one-year, $6.5MM contract in free agency, but he made just two appearances and combined for 4 1/3 innings before suffering this injury. Archer, previously with the Pirates, missed all of 2020 after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery.
- It appears the Twins will go without outfielder Kyle Garlick for the foreseeable future, as they announced that he’s going to the IL with a sports hernia. Minnesota is already without fellow outfielders Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Luis Arraez and Jake Cave, who have all been on the shelf since May. The Twins recalled outfielder Gilberto Celestino to replace Garlick, who’s off to a .232/.280/.465 start with five home runs in 107 PA.
- Phillies shortstop Didi Gregorius will begin a Triple-A rehab assignment on Wednesday, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com tweets. Gregorius has been out for almost a month with a right hip impingement, having not taken the field since May 12. Between the injury and his .229/.266/.364 line in 128 PA, it’s been a less-than-ideal campaign for Gregorius, whom the Phillies re-signed to a two-year, $28MM contract in the winter.
- The Astros have placed reliever Joe Smith on the IL with an ominous-sounding issue – right elbow soreness (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). Houston recalled righty Brandon Bielak to take over for Smith, who has put up an uncharacteristically high ERA (6.23) in 17 1/3 innings. While Smith has only walked 4.8 percent of hitters, his second-lowest strikeout rate (18.1), a 23.1 percent home run-to-fly ball rate and a .414 batting average on balls in play against have worked against him.
Outrighted: Martini, Minaya
The latest outrights from around Major League Baseball:
- Cubs outfielder Nick Martini has accepted an assignment to Triple-A Iowa after clearing waivers, Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune was among those to report. Martini – who signed a minor league contract with the Cubs in the offseason – earned a promotion in early May but went just 1-for-12 in the bigs before they designated him for assignment last week. The 30-year-old former Athletic and Padre has enjoyed some success in the majors, though, as shown by his .261/.363/.366 line across 303 plate appearances.
- Righty Juan Minaya will stay with the Twins after accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A St. Paul, Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweets. The club designated Minaya over the weekend after he yielded three earned runs on five hits (including two homers) and put up four strikeouts against three walks in 6 1/3 innings. It was the first major league action for the 30-year-old since his run with the White Sox from 2016-19. He joined the Twins on a minors pact over the winter.
AL Central Notes: Twins, Haase, Turnbull, Junis
The Twins‘ season has been a disaster thus far, but they’re on the verge of getting some desperately needed reinforcements. The team announced that Byron Buxton will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul beginning today, and Kenta Maeda will make a rehab start for the Saints tomorrow. The 27-year-old Buxton stormed out of the gates looking like a legitimate MVP candidate, slashing .370/.408/.772 with nine home runs, 10 doubles, five steals and his typical stellar defense through 24 games (98 plate appearances). A Grade 2 hip strain has sidelined him for more than a month, however.
Maeda, meanwhile, was the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2020’s shortened season but has had a rough go of it in 2021. The 33-year-old posted solid numbers in his first three starts but didn’t tally many innings due to high pitch counts. He’s since had a bit of a velocity dip while struggling in the run-up to an IL placement of his own due to a groin strain. The Twins have trotted out a carousel of outfield options with Buxton, Max Kepler and utilityman Luis Arraez all injured, while injuries on the pitching staff have prompted the team to remain committed to veteran Matt Shoemaker in the rotation despite pronounced struggles (as explored here by Dan Hayes of The Athletic).
Some more notes from the division…
- Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this morning that he plans to give catcher Eric Haase “as much playing time as I can” to afford him further opportunity to cement his place on the big league roster (Twitter link, with audio). The 28-year-old Haase, a Detroit native and childhood Tigers fan, has been an out-of-nowhere success story since being summoned to Detroit. The minor league veteran has tallied 74 plate appearances and responded with a .265/.324/.647 slash and a whopping seven home ruins. Hinch called Haase a “pretty good athlete,” which is why he’s seen time in left field, and suggested Haase could also handle first base. There’s a case being made to keep Haase on the roster even when the team’s other catching options come off the injured list.
- Hinch also noted in his appearance (via MLB.com’s Jason Beck, on Twitter) that right-hander Spencer Turnbull will miss “a little bit of time but not nearly as long” as the Tigers originally feared when he first alerted the team to the forearm strain that has landed him on the 10-day IL. That sounds like Turn bull is in for more than a minimal stint, but it’s good that a worst-case scenario has been avoided. The 28-year-old Turnbull drew headlines for this year’s no-hitter, but he’s been a solid starter for Detroit dating back to 2019. During that stretch, he’s logged a combined 4.13 ERA in 255 innings with a 22 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate. With three years of club control remaining beyond the 2021 season, a healthy Turnbull would figure to command considerable interest on the summer trade market, though that club control also means the Tigers are under no pressure to move him if a compelling offer doesn’t present itself.
- The Royals optioned righty Jakob Junis to Triple-A Omaha this week on the heels of some recent struggles, and skipper Mike Matheny told reporters after the move that 28-year-old will stretch out for longer stints even though his eventual role upon his return to the Majors isn’t yet determined (link via Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star). “You can be a starter (in the minors) and that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t come back as a reliever,” Matheny said of Junis, who made four solid starts earlier this year but has been hit hard out of the bullpen. Matheny noted that Junis “should” be a pitcher who is capable both of working multiple innings as a reliever but also succeeding when plugged into high-leverage spots. The future role for Junis is surely somewhat dependent on how young pitchers and prospects like Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Kris Bubic develop. Junis was a solid back-of-the-rotation piece for the Royals from 2017-18 (4.35 ERA, 101 ERA+ in 275 1/3 innings) but has just 19 innings of bullpen experience in the Majors.
Central Notes: Mondesi, Twins, Moroff, White Sox
Before this afternoon’s game against the Twins, the Royals placed shortstop Adalberto Mondesi on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 4, with a left hamstring strain. It’s a tough blow for the speedy shortstop, who missed almost all of the season’s first two months with an oblique issue. In between the injuries, Mondesi has gotten off to a productive start, hitting .360/.360/.720 with a pair of homers in seven games. To replace him on the active roster, Kansas City recalled outfielder Edward Olivares from Triple-A Omaha.
More from the game’s central divisions:
- Twins center fielder Byron Buxton could embark on a minor league rehab assignment at some point next week, manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). Buxton has missed the better part of a month with a right hip strain, a devastating development considering his incredible start to the season. Before the injury, the 27-year-old looked well on his way to putting himself in early AL MVP conversation, hitting .370/.408/.772 with nine homers in his first 98 plate appearances. Righty Kenta Maeda, meanwhile, threw a 35-pitch bullpen session this morning and looks to be nearing a rehab assignment of his own, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (Twitter link).
- Cardinals utilityman Max Moroff will require season-ending surgery on his left shoulder, manager Mike Shildt announced (via Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat). The procedure comes with a seven-month recovery timeline, so Moroff figures to be ready for next Spring Training. Moroff, selected to the St. Louis roster last month, went just 1-16 with ten strikeouts in six games. The Cardinals figure to transfer him to the 60-day injured list when the need for a 40-man roster spot arises.
- The White Sox announced this morning they’ve reinstated outfielder Adam Engel from the injured list to make his season debut. He’s starting in center field this afternoon against the Tigers. Fellow center fielder Billy Hamilton is going on the 10-day IL due to a right oblique strain in a corresponding move. Engel has missed the first two months of the year with a right hamstring strain. Hamilton has been among the depth outfielders the Sox have relied upon in center without Luis Robert and Engel. Over 75 plate appearances, the speedy Hamilton is hitting .217/.247/.406 with a pair of home runs.
AL Notes: Orioles, Twins, Red Sox, Astros
John Means left his start today in the first inning with what’s currently being identified as “left shoulder fatigue,” per Rich Dubroff of Baltimorebaseball.com. Said Means after the game, “This is something I’ve been battling the last few weeks. Not really during the games, but after games. I felt it more so in warmups when I was out there, the last couple of pitches when I really started to let it eat.” The O’s lefty will undergo an MRI on Sunday morning. Elsewhere in the American League…
- The Twins have not gotten the kind of production they need from Matt Shoemaker this season. The 34-year-old veteran gave up eight earned runs while recording just one out against the Royals on Friday. For the season, Shoemaker’s 7.28 ERA/5.98 FIP rank last by a fair margin among starters with at least 50 innings this season. He will continue to make his turns in the Twins’ rotation for now, per the Athletic’s Dan Hayes.
- Even if the Twins wanted to make a move, they’re somewhat hampered by recent injuries in their minor leagues. Minor league hurlers Lewis Thorpe and Matt Canterino were placed on the injured list today, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (via Twitter). They are dealing with a left shoulder strain and right elbow strain, respectively. Canterino, pitching in High-A, was not likely to help out at the big league level this season, but Thorpe already has 14 innings in four appearances (three starts) with the Twins this season. He has pitched exclusively out of the pen at Triple-A.
- J.D. Martinez was a late scratch from the Red Sox’ lineup with a sore wrist, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). He appeared to jam his wrist sliding into second base during play on Friday. The injury does not appear to be serious. Per Christopher Smith of Masslive.com, manager Alex Cora commented on the situation, saying, “…we’ll take care of him today, get treatment. If he feels good and we need him late in game, then probably we’ll use him.”
- Aledmys Diaz will undergo X-Rays after being hit by a pitch and suffering a left hand contusion, per Mark Berman of Fox 26 (via Twitter). Diaz would be missed. He’s posted a solid .281/.339/.439 line in 124 plate appearances this season.
Cubs Activate Jason Heyward, Designate Nick Martini, Claim Dakota Chalmers
3:47PM: Left-hander Brad Wieck was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move for Abbott’s call-up, the Cubs announced.
3:14PM: The Cubs announced a trio of roster moves, including Jason Heyward‘s activation from the 10-day injured list. (The Athletic’s Meghan Montemurro was among those to report the news.) Chicago also designated outfielder Nick Martini for assignment, thus opening up a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Dakota Chalmers, who was claimed off waivers from the Twins. Right-hander Cory Abbott is also being called up from Triple-A to make his big league debut, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (via Twitter)
A left hamstring strain forced Heyward to the IL on May 20, and the injury hiatus could allow the veteran outfielder something of a reset of his season. Heyward has hit just .183/.254/.341 over his first 138 plate appearances, an unfortunate slow start after the strong numbers he posted during the 2020 season. Through Heyward’s tenure in Wrigleyville (he’s in the sixth year of an eight-year, $184MM contract) has been marked by a lack of offensive production, Heyward was one of the team’s best bats in 2020, hitting .265/.392/.456 with six homers over 181 PA.
Martini was signed to a minor league deal in February, and saw his contract selected by the Cubs in May. The 30-year-old Illinois native has appeared in 12 games this season, mostly working as a pinch-hitter but he was only 1-for-12 in 15 total plate appearances. Martini has hit .261/.363/.366 over 303 total PA with the A’s, Padres, and Cubs at the MLB level, though much of that production came with Oakland during his 2018 rookie season. Martini has experience at all three outfield positions as well as first base, so this versatility and his knack for setting on base could potentially entice another team to claim him off the waiver wire.
Speaking of waiver claims, Chalmers joins the Cubs after being DFA’ed by Minnesota earlier this week. Chalmers made his debut at the Double-A level this season but the results haven’t been good, with a 9.49 ERA over 12 1/3 innings. Between Tommy John surgery and the canceled 2020 minor league season, Chalmers tossed only 39 2/3 total frames from the start of the 2018 season to the start of the 2021 minor league campaign.
Abbott has only a 6.39 ERA in 25 1/3 innings at Triple-A Iowa this season, his first experience of Triple-A ball. The 25-year-old will still get a look in the Show, potentially as a starter or as a reliever. MLB Pipeline ranks Abbott 15th on its list of the Cubs’ top 30 prospects, with his slider and curveball acting as his top pitches. “With an easy delivery that he repeats well and a fearlessness about challenging hitters, Abbott provides consistent strikes,” according to the Pipeline scouting report. Abbott was a second-round pick for the Cubs in the 2017 draft, and he posted some solid numbers in his first three pro seasons before hitting his Triple-A struggles.
Twins Designate Juan Minaya, Select Griffin Jax
The Twins have designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment, as per a team press release. Right-handed pitching prospect Griffin Jax‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A (as reported earlier today by Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press), and Jax will take Minaya’s spot on the active roster.
Minaya inked a minor league deal with the Twins in the offseason and had his contract selected just last week, so he could potentially be moving on after appearing in only four games for Minnesota. The veteran righty posted a 4.26 ERA over 6 1/3 innings, getting his first bit of Major League action since 2019 when he was a member of the White Sox. The Twins also signed Minaya to a minor league contract prior to the 2020 season but designated him for assignment before he could make any appearances last year.
With Michael Pineda battling a sore forearm, his scheduled start for Sunday has been pushed back, so it’s possible Jax could be in line to take that start for his MLB debut. A third-round pick out of Air Force in 2016, Jax isn’t one of MLB Pipeline’s top 30 Twins prospects, but he has posted a 3.33 ERA and 25.9% strikeout rate over 27 innings for Triple-A St. Paul this season.
Twins Recall Ryan Jeffers, Gilberto Celestino
The Twins announced they’ve recalled catcher Ryan Jeffers and outfielder Gilberto Celestino. Catcher Mitch Garver is going to the 10-day injured list with a severe groin contusion, while utilityman Rob Refsnyder has been placed on the 7-day concussion IL. Jeffers and Celestino are starting at catcher and in center field, respectively, tonight against the Orioles.
Garver underwent surgery after being struck with a foul tip last night. Manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com) this evening that Garver will be out for “a bare minimum of a couple weeks.” So long as he’s on the IL, Minnesota is expected to roll with Jeffers as the primary catcher, Park adds.
Ben Rortvedt and Willians Astudillo are also on the active roster. Jeffers, though, is generally viewed as a more well-regarded prospect than Rortvedt, while the Twins have been more willing to bounce Astudillo around the diamond as a utility player than deploy him as a true regular catcher. Jeffers, 23, got off to a strong start to his MLB career last season but scuffled in 37 plate appearances earlier this year. With Garver picking up the lion’s share of playing time behind the dish, the Twins optioned Jeffers to Triple-A St. Paul so he could continue to receive regular playing time.
Celestino is also one of the organization’s more talented farmhands and will now pick up his first major league opportunity. Acquired from the Astros as part of the 2018 Ryan Pressly deal, Celestino entered the year as the Twins #10 prospect in the estimation of both FanGraphs and Baseball America. Those outlets suggest the 22-year-old could blossom into a plus defensive center fielder with a hit-over-power approach. Thanks to last year’s cancelled minor league season, Celestino hasn’t gotten much high minors experience. Over 96 plate appearances with Double-A Wichita, he’s off to a .250/.344/.381 start with a pair of home runs. During his last full minor league season (2019), Celestino slashed a productive .276/.350/.409 with ten homers in 503 Low-A plate appearances.
While Celestino has never played at Triple-A, a series of injuries in center field have forced the organization’s hand somewhat. Byron Buxton has been out since early May with a hip strain. Max Kepler slid over to center in his absence, but Kepler went down with a hamstring strain last weekend. That led the Twins to turn to Refsnyder, a journeyman who’s surprisingly gotten off to an incredible start this year, at the position. Unfortunately, he’s out now too after colliding with the outfield wall in pursuit of a Ryan Mountcastle home run ball on Monday.
Mitch Garver Undergoes Groin Surgery
Twins catcher Mitch Garver exited last night’s game after taking a foul tip from the bat of Trey Mancini to the groin, and while the initial diagnosis was only a contusion, additional tests provided a more concerning outlook. Garver announced on his Instagram story that he underwent surgery after undergoing ultrasound imaging at the emergency room. Thankfully, Garver adds that he is “recovering well,” but the mere fact that surgery was required likely points to an absence of some note.
The Twins have yet to make a formal announcement on the injury or provide a timeline for the 30-year-old Garver’s return, but the injury comes at a poor time given the catcher’s red-hot bat of late. While Garver got out to a very slow start in 2021, he’d righted the ship with a huge .286/.430/.651 showing over his past 24 games (19 starts). In 79 plate appearances during that stretch, he’d connected on six home runs and five doubles with nearly as many walks (16) as strikeouts (20).
With Garver presumably sidelined for a bit, the Twins have some options behind the plate. They were already carrying three catchers, with Ben Rortvedt and utilityman Willians Astudillo both on the roster. Minnesota could run with that tandem, but the Twins also have one of baseball’s top catching prospects, Ryan Jeffers, with their Triple-A club in St. Paul.
Jeffers, 23, came up in 2020 after a Garver injury and debuted with a .273/.355/.436 slash in 62 plate appearances. He started poorly in 2021 and was optioned to St. Paul for everyday at-bats once the Triple-A season began. He’s hitting for a low average with the Saints (perhaps due in part to an ugly .235 BABIP), but Jeffers is drawing walks and hitting for power as well. Overall, he’s at .217/.340/.446 with five homers and four doubles in 103 plate appearances since being sent down. He’s regarded as a potential everyday option behind the dish, while Rortvedt is more of a glove-first backup and Astudillo is a more of utility option and part-time catcher.
It remains to be seen just what route the team will take, but the injury is a notable blow to a Twins team that really can’t afford further injury woes. His recent hot streak was a small sample, but Garver looked to be trending back toward the offensive levels he put forth in 2019 when he batted .273/.365/.630 with 31 homers in just 359 plate appearances. Subtracting that bat from an already flailing Twins roster does nothing to improve a bleak outlook for the 22-31 surprising AL Central cellar dwellers.