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Minor MLB Transactions: 6/10/17

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Saturday’s minor moves:

  • Utilityman T.J. Rivera has lost his spot on the Mets’ roster, as the team optioned him (and right-hander Tyler Pill) to Triple-A on Saturday, Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to report (Twitter link). The Mets sent Rivera and Pill down to make room for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and righty Seth Lugo, both of whom are back from the disabled list. Rivera ranks among the Mets’ top nine in plate appearances this year, having taken 114 and batted a passable .255/.310/.402. He swatted his second home run of the season Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to stave off a demotion.
  • The Padres have outrighted righty Tyrell Jenkins to make room for reliever Carter Capps, whom they reinstated from the 60-day disabled list and optioned to Triple-A El Paso, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. A former big-time prospect with the Cardinals, Jenkins joined the Padres off waivers from the Reds over the winter and has struggled with San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate, notching a 6.71 ERA, 6.42 K/9 and a 5.98 BB/9 over 61 2/3 innings in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Capps, meanwhile, continues to work his way back from the Tommy John surgery he underwent as a Marlin in 2016.
  • The Twins have selected the contract of left-hander Nik Turley from Triple-A and optioned fellow southpaw Randy Rosario, per Phil Miller of the Star Tribune (on Twitter). Minnesota will need to dump someone from its 40-man roster to make room for the addition of Turley, who has excelled at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels this season. The 27-year-old will make his major league debut Sunday with a start in San Francisco, with which he was a farmhand in 2015.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Pirates, Orioles, Twins, Mariners

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At 27-35, the Pirates on track to miss the playoffs for the second straight year. But the club’s recent woes aren’t threatening the job security of either GM Neal Huntington or manager Clint Hurdle, says FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, who reports that the two are good bets to sign contract extensions before the season ends. Huntington has been at the helm since 2007, Hurdle dating back to 2011, and the team has gone to the playoffs three times during their six-plus-year partnership. The Pirates are now headed for their fourth sub-.500 season under the Huntington-Hurdle tandem, though, and look as if they’ll sell at the deadline, as MLBTR’s Charlie Wilmoth wrote earlier Saturday.

More from Rosenthal:

  • The Orioles have experienced a fair amount of success since 2012, when they hired GM Dan Duquette to team with manager Buck Showalter. Despite that, Duquette and Showalter have an “unsteady” relationship, according to Rosenthal. Therefore, with their contracts set to expire after next season, one or both might end up on the outs in the near future. Showalter, who will be 62 after next season, could take over Duquette’s current job, per Rosenthal.
  • If the 32-26 Twins remain in contention around the deadline, not only will they have a hard time parting with trade candidates such as Ervin Santana and Brian Dozier, but they could end up as buyers, suggests Rosenthal. In that situation, the Twins would likely target cheap starting help to aid a rotation that’s missing Phil Hughes and Hector Santiago, both of whom are on the disabled list. Hughes and Santiago have struggled even when healthy this year for Minnesota, whose rotation entered Saturday a solid 12th in the majors in ERA but a troubling 26th in FIP.
  • The Mariners will have to address long-term needs in their rotation either at the deadline or during the offseason, notes Rosenthal. Hisashi Iwakuma, Yovani Gallardo and Drew Smyly are only under control for another two years at the most (the first two have club options for 2018), leaving Seattle with James Paxton, Felix Hernandez and Ariel Miranda as its only current prominent starters under contract through 2019.

Draft Notes: Twins, Reds, McKay, Ramos, Canning, Heimlich

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Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis’ latest for MLB.com contains plenty of new details on next week’s amateur draft. Here’s the latest.

  • The Twins now seem increasingly likely to take two-way Louisville player Brendan McKay and develop him as a left-handed pitcher rather than a first baseman, Callis writes. The Twins had previously been connected to Vanderbilt righty Kyle Wright, although they had California high school pitcher Hunter Greene in for a workout yesterday. The Reds will take Greene, unless the Twins pick him, in which case they’ll take McKay as a pitcher.
  • Heliot Ramos, a high school outfielder from Puerto Rico, could go somewhere in the middle of the first round, perhaps to the Astros, Giants or Orioles.
  • UCLA righty Griffin Canning’s stock appears to be falling over issues with his MRI, Mayo writes. Canning had been projected to go in the middle of the first round, but his MRI has some teams already deciding to pass on him. It’s not clear right now what those issues are. It’s perhaps worth noting that Canning’s potential arm troubles don’t seem to have hurt him this year — he has a 2.34 ERA and 140 whiffs over 119 innings this season.
  • A report late this week from Danny Moran and Brad Schmidt of the Oregonian should be disturbing news, to say the least, for teams interested in selecting Oregon State lefty Luke Heimlich. As a teenager, Heimlich reportedly pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old family member. He reportedly is thus a registered sex offender. He was previously seen as a possible second- or third-rounder, but that seems unlikely after the emergence of this news. “You absolutely can’t draft him,” a scouting official with an NL team told Callis.

Quick Hits: Baker, Reed, Bruce, Price, July 2

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It was on this day in 1908 that one of baseball’s great slang terms was coined.  In a story by the New York Globe’s Peter Morris about an 8-2 Giants win over the Pirates, Morris wrote “It isn’t often that [umpire] Hank O’Day is caught napping‚ but a young player just getting his cup of coffee in the league put one over on Hank and [umpire Bill Klem] yesterday.”  This was reportedly the first time that “cup of coffee” was used to describe a short stint in the big leagues, and it has been part of the game’s vernacular ever since.

Some news as we head into the weekend…

  • Dusty Baker’s desire for a contract extension is “not going [to] be an issue” for the Nationals, GM Mike Rizzo told the Washington Post’s Jorge Castillo and other reporters.  “We’re not going to let it be an issue. Dusty’s a true professional. He’s been through this, the rigors of the regular season, a million times. I’ve been through it a million times. It’s suffice to say there’s great communication, great respect between the front office and the manager’s office.”  Baker has been open about wanting to remain with the Nats beyond the end of his current contract, which expires at season’s end, and Rizzo has himself recommended to ownership that Baker be extended, though there hasn’t appeared to be any movement towards a new deal.
  • Cody Reed has been pitching well since his demotion to Triple-A, but Reds manager Bryan Price tells the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Zach Buchanan and other reporters that the club has no plans to bring Reed back up to the Show in the near future.  Reed, ranked by Baseball America as the #2 prospect in the Reds’ farm system, has a 7.15 ERA over 61 2/3 innings in the big leagues — a 10-start stint in 2016 and seven outings (six relief appearances, one start) to begin this year.  “I don’t want to take another step back with this kid.  He’s doing too well in Triple-A to feel like we’ve rushed him back and if he has a setback up here we feel like we’re back to square one,” Price said.
  • Jay Bruce has gone from offseason trade chip to a hugely valuable piece for the Mets, Mike Puma of the New York Post writes.  There was some question as to whether the Mets would exercise their $13MM club option on Bruce last winter given his struggles after joining the team in a deadline trade, and the Mets also shopped Bruce after they re-signed Yoenis Cespedes.  Bruce has rebounded to hit .250/.322/.514 with 15 homers in 242 PA, helping stabilize an outfield that lost Cespedes to the DL and Curtis Granderson to an ugly early-season slump.
  • David Price’s issues with the Boston media have added a new wrinkle to his contract’s opt-out clause after the 2018 season, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal writes.  Price may be tired of pitching in Boston, yet he realistically isn’t going to opt out of the four years and $127MM remaining on his deal unless he feels he can find as much or more money in free agency at age 33.  So Price now has perhaps even more incentive to pitch well for the Red Sox, though in this situation’s odd catch-22, better performance would likely alleviate the media pressure.  With over a season and a half to go before Price has to face his opt-out decision, it’s probably too early to speculate about his current thought process, especially when so many other factors (Price’s health, the team’s performance, etc.) are also in the mix.
  • Baseball America’s Ben Badler (subscription required) looks ahead to the next international signing period that opens on July 2, profiling five highly-touted young players from the Dominican Republic who are already rumored to be signing with the Mets, Pirates, Rockies, Twins, and Yankees.

Draft Notes: Twins, Greene, McKay, Rankings, Perez

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As a reminder of the draft’s hit-or-miss nature, MLBPipeline.com’s Jim Callis looks back at the 2007 draft and guesses how teams would pick with a decade of hindsight.  Despite the presence of several superstars in this year’s class, only six of the 2007 first-rounders also appear in Callis’ new mock first round.  It makes for a fun series of “what-if” scenarios given all of the big names in play…or maybe not that fun, if your favorite team made an ill-fated pick ten years ago.

Here’s the latest on news about this year’s amateur draft, which takes place on Monday…

  • The Twins will have high schooler Hunter Greene in for a workout on Friday, MLBPipeline.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports.  Recent reports have linked Minnesota to Vanderbilt righty Kyle Wright with the first overall pick and the Twins could simply be doing their due diligence on another highly-touted youngster.  That said, as Mayo writes, the timing of Greene’s visit is “not exactly the kind of thing a team does so close to the Draft for a player they’re not considering.”
  • From that same item, Jim Callis looks at how teams could use Brendan McKay, who is drawing attention both as a first baseman and as a left-handed pitcher.  The Twins, Reds, and Padres (who own the top three picks) are all likely-to-certain to use him as a pitcher, while the Rays (fourth overall) and Braves (fifth) would probably make McKay a full-time position player.  Callis, for the record, doesn’t believe McKay would fall past Tampa on the draft board.  McKay is so intriguing as a two-way player that Callis believes his future team could use him as a first baseman/DH on days he isn’t pitching, in order to gain more information about his ideal landing spot in the big leagues.
  • Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen breaks down the first round of picks in a mock draft, based on such criteria as “rumors I’ve heard from various industry sources, the presence of front-office members at certain games (especially lately), each club’s own particular modus operandi, etc.”  Longenhagen has Wright to the Twins with the first pick, with McKay also a strong possibility; Greene and prep southpaw MacKenzie Gore are less likely candidates.  Greene is projected to go second to Cincinnati, Gore to San Diego, McKay to Tampa and shortstop Royce Lewis to Atlanta, though quite a bit seems to be up in the air with just five days away from the draft.
  • For an in-depth look at the talent available, Baseball America has a ranking of the top 500 draft prospects, with individual scouting reports available for BA subscribers.  BA has Greene, Wright, McKay, Gore and Lewis as the top five (which, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be taken in that order on Monday).
  • Joe Perez, a high school right-hander out of Florida, will undergo Tommy John surgery, Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo reports.  Despite this injury setback and the fact that Perez has committed to the University Of Miami, Collazo feels teams will still be interested in the righty, who also has drawn interest as a first baseman.  Perez is rated 99th on BA’s list and 92nd on MLB Pipeline’s top 200 rankings.

Twins Claim Chris Heston Off Waivers, Release Nick Tepesch, Place Hector Santiago On 10-Day DL

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7:36pm: The Twins have created a 25-man roster spot for Heston by placing southpaw Hector Santiago on the 10-day DL with a shoulder strain.  Santiago has a 5.26 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 1.68 K/BB rate over 65 frames for Minnesota this season.  His career-long issues with the home run ball has been an even larger issue than usual, as Santiago has already allowed 14 homers over his 65 IP.

5:18pm: The Twins have claimed right-hander Chris Heston off waivers from the Dodgers, Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.  In a corresponding move, righty Nick Tepesch has been released to create room on the 40-man roster.  Minnesota will still have to make another 25-man roster move to accommodate Heston.

It’s been a busy six months for Heston, who will join his fourth different organization in that span.  After spending his first four seasons with the Giants (which included a no-hitter in 2015), Heston was dealt to the Mariners in December and then claimed off waivers by the Dodgers two weeks ago after Seattle designated him for assignment.

Heston will now look to stabilize his career with the Twins, not to mention simply pitch well enough to stay in the majors.  Heston has only pitched 10 big league innings in 2016-17, to the tune of an ugly 15.30 ERA with more walks (11) than strikeouts (six).  Never one to miss many bats, Heston has somewhat less margin for error, though he showed a good ability to keep the ball on the ground during his one full big league season in 2015 (53% grounder rate), and in the minor leagues.

If he can get himself on track, he could find an opportunity within a Twins rotation that is short on stability behind ace Ervin Santana and impressive rookie Jose Berrios.  Minnesota could also potentially use Heston as a reliever to help a relief corps that has a league-worst (5.32) bullpen ERA.

Tepesch signed a minor league deal with the Twins last winter and made one appearance for the team, allowing seven runs (but only one earned) over 1 2/3 innings in a losing start on May 6.  After breaking into the league as a starter with the Rangers in 2013-14, Tepesch missed all of 2015 recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and spent 2016 pitching for four different organizations, including a cup of coffee in the bigs with the Dodgers.

Rangers Nearing Sam Dyson Trade

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JUNE 5, 5:45pm: The Twins remain in the mix for Dyson, tweets Wolfson. Daniels indicated that four or five teams have made serious offers to acquire the reliever, per Shan Shariff of 105.3 The Fan (on Twitter).

4:37pm: Daniels told the Ben & Skin show on 105.3 The Fan on Monday that he’s weighing two to three offers for Dyson. The GM added that he hopes to trade Dyson in the next day or two (Twitter link via Jamey Newberg).

JUNE 2: The Rangers anticipate being able to find a trade partner for just-designated reliever Sam Dyson, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. The alternative, of course, would be to place Dyson on waivers and wait to see if he clears.

There are at least two teams said to be looking into the possibility of adding Dyson. That’s the case for the Rays, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, though it’s not yet clear just how serious the interest is. And the Twins, too, are at least considering the possibility of bringing Dyson into their struggling pen, per Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (via Twitter).

GM Jon Daniels suggested that Texas believes it will work out some kind of swap, given the interest shown already by rival organizations. He also made clear that Dyson does not have any health problems.

Rather, per Daniels, the struggling reliever “just hasn’t been able to get back to what we know he’s capable of.” With the Rangers still trying to hang in the postseason picture, it seems the club simply couldn’t afford to let him work things out at the major league level.

Through 16 2/3 innings on the year, Dyson carries a 10.80 ERA. Even more shockingly, he has managed just 3.8 K/9 to go with 6.5 BB/9. While he’s still pumping mid-nineties sinkers with the grounders (61.4%) to match, something is clearly amiss. Indeed, Dyson’s swinging-strike rate has plummeted to 5.8% after topping out at 12.4% in 2015.

There are some hurdles to a deal, beyond Dyson’s on-field problems. He’s only a Super Two player, increasing the upside for teams considering a move, but he’s already earning $3.52MM this year due to his saves tallies in prior campaigns. Plus, Dyson can’t be optioned — the same reason that Texas was forced to send him into DFA limbo in the first place.

Still, it’s possible to imagine any number of teams having interest in Dyson; after all, he carried a 2.45 ERA through 187 2/3 innings over the prior three seasons. Rebuilding teams could take a chance; clubs that have fallen back a bit could hope to strike gold; and certain contenders might even consider the idea of easing Dyson back in with low-leverage work. Scouting assessments will likely drive the decisionmaking process, but it will be interesting to see what kind of return the Rangers can manage to find in this situation.

Dodgers To Acquire Jason Wheeler

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The Dodgers have struck a deal to acquire lefty Jason Wheeler from the Twins, according to LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune (via Twitter). Cash considerations are headed to Minnesota in return.

Wheeler, 26, was designated for assignment recently by Minnesota. He reached the big leagues briefly for the first time earlier this year, struggling through two outings.

But the Dodgers evidently saw something in Wheeler’s minor league work to like. The soft-tossing southpaw, who has worked almost exclusively as a starter, struggled struggled against right-handed bats in his first crack at the upper minors. But he reversed that in 2016. Over 169 1/3 innings, most of them at Triple-A, he posted a 3.30 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.

AL Notes: Kluber, Twins, A’s, Dyson, Soler/Bonifacio

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As expected, the Indians have activated righty Corey Kluber. He’s back on the hill today for Cleveland after missing a few weeks resting his lower back. The 31-year-old will be looking to improve upon a tepid start to the season. Over his first 37 1/3 innings, he has managed only a 5.06 ERA with 9.9 K/9 but an uncharacteristically high 3.1 BB/9. Righty Shawn Armstrong was optioned to create roster space.

Here’s the latest from the American League:

  • Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey discussed the club’s first overall selection in the upcoming amateur draft, as Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports. The team is taking a closer look at “a group of five to six [players], probably,” according to the club’s top baseball decisionmaker. With several candidates slated to visit with the organization just days before the draft, there’s still time for new information to shape the picture. Falvey says the Twins intend to “ask some difficult questions” of the candidates when they sit down with them, in addition to taking another look at their skills. As Miller well explains, the club’s management of its overall bonus pool will also factor in. Falvey acknowledged the possibility of reallocating some of the top slot’s cash to sign other players — though he also said he’s “not yet ready to say it’s something we’d do in the first round” — and acknowledged the need “to add as many upside assets” as possible.
  • With the Athletics still lagging in the standings, eyes are beginning to turn to their deadline plans. As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, the organization will likely increasingly turn to more youthful options as it deals away veteran assets. In particular, she says, second baseman Jed Lowrie “almost certainly will be dealt” — helping clear the way for top prospect Franklin Barreto. The A’s will surely also entertain a move involving surprising slugger Yonder Alonso, and Slusser notes that the club could also part with a few lesser-performing veterans as well.
  • The struggles have continued for former Rangers closer Sam Dyson. As Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes, Dyson surrendered two home runs as the club went down in extra innings. While he is still generating grounders at a healthy clip, everything else has gone wrong for Dyson, who now owns a 10.80 ERA with a dozen walks and just seven strikeouts through 16 2/3 innings. It’s not clear what the organization will do with the out-of-options righty, but manager Jeff Banister did not exactly deliver a strong vote of confidence after the game. “It’s an extreme challenge right now,” Banister said. “He’s on our staff. He’s one of our pitchers right now, and we have to find a way to continue to work.”
  • The Royals had hoped that Jorge Soler would blossom upon arriving over the winter, but another young outfielder by the same first name is currently keeping him out of the lineup, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports. Jorge Bonifacio, who’ll turn 24 in a few days, is off to a .273/.325/.500 batting line with seven home runs in 120 plate appearances. That may not be quite sustainable, of course, but for now he’s producing and the Royals are giving him a chance to show it’s real. That’s not to say that K.C. is giving up on Soler, who has only seen 18 games of action due to injury and the limited opportunities he has found upon his return.

Twins Shuffle Bullpen In Series Of Roster Moves

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10:25pm: The Twins are selecting the contract of right-hander Alex Wimmers and recalling left-hander Randy Rosario to fill the two spots in the ’pen, as respectively first reported by Seth Stohs of TwinsDaily.com (Twitter link) and Mariana Guzman of 95.7 FM radio (Twitter link).

Wimmers wasn’t on the 40-man after being previously outrighted, but the former first-round pick will receive another chance to establish himself in the Majors. Minnesota plucked Wimmers out of Ohio State University with the 21st overall pick back in 2010, and though he was touted as a polished starter that could move quickly through the minors, injuries derailed his first several seasons as a pro. Now working out of the bullpen, Wimmers has a 3.94 ERA with a 13-to-7 K/BB ratio through 16 innings in Rochester.

The 23-year-old Rosario, who will be making his MLB debut, has torn through Double-A hitters this year, logging a 1.90 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 54.8 percent ground-ball rate. As noted by Stohs, he posted an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio with just four hits and one earned run allowed in 13 2/3 May innings. MLB.com rates him as Minnesota’s No. 27 prospect, praising his upper-90s fastball but calling his slider inconsistent.

4:33pm: The Twins have designated left-hander Jason Wheeler for assignment and optioned right-hander Ryan Pressly to Triple-A Rochester, the team announced to reporters following today’s loss (Twitter link via Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune). Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN had first tweeted that Pressly would be optioned. A pair of corresponding roster moves will be announced tomorrow.

Wheeler, 26, saw his contract selected just yesterday and made his MLB debut on Tuesday. However, the former eighth-round pick struggled through a pair of relief appearances over the past two days, yielding three runs on six hits and four walks in three innings of work. Generally speaking, the Twins’ abysmal bullpen performance in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Astros (28 runs allowed) necessitated a shuffling of the pitching staff, which undoubtedly contributed to Wheeler’s quick loss of his 40-man spot.

Pressly’s significant struggles this season have been one of the primary reasons that the Twins rank last in the Majors in bullpen ERA. The right-hander had pitched to a 3.36 ERA over his past 131 1/3 Major League innings prior to the 2017 campaign and has steadily seen his fastball velocity rise over the years. Pressly is averaging nearly 96 mph on his heater this season and entered the day with a considerably above-average 13.4 percent swinging-strike rate. However, despite his knack for missing bats, Pressly has been exceptionally home-run prone and has also had quite a bit of poor fortune on balls in play (.356 BABIP). He’s yielded five homers in just 18 innings this season after surrendering eight in 75 1/3 innings last year.

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