MLB Weekend Roster Roundup: Braun, Cain, Cervelli, Duggar, Tucker

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 7th-July 8th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Bundy, Carrasco, DeJong, Suter

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 6th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

  • COLORADO ROCKIES Depth Chart
    • Placed on Paternity List: C Tom Murphy
      • A corresponding 25-man move will be made prior to Saturday’s game.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Cueto, Richards, Souza, Torres, Zunino

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 4th-July 5th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

  • WASHINGTON NATIONALS Depth Chart
    • Activated from 10-Day DL: 1B/OF Matt Adams 
      • Adams played 1B and batted 5th on Thursday.
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: SP Erick Fedde (shoulder inflammation)
    • Promoted: P Jefry Rodriguez
      • Rodriguez is a leading candidate to take Fedde’s rotation turn on Monday.
    • Designated for assignment: RP Tim Collins
      • Collins cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • NEW YORK YANKEES Depth Chart
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: 2B Gleyber Torres (strained hip)
      • A corresponding 25-man roster move will be made prior to Friday’s game.

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Chapman, McCann, Ohtani, Vizcaino

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 3rd)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • KANSAS CITY ROYALS Depth Chart
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: SP Ian Kennedy (strained oblique)
      • No word on who will take Kennedy’s scheduled turn on Wednesday.

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Greene, Kingham, Polanco, Pollock

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(July 2nd)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Weekend Roster Roundup: Correa, Gray, Hellickson, Velasquez

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(June 29th-July 1st)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • HOUSTON ASTROS Depth Chart
    • Placed on 10-Day DL: SS Carlos Correa (lower back soreness), retroactive to 6/26.
    • Reinstated from Paternity List: 1B/3B Yuli Gurriel
      • Gurriel played 3B and batted 3rd on Sunday.
    • Promoted: RP Cionel Perez
    • Optioned: RP Cionel Perez

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Bryant, Bundy, Cain, Wright

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(June 26th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

  • MIAMI MARLINS Depth Chart
    • Suspended: SP Dan Straily is serving a 5-game suspension (June 26-June 30).
      • Straily was lined up to start on Friday, the last day of his suspension, so he’ll likely be pushed back to Saturday.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • HOUSTON ASTROS Depth Chart
    • Reinstated from Restricted List: SP Dean Deetz
      • Deetz was optioned to Triple-A after serving an 80-game suspension.

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

Trade Candidate: Marco Estrada

Though we noted Blue Jays righty Marco Estrada as a possible trade candidate in our first ranking of the 50 top trade deadline assets, he only rated mention on the outside of the list. To that point of the season, after all, Estrada had largely been ineffective. With a $13MM salary, there wasn’t a ton of appeal in a player who’ll turn 35 in early July.

Marco Estrada

That situation, however, is beginning to change. Estrada has been one of the better starters in baseball over the past month, accumulating an even 1.0 fWAR over the past thirty days — something only ten other hurlers in the game have accomplished. In his last four outings, in particular, he has worked to a 1.75 ERA with 26 strikeouts against five walks.

How has it happened? It’s a bit difficult to say for sure, as there haven’t been any truly dramatic swings in his approach or stuff. But his fastball sure has been more effective: it was valued at -1.53 runs per one hundred pitches through May, but has jumped to a +4.27 valuation on a rate basis in June. And Estrada has been pumping first-pitch strikes at a greater rate in the past month as well (going from 63.4% to 69.5%). Meanwhile, the shape of his changeup has altered somewhat, exhibiting less horizontal and slightly more vertical movement over his past four starts.

These changes are subtle enough that they may not really reflect much at all of substance. The primary drivers, perhaps, still need to be sussed out and assessed for sustainability. But it does not seem that Estrada has simply been the beneficiary of a correction in batted-ball fortune. Statcast suggests he deserved the poor outcomes that befell him through the end of May, and has simply been much better at limiting good contact since.

In the aggregate, it’s certainly far too soon to declare Estrada a newfound ace. In all likelihood, his true talent at this point pegs him as a solid hurler who could help a contender fill out a competitive rotation.

That general impression is buttressed by a review of Estrada’s past several seasons. Upon landing in Toronto, he had great results in 2015 and 2016 before a downturn last year. But his underlying statistics have been fairly consistent all along. In total, over 627 1/3 innings with the Jays, Estrada owns a 3.96 ERA with a 4.40 FIP, 4.91 xFIP, and 4.57 SIERA. To the extent it’s reasonable to anticipate that he will outperform the ERA estimators somewhat, it’s likely not wise to hope he’ll do so by any great margin.

Barring a sustained run over the next month, Estrada likely won’t generate a huge amount of excitement at the trade deadline. But he increasingly looks like a solid piece for the right team. He has been good for about thirty starts and 180 frames annually of late, and despite some ups and downs is perhaps reasonably viewed as a sturdy back-of-the-rotation arm overall.

As the above-linked list of top deadline candidates shows, the crop of rotation targets is rather thin at present. The Jays surely won’t be able to draw any significant offers of young talent for Estrada. But perhaps they’ll manage to offload a decent chunk of his remaining salary obligations next month. That’s not to say it’s any kind of sure thing that he’ll end up elsewhere. After all, we’ve wondered previously whether the veteran hurler would leave the Jays, only for him to agree to successive contracts just before reaching the open market (see here and here).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Beckham, Foltynewicz, Miller, Sanchez

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(June 25th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

MLB Weekend Roster Roundup: Kershaw, Sanchez, Stroman, Vizcaino

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(June 23rd-June 24th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

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