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AL Injury Notes: Ohtani, Yankees, Red Sox, Athletics

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The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani won’t make his season debut during their homestand from April 30-May 5, manager Brad Ausmus told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and other reporters Sunday. The two-way star is still on the mend from the Tommy John surgery he underwent on his right elbow last October, which will keep him from pitching this season but won’t prevent him from helping the Angels’ offense. Los Angeles entered Sunday with a middle-of-the-pack offense, though designated hitters Albert Pujols and Kevan Smith have only combined for average hitting to this point relative to their position. Ohtani was far better than that as a rookie in 2018, when he slashed .288/.361/.564 with 22 home runs and 10 steals over 367 plate appearances.

  • The injury-ravaged Yankees may have to start dipping into the Double-A level to fill their roster at this rate, as a couple more of their players – infielders DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela – left Sunday’s game against the Giants with ailments. LeMahieu departed with right knee inflammation, while Urshela exited after Giants reliever Nick Vincent hit him in the left hand with an 88.5 mph pitch. Luckily for New York, X-rays came back negative in both cases, though LeMahieu will undergo an MRI on Monday (via ESPN.com, Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News). LeMahieu and Urshela have handled third base with aplomb in place of Miguel Andujar, who’s one of 13 Yankees currently on the injured list.
  • Red Sox infielders Dustin Pedroia and Eduardo Nunez are set to embark on rehab assignments, manager Alex Cora said Sunday. Meanwhile, fellow banged-up infielder Brock Holt was scratched from his Triple-A rehab game Sunday because of right shoulder soreness (links via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com). Pedroia landed on the IL on April 18 with yet another left knee injury, but he’s “a lot better” now, according to Cora, who announced he’s likely to play with Double-A Portland beginning May 2. Nunez, down since the 19th with a mid-back strain, will go to Triple-A Pawtucket on Monday and could be back in Boston by May 6, Cotillo writes. Holt has been on the IL since April 6 with a scratched right cornea, and there’s no word on how serious his shoulder problem is. When healthy, Pedroia, Nunez and Holt have posted pitiful production this year, which helps explain why Boston second basemen have recorded the AL’s worst fWAR (minus-0.9).
  • Athletics first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha suffered a wrist sprain Sunday and may require a stint on the IL, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Slusser notes the A’s could recall Skye Bolt or Dustin Fowler to replace Canha, who has hit .200/.377/.375 with a pair of HRs in 53 trips to the plate this year.

Quick Hits: Cards, Martinez, Reyes, Royals, Goodwin, Yanks, Ellsbury

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Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez, whose injured shoulder has kept him out of action this year, is “expected” to return at some point next month, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. “I feel so much better. Right now I’m 85 percent, 90 percent,” Martinez declared. “In two weeks … I think I’m going to be great. When I come back to the major leagues, I’m going to be 100 percent.” The electrifying 27-year-old has flashed front-line starter potential during his career, but thanks in part to his own wishes, he’ll work out of the Cardinals’ bullpen when he comes back. However, Martinez’s goal is to rejoin the Redbirds’ rotation after the All-Star break, Hummel relays. Meanwhile, though there’s no official timetable for fellow banged-up Cardinals righty Mike Mayers’ return, he’s aiming for July. The reliever went to the injured list April 16 with a strained lat.

More from St. Louis and a couple other big league cities…

  • Martinez and Mayers certainly aren’t dealing with embarrassing injuries, but the same isn’t true for teammate Alex Reyes. The prized 24-year-old suffered a fractured left pinky after punching a wall following his most recent Triple-A start, general manager Michael Girsch told Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch and other reporters Sunday. Reyes will now head to the Cardinals’ facility in Jupiter, Fla., to continue building his arm up, though this injury likely leaves the righty at least a month from returning to St. Louis, per Goold.
  • Outfielder Brian Goodwin was on release waivers a month ago, when the Royals cut him in favor of Lucas Duda. All Goodwin has done since then is slash .333/.430/.556 in 87 plate appearances as a member of the Angels, making him one of the game’s elite hitters in the early going. The Royals could end up ruing their decision to part with Goodwin, but manager Ned Yost and GM Dayton Moore explained to Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star that they don’t regret the choice. Yost noted that Goodwin has struggled as a pinch hitter, which played a part in the Royals’ decision to release him, and observed that “it just made more sense” to have the lefty-swinging Duda and the righty-batting Frank Schwindel (who’s now in the minors) as pinch-hitting options and Terrance Gore as another bench choice. The Royals also had plenty of other outfield possibilities, notes Worthy, who points out Goodwin didn’t exactly make a case for a roster spot during an unproductive spring with KC.  “There probably wouldn’t have been a lot of at-bats for him,” said Moore, who suggested he’s happy Goodwin found a better opportunity elsewhere.
  • Injuries continue to haunt forgotten but well-compensated Yankees outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who last appeared in a game Oct. 17, 2017. Manager Aaron Boone said Saturday (via George A. King III of the New York Post) that Ellsbury is “dealing with different things,” “a number of little things that continue to pop up,” and “certainly” won’t return in the near term. The 35-year-old Ellsbury has battled a litany of health problems over the past couple seasons, including plantar fasciitis in 2019. The Yankees owe Ellsbury $21MM salaries through 2020 and can then cut the cord on him with a $5MM buyout.

AL Notes: Givens, Astudillo, C. Frazier, Rangers

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The Orioles are listening to offers for reliever Mychal Givens, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (video link). On a rebuilding, talent-deprived club that doesn’t have many enticing trade chips, the right-handed Givens stands out as someone who would draw plenty of interest on the market. Givens hasn’t been elite at preventing runs since last season, having posted a 4.06 ERA in 88 2/3 innings, but he has generally done well in that department (3.18 lifetime ERA) while logging appealing strikeout and walk rates (10.46 K/9, 3.34 BB/9) in 272 frames since his 2015 debut. The soon-to-be 29-year-old is also affordable ($2.15MM salary) and controllable through the 2021 season.

More from the AL….

  • The Twins have placed utilityman Willians Astudillo on the 10-day injured list, Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweets. Astudillo left the Twins’ win over Baltimore on Saturday with left hamstring tightness. The 27-year-old collected a hit in his sole at-bat Saturday, continuing a trend of terrific production in the majors. After recording a .355/.371/.516 line in his 97-plate appearance debut in 2018, Astudillo has come out of the gates with a .327/.340/.531 showing in 53 PA this year. The big-bodied Astudillo has become a folk hero in Minnesota thanks in part to that output. It helps that Astudillo has lined up all over the diamond with the Twins, having racked up multiple appearances at catcher, first base, third base and in the corner outfield this season alone.
  • Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes injured outfielder Clint Frazier will be able to return in 10 to 14 days, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays. Frazier hit the IL on Thursday with an ankle injury, making him the 15th Yankee of the season to land on the shelf. It was especially unfortunate because Frazier, 24, looked to be in the early stages of a breakout campaign. He got off to a .324/.342/.632 start with six home runs in 73 PA, which was welcome production for a Yankees club whose outfield was annihilated by injuries even when Frazier was healthy.
  • The Rangers will shut left-hander Taylor Hearn down for at least three weeks, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The 24-year-old went on the IL on Friday with elbow tightness, though Grant notes an MRI didn’t reveal any acute structural damage – just inflammation. Hearn made his major league debut Thursday against the Mariners, who teed off on him for five runs (four earned) on three hits and four walks in just a third of an inning. Still, Hearn ranks as one of the Rangers’ best prospects, so it’s no doubt a relief for the team that he has appeared to dodge a ruinous injury.

AL Injury Notes: Andujar, Eloy, Rangers, Jays, Royals

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The Yankees will open a seven-game homestand May 3, at which point injured third baseman Miguel Andujar could rejoin their lineup, manager Aaron Boone said Friday (via George A. King III of the New York Post). Whether that happens will depend on how Andujar fares in extended spring training and minor league rehab games over the next several days. For now, though, Boone is “cautiously optimistic” about Andujar’s torn right labrum, which looked like a potential season-ending injury when he went on the IL on April 1.  The 24-year-old is one of a whopping 15 Yankees who have landed on the injured list this season, but the reserve-laden club has weathered the storm with a 15-11 start. Third base subs DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela have performed well along the way, helping to ease the burden of Andujar’s absence.

  • White Sox left fielder Eloy Jimenez exited Friday’s game with a right ankle sprain and was wearing a walking boot afterward, per James Fegan of The Athletic (subscription required). X-rays on Jimenez’s ankle came back negative, but he’ll undergo an MRI on Saturday. An IL stint seems like a distinct possibility for the 22-year-old phenom, who’s just 85 plate appearances into his career.
  • Rangers lefty Taylor Hearn endured a rough debut start. Now, he’s headed to the 10-day IL with elbow tightness. That’s not how the club drew things up when it called upon one of its most promising young pitchers to join the MLB roster. Hearn’s outlook isn’t yet known. That was just one of several moves, as fellow hurler Jeffrey Springs and infielder Patrick Wisdom were optioned out. Second bagger Rouned Odor was activated from the IL while pitchers Ariel Jurado and Wei-Chieh Huang were called up to provide some fresh arms.
  • Standout Blue Jays infield prospect Bo Bichette is down with a broken left hand, but general manager Ross Atkins said Friday he won’t require surgery, as Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets. The Jays expect a four- to six-week recovery time for the 21-year-old Bichette, who’s regarded as one of the game’s premier prospects.
  • The Royals have placed first baseman Lucas Duda on the 10-day IL, retroactive to April 24, and recalled third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez from Triple-A Omaha, according to Pete Grathoff and Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star. Duda’s dealing with a lumbar strain, which continues a rough start to the season for the 33-year-old. The free-agent pickup has hit a miserable .174/.304/.326 in 56 trips to the plate. Meanwhile, Gutierrez batted an impressive .333/.443/.439 in 79 PA prior to his promotion, and he’s now in line for his first major league action. The Royals acquired Gutierrez, 24, from the Nationals last June as part of a deal centering on reliever Kelvin Herrera. Gutierrez currently ranks as KC’s 14th-best prospect at MLB.com.

Injury Notes: Zimmermann, Smyly, Yankees

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The Tigers are holding their breath after seeing starter Jordan Zimmermann depart with discomfort in his right elbow, as Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press was among those to report on Twitter. More on his outlook will be known after he’s evaluated tomorrow, but it seems there’s a bit of worry from within the organization. Zimmermann’s tenure in Detroit has been nothing short of disastrous; he entered the season with a cumulative 5.24 ERA and is sitting on a 5.93 mark through six starts this year. The club owes him $25MM this year and the same for 2020.

More on the health front:

  • Rangers lefty Drew Smyly says he thinks he’ll be capable of returning after skipping only a starter or two, as MLB.com’s TR Sullivan tweets. He explains that he is just dealing with arm fatigue in his first full season back following Tommy John surgery. That’s reasonably promising news, standing alone. Trouble is, the Texas organization really needs innings right away. Prospect Taylor Hearn was bombed tonight, leaving the bullpen to pick up the pieces. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News notes on Twitter, veteran righty Jeanmar Gomez took the brunt of the damage and may now be at risk of losing his spot on the roster as the club scrambles to cover innings in the coming days.
  • With loads of significant players on the injured list, there are always quite a few Yankees updates of note. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch rounds up the latest in one concise tweet. Aaron Hicks and Troy Tulowitzki both appear close to full (minor-league) game action, which suggests both may not be far off from a return to the MLB roster. Miguel Andujar is slated to appear at third base in extended spring action tomorrow. That represents the latest promising sign as he attempts to stave off surgery to address a shoulder injury that isn’t preventing him from hitting but has hampered his throwing. Just how that’ll all turn out remains to be seen, but it appears there is enough promise that he’s going to try to ramp back up at the hot corner.
  • As for star Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, the biceps issue that drove him to the injured list appears to be sorted. But he’s now dealing with a new shoulder malady. Per Andy Martino of SNY.tv, the hope is that this new problem will only extend his absence by a week or so. It’s all a bit foggy but seems less than concerning on the whole, at least in comparison to the club’s overall injury malaise. Having treaded water admirably thus far, the Yanks can go another week without Stanton. They are still in good position in the AL East — so long as their health fortunes finally turn, at least.

Yankees Acquire Cameron Maybin

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1:59pm: The Yankees announced that they have acquired Maybin from the Indians and immediately selected his contract to the Major League roster. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Luis Severino was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL.

11:31am: MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Yankees are sending cash to the Indians in return for Maybin.

11:06am: The Yankees have acquired veteran outfielder Cameron Maybin from the Indians, Jack Curry of the YES Network reports (Twitter link). He’d been with Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league contract and was not on the club’s 40-man roster.

It seems quite plausible, however, that Maybin could be added to the big league roster in New York. The Yankees placed Clint Frazier on the injured list this morning and are also without Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Jacoby Ellsbury, leaving them with an outfield mix comprised of Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade.

Maybin, 32, has opened the season in Triple-A Columbus with a .229/.397/.292 batting line through 63 trips to the plate. He is, of course, a seasoned big league veteran who has logged parts of 12 seasons at the MLB level and compiled a career-long .254/.322/.368 slash line. Most recently, Maybin split the 2018 season between the Marlins and Mariners, hitting .249/.326/.336 with four homers and 10 steals in 384 plate appearances. He spent Spring Training with the Giants organization, but poor performance and a DUI arrest while in camp unsurprisingly led the Giants to move in another direction.

Defensively, Maybin isn’t the player that he once was, but he still boasts well above-average speed and has ample experience playing all three outfield spots. Last year’s 28.5 ft/sec average sprint speed, as measured by Statcast, ranked Maybin in the 84th percentile of all big leaguers.

The move seems likely to be a short-term boost for the Yankees’ outfield depth. If the team can manage to get each of Hicks, Judge, Stanton and Frazier healthy, there’d be little room with Gardner and Tauchman also in the fold. And if injuries to any of the Yankees’ key outfield assets prove to ultimately be more severe than initially feared, it’s likely that the New York front office would pursue a more impactful upgrade down the line.

Yankees To Place Clint Frazier On 10-Day IL

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced after last night’s game that outfielder Clint Frazier will be placed on the 10-day injured list with an ankle injury, as Erik Boland of Newsday was among those to report (Twitter links). He joins a dozen other players on a talent-laden Yankees IL.

It seems that Frazier won’t be sidelined for much longer than the minimum; indeed, Boone suggested that the player himself feels he’s close to being ready to return. With the MRI showing some cause for concern, though, the club elected to take the cautious course and free up the roster spot for a healthy replacement.

Reliever Joe Harvey is being called up to take the roster spot, but that may only be a precursor to another move to get an outfield-capable position player onto the roster. The situation could ultimately force a 40-man roster move — possibly a 60-day IL placement for one of the already-injured players — as the club is otherwise fresh out of options.

It’s possible to imagine some kind of minor trade coming together, or the Yanks might call upon one of the veterans it has stashed at Triple-A on minor-league deals. Brad Miller has limited experience in the outfield but would be a flexible option with an established bat. Cliff Pennington is another infielder who has appeared briefly on the grass, though his chief attribute is his glovework on the dirt. Billy Burns would offer a capable defender but little at the plate.

This should only be a road bump for team and player, though there are still some legitimate concerns. The Yanks have managed to roll through the injuries and win eight of their last ten games, but their only three healthy outfielders at the moment are Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman, and Tyler Wade. Frazier was finally hitting his stride at the game’s highest level, turning in 73 plate appearances of .324/.342/.632 hitting with six home runs. Now he’s nursing yet another injury.

Yankees Option Chad Green, Activate Gary Sanchez

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The Yankees have announced a few notable roster tweaks. Struggling reliever Chad Green was optioned down to Triple-A to sort things out, with southpaw Stephen Tarpley recalled to take his active roster spot. And the club activated catcher Gary Sanchez while optioning down fellow backstop Kyle Higashioka.

Green has simply not been himself this year. After two outstanding campaigns in the New York bullpen, he has been bombed for 14 earned runs on 15 hits (including four dingers) in his 7 2/3 innings this season.

It’s tough timing for Green , as he is trying to set the stage for his first season of arbitration eligibility. With 2.077 years of service accrued through yesterday, he can only afford to miss 64 of the remaining potential MLB service days before the season ends if he’s to cross the threshold to a third year of service. (If he falls short of that, he could potentially still qualify for arb as a Super Two, though that’d put free agency one season further in the distance.)

The Yankees will hope they can figure out what is going on with Green. His velocity is down a bit, though he’s still sitting just under 95 with his heater, and his swinging-strike rate has dropped to 10.4%. While his groundball rate has shot up to 48.4% — a level he hasn’t worked at since he was in the minors — Green is giving up loads of hard contact.

Meanwhile, the club will welcome the return of Sanchez to a lineup that has been racked by injuries. The slugger bounced back quickly from a calf strain. Several other key players remain sidelined, but the hope is that a variety of fill-in pieces can keep the team above water in the meantime.

Yankees Sign Brad Miller

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The Yankees announced Monday that they’ve signed veteran infielder Brad Miller to a minor league contract. The ISE Baseball client was recently designated for assignment by the Indians and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the minor leagues.

The 29-year-old Miller hit .250/.325/.417 with a homer and three doubles in his short time with the Indians but lost out on his roster spot when Cleveland activated Jason Kipnis from the injured list. Miller isn’t a strong defender but has experience all over the infield as well as in the outfield corners, making him an interesting depth pickup for an injury-decimated Yankees club. The lefty-swinging utilityman is a career .240/.313/.409 hitter in 2545 plate appearances, including a .243/.322/.433 line against right-handed pitching.

At present, the Yankees have Greg Bird, Troy Tulowitzki, Miguel Andujar and Didi Gregorius all on the injured list, which has forced the club to carry a hodgepodge of largely unproven replacements. Mike Ford, Gio Urshela and Tyler Wade are all logging at-bats around the infield right now (in addition to DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres), and things in the outfield aren’t necessarily any better; Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton are all on the IL for the Yankees, leaving Clint Frazier, Brett Gardner and Mike Tauchman in the starting lineup. To their credit, however, both Frazier and the relatively unknown Tauchman have performed quite well.

Yankees Grant Gio Gonzalez His Release

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The Yankees announced that veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez was not added to the team’s 40-man roster after exercising his opt-out clause over the weekend. The team had 48 hours to add Gonzalez to the roster once he triggered that clause, but he was instead allowed to become a free agent and is now able to sign with any club.

Bringing Gonzalez to the Majors would’ve been a fairly expensive bit of speculation for the Yankees, as the southpaw’s contract contained a $3MM base salary and called for him to earn an additional $300K per start made. With the decision to move on from Gonzalez, the Yankees will rely on James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ, CC Sabathia and Domingo German while awaiting the return of top starter Luis Severino, who is recovering from a lat strain.

Gonzalez, 33, made three starts with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton before opting out of his contract. Although he was shelled in the season opener (eight runs in four innings), the veteran rebounded with a pair of excellent outings, yielding a combined two runs with an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio in 11 innings. He threw 93 pitches in the most recent of those outings (April 14), so Gonzalez is plenty stretched out and could even be ready to join a big league staff in short order. He was slated to make a fourth appearance over the weekend but had that start rained out.

While Gonzalez found a tepid market for much of the offseason (to put things mildly), he should have no shortage of interested clubs this time around. Many teams have seen their rotation struggle early in the season, with some losing key arms for much (or all) of the season and others having to send younger rotation hopefuls back to the minors. The Brewers, Angels, Mets, Red Sox, Cardinals, Phillies, Athletics, Indians and Twins have all endured varying levels of disappointment from their starting rotations and could conceivably look to the durable Gonzalez as an alternative option.

While the 2018 season certainly wasn’t one of Gonzalez’s best, he topped 170 innings and 30 starts for the eighth time in the past nine seasons, working to a 4.21 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 along the way. Gonzalez has averaged 31 starts per season dating back to 2010 and hasn’t made fewer than 27 appearances in a given season since that time. As recently as 2017, he notched a 2.96 ERA in 201 innings of work, though he did lead the National League in walks that season. Nevertheless, Gonzalez has regularly been an average or better starter in the Majors for the past decade; that strong track record made it nothing short of bewildering to onlookers that he faced such a seemingly minimal market, but he’ll now venture into free agency for a second time with new representation as he looks to find a quick path back to the Major Leagues.

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