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Pitching Notes: Smyly, Yankees, Wright, Gee, Swarzak

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There’s some degree of uncertainty surrounding Drew Smyly’s left arm, writes Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Smyly was scratched from his scheduled start this coming Friday due to the fact that he didn’t feel good coming out of his last bullpen session. The southpaw was slated to meet with the Mariners’ team doctor today, with manager Scott Servais nebulously stating that Smyly’s arm felt “soggy.” As MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets, Servais said following today’s contest that he’s yet to receive an update on Smyly’s condition. It’s not known what type of tests Smyly underwent or what level of concern the Mariners are currently harboring, but the situation is certainly worth monitoring as Opening Day looms. The initial plan, according to Divish, was to shut Smyly down from throwing for a couple of days. The results of his examination could, of course, alter that trajectory.

A few more notes pertaining to some rotations around the game…

  • Yankees manager Joe Girardi said today that the team won’t announce a fifth starter before the season begins, writes MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. With three off-days over the first 10 days of the regular-season schedule, the Yankees will carry eight relievers and use the built-in time off to rest their first four starters. Both Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino will be used as starters to begin the season, regardless of whether they’re in the Majors or minors, Hoch adds. Montgomery’s final stop in an unlikely bid for a rotation slot came earlier this afternoon, when he held the Blue Jays to one run over the life of five innings. Hoch also notes that GM Brian Cashman said the team has decided on a fourth starter, but Girardi did not make the announcement today. Montgomery, Severino, Chad Green and Bryan Mitchell are still vying for rotation spots.
  • Red Sox right-hander Steven Wright pitched with an elastic brace on his left knee last night, per Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. The knuckleballer has been feeling on-and-off soreness in his knee over the past several weeks, according to Abraham, but he termed the brace as a precautionary measure. The 32-year-old Wright added that he doesn’t believe there’s one singular incident that led to the soreness and doesn’t feel it’s impacted his pitching to this point.
  • The Rangers are faced with a difficult decision when it comes to Dillon Gee, observes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan, and the right-hander’s brilliant performance on Wednesday didn’t make things any easier on the team. Gee fired six scoreless innings and allowed just two hits while racking up nine strikeouts, requiring a tidy 67 pitches to get the job done. Gee, 31, has an opt-out clause in his contract today that will allow him to elect free agency if he is not assured a spot on the team’s roster. As Sullivan notes, Gee could be used in long relief or as a spot starter early in the season while Andrew Cashner is sidelined.
  • Dan Hayes of CSNChicago writes that right-hander Anthony Swarzak is making a strong push for a spot on the White Sox’ Opening Day roster. The former Twins righty has seen his velocity tick up to the mid-90s this spring, and his experience as a starter and a swingman could make him valuable in a multi-inning relief role. Manager Rick Renteria both spoke highly of the work Swarzak has put in during camp and noted that pitching coach Don Cooper has been working to get Swarzak stretched out a bit. With Carlos Rodon possibly ticketed for the disabled list to open the season, Swarzak and young Dylan Covey could combine in a sort of piggyback role to cover Rodon’s spot in the rotation early in the year, Hayes suggests.

AL East Notes: Yankees, Duffy, Sucre, Rutledge, Smith, Price

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The rotation picture is slowly coming into focus for the Yankees, who still haven’t made clear who’ll round out their staff. As George A. King III of the New York Post reports, though, the organization has decided that Adam Warren will open the year in the bullpen while Luis Cessa will start out in the minors. That leaves four remaining possibilities for the final two rotation jobs: Luis Severino, Bryan Mitchell, Chad Green, and Jordan Montgomery. While Montgomery has produced intriguing numbers in the upper minors last year as well as during camp this spring, he’s considered a “long shot,” per the report.

Here’s more news out of the AL East:

  • There’s some positive news for Rays shortstop Matt Duffy, who received a clean MRI on his still-ailing heel, Topkin tweets. But there’s still no timeline for his return with camp about to break. Given the delayed healing thus far, it seems likely the club will exercise plenty of caution. Meanwhile, the Rays have informed catcher Jesus Sucre that he’ll be on the active roster, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports on Twitter. He’ll function as the backup to the just-acquired Derek Norris, with Luke Maile and Curt Casali heading to Triple-A for depth.
  • While the focus has been on the pitching staff, it appears the Red Sox will be dealing with a few tough roster questions on the position-player side to open the year. Infielder Josh Rutledge is likely to start the year on the DL with a hamstring issue, skipper John Farrell told reporters including Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (Twitter links). What’s of added intrigue here is the fact that first baseman Mitch Moreland has been sent home with the flu, while Hanley Ramirez appears likely to be limited to DH duties. It seemed Rutledge had been slated to back up Moreland at the position; now, the club may be forced to press someone else into duty — Marco Hernandez and Steve Selsky were suggested as possibilities to take Rutledge’s roster spot — at least in a reserve function. Of course, it’s worth bearing in mind that this is likely only a short-term issue.
  • As for the Red Sox’ pitching, there are a few minor updates worth noting. Righty Carson Smith is backing down a bit on his Tommy John rehab after experiencing tightness following his first pen session, Britton reports. It’s considered more a typical part of the process than any kind of setback. Starter David Price, meanwhile, is continuing a long-toss program (two days on, one day off) for the time being, Britton tweets. It’s not clear just when or how the team will decide to ramp things up for the lefty.

Cubs Return Rule 5 Pick Caleb Smith To Yankees

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The Cubs are returning left-hander Caleb Smith to the Yankees, reports Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago (Twitter link). Chicago selected Smith in the Rule 5 draft in December.

The 25-year-old Smith potentially could have made the Cubs’ bullpen as a southpaw swingman, but they’ll instead go with Mike Montgomery and Brian Duensing as their lefty relievers. Smith didn’t see much spring action with the Cubs, having tossed 6 1/3 innings and given up three earned runs on eight hits. Impressively, he struck out seven batters and only issued two walks.

Smith, whom the Yankees chose in Round 14 of the 2013 amateur draft, ascended to Triple-A in 2015, though he has only thrown 4 1/3 innings at that level. In 367 1/3 Double-A frames (94 appearances, 69 starts), he has logged a 3.41 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. Smith is the second Rule 5 pick the Yankees have gotten back in the past few days – the Diamondbacks returned righty Tyler Jones to them last Friday – and will now head to their minor league camp.

Yankees To Re-Sign Jon Niese To Minors Deal

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The Yankees are bringing back left-hander Jon Niese on a minor league contract, reports George A. King III of the New York Post (Twitter link). New York released Niese on Sunday, but the expectation was that he’d quickly rejoin the organization if he couldn’t land a major league deal elsewhere.

Niese’s new pact comes with the same salary figures as the minor league accord he signed with the Yankees in February, as he’ll earn a $1.25MM base salary and could make $750K in incentives if he cracks the majors, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. The agreement also comes with a May 15 opt-out (Twitter links).

The 30-year-old Niese had been working to earn a bullpen role with the Yankees prior to Sunday, and it stands to reason he’ll resume those efforts. In order to get back to the majors, though, it’s likely Niese will have to regain his fastball velocity, which was only in the mid-80s range before the Yankees cut him. Niese typically sat in the high-80s with the Mets and Pirates from 2008-16.

A full-time job as a reliever would be uncharted territory for Niese, who has worked almost exclusively as a starter to this point. Of Niese’s 211 career appearances, 197 have come from the rotation. Niese has largely served as a competent starter, having logged a 4.07 ERA, 6.92 K/9, 2.78 BB/9 and a 50.1 percent ground-ball rate in nearly 1,200 innings. However, he picked up a personal-high nine relief outings (out of 29 appearances) between New York and Pittsburgh last year amid the worst season of his career. After recording a 5.50 ERA and a 22.1 percent home run-to-fly ball ratio across 121 frames in 2016, Niese was unable to take advantage of a weak class of free agent pitchers and land a guaranteed contract over the winter.

East Notes: Mets, Yanks, Marlins, Orioles, Nats

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Major League Baseball could suspend Mets closer Jeurys Familia as early as Tuesday for an alleged domestic violence incident last October, report Kristie Ackert and Christian Red of the New York Daily News. The Mets are only expecting the league to ban Familia for approximately 15 games, per Ackert and Red, who note that the 27-year-old’s wife, Bianca Rivas, has said during MLB’s investigation that he didn’t hit her. Familia was alleged to have caused bodily injury to Rivas, which led to an arrest on a charge of simple assault. That charge was dropped and expunged from Familia’s record in December, though, after Rivas told a New Jersey judge she wasn’t interested in pursuing the case.

More from the East Coast:

  • The Yankees informed right-hander Adam Warren on Tuesday that he’s no longer in the running for the final two spots in their rotation, writes Randy Miller of NJ.com. That’s not particularly surprising, as Warren always seemed like a long shot on account of his vast experience as a reliever. He’ll once again take on a bullpen role this year, while two of Luis Severino, Bryan Mitchell, Chad Green and Jordan Montgomery will fill out the Yankees’ starting five.
  • The Marlins will open the season without a left-handed reliever, having optioned Hunter Cervenka to the minors on Tuesday, per Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. They also sent Justin Nicolino down, thus clinching the fifth spot in the rotation for Adam Conley. Although Conley looked like a shoo-in for a starting job at the outset of spring training, his struggles combined with Nicolino’s effectiveness nearly produced an unexpected outcome. “[Optioning Nicolino] was probably our toughest decision. He pitched really well in spring,” manager Don Mattingly said. “I shouldn’t say surprised because we know it’s there, but coming into camp I kind of looked at him as an outside chance, really, and he’s really opened a lot of eyes and a lot of conversation about who that fifth guy should be.”
  • It doesn’t appear the left oblique strain Mets outfielder Juan Lagares suffered Saturday is anything serious. Lagares underwent an MRI on Tuesday, and while results aren’t yet known, he told ESPN Deportes’ Marly Rivera that he’s “almost 100 percent” (via Ackert). Of course, if Lagares is OK, he seems likely to start the year as the Mets’ fourth outfielder, which could lead to a demotion to the minors for Michael Conforto.
  • The Orioles hope to re-sign outfielder Michael Bourn and infielder Chris Johnson, tweets Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. Baltimore released the pair Monday (Bourn exercised his opt-out clause) after neither cracked its big league roster.
  • The Nationals released veteran reliever Matt Albers on Monday, but he could return to the organization on a minors deal if he’s unable to land a major league contract elsewhere, a source told FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).

Rosenthal’s Latest: Lucroy, Lindor, Ahmed, D’backs, Ryu

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Here are highlights from the latest column by FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal:

  • Catcher Jonathan Lucroy and the Rangers recently shelved talks about an extension. It’s not entirely clear what happened, but one possibility could be that Lucroy is waiting for a new Yadier Molina deal with the Cardinals, a contract that would help set his value. Molina could receive $17MM to $18MM a season, Rosenthal writes, and Lucroy would probably receive only a bit less.
  • An extension for Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor appears unlikely unless the team is willing to pay him at elite rates, Rosenthal opines. Lindor is on track to become a free agent at 28, and he has an endorsement deal with New Balance that provides him with extra funds during these early-career seasons during which his pay is relatively minimal.
  • The Diamondbacks do not have shortstop Nick Ahmed on the market, Rosenthal reports. Ahmed has two minor-league options and is therefore useful to a Diamondbacks team that faces a reasonable amount of uncertainty at the shortstop position, where they also have the largely unproven Chris Owings and Ketel Marte. The Yankees, meanwhile, feel they don’t need Ahmed — Didi Gregorius is set to begin the season on the DL with a shoulder injury, but the Yankees prefer to get through the first several weeks of the season with a combination of Ronald Torreyes, Pete Kozma (a somewhat similar player to Ahmed, Rosenthal points out) and Tyler Wade at short.
  • The Diamondbacks will keep an eye out for bullpen help as Opening Day approaches, perhaps pursuing players who don’t make other clubs’ 25-man rosters. In the meantime, though, the Snakes like what they see in Tom Wilhelmsen and J.J. Hoover, both of whom they signed to minor-league deals.
  • The White Sox do not seem likely to deal Jose Quintana now when interest in him could ramp up at the deadline, but the Astros, with their strong farm system and rotation needs, seem likely to eventually acquire Quintana or another good starter.
  • Dodgers lefty Hyun-jin Ryu, who has missed almost all of the past two seasons to injury, looks “like he hasn’t skipped a beat,” in the words of one scout. Ryu is competing for one of the Dodgers’ final two rotation spots.

AL Notes: Heaney, Refsnyder, Rays, Frazier, Gentry

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Angels southpaw Andrew Heaney signed a precedent-setting contract with Fantex in September 2015, and discussed the unique arrangement with Pedro Moura of the L.A. Times.  “You can look it at as marketing your brand.  You can look at it as an insurance policy,” Heaney said.  “Obviously, money to one person is totally different than money to another person.  I live in Oklahoma.  It’s not expensive to live there.  I don’t live an extremely lavish lifestyle.  I just viewed it as, I want to be comfortable, and I want my family to be taken care of, and I’m OK with that.”  Heaney agreed to take $3.34MM from Fantex investors in exchange for 10 percent of any future brand-related earnings (i.e. future salaries, appearances, endorsements), a deal that drew some skepticism from teammate Huston Street after crunching the numbers.  “I told him, ‘If you make more than $80MM, then you made a bad deal.’  But if you make less than $80MM, you made a pretty good deal,” Street said.  While there is risk involved for Heaney given his high talent ceiling, it could also be argued that he was wise to lock in an early fortune — Heaney made just one start in 2016 and is expected to miss all of the 2017 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last summer.

Here’s more from around the American League…

  • The Rays have interest in Rob Refsnyder, George A. King III of the New York Post reports.  Tampa is known to be looking for a right-handed hitting outfielder with options remaining, though Refsnyder doesn’t quite check every box for the Rays since he doesn’t play center field (and thus can’t serve as a backup for Kevin Kiermaier).  Once one of the Yankees’ more notable prospects, Refsnyder has fallen back on the depth chart as both an outfielder and an infielder.  The Yankees are open to hearing offers for Refsnyder, so there’s a chance a deal could be reached, even though the two AL East rivals are very infrequent trade partners.
  • Todd Frazier tells MLB.com’s Scott Merkin that he hasn’t had any talks with the White Sox about an extension as he heads into the last year of his contract.  Despite the lack of negotiations and the trade buzz that has circled around Frazier as a veteran player on a rebuilding team, Frazier says he hopes to remain with the Sox over the long term.
  • Winning a job with the Orioles would complete a remarkable turn-around for Craig Gentry, as the outfielder tells Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun that just months ago, he felt his career coming to an end.  Gentry suffered a concussion (the sixth of his career) in September 2014 and was bothered by symptoms for almost two years; combined with a lumbar injury last year, Gentry was limited to just 40 total plate appearances over the last two seasons.  These issues caused Gentry to question his passion to keep playing, though after his health finally began to improve this offseason, a session with Orioles hitting coach Scot Coolbaugh paved the way for Gentry to sign a minor league deal with the O’s.  That contract doesn’t give Gentry an opt-out until the middle of June, though it could be a moot point if Gentry breaks camp with the team.

Yankees Release Jon Niese

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12:37pm: Niese will take 24 to 48 hours to see if any other teams are interested in his services, per Sherman, but he’s “leaning toward” re-upping with the Yankees. Niese would then begin the year in extended spring training, where he’d work to increase the mid-80s fastball velocity he has flashed this spring (Twitter links).

10:42am: The Yankees have released left-hander Jon Niese, per a team announcement.

Niese worked almost exclusively from the rotation with the Mets and Pirates from 2008-16, an 1,189-inning span in which he logged 197 starts in 211 appearances and posted a 4.07 ERA, 6.92 K/9, 2.78 BB/9 and a 50.1 percent ground-ball rate. However, he totaled a career-high nine relief appearances between New York and Pittsburgh last year, when he endured the worst season of his career, and then had to settle for a minor league pact with the Yankees in February. That came toward the end of a quiet offseason for the soft-tossing Niese, who paired a bloated ERA (5.50) with a sky-high home run-to-fly ball ratio (22.1 percent) in 121 innings in 2016.

Although the Bombers are lacking experience in the rotation after Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda, they didn’t consider Niese for a starting role. Instead, they gave him an opportunity to make their roster as a reliever, which he wasn’t able to accomplish. The Yankeees are open to keeping Niese in their system, tweets the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, who adds that there’s a “strong possibility” that he’ll head to their minor league camp to build up his arm strength.

East Notes: Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Nationals

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In unwelcome news for the Mets, left-hander Steven Matz is dealing with elbow irritation and won’t make his scheduled start Monday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to report (Twitter links here). Doctors have assured Matz that he doesn’t have ligament damage, per DiComo, and the 25-year-old insists he’s fine and will throw off flat ground Monday. However, general manager Sandy Alderson is concerned about Matz. “It’s worrisome that he continues to be injured,” said Alderson. Matz’s stellar rookie campaign last year ended in August because of a “massive” bone spur in his elbow, which led to October surgery. Before that, he logged a 3.40 ERA, 8.77 K/9, 2.11 BB/9 and 51.1 percent ground-ball rate in 132 1/3 innings. Fortunately for the Mets, they do have enviable rotation depth to fill in for Matz if he should miss regular-season time. “This is why we have (Robert) Gsellman and (Seth) Lugo,” a team source told Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).

More from the East Coast:

  • Likely to go without injured shortstop Didi Gregorius for the first month of the season, the Yankees are scouring the trade market for help, according to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com. Ideally, the Yankees would like to acquire an inexpensive player who’s on an expiring contract and has minor league options remaining. New York is reportedly eyeing the Diamondbacks’ Nick Ahmed, who checks two of those boxes (he’s cheap and comes with options), while the club’s uninterested in pricier shortstops in the Reds’ Zack Cozart and the Tigers’ Jose Iglesias. If no trade materializes, the Yankees will choose an Opening Day shortstop from an in-house group consisting of Ronald Torreyes, Pete Kozma, Tyler Wade, Ruben Tejada and Starlin Castro.
  • Considering they’re not on the Red Sox’s 40-man roster, outfielder Rusney Castillo and first baseman/outfielder Allen Craig are already facing uphill battles to achieve relevance in Boston. Moreover, their onerous contracts make even short promotions to the majors unlikely, notes WEEI’s John Tomase (via colleague Rob Bradford).  Castillo, for instance, would cost the Red Sox $56,596 per day to keep on their 25-man roster. Thus, a two-week stint with the Sox would cost $800K and push them over the luxury-tax threshold, which they’ve been careful to stay under. Castillo and Craig have upped their stock this spring, writes Bradford, but the team unsurprisingly sent the pair back to Triple-A on Sunday. They’ll combine to make $21.5MM in the minors this season.
  • Nationals reliever Koda Glover is reportedly likely to win their closer job, which is the role he has wanted since the team selected him in the eighth round of the 2015 draft, details Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. The first time Glover reported to the Nationals, they had him fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions asked, “Are you a starter or reliever?” Glover wrote, “I’m a closer,” which has “reverberated through the organization ever since,” per Janes.

Diamondbacks Return Rule 5 Pick Tyler Jones To Yankees

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The Diamondbacks have returned righty Tyler Jones to the Yankees, the clubs announced. Taken in the Rule 5 draft, Jones evidently wasn’t going to crack the Arizona active roster; instead, he will head to Triple-A after the Yankees accepted him back.

Jones, 27, enjoyed something of a breakout season in 2016. Working at Double-A Trenton, he turned in 45 2/3 innings of 2.17 ERA ball with an excellent 13.2 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9. That wasn’t enough for New York to put him on the 40-man, but evidently caught Arizona’s eye. The D-Backs took him with the seventh pick in last December’s Rule 5 draft, meaning they needed to keep him on the MLB roster all year to take over his control rights.

Jones didn’t do enough in camp to earn a shot at the majors, but did rack up eight strikeouts without a walk in his 6 2/3 spring frames. With no other organizations electing to take over the Rule 5 rights given up by the D-Backs, Jones will have to try to master the highest level of the minors and wait for an opportunity to open in the Bronx.

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