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Giancarlo Stanton Nearing Rehab Assignment; Dellin Betances Suffers Setback

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Injured Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t appeared in the majors since March 31, but it looks as if he’s nearing a return. The slugger will begin a rehab assignment Monday or Tuesday, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone (via James Wagner of the New York Times). If there aren’t any setbacks, he’ll be back in the majors 20 days from then.

In Stanton’s case, it would be unwise to automatically assume a smooth rehab stint. After all, the 29-year-old Stanton has already seen his rehab process go haywire this season. Stanton originally went to the injured list because of a left biceps strain, and he then suffered multiple other left side injuries (to his shoulder and calf) which have prevented him from returning to the Yankees.

Injuries to Stanton and fellow big-hitting corner outfielder Aaron Judge have forced New York to rely on Brett Gardner, Clint Frazier, Cameron Maybin and Mike Tauchman for the majority of the season. That quartet, to its credit, has performed reasonably well. However, every member of that group pales in comparison to Judge and Stanton. While Stanton didn’t come close to matching his NL MVP-winning output with the Marlins from 2017 last season, he still slashed .266/.343/.509 (127 wRC+) with 38 home runs in 705 plate appearances.

Just as the Yankees will welcome Stanton’s return with open arms, they’ll be thrilled when injured reliever Dellin Betances is back on their roster. However, Betances isn’t as close to a comeback. The right-hander, who has been out all season with a bone spur in his shoulder, “felt soreness” in his lat during a throwing session this week, Wagner reports. Betances will head to New York for tests.

Yankees Sign Erik Kratz To Minors Deal

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The Yankees have signed catcher Erik Kratz to a minor-league deal, Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune has reported. Kratz has already reported to AAA-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

This’ll be the third organization this season for the 38-year-old Kratz, who was released by Tampa yesterday morning. Oft-lauded for his staunch defense behind the plate, Kratz has never much hit at the MLB level. In 921 plate appearances with ten teams over the last decade, the righty’s slashed just .205/.252/.354 (61 wRC+).

Kratz will provide experienced depth on the farm, should backup Austin Romine or force-of-nature Gary Sanchez be again shelved with injury. The veteran did accumulate a very respectable 0.8 fWAR in just 219 plate appearances with Milwaukee last season, so he should at least be a steadying force behind the dish if duty calls.

Masahiro Tanaka On Paternity Leave, Nestor Cortes Jr. Added

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  • The Yankees placed Masahiro Tanaka on paternity leave so he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the team announced. He will miss his scheduled start on Sunday. Lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. has been called up from Triple-A in the meantime. This will be Cortes Jr.’s second stint with the big league club this season. He made four appearances in May, soaking up eleven innings as a long man with a 4.91 ERA. He is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in Triple-A, making six starts and one appearance out of the pen. Cortes could certainly slide in for a spot start on Sunday, but the Yankees have not yet made that determination. Tanaka leads the Yanks in innings pitched with 76 1/3 across 13 starts. He is 3-5 with a 3.42 ERA (4.09 FIP). He should be ready to rejoin the club by Tuesday.
  • The Yankees placed Masahiro Tanaka on paternity leave so he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child, the team announced. He will miss his scheduled start on Sunday. Lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. has been called up from Triple-A in the meantime. This will be Cortes Jr.’s second stint with the big league club this season. He made four appearances in May, soaking up eleven innings as a long man with a 4.91 ERA. He is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in Triple-A, making six starts and one appearance out of the pen. Cortes could certainly slide in for a spot start on Sunday, but the Yankees have not yet made that determination. Tanaka leads the Yanks in innings pitched with 76 1/3 across 13 starts. He is 3-5 with a 3.42 ERA (4.09 FIP). He should be ready to rejoin the club by Tuesday.
  • The Rangers have called up lefty Joe Palumbo from Double-A, while David Carpenter has been designated for assignment, per MLB Roster Moves. Palumbo, 26, will be making his major league debut after pitching to a 3.38 ERA across nine starts for the Frisco RoughRiders. Carpenter, 33, made just one appearance with the Rangers after collecting a 1.76 ERA in 15 appearances for their Triple-A club. The veteran righty has pitched for the Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Yankees and Nationals, though his lone appearance with the Rangers on Tuesday was his first in the majors since 2015. He owns a solid 3.74 career ERA, earned across 219 career appearances from 2011 to 2015.

Yankees Reach Deal With T.J. Sikkema

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  • Thirty-eighth overall pick T.J. Sikkema has agreed to a deal with the Yankees worth full slot value ($1.95MM), per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Sikkema, a left-hander from Missouri, checked in at No. 57 on MLB.com’s pre-draft list. While Sikkema doesn’t seem to come with a ton of upside, he has a high enough floor to potentially make it as a major league reliever or a back-end starter, Callis and Mayo suggest.

Yankees Activate Didi Gregorius

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June 7: Gregorius has officially been reinstated from the injured list, per an announcement from the Yankees. Estrada has indeed been optioned to Triple-A, while Tulowitzki was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Tulo has already been on the 10-day injured list for more than 60 days, so his transfer is nothing more than a formality.

June 6, 9:54pm: The Yankees have optioned Estrada to make room for Gregorius on their 25-man roster, Hoch was among those to tweet.

7:39pm: The Yankees are expected to reinstate shortstop Didi Gregorius from the injured list tomorrow, writes MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. He’s sat out the entire season to this point as he recovers from last October’s Tommy John surgery. His activation will require a 40-man and 25-man roster move, as he’s currently on the 60-day injured list.

Gregorius has been well ahead of schedule on his rehab assignment. Original projections by the team specified merely that the Yankees hoped for a “summer” return, but he’s obviously on the very early end of even that broad range. Gregorius has already logged eight games of duty on a minor league rehab assignment, and while he’s batted only .156/.206/.250 through 34 plate appearances across a pair of minor league levels, the Yankees have clearly seen enough to feel confident in his ability to return.

The return of Gregorius will add a high-profile player to what has been somewhat of a patched-together infield. The Yankees’ offseason addition of DJ LeMahieu has proved to be a godsend, as he’s helped to cover the absences of not only Gregorius but Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki. With Gregorius back in the fold, he’ll see semi-regular action at shortstop, with Gleyber Torres splitting time at the two middle-infield spots and LeMahieu perhaps sliding over to third base. It’ll likely mean a decrease in playing time for the red-hot Gio Urshela, who has unexpectedly erupted with a .325/.371/.455 slash through 170 plate appearances (entering play today).

If there’s a member of the infield mix who appears particularly in jeopardy, it would appear to be Kendrys Morales, who hasn’t hit much since being acquired by the Yankees. Like the more productive Luke Voit, Morales is limited to first base when playing defense, thus limiting manager Aaron Boone’s infield flexibility. If Morales is pushed out by the return of Gregorius, that’d open up some additional at-bats for the mix of Voit, Gregorius, LeMahieu, Torres and Urshela as well. Alternatively, the Yankees could option Thairo Estrada back to Triple-A, keep Morales for the time being and move either Tulowitzki or Giancarlo Stanton from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list. Both have already been on the IL for more than 60 days anyhow.

Progress Report: Last Winter’s 6 Highest-Paid Relievers

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The Cubs made a rare June free-agent splash Wednesday when they agreed to a three-year, $43MM contract with potential Hall of Fame closer Craig Kimbrel. The 31-year-old entered the offseason as the premier reliever available, but interest in Kimbrel was surprisingly tepid and he wound up having to wait seven months for a contract. Kimbrel still hauled in the richest deal of any reliever going back to the opening of free agency last offseason, though that doesn’t make him a lock to thrive as a Cub.

As you’ll see below, all six accomplished relievers who collected at least $20MM over the winter have shown some troubling signs a couple months into the 2019 campaign. Although it’s way too early to pass judgment in any of these cases, it doesn’t augur well when a player’s not performing as expected at the start of his deal. After all, that’s when he’s supposed to be providing his team maximum value.

Zack Britton, LHP, Yankees (three years, $39MM):

Arguably the game’s foremost reliever with the Orioles from 2014-16, injuries helped lead to a bit of a drop-off for Britton over the ensuing two seasons with the O’s and Yankees. That didn’t stop New York from re-signing Britton on the costliest pact any reliever received in the offseason, though, and he has handed them solid results in Year 1 of the contract. The 31-year-old owns a 2.96 ERA/3.60 FIP in 27 1/3 innings thus far. The sinker-throwing Britton’s tremendous groundball rate (75 percent) is right in line with his recent totals, and he’s generating more strikeouts and issuing fewer walks than he did a year ago. On the negative side, the home run woes that began plaguing Britton in 2018 have stuck around. He’s yielding HRs on 25 percent of fly balls for the second straight season.

Jeurys Familia, RHP, Mets (three years, $30MM):

Familia surrendered three earned runs in 2/3 of an inning last Saturday and then sat for almost a week before taking the mound again Thursday. The previously reliable righty, who dealt with shoulder troubles earlier in the season, has now logged a horrid 6.29 ERA/5.26 FIP in 23 1/3 frames. A significant drop in strikeouts and swinging strikes and a sizable spike in walks and homers haven’t helped, though Familia’s inducing plenty of grounders and continuing to throw in the 96 mph range. The 29-year-old’s batting average on balls in play against (.338), strand rate (66.2), and enormous gap between his weighted on-base average/xwOBA against (.383/.321) indicate he has deserved better. However, it’s doubtful any of that is of much consolation to him or the Mets at this point.

Andrew Miller, LHP, Cardinals (two years, $25MM):

While Miller was a dominant force with the Red Sox, Orioles, Yankees and Indians from 2012-17, he endured an injury-limited, down year with the Tribe in ’18 and still hasn’t returned to form. The towering southpaw has given the Cardinals 20 2/3 innings of 3.92 ERA/5.48 FIP since scoring his contract. Miller is striking out upward of 12 hitters per nine, but he’s walking more than four at the same time (remember, his BB/9 was barely over 1.00 as recently as 2016). The 34-year-old has also already yielded almost as many HRs (five) as he did in 2017-18 combined (six). The good news is that Miller has allowed a mere two earned runs since April 27.

Adam Ottavino, RHP, Yankees (three years, $25MM):

Ottavino’s preventing runs at an elite clip through 28 1/3 frames as a Yankee, having posted a 1.27 ERA so far. However, there are some red flags with the ex-Rockie’s performance. Ottavino’s strikeout, swinging-strike, walk, chase and contact rates have gone in discouraging directions since last season, while his 96.4 percent strand rate isn’t going to hold. There’s not a huge difference between the wOBA (.264) and xwOBA (.276) hitters have mustered against the slider-reliant 33-year-old this season, but both numbers fall short of Ottavino’s .231/.233 combo from 2018.

Joe Kelly, RHP, Dodgers (three years, $25MM):

The flamethrowing Kelly has allowed at least two earned runs in five of 20 appearances, giving him an unsightly 7.91 ERA/5.18 FIP across 19 1/3 innings this season. Kelly’s walks and grounders have trended well thus far, but he has already allowed as many home runs (four) as he did last season – his final year with the Red Sox. The 30-year-old has also seen his swinging-strike rate fall by more than 3 percent and his contact rate climb by a hefty 8 percent since 2018.

David Robertson, RHP, Phillies (two years, $23MM):

Robertson entered 2019 as one of the best, most durable relievers in recent memory, yet he has been neither effective nor healthy in the first season of his contract. The 34-year-old coughed up four earned runs on eight hits and six walks (against six strikeouts) in 6 2/3 innings before going to the 10-day injured list April 16 with a flexor strain in his right elbow. Robertson moved to the 60-day IL on May 25, meaning he won’t return until at least midway through this month.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Reportedly Emerge As Favorites For Dallas Keuchel

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7:05pm: The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that the Braves and Keuchel are in “serious talks.” There’s “some thought” that the Braves are willing to offer multiple years to Keuchel, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Earlier this morning, the New York Post’s George A. King III reported that Keuchel did indeed have teams willing to push their offer to the multi-year deal range, whereas the Yankees were still set on limiting any offer to one year.

2:18pm: The Braves have emerged as the “frontrunners” to sign free-agent lefty Dallas Keuchel, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Yankees have been prominently connected to the southpaw since the draft-pick compensation tied to him expired on Monday, but Atlanta has long been mentioned as a potential landing spot as well. Feinsand notes that the Yankees are still in the mix, but Atlanta has recently stepped up its efforts.

Earlier today, SNY’s Andy Martino reported that the Yankees were also facing some degree of competition from the Cardinals. He, too, listed the Braves as a potential factor in the Keuchel market, along with the Twins, though Minnesota’s interest has yet to be characterized as particularly serious.

For the Braves, Keuchel would help to stabilize a rotation that is enjoying strong performances from high-upside young pitchers who are likely to eventually face some type of workload restrictions (e.g. Mike Soroka, Max Fried). Beyond that excellent pairing, the starting pitching hasn’t panned out as hoped in Atlanta so far this season. Mike Foltynewicz missed the first month of the season and hasn’t performed well since returning (today’s quality outing notwithstanding). Lefty Sean Newcomb was demoted to Triple-A early in the season due to significant control issues, and he’s come back as a reliever. Righty Kevin Gausman has an ERA north of 6.00 through a dozen starts. Of the Braves’ starters, Julio Teheran has been the most effective holdover, but there’s certainly room to add another veteran to the mix to help smooth things over.

Unlike fellow free agent Craig Kimbrel, Keuchel has been reported to be more amenable to the concept of a one-year contract. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman wrote earlier this week that agent Scott Boras has discussed some multi-year scenarios that would contain an opt-out after the current season, but a straight one-year pact would be less complicated and more palatable for a signing team. Braves leadership has previously spoken about payroll flexibility, though the exact level of financial resources Liberty Media is willing to provide to general manager Alex Anthopoulos is, of course, anyone’s guess.

Any one-year deal signed by Keuchel would come with a prorated salary; inking him for the same rate as the $17.9MM qualifying offer he rejected back in November, then, would cost a team just north of $11MM from today through season’s end. Atlanta has a payroll of about $121MM at present, and their previous franchise-record Opening Day payroll total was $122MM. Signing Keuchel would push the Braves into uncharted territory, financially speaking — particularly when considering the fact that they’ll likely still make some additions on the trade market in an effort to bolster the bullpen.

That said, the National League East is among the game’s more tightly contested divisions. The Braves are currently 1.5 games behind the division-leading Phillies, 3.5 games ahead of the Mets and five games ahead of the suddenly surging Nationals. Given the competitive nature of the division, it’s understandable that they’re perhaps willing to push beyond previous comfort zones as they vie for a second consecutive playoff berth. Atlanta is currently in possession of the second National League Wild Card spot, but the difference between a guaranteed ticket to the NLDS and a winner-take-all, one-game coinflip is significant for any club.

Latest On Troy Tulowitzki

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The Yankees announced that veteran infielder Troy Tulowitzki has left the team’s spring facility, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports (Twitter link). He’ll take some time at home to “get over that (injury) hump and kind of push through the finish line of getting exactly right,” manager Aaron Boone explains.

It’s frankly hard to interpret this development. Boone had declared just days ago that Tulowitzki was “pretty much over” the lingering calf injury that originally sent him to the injured list. (Also via Hoch, on Twitter.) It’s unclear when the 34-year-old will be deemed ready for a rehab assignment.

Slated to fill in for a rehabbing Didi Gregorius, Tulowitzki made it through only five games to open the season before his latest health issue arose. He missed all of 2018 after heel surgery and only made it into 66 contests in the prior campaign.

What is clear is that Tulo will not make it back to the MLB roster before Gregorius, whose return to action appears to be imminent. Barring any intervening developments on the injury front, the return of Gregorius will put the shortstop position off limits except for fill-in opportunities.

Tulowitzki has been seeing time at third base in anticipation of just that scenario. There could still be a fit there, but there still isn’t much of an opening even in the absence of Miguel Andujar. The surprising Gio Urshela continues to turn in impressive results at the hot corner and the club will want to keep finding regular action for Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu. Even rookie fill-in Thairo Estrada has hit like a mid-prime Tulo to this point.

Under the circumstances, there’s no real rush from the Yankees’ perspective. It’s not clear at all that the organization has a use for Tulowitzki in the majors. But the Yanks certainly appreciate the value of depth, having both compiled and deployed it quite often this season. Tulowitzki is presently occupying a 40-man spot. While he could be shifted onto the 60-day IL, roster pressures will ultimately force a final determination on his status once he is back to health.

Yankees Had Offseason Interest In Harold Ramirez

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  • The Yankees and Giants were among the many teams that showed interest in outfielder Harold Ramirez during his brief stay on the open market last offseason, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The Blue Jays outrighted Ramirez on Nov. 20, and he ended up signing a minor league deal with the Marlins exactly a week later. The 24-year-old has since given the offensively challenged Marlins some much-needed production, having slashed .346/.386/.449 (128 wRC+) in 83 plate appearances.

Yankees Unlikely To Sign 20th-Rounder Jack Leiter

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The Yankees called a familiar name with their 20th-round selection, drafting high school pitcher Jack Leiter.  The right-hander is the son of former Yankees pitcher and broadcaster Al Leiter, and is considered one of the top arms of the entire draft class.  Were it not for the younger Leiter’s commitment to attend Vanderbilt in the fall, he “would have gone [in the] top 10 picks, easy” a scout tells MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  (The consensus among pundits wasn’t quite that lofty, though he was seen as a high-end draft prospect.) It isn’t unusual for teams to take a flier of a pick on such prospects just to see if they could be enticed to begin their pro careers early, and despite the past ties between the Yankees and the Leiter family, both Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand believe Jack Leiter will indeed head to Vanderbilt.  Cooper doesn’t think the Yankees have the bonus pool budget available to offer Leiter anything close to his asking price to forego his college commitment, while Feinsand counters any suggestion of a possible wink-wink deal between Leiter and his dad’s old team by noting that the senior Leiter currently works for the Mets as an advisor in the baseball ops department.

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