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Marlins To Promote Eury Pérez

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The Marlins announced to reporters, including Craig Mish of the Miami Herald, they are calling up pitching prospect Eury Pérez. He’ll take the ball for Friday’s game. He’s not currently on the 40-man roster and will require a corresponding move to be added.

Both this move and Pérez himself are unique in a few respects. The promotion is an aggressive one given that the right-hander only just turned 20 years old last month and has yet to pitch in Triple-A. That makes him unusually young for a major league debut, with JJ Cooper of Baseball America pointing out Pérez is about to be the youngest starting pitcher in the majors since Julio Urías in 2016. The pitcher himself is also unique in terms of his size, listed at 6’8″ and 220 pounds.

Signed as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic in July of 2019, he wasn’t able to make his professional debut until over a year later since the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. The Marlins sent him to Single-A to begin 2021 and he dominated in his 15 starts there. He posted a 1.61 ERA in 56 innings, striking out 36.9% of opponents while walking 9.5% and getting grounders at a 36.4% clip. He was then given the ball for five High-A starts at the end of the year, posting a 2.86 ERA in those.

Going into 2022, he was already considered by many observers to be one of the better pitching prospects in the league, but he continued to raise his stock. Despite just being 19 years old for most of last year, he made 17 starts at the Double-A level. He posted a 4.08 ERA in those along with a 34.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 41.4% ground ball rate.

Coming into 2023, the youngster was unanimously considered to be one of the best prospects in the league. Baseball America ranked him #7 overall and he’s since moved up to #6. MLB Pipeline had him at #13 and he’s now in the top 10. He was #4 at FanGraphs, #6 at ESPN and Keith Law of The Athletic had him at #10. The reports highlight his fastball, which he can not only ramp up to triple digits but also command exceptionally well. Most observers agree that his changeup is his best secondary pitch, though his slider and curveball both get good reviews as well. By all accounts, Pérez has the ingredients to be a future ace and he keeps proving it. Through his six Double-A starts this year, he has a 2.32 ERA, 35.9% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 51.6% ground ball rate.

That being said, not all prospects hit the ground running as soon as they reach the majors and it’s not something that should be expected for even the top names. That’s especially true for Pérez given his youth and relative inexperience. His entire professional track record consists of just 186 innings at this point, including just 77 last year, and none of that was at Triple-A. He’s yet to truly test his stuff against big league caliber hitters and it remains to be seen how many innings the Marlins will let him rack up this year. Nonetheless, it will be very exciting to see how the gamble pays off for them.

The club has had a strong rotation for many years and felt good enough about their options that they traded Pablo López to the Twins this winter in order to obtain Luis Arraez. However, they’ve been dealing with a few challenges this year, as both Trevor Rogers and Johnny Cueto are on the injured list with uncertain return timelines. Jesús Luzardo is having a nice season so far but Sandy Alcantara hasn’t quite been his Cy Young self, while Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera have each posted middling results so far.

Pérez will now step into that mix and see how he fares, with his performance likely to have some impact on whether this is a brief cup of coffee or if he’s up for good. Since the season is over a month old at this point, Pérez won’t be able to accrue a full year of service time the old fashioned way, though the new collective bargaining agreement affords him a path to get there. A player with less than 60 days of service time who is on two of the top 100 prospect lists at BA, MLB or ESPN will get a full year of service, regardless of the time they spend on the roster, if they finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. Pérez was on all three of those lists and is therefore eligible, but it will be a challenge to rank that highly given the late start. He’ll be competing with players like Corbin Carroll and James Outman who have already had plenty of time to bank stats this year.

Even if he finished the year shy of the one-year mark, his youth would still put him on a good trajectory. If he’s up for good, he would almost certainly qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2025 campaign and be on pace for free agency after 2029, which would be his age-26 season. Future optional assignments could push those targets further into the future, though he could also reach free agency after 2028 by succeeding in getting that full year here in 2023.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Max Fried Facing Notable Absence Due To Forearm Strain

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9:04am: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that while an MRI did not raise concern about Tommy John surgery for Fried, the Braves still don’t expect this to be a short-term absence. Fried will be shut down from throwing while his forearm heals, and while there’s no concrete timeline, it’ll likely be long enough that he’ll need to build back up from scratch.

8:31am: The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve placed left-hander Max Fried on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left forearm. His placement on the IL is retroactive to May 6. Fellow left-hander Danny Young has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett in his place.

It’s the second IL trip of the young season for Fried, who exited his Opening Day start due to a hamstring strain that required an absence of a couple weeks. The Braves hadn’t given a concrete indication that Fried was dealing with an injury prior to this morning’s announcement, though manager Brian Snitker somewhat cryptically said over the weekend that the team was “going through some things” when determining the timing of Fried’s next start.

Fried, 29, entered his most recent start having yielded just one run through his first 20 innings of the 2023 season before being trounced by the Orioles for seven runs (five earned) in six innings. After averaging 94.8 mph on his fastball through the season’s first three starts, that velocity dipped to an average of 93.5 mph over his two most recent turns.

The Braves haven’t provided a timetable for Fried’s return or given any indication as to the severity of the strain at this time. Even if it’s only a minimal absence for Fried, it’s still a blow to an Atlanta club that was already operating with only four healthy starters. Right-hander Kyle Wright is out indefinitely due to a shoulder strain, and the Braves lost righty Ian Anderson to Tommy John surgery earlier in the 2023 season.

That slate of injuries had already left the Braves with Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Bryce Elder as their rotation options. Fried going down will likely require the team to call up two of Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster and Michael Soroka from Gwinnett to step onto the starting staff.

Both Dodd and Shuster have been hit hard in limited MLB action this season, however, and both have displayed uncharacteristically shaky command in their handful of Triple-A starts as well. Soroka, meanwhile, pitched just 13 2/3 innings from 2020-22 (big leagues and minors combined) due to a series of injuries — namely a pair of Achilles tears. He’s gone more than four innings in just one of his five starts with Gwinnett and has been hit hard in each of his past two appearances, yielding a combined ten earned runs in seven innings of work.

There are other options to consider, though they’d require an additional 40-man roster move. Twenty-seven-year-old righty Allan Winans, for instance, has pitched to a solid 2.90 ERA in six appearances (four starts) with impressive strikeout and walk rates. He tossed six quality innings on May 3 and, speculatively speaking, could be an option in the next couple weeks if the Braves want to make space for him on the 40-man roster. Lefty Domingo Robles and righty Tanner Gordon were both recently bumped up to Triple-A after strong starts to the season in Double-A, but both have been hit hard in their first appearances with Gwinnett and neither is on the 40-man.

Certainly, in the event of a prolonged absence for Fried, it’s easier to envision the Braves going outside the organization to address the sudden vacancies in the rotation. That’s a scenario most Braves fans would prefer not to think about. The team figures to have more updates on Fried’s status in the near future.

In the meantime, Young’s recall from Gwinnett will give Atlanta an extra arm in the bullpen. He’s appeared in four games for the big league club already this season, holding opponents to a run on three hits and no walks with six punchouts in 3 2/3 frames. Things have been a bit rockier in Gwinnett, where he’s surrendered four runs on nine hits (two homers) and two walks with six punchouts in 4 2/3 innings. Young, 28, is a pure reliever whose lone professional start was with the Blue Jays’ Low-A affiliate back in 2015, so he won’t be a rotation option while Fried is on the mend.

Royals Designate Franmil Reyes For Assignment

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The Royals have acquired righty James McArthur from the Phillies in exchange for minor league outfielder Junior Marin, per a team announcement. Outfielder/DH Franmil Reyes was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. McArthur, who was designated for assignment by the Phils a few days back, will be assigned to Triple-A Omaha.

Kansas City signed Reyes, 27, to a minor league deal back in February, hoping that the 6’5″ slugger could recapture some of the form he’d showed with San Diego and Cleveland in years past. Reyes has a pair of 30-homer campaigns under his belt, including a 37-homer effort back in 2019. Overall, from 2018-21, he posted a combined .260/.325/.503 with 92 home runs in 1540 plate appearances. Strikeouts were an issue, as he fanned in 29.5% of his trips to the plate during that stretch, but Reyes offset that issue with his prodigious power and a respectable nine percent walk rate.

Things went south in a hurry in 2022, however, and they’ve gone from bad to worse in 2023. Reyes batted just .213/.254/.350 with a mammoth 37.1% strikeout rate in 280 plate appearances with the Guardians last year before being placed on waivers and claimed by the Cubs. A .234/.301/.389 showing down the stretch in Chicago resulted in an outright off the 40-man roster and minor league free agency, which eventually brought Reyes to Kansas City.

Though Reyes slugged a pair of early homers and had a brief hot streak in mid-April, he was optioned to Triple-A after going hitless and failing to reach base in 20 consecutive plate appearances. That swoon dropped him to a .186/.231/.288 batting line and sent his strikeout rate soaring to 36.9%. In four Triple-A games, he’s gone 3-for-15 with a homer, a walk and seven strikeouts (18 total plate appearances).

The Royals will have a week to trade Reyes, place him on outright waivers, or release him. His minor league contract came with a $2MM base salary, which makes it all the likelier that he’d pass through outright waivers unclaimed if the team goes that route.

In place of Reyes, the Royals will hope to unlock something in the 26-year-old McArthur — a towering 6’7″, 230-pound righty who has yet to make his big league debut. McArthur has opened the 2023 season with a rough patch in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, yielding 13 runs on 20 hits, seven walks and a pair of hit batters against 15 strikeouts in 16 innings of work. That’s his first taste of Triple-A after spending the two prior seasons in Double-A Reading, where he combined for a 4.73 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate against an 8.4% walk rate in 131 innings.

McArthur has worked primarily as a starter in the minors (including this year in Triple-A), though FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in his April overview of the Phillies’ system that McArthur was sitting 94-96 mph during short relief stints in spring training. Pitchers this tall can often have difficulty repeating their mechanics and thus be pushed to the bullpen, and it’s possible that’s where McArthur will ultimately land.

The Royals have Major League Baseball’s third-worst rotation ERA and fourth-worst bullpen ERA, so it’s hardly a surprise to see them adding nearly MLB-ready depth. McArthur doesn’t possess a huge ceiling, but he’s not far off from being ready for a Major League look, and Kansas City needs all the arms it can get at this point.

In exchange for some near-MLB pitching help, the Royals will part ways with a teenage outfield prospect who is likely years from being anywhere close to a consideration at the big league level. Marin turned 19 in mid-March and hasn’t yet advanced beyond Rookie ball. He’s already listed at 6’2″ and 240 pounds and has played right field near exclusively, with only a two-game cameo in left otherwise. Marin is a .328/.425/.554 hitter in 214 professional plate appearances but also struck out 31 times in 103 plate appearances with Kansas City’s affiliate in the Arizona Complex League last year. There’s some obvious power in his bat, but he wasn’t ranked among the best prospects in a sub-par Royals farm system and will now be a years-long development project for the Phillies.

Cardinals To Shift Willson Contreras Off Catcher

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TODAY: St. Louis president of baseball operations John Mozeliak specified that Contreras will be a designated hitter rather than an outfielder “unless there’s some sort of emergency,” Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic report. Mozeliak also shed some more light on the decision to make the position change, saying that “obviously the Cardinals were used to [Molina] behind the plate for close to two decades. The nuances of that position, maybe very subtle, are what a lot of our pitchers were used to. What we were seeing was a lack of confidence.

“Normally, you would say, why didn’t you address this in Spring Training? But in Spring Training, it’s so different in terms of what people are trying to work on. Pitchers are going a couple of innings. It doesn’t really count….We just decided to do it head on, put it out there. Do we think we’ve seen Willson catch his last game? No. But this is going to take a little time to get him to where we feel he understands the expectations of what this role is for us.”

Like manager Oliver Marmol said yesterday, Mozeliak reiterated that Contreras wasn’t being singled out as a cause of the team’s struggles. “What I don’t want to have happen is a finger-point, this is all Willson’s fault. It’s not. There are many parts of our team right now that are not performing to what we expected,” Mozeliak said.

MAY 6: On the face of it, the Cardinals’ decision to call up minor league catcher Tres Barrera didn’t seem like the sort of deal to make headlines around baseball, but the ramifications of it are significant. It’s not so much the call up of Barrera, but the fact his arrival means St Louis will shift Willson Contreras off catcher for the “next couple of weeks”, as Katie Woo of The Athletic reports, with Andrew Knizner to take over as the primary backstop.

It’s a huge move to shift your star off-season recruit off his primary position just a month into his first season, but the Cards clearly feel this is the best move to help them turn around their 10-23 start to the season. Contreras, signed to a five-year, $87.5MM deal in the winter, will now serve as a DH/outfielder for the team, further muddying an already crowded outfield picture in St Louis.

At the plate, Contreras has been his usual self, slashing .280/.361/.421 with a pair of home runs, good for a wRC+ of 119. That’s a slight drop on his numbers from last year but pretty much in line with his career numbers. His offensive work was never likely to be the source of any concern though, with the focus here surely on his work behind the plate.

Catchers are a challenging position to assess statistically, but there’s generally been some question marks over Contreras’ work behind the plate. Concerns over his ability to handle a pitching staff and call a game surfaced around the trade deadline last year when he was with the Cubs, and Chicago wound up holding him onto him until he hit free agency at the end of the season. That’s obviously a tricky concern to really quantify, but it’s certainly worth considering in the wake of this news.

Fangraphs gives him a -1 mark on their framing metric, while Statcast has him about middle of the pack in that regard. As far as pop time goes Contreras ranks tenth out of MLB catchers, and has cut down five of a potential 17 stolen bases so far this season. While he doesn’t rank as elite in either regard, it’s not awful either and certainly suggests that there’s more than just catching statistics that are driving this move. While there will surely be some explanation of this move from the Cardinals front office, there’s a good chance their pitching staff’s start to the season played a part here.

St Louis ranks 24th in the majors in starting pitcher ERA, a ranking that could be a lot lower were it not for the excellent start made by Jordan Montgomery. Behind the left-hander, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Jack Flaherty are all sporting ERAs well north of 5. While the reporting suggests this move is only for the next couple of weeks, it’ll be interesting to see if Contreras can force his way back into handling catching duties or whether this the long term move.

For now though, it creates even more uncertainty in the Cardinals outfield picture. In today’s game, the team ran out Lars Nootbar, Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson in the outfield, with Contreras handling DH, and that seems like the most common group we’ll see over the next few weeks. Yet the team will welcome back Tyler O’Neill at some stage, and still has top outfield prospect Jordan Walker at Triple-A, while Contreras is expected to feature in the outfield mix as well.

It’s possible Contreras winds up working his way back into the catching picture at some point, but the Cardinals were often speculated as a team that could look to trade an outfielder before this move today, and with another key bat now in that mix a trade certainly seems like a possibility at some point over the summer.

Eloy Jimenez To Miss 4-To-6 Weeks After Undergoing Appendectomy

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May 7: As expected, the club has placed Jimenez on the 10-day IL while he recovers from his appendectomy. The club recalled catcher Carlos Perez in a corresponding move.

May 6: White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez went to the hospital earlier today due to intense stomach discomfort, and the team announced that Jimenez underwent an appendectomy.  Jimenez will be sidelined for “preliminarily” the next 4-to-6 weeks while he recovers.

Manager Pedro Grifol told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Daryl Van Schouwen and other reporters earlier today that Jimenez felt discomfort last night, and was admitted to hospital after the pain worsened during the night.  If there is a silver lining, it’s that Jimenez’s issue was only the relatively common problem of appendicitis, and hopefully the outfielder will be fully recovered in 4-6 weeks’ time.

However, that does mark yet another significant absence and yet another entry within an increasingly checkered health history for the 26-year-old.  Jimenez already spent 10 days on the injured list this season due to a hamstring strain, he missed over two months of the 2022 season with another hamstring issue, and his first game of the 2021 campaign didn’t come until July 26 due to a ruptured left pectoral tendon.

Jimenez was roughly a league-average hitter in 2021, but batted .295/.358/.500 with 16 home runs over 327 plate appearances last season.  This year, despite being slowed by the hamstring problem, Jimenez has a productive .258/.321/.423 slash line in 106 PA, even while continuing his pattern of hard contact and a lot of swing-and-miss.

Even with a modest 104 wRC+, Jimenez was still one of the more productive hitters on a struggling White Sox team, and his absence will now only add to what is increasingly looking like a disastrous season.  Today’s 5-3 loss to the Reds dropped Chicago to an 11-23 record, and even earlier this week, MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote about which players might be shopped by the Sox at the deadline.  It’s going to be a lot harder for the Southsiders to dig themselves out of this early hole without Jimenez in the lineup, which only increases the chances that Chicago will be looking to be sellers in some regard by August 1.

The White Sox have used Jimenez mostly as a DH this season with a handful of games in right field, so there might not be a direct positional replacement needed, in the sense that the Sox could just cycle multiple players through the DH spot to help keep people fresh.  Gavin Sheets might get the bulk of those at-bats given his lackluster defensive numbers in right field, and Oscar Colas might find himself quickly back in the majors after being optioned to Triple-A earlier this week.  In addition to Jimenez being sidelined, the White Sox also just placed Jake Burger on the IL this week due to an oblique strain, and Yoan Moncada has missed close to a month with back problems (though he just started a rehab assignment this weekend).

Astros’ Luis Garcia To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Astros starter Luis Garcia will undergo Tommy John surgery, the club informed reporters (including Chandler Rome of the Athletic). He’ll miss the rest of the season and quite likely a good chunk of the 2024 campaign as well.

It’s a brutal blow to the defending World Series champions. Garcia has been a pivotal member of the starting staff. After a brief debut during the abbreviated season, Garcia secured a rotation spot in 2021. The Venezuelan-born hurler started 28 games in each of the next couple years, tossing between 155 and 160 innings. He allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine with better than average strikeout and walk rates during each year.

The 26-year-old had been off to a similar start in 2023. Through six starts, he tallied 27 frames of 4.00 ERA ball. Garcia had punched out 27% of batters faced against a serviceable 8.7% walk rate. For his career, he’s now up to 352 innings with a 3.61 ERA while fanning a little more than a quarter of opponents.

Unfortunately, Garcia departed Monday’s start in the first inning with elbow discomfort. He’d thrown just eight pitches and was working with diminished velocity before his early exit. The Astros sent him for an MRI that apparently revealed damage to the UCL in his throwing elbow.

Houston is also without José Urquidy and Lance McCullers Jr. at the moment. Urquidy is dealing with shoulder inflammation and midway through a 10-day shutdown period. McCullers is building back from a muscle strain in his throwing arm. Garcia’s injury is even more serious and leaves the club with a top-heavy starting staff. Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier and rookie Hunter Brown make for an excellent top three. The final two spots have been thrown in flux. Brandon Bielak is moving into the starting staff, while 28-year-old J.P. France is coming up for his major league debut tomorrow.

Bolstering the rotation midseason could well be a priority for general manager Dana Brown and his front office. Houston has started the season with a pedestrian 16-15 record. They’re still within 2 1/2 games of the division-leading Rangers and it’d be a surprise if the Astros weren’t in position to add to the MLB roster midseason. Notable external solutions aren’t likely to be available for over a month, though, leaving Houston to rely upon a group of mostly inexperienced depth starters from the upper minors.

Garcia is already on the 15-day injured list. He’ll be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the club needs to free a spot on the 40-man roster. He can remain on the IL for the rest of the season but will need to be reinstated onto the 40-man over the winter. Garcia will collect service time for his rehab time, pushing him past the three-year mark by the end of the season. He’ll be eligible for arbitration for the first time next offseason and isn’t ticketed for free agency until the 2026-27 offseason.

Cubs Promote Matt Mervis

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May 5: The Cubs officially selected Mervis’s contract this morning, as noted by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. In a corresponding move, infielder Edwin Rios was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. The club already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was required to select Mervis. Mervis will make his MLB debut in this afternoon’s game against the Marlins, playing first base and batting seventh.

Rios, 29, has struggled with the Cubs so far this season, albeit in a tiny sample of just 25 plate appearances, with a slash line of .100/.280/.300 and nine strikeouts. He figures to serve as infield depth for the club at the Triple-A level going forward.

May 4: The Cubs will select the contract of first base prospect Matt Mervis, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’s not with the team for today’s series finale in D.C. but will join the Cubs when they return to Chicago tomorrow to kick off a homestand with a series against the Marlins.

Mervis, 25, was a 39th-round pick of the Nationals back in 2016 but didn’t sign, instead opting to attend college at Duke. He wasn’t selected in the shortened, five-round iteration of the 2020 draft and wound up signing with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent.

That’s proven to be quite the find for the Cubs, as Mervis has laid waste to minor league pitching and established himself as one of the organization’s top-ranked prospects. Over the past two seasons, Mervis has skyrocketed from High-A to Triple-A (and now the Majors), batting a combined .305/.383/.615 with 42 home runs in 161 games across three minor league levels. That includes a torrid .286/.402/.560 slash and six home runs through his first 112 plate appearances in Triple-A this season.

Baseball America ranks Mervis fourth among Cubs farmhands, while MLB.com has him sixth. Mervis is generally regarded as an all-bat prospect, as he’s a sub-par runner and not a standout defender  at first base. BA’s report on him notes that a shortened swing and refined approach at the plate unlocked a new level of performance for Mervis in 2022, and he’s clearly kept that up in 2023, given that he’s walked (16.1%) nearly as often as he’s punched out (17%). The left-handed-hitting Mervis was awful against left-handed pitchers in his first pro season, but he improved to .268/.339/.529 against southpaws in 174 plate appearances last year and is 6-for-20 with two homers, two doubles, six walks and six strikeouts in 27 plate appearances against same-handed opponents so far in 2023 (.300/.482/.700).

Mervis’ ascension to the big leagues comes at a time when veteran first baseman Eric Hosmer is struggling, having batted just .250/.294/.363 in 85 plate appearances. Cubs first basemen are still hitting .296/.331/.470 on the season, though that’s skewed by the fact that the vast majority of Trey Mancini’s production has happened to come while he’s playing at first base rather than in the outfield or at designated hitter. Mancini is certainly capable of playing either outfield corner and has enough bat to be an option at DH, so there’s room to get both into the lineup.

Keeping Hosmer, who’s also a lefty hitting, first base-only player on the roster alongside Mervis would be trickier, though there’s no direct indication yet that Mervis’ promotion puts Hosmer’s roster spot in jeopardy. Hosmer himself recently acknowledged that may end up being the case in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, though he voiced nothing but support for Mervis.

“This is my 13th year in the league,” Hosmer told Rosenthal. “I’m not going to sit here and be bitter about a young kid coming up. That’s not right. … I was in spring with Matty. I was always trying to help, give him my two cents on what’s coming for him in the league, how you can simplify some stuff. It’s not something where I’m watching over my shoulder, or living and dying by his at-bats. When it comes that time, that’s when you can move on and do something else. I know he’s going to be a big part of this organization. I’ve got to help him any way I can.”

While future optional assignments can always impact a player’s timeline to arbitration and free agent, it’s worth at least outlining where those milestones currently stand for Mervis. If he’s in the big leagues for good from this point forth, he’ll fall shy of a full year of service in 2023 (barring a top-two finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting). That means he’d be on pace to reach free agency after the 2029 season, although an early-May call-up will surely afford him enough service time to qualify as a Super Two player. As such, he’d reach arbitration following the 2025 season and be eligible four times rather than the standard three.

If Mervis does manage to secure a top-two place in NL Rookie of the Year voting, he’d gain a full year of service and bump his free agent timeline up to the 2028-29 offseason in the process. He’d still be arb-eligible following the 2025 season, but he’d get there as a player with three years of service and thus only be eligible three times.

Matt Harvey Announces Retirement

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Former All-Star right-hander Matt Harvey took to instagram this morning to announce his retirement. “I have to say this is my time to say thank you, and goodbye.” Harvey writes, “To the fans, and most importantly the NY Mets fans: you made a dream come true for me. A dream I could have never thought to come true. Who would have thought a kid from Mystic, CT would be able to play in the greatest city in the world, his hometown. You are forever embedded in my heart.”

The seventh overall pick in the 2010 draft, Harvey was selected by the Mets and made his debut during the 2012 campaign. During that ten start cup of coffee in 2012, Harvey pitched to a sterling 2.73 ERA (140 ERA+) with a 3.30 FIP, but that was just a taste of what was to come, as the following season ended up being the best of Harvey’s career by a wide margin.

In 178 1/3 innings of work in 2013, Harvey posted a phenomenal 2.27 ERA (157 ERA+) with a league-leading 2.01 FIP. He struck out 27.7% of batters he faced that season while walking just 4.5%. That performance not only earned him the lone All-Star appearance of his career, but a top four finish in Cy Young Award voting. Unfortunately, Harvey’s phenomenal year was cut short when he required Tommy John surgery, missing the end of the 2013 campaign and the entirety of 2014 while rehabbing.

He returned to the mound in 2015 with another strong season, posting a 2.71 ERA and 3.05 FIP over 189 1/3 innings of work in the regular season. Harvey went on to pitch for the Mets during the postseason, posting a 3.04 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of work as the Mets advanced past the Dodgers and the Cubs to face the Royals in the World Series.

Harvey’s injury woes would return in 2016, however, as Harvey struggled to an uncharacteristic 4.86 ERA in 92 2/3 innings of work before being shut down for the season in July to undergo surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. Following the procedure, Harvey was never quite the same pitcher, as he struggled both in terms of results and to stay on the field. He posted a 6.15 ERA in 446 2/3 innings of work following his 2016 surgery.

Designated for assignment by the Mets early in the 2018 season, he would go on to pitch for the Reds, Angels, Royals, and Orioles before serving a 60-game suspension for “participating in the distribution of a prohibited Drug of Abuse in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.” The suspension came after Harvey testified in the trial of former communications director of the Angels Eric Kay, who was convicted of distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death of former pitcher Tyler Skaggs. During the trial, Harvey testified that he had provided Skaggs with Percocet pills.

Following his suspension, Harvey returned to the mound in the minor leagues, posting a 3.71 ERA in 70 1/3 innings. Harvey then pitched for Team Italy during the World Baseball Classic this spring, where he posted a 1.29 ERA in seven innings of work over two starts, leaving his baseball career on a high note.

All in all, Harvey ends his career with a 4.42 ERA in 966 1/3 innings with 50 wins and 867 strikeouts. MLBTR wishes Harvey the best as he transitions in whatever comes next following his playing career.

Guardians Top Prospect Daniel Espino Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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The Guardians announced Wednesday that right-hander Daniel Espino, the top pitching prospect in their system and one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, underwent a right shoulder anterior capsule repair. He’ll miss the remainder of the season. Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery, projects a return to game activity in 12 to 14 months.

The surgery is the latest setback for Espino, 22, who entered the season ranked 33rd or better on the top-100 lists of MLB.com (No. 16), ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (No. 18), Baseball America (No. 19), Baseball Prospectus (No. 25) and The Athletic’s Keith Law (No. 33). That fanfare is attributable to a devastating repertoire that includes a triple-digit heater, a plus slider and an average or better changeup and curveball.

Touted as he may be, Espino’s shoulder surgery means he’ll now pitch in just four total games from 2022-23. He opened the 2022 season with an overwhelming, dominant showing that saw him punch out 35 of his 68 opponents en route to a 2.45 ERA in 18 1/3 innings. He hasn’t pitched in a game setting since, however. Espino missed two months due to tendinitis in his knee and battled shoulder problems later in the summer. An offseason of rest was hoped to clear that issue up, but when he resumed throwing, he again felt discomfort and was eventually diagnosed with a subscapular tear and capsule tear. The team shut him down for eight more weeks, but that didn’t prove sufficient.

Espino was the No. 24 overall pick in the 2019 draft, but he’s managed only 133 2/3 professional innings to date thanks to last year’s injuries and the canceled 2020 minor league season. He’ll now have yet another lengthy layoff and won’t be back on the mound until he’s turned 23. That’s obviously young enough for him to have a long and fruitful career, but the persistent injury problems have obviously stalled what could’ve been a meteoric rise to the big leagues based on his sheer, raw talent.

Given injuries elsewhere on the roster, a healthy Espino would’ve had a good chance at debuting this season. Cleveland is already undergoing something of a youth movement in the rotation, with each of Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen and Peyton Battenfield making his MLB debut in the season’s first month while Aaron Civale and Triston McKenzie are on the injured list.

Germán Márquez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez will require Tommy John surgery, he tells reporters, including Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette.

Needless to say, it’s a very unfortunate piece of news for both the pitcher and the team. Márquez has been the club’s best pitcher in recent years, posting a 4.41 ERA in 1,016 career innings. Given that he plays his home games at the hitter haven of Coors Field, it’s fair to assume that ERA doesn’t truly reflect his skill level. His 4.02 FIP and 3.96 SIERA perhaps offer a better indication of the level of production he’s had thus far.

This year, he made just three starts before landing on the injured list with a forearm strain, though an MRI revealed no structural damage and he was back with the club after a brief absence. However, in his first outing off the IL, he walked off the field after 3 2/3 innings in obvious distress. The update after the game was that the damage was to his triceps and not his elbow, which seemed encouraging. But when he was put back on the IL a couple days later, he expressed worry that Tommy John surgery would eventually be required, which now seems to have come to fruition.

A club losing their best pitcher is bad news at any time, but it’s especially rough for a Colorado club that’s out to a 9-20 start this year. Few observers were predicting them to contend this year and they seem to be progressing about as expected. The absence of Márquez will not only decrease their chances of getting back into the playoff race but also deprive the club of arguably their best summer trade candidate.

Back in 2019, the Rockies and Márquez agreed to a $43MM contract extension that runs through 2023, though there’s a $16MM club option for 2024 with a $2.5MM buyout. The Rockies are notoriously reticent to move their players even when it makes logical sense to do so, but they would have likely at least considered a Márquez trade this summer, given the challenges they would have faced in turning a struggling team into a contender during his window of control.

Given the standard 14 to 18 months of recovery required after TJS, Márquez will be out of action for the remainder of this season and at least the first half of 2024 as well. That makes it likely that the Rockies will take the $2.5MM buyout instead of the $16MM option next year, which will send Márquez to the open market, though the two sides could also work out another extension if they so wish. In the event that he does wind up a free agent this winter, he’ll be looking to market himself at a time when he’s still recovering and won’t be available immediately.

For now, the Rockies will have to turn their attention to getting through this year. Márquez is already on the injured list, alongside starters like Antonio Senzatela, Noah Davis and Ryan Rolison. Senzatela has been on the IL all season after suffering a torn ACL last year but he seems to be nearing a return. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post relays that the righty is in the clubhouse and is likely to be activated and start a game this weekend.

He’ll join Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner in the rotation, which will still leave the club shorthanded. Connor Seabold tossed 67 pitches in a long relief outing on Saturday and could perhaps take a turn. Peter Lambert is on the 40-man roster but hasn’t thrown more than three innings in any of his minor league starts so far this year.

Perhaps Davis could return sooner rather than later, as he tells Saunders that he would encouraged by his tests and doesn’t think it’s a major injury. But there’s still no firm timeline and he won’t be eligible to be reinstated for a couple of weeks even if the issue is minor.

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