White Sox Reportedly Place Mike Clevinger On Waivers
The White Sox have placed started Mike Clevinger on waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. This is one of several moves today as players with notable salaries are being placed on waivers by clubs out of contention, trying to dump some salary by having a contending club put in a claim.
Clevinger, 32, is playing the season on a one-year, $12MM contract, though the structure of the deal leaves a decent chunk yet to be paid out. The veteran righty is earning an $8MM salary, with about $1.42MM of that yet to be paid out, but is also owed a $4MM buyout on a $12MM mutual option for the 2024 campaign. As such, there’s about $5.42MM in total guarantees remaining for any club that places a claim.
Steep as that price may be for a month of work (and potentially more during the playoffs), Clevinger would be an upgrade to the pitching staff of most contending clubs. He’s made 18 starts for the White Sox this season, tallying 97 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball along the way. Clevinger’s 20.8% strikeout rate is down nearly seven percentage points from its peak, and he’s walked 9.3% of his opponents this year — right in line with his career mark.
Clevinger missed about six weeks of the summer due to inflammation in his right biceps but has done his best work of the season since being activated. In six post-IL starts, the right-hander has notched a 2.31 earned run average and 3.39 FIP while fanning opponents at a 23.7% clip against an 8.3% walk rate. Clevinger’s most recent outing saw him punch out 10 A’s hitters across seven one-run frames, and he also blanked the Cubs while posting seven strikeouts over seven innings back on Aug. 16.
The White Sox didn’t move Clevinger as part of their deadline sell-off, presumably because he only returned from the injured list just three days before the deadline itself. Given the injury uncertainty, a less-impressive pre-IL performance and the amount of money remaining on his contract, other teams were surely wary of giving up much of anything to acquire him in a trade. Today’s placement on waivers gives the South Siders the opportunity to at least shed some of the money he’s owed.
If Clevinger goes unclaimed, the Sox could still let him go in order to try to latch on with a contender between the expiration of his waiver period and the Aug. 31, 11:59pm ET deadline for postseason eligibility. In that scenario, the new team would only owe him the prorated league minimum, which would be subtracted from the Sox’ obligation to Clevinger.
Clevinger is essentially a rental player — mutual options are almost never exercised by both parties — and he’ll now be made available to all 29 other clubs, in order of reverse standings. Unlike the now-defunct revocable August trade waivers, outright waivers are not league-specific. (MLBTR has confirmed this with league sources on multiple occasions.) Waiver priority on Clevinger and all other veteran players who were waived today will be based on a worst-to-first basis, beginning with the A’s and ending with the Braves.
Yankees Place Harrison Bader On Waivers
The Yankees have placed center fielder Harrison Bader on waivers, reports Erik Boland of Newsday (Twitter link). As is the case with the Angels’ series of waiver placements, New York’s hope is that another team will claim the remaining salary on a player who was headed to free agency in a couple months.
To be clear, these are irrevocable waivers — either of the outright or release variety. The previous system of August waiver trades — where a team could rescind a placement if another club made a claim and the two sides didn’t work out a trade — was done away with in 2019. Whichever claiming team with the highest waiver priority as of Thursday morning will get Bader while taking on the remainder of his arbitration salary. (The waiver priority is in inverse order of the MLB standings and is not league-specific.) The Yankees won’t receive any compensation besides the salary relief. In the unlikely event that he goes unclaimed, New York could opt to keep him on the major league roster for the stretch run.
It’s probably the end of Bader’s year-plus long tenure in the Bronx. New York acquired him at last summer’s deadline in a surprising one-for-one swap that sent Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis. Both players had a season and a half of remaining arbitration control at the time, making it a rather straightforward swap of veterans among contending clubs to address positions of need.
The deal worked out better for St. Louis, as Montgomery has stayed healthy and performed at an upper mid-rotation level since leaving New York. Bader played well at times for the Yankees — headlined by his five homers in nine postseason games last October — but continued dealing with various injury concerns that have plagued him throughout his career.
Bader has landed on the injured list twice this season. He started the year on the shelf with an oblique strain and missed a few weeks with a hamstring issue. He has struggled mightily since returning on June 20, slumping to a .230/.272/.304 batting line in 55 contests. His season slash is down to .242/.279/.370 with just seven homers through 302 plate appearances.
It’s arguably the worst offensive showing of Bader’s career. While he’s never posted huge on-base numbers, this year’s mark is a personal low. It’s the 11th-lowest figure for a hitter with 300+ trips to the dish. Bader is avoiding strikeouts but very rarely walks and has hit just .274 on balls in play.
The offensive struggles are ill-timed for a player on the verge of his first trip to the open market. Yet his secondary skills are strong enough he’s likely to attract interest from another team down the stretch. Bader is a plus defensive center fielder who has again rated highly in his 655 1/3 innings there this season. He has stolen 16 bases in 18 attempts. He at least looks the part of a high-end fourth outfielder, even if other teams are reluctant to displace their starting center fielder for a player who hasn’t hit well of late.
Bader is only likely to appeal to teams in playoff contention. He’ll still be a free agent at year’s end. Taking on what remains of his $5.2MM salary (a little under $900K) only appeals to teams with a shot at contending. The Yankees would save that amount in salary, plus the 75% tax they’re paying for exceeding the CBT for a second straight season. With New York out of playoff contention and Bader’s rough season taking him out of consideration to receive a qualifying offer, the Yankees have decided to make him available to other clubs.
Yankees Release Josh Donaldson
The Yankees announced that third baseman Josh Donaldson has been released. Andy Martino of SNY relays that Donaldson will be on release waivers until 1pm tomorrow, at which point he will surely go unclaimed and become a free agent. The club’s 40-man roster is now at 39.
Donaldson, 37, has had a storied career that included literal MVP upside, but his time in the Bronx has been obviously disappointing. In March of 2022, the Yanks acquired Donaldson as well as catcher Ben Rortvedt and infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa from the Twins, sending catcher Gary Sánchez and infielder Gio Urshela the other way. Donaldson still had two years and $50MM left on the four-year deal he signed with the Twins, with the Yanks taking on all that remained at that time.
The third baseman was still plenty effective in his two years as a Twin, hitting .243/.355/.474 for a wRC+ of 126 along with solid defensive grades. But his production tailed off after the trade. His first year as a Yankee saw him hit just .222/.308/.374, which translated to a wRC+ of 98, his first subpar offensive showing since 2012. His defense was still solid but his strikeout rate jumped to 27.1%, more than two points above his previous career high, apart from his cup-of-coffee debut in 2011.
Here in 2023, things have gone from bad to worse. Donaldson has spent most of the season on the injured list, first due to a right hamstring strain and then a right calf strain, only getting into 34 games so far this year. When on the field, he’s only tallied 15 hits in his 106 at-bats, leading to a .142 batting average. Bizarrely, 10 of those 15 hits were home runs, leading to a lopsided slash line of .142/.225/.434 and a wRC+ of 75.
Donaldson is currently on the 60-day injured list and had been nearing a rehab assignment of late, but it seems the club didn’t plan on adding him back to their active roster. The Yanks are 63-68 and 11 games out of a playoff spot, seemingly planning to use what’s left of their schedule to get a look at younger players, recently promoting Everson Pereira and Oswald Peraza, with Austin Wells possibly coming soon as well.
With those players set to get plenty of playing time in the coming weeks, there would be less room for Donaldson, especially since his contract is winding down. There’s a $16MM mutual option for 2024 but the Yanks were clearly planning to take the $6MM buyout instead. By nudging Donaldson off the roster now, they open a spot for someone else and keep the playing time open for younger players.
Releasing Donaldson now might also have been a courtesy to him. If he signs with a new club prior to September 1, he’ll be playoff eligible with that team. Based on his health and performance issues this year, he’ll clear waivers by tomorrow afternoon and then have a day and a half to latch on somewhere else. Once released, the Yanks will be on the hook for the remainder of his salary. Any of the 29 other clubs would be free to sign him for the prorated league minimum, with that amount subtracted from what the Yankees pay.
The interest would obviously be limited based on the recent struggles, but he’s not too far removed from being an effective big leaguer. The MVP upside is almost a decade in the past now but, as mentioned, he performed well for the Twins as recently as 2021. If any club thinks he has more left in the tank, they could give him a shot for essentially no financial cost.
But for the Yankees, the Donaldson trade is obviously one they would like to have back. Kiner-Falefa has been a solid utility player but has been subpar at the plate and is about to become a free agent himself, while Rortvedt has been injured for much of the time since the deal. Sánchez was an impending free agent last year and Urshela had two years of control at the time, meaning they didn’t give up much, but taking on Donaldson’s contract tied up a lot of money that could have been spent elsewhere.
Donaldson will now see if there are other opportunities awaiting him, here in 2023 and beyond. He has previously expressed uncertainty about playing beyond this year, which will be a decision for the months to come, but he will first see if there’s a job for him in the short-term.
Mets Reportedly Place Carlos Carrasco On Waivers
The Mets have placed Carlos Carrasco on waivers, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The right-hander is one of several players to go on waivers today, as teams out of the postseason picture attempt to shed payroll. If another team claims Carrasco, they will be responsible for the prorated portion of his $14MM salary. He is set to become a free agent after the season.
Following a resurgent 2022 campaign, Carrasco has struggled in 2023. In 20 starts, he is averaging less than five innings per game, while pitching to a 6.80 ERA and 5.17 SIERA. The 36-year-old has run into particular trouble since the All-Star break, with a 10.24 ERA in his last eight starts. Given his rough performance, it seems unlikely that any team will be willing to take on his remaining salary, but it’s possible a contending club in need of rotation depth will take a chance on the veteran. He is only one year removed from a season in which he made 29 starts with a 3.97 ERA.
Revocable waivers no longer exist, so these are either outright or release waivers. If Carrasco goes unclaimed, there’s a chance he could become a free agent either way. As a 14-year MLB veteran, he has more than enough service time under his belt to reject an outright assignment without sacrificing any salary. Thus, this could mark the end of his time with the Mets. He has been with the organization for three seasons, having come over from Cleveland in 2021 as part of the trade that brought Francisco Lindor to New York. In 61 starts, he has pitched to a disappointing 5.21 ERA but a much more respectable 4.25 SIERA.
With a payroll far north of the highest competitive balance tax threshold, the Mets aren’t making this move with the luxury tax in mind. Still, given the tens of millions of dollars the team is paying to players no longer on the roster (including Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Robinson Cano), it’s understandable that Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler are looking for a little payroll relief.
New York has several arms available to take over for Carrasco in the rotation if need be, including right-handers José Butto and Denyi Reyes and left-hander Joey Lucchesi. All three are on the 40-man roster and have made at least two starts this season for the big league club. Lucchesi seems to be the most likely candidate; in six starts for the Mets, he has a 2.54 ERA in 28 innings pitched.
Jarren Duran To Undergo Season-Ending Toe Surgery
The Red Sox announced to reporters, including Christopher Smith of MassLive, that outfielder Jarren Duran will have season-ending turf toe surgery tomorrow. Duran is already on the 10-day injured list but will be transferred to the 60-day version whenever the Sox needs his roster spot. Manager Alex Cora said they expect him to be back by Spring Training, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic.
Duran, 26, suffered the injury when scaling the wall at Yankee Stadium, attempting to reach a home run ball hit by Gleyber Torres. He was placed on the injured list a week ago with the Sox describing his injury as a left great toe sprain. It seems the injury is significant enough that he’ll have to go under the knife and won’t be able to come back this year.
It’s an unfortunately sour end to a nice breakout season for the outfielder. He had gotten into 91 games over 2021 and 2022 but struck out in 30.7% of his 335 plate appearances. His .219/.269/.354 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 67, indicating he was 33% below league average in that time. That put him behind players like Adam Duvall and Raimel Tapia on the depth chart and Duran started the season at Triple-A.
But Duvall’s injury absence and Tapia’s struggles opened a path for Duran that he ran with. He was recalled in mid-April and went on to hit .295/.346/.482 for a wRC+ of 120. His 24.9% strikeout rate is still above average but a significant improvement over his own previous work. The reviews on his glovework were mixed, with -5 Defensive Runs Saved but Ultimate Zone Rating grading him just below par at -0.6 and Outs Above Average having him as breaking even. He also stole 24 bases while getting caught just twice. That will now go down as the totality of this 2023 work, as he won’t be returning. It’s a tough loss for the Sox, who are now 5.5 games out of a playoff spot with just over a month left in the season.
Going forward, Duran still has five years of club control remaining and seems to have increased his chances of being a viable long-term solution in center. Tapia is no longer on the team and Duvall is set to become a free agent at season’s end, though he’ll likely continue manning center for the time being. Prospects Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela could also be in the mix, as they both have recently been promoted, though they will each go into 2024 with less experience that Duran.
Tony Gonsolin To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Dodgers announced that Tony Gonsolin will undergo Tommy John surgery. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Friday.
Gonsolin was already known to be out for the remainder of the 2023 season. The club had announced his injury as forearm inflammation when first placing him on the IL last week. They transferred him to the 60-day IL yesterday to close the book on this year.
Now, it seems unlikely he’ll be a factor again until 2025. A Tommy John procedure typically comes with a recovery time pushing or exceeding 14 months. Perhaps he’d be able to make a return late next season, but the safer bet is that he’ll spend the entire ’24 campaign on the 60-day injured list.
Arm injuries have been an unfortunately recurring theme for Gonsolin during his five-year big league career. He lost a couple months early in 2021 with shoulder inflammation. He posted a 3.23 ERA in 15 starts that year and was healthy for the first part of 2022. Gonsolin turned in an All-Star first half and worked to a sparkling 2.14 ERA through 130 1/3 innings. A forearm strain sent him to the IL in late August.
Gonsolin returned at the end of September and made a start in L.A.’s playoff series loss to the Padres. His 2023 debut was delayed by an unrelated ankle sprain, though he returned in late April. The 29-year-old worked 103 innings across 20 outings, struggling to his first below-average season. He allowed just under five earned runs per nine while striking hitters out at a career-low 18.9% clip while his average fastball speed dipped from 93.1 MPH to 92.4 MPH. Things spiraled from late June onward, as Gonsolin allowed four-plus runs in eight of his 11 outings before being placed on the IL.
The Dodgers have now lost a pair of their expected top five starters to forearm surgeries. Dustin May underwent a flexor tendon procedure in early July. The Dodgers indicated May could be back midway through the ’24 season.
Los Angeles was certain to address their rotation next offseason even if May and Gonsolin had been healthy. Clayton Kershaw is an impending free agent, and while the Dodgers would surely have interest in re-signing him, the three-time Cy Young winner will first need to decide whether he wants to suit up for a 17th season. Julio Urías will be one of the top starters in next winter’s free agent class, while the Dodgers will have to make a net $17MM decision on an option for Lance Lynn.
The Dodgers could welcome Walker Buehler back in short stints next month and transition him back to the rotation for ’24. Rookie Bobby Miller has pitched well enough to stake a claim to a spot. That leaves as many as three jobs still to be sorted out between free agency, trade and some combination of Ryan Pepiot, Emmet Sheehan, Gavin Stone, Michael Grove and perhaps a prospect like Nick Frasso or Landon Knack. The pitching pipeline is strong enough they won’t be short on options, but they’ll obviously need to fortify the starting staff with additional certainty.
Gonsolin signed a two-year deal to cover his first couple arbitration seasons in January. He’s guaranteed a $3.4MM base salary for next year. That deal contained up to $3MM in start-based incentives which he won’t be able to trigger even if he makes a late-season return. Even beyond the lengthy rehab process, the absence will be fairly costly for the right-hander. He’ll remain eligible for arbitration through the 2026 campaign.
Red Sox Promote Ceddanne Rafaela
3:55pm: The Sox have now officially announced all of these moves.
3:30pm: The Red Sox are recalling prospect Ceddanne Rafaela, per Ian Browne of MLB.com, along with infielder/outfielder David Hamilton. In corresponding moves, infielder Pablo Reyes is going on the injured list while outfielder Wilyer Abreu heads to the paternity list.
Rafaela, now 22, was signed by the Sox as an amateur out of Curaçao for a modest bonus of $10K. He has since performed well in his rise through the minor leagues and is now considered one of the club’s top prospects, though a somewhat divisive one. He has always hit well on the farm but has done so while swinging at just about everything, leading some evaluators to question whether that hyper-aggressive approach could be exploited by major league pitchers. He also began as an infielder but wasn’t considered an excellent defender there, though his move to center field a few years ago seems to have been an astute one, as he’s now considered elite at that position.
His overall prospect stock shot up in 2022, as he split his time between High-A and Double-A with a combined batting line of .299/.342/.538 and a wRC+ of 134 while spending more time in the outfield. That got him onto some top 100 prospect lists and selected to Boston’s 40-man roster in November, to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s had another strong performance here in 2023, hitting .302/.349/.520 between Double-A and Triple-A for a wRC+ of 121.
As mentioned, there is divided opinion on Rafaela as a prospect. Baseball America doesn’t currently have him on their top 100, recently ranking him #6 in the club’s system. Kiley McDaniel recently provided a top 50 update to his prospect rankings without Rafaela making the cut. However, MLB Pipeline has him at #77 in the league, Keith Law of The Athletic recent put him at #48 and FanGraphs has him all the way up at #31.
The major question mark seems to be whether his approach at the plate will work in the big leagues. He’s drawn walks in just 105 of his 1,852 plate appearances in the minors thus far, a rate of 5.7% that’s well below the 8.5% major league average. But his overall offense is strong enough that he’ll get a chance against big league pitching.
This part of the calendar is a popular time for prospect promotions, since there’s not enough time left in the season for players to exhaust rookie eligibility. That’s significant under the new collective bargaining agreement, as players with rookie status that feature on top prospect lists can potentially earn their clubs an extra draft pick in future seasons based on awards voting.
That will be a concern for the future. For now, the club will hope Rafaela can hit the ground running and perhaps provide a jolt to finish the year, as they are currently just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. But it will also give them a chance to evaluate Rafaela prior to the offseason, with center field a bit of a question mark. Adam Duvall has spent plenty of time there but is a free agent at season’s end. Jarren Duran has had a breakout season but is getting some help from a .381 batting average on balls in play and is currently on the injured list. Abreu has been playing some center but is considered by many to be a better fit for a corner. The final weeks of the season could perhaps provide the club some more information on how their center field depth chart looks for 2024.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Guardians Designate Noah Syndergaard For Assignment
The Guardians have designated right-hander Noah Syndergaard for assignment, as noted by Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes. The Guardians have announced the move and indicated that a corresponding roster move will be announced tomorrow.
The 38th overall pick in the 2010 draft by the Blue Jays, Syndergaard made his major league debut with the Mets in 2015 and immediately had the look of a clear top-of-the-rotation arm. While he battled injuries throughout his Mets tenure, he posted a 3.31 ERA and 2.92 FIP in 716 innings of work alongside Jacob deGrom at the front of New York’s rotation from 2015-2019, with a 26.4% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate, and a 49.1% groundball rate. His best season came in 2016, when he dominated to the tune of a 2.60 ERA with an MLB-best 2.29 FIP, a strikeout rate of 29.3% and a groundball rate of 51.2%.
Syndergaard’s career hit a major snag in March of 2020, when the then-27-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery. He would miss the entire shortened 2020 campaign and almost all of the 2021 campaign as well, recording just two September relief appearances that year before hitting free agency.
Syndergaard split his 2022 campaign between the Angels and the Phillies, looking more like a soft-tossing back-of-the-rotation arm than the flamethrowing ace he had been earlier in his career. The results were still solid, however, as Syndergaard posted a 3.94 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 134 2/3 innings of work that year in the regular season. He then went on to pitch for the Phillies during their run to the World Series, allowing three runs in 8 1/3 postseason innings of work.
That solid if uninspiring return to action in 2022 earned Syndergaard a one-year deal with the Dodgers last December. While the sides were hopeful that Syndergaard would be able to build on his 2022 performance and regain some of his lost velocity another year removed from Tommy John, the 2023 campaign didn’t go how either party imagined it would. Through 12 starts with the Dodgers, Syndergaard looked completely outmatched with a disastrous 7.16 ERA across 55 1/3 innings of work, less than five innings per start.
Between Syndergaard’s troubling run prevention numbers and inability to pitch deep into games, the Dodgers moved on from him rather quickly even in spite of an injury-plagued season that saw every other member of their Opening Day rotation spend significant time on the injured list. LA placed Syndergaard on the IL himself with a finger blister in early June and did not appear in the majors again until he was dealt to Cleveland just before the trade deadline in a change-of-scenery swap that shipped Amed Rosario to the Dodgers.
Syndergaard ended up making five starts for the Guardians prior to the club’s decision today to move on from him. While his ERA improved with the club relative to his time with the Dodgers, his 4.94 figure was still 16% below average. To make matters worse, he struck out just 12.5% of batters faced while giving up a whopping seven homers in just 27 1/3 innings of work.
Given those brutal peripheral numbers, it’s hardly a shock that the club has decided to move on from Syndergaard in favor of seeing what they have in youngsters like Xzavion Curry, Hunter Gaddis, and Peyton Battenfield. It’s a particularly reasonable course of action considering the 62-69 Guardians, six games back in a weak AL Central with a 9-15 record so far in August, have seen their hopes of returning to the playoffs this year become considerably fainter over the past month since the club acquired Syndergaard.
As for Syndergaard, assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers he’ll have the opportunity to return to the free agent market and look to catch on with another team. Brutal as his results have been this year, teams are always on the lookout for potential depth options, particularly on a no-risk minor league deal like the one Syndergaard would presumably command. To be eligible to participate in the postseason with his new club, Syndergaard will have to sign before September 1.
Rockies Release Jurickson Profar
The Rockies have released outfielder Jurickson Profar, The Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders reports (X link). Profar’s spot on the roster will be taken by prospect Hunter Goodman, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A. Goodman’s impending big league promotion was first reported yesterday by the Blake Street Banter X feed.
Profar’s tenure in the Mile High City ends after 111 games, 472 plate appearances, and a disappointing .236/.316/.364 slash line. Only three qualified hitters have a lower wRC+ in 2023 than Profar’s 72 wRC+, and his -1.9 fWAR is the lowest of any qualified hitter in baseball. It wasn’t at all what Profar or the Rockies were hoping when they agreed to a one-year, $7.75MM free agent deal back in March, and Colorado has now chosen to part ways with Profar entirely in order to open up more time for younger players.
Today’s news will again put a spotlight on Profar’s decision to enter the free agent market last winter, as he opted out of the final year of his previous contract with the Padres in search of a longer-term and more lucrative pact. However, the market didn’t deliver such a deal, and Profar ended up having to wait until the middle of March to sign with Colorado. Between his Rockies salary and the $1MM buyout he received from opting out, Profar ended up making a bit more money than if he’d just remained in his Padres contract for a $7.5MM salary for the 2023 season, yet it is hard to view the situation as a win given Profar’s season-long struggles.
The long wait in free agency likely contributed to those struggles, as Profar didn’t really have much of a Spring Training, though he did get some high-level competition while playing for the Netherlands during the World Baseball Classic. Rockies manager Bud Black also recently said that Profar had been “been battling that [left] knee for a little,” so it possible this nagging injury might have been a factor in Profar’s lack of production.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Profar’s 2023 fortunes might have been different if he’d stayed in San Diego, had a full spring, or stayed healthy. Given the up-and-down nature of Profar’s career, his dropoff this season can’t be viewed as a total surprise, as Profar’s last six seasons have alternated positive wRC+ numbers to below-average offensive production. His solid work with the Padres in the shortened 2020 season led to his re-signing with the club on a three-year, $21MM free agent deal that winter, though Profar again didn’t hit well in 2021, which led him to decline his first opt-out opportunity in the 2021-22 offeason. He then bounced back to hit .243/.331/.391 over 658 PA in 2022, translating to an 111 wRC+ and 2.6 fWAR, and giving Profar the confidence to test the open market again.
With this in mind, Profar might well rebound for another good year in 2024, though it is possible he might be able to catch on with another club before this season is out. Despite his rough numbers this year, his track record of success as recently as 2022 and his past status as an elite prospect might still catch the attention of a club in need of outfield depth. Signing Profar would cost a team only a prorated minimum salary, as the Rockies are on the hook for the remainder of the $7.75MM owed.
Goodman is set to make his MLB debut today, suiting up at catcher in Colorado’s lineup. The 23-year-old has an interesting defensive skillset, as he has seen plenty of time as a catcher, first baseman, and left fielder over his three professional seasons. However, Goodman’s power bat is what punched his ticket to the majors, as he is hitting .259/.338/.581 with 34 homers over 467 combined PA at Double-A and Triple-A. Goodman has only 15 games and 67 PA under his belt with Triple-A Albuquerque, but he has a 1.321 OPS over his brief stint with the Rockies’ top affiliate.
A fourth-round pick for the Rox in the 2021 draft, Goodman is ranked 10th by Baseball America and 12th by MLB Pipeline in their listings of Colorado’s best prospects. There is no doubt about his power potential, as BA’s scouting report gives him a 70-grade in power and notes that Goodman “produces big-time bat speed with a violent, leveraged swing.” This pop has helped Goodman be very productive at the plate despite a relatively lacking average and OBP, as he still need more overall polish to his approach. Defensively, Goodman can play multiple positions but he might top out at average whenever he lines up on the diamond.
With the Rockies well out of contention, the team has looked to several youngsters early in their big league careers in order to get a head start on evaluations heading into 2024. If Goodman can hit well in his first trip to the Show, he’ll earn consideration as an interesting bench or part-time option heading into next season, as he wouldn’t be relegated to only backup duty behind starting catcher Elias Diaz.
Felix Bautista Placed On Injured List With “Some Degree” Of UCL Injury
Orioles GM Mike Elias addressed reporters this afternoon regarding the status of right-hander Felix Bautista, who exited yesterday’s game against the Rockies with what was termed at the time as “arm discomfort.” It now appears that discomfort was something far more severe than initially indicated, as Elias told reporters (including MASN’s Roch Kubatko) that Bautista is dealing with “some degree of injury” to his ulnal collateral ligament. Naturally, Bautista is headed to the injured list, with Andy Kostka of of the Baltimore Banner reporting that left-hander DL Hall will take Bautista’s place on the Orioles’ roster. Baltimore has since made that move official, placing Bautista on the 15-day IL with a “right UCL injury” while recalling Hall.
While a prognosis is not yet known and no timetable regarding Bautista’s injury has been announced, it seems at least possible that the news brings an end to a season that has been nothing short of sensational for the 28-year-old righty. Bautista made his debut in the major leagues for the Orioles last year and produced an excellent season, with a 2.19 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 15 saves and a 34.8% strikeout rate across 65 appearances. Those numbers from his rookie season were impressive enough to convince Elias and his front office to ship then-closer Jorge Lopez to Minnesota at the trade deadline last year, with Bautista looking to be the club’s closer of the future.
The 2023 campaign has seen Bautista not only make good on that promise, but make a case for himself as the best reliever in the entire sport this year. In 61 innings of work this year, Bautista has racked up 33 saves (just one less than league leaders Alexis Diaz and Emmanuel Clase) while posting an unbelievable 46.4% strikeout rate with ERA (1.48) and FIP (1.89) marks below 2.00. His 2.8 fWAR this season puts him 20th in baseball among all pitchers, a figure that puts him in the same conversation as front-end arms like Luis Castillo and Kodai Senga despite offering less than half the volume of those starters.
Bautista’s heroics this season have catapulted Baltimore’s bullpen to or near the top of plenty of leaderboards this season. They collectively sport the sixth-best ERA (3.55), the best FIP (3.51) and fWAR total (6.8), and the third-highest strikeout rate (26.5%) in the majors this year, even in spite of middling performances from the likes of Shintaro Fujinami, Austin Voth, and Cionel Perez. The loss of Bautista naturally complicates the future for the club’s relief corps, though the addition of Hall, a former first-round pick who has posted gaudy strikeout totals in both the majors and minors despite limited big league experience, could provide a boost down the stretch.
Fellow right-hander Yennier Cano, who was acquired as part of the return in the aforementioned Lopez deal last year, seems primed to step into the closer’s role in Bautista’s stead. Cano is in the midst of what has been an excellent season of his own, with a phenomenal 1.62 ERA and 2.68 FIP. He’s managed to post those numbers in spite of a far less impressive strikeout rate of 24.2% thanks to a combination of a sensational groundball rate of 58.5% and a minuscule 4.2% walk rate.
Still, even in spite of the potential upside of Hall and the excellent performance of Cano, the loss of Bautista is a potentially catastrophic blow for the Orioles, who currently lead the AL East with an 80-48 record that trails only the Braves in all of MLB. Baltimore opted against any impact additions to a relatively weak starting staff that ranks just 19th in the majors in terms of fWAR and 15th by measure of ERA, instead only adding right-hander Jack Flaherty (91 ERA+ in 23 starts this season) to the mix. The club’s dominant bullpen, led by Bautista, surely played a role in the club’s decision not to more aggressively pursue an impactful arm like Eduardo Rodriguez or Jordan Montgomery.
With Bautista’s season now seemingly in peril, the club will have to lean more heavily on its rotation group going forward. Flaherty has struggled in three starts with the Orioles to this point, with a 7.07 ERA in 14 innings of work, but has a history as an excellent mid-rotation arm in the not-to-distant past. Kyle Bradish (3.03 ERA in 23 starts) has emerged as a clear playoff-caliber rotation arm this season, while rookie Grayson Rodriguez has posted a 3.24 ERA in seven starts since rejoining the team last month. Veteran righty Kyle Gibson has managed to keep the team in games despite a middling 4.89 ERA thanks to fourteen quality starts, a figure that places him in the top 10 among all AL pitchers this season.