Matt Harvey Announces Retirement
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
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
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.
Diamondbacks To Promote Brandon Pfaadt
The Diamondbacks are going to promote pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt to make his major league debut tomorrow, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The right-hander isn’t currently on the club’s 40-man roster, meaning they will need to open a spot for him between now and then.
Pfaadt, 24, was a fifth round pick of the club in the 2020 draft. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic that year, but Pfaadt emerged with a strong showing in 2021. He rose through three levels of the minors, going from Single-A to High-A and Double-A that year, tossing 131 2/3 innings total with a combined 3.21 ERA. He struck out 30.2% of batters faced while walking just 5.3%. After that strong showing, he was ranked the club’s #10 prospect by Baseball America going into 2022.
Last year, Pfaadt would continue to impress, throwing 167 innings between Double-A and Triple-A with a 3.83 ERA, 31.6% strikeout rate and 4.6% walk rate. Going into this season, he was ranked the club’s #5 prospect by BA but amazingly was #26 in the entire league, highlighting a strong and top-heavy system loaded with premier prospects. Their report highlights his fastball, which averages around 93-94mph and has natural cutting action. His slider is his putaway pitch but he also has a changeup and a curveball. He is listed as the #51 prospect in the league at MLB Pipeline, #16 at FanGraphs, #32 at ESPN and was ranked #38 by Keith Law of The Athletic.
The righty was sent to Triple-A to start this year, where he’s posted a 3.91 ERA through five starts, striking out 28.6% of opponents while walking just 5.7%. As he’s been doing that, the Diamondbacks have been playing well, 16-13 record, despite an inconsistent rotation. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly have been their typically excellent selves so far this year, but the rest of the group hasn’t been nearly as strong. Madison Bumgarner got released after posting a 10.26 ERA in his first four starts. Ryne Nelson has a 6.39 ERA after six outings while Tommy Henry has a 6.52 after a pair. Zach Davies is on the injured list with an oblique strain while Drey Jameson was optioned out after some struggles.
Amid all of that uncertainty, the club will give Pfaadt a shot and see how he fares against big league hitters. Since the season is over a month old already, he won’t be able to earn a full year of service time, at least not the traditional way. The latest collective bargaining agreement has a couple of measures to discourage teams from trying to manipulate a player’s service time and delay their free agency. One of those measures is that a player can still get a full service year even if they didn’t spend the requisite 172 days in the majors. Any player with less than 60 days’ service time at the start of a season who is on two of the top 100 prospect lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline can still get a full year if they finish in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting. Both Adley Rutschman and Michael Harris II managed to get a full year of service this way last year.
Pfaadt is on all three lists and could follow that path, though it will be a bit of a challenge. He will have to chase down other rookies who have already spent a month accruing stats, such as James Outman or his teammate Corbin Carroll. But for the Diamondbacks, it’s an exciting time as Pfaadt joins Carroll, Gabriel Moreno and other exciting young players on the roster, with prospects like Jordan Lawlar and Druw Jones set to join them in the upstart D’Backs in the years to come.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Phillies Reinstate Bryce Harper
May 2: The Phillies have officially announced Harper’s activation, optioning outfielder Jake Cave in a corresponding move.
May 1: Bryce Harper has been cleared to return to the Phillies and is expected to be in the club’s lineup as the designated hitter tomorrow, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Harper was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in May of last year but played through the ailment, serving as the designated hitter since he was able to hit but not throw. He eventually underwent Tommy John surgery in November, after the club had charged all the way to the World Series. The club initially announced his expected return for around the All-Star break in July, but it became clear in recent weeks that he had a chance to beat that. The Phils never put him on the 60-day injured list, leaving the door open for him to return in the first couple months of the season.
It had recently been reported that Harper would be visiting Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Los Angeles-based surgeon who performed his TJS procedure, while the club is in town to play the Dodgers. It seemed earlier today that Harper got the good news he was looking for, as he took to Instagram and posted some pictures of himself with the teasing message “Aye Pham. You ready?” It now seems to be confirmed that he has been given the green light to return to hitting, allowing him to take up the DH spot for the Phils.
Once he’s back on the lineup, he will have completed what seems to be the quickest return to action after going under the knife for Tommy John. Shohei Ohtani was previously one of the fastest to get back on the field, as he underwent the procedure in October of 2018 and was back on the field in May of the following year.
Harper will obviously provide a huge boost to the lineup, having been one of the best hitters in the league for over a decade now. Even while dealing with the UCL tear and missing time with a broken thumb last year, he still hit .286/.364/.514 for a wRC+ of 138, indicating he was 38% better than the league average hitter. If there’s one small downside to Harper’s return, it’s that it will make the club a bit less flexible in setting its lineups. So far this year, most of the DH time has gone to Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, who are both generally considered subpar defenders in the outfield corners. Assuming the Phils have the freedom to use Harper on an everyday basis, that will likely mean having Schwarber and Castellanos in the field more often.
But that’s a small price to pay for an elite bat like Harper. What remains to be seen is when he will be able to return to the field. The initial timeline was that he could potentially return to right field towards the end of the season. However, Harper has been beating every timeline that’s been put in front of him and has also been getting some work in at first base. That position generally involves less stress on the throwing elbow than playing in the outfield and could perhaps allow him to move off the designated hitter spot earlier.
Regardless of when Harper can again play defense, he’s a tremendous boost to the lineup after missing just over a month of the 2023 season. The Phils have managed to stay afloat without him, going 15-14 so far. They are a few games out in the playoff race right now but should get some extra momentum for the remainder of the schedule.
Mariners To Outright Diego Castillo, Promote Bryce Miller
The Mariners are shuffling up their pitching staff. They’re set to select the contract of top pitching prospect Bryce Miller, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Future Star Series, and they’ve also passed right-hander Diego Castillo through waivers and assigned him outright to Triple-A Tacoma, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link).
With that outright, Castillo is no longer on the 40-man roster. He has the three years of service time needed to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but he doesn’t yet have five years of service, so rejecting the assignment would mean forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $2.95MM salary. As such, he’s sure to accept an assignment to Tacoma and remain with the organization.
It’s been a swift decline for Castillo, who was one of the top relievers moved at the 2021 deadline, going from Tampa Bay to Seattle in exchange for minor league infielder Austin Shenton and righty JT Chargois. Castillo was quite effective in his first season and a half with the Mariners, pitching to a 3.42 ERA with an above-average 25.5% strikeout rate against a slightly below-average 9.4% walk rate. He held opponents to just a .196 average, yielded only 1.06 HR/9 and kept the ball on the ground at a 48.5% clip.
The 2023 season, however, has been a disaster for the 29-year-old Castillo. In 8 2/3 innings so far, he’s walked as many batters as he’s fanned (seven) and also plunked a hitter. He’s already served up homers to two of the 41 batters he’s faced after surrendering only five in 54 1/3 innings (222 batters faced) a year ago. The 94.2 mph average on his fastball, meanwhile, is down 1.6 mph from last year’s mark of 95.8. Overall, he’s sitting on a 6.23 ERA and has allowed 15 of 41 opponents (.366) to reach base.
Any other team could’ve claimed Castillo, but it’s generally rare for other clubs to claim struggling players of this nature when they have a guaranteed contract of some note. The Mariners could’ve waited to make this move but likely saw Castillo’s struggles as a way to open a 40-man roster spot to accommodate their top pitching prospect. If another club had claimed Castillo, the Mariners would’ve been spared the remaining $2.44MM of this year’s salary, but they’ll instead hope he can round back into form with the Rainiers.
Turning to Miller, he’ll make his big league debut when he takes the mound tomorrow against the A’s. He last pitched on April 25, so he’ll be plenty rested. The 24-year-old has had a rough start to his 2023 season in Double-A, pitching to a 6.41 ERA in 19 2/3 frames, but he entered the year among the top 100 prospects at Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com. He currently ranks 92nd, 89th and 85th, respectively on those three lists.
The handful of shaky outings to begin the year, it seems, won’t dissuade the Mariners from hoping he can follow Logan Gilbert and George Kirby to be the next member of the team’s vaunted farm system to step into the Major League rotation. Seattle has already lost Robbie Ray for the season and has seen Chris Flexen struggle in the fifth spot of the rotation, so it stands to reason that Miller could potentially seize a permanent job, if not tomorrow then certainly at some point this season.
Despite his rocky start to the 2023 season, Miller is seen as a potential mid-rotation starter, thanks in no small part to a heater that sits upper-90s and can bump 100 mph. He pairs that with a slider and changeup, and the former college reliever has improved his command as the Mariners have stretched him back out as a starter.
Miller split the bulk of the 2022 season between High-A and Double-A, logging a combined 3.16 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate and an 8.5% walk rate in 133 2/3 innings. He allowed just 0.67 HR/9 and kept the ball on the ground at a slightly above-average rate. And, given that sizable workload in ’22, there’s little reason to think the Mariners will feel the need to monitor his innings total too aggressively this season.
If Miller were to stick in the big leagues, he’d be on pace to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player following the 2025 season and reach free agency at the conclusion of the 2029 season. Of course, future optional assignments could alter one or both of those timetables considerably.
Twins’ Tyler Mahle To Be Shut Down For Four Weeks
Twins right-hander Tyler Mahle underwent an MRI today to determine the nature of an elbow impingement, and the results aren’t promising. Manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Dan Hayes of The Athletic) that Mahle will be shut down for the next four weeks due to both a posterior impingement and a flexor pronator strain.
Assuming Mahle emerges from that shutdown period in good condition, it will still likely take a couple of weeks for him to rehab and rebuild his strength back up to regular levels, so the Twins might be without one of their rotation stalwarts until late June. Kenta Maeda also went to the 15-day IL just two days ago, but while Maeda’s strained right triceps issue seems slightly less serious, it seems like Maeda could also miss a big portion of May.
The Twins have an off-day on Monday, so Mahle’s own IL placement will likely be held off until prior to the team’s game against the White Sox on Tuesday. Bailey Ober was already called up from Triple-A to act as Maeda’s replacement in the rotation, so Minnesota will again have to dip into its starter depth. The silver lining might be that the Twins are better equipped than most teams to withstand rotation injuries, since Louie Varland is also on hand at Triple-A and seems the likeliest candidate to be called up in Mahle’s place. Simeon Woods Richardson and Brent Headrick might also be options, as both are on Minnesota’s 40-man roster.
The injury is a tough setback for Mahle, who looked good in posting a 3.16 ERA over his first five starts and 25 2/3 innings of the season. The righty’s 27.5% strikeout rate and 4.9% walk rate were both above league average, and the latter figure is of particular note given how control has often been an issue for Mahle throughout his six previous MLB seasons. A .266 BABIP and 80% strand rate have contributed to Mahle’s good numbers, but his 3.50 SIERA isn’t too far north of his actual 3.16 ERA.
In the bigger picture, Mahle is a free agent after the season, so any kind of lengthy injury layoff could certainly hamper his chances of maximizing his value on his next contract. It doesn’t help that Mahle also missed a big chunk of the 2022 season due to shoulder problems, as he pitched only 28 1/3 innings after July 2 due to three separate IL trips. Only time will tell if Mahle will be able to be able to return from this current injury in relatively short order and in good form, but an extended run of good health and quality pitching after his return could line Mahle up for a hefty multi-year deal this winter.
Rangers Place Jacob deGrom On 15-Day IL Due To Elbow Inflammation
The Rangers announced that right-hander Jacob deGrom has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing elbow. The move comes a day after deGrom was removed early from his start against the Yankees due to what was initially termed as forearm tightness. In the corresponding move, Texas called up right-hander Yerry Rodriguez from Triple-A to take deGrom’s spot on the active roster.
Manager Bruce Bochy told reporters yesterday that removing deGrom was “just a precaution,” and GM Chris Young told reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News) that an MRI revealed the inflammation. “Given how important he is to us and our season, we’re going to play this very cautiously and see how he responds over the next several days of treatment, and then 7-10 days we’ll have a pretty good idea of what the next steps are,” Young said.
DeGrom also made an early exit from a start two weeks ago due to wrist soreness, this IL visit might be something more of an overall maintenance pause to let deGrom entirely heal up. That said, it certainly isn’t good to see deGrom back on the IL, particularly with any sort of elbow/forearm issue. The right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery over a decade ago, and he missed the second half of the 2021 season recovering from forearm tightness. Between that abbreviated 2021 season and then a stress reaction in his shoulder blade prior to the start of the 2022 season, deGrom missed almost exactly a full year of action bridged over the 2021-22 campaigns.
Sandwiched around that long injury absence, deGrom still posted a 1.90 ERA over 156 1/3 innings in 2021-22, continuing to show that he is one of baseball’s very best pitchers when healthy. Even with health concerns clouding his last two seasons, deGrom still opted out of the $30.5MM remaining on his contract with the Mets in order to chase a larger free agent deal this past winter. The bet paid off handsomely for the 34-year-old, who landed a five-year, $185MM contract from the Rangers.
That deal contains a conditional option for the 2028 season that is relevant given the nature of deGrom’s current IL stint. The option becomes a club option if deGrom undergoes a TJ surgery or is on the IL for any elbow or shoulder-related injury for either 130 consecutive days in a given season, or for 186 consecutive days bridging multiple season. (The price of that club option ranges from $20MM to as much as $37MM if deGrom hits certain innings thresholds and finishes in Cy Young Award voting over the life of the contract.) If deGrom avoids these injury benchmarks, passes a physical after the 2027 season, tossed at least 160 innings that season, and has a top-five finish in Cy Young voting in 2027, the option becomes a $37MM player option.
As noted, there isn’t yet any indication that deGrom’s injury is serious, or anything that might even sideline him beyond the 15-day minimum. Still, it is a little ominous that an elbow problem that sent deGrom to the IL within his first month in a Rangers uniform, and the club can only hope that this injury is just a bump in the road.
Over his first six games with Texas, deGrom has continued to perform like an ace, posting a 2.67 ERA over 30 1/3 innings with elite Statcast metrics almost across the board. The Rangers are a perfect 6-0 in deGrom’s starts, which is a big reason why Texas is sitting in first place in the AL West after a 15-11 start.
Texas has off-days on both Monday and Thursday, giving the team some flexibility in how it will reset the rotation with deGrom out. Young indicated that Dane Dunning is the likeliest candidate to step into the starting five, and Rodriguez’s promotion is perhaps a hint that the Rangers will indeed move Dunning back into the rotation. Dunning was a regular starter for the Rangers in 2021-22 before the team’s offseason pitching acquisitions pushed him into a relief role. Despite a very low 13.9% strikeout rate, Dunning has fared well in the bullpen, posting a 1.77 ERA and 50.8% grounder rate over 20 1/3 relief innings.
Orioles Promote Joey Ortiz
The Orioles announced Thursday morning that they’ve recalled top infield prospect Joey Ortiz from Triple-A Norfolk and optioned infielder/outfielder Terrin Vavra to Triple-A in his place. Ortiz — who currently ranks as the game’s No. 66 prospect at FanGraphs, No. 88 at Baseball America and No. 91 at MLB.com — will be making his Major League debut the first time he takes the field.
Ortiz, 24, was Baltimore’s fourth-round selection in the 2019 draft and was selected to the 40-man roster back in November, thus protecting him from selection in the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He’s gotten out to a torrid start in Triple-A this season, slashing .359/.389/.500 with five doubles, a pair of triples, a 6.9% walk rate and a 16.7% strikeout rate that’s considerably lower than average. It’s a strong early followup to a 2022 season in which Ortiz hit .284/.349/.477 with 19 home runs, 35 doubles, six triples and eight steals in a combined 600 plate appearances between Double-A (485) and Triple-A (115).
While he’s spent the vast majority of his professional career to date at shortstop, Ortiz has just shy of 300 innings at second base and another 51 frames of third base under his belt since being drafted. He’s not going to supplant Jorge Mateo at shortstop, given Mateo’s own brilliant start to the season, but Ortiz could see some time at the other two infield spots in the days ahead, with second base seeming particularly plausible.
As Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun points out (Twitter link), the O’s are slated to face left-handed starters in each of their next three games. The left-handed-hitting Vavra likely wouldn’t have gotten a start in any of those three contests, but Ortiz gives manager Brandon Hyde a righty bat off the bench or, speculatively speaking, at second base to start over the lefty-swinging Adam Frazier (who has struggled in general early this season).
It’s not clear just yet whether Ortiz will only be getting a brief call to the Majors or whether he might be earnestly auditioning for a larger role with the club right now. Frazier’s hitting just .208/.288/.333 through his first 80 plate appearances, though it’s unlikely that the Orioles would move on so soon after signing him to a one-year, $8MM deal over the winter. However, it’s at least feasible that Ortiz could spell Frazier against lefties while also seeing a start per week at shortstop, third base and designated hitter, perhaps accruing something close to regular playing time in the process. Injuries, of course, could always create additional opportunity.
Whether it’s just a brief cup of coffee or a more legitimate big league audition, Ortiz’s early promotion will give Baltimore fans a look at yet another promising young position player who could help form the core of the club for the next several years. He’ll join Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Ryan Mountcastle and Grayson Rodriguez as recent top-100 prospects to take the big league stage at Camden Yards over the past couple seasons, with several more waiting in the wings behind them.
Robbie Ray To Miss Remainder Of Season Due To Flexor Tendon Surgery
Mariners left-hander Robbie Ray will undergo flexor tendon repair surgery, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Ray will not be able to return this season. The lefty had already been on the 15-day injured list due to a flexor strain but Divish adds that further testing revealed damage in a different area of the tendon.
The news is obviously terrible for both Ray and the Mariners, as he was a key part of the club’s plans for this year. After an up-and-down career with the Tigers and Diamondbacks, Ray stabilized himself in tremendous fashion with the Blue Jays in 2021. He had always had tremendous strikeout ability but struggled with command, walking 11% of batters he faced in his career by the end of the 2020 campaign. But the 2021 season saw him whittle that down to 6.7% while still getting punchouts at an incredible 32.1% clip. He finished the season with a 2.84 ERA and was awarded the American League Cy Young.
That breakout was perfectly timed, as he went into free agency immediately after, signing a five-year, $115MM deal with the Mariners with an opt-out after the third season. Last year, he naturally regressed from his incredible heights of the year before, but still had a solid year with Seattle. He made 32 starts and posted a 3.71 ERA, striking out 27.4% of opponents while walking 8%. That helped the club break their postseason drought, as they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Unfortunately, 2023 season will now go down as a total loss, effectively. Ray made one start of just 3 1/3 innings before landing on the injured list and that will now be his entire tally for the year.
The Mariners have had six viable starters since their deadline acquisition of Luis Castillo last year, which bumped Chris Flexen into the bullpen. With Castillo, Ray, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Marco Gonzales set to be in the front five spots, it had been speculated by many that perhaps the club would look to trade Flexen in order to improve another area of the roster. In the end, they kept all six hurlers, a decision which now seems wise in the wake of Ray’s injury. Flexen has struggled so far this year, currently sporting an 8.86 ERA, but was plenty effective for the M’s in the two prior seasons.
This won’t impact the Mariners in the short term as they were already operating without Ray, but this will have a huge impact on their long-term plans now that a return of Ray later in the year is off the table. They have depth options on the 40-man such as Darren McCaughan, José Rodríguez and Easton McGee, but Divish relays word from manager Scott Servais that the club is re-evaluating their pitching depth in the wake of this news. The last time they needed a spot start, veteran journeyman Tommy Milone was given the nod.
Finding external pitching options at this time of the year can be tough as most teams are dealing with injuries of their own and few have decided to press the sell button so early. The free agents that are unsigned are usually still available because they haven’t been effective in a while. That’s certainly the case for Madison Bumgarner, who was just released by the Diamondbacks today, joining pitchers like Dallas Keuchel and Chris Archer on the open market.
The Mariners are currently 11-12 and in fourth place in the American League West, though they are by no means buried with just 2.5 games separating them and the division-leading Rangers. There’s still plenty of time for them to gain ground, but they will now have to do so without any contributions from their player making the highest salary this year.