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Brewers To Place Freddy Peralta On Injured List Due To Shoulder Tightness

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Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta had to leave today’s game in the fourth inning due to right shoulder tightness.  Manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Andrew Wagner) will be placed on the injured list, and an MRI will reveal more about Peralta’s condition tomorrow.

Something was clearly off with Peralta all game, as he allowed five runs on six hits over his three-plus innings of work in today’s 8-2 Brewers loss to the Nationals.  Only two of those runs came in Peralta’s first three frames, but after allowing hits to the first three batters faced in the fourth inning, Peralta left the game after a mound visit from the team trainer.

Peralta also missed about two weeks late last season with inflammation in that same shoulder.  That IL visit was pretty much the only blemish in an otherwise terrific year for the righty, as Peralta posted a 2.81 ERA, 33.6% strikeout rate, and 9.7% walk rate over 144 1/3 innings.  This earned Peralta his first All-Star appearance, and also cemented his spot in Milwaukee’s rotation after working mostly as a part-time starter or swingman role in his first three Major League seasons.

The Brewers will undoubtedly miss Peralta while he recovers, especially since the club is set to play 15 games over the next 14 days.  However, the Brew Crew are one of the few teams with a deep enough rotation to potentially withstand the loss, as Aaron Ashby is on hand to fill Peralta’s spot in the starting five.  Counsell confirmed that the team would stay with a five-man rotation, so a spot starter will be required at some point over this busy stretch of the schedule (probably when the Brewers face the Cubs in a doubleheader on May 30).

Mariners Sign Justin Upton

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TODAY: Upton’s deal contains a 10-team no-trade clause, Bob Nightengale reports.  Upton has had partial or full no-trade protection in all three of his major multi-year contracts (with the D’Backs, Tigers, and Angels), and he’ll retain some measure of control over his future should the Mariners look to flip him before the trade deadline.

MAY 21: The Mariners have signed outfielder Justin Upton to a one-year, Major League contract.  The club has officially announced the move, and in a corresponding transaction designated righty Adrian Sampson for assignment to clear roster space.  Upton will report to the Mariners’ extended Spring Training camp in order to ramp up for his eventual debut with the team.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports (Twitter link) was the first to announce the Upton signing, and noted that Upton will earn around $550K on the deal, or the prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary.  The M’s will cover the $550K, while the Angels will still owe Upton the remainder of his original $28MM salary for the 2022 season.

The Angels released Upton just before the season began, ending the outfielder’s four-plus year run in Los Angeles.  Originally acquired from the Tigers in August 2017, Upton was already under contract through the 2021 season but held an opt-out clause, and agreed to forego that clause when the Halos tacked another year onto his deal.  The extension added $17.5MM in new money to Upton’s contract and locked up through the 2022 campaign.

Unfortunately, it was a deal the Angels came to regret, after Upton struggled during the 2019-21 seasons.  Due to both injuries and a simple lack of production, Upton has hit .211/.299/.414 with 38 home runs over 784 plate appearances in the last three seasons.  Between this lack of hitting and declining glovework in left field, Upton has been almost exactly a replacement-level player, generating only 0.1 fWAR since the start of the 2019 season.

In his prime, of course, Upton was an outstanding player, with a resume that includes four All-Star appearances, 324 career homers, and a .262/.343/.471 slash line over 7592 PA with five different organizations.  Selected by the Diamondbacks with the first overall pick of the 2005 draft, Upton is a very familiar face to Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, who worked in Arizona’s front office during Upton’s time with the club.

For the minimal cost, there isn’t much risk for Dipoto and the Mariners in seeing if Upton still has anything left at age 34.  With Mitch Haniger on the injured list until around July, Jarred Kelenic demoted to the minors, and Kyle Lewis still working his way back from injury, the M’s have a need for outfield depth.  Jesse Winker and rookie phenom Julio Rodriguez have two of the spots spoken for, with Adam Frazier, Dylan Moore, and Steven Souza Jr. all recently seeing starts on the grass since Haniger was lost to the IL.

Sampson was only claimed off waivers from the Cubs earlier this week, and now might be moving on from Seattle without a single appearance in either the minors or majors.  The swingman’s 2022 resume thus far consists of a single MLB inning with the Cubs and 19 2/3 innings with Triple-A Iowa.  The Washington native did break into the majors with his home state Mariners back in 2016, marking the first of Sampson’s five Major League seasons — the righty has a 5.13 ERA over 189 1/3 innings, with 125 1/3 of those frames coming with the Rangers in 2019.

Chad Green To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters, including Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, that Chad Green will undergo Tommy John surgery.

The news is not surprising but is nonetheless disappointing. Green left Thursday’s game with forearm discomfort, with Boone relaying that the injury was feared to be significant. The club initially held off on making any declarative statements, though it seemed like a notable surgical procedure was on the table as they collected further medical opinions. Now, unfortunately, the severity of the situation has been agreed upon, with Green headed for the surgery that should keep him out of action for the next 12-18 months.

This is the second blow to the Yankees’ pitching staff in recent days, as it was announced yesterday that Luis Gil is also going under the knife for Tommy John. The club has had remarkable pitching health on the year overall, with their rotation front five of Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon, Luis Severino and Nestor Cortes Jr. making every start for the team, except for a single spot start from Gil. However, these two surgeries are still notable, taking out the club’s sixth starter and a key member of the relief corps.

Green has somewhat quietly been one of the most effective and durable relievers in the game over the past few years, having not been on the IL since 2016, until this week. His 326 relief innings pitched from 2016 to the present are bested by only 21 other pitchers in the league. He hasn’t just been taking mop-up duty either, as he has a 2.79 ERA out of the bullpen in his career, with a 32.8% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate, racking up 11 saves and 52 holds.

It’s also very unfortunate for Green personally, as he is set to reach free agency at season’s end. After years of being healthy and productive, suffering a serious injury just months before heading into the open market is incredibly unlucky timing, to state the obvious. He will now head into free agency with teams knowing he won’t be available until the middle of the 2023 campaign, at the earliest. It’s possible he will still garner interest on a back-loaded or incentive-laden contract, such as those recently signed by Ken Giles, Kirby Yates or Tommy Kahnle., who were also working their way back from Tommy John when their contracts were signed.

Orioles Promote Adley Rutschman

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The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of top prospect Adley Rutschman. Anthony Bemboom has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Of course, this is a day that baseball fans in Baltimore and elsewhere have been looking forward to for quite some time. Even before he was a member of the Orioles organization, Rutschman was tantalizing the baseball world with his performance at Oregon State, shooting up draft boards and considered by many to be the top player available in the 2019 draft. Baseball America, for instance, gave him the #1 slot that year, with their report noting that the switch-hitting catcher had essentially every skill necessary to succeed going forward. Hitting for average, hitting for power, taking walks, strong arm, good receiving and blocking, he had all the tools except speed, which is hardly surprising for a catcher. “He is the best catching prospect since Buster Posey in 2008 and Matt Wieters in 2007,” their report concluded.

Although there were reports that the O’s were considering other players with the first overall selection in the 2019 draft, such as Bobby Witt Jr., Andrew Vaughn and JJ Bleday, it never seemed like there was much chance of anyone usurping Rutschman. When the big day finally rolled around, Rutschman was indeed the first player off the board.

Due to the struggles of the big league club, Rutschman instantly became the light at the end of the tunnel for Baltimore fans. The Orioles finished last in the AL East in both 2017 and 2018, and were in the process of repeating that feat when Rutschman was drafted in 2019. They somehow slipped past the Red Sox and into fourth place in the shortened 2020 season, but were back down in the basement in 2021, and also posted the worst record in baseball again (tied with the Diamondbacks). That means they have the first overall selection in the draft yet again this summer. With nothing inspiring happening at the big league level, all hopes were pinned on the stars in the farm system that would make up the next great Orioles team, with Rutschman being front and center.

Baseball America ranked Rutschman the fifth-best prospect in all of baseball in 2021, then bumping him up to #2 last year and #1 this year. He’s also considered the best prospect in baseball by FanGraphs, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniels, and The Athletic’s Keith Law.

It’s been an atypical rise through the minors for the 24-year-old. It started out normal enough, with Rutschman getting into 37 games in the lower levels of the Orioles’ system in the months after the draft. But the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020, meaning he wasn’t able to play in any official organized games. But that missed season didn’t slow him down any, as his 2021 proved the hype was for real. In 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit 23 home runs and produced an overall batting line of .285/.397/.502, walking at a 14.5% rate and striking out only 16.6% of the time. That all adds up to a wRC+ of 144, or 44% better than league average.

The Orioles did little to block his path to the big leagues this offseason. The catchers who got playing time behind the plate in 2021 were all jettisoned from the roster. Pedro Severino, Austin Wynns and Nick Ciuffo were all outrighted at season’s end and Chance Sisco was claimed off waivers by the Mets. There was a time in the offseason that the club actually had no catchers on the 40-man roster, although they eventually signed Robinson Chirinos to be in the mix.

Once the new collective bargaining agreement was agreed to and the lockout ended in March, it seemed there was a chance Rutschman could crack the Opening Day roster. The new CBA featured incentives to try and discourage teams from holding their best prospects down in the minors at the beginning of a season in order to manipulate their service time and gain an extra year of control over their services. Unfortunately, Rutschman suffered a triceps strain in mid-March that put him on the shelf for a few weeks, ending any chance of him being ready for the season opener. After recuperating from that injury, he made his 2022 debut in the minors on April 26 and has spent the past four weeks getting back into game shape. In 19 games this year across three different levels, he’s hitting .309/.427/.515, 159 wRC+, walking in 13.4% of his plate appearances while striking out in just 8.5% of them.

There are about 137 days remaining in the season, meaning he will be unable to accrue the 172 days necessary to count as a full year. There is a provision in the new CBA that grants a full year of service time to the top two finishers in Rookie of the Year voting, though it will be difficult for Rutschman to take that path now, given that his competitors in that race have a six-week headstart on him. Jeremy Pena has already produced 1.8 fWAR, while other prominent rookies like Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodriguez have 0.8 fWAR during their first MLB seasons.

Assuming Rutschman isn’t able to catch up and finishes this season with less than a year of service time, the O’s will control his services through the 2028 season, though he does have a very good shot at qualifying for arbitration after the 2024 season as a Super Two player. (The Super Two cutoff moves from year to year but has only been above 2.137 three times since 2009, with the last instance coming back in 2012.) Now that he’s reached the big time, the club will be hoping that he and the other prospects that are still to come will help the Orioles start turning the page from rebuilding to competing over those coming years.

With Rutschman injured to start the year, the club selected Bemboom’s contract, pairing him with Chirinos as the club’s catching duo. In 22 games on the year, he’s hit a meager .115/.207/.212. Since he’s out of options, the club had little choice but to designate him for assignment in order to make room for their star prospect. Bemboom will likely hit the waiver wire in the coming days and see if there’s another club in the league that’s interested in his services.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Luis Gil To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Yankees manager Aaron Boone announced to reporters, including Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, that right-hander Luis Gil will undergo Tommy John surgery. The procedure is set to take place this Tuesday, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

This is obviously very disappointing news for both Gil and the team. For Gil personally, the 23-year-old was starting to make his way into the Yankees’ plans, making six starts last year and one this year. Last year, he fared very well over those starts for the club, logging a 3.07 ERA with a 29.5% strikeout rate, though a concerning 14.7% walk rate. Still, for a depth starter, that’s more than acceptable. He’d been struggling so far this year, with a 7.89 ERA over six Triple-A starts, though he was still racking up strikeouts at a 30.1% pace.

Gil is in his final option year, meaning he will be out of options next year. Therefore, once he’s made his way back from this surgery, he won’t be able to be sent to the minors without first being exposed to waivers. Gil was in the minors when injured and won’t accrue service time while rehabbing from the injury. However, he will still occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Should the Yankees have need to add someone else to the roster in the future, they could open up a spot by moving Gil to the MLB 60-day injured list. However, doing so would entitle Gil to MLB pay and service time for the remainder of the year. He came into this season with 33 days of service time and added just a single day to that when making a spot start earlier this year.

For the team, they are now without their sixth starter. They have enjoyed remarkable health with the front five members of their rotation, as Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery, Nestor Cortes Jr., Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino have made all of the club’s starts, outside of that single spot start from Gil. An entire rotation staying healthy for a full season is essentially unheard of, meaning the Yanks will surely need to use another depth starter at some point. Even if they are remarkably healthy, the schedule will occasionally require a fresh arm. For instance, last night’s game was postponed and will be made up as part of a doubleheader tomorrow. That means the Yankees are going to be playing ten games in the next nine days. Assuming the club doesn’t want to have any of their front five pitching on short rest at this stage of the season, they will need a spot start from somewhere.

Other options on the 40-man roster include Deivi Garcia, JP Sears and Luis Medina. Medina is unlikely to get serious consideration, as he’s in Double-A and has an ERA of 5.00 at the moment, having walked 17.9% of batters faced on the year so far. Garcia has eight MLB starts under his belt from 2020 and 2021, but has a whopping 9.17 ERA in Triple-A this year, with his strikeouts down to 16.5% and his walks up to 15.4%. Sears could be a legitimate option, with his 0.53 ERA in Triple-A so far, though in a small sample of just 17 innings. Looking to the active roster, Clarke Schmidt could perhaps transition from the bullpen to the rotation. He’s been working as a long man this year, logging 11 innings in five appearances with a 0.82 ERA.

Carter Kieboom To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Nationals infielder Carter Kieboom will miss the entire 2022 season, as he’ll undergo Tommy John surgery next week, manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). The 24-year-old has been on the 60-day injured list since Spring Training because of a UCL sprain in his throwing elbow.

It’ll be a lost critical development year for Kieboom. A former first-round pick, the righty-hitting infielder later developed into one of the sport’s top prospects. He reached the big leagues late in 2019, his age-21 season. The following winter, Baseball America ranked the Georgia native as the most promising player in the Washington farm system and named him the #15 prospect league-wide. The hope was that he’d cement himself as the third baseman of the future after Anthony Rendon departed in free agency, but he’s not yet staked a claim to that job.

Kieboom didn’t hit for any power in 33 games in 2020, finishing the shortened season with a modest .202/.344/.212 slash line. His 13.9% walk rate was strong and reinforced a patient plate approach, but the lack of results on batted balls was jarring. That more or less continued over a larger body of work last year, as he posted a .207/.301/.318 line with six home runs through 249 trips to the dish. Kieboom again drew a fair share of free passes, but he also saw his swinging strike rate jump and posted well below-average exit velocities.

The Nationals’ summer sell-off and retooling year afforded a perfect opportunity to give Kieboom everyday run at the hot corner this season. Washington presumably won’t embrace a multi-year stepback with Juan Soto only controllable through 2024, but the Nats were clearly not positioned to compete this year. Giving 600 plate appearances to a talented but unproven player like Kieboom makes sense for a team in their position, and he’d have probably been the primary third baseman if healthy.

The injury will deprive him of that chance, and it remains to be seen if the Nationals can afford to be so patient in 2023. They’ll presumably be more aggressive in trying to compete next season, and bringing in a more proven option at the hot corner seems plausible. Kieboom, who will collect a full year of MLB pay and service time while recovering, is controllable through 2026 and won’t be arbitration-eligible until the end of next season. The Nationals are hopeful he can be ready for Spring Training.

Cardinals To Promote Nolan Gorman, Matthew Liberatore; Tyler O’Neill To IL

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There’s a momentous roster shakeup in St. Louis, as the Cardinals are set to welcome two of the game’s top prospects to the big leagues in the coming days. As first reported by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter links), the team has promoted both Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore for this weekend’s series against the Pirates. Katie Woo of the Athletic tweets that outfielder Tyler O’Neill is headed to the 10-day injured list because of a right shoulder impingement in one corresponding roster move.

According to Goold, Gorman will be in tomorrow’s starting lineup at second base. That figures to be his primary role moving forward, with Gold Glove second baseman Tommy Edman kicked to the other side of the bag. Edman has been excellent this season, but the Cards haven’t gotten much production out of their shortstops. Paul DeJong struggled enough the team optioned him to Triple-A Memphis last week, seemingly setting the stage for a forthcoming Gorman promotion.

That’s not to say the Cardinals hastily promoted Gorman to compensate for struggles at the major league level — far from it. The left-handed hitter has forced his way to the majors with an incredible showing in Memphis. Over 147 plate appearances, he’s hitting .308/.367/.677 with an astounding 15 home runs. No other Triple-A batter has more than 13 round-trippers, and only the Cubs’ Robel García has a higher slugging percentage in the International League.

Gorman’s production hasn’t been completely without issue, as he’s gone down on strikes 50 times. That’s a 34% clip, an alarming rate for any minor leaguer considering the higher quality of pitching he’ll face in the majors. Ultimately, however, Gorman’s power production became too much for the St. Louis front office to ignore.

It has been a long-awaited debut for Cardinals fans, who have anticipated Gorman’s arrival since he was selected with the 19th pick in the 2018 draft out of an Arizona high school. Regarded as a power-hitting third baseman as an amateur, he has more or less met those expectations while in the minors. Gorman has consistently posted huge extra-base numbers while running elevated strikeout totals. Prospect evaluators have raised some concerns about the amount of swing-and-miss in his game, but they’ve been unanimously effusive in their praise of his power upside.

Each of FanGraphs, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, Keith Law of the Athletic and Baseball America slotted Gorman among the game’s top 60 prospects this past offseason. (Law and McDaniel both placed him among their top 20). That was before this season’s home run barrage, which only figures to have raised the 22-year-old’s profile even further. Gorman has kicked over to the keystone in the minors with Nolan Arenado entrenched at third base. He’s not regarded as an elite defender and will certainly be a downgrade from Edman there, but the hope is that his offensive capabilities will more than compensate for any issues on the other side of the ball.

Not to be outshined, Gorman’s draft mate will make his major league debut one day later. Liberatore is lined up to start Saturday’s game against the Bucs, manager Oliver Marmol confirmed to reporters (Woo link). The skipper said it’s still to be determined whether there’ll be more than one spot start for the 22-year-old southpaw. Regardless, that Liberatore is now lined up to pitch in the majors suggests he’s firmly on the organizational rotation depth chart.

Liberatore was coincidentally also a first-round draftee out of a Phoenix-area high school the same year as Gorman, and the two have been friends since childhood. Seen as one of the top prep arms in that year’s class, he fell to the Rays at 16th overall because of concerns about his signing bonus — which ultimately checked in just shy of $3.5MM. While Liberatore’s fastball sat in the low-90s, he drew praise for his secondary offerings, particularly a curveball that evaluators consider his best pitch. He pitched well for his first season-plus in the lower levels of the Tampa Bay farm system, then was involved in a January 2020 blockbuster that sent Randy Arozarena back to Tampa Bay.

The cancelation of the 2020 minor league season kept Liberatore from making his official Cardinals debut until last year. The organization pushed him straight to Memphis for his age-21 campaign and he held his own, tossing 124 2/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball with a solid 23.7% strikeout rate and an excellent 6.3% walk percentage. St. Louis assigned him back there to open this season, and he’s made strides from a swing-and-miss perspective. Liberatore’s ERA and walk rate are right in line with his 2021 marks, but he’s improved his strikeout rate by almost five points through his first seven starts.

Liberatore is also regarded by most evaluators as one of the top 100 minor league talents. He’s not seen as a future ace, but between his excellent control and well-rounded arsenal, he’s unanimously viewed as a possible rotation stalwart. Whether the Cardinals plug him into that role immediately isn’t clear, but it seems likely he’ll be taking the ball every fifth day in St. Louis before long.

Neither Gorman nor Liberatore will accrue enough major league service time this year to reach the one-year threshold. Even if both players are in the majors for good, neither will be eligible for free agency until after the 2028 campaign at the earliest. Both players are in good position to reach early arbitration as Super Two qualifiers after the 2024 season, although that’s contingent on sticking in the big leagues from here on out. In Liberatore’s case, in particular, it seems future optional assignments are still a possibility.

The Cards have Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Dakota Hudson, Miles Mikolas and Jordan Hicks as their primary starting five at the moment. Wainwright and Mikolas have been excellent. Matz has struggled but isn’t going to be bumped from the rotation two months into a four-year contract. Hudson doesn’t have great strikeout and walk marks, but he’s riding his typically elite ground-ball production to decent results. That’s more or less also true of Hicks, who has lengthened out into the rotation after a few years as a high-leverage bullpen arm.

Of course, St. Louis has been without arguably their best pitcher for the entire season. Jack Flaherty hasn’t thrown a pitch because of a shoulder issue that required a platelet-rich plasma injection. He’s been on the 10-day injured list all year, and the club announced that he’s been transferred to the 60-day IL to clear space for Gorman on the 40-man roster.

That’s merely a procedural move that keeps Flaherty out for two months from Opening Day. The 26-year-old has yet to embark on a minor league rehab assignment and surely wouldn’t have been ready to make an MLB return before the first week of June anyhow. Flaherty has recently progressed to throwing bullpen sessions, so it seems reasonable he could head out into minor league games within a few weeks.

The club will also need to create a spot on the 40-man roster for Liberatore, with that transaction set to occur before Saturday’s contest. Aside from Flaherty, St. Louis doesn’t have any obvious candidates for a 60-day IL transfer, so it seems likely someone will be designated for assignment within the next two days.

The only disappointing aspect of today’s news is that O’Neill is headed to the IL. He’s missed the past couple days battling the shoulder discomfort that will now cost him at least a week and a half. The team hasn’t provided an indication whether he’s facing an absence longer than the minimal stint.

So continues a rough start to the year for O’Neill, who is just a season removed from an eighth-place finish in NL MVP voting. The 26-year-old has hit just .195/.256/.297 with a pair of home runs across 133 plate appearances, nowhere near the 34-homer output he put forth last season. O’Neill, who also lost his arbitration hearing last week, will try to get back on track whenever he’s healthy enough to make his return.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Max Scherzer Likely Out Six To Eight Weeks Due To Oblique Strain

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The results of Max Scherzer’s MRI are in, and the news isn’t great for the Mets. The team announced Thursday that Scherzer has suffered a “moderate to high grade internal oblique strain” and is expected to miss six to eight weeks. He’ll be placed on the injured list alongside co-ace Jacob deGrom (stress reaction in his scapula) and right-hander Tylor Megill (biceps inflammation).

It’s a brutal blow for the Mets, who sit at 25-14 and currently hold a six-game lead over the second-place Phillies in the National League East. Scherzer sustained the injury last night when throwing a slider to Albert Pujols, telling reporters after the game that he’d been experienced some tightness before feeling a “zing” down his side on the final pitch to Pujols. The three-time Cy Young winner immediately called for the training staff and could be seen plainly stating, “I’m done” when the staff reached the mound.

The Mets shattered precedent to get Scherzer into Queens, signing the 37-year-old righty to a three-year deal worth $130MM and giving him the highest annual salary in baseball history in doing so ($43.33MM). Owner Steve Cohen and first-year general manager Billy Eppler surely had visions of the game’s most formidable one-two punch at the time, dreaming of a playoff rotation fronted by Scherzer and deGrom.

It’s possible that duo could yet lead the Mets’ staff in the postseason, but deGrom hasn’t pitched yet in 2022 thanks to that shoulder injury. The team announced earlier this week that his latest MRI revealed “continued healing” but did not provide a timetable for his return. It’s now possible that the Mets won’t have that vaunted duo healthy and on the same roster until after the All-Star break, depending on Scherzer’s recovery.

Even in the absence of Scherzer, deGrom and Megill — whose injury should be downplayed, given the strength of his early performance — the Mets still have a solid starting staff on paper. Chris Bassitt and Carlos Carrasco have been outstanding early in the season, and the Mets have gotten quality work from Taijuan Walker and (in more limited opportunities) lefty David Peterson, too. It’s likely that Williams and Peterson will be the choices to follow the trio of Bassitt, Carrasco and Walker while the Mets navigate this latest batch of injuries.

While that’s a solid group, it obviously pales in comparison to a full-strength contingent of Mets starters. And, more concerning, the depth beyond the current quintet begins to look more questionable. Veteran left-hander Mike Montgomery is pitching with the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate but has been tagged for a 5.52 ERA through seven starts. Twenty-five-year-old Thomas Szapucki has been sharp through six Triple-A starts but has totaled just 21 innings in those outings. Righty Jordan Yamamoto has been a depth option for the Mets in the past, but he was removed from the 40-man roster earlier this season and only just made his minor league debut — 1 2/3 shaky innings in High-A — after missing time on the minor league injured list. Former Angels righty Felix Pena was brought in on a minor league deal, but like Montgomery, he’s struggled in Triple-A.

Given the manner in which injuries have already cut into the team’s depth, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Mets poke around the market for some depth options. Major trades this time of year are uncommon but not unheard of. Otherwise, the Mets could turn to some recently DFA’ed arms (e.g. Jharel Cotton) or veterans who’ve recently opted for minor league free agency (e.g. Drew Hutchison, Carlos Martinez) in an effort to at least stockpile some experienced options in the upper minors.

Chris Paddack Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Twins starter Chris Paddack underwent Tommy John surgery today, the team informed reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press). It’s the second such procedure of his career, as he previously went under the knife as a Padres prospect back in 2016.

It’s obviously a disappointing development for both pitcher and team. Minnesota just acquired Paddack on the eve of Opening Day, relinquishing closer Taylor Rogers and corner outfielder Brent Rooker to secure three years of his services (as well as reliever Emilio Pagán). The hope was that Paddack would add some depth to a rotation that had its fair share of injury concerns, but his first season in Minnesota comes to a close after five outings.

Paddack presented something of a health red flag himself, however. In addition to his prior Tommy John surgery, the righty landed on the injured list late last September due to inflammation in his throwing elbow. That proved a season-ending issue, but Paddack returned to open this year. He left his May 8 start because of renewed elbow inflammation, and reports thereafter suggested surgery might prove necessary.

The 26-year-old Paddack has proven enigmatic from both a health and performance perspective. He was lights-out as a rookie, tossing 140 2/3 innings of 3.33 ERA ball in 2019. His production ticked downwards in both of the following seasons, as his ERA jumped north of 4.70 in both years while he struggled to keep the ball in the park. The Friars continued to stockpile starting pitching talent over that time, and Paddack fell outside the top five or six arms on the rotation depth chart.

San Diego explored multiple possible Paddack deals in Spring Training. He and Pagán were involved in talks with the Mets that might’ve offloaded some of Eric Hosmer’s contract to New York while sending Dominic Smith to Southern California. Mets’ brass eventually pulled out of that possible deal, and San Diego pivoted to talks with Minnesota instead.

From a performance perspective, Paddack had shown signs of turning the corner in his early run in the Twin Cities. He posted a 4.03 ERA across 22 1/3 innings, striking out 21.5% of opponents while walking just two of the 93 hitters he faced. The Texas native saw slight dips in his fastball velocity and swinging strike rate, but neither seemed especially alarming until he was pulled mid-start with the elbow concern.

Paddack is making $2.25MM this season, and he’ll be eligible for arbitration twice more. With his limited innings total, he’ll only accrue a marginal raise on that salary for 2023. He’ll certainly miss the bulk of the 2023 campaign as well, so his final arbitration raise will probably also be muted. It’s unfortunate timing for Paddack, but that affordability probably means the Twins will tender him a contract with an eye towards the end of next season and the 2024 campaign.

In the meantime, Minnesota will have to make due with their other starting pitching options. Joe Ryan and Chris Archer are the only two who have taken all seven turns through the rotation. Dylan Bundy missed some time with COVID-19, but both he and Sonny Gray — who had a brief IL stint for a hamstring strain — are back. Bailey Ober shouldn’t be far behind after making a rehab start with Triple-A St. Paul over the weekend, and well-regarded prospect Josh Winder has produced in a swing role.

That’s likely to be the primary group, although there’s a fair bit of performance and injury uncertainty with the veteran options at the back end. Kenta Maeda is hoping to make a late-season return from his own Tommy John surgery, which he underwent last September. Still, rotation help looked to be a possible midseason target for the division-leading Twins even if everyone were healthy. Paddack’s loss only figures to spur that pursuit as we move nearer to the trade deadline.

Brandon Lowe Diagnosed With Stress Reaction, Shut Down For At Least Three Weeks

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The Rays announced Tuesday that second baseman Brandon Lowe, who went on the injured list due to lower back discomfort yesterday, has now been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his back. He’ll be shut down from all baseball activity for the next three weeks before he’s reevaluated. Even in a best-case scenario that sees him cleared at the three-week mark, Lowe would surely require a rehab stint after a shutdown of that length. That means he’s likely to be sidelined a month at the very least, with the obvious possibility of an even lengthier absence than that.

It’s a tough blow for the Rays, given Lowe’s track record as one of their better all-around performers in recent years. He’s gotten out to a slow start in 2022, though he’s still delivered some extra-base pop, evidenced by his five homers, five doubles and two triples. He’d seemingly turned the corner in May, too, slashing a huge .282/.378/.615 with seven extra-base hits over his past 11 games.

If there’s a silver lining for the Rays, it’s that they’re deep in middle-infield options. Top prospect Vidal Brujan could certainly see an uptick in playing time if Lowe is to miss considerable time, and the Rays also have Taylor Walls and spring trade acquisition Isaac Paredes as alternate options on the big league roster. Down in Triple-A, Ford Proctor and Jonathan Aranda both have experience at second base and are on the 40-man roster, although second base is neither player’s primary position.

The most straightforward course of action would be to install Brujan as the primary second baseman in Lowe’s stead. He’s long ranked among the game’s best minor leaguers, ranking among the top 100 prospects at Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com, FanGraphs and other outlets dating back to the 2018-19 offseason. He’s had a slow start in the big leagues this year but has received only 21 plate appearances without a regular role in the lineup. The 24-year-old switch-hitter was batting .300./400/.467 in 70 Triple-A plate appearances and is generally lauded for a combination of his plus-plus speed, plus hit tool and above-average defense.

Even if Brujan picks up the pace and produces as the team has long hoped, they’ll still hope for as quick a return as possible for Lowe, who slugged a career-best 39 home runs for Tampa Bay just last season. The second-place Rays are currently five and a half games behind the division-leading Yankees. Lowe is being paid $4MM this year while playing out the fourth season of a six-year, $24MM contract extension that spans the 2019-24 seasons. The Rays also hold a $10.5MM club option for the 2025 season and an $11.5MM option for the 2026 season.

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