Yankees Grant Gio Gonzalez His Release
The Yankees announced that veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez was not added to the team’s 40-man roster after exercising his opt-out clause over the weekend. The team had 48 hours to add Gonzalez to the roster once he triggered that clause, but he was instead allowed to become a free agent and is now able to sign with any club.
Bringing Gonzalez to the Majors would’ve been a fairly expensive bit of speculation for the Yankees, as the southpaw’s contract contained a $3MM base salary and called for him to earn an additional $300K per start made. With the decision to move on from Gonzalez, the Yankees will rely on James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ, CC Sabathia and Domingo German while awaiting the return of top starter Luis Severino, who is recovering from a lat strain.
Gonzalez, 33, made three starts with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton before opting out of his contract. Although he was shelled in the season opener (eight runs in four innings), the veteran rebounded with a pair of excellent outings, yielding a combined two runs with an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio in 11 innings. He threw 93 pitches in the most recent of those outings (April 14), so Gonzalez is plenty stretched out and could even be ready to join a big league staff in short order. He was slated to make a fourth appearance over the weekend but had that start rained out.
While Gonzalez found a tepid market for much of the offseason (to put things mildly), he should have no shortage of interested clubs this time around. Many teams have seen their rotation struggle early in the season, with some losing key arms for much (or all) of the season and others having to send younger rotation hopefuls back to the minors. The Brewers, Angels, Mets, Red Sox, Cardinals, Phillies, Athletics, Indians and Twins have all endured varying levels of disappointment from their starting rotations and could conceivably look to the durable Gonzalez as an alternative option.
While the 2018 season certainly wasn’t one of Gonzalez’s best, he topped 170 innings and 30 starts for the eighth time in the past nine seasons, working to a 4.21 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 along the way. Gonzalez has averaged 31 starts per season dating back to 2010 and hasn’t made fewer than 27 appearances in a given season since that time. As recently as 2017, he notched a 2.96 ERA in 201 innings of work, though he did lead the National League in walks that season. Nevertheless, Gonzalez has regularly been an average or better starter in the Majors for the past decade; that strong track record made it nothing short of bewildering to onlookers that he faced such a seemingly minimal market, but he’ll now venture into free agency for a second time with new representation as he looks to find a quick path back to the Major Leagues.
Matt Shoemaker Has Torn ACL, Will Miss Remainder Of Season
Matt Shoemaker has a torn left ACL that will keep him out of action for the rest of the 2019 season, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The Blue Jays right-hander was placed on the 10-day IL earlier today after suffering the injury during Saturday’s game. What was initially thought to be a knee sprain is evidently much worse than expected, and Shoemaker finds himself on the shelf in what seems to be the worst-case scenario.
The diagnosis comes as the latest in a frustrating set of seasons for Shoemaker, who managed just 21 starts in his final two seasons with the Angels. After he was unable to replicate the success that he enjoyed in 2014, his first full Major League season, the 32-year-old signed on with the Blue Jays last winter on a one-year deal, hoping that a change of scenery would coincide with a return to strength and a comeback season.
The news is that much more devastating when considered in context with Shoemaker’s extensive injury history and his early-season success with his new club. Through his first five starts of the young season, Shoemaker impressed his new organization and looked in position to make good on that return to form. His 1.57 ERA was accompanied by impressive peripheral numbers, with his 0.9 HR/9 on par with his best seasons. Unfortunately, though, 2019 will go down as another lost season for the veteran righty.
Of course, the injury is equally disappointing for the Blue Jays, who looked to Shoemaker to provide stability in a rotation that was one of the weakest in the American League last season. Entering the season, there were plenty of questions in the rotation, with Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez both enduring disappointing seasons in 2018 and free-agent signee Clay Buchholz a relative unknown. The depth beyond that group of veterans is comprised of unproven young pitchers, one of whom will now have to step into the rotation in Shoemaker’s absence. Thomas Pannone and Sam Gaviglio, who started 24 games for Toronto in 2018, appear most likely to replace Shoemaker.
Though his contract will expire at season’s end, Shoemaker is still eligible for arbitration, so the Blue Jays will have priority to keep the hurler around for next season if both parties are interested, though his contractual status is surely the last thing on Shoemaker’s mind following his injury.
Yankees Place Aaron Judge On Injured List
TODAY: The Yankees have officially recalled Estrada and placed Judge on the IL with a left oblique strain, as per a team announcement. Manager Aaron Boone described Judge’s injury as “pretty significant” in comments to reporters (including Jack Curry of the YES Network), and said the outfielder would be re-evaluated in two weeks, though no specific timetable was given on when Judge could return.
SATURDAY, 5:38pm: The Yankees expect to recall infielder Thairo Estrada to replace Judge on their 25-man roster, per a team announcement.
5:08pm: An already packed, talent-rich Yankees injured list is on the verge of adding another household name. Superstar right fielder Aaron Judge left Saturday’s win over the Royals with an oblique injury and is likely heading to the 10-day IL, manager Aaron Boone told Sarah Langs of MLB.com and other reporters. Judge will go for an MRI in the meantime.
Judge’s impending IL placement continues an absurd early run of injuries for the Yankees, who, at 10-10, have tread water sans a slew of cornerstones. They’ve been without fellow starting outfielders Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton for all or most of the year, while catcher Gary Sanchez, third baseman Miguel Andujar, ace Luis Severino, setup man Dellin Betances, and shortstops Didi Gregorius and Troy Tulowitzki are also among the walking wounded. The only players nearing returns in that group are Stanton and Sanchez, who, like Judge, rank among the Yankees’ premier power threats.
As far as position players go, no one is of greater importance to the Yankees than the hulking Judge, one of the game’s foremost producers since he burst on the scene in 2017. Dating back to his transcendent rookie season, Judge ranks third in the majors in wRC+ (161) and fifth in both fWAR (14.1) and home runs (83). Factoring in Saturday, when he picked up a homer and a single, Judge is off to a dazzling .288/.404/.521 start (150 wRC+) with five HRs in 89 plate appearances.
Should Judge miss significant time, as is often the case with oblique issues, it will be the second straight year in which an injury has shelved him for a long period. Judge missed all of August and half of September last season after suffering a chip fracture in his right wrist, which also came against the Royals. By then, though, the Yankees had all but sewn up a playoff spot, making his absence easier to handle. They’re now left to hope he makes it back in short order; otherwise, Stanton’s forthcoming return will become all the more timely.
Stanton aside, the Yankees will need reserve outfielders Brett Gardner, Clint Frazier and Mike Tauchman to continue offering the solid to great production they’ve posted this season. Tyler Wade replaced Judge in right on Saturday, though he hasn’t hit at all in 157 major league PA. Meanwhile, the Yankees’ 40-man roster doesn’t include any other healthy outfield options, and their most experienced veteran in Triple-A Scranton, Billy Burns, hasn’t produced in either the majors or the minors since a respectable rookie season with the Athletics in 2015.
Nathan Eovaldi To Undergo Elbow Surgery
MONDAY: Eovaldi will go under the knife tomorrow, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports via Twitter. The club anticipates that the righty will be sidelined for four to six weeks, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets.
SATURDAY, 4:27pm: Eovaldi is indeed “leaning” toward minor elbow surgery to clean up loose bodies, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe.
10:37am:Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a loose body in his elbow, per MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. Bobby Poyner will take Eovaldi’s roster spot (Twitter links). The move is retroactive to April 18th.
This is not a new injury for Eovaldi, as just last season he had arthroscopic surgery to remove a similar loose body, causing him to miss roughly two months of the season. Obviously, Eovaldi recovered just fine, but the injury is still a blow to the defending champs as they have yet to play up to the level of expectations thus far in 2019. There has been no indication as to whether or not this current IL stint will require surgery. NBC Sports Boston’s Evan Drellich posted this report from November which gave Eovaldi a clean bill of health, though of course, Eovaldi has put a few more miles on the elbow since then.
The injury hits after just four starts this season in which Eovaldi did not record a decision, totaling 21 innings with an even 6.00 ERA. It was certainly a rough start as his walk rate was up (4.71 BB/9), strikeout rate was down (6.86 K/9), and he surrendered 2.57 home runs per game on a 25% HR/FB rate. Those numbers were bound to normalize at least somewhat over time, though obviously this new injury revelation might speak to his early season struggles as well.
Poyner, 26, will join the team as a left-handed option out of the bullpen for the time being. He went 1-0 with a 3.22 ERA across 20 appearances out of the Red Sox pen last season with an impressive 9.7 K/9 to 1.2 BB/9 in the admittedly small sample.
Gio Gonzalez Opts Out Of Yankees Deal
2:07pm: Gonzalez will opt-out, tweets Andy Martino of SNY. The club has 48 hours to either grant him his release or add him to the active roster.
Friday, 2:47pm: Gonzalez does indeed intend to trigger the clause, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (Twitter link), which means the Yankees will have to decide whether to add him to their roster. That appears to be unlikely, per Feinsand, suggesting that Gonzalez will probably head back onto the open market.
Friday, 12:16pm: Veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez has hired CAA Baseball to represent him, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). He’d previously been a client of the Boras Corporation. The change comes just before tomorrow’s opt-out date in Gonzalez’s minor league contract with the Yankees — a provision that he is giving strong consideration to exercising, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The Yankees recently got CC Sabathia back from the injured list and have received three solid outings from righty Domingo German, so there’s no guarantee they’ll bring Gonzalez to the Majors for a look.
Gonzalez’s contract comes with a $3MM base salary, but the greater consideration for the Yankees is surely the incentives structure to which he agreed. As one might expect for a veteran of his stature, Gonzalez’s non-guaranteed deal is packed with incentives — perhaps more so than any minors deal in recent memory. He’d reportedly be paid a hefty $300K per start with the Yankees at the MLB level, on top of that base rate of pay, making it a fairly expensive proposition to even take a look at him on a short-term, trial basis.
Thus far with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, Gonzalez has had mixed results. He was shelled in the season opener for Scranton (eight runs in four innings), but he’s rebounded with a pair of excellent outings, yielding a combined two runs with an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio in 11 innings.
The fact that he made 93 pitches in his most recent outing should signal to other clubs that he’s built up enough to the point that he could step directly onto a big league pitching staff if needed. Assuming he opts out, that type of opportunity would likely be the type he and his new representatives seek. Several teams that entered the year hoping to contend — Red Sox, Brewers, Cardinals, Angels, Mets, Phillies, Athletics — have seen their starters combine for an ERA of 4.50 or worse, so it stands to reason that there could be heightened interest in Gonzalez now, as compared to when he was a free agent over the winter and was unable to find a big league deal.
If Gonzalez does trigger his opt-out clause tomorrow, he won’t immediately become a free agent. The Yankees would have 48 hours to weigh whether it’s worth placing him on the big league roster or grant him his release. But with the rotation currently featuring James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ, Sabathia and German (with other depth options on hand in the form of Chance Adams, Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa), the team may simply prefer to let him go.
Gonzalez’s change in representation has been reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database. As always, if you see any errors or omissions within, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
Pirates Select Bryan Reynolds, Recall Cole Tucker, Place Starling Marte On 10-Day IL
1:45 pm: Per a team release, Marte will hit the 10-day IL with an “abdominal wall contusion,” while Gonzalez will be placed on the 60-day IL with a fractured left clavicle.
11:57 am:The Pirates have recalled shortstop Cole Tucker and selected the contract of outfielder Bryan Reynolds, adding both to the 25-man roster, the team announced. Reynolds will take the final remaining spot on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster. There has been no corresponding roster moves announced, but it’s been widely speculated that Starling Marte and Erik Gonzalez may both be headed to the IL after their collision in last night’s ballgame.
Fangraphs puts Tucker and Reynolds as the #5 and #9 ranked prospects, respectively. Both will be making their major league debuts after strong showings in Spring Training this year. Tucker, 22, hit .259/.333/.356 in Double-A last year, but he’s torn his way through the Arizona Fall League, Spring Training, and his first thirteen games with Triple-A Indianapolis so far this season, where he was hitting a robust .333/.415/.579 in 66 plate appearances.
Reynolds, you may remember, joined the Pirates as part of the Andrew McCutchen trade. As MLB.com’s Adam Berry points out (via Twitter), the Pirates 25-man roster is now populated by the Pirates’ returns from the McCutchen and Gerrit Cole trades, with Michael Feliz being the only piece from either deal not currently in Pittsburgh. Kyle Crick recently returned from the injured list, Jason Martin is hitting .333/.391/.429 in limited playing time in left, Colin Moran platoons at third, and Joe Musgrove ably holds down a rotation spot for the Pirates.
Indians Activate Francisco Lindor, DFA Hanley Ramirez
The Indians activated Francisco Lindor from the injured list today, while veteran Hanley Ramirez was designated for assignment to clear the roster spot, per MLB Roster Moves (Twitter links).
This should come as a welcome bit of news for Indians fans, who finally have their middle infield at full health for the first time this season. Cleveland performed arguably better than expected in their superstar’s absence, as the team sits one game up on the AL Central with an 11-7 record. While the team stayed afloat, offense from the shortstop position was abysmal without Lindor, as his understudies hit a combined .069/.139/.097 – that’s a full -1.0 fWAR in 18 games (-43 wRC+). Replacing that production with anything close to Lindor’s career .288/.350/.487 ought to provide a significant boost to a Cleveland offense that ranks 28th with a .266 wOBA.
For Ramirez, thus ends a second straight disappointing season for the 35-year-old Dominican. He appeared in 16 games this season, hitting only .184/.298/.327 with two home runs. The former highlight-reel shortstop has been relegated to designated hitter duties, from which he simply does not provide Cleveland with enough utility to warrant a roster spot. If this spells the end for Ramirez’s major-league career, he would finish as a career .289/.360/.486 hitter with 271 home runs and 1,834 hits across 7,127 plate appearances in 15 years.
Diamondbacks Acquire Blake Swihart
The Diamondbacks have acquired catcher Blake Swihart from the Red Sox, per a club announcement. International pool money is also going to Arizona in the deal — $500K in spending capacity, GM Mike Hazen tells reporters including Zach Buchanan of The Athletic (Twitter links) — with outfield prospect Marcus Wilson going to Boston in return.
Swihart had been designated for assignment recently. He’s now heading to an interesting situation with the Snakes. Hazen is among several top D-Backs executives that came over from the Red Sox; needless to say, the team is amply familiar with Swihart.
The Diamondbacks are the one organization in baseball that has been most dedicated to carrying three catcher-capable players on its active roster. That’s particularly relevant for Swihart, given that his questionable abilities behind the plate have thus far limited his chances in the majors. But the plan doesn’t appear to be for the out-of-options Swihart to displace a current D-Backs receiver (Carson Kelly, John Ryan Murphy, Caleb Joseph). Rather, Hazen indicates that the club intends to utilize him in some kind of utility capacity.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the Arizona organization is better able to draw value out of Swihart than were the Sox. Prior attempts at moving him around the field didn’t work out. And his well-regarded bat hasn’t yet done much damage in the majors, though to be fair opportunities have come in fits and starts to this point. In 626 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level, Swihart carries a .255/.314/.365 slash with nine home runs, ten steals, and a combination of a 25.7% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.
The Red Sox won’t come away with what they hoped for out of Swihart, who was once considered quite a high-end prospect. But they were able to add an interesting player in Wilson, who was taken 69th overall in the 2014 draft. He has some swing and miss in his game but also has drawn his share of walks and has produced solid numbers at times in the low minors. An intriguing athlete, Wilson is off to a nice start this year at Double-A and is seen as possessing a relatively lofty ceiling.
Yankees Sign Logan Morrison
3:20pm: The Yankees have announced the signing.
11:16am: ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that Morrison’s deal comes with a July 1 opt-out and a $1MM base salary at the MLB level (though that salary would presumably be pro-rated).
11:06am: The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with first baseman/designated hitter Logan Morrison, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (Twitter links). He’ll head to extended Spring Training for the time being. Roster Roundup first tweeted the two sides were talking. Morrison is represented by ISE Baseball.
Morrison, 31, belted 38 home runs with the Rays in 2017 but struggled through an injury-ruined 2018 campaign with the Twins that was ultimately truncated by surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. That operation, performed last August, came with a roughly eight-month timetable for recovery; this contract falls right in line with the end of that rehab period. Once he’s up to speed and in game shape, Morrison will head to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton.
New York recently lost first baseman Greg Bird for at least a month due to a case of plantar fasciitis, although given Morrison’s own health status, it’s unlikely that he’d be able to step up as an option to help in the short-term anyhow. That said, the Yankees’ roster has generally been decimated by injuries, and having Morrison on hand as a risk-free depth option at the Triple-A level to perhaps aid the lineup starting in mid-May or early June certainly won’t hurt.
Last year with the Twins, “LoMo” hit .186/.276/.368 with 15 home runs and 13 doubles through 359 plate appearances, although the hip issue that ultimately ended his season quite likely hindered him at the plate before he underwent surgery. His 2017 season was nothing shy of excellent, as he turned in a .246/.353/.516 slash with 38 homers, 22 doubles and a triple in 601 trips to the plate.
Red Sox Place Eduardo Nunez On IL, Promote Michael Chavis, Designate Erasmo Ramirez
The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves Friday morning, revealing that they’ve placed Eduardo Nunez on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 18) due to a mid-back strain). Additionally, Boston has designated righty Erasmo Ramirez for assignment and recalled infielders Tzu-Wei Lin and Michael Chavis from Triple-A Pawtucket. It’ll be the MLB debut for Chavis, a former first-round pick who is currently ranked as the game’s No. 75 overall prospect by MLBPipeline.com.
Nunez will join fellow second basemen Dustin Pedroia and Brock Holt on the injured list. There’s no word yet on long he’s expected to be sidelined. The loss of that trio facilitated the promotion of Chavis for his first look in the big leagues as well as the return of the versatile Lin, who has been up and down with the Sox dating back to the 2017 season. While Chavis has been primarily a third baseman in his minor league career, he’s played 47 innings at second base in 2019 and has experience at shortstop in the past, as well. He seems likely to step up at second base for the time being with Boston’s other options on the mend.
Selected with the 26th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Chavis posted modest numbers in his first two and a half professional seasons before breaking out with a .282/.347/.563 batting line between Class-A Advanced and Double-A in 2017. He followed that up with a similarly impressive .298/.381/.538 slash across three levels in 2018 (topping out in Triple-A but spending the bulk of his time in Double-A), though it should be pointed out that Chavis’ 2018 campaign was shortened by an 80-game PED suspension.
This season, he was off to a .250/.354/.600 start in Pawtucket. Chavis is a bat-first prospect, drawing the most praise for plus raw power and a solid hit tool. Strikeouts are part of his game but haven’t been a huge problem for him, and he’s shown improved plate discipline in recent years as well.
Ramirez’s stint with the Sox will go down as a brief and forgettable one. The veteran right-hander made only one appearance with the Boston organization, allowing four runs on four hits (including a pair of homers) and a walk with one strikeout in three inning of relief. The Red Sox will have a week to trade him, release him or pass him through outright waivers; Ramirez would be able to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency anyhow, so this move seems quite likely to end his tenure with the Red Sox organization.
Though he had a poor year with the Mariners in 2018, Ramirez isn’t far removed from a three-year stretch (2015-17) in which he logged a combined 3.97 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 in 385 1/3 innings between Tampa Bay and Seattle. He has extensive big league experience as both a starter and reliever, and a club looking at adding some depth in either area could take a look at the righty, who won’t turn 29 until early next month. The Braves are known to be on the lookout for potential bullpen arms, for instance, while the Rangers haven’t been secretive about their desire to add rotation depth.