White Sox To Promote Michael Kopech
The White Sox will promote top pitching prospect Michael Kopech on Tuesday, the team announced on its official Twitter feed. The 22-year-old right-hander will make his Major League debut in a start against the Twins.
Picked 33rd overall by the Red Sox in the 2014 draft, Kopech was already considered one of the game’s top young arms when Boston dealt him as part of the blockbuster prospect package sent to Chicago in exchange for ace southpaw Chris Sale in December 2016. Kopech made his Double-A and Triple-A debuts in the White Sox farm system, and he has posted a 3.63 ERA, 11.9 K/9, and 2.88 K/BB rate over 141 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level.
Those numbers also include some control issues, such as a 4.3 BB/9 this season, and Kopech’s 2018 season has been marred by a few rough outings. Kopech recently discussed his year with The Athletic’s James Fegan, which has seen him deal with some off-the-field tragedy while also working on such mechanical issues as a new grip for his changeup, and a slower delivery. His delivery was cited as a concern in scouting reports from both MLB.com and Baseball America, with BA noting that Kopech’s delivery is a reason for “his below-average command and control.”
Still, despite these issues, both MLB.com and Baseball America ranked Kopech as the 13th-best prospect in baseball due to his massive potential. (Fangraphs also had him 16th on their updated top-100 prospect rankings, with ESPN’s Keith Law ranking Kopech 11th and Baseball Prospectus ranking him 17th in their preseason top-100 lists.) If Kopech is able to refine his changeup, it would be his third pitch to go along with a slider that MLB.com calls a “plus-plus offering as its best,” as well as Kopech’s signature pitch, a blazing fastball. Kopech has cracked triple digits with his heater and regularly throws it in the 96-99mph range.
Kopech has long been considered one of the jewels of the White Sox rebuild, and the decision to promote him at this point means that he’ll get an audition towards becoming a regular rotation member in 2019. With Kopech now reaching the big leagues, it only creates more anticipation towards the potential debut of Chicago’s top prospect, slugger Eloy Jimenez.
Francis Martes Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Astros righty Francis Martes has undergone Tommy John surgery — technically announced as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction — according to the organization (h/t Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, on Twitter). He’s expected to be sidelined for twelve to sixteen months.
Martes, once considered one of the game’s very best pitching prospects, had been shut down for much of the present season owing to elbow problems. Now, he’ll almost certainly miss the entire 2019 campaign.
Though Martes wasn’t quite as successful as might’ve been hoped when he debuted last year, with a 5.80 ERA in his first 54 1/3 MLB frames, his skills still seemed plenty intriguing for a pitcher working in his age-21 season. Martes pumped 96 mph heaters and carried a 12.4% swinging-strike rate at the game’s highest level.
Entering camp this season, Martes was clearly in need of refinement to reach his projected ceiling as a high-end starter. But there was still quite a bit of promise for the youngster as things got underway.
Unfortunately, the elbow difficulties arose in camp and have never fully subsided. Martes won’t even accumulate twenty frames this year in the minors. In the four Triple-A starts he was able to make, he issued 17 walks to go with 16 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings.
Cubs Acquire Terrance Gore
The Cubs have acquired outfielder Terrance Gore from the Royals, per an announcement from the Kansas City organization. Cash considerations will head back in return.
Gore, 27, will presumably reprise his role as a late-season/postseason threat on the bases. No doubt he’ll begin his tenure with the Chicago organization in the upper minors, where he has typically resided until rosters expand in September.
Since first cracking the majors in 2014, the light-hitting Gore has taken only 14 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. But he has appeared in 49 total games and racked up 21 steals.
Of course, utilizing a specialist in that manner only requires the commitment of a 40-man spot once rosters have expanded. For the time being, the Cubs won’t even need to tie up a slot on Gore, who had re-joined the Royals on a minors deal over the winter after being cut loose last fall.
Whether or not Gore could also feature on the Cubs’ presumptive postseason roster remains to be seen. The Royals carried him throughout the 2014 and 2015 postseasons, up to but not including the club’s successful return to the World Series in the second of those two memorable campaigns. Despite being in uniform for quite a few contests, Gore has only appeared in eight total playoff games, stealing four bags but never striding to the plate.
Brandon McCarthy To Retire At Season’s End
Veteran righty Brandon McCarthy says he’ll wrap up his playing career at the end of the season, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes. This is his 13th campaign in the majors.
McCarthy, 35, is still hoping to make it back from a knee injury that has sidelined him for a major portion of the 2018 campaign. Indeed, he says he’d have undergone season-ending surgery on the joint if he planned to continue pitching into the future.
Unsurprisingly, with just six weeks left in the regular season, McCarthy is only considering returning as a reliever. He’s also modifying his delivery in an effort to work through the knee problem. Whether or not it works out, it seems the towering veteran is committed to giving it one final go before finishing out his four-year, $48MM contract and riding off into the sunset.
It’s certainly possible McCarthy could be a useful asset for the Atlanta organization down the stretch. With a division title on the line, the club will need every good arm it can muster. And once the calendar flips to September, it won’t have to worry about active roster limitations.
It’s easy to look at McCarthy’s 4.92 ERA from 78 2/3 innings this year and question whether he has much left. But that only tells part of the story. After opening the year with a significant velocity loss, the speed readings ticked northward. McCarthy has generated a sturdy 48.0% groundball rate with 7.4 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. He has surely been at least somewhat unlucky to surrender a .332 BABIP and 21.7% HR/FB rate (more than double his career level); indeed, both xFIP (3.75) and SIERA (4.09) viewed him as a still-productive hurler.
In any event, it remains to be seen whether McCarthy can come back from injury one final time. Doing so has, unfortunately, been a significant aspect of his career. The former 17th-rounder has only once taken the ball for all 32 starts in a season, in a 2014 campaign in which he recorded exactly two hundred frames. That’s just one of five years in which he reached triple-digit innings tallies.
As things stand, McCarthy owns a 4.20 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 through 1,223 2/3 lifetime MLB innings. Between his debut with the White Sox in 2005 and his current run in Atlanta, he has seen action with the Dodgers, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Athletics, and Yankees, never stopping in one place for more than three seasons.
No matter how things finish out for McCarthy late this season, he’ll wrap up a productive career as a highly respected veteran. Given his well-earned reputation for wit and wisdom, McCarthy seems sure to make a mark in the game — or some other arena — in the future.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Indians Place Trevor Bauer On DL With “Small Stress Fracture” In Right Fibula
Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a “small stress fracture” in his right fibula, manager Terry Francona tells reporters (Twitter link via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com). Bauer sustained the injury upon being hit by a comebacker in a recent start, and there’s no timetable for his return to action just yet. Left-hander Tyler Olson is up from Triple-A to take his spot on the roster for now, and righty Adam Plutko will join the team this weekend to start in Bauer’s place.
Fortunately for the Indians, they can afford to be cautious with a return for Bauer. Cleveland holds a virtually insurmountable 12.5-game lead over the Twins in the American League Central with just under seven weeks to play this season, so while the loss of one of their best pitchers undoubtedly stings, it’ll have almost no bearing on their ability to reach the postseason.
Having said that, the eventual determination of Bauer’s recovery timeline will be a significant development to follow. Certainly, Cleveland will hope to have Bauer back in enough time that he’s able to be relied upon as a member of the postseason rotation. The Indians will likely pair Corey Kluber and Bauer atop their starting mix in the postseason, giving them one of the more formidable one-two punches in all of October baseball (Bauer’s health permitting).
The 27-year-old Bauer has long been touted as a potential top-of-the-rotation arm, and he’s realized that potential and stepped up into “ace” territory in 2018. Through 166 frames this year, Bauer boasts a sensational 2.22 ERA with 11.6 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 0.43 HR/9 and a 44.2 percent ground-ball rate.
Fielding-independent metrics like FIP (2.38), xFIP (3.12) and SIERA (3.18) all largely support his breakout campaign, and Bauer’s combination of innings, strikeouts and run prevention would quite likely have thrust him among the front-runners for American League Cy Young honors. If he’s able to return in reasonably short order, perhaps that’s still possible, but missing even a few starts could jeopardize that possibility, given the strength of performances by other contenders, including Chris Sale, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell and his teammate (and reigning Cy Young winner) Kluber.
Rays To Acquire Shane Baz As PTBNL In Chris Archer Trade
The Pirates have agreed to send top pitching prospect Shane Baz to the Rays as the player to be named later in last month’s Chris Archer blockbuster, reports John Dreker of PiratesProspects.com (via Twitter). That’ll make Tampa Bay’s total haul for Archer an impressive combination of Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Baz, who was the Pirates’ first-round selection in the 2017 draft.
Still just 19 years of age, Baz was among the top-ranked pitching prospects in the 2017 draft and signed with the Pirates for a $4.1MM bonus that was about $70K over his slot value at the time. At the time of the draft, Baz was the top prospect from the state of Texas and drew praise for a plus heater that could reach 98 mph as well as potential plus offerings in his cutter, slider and curveball. While No. 2 overall pick Hunter Greene was the top pitching prospect in the draft, Baseball America wrote in ’17 that Baz “has the ingredients to surpass Greene going forward due to his more potent breaking pitches.”
Baz is clearly still years away from impacting the Rays at the big league level. He spent his 2017 debut season pitching for the Pirates’ Rookie-level affiliate in the Gulf Coast League before moving to the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2018. To this point, Baz has demonstrated the ability to miss bats but also some shaky control — as one might expect for a raw high school power pitcher making the transition to pro ball. Through 45 1/3 innings this season, Baz has logged a 3.97 ERA with 10.7 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9 with a whopping 62 percent ground-ball rate.
While Baz is as long-term a piece as the Rays could have received in their return for Archer, he adds another elite prospect to a rapidly improving Rays system. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked Baz as the game’s No. 95 prospect on their recent midseason update, while Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs pegged him 110th overall. Baz will need to further refine his control and gain experience against more advanced competition, but he’s already a high-ceiling arm who could quickly improve his stock with improved control and/or a strong showing when he ultimately reaches full-season ball.
Archer has gotten off to a shaky start for the Pirates since being traded, though he’s made all of two appearances to date. The inclusion of Baz undoubtedly stings for general manager Neal Huntington and his staff, who have to be disheartened to see the Cardinals surging back into the mix with a 6-game win streak and an overall 8-2 showing in their past 10 contests. Be that as it may, however, the Pirates’ acquisition of Archer was as much about the 2019 season and beyond as it was their pursuit of a Wild Card berth or a more unlikely NL Central crown in 2018. Archer gives the club an affordable mid-rotation option at worst and a potential front-of-the-rotation piece at best, and he comes with a contract that even the cost-conscious Pirates can afford for three years beyond the current season.
As was the case with the Cubs’ acquisition of Jose Quintana in 2017, that affordable contract proved immensely valuable on the trade market and netted a premium package of talent, even neither pitcher’s recent baseline run-prevention numbers were especially impressive. The Archer trade, like the Quintana trade before it, further serves as another data point that more traditional numbers (i.e. ERA) aren’t nearly as influential when evaluating players in this type of trade as they once were. For the Bucs, the allure of Archer’s K/BB numbers, his superior fielding-independent metrics and the fact that he can be affordably teamed with Jameson Taillon atop the rotation for years to come were enough to part with a package of three high-quality pieces — two of whom (Meadows and Glasnow) are able to immediately contribute to the Rays.
Mariners Reinstate Robinson Cano
The Mariners announced Tuesday that infielder Robinson Cano has been reinstated from his 80-game suspension and added to the active roster. In a pair of corresponding moves, Seattle optioned right-hander Casey Lawrence to Triple-A Tacoma and transferred right-hander Sam Tuivailala from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. Tuivailala was already known to be out for the season following surgery to repair an injured Achilles tendon.
Cano, 35, batted .287/.385/.441 with four homers and 10 doubles through 169 plate appearances before the bombshell announcement that he’d been hit with an 80-game suspension following a failed PED test. Cano was on the disabled list due to a fractured finger at the time, though that injury is well behind him given the length of his ban. In his absence, the Mariners moved Dee Gordon from center field to second base and supplemented their outfield mix with acquisitions of Denard Span and Cameron Maybin.
The plan in Seattle has been for Cano to return in a multi-position role. He’s seen some work at third base while playing on an unpaid minor league assignment to get back up to speed, and he’s also likely to see time at first base and his customary second base slot as well. The Mariners, though, have plenty of reason to continue keeping Gordon sharp at second base, though. Gordon is, after all, a markedly better defender at second base than he is in center field, making Seattle a better defensive unit when he’s playing on the infield. Beyond that, Cano will be ineligible for postseason play having been suspended, so if the Mariners are able retake the second Wild Card spot away from the surging A’s (or, more improbably, steal the division away from the two teams ahead of them), it’d be Gordon receiving all of the team’s reps at second base in the playoffs.
At the time of the news, Cano’s suspension was viewed as a potentially critical blow to a surprisingly strong start to Seattle’s season. However, in his absence, the Mariners actually have a slightly better winning percentage than they’d enjoyed with Cano on the roster and producing rather well. Whether one considers the Mariners’ success in one-run games to be a sustainable means of winning, the fact remains that they’re now firmly within striking distance of ending their playoff drought. The return of Cano should only make them a more formidable team down the stretch, even if he’ll be a nonfactor should they earn a postseason berth.
Kenley Jansen To Miss Time Due To Irregular Heartbeat
SATURDAY: Jansen will be out until at least Aug. 20, Dodgers president Andrew Friedman told Pedro Moura of The Athletic and other reporters Saturday. At that point, the team will re-evaluate Jansen.
FRIDAY, 9:54AM: Jansen is expected to be sidelined for around one month, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (Twitter link).
1:11AM: Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen was hospitalized on Thursday due to an irregular heartbeat, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times and MLB.com’s Anne Rogers) after last night’s game against the Rockies. The issue arose prior to the game, and Jansen has already been released and traveled from Denver to Los Angeles, where he will undergo more tests later today. At a minimum, Jansen will miss the rest of this weekend’s series, Roberts said.
This isn’t the first time that Jansen has dealt with an irregular heartbeat during his career, as the issue arose during both the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The right-hander missed around a month of action in both instances, and underwent heart surgery following the 2012 season in an attempt to fully solve the problem.
Jansen hadn’t had any further heart situations until last night, Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi told reporters. Denver’s high altitude may well have played a factor, as Jansen’s irregular heartbeat episode in 2012 also took place during a Dodgers visit to Coors Field.
More details will be known about Jansen’s condition after he undergoes his further tests, though obviously any sort of recurring heart problem is of the utmost seriousness. Both Jansen and the Dodgers will surely be as careful as possible in monitoring his condition, and even if this was something of a fluke incident caused by the Denver thin air, Jansen’s medical history surely means all parties will proceed with caution about a return to the field. One positive sign is that Zaidi said Jansen was “feeling pretty normal right now, from what we understand.”
If Jansen is facing another absence of four or five weeks (like in 2011 and 2012), then the Dodgers will be without one of baseball’s best closers through the bulk of the late-season pennant race. The L.A. bullpen has posted generally solid overall numbers this year, though obviously Jansen (2.15 ERA, 4.36 K/BB rate, 10.1 K/9) contributed heavily to those team totals.
Setup man Scott Alexander successfully converted a save opportunity against Colorado last night, and while Alexander doesn’t have much closing experience in his young career, he is the most logical short-term candidate to handle the ninth inning. Pedro Baez is another option, while Josh Fields only just began a rehab assignment after missing almost six weeks with shoulder inflammation.
With a lack of experienced closing options on hand, the Dodgers could also explore the trade market. The club was already known to be looking at bullpen help prior to the trade deadline, coming away with only veteran John Axford after looking at higher-profile names on the Rangers, Marlins, Rays, Orioles, and Tigers. Several of the names linked to Los Angeles are still on the board as potential trade candidates, not to mention multiple other relief possibilities likely to be on the move in August.
Phillies Acquire Justin Bour
2:15PM: The Marlins will receive left-hander McKenzie Mills, Fancred’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Mills was an 18th-round pick for the Nationals in the 2014 draft, and the 22-year-old has a 3.51 ERA, 2.58 K/BB rate, and an 8.5 K/9 over 89 2/3 IP for high-A Clearwater this season, with Mills starting 16 of his 20 appearances. This is the second notable trade Mills has already been part of in his young career, as he was sent to the Phillies from the Nationals last summer in the Howie Kendrick deal.
2:07PM: The minor league pitcher headed to the Marlins is an A-ball player, according to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. MLBPipeline.com’s Jonathan Mayo notes that the prospect wasn’t ranked as one of MLB.com’s top 30 minor leaguers in the Phillies’ system. (Both links to Twitter.)
1:09PM: The Phillies have acquired first baseman Justin Bour and cash considerations in a trade with the Marlins, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter links). Miami will receive a minor league pitcher in return. The two sides worked out a trade after Philadelphia claimed Bour on revocable waivers.
The Marlins will cover roughly half of Bour’s remaining salary for the season, ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports (via Twitter), which works out to around $450K of the $900K left on the $3.4MM Bour won in an arbitration case with the Phils last winter.
[Updated Phillies and Marlins depth charts at Roster Resource]
Bour has two more years of arbitration eligibility remaining, though he doesn’t necessarily have a long-term role in Philadelphia with Carlos Santana locked in at first base (at a $20MM average annual salary) at least through the 2020 season. It could be that the Phillies look to deal or maybe even non-tender Bour this winter, as Rosenthal suggests, and for now they’ll use him as a perhaps overqualified left-handed bench bat. Bour has badly struggled against southpaws this year while the switch-hitting Santana has hit only a modest .209/.362/.387 against right-handed pitching, so there is some room for a platoon situation. The Phillies’ collective 93 wRC+ against righty pitching this season ranks just 21st in baseball, so the offense can certainly benefit from some pop from the left side of the plate.
Bour drew a lot of trade attention last winter in the midst of the Marlins’ fire sale, though we didn’t hear much buzz about the first baseman until deadline day itself, when he was the subject of some late-breaking talks. Bour’s numbers were dampened by an extended slump throughout July, though he is still posting above-average (108 wRC+, 113 OPS+) offensive numbers overall, hitting .227/.347/.412 with 19 homers in 447 plate appearances.
Still, 2018 is shaping up as the weakest of Bour’s four seasons as a regular Major Leaguer, and certainly a step back from his breakout 2017 campaign. Limited to just 429 PA last year due to a variety of injuries, Bour still managed 25 homers and slash .289/.366/.536 for a 133 wRC+ and 142 OPS+, even if his overall value (2.2 fWAR) was lowered by subpar baserunning and defense.
This season, however, Bour is hitting for less power (.184 ISO compared to .247 last year) while also striking out slightly more often and making a bit more soft contact. Bour also enjoyed a .322 BABIP in 2017 as opposed to a .267 BABIP this year, and there’s also the simple fact that opposing pitchers can focus more directly on Bour since Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and Christian Yelich are no longer in the Marlins’ lineup. That said, there is also some evidence that Bour could be due for an uptick in production, as evidenced by that low BABIP and a .352 xwOBA that outpaces his real-world .329 wOBA.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
A’s Acquire Fernando Rodney
In a stunning move seemingly out of nowhere, the Athletics announced that they’ve acquired right-hander Fernando Rodney from the Twins in exchange for minor league righty Dakota Chalmers. Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press reports that the A’s will assume all of Rodney’s remaining salary (around 1.3MM).
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the transaction came as the result of a waiver claim by the Athletics, meaning Rodney never cleared revocable trade waivers. The 42-year-old was certainly a logical August trade candidate, as MLBTR’s own Connor Byrne noted this past Saturday; more recently, the Twins’ closer appeared near the top of our Top 20 August Trade Candidates, checking in at number seven. He’s a reasonably affordable option for the surging yet cost-conscious A’s.
[RELATED: How August Trades Work]
Rodney has long been an effective MLB reliever, and has served mainly as a closer across the past decade. His 325 career saves rank 17th all-time among relievers, and although he’s certainly shown some fluctuation in performance over the course of his lifetime, his 3.09 ERA at present would be his best in a full season since 2014 with the Mariners. The veteran has managed to strike out more than ten batters per nine innings in five of the past six campaigns and owns a solid if unspectacular 3.70 ERA (3.73 FIP) over the course of his 16-year MLB career.
For the A’s, it’s the latest move to bolster an already-spectacular relief corps. Headed into the second half of July, the club already boasted three relievers with a Win Probability Added of 1.00 or higher (Blake Treinen, Lou Trivino and Yusmeiro Petit). Since then, they’ve added Jeurys Familia in a trade with the Mets, claimed Shawn Kelley off waivers from the Nationals, and plucked Mike Fiers from the paws of the Tigers. Rodney serves as the club’s fourth major bullpen addition over the course of the past month, fortifying an already-terrifying group.
That’s excellent work on the part of the club’s front office, as it’ll help mask the club’s uninspiring rotation. Sean Manaea‘s currently the club’s only starter with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, in no small part due to the wreckage of torn UCLs suffered by rotation candidates this season. Daniel Gossett, Kendall Graveman, Jharel Cotton and top prospect A.J. Puk are all done for the season after requiring Tommy John surgery, leaving the club with a starting group of ragtag veterans that includes Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and Edwin Jackson, each of whom has outperformed expectations. With an eye on October, it seems as though the Athletics are likely to use starters for short outings in the postseason and rely on a deep bullpen to handle the remainder of the workload.
Perhaps one of the more surprising elements of this deal is the fact that Rodney went unclaimed by the Indians, who had waiver priority over the Athletics and one of the worst bullpens in baseball. With three strong lefties in their pen and no viable right-handed options beyond Adam Cimber and struggling closer Cody Allen, Rodney would have provided a strong upgrade to the Cleveland bullpen. Likewise, the Mariners (who’re in close competition with them for a wild card spot) also passed on Rodney, allowing him to be claimed by a division rival rather than using him to patch their own relief corps.
The inclusion of Chalmers is a fascinating element of this deal, as the 21-year-old right hander has yet to accrue any significant professional resume following his selection by the A’s as the 97th overall pick in the 2015 draft. He didn’t rank among the club’s top 30 prospects in MLB Pipeline’s latest rankings, but Fangraphs considered him to within that group, ranking him 23rd in the A’s farm system. Chalmers had to step away from baseball late in 2017 for personal reasons, and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen mentioned that he’s struggled with his control since returning. Though his velocity sits in the low-to-mid-90’s, there’s some skepticism that he’ll ever develop the command necessary to work multiple innings. He won’t pitch for the remainder of 2018 after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this season.