Giants Place Johnny Cueto On Disabled List
TODAY: Skipper Bruce Bochy did not exactly calm fears over Cueto’s health in his update to reporters today, though uncertainty remains the overarching theme at the moment. As Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets, the skipper says that Cueto is heading out for opinions from multiple specialists — likely including Dr. James Andrews.
The precise nature of the injury, though, is not yet clear (publicly, at least). There’s no indication at present how likely it is that a surgical approach will be pursued, let alone what kind of timeline Cueto could be looking at for making it back to the mound.
YESTERDAY, 8:23pm: Giants GM Bobby Evans tells Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic that Cueto has been dealing with some elbow discomfort for at least a couple of starts (Twitter link). “We are getting our heads wrapped around it now,” the GM said. “We’re still trying to understand where he’s at.”
The organization is presently awaiting MRI results.*
8:04pm: The Giants have placed right-hander Johnny Cueto on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his right elbow, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).
It’s yet another costly injury for a Giants team that is currently without Madison Bumgarner, Joe Panik, Mark Melancon and Mac Williamson, among others. Lefty Andrew Suarez is up to step into Cueto’s rotation spot, rounding out a starting mix that also includes Jeff Samardzija, Derek Holland, Ty Blach and Chris Stratton.
Even a brief absence for Cueto is a notable hit to the Giants, considering the level of utter dominance put forth by Cueto thus far in what was shaping up to be a rebound campaign. After missing much of the 2017 season due to a forearm issue (and struggling when healthy), Cueto opened the year with a superlative 0.84 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.28 HR/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate through 32 innings. With Bumgarner shelved for the first two months of the season, Cueto had stepped up and filled those considerable shoes, providing the Giants with a much-needed ace atop a shakier bunch of two-through-five starters.
*An earlier version of this post mistakenly stated that the team had not yet sent Cueto for an MRI.
Braves Promote Mike Soroka
The Braves have promoted top pitching prospect Mike Soroka to take the ball in tonight’s contest, per a club announcement. Though Soroka had to be added to the 40-man roster, there were openings available.
In a corresponding move that was completed yesterday, righty Chase Whitley was optioned to open a spot on the active roster. The Braves still have eight arms available in the pen.
Soroka, 20, entered the season as one of the game’s most-hyped pitching prospects. By consensus, he placed among the game’s top thirty-five or so pre-MLB players. Baseball America is among the most bullish outlets on the young righty, ranking him 27th on its board.
Thus far, Soroka has done nothing but increase the anticipation with his first four starts at the Triple-A level. In 22 2/3 innings this season for Gwinnett, he sports an attractive 1.99 ERA wih 9.5 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. He’s also drawing grounders on an eye-popping 69.0% of the balls put in play against him.
Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to be a Braves fan. The organization is off to a nice start and has already welcomed top overall prospect Ronald Acuna, who has knocked the cover off the ball early on.
Now, the club will get a look at perhaps its most exciting young arm. The 28th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Soroka has breezed through the Braves’ system. While he has not typically carried his current strikeout or groundball rates over full seasons, all the tools are there for a front-of-the-rotation starter.
It’s worth noting, too, that Soroka ought not to face many restrictions on his workload this year. He threw 143 frames in 2016 and 153 2/3 last year at Double-A, so he should be clear to handle about as many as the team likes in 2018. If he can hold down a MLB roster spot the rest of the way, Soroka would put himself on course to reach arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2020 season. Regardless, he cannot pass six years of major-league service until after the 2024 campaign, at the earliest.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Corey Seager To Undergo Tommy John Surgery, Miss Remainder Of 2018
The Dodgers have announced stunning news regarding top young shortstop Corey Seager. He’ll undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the 2018 season, according to the team.
For the time being, infielder Breyvic Valera will come up to take the open roster spot created by Seager hitting the DL. But he won’t come close to accounting for the yawning gap created by Seager’s absence the rest of the way. Seager had dealt with elbow troubles late in 2017, but the news still comes as a major surprise.
Los Angeles entered the season with one of the game’s best duos on the left side of the infield. Though third baaseman Justin Turner has missed the first month of the season, the hope was that he’d soon re-join Seager and re-create a unit that combined for about 12 fWAR annually over the past two campaigns. Instead, the team will cross its fingers that Turner can regain his form at the hot corner while scrambling to account for the hole at short.
Despite a tepid start from the Dodgers overall, it has remained reasonable to anticipate that the club would begin picking up the pace as the season wears on. But losing Seager takes away the Los Angeles organization’s top position player and makes the road to a sixth-straight NL West title seem much tougher.
Despite his own middling run to begin the 2018 campaign — a .257/.339/.366 slash through 115 plate appearances — Seager is viewed as one of the top young talents in baseball. After all, he is a .301/.372/.492 hitter in over 1,500 MLB plate appearances, with quality glovework and baserunning adding to his value. And he just turned 24 three days ago.
Looking to the future, the hope will obviously be that Seager can rehab and get back to full health in advance of the 2019 season. As a position player, rather than a pitcher, the odds are much better that he’ll be able to participate fully in spring camp next year. In the best-case scenario, perhaps, he’ll also have an opportunity to rest some other maladies that have arisen over the years and enjoy a full and unrestrained 2019 campaign. Unfortunately for the young star, the timing of the injury will rob him of a chance at compiling statistics in his final pre-arbitration season, meaning he’ll earn far less next season (and for the following two campaigns) than he would reasonably have anticipated.
More immediately, the Dodgers need to figure out how to make it through the current season. Perhaps the club can account directly for the loss of Seager by moving Chris Taylor back to short, which is the position he broke into the majors playing. Of course, that’d just allow another leak to spring in center field, where Taylor has mostly lined up in 2018. While the organization can call upon its outfield depth — including just-promoted top prospect Alex Verdugo — to make things work, the result is obviously a less-fearsome lineup than it expected to be fielding.
The loss of Seager does create an obvious and intriguing — but still quite speculative — match on paper between the Dodgers and Orioles. The Baltimore club has limped out of the gates in spite of a monster first month from Manny Machado, who is one of a relative few players in baseball (and the only one reasonably available via trade) in Seager’s league at the shortstop position. Doing so, particularly early, would mean not only coughing up a haul of talent but also executing some financial tightrope walking. The club premised its offseason strategy on staying beneath the luxury tax line to re-set its tax obligations, and has just over $15MM of wiggle room to work with at last look. That makes Machado (who’s earning $16MM in his final season of arb eligibility) a tight squeeze. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, who could opt out of his contract in the coming offseason, is also an interesting-but-expensive conceivable target, though he’s on the DL at the moment. Odds are, the Dodgers will take their time in assessing the possibilities before they make a highly consequential move.
Jung Ho Kang Receives Visa, Set To Rejoin Pirates
Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang has received a work visa and is expected to resume his career with the team, according to a report from Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. Kang had not been able to secure a visa for quite some time after being convicted of a DUI in his native South Korea.
Kang ended up missing the entire 2017 season. He did play briefly in the Dominican Winter League recently, but that stint was cut short when he failed to perform with his new team. The Bucs control him for the 2019 season via club option, valued at $5.5MM, and he’ll play the remainder of the 2018 season on a pro-rated $3MM salary. While there was some question as to how the Pirates would handle the situation if Kang were to receive a visa, it appears as though the team is willing to welcome him back into the fold without issuing any discipline of its own.
“We are encouraged by the steps that Jung Ho has taken to date and are hopeful that having the game he loves taken away from him for more than a year has driven home the reality that he must make better life decisions as we move forward together,” Pirates president Frank Coonelly said in a statement issued via press release. “As we have communicated to him throughout this process, we will work to provide Jung Ho with the resources and support necessary for him to meet the high expectations that we have for him as a member of our organization and our community.”
For the time being, Kang will remain on the restricted list as he works his way toward MLB readiness with in extended Spring Training at the Pirates’ complex in Bradenton, Fla. There’s no indication from the team as to how long he’ll spend ramping up in Florida.
A healthy and effective Kang would be an unexpected boost to the Pirates, as the former KBO superstar was quite productive in his first two big league campaigns prior to his legal troubles. In 837 MLB plate appearances, Kang has slashed .273/.355/.483 with 36 homers, 43 doubles and a pair of triples. He’ll give the Pirates an option at multiple infield positions, as he’s seen action third base and shortstop in his two seasons and can also be entrusted to handle second base duties.
Braves Promote Ronald Acuna
April 25: Acuna’s contract has been formally selected from Triple-A Gwinnett, the club announced. He’s playing left field and batting sixth for the Braves in his MLB debut.
April 24: The Braves are set to promote top prospect Ronald Acuna to the Major Leagues, Daniel Alvarez Montes of EVTV Miami reports (Twitter link). MLB.com’s Mark Bowman hears the same and adds that Acuna is expected to join the team tomorrow (Twitter link).
The timing of Acuna’s promotion has been a source of consternation among Braves fans all season, as many felt he should’ve been with the club from Opening Day after laying waste to minor league pitching in 2017 and outhitting the vast majority of the Braves’ roster in Spring Training. The Braves, however, understandably appear to have wanted to keep Acuna in Triple-A long enough to delay his free agency by a full year. By keeping him in Triple-A until April 14, Atlanta delayed his free agency from the 2023-24 offseason to the 2024-25 offseason.
Acuna, though, got off to a brutal start in Triple-A Gwinnett, which prompted the Braves to keep the 21-year-old in the minors even longer. Not wanting to promote Acuna to the Majors when he was struggling badly against minor league arms, Atlanta waited for their prized prospect to begin to right the ship at the plate. That’s been taking place over the past week, as Acuna has collected 1 11 hits and four walks with eight strikeouts in 37 plate appearances.
Entering the 2018 season, virtually every set of prospect rankings from major outlets considered Acuna to be the game’s top overall prospect. It was a rapid ascent for Acuna, who entered the 2017 campaign as a consensus top 100 prospect but not near the top of any notable rankings. His meteoric rise began last season when he started in Class-A Advanced and skyrocketed to Triple-A by the end of the year. The Venezuelan-born slugger didn’t just move up the ladder, though; his numbers actually improved upon each promotion, culminating with a .344/.393/.548 line in Triple-A.
Overall, Acuna slashed .325/.374/.522 with 21 homers, 31 doubles, eight triples and 44 steals across three minor league levels in 2017 — and he did so all before turning 20 years of age this past December. Even before reading any of the many glowing scouting reports on Acuna — and there’s no shortage of them, as Baseball America, MLB.com, Fangraphs, Baseball Prospectus and ESPN are among the many that have lauded him — it’s readily apparent that he’s a significantly more advanced talent than most prospects. That type of production in Double-A and Triple-A is rare for prospects who are several years older than Acuna, even, but doing so at age 19 is a rather remarkable accomplishment.
It stands to reason that Acuna will be thrown directly into the mix in left field with the Braves, who managed to jettison Matt Kemp this offseason in order to create an easy path to at-bats for the ballyhooed young slugger. Preston Tucker has been holding down the fort in left field and performed admirably as a stopgap, but his bat has cooled substantially since a hot start to the season (.514 OPS over his past 44 PAs).
With Acuna now penciled in as the primary left fielder, Ender Inciarte and Nick Markakis will occupy the team’s other two outfield spots. Tucker or Peter Bourjos remain on hand as reserve options in the outfield, though it’s possible that one could be a roster casualty to make way for Acuna. The Braves already designated one reserve, Lane Adams, for assignment last week.
Yankees Promote Gleyber Torres
SUNDAY: Torres is starting at second on Sunday for the Yankees, who optioned Wade to Triple-A in a corresponding move.
SATURDAY: The Yankees are set to promote their best prospect, infielder Gleyber Torres, Jack Curry of the YES Network reports. Torres will join the Yankees for their game against the Blue Jays on Sunday. He’s already on the Yankees’ 40-man roster, so they won’t need to jettison anyone in order to make room for him.
The 21-year-old Torres is in his second full season with the Yankees, who acquired him in a deal with the Cubs centering on closer Aroldis Chapman in July 2016. It’s fair to say the trade has worked out for both teams, given that Chapman helped pitch the Cubs to a World Series that year and then returned to the Yankees as a free agent in the ensuing offseason, and Torres has turned into an elite prospect.
MLB.com is among many outlets with a high opinion of Torres, ranking him as the game’s No. 5 prospect while lauding his offensive and defensive potential. The right-handed-hitting Torres has shown plenty of upside with the bat since his promotion to Triple-A in 2017, having slashed .331/.409/.488 in 149 plate appearances at the minors’ highest level. Torres’ season was cut short in 2017 on account of a left elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, but he returned this year to post a .370/.415/.543 line in 53 PAs prior to his promotion to New York.
Originally a shortstop, Torres also brings minor league experience at second and third base. He’s unlikely to make an impact at short for the Yankees, who have breakout star Didi Gregorius there, but could play either of the other two positions. Of course, fellow highly touted prospect Miguel Andujar has impressed lately at third, where he has been filling in for the injured Brandon Drury (on the DL since April 7 with migraines). On the other hand, New York hasn’t gotten much production at second from accomplished veteran Neil Walker or youngster Tyler Wade, so Torres could be a factor there for a 10-9 club that’s lagging well behind the incredibly hot Red Sox (17-2) in the AL East early in the season.
Regardless of where Torres primarily lines up, or if this just proves to be a cup of coffee until Drury returns, the Yankees will be able to control him through the 2024 campaign.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mets To Move Matt Harvey To Bullpen
Mets manager Mickey Callaway has told reporters that the club plans to move longtime starter and former ace Matt Harvey to the bullpen (h/t Mike Puma of the New York Post). He’ll reportedly be available as a reliever beginning on Tuesday.
Obviously, the move is by no means permanent. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com shared a video tweet of Callaway discussing the topic. “I think he’s motivated to go out there and show everyone that he can start again at some point,” he told reporters. “And Dave and I are going to take the approach that we’re gonna do everything we can to help him do that.”
It’s worth noting right off the bat that this isn’t just a fluff statement. As Callaway himself says in the video (which is well worth watching in its entirety), he’s seen pitchers go to the bullpen and “come out of it better than they were before.” Most notably, Callaway oversaw the transition of talented Indians right-hander Carlos Carrasco from a starter role to the bullpen and back to the rotation. That transition period ultimately jumpstarted Carrasco’s career, and was no doubt a significant contributing factor in his development into a pitcher who ranks seventh in MLB in fWAR since the start of the 2015 season. Callaway was also present for fellow Cleveland hurler Mike Clevinger‘s transition to the bullpen and back, so it’s perfectly fair to think this may just be a temporary measure to help Harvey work on things with the ultimate plan of converting him back to a hopefully improved starting pitcher.
Regardless of any of that, it certainly isn’t a pleasing development for the 29-year-old Harvey (he certainly didn’t seem happy in this video). Just yesterday, he candidly told reporters that he sees himself as a starting pitcher. “I’m a starting pitcher,” he said at the time. “I’ve always been a starting pitcher, and I think I showed in the fifth and sixth inning that I could get people out still in the fifth and sixth inning when my pitch count gets up, so I am a starting pitcher.” As I noted in a poll just hours ago, though, that’s not up to Harvey; it’s up to Mets management. Speaking of which, over 80% of you believed at that time that New York should move Harvey to the ‘pen.
In regards to Harvey’s impending free agency, the position change certainly doesn’t help his earning power. Relievers make significantly fewer dollars on the open market than starters, and if Harvey can’t turn his performance around he’s unlikely to make even eight figures if he enters that market as a bullpen arm. Although it seems worth mentioning that Harvey’s free agent stock was already at an all-time low, so if he develops into any semblance of a useful reliever, he could still out-earn what he was likely to make on the open market had he continued to pitch the way he was pitching as a starter.
This situation will be well worth monitoring across the next few weeks. Harvey could certainly figure something out that helps his game, and merit a return to the rotation sooner than later. And even amidst all the hoopla about his position change, it’s easily possible that an injury to one of Jason Vargas, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz could necessitate Harvey’s return to the starting five. For the time being, though, it will be interesting to see how Callaway utilizes Harvey in his new role with the club.
Reds Fire Bryan Price, Mack Jenkins
The Reds announced this morning that they’ve fired manager Bryan Price and pitching coach Mack Jenkins. Bench coach Jim Riggleman will assume managerial duties on an interim basis, while Triple-A skipper Pat Kelly will take over Riggleman’s duties as bench coach. Double-A pitching coach Danny Darwin has been added to the Major League coaching staff as well. The Reds will conduct a search for a permanent managerial replacement “later in the year,” the team added.
Entering the season, Price was widely speculated to be on the hot seat. The 55-year-old former Reds pitching coach was entering his fifth season as manager in Cincinnati, but the Reds had opted only to exercise his 2018 club option rather than extend him to a longer team deal.
That decision came on the heels of four consecutive losing seasons, and while one can hardly blame the manager for not piling up wins on a clearly rebuilding club, Cincinnati also didn’t seem to demonstrably improve under Price’s watch. The Reds won 76 games in his first season as skipper back in 2014, and since that time they’ve won 64, 68 and 68 games in the respective seasons to follow.
This year’s Reds have been all the more disastrous, opening the year with a 3-15 record with a -46 run differential that easily ranks as the worst in the Majors. The Cincinnati front office clearly felt it was time for a new voice to guide the club, though it’s fair to question why that decision wasn’t simply made before exercising Price’s option, as not much has changed since last September. It’s also worth pointing out that Cincinnati hired former Red Sox and Blue Jays manager John Farrell in a scouting capacity this past offseason, and he’ll almost certainly join the list of managerial candidates when the Reds begin searching (if he doesn’t already top their list).
As for Jenkins, he took over for former pitching coach Mark Riggins back in July 2016, but Reds hurlers haven’t improved much, if any, under his tutelage. The Reds, to be sure, have had their share of meaningful injuries in recent seasons — perhaps none more notable than Anthony DeSclafani, who has not pitched since 2016 — but that doesn’t explain the general lack of development among the team’s more promising young arms. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd wrote last September:
By measure of fWAR, at least, the 2016-17 Reds hurlers have turned in a two-year stretch of futility that is orders of magnitude worse than any other organization of the past two decades, falling well shy of the dreadful 2004-05 Royals and 2002-03 Devil Rays units.
The 2018 Reds staff hasn’t done anything to correct that tailspin. Cincinnati’s 5.42 ERA, 4.64 xFIP and 4.91 SIERA marks all rank second-worst in the Majors, while their 5.26 FIP as a collective unit is the highest mark of any team in baseball. Cincinnati pitchers rank near the bottom of the league in strikeout percentage and have also posted one of the highest walk percentages of any team in baseball this season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Taijuan Walker To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The D-backs were hit with a significant blow on Wednesday, as manager Torey Lovullo revealed to reporters that right-hander Taijuan Walker has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and will require Tommy John surgery (Twitter link via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Walker will be out for the remainder of the 2018 season.
Clearly, it’s a huge loss for a D-backs team that watched Walker, long heralded as one of MLB’s most promising pitching prospects, break out with a 3.49 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.97 HR/9 and a 48.9 percent ground-ball rate in 157 1/3 innings last season. The 25-year-old Walker has averaged 27 starts per season over the past three years between the Mariners and D-backs, but Arizona was counting on him taking an even more pivotal role in 2018, joining Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, Patrick Corbin and Zack Godley in what looked to be one of the National League’s more formidable starting quintets.
[Related: Arizona Diamondbacks depth chart]
Matt Koch will start in Walker’s place on Friday, tweets Zach Buchanan of The Athletic, but he tossed just 56 innings last season and doesn’t have any sort of big league track record. Arizona thinned out its rotation depth in the March trade that saw left-hander Anthony Banda — a largely MLB-ready rotation piece — head to the Rays in the three-team Steven Souza / Brandon Drury swap. Former first-rounder Braden Shipley is still on hand in Triple-A as a potential option, as is recent waiver claim Troy Scribner.
Walker’s injury will now put the recovery of right-hander Shelby Miller under even more of a microscope. The embattled righty struggled through a catastrophic first season in the Diamondbacks organization but looked to be in the process of righting the ship in 2017 before he, too, suffered a UCL tear that necessitated Tommy John surgery. The 27-year-old Miller has yet to pitch in the minors as he continues rehabbing from his own operation, performed early last May, but he could emerge as a viable fifth starter for a talented D-backs rotation at some point in June or July.
The D-backs still control Walker through the 2020 season, and given his reasonable $4.825MM salary as a second-time arbitration player (with Super Two status), the ligament replacement procedure is unlikely to spell the end of his time with the D-backs. Walker’s limited workload in 2018 — he made just three starts and totaled 13 innings — should limit him to a minimal raise in arbitration this offseason. The D-backs will be able to hang onto him for something in the vicinity of $5MM, and while Walker almost certainly won’t be ready to take the hill until at least next May, if not early summer, that’s an eminently reasonable price to pay — especially when considering that he could still be controlled for one year beyond the ’19 campaign.
Braves Sign Jose Bautista
The Braves have announced the signing of veteran slugger Jose Bautista to a minor-league deal. Per the organization, he’ll head to extended spring camp and will line up at third base. The deal would pay him at a $1MM rate in the majors, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets.
While Bautista has maintained he still hoped to play in the coming season after sitting out Spring Training, this news comes as a surprise. The Braves have long been expected to fill out their outfield with top prospect Ronald Acuna, which seemed to make them an unlikely destination for Bautista.
In a twist, though, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos — who was with the Blue Jays when Bautista broke out and turned into a superstar — will give the veteran a chance to return to the hot corner at 37 years of age. Bautista certainly has spent plenty of time there, but the vast majority of his experience at third came in the distant past. Needless to say, this isn’t the third-base move that many anticipated at the start of the 2017-18 offseason.
Bautista will not only be looking to show he’s capable of returning to the infield after mostly plying his trade in the grass over the past nine seasons. He’ll also have to prove he can bounce back from a marked decline over the prior two campaigns.
Heading into the 2017 campaign, which Bautista spent with the Blue Jays after having to settle for a one-year deal in free agency, the hope was the his 2016 effort was just a blip. Bautista had experienced a big power drop, after all, but largely maintained his other-worldly plate discipline and still reached base at a healthy .366 clip.
But the most recent season did not go as hoped for the ever-confident veteran. Bautista hit 23 home runs but carried a miserable .203/.308/.366 slash in his 686 plate appearances. He also drew walks and went down on strikes at rates (12.2% and 24.8%, respectively) worse than he had since way back in 2008 — which is also the last time he spent the majority of his time at third.
It’s certainly an interesting gambit for the Braves, whose current plans at the hot corner involve riding out a Ryan Flaherty hot streak, mixing in Charlie Culberson, and waiting for Johan Camargo to return from the DL (while hoping he can repeat a surprisingly solid debut season). If Bautista can return to anything approaching the form he showed at the plate between 2010 and 2015, when he was one of the game’s very best hitters, he could boost a team that is playing solid baseball out of the gates but has cause to anticipate some regression from certain players.