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Phillies Place Trea Turner On 10-Day Injured List

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1:43PM: The strain is a significant one, as Turner told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and other reporters that he’ll miss a minimum of six weeks.

12:56PM: The Phillies announced that Trea Turner has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain.  Infielder Kody Clemens was called up from Triple-A to take Turner’s place on the active roster.

The placement isn’t a surprise, as Turner’s injury forced him to make an early departure from yesterday’s 4-3 Phillies win over the Giants.  In the fourth inning, Turner was on second base when Jordan Hicks threw a fourth ball to batter Bryce Harper, and the ball bounced off catcher Tom Murphy’s glove for a passed ball.  Turner hustled down to third base and then all the way home to score on the play, but at a cost, as Edmundo Sosa took over at shortstop for Turner in the top of the fifth.

After getting off to an infamously slow start in 2023 (the first year of his 11-year, $300MM deal with Philadelphia), Turner has been far better in the early going of the 2024 campaign.  The shortstop is hitting .343/.392/.460 with two home runs, 27 runs scored, and 10 steals in 11 attempts.  A whopping .421 BABIP and a .379 wOBA that is far above his .330 xwOBA indicate that Turner has enjoyed some good fortune in posting his bottom-line numbers, even though Turner’s excellent speed has always led to strong BABIP results.

Turner has been one of the chief reasons why the Phillies have a league-high 22 wins.  There’s no easy way for the Phils to replace that production, and the team can only hope Turner’s strain is minor enough that he can return quickly and fully recovered.  Sosa will get most of the playing time at shortstop in Turner’s absence, with Clemens stepping into Sosa’s role as the team’s utilityman.  Philadelphia could also possibly use Bryson Stott at shortstop and deploy Whit Merrifield more often at second base, though Merrifield is off to a slow start at the plate.

Mets Promote Christian Scott

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TODAY: The Mets have officially selected Scott’s contract, and also called right-hander Cole Sulser up from Triple-A.  Right-hander Dedniel Nunez and left-hander Danny Young were optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding moves.

MAY 2: The Mets are planning to promote pitching prospect Christian Scott, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. McDaniel adds that Scott will likely make his debut on Saturday against the Rays. He’s not yet on the 40-man roster, so the Mets will need a corresponding move to add him.

Scott, 25 in June, was a fifth-round selection of the Mets in 2021 but he has raised his stock dramatically since then. In 2022, he tossed 58 2/3 innings between Single-A and High-A with a fairly pedestrian 4.45 ERA, but stronger underlying metrics. He struck out 29.5% of batters faced while walking 8.4%. If not for a .381 batting average on balls in play and 68.1% strand rate, he would have fared much better, which is why his FIP was 2.77 that year.

Last year, he eventually rose as high as Double-A, throwing 87 2/3 frames for the year with a 2.57 ERA. He struck out 31.9% of batters while limiting his walks to a tiny 3.6% rate. He came into 2024 ranked as the #98 prospect in baseball, according to FanGraphs. At ESPN, McDaniel had Scott at #99. Eric Longenhagen and Tess Taruskin of FanGraphs highlighted that he converted his changeup into a splitter, adding a strong third option to what had previously been mostly a sinker/slider combo.

He didn’t crack the season-opening lists at either MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, but has vaulted himself up to #62 on BA’s most recent update. That huge jump is a reflection of the fact that Scott has been dominating this year, apart from some homer troubles. Through five Triple-A starts here in 2024, he has fanned 38.3% of opponents while limiting his walks to a 6.4% rate. But thanks to seven fly balls clearing the fences, he has a 3.20 ERA.

In addition to pushing him up prospect lists, that strong performance will get him to the majors. The Mets currently have a rotation of Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Jose Quintana, Adrian Houser and José Buttó. The only optionable guy in that group is Buttó, but he has been pitching well, with a 2.57 ERA on the year. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com speculates that Scott’s promotion might be related to the Mets playing 26 games in 27 days, so perhaps Scott’s promotion will just be a spot start to give the others a breather.

The length of Scott’s stay might also depend on other factors. Each of Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill and David Peterson are on the injured list and their respective returns will impact how the rotation is configured as they season rolls along. Senga and Peterson on on the 60-day IL and can’t return until late May but Megill recently began a rehab assignment and could therefore be an option in a few weeks. Scott’s performance in his big league debut will naturally impact the decisions as well.

Regardless of how long Scott spends in the bigs for the rest of the season, he won’t be able to earn a full year of service time since the campaign is already more than a month old. The new CBA allows top prospects to earn a full year even if called up late if they finish in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, but that won’t apply to Scott. To be eligible for that benefit, a player has to start the year on two of three top 100 lists at ESPN, BA and MLB Pipeline, but Scott was only on one. That means the Mets can control him through the 2023 season, even if he sticks in the big leagues from here on out.

Padres Acquire Luis Arraez

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12:21PM: The Marlins are eating almost all of the roughly $8.5MM owed to Arraez this season, ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reports (X link).  San Diego will owe Arraez only the MLB minimum salary for the rest of 2024, so between this arrangement and moving Go’s salary, the Padres look to have actually reduced their luxury tax number with this trade.

TODAY, 9:34AM: Both teams have officially announced the trade, and the Padres will also be receiving cash considerations from the Marlins.  This will lower the Padres’ financial hit, and give them a bit more breathing room under the luxury tax threshold.

MAY 3: The Padres and Marlins have lined up on a rare May blockbuster. San Diego is reportedly acquiring two-time batting champ Luis Arraez from Miami for four players: prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, as well as reliever Woo-Suk Go.

Arraez’s tenure in Miami ends after a season and five weeks. The Fish swapped Pablo López to the Twins to acquire him over the 2022-23 offseason. Arraez played up to expectations in the first season. He flirted with .400 for a few months, and while he didn’t maintain that otherworldly pace, he cruised to a second straight batting title and helped Miami to the playoffs. Arraez finished with a .354/.393/.469 line through 617 plate appearances.

As the batting titles would suggest, Arraez has developed into perhaps the game’s best pure contact hitter. He has walked more often than he’s struck out over the course of his career. The Venezuela native has punched out in only 7.5% of his plate appearances in the big leagues. That’s down to a meager 6.4% clip going back to the start of 2022. That leads qualified hitters by more than three percentage points. Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan is the only other player to strike out less than 10% of the time in that span.

Arraez has tallied 148 plate appearances over 33 games this season. His production is down slightly, as he’s hitting .299/.347/.372 without a home run. That’s not much of a concern for San Diego. Arraez is still making contact at an elite rate. He has never been a huge power threat, topping out at 10 longballs a year ago. It’s unlikely that San Diego feels differently about Arraez than they did during Spring Training, when they reportedly made a push for both him and starter Jesús Luzardo.

Going back to the start of 2022, Arraez is a .331/.380/.437 hitter in nearly 1400 plate appearances. He has hit at the top of the lineup in Miami and should do the same with the Padres. San Diego has been using Jurickson Profar in the leadoff spot of late. While Profar’s out to a fantastic start to the season, he can slide down a few spots in a suddenly deeper lineup.

As great a hitter as Arraez is, his game isn’t without flaws. He’s at best a fringe defender at second base. Defensive Runs Saved has generally graded him around league average with the glove, though it has soured on his work in 281 innings this season. Statcast has long panned him as a defender, grading him negatively in all but one year of his career. Statcast estimates he’s been 24 runs below average in nearly 2700 career innings at the keystone.

The Twins played Arraez more frequently at first base back in 2022. He rated better there defensively, although he doesn’t have the traditional power profile expected at the position. That doesn’t seem to be much of an issue for the Padres. Incumbent first baseman Jake Cronenworth is also a hit-over-power player who began his career in the middle infield.

Arraez could see occasional reps at first and second base, but he’s likely to get the bulk of his at-bats as a designated hitter. The Friars have Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts, Ha-Seong Kim and Manny Machado as their projected starting infield. Machado was limited to DH for a couple weeks as he recovered from last fall’s elbow surgery. He made his return to third base last Friday, and while he has continued shuffling between the hot corner and DH since then, he’ll eventually work back to everyday third base reps.

Machado’s return to third base would have left the Friars without a clear everyday option at designated hitter. Rookie Graham Pauley has gotten some reps there, but he has hit .125/.125/.313 to start his MLB career. Arraez should solidify that spot while still having enough defensive flexibility to allow manager Mike Shildt to rotate other infielders through the position when they need a break on defense.

Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has never shied away from pursuing star talent, so it’s not particularly surprising that they’d keep an eye on Arraez. The timing of the trade, though, is a stunner. It’s incredibly rare to see players of that caliber moved this early into a season. Perhaps the best recent comparison is the May 21, 2021 swap that sent Willy Adames and Trevor Richards from the Rays to the Brewers for Drew Rasmussen and J.P. Feyereisen.

Peter Bendix was serving as Tampa Bay’s general manager (#2 in the front office hierarchy) at the time of the Adames deal. He’s now in charge of baseball operations in Miami. Bendix is evidently not averse to making a major splash at an atypical time if the opportunity presents itself.

The Marlins followed up a quiet offseason with an absolutely terrible April. They enter this weekend’s series in Oakland with a 9-24 record. Whatever slim chance they had of repeating last year’s surprising playoff berth has all but evaporated. Miami was going to be a deadline seller, so there’s sense in moving early if another team put the right offer on the table.

Miami felt that was the case with a four-player return centered around San Diego’s 2023 first-rounder. The Padres selected Head 25th overall out of an Illinois high school. A left-handed hitting center fielder, he split his first professional season between rookie ball and Low-A. Head ranked eighth among San Diego prospects at Baseball America and fifth on Keith Law’s organizational write-up at The Athletic.

Both outlets credit Head with excellent speed and the chance to be a plus defensive center fielder at his peak. BA writes that he’s likely to be a contact-oriented offensive player without a ton of power, but Law wrote that professional scouts were impressed by the bat speed he showed after being drafted. Head has spent his age-19 season at Low-A Lake Elsinore. He’s out to a relatively slow start, hitting .237/.317/.366 with a 24% strikeout rate.

While Head is a long-term development play, Marsee has an outside shot at getting to the big leagues in 2024. A sixth-round pick out of Central Michigan two years ago, he dramatically improved his stock with a .274/.413/.428 showing between High-A and Double-A last season. Marsee followed up with a massive performance in the Arizona Fall League. There was even some speculation he could compete for the Opening Day center field spot, but it quickly became clear that Jackson Merrill was above him in that discussion.

Marsee, 23, ranked between 10th and 12th on the respective organizational prospect lists at BA and The Athletic. He’s credited with advanced plate discipline and instincts but without a ton of power potential. Marsee has played almost exclusively center field in the minors and likely projects as a fourth outfielder. He has spent this season at Double-A San Antonio, where has slumped to a .187/.337/.333 slash through his first 22 games.

Martorella, who is also 23, was a fifth-round pick out of Cal in that 2022 draft. The left-handed hitter has a career .269/.373/.447 batting line in nearly 800 professional plate appearances. He’s out to an excellent .294/.392/.435 start with a pair of homers and six doubles through 102 trips to the plate in San Antonio. Martorella is limited to first base or designated hitter, so he’ll need to hit a lot to be a regular, but he has shown a well-rounded offensive profile in pro ball.

Rounding out the return is Go, whom the Padres just signed out of Korea last winter. San Diego inked the 25-year-old righty to a two-year, $4.5MM deal. He’s playing this season on a $1.75MM salary. He’ll make $2.25MM next year and is guaranteed a $500K buyout on a $3MM mutual option for 2026. As is the case with most players signed out of a foreign professional league, his contract stipulates that he return to free agency at the end of the deal even though he’ll be well shy of six years of MLB service.

Go has yet to pitch in the major leagues. The Padres optioned him to Double-A after he struggled in Spring Training. He has tossed 12 2/3 innings there, allowing seven runs (six earned) on 14 hits. Go has fanned 15 hitters while issuing four walks. He was a closer for the KBO’s LG Twins before making the jump to MLB. He turned in a 3.18 ERA over parts of seven KBO seasons. Go missed plenty of bats in Korea but struggled to consistently throw strikes. Scouting reports before his signing generally suggested he projected as a middle reliever at the MLB level.

It’s the first of what is likely to be a handful of trades for the Marlins over the next few months. Miami seems set to kick off at least a retool, if not a full-scale rebuild. Luzardo, Trevor Rogers, Tanner Scott and Jazz Chisholm Jr. are among a number of players whom the Fish could put on the market. It’s unlikely the Arraez trade will open the floodgates three months before the deadline, but it’s clear Miami is already willing to engage in conversations.

Making trades well in advance of the deadline would also allow the Marlins to offload a greater portion of players’ contracts. Budgetary constraints are always present for a franchise that annually runs payrolls in the bottom third of the league. Miami essentially sat out free agency until taking a $5MM flier on Tim Anderson (which hasn’t worked out) at the beginning of Spring Training.

Arraez was one of the higher-paid players on the roster. He’s making $10.6MM this season after losing an arbitration case in February — the second straight year he and the team went to a hearing. Around $8.5MM is yet to be paid. Assuming there are no cash considerations involved, they’ll offload that but assume around $1.4MM of Go’s salary. That amounts to just over $7MM in savings. The team’s estimated player payroll now sits around $92MM, as calculated by RosterResource.

The Padres absorb that money, which is no small matter for a team that spent most of the offseason cutting spending. RosterResource estimates their actual player payroll around $174MM. Their competitive balance tax number is far higher, reflecting their slate of backloaded contracts. RosterResource calculates their CBT in the $232MM range. They’re around $4.5MM below this year’s $237MM base threshold, a marker they were reluctant to cross last winter.

A team’s CBT calculation isn’t determined until the end of the season. This surely isn’t the last of the Padres’ trade activity. Their deadline direction could go in a number of ways depending on how the team performs over the next few months. It’s not even out of the question the Padres fall out of the race and put Arraez back on the trade block in July, though that’s surely not what the front office currently intends.

Even if Arraez finishes the 2024 season in San Diego, he could be a trade candidate next offseason. He’ll go through arbitration once more before hitting free agency during the 2025-26 offseason. The two-time All-Star is likely to command a salary in the $14-16MM range for his final year of club control. The Padres could ostensibly plug him in at second base and move Bogaerts back to shortstop if Kim departs as a free agent, but that’s not something with which the team will concern itself in the short term.

For now, they’ll plug Arraez at the top of the lineup as they push for a playoff spot. They’ll get a few more months of production than they would’ve had they waited to make a traditional deadline move, albeit at the cost of a trio of mid-level prospects and around three-quarters of Arraez’s 2024 salary. There may not be any more huge moves in the next couple weeks, but it’s a precursor to what should be busy summers in both South Florida and Southern California.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Padres were nearing agreement on an Arraez deal for three prospects and a reliever. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic confirmed there was an Arraez trade in place. Craig Mish of SportsGrid was first to report the Marlins’ return.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Julio Urias Pleads No Contest To Domestic Battery Charge

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Former Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge yesterday, per a report from the Los Angeles City News Service. The L.A. City Attorney’s office tells the City News Service that Urias will be placed on 36 months of probation, complete 30 days of community service, complete a year-long domestic violence counseling program, pay a fee to a domestic violence fund, pay restitution to the victim and abide by a protective order. He’s also forbidden from possessing any weapons. A second domestic battery charge, one count of injuring a spouse, one count of assault and one count of false imprisonment were dropped as a contingency of Urias’ no-contest plea to the charge of misdemeanor battery.

Back in 2019, Urias was suspended 20 games under the league’s joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy but was never criminally charged. He was arrested a second time in Sept. 2023 after another wave of allegations arose when he was allegedly captured on cell phone video in a public altercation with a woman following an LAFC Major League Soccer match. He was released from custody after posting a $50,000 bond.

Documents from the District Attorney’s Office back in January indicated that Urias “pushed the victim against a fence and pulled her by the hair or shoulders” but ultimately referred Urias to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office for misdemeanor charges rather than felony charges. Last month, the L.A. City Attorney brought five misdemeanor charges: one count of spousal battery, two counts of domestic battery involving a dating relationship, one count of assault and one count of false imprisonment.

With criminal proceedings drawing to a close, Major League Baseball will now presumably move to conclude its own investigation into the matter. MLB placed Urias on paid administrative leave just two days after the incident took place. That’s standard practice for players who are being investigated under the joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy — and administrative leave in and of itself is not considered punitive in nature. However, in the event that criminal charges are brought forth and/or that the league’s own investigation determines that a suspension is warranted, any pay accrued while on leave can be rescinded.

If and when the league follows Urias’ no-contest plea with a suspension, he’ll become the first player in history to receive multiple suspensions under the joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. Urias became a free agent following the 2024 season and remains unsigned.

Trade Rumors Front Office: Changes To Article Delivery

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Four years ago, I created our Trade Rumors Front Office subscription service.  Facing some challenges with the online advertising revenue model, we launched a premium version of MLBTR with a paid subscription.  For $29.89 per year, a Trade Rumors Front Office subscription removes ads on all our sites and in our app, grants access to tools such as the Contract Tracker and Agency Database, and provides exclusive articles and chats from Tim Dierkes, Steve Adams, Anthony Franco, and Nicklaus Gaut.  I think we’re offering great value for the price.

To date, the exclusive articles and chats have been delivered entirely via email.  This has resulted in a missed benefit for new subscribers, who had no access to previously-sent articles.  Sometimes people sign up specifically because they hear about a certain Front Office original we sent out.  They would inquire about it and I’d forward the email to them along with other recent exclusives.  This was not an efficient system, so I’ve decided to create an archive of Trade Rumors Front Office articles on MLBTR itself.  New subscribers will be able to go back and check out previous content as soon as they sign up.

This will be accomplished in the form of a paywall.  Roughly once per day on average, a paywalled Trade Rumors Front Office article or live chat will appear on MLBTR.  We averaged 16.6 posts per day on MLBTR last year, to give you a sense of how often you’ll run into this paywall.  If you’re a logged-in subscriber, you will not see the paywall.  Everyone else will see just a snippet of the article before running into it.

Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers will continue to receive these articles via email as well.  If you’re a subscriber and you decide you no longer need the emails because the articles are on the website, you can go here and unsubscribe from emails as needed.  We have not yet built the paywall technology in our iOS and Android apps, so the exclusive articles will not appear there.  If you’re an app user and paid subscriber you’ll want to continue receiving the emails.

Putting these Front Office articles on MLBTR is not just about creating an archive.  It will also serve as marketing for the subscription service.  A portion of MLBTR readers are interested in paying to read these articles, and I don’t think it makes sense to hide them.  Some people will see the topics and read an excerpt and be convinced to subscribe.  If that may apply to you, I should point out that it’s risk-free, in that we offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied for any reason.

Others will choose not to subscribe, whether due to lack of interest or their financial situation.  Our ad-supported readers remain appreciated and vital to this website.  It’s worth pointing out that the core function of MLBTR is not changing. We’re still going to curate, contextualize, and analyze news from the around the game in real-time and provide up-to-the-minute transaction breakdowns as we have since 2005.  That remains free and ad-supported.  The Trade Rumors Front Office articles that will appear on this site are opinion and analysis-based, as you’ll see.  We have no intention of paywalling news posts, which would not make sense.

We’re producing six Trade Rumors Front Office MLB articles/chats per week at present, two of which are fantasy baseball-centric.  Could the number increase from six?  It’s possible we’ll paywall additional opinion and analysis posts, particularly time-intensive ones such as our Offseason in Review and Offseason Outlook  series.

Whether you’re a Trade Rumors Front Office subscriber or someone who enjoys the free ad-supported MLB Trade Rumors, you’re welcome here.  After 18+ years we’re still going strong, and it’s a privilege to be able to do this for a living.  Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask questions in the comment section.

Mike Trout To Undergo Knee Surgery

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The Angels announced on Tuesday that Mike Trout is undergoing surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his left knee. He was placed on the 10-day injured list. Alden González and Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that Trout would undergo knee surgery. The club hasn’t provided a timetable but expect Trout back this season, though González and Passan report that four to six weeks would be a best-case scenario, with the caveat that doctors will need to get a closer look.

It’s unclear when Trout suffered the injury, as he was playing in last night’s game and wasn’t removed at any point. González relayed a two-minute video clip on X of Trout discussing the issue. Trout said he felt it a little bit in the third inning but it didn’t seem like a serious issue. But it was sore after the game and this morning, so he got it tested.

Needless to say, it’s an awful development for the Angels and for Trout himself. The superstar was in good form to start the 2024 campaign. He has already launched ten home runs and drawn walks in 12.7% of his plate appearances. He currently has a line of .220/.325/.541 for the year, which translates to a wRC+ of 142, indicating he’s been 42% better than the league average hitter. He also stole six bases in seven tries.

But that performance is now put on pause, the latest setback for a player who has become frustratingly injury prone in recent years. The last time he was able to play 120 games in a season was 2019 and he’s only gone beyond the 82-game plateau once in that span. He was healthy in 2020 but the pandemic shortened the season to 60 games. A right calf strain was the culprit in 2021, followed by back problems the year after that and a left hamate fracture last season. Now he’s set to miss some undetermined amount of the 2024 season while recovering from this surgery.

As has so often been the case, the Angels are struggling despite Trout’s best efforts. They are currently 11-18, which puts them ahead of just the Astros and White Sox in the American League standings. Now they will have to proceed without their franchise player in center field for the foreseeable future.

How the club will proceed without Trout remains to be seen. They just designated Aaron Hicks for assignment yesterday, subtracting one outfielder from the mix. Now Trout’s inevitable placement on the injured list will subtract a second.

Jo Adell has plenty of center field experience and has been hitting well so far this season, currently sporting a monster batting line of .321/.373/.623. Perhaps most importantly, he’s only striking out at a 23.7% clip, compared to a 35.4% rate in his big league time coming into this year. Taylor Ward is having a good season at the plate and should stick in left field.

Mickey Moniak may need to jump into a regular role, though his fortunes have completely flipped since last year. In 2023, he rode a .397 batting average on balls in play to a line of .280/.307/.495. This year, his BABIP has cratered to .189, leading to a line of .143/.200/.214. He was due for regression based on last year’s 35% strikeout rate but he has actually lowered that to 30% this year, despite the far worse results. Multi-positional players like Brandon Drury, Luis Rengifo, Cole Tucker and Ehire Adrianza have some outfield experience. Jordyn Adams is on the 40-man but currently on optional assignment. The Angels also signed Kevin Pillar to a big league contract shortly after announcing Trout’s injury.

Trout’s contract runs through the 2030 season. Many speculated that he might ask for a trade away from the Angels now that Shohei Ohtani is gone and the team made little effort to improve the roster this past winter, despite his personal attempts to lobby the club’s decision makers to do more. But in February, he said that asking for a trade would be “the easy way out” and that he still wants to win with the Angels.

Astros To Option José Abreu

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First baseman José Abreu is not with the Astros right now and will be optioned tomorrow to West Palm Beach. As a veteran with over five years of major league service time, Abreu cannot be optioned without his consent but agreed to be sent down in an attempt to overcome his struggles. Chandler Rome of The Athletic was among those to relay the news on X.

Abreu, now 37, signed a three-year deal with a $58.5MM guarantee with the Astros going into 2023. Houston was undoubtedly hoping for Abreu to continue performing like he did with the White Sox. He hit 243 home runs for that club from 2014 to 2022, slashing .292/.354/.506 in the process.

But things have not been going well since he joined the Astros. He was hitting .211/.276/.260 through May last year, before bouncing back with a solid showing of .277/.322/.466 in June and July. He was brutal again in August, hitting .188/.278/.271, before mounting a solid finish by slashing .237/.299/.536 in September and October. That up-and-down season finished with a line of .237/.296/.383, which translated to a wRC+ of 86, but he provided a bit more optimism by slashing .295/.354/.591 in the postseason.

Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse here in 2024, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco looked at last week. Abreu has just seven hits so far this season, with his one double the only extra-base knock of the bunch. He currently has a line of .099/.156/.113 on the year. His -21 wRC+ is the worst in the majors among players with at least 70 plate appearances.

His .130 batting average on balls in play is surely due for some regression, but Abreu isn’t hitting the ball with much authority either. He has yet to barrel a ball this season, per Statcast’s definition, while his exit velocity and hard hit rate are way down relative to his previous work.

As mentioned, veteran players cannot be optioned without their consent but Abreu has agreed to go down to the minors. General manager Dana Brown told reporters that both sides decided Abreu should go down to the farm “to get some at-bats and his timing back right,” per Rome, linked up top. “He unselfishly was on board and agreement with going back to West Palm Beach,” Brown said.

Obviously, it would be great for everyone involved if this plan were successful in getting him back on track. The Astros are off to their worst start in years, currently 9-19 and in last place in the American League West. Abreu’s struggles have obviously been a part of that but he could also be part of the solution if he were able to turn things around.

For now, it’s not totally clear what the plan will be at first base. Joey Loperfido was just added to the roster today but he will be playing outfield for now, Brown said, per Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle. The Astros have Jon Singleton available to play first base but he’s not having a great year either, currently slashing .238/.319/.286.

Trey Cabbage could perhaps be an option, as he’s on the 40-man roster. He was just up with the club as their 27th man for the Mexico City Series but was sent back down after. Position players normally have to wait ten days after being optioned to be recalled again, but a “27th man” situation doesn’t count as being optioned.

Cabbage generally provides pop and can take a walk, but also racks up his share of strikeouts. He’s been hitting .271/.440/.486 in Triple-A this year, walking 23.1% of the time but striking out at a 31.9% clip. He also provides some wheels, having stolen seven bags on the year so far.

The Astros won’t officially option Abreu until tomorrow, so they will play a man short tonight and the corresponding move will be clear at that time.

Angels Sign Kevin Pillar

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The Angels announced they’ve signed veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar to a major league contract. He steps into an outfield that just lost Mike Trout for at least 4-6 weeks to knee surgery. Pillar is represented by All Bases Covered Sports Management.

Pillar spent last season with the Braves, where current Halos skipper Ron Washington was on staff as third base coach. He held his roster spot with Atlanta all season despite a tepid .228/.248/.416 batting line over 206 plate appearances. That’s in large part a testament to the regard with which he was held in the Braves clubhouse. Pillar signed a one-year deal with the White Sox for 2024 but turned in a .160/.290/.360 slash in 32 trips to the plate.

The Sox designated him for assignment last week when they added Tommy Pham onto the big league roster. Pillar cleared waivers and became a free agent, but it didn’t take long for him to get another MLB job. He adds a right-handed complement to Mickey Moniak, who is in line for the majority of the center field reps while Trout is on the injured list. Pillar is no longer a high-end defender in center field, but he’s capable of playing all three outfield spots.

Taylor Ward and Jo Adell will take the majority of the corner outfield reps. Moniak is off to a very slow start, hitting .143/.200/.214 in 60 plate appearances. Pillar will serve as a fourth outfielder alongside infield/outfield hybrids like Cole Tucker and potentially Luis Rengifo, who played 134 innings on the grass a year ago.

There’s no financial downside for the Halos. Pillar will only cost them the prorated $740K league minimum for whatever time he spends on the roster.

Brewers Promote Tyler Black

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4:05pm: The Brewers have made it official, announcing they have selected Black’s contract. Miley was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man spot while Miller was optioned to make room on the active roster.

1:35pm: The Brewers are expected to call up infield prospect Tyler Black today, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Black is not on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will be necessary, though Wade Miley could easily be transferred to the 60-day injured list since he is going to miss the rest of the season due to Tommy John surgery. Another move would still be necessary to get Black onto the active roster.

Black, 23, was selected by the Brewers with the 33rd overall pick in the 2021 draft. Since then, he has climbed the minor league ladder, earning huge amounts of praise for his plate discipline. He spent 2022 in High-A, walking more often than he struck out. He was limited to 283 plate appearances in 64 games due to a fractured scapula but drew 45 walks while getting punched out 44 times, leading to respective rates of 15.9% and 15.5%. He only hit four home runs but his .281/.406/.424 batting line translated to a 137 wRC+.

He got over his injury and returned to the field last year, playing 123 games between Double-A and Triple-A. He walked in 15.8% of his trips to the plate on the year while striking out at a 17.9% rate, hitting 18 home runs in the process. He hit a combined .284/.417/.513 between the two levels for a 145 wRC+. He returned to Triple-A this year and has produced a batting line of .303/.393/.525 so far.

Though the plate discipline is his most standout tool, he also has some speed to offer. He stole 13 bases in his injury-shortened 2022 campaign before swiping 55 bags on 67 tries last year. He’s tallied another three in the early going here in 2024.

Defensively, he’s more of a question mark. He was a second baseman in college and the early parts of his minor league career, spending some time in center field in 2022 as well. But since the start of last year, he’s been exclusively on the infield corners, primarily at third.

Regardless of the defensive question marks, the strong offense and the speed are enough for him to be considered one of the best prospects in the league. Baseball America currently lists him as their #73 prospect. MLB Pipeline has him at #42, ESPN at #51 while Keith Law of The Athletic put him in the #44 spot. Though for a dissenting opinion, Black doesn’t crack the top 100 at FanGraphs and Eric Longenhagen put him at just #10 in the Brewers’ system last month. Longenhagen expresses concern that Black won’t stick at third base and will eventually end up at first, where his contact-over-power approach will be insufficient.

Given the current Milwaukee infield alignment, it would seem that Black probably has a better path to playing time at first base for now. Joey Ortiz has been the regular at third and is hitting a strong .279/.392/.426 so far this year, 134 wRC+. First base has been split between Rhys Hoskins and Jake Bauers, though the latter hasn’t been performing especially well. Bauers is hitting .200/.250/.383 while striking out in 37.5% of his trips to the plate this year.

Both Bauers and Black are left-handed hitters, so it seems Bauers is the player most likely to lose playing time with Black promotion. Bauers is out of options and would have to be designated for assignment if he is to be squeezed off the roster. Though if the Brewers want to keep him around as a bench bat, they could option someone like Joey Wiemer, Oliver Dunn or Owen Miller.

It’s late enough in the season that Black can’t earn a full year of service time, at least not the traditional way. A major league season is 187 days long but a player needs 172 days in the big leagues, or on the major league injured list, to get to the one-year mark. Since we’re over a month into the 2024 campaign already, Black can’t quite make it to that line.

The current collective bargaining agreement contains measures to disincentive service time manipulation, by rewarding clubs for promotion top prospects while also allowing such players a path to getting one year of service even if held down. If a player is on two of the three top 100 lists at BA, MLB Pipeline or ESPN, they are considered eligible for the prospect promotion incentive, which applies to Black since he’s on all three.

Had the Brewers promoted Black earlier in the year, they could have earned themselves an extra draft pick depending on how he performed in awards voting, but that won’t be in play now. Black will be able to earn a full service year if he can finish in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting, the other new measure in the CBA, though he will have an uphill battle in achieving that. Players like Shota Imanaga Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jared Jones, Jackson Merrill, Masyn Winn and others have already had a head start of over a month to rack up stats while Black is just getting started.

Even if he comes up short of the one-year mark here in 2024, he would be in line for Super Two status after the 2026 campaign if he can stay up in the big leagues from this point forward. He would be able to go through arbitration four times instead of three before being slated for free agency after 2030, though future optional assignments could delay either of those trajectories.

New Team Rumors Functionality On MLBTR Mobile Website

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In early March, we rolled out improvements to MLBTR’s search functionality.  As I mentioned at the time, in the process we eliminated a somewhat inconvenient Teams menu that had been in the navigation bar on the mobile website.  To review, the new way to get to the team page is to type a few letters of that team name into the search box. You can start with the city name or the team name. Usually about three or four letters does the trick:

That’ll bring you to our team archive, with all posts tagged with that club in chronological order:

Based on reader suggestions, we have created two additional ways to access team rumors.  The first utilizes the favorite teams you have selected in your MLBTR account.  Here’s how to select your favorite teams.

First, create a free commenter account on MLBTR if you don’t already have one.  Then, once you’re logged in (assuming you’re on a mobile device), tap the three lines icon in the upper right, then the dropdown for My Account, and then Choose Your Favorite Teams:

We’re going to make some improvements to simplify the Favorite Team picker, which currently shows NFL teams by default.  But for now, on the left you’ll see MLB, so tap that.  Scroll to the team(s) you want and select them.  Then hit Save:

After you save your favorite teams, navigate back to mlbtraderumors.com in your browser.  Go to the flame menu up top.  You’ll see that the first entry is now a link to the team rumors pages of your favorites.  This will show up to three favorite teams for a given sport.

So those are two options to reach a team’s rumor page: type it into the search bar, or favorite it and access it via the flame menu.  We have also brought back the original way: choosing a team from a list of all of them.  To do so, go to the three lines icon in the upper right, then hit the dropdown for Teams.  You’ll see all 30 teams listed by division, with minimal need for scrolling.  Tap a team and you’ll go to its rumor page.

After you land on a team rumor page, you can also hit your browser’s Back button to return to this list of all 30 and select a different team.

If you’re on the MLBTR mobile website, you now have three different ways to navigate to a team’s rumor page.  Enjoy!

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