Athletics Rumors

MLBTR Podcast: Injured Astros, The Chances Of Bad Teams Rebounding In 2025 And More

By Darragh McDonald | June 12, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

The Astros have lost several players to injury but general manager Dana Brown insists they will be deadline buyers (0:45)
With so few teams clearly out of contention, signs are pointing towards a seller’s market at the deadline (7:20)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

Out of the five worst teams right now (Athletics, Angels, White Sox, Marlins and Rockies), who most needs to replenish their farm system and who could possibly turn things around by 2025? (11:20)
The Guardians need a right-handed right fielder with power. Who is a viable target? (20:40)
Will the Marlins to try trade Jesús Luzardo and Jazz Chisholm Jr.? (24:30)
Could you see Alex Anthopoulos of the Braves trying to get Kevin Gausman from the Blue Jays? (28:35)
How active will the Reds be at the deadline? (32:15)
Should the Dodgers acquire Javier Báez from the Tigers and move Mookie Betts back to the outfield and/or option Gavin Lux? (35:40)

Check out our past episodes!

Gambling Scandal, The State Of The Blue Jays And The Orioles’ Rotation Depth – listen here
Ángel Hernández Retires, Ronald Acuña Jr. Out For The Season And Roki Sasaki’s Potential Posting – listen here
The Likelihood Of A Juan Soto Extension, What’s In Store For Pete Alonso, And Corbin Carroll’s Struggles – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!

AL West Notes: Evans, Seager, Tucker, Athletics

By Mark Polishuk | June 9, 2024 at 6:23pm CDT

A few players from the 2023 draft have already made their MLB debuts, and Mariners prospect Logan Evans could potentially be coming soon due to his recent move to relief pitching. As Adam Jude of the Seattle Times writes, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto recently called Evans with the idea of shifting from the Double-A rotation to the bullpen, since the M’s are currently in the enviable position of having a loaded rotation. Working as a reliever could put Evans on the fast track to the Show, and give the Mariners an extra hard-throwing arm in an injury-depleted pen.

A 12th-round pick out of Pitt, Evans has a sparkling 1.16 ERA over 54 1/3 innings for Double-A Arkansas this season, with a 23% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate, and a 53.6% grounder rate. MLB Pipeline’s scouting report also notes that the Mariners received trade interest in Evans as early as last offseason, after he posted an 0.60 ERA in his first 15 pro innings.

A’s Select Michel Otañez

By Nick Deeds | June 9, 2024 at 5:18pm CDT

5:18PM: Wood had a setback during his throwing program, as the team told MLB.com and other media. Wood has subsequently been shut down and no timeline has been given about when he might get back to the rehab process.

11:25AM: The A’s announced a series of roster moves this afternoon led by the club selecting the contract of right-hander Michel Otañez. Making room for Otañez on the 40-man roster is Alex Wood, who the club transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move, while lefty Jack O’Loughlin was optioned to the minor leagues to create space on the active roster.

Otañez, 27 next month, made his professional debut in the Mets organization back in 2018. Initially a starting pitcher, the right-hander converted to relief following the cancelled minor league season in 2020 and reached the upper levels of the minors in 2022. While he dominated Double-A hitters to the tune of a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings of work, he quickly met his match in a promotion to Triple-A, where he struggled to a 6.37 ERA in 29 2/3 frames. Otañez then elected minor league free agency and landed with the Diamondbacks, though his struggles continued with a brutal 6.08 ERA in 37 innings of work split between the Double- and Triple-A levels that year. While Otañez struck out an excellent 35.3% of batters faced with Arizona, a ghastly 16.2% walk rate held him back from being a major league caliber relief arm.

Otañez returned to minor league free agency last offseason and latched on with the A’s on a minor league pact. The club assigned him to Triple-A Las Vegas and he finally found success at the level with his third organization. In 29 1/3 innings of work, Otañez has managed to cut his walk rate to a more manageable 11.8% while maintaining a strong 35.4% strikeout rate that’s nearly identical to last year. His work to cut down on free passes paid dividends in the results department as he’s posted a 3.99 ERA despite the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

That performance was enough to convince the A’s to offer Otañez a chance at the big league level. The 26-year-old will make his major league debut the first time he gets into a game and figures to act as a middle relief option for the club from the right-hand side alongside Vinny Nittoli, behind late-inning arms Mason Miller, Austin Adams, and Dany Jimenez. He’ll replace O’Loughlin in an Oakland bullpen stacked with left-handed pitching options after the Australia native threw 3 1/3 scoreless relief frames against Toronto last night.

As for Wood, the lefty’s placement on the 60-day IL is ominous news given that Wood was set to begin a throwing program in his rehab from rotator cuff tendinitis on June 1. That seemingly could have put the veteran lefty on track to return sometime later this month, but now he’ll be out until at least after the All Star break. The 2024 campaign had been a struggle for Wood prior to his placement on the IL, as he pitched to a lackluster 5.26 ERA with a matching 5.27 FIP through nine starts with Oakland.

Hank Foiles Passes Away

By Nick Deeds | June 9, 2024 at 8:43am CDT

Former All Star catcher Hank Foiles passed away late last month at the age of 94, as noted by various sources including Jami Frankenberry of The Virginian-Pilot. An veteran of 11 major league seasons, Foiles played for the Reds, Indians, Pirates, Athletics, Tigers, Orioles, and Angels throughout his time in the big leagues.

Foiles started his professional career at the age of 19 as a member of the Yankees organization back in 1948, but he didn’t make his big league debut for several years. He was selected in the 1951 Rule 5 draft by the Reds but didn’t make his big league debut with the club until 1953. He appeared in just 12 games at the big league level that season between Cincinnati and Cleveland and collected three hits across his first 20 major league at-bats. Foiles wouldn’t play at the big league level in 1954 but split time with Hal Naragon as the backup to five-time All Star Jim Hegan in 1955. In 132 plate appearances that year, Foiles hit .261 with a solid .354 on-base percentage.

Foiles would appear in just one more game with Cleveland before being traded to Pittsburgh during the 1956 season. Although he had a down season at the plate during his first year with the club, his years in Pittsburgh would prove to be the most significant of his career as he earned the everyday catching job for the Pirates in 1957 and 1958. Foiles made the lone All Star appearance of his career in 1957 when he combined his glove-first profile with above average offense to slash .270/.352/.431 in 109 games.

On the 1957 NL All Star team, he joined legends of the game such as Stan Musial, Frank Robinson, and Henry Aaron opposite AL legends like Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. Foiles pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth inning with Willie Mays on third base and drew a wild pitch to score Mays and bring the NL within two before delivering a single against longtime White Sox ace Billy Pierce. Foiles later scored from second on a single by Ernie Banks, though the NL would go on to lose the game 6-5.

Foiles would remain in Pittsburgh for two more seasons following his All Star season, and though his offense took step backward with a .209/.314/.355 line between the next two campaigns, he nonetheless made 157 appearances and 402 trips to the plate across those two seasons. 1960 saw Foiles change organizations multiple times, as he was traded from the Pirates to the then-Kansas City Athletics during the 1959-60 offseason but appeared in just six games with the club before being returned to the Pirates. He was then traded to Cleveland to act as their back-up catcher before a late July deal sent him to the Tigers. He finished the 1960 season in Detroit but was selected in the Rule V Draft for the second time that November, putting him in five different organizations over the course of one calendar year.

Over the next two years, Foiles would find his groove at the plate again as a back-up catcher for the Orioles and Reds with a combined slash line of .275/.338/.482 across 43 games. Foiles found himself on the move again in 1963 when he joined the Angels, and he appeared in 45 games for the club over the next two seasons with a roughly league average slash line of .216/.289/.386. He played his final game in the big leagues just a month before his 35th birthday on May 2, 1964. A career .243/.321/.392 hitter who appeared in 608 big league games, Foiles tallied 353 hits, 46 home runs, and 166 RBI during a solid major league career.

We at MLBTR offer our condolences to the Foiles family and to his friends, fans, and others who are mourning him around the game.

JP Sears Generating Trade Interest

By Darragh McDonald | June 5, 2024 at 5:15pm CDT

The Athletics are getting plenty of trade interest in left-hander JP Sears, according to a report from Jeff Passan of ESPN, though Passan adds that the A’s are unlikely to move him. It’s a similar situation with right-hander Mason Miller, as Passan relays that the A’s are willing to listen to offers but don’t appear likely to make a trade. That tracks with previous reporting on Miller, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic said about a month ago that the A’s were willing to listen but had a massive asking price.

Sears came over to the A’s as part of the 2022 deadline deal that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees. Since then, Sears has been the most reliable and consistent pitcher on the Oakland staff as other arms have either been hurt or underperformed. He made 32 starts last year and tossed 172 1/3 innings, leading the club in both of those categories by a decent margin. Ken Waldichuk was second in both columns with 22 starts and 141 innings.

Here in 2024, he’s been the rock of the rotation yet again. The A’s currently have Waldichuk, Paul Blackburn, Ross Stripling and Alex Wood all on the injured list. Sears is once again leading the staff with 12 starts and 67 1/3 innings pitched.

While the A’s surely appreciate that quantity of work, the quality has been more decent than it has been outstanding. Sears had a 4.54 earned run average last year along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate, with all those numbers coming in fairly close to average.

Sears has dropped his ERA to 4.01 here in 2024 but that may be more due to luck than anything else. His 6.9% walk rate is a slight improvement over last year but his 16.3% strikeout rate is a significant drop. His batting average on balls in play is .239, which is well below the .278 mark he had last year and this season’s league-wide average of .286. His 35.6% ground ball rate is below average as well. His average exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate are all in the 32nd percentile or worse among qualified pitchers, according to Statcast.

Even if a bit of regression is coming, he could still serve as a solid innings eater with good control. His 4.32 FIP and 4.75 SIERA on the year aren’t as nice as his ERA but aren’t disastrous either. That can have value to an Oakland club cycling through struggling pitching prospects and injured veterans.

Whether it will be valued enough by another club to get Sears away from the A’s remains to be seen, as they should be in no real rush to move him. He came into this season with one year and 81 days of service time. That means he won’t even qualify for arbitration until after 2025 and isn’t slated for free agency until after 2028. If they don’t find any particularly enticing offers now, they can simply keep him around as part of the rotation core as they gradually try to emerge from this rebuilding process, which seems to be the most likely scenario at this point.

But the case for making him available could be his age. Sears was sort of a late bloomer, not reaching the big leagues until his age-26 season. Though the A’s can theoretically control him for years to come, he’s now 28 years old and will likely be in his early 30s by the time the club is competitive again. Perhaps that will compel them to consider pulling the trigger on a deal while his value is at its highest. With pitchers liable to suffer significant injuries at any time, there’s also a case for the club to proactively strike a deal before that happens to Sears.

Whether anything can come together will likely depend on the offers that are coming towards Oakland. Since Sears is cheap and controllable and fairly reliable, they will likely need a decent return to get a deal done. As mentioned, Sears is more a reliable mid- or back-of-rotation guy than an ace, but that could hold appeal to clubs with so many pitching injuries around the league.

A’s Select Vinny Nittoli

By Anthony Franco | June 4, 2024 at 4:05pm CDT

June 4: The A’s made it official today, selecting Nittoli’s contract today. They also reinstated left-hander Sean Newcomb from the 60-day injured list. One spot was opened by righty Michael Kelly being placed on the suspended list today, one of many players receiving punishments for gambling, as reported earlier today. A second active roster spot was opened by left-hander Brady Basso being optioned. To open another 40-man roster spot, right-hander Paul Blackburn was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Additionally, right-hander Aaron Brooks was outrighted to Las Vegas after being designated for assignment on the weekend.

Blackburn will be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was May 11. That means the club doesn’t expect him back in the next month. He has yet to begin a rehab assignment after suffering a stress reaction of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot.

June 3: A’s reliever Vinny Nittoli is joining the team before tomorrow’s series opener with the Mariners, reports Jessica Kleinschmidt (X link). Assuming he’s in line for a call-up, the A’s will need to select his contract to add him to the MLB roster.

Nittoli, 33, landed with Oakland on an offseason minor league deal. The 6’1″ righty struck out 10 hitters in 5 2/3 innings in Spring Training. He has continued to miss plenty of bats for Triple-A Las Vegas. Over 23 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League, Nittoli has fanned 36% of opposing hitters. While he has also issued walks at a higher than average rate (11%), the huge strikeout tally has allowed the Xavier product to post a 2.70 ERA in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.

Since making his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2021, Nittoli has logged 6 2/3 innings with three different teams. He has appeared at the big league level in each of the last three seasons, but last year’s three games with the Mets represented a personal high. Nittoli has five years of Triple-A experience, turning in a 4.73 ERA in 177 innings at that level. He has punched out more than 29% of his career Triple-A opponents.

Oakland lost setup man Lucas Erceg to the injured list over the weekend, subtracting one of their higher-octane arms from the relief corps. The A’s have plenty of opportunity available in the middle innings leading up to star closer Mason Miller and high-leverage righty Austin Adams. Their 40-man roster is at capacity and they don’t have any obvious candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list. That could require them to designate a player for assignment if they officially call Nittoli up tomorrow.

MLB Issues Lifetime Ban To Tucupita Marcano For Betting On Baseball, Announces Four Other One-Year Suspensions

By Steve Adams | June 4, 2024 at 9:29am CDT

Major League Baseball announced Tuesday morning that Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano has been declared permanently ineligible for violating the league’s sports betting rules and policies — specifically Rule 21(d)(2). Per this morning’s press release:

In March 2024, MLB learned from a legal sports betting operator that it had identified past baseball betting activity from accounts connected to multiple Major and Minor League players. MLB obtained data from that operator and other sportsbooks, including authentication data for bets. None of these players played in any game on which they placed a bet. Further, all of the players denied that they had any inside information relevant to the bets or that any of the baseball games they bet on were compromised or manipulated, and the betting data does not suggest that any outcomes in the baseball games on which they placed bets were compromised, influenced, or manipulated in any way. None of the players are appealing their discipline.

Under Major League Rule 21, “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.” Whereas, “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.”

MLB’s investigation found that from Oct. 16-23, 2022 and from July 12 to November 1, 2023, Marcano placed 387 bets on baseball, including 25 bets on Pirates games where he was a member of Pittsburgh’s roster. All 25 of those Pirates bets came while Marcano was rehabbing from a season-ending ACL tear, so he did not appear in any of the games in question. The bets nonetheless violate the league policy and have thus triggered the lifetime ban.

The league’s investigation found that Marcano placed more than $150K worth of bets on baseball. Most of the bets in question were parlays, some including his own (at the time) Pirates club. Marcano’s bets typically involved the Pirates winning the game or were over/under bets on the number of runs scored within the game.

Major League Baseball also announced that Athletics right-hander Michael Kelly, Diamondbacks lefty Andrew Saalfrank, Padres minor league pitcher Jay Groome and Phillies minor league infielder Jose Rodriguez have been given one-year bans for violating Rule 21(d)(1). All four players were found to have made bets on Major League Baseball games but were not on the Major League roster or injured list of any teams involved in the bets they placed.

Kelly, 31, is an active member of the Athletics’ bullpen and has pitched to a 2.59 ERA in 31 1/3 innings this season. His bets were all placed in Oct. 2021, when the right-hander was with the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate. He made only ten bets for a total of $99.92, with three of those bets coming on games involving the Astros’ big league club during the postseason. Despite the meager total of Kelly’s bets, his gambling activity was a violation of the rule in place and will trigger that one-year ban.

Similarly, each of Saalfrank ($445), Groome ($453) and Rodriguez ($749) bet under $1,000 on Major League games back in 2020-21. All were minor league players at the time — Saalfrank with Arizona’s Low-A team, Groome with the Red Sox’ High-A affiliate and Rodriguez with the White Sox’ Double-A club.

Commissioner Rob Manfred issued the following statement on today’s suspensions:

“The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball’s rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans. The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people. Since the Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity perspective through the transparency that a regulated sports betting system can provide. MLB will continue to invest heavily in integrity monitoring, educational programming and awareness initiatives with the goal of ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”

MLBTR readers can view the league’s entire press release, which contains further specifics on the nature of each player’s bets, in its entirety at MLB.com.

A’s Designate Aaron Brooks For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | June 2, 2024 at 9:03am CDT

The A’s announced this morning that they’ve activated right-hander Luis Medina from the 60-day injured list. To make room for Medina on both the club’s active and 40-man rosters, right-hander Aaron Brooks was designated for assignment.

Brooks, 34, signed with the A’s on a minor league deal over the winter and was called up last month to help fill out the club’s rotation mix amid a number of injuries to key veterans such as Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, and Paul Blackburn. He ultimately made four starts for the A’s, pitching to a 5.82 ERA with a 5.59 FIP in 21 2/3 innings of work with a strikeout rate of just 10% against a 6% walk rate. With potential long-term pieces like JP Sears and Mitch Spence currently filling out the rest of the club’s rotation mix, Brooks’s mediocre performance wasn’t enough to justify a rotation spot for the righty now that Medina is healthy enough to take the mound.

Going forward, the A’s will have one week to either trade Brooks or attempt to pass the veteran righty through waivers. Should he clear waivers, the veteran would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency should he wish to do so. Despite his lackluster results this year, it’s feasible that a club in need of starting pitching depth could have interest in the righty. After all, he’s a veteran of six major league seasons who has compiled 56 appearances and 32 starts in the majors during that time as a back-end starter and long reliever who enjoyed some success overseas while pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization from 2020-21.

Brooks’s spot both on the 40-man roster and in the starting rotation will be taken by Medina, who the A’s acquired alongside Sears and Ken Waldichuk in the Frankie Montas trade at the 2022 trade deadline. The 25-year-old made his big league debut with the A’s last year and struggled to a 5.42 ERA in 23 appearances, 17 of which were starts. Medina’s difficulties at the big league level were primarily attributable to his unsightly 11.5% walk rate, which clocked in less than ten points below his 21.4% strikeout rate.

Despite those ugly peripheral marks, Medina’s 96.1 mph average velocity on his fastball offers plenty of reason for excitement about his abilities if he figure out his command, and his performance improved as the 2023 season continued with a 4.22 ERA and 4.04 FIP in his final 70 1/3 innings of work last year. Medina’s tantalizing upside made him a strong candidate for the fifth starter role in Oakland entering the season until he found himself sidelined by a grade 2 MCL sprain in early March. Medina has been shelved ever since, but now is healthy enough for the A’s to once again offer him the opportunity to join their rotation alongside Sears, Spence, Joey Estes, and Hogan Harris.

Phillies Claim Freddy Tarnok

By Mark Polishuk | June 1, 2024 at 1:23pm CDT

The Phillies announced that they have claimed righty Freddy Tarnok off waivers from the Athletics. Tarnok has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after first being activated off the 60-day injured list. To create room on the 40-man, the Phils moved right-hander Dylan Covey to the 60-day IL.

It wasn’t publicly known that Tarnok had been designated for assignment, but Oakland had to make some kind of decision since was nearing the end of his 30-day rehab assignment. Tarnok has pitched in six games for Triple-A Las Vegas since May 8, and with a 13.50 ERA to show for those 7 1/3 innings of work, Tarnok might have simply pitched himself out of the Athletics’ plans. Tarnok has been on the IL since Opening Day due to inflammation in his right hip, and he was moved from the 15-day to the 60-day at the start of May.

A third-round pick for the Braves in the 2017 draft, Tarnok made his MLB debut in the form of a single game and two-thirds of an inning pitched during the 2022 season. That winter, Atlanta dealt Tarnok to Oakland as part of the huge three-team, nine-player trade that sent William Contreras and Joel Payamps to the Brewers and Sean Murphy to the Braves, with Tarnok being one of the younger, controllable players the A’s landed in one of several fire-sale type trades during their latest rebuild.

Tarnok’s first (and officially only) season with the A’s consisted of five outings and 14 2/3 innings due to multiple injuries. Shoulder problems led to a 60-day IL stint to begin the 2023 campaign as well, and hip surgery then ended his season altogether in August. Recovery from that hip procedure lingered into the offseason and Spring Training, necessitating Tarnok’s IL stint at the start of this year.

Unsurprisingly, Tarnok has run into some troubles keeping the ball in the park in the Pacific Coast League, and his walk and strikeout rates have been average at best even prior to 2024 across his 71 career Triple-A innings. However, Tarnok has a solid 4.18 ERA in those 71 Triple-A frames, and is still only 25 years old. There’s no risk for the Phillies in having some more big league-ready rotation depth ready at Lehigh Valley in the event of injury, or if Philadelphia just wants to give some of its starters extra rest in advance of what the team hopes will be a deep postseason run.

Covey has yet to pitch this season after suffering a shoulder strain during Spring Training, and he likely would’ve been placed on the 60-day IL much earlier than today had the Phillies been in need of a 40-man roster spot. As a reminder, a 60-day IL placement is retroactive to the start of the initial 15-day placement, so Covey can now technically be activated at any time since it has already been more than 60 days since Opening Day.

AL West Notes: Semien, Schanuel, Erceg

By Mark Polishuk | June 1, 2024 at 8:14am CDT

Marcus Semien went 1-for-4 in the Rangers’ 8-2 loss to the Marlins yesterday, marking his return to the lineup after sitting out Texas’ previous game. While off-days aren’t normally worth mention, Semien’s absence from Wednesday’s lineup ended a streak of 349 starts for the star second baseman, and it represented only his ninth missed game since the start of the 2019 season. The decision was made since Semien is dealing with a compressed nerve in his neck, as he told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and other reporters yesterday, and the hope is that resting both Wednesday and Thursday (when the Rangers didn’t have a game) will help get Semien back on track.

“I could have missed more time, but I’m trying to figure out how to fight through it,” Semien said. “It feels better after a day off and another day of rest. I’m happy about that. I just want to come back strong.”

The injury stems from a collision between Semien and Adolis Garcia while the two were chasing the same fly ball on May 18. Semien has hit only .135/.200/.189 over 40 plate appearances in the nine games since the collision, and also made three errors in the field. As Grant notes, Semien’s career splits indicate that he is generally a better hitter anyway later in the season, though this neck issue adds an unwelcome obstacle for a Texas club that has struggled to a 27-30 record in its defense of last year’s World Series championship.

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