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Orioles Sign First-Round Pick Enrique Bradfield Jr.

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The Orioles have agreed to a deal with first-round draftee Enrique Bradfield Jr., the club announced. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reports that Bradfield receives a $4.1697MM signing bonus that matches the slot value of the 17th overall pick (Twitter link).

Bradfield ranked between 12th and 21st on pre-draft rankings at Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN and The Athletic. The Vanderbilt product is an elite runner who’s regarded as a potential Gold Glove defender in center field. He terrorized SEC batteries as a baserunner, going 130-143 on stolen base attempts over three college seasons (including a perfect 46-46 season as a sophomore).

While there’s no question about Bradfield’s athleticism, there’s some debate about how much of an impact he’ll have in the batter’s box. The left-handed hitter put up a .311/.426/.447 line at Vandy, including a .279/.410/.429 slash in his draft year. Evaluators suggest he’s likelier to drive a small-ball offensive profile built around his speed. Keith Law of The Athletic feels he could develop average power but raises questions about his swing mechanics.

The Orioles have skewed towards college hitters at the top of the draft. Since Mike Elias was hired as general manager going into 2019, Baltimore has taken a position player with each of its five top picks. Adley Rutschman, Heston Kjerstad, Colton Cowser and Bradfield all came from the college ranks, while last year’s first overall selection Jackson Holliday was a high school draftee.

Pirates Designate Travis Swaggerty For Assignment

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The Pirates announced several roster moves today, selecting the contract of right-hander Quinn Priester and recalling prospects Endy Rodríguez and Liover Peguero, moves which were reported on over the weekend. In corresponding moves, they optioned catcher Jason Delay, right-hander Cody Bolton and outfielder Josh Palacios. In order to open a 40-man roster spot for Priester, outfielder Travis Swaggerty was designated for assignment.

Swaggerty, 25, was the club’s first round draft pick in 2018, getting selected with the 10th overall pick. He was considered one of their top prospects during his time in the minors but encountered some obstacles on his path to the majors. He suffered a dislocated shoulder in 2021 that required surgery, limiting him to 12 games that year. When combined with the minor leagues being cancelled by the pandemic in 2020, he essentially missed two whole years of normal development.

Those setbacks aside, the club still didn’t want to risk losing him in the 2021 Rule 5 draft and gave him a 40-man roster spot that November. He was able to make his major league debut last year but took just nine trips to the plate in five games. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, hitting .254/.348/.399 at that level for a wRC+ of 102.

Here in 2023, Swaggerty has spent the entire year in the minors but has only been able to play 22 games. A report from Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from last month detailed how Swaggerty has been battling vertigo and migraines while his wife Peyton has been dealing with a rare and painful blood disease caused by a bite from a rabid raccoon. Swaggerty has made frequent trips to the IL in the minors this year, having played in just one game in the past six weeks.

The Bucs have fully embraced their youth movement this year, calling up Priester, Rodríguez and Peguero today, in addition to recent promotions of players like Henry Davis, Jared Triolo and Nick Gonzales. The unfortunate side effect of those aggressive promotions is that they will bump Swaggerty off the roster.

They will now have one week to trade the young outfielder or pass him through waivers. It will be interesting to see how much interest he will receive from other clubs around the league. On the one hand, he’s a former first-round pick and was a notable prospect not too long ago. But he’s faced so many difficulties and hasn’t seemed to be in peak form in quite a while. He does have two option years, one of which he’s burning here in 2023. If some club thinks they can help him figure out the migraine issues and get him back on track, he can still be sent to the minors for another season.

Red Sox Designate Jake Faria For Assignment

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The Red Sox have announced they have reinstated left-hander Richard Bleier from the injured list with Jake Faria designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the moves prior to the official announcement.

Faria, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox this offseason and has twice now been added to the club’s roster, getting designated for assignment the very next day in both instances. The first time was back in April, with Faria getting the DFA treatment without making an appearance. He cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment before eventually returning to the big league club yesterday.

The Sox were trouncing the Cubs in yesterday’s contest, holding an 11-0 lead in the middle of the eighth when they put Faria into the game for mop-up duty. He did eventually record the final six outs, though he allowed five earned runs on four hits and four walks, throwing 65 pitches in the process. Since he’s out of options, the Sox have designated him for assignment again in order to get a fresh arm into their bullpen.

The Sox will now have a week to trade Faria or pass him through waivers. He’s been previously outrighted in his career and thus has the right to reject another such assignment in favor of electing free agency. The last time this scenario played out in April, he cleared waivers and decided to stick with the Sox. It’s possible the same sequence of events plays out in the coming days, though that remains to be seen.

Bleier, 36, came over to the Sox in the offseason trade that sent Matt Barnes to the Marlins. He tossed 20 innings with a 5.85 ERA before landing on the injured list in May due to shoulder inflammation. The Sox have a $3.75MM club option for Bleier’s services in 2024 with a $250K buyout. He’ll have to finish strong for the club to consider triggering that option.

Tigers Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Max Clark

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The Tigers announced that they have agreed to terms with first-round pick Max Clark. The club did not announce the signing bonus, but Kiley McDaniel of ESPN reports that it’s $7.7MM, a bit below the $8.34MM slot value for the third overall pick.

Clark, 18, is a left-handed hitting outfielder who was selected out of Franklin Community High School in Franklin, Indiana. He was a consensus top five player in the draft class, with each of Baseball America, ESPN, FanGraphs, MLB.com and Keith Law of The Athletic ranking him either fourth or fifth. In each case, the top three slots were split between Dylan Crews, Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford, with Clark and Walker Jenkins either #4 or #5.

The Tigers selected third and saw the Pirates take Skenes first and the Nationals grab Crews second. Instead of taking the other consensus top three guy in Langford, they went for Clark, who was generally considered to be a tier below that group. But the $7.7MM bonus he received is basically equivalent to the slot value of the fourth overall pick, perhaps allowing the Tigers to use some of those savings to sign some of the other players they drafted.

The reports on Clark all consider him a well-rounded player with the potential to contribute in all facets of the game. His speed and defense get universal praise, with Clark considered to be capable of playing above-average center field defense but also having a strong enough arm to play any outfield position. His power hitting might be his biggest question mark but he’s thought to be an excellent “pure” hitter with good plate discipline and the ability to hit the balls to all fields.

Cardinals Sign Ryan Tepera

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The Cardinals have signed right-hander Ryan Tepera, with Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat relaying word from president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. It seems as though Tepera will take the roster spot of Génesis Cabrera, whose designation for assignment was reported earlier.

Tepera, 35, has plenty of years of effective relief work on his résumé but 2023 has been challenging. He began the year with the Angels but posted a 7.27 earned run average through 10 outings before that club designated him for assignment and released him. The righty then landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal and reported to their Triple-A club. He tossed eight scoreless innings for Round Rock but didn’t get a roster spot with the Rangers and opted out of that deal last week.

Although the results earlier in the year weren’t pretty, there’s plenty of logic to this pickup for the Cards. Coming into this year, Tepera had a 3.50 career ERA in 354 2/3 innings, so the rough patch with the Halos to start this season represents a drop in the pocket in terms of his larger body of work. His strikeout rate was over 30% in each of 2020 and 2021 before tailing off to the 20% range in the past two seasons, but he just struck out 37.9% of opponents during his stint in Round Rock.

There’s also no financial risk for the Cards. Tepera signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the Angels prior to the 2022 campaign. Though he had a solid 3.61 ERA last year, his struggles a few months back got him released. The Angels are still on the hook for the majority of what’s left of that deal and the Cardinals will only be responsible for the prorated league minimum for any time Tepera spends on their roster.

The Cards have had a disappointing season and are currently 40-53 on the year, putting them in last place in the National League Central and 11.5 games out of a playoff spot. Mozeliak recently admitted that the club will have to go into the deadline as sellers, making moves that set the club up for 2024. The bullpen features some impending free agents like Jordan Hicks and Chris Stratton would would make sense as trade candidates, with Tepera perhaps moving up the bullpen chart in the wake of whatever moves the Cards make. He could theoretically pitch himself into being a candidate himself, though he’ll only two weeks to do so, with the deadline on August 1.

Nationals Claim Roddery Muñoz From Braves

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The Nationals announced that they have claimed right-hander Roddery Muñoz off waivers from the Braves and optioned him to Triple-A Rochester. Atlanta designated him for assignment last week. The Nationals already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster so no corresponding move will be required.

Muñoz, 23, was an international signing of Atlanta out of the Dominican Republic in 2018 and worked primarily as a starter in subsequent seasons. In 2022, he tossed 100 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A. His 4.66 earned run average in that time wasn’t especially eye-opening, but he struck out 26.9% of batters faced while walking 9.5%.

Atlanta evidently liked what they saw enough that they didn’t want Muñoz to get away in the Rule 5 draft and thus added him to their 40-man roster in November. He’s been transitioned into more of a relief role this year, tossing 39 1/3 innings over 22 appearances. He has a 3.89 ERA for the year across multiple levels, striking out 23.4% of opponents but walking 15.2% of them.

Those control issues seemingly led to Muñoz losing his roster spot in Atlanta, but he’s a sensible claim for the Nationals since they are rebuilding and can be patient with his development. He’s still young, has a full slate of options and has yet to reach the big leagues. If he can rein in his arsenal, he could be a long-term fit for the Nats. He was recently ranked Atlanta’s #22 prospect by Baseball America and #8 by FanGraphs.

The Guardians’ Other Potential Rotation Trade Chip

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The Guardians have made a habit of moving productive veteran starting pitchers over the past few seasons. Cleveland’s excellent pitching development pipeline has allowed them to consistently backfill the rotation with younger, cheaper starters while adding other MLB talent in trades that sent Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger elsewhere.

Cleveland graduated another trio of top young pitching talents this year. Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen have all gotten to the big leagues and found immediate success. There was some related speculation about the Guardians dealing former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber this summer as a means of adding upper level hitting talent.

That no longer appears viable. Bieber is being shut down from throwing for a couple weeks because of forearm/elbow discomfort. While the club is optimistic he won’t require surgery, he’ll be on the injured list beyond the August 1 trade deadline. It’s hard to envision another team sending Cleveland anything approaching commensurate value for Bieber right now. An offseason deal or move at next year’s trade deadline (when he’d be an impending free agent) is the likelier scenario.

If Cleveland still has interest in balancing the roster by cashing in a starting pitcher, Aaron Civale now stands out as their top candidate. The 28-year-old righty has been an effective mid-rotation arm over parts of five big league campaigns, at least on a rate basis.

The former third-round draftee has started 73 games at the MLB level. He’s worked 410 2/3 innings of 3.88 ERA ball. Civale 21.3% strikeout rate and 42.5% grounder percentage are a hair below league average, but he’s a plus strike thrower who tends to avoid hard contact. While it’s not an overpowering profile, a healthy Civale has been a quality #3/4 option in a rotation.

Civale hasn’t logged the kind of workload typically associated with an innings eater. Some of that is beyond his control. He wasn’t an established MLB starter until late in the 2019 season. He stayed healthy in 2020 but the season was shortened, limiting everyone to 12-13 starts. Civale has lost chunks of the last three years to injury, however, only topping 100 MLB frames once.

In 2021, it was a sprained right middle finger that cost him two months. He lost a few weeks apiece to glute soreness, a right wrist sprain and forearm soreness last season. This year, a left oblique strain took him out of action for around seven weeks between mid-April and the start of June.

While the nagging health issues have kept Civale from amassing a huge workload, they haven’t impacted his per-start performances. His 10 starts this year look much the same as his overall body of work. He owns a 2.65 ERA through 57 2/3 frames, just under six innings per start. Opponents are only hitting .245 on balls in play, which is likely to tick back up closer to the .281 career mark he carried into 2023. Once a few more batted balls drop for hits, Civale should project as the upper-3.00s ERA type he has been in his career.

His 19.7% strikeout rate is narrowly a personal low but not dramatically off his previous level. Despite the slight dip in whiffs, Civale is throwing a little harder this year than in seasons past. He’s averaging 88 MPH on his cutter and narrowly above 92 MPH on his sinker and four-seam, all of which are slightly above his previous career highs.

Those are relatively minor variations. Civale isn’t a burgeoning ace, but he’s a good major league pitcher. He throws strikes and mixes four pitches effectively to keep off barrels. He is solid against hitters from both sides of the plate, keeping lefties to a career .227/.278/.400 line and same-handed opponents to a .255/.307/.439 slash. Aside from the aforementioned injury concerns, the Northeastern product looks like a solid middle or back-end starter.

There’s value in stability. That’s especially true given his affordability. Civale is playing this season on a modest $2.6MM arbitration salary. He’ll go through that process twice more before reaching free agency after the 2025 campaign.

That control window means Cleveland doesn’t simply have to take the best offer this summer. Even as one of the game’s lowest-payroll franchises, the Guardians could retain Civale without issue financially. Yet they’re likely to have a fair bit of starting pitching depth going into next season, particularly if they hold onto Bieber.

Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill will hopefully be past injury-riddled ’23 campaigns. Bibee, Allen and Williams could all be rotation fixtures, perhaps with higher upside than Civale possesses. It is tough to rely on Daniel Espino at this point given his shoulder woes, but the 22-year-old righty entered this season as one of the sport’s most exciting pitching prospects.

Cleveland isn’t abandoning hope on 2023. They couldn’t have drawn up a worse weekend to start the second half, though. The Guardians were swept by the Rangers while Minnesota swept the A’s. That wasn’t wholly unexpected — the Twins were playing the worst team in MLB while Cleveland matched up against one of the best — but it dropped the Guardians 2 1/2 games back in a division they almost certainly have to win to make the playoffs.

That’s hardly insurmountable, though the club has never really gotten rolling this season. That’s in large part due to an offense that has scored more runs than only the A’s, Royals and Tigers. José Ramírez and Josh Naylor are the only Cleveland players with 100+ plate appearances and above-average offensive production.

Cleveland’s outfield has been especially troublesome. Steven Kwan has been fine but not recaptured his stellar rookie form. Myles Straw is providing next to nothing at the plate for a second straight season. Will Brennan has been inconsistent as a rookie.

There aren’t a ton of clear sellers this deadline season. That could lead to a few more “baseball” trades, deals between hopeful or fringe contenders to address respective areas of weakness. Civale would be Cleveland’s clearest option to market rotation help to another win-now team that could make a surplus outfielder available. Speculatively speaking, the Orioles (Kyle Stowers) and D-Backs (Jake McCarthy/Dominic Fletcher) could offer intriguing upper level outfielders as part of a Civale package.

Whether Cleveland pulls off a deal of this nature remains to be seen. Bieber was the higher-profile and more enticing trade candidate at this time last week. With that no longer plausible, Civale could be the next target for other teams eyeing the Guardians’ rotation depth.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Athletics Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Jacob Wilson

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The Athletics have agreed to terms with first-round pick Jacob Wilson, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com. Wilson will receive a signing bonus of $5.5MM, well below the $6.63MM slot value for the sixth overall pick.

Wilson, 21, is the son of Jack Wilson, who played in the majors from 2001 to 2012 and was an All-Star with the Pirates in 2004. The younger Wilson is a shortstop who attended Grand Canyon University. He hit .412/.461/.635 in 49 games for the Antelopes this year, stealing eight bases in the process. Elite contact ability is a standout trait of his, as he was only punched out in 4.4% of his college plate appearances.

Coming into the draft, he was a consensus top 25 guy in the draft class, though none of the major outlets ranked him as high as he was chosen. Baseball America was the most bullish, ranking him #9, while both MLB.com and FanGraphs had him at #10, ESPN at #17 and Keith Law of the Athletic placed Wilson 24th. All outlets generally consider him strong enough defensively to stick at shortstop. The hit tool gets the highest praise while his power potential is the greatest unknown at the moment.

Although none of those outlets had Wilson as high as sixth in the class, where he was selected, but his $5.5MM bonus is closer to the value of the 10th overall pick. By saving over a million on their first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will have more cash to spread around to their other selections.

Rockies Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Chase Dollander

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The Rockies have agreed to terms with right-hander Chase Dollander, the No. 9 overall pick in this year’s draft, Jim Callis of MLB.com reports. The University of Tennessee right-hander will receive his full slot value of $5,716,900.

A breakout season in 2022 positioned Dollander as one of the top arms in this year’s draft class. Dollander’s sophomore season with the Vols was sensational, as the 6’2″ righty pitched 79 innings of 2.39 ERA ball with a 35.3% strikeout rate against a 4.2% walk rate. However, Dollander’s junior season in 2023 was shakier. In 89 frames, he posted a 4.75 ERA with a diminished (though still strong) 31.3% strikeout rate and a 7.8% walk rate that nearly doubled his rate from the prior season. Dollander also plunked eight hitters after hitting just two the year prior.

Despite the uneven performance, Dollander still rated as one of the top arms in this year’s class. Baseball America rated him as the draft’s No. 6 overall prospect — the No. 2 pitching prospect behind LSU ace and eventual No. 1 overall pick Paul Skenes. FanGraphs ranked him eighth in the class, while MLB.com ranked Dollander as the class’ No. 9 overall prospect and Keith Law placed him No. 15 at The Athletic.

Scouting reports on Dollander will universally praise a mid-90s fastball that topped out around 99 mph at his most dominant in 2022, but Law and others note when breaking down his 2023 season that the shape of the right-hander’s slider changed for the worse in ’23. Dollander’s command also wasn’t nearly as sharp, and he’ll need further develop his curveball and/or changeup in pro ball to give him a third consistent offering.

Dollander adds some substantial upside to a Rockies system that is generally devoid of top-end pitching prospects. He’s not as polished or MLB-ready as Skenes, who went with the top pick, but he entered the 2023 season widely regarded as the top college arm in this year’s class and should immediately become the system’s top pitching prospect.

Reds Promote Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Place Kevin Newman On IL

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July 17: Cincinnati has formally announced the move; Encarnacion-Strand’s contract has been selected from Louisville, which fills the team’s 40-man roster. In a corresponding 26-man roster move, infielder Kevin Newman was placed on the 10-day injured list due to gastritis.

July 16: The Reds are calling up another of their top prospects, as FanSided’s Robert Murray (via Twitter) reports that Christian Encarnacion-Strand is on his way to the majors.  The club may have to make multiple corresponding moves before Monday’s game, as Encarnacion-Strand isn’t yet on the 40-man roster.

A fourth-round pick for the Twins in the 2021 draft, “CES” has done nothing but mash since beginning his pro career, as he has a whopping .322/.386/.604 slash line and 56 homers over 946 career plate appearances in the minors.  This includes hitting .331/.405/.637 with 20 home runs over 316 PA at Triple-A Louisville this year, leaving no doubt that the 23-year-old is ready for a bigger challenge.

It seems quite likely that the Reds would’ve called Encarnacion-Strand up earlier if it wasn’t for the fact that the team is already overloaded with quality prospects.  The additions of star rookies Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain have helped spark the Reds back into contention for the NL Central, while Spencer Steer (who made his MLB debut in 2022) has also been a huge contributor.

With the likes of Jake Fraley, Will Benson, and TJ Friedl also producing, the Reds find themselves with an interesting decision to make with Encarnacion-Strand’s position.  CES has played almost all of his career as a corner infielder, with only a pair of games in the corner outfield spots.  But, De La Cruz has been mostly playing third base since his promotion, and longtime star Joey Votto is still in the regular first base/DH mix since his return from the 60-day injured list.  It’s say to predict Encarnacion-Strand as the eventual successor to Votto, but the veteran has been on fire at the plate.

It’s the proverbial “good problem to have” for manager David Bell and Cincinnati’s front office, and it could be the issue may solve itself in the form of an injury or a slump.  Or, the Reds might simply rotate everyone through the lineup and make copious use of pinch-hitting opportunities or late-game substitutions in order to keep everyone (Votto in particular) fresh.  With the deadline approaching, it also isn’t out of the question that the Reds could create space by trading one of their young prospects in a headline deal for a controllable, frontline starting pitcher.  At the very least, it seems like Cincinnati will look to move veterans like Kevin Newman or Nick Senzel, whose playing time has been drastically reduced by the youth movement.

Encarnacion-Strand has made such a rapid rise up the minor league ladder that none of Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB Pipeline, or The Athletic’s Keith Law had the infielder on their preseason top-100 lists.  He currently checks in 83rd on BA’s ranking and 88th on Pipeline’s ranking, with both outlets praising his natural power and his arm strength.  Questions about CES’ contact hitting seem to have been addressed in his Triple-A season, as his 10.4% walk rate is easily the highest of his three pro seasons, and he has also reduced his strikeout rate to 21.8%.  A slightly more patient version of Encarnacion-Strand is a scary concept for pitchers, given his power and ability to hit to the opposite field.

Cincinnati brought Encarnacion-Strand and Steer into the organization less than a year ago, acquired along with southpaw prospect Steve Hajjar in the trade that sent Tyler Mahle to the Twins at the deadline.  Since the Reds flipped Hajjar to the Guardians as the player to be named later to acquire Benson during the offseason, the Mahle trade has very quickly become one of the most productive swaps in recent team history.  For Minnesota, the trade is already infamous, as Mahle battled injuries and made only nine starts for the Twins before undergoing Tommy John surgery in May.

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