Cardinals To Recall Adam Kloffenstein For MLB Debut
The Cardinals will recall righty Adam Kloffenstein before tomorrow evening’s game with the Giants at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, as first reported by Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 (on X). It’ll be the 23-year-old’s major league debut. Kloffenstein is already on the 40-man roster. He would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft last winter, so St. Louis selected his contract in November.
Kloffenstein was a second-round pick of the Blue Jays out of a Texas high school back in 2018. He was pitching in Double-A last summer when the Jays packaged him alongside Sem Robberse in the deal to plug Jordan Hicks into the back of the bullpen. St. Louis prioritized upper minors pitching in their deadline swaps of Hicks, Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery.
The Cards immediately pushed Kloffenstein to Triple-A Memphis. He finished last season with nine outings there, tossing 39 frames of 3.00 ERA ball. He has worked out of the Memphis rotation this year with similar results. Kloffenstein carries a 3.97 ERA over 77 innings. His 21.9% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk percentage are pedestrian, though he’s getting ground-balls at a solid 48% clip.
Andre Pallante gets the start tomorrow with Miles Mikolas and Sonny Gray closing out the weekend series. (The teams are off on Friday to travel from Birmingham to St. Louis for the final two games of the set.) That suggests Kloffenstein could get a look from the bullpen for his first MLB work. He has started all but two of the appearances in his minor league career. Baseball America ranked him 28th in the St. Louis system over the winter, writing that he profiles as a depth starter or grounder-oriented long reliever.
Dodgers Place Walker Buehler On Injured List
The Dodgers announced the placement of Walker Buehler on the 15-day injured list. He’s dealing with inflammation in his right hip. That’s the corresponding move for the reinstatement of Bobby Miller from his own 15-day IL stint. Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Miller would make his return tonight against the Rockies.
Buehler’s IL placement isn’t unexpected. Both Roberts and the veteran righty told reporters last night that it was under consideration. Buehler hasn’t looked like himself in his return from the second Tommy John surgery of his career. He has taken the ball eight times since being activated on May 6. Buehler has been tagged for a 5.84 ERA across 37 innings with alarming underlying indicators. Opponents have already connected on 10 home runs (2.43 per nine) while his strikeout rate has dropped to a personal-low 18.5% clip.
On a per-pitch basis, Buehler has gotten swinging strikes only 7.2% of the time. He had landed somewhere in the 10-12% range in every prior season of his career. Buehler hasn’t had any issues throwing strikes, but his overall performance has been that of a control-oriented #5 starter as opposed to a borderline ace.
It wouldn’t have been fair to expect Buehler to immediately pick back up as a top-flight starter nearly two years since his most recent MLB pitch. He and the Dodgers certainly wouldn’t have anticipated him struggling to this extent, though, so the IL placement will serve as a reset. Buehler’s velocity has come back after the elbow procedure, offering reason for optimism he can sort things out. His four-seam fastball has averaged 95.5 MPH while his 91.5 MPH cutter and 79 MPH knuckle-curve are in line with their respective 2022 figures.
That will leave the Dodgers shorthanded in the rotation. As recently as late last week, Roberts indicated that L.A. was going to move to a six-man unit with Miller’s return. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Buehler since gone down, leaving Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and James Paxton alongside Miller.
Roberts said tonight that L.A. will make a move on Friday to fill the starting spot (X link via Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Righty Landon Knack last pitched for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday, so he’d be on regular rest for a Friday start. Knack pitched well in four MLB starts earlier in the year and has a 3.54 ERA over 48 1/3 frames with OKC. He’s the straightforward choice to draw back into the starting five.
Brewers Designate Elieser Hernández For Assignment
The Brewers announced a few roster moves before tonight’s game in Anaheim. Milwaukee recalled rookie infielder Tyler Black and right-hander Bradley Blalock. They optioned infielder Oliver Dunn to Triple-A Nashville and designated righty Elieser Hernández to open spots on the active roster. The Hernández DFA drops the 40-man roster tally to 39.
It’s the first major league call for Blalock, whom Milwaukee added to the 40-man last offseason. Blalock was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school five years ago. Milwaukee acquired his at last summer’s trade deadline in the deal sending struggling infielder Luis Urías to Boston. Blalock finished the season in High-A, yet the Brewers were still concerned another team would pluck him away in the Rule 5 draft.
Milwaukee optioned the 6’2″ righty to Double-A Biloxi to start this year. Working from the rotation, he has pitched to a 4.24 ERA through 51 innings. Blalock’s 18.9% strikeout rate is modest, though he has only walked 7.8% of batters faced. The Georgia native has shown advanced control in his minor league career. Baseball America ranked him as the #22 prospect in the Milwaukee organization heading into the season, while he checked in 15th in the system on Keith Law’s list at The Athletic. Both outlets suggest he has a chance to stick in the rotation behind a low-mid 90s fastball and decent secondary offerings.
For the time being, Blalock could step into the long relief role which Hernández had filled. Milwaukee has enough rotation questions to potentially give the 23-year-old a starting look at some point. The recently promoted Carlos Rodríguez has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two big league starts.
Hernández spent less than two weeks in Milwaukee. The Brewers signed him to a major league contract on June 8, two days after he elected free agency upon being outrighted by the Dodgers. The Venezuelan-born righty pitched four times, tossing six innings of two-run ball with a pair of strikeouts and walks apiece. Hernández had made five appearances with Los Angeles and owns a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 big league frames this year. The former Marlins starter will probably end up on waivers in the next few days and could return to free agency if he again goes unclaimed.
Black, one of the game’s better offensive prospects, steps back into the MLB infield mix. The Brewers called up the Wright State product for the first time in late April. Black only got into seven games before being optioned back to Nashville. He has turned in strong numbers there, hitting .275/.374/.483 with nine homers in 243 plate appearances.
Yankees Transfer Anthony Rizzo To 60-Day Injured List
The Yankees announced that right-hander Gerrit Cole has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was reported earlier this week. To open a roster spot for him, first baseman Anthony Rizzo has been transferred onto the 60-day IL.
Rizzo was injured earlier this week when attempting to run out a ground ball. First baseman Dominic Smith fielded the grounder and flipped to pitcher Brennan Bernardino as he covered first base. Rizzo and Bernardino bumped into each other, which resulted in Rizzo falling to the ground and landing awkwardly. Video link of the play from MLB.com.
It was later reported that Rizzo was diagnosed with a fractured radial neck in his right arm. The club announced that Rizzo could be back in about eight weeks, as relayed by Brendan Kuty of The Athletic on X. That eight-week timeline and the 60-day stint on the injured list are roughly equivalent, so it’s not surprising that the Yankees decided to make this transfer.
Rizzo will now be ineligible to be reinstated until the middle of August, which will be interesting timing. The trade deadline is on July 30 this year, so the Yankees will have to make some decisions about what moves to make to address their lineup while Rizzo is still away from the club. A decent chunk of their hitters are performing well but Rizzo was struggling prior to his injury.
In his absence, DJ LeMahieu and Ben Rice seem likely to share the first base duties, but LeMahieu is also having a poor season and Rice just made his major league debut yesterday. Players like Oswaldo Cabrera and Gleyber Torres have also been struggling, leaving the club with a fairly weak infield group around shortstop Anthony Volpe.
The Yankees have the best record in the majors at 51-24, so they can use the next few weeks to assess these players and decide on their deadline plan. Rizzo himself came to the Yankees in a 2021 deadline deal while Luke Voit was on the injured list.
Rizzo and the Yankees reunited on a free agent deal going into 2022, a two-year deal with an opt-out. He triggered that opt-out but re-signed with the Yanks again going into 2023, this time on a two-year, $40MM deal. Rizzo made $17MM last year and is doing so again this year, with a $6MM buyout on a $17MM club option for 2025, making it a net $11MM decision.
Prior to landing on the injured list, Rizzo was hitting just .223/.289/.341 for the year and won’t have much time to improve those numbers with this injury. His rehab progress and the performance of Rice will be interesting situations to watch in the months to come, as the club will have some decisions to make at the deadline and at the end of the season as well.
Yu Chang Likely Joining CPBL’s Fubon Guardians
Infielder Yu Chang announced on his social media that he is planning to enter the 2024 draft for the Chinese Professional Baseball League of Taiwan, relayed by CPBL Stats on X. Per a report from Kayleigh Madjar at the Taipei Times, the Fubon Guardians have the top pick in the draft, which is scheduled for Friday next week. It seems the Guardians plan to select Chang as the club released a statement saying that they have been in contact with Chang for some time, adding that the “look forward to [Chang] wearing a Fubon Guardians jersey in the second half of the season.” Per CPBL Stats on X, the Guardians will likely offer Chang a contract of 3.5 years worth between $2.34MM and $2.67MM USD. The Guardians are also expected to give the Rays $100K to buy Chang out of his minor league deal with that club.
“It’s been ten years working away from home, I miss home very much,” Chang said on his social media. “Therefore I’ve decided to enter the 2024 CPBL draft. I really appreciate that the Rays organization has been very understanding and supportive of my decision. I’m currently in Florida playing rehab games, will be 100% healthy and get back to the game soon!”
Chang, now 28, was born in Taiwan and signed with Cleveland as an international free agent in 2013. On his way up the minor league ladder, he was generally considered one of that club’s top prospects. Baseball America had him on the Cleveland top 30 for seven straight years starting in 2015.
Broadly speaking, he hit well in the upper levels of the minors but was never able to do much at the major league level. His Triple-A production was usually solid, as he hit .264/.339/.436 at that level over multiple seasons. He was also a good defender around the infield. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average considered him an above-average fielder at all four spots on the dirt.
But multiple call-ups with Cleveland saw him struggle at the plate and get sent back down. He exhausted his final option year in 2021, which kicked off a nomadic period of his career. He was designated for assignment by the Cleveland Guardians in May of 2022 but got plenty of interest from other clubs, hoping that he could bring some of that Triple-A production up to the majors and combine it with his strong glovework. He would go to the Pirates, Rays and Red Sox on cash deals or waiver claims throughout the 2022 season, failing to stick with any of them.
Boston non-tendered him after that season and then re-signed him for 2023. He played for Chinese Taipei in that year’s World Baseball Classic, putting up a huge line of .438/.500/.938. But he suffered a hamate fracture early in the MLB season which sent him to the injured list for a few months. His offensive struggles continued when he returned and he was designated for assignment in August. Over the five big league seasons from 2019 to 2023, he hit .204/.265/.359 in his 650 major league plate appearances.
Chang signed a minor league deal with the Rays coming into 2024 but hasn’t been able to play much this year. An oblique strain suffered in late February came with a six to eight week recovery timeline. Per his MLB.com transactions tracker, he was activated off the minor league injured list on April 26 but was sent back there on May 22. He had appeared in just 14 games in the interim.
If all goes as reported, it’s possible Chang’s time in North American ball is over. If he signs a deal that covers the remainder of this season and three more, he will be 32 years old by the time that pact runs out.
White Sox Release Tim Hill
The White Sox have released left-hander Tim Hill, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. They will remain on the hook for what’s left of his $1.8MM salary. Any other club could now sign him and would only have to pay the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay.
Hill, 34, was signed in the offseason to a one-year deal. The White Sox kicked off a rebuild in 2023 and had traded away many established players, including relievers like Joe Kelly, Reynaldo López, Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton. When the offseason began, they continued the job by sending Aaron Bummer and Gregory Santos out of town.
The hope was that Hill could serve as a solid veteran presence in a relief corps with a lot of uncertainty and perhaps turn himself into a trade candidate prior to the deadline. Unfortunately, he allowed 5.87 earned runs per nine innings over his 27 appearances for the Sox and got designated for assignment last week. Since he has over five years of major league service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while keeping all of his salary intact. Those circumstances made it fairly inevitable that he would find himself back in free agency.
Now that he’s on the open market and can be signed for cheap, teams may be willing to overlook his ERA and find encouraging signs in his other numbers. He has always been a ground ball guy, with a 60.5% rate in that department for his career. He has actually been even better than ever at keeping the ball on the dirt this year with a 65.6% grounder rate, well beyond the 42.6% league average for 2024. His 11% strikeout rate is incredibly low, but he only punched out 12.6% in 2022, a season in which he managed to have a 3.56 ERA with the Padres.
Hill may not be as exciting as a fire-breathing closer but he’s a solid veteran with 347 major league appearances and a 4.30 ERA in those. The results this year haven’t been great so far but he had a .436 batting average on balls in play while pitching for the club with arguably the worst defense in the majors. The Sox have a collective -20 Outs Above Average this year, slightly ahead of the Pirates and Marlins, while their -52 is easily the worst in baseball with the Rays second-last at -31. His 3.46 FIP and 3.90 SIERA paint a much more flattering picture than his ERA.
Since Hill can be signed for cheap and so many clubs around the league are battling pitching injuries, perhaps one of them will take a chance on him finding better results in a different environment.
Orioles Select Nick Maton
The Orioles announced that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Nick Maton. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Tyler Wells was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Outfielder Kyle Stowers was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk to get Maton onto the active roster.
The move is seemingly related to the injury of Jordan Westburg. While fielding a grounder last night, Westburg collided with Juan Soto of the Yankees, who was trying to run from second to third base. Manager Brandon Hyde said after the game that Westburg is day-to-day with a left hip contusion, per the MLB.com injury tracker.
The Orioles have been splitting the playing time at second and third base between Westburg, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías. If Westburg is out of action for a few days, that means Mateo and Urías need to be in the lineup.
That scenario would have left them with no backup infielder while Westburg is hurt, so they have selected Maton. The 27-year-old was acquired from the Tigers in a cash deal in the offseason but didn’t make the club’s roster out of Spring Training. Since he’s out of options, the O’s put him on waivers and were able to pass him through unclaimed, outrighting him to Norfolk.
He has played 41 games for the Tides this year with good results. He has seven home runs and has drawn a walk in 12.5% of his 168 plate appearances. He’s hitting .294/.387/.483 overall for a 126 wRC+. He has done that while spending time at all four infield positions and a brief showing in right field as well.
That solid performance will get Maton back to the majors, at least for now. Since the O’s haven’t put Westburg on the IL and didn’t call up a notable prospect like Connor Norby or Coby Mayo, perhaps they only envision needing coverage for a few days. If that is indeed the case, Maton is out of options and would have to be designated for assignment again if they want to remove him from the roster. But if he manages to hold his spot, he has less than two years of service time and could be cheaply retained in future seasons.
As for Wells, it was reported about three weeks ago that he would require season-ending surgery of some kind on the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. The O’s announced two days ago that the procedure had been completed, describing it as “right elbow revision ulnar collateral ligament surgery with UCL repair and internal brace augmentation.” He’ll be out for the rest of this year and likely part of the 2025 season as well.
The Rangers’ Surprising Problem
Each week at MLBTR, it seems we're covering a development that further tanks the Astros' chances of competing for a playoff spot. We've devoted less attention to their in-state rivals, but the Rangers are in no better a situation. Texas and Houston have identical 33-40 records after the Rangers' five-game losing streak. They're only four games clear of the Angels for fourth place in the AL West.
Texas starting the season slowly isn't a huge surprise in itself (even if the extent of their struggles is). The eye-opener is in the way the team has underperformed. The Rangers opened the season without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle. They were largely trying to stay afloat for the first couple months before welcoming that trio of starters back throughout the summer. The early-season rotation was the big question -- the main reason the Rangers might find themselves closer to the bottom of the AL West than the top more than halfway into June.
Starting pitching has not been the problem. Texas is middle-of-the-pack in that regard, solid work from a staff without three of its most talented arms. The collapse has been on the other side of the ball. The Ranger offense hasn't performed. An outfield that looked like one of the game's most talented groups has been a disaster. It's not the easiest problem for GM Chris Young to address at the deadline -- if the Rangers find themselves in position to add at all next month.
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Blue Jays Release Daniel Vogelbach
The Blue Jays have released Daniel Vogelbach, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. They will remain on the hook for what’s left of his $2MM salary. Any other club could now sign him and would only have to pay the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Jays pay.
A release was the likely outcome after Vogelbach was designated for assignment last week. Any club claiming him off waivers or acquiring him in a trade would have had to take on the remainder of his salary. He has hit just .186/.278/.300 in his 79 plate appearances this year, making him fairly unappealing at that price point. As a player with more than five years of service time, he can reject an outright assignment to the minors while retaining that money, so he was effectively bound for the open market.
But now that he can be signed for cheap, teams will likely have interest. Vogelbach is a limited player as he’s one of the slowest in the league and has essentially no defensive value. He played five innings at first base in 2022 and none since. But his work at the plate is intriguing enough that he has continually found opportunities.
Since his 2016 debut with the Mariners, he has also suited up for the Blue Jays, Brewers, Pirates and Mets. Those clubs were surely attracted to the fact that Vogelbach has a keen eye at the plate, drawing walks at a 15.1% rate in his career. He also has notable power, with 81 home runs in 1,957 plate appearances. His career batting line currently sits at .219/.340/.405 for a wRC+ of 108.
When Vogelbach is reduced to a strong-side platoon guy, the numbers are even more impressive. He has a career line of .128/.246/.214 against southpaws but has hit .237/.358/.445 the rest of the time. That latter line leads to a 123 wRC+, indicating he’s been 23% above average when facing righties.
He hasn’t been in good form this year but another club could sign him and hope to catch lightning in a bottle at a low price. The Nationals have a 63 wRC+ out of their designated hitter spot this year, while clubs like the Rays, Reds, Rangers, Royals and Cardinals are in playoff contention with each having a wRC+ below 90 from their designated hitter slot.
Cubs Sign Tomas Nido, Designate Yan Gomes For Assignment
10:20am: The Cubs have made the moves official.
9:55am: The Cubs are making a change behind the plate, signing veteran catcher Tomas Nido to a big league contract and designating Yan Gomes for assignment, as first reported by Bleacher Nation’s Michael Cerami. Nido, an ACES client, was released by the Mets on Monday after being designated for assignment last week. The Mets are on the hook for the majority of this year’s $2.1MM salary. The Cubs will only owe Nido the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster.
The 30-year-old Nido inked a two-year, $3.7MM contract prior to the 2023 season, buying out his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster last season following a dismal .125/.153/.125 start through 61 plate appearances but chose to accept a Triple-A assignment due to the fact that electing free agency would’ve required him to forfeit the remainder of the guaranteed money on his contract.
Nido was selected back to the big leagues this season when Francisco Alvarez hit the injured list with a thumb injury that required surgery. During his most recent stint with the Mets, Nido surpassed five years of MLB service time, which allowed him to reject his latest outright assignment in favor of free agency while still retaining the remainder of his salary. He batted .229/.261/.361 through 90 plate appearances with the Mets this season.
That level of production is par for the course for Nido, a career .214/.251/.313 hitter in 895 trips to the plate at the big league level. Offense has never been the focal point of Nido’s game, however. He’s an high-end defensive backstop who draws plus grades for his framing and pitch-blocking, coupling those skills with a career 21% caught-stealing rate that’s right in line with this year’s league average.
Even Nido’s lackluster 2024 output at the plate or his similarly uninspiring career batting line would be an upgrade over what the 36-year-old Gomes has mustered this season. Gomes was near league-average at the plate just last season (.267/.315/.408, 10 homers, 95 wRC+) but has cratered with a career-worst .157/.179/.242 batting line in 96 plate appearances this season. Gomes fanned in just 18% of his plate appearances with the 2022-23 Cubs and entered 2024 with a career 23.1% mark in the majors, but he’s whiffed a massive 36 times this season (37.5%).
Like Nido, Gomes has a strong defensive reputation, but the numbers don’t bear that out this year. He’s thwarted just three of the 24 runners who’ve attempted to steal against him (12.5%) — well shy of his excellent 32% career mark. The Brazilian-born backstop’s once-premium framing numbers are below-average for a second straight season, meanwhile, and Statcast also pegs him below-average at blocking pitches in the dirt in 2024.
As is the case with Nido, Gomes is playing out the final season of a guaranteed contract. Chicago signed him to a two-year, $13MM pact in the 2021-22 offseason. Gomes’ performance last year made it a straightforward call for the team to exercise a $6MM club option (a net $5MM decision, given the option’s $1MM buyout). Even Gomes’ detractors couldn’t have reasonably predicted a decline of this magnitude, however. Gomes’ struggles are a major reason that Chicago backstops have been the third-worst in all of baseball at the plate, leading only the White Sox and Marlins in that regard.
The Cubs will still be on the hook for the remainder of Gomes’ $6MM salary once he inevitably becomes a free agent. (No team is going to trade for or claim what’s left on the contract). Once he’s released, Gomes will be free to sign with any club. A new team would only owe him the league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Cubs owe him through season’s end.