Nationals Release Stephen Nogosek
The Nationals have released Stephen Nogosek, according to the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page. Nogosek signed a minor league deal with Washington during the offseason but will now return to the open market after a rough stint at Triple-A Rochester.
Over 11 appearances and 15 2/3 innings with the Red Wings, Nogosek posted a 9.77 ERA with 18 walks against only 15 strikeouts. While Nogosek’s control has been spotty over his eight pro seasons, the situation has greatly worsened in the last two seasons, as the righty also had an 18.18% walk rate over 36 combined innings at the Triple-A and Double-A levels in 2023. This issue surely contributed to the Mets’ decision to designate Nogosek for assignment last June, and why the Diamondbacks didn’t give him a look on the big league roster after signing him to a minors deal in the wake of his departure from New York.
Nogosek’s control problems haven’t really manifested themselves at the big league level, over a sample size of 57 1/3 innings in parts of four MLB seasons. Debuting with the Mets in 2019, Nogosek has a 5.02 ERA over his 33 career appearances in the Show, with an 8.9% walk rate and 22% strikeout rate. Home runs have been Nogosek’s biggest sticking point against Major League hitters, who have taken him yard 14 times over those 57 1/3 frames of work. Nogosek had generally done a pretty good job of keeping the ball in the park in the minors, yet his home run issues cropped up at Triple-A this season with five homers allowed during his brief time in Rochester.
The 29-year-old now returns to the open market in search of another minor league deal, and hopefully a fresh start in another organization. Nogosek is out of minor league options, which adds another layer of complication to his efforts to find a new contract and stick in a big league bullpen.
Braves Sign Joey Wendle
The Braves announced a series of roster moves today, signing infielder Joey Wendle and recalling left-hander Ray Kerr. In corresponding moves, infielder Luke Williams was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett while right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver was placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained left oblique. The club already had a 40-man vacancy for Wendle. Smith-Shawver has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain, the team told reporters (link via Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). The team didn’t provide any kind of timetable, but Toscano writes that a Grade 2 oblique strain typically requires a six-to-eight absence.
Wendle, 34, is a veteran utility player who signed with the Mets in the offseason, a one-year deal with a $2MM guarantee. He was kept in a limited role, only getting into 18 games during his roughly six weeks on the Mets, stepping to the plate 37 times in that stretch. He hit just .222/.243/.250, a continuation of his rough 2023 with the Marlins, as he hit just .212/.248/.306 last year.
The Mets released him earlier this week and are on the hook for the remainder of Wendle’s salary. Atlanta will only be responsible for the prorated league minimum for as long as Wendle is on their roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Mets pay.
Atlanta has been rotating various players through their bench infielder role this year, with each of David Fletcher, Luis Guillorme, Zack Short and Williams getting a look for that job. Short is still on the roster and has been the club’s regular third baseman lately with Austin Riley battling an an intercostal strain.
By bumping Williams down to Gwinnett and adding Wendle, the club adds a bit more infield depth at essentially no cost, given that the Mets are covering the bulk of the money and that Atlanta had an open roster spot to use anyway. Wendle hasn’t been hitting much lately but has plenty of experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base, as well as brief stints in the outfield corners. He has generally received strong grades wherever he has played and can give Atlanta some glove-first depth all over the diamond, while Williams can get more regular playing time on the farm.
On the pitching side of things, Atlanta got thrown off their plans a bit on the weekend. Saturday’s game against the Padres was rained out and pushed to a Monday double-header. In Sunday’s game, Bryce Elder was torched for six earned runs in three innings, forcing Kerr to come in and throw 3 1/3 innings of relief, followed by two other pitchers and then Williams mopping up a frame.
Elder was optioned prior to the double-header so that the club could bring in two fresh arms, one of them being the “27th man” for Monday. That allowed Atlanta to bring up both Darius Vines and Daysbel Hernández. Over the two games, five different relievers were used, leaving the bullpen fairly taxed. Kerr was optioned to get the roster back down to 26. Thanks to the double-header, each of Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Charlie Morton and Max Fried started in a span of three days from Monday to Wednesday. With Elder having been optioned, they had to recall Smith-Shawver to start yesterday’s game and now Kerr will take the ball today in what is likely to be a bullpen game. Pitchers normally have to wait 15 days after being optioned before they can be recalled, but an exception is made when someone else goes on the IL.
Atlanta has seemingly been stretching out Kerr of late, either by design or necessity or both. His four appearances for the big league club this year have gone one inning, two innings, three innings and then three and a third. Overall, he has a 2.89 earned run average in 9 1/3 innings, striking out 27% of opponents without issuing a walk.
That’s a small sample size but perhaps intriguing enough for Atlanta to ride the hot hand for a while. Smith-Shawver is going to miss at least 15 days with this injury and Spencer Strider is out for the year. Elder was just optioned after posting a 6.46 ERA in five starts this year. Huascar Ynoa and Ian Anderson are injured in the minors. Allan Winans and Dylan Dodd each have a 4.50 ERA in Triple-A this year but with uninspiring peripherals.
Kerr was a starter in the minors back before the pandemic but has been kept in relief since then. His numbers as a reliever certainly catch the eye, as he has punched out 27.9% of batters faced in the majors, between his time with San Diego and Atlanta. In 134 minor league innings from 2021 to the present, he has a 3.69 ERA, 33.4% strikeout rate but 12.9% walk rate. Perhaps Atlanta can manufacture another reliever-to-starter success story as they have done with López this year, or perhaps this will just be a spot start for Kerr, which may depend upon how he looks against the Pirates today.
Rays Outright Erasmo Ramirez
Rays right-hander Erasmo Ramírez cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Wednesday. While the veteran had more than enough service time to test free agency, Tampa Bay announced that he accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham.
Ramírez seems comfortable with the organization. He played for the Rays between 2015-17 and returned on a minor league deal after being released by the Nationals last summer. Ramírez got to the majors for 15 appearances last season and inked another non-roster contract over the winter. Tampa Bay selected him to the MLB team in April.
The 34-year-old pitched 11 times over the last few weeks. He allowed 10 runs (eight earned) in 16 relief innings. While his 4.50 ERA was reasonable, he managed only a 9:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio and gave up four home runs. Ramírez allowed 6.41 earned runs per nine over 60 1/3 innings a year ago. His most recent MLB success came in 2022, when he provided the Nats 86 1/3 frames of 2.92 ERA ball.
Shortly after Ramíez’s DFA, skipper Kevin Cash lauded the veteran’s professionalism and willingness to handle multiple innings (link via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). The Rays clearly value him as a depth arm and could call upon him again at some point during the season when they need a long relief option.
Tigers Notes: Maeda, Manning, Hopkins, Garko
Kenta Maeda made his return to the Tigers rotation this evening. Detroit reinstated the veteran right-hander from the 15-day injured list, optioning Matt Manning to Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move. Maeda took the ball against the Blue Jays, working five scoreless innings.
Maeda was down for the minimal two weeks after battling an illness. Signed to a two-year free agent deal last offseason, he has struggled to a 5.80 ERA over his first eight starts. His 15.8% strikeout rate is well down from the 27.3% mark he managed during his final season with the Twins. He has also surrendered nine homers over 35 2/3 innings, a lofty 2.27 longballs per nine. Most of the damage has been concentrated over three bad starts. Maeda has given up at least six runs in a trio of outings and no more than three runs in his other five starts.
Despite Maeda’s inconsistency, Detroit has gotten generally solid rotation work. Tarik Skubal, Reese Olson and Jack Flaherty have been anywhere from solid to excellent. Casey Mize has a more pedestrian 4.57 ERA through nine outings. Manning has been the clear #6 option on the depth chart, starting five games around a trio of stints in the minors. He has only managed a 4.88 ERA over five MLB appearances but has a 3.79 mark with a huge 31.6% strikeout rate in 19 Triple-A innings.
While Maeda’s return is the bigger injury news for the Tigers, they did lose a couple depth players this week. The team informed reporters (including Evan Woodbery of MLive) that minor league reliever Blair Calvo and outfielder TJ Hopkins are out for the season. Both players recently underwent surgery to repair labrum tears in their right shoulders.
Calvo and Hopkins each made their big league debuts in 2023, though both players have subsequently been outrighted from the 40-man roster. Calvo made one MLB appearance for the Rockies and had only pitched twice for Detroit’s Double-A affiliate. Hopkins, whom the Tigers claimed off waivers from the Giants in February, appeared in 25 big league contests for the Reds last year. He’d been hitting .190/.326/.329 in Double-A.
The Tigers also announced some off-field news this afternoon. Detroit promoted Ryan Garko from vice president of player development to assistant general manager. The former big league first baseman has worked with the Tigers’ farm system since he was hired in September 2021. He joins Sam Menzin, Jay Sartori and Rob Metzler as assistant GMs. They’re behind baseball operations president Scott Harris and first-year general manager Jeff Greenberg in the front office hierarchy.
What’s Mason Miller Worth On The Trade Market?
To say Mason Miller's start to the season has the baseball world buzzing would be an understatement. The second-year A's hurler, whom Oakland selected with the No. 97 overall pick in 2021, has emphatically asserted himself into the conversation for baseball's top reliever. Standing at 6'5" and averaging a comical 101.3 mph on his heater, Miller is the quintessential power pitcher. He's burst out of the gates with a 2.05 ERA in 22 innings, going 9-for-9 in save opportunities and striking out an outrageous 51.9% of his opponents on the year. Eighty-one hitters have had the misfortune of facing Miller. Forty-two of them have gone down on strikes.
Miller allowed two runs in his first outing of the season and was just finally scored upon again yesterday, yielding three earned runs in 1 2/3 frames. Between those two appearances? The right-hander pitched 19 1/3 shutout innings with a 40-to-4 K/BB ratio, fanning an impossible 60.6% of his opponents.
Unsurprisingly, between his dominant performance and the current state of the Athletics, he was quickly speculated upon as a trade candidate -- despite entering the year with six full seasons of club control remaining. As one would expect, teams have inquired. And as you'd also imagine, the asking price is reported to be stratospheric. Miller is going to generate considerable buzz between now and the July 30 trade deadline. Given the massive amount of club control he has remaining, it's a stretch to call him a "likely" trade candidate, but it's a guarantee that teams are going to try. The big question will be how much Oakland will need to be offered to genuinely consider moving him.
Before we dive too far in, let's be clear: this is an exercise without a clear answer. There's no precedent for a pitcher -- or a player -- with this level of early-career dominance and a nearly full slate of six years of control even being available. That we're even talking about it underscores the current state of the A's: a rebuilding team in the midst of relocation whose rebuild has stalled because of nearly universal misses on returns for their top stars. If Oakland were competitive right now or at least seeing enough encouraging returns in the rebuild to think they could be a Wild Card club in 2025-26, this wouldn't even be as serious a topic of discussion.
That's not the world we live in, though. The A's have MLB's fourth-worst run differential and fifth-worst winning percentage. Their farm system ranks near the bottom of the league even after trading Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Frankie Montas, Sean Murphy, Sean Manaea, Chris Bassitt, Lou Trivino, Sam Moll and more. The A's have painted themselves into a corner that's problematic enough that their juggernaut closer is already being floated as a trade candidate despite barely having a year of service time.
So maybe this is indeed an exercise in futility, but let's take a look at some of the most recent trades for big-name relievers and see what we can glean.
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John Means Sent For Second Opinion On Forearm Strain
May 24: Means is headed for a second opinion, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters on Friday (X link via the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich). Hyde didn’t specify if that indicates another surgery is potentially on the table.
May 23: The Orioles announced Thursday that left-hander John Means has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left forearm strain. Righty Jonathan Heasley has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take his spot on the 26-man roster. Means exited last night’s start after reporting elbow discomfort and seeing a notable dip in his fastball velocity. The team has not yet commented on the potential length of his absence.
Ominously, the 31-year-old Means missed a significant portion of the 2023 season owing to this same injury. He underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2022 season and was limited to just 23 2/3 innings last year in his return from that ligament reconstruction, in large part became of complications in his forearm. He’s pitched a near-identical slate of 20 2/3 innings this season with uncannily similar results. After logging a 2.66 ERA last season, he’s at 2.61 in 2024. Means has fanned a below-average 20% of opponents this season but logged an outstanding 2.5% walk rate as well.
There’s little doubting Means’ talent on the mound. Since cementing his place in the Baltimore rotation early in 2019, he’s pitched to a 3.60 ERA with below-average strikeout tendencies (20.9%) but terrific command of the strike zone (4.9% walk rate). Unfortunately, persistent health troubles have severely limited his time on the mound. Over that span of what’s now five-plus seasons, he’s totaled just 397 2/3 innings of work in the majors.
Means, despite having worked as a starter for virtually his entire big league career, has just 401 innings in the majors in a season where he’s slated to reach free agency. He’s at five years of big league service already — much of it spent on the injured list — and will hit the open market for the first time when the 2024 season draws to a close.
With Means again sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined period, the Orioles will likely scrap the six-man rotation they’d been planning. Fellow lefty Cole Irvin — who’d been slated to be included in that sextet — stepped up in long relief for Means last night. As such, his rest schedule will now align with what would’ve been Means’ spot in the rotation, meaning he can start on full rest the next time Means would’ve been slated to take the hill.
Irvin will join Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer on the starting staff for the time being, with Heasley presumably available for long relief and/or a spot start if eventually needed. He’s been working as a multi-inning reliever in Norfolk but pitched five innings in a start his last time out. That brought him to a total of 20 innings over seven appearances.
Mariners Option Luis Urias
The Mariners announced this evening that they’ve optioned infielder Luis Urías to Triple-A Tacoma. Seattle recalled rookie outfielder Jonatan Clase to take the open roster spot.
It’s a little surprising to see Urías optioned out entirely. The righty-hitting infielder has played regularly at third base this month. Urías hasn’t hit, though, slumping to a .152/.264/.316 line in 91 plate appearances on the season. Seattle welcomed J.P. Crawford back from the injured list earlier in the week, while Jorge Polanco has played two of the past three games after missing some time with a sore hamstring.
Crawford and Polanco should draw into middle infield on most days. Manager Scott Servais told reporters that Josh Rojas and Dylan Moore will platoon at third base (X link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times). Rojas, a left-handed hitter, opened the season at the hot corner but moved to second base while Polanco was out. He’s out to a .286/.354/.421 line through 41 games, a solid rebound after his underwhelming 2023 season.
Moore has arguably been even more impressive. The righty-hitting utilityman handled shortstop while Crawford was injured and has hit .248/.359/.504 over 145 plate appearances. Moore has connected on six homers, including three in his last eight games, and is drawing walks at a lofty 12.4% clip.
As one would expect for a right-handed batter, Moore is better against lefty pitching. He has absolutely destroyed southpaws this season (.289/.391/.632 in 46 plate appearances), though he’s more than holding his own against righties as well. Moore has a .343 on-base percentage and is slugging .446 in 99 plate appearances without the platoon advantage, albeit with a modest .229 average.
Moore can also play second base and the corner outfield, so he should play fairly regularly even against right-handed pitching. He’ll likely be at third against opposing southpaws in place of Rojas, who is a career .253/.330/.346 hitter left-on-left. Urías, meanwhile, will get everyday reps in the Pacific Coast League as he tries to get on track. It’s the second straight year in which he has been optioned. The Brewers sent him down for 26 games midway through last season.
Urías entered 2024 with four years and 98 days of MLB service. He needs around three more weeks of major league time to cross the five-year threshold this season. In either case, that might wind up being immaterial. Urías is playing this season on a $5MM salary and would be in line for a modest raise next year if he’s tendered an arbitration contract.
He’d need a significant turnaround over the next few months or he’ll be an easy non-tender call for the Seattle front office. He’d already seemed like a non-tender candidate last offseason when he was with the Red Sox, but the M’s sent reliever Isaiah Campbell to Boston to give Urías a shot at a bounceback. It hasn’t transpired thus far.
Rockies Select John Curtiss, Matt Carasiti
The Rockies made a pair of bullpen moves before tonight’s matchup with the Phillies. Colorado selected righties John Curtiss and Matt Carasiti onto the MLB roster. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Peter Lambert to Triple-A Albuquerque and designated Matt Koch for assignment. To open the second necessary 40-man roster spot, the Rox transferred Kyle Freeland to the 60-day injured list.
Colorado played consecutive extra-inning games against the A’s on Wednesday and Thursday. The Rox won the former in 12 innings but dropped yesterday’s 11-inning contest in disappointing fashion. The bullpen blew leads in the ninth, tenth and eleventh frames — surrendering five runs in the final inning to get walked off after scoring four in the top half.
Koch and Lambert were the last two arms out of Bud Black’s relief corps yesterday. Koch didn’t record an out, allowing hits to Max Schuemann and Abraham Toro before serving up a game-tying homer to JJ Bleday. Lambert managed two outs before walking Tyler Soderstrom with the bases loaded to end the game. That likely took both players out of the picture for tonight and ultimately squeezed them each off the MLB roster.
The 33-year-old Koch signed an offseason minor league deal and was just selected to the big league roster over the weekend. Yesterday’s outing was his second of the season. The righty worked to a 5.12 ERA over 38 2/3 innings for Colorado a year ago. The Rox will likely put him on waivers in the next few days.
Curtiss, 31, inked a minor league deal in January. He has been hit hard for a 6.75 ERA over 21 1/3 innings with the Isotopes. The 6’5″ righty had solid results with the Rays and Marlins between 2020-21 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. He returned to the majors with the Mets a year ago, allowing 4.58 earned runs per nine with a modest 19.8% strikeout rate through 30 appearances. Curtiss is out of options, so the Rox would need to designate him for assignment if they don’t keep him in the MLB bullpen.
Carasiti still has one option remaining, so the Rockies could move him between Denver and Albuquerque. He’s in his second season in the organization and threw 24 1/3 MLB frames a year ago. Carasiti turned in a 6.29 ERA with nearly as many walks as strikeouts in the majors. He has been tagged for 5.91 ERA in the Pacific Coast League this year, but he’s punching out nearly 27% of opposing hitters at that level.
Freeland’s 60-day minimum is retroactive to his original IL placement on April 16. The veteran left-hander suffered an elbow strain after four starts. He’s throwing off a mound but hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Freeland can pitch in the minors before his 60 days are up; he’ll be eligible for a return to MLB action in the second week of June.
Orioles Place Dean Kremer On Injured List
The Orioles announced that they have recalled right-hander Dillon Tate and left-hander Nick Vespi. In corresponding moves, right-hander Jonathan Heasley has been optioned to Triple-A Norfolk while righty Dean Kremer has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right triceps strain. Kremer’s IL move is retroactive to May 21.
The Orioles have not yet provided any information about the severity of Kremer’s injury, but it will provide the Orioles with a challenge nonetheless. Just a week ago, the club began a stretch of playing 42 games in 44 days and was planning to go to a six-man rotation to keep their starters fresh. However, John Means landed on the injured list yesterday due to a forearm strain and now Kremer is on the shelf as well.
That leaves Baltimore with a rotation of Corbin Burnes, Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez. The latter two were also on the IL earlier this year, though each was reinstated this month. Cole Irvin and Albert Suárez were each in the rotation earlier this year but had been bumped to the bullpen. With the injury bug biting this week, both of them may have to return to starting roles.
That plan will come with a couple of challenges. Irvin threw 56 pitches in a relief outing on Wednesday and may not be available for a couple more days. Suárez was stretched out earlier this year but it’s been about two weeks since he pitched more than an inning.
Even if the O’s can find a way to smoothly transition Irvin and Suárez back to the rotation, that still leaves them with just five starters when they had planned on having six. Perhaps they consider that acceptable, but with Bradish and Rodriguez having already missed time this year, getting them a bit of extra rest during this tough part of the schedule could still be a priority.
Bruce Zimmermann is on the 40-man roster but has been on the minor league IL for almost two weeks now due to a hamstring strain. Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott, two of the club’s top pitching prospects, are pitching well in Triple-A but neither is on the 40-man roster.
Whatever the Orioles are planning, more information may be forthcoming this weekend. Burnes is taking the ball tonight but Kremer was scheduled for Saturday. Both Bradish and Rodriguez pitched too recently to take the ball on normal rest by tomorrow.
Manfred: ABS Likely To Arrive As Challenge System In MLB, Though Likely Not Ready For 2025
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to members of the media about the future implementation of an automatic ball-strike (ABS) system, also known as “robo umps”, in the majors. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Evan Drellich of The Athletic relayed some of his comments. The commissioner said that there will likely be a challenge system in place when ABS first arrives in the big leagues, but that isn’t likely to happen next year.
Robo umps have seemed inevitable for some time now. Many other sports have seen technological advancements gradually take over duties previously carried out by human officials and the improvement of ball tracking technology has allowed baseball fans to clearly see calls missed by umpires in real time. As various websites track and grade umpires, fans have become increasingly vocal about their disappointment in umpires and the desire to move towards robo umps.
MLB has been trying out various methods in the minor leagues and in independent partner leagues for years now and Manfred said there is a “growing consensus” that players would prefer a challenge system as opposed to letting the ABS system take over completely. “Those who have played with it do have a strong preference for the challenge system over ABS calling every pitch,” Manfred said, “and that has certainly altered our thinking on where we might be headed.”
In a challenge system, the game is still called the traditional way, with the human umpire calling balls and strikes. However, each team gets a set number of challenges each game, where they can appeal to the ABS system to see if the umpire made a mistake.
This is something that Jayson Stark of The Athletic took a detailed look at in August of last year. While some fans may simply want every call to be rigorously made as the machine sees it, Stark got various reasons from baseball people as to why it would be preferable to do it with challenges.
One reason is feel for the game, with the example that a human umpire might expand the strike zone during a blowout to move the game along, something the robo ump wouldn’t do. There’s the entertainment factor of seeing the challenge play out on the scoreboard at the ballpark or on the broadcast. As an example, a minor league game last month ended on a challenged call, with video relayed by Foul Territory on X. Some want pitchers with consistent control to get a more favorable zone from the ump, as compared to a more wild pitcher. Some also don’t want the skill of catcher framing to go away.
The last point is something that Manfred touched on yesterday. “I think the players feel that a catcher that frames is part of the art of the game,” Manfred said. “If in fact framing is no longer important, the kind of players that would occupy that position might be different than they are today. You could hypothesize a world where instead of a premium catcher who’s focused on defense, the catching position becomes a more offensive player. That alters people’s careers, so those are real, legitimate concerns that we need to think all the way through before we jump off that bridge.”
Though the challenge system may be coming to the big leagues at some point, it doesn’t seem like it will be next year. “We still have some technical issues; I don’t mean technology, I mean technical issues in terms of the operation of the system,” Manfred said. “We haven’t made as much progress in the minor leagues this year as we hoped at this point. I think it’s becoming more and more likely that this will not be a go for ’25. One thing we did learn with the changes that we went through last year is taking the extra time to make sure you have it right is definitely the best approach. I think we’re going to use that same approach here.”
Per Feinsand, those issues are related to whether the strike zone is determined by a player’s height or by camera systems. “I’m not sure that anybody is wholly satisfied with either approach,” Manfred said. “We have not started those conversations [with the MLBPA] because we haven’t settled on what we think about it. It’s hard to have those conversations before you know what you’re thinking.”
Drellich also relayed some of Manfred’s thoughts on other topics in a separate piece. In that one, Manfred discusses the uniform situation with Nike, improvements to the Sacramento ballpark that will host the A’s for the next three years, the rise of pitcher injuries, the 2028 Olympics, Diamond Sports Group, pretacked balls and more. MLBTR covered some of these topics last night.