Red Sox Place Garrett Whitlock On Injured List Due To Oblique Strain
The Red Sox announced to reporters, including Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, that right-hander Garrett Whitlock has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left oblique strain. Left-hander Joe Jacques has been recalled to take his spot on the roster for now.
Whitlock, 28 in June, exited last night’s game with some tightness in the oblique. Per manager Álex Cora, as relayed by McCaffrey in the tweet above, Whitlock fought the club to stay on the active roster but the Sox made the decision for him, not wanting him to make the injury worse.
That perhaps suggests that the issue is minor and that Whitlock will be back in a couple of weeks, but it’s a tough blow for the Red Sox nonetheless. He was off to a strong start to the season, having posted an earned run average of 1.96 through his first four starts, though he wasn’t going to maintain a .265 batting average on balls in play nor an 87.4% strand rate.
Still, the Sox are facing a number of challenges in the rotation. Lucas Giolito and Chris Murphy are out for the year due to elbow surgeries while Nick Pivetta is currently on the shelf with a flexor strain. With Whitlock now out of action as well, the rotation is down to Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Cooper Criswell. They will need to find someone else to replace Whitlock but Cora didn’t tip his hand to McCaffrey about who that would be.
Veteran Chase Anderson is with the big league club and could be an option since his first two appearances were three innings each, though his last outing was just one inning and the previous appearance was just two. Naoyuki Uwasawa is on the 40-man roster but has a 6.30 ERA through his first two Triple-A starts. Wikelman Gonzalez is on the 40-man but he’s in Double-A and didn’t make it out of the first innings in his most recent start at that level.
Jacques tossed 26 2/3 innings for the Sox last year with a 5.06 ERA. He’ll give the Sox another lefty in their bullpen for the time being but perhaps find himself optioned back out in the coming days when the club decides on the move to replace Whitlock in the rotation.
Cubs Announce Several Roster Moves
The Cubs announced a series of roster moves to add some fresh arms to the bullpen after their recent pair of extra-inning games taxed the relief corps. Right-handers Hayden Wesneski and Colten Brewer are up from Triple-A Iowa — the latter of whom had his contract selected to the 40-man roster. Chicago optioned righty Daniel Palencia and lefty Luke Little to open a pair of spots on the active roster. Right-hander Julian Merryweather, already shelved with a stress fracture in his ribcage, was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot for Brewer on the 40-man roster. He’s been on the IL since April 6, meaning he’ll now be out until at least June 6.
The Cubs will be the fourth big league club for Brewer, 31. The right-hander tossed 8 1/3 innings with the Yankees in 2023 and has previously spent time with the Padres and Red Sox. He’s logged a combined 99 1/3 innings across parts of five MLB campaigns, pitching to a 4.98 ERA with a 19.7% strikeout rate, 13.1% walk rate and 51.3% grounder rate. Brewer also spent time with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last year, hurling 11 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and six walks (one intentional) with 14 strikeouts.
Brewer signed with Chicago on a minor league pact over the winter and had a strong spring training (seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, no walks). He’s posted quite similar numbers in Des Moines so far: 7 2/3 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, two walks, nine strikeouts. The 6’4″ righty is no stranger pitching to working in a long-relief role and could give the Cubs multiple innings if needed.
A protracted absence for Merryweather stings for the Cubs. The 32-year-old joined the organization as a waiver claim out of Toronto in January 2023 and quickly became one of their most important relievers. Since Opening Day ’23, Merryweather touts a 3.29 ERA (3.46 FIP, 3.41 SIERA) with a huge 32.1% strikeout rate. His 11.7% walk rate could rather obviously stand to improve, but Merryweather has done a nice job keeping the ball in the yard and frequently overpowering opponents with a heater that’s averaged 98.1 mph as a Cub. Among the 244 big league pitchers to toss at least 70 innings since Opening Day 2023, Merryweather’s 15.4% swinging-strike rate ranks 11th, placing him right between Mariners setup stud Matt Brash and reigning NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.
Padres Place Yu Darvish On Injured List
The Padres announced Wednesday that they’ve placed righty Yu Darvish on the 15-day injured list due to a tightness in his neck and recalled right-handed reliever Logan Gillaspie from Triple-A El Paso in his place. Darvish’s IL placement is retroactive to April 15.
Darvish had been slated to take the ball for San Diego on Saturday but will now be sidelined until at least April 30. The team hasn’t provided further details on the injury or given a timetable for the length of his expected absence. The Friars also haven’t listed a replacement starter for Saturday yet, though they have an off-day tomorrow which could allow them to move everyone else up a day for the time being without starting someone on short rest.
In five starts this season, the veteran Darvish has pitched 23 2/3 innings and notched a 4.18 ERA. He’s sitting on an uncharacteristically low strikeout rate (21.9%) and high walk rate (9.9%). Darvish’s most recent start against the Dodgers, wherein he yielded three runs and fanned just two in five innings, saw his average fastball drop more than a mile per hour relative to his season debut.
With Darvish shelved for a yet-to-be-determined period of time, the Padres will lean even more heavily on the trio of Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease and Michael King. Twenty-seven-year-old knuckleballer Matt Waldron has pitched well through three starts but comes with minimal track record in the big leagues. Other rotation options on the 40-man roster include righties Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez in addition to lefties Jackson Wolf and Jay Groome. Brito is already on the big league roster in a long-relief capacity. Groome has yet to pitch more than two innings in a Triple-A appearance this season. Both Wolf and Vasquez have been hit quite hard in their first looks of the ’24 season in El Paso.
The 37-year-old Darvish is in the second season of a six-year, $108MM contract that runs through his age-41 season. That deal, which promised Darvish five years and an additional $90MM on top of the final $18MM he was owed under his prior contract, was engineered in many ways as a means of tamping down his luxury tax hit. The $90MM in new money was closer to what one might’ve expected for a then-36-year-old Darvish over a three-year term. He’d finished eighth in Cy Young balloting a season prior, rattling off 194 2/3 innings of 3.10 ERA ball. The Padres instead stretched what looked like three-year money out over an additional five years, weighing down the annual value and lessening the contract’s luxury hit in the process.
Rockies Place Kris Bryant On Injured List Due To Back Strain
The Rockies announced that they have recalled outfielder Sean Bouchard from Triple-A Albuquerque. He will take the roster spot of first baseman/outfielder Kris Bryant, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a low back strain, retroactive to April 14.
Bryant, 32, crashed into the wall at Rogers Centre this weekend while catching a ball off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.(video clip via MLB.com). He was later removed from that game and hasn’t been back in the lineup since. The fact that he wasn’t immediately placed on the IL perhaps suggests he could return after a brief absence, though further updates will perhaps provide more information. Since the move was backdated by three days, Bryant could theoretically be back with the club in a week.
Going into the 2022 season, the Rockies and Bryant agreed to a seven-year, $182MM contract. The deal has not provided the results the club had hoped for to this point, which is putting it mildly. Bryant hit well in 2022 but only played 42 games due to back problems and left foot plantar fasciitis. Last year, a left heel bruise and a fractured left index finger led to IL stints. Bryant still got into 80 games but his production dipped, and he was also out to a slow start here in 2024.
Overall, Bryant has appeared in 135 games since joining Colorado, taking 571 plate appearances. He has hit .249/.329/.391 for a wRC+ of 86. That’s well shy of the .278/.376/.504 line he put up through the 2021 season, production which translated to a 134 wRC+. There’s still plenty of time for Bryant to turn things around but each trip to the IL will only compound the frustration among the Colorado fans as the largest free agent signing in franchise history continues to go for nought.
Bryant had been playing both first base and right field prior to his injury. Elehuris Montero has seemingly taken over at the regular at first, with the outfield spots filled by Brenton Doyle, Nolan Jones and Michael Toglia. Veteran Charlie Blackmon has mostly been in the designated hitter slot but has played some right field on occasion.
Jake Cave is on the roster as a reserve outfielder but he will now be joined by Bouchard, who turns 28 next month. Bouchard has a stout line of .304/.429/.563 in his major league career, though in a small sample of 140 plate appearances. He seemed to have a chance to earn a regular role to start the 2024 season but hit just .205/.308/.341 in the spring. However, he has mashed since reporting to Triple-A, putting up a line of .315/.431/.611 so far this year.
Mets Claim Michael Tonkin, Designate Tyler Jay
The Mets have claimed righty Michael Tonkin off waivers from the Twins, per a team announcement. Left-hander Tyler Jay was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
It’s in many ways a reversal of some recent bullpen-related transactions in Queens. New York designated Tonkin for assignment on April 5, traded him to the Twins for cash, and less than a week later selected the contract of Jay (a former Twins top prospect himself). Minnesota designated Tonkin for assignment a second time after he made just one appearance.
Both Tonkin and Jay were original Twins draftees — Tonkin in the 30th round in 2008 and Jay with the No. 6 overall pick in 2015. The 34-year-old Tonkin has allowed 10 runs in six innings between the Mets and Twins this year, though only four of them have been earned. He’s whiffed eight of 33 opponents and walked three, although he’s also plunked three batters in his tiny sample of innings.
Tonkin spent the 2023 season in the Braves’ bullpen, logging a 4.28 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in 80 innings. That set a new career-high MLB workload for the journeyman right-hander, who owns a career 4.42 ERA (4.55 FIP, 3.70 SIERA) with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 39.7% grounder rate in 232 1/3 big league innings between Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Tonkin has also pitched in the D-backs and Brewers systems in addition to stints with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks, the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana, and the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.
As for Jay, his major league debut came far, far later than most would’ve expected when he was taken sixth overall as a high-profile college arm out of the University of Illinois. A former top-100 prospect, he’s been slowed by shoulder and neck troubles throughout his career and notably underwent thoracic outlet surgery back in 2017, costing him a year of his career. Jay never tossed more than 83 2/3 innings in any of his seasons with the Twins before being cut loose during the canceled 2020 minor league season. He didn’t pitch at all in 2021 and spent the 2022-23 seasons with the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League.
His work with the Slammers earned him a look in the Mets’ system late last year. He re-signed on a minor league deal over the winter, tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames in Triple-A Syracuse to begin the season, and allowed one run on five hits and a walk in his first four MLB frames with the Mets. Jay only struck out one of the 18 batters he faced but also recorded an outstanding 66.7% ground-ball rate. New York will have a week to trade Jay, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Brewers Select Tobias Myers, Designate Vladimir Gutierrez For Assignment
The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Tobias Myers. In corresponding moves, they optioned left-hander Jared Koenig to Triple-A Nashville and designated right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez for assignment.
Myers, 25, will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, though he took quite a circuitous route to get here. Drafted by the Orioles way back in 2016, he was traded to the Rays the following year as the O’s acquired Tim Beckham. Ahead of the 2021 Rule 5 deadline, he was flipped to Cleveland in exchange for Junior Caminero and then added to Cleveland’s 40-man roster. Myers was designated for assignment in July of 2022, getting traded to the Giants for cash. He was later claimed off waivers by the White Sox, though that club outrighted him off their roster towards the end of the 2022 season. He reached minor league free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Brewers prior to 2023.
Along that winding road, he saw his prospect stock rise and fall. Baseball America considered him the Rays’ #15 prospect going into 2018, which was on the heels of a strong 2017 performance wherein Myers tossed 56 minors league innings with a 3.54 earned run average, 31.9% strikeout rate and 4.4% walk rate. Were in not for a very unlucky 52.1% strand rate, his performance would have been even better, which is why his FIP was a tiny 1.81.
But his strikeout-to-walk ratios were less impressive in the two following two seasons. He had a combed 3.05 ERA over 2018 and 2019 but with a subpar 18.7% strikeout rate and average-ish 8.1% walk rate. The minors were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 but Myers bounced back somewhat in 2021. He tossed 117 2/3 innings over 25 outings, 22 starts, with a 3.90 ERA, 30.5% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. It was then that he was traded to the Guards for Caminero and BA ranked him the #23 prospect in Cleveland’s system.
But in 2022, as he bounced to the Guardians, Giants and White Sox, he tossed 76 innings on the farm with a ghastly 7.82 ERA, striking out just 14.2% of opponents while giving them free passes at a 13.5% clip.
With the Brewers last year, he improved in terms of strikeouts and walks but the long ball was an issue. He threw 140 2/3 frames with a 29.3% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate, but the 30 home runs allowed led to a 4.93 ERA. So far this year, he’s made three Triple-A starts with a 1.84 ERA in that small sample.
Given the inconsistency, it’s hard to know what to expect from Myers at this point, but the Brewers have largely been getting decent results out of him in the past year-plus. Since he’s stretched out, he can give the club a bit of length. He has a couple of options and can provide the club with some roster flexibility well into the future if he continues to hang onto his 40-man spot.
Gutierrez, 28, was claimed off waivers by the Brewers less than two weeks ago. He was optioned to Triple-A and made two appearances on the farm before getting bumped off the 40-man roster today. Milwaukee will have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers.
He was once a highly-touted prospect himself but has a 5.47 ERA through 154 2/3 major league innings thus far, mostly with the Reds. He missed most of 2023 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and was outrighted by the Reds at season’s end. He signed a minor league deal with the Marlins this winter and was selected to the roster but was designated for assignment after one appearance, which led him to the Brewers via the aforementioned waiver claim.
He could perhaps garner interest from other clubs, either due to his previous prospect pedigree or the various injuries piling up around the league or both. The fact that Gutierrez still has a couple of options means he won’t even need an active roster spot.
Guardians Acquire Pedro Avila
April 17: The teams announced that Avila has been traded from San Diego to Cleveland in exchange for cash. In a corresponding 40-man move, the Guards transferred infielder Angel Martinez from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.
April 16: The Guardians are acquiring right-hander Pedro Avila from the Padres, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (on X). San Diego had designated Avila for assignment last week.
Avila has had a tough start to the 2024 campaign. The Venezuelan-born pitcher has allowed eight runs in as many innings over his first four appearances. Avila has fanned nine but issued six walks and tossed three wild pitches. Inconsistent command has been an issue throughout the 27-year-old’s big league tenure. Avila has walked nearly 12% of batters faced over his 71 2/3 career innings.
While he has yet to find sustained success, Avila has shown the ability to miss bats at the highest level. He has punched out nearly a quarter of opponents in his career behind a solid 11.7% swinging strike rate. Avila’s fastball velocity is more solid than standout (typically 93-94 MPH) but his changeup has been a reliably excellent swing-and-miss offering.
Avila has come out of the bullpen for 14 of his 22 major league outings. He’s been a starter in the minors, although his recent rotation work was not effective. He was tagged for an unsightly 8.57 ERA over 19 appearances (15 of them starts) in the Pacific Coast League last season. That pushed his career Triple-A earned run average to 5.59 in 190 innings. Avila has a solid 23.2% strikeout rate at that level, where he has handed out free passes at a lofty 11.2% clip.
Since he’s out of options, Avila can’t be sent to the minors without going through waivers. The Guardians figure to give him a look in the MLB bullpen as a long reliever. Cleveland has a fair bit of roster flexibility in that regard. Of their current middle innings group, only Tyler Beede can’t be optioned.
Despite their inexperience, the Guards’ bullpen has been excellent in the early going. They went into play Wednesday with an MLB-best 1.76 ERA and the league’s fourth-highest strikeout rate (27.6%). Cleveland has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once Avila’s acquisition is finalized.
D-backs Select Logan Allen, Transfer Eduardo Rodriguez To 60-Day IL
The D-backs announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Logan Allen from Triple-A Reno and transferred lefty Eduardo Rodriguez from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. The Snakes also recalled righty Justin Martinez from Triple-A. Right-hander Luis Frias and left-hander Tommy Henry were optioned to Reno to creative active roster space for Allen and Martinez.
It’ll be the first big league action since 2022 for the 26-year-old Allen (not to be confused by the other left-hander named Logan Allen, who solidified himself in the Guardians’ rotation with a strong rookie campaign in 2023).
The older Allen also pitched for Cleveland previously, to make matters more confusing. He’s a former eighth-round draft pick who’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons, working to a combined 5.89 ERA in 96 1/3 frames between Cleveland, San Diego and Baltimore. In a dozen innings with Reno, he’s pitched to a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts, three walks and a 50% ground-ball rate.
The “60-day” term on Rodriguez’s IL stint is retroactive to his original placement and does not reset to today. While Arizona had hoped he’d only miss a month originally, the veteran southpaw recently experienced renewed shoulder discomfort during a throwing session and had his rehab program paused. In light of that setback, it’s not especially surprising to see him pushed to the 60-day IL. His original placement was retroactive to March 25, meaning he’s now sidelined through at least Friday, May 24.
With Rodriguez now shelved for another five weeks at least, Arizona’s rotation will consist of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Jordan Montgomery and Brandon Pfaadt in the top four spots. Montgomery has also yet to make his season debut but it scheduled to do so on Friday. Twenty-six-year-old righty Ryne Nelson currently holds the fifth spot, but he’s yielded eight runs in 13 2/3 innings this season and carries a 5.31 ERA in 157 2/3 frames dating back to last year. His grip on that rotation spot is not exactly iron-clad.
Astros To Activate Justin Verlander On Friday
The Astros will reinstate Justin Verlander from the injured list prior to Friday’s game against the Nationals, manager Joe Espada announced to the Astros beat this morning (X link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Verlander will start Friday’s game in what’ll be his season debut. The three-time Cy Young winner opened the season on the 15-day injured list after he was slowed by shoulder fatigue early in spring training.
Verlander’s return is a boon for an Astros rotation that has been hammered by injuries, even beyond the expected absence of Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia Jr., both of whom are still on the mend from surgeries that ended their 2023 seasons. Houston saw Verlander slowed by shoulder troubles early in spring, lost Jose Urquidy to a forearm strain and recently placed Framber Valdez on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation.
The Astros have already cycled through multiple depth starters, including rookies Blair Henley and Spencer Arrighetti. Even with an unexpectedly dominant start to the year for Ronel Blanco — previously the team’s sixth starter but now a vital member of the staff who’s already thrown a no-hitter in 2024 — Houston starters have the fifth-worst ERA in Major League Baseball at 5.13. The quartet of Henley, Arrighetti, J.P. France and Hunter Brown have combined to yield a staggering 44 runs in just 36 1/3 innings of work.
At 41 years old, it’s fair to wonder how long Verlander has left as a high-end starter. But he looked the part in 2023 when he tossed 162 innings of 3.22 ERA ball, fanned 21.5% of his opponents against a 6.7% walk rate, and maintained a solid 94.4 mph average on his heater. He’s been tagged for an ugly 11 earned runs over seven innings in two minor league rehab appearances, but he’s also fanned nine of 39 opponents in that time (23.1%) and issued just two walks (5.1%).
Verlander’s return should at least prevent the ‘Stros from needing to give any more starts to any of the team’s rookies for the time being. He’ll step into the rotation alongside Cristian Javier, Blanco, France and Brown. Houston will hope for better results from sophomores France and Brown, both of whom were solid rotation pieces in their 2023 rookie showings. (Though France wilted in rather glaring fashion down the stretch last year.) Brown, in particular, was one of the game’s top pitching prospects prior to last year’s debut. He’s had an awful start to the season, headlined by a nine-run shellacking at the hands of the Royals, but he held a powerhouse Braves lineup to two runs over six innings in a rebound effort last night.
Turning back to Verlander specifically, the timing of his return bears particular importance. His two-year, $86.666MM contract contains a vesting $35MM player option for a third season. If he’s able to throw 140 innings in 2024, he’ll have the right to exercise that player option and lock himself in at $35MM next year — provided he finishes the season without an arm injury that would prevent him from pitching in 2025. If his shoulder causes further problems and sends him back to the injured list, the conditions of that player option will become far more pertinent. As it stands, the future Hall of Famer should have ample time to reach the requisite 140 frames.
Orioles Designate David Bañuelos, Select Albert Suarez
8:42am: The Orioles have now announced the morning’s roster moves. Bañuelos has indeed been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster and on the active roster will go to righty Albert Suarez, whose contract has been selected from Norfolk.
Suarez, 34, has pitched in parts of two big league seasons — both with the Giants — but hasn’t been on a major league mound since 2017. He posted a 4.51 ERA in 115 2/3 innings with San Francisco in 2016-17, spent the 2018 season with the D-backs’ Triple-A club, and has been pitching in Japan and South Korea in the five-year interim.
Suarez spent the 2019-21 campaigns with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, logging a collective 3.00 ERA, 19.4% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate in 162 frames. He’s spent the past two seasons with the KBO’s Samsung Lions, recording a 3.04 ERA in 281 2/3 innings over the life of 48 starts. In 15 1/3 innings to begin his 2024 season with the Tides, Suarez has posted an ugly 5.87 ERA but a very intriguing 17-to-1 K/BB ratio.
It could be a short stay on the 40-man roster for him as well, depending on how the team’s rotation plans play out. Suarez is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent back down to Norfolk without first clearing waivers. Regardless, it’ll be a rewarding and gratifying moment for a 34-year-old righty who has undoubtedly wondered at times whether he’d ever return to the majors.
8:36am: The Orioles will announce today that they’ve designated catcher David Bañuelos for assignment, reports Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. He’ll be the corresponding roster move for the promotion of today’s starting pitcher. Righty Tyler Wells had been slated to take the ball, but he hit the injured list last night with an elbow injury.
Bañuelos was already with the Orioles on their taxi squad as an emergency third catcher. Multiple O’s beat writers last night suggested that his addition to the 40-man roster was primarily due to him already being with the club and the team not having sufficient time to add another arm with Wells hitting the 15-day IL rather suddenly.
The O’s did right by Bañuelos, plugging the 27-year-old minor league veteran into the game as a pinch-hitter to at least give him a brief big league debut after a six-year grind in the minors. Bañuelos likely knew from the jump that his stint on the 40-man would be quite brief, and even though he merely flew out in place of Colton Cowser, he nonetheless said after the game that the lone at-bat was “honestly one of the coolest moments of my life” (X link via Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun).
Baltimore will now have a week to trade Bañuelos, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He joined the O’s over the winter on a minor league deal and has opened the season with a 2-for-11 showing in Triple-A Norfolk. One of those two knocks left the yard. Bañuelos was a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in 2017 who was traded to the Twins for international bonus space a year later. He spent six seasons in Minnesota’s minor league ranks and is regarded as a strong defender with average power and a well below-average hit tool. In 307 career Triple-A plate appearances, Bañuelos is a .209/.268/.394 hitter with a 31.9% strikeout rate.