Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Mason Miller Seeking Second Opinion On Forearm Tightness

By | at

Athletics right-hander Mason Miller is flying to Dallas today and will get a second opinion on his forearm tightness on Tuesday, reports Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. Miller had been placed on the 15-day injured list with the issue last week.

It’s still unclear what exactly is ailing Miller and what the severity is, though it’s a bit ominous that he’s seeking a second opinion since it would seem to suggest the first opinion had at least some level of concern. The further examination in the coming days will undoubtedly lead to more clarity on the situation and what the next steps are.

The A’s made the aggressive decision to promote Miller, 24, to the big leagues last month despite a very limited professional track record. He was drafted in 2021 and made three Complex League outings late in that year, then a shoulder strain limited him to just six outings across different minor league levels in 2022. He then tossed 16 2/3 innings in the Arizona Fall League but still came into 2023 having tallied less than 40 frames since being drafted.

Nonetheless, his stuff was clearly enticing, including a triple digit fastball along with a slider and changeup that were also well regarded. Since the A’s were dealing with injuries and underperformance throughout their pitching staff, they decided to give Miller a shot against big league hitters. He’s generally responded well so far, posting a 3.38 ERA through 21 1/3 innings over four starts, striking out 25.9% of opponents against an 8.2% walk rate.

Unfortunately, his acclimation to the majors has been put on hold. It was a week ago that Miller was put under evaluation, with manager Mark Kotsay suggesting that the discomfort seemed to be in his flexor muscle rather than a ligament issue, though the continued testing this week will hopefully help them to zero in on a concrete diagnosis.

Elsewhere on the A’s roster, first baseman/outfielder Seth Brown seems to have suffered a setback in his attempt to return to the club. He’s been on the injured list for over a month due to an oblique strain and began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas on the weekend, though Kawahara relays that Brown was removed from his first game of that rehab assignment. He is now heading back to Oakland to have the issue re-evaluated.

Brown, 30, has established himself as a key piece of the Oakland lineup in recent years. He hit 20 home runs in 2021 and added another 25 last year, hitting a combined .224/.294/.457 in those seasons for a wRC+ of 112. He was off to a slow start this year in a tiny sample of eight games before landing on the injured list. It’s unclear if he’s re-aggravated his injury in some kind of serious way but it’s notable that there’s enough concern for him to leave Vegas for Oakland and further testing.

The two pieces of news are a bit more gloom for a club that is off to a miserable 9-33 start and is actively pursuing a move to Las Vegas. Miller’s ascendency was one of the few positive stories for the A’s so far this year while Brown was one of the only solid everyday players that had yet to be traded away as part of their recent roster teardown. These two updates just add a bit more worry for the clubs and its fans, though more information still needs to come to light in both cases.

A’s Likely To File Funding Request With Nevada Legislature This Week

By | at

The Athletics are continuing to pursue their potential relocation to Las Vegas and will likely be filing their funding bill with the Nevada Legislature in the coming week, per Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Twitter, who adds that there will be enough time to get the deal done during the current legislative session.

The timing is significant on a couple of fronts. The current Nevada legislative session adjourns on June 5 and there’s no even year session, meaning there won’t be another chance for the A’s to file until early 2025, after the 2024 election. Under the terms of the recent collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA, the Athletics have until January 15 of 2024 to sign a contract for the construction of a new facility in order to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients.

It was reported last month that the club had agreed to purchase 49 acres of land west of the Las Vegas Strip, though a later report indicated the club had pivoted to the site of the Tropicana hotel on the Strip. That hotel is owned by Bally’s Corporation, on land leased from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. The former plan would have involved asking for $500MM in county-issue bonds but the latter plan involves a lesser ask of $395MM.

Akers’ report provides some details on the latter plan, indicating that Bally’s and Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. will be giving nine acres of the land to the A’s. Akers speaks with Bally’s Corp. Chairman Soo Kim in the piece, who estimates that land on the Strip is worth about $20MM per acre, making the total value of that land around $180MM. Once the 30,000-seat stadium with retractable roof is completed, the A’s would contribute the land to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, following a similar path to the Raiders and Allegiant Stadium. Bally’s has plans to build a new hotel-casino on the remaining portion of the land once the stadium is completed, though it’s still being determined if the Tropicana would shutter completely during construction or stay open as the work is done in phases.

The A’s currently have about three weeks to submit their proposal and get it approved before the legislative session is done. Whether they will succeed in that regard remains to be seen.

Reds Place TJ Friedl On IL With Oblique Strain

By | at

The Reds announced a series of roster moves today, including the selection of prospect Matt McLain, which was reported on yesterday. To make room for McLain on the active roster, outfielder TJ Friedl was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique strain, retroactive to May 12. To open a spot for McLain on the 40-man roster, first baseman Joey Votto was transferred to the 60-day IL. Additionally, left-hander Brandon Williamson is with the club on the taxi squad.

Friedl recently underwent an MRI which revealed only mild damage, though manager David Bell said on the weekend that the club would take 48 hours to decide on whether or not an IL trip was needed. It seems that they have decided on the cautious approach and will give Friedl a bit of a breather. Since the move is backdated, he can return in a week if the issue does indeed prove to be minor.

The loss of Friedl is rough for the Reds, as he’s been having a great season so far. He’s hitting .306/.351/.468 for a wRC+ of 117 while stealing four bases and getting good grades for his glovework, leading to a tally of 1.2 wins above replacement from FanGraphs after just 37 games. He’ll now hit the shelf but his absence will create an opening for McLain, one of the club’s many interesting infield prospects.

Votto’s move to the 60-day injured list isn’t a shock as he’s still trying to get healthy in the wake of last year’s rotator cuff and bicep surgery. He started a rehab assignment earlier this year but halted that in the middle of April and has yet to resume playing in official games. Since the 60-day count goes from his initial IL placement at the end of March, he’s now ineligible to return until late May, which didn’t seem to be on the table anyway.

As for Williamson, he’s one of the club’s top pitching prospects and could potentially be making his major league debut this week. The Reds have a couple of rotation vacancies after recently designating Luis Cessa for assignment and placing Nick Lodolo on the injured list. Perhaps Williamson will be slotted into one of those openings, though that has yet to be made official. He’s already on the 40-man roster but would require a corresponding move to get onto the active roster.

Pirates Discussing Contract Extension With Mitch Keller

By | at

The Pirates and representatives for right-hander Mitch Keller have been in talks about a contract extension, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports.  There isn’t any sense whether or not the two sides are particularly close to an agreement, though Pirates owner Bob Nutting suggested last month that the club was looking to extend more core players now that Bryan Reynolds had completed his own long-term deal.

MLBTR’s Steve Adams cited Keller as a logical extension candidate at the time, and he further described Keller’s breakout over the last two seasons in a recent piece for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.  Since cutting back on the usage of his four-seam fastball in 2021, Keller has blossomed, with Steve observing that “fast forward to 2023, and Keller’s pitch arsenal is even more diverse thanks to a revamped cutter.  He’s throwing his four-seamer, sinker and cutter all at a 21-24% clip, mixing in a sweeper and curve that he uses about equally…It’s a much different arsenal than in 2021, when Keller was throwing 57% four-seamers, 24% cutters, 14% curveballs and mixing in a show-me changeup.”

It wasn’t like Keller’s emergence came out of nowhere, as he was a second-round pick in the 2014 draft and a regular on top-50 prospect lists during his climb up Pittsburgh’s minor league ladder.  His first few shots at the majors didn’t go well, however, as Keller posted a 6.02 ERA over 170 1/3 innings from 2019-21.

After a promising step forward in 2022, Keller has now looked more like a front-of-the-rotation arm during his excellent start to the 2023 campaign.  Today’s outing against the Orioles was the latest example, as Keller allowed just four hits and no walks while recording 13 strikeouts over seven shutout innings.  This gem improved Keller’s ERA to 2.38 over 56 2/3 IP, and just about all of his Statcast numbers are well above the league average.

Keller just turned 27 last month, and he is earning $2,437,500 this season in his first of three arbitration-eligible years.  This means Keller will be entering his age-30 season when he enters free agency during the 2025-26 offseason, unless the Pirates lock him up beforehand on an extension.

Keller’s agents at Tidal Sports Group might logically point to Logan Webb’s recent five-year, $90MM extension with the Giants as a comp for a potential deal for their client.  Webb is seven months younger than Keller, but the two have comparable big league service times and somewhat similar resumes as pitchers who went through a rough beginning to their MLB careers before posting consecutive quality seasons.

Of course, Webb had fully completed his second good year at the time of his extension while Keller only really started to pitch well midway through the 2022 campaign and his 2023 success does represent only nine starts.  That said, Keller’s price tag is only rising as he continues to post great results, so he could choose to bet on himself and wait until after the season to pursue an extension.

The fact that the perennially low-payroll Pirates are even engaged in long-term contract talks represents a turning point for the club, as while a brutal slump in May has curbed the enthusiasm of the team’s 20-9 start to the season, Pittsburgh still has a 22-19 record.  The Bucs have just one winning record in the previous seven seasons, as the team’s previous contending roster ran out of steam, and the club then engaged in a lengthy rebuilding process.

The early results have indicated that the Pirates’ rebuild may be wrapping up, and to that end, Nutting has authorized the two biggest contracts in franchise history.  While still smaller than the priciest contracts of most other teams around the majors, the Pirates signed Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM extension in April 2022, and then extended Reynolds with seven years and $100MM of new money last month.  The Pirates aren’t likely to ever become truly big spenders, yet locking up certain cornerstone talents is a proven method for smaller-market teams to gain some cost certainty over premium talent.

The Opener: McLain, Chisholm, Diaz

By | at

With just over a quarter of the 2023 regular season now in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. McLain to make MLB debut:

Reds infield prospect Matt McLain is set to be promoted to the majors today, leaving him in line to make his MLB debut. A first round pick by the Reds in the 2021 draft, McClain is widely considered to be a top 10 prospect in the Reds’ farm system, and a borderline top 100 prospect in all of baseball. Transactions will be required before this evening’s game against the Rockies to clear both 40-man roster space and active roster space for McLain.

After a solid season in Double-A last year where McLain posted a .232/.363/.453 slash line that was good for a 116 wRC+, McLain has torn the cover off the ball in Triple-A so far this season. In 173 plate appearances, McLain is slashing a fantastic .348/.474/.710 with a whopping 193 wRC+. With 12 home runs and nearly as many walks (29) as strikeouts (34), McLain has showed total mastery of the Triple-A level, and now appears poised to become the regular shortstop in Cincinnati for the time being, displacing Jose Barrero and Kevin Newman.

2. Chisholm to visit specialist:

Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. is currently dealing with turf toe and is set to visit a specialist today to determine the extent of the injury. Missed time for Chisholm would be a considerable blow to a Marlins outfield that is already without Jesus Sanchez and Avisail Garcia. While Chisholm hasn’t quite lived up to expectations with his bat, with a wRC+ of just 92 in 159 plate appearances this season, he’s exceeded expectations with his glove in center field, posting +3 Outs Above Average so far this year, a figure that sits in the 92nd percentile of all regulars. If Chisholm misses time, the club figures to go with a combination of Garrett Hampson and Jon Berti in center field.

3. Diaz to undergo MRI:

Rays infielder Yandy Diaz left yesterday’s game against the Yankees in the first inning due to groin tightness. With Tampa’s off day today, Diaz is expected to undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the injury. Rays fans are surely hoping that Diaz’s MRI comes back clean, as the 31-year-old is slashing an incredible .321/.429/.593 that’s good for a 188 wRC+ while mostly playing first base for the Rays. Should Diaz miss time, the club could hand the keys to first base to Luke Raley or shuffle the infield to create more starts for Taylor Walls while the team’s current best hitter is on the shelf.

Red Sox Designate Ryan Brasier For Assignment

By | at

11:58PM: Rodriguez will be activated from the 15-day IL to take Brasier’s roster spot on Monday, The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reports.

10:12PM: The Red Sox have designated Ryan Brasier for assignment, as the right-hander himself told reporters (including Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe) tonight in the aftermath of a tough outing against the Cardinals.  Brasier allowed three runs over 2 1/3 innings of relief in a 9-1 Red Sox loss.

No corresponding move is yet known, though manager Alex Cora told reporters over the weekend that Joely Rodriguez was going to be activated from the 15-day injured list on Monday, so the Sox could be clearing room for Rodriguez’s return.  Rodriguez suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain in mid-March during Spring Training, and has yet to pitch this season.

Tonight’s performance inflated Brasier’s season ERA to 7.29 over 21 innings of work out of the Boston bullpen.  There is some level of misfortune in that ERA since Brasier’s strand rate (52.8%) and BABIP (.344) are both skewed, and his FIP is a more moderate 4.38.  That said, he has also posted below-average strikeout and walk rates, and Brasier is near the bottom of the league in hard contact.

The advanced metrics were much more favorable to Brasier last year, but the bottom-line results still weren’t there, as the righty had a 5.78 ERA over 62 1/3 innings in 2022.  With the lack of results stretching into a second season, the Sox have opted to part ways with a reliever who has had his share of ups and downs over six years in Boston, but for the most part was a solid hurler prior to the start of the 2022 season.

After pitching with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 2017, Brasier returned from Japan to sign a minor league deal with the Red Sox, and ended up unexpectedly emerging as an ace reliever for the eventual World Series champions.  Brasier posted a 1.60 ERA over 33 2/3 regular-season innings and then a 1.04 ERA in 8 1/3 postseason innings to help the Sox win the title.

Brasier’s 2019 season was a lot shakier, but he posted better results in 2020-21, with a 3.16 ERA albeit over only 37 innings.  Brasier’s workload was limited by the shortened 2020 regular season, and then a 2021 campaign that saw him miss most of the year due to a calf strain and then a concussion after he was struck in the head by a line drive during a simulated game.

The 35-year-old is in his final year of arbitration eligibility, and is still owed roughly $1.5MM of his $2MM salary for the 2023 season.  It doesn’t seem all that likely that another team will claim Brasier off DFA waivers, so the Red Sox will likely end up eating the salary if they end up releasing the righty, or they could simply outright him down to Triple-A.  If Brasier is signed by a new team after being released, the new club will only owe the prorated portion of the Major League minimum salary, with Boston covering the remainder of the $1.5MM.

Rockies Place Ryan Feltner On 15-Day Injured List

By | at

9:34PM: The Rockies announced that Feltner was discharged from the hospital.

TODAY, 12:28PM: The Rockies announced that Feltner has been placed on the 15-day IL with a skull fracture. As relayed by MLB Network’s Jenny Cavnar, manage Bud Black described Feltner’s fracture as small, and notes that Feltner also suffered a concussion. Feltner will hopefully be released from the hospital later this afternoon, per Black.

May 14: In a terrifying moment, Rockies starter Ryan Feltner was hit in the head with a Nick Castellanos line drive in the second inning of tonight’s game.  Feltner immediately dropped to the ground but seemed alert and coherent, and he left the field under his own power, with some assistance from team trainers.

Following the game, Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters (including Patrick Lyons of the DNVR Rockies podcast) that Feltner was undergoing tests at a local hospital, and that details of those tests would be known tomorrow.  It would seem probable that Feltner will be placed on the seven-day concussion injured list for at least precautionary purposes, and if he is able to recover quickly from any symptoms, he might not even miss a start since the Rockies have an off-day on Thursday.

Feltner allowed four runs on four walks and two hits in the first inning of Saturday’s start, and his ERA now sits at 5.86 through 35 1/3 innings and eight starts for Colorado this season.  It seemed like Feltner was getting on track after a trio of nice starts from April 20-May 3, but his last outing was also rough, as he allowed four runs in 3 1/3 frames against the Mets on May 7.

This is the 26-year-old Feltner’s third MLB season, after being selected by the Rockies in the fourth round of the 2018 draft.  He had only a 6.16 ERA through 103 2/3 innings (starting 21 of 22 games) in 2021-22, but a lack of pitching depth ensured Feltner would get another shot in Colorado’s rotation this year.  That depth has been even further stretched by German Marquez’s season-ending Tommy John surgery, Antonio Senzatela being limited to two starts due to recovery from knee surgery and his current elbow sprain, rookie Noah Davis on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation, and now the possibility that Feltner could miss time.

Reds To Promote Matt McLain

By | at

The Reds are set to call up infield prospect Matt McLain, according to Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer.  McLain is expected to make his MLB debut when the Reds open a series against the Rockies on Monday.  Since McLain isn’t on the 40-man roster, Cincinnati may have to make more than one transaction to accommodate his promotion onto the active roster.

The 17th overall pick of the 2021 draft, McLain was a highly touted player in his college days at UCLA, and he has made a quick rise through Cincinnati’s farm system.  His breakout year at Triple-A seemed to clinch his promotion, as McLain has hit an outstanding .346/.464/.713 with 12 homers over 168 plate appearances at Triple-A Louisville this season.

Even with just 37 games under his belt at the Triple-A level, these numbers are awfully hard to ignore, and so the 23-year-old will now embark on his next test in the Show.  While McLain has played a good deal of second base in the minors, he has exclusively played shortstop this year, and now looks to supplant the Kevin Newman/Jose Barrero combination at shortstop.

McLain was cited on the top-100 prospect lists from MLB Prospectus (77th) and MLB Pipeline (87th) prior to the 2022 season, but didn’t receive any top-100 attention heading into this year, though his Triple-A surge moved him back to 95th on Pipeline’s most recent update to their ranking.  As per Pipeline’s scouting report, there was concern over McLain’s big spike in strikeouts at Double-A in 2022, as “much of that stemmed from McLain trying to do too much at the plate as he was trying to figure out who he is as a pro hitter and he sold out for power too often.”

To that end, McLain has drastically and impressively cut down on his swing-and-miss this year, with almost as many walks (27) as strikeouts (33) at Louisville.  His plus speed has resulted in 10 steals in 15 attempts at Triple-A, but McLain stole 27 bases in 30 tries at Double-A in 2022.

Baseball America’s little report is a little less optimistic about McLain’s future as a regular, saying “he projects as a super-utility player who can play a variety of positions including shortstop in a pinch.”  It remains to be seen if shortstop will remain McLain’s long-term position, though beyond just defensive questions, his usage might also be impacted by the Reds’ oncoming rush of talented young infielders.  Elly De La Cruz is one of baseball’s elite prospects and is also expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2023, and third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand shouldn’t be too far behind on the shuttle from Louisville.  Infielders Noelvi Marte, Edwin Arroyo, and Cam Collier are also ranked within Pipeline’s top 100, and of course Jonathan India is already established as the Reds’ second baseman and Spencer Steer has been playing respectably well in his rookie season.

It makes for a pretty nice “problem” for the Reds to have as they sort out who exactly will be part of their infield of the future, and with the team in rebuild mode at least through the rest of 2023, they’ll have plenty of time to keep evaluating these youngsters.  McLain will get the first chance at making a first impression, and it could be that he might get bounced around the diamond early if De La Cruz is called up and takes over the shortstop job.

Since McLain wasn’t included on at least two of the preseason top-100 lists from Pipeline, Baseball America or ESPN.com, he won’t qualify for a full year of big league service time even if he finishes in the top two of Rookie Of The Year voting.  However, assuming McLain remains in the majors for the rest of 2023, he should bank enough service time to potentially qualify for Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility.

Rockies Likely To Place C.J. Cron On 10-Day Injured List

By | at

C.J. Cron left today’s game with back spasms, as the Rockies first baseman was in visible discomfort while slowly leaving the batter’s box after a pop-up in the third inning.  Cron took only a few steps before stopping completely, and Mike Moustakas took over for Cron at first base when the Rox took the field in the top of the fourth.  Following the game, manager Bud Black told The Denver Gazette’s Danielle Allentuck and other reporters that Cron will probably require a trip to the 10-day injured list.

Back spasms also cost Cron 10 days of Cactus League action during Spring Training, and it’s fair to wonder if this issue (whether a lingering injury or a by-product of missed spring time) has contributed to Cron’s slow start to the season.  It could be that another 10-day absence or so is all Cron needs to recover, though since this is his second such injury in two months, the Rockies might opt to give him a bit of extra time beyond the minimum 10 days in order to fully get himself right.

The veteran first baseman has hit a modest .228/.277/.426 with six homers over 148 plate appearances for Colorado, and his 73 wRC+ is easily his lowest in any of his 10 Major League seasons.  Cron is still making a lot of hard contact and his .342 xwOBA is well above his .306 wOBA, so there is some element of misfortune involved in his numbers.  However, Cron is pulling the ball a lot more than in past years, and opposing pitchers are throwing him fewer four-seamers (a pitch Cron has generally hit well over the years) less than usual.  Most of the right-handed hitting Cron’s struggles have come against right-handed pitching this year, even though Cron has had relatively even splits for most of his career.

Moustakas is the likeliest candidate to fill in for Cron at first base, at least in the short term.  Moustakas has also had a tough year, hitting .232/.313/.375 over 67 PA with just one home run.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows scroll to top