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Giants Select Casey Schmitt, Designate Darin Ruf For Assignment

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11:02am: The Giants announced that they’ve selected Schmitt’s contract. In a corresponding move, they reinstated first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf from the injured list and designated him for assignment. Outfielder Cal Stevenson was also optioned to Sacramento.

11:00am: The Giants will select the contract of infield prospect Casey Schmitt prior to tonight’s game, reports Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. The 2020 second-round pick will be making his Major League debut.

Schmitt, 24, has gotten out to a .313/.352/.410 start in Triple-A Sacrmento, striking out at a 19.3% clip against a more tepid 5.5% walk rate. For the season’s first few weeks, Schmitt was hitting for average but doing little else, walking at only a 3.6% clip with just a .367 slugging percentage. He’s picked up the pace of late, however, hitting .327/.393/.473 with a homer, five doubles, three stolen bases, an 8.2% walk rate and just a 13.1% strikeout rate over his past 14 games and 55 plate appearances.

While Schmitt has played primarily shortstop so far in 2023, the bulk of his minor league work has come at third base. In all, he has 512 career innings at shortstop and 1223 innings at the hot corner. The Giants have also played him at second base three times this month — the first three appearances of his career at that position — likely in an effort to increase his versatility and his utility on the big league roster.

The Giants have received outstanding production from infielders Thairo Estrada (.344/.394/.534) and J.D. Davis (.287/.360/.515), but with Brandon Crawford shelved by a calf strain (and struggling even when healthy), the infield has been thinned out. Brett Wisely and David Villar have both gotten looks at second base, with Estrada sliding over to shortstop in place of Crawford, but neither has hit well at all in 2023. Schmitt can give the Giants an option at either middle-infield slot, with Estrada handling the other, and hopefully provide a spark to the lineup in the process.

Scouting reports on Schmitt peg him as a plus defender on the left side of the infield, so it stands to reason that he can handle whichever of shortstop, second base or third base the Giants ask of him on a given day. What remains to be seen is whether this proves to be a short-term call-up until Crawford returns or whether Schmitt will get the chance to play his way into a more permanent role with the club. Given the team’s 15-19 start, it’s sensible to take a look at Schmitt and adjust the roster around him if he adapts well at the big league level. If he’s indeed in the Majors for good, he’d be on track to reach arbitration as a likely Super Two player following the 2025 season and reach free agency following the 2029 season — though future optional assignments can of course alter both trajectories.

As for Ruf, the 36-year-old’s return to the Giants will prove quite brief. Released by the Mets earlier this year, he quickly re-signed with the Giants and appeared in nine games before landing on the injured list due to a wrist injury. In 27 plate appearances prior to that IL stint, Ruf posted a solid .261/.370/.348 batting line.

The veteran Ruf was an outstanding find for the Giants in his return from a productive three-year run in the KBO, batting .248/.358/.455 in 726 plate appearances with San Francisco from 2020 through the 2022 trade deadline, when he was traded to the Mets in exchange for the aforementioned Davis and three others. It proved to be a disastrous trade for the Mets, as Davis immediately began hitting in San Francisco, while Ruf’s bat cratered in Queens; he hit just .152/.216/.197 in 74 plate appearances with the Mets last year and didn’t appear in a single game in 2023 before being cut loose.

The Giants will  have a week to trade Ruf, place him on outright waiver or place him on release waivers. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and still retain his full $3MM salary. The Mets are on the hook for that sum as part of last summer’s trade, so any team that picks Ruf up will only be required to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That’d be subtracted from what the Mets owe to him. In 727 career plate appearances against left-handed pitching, Ruf is a .271/.368/.519 hitter (142 wRC+).

Pirates To Designate Chase De Jong For Assignment

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The Pirates are continuing to reshape the edges of their active roster, as they’re set to designate right-hander Chase De Jong for assignment and select the contract of outfielder Josh Palacios from Triple-A Indianapolis, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).

De Jong, 29, had what looked to be a breakout 2022 showing with the Bucs after bouncing between the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Mariners, Twins and Astros organizations over the first 10 years of his big league career. Last year’s 71 2/3 frames were a career-high for the former second-round pick, and he turned in a sharp 2.64 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate against a 10.2% walk rate while working as a durable multi-inning reliever.

Things have gone awry quickly in 2023, however. De Jong has appeared in five games and been tattooed for 11 earned runs on 13 hits (three home runs), five walks and a hit batter while only fanning five of his 47 opponents (10.6%). His swinging-strike rate has plummeted from a respectable 10.5% in 2022 to 5.2% so far in 2023.

Promising as De Jong’s bottom-line results were in 2022, his pedestrian strikeout/walk rates and favorable BABIP (.222) and strand rate (86.3%) always made some level of regression seem likely. The extent to which they’ve snowballed was hardly a guarantee, but De Jong’s track record prior to last year’s excellent showing was rough; in 98 innings from 2017-21, he was tagged for a 6.52 ERA with similarly bearish marks from fielding-independent metrics. Overall, in 179 total innings at the MLB level, De Jong carries a 5.18 ERA, 17.6% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate, 30.7% ground-ball rate and 1.76 HR/9.

De Jong is out of minor league options, so the Pirates’ only course of action if they wanted to make a change was to designate him for assignment. They’ll have a week to trade De Jong or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Even if he goes unclaimed, he’d have the option to reject the assignment by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted previously in his career.

Palacios, 27, is a former Blue Jays prospect who’s seen brief MLB time with Toronto (2021) and Washington (2022). He’s batted just .207/.267/.232 in a tiny sample of 91 Major League plate appearances but is a far more accomplished hitter in Triple-A, where he’s batted .305/.391/.462 in parts of three seasons. That includes a Herculean start to his 2023 season in Indianapolis, where he’s tallied 60 plate appearances and logged a ludicrous .434/.500/.774 slash line with four homers, four doubles, a triple and three stolen bases (in three attempts). Palacios has drawn six walks (10.6%) against just seven strikeouts (11.7%) and seen time in all three outfield spots.

The Opener: Jansen, Judge, MLBTR Chat

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On the heels of an early morning transaction and some substantial injury news for a division leader, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Jansen approaches milestone:

Veteran closer Kenley Jansen has racked up 399 career saves over his 14 season career to this point, including eight for the Red Sox so far in 2023. Jansen’s next save will make him just the seventh player of all time to reach 400 career saves, joining relief greats such as Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Billy Wagner. Jansen’s bid for the illustrious milestone comes in the midst of what has been a phenomenal first season in Boston. The 35-year-old veteran has allowed just one earned run in 11 appearances with sixteen strikeouts, no home runs allowed, and just three walks. Jansen will look to continue his dominance as the Red Sox take on the Braves, for whom the veteran earned an NL-leading 41 saves last season.

2. Judge to be activated:

Reigning AL MVP and Yankees captain Aaron Judge is expected to be activated from the 10-day injured list today, after missing time since the end of April with a hip strain. Judge, who recently celebrated his 31st birthday, is slashing .261/.352/.511 with a wRC+ of 134 in 26 games played this season and figures to provide a major boost to a Yankees lineup currently relying on Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu, and Gleyber Torres to carry the offense. Yankees fans are surely hoping the return of their captain can help spark the club, which has gone 19-17 so far this season and 4-6 since Judge last appeared in a game. With Judge on the verge of a return, the Yankees will need to clear active roster space. One potential option would be putting infielder Oswald Peraza on the injured list, as the youngster has missed the last four games with a rolled ankle.

3. MLBTR Chat Today:

With the regular season fast approaching the one-quarter mark, some of the early season storylines of the 2023 regular season have begun to even out, while other surprising trends are still going strong. If the beginning of this season has spurred any questions in your mind about your favorite team or the league as a whole, MLBTR’s Steve Adams is holding a live chat with readers at noon CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.

Max Fried Facing Notable Absence Due To Forearm Strain

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9:04am: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that while an MRI did not raise concern about Tommy John surgery for Fried, the Braves still don’t expect this to be a short-term absence. Fried will be shut down from throwing while his forearm heals, and while there’s no concrete timeline, it’ll likely be long enough that he’ll need to build back up from scratch.

8:31am: The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve placed left-hander Max Fried on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left forearm. His placement on the IL is retroactive to May 6. Fellow left-hander Danny Young has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett in his place.

It’s the second IL trip of the young season for Fried, who exited his Opening Day start due to a hamstring strain that required an absence of a couple weeks. The Braves hadn’t given a concrete indication that Fried was dealing with an injury prior to this morning’s announcement, though manager Brian Snitker somewhat cryptically said over the weekend that the team was “going through some things” when determining the timing of Fried’s next start.

Fried, 29, entered his most recent start having yielded just one run through his first 20 innings of the 2023 season before being trounced by the Orioles for seven runs (five earned) in six innings. After averaging 94.8 mph on his fastball through the season’s first three starts, that velocity dipped to an average of 93.5 mph over his two most recent turns.

The Braves haven’t provided a timetable for Fried’s return or given any indication as to the severity of the strain at this time. Even if it’s only a minimal absence for Fried, it’s still a blow to an Atlanta club that was already operating with only four healthy starters. Right-hander Kyle Wright is out indefinitely due to a shoulder strain, and the Braves lost righty Ian Anderson to Tommy John surgery earlier in the 2023 season.

That slate of injuries had already left the Braves with Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Bryce Elder as their rotation options. Fried going down will likely require the team to call up two of Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster and Michael Soroka from Gwinnett to step onto the starting staff.

Both Dodd and Shuster have been hit hard in limited MLB action this season, however, and both have displayed uncharacteristically shaky command in their handful of Triple-A starts as well. Soroka, meanwhile, pitched just 13 2/3 innings from 2020-22 (big leagues and minors combined) due to a series of injuries — namely a pair of Achilles tears. He’s gone more than four innings in just one of his five starts with Gwinnett and has been hit hard in each of his past two appearances, yielding a combined ten earned runs in seven innings of work.

There are other options to consider, though they’d require an additional 40-man roster move. Twenty-seven-year-old righty Allan Winans, for instance, has pitched to a solid 2.90 ERA in six appearances (four starts) with impressive strikeout and walk rates. He tossed six quality innings on May 3 and, speculatively speaking, could be an option in the next couple weeks if the Braves want to make space for him on the 40-man roster. Lefty Domingo Robles and righty Tanner Gordon were both recently bumped up to Triple-A after strong starts to the season in Double-A, but both have been hit hard in their first appearances with Gwinnett and neither is on the 40-man.

Certainly, in the event of a prolonged absence for Fried, it’s easier to envision the Braves going outside the organization to address the sudden vacancies in the rotation. That’s a scenario most Braves fans would prefer not to think about. The team figures to have more updates on Fried’s status in the near future.

In the meantime, Young’s recall from Gwinnett will give Atlanta an extra arm in the bullpen. He’s appeared in four games for the big league club already this season, holding opponents to a run on three hits and no walks with six punchouts in 3 2/3 frames. Things have been a bit rockier in Gwinnett, where he’s surrendered four runs on nine hits (two homers) and two walks with six punchouts in 4 2/3 innings. Young, 28, is a pure reliever whose lone professional start was with the Blue Jays’ Low-A affiliate back in 2015, so he won’t be a rotation option while Fried is on the mend.

A’s Considering Multiple Potential Stadium Sites In Las Vegas

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The A’s have reengaged with various landowners as they look into potential stadium sites in the Las Vegas area, report Howard Stutz and Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent. According to the report, A’s officials have recently been in contact with land holders at multiple Vegas-area locations that had previously been under consideration.

It’s a bit of a surprise considering the A’s already announced a land purchase agreement for 49 acres west of the Vegas strip three weeks ago. The Nevada Independent report suggests the A’s are scoping alternatives as backup plans. While the agreed-upon site still seems to be the organization’s top priority, it’s somewhat notable they’re also exploring other options.

It seems there’s at least some concern the A’s won’t get legislative approval for their stadium plan at the site they’re already buying. To date, the club’s only agreement has been the land purchase. They have not finalized a stadium deal that’d set the stage for formal relocation. Indeed, they’ve still yet to even put an official proposal up for consideration in the Nevada legislature. They’ve expressed plans for a 35,000-seat ballpark that’d involve a $1 billion investment from the franchise in addition to $500MM in county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project.

Without a formal proposal on the legislative docket, though, there remains some uncertainty whether the plan will be greenlit. “We haven’t gotten anything concrete yet of exactly what it is that they’re looking for, or what they would like us to take a look at,” a state senator told Stutz and Mueller last week. “So it’s tough to have conversations about what exactly we may or may not do, and time here is finite. … We only have a few more weeks left, so if there’s going to be a deal, it’s got to come very soon.”

While there’s no indication the A’s are seriously alarmed about the prospect of negotiations falling through, it’s clear they’ll have to accelerate talks in the relatively near future. The Nevada legislature remains in session through June 5, though they could call a special session to continue negotiations into the summer.

Oakland mayor Sheng Thao announced at the time the A’s entered into the Nevada land purchase she was ceasing discussions about a possible stadium project in Oakland’s Jack London Square. She later left open the possibility for reopening negotiations, though it’s clear the A’s efforts for a Vegas site would have to be in peril for that to happen at this point. There’s still nothing to suggest the A’s are considering sites outside Nevada.

In any event, there’s a clear target date for the A’s to have a binding stadium agreement in place. A provision in the collective bargaining agreement mandates that the organization have a formal stadium deal by next January 15 if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients. The A’s lease at RingCentral Coliseum runs through 2024.

Rangers Sign James Marvel To Minor League Contract

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The Rangers agreed to a minor league deal with righty James Marvel over the weekend. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock, where he threw three innings of four-run ball in a start yesterday.

Marvel, 29, has a bit of big league experience. He started four games for the 2019 Pirates, allowing 16 runs in 17 1/3 innings. The Duke product has spent parts of eight years in the minor leagues. Including yesterday’s appearance, he’s now up to parts of four seasons in Triple-A. Marvel has allowed around five earned runs per nine at the top minor league level, though he posted a sub-4.00 ERA in both High-A and Double-A while coming up the ranks with Pittsburgh.

After qualifying for minor league free agency during the 2021-22 offseason, Marvel caught on with the Phillies. He spent the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, posting a 6.05 ERA through 93 2/3 frames in a swing capacity. He kept the walks to a decent 7.5% clip but only punched out 14.9% of opposing hitters. Marvel, who averaged 90.6 MPH on his fastball during his MLB look, has had a pitch-to-contact style throughout his professional career.

Texas has had to tap into their rotation depth in recent weeks. Jake Odorizzi will miss the entire season, while Glenn Otto has yet to pitch because of a lat issue. Most importantly, Jacob deGrom recently hit the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation. The current starting five of Nathan Eovaldi, Martín Pérez, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney and Dane Dunning is still an effective group but they’re very thin beyond that quintet. Marvel joins Robert Dugger as non-roster rotation depth options who have some big league experience.

Cardinals Outright Taylor Motter

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Cardinals utilityman Taylor Motter has been sent outright to Triple-A Memphis, according to the transaction tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment on Saturday.

Motter has had a rather eventful time in the St. Louis organization since signing a minor league contract last November. He broke camp out of Spring Training, securing a season-opening bench spot with Paul DeJong on the injured list. When DeJong was reinstated three weeks into the year, Motter was DFA. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Memphis, but the Cards apparently didn’t want to risk losing him to minor league free agency. St. Louis re-signed him to a major league deal within hours of the outright, optioning top prospect Jordan Walker to create roster space.

That second stint on the MLB roster proved briefer than the first. Motter lost his spot again within two weeks as the Cards added a third catcher to push Willson Contreras to designated hitter over the weekend. The right-handed hitting Motter has played in just eight games for St. Louis overall. He’s managed a .200/.273/.300 line in 22 trips to the plate. Motter has played for seven big league clubs in parts of six seasons. The 33-year-old sports a .191/.263/.309 slash in 169 MLB contests.

As was the case last time around, Motter will now decide whether to report to Memphis. He’s been outrighted multiple times in his career and thus has the ability to test the open market each time he clears waivers. A career .262/.352/.482 hitter in Triple-A, Motter would certainly be able to find minor league interest elsewhere were he to look to free agency.

AL West Notes: Seager, Miller, McCormick, Silseth

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The Rangers look as if they’ll soon welcome back their star shortstop. Corey Seager is tentatively scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Thursday, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). That’d be a month to the day from when Seager strained his left hamstring while running the bases on April 11. The injury came with an initial four-week timeline and it seems that estimate will more or less be borne out.

Seager had been off to a fantastic start to the season. He was hitting .359/.469/.538 with more walks than strikeouts through his first 11 games. While it’s certainly unfortunate to lose a player of that caliber, the Rangers’ lineup has picked up the slack in his absence. Texas leads the majors in runs since Seager went down. That’s in part thanks to Ezequiel Durán, who seized the interim shortstop job with a .343/.378/.521 line in that time. While Seager is sure to return to shortstop after his minor league tune-up, Durán is likely to get plenty of run at designated hitter and in left field given that offensive outburst.

Elsewhere in the AL West:

  • A’s rookie starter Mason Miller is headed for evaluation after experiencing some tightness in his throwing elbow, manager Mark Kotsay told the team’s beat (relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). According to Kotsay, initial indications are the discomfort is tied to the flexor muscle rather than a ligament issue, although further testing will provide more clarity. Miller has been one of the lone bright spots for the A’s in a dreary season. Through his first four major league starts, he’s worked to a 3.38 ERA while punching out just under 26% of batters faced. One of the sport’s hardest throwers, Miller has a strong prospect reputation but he’s thrown only 50 professional innings dating back to the 2021 draft because of various injuries.
  • Astros outfielder Chas McCormick returns to the lineup after being reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Houston optioned infielder Rylan Bannon to Triple-A Sugar Land in a corresponding move. McCormick missed just under a month with a back issue. Before the injury, the right-handed hitter had been off to a quality .275/.383/.500 showing in 11 games. He’ll get the nod in center field for tonight’s game in Anaheim, hitting seventh against Angels starter Patrick Sandoval. Houston has yet to activate Michael Brantley for his season debut, though manager Dusty Baker reiterated tonight that the veteran left fielder isn’t far off (via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com).
  • The Angels lost starter José Suarez to the injured list this afternoon. That leaves a vacancy in their six-man rotation, one which seems likely to be filled by Chase Silseth. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets that Silseth is expected to step into the starting staff when the club first needs a sixth starter next week in Baltimore. (A Thursday off day this week delays that decision.) Silseth has pitched out of the bullpen thus far but started seven games as a rookie last season. He threw 72 pitches in relief of Suarez yesterday and has worked two-plus innings in three of his four outings. Lefty Tucker Davidson, who’d been in consideration for a rotation spot at the start of the season, has worked in somewhat shorter relief stints in recent weeks. According to Fletcher, the organization views it as less of an adjustment for Silseth to stretch into rotation work given his comparatively higher pitch counts out of the bullpen.

Orioles Outright Joey Krehbiel

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The Orioles announced this evening that reliever Joey Krehbiel has gone unclaimed on waivers. The right-hander accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk and will stick with the organization.

Krehbiel has spent the entire 2023 campaign in Norfolk on an optional assignment. He’s come out of the bullpen nine times for the Tides, throwing nine innings of two-run ball. While that’s impressive on the surface, the 6’3″ hurler has walked seven batters and hit another. That’s eight free passes out of 37 hitters (21.6%) compared to just six strikeouts. Baltimore took Krehbiel off the 40-man roster last week as the corresponding move for acquiring catcher Luis Torrens from the Cubs.

While Krehbiel hasn’t pitched in the bigs this season, he logged a good chunk of relief work for Baltimore last year. Manager Brandon Hyde tabbed him 56 times, in which Khrebiel threw 57 2/3 innings with a 3.90 ERA. His 18.4% strikeout rate was a few points below average but he kept the free passes to a solid 7.4% clip and was a generally serviceable middle reliever.

Krehbiel also went unclaimed on waivers while a member of the Diamondbacks back in 2019. His second outright gave him the right to explore minor league free agency but he’s elected to bypass the open market. He’ll try to rediscover last year’s command and reestablish himself on the 40-man roster. If the Orioles don’t reselect his contract by the end of the season, he’d hit free agency at the start of the winter.

Grayson Greiner Announces Retirement

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Catcher Grayson Greiner announced his retirement from professional baseball today, posting a message on Twitter. He then extends profound thanks to his family, friends, agents, teammates, coaches, team staff and fans. “While I’ve given almost my entire life to playing this game, I’m extremely excited for the next chapter of my life,” he says. “I’ll miss you, baseball.”

Greiner’s professional career began when he was selected by the Tigers in the third round of the 2014 draft out of the University of South Carolina, getting a signing bonus of $529.4K at that time. Unusually tall for a catcher at 6’6″, he was nonetheless considered a strong defender in his time as a prospect. He was also considered to have decent pop in his bat but wasn’t expected to be an especially strong bat-to-ball hitter or baserunner. Baseball America had him in the 20-25 range in their lists of top Tiger farmhands on three separate occasions, projecting him to be a solid backup catcher unless his bat surpassed expectations.

He was able to reach the big leagues in 2018, the first of five straight seasons where he made an appearance. He never really carved out a regular role, however, with his 58 games and 224 plate appearances in 2019 being career highs. Over those five years, he got a bit under a full season of work, getting into 139 games and taking 485 trips to the plate. He hit nine home runs but struck out in 32.2% of his plate appearances, producing a batting line of .201/.275/.307.

His time as a Tiger went through 2021, but he was outrighted off their roster after that season. He elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks, getting into a couple of games as a COVID substitute but otherwise staying in the minors that year. Returning to free agency in the most recent offseason, he signed a minor league deal with the Twins but didn’t make the club out of camp. He was released and signed another minor league deal, this time with the Rockies. He got into 20 games for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes this year but hit just .186/.269/.286 before deciding it was time to hang up his spikes.

Greiner wasn’t a star, though by making it to the majors he realized a dream that many have but few can turn into reality. He got into 139 big league games, collecting 87 hits, nine homers, 42 runs scored and 46 batted in. MLBTR congratulates him on his career and wishes him the best of luck in whatever’s over the horizon.

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