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Reds Sign Shea Spitzbarth To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed right-hander Shea Spitzbarth to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the club’s Complex League affiliate for now but will presumably move to a higher level after getting some work in.

Spitzbarth, 28, has five innings of major league experience under his belt, which came with the Pirates in 2021. He recorded a 3.60 ERA in that brief time despite a miniscule 4.5% strikeout rate, getting helped out by a .176 batting average on balls in play and 89.3% strand rate. He spent the majority of that year in Triple-A, tossing 46 2/3 innings with a 2.12 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate, 11% walk rate and 44.1% ground ball rate.

He was outrighted at season’s end and signed a minor league deal with the Tigers for 2022. He threw 53 2/3 innings in the minors last year with a 2.85 ERA, though the numbers under the hood weren’t as impressive. His 20.5% strikeout rate and 14.3% walk rate were both a few ticks worse than league average. A .214 batting average on balls in play and 81.7% strand rate kept the ERA down but led to a 4.65 FIP.

The Reds have actually had a strong relief unit overall this year, as their collective bullpen ERA of 3.71 puts them in the top 10 league wide. However, their depth is getting tested by injuries, with each of Tejay Antone, Fernando Cruz, Derek Law, Casey Legumina, Reiver Sanmartin and Tony Santillan current on the IL. Spitzbarth will add some non-roster depth and try to earn his way back to the majors. If he does so, he still has options and less than a year of service time, which would give the Reds the option of retaining him as a cheap depth piece for an extended period of time.

Giants To Acquire Jacob Nottingham From Mariners

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The Giants are acquiring catcher Jacob Nottingham from the Mariners, report Robert Murray and Jeff Young of FanSided. It’s not publicly known what the Mariners will receive in exchange. He’s not on a 40-man roster and won’t require a corresponding move.

Nottingham, 28, was signed by the Mariners to a minor league deal in the offseason. He’s played 17 games for Triple-A Tacoma this year, hitting .200/.294/.450 in that time. He has 53 games of major league experience, spread across the 2018-2021 seasons with the Brewers and Mariners. He hit .184/.277/.421 in 130 plate appearances in those major league contests. Last year, he was with the Orioles on a minor league deal and hit .229/.333/.425 in Triple-A but never got the call to the big leagues. Defensively, he has a tally of +2 Defensive Runs Saved in his brief time in the majors while FanGraphs ranks his framing as just a bit below league average.

The Giants have been shuffling through catchers this year, as they opened the season with Joey Bart, Roberto Pérez and Rule 5 pick Blake Sabol on the roster, the latter of whom also plays some outfield. Unfortunately, Pérez required season-ending shoulder surgery fairly early in the season and Bart has now joined him on the injured list with a groin strain. That leaves them with Sabol and the recently-promoted Patrick Bailey as their duo behind the plate, both of whom are in their first major league seasons. The addition of Nottingham will give the club a veteran depth option to call upon if needed.

Brewers Sign Julio Teheran To Major League Deal

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May 25: The Brewers have officially announced the signing. Teheran will start tonight’s game against the Giants. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports the specifics on Twitter. Teheran will make $1.5MM plus $1MM in incentives.

May 23: The Brewers have agreed to a Major League contract with free-agent righty Julio Teheran, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Teheran, a client of Mato Sports Management, opted out of a minor league deal with the Padres yesterday.

Teheran, 32, figures to step into an injury-depleted Brewers rotation that just saw lefty Eric Lauer join fellow southpaw Wade Miley and right-hander Brandon Woodruff on the injured list. Beyond that trio, depth options like Aaron Ashby and Jason Alexander are also on the 60-day IL, leaving the Brewers with a current rotation of Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, Adrian Houser and Colin Rea.

Once one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, Teheran began his career with a terrific four-year stretch (2013-16) in Atlanta that saw him post a 3.33 ERA over 795 2/3 innings. Along the way, he made a pair of All-Star teams and finished fifth in 2013 NL Rookie of the Year voting. He remained a solid starter from 2017-19, but his command began to worse in that time and his velocity started to slip as well.

Upon departing the Braves after the 2019 season, Teheran inked a one-year deal with the Angels but was limited to just 31 1/3 innings — during which he posted a ghastly ERA north of 10.00. He allowed one run in five frames for the 2021 Tigers but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since. Teheran split the 2022 campaign between the independent Atlantic League and the Mexican League before agreeing to a minor league pact with San Diego this past offseason.

While Teheran’s bottom-line numbers with the Padres’ Triple-A club in El Paso this season are unsightly — 40 innings, 5.63 ERA — there’s also some cause for optimism. His 24.3% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are both solid marks, and he’s pitched well over his past four turns: 21 1/3 innings, 3.74 ERA, 23-to-8 K/BB ratio. In fact, outside of one meltdown against the Mariners’ top affiliate on April 21, Teheran has generally been solid in El Paso. Subtract those eight runs and three innings, and his ERA would drop all the way to 4.14. Any pitcher looks better if you look past his worst start, of course, but Teheran has been good for five to six innings and three or fewer runs in six of his eight starts this year.

The notion of signing Teheran isn’t as exciting as it might’ve been a half decade ago, but the Brewers have been decimated by injury and he’ll give them a stretched-out, ready-made rotation option who’s had some big league success. The Brewers have had their own share of successes in terms of rehabilitating veteran pitchers who’ve fallen on hard times, as evidenced by Miley, Gio Gonzalez, Brad Boxberger and others. For now, they’ll hope that Teheran can step onto the staff and help shore things up while their injured trio of veterans is on the mend.

Cubs Reinstate Kyle Hendricks, Option Nick Madrigal

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May 25: The Cubs have announced to reporters, including Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, that Hendricks has been officially reinstated with Nick Madrigal optioned in a corresponding move.

May 24: The Cubs are going to be reinstate right-hander Kyle Hendricks from the injured list, with Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic among those to relay the information from manager David Ross. Hendricks will start Thursday’s game against the Mets.

Hendricks, 33, will be making his first major league appearance in almost a year. He last climbed the hill on July 5 of last year, after which he was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain. Initial MRIs didn’t reveal any structural damage but he was eventually diagnosed with a capsular tear. The tear was relatively small and didn’t require surgery, but he has nonetheless required a lengthy period of time to get back to full health.

The righty had spent many years as a reliable cog in the Cubs’ rotation prior to falling off a bit in recent seasons. From 2014 to 2020, he logged over a thousand innings with a 3.12 ERA. His 20.8% strikeout rate in that time was on the modest side but he showed excellent control with a 5.3% walk rate and kept the ball on the ground at a 47.5% clip. That also included several strong postseason starts, such as 2016 when he took the ball five times with a 1.42 ERA and helped the Cubs win the World Series for the first time in over a century. He’s now the only Cubs player from that curse-breaking club that’s still on the roster.

In 2021 and 2022, however, he posted a combined 4.78 ERA with all of his rate stats worsening by a bit. He stuck out 17.3% of batters faced while walking 6% and getting grounders on 41% of balls in play. Hendricks has been rehabbing in recent weeks, making five starts with a 5.75 ERA in that time. However, most of that damage came in the first two outings, as he had a 1.69 ERA in the final three. Only time will tell what sort of results he can post at the major league level after the long injury layoff.

The Cubs’ starters have a collective 3.93 ERA this year, which places them 10th out of the 30 clubs in the league. Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele and Drew Smyly are all posting good results, though Jameson Taillon has an 8.10 ERA through seven starts. There’s surely a lot of bad luck in there given his .369 batting average on balls in play and 50% strand rate, leading to a nicer 4.93 FIP and 4.52 SIERA. He’ll undoubtedly have a long leash to figure things out since he just signed a four-year, $68MM deal this winter. Hendricks figures to take the rotation spot of Hayden Wesneski, who was recently optioned after posting a 5.03 ERA through eight starts.

The performance of Hendricks in the remainder of this season will impact the club on the field but also from a business perspective. He and the club signed a four-year $55.5MM extension going into 2019, with 2023 being the final guaranteed season. He’s making $14MM this season and the club has a $16MM club option for 2024 with a $1.5MM buyout.

Yankees To Promote Randy Vásquez

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The Yankees are promoting right-hander Randy Vásquez to the majors, with the righty telling reporters such as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com that he’ll be starting tomorrow’s game. That will be his major league debut. He’s already on the 40-man roster but will require an active roster spot between now and then.

Vásquez, 24, was an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic, signing with the Yanks in 2018. He started his professional career in rookie ball in 2018 and 2019, before the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. He followed that up with a strong 2021 wherein he shot from Single-A to High-A and then Double-A. He tossed 107 1/3 innings across those levels with a 2.52 ERA, striking out 28.6% of opponents while walking 8.4%. That showing caused Baseball America to rank him the #12 Yankee prospect going into 2022.

Last year, he spent the entire season at Double-A, making 25 starts and tallying 115 1/3 innings. He had a 3.90 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 48.3% ground ball rate. In November, the club gave him a spot on the 40-man roster to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. That solid showing got him bumped to #9 on the BA list of top 30 farmhands in the system.

This year, he’s been in Triple-A, making nine starts on the year so far with a 4.85 ERA in 42 2/3 innings. He has a healthy 25.5% strikeout rate and 46% ground ball rate but is walking 11.7% of batters faced on the year.

It’s possible that this will be just a spot start for Vásquez, as Domingo Germán’s 10-game sticky stuff suspension will be over in a couple of days. Once he’s able to return, he should slot back into the rotation next to Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Luis Severino and Clarke Schmidt. Schmidt has an ERA of 6.00 so far this year and still has an option, so there’s perhaps some chance Vásquez bumps him out. However, Schmidt has solid peripherals but an unlucky .386 batting average on balls in play and 62.7% strand rate. His 4.39 FIP and 3.82 SIERA suggest that regression to the mean might push his ERA down a bit.

Giants Sign Phoenix Sanders To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have signed right-hander Phoenix Sanders to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.

Sanders, 28 next month, was a Rays draft pick in 2017 and made his way to the majors with that club last year. He got into eight games out of Tampa’s bullpen, logging 14 2/3 innings with a 3.07 ERA. He struck out 21.1% of batters faced and walked 5.3%, getting grounders on 41.5% of balls in play. He also tossed 30 innings for their Triple-A club with a 5.40 ERA though his 3.91 FIP suggests some bad luck, supported by his .388 batting average on balls in play and 67.5% strand rate. He stuck out 27.9% of opponents at that level against a walk rate of just 1.6%.

The Rays put Sanders on waivers in August and he was claimed by the Orioles. They kept him in the minors and then passed him through waivers in September. He made nine appearances for their Triple-A team to start this year with an ERA of 2.00, striking out 31.4% of batters faced while walking 8.6%. Despite those solid results, he was released last week but has quickly found his next job with the Giants.

The bullpen hasn’t been a strong part of the roster in San Francisco this year, as the club’s relievers have a collective 4.90 ERA. That places them 28th out of the 30 teams in the league, ahead of just the White Sox and the A’s. Sanders will head to Sacramento and try to work his way back to the big leagues. If he succeeds, he still has options and less than a year of service time, allowing him to be utilized as a depth reliever for the foreseeable future.

Angels To Promote Sam Bachman

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The Angels are set to promote pitching prospect Sam Bachman for his Major League debut, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Bachman, the ninth overall selection in the 2021 draft, will be used out of the bullpen to begin his big league career, Sam Blum of The Athletic adds. Bachman isn’t on the 40-man roster and will need to be added.

The 23-year-old Bachman ranks seventh in the Angels’ system at Baseball America, fifth at MLB.com and fourth at FanGraphs. Scouting reports on the 6’1″ righty tout potent fastball/slider combo, with the heater capable of reaching triple digits and the slider giving him a potentially plus pitch with which to miss bats. Command is the most oft-cited question mark with Bachman, as is often the case with power-armed hurlers of this nature, and he also dealt with back and biceps injuries since being drafted.

Bachman has gotten out to a tough start in Double-A this season, posting a 5.81 ERA in six starts — a total of just 26 1/3 frames. He’s fanned nearly a quarter of his opponents but also issued walks at an ugly 16.9% clip. That work has come exclusively out of the rotation, however, and the Angels will now take a look at how Bachman fares in shorter stints when he can air out his already plus heater at max intensity. Baseball America’s scouting report on Bachman notes that his velocity has a tendency to begin dropping after around three innings anyhow, which could certainly point to a future in the bullpen.

The Angels’ bullpen has been a top-heavy unit in 2023, ranking seventh in the Majors with a 3.57 ERA that’s largely due to dominant performances from Carlos Estevez, Matt Moore and Jaime Barria, who all sport sub-2.00 ERAs. Righties Andrew Wantz and Chris Devenski have been sharp as well, but the Angels have cycled through several less-successful options to round out the relief corps. Anaheim has already moved on from veteran righty Ryan Tepera, and they’ve received ugly results from fellow veteran Aaron Loup. They’ll hope Bachman’s high-octane arsenal can help to solidify the group and take some pressure off the likes of Estevez and Moore, who are tied with a team-leading (by a wide margin) 22 appearances apiece.

Cardinals Notes: O’Neill, Matz, Edman, Suarez

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Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill has been out for three weeks with a lower back strain, and it’s taking longer than expected for the 27-year-old to get back on track. The original hope was that he could go on a minor league rehab assignment last weekend, but manager Oli Marmol said on Monday this week that O’Neill hadn’t progressed to the point where that could happen. MLB.com’s John Denton tweets that O’Neill resumed baseball activity yesterday but only in the form of light swings off a tee.

It’s not yet clear when O’Neill will head out on that rehab assignment, but it’s fair to say his absence will be lengthier than originally expected. The mounting scope of his absence is notable in multiple facets. First and foremost, it deprives the Cards of a potential high-end source of power. Health troubles have dogged O’Neill over the past two seasons, but as recently as 2021 he clubbed 34 home runs and swiped 15 bases while batting .286/.352/.560 in 537 plate appearances.

O’Neill’s absence also gives the Cardinals some additional runway to look at younger talent. Twenty-four-year-old Alec Burleson hasn’t logged everyday at-bats but has frequently remained in the lineup through some struggles, in part due to both O’Neill and Dylan Carlson currently residing on the injured list. Burleson has thus far mustered a rather punchless .258/.324/.290 batting line since O’Neill hit the IL, but it’s still valuable exposure to big league pitching for the promising slugger, who hit .331/.372/.532 in 470 Triple-A plate appearances last season.

From a larger picture standpoint, O’Neill’s injury further muddies the Cardinals’ outfield outlook as the summer trade season approaches. O’Neill and Marmol already had a public spat early this season after the manager suggested to the team’s beat writers that his outfielder hadn’t hustled at full effort when trying to score from second on a single to the outfield. O’Neill naturally disputed that notion and took exception to Marmol publicly airing his frustration.

The two have ostensibly put the issue behind them, but the Cardinals have a fairly well-documented battle for playing time in the outfield and O’Neill is only a year and a half away from reaching free agency. There’s been plenty of speculation about a potential trade, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote over the weekend that Cardinals brass could indeed look into potential trades of O’Neill in exchange for rotation help this summer.

O’Neill only hit .228/.283/.327 with a 34.3% strikeout rate in 99 plate appearances before being placed on the injured list. The longer he’s out, the less time he has to show he’s righted the ship — and the greater the concern for any potentially interested trade partners. Given his injury troubles and that diminished production prior to the injury, it’s not a given that O’Neill will even have sufficient trade value to net the Cardinals meaningful pitching help.

That need for starting pitching is due both to a lack of starters controlled beyond the current season and the 2023 struggles of some current rotation members. Chief among them is lefty Steven Matz, one of just two current starters (in addition to Miles Mikolas) signed beyond the current season. Matz inked a four-year, $44MM deal in free agency in the 2021-22 offseason and has struggled to remain healthy and to pitch well when on the field.

The 31-year-old Matz was torched for a 6.39 ERA through his first six starts this year but looked to be turning a corner when he held opponents to four earned runs over 15 1/3 innings in three starts from May 7 through May 19. A date with the Reds at Great American Ball Park yesterday proved otherwise, however, as Cincinnati jumped Matz for six runs on 11 hits and two walks in just four innings of work.

Matz’s 5.72 ERA in 10 starts is even higher than last year’s 5.25 mark (15 games, 10 of them starts), which came in a season that saw the southpaw battle shoulder and knee injuries. Denton further reports that while the Cardinals have used six starters during their current stretch of 19 games in 19 days — Matthew Liberatore is slated for his second start this weekend — they’ll drop back to a conventional five-man arrangement after their coming off-days. The 23-year-old Liberatore, who’s been excellent in eight Triple-A starts — could push the struggling Matz off the starting staff, at least on a temporary basis.

Turning from a pair of players who are currently mired in some struggles to one who’s trending in the other direction, Tommy Edman discussed a key part of his recent hot streak with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The switch-hitting infielder has begun batting right-handed against certain right-handed pitchers whom he feels he can see better from that side of the plate. Rather than simply favoring the standard left-on-right and right-on-left platoon matchup, Edman is selectively favoring right-on-right matchups based on pitch shape, release point and other more granular data points — and thus far doing so with good success. He’s 5-for-14 with a pair of doubles and a triple in right-on-right matchups.

Edman elaborates on the finer details of his approach and how he selects which pitchers are best faced from which side of the plate. It’s a fascinating read from Goold with thoughtful quotes from both Edman and reigning NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt that’ll likely appeal to far more than just Cardinals fans. Edman’s fresh approach to switch-hitting makes sense in an era of increasingly specialized data, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see more switch-hitters begin looking into it — particularly if it continues working well for Edman.

Rounding out a smattering of Cardinals-related topics, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat tweets that lefty Andrew Suarez, who signed a minor league pact with the Cards after two-year run overseas (one KBO season, one NPB season), has an opt-out in his contract on June 1.

The 30-year-old Suarez has had an uneven showing in Triple-A Memphis so far, with a 5.08 ERA in 28 1/3 frames working as a multi-inning reliever. The bulk of the damage against him has come in three particularly tough outings, but Suarez has been scored upon in six of his 15 trips to the mound. He’s fanned 30 hitters in that time but also issued 13 walks, and his overall 22.9% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate are fairly pedestrian. Suarez had a nice rookie campaign with the 2018 Giants (4.49 ERA in 160 1/3 innings out of the rotation) and was outstanding in the KBO in 2021, but he struggled in Japan last season and hasn’t found his stride thus far in Memphis. He has a career 4.66 ERA in 202 2/3 big league innings.

Connor Overton Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Reds righty Connor Overton’s exploratory elbow surgery ultimately resulted in him requiring Tommy John surgery, manager David Bell announced to reporters this morning (Twitter link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). It’s a worst-case scenario for the 29-year-old righty, who’d spent a month on the injured list with an elbow strain but experienced a setback that led to this morning’s operation. He’ll miss the rest of the 2023 season and a good portion of the 2024 campaign as well.

The 29-year-old Overton opened the season in the Reds’ rotation but was blasted for 14 runs on 19 hits and seven walks in just 11 innings of work through three starts. It was a far cry from the 2022 season, when Overton logged a 2.73 ERA in 33 innings of work across six appearances (four starts) for Cincinnati. An 11.3% strikeout rate and tiny .204 average on balls in play always made some regression likely, but the extent of his 2023 struggle was still alarming. The revelation of a major elbow injury quite possibly helps explain some of Overton’s immense struggles.

Selected in the 15th round of the 2014 draft by the Marlins, Overton has spent time with six MLB organizations — including big league work with the Reds, Pirates and Blue Jays — and also suited up for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League. In 59 1/3 big league innings, he’s posted a 4.85 ERA with a 15.7% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate.

Overton might’ve gotten a lengthier look in the Reds’ rotation this season, as Cincinnati entered the year relying heavily on young arms with minimal MLB track records. Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft all had some success in last year’s rookie campaigns, but each has struggled to varying extents in his sophomore effort. Veteran Luis Cessa opened the season in the rotation, but he’s already been designated for assignment and released. Offseason signee Luke Weaver has made six starts and currently sports a 6.54 ERA. Cincinnati has recently turned to journeyman right-hander Ben Lively for a pair of starts and is also taking its first look at prospect Brandon Williamson. Suffice it to say, there would’ve been ample opportunity for a healthy Overton, whether he struggled or not.

Instead, he’ll spend the remainder of the season on the injured list. It’s a small consolation when considering that the surgery cost him an opportunity to establish himself as a credible big league pitcher, but he’ll accrue Major League service time and pay for the remainder of the season. That’ll take him past two years of service. Overton won’t be arbitration-eligible next winter, but his spot on the 40-man roster will still be in jeopardy, as the Reds would have to carry him on the roster all winter before they could recoup that spot by placing him on the 60-day IL in spring training 2024. If he’s outrighted off the roster at season’s end, it’s certainly possible they’d have interest in re-signing him on a minor league pact.

Rockies Release Fernando Abad

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The Rockies have released lefty Fernando Abad, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Colorado had designated the 37-year-old veteran for assignment over the weekend.

Abad appeared in three games with the Rox, tossing a combined 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball between his first two outings before being tagged for three runs in one inning during his final appearance. He’d signed with the club on a minor league deal over the winter, and he opened the year pitching brilliantly in a hitter-friendly Triple-A setting; through 16 frames with the Rockies’ Albuquerque affiliate in the Pacific Coast League, Abad allowed just three runs (1.69 ERA) on nine hits and two walks with 20 strikeouts. He whiffed 34.5% of his opponents against just a 3.4% walk rate.

The Rockies were the eighth big league team for the well-traveled Abad, who’s now pitched in parts of 11 Major League seasons. His big league work has been infrequent over the past four years — just 33 1/3 total innings — but Abad was a quality and heavily used bullpen arm from 2013-17 with the Nats, A’s, Twins and Red Sox. During that time, he pitched to a 3.13 ERA in 233 frames, and on the whole he carries a career 3.82 ERA with 48 holds, two saves, a 19.4% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in 351 big league innings.

The Rockies could’ve tried to pass Abad through outright waivers, though he’d either have been claimed or had the ability to reject his assignment based on Major League service time. (He reached seven total years of service during his brief stint with Colorado.) He’ll now carry that excellent start to his season in Triple-A back to the market as he looks for other opportunities.

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