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Ryan Yarbrough Placed On IL With Head Fractures

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May 8: The Royals today placed Yarbrough on the 15-day injured list, listing his ailment as head fractures. The severity of his injuries is still not publicly known, nor has the club provided an expected recovery timeline. Right-hander Jose Cuas was recalled in a corresponding move.

May 7: Royals left-hander Ryan Yarbrough was struck in the face by a Ryan Noda line drive, naturally resulting in Yarbrough’s removal from the game.  In the sixth inning of Kansas City’s 5-1 victory over Oakland, Yarbrough’s pitch was driven back to the mound with a 106.2 mph exit velocity off of Noda’s bat, knocking Yarbrough immediately to the ground.  Fortunately, Yarbrough was able to leave the mound on his own feet, albeit with some assistance from team trainers.

Post-game, Royals manager Matt Quatraro told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers that Yarbrough “was talking and aware of what was going on” when team personnel quickly visited the mound in the wake of the injury.  Quatraro said Yarbrough would get further testing done at a local hospital.

More will be known when Yarbrough’s testing is complete, but it tentatively seems as though the southpaw has thankfully avoided any serious damage from a very scary moment.  It seems possible that the Royals might put Yarbrough on the seven-day concussion-related injured list for precautionary reasons, just to give him more time to fully recover.

Today’s incident spoils what had been a positive day on the mound, as Yarbrough earned his first win of the season after limiting the Athletics to one run on three hits over 5 2/3 innings.  Yarbrough still has a 6.15 ERA over 26 1/3 innings, and today’s game marked his third start after beginning the year in Kansas City’s bullpen.  The swingman moved into the rotation once Kris Bubic was lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery, but the Royals will have to look for another fill-in starter if Yarbrough does indeed have to miss any time.

Pirates To Recall Luis Ortiz

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Pitching prospect Luis Ortiz is with the Pirates and is expected to start Tuesday’s game, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He’s already on the 40-man roster but the club will need a corresponding move to get him onto the active roster. The club announced that he’s on the taxi squad today, meaning the move won’t be official until tomorrow.

The 24-year-old Ortiz wasn’t initially a highly-touted prospect, signing with the Pirates as an international amateur in 2018 for a modest bonus of just $25K. However, he’s vaulted himself onto the map with some strong work in recent years. He spent 2021 in Single-A, posting a 3.09 ERA in 87 1/3 innings that year. He struck out 30.1% of batters faced, walked just 7.4% and got grounders on 49.1% of balls in play.

Last year, Ortiz began the season at Double-A and tossed 114 1/3 innings with a 28.6% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate. He ran into some home run troubles, however, as 19 long balls inflated his ERA to 4.64 at that level. Nonetheless, he impressed enough to get bumped to Triple-A for a couple of starts and then got called to the majors, taking the ball four times at the end of last year with a 4.50 ERA. He flashed triple-digit velocity on his fastball and even got to 99 mph on his two-seamer while also throwing a slider and a changeup.

Based on that excellent year, he started to garner the attention of prospect evaluators. Baseball America ranked him the #74 prospect in baseball coming into this year and FanGraphs had him at #77. He was sent to Triple-A to begin this year and is doing very well so far with a 2.23 ERA through his first seven starts. His .214 batting average on balls in play and 82.2% strand rate suggest there’s a bit of good luck in there, but he’s getting grounders at a 54.1% clip while striking out 22.8% of opponents and walking 8.7%.

The Pirates have a need for another starter with Vince Velasquez recently landing on the 15-day injured list due to elbow inflammation. It’s still unclear how long he will be out of action, but it seems Ortiz will likely get a few turns through the rotation next to Mitch Keller, Rich Hill, Roansy Contreras and Johan Oviedo.

Ortiz got 23 days of service time during his call-up last year and there will be 146 days left in this year’s season when he is activated tomorrow. Even if he were to stay with the big league club the rest of the season, he would end up at 169 days of service, just shy of the 172 needed to get to the one-year mark. Even if he’s now up for good, he wouldn’t reach free agency until after the 2029 season, though he would be well positioned for reaching Super Two status after 2025. Some rookies can get a full year of service time even after a late call-up by placing high in Rookie of the Year voting, but it requires being on two out of the three top 100 prospect lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Ortiz made it onto the BA list but not the other two, meaning he won’t qualify.

That may end up being a fairly moot point if Velasquez returns in a few weeks and Ortiz gets send back to the Triple-A. Then again, Oviedo and Contreras each have an option year remaining and have been struggling of late. Perhaps there’s some chance that Ortiz can pitch well enough that he sticks and one of the others is sent back to Indianapolis when Velasquez returns.

The Pirates started out scorching hot but have cooled off significantly by losing their last seven. They are still 20-15 on the season but the excitement around the club has dimmed a bit in the past week. If they end up falling out of contention, both Hill and Velasquez would make for sensible trade deadline candidates given that they are veterans on one-year deals. That could make some more room for all their young pitchers in the rotation as the season goes along, but it would be a different situation if they manage to stay in the playoff race.

For now, the club will get a look at one of their top prospects to see how he fares against big league hitters this time around and if he can cement himself as a future building block of their rotation.

Pirates Select Chris Owings

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1:35pm: The Pirates announced that they’ve selected Owings’ contract and optioned Mathias to Triple-A.

10:36am: The Pirates are set to select the contract of veteran utilityman Chris Owings, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He’s not on the 40-man roster, although the Pirates have an open spot after outrighting Drew Maggi over the weekend. They’ll still need to clear a spot on the 26-man roster.

Owings, 31, is out to a strong start with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, batting .273/.360/.523 (121 wRC+) with a pair of homers, five doubles and a 10% walk rate (against a 26% strikeout rate) in his first 50 trips to the plate. The Pirates will be the seventh Major League team for which he’s played, and this will be the 11th season in which he’s logged at least some time on a big league roster. He’s played every position other than catcher and first base over the first decade of his big league career.

Owings hasn’t topped 68 plate appearances in a big league season since 2019 and hasn’t appeared in 100 games since the 2018 campaign. His versatility and strong Triple-A production — career .306/.347/.482 in eight seasons — regularly make him a popular depth piece on minor league contracts like the one he signed with the Pirates. Substantial playing time in the Majors has been tough to come by in recent years, however, in part due to injury but also due to substandard performance at the plate.

Though Owings was generally productive with the Rockies in 2020-21, thumb and hamstring injuries limited him to just 94 plate appearances in that time. His .298/.372/.536 batting line with Colorado was obviously quite strong, but it’s a small sample that looks like an outlier when compared to Owings’ broader track record. In nearly 2500 career trips to the plate, Owings is a .239/.287/.366 hitter — including just a .107/.254/.143 output in 68 plate appearances with the Orioles in 2022.

Presumably, Owings will take on a bench role with the Pirates, who already have a pair of righty-swinging infield/outfield pieces on the bench in Miguel Andujar and Mark Mathias. Andujar is out of minor league options, so he can’t be sent down without first clearing waivers — and even then, he’d have the right to reject the assignment in lieu of free agency due to the fact that he’s already been outrighted once in his career (earlier this year by Pittsburgh). Mathias does have one minor league option remaining, though he’s also sporting a solid .275/.370/.325 batting line in 46 plate appearances.

Rockies Outright Yonathan Daza

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The Rockies announced Monday that outfielder Yonathan Daza went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. He’d been designated for assignment last Friday but will remain with the organization and no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster, as he doesn’t have the necessary service time to reject the outright assignment.

Daza, 29, has been a semi-regular presence in the Colorado outfield over the past three seasons, posting a strong batting average but offering minimal power with a marginal walk rate. He’s a .290/.338/.369 hitter with just four home runs and three stolen bases in 819 plate appearances dating back to the 2021 season. So far in 2023, Daza has gotten out to a .270/.304/.351 start with a career-worst 3.8% walk rate.

While Daza has experience at all three outfield spots, he’s generally drawn poor defensive grades for his work in center field. He’s received stronger but not elite marks for his work in the left field, but his general lack of offense aside from that fairly empty batting average doesn’t play as well in the corners. He’s also out of minor league options, so the Rockies couldn’t send him down without first designating him for assignment and sending him through waivers; conversely, any team that placed a claim on Daza would’ve had to carry him on its active roster.

With Daza pushed to the side for now, the Rockies will roll with an outfield of Jurickson Profar in left field, Randal Grichuk in center and Kris Bryant in right. Recent call-up Brenton Doyle is currently operating as the fourth outfielder, and while he’s had some issues making contact, he’s already displayed more power than Daza and stolen more bases in 11 games (five) than Daza has in his career (four). Both Daza and Doyle are right-handed hitters, and it seems the Rockies simply feel Doyle, a 2019 fourth-round pick who’s five years younger, is the superior option for the role that’s currently available.

The Rockies are generally thin on center field depth, so with an injury to either Grichuk or Doyle, it’s plenty feasible that they’ll select Daza’s contract and bring him back to the big league roster. For now, his DFA and subsequent outright will allow the Rox to take a look at Doyle, a younger player with more club control and an intriguing blend of power and speed — albeit with plenty of questions about his ability to make contact (career 29.8% strikeout rate in the minors).

Read The Transcript Of Today’s Fantasy Baseball Chat With Nicklaus Gaut

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Nicklaus Gaut has been writing about fantasy baseball since 2019, covering a variety of roto and point league topics at RotoBaller and RotoGraphs, with over a decade of playing experience. He plays multiple formats but has recently leaned more heavily into NFBC high-stakes contests, entering his first Main Event and Online Championships in 2023. You can follow him here on Twitter.

Our regular fantasy chat host, Brad Johnson, is on vacation for a few weeks, so Nicklaus will be stepping in to field your questions while Brad’s away! Click here to read a transcript of today’s chat!

Royals Designate Franmil Reyes For Assignment

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The Royals have acquired righty James McArthur from the Phillies in exchange for minor league outfielder Junior Marin, per a team announcement. Outfielder/DH Franmil Reyes was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. McArthur, who was designated for assignment by the Phils a few days back, will be assigned to Triple-A Omaha.

Kansas City signed Reyes, 27, to a minor league deal back in February, hoping that the 6’5″ slugger could recapture some of the form he’d showed with San Diego and Cleveland in years past. Reyes has a pair of 30-homer campaigns under his belt, including a 37-homer effort back in 2019. Overall, from 2018-21, he posted a combined .260/.325/.503 with 92 home runs in 1540 plate appearances. Strikeouts were an issue, as he fanned in 29.5% of his trips to the plate during that stretch, but Reyes offset that issue with his prodigious power and a respectable nine percent walk rate.

Things went south in a hurry in 2022, however, and they’ve gone from bad to worse in 2023. Reyes batted just .213/.254/.350 with a mammoth 37.1% strikeout rate in 280 plate appearances with the Guardians last year before being placed on waivers and claimed by the Cubs. A .234/.301/.389 showing down the stretch in Chicago resulted in an outright off the 40-man roster and minor league free agency, which eventually brought Reyes to Kansas City.

Though Reyes slugged a pair of early homers and had a brief hot streak in mid-April, he was optioned to Triple-A after going hitless and failing to reach base in 20 consecutive plate appearances. That swoon dropped him to a .186/.231/.288 batting line and sent his strikeout rate soaring to 36.9%. In four Triple-A games, he’s gone 3-for-15 with a homer, a walk and seven strikeouts (18 total plate appearances).

The Royals will have a week to trade Reyes, place him on outright waivers, or release him. His minor league contract came with a $2MM base salary, which makes it all the likelier that he’d pass through outright waivers unclaimed if the team goes that route.

In place of Reyes, the Royals will hope to unlock something in the 26-year-old McArthur — a towering 6’7″, 230-pound righty who has yet to make his big league debut. McArthur has opened the 2023 season with a rough patch in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, yielding 13 runs on 20 hits, seven walks and a pair of hit batters against 15 strikeouts in 16 innings of work. That’s his first taste of Triple-A after spending the two prior seasons in Double-A Reading, where he combined for a 4.73 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate against an 8.4% walk rate in 131 innings.

McArthur has worked primarily as a starter in the minors (including this year in Triple-A), though FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in his April overview of the Phillies’ system that McArthur was sitting 94-96 mph during short relief stints in spring training. Pitchers this tall can often have difficulty repeating their mechanics and thus be pushed to the bullpen, and it’s possible that’s where McArthur will ultimately land.

The Royals have Major League Baseball’s third-worst rotation ERA and fourth-worst bullpen ERA, so it’s hardly a surprise to see them adding nearly MLB-ready depth. McArthur doesn’t possess a huge ceiling, but he’s not far off from being ready for a Major League look, and Kansas City needs all the arms it can get at this point.

In exchange for some near-MLB pitching help, the Royals will part ways with a teenage outfield prospect who is likely years from being anywhere close to a consideration at the big league level. Marin turned 19 in mid-March and hasn’t yet advanced beyond Rookie ball. He’s already listed at 6’2″ and 240 pounds and has played right field near exclusively, with only a two-game cameo in left otherwise. Marin is a .328/.425/.554 hitter in 214 professional plate appearances but also struck out 31 times in 103 plate appearances with Kansas City’s affiliate in the Arizona Complex League last year. There’s some obvious power in his bat, but he wasn’t ranked among the best prospects in a sub-par Royals farm system and will now be a years-long development project for the Phillies.

Shohei Ohtani Matches A Babe Ruth Record Despite Rough Start

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Shohei Ohtani took the mound for the first time in the month of May against the Cardinals last Wednesday night. 

The 2021 AL MVP had another rough start by his standards, allowing four runs in five innings. His season ERA has now gone up to 2.54, after back-to-back starts with four or more runs allowed. 

Although he only lasted five innings, Ohtani tied his career high in single-game strikeouts with 13. He has struck out 38.6% of hitters in 39 innings this season. With the 13th strikeout, Ohtani reached 500 career strikeouts in MLB. He is now the first player since Babe Ruth to have 500 career strikeouts as a pitcher and 100 home runs as a hitter. 

It was the second consecutive start where Ohtani allowed multiple home runs: a solo shot from Nolan Gorman in the first inning, and a two-run homer from Dylan Carlson in the fourth. 

Both home runs came off of Ohtani’s sweeper, which was not at its best. The average horizontal break on the sweeper was three inches below the season average. The drier conditions of Busch Stadium may have played a role in the reduced movement. 

Ohtani was disappointed with the short start. “I wanted to get through six or seven innings, minimum, more than the strikeouts, I’m more disappointed that I didn’t get that far in the game,” Ohtani said. 

Former Seattle Mariners reliever and current analyst Kazuhiro Sasaki said that it might be time for Ohtani to make adjustments to his pitch mix. “The average velocity of Ohtani’s fastball was the highest so far this year at 98 mph,” Sasaki said for Nikkan Sports. “Ohtani’s kept his pitch mix consistent this season. With more divisional games on the way, if he changes his pitch tendencies for one or two games he’ll keep teams guessing,” Sasaki said.  

91% of Ohtani’s pitches on Wednesday were either sweepers or fastballs, with the occasional splitter and sinker.  “It felt like they were sitting on certain pitches on certain counts,” Ohtani said. Ohtani had been using more cutters and curveballs in recent starts, but not in this game. Going back to mixing the occasional cutter and curveball, and increasing his splitter and sinker usage may be an adjustment that Ohtani can make to keep hitters on their toes. 

The Angels won the game 6-4 on account of Mike Trout and Jake Lamb homers in the 9th inning. 

The matchup between Ohtani and WBC teammate Lars Nootbaar was highly anticipated by Japanese media. Like the matchup against Masataka Yoshida last month, Ohtani got the upper hand. Ohtani struck out Nootbaar in all three at-bats, on a sweeper, splitter, and fastball. “It looked like he went into another gear in that matchup,” Sasaki said. 

Ohtani’s next scheduled start is an AL West divisional showdown at home against the Houston Astros on May 9, 9:38PM EST/6:38PM PT.

The Opener: Contreras, Astros, Suarez

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As the 2023 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. Contreras returns to Wrigley:

The Cubs and Cardinals will meet for the first time this season at Wrigley Field this evening, with Willson Contreras in the middle of the storylines surrounding the bitter rivals. Contreras, of course, departed Chicago this past offseason before signing a five-year deal with the Cardinals to replace Yadier Molina behind the plate in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Chicago signed a veteran stopgap in Tucker Barnhart to pair with Yan Gomes behind the plate as they waited for prospect Miguel Amaya to be ready to take over as the catcher of the future.

A month into the season, the Cardinals are nine games back in the NL Central with the worst record in the National League, and have pulled the plug on Contreras as their starting catcher with mixed messaging surrounding both his role going forward and the club’s rationale in making the decision. Meanwhile, the Cubs called up Amaya when Gomes went on the 7-day concussion injured list last week. The 24-year-old catching prospect has looked solid both at the plate and behind it during his first cup of coffee in the big leagues. Between the Cardinals’ struggles to open the season the Cubs’ record of just 17-17 despite sporting the second best run differential in the NL, both clubs are surely hoping for a big win in this week’s series against their longtime rival.

2. Astros outfielders to return:

The Astros could welcome both left fielder Michael Brantley and outfielder Chas McCormick back from the injured list as soon as today, though GM Dana Brown suggests Brantley could need an extra day before returning to the lineup. The return of both players will be a boon to Houston’s offense; the reigning World Series champions have opened the season with a record of just 17-17 thanks in part to their lengthy injured list. That list includes not only the aforementioned outfielders, but also Jose Altuve, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, and Lance McCullers Jr. Those injuries have left the club relying on Jake Meyers, Corey Julks, and Mauricio Dubon in the lineup and Brandon Bielak and J.P. France in the rotation.

3. Jose Suarez to undergo MRI:

Left-hander Jose Suarez is scheduled to receive an MRI today after leaving yesterday’s start for the Angels in the third inning, having already surrendered seven runs in just 2 2/3 innings of work. The potential injury comes on the heels of an extremely difficult first month for Suarez. MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently outlined the options the Angels, who are in second place in the AL West with a 19-16 record, had at their disposal regarding Suarez. After yesterday’s start, the 25-year-old lefty has a 9.62 ERA with an 8.29 FIP over his first six starts. Should the lefty miss significant time, Tucker Davidson and Chase Silseth are the most logical candidates to step into the club’s rotation, with Chris Rodriguez on the injured list.

Vida Blue Passes Away

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Former MVP left-hander Vida Blue passed away at the age of 73, per an announcement by the Athletics.

“There are few players with a more decorated career than Vida Blue.” the A’s said in a statement, “Vida will always be a franchise legend and a friend. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends during this arduous time.”

A six-time All Star and three-time World Series champion, Blue played seventeen seasons in the major leagues, with fifteen of them being played in the Bay Area. Blue debuted as a 19-year-old for the Athletics in 1969, their second season in Oakland after moving there from Kansas City after the 1967 season. Blue pitched just 80 2/3 innings over his first two seasons in the majors, but upon shifting into a full time role as a 21-year-old during the 1971 season, Blue would turn in an incredible performance.

Blue pitched 312 innings for the A’s over 39 starts in 1971, posting a microscopic 1.82 ERA that was 83% better than league average by measure of ERA+ and a 2.20 FIP that largely backed up Blue’s dazzling run prevention numbers. Blue’s phenomenal season saw him lead the league with eight shutouts while also posting league-best marks in ERA, FIP, strikeout rate, WHIP. Naturally, Blue’s performance earned him not only the first All Star appearance of his career, but a Cy Young award and the AL MVP award as well.

Blue would go on to pitch six more seasons in Oakland, posting a 3.10 ERA and 3.25 FIP while averaging over 250 innings of work per season. He would make two more All Star appearances, finish top 7 in AL Cy Young award voting three times, and receive MVP votes twice during that time before moving on to San Francisco in 1978 at the age of 28. Most notably, Blue was integral to the A’s three consecutive World Series championships from 1972-1974.

Blue’s first season in San Francisco was another remarkable one, as he posted a 2.79 ERA and 2.68 FIP en route to a fourth All Star appearance, a top three finish in Cy Young award voting, and a 12th place finish in NL MVP voting. He would pitch in San Francisco for three more seasons, picking up another two All Star appearances along the way, before pitching for the Kansas City Royals for two seasons. Blue returned to San Francisco in 1985, posting a 3.82 ERA in 287 2/3 innings between the 1985 and 1986 seasons before retiring at the end of the 1986 campaign.

Overall, Blue finished his playing career with a 209 wins, a 3.27 ERA, and 2,175 strikeouts in 3,343 1/3 innings. Following his playing career, Blue remained a fixture of Bay Area baseball thanks to his charitable efforts and dedication to promoting the sport, both in the US and abroad. We at MLB Trade Rumors offer our condolences to Blue’s family, friends, and all those mourning him today.

Pitching Notes: Suarez, Sanmartin, Wood, Fried

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Jose Suarez will receive an MRI after leaving today’s game in the third inning due to discomfort in his left shoulder.  The Angels starter was rocked for seven runs over 2 2/3 innings, with Suarez telling reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian Wright) that he first started feeling the shoulder soreness during the second inning but he tried to keep going.

Between the Angels’ six-man rotation and an off-day on May 11, Suarez could get over a week of recuperation time before he is next needed to pitch, so it’s possible he might avoid the injured list if the MRI comes back clean.  However, it seems more likely that the IL might be in order to get Suarez feeling better, and to perhaps act as a reset button on the left-hander’s season.  After posting decent results as a swingman for Anaheim in 2021-22, Suarez has a 9.62 ERA over 24 1/3 innings in 2023.

More on other pitchers around baseball…

  • Reds southpaw Reiver Sanmartin left today’s game due to elbow soreness, and he told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that a trip to the 15-day injured list is likely in order.  Sanmartin said his elbow issue has been bothering him “for a couple of weeks now.  I’ve tried to pitch through it….I don’t feel like I have full control of where I want to put it in the zone.”  The lingering injury probably explains Sanmartin’s lack of results, as he has an ungainly 7.07 ERA over 14 appearances and 14 innings for the Reds this season.  Sanmartin is in his third MLB season, and had very strong numbers as a reliever in 2022 (despite a 6.35 ERA over 57 innings that was inflated by four disastrous starts).  Assuming Sanmartin hits the IL, Alex Young will be the only left-hander in the Reds’ bullpen.
  • Alex Wood began a Triple-A rehab assignment today, allowing two runs (one earned) over 3 2/3 innings of work.  It’s probably safe to assume that Wood will make one more rehab outing before returning to the Giants’ rotation, unless the club wanted to bring him back in a limited capacity or perhaps in piggyback situation with Ross Stripling.  Either Stripling or Sean Manaea seems like the odd man out when Wood does return at full health, and it already seems like Wood will beat the much longer initial timeline given when he first went on the IL with a hamstring strain on April 18.  Wood was off to a nice start, posting a 1.80 ERA of his first three games and 10 innings this season.
  • While not exactly an injury update, Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) that “we’re just going through some things right now” in regards to when staff ace Max Fried might make his next start.  Fried won’t pitch against the Red Sox as initially scheduled on Wednesday, and Snitker also didn’t say whether or not Fried might be available to face the Blue Jays on Friday.  Since Atlanta has off-days on both Monday and Thursday this week, it’s possible the Braves are figuring out how to align its rotation, especially since Kyle Wright’s injury has left the club with just four starters.  That said, Snitker’s rather vague comment created some doubt about Fried’s status.  While nothing was reported health-wise following Fried’s last start on Friday, he did have a rough outing in allowing seven runs (five earned) over six-plus innings against the Orioles.

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