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Oneil Cruz Expected To Miss Four Months Due To Ankle Surgery

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2:00pm: The Pirates announced that Cruz has been placed on the 10-day injured list with Mathias recalled to take his place.

12:40pm: The Pirates issued a statement to announce the surgery on Cruz’s ankle from director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk: “Oneil Cruz had surgery last evening at Allegheny General Hospital by Dr. Greg Altman and Dr. Darren Frank. The surgery stabilized the fractured fibula and addressed the injury to the syndesmosis. The Pirates anticipate a return to action in 4 months.”

9:40am: Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz underwent surgery on his fractured left ankle last night, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It had been previously reported by Kody Duncan of Rum Bunter that Cruz would be undergoing surgery. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Cruz is expected to miss 10-12 weeks.

Cruz, 24, was removed from yesterday’s game after an attempt to score on a ground ball resulted in an awkward slide and a collision with White Sox catcher Seby Zavala. Cruz remained on the ground for a while in obvious pain and needed help getting off the field. After the game, manager Derek Shelton informed reporters that Cruz had a fracture in his left ankle, which has now resulted in surgery.

It’s a frustrating blow for the Pirates, given that Cruz is one of the most exciting young players on their roster. At 6’7″, he is one of the more unique shortstops in baseball history. Beyond just his height, he’s also a Statcast darling, showcasing incredible arm strength, sprint speed and exit velocity.

His obvious talent also comes with some concerns, understandable for a young player that is still developing. He hit 17 home runs and stole 10 bases in just 87 games last year but also struck out in 34.9% of his plate appearances. Cruz had shown some positive development in that category so far this season, striking out in just 20% of his trips to the plate. It’s been a small sample of just 40 plate appearances in nine game, but he also more than doubled his walk rate, going from 7.8% last year to 17.5% in the early going here in 2023. That progress will now be put on hold for a few months as Cruz rehabs from his procedure.

The rebuilding Pirates are off to a hot start this year, currently sporting a 6-3 record. They will now have to proceed without their planned everyday shortstop. Rodolfo Castro and Ji Hwan Bae have been splitting second base duties so far this year, but both have shortstop experience and could move to the other side of the bag. Castro told Gorman that he’s “gonna be ready for whatever position they need me to play and I’m gonna give 100%.” He has just 161 innings of major league experience at short but much more in the minors. He has a career batting line of .222/.287/.410 for a wRC+ of 93, hitting 16 home runs in 111 games so far but also striking out at a 27.7% clip.

As for Bae, he has only 18 big league games under his belt so far but has hit .295/.348/.426 for a wRC+ of 115 while stealing five bases. He can play the middle infield and also the outfield, though it seems fair to expect him to be on the dirt more going forward. He and Castro should split most of the middle infield duties in some capacity with the Bucs likely calling up someone like Mark Mathias or Tucupita Marcano to play a bench role since both of them are on the 40-man roster. Though with Cruz set to miss a few months, he could also be placed on the 60-day injured list, allowing the club to open a roster spot for someone like Chris Owings.

Guardians Place Aaron Civale On Injured List, Select Peyton Battenfield

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The Guardians announced Monday that they’ve placed right-hander Aaron Civale on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left oblique and selected the contract of right-hander Peyton Battenfield from Triple-A Columbus. Righty Triston McKenzie was moved from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Battenfield. That doesn’t change the projected return date for McKenzie, it should be noted; the “60-day” term of his IL stint begins with his original IL placement and is not reset upon being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day.

Civale, 27, was excellent in his first start of the season, tossing seven shutout frames against Seattle. The Mariners got their revenge over the weekend, however, tagging Civale for four runs on nine hits and a walk through 5 2/3 innings. Civale didn’t depart that start with an injury, but it seems something was amiss physically for the righty during that outing. This will be his fourth stint on the injured list dating back to Opening Day 2022, as he missed time last season due to glute, wrist and forearm injuries.

Those injuries cost Civale roughly 12 starts last season, limiting him to 97 innings and likely contributing to his lackluster 4.92 ERA on the season. Across parts of three prior campaigns, he’d given Cleveland a combined 3.76 ERA in 256 innings, stepping up to seemingly seize a long-term spot in the team’s rotation. The early signs in 2022 were promising, as Civale’s fastball had crept up nearly a mile per hour on average, but he’ll now be shelved for a yet-to-be announced period of time.

With Civale joining McKenzie on the injured list, the Guards are now down two of their top five starters. They’ll look to Shane Bieber, Cal Quantrill, Zach Plesac and Hunter Gaddis to hold down the first four spots in the rotation, with Battenfield and long reliever Xzavion Curry the favorites to step into Civale’s now-vacated spot on the staff.

The 25-year-old Battenfield, acquired from the Rays in a trade sending Jordan Luplow back to Tampa Bay, has made 29 starts in Triple-A across the past two seasons, logging a combined 3.63 ERA with a 16.9% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate. Battenfield isn’t a hard thrower, sitting in the low 90s with his fastball, but he leans on a wide variety of secondary offerings, keeping hitters off balance with a deep five-pitch repertoire.

Submit Your Questions For The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast

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The MLB Trade Rumors podcast is back, and we’re looking for MLBTR readers to submit questions to be answered in the next episode due out Wednesday morning.

This week, I’ll be joined by MLBTR’s Steve Adams. If there’s anything you’d like to get myself and Steve’s thoughts on then please submit your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

You can also listen to Episode 1 on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts! On that episode, Anthony Franco and I discussed Shohei Ohtani’s future in LA, took a look at the Cardinals’ and Marlins’ rotation pictures and wondered what Jake Cronenworth’s extension in San Diego means for other Padres players.

Injury Notes: McKenzie, Hernandez, Suarez

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Guardians right-hander Triston McKenzie was shut down two weeks ago with a strain of the teres major muscle in his throwing shoulder. The club provided an update to reporters today, including Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal, relaying that McKenzie would start a throwing program this week. His ultimate return will depend on how that throwing program goes.

McKenzie had a tremendous breakout season last year, posting a 2.96 ERA over 191 1/3 innings, striking out 25.6% of opponents while walking just 5.9%. He also made two postseason starts for the Guards last year with a 3.27 ERA over 11 innings. He’ll be looking to build on that strong campaign but will have to get healthy first. The two-week shutdown period appears to have helped alleviate the injury, allowing him to start building towards a return.

Despite the recent injury, McKenzie was listed as one of several players the Guardians were trying to sign to extensions. In the end, they got a deal done with Andrés Giménez and Trevor Stephan but not McKenzie. He will qualify for arbitration for the first time after this season and is slated for free agency after 2026. Hunter Gaddis took over McKenzie’s rotation spot in the wake of the injury, with mixed results so far. He allowed four earned runs over 3 2/3 innings against the Mariners in his first outing, but then tossed six shutout innings against the A’s in his second turn.

Some other injury situations from around the majors…

  • Royals right-hander Carlos Hernández departed last night’s game accompanied by the trainer, as relayed by Anne Rogers of MLB.com, who noted that the issue appeared to be his hamstring. The hard-throwing Hernandez has averaged around 97 mph in his career thus far but has mixed results to show for it. He had a 3.68 ERA in 2021 but that number jumped to 7.39 last year. The latter figure was likely affected by some bad luck, given his .339 batting average on balls in play and 59.4% strand rate. He has started well here in 2023 with a 2.45 ERA in a small sample of 3 2/3 innings. The status of his health is still unclear at the moment, with updates surely to be revealed in the coming days.
  • Padres right-hander Robert Suarez began the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation and doesn’t appear close to a return. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Suarez has had his progression slowed because he “felt something” while playing catch recently. It’s not certain what the issue is or how long Suarez will be delayed, but it’s not an ideal start to his new contract. After many years in Japan, Suarez played for the Padres last year and posted a 2.27 ERA while striking out 31.9% of batters faced. He opted out of his contract but re-signed with the Friars on an aggressive five-year, $46MM pact. With Suarez out of action, the club has been giving its high-leverage work to pitchers like Josh Hader, Luis Garcia and Steven Wilson.

Athletics Recall Kevin Smith, Place Seth Brown On IL

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April 10: The A’s made it official today, recalled Smith and placing Brown on the 10-day IL with a strained left oblique.

April 9: Oakland outfielder Seth Brown is headed for the injured list with an oblique issue, according to Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. Brown was unavailable during today’s game against the Rays after feeling discomfort during a check-swing  in last night’s game, and it appears the issue is serious enough to warrant an IL-stint, though no details regarding Brown’s timetable for return have been revealed. Gallegos also reports that infielder Kevin Smith is set to join the club in Baltimore, presumably to replace Brown on the active roster.

Brown, who is entering his age-30 season in 2023, was the best hitter in the A’s lineup last season who returned this season as he posted a 25 homer season while slashing .230/.305/.444 in 150 games last year, good for a wRC+ of 117. Only Sean Murphy, who the A’s traded to the Braves in a three-team deal with the Brewers over the offseason, had a better year in terms of wRC+ among A’s regulars. Though he still has three seasons of team control left prior to free agency after 2023, Brown entered the year as a plausible trade candidate for the A’s come July due to his age and the club being in the midst of a rebuild that saw the likes of Murphy, AJ Puk, and Cole Irvin traded this past offseason.

Brown hits the injured list without having gotten going at the plate, having posted a wRC+ of just 71 in his first eight games this season, but with strikeout and walk rates roughly in line with last season and a deflated .238 BABIP, there was plenty of reason for optimism that his production would return to 2022 levels with a larger sample size. Those hopes will have to be put on hold for now, however, though it’s currently unclear if Brown will require only the minimum stay on the IL or miss a longer period.

That leaves the A’s likely to turn to Smith, who struggled mightily in 47 games at the big league level with Oakland last season, slashing just .180/.216/.302 in 151 plate appearances. That being said, Smith has a career .817 OPS in the minor leagues and, at 26 years old, could still put it together at the major league level. Acquired from the Blue Jays in the trade that sent Matt Chapman to Toronto, Smith provides the A’s with a great deal of versatility off the bench, as he has experience at all four infield spots in addition to the outfield corners.

Any time missed by Brown will likely stand to benefit outfielders Brent Rooker and Conner Capel, each of whom have drawn a start at Brown’s usual spot in left field over the past two games. It’s also possible that an infielder, like Tony Kemp, could move to left, allowing shortstop Nick Allen to get extra at-bats in the infield.

White Sox Select Keynan Middleton, Place Joe Kelly On IL, Outright Jonathan Stiever

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve placed right-hander Joe Kelly on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain and selected the contract of right-handed reliever Keynan Middleton. Right-hander Jonathan Stiever was outrighted in order to open a 40-man spot for Middleton. Stiever hasn’t been previously outrighted and doesn’t have three years of MLB service time, so he can’t reject the assignment. He’ll remain with the organization now that he’s cleared waivers.

Middleton, 29, signed a minor league deal over the winter and didn’t initially win a spot in Chicago’s bullpen, pitching to a 6.00 ERA in nine spring innings. He’s opened the year in Charlotte with a trio of scoreless frames, punching out three of the 11 batters he’s faced and also walking a pair.

The White Sox will be Middleton’s fourth big league club. He spent the first four seasons of his career with the Angels, looking at one point like a potential building block in the relief corps in Anaheim. Middleton debuted with 58 1/3 solid innings back in 2017 (3.86 ERA, 25.6% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate) and showed a high-octane fastball that averaged 97 mph.

Middleton started the 2018 season with an even stronger 2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 frames but saw diminished velocity while his strikeout and walk rates trended in the wrong direction. He was placed on the injured list in May with what the team discovered some damage in his ulnar collateral ligament. He underwent Tommy John surgery just a few days later. That wiped out the remainder of his 2018 season, and while Middleton returned with a clean 1.17 ERA in 7 2/3 innings the following year, he walked more hitters (seven) than he struck out (six) and was working with a fastball sitting at 94.2 mph.

In the three seasons since, Middleton’s velocity has fluctuated greatly, but his results with the Halos, Mariners and D-backs have been similarly below par. Overall, since returning from Tommy John surgery, the right-hander carries a 4.66 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate and 11.9% walk rate that are both worse than the league average. In the aggregate, his post-TJS fastball has sat at 95.6 mph, but that includes year-to-year averages that are all over the map: 94.2 mph in 2019, 97.2 mph in 2020, 95.6 mph in 2021 and 94.8 mph in 2022. Along the way, he’s encountered biceps, elbow and ankle injuries.

As for the 34-year-old Kelly, he’s gotten out to a rough start, yielding three runs on four hits and a walk through his first 2 2/3 innings of the 2023 campaign. He’s playing out the second season of a two-year, $17MM contract that hasn’t panned out as either he or the White Sox hoped. Biceps and hamstring injuries limited the former Red Sox and Dodgers hurler to 37 innings last year, during which he posted an unsightly 6.08 ERA with a career-worst 13.5% walk rate. He’ll now head to the injured list for the third time in just over one calendar year with the South Siders.

Kelly, of course, has a much better track record prior to his time with the ChiSox. From 2017-21, he tossed 229 innings of 3.62 ERA ball, and he was a postseason hero for the 2018 Red Sox, tossing 11 1/3 innings of one-run ball with a 13-to-0 K/BB ratio in the postseason during their march to an eventual World Series title.

Stiever, 26 next month, is a 2018 fifth-rounder who ranked among the White Sox’ best prospects from 2020-21 but has seen his stock tumble in recent seasons, in part due to health troubles. Stiever underwent lat surgery late in the 2021 season and spent nearly the entire 2022 campaign on the 60-day injured list as a result. He’s appeared in just 6 1/3 MLB innings, allowing 10 runs on 11 hits (four homers) and four walks in that time.

Because of those injuries and the lost 2020 minor league season, Stiever still has just 252 minor league innings under his belt. Seventy-nine of those have come at the Triple-A level, but he’s been tagged for a 5.47 ERA in that time. All but five of those 79 frames came during an ugly 2021 season, and Stiever has tossed a pair of scoreless innings so far to begin his ’23 season. He’ll remain in Triple-A and hope that better health brings about better results. If so, he could conceivably work his way back into the 40-man roster conversation at some point.

Fantasy Baseball Chat With Brad Johnson

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Brad Johnson is a veteran of the fantasy baseball industry with a decade of experience in Roto, H2H, dynasty, DFS, and experimental formats. As an expert in the field, Brad participates in the Tout Wars Draft and Hold format and was crowned the league’s winner in 2020. Brad’s writing experience includes RotoGraphs, NBC SportsEDGE, and right here at MLB Trade Rumors. He’s also presented at the First Pitch Arizona fantasy baseball conference.

Now that baseball is around the corner and fantasy owners are getting ready for their drafts, we’ll be hosting fantasy baseball-focused chats with Brad regularly. Feel free to drop him some questions on Twitter @BaseballATeam as well.

Click here to read the transcript from today’s fantasy baseball chat with Brad!

Brad will also be holding fantasy baseball chats exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers, where he’ll be able to answer a much larger percentage of questions asked. Click here to learn more about Front Office.

Multiple Teams Have Shown Interest In Dallas Keuchel

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Veteran lefty Dallas Keuchel, who did not sign a contract over the course of the offseason, has continued on a throwing program at his home in Arizona and garnered some level of interest from multiple clubs, Brittany Ghiorli of The Athletic reports. Keuchel’s fastball is currently clocking in the 88-91 mph range, she adds. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported earlier in the month that the Phillies had shown some interest in the left-hander.

Presumably, given the pronounced struggles Keuchel endured in 2021-22, the 35-year-old is viewed primarily as a depth option at this point. The former American League Cy Young winner’s velocity, strikeout rate, walk rate and home run rate all worsened in 2022, as he was tagged for 62 runs in just 60 2/3 innings between the White Sox, D-backs and Rangers. That marked the continuation of a 2021 decline that saw him pitch to a 5.28 ERA in 32 appearances (30 starts) for the White Sox.

Overall, Keuchel’s past two seasons have resulted in a grisly 6.35 ERA over the life of 222 2/3 frames. He’s never been a flamethrower, but the 90.4 mph Keuchel averaged on his sinker at his peak dropped all the way down to 87.4 mph in 2022. His strikeout rate, which sat at 23.7% during his Cy Young season, was down to 14.9% in 2022, while his once-elite walk rate landed at a career-worst 10.2%.

Keuchel had success as recently as 2020, when he pitched to a 1.99 ERA for the ChiSox through 11 starts during the pandemic-shortened season. His strikeouts and velocity were still down considerably from their peak levels that year, but he avoided hard contact at an excellent clip and induced infield pop-ups at the highest rate of his career. Even last season when allowing more than an earned run per inning, Keuchel only yielded hard contact at a slightly above-average clip overall — but the hard contact he did allow was often of the maximum-damage variety and frequently came with runners aboard.

Keuchel took a minor league deal with the D-backs after being released by the White Sox in 2022, and he took another minor league pact in Texas after Arizona released him. He’ll likely need to take another minor league deal and head to Triple-A somewhere if he’s going to break back through to the big league level. There’s minimal risk in seeing if he can maintain his current velocity over the course of a full start and perhaps rebound to some extent. A return to Cy Young form isn’t realistic, but Keuchel did toss 542 2/3 innings of 4.00 ERA ball from 2018-21.

The Opener: Cruz, Rays vs Red Sox, Adell

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

1. How much time will Cruz miss?

The Pirates suffered a massive blow yesterday as their young star shortstop Oneil Cruz suffered a fractured ankle sliding into home plate against the White Sox. In 401 major league plate appearances since the start of the 2022 season, Cruz has slashed .234/.302/.444 with 18 home runs and 13 stolen bases. More details about the specifics of Cruz’s injury and timetable for return could be available later today, though it already seems all but certain Cruz will miss significant time. The Pirates figure to go with Rodolfo Castro at shortstop while Cruz is on the shelf, though it’s possible a call-up from the minors such as Tucupita Marcano or Chris Owings could factor in as well.

2. Potential injury updates ahead of Rays/Red Sox game:

A four-game set between the Red Sox and the Rays figures to begin this evening, with the possibility that both clubs will have injury updates available before the game on players who recently underwent imaging. Red Sox outfielder Adam Duvall injured his wrist on a diving play in center field yesterday, and though an X-ray was done on Duvall after he was removed from the game, no results have been announced to this point. Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe notes that infielder Bobby Dalbec is expected to join the club in Tampa, meaning he could be the next man up in the event that Duvall requires a stint on the injured list. As for the Rays, shortstop Taylor Walls did not play over the weekend after suffering an elbow injury on Friday, and is set to undergo imaging today. Young infielder Jonathan Aranda is traveling with the team and figures to take Walls’s spot on the roster should he require an IL stint.

3. Adell tearing up the minors:

Former top prospect Jo Adell has long struggled to make the jump from the minor leagues to the majors, as shown by his career wRC+ of just 68 in 161 big league games. After getting an extended run of playing time in 2022, Adell finds himself somewhat buried on the Angels’ depth chart, as the club sports a trio of everyday outfielders in Mike Trout, Taylor Ward, and Hunter Renfroe. That hasn’t stopped Adell from making a case for himself to get another opportunity in the early going this season, however, as he has hit seven home runs over his past six games for the Salt Lake Bees, Anaheim’s Triple-A affiliate. According to the Bees, Adell’s streak of six consecutive games with a home run was a record for the franchise. It’s somewhat difficult to imagine Adell receiving everyday starts in Anaheim this season barring an injury in the outfield, but it’s possible he could work his way into the Angels’ outfield mix later in the season if his hot start continues. In the meantime, Adell will try to keep his homer streak alive for a seventh game on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Oneil Cruz Leaves Game Due To Leg Injury

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3:09pm: Manager Derek Shelton tells reporters (including The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel) that Cruz suffered a left ankle fracture.

2:39pm: Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz left today’s game with an apparent injury to his left leg after a collision at the plate.  In the bottom of the sixth, Cruz was trying to score from third on a Ke’Bryan Hayes grounder, and was called out after running into White Sox catcher Seby Zavala.  Cruz was on the ground in obvious pain afterwards and had to be helped off the field.  The play also sparked a benches-clearing brawl between the Pirates and White Sox, as on-deck hitter Carlos Santana exchanged heated words with Zavala in the aftermath.

The brawl might result in some discipline from the league in the coming days, but the bigger story is Cruz, whose left foot jammed awkwardly into the ground on his slide attempt.  More will be known on Cruz’s injury after the game, yet it would seem like a trip to the injured list will be the minimum result, and the shortstop and the Pirates can only hope a more serious injury has been avoided.

Cruz is one of the cornerstones of the Bucs’ rebuilding process, as he went from top prospect to promising rookie in a 2022 season that saw him hit .233/.294/.450 with 17 homers over 361 plate appearances.  It was enough to earn Cruz a sixth-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting, as while his defense and his contact skills are still a work in progress, there’s obviously a very high ceiling of potential given Cruz’s speed, power, and ability to make hard contact.  Entering today’s game, Cruz had a .267/.378/.400 slash line in his first 37 PA of the 2023 season, with one home run and a much more respectable 21.6% strikeout rate.

If Cruz does end up missing time, Rodolfo Castro or Ji Hwan Bae are the likeliest candidates to take over at shortstop.  Since that duo has been splitting time at second base and Bae has also seen some time in center field, Pittsburgh would likely call up a versatile infielder like Mark Mathias, Tucupita Marcano, or Chris Owings to fill the void, though promoting Owings would require added him to the 40-man roster.

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