Cubs Outright Edwin Uceta
The Cubs announced to reporters, including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, that right-hander Edwin Uceta has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Iowa. There hadn’t been any previous indication he had been designated for assignment, so this move will drop the club’s 40-man roster count to 37.
Uceta, 25, has filled up the transaction logs in the past year. He finished last year with the Diamondbacks but has since gone to the Tigers, Pirates, Mets and Cubs on waiver claims, before now finally passing through unclaimed. Despite all of those claims, he’s only been able to make one major league appearance this year, a three-inning scoreless outing with the Mets. He missed much of the season due to surgery to address a torn meniscus in his left knee. Around those waiver claims and the injury issues, he’s only tossed 8 2/3 innings in the minors this year.
He has likely continued to draw interest based on his strikeout stuff in the minors in previous seasons. He’s now tossed 84 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 29% strikeout rate but an uninspiring 5.12 ERA thanks to a 13.1% walk rate.
By being the club to pass Uceta through waivers, the Cubs will be able to retain him without him taking up a roster spot. He lacks the three years of service time or previous career outright to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, he will qualify for minor league free agency at season’s end if he’s still not on the roster. He’ll be out of options next year but still has five years of club control remaining.
Red Sox Claim Zack Weiss From Angels
Right-hander Zack Weiss, who was designated for assignment by the Angels earlier this week, has been claimed off waivers by the Red Sox. Both clubs announced the move, with the Red Sox adding that Weiss has been optioned to Triple-A Worcester. Righty Corey Kluber was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on Boston’s roster.
Weiss, 31, has been on the Angels’ roster just under a year now, getting added last September. Since that time, he’s been an up-and-down depth arm, getting frequently optioned to the minors. He has thrown 18 2/3 major league innings in that time with a 3.86 earned run average. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced but also walked 11.1%.
He’s spent more time this year in Triple-A, tossing 37 1/3 innings with a 6.03 ERA. He walked 14% of hitters at that level but struck out 29.2%. Those control issues pushed him off the Angels’ roster but the Red Sox will see if they can help him rein in that command and get better results. He can still be optioned for two more seasons after this one and has yet to reach one year of major league service time, meaning they can cheaply retain him for the foreseeable future as long as he continues to hold a spot on the 40-man.
Kluber’s transfer is little more than a formality since he’s already been on the injured list for more than 60 days at this point, having landed there in June due to right shoulder inflammation. He’s eligible to return whenever healthy but he was shut down in late July after experiencing a setback. There’s been no public reporting to indicate he’s close to a return and may have trouble getting back on the mound this year with just over a month left on the schedule.
Rockies Designate Justin Bruihl, Select Evan Justice
The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Evan Justice, with fellow lefty Justin Bruihl designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Bruihl, now 26, had spent the past few years with the Dodgers. Since being added to their roster in August of 2021, he made 65 major league appearances for that club with a 3.65 earned run average. His 15.6% strikeout rate was well below league average, but his 7.6% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate were both strong. He was designated for assignment just prior to the deadline when the Dodgers added Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly.
The Rockies sent cash considerations to the Dodgers in order to take a shot on Bruihl, which was a sensible gamble. They are now playing out the string on a lost season and he’s a pitcher with some major league success and years of club control remaining. But in 3 2/3 innings with his new club, he’s allowed six earned runs on four hits and three walks, which seems to have prompted the club to quickly move on.
Since the trade deadline is now in the rear-view mirror, the Rockies will have to put Bruihl on waivers in the coming days. Left-handed relief tends to always be in demand, which could lead to Bruihl getting some interest. If he has a new club prior to September 1, he would be postseason eligible for that team. He can still be optioned for the rest of this campaign and one more season and comes with five years of control beyond this one. If Bruihl were to clear waivers, he would have to accept an outright assignment since he doesn’t have three years of service or a previous career outright.
The Rockies will use the remaining weeks of the season to take a look at Justice, 25, who cracks a big league roster for the first time in his career, having been selected by the Rockies in the fifth round of the 2021 draft. He made a brief professional debut in the Complex League after that draft but spent all of 2022 on the minor league injured list.
This year, he has gone from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A, logging 38 2/3 innings between those levels with a 3.49 ERA. He’s struck out 38% of batters faced but also issued walks at a concerning rate of 15.7%. Back in June, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave Justice an honorable mention on the list of top prospects in the system, noting that he was hitting 94-95 mph with his fastball but has been held back by a lack of command with his slider.
Robert Suarez Appealing 10-Game Foreign Substance Suspension
August 25: Suarez has received the expected 10-game suspension, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, but is appealing.
August 23: Padres reliever Robert Suarez was ejected from this afternoon’s win over the Marlins following a foreign substance inspection. Called on to pitch the top of the eighth, Suarez was thrown out before throwing a pitch when umpires examined him coming in from the bullpen.
First base umpire Todd Tichenor made the call. After the game, Tichenor told reporters that the right-hander’s left wrist had been “too sticky, very sticky” (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). Suarez denied using any illicit substance, saying he’d simply applied his typical amount of sunscreen for a day game in San Diego.
Pitchers ejected after a foreign substance check are subject to an automatic 10-game suspension. MLB will presumably formally announce Suarez’s ban tomorrow. He has an appellate right, though an appeal would go in front of an MLB official for adjudication. As a result, the three players previously suspended for foreign substances this season — Max Scherzer, Domingo Germán and Drew Smith — all waived their appeals. Suarez said he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll do the same.
In all likelihood, the Friars will be without one of their better high-leverage arms for the next week and a half. Suarez posted a 2.27 ERA in 47 2/3 frames last season and subsequently re-signed on a five-year, $46MM free agent guarantee. He missed the first half of this year with an elbow injury. He has allowed seven runs in 13 1/3 innings since returning. Teams aren’t allowed to replace players who have been suspended for an on-field rules violation, so the Padres would have to play with a 25-man roster for the duration of Suarez’s expected suspension.
Angels Place Mike Trout On Injured List
August 25: Trout is now officially on the IL, per a club announcement, with Trey Cabbage recalled in a corresponding move.
August 24: The Angels are placing Mike Trout back on the 10-day injured list, general manager Perry Minasian informed reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The three-time MVP had just returned from an IL stay on Tuesday.
Trout started in center field that night, going 1-4. He sat out both games of today’s doubleheader, ceding the position to Mickey Moniak. Minasian indicated that Trout remained in too much discomfort when hitting to continue playing through the injury. The GM didn’t provide a return timetable beyond noting that Trout won’t swing a bat for at least a few days.
His ’23 campaign was derailed when he broke the hamate bone in his left wrist on a swing. Trout underwent surgery on July 5 and was given a four-to-eight week recovery timetable. He briefly made it back around seven weeks later but evidently can’t proceed.
With five and a half weeks remaining on the schedule, it seems fair to wonder if Trout’s season could be in jeopardy. The Halos’ playoff hopes were already all but extinguished 48 hours ago. Since the 11-time All-Star’s effort to return, Los Angeles was swept in a three-game series by the Reds and lost Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher for the season. This will be their ninth straight year without a playoff appearance and, with the club now six games under .500, likely their eighth consecutive losing record.
As the Angels find themselves in the all too familiar position of playing out the string, they’ll presumably move cautiously with the future Hall of Famer. Trout has hit .263/.367/.490 over 362 plate appearances — still well above-average output but easily his worst rate stats since his age-19 rookie campaign. Moniak, who is hitting .282/.313/.496 through 278 trips to the dish, is likely to take over center field between Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk.
Josh Harrison Opts Out Of Minors Deal With Rangers
Josh Harrison has opted out of his minor league deal with the Rangers, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Teams usually have 48 to 72 hours after an opt-out clause is triggered to decide whether or not to add a player to their roster. The specifics are unclear in this case, but it’s possible Harrison will become a free agent in the coming days, if he isn’t one already.
Harrison, now 36, signed a one-year, $2MM deal with the Phillies this winter. They were hoping to utilize him as a reliable veteran utility player who could slot in at multiple positions. While he did play some second base, third base and the outfield corners, he hit just .204/.263/.291 and was released in early August. He then landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal and has been with Triple-A Round Rock in recent days, hitting .222/.323/.370 in six games there.
It hasn’t been a tremendous year at the plate for Harrison but he has a longer track record there. He has a career batting line of .270/.316/.396 in 1,209 career games, a line that translates to a wRC+ of 95. For a guy who can bounce around to various spots on the diamond, that’s been serviceable production. He’s spent the majority of his career at second base or third base but has also spent time in all three outfield spots, along with limited action at shortstop, first base and even on the mound.
As mentioned, opt-out clauses usually give the club some window of time to decide whether or not to give the player a roster spot. If the team chooses not to, then the player can elect free agency. Players are postseason eligible for a club as long as they are within that organization prior to September 1, giving Harrison just under a week to either get a roster spot with the Rangers or perhaps find a new deal with another team if he returns to free agency.
The Rangers have a regular infield of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Nathaniel Lowe and Ezequiel Durán, with Josh H. Smith in the bench role and Jonathan Ornelas providing Triple-A depth. Josh Jung is out with a thumb fracture but could return later in the year. If the Rangers don’t add Harrison to the roster, he will return to free agency and market himself as a versatile depth piece, hoping to find a new club before the end of the month.
Adam Jones To Officially Retire
The Orioles announced that Adam Jones will retire as an Oriole on September 15. Presumably, he will sign a one-day contract and there will be some pre-game festivities, though those details have not yet been announced. Jones last played in the majors in 2019, heading to Japan for two years after that but didn’t sign anywhere last year. Now he will officially hang up his spikes with the organization where he spent the bulk of his career.
Jones, now 38, was selected by the Mariners with the 37th overall pick in the 2003 draft. He was initially used as a shortstop but moved to the outfield as a minor leaguer. He became a top 100 prospect and was able to get some brief major league time with the Mariners in 2006 and 2007, getting into 73 games over those two seasons. He didn’t quite establish himself at the big league level immediately, hitting .230/.267/.353 in that time.
Prior to the 2008 season, Jones was one of five players that the Mariners sent to the Orioles in the Erik Bedard trade, a move that would prove to be career-defining for Jones. The O’s were in a rough period at that time and were able to give Jones some regular playing time. He got into 132 games in 2008, hitting .270/.311/.400. That translated to a subpar wRC+ of 84, but he stole 10 bases and provided above-average center field defense, leading to a tally of 1.5 wins above replacement from FanGraphs.
2009 would be a breakout year for Jones, as he hit 19 home runs, more than doubling the nine he hit in the prior season. He hit .277/.335/.457 for a wRC+ of 103, getting selected to the All-Star team and winning a Gold Glove award in the process. Despite being limited to 119 games by an ankle sprain, he still matched his 1.5 fWAR tally from the year before.
He would become a staple of the outfield in Baltimore for years to come, continuing to produce in that all-around fashion with above-average offense, defense and speed. In May of 2012, he and the club agreed to a six-year, $85.5MM extension that ran through 2018, the largest contract in franchise history at that time.
That led to Jones playing 11 seasons with the Orioles from 2008 to 2018. He was remarkably consistent and reliable in that time, never playing less than 137 games in a season after the aforementioned 119 games in 2009. He played 1,613 games overall as an Oriole, hitting 263 home runs and stealing 90 bases. His .279/.319/.459 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 108 and he was worth 29.3 fWAR over those seasons.
With Jones in the outfield, the Orioles were able to emerge from a long period of mediocrity and become a perennial contender. After losing seasons in each campaign from 1998 to 2011, they went on to finish .500 or better five years in a row from 2012 to 2016. They made the playoffs three of those years, won the AL East division title in 2014 and made it to the ALCS that year.
But by the time his contract expired at the end of 2018, the O’s were back in a rebuilding period, one that they have just recently emerged from. Jones signed a one-year, $3MM deal with the Diamondbacks for 2019 but his offense and defense declined to subpar levels. He then signed a two-year, $8MM deal with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He hit .250/.334/.390 in 159 games over those two years.
Although Jones didn’t begin his career with the Orioles, the largest and best part of his career was spent in Baltimore. He didn’t finish his playing time with the Orioles either but will now ceremonially conclude his career with the O’s in a few weeks, officially closing the books on his time as a player. Overall, he got into 1,823 major league games and tallied 1,939 hits, including 336 doubles, 29 triples and 282 home runs. He scored 963 runs, drove in 945 and stole 97 bases, made five All-Star teams and won four Gold Gloves. He also represented Team USA internationally, playing in the 2013 and 2017 World Baseball Classic tournaments. The latter of those two saw him make arguably the most famous catch in WBC history, robbing his Oriole teammate Manny Machado, who was representing the Dominican Republic.
We at MLB Trade Rumors salute Jones on a fine career and wish him the best in all his post-playing endeavors.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Brewers Sign Fernando Abad To Minor League Deal
The Brewers have signed left-hander Fernando Abad to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Nashville.
Abad, 37, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in the offseason and was selected to their big league roster twice, though both instances saw him get designated for assignment after a short period of time. He appeared in six games for the Rox with a 4.26 ERA. His 30 1/3 innings in Triple-A this year have resulted in a 3.86 ERA, with Abad striking out 27.8% of hitters while walking just 2.6%. But he allowed nine earned runs over his last five appearances and got released last week.
This is Abad’s 11th season seeing some time in the majors, having previously suited up for the Astros, Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Red Sox, Giants and Orioles prior to joining the Rockies this year. He has a 3.78 ERA over 406 appearances in that time, with a 19.3% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate.
The Brewers have operated for parts of this season with Hoby Milner as their only left-handed reliever, with various attempts to deploy a second lefty having gone poorly thus far. The club acquired Andrew Chafin prior to the deadline and has also given brief showings to Ethan Small, Clayton Andrews and Bennett Sousa. Amazingly, none of those four have an ERA south of 11.81 for the Brewers this year. Each case is a small sample of 5 1/3 innings or less, but it’s still a part of the roster that’s a bit shaky at the moment.
By bringing Abad aboard, the Brewers will add some veteran non-roster depth for their lefty relief mix. By joining the organization prior to September 1, he will be eligible to pitch for the Brewers in the postseason, if they were to qualify and he were to earn his way into a role. Rosters expand from 26 to 28 in September, which could perhaps open a spot for him, though he would need to be added to the 40-man roster.
The Opener: Jansen, Cubs, Garrett
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. Jansen to be re-evaluated:
Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen was pulled from Wednesday night’s game due to tightness in his right hamstring. Per MLB.com, the club plans to evaluate Jansen further upon returning to Boston today. Jansen told reporters that he “felt great” yesterday and was hoping to avoid a trip to the injured list. The 68-60 Red Sox are still in the hunt for the playoffs, with a 3.5 game deficit to make up for in the Wild Card standings. A healthy and effective Jansen will be key to the club’s playoff aspirations, as the four-time All Star has posted a 2.81 ERA while racking up 29 saves in 46 appearances this season. Should Jansen require a trip to the shelf, Chris Martin seems like the most likely candidate to take over for Jansen in the ninth inning.
2. Who’s starting for the Cubs this weekend?
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer announced yesterday that the club plans to move left-handed Drew Smyly to the bullpen going forward, raising questions regarding who will take the ball for Smyly’s previously-scheduled start on Sunday. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski (4.46 ERA) made 11 starts for the club earlier in the season, but has excelled in a multi-inning bullpen role with a 2.45 ERA in 22 innings since leaving the rotation.
If the club doesn’t want to change Wesneski’s role, they could look to the minor leagues where 2021 first-round pick Jordan Wicks has posted a 3.55 ERA in 91 1/3 innings between the Double-A and Triple-A levels this year. One intriguing option would be right-hander Shane Greene, a long-time big league reliever who has been stretched out to longer appearances at Triple-A since joining the Cubs on a minor league deal. In his most recent appearance, Greene posted five scoreless innings with the club’s affiliate in Iowa, striking out six while walking just one.
3. Where will Garrett land?
The Guardians granted left-hander Amir Garrett his release yesterday, allowing the veteran southpaw to return to the open market. With one week remaining before September 1, after which point players who join a new organization will no longer be postseason eligible, time is of the essence as Garrett looks to catch on with a new team.
The 31-year-old posted a solid 3.33 ERA in 24 1/3 innings with the Royals earlier this season, though he also walked a whopping 17.9% of batters he faced during that time. While he only recorded 4.2 innings of work with the Guardians at Triple-A, his wildness didn’t appear improved there, as he walked four in that time. Still, given the scarcity of external relief options this time of year, particularly ones who throw from the left side, it seems reasonable to expect Garrett to find a new home in the coming days. The Cubs, Astros, Red Sox and Twins are among the clubs who might benefit from an additional lefty arm in their bullpen.
Stephen Strasburg Plans To Retire
Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg plans to retire, per a report from Jesse Dougherty and Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post. A news conference is tentatively scheduled for September 9. He signed a massive seven-year, $245MM contract prior to the 2020 season but has hardly pitched since then due to injuries. The financial specifics of how that contract will be affected by this retirement are not yet known.
The news is, on the one hand, not terribly surprising in light of what has transpired in recent seasons. In the almost four years since the ink dried on that contract, Strasburg has only thrown 31 1/3 total innings. Frequent injuries have repeatedly derailed his attempts to get on the mound, with thoracic outlet syndrome the most significant. But taking a wider view, it’s a shocking, sad and far-too-early end to a career that had such tremendous highs.
Strasburg, now 35, was one of the most highly-regarded prospects in history based on his work at San Diego State University. As a sophomore in 2008, he posted a 1.58 ERA in 98 1/3 innings and followed that up with a 1.32 ERA in 109 innings as a junior. The Nationals held the first overall pick in the 2009 draft and selected Strasburg, signing him shortly thereafter to a four-year, $15.1MM contract.
Strasburg made his professional debut in the Arizona Fall League that year and went into 2010 as already one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America ranked him second overall, trailing only Jason Heyward at that time. Their report from that time noted his fastball, which sat in the mid-to-upper 90s and could touch 102 mph. They also highlighted his plus-plus curveball and plus changeup, noting that he had excellent command of all his pitches.
He came into 2010 with the highest of expectations, especially for a franchise that has just moved to Washington from Montreal in 2005 and had performed quite poorly since then. He began that year in Double-A but dominated in five starts with a 1.64 ERA and was in Triple-A by early May. Six starts at that level resulted in an ERA of 1.08 and a promotion to the major leagues by June.
In his much-hyped first major league outing against the Pirates, he tossed seven innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits. He didn’t surrender a walk and punched out 14 opponents. He finished his rookie season with a 2.91 ERA in 68 innings, striking out an incredible 33.6% of batters he faced. Unfortunately, the excitement of those results was paired with the news in August that Strasburg would require Tommy John surgery.
Although Strasburg was set to miss most of the 2011 campaign, the positive feeling around the Nationals was starting to build. The club was able to select another franchise-altering player when they got Bryce Harper with the first overall pick in 2010. Subsequent years would see them add other significant young players like Anthony Rendon, selected 11th overall in 2011, and Trea Turner, acquired from the Padres in a 2015 trade.
Strasburg, along with those players and many others, would lead the Nationals out of their years-long rebuild and into a period of prolonged success. The club went 80-81 in 2011 as Strasburg returned from his Tommy John rehab and made five starts late in the year. The club would emerge as a perennial contender from there, making the postseason in 2012 and finishing above .500 in each season for the rest of the decade, with multiple playoff appearances sprinkled in.
That stretch was marked by tremendous work from Strasburg, though also significant injury issues. The 2012 to 2018 period saw him post a 3.19 ERA over 189 starts, striking out 28.8% of batters, walking 6.5% and getting grounders on 45.2% of balls in play. But there were limits to the volume of his workload, most controversially in 2012. His first full season after the Tommy John surgery, he was famously shut down in September. The Nats made the playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated, but they were eliminated by the Cardinals in the NLDS as Strasburg was left off the roster.
He finished that year with 159 1/3 innings pitched and managed to increase that total over the next two years, getting to 183 in 2013 and then 215 in 2014. He added another five postseason frames in that latter campaign, though the Nats were again eliminated in the NLDS, this time by the Giants. But he struggled to stay at that level of output in the seasons to come. Issues with his shoulder, back and elbow would send him to the injured list at various times, which kept him between 127 1/3 and 175 1/3 innings in each campaign from 2015 to 2018.
But the results were still good, despite the injuries, with Strasurg never finishing any of those seasons with an ERA higher than 3.74. In the midst of that period, May of 2016, he and the Nats agreed to a seven-year, $175MM extension, though one that afforded him opt-out opportunities after 2019 and 2020.
It was in 2019 that everything finally went right, both for him and the club. He stayed healthy all season and logged 209 innings over 33 starts. He registered a 3.32 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate. The Nationals as a club got out to a dreadful 19-31 start but rallied over the rest of the season to finish 93-69, securing a spot in the Wild Card game. Max Scherzer started for the Nats against the Brewers, but Strasburg entered the game with the Nats trailing 3-1 after five. He tossed three shutout innings as they took the lead, eventually winning 4-3 as Strasburg went down as the winning pitcher.
From there, the Nats went through the Dodgers, Cardinals and Astros, winning their first World Series title. Strasburg tossed 36 1/3 innings in that postseason with a 1.98 ERA, including two starts in the World Series with a 2.51 ERA, earning MVP of the series in the process.
On the heels of that excellent season, Strasburg triggered his opt-out and signed the aforementioned seven-year, $245MM deal. In 2020, he made just two starts before being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome and undergoing surgery. It was hoped that he would be fully healthy for 2021 but he only made five starts before it was determined he would require thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, a procedure that he was never able to recover from. He made one start in June of 2022, with diminished velocity, before landing right back on the injured list immediately after. Later that year, he expressed his belief that he had been dealing with the thoracic outlet symptoms since 2018.
This year, he tried to start a throwing program in the offseason but continued to experience nerve discomfort. He was shut down from all physical activity and apparently has given up on ever getting things back on track. Today’s report indicates that his nerve damage is such that “he has struggled with mundane tasks, such as lifting his young daughters or opening a door with his right hand.” A report from Dougherty back in July highlighted that there are two different types of thoracic outlet syndrome. Players like Merrill Kelly have had venous TOS and bounced back whereas Strasburg has neurogenic TOS, which typically is harder to recover from. Though his deal runs through 2026, he and the club have presumably worked out some sort of arrangement for the remainder, the details of which remain unknown at this point.
Thanks in large part to that condition, Strasburg’s career will be filed in the brief-but-brilliant category. He appeared in 247 regular season games, throwing 1,470 innings with a 3.24 ERA. He struck out 28.9% of the batters he faced in that time, walked 6.6% of them and kept the ball on the ground at a 45.8% rate. He was selected to three All-Star clubs and won a World Series, earning series MVP honors in the process. MLB Trade Rumors congratulates Strasburg on a fantastic career and wishes him the best in retirement.
Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.